Lightning Is the Only Way

As soon as Gravis took out his Lightning Board, Old Man Lightning grew interested. "Hey, can I have one?" he asked.

Gravis looked at the old man with a smirk and retrieved another one. "Try it, but it's pretty hard to control it at first. Here, I'll show you."

Gravis gave Old Man Lightning some tips on how to use the Lightning Board correctly, and then they shot off. In the beginning, Old Man Lightning was a little clumsy, but he quickly adapted. After all, he had supreme control over his body.

With Gravis' higher lightning density, he was able to move way faster than before. His speed on the board had increased by half again, which was insanely fast, but that wasn't the end. Due to his lightning poking out of his body, its inherent magnetism also pulled the board upwards. Of course, the passive magnetism of his lightning wasn't enough to lift the board and his weighty body. Still, that made him even faster. Yet…

"WOOOOOOW!" Old Man Lightning transmitted with his Spirit as he shot through the area. His lightning was way denser than Gravis', so he was also way faster. He even started circling Gravis with insane speeds.

Right now, Gravis' speed was a little faster than Old Man Lightning's speed without the board. This already showed how fast and powerful Old Man Lightning was. Yet, Old Man Lightning's speed on the Lightning Board was just insane. Gravis guessed that he would need to reach the Tree Stage to reach such speeds.

CRK!

Suddenly, the Lightning Board under Old Man Lightning cracked apart. Apparently, he had been too fast for the board. After all, the Lightning Board was made by forgers in the Middle-Continent. They weren't able to make a Lightning Board that was able to resist such speeds.

Old Man Lightning tumbled and fell to the ground. His insane speeds made him tumble and roll for several kilometers until he finally stopped. His tumble left a wake of destruction behind. Gravis stopped beside Old Man Lightning and saw his destroyed clothes and dirty body.

"Hahaha!" Gravis broke out into loud laughter. After all this time of Old Man Lightning abusing him, it was finally Gravis' turn to see Old Man Lightning getting abused.

BZZZ! Whoop!

Old Man Lightning incinerated all the dirt on his body with his lightning and retrieved new clothes. Then, he gritted his teeth and looked at Gravis in annoyance. He quickly summoned his cane and shot it towards Gravis.

BZZZZ!

Gravis, who had seen that coming long ago, quickly moved his lightning from his chest into his head. After leaving the Sect, his lightning had already recovered to full, so when it went into his head, Gravis' head was seemingly replaced by a ball of lightning. The cane halted, and Old Man Lightning gritted his teeth further in frustration. This was not the first time Gravis had done that.

The first time Gravis got the idea, Old Man Lightning wasn't prepared for it. So, he had hit Gravis' head with his cane, which made the lightning shoot out, destroying the majority of Old Man Lightning's arm. Ever since that day, Gravis hadn't been hit with the cane again.

"I might just kill the Ogre myself if you don't stop laughing!" Old Man Lightning said with frustration.

"Oh, shut up," Gravis said between laughs. "You already swore upon your cultivation."

"Tch," Old Man Lightning spat to the side. Of course, he only said that out of frustration, and Gravis knew that. Old Man Lightning wouldn't risk endangering Gravis' tempering for something as simple as Gravis laughing at him. "Give me another one."

Another Lightning Board appeared. "This is my last one, so please, try not to destroy it, okay?" Gravis said.

Old Man Lightning didn't answer and just accelerated on his new board, though this time, he wasn't traveling at his full speed. He only moved about as fast as Gravis.

Like this, they traveled for a little over half a day until they reached their target. On the horizon, they could see Quake City already. It was an absolutely massive city. Not only was it many kilometers wide, but it also resembled a mountain. The buildings at its edges were so big and bulky that they created a wall all by themselves. Due to that, Quake City didn't even need any walls. The buildings were just too massive and cluttered.

Like before, Gravis' Spirit wasn't able to enter the city, even though it was well within his range. "How many people are in the city?" Gravis asked.

"That's not that easy to answer," Old Man Lightning said. "Quake City acts as a hub for the Earth Sect. Many holes around the city act as tunnels to the Earth Sect. Just for your information, the Earth Sect is around 200 kilometers to the north of Quake City. Therefore, the top cultivators in the city can change anytime. Right now, there are three Sapling Stage cultivators in the city."

Old Man Lightning's Spirit was too advanced and powerful to be blocked by the city's Formation Arrays. After all, he was at the Self Stage. He could see everything inside the city without any issue.

Gravis rubbed his chin. "Interesting. That's a lot of elders. Doesn't the Earth Sect only have like five of those?"

"They have five elders and two disciples at the Sapling Stage," Old Man Lightning answered. "Those two disciples are both Ascender's Talents. As far as I know, one of them is even very close to having a Unity Will. You should know that it only takes a single day to reach the Unity Realm from the Tree or Self Stage if your will is powerful enough. One more tempering opportunity for that guy and he only has to wait to ascend."

"Oh, that's pretty impressive," Gravis said. "By the way, do we have any Ascender's Talents?"

Old Man Lightning nodded. "Strictly speaking, we have one, but we actually have two," Old Man Lightning answered. "One of them is a boy called Therm. He constantly roams around the Core-Continent, and he hasn't returned in like two years. He is a cultivation madman, just like you. The last thing I heard of him was that he was tearing through the wilds, battling anything he sees. He wants to condense a Unity Will before reaching the Tree Stage."

"Interesting. And the other one?" Gravis asked.

"The other one is Little Lightning Bolt," Old Man Lightning said. "Normally, we don't count Sect Masters as Ascender's Talents, but Little Lightning Bolt fulfills all categories. He just took over the seat of the Sect Master because the previous one ascended."

Gravis looked like he remembered something. "Speaking of, where is Lasar? I haven't seen him in the past weeks," Gravis asked.

Old Man Lightning smiled with pride. "He went out to temper himself too. Seeing me about to ascend has rekindled his motivation. He is currently searching for a high-grade Spirit Beast that's willing to fight."

Gravis was a little surprised. "Then why didn't he go after the Ogre?"

"He suspected that you were interested in testing your power, so he left the Ogre for you," Old Man Lightning said. "You are very young, and searching for months would waste valuable time for you. For him, wasting some months is nothing."

Gravis smiled bitterly. "Wow, he even considers me at a time like this."

Old Man Lightning waved his hand dismissively. "It's the job of us elders to look after the new generation. He would've done the same for anyone else in the Sect."

"Thank you," Gravis said. "By the way, now that I think about it, isn't our Sect undefended right now with you here with me?" Gravis asked.

"Nah. I informed the elders, and the Sect is on lockdown until I return. After all, this shouldn't take longer than a day," Old Man Lightning said nonchalantly. "Even if someone attacks, the Formation Arrays can hold out for that time. On top of that, everyone knows exactly what I would do to them if they attacked in my absence. As long as the High Priest doesn't get involved, I can do whatever I want."

Gravis nodded. "True. Anyway, I'll go search for the Ogre now. Try to stay at least 100 kilometers away from our fight. I don't want to get distracted by you."

Old Man Lightning spat to the side. "Little shit, commanding me like I'm your descendant. Fine!" Old Man Lightning said in exasperation.

With that said, Old Man Lightning distanced himself from Gravis until he no longer was inside Gravis' Spirit's range. When Gravis heard Old Man Lightning's answer, he chuckled a little to himself. After all his hardships under Old Man Lightning's cane, Gravis was finally able to annoy him back.

After some seconds, Gravis put his Lightning Board away and started running through the surroundings. The Ogre roamed around the mountains in Quake City's vicinity, so it should be somewhere in the surrounding 500 kilometers. With Gravis' Spirit, it shouldn't take too long to find the Ogre.

And sure enough, after only a couple of minutes, the Ogre appeared inside Gravis' Spirit. It was a massive gorilla, nearly ten meters tall. Ten meters wasn't really big for Spirit Beasts, but that wasn't important. Its smaller size actually made it even faster and more mobile than other Spirit Beasts. Yet, right now, it wasn't showing any of these tendencies. Right now, it was sleeping on the side of a mountain.

Gravis smirked when he saw that and quickly moved towards it.

"I haven't had a proper fight in a while."