Lightning Is the Only Way

"This is bullshit! I demand to speak with the manager!" someone shouted in front of the Gravitas.

Yersi stood in front of that person with a smile. "We have publicly shown the time until the Gravitas closes for the past decades. You have seen the countdown when you have bought your current weapon. The time is up, and we have just closed shop. You should have come earlier."

"And what am I supposed to do with this weapon now?" the person shouted angrily as he showed his spear. "I have already reached the next Realm and don't need this weapon anymore! You told me that I could sell it back for 80% of its cost!"

"As I've said," Yersi answered. "We are closed. For the last couple of months, we have mostly processed the buying back of our previously forged weapons. If you had come earlier, there wouldn't have been any issues."

The person just wouldn't relent, but at this point, Gravis stepped out of the Gravitas. Orthar already stood beside Yersi without saying anything.

Gravis retrieved a jade token and looked at it. "We are finished with our business. Please proceed with the last inspection," Gravis said to the token.

A supremely powerful Spirit Sense entered the building and inspected it for a second. Yet, none of the present people were able to feel this Spirit Sense.

This was the Spirit Sense of an Ancestral God, the owner of the building.

"Everything's in order," the owner of the building transmitted to Gravis. "You still have three months until you have to hand the shop over. Are you sure you want to hand it over now? I won't reimburse you."

"It's fine," Gravis said. "We've already closed."

"So be it," the voice said.

Whooop!

And the jade token in Gravis' hand vanished. From this point on, none of the three could enter the building anymore, even if they wanted to. The key had been handed back to the owner.

Right now, the Gravitas greyed out again to show that no one was inside it. The new owner had already won the auction for this property and was only waiting until their lease began.

Gravis had already retrieved the several Certificates of the shop. The shop might belong to another person, but the Certificates were his.

The Gravitas didn't exist anymore. The century of business was over, and now it was time to use their money to increase their power.

"Hey, I want to sell my weapon!" the irate customer said to Gravis.

"To whom?" Gravis asked.

"What do you mean to whom!?" he angrily asked. "To you!"

"Sorry, I'm not interested," Gravis commented.

The customer was taken aback. "But you said you would buy it back!"

"No, I didn't," Gravis said. "That was the Gravitas' policy, and the Gravitas doesn't exist anymore. Right now, I'm just a dude standing on a street, just like you."

"This is bullshit!" the customer shouted. "Take the weapon back, or I will ruin the Gravitas' reputation."

"Okay," Gravis said.

"You'll take it back?"

"No, you can go ahead and ruin the Gravitas' reputation," Gravis said. "Why would I care about the reputation of something that doesn't even exist?"

The customer only became angrier. "You are sup-"

Whoop!

And the three of them were gone.

Now, the customer stood alone in front of the Gravitas in shock. After recovering from the shock, he searched through the city with his Spirit Sense, but he couldn't find them.

The customer complained and grumbled several more times, but it was irrelevant. The Gravitas didn't exist anymore. Whatever he did had nothing to do with Gravis, Orthar, or Yersi anymore.

After a while, the customer angrily stomped off.

Meanwhile, Gravis, Orthar, and Yersi appeared inside the Opposer's room.

As soon as they appeared, Yersi sighed in relief and stretched herself. "Finally done!" she said with happiness. "I never want to deal with another customer in my life!"

"Congratulations!" Gravis' mother said as she also appeared in the room. "You've earned a ton of money! Oh, I'm so proud of all of you!"

PACK!

Gravis and Yersi were pulled to Gravis' mother, who quickly hugged them. "My cute little babies finished their first business venture!"

The two of them only laughed and returned the hug.

Some seconds passed.

"Can you do that somewhere else?" the Opposer asked evenly. "You're sidetracking us."

The Black Magnate still sat in front of the Opposer, casually drinking some coffee. The two of them had really hit it off. As soon as they became more comfortable with each other, they just didn't stop talking.

"Hey!" Gravis' mother said as she put her hands to her hip. "You're part of this family too!"

The Opposer remained silent for some seconds. "Okay," he said. "So, what do you want?"

Gravis' mother groaned while Gravis had to snicker. "You're supposed to feel happy for your son and granddaughter!" Gravis' mother said.

"Okay, I feel happy for them," the Opposer said evenly.

Gravis' mother just groaned again.

"Father?" Gravis asked.

"Yes?" the Opposer answered.

"Do I have enough money to understand the remaining level three Laws of the Elements?" Gravis asked.

"If you fully focus on cultivation without any distraction, you should only need 80 million Immortal Stones. In the worst case, you will need 160 million," the Opposer answered.

Gravis had been ready for a big number, but hearing the actual number was still shocking. He needed around 100 million Immortal Stones for eight level three Laws!

One had to remember that a weapon for his Realm would only cost between 50,000 to 100,000 Immortal Stones, and weapons were generally the most expensive thing that cultivators spent money on.

100 million Immortal Stones was one thousand times the amount of money Gravis would need for a weapon for himself. Most cultivators had to save up money to even buy their weapons. Yet, even with that, many Cultivators weren't able to purchase a fitting weapon for their Realm. That was how expensive weapons were.

Because of that, 100 million Immortal Stones seemed like an absurd amount of money. Virtualization Arrays were truly expensive.

"Speaking of money," Gravis' mother said with a smirk as she trailed off.

Gravis looked at his mother and nodded. "Your cut, sure," he said. "Just take it out of my Spirit Space."

Gravis' mother smiled warmly, and Gravis felt a knock on his Spirit Space. He let his mother in, and she quickly took away one of the huge mountains of Immortal Stones.

One had to remember that Gravis' mother owned 20% of the Gravitas. This meant that she also got 20% of all the profits.

"Thank you," Gravis' mother said to him. "I just earned around 65 million Immortal Stones by simply teaching you some stuff."

One would think that this trade was definitely not worth it. Yet, one had to remember what these few words had done for the Gravitas. Gravis wouldn't have known which Certificates to purchase without her. There was even a possibility that he wouldn't have even known about them.

Additionally, she had chosen the shop, and the location of the shop had been absolutely perfect. With more forges in the area, Gravis would have had far fewer customers.

Without his mother's guidance, Gravis would have had to compete with a ton of other forges and wouldn't have been able to sell anything for a long time since no one would have believed his abilities. After all, without her, Gravis wouldn't have known the importance of the Certificate of Honesty.

So, even though she had claimed an entire 20% of their profits, she had probably provided more profit to them with her knowledge than she had taken.

Gravis couldn't have wished for a better start. Everything had been perfectly set up for success. Exchanging 65 million Immortal Stones would have seemed like a far too ridiculous number back then, but now, Gravis saw that it was worth the price.

"Now then, father, mom," Gravis said. "Today is the official day I move out!" he said with a smile.

"So?" his father said. "You've barely been living here for the past 120 years. There isn't much difference."

"Argh," Gravis' mother groaned again. "Why can't you just be happy for your son!?"

"Okay," the Opposer said. "Gravis, good job."

Gravis had to snicker again. "Thanks, father. Anyway, you three can come visit us at any time. Yes, even you," Gravis said as he looked at the Black Magnate.

"I'll politely decline," the Black Magnate said with a smile as he drank more coffee, courtesy by the Opposer. He was far more relaxed than previously. Talking to the Opposer had helped him immensely.

The three of them said their goodbyes and left the palace.

Whooosh!

And appeared in a completely different environment.

Warm light shone upon a silent forest at the edge of an ocean. Just like with the Grand Lake in the middle world, this area had absolutely no life except for the plants. There were no animals, no insects, nothing.

There was only silence and a gentle wind that created small waves on the ocean.

This was their new home.

The three of them remained silent as they simply felt the wind and listened to the gentle waves hitting the shore. All of them were immediately reminded of the middle world they had lived in for a long time.

Some minutes in silence passed as they all got lost in nostalgia, even Orthar. Orthar was a very logical being, but that didn't mean that he didn't have emotions.

After some time, they even saw the sunset. Surely enough, this was worth the money.

"This is a sick apartment," Gravis said, ruining the mood with his choice of words.