It took three days until they arrived at the Lightning Guild. The group was on top of a cliff, and they could see the whole Lightning Guild. It looked simpler than Gravis had thought. There were some stone houses, but not that many, only around 150. The streets were made out of stone but were not particularly impressive.
There were no walls, no gates, no guards. Anyone could just walk into the Lightning Guild and do whatever they wanted. This really didn’t look anything like the residence that a hegemon like the Lightning Guild should possess.
"Pretty simple, isn’t it?" asked Gorn with a smile.
Gravis could only nod.
Gorn just laughed. "What’s the point of having walls, gates, and guards when every single person living here has sufficient strength? Everyone knows each other, and no suspicious people would dare walk around."
Gravis understood where Gorn was coming from. Added security was unnecessary, and everyone could protect themselves. Instead of wasting money on guards and ostentatious looks, they could just use that money to increase the strength of the disciples.
It wasn’t that the Lightning Guild was weak. In fact, the opposite was true. The Lightning Guild was famous, and everyone knew about it. No one had the guts to do anything disrespectful here.
"Everyone!" shouted Gorn to the new disciples. "Come forward so you can see your new homes!" he commanded, and the disciples walked to the edge of the cliff so that they could see the guild. Sadly, no one was impressed by its looks.
"On the left side," said Gorn as he pointed to the Lightning Guild’s left side. "You can see the residence area, which takes up around 80% of the guild. This is where you will live from now on. We have plenty of unoccupied houses, so you can just choose one."
Gravis looked at the residence area and saw a lot of identical-looking stone houses occupying the majority of the guild.
"Guild Master, what about the bigger house in the middle of the residency area?" asked one of the new disciples.
Gorn puffed out his chest. "That’s where I live!" he declared proudly.
Gravis looked over and saw a building, which was only one floor taller than the others. It wasn’t even broader or longer. It just had an additional story. Was this really a residence that a Guild Master should occupy?
"On the right, you can see a big plaza," Gorn continued explaining. "In the middle of the plaza, you can find lots of different notice boards. They all offer different missions. You will frequent that place a lot since you need a lot of money to continue cultivating."
The new disciples grimaced. "We have to work?" asked one.
Gorn laughed. "Of course! The Lightning Guild is not cultivating greenhouse flowers. Only wildflowers that have proven themselves by weathering storms and have gotten their own resources are worthy of being part of the Lightning Guild."
One of the disciples grimaced. "Then what’s the difference of joining or not?"
The others looked at him in shock, yet the Guild Master didn’t seem to mind. "The difference is opportunity!" Gorn said with pride. "Only using the elements can get you to the peak of the world. If you don’t join an organization, you may still find your resources and get further, but you will never be a match for their disciples. Only we know the way to start cultivating the elements."
Of course, not everyone was happy with that explanation. The new disciples had thought that they could finally rise and get all the resources they needed. Yet, they were confronted with the reality that they still had to fight for every scrap of meat. Overall, the mood was somber and disappointed.
"Oh right, Gravis," said Gorn as he turned to Gravis. "Due to your new saber, you should take the house right beside mine. You can’t always carry it around, and I’ve seen that you are not used to using two sabers at once. You can just keep it in your house. I will immediately notice if anyone tries to break into your house."
Gravis thought about it and nodded. He wouldn’t use his new saber until he reached the Energy Gathering Realm. Carrying it around all the time was cumbersome. The saber was not light, after all.
"The hall at the side of the plaza is the Exchange Hall," Gorn pointed to a big hall at the plaza. "That’s where you can buy everything you need. That includes Bone-Pills, Organ-Pills, Blood-Pills, and the Lightning Codex."
The Lightning Codex was the book that Gorn had given Gravis previously. Gravis probably wouldn’t need to visit the Exchange Hall. The mood of the disciples perked up when they heard that they could buy the illustrious pills for organ and blood tempering. Finding those was really difficult in Body City.
"Guild Master, what’s that tower beside the plaza?" asked another new disciple.
Gravis looked over and saw a tower with four floors beside the plaza. It was greyish blue and seemed different from every other building. The other buildings were all created with the same materials and had the same building style, yet this tower seemed to be entirely out of place.
First of all, it was way bigger than all the other buildings. Then came the fact that Gravis couldn’t judge, which material the tower was made out of, and furthermore, Gravis also saw multiple Formation Array lines crisscrossing over the tower. While everything else seemed simple like a village, this tower looked like the center of an imposing city.
Gorn laughed slyly. "That is the Lightning Tower. Our parent guild has built it. How would you be able to get in tune with lightning if we didn’t have a place where we could watch and absorb it?" Gorn explained. "You can find different rooms in the tower with different intensity of lightning. When you cultivate the Lightning Codex, you will need to visit the Lightning Tower."
The disciples were impressed. There was lightning inside a building? How was that even possible? Where did the lightning come from? Where did it go?