It had been two months since the incident at the Proxy-Lightning Guild, and Gravis was running along a road to the north. He had wallowed in guilt for several days after the incident. Every morning, Gravis woke up in a cold sweat as the scene from the Lightning Guild repeated itself in his dreams. Even two months after it had happened, he still felt deep pain whenever he thought about Gorn.
Even though Gravis had realized that part of the reason why Gorn had died was probably Heaven, it still didn’t make him guiltless. Yes, Heaven had probably stolen all the karmic luck from Gorn, and that had been a major contributing factor, but Gravis still couldn’t push the blame away. If he hadn’t acted without thinking, Gorn would still be alive. This matter weighed heavily on Gravis’ mind.
Yet, Gravis still decided to keep on going. Even though Gravis couldn’t ever repay what Gorn had done for him, he could still take a partly revenge. Gravis looked at the sky in rage. The only reason why his mindless attack killed Gorn in one attack was probably Heaven. Gravis could only do two things for Gorn: Help the Lightning Sect and destroy Heaven.
Gravis also didn’t forget about Jaimy. Jaimy had tried to kill Gravis and threw him into a cesspool. He was also part of the reason why Gravis went insane with anger and hatred. Jaimy also had to pay!
Even though Gravis was plagued by guilt, he never neglected his strength. His Energy Vortex automatically sucked in the Energy in the atmosphere, and after a lot of time, it would reach saturation. At that point, Gravis only needed to compress the Energy with his will.
Meditation also helped in expediting the increase in Energy. If Gravis meditated, the Energy Vortex’s power would be increased by about five times. Gravis had concentrated on increasing his realm first, before venturing to the Middle-Continent.
Gravis expected that his Will-Aura, his extremely strong physical body, and his Destruction Lightning probably allowed him to win against people three levels above him. This might not sound like much, but it was important to note that every level doubled the previous Energy. Someone three levels higher than Gravis would have eight times the Energy.
After training for two months, Gravis’ realm had increased by two, and he was now on the third level of the Energy Gathering Realm. He could fight people on the sixth level now, and those people were probably already pretty influential in the middle-continent.
Gravis would have increased his realm even further if there weren’t two issues. One issue was the speed of his cultivation. Since the Energy always doubled at each level, the requirement for the next level would also double. The ambient Energy in the atmosphere didn’t increase, after all.
In the Outer-Continent, Gravis had needed a whole month to increase his realm to the second level of Energy Gathering. After that, he had realized that he would need two months for the next level. After seeing that, Gravis had traveled to the border of the Middle-Continent and started cultivating there.
The closer Gravis got to the Core-Continent, the higher the density of the Energy in the air. At the entrance of the Middle-Continent, the Energy had already doubled its density. Like that, he only needed one month to reach the third level.
Gravis had done some math, and he felt a pit in his stomach when he realized how long he would take to reach the tenth level of Energy Gathering. In the Outer-Continent, he would have to meditate for over 21 years! He would be a middle-aged man by then. Even on the border of the Middle-Continent, Gravis would still need nearly eleven years.
With Gravis’ will, he would be able to boringly cultivate for over a decade, but what was the point of that? With that said, the second reason why Gravis entered the Middle-Continent also grew apparent. If Gravis only cultivated in seclusion, wouldn’t that be precisely according to Heaven’s plan?
Heaven tried to make his journey to the Spirit Forming Realm as easy as possible. Without life and death tempering and without enemies, Gravis would start losing his advantage. While someone with a Will-Aura in the Body Tempering Stage was unprecedented in the lower world, there were some people with Will-Auras in the Energy Gathering Realm.
In the Spirit Forming Realm, there would be lots of people with a Will-Aura. Gravis would lose one of his most important weapons by losing the advantage of his Will-Aura. On top of that, his body’s strength would grow increasingly unimportant as the Energy increased.
His body might still be relevant right now, but as soon as he could fight people in the eighth or ninth level, it wouldn’t matter how strong his body was. People on that level had so much Energy that their attack, speed, and defense were already several times higher than Gravis’ body.
It would only be a matter of time until Gravis’ body strength grew irrelevant. That was unstoppable. Yet, he could stop the degradation of his Will-Aura, and for that, he needed powerful Enemies. Gravis wasn’t stupid, and he had already guessed that it was already public knowledge that he destroyed the Proxy-Lightning Guild. The Lightning Guild wouldn’t ignore such a slap in the face.
As Gravis thought about that, he sighed bitterly. He didn’t want this to happen. He never intended to kill Gorn. Yet, he had done exactly that, and the Lightning Guild was probably enraged, rightfully so. Would Gravis spare the person if he were in the position of the Guild Master of the parent lightning Guild? No, he wouldn’t.
What if he explained it to the Lightning Guild? Would it even matter? Even if they fully believed him, he had still killed a Guild Master of a Proxy-Lightning Guild. That was probably the worst crime someone could commit. In the cultivation world, killing one’s master was the same as killing one’s parents.
Even if they fully believed him, they would still kill Gravis. Yet, Gravis couldn’t let his father and the rest of his family down. Gravis was tortured continuously by what he had done, and dying really seemed appealing to him right now, but he couldn’t give up on his family. His father and his brother Orpheus had supported him fully and wanted to see him shine.
Gorn had also wanted to see Gravis shine. William and Jeros were also part of this group of people. They had seen Gravis’ potential and wanted to see him going all the way. Gravis couldn’t give up! That would betray all the other people’s hope and would also betray their sacrifices and investments in him.
Gravis also remembered Joyce and the old man who was following her. She had given him the opportunity to temper his skin by giving him a mission and selling him a Formation Array. Without that, Gravis might not have reached the Elemental Guilds’ entrance exam in time. He still had to repay her for that.
Even if Gravis had no friends in this lower world, he still had people who had invested in him, and if he broke those promises too, he would feel even guiltier. He couldn’t give up now! He had to grow strong enough to show them that they didn’t make a mistake!
Gravis stopped as he saw a city on the horizon.
"This city will be my first contact with the Middle-Continent!"