When Gravis came to the part where he started madly looking for power in the Lightning Tower after Jaimy's assault, Lasar and Old Man Lightning finally understood why Gravis' lightning felt so strange and powerful.
"So, let me get this straight," Old Man Lightning said, interrupting Gravis. "Due to your Elemental Synchronicity, you were able to split the Life Energy from lightning, therefore creating lightning with 100% Destruction Energy?" he asked.
Gravis nodded. "Yes. On top of that, since the lightning didn't have a will, I could move it around however I wanted without completely dying."
Old Man Lightning and Lasar watched Gravis with open mouths. "That's incredible!" Lasar said. Gravis realized the dream that every previous Sect Master of the Lightning Sect had. No one had ever reached pure Destruction Lightning before. To normal cultivators, it just wasn't possible to split the Life Energy and Destruction Energy inside lightning.
It was possible to siphon a small amount of Life Lightning from natural lightning, therefore creating pure Life Lightning, but it wasn't possible the other way around. On top of that, those methods stopped working as soon as too much Life Lightning was siphoned out of Natural Lightning. The highest achievable amount of Destruction Energy was only 60%, and that was incredibly expensive.
Old Man Lightning looked at Lasar with seriousness. "Later," he transmitted to Lasar. Then, Old Man Lightning turned to Gravis again. "And that's when you were influenced by the temperament of lightning and killed your Guild Master?"
Gravis sighed and told them what had happened. He didn't embellish any details and just told them how it happened.
"In the weeks that followed, I tried to find a way to repay my debt. Sadly, there is no way to bring Gorn back, so the next best thing was making the Lightning Sect rise. That would still not be enough, but it's the best I can do," Gravis said.
Old Man Lightning rubbed his beard in thought as Lasar sighed in emotion. This was a tragic accident. Lasar, of course, realized that Gorn was also at fault. After all, he definitely knew about the dangers of feeding someone so much lightning when they were this unstable.
In actuality, Lasar didn't see the matter as critically as Gravis. It was an accident, and accidents happen. Yes, something like this shouldn't go unpunished, but it didn't require something as ridiculous as making the Lightning Sect the most powerful organization. He thought that the Guild Master of the Lightning Guild in the southern Middle-Continent had overreacted.
Yet, would Gravis be okay with this? Definitely not! It was the heaviest blow that he had ever received, and minimizing the issue wouldn't help. Gravis wouldn't accept not paying for this debt, even if Lasar said that it was fine. The only thing he could do was accept that Gravis would repay them.
"So," Old Man Lightning said after a while, showing a smirk. "How exactly did you plan to achieve that?"
"When I have enough power, it won't be an issue," Gravis said.
"And when you have enough strength, then what? How exactly would you do it?" Old Man Lightning asked.
Now, Gravis wasn't sure how to answer. He thought about this for a while, but every answer he came up with, had a flaw. Destroying the leadership of the other Sects? That was not in Gravis' nature, and it would also only be a short-term solution. Watching over the Lightning Sect? That would take too long and would damage Gravis' cultivation path. 'Yeah, how would I do that?' he thought.
Old Man Lightning saw Gravis thinking, and his smirk intensified. "What if I were to tell you that you could do that right now? You can make us into the most powerful Elemental Sect without even increasing your strength. It would also only take a couple of months."
Gravis looked with shock at Old Man Lightning. "How?" he asked.
Old Man Lightning snickered a little. "Come on. Normally, you're so smart, but now you ignore the obvious." Then he pointed at Gravis' dantian. "Your Destruction Lightning. As long as our Sect has access to it, we'll be inherently stronger than all other Sects."
Gravis looked at his dantian, then furrowed his brows. "I mean, I can help some people cultivate Destruction Lightning with mine, but I won't stay in this world for much-"Then, Gravis eyes' widened. "How didn't I think of that!?" he shouted in frustration and elation.
Old Man Lightning laughed. "So you realized it, huh? Took you long enough. As long as you supply Destruction Lightning to our Lightning Tower, we can get some supreme geniuses in the Body Tempering Realm to condense a Destruction Lightning Seed. Then, when those people reach the Magic Gathering Realm, they can use their own Destruction Lightning to help their juniors cultivate theirs. As long as we have a single person with access to Destruction Lightning, the whole Sect will have access to it."
Usually, cultivators wouldn't want to share the results of their hard work with others. After all, they had worked so hard to achieve them, so why should people that didn't work for them benefit from the cultivator's hard work?
Yet, Gravis felt nothing of the sort. The only thing he felt was relief. Finally, he could repay one of the two remaining debts. In Gravis' mind, that didn't fully absolve him of his guilt towards Gorn, but it was the best he could do. There was nothing else that he could do. With that finished, he could put that issue to rest.
Gravis smiled with happiness, something that he rarely did. "Thank you," he said genuinely to Old Man Lightning.
For once, Old Man Lightning also smiled warmly. "We should be the ones thanking you. Not everyone is ready to share the benefits of their suffering with others. If you do that, you have more than repaid us."
"I fully agree," Lasar said, also with a smile.
Lasar was also incredibly happy. The elusive dream that every Sect Master had would finally be realized while he was the current Sect Master. Though, he knew that he hadn't really contributed anything. Yet, as the Sect Master, any rise in the Sect's power filled him with pride.
There were some seconds of silence as the people thought about the future path of the Lightning Sect.
"So," Old Man Lightning said with a smirk, "since all your debts with us have been paid, let me ask you something."
Gravis looked at Old Man Lightning, thinking about what he wanted to ask.
"Gravis," Old Man Lightning began speaking solemnly. "Do you want to join our Lightning Sect?" he asked.
Gravis was shocked. He had not expected that question. It wasn't that it wasn't logical, but that his mind had completely deleted that possibility. He had never thought about rejoining the Lightning Sect. After all, how would that have been possible? He had killed his Guild Master and several disciples of the Lightning Guild. There had been no imaginable way for him to rejoin.
Yet, as he thought about it, everything made sense. He had explained his circumstances to the Guild Master back when he was still inside the Heaven Sect. Then, he repaid the deaths of the disciples with a lot of gold. After all, killing someone from another organization was different from killing someone from your own. The deaths of those 20 disciples at the tree were not as heavy as Gorn's death since Gravis had been in a different position back then.
Then, Gravis had always thought that he needed to reach the Unity Realm to repay Gorn's death. At that point, he would just leave this world. He, obviously, wouldn't have rejoined the Lightning Sect then. Yet, with this new development, he could finally join the Lightning Sect again! Though reality crashed down on him, transforming his elation into frustration.
"What about the Heaven Sect?" Gravis asked, looking at the ground. Even if Heaven didn't involve itself anymore, the Heaven Sect still blocked him from joining any organization. The threat of the Heaven Sect was just too significant. His enmity with the Heaven Sect would bring the whole Lightning Sect into jeopardy.
WACK!
Old Man Lightning hit Gravis on the head again with his cane. "Stupid! I'm here! If a priest from the Heaven Sect comes, I'll make him flee with his tail between his legs! As for sending two priests? As long as Heaven itself doesn't directly give that order, they won't dare. After all, that would be the biggest loss of face for the Heaven Sect in history. Sending two priests at the Self Stage for only one Sect? The whole world would never forget!" Old Man Lightning said with confidence.
Gravis looked at Old Man Lightning in surprise, which quickly transformed into a sincere, but ugly smile. 'I don't need to fight the Heaven Sect by myself,' Gravis thought. 'With only my power, it would be impossible to join the Lightning Sect, but I have forgotten that there isn't only one person in a Sect. With the old man's help, we can achieve something that isn't possible with only myself. I'm not alone anymore. I don't need to carry the burden by myself. I have a whole Sect behind my back!'
Seeing Gravis' smile, Old Man Lightning nudged Lasar. Lasar then also smiled happily and stood up. "Gravis, do you wish to join my Lightning Sect?" he asked solemnly but with a smirk.
Gravis stood up and bowed to him.
"Yes, Sect Master!" he shouted, trying to keep his emotions in check.
If Gravis had a weaker will, he would be crying right now.
