Lightning Is the Only Way

The elders stopped breathing as they looked with shock at Old Man Lightning. What did he just say? Did he just say that the Lightning Sect could break apart? What was he on about?

"Don't you think you are overreacting?" one of the elders asked Old Man Lightning.

Old Man Lightning crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. "If we don't plan accordingly, this is a possible outcome. I am not overreacting," he said.

"What do we have to plan for then?" asked another elder with urgency. "What is the problem?"

"Let me give you a hypothetical," Old Man Lightning said and then looked at one of the elders specifically. "Stor! Let me give this hypothetical to you specifically. I think you are the best person for that."

Stor was the only elder who wasn't in panic right now. He actually looked into Old Man Lightning's eyes with determination. "Go ahead," he said evenly.

"Imagine yourself in Gravis' shoes. I am reducing the strength of the Earth Sect's disciples so that you actually feel the strength, or in this case, weakness of your enemies in front of you, just like Gravis. Gravis is about as strong as an average Sect Master, so, in your case, two people at the Seed Stage and ten people at the initial stage of Spirit Forming are coming at you. I have not told you all how the fight went because I want to see how you would react," Old Man Lightning explained.

Stor nodded and let Old Man Lightning continue.

"Those disciples were 20 kilometers away and shouted at you that they would kill you. Then, they charge at you, but with their speed, they would need nearly five minutes to reach you. What would you do?" Old Man Lightning asked.

"I would question them about why they wanted to kill me," Stor said.

Old Man Lightning nodded. "In your past, the Earth Guild in the Middle-Continent annoyed you slightly when you visited them, so you annoyed them back. No one got injured, nothing major was damaged, no one died. Yet, the Earth Sect has seen this as an insult and wants you dead. Those disciples heard the call and followed through with this."

Stor rubbed his stubble in thought. "I would tell them that they are running to their deaths. Their strength and mine are too far apart. This couldn't even be considered a fight."

they know that. They know exactly that they are about to die, but they wouldn't dare to

and actually doing it is a huge difference.

wait in front of the barricade, but no attacks

elders shone. They hadn't expected this development. They were pretty sure that this is precisely how it had gone for Gravis. The details were very precise. Many of them asked themselves

leave. Killing some youngsters because they said that they would kill me, but not going through with it, doesn't sit that well with me," Stor

cruelest of the elders. He followed the destructive side of the temperament of lightning very closely. They were surprised that Stor didn't just

nodded. "They taunt you so that you would attack, but

there is no reason in me killing them," Stor said. "This is no tempering, and they haven't attacked me. Fighting them makes no

with this decision.

sighed. "Just as I thought. I think we actually have a problem here," he said with

others looked skeptically at Old Man Lightning, but one of the elders looked like he realized something. "Wait a second!" he shouted. "Didn't you say that multiple of the disciples died? Did Gravis attack them?" he

others' eyes also opened widely. This seemed barbaric in their minds! This wouldn't be

Gravis had done. Some of the elders showed uncomfortable expressions at that. Forcing the earth disciples to choose between death and their cultivation seemed unnecessarily cruel in their eyes. They were especially appalled when they heard how

an inkling of regret or guilt in Gravis' eyes. He was fully following his own moral compass and committed no wrong in his action. After all, they have stepped

one of the

so-called Warped Ones were former disciples of the Lightning Sect that had a very warped sense of fairness. In their minds, fairness was power. That mindset came nearly exclusively from their traumatic past. Most of the Warped Ones had been abused by more powerful people in the past, making them believe that whatever

fairness and honesty, they had no issues in cultivating lightning. After all, there

found a Warped One, they would banish them from the Sect. The Warped Ones were very

them directly. Gravis' definition of a bottom line is just less flexible in comparison to ours. We still consider life and forgiveness if someone went against us. Of course, we often consider it but not follow through. This brings me to

a proposal. The Freya Clan follows through, yet they don't get paid. Yes, they get angry, but they never attempt any revenge. They just stop working together with that Sect. A couple of decades later, they attempt to forge bonds with those same Sects again, the

that seem to be the exact opposite of how Gravis