Lightning Is the Only Way

Joyce and Gravis looked at each other with uncomfortable expressions. They remained silent for a couple of seconds.

"I'm sorry," they both said at the same time, eliciting a look of surprise by the other.

"What are you sorry about?" Joyce asked in surprise. "You showed me a truth about the cultivation world. I should be the sorry one since I let my emotions guide my actions." Joyce was a little red in the face due to embarrassment. "I also didn't mean what I have said previously. Those words were uncalled for."

Gravis sighed. "Don't worry about it. I didn't take them to heart. Also, I should apologize for saying it that directly. I didn't take your cultivation path into account. After all, everyone's experiences are different."

"Hey, don't steal my line!" Manuel grumbled.

Gravis only smiled slightly. "Your wisdom is my wisdom now," he said with a smirk.

Manuel rolled his eyes, but inside, he was happy. He felt proud of himself. After all, not everyone was able to teach the Lightning Calamity something.

Joyce looked with confusion at both of them but then turned to Gravis again. "Anyways, I'm sorry for my words. I know that you only wanted to help me."

"Water under the bridge," Gravis said with a dismissive wave.

Joyce smiled happily, and, for some reason, Gravis also felt a bit happy when he saw her smile. Yet, he quickly caught himself. 'I might actually feel attracted to her,' he thought. 'This could become dangerous. If I get too close to her, I might have doubts about my future path. I don't know how I will act in such a situation. I can't take the risk into account that I might decide to not leave this lower world. I can't get too close to her.'

Joyce was quite confused about Gravis' involuntary changes in expression. For a second there, she could've sworn that Gravis showed a genuine smile, but it had quickly vanished. Now, he only looked troubled. 'I really don't get him,' she thought.

Manuel watched them while cultivating, and he could only muster a troubled smile. 'I think I know what's going on with Gravis. No matter what he chooses, he will lose,' Manuel thought. 'For once, I'm happy that I'm not him.'

Who didn't want to be a powerful genius? Just imagining the possibility to fight two Stages above oneself would elicit feelings of longing. Yet, everyone had their own problems, even powerful people like Gravis. Nearly no one had an easy life.

Like this, time passed.

tenth Stage of Energy Gathering and immediately broke into the Spirit Forming Realm. When someone's body was powerful enough, they wouldn't need a strengthened dantian. Manuel's and Joyce's

hours later, two disciples from the Wind Sect arrived. One of them was the person that went over to fetch the new person, while the other, obviously, was the new person. The new person quickly went over to Manuel and thanked him for this opportunity. If Manuel hadn't left the Wind Sect's group, the new person wouldn't have been

off. He saw his actions as more selfish than selfless, so

day after

Brrr!

creating an uncomfortable sound of stones grating together. The groups all stood up and readied themselves. Many people retrieved their weapons and moved into different formations.

group from the Lightning Sect would come. After all, in order to not force Gravis to fight against his disciple brothers', Lasar decided against sending

didn't increase. That was because the groups from the Water, Light, and Darkness Sect had left. They

only a total of two Sects took part in this year's resource war. One was the Wind Sect, while the other was the Fire Sect. The Fire Sect was comprised of battle-hungry maniacs, while the people from the Wind Sect were rather carefree. Whatever happened, happened.

after

go," Joyce said with motivation as she pointed forward with a

would look better if you were on a horse," he said with a

turned to him and pouted. "Hey! Don't

a little and then walked forward. "Let's just

A long, dimly lit corridor greeted them,

kilometers. Surprisingly, the path wasn't straight. The path went up and down, left and right. The construction of the corridor resembled the body of a snake more than an actual hallway. Who would build such

see further than a kilometer with my Spirit. On a straight path, I could see further with just my eyes,' Gravis

small hall. Two braziers stood in the middle, illuminating the surroundings. The stones were brownish, and the design reminded people of an old temple or the ruin of one. Two old gates stood before them. Above each gate was a sizable stone tablet, which was inscribed. One

other groups, and those gates are also weird," Manuel said with narrowed

others also nodded. "Same here," the lightning disciple said. "All groups are supposed to meet in a gigantic hall with a lot of gates. In the hall, most of the disciples would break into the next Realm before entering their respective trials. I can't possibly imagine that

just for us. The other groups are probably really confused about a sudden wall appearing behind them. If we went in first, the same thing would have happened, and if we entered in the middle, we would probably just get

didn't know what the numbers above the two gates meant, but he had a suspicion. "Let

also incredibly strange that we don't have an option to choose. We are forced to split up. This is so strange. Normally

nothing we can do about it," Gravis said as he walked to the gate with the big '1'. "This is where we part ways," Gravis said as he looked at his group. "I hope we'll

taking this a little too casual? Something is seriously wrong here! Let's first talk about this