Lightning Is the Only Way

As Gravis walked through the Lightning Sect, he looked around. The buildings were made of Balzar, just like the Lightning Guild in the Middle-Continent. Gravis guessed that only a material like Balzar would do when building under a constantly raging thunderstorm.

One should know that natural lightning had around the same Energy density as someone at the ninth level of Energy Gathering. Lightning cultivators had an increased resistance to lightning, but that didn't make them immune to it. If some stray lightning bolt hit them, people below the ninth level of Energy Gathering had a very real chance of dying.

Not everyone inside the Lightning Sect could be a Spirit Forming Expert. There were just too many people. On top of that, they also had to teach the next generation, and they, obviously, didn't have enough strength to resist natural lightning.

Gravis had already looked around the Sect with his Spirit. Surprisingly, a lot of buildings isolated his Spirit. Though, after further thinking, this seemed logical. How annoyed would the Sect Master become if hundreds of people constantly watched him? It was also logical to block the warehouses that held the Sect's wealth. If no one knew what was in there, no one would become too greedy.

Gravis counted around 5,000 people with his Spirit, which was a little surprising. After all, the Lightning Guild in the Middle-Continent had well over 10,000 disciples. One would think that the Lightning Sect's headquarter would have the largest congregation of disciples, but apparently, they had less than their guilds in the Middle-Continent.

Gravis had also seen the cultivation of most people. With his Spirit, that wasn't very hard. Around 1,000 people were at the Spirit Forming Realm, while around 3,000 were at the Energy Gathering Realm. The remaining disciples were at the Body Tempering Realm.

As Gravis thought about it, it actually made sense. Spirit Forming experts were at the peak of this lower world, excluding the High Priest, of course. Even though this was the Core-Continent, Spirit Forming experts were still rare. Having 1,000 of those in one place was already impressive enough.

Gravis also noticed that many of the Energy Gathering cultivators had powerful wills. About 50 of them even had condensed their Will-Aura already. Gravis guessed that reaching the Spirit Forming Realm wasn't the only way to reach the Main Sect from the Middle-Continent. Impressive geniuses probably could also be sent here.

Like this, even though the Lightning Sect was smaller in scale than the Lightning Guilds, it burst with power and talent. Based on the numbers of Spirit Forming experts he saw, Gravis could also calculate the approximate number of Spirit Forming experts in the Core-Continent.

With around a thousand per Sect, he came to 7,000 people. Of course, the loose cultivators without any affiliation to a Sect and the Heaven Sect had to be added to that number. The problem was that Gravis had no idea how many Heavenborn were at the Spirit Forming Realm.

Heavenborn were very rare in comparison to normal people, but every single one of them had a wide-open way to the Spirit Forming Realm, without any bottleneck. While the branch of the Heaven Sect in the Middle-Continent only had around ten people, Gravis guessed that the Heaven Sect in the Core-Continent had way more. Maybe also a thousand? Maybe more?

All in all, Gravis concluded that this lower world probably had around 10,000 Spirit Forming experts, but not more. Finally, the full strength of this lower world opened up before Gravis. Gravis could now see the ceiling that the power of this lower world had. Now, he only needed to break through it to get home.

As Gravis looked at the thundering sky, he felt something. He watched the lightning, and it felt like the lightning up in the sky was also him. Unconsciously, Gravis lifted his hand to the sky. 'Come here!'

BZZZZZ!

The lightning in the sky stopped hitting the tall tower and instead went straight for Gravis. Hundreds of lightning bolts hit his body, illuminating the surroundings. The disciples jumped back in shock as they averted their eyes. All this concentrated lightning was too bright, making them temporarily blind.

Meanwhile, Gravis felt incredibly alive. All the lightning shot into his dantian, which started growing violently. This was the same process that happened when he had absorbed his 5,000 Energy Stones. Slowly, Gravis' lightning storage started expanding.

Yet, the lightning that hit him was different from his own Destruction Lightning. This was natural lightning, which had 50% Life Energy mixed into it. Gravis' body had no use for Life Energy since it was already fully healed. Because of this, the lightning was split up into Destruction Lightning and Life Lightning.

The Destruction Lightning got absorbed by Gravis, while the Life Lightning simply passed through him into the ground.

CRK, CRK!

The ground below Gravis broke open as a sapling started growing violently. The sapling grew rapidly, pushing Gravis up with it as it grew multiple meters per second. Gravis had no time to pay attention to his surroundings as he entirely concentrated on his body and dantian.

By now, his dantian couldn't be seen anymore. All the lightning had outgrown his dantian, swallowing it whole. Gravis grew incredibly excited as he felt his lightning storage becoming increasingly more powerful. His lightning storage had already grown by over 30%!

Outside, the sky slowly started getting brighter. The dark clouds slowly thinned as the disciples' faces became white. The natural lightning storm was getting used up! If this continued, no more lightning would rain down onto the Lightning Sect. The lightning was essential to their Sect! If there was no lightning, how would they keep their Lightning Tower working? This was bad!

The Lightning Sect had been built here because of the abundance of lightning. As long as some of the clouds remained, the lightning would regenerate. This allowed them to have an inexhaustible storage of lightning. If they had to use Energy Stones to keep the tower working, they would waste an astronomical amount of wealth.

One had to know that the Lightning Tower wasn't only used for condensing a Lightning Seed. It also worked as body tempering. Disciples would choose the appropriate level, and the lightning would injure their bodies. After that, they only had to heal.

With this, the Lightning Tower worked as a faster way of training one's body. After all, due to the abundance of lightning, it was cheaper to temper their bodies in the tower than to buy pills. Of course, buying pills was still faster, but way more expensive.

If there were no more lightning, the Lightning Tower would lose its price advantage. The contribution points would then be used for physical rewards, creating a massive dent in the Sect's purse.

The disciples looked at Gravis with hatred.

This guy was about to destroy their home!