Lightning Is the Only Way

A proverbial, oppressive dark cloud hung over Gravis.

He couldn't come into contact with any of the people he liked until the problem had been resolved.

It was like Gravis was cut off from everyone again.

Luckily, this time, Gravis knew that he had a chance to fix the problem. After all, there have been cases of people being able to survive having a Sin Aura.

"Gravis," Stella said urgently. "You should ask Arc if he knows what you need to do!"

Gravis' eyes widened.

Right, he should ask Arc!

Why hadn't he thought of that earlier?

Gravis quickly got out his new communication ring and contacted Arc.

"Arc, I condensed a Sin Aura," Gravis said.

"What's that?" Arc answered.

Gravis was taken aback.

Arc didn't know what that was?

However, Gravis knew that Arc's knowledge and experience were still invaluable. Even if he didn't know what a Sin Aura was, he knew the way Orthar worked far better than Gravis in certain aspects.

Maybe, he could deduce the answer.

Gravis explained the concept of a Sin Aura to Arc.

"I can think of two ways to solve this issue," Arc said.

Gravis was pleasantly surprised. Arc said that he knew two ways to solve this issue.

"What are they?" Gravis asked.

"My Creator never does things without reason or gain. If he wants such Cultivators to die, he would simply kill them directly. He wouldn't need something like Sin Monsters. Even more, if he wanted to kill these people, he wouldn't give them the chance to do more damage before the Sin Monsters arrive."

"This means that the goal of the Sin Monsters isn't to kill you but to force you to pay for your mistakes. I'm not talking about some form of emotional relief when I talk about pay, but about literally paying the world back."

"Gravis, think about what your actions have cost the world and my Creator. What have they lost?" Arc asked.

Gravis knew the answer. "Energy and Karmic Luck," he answered.

"Half-right," Arc answered. "Karmic Luck is simply a method to show how effective you have been at gathering Energy. You gain Karmic Luck by helping people become stronger, which makes them gather more Energy."

"Creating an organization gives the disciples in the organization greater safety and more access to Laws, which will accelerate their growth and will even result in them becoming more powerful than they would have ever become on their own."

"A personal disciple is the same thing. If you take in a mortal as a disciple, and they become a Law Comprehension Cultivator, they would have gathered a lifetime's worth of Energy of a Law Comprehension Cultivator. Without you, they would have died as mortals and would have gathered nearly no Energy."

"You, yourself, obviously don't count in that. After all, everyone strives for power."

"So, to get rid of your Sin Aura, you need to repay what you owe. You damaged something, and now you need to pay for it. Whom have you killed?"

Gravis' expression became bitter.

"About 20 Star Gods and 500,000 Peak Immortal Emperors," Gravis answered.

Silence.

"That's bad," Arc answered.

"It is," Gravis answered.

"In essence, you need to gather Karmic Luck and Energy until all of this has been paid back. However, paying all of this back will be very, very difficult."

"There are three things that you have to pay back."

"The first thing is the Energy of the Star Gods. One level one Star God should be worth around one million God Stones. A level two Star God should be worth four million God Stones. How many God Stones do you owe for the Star Gods?" Arc asked.

Gravis did some calculations. "Stella killed two level two Star Gods, but those were normal fights, and those two fights shouldn't have involved me. So, in essence, I'm responsible for the death of one or two level two Star Gods and about 15 or so level one Star Gods. At most, it should be 23 million God Stones."

"Alright. Then, the 500,000 Peak Immortal Emperors," Arc said.

Gravis took a deep breath.

That number would be far bigger.

"One Peak Immortal Emperor should be worth around 4,000 God Stones. 4,000 times 500,000 is two billion God Stones. That's a lot of money," Arc said.

Gravis took a deep breath.

The 20 million God Stones of the Star Gods didn't even make a dent in this massive number. Gravis could essentially ignore it.

Two billion God Stones.

If Gravis exchanged all his contribution points in The Heaven Company for God Stones, he might be able to get another 50 million God Stones, but even that wouldn't make a dent in his debt.

If Gravis wanted to pay back the debt, he would have to work in The Heaven Company for nearly a million years!

Gravis guessed that he would have been killed by the Sin Monsters before that.

"Now, for the most significant debt," Arc said.

Gravis was taken aback, and a cold shudder ran down his spine.

"What?" Gravis asked.

"You killed about 20 Star Gods, Gravis," Arc answered. "There is something else that you owe. You know, that thing that I don't want to mention for fear of retribution."

For a moment, Gravis wasn't sure what Arc was referring to, but when he felt an apocalyptic, invisible pressure, he knew exactly what Arc was talking about.

Gravis knew this pressure. This pressure came from Orthar.

It was to warn him.

This pressure meant that Gravis should choose his words very carefully.

The Brand!

Gravis had to repay the Brand!

Gravis looked at the communication ring with a crestfallen expression.

"How much is it?" Gravis asked.

"It should be one Ancestral God's worth of Energy per Star God," Arc answered.

Silence.

"It should be about two billion God Stones per Ancestral God," Arc added.

Silence.

Gravis just couldn't react.

How was he supposed to pay back over 40 billion God Stones!?

Gravis' mind went through all kinds of jobs.

The Heaven Company?

Gravis would be working for several times his longevity!

The Information Pavilion?

That would still be over a million years!

World Weapons?

Sure, if Gravis had infinite customers, he could pay that off rather quickly, but that was not how the world worked!

Ironically, it was far easier for Star Gods to get their hands on World Weapons than for Immortals.

Not many people knew the level four Law of the Dead World, but many Ancestral Gods and Divine Gods knew the level seven Law of the Dead World. Those people wouldn't even create World Weapons for Immortals since that wouldn't be profitable for them.

Because of that, the demand for World Weapons for Immortals was several times higher than the demand for World Weapons for Star Gods and higher.

Additionally, all these people were in powerful Sects that probably had their own Forgers.

They wouldn't pay some random, outside Forger if they could get it done cheaper and better in their own Sects.

There was only a single way to earn that much money.

Robbing and killing.

However, if Gravis didn't fight against someone that was a danger to him, his debt would only increase.

In short, Gravis could only earn money from killing people that could also kill him.

Even more, these powerful Cultivators had connections. Their powerful ancestors and teachers could only look on during a normal fight, but Gravis had a Sin Aura now.

There was nothing that would stop these Ancestral Gods!

And even if all of these problems didn't exist, how much money would an enemy of Gravis have?

Gravis' enemies would be level six Star Gods.

First of all, level six Star Gods didn't even exist, probably.

Second, even if they existed, they would, at most, have 100 million God Stones.

Gravis would need to kill over 400 of them!

That equated to 400 temperings!

Gravis loved tempering, but that was too much.

Gravis hadn't even had 100 temperings in his entire life!

If Gravis had tempered himself 400 times, his Will-Aura would have probably already reached the level of his father!

What if he increased his Realm?

Become a level seven Star God or so quickly and fight Ancestral Gods?

He would still need to temper himself 40 times or so!

Lastly, what about the Sin Monsters?

The Sin Monsters would obviously push Gravis into paying back his debt.

Gravis wasn't sure what they would do, but they would probably put Gravis under so much pressure that he was forced to get rid of them as quickly as possible.

Orthar knew exactly what he needed to do to push people forward.

However, how could Gravis even attempt to pay off this unfathomable debt?

Gravis looked with a lost expression at the horizon.

"What do I do?"