Lightning Is the Only Way

It had been two weeks since Gravis started using the Pre-Forming technique, and every day, he concentrated on pushing more Energy into his mind. The headache continually increased, and Gravis now felt a constant, intense throbbing in his head. His mind was only half-filled with Energy, but that was still way faster than he had initially believed.

Gravis thought that breaking through into the Spirit Forming Realm would take, at least, as long as getting to the tenth level of Energy Gathering. Apparently, he had been mistaken. Gravis guessed that if he were on the tenth level of Energy Gathering, he could rise into the Spirit Forming Realm in less than a day. It seemed like the bottleneck for Spirit Forming was more about the will and less about increasing the cultivator's Energy or power.

On this day, Gravis walked around the Heaven Sect, trying to distract himself from his headache. It was so strong that he involuntarily always focused on the pain, which made focusing on other things difficult.

What Gravis didn't know, was that people who attempted to break into the Spirit Forming Realm would do that in one sitting, and if they failed, they would disperse the Energy in their mind. No one wanted to run around with a constant headache. What was the point of that?

In the time when Gravis' Energy was regenerating, he concentrated on condensing his Will-Aura further, outside of the guild, of course. He didn't want Aion to notice that he didn't use Heavenly Pressure since Gravis guessed that it was probably impossible to condense the Heavenly Pressure.

After a lot of training, he finally managed to condense it on a single living being. In the past, when he condensed his Will-Aura, it always included a radius around the target. Now, his Will-Aura finally managed to completely concentrate on a single target, and it should be impossible to condense it any further.

Why was Gravis walking around the Heaven Sect today, instead of continuing to condense his Spirit? That was because Aion had called for him. Gravis guessed that it was probably another mission. After he had done the previous ones, he hadn't gotten a new one yet. Apparently, there weren't many criminals worthy of prosecution.

Gravis was going to knock on the door to Aion's office, but he stopped himself when he remembered how Aion acted the last time. Instead, he simply opened the door and walked inside. Just like he had expected, Aion was still lying on the balcony while drinking from some beverage. When Gravis saw that, he got reminded of Forneus, his old teacher from his homeworld.

"You wanted to see me?" asked Gravis as he walked closer.

Aion drank from his beverage, and a dossier floated over to Gravis, who caught it. "I got a new mission for you," Aion said as he turned to Gravis. "And this one is a doozy!"

'A doozy?' Gravis hadn't heard this word before, but he could guess what it meant. He read through the dossier, and slowly his brows furrowed. He felt a mix of shock, confusion, a little bit of rage, and some nostalgia.

The target was the former Guild Master of the third Proxy-Wind Guild. Her full name was Wendy Demer. She was one of the Guild Masters back when Gravis participated in the entrance exams for the Elemental Guilds. He still remembered how she threw over 4,000 failed participants into the horizon. "In what way is this mission a doozy?" asked Gravis.

For once, Aion didn't seem as casual and walked into his office."This mission is special because she has killed a Heavenborn once," he explained.

Gravis completely forgot about his droning headache and entirely focused on Aion now. "Did she simply kill one, or did she survive an execution mission?" he asked.

Aion walked over to his desk and leaned on it. "She was once the target of an execution mission," he explained as he crossed his arms. "Do you remember how she killed over 4,000 people in the entrance exams for the Elemental Guilds? You should have been there when it happened."

Gravis remembered that she threw around 4,250 people into the horizon, but he felt shocked when he realized that over 4,000 of them had been killed due to that. He hadn't thought that she had been so ruthless. Gravis nodded at Aion.

Aion nodded back. "Heaven is not a fan of massacring thousands of promising youngsters. Some people die, it happens, but slaughtering them in those numbers is not okay. Because of that, we sent over an executioner. She was on the seventh level of Energy Gathering while the executioner was on the sixth."

"Surprisingly, she was the first person to survive an execution mission in over ten years," Aion remarked with a bit of praise. "You know how powerful our Heavenly Pressure is, so you should also know how impressive it is for her to actually kill the executioner."

Gravis could only nod in confirmation. The Heavenly Pressure of a Heavenborn on the sixth level should be about as intense as Gravis' Will-Aura if he didn't compress it. That was an impressive advantage since an enemy only one level higher than the user could only release about 50% of their strength under it.

Aion walked away from his desk again and looked outside the window, with his arms behind his back. "According to the rules, we pardoned her crime since she had survived the mission. There had to be a reason for her to survive, and Heaven wanted her to remain alive. She wouldn't have survived otherwise."

Aion turned around and smirked at Gravis. "And now I know why she had been spared. Heaven kept her alive just for you! Everything became clear to me when I saw what she was doing in recent weeks. You should also know the reason since you have read the dossier." Aion pointed at the paper in Gravis' hand.

Gravis furrowed his brows and nodded. How couldn't he understand? Yet, he was still incredibly confused about Wendy's actions. In Gravis' mind, those actions made no sense. What reason could she possibly have to do this?

The dossier reported that starting about three weeks ago, Wendy started running around all the towns, cities, and Elemental Guilds. That in itself was no problem, but wherever she went, she would loudly denounce Gravis. She would call him a coward, a filthy traitor, a weakling, a teacher-killer, and many similar things.

Talking bad about a member of the Heaven Sect wouldn't be persecuted, but it was different when it was done in this grand style. Her voice would echo throughout the entire towns and cities, and she would even pay people from other guilds to shout such statements in their respective guilds.

'Is it because of Gorn? Did they have some kind of special relationship? But I haven't heard anything about that!' Gravis thought. 'She also didn't seem stupid, and I could also feel that she was different from all the other Proxy-Guild Masters. She felt like she was actually leading them. She should know that I would be sent on a mission to…'

Gravis' eyes widened. 'So that's her plan! For some reason, she wants to kill me! That's also why she only denounced me and said nothing about the other Heavenborn. She explicitly wanted to kill me.' Gravis' eyes narrowed. 'Now, that's interesting!'

"Catch!" Gravis heard a shout from Aion and saw a sack flying towards him, which he quickly caught. Gravis looked inside and saw a lot of Energy Stones. "She is still in the seventh level of Energy Gathering, but it's possible that she already made a breakthrough into the eighth," Aion explained.

"The rules must be followed!" he said with a severe tone that didn't allow for counterarguments. "You should be close to the fifth level of Magic Gathering now. Use some stones and make a breakthrough into the fifth level. Also," Aion said as he threw over a jade token.

Gravis looked at the jade token and realized that this token would activate the same Formation Array that the Lightning Guild tried to use against him on the tree. This Formation Array was worth 5,000 Mission Points!

"After you make the breakthrough, you will go to the Wind Guild and fulfill your mission. If you realize that she has reached the eighth level, you will use this Formation Array to fall back. Then, you will use the remaining stones to make another breakthrough. After that, you will kill her, but you are not allowed to use the Formation Array to help you win!" Aion explained.

"You are also not allowed to use the stones nor the Formation Array if she has not broken through yet! We will check what really happened, and I expect those things back from you in the case that she didn't break through!" Aion said in seriousness.

Gravis looked at the Jade Token and the Formation Array and nodded at Aion. After that, he left Aion's office and went back to his room to reach the fifth level of Energy Gathering.

While cultivating, Gravis narrowed his eyes and thought about Wendy.

"I wonder what this is all about."