Lightning Is the Only Way

It had been two days since Gravis first tested his new Lightning Board. During that timeframe, he rode around nearly all day, trying to get used to it. He learned how to turn better, accelerate faster, and fight while on his Lightning Board.

Though, fighting while on the Lightning Board was complicated. Melee attacks were nearly impossible to perform, and any big swing had significant consequences for Gravis' balance. On top of that, not being able to do sharp turns took away Gravis' flexibility. Gravis could probably only use the board for chasing people or fleeing from them.

But Gravis didn't mind it that much. His body and lightning were already perfect for instant acceleration and sharp turns. If he also concentrated his lightning on his feet, his acceleration would even become unreasonably fast. The Energy cost for that was rather high though, but he guessed that there was no one able to accelerate as quickly as him on his level.

What about the wind element? Sure, the wind element was generally considered as the fastest one, but Gravis was an outlier in that field. His Destruction Lightning was a little over double as powerful as natural lightning, which made him about just as fast as someone with the wind element. On top of that, other cultivators weren't able to explode their condensed element beneath their feet. Their feet would explode into bloody chunks, even if they had a powerful body equal to their Realm.

The only thing that allowed Gravis to do that was his immunity and absorption of lightning. If his Spirit hadn't been tempered by lightning, he wouldn't have been able to do that, even if he still had his Elemental Synchronicity. The Elemental Synchronicity would have made his body ignore the lightning's damage, but that would have also significantly weakened the effect of its blast, therefore slowing the acceleration.

Because of all these reasons, Gravis didn't care about him not being able to use the board for direct fighting.

After these two days of testing, Gravis' other four boards had been finished. The first one took the longest since they had to design and forge it from the ground up. The following ones were produced faster, with more ease and finesse.

"Thank you," said Gravis as he put the four new boards into his Spirit Space.

"No, thank you," said the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild. "Designing this and looking at its effect gave me a lot of inspiration and motivation. Maybe I can manage to design similar things for the other elements. One question though, are you fine with me selling this design to other people?" he asked.

Gravis shrugged. "I don't mind. You designed it after all," he said nonchalantly.

The Vice-Guild Master smiled and summoned a cube of gold. "Thank you. As repayment for that, I'll give you your gold back."

Gravis furrowed his brows. "I have paid you for your work," he said. "Your work is finished, so this gold belongs to you now. I won't take it back."

The Vice-Guild Master laughed slightly. "Hehe, I think you don't understand what you have done for me just now," he said. "This design will revolutionize how Spirit Forming Experts move. If I sell that design to our Fire Sect, I will get over ten times that amount. I am actually giving you way less than what you deserve."

Gravis thought about this and nodded. After that, he pocketed the gold. "You're right. Thank you for your honesty! Consider all debts settled with this gold cube."

The Vice-Guild Master nodded again. "Sounds good. Thank you!"

Gravis summoned one of the Lightning Boards and stepped on it. "I'm off," he said. "Bye!"

"Goodbye!" said the two Vice-Guild Masters as they waved.

With that, Gravis shot off into the distance. While traveling, he kept admiring the scenery. He would probably not return to the Middle-Continent. He had stayed here for about six months, and now he would leave. This was the last time he could look at it.

He thought about the different people he had met. He remembered Skye, its parent, the big tree, the Heaven Sect, Wendy, her father, all the Elemental Guilds, and Aion. The south-eastern branch of the Heaven Sect would be rebuilt, and Aion would remain there as its branch manager. Skye was probably still flying around the Middle-Continent, tempering itself by battling other beasts or humans that attacked it.

As he said goodbye to the Middle-Continent, Gravis remembered something. Only three debts were remaining. Two of those could only be fulfilled in the Core-Continent. Those were the repayment of Gorn's death, which required him to make the Lightning Sect rise, and the debt he still owed Joyce back from when she helped him earn money in the Hunting Guild.

The last debt was Jaimy. Gravis doubted that Jaimy had already reached the Core-Continent. Gravis was already growing at unprecedented speeds, and he doubted that Jaimy was cultivating faster than him. According to logic, Jaimy should be somewhere in the Middle-Continent.

Yet, neither the intelligence department of the Heaven Sect nor the Lightning Guild had found him. If not even the Heaven Sect could find him after months of searching, then where was he? Aion had told Gravis that they had been searching for him, but he had never appeared.

Gravis was 100% sure that if Jaimy went to any major guild or city in the Middle-Continent, he would have been spotted by the Heaven Sect. So, that only left three possibilities.

One possibility was that he lived in the secular world in the Outer-Continent, away from all the struggles of cultivation.

Another possibility was that he cultivated in isolation, away from civilization.

The last possibility was that he was already dead. Though, what about his brother in that case?

Gravis immediately dismissed the first possibility. Jaimy's hunger for revenge and power was genuine, and he wouldn't stop cultivating because of that.

Gravis also dismissed the second possibility after some thought. Jaimy had thought Gravis dead, and news of him being alive should only have appeared weeks later. On top of that, Gravis had been branded as a criminal during that time. Jaimy would have had no reason not to go to the Lightning Guild. Even if he had appeared only once, the Heaven Sect would have taken note of that. Yet, he didn't.

That only left the last possibility. Was Jaimy dead?

If so, how did he die that quickly? There should have been no issue in reaching the Lightning Guild for him. After all, he had been in the Energy Gathering Realm. He also had an average amount of Karmic Luck. There shouldn't have been any unlucky accidents…

"Wait," said Gravis as he stopped his Lightning Board. Then, he narrowed his eyes and looked into the sky. "Did you kill Jaimy and his brother, Heaven?" he asked.