Lightning Is the Only Way

Old Man Lightning combed his beard, pleased. "That's a good decision, Gravis," he said with a smile.

Gravis nodded. "It's hard finding high-grade Spirit Beasts that actually want to fight. After all, they have reached the end of their cultivation journey. Why would they want to temper themselves then? Yet, this Ogre seems to be different, at least by what I have read about it. Apparently, it's making a lot of troubles for everyone."

Old Man Lightning nodded. "Yes. It's called the Ogre due to its similarities to the mythological creature. In actuality, it's just some big ape or gorilla. I haven't seen it myself, so I don't know."

Gravis lifted an eyebrow. "I was wondering about that name. So, there's some mythological creature called Ogre?" he asked.

Old Man Lightning scratched his chin. "Well, calling it mythological might be a hyperbole. As far as I know, we once had those creatures."

"And I'm guessing we don't anymore?" Gravis asked.

Old Man Lightning nodded. "Yep. The Ogres were a species of big, hairy, human-like brutes. I think they could be counted as a mixture between a human and a beast."

Both of Gravis' eyebrows lifted. "A mixture of human and beast? How would that even work?" he asked.

Old Man Lightning rubbed his beard in thought. "It's hard to explain. Anatomically, they were pure beasts, yet surprisingly enough, they managed to mate with humans. That's why they were so peculiar."

Gravis put his hand on his chin in thought. "Mate with humans as a beast? I didn't know that was even possible."

Old Man Lightning shrugged. "Well, it isn't anymore. We, humans, like having beasts due to the potential tempering we get from fighting them. That's why the beasts still exist, even though we could probably eradicate them. But those Ogres went too far. You should know how something as simple as a beast reacts if it finds a weaker mate."

Gravis furrowed his brows. "It will just take the mate and do whatever it wants with them," he said.

Old Man Lightning nodded. "Exactly! The issue was that Ogres were smarter than normal beasts but dumber than humans. This allowed them to learn about the concept of unnecessary cruelty. Beasts normally only fight to survive or grow, but the Ogres fought and played with way weaker victims just to pass the time. Unfortunately, they were too stupid to see the bigger picture. After many years, the humans were fed up with the Ogres and just eradicated them."

Gravis nodded. "Makes sense. And this Ogre is not an actual Ogre, right?"

Old Man Lightning waved his hand with dismissal. "Nah. It's just some ape that seems to have too much fun with flaunting its power. As far as I know, it just runs around, shouts, and beats everything up it sees. I guess that is kind of its hobby."

"How long has it been doing this?" Gravis asked.

Old Man Lightning hummed. "I think for a little more than 70 years or something."

Gravis lifted an eyebrow. "That's pretty long. How come it is still alive even though it's basically provoking every living thing in its surroundings?"

Old Man Lightning smirked. "That's because it occupies the perfect spot."

"Could you explain?" Gravis asked.

"Well, Quake City is the main city belonging to the Earth Sect. The only humans the Ogre is annoying, are people from the Earth Sect. Therefore, no other Sect would send their people to hunt it. After all, a high-grade Spirit Beast is something that only a Sect Master can take on, and that not even reliably. It's a big risk to hunt such a powerful beast. So, in all these years, the Ogre only fought people from the Earth Sect."

A small glimmer of realization appeared in Gravis' eyes. "And since the Earth Sect fights very defensively, the Ogre can just run away as soon as it sees itself in danger. After all, earth cultivators are the slowest of all."

"Exactly!" Old Man Lightning said with a snap of his fingers. "This thing has been a huge issue for the last couple of decades, but the Earth Sect has no way to kill it."

Gravis rubbed his chin. "Interesting," he said and remained silent for a couple of seconds. "By the way, do you have an accurate map of the Core-Continent?" Gravis asked.

Whoosh!

A big map appeared in front of Gravis, hovering in the air. Gravis studied it and remembered every detail of this map. Something as simple as that was not difficult for a Spirit Forming expert. After finishing, Gravis nodded, and the map vanished again.

"Thanks! I'll be going now," Gravis said.

"Do you mind if I watch?" Old Man Lightning asked with a smirk.

Gravis shrugged. "Sure, why not? But please don't involve yourself, even if my death is certain."

Old Man Lightning smirked at Gravis' attitude. This was really a perfect mindset for cultivation! "I wouldn't dream of it! I swear upon my cultivation."

Gravis nodded and left the house. Swearing upon one's cultivation wasn't really some solemn oath with repercussions or anything. It was the same as if someone just said that they would promise something. It wasn't like some mystical force would destroy someone's cultivation if they broke such an oath. Keeping one's promise was entirely up to the individual.

Though, that was different for people cultivating lightning. After all, lightning abhorred hypocrisy and falsehood. If someone swore an oath like this while cultivating lightning, the backlash of breaking such an oath might actually make their lightning go berserk and kill them.

Earth cultivators would have a similar thing happening if they broke such an oath. After all, fully believing in their own path was the core tenant of the Earth Sect. Though, they would probably just not be able to advance anymore if they broke such an oath. It wasn't as ridiculous as their element killing them, like with lightning cultivators.

As for the other Elements? Such a promise had no binding power. The only thing forcing them to abide by it was their own personality and self-respect. If they broke it, nothing would happen.

Wind cultivators loved freedom anyway, so being bound by an oath was stupid for them. Water cultivators adapted to anything, so it also made no difference. Darkness cultivators? No one would even believe their oaths.

One would think that light cultivators would follow such an oath, but that also wasn't true. Surprisingly, the light and darkness cultivators were nearly identical in mindset. The only difference was that the light disciples acted righteous, while the darkness disciples just straight up said that they don't care. Darkness disciples were greedy assholes, and light disciples were greedy assholes that acted like friendly people.

Fire disciples also wouldn't care about any oath. After all, they were all about using every tool to win a fight. Breaking an oath was just one of their tools. So, all in all, one could only trust the oaths of lightning cultivators and earth cultivators.

As for the Heaven Sect? That was a mixed bag. Just like Heaven ignored its own rules, the Heavenborn could also do whatever they wanted, but another thing was stopping them. Their weak will, and therefore, their need for validation and respect.

Someone with a strong will didn't need riches, pleasures, or other people telling them how awesome they were. Only the path forward was important. Since the Heaven Sect didn't have a path forward and also didn't need a will, their face was incredibly important to them. That's why they didn't break any promises. They just thought that it was beneath them. Of course, if they were to get backed into a corner, that would quickly change.

So, after hearing Old Man Lightning's promise, Gravis could actually temper himself. By swearing on his cultivation base, Old Man Lightning made it abundantly clear that he would not involve himself in the fight. If he hadn't done that, Gravis might have had some doubt in the back of his mind that the old man would save him.

Something like that would be the absolute worst-case scenario! If Gravis believed that Old Man Lightning would save his life, he would gain no tempering at all, even if Old Man Lightning wouldn't involve himself. It wasn't important what Old Man Lightning did, but what Gravis believed.

Imagine this scenario: A new cultivator gets thrown into the same practical test that Gravis went through. Yet, a stronger person would say that they would save his life if he were about to die. That new cultivator would get no will tempering during that test, even if that stronger person had lied. Like this, the cultivator would risk his life and also get no benefit from tempering. He was basically risking his life for nothing.

By swearing upon his cultivation, Old Man Lightning extinguished every doubt in Gravis' mind, allowing him to fully temper himself.

Like this, they left the Lightning Sect and traveled towards Quake City.