Lightning Is the Only Way

"Lasar? The Sect Master!?" The Patriarch shouted in shock. They had activated the most powerful Transmission Formation Array, but that wouldn't warrant the Sect Master coming personally. Normally, only some elders would come over.

Gravis waited until Lasar was 80 kilometers away so that he could see what was going on inside the Freya Clan. "Guess what," Gravis transmitted to Lasar while also keeping Marvin and Reginald in the loop, "apparently, I am an invader that lies about his identity to rob or annihilate the Freya Clan."

The two Sapling Stage cultivators still didn't feel Lasar, which made them skeptical. How was Gravis able to notice Lasar while they didn't? The range of their Spirits should be bigger than Gravis'.

A sigh appeared in their heads. "So, it really was you, Gravis," they heard Lasar's voice. He sounded quite tired. "Alright, what happened?"

Gravis scoffed. "So, I arrive here and enter through the front gate. I tell them that I came to repay my debt, and what do they do? They surround me with several people at the Seed Stage, call me a liar, a Warped One, and want me to await 'judgment' by the Patriarch," Gravis transmitted to everyone involved. The word judgment was pronounced with an impressive amount of ridicule.

"And you didn't explain yourself?" Lasar asked.

"Of fucking course, I did!" Gravis transmitted with anger and frustration. "But no~, it's impossible to reach the Seed Stage in only three years. Therefore, I am lying. That guy," Gravis pointed at the Grand Elder, "even attacked me. Shit, I am so frustrated and angry because of all this ridiculous shit!" Gravis basically shouted.

"Wow, Gravis, you need to calm down," Lasar transmitted. "It's obviously a misunderstanding. I know the Freya Clan, and they wouldn't plot something as nefarious as this."

Marvin and Reginald listened to the conversation, and their insides started shaking. They knew the voice and Spirit of Lasar, so they were sure that it was him who was talking to them. The fact that Lasar didn't get angry by Gravis shouting at him showed that he considered Gravis as a friend and someone on the same level as him.

"I know that!" Gravis shouted, "but you know how it feels when someone steps on your bottom line. My lightning is mad and going crazy. The only reason why I can still keep it in check is that I owe them something. This is literally the first time in the Spirit Forming Realm and the second time in total that someone stepped on my bottom line and survived."

The first and only other time that someone didn't get killed by Gravis after stepping on his bottom line had been his encounter with Aion at the Wind Wall. Gravis had wanted Aion to attack him, and he had also felt that he owed Aion somewhat. This was enough reason not to kill him directly.

Gravis hadn't expected to feel this infuriated. His will was powerful, and keeping his emotions in check also wasn't an issue, but this thing had infuriated him beyond belief. The good came with the bad, and his unprecedented closeness with lightning also forced him to adhere to his bottom line. It was like he was having an argument with himself about why it was okay for them to stay alive after attacking him.

Another sigh appeared inside the present people's minds. "I know that," Lasar said calmly. "Just try to vent somewhere. I'll talk with them to get this whole misunderstanding resolved, okay?"

Gravis also released an angry sigh while being watched by the other two in nervousness. They could feel Gravis' rage by the trembling of his Spirit. Normally, when someone had an emotional reaction to something, their Spirit would tremble only slightly, barely noticeable to anyone. Yet, Gravis' Spirit was basically vibrating.

"Alright!" Gravis said with gritted teeth and left. He had been able to suppress his rage until Lasar arrived. Any display of rage could result in a fight, which he didn't want. That was why he had kept it suppressed until Lasar's arrival. But when Lasar had finally arrived, Gravis released all of it. Bottling it up would only hinder him in future fights. After all, blind rage was called blind rage for a reason.

Gravis charged out of the Freya Clan without being stopped by anyone. Marvin and Reginald had told the people that they couldn't get in Gravis' way under any circumstance.

When Gravis left the Freya Clan, Reginald and Marvin took some shaky breaths. "I think we really messed up this time," Reginald transmitted to Marvin.

Moments later, Lasar arrived at the Freya Clan. He looked with a complicated expression at the Patriarch and Grand Elder. "Do you actually know how lucky you are that you're still alive?"

Reginald looked with some guilt and frustration at Lasar. "What were we supposed to do?" he asked. "He claimed that he reached the Seed Stage from the Body Tempering Realm in only three years. You know that's impossible. What reason would someone have to lie to gain entry into our Clan if not for doing something nefarious?"

"But he didn't lie," Lasar said, shocking the two again. "He was telling the truth."

"But how can this be?" asked Marvin in shock.

Lasar sighed in exhaustion. This would require a long explanation.

Meanwhile, Gravis was angrily stomping around. He would have never expected that such a relatively small incident would enrage him this much. Something like this could, at best, be considered an inconvenience. But then, why was he so incredibly angry?

"Whenever something steps into the boundary of lightning, it strikes the intruder with everything it has," Gravis muttered to himself. "The misunderstanding was no problem. The thorny bush barrier and the Seed Stage cultivators also hadn't been an issue, but as soon as that guy attacked me, my rage exploded. Fuck, it was so difficult to not kill that bastard right then and there!" Gravis' muttering transformed into angry shouting by the end.

BANG!

Gravis kicked a tree and decimated it in the process. "Fuck, why am I still so fucking angry!?" Gravis shouted. "Am I really this restricted by this whole bottom line thing!? Fuck, what am I supposed to do in that case? Isn't being forced to act a certain way also a kind of suppression? Isn't my goal freedom? What difference is there between being suppressed by Heaven and being suppressed by lightning's temperament? It's the same shit!"

Usually, Gravis' thinking was very logical and rational, but his rage made it really difficult to focus. Yet, he still managed to focus somewhat. 'First of all, why is this irking me so much while the old man's beatings are only annoying? The old man's beatings could also be considered as attacks. Otherwise, I wouldn't get injured by them.'

Gravis was still frantically wandering around. "The only real difference I can think of is the intent behind the attack. The old man wants to teach me something with his beatings, even if it's only him that considers that useless shit as teaching. The bastard from before only wanted to defend his Clan from danger. Logically, I can't fault him for that. From his perspective, he acted correctly. Any onlooker would also say that his attack had been justified. After all, he hadn't intended to kill me. If he had, he would have unloaded his weapons. He only wanted to stop me."

Gravis sneered. "But from my perspective, it was an attack with the intention to injure and suppress me. The reasons behind that are irrelevant to me because I have never shown any hostility towards the Clan. I didn't even injure anyone. Well, except for that thorny bush, but I gave it a chance to pull back."

Gravis turned around and looked in the direction of the Freya Clan with fury in his eyes. "So, logically speaking, both sides acted correctly and were justified. He only wanted to defend his family while I have been subject to a hostile attack." Gravis spat to the side. "Tch, I guess this could be called bad luck, huh?"

Then, Gravis looked at the sky. "Is this another way how my lack of Karmic Luck works? It's tough to discern if this is the fault of my lack of Karmic Luck or if it's just a coincidence. But can't bad luck, theoretically, only exist in coincidences? Isn't bad luck just a coincidence outside my control that brings me into a bad situation? Fuck, this whole thing is too philosophical and abstract!"

Several minutes passed, and Gravis' anger didn't subside by even a little bit. It always remained at the same level, which surprised him. "What, will I stay this angry until I resolve this? Are you fucking serious!?" Gravis shouted.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Gravis shouted as he kicked a mountain with every word, creating craters every time he did so.

"Alright, I need a solution for this! As for the whole bottom line suppression thing, I'll think about it after I've calmed down. Right now, I can't concentrate. I also think I know a solution that will calm me down for now. Sucks for Joyce, though. She wasn't at fault in this whole thing, yet she loses the thing she earned."

Gravis jumped onto his Lightning Board and shot back to the Freya Clan. As soon as he released his lightning to accelerate, it shot out with a way larger quantity than he wanted. The Lightning Board accelerated too fast, and Gravis fell over, landing on the ground.

"Fuck! I knew that anger is bad! I don't even have proper control over my lightning anymore!" Gravis shouted. "If I fight like this, I probably won't even be able to exhibit 50% of my power! Fuck, isn't that a huge weakness!? I really need to do something about that!"

Instead of using his Lightning Board, Gravis ran back to the Freya Clan. As he came closer, his rage finally started vanishing. That was because he had already decided what to do, which calmed his emotions and lightning down. Apparently, his solution was enough for the lightning and had been accepted.

As soon as he reached a distance of 80 kilometers from the Freya Clan, he contacted Lasar.

"Tell them that I won't kill the person that attacked me, but I also won't owe the Freya Clan anymore." Gravis' cold but calm voice appeared inside Lasar's mind. "The Freya Clan has helped me in my cultivation, and I will pay that back by saving the life of one of their peak experts today."

"Starting today, I don't owe the Freya Clan anything anymore!"