Chapter 242 - 242 – Threshold
The surroundings exploded violently with Destruction Lightning, surprising Gravis. This was not just normal lightning, but his very own Destruction Lightning. What had happened? He also felt his lightning storage emptying to about 50%. He had involuntarily unloaded 50% of his lightning into the surroundings.
One had to know that Gravis’ storage had nearly tripled. This 50% was equivalent to 150% of his previous storage. This was a lot of lightning! Luckily, the ground was made of Balzar while the tree remained unaffected. After all, this involuntary release of lightning didn’t have Gravis’ will behind it, making it just a stronger version of natural lightning.
Also, no disciple stood close to the tree, saving them from an untimely death. Gravis couldn’t imagine what would happen if he were to kill tens of disciples by accident. Though, Gravis guessed that it wasn’t his lack of Karmic Luck that achieved that, but the positive Karmic Luck of the disciples. After all, without Heaven’s interference, their positive Karmic Luck still worked.
Still, the explosion raged into the surroundings, creating a shockwave that destroyed the ground and a couple of buildings. Everyone looked in shock at the explosion. Where did that come from?
After less than a second, the explosion calmed down. Gravis was still confused about what had happened. Why did his lightning suddenly go out of control?
WACK! BZZZZ!
The cane of Old Man Lightning hit Gravis again, but Gravis’ lightning involuntarily attacked the cane as it came closer, traveling along the cane’s surface to Old Man Lightning. The cane still hit Gravis, but not as strongly. Instead, he was more shocked about his own lightning going out of control again.
Old Man Lightning felt the lightning going into him, but since he was four Stages higher than Gravis with an equally powerful lightning resistance, he wasn’t injured in the slightest. It only shocked his hand slightly. If it hadn’t, Gravis would have been thrown away again.
Old Man Lightning looked at his hand with furrowed brows and then at Gravis’ belly. "So, it’s as I expected," he said, surprisingly not angry.
Gravis was still confused about the situation. "What happened? Why can’t I control my lightning?"
Old Man Lightning lightly shook his hand to counteract the numb feeling. "When you absorbed lightning, I saw it going into your dantian. Yet, against all known cultivation laws, it started growing out of your dantian and even left your body. You should know what that means."
Gravis’ eyes widened in realization. "Since the lightning left my body, it was no longer isolated by my body. Therefore, it struck the first thing that came near, which was the ground. That’s why everything exploded!"
Old Man Lightning nodded. "Exactly. You still had some lightning leaving your body, but not enough to hit the ground. I attacked you so that it could unload itself into something that could withstand it. If you just bumped into a random person, that person would’ve exploded right then and there. You should know that, previously, your lightning even reached your knees."
Sweat ran down Gravis’ neck. Without knowing, he had been a loaded lightning bomb, just dying to unload onto the closest person. Old Man Lightning saved him from killing another person involuntarily. "That’s an issue," Gravis said.
Old Man Lightning nodded. "Yes. Stay here, and don’t move. We need to test at which threshold your lightning starts going out of control." Then, Old Man Lightning moved his cane to Gravis’ dantian so that it touched that spot.
Gravis looked down and then at the other people. "So, I’m just supposed to stand here? Can’t we do that somewhere else?"
"Not until we know the safe threshold," Old Man Lightning said. "I don’t want you to unload onto someone."
Gravis bitterly smiled, feeling kind of awkward with all the people just watching him. They all stood there, looking at him without talking. Of course, they were Spirit Forming experts, so Gravis was sure that they talked about him with their Spirits.
Minutes passed as Gravis regenerated his lightning. It only took around two hours for him to go from 0% to 100% of his lightning. The quantity of his storage didn’t matter since more lightning attracted more Energy. The regeneration speed was always the same, as long as his Realm didn’t increase above the Energy density of this lower world. That wouldn’t happen until he reached the Unity Realm.
BZZZ!
A small bolt of lightning hit the cane. Gravis felt a lot of lightning leaving him, which made him furrow his brows. ’My lightning went out of control as soon as I regenerated around 55% of my lightning, yet it unloaded a whole 10%. I guess when it unloads, it also pulls some of the lightning inside my body with it. I should try to stay at 50% for safety’s sake.’
Old Man Lightning pulled his cane back. "You got the threshold?"
Gravis nodded. "55%. I’ll try to stay at 50%. I can unload the additional lightning into my Spirit. Shouldn’t be an issue."
WACK!
The cane whacked Gravis on the head again. "Are you stupid? Why would you unload your lightning into your Spirit? Are you suicidal!?" he shouted angrily.
Gravis rubbed his head in annoyance. "It’s how I cultivate!" he shouted. "You wanted to talk, right? I’ll explain everything when we talk, but can we please move away from here?"
Old Man Lightning snorted and then turned to the other disciples. "Stop standing there! Go to the elders and get a new blueprint for the central plaza! We need to rebuild the essential buildings! Also, anyone who touches the tree will be executed!" Old Man Lightning shouted at them.
The disciples quickly nodded and started running around. Initially, they looked like headless chickens just randomly running around, but after a while, Gravis noticed that everyone went to do something different. Some of them were collecting rubble, while others ran to a big black castle.
"Alright, this doesn’t concern you," Old Man Lightning said to Gravis. "Follow me. I don’t want you to explain everything twice, so I hope you don’t mind little lightning bolt joining our conversation."
Gravis furrowed his brows. "Little lightning bolt?" he asked.
Old Man Lightning groaned. "The Sect Master," he said.
Gravis’ eyes widened at the disrespectful and casual nickname for the Sect Master. Though, as someone at the Self Stage, Old Man Lightning probably had the right to do that. After all, how many Self Stage cultivators were inside this lower world? Did every Sect have one?
Gravis followed Old Man Lightning as they walked to the big, black castle in the Sect’s center. The castle was a slightly bigger version from the one in the Lightning Guild in the Middle-Continent. It wasn’t much more imposing. It was just a big black castle.
The guards in front of the castle didn’t mind the two passing. If Gravis were alone, they would have surely stopped him, but probably no one dared to stop this old man.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Gravis noticed several elders at the Sapling Stage shooting past him. They were probably surveying the interior of the Sect to create a new blueprint. After all, they had to relocate a lot of buildings due to the new, gigantic tree in the middle of their Sect. Speaking of...
"What are you planning on doing with the tree?" Gravis asked as they walked.
"Little lightning bolt will speak to it after our talk," Old Man Lightning explained without turning around. "As long as we feed it enough beast corpses, we have an infinite supply of Life Lightning. This will expedite the training of our disciples’ bodies. As soon as the storm clouds recover, the disciples can destroy their bodies more thoroughly. Then, they just need to go outside and get healed. This shaves off at least two days of recovery. Of course, such a heal won’t be free."
Gravis rubbed his chin. "Can’t you also create a healing business? Many people need quick healing, after all, and the tree probably doesn’t need much Life Lightning to heal someone."
Old Man Lightning snorted. "Not possible."
Gravis furrowed his brows.
"Why not?" he asked.
Tap!
Old Man Lightning’s cane lightly tapped on Gravis’ dantian. "You are coming close to the threshold. Unload some of your lightning," he said.
"Oh!" Gravis said. He had completely forgotten about that. He quickly moved around 10% of his lightning into his Spirit.
Old Man Lightning noticed the sudden decrease of lightning inside Gravis without any apparent discharge. He kept looking at Gravis for anything weird happening, but everything seemed normal. ’Apparently, he’s telling the truth.’
They climbed some stairs and reached a big door. The old man pushed some lightning into the door, and it opened.
They both entered, and Gravis finally got to meet the Sect Master of the Lightning Sect for the first time.