Chapter 256 - 256 – Tempering Disciples
Gravis walked through the new Lightning Tower as he followed Lasar. They went through a lot of corridors and up some stairs. The corridors appeared bulky at some places since that was where the cables ran through. Gravis also saw a lot of small, open crevices at those spots. He realized that the bulky part of the corridors was closed with removable panels.
After walking for a while, they arrived at a singular door, which was protected by multiple Formation Arrays. Lasar shot some lightning at the Formation Arrays in a peculiar way, and the door opened. Behind the door, Gravis saw a small room. It was not really noteworthy, except for the platform in the middle that was half a meter higher than the floor.
"The platform in the middle acts as a receiver for Destruction Lightning. Your Destruction Lightning only has to hit any spot of the platform to be absorbed," Lasar explained evenly without any motivation or energy. He sounded utterly exhausted. "Sit down in the middle, but don’t release your lightning yet."
Gravis nodded and sat down on the platform. "We don’t have a way to store your lightning, so you have to release it according to the disciples’ power in each room. In total, we have 100 rooms that are only for creating Destruction Lightning. Those rooms have two valves instead of only one. One valve is for Destruction Lightning, while the second one is for Life Lightning."
Gravis inspected those rooms with his Spirit and saw the two valves. "Just like in the normal rooms," Lasar continued explaining, "the valves for Destruction Lightning need to be held down. If someone loses their power, the valve will shoot upward with quite some speed. If the valve shoots up quickly, it will automatically release the valve of Life Lightning for a couple of seconds. If it goes up slowly, the valve for Life Lightning won’t open. On top of that, only one valve can remain open at a time."
Gravis nodded multiple times as he heard that. "That’s pretty smart," he said with praise. "If people lose their power, they get healed immediately while the people, who still have some strength left, won’t waste unnecessary Life Lightning. The fact that only one valve can be opened at a time also won’t create the issue of people getting natural lightning since Life Lightning and Destruction Lightning would just fuse into natural lightning."
Lasar nodded in exhaustion. "Exactly," he said. "Regarding the power that is transferred, there is a difference based on the cultivation of the spender. If someone at the Magic Gathering Realm releases Destruction Lightning, the formations will take over the lightning’s distribution. Luckily, with you being in the Spirit Forming Realm, we don’t need to waste the resources required to operate these Formation Arrays. I assume you have enough control over your lightning to keep the people alive."
Gravis nodded. "Of course. Their survival won’t be an issue."
Lasar nodded again. "Just use your Spirit to control the Destruction Lightning and distribute it accordingly. There probably won’t be an issue. One more thing, though. Not everyone is craving power and tempering as crazily as you, so try to keep that in mind. You may be fine with having your whole body on the brink of death to gain power more quickly, but most others aren’t. Just release less lightning than you want for yourself and raise it slightly. When you see someone take their hand of the valve, remember that and don’t increase it as quickly anymore."
Gravis thought about this but nodded. "I guess that’s reasonable." Gravis remembered his time when he had cultivated his Destruction Lightning Seed. At that time, he had continuously been close to death, with half his organs entirely destroyed at nearly all times. Most people would probably describe that as a traumatic event.
"Also, remember how you told us about the issue when the inherent lightning reaches around 80 to 85% of Destruction Energy? You told us that it would then start eradicating all Life Energy inside the Lightning Seed. Keep that moment in mind since that will be the most dangerous moment for them. In here, you also have control over the valves for Life Lightning. If you see someone having issues in getting through this, use the valves accordingly," Lasar continued explaining.
Gravis nodded. "Of course. I know very well how dangerous that can get."
"Please, also communicate with the disciples. No one wants to be assaulted by an avalanche of Destruction Lightning if they aren’t ready. And please, PLEASE, don’t forget to unload your lightning into your Spirit. If you use less lightning than the disciples absorb and your storage fills, one stray bolt from your dantian would incinerate all disciples," Lasar implored.
Gravis nodded. "I won’t forget that. After a full month, unloading my lightning has become a reflex. Nothing will happen."
Lasar trusted Gravis’ words, but he still couldn’t help being worried. After all, a stray lightning bolt would not only kill all disciples in the rooms but also damage the whole interior of the Lightning Tower. The Sect couldn’t survive another rebuilding of the tower.
"I’ll stay here in the beginning," Lasar said. "When I see that everything’s working fine, I’ll leave."
Gravis nodded. "Alright."
Lasar nodded back and told the disciples to enter. 100 Body Tempering disciples from all around the Sect gathered in the Lightning Tower and entered their assigned rooms. Some of them tested the Destruction Lightning valve, but nothing appeared.
"Everyone sit down. I will tell you when I start," Gravis transmitted to everyone in the room. All of them nodded and sat down. "Now, everyone pull down on the Destruction Lightning valve."
The disciples all pulled down the valve and held it. "I will start now. At first, the lightning will be very weak, but I will periodically increase the intensity. If the pain and destruction of your body becomes too much, just let go of the Destruction Lightning valve. I will keep that in mind in the future and change the Destruction Lightning accordingly," Gravis explained to everyone.
The disciples all understood and readied themselves. They knew that this would be a long time of tempering. They would be here for probably over a month.
Gravis saw that everyone was ready and released a minuscule amount of lightning. To him, this amount of lightning was basically nothing. The lightning hit the platform and ran through the tower. Gravis quickly used his Spirit to distribute it evenly among the disciples.
BANG!
Every disciple was hit at the same time, but they could easily resist it. Yet, Gravis saw eight people that spat some blood. Gravis’ eyes narrowed as he saw this. It was impossible that this lightning was too intense since the other 92 resisted it without even really trying. Those eight disciples were somehow different.
Gravis shot a look at Lasar, asking what was going on. Lasar also saw this with his Spirit and grimaced. "Their temperament is not strong enough for such powerful lightning," he explained. "Many people put on a show in the Entrance Exams to appear different than they are. After all, everyone knows about the temperament of lightning. Yet, who doesn’t want to shoot lightning out of their hands?"
Gravis nodded. The stronger the lightning became, the more it required a fitting temperament. If the people weren’t similar to lightning, their lightning would be harder to control and even run berserk at some point. That was why the temperament was so important. "So, what now?" Gravis asked.
Lasar showed him. The eight disciples were thrown out of the tower and then out of the whole Lightning Sect. Their emblems, clothing, and weapons were confiscated. "I don’t want cheating trash in my Sect," Lasar said.
Gravis nodded. In actuality, the thrown-out people were lucky that Lasar hadn’t destroyed their Lightning Seeds. They could still continue cultivating, but they would never be part of the Lightning Sect again.
Lasar quickly informed another eight disciples who had been waiting on standby. One of those new eight also showed adverse reactions, which constituted another throw-out. After another disciple entered, everything went according to plan.
Gravis slowly raised the intensity, and after three times of doing so, the first disciples started getting injured. Yet, this didn’t come from their temperament, but from the power of the lightning. Starting from now, the disciples were supposed to cultivate their bodies until they had a strong enough resistance to resist the power of their future Destruction Lightning Seed. This alone would take a full week.
Some disciples started absorbing some of the Destruction Lightning into their Lightning Seed, but Gravis quickly threw them out. Gravis had gotten explicit instructions that anyone that didn’t follow the routine would be thrown out of the Lightning Tower. Of course, those disciples weren’t thrown out of the entire Sect, like the previous ones. They only were thrown out of the Lightning Tower.
Sadly for them, the exorbitant amount of Contribution Points they had paid to get Destruction Lightning was not refundable. This was punishment enough. Those disciples quickly protested in front of the Lightning Tower, but the guards beat them up. Anyone who broke the rules would get their just punishment.
After a couple of hours of watching, Lasar released a relieved sigh. He saw that everything worked accordingly and left. "I’m going to take a long nap," he said. "If there is a problem, and you don’t know how to proceed, just ask grandpa. His word is my word."
"Good night," Gravis said.
"Good night," Lasar said as he left the chamber.
Like this, Gravis continued tempering the disciples for a long time.