After a lot of talking and planning, the decisions were made. Old Man Lightning informed the elders about everything that he and Gravis had talked about. All in all, Old Man Lightning and Gravis planned for several hours since there were a lot of details that needed to be ironed out.
While those two talked, the elders looked uncomfortably at Old Man Lightning. The meeting was officially still going, so they couldn't just leave. Yet, they also couldn't continue talking since one person was talking with an external one that officially wasn't part of the meeting.
After Old Man Lightning and Gravis finished talking, Old Man Lightning informed the elders about everything. In the beginning, they also thought that Gravis' plan was insane, but after they heard all the details, the emotional shock they felt was just as bad as Old Man Lightning's.
They had never compared themselves to other lower worlds. They knew nothing about the other worlds, so it was nearly impossible to compare themselves to them. They always thought that they were rather powerful. After all, a lot of people were ascending from this world. Sadly, they had ignored the things that they could have achieved, like the special elements.
The elders had still held hope for ascension, but after hearing Gravis' assumption that people who ascended via the Tree Stage would be the bottom of the barrel, they felt disheartened. The elders all took it differently.
One of them was incredibly regretful. It was like his dream of reaching the top was mercilessly destroyed. The oldest elder of the bunch had already made his peace with the fact that he would never ascend. To him, there was no difference. His goal had always been to make the newer generation as powerful as possible so that as many disciples would surpass him as possible. This goal hadn't changed.
The other elders were in the middle. They had mostly accepted that they wouldn't ascend, but in the back of their minds, they still had a faint hope. This knowledge came crashing down, completely destroying even the faintest trace of their dream.
It was cruel to destroy someone's dream, but they deserved to know the truth. Most elders accepted the new knowledge quickly and started ironing out more details.
From this day forward, the Lightning Sect was on an entirely new track. It took a couple of days for the changes to take effect, but when they did, the Lightning Sect fell into an uproar.
The most significant uproar came because of the auction system for missions. The opinions on that were very polarizing. The disciples with less money said that it would only be fair that the missions were on a first-come, first-serve basis, while the disciples with more Contribution Points were happy.
That uproar was quickly stopped by Old Man Lightning using everyone's weak-spot, their fairness. The people with more Contribution Points have done more for the Lightning Sect, so they deserve some special treatment. They have done a lot for the Sect, so the Sect would do a lot for them.
Since lightning cultivators were honest and fair, this quietened nearly everyone. Like this, the Sect was able to commission more missions without any financial loss. Just as Gravis had expected, the missions were intensely fought over. After all, this was some excellent tempering, which was also rewarded with Contribution Points. The only downside was the danger to one's life, but that couldn't be changed.
From this day forth, the number of disciples went down again, while the remaining ones' quality increased. Disciples that could be considered lazy also started doing jobs that they wouldn't have considered earlier. Jobs like cleaning the Sect, taking inventory of stock, selling wares, and similar stuff were abundant. After all, every disciple could be considered an elite in this world. Why would they do any of that?
Yet, now they were required to do these jobs. Without those, they wouldn't be able to afford missions. These jobs were only done by people without enough Contribution Points because, as soon as someone successfully completed a mission, they would have enough Contribution Points to purchase the next one directly.
Usually, one would think that this would create an environment where the richer get richer while the poorer disciples suffered. Yet, there was a decisive difference. The richer disciples only got richer by tempering themselves successfully. This meant that they would soon reach a higher Stage or Realm, and therefore, wouldn't have any interest in the missions they have done before. After all, these missions were too easy for them now.
With this change, a steady stream of disciples rising through the ranks was created, while the number of disciples became fewer and fewer.
After seeing the trend, the elders decided to lower the requirements for new disciples. Like this, they would get way more disciples. Of course, the ratio of death would also be higher for those disciples. Yet, the elders knew that there could be a supreme genius hidden behind a cloak of trash. There were cases of cultivators suddenly shooting above all their peers, even though they had been way behind before.
With all of these changes, the Lightning Sect completely changed. They went from an average-sized organization into a conglomerate of hot-blooded youngsters. Deaths happened every single day, while the quality of the disciples shot up crazily.
Of course, many of these things only happened months or years into the future.
Right now, this was of no concern. Not because it was irrelevant, but because something way more important happened. Around 13 days after the meeting, Lasar returned, and he had reached the Self Stage.
This was the first time in centuries where one Sect had two people at the Self Stage. Right now, the Lightning Sect shone in the Core-Continent like the moon, while the other Sects could only shine like stars. The only thing outshining the Lightning Sect was the Heaven Sect, which always towered over the world like the sun.
Old Man Lightning told Lasar everything that they had planned, and just like Old Man Lightning, Lasar grew excited. His ambition and drive, which had been rekindled by Old Man Lightning's breakthrough, grew even hotter. He was excited about the future of the Sect.
Sadly, all these changes were irrelevant to him directly. Cultivators that went through the tenth stage of Energy Gathering were still rare. The new wave would only arrive when the Destruction Lightning cultivators reached that level. The other Sects would take even longer. Then, one had to consider how long it would take for someone to reach the Self-Stage from that.
All in all, Lasar would not see any "new" tempering experiences for, at least, 50 years. Could he wait that long? Theoretically, yes, but he didn't want to. If he wasn't ready to wait, he could only go to the Heaven Sect and request tempering. Lasar was very powerful, sure, but he wasn't as insanely powerful as Old Man Lightning.
Old Man Lightning went through many more tempering experiences, and his will had been more powerful than Lasar's when he had reached the Self Stage. Lasar might actually need to kill two or three priests to achieve a breakthrough. Even winning one fight looked almost impossible. If Lasar wanted to temper himself against a priest, he would need to push his battle-strength to the absolute possible maximum, which would take many years.
That Lasar returned was the best outcome for Gravis. He had been a little worried by taking Old Man Lightning with him to the Darkness Sect. Yet, with Lasar here, he wouldn't need to worry about the Lightning Sect. After all, who would have the guts to attack a Sect protected by someone at the Self Stage?
Like this, another week passed, and it was about time for Gravis and Old Man Lightning to go visit the Darkness Sect.
Gravis looked at his new saber, and his battle intent grew. He could finally use his most potent weapon without destroying his Spirit Weapon. On top of that, the Ogre had tempered Gravis' will too. His Unity Will wasn't even close to reaching the third level, but it had progressed in the second one. Right now, it achieved a compression of 36%. This was probably the most powerful Will-Aura that had ever existed in this lower world.
And Gravis was still in the Seed Stage!