Female Novel
Chapter 289
As the door closed behind Gravis, he looked at the front, right into Joyce's eyes. She was standing in the middle of her room,watching him with cold eyes. The lively and bright décor in her room contrasted her stern look. She still had her long purple hairand wore something similar to a summer dress, which also created quite the contrast to her current mood.
They looked at each other for a couple of seconds, one with cold eyes, the other with indifferent eyes."It's disrespectful to enter a woman's room without knocking," she said coldly.
"The point of knocking is to announce someone's presence," Gravis said back evenly. "You are in the Spirit Forming Realm andhave kept watch over everything. Knocking would just be a useless formality at this point."
Joyce harrumphed. "Customs also have the function of showing politeness and respect.""Is your self-confidence that fragile that you need a show of respect to feel good about yourself?" Gravis asked.
Joyce felt angry when she heard those words. Yet, she didn't offer a direct rebuttal to that argument. "I don't need that, but youhave shown no respect to the Freya Clan as soon as you arrived. You knocked the elders out and even injured my teacher. Thatyou're not knocking only confirms the fact that you don't think highly of my Freya Clan."
Gravis furrowed his brows. "| have waited at the front gate and explained my reason for my visit. If | didn't respect your FreyaClan, | would have just strode in."
"You mean like you are doing now?" Joyce asked with a ridiculing smile.
"Yes," Gravis answered, making Joyce narrow her eyes. "I only held respect for the Freya Clan before | arrived, but after beingaccused as a liar and invader without any proof, | have lost my respect. | came with the intention to repay my debt to you, but |have been met with accusations and even a direct attack. You also wouldn't feel any respect for the Freya Clan if you were in myposition.”
Joyce threw her arm out to show that she was enraged. "Ridiculous!" she shouted. "My Freya Clan has not committed anymistake! You walked through the front door after claiming something that no sane person would believe! We were in our right toact as we did!"
"Yet, | didn't lie," Gravis said. "| stepped through the front gate after it was opened for me without telling a lie. How am | in thewrong here?" Gravis asked evenly.
Joyce gnashed her teeth. Deep inside, she knew that the Freya Clan had acted incorrectly, but her anger just wouldn't calmdown after she saw Gravis injure her teacher. She just wanted to make Gravis pay for that!
Joyce stared at Gravis in anger for a couple of seconds. "You are not the heroic and kind young boy | have met in WildernessTown," she said coldly. "You are cold, disrespectful, cruel, and have no empathy! | can't believe that someone can change thismuch in only three years."
Gravis didn't get angry. To him, all of these words were only the rambling of a child. Joyce might be about as old as him or a littlebit older, but she didn't go through even nearly as many hardships as him. While their age was similar, their experience was likenight and day.
“If I'm not cold and cruel, | wouldn't have survived," Gravis said. "| can't afford compassion when there are people that are readyto attack my close ones because | spared them. | also can't afford empathy because every relationship | build in this lower worldhas basically zero chance of lasting.”
Joyce sneered. "This lower world? Do you even hear yourself? This whole world is everything we have ever seen, and there arestill more powerful people than you in this world, but you already consider it as a mere step on your perceived staircase to power.Also, close ones?" Joyce harrumphed. "Who would want to get close to someone like you?"
Gravis' even eyes became icy after Joyce said that. She had achieved her goal and managed to push his buttons. Thetemperature in the room seemingly fell as Gravis became angry. Joyce had difficulty breathing as Gravis’ anger filled the room.He hadn't released his Will-Aura, but his passive aura was already powerful enough to slightly influence the surroundings withouthis Will-Aura.
Gravis slowly stepped closer to Joyce. "I have a life and death companion who is currently tempering themselves in the Core-Continent.”
Another step.
"| also consider Lasar as a close friend.”
Another step.novelbin
“Old Man Lightning is like half a teacher to me, and | would risk my life for him."
With another step, Gravis stood right before Joyce and looked into her eyes. "I consider all of them my friends, and they sharethis sentiment with me. Additionally, | have a family | love. | have a lot of close people around me, and they share my so-called,cruel, and cold outlook."
Joyce remained silent and felt nervous, but impressively, she didn't look away from Gravis' eyes. "All of these people areincredible talents that won't be stopped in this lower world because they are strong enough to realize the truth of the cultivationworld. Coldness and cruelty are necessary to rise to power."
"They don't have the luxury to remain in an ivory tower, surrounded and worshipped by everyone around them because theydon't know any hardships,” Gravis said coldly, "unlike you."
WHOOOM!
Joyce released her Will-Aura, and it hit Gravis. Her Will-Aura was a fully condensed normal Will-Aura, which was very impressivefor someone at the initial Stage of Spirit Forming.
"HOW DARE YOU!?" Joyce shouted in anger.
Joyce stepped forward and looked coldly into Gravis' eyes as their eyes were only ten centimeters apart from each other. "| havea Will-Aura! | went through hardships! | have also gone through a lot of pain in my life! The fact that | am very close to having aUnity Will is proof of that! | have seen more companions die than you! | am absolutely certain of that fact!"
"SO!" she shouted. "Don't talk to me like | am some little girl that knows nothing about the world! | have forged many bonds andconsider many people as very close friends, yet | still managed to become this powerful! Your cruelness isn't born out ofnecessity, but out of choice!"
Gravis remained silent as he looked into her eyes. Her eyes didn't show even a small inkling of uncertainty or faltering. Her eyeswere clear and showed her conviction. Everything that she said came from her heart and was the absolute truth.
"Do you even know how the Freya Clan tempers their will?" She asked, still looking coldly into Gravis' eyes.Gravis didn't answer.
"We can't fight people on the same Stage because we only have our physical body as a weapon. So, how do we temper ourwills? Well, as you might already know, there are more ways to temper one's Will-Aura than simply killing others!" Joyce said.
“Enlighten me," Gravis said.
"Every person of the Freya Clan goesoutside and works as a mercenary!Groups and other Sects buy ourservices because having s anewith Life Lightning PS ‘useful. Butstieh!a partnership is not temporary!We stay in this partnership untileither everyone dies or the groupdisbands. We forge a deep bond offriendship and comradery witheveryone! We genuinely feel for eachother and grief heavily whensomeone dies!" The content is onNovelDrama.Org! Read the latestchapter there!
Joyce's eyes remained cold, but shestepped back a little. Apparently, shehad calmed down somewhat. "Wesee our comrades die inytheiro 1
t eringcevery th ? someone inthe group dies, we feel incrediblepain. We want to never get close toanyone again because that is theonly way how we can avoid suchpain. But avoiding that pain wouldmean that we can't cultivateanymore!" The content is onNovelDrama.Org! Read the latestchapter there!
Joyce pointed to her window. "Lookoutside! Every single member at theSpirit Forming Realm has seendozens of their comrades dfriendsdie in front ghtherh, ye heir heartsstil kemain open and compassionate!l've also had dozens of mycompanions die, and | still remembertheir names, how they looked, howthey acted, and | can remember thescene of their deaths in minute detail!All of them were like brothers andsisters!" The content is onNovelDrama.Org! Read the latestchapter there!
After that tirade, she stepped closer to Gravis again. "Every single member of my Freya Clan managed to remain compassionatethrough all these deaths, yet you, who had, how many people die? Five? Ten? You say being cruel is a necessity to progress!"
She stepped closer again and looked coldly into Gravis' eyes. "You are only justifying your escape from the pain of grief bysaying that being cruel is a necessity! You flee from the eventual pain of grief while the people in my clan confront it!"
"In my opinion, you are weaker than everyone in my Freya Clan!"