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 hair and 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 and have 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 you have shown no respect to the Freya Clan as soon as you arrived. You knocked the elders out and even injured my teacher. That you're not knocking only confirms the fact that you don't think highly of my Freya Clan."
Gravis furrowed his brows. "I have waited at the front gate and explained my reason for my visit. If I didn't respect your Freya Clan, I 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 I arrived, but after being accused as a liar and invader without any proof, I have lost my respect. I came with the intention to repay my debt to you, but I 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 my position."
Joyce threw her arm out to show that she was enraged. "Ridiculous!" she shouted. "My Freya Clan has not committed any mistake! You walked through the front door after claiming something that no sane person would believe! We were in our right to act as we did!"
"Yet, I didn't lie," Gravis said. "I stepped through the front gate after it was opened for me without telling a lie. How am I in the wrong 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 calm down 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 I have met in Wilderness Town," she said coldly. "You are cold, disrespectful, cruel, and have no empathy! I can't believe that someone can change this much 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 little bit older, but she didn't go through even nearly as many hardships as him. While their age was similar, their experience was like night and day.
"If I'm not cold and cruel, I wouldn't have survived," Gravis said. "I can't afford compassion when there are people that are ready to attack my close ones because I spared them. I also can't afford empathy because every relationship I build in this lower world has 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 are still 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. The temperature 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 without his 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.
"I also consider Lasar as a close friend."
Another step.
"Old Man Lightning is like half a teacher to me, and I 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 share this sentiment with me. Additionally, I have a family I love. I 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 are incredible talents that won't be stopped in this lower world because they are strong enough to realize the truth of the cultivation world. 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 they don'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 impressive for 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. "I have a Will-Aura! I went through hardships! I have also gone through a lot of pain in my life! The fact that I am very close to having a Unity Will is proof of that! I have seen more companions die than you! I am absolutely certain of that fact!"
"SO!" she shouted. "Don't talk to me like I am some little girl that knows nothing about the world! I have forged many bonds and consider many people as very close friends, yet I still managed to become this powerful! Your cruelness isn't born out of necessity, 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 eyes were 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 our wills? 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 goes outside and works as a mercenary! Groups and other Sects buy our services because having someone with Life Lightning is very useful. But such a partnership is not temporary! We stay in this partnership until either everyone dies or the group disbands. We forge a deep bond of friendship and comradery with everyone! We genuinely feel for each other and grief heavily when someone dies!"
Joyce's eyes remained cold, but she stepped back a little. Apparently, she had calmed down somewhat. "We see our comrades die in their tempering. Every time someone in the group dies, we feel incredible pain. We want to never get close to anyone again because that is the only way how we can avoid such pain. But avoiding that pain would mean that we can't cultivate anymore!"
Joyce pointed to her window. "Look outside! Every single member at the Spirit Forming Realm has seen dozens of their comrades and friends die in front of them, yet their hearts still remain open and compassionate! I've also had dozens of my companions die, and I still remember their names, how they looked, how they acted, and I can remember the scene of their deaths in minute detail! All of them were like brothers and sisters!"
After that tirade, she stepped closer to Gravis again. "Every single member of my Freya Clan managed to remain compassionate through 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 by saying 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!"
