Lightning Is The Only Way

Gravis just lay inside his Life Ring, looking at the bright sky. The sky inside his Life Ring wasn't real, but it also wasn't really fake. After all, to make such a Life Ring, one had to know the Law of the Dead World. So, even though it was not the sky of an actual world, it was created out of the same things and with the same Laws.

'Weapon Cultivation doesn't work for me, huh?' Gravis thought. 'I don't have Energy. I only have lightning, and lightning doesn't want to combine with anything else.'

Gravis snorted. 'Actually, the signs have been there since the very beginning,' he thought. 'Back in the lower world, when Byron gave me the Rakshasa's Saber, I managed to combine it with my lightning. No one else managed to do that.'

'Why? Because my Will-Aura was part of me, and I am lightning. Therefore, combining my Will-Aura with my lightning wasn't really hard.'

'I wonder,' Gravis thought. 'My Laws of Perceived Reality work on my Will-Aura and make it more powerful. Then, my Will-Aura fuses with my lightning when I create a Lightning Crescent. So, I kind of already have integrated my Laws of Perceived Reality into my lightning.'

Gravis snorted again. 'How ironic. One of the reasons why I came to this world was to learn Weapon Cultivation. However, I actually have already used Weapon Cultivation. Back in the lower world, I have already managed to combine my lightning with my Laws of Perceived Reality by using my Will-Aura as a common denominator.'

'I actually don't need a Focus. My Will-Aura directly combines with my lightning, and I don't even have to transform anything.'

Gravis sighed. 'I thought that I could push my Battle-Strength even further, but I have already used everything. The fusion between my Will-Aura and my lightning already is a Focus.'

Gravis did some math in his head as he watched the fake clouds. 'Let's see, if I don't use any of my Laws of Perceived Reality to strengthen my Will-Aura and fight against someone at my same level…'

Gravis envisioned the attack of a Weapon Cultivator on his level with the same element and the same Will-Aura. 

'Actually, my Lightning Crescent would be a bit more powerful than a Weapon Technique since it goes through no conversions whatsoever.'

Gravis had to sigh again. 'I think I should be proud that I managed to create such a powerful Weapon Technique while not even having come into contact with any Laws. Sure, if I could transform all of my Laws of Perceived Reality into physical reality and then fuse them with my lightning, my attack would be far more powerful, but it just doesn't work like that.'

'All the Laws I know already have their true meaning, and one of these true meanings is that lightning and the Laws of Perceived Reality can't mix. They both have something in there that makes it impossible to combine. Well, my lightning does, at least. My Laws of Perceived Reality would be fine with combining.'

'So, that leaves two options. One is to change the Law of Punishment Lightning, which not even my father can do, and the other is to delete the Law inside my Punishment Lightning.'

Gravis chuckled a bit. 'However, even if I could do that, which I can't, my Punishment Lightning would stop being Punishment Lightning. It just wouldn't exist anymore, basically. No Laws means no power. Then, it would simply be my other Laws in the form of lightning but without lightning's power.'

'Even if I keep everything separate, I would just summon two attacks. However, my Will-Aura would still lose its support, which would make it more efficient to just use two Lightning Crescents instead of two different attacks.'

Gravis sighed yet again, something that he had been doing quite a lot since realizing that Weapon Cultivation just didn't work for him. 'No matter what I do, Weapon Cultivation remains useless for me. All my other weapons are just better.'

Gravis wasn't sure how he should feel right now. On the one hand, he felt defeated, but on the other hand, he had basically already mastered Weapon Cultivation. He had it mastered for thousands of years already.

'I mean, I can jump four levels, something that should be impossible. Even jumping three levels is already the stuff of legends. I guess without Weapon Cultivation, none of this would have been possible. To push my Battle-Strength to such degrees requires everything, a supremely powerful Spirit, a supremely powerful body, a supremely powerful well of Energy, lots of Laws, and an incredibly powerful Will-Aura.'

'However, that only allows someone to jump three levels. If someone else knew the same Laws as me and had an equally powerful Will-Aura, body, well of Energy, and Spirit, they would only be able to jump three levels.'

'The one thing that allows me to jump four levels is my affinity with lightning. With my affinity, I don't need to convert my Energy into lightning. It takes about two points of Energy to create one point of Punishment Lightning, which effectively doubles my Energy storage past the physically possible maximum.'

'Back when I reached the Unity Realm, I did so with a maxed-out Spirit and Energy storage. This has given me a ton of advantages. However, I have already met people that had an equal amount of Spirit and Energy,' Gravis thought as he remembered Samantha and Stella. Both of them had had far more Energy and Spirit than normal Cultivators. It just hadn't been relevant in their fights.

'Wonder how that's possible,' Gravis thought. 'Maybe recultivation? I don't think longevity gets subtracted if you fall down a Realm. Father told me that it would have taken me hundreds of years to train my body to become powerful enough to equal my other centers of power.'

'If someone could reach the Law Comprehension Realm, they would have a longevity of 10,000 years. Then, they just needed to break their foundation apart and recultivate. They would probably have already amassed a ton of resources before doing so.'

'They would probably go into seclusion, break their Cultivation, rebuild everything from scratch, train their body for a thousand years, and then consume all the Immortal Stones they prepared beforehand. Like this, it would be possible to create a perfect Unity foundation, similar to the one I have.'

Gravis sighed again. 'Is this also something that Heaven has prepared? The better the foundation, the more powerful the Battle-Strength of the Cultivator, and the more powerful the Battle-Strength, the higher the chance of reaching the peak. More power equals more Energy.'

'Is this Heaven's way to even allow inexperienced people that never got any kind of Cultivation education to redo their past mistakes? Someone that just achieved Unity might not realize the mistakes they have committed, but when they reach the Law Comprehension Realm, they would certainly know. Additionally, if they reached such power with a weak foundation, it showed their Battle-Strength and mindset, making them more valuable.'

Gravis wasn't even sure what he was thinking about anymore. He was simply thinking about random stuff as he watched the sky. 

The inability to create a Focus had demotivated Gravis more than he wanted to admit. He had believed that he could finally find a way to jump five levels, but that dream had been crushed by reality. Even when he managed to learn the Major Law of the Elements, he would still only have about a 10% chance of victory. 

The Major Law of the Elements would push his Punishment Lightning from the power of a level three Law to the power of a level four Law. That was an insane increase of power, but the difference between four and five levels was even more insane.

The biggest issue was the Will-Aura of the opponent. Their Will-Aura would be so much more powerful than Gravis' due to the level suppression that even using the Laws of Perceived Reality would only show minor success. Additionally, Gravis couldn't even attempt to break their Will-Aura. 

Gravis would be weaker in literally everything. Additionally, all of his opponents would already be Immortal Kings, and one could only become an Immortal King if they already knew a level four Law. They would have a level four Law as their Avatar and would be able to unleash the power of a level five Law like this. 

Gravis sighed another time. 'Well, time to become a Late Major Circulation Immortal,' he thought with defeat as he looked at his mountain of Immortal Stones helplessly.