Lightning Is the Only Way

With that short intermission over, Gravis continued training. He actually offered to give the Lightning Sect his mined Balzar free of charge, but surprisingly, they declined. They said that no work remained unrewarded. So, in the end, Gravis was even forbidden from entering the Balzar mine.

With nothing better to do, Gravis decided to test different battle techniques on some wild beasts. He searched around for mid-grade Spirit Beasts and found quite a few. The first beast, he killed with all his power, and the fight had been pretty easy. The beast was pretty fast and powerful, but just as he had expected, it didn't evade when an incredible amount of lightning had built up around him. It fell victim to his Lightning Crescent.

The next beast, he killed without using his Will-Aura, which made it even faster and more powerful. Gravis got a little injured during that fight, but he was still able to win. After that, he found the sweet spot. He wouldn't use his Lightning Bomb or Lightning Crescent but would use everything else he had. Those fights had been pretty exciting.

Sadly, none of those fights could temper his will. After all, as long as he had a weapon that would win the fight, every tempering would become senseless. The will was increased by the emotions and by being forced to break through one's limits. If he always had such a powerful weapon ready, that would never happen, even if he swore that he would rather die than use it. It was just how emotions and the will worked.

Like this, another three months passed, and now, Gravis was back at the Lightning Sect. Even though his will hadn't been tempered, he received more battle experience and finer control over his body. Yet, why did he return to the Lightning Sect?

That was because he was about to have a breakthrough. His Spirit was ready to reach the next level, and he wanted to do that in an environment with no danger.

Gravis sat on the wooden floor inside Old Man Lightning's home. He dumped all his belongings beside him. The old man had said that it would be better to keep his Spirit Space empty during the breakthrough. Old Man Lightning was sitting in the same room but in an armchair. He was also interested in how Gravis would reach the next level.

"It's time," Gravis said and shoved his lightning into his Spirit. By now, his Spirit was so densely packed with lightning that he couldn't even see the individual streaks. Everything was just a mass of white and silver. It basically looked like his Lightning Bomb.

As the new lightning entered his Spirit, he noticed his Spirit shaking. It was almost like it was ready to burst. Suddenly, Gravis felt a stinging pain in his Spirit. It was like someone had stabbed him in the head with a knife. The pain continually seared into his mind, and Gravis even had to grit his teeth.

This pain was incredibly powerful, but nothing he couldn't withstand. Gravis guessed that this was the reason why someone needed a more powerful Will-Aura to advance. The pain he felt right now was a little greater than when he had kept his mind at 99% Energy while using the Pre-Forming Technique, back when he had still been in the Energy Gathering Realm.

The pain was powerful enough to make someone with a newly created Will-Aura go insane, lose consciousness, or abort the breakthrough. Someone could nourish their Spirit with their Energy, but they could also take Energy from their Spirit. If someone couldn't handle the pain, they would probably remove some Energy from their Spirit, thus halting their breakthrough.

Luckily, Gravis' Will-Aura was more than enough to handle that. He noticed the walls of his Spirit Space pulsing like they were injured. Then, slowly, his Spirit Space started shrinking. The lightning became more and more compressed, yet, surprisingly, the pain didn't increase in intensity.

Typically, one would think that by increasing the internal pressure, the Spirit would become more injured and, therefore, radiate more pain. Strangely enough, that didn't happen. 'I wonder why that is?' Gravis asked himself. 'Is it possible that this pain is not actually real pain, but something sent by Heaven to temper the cultivators? After all, Heaven wants powerful people, and if someone advanced with a will that was too weak, they might become too weak in relation to others on their Realm.'

Gravis actually thought that this form of "tribulation" made sense. If that weren't there, most cultivators would just be weak-willed babies that couldn't handle hardships. That might still be okay in the first few Realms, but Gravis guessed that something like this would become a massive issue in the future.

While thinking about the reason for the pain, his Spirit Space shrunk more and more. As the lightning was compressed, it grew more and more volatile. The concentrated lightning made constant screeching sounds, but Gravis wasn't bothered by that. He was lightning, and this was just a form of lightning. The screeching actually made him feel elated, for some reason. It felt like a dear friend was celebrating their newfound power.

His Spirit Space shrunk until it was no bigger than a seed. It remained at that size for a few minutes and then enlarged with rapid speed. In just a second, it reached its old size, but it didn't stop there. It continued growing until it reached the form of a ball with a diameter of ten meters. Of course, this was a separate space. Gravis' head didn't swell to such a ridiculous size.

After the Spirit Space stabilized, Gravis felt his Spirit shudder. Then, his Spirit started expanding outward.

From a radius of 50 kilometers…

To 60 kilometers

70 kilometers

80 kilometers

90 kilometers

And finally, 100 kilometers.

The radius of his Spirit had doubled. One would think that Gravis would now see twice as many things with his Spirit, but that wasn't how circular areas worked. On a 2D plane, the total area that Gravis' Spirit encompassed was about quadruple that of the old one. Yet, if someone also considered the whole sphere, it would become even crazier. Though that was unimportant since there was nothing above a couple of kilometers in the air, and the ground also blocked someone's Spirit somewhat.

So, as long as Gravis' Spirit was big enough to reach the upper emptiness above the world, the increased height of his Spirit became meaningless. Yet, Gravis was thrilled with the size of his Spirit. At the start, he didn't know about the size of others' Spirits, but Lasar had told him that info.

Apparently, someone at the initial stage of Spirit forming would have a Spirit with a radius of ten kilometers. After every breakthrough, that radius would double. So, Seed Stage had 20 kilometers, Sapling Stage 40 kilometers, Tree Stage 80 kilometers, and the Self Stage would break that convention with having around 200 Kilometers. Heaven probably liked nice and clean numbers. After all, it had created cultivation.

With a radius of 100 kilometers, Gravis' Spirit encompassed a bigger area than someone at the Tree Stage but less than someone at the Self Stage. Sadly, his Spirit wasn't more powerful than others. It just encompassed more. Gravis guessed that this was one of the advantages that his lightning-adapted Spirit had over others.

Gravis looked back into his Spirit and noticed that the lightning hadn't widened along with his Spirit Space. It simply stayed at the size of a seed. This also meant that there was no more lightning flying around his Spirit Space. His whole Spirit Space was empty, except for the volatile, shining, little star-like thing in the middle. The little seed illuminated his whole Spirit, making Gravis able to check the walls of his Spirit Space.

Well, they couldn't exactly be called walls. It was more like a transparent membrane. Behind the membrane, Gravis could see that his Spirit Space was surrounded by his own brain. One had to know that someone could transport their awareness into their Spirit Space, which would be just like them standing inside their own head. This whole thing was rather bizarre, and Gravis wasn't sure what he should think about looking at his own brain, which was surrounding him.

Poke, Poke!

Gravis tapped the membrane with his finger, but nothing happened. Then, Gravis used more strength, but still, nothing happened. After that, he willed for his awareness to pass the barrier, but that was also impossible. After all, his "body" inside his Spirit Space wasn't exactly real, but just a projection of himself. It couldn't exist outside his Spirit Space.

After seeing that he could not wander around in his own brain, Gravis went over to the little star thing. It couldn't be called a star since… it just wasn't a star. It just looked a bit like one with all the light.

Poke!

Gravis poked it, and it got flung away like a minuscule marble. Yet, its actual body never touched the membrane. As soon as it closed in on a membrane, a small bit of lightning would halt its momentum and shoot it back at nearly the same speed. Meanwhile, the lightning hit his membrane, then flowed alongside it, and finally reentered the small seed.

"Huh, that's interesting," Gravis said.

Ponk, Pack!

Gravis took the seed into his hand and threw it against the membrane. Like a ball, the seed bounced off the membrane and landed in Gravis' hand again.

Ponk, Pack! Ponk, Pack! Ponk, Pack!

"This is fun!" Gravis said with glee. After catching the seed again, he stopped with a surprised expression. "Wait, would that actually work?" Gravis asked himself. Then, he looked at the seed with interest.

BANG!

Gravis used a strong punch to shoot the seed away. The seed hit the membrane and shot back again with just as much speed. Gravis evaded, and the seed started hitting another part of the membrane. Like that, it shot away again. After evading and watching it for a while, Gravis realized that it wasn't losing much speed. It only lost a little speed when hitting the membrane, but nothing else slowed it down. He guessed that there was probably no air inside his Spirit Space.

"I can use this to train my evasion ability in a chaotic fight!"