Ch. 181..190

Chapter 181

Gravis looked into the sky for some more seconds and then refocused again. He looked around some more with his Spirit and noticed that his saber and other belongings were strewn across the plain. "Might as well try my Spirit Space," Gravis muttered.

WHOP!

All his belongings vanished into thin air as they reappeared in Gravis' Spirit Space. The lightning inside his Spirit Space seemed to ignore those belongings as it violently stormed around them. Gravis looked into his Spirit Space and saw that he had about five cubic meters of storage space. 'That's a lot,' he thought.

With another thought, Gravis willed his saber to reappear in his hands, and it did. Retrieving his weapon like this would be faster than unsheathing it from his back. As Gravis experienced how the Spirit Space worked, he got several new ideas of how to utilize it.

Then, Gravis looked to Aion, who was standing unsurely around a kilometer away. Gravis had had the ability to feel others' Spirits before, but now it felt like he could interact with their Spirit. Was this how he could transmit his thoughts?

"Hey, Aion," Gravis willed for his thoughts to enter Aion's Spirit. Aion's eyes widened slightly, and then he smiled bitterly.

"Hey, Gravis," he sent back.

Gravis nodded as he got a grasp on how to use Thought Transmission. Yet, Gravis wanted to know something else.

"Say," Gravis transmitted, "what actually happened?"

Now Aion's eyes widened fully. "What?" he sent back. "That's what I want to ask!"

Gravis only smiled. He was happy about regaining his old life-priorities, and he was also incredibly happy about his newfound power. He didn't mind telling Aion what happened. Heaven already knew what happened, after all. Aion was not Gravis' enemy, but only a pawn of his enemy.

"I used lightning instead of Magic to form my Spirit," Gravis transmitted.

Aion's mouth fell open in shock. "How are you still alive?"

Gravis grinned sheepishly. This had been pretty reckless. "Actually," he transmitted back. "I'm not so sure. I think I have died while doing this, yet I am still alive. Could you tell me what happened from your point of view?"

Aion scratched his head. "Sure," he transmitted back. "You were screaming hysterically after that barrier appeared. At the time, I wasn't sure what would be able to shake someone with a Unity-Will this intensely. Though, the lightning thing would explain that."

Aion continued. "After a while, I didn't hear you anymore, and the barrier vanished. When I saw you, you seemed completely different than before. Lightning came out of your whole body, and I had a distinct feeling that that wasn't you anymore. Then, you summoned lightning from the Heavens and just absorbed it."

Gravis had no memory of that. He only remembered being in pain and then vanishing into nothingness. The next memory had been his reawakening. "Interesting," Gravis sent back. "So, what happened then?"

Aion shivered a little as he thought back to what happened. "After you absorbed the lightning, the earlier… man… appeared."

When Aion had first seen the Opposer, his whole body had been frozen. It was like he was looking at something that didn't exist. It was like the man didn't exist, yet he did. The man made Aion feel like he shouldn't exist. His whole thoughts and emotions had resonated with one simple concept.

No.

Everything had just screamed no in unison. It was the purest form of rejection. The man made Aion feel something higher than worship, but also something way worse than terror. His feelings and instincts rejected this person's existence because it was impossible that something like this existed.

Aion remained silent for some seconds as he thought back to the image of the Opposer. Gravis noticed that and smiled slightly. "That was my father."

Deep in Aion's mind, he had felt that this was probably Gravis' father due to their similar looks, but his being hadn't accepted that possibility. Yet, when Gravis confirmed it, it could only be true.

Aion shook his head to regain his bearing. "After your father appeared, something else happened too. It felt like the whole world changed, and…" Aion made a pause here, "it felt like Heaven was no longer there, replaced by something way more powerful."

Gravis rubbed his chin as he thought about that. His father couldn't just involve himself like this, or the highest Heaven would lose all decorum with Gravis. If the highest Heaven actually wanted Gravis to die, he wouldn't even know how he died. So, the appearance of his father must have had the agreement of the highest Heaven. This other power that Aion had felt had probably been the highest Heaven.

"What happened then?" asked Gravis.

"After… they… had appeared, the lighting around you started vanishing until you simply stood there with closed eyes. You should know everything that happened after that better than me," Aion finished

the story.

Gravis had multiple thoughts about that. Apparently, he had done something very dangerous. If Gravis died in the lower world, his father wouldn't be able to intervene due to the highest Heaven, yet, this time, he had interfered.

No matter how much Gravis pondered about the situation, he couldn't get to the answer. The only explanation would be if he had become a danger to the highest Heaven, but that was absolutely impossible. Gravis was too weak for that.

"Now," Aion said after a while. "It's my turn. So, what happened?" he asked.

Gravis looked to Aion. "After I had formed my Spirit with lightning, my mind and Spirit both got absorbed by something. I have no idea what had absorbed them, but I feel like I have died at that point. The next thing I remember is waking up in my Spirit Space and slowly regaining my memories."

Aion had thought that Gravis would know more, but apparently, he was out of luck. "Then, what was this other existence that came together with your father?" he asked.

"Oh, that should be the highest Heaven," Gravis answered nonchalantly.

Aion's eyebrows rose. "Highest Heaven? What do you mean?"

Gravis grinned slightly. He hadn't had such a nice chat in a long while. Gravis was a very extroverted person and liked to talk with people, yet he also had to keep his distance to others due to his karmic luck problem. Talking with Aion about his homeworld lifted Gravis' mood.

"We are in one of the lower worlds. Every world has an individual Heaven overseeing that world. The worlds and Heavens make as many cultivators as possible, and when the cultivators become too strong, they ascend into the assigned parent-world."

Another new word appeared that Aion hadn't heard before. "Parent-world?" he asked.

Gravis smiled. "Where do you think your Heaven came from?" Gravis asked back.

Aion wanted to answer, but he couldn't. He had never questioned the existence of Heaven. Heaven was the beginning and the end. How could a mortal know where Heaven came from? Yet, Gravis apparently knew the answer.

Gravis only waited for some seconds for an answer but continued then. "A Heaven in a middle- world created this Heaven. This Heaven then created this world. So, the specific middle Heaven that had created this lower Heaven is the parent-Heaven," Gravis explained patiently.

Even more questions appeared in Aion's mind. "You say specific middle Heaven. Does that mean there are other Heavens just as powerful as the parent of our Heaven?"

Gravis nodded. "Of course. That's why it's called a middle Heaven. If there is a lower and middle, there also has to be a higher one. Lastly, every higher Heaven has been created by the highest Heaven. There is only one highest world, which is also my homeworld."

Aion's eyes widened in enlightenment and wonder. "I never knew there were so many worlds above ours. I don't know what to think about that."

Gravis smiled and continued. He saw a chance right now. "So, in total, there are four levels of worlds and Heavens. If we liken them to our known cultivation realms, the highest Heaven would be the only Unity Realm cultivator. The higher Heavens would be the Spirit Forming experts. The middle Heavens would be the Energy Gathering disciples, and the lower Heavens…"

"would be the Body Tempering mortals," Gravis transmitted with a grin. "Don't you think that it's ironic that you and all the other Heavenborn are worshipping a Heaven that belongs to the

absolute weakest category, out of many, many millions? You are basically worshipping the bottom of the barrel."

Aion heard that and his eyes widened.

 

Chapter 182

Aion's whole world had been shaken. In any other circumstance, he would have attacked the speaker. This was insulting their father, their creator, their God! Yet, Aion had seen and felt those two beings. He had seen the Opposer and had felt the highest Heaven. Such an insane claim needed equally insane evidence to support it. Sadly, or fortunately, Aion had seen this insane evidence.

Aion looked up into the sky, unsure of what he should even think. His fundamental belief, reason, and everything that he thought he understood about life and the rules of the world, had been shaken. The Heaven, he always believed in, was one of the weakest Heavens in existence.

"If that is true, what have I been doing for the last 70 years?" Aion asked himself.

Gravis heard that and smirked. "Who cares?" he asked simply. "If you are mistaken, just change your belief. How about believing in your own strength instead of the generosity of some bullshit Heaven?"

Aion would have exploded in rage if Gravis had referred to Heaven as bullshit before, yet now, he couldn't get angry anymore. In reality, he felt a little betrayed by Heaven. It always acted like the ruler of the world, which, granted, it was, but there were so many more worlds out there. Changing his beliefs? Was that so easy?

After a while, Aion only sighed. "What does it matter? As a Heavenborn, I can't ascend anyway, so why do I care if there are stronger Heavens or worlds out there? I won't see them."

Instead of sympathizing with Aion, Gravis only smirked. "Yes, as long as this lower Heaven exists, you won't be able to ascend."

Aion agreed. Heaven existed, therefore, he couldn't ascend.

"So, someone just has to kill it, right?" Gravis asked.

Aion's eyes widened, and he looked at Gravis with shock. "Kill Heaven? Is that even possible?"

Gravis continued grinning. "If it is alive, it can die. My father can fart this lower Heaven into oblivion, so why can't I? My goal was never this lower Heaven, but the highest Heaven. The whole reason why I even started cultivating lightning is that lightning is the strongest weapon of every Heaven. Ever since I started cultivating, I have forged my path to be the nemesis of Heaven. This lower Heaven is only a stepping stone to me."

Aion thought that this sounded incredibly arrogant, but for some reason, he believed that Gravis might actually succeed. Gravis had done multiple things that were considered impossible. He had killed an elder of an Elemental Guild while still being in the sixth level of Energy Gathering. He had condensed a Unity Will in the Energy Gathering Realm. Lastly, he had also formed his Spirit with pure lightning. If it were Gravis, he might actually pull this off.

Yet, Aion sighed. "Is killing Heaven truly right?" he asked quietly. "There are a lot of opportunities to become stronger, and many people ascend. Happy families are thriving under Heaven. I don't think that the people would accept your decision."

Gravis smirked with disdain. "Their compliance is not a factor," he answered directly. "If they want it or not, Heaven will die!" Then, he turned to Aion and looked into his eyes. "So, you should prepare yourself. All Heavenborn will probably lose their Heaven-granted abilities when that happens. Yet, that also opens an opportunity for you. If you manage to condense a Will-Aura, you can strive for resources, and then, you can strive for ascension."

Aion sighed while trembling. It felt like he was talking about something forbidden. It felt like what he was doing right now was wrong. Yet, in Aion's mind, the definition of what was right and wrong slowly shifted. Hadn't it always been the rule that the bigger fist was right? If Gravis had the bigger fist, wouldn't right become wrong, and wrong become right? What would this world turn into if there was no one overseeing it?

"Anyway," Gravis said. By now, they were standing close to each other. They had moved closer to each other during their talk. "Will you stop me?" Gravis asked with a smirk.

Aion bitterly laughed. "Your battle-strength is unprecedented. As long as anyone is at the same level as you, they have no chance. I know my strength, and even though I am an above-average Heavenborn, I know that I can't stop you."

Gravis nodded with a grin and put a hand on Aion's shoulder. "I said that I would spare your life once, and I will keep my word. I like you, and I consider you a friend. You have helped me more than necessary, and I enjoyed our time together. Like this, let our debts be settled."

Aion felt some warmth inside his chest. Not even an hour earlier, he had sent Gravis to his death, yet Gravis let him go now. Would Heaven have done this if it were in Gravis' shoes? Aion doubted that. "Thank you, Gravis. I'll wait for you to succeed."

Gravis nodded with a motivated expression. "Don't worry! I will."

Aion then took out a jade token. "The High Priest has said that, when I can't stop you, I should crush this token and a priest at the peak of Spirit Forming will appear in a couple of hours. I still want to remain in the Heaven Sect since it is my home, so I will crush it now. However, I won't stop you from leaving."

Gravis understood Aion's concern. Hadn't he done the same thing with Wendy? In order to keep his identity a secret, he had been forced to kill her, even though he hadn't wanted that. "Just wait for the good news!" Gravis said and then jumped into the Wind Wall.

Aion smiled and then crushed the token.

Meanwhile, this lower Heaven was anything but happy. Actually, it was terrified beyond belief. Something inside of its world had nearly killed the highest Heaven. It had really screwed up this time.

After dodging this bullet, the highest Heaven went through the memories of this lower Heaven to find out what the fuck just happened.

What the highest Heaven saw made it nearly annihilate this lower Heaven on the spot out of rage. This stupid, worthless, useless lower Heaven had broken the rules that it had established, multiple times. This stupid lower Heaven had repeatedly tried to suppress and kill Gravis, yet what did that accomplish?

Would Gravis have decided to go through with this suicidal act if this lower Heaven hadn't completely suppressed him into a corner over a full year? No, he wouldn't have!

When Gravis appeared in this world, he had wanted strength to be free. His goal hadn't been to destroy Heaven. Yet, this shitty lower Heaven had suppressed Gravis so heavily that he snapped. Without all this bullshit, Gravis would have just reached the Spirit Forming Realm in the usual way.

On top of that, this constant suppression only strengthened Gravis' will to unprecedented heights compared to his realm. Would Gravis have condensed a Unity Will in the Energy Gathering Realm if this useless lower Heaven had just let him be? Of course not!

This lower Heaven had sent one enemy after another to Gravis, yet only managed to temper his power! Was this useless lower Heaven actually Gravis' friend and ally? If it weren't, then this fuck-up would be one of the biggest ones the highest Heaven had ever seen.

Yet, the highest Heaven decided to keep this useless lower Heaven alive. It wasn't that this lower Heaven didn't deserve death, but the highest Heaven left it alive for a particular reason. This lower Heaven had wronged Gravis too much, so it deserved to reap what it had sown.

The highest Heaven explained its thoughts and rage to the lower Heaven, and everything basically boiled down to one phrase.

Wash your neck and wait for Gravis to claim your stupid, metaphorical head!

Chapter 183

"Wait, what? Stop! Stop!" shouted Gravis as soon as he jumped into the Wind Wall. His whole body was being thrown around the Wind Wall uncontrollably. He tried to activate his Elemental Synchronicity, but it just wouldn't work! His body was violently tossed up, then down, then up again.

'Why can't I activate my Elemental Synchronicity? Does this have something to do with my abnormal breakthrough?' he thought to himself as he was tossed around, already feeling dizzy. 'Come on, work!'

But it didn't help. The wind just wouldn't listen! After about a minute of this happening, Gravis summoned lightning around him, resisting the wind. 'Fuck, of course, there won't only be advantages to doing this.'

Whoop Tack!

Gravis left the Wind Wall and landed on the middle-continent. With his lightning and his Spirit, he had manipulated his body to get pushed out of the Wind Wall. After landing, he turned around and looked at the Wind Wall again with a grimace. "Why?" he muttered.

He thought about this for a while and got multiple suspicions, but the main one was his new Spirit. Energy was the base for all of the elements. His mind hadn't acclimated to Energy, which meant that his affinity with Energy had probably decreased.

Gravis tried to absorb the Energy from the surroundings and felt it course through his body. "No difference there. I can absorb and manipulate the Energy just fine. So that's not the issue," Gravis concluded after some tests.

Then, Gravis moved some of the Energy into his Spirit. To his surprise, as soon as the Energy went into his Spirit, it was immediately absorbed by the raging lightning. When Gravis saw that, he smiled bitterly. "I can't even retroactively make my Spirit adapt to Energy. Guess this is what I have to live with, huh?" he muttered.

"My Spirit and mind are the cores for controlling the elements. By filling it with lightning, I have probably killed every chance of manipulating other elements. The elements are different, and they don't like each other. Guess lightning has a monopoly over my body now," Gravis muttered.

Gravis was right. His Elemental Synchronicity was based on a natural affinity for every element. When he had thought about the different elements' temperaments, he had realized that he could empathize with any one of them. Yet, lightning was the only thing remaining inside of him now.

As Gravis thought back to the temperaments of the different elements, he also noticed something that he hadn't up to now. His thoughts had changed. As he thought back, he realized that he couldn't restrain himself like the earth element or be as greedy as the darkness element.

"What's happening?" Gravis asked with a serious look. "When I have thought about other elements in the past, I always saw some connection between them and me, but now, they feel disconnected."

Gravis thought about a hypothetical situation where someone attacked him, but he only defended himself without attacking back. Before he had formed his Spirit, that wouldn't have been an issue. Yes, it might feel stupid or unnecessary, but he could force himself to do just that.

Yet, as he thought about this hypothetical scenario right now, it felt like doing that would be entirely against his whole being. If someone attacked, he had to attack back! They have infringed upon his territory, which meant that they deserved what's coming to them.

Suddenly, Gravis' eyes widened. "It's just like back then in the Proxy-Lightning Guild!" Gravis exclaimed. "The temperament of lightning is influencing me!"

But in comparison to back then, Gravis didn't mindlessly lose his reasoning. Back then, it felt more like the lightning was manipulating him instead of just influencing him. Now, Gravis could still think rationally, but going against lightning's temperament felt unnatural to him, for some reason.

Gravis laughed bitterly. "I guess this is how the normal cultivators feel," he said to himself.

Every Elemental Guild had a specific temperament, and every member of the guilds echoed that temperament. Back then, Gravis could have imagined him being part of other Elemental Guilds, but not anymore. Now, it felt like he didn't belong to those guilds. It felt like they all chose the wrong way.

"Well, the good comes with the bad, I guess," Gravis said, shrugging, and left the area of the Wind Wall.

Would Gravis still have tempered his Spirit with lightning if he knew that he would lose his Elemental Synchronicity? Yes, he would have!

Losing his Elemental Synchronicity was a blow, which destroyed one of his trump cards, but it didn't come close to his gains. Gravis felt an intrinsic connection to his lightning, and he felt like he could do anything with it. On top of that, Gravis was also sure about one thing.

'I am absolutely immune to lightning,' he concluded. 'I am lightning, and when more lightning appears, more of me appears. Why would I injure myself?'

Suddenly, Gravis stopped as he got an idea. He looked at his hand and thought a bit. "I wonder…"

Gravis looked around until he found three big boulders. Gravis pointed one of his fingers at it.

BANG!

Lightning left his finger, and the boulder was obliterated. Then, Gravis concentrated and shot another lightning bolt at a different boulder.

BANG!

This time, only a big part of the boulder exploded. It was not wholly destroyed like the last one. Gravis concentrated more and shot lightning at the third boulder.

BANG!

When the lightning hit the boulder, it created a loud thunder, but the boulder remained undamaged. When Gravis saw that, he smiled in ecstasy. "I can control the ratio of Destruction and Life Energy!" he shouted.

In this lower world, something like this had never happened. A cultivator could only use their element by sending Energy through an Elemental Seed. Therefore, the composition of the Element was always identical to the Elemental Seed.

Yet, Gravis shattered that belief and was able to freely control his type of lightning. Yet, it wasn't as easy as it sounded.

"That took a lot of Energy," he said to himself.

One shouldn't forget that Gravis had moved a second, newly-created Lightning Seed into his Spirit. What about his original Lightning Seed? When Gravis thought that, he noticed something, and his eyes widened.

"It's gone!?" he shouted.

His old Lightning Seed was gone. But then, how was he able to create lightning? Gravis looked into his dantian and found the answer.

BZZZZZZ!

Just like his Spirit, his dantian was filled entirely with lightning. He couldn't see any Energy inside of it. "Has my Lightning Seed moved into my dantian? When did that happen?" he said.

Sadly, Gravis didn't know that he had become a physical manifestation of the concept of lightning when he made his breakthrough. He knew that something had happened, based on what Aion had told him, but he didn't know the specifics. Why would such a manifestation care about pure Energy? The manifestation had immediately converted as much as possible into lightning before the highest Heaven stopped it.

Usually, having an element inside one's dantian was impossible. A strengthened dantian was barely able to resist the pressure of the gentle and calm Energy. If it had lightning inside of it, it would immediately explode. Yet, with Gravis' unprecedented affinity with lightning, the lightning didn't even pressure the dantian, let alone injure it.

"Wait," Gravis said. "Then how did I feel the drain of Energy when I changed the ratio of my lightning if I don't have Energy in my dantian?"

Gravis quickly found the answer. Energy was not only stored in the dantian. The body itself also worked as a passive container of Energy but vastly inferior to the dantian. When he had reduced the ratio of the Destruction Energy in his lightning, he had taken an appropriate amount of Destruction Lightning out of his dantian.

Then, he had supplemented the Destruction Energy with the converted Energy of his body. His body's passive Energy had transformed into Life Energy and mixed with the Destruction Lightning, reducing its ratio.

"Wait, so if I just don't take any Destruction Lightning from my dantian, I should theoretically be able to…"

Gravis pointed at a flower and shot some lightning.

BANG!

The flower received no injury. Instead, it started growing violently in a matter of seconds. Gravis smirked when he saw that. "Life Lightning!" he shouted. Gravis had created lightning with 0% Destruction Energy and 100% Life Energy.

Yet, in order to create Life Lightning, he had used a lot of the inherent Energy in his body. Through his multiple tests, Gravis had lost about 70% of the inherent Energy inside of his body. The loss of the Energy didn't impact his fighting strength, but it felt exhausting.

Gravis did some calculations in his head. "A stronger body needs more Life Energy to heal. When the body gets injured, the inherent Energy inside the body slowly transforms into Life Energy over time, thus healing the body. So, theoretically, by transforming all the Energy in the body, I can create as much Life Energy as my body can hold," he muttered to himself.

"Judging by the power of my body, I could probably heal myself to my peak state from a near-death state once," he concluded.

Gravis smirked as he rubbed his chin in thought.

"Another trump card added to the pile."

 

Chapter 184

Why was Gravis still in the Middle-Continent even though he could only advance his cultivation properly in the Core-Continent? That was because he still had some business to finish here. He already had plans to finish that business before, but with him being even closer to lightning, that need increased even more. He needed to repay those who helped him and take revenge on those who did something he didn't like.

In total, he had four things to do, but that wouldn't take long. He just had to visit some guilds and do some stuff. With his increase in realm, his body had gotten slightly stronger, and his element much stronger.

The conversion between Energy and an element wasn't without some loss in Energy. If someone wanted to release an elemental attack with a specific amount of power, they would need to waste double the amount of Energy. Since Gravis didn't have Energy in his dantian anymore, that wastage completely vanished.

On top of that, his control over his lightning got pushed to unprecedented heights, making his Lightning Movement even more powerful. "I wonder…" muttered Gravis. "Isn't Lightning Movement a little too primitive for my control?"

Gravis tested a little more with his lightning and noticed that it wasn't an issue to increase the coverage of his Lightning Movement. Initially, his Lightning Movement only covered about two meters around him but got increased several times. It worked by the force that appeared when the lightning hit something and therefore straightened. Yet, weren't there also different forces?

BANG BANG BANG BANG!

Gravis made a swath of lightning leave from his behind, shooting into the ground behind him. The release of Energy shot his body forward faster than the usual Lightning Movement, but it also cost a lot of Energy. On top of that, Gravis also noticed that the lightning was not only pushing him forwards but

also pulling him backwards a little, for some reason. Those two forces clashed, but he was still moving forward, in the end.

"Hm, it's better, but it takes too much Energy. There should be a better way," Gravis muttered in thought. Then, Gravis shot his lightning to the front, trying to pull himself forward.

"Wha-"

Gravis toppled over and fell to the floor, rolling for tens of meters. Luckily, his body was too powerful to be injured by a mere fall. Gravis sat up when he stopped and spat out some dirt in his mouth. "The fuck was that?" he said as he looked at his robe.

For some reason, the golden lining in his clothes suddenly got pulled to his lightning. He had never noticed this before since his lightning wasn't as controlled before, and it was also his first time spreading his lightning over such a vast area.

"Pure gold shouldn't be magnetic!" Gravis shouted. He ripped one piece of clothing off and destroyed it. He looked inside and saw some black stuff. "These cheapskates didn't even use pure gold!" he said involuntarily.

The Heaven Sect was brimming with gold, yet behind the gold of their robes was iron. "Like, if you complain so much about your Heaven Sect being full of gold, you could at least use it!" Gravis grumbled.

Suddenly, Gravis remembered something. "Oh, right! I'm not part of the Heaven Sect anymore."

With that said, his golden robes vanished and got replaced by a black T-Shirt and black cloth pants. Luckily, he always carried spare clothing with him, which became even easier with his new Spirit Space. The Spirit Space also made it easier to change clothes.

Gravis stood up and stretched. "Man, I missed this shirt," he said. The robes of the Heaven Sect were a little restrictive since they were, well, robes. As Gravis changed his outfit, he also felt more freedom. It felt like he was back in the time when he had just arrived in this lower world. "Man, it's been a while since I wore those. This also shouldn't disrupt my Lightning Movement anymore… wait!"

Gravis got an idea. He quickly took out his saber and looked at it. "Is this magnetic?" he asked as he used some lightning a distance away to see what would happen.

WHOOSH!

The saber immediately flew to the lightning and absorbed it. Gravis facepalmed. "Right, it's my Spirit Weapon, so, of course, it will absorb my lightning. Wait, Spirit Weapon?"

Gravis got another idea as he jumped on top of his saber. A Spirit Weapon was attuned to a user's Spirit, therefore making it easier to move it remotely. Gravis used his Spirit Weapon to lift itself while he was still on it. Gravis slowly rose from the ground but quickly stopped.

"Fuck, am I that heavy?" he muttered. Lifting the saber, while he was still on it, took an unreal amount of Spirit. He could shoot his weapon around all day and wouldn't feel so drained as he was now. "That method also doesn't work. Gotta try something else!"

Then, Gravis used his lightning and shot it to the front.

BANG!

Gravis fell over as his saber shot out from under his feet. Gravis stood up again. "I can work with this," he said.

Over the next hour, Gravis tried a lot of different approaches. Making his saber levitate with lightning while he was on top of it? Impossible, since it got attracted by the lightning below it. Creating some

lightning in the air, so it got attracted to it? Controlling the lightning to stay in the air took way too much Spirit. It had to touch something solid.

Yet, if he shot his lightning to the front, the saber under his feet just shot out crazily. There was no way for him to keep his balance with this rapid acceleration. Making his lightning weaker? That would've been possible before his dantian was filled with pure lightning. Sadly, he couldn't make his lightning weaker anymore.

Mixing his Destruction Lightning with Life Energy? The Energy storage of his body was too small for that. Using more lightning at the front while keeping a smaller amount behind him? That gave him a stable foothold, but it took a lot of Spirit to get started. As soon as he was stable enough to no longer need a pull from behind, the Spirit usage was easy to keep up, but the acceleration used a lot of Spirit. The finer his control, the more his Spirit drained.

Then, Gravis got a really stupid idea, but a workable one. "I just need some resistance, right?" he said. Gravis took his saber and stabbed it into the ground so that only the hilt poked out. Then, he stepped on the hilt. A normal human might have some problems keeping their balance on just a hilt, but Gravis had enough control to manage that easily.

Gravis shot some lightning to the front, and his saber cut through the earth. If there weren't Gravis' weight on top of the saber's hilt, it probably would have flown out, hilt first. Luckily, Gravis' strong body was heavy enough to keep the saber on the ground. He tested this method for multiple hours until he got pretty proficient in it.

Gravis moved by shooting his lightning to the front, making it attract his saber. The saber absorbed the lightning, but Gravis continually created more lightning. Gravis was basically marking where he wanted to go by shooting a thin strand of lightning at the ground before him. The saber would quickly cut through the ground until it reached that position.

Gravis looked back and saw the whole earth cut into many pieces. "This is stupid, but it works," he muttered. Gravis shrugged and shot more lightning to his front. The saber cut through the ground, leaving a one-meter deep crevice in its wake, yet Gravis moved faster like this than with his lightning movement. Luckily, his Spirit Weapon was so sharp that it easily cut through stone. If it couldn't, he would fall over every three meters or so.

As Gravis moved to his first target, he left one extended cut on the ground. People who stumbled upon this long crevice would think about the origin of said crevice but never found the answer. What created such a long tear in the earth, and why?

Another mystery of nature was added to the pile.

 

Chapter 185

While Gravis was making his way over to his first destination, around five hours had passed for Aion, who was still waiting beside the Wind Wall.

WHOOSH!

A mighty Spirit reached Aion's location and came into contact with him. "Where is he?" a thundering voice echoed in Aion's mind.

Aion could only smile bitterly. Gravis was his friend, yet he was still part of the Heaven Sect. It felt kind of weird being between two opposing forces. "He has left shortly after I have destroyed the token," Aion answered back.

Aion felt some annoyance and rage from the Spirit. "Why didn't you stop him!?" the voice practically shouted.

Aion remained calm. "He has broken into the Spirit Forming Realm. You should know about his unprecedented Battle-Strength at the same level. I can't stop him at all."

Instead of calming down, the voice got even more enraged. "What!? It's only been five days! How has he reached Spirit Forming from the sixth level of Magic Gathering in only five days!? Are you lying to me!?" the voice shouted.

Aion could only continue smiling bitterly. "You don't understand Gravis. The first thing I did after I returned was gathering information on where he was and what he did," Aion said back.

"What could he have possibly done to break through so many levels in just five days? He would have needed to start a war with a guild!" the voice shouted back.

"In a sense, that is exactly what he did," Aion said back.

The Spirit shook and stopped for a second. "What?" the voice said back in shock. "How is he still alive then?"

"Gravis used a brilliant plan," Aion started explaining. "First, he went to the Fire Guild and offered them life and death tempering as long as the disciples paid with one body tempering pill. He killed many people like this and gathered a lot of body tempering pills without creating any enmities with the guild."

The voice remained quiet for some seconds. "That is actually a brilliant plan. It seems like I have underestimated this Gravis," it said back.

Aion nodded. The Spirit transmitted everything in its range, including Aion's nod. "After that, he went to the Earth Guild but left just as quickly. His next stop was the Darkness Guild, where he did the same thing, as in the Fire Guild, again. Like this, he had gotten enough body tempering pills to achieve a body at the level of the Magic of someone at the tenth level of Magic Gathering."

The Spirit emanated confusion. "Why would he do that? He is not a Heavenborn, so why would he make his body stronger than his Magic? Doesn't he know that this only damages him?"

Aion laughed a little. "Gravis practices the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique, just like us. He has reached the tenth level of the body and then the tenth level of Magic Gathering. After he reached that level, he broke through immediately."

Now, the Spirit seemed even more shocked. "So, he has used his body to suppress the pressure of the Magic? That way is a little barbaric, but it should work. This speed of cultivation is unheard of!"

Aion knew that Gravis probably had a strengthened dantian. If the priest knew that Gravis came from a higher world, then he should have guessed that too. Yet, the person didn't even think about Gravis having a strengthened dantian. It seemed like the High Priest kept Gravis' background secret. Aion had a couple of suspicions about why he did that, but he couldn't be sure.

"Why didn't you at least chase him? It was your mission to give your best to stop him! You wouldn't have needed to stop him. You just had to follow him until I arrived!" the voice shouted in anger again.

BOOM!

The owner of the voice had arrived after he said that. It was an old man with grey hair. His clothing was even more ostentatious than the normal Heavenborns'. A huge, blue trident was on his back, which emanated a powerful, suppressive aura. The sword-like eyebrows would give his look a kind of pressure that would make anyone fear him.

Aion didn't mind the priest's outburst. "Like I said, you don't understand Gravis."

The priest seemed to take offense to that, yet he kept himself in check. "Explain!" he shouted with his actual voice, full of aggression.

"When Gravis has fought with the Fire Guild, he also killed an elder in a one on one," Aion explained.

The priest didn't care about that. "So? He has a Will-Aura. Of course, he can kill someone like that, even if it isn't easy."

Aion shook his head. "Gravis had not absorbed any Magic when he defeated his previous opponents. My guess is that he really intended to put his life on the line," Aion explained.

Now, the priest narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Aion smiled helplessly. "He has killed an elder, who is someone at the ninth level of Magic Gathering with an equal body, while still being at the sixth level of Magic Gathering with a body at the seventh level."

The temper of the priest exploded. "Impossible! It's shameful that you want to lie to a priest of the Heaven Sect! Swear on Heaven or die right now!"

Aion sighed. "I swear on Heaven, that Gravis was at the sixth level of Magic Gathering with a body equal to the seventh level when he killed that elder," Aion said nonchalantly.

The eyes of the priest widened. He hadn't thought that Aion would actually go through with this. He looked to the sky but saw no clouds forming. Slowly, he started growing panicked. Then, he looked at Aion. Aion was still fine. This was undeniable proof that he didn't lie! Heaven would strike anyone that swore on its name with a lie.

The priest took a shaky breath. Did he think that he was weaker than Gravis? Of course not! Yet, he realized the potential that Gravis had. If someone with such an unnatural Battle-Strength reached a level even remotely close to a priest, the priest would have no chance.

Gravis probably only had to reach the Tree-Stage to be invincible against anyone that wasn't the High Priest. Right now, Gravis was not dangerous, but he could become a deadly threat in the future!

The rage of the priest vanished. "How did you survive?" he asked with a quieter voice. He now realized what a joke it was to ask Aion why he didn't stop Gravis. It was impossible for Aion to even follow Gravis lest stop him. According to logic, Aion should be dead right now.

Aion still smiled bitterly. His expression had not changed since they started talking. "Well, he kind of sees me as a friend," Aion said while scratching the left side of his head with a finger. "He said that for all the help I had provided him in the past, he will spare my life."

The priest took a deep breath and looked into the sky. "Thank Heaven that you didn't die," he muttered. He had been angry at Aion, but Aion was still a brother for him since they came from the same parent.

In the past, Aion would have echoed the priest's thoughts, but now, his horizons had widened. Deep inside, he felt that this lower Heaven didn't have much longer to live. It was also not Heaven, who has

given him this chance, but Gravis. If Gravis had wanted to kill Aion, what would Heaven have done? Probably nothing.

"I'll return to the High Priest to inform him. You go back to your branch. If we need you for more information, we'll contact you," said the priest.

Aion nodded. "Thank you, priest," he said.

"Sure," said the priest nonchalantly and left.

Aion looked around, sighed again, and left towards his branch of the Heaven Sect. 'Should I have told Gravis about his new looks?' Aion thought and shook his head. 'No, he probably has already noticed it himself.'

The lower Heaven knew that it was not Aion's fault for not killing Gravis. It, itself, had wanted to strike him down, after all. Yet, this lower Heaven didn't care. This whole thing was the worst thing that had ever happened in its entire existence. It had to vent its emotions, and it decided to do just that on Aion.

Like this, Aion's Karmic Luck sank rapidly.

BOOM!

No one noticed, but when the lower Heaven started lowering the Karmic Luck of Aion, an overwhelming force had given it a metaphorical slap.

The highest Heaven had enough of this lower Heaven's bullshit! This useless lower Heaven knew that it was watching, yet it still did something like this. Was this shitty lower Heaven so used to having its way that it didn't even notice that it committed a mistake when it was at its most cautious? Did this useless lower Heaven not have any far-reaching vision? It was about to waste such a valuable tool just to vent its emotion!

After Aion's Karmic Luck had lowered, it started growing rapidly again. It reached its previous height, which was the typical height for Heavenborn, yet, it didn't stop. It broke through that restriction and climbed many levels higher. Aion was now the person with the highest Karmic Luck in this lower world, ever since it had been created.

The highest Heaven had a far-reaching vision, and it had plans for Aion. In order for those plans to work, Aion had to become stronger!

Highest Heaven planned very far into the future!

Chapter 186

After some hours of travel and leaving an incredibly long cut in the earth, Gravis finally arrived at his first destination. Gravis looked with narrowed eyes at the white castle in front of him.

It was the south-eastern branch of the Heaven Sect.

Gravis used his Spirit to inspect the building but noticed that his Spirit was blocked by something. "Of course, they wouldn't leave it undefended when everyone left for the headquarter," Gravis muttered. There had to be some excellent Formation Arrays protecting the branch.

"Well, if I can't get to your wealth the normal way, I hope you don't mind me being impolite," Gravis said with a smirk.

Yes, he was here to rob the Heaven Sect. It was Aion's branch, but that was unimportant. Aion knew that Heaven wouldn't live for much longer, so he probably wouldn't mind Gravis destroying this branch. The Heaven Sect was, after all, his enemy.

BZZZZZ!

Gravis' surroundings exploded with lightning. His whole body released lightning, and it circled around him violently. Gravis pointed at the white castle. "Go!" he shouted.

BANG!

All the lightning flew at the castle, yet some kind of barrier appeared in its way. The lightning exploded as it hit the barrier, but the barrier only shook. Gravis could see no cracks. When he saw this, he furrowed his brows. "Quite impressive," he commented.

Gravis then concentrated himself to ready a more powerful attack. This barrier was a good target to test the power of his attacks. Gravis summoned more lightning but didn't shoot it immediately. Instead,

he gathered it together and compressed it. His control over lightning was superb, but it still took him around two seconds to compress a five-cubic meter amount of lightning into one spear.

Sweat started rolling down Gravis' forehead since compressing all this lightning took a lot of Spirit and concentration. Gravis grabbed the lightning spear. Normally, lightning, especially Destruction Lightning, would attack anything that it touched, including the user.

Other people at the Spirit Forming Realm wouldn't be able to grab a weapon out of lightning, even if they were lightning cultivators. Yet, since Gravis basically was lightning, the lightning didn't lash out at him. Gravis was lightning, and lightning was Gravis. Gravis leaned back and threw the spear with all his power!

BOOM!

A shockingly loud thunder boomed throughout the surrounding kilometers as the lightning spear hit the barrier. Many beasts fled in panic when they heard the thunder. The whole barrier shook violently, and some cracks appeared at the place where the lightning spear had hit.

Gravis watched this for a while with a smile. The cracks were slowly mending over time. "Interesting. The Formation Array can regenerate itself. There are probably a lot of Energy Stones keeping it going," he muttered in interest.

By now, Gravis was sure that no one had returned to this branch yet. If they had, they would probably panic and run, or maybe even attack him. Those spoiled Heavenborn have probably never been in such a situation, so who knew how they would react?

Gravis gripped his saber and pulled it out of the ground. "Let's see what you can do. I haven't been able to test your power yet," Gravis said with a smirk. The saber was a Spirit Weapon, which meant it could only show its true might if someone at the Spirit Forming Realm wielded it.

Gravis tried to inject it with lightning but noticed that it was already full. This surprised him slightly. "Huh, when did you get full? Oh, right!" Gravis remembered how that happened. When Gravis rode on his saber, he shot lightning to the front to make the saber move, and when the saber passed through, the lightning would get absorbed by the weapon and then saved.

Gravis checked the amount of saved lightning in the weapon and concluded that around 10% of his whole lightning was saved in the weapon. Since he didn't need to convert Energy into lightning, this would be equal to 20% of the Energy of someone who had broken through into the Spirit Forming Realm through the tenth level of Energy Gathering.

Yet, how many people reached the Spirit Forming Realm while going through the tenth level of Energy Gathering? Only Heavenborn or some supreme geniuses would have a strengthened dantian. Probably 95% or so of Spirit Forming Realm experts had reached the Spirit Forming Realm with the ninth level of Energy Gathering.

This meant that the 10% of Gravis' lightning inside the weapon signified a whole 40% of the entire Energy reserves of a regular Spirit Forming expert at the initial stage of Spirit Forming.

Previously, when Gravis had condensed the lightning spear, he had also used around 10% of his lightning. This would be a good comparison between a finely-controlled elemental attack and an attack with a Spirit Weapon.

Gravis injected his Spirit into his weapon and noticed that his Spirit was absorbed and fused with the lightning. The weapon absorbed around 20% of Gravis' Spirit until it stopped absorbing. "The lightning spear had also taken around 20% of my Spirit. Let's see how good this weapon is."

Gravis controlled the lightning inside the weapon and noticed that he had even finer control over it than over his lightning in his surroundings. "Probably because it fused with my Spirit," he muttered. He felt

how he could make it do whatever he wanted. He could release it in a lightning bolt. He could also fuse it with a slash, which would create some kind of lightning shockwave.

Many applications appeared in Gravis' mind, and he grew excited. This fine control opened up a whole new way to fight. "It seems like the higher my realm reaches, the more applications I have for using my power," Gravis muttered with a smirk.

The more ways and kinds of attacks one had at their disposal, the more originality and experience it needed to use them effectively. Gravis had a lot of experience and always fought smartly. This whole new dimension of using his strength didn't intimidate him but made him excited.

"I could coat the edge of my saber with lightning, but then the whole Energy would be dispersed over a bigger surface. If I coat only the tip, the Energy would be concentrated on only one point. Problem is, sabers are not made for stabbing," Gravis muttered.

Suddenly, Gravis thought of something, and his eyes widened in surprise. "Is that why so many people of the Lightning Guild use spears?" he asked himself. The more he thought about that, the more sense it made. Was the Lightning Guild recommending spears to their disciples because they knew of the application of lightning with Spirit Weapons?

Gravis facepalmed. "Of course, they would. They have thousands of years of experience with how to use lightning. If I switched over to a spear now, I would need a long time to get used to it. Also, I like my saber more. Wow, I guess that's what I get for thinking I know more than the Lightning Sect," Gravis said with a helpless smile.

Gravis thought more about the weapons of the Lightning Guild and realized that a lot of the disciples also used swords. The difference between a saber and a traditional sword was that the saber only had one edge, basically making it a big knife. When someone stabbed with a saber, only one side of the tip would cut.

A traditional sword had two edges, which decreased its weight in a slash since the other side was sharpened down, yet the tip would cut with both edges. Gravis realized that a traditional sword would be nearly as good as a spear in stabbing when infusing it with lightning.

Gravis looked at his saber with one lifted eyebrow. "Huh, I guess the Lightning Sect and Guild know what they're doing," he muttered. Then, he shook his head. "I should make the best of my situation. There should be a way to use lightning just as well with a saber."

Gravis experimented more with the saber and realized that he could concentrate his lightning on a single point of the saber's edge. Like that, a slash from the saber would be just as devastating as stab with from spear.

Sadly, there were two issues with that.

First issue: Condensing the lightning on only one point of the saber's edge seemed to not be part of the saber's Formation Arrays. He had to condense it naturally, which used up another 5% of his Spirit.

Second issue: If he wanted to combine his physical attack with the lightning's explosion, he had to perfectly hit his target with the condensed point. Doing that on a stationary target was no issue, but if someone blocked his attack, the chances were very big that they would hit a point at the saber's edge that didn't have any lightning. Sure, Gravis could move the concentrated lightning, but at that point, his physical momentum was already halted, weakening the attack.

Gravis rubbed his chin in thought for a while and got several new ideas. "A disadvantage might become an advantage if used in the right circumstance," he said with a smile.

By now, the barrier had fully healed. Gravis didn't mind. He actually preferred that. Like this, he could test the Spirit Weapon's might even more accurately. "Let's start," he said.

Gravis concentrated the lightning in his saber on the point of its tip and charged at the barrier.

 

Chapter 187

Gravis charged at the barrier with his full speed. Sadly, he couldn't use his new way of movement since he was using the saber for something else right now. Gravis readied a big swing and swung his weapon at the barrier, hitting it with the spot of concentrated lightning.

BOOM!

The point of contact exploded, creating a loud explosion. The explosion made a massive hole in the barrier, nearly five meters wide. Gravis smirked. "Just as I thought. An attack with a weapon will always be stronger than an attack without one," Gravis said.

Gravis noticed that the hole was slowly mending, yet his Spirit was no longer blocked from looking through the castle. He saw everything inside the castle, including the core of the Formation Array. He didn't have sufficient knowledge about Formation Arrays to determine what the Formation Array was doing, but that didn't matter.

BZZZZ!

Since Gravis' Spirit had access to the castle, he could create lightning wherever he wanted now. He summoned some lightning above the Formation Array's core and destroyed it, which destroyed the runic lines around the big pile of Energy Stones in the process. The barrier surrounding the castle vanished without a sound.

"Another guild would have probably protected the core of their Formation Array with another Formation Array. I guess that the Heaven Sect isn't really afraid of attacks. Who would attack the undisputed overlord of this world?" Gravis asked with a self-satisfied smirk.

Gravis checked the Heaven Sect for valuables with his Spirit. He found around 5,000 Energy Stones and an unreal amount of gold. Most of the Energy Stones were inside the destroyed Formation Array.

There was just as much gold as Gravis had expected, but he was a little surprised about there "only" being 5,000 Energy Stones.

"Well, when Cerb came back with Energy Stones, Aion had absorbed them into his Spirit Space. He probably keeps most of the Energy Stones in there," Gravis guessed.

He was right. The branch of the Heaven Sect needed to submit a lot of Energy Stones to their headquarters. When Aion had left, he had taken as many Energy Stones as he could fit in his Spirit Space, which was a lot. The other disciples had also carried sacks of Energy Stones to the guild. These 5,000 Energy Stones weren't even 5% of the branch's total amount.

Aion also carried the most valuable treasures with him. The Body Ascension Pill, for example, had been kept in Aion's Spirit Space, but Gravis didn't mind.

"So many body tempering pills!" he shouted in excitement. He saw over a thousand, many of them incredibly expensive. He immediately pocketed all the body tempering pills and Energy Stones. "I still have around three cubic meters of storage left. Let's push in as much as gold as possible!"

Like this, a lot of gold coins vanished. Yet, Gravis furrowed his brows. "Those coins use up a lot of space. We can do better than that," he said.

Like this, he absorbed gold coins from the storage and then retrieved them from his Spirit Space again, dumping them right in front of him. He did that a couple of times until a small lake of gold was formed before him. Then, Gravis summoned lightning and shot it at the gold.

The power of the lightning melted the gold while Gravis' Spirit worked as a mold. Like this, he had melted nearly all of the gold coins into a cube with a volume of three cubic meters. The gold hadn't cooled down yet, but that didn't matter. His Spirit could keep the form, even if the gold were liquid. Like this, Gravis made some space in his Spirit Space and pushed the cube into it.

The cube vanished, and Gravis was finally satisfied. His whole Spirit Space was packed with pills, Energy Stones, and especially gold.

SHING!

Gravis put his saber into the earth, ready to depart, but stopped that thought. "Wouldn't I leave a long track for a priest of the Heaven Sect to follow me like this?" he muttered. Gravis jumped down from his saber again and retrieved it. Then, he just ran into the direction of his next target. "Gotta be careful!" he said.

Gravis couldn't travel with all his speed, but he didn't mind. Robbing the Heaven Sect had been the only time-sensitive target that he had since the members would return soon. It made no difference how fast he traveled.

Because of the pressing time, he had also stopped here first, even though the route would be suboptimal like this. If Gravis had taken an optimal route, the Heaven Sect would have been the second target on his trip.

Even when traveling like this, he was still multiple times faster than Skye when it had been a middle- grade Energy Beast. While he was running, he was stuffing his mouth with body tempering pills. He wanted to reach a body, at least, equal to his current Energy.

After traveling for nearly half a day, Gravis noticed that his body had gotten stronger, but by less than he had expected. "Seems like I need way more pills than I had thought. I thought that this small hill of pills would boost my body to the Seed-Stage, but at this rate, I can barely reach the initial stage of Spirit Forming."

After this half-day, Gravis finally arrived at his target. This target was to the west of the Heaven Sect, while his other targets would be to its east. If he had chosen an optimal route, this would have been his first target.

Gravis looked with a smile at the mountain range with a lot of trees surrounding it.

This was the Wind Guild.

He had three things to do here.

"First things, first!" Gravis said with a smirk. He used his Spirit to look at all the elders in the Wind Guild until he found his target. His smirk intensified.

This specific elder was currently sitting in his house, reading a book. Out of interest, Gravis checked the book and saw that it was about some hybrid, darkness cultivator. He checked some of the contents. "What is an individuality?" he asked himself. "Well, doesn't matter." After finding his target, Gravis did something unexpected.

BZZZT!

Some lightning appeared above the elder and hit him, slightly shocking him. The elder seized for a second, then jumped up in panic. He touched his head, which was the spot where the lightning hit and found that he was bald now. His flowing green hair was incinerated.

"That's for making me eat that gust fruit!" a voice said in his head.

The elder first was a little panicked, then confused. Then, he seemed to realize something and smiled bitterly.

Yet, that bitter smile wasn't kept up for long. Shortly after, he broke into actual laughter.

"Alright, I deserved that!" the elder said with a smile. Then, he looked into the mirror to check his new look. He rubbed his chin in thought. "This doesn't look that bad, actually."

Gravis laughed happily.

He loved the Wind Guild.

 

Chapter 188

When the Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master noticed a foreign Spirit entering their domain, they furrowed their brows. When another Spirit Forming expert visited, it was rarely pleasant. The Wind Sect was the only neutral one, while the other sects always fought in the Core-Continent.

The sects in the Core-Continent were fighting from two sides. One side consisted of the Lightning Sect, the Fire Sect, and the Light Sect. The other side was the Water Sect, the Darkness Sect, and the Earth Sect. Their Wind Sect was the only party that didn't participate in this conflict.

Because of their way of life, the Wind Sect was very close to beasts, making it arguably the most powerful Elemental Sect in the Core-Continent. Due to their strength, they successfully managed to remain neutral. If they didn't have this power, they couldn't have remained neutral successfully. Yet, they also didn't have any allies due to that.

For that reason, when a Spirit Forming expert visited, it rarely was about something good. Even though the division of the Elemental Guilds in the Middle-Continent was not the same as in the Core-Continent, the other guilds mostly kept themselves away from the Wind Guild.

The two Spirit Forming experts checked the new person that had arrived, and their brows furrowed. This person didn't look familiar at all.

"Do you know this guy?" asked the Guild Master with a voice transmission to his only Vice-Guild Master.

"No clue," he answered. "Never seen him."

At that point, Gravis used his lightning to prank the elder. First, they grew a little anxious and solemn by that person arrogantly using his element to attack one of their elders. Yet, before they could do anything, they noticed that this elder only lost some hair. After that, the elder went through several different emotions until he finally laughed.

The two people didn't hear Gravis' voice transmission, so they didn't know what was happening. One of their elders was attacked by lightning, yet that elder only laughed? What was going on?

"Uh, I guess he is not here to attack us?" asked the Guild Master unsurely.

The Vice-Guild Master also looked confused. This whole situation was weird.

"Wait!" said the Vice-Guild Master. "Do you remember that one Heavenborn from a couple of weeks ago?"

"Yeah, I do. Gravis was his name, right? What about it?" he asked back.

"Doesn't he look kind of similar?" asked the Vice-Guild Master.

The Guild Master took a closer look at Gravis and furrowed his brows. "His face, age, and height are similar, but he has a different hair color and different eyes. Without those two things, I can see the similarity."

"Well, why don't we ask him?" asked the Vice-Guild Master back.

"Hello, Guild Master, Vice-Guild Master," a new voice appeared in their heads. This could only come from the person looking similar to Gravis.

"Hello, traveler. What brings you to our Wind Guild?" asked the Guild Master, keeping the Vice-Guild Master informed by sending him the same message.

Gravis furrowed his brows in confusion. They acted like they didn't know him. It's only been a couple of weeks, and Gravis doubted that they forgot him already. "I came for three reasons. No worries, I'm sure you won't mind any of those. The first one is already accomplished, as you might have noticed," said Gravis back. "Remember how that elder offered me a gust fruit in your palace? I thought he deserved some repayment for that."

Now, the two were sure that this was Gravis. "Oh, you're Gravis, right? Sorry, I didn't recognize you with your new look," said the Guild Master back.

Now, it was Gravis' turn to be confused. He had only changed his clothes. How would that confuse someone at the Spirit Forming Realm? "What do you mean with, 'changed my look'?" Gravis asked back.

And now the Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master were confused again. "I mean your new hair color, and your eyes," the Guild Master sent back.

"My hair color and eyes?" asked Gravis unsurely. He quickly checked himself with his Spirit, and his eyes widened. "Wait, what?" he exclaimed with his actual voice.

What was he seeing? What was up with his hair? What was up with his eyes? When did that happen?

Gravis' hair was completely silver now. His old black hair was nowhere to be seen. The color of his hair mimicked the color of his lightning. Actually, as Gravis looked closer, it was exactly the same as his lightning! If one looked at it, one would think that sparks would shoot out of it if they touched it.

And what was up with his eyes? His eye-color changed from black to silver too. Even worse, the form of his pupils had changed. They were no longer round. Instead, they looked like two cuts intersecting, creating a symmetrical cross, seemingly splitting his eyes into four parts, each. Gravis was too shocked to judge what he thought about that.

"Is that still me?" he asked himself involuntarily.

He continued looking at himself and found something that confused his emotions even more. "With a silver eye-color, will people think that I am blind?" he asked himself. Many blind people had silver or grey eyes due to a medical condition. "I'm not blind, right?" he asked himself, unsurely.

Gravis deactivated his Spirit and looked around. "I'm not blind," he concluded, obviously. If he were blind, he would have already noticed, but he had been too shocked to think about that.

Yet, when Gravis concentrated on his actual vision, he noticed some differences. 'I don't need to focus my eyes anymore if I want to look at something closely. All the surroundings appear incredibly clear, even without me focusing on them,' Gravis thought.

Like always, his mind quickly went to how he could utilize that. Even though he had his Spirit to keep track of things, his eyes were still useful. If he didn't need to focus on his target, he wouldn't need to actually move his eyes. On top of that, someone couldn't leave the focused spot of his eyes with an unexpected dodge like this.

"Wait," Gravis said with a grim expression. "If I stop moving my eyes, wouldn't I look even more like a blind person?" he asked himself. Gravis imagined himself always looking forward with silver eyes. This image made him feel surreal. Was this a joke?

Sadly, this wasn't a joke. When the physical manifestation of the concept of lightning took ahold of Gravis' body, it had changed as much of Gravis' whole being into lightning as possible. Sadly, it had only remained in that state for a couple of seconds until the Opposer and the highest Heaven appeared.

In that short time, Gravis' whole body had started becoming closer to lightning. The first thing that the manifestation did was to change the Spirit and the Energy into lightning. After that, it would have converted the whole body, yet it was stopped before it could finish that process.

If it had had more time, Gravis would have gotten a pure lightning body. At that point, his body would have become unrecognizable. Luckily, it had been stopped just in time. Yet, its possession didn't go over without several changes. The changed eyes and hair color came from that.

The Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master from the Wind Guild felt a little awkward as they watched Gravis going through an avalanche of different emotions. They hadn't expected that Gravis hadn't known about his new look.

After a while, Gravis seemed to fall into thought. He only stood there, scratching his chin while looking up.

"Do I look like I'm blind with these eyes?" Gravis suddenly asked them out of nowhere.

The Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master first didn't know how to react to the sudden, direct question. Then, the Guild Master smiled sheepishly.

"Maybe a little bit."

 

 

Chapter 189

Gravis was more crestfallen about this comment than he should've been. He didn't have something against blind people, but if he got confused for a blind person, many misunderstandings would occur. "I'm not looking forward to this," he muttered to himself.

The Guild Master waited for some seconds but then lost his patience. "So, what are the other two things that you wanted to do?" he asked.

Gravis perked up like he remembered something. Then, he shook his head to get his bearings back. "Right, did Vice-Guild Master Saron return?" he asked.

The Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master narrowed their eyes. So it was about that. "No, he hasn't returned yet. We want to tell you that his personal decisions have nothing to do with us. He left our Wind Guild a couple of days ago," he explained solemnly.

Gravis shook his head. "I know. Saron and I actually met around a day ago. Long story short, we actually became friends. There were a lot of misunderstandings about Wendy's death, and we split up. I only wanted to talk to him a little bit. He said that he wanted to say goodbye to some friends of his since, due to some circumstance, he probably doesn't have much longer to live," Gravis explained.

The two experts sighed. "I believe you, but Saron really hasn't returned yet. We don't know where he is," the Vice-Guild Master explained. They knew that Gravis cultivated lightning, so they trusted his words. Lightning was always direct. He wouldn't lie about something so unimportant.

Gravis could only nod solemnly. If he hadn't returned by now, it probably meant that he had already died. The Heavenborn would have no reason to attack him, so if he died, it could have only been one thing. He probably met a freshly ascended Spirit Beast on its way to the Core-Continent.

Though he could also still be alive. Who knew, maybe he just settled down and was living somewhere? As long as he didn't go anywhere dangerous, his lack of Karmic Luck wouldn't kill him. Gravis could

only wish Saron the best.

"Is there anyone that Saron would consider close? You don't have to tell me their names," Gravis said.

The Guild Master looked at his Vice-Guild Master unsurely. "He doesn't have any immediate family anymore, but he treated the whole Wind Guild like his child. There isn't one particular person that was close to him. It was rather all of us," the Guild Master said.

Gravis nodded.

BOOM!

Gravis retrieved around 10% of his gold and placed it beside himself, creating a huge boom when it hit the floor. The solid cube of gold weighed way over five tons, destroying the ground below it. "Saron has helped me with an issue, so I will be repaying the Wind Guild in his stead. Please accept this gold," Gravis said.

The two people at the Spirit Forming Realm stopped breathing for a second. This was so much gold! What did Saron do that Gravis gave them so much gold in repayment? "This is too much. We can't accept all this gold!" said the Guild Master back.

Gravis had already expected something like this. "Well, then this gold will just function as some stone. I gave you the gold, what you do with it, is your thing," Gravis said.

The two people didn't know what they should think right now. Gravis was just throwing this cube of gold at them and telling them to deal with it. Did they have no other option than to accept it?

"Alright, I'll release my Spirit on it now. The gold's still liquid, so if you wanna keep it, you should do something, or it will just become a dirty plate when it hardens." After Gravis said that, he retracted his Spirit from the gold, and it started flowing to the sides.

WHOOSH!

Yet, the gold quickly stopped flowing and returned to its previous cube form. Gravis only smirked. 'So you accepted it after all,' he thought smugly.

The Guild Master couldn't see the gold being wasted and had saved it. It seemed like they were forced to accept it. "Thank you, Heavenborn," said the Guild Master to Gravis.

Gravis continued smirking. "I'm not a Heavenborn. Just call me Gravis. Wish you a good day, Guild Master, Vice-Guild Master." With that said, he went onto his last target. Gravis had already located it.

The two people didn't know how to react to his last words, so they didn't. They just said their goodbyes to him.

"Hey, I'm back!" Gravis transmitted.

Up on a big tree, a gigantic green bird raised its head and looked into a Gravis' direction. It was Skye's parent. It noticed Gravis, yet looked away again. It seemed like it didn't recognize him. "Hello? It's me, Gravis. You know, the friend of Skye, your child?" he sent another voice transmission.

"Child? Where?" Gravis suddenly heard a singing voice in his head.

Gravis' eyes widened as he realized what this meant. Skye's parent was able to transmit its thoughts back to Gravis, which meant that it became a Spirit Beast. Gravis hadn't expected that. Now, Gravis looked closer at Skye's parent and noticed that it felt different. It still looked the same, yet it had some special aura around itself.

Then, why was it still here? Shouldn't it have already gone to the Core-Continent? 'Wait, is it still waiting for Skye?' Gravis thought.

"Child? Where?" the voice asked again.

Beasts could only form some rudimentary language skills when they became Spirit Beasts. It was like communicating with a three-year-old child.

"I was the human accompanying your child, Skye. We both left together from the tree," he said.

Skye's parent looked closer at Gravis. "No, not same human. Different human," it commented.

Gravis was already annoyed by his new look. He looked too different, so no one recognized him. He already saw it coming in the future. He would meet someone he knew and first had to spend a considerable amount of time to convince them that he was Gravis. This whole thing was going to be a massive pain in the ass.

"Let me prove it!" he said back. "Look at this!"

WHOOSH!

Outside of the Wind Guild, a gigantic area started breaking down due to some pressure pressing everything into the earth. As Gravis reached the Spirit Forming Realm, he could summon his gigantic Will-Aura anywhere he wanted. It was no longer bound to be around him. Yet, the size and compression of it still remained the same.

Skye's parent looked at the area and widened its eyes. It knew this feeling. It had seen different Will- Aura's, and every Will-Aura felt unique. This Will-Aura was many times stronger than when it had last felt Gravis' Will-Aura, but it still had the same feeling. This was proof that Gravis was who he claimed to be.

BANG! WHOOOSH!

The branch, where Skye's parent sat on, exploded as the gigantic bird shot at Gravis with unreal speed. It reached Gravis in less than a second and landed in front of him. "Child! Where!?" it said with

more agitation.

Gravis raised his hands to show that he didn't want to do anything bad. "Relax. I'll explain everything that happened to Skye. You don't need to worry. Your child is fine," he said back.

Skye's parent calmed down after it heard that its child was fine. "Explain," it said.

Gravis nodded and jumped onto a tree. This would be a long story, so he wanted to sit comfortably. Luckily, Gravis had reached the Spirit Forming Realm. Transmitting one's thoughts was different from speaking a language.

When he was talking normally, it was like he was speaking in a different language to beasts. Yet, if he used his thoughts, their thoughts connected. Only the concepts he wanted to convey would be conveyed, making it easier for beasts to understand him.

As Gravis told the story, he realized that Skye's parent even knew some advanced concepts like politics. That surprised Gravis, and it also made it easier for him to tell the story. Like this, he could tell Skye's whole story without having to omit concepts that were too complicated.

Like this, Gravis told Skye's parent about everything they've been through together.

 

Chapter 190

Skye's parent listened to Gravis' story patiently. It was happy to hear about what its child had gone through. When it heard that Skye reached the stage of a high-grade Energy Beast after only a couple of months, it felt pride. Skye's parent also thought that it was the right decision to let Skye go with Gravis.

Why did it think that this was the right decision? Skye and its parent had always lived away from civilization, so they hadn't known about the humans' superior knowledge, battle techniques, and political systems. It had stayed inside the Wind Guild for the past couple of months, and with its incredible ears and its new Spirit, it had learned a lot about and from humans.

It had listened in on conversations between disciples and elders. Many conversations metaphorically opened its eyes to new ways to get stronger. Beasts usually only followed their instincts, which was to fight and kill other just-as-powerful beasts. Yet, when such a fight happened, it nearly always ended with one of the two parties dying and becoming food for the other.

Retreat? In their instincts, that was only something that a weak-willed beast would do. Some of Gravis' earlier beast-opponents had tried to flee, yet those beasts had all been weak-willed. A strong Energy Beast wouldn't retreat, no matter how overwhelmingly powerful the enemy was.

Yet, as Skye's parent heard about the upper echelon speak of times when they fled from a fight, it started thinking. Those were all very powerful people, and even the Spirit Forming experts have spoken of a time where they had to flee with pride instead of shame. For humans, retreating was not a shame. It was just another way to fight.

Skye's parent had thought about these things and realized that retreat wouldn't halt its path forward. It had learned many valuable lessons by being with humans, and it knew that Gravis had probably also taught a lot of those concepts to its child. Because of this, it was happy that it decided to leave it with Gravis.

Yet, when Gravis told it about how he killed experts from the Fire and Darkness Guild and fed them to Skye, Skye's parent grew angry. It had way more experience than Skye, and it had learned a lot from humans. It had realized that this could bring Skye's future prospects into jeopardy. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to let this human take Skye, after all.

But when Gravis told about his decision to leave Skye, it sighed in relief. That was the best decision that Gravis could have made in that situation. Judging by what it had been told, Skye's parent realized that its child had grown dependent on Gravis. Luckily, Gravis had cut this dependency apart.

When Gravis finished his story, Skye's parent looked into the distance. It heard about how Gravis taught it many things and how strong and smart its child was. Its worries disappeared entirely. With Skye's power, it wouldn't be in danger in this Middle-Continent. Only someone in the Spirit Forming Realm could kill Skye, yet Gravis had taught Skye about those experts. Skye's parent was sure that its child was still alive.

"So yeah, that's about it," finished Gravis as he looked at the giant bird beside him.

Skye's parent nodded. "Thank you," it said. Beasts were simple, and a thank you was the most direct method of thanking others. Gravis realized this, too, of course, and smiled.

"No problem. I've also committed some mistakes, but I'm sure that Skye will recover from that," he said.

"Child will," Skye's parent said with confidence. Then, it turned to Gravis and looked at him closely for some seconds.

Gravis looked into its eyes and felt a little awkward. "What's up?" he asked.

The bird turned away, looking at the horizon again. "Human too strong, too fast. Human slow down," it said.

Gravis' eyes widened. Skye's parent had really learned a lot of things if it could even tell something like that. Gravis already knew about this. He had been swimming against the current, trying to increase his power as quickly as possible, but was that a good thing? Gravis was not dumb, and he knew that he had to take a break at some point.

Gravis still wasn't used to his newfound power. If he immediately went to the Core-Continent and immediately began to increase his power, he would gain even newer powers without having the chance of getting used to his current ones. This was one of the main reasons why Gravis didn't immediately go to the Core-Continent. He had to get used to his current powers first.

Such a concept was not intrinsic to beasts. That was why Gravis was so surprised that Skye's parent knew about that. Gravis smiled. "I know. That's one of the reasons why I am here, to take a break," he said happily.

There was no immediate danger lurking at the horizon. Ever since Gravis came to the Middle- Continent, he never could truly relax. First came the fight at the tree, then he had to keep his identity secret in the lair of his enemy for multiple months, and then he had to increase his power in just seven days, or he would die. This was the first time where he could let go and just do what he wanted.

Gravis looked into the sky while merrily moving his legs back and forth on the tree. 'Is this what I am searching for? The feeling of freedom? Right now, I can do what I want without fear. Though...' Gravis looked to the ground with a bitter smile. 'The Heaven Sect will find me at some point. I think this counts as a free-trial of the true freedom that I want.'

"I Core-Continent. Five Days," Skye's parent said.

Gravis nodded. Skye's parent could finally let go and continue on its path. "I wish you all the best," Gravis said.

Skye's parent looked at him and nodded. "You too, human," it said. Then, it flew up and went back to its nest. It probably wanted to finish some things in the next five days before it left for the Core-Continent.

Gravis also jumped down from the tree and stretched. 'Talks are nice,' he thought. 'Sadly, this fucking Karmic Luck of mine is contagious.' Gravis looked one last time at the Wind Guild with longing. 'Man, how I wish to belong to a group of people.' Gravis sighed one last time and then left the Wind Guild.

Being isolated from humanity had taken its toll when he had just reached this lower world, but by now, he had grown used to it. He longed to be with others, but that longing didn't affect him so much anymore. He had already realized that being part of humanity was an impossibility.

His goal in reaching the Unity Realm was the most important thing he had to do now, except for maybe staying alive. As soon as he reached the Unity Realm, he would return to his homeworld. Everything would be fine then.

As Gravis left, he had one last thought about this whole thing and then concentrated on his next target. It would probably take around 18 hours to get there if he didn't take a break. Yet, wasn't his purpose of coming here specifically to take a break? Why not slow down when he had the time?

Like this, Gravis slowly traveled to his next target, taking several breaks to look at the scenery in the process. Of course, while traveling, he thought of more applications with his lightning. Lots of battle tactics went through his mind, and time flew by.

Over three days later, Gravis finally arrived at his goal.