Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis spent two whole weeks with his mother, just talking about everything. He had needed this breather and talk. He had confronted his emotions and had accepted the pain. By now, he felt much better, and he also felt like a constant pressure, which he hadn't noticed before, had disappeared.

Laughing came way easier, and it also felt deeper. When he thought back on his journey in the lower world, it felt to him like it was in his distant past. It felt like this had been done by a younger him, even though he had still been there two weeks ago.

He accepted the deaths that he had caused, but this wouldn't stop his path. He didn't want to hurt innocent people, but he accepted that this was just a reality of becoming powerful. Sometimes, even if he didn't want to hurt or kill them, it just happened because of something that he was doing.

Gravis wasn't some saint that wanted to keep the world pure. He just wanted to achieve his goal. If he could avoid it, he wouldn't implicate others, but that couldn't always be avoided. Gravis felt his path to power to be as clear and stable as never before. He would reach his goal, no matter what it took!

He also thought about all the pain he had caused by fighting Heaven. Yet, if Gravis knew what his fight would have brought, he would have still gone through with it. His enmity with Heaven was more important to him.

After his long talk with his mother, Gravis visited his brother Orpheus. In comparison to his parents, Orpheus didn't know anything about Gravis' journey in the lower world, so he was very interested in Gravis' story.

Gravis told his story to his brother, and Orpheus listened with bated breath. He said that a lot of things had been similar to his journey in his lower world, but there were also a lot of differences.

When Orpheus had visited his lower world, he only had to deal with his lack of Karmic Luck. The Heaven of that world didn't go after him. This made his journey still difficult, but not nearly as much as Gravis'.

Heaven basically had all the power in the world, so it had been able to send stuff at Gravis that he shouldn't have been able to deal with. A good example of that was Aion's visit to Proxy-Lightning Guild or the way more powerful lightning disciples at the tree.

When one only looked at the numbers, one would come to the conclusion that Gravis would die. Yet, he had managed to squirm his way out of these situations. These situations hadn't required a powerful combat strength, but intelligence.

If Gravis hadn't been able to simulate a Heavenly Pressure so well, Aion would have killed him, and if he hadn't kept an additional beast corpse ready, the lightning disciples would have killed him. Another such incident was Aion's meeting with Gravis at the Wind Wall. If Gravis hadn't planned everything beforehand, he would have also died then.

Strength was the most important thing, but if one didn't have enough strength, they needed to find something else that allowed them to turn the tide. Luckily, Gravis had the required intelligence.

against elder Red and the priest from the Heaven Sect had been especially hard. In both cases, Gravis had a way

to be too insane. Yet, his powerful Will-Aura gave credibility

it was the most powerful one he had ever seen in relation to his Realm. Though, the circumstances of the

themselves enough to achieve ascension. Why would there be a reason to risk their lives further if the

of resources and Energy, people stayed inside their Realms for shorter periods of time. On top of that, Orpheus told Gravis something else about

not all cultivation paths required a Will-Aura. There was a mountain of techniques that bypassed the Will-Aura requirement, allowing people to reach

requiring a Will-Aura was called the Will Forging Path. It was the most original path and also

resources. Same thing with the Energy Gathering Stage. With different cultivation techniques, people could also

Thus, achieving Unity also

ten. They were simply just kids that had been pumped full of resources. This seemed unreal to Gravis. There were small kids out there that were in the same Realm as

Nourishing Realm was, of course, also not hard for these children. It only needed time and resources. But after that, the

next Realm, they needed to understand some things about the laws. Something like that couldn't be solved with resources. On top of that, the kids, who had not achieved much by themselves, had not nearly enough experience with

had different affinities for different things. So, they couldn't just learn

the kids progressed, the harder it was to help them. At one point, there was basically nothing that anyone could do. This meant that these people would never achieve another breakthrough

as someone that went through the Will Forging Path, but there was an issue. Tempering required genuine danger. The family had already invested

had an easy way to a relatively high Realm, but they were

could completely immobilize one of these cultivators in the middle Stage of the Nascent Nourishing Realm. This was a jump of one and a half

background. One shouldn't forget that even the Opposer couldn't make someone become more powerful than the Immortal Emperor Realm. Anyone else wouldn't even

only person that could make people reach the Immortal Emperor Realm. Everyone else was stuck in the Immortal Realm. There was one Realm

highest world could make someone reach it. These were the rulers, hegemons,

if