Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis put the Virtualization Array into the socket. There was no reason to continue thinking about his issue. In the future, he would find a way. He was sure of it.

CRRR!

Mist and ice appeared in the room, coating it in a blueish-white color. The ice broke down and turned into mist, which broke down after a while and turned into ice again. It was a magical circle of transmutation without any rhyme or reason.

BANG!

Some of Gravis' scales broke off due to the cold, exposing his flesh. This happened a couple of times, but Gravis easily had enough Life Energy to heal himself. One shouldn't forget that Gravis had learned the Law of Energy Healing while fighting Heaven. Such injuries were no problem for him.

'Interesting,' Gravis thought as he looked at his freezing and dying hand. 'Just like nearly every other element, Frost attacks the outer layer first. The only two elements that attack something else are Deep Wood and Brilliance. Deep Wood directly attacks the soul while Brilliance attacks the entire body.'

'I had thought that maybe more elements had peculiar forms of attack, but that isn't the case, apparently. I was a bit surprised when Brilliance completely ignored my scales and my entire defense, directly attacking my most vulnerable parts. Yet, its attacking power was far weaker than all the other elements.'

'However, if someone used Brilliance against someone with an incredible defense, it could probably be the most useful element out of all. Yet, if the enemy only has a weak defense, it won't be even nearly as effective as the other elements. Advantages and disadvantages, eh?'

Gravis concentrated on the Frost and let it destroy his body all it wanted. The Smart Cultivator tuned these Virtualization Array just perfect for him. One had to remember that Gravis had a beast body and also knew a ton of Life Laws. Such a powerful Virtualization Array might actually kill even a Late Minor Circulation Immortal. Of course, that was only true if they didn't know much about the Life Laws.

This time, Gravis only needed 60 years to comprehend the level three Law, his fastest one yet. If Gravis were to tell anyone that he managed to understand a level three Elemental Law in just 60 years, they would probably not believe him unless he used his Law of Honesty.

The reason why Gravis had been so fast was because of all the other Laws he knew. Gravis knew Graphite, Inferno as the antithesis, the Law of Cold, the normal Law of Water, the general Law of the Elements, several Life Laws connected to water, and the general Temperature Law. Water was related to many different Law categories, and Gravis knew a lot of these categories.

SSSSSHHH!

Gravis turned the Frost into Energy and retrieved the Virtualization Array. Usually, he would have smiled and felt great about his accomplishment, but he didn't feel like it this time. The entire problem with his lightning had unveiled itself, and Gravis couldn't completely let go while this problem was still going on.

Without saying anything, Gravis exited his room again and directly went to the Smart Cultivator, not even looking into his "living room". He just couldn't be bothered with anything else right now. Becoming more powerful and fixing this problem with his lightning was his highest priority right now.

Additionally, by relaxing, Gravis would feel like he was betraying his lightning. A close friend of his was being suppressed by him, and he had the gall to go out and have fun!? This was not the person Gravis wanted to be.

"Shadow, please," Gravis said to a random clerk as he handed over the Virtualization Array for Frost.

The clerk accepted the array, checked the store database for Gravis' data, tuned the Shadow Virtualization Array, and gave it to Gravis. "Only two more to go," the clerk said with a smile. "Will you also take the Higher Pure Elemental one after that?"

"No," Gravis said. "I could earn the money, but I doubt that I would be able to learn it in three centuries or so, which would need me to work for several centuries more. I'm not yet ready to spend around a thousand years on only a single Law."

"You don't need to," the clerk said. "As long as you get the Law to around 60%, you can get the rest via tempering. Maybe you won't get it in one shot, but every real fight pushes your understanding forward."

Gravis scratched his chin. "I'll think about it," he said.

Then, he teleported away with the Virtualization Array for Shadow.

The Higher Pure Elemental Law was the level four Law comprised of all the level three Pure Elemental Laws. There had also been a level two variant of that Law, but Gravis had directly skipped it by understanding the Mixed Elemental Law first.

The Higher Mixed Elemental Law was a level five Law and included all the level three mixed Laws. Just understanding all the components would take Gravis a thousand years or so. This was not something he wanted to do right now since it had already been around 800 years since his last fight.

Gravis hadn't fought anyone in 800 years, his longest break yet. He would, at least, want to get one fight in between millennia of cultivation to keep his edge sharp.

Gravis retrieved the Virtualization Array and put it into the socket. Shadow was the level three Law equivalent of darkness. It was related to water, earth and had light as its antithesis. The Law of Cold also slightly helped with comprehension.

This was the first Law where Gravis understood all three components.

WHOOOM!

Absolute darkness appeared, and there was absolutely zero light in this room anymore. Even worse was the fact that this darkness also clouded Gravis' Spirit. It wasn't that Shadow attacked his Spirit, but that it was so dark that it could even hide things from Spirits.

There were only very few things that were able to escape the detection of a Spirit. One of these things was a very high level in space, another one a far higher cultivation Realm, and the last one was the Shadow Element.

Gravis closed his eyes and felt his body. He didn't feel any pain all over his body, but he felt his Life Energy decrease all over his scales. It was like his body was growing old and dying.

WHOOOOM!

Gravis activated his Law of Energy Healing and pushed his Life Energy production to the maximum. After doing this, Gravis noticed that his Life Energy regenerated a bit faster than the damage of Shadow. As always, the Virtualization Array had been perfectly tailored to his power.

After 45 years, Gravis managed to understand the Law of Shadow. He knew all related Laws and had a ton of Law Comprehension experience. It was only natural that he understood this Law with incredible speed.

Whooom!

The darkness inside the room vanished, and its Energy density increased. Gravis retrieved the Virtualization Array again but didn't immediately leave.

'Darkness and light are a gradient. The more powerful they become, the more they should blur into each other. It's a bit like Life Lightning and Destruction Lightning. You can have both of them, but you can also mix them however you want.'

'This means that there is probably an overarching Law, which is not just the result of fusing two Laws together to create a mixed element. Someone able to combine both of them would probably have a level four Elemental Law, which when used as an Avatar, would be able to unleash the power of a level five Law.'

'Level five Law, huh?' Gravis thought as he remembered his years together with the middle Heaven. 'The middle Heaven's power was actually really insane. Even now, with the level four Law of Control and these other new level three Laws, I would have no chance against it.'

'I would be able to put up a fight. With the Law of Control, I would be able to fight against the middle Heaven's Will-Aura to a stalemate. Then, my Law of Freedom would guarantee that I could use my full speed.'

'Yet, as soon as Heaven would unleash its Avatar and level five Laws, I would very quickly die. The only way I would have been able to fight it would have been to condense an Avatar from the Law of the Dead World, understand the Higher Pure Elemental Law, and incorporate that Law into my Avatar. Then, I would have also been able to unleash the power of a level five Law. At that point, I would probably win.'

Gravis looked to one of the walls of the room absentmindedly. 'I met the middle Heaven for the first time around 1,600 years ago, and even now, I wouldn't be powerful enough to kill it. The power difference is so incredibly vast.'

Gravis sighed as he remembered how he had proudly proclaimed that Heaven would die. Oh, what an ignorant fool he had been.

'What has passed, has passed,' Gravis thought. 'Don't think about it too much but remember your previous mistakes. You have fought one weak Heaven before and then one powerful Heaven. As far as I can see, probably all Heavens have this much Battle-Strength from now on.'

'Well, not exactly. I think the higher Heavens are actually even more insane. I could very well envision that the higher Heavens even know the Law of the Living World, which combines the Law of the Dead World and the Law of Life. I can't even imagine how powerful such a Law as an Avatar would be.'

'There is even a possibility that they know the Law of the Sentient World, which includes emotions. I should never take any Heaven lightly again.'

Gravis sighed again and left his house to exchange for the last Virtualization Array, Core.