Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis spent the next couple of years looking at nothing but his memories of the different Energy streams.

"Master, 50 years are up," Siral suddenly transmitted to him.

Gravis always lost himself in comprehension, and centuries passed in the blink of an eye, which is why he had tasked Siral to keep track of time. Otherwise, Siral's tribulation might arrive in merely a second.

Gravis opened his eyes and nodded.

After that, he took out the second fruit and consumed it. He didn't even think about that one mortal guy. Right now, he had to focus on his Law of Magma.

Gravis felt his body grow more powerful again as he swallowed the fruit, but just as before, it was only an illusion. His body couldn't become more powerful anymore without reaching the next level.

Gravis closed his eyes as he watched the streams again. After thinking about what he had seen the last time he had eaten the fruit, the streams of Energy only appeared even more familiar to him.

The streams of colored Energy danced in his stomach, and Gravis watched them as they seemingly played with each other. Laws were created and destroyed inside his stomach, and the display was just as magical as the first time Gravis had seen it.

And just like before, the display had vanished just as quickly. It felt so incredibly short to Gravis, but ten years had passed yet again.

Gravis sighed when he realized that his second fruit had been used up just like that. It didn't feel like he had learned anything during that time, but that was mainly due to the fact that he was absorbing as much of the display as he could without thinking much about it.

Putting logic and patterns behind what he had seen was something that he would do over the next 50 years.

Just as before, Gravis informed Siral to awaken him after 50 years, and Gravis closed his eyes again.

In Gravis' mind, the streams of Energy appeared again, and Gravis started to find patterns of their creation and decomposition. The display inside his mind became even more realistic after he had eaten the second fruit. The first display seemed blurry and confusing in comparison.

This one was far clearer, and Gravis could now extrapolate even more information out of this display.

"50 years are up, Master," Siral suddenly said, and Gravis opened his eyes.

His face still appeared a bit complex, but it wasn't overly much so. 'I think I'm getting used to huge chunks of time being cut out from my life,' Gravis thought. 'It's still a bit weird, but I guess one can get used to absolutely everything.'

Gravis looked at the horizon with furrowed brows. '120 years have passed ever since I have consumed the first fruit. This means that Siral's tribulation will happen sometime in this century. There is always plus-minus a century when it concerns an Immortal's tribulation. After all, Arc has to set all the gears in motion.'

'I wonder what opponent Arc has chosen for me.'

Currently, dawn was appearing on the horizon, but Gravis could empathize more with a sunset. Right now, Gravis was facing one of the most difficult fights in his life. This would be the first opponent that was five levels above him, and this opponent could only come from the Core Region.

The Core Region only had terrifying Cultivators. Gravis hadn't fought one yet, but he had met many people from the Core Region in Arc's clearing. According to what they said, it was not uncommon for Major Circulation Immortal Kings to know level five Laws.

In any other world, comprehending a level five Law would be the bottleneck to becoming an Immortal Emperor, but in this world, it was strange if someone didn't know a level five Law when they reached the Peak Immortal King Realm.

In other worlds, there would be an army of Peak Immortal Kings that couldn't breakthrough due to their lacking Law Comprehension, but in this world, the opposite was the case.

Immortal Kings generally started comprehending level five Laws somewhere in the Major Circulation Immortal King Realm. Immortal Kings that knew level five Laws in the Minor Circulation Immortal King Realm were rare geniuses, but it became normal in the Major Circulation.

Geniuses appeared in every single world, and this one was no exception.

However, the gigantic gulf between an average Cultivator and a genius in another world was reduced to a reachable distance in this world. The geniuses of this world might not be much better than the geniuses in other worlds, but there were far more of them here, and the average Cultivator was just as terrifying.

For the next couple of years, Gravis would prepare himself for the fight.

These might be the last years of his life, and he had to prepare himself fully.

Should he unleash his beast body?

He probably should. If he didn't, this decision might result in his death.

He couldn't hold back at all.

Gravis had to put all his cards on the table if he wanted to win, and he could keep nothing secret.

Undertaking this fight was an immense risk to Gravis, but there was no other choice.

Was Gravis ready for a fight against someone five levels above himself?

Probably not.

However, Gravis would never be ready.

Gravis could spend another 50,000 years comprehending Laws, but then what? Without tempering, he wouldn't be able to comprehend any level five Law. His experience with level five Laws wasn't good enough to understand these Laws without tempering.

This meant that Gravis wouldn't know a level five Law anyway. Sure, he could comprehend a ton of level four Laws, but that would only marginally help. The Soft Pure Law would help him create a better armor, but armor was literally useless against such an opponent.

This was a Weapon Cultivator, the beings with the highest attacking power in existence. If Gravis were hit by an attack to his head, he would die regardless, and if he were hit someplace else, that place would be absolutely decimated beyond imagination with or without armor.

The Body Composition Law would also change nothing. Gravis couldn't affect the body of someone so much more powerful than him.

The Element-Neutral level four Laws of Heat and Cold would also only supplement his Laws of Inferno's Heat and Frost's Cold. That also wouldn't increase his Battle-Strength in any way.

What then? More level four Battle Laws?

Unnecessary.

Gravis already designed all his Elements to serve a specific purpose, and understanding more Laws would only help a tiny bit.

So, in short, comprehending more Laws right now would literally only serve to give Gravis more Law Comprehension experience and save time in the future when he comprehended the relevant level five Laws.

In order to increase his power, Gravis needed to comprehend a level five Law.

Could Gravis go and find another opponent to temper himself against?

Maybe, but it wouldn't help that much.

Why?

Because Gravis was in an awkward place in regards to tempering.

Gravis could only temper himself against Spear Mountain because he was restricted from using his Spirit, Will-Aura, and Laws of Perceived Reality.

If Gravis fought a human four levels above himself, it would still count as tempering, but it wouldn't be much. His Will-Aura wouldn't increase a Realm, and such a fight definitely wouldn't put Gravis under enough pressure to push him to comprehend the Law of Magma.

So, in order to comprehend a level five Law, only two paths were left.

Fight someone five levels above himself.

Increase his Cultivation until the power of the opponents grew so much that fighting four levels above himself would become truly dangerous again.

There was no third way.

If Gravis chose the second way, he might as well give up trying to fight Arc in the future.

Gravis had to fight Arc. There was no other way.

What was more dangerous, fighting Arc or fighting someone five levels above oneself?

The answer was obvious.

How powerful would Arc be even in his weakened form?

Arc was a Peak Immortal Emperor, just like everyone else. However, he would still know the Major Law of the Dead World and the Major Law of Life.

These were level seven Laws!

If someone comprehended a single level six Law, they could already leave this world.

There might even be beings that know three level six Laws in this world, but what was that compared to knowing two level seven Laws?

Some Immortal Emperors knew level six Laws, but definitely not all of them.

Some Immortal Kings knew level five Laws, but definitely not all of them.

So, if one put Arc's power into the perspective of an Immortal King, it would be like Arc was an Immortal King that knew two level six Laws!

How ridiculous was that?

Could Arc fight five levels above himself in that case?

Pfft, easily!

Six levels? Probably.

Seven levels? Definitely not.

This meant that facing this opponent was absolutely nothing in front of facing Arc in the future.

So, if Gravis pulled back now, he would definitely die in the future.

He had to jump into the cold water!

Gravis prepared himself for the inevitable fight for the next couple of years as best as he could, and the years passed.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Suddenly, Gravis noticed some fighting in his Spirit Sense. Usually, he didn't notice any sounds of weak beings fighting, but the shockwaves were actually quite powerful for this area.

Gravis looked over with his Spirit Sense and noticed that a young man was battling several old people.

All of these old people had different robes and different weapons. They obviously didn't belong to the same power, but all of them were ganging up on the young man with black hair.

Even more, all four opponents were an entire level above the young man, but the young man was fighting all of them simultaneously.

The young man was in the Initial Nascent Nourishing Realm while his opponents were in the Early Nascent Nourishing Realm.

Gravis blinked a couple of times in surprise.

'Huh, isn't that that one mortal?'