Lightning Is the Only Way

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.