Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis didn't concentrate on anything specific. He simply looked at the gasses, the stones, the lava, the fire, and basically everything he could find. As long as he saw that he didn't understand something, he started looking at it closely.

Other beasts and maybe even humans might think this was a waste of time, but Gravis didn't think so. His goal was the peak, and to reach the peak, he probably needed to understand everything either way. Understanding it now or later made no difference. Additionally, he couldn't know if something would be necessary for another, more battle-relevant Law before knowing it.

Gravis remained inside the first volcano for three years. Even though he only had 26 years remaining now, he didn't mind his slow progress. Everything would fall into place later.

The second volcano only took Gravis two years to thoroughly check out. He had learned most of the things he could learn in the second volcano already in the first one.

Then, Gravis went to one volcano after the other, and when he was finished with looking at all the volcanos, another three years had passed.

During that time, Gravis not only learned about fire but also about the different kinds of gasses. Additionally, he also learned a lot about the earth element during that time. There were a lot of different kinds of stones he could find here.

Then, Gravis went to the lava rivers and checked all of these out. Yet, after only three years, he got interrupted.

BOOOOM!

Because he suddenly managed to comprehend a Law. Which Law was it?

The Composition Law of the Earth Element.

Gravis had learned a lot about earth when he had been in the first Law Comprehension Area. He had paid attention to the mountain, the materials on the mountain, the sand, the dirt, the silt under the river, and all different kinds of earth.

Then, he had learned a lot about earth when he had stayed in Meadow's forest. After all, earth was an integral part of how plants worked.

Gravis smiled in excitement when he suddenly understood this new Law. Then, he put his hand on the ground.

SSSHHH!

And the ground turned to ash. When he saw that, he smirked. 'Individually, these Laws only give me a very specific and specialized advantage over certain opponents. Yet, if I learn all of them, I cover all my theoretical opponents with these Laws.'

'My Laws regarding Plants already give me a ridiculous advantage against any plant opponent. Then, I counter wood element cultivators with the Wood Composition Law. Now, I also counter earth cultivators. When I learn the Soft Pure Law, I will even counter all the metal cultivators. My lightning is a counter anyway.'

Gravis only continued smirking. 'There are ten kinds of opponents. Either they have an affinity towards one of the nine elements or no affinity at all. Lightning, earth, metal, and wood already counter 40% of all my opponents. If I meet a fitting opponent, these level one Laws can exhibit the power of a level two Law.'

'So, even though my Battle-Strength hasn't increased overall, it has still increased tremendously against these kinds of opponents.'

Then, Gravis looked at the lava beneath him with fire in his eyes. 'Let's go for fire next!'

With that, Gravis continued learning more about fire, and it took him a total of six years to get through all the crevices. Yet, before he went to the next spot, he got distracted by something.

By now, Gravis had continued looking at a wall for several hours now. He knew everything about the wall, and if one looked at it, one couldn't see what Gravis could learn about it. Why was he looking at that wall?

The wall was at a particular spot where only one series of volcanoes could illuminate it. The chaotic outbursts and calming down of the volcanoes created quite a light show on the wall. Gravis was intrigued by this light show. He didn't know why, but he felt like this was something he should pay attention to.

'It's so interesting. I don't know much about light and darkness, but this light show is just so weird. It's difficult to see where light ends, and darkness begins. All the spots have a different kind of illumination. When is light light and darkness darkness?'

Gravis continued scratching his chin in thought. 'I mean, darkness is just an absence of light. So, there are not actually two things, but only one thing that has two sides. It's a gradient.'

'Wait,' Gravis suddenly thought as he stopped scratching. 'Where have I seen that before?'

Gravis thought back and tried to remember where he had seen something like this happen before.

Suddenly, his eyes widened.

BOOOOM!

BOOOOM!

Gravis immediately comprehended two Laws. What were these Laws?

They both had nothing to do with light and darkness. In actuality, these Laws were completely unrelated to these two elements.

Gravis had comprehended the Composition Law of Wind and Air.

'Of course!' Gravis thought with excitement as his body shook. 'Air and wind are just like light and darkness! Air is the absence of wind! It's just like the light and darkness on this wall!'

Then, Gravis laughed loudly. 'It was the right decision to go somewhere else! I wonder how long it would have taken me to understand this if I hadn't gone somewhere else?'

Gravis smirked. 'Anyway, now I counter 50% of my opponents! This just keeps getting better and better.'

'Let's continue! I've already managed to comprehend three Laws here in only 17 years! Sure enough, the more I learn, the faster my progress will be.'

Gravis left the wall and looked at the firestorms raging in the air. With his new comprehension of the Composition of Wind and Air, Gravis felt like this was the perfect next location. With his new knowledge, he would be able to filter out the knowledge he needed, which made trying to understand everything much less confusing.

Due to that, Gravis managed to go through the biggest territory, which was the firestorms, in just five years. Now, only the fires on the forever-burning plants remained.

Gravis went over to the burning forest and looked at the fire and gasses it produced.

And after two years…

BOOOM!

"Finally!" Gravis shouted.

He had managed to comprehend the Soft Pure Material Composition Law. "Man, that seemingly took forever!"

Yet, he wasn't done with looking at the fire.

One more year passed until Gravis was finished with looking at the Law Comprehension Area. Trying to understand the Composition Law of Fire would have been very difficult. Yet, by seeing how wind and air worked and how the wood element wasn't really a physical thing, Gravis managed to make the leaps in logic to understand fire.

BOOOOM!

'And that's the Composition Law of Fire done! Now, I counter 60% of my opponents!' he thought with a smirk.

'Now, I'm only missing light, darkness, and water. Light and darkness are their own thing, and I don't have enough time to learn their Laws probably. I think I should check out water next.'

'But first!'

Then, Gravis started standing motionlessly in the air. He was just not doing anything. It was like he was unconscious.

Two months later.

BOOOOM!

'Composition of Lightning done!' Gravis thought. He didn't need to understand the Composition Law of Lightning to counter lightning cultivators, but to make the set as complete as possible, he decided to look at it anyway now. Understanding stuff about lightning didn't take long for him. After all, he only needed to look at himself.

'Water time!' Gravis thought.

Then, he quickly went over to Ferris, who told Gravis that he managed to understand a level two Law regarding fire. Now, Ferris understood three level two Laws and one level three Law. With these Laws, he might even be able to fight level three Emperors as a level one Emperor, which was very impressive.

Ferris told Gravis again how helpful all his words and teachings had been to him. Ferris didn't specifically tell Gravis that he would risk his life for him, but Gravis was absolutely sure that Ferris would do that. Gravis could almost feel Ferris' loyalty physically.

After that, they quickly went to a Law Comprehension Area for water.

And only two years later…

BOOOOM!

Gravis learned the Composition Law of Water. 'Now, I counter 70%! Yet, I don't have any time for light and darkness anymore. Additionally, I won't have any access to any other Law Comprehension Areas anymore in five years. Wow, 97 years have already passed. It somehow doesn't feel that long.'

For their last stop, Gravis and Ferris went back to the first Law Comprehension Area. There were a lot of materials around, and Gravis would use these materials to try to understand as much about the Complex Laws as possible. Differentiating the different Complex materials was difficult, and Gravis wasn't sure if he would manage to learn enough about them in his remaining time.

And like this, the last three years passed.

Gravis hadn't managed to learn a Complex Material Law, but he already had a lot of knowledge about them. Additionally, he couldn't find all the relevant materials here. There were many Complex Materials that could only be found in the absolute core of the world. The materials here only went to around the Late Nascent Nourishing Realm. Gravis was missing an entire Realm of materials above these.

"Hey, Gravis!" Ferris shouted. "Time's up! We need to return."

Gravis flew up and looked at the Law Comprehension Area one last time. 'My 100 years are up, and I should be about 160 years old now. But, hey, I managed to comprehend a total of 13 level one Laws in these 100 years. By now, my experience in Law Comprehension shouldn't be lower than a level one Emperor,' Gravis thought.

Then, he looked in the direction of the Icy Pride Empire.

"It's time to become more powerful!"