Lightning Is the Only Way

"Wait, what? Stop! Stop!" shouted Gravis as soon as he jumped into the Wind Wall. His whole body was being thrown around the Wind Wall uncontrollably. He tried to activate his Elemental Synchronicity, but it just wouldn't work! His body was violently tossed up, then down, then up again.

'Why can't I activate my Elemental Synchronicity? Does this have something to do with my abnormal breakthrough?' he thought to himself as he was tossed around, already feeling dizzy. 'Come on, work!'

But it didn't help. The wind just wouldn't listen! After about a minute of this happening, Gravis summoned lightning around him, resisting the wind. 'Fuck, of course, there won't only be advantages to doing this.'

Whoop Tack!

Gravis left the Wind Wall and landed on the middle-continent. With his lightning and his Spirit, he had manipulated his body to get pushed out of the Wind Wall. After landing, he turned around and looked at the Wind Wall again with a grimace. "Why?" he muttered.

He thought about this for a while and got multiple suspicions, but the main one was his new Spirit. Energy was the base for all of the elements. His mind hadn't acclimated to Energy, which meant that his affinity with Energy had probably decreased.

Gravis tried to absorb the Energy from the surroundings and felt it course through his body. "No difference there. I can absorb and manipulate the Energy just fine. So that's not the issue," Gravis concluded after some tests.

Then, Gravis moved some of the Energy into his Spirit. To his surprise, as soon as the Energy went into his Spirit, it was immediately absorbed by the raging lightning. When Gravis saw that, he smiled bitterly. "I can't even retroactively make my Spirit adapt to Energy. Guess this is what I have to live with, huh?" he muttered.

"My Spirit and mind are the cores for controlling the elements. By filling it with lightning, I have probably killed every chance of manipulating other elements. The elements are different, and they don't like each other. Guess lightning has a monopoly over my body now," Gravis muttered.

Gravis was right. His Elemental Synchronicity was based on a natural affinity for every element. When he had thought about the different elements' temperaments, he had realized that he could empathize with any one of them. Yet, lightning was the only thing remaining inside of him now.

As Gravis thought back to the temperaments of the different elements, he also noticed something that he hadn't up to now. His thoughts had changed. As he thought back, he realized that he couldn't restrain himself like the earth element or be as greedy as the darkness element.

"What's happening?" Gravis asked with a serious look. "When I have thought about other elements in the past, I always saw some connection between them and me, but now, they feel disconnected."

Gravis thought about a hypothetical situation where someone attacked him, but he only defended himself without attacking back. Before he had formed his Spirit, that wouldn't have been an issue. Yes, it might feel stupid or unnecessary, but he could force himself to do just that.

Yet, as he thought about this hypothetical scenario right now, it felt like doing that would be entirely against his whole being. If someone attacked, he had to attack back! They have infringed upon his territory, which meant that they deserved what's coming to them.

Suddenly, Gravis' eyes widened. "It's just like back then in the Proxy-Lightning Guild!" Gravis exclaimed. "The temperament of lightning is influencing me!"

But in comparison to back then, Gravis didn't mindlessly lose his reasoning. Back then, it felt more like the lightning was manipulating him instead of just influencing him. Now, Gravis could still think rationally, but going against lightning's temperament felt unnatural to him, for some reason.

Gravis laughed bitterly. "I guess this is how the normal cultivators feel," he said to himself.

Every Elemental Guild had a specific temperament, and every member of the guilds echoed that temperament. Back then, Gravis could have imagined him being part of other Elemental Guilds, but not anymore. Now, it felt like he didn't belong to those guilds. It felt like they all chose the wrong way.

"Well, the good comes with the bad, I guess," Gravis said, shrugging, and left the area of the Wind Wall.

Would Gravis still have tempered his Spirit with lightning if he knew that he would lose his Elemental Synchronicity? Yes, he would have!

Losing his Elemental Synchronicity was a blow, which destroyed one of his trump cards, but it didn't come close to his gains. Gravis felt an intrinsic connection to his lightning, and he felt like he could do anything with it. On top of that, Gravis was also sure about one thing.

'I am absolutely immune to lightning,' he concluded. 'I am lightning, and when more lightning appears, more of me appears. Why would I injure myself?'

Suddenly, Gravis stopped as he got an idea. He looked at his hand and thought a bit. "I wonder…"

Gravis looked around until he found three big boulders. Gravis pointed one of his fingers at it.

BANG!

Lightning left his finger, and the boulder was obliterated. Then, Gravis concentrated and shot another lightning bolt at a different boulder.

BANG!

This time, only a big part of the boulder exploded. It was not wholly destroyed like the last one. Gravis concentrated more and shot lightning at the third boulder.

BANG!

When the lightning hit the boulder, it created a loud thunder, but the boulder remained undamaged. When Gravis saw that, he smiled in ecstasy. "I can control the ratio of Destruction and Life Energy!" he shouted.

In this lower world, something like this had never happened. A cultivator could only use their element by sending Energy through an Elemental Seed. Therefore, the composition of the Element was always identical to the Elemental Seed.

Yet, Gravis shattered that belief and was able to freely control his type of lightning. Yet, it wasn't as easy as it sounded.

"That took a lot of Energy," he said to himself.

One shouldn't forget that Gravis had moved a second, newly-created Lightning Seed into his Spirit. What about his original Lightning Seed? When Gravis thought that, he noticed something, and his eyes widened.

"It's gone!?" he shouted.

His old Lightning Seed was gone. But then, how was he able to create lightning? Gravis looked into his dantian and found the answer.

BZZZZZZ!

Just like his Spirit, his dantian was filled entirely with lightning. He couldn't see any Energy inside of it. "Has my Lightning Seed moved into my dantian? When did that happen?" he said.

Sadly, Gravis didn't know that he had become a physical manifestation of the concept of lightning when he made his breakthrough. He knew that something had happened, based on what Aion had told him, but he didn't know the specifics. Why would such a manifestation care about pure Energy? The manifestation had immediately converted as much as possible into lightning before the highest Heaven stopped it.

Usually, having an element inside one's dantian was impossible. A strengthened dantian was barely able to resist the pressure of the gentle and calm Energy. If it had lightning inside of it, it would immediately explode. Yet, with Gravis' unprecedented affinity with lightning, the lightning didn't even pressure the dantian, let alone injure it.

"Wait," Gravis said. "Then how did I feel the drain of Energy when I changed the ratio of my lightning if I don't have Energy in my dantian?"

Gravis quickly found the answer. Energy was not only stored in the dantian. The body itself also worked as a passive container of Energy but vastly inferior to the dantian. When he had reduced the ratio of the Destruction Energy in his lightning, he had taken an appropriate amount of Destruction Lightning out of his dantian.

Then, he had supplemented the Destruction Energy with the converted Energy of his body. His body's passive Energy had transformed into Life Energy and mixed with the Destruction Lightning, reducing its ratio.

"Wait, so if I just don't take any Destruction Lightning from my dantian, I should theoretically be able to…"

Gravis pointed at a flower and shot some lightning.

BANG!

The flower received no injury. Instead, it started growing violently in a matter of seconds. Gravis smirked when he saw that. "Life Lightning!" he shouted. Gravis had created lightning with 0% Destruction Energy and 100% Life Energy.

Yet, in order to create Life Lightning, he had used a lot of the inherent Energy in his body. Through his multiple tests, Gravis had lost about 70% of the inherent Energy inside of his body. The loss of the Energy didn't impact his fighting strength, but it felt exhausting.

Gravis did some calculations in his head. "A stronger body needs more Life Energy to heal. When the body gets injured, the inherent Energy inside the body slowly transforms into Life Energy over time, thus healing the body. So, theoretically, by transforming all the Energy in the body, I can create as much Life Energy as my body can hold," he muttered to himself.

"Judging by the power of my body, I could probably heal myself to my peak state from a near-death state once," he concluded.

Gravis smirked as he rubbed his chin in thought.

"Another trump card added to the pile."