Chapter 73 - 73 – Lightning
Gravis was surprised when he continued reading the Lightning Codex, as lightning was different from the other elements. The other elements were either good in creation or destruction, but lightning could be good in either one of those, yet not in both at the same time.
Elements like water and light, which were very good in creation, would use their element and create something destructive if they wanted to fight. The elements were, inherently, not destructive. Yet, lightning was inherently neither about destruction nor about creation.
Gravis put the Lightning Codex down for a second and thought. The destruction of lightning was apparent. It could destroy everything it hit, and its destruction was incredibly powerful, yet what’s with this creation stuff? Creation had been described as the manipulation of Life Energy, and Gravis couldn’t think of how creation and lightning were related.
Gravis continued reading and furrowed his brows further. The other elements were either 100% destruction and 0% creation, or 0% destruction and 100% creation. It was easy to categorize, yet lightning...
Lightning: Variable destruction/variable creation.
What was that supposed to mean? How can an element be variable in destruction and creation? It either created or destroyed. Gravis continued reading, and slowly he started understanding.
Lightning was comprised of pure Destruction Energy and pure Life Energy. The ratio of destruction and creation varied based on the type of lightning. Gravis was surprised when he learned that there were different types of lightning. He had only truly seen Heaven using lightning, and it always used it in an extremely destructive manner.
Life Energy, in itself, was not as concentrated as Destruction Energy. To be more precise, lightning with 90% Life Energy and 10% Destruction Energy would do absolutely nothing. It would not heal, and it would not damage, since the Destruction and Life Energy canceled each other out. It would merely exist, nothing more.
Gravis grew more confused. He couldn’t imagine a lightning bolt striking something and nothing happening. With that ratio, one wouldn’t even be able to hurt a small mouse. What’s the point of that? Gravis continued reading.
Lightning with the earlier mentioned ratio didn’t exist in nature and could only be created artificially. Natural lightning had a 50/50 ratio. Natural lightning, with this ratio, would be about as destructive as fire.
The Lightning Codex then talked about Life Lightning. Apparently, Life Lightning was lightning with 0% destruction and 100% creation. It was incredibly difficult to cultivate and extremely expensive. On top of that, it required a specific mindset.
The more the personality of a person fit the element, the more effective it would be. This was the reason why the Elemental Guilds only accepted specific people into their guilds. The fire produced by someone timid and peaceful would be incredibly weak. The person wouldn’t be able to resonate with their element, and they could only force the element to do what they wanted with their will, which would take a lot of Energy.
This demonstrated how difficult and expensive it would be to cultivate in Life Lightning, yet, when Gravis read the effects of Life Lightning, his jaw dropped. Life Lightning was pure Life Energy, and as long as it hit, it would increase the Life Energy of the patient.
This wasn’t that impressive, since light and water could do the same. The difference that made Life Lightning so incredible was the source of the transmitted Life Energy. Water used the Life Energy of the user, while light used the Life Energy of the patient.
Life Lightning only used Energy from the user, not Life Energy. This was a humongous difference! Energy filled the person and the surroundings, and someone could just rest a little, and their Energy would recover. Life Energy was way more difficult to regenerate. It would take days or even weeks to recover for a young person, while injured and old people had incredible difficulties in regenerating Life Energy.
As long as the user still had Energy, they could heal as many people as long as their Energy reserves were not used up, no matter how injured the patient was. Of course, everything positive came with its fair share of negatives.
While water and light could still attack with their elements, people who cultivate in Life Lightning couldn’t. If they used their element as an attack, they would just heal their opponents. People who cultivated in Life Lightning either had to find protectors or fight without their element.
"If there is lightning with 100% Life Energy, is there also lightning with 100% Destruction Energy?" Gravis asked himself. If natural lightning with a ratio of 50/50 was already as powerful as fire, how powerful would lightning with 100% Destruction Energy be?
Gravis continued reading, and quickly, his face scrunched up. Was there lightning that was 100% destructive?
No.
The highest ratio, that anyone had ever managed, was 60/40. The Lightning Sect had spent a fortune to make their strongest genius into the strongest person. They used up an incredible amount of wealth to increase the ratio of destruction to 60%, yet, it was a successful gamble.
That person had reigned supreme in the Elemental Sects, and no one was able to obstruct him. He rampaged through the Elemental Sects and increased the power of the Lightning Sect. After a long reign, that person finally ascended into a higher world.
The Lightning Codex continued talking about the destructive nature of lightning and why it was so challenging to create. The first problem was the splitting of the Energy. Lightning was one entity, and how could someone split it in two?
The other problem was the destructive aspect. The more destructive lightning got, the harder it was to manipulate it with Formation Arrays. At some point, the lightning would become so destructive that it destroyed the Formation Arrays. Either the Energy of the Formation Arrays went out of control, or the lightning destroyed the materials.
The last problem was the body of the cultivator. Cultivating something like fire, darkness, and natural lightning was already risky. If someone weren’t careful, their body would be destroyed while cultivating.
All these issues made increasing the destruction of lightning difficult, and cultivating 100% destructive lightning was, straight up, impossible. How could someone even absorb something like that? Their whole body would get destroyed. Even Gravis was 100% sure that he wouldn’t have even a slight chance of absorbing 100% destructive lightning.
Gravis understood lightning better now, and after the long description of lightning’s property, the Lightning Codex finally came to the part about how to cultivate lightning.
Apparently, one would need to start by getting struck by weaker lightning and creating a Lightning Seed. After the Lightning Seed had been created, the person would increase the intensity of lightning until their body couldn’t take much more.
The best that anyone could do, without the backing of a supreme Sect, was 50%. That was the threshold of natural lightning, and one couldn’t find better lightning anywhere. While absorbing lightning, the person would also slowly temper their muscles and make them lightning resistant.
When the person broke through the Energy Gathering Realm, they only needed to funnel their Energy through the Lightning Seed, and they would be able to create their own lightning, based on the purity of their Lightning Seed. Sadly, the book didn’t go into detail on how to continue after breaking into the Energy Gathering Realm.
After several hours, Gravis had finally finished reading the Lightning Codex, and eyes showed his boundless ambition. He finally knew how to cultivate lightning. The first thing he had to do was go into the Lightning Tower’s first level and condense his Lightning Seed. After that-
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
Gravis looked at the entrance.
"Who could that be?"