Chapter 357: Alternative Cultivation (1/2)

Gravis spent two whole weeks with his mother, just talking about everything. He had needed this breather and talk. He had confronted his emotions and had accepted the pain. By now, he felt much better, and he also felt like a constant pressure, which he hadn't noticed before, had disappeared.

Laughing came way easier, and it also felt deeper. When he thought back on his journey in the lower world, it felt to him like it was in his distant past. It felt like this had been done by a younger him, even though he had still been there two weeks ago.

He accepted the deaths that he had caused, but this wouldn't stop his path. He didn't want to hurt innocent people, but he accepted that this was just a reality of becoming powerful. Sometimes, even if he didn't want to hurt or kill them, it just happened because of something that he was doing.

Gravis wasn't some saint that wanted to keep the world pure. He just wanted to achieve his goal. If he could avoid it, he wouldn't implicate others, but that couldn't always be avoided. Gravis felt his path to power to be as clear and stable as never before. He would reach his goal, no matter what it took!

He also thought about all the pain he had caused by fighting Heaven. Yet, if Gravis knew what his fight would have brought, he would have still gone through with it. His enmity with Heaven was more important to him.

After his long talk with his mother, Gravis visited his brother Orpheus. In comparison to his parents, Orpheus didn't know anything about Gravis' journey in the lower world, so he was very interested in Gravis' story.

Gravis told his story to his brother, and Orpheus listened with bated breath. He said that a lot of things had been similar to his journey in his lower world, but there were also a lot of differences.

When Orpheus had visited his lower world, he only had to deal with his lack of Karmic Luck. The Heaven of that world didn't go after him. This made his journey still difficult, but not nearly as much as Gravis'.

Heaven basically had all the power in the world, so it had been able to send stuff at Gravis that he shouldn't have been able to deal with. A good example of that was Aion's visit to Proxy-Lightning Guild or the way more powerful lightning disciples at the tree.

When one only looked at the numbers, one would come to the conclusion that Gravis would die. Yet, he had managed to squirm his way out of these situations. These situations hadn't required a powerful combat strength, but intelligence.

If Gravis hadn't been able to simulate a Heavenly Pressure so well, Aion would have killed him, and if he hadn't kept an additional beast corpse ready, the lightning disciples would have killed him. Another such incident was Aion's meeting with Gravis at the Wind Wall. If Gravis hadn't planned everything beforehand, he would have also died then.

Strength was the most important thing, but if one didn't have enough strength, they needed to find something else that allowed them to turn the tide. Luckily, Gravis had the required intelligence.

The fight against elder Red and the priest from the Heaven Sect had been especially hard. In both cases, Gravis had a way higher chance of dying than surviving. Only his creativity with his power allowed him to win against these two opponents.

If Gravis told these things to others, they initially might not believe him. It just seemed to be too insane. Yet, his powerful Will-Aura gave credibility to his tales. If Gravis didn't survive so many mortal dangers, he wouldn't have such a powerful Will-Aura.

Orpheus especially praised Gravis' Will-Aura. He said that it was the most powerful one he had ever seen in relation to his Realm. Though, the circumstances of the lower and highest world also played a part in that.

In the lower world, everyone only tempered themselves enough to achieve ascension. Why would there be a reason to risk their lives further if the peak of power, which they could comprehend, was already in reach?

In comparison, cultivation in the highest world was way faster. Due to the abundance of resources and Energy, people stayed inside their Realms for shorter periods of time. On top of that, Orpheus told Gravis something else about the highest world that surprised him quite a bit.

Apparently, not all cultivation paths required a Will-Aura. There was a mountain of techniques that bypassed the Will-Aura requirement, allowing people to reach a higher Realm way sooner. Additionally, many of the cultivation techniques also bypassed the resting period for tempering someone's Spirit.

Orpheus told Gravis that the path of requiring a Will-Aura was called the Will Forging Path. It was the most original path and also the first one. People that didn't follow that path had basically no bottlenecks for the first five Realms.

Going through the Body Tempering Realm was easy since it only required resources. Same thing with the Energy Gathering Stage. With different cultivation techniques, people could also convert resources into tempering for their Spirits.

After that, they had a powerful body, a powerful dantian, and a powerful Spirit. Thus, achieving Unity also wasn't an issue. After all, the cultivation techniques bypassed the need for a Will-Aura.

Apparently, there were many Unity Realm cultivators that didn't even reach the age of ten. They were simply just kids that had been pumped full of resources. This seemed unreal to Gravis. There were small kids out there that were in the same Realm as him?

Reaching the Nascent Nourishing Realm was, of course, also not hard for these children. It only needed time and resources. But after that, the required background for the kids became higher.