Tianyi stood in the True Nothingness, still in his Avalon mage guise. Since he was going to create a separate identity from his true self, he might as well go all the way.
As they say, deceiving the enemy starts with deceiving your friends.
Lightning continually condensed in his hands, shooting from one hand to another. The color varied from purple, red, to even black, but the most common colors were blue or white-yellow.
This was not by preference. In the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System, the purple-gold lightning was the most powerful. However, that seemed not to apply outside of the system. In the various systems Tianyi had visited, lightning was usually blue or yellow.
Even when he generated various kinds of lightning using his limitless energy or released lightning from his inner universe into the outer universe, those lightnings unique to the Three Thousand Immortal Realms would actually not last long compared to a few blue or yellow ones.
Certainly, if you compared them solely on their energy value, the purple-gold lightning would last longer, but if all the lightnings had the same amount of energy, the reverse would be true.
After several experiments, Tianyi had reached a likely hypothesis. He compared the various lightnings and discovered that the more powerful the lightnings, the faster they would destabilize in the True Nothingness. Conversely, the weaker the lightning, the longer it would last.
Powerful lightning had various effects, but in the True Nothingness, those various effects would clash against each other, literally destroying itself from within. The only reason it worked in the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System was because the rules of the system allowed it.
Without these binding rules, those unique lightnings would not exist in the universe. It was the same in various systems. Each one had lightning unique to their system, but once these lightnings showed up in the True Nothingness, they would destabilize and destroy themselves.
Because the divine-level Law of Lightning should be effective everywhere in the universe, Tianyi had thought his breakthrough would be to expand his repertoire and knowledge. He traveled to various systems to comprehend the Law of Lightning unique to them.
While that certainly increased his mastery of the Law of Lightning, he could not see a way to reach the divine level—at least until now.
Tianyi realized that he should not focus on those lightnings with complicated effects or dazzling appearances. He should focus on the essence and elevate a pure lightning that could exist in the True Nothingness.
As an experiment, he also conducted the test for the five elemental laws and the Law of Wind. The results were much the same as what he discovered with lightning. That meant these elemental laws should follow a similar path to the divine level.
So Tianyi got to work. He discarded the needless flash effects of the Spacetime Lightning, Five Element Lightning, Samsara Lightning, etc., and created a pure lightning. Elevating normal lightning to the level of lightning comparable to those special lightnings was difficult, to say the least.
Owing to his limitless energy, Tianyi had energy to spare. He could continually experiment and increase his mastery over the Law of Lightning. Hundreds of years passed, and Tianyi created a pure lightning that could resist the inhospitable climate of the True Nothingness. Its energy reserves did not decrease because of the environment, but only because of sustaining itself.
Such lightning was qualified to rank above the Spacetime Lightning and Five Element Lightning, but Tianyi had reached a bottleneck. He could not elevate it any higher.
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results was the definition of insanity. Yet, this was exactly what Tianyi was doing.
He constantly created the strongest lightning, hoping to see a new result, but the variations had already stopped over a decade ago.
His mastery of the divine-level Law of Spacetime had certainly increased his insight and comprehension, but just because he mastered one divine law did not mean mastering other divine laws would be simple. At most, it made it easier to reach the bottleneck and master a divine-level law, but it was still an astronomical feat to comprehend a divine-level law.
Finally, Tianyi stopped. He realized that he was too obsessed. Ever since the Heavenly Dao controlled his mother, he had not stopped, constantly rushing without rest. All of his available conduits were busy doing something, which increased his mental fatigue.
It could be said he had never experienced such fatigue since the birth of the Nine Heavens Universe.
Maybe he should rest a bit before resuming. The fresh look might help in his breakthrough. At least Tianyi thought so, but the rest didn’t last for long—just a few days before he found himself experimenting again.
He did not comprehend the Law of Lightning, but the other elemental laws like fire and wind. Tianyi did not stop until they reached a similar bottleneck to the Law of Lightning.
Despite his best efforts, Tianyi could not make a breakthrough. Before, Tianyi did not have enough pressure to motivate a breakthrough. Now he did, but it was too much, and the more he yearned to break through, the more detrimental it became for him.
The irony was not lost on Tianyi.
“You should take a rest,” Daoyi said. She was resting in bed while Tianyi was pacing back and forth on the floor.
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“Logically, I know I should rest. But whenever I do, a voice always whispers in the back of my mind that I’m wasting valuable time. What if I fail Mother because I wasted all that time?” Tianyi asked, grabbing his hair forcefully.
At this time, Daoyi stepped off the bed and hugged Tianyi from behind. She didn’t say anything, but her warmth brought comfort to Tianyi.
“It’s not like you to comfort me like this,” Tianyi said, not really talking to Daoyi.
Still, she answered. “As your other half, isn’t it only natural for me to do this? But more seriously, are my actions comforting you? Although I’ve gained all this power, I've lost something in the process. No, it was lost before I even came to this world because of the apocalypse. In order to survive, I discarded that unneeded part of me. This action of mine is done based on the fact that people do this to comfort others and not because I think it will do anything for you. I’m doing nothing more than copying other people’s actions.”
“Even if your heart isn’t in it, I feel like I can sense your heart.” Tianyi paused. He covered his face with his hand. “Damn, that’s corny.”
He could feel Daoyi nodding her head on his back. “Indeed. Even I could tell.”
“This would be the moment you keep your silence and pretend it never happened,” Tianyi said.
“Indeed, but where would be the fun in that?”
“You may not feel much emotion, but it seems your sense of humor is not lacking,” Tianyi griped. “Still, thank you.”
He placed a hand over Daoyi’s. “You may not feel anything, but it means the world to me.”
Tianyi turned around and picked Daoyi up in a princess cradle. “Let’s go to sleep.”
Both he and Daoyi laid their heads on the pillow. Pillows in the Primordial Realm were primarily made of wood with soft padding wrapped around them. Neither he nor Daoyi was used to it, so they made feather-stuffed pillows.
However, that didn’t matter right now.
Daoyi closed her eyes first, and her breathing slowed down soon after. After seeing her fall asleep, Tianyi closed his eyes. When was the last time he fell asleep?
Ever since he had entered the Immortal Realm, he had to consciously enter a sleeping state. Rather than sleep, it was closer to a hibernation or standby state that could be flipped off at a moment’s notice.
Tianyi didn’t do anything deliberate. He just felt his mind slow down, his view of the external world slowly growing murky. It wasn’t just the conduit with Daoyi, but all his conduits. Thankfully, his portals stayed open and didn’t need his conscious output like when he received Divinity Yanxu’s final slash.
His Nine Heavens Heavenly Dao clone maintained them for emergencies.
When Tianyi opened his eyes, the sun had already risen high into the sky, but that didn’t mean a night had passed. Months had passed. In other words, he slept for over half a year. It was no wonder Daoyi was not in bed. It’d be stranger if he saw her when he woke up.
Although Tianyi and Daoyi slept together, they did not need to do so as immortals. Both of them could remain perpetually awake, but because they wanted to keep their habits from their time as mortals, they would sleep together every so often, like an ordinary couple.
Tianyi originally suggested this to maintain their relationship and prevent it from becoming distant as they grew more powerful and indifferent. Originally, he was the one that reminded Daoyi, but recently, it was the opposite.
He stood up from the bed and stretched his body. He groaned as the phantom noise of his bones cracking echoed in his ears. It was the best sleep he had in recent memory, and he felt refreshed. All his mental fatigue was gone. The urgency was still there, but his mind had cleared.
After thinking about what he should do next, Tianyi decided to summon all the reincarnators and have another gathering. The location was set at Ninth Heaven inside the Nine Heavens Universe. The one who transported them was naturally Tianyi himself.
“I was a bit worried since you went radio silent, and most of your replies were curt,” Yan Nie said when he saw Tianyi.
Tianyi scratched his head. “Yeah, sorry about that. My mind wasn’t exactly in a good place.”
The reincarnators had split into several groups, mostly depending on their goals, profession, and power. Yan Nie, Daoyi, and Tianyi made up the upper echelon. They were the only ones at the Extremity Immortal Realm or above. Everyone else was an Immortal Monarch at best.
More than that, Yan Nie had reached the peak of the Origin Immortal Realm, but he was still far away from reaching the last step before the Divine Realm. “It’s really bad. I feel like my progress has become extremely slow. It might take me a few hundred thousand years to reach the bottleneck, and I don’t even know if I can step into the Divine Realm. What about you? How’s your progress?”
Tianyi and Daoyi shared a quick glance. As the person who slept in the same bed, there was little Tianyi did not tell her. In some respects, he confided in her more than his mother. So, she naturally knew that he had mastered the divine-level Law of Spacetime.
“Unfortunately, I haven’t taken that step. I can only wait for an epiphany or some other chance. So I’ve been brushing up on my other laws, namely the Law of Lightning, Law of Wind, and the five elemental laws,” Tianyi said. He also explained his discoveries about a possible path to the Divine Realm.
“Instead of integrating everything into fire, remove all impurities and strengthen the essence. Making the simple complex and returning from complexity to simplicity. That’s certainly a path I had not thought of for a long time,” Yan Nie said. “However, I won’t focus on this now. I feel like I can still integrate many more things into the Law of Fire. Only when I reach the bottleneck will I try your method.”
Yan Nie crossed his arms. “That said, I’d like to visit the various systems and collect the various kinds of fire. How about it? Can you hook me up with a free trip?”
Tianyi raised his hand. “Stop. Just go through the normal bureaucratic process. It’d be a literal universal diplomatic catastrophe if they discovered me sneaking you into their systems illegally. The gains would not be worth it. That said, you can carry one of my conduits in case of any accidents.”
Yan Nie groaned. “I did. It’s still pending approval. It was moving fast at first, but it suddenly stalled. I wonder if anything happened.”
“Hmm.” Tianyi held his chin. “I don’t think I heard anything that notable. I’ll put in a word and see if I can expedite the process.”
“Thanks a bunch.”
Tianyi turned toward Daoyi. “What about you? The Law of Life-and-Death isn’t the same as an elemental law. It might be better for you to experience the life and death of other systems too.”
Daoyi shook her head. “I’m fine. At least I won’t go now. It’s better to go when I reach a bottleneck.”
“In that case, I’ll just ask about Yan Nie’s application.”
They talked a bit more, but the gathering ended a few hours later.
On a side note, the Concealed Emperor and the other divinities almost experienced a minor shock when they heard that Tianyi wanted to expedite Yan Nie’s process. They couldn’t help but wonder if Tianyi was acting to relocate his friends and family in preparation for leaving the Heavenly Immortal Court.
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