The True Way Of The Lightning
One boy and a dummy, facing each other. The boy, his face calm yet excited, pumped up yet stable. The dummy, his wooden face stoic.
"This will be our final battle," said Issei softly. Although he knew that the dummy had no conscience and no intelligence, he felt like sharing some final words.
"Although you are only an inanimate object, I must thank you," Issei said with a slight bow. "I'm glad we fought so much!"
After lifting his head, a dangerous glint appeared on his sharp, cold and excited eyes. "Now, we will fight for real!"
Issei then dashed towards the dummy. Before he even attacked, the dummy took the initiative, just like Sa Ji said it would on the fifth level.
Sending out a sharp punch, the dummy moved three of his arms towards Issei's head, the air almost ripping apart at the spend.
Staring at the incoming attack, Issei didn't stop as he raised his palm and brought it forward, making a large illusionary palm appear and block the dummy's attack.
Issei then immediately channeled lightning to his feet and jumped up, jumping over the dummy. While in the air, his eyes flashed with lightning as he summoned his two swords.
"Second Way, Lightning Burst!"
At the moment, in front of Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, two spheres of lightning appeared, shooting forward at the dummy.
Before the attacks even reached, Issei continued with a second wave of attack.
"Illusionary Palm!" Issei shot quickly called back both swords and immediately sent five palm strikes at the dummy, each bring forth an illusionary palm that brimmed with power.
The dummy's torso did a full turn around and blocked all strikes, losing two arms in the process.
Before he could even attach the arms again, Issei was already behind him, slashing his swords.
"Fourth Way, Enhancement!" "Heavenly Strike!" Issei activated both martial skills at the same time, infusing both swords with lightning and at the same time launching a Heavenly Strike that was covered in lightning, like a fierce beast.
The dummy, who had no time to evade, could only use his arms to block, losing two more arms. Now, it only had one par left.
Before the dummy could launch a counter-attack, Issei's body crouched down and swiped at the dummy's leg with his own, making it lose his balance and start falling.
However, before he could fall, Issei's body twisted on the ground.
"Fourth Way, Enhancement!" His feet, now full of lightning, hit the dummy's body side-ways, making him launch towards a wall, crashing into it with a loud noise.
Immediately after launching the attack, Issei's eyes shone with a murderous glint, "Third Way, Movement!"
His legs, now full of lightning, dashed forward towards the dummy that was stuck at the wall. Just as they were about to reach, Issei's hand that was holding Gan Jiang pulled back and when they were about to reach, it lashed forward like a whip, Mo Ye doing the same.
"Heavenly Strike!" Issei roared as he felt the swords pierce through the dummy's body completely. But, he didn't end there.
Calling back his swords, Issei brought his arms back and started launching palm strike after palm strike at the dummy, each one bringing life to an illusionary image of a palm!
* Bang * * Bang*...
Countless bang noises came forth as each of his strikes hit against the dummy's body and the wall, bringing forth ear-splitting noises and dirt.
One, ten, a hundred... Issei didn't stop, each palm carrying more and more power.
Only after completely exhausting his spiritual power did he stop. Retreating back a couple of steps, Issei waited for the dirt, result of Issei's attack against the rock, that was blocking his vision in the air to dissipate.
After dissipating, what appeared wasn't a body. No, it was a round object – the dummy's head.
His attacks... completely obliterated the dummy's body! Only a head remained!
"Finally..." Issei said slowly. He then let his body fall down to the ground, immediately beginning to cultivate.
At the moment, Issei felt good. Really good. He just accomplished something that he had set out on accomplishing since the very day he battled the dummy – completely winning against it!
He had to admit, doing it with his own hard-work, with his own sweat, with his own two hands... the sense of achievement was simply exhilarating.
Once his spiritual energy was full, he slowly opened his eyes, looking at the dummy. However, the moment he looked at it, he was utterly surprised.
"What...?" Issei said, his mouth agape. The reason for his exaggerated reaction was because the dummy not only had completely regenerated, its appearance also changed.
It now had eight arms and two heads, its body was also bigger.
"How?" Issei said, but then something else caught his attention. On the dummy's base, the lever seemed to have passed through the fifth layer, entering a layer that he didn't know exited – The sixth layer.
"Truly..." Issei then said, now over his shock. In fact, he had a glad expression on his face, "Seems like we are both alike. We simply won't give up, no matter what...
"Then so be it...
"Let's see who's stronger!"
Issei then leaped forward and once more began to battle against the dummy.
Blow after blow, they endlessly launched attacks.
During the fight, Issei noticed that the dummy had another power – It could now control lightning!
The way it controlled lightning was also much more profound than his. The lightning seemed to have become on with him, and him one with the lightning. Each of its strikes were natural, as if Nature itself had sent them.
Each of his blows, beautiful, shining. As Issei continued to battle, he understood the difference between them.
Issei could only use lightning on limited ways... he could not freely control it. However, the dummy actually... had complete control over lightning!
"To become one with lightning..." Issei muttered slightly, enlightenment filled his eyes. He was beginning to comprehend something. Something important.
"To fuse your nature...
"To become nature itself...
"To become the lightning!"
At that moment, a look of comprehension appeared on his eyes. He now understood... he now knew that the Four Ways Of The lightning... it didn't end on the fourth way.
During the battle, he was enlightened. He discovered... that there was still a fifth way... a way that only the one who created it wast aware of.
The fifth way – The True lightning! The ability to control lightning like your limbs... the ability to fuse your body with lightning... to become one with it... the way of the True Lightning!
"So that's how it is..." Issei muttered as he once more blocked an incoming strike from the dummy. He now knew that there was still a fifth way... and the only way to acquire it would be to become one with lightning.
Immediately, he called back Gan Jiang and Mo Ye. He now focused all of his power on the Four Ways Of The lightning, but he didn't call out any skills.
He just imagined his spiritual power becoming lightning when he used the skills of the four ways, but at the same time, he imagined it without restrictions.
He imagined it free!
He imagine it wild!
He imagined it ferocious!
He imagined it just how the True Lightning, which cut across the sky, was! Free! Wild! Ferocious!
It was also at that moment that the dummy sent over a lightning attack at Issei.
Not bothering to block it, Issei let the lightning be absorbed inside his body. He let his body be electrocuted... he let himself feel like a lightning!
At that moment, something stirred on his profound veins. The spiritual power contained in it... transformed itself into lightning!
Opening his eyes, Issei finally looked at the dummy who had stopped its barrage of attack once he noticed that Issei stopped moving.
Issei's eyes, they were no longer brown. They were now a bright, etheral azure color! They were the color of lightning!
In it, unimaginable fierceness could be seen. Wild beyond belief... boundless power!
Slowly lifting up his right hand, lightning started to condense in it. It then became large sphere of lightning, and then a spear, after that a sword, followed by a shield...
"This is true lightning!" exclaimed Issei as he felt complete control over one of Nature's most powerful forces.
At that moment, lightning spheres began to appear all around Issei.
"Lightning, the most powerful of natures forces," Issei began to recite as words flooded his mind.
The spheres started bustling with electricity, eager to jump out.
"The most fierce, the most destructive..."
The spheres began to grow larger, the noise coming from them growing louder.
"Lightning is the ultimate weapon..."
The spheres started to contort itself, each of them becoming a different weapon. Swords, daggers, spear, lances...
"Lightning has the most power!"
More spheres appeared, already transforming into weapons. Issei's long hair whipped back and forth, his robes floating as if it was against the wind, although no wind was there. It was all formed from the spiritual power and lightning around Issei.
At that moment, a small smile crept on Issei's lip.
"Lightning is free!"
Immediately, all of the hundreds of weapons of lightning launched forward, their target a single one – the dummy.
Even as the weapons flew to the dummy, more weapons appeared, also following its predecessors to attack the dummy.
Issei, whose face was covered in an ethereal blue light, his eyes crackling with lightning itself, said softly, "This is the end."
At that moment, all weapons hit their targets, exploding into it, bringing lightning all around the room, filling it with a bright, azure light.
The building shook, startling the cultivators within it. They quickly dismissed it as small tremor, getting back to cultivate. At that time, no one was in the corridor of the third floor, so no one could see as the entire corridor was painted white, all originating from room 39.
The light kept like shining for a full three minutes before disappearing.
Back to Issei's private room, all that could be seen was black.
The floors, ceiling, walls... everything was black, the destructiveness of the lightning was frightening.
In the entire room, only one thing was left unscathed, the one who originated the attack – Issei.
He was currently standing up, looking over at the center of the room. The lightning around him had disappeared, his eyes back to its brown color.
He then smiled lightly, looking around the room, "The fifth way of the lightning, the true way..." Issei muttered lightly.
"I must thank you, kind dummy. If it wasn't for you, I never would have reached this level of power. You have my gratitude," Issei said with utmost politeness and gratefulness as he bowed to the charred remains of the dummy.
Looking around the room one more time, Issei closed his eyes and sat down cross-legged. His appearance really looked out of the place in a completely dark room.
He then evened his breathing and begun cultivating, replenishing his spiritual energy.
As he sensed his spiritual energy getting back to his body, he could occasionally feel a bolt of lightning spark inside his profound veins and dantian.
The Fifth Way of The Lightning... the secret way of the Four Ways Of The Lightning... the one only the creator knew.
It allowed the owner to change the nature of their own spiritual power, allowed them to make their spiritual power directly become lightning.
Because of that, it was ultimately versatile and adaptable. The creator of the skill himself had only been able to reach the fifth way at the end of his life, after countless dozens of years of non-stop cultivating it. He knew that although it seemed like a rank 4 martial skill on the surface, he had unintentionally created a rank 11 martial skill!
A martial skill that went against the heavens... a martial skill that allowed the user's body to assimilate lightning like his own blood, a power exclusive to the heavens.
That was the true form of the Four Ways Of lightning – True Way Of The Lightning!
A martial skill that was normally rank 4, but upon discovering its secrets and unlocking its fifth way, it would become a rank 11 martial skill.
A skill that defied the heavens! A legendary Skill!
A skill that in the entire world, only Issei grasped. It belonged to him, and only him.