Gravis had been training for over two days until he was finally finished.
BOOM!
The surroundings exploded as Gravis stretched his muscles. He grinned and touched the muscles all over his body, which felt harder than steel. "Finally, a body equal to the tenth level of Energy Gathering. Now, I am invincible in the Energy Gathering Realm even without my Will-Aura," he proudly said to himself.
Yet, he also sighed a little bit when he looked at his current wealth. "I only have a couple of weapons from the Darkness Guild left. I even used up all Energy Stones that I have plundered up until now. Luckily, I am only missing 20% Energy to reach the tenth level of Energy Gathering. After I sell those weapons, I should have enough Energy Stones to reach the tenth level. Then, I'll immediately break into the Spirit Forming Realm."
Gravis kept the Energy in his head at a constant 99%. If he shot a single dot of Energy into his head, he would immediately break into the Spirit Forming Realm. Of course, that would damage his foundation. The stronger he was before a breakthrough, the better. The amount and density of Energy that he cultivated now would serve as a baseline in the future.
'After I sell those weapons, I will directly break into the tenth level and then ascend into the Spirit Forming Stage. At that time, I only need to finish some unfinished business in the Middle-Continent and then…' Gravis looked up towards the sky, "the Core-Continent."
CAW!
Skye shouted as it noticed that Gravis walked around. For the last two days, he had only been sitting around, eating pills without end. Skye knew that it shouldn't disturb Gravis during that time, so it kept itself busy with other stuff.
Skye quickly landed before Gravis and rubbed its head against his body. Gravis only laughed slightly and ruffled its feathers. "How's it going, Skye? How far are you from a breakthrough?" asked Gravis with a laugh.
Skye pulled its head back and looked at Gravis with an unsure expression. When Gravis saw that, he lifted an eyebrow. "What's up?" he asked.
Skye shook its head, and Gravis immediately understood what Skye meant with that. It meant that it wasn't even close to a breakthrough. As Gravis saw that, he furrowed his brows. "This shouldn't be right. You have eaten so many humans in the later stages of Energy Gathering. You should be close to a breakthrough or even have broken through by now. Something's not right."
Gravis thought for a bit and grabbed a stick from the surroundings. He started drawing a smaller Skye and a bigger Skye with a line between them. Skye looked with interest at the drawings. It was naturally curious, and it was always interested in learning new things from Gravis. Their last lesson had been some time back.
"This is you right now, Skye," said Gravis as he circled the smaller bird. "This is you when you break through," he said as he pointed at the bigger bird. "This line shows how close you are to a breakthrough." Gravis pointed at the line in between.
Gravis created three marks on the line. One mark was closer to the smaller bird, one in the middle, and one closer to the bigger bird. "This means you are at the beginning stages," he said as he pointed at the first mark. "This means that you are in the middle, and this one means you are close to breaking through. Do you understand?" asked Gravis.
Skye looked for some seconds at the drawings and then nodded. "Where are you right now?" Gravis asked.
Scratch.
Gravis' eyes widened as he saw where Skye marked the line. Gravis looked at Skye with concerned eyes. "You are a bit further than the beginning? How is that possible?" he asked Skye and also himself. If that were true, then it meant that Skye had made nearly no progress ever since they left the Heaven Sect. This didn't seem right in Gravis' eyes. What was going on?
After thinking for a while, Gravis got a thought. 'Something had to be wrong with all the food it ate. What is the difference between Skye eating something it had killed and eating something that I have killed?' Gravis thought.
Slowly, he realized what the issue was. Gravis took a deep breath as he looked into the sky. "The Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique," he deduced. This was the only difference. As Gravis got the thought, he remembered that one Beast Core that he still carried around. He took it out and looked at it.
"Just as I thought," sighed Gravis. "This core is empty of Energy," he muttered to himself. Normally, the Energy of a corpse would slowly seep out into the world over multiple days as part of the natural decomposition process. The Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique made all the Energy inside of the corpse explode outward and scatter, instead.
If Skye killed something by itself, the Energy wouldn't scatter. In the next couple of days, Skye would absorb most of the Energy of its prey. With Gravis using the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique, there was no more Energy for Skye to eat. No wonder it made no progress.
Just four days ago, Skye had been stronger than Gravis, but now, it couldn't even come close to Gravis. Gravis wouldn't even need his Will-Aura to win. As that thought came, other thoughts appeared too. Gravis had given Skye lots of food without it having to hunt for it. Was this the best way for Skye to increase its power? If Gravis continued giving Skye free food, it would not gain more combat experience.
Gravis' eyes narrowed as he thought more about the situation. What if it managed to become a middle-grade Spirit Beast by following Gravis? At that point, its battle experience would be below average in comparison to similar beasts. At that point, it would become incredibly difficult to increase its strength by itself. Gravis realized that by wanting to do something nice for Skye, he had brought its independence into jeopardy.
Skye looked at Gravis with confused eyes. It was smart for a beast, but it couldn't hypothesize or think far into the future. That was something exclusive to humans. Skye didn't even realize the "danger" of continuing like this.
As Gravis continued thinking, he grew a little nervous. If he didn't have such a powerful will, his emotions would be going haywire right now. Skye was his only companion inside this world, and if Skye left, Gravis would be completely alone again.
Yet, if it remained, it would face many difficulties. The places where Gravis would go to in the future would be full of enemies in the Spirit Forming Realm. The Heaven Sect would also hunt him down. What could Skye do in such a situation?
Every enemy and beast would be more powerful than it, and the only thing it could do was watch from a distance, trying not to die. Like this, Skye would become fully dependent on Gravis. It wouldn't be a companion anymore, but a pet.
Gravis turned to Skye and looked at it. What about remaining in the Middle-Continent and waiting for Skye to rise by itself? Gravis immediately threw this idea away. There were multiple issues with that.
First of all, with Gravis always around, Skye would not feel that its life was in danger. That would impact its tempering severely. On top of that, the Heaven Sect would start searching for Gravis crazily. If Gravis didn't continually increase his power, his enemies would eventually overwhelm him.
Right now, Gravis was actually happy that the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique stopped Skye from growing. If it broke through to become a Spirit Beast like this, it would become even more challenging for it to regain enough battle experience to rise by itself.
Was Gravis ready to sacrifice Skye's future prospects just so he didn't feel lonely anymore? Definitely not! Gravis saw Skye as a life-and-death companion, and sacrificing its prospects for his own happiness would be a betrayal. There was only a single thing he could do that would help Skye, and he didn't look forward to it.
"Skye, we need to talk."