Gravis crushed the jade token, and a black barrier appeared around him. The barrier expanded until it had the size of 10 meters, pushing Aion away in the process, who could just watch all this with shock. The lightning from Heaven hit the barrier…
But nothing happened! It looked like the lightning got absorbed by the barrier, which shocked Aion immensely. This had been a full-power strike from Heaven! How could any barrier hold against that?
Inside, Gravis could finally reveal his true emotions. He grinned in madness, as he finally no longer had to pretend. This had all been a plan. He had planned for this to happen ever since he left the Darkness Guild. Selling weapons to get resources to reach the tenth level of Energy Gathering? Fleeing to the Wind Wall? Getting "surprised" by Aion? He had planned all of this. He WANTED a Heavenborn to "stop his breakthrough".
Gravis needed Heaven to lose its vigilance toward him. How else would he have been able to bait out a full-power lightning strike from it? If he just said, "Go strike me," Heaven would have been incredibly skeptical. It would only release such an attack if it already thought that it had won. Of course, there had been some risks to his plan.
The first risk had been that his eventual enemy didn't immediately kill him when they got the chance. The only way to make all of this credible was if Gravis truly didn't have a way to survive, so he couldn't use an enemy with the same strength as him. The enemy had to be powerful enough to overpower him completely.
What if no enemy appeared? That was also a risk, but Gravis trusted in Heaven. He trusted in Heaven's wit and cleverness. It had nearly gotten him so many times, so Gravis knew that Heaven had to have some kind of plan to stop him. Gravis would just have to give about 90% of his best to not get caught.
If Gravis truly wanted to break into the Spirit Forming Realm immediately, would he have wasted all this time on the Wind Wall? Of course not! If Gravis truly wanted to break into the Spirit Forming Realm like this, he would have immediately jumped into the Wind Wall.
Then, he would have used it to move along its borders while he simultaneously cultivated. Using his Elemental Synchronicity didn't require much concentration. It was no issue to use it and also cultivate at the same time. Like this, Aion would never have caught up. Wasting multiple hours to cultivate on the same spot? Only an idiot would do that when they were chased by an enemy!
Gravis knew that he just had to give Heaven a minuscule opportunity, and it would jump at it with all its power. If it were too obvious that Gravis wanted this to happen, Heaven wouldn't act. At that point, the Heavenborn would simply kill him without Heaven interfering. If that happened, Gravis would have been forced to use the formation that Wendy gave him to get some time to reach the Spirit Forming Realm in the usual way.
Gravis' life had never been in danger during all of this. If his plan had failed, he would use the token to reach the Spirit Forming Realm normally. Luckily, his plan had succeeded, and he managed to fool Heaven into complacency.
A rough framework of this similar plan had been created when Gravis had read the Pre-Forming Technique. When people broke into the Spirit Forming Realm, they often didn't know how the forming of the Spirit actually worked. They only knew that infusing Energy into the Spirit would form it. Gravis was no exception to that.
Yet, the Pre-Forming Technique had explained how the Spirit was formed, which gave Gravis a lot of ideas. Starting at that point, Gravis had never intended to reach the Spirit Forming Realm with the normal way. His goal wasn't to get stronger one step at a time. His goal was the highest Heaven, and only if he went through some risks could he get an incredible reward. No one with a rational mind would try what he was about to do.
The open question in all this is: What did the jade token do?
When Gravis had received the jade token from Wendy, she had also given him a letter, which explained how the Formation Array worked. If one only infused Energy into the paper, it would say that it would block one attack on the Unity Realm or below. Yet, when Gravis had infused his lightning into the paper, the message changed.
It read as follows:
"Dear Successor,
this is my greatest creation! I've had enmity with Heaven for a long time, yet I have failed in taking revenge. I leave this Formation Array to you so that it can assist you in going against Heaven. If you, as my successor, do not wish to go against Heaven, then it was just my destiny to never get my revenge.
The Formation Array creates a bubble around the cultivator for ten minutes. During those ten minutes, it will be able to absorb any elemental attack of the Unity Realm or below and convert it to Primal Energy.
Primal Energy is the moldable base-component, which creates everything in the world. Magic, Destruction Energy, Life Energy, and many other things all stem from this. I have only managed to find out about Primal Energy after I have reached the Unity Realm.
Primal Energy is against Heaven's rules and does not exist in this world. By reaching the Unity Realm, I have achieved similar strength to Heaven and could, therefore, also break and bend some rules. I will probably lose access to this Primal Energy as soon as I ascend since my strength won't be enough to break the higher worlds' rules.
After you use the token, the Primal Energy of the blocked attack will fill the barrier's insides. As long as you have experience in the different forms of Energy or Magic, you will be able to mold the Primal Energy with your will. Theoretically, you can mold all this Primal Energy into Destruction Energy, Life Energy, or Magic. You just have to have a feel for those kinds of Energies.
I hope this token will help you on your way.
Sincerely,
Aurelius the Lightning King"
When Gravis had read that note, his initial framework of a plan was changed significantly. This token gave him everything that he needed to succeed!
It was time to begin!