The group continued insulting Heaven for days. One of them even had taken spirit wine with him, and after some days, they sat together in a circle, drinking wine and insulting Heaven. Gravis ignored them after a while and continued training.
At the end of their lives, the group started becoming closer. They transformed from comrades into close friends. All their inhibitions about status and such were eradicated as they even started sharing embarrassing details. Of course, no conversation would end without some insults thrown at Heaven. They even started telling Heaven that the shaking was doing wonders for their stiff muscles.
They were unrestrained, and their enthusiasm exploded when confronted with their inevitable end.
The get-together continued for over a week until someone stood up. "Alright, boys. It's been a pleasure!" he shouted. "I'll be the first one to leave! Don't let me stay alone for too long!"
BANG!
He exploded into a shower of blood as he concentrated his wind element with his Spirit inside his body. Only Gravis could concentrate his element inside his body since he was one and the same with his element. Others didn't have that ability.
The group shouted a loud and cheery farewell to their brother. As he exploded, his belongings were scattered across the floor and surroundings. Like this, the first of the heroic men met his end.
After another hour, the second one stood up. "Gravis! Kick Heaven's ass for me!" he shouted at Gravis. He dusted off his clothes and made himself presentable.
Gravis opened his eyes and looked at him with a smile. "Will do!"
The man grinned, shoved his middle finger into the air, and shouted one last, incredibly loud, "FUCK YOU!"
BANG!
He also exploded. Like this, only three people remained. A couple of minutes later, they also said their goodbyes to Gravis and told him to kick Heaven's ass. In the end, they were not too hung up about their ends. They had insulted the unapproachable, omnipresent, omniscient, and seemingly omnipotent Heaven for over a week. Who else could replicate that feat? In the afterlife, they could brag to anyone.
"Yeah, you are a God, but were you able to insult Heaven for over a week? Oh, you weren't? That sucks," they would say with laughs. Such an end was something that they could accept. That was unprecedented bragging material!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The last three exploded, and now, Gravis was alone again.
When he saw that he was alone again, he sighed, but with a smile. "You tried to humiliate and enrage me with these last two trials, but you continually failed," Gravis said. "Even though you have full control over this Heaven's Trial, you still can't win. What have you managed to achieve? You gave me incredible tempering in the first one, basically did nothing in the second one, and got insulted in the third one. You're really a failure. Even with full control, you can't do anything right."
Heaven had long grown used to Gravis' scathing remarks. It never reacted to his remarks, but that didn't mean that it didn't get angry at him. The second trial already proved as much.
After saying all this, Gravis looked at the belongings of the group. Surprisingly, they had a lot of body tempering pills. When Gravis saw that, his smirk intensified. "So, your motivation to enrage me is even stronger than stopping me from growing more powerful. Yet, look at that. Not only did you get insulted to no end by five heroic men, but you also gave me enough pills to temper my body to the Self Stage. I already thought you were useless, but that has reached a whole new level now," Gravis laughed.
Gravis quickly gathered all the belongings and put them away, except for the body tempering pills. When he saw the massive pile of pills before him, he chuckled. "Oh yeah, that's good stuff! Heaven has bestowed this amazing feast to me, so I should be thankful," Gravis said as he turned to the ceiling. "Thank you for your blessing, Heaven!"
And like that, Gravis ate pills for some days. After he had finished nearly all the pills…
BANG!
His body released some kind of explosion as it broke through something. This hadn't happened in the last couple of breakthroughs, and it probably meant that his body was at its absolute maximum. Gravis ate some more pills but saw that they had zero effect. Without reaching the Unity Realm, it was probably impossible to increase the power of his body further.
'Body at the Self Stage, Spirit will soon be in the Tree Stage, and lightning at the Sapling Stage. Spirit is the least of my worries, but my lightning will be hard to increase. I should think of a way to increase that before I reach the Unity Realm,' Gravis thought. He didn't want to share this particular worry with Heaven.
After testing out his new body, Gravis went back to training, but not for long.
Only 19 days later, Gravis stopped training. It was time for him to reach the Tree Stage. When Gravis felt that he was close to reaching the next level, he summoned all his belongings and placed them beside him. Who knew, maybe his belongings would get destroyed if they remained in his Spirit Space?
After entering the Spirit Space, Gravis looked at the Growth. By now, its tendrils stretched to the membrane. It looked rather frightening, actually. After admiring the Growth for a while, Gravis shoved his lightning into his Spirit.
BZZZZZ!
A ton of lightning entered the membrane and then the Growth. After that, the Growth started pulsing, and with every pulse, it became bigger and then smaller again. With the pulsing also came incredible pain, and this incredible pain was the reason why someone needed to have a fully condensed Will-Aura. Without that, people would either not have the willpower to get through the pain or die trying.
To Gravis, it was nothing more than a hassle. The pain he had felt when he had reached the Spirit Forming Realm was way greater, and back then, his Will-Aura had also been way weaker than now. He only had to get through this.
The pulsing intensified, and after about an hour of that, the Growth exploded.
BOOOM!
All the Lightning expanded and filled the whole Spirit Space. The same thing had happened when Gravis had been close to reaching the Seed Stage. Back then, his lightning had also filled his whole Spirit Space. Yet, Gravis had many times more lightning now than back then. Due to that, the lightning wasn't able to travel around anymore inside his Spirit Space.
The lightning inside his Spirit Space was so incredibly dense that it even seemed solid. Even Gravis' own body felt pressure inside his Spirit Space. Yes, he was lightning, but there was so much lightning that it was hard to move around. He tried to move around and felt like he was back in the treasury of the branch of the Heaven Sect. His movement couldn't even be considered swimming. It could only be described with digging.
"Well, that certainly doesn't look like a Tree. There is even another issue! The size of my Spirit Space didn't increase!" Gravis said with surprise. "Though, I feel that my Spirit has become way more powerful. It's just weird that my Spirit Space didn't increase."
After a while, Gravis sighed. "Well, I created my own cultivation path, so of course, stuff will be different. Hmm, I wonder…"
Whoop! BZZZ!
Gravis summoned one of the weapons of the dead group into his Spirit Space and willed his lightning to not attack the item, yet there was just too much lightning, and the weapon immediately got incinerated. When Gravis saw that, he frowned. "I can't even store stuff anymore? What is this shit!?" he complained.
After that, Gravis thought some more. "I wonder what will happen if I move more lightning into my Spirit Space?"
By now, most of Gravis' lightning had already recovered, so he shoved more of it into his Spirit Space. Yet…
"What the fuck? I can't infuse my Spirit with more lightning?" he shouted with shock. "My Spirit Space is absolutely full and can't accommodate more lightning? What is this shit!? I refuse to accept that! Make space!"
WHOOOM!
Gravis went to one wall of his Spirit Space and used his will and Spirit to shove as much lightning away from his position as possible. The pressure inside his head increased as Gravis created an empty area. Then, he shoved the lightning from his body into his Spirit. This time, it managed to enter, but only from the empty side that Gravis' body occupied.
Gravis stopped suppressing the other lightning, and it returned to its previous form. Like this, he managed to shove more lightning into his Spirit. The added lightning also wasn't pushed out. Apparently, his Spirit Space only allowed lightning to enter but not exit.
Gravis saw this and nodded righteously. "See? Was that so hard?" he asked himself.
After that, he left his Spirit Space, and after waiting for his lightning to regenerate, he condensed the lightning inside his body more. By now, his lightning comfortably fit inside his dantian. There was even some empty space left.
Starting from that point on, Gravis returned to his Spirit Space every two hours to shove all his lightning inside. He would have to suppress the lightning manually every time.
After around a month, Gravis noticed something. Actually, he noticed several things.
When he noticed these things, he smirked.
"The good comes with the bad, and the bad comes with the good. That phrase rings true again!"