Spirit's Awakening: The Path of Lightning and Water-Chapter 376: The First Attempts

Lassim sat beneath the thick roots of the storm leaf tree, his arms resting on his knees with his halberd across his lap as his storm-filled gaze locked onto the sky.

The gift from the Lightning Elemental and subsequent battle against the Night Elemental had left him at the absolute peak of Spirit Ascension Stage, his cultivation brought to the next level through the power of the [Law of Storm].

Yet, despite his inner heart world being saturated with fused mana to the point that he felt bloated, he was stuck.

Advancing to Spirit Transcendence required condensing his constellation into a halo, the universally recognized symbol of Spirit Transcendence realm warriors.

Only after Varen explained the process did he realize he’d have a more complicated advancement than others.

The problem was obvious.

Lassim’s constellation wasn’t a simple formation based on a hasty and still malleable idea he’d had as a symbol of power. He had been forced to contemplate the design for months and months before he was able to earn the Leviathan’s scale to shatter his soul crystal from Ava’s God’s Trial.

It was a lifelike intricate display of the still-living Demi-goddess Leviathan riding a massive tsunami, her divine-forged chains snapping as she leapt to freedom, and her red eyes glowing with fury as she surged forward, lightning writhing through the storm-filled skies and mist that trailed behind her.

To force this into a mere halo?

His instincts told him it wasn’t that simple.

Still, he had no other choice but to attempt it.

Taking a deep breath, Lassim closed his eyes, reaching inward toward his inner heart world.

The moment his consciousness settled and focused on the portal towards the void that led to his constellation, his inner heart world rumbled.

Still the inner heart world seemed to know what was coming, the laws of the natural order of the universe moving to assist the process in some manner as it did for all Spirit Warriors that reached this step.

The densely packed, dark clouds turned into a thunderstorm above the landmass—now island in the sea of the whirlpool—that roared with thunder. The vast clouds beginning to swirl, mimicking his whirlpool of fused mana that begun to churn violently around the landmass.

And in the sky—above it all—was the portal to his constellation.

The Leviathan, her enormous form riding atop a massive tsunami, her spiked and painful looking divine chains being broken free from, her crimson eyes burning as she surged forward with her maw agape, the mane of her fins billowing like banners in the tempest.

Lassim extended his spiritual sense and will, wrapping his influence around the constellation.

He began with the standard procedure just to see if he’d get lucky, the process of condensing it. He attempted to compress it inward into the shape of a single circular ring just like Varen said.

Instantly, everything resisted.

The storm fought back, the Leviathan’s form strained, the chains whipped violently, and the entire constellation convulsed, as if trying to tear itself free from his control and remain unbound. The crimson eyes seemed to even flash with a slight bit of anger that made his mind sting slightly like a needle being pressed between his eyes.

He still fought through it, pressing hard.

Then—

The entire formation seemed to shudder and fight back, its structure breaking apart slightly at the edges but releasing countless fragments of light, scattering across the storm-filled sky of his inner heart world in an explosion.

The whirlpool of his fused mana below thrashed violently, its currents unstable.

The backlash hit him immediately.

Lassim’s consciousness was ripped out of his inner heart world, and he snapped back to reality beneath the storm leaf tree, a sharp pain shooting through his chest and head.

His breath came shaky, his body stiff, and his spiritual pressure wavered. It was clear immediately what had occurred—he’d slightly damaged his cultivation foundation.

Lassim exhaled slowly, his face dark and grim.

His first attempt using what every other known Spirit Warrior in existence had done had been a complete failure.

Lassim remained still for a while, allowing the backlash to settle before closing his eyes again.

"What if I’m just stuck with this constellation for the rest of my life then? Why do I need to destroy and condense it if it’s so perfect?" He thought to himself as a different idea of approach crossed his mind.

This time, he wouldn’t simply try to force the condensation.

Instead, he would reinforce the structure.

Maybe his problem wasn’t the complexity of the Leviathan’s form, but the lack of a strong enough frame to hold it in place. What if the constellation could still be its own halo-like existence? It floated above the head just like a halo did, so what was stopping it from becoming the same representation of power? What if the other Spirit Warriors were wrong and this was the correct way?

He could only think of this as he went to make his second attempt.

Re-entering his inner heart world and seeing things back to normal, Lassim immediately focused on the constellation once more.

He let his spirit sense surge outward, shaping a framework of fused mana around the constellation—an external structure meant to hold the Leviathan in place as he added fused mana up from the whirlpool and clouds to add to it like adding bricks to a house.

He began the process of shrinking the mana, pulling the energy inward to layer on top of the scales and chains and waves. Every aspect of the lifelike representation of the Demi-goddess was being reinforced.

For a brief moment, it seemed to work—the Leviathan’s coiled form began to fold, and the storm around her shifted.

Then—

The chains made of his soul dust buckled under the fused mana violently, the Leviathan’s form trembled, and the framework of the additional layer collapsed instantly.

The storm of fused mana exploded outward, ripping apart his spirit sense like it was nothing.

Lassim’s fused mana staggered in his inner heart world, the backlash hitting even harder than before.

His connection to his constellation snapped violently, throwing him back to reality with even more force than before.

His body tensed painfully, his mind burning as if his very cultivation was screaming at him to stop before he caused permanent damage.

Lassim gritted his teeth as he forced his breath to steady.

That had been dangerous.

He had one more idea.

If reinforcement didn’t work, then maybe he needed to split the constellation into parts before condensing it.

If the Leviathan resisted even building on top of it, then what if he broke it down first and reassembled it in a ring?

His body and mind was already exhausted, but Lassim forced himself into meditation again after a nearly hour-long wait of rest and recovery. It was unfortunate that [Lifestream Aegis] couldn’t heal mental exhaustion or mental wounds or else he would’ve sped things up with that.

Thankfully, the Leviathan’s curse made his physique so enhanced that at least it boosted his recovery to some extent.

Inside his inner heart world, his recovered spirit sense observed the connection to Leviathan appeared once more. The portal to the void seemed okay, a little shaky on the edges, but his instincts told him he probably had just one more attempt before risking serious damage.

This time, he extended his fused mana toward it with a different intent.

Instead of condensing it immediately, he tried to separate its elements into different components—

One part for the body of the Leviathan.

One for the storm and waters.

One for the chains.

If he could split it first, then maybe reassembling it in the shape of a ring would be easier.

For a brief second again, the plan seemed to work—he could feel the Leviathan’s components separating slightly, the storm and chains moving apart from the main body as even the universal laws and power seemed to support this idea.

Then—

The Leviathan’s form lashed out. The crimson eyes flared as if angry it was being separated from the storm and seas that it controlled.

The storm surged violently, the divine chains seemed to be under its control as the spikes ripped and swung outward, and the constellation reacted like a beast fighting against being torn apart.

Lassim felt the shockwave and damage before he could even react.

The entire constellation seemed to shatter and splinter with a titanic level of force, a thousand times more painful than before with soul dust particles spreading out like a mist.

The storm of dense clouds inside his inner heart world seemed to collapse, the whirlpool below it flared wildly, and his spirit sense was ripped apart once again.

The backlash slammed into him like a hammer.

Lassim’s eyes snapped open—and this time, he coughed out a bucket’s worth of blood.

His body felt heavy, his stormy spiritual pressure flickering unevenly as the backlash took its toll.

This wasn’t something he could just shake off.

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He had overdone it.

Zaphyrella’s voice rang sharply in his mind. "[Br—ther, S…TOP. Y’r break… cult’v—tion. If… try ’gain, cau— irre…vers’ble d’amage.]"

Mari’s voice was calmer but equally firm. "[She’s… r’ght. Th’s isn’t… som’th—ng y’ can j’st… brute f’rc. If… d’mage y’r… cult’v—tion… won’t rep’air… e’sily.]"

Lassim exhaled in deep, gut wrenching breaths, clenching his fists with a handful of dirt from beneath the roots as he tried to stabilize himself.

Three attempts. Three failures.

And now, he was injured.

This wasn’t something he could just sit and keep repeating until it worked and he was already out of initial ideas. He couldn’t even think properly to fully understand what they were saying due to the damage he caused.

He needed to heal first.

And more importantly—he needed to rethink his entire approach.

With his cultivation weakened, his body exhausted, and no answers in sight, he fell backwards against a bundle of roots of the storm leaf tree that supported his head, letting the ever present lightning of the Tempest’s Cradle’s sky flash above him.

Maybe… he was approaching this wrong.

His mind drifted back to the vision of Famthar’s Lightning Laws—the moment when he had glimpsed the structure of the universal laws.

If he wanted to understand how to shape his constellation into a halo, then maybe the answers were also reliant on the laws of the universe and how they worked. It made sense seeing as how the universe seemed to want to assist with the advancement of Spirit Warriors reaching the Spirit Transcendence stage. Maybe there was something more to that to be explored.

But first—he needed to recover.

His cultivation wouldn’t repair itself instantly, so he’d have no choice but to take at least a few days to heal.

Lassim closed his eyes again, not to meditate, but to let himself rest.

He would figure this out.

One step at a time and on his own unique path.