Spirit's Awakening: The Path of Lightning and Water-Chapter 378: Oceanic Ideas

Lassim had spent the last several days letting his cultivation recover.

The backlash from his repeated failures had left his inner heart world unstable and damaged, his spiritual pressure’s stormy nature was far weaker and shaky.

The other disciples of the Skybound Village noticed the troublesome issues with his presence when he returned to his assigned residence, but steered clear of him.

At first they were shocked by his new peak Spirit Ascension cultivation, but they all recognized the shaky spiritual pressure as a failure to advance. It was a common sight for quite literally everyone else that had ever tried to break through to a new stage and failed, but this genuinely shocked many of them.

Why? Well, by now everyone knew he had seemingly experienced no barriers along his cultivation path. He was only 16, nearly 17 years old, and yet he was at the very peak of Spirit Ascension. They felt pity and knew this was a sensitive moment so even the gossip that usually surrounded him when he appeared remained silent so as to not anger him.

He had used these past several days to rest, heal his mind, and calm and repair the damage done to his constellation and inner heart world. But even as his strength returned to normal—his problem remained.

The Leviathan constellation would not easily condense.

The usual method Spirit Warriors used had failed completely.

Trying to reinforce it had collapsed instantly.

Attempting to separate it had nearly destroyed his cultivation.

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That meant one thing: he was thinking about it incorrectly, and he was getting nowhere sitting under the storm leaf tree’s roots waiting for the solution to fall into his lap.

That left only the idea that he’d thought of directly after his last attempts. Did it even need to be a solid halo to advance? He’d pondered it carefully and ultimately concluded that there must be something about the circular halo shape that made it the ideal shape for advancing to the Spirit Transcendence stage.

Yet, despite his pondering and assumptions, his storm-filled gaze turned upward to the Tempest’s Cradle as he looked outside the window from his residence. Watching the lightning crackle through the dense, cloudy sky brought no new insights or ideas on what other shape or figure could make things work.

He felt that his trip here so far had been incredibly valuable. This place had given him quite a lot.

His teleportation device that would soon change the world. His Law of Storm. His advancement to the absolute peak of Spirit Ascension stage.

But for now, it had nothing left to offer him and this natural Lightning resource area was unable to give him his answer. He thought long and hard over these days while he recovered and he kept continually arriving at that same conclusion.

Lassim sat still for a moment longer before finally standing from his chair, stretching his limbs slightly as he got up.

It was time to look elsewhere for ideas.

He stepped out of his residence and leapt upwards, taking to the air and leaving the Skybound Village behind as he moved toward the edge of the floating island and into the storm’s wall.

With [Storm’s Dance] activated beneath his feet, he compressed space and took several simple steps, quickly reaching the other side as the storm naturally made way for him. The storm itself had created a straight shot tunnel through its clouds as he willed his desire to exit the storm.

His steps propelled him forward as the Tempest’s Cradle faded into the distance behind him, the ever-churning storm clouds gradually giving way to a clearer sky as he traveled along the coast. The roaring winds lessened, replaced by the steady crash of waves along the beaches down below.

Lassim continued forward, his gaze shifting to the waters stretching endlessly toward the horizon.

Away from the storm, the ocean was an entirely different presence.

Where the skies of the Tempest’s Cradle were in constant upheaval, the ocean remained steady, its surface rolling in slow, deliberate motions.

He lowered himself toward the surface, allowing his momentum to slow until he came to a stop above the deep blue waters. The fresh ocean breeze and salty air provided a nice calming and relaxing sensation as the sunlight reflected off the waves in shimmering streaks.

Without hesitation, he dove forward, letting himself sink beneath the surface.

Lassim let himself sink, the embrace of the water soaking his martial attire but not overly weighing him down.

The world above faded instantly. No roaring thunder, no howling winds. Just the muted sound of the underwater currents and lapping waves shifting above as the light of the sun pierced through the crystal waters.

Lassim thought as his body adjusted to the descent. "No matter how violent the storms above, the depths remain steady."

A soft calm voice vibrated through his mind.

"[Indeed,]" Marinelle said, a knowing warmth in her voice. "[The sea is vast, deep, and resilient.]"

Lassim activated his [Underwater Breathing] technique that he’d been taught as he kicked his feet, his body moving effortlessly through the water.

"[Maybe that’s the problem—the resilience]," he mused, his storm-filled gaze releasing tiny sparks of red lightning into the water as he trailed across the shallow parts of the ocean floor still near the coast.

As he drifted and swam lower, his gaze caught movement in the distance.

A long, serpentine form, gliding through the water with slow, deliberate movements.

A sea snake with striped black and white pattern alternating back and forth, with a tiny horn on its head, came closer into view as it was chasing something.

Lassim came to a gentle float, stilled, watching the creature weave its way through the shallow waters, its long, flexible body coiling and twisting as it maneuvered effortlessly around its prey—a small, unsuspecting fish.

In a flash, the snake struck.

Fangs sank into its prey, and its body tightened, coiling into a near-perfect spiral as it crushed the struggling fish.

"A ring. No… a coil." Lassim’s mind preserved the image, his storm-filled eyes narrowing slightly. "The Leviathan is basically a gigantic sea snake and her body should be able to be kept intact and coiled around like that."

Marinelle’s voice spoke softly in agreement, "[That… might work.]"

Zaphyrella, however, chirped impatiently.

"[I dunno. It looks a little too simple, don’t you think? Big Sis is way more impressive than some tiny sea snake like that.]"

Lassim nodded slightly, still watching the slow, elegant rotations of the serpent as it drifted in the water, dragging its prey towards a hole in the corals on the seafloor.

"It’s a starting point," he admitted. "But you’re right. It’s not enough. The Leviathan isn’t just a serpent—it’s a ruler of the oceans. If I’m going to shape it, we need something more elegant too."

His gaze shifted, and continued his gently swim forward, scanning the ocean floor for more inspiration over the next few hours.

Eventually, Lassim hovered near the seabed, his spirit sense and eyes following a small crab as it moved across the ocean floor.

It was barely the size of his palm, its pale blue shell blending seamlessly with the corals and scattered debris around it.

As he observed, it reached for fragments of coral, tiny sunken trinkets, and even a piece of a broken pearl.

Carefully, with deliberate movements, it placed them onto its back, removing old coral chunks and old rusted jewelry. securing them in a way that meshed perfectly with its natural armor. It was constantly exchanging things on its back with new bits and bobs it came across nearly every few meters.

If it saw something shiny, it replaced something slightly duller. If a piece of coral wasn’t flowy enough, it replaced it. If it saw a bigger pearl chunk that suited its mood, it replaced the old one. It was a constant exchange as Lassim watched on.

"[It’s… decorating itself?]" Lassim thought, before watching the crab vanish almost entirely into its surroundings at one point into a crevice as a fish with large teeth swam a bit too close.

At first glance, the additions looked random, but the longer he watched, the clearer it became. The way the crab placed each piece wasn’t careless. It wasn’t simply hoarding—it was creating an illusion, hiding in plain sight by layering materials onto itself until it became indistinguishable from the terrain.

Lassim frowned.

"The divine chains…"

Marinelle’s voice filtered through his mind.

"[That little one’s got an interesting trick. I’ve got memories or engrained ideas from Ava about crabs like this, but I never really thought much about it…]"

Zaphyrella gave a small chirp of curiosity.

"[Hey, don’t you think Big Sis’s chains are kind of like that crab’s jewelry?]"

"[What a good idea Zaphy!!!]" he thought to them both. "Since they’re already broken, what if, just like this crab, I can use them for the design and new halo shape."

Zaphy gave a trilling bird chirp in excitement as she began to visualize what kind of jewelry to suggest to give Big Sis Leviathan as she zipped and zoomed around Lassim’s inner heart world.

He felt was close to the answer. But he still needed something else.

The small crab scuttled away, vanishing into the rocky seabed, its decorated shell blending seamlessly with the corals.

Lassim remained where he was, watching as its form disappeared into the landscape.

"How the hell do I integrate the tsunami and the storm though?" Lassim thought to himself, his storm-filled eyes narrowing as he swam himself further into the depths out past the shallows.

Lassim descended deeper, the light of the sun’s rays failing to reach the depths he was descending into. The deeper he went, the quieter it became, the only sound being the faint hum of water currents and the slow, rhythmic pulse of the ocean itself.

The Leviathan wasn’t just a beast of storms—it was the master of the sea. Its image in his constellation rode atop a massive tsunami, breaking free of its divine chains. The ocean—or rather the tsunami that represented the ocean—was as much a part of its identity as the storm, its body and the divine chains were.

But how could he shape that into a halo?

The divine chains could be arranged like the crab’s shell decorations, reinforcing the structure without disrupting the Leviathan’s new coiled form he would attempt.

But the tsunami?

The storm behind it?

How would he merge that into the design?

Lassim exhaled the filtered and pirated water mana that allowed him to breathe through his nose, bubbles escaping as he floated in place, his eyes flicking across the dark ocean depths. His spirit sense thankfully let him see the creatures that hid in the darkness around him, at least.

"There has to be something here that gives me an answer," he thought, scanning the seabed below now that he reached a depth of close to 300 meters.

His gaze landed on a massive drifting jellyfish, its translucent form undulating in slow, controlled pulses. Its tendrils swayed beneath it, extending outward like a floating veil, catching the faint light filtering down from above.

It was stable, yet constantly shifting.

A structure that retained its shape, even as it moved freely.

Lassim narrowed his eyes, a thought forming in his mind.

If the tsunami in his constellation couldn’t be forced into a ring… what if it was held in place like that jellyfish’s body, its movement contained by its own shape instead of outside force?

His mind raced.

He could let the storm swirl naturally, following the shape of the Leviathan’s coils—not trying to force it into a ring, but allowing it to flow into one.

The tsunami didn’t need to be a rigid, frozen image either like it currently was. It could be part of the structure itself too, wrapping and moving within the coiled shape like a continuous series of waves. It could undulate and still be chaotic to satisfy the Leviathan like a circle of waves underneath her form, so she never left the waters.

"[This—this could work.]" He thought to his companions as he shared the mental image of the approximate shape he envisioned to Mari and Zaphy through their bond.