Chapter 1008: Contemplating The Nature of Battle Arts
John read through the Thunder Tyrant Law, his mind in a natural state of heightened comprehension. The information of the Thunder Tyrant Law flooded into his mind and soul, the comprehensions in regards to the Lightning Dao like a brand being seared into him. After basking in his newfound comprehensions, he focused on the Thunder Tyrant Law itself, which was both a combat-based art and an essence attack art.
The Thunder Tyrant Law's combat art focused on augmenting the body with lightning, using both his attribute body and innate variant body to its limits. While the quality of the Thunder Tyrants body wasn't mentioned, John was sure it was quite amazing.
And most surprisingly of all, John was surprised to find out that the Thunder Tyrant actively used his lightning attribute essence runes to augment his power, which was something he had never heard of before, or managed to do himself. While the Thunder Tyrant Law didn't explain it in detail, from what John could tell, each rune acted as a small amplifying formation, enhancing the quality and potency of the lightning Qi being used.
John grumbled at the lack of information regarding the essence runes. While this information may be more well known in ancient times, and even parts of the current universe, it was unknown to him.
"I'll need to find out more regarding how to actively use my essence runes," John mumbled softly.
As for the essence attack art, it dealt with the creation of the lightning halberd attacks John had seen the Thunder Tyrant unleash in his battle with the Asura. Both arts were incredibly profound as well as powerful, filling him with a yearning desire to learn them both, although learning the halberd art was most likely impossible, as he did not use a halberd at all. That left only the body essence art.
After reading through and studying the art for over a day, John finally removed his divine sense and fell back onto his chair, breathing out loudly.
"The Thunder Tyrant was quite amazing," John said, digesting everything he had read. "Not only did he have a lightning attribute body, but he also had an innate variant body, giving him a formidable physical combat prowess. The Thunder Tyrant Law he created used those advantages perfectly, allowing him to become a true Tyrant of lightning."
The teachings of the art were clear and concise, and the Thunder Tyrant added his thoughts, motivations, and ideals throughout, increasing John's impression of the man. In fact, he felt his blood grow hotter as he continued to read, as if the Thunder Tyrant was reaching through time and filling him with wondrous thoughts, ideas, and confidence.
John placed the jade piece down and breathed out loudly, realizing he had been holding his breath for some time. He leaned back on his seat and looked up towards the ceiling above him, thoughts swirling chaotically from everything he had read and learned.
The battle of the Thunder Tyrant and the Asura continued to replay in his mind, like a memory he couldn't get rid of no matter how much he tried to think of something else. The Thunder Tyrant's tyrannical fighting style still shook him, igniting his own fighting spirit.
"The Thunder Tyrant lived up to his name in the end," John mumbled to himself, scattered gaze still looking at the ceiling above. "He did what he wanted, created an amazing battle art that perfectly suited himself, and battled an Asura alone to the death, managing to hold up until his death."
John rocked his seat back and forth as he thought things over before sitting upright, staring at the jade piece on the table before him.
"The Thunder Tyrant Law is amazing, and learning the body augmenting part will surely increase my battle prowess. But I do not use a halberd, and both scythe and axe are too different to use the halberd art. Tch, such a shame that I can only learn half of the Thunder Tyrant Law. It seems my weapons of choice were too unique. I should have just chosen a sword at the start." he mumbled to himself, frowning.
A moment later, his eyes lit up with a realization, his own words sparking realization of something he had been subtly aware of for a long time, but never gave too much thought to.
"My main weapon, a scythe, is incredibly unique, which makes finding suitable battle arts incredibly hard, and sometimes even impossible," John mumbled out loud, scattered gaze growing clearer by the second. "The same could be said for myself. Unlike others, I cultivate both essence and body. Unlike others, I have inheritances and natural advantages that are beyond heaven-defying, giving me a combat prowess that defies what others think possible...
Finding a battle art or movement art that fully utilizes my talents, weapon, cultivations, and everything in between will be absolutely impossible, as no one else had tread the path I walk, at least not that I'm aware of," John said before standing up. He started to pace back and forth as he thought over his unique situation, and how best to go about it.
"The Thunder Tyrant Law is absolutely amazing, and suits me better than almost any other battle art I've learned thus far," John said, still pacing throughout the top floor of the library. "And while I'm sure it will be an amazing boon to my combat prowess for the foreseeable future, what happens when I reach the Astral King Realm? Will I need to discard it like the other battle arts I've learned, battle arts that ceased to be useful to me, and then learn a new, stronger art to replace it?"
Myriad Annihilation Scythe
Lightning Ruin
Supreme Battle Body
Heavenly Lightning Domain
John recalled these arts and more, arts he had cultivated, and had been amazing for him at the time, but had long since faded away into uselessness.
"Finding new, more powerful arts to learn that suited me well was easy at first, but has steadily grown harder and harder as my cultivation has increased," John said, hand on chin, his mind swirling with ideas.
"And that trend will surely continue in the future, as the number of cultivators that have closely followed my path becomes less and less. I mean, how many scythe wielding, essence and body cultivating, lightning attributed cultivators reached the Astral King Realm and beyond? My situation is far too unique, and that's not even considering my other comprehensions, my bloodline ability, and most importantly of all, doesn't account for my Dragon-God Shift or Immortal Asura Body.
All these things make my situation far too unique for me to consistently, if at all, find battle and movement arts that use the full extent of my talents. The arts I'm using right now only use a portion of what I can offer, and that will continue to be the case going forward. Now that I've realized all that, there's only one solution to this problem...
Like the Thunder Tyrant, who created his Thunder Tyrant Law to perfectly use all his talents to the fullest, I must do the same. I must create my own battle arts, battle arts that suit me, and me alone!"