Ch. 301..310

Chapter 301

Gravis sat down before the gate and concentrated on his Spirit Space. His figure reappeared in the Spirit Space and looked at his Spirit Seed. "Let's see what happens," he said. His wealth was already thrown out of the Spirit Space.

BANG!

Gravis pushed a bit of his lightning into his Spirit Seed, and his whole Spirit Space started shaking. The breakthrough was about to start.

The Spirit Seed started to pulse, becoming bigger with every pulse. By now, Gravis felt incredible pain coursing through his mind, but that pain was nothing to him. He only needed to gnash his teeth to resist the pain.

The pain continued as the Seed grew. When it reached double its size, something happened.

Psssh!

Something like a root tore out of the Spirit Seed. It came out violently like it had been pressed out. When Gravis saw that, he smiled in interest. "Is that the Sapling?" he asked himself.

Psssh!

Another root-like thing tore out of the Seed. When Gravis saw that, he raised an eyebrow. "Well, that couldn't be a Sapling too, could it? Well, everyone else cultivates Energy in their Spirit while I cultivate lightning. My Sapling Stage probably won't look like a Sapling.

Psssh! Psssh!

Another two roots came out. By now, the Seed didn't look like a Seed anymore. The roots came out of the Seed without any pattern, and his Seed looked rather weird. It looked more like a growth than a

Seed or a Sapling.

Psssh! Psssh! Psssh! Psssh! Psssh! Psssh!

More of these roots broke out from all over the Seed, and they didn't seem to stop. The Seed itself became smaller and looked a bit deflated like it had lost its insides and started collapsing into itself.

After around two minutes, a great number of roots appeared. By now, the Seed wasn't even visible anymore. These growth-like roots covered everything. His Spirit Space also stopped pulsing as everything calmed down. The growth was kind of spherical and had a diameter of two meters.

Whoom!

Gravis felt his Spirit expand. He couldn't test its actual range since all the walls and corridors blocked it. The only thing that Gravis felt was that his Spirit became more powerful. The "Seed" had also completely calmed down. During the breakthrough, Gravis' Spirit Space had also grown to about double the radius, which increased its volume manifold.

Gravis looked at this new thing from all angles. "Well, I can't call it a Seed anymore," he said.

The thing looked like a growth that mortals would have inside them when they got incredibly sick. If it weren't whitish-silver in color, one would think that this thing looked disgusting. It was just a mass of random tubes, roots, growths, or whatever you want to call it.

Gravis rubbed his chin in thought. "Alright, I'll call you Growth from now on!" Gravis said to the Growth. "You really don't look like a Sapling. You look more like a root network or something. Growth is an appropriate name."

Then, Gravis walked closer and started touching the roots.

Squish!

They felt squishy to the touch, and he could move them around however he wanted. They kind of felt like the tentacles of a dead squid. "Ew," he said. "Man, if you weren't made of lightning, you would be really disgusting." Gravis moved the roots around a little bit more, and when he let go, they would slowly move back to their previous positions.

Of course, it was only Gravis who could touch this thing. If anyone else touched it, they would be incinerated. Only lightning could touch lightning without being attacked. "Anyways, that should be it for my breakthrough. Now, time to compress my lightning!"

Gravis left his Spirit Space and opened his eyes again. Then, he used his Spirit and will to compress the lightning in his chest. After every breakthrough, Gravis could compress his lightning more. This time, it should be enough to compress his lightning to a state where it wouldn't constantly poke out of his body anymore.

Gravis hadn't had a full lightning storage in a while. After all, if he didn't unload it from time to time, all the people and objects touching him would be incinerated. Walking around his group or the Freya Clan with that was troublesome and dangerous.

Condensing his lightning didn't take much time, only a couple of seconds. After he was finished, he waited until he got back all his lightning. Just as expected, the lightning didn't come out of his chest anymore. When he saw that, he released a sigh of relief. "Finally, I don't have to check on my lightning anymore. One less thing to worry about."

When Gravis' lightning storage was full again, he summoned a small will-sphere with 5% of his Spirit. Then, he moved some lightning into it, and it absorbed a little over 5% of his lightning storage. After that, it exploded.

The walls and gates shook, but they weren't damaged in the slightest. After all, the walls had to be incredibly sturdy to even allow Sapling Stage cultivators to fight here. If any random attack from such a

powerful cultivator could destroy the walls, then what was the point of having different trials? Couldn't they just dig through the mountain and walls?

"Alright, so my Spirit and lightning are back to a ratio of one-to-one. That also makes it less troublesome to calculate my Lightning Crescent," Gravis said with satisfaction. "So, I guess I could say that my Spirit and Lightning are at the same level now. That only leaves the body."

Gravis retrieved all his wealth, except for one thing. A small hill of medicinal pills remained beside Gravis. All of these were body tempering pills. "Heh, for once, I could be considered lucky," he said with a smirk.

Where did Gravis get so many body tempering pills from? Had he readied them before the journey?

No. Where would he have even gotten the money to get so many of those?

So, where did these pills come from? Funnily enough, these pills all came from the dead group of disciples from the Earth Sect. They had been at the peak of the Seed Stage and would have reached the Sapling Stage by now if they hadn't died.

Of course, the Sects took the Heaven's Trial very seriously, so every disciple carried enough body tempering pills to reach the Sapling Stage with their bodies. After reaching the Sapling Stage, they would only need to eat all these pills, and their body would advance. Sadly, since they had attacked Gravis, all their pills now belonged to him together with all their other wealth.

"Father once said that having no luck doesn't mean that I won't get wealth. Others will get their lucky chances, and I only have to kill them to get their lucky chances and wealth. And sure enough, he was right," Gravis said with a chuckle.

After saying that, Gravis started shoveling pills into his mouth like a starving ape. Yet, there were just so incredibly many pills. It took him several hours of nonstop eating to finally make his body advance.

Green smoke shot out of Gravis' mouth as he burped. This concentrated smoke had as much medicinal energy as a whole pill. Yet, Gravis didn't mind. He just had too many pills to care about such a minuscule amount of medicinal energy.

"Feels good, man," Gravis said to himself as he lay on top of the still considerable mound of pills. "Now, my body, Spirit, and lightning are at the same level. There is no imbalance anymore," he said.

But then, he started smirking, "but what's so good about balance? Other people have issues with their elements if their body is more powerful than their Energy or Spirit, but not me. My body ignores lightning, so why stop now?" Then, he looked at his bed of body tempering pills with a smirk. "Imma eat all of that."

And like this, Gravis ate more pills. He had only eaten a little less than a fifth of the pills previously. There was still a lot to go through!

After a full day passed, Gravis patted his tummy as he ate the last one. His lightning easily cleaned the outside of the pills. After all, many of them had been lying on the ground for a day, and Gravis was not interested in eating dust.

After he finished eating, he stood up and stretched himself. Then, he did some practice punches and kicks. "Yep, my body should be around the Tree Stage right now. Man, it took four times the amount of pills to reach the Tree Stage compared to the Sapling Stage. Expensive, expensive…"

Then, Gravis moved his lightning throughout his body. "Yep, no resistance. Everything checks out," he said. "My Spirit and Lightning are equal to the Sapling Stage, while my body is equal to the Tree Stage. Compared to my current Stage, I am even more powerful than when I was at the Seed Stage."

"With just my Will-Aura and physical strength, killing people at the Tree Stage shouldn't be an issue. I don't even need my lightning for that," Gravis said but then frowned. "But the Self Stage is different.

Everyone I have ever fought against in the Core-Continent only went through the ninth Stage of Energy Gathering. If someone is at the Self Stage, it means that they have gone through the tenth Stage of Energy Gathering. This means that they don't only have a higher Realm, but also double the amount of Energy."

"Every Stage quadruples the power of the cultivator. That has been true until now, but the Self Stage is different. Since they all went through the tenth Stage of Energy Gathering, a Self Stage cultivator is not 16 times more powerful than someone at the Sapling Stage, but probably around 24 times. Double the Energy is not completely double the strength, but it goes a long way. If going through the tenth Stage also increased the body's power, it would probably be a proper 32 fold increase."

"Luckily, my more powerful body takes this advantage away. So, all in all, someone at the Self Stage should be as powerful to me now as someone at the Tree Stage when I was at the Seed Stage. So, the power dynamic didn't change. Interesting," Gravis narrated to himself with interest.

"Well, time to go!" Gravis said and then opened the door to his trial without hesitation.

"I know Heaven is smart, and I am pretty sure that it only has a maximum of three chances to properly kill me. There are not that many things that it can use to threaten me. I am about 95% sure what the first trial is going to be. After all, currently, I am at my weakest. Heaven will probably throw an incredibly dangerous trial to me right at the beginning," Gravis said as he charged down the hallway.

After a while, the hallway widened into a one-kilometer wide arena. When Gravis looked at the middle of the arena, he smirked.

"Called it!"

Chapter 302

Gravis looked at the person standing in the middle of the arena. It was a young man, nearly two meters tall. His brown hair, steady body build, and severe eyes were indicative of his element. He was definitely cultivating the earth element. On top of that, the person was at the Self Stage and had an unreal amount of Karmic Luck surrounding him. He was, without a doubt, a priest that cultivated the earth element, the perfect counter to Gravis.

'This will be incredibly difficult. His body is one Realm stronger. His Energy is two Realms stronger. His Spirit is also two Realms stronger. On top of that, his Heavenly Pressure is a little weaker than my Will- Aura, but that's without considering the level suppression. With the addition of the level suppression, his Heavenly Pressure is a full Realm higher than my own. I will probably be slowed to around 70% of my max,' Gravis thought severely.

As Gravis entered, the door behind him closed with a bang. He was locked in the room with the priest.

The priest had already noticed Gravis and looked at him evenly. "Your death has arrived, sinner," he said.

Gravis lifted an eyebrow. "You think? What makes you so sure of that?" he asked without fear.

The priest showed no emotional reaction to Gravis' words. "I know your techniques. You have revealed them in the Darkness Sect, and our agents have seen them." The priest pointed at Gravis' saber. "This saber is probably already loaded with the attack that you call Lightning Crescent, right?"

Gravis' eyebrows shot up. "Impressive. You even know the name of my attack. Then you probably also know what it's capable of, right?"

The priest nodded. "A fully loaded Lightning Crescent would even be a danger to me. Trust me when I say that I am not taking you lightly, even in the slightest. All my instincts are saying that you are not a

danger, but the High Priest has ordered that I should look at you like you are as powerful as another priest, and I will follow that order. The High Priest's words are my belief, and I won't break them."

Gravis smirked a little. "I still don't see what makes you so confident," he said.

Whoop!

Two Jade Tokens appeared in the priest's hand. "Do you recognize these tokens?" he asked.

When Gravis saw them, his eyes narrowed in seriousness. These were the same tokens that Byron and the other priest had used. The priest saw Gravis' reaction. "So, you know them. Yes, these are the tokens that create a barrier around me that blocks an attack below the Unity Realm. Your Lightning Crescent exhibits power in the Self Stage, but after being blocked by one of these Jade Tokens, I won't even feel a thing."

The priest crossed his arms. "On top of that, I was chosen as your enemy because of my element."

BANG!

A humongous shield, taller and broader than the priest, appeared in front of him. It created a tremendous bang as it appeared in front of him. "You are slower than me, even with your lightning. My body is powerful enough to rival your unique acceleration method. I will stay on the defense all the time, and I won't put myself in danger until you are, without the slightest doubt, dead. I won't attack, even when I think there is an opening. That's how seriously I am taking you!"

Gravis grew more nervous as the priest continued speaking. The priest would be able to block two of his Lightning Crescents, and any attack weaker than that wouldn't even penetrate his defense. Gravis had to think of a plan.

"I won't even summon my weapon because I simply won't attack you. My weapon hand will always carry a token so I can activate it at a moment's notice. I won't drop my guard for even a second. Resistance is futile!" the priest said with confidence.

Even though the fight hadn't even started, Gravis was already running out of options. Gravis had thought that he, at least, had the advantage of being underestimated, but he didn't even have that. The priest took him as a dangerous, mortal enemy. Convincing him that his belief was wrong? Impossible! The Heavenborn fully believed in Heaven. It was basically impossible to convert them. Gravis didn't even try.

Gravis stood there for a couple of seconds, thinking.

BANG!

A thundering noise came from the middle of the arena as the priest shot towards Gravis, his unreasonably large shield in front of him. Gravis quickly charged to the side, but with only his body, he was slower than the priest. Because of all that, the priest quickly came closer.

The only thing that Gravis could see was a huge, metal wall charging at him.

BANG!

Gravis burst to the side by unloading 10% of his lightning into the ground. His speed peaked, and he circled the priest. Gravis stretched his arm and swung his saber at the priest's exposed side.

BANG!

The priest hadn't even attacked. As soon as Gravis showed an inkling of movement, the priest stopped and rotated his shield as quickly as possible. Therefore, when Gravis slashed, the rotating shield threw Gravis' arm to the side. The saber never even came close to reaching the priest. Gravis' arm was

broken, and if he hadn't retrieved his Saber into his Spirit Space, it would have been flung into the distance.

BANG!

The priest used his full strength and shoved his shield forward, directly at Gravis. The shield was infused with the earth element, and its already ridiculous weight multiplied. On top of that, the shield was just too wide. Deflecting it with magnetism would be absolutely useless. Like this, the shield hit Gravis, and he got shot into the distance with insane power.

BANG!

Gravis' back hit the arena's wall nearly 700 meters away and bounced off, leaving not a single mark on the wall. It was just way too sturdy. The shield bash had further decimated his arms while the wall's impact broke his spine into many pieces. Gravis lay on the floor with major injuries.

"I will only use my shield in a defensive position, even when all your bones are broken. I will not give you any chance to rest. Even if you use one of your Lightning Crescents and intend to recover your lightning, I won't allow that. I will keep charging at you like this until you are dead," the priest said as he ran at Gravis again. "Also, I know that you can heal yourself in an instant, so stop pretending."

Gravis' nervousness increased as he heard the priest speak. He had planned to catch the priest off guard, but that plan also didn't work. If Gravis didn't heal himself now and retreat, the priest would squash Gravis on the arena's walls, like a bug.

BZZZ!

Like this, Gravis used around 60% of his Life Lightning to get back into his peak condition. Yet, what did that accomplish? He had already wasted 10% of his lightning in an attempt to get around the

priest's defense. The same thing would just repeat. He could do the same thing and unload a Lightning Crescent instead of a slash, but the priest was ready to break the Jade Token at any moment.

What about a Lightning Spear? That would waste his lightning even more. Cultivators with the earth element could increase their body's defense significantly. On top of that, the priest's body was two Realms higher than Gravis' lightning. Even a Lightning Spear with 60% of his lightning would only, at most, injure one arm of the priest. Like this, Gravis would basically use all his lightning. What then?

Gravis ran around the arena, but he was just not as fast as the priest. Could he use his Lightning Board? Sure, with the Lightning Board, he would be faster than the priest, but it cost him lightning to operate it, so he wouldn't be able to recover at all. On top of that, it was very difficult to turn while traveling at such insane speeds.

To put the Lightning Board's speed into perspective, it would go from one end of the arena to the other in less than a second. Even if Gravis drove around the edges, the priest would just need to stay at one wall. Gravis wouldn't be able to turn fast enough to sidestep the priest. He would just hit the priest's shield like an insect. After that, Gravis would turn into nothing more than a stain on the shield.

The shield came closer again, and Gravis waited for the last moment to sidestep without his lightning. He couldn't waste any more of it. Yet, the shield of the priest just followed him. It didn't smash forward but just continued pointing at him, increasing Gravis' nervousness.

Suddenly, the shield shot forward, and Gravis jumped in the opposite direction. He used his lightning again to reach his maximum speed. This was his chance!

Whoop!

The shield immediately stopped and retreated. The priest had used a feint! The shield quickly turned to Gravis' new position and shot forward. Gravis' eyes widened in shock and terror. 'FUCK!'

BANG! BANG!

The shield hit Gravis with full force, and he hit the other side of the arena again. At least, he managed to protect his spine somewhat, at the cost of other bones. Like this, Gravis was nearly incapable of fighting again!

BANG!

The priest charged forward again. "I don't know how often you can fully recover, but just to be on the safe side, I will assume that you can recover yourself to your full health for around 200 times. Maybe I will become reckless after you recover yourself 201 times, but until then, my tactic won't change. I also won't assume that you are dead until your torso and head are split into over 50 pieces with a distance of at least three meters between each one."

'200 times? What monster does he think I am!? Even someone that cultivates Life Lightning can, at maximum, heal themselves only around 20 times. 200? That's ridiculous!' Gravis thought in panic as he used the remainder of his Life Lightning to heal himself. He was completely out now.

Gravis stood up and looked at the approaching shield with panic.

 

Chapter 303

Gravis gritted his teeth. 'Fuck, I only have a single option left!' Gravis thought as he retrieved his Lightning Board and shot away.

"I also know about your Lightning Board. The arena is perfectly sized to counter your Lightning Board," the priest said evenly. The priest stopped charging forward and kept watch over Gravis. He wouldn't be able to follow him at that speed, so he quickly charged to one wall to wait for him.

When Gravis saw that, he immediately jumped off the Lightning Board again. He had used the Lightning Board as a feint to get to the other side of the arena. Sadly, that still cost him around 3% of his lightning.

"Interesting. A feint. That will only work once. I will just continue charging at you, and you have to accelerate every time. I know that acceleration takes up the most lightning. As long as I follow this pattern, you will waste your lightning away," the priest said as he charged at Gravis with his shield again.

Gravis' eyes became bloodshot. 'This is the only chance! If this doesn't work, I will die!' he shouted inside his mind.

Whoop!

A torso appeared before Gravis, and he kicked it forward at the charging priest, who, by now, was around 200 meters away from Gravis.

CRRR!

The sound of feet digging into the ground resounded as the priest immediately stopped. He knew that Gravis could hide the Lightning Bomb inside a torso. The agents have told him of that. The torso would

deteriorate before the Lightning Bomb exploded, so he had enough time to check if a Lightning Bomb was inside the torso or if that was also a feint.

BZZZ!

Sure enough, a colossal Lightning Bomb came out of the torso. The priest had studied Gravis' fighting thoroughly. Even the High Priest himself helped the priest with the calculations. According to math, this Lightning Bomb had around 80% of Gravis' Spirit and lightning. The power and fluctuations of the lightning were in sync with the calculations. Math was never wrong.

The priest always kept watching Gravis, even in this situation. He knew that Gravis could reabsorb lightning, and if that Lightning Bomb were used as a feint, he would need to come close to reabsorb it. When the Lightning Bomb was only two meters away from the priest, he crushed his Jade Token. Just to be sure, the priest even shoved his shield at the Lightning Bomb. If it suddenly turned around, he would have wasted a Jade Token. He couldn't allow that!

Yet, the priest's eyes widened as he saw what Gravis was doing. Gravis had slashed forward with his saber, and the preloaded Lightning Crescent inside his saber flew out. 'He is layering the attack, and I can only keep one barrier active at a time. I have to time the activation of the second barrier perfectly!' the priest shouted in his mind.

Yes, Gravis was layering his attack. The Lightning Crescent would hit the Lightning Bomb. Like this, he would be able to increase the power of his strongest attack by about 80%! Gravis was betting everything on the fact that the priest could only use one token at a time and that this combined attack would be powerful enough to overpower the Jade Token! If this attack failed, he would be utterly empty of Destruction Lightning, Spirit, and Life Lightning.

After crushing the first token, the priest immediately readied the second token. He had to activate the second token at the exact moment when the first one broke. Everything hinged on this moment!

BOOOOOOOOOM!

The Lightning Crescent hit the Lightning Bomb, and both exploded at the same time. The lightning filled the whole arena and even managed to destroy around one meter of wall. The walls were incredibly powerful, but even those received some damage. Luckily, the walls were multiple meters thick.

The first barrier broke nearly immediately, and the priest crush-

WHOOOM!

Gravis activated his Will-Aura for the first time in the fight and used all his will to suppress the priest. The priest had been too careful not to waste his limited Heavenly Pressure. No person was perfect, and the priest had been too preoccupied with activating the second Jade Token that he had forgotten to activate his Heavenly Pressure.

A split second passed until the priest activated his Heavenly Pressure and crushed the second Jade Token. Yet, this split second was enough to let some of the explosion through. The Jade Token was made to resist attacks from outside. It wasn't meant to resist attacks from the inside! The explosion that went through the first barrier destroyed the second barrier in no time.

Yet, the second barrier did its job and blocked a lot of power. The whole explosion only had around a quarter of its power remaining as it crashed into the priest's shield.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!" The priest shouted with fury as he filled his whole body with the earth element. The brunt of the explosion came from the front, but due to the arena's small size, the explosion had nowhere else to go. The circular walls kept the explosion inside, making the explosion hit the priest's body from the side, behind, and top. The priest had already realized this and cradled his head with both of his arms as he leaned against his shield.

BANG!

The shield broke apart, and its fragments dug into the priest's body. The priest's body also started vanishing in the lightning, but he held on! He had to hold on!

Whooosh!

The explosion vanished, and the priest had survived but only barely! He stood on the ground, which had been lowered by about five meters. One of his arms had vanished entirely while the other one was missing one half. The exposed parts of his head were gone, showing a clean skull as all blood and muscle had been burned away. His organs were burned and exposed to the outside.

To put the priest's current health into perspective, he lost around 30% of his body mass. A mortal would have immediately died. Luckily, cultivators had more Life Energy. He could survive such damage and even make a full recovery in the future.

His Energy was also fully used up. If he hadn't used all his Energy to protect his body, he would have died.

Yet, even in this condition, the priest didn't lose his focus. He had closed his eyes and had also shielded them while he had cradled his head in his arms. With this, he had evaded blindness. After the explosion, he had immediately opened them and looked at the front. Due to the explosion, the surroundings were unstable, and his Spirit didn't work. He had to rely on his eyes!

CLANK!

His vigilance had saved his life! The priest had seen the approaching saber and summoned his weapon to block it. It was a two-meter-long spear. He held it in front of him, in one hand, and blocked the slash. It took all his strength to keep the spear stable.

Gravis gritted his teeth so hard that blood flowed out of his mouth. 'Fuck! That was my best chance!' he thought.

'Now, this fight will become really dirty!'

The priest used his power to push Gravis' saber to the side and pierced forward with his spear.

Whoop!

Gravis sidestepped, but the Heavenly Pressure slowed him just too much. Usually, he would have been able to use this as an opening, but due to the suppression, the priest was faster and shoved the butt of the spear at Gravis. Gravis managed to block the butt of the spear with an arm, but the physical power of the priest was a Realm higher than Gravis'. Therefore, Gravis still got shot into the distance.

Luckily, the spear wasn't as heavy as the shield, and the priest also didn't have any more Energy to increase the weapon's weight. Due to that, Gravis only flew for around 100 meters and then stopped. His arm was cracked but still usable.

BANG!

The spear vanished as another humongous shield appeared. The priest only had one arm left, so he couldn't use both weapons simultaneously. Luckily, he could just swap between the two weapons at a moment's notice. He hadn't used the shield to block Gravis' attack earlier because the counterattack with the shield wouldn't be fast enough to hit Gravis.

Without a word, the priest charged at Gravis with his shield again, but with considerably less speed. His body was incredibly injured, and he couldn't use all his power. If he did, his organs might slip out and leave his body.

Gravis watched the approaching shield with narrowed eyes.

'I have a chance now!'

 

Chapter 304

BANG!

The ground exploded as Gravis charged forward. The priest was injured and couldn't use his full power anymore, and even a shield slam wouldn't be that damaging to Gravis anymore. He needed to press the priest before he managed to regain his Energy.

When they neared each other, Gravis suddenly jumped and grabbed the top of the shield with one hand.

Whoop!

The shield vanished and was replaced by a spear that shot right at Gravis, who was still in the air.

Puchi!

Gravis summoned multiple body parts to weaken the spear. One shouldn't forget that Gravis' body was pretty powerful, and such a relatively weak spear strike couldn't obliterate all of his prepared body parts. The spear strike slowed down as it met resistance, and Gravis summoned another of his previously severed arms as a foothold. With the help of these, Gravis managed to evade the spear. Like this, Gravis stabbed his saber forward.

Bang!

The priest couldn't summon the shield between the saber and his body anymore since there wasn't enough space, so he summoned it closely beside the saber. With his full power, he slammed it into Gravis' arms from the side.

Shing!

A significant cut appeared on the priest's torso, as he wasn't fully able to block the attack.

Crack!

It just so happened that the shield hit the previously cracked arm, breaking it completely. Due to this, one of Gravis' arms was unusable now. On top of that, nearly no time had passed since Gravis has used all his Life Lightning to regenerate himself, so he didn't even have enough to repair one single bone.

BANG!

The shield might have pushed Gravis' saber and arms aside, but his body was still in the air, a perfect target for another shield slam! The shield hit Gravis' body, cracking his upper arm in the process.

The slam threw Gravis for around 150 meters, and he landed shortly before he reached the wall.

BANG!

The floor exploded again as the priest shot forward with his shield. Just like Gravis didn't want to give the priest time to regenerate, the priest also didn't want to give Gravis any time. In fact, the priest was even more fervent than Gravis in this regard. They immediately charged at each other again.

BANG!

Contrary to expectations, Gravis didn't evade the shield. Instead, he slid on the floor, in front of it. The shield angled downwards, and Gravis kicked it with all his power while using his functioning arm to push off the ground. Only his arms were injured, and with the help of the ground, he had enough power to resist the single arm of the priest. Legs were more powerful than arms, and with Gravis having the ground as leverage, he mustered enough power to shoot the shield upward a little.

Instead of becoming panicked, the priest's eyes showed excitement, and an incredible fire of victory rush burned inside them. "It's over!" he shouted.

Gravis was motionless on the ground and was just about to kneel to get closer when he felt the air vibrate violently. Gravis felt an incredible amount of earth element being gathered on the shield. The amount was simply unreal!

At the same time, the priest fell to the Tree Stage. He had used the Energy in his Spirit to infuse his shield with as much earth element as possible. Lasar had done the same in his fight against Old Darkness. A Self Stage cultivator had so much Energy in their Spirit that falling a whole Stage would be equivalent to 200% of their Energy. The shield vibrated and shook as it reached a weight of over a thousand tons.

The priest didn't feel the weight of the shield as he slammed it downward at the unmoving Gravis with all his power.

BOOOOOOOOM!

The shield hit the ground and exploded, shooting into the surroundings. The shield wasn't made to resist such a massive infusion of earth element. Yet, it did its job as a massive hole appeared below the priest.

Puchi!

The priest's eyes widened as he felt incredible pain coming from his butt. With his Spirit, he saw Gravis coming out of the ground behind him, his saber being up to the hilt in the priest's butthole.

"H-how?"

BANG!

The priest exploded in an explosion of lightning.

The fight was over.

What had happened?

Many factors came into play here. First of all, Gravis absorbed a lot of his own lightning back when the double Lightning Crescent exploded. That had refilled his lightning storage to around 40%. Yet, he had acted like he had no lightning left. With the priest's stressed attitude, he would probably forget that Gravis could absorb his lightning back.

Then, when Gravis saw that the ground under him exploded when he had burst forward earlier, he realized something. Why was the ground five meters lower while the walls only lost around a meter of stone? The reason for that was that the walls were multiple meters thick, while the ground wasn't. It had only been a little less than a meter thick. This meant that they had not been fighting on the sturdy stone anymore but on the mountain stone.

The last factor was the priest's unrelenting aggressiveness. Gravis knew that the priest wanted to kill him as quickly as possible. So, after having one exchange to make the priest believe that Gravis couldn't use lightning, he created an "opportunity" for the priest. If Gravis were unmoving at the ground, the priest would surely use his most powerful attack to destroy him.

What if he didn't? If the priest wouldn't use that attack, Gravis would just kick the lifted shield again while being on one of his knees. With that, the fight would continue. Yet, the priest had fallen right into Gravis' trap.

When the shield came at him, Gravis used his lightning to destroy the, relatively, fragile stone beneath him. Then, he used his lightning movement to shoot himself downward. Gravity wouldn't be fast enough on its own. Like this, the shield would hit the surrounding earth instead of the lowered Gravis. The priest's full attention had been on his shield when he used it, and for the first time, the priest had paid no attention to Gravis.

So, Gravis immediately used his lightning movement in the destroyed underground to move beneath the priest. After that, he just stabbed upward and unloaded all his lightning. This was how he had won.

Gravis sighed, but before he could finish his sigh, a massive mouthful of blood left his mouth. Even though the shield hadn't hit Gravis directly, its incredibly powerful shockwave had traveled through the earth. Luckily, the earth had distributed its force over a wide area. If it hadn't, Gravis would be an unrecognizable pulp right now.

Gravis came out of the underground and lay on the floor, exhausted. "I'm still alive," he said to himself.

After a couple of minutes of rest, he noticed the loot beside him. The priest had died, and all his belongings had appeared beside him.

"Tch," Gravis spat to the side.

All his belongings? You mean all his belonging! It was just a single fucking spear. Nothing else. Gravis grimaced in frustration.

"Fuck you, Heaven," he groaned in frustration.

Yet, Heaven was even more frustrated than Gravis right now.

 

Chapter 305

After a couple of minutes, Gravis stood up again. Then, he looked up at the ceiling with a smirk.

"This has been your best opportunity to kill me, Heaven," Gravis said with a chuckle. "I was at my weakest at the start of this Heaven's Trial. From here on out, I will only become stronger. On top of that, you have already sent the perfect counter. You might be able to send another priest, but that one won't counter me as well as the previous one. On top of that, my Will-Aura has also become more powerful."

This was precisely the reason why Heaven had been so frustrated. The most powerful thing that it could send at him was a priest, and the last one had already been the one that had had the best chances of killing Gravis. Any other priest would have even less of a chance of winning. It had missed its best opportunity.

Of course, Heaven didn't answer Gravis, but Gravis didn't need an answer to guess what Heaven was thinking. Gravis was also sure that Heaven had another scheme cooked up to kill him. A priest might've been the most powerful thing it could send, but there were more things that it could do. A straight-up battle was not the only way to stop or kill Gravis.

He was sure that something special was waiting for him later on. Yet, Gravis wasn't afraid or nervous. He was confident enough in his smarts and will to get through everything that Heaven could throw at him. In his mind, the only dangerous thing to him was a powerful enemy.

As for his Will-Aura…

"4% compression. Not bad," Gravis said. "Though, still not a level three Unity Will."

Gravis also checked the spear and saw that it was a peak-grade Spirit Weapon. Materials capable of forging something at the Unity level just weren't present in this lower world. Therefore, peak-grade Spirit Weapons were the best weapons that anyone could have.

Gravis' saber was also a peak-grade Spirit Weapon. The only thing that made it special was the fact that the Formation Arrays on it were different. Old Man Lightning had specifically created those for Gravis. Of course, the area on a saber was limited, so to make space for these new Formation Arrays, some old ones had to be cut. This made it impossible to preload the conventional loaded attacks.

But that didn't matter. Why would Gravis want to load a conventional loaded attack when he could load it with a Lightning Crescent? After all, a Lightning Crescent was many times more powerful.

"Speaking of Spirit Weapons," Gravis said to himself as he got that thought. "I should learn to forge when I get back to my homeworld. If I didn't have this specially crafted saber, I would be wasting a peak-grade Spirit Weapon every single time I used my Lightning Crescent. I should find a way around that."

Gravis sighed. "Well, right now, I can't change anything about it." Then, he looked at the still-closed door to the next trial. "I just have to wait for the next trial to begin. Though, that might take a while. Joyce said that the second trial opens simultaneously for everyone. This means I have to wait for every other group to either die or succeed."

Gravis rubbed his chin. "Together with the fact that this whole Heaven's Trial is supposed to go on for multiple years probably means that there are some trials that take longer. Maybe something like being thrown into a huge-ass forest and having to kill 100 beast or something. Maybe a survival trial, where the groups have to survive for a couple of months in changing environments."

Gravis sighed again. "I might as well make myself comfortable. I probably have to wait for a couple of months."

Even though Gravis had expected that he still waited near the nearly-destroyed door to the second trial for a couple of hours. There was a big crater in the door, but the door was thicker than a meter. As the time ticked by, Gravis realized that he had been right. This would probably take a while.

'Though, my new combined Lightning Crescent is probably able to destroy that door. But what then?' Gravis thought. 'Heaven has probably already planned around that. After all, it can change this Heaven's Trial however it wants. Another priest could be waiting for me directly behind that door, and when I used all my lightning and Spirit, I would be basically defenseless. It could also have made this door hundreds of meters thick.'

Gravis rubbed his chin in thought. 'Bursting through might be troublesome. I think waiting is the best option. Maybe this is also part of Heaven's plan? It knows that I am very impatient when it comes to tempering and my cultivation. Maybe the first trials will take longer than usual just to bore me to death?'

Gravis shrugged. 'Well, who cares. I don't like to just wait, but I can adapt. I should find something to occupy myself.'

Whoop!

Gravis appeared inside his Spirit Space and looked at the Growth. "So, what can you do?" he asked it, and therefore himself, out loud. "The Spirit Seed allowed me to play Dodgeball. Maybe you can do something similar?"

BANG!

Gravis punched it away, and just like the Spirit Seed, it bumped around the Spirit Space. Gravis evaded the Growth for a while, but he soon got bored. After stopping it, he sighed again. "I've done this for a whole year. I am already pretty good at that. There should be something else I can do with you."

Gravis willed the Growth to move, and it followed his thoughts. "Hmm," Gravis harrumphed in thought. "Lemme try something."

BANG! BANG!

A thick lightning bolt shot out of the Growth and hit the membrane. The lightning quickly traveled along the membrane until it was above the Growth, and then it shot back into the Growth. "Hmm."

Gravis willed for more lightning to leave it, and the process repeated. Then, he willed that the lightning would only come out of the many tips of the Growth. That also worked. "Spin!" Gravis shouted.

After that, the Growth started spinning in the middle of his Spirit Space. "Shoot out of the tips!" he shouted, and the same thing happened again, but with the added spin, the lightning came out of a spot that he hadn't expected. "Interesting," Gravis said as he rubbed his chin.

'I wonder how fast it can spin,' Gravis thought. Then, he willed it to spin faster and faster. The more he willed it to spin, the faster it got. After around a minute, it had reached such an incredibly high speed that Gravis couldn't even follow it anymore.

"Wait a second," Gravis said, and the Growth immediately stopped. "I can rotate the core, but I wonder if I can also rotate the roots, too?" he asked himself.

As soon as he thought that, the roots started pulsing. Some retreated, while others grew. With some more willpower, Gravis also managed to make the growths move around. By now, the Growth looked like a pulsing, wriggling, and living abomination. "Fuck, you're really disgusting," Gravis commented.

"Now, spin," he said, and it started spinning again. The wild growing still happened. The roots were also traveling around the spinning core. "Good! Now, let's add some randomness to that," he said.

And with this, the Growth started spinning and growing all around the place. Gravis' Spirit was not powerful enough to keep up with it at all. It was just too random and fast. When he saw that, Gravis smirked. "Now, shoot some lightning!"

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Lots of lightning bolts came out of the Growth from completely random places. One of the lightning bolts even hit him.

Clap!

"Perfect!" Gravis shouted with a clap. "Dodgeball became a little too predictable. After all, I know how much force I use for my kicks and how it would bounce off the walls, but I sure as hell can't predict that. This will occupy me for many months!"

And with that, Gravis started spending his time evading random lightning bolts. At some point, he would also kick the Growth to make the lightning even more random.

When he got bored of doing that, he left his Spirit Space and used the arena's walls as training dummies. He might not be able to increase his physical power by much, but he could analyze his attacks and streamline them. Gravis was sure that his physical power wasn't powerful enough to break the saber, even if he hit something harder than it.

Like this, Gravis trained for several months.

 

Chapter 306

The door that had been silent for six months finally opened. Gravis turned to it and released a sigh of relief. "Finally, I can continue," he said.

It had felt like forever to him. Being alone without any outside stimuli for six months was incredibly boring to him. Mortals might find such a thought horrifying, but Gravis was already used to it. To him, it was nothing more than boredom.

Gravis retrieved his lightning and Spirit. He had been trying to make the Lightning Bomb stable. It was a huge issue that it always absorbed all of his lightning whenever he summoned it. This made the technique very problematic since he couldn't control the output of lightning. If he managed to use as much lightning as he wanted, he could build new techniques on top of that foundation.

Why did Gravis not ask for more Battle Techniques from the Lightning Sect? The issue with that was that all of the Battle Techniques had the same base. All the techniques were based on a combination of Spirit and will. As long as he couldn't control his lightning's output, any additional Battle Technique became meaningless.

One had to know that the Lightning Bomb and Lightning Crescent didn't have anything to do with the Rakshasa Saber. The attack might be similarly performed, but only up to the base. The Rakshasa Saber needed Energy to function, not lightning. As soon as lightning came into the equation, it stopped being the Rakshasa Saber.

The Lightning Bomb and Lightning Crescent were new techniques created by Gravis. Sadly, without the ability to control the lightning output, the usage of those two techniques became very limited. Gravis had tried to fix that for a long while now, without any result. The sphere would summon another him, basically, and the second him wanted his own lightning. It was just instinct.

Yet, the six months didn't go by without any result. His dodging became even better thanks to his new way of training. His control over his physical power also increased.

What was the use of better control? It was the optimization of the user's power. More powerful attacks needed a longer windup, while weaker attacks would be faster. For example, using a slash with Gravis' full power would be stupid if he fought against a wind cultivator. The slash would be too slow to hit them. A weaker but faster slash would still be powerful enough to injure the person.

"Anyway," Gravis said as he cracked his neck. "Time to go. I wonder what you have in store for me, Heaven. Will you use your secret weapon right now, or later?"

With that said, Gravis walked through the opened door and looked at the walls. "Sure enough, the door was many meters thick. Trying to brute-force my way through that would have taken forever."

Gravis walked for about a minute and then entered a small hall. The hall was identical to the one where his group has split up. And, funnily enough, his group waited for him there. When Gravis saw them, he was pleasantly surprised.

The group also looked at him and smiled. All four were still alive, relieving Gravis. Even though only two people from the group could be considered friends, Gravis still didn't want them to die. He was a little happy that everyone was still alive. He also saw that their wills had grown a little bit. Apparently, the trial had been dangerous, but not that much.

Manuel's eyes lighted up in shock. He was very experienced in battles and with people. The moment he saw Gravis, he felt that Gravis' Will-Aura had become much more powerful. Such an intense increase could only happen if someone went through an incredibly dangerous fight where the chances of dying were way higher than surviving.

He immediately saw many more connections. The trials were supposed to be tailored to the Realm of the user, not the Battle Strength. Only as the trials progressed would they become harder, and

therefore, also test the user's Battle Strength. On top of that, the first trial should be the easiest one. With Gravis' unreal Battle Strength, he should have been able to walk through that trial. How could his trial have been this difficult?

Manuel's Spirit was also able to judge the physical body of people very well. He felt that Gravis' body was equal to someone at the Tree Stage. If he had had such a powerful body before going to the trial, basically nothing could stop him. What could be so dangerous as to increase his will that much?

"Gravis! Hey!" Joyce shouted with happiness as she waved her hands. She quickly ran to him and grabbed his right hand with both of her hands. "Thank you so much for your training!" she shouted excitedly as she shook his hand vigorously.

Gravis could only bitterly smile. "It's alright. I didn't do much. I only taught you some basics of fighting."

"Nonsense!" Joyce shouted. "You have taught me creativity! I am still bad at fighting, but I can, at least, see opportunities."

"Well, you could call that creativity," the lightning disciple said from the side with an uncomfortable expression.

Joyce turned to him and went red in the face. "Shut up, Claude! You promised that you wouldn't talk about it!"

Claude only smiled bitterly and became quiet.

Gravis lifted an eyebrow. "Oh? What happened?" he asked.

Joyce pouted with her still red face. "Can't you see that I am obviously embarrassed about this!? Read the atmosphere, dummy!" she shouted.

Gravis rolled his eyes. "Sure, keep your secrets then," he commented.

As Gravis saw the group, he got an idea. "Do any of you have more body tempering pills?" he asked.

The group was a little taken aback, but Claude, Joyce, and Manuel nodded. "I left the Sect with enough body tempering pills to reach the Tree Stage," Manuel said. "I also don't need them for the time being. My body is already more powerful than my Realm, which makes it difficult to use my element."

"I only have enough to reach the Seed Stage," Claude said.

"I have enough to reach the Sapling Stage," Joyce chimed in.

Gravis rubbed his chin for a bit. "No offense, but that amount of pills won't help me, Joyce, Claude," Gravis said. "Manuel, do you know how to use a spear?"

Manuel scratched the side of his head. "I know how to use a lot of weapons. I am most comfortable with a long sword, but I am also fine with a spear. Though, I already have a weapon. So, if you want to trade one, I'll probably decline."

Whoop!

Gravis summoned the spear. "You sure?" he asked with a smirk.

When Manuel saw the spear, his eyes widened to their limits. "Holy shit, is that a peak-grade Spirit Weapon? Only Sect Masters carry these!"

The others hadn't been able to judge the weapon's quality, but when they heard Manuel's shout, their eyes also widened in surprise. Where did Gravis get that? The spear quickly floated over to Manuel, and he looked at it even closer. After that, his breathing became even faster.

"This isn't just an average peak-grade Spirit Weapon!" he shouted with shock and surprise. "Normally, about 80% of the weapon's grade is decided by its Formation Arrays. The materials are not the main point of the weapon. Yet, this spear is entirely made out of Core!"

Joyce was a little confused. "Core? Like a Beast Core?" she asked.

Manuel shook his head to regain his bearings. "No. The material's actual name is Core Ore, but it became an inside joke to just call it Core. It's the best material for weapons in existence. It can only be found in the deepest mines in the Core-Continent, and it's incredibly rare. I've never seen a weapon made out of pure Core before! Only the Heaven Sect would have such a ridiculous amount of wealth, and even then, only the priests would-"

Manuel suddenly went quiet and then looked at Gravis in shock. Only the Heaven Sect had the ridiculous amount of wealth to make a weapon out of Core? Gravis went through an incredibly difficult tempering experience? The dots inside Manuel's mind connected, and he took a deep breath.

"How are you still alive?" he asked involuntarily in a quiet voice.

Gravis smirked. "It was pretty close," Gravis said.

The others also connected the dots and were just as shocked. Gravis had fought a priest? And he won!? This was impossible! Gravis was only at the Sapling Stage! Didn't this mean that Gravis was the strongest person in the Spirit Forming Realm while he was still at the Sapling Stage? This was way too ridiculous!

"Anyway, so you up for the trade?" Gravis asked as everyone was watching him with open eyes.

Pack!

A huge sack of pills was immediately thrown at him. Manuel didn't even need to consider. After that, he immediately started exchanging some of his wealth for all the body tempering pills in the group. Even if he scrunched up enough body tempering pills to promote a physical body to the Self Stage, it still wouldn't be even close to enough. This spear was worth about as much as the whole Wind Sect!

Gravis wanted to protest about the additional pills that Manuel was fervently trading for. Yet, Manuel just shouted at him that the spear was way too expensive and that he wouldn't feel at peace if he didn't do his best to repay Gravis. After scratching his head a little, Gravis gave up. If the spear was worth that much, why not accept the additional pills?

"Oh, by the way," Manuel said. "Why are you not using the spear?" he asked.

Gravis summoned his saber. "I have this."

And again, Manuel was shocked. "This is also made of Core! How are you so rich!?" he shouted.

Gravis scratched his chin. He didn't think that he was rich. After all, his Spirit Space was nearly empty.

The group sat down and talked for some hours. They shared their experiences and what they have gone through in their trial.

 

Chapter 307

The group told Gravis what they went through in their first trial. They had to defend themselves from an army of beasts that grew more and more numerous as time went by, without any pause. Gravis immediately saw the similarity between that trial and his mad dash for power back in his homeworld. Back then, he had willingly put himself in a similar situation.

That mad dash for power had helped him in condensing his initial Will-Aura. After all, it was good tempering, and it gave a lot of combat experience. The group had to adapt to waves of beasts that continually got stronger to survive.

This confirmed Gravis' thought that Heaven was putting the group through the perfect trials for them. After all, they had three people that went through the tenth level of Energy Gathering. They were probably more valuable to Heaven than all the other groups combined. In total, their trial had been going on for one month.

Then, it was Gravis' turn to tell of his first trial. He told them of the priest that he had met and how outclassed he was. When he told them how prepared the priest was for him, their disbelief only increased. How could he have possibly gotten out of that situation alive? In their minds, it had been impossible for him to win.

When he came to the point where he told them about his guesses on how the Jade Tokens worked, they realized that there really was a chance. It actually sounded really logical! Yet, even if that solution appeared logical to them now, they doubted that they would have been able to see it in such a situation.

Emotions could be a liability in a fight. If one feared the enemy too much, they would think less about a way to survive and more about the horror they were experiencing themselves. Only by keeping a cool head in a stressful situation would one be able to make the best decisions.

When Gravis came to the point where the fight ended, the reactions of the group were mixed. Joyce looked with disgust at Gravis. Claude, the lightning disciple, looked a little uncomfortable. Manuel just laughed. After all, he had done similar things in the past. The darkness disciple looked with motivation and admiration at Gravis. Gravis had used all his weapons, no matter how despicable, to win the fight. That perfectly fit the temperament of darkness cultivators.

"And that's where I got that spear," Gravis said as he pointed at the spear that Manuel was holding. He wanted to familiarize himself with his weapon, so he carried it around.

Yet, admiration was the last thing on the group's mind right now. Of course, Gravis' performance was more than praiseworthy, but the fact that Gravis went through such an insane first trial made them nervous and afraid of their future trials. This obviously didn't conform to the rules of the inheritance. Also, how was it possible that a priest was inside this trial? Hadn't a previous ascendent created this trial?

"Will we be able to survive?" Joyce asked the group with worry, but they also weren't sure. This showed a precedence of something way too powerful appearing. If something like this happened to them, they could only die. Should they stop and wait until they reached the Self Stage? After all, there was no time limit.

"Something like this won't happen to you," Gravis said, eliciting unsure glances from the group. They knew that Gravis knew a lot, but they couldn't bet their lives on that. After all, Gravis could be mistaken.

Gravis saw that and rubbed his chin in thought. "Hey, wait here for a minute, okay?" he said. Then, he went back into the corridor he came from. The door to the first trial was closed again, but not the door to the corridor that led to the first trial. The group looked at the retreating Gravis in confusion. What was he doing? Did he need to take a shit?

After running for about two kilometers, so that he was outside their Spirit's range, he stopped and looked at the ceiling. "You three are probably having a grand ol' time watching this. Two are probably watching in interest, while the last one is watching in frustration," he said with a smirk.

The three beings he was referring to were the lower Heaven, highest Heaven, and his father. "Anyway, so you've seen how unsure they are after they heard what happened to me in the first trial. They might decide to completely follow me from now on or to just wait here for 40 years or so. I guess highest Heaven isn't a big fan of that. After all, you want powerful cultivators and also people close to me so that you can take them hostage in the future."

Of course, no one answered.

Gravis only smirked. "I am pretty close to Joyce and Manuel, and you know that. So, how about this? I tell them about the Heaven's Trial and how it works so that they can continue tempering themselves. When they know the background, they can temper themselves without any worries. We all want that, right? So, that alright with you?"

"The old bastard said ok," the voice of Gravis' father appeared in his mind.

Gravis nodded. "Alrighty then."

Even though he hadn't shown any outward emotional reaction to his father's voice, Gravis was still happy and relieved that his father was watching him. This showed that his father was interested in and supportive of Gravis' progress. This also reminded him that he still had a family waiting for him. He hadn't talked to his mother in years, and he was also missing her.

After that, Gravis walked back to the group, who was still discussing and gathered their attention. "Alright, I just got the OK to tell you the truth about this inheritance," he said, eliciting even more confused expressions.

Gravis explained to them the worth of a cultivator and the different standings in the middle world. That was to tell them their importance to Heaven. Then, he told them about the concept of a Heaven's Trial.

After he was finished, a lot more things made sense. The appearance of a priest in the first trial, the splitting off from the other groups, the incomprehensible amount of wealth in this "inheritance", the continually changing trials, it all made sense now!

"So anyways," Gravis said, "that's why you don't have to be worried. Your group is more valuable than every other group combined. Heaven will send trials at you that will push you to your limit, but it won't send something so strong that only death is left."

Then, Gravis looked solemnly at them. "Of course, you can't take it lightly. You will still be in mortal danger. It might even make the next trial extra hard just to prove that you can't lose focus. Going through the tenth Stage of Energy Gathering is nice, but if you can't even get through something like that, what's the point of letting you ascend?"

All this information came as a shock to the group. Heaven had always been an elusive concept, something beyond time and comprehension. Yet, the way Gravis explained Heaven, it seemed almost human. On one point, they felt they understood Heaven better, but on another point, this kind of took some of the exciting mysticism and magic out of the world. After all, the force that governed the entire world was basically nothing more than an administrator of some area.

"But if that is true, why did it send a priest at you?" Manuel asked.

Gravis rolled his eyes. "Duh, because it wants to kill me. My goal is to kill this garbage lower Heaven, and I am pretty fucking close to having that strength. It is backed into a corner. Any beast that is backed into a corner will try its very best to defend itself."

Manuel was a little surprised by the logical and mundane explanation. Again, Heaven appeared like just some dude in his eyes. This really overturned all his previous feelings for Heaven and the rules of

the world. It was just too logical and calculating, just like a human.

"How many Magic Stones do you have, Manuel?" Claude asked suddenly.

Manuel turned to the person with confusion, but then his face warped into a smirk. "Good decision! I have enough for you. I'll lend them to you for the time being, but you better repay me, okay?"

Claude sighed and nodded. "Thank you. I won't forget this debt."

BANG!

His Spirit shattered, and he fell back into the Energy Gathering Stage. Joyce and the darkness disciple were pleasantly surprised while Gravis smirked. "That's the right decision," he said.

With this, the whole group would consist of people that went through the tenth Stage of Energy Gathering. For everyone else, this Heaven's Trial was a nearly sure death sentence, but for this group, it was the best tempering experience in the entire world. Not everyone had the luxury of having Heaven choose appropriate tempering for them.

"Anyway, you go on and continue," Gravis said as he walked to the second trial. Just like before, there was one door with a '1' and one door with a '4'. "I'll be the first to finish the second trial. See you in a couple of months!" he said with a wave as he pushed open the door.

The group was a little surprised by the sudden departure, but they all gave their farewells. This time, it would be them who would enter their trials later.

BANG!

The door closed behind Gravis, and he sighed. "Even though the second trial probably won't be nearly as hard as the first one, I am actually more apprehensive about this one. Judging by this petty-ass

Heaven's personality, I will probably have to do some disgusting things."

And with that, Gravis walked along the corridor to his second trial.

 

Chapter 308

WARNING! This chapter is pretty disgusting. You won't miss anything important if you skip it.

Gravis reached the door to the second trial and opened it. Behind it, he saw a ten-by-ten-meter room. It definitely wasn't big enough for a fighting arena, so Gravis probably wouldn't need to fight. When he saw that, he sighed. "Oh, boy. Let's see what you have prepared," he said as he entered.

BANG!

The door behind him closed.

BANG!

Then, a stele appeared in the middle of the room. Gravis looked at it and saw something written on it. "This trial will offer two choices at a time. The cultivator needs to choose one of the two options and then do what is written on them. After going through five choices, the cultivator has passed the trial."

Gravis read the words and rolled his eyes. "So, I basically have to do anything that Heaven wants. This will be greeeaat~," he said with sarcasm.

Two signs grew out of the stele. After a couple of seconds, words appeared on both of them.

"Die," Gravis read and looked at the other one, "die."

Gravis blinked a couple of times in confusion.

SLAP!

Gravis didn't notice, but the highest Heaven slapped the lower Heaven when the two choices were revealed. What was this shit!?

One of the signs changed from "die" to "eat shit." Gravis blinked again in surprise. Why did the sign just change?

SLAP!

"Eat shit or eat shit," Gravis read with confusion.

SLAP!

This lower Heaven was really throwing all the Heavens' face.

"Eat shit or kill a baby," Gravis read.

No slap came this time.

When Gravis saw that the sign didn't change anymore, he guessed that these were the final options. Gravis had already guessed that the highest Heaven had objected to the previous choices. That was the reason why the choices kept changing.

Gravis chuckled. "So, you either want me to humiliate myself so that you can vent your frustration or make me go against my conscience," he said. "You're really like a petty child. You see that you can't do anything against me anymore, so you just want to humiliate me as much as possible."

Then, Gravis laughed. "Well, joke's on you. I have eaten shit for over a week once. I'd rather eat shit than go against my conscience. I choose the shit," he said.

The words on the signs vanished, and a massive pile of shit appeared before Gravis. It, apparently, had been produced by some beast. On top of that, he noticed that the pile of shit was very fresh. It was still steaming.

When Gravis saw that, he only rolled his eyes. Eating shit? What was this in comparison to all the life- threatening danger he went through on his journey? This was, at most, a small inconvenience. Oh wow, he had to eat something disgusting, big deal! Some food even had dung as its ingredient.

"Well, here comes the carriage~," Gravis sing-songed like he was talking to a baby that he wanted to feed. After that, he opened his mouth wide and used his Spirit to form the pile of shit into one long line. Then, it shot into his mouth. He didn't even taste it along the way since he moved everything to the side as it passed through. When it entered his stomach, he simply destroyed it with lightning. It had never touched his body even once.

CRRRRR!

The Heaven's Trial started shaking. "Shut up," Gravis said, "eating is when you ingest something orally, and it enters your stomach. I am not breaking any rules. It's not my fault that you're too stupid to make a trial."

The Heaven's Trial still shook like a mighty earthquake was happening, but nothing else happened. Gravis even laughed while pushing the long, brown snake into his stomach. After a minute, he was done. "Thanks for the meal," he said with a smirk.

After some more seconds, the Heaven's Trial calmed down. After that, two new choices appeared.

"Kill a baby or go fuck yourself," Gravis read and even laughed a little. "Man, you're really a child. Alright, then let me go fuck myself," he said.

Whoom!

A sphere made out of will and Spirit appeared before him. If he infused it with lightning, it would become a Lightning Bomb. Then, he made it move to his groin and then moved it away again. "Done."

CRRRR!

The Heaven's Trial shook again. "Hey, this will-sphere is another me. My dick entered it, so I just fucked myself," Gravis said with a smirk. "Man, you just can't do anything right."

After another minute of shaking, the Heaven's Trial calmed down again. Then, new words appeared.

"Leave this Heaven's Trial or die," Gravis read.

SLAP!

"Leave this Heaven's Trial or kill a baby," Gravis read.

SLAP!

"Kill a woman or kill a baby," Gravis read.

No more slaps came.

When Gravis saw these choices remain, he sighed. "Well, if I can avoid killing innocent people, I will do so, but when there is no other way, I can be morally flexible. Both count as a life. Gender doesn't matter when it comes to the cost of a life, but the baby has a longer life before it. So, send in the woman."

"Wha-"

BANG!

Before the woman could say anything, she was obliterated by lightning. "Sorry, but my life is more important to me than your life," he said. "Don't blame me, blame Heaven."

Of course, Gravis didn't like this. He was not a fan of killing innocents. Yet, that was not reason enough to stop his cultivation. The world was cruel, and if one wasn't able to change the circumstances, one

had to adapt.

Another message appeared on the signs. "Kill a man or kill a woman," Gravis read. Then, he shrugged. "I don't care. Send whatever."

Gravis felt something appearing and bathed the room in lightning immediately. It didn't matter what appeared. A life was a life. He didn't even know which of the two appeared.

"Kill a beast or bathe in urine for an hour while the entire world watches," he read. "Aight, give me the second one," Gravis said.

Whooom!

The whole room filled with a yellow liquid, and Gravis just floated on the surface. Sadly, he didn't have any smartass ideas for this one. He just had to get through it. He simply blocked all his orifices with his Spirit so that nothing could enter his body. Sadly, in order to bathe in something, his skin still needed to touch the liquid.

As Gravis floated on top of the liquid, he looked at the ceiling. "Do you feel better now?" he asked with a smirk. "The big bad cultivator is forced to do things that people find humiliating. He will surely become angry and frustrated."

Gravis snorted. "Come on. So what if others find my actions degrading? What power does their opinion have over me? I am already the third strongest being in this lower world. Power is everything. They can become disgusted by me, yet I still hold power over their lives. Of course, as long as they don't show that, I don't care. Let them think what they want," Gravis said with an arrogant laugh.

Meanwhile, on the outside, above the Heaven's Trial, a multiple kilometers big screen appeared that showed everything. Many Sects had some elders standing on standby to receive their disciples in the

case that they won. The winners would get incredible rewards, and many powers were greedy for that. That's why every power sent some of their elders.

When the elders saw the screen and what was happening, their eyes widened. What was happening? Why was this person bathing in this disgusting liquid like he didn't care? Was this some kind of sick fetish?

Sadly, Gravis' words were not transmitted. They only saw Gravis smirking and laughing. To them, it looked like Gravis was enjoying himself. Some of the present elders felt intense disgust and disdain for Gravis.

Some elders recognized Gravis and grew shocked. Wasn't this the person that had annihilated the Darkness Sect? They had already thought of Gravis as a monster, but now, their guess was confirmed. Gravis was really a degenerate freak. Those elders quickly informed their friends and colleagues, and those friends and colleagues informed their friends.

Like this, in less than a week, Gravis was known as the degenerate, disgusting freak.

What would Gravis think if he knew what others now thought of him?

He would only laugh in disdain.

People that pushed other people down were just insecure. They needed to see weaker people to feel better about themselves. The opinions of weaklings with such a fragile ego were worthless. An elephant didn't care what an ant thought. There were surely some people among the watching ones that simply didn't care and shrugged.

And sure enough, those people existed. Many of the cultivators just shrugged. "So? Let him do what he likes. Who cares?" they would ask when someone told them about Gravis.

Many of the elders also thought like this. They didn't spread it because they wanted to feel better, but because it was a big and interesting event. Some Sects even used this as a test for their disciples. They would tell their disciples what happened and then watched their reactions. If they showed disdain, it meant that their temperament might not fit their element.

This day was the day where the most disciples were kicked out of their Sect in history. No one was kicked out of the Light, Darkness, Earth, and Wind Sect. The Light Sect was very judgmental, and the Darkness Sect was all about personal power and disdain. The Earth Sect disliked Gravis either way, and the Wind Sect didn't put expectations or rules on any of their disciples.

Yet, a lot of disciples were kicked out of the Water, Lightning, and Fire Sect. The Water Sect prided itself on its adaptability, and if someone couldn't accept the more disgusting facets of people, they obviously weren't cut out for the water element. The Lightning Sect was all about fairness and justice, and as long as someone didn't suppress someone unjustified, they shouldn't care.

The Fire Sect adored power and Battle-Strength above all else. They knew how powerful Gravis was, and anyone that looked down on him because of something minor like that didn't put power above everything else.

Gravis' small, unimportant trial created humongous waves in the Core-Continent.

If Gravis knew what impact this trial had, he would only laugh.

It was rather funny that this unimportant trial would help three of the Sects.

 

Chapter 309

After around an hour, the liquid vanished. Gravis quickly cleaned off the remaining moisture from his body and the room with his lightning. "Well, seems like this trial is done too. I guess it's time for waiting again," he said while cracking his neck.

The stele in the middle of the room vanished, but the door didn't open. "Waiting it is then," Gravis said. "The beginning of the Heaven's Trial was rather exciting, but everything since then was just a bother or boring. I would have expected more out of you, Heaven."

No answer came.

After that, Gravis summoned the body tempering pills that he had gotten from Manuel earlier and started consuming them. After eating all of them, his body reached 33% of the Self Stage's requirements. After that, it was back to training. Just like with the last trial, Gravis spent his time trying to control the output of lightning with the will-sphere, dodging lightning bolts from the Growth, and fine- tuning his control over his strength.

Like this, eight months passed.

CRRRR!

The door opened, and Gravis opened his eyes. "Finally," Gravis said in exasperation. "Honestly, are you trying to bore me to death, Heaven?" Gravis asked. "I already spent over a full fucking year in this Heaven's Trial, and what happened during that time? I fought a guy. That's all."

Gravis stepped through the door, which quickly closed behind him. 'I'm about 93% of the way to the Tree Stage. In total, reaching the Tree Stage would have taken around 15 months. Reaching the Self Stage would probably also take around 20 months or so. At that point, I could reach the Unity Realm whenever I want. So, I would barely be 22 when I return to my homeworld. Six years, huh?'

After a while, Gravis reached another small hall. Like before, his group was already waiting for him. Joyce jumped forward and hugged Gravis. "You're still alive! Thank goodness," she said. "Thank you so much again for your training. Without it, I wouldn't be alive anymore."

Gravis was a little taken aback by the sudden hug, but he quickly pushed her gently away. "As I said, it's nothing. Don't mention it."

Joyce pouted a little when Gravis pushed her away, but she didn't really care. Her pouting was more playful than angry. Now, Gravis finally had time to inspect the group. Joyce's Will-Aura had become more powerful, and she was already in the process of concentrating it. She probably could only compress it to about 97% or something, but it was a start.

When Gravis saw Manuel, he smirked. Manuel had also managed to condense a Unity Will. He was an Ascender's Talent, and he had already been close to condensing one before. Together with two trials that had been perfectly tailored to him, condensing a Unity Will wasn't anything special to him.

Claude, the lightning disciple, had a fully condensed Will-Aura now. Only a little more tempering, and he would also condense a Unity Will. The darkness disciple was still a bit off from a fully condensed Will-Aura, but his Will-Aura was powerful enough to reach the Sapling Stage.

Of the group of four, two would already be able to reach the Self Stage, while one would be able to reach the Tree Stage. This was very impressive for a group. Apparently, Heaven really treated the group kindly. Those three would probably become the most powerful group of ascenders that this world had ever produced.

"So, what was your trial?" Gravis asked.

Manuel wanted to speak up, but he was interrupted by Joyce. "It's totally like you said," Joyce said with a chirpy tone. "The second trial was way more difficult than the first one, but not impossible. We had to fight a lot of cultivators."

Gravis lifted an eyebrow. "Cultivators?" he asked.

"Oh, no," Joyce said like she remembered something. "They were not real people directly. They were more like puppets. We had to fight one-on-one against each puppet and then again in teams in every possible configuration multiple times. All the puppets had different fighting styles and elements. To top it all off, they were really good at fighting. We also felt them becoming more powerful as the trial continued."

Gravis rubbed his chin. "So, Heaven gave you a lot of different opponents with different strengths. When you became more powerful, the enemies also became more powerful. I think it's impossible to find any better tempering in this world," Gravis said.

Gravis also saw a connection to his practical exams in his homeworld again. Those beasts had also had different strengths and weaknesses, but there was still a significant difference between the two types of tempering. The difference between the trial and the practical exams was the enemy.

It wasn't the fact that one featured puppets mimicking humans and the other featured beasts, but that the puppets were just that, puppets. They lacked the originality, will, drive, and emotion of a living thing. They were great at the beginning, but Gravis was sure that he would find common weaknesses across all puppets after some time. After a prolonged exposure to that, the cultivators might get used to these weaknesses.

So, all in all, the tempering he had received in his homeworld had been even better than this. The more tempering Gravis went through, the more he realized how lucky he had been to be born with such a background. Saying that he had achieved everything by himself would be a lie.

Yes, Gravis had achieved nearly everything by himself as soon as he reached this lower world, but without the preparations beforehand, he wouldn't have been able to achieve such power. 'Background is also a kind of strength. It can give you the best possible start,' Gravis thought.

Poke!

Gravis regained his focus as someone poked his forehead. "Hey, you're spacing out again!" Joyce said. "Is something wrong with you?" she asked.

Gravis shook his head. "Sorry, no. I was just lost in thought," Gravis said with a bit of embarrassment.

Joyce put her hands on her hip and then sighed helplessly. "You've been doing this ever since I met you again in the Core-Continent. Are you really sure that everything's alright with you?"

Gravis rolled his eyes. "Yes. I am just lost in thought sometimes."

The group watched all this happen with amused grins. This was just how Joyce was. She always said what was on her mind. Some people might find that attitude rude and invasive, but they thought it was charming.

"Well, it can't be helped if you're just slow in the head," Joyce said with a smile.

Gravis furrowed his brows. "I'm not-"

"Yes, yes," Joyce interrupted with a dismissive wave of her hand. "So, how was your second trial?"

Gravis wanted to say that he wasn't slow in the head, but then he saw her smirk. Then, Gravis sighed and also smirked. 'Okay, she got me. It's not easy to rile up my emotions.'

Then, Gravis started speaking of his trial, and immediately, the whole mood in the hall changed. It changed from relief and lighthearted amusement to anger, frustration, and disgust.

BANG!

Joyce punched a wall in anger. "How dare this-"

WHOOM!

"JOYCE!" Gravis shouted threateningly while activating his Will-Aura. He was using just enough of his Will-Aura to stop them from moving. "Be careful what you say! You don't have my background! If you insult Heaven, you will die! You are not powerful enough to resist it."

The group had stopped breathing for some time while Gravis was talking to them. After waiting for some more seconds, Gravis deactivated his Will-Aura, and everyone took deep breaths. "Sorry, but I don't want you to throw your lives away like this," Gravis said.

Heaven might not be allowed to strike them down directly under the watch of the highest Heaven, but it could still steal all the Karmic Luck of a cultivator. Something like this would doom a cultivator.

Joyce breathed hectically and was red in the face from anger. Yet, her eyes not only showed rage but also fear. Due to her emotions, she had nearly committed involuntary suicide. What had she thought when she had shouted these words? Her rage had nearly cost her her life!

"Thank you," Joyce said silently after a while.

Gravis nodded. "That is why I suppress my emotions," Gravis said. "Emotions can make you do illogical things. When blinded by rage, you will make mistakes. Remember this experience."

Joyce sighed again. "You're right, but I just got so mad when I heard what happened to you. How can Heaven do such a thing?" she said as she got riled up again. At least, she had herself under control now.

"Because it has power," Gravis said. "That's the only truth. It can do whatever it wants, as long as there isn't something more powerful interfering. Theoretically, Heaven could create a whole world where

everyone feels unbearable pain as long as they are alive, and as long as something more powerful doesn't intervene, there's nothing anyone can do."

"But that's wrong!" Joyce said.

"Yes, it is," Gravis said, "but it happens either way. It doesn't matter if it's right or wrong. It will just happen."

Joyce shook a little in frustration. After some seconds, she averted her gaze. "This thought is just too cold and depressing. I don't want something like this to be real."

Gravis sighed. "I'm also not a fan of that, but it's reality. You can only change reality if you are powerful enough, but as long as you're not that powerful, you have to live with it. Only with power can you change anything you want."

The rest of the group had kept themselves out of the conversation, but the last couple of statements from Gravis also resonated with them. A lot of elders had told them the same thing, but it was different when something actually happened that proved this. Gravis' second trial was proof enough. This changed a logical argument into reality.

The group remained silent for a couple of seconds as they thought about the current situation.

 

Chapter 310

"I still think this is going too far," Manuel said after some seconds. "The whole world saw your last trial, and your reputation will be forever tarnished in an unrecoverable way."

Gravis shrugged. "So?"

Manuel was a little taken aback, but then he laughed a little. "Yes, you're right. What does it matter what the world thinks about you? It has no impact on you," then, Manuel sighed. "It seems like my temperament is still not decisive enough."

Gravis rubbed his chin in thought. "I wouldn't be so sure about that," he said.

Manuel raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How so?"

Gravis smiled. "Because it hasn't happened to you, but to someone you consider a friend," Gravis said. "I would probably also be angrier if it happened to you or Joyce. We often feel more pain for someone we are close to than the person might feel themselves. Of course, it strongly depends on the situation, but I think in this case, this is true."

Manuel remained silent for a while. "I think you're right. If that had happened to me, I wouldn't care as much. After all, I know that my power speaks for me. If someone confronted me with that, I could just kill them."

Gravis nodded. "Exactly!"

Manuel walked closer and patted Gravis' shoulder. "It might seem cruel and unfair to my dead master, but I am happy that I met you, Gravis. You have shown me an entirely new outlook on the world, Heaven, and how a cultivator should be. If my dead master could see us, I think he wouldn't regret his death. He was just that kind of person."

Gravis also smiled slightly. "Thank you for your words, Manuel. I also consider you a friend," he said.

Manuel smiled more when he heard that. "Great! That's what I like to hear!"

The group talked some more for a couple of hours, sharing their experiences and outlooks on life. After the conversation lulled into silence, Gravis stood up. "No time to waste," he said.

The others looked at him reluctantly. "Why are you always so impatient?" Joyce groaned. "We haven't seen each other in eight months, and now you want to leave again."

Gravis shook his head with a smile. "I don't want to stop. If I indulge too much, I might become complacent. I can't risk that."

Joyce wanted to object, but she realized that Gravis was probably right. 'Is this why he has achieved his current power? I guess that's true. If I hadn't taken 90% of my breaks, I could have probably reached my current Realm a whole year earlier. My Will-Aura would probably also be more powerful. Is my current mindset really the right one for cultivation?' she thought with worry.

"Alright, I'll be going. See you in a couple of months," Gravis said as he stepped into the next door. The group also said their goodbyes, and like this, Gravis was alone again. "Let's see what you have for me this time, Heaven. Generally, there are only five trials, not including the last fight between all groups. This is already the third one. Your secret weapon will probably come at the fifth trial, so the next two will probably include more of your senseless and childish behavior."

The walk was longer than last time, and it took nearly an hour of walking. Of course, Gravis was walking leisurely. He wasn't walking much faster than a mortal. After all, he was in no hurry since he had to wait for a couple of months after that either way.

After the hour was up, Gravis arrived before another door. With a push, he opened it and entered. He saw an arena identical to the arena of his first trial. It was about a kilometer wide and circular with incredibly sturdy walls. Apparently, another fight was awaiting Gravis.

Yet, Gravis saw no enemy in the arena. Even when he entirely concentrated his senses, Spirit, and will, he still couldn't find an enemy. Gravis was sure that no one could escape his senses, even if there were a priest with the darkness element in here. Gravis also doubted that possibility. The arena was lit and about as bright as the outside during the afternoon. If there were a powerful darkness cultivator waiting for Gravis here, the arena would be pitch black.

But Gravis saw one peculiar thing. All his previous trials had two doors. One of them was the door, which he had entered from, and one door that led to the next trial. This trial had three doors. "So, my enemy will arrive from one of the two doors, huh?"

Gravis already had a suspicion of what this trial would entail, and he wasn't happy about that. Yet, there was nothing else he could do. He could only accept his current circumstances. At least, he wouldn't need to kill his own group. Gravis made sure that this wouldn't happen before he entered the Heaven's Trial.

Gravis leaned against one of the walls and closed his eyes. He would probably need to wait for a couple of days, and sure enough, about four days later, a five-man-group entered the arena from one of the doors.

Gravis opened his eyes and looked at the group, and the group looked at him. The group looked at Gravis with shock, surprise, and then bitter smiles. They knew of Gravis and his unheard of Battle- Strength. The fact that they felt that his cultivation already reached the Sapling Stage made them give up.

Their group was pretty powerful, and some of them could even put up fights against Sect Masters, but that made no difference. Some of them looked with melancholy at the ceiling. First, they lost their Sect Master, and now their Sect was about to lose their most talented disciples. Did Heaven want their Wind Sect to be eradicated?

Yes, the group was the group from the Wind Sect.

BANG!

A stele appeared in the middle of the arena. "Kill the opposing party to pass the trial," it read.

Gravis sighed and walked to the middle of the arena. The group released some heavy sighs as they also walked to the middle. One person of the group, who looked especially distraught, could only say one word. "Why?" he asked.

"I'll tell you why," Gravis said as he sat down near the stele. "The only thing I can do for you is to tell you everything about this farce. Let's talk," Gravis said.

The group was a little reluctant, but eventually, they complied. After that, Gravis started telling them everything about his life and journey. This was the first time where he told someone absolutely everything without holding anything back. He even told them all the secrets he knew about Heaven.

Telling other cultivators about his Homeworld in detail and his specific background would make many of them despair. After all, the gulf was just too vast. The concept of teleportation didn't even exist in this world, yet beggars in Gravis' home city could even do that? People who could fly were not even allowed into the city?

Gravis also explained the conflict between his father and Heaven in detail. He also told them about the concept of Karmic Luck and how this whole situation came to be. Either way, they would die, so the least he could do for them was to widen their horizons and explain how they ended up in this situation.

Explaining everything took multiple hours.

"And that's how you ended up against me. It's not that Heaven wants your Wind Sect to die, but because your Wind Sect is the closest Sect to me, except the Lightning Sect. Lasar, the Sect Master of

the Lightning Sect, knows some of the things I told you, but not everything. That's why they have not sent anyone this year. If they had, I would probably fight against them instead of you."

Gravis sighed. "Yet, there is still one more bullshit trial. I would probably just fight you in the fourth trial then. Only the fifth trial is when Heaven will unveil its secret weapon."

"So, all in all, you are just innocent people that got dragged into this," Gravis finished explaining.

The group had gone through many emotions during the tale. They had been in awe about the power of the people in Gravis' Homeworld. They had also been shocked about the fact that there were three more grades of worlds above theirs. All of this just seemed too unreal and distant.

"So," one of them said after a while. "Even though we thought that we were free and unrestrained, in reality, we weren't? As long as Heaven exists, we can't be truly free?"

Gravis nodded. "Exactly. That's why Heaven is doing this. It can't send anything more powerful than a priest at me, so it can't kill me with a fight. That's why it is trying to rile me up, emotionally."

The group remained silent for a while. They were lost in thought for multiple minutes.

BANG!

Suddenly, one of them shot up to a standing position and looked at the ceiling. "Fuck you, you shitty- ass useless Heaven!" he shouted with his full power. "How are you even real? How could an existence that looks over the world be so petty, childish, immature, stupid, irrational, incompetent, and all-around retarded!?"

Gravis saw that and was a bit surprised. Sure enough, all Karmic Luck vanished from the person. As long as the highest Heaven watched, this lower Heaven wasn't allowed to strike anyone. It could only reduce the Karmic Luck of cultivators.

But what did this have to do with these five people? They were already about to die, so they might as well go out with a bang.

"Yeah!" another one shouted as he stood up. "You are the weakest of your kind, so you have to satisfy your fragile ego by forcing your control over this world! Why would you even be so stupid as to suppress everyone that had a Will-Aura in the Body Tempering Realm? It's because they are a danger to your shitty fucking Heaven Sect! You are weakening your results just so you can feel that you are in control!"

One person after the other shot up and started throwing insults at Heaven. Those weren't just baseless, random insults, but critiques that poked the worst part of Heaven. They mocked its failures relentlessly.

BRRRRR!

The Heaven's Trial started shaking. "Fuck you! You already doomed us to die, so why would we be scared by some shitty earthquake!?"

Instead of getting scared, the group grew even more fervent. This reaction showed that they had hit a sore spot. Heaven was angry, and they felt absolutely great and elated about that fact. The more the Heaven's Trial shook, the crazier the group got with their insults.

"As long as you don't insult the highest Heaven, it can't do anything," Gravis said.

The group continued crazily as they even spat on the ground and showed their asses in disrespect. The insults became more and more personal, but it never included any other Heaven.

Gravis watched this with a smirk, and up in the highest world, even the Opposer was a bit amused by this. When had it ever happened that a group of such incredible weaklings managed to insult their Heaven in such an unrelenting manner?

Even to him, this situation was amusing and peculiar.