Ch. 591..600

Chapter 591 - 591 – Gravis' Knowledge

Gravis didn’t need long to tell his story. Even though he told it with a lot of details, he hadn’t had as many extraordinary things happening to him as Orthar. When Gravis compared his story to Orthar, he felt like his story was boring.

He had only had some fights, some children, and in the remaining time, he had been mostly comprehending Laws. His story didn’t have political intrigue or grand plans that spanned over many years. All this excitement of having a long-standing plan succeed was absent from Gravis’ story.

"If I had been in your position, I would have long died," Orthar said.

Gravis was a bit surprised when he heard that. "Why? There were no times when I needed to use some grand plan to guarantee my survival, while you had to constantly rely on your planning to survive."

"That’s because of your power, Gravis," Orthar said. "You don’t need scheming and planning to survive. If I had been in your position, the very first battle after we parted ways would have resulted in my death. All my planning would have become irrelevant and meaningless when two Lords, two levels higher than me, had been ordered by their King to kill me."

Gravis thought about Orthar’s words, and he quickly realized that Orthar might be right. Orthar would have died in Gravis’ position. "Okay, that might be true," Gravis said, "but I would have also had problems in your position, Orthar."

"I don’t think so," Orthar answered, surprising Gravis again.

"But I can’t scheme like you due to my closeness to the lightning element," Gravis said.

"That doesn’t matter," Orthar said. "You don’t need to rely on scheming if you have enough power. If you had met the association in my place, you wouldn’t have needed to employ any schemes. You could have just run in and kill all of them and easily become a level five Lord. I hadn’t had that power, which was why I had to resort to scheming."

"But what about the Kings that had chased you? Even my power wouldn’t have been enough to battle a level three King as a level five Lord," Gravis said.

"Irrelevant," Orthar said. "Just because you don’t use schemes doesn’t mean that you are dumb. You are smart, Gravis. If I were able to see the approaching danger, you would have also been able to see it coming and act accordingly."

"Don’t forget that you managed to survive years while the most powerful being in your lower world wanted to kill you. Scheming only helps marginally against an omniscient being that knows your exact power and whereabouts," Orthar said.

The things that Orthar said made sense to Gravis, but his feelings disagreed. All these things sounded incredible when spoken out loud, but to him, these things only appeared natural. Of course, Gravis tended to believe his head more than his emotions.

"I guess you’re right, Orthar," Gravis said with a sigh. "Even though my story might not appear as exciting as yours, my path was not without danger."

After that, Orthar and Gravis talked for a couple more hours about what they went through and what they had learned. Surprisingly, Gravis didn’t learn much at all. It was almost like he already knew every concept that Orthar told him. This felt incredibly weird to Gravis.

Gravis had never gone through any grand plans of scheming, but all the careful plans that Orthar described appeared logical to Gravis.

"Do you know why I’ve told you all about these plans in detail, Gravis?" Orthar asked.

Gravis scratched the back of his neck in confusion. "Don’t you just want to share your experiences with someone else?" he asked.

"Irrelevant," Orthar said directly. "Momentary emotional relief isn’t conducive to my goal. I had a specific goal in mind."

"Okay," Gravis said in uncertainty. "Then, why did you tell me?"

"To make you realize that it is all your knowledge that allowed me to reach my current standing," Orthar said.

"Wait a second," Gravis said. "You are you, and you learned a lot of concepts yourself. You’re not just some accessory of mine."

"Have I?" Orthar asked, but he obviously didn’t ask this question in seriousness. "Have you learned any new concepts while I told you my experiences? Have you been surprised by a development?"

Gravis stayed silent for some seconds. "Honestly, no," Gravis said.

"That was my goal in telling you my experiences," Orthar said. "My plans are beyond the comprehension of nearly every beast in this world. Every beast that would hear my story would become shocked and intrigued by the advanced concepts shown to them. Yet, everything appears natural to you."

"My goal in telling you my experiences is to confirm something and then show it to you if it turned out to be true," Orthar said.

"What did you find out?" Gravis asked, honestly curious.

"Your intelligence and wisdom are terrifying, Gravis," Orthar said. "When I had been a Spirit Beast, I felt like your words were constantly opening a new world to me. Even now, when you explained the relations between different Laws, I felt like my eyes have been opened."

Gravis felt a bit uncomfortable due to Orthar’s high praises.

"I am unsure if your vast knowledge about beings and warfare is normal for humans or not, but this human knowledge is very powerful in this world. Yet, that is not what I wanted to confirm since I have already known that," Orthar said.

"Then, tell me," Gravis said with interest.

"I wanted to confirm if you have realized the power of the knowledge that you have," Orthar said.

Gravis was a bit surprised, not because he hadn’t expected that, but because it was evident that his knowledge was powerful. "I know that," Gravis said.

"Yet, you don’t realize the true extent," Orthar said. "You need to realize the true effect that your knowledge has on the world. Without you, the Inferno Emperor would still be the Red King. Without you, I would have died. Without you, this Ferris would die a level one Emperor. Without you, the Grand Elder of the Icy Pride Empire would take a lot longer to become more powerful."

"Every beast that comes into contact with you for an extended period of time has their destiny changed significantly, and the most terrifying aspect about this is that the Realm of the beast doesn’t matter," Orthar said.

"I think you’re overreacting," Gravis said. "Ferris has had over 3,000 years of accumulation. You had been smart ever since I met you, which was my main reason why I chose you as my guide back then. It wasn’t my sole contact with the beasts that made them rise in power."

"That is true to some extent, Gravis," Orthar said, "but the hardest part is always the last step. Accumulation can only bring you to the step, but it can’t bring you over that step. Taking the last step of understanding a new Law is always the hardest. Your knowledge allows beasts to take this step."

Gravis wanted to deny Orthar’s statement, but he just couldn’t find an argument. This made Gravis hesitate for nearly a full minute as he simply thought about what Orthar had said. Was it true? Did Gravis truly have such an effect?

"Do my words truly have such an impact on the world?" Gravis asked.

"You, giving off a casual comment, has resulted in the death of three Ultimates," Orthar said evenly.

Gravis couldn’t argue against that.

"Why do you want me to realize this?" Gravis asked, finally having accepted Orthar’s words.

"Repayment," Orthar said. "You have saved my life thrice now and have opened my eyes to the true way of the world. Making you realize the power that you have is just a small form of repayment."

Gravis chuckled a bit. "That’s all?" he asked.

"That’s all," Orthar said. "You are the only being that I consider a companion, Gravis. I don’t have any experience with companions, but repaying your companion’s help with your own help is only natural, isn’t it?"

Gravis chuckled a bit more. Orthar truly had no experience with that. Yet, when he heard Orthar refer to Gravis as his only companion, Gravis got reminded of something.

"Do you know what happened to Silva?" Gravis asked. He still remembered the viper that had been the Commander of the land beast camp inside the River Tribe. He wondered how he was.

"Silva created a peaceful Tribe at the edges of the continent. After around 50 years, a Kingdom noticed the outstanding Battle-Strength of this Tribe and forcefully recruited the members of the Tribe."

"Silva and his Tribe died in the frontlines between the land and sea beast war. His dream of living peacefully died with him."

Chapter 592 - 592 – Orthar's Decision

Gravis took a deep breath to calm himself down. One of his friends, Silva, had been dead for many years now. Gravis had always hoped that Silva would be able to live his life in peace. Of course, that was only because of Gravis’ emotions being optimistic. From the very beginning, Gravis knew that Silva had already become too powerful to escape the world.

A Spirit Beast in the ocean would have had no issues in living out their life in peace. Outside the continent, battles were only between single beasts and not between two organizations. If Silva had decided to live in the ocean, he would probably still be alive.

"He wasn’t decisive enough in his choice," Gravis said, sadness in his voice.

"Correct," Orthar said. "He wasn’t willing to commit to the path to power, but he also didn’t abandon it. Land beasts have no issues living inside the vast ocean, and he should have gone to it. Yet, he had decided to live on land. My guess was that he had regrets regarding his path to power."

Gravis nodded. "I think so too. It was his own indecisiveness that killed him, which is very regrettable," Gravis said as he smiled bitterly, "Because, now, I don’t have anyone that I can blame for his death but him."

Gravis took another deep breath. "So, every member of the River Tribe, except you and me, are dead, huh?" Gravis asked.

"Not entirely," Orthar said.

"Oh?" Gravis asked. "Who’s still alive?"

"Liza," Orthar said.

Gravis remembered the hyena that had nearly killed Orthar. "Liza? She’s still alive?"

"According to my spies, she has become a King and serves on a defensive line," Orthar said. "Yet, her potential is too weak. Her Battle-Strength has become very average, and she will have a huge issue in becoming more powerful. According to expectation, she won’t be able to become a level five King."

Gravis sighed again. "Not everyone reaches the top, huh?" Gravis asked.

"Naturally," Orthar answered.

Then, silence reigned for some minutes as Gravis thought about his old River Tribe. From thousands of members, only three were still alive.

Yet, that was already incredible. The path to supreme power was perilous, and two members from an innocuous Tribe at the edges of the continent had become powerful enough to contest with Emperors. This ratio was already terrifying.

Orthar and Gravis talked for a couple more hours, and the mood recovered. Gravis had had a lot of his friends and companions die on his journey. This was nothing new to him. It still hurt when he heard of the death of one of his companions, but he had grown used to it.

"So, what do you plan to do now, Orthar?" Gravis asked.

"I will remain in your Life Ring until the Light Ultimate has left this world. Then, I will continue on my path. Yet, I have developed a thought over our conversation that I’m not sure I should share," Orthar said.

"Oh? Something you’re not sure about?" Gravis asked with a smirk. "I gotta hear this."

Orthar remained silent for some seconds, which surprised Gravis. Apparently, Orthar took this thought very seriously.

"Gravis," Orthar said slowly. "Beasts are too simple. Ever since I have met you, I have seen the ingenuity and far-reaching mindset humans can have. I have not seen this mindset in any beast, but I feel like I would fit better into a human society."

Gravis blinked a couple of times in confusion. "What are you getting at?" he asked.

"Gravis," Orthar said slowly as he looked into Gravis’ eyes. "When you return to your homeworld, can you take me with you?"

Gravis was taken aback. Orthar wanted to return with Gravis to his homeworld? That came out of nowhere!

Gravis fell into thought as he seriously considered this action. "It’s not impossible," Gravis said. "The problem is that living in the highest world is many times more dangerous for you than remaining in a natural world."

"Honestly, I don’t know much about the relationship between humans and beasts in my homeworld. Beasts in human bodies may have been all around me in the city, but it is also possible that there were only humans. After all, I was too weak to feel the power of an Immortal or higher."

"I’m unsure what would happen. It could be that you would be disallowed to live in human society and would be forced to live in the wilderness. Yet, it’s also possible that there is no difference between humans and beasts in society."

"On top of that, the battles between Immortals and Gods produce shockwaves that can be felt for many thousands of kilometers. Additionally, humans have Karmic Luck, while beasts don’t. I can’t tell this to any human since that would destroy their Karmic Luck, but I can tell you since you’re a beast. After all, you don’t have any Karmic Luck, to begin with," Gravis said.

The matter of Karmic Luck hadn’t been relevant in this world. After all, no being in this world had any Karmic Luck. Yet, Gravis didn’t forget the enormous impact that Karmic Luck had had when he had been in the lower world. Just because this concept hadn’t been relevant in this world didn’t mean that the concept wouldn’t become relevant again as soon as other humans got involved again.

Gravis explained to Orthar the concept of Karmic Luck and how it might result in his death against a human that would usually die to him. A randomly missing attack or a random interference from outside could make the entire difference between life and death.

Orthar also remained silent as he re-evaluated his choice. He hadn’t known about the concept of Karmic Luck. In order to become more powerful, it was imperative for Orthar to temper himself. Yet, one couldn’t just freely choose their opponent.

If a human decided to attack Orthar, he would have no other choice than to fight back. The concept of Karmic Luck was inherently unfair, and if Orthar wanted to temper himself fairly against beings that also had no Karmic Luck, he would need to keep away from human society.

So, then there would be no difference between here and there. In both cases, Orthar would only come into contact with beasts. This would defeat the entire purpose of him wanting to see human society.

Yet, at this moment, something happened that shocked Gravis immensely. He had never expected that something like this would happen.

Gravis looked at Orthar as a sense of his was awakened that he hadn’t used in over a hundred years.

In Gravis’ eyes, Orthar’s body gave off a particular feeling. Gravis knew this feeling.

This was the feeling of when someone’s Karmic Luck changed!

Right now, in front of Gravis, Orthar received Karmic Luck from Heaven!

Gravis’ eyes narrowed. ’What’s your plan, Heaven?’ Gravis thought. ’Why are you giving Orthar Karmic Luck now?’

Gravis very quickly came to a conclusion that made sense. ’This middle Heaven doesn’t break the rules. This means that this Karmic Luck doesn’t come from this middle Heaven but from the highest Heaven.’

’Father and I have already realized that the highest Heaven wants as many of my friends to reach the highest world as possible. We’re both unsure if the highest Heaven wants to use them as hostages later or if it truly just wants to repay me.’

Gravis stood up and looked at the sky of his Life Ring. Orthar was confused about Gravis’ sudden change of expression and emotions. These emotions made no sense to Orthar and seemingly came out of nowhere.

"Is this it?" Gravis asked. "Do you want to show me that Orthar can also temper himself against humans in the highest world? You are ready to sacrifice the inherent advantages that humans have over him to further insure yourself against me?"

Gravis looked at Orthar. "Heaven, I’m uncertain of your goal, but if your goal is to make me complacent with the status quo and no longer pursue supreme power, this won’t work. If that is your goal, you won’t be able to achieve it."

Gravis continued looking at the confused Orthar. Yet, Orthar’s Karmic Luck didn’t reduce at all.

"That’s not your goal, huh?" Gravis asked. "Fine, then I’m fine with this. Even if you want to take more hostages against me in the future, in exchange for a future of one of my friends, I’m willing to take the risk."

Gravis took a deep breath. "I doubt that you would want to hurt me by deceiving me right now. That’s something that the idiotic lower Heaven would have done, not you. It’s just not worth it. Additionally, you also know that you wouldn’t be able to hide it in front of father."

"So, I hope that you keep to your word, highest Heaven," Gravis said.

"Gravis, what’s going on?" Orthar asked.

Gravis turned to Orthar. "The highest Heaven has granted you Karmic Luck. I have told you of my conflict with the highest Heaven. Either it wants to repay me for what it had done to Stella, or it wants you to become powerful so that it can use your life to stop me."

"Are you willing to follow me to my homeworld, knowing about these possibilities and dangers?" Gravis asked.

Orthar didn’t even hesitate. "Tempering is always dangerous, as is the unknown. I see no difference in danger between staying here or following you to your homeworld."

Gravis nodded. Then, he smiled.

"Then, I’m happy to have you on board!" Gravis said. "It seems like our paths will only split for a short time until I leave this world. Try to become as powerful as possible during that time."

Then, Gravis smirked. "And I have just the thing that will help you," he said.

"Oh?" Orthar said with interest.

Whooop!

Suddenly, a small green slime appeared in front of Orthar. "This is the CMO. By watching it, you can comprehend a ton about Life Laws. From now until the day the Light Ultimate leaves this world, you should look at it."

"The more Laws you manage to comprehend, the better," Gravis said.

Right now, Orthar felt like they were back in the River Tribe with Gravis as the leader. Orthar was not an emotional beast, but he couldn’t help himself thinking about the past.

"I will," Orthar said.

Gravis nodded. "Great, I’ll leave you to it."

Then, Gravis looked at the horizon of his Life Ring again. "Meanwhile, I will also concentrate on learning as many new Laws as possible in the next 50 years. I’ll tell you when the Light Ultimate leaves the world."

"Gravis," Orthar said with uncertainty. "It feels unnatural as a beast, but if I am to live among humans in the future, I should get used to it. So, let me try this."

Gravis raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Gravis," Orthar said.

"Thank you."

Chapter 593 - 593 – Average Power Of This World

Gravis left his Life Ring and searched for powerful materials in the surroundings. Right now, he was beside the Grand Lake, which was the core of the world. The most powerful materials in the world could be found here, and no beast was interested in these ores.

Gravis also grabbed some different kinds of powerful wood from Meadow, who just commented that Gravis was tearing her apart. He had a good chuckle at her comments but quickly went back to comprehend materials.

He found a ton of powerful materials that he couldn’t fully manipulate. After all, a lot of these materials were at the peak Law Comprehension Realm, far too powerful for the current Gravis. He couldn’t experiment with them as much as he wanted, but he could, at least, look at them.

Since Gravis was a level five King now, he could manipulate Initial Law Comprehension Rank Materials, which was already a massive step forward compared to his last Law Comprehension session.

Back when Gravis had just killed the Inquisitor, he had thought about the possibility that Law Comprehension Materials would become much more powerful to deal with the powerful level two Laws that all Emperors knew. Sadly, this was not the case.

If Gravis forged an Initial Law Comprehension Rank Material with his Hard Pure Law, he would be able to create a weapon or armor that would withstand the attacks of any level one Emperor.

Except their level two Law.

This was an issue since the simple usage of a level two Law could completely decimate his armor and weapons. His last opponent, the grey elephant, was a good demonstration regarding the power of his equipment.

Back then, Gravis had created materials that were akin to the theoretical level of Half-Step Emperor, which actually didn’t exist. By using his Hard Pure Law, he was able to create something that managed to withstand most of the elephant’s physical attacks. Only the all-out charge with his tusks had managed to destroy Gravis’ armor.

Yet, one had to remember that none of the elephant’s attacks had been backed by Laws. Metal beasts mainly relied on their metal transformation to unleash their offensive Laws. Since Gravis countered the elephant’s metal transformation, the elephant could use basically no level one Law.

Any level one Law from the elephant would have destroyed Gravis’ weapons and armor. Now, with Gravis being a level five King, he could create actual armor and weapons on the Emperor level. With this new armor, the elephant wouldn’t have been able to destroy Gravis’ armor and weapons, even if Gravis only stood still.

This armor could resist the power of any level one Law. Since the elephant hadn’t comprehended an offensive level two Law but an auxiliary level two Law, the elephant wouldn’t have been able to get through Gravis’ armor.

Yet, this was only specific to the elephant. If Gravis took his servant, Morus, as an example, the true resistance of Gravis’ armor would be shown.

Back then, Gravis had specifically created an armor to counter Morus by fusing it with materials that had an incredible fire resistance. This had helped his armor immensely. As long as Gravis had been attacked by fire, his armor had basically been an entire level higher.

This meant that if Gravis forged a new armor with Initial Law Comprehension Rank Materials now, without fire-resistant materials, the armor would be just as good as the one he had used against Morus. Gravis could resist the small fireballs and physical attacks, but Morus’ fire copies would melt it with frightening speed.

And that was considering that Morus’ level two Law was part offensive and part auxiliary. If he had comprehended a purely offensive level two Law, Gravis’ armor would have been destroyed after only a single attack.

So, what did all of this mean?

It meant that equipment forged with materials from a specific rank could only resist attacks created by a level one Law of the same rank without breaking. This was the base.

Yet, why did the highest world have this categorization of weapons and armor? The name of the materials showed that they could resist anyone at the same level as the material. At first glance, this seemed faulty since every Emperor had a level two Law at their disposal. This meant that the equipment wouldn’t be able to resist.

By now, Gravis had already realized the reason for this categorization. This reason only became logical if one looked at the things Gravis had learned after his fight with the Inquisitor.

First clue: This was an elite medium natural world. The beasts from here were way more powerful than the average beasts.

Second clue: The Hard Complex Law was a level two Law, and not a level one Law. Back then, Gravis hadn’t known that.

These two clues allowed Gravis to see the reason why the highest world still categorized the materials and equipment like this. In the average and highest world, only peak Emperors would learn level two Laws. In the average or in the highest world, there were no bottlenecks for beasts.

In the highest world, beasts didn’t need to make 1,000 children to become Kings. This allowed them to immediately continue forward with eating more food and becoming more powerful. Due to them having no break, they wouldn’t learn as much about Laws.

In the highest world, beasts didn’t need to learn a level two Law to become Emperors. This was an enormous change with powerful consequences. In this world, the average age of a level five King that became an Emperor was between 800 and 1,200 years. In the highest world, that age would probably drop to something like 100 to 200 years.

Level one Emperors would, on average, maybe know two level one Laws in the highest world. In comparison to this medium natural world, that was absolutely pathetic. There was even a possibility that a new Immortal beast hadn’t even comprehended a single level two Law. Every single Ultimate in this world could kill such a weak Immortal, even though there was a level difference of two levels.

So, all in all, the categorization of materials and weapons made sense. Since nearly no Emperor in the highest world knew any level two Laws, all the equipment created with Initial Law Comprehension Rank Materials and the Hard Pure Law would be able to resist the beasts.

Additionally, if there were an Emperor that understood a level two Law, the same materials could also withstand their level two Law. The only difference was that the materials had to be manipulated by the Hard Complex Law, which was a level two Law.

By now, Gravis had inferred that the rank of the materials only showed the potential of what one could create with them. An Initial Law Comprehension Rank Material forged with the Hard Pure Law could withstand all level one Laws of a level one Emperor. If the same material were forged with the Hard Complex Law, it could withstand all level two Laws of a level one Emperor.

This meant that the categorization of the highest world still held firm and made a lot of sense. It just became less helpful in this world due to the high power of the average Emperor.

’I need to comprehend the Hard Complex Law. Otherwise, my fights might become troublesome,’ Gravis thought as he poked a stone on the ground.

Chapter 594 - 594 – Ultimates' Display

Gravis spent the next two years looking at many different materials. Understanding a level two Law wasn’t as easy as understanding a level one Law, which was why Gravis hadn’t managed to understand it until now. The knowledge Gravis had to comprehend was insane.

Gravis had only comprehended one level two Law by himself, which was his Law of Suppression. He had only managed to comprehend it due to him coming into contact with this concept for his entire life.

Understanding a level two Law was difficult and time-consuming.

"It’s time," Azure said as she appeared beside Gravis.

"Already?" Gravis asked. It didn’t feel like he had spent two entire years here.

Azure nodded. "We must return to the ruler," she said.

Gravis sighed to reset his mindset. "Okay," he said with fire in his eyes.

The two of them then traveled to the shore of the Grand Lake. Since the sea beast Ultimates also took part in this year’s Ultimate’s Meet, the venue had changed to be half in water and half on land.

When Gravis arrived, he noticed the gathered Ultimates.

He saw Meadow, who simply remained silent. He saw Sary talking to the blue swallow, the land beasts’ Water Ultimate. He saw the Lightning Ultimate standing some kilometers away from them with closed eyes. These were all the land beasts’ Ultimates since the Metal Ultimate had died while fighting against the Light Ultimate.

Inside the water, Gravis saw the octopus, the sea beasts’ Water Ultimate. Some kilometers away from him, Gravis saw the grey lobster, the sea beasts’ Metal Ultimate. At the area where the shore met the sealine, Gravis saw the white snake, the Light Ultimate.

Right now, all of them were concentrating on their own Laws. Displaying these Laws probably took up a lot of planning and Energy.

Meadow noticed Gravis’ arrival and turned to the Ultimates. "Alright, bitches! It’s time to show your massive Law-dicks to the world! Since I have the biggest one, I will go first," she announced.

All beasts looked at Meadow with intensity. Would Meadow show her level three Laws for the first time?

The surrounding kilometers around Meadow were transformed as a forest appeared. Gravis could see many different kinds of plants. He knew nearly all of them, but many had variations on them that he hadn’t seen before.

Gravis saw plants with different kinds of bark. One exceptionally tall tree even had the same bark that Meadow had shown with her true body. This was the level three Law of Ancient Bark, the most powerful material after the level three Law metal.

The forest also had several clearings that were filled with wooden beings, constantly fighting each other. In one clearing, two wooden beasts continually flew around each other at insanely high speeds. This was a showcase of two beasts fighting with the level three Law of Supreme Speed.

In a different clearing, two muscular, wooden beasts fought each other without moving much. They were simply punching each other, creating powerful shockwaves each time they collided. On top of that, they also had been created with Ancient Bark. The reason for that was that any other material would be destroyed when confronted with the level three Law of Supreme Strength.

At the edge of the forest, Gravis saw the same tree multiple times, but with different sizes. The smallest tree wasn’t taller than a mortal tree, but the size increased two-fold as one looked at the trees right-to-left. The last one was 100 kilometers tall. As the size of the trees increased, their power also increased. This was the showcase of the level three Law of Size.

The last major display in Meadow’s forest was an area with multiple plants. The surroundings of these plants shimmered with a white light, and when Gravis’ Spirit entered this area, he felt like he hit a wall. It was like the white light was able to interact, block, and even attack his Spirit. This was the level three Law of elemental wood.

The remainder of the forest showed many other plants performing different actions. Some of them were constantly whipping each other, while others continually created spears. Some weaker, wooden beasts even fought each other with different kinds of fighting styles.

There were so incredibly many Laws on display here. By now, Gravis was sure that Meadow was showcasing over 150 different Laws. This was insane! Even the level two Laws were in the double digits!

The Ultimates couldn’t take their eyes off Meadow’s imposing display. This was unreal even for their standards. Additionally, everyone felt that a flood of Energy came from outside and entered the forest. By displaying so much, Meadow was using just as much Energy as she could regenerate.

Sary chuckled a bit. "I’m next," she said.

Sary became 100 kilometers tall. After that, a lot of small, unfertilized eggs left her body as they surrounded her. No new life would be born from these eggs, but all the eggs showed a different kind of Life Law.

Sary had created these eggs to display their Life Law over the next 50 years. They were using slightly more Energy than they passively absorbed, and when the 50 years were up, they would run out of Life Energy and die.

In some eggs, one could see claws being formed and then broken down again. The same thing happened in other eggs with different kinds of materials. Gravis could see organs, muscles, skin, scales, claws, hair, bones, blood, and many more different kinds of living matter being created and broken down again.

These eggs showed the Growth Laws and Composition Laws of living matter. Some eggs even appeared like they were doing absolutely nothing, but if one looked at them with their senses, they could see tiny organisms, invisible to the naked eye, being created and broken down.

SHING!

Suddenly, several roots appeared that buried themselves into Sary. These roots tried their beast to destroy Sary’s body by absorbing the Life Energy inside her and destroying her insides.

The Ultimates looked with shock at Meadow. "Chill out," Meadow said. "This was Sary’s idea since this is the best way to showcase her new Law of Energy Healing. Also, if she didn’t supply Life Energy to me, I wouldn’t be able to keep my display up for long."

Sure enough, Sary didn’t react to the roots. Due to her self-destructive fighting style, physical pain was nothing but a mere nuisance to her. Gravis also noticed that even more Energy was moving to this location from all over the world. Meadow and Sary were using up an incredible amount of Energy.

Gravis guessed that this middle Heaven probably had its work cut out for it this time. After all, one shouldn’t forget that Energy and energy were two different things. The capitalized Energy referred to the physical force that made up all matter and elements. The uncapitalized energy was just energy.

Cultivators and beasts used the capitalized Energy as fuel to make attacks, which would count as uncapitalized energy. Gravis couldn’t just use heat to create Punishment Lightning. Sure, he could use heat and transform it with a contraption to create natural lighting, but he couldn’t create Punishment Lightning like this.

The transformation of physical force back into Energy required Heaven to manually perform it. Something like this didn’t happen automatically. This was also the reason why the Energy in the lower world, when Gravis had fought the lower Heaven, had lowered and even vanished at the end.

Back then, the lower Heaven had been too busy trying to survive. Transforming heat and movement into physical Energy wasn’t something Heaven could have done in that situation.

So, right now, these Ultimates were transforming a ridiculous amount of Energy into energy, and Heaven had to manually transform it back. It was like two people were melting down gold coins into random forms of gold chunks while Heaven had to take these random chunks of gold to recreate the molten down gold coins.

"I’m next," the blue swallow said. She also grew to be 100 kilometers big and summoned a huge amount of water from the Grand Lake. After that, she created different floating pools in the air. Some of them were violently moving around to show the concept of a stream. Others were green to show some Law regarding healing.

Yet, there was not only water. There were also different kinds of ice and ice storms. Additionally, one could also see different kinds of steam flying around.

The most impressive display was a shining, deep-blue area. When Gravis’ Spirit entered this area, he felt like it was about to freeze over. This was the level three Law of Supreme Cold.

"My turn," the Lightning Ultimate said with authority.

BANG!

Huge stormy clouds appeared that continually struck the ground with different kinds of lightning. Additionally, different bolts moved and acted differently. Some of them exploded with more power, which showcased the Law of Explosiveness of Lightning. Others didn’t make a sound at all, which showed the Law of Lightning Concentration.

Some attracted different kinds of ore, showcasing magnetism. Others moved faster to show Lightning’s Speed. Some others even moved incredibly slowly, probably showcasing some kind of Lightning’s Stasis Law or something. Gravis didn’t know enough to categorize it right now.

Sadly, the Lightning Ultimate didn’t have a level three Law to showcase, which made his show appear much less impressive than the other shows.

"I’m next," the Light Ultimate said.

Whooom!

Bright light appeared that illuminated everything in the surroundings. The beams moved around erratically and not in a straight line like one was used to seeing. Some of them hit some flowers on the ground, making the flowers grow. Others hit the same flower, making it wilt again.

Gravis’ eyes shone. ’Light can also sap Life Energy?’ he thought with shock. This was something only darkness could do. Was it possible that light could cross over into the domain of darkness?

Lastly, some light beams moved around at insane speeds. This showcased the level three Law of Light’s Speed.

"My turn," the octopus said. Then, just like the land beasts’ Water Ultimate, he created a lot of pools. Yet, many of his pools showcased other Laws. Just because both of them had the water element didn’t mean that they had comprehended the same Laws. Sadly, the octopus also hadn’t comprehended a level three Law.

"Now me," the lobster said as chunks of ore exploded out of the ground. Additionally, he created a wide variety of different kinds of ore. Some ores were harder, while some were more flexible. Additionally, the same ore under the Metal Ultimate’s manipulation showed different properties. Some ore that should be hard and rigid showed an impressive amount of flexibility.

’Sure enough, there’s more to metal than just its composition,’ Gravis thought as he watched, enraptured.

With this, all the Ultimates showcased their Laws. While they kept the display going, they also watched the displays of the other Ultimates with interest.

"Time starts now," Meadow announced.

Then, everything became silent except for the rampaging elements. All Ultimates were concentrating on comprehending.

An insane amount of Energy was pulled into this circle of Ultimates from all around the world. Heaven probably had to work overtime.

Gravis and Azure stood in the middle of the circle, and they felt like they were bathing in a beautiful rainbow of different elements and Energy.

Azure wasn’t sure where she should begin, while Gravis immediately knew where he wanted to start. While Azure was still hesitating in the middle, Gravis walked closer to the sea beasts’ Metal Ultimate.

First, Gravis wanted to finish his Hard Complex Composition Law. The display of the Metal Ultimate would make everything far easier for him. After that, he would take a glance at the Light Ultimate to comprehend light’s Composition. Gravis was also pretty sure that the darkness Composition would quickly follow suit when he understood light.

Thus, Gravis began his next 50 years of comprehending Laws.

Chapter 595 - 595 – Finally

The Metal Ultimate was surprised when he noticed that Gravis paid attention to him first. Didn’t Gravis have a lightning affinity? According to reason, he should first take a look at the Lightning Ultimate’s display.

The Metal Ultimate didn’t know much about Gravis since they were of different camps. Additionally, he hadn’t seen Gravis fight anything. The Metal Ultimate had seen the competition between the land Kings, but Gravis hadn’t fought in that. Instead, everyone had already accepted that he was the most powerful King.

Then, the Metal Ultimate saw Gravis going through his different kinds of ores and experimenting with them. That was when the Metal Ultimate finally saw the reason for Gravis’ power. Gravis had already comprehended a level three Law, the Law of Punishment Lightning!

This situation felt unreal to the Metal Ultimate. A King shouldn’t be able to understand such an advanced and powerful Law. Yet, even though the Metal Ultimate was very interested in Gravis now, he decided against contacting him. They were from two different camps, after all.

Gravis continued looking at the ores, and after some hours, the Metal Ultimate got used to Gravis’ presence and started ignoring him. The Metal Ultimate needed to use all the available time to comprehend other Laws.

Gravis stayed at the Metal Ultimate’s side for 14 years until...

BOOOOM!

’Finally!’ Gravis thought with excitement. ’It took me so long, but I finally managed to comprehend the Hard Complex Material Law! Additionally, I didn’t even need to temper myself. It just came naturally.’

This was a pleasant surprise for Gravis since he had expected that he needed to temper himself and comprehend this Law inside a battle. Yet, all his understanding just naturally flowed together and created the complete Hard Complex Material Composition Law.

’The list of alloys that father has given me has helped me immensely,’ Gravis thought. ’All the diagrams about the makeup of the materials helped me to visualize the movement of the Energy inside the complex materials. Without the list of alloys, I probably would have needed another fifty years or so and might even have needed to go through tempering.’

Gravis had had the Hard Complex Material Composition Law as his goal ever since he had started his Realm-Stop over a hundred years ago. Back then, he had been only 60 years old.

Now, with Gravis having spent 100 years in the Law Comprehension Areas, 23 years tempering his will, and 14 years staying here, Gravis was already around 200 years old. He was now just as old as Old Man Lightning when Gravis had met him.

Gravis had dedicated 140 years to build a foundation to finally comprehend the Hard Complex Material Law. If someone had told Gravis that he would need 140 years to understand this Law, he would have despaired back then. His entire life had only been 60 years long, and he would need more than double that again to comprehend a level two Law? This sounded horrifying!

But, by now, Gravis saw that it was only natural that something like this would take that long. In actuality, his progress was quite fast. One level two Law per 140 years would come up to ten level two Laws in 1,400 years, which was about the average age of a level one Emperor. Yet, level one Emperors mostly only knew one level two Law.

This showed that Gravis’ speed in comprehending Laws was insanely fast compared to this world. Of course, since Gravis had no idea how fast humans were in comprehending Laws, he couldn’t judge his progress compared to them. Humans, logically, should be able to comprehend Laws much faster than beasts. Sadly, Gravis didn’t know how much faster.

"Hey, can I have some of that ore?" Gravis suddenly asked the Metal Ultimate.

The Metal Ultimate was taken out of his comprehension as Gravis talked to him. He got a bit annoyed by a King interrupting him, but he couldn’t be bothered right now. "Take what you want," the Metal Ultimate said quickly as he went back to comprehending other Laws.

Gravis smiled. "Thanks," he said.

And the Metal Ultimate got taken out of his comprehension state again as he got confused by Gravis’ words. The Metal Ultimate looked at Gravis with confusion. Obviously, Gravis didn’t show any kind of subservience to him with his tone and gestures, but he had kind of showed his subservience by saying thanks. This confused the Metal Ultimate.

Gravis also realized what he had done. Then, he scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean it like that," he said.

And that shocked the Metal Ultimate even more. Why was Gravis saying sorry now!? What was going on!? Why did Gravis’ whole behavior not make any sense at all!?

Gravis rubbed his forehead in frustration. "You know what? Forget it! Just take it like I haven’t said anything at all!" he said. Speaking to beasts was weird.

The Metal Ultimate looked at Gravis in confusion some more, shook his head, and then went back to comprehending. He had no time to deal with such useless stuff.

Gravis quickly grabbed a massive chunk of different ores. By now, Gravis was 1,250 meters tall, which was more than an entire kilometer! In comparison to the Ultimates, he was absolutely tiny, but to him, he felt far too huge.

So, even though Gravis took several cubic kilometers of ore, the absence of the ore almost couldn’t be noticed. The Metal Ultimate had produced just way too much ore.

Then, Gravis forged his new equipment by fusing appropriate materials together. There were far more Complex than Pure Materials in the world, which allowed Gravis to choose the properties of his equipment with more freedom. Thus, he decided to go all-in with physical defense.

Gravis’ knowledge about the Composition Laws regarding the elements, together with his Spirit and Will-Aura, would counter nearly all elemental attacks. The only things that could truly hurt him would be physical attacks.

Additionally, Gravis’ saber was forged with absolute attack in mind. He never intended to block any attack with his saber, which allowed him to entirely focus on attack.

Gravis looked at his new saber with fiery eyes. ’This saber is so incredibly sharp that I could probably severely injure a level two Emperor with only my comparably weak strength. I don’t even need to use my Punishment Lightning anymore to kill a beast three levels above me.’

Gravis’ eyes narrowed. ’This is a problem,’ he thought. ’As I am right now, a level two Emperor won’t even be able to put any pressure on me. Yet, a level three Emperor seems far too terrifying. My Will-Aura is quite terrifying right now, which would suppress a level two Emperor by over 50%.’

’Yet, a level three Emperor would only be slowed by around 10%. This is still far too fast for me to even react. I couldn’t even attempt to dodge. Additionally, my Lightning Crescent’s power doesn’t increase with the quality of the saber. My Lightning Crescent is just as powerful with this saber as with a stick, assuming the stick can withstand it.’

’This means I literally don’t have any possible way to kill a beast four levels above me. It’s impossible,’ Gravis thought.

Right now, Gravis was precisely in the situation that he had warned his children and his River Tribe members about.

He was in an awkward tempering spot.

Level two Emperors were too weak, while level three Emperors were far too terrifying.

Gravis had known of the possibility of such a situation occurring for a long time. So, he also knew the three choices he now had.

First Choice: Try to fight a level three Emperor and die miserably. This wouldn’t even be a fight. The level three Emperor would just charge at Gravis with their unparalleled speed and slap him into paste. Sure, his armor might be able to resist, but his body would be transformed into chunks inside the armor.

Second Choice: Increase his Realm by fighting against beasts three levels higher than him until they finally became a challenge again. Sadly, this choice would be like throwing Gravis’ advantage away that he had worked so hard for.

Third Choice: Try to fight several beasts three levels above him simultaneously. That would still be considered tempering since Gravis couldn’t win a one-on-one fight against such powerful beasts quickly. This would make it hard for Gravis to react to their attacks, and they might be able to overwhelm him with attacks. The problem with that choice was finding these opponents.

’All these options are shit!’ Gravis thought with frustration.

Chapter 596 - 596 – Old Man Gravis

Gravis thought about his situation for quite some time until he finally rubbed his head in frustration. ’Fuck this! I need to go with the first choice. It appears absolutely impossible right now, but there surely is a way to increase my Battle-Strength even more.’

’So, a beast four levels higher than me would have speed that is impossible for me to react to, would create an attack that I can’t resist against, and I can’t even injure them. This means I need to upgrade all three aspects.’

’The best way to majorly increase these aspects is by understanding more level two Laws. First of all, I need to deal with the speed difference. Right now, I can increase my Will-Aura again, which would put the suppression to 30%. The problem is that I have no way to increase it right now. The only other beast in this world that has comprehended Punishment Lightning is the Grand Elder, and with me being a level five King now, he won’t be able to help me.’

’Since he has overtaken the position of the leader of the Icy Pride Empire, he also won’t increase his Realm for quite some time. So, increasing my Will-Aura falls flat,’ Gravis thought as he scratched his chin. ’This means I need speed from somewhere else.’

Gravis glanced to the Lightning Ultimate. ’There surely must be an upgraded form of the level one Law of Lightning’s Speed. Comprehending this Law would allow me to react to attacks, at least. This should be my first stop.’

’Then, I need to deal with my attack. Punishment Lightning is great and all, but it is only the base form of an attack. I need to manipulate it appropriately to make use of it as efficiently as possible. The Lightning Crescent has served me well for a long time, but it’s a technique I have comprehended in the lower world. There surely must be better and more effective ways to use my Punishment Lightning.’

’Yet, maybe I don’t need to completely change my technique, but upgrade it. Right now, my Lightning Crescent makes use of my Will-Aura, Spirit, and Punishment Lightning. Yet, it hasn’t integrated other Laws. Additionally, I haven’t comprehended any of the offensive Laws regarding lightning yet.’

Gravis’ eyes shone. ’Lightning is a very offensive element, so it should have plenty of offensive Laws. If I comprehend some of these Laws, the power of my Lightning Crescent will rise. However, I’m not sure if that would be enough.’

’Another problem with my Lightning Crescent is that the power is not concentrated enough. I unleash it in a slash, and then it simply explodes. A lot of its power vanishes into the surroundings, and it spreads over my enemy’s entire body. If I could concentrate it on one point, its power would rise again.’

’So, for my speed and offense, I need to comprehend more about lightning. I’ve always put it on the back burner since I could comprehend it anytime I wanted. Maybe I should increase its priority,’ Gravis thought as he looked at the moving clouds in the sky, which moved around the lower bodies of the Ultimates.

’As for elemental defense, I need to comprehend the Light and Darkness Composition Laws. With that, I will be able to weaken all elemental attacks of my enemy. Additionally, understanding the level two Laws associated with their Composition would surely increase their effectiveness even more.’

’As for physical defense, the sharp attacks are already countered very well by my new Hard Complex Law. The problem is the force that the attacks transmit. I can increase my resistance to these attacks with two other things.’

’First, I need to comprehend the Soft Complex and Medium Complex Laws. Right now, my armor is so hard that if my body gets thrown around inside it, it’s like I hit a hard wall of ore every time. An appropriate solution would be to have a hard layer on the outer side, a soft layer of gas in the middle, and a flexible but durable layer beneath all of this.’

’A physical attack would hit my armor and would maybe dent it a little bit. The layer of gas would slowly distribute the force over a wider area, and my body would be softly held in place by the medium material.’

’The next issue would be the internal tearing of my body with such an attack. I probably can’t do anything with the Body Composition Law since my body has a different Composition. Yet, there are more Laws regarding the body. Maybe there are some hardness or flexibility Laws?’

Gravis frowned as he realized the monumental task in front of him. ’I probably need to comprehend, at least, five additional level two Laws to allow me to even survive against a beast four levels higher than me. With such a big number of level two Laws, only Meadow would have comprehended more than me, and only Sary would have a comparable number.’

’This means, to jump four levels as a level five King, I would need to have comprehended more Laws than an average Ultimate, someone that is an entire Realm above me and thousands of years old. If it is even possible without tempering, I would probably need hundreds of years.’

Gravis sighed when he realized the time he would need to invest. He would remain a King for probably another 500 years. In that time, his children might even become Emperors already.

Yet, when Gravis glanced at Meadow, he made his decision. ’So what?’ Gravis thought. ’So what if I’m slow in increasing my Realm? A lot of humans my age have probably already become Immortals. Taking nearly 1,000 years to reach the Law Comprehension Realm would probably make me an old man. Instead of looking up at the old monsters, I would be the old monster.’

Suddenly, Gravis smirked. ’But am I not already an old monster for mortal standards? Some humans would look at Meadow and think that she was pathetic for remaining an Emperor for over 50,000 years. Yet, her Battle-Strength is absolutely insane.’

’How would the youngsters feel when someone many times older than them and with a weaker Realm would jump levels to kill them? The more powerful my Battle-Strength, the easier it is to survive. Right now, no level two Emperor would care about me, a level five King. I don’t even give them any Energy when they eat me.’

’On top of that, with them constantly feeling that they are more powerful than me, even tempering against me would feel horrible. Knowing that you are much more powerful than someone but somehow not being able to win is frustrating. Only when the fight is close to an end would their emotions subconsciously realize the danger.’

’An Emperor would gain nothing by winning against me. Instead, they would risk their lives for absolutely no gain, and they know that. This is the advantage of having a powerful Battle-Strength. I can choose my opponents since my opponents don’t want to choose me.’

’All these youngsters, who look down upon the seemingly weaker old monsters, die with regret as their arrogance becomes their downfall. By progressing too fast, one becomes average at some point, and that’s when cultivation becomes nearly impossible.’

By now, Gravis smiled as he rubbed his chin. ’Alright! I’ve decided!’

’I will become an old man!’

Chapter 597 - 597 – New Fighting Style

Gravis had made his decision to remain as a King until he would be powerful enough to battle beasts four levels above him. Of course, he wouldn’t truly become an old man. After all, as a King, he already had a longevity of about 3,000 years. He would, at most, count as a middle-aged man and maybe not even that.

’Alright! Now, first of all, I need to finish the remaining elements. Light time!’ Gravis thought as he looked at the Light Ultimate.

Then, Gravis walked over and started studying the show of the Light Ultimate. The Light Ultimate didn’t care about Gravis and simply ignored him. She had better things to do than to pay attention to some King.

As Gravis looked at the light show, he became quite surprised. ’I know a lot of these concepts already. I learned a lot about light creation by understanding the Composition Law of Fire. I learned a lot about reflection from the Water Composition Law. I even already understand a lot about the gradual transformation from light to darkness because of the similarities between the transformation from air to wind.’

’Sure enough, the more Laws I know, the easier it is to categorize and understand new Laws. This is what Azure said when she referred to the Law Comprehension experience of the Emperors. No wonder Ferris managed to learn one Law after the other when he started comprehending,’ Gravis thought.

Three years later.

BOOOOM!

BOOOOM!

’Got it!’ Gravis thought with a smirk. ’Just as I had expected, the Composition of Darkness and Light are intrinsically connected. By comprehending one of them, the comprehension of the other immediately follows.’

’Now, I counter every single element,’ Gravis thought. ’90% of all my opponents will be countered by my Composition Laws. Only the beasts without any elemental affinity are left. In order to counter them, I would need to learn the Composition Laws of the Body.’

Gravis frowned. ’Yet, that’s a problem. My body is made out of lightning, which makes its Composition very different from other bodies. Since it’s still a body, the other Laws still work with it, but not the Composition Law. This means that I don’t have an easy way to learn the body’s Composition.’

Gravis glanced over at Sary. ’I only have 33 years of comprehension in this area left. Originally, I wanted to look at the Medium Complex and Soft Complex Laws and finish everything off with some Lightning Comprehension. Yet, I can find Medium Complex and Soft Complex Materials nearly everywhere in this location. Additionally, I can also just look at myself for lightning.’

Gravis narrowed his eyes. ’Yet, I don’t always have an opportunity to inspect bodies. Sure, the CMO can give me insights into the Composition of a body, but the CMO is too random, and the knowledge is far too dispersed. Right now, Sary is demonstrating the different Laws in an orderly fashion. I can’t waste this opportunity.’

So, Gravis left the Light Ultimate and walked over to Sary.

"I thought you would never come," Sary transmitted with a giggling voice.

"You might not have been my first choice, but your display will help me the most, probably," Gravis transmitted back with a smile.

"I’m happy to hear that," Sary transmitted with a smile. "What are you interested in?"

"I want to take a look at the Composition of the body," Gravis answered.

"Good choice!" Sary transmitted. "The Composition Laws are the basis for all the other Laws. When you understand the Composition of something, you can look at the other related Laws from a different perspective."

Gravis nodded. He agreed with that assessment.

"I placed all five of them over there," Sary transmitted as Gravis’ Senses were pulled to an area with five eggs placed closely to each other.

Gravis nodded. "Thanks," he said.

Sary was surprised. "Oh, you don’t have to go that far. You helped me, and I help you. It’s natural," she transmitted with a bashful voice.

’Why is thanking beasts so weird? This is starting to become annoying,’ Gravis thought with a sigh.

Gravis didn’t interact with Sary any further and walked over to the eggs. The transparent, unfertilized eggs demonstrated the Laws perfectly. Just like the CMO, the things inside the eggs grew and broke down different parts of the body. Yet, instead of it being random, it was very orderly.

Surprisingly, Gravis already knew a lot about the Composition of the Body. Watching the CMO and knowing the Growth Laws allowed Gravis to see the Composition from a different perspective. He may not have understood the base, but he understood the result, which the base would turn into.

’I notice more and more how my previous experiences are helping me now,’ Gravis thought. ’Back then, when I started my first true Law Comprehension, I had to understand every single small thing. It took me so incredibly long to learn the basics of the materials and elements. Yet, after a long time of getting no concrete results, I started understanding Laws faster and faster.’

For a short time, Gravis looked at the sky as he thought about the difference between then and now. ’Finally, my experience in regards to Law Comprehension is just as high as an Emperor. It took me 150 years, but I’m finally there.’

’Right now would be the optimal time for me to become an Emperor, but with the change of my goal, I can’t do that anymore. As soon as I become a level one Emperor, a level four Emperor would maybe only give me the slightest of tempering. Yet, fighting an Ultimate would become even harder then than fighting a level three Emperor now,’ Gravis thought.

’If I breakthrough now, I will probably never be able to fight four levels above me. I need to invest a huge amount of time right now, but it will be worth it!’ Gravis thought.

Then, with renewed motivation, he looked at the eggs.

Two years later.

BOOOOM!

’Organs are done,’ Gravis thought with a smirk. ’By understanding the Organs, I have a base of understanding the other components even better.’

One and a half years later.

BOOOOM!

’Blood is done,’ Gravis thought. ’My Spirit can’t penetrate through living matter because of their will. Due to that, these Laws are currently useless to me since I can’t get to my enemy’s blood and organs. Yet, if I also understand the other Composition Laws, I can work my way through the layers.’

One year later.

BOOOOM!

’Bones are done,’ Gravis thought. ’This is becoming faster and faster as time passes. I notice that many concepts in components I haven’t understood yet are already familiar to me. Additionally, I’m becoming very good at analyzing new kinds of Compositions. In this branch of Laws, I’m starting to become an expert.’

Half a year later.

BOOOOM!

’And that’s the muscles,’ Gravis thought. ’Only the skin remains. No time to waste!’

Two months later.

BOOOOM!

’And I’m done!’ Gravis thought with a smirk. ’Five Laws in only five years! That’s even faster than Ferris back then. Of course, the main reason for my speed is the orderly display from Sary, and also that I already have a huge amount of experience in Composition. As soon as I step into a different category of Laws, my speed will fall drastically again.’

’Anyway, with these Composition Laws complete, I can counter all the beasts. If my Will-Aura is powerful enough, I can turn their skin into dust, followed by their blood and muscles, and lastly, their bones and organs. On top of that, since the dust still has all their Energy, I can just destroy the dust with my lightning and absorb their power.’

’If my Will-Aura isn’t powerful enough, I can weaken their skin. That would reduce their defense by an entire level, but not completely. After all, I can’t weaken the muscles if the skin blocks my Spirit Sense. First of all, I would need to weaken the skin, destroy part of the skin with my attacks, and then weaken the muscles beneath the skin.’

’On top of that, even if I manage to leave a cut, I can only weaken the muscles that are exposed by the cut. This means I would need to concentrate fully on only one spot. With just these Laws, I won’t be able to kill my opponent.’

’However, there’s one funny thing,’ Gravis thought with a chuckle. ’Ironically, the dispersal of my Lightning Crescent’s Energy would be more effective than a more concentrated attack. With my Lightning Crescent, I would be able to burn off the whole skin of my opponent and would then have access to all their muscles.’

Gravis started scratching his chin as he fell into thought again. ’But if my opponent knows the Law of Skin Growth, they would rebuild their skin. Yet, that would cost quite some Life Energy. Interesting. This would result in a war of attrition between my opponent and me.’

Gravis looked at Sary intensely. ’If I were to fight a level three Emperor version of Sary, this fighting style would result in my death. Her Life Energy regeneration is insane. For these cases, I would need a more concentrated version of my Lightning Crescent.’

Then, Gravis turned to the Light Ultimate. ’Yet, this tactic would be incredibly effective against beasts with the water and light affinity. They can’t just create Life Energy out of nowhere since they rely on their own Life Energy and element to heal themselves.’

’An opponent with the earth element also would succumb to this tactic. Their offense is not powerful enough to kill me immediately, and their speed is slow. With my Earth Composition and Body Composition Laws, I would be able to slowly grind them to death.’

’Meanwhile, offensive elements like fire, darkness, wind, and maybe even metal would kill me in a short time. This means I can’t just rely on this new fighting style.’

Gravis scratched the back of his neck. ’Well, I guess I have two fighting styles now.’

Chapter 598 - 598 – Microorganisms

As Gravis became more powerful, he noticed that his direction had changed. In the lower world and at the beginning of the middle world, he had chased after a very explosive and fast fighting style. His goal had been to boost his speed and offense to a level where the enemy would die without being able to fight back.

Yet, as he fought more and more opponents, he realized that this fighting style wasn’t always the best choice. Metal and earth beasts had been his nemesis since their defenses were so high that it became nearly impossible to kill them immediately. Then, Gravis would run out of Energy, and the fight would become perilous.

Ironically enough, with his new fighting style, earth beasts were now the weakest against him. Now, the most troublesome opponents would be beasts without any elemental affinity. Their superior body would pose a massive issue to him. The other problem was that he wouldn’t be able to counter their offense with his Elemental Composition Laws since they had no elemental affinity.

The more complex and varied his opponent’s fighting style was, the better for Gravis. One could argue that Gravis’ direction was not power-oriented. After all, his weapons became more and more situational. Yet, if he had situational weapons that covered every situation, would his strength still be situational?

’Pure power only carries me so far,’ Gravis thought. ’If I only concentrate on the three basic aspects of offense, defense, and speed, I would never be able to fight four levels above myself. I need to find specific counters to my opponents to bridge the gap.’

Gravis glanced at the remaining eggs beside Sary and then at the Lightning Ultimate. ’Should I choose something that I can understand very quickly that would shoot my strength upward, or should I concentrate on something nearly useless that I can’t get anywhere else?’

Gravis sighed. ’Honestly, that’s not even a choice. I’ve been putting off understanding more about lightning forever, but I can take a look at lightning whenever I want. My survival is guaranteed, which gives me time to understand everything. This means that I have the luxury to waste time.’

After thinking that, Gravis made his choice. Back then, the sheer number of level one Laws required for the Middle-Tier Material Composition Law had thrown him into despair. Yet, without even noticing, Gravis had nearly completed the entire base.

He knew the relevant Pure Laws and even the Hard Complex Law. He knew all the Elemental Composition Laws. He knew the Body Composition Laws, and he also knew the Plant Composition Laws. There was only one thing remaining.

’Let’s take a look at these microorganisms,’ Gravis thought. ’I have never truly come into contact with them, but some Laws should be able to cross into their territory.’

Gravis looked at the single egg that demonstrated the creation of microorganisms, which made Gravis frown. According to his logic, there should be at least three different kinds of Composition Laws associated with microorganisms. Yet, there was only one egg.

"Sary, have you not comprehended the entire Composition of Microorganisms, or why is there only one egg?" Gravis asked.

Sary chuckled a bit. "Oh, I understand it. It’s all there," she said with a voice that suggested that she knew something that Gravis didn’t. "I think your understanding about their usage and purpose is faulty. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have asked for more eggs."

Gravis scratched his chin in thought. "That might be possible," Gravis said. "I haven’t come into contact with them yet, so I don’t truly know their purpose and effect."

Sary giggled some more. "Take a look, and you will find out, but you will probably need a long time to understand them. They’re very different, and if you don’t have a powerful base, you won’t be able to understand them at all. I would suggest looking at the Composition of Plants first."

Gravis grinned. "I already understand all five Composition Laws of Plants and all five Composition Laws of Bodies. Is that enough?" Gravis asked.

Sary was shocked when she heard Gravis’ words. She wasn’t surprised about the number of Laws that Gravis had comprehended but about the fact that he had "wasted" time to look at plants while still being a King. The Laws of Plants were about as far as one could go in regards to understanding Laws that have no impact on Battle-Strength. These kinds of Laws were basically useless.

Only Emperors that had no idea what to do anymore would consider looking at plants. Gravis could become more powerful without any problems, but he had already comprehended plants. Sary couldn’t understand him at all.

"Well, okay," Sary said. "Then you can try to comprehend them. However, it will probably still take quite some time, but if you actually manage to comprehend them, you will reap a ton of rewards."

Gravis nodded as he continued to scratch his chin. "Would you say it would be worth it to invest all my remaining time here to understand microorganisms?" he asked.

"Yes," Sary answered immediately. "If you manage to comprehend them, it will be worth it."

"Alright," Gravis said as he walked closer to the egg. "Then I will trust you," he said.

"Aw, shucks, that sounds lovely, Gravis," Sary said with an embarrassed voice. "Take your time," she said.

Gravis looked with detail at the microorganisms for the first time. He had seen them here and there, but he had never paid any true attention to them. They had never shown any impact on anything.

After some minutes, Gravis found something that was quite fascinating. ’Interesting. The microorganisms are alive, move around, and consume food, but they don’t have a will, and therefore also no soul.’

’Ferris said that the soul is the difference between dead and living things. These microorganisms don’t have a soul, which would throw them into the dead-category. Yet, they exhibit a multitude of attributes that only living beings have. This is very contradictory,’ Gravis thought.

Five years passed. 23 years until the time was up.

The more Gravis looked at the microorganisms, the more confused he became. By now, he would have comprehended, at least, another Composition Law if there actually were another one. Yet, the microorganisms completely stumped him.

The concepts behind these microorganisms went against a lot of Laws and comprehensions Gravis had achieved in the past. Yet, his past comprehensions had to be correct. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have transformed into Laws.

Gravis narrowed his eyes. ’I think I understand why Sary said that it would be worth it. The fact that my previous knowledge has transformed into Laws shows that my previous knowledge is correct. Yet, the microorganisms in front of me are real, which means they also follow a specific Law.’

’This means that there is an entire facet of knowledge that I haven’t interacted with yet, which means I should look at them as if I haven’t comprehended anything else. I shouldn’t try to find outside concepts that make sense in relation to these microorganisms but see them as their own thing. No wonder Sary said that it will take a long time. It’s like I’m trying to understand a new Law while having no prior experience,’ Gravis thought.

’Yet, she also said that it would be worth it. Let’s see...’ Gravis thought as he continued looking at them.

Eight years passed. 15 years until the time was up.

By now, Gravis was looking at the microorganisms with intensity. His eyes had become bloodshot, and his mind was going wild. It was like he was trying to understand something that was just too complex to understand.

Gravis saw more and more facets about the microorganisms that stumped him. A lot of the stuff they did made no sense at all! They were, obviously, comprised of Energy, just like everything else. Yet, they absorbed and gave off Energy voluntarily without any outside manipulation.

This was especially strange since that didn’t fit living nor dead things. Living things hoarded more and more Energy and wouldn’t give off as much as they absorbed, while dead things neither absorbed Energy nor dispersed it. Yet, these microorganisms absorbed Energy and gave off the same amount later. It made no sense!

Five more years passed. Ten years until the time was up.

Gravis sighed as he looked at his surroundings. He needed a break. It was like he was constantly fighting an uphill battle, just trying to survive. Yet, no matter how much concentration he put into comprehension, it was like he just had no chance.

"Sary, is the Composition Law of Microorganisms a level two or level three Law?" Gravis asked.

"No, it’s a level one Law," Sary answered.

"Then why is it so hard to understand?" Gravis asked helplessly. He had never felt so overwhelmed with a level one Law. How was this Law so complex but only had the power of a level one Law?

Sary giggled a bit. "Let me show you something interesting," she said.

Gravis looked back at the egg. Then, a lot of the microorganisms gathered together. At once, all of them started absorbing Energy. As more time passed, they pressed harder and harder into each other until...

WHOOOP!

Gravis’ eyes nearly fell out. The microorganisms broke down and fused with each other! Now, there was only one thing in front of him, and Gravis almost couldn’t believe it.

"A heart," Gravis involuntarily said.

Gravis looked at the heart intensely. He was absolutely sure that a heart was not comprised of microorganisms. Gravis understood the Composition Law of Organs, and he knew that an organ was one thing that was made out of Energy. Gravis’ senses were easily powerful enough to perceive microorganisms, but no matter how closely he looked at the newly created heart, he saw no microorganisms in it.

It was like the microorganisms had completely vanished and had become one new thing. Additionally, this thing was now living as it absorbed more Energy than it gave off. On top of that, Gravis also felt a very faint will on it.

Something dead had transformed into something alive right in front of him!

Chapter 599 - 599 – Life Energy And Microorganisms

Gravis almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He knew a lot about Composition and about living and dead matter. Someone that didn’t know as much wouldn’t be as surprised about this development. Yet, to Gravis, it appeared magical that something dead could become something living.

When the microorganisms fused together, they not only created a will but also a soul! How was it possible that they created a soul? Gravis had always thought that a soul was something magical that entered a body via Heaven or something similar. A lot of people believed in reincarnation and that the souls of dead beings could enter new bodies.

Yet, this revelation showed him that this was not the case. The soul was being created by a fusion of microorganisms. This meant a completely new soul that had never seen the world before had been created. There was no such thing as reincarnation in this cosmos.

"Shocking, isn’t it?" Sary asked with a smirk. "When I’ve noticed this for the first time, I was also shocked. You should know that Azure’s technique of understanding the Life Laws came from me. I have always comprehended the Life Laws via creating new children and watching them. The microorganisms are obviously not alive, yet they contribute immensely to living beings."

Gravis nodded. "It truly is shocking. I guess Azure has already comprehended the Law of Microorganisms, right?"

"Probably," Sary answered. "I don’t know for sure, but she had comprehended at least one level two Law in regards to the body. So, the chances that she has already realized the workings of the microorganisms is quite high."

Gravis thought back to how he had watched his children being created. He had kept watch over the entire thing, but his knowledge regarding the Composition of the Body was not high enough to notice how special something like this was. His children had also once been microorganisms, but Gravis hadn’t noticed this peculiarity.

The egg, which demonstrated the microorganisms, turned back to its old form after creating life, and Gravis continued looking at it. With this new knowledge, he should be able to look at the microorganisms from a different point of view.

Two years passed. Eight years until the time was up.

By now, the microorganisms made a lot more sense to Gravis. He still had no idea how the microorganisms created souls, Life Energy, or a will, but their actions made more sense. Microorganisms had no kind of Life Energy inside them. If they had, Gravis should have been able to feel it.

Yet, Gravis hit a roadblock again. There had to be some use that these microorganisms had that Gravis still didn’t know about. Creating life was impressive, but there had to be more.

During that time, Gravis also observed his own body, but he found no microorganisms inside it. There was just lightning that had manifested inside him. Yet, he noticed one thing.

’I think my Life Energy is a bit different from the Life Energy of other living beings,’ Gravis thought. ’I use Life Energy to heal my body without transforming into lightning, but it may not be the typical Life Energy of other beasts. Most of the Laws regarding the Body still work on me, but not all of them. Maybe this is one of those Laws?’

Gravis thought about this and glanced at Sary subconsciously. ’Sary is healing herself continually to demonstrate her Law of Energy Healing. This Law is obviously far too advanced for me, but maybe I can learn something.’

Thus, Gravis looked at Sary’s body, which was breaking down and healing at a terrifying rate. Gravis’ Spirit Sense couldn’t enter into her body, but he could see how the surface wounds healed. With his new knowledge, he looked at the healing body of Sary from a different viewpoint. Instead of looking at the result, Gravis looked at the process of healing.

After a while, Gravis noticed something quite peculiar. There were a lot of microorganisms in Sary’s body. When he realized that, his eyes narrowed. ’Sure enough, there is a difference in our bodies that goes beyond the simple Law of Body Composition. She has microorganisms roaming around in her body, while I don’t.’

Gravis continued watching and managed to understand more about the process of healing. ’Interesting. When Sary’s scales get injured, these microorganisms appear and fuse with the healthy scales. This means that the microorganisms are responsible for healing her body. Yet, wasn’t Life Energy supposed to be responsible for that?’

Gravis continued watching Sary for over a day.

’There are so many microorganisms. By now, the number of microorganisms that had been used up would already reach several times her body weight. They just don’t end. It’s like she has an infinite amount of microorganisms that keep healing her body. Is this the Law of Energy Healing?’ Gravis thought to himself.

"Hey, Sary," Gravis said. "Where do you get this incredible amount of microorganisms from? All of these microorganisms have mass, and their combined mass would be far, far higher than your body’s mass."

Sary chuckled a bit. "That’s my Law of Energy Healing," she said like it was obvious. "As the name implies, I transform Energy into microorganisms that heal my body. As long as the destroyed tissue doesn’t leave my body, I use the level two Law of Life Energy Conservation to break it down again to reuse it."

"Of course, the Law of Life Energy Conservation isn’t perfect, and I can’t get the full amount of Life Energy back. That’s when my Law of Energy Healing comes into play. I use Energy to create Life Energy," Sary said.

Gravis wasn’t fine with that answer. "Sure, but where do these microorganisms come from? Do you split up the destroyed tissue and create more of them?"

Now, it was Sary’s time to become confused. "I don’t get your question. Isn’t it obvious where the microorganisms come from?" she asked.

Gravis furrowed his brows. "I don’t have microorganisms inside my body due to its peculiar makeup. That’s why I don’t know."

Now, Sary became shocked. "Are you trying to tell me that you don’t have Life Energy?" she asked.

Gravis grimaced as he became more confused. "I do have Life Energy, but I think my Life Energy is different from your Life Energy. My body simply grows by absorbing the saved-up Energy inside it. It’s weird and complicated."

Sary hummed for a bit. "So, you don’t have our Life Energy, but your own kind of Life Energy. That’s fascinating."

"Sary," Gravis said, "how were you so sure that I don’t have Life Energy?"

"You just said it yourself," Sary asked, surprised at the question. "You said you don’t have microorganisms, and every Emperor knows that the microorganisms are Life Energy."

Gravis completely stopped moving. "What?" he asked after some seconds of silence.

"You really didn’t know?" Sary asked in surprise. "Everybody knows that microorganisms are literally just Life Energy. Our organs produce them, and they heal our injuries."

Gravis’ mind was going wild. He most certainly hadn’t known that!

"But Life Energy has the word Energy in it, and Energy doesn’t have a mass since it’s not matter! It can transform into matter, but it is not matter itself! So, how come something that has Energy in its name can have mass!?" Gravis asked fervently.

Sary scratched her face with her tail. "No, it doesn’t," Sary said. "These two concepts are related, but Energy is not inside Life Energy."

These words confused Gravis fully now. What did she mean that the word Energy was not in Life Energy!? It was obviously in it!

Suddenly, Gravis’ eyes widened in realization. ’No wonder! We are always communicating with our Spirits! Even if we say something, it’s more of a thought or concept that is being transmitted over a wide area instead of actual language spoken via our voice.’

’My Spirit receives these signals and puts them into words that I am familiar with. So, it’s very possible that Sary’s word for Life Energy doesn’t have the concept of Energy inside it. To her, it might actually be possible that the word for microorganisms and Life Energy is the same word.’

’The concept of Life Energy simply becomes the word Life Energy inside my mind since I have learned about Life Energy already in the lower world. Yet, the word Life Energy might not be appropriate,’ Gravis thought.

’This means that Life Energy is not part of Energy, but something that Energy transforms into. Life Energy is not a force, but matter!’

BOOOOM!

Immediately, Gravis comprehended the Composition Law of Microorganisms. Microorganisms were Life Energy. In normal beasts, their organs produced microorganisms by using Energy as fuel. Then, the blood would store these microorganisms, and if something gets injured, their will will send the microorganisms to the injured area.

’Finally! I got it!’ Gravis thought. ’Now I know what Sary meant with that it would be worth it to spend a lot of time to understand microorganisms. Microorganisms are Life Energy, and Life Energy is the base of all Life Laws. Without this Law, I can’t go far in the Life Law category.’

Gravis scratched his chin as Sary looked at him with confusion. ’Yet, this means that microorganisms are also part of the Composition of Bodies and Plants. This means the Composition of these two things wasn’t complete before. Every part on its own made sense, but without microorganisms, there wasn’t a way to truly combine everything.’

Gravis smiled. ’Well, now it makes sense.’

Gravis was shocked when he realized what he had just comprehended. It was this simple? All he had needed was knowledge about microorganisms?

Gravis had just comprehended the level two Law of Body Composition and the level two Law of Plant Composition!

Chapter 600 - 600 – Uses Of The Body Composition Law

Gravis was shocked beyond belief. Level two Laws had been incredibly distant to him up to now. He had comprehended the level two Law of Suppression, but that had been an outlier. After that, it had taken him about 150 years to understand the Hard Complex Law, which had been his second level two Law.

For so many years, he had only comprehended level one Laws, but now, he comprehended three level two Laws in less than 50 years.

’It all makes sense!’ Gravis thought with excitement. ’The thing I had been aiming for has finally arrived! When my Realm-Stop had started, I knew how hard it was to understand level two Laws. So, I simply said that I just need to understand as many level one Laws as possible. At some point, I would be able to combine some of them!’

’The level two Composition Law of the Body is comprised of the Composition Laws of Organs, Blood, Muscles, Skin, and Bone. Yet, the Law of Microorganisms, or more accurately the Law of Life Energy, is what combines everything. These five Laws with the help of another Law became one level two Law!’

’The same thing happened with the Plant Composition law. The Plant Composition Law is made out of the Composition Laws of Organs, Flowers, Roots, Bark, and Leaves! Yet, without microorganisms, it is not a complete whole.’

Gravis also realized something else. ’No wonder so few beasts are truly knowledgeable about Life Laws. Sure, they might know some Growth Laws here and there, but very few know any level two Law in the Life Law category.’

’Getting one’s foot in the door in Life Laws is incredibly hard. In order to understand the Composition Laws of the Body Parts and Plant Parts, one needs to know the Law of Microorganisms. Without that, it becomes incredibly difficult.’

’Yet, to learn about microorganisms, one already needs to understand the Composition Laws of the Body. Otherwise, the entire concept of microorganisms doesn’t truly make sense. Only when someone knows how the microorganisms interact with everything would they be able to understand the microorganisms themselves.’

Gravis scratched his chin in thought. ’So, what uses do these two Laws have for me? I can’t use the Plant Composition Law for anything as long as I don’t fight a plant. So, this Law is basically worthless for my Battle-Strength.’

’The Composition Law of the Body is only relevant to the bodies of other beasts, not my own. When other beasts understand it, they can probably move their power from one part of their body into another. They can probably take some power out of their bones, skin, and organs and push it into their muscles, severely increasing their physical strength as a result.’

’I can’t do that with my body since it doesn’t have the typical Life Energy. My Life Energy is, as the word says, a kind of force, not matter. I don’t have microorganisms roaming around my body that heal it. Instead, when something on my body heals, I use up some kind of weird Energy that expands my body parts.’

’It’s a bit confusing. If I equate the two processes with math, a normal being would heal their body by adding something while I multiply something. In the end, we get the same result, but the process is different.’

’I wonder if my body has its own set of Composition Laws or if my body just has the Composition Law of Punishment Lightning. Honestly, I have no idea right now,’ Gravis thought.

’Be that as it may,’ Gravis thought as he shook his head. ’The important thing now is to find out the use of my new Body Composition Law. With my level one Laws, I was able to weaken the individual parts of my enemy, but I should be able to do more now.’

’As far as I see, I won’t be able to weaken the body of my enemy further, but there is something else I can do. Since I now know the true Composition of a Body, I can also influence the microorganisms, which means I can influence the Life Energy of my opponent.’

’As long as their Life Energy doesn’t surface, I can’t interact with it due to their body blocking my senses. Yet, if I manage to injure my opponent, they would need to use their Life Energy to heal themselves.’

Gravis’ eyes shone. ’If my opponent knows some regenerating Life Laws, I can severely affect their regeneration. Right now, my Will-Aura is powerful enough that I can turn a level two Emperor into dust after some seconds due to the Composition Law of the Body. Yet, a level three Emperor would have a will more powerful than my Will-Aura due to the level suppression.’

’The best thing I can do in that situation is to weaken their body. This would be no different to the individual level one Laws of Body Composition. Yet, the difference appears when I have already injured my enemy. With this new Law, I can weaken their surfacing Life Energy, forcing them to use vastly more Life Energy to heal their injuries. It basically multiplies the cost of Life Energy when healing.’

’Let’s see. If I were to weaken the body of a level three Emperor with my Composition Law and then unleash a Lightning Crescent, I would be able to burn off all of their skin and injure some muscles. Regenerating one’s entire skin probably costs around 10% of Life Energy. With my new Law, I can probably push that to 30% or 40%.’

Gravis looked at some other Ultimates in thought. ’Additionally, if they don’t know any Life Laws, my Will-Aura wouldn’t get overwhelmed by the wave of Life Energy rushing to heal them. They would only have their passive regeneration left, and I’m powerful enough to destroy all their Life Energy that seeps out.’

’This means that a single cut of mine against an opponent without any experiences in Life Laws would stay open and unhealed for as long as I remain in their vicinity. This would be a permanent drain of Life Energy. With enough time, in that scenario, I would be able to kill someone like that by only cutting them slightly.’

After thinking that, Gravis noticed something else. ’Huh,’ he thought. ’That sounds very similar to the darkness element. How does that even work?’

Gravis scratched himself as he went through a simulation of how darkness destroyed microorganisms. ’It’s probably a force that cancels out Life Energy. One could also call it poison or venom, I suppose. The venom would enter their body via the weapon. Then, the venom would completely ignore the organs and travel across the body via the blood.’

’After that, the venom would probably exclusively target the microorganisms inside one’s body until it is fully used up. Then, someone would slowly succumb to old age, basically.’

BOOOOM!

’Really?’ Gravis thought. ’That’s it? That was everything? What the fuck is even the point in learning that Law!?’

Gravis just comprehended the Law of Darkness Poisoning, an offensive Law for the darkness element.

’The fuck am I supposed to do with that!? I can’t control darkness at all! On top of that, since I don’t have traditional Life Energy, the darkness element wouldn’t even work against me!’

Gravis groaned. ’Well, it’s another Law. Just take it as some additional experience.’