Ch. 821..830

Chapter 821 - 821 – Aftermath

Silence returned as Gravis sat on the ground with his head in his hands while Stella looked with shock into the Life Ring.

SHING!

Liam came out of the Life Ring. He could have left whenever he wanted, but Gravis told him not to leave until he saw Stella again. Liam had had no connection to the outside, which meant that he had not seen what had happened between Gravis and Stella.

Liam looked at his sister as his right hand shakingly stretched to her. He saw two intense, red handprints on her cheeks, and he saw that her right arm was broken.

However, that which shocked him the most was the fact that half of Stella’s robes had been torn off.

Cultivators constantly got injured during battles, but these were not battle injuries.

These were injuries of abuse.

Liam’s hand balled into a fist and shook violently as his rage exploded. He had heard from Gravis that Gravis needed to push Stella to the point of no return, but he didn’t know what he would do.

Back when Gravis had looked at Liam for several seconds, the two of them had communicated with voice transmissions. Gravis had told him that he needed Liam’s cooperation to resolve Stella’s issue, but also that it required Gravis to tell Liam what Stella needed to comprehend.

However, explaining it to Liam meant that it would be harder for Liam to learn the Law of Freedom in the future.

Liam hadn’t even hesitated and directly asked Gravis to explain.

So, Gravis had explained to him the concept of freedom and how it was possible to comprehend it. One could only comprehend freedom when someone was at the lowest point of their life, but that was not all. When the person was in the lowest point of their life, they needed to be put to a choice.

A choice between the right thing to do and what they wanted to do.

Samantha’s father had been at that point. He had just lost his daughter, and the murderer of his daughter stood in front of him, being protected by all the Sect Masters. The smart thing would have been to wait, but he had wanted to kill Gravis so badly.

When one arrived at this choice, one only had to choose the correct thing, which was ironically the stupid thing, throwing one’s future away to follow what one wanted.

Gravis explained to Liam that he needed to "die" first. Luckily, Liam had some insight into the Laws of Life, making it easier to create some fake body parts. Otherwise, Gravis would have needed to create them, and Liam would have needed to infuse them with his aura, but it was much more convincing with Liam doing it directly.

Both of them had higher Realms than Stella, which meant that it was easy to leave her Spirit Sense. After leaving her Spirit Sense, Liam took out some body parts he had prepared while they had been talking. Then, Liam threw nearly all his belongings onto the ground and entered Gravis’ Life Ring.

The last thing that Gravis had had to do was to unleash a Lightning Crescent.

This was the last time Liam had seen his sister up to now.

However, when Liam saw Stella like this, he couldn’t control his anger anymore.

Stella was injured with tears and blood staining her face.

In her destroyed state of mind, she had even forgotten shame as she only looked at her brother like she was in a dream.

"I’m so sorry," Liam said quietly.

PACK!

Stella jumped into her brother’s arms as she cried her heart out.

Her brother was still alive!

Liam couldn’t return the hug but repaired Stella’s robes instead. Seeing her like this pained him, and he felt an incredible amount of guilt.

Yes, it had been a necessity to put her through these things, but it was still a betrayal in his mind.

Liam’s shame stopped him from returning the hug. He just felt too horrible. He didn’t deserve to hug his sister right now.

"Have you comprehended freedom?" Liam asked quietly.

Stella was still crying in Liam’s embrace, but Liam felt Stella’s head nod slightly.

Liam released a sigh of relief. "Good," he said quietly.

Then, he pushed Stella gently to the side, breaking the hug.

SHING!

And he pulled out his thin rapier as he glared at Gravis.

"Then you don’t need him anymore," he said coldly.

Stella’s emotional mind froze as another feeling of foreboding appeared in her mind.

However, Liam was too fast, and he immediately unleashed his most powerful attack.

SHING!

Liam slashed down as a mixture of Inferno, Punishment Lightning, and Frost shot at Gravis, who was still sitting on the ground.

Stella felt like she had woken up from a nightmare just to fall back into one.

No, not again!

BOOOOOM!

The attack exploded, but the explosion was not nearly as big as it was supposed to be. In actuality, it barely reached the power of a level three Law.

Liam narrowed his eyes as he realized that Gravis couldn’t have died from that.

"STOP!" Stella shouted as she threw herself at Liam, holding him back with all her power.

"Let me go!" Liam shouted at Stella, just to be assaulted by more guilt as he realized that he had just shouted at his sister aggressively. His eyes became cold as he looked at the location of the explosion. "He must pay!"

SLAP!

Stella slapped Liam, his head turning to the side as his mind stopped working.

"Shut up!" Stella shouted with tears in her eyes. "I didn’t go through a world of grief just to lose you again! I don’t want you to throw your life away!"

Liam’s mind was shocked as he felt his stinging cheek. Stella had never slapped him before.

However, Stella’s words kept ringing in his ears. She didn’t want him to die.

Liam’s grip on his rapier tightened with rage and frustration. He wanted to kill Gravis so badly right now, but he knew that he couldn’t win. Additionally, he didn’t want his sister to go through more turmoil. She had suffered enough for today.

Liam put his rapier away. "I’m sorry. I lost control over myself," he said quietly.

Stella jumped into his arms again. "It’s fine, as long as you’re okay," she answered.

Like this, the two of them remained.

Meanwhile, the smoke of the explosion vanished, revealing Gravis sitting on the ground. However, his head was no longer in his hands. Instead, he was massaging the bridge of his nose in stress.

This entire thing also wasn’t easy for him. However, Gravis went through enough trouble in his life that something like this wouldn’t break him.

The reason why he was trying to calm himself right now wasn’t because of the issue with Stella.

Right now, Gravis was trying his best to resist the will of his lightning.

Liam had attacked him, and his lightning wanted to kill him.

Gravis’ lightning was screaming at him to kill Liam, making Gravis feel rage and hatred towards Liam. However, Gravis didn’t comply.

Liam had been in a horrible position, and he was very emotional. Gravis did all of these for a good reason, but that didn’t mean that Stella didn’t go through some heavy trauma just now.

Gravis would have probably acted very similarly to Liam, which was why he didn’t want to kill Liam right now.

Gravis was willing to overlook this one attack, but not a second one.

’I need some time for myself, and they probably also want to be alone,’ Gravis thought.

Gravis created a jade token and put it down before him. After that, he teleported away.

The jade token told them that he would be waiting about a million kilometers to the north. If they wanted to talk to him, he would remain there for one more week. If they didn’t come, he would take it as them telling him that they wanted to cut off all contact with him.

Gravis’ mission was complete.

Stella had only followed Gravis because Gravis had agreed to help her with the issue of her Will-Aura. With Stella’s mindset and the Law of Freedom, such interferences would no longer be an issue. This meant that there was no longer any reason to remain in contact with him.

Additionally, after everything that had happened just now, even if it had been for a good reason, Gravis could understand that they wouldn’t want to see him again. He didn’t care about Liam, but he would miss Stella.

’I did the wrong thing for the right reasons,’ Gravis thought with a sigh.

’They can decide to do whatever they want.’

’Whatever happens, happens.’

Chapter 822 - 822 – Future

Two days passed until Stella appeared in front of Gravis.

Gravis sat on the ground, just thinking about several things when he saw Stella appear in front of him.

Stella came alone, without Liam.

The two of them looked at each other for several seconds in silence, both of them having complex expressions on their faces.

Their entire dynamic had changed. There was now something horrible between them that couldn’t be ignored.

"Liam doesn’t want to see you right now," Stella said.

"Understandable," Gravis said.

More seconds of silence.

"How do you feel?" Gravis asked quietly.

"Hurt, betrayed," Stella said.

Gravis felt a sting in his being after hearing these words.

"It was the worst day of my life, and I still don’t know what I should feel right now," Stella said, keeping several meters of distance between the two of them.

"I’ve had several days to think about your actions, and I realize why you did them," Stella said with a sigh. "I understand freedom now, and I know that I wouldn’t have understood it otherwise."

"But I still feel immense pain whenever I think about that day," Stella said with a shaky voice. "You have hurt me deeply, Gravis, and no matter what reason you had, the pain won’t disappear."

"I can understand your reason, and a part of me is also thankful for that, but I can’t ignore the pain," Stella said quietly.

Gravis sighed. "I know. Something like this isn’t easy to resolve. There is no right choice," he said. "So, what are your plans?"

"That depends," Stella said as she sighed. Then, she looked at Gravis. "How far would you have gone?"

Gravis closed his eyes. He didn’t want to look at her while saying these words.

"I would have gone further, but I would have stopped before penetration," he said.

Stella’s body shook as she heard the word "penetration". It sounded so sterile, but the word shook her being.

"If you had still been unable to comprehend freedom before it, you obviously would never learn freedom," Gravis said. "The Law of Freedom isn’t easy to learn, and it would have been impossible for me to create a better circumstance. This was the full extent of what I can do to help you understand freedom."

"If you hadn’t comprehended freedom, I would have left. Obviously, I would have summoned Liam too."

"However, my shame would have been far too great, and I would have left. I would be unable to look into your eyes after what I have done. Our contact would have stopped."

Gravis opened his eyes and saw Stella looking to the side with discomfort. Hearing Gravis speak these words in such a neutral and dissociated tone reminded her of that day. He had spoken the same way back then.

Stella sighed.

"You know," she said as she looked back with a complex expression. "The only reason why I’m talking to you is that I have felt your pain. My Law of Empathy allows me to feel the feelings of others, and I felt your disgust, regret, and pain back then."

"I know that you genuinely didn’t want to do this."

"However, it still happened. Does it matter if you wanted to do it or not?"

Stella sighed again as she shook her head.

"I don’t know," she said. "I know that you have done all of these things to help me, but the pain is just too great."

"I know that you are a kind man. After all, we have talked for several years once."

"However," Stella said as she looked into Gravis’ eyes with apprehension. "Whenever I look at you, I can only see your cold and emotionless expression from that day."

"I also get reminded of the time when we fought, and I saw your burning and emotionless skull right in front of me."

"I know your personality, and I know you, but I can’t see the real you."

"Whenever I look at you, I only see a cold monster."

Stella’s words hurt Gravis deep inside, but he understood Stella. Going through something like this was horrible, and even if it was done for the right reasons, it still hurt Stella immensely.

Gravis got reminded of Joyce and her father. Back then, Joyce’s father had been willing to draw Joyce’s hatred towards him as long as it meant that she didn’t commit the error of recultivating. He had also known that she might never forgive him, but he had been willing to do it, even if it meant that he would lose her.

The only difference between that situation and Gravis’ current situation was that Gravis had been successful.

Something like this was hard to resolve since there was no correct answer.

On one hand, Stella wanted justified retribution for her pain, but on the other hand, Stella knew why Gravis had done these things, and she also knew that Gravis had also suffered.

There was no correct answer.

What if Stella decided to cut off all contact?

That would make her feel guilty since she knew that Gravis had basically sacrificed their relationship and went through emotional pain to help her. Stella would feel like she had betrayed him.

What if Stella decided to ignore the previous incident?

That was simply not possible. As long as Gravis appeared like a monster to her whenever she looked at him, she would never be happy and would dread the time they spent together. This would obviously be horrible for her and also for Gravis.

Every choice was horrible.

Every choice came with regrets.

Several more seconds of silence passed.

"I can’t make a decision right now," Stella said.

Gravis nodded. "I agree. Right now, everything is still fresh in our minds, and we are both still riled up," Gravis said.

"I would suggest that we cut off all contact for a while until we are sure of what we are feeling. I would suggest that you should return home with Liam while I continue comprehending Laws."

Gravis looked to the side with an evaluating expression. "I think I will be comprehending Laws for around 20,000 or 30,000 years. This should be plenty of time to digest our emotions."

Gravis looked back at Stella. "After that, I will go to the Core Regions most likely."

Stella sighed and nodded. "Sounds good. I think that’s the best course of action."

However, Gravis’ expression changed into a pained one as he remembered something. After some seconds, he made a decision.

"However, I will not come to see you then," Gravis said.

Stella was a bit surprised. "Why not?" she asked.

Gravis sighed. "There is a reason why I haven’t come closer to you back then," Gravis said slowly. "Obviously, we are attracted to each other, and I’m not a person that is too shy to confess when I feel something for someone."

Back then, Stella would have felt happy, but right now, she felt nothing when Gravis said these words.

The spark was not there anymore.

"I have an issue with something, and depending on how it gets resolved, different things might happen," Gravis explained as he didn’t look at her.

Stella was a bit confused. What issues?

"I can’t tell you what it is right now, but it’s uncertain how it will be resolved. In the end, I might either stay the same, die, or change into a completely different person."

"I am not afraid of dying, but I wouldn’t want you to go through enormous pain after I am no longer the person you got to know. If I make the wrong choice, I will no longer be myself, and I don’t want you to lose me like this."

"That’s why I haven’t taken the next step," Gravis said slowly.

"So, I will only come to search for you after this issue has been resolved. However, I don’t know when it will be resolved, and even if it is resolved, I don’t know if I will be the same person anymore."

"I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you the details," Gravis said with a sigh, "but when it is resolved, I will come back and talk to you."

"And if that happens, I will tell you everything about myself."

Stella wasn’t certain what she was feeling right now. On one hand, she felt like she was losing something important to her, but on the other hand, she only felt disgusted when she looked at Gravis. She didn’t want to feel disgusted since she knew Gravis, but it just happened.

It was an indescribable feeling.

"Okay," Stella said. "I don’t know what it is that you’re facing, but I wish you luck with that."

"I hope we can talk again in the future."

Gravis nodded and smiled weakly. "I hope so too."

"I’ll be going now. Goodbye, Gravis," Stella said.

"Goodbye, Stella," Gravis said.

Stella hesitated for some seconds but teleported away.

After some seconds, Gravis sighed.

’Normally, I don’t mind being alone, but right now, I feel lonely,’ Gravis thought.

’Right now, it feels like I’m alone in this world.’

Gravis looked at the sky.

’The issue with my lightning is now on the forefront of my thoughts. Its pressure suppresses me and my feelings. I feel like I am only waiting for the end of my existence.’

’What am I supposed to do with my lightning? Every solution I can come up with requires me to sacrifice something that I don’t want to sacrifice.’

’I don’t want to get rid of my lightning.’

’I don’t want to suppress my lightning.’

’I don’t want to suppress myself.’

’However, no matter what choice I make, I can only have two of these things, never three.’

Gravis lay down and looked at the sky.

’Everything hinges on my lightning.’

’My entire future and my entire happiness rest on the resolution of this issue.’

Gravis sighed.

’But I don’t know what to do.’

Chapter 823 - 823 – The Long Journey Begins

Gravis remained sitting at his current position for several days, just thinking about the future.

Sadly, no matter how much he thought about his future, he just didn’t see a way out of his predicament. Not matter what he did, he would have to sacrifice something he wasn’t willing to sacrifice.

The hopelessness of the situation put a heavy weight on Gravis’ shoulder.

Gravis wanted to feel pressure while cultivating, but he didn’t want to feel this kind of pressure. The more pressure he felt, the more powerful he would grow after breaking through it, but this was something different.

Gravis would lose something important, no matter what happened.

Fortunately, Gravis’ will wasn’t so weak that he would break due to pressure. He hadn’t felt this kind of pressure before, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t deal with it.

So, after some days, Gravis stood up again and stretched himself.

’As much as it pains me to admit it, the best course of action is not to resolve the problem immediately but to postpone it until I know more. More Laws might help me understand the world better, which might allow me to find a good solution.’

’I have to ignore the problem for now and concentrate on becoming more powerful.’

Gravis looked towards the north with narrowed eyes. ’From now on, nothing is keeping me away from comprehending Laws anymore.’

’The Sect Alliance won’t do anything.’

’The issue with Stella is resolved.’

’The issue with my lightning won’t be resolved anytime soon.’

’There is no danger around anymore.’

’Now, I can concentrate on comprehending Laws as much as I want.’

Gravis sighed. ’However, over 20,000 years of comprehending Laws might change me. I will be staying in seclusion without any real contact for five times as long as I have been alive.’

’I fear that I might lose myself in a sea of Laws, becoming similar to an emotionless being that only is interested in nature, not emotions. I fear that I might become similar to the Black Magnate when I met him, just fully focused on power.’

’I hope it doesn’t happen, but there is no way to know. I have never comprehended Laws for that long.’

’Well, whatever happens, happens,’ Gravis thought.

Then, he teleported away.

First on the list were the Battle Laws for the Inferno Element.

Gravis arrived at the first Law Comprehension Area of the Inferno Element, the Law Comprehension Area for the Law of Inferno’s Heat.

Back in the middle world, Gravis had already noticed that there were element-specific temperature Laws, and this one was the element-specific version of the Law of Heat. It was a level four Law, which, as the name implied, increased the temperature of the Inferno Element even more.

Below Gravis was a sea of fire. It wasn’t lava, but just a white sea of liquid Inferno. It didn’t explode or burn violently. It was just there and didn’t move, like a serene lake.

However, even from several kilometers away, Gravis felt the incredible heat.

This was the hottest thing he had ever seen or felt in his life, except for when Stella had attacked him with her Inferno back then.

Gravis announced himself and also informed the disciples that he would probably stay here for several hundred years.

The disciples were surprised when they saw him but went ahead and informed their Sect Master.

The Sect Master informed the Sect Alliance, and Gravis directly jumped into the pool.

The disciples took in a violent breath through their teeth out of shock. Was that guy suicidal!?

Well, Gravis didn’t have as great of an affinity towards Inferno as towards lightning, but his body still had an insane defense. As long as the entire heat was not concentrated on him, his body could keep up with healing.

As soon as Gravis entered, he felt his body being burned, but his scales gave him enough resistance to buy enough time to heal them before they fully vanished.

At the same time, Gravis used a bit of the Composition Law of Inferno to break some of it down into Energy. Otherwise, his passive Energy regeneration wouldn’t be fast enough. He had to supplement it with the Inferno Element.

It took some days of getting used to the process, but at some point, everything just came automatically to him.

Thus, Gravis started his first long session of Law Comprehension out of many.

After some months, Gravis’ mind had nearly vanished as he ignored everything outside.

No one came to disturb him.

There was nothing to be careful about.

No one was waiting for him.

There were just Laws.

And after ten years, Gravis’ mind seemingly stopped existing.

It was like his mind had become a machine just intent on comprehending Laws, nothing more.

BOOOOM!

And Gravis comprehended the Law of Inferno Heat!

Gravis opened his eyes and activated the Law.

As soon as he did, the unbearable heat surrounding him seemingly vanished. Now, Gravis didn’t even need to regenerate himself anymore since his body didn’t receive any damage.

SPLASH!

Gravis came out of the pool and looked around himself.

He didn’t recognize any of the present disciples, who all looked at him in shock.

’It’s been quite a while,’ he thought. ’However, it doesn’t feel that long. It only feels like I spent a couple of years in there.’

Gravis checked his Spirit Space and looked at a Jade Token.

’473 years,’ Gravis thought.

Gravis had created this jade token to check the time that had passed. He simply created a simple Formation Array that used a tiny bit of Energy. Depending on how much Energy had been used up, Gravis would be able to tell how much time the Formation Array had been active.

’A bit faster than expected, but my affinity towards Inferno is a bit above average. Earth, metal, and darkness will take far longer than this.’

Gravis looked around but didn’t feel any different.

’I don’t feel different since seemingly no time has passed. However, maybe the change is just too subtle to notice right now. I need to keep watch over my mind.’

Gravis thought about the dangers of cultivating too long in seclusion and decided to create a kind of test.

Gravis created some questions and answered them as subconsciously as possible. He didn’t think about them at all.

After that, he put the jade token with the answers away and kept the jade token with the questions. With a bit of control, Gravis managed to blur his mind as much as possible about the answers he had given. He couldn’t fully manipulate his own memories but blurring something as inconsequential as some subconsciously given answers wasn’t difficult.

He would repeat the test after every session and would compare the answers after every set of elements.

Even if he hadn’t noticed a change by himself, the answers would help him make a picture.

Gravis left the Law Comprehension Area and directly went to the next one without pause.

SHING!

Gravis arrived in front of it and saw something familiar.

BRRRRR!

White fire was violently burning in a crater. The walls of the crater were turning into smoke and entering the darkened atmosphere. For millions of kilometers around, only black clouds made of ash could be seen.

However, the crater still existed.

Gravis already had a guess why that was and checked. Sure enough, there was a vein of Graphite in the ground. The ash would fall down in the distance, and the Energy would travel here, creating more earth.

This was the same principle as the Law Comprehension Area for the Major Law of Lightning’s Explosiveness.

Gravis announced his arrival and entered the flames.

CRR! CRR! CRRR!

Gravis’ scales were being disintegrated into nothingness, but Gravis had been prepared for that.

This was the Law of Inferno’s Decomposition. Fire could only exist when it was burning something, which meant that the Composition of the burning object was changed into something else. This Law increased the decomposition process.

Usually, when someone used Inferno as an attack, the Inferno was burning the Energy of the Cultivator. More Energy meant more flames. This meant that this Law would actually even weaken the attack. After all, it wouldn’t become more powerful while consuming more Energy at the same time.

However, when one used Inferno as an area-wide attack, like with the Law of Inferno’s Heat, the Inferno would have a greater effect since it would consume the target too. This meant that the Law of Inferno’s Heat and Inferno’s Decomposition could be combined very well.

Gravis used his Life Energy and his Composition Law of Inferno again to keep his body going during the disintegration.

After some years, Gravis completely lost himself again.

Seemingly no time passed for Gravis.

BOOOOM!

Gravis opened his eyes and the fire no longer injured him.

He had comprehended the Law of Inferno’s Decomposition!

Gravis exited the fires again and noticed that he didn’t recognize the present disciples anymore. A lot of time had passed again.

Gravis checked his Formation Array again.

’463 years,’ Gravis thought.

Gravis took out the jade token with the previously recorded questions and answered them without thinking about the answer. After that, he blurred his mind again and put the jade token with the answers away.

He informed the disciples around him that he was leaving and teleported away to his next target.

After some minutes, Gravis arrived in front of a singular burning tree. It kept burning with intense power, but nothing seemingly happened to it.

This was the Law of Inferno’s Efficiency. It was the polar opposite of Inferno’s Decomposition. It simply used less fuel for the same amount of power.

After informing the present disciples, Gravis sat down on top of a branch and lost himself to comprehension again.

Chapter 824 - 824 – Answers

After some years, Gravis lost himself again.

And after seemingly no time...

BOOOOM!

The Law of Inferno’s Efficiency was comprehended!

Gravis could now combine the Law of Inferno’s Efficiency with the Laws of Inferno’s Heat and Inferno’s Decomposition to give his attack more longevity. The Law of Inferno’s Efficiency would cancel out the heightened Energy cost of the Law of Inferno’s Decomposition. However, that was only for his own Energy. The enemy would still feel the full effect of the Law of Inferno’s Decomposition.

This combination was extremely powerful.

These Laws allowed Gravis to attack a vast area with the power of a level five Law. It was still weaker than his Lightning Crescent, but the advantage was that the enemy couldn’t evade this attack.

This was just as powerful as Samantha’s Domain of Cold back then.

’444 years. I’m becoming faster.’

Gravis answered his questions again and went to the next area.

SHING!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Fire exploded everywhere.

Balls of fire were flying around in the sky, hitting each other and exploding. The Law Comprehension Area was in a massive crater that went thousands of kilometers deep into the earth. Sometimes, new balls of fire would exit the walls made of lava while the lava would flow down.

Over a long period of time, the lava ate a massive hole into the earth, constantly being kept warm from the explosions of fire above it.

Gravis informed the disciples and stopped before the exploding fireballs.

This was the Law Comprehension Area for the Law of Inferno’s Explosiveness. Its effect didn’t require any explanation.

Gravis didn’t come into contact with the balls of fire since he couldn’t ignore or absorb them. Coming into contact with them meant that he would use up a ton of their Energy, which might break the equilibrium, destroying the Law Comprehension Area.

So, for the first time, Gravis comprehended the Law at the same place as everyone else.

The disciples looked at Gravis weirdly from time to time.

This was the infamous ogre!

However, after some days, they got used to Gravis and ignored him.

Meanwhile, Gravis lost himself again.

"So, how’s it going?" one disciple suddenly asked Gravis.

Gravis opened his eyes, and his fury nearly exploded.

Gravis looked over at the disciple and narrowed his eyes. "Speak to me again, and die," he said threateningly.

The disciple felt like he was close to death.

He only wanted to have some small talk, but Gravis nearly exploded! The disciple didn’t dare to say another word and sat down far away from Gravis.

Meanwhile, Gravis went back to being lost again in the Law, which required some time.

After some years, Gravis finally got lost again.

BOOOOM!

And he comprehended the Law of Inferno’s Explosiveness!

Gravis stood up and left the Law Comprehension Area.

’523 years,’ Gravis thought. ’The fact that I couldn’t come close to the Laws and that one interruption cost me several years. Sadly, there’s nothing I can do about that.’

Gravis quickly answered his questions again and left for the next Law Comprehension Area.

SHING!

This time, Gravis saw a small ball of fire in front of him, simply hovering in the sky.

This was the Law Comprehension Area for the Law of Inferno’s Concentration.

The Law of Inferno’s Concentration and the Law of Inferno’s Explosiveness worked really well together. The more something was compressed, the greater the explosion. These two Laws were perfect for single-target attacks.

Just like with the last area, Gravis couldn’t enter the concentrated ball of Inferno. Not only would this destroy the Law Comprehension Area, but Gravis would also die. The power of that single ball was just far too concentrated.

Gravis sat down near the disciples and comprehended the Law.

This time, no one interrupted him.

BOOOOM!

After seemingly no time, Gravis finished his comprehension.

Gravis immediately left the Law Comprehension Area and checked the time.

’497 years. It’s okay, I guess,’ Gravis thought.

After that, Gravis answered his questions again.

However, instead of going to the next area, Gravis took a deep breath.

The second set of Element-Specific Battle Laws was done. Seven more to go.

Gravis added the time in his mind. ’I spent something like 2,450 years in comprehension,’ Gravis thought. ’That’s nearly 60% of the time I had been alive for when I started.’

Gravis looked around his Spirit Space with a complex expression.

’However, it doesn’t feel that long. It feels more like 30 years. This is weird.’

Gravis sighed and decided to check his answer. He put all the jade tokens in front of him and compared his answers.

It took some seconds, but Gravis managed to check all his answers.

Then, he laid them down and furrowed his brows.

’It’s subtle, but there’s a trend,’ he thought. ’If I simply compare one sheet of answers to the one before that, I wouldn’t be able to see a difference. The answer is seemingly the same, but the wording is slightly different.’

’But when I compare the first one to the last one, I notice the difference. There isn’t much difference yet, but that might change in the future.’

One of these questions could be used as a good example of what Gravis meant.

Question: "If someone interrupted you during the Law Comprehension Session, what would you do?"

Answer 1: "Tell them to stop."

Answer 2: "Tell them to leave me alone."

Answer 3: "Tell them to go away."

Answer 4: "Make it very clear that I don’t want to be interrupted by anyone."

Answer 5: "Threaten them to reduce the possibility of being disturbed."

If one compared one answer to the one before or after it, one wouldn’t see much of a difference.

However, when one compared the first and fifth one, one would see a significant difference.

The first one was a simple request or admonishment, while the last one was an aggressive threat. The first answer showed humanity, compassion, and rationality, while the last one showed aggression and disregard.

Right now, the latest answers were still alright, but Gravis feared what the future might bring.

It was very possible that one of the next five answers might become "Kill them as an example".

Then, even further in the future, the answer might become just "kill them".

At that point, the answer would probably remain the same for the remainder of Gravis’ Law Comprehension Session. However, this only meant that Gravis had arrived at rock bottom.

There was a definite trend that Gravis noticed, and he didn’t like it one bit. The answers Gravis gave had become colder and colder as more time passed. He feared that, at some point, every question about anything that could count as interrupting his Law Comprehension might be answered with "kill".

Would Gravis still be a human then?

However, the worst part was that Gravis saw no problem with his current conduct. He saw the answers of his past self and somehow felt a feeling of loss. He felt like he was supposed to feel ashamed of his change, but he didn’t.

Yet, Gravis knew that his past self would disagree.

Sure, people changed when they became older, but that change might also be negative.

Gravis didn’t feel any differently from back then, but that didn’t mean anything. If this continued, Gravis might not recognize himself anymore.

Then, in the future, he might become a cold human with no emotions. He would have no other goals but power.

However, Gravis knew that this would be a horrible mistake. If he followed that path, he would forget how to love and laugh.

’Right now, the change is not very great, and I can still reverse it. I feel like I don’t need to, but I need to realize that I am on a slippery slope right now. If I don’t do anything about it, it might be too late.’

Gravis sighed when he remembered something.

’Additionally, I still hold great attraction towards Stella. Our story definitely isn’t over yet, and I want to meet her again in the future.’

’However, if I keep changing like this, she won’t recognize me anymore. Then, even if I resolve the issue with my lightning, I will still be unrecognizable.’

’It would be like Joyce and me right now. Joyce has changed significantly and is still attracted to me. However, she has changed so much that I feel no attraction anymore. If I stop being careful, I might land in the same situation as Joyce.’

’So, what to do about it?’ Gravis thought.

Gravis remained silent for some seconds as he fell into thought.

’I only came into contact with Laws for the last millennia. I think more contact with humans could help me in remaining a rational human. I should try to find somewhere I can spend some time with others.’

’But where?’

’The Sect Alliance doesn’t really work. As soon as I affiliate myself to one Sect too much, comprehending Laws will become difficult since people might view me as part of that Sect. Going to the Core Regions takes too long, and I might create new enmities. I might also attract attention.’

But then, Gravis suddenly realized something.

’Arc!’ he thought. ’Or more like, Arc’s home! They aren’t connected with the world, and I can spend a lot of my time there with them. Maybe I could become some kind of teacher or something? Maybe I can take up a job there?’

Gravis’ mind was filled with possibilities. ’The area there seems like a pretty peaceful land, filled with empathy. All the children act like there is no danger. Even the weaker children came up to me without any care back then.’

’Just being among humans should realign my emotions and moral compass.’

Gravis went through a lot of possibilities and plans in his head.

’Like a century or so sounds good. That should be plenty of time to return to my roots. As long as I take a break after every set of elements, it should be fine.’

Gravis smiled and took out Arc’s emblem.

’Let’s see if he agrees.’

Then, Gravis broke the emblem and vanished.

Chapter 825 - 825 – Younglings

SHING!

Gravis appeared inside Arc’s clearing. It was just as peaceful as always, except...

"Who’s that?" a deep voice asked.

Gravis looked around and noticed that there were about ten beasts present, all having different sizes. There were small beasts, and there were beasts over a hundred meters tall. One, in particular, was over 500 meters tall.

Of course, such sizes appeared gigantic to humans, but for beasts, this was still considered rather small.

Funnily, all other beasts sat on the back of the huge one, which was an elephant. The tall beasts sat on his tusks while the smaller ones sat on his ears. Some also sat on his head.

Gravis had to admit that all of this looked rather adorable.

Adorable?

Cultivators and humans, in general, wouldn’t call something like this adorable, but Gravis had been inside a Natural World for a long time. He could tell the age of most beasts, and he saw that all of them were relatively young. They were probably all under a century old.

All the beasts looked at Gravis with a questioning look. They hadn’t seen him before.

"Oh, Gravis," Arc said with a smile. "You came at just the right time. I am currently teaching these young fellas here, but another class is waiting for me. Would you be fine with taking over for today?"

Gravis was surprised when he heard Arc’s words, but he quickly realized the truth.

Arc had probably foreseen that Gravis would come here and had prepared this class just for him.

Gravis had to sigh at Arc’s foresight. Gravis hadn’t talked to himself when he decided where to go. Everything had only happened inside his mind, which meant that Arc couldn’t have known what Gravis had planned.

However, Arc was still able to predict that Gravis would come here.

"Eh?" one of the smaller beasts, a snake, uttered from the elephant’s tusk. "But we don’t know him. How can he teach us?"

Arc only showed a friendly smile. "Aeri, don’t be rude to our guest," he said. Then, he gestured at Gravis. "This is Gravis, and he is the most powerful Immortal. He is more than qualified to teach you."

"The most powerful?" Aeri asked with surprise. Then, she looked at Gravis and squinted her eyes. "The most powerful Immortal of what?"

Arc laughed a bit. "We don’t need a quantifier. He is simply the most powerful Immortal, period."

Gravis felt a bit awkward when Arc talked about him like that.

"Even more powerful than oldest brother?" Aeri asked.

"Aeri," Arc answered with a smile. "Your oldest brother is an Immortal Emperor, not an Immortal."

"Oh, right," Aeri said.

"Is he more powerful than Big Johnson?" another beast asked.

"Pfft!" Gravis sputtered involuntarily, eliciting several confused looks. What was so funny about Big Johnson?

’First, Long Johnson, and now Big Johnson? Why do I keep running into sizable Johnsons?’ Gravis thought.

Arc rolled his eyes when he saw Gravis’ reaction. "Yes, he’s more powerful than Big Johnson."

"Wow," every beast said. Even more powerful than Big Johnson? That had to be really powerful!

Gravis had already realized that all these beasts were at the Unity Realm, which would have been called a Lord back in the middle world.

"What am I supposed to teach them?" Gravis asked Arc.

Arc laughed a bit. "Oh, you don’t need a teaching plan. They will simply bombard you with questions. You can answer all of them but be honest about everything. As long as it doesn’t involve your past or your secrets, just answer them honestly."

Gravis felt like he had been put on the spot, but Arc simply walked away, leaving Gravis alone with the class.

Some seconds of silence passed.

"Why are you so powerful?" a small monkey called from the elephant’s ear.

"That requires a lot of explaining. Do you want to hear all of it?" Gravis asked awkwardly.

Everyone started to nod, but as the elephant began nodding, the others had to cling to dear life so that they wouldn’t fall off. All of them could fly, but they still acted like children. Gravis found that spectacle adorable.

"Sure," Gravis said. "Depending on if you’re human or beast, there are seven or six categories that determine your power. These categories also become fewer the more powerful you get."

"Seven categories?" a fish asked. "I thought there were only two categories: Realm and Battle-Strength."

Gravis scratched his chin. "Well, yes, but I was being more specific. One is your Realm, and the other six all relate to your Battle-Strength."

Gravis paused a bit and noticed that the younglings were listening intently.

"Your Realm is the most significant factor, as you probably already know. No matter how powerful your Battle-Strength is, you can’t fight someone an entire Realm above you."

"Not even you?" Aeri asked.

"Not even me," Gravis answered.

"How powerful are you?" the elephant asked with a deep voice.

Gravis smiled awkwardly. "Didn’t you want to know what makes someone powerful? Did you already get bored of the question?"

The elephant moved back a little bit like he had been admonished.

Gravis was confused for a second, but then he realized that his tone had been far more aggressive than he had wanted it to be. "Oh, I’m sorry," Gravis said quickly. "I hadn’t meant to sound so aggressive. You see, I just came out of a Law Comprehension Session, and I hadn’t had much contact with others during that time."

"So, please bear with me if I sound more aggressive than normal. I will try to keep it in check," Gravis said.

"Oh!" the monkey said as he jumped up. "You are like Big Johnson!"

Gravis blinked a couple of times. "What?" he asked.

"I haven’t seen it myself, but I heard that Big Johnson is always easy to anger when he returns after a long time. Everyone warned us that we should be careful when talking around him. Big Sis always told us that it’s simply an effect of comprehending Laws for too long."

Gravis was a bit surprised. ’So, I’m not the only one who has that issue?’

"I guess so," Gravis said. "You know, when you constantly comprehend Laws for so long, you easily get lost in them. You lose focus of who you are and only see power. You start becoming easily irritable and start attacking others after the slightest sentence that could be seen as a provocation."

"Wow, that sounds bad," Aeri said.

Gravis was surprised again. These were beasts, right? Weren’t they supposed to chase power above everything else? If Gravis said any of these things to a beast, the beast wouldn’t see any problem with it. After all, they didn’t have many feelings of attachment.

This was definitely weird.

However, for now, Gravis simply accepted that these beasts were different from normal ones. They seemed more akin to humans in a beast body, based on their conduct.

"So, which question do you want to be answered first?" Gravis asked them. He tried to keep his tone as friendly as possible.

The younglings looked at each other. "How powerful are you?" the elephant asked.

"Well, right now, I can fight four levels above myself safely, but I might also be able to win against someone five levels above me. However, I haven’t tried it yet," Gravis answered.

"Woooow!" the group said.

"How are you so powerful?" the monkey asked.

Gravis smiled a bit and began telling them about the categories that determined Battle-Strength: Body, Energy, Spirit, Will-Aura, Laws, and Creativity. Creativity included techniques and the usage of Laws.

After several minutes of teaching, Gravis got the hang of it. Arc had been right. Gravis didn’t need any teaching plan. The questions just kept on coming, and Gravis simply had to answer them.

Time passed, and the younglings warmed up to Gravis.

They talked like this for several days.

Chapter 826 - 826 – Questions

After several days of teaching, Gravis finally dismissed class after everyone started to become unruly. They were probably not used to staying in one place for so long.

Fortunately, Gravis’ concentration was powerful enough to easily handle such a long teaching session. This was nothing in comparison to comprehending Laws or forging equipment.

Gravis activated his Spirit Sense and saw Arc sitting on a tree stump a couple of kilometers away.

SHING!

Gravis teleported over.

"Really? You teleport even for such a small distance?" Arc said with a smile without looking at him.

"Well, I don’t have as much time as you," Gravis said.

"Yes, but when you move too fast, you miss the beauties of life," Arc said as he smiled at Gravis. "Isn’t that the very reason why you are here?"

Gravis blinked a couple of times.

Arc was right.

Gravis had only chased power for the last 2,500 or so years, which had changed him subtly. Gravis thought about why he had teleported and realized that this minuscule time difference actually was negligible.

Gravis sighed. "How did you know?"

"Because you’re a smart person, Gravis," Arc said. "You realize the dangers of only chasing power and know that chasing power will invalidate the very reason why you want to become powerful."

Gravis fell into thought.

Then, Arc started laughing. "I’m just messing with you. Everyone takes breaks," Arc said with mirth in his voice.

Gravis also had to laugh when he heard the genuine mirth in Arc’s voice.

"No, but seriously, you need to connect to your human side between sessions," Arc said. "You don’t want to end up becoming an emotionless power machine."

"Speaking of human side," Gravis said as he remembered one of his questions. "How come that the beasts in the class act more like humans?"

"That’s because they are part human," Arc said like it wasn’t a big deal.

Gravis became shocked when he heard that, but he quickly realized the answer. "So, they’re children of beasts and humans, just like mine?" Gravis asked.

Arc nodded. "Yes. As soon as beasts can assume human form, romance between them and humans becomes more common. However, it still isn’t prevalent."

Gravis furrowed his brows. "As you know, I have a beast body, which means that all my children became beasts with slight human features. What can happen when a true human and a beast have children?"

"There are four possibilities based on two criteria," Arc said. "The first one is whether they have a human body or a beast body, and the second one is whether they have a Will-Aura and Spirit or not."

"So, there can be true humans, true beasts, beasts with a Will-Aura and Spirit but with weak bodies, and humans with no Spirit or Will-Aura but with powerful bodies," Arc said. "Then, of course, we have the spectrum of how beast-like or human-like their personality is."

Arc sighed. "However, only two of the four can actually exist in this world."

"How come?" Gravis asked.

"Enmity," Arc said with a frown. "Humans and beasts are mortal enemies in this world, Gravis. A human with a powerful body but no Spirit will be killed by humans since they know that one of their parents is a beast. The same thing is true for beasts with a Spirit."

"Humans simply kill these mixed children because of their undying hatred for beasts while the beasts kill these mixed children for fear of them allying themselves with humans. Both sides have different reasons, but the actions are the same," Arc said.

Gravis furrowed his brows. "You’re not saving these mixed children?"

"No," Arc said. "This is only a temporary home for them. As soon as they leave this home, which is when they comprehend their first Law, they will be killed regardless. Additionally, there isn’t enough space to save all of them."

Gravis sighed. Arc was the most powerful being in this world, but he still wanted to be as fair as possible. There were not even 200 beings in Arc’s sanctuary, which was basically nothing.

"So, I guess that these beasts are mixed children in a true beast body but with the personality of humans?" Gravis asked.

Arc nodded. "They can still have a future in the world, but the emotionless world of beasts is not a home for them. I want to give them a home where they can live like humans until they eventually die or ascend to the highest world, where the enmity between beasts and humans basically doesn’t exist."

"What about humans with the personality of beasts?" Gravis asked.

"Aren’t that just more humans?" Arc said with a smile. "Humans are so very diverse that a human that acts like a beast is simply another human. Additionally, their loyalty and mindset intent on power will give them a lot of comrades."

"Yeah, okay, that was a stupid question," Gravis said. "There was something else I wanted to ask you."

"Ask away."

"I met this one guy with nearly no Karmic Luck. Did you do that?" Gravis asked.

"It’s an automatic system, which had been implemented by my creator," Arc said. "I may hate my creator, but he is very good at keeping a world healthy. I don’t interfere with Karmic Luck. The system simply checks the actions and the intent behind the action. If it deems the Cultivator to be more damaging than beneficial for Energy gathering, it reduces the Cultivator’s Karmic Luck."

"I think you could call it a Law," Arc said as he scratched his chin. "However, it’s not a Law in the normal sense, but in the sense of a rule of nature. You know, like water flowing down and so on."

"And no, you can’t comprehend it," Arc added with a smirk.

Gravis nodded. So, not everything was handled by the Heavens. Some of the stuff also happened automatically.

"By the way, what are you doing all the time?" Gravis asked.

"Well, right now, there are four different Cultivators undergoing their tribulation. I need to keep a check on those fights to see if their longevity should be increased or not. At the same time, I need to manipulate the circumstances of 4,781 other Cultivators to move them towards other people that will soon reach the end of their longevity," Arc transmitted in less than a second.

"That sounds like a lot of work," Gravis said with a sigh.

"Oh, you get used to it after a million years or two," Arc said with a dismissive wave. "By now, all of it just happens subconsciously."

No matter how hard Gravis tried, he just couldn’t imagine getting used to something like this. It sounded way too complicated and stressful.

"Do you have Heaven’s Trials?" Gravis asked.

"Several," Arc answered with a smirk. "After all, this is the most powerful higher world, isn’t it? I need to continually refine all Cultivators. We only want the best of the best, don’t we?"

Gravis nodded. Back then, the lower Heaven had also used a Heaven’s Trial, but using it in a lower world did more damage than good.

The difference between the lower Heaven and Arc was unfathomably vast. One was one of the weakest and most arrogant Heavens, while the other was the second strongest and probably most humble.

"By the way, could you do me a solid?" Arc asked.

"Yes?" Gravis asked back. What could Arc ask of Gravis?

"Could you try not to destroy this world like the last two? I kinda like my world, you know?" Arc asked.

Gravis had to laugh bitterly. "I’ll do my best," he said.

Arc nodded. "Your next class has arrived," Arc said.

"Already!?" Gravis shouted in surprise.

"Yes, you’ve vastly overdrawn your last session, and the next class won’t be satisfied until they get just as much time with you," Arc said with a smirk.

Gravis sighed.

However, he knew that he needed to have more contact with others. Teaching some children would be the best way to return to his previous self.

Right now, Gravis wanted to do nothing more than to comprehend more Laws, but he knew that he had to wait.

Just like Arc said, if one moved too quickly, one would miss all the beauties of the world.

Gravis preferred a colorful life over a grey one.

"How long should I pause?" Gravis asked.

"Oh, the class doesn’t need a pause. They are in the Spirit Forming Realm, after all," Arc said.

"No, that’s not-"Gravis said but stopped when he saw Arc’s smirk.

Arc laughed again.

"Anything in between 50 to 100 years. I would suggest 100 years just to be sure," Arc said with a smile.

Gravis also smiled. "Thank you."

"Nothing to thank for," Arc said. "You are giving the students different lessons, which is good. It’s also good that they come more into contact with someone from outside this place."

Gravis nodded.

After that, he returned to his class, but this time, he didn’t teleport.

Instead, he walked.

He walked with a lot of speed, but he walked.

Chapter 827 - 827 – Fern

Gravis went to his next class, and everything repeated itself again. The students asked one question after the other, and Gravis had to answer all of them without falling into an abyss of one tangent after the other.

Sadly, this meant that Gravis spent another couple of days teaching them, which resulted in the next class wanting just as much time.

All of this repeated itself until Gravis went through seven different classes. Then, he finally had some time for himself.

After dismissing the last class, Gravis released a sigh. ’It’s really difficult to keep my voice in check,’ he thought. ’Due to what happened and my constant comprehending of Laws, I seem to have this inherent aura of aggression around me. Luckily, all the kids seem to know this issue and have been rather accepting.’

’It was the right decision to come here. I might not feel a difference yet, but it has just been a couple of weeks. I have plenty of time left.’

For the first time, Gravis had some time for himself again. However, Gravis immediately started to think about Laws again, which was not a good thing. Becoming more powerful was important, but Gravis knew that he had to reduce his focus towards his goal.

And when Gravis thought that, he realized something very important.

’Wait, my goal?’ Gravis thought. ’But power isn’t my goal!’

’Power should only be a means to an end, not the end goal itself,’ Gravis thought as he crossed his arms and looked down with furrowed brows. ’Have I truly put power as my goal?’

After some seconds, Gravis looked at the sky and sighed. ’So, that’s my issue, huh? Power has become my goal itself instead of freedom or happiness.’

Gravis finally realized why he had changed. Everything hinged on the fact that power had become his goal.

’What’s the point of being supremely powerful when your entire life is only colored in shades of grey?’ Gravis thought with a sigh. ’Oh, what a fool I have been.’

Gravis smiled. Finally, he knew what had been wrong with him. After that, he looked away from the gigantic lake and towards the forest. ’I want to meet others. Only talking to children isn’t enough. I want to meet Cultivators that have gone through the hardships of cultivation.’

With that thought, Gravis started walking towards the clearing where the people and beasts actually lived. The vast lake was Arc’s home and the place where he taught children. Everyone else lived a couple of kilometers away.

Gravis tried to walk as slowly as possible towards the clearing. There was absolutely no reason to hurry up since his time here was fixed anyway.

However, it was difficult to walk slowly. Gravis felt like he was wasting time by walking this slowly, which made him antsy.

’Stop being nervous!’ Gravis thought to himself. ’What reason could you possibly have to be nervous? You have so much time!’

Gravis walked slowly towards the clearing, but sadly, he didn’t enjoy it at all. He tried to listen to Arc’s advice and look at the world, but no matter what he looked at, he knew everything about it.

Gravis knew the Composition Laws of Plants, which meant that any plant below the Immortal Realm only appeared as calculations of different Laws in his mind.

The same thing was true for the animals. He saw the Composition of their body and their soul. After all, Gravis also knew the level three Law of Soul.

However, near the end, Gravis stopped as he looked at some plants. This was a kind of fast-growing plant. It was some kind of green fern with nearly no longevity but an insane speed of growth. Its entire life would start and end in a single month.

’I don’t know the Laws of Plant Growth,’ Gravis thought as he looked at the fern.

For the first time, something as mundane as a mortal plant interested Gravis again.

Gravis seemingly got lost while looking at the fern.

"Hey, the fern got you!" Gravis heard someone say from beside him.

Gravis’ eyes narrowed, and he looked to the side at a teenager.

The teenager jumped back when he saw Gravis’ eyes, and Gravis gasped.

’You idiot!’ Gravis shouted at himself in his mind. ’You are supposed to take a break, but here you are, comprehending Laws again! This guy interrupted you, and you get angry? For what? For a fucking fern that might help you in comprehending a couple of fucking level one Laws!?’

Gravis had felt rage bubbling up inside him when the teenager had interrupted him.

Sure, it would be understandable if Gravis felt angry at an interruption while comprehending a Law after some years. After all, the interruption might cost him several years.

However, not only was this Law about as irrelevant as it got, but Gravis had also just started. How much time had he wasted? Like a minute or two?

Lastly, Gravis was supposed to be on a break!

"I’m sorry," Gravis said with a sigh. "I shouldn’t have glared at you like that."

The teenager was still a bit apprehensive, but he quickly recovered.

The person might look like a teenager, but he definitely wasn’t one. After all, this was a Mid Minor Circulation Immortal. He was at least a thousand years old. He probably only preferred to be inside the body of a teenager.

A glint appeared in the teenager’s eyes. "Have you comprehended Laws for too long?" he asked.

’Is that really so common that everyone can guess that?’ Gravis thought with a bitter smile.

"Yes, that’s why I’ve reacted like this. This fern has pulled me in," Gravis said.

The teenager nodded and smiled. "That’s what I’ve thought," he said. "That’s why I said the fern got you."

"Speaking of," Gravis said. "What did you mean with that the fern got me?"

"Oh, you’re new, right?" the teenager said.

"Kind of," Gravis said uncertainly. "I’m not really part of this... area? You could call me a guest teacher. I’m mainly here to relax after a long Law Comprehension Session to get more in tune with my human side again."

"Oh, you’re the new teacher?" the teenager asked with wonder as Gravis nodded. "The kids have been talking a lot about you. They really enjoy your classes."

"That’s good to hear," Gravis said with a smile.

The teenager looked at the fern again and remembered Gravis’ question from earlier. "Oh, right, the fern," he said. "Teacher planted the fern here specifically to draw people in. It’s here precisely because of people like you."

"How so?" Gravis asked.

"Well, it’s best to show people how easy they can lose themselves," the teenager explained with a smile. "Whenever someone gets lost in the fern, it’s the job of others to pull them away. This helps them realize how easy they can get lost again."

Gravis nodded. "That’s quite a smart idea. As expected of Arc," Gravis said.

The teenager was a bit weirded out when Gravis referred to Arc with his name instead of teacher. However, he also remembered that Gravis wasn’t really a member of their small congregation.

"So, want me to introduce you to some other Immortals and Immortal Kings?" the teenager asked with a smirk.

Gravis nodded. "I’d appreciate it."

"Alright! Then, just follow me," he said as he walked to the clearing again.

Gravis simply followed him.

Chapter 828 - 828 – World

Gravis followed the teenager and got introduced to several Immortals and Immortal Kings. All of them accepted Gravis readily without questioning his background.

Simply talking to people like this reminded Gravis of his home. The people in Opposer City also only talked to Gravis without caring about anything else. Of course, there were the occasional people that were only interested in him due to his background and profession, but there were plenty of others as well.

Gravis talked for several days and also got to know a lot of things.

The children of this congregation left home when they understood their first Law. So, how come that there were also Immortals here?

The reason was that these Immortals and Immortal Kings were only visiting. They had left home and had created a new home for themselves. However, this was their childhood home, and they liked to visit from time to time. One could liken it to adults visiting their old orphanage from time to time.

Gravis also received quite a shock when he heard how many Immortals had actually come from here.

Right now, there were over 10,000 Immortals and Immortal Kings that came from here. However, they were all living outside and only visited occasionally. On top of that, due to Arc’s incredible teachings, basically all of them lived in the Core Regions of the world.

Several Immortal Kings even had prominent positions in powerful Sects. Their Battle-Strength was powerful, which allowed them to hold these important positions.

However, when they were here, they were just like everyone else. No one was overly respectful to someone else simply because they held an important position. In here, everyone was the same. This was probably also one of the main reasons why these powerful beings liked to visit this place.

Gravis even met some people from the Peak Sects.

Gravis had no idea how many Peak Sects there were or how they were called, but after talking with everyone for a while, Gravis finally knew what the Peak Sects actually were.

Peak Sects were Sects that had at least one Peak Immortal Emperor. These Peak Immortal Emperors were theoretically at the Realm where they should ascend. Sadly, they couldn’t. The reason was that they hadn’t comprehended a level six Law.

However, that didn’t mean that their Sects didn’t have plenty of Ascenders. The Peak Sects had by far the most Cultivators that ascended to the highest world. Of course, these Ascenders didn’t take up any critical positions in the Sect. After all, they were focused on ascending, not on running a Sect.

Even if they were not Ascenders, the Peak Immortal Emperors of these Sects were important to protect the knowledge and power of their Sect from other Peak Sects. If an ancestor died, they quickly had to push another Immortal Emperor to that position. Without an ancestor, other Sects might start to become more direct with their trades and demands.

Additionally, these ancestors were essential to protect the humans from the beasts.

Yes, there was a real war going on between the beasts and humans. This war didn’t have tempering as its goal, but genocide.

No one knew how this war started, but after millions of years of war, both sides started to absolutely hate the other one. At least, that was how the humans generally described the war.

In truth, it was a war with a one-sided enmity. The beasts didn’t really hate all humans since they felt that the death of other beasts was just natural. The stronger one kills and eats the weaker one. That was how life worked.

Instead, it was the humans that wanted to eradicate all beasts. So many loved ones had died to the beasts, which created an unending abyss of hatred towards beasts among humans.

It went so far that the entire human territory didn’t have a single beast left.

Every single beast had been eradicated from their territory.

So, what were the territories?

Apparently, the world was shaped like a disc. The closer one got to the middle, the denser the Energy. In the very middle of the world was a small lake, which was surrounded by a humongous forest.

That was when Gravis realized that he was currently in the middle of the world.

Arc’s lake was precisely the lake in the middle of the world. However, there were no powerful beasts present in the lake, even though it had the highest Energy density.

The reason for that was obviously Arc. He had created a Formation Array that kept everyone out that he didn’t want in here.

So, what did the humans think of that?

The humans had no opinion.

After all, they didn’t even know how the middle of the world looked like. Not even the people Gravis talked to knew that they were currently in the middle of the world. They all came and went with the help of Arc’s emblem.

Of course, it was natural that they didn’t know. Arc’s strength was unknown among the congregation. Everyone knew that he was powerful, but no one knew how powerful he actually was. Yet, no matter how powerful he was, he couldn’t possibly live in the middle of the world, could he? After all, there would be a ton of Immortal Emperor Beasts all around him, and they hated humans due to their constant threat.

Yes, the middle of the world was entirely within the beasts’ territory.

The gigantic forest that stretched on for billions of kilometers was the beasts’ territory. One could say that the human and beast territories were in the form of a donut. The human territories were the donut itself, while the beasts were the hole in the middle.

Why was that?

Because of Arc.

If the beasts didn’t have the advantage of Energy density and a smaller territory to defend, they would have long been eradicated by the humans. The humans fought far smarter than beasts. Without this advantage, it wouldn’t take long for the humans to eradicate all the beasts.

Like this, the beasts could become more powerful more quickly thanks to the Energy density. A ton of new beasts were born every second, and if they reached a certain population density, they would run out of the forest in waves.

This was called a beast wave.

How often did a beast wave happen?

Well, it hasn’t happened for millions of years.

Why?

Because humans knew what a beast wave was, and such a beast wave would kill every human and would destroy every building for millions of kilometers around. Because of that, humans constantly sent in armies to kill as many beasts as possible, making it impossible for the beasts to become too numerous.

Of course, such an insane offensive ate up an unreal amount of resources.

How much?

80% of all resources of all Sects went to this offensive.

It was insane!

These offensives were heralded by the five Peak Sects. They were the most powerful ones, and they were the leaders of humanity.

Who were these five Peak Sects?

The Nine Elements Sect: A Sect that concentrated on combining their Weapon Laws with all the elements.

The All-Matter Sect: A Sect that concentrated on the creation of equipment. They owned most of the ores in the world, and their disciples fought with a lot of armor, weapons, and Formation Arrays. One could call this Sect a Sect of forgers and different weapon users. Obviously, they concentrated on the Matter Laws.

The Primordial Force Sect: A Sect that concentrated on the three primordial forces, space, time, and gravity. One could only truly join them when one understood the Law of Primordial Force. This Sect had the most disciples since over half of all Immortals had an Avatar created with the Law of Space. Of course, they would still only take the best ones.

The Life Sect: A Sect that concentrated fully on the Laws of Life. The people that had saved Surem back then had been from the Life Sect. This Sect had a monopoly over pills and healing services. If one needed to raise their physical power or their Realm, they would employ the services of the Life Sect.

Back then, one of the Immortal Kings that had saved Surem wanted Gravis to join them. This meant that Gravis had been invited by a Peak Sect. These couple of people that Gravis had met back then had been on an entirely different level compared to the Sect Alliance.

The Purist Sect: A Sect that concentrated on element-neutral attacks. They focused on the Laws of the Spear, the Sword, and so on. They had to comprehend a ton of Battle-Laws from different elements to combine them into these element-neutral Battle Laws. They had the least people, but every single one of them had an incredible Battle-Strength. Even the lowest disciple could fight an entire level above themself.

Now, Gravis knew who the human rulers of this world were.

However, Gravis noticed that one Sect was missing.

Underworld was missing.

Gravis asked about Underworld, but no one really liked talking about them. Apparently, Underworld was a sore topic among Sects. The Peak Sects tried to get rid of Underworld, but whenever they actually accomplished something, armies of assassins would target all their weaker disciples.

The Sects became enraged by Underworld’s conduct. This was a war between adults! Why pull the children into this conflict!?

However, Underworld didn’t care. No one knew where their actual headquarter was, and as long as they didn’t know, they couldn’t end Underworld with a single strike.

So, since they didn’t have another choice, the Peak Sects decided to ignore Underworld to a certain extent. As long as Underworld didn’t accept certain missions or did certain things, the Peak Sects would ignore them.

Underworld was receptive to this resolution and implemented all these restrictions. After all, one shouldn’t forget that Underworld also suffered under the Peak Sects’ wrath. The Peak Sects were too powerful for Underworld. If the Peak Sects decided to go all-in, they would, at most, lose a generation of disciples.

However, Underworld would be eradicated.

Was it worth it to sacrifice a generation of disciples to destroy Underworld?

Maybe.

However, there was a massive problem with that.

The beasts.

If the humans started an all-out war amongst themselves, the beasts would profit, and humanity might lose valuable territories. So, in short, it was possible to eradicate Underworld, but that would put humanity in jeopardy.

Gravis had learned a lot of things from talking with others in the clearing.

And the best thing was that Gravis would learn a lot more!

Gravis had so much time to spend. He could just talk and talk and talk with everyone.

Old visitors would leave while new visitors came with more interesting information.

So, Gravis spent his days simply talking to everyone. Well, at least while he didn’t have a class to teach.

Gravis got to know a lot of influential people, and these people were also interested in Gravis. Gravis even received a lot of invitations to some Sects, but Gravis declined for now. He wasn’t sure what he would do as soon as he entered the Core Regions.

However, the invitations were still valid. Gravis simply had to visit the Sects.

Days, weeks, months, and eventually, years passed.

In the beginning, Gravis felt like time was progressing at a snail’s pace, but the longer he remained, the faster time seemed to pass.

Gravis had lost himself in talking with others.

Gravis no longer cared about his power during this time and simply did whatever he wanted for the day.

And before he knew it, the century was up.

Gravis was ready to return to comprehending Laws again, and he also knew that he had returned to his previous self.

Right now, Gravis saw power only as a means to an end. Talking with others brought color into Gravis’ life, which reminded him of why he wanted to become powerful.

Gravis didn’t want to lose this color, ever.

’Time to return to my Laws,’ Gravis thought with a smile.

Then, he broke the emblem and teleported away.

Chapter 829 - 829 – Pressure

Gravis returned to the Sect Alliance’s territories and immediately went to the next Law Comprehension Area. Gravis had had enough time to plan out everything.

SHING!

After a couple of teleportations, Gravis arrived at his next goal.

In front of Gravis was a seemingly empty area. There were no mountains or craters. It was just a seemingly empty wasteland. The floor was dirty with no grass growing on it, but it also didn’t seem dried out. By all intents and purposes, it was like a gigantic razor had shaven the land. Gravis could see a ton of tiny seeds and root networks below the surface, but they would never reach the surface.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

The reason for that was the cutting wind that destroyed everything above the ground.

If one looked at this area just with their eyes, they would think that this area was empty except for an occasional blurriness in the air.

However, this seemingly unimportant blurriness was created by a grinder of incredibly sharp blades made out of Storm.

This was a Law Comprehension Area for the Law of Storm Cutting.

As the name implied, this Law would allow someone to increase the cutting power of the Storm element.

Gravis saw several disciples, but they only looked at the Law from far away. None of them dared to come close.

Gravis informed the disciples and inspected the Law Comprehension Area. It was important to know how it worked to see if Gravis could enter it without endangering the entire area.

After some seconds, Gravis got the general gist of how this Law Comprehension Area worked and entered. Destroying a couple of Storm Blades wouldn’t be an issue since the Energy inside the area didn’t re-enter the area as more Storm Blades. This Law Comprehension Area absorbed Energy from outside.

Gravis entered the Law Comprehension Area.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The Storm Blades hit Gravis and left crevices behind on his body. However, he had been prepared for that and had already started to absorb more Energy to supplement his healing by breaking down some of the Storm Blades with his Storm Law.

As always, it took some getting used to, but after some days, everything happened subconsciously again.

Gravis lost himself in the Laws for the first time after a century again and immediately fell back into his usual comprehension state.

BOOOOM!

And before he knew it, he had comprehended the Law of Storm Cutting.

Gravis quickly exited the area again and went directly to the next one. He had a ton of Laws to go through, and he didn’t have any time to waste. There were still over 30 left!

Gravis quickly arrived at the next area, which was the deepest hole he had ever seen. Gravis’ Spirit Sense didn’t even reach the bottom of the hole, and Gravis’ Spirit Sense had a range of 750,000 kilometers!

After jumping into the hole, Gravis saw a couple of people on his journey to the bottom. Gravis quickly informed them and went deeper and deeper until he arrived at the bottom.

CRK! CRK! CRK!

Gravis’ hidden scales were crackling, and Gravis’ eyes had long since exploded from the pressure. Of course, something like this was not an issue to him.

This was the Law Comprehension Area for the Law of Storm’s Pressure.

If one comprehended this Law, using the element of Storm as an area attack would become far more viable. Its effect was similar to the effect of a Will-Aura, but also slightly different. A Will-Aura suppressed the entire being, while this Law increased the density of the surrounding air. One could say both things had the same effect but via a different process and power.

Sadly, it couldn’t be added directly to the Will-Aura’s power but acted separately from it.

Did that make a difference?

Yes!

As an example, if the Will-Aura could suppress someone’s speed by 40% and this Law could suppress someone’s speed by 40%, a vastly different magnitude of suppression would occur with the two different combinations.

If the Law and the Will-Aura could be combined, the enemy would be suppressed by 80%, leaving them with 20% speed.

If the Law and Will-Aura worked separately, the enemy would be suppressed to 60% by one of the two forces first. Then, the other force would suppress them by 40% of the 60%, resulting in a decrease of 24%, leaving 36% of total speed.

20% to 36%.

This meant that the total speed of the second opponent was 80% faster than the total speed of the first opponent in relation!

However, this was only a crude example. The difference became more and less relevant depending on how powerful the suppression forces were. Additionally, it would be very peculiar if both forces had the same power. Gravis’ Will-Aura was obviously far more powerful than this Law...

Normally!

However, one had to remember that Gravis always fought people several levels above himself. Suppressing them became nearly impossible for Gravis’ Will-Aura due to the level suppression.

But that didn’t matter to the Law of Storm’s Pressure!

The environment would always be affected with the same power since there was no level suppression with the environment. This meant that even more powerful people would be suppressed to a certain extent.

Yet, everyone knows by now that every advantage came with at least one disadvantage.

The disadvantage here was that Gravis had to use his Energy to keep the Law going, and it was quite a lot of Energy on top of that. In comparison to his Will-Aura, Gravis couldn’t keep this Law going for long.

However, that was something for the future.

Right now, Gravis had to learn the Law first.

Of course, comprehending the Law wasn’t much more difficult than comprehending the other ones, and after losing himself in the Law again, Gravis woke up after seemingly no time.

BOOOOM!

Gravis exited the Law Comprehension Area and directly went to the next one, which was simply another empty area of land, just like the one for the Law of Storm Cutting.

Another invisible storm raged, but it didn’t have as much cutting power as the first one.

However, it was more violent and more powerful in general.

This was the Law Comprehension Area for the Law of Storm’s Power!

What did it do?

Well, it increased the power of the Storm element.

That was basically it.

Everything repeated itself again. Gravis informed the disciples, checked the Law Comprehension Area if it was okay for him to enter, entered, got used to being thrown around, lost himself in the Law, and comprehended the Law.

BOOOOM!

Without waiting, Gravis directly teleported away.

’Next one!’

Chapter 830 - 830 – Time And Effect

SHING!

Gravis arrived at the next area, which, just like most Storm-related Law Comprehension Areas up to now, was an empty field of basically nothing.

’These Storm Law Comprehension Areas seem to be less imposing than the Inferno or Punishment Lightning ones,’ Gravis thought.

The storm in here was not particularly powerful, nor did it have much cutting power.

Its power was just average.

However, the difference was that this area used far less Energy than the other ones.

This was the Law Comprehension Area for the Law of Storm’s Efficiency.

As the name implied, this Law reduced the Energy cost of the Storm Element by quite a bit. This Law was very helpful when used in tandem with the Law of Storm’s Pressure.

Gravis went through his usual routine again and entered the Law Comprehension Area.

Gravis would be using up a lot of the saved-up Energy of the Law Comprehension Area, damaging it by staying in there, but that wasn’t an issue this time. The storm wasn’t powerful enough to injure Gravis, leaving him with a ton of Energy to spare. So, when the Energy of the storm was used up by hitting Gravis, Gravis could just transform his Punishment Lightning into Energy and release it into the surroundings.

Fortunately, this area didn’t have that much Energy, to begin with, due to the Law of Storm’s Efficiency, allowing Gravis to keep the Law Comprehension Area Energy neutral.

Nothing special happened, and Gravis comprehended the Law of Storm’s Efficiency after an average amount of time.

SHING!

Gravis quickly left and went to the next Law Comprehension Area.

WHOOOOOOM!

In front of Gravis was an absolutely gigantic storm. It wasn’t very powerful, but its size was just massive. Gravis could barely see the entire storm with his Spirit Sense. That’s how big it was!

This Law Comprehension Area demonstrated the Law of Storm’s Mass.

What did this Law do?

This Law worked similarly to the Law of Storm’s Efficiency but not entirely the same. The Law of Storm’s Mass theoretically decreased the Energy cost of using the Storm Element, but only indirectly.

How did it work?

This Law allowed someone to "infect" the unaffected air. Instead of pushing the air away, this Law allowed someone to decrease the surrounding air’s inertia. Just a slight shove with the Storm Element would allow someone to push the speed and power of the surrounding air to the same power as the actual attack.

This meant that someone didn’t need to use as much Energy to move air around. After all, the surrounding air was basically moving on its own.

After his routine, Gravis entered the Law Comprehension Area, but he didn’t go to the center. The center of the area was important since all the Energy of the storm was basically concentrated there. The outside was moving by using up nearly no Energy.

This meant that, as long as Gravis didn’t enter the middle of the storm, the Law Comprehension Area wouldn’t be damaged.

On top of that, Gravis didn’t even really need to enter the core. The effect of the Law was shown more clearly on the outside since this was the air that actually moved "on its own".

Gravis lost himself again and comprehended the Law without any interference.

BOOOOM!

’And with that, all the Battle Laws for the Element of Storm are done!’ Gravis thought with a sigh.

’I’m about 33% done with all the element-related Battle Laws.’

Gravis exited the Law Comprehension Area and went to a secluded place. The next set of Laws was done, and Gravis wanted to see what kind of effects this session had on him.

Additionally, he wanted to know how long he had actually been in comprehension.

After knowing that he could go through an entire set of Laws with a manageable amount of change to his personality, Gravis decided to only check the time after every set.

Gravis took out his timer Formation Array and looked at it.

’2,063 years,’ Gravis thought. ’That’s not nearly as much time as I had thought. I guess my experience in comprehending Laws has increased again, making my comprehension faster.’

Gravis nodded. ’Good! The reason why I comprehended the easy Laws first, to begin with, was that I wanted to save as much time as possible with the harder Laws later.’

Gravis scratched his chin. ’It was actually rather easy to comprehend these Laws. There wasn’t some kind of bottleneck, and I also didn’t need to temper myself. I guess my Major Law of the Elements has given me enough scattered knowledge in the other Laws.’

’Additionally, I think I have enough experience with Law Comprehension that basically all level four Laws don’t require me to temper myself anymore. My mind can discern the answers to the more confusing aspects of the Laws without any outside help.’

Gravis looked at his timer again with a complex expression. ’It feels weird. I have already spent more time in this world than I have been alive for before that. I didn’t count exactly, but I should be around 8,600 years old now, and I entered this world after my 4,000th birthday.’

’However, it feels like I have been here less than a century. It’s like time didn’t really pass for me.’

’This kind of reminds me of that time when I went to the middle world. The middle Heaven told me that I have been in the space between worlds for 200 years, which had also felt like nearly no time.’

Gravis looked at the sky. ’I wonder, is this how Jake feels? Barely any time passes for him, but for Yersi, over 10,000 years would have passed. One feels like they just went on a coffee break, while the other feels like they had been alone for all their life.’

Gravis sighed. ’I think it’s better that Yersi decided to continue cultivating. At least then, she wouldn’t have to spend her time alone. After all, she would also go into seclusion for a long time. That would also just feel like a coffee break to her.’

’Anyway, I should check my answers.’

Gravis took out his answer sheets and compared them to each other. While he had been with Arc, Gravis had created a new sheet of questions for himself.

After checking through the answer sheets, Gravis came to a surprising conclusion.

’My answers didn’t degenerate into aggression nearly as much as the last time,’ he thought as he scratched his chin.

’I guess I got used to comprehending Laws for this long. I think I can spend just as much time again without any big effects.’

Gravis scratched his head. ’Well, it makes sense, actually. If someone’s resistance towards the changing of their mind didn’t increase, no Immortal Emperor or Star God would stay in seclusion for longer than 2,000 years or so.’

Gravis crossed his arms as he tapped his foot in contemplation. ’Should I?’ he thought.

Gravis continued thinking for around half a minute.

’I think I should,’ Gravis thought. ’My goal is still freedom, not power. The thought of going on a break also doesn’t feel as bad as last time. I think I can complete another set, but that’s it. No more after that!’

"I swear to myself to take a break after the next set, no matter what!" Gravis said to himself.

’Just to be safe.’

This kind of oath no longer had a significant effect on Gravis anymore due to his Law of Freedom, but it had an effect on his lightning.

Gravis tried to ignore it for now, but he still felt guilt towards his lightning. So, even though this oath had no direct effect on Gravis, if Gravis broke it, his lightning would become extremely angry. At that point, Gravis guessed that he would feel too much guilt towards his lightning to break the oath.

This could be likened to outsourcing willpower and self-control. One put the responsibility to stop oneself on a different person or being.

Something like that wasn’t something nice to do to the other person, but Gravis was sure that it was fine. After all, by keeping his oath, his lightning wouldn’t become angry since Gravis acted according to lightning’s temperament.

On top of that, it wasn’t like his lightning was a neutral party here. It wanted to control his actions anyway. Letting it involve itself in Gravis’ decision-making might actually count as a favor towards his lightning.

Additionally, it wasn’t like his lightning had to do it for him. It was only the thought of disappointing someone dear that would push Gravis into taking a break.

Gravis nodded with a smile and teleported away.

Next stop, Brilliance!