Ch. 921..930

Chapter 921 - 921 – Choice

Stella and Gravis went to the other side of the lake to be alone.

Gravis was beyond nervous right now. He had tried his best, and he had been as honest as possible.

However, there were still two issues.

One issue was what he had done to Stella in the past.

The other issue was what he had told Stella about being very compatible with him.

Stella knew the Law of Freedom, and she could fully decide to do whatever she wanted. That could lead to her proving to herself that she could also ignore something like pre-determined compatibility.

Gravis took a deep breath as he closed his eyes.

He had to calm down.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Gravis asked, realizing that this question was unnecessary.

Stella looked at Gravis with a complicated look, which made Gravis’ nervousness rise.

Then, she slowly walked over.

And kissed him!

Gravis almost couldn’t move due to shock, but his insides felt like they were about to explode.

Elation, skepticism, happiness, and love mingled.

For a second, Gravis couldn’t believe that this was reality.

He had never been in a true relationship, and he had longed for Stella for so long.

Were his dreams finally about to come true!?

Stella stopped as she looked at Gravis, aggrieved. Her face was slightly reddened from embarrassment.

"I feel awkward when you don’t reciprocate," she said cutely.

This pulled Gravis back to reality, and he immediately swept Stella up in a deep kiss.

Nervousness and skepticism vanished from Gravis’ being as only happiness remained, uncontaminated by other emotions.

Love.

The love he had felt for Stella only became stronger.

They were finally together, and Gravis could let down all his guards.

He didn’t have to be careful.

He didn’t have to fear that she would die.

He didn’t have to fear that she would stop him from becoming more powerful.

He didn’t have to fear that they would part ways again.

He didn’t have to fear anything.

He could completely let himself go in the moment.

After a minute, the two parted again, but nothing was as it had been before.

A deep connection had been established between them, and both of them felt this connection deeply.

The two of them only looked at each other for a while, and Gravis’ body started to shake.

PACK!

Then, Gravis pulled Stella into a tight embrace, seemingly afraid that he would lose her.

"I was so scared," Gravis said with a shaky voice. "I feared that you wouldn’t want to see me again after what I have done."

"I tried to ignore it, telling myself that everything would work out, but I never fully believed it."

Stella’s Law of Empathy could feel Gravis’ pain right now, and it felt overwhelming.

Gravis had truly been terrified.

Such a powerful and scary world-ender was feeling this terrified just because of the possibility that he might lose his loved one.

Was Gravis a good person?

In Stella’s mind, he was the best person.

"I’m here now," Stella said quietly, "and I won’t leave again."

For some time, the two of them just stood there, embracing each other.

Some hours passed.

Stella and Gravis had long stopped embracing each other.

Right now, they were only talking.

Stella was curled up beside Gravis, just leaning on his shoulder with her head as she looked at the lake with a peaceful gaze filled with bliss.

Gravis’ arm was put around Stella as he carefully stroked her shoulder.

Stella looked at the lake, but Gravis looked at Stella.

He just couldn’t stop looking at her.

It was mesmerizing.

"What made you decide to be with me?" Gravis asked.

Stella looked at Gravis from slightly below him.

Gravis thought that Stella’s expression was so cute at the moment.

"When I saw you in the great hall," Stella said.

"That early?" Gravis asked.

"Mhm," Stella muttered quietly.

"Then what about your apprehensive expression when you asked me to tell you my story?" Gravis asked.

"That was for Liam, not for me," Stella said.

"For Liam?" Gravis asked.

Stella nodded. "You two are the most important people in my life, and I don’t want you guys to hate each other."

"When we were in your Life Ring, Liam and I talked. I was telling him that I would be with you."

Then, Stella had to chuckle slightly.

"Obviously, he was very against that. Not only is he still hung up about that situation from back then, but it’s also difficult for him to accept you due to your body. To him, it was like I was in a relationship with a beast."

"After a long time of talking, I managed to convince Liam that he would approve of us as long as you told us all your secrets. Not only would this prove that you would be willing to compromise your safety for me, but we two would also be able to see what kind of person you truly are."

"And, who knew, after you were finished telling your story, Liam didn’t seem that apprehensive anymore," Stella said with a smile. "He has only seen your actions but didn’t realize what led up to these actions."

"Hearing your story allowed him to see how you have become what you are now."

"I’m pretty sure that Liam is no longer against you. I think he now genuinely feels for you and what you have gone through."

Stella chuckled a bit.

"Sadly, he’s too proud to make the first step."

Stella looked into Gravis’ eyes.

"When you have the time, could you try becoming closer with Liam? That would be really important to me," she said slowly and quietly.

Gravis nodded.

"I think we have gotten off on the wrong foot," Gravis said. "The first time Liam saw me was when I nearly killed you. The second time he saw me, that situation happened. It’s natural that my image in his mind is about as horrible as it gets."

"I’m happy to hear that," Stella said.

Then, she looked back at the lake again.

"And about that situation from back then..."

Gravis’ heart became a bit more nervous.

"I’ve had a lot of time to think," Stella said. "The Law of Freedom is truly rare, and basically no one knows it. Would I have been able to comprehend the Law of Freedom without going through this pain?"

"Probably not," Stella said. "It was also the only solution to the issue with my Will-Aura back then."

"Even more, after I heard how you have comprehended the Law of Freedom, I feel like I had it easier."

"So, in short, I don’t regret what has happened in the past," Stella said as she looked into Gravis’ eyes again. "If I could rewrite my past, I wouldn’t change that incident. Yes, it was horrible, and yes, I felt a lot of pain, but in the long run, it has helped me. Without that situation, I wouldn’t know where I would be."

Stella leaned her head more on Gravis’ shoulder and closed her eyes.

"And right now, I’m happy with where I am."

Gravis felt his heart warming.

How could Stella be this perfect?

How was something like that even possible?

What had he done to deserve such a perfect woman?

"Gravis," Stella said as she looked up at him, her face being bright red.

Gravis felt that the feeling of the atmosphere changed.

From peace and tranquility, it changed to something more... passionate.

"Yes?" Gravis asked.

"We... we are together now, right?" Stella asked.

"Yes?" Gravis answered.

"So, shouldn’t we take the last step?" Stella asked nervously.

Gravis blinked a couple of times as he tried to remain calm.

"If you want," Gravis said.

Stella nodded, and her red face radiated conviction.

"Yes."

Gravis smiled peacefully, but inside himself, a fire was raging.

"I love you, Stella," Gravis said.

"I-I love you too, Gravis," Stella said with her red face.

Two Immortal Kings at the center of the world, inside a quiet and peaceful clearing, surrounded by nothing but calm, finally became one.

In the center of the world, two people experienced true love for the first time in their lives.

After around 51,500 years, Gravis finally experienced how it felt to be with someone he truly loved.

On the other side of the clearing, Arc smiled happily as he created a Formation Array around Gravis and Stella.

When was the last time he had felt true love?

Chapter 922 - 922 – Artemis

"Daddy, why don’t you allow me to cultivate?"

Up in the highest world, a ten-year-old girl sat in a massive hall in front of a middle-aged man with black hair.

The man with black hair was the Opposer, and the child in front of him was his youngest daughter, Artemis.

When Gravis had discovered new love, the Opposer and his wife had felt their old love being rekindled.

When Artemis had heard about Cultivation from her friends, she had felt it to be wondrous.

People could fly around?

People could completely reshape the entire world?

She also wanted to do this!

"Artemis," her father said. He tried his best to make his voice as soft as possible. He didn’t want to scare her or suppress her with his authority.

"I love you, and you know that I only want the best for you," the Opposer said with difficulty.

Artemis didn’t react.

Her father told her so often that he loved her that this statement had no impact on her.

"But Cultivation is not as easy as you imagine," the Opposer said.

"Cultivation doesn’t lead to happiness. It can help you in securing happiness, but you first need to go through a black sea of pain and despair before you can truly find happiness."

SHING!

A white screen that showed images from a village was summoned in front of Artemis.

"Do you see them?" the Opposer asked. "These are mortals, and they are truly happy."

Artemis saw several adults working together, and whenever the husbands looked at their wives, a long and deep connection between them could be felt.

"You want to be happy, right?" the Opposer asked.

"Yes," Artemis said without any hesitation, "but I also want to see more of the world. I want to become powerful and understand the world. I don’t just want to spend the rest of my life in this city!"

The Opposer sighed. Why was raising this child so much harder than raising all the other ones?

In the past, he could just have directly shown them that they didn’t need any power to be happy, but now, everything had become more difficult.

The Opposer had changed, and he was trying his best to be as good of a father as he could be.

Artemis didn’t call him father but daddy.

Artemis wasn’t surprised when her father told her that he loved her.

Artemis wasn’t even a little bit nervous in front of her father.

As a young child, Artemis felt all of this to be natural.

This was just normal, right?

"I have told you what your big brother had to go through," the Opposer said, referring to Gravis.

"He had accidentally killed his only friend in the lower world."

"He had to decide between power and happiness."

"He had to stay alone for so many years, and even when he made friends, he had to separate from them."

"Even now, over 50,000 years later for him, he still hasn’t met his earliest friends again."

"If you step on the path of Cultivation, the world will become your enemy. At that point, you can’t increase your power and be happy at the same time. As soon as you step on the path of Cultivation, happiness has to wait until you are powerful enough to protect this happiness."

"Right now, no one is threatening your happiness. If you want to search for happiness, no one will stop you."

"Are you truly willing to spend your entire life among blood and destruction just to be able to search for the very thing you can already have right now?" The Opposer finished.

Artemis frowned. "So, that’s a no, right?" she asked.

The Opposer sighed again.

"It’s not that easy to make such a choice," he said. "Right now, you are only ten, and you’re not able to make such a long-lasting decision."

"I’m grown-up already!" Artemis shouted, aggrieved.

Some seconds of silence passed in which the Opposer looked with a complicated expression at his daughter while his daughter looked with narrowed eyes at her father.

"How about this? When you’re 15, you can decide what path you want to choose," the Opposer said.

"15!?" Artemis asked in shock. "That’s so long!"

Five years for a ten-year-old child might as well be as long as their entire life for them.

She had to wait for her entire life!?

"Yes, that’s the best compromise I can come up with," the Opposer said.

"I can’t believe you’re doing this!" Artemis shouted as tears gathered in her eyes. "Why don’t you just say no!? At least you would be honest!"

"You’re stupid, daddy! I hate you!" Artemis shouted before she ran out of the room.

Silence.

The Opposer only sighed.

"Why is this suddenly so hard?" he asked himself.

"It’s because you now truly care for our children," a voice appeared as the Opposer’s wife appeared beside him.

She had an expression of tranquil pride on her face.

She had known her husband for so long, and finally, he was showing progress.

The way her husband had raised their newest child was like night and day in comparison to their last ones.

She was so proud of her husband!

Even after living for so long, he was still able to change for the better.

"I’m trying my best, but decisions I would have been sure of in the past are now filled with uncertainty," the Opposer said to his wife.

"That’s normal," his wife said.

"That only means that you realize the weight of your decisions. You no longer directly decide what is right but question your decisions."

"Give her some time," she said, referring to Artemis.

The Opposer only sighed.

Suddenly, a massive mountain of God Stones appeared in the room.

"Anyway," the Opposer’s wife said with an excited smirk. "Look at all the money I made today!"

The Opposer looked at the mountain of God Stones.

"That’s great, honey," he said, demotivated.

His wife nodded twice in pride. "Could you be a dear and throw it into the God Stone Ocean?"

"Sure."

Whooop!

And the mountain was gone.

It was dumped into the God Stone Ocean, the place where the Economistress stored her wealth.

She sat down close to her husband with a proud smile.

"How’s Gravis doing?" she asked.

"Still at it," he said.

"Still?" she asked. "That should be 1,500 years by now. How can they be at it for so long?"

"Don’t act like we haven’t managed longer before," the Opposer said as he looked his wife in the eyes.

She only giggled. "True, but it’s still impressive."

"Well," the Opposer said. "At least he’s getting some Laws from it."

BANG!

His wife "lightly" punched him in the shoulder, a "light" punch that could have distributed a Divine God over millions of kilometers.

"Hey!" she shouted with a frown. "Just let him experience love! You don’t always have to think about his Laws. Give your son some slack once in a while!"

The Opposer sighed again, something he had been doing quite frequently in the last couple of years.

"Yes, honey," he said, demotivated.

His wife only nodded with a proud smile. "Good!"

"Now, do you want to hear about what I have planned for tomorrow?" she asked.

"Yes, honey," the Opposer said.

BANG!

Another punch.

"Take this seriously!"

Chapter 923 - 923 – The Plan

"Stop!" Gravis shouted, out of breath.

"What’s up?" Stella asked, equally out of breath.

"I need to do something else," Gravis said. "I can’t do this all the time!"

Stella looked with a sad expression at Gravis. "Do you not enjoy it?"

Gravis’ inner fire was immediately stocked again after seeing her cute expression, but he kept himself in check.

"No, that’s definitely not it!" he nearly shouted. "I love you, and I definitely enjoy my time with you, but I also have to think of my Cultivation."

Stella’s brows furrowed. "Hey, don’t act like I’m not handing you any Laws right here."

Gravis nodded quickly. "Yes, I know, but that’s not it. Mortis is already finished with the Soft Pure Law, and he has been for the last 2,000 years. He already contacted me and told me that he will focus on the Body Composition Laws."

"When I heard that, I’ve focused on comprehending your Body Composition Laws, and I already made a lot of progress, but I can’t only focus on your Laws. Yes, your two level five Laws of Punishment Inferno and Frostfire are still immensely useful for me, but what after that? I need to set up my plan for the future," Gravis explained.

Stella frowned. "You’re talking like you’re only with me for my Laws."

Gravis’ insides immediately shook in nervousness. "No, no!" Gravis quickly said nervously. "I’m not-"

However, Gravis stopped when he saw Stella giggling.

Then, Gravis sighed and also had to laugh at himself.

"I understand, Gravis," Stella said as she summoned a new set of robes. At the same time, she was also fixing Gravis’ hair so that he didn’t look so disheveled.

Gravis also summoned a new shirt and pants.

"So, you finally are ready to build the Gravitas Trading Firm, huh?" Stella asked.

Gravis nodded. "Yes, I’ve wanted to do that for a really long time by now."

Yes, this was Gravis’ grand plan that he had come up with so many years ago.

Gravis needed resources and access to Law Comprehension Areas if he wanted to become more powerful. Having a home would also help.

So, Gravis decided to create something that he was uniquely qualified for.

A trading hub between beasts and humans.

Beasts had an overabundance of materials and Law Comprehension Fruits.

Humans had technology, Immortal Stones, Formation Arrays, Weapon Techniques, and so on.

It was essentially an exchange between resources and intelligence.

It sounded logical, and everyone with even the slightest mind for business would have thought about creating something like this.

So, had it been done before?

No.

Why not?

Because it simply wasn’t possible.

So many humans with a mind for business had wanted to create something like that. Some of them even got the support of a Peak Sect. After all, Peak Sects would be very interested in the wealth of the beast territory.

The problem was the beasts.

No human had ever gotten the permission of the beasts.

The beasts knew that humans were very shrewd and scheming creatures, which was why they intrinsically didn’t trust even a single word any human said.

So, even if the human told the whole truth and genuinely acted in good faith, the beasts still didn’t trust them.

Yet, what about Gravis?

Gravis had a beast body, and Gravis knew exactly how he should talk with beasts and how he should talk with humans.

Additionally, Gravis’ Battle-Strength alone would win him a ton of respect from the beast side.

Lastly, Gravis had gotten permission to go ahead with his plan from Arc, which also included permission from Narcissus.

Narcissus was one of the most powerful beings in this world, and he definitely had the power to represent the entire beast territory.

With Narcissus’ permission, the beast side had been handled.

So, Gravis only had to get the permission of the humans.

Gravis had decided to go to the All-Matter Sect back then for permissions.

Why?

Because the main trading goods from the beast side would be ore, and the All-Matter Sect basically had a monopoly over all the ore in the world.

If Gravis’ actions resulted in another Peak Sect getting a ton of ore, the All-Matter Sect would feel like its monopoly was under attack. This would quickly pull the ire of the All-Matter Sect towards Gravis, and some Immortal Emperors might appear to kill him.

Yet, if he directly went to the one with the monopoly, no one else would mind very much.

After all, the All-Matter Sect already had full control over the ore.

The prices would still stay the same, but there would be more ore to go around.

For the other Sects, it would make no difference.

Gravis had also planned on trading these Law Comprehension Fruits, but he wouldn’t have sold them to the All-Matter Sect.

Law Comprehension Fruits would basically allow someone to comprehend a powerful Law in no time at all once. They couldn’t consume them all the time since that would weaken their abilities for comprehending Laws, but only once was already incredible.

Imagine every genius in every Sect getting enough to comprehend Laws.

The Holy Sons and Holy Daughters would jump from two level five Laws to three level five Laws.

The Holy Son and Holy Daughter Candidates and Core Disciples would jump from one level five Law to two level five Laws.

That would be incredible!

Sadly, level six Law Comprehension Fruits were probably off the table.

The number of level six Laws decided the stability of this world.

The same thing was true for the core Formation Arrays and Weapon Techniques of humans.

These things secured the survival of humanity, and humans would never give them to the beasts.

In short, the two sides would exchange things to increase the power of their talented youngsters but wouldn’t exchange things that were very interesting for the peak powers of a Peak Sect.

Yet, trading these Law Comprehension Fruits was still risky.

If any Peak Sect that wasn’t in direct contact with Gravis heard about these fruits, they would either strongarm themselves into a trade agreement or would directly kill the Gravitas. After all, humans also had each other as enemies and rivals, and they wouldn’t allow another Peak Sect to become powerful enough to rule over them all.

At some point, the entire representative force of humanity would trade with the beasts via the Gravitas.

Was that a good thing?

No, definitely not!

If the entire humanity had access to the Gravitas, not a single Peak Sect would be able to get a hand up over the other Peak Sects. The Peak Sects would quickly form an agreement, and Gravis wouldn’t only have one Peak Sect as a trading partner, but all of them.

This meant that every potential human customer in the world worked together.

This meant that they could be much more forceful in trades and demand lower prices.

At some point, either the beasts wouldn’t accept these prices anymore, or Gravis wouldn’t make a profit anymore.

So, the Gravitas would go bankrupt.

Because of that, Gravis had never intended to trade the Law Comprehension Fruits easily.

However, now, everything was different.

Gravis had completely offended the entire human world except for the Purist Sect and Underworld.

His old plan of going to the All-Matter Sect didn’t work anymore.

Originally, Gravis had already decided to abandon his plan. Without the help of a Peak Sect, no matter where Gravis decided to create the Gravitas, a Peak Sect would find it and destroy it.

Yet, Exar had come to the rescue.

Even though Gravis had offended all of humanity, Underworld and the Purist Sect would still trade with him.

This new development was even better than the original plan since Gravis could also directly trade the Law Comprehension Fruits.

The only two ways the other Peak Sects could get involved in this trade would be either via Underworld or via the Purist Sect.

Obviously, both ways wouldn’t work for the Peak Sects.

The Peak Sects couldn’t allow Underworld to gain even more power over them, and they simply would see the door slammed into their face when they went to the Purist Sect.

Underworld and the Purist Sect were cut off from the other Peak Sects.

As long as Gravis traded with them, there would be no danger of humanity uniting against him.

Like this, this horrible concept of a "union" wouldn’t become a reality.

Gravis couldn’t allow the Peak Sects to unionize!

Chapter 924 - 924 – Liam

Gravis had everything already planned out.

First, purchase some weapon forging techniques from the humans with Immortal Stones.

Second, sell these weapon forging techniques to the beasts for ore and Law Comprehension Fruits.

Third, sell these ores and Law Comprehension Fruits to humans for Immortal Stones.

Then, everything would repeat itself from the beginning.

This plan required some initial capital, but after that, basically everything would pay for itself.

Gravis would only need to look on as Siral, Stella, and Liam sold the stuff.

Of course, his employees wouldn’t do this for free. Every employee of his would get to keep 10% of any trade. The profit margin was far, far more than just a mere 10%, which was why Gravis could be so generous with his pay.

All of his employees would earn a ton of money by only talking to some people and beasts.

Of course, Gravis couldn’t let Liam and Stella trade with the beasts. After all, they were humans.

Yet, it was something different with Siral.

Siral was also a human, but he was under the control of Gravis’ Life Ring. As long as he let the beasts feel his mind, they would be able to see that he was fiercely loyal to Gravis, who basically counted as a beast in the beasts’ minds.

Even better, the profit margin was so absolutely gigantic that, even when Gravis sold the wares for a multiple of their purchasing price, the beasts and humans would still feel like they would be making a bargain.

The beasts would see the effect that weapons and armor would have on their frontlines.

The humans would get supremely expensive ores for weapons.

The weapon was the most important thing for Weapon Cultivators, and there was never enough ore to go around.

Of course, explaining Gravis’ business strategy was far easier than putting it into practice. There were a lot of minor details that could break one’s back if one didn’t know what they were doing.

However, who was Gravis, or more accurately, who were Gravis’ parents?

The Opposer and the Economistress.

The Opposer definitely wouldn’t be a help with running a business, but the Economistress...

Who could run a business better than her?

Gravis had learned a ton about how to run a business from his mother when he had originally created the Gravitas in Opposer City.

Gravis would have no problems with making the business flourish.

Gravis couldn’t stop smirking as he saw that his plan was about to become a reality. ’Hah, I can already hear the inner thoughts of all the unaffiliated Cultivators.’

’Why would I run a business when I can just kill a Cultivator for all their wealth? Others work their asses off while I just take money.’

Gravis’ smirk only widened as he imagined how these thoughts rushed through some random Cultivator’s mind.

’Well, you have to kill and search for victims while I literally have to do nothing. All the money will come towards me by itself. Your Plundering Dao can’t compare to my Business Dao!’

"You look excited," Stella said from the side with a giggle. Then, she came closer and straightened Gravis’ clothing with care.

Gravis leaned down and kissed Stella with enthusiasm. Stella was a bit surprised but not against it.

"Ever since I came to this world, I saw that my wealth was never enough," Gravis said. "I always got a huge influx of money and then saw all of it go away. From today onward, this will no longer be the case!"

Stella giggled a bit as she put her head on Gravis’ chest. "My man, the businessman," she said jokingly.

Gravis’ insides were getting excited again as he heard how Stella referred to him as her man.

Yes, he was her man, and he was about to get a big promotion!

’Just wait, I will buy you all the shoes and jewelry you want! You never have to look with envy at our neighbors!’

Gravis had to snicker at his own jokes in his head.

"Let’s go get Liam," Gravis said. "He probably already misses you."

Stella became a bit red in the face as she remembered that Liam knew exactly what they were doing.

SHING!

Gravis and Stella teleported over to the central part of Arc’s clearing.

In front of them was a clearing filled with humans beasts. All of them were talking and drinking with each other.

In one of the groups, Gravis could see Liam.

Liam smiled and laughed while joking with a mixed group of humans and beasts.

Seeing Liam smile like this was weird to Gravis.

Gravis had never seen Liam smile and joke around.

However, Gravis also always only met Liam in situations where no one could laugh and smile.

Gravis had never seen when Liam was just casually being himself.

When Liam saw Stella, he smiled brightly, but his smile vanished when he saw Gravis.

Instead, he had a complex look on his face for a second before it morphed into cold neutrality.

Gravis had to sigh.

He had noticed that Liam’s expression of rejection was not how he felt deep down.

However, Liam was too proud to admit that he had misjudged Gravis.

Stella and Liam hugged and talked to each other for a while.

After a couple of minutes, Gravis stepped forward.

"Liam," Gravis said.

"Yes?" Liam asked with a cold and neutral voice.

"I think we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot," Gravis said.

Liam narrowed his eyes.

"I know that you still harbor resentment towards me, and I don’t expect you to like me or anything. However, I want to help you in releasing that resentment," Gravis explained.

Liam’s brows furrowed.

Then, Gravis leaned forward and pointed at his cheek.

"Come on. Punch me!" Gravis said. "Release all your pent-up-"

BANG!

And Gravis was gone.

Everyone looked with shock at the body being shot into the distance.

"Fuck!" Liam said as he wildly shook his right hand. Right now, his right hand had several broken bones and was bleeding profusely. "How is his face that hard!? How am I supposed to release my anger by injuring myself!?"

Stella looked with a complex expression at Liam, not sure what to feel.

On one side, she was happy that Gravis was willing to let Liam release his pent-up anger, but on the other side, seeing it fail like this could also count as some form of ironic humor.

SHING!

"So, you feel better?" Gravis asked, uninjured.

Liam looked at Gravis’ uninjured body and frowned. "Was this a trap?" he asked.

"No," Gravis said.

"You do know that I can’t release my anger like this?" Liam asked with a cold voice.

"I know that now," Gravis said with a nod. "I simply forgot that I have hard scales."

Liam only frowned, not answering.

"Come with me for a bit. Let’s talk privately," Gravis said as he put an arm around Liam’s shoulder.

Liam’s anger nearly exploded as Gravis touched him, but for Stella, he kept himself in check.

The others looked on with interested eyes.

They saw Gravis and Liam whispering amongst themselves a couple of meters away. The noise around them was canceled.

’Why don’t you just use voice transmissions if you don’t want to be heard?’

While they were talking, Gravis was constantly smirking.

Liam only looked at him neutrally.

If one had seen Gravis’ life, one would see that this situation was very similar to something that had happened to Gravis in the past.

Many years back, in the lower world, in the entrance exams of the Proxy-Elemental Guilds, hadn’t something like that happened too?

Back then, a young boy with black hair and cold, emotionless eyes was talking to an elder while everyone looked on.

This current situation reflected this memory, but with switched places.

This time, Gravis was the seemingly older and more approachable person, while Liam was seemingly the younger, stubborn person.

After a while, Liam’s frown deepened, and he started to think.

SHING!

And then, Liam teleported away.

Gravis returned to the group and smiled at Stella.

"What did you two talk about?" she asked.

"I basically told him to get over himself but in a diplomatic manner. I highlighted some stuff from my past where I was similarly acting to him right now. His inherent dislike towards me immediately moved him to not be like me. He teleported away to think."

"The situation between us should become better now. He still won’t be my friend, but we can at least live with each other."

Stella smiled and placed a quick kiss on Gravis’ lips.

"Thanks. That means a lot to me. You’re the best!" she said cutely.

Gravis nodded with a smile.

Gravis’ life felt so different now.

Ever since he had united with Stella, he just couldn’t stop smiling anymore.

After such a long time of searching for happiness, Gravis finally got it.

Gravis was finally happy.

His goal of happiness was finally achieved.

Now, he only needed to reach his goal of freedom.

"Hey Arc, can you call Exar over? It’s time we get started."

Chapter 925 - 925 – Location

"That’s not necessary," Arc answered.

SHING!

A token appeared in front of Gravis. "As soon as you reach an isolated place in the eastern continent, crush this token. Exar will quickly arrive and talk about the specifics."

Gravis nodded. "Thanks, Arc."

Arc smiled. "Wish you luck."

"Is that a joke?" Gravis asked.

"Yes," Arc said with a slight chuckle.

Gravis rolled his eyes.

Then, Gravis and Stella waited for Liam’s return. They wanted to give him enough time to think about his current situation.

In the meantime, Gravis and Stella talked to some beings in the clearing.

Gravis and Stella had to deal with a lot of insinuating comments and jokes made at their expense. After all, making someone embarrassed was always fun.

A couple hours later, Liam returned.

This time, he didn’t have a cold expression but a relatively neutral one. However, he still shot Gravis a couple of complex looks.

To Liam, the situation between him and Gravis still felt a bit awkward.

Luckily, Gravis was good in conversations and could reduce the awkwardness to a minimum.

After talking for a bit more, the three of them set off.

SHING!

All three of them broke their emblems as they returned to the hot and uncomfortable underground room that Gravis had dug out.

Gravis quickly put the two of them into his Life Ring and transformed into his beast form.

After that, he passed through Narcissus’ barrier and entered the beast territory. Traveling across the river in the human territory would be risky. After all, the Purist Sect controlled that river, and Gravis didn’t know how their defenses were set up. It was far easier and safer to go through the beast territory.

After a couple of hours, Gravis reached the barrier to the eastern continent. Gravis dug into the ground again and officially entered the eastern continent.

After around a day, Gravis came out of the ground. He had no map of this part of the world, which meant that he had no idea where he would come out.

Gravis’ head came out of the ground, and he saw a mortal woman that had just dropped a vase in shock when she saw the head coming out of her basement.

Gravis looked around and noticed that he had appeared in a mortal village. ’Perfect!’

The mortal woman quickly lost the focus in her eyes as she looked around in confusion.

Manipulating the perception and memories of a mortal was not hard for Gravis.

After that, he made himself basically invisible and left the ground. He was already back in his human form and manipulated perceived reality in such a way that he appeared like a proud Weapon Cultivator in case anyone saw through his Law of Shadow’s Subtlety.

Lastly, Gravis searched for some isolated forest and broke Exar’s token.

SHING!

Exar arrived around half a minute later.

"You’re ready?" Exar asked.

Gravis nodded. "So, why did you want to talk here?"

"I want to show you the location of your shop directly. I don’t like to waste time," Exar said.

Gravis’ eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Oh, you already found a good location?"

Exar nodded. "Narcissus and I have dug out an underground cave for you with two long tunnels. One of them leads into a big city while the other one goes directly into the beast territory. However, you should build something that makes it impossible to see the other tunnel. After all, not many people will know that you are trading with beasts."

Gravis nodded a couple of times. "Sure, sounds great!" he said.

Exar gestured to a direction with his head and teleported away. Gravis followed him.

After around an hour, Exar and Gravis arrived at their destination.

It was directly at the frontlines, near the coast of the northeastern river.

However, there was something surprising about this location. It was very different from the normal frontlines.

The most obvious difference was the fact that no one fought here.

There were no humans and no beasts in this location, even though it was directly at the frontlines.

The other difference was the gigantic wall of roots that seemingly split the world in two.

Gravis inspected the wall of roots for a bit and noticed that this was Narcissus.

"How come you’re showing yourself above ground, Narcissus?" Gravis asked.

"I’m acting like a neutral Immortal Emperor plant," Narcissus answered. "I won’t let beasts pass through, and I won’t let humans survive in this location."

Gravis had a complex expression on his face. "But wouldn’t the humans still be careful?"

"Have you forgotten who I am?" Exar asked. "I said I investigated this random but powerful plant myself and noticed that its intentions of neutrality were pure. I came into an agreement with it. It would not let any beasts pass through this territory, but in exchange, we have to leave it alone. As the Ancestor of the Purist Sect, no one doubts my words."

Gravis nodded. That was already far better than anything he could have accomplished.

Gravis was glad that he had two of the most powerful beings in the world supporting his trading firm.

Exar teleported again, and Gravis followed.

Around 50,000 kilometers below the surface, a cave had been dug out. It was around a hundred meters wide and a kilometer long. At the long ends of the cave, two tunnels stretched into the distance.

The tunnel leading to the beast territory was millions of kilometers long, while the tunnel leading to the human territory was very short. In fact, it was only two kilometers long.

Gravis was a bit confused as the tunnel to the human territory ended in a dead-end.

"I will send one of my Underworld Elders to you later," Exar explained. "We don’t want the location of the trading firm to become public knowledge, or people might find out your relationship with the beasts."

"My Elder will build a Teleportation Formation Array that leads to a bustling city. He will also place Spirit Isolating Formation Arrays so that people can’t just look through your trading firm to see the other side or look into the ground around the cave."

Gravis nodded. "I guess since the Elder hasn’t been here yet, he also shouldn’t know about the beasts?" Gravis asked.

"No, he knows," Exar said. "However, he wants to ask you several questions personally before he creates the Formation Arrays. I don’t like to force my Elders to do anything they don’t agree with. Just answer his questions honestly, and there shouldn’t be a problem."

Gravis nodded again. "Alright. So, should I build the building first?"

"Go ahead."

Gravis turned to the middle of the cave with a smirk.

The plan for his building had been created long ago. He only needed to slightly alter the blueprint for the new environment.

CRRRRR!

Gravis used the Law of Graphite’s Creation to create the materials he wanted. As long as he didn’t create powerful materials, he could basically create whatever he wanted.

His building didn’t need to be made out of powerful Immortal Emperor or Immortal King materials.

Law Comprehension Materials were more than enough.

After creating the materials, Gravis began to forge them with his lightning and fused them.

Why make a building out of many parts when you can simply make the building a single block?

After some minutes, the building was finished, and Gravis nodded with pride.

The building perfectly stretched across the entire width of the underground cave, not leaving any open spots.

The side facing the human side was made out of powerful and clear glass. Windows and glass doors had a professional feel to them, and Gravis liked them.

In the middle of the building was a thick wall made out of Peak Immortal King materials.

Even if Gravis thought that this was a waste, he still had to make the wall powerful enough to bear several Formation Arrays.

But wait, where did Gravis get all this powerful Peak Immortal King ore from?

Remember that ore mountain Gravis got after killing that beast before he went to the Holy Judgment Sect?

Gravis had gathered the mountain of ore that the beast had protected, and the wall was made out of the ore mountain.

Behind the wall, at the side facing the beast territory, was basically nothing. Beasts didn’t care about a nice-looking building. They only wanted to trade.

The only things at the beast side were a couple of holes at the side. In the future, Gravis would put the wares into the holes so that the beasts could look at them.

SHING!

Gravis summoned Stella and Liam out of his Life Ring and grandly pointed at the new building.

"Welcome to the Gravitas!"

Chapter 926 - 926 – Meeting Mortis

Stella and Liam inspected the building with curious eyes.

"It looks professional," Stella said.

Liam nodded. When Gravis was around, he didn’t talk much.

Gravis smiled widely. "10% of every trade goes to you," he says.

Liam frowned. "Only 10%?" he asked.

"We will be dealing with big customers," Gravis said as he smiled at Liam. "Every trade will go into the tens of millions Immortal Stones. Just by talking a little bit, you can earn a couple million Immortal Stones, and that’s it. You don’t even need to do anything else. We don’t even need multiple people on one side. You can simply decide amongst yourself who is going to deal with the customers while the other one does whatever they want."

Liam still wasn’t happy. "But you will be earning much more," he said.

Gravis rolled his eyes. "You are only officially an employee. You are still basically my brother-in-law, so I will obviously give you money when you need it."

Liam looked at Stella and saw that she didn’t even react when Gravis called Liam brother-in-law.

This meant that Stella was all-in on Gravis, and Liam had to sigh.

"Fine," he said.

"Oh, wait a sec," Gravis said.

SHING!

Gravis suddenly took out Arc’s emblem and broke it, vanishing instantly.

Stella and Liam furrowed their brows.

SHING!

However, Gravis returned in just a couple of seconds.

"Mortis just arrived in Arc’s clearing, and I had to give him my Life Ring so that he could get your last colleague, Siral," Gravis said.

Stella and Liam had heard about Mortis and Siral, but they hadn’t met them yet.

They didn’t really care about Siral since he was basically just Gravis’ slave, but they wanted to meet Mortis.

However, it would take a while for Mortis to arrive with Siral, so Gravis decided to begin teaching Stella and Liam about how to conduct business.

Liam and Stella knew some of the concepts, but they had never truly traded with anyone. Why would they? The Nine Elements Sect had always given them everything they needed.

Gravis showed them around and quickly transmitted a ton of concepts about how to conduct business into their minds.

The Spirits of Immortal Kings were supremely powerful, and learning something like this was easy for them.

How could learning a bit about trade compare to high-level Laws?

Business was complex to mortals but easy to Immortals.

It only took two hours until Liam and Stella basically knew everything there was to know about running a business and dealing with customers.

"I will do the initial trade," Gravis said. "After all, we need to use my remaining hundred million Immortal Stones well to give the Gravitas a good start."

Liam huffed. Did Gravis think that Liam couldn’t deal with customers?

Stella didn’t mind. She wanted to see how Gravis dealt with a customer.

Then, they waited.

SHING!

A day later, someone teleported into the underground cave from the beast side.

It was a black demon with white scales, making it pure white, which was a bit contradictory to its species’ name.

Liam and Stella looked over and furrowed their brows.

This was Mortis.

Mortis also looked at Liam and Stella.

His gaze lingered much longer on Stella.

Mortis was made with Gravis as a blueprint, which meant that he also held some attraction towards Stella. This had only become worse after Gravis was constantly sending these warm, lovey-dovey feelings to him. It was already hard enough to comprehend Laws under this emotional assault.

For the past 2,000 years, Mortis had been fully focused on comprehending the Major Body Composition Laws. He knew the composition of his own body and the composition of Gravis’ body, but not the composition of a normal body.

Because of that, Mortis had captured many different Immortal beasts and experimented on their bodies.

Mortis didn’t have any reservations when it came to experimenting on weaker beings. Yes, Mortis was a very fairness-oriented individual, but one first had to be seen as an actual being in his eyes to receive that fairness.

Humans didn’t care about the ants they stepped on while walking through a field.

Yet, weren’t these ants also living beings?

Sure they were, but no one cared.

They were too far beneath one to be considered as living beings.

The same was true for Mortis in regards to anything multiple levels below him.

Gravis was not a good person, but in comparison to Mortis, he was a saint.

While Mortis looked at Stella, a feeling of rage appeared in his heart.

He wasn’t jealous or envious of Gravis. That was not why he became angry.

No, he became angry because Stella was the reason why he was constantly assaulted by these distracting feelings from Gravis.

Mortis didn’t want to feel these feelings of love since he saw them as a weakness. Emotions were a weakness and had to be suppressed!

However, when Mortis saw Stella, these loving feelings still appeared in his heart.

Because of that, Mortis drowned out these loving feelings with anger and hatred.

Gravis also felt the anger and hate and didn’t resist them.

Mortis had kept himself emotionless while Gravis had his 3,500 years of fun, and Gravis wanted to repay Mortis for that.

If Mortis could deal with 3,500 years of being assaulted by Gravis’ feelings, Gravis could at least deal with a couple of minutes of Mortis’ feelings.

Gravis kept himself at the side. He didn’t want to, but he felt incredible anger and hatred right now.

In that state, Gravis might say something wrong. So, he decided to remain silent for a while.

This was how Mortis felt when he saw Liam and Stella.

Yet, how did Stella and Liam feel when they saw Mortis?

’This is not Gravis,’ both of them thought at the same time.

They knew about Mortis’ origins, which made them believe that he would be similar to Gravis, even when Gravis assured them that Mortis wasn’t really similar to him.

However, as soon as they saw Mortis, they didn’t feel anything familiar.

Right now, Liam felt like he was looking at a furious beast on the frontlines.

This didn’t feel like a meeting between strangers, acquaintances, or friends.

This felt like a meeting between enemies on a battlefield.

Liam immediately became wary of Mortis.

How did Stella feel?

Stella knew the level three Law of Empathy.

At least, in the past.

After uniting with Gravis, her Law of Empathy reached the power of a level five Law.

Stella now knew the level five Law of Empathy.

And the Law of Empathy allowed Stella to feel the hidden conflict of emotions in Mortis.

She felt a complex mix of love, resentment, hatred, anger, pride, and even pain.

Yes, there was a slight feeling of pain in Mortis’ heart.

Mortis himself didn’t even know about it, but Stella felt it.

In Stella’s mind, Mortis seemed like an angry teenager that went through a ton of horrible situations, becoming bitter and hate-filled in the process.

However, even though Stella could empathize with Mortis, Mortis was still an angry, cold-blooded, and hate-filled being.

She didn’t have the luxury to feel bad for him.

’There is a core of good inside him, but everything is drowned out by anger and hate. This core of good has been completely lost, and I don’t think it can ever be uncovered.’

’He is a very dangerous individual. A single wrong word might provoke him into killing anyone.’

’He’s unsavable.’

Usually, Mortis was very neutral with his feelings.

This wasn’t how Mortis was normally.

Normally, he didn’t feel anger, hate, pain, or anything.

It was just after seeing Stella with his own eyes that Mortis became filled with anger and hate.

After all, he had to drown out this feeling of love.

Because of that, Liam and Stella got the wrong impression of him.

SHING!

Siral appeared in the cave, and Mortis teleported the Life Ring to Gravis.

After that, he went back to the beast territory without a word.

The less he interacted with Liam, and especially Stella, the better.

Stella and Liam looked at the tunnel that led to the beast territory for a while.

"Is this what you would have become if you had lost to your lightning?" Stella asked.

Gravis nodded wordlessly.

Stella took a shaky breath. She still remembered how Gravis had told her that he might change in the future if he failed. He also told her that she should consider him dead if that happened.

It was hard to believe something like that. After all, how much could someone change in such a relatively short amount of time?

Yet, when Stella saw Mortis, she saw it with her own eyes.

This was not Gravis.

If Gravis had really become Mortis, he truly could be considered dead.

Stella had underestimated the danger Gravis had been under. After all, Gravis would have still been Gravis, right?

But now, she saw the true extent of the danger Gravis had been under.

"Master," Siral said respectfully.

Gravis nodded. "We need to wait for a while."

Siral bowed. "Yes, Master."

"Sorry," Gravis said with furrowed brows to Stella and Liam. "You know about the connection between Mortis and me. Currently, thanks to Mortis, I can’t control my emotions."

"I will wait near the edge of the cave until everything is over. You can get acquainted with Siral in the meantime."

With that said, Gravis left the vicinity of Stella, Liam, and Siral as he closed his eyes and sat down at the edge of the cave.

Stella looked at him with a pained look.

She had the Law of Freedom, and she knew how much Gravis valued freedom.

Yet, Gravis didn’t even have freedom over his own emotions.

Wasn’t something like this one of the worst forms of suppression?

Gravis couldn’t even be himself.

Chapter 927 - 927 – Being Interrogated

It didn’t take long for Mortis to calm down. Mortis was someone that liked to remain emotionless so that he could make the optimal, unbiased decisions possible. Because of that, all the rage and hatred vanished in less than an hour.

Gravis sighed and returned to Stella and Liam.

The three of them talked for a couple of hours more. By now, Liam was no longer as taciturn in front of Gravis as before. It seemed like he was slowly warming up to him.

SHING!

Then, someone new appeared in the cave.

Exar had left long ago, making this person the fourth human in the cave.

The three of them looked over.

The person was dressed entirely in black. They even wore a black hood and black mask to hide everything about themselves. The three of them couldn’t even feel the aura of that person.

They could only guess that this person was probably a woman, based on her stature.

Stella and Liam became a bit nervous. Only assassins and thieves that wanted to stay hidden dressed like this since they didn’t want to be discovered.

However, the two of them had also already heard from Gravis that an Elder from Underworld would come later to set up some Formation Arrays. This was probably that Elder, but they couldn’t be sure.

"You’re the Elder from Underworld?" Gravis asked with a polite smile.

The Elder turned her head to Gravis and looked at him.

"To think that I would be helping a beast in setting up a Formation Array," she said coldly. "The world is truly changing."

"Exar should have informed you that I don’t consider myself a beast," Gravis said. He didn’t take the comment lightly, but it was important to be diplomatic right now. As long as the Elder didn’t go overboard, everything was fine.

"You even dare to speak the name of our Keeper this openly. If it hadn’t been him that had sent me here, I would have killed you for disrespecting him," she said.

Gravis’ friendly expression slowly turned to a neutral one. He had given her two chances to remain polite, but she didn’t follow. Well, then there was no reason for him to be polite either.

"My relationship with Exar doesn’t concern you," Gravis said. "If he doesn’t like how I address him, he can say that himself. I don’t think that someone of his caliber needs someone else to speak up for him."

The two of them shared a look for a couple of seconds.

"I may have overstepped my boundaries," the Elder said, surprising the three of them.

"It’s fine," Gravis said, smiling politely again. The Elder had acknowledged her mistake, and something like that was worthy of respect. "So, I’ve heard you wanted to ask me a couple of questions first?" Gravis asked.

The Elder looked around the cave some more. Then, she looked back at Gravis. "The only reason why I’m even considering to help you is that you know the Law of Honesty. Without that Law, I can’t be sure of your intentions."

"I do know the Law of Honesty," Gravis said. "However, my Will-Aura is currently on the level of an Early Major Circulation Immortal Emperors. If you want to check my answer, you need to have a more powerful Will-Aura."

The Elder huffed. "Don’t concern yourself with my power. It’s more than enough to check if your answers are honest or not."

Gravis nodded. He believed that the Elder was telling the truth. After all, this was probably one of the Vice-Sect Masters or maybe even the Sect Master of the Purist Sect. This person was probably at least a Mid Major Circulation Immortal Emperor.

"Then, go ahead. Ask your questions. I will use my Law of Honesty for every answer," Gravis said.

The Elder looked at Gravis for a couple more seconds before she spoke.

"Do you consider yourself a beast or a human?" she asked.

"Human," Gravis said with his Law of Honesty.

The Elder remained silent for a couple more seconds.

"On which side of the war are you on?" she asked.

"Neither," Gravis answered. "I don’t care about the war. I don’t care who wins or who loses. I only care about myself and the people close to me."

"Do you consider yourself part of the human camp?"

"No."

"Do you consider yourself part of the beast camp?"

"No."

"Do you consider yourself part of the plant camp?"

"I don’t really differentiate between beasts and plants. So, no."

"What is your goal in creating a trading firm that trades with both beasts and humans?"

"Earning money."

This made the Elder halt for some seconds.

Was this truly the entire reason?

Gravis had no other reason than to just make money?

She had expected that Gravis maybe wanted to manipulate the market so that the power of the beasts increased more than the power of humans.

One had to remember that only Narcissus and Exar knew the true purpose of Underworld. The other members had no idea that Underworld only existed to make humanity weaker.

In their eyes, they were still part of the human camp.

"Is earning money the entire reason for creating this trading firm?" she asked.

"Yes. Money gives me access to Law Comprehension Areas, weapons, Formation Arrays, and Realm increases. In short, money is power," Gravis answered.

"So, your intentions are entirely selfish?"

"Yes, as long as you include taking care of my close people as selfish," Gravis answered.

The three of them couldn’t see it, but they felt like the Elder was narrowing her eyes.

"Then why should I help you?" the Elder asked with a colder tone than before.

"Because, even though my intentions are selfish, my actions will benefit the beasts and humans. My intentions don’t matter in this case," Gravis said.

"And you expect me to help you, even though your intentions are selfish?" the Elder asked.

"No," Gravis said, shocking the Elder. Gravis had used his Law of Honesty with every answer, including this one.

Gravis was honestly not expecting her to help.

"Exar said he doesn’t like forcing people. This means it’s your decision if you want to help me or not. If you don’t want to help, I’m not expecting you to help. We are currently strangers to each other, and I’m not someone that thinks that strangers owe me anything."

The Elder fell into thought. She had believed that she was in a position of power since Gravis was reliant on her Formation Arrays. Yet, Gravis just said that he honestly didn’t need her help. It was entirely her decision.

"What if I don’t help?" she asked.

"That makes it a bit harder to create my trading firm, but not by much," Gravis answered. "I’ll just destroy the human side of my trading firm and use this place entirely for beasts."

"The Formation Arrays that you would place only serve two purposes: Keeping the humans and beasts separate from each other so that they don’t come into contact with each other, and keeping this location a secret from humanity."

"As long as there are no humans here, the first purpose is irrelevant, and as long as I create another building somewhere else that only serves humans, I wouldn’t need to hide this location."

"The only inconvenience would be to get the wares from point A to point B, but I can assure you that as long as no Mid Major Circulation Immortal Emperor tries to stop the transport, I have nothing to fear."

"And as you are well aware, all of the Cultivators on that level in this continent should be part of the upper echelon of the Purist Sect, and therefore, also be part of Underworld. Exar supports my plan, and he is the Keeper of Underworld. Therefore, Cultivators on that level in this continent have no reason to go against me," Gravis finished.

Silence.

Half a minute of silence.

The Elder was thinking deeply about the words that Gravis had said.

Gravis was right. He wasn’t reliant on the Elder’s help. His trading firm would succeed regardless. The Elder’s help would only make it more convenient.

"Fine," the Elder said after a while, "but I want to get paid."

"Like I said, strangers don’t owe me anything," Gravis said. "Therefore, I was expecting to pay you. However, depending on the price, I might have to delay the payment. My initial investment into the market has to be as big as possible."

The Elder remained silent for five seconds as she thought about it.

"Promise me with your Law of Honesty that you will pay me as long as we agree on a price. It doesn’t have to be immediately, but I want you to make an honest effort to pay for my service," she said.

"No problem," Gravis said with a nod. "I promise you."

The Elder also nodded.

"Good."

"What do you need?"

Chapter 928 - 928 – Gravitas Is Ready To Open

The Elder and Gravis talked for half an hour about what Formation Arrays should be set up at which places.

The Elder became quite surprised when Gravis said that he didn’t want any access points.

The Elder informed Gravis that he needed access points. Otherwise, he would also be stopped by his own Formation Arrays.

Gravis quickly demonstrated his Law of Freedom by passing through a test Formation Array the Elder had set up.

The Elder felt like her world was breaking down. How could someone just pass through her Formation Arrays like this!? This simply wasn’t possible!

Yet, she couldn’t disagree with what she was seeing.

Apparently, for some reason, Gravis was immune to her Formation Arrays.

She had never seen anything like it, but the proof was before her eyes. So, she could only accept Gravis’ request of not making any access points.

Without Mortis, Gravis’ Law of Freedom only had the power of a level five Law, which shouldn’t be enough to ignore powers at the level of Immortal Emperors.

These Formation Arrays definitely were on the levels of Immortal Emperors.

So, why was he able to ignore these Formation Arrays?

Simple.

The Formation Arrays didn’t have a will on them.

Without a will, the power of the Formation Array didn’t matter in front of the Law of Freedom.

The Elder completely isolated both sides of the Gravitas, making it impossible for anyone to break them in an instant. Spirit Senses were blocked, as well as movement with Laws like Graphite’s Earth Movement. The only way to look to the other side or outside would be by breaking the Formation Array.

As said previously, the Formation Arrays couldn’t be broken in an instant. It would require multiple attacks from Major Circulation Immortal Emperors.

This would give Gravis enough time to react.

Even more, Narcissus was basically surrounding them.

If someone was able to break the Formation Array, they had to be powerful enough to even interest Narcissus.

At that point, Narcissus would simply consume them.

All of this had been set up for the human guests.

Gravis didn’t need to protect himself against the beasts since they would simply follow the orders of their higher-ups. As long as nothing out of the ordinary happened, they wouldn’t care.

Dealing with beasts was far easier than dealing with humans.

All the Formation Arrays were set up in a couple of hours.

Gravis watched the Elder while she set the Formation Arrays up, but he couldn’t understand the process. He felt a couple of familiar Laws, but the Elder was using them in such a way that it basically seemed illogical to Gravis.

’Sure enough, setting up Formation Arrays isn’t easy,’ Gravis thought. ’I thought I would be able to guess some of the processes since I also infuse my weapons with Formation Arrays, but apparently, there is a huge difference in how they function.’

After the Elder was done, she called over Exar.

The Elder could set up all the Formation Arrays alone, except for one.

The Formation Array that was responsible for teleporting the human customers to this place.

In order to keep this place a secret, one needed the level six Law of Space, and the Elder didn’t know that Law. Only Exar knew it, and Exar had to help while setting this Formation Array up.

Exar quickly arrived and infused the level six Law of Space into both Formation Arrays, here and in the city. This wasn’t the first time he had done that, and it wasn’t very difficult.

Exar quickly left after he was done without a word.

WHOOOOM!

All the Formation Arrays activated at the same time.

According to the Elder, a Peak Immortal King would need to constantly put their Energy into the Formation Arrays to keep them running. If no one was there, they would need Immortal Stones.

In order to keep them running, it basically required nearly the entire passive Energy regeneration of a Peak Immortal King. That was quite a lot of Energy.

In terms of Immortal Stones, one would need to put in 100,000 Immortal Stones per day if no one used their Energy manually.

That was a lot!

However, when Gravis heard the price of the Formation Arrays themselves, his heart nearly stopped.

How much!?

30 billion!

Not 30 million, but 30 billion!

Gravis barely had 100 million Immortal Stones!

That wasn’t even one percent!

Gravis asked why the Formation Arrays were that expensive.

"This Formation Array needs to resist Major Circulation Immortal Emperors for a while," the Elder said, referring to the one that isolated the space. "This means that it basically needs to be on the same level as a Major Circulation Immortal Emperor. 30 billion Immortal Stones is on the lower side in regards to what a Cultivator needs to become a Major Circulation Immortal Emperor."

Gravis couldn’t argue with that.

The reason why the Formation Arrays were so expensive was simply that they were very powerful.

These were Formation Arrays that Peak Sects used.

Gravis had to take a deep breath as he felt the weight of debt on his shoulders.

That was a tremendous amount of money!

However, Gravis also knew that he was basically sitting on a gold mine.

30 billion Immortal Stones should be possible.

Gravis said to the Elder that he would do his best to repay her before she left.

Then, Gravis looked at the Gravitas Trading Firm.

"Everything’s set up," Gravis said. "We are ready to open."

"Are you excited?" Stella asked as she hugged Gravis’ arm.

"Not really," Gravis said. "It’s not my first time opening a business, and the weight of debt is crushing me."

Stella frowned. "Why can’t you just be excited about something?" she asked with a pout.

"I’m excited about you," Gravis said with a smirk at Stella.

"Urgh," Liam gagged from the side.

Stella had to giggle at Gravis’ joke and punched his shoulder jokingly. "You’re bad!"

Whenever Gravis talked with Stella, he just felt so... calm and at peace.

It was like he was living in a dream.

Whenever Gravis looked at her, he felt like he was looking at a long-lost part of himself.

It was like Stella was the most important thing in existence.

Whenever Gravis looked at her, it was like he knew everything that went through her mind.

Stella became a bit red in the face as Gravis continued to stare at her with a kind smile. "Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked shyly.

"I just think I finally truly understand who you are," Gravis said calmly.

BOOOOM!

Stella felt the waves of a new Law coming out of Gravis and hugged him. "Finally!" she shouted in excitement.

Gravis didn’t become as excited.

To him, it felt like it was only natural.

Gravis had just comprehended the level three Law of Empathy.

Gravis had already gained a lot of insights into the Law of Empathy. Samsara had given him insights, and his love for Stella had also given him insights. Lastly, Stella’s Law of Empathy had also given Gravis some insights into the Law of Empathy.

It was only natural that Gravis comprehended the Law of Empathy.

The Law wasn’t very powerful, but it signified a major step in Gravis’ Cultivation.

Gravis now knew two Laws of the overarching Law of Emotions, the Law of Empathy and the Law of Apathy.

Even more, Gravis wouldn’t feel like he was taking advantage of Stella anymore.

Now, Gravis could also share his own Laws with her.

Gravis and Stella kissed, deeply in love, while Liam looked away with disgust.

This was his sister!

He didn’t need to see that!

While Gravis was in the spring of his life, someone else in a different location was frowning.

"Just kill me!" a terrified and rage-filled being shouted.

Yet, the white beast in front of it didn’t care as it continued to comprehend the body of the beast in front of him.

The white beast suddenly frowned.

’The Law of Empathy, huh?’ Mortis thought.

Mortis looked at the half-dead snake in front of him and used the Law.

Rage, hatred, terror, fear, helplessness, suppression.

’Useless, but it brings me a step closer to achieving actual freedom,’ Mortis thought. ’Seems like Gravis isn’t dead weight after all. At least he’s useful for something.’

The feelings Mortis had received from the snake didn’t matter to him.

This weak being could feel whatever it wanted. Its feelings were irrelevant to Mortis’ goals.

Mortis simply continued to experiment on the snake as if nothing had changed.

Chapter 929 - 929 – First Customer

After Gravis had his fill of looking at Stella, he turned back to the Gravitas with burning eyes.

"It’s time to make some money!" Gravis said with a wide smile.

Stella giggled a bit as Liam only rolled his eyes. It was only money. Who cares?

"I will now commence with the first phase of my plan," Gravis said. "For the first phase, I don’t need you, Siral. I will take care of the beasts personally."

"Yes, Master," Siral said.

"Just watch and learn," Gravis said.

"Yes, Master."

Gravis went to the beast side of the Gravitas and waited at the entrance.

WHOOP!

Gravis transformed into his beast body. Since he had to deal with beasts, using his beast body was better.

Liam was on the other side, and he didn’t have the luxury of knowing the Law of Freedom. This meant that he sadly couldn’t look at the other side.

"Narcissus," Gravis said.

"Yes?" Narcissus asked.

Sure enough, Narcissus was everywhere, even here.

"The Gravitas is now open," Gravis said. "For the first couple of customers, I’ll have to trouble you. After all, the beasts don’t know about the Gravitas yet."

"And why should I do that?" Narcissus asked.

"You want the beasts to become more powerful, right?" Gravis asked. "It’s also in your own interest to send them here."

Some seconds of silence passed.

"What do you intend to sell them?" Narcissus asked.

"It’s not really selling," Gravis said with a smirk. "I will forge equipment for the beasts with whichever ore they bring."

"Plate armor, metallic claws, metallic teeth, tail blade extensions, spikes, whatever is useful in a fight, I will forge for them. The payment will simply be the ore they bring. If they bring enough for two sets, I will give them one set and keep the remainder for myself," Gravis explained.

"I don’t think the beasts will be interested," Narcissus answered. "Beasts are not really interested in external power."

"And that’s why a human is on average more powerful than a beast, Narcissus," Gravis said. "Could you imagine fighting against a human if they don’t have a weapon or armor?"

"You can’t strip the enemy of their equipment, but you can create your own equipment. Won’t this cancel out the advantage of humans?"

Narcissus thought about these words for a bit. "You are correct in your logic, but that doesn’t change the mindset of the beasts."

Gravis only smirked. "That’s because no one is cheating yet," Gravis said.

"What do you mean?"

"Imagine a tournament among beasts," Gravis said. "The prize is something valuable, like a couple thousand years in a level five Law Comprehension Area. There is a clear favorite amongst the participants, but suddenly, one unknown beast wins by relying on armor and weapons forged with ore."

"Everyone will become enraged since they believe that this beast has cheated. Yet, they can’t change the results. The one that relied on external power has won, and that win allows them to increase their intrinsic power by comprehending an additional Law. In that sense, a momentary reliance on external power increased their intrinsic power."

"So, after this tournament, the winner doesn’t even have to rely on armor or weapons anymore. They would win on their own, regardless."

"Then, the next tournament rolls around, and even though most beasts are against relying on external power, a couple of them have been swayed. So, now, there are three with armor and weapons."

"This continues, and, at some point, every beast has to rely on armor or weapons if they want to get these juicy rewards."

Gravis lifted his right index finger.

"And the most important thing is that the beasts have not become weaker but stronger."

"So, in the end, the beasts become more powerful, and I get more customers. Win-win- right?" Gravis finished.

Narcissus thought about Gravis’ words for a while.

"You humans truly have an impressive ability to look far into the future," Narcissus admitted.

"Fine," Narcissus said. "I will send a couple of beasts."

Gravis nodded. "Thanks. If you want to see the greatest result, I would advise you to find beasts with a metal affinity. Beasts with a metal affinity like to fight in close combat the most, and equipment makes the biggest difference with them. Fire and water affinity are also good."

"Okay," Narcissus said.

Gravis nodded with a smile and then simply waited.

A week passed.

CRRRRRRRRRRR!

Stella was talking with Liam on the human side when she looked towards the beast side. "I think our first customer arrived," she said.

Liam didn’t really care.

In front of Gravis, a ten-meter-tall, silver tiger was pulling a long mountain of ore behind him with his tail. This was what created this grating noise.

’Oh!’ Gravis thought. ’Yes, the entrance to the beast territory is a bit too thin. This could make it troublesome to pull these ore mountains into the tunnel.’

’Well, luckily, this tiger has a metal affinity, and he simply changed the shape of the ore mountain into a long cylinder.’

BANG!

As the tiger reached the actual cave, he pulled the ore out of the tunnel and let it hit the ground in front of him.

The tiger looked around but only saw two beings, Siral and Gravis.

When he saw Siral, he snorted with disgust.

However, he had been told that he should simply ignore the human.

So, the tiger looked at Gravis.

"I’m here to test the effectiveness of your so-called armor and weapons," the tiger said neutrally.

He didn’t talk respectfully but also not disrespectfully to Gravis.

The tiger was a Peak Immortal King.

The only reason why the tiger was talking to Gravis at all was that Gravis was a Black Demon, and Black Demons were always very powerful. So, even if Gravis was two levels below him, the tiger still treated him like he was on the same level.

Gravis inspected the ore, and his eyes shone.

’Early Minor Circulation Immortal Emperor ore, and so much of it,’ Gravis thought. ’Beasts sure are rich!’

How much was this long cylinder of ore worth?

Too much!

Hundreds of millions of Immortal Stones!

Gravis smirked. "Sure," he said neutrally. Being polite to beasts would only damage one’s own reputation.

"What do you want?" Gravis asked.

Nearly every human customer would see such a comment as a passive-aggressive taunt.

Luckily, beasts liked talking without anything unnecessary added.

Glug! Glug!

The tiger shrunk until he was only four meters long. Then, a part of the ore mountain behind him began to liquify. In nearly an instant, the ore enveloped him.

The ore hardened again, and now, the tiger was completely encased in powerful, make-shift metal armor.

"Is your armor better than this?" the tiger asked neutrally.

"Yes, it is," Gravis said.

"Show me!"

"Create a two-by-two-meter wide, thin plate," Gravis said.

Beasts didn’t know what meters were, but since Gravis was talking with the tiger via voice transmission, the concept immediately got translated into words the tiger understood.

The tiger looked to the side and created a metal plate according to Gravis’ specifications.

"I’m going to create a plate with the same size by using the ore you brought," Gravis said.

The tiger nodded.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three bolts of Divine Lightning hit the mountain to liquefy a part of it.

The tiger’s eyes widened when he felt that this was Divine Lightning!

How!?

Gravis was four levels below the power of the ore, which meant that he needed to use a ton of Energy and Divine Lightning to manipulate and liquify the ore. Punishment Lightning wasn’t enough.

If this were a human customer, Gravis would have never used Divine Lightning in front of them.

However, when beasts saw someone with such a powerful Law, they wouldn’t think about how they could obtain it but would respect the beast due to its power.

This ore was already the limit of what Gravis could use. An additional level higher, and Gravis wouldn’t even be able to melt it.

After some minutes, Gravis created an identical plate and put it beside the other one.

The two plates leaned at the edge of the cave, beside each other.

"Attack my plate. Then, attack yours. Increase the power after each second attack. Then, you can feel the difference," Gravis said.

The tiger became interested and did as he was told.

BANG!

He lightly attacked Gravis’ plate with his claws, but that casual attack was already very powerful.

The plate didn’t bend or break.

The tiger was surprised and did the same to his own plate.

CRK!

Part of the plate cracked, but it wasn’t a crack that someone expected to see out of metal.

When one said that metal cracked, they generally thought about a crevice or crack going across the surface.

However, one had to remember that the tiger hadn’t tempered and purified the ore. This meant that the ore was acting more like a stone than metal.

So, there was no crack in the plate, but a part of it fell off like someone had hammered a pickaxe into a mountain.

The plate was still there, but it had lost a part of itself.

The tiger noticed the difference, and his eyes shone.

BANG!

He attacked Gravis’ plate again.

Nothing happened.

Another huge chunk of the tiger’s plate was broken off.

BOOOOM!

Gravis’ plate vibrated, but it was still fine.

The tiger became even more interested when he saw the vibration of the plate.

The tiger had a metal affinity, and he had been around metal its entire life.

Yet, he had never seen metal vibrate like this.

With the next attack, his own metal plate broke into two pieces.

"You can continue attacking my plate," Gravis said with a smirk. "If you manage to break it, I’ll give it to you for free."

The tiger looked at Gravis for a short moment and continued attacking Gravis’ plate.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

’How is this so hard!?’ the tiger thought with disbelief.

The tiger even transformed into his metal form and used his full power. Of course, it didn’t use any Laws. These were simply physical attacks.

Sadly, even after five minutes, it managed to only create some minor dents in the plate.

The tiger looked at his own claws that had nearly been ground into nothing.

Then, he looked at Gravis in wonder.

"Interested?" Gravis asked with a smirk.

"What can you create with the ore I brought?" the tiger asked directly.

Gravis’ smirk widened.

"Anything you can imagine," Gravis said.

Then, Gravis gave the tiger a run-down of everything he could imagine for the tiger.

Powerful armor, sharp claw extensions, tail-whips, hip spikes, defensive horns, and many more things.

The tiger’s eyes burned.

"What do you want in exchange?" he asked.

"However much ore I use on you, I want from your ore mountain as payment," Gravis explained.

The tiger looked at the ore mountain he brought.

That’s it?

The tiger had a ton of that stuff, and he really didn’t need this entire thing.

This Black Demon was about to transform him into a bringer of death, and he only wanted some of his metal?

"I agree," the tiger said.

"So, what do you want?" Gravis asked.

"All of it!"

Gravis’ eyes transformed into crescents as his smirk widened even more.

"No problem."

Chapter 930 - 930 – Money Rolling In!

"Until next time!"

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Metallic footsteps could be heard as a tiger, literally armored to the teeth, walked away with the remainder of his ore mountain.

No fur could be seen on the tiger anymore as everything was hidden behind an imposing set of armor.

Beside Gravis was a two-by-two-by-two-meter cube of metal.

This tiger had been a rich customer!

"That’s so much!" Stella said with surprise as she arrived beside Gravis, looking at the metal.

Gravis nodded. "Yep."

"Just with one customer, you already earned over 500 million Immortal Stones!" Stella exclaimed with wonder.

This ability to make money was simply too terrifying!

"Not really," Gravis said. "After all, I won’t sell this cube of metal."

"You won’t?" Stella asked with surprise. "Why?"

"Protection and advertisement," Gravis answered.

Stella became confused.

Gravis gestured to the cube. "I will use up all of this for equipment for all four of us," Gravis said.

"What? So much!?" Stella shouted in shock.

Gravis nodded. "Of course. After all, I want you all to be as powerful as possible in the case that something unforeseen happens. Additionally, when you wear your equipment while talking to customers, they will be even more impressed. A first impression is important, after all."

Stella couldn’t really argue against that, but she still felt like this was too much to accept.

That was so much money!

However, Gravis ignored her protests as he directly started to forge equipment for Stella.

After a lot of back and forth, Stella accepted her new armor, which looked far too imposing for her taste. She liked modest appearances more.

’Well, Gravis is already my man, so I might as well follow his example for a bit,’ Stella thought.

The armor looked cold, bloodthirsty, and imposing, but in her eyes, it only shone with the calm light of Gravis’ love.

This was something that Gravis had created for her.

Stella put the armor on, and it fit her perfectly. Her movement also wasn’t impaired. Even more, she had seen how Gravis had used some of his scales to create an inner armor and some gasses to create a layer between the outer and inner armor.

If an attack wasn’t powerful enough, the gasses would simply remain inside the armor, but if an incredibly powerful attack hit the armor, the explosion of the gasses would reduce the damage of the attack significantly.

Of course, the armor wouldn’t be able to resist another attack with such power since the layer of gasses would have already escaped, but that was already more than enough.

In short, this set of armor would boost the passive defense of a fighter by a lot and even had a one-time use of blocking a very powerful attack.

This armor was a literal lifesaver!

Even more, with all of Gravis’ Core Battle Laws, the passive defense of the armor was almost as powerful as armor that had been created with the level five Law of Hard Complex Materials.

On top of that, Gravis gave her five full sets!

Gravis also created several weapons for Stella.

Stella was now also armored to the teeth, just like the tiger.

As Gravis looked at Stella, he couldn’t contain his smirk.

The kind Stella was nowhere to be seen.

Now, Gravis could only see a bloodthirsty war goddess.

This was his war goddess!

While Stella continued to look at her equipment with wonder, Gravis forged equipment for Siral.

Siral almost couldn’t believe it!

He was just a servant to his master, but his master even gave him this costly set of equipment!?

"10,000 more years, Siral," Gravis said. "In 10,000 years, I will remove the effects of the Life Ring. Until then, you will help me with the Gravitas. However, I’m also not opposed if you decide to work for me after the effect of the Life Ring has worn off."

"This servant is unworthy, Master!" Siral said as he fell to his knees.

Gravis only smirked.

"Could you bring Liam over here, dear?" Gravis said to Stella.

Stella was taken out of her reverie, and she felt warmth flowing through her heart.

Gravis was even willing to give Liam such a valuable present!

"Yes!" Stella said with excitement and cute happiness in her voice.

While Stella was getting Liam, Gravis was quickly creating his own armor and weapons.

Finally, he had enough metal to create several sets of armor and weapons for himself!

Stella returned after a few minutes with a stunned Liam.

When Liam had seen Stella, he almost couldn’t recognize her.

Stella had left looking like herself but had returned a couple of minutes later, looking like a war goddess!

Yet, Liam’s shock only increased when he saw the armored Black Demon and the armored Siral in front of him.

The three of them looked at Liam.

"It’s your turn now!" Gravis said with a smirk behind his helmet.

Liam quickly recovered as he looked coldly at Gravis.

"I’ve not fallen so low that I need to rely on your goodwill," he said.

"You are my employee, and I want my employees to reflect my skills as a forger," Gravis said directly. "If you don’t want it, see it as borrowing it until the Gravitas eventually closes."

"You can look at it as your work uniform," Gravis said.

"Lastly, it also keeps your identities secret."

Liam snorted. "Fine!"

Stella saw that Gravis simply used this reason to convince Liam to accept the gift and felt happy that she chose such a thoughtful man for herself.

Just like Gravis always thought in disbelief how Stella could be so perfect, Stella also often thought in disbelief how Gravis could be so perfect.

In a weird sense, both of them felt a bit unworthy of the other.

However, they truly loved each other with all their heart.

Gravis quickly created several sets for Liam, who begrudgingly accepted them.

After that, all the ore had been used up.

Gravis had created over twenty sets of armor and a ton of weapons for everyone.

In just a couple of minutes, the impression that the Gravitas would give a new customer went through an earth-shattering change.

If a new human customer arrived before this incident, they would simply believe that this was some exclusive shop.

However, now, they would think that this was some kind of elite, powerful, underground organization.

After all, being able to equip all of their employees with such impressive equipment showed how powerful and wealthy such an organization had to be.

After getting familiar with their new "uniforms", everyone returned to their posts and waited for new customers.

Right now, the customers were rare, but all of this would change with time.

CRRRRRRR!

Gravis looked towards the tunnel from the beast side with a hidden smile.

’The next customer has come!’

It was a turtle with a metal affinity, and Gravis gave it the same demonstration as he gave the tiger.

After a couple of minutes, the turtle left, nearly looking the same as before.

It didn’t need much armor. Something for its legs and head was enough.

However, the biggest change was hidden.

Parts of its shell had been modified to hold explosive spears.

There was also a thick armor at its belly.

At first glance, one would only see a turtle wearing a helmet and boots, but the most significant changes would only truly show themselves in a fight.

A day later, the next customer arrived, and they also left happily.

A month passed, and Gravis had served over 15 customers by now.

The customers all had different levels of power, ranging from the early Immortal Realm to the very peak of the Immortal King Realm.

There was even one Immortal Emperor that had arrived, but Gravis had to send them away.

Creating equipment at the same level as the Immortal Emperor wouldn’t be that effective, and Gravis preferred the quality of his reputation more than the quantity.

Sadly, Gravis didn’t have the power to create suitable equipment for the Immortal Emperor.

All the metal that Gravis had gathered was already transported to the human side of the Gravitas, where parts of it were displayed in some cases. The bulk of the metal was kept in Stella’s Spirit Space.

Another two months passed, and by now, around one beast customer arrived per day.

Gravis now had a ton of different kinds of ore in the Gravitas, and he felt like it was time to get some human customers.

Gravis fished out a token Exar had given him.

"I think I have enough ore to make a worthwhile trade. Do you want to send individual customers, or do you want to purchase the ore wholesale for your two organizations?" Gravis asked.

"What do you have?" Exar asked neutrally.

Gravis told Exar about all the ore he had on hand now.

"Beasts sure are wealthy," Exar said. "I will send someone to purchase all of it at 70% of the market price."

"That’s fine," Gravis said.

After all, Underworld also had to make a profit.

Like this, Gravis had exchanged some hours of his time for hundreds of millions of Immortal Stones.

This truly was a terrifying ability to make money!

Sure enough, creating a business was the way to become rich!