Ch. 951..960

Chapter 951: Power of the Living World

Gravis looked at the army of plant-men standing in front of him. All of them exhibited auras on the level of a Peak Law Comprehension Cultivator, and they also felt quite powerful, even for their level.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Arc asked with a laugh.

Gravis nodded as he looked at them. However, after some time, he noticed something.

"They don't have a will," Gravis said.

"Correct," Arc said. "The Law of the Living World only allows you to create a world filled with the most basic forms of life. These plant-people have only been created with the Law of the Living World, meaning that they weren't created with the Law of Emotions and the Law of Perceived Reality."

"This means that they don't have emotions and that they can't make sense of reality. They have the same power of consciousness as an ant, a blade of grass, and other very basic forms of life."

"The Law of the Complex Living World, which is the Law of the Living World fused with the Law of Emotions, would allow you to create beings with emotions. These beings would have the consciousness of mortal animals, Ferocious Beasts, Demonic Beasts, and Energy Beasts."

"The Law of the True World, which would be the Law of the Complex Living World fused with the Law of Perceived Reality, would allow you to create intelligent life. You can create humans, smart beasts, Spirits, and even Will-Auras."

Gravis nodded as he inspected the plant people some more. After a while, Gravis also noticed something else that intrigued him.

"Their bodies are powerful," Gravis said.

"Yep," Arc answered. "Any body below the Immortal Realm isn't directly connected to a soul, which means that you can create very powerful bodies with the Law of the Living World. The bodies of these plant-people are all on the same level as a beast's body."

"Sadly, since they can't comprehend reality, they also can't comprehend Laws. So, they can only fight with their bodies," Arc explained. "Additionally, I have to give them orders with my own Spirit."

Gravis frowned. "That doesn't sound that powerful," Gravis said. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I would have believed that the Law of the Living World would be more powerful. After all, even if I were a Peak Law Comprehension Realm Cultivator right now without any knowledge in the Laws of Life or the Law of the Dead World, I could still easily kill that army."

Arc chuckled a bit. "Gravis," he said with some amusement. "These beings are perfectly synchronized and can perfectly stack their powers together. You can easily kill them if there were only a couple of them, but a hundred would still be difficult for you to resist. You would probably still win, but a thousand would overwhelm you."

Gravis furrowed his brows. "How?" he asked.

"Wanna see?" Arc asked with a smirk. "Just use your Lightning Fork to create a body on the Peak Law Comprehension Realm."

Gravis scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, but he complied since Arc's words interested him.

"Try it," Arc said.

The weaker body of Gravis loaded his saber with a Lightning Crescent and shot it at the plant people.

Clank!

All the plant people immediately charged at each other. At the same time, they all pointed their spears at Gravis' Lightning Crescent.

BOOOOOOM!

The Lightning Crescent exploded, but Arc kept it localized to the fighting stage.

After the explosion vanished, Gravis' eyes shone slightly.

Only around 50 of them had died.

This was beyond impressive!

After all, Gravis' Lightning Crescent was powerful enough to kill beasts three levels above himself in a single shot, while all of these plant people were at the same level as him.

However, the plant people that died had left behind their Energy, which had turned into lightning.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Gravis used the remaining lightning to wipe out the last survivors.

Arc nodded. "Did you notice?" Arc asked.

Gravis frowned.

This fight had seemed easy, quick, and straightforward, but there had been a hidden danger.

"All the plant people resisted my Lightning Crescent as a single unit. It wasn't like I was attacking 100 beasts simultaneously, but like I was attacking one beast with a body 100 times more powerful than my own. Only the outer 50 beings died, which would be akin to the beast losing 50% of its body in one attack. Such an attack would be extremely dangerous for such a beast, but not deadly," Gravis explained.

Arc nodded again. "Exactly!" he said with a smile. "A beast one level above yourself has a body four times as powerful as your own. A beast two levels above yourself has a body 16 times as powerful as your own, and one three levels above yourself has a body 64 times as powerful."

"Your Lightning Crescent is powerful enough to kill a beast three levels above yourself instantly, which means that it has a destructive power over 64 times more powerful than a purely physical attack with your fists and claws."

"However, there were 100 plant-people, which, when combined, created a being with a body 100 times as powerful as your own. Something like this isn't nearly on the level of a beast four levels above yourself but stronger than a beast three levels above yourself."

"So," Arc said as a smirk formed on his lips. "What if I create 500?"

Gravis took a deep breath.

He simulated the fight in his head, and the result wasn't optimistic for him.

Gravis had noticed how his Lightning Crescent had been distributed to all 100 plant people. The destructive power was shared amongst them.

When the plant people noticed that they couldn't all resist the attack, they all transferred the destructive power to the outer half.

However, if there were 500 of them, every single one of them would only receive a large cut, but such an injury was nothing serious for Law Comprehension Realm Cultivators. They would still be able to fight with their full power, and the injuries would quickly heal.

In short, if Gravis unleashed a Lightning Crescent at 500 of these plant people, not a single one would die. Instead, they would all only receive a large cut that would heal quickly.

One had to know that Gravis had unleashed his entire Energy storage into this attack, and, at most, he would be able to unleash another attack with such power due to having another Lightning Crescent stored in another weapon.

So, when Gravis unleashed the second Lightning Crescent, the plant-people would only receive another cut that wouldn't stop them.

And Gravis?

Gravis would be out of Energy.

At that point, he could only wait for his death.

Even more, since the plant people didn't have any wills, Gravis' Will-Aura became basically useless.

If Gravis chose to attack from melee range, the soldiers would pile onto him and would attack him at the same time. Gravis might be able to survive a couple of attacks that were shot at him simultaneously but not hundreds.

Mortality?

That would only kill a single one.

Mortality was created to kill a single being, and as long as the other soldiers ignored the one that was struck, only that lonely soldier would die.

Samsara?

Useless.

They didn't have a will, to begin with, and Samsara was also an attack that would only hit a single being.

Using the Element of Deep Wood to destroy their souls?

That would work!

Their souls were exceptionally weak since they weren't protected by a will. However, that would also only take out one at a time. Gravis would still be bombarded by a wave of enemies.

The only solution Gravis could come up with was summing multiple Divine Lightning bolts or burying all of them in magma.

However, these Laws were level five and level six Laws.

Would someone in the Law Comprehension Realm know such Laws?

Of course not.

So, that only left a single solution in Gravis' mind.

Retreat.

Gravis could only kill these plant people by using hit-and-run tactics to regain his Energy. After all, they didn't have any Laws, which meant that Gravis had a speed advantage since he knew a lot of speed-related Laws.

However, there was also a problem with that technique.

These 500 plant people wouldn't be his only enemies. After all, there would also be the person that created them behind them. That person could probably chase Gravis and keep him occupied until the army swallowed him.

Gravis sighed.

'This Law basically makes you invincible in the Law Comprehension Realm, but it becomes relatively useless as soon as someone made some progress in the Immortal Realm.'

'However, there's still the Major Law of the Living World, which Arc will use against me in the future.'

Gravis glanced at Arc, who was smiling.

'Arc would be able to use the Major Law of the Living World against me.'

'In short, I would be attacked by thousands of Peak Immortal Emperors.'

'That's truly terrifying.'

Arc looked into Gravis' eyes and chuckled. "I can guess what you're thinking about, and yes, resisting something like that is nearly impossible. You can only resist something like that if you have an equally powerful Law."

"Gravis," Arc said. "Do you understand now why I told you that you have to comprehend the Law of Sentience first before fighting me?"

Gravis nodded.

"If you want to win against me in the future, you need the Law of Sentience. After all, don't forget that the Law of the Living World will also be my Avatar in the fight. With it as my Avatar, I can create four times as many soldiers as I would normally."

"Only with the Law of Sentience can you withstand such a powerful force," Arc explained.

Gravis nodded.

"Thanks, Arc."

"No problem," Arc answered with a wide smile.

Chapter 952: Fast Snake

Gravis talked with Arc a couple hours more about life. Gravis knew that he didn't have full power over the creation of life, but he still had made great progress in that aspect.

Gravis was a bit worried about having the ability to create intelligent humans in the future. The words of the Black Magnate still rung in his ears, and as Gravis saw that he was closing in on the Black Magnate's domain of power, Gravis felt the words to be more real than ever before.

However, Gravis reminded himself that power was not his goal. With Stella and his family at his side, Gravis would never fall into the greyness that the Black Magnate was still trying to escape from. It was easy to say but difficult to achieve. Yet, as long as Gravis tried his best, he could continue on his path to power without any regrets.

Arc told Gravis that he shouldn't worry about these things yet. When he became powerful enough to do something like this, he would have also grown more emotionally.

Additionally, Gravis would first need to get through Arc. After all, it was impossible that Gravis would reach such powers before winning against him.

Lastly, Arc also knew about the promise that Gravis had made with Mortis.

Before everything else, Gravis first had to live through the Gate of Death and then fight Arc. Only then could he worry about his future power.

Gravis still found the topic of his future fight with Arc difficult to talk about. He wasn't mad at Arc for being a danger to his life, but he felt guilty about eventually killing Arc.

Arc had been supportive of Gravis all this time, and there was no falsehood coming from Arc.

Gravis didn't want to kill Arc in the future, but there was no other way, sadly.

Anyway, that was a problem for the future. Right now, Gravis only had to look at more Laws to comprehend.

Gravis teleported back and continued looking for the level four Major Laws of Speed and Defense.

After a bit of searching, Gravis found the Law Comprehension Area for the Major Law of Speed and entered it after giving the guard his token.

Just like the previous guard, this one was also surprised by the power of this token. It was simply beyond his power to understand it. How powerful must the being be to grant someone such a powerful token!?

Gravis entered the Law Comprehension Area and saw a snake sitting in the middle of a clearing.

Gravis found it a bit weird that a snake would be teaching him the Major Law of Speed, but snakes had a different kind of speed. They weren't super fast on "foot" but quite quick when it came to their strikes.

Maybe the snake had wanted to comprehend the Law in the past to increase its attacking speed?

The snake opened its eyes and looked at Gravis. "I will attack you non-lethally with different attacks," the snake said directly without any introductions. "I will activate and deactivate the Major Law of Speed to make my attacks more confusing and harder to foresee."

Gravis nodded.

This snake was in the Mid Major Circulation Immortal King Realm, just a single level below Gravis. Usually, it would be slower than Gravis by a level, but with the Major Law of Speed, it could probably become faster than Gravis as long as Gravis didn't activate his own speed-related Laws.

The snake uncurled itself as its body coiled into a spring shape.

BANG!

Then, it shot forward.

The speed was still something that Gravis could handle.

However, then, Gravis saw the body of the snake blur for a second. Gravis had been following the snake's movements without any problems so far, but in an instant, the snake shot to the side while becoming many times faster.

This made it hard to predict its movements, allowing the snake to close in on Gravis.

This kind of movement technique wasn't something new.

Mortal flies moved the same way.

They simply flew in a line, and suddenly, they took a sudden turn and shot in a different direction. That was also the reason why it was so hard to keep one's eyes focused on the fly, much less hit it. For an instant, the human would lose the fly from their vision, which meant that they had to search for it again.

The snake had a thin body that flowed from one end to the other without any arms or legs, which helped it pull off this kind of movement technique.

The snake reached Gravis and bit him.

BANG!

A bit of lightning exploded as Gravis shoved the snake's head to the side.

Gravis had to resort to his own speed-related Laws to keep up, even though the snake was an entire level below him.

That was already an amazing feat.

The snake quickly "stood" up as it readied itself to shoot at Gravis again.

In comparison to that one bull that taught Gravis the Law of Supreme Strength, this snake didn't want to "dominate" Gravis. It was only interested in teaching him the Law as quickly as possible so that it could get back to comprehending its own Laws.

By now, Gravis was a bit more prepared for the snake's explosive speed, but he still had to activate his own speed-related Laws from time to time.

The snake was very experienced when it came to closing in on its target.

This was probably the most intense Law Comprehension session that Gravis had been part of in recent memory.

It was a constant assault from the snake, forcing Gravis to keep his concentration at his peak.

Luckily, Gravis had trained his concentration for a really long time in order to control multiple bodies and to forge equipment. Both of these things required a ton of concentration.

Because of that, Gravis' concentration didn't run out.

It took Gravis only 150 years to comprehend the Major Law of Speed.

One reason why this was so fast was due to Gravis knowing far more Life Laws and because the snake was an outstanding teacher.

It was using a weaker form of tempering to shove the Major Law of Speed into Gravis.

This was similar to what the middle Heaven had done to Gravis but not nearly as intense.

The snake also got something out of this Law Comprehension session.

The snake was incredibly confident in its own power to close in on enemies. However, it hadn't managed to hit Gravis even once in 150 years.

This gave the snake also an excellent way to find more ways to close in on the target. After a while, it even nearly forgot that it was supposed to teach the Major Law of Speed to Gravis as it was far more focused on improving itself.

However, in the end, it didn't forget its job and kept the focus on the actual Law instead of the clash between them.

When Gravis comprehended the Law, he also suddenly accelerated as he pushed the snake's head away.

The snake noticed this, and its eyes slightly widened in shock.

That was far too fast!

Gravis only grinned at it. "Thanks," he said.

He knew that beasts didn't want to be thanked, but Gravis wanted to thank the snake anyway.

The snake looked with a complex expression at Gravis, unsure how it should feel.

"I guess, thank you, as well?" the snake said with an unsure tone.

Gravis only snickered a bit, nodded, and teleported away.

The snake was still a bit confused about their exchange just now.

'What a weird beast.'

Chapter 953: Mortis Finds Tempering

Gravis moved to the next Law Comprehension Area, but before he could get there, he was intercepted by a message.

"I comprehended the level five Law of Lightning's Supreme Speed," Mortis sent him.

Gravis was pleasantly surprised. "Oh right, it has already been a couple of years since we last talked. Nice."

"Have you comprehended something of relevance during this time?" Mortis asked.

Gravis chuckled a bit. "I learned a few Laws," he said.

Then, Gravis told Mortis about all the Laws that he had comprehended.

"The Law of the Living World, huh?" Mortis asked. His voice sounded thoughtful like he was trying to taste the words. "Then, we truly need to comprehend the Law of Sentience before we can fight Arc in the future. Otherwise, from what you've told me, we would be helpless in front of him."

Gravis nodded. "I agree. I'm not sure what power the Law of Sentience has, but it has to have the ability to resist the Law of the Living World since it's on the same level, and it might even be more powerful. After all, the Law of Perceived Reality is a level five Law, while the Law of the Dead World is only a level four Law. Additionally, the Law of Perceived Reality should be by far the hardest to comprehend under normal circumstances."

Mortis also nodded. However, his brows furrowed quickly. "However, there is an issue with the Body Battle Laws you have comprehended."

Gravis already knew the Law, which meant that he knew exactly what Mortis was referring to.

"You can't use them, right?" Gravis asked.

"Correct," Mortis answered. "In order to fuse the Body Battle Laws into a body, one needs a body made up of a force that can easily mix with other things. My body is made of Divine Lightning, which makes it impossible for me to fuse the forces together in such a way."

"Advantages and disadvantages, eh?" Gravis commented. "You can split your body apart, and your body can't be dissolved with the level five Law of Body Composition. However, you can't use some of the Laws of the body because of that. I guess it might actually be better that I have my Void Lightning."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Mortis answered. "After all, I don't have to convert my Energy into Divine Lightning first, which means that I don't lose anything due to the conversion. My storage of Divine Lightning is many times larger than yours. I'm fine with what I currently have."

Gravis nodded again. "You can see it like that. To each their own," Gravis said. "So, what's next on the agenda?"

"More level five Lightning Battle Laws," Mortis answered. "I still want three more level five Battle Laws for Lightning. With all of them combined, I should have the ability to push my Divine Lightning close to the power of a level seven Law. By using these Laws with a Lightning Crescent, I should be able to unleash an attack a little bit more powerful than a level seven Law."

"At that point, even if I fight someone that has a level six Law as their Avatar, I wouldn't be on a disadvantage."

"Alright," Gravis answered. "I will finish the Major Law of Defense first. After that, I will look at the level five Laws. From what I can see, these Laws work similarly to the Law of Temperature. I think that the three Major Laws of Strength, Defense, and Speed will fuse together into one Law."

Mortis furrowed his brows as he thought about Gravis' words for a few seconds. Mortis also knew the Law, and he was in no way less intelligent than Gravis, which meant that he also quickly found the answer.

"You can't use them simultaneously," Mortis said.

Gravis nodded. "Correct. I'm pretty sure there is a way to use them simultaneously, but it feels even more complex than learning a single one of them. I'm pretty sure that's a level five Law I'm looking at."

"Makes sense," Mortis answered. "By the way, don't forget that we have comprehended six level five Laws in total now. Your first one was the Law of Magma, which you comprehended with a Law Comprehension Life Fruit. By now, we should have comprehended enough level five Laws that we can consume more Life Fruits."

Gravis' eyes widened. "Has it really already been five Laws?" Gravis asked. Then, he counted in his head.

The Law of Magma was the first one.

Then, the Law of Perceived Reality came.

After that came Lightning Manipulation.

Then came the Laws of Body Growth and Body Composition.

And now, Mortis comprehended the Law of Lightning's Speed.

"Huh, it has really been five Laws," Gravis said. "What do you think I should eat? After all, I have Law Comprehension Life Fruits for basically anything."

"I would advise getting something that would be troublesome to comprehend," Mortis said. "We can find Law Comprehension Areas for all the Mixed Elements with ease. We don't need to look into the Life Laws since you already comprehended the most important ones. The beasts shouldn't have access to the Laws of Emotions and Perceived Reality."

"You can get the Law of Temperatures from Stella, and level five Battle Laws should also not be that hard to find."

"We can find Law Comprehension Areas for nearly everything. However, there is one set of Law that's always troublesome to comprehend, not because it's harder than the others, but that finding a place to comprehend it is tedious," Mortis explained.

Gravis' eyes shone. "The Complex Materials Laws!"

Mortis nodded. "We can comprehend the Soft Complex Material Law pretty easily after we have all the Mixed Elements. Soft Materials aren't very powerful, and creating them doesn't cost much Energy. The same thing should also be true for the Medium Complex Material Law."

"That leaves the Hard Complex Law," Gravis interjected. "All these materials need a ton of Energy to be created, which means that most of our time is spent regenerating our Energy. So, you think I should consume Life Fruits for the Hard Complex Material Law?"

"I think that would be best," Mortis answered.

Gravis nodded. "Luckily, I have a set of these fruits. The beasts probably didn't want to give me the good Laws like the Mixed Elemental Laws, fearing that they would fall into the hand of humans. The Hard Complex Law is only useful while fighting against humans, but not while fighting beasts, at least not as long as the beast is fighting naked."

"Luck, huh?" Mortis answered without amusement.

"Kind of," Gravis said with a complex expression.

"Hmph, doesn't matter," Mortis answered. "I don't have time to think about that stuff."

With that said, Mortis cut off the connection, and Gravis only smiled bitterly. 'Always so blunt and direct.'

After talking with Mortis, Gravis went on to comprehend the Major Law of Defense.

Comprehending that Law wasn't anything more special than the last few Law Comprehension Areas. There was only a black tortoise in a clearing that attacked Gravis. Gravis was supposed to fight back with enough force to injure the tortoise but not kill it.

The tortoise gave an impressive performance with its defenses, even surprising Gravis.

It really wasn't easy to injure that tortoise without using Laws and using an actual weapon.

It took Gravis 200 years until he comprehended the Law, and when he did so, he nodded to the tortoise and left.

Mortis noticed that Gravis was done based on what Gravis' feelings were telling him, and he directly contacted Gravis.

"Gravis, I need you to eat the Law Comprehension Life Fruits of the Hard Complex Material Law right now," Mortis said.

Gravis blinked a couple of times in surprise.

Mortis' choice of words was a bit unusual. On top of that, Mortis wouldn't really care that much in which order Gravis comprehended Laws.

"What's up?" Gravis asked.

"You need to consume the fruits right now and comprehend the Law," Mortis answered. "After that, I need you to come to me."

Gravis furrowed his brows.

Gravis knew Mortis, and he immediately had an inkling about what was happening.

"Are you in trouble?" Gravis asked.

"No," Mortis answered. "I found tempering."

Gravis narrowed his eyes. "And how come you are asking me to come to you?"

"Because I'm too weak to win on my own."

Gravis' eyebrows shot up. He was certain that Mortis had the confidence to kill someone five levels above himself.

However, he asked for help.

"Did you challenge someone six levels above yourself?" Gravis asked worriedly. He believed that six levels were still too much, even with the two of them fighting together.

"No," Mortis said.

Gravis sighed in relief. "Then why do you need me?"

"It's a Black Demon."

Gravis took a deep breath.

That explained it.

"I already challenged him, and our fight will commence in 200 years. He carries weapons made with the Hard Complex Law. It's probable that the beasts have already managed to create some forgers, who are equipping the Black Demons first. If we fight him directly, our weapons will only end up being destroyed."

Gravis scratched his chin in thought. "What brought this fight on?"

"He saw my token and told me that I am supposed to find power on my own and not rely on someone else's goodwill. His eyes spoke of disregard, and I very clearly told him that I earned this token myself."

"That's when he tried to suppress me with his superior power, telling me that he's helping me out of his own goodwill and that I'm supposed to respect my superiors," Mortis answered.

Gravis sighed.

Would Gravis have acted the same way?

Probably.

"Alright, give me 150 years."

Chapter 954: Ready

Gravis went to a secluded place deep underground to comprehend the Hard Complex Material Law.

However, for quite some time, Gravis couldn't calm down.

A hard fight was on the horizon.

Gravis knew that this fight wouldn't be as dangerous as his fight against Eran, but there was still a good chance that Gravis might die. If Gravis were to fight alone, this fight would probably be even more dangerous than his fight against Eran, but he was fighting with Mortis.

Together with Mortis, it should be possible to win the fight.

'It's been over 11,000 years since my last tempering,' Gravis thought. 'Far shorter than the break I had before that, but it feels even longer. However, that's understandable since I've done a lot of memorable things since then.'

Gravis took out the four fruits and looked at them. 'Three should be enough with my experience in the Material Laws. I also don't need tempering for level five Laws anymore, which should make this far easier.'

'It's all thanks to my affinity with lightning, actually,' Gravis thought with furrowed brows. 'Usually, Cultivators need to comprehend about three level five Laws before they can comprehend another one without tempering. Yet, thanks to my affinity towards lightning, I can look at the Lightning Laws first, allowing me to gather enough experience.'

'Anyway, I should eat the fruit first.'

Gravis threw the fruit into his maw and closed his eyes.

As soon as the fruit reached his stomach, Gravis felt a ton of materials being created in his stomach. Yet, these materials didn't just stay there but quickly dispersed again.

In just the blink of an eye, so many materials had materialized and dematerialized. These materials existed, but they also kind of didn't exist. Their Energy didn't settle down, after all. If the Energy settled down, the materials would actually manifest, and they wouldn't vanish anymore.

However, that would mean that the Energy would also be used up.

There wasn't so much Energy in the Life Fruits to create many materials, but that wasn't the important part. The important part was that the Energy was almost ethereal as it manifested into materials and then transformed into Energy again.

As Gravis concentrated on all these materials, something suddenly shocked him so hard that his focus was broken.

'What was that just now!?' Gravis thought. 'Did I see that correctly!?'

Gravis continued looking at the manifesting materials but no longer cared about the Law for now. Right now, he was only focusing on categorizing the materials.

Whoop!

Something appeared for a short moment just to vanish again, but Gravis' Spirit was fast enough to look at it in detail.

Gravis took a deep breath.

'Sure enough,' Gravis thought. 'Who would have thought?'

What did Gravis see?

A Middle World Core!

The Hard Complex Material Law could create Middle World Cores!

No wonder there were so few in an entire middle world. They were created by the level five Hard Complex Material Law!

'But then, how can these Middle World Cores appear in a middle world? The amount of Energy required to create them is far more than the Energy an entire middle world should have.'

Gravis scratched his chin.

'This can only mean that they were placed there deliberately by something that's not from a middle world, a higher Heaven probably.'

Gravis' brows furrowed.

'Are the Middle World Cores actually really the core of a middle world? Do they have some kind of function that allows a world to be a world?'

Gravis tried to find the way a Heaven would use a World Core to structure the world, but Gravis' knowledge wasn't deep enough to make a concrete conclusion. He had a couple of suspicions, but he couldn't be sure.

After the shock subsided, Gravis went back to concentrating on the Law. The Life Fruit only held for a limited amount of time, and Gravis couldn't waste it.

After ten years, the forces in the Life Fruit vanished, and Gravis spent the next 50 years consolidating his new understanding.

Then, he ate the second fruit, and the same process repeated.

BOOOOM!

And 140 years after ingesting the first fruit, Gravis comprehended the Major Law of Complex Materials!

Gravis took a deep breath.

BANG!

Gravis summoned several different kinds of ores and mixed them together with his lightning.

After a couple of seconds, Gravis created a ton of weapons. All of them were created with Hard Complex Materials at the level of an Early Minor Circulation Immortal Emperor. Together with the level four Battle Laws for Core, Gravis made the weapons powerful enough to resist someone five levels above himself.

The most powerful attacks of his opponent might still break Gravis' weapons, but just a random attack wouldn't be enough.

'This is a fight against a beast five levels higher than me, which means that its body is insanely powerful. Winning against a human would already be easier since my Law of Freedom counters their Will-Aura. A human might be able to unleash more powerful attacks with a higher frequency thanks to their superior Energy storage and Spirit, but their speed and defense are lacking.'

'Even with our newly comprehended level five Law of Lightning's Supreme Speed, we will certainly still be slower than our opponent. After all, our opponent's body is simply far too overpowering.'

'I can still imagine winning against a beast five levels higher than me, but this enemy is a Black Demon. Honestly, if Mortis didn't fight with me, I wouldn't dare to fight someone like that. It would be suicide.'

After finishing his equipment, Gravis contacted Mortis.

"I'm done. I'm now coming to your location," he transmitted.

"I finished comprehending the level five Law of Lightning's Supreme Power some years ago, too," Mortis answered. "With that, our attacking power should be enough to get through our opponent's defense. If I hadn't had confidence that I could comprehend this Law in such a short amount of time, I wouldn't have challenged him. This Law is imperative if we want to actually win."

Gravis nodded.

BANG!

After that, Gravis shot towards the northwest, the place where Mortis was currently.

After a couple hours, Gravis arrived.

It was a massive mountain range that went high into the sky, each mountain being thousands of kilometers tall. At the top of the mountains, Gravis could feel powerful bolts of lightning clashing against each other.

The tops of these mountains were obviously a Law Comprehension Area for a lightning-related Battle Law.

The lightning bolts were illuminating the clouds in a seizure-inducing display of blinding light.

Gravis quickly found Mortis and appeared beside him.

They weren't standing close to the mountains currently, but in a gigantic wasteland to the east of them.

The opponent was also already present.

It was a Black Demon standing on two human legs. He had four arms, which ended in four sharp claws. His head looked similar to the head a dragon would have, filled with violent, black scales and terrifying fangs. He even had a zagged, long, black horn, which he probably used to defend his head from any attacks.

Mortis stood beside Gravis, also in his beast form.

In front of the Black Demon stood two other Black Demons now, one of them black, the other white.

Mortis had only two arms, while Gravis had six.

SHING!

Mortis took out his saber. He had already created a couple of new ones with the Law of Hard Complex Materials.

Gravis also took out some sabers.

The Black Demon took out two spears and two swords.

No introduction was necessary.

When beasts fought, they didn't need to talk much.

Fighting came naturally.

Chapter 955: Three Black Demons

Gravis and Mortis looked at the Black Demon as they readied themselves for battle.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" the Black Demon asked coldly. "I've believed that the friend you were going to call would be more powerful than you, but it turns out that he is also just a Late Major Circulation Immortal King. I told you that you should respect your higher-ups so that you don't accidentally get killed by someone that's not as mildly tempered as I am."

Gravis wasn't there when the two of them talked previously, but he could already picture it very well.

The Black Demon probably thought that Mortis was relying on someone else to become powerful. In the Black Demon's perspective, this was akin to throwing away one's future prospects. He probably honestly only wanted to give Mortis some good advice.

Sadly, the Black Demon talked to Mortis like he was better than him, even though he was in a Realm that Mortis could still fight against.

Mortis probably said something along the lines that this didn't have anything to do with him and that the Black Demon should mind his own business.

Of course, the Black Demon took this as disrespectful behavior from a young beast that he perceived to be spoiled.

And that's how everything escalated.

Sometimes, a "misunderstanding" would result in the death of someone.

BANG!

While Gravis was still thinking about the situation, Mortis already shot forward with his full speed. Divine Lightning exploded beneath Mortis' feet, enhanced by the Laws of Lightning's Supreme Speed, Lightning's Manipulation, and Lightning's Supreme Power. Simultaneously, Mortis was also using the level three Law of Time to boost his speed.

In short, Mortis was using one level six Law, three level five Laws, and one level three Law solely to increase his speed.

Mortis' speed was ridiculous for his Realm.

However, the Black Demon was five levels above them as a Mid Minor Circulation Immortal Emperor.

This meant that the physical power of the Black Demon was a whopping 1,024 times as powerful as Mortis' physical power!

Just this advantage alone already gave him an insane amount of speed!

The Black Demon was stunned.

How was that Immortal King so fast!?

Additionally, was that Divine Lightning!?

Yet, the Black Demon was a veteran in combat, and his stunned surprise didn't stop him from reacting.

The Black Demon stabbed forward with two spears while keeping his swords close to himself.

Gravis saw this and narrowed his eyes.

If Mortis continued like this, he would get impaled by the spears. Sure, he would still be able to unleash a powerful Lightning Crescent, but it was too dangerous.

Mortis also had to know that his opponent wouldn't make such a rookie mistake where they didn't realize what it meant to trade injuries for death.

In short, the chances of success that Mortis' assault would win the fight was minuscule, and Mortis should know that.

This only left one possibility.

Mortis was entrusting his life to Gravis.

Gravis wouldn't disappoint Mortis. After all, Gravis saw Mortis as a younger, less experienced version of himself. Even if Gravis didn't want to admit it, he was looking at Mortis like Mortis was a younger brother.

He had to protect his younger brother.

Gravis' claws extended forward, and he moved them in peculiar ways to manipulate reality.

Gravis' Law of Perceived Reality activated, and with Mortis present, its power was boosted to the power of a level six Law.

At the same time, Gravis was hiding something else he was preparing.

SHING! BANG!

One of the spears missed completely while the other one grazed Mortis. However, as soon as it touched Mortis, a violent explosion of Frostinferno appeared. Just like the name implied, this was the Mixed Element of Inferno and Frost.

Mortis was thrown to the left side of the Black Demon as parts of his body started freezing solid while other parts turned to ash.

The power of Frostinferno was that the powers of Frost and Inferno were mixed together without being canceled out. It was like taking a bucket filled half with water and half with oil, stirring it violently so that both liquids didn't have time to settle in their respective places, and then throwing the bucket at an opponent.

They would be splattered by drops of water and oil in random places.

As Mortis flew to the side, the Black Demon readied his swords and also slashed to the side.

Mortis was stunned for a second since the Frostinferno was making it hard for him to evade.

SHING! SHING!

However, the two strikes hit the Black Demon's right side, while Mortis was thrown to his left side!

This was the doing of Gravis' Law of Perceived Reality.

As long as something looked believable in the eyes of someone, they wouldn't question their perception. The Black Demon saw and heard the explosion, which meant that he knew that his Frostinferno had hit.

However, the Black Demon didn't feel which spear touched Mortis since the spear was just too sharp. Hitting Mortis felt no different from hitting air.

So, Gravis changed the perception of the Black Demon.

The Black Demon noticed that the Mortis he had just struck seemingly vanished into nothingness, and his mind became filled with fear.

Mortis recovered instantly thanks to the level five Law of Body Growth and summoned a second saber, which was also filled with a Lightning Crescent.

Then, Mortis struck with both sabers at once.

Both of them hit the right shoulder of the Black Demon.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Over ten thousand kilometers were turned into nothingness as the ground and sky vanished, leaving behind a humongous crater.

The explosion immediately vanished.

BANG!

Mortis was out of Energy and accelerated again, but without his lightning. Instead, he was only using his body.

However, Mortis was not charging into the crater, but into the distance.

Gravis noticed what Mortis was doing and immediately knew why he was doing it.

'Fine!' Gravis thought.

BOOOOM!

A violent explosion of dirt occurred in the crater.

The Black Demon was charging out of the crater, and he was multiple times faster than Mortis when he had used his full speed!

The Black Demon had just eaten two Lightning Crescents from a point-blank distance.

However, he had only lost his right arm, and the right side of his body only lost some skin and muscles.

Such an injury was not deadly for an Immortal Emperor.

In fact, it wasn't even debilitating since his body was healing with quite some speed.

The Black Demon's defense was ridiculously powerful!

Yet, Gravis noticed that his body wasn't healing as quickly as anticipated.

'He probably knows several level four Body Growth Laws, but not the level five variant. Even the level four Body Growth Laws need some time to heal the body of a beast in the Immortal Emperor Realm,' Gravis thought.

The Black Demon was charging after Mortis with insane speeds, quickly gaining ground. None of the two could teleport since the Lightning Crescents had thrown space into chaos.

Suddenly, Mortis looked back and noticed the Black Demon charging after him.

BANG!

Then, lightning exploded out of him as he took a sharp turn.

He was now charging at Gravis.

The Black Demon saw this and thought that Mortis was probably seeking help from Gravis to recover some Energy and also charged at Gravis.

This white Black Demon was insanely powerful, and he definitely couldn't take him lightly. However, there was also that other Black Demon that was his opponent.

It was impossible that the other Black Demon was just as ridiculously powerful as the white one, right?

So, as long as he took out the other Black Demon first, he would fight Mortis in a one-versus-one.

As Mortis charged at Gravis, the Black Demon was also charging at him.

However, due to the speed difference, the Black Demon arrived at Gravis' location far earlier than Mortis.

The Black Demon readied his spears and stabbed them at Gravis.

What the Black Demon didn't notice was that Mortis had seemingly vanished.

Mortis had never changed his direction.

In reality, he had been charging into the distance without pause.

Gravis had manipulated reality so that the Black Demon thought that Mortis would charge towards Gravis. After all, it was normal to seek the help of a teammate when an overpowering enemy was attacking them.

The Black Demon hadn't questioned his perception at all.

Gravis smirked as he saw the two spears coming towards him.

Gravis lifted his right index claw and pointed it at the Black Demon.

Gravis winked with a smile.

"Bang!"

BANG! BRRRRRRRRRRR!

Out of nowhere, a spear suddenly shot at the Black Demon's torso with ridiculous speeds.

This was the other thing that Gravis had kept hidden with his Law of Perceived Reality.

Mortality!

Chapter 956: Gravis Is More Dangerous!

Mortality shot at the Black Demon and hit his chest.

BANG!

The spear met some crazy resistance when it hit the Black Demon's chest, and the form of the spear was already bent beyond recognition. It was basically shrinking in on itself as the power of the lightning runes that launched it compressed it to an insane degree.

CRK!

As the tiny Lightning Crescent in the spear's tip exploded, the scales of the opponent's chest were blasted apart.

While all of this was happening, the Black Demon still shot his spears forward at Gravis, but the force of Mortality was pushing his body back, which made it impossible for the Black Demon to hit Gravis.

As the main-head of the spear exploded with the Lightning Crescent, the hidden spike below the spearhead stabbed into the Black Demon's exposed chest.

BRRRRRRRR!

The actual Lightning Crescent exploded in the Black Demon's chest, but the sound was very different from usual.

Usually, the opponents just exploded when they got hit by Mortality, but the insane defense of the Black Demon was just too powerful.

As the Lightning Crescent exploded inside of him, it made a sound more akin to a violently burning flame slowly melting through metal.

In the end, a big, circular hole appeared in the Black Demon's chest. A small part of the hole went through his entire body, but most of it had turned an extensive area of his chest into a crater.

Gravis wasn't surprised by this.

The Black Demon had survived two fully-powered Lightning Crescents from Mortis.

Being able to survive something like that showed that the Black Demon knew some defensive Laws.

Gravis knew what kind of Law that was.

It was the level five Law of Physical Power, the level five Law that was created out of a fusion between the level four Major Laws of Speed, Defense, and Power.

This was the Law that Gravis wanted to learn.

The Black Demon had shown an insane defense, and he had also shown insane speeds.

This meant that he had a Law that boosted his defense and speed to an entire level above himself, and only the level five Law of Physical Power could accomplish something like that.

In essence, the Black Demon had a body six levels above Gravis and Mortis while only being five levels above them in Cultivation Realm.

Black Demons sure were powerful.

The Black Demon was thrown back, but since he had also charged forward with a ton of force, his body wasn't thrown back with a lot of speed.

BANG!

This meant that Gravis could catch up!

The Black Demon was still off-balance, allowing Gravis to close in on him.

SHING! SHING!

Gravis replaced all his spears with sabers, which meant that he was now carrying six sabers.

The Black Demon noticed that Gravis was closing in and attacked Gravis with his swords.

BANG!

Suddenly, Gravis stopped with an explosion of lightning, and the Black Demon also stopped his attack.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

However, in an instant, Gravis suddenly appeared directly in front of the Black Demon, basically touching his body.

Gravis had used the Law of Perceived Reality to make it seem like he had stopped because of the swords. After all, who would want to charge into such a powerful attack?

However, in reality, Gravis had slipped between the stopped swords, appearing behind them.

Then, Gravis buried all six of his sabers in the crater in the Black Demon's chest.

"Have fun!" Gravis said with a smirk.

The Black Demon immediately reacted and stabbed with his two spears at Gravis.

Whoop!

Sadly, he missed.

Gravis had vanished.

The Black Demon recognized which Law Gravis used. 'The Law of Shadow's Subtlety and Shadow's Movement!'

Something like the Law of Shadow's Movement only worked once against an enemy since they would immediately know how to counteract it when it was used again.

'If he knows Shadow Battle Laws, then does that mean that these sabers…'

The Black Demon immediately felt his Life Energy dropping violently.

All six of Gravis' sabers had been infused with the Law of Shadow's Poisoning!

The Black Demon gritted his teeth in hatred.

BANG!

Then, he charged away and pulled all the sabers out of him, throwing them to the side.

However, the damage had already been done.

The sabers had absorbed 50% of his Life Energy!

This was a terrifying amount! After all, the body of a beast already had an insane amount of Life Energy, and this Black Demon was five levels above Gravis.

Mortis' two Lightning Crescents had barely used up 5% of the Black Demon's Life Energy, and Mortis received an injury during that process.

In comparison, Gravis managed to waste 50% of the Black Demon's Life Energy without wasting all his Energy and without receiving an injury himself.

The difference was striking!

By now, the Black Demon also realized what was going on.

'This guy knows some kind of Law that affects my perception,' the Black Demon thought. 'A lot of things that don't make any sense have already happened during this fight. I need to check everything thoroughly!'

And like this, the Law of Perceived Reality became basically useless.

As soon as someone realized that Gravis could manipulate their perception, the Law of Perceived Reality became useless as long as the power of Gravis' Will-Aura wasn't enough to suppress the opponent.

Gravis' Will-Aura might be on the level of an Early Major Circulation Immortal Emperor's, but the level difference was just too massive, making it impossible for Gravis' Will-Aura to suppress the Black Demon.

Additionally, Gravis didn't want to use his Will-Aura.

After all, he was still in the beast territory.

'Well, the easy part is over,' Gravis thought. 'I've used the Law of Perceived Reality so many times by now that he probably won't be affected by it.'

'Seems like I have to clash against him openly.'

By now, the right side of the Black Demon's body had regenerated fully, and the crater in his chest was also healing.

'After his wounds have fully healed, he will probably only have 40% of his Life Energy left. This means we still have to severely injure him a couple of times.'

Yes, this was Gravis' and Mortis' goal.

Their offensive power wasn't great enough to kill the Black Demon in one shot, which meant that they either had to destroy his soul or drain all his Life Energy.

Sadly, the effects of the Deep Wood Element weren't powerful enough to destroy the Black Demon's soul in a short amount of time. They didn't have any powerful soul-based Weapon Techniques to attack someone's soul, except for Samsara.

However, Samsara was basically useless against beasts.

Why?

Because Samsara played on the heart and mindset of the target.

Humans had complex desires and emotions. Additionally, most humans cared deeply about the perception of others towards themselves. Humans also often did things they regretted or felt guilty about.

And beasts?

Beasts were simple, and they did what they wanted whenever they wanted.

The life of beasts was mostly bereft of regret or guilt.

Because of that, if Gravis used Samsara on the Black Demon, the Black Demon would only look at his life again and nod in appreciation. As long as the Black Demon's mind and emotions didn't get thrown into disarray, the injected Law of Deep Wood's Destruction wouldn't have a great angle to destroy his soul.

Without such an opening, the soul-destroying effect of Samsara wouldn't be more powerful than just a direct attack with the Law of Deep Wood's Destruction.

Meanwhile, Gravis would probably have to sit through a collective million years worth of memory, which might very well kill his personality.

Yet, even though Gravis and Mortis didn't have a good technique to attack the Black Demon's soul, they had a ton of techniques to attack the Black Demon's body.

Because of that, they decided to target the Black Demon's Life Energy.

'This one is even more dangerous than the white one,' the Black Demon thought as he looked at Gravis. 'The other one should require some time to regain his Energy. During that time, I have to kill this one!'

BANG!

The Black Demon charged at Gravis again with his full speed.

Gravis' smirk vanished as his eyes narrowed.

'I have to resist his assault without the help of my Law of Perceived Reality for a while.'

'I have to buy some time for Mortis. That's the only way we can win!'

Chapter 957: Weapons

The Black Demon reached Gravis in basically an instant, and Gravis summoned an entirely new set of weapons out from his scales. As long as they didn't materialize out of nothingness, no one would suspect that Gravis had a Spirit Space.

At the same time, a set of armor appeared around Gravis, which engulfed his entire body. Mortis and Gravis hadn't worn their armor from the beginning to make the Black Demon underestimate them.

The Black Demon noticed that Gravis was literally armored to the teeth, and his eyes became even more serious.

The two of them had kept one thing after the other secret from him.

They actually really had the ability to fight and maybe even kill him!

He would go all out now!

As soon as the Black Demon reached Gravis, something happened.

WHOOOOOOM!

Suddenly, a powerful pressure appeared around Gravis.

This pressure was so powerful that any Immortal King wouldn't be able to move.

'He knows the Major Law of Suppression!' Gravis thought with surprise.

Luckily, Gravis knew the Law of Freedom, and since Mortis was still inside Gravis' Spirit Sense's range, the Law of Freedom had the power of a level six Law, making the Major Law of Suppression of the Black Demon useless.

As a beast, the Black Demon couldn't unleash the Major Law of Suppression from a distance. He had to be close to his opponent to use it, but it was still powerful.

'His body is already an entire level higher than his Realm, and he knows the Law of Frostinferno. At the same time, he can still suppress his opponent with the Major Law of Suppression. Sure enough, that would be enough for the Black Demon to fight beasts one level above himself.'

The Black Demon attacked with all his weapons.

SHING! SHING!

Yet, all of them missed as Gravis suddenly ducked.

Usually, the Black Demon would have taken such an obvious evasive maneuver into account, but he had expected that Gravis wouldn't be able to move, which made him neglect this part.

BANG!

Gravis charged forward and loaded one of his spears with Mortality. Unleashing Mortality didn't require the lightning runes, but its power would drop significantly without using them.

Gravis used the level four Law of Strength as he stabbed forward with the spear.

However, the Black Demon was faster than Gravis by quite a bit.

In an instant, the Black Demon already attacked the approaching spear with one of his swords while the three remaining weapons attacked Gravis again.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Gravis extended some of his many fingers, pointing at the weapons. Then, Magma, in the form of lightning, shot out of his fingers with an impressive amount of speed and hit the weapons.

The Black Demon became surprised when he saw that.

Was this Magma?

However, why didn't it act like Magma!?

It was more like Magma that acted like lightning!

Of course, this was the effect of Gravis' Void Lightning, which put the aspect of form and speed on any Element Gravis summoned.

The Black Demon felt like he was hitting something that was punching back with quite some force, which surprised him.

However, this was an obvious conclusion.

Magma was quite heavy and hard, and by using it with the speed of lightning, its force was multiplied many times over.

The Magma managed to delay the Black Demon's attacks long enough for Gravis to finish his spear strike.

BANG!

The sword that the Black Demon used to attack Gravis' spear hit, and Mortality was unleashed.

The spear and the sword were both broken into pieces, becoming unusable.

However, this was Gravis' goal.

He had a ton of other weapons, while the Black Demon should only have four in total. One weapon less would decrease any pressure Gravis felt.

'Sadly, I can't evade this attack anymore.'

BOOOOOM!

The three attacks that had been delayed by Gravis hit him, and Gravis was thrown into the distance as the combined might of three weapons filled with Frostinferno assaulted him.

SSSSSSSSSS!

The armor around Gravis immediately broke as it got hit, leaking a ton of highly pressured gas.

The gas slowed the attacks, but even more importantly, it was throwing Gravis into the distance.

SHING!

In the end, Gravis received three deep cuts across his body while receiving a ridiculous amount of burns.

If it hadn't been for Gravis' armor and the weakening effect of Magma, Gravis would have died just now.

Gravis had nearly died in order to destroy one of the Black Demon's weapons.

'How is he still alive!?' the Black Demon thought with shock and anger.

BANG!

Without waiting another moment, the Black Demon charged at Gravis again, who was still flying into the distance.

Gravis' body was injured beyond recognition from the different forces, making his body basically useless.

However, in just a single instant, Gravis' body fully healed itself.

Gravis knew the level five Law of Body Growth in comparison to the Black Demon, making his regeneration instantaneous.

Sadly, he had used 40% of his Life Energy to regenerate.

The injuries had just been too heavy.

SHING!

The Black Demon was already directly in front of Gravis, thanks to his insane speeds.

Just like Gravis had attacked the Black Demon when he had been thrown off balance, the Black Demon was now attacking Gravis while he had been thrown off balance.

Gravis couldn't evade, and his armor was broken.

The next attack would kill him!

All four of the Black Demon's weapons shot at Gravis. His two swords were slicing at Gravis while the spears stabbed at him.

Gravis' mind was going wild as he tried to find a solution.

BANG!

The surroundings exploded as the Black Demon's attacks hit Gravis.

The Black Demon saw how Gravis was shot into the distance with speeds even higher than what the Black Demon could achieve.

However, the Black Demon's eyes widened when he saw one of his weapons.

Where was his spear!?

In one of his hands, the Black Demon was no longer carrying a spear, but a… was that a round hammer?

Back when all the attacks bore down on Gravis, Gravis suddenly used his Divine Lightning to turn his broken armor into liquid. Then, he made the liquid engulf the head of one of the two spears. The liquid surrounded the spear's head in a sphere of metal, which Gravis quickly froze with the Law of Cold.

The tip of the spear was turned into a metal ball. The metal ball was quite big and extended even further out than the spear's tip, which meant that the metal ball hit Gravis' body before the other attacks would hit him.

Because of that, Gravis was slammed into the distance by the metal ball while the other, more destructive attacks missed.

Additionally, since the Black Demon had only infused his spear with Frostinferno, the metal ball wasn't infused with Frostinferno, making it a purely physical attack.

At the last moment, Gravis had activated the Major Law of Defense and summoned a shield.

Gravis' arms broke as he blocked the metal ball, making his own shield slam into him with a ton of force.

Nearly every single bone in Gravis' body broke at multiple places, nearly turning them all into dust.

The bone fragments tore apart Gravis' entire body, even shooting out of his back.

Gravis had been turned to mush in an instant as he was shot into the distance.

However, he was still alive!

Even more, Gravis flew into the distance with such insane speeds that the Black Demon couldn't catch up immediately.

As Gravis was flying through the air, his level five Law of Body Growth healed him.

'And that's another 50% Life Energy gone,' Gravis thought.

WHOOOOOM!

Gravis' body suddenly started shining brightly in a white light, which also quickly stopped.

He had just refilled his Life Energy to 70% of his maximum with the Brilliance Element. However, he had exchanged 35% of his Energy in return.

Gravis had already used up his saved-up Mortality previously, and he had unleashed another one himself. It hadn't been powered with everything he got since Gravis' target had only been a weapon, but it had still drained him quite a bit.

'70% Life Energy remaining, 30% Energy remaining,' Gravis thought. 'And here he comes again!'

Gravis saw that the Black Demon was closing in on him again. The Black Demon had thrown the now useless spear to the side, leaving behind one sword and one spear.

Gravis summoned another set of armor and readied himself to clash with the Black Demon again.

The Black Demon attacked with his two remaining weapons.

BANG!

All six of Gravis' weapons attacked the sword with full power. Luckily, Gravis' weapons survived the encounter since they were created with the Hard Complex Law.

However, since the attack came from above, Gravis was thrown to the ground as his body dug through over a hundred kilometers of solid stone due to the force.

The Black Demon's body was just far too powerful.

Gravis' arms broke again, which quickly healed.

The Black Demon's spear had missed since Gravis had been shot into the ground.

BANG!

However, the Black Demon charged into the hole that Gravis created and immediately attacked him again.

BANG!

Frostinferno exploded as the Black Demon hit the ground, destroying a lot of it.

Gravis had already fled to the side with the Law of Graphite Movement. Sadly, the explosion of Frostinferno still hit him since it destroyed kilometers of stone all around it.

Yet, Gravis' new set of armor was not just there for show.

Such an indirect attack couldn't get through the outer layer.

'Beasts don't have much Energy, and he should be running low on Energy right now,' Gravis thought.

BANG!

The Black Demon reached him in an instant again as they were now fighting in a gigantic underground cave.

BANG!

Gravis attacked the sword with all six of his weapons again, but the Black Demon wouldn't fall for that trick again.

BOOOOM!

The spear penetrated Gravis' body, blasting it into pieces as the inside of Gravis' body was consumed by Frostinferno.

However, it was only Gravis' body below his neck.

Gravis had cut off his head and highest set of arms from the rest of his body by quickly transforming into Void Lightning and then turning back.

The Frostinferno still injured Gravis' upper body, but it was enough to survive.

However, this exchange hadn't been for nothing.

The Black Demon's sword suddenly cleanly broke into two pieces.

Why had Gravis attacked one weapon with all six of his?

The level four Law of Core's Destruction!

After clashing with 12 powerful attacks from weapons created with the Law of Core's Destruction, the destruction energy finally reached a critical mass, completely destroying the sword.

Gravis' body regenerated itself as his body punched through kilometers of stone.

'25% Life Energy remaining, 15% Energy remaining,' Gravis thought.

BANG!

The Black Demon charged after Gravis yet again, now only having one spear left.

Gravis readied himself.

'Bring it on!'

Chapter 958: Surviving

Gravis summoned another set of armor and also charged at the Black Demon.

The Black Demon stabbed Gravis with his last spear.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Gravis unleashed several streams of Magma to stop the weapon. Since he now only had to stop a single weapon, the effects were way stronger than previously.

BANG!

Then, Gravis hit the spear with all of his weapons again. Frostinferno exploded again, throwing Gravis into the distance. However, since a lot of the force behind the attack that been canceled out, only some of Gravis' bones in his arms broke, leaving the rest of his body intact.

The Black Demon narrowed his eyes as he charged at Gravis again.

However, this time, he kept his remaining spear very close to his body as his other three arms extended towards Gravis.

He would keep his last weapon safe as he used his physical body to fight now.

Gravis also charged at him as he replaced all of his weapons with spears.

Then, Gravis stabbed all six spears at the body of the Black Demon.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The fast arms of the Black Demon slapped three spears to the side. His speed was so overwhelmingly fast that he also managed to grab the three remaining spears of Gravis with his hands, stopping all of his attacks.

CRK!

However, even though the Black Demon was fast, he wasn't fast enough to block them perfectly.

One of his hands was penetrated by one of Gravis' spears.

The Black Demon felt Life Energy leak out of his body as that spear was loaded with the Law of Shadow's Poisoning.

And then, the Black Demon punched forward with his last remaining spear.

BANG!

Gravis' eyes widened as he saw that the spear became even faster than all the previous times.

The Black Demon had used the Law of Time!

He had never used this Law up until now, taking Gravis by surprise.

The attack was so fast that the gas in Gravis' armor couldn't even show its effects properly.

The spear stabbed into Gravis' body, and Gravis exploded.

Black lightning suddenly appeared as a new Gravis condensed.

In the last moments, Gravis had transformed into Void Lightning. The spear destroyed over 90% of the Void Lightning, leaving behind only a tiny bit.

Gravis was fully healed now, but he had fallen to the Mid Major Circulation Immortal King Realm.

This was the price of surviving this attack.

'Life Energy is used up, and the remainder of my Energy has been used with the last usage of Shadow's Poisoning. He should be very low on Life Energy right now.'

The Black Demon was surprised that Gravis survived yet again.

How!?

Why didn't he just die!?

The Black Demon felt that his body was on the verge of breaking down. His Life Energy was dangerously low, and any further injury would have devastating consequences.

However, the Black Demon also felt that Gravis was much weaker now. He didn't know how that was possible, but he charged at Gravis regardless.

He couldn't waste any time!

The Black Demon reached Gravis in an instant.

Gravis pointed his finger at the Black Demon's head.

SHING!

A bright beam of Brilliance appeared for only a split second.

Gravis had saved up the Brilliance Element ever since the fight started, and he unleashed it now.

The Brilliance Element had burned a hole into the head of the Black Demon, which stopped somewhere in the middle of his brain.

This injury wasn't deadly by any means, but the brain injury threw the Black Demon's soul in disarray.

The injury started to heal as the last of the Black Demon's Life Energy concentrated on it.

However, right now, the Black Demon could not react to anything as he only blankly looked forward.

Sadly, Gravis was out of Energy.

SHING!

But Mortis wasn't!

Mortis suddenly appeared beside Gravis as Gravis had summoned him with the Life Ring.

Where had Mortis been?

Mortis had charged to the Law Comprehension Area for Lightning's Supreme Destruction and regenerated all of his Energy by absorbing the lightning.

One had to remember that this entire fight had happened in seconds, which was why it had felt so long since Mortis had left.

Mortis immediately attacked the Black Demon's head with two Lightning Crescents.

The Black Demon couldn't react as his soul was still in disarray.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

It was over.

Light shone into the underground cave as another gigantic crater appeared around them.

The light of the sky illuminated the headless body of the Black Demon.

While the Black Demon was concentrating on Gravis, he had slowly forgotten that this was a two-on-one match and not a one-on-one.

Gravis took a deep breath as he relaxed.

This had been too close!

The Black Demon really hadn't been a pushover!

BZZZ!

Mortis used some of his remaining Energy to consume a part of the Black Demon's body and then shot that Divine Lightning at Gravis.

BANG!

Gravis reached the Late Major Circulation Immortal King Realm again, and his Energy was refilled.

"Thanks," Gravis said.

Mortis looked at Gravis with a complex expression.

The entire fight had been within Mortis' Spirit Sense, and he had watched while recharging his Energy.

In Mortis' mind, Gravis had fought beyond impressively.

If Mortis hadn't felt the Black Demon's defense himself, he wouldn't have known how hard it was to injure him.

Mortis knew what he had contributed to the fight and what Gravis had contributed.

Mortis had eaten up 10% of the Black Demon's Life Energy and had then killed him at the end.

Meanwhile, Gravis had destroyed three of the Black Demon's weapons, made him waste about 90% of his Energy, and even consumed the remaining 90% of his Life Energy.

If the Black Demon hadn't run out of Life Energy near the end, he would have reacted to Mortis' sudden attack.

Mortis knew that this hadn't been Mortis and Gravis versus the Black Demon.

It had been Gravis versus the Black Demon, featuring Mortis.

While Gravis relaxed and enjoyed the feeling of his Will-Aura growing more powerful, Mortis continued looking at Gravis.

Mortis was going through a ton of emotions while Gravis only relaxed.

"You're more powerful than me," Mortis said.

"What?" Gravis suddenly said as he looked at Mortis. However, Mortis' words quickly registered in Gravis' mind. "Nah, it was only because the Black Demon had such an insane defense. You are more of a fighter that quickly finishes the fight. A strong defense together with speed is your counter."

"You can unleash far stronger attacks than me thanks to your greater storage of Divine Lightning. If this guy didn't have such an insane defense, your first attack would have ended the fight."

"You went all-in and didn't win. Don't immediately assume someone is more powerful just based on one example," Gravis said.

Mortis' expression didn't change. "Don't try to butter me up with empty compliments," Mortis said coldly. "I know what I have seen, and I'm strong enough to see reality for what it is."

"However, remember," Mortis said with narrowed eyes. "Just because you are more powerful now doesn't mean that you will be more powerful forever."

"I will concentrate on creating a more refined battle style that doesn't put everything in one hand. This fight has shown me one of my weaknesses, and I'm going to rectify it."

"Just wait for me!" Mortis said coldly.

SHING!

And then, Mortis teleported away, leaving the Black Demon's body behind.

'Always so uptight and serious,' Gravis thought with a sigh. 'Just chill for a bit, alright?'

Gravis' and Mortis' Will-Auras finished increasing by now. Their Spirits were connected, which meant that their Will-Auras also grew simultaneously.

'Late Major Circulation Immortal Emperor,' Gravis thought with a smile.

'Nice!'

While Mortis was going back to concentrating on his power, Gravis just relaxed in the air above the crater.

'Fighting is nice.'

Chapter 959: Relaxed Mind

Gravis simply lay in the sky, enjoying the feeling after winning a hard fight. The excitement, fear, anticipation, and everything else that came with a fight had left him, only leaving behind a feeling of contentment.

Gravis spent a couple of hours like this, just looking into the sky without much thought.

He wasn't as pressured as Mortis, but that wasn't hard, to begin with. Mortis always put himself under pressure, even if everything went perfectly. He simply believed that the more pressure someone was under, the more powerful one became.

Yet, was that genuinely true?

If it had been in the past, Gravis would have believed so. However, some things had happened in the past couple of years that made Gravis doubt this truth.

How many level five Laws had Mortis comprehended, and how many level five Laws had Gravis comprehended?

Mortis had comprehended three level five Laws, the Law of Lightning's Manipulation, Lightning's Supreme Speed, and Lightning's Supreme Power.

Gravis had also comprehended three. The Law of Body Growth, the Law of Body Composition, and the Law of Hard Complex Materials.

Of course, Gravis couldn't count that last Law since it had been comprehended with the help of Life Fruits.

However, that still meant that Gravis had comprehended two level five Laws while Mortis comprehended three.

At first glance, it seemed like Gravis wasn't as good at comprehending Laws as Mortis.

Yet, when one looked closer, one would realize that there was a terrifying gap in terms of Law Comprehension between the two.

First of all, Mortis comprehended three lightning Laws, which meant that they would be comprehended in a terrifyingly short amount of time.

Meanwhile, Gravis had comprehended two Life Laws, something Gravis didn't have much affinity for.

Even more, Gravis had comprehended the level three Law of Empathy, the level four Law of Heat, the level four Law of Cold, all the level four Body Composition Laws, the three level three Laws of physical power, and the three level four Laws of physical power. Then, there was even the Law of Life Energy, the Law of Life, and the Law of the Living World.

While Mortis was focusing on comprehending Laws, Gravis even "wasted" over a thousand years to just gather materials, money, and access to Law Comprehension Areas.

The difference was just too striking.

However, Mortis and Gravis were both made out of the same blueprint, which was Gravis himself.

So, theoretically, their Law Comprehension speed should basically be identical.

Yet, Gravis had comprehended so many more Laws. Sure, some of them were thanks to Stella, but there were still a lot of them Gravis comprehended on his own.

Mortis was under constant pressure, while Gravis felt relaxed and free.

So, was it truly correct when one said that pressure would increase one's power?

Well, pressure increased one's Will-Aura in a fight. However, was it actually conducive to comprehending more Laws?

Gravis scratched his chin as he only looked at the sky, which had become dark by now. 'I think pressure is more of a motivator than a comprehension accelerator,' he thought. 'Pressure makes you completely focus on becoming more powerful when, otherwise, you would have simply relaxed.'

Gravis looked at the crater on the ground.

'But what if pressure actually makes someone focus too hard on Laws?' Gravis thought. 'When you are under pressure, you are under stress, and it's harder to concentrate under stress. Additionally, comprehending Laws can't be accelerated just because someone wants to.'

'Whenever I comprehend Laws, I have to expand my mind and accept that some things that seemed illogical in the past now are seemingly connected. An open mind, ready to accept change, might help one more in comprehending Laws.'

'I wonder, was my Sudden Enlightenment in the Life Laws a lucky chance, or was it only natural due to my relaxed and curious mind?' Gravis thought.

Gravis looked at the sky again for a couple of seconds, just thinking.

"Hahaha!" Gravis suddenly laughed loudly. "What am I even thinking about?" he said to himself.

'Who the fuck cares?' Gravis thought with a smile. 'I'm comprehending Laws at a fast rate, and that's enough for me. I can't find out the truth why I'm comprehending Laws so fast with only these clues right now, so why even think about it?'

'I'm simply doing whatever I want, and it's working out fine. I'll just continue doing whatever I want, and I'll see where that leads me to,' Gravis thought.

SHING!

A ring appeared on Gravis' claw.

'And right now, I want to talk with Stella,' Gravis thought with a smile.

'So what if I waste time? This is my life, and I do with it whatever I want,' Gravis thought.

BOOOOM!

Gravis' eyebrows rose as he blinked a couple of times in surprise.

"HAHAHAHA!" Gravis laughed loudly.

Gravis continued laughing for nearly a full minute in happiness.

"Hey, Mortis," Gravis transmitted to Mortis.

"I'm busy!" Mortis answered.

"I comprehended a Law," Gravis said, nevertheless.

Currently, Mortis was carrying two sabers in his claws as he experimented with them. When he heard that Gravis had comprehended yet another Law, he frowned.

"It's natural," Mortis answered. "You just went through tempering. Understanding Laws is normal."

"Oh, this has nothing to do with tempering," Gravis answered.

"Just say it," Mortis answered, unamused.

"It's the level six Law of Freedom!"

Mortis' eyes widened in shock.

What!?

A level six Law!?

How was Mortis supposed to keep up with Gravis' terrifying speed of comprehending Laws!?

Even more, Mortis always put his absolute best into comprehending Laws, while Gravis always lounged around lazily. It was like Gravis wasn't even taking Cultivation seriously! He was simply doing whatever he wanted without any urgency or feeling of pressure.

'Why do I have to go through a mountain of pressure while Gravis, who lazes around all day, comprehends Laws so much faster than me!?' Mortis thought with gritted teeth.

He was forcing himself and constantly put himself under pressure and stress, but Gravis was comprehending Laws far faster than him!

How was this fair!?

Mortis didn't answer for a long while.

'Am I wrong?' Mortis thought. 'Am I cultivating with a wrong mindset? This is the only difference between Gravis and me.'

Mortis thought of when he and Gravis had met for the first time.

Back then, Mortis had looked down on Gravis.

Gravis had a weak mindset in Mortis' eyes. If one valued love and friendship, the enemy could use these connections to hurt one. Even more, if something happened to one's close companions, one would get hurt emotionally.

Mortis didn't have these weaknesses.

Mortis put his everything into chasing supreme power.

Because of that, Mortis was superior to Gravis.

That was how Mortis had viewed Gravis back then. Gravis was a weaker version of Mortis.

However, Gravis had accomplished one amazing thing after the other, leaving Mortis in the dust.

Mortis had even said in the past that he hated carrying dead weight.

Yet, wasn't he the dead weight currently!?

Mortis' expression turned into a furious grimace as he gnashed his teeth violently. Hatred, anger, and self-loathing rampaged in his mind.

'Why am I so weak!?' Mortis thought, filled with negative emotions.

Gravis felt Mortis' emotions and smiled bitterly.

'I probably should stop talking to him for now. I should also postpone my call with Stella for a bit. Gotta wait for Mortis to calm down,' Gravis thought.

Gravis simply sat down on the ground, looking forward with a frown.

He didn't want to suppress Mortis' emotions since he was also letting Gravis have full reign when he was being emotional.

So, Gravis could only wait for Mortis to calm down.

'This is troublesome,' Gravis thought. 'We really need the Law of Emotions.'

Chapter 960: Hatred

It took quite a while for Mortis to calm down.

In fact, it took several days.

However, when he finally calmed down, Gravis immediately smiled and contacted Stella.

"Hello, honey! How's it goooin?" he asked.

In the eastern continent, Stella, who was currently in a cave with burning walls, opened her eyes and looked at the front with a smile.

"Honey?" she asked with a smirk.

"Yes," Gravis answered, "we are a couple. Why not give each other cute nicknames?"

Gravis couldn't stop his smile as he talked with his lover.

"I prefer calling you Gravis or dummy if you do something stupid," Stella answered with a smirk.

"Oh, don't hurt my fragile feelings, honey," Gravis answered with a melodramatic tone. "If you continue like this, I might go into a cold room and stare into a corner for some years, just playing with some knives."

Stella had to laugh at the image.

"So, what happened?" Stella asked. "Why did you contact me?"

"Well, I want to talk to you," Gravis answered. "That's literally the entire reason. I do what I want, and, right now, I want to talk with my cute honey!"

Stella chuckled a bit again. "Honey is sweet, not cute, dummy," she answered.

"You are honey, and you are both," Gravis answered self-righteously. "You can't warp the truth."

Stella giggled a bit again. She had been so focused on comprehending Laws that she had totally forgotten how it felt to be with Gravis.

She didn't mind delaying her Law Comprehension for some couple-time.

While Gravis and Stella were talking, Mortis gritted his teeth.

'He's wasting time again!' Mortis thought with hatred. 'How can he feel so much happiness while I feel so distraught and pressured!?'

When Mortis felt the feelings of love and happiness radiating off Gravis, his hatred exploded again, drowning out all the feelings of happiness.

'Gravis!' Mortis thought with gritted teeth.

Mortis' goal was reaching supreme power, and he focused his entire life on this goal.

Yet, a guy who only used power as a means to an end while not taking it seriously was gaining power faster than Mortis!

Many humans would have already felt hatred, jealousy, and envy if they were in Mortis' shoes. They would think that everything was unfair and that the other person didn't deserve the power they had.

However, Mortis wasn't entirely like this.

He did acknowledge that it was unfair, but he realized that it wasn't the world that was unfair nor that it was Gravis' fault.

It was more like Mortis lamented that his way of seeking power was obviously flawed.

This was what he hated.

Mortis didn't hate Gravis.

No, he hated himself!

He hated himself for not being as good as Gravis, even though they were basically the same person.

'I need power! I need more power!' Mortis thought with gritted teeth.

While all of this was happening, Gravis sighed in frustration.

"I'm sorry, but I have to cut our conversation short," Gravis said. "Mortis is getting uppity again."

Stella's expression morphed from a smile into a concerned look. "Oh, it's fine. I understand your current situation. Just contact me again later when Mortis calms down, okay?"

"Sure, love you," Gravis answered half-heartedly. After all, he was currently filled with hatred and self-loathing, making it hard to say these soft words.

"Love you, too," Stella answered.

Gravis cut off the connection with a sigh.

'This sucks!'

Meanwhile, Mortis was violently working on his battle techniques. He had fought against the Black Demon, just like Gravis, but he hadn't been nearly as effective, even though he knew the same Laws as Gravis.

This was another major source of grief for Mortis. He knew the same Laws but wasn't able to use them to the same effect.

A couple of days later, instead of calming down, Mortis' hatred actually increased.

'I'm slower in comprehending Laws!' he thought with fury.

'My Battle Style is not as good!'

'Gravis is superior in everything! He even has the time to relax and feel happy!'

'Why!?'

'Why is it like this!?'

'Why can't I be as good as him!?'

'What am I lacking!?'

Mortis was slashing with his saber, and his attacks became more and more violent.

He had only released some practice slashes in the beginning, but by now, he was going all out. Kilometers of land around him were turned into nothingness as Mortis unleashed all his power.

Craters appeared below him, and it only became deeper and deeper as Mortis was creating more and more craters.

Meanwhile, Gravis was sitting with his head in his hands.

'So much anger and hatred!' Gravis thought with gritted teeth. 'What the fuck is wrong with you, Mortis!? I swear, if you don't calm down soon, I'll fucking beat the shit out of you!'

Normally, Gravis wouldn't think like this, but Mortis' emotions were severely affecting him.

At the same time, Mortis was going crazier and crazier.

All the envy, self-loathing, and feelings of inferiority inside him were transformed into pure anger, making him attack more and more ferociously.

As time passed, even though Mortis' Energy was decreasing, his attacks became more and more powerful.

Mortis didn't notice it, but his attacks started to slightly alter the color of his surroundings.

"ARGH!" Mortis shouted with hatred, unleashing one last slash.

BOOOOM!

Suddenly, Mortis stopped.

Then, Mortis gritted his teeth.

'What use is a useless level three Law of Anger!?' Mortis thought as his anger only increased.

'It's a fucking level three Law!'

'Gravis comprehended a level six Law!'

'What will this stupid level three Law do!?'

'So what if I'm closer to emotional independence!? Gravis is still growing far faster than me! Emotional independence won't change shit!'

Even though comprehending the Law of Anger was supposed to give someone more control over their rage, comprehending this Law only increased Mortis' rage.

It was like a person was envying someone that had just earned several God Stones, while the person only earned a couple of Immortal Stones after doing the same thing.

Mortis' surroundings turned red as the Law of Anger fully took effect. His attacks started losing control while gaining more power.

However, the more Mortis attacked, the angrier he became.

'This changes nothing!'

'I'm only venting my hatred, but it doesn't accomplish anything!'

'I'm fucking wasting time right now, and the gap between Gravis and I will only widen!'

BANG!

Another attack filled with hate.

BANG!

Another attack filled with hate.

BANG!

However, this one was not an attack filled with hate.

Mortis' jaw broke into pieces as his body shot through the wall of the crater.

At Mortis' old spot stood a Black Demon, who was currently stroking the back of one of his right hands.

"Damn, that felt good!" Gravis said.

In his rage-filled state, Mortis hadn't noticed Gravis arriving beside him, and he also hadn't noticed how Gravis had punched him in the face with his full power before it was too late.

Mortis felt Gravis' feelings of satisfaction, and his anger exploded.

"You!" Mortis shouted with red eyes as he glared at Gravis, his body still buried in the ground.

"Yes, me!" Gravis shouted back. "You want to find an outlet for your anger? Sure, then confront the source of your anger!" Gravis shouted as his six arms assumed a battle stance.

Mortis saw red when he heard that.

BANG!

Then, he charged out, directly at Gravis!