Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis told the Empress and the Grand Elder as much as he was allowed to share. Stuff like the concept of Karmic Luck or the fact that beasts were only there as fodder for cultivators, he kept to himself.

During his tale, the Empress and the Grand Elder interrupted him a couple of times with questions. A lot of the concepts Gravis was speaking of sounded foreign to them. They also doubted the existence of Heaven for a long time.

One had to remember that Heaven had never shown itself in this world until recently. Telling someone that there was some super-powerful being, hidden from everything in the world, was not really convincing. Some being was keeping watch over the entire world? Please!

Extraordinary claims required extraordinary proof, and luckily for Gravis, his brief run-in with Heaven in the Law Comprehension Area for Punishment Lightning acted at this sort of proof. The Grand Elder had been the only beast present who had paid attention to Gravis' words before Heaven showed itself.

Back then, the Grand Elder had no idea whom Gravis was talking to, but with the revelation of Heaven's existence, he finally knew. This occurrence that had stumped the entire world for years now finally made sense.

Without this occurrence, the two wouldn't have believed Gravis' ridiculous tale at all. Yet, the Grand Elder had seen the proof, and the entire world had felt the proof when everything shook and stormed. The Empress trusted the Grand Elder, and when the Grand Elder told her about what had transpired, she also believed Gravis.

Gravis' tale ended after his fight with the Golden Dragon. The Empress and Grand Elder already knew everything that happened after that.

After Gravis was done talking, over half a day had passed. Usually, Gravis would only need a couple of hours to tell his life story, but the ensuing discussions about the foreign concepts took up a lot of time. Yet, Gravis didn't mind since he wasn't under any time pressure.

"Your resistance towards the mandatory procreation makes a lot more sense now," the Empress said. "Additionally, you also had a realistic shot at escaping this requirement, but it seems like you are required to perform it now either way."

Gravis sighed. "Sadly, yes. Nothing against you, Empress, but I simply have no attraction towards any kind of beast. It has nothing to do with the body but with the different mindsets that you have. Also, family is commonly incredibly important to humans."

"I still don't quite understand that," the Empress commented. "After all, we beasts also all look different from each other, but I think I can empathize with your feelings."

"Empress, now that you know about humans, I have a question," Gravis said.

"Ask," the Empress answered curtly.

"Your upper body is very similar to humans," Gravis said. "You could have chosen any other upper body with a greater combat potential, but you have chosen to look similar to a human. Why is that?"

Such a question was a bit personal, but since Gravis had shared his secrets just now, she didn't mind reciprocating. "Funnily enough, before you have told me your story, I wasn't quite sure about the reason why I chose this body."

Gravis lifted an eyebrow. He hadn't expected such an answer.

"When I became an Emperor," the Empress said as she looked at the horizon in thought, "I let the Laws guide my evolution. I didn't think about what kind of body I wanted but just trusted my instinct and feelings on this. I wasn't quite sure why I chose this kind of body back then until just now."

"Ever since I have become an Emperor, I have felt closer to the Laws than ever before. Originally, I believed that this was just the inherent feeling that every Emperor shared, but now, I don't think so anymore."

"I think the Laws have chosen this body for me because it creates a stronger connection with them. You, humans, have bodies that are many times weaker than ours, at least, that was what you have said. So, there must be other powers that let you close the gap."

"I think that one of these powers is a stronger connection with the Laws. I'm not sure, but humans having a closer connection to the Laws might be one of the things that allow them to fight beasts. You're a good example of that," the Empress said.

"Me?" Gravis asked with a lifted eyebrow.

The Empress nodded. "You have already comprehended three Laws while you're still a Lord. Of course, we can only count two of them since you have basically absorbed your Law of Punishment Lightning. For us beasts, understanding two Laws while still being a Lord is extremely outstanding. Yet, that might not be true for humans."

Gravis scratched his chin in thought. "I think that's a possibility," he said after some seconds. The Empress didn't know this, but this explanation also fit the circumstance that humans were supposed to become as powerful as possible, not beasts.

Gravis was pretty sure that the further one progressed along the path of cultivation, the more important Laws became. Giving humans a stronger connection towards the Laws would also create a lot more powerful humans, which was what the highest Heaven wanted in the first place.

Though, one could also see it from the other side. Weakening the connection towards Laws for beasts might give humans the edge they need to actually triumph over beasts in the later Realms.

When there were only two sides, it was basically impossible to find the "normal" state. It could be that the connection towards the Laws for beasts was weakened or that the connection for humans was strengthened. Gravis didn't know.

After seeing that Gravis had stayed silent for a while, the Empress smirked. Her horizons had expanded, and with that expanded horizon, she was now able to find more answers to questions she hadn't even had in the past.

"Your explanation has given me a solid guess for another mystery of the world," the Empress said with a smirk.

"Oh?" Gravis asked.

The Grand Elder mostly remained silent and let the Empress and Gravis talk as he was just thinking about the world and Heaven. Right now, he was questioning a lot of things, which he hadn't questioned before.

The Empress pointed toward her back. "Look behind my throne, into the distance. What do you see?" she asked.

Gravis was unsure what she was referring to, but he complied anyway.

"I see your Empire," Gravis said. "I see some resting beasts, some resources, and some plants, but I still don't get what you want me to look at."

The Empress chuckled a bit as she shook her head. "I said look, not use your so-called Spirit."

Gravis had, obviously, only used his Spirit to look behind her. His eyes wouldn't be able to see any farther than his Spirit Sense's range anyway unless something truly gigantic was far in the distance.

Gravis walked behind the throne and looked past it. Nothing had really changed. He saw the same things. "I don't get it," he said after a while.

"Do you see those beasts that look like herbivores?" the Empress asked.

Gravis indeed saw them. They kind of looked like green and brown cows without the horns. "I see them, so?" Gravis asked.

"Try inspecting them with your Spirit," she said with a smirk.

Meanwhile, the Grand Elder's eyes widened as he realized what the Empress had just found out. As he thought about it, he also realized how much sense it made. No one had ever questioned the existence of these beasts. After all, they simply existed like any other beast. What differentiated them from the rest?

Gravis moved his Spirit Sense towards the herbivores, but his eyes widened as he realized something terrifying.

His Spirit Sense couldn't reach far enough to feel these herbivores. How was this possible!? His Spirit Sense had a reach of over 150 kilometers!

The Empress saw Gravis' face and giggled. In the past couple of hours, she and the Grand Elder had shown this same look on their faces, but now, it was Gravis' turn.

"These are the Striders, Gravis," the Empress said. "They are visible from nearly any location with an Empire on it. They reside in the absolute center of the entire world, the place where only the most powerful Emperors can live."

Gravis' mind was going crazy. "But you're only the leader of a level three Empire," Gravis said in shock.

Normally, such a comment would have been seen as disrespectful, but the Empress understood that Gravis didn't mean it that way.

"Exactly," she answered with a smirk. "These striders are over 100,000 kilometers away from here. If you look very closely at their feet, you will realize that they are standing on something white and fluffy. That's the cloud layer. They're not standing on it, but it looks like they are due to them just being that big."

Gravis still couldn't fully comprehend what he had just witnessed. He had seen these herbivores a couple of times, but he had never even paid any attention to them. To him, they simply looked like some distant cows. Yet, he hadn't known just how distant they were!

Gravis looked at the cloud layer and found that it resided around 20 kilometers above the floor. If that same thing held true at their location, these beasts must be truly massive! Gravis did some quick calculations and found that every single Strider was over 20,000 kilometers tall! This felt incomprehensible to Gravis. On top of that, there were ten of them!

"Every single Strider has an above-average power when compared to a level five Emperor," the Empress explained.

When Gravis heard that, he finally realized why these Striders existed.