Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis was really surprised about the assassin's willingness to hand over his Avatar. While Gravis held the daggers, the assassin had no connection to his Avatar anymore, making him nearly helpless. If Gravis summoned these daggers into his Spirit Space, the Avatar would be overwhelmed by Gravis' Spirit. 

This meant that Gravis could destroy the Avatar with a mere thought.

There was absolutely no way to recover from that. 

"Why did you hand over your Avatar?" Gravis asked.

"Because I can't win," the assassin said helplessly. "I'm only good at assassinations, not in a direct conflict. All my Laws and powers revolve around assassination. Any Immortal King on my level can easily kill me in a direct confrontation."

Gravis frowned as he scratched his chin. "Then how did your Will-Aura become so powerful?" Gravis asked.

The assassin's Will-Aura was one level above his Realm. How could an assassin train their Will-Aura without fighting someone directly?

"By targeting risky targets," he said. "For tempering, I am targeting Cultivators that can kill me easily when they survive my first strike. This, in itself, is incredibly dangerous. We didn't directly fight, but my life has been in mortal danger all this time."

'That could actually work,' Gravis thought. 'The feeling of danger is the important thing.'

"So, that's why you targeted me?" Gravis asked.

The assassin nodded. "You have so many secrets and know so many Laws. Assassinating you is almost impossible. However, if I managed to succeed, my Will-Aura would become much stronger."

Gravis sighed. "Tempering and Cultivation, huh?" he uttered.

Gravis had thought that the assassin was contracted by someone. It had also been possible that he had been after his secrets and wealth.

However, it was nothing but tempering.

This made Gravis hate the assassin less, but he had still attempted to kill Gravis, and Gravis wouldn't let something like that go. 

Several seconds passed in which Gravis was just thinking.

What was there to think about?

Just kill the assassin!

However, Gravis had some plans. 

What about the time Gravis went to the Core Regions? Would he just go there without any plan and look around?

No, this wasn't like Gravis. Gravis was a planning person, and he already had a plan, a plan that would give Gravis a ton of resources and plenty of opponents. 

"What's your name?" Gravis asked.

"Siral," the assassin said.

Gravis nodded. "Are you willing to give up your freedom for survival?" Gravis asked.

Siral's eyes widened. Gravis would not kill him?

However, Siral wasn't sure if he was willing to serve for eternity. What was the difference between serving and death?

Gravis noticed the complex expression of Siral and nodded. If he had immediately accepted, Gravis would have lost some respect for him. The fact that he hesitated meant that Siral valued his freedom enough that it even competed with his own life.

"It won't be forever," Gravis said. "I want to create my own, shall we say, gathering of beings. I need someone that can deal with some troublesome people."

Siral's eyes shone when he heard that it wouldn't be forever, but his expression became ugly again when he heard the second part. Gravis' targets probably wouldn't be dangerous opponents for Siral. This meant that Siral would target weaker Cultivators that wouldn't give him tempering.

"Then there is no difference between life and death," Siral said with a sigh. "Bad things happen to people that attack weaker ones. I would simply trade this death for another one."

Gravis' eyes shone a bit. 'So, the Cultivators in this world know that Karmic Luck exists but don't know what it is or how it works. Interesting.'

"No, you won't," Gravis said.

Whooop!

Something appeared in Gravis' hand. "Because I have this," he said.

When Siral saw the ring, his breathing halted. "A Slave Ring!" he said.

"Oh?" Gravis uttered. This was his Life Ring, and Gravis was quite surprised that Siral noticed what it was. However, it had the name Slave Ring in this world, apparently.

"Why would you own something like that?" Siral said with a grimace. "If anyone sees this Slave Ring, you will be hunted down by all the Peak Sects!"

Gravis' eyes widened. Life Rings were illegal!?

For the first time, Gravis became relieved when he thought about Liran's and Surem's death. They had seen the Life Ring. However, they obviously hadn't known what it was. Otherwise, they wouldn't have willingly entered his Life Ring.

It was true that the Life Ring could be used to implant a Slave Seal on someone, but Gravis had only used that function twice in his life, once with the Common Mushroom and once with Morus. 

However, why were they illegal? 

"Why are Slave Rings illegal?" Gravis asked.

Siral was surprised that Gravis owned one but didn't know why it was bad to own one. "Because you can bring beasts right into our territory."

That was quite a good reason, but Gravis didn't fully believe it. This reason was probably what the Peak Sects told the masses, but it was probably not the actual reason.

In the highest world, a Life Ring that was able to enslave anyone below the Star God Realm might be a somewhat expensive tool, but in this higher world, it was probably an ancestral treasure. 

What did it need to create such a powerful Life Ring?

The level six Law of Space and several level five Laws of Life. 

In the highest world, this Life Ring had cost Gravis 500,000 Immortal Stones, but in this world, it might even go for hundreds of millions. After all, how many of them could be here?

"Are you associated with the Life Sect?" Siral asked.

Gravis looked at Siral with furrowed brows. It was probably the Life Sect that kept all of these Life Rings. Gravis was sure that they didn't destroy them but kept them for their own usage. They probably used these Life Rings to get specimens to study the Life Laws.

So, instead of paying a fortune to acquire one, they simply declared them illegal and confiscated them. 

Power sure was useful.

"Let's not talk about that," Gravis said. "Back to my offer. I will enslave you for 50,000 years. During this time, you will do what I want, but you will not receive any damage to your luck. After all, you won't have your own will, and everything that you will do under my command will fall back on me. So, when you, for example, slaughter a city of mortals, I will be the one that has to bear the ethereal consequences."

"It works like that?" Siral asked with skepticism.

"It does," Gravis said with his Law of Honesty. 

Siral immediately believed Gravis. However, he also knew about the three Laws of Honesty, Deceit, and Lies. Fortunately, it was already known that Gravis knew the Law of Honesty. Because of that, even the last doubts of Siral vanished.

Siral sighed. "Normally, I would agree, but there's a problem," he said.

"What problem?" Gravis asked.

"My tribulation will arrive in 30,000 years," Siral said. "I need to become an Immortal Emperor before that, or I will die. You have seen my Battle-Strength. I'm certain that I can't survive my tribulation."

Gravis scratched his chin. However, instead of grimacing, he smirked.

"That's perfect, actually," he said.

"What do you mean?" Siral asked.

"Your tribulation would summon an Early Major Circulation Immortal King. That would be six levels above myself, far more than I could handle. However, when I become an Early Minor Circulation Immortal King, this would only be four levels."

"But what if you become an Early Major Circulation Immortal King? Then, your tribulation would summon a Mid Major Circulation Immortal King, which would be five levels above myself after I become an Early Minor Circulation Immortal King. That's perfect tempering for me," Gravis said.

Siral's mouth hung open in shock. "You would take over my tribulation for me? But then it would be your tribulation, and you would have basically thrown away nearly a hundred thousand years of longevity!"

"Having so much longevity is not a good thing for me," Gravis said. "I won't even reach my first tribulation as an Immortal before I run out of things to do, and thanks to my Battle-Strength, only my fourth tribulation would actually be tempering for me. Throwing away a hundred thousand years would actually help me. I want tempering more than anything."

"So, how about this?" Gravis asked with a smirk. "50,000 years under me. In return, I deal with your tribulation and give you another 100,000 years. After that, you can decide to stay with me or leave. It's up to you."

Siral took a deep breath. "It feels more like me taking advantage of you," Siral said. "Are you sure that's what you want? After all, by ordering me to kill weaker beings, something bad might happen to you."

Something bad might happen to Gravis?

Pffft!

Gravis already had zero Karmic Luck. What was there to destroy? Gravis could slaughter every single mortal in this world, and it wouldn't change anything. The only thing that would change would be Arc's attitude towards Gravis.

Gravis repeated his offer again with his Law of Honesty. "This is what I want," he added near the end.

Siral took another breath as his eyes closed. After some seconds, his eyes opened again and shone with conviction.

"I agree!" he said.

PACK!

Gravis threw the daggers back to Siral. As long as the Avatar inside them hadn't been destroyed, Siral would regain his lost knowledge.

After that, Gravis activated his Life Ring. If Siral resisted, it wouldn't work.

However, it went over without a hitch, and Siral bowed. "Thank you, Master," he said.

This had been another test from Gravis. With his Avatar back, Siral could have tried something. Maybe he could have tried to flee or to kill Gravis while he concentrated on the Life Ring. 

However, Siral didn't resist. 

Gravis nodded. "Siral, go comprehend any Laws you want until I call upon you again. You will also disguise yourself. Your old identity is dead. Right now, you are reborn as my servant. Obviously, no one is allowed to know about my Life Ring."

Siral bowed deeply. "Yes, Master," he said.

"Go!" Gravis said.

Siral bowed again, transformed into a blue-haired woman with a spear on the level of an Early Minor Circulation Immortal King, and teleported away.

Meanwhile, Gravis smirked. 'A perfect spy and perfect assassin,' Gravis thought. 'Siral will deal with a lot of things and will bring valuable intelligence to me. Additionally, he probably knows a lot about the Core Regions. Lastly, he will even deliver me some nice tempering in about 30,000 years.'

'Having someone like this will be invaluable for me in the future.'

Gravis looked at the Life Ring and felt Siral's fluctuations. The High-Grade Life Rings had more functions than the Mid-Grade ones. With this Life Ring, Gravis could contact Siral from anywhere in the higher world. There were even some additional commands Gravis could give. One of them was a tempering priority command. This command would disable the ability to give commands to a servant until the owner went through tempering.

After all, if someone had a ton of powerful servants, they wouldn't be able to temper themselves anymore, right? 

The highest world sure knew how to make useful artifacts.

Gravis put the Life Ring away again and teleported away.

He needed to go to a new Law Comprehension Area for Shadow's Darkness since he had destroyed the old one.