Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis told them how to make World Weapons and that it required the Law of the Dead World.

This surprised the two of them.

They weren't surprised that it needed the Law but that this meant that the All-Matter Sect knew about the existence of this Law without telling the other Peak Sects.

Something like this should be public knowledge for the entirety of humanity!

They could outfit all the humans with World Weapons!

After all, comprehending the Law wasn't difficult for them. They were Immortal Kings, and they already knew level five Laws. Learning a level four Law wasn't that hard.

Even Stella had the necessary Laws to comprehend the Law of the Dead World right now.

She just didn't comprehend it because she hadn't known that it even existed!

When Gravis told them about how much money he made, they took sharp breaths through their teeth.

Gravis made nearly 200 million Immortal Stones in only a hundred years as an Early Minor Circulation Immortal?

That was a terrifying speed of money, even for their standards!

A new Peak Immortal King "only" needed one billion Immortal Stones to become an Immortal Emperor.

This meant, if Gravis had worked for 500 years as an Early Minor Circulation Immortal, he could have earned enough to become an Immortal Emperor after reaching the Peak Immortal King Realm. 

Even more, if he had worked for 700 years, he would have earned enough to reach the Immortal Emperor Realm from the Early Minor Circulation Immortal Realm.

Just imagine!

Working for only 700 years as an Early Minor Circulation Immortal to earn enough to become an Immortal Emperor.

That was insane!

That was when Gravis told them about the Virtualization Arrays.

The concept of a Virtualization Array was eye-opening to Stella and Liam.

A portable Law Comprehension Area that one could activate in their room, and it was even better than a natural Law Comprehension Area?

That was ridiculously useful!

However, when they heard about the prices, they took another sharp breath.

Expensive!

Truly expensive!

Level three Laws already cost 10 million Immortal Stones for only a hundred years.

Level four Laws would cost 100 million Immortal Stones for only a hundred years.

Level five Laws?

One billion!

Just renting a Virtualization Array for a level five Law for one hundred years could create an Immortal Emperor.

And how long did it take to comprehend a level five Law?

Long!

If these Virtualization Arrays existed in this world, and if Stella were still the Holy Maiden, the Nine Elements Sect still wouldn't dare to give her access to something like that.

It was simply far too expensive!

The Nine Elements Sect could probably create at least two Major Circulation Immortal Emperors for the money it would have taken to fully teach Stella a level five Law via Virtualization Array.

It was definitely not worth the money!

Gravis continued his story, and when he came to Jake and how he had hit on Yersi, Stella found it cute and giggled.

Stella had never met Yersi, but she already liked her just from what Gravis had said about her.

Yersi's personality truly sounded cute in Stella's mind.

However, it was still shocking to know that Gravis basically had an insanely powerful Immortal Emperor as a son-in-law.

The appearance of the Black Magnate was also surprising.

However, it was also depressing.

When one understood everything, nothing was new anymore, and when one could do everything, nothing had value anymore.

Only when one could lose something did it truly have any value.

Stella and Liam had learned a lot from Gravis' story, but this was something that they might have wished they hadn't learned.

Knowing that one's goal would only lead to nothingness was more than depressing.

The very thing everyone strived for ended in the loss of happiness.

Everyone believed that power equaled happiness, but that was only true to some extent.

Supreme power led to nothingness.

This gave Stella and Liam a lot to think about, and Gravis had to pause his narration.

The Black Magnate's words had hit them hard.

Stella and Liam had chased power without thinking about it. Being powerful meant safety and freedom, which meant happiness.

However, being supremely powerful also seemingly made it impossible to feel happiness.

A week passed.

Stella and Liam were only thinking, but no matter how much they thought, it only appeared worse.

That was until Stella realized that she could simply set a new goal.

She managed to realize this thanks to her Law of Freedom and thanks to what Gravis had said about his mother.

Gravis' mother was still able to feel happy, right?

So, it wasn't impossible after all!

They simply had to change their goal.

Sadly, changing one's life goal wasn't easy at all.

One could compare it to being in a bad relationship. One loved their partner very much but being with their partner was also horrible.

One knew that one had to leave. 

Yet, it was so difficult.

The love was still there.

Telling someone to simply change their life goal after hearing the Black Magnate's words was like telling the person in the bad relationship to just stop loving the other person.

It wasn't that simple!

After a week, Liam and Stella knew the theoretical answer, but putting it into practice was difficult.

Something like that couldn't be achieved in a single week.

Gravis had managed to change his goal pretty quickly back then, thanks to his mindset.

He had chased power for a while, but that had stopped in the middle world.

He had chased happiness all the time, and that hadn't changed.

Happiness and freedom had always been higher on his priority list than power.

That was why the Black Magnate's words hadn't hit him as hard.

After the week was up, Gravis continued his narration. 

After a couple more minutes of explaining, Gravis told them that he couldn't unveil the full contents of the conversation between his father and the highest Heaven.

He told them that he wanted to tell them but couldn't. Because, if he did, all three of them would die at the highest Heaven's hand since this secret touched the greatest taboo of the highest Heaven.

Gravis was only able to know because of his father.

Gravis could only tell them that it had something to do with Cultivation at the highest level, but even while vaguely describing it in this way, Gravis felt a feeling of danger.

Any wrong step on the topic of the Brand and Gravis would be killed.

Yet, surprisingly, Stella and Liam also felt an apocalyptic feeling of danger.

They had never felt anything even remotely this intense!

It was like the entire world was about to be destroyed!

It was like the very universe concentrated all of its senses on the three of them and threatening them!

This was a sign from the highest Heaven.

If it wanted its intents to remain secret, nobody would be able to feel this feeling of danger.

The highest Heaven was releasing this feeling of danger on purpose.

"Do not look into this topic!" was what this feeling was telling them.

"Stop!" Stella said with a white face. "Stop talking about it! Please!"

The feeling of foreboding and danger was just too intense.

For Gravis, it was normal to be under the thumb of the highest Heaven, but this was something new to Stella and Liam.

This feeling of pressure was far too much!

"Now you know why I can't tell you this particular secret," Gravis explained.

"Yes, it's fine!" Stella said quickly and nervously.

Even if they hadn't believed Gravis up to this point, this apocalyptic feeling of danger couldn't be faked.

It was out of this world!

It was unreal!

"This is the most taboo subject in existence, and you must not look into this, even in your thoughts or on your own," Gravis warned. 

"Yes, I won't!" Stella said with panic.

Liam also made it very clear that he wouldn't even think about it.

They had to forget it!

They had to forget that it even existed!

After this huge shock, Gravis continued with the remainder of his story.

By now, Stella also knew what problem Gravis was referring to back then. 

Gravis had said that there was a huge problem that had to be solved before he could contact Stella again.

Now, Stella knew that the problem was the Divine Lightning in Gravis' mind.

She had no idea how Gravis had solved this problem.

It sounded unsolvable.

When Gravis came to the time when he met Stella for the first time, Stella found it unreal.

She could now see what Gravis had gone through before she met him.

Back then, she had thought Gravis to be insane to fight her.

However, everything was different now.

After hearing Gravis' story, she understood that his decision was only natural.

It was normal to jump multiple levels for Gravis.

When she met that weak Immortal back then, she had had no idea how deep his power was. 

He had gone through literal world-ending apocalypses.

What had she gone through?

A hard time in the Nine Elements Sect.

They couldn't be prepared.

One was the favored child of a Peak Sect.

One was a literal world-ender.

They weren't even close to being on the same level.

One was a powerful person.

The other was the apocalypse itself.

Gravis skipped the next parts of his story since Stella and Liam were there themselves.

Stella and Liam also heard about Arc.

Heaven was showing itself this openly in this world?

However, they also held some mixed feelings about this.

Arc sounded friendly and approachable, but Arc was bound to fight Gravis to the death eventually.

Wasn't this also tragic?

However, a heavy silence came over the room when Gravis touched on a specific topic.

Stella was perfectly compatible with Gravis.

Stella knew the Law of Freedom, and she didn't like being controlled.

Yet, being perfectly compatible was like they were meant for each other.

This meant that one could rationalize that it wasn't her decision to love or like Gravis.

It was destiny.

She was supposed to feel close to him, and she had no choice in that matter.

It just didn't feel real.

However, Gravis continued his story since there wasn't much left.

Gravis told them about how he met Narcissus, and finally, Gravis came to the part with his first fight five levels above himself.

To Stella and Liam, it felt unreal that someone could jump five levels.

Yet, when they heard how Gravis ended the fight, they became nervous. Even Liam was very invested by now.

Gravis had been confronted with his problem.

When Gravis told them how he had solved the issue, their eyes widened.

Wait, there was a second, different Gravis in this world?

Finally, Stella and Liam also heard about how the promise with Joyce had been resolved and felt that it was resolved adequately.

One could say this was the best resolution possible.

"And that's when I came to get you," Gravis said to Stella, ending his tale.

It had been a long one.

"So," Gravis said after some seconds. "Now that you know, do you want to go to Arc's clearing?" Gravis asked.

"I think it would be better to talk there."

Stella and Liam looked at each other in wonder.

It was one thing to hear about such a powerful being like Heaven and hearing about its place of residence, but it was something completely different from actually going there and meeting them!

They now had the chance to meet one of these peak beings from Gravis' fantastical tale.

Stella looked back and nodded. 

SHING! SHING!

Suddenly, two emblems appeared in front of Liam and Stella out of nowhere.

They looked with surprise at them.

They obviously didn't come from Gravis since they hadn't felt his Spirit move.

"I knew that you were watching, Arc," Gravis said with a smile. Then, Gravis pointed at the emblems. "Arc just sent them to you. It means he is fine with you coming to him."

"Even if there is no place left in the world where you can go to, you will still be welcome in Arc's clearing."

Stella and Liam still looked in wonder at the emblems.

"Let's go," Gravis said as he took out his own emblem. "I also told Mortis to meet you. He was annoyed that I interrupted his Law Comprehension, but he knows that it's important to me for you to meet him."

"Don't take it personally if Mortis is a bit direct with his choice of words."

Stella and Liam looked at each other again.

SHING!

Gravis broke the emblem.

After that, Liam and Stella also broke their emblems nervously.

They were about to meet the most powerful being in this world.

Everyone would be nervous.