Lightning Is the Only Way

So, why was Gravis a teacher, and why were the two of them in a small city?

Well, after Gravis and Stella returned from the moon, they connected their hearts again for many, many years.

10,000 years, in fact.

Sadly, at some point, even the most enjoyable pastime activity would become boring and stale if one didn't do something else in between. 

As Stella and Gravis were talking, Gravis suddenly got a great idea.

Why not live like mortals?

First of all, the life of a mortal was always filled with tons of stuff that one needed to do. 

One had to clean their home.

One had to go to work.

One had to eat.

One had to drink.

One had to sleep.

One even had to breathe!

There was so much variety in mortal life! 

Wouldn't that act as a nice change of pace?

On top of that, wouldn't living like this help with comprehending the Emotional Laws? After all, mortal life was filled with emotions.

Stella thought that this also was a great idea. 

Maybe she could create a shop that sold flowers from her home?

That sounded interesting!

Gravis immediately thought about becoming a teacher. After all, he had already taught the young beings in Arc's clearing for a couple of centuries.

So, the two of them settled down in a city.

Their days were spent separate from each other. They didn't even use their Spirit Sense to talk to each other. After all, mortals didn't have Spirit Senses. If they wanted to live like mortals, they had to do it the right way!

Funnily enough, being so close to each other, yet being unable to see each other, kind of increased the anticipation of seeing each other again in the evening.

In the evening, the two of them would eat together and talk to each other.

When night arrived, the two of them would cultivate together.

And at the end of the day, they would fall asleep, just like mortals.

This simple life kind of had a fulfilling feeling to it. 

Gravis could now fully understand why some of his friends had decided to stop progressing on their path to power.

Wasn't all of this already more than enough?

However, Gravis wasn't an inexperienced youngling anymore.

Gravis had gone through a lot in his life, and his resolve had been steeled.

Living this life meant achieving his goal of happiness, but it didn't achieve his goal of freedom.

Gravis wanted to be happy, but he also wanted to be free.

And to be free, one needed power.

As the years passed, Gravis and Stella had to move town.

Why?

Well, mortal cities weren't only comprised of mortals. 

Generally, Cultivators below the Unity Realm were included amongst mortals.

So, when Gravis and Stella had lived for a couple of centuries in a city, some of the more ancient and supremely powerful Spirit Forming Cultivators noticed that this pair of lovers had stayed alive for far too long.

Even more, rumors would start circulating.

Grandchildren would tell their grandparents about their teacher, and the grandparents would remember that they had been taught by the same teacher.

True mortals wouldn't find this weird. After all, Mr. Gravis was a Cultivation teacher. He probably had a longer lifespan than others.

However, the big shots in the city, the ones at the later stages of Energy Gathering or Spirit Forming, would slowly become suspicious when their grand-grand-grand-grandchildren told them about their teacher. 

Was this teacher a Spirit Forming Cultivator?

So, eventually, Cultivators would arrive to investigate Gravis and Stella, constantly bothering them with invasive questions that appeared harmless on the surface.

In the end, Gravis and Stella decided to switch cities every one or two centuries or so.

They would simply teleport to another city a couple million kilometers away.

Such a distance was insurmountable, even for these legendary Unity Realm Cultivators.

Gravis would find another spot as a teacher, and Stella would take up an entirely new job every time.

This was how the two of them spent their time together.

One might think that living like a mortal would hurt Gravis' Law Comprehension. 

However, one would be mistaken.

Gravis had already gained many insights into the Emotional Laws. 

He, especially, felt that he had learned a lot about the Law of Humility.

Sadly, one could argue that comprehending a new level one Law was harder than comprehending a level six Law.

Even after thousands of years, Gravis hadn't managed to condense the Law of Humility.

The other missing Law, the Law of Pride, had made no progress whatsoever.

However, while Gravis didn't manage to condense the Law of Humility, he did manage to upgrade his level three Law of Empathy to the level five Law of Empathy.

This meant that the first Emotional Law had reached the goal.

There was no level six or level seven Law of Empathy.

The next step for the Law of Empathy would be the level seven Law of Emotions. 

This meant that Gravis no longer had to work on his Law of Empathy.

Something like this didn't sound so great, but training the Law of Empathy was actually one of the most painful things one could do.

Gravis had built a genuine connection with so many of his previous students. 

He had also created several friendships.

Yet, all of these people wouldn't make it far on their journey.

One day, Gravis might get a new student, and seemingly the next day, Gravis would stand by his student's bed as he was slowly succumbing to old age.

This was the pain of having a tremendously long lifespan.

The pain of death would arrive quickly.

Usually, Gravis wouldn't build any connections with such weak Cultivators exactly due to this reason, but Gravis needed to comprehend the Law of Empathy. For that, Gravis purposefully released the restraints on his emotions as he accepted the friendship of many weak people. 

This had continued for 5,000 years until Gravis finally comprehended the level five Law of Empathy.

After that, Gravis focused on the Law of Apathy.

Sadly, comprehending this Law with this method was far harder. After all, these mortals weren't that important to Gravis, to begin with. Feeling apathetic towards them wasn't hard.

After Gravis realized that he hadn't made any progress in the Law of Apathy, he simply ignored it. 

In the end, Gravis decided to just be himself.

He just let himself go as he took every day as it came.

Another 5,000 years passed.

Gravis and Stella had been on their honeymoon for 20,000 years by now.

On one particular day, 20,000 years later, Gravis received the last Law from Stella.

Gravis had comprehended the level five Law of Temperature!

After the two of them finished their session, Gravis informed Stella of his progress.

Stella didn't know how she should feel about this.

One part of her wanted to get back to actually cultivating, but another part of her just wanted to continue living with Gravis like this.

In the end, it was Gravis that told Stella that they had had their fun for long enough.

Stella agreed.

After that day, the two of them left their current city and spent the next couple of years together without any outside interference.

Soon after, they parted again as they went back to comprehending their own Laws.

Stella left, and Gravis was left alone in the sky.

Gravis sighed but quickly shook his head to get these melancholic thoughts out of his head.

'Time to get back to work!'

Yet, before Gravis shot towards his next place of comprehension, he thought about all the Laws he and Mortis had comprehended over the past 20,000 years.

And there were a lot of them!