Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis talked a bit more with Arc, and Arc told him that he was looking forward to their fight.

In the beginning, Arc had been a bit skeptical that Gravis would reach a sufficient power to battle Arc's weaker form, but now, he no longer doubted him.

Gravis was well on his way to comprehending the Law of Sentience.

After Gravis left, for the first time in a long while, Arc thought about the concept of death again.

Could he actually die?

However, Arc quickly stopped this train of thought. 'Don't want to summon another Gate of Death. One is already more than enough.'

When Gravis returned, he called Stella again and informed her that Exar had left.

Stella also felt a bit strange when she heard that.

The most powerful Cultivator in the world, the Keeper of Underworld, had left, and no one had noticed.

As they talked about Underworld, Stella remembered something, and she told Gravis.

Apparently, the beasts were already converting their natural resources into equipment with quite some efficiency. 50,000 years was enough to create an army of powerful Forgers.

This increased the power of the beasts by quite a bit, which made the humans nervous and fearful.

It had already been far too hard to resist the beasts, and now, they were growing even more powerful!?

And that was when Underworld stepped in.

About 20,000 years ago, Underworld started to openly support the war against the beasts. After a long negotiation between the Human Alliance and Underworld, the Cultivators of Underworld could now openly join the war on all fronts. In addition, Underworld severely lowered the missions that were targeted at other humans.

This meant that the entire underground of the world was now no longer weakening humanity. In fact, they were helping humanity now.

Sects could send more Cultivators to the frontlines since they didn't need to guard against Underworld anymore, and Underworld started to sell a ton of ore at low prices.

Of course, all of this ore came from the Gravitas.

After all, Underworld was sitting on a mountain of ore. 

The Human Alliance thanked Underworld for their generous help while Underworld got a ton of Immortal Stones.

With all of these changes, the frontlines stabilized again.

It was actually rather funny to Gravis.

Underworld had been created by Arc to suppress humanity so that they wouldn't eradicate the beasts. Underworld's missions had always only targeted humans, which made everyone hesitate in sending out their full force to the frontlines.

Yet, the Gravitas that had existed for only 1,000 years had impacted the dynamic of the world so much that Underworld had to help humanity now. 

Gravis had already severely changed the higher world, and he wasn't even an Immortal Emperor yet!

Gravis didn't find this weird. After all, it was only logical that the beasts would become more powerful with time. 

After talking with Stella for a bit, Gravis went on to comprehend his next set of Laws.

This time, he checked out the Laws of Deep Wood's Supreme Cutting and Deep Wood's Supreme Destruction.

Yes, the destruction aspect of Deep Wood was the explosive aspect. Gravis knew the level four Law of Deep Wood's Destruction, but not the level five Law of Deep Wood's Supreme Destruction.

The Law of Deep Wood's Supreme Destruction didn't take as long since Gravis knew the level four Law equivalent. It only took him 4,000 years.

However, the Law of Deep Wood's Supreme Cutting took longer.

This one took Gravis 6,000 years.

During that time, Mortis managed to comprehend one Law, which was the level five Law of Soulfrost. This was the Mixed Element of Deep Wood and Frost.

This one had taken up nearly all 10,000 years.

Gravis called Stella again, but this time, Stella had something major to report.

While Gravis had been comprehending his Law, Stella had gone through her tribulation!

Gravis blinked a couple of times when he heard that.

'Already!?' Gravis thought in shock.

This meant that Stella had been an Immortal King for 100,000 years. 

Gravis did some calculations and concluded that Stella had broken through to the Immortal King Realm around 10,000 years after she had left Gravis back then. 

'Wow,' Gravis thought. 'This means that we are probably two of the oldest Immortal Kings that exist in this world. It's actually crazy!'

'It feels like I arrived in this world just yesterday. Back then, I felt like I was rather young. Looking at Immortal Emperors that were over a hundred thousand years old felt so surreal and distant.'

Gravis had a bitter smile on his face.

'Yet, now, I am the ancient one. Life sure is fleeting. In one moment, I am young, but in the next moment, I'm already ancient.'

Gravis took a deep breath and just tried to come to terms with the fast passage of time.

During this comprehension, Gravis absorbed a lot of knowledge about the level six Law of Time, but it obviously wasn't time yet to comprehend it. The level six Laws of Freedom and Suppression were far easier to comprehend for Gravis than the level six Law of Time.

After all, there was only one thing that someone needed to comprehend the level six Law of time, and that was time.

Gravis asked Stella about her tribulation.

"It was actually very easy," Stella answered with a slight laugh. "I fought an Early Minor Circulation Immortal Emperor from Underworld. His power was about average. That fight couldn't even be counted as tempering since I simply shot a bolt of Punishment Inferno at him, supported by the Lightning Battle Laws."

"You know that I have the Major Law of the Pure Elements as my Avatar, but as you know, I can integrate the higher forms of the related Laws into it. This already makes my Law of Punishment Inferno as powerful as a level six Law. Together with the Lightning Battle Laws, it reached the power of a level seven Law," Stella explained.

Gravis nodded. 

He knew that already. After all, his level six Laws of Freedom and Suppression had already been integrated into his Avatar of Perceived Reality. 

After talking for a bit more, Gravis went back to comprehending his Laws.

The last four stops were also the four longest ones.

The fourth last stop was the Law of Core Cutting, and this Law took really long. After all, Gravis didn't have a great affinity for metal.

This Law took Gravis 11,000 years!

In the time Gravis comprehended one Law, Mortis comprehended two.

One was the Law of Brilliantfrost, which took him 6,000 years, and the other one was the Law of Shadowfrost, which took him 8,000 years.

This was obviously more than 11,000 years, but Mortis had already started comprehending these Laws before Gravis had started the comprehension of his Law of Core Cutting.

Gravis contacted Stella, and Stella had some news for Gravis again.

Liam had become an Immortal Emperor!

Apparently, Liam had completely concentrated on comprehending the level five Form Law of the Sword for the past 80,000 years. Sadly, his longevity had been about to run out before he finished it, which made him breakthrough. Then, he simply took a couple of years to finish the Law.

Liam had concentrated on the Form Law of the Sword to get a higher position in the Purist Sect.

Right now, Liam was one of the Core Elders in the Purist Sect, a status even higher than a normal Elder.

In essence, Core Elders only answered to the Vice-Sect Masters and Sect Master. They also gave orders to the Elders.

As Gravis was listening, he felt like the world was aging at an accelerated rate.

Gravis felt like, whenever he closed and opened his eyes, the world had transformed in a major way.

The most powerful Cultivator had left.

Stella had had her tribulation.

Liam had become an Immortal Emperor.

Beasts had become far more powerful.

'It's crazy to think that I have been comprehending Laws for nearly 80,000 years by now. It doesn't feel so long,' Gravis thought.

After talking with Stella for a bit, Gravis went to his next stop, which was the Law of Core's Supreme Explosiveness. 

This Law took Gravis only 10,000 years since he had comprehended another Core Battle Law just now. 

During that time, Mortis comprehended another two Laws. One was the Law of Infernostorm, while the other one was the Law of Brilliant Inferno. 

Gravis called Stella again, and she had news for him yet again.

Stella had comprehended the Form Law of the Saber and had also become an Immortal Emperor.

Just like Liam, Stella had joined the Purist Sect as a Core Elder.

Stella seemed to be living quite a nice life in the Purist Sect. She didn't have many responsibilities, and she could do what she wanted most of the time. 

Gravis felt yet again like time was passing at ridiculous speeds.

However, before Gravis went to the next stop, he took out eight Law Comprehension Life Fruits.

He hadn't eaten them in quite a while, and he had comprehended so many level five Laws during this time that he could eat two sets without any issues.

He decided to get the hardest Laws out of the way first.

The first Law Gravis comprehended was the Law of Graphite Core. If Mortis tried to comprehend that Law the normal way, he might take 40,000 years or more. 

Gravis needed to consume all four fruits to comprehend that Law.

The next one was Shadow Graphite.

After consuming these Life Fruits, Gravis went to his second last stop.

The Law of Graphite's Cutting.

'Oh boy, that's going to take a while.'

Gravis sat down in the Law Comprehension Area and closed his eyes.

And then, a moment later, Gravis felt his Law of Safety and Danger shouting at him.

Someone was attacking him!