Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis talked with Orpheus some more, and he had also gotten the answer how it was so cheap for the Research Institute to open portals to other worlds. After all, something like that needed a lot of Energy.

The answer was as obvious as it was brilliant.

Prisoners from Opposer City's Guards.

The Research Institute and the guards had a deeply connected relationship, and one could even say that one of them nearly couldn't live without the other one.

The Research Institute gave the guards plenty of techniques and Form Laws in exchange for some of the prisoners. All the prisoners that only had to work for a finite amount of time would be sent to the mines to mine God Stones, from which a huge part would go to the Research Institute.

However, the prisoners that had committed severe crimes wouldn't be sent to the mines but to the tubes.

The prisoner's will would be put into stasis by a complex Formation Array. The will of the prisoner still existed, but as long as no one woke them up, they wouldn't wake up on their own.

In that state, the prisoner would still count as alive, and their body would still absorb Energy. Several tubes would be put into the bodies of the willless prisoners that sucked out all their Energy, and their body's subconscious absorption of Energy would always refill their Energy storage.

These prisoners would remain in this situation until their longevity ran out.

They were essentially refilling Energy batteries.

It was quite a dark image, but Gravis didn't find it weird.

The Cultivation world was rather dark, after all. This wasn't anything special.

Gravis had also worked as a torturer for a couple of years, and that job wasn't any prettier.

Eventually, Gravis and Orpheus ran out of things to talk about, and Gravis left.

Gravis had told Orpheus about the fact that Lina was trying to find a way to repay him and that Orpheus should give her some time.

Orpheus scratched his chin in thought and then shrugged. "Sure, I'll give her some time," he said.

Gravis nodded. This was everything he could do for Lina. Everything else was up to her. If she couldn't make appropriate amends, Orpheus would kill her.

City to spend some time with

happened during that time. Gravis only talked

Gravis went

Gravis had talked to Arc,

wanted to

that happened way faster than he

eyes opened wide in surprise as he felt Stella enter

back?" he asked as he teleported

alive, a bright smile appeared on

tribulation came early. Heaven probably saw that there is no reason to wait with the tribulation since I was doing nothing but waiting anyway

Gravis?" Stella asked

about his Heaven's Trial

thinking about Stella as he looked

was still a level nine Star God, but her Will-Aura had already reached the level of a level three Ancestral God. It was definitely

hadn't had it

at Gravis like nothing had happened, but Gravis knew that she had probably

to realize that there had been a high chance that Stella wouldn't

Stella went to temper herself, Gravis was thrown into a

her to die, but he also couldn't help her

could do was trust Orthar that he wasn't sending Stella an opponent that would kill

the survival of all of his friends

with Stella as her previous opponent, but the new opponent would have Laws that could counter Stella

why Stella was still alive was because Orthar wasn't sending her against geniuses from a Peak Sect with similar powers. Those geniuses were geniuses because their minds were very susceptible to comprehending

as powerful. Nearly all of the time,

that Stella had a very high potential for comprehending Laws, but he also knew that there were people with

put against someone like that,

over Gravis' entire life still left a bad taste

Orthar also wasn't perfect. He knew a lot, but he couldn't know everything. For example, Orthar had been uncertain about Mortis' survival during Samsara, and he had also been uncertain when Gravis and Mortis had fought Arc and the younger version of the

could say that he had chosen an optimal opponent and that something had simply

Would Gravis believe that?

Yes.

didn't want to end up on Gravis' bad side. There was literally no reason