"Gravis, why are you looking like this?" Stella asked. Gravis' troubled expression made her a bit worried. She thought she had a pretty accurate read on Gravis' personality, but this didn't seem to fit him.
Gravis sighed. "Difficult," he said. "There are things that have been revealed to me in the conversation I just had. It's simply difficult for me to find a way to proceed."
Stella combed her hair with her fingers as she looked down. "Well, when I see myself in such a situation, I just go one step at a time."
Gravis scratched his chin in thought. He had also thought about proceeding like this, but he wasn't sure if this was the best course of action.
After some seconds, Gravis sighed. 'Fuck it! There are too many things to keep track of. Too many different situations are intermingled. Maybe I should really go through it one step at a time.'
'So, first of all, I can't make any decisions as long as I don't know how my issue with my lightning will be resolved. Tackling any of the other issues before that makes no sense.'
Gravis nodded. 'I shouldn't tell Stella about our dynamic and simply continue on like nothing has happened. If she takes the initiative to get closer to me, I can still stop her when it happens and give further explanation. Right now, until the issue with my lightning has been resolved, I will simply talk to her like nothing has changed.'
"Thanks," Gravis said as he turned to Stella. "I wasn't sure how I should proceed, but your input helped me in making my choice."
Stella still had no idea what Gravis' issue even was, which made her feel a bit uncertain. However, if Gravis wanted to tell her, he would do so. Right now, Gravis obviously didn't want to share his worries.
"Okay," Stella acknowledged.
"Now!" Gravis shouted to banish the awkwardness in the atmosphere. "Let's forget about my issues and get working on your issues."
If someone didn't know Gravis very well, they would take that as an insult. My issues? You say I have issues!?
Luckily, Stella was very similar to Gravis and knew what he meant. Gravis was obviously referring to her Will-Aura problem.
Stella nodded. "Yes, please, and thank you, Gravis," she said with conviction.
Gravis nodded too. "Okay, there are two things you need to make interferences in fights become irrelevant to your Will-Aura," Gravis said. "Both of them are very hard to grasp, which is why it is so very rare for someone to be immune to something like this. After all, not even your teacher knew the answer."
Stella got reminded of her teacher but nodded.
"This means that it's challenging to grasp both of these things. Understanding only one thing is already incredibly difficult, but understanding both of them is nearly impossible," Gravis said.
"Yet, you need both of them, and both of them rely on you," Gravis said with severity. "I can only marginally help you with them. Everything else completely relies on you."
Stella nodded, her red hair moving with her head.
Gravis found her nod cute, but he quickly distracted himself. After knowing that they were perfectly compatible, Gravis couldn't ignore Stella's subtle movements anymore. Now, he was under their full assault.
"One thing is an essential change of mindset while the other is the comprehension of a very rare and elusive Law," Gravis explained. "By the way, the Law I am referring to is the Law that your teacher said she heard about but has never seen before."
A Law even her teacher had never seen?
Stella released a sigh. Such a Law had to be incomparably hard to understand.
"Let me first tell you about the Law," Gravis said. "You won't be able to watch, see, or perceive the Law yourself, which is why you can't search for it. Even knowing its name might make it harder since you might try to seek out the circumstance and philosophy of this Law, which would make it even harder to understand it."
For the first time, Stella was confused. The things Gravis had just said went against the basic philosophy of cultivation. A Law that can't be observed? That exists? Also, knowing about the Law would make it even harder to understand it? How was that even possible? One had to observe and look at the Law to understand it. How was it possible that not looking at the Law would make it easier to understand it?
Everything Gravis had just said made no sense. If her teacher had not confirmed Gravis' abilities and if Stella didn't know Gravis very well due to their conversation, Stella would not even entertain that such claims were factual. It simply went against everything she knew.
However, Stella also became a bit excited. Comprehending Laws was like doing calculations. The more Laws Stella learned, the more sterile and grey they became, but the description Gravis had just given sounded mystical.
When Stella had been young and weak, she still remembered the mysteries of the Laws. Comprehending these unfathomable and seemingly illogical things felt magical and mystical to her.
Now, a part of this mystical feeling came back.
This was something completely new!
Stella's eyes now radiated a subtle sparkle of interest and wonder. She didn't even know what this Law was, but she wanted to know it!
Gravis had to avoid looking into Stella's eyes since they distracted him from his teachings. 'Fuck! Why did you tell me about our connection, Arc!? You're making this far harder than it should be!'
Meanwhile, Arc was laughing at Gravis' discomfort.
"I can't tell you what Law it is, but I can show you the category and explain to you why it is so hard to comprehend," Gravis said.
Stella nodded with motivation.
"Do you know about the Laws of Perceived Reality or Situational Laws?" Gravis asked.
Stella scrunched her nose as she thought about these words. "I think I've heard about Situational Laws before, but only a little bit. I think I also didn't hear it from anyone that I deemed as important, or I would have a clearer recollection of their words."
Gravis nodded.
"There are four primary and several secondary categories of Laws," Gravis explained.
"Primary and secondary?" Stella asked with furrowed brows. How could some categories be primary and others secondary? Laws were Laws, and they all had about the same strength as long as they were at the same level.
"I can't tell you why some categories are primary, and some are secondary," Gravis directly said. If he explained these things, he would need to explain to her why these four categories were necessary for becoming a powerful God. That would open questions about how Gravis could know about Gods while being in a higher world.
"So, let's just go through the four primary categories of Laws," Gravis said.
Gravis' unwillingness to elaborate on several topics wasn't to Stella's liking. Did he truly know these things, or did he just put up an empty show of mystery?
"I'll be going from easy to perceive to hard to perceive," Gravis said.
Easy to hard? Stella knew that Gravis was referring to categories, but the difficulty of understanding a Law didn't depend on the category but on its tier. Gravis simply continued to make statements that didn't seem to fit basic understanding of cultivation.
"Wait a second," Stella said as she interrupted Gravis.
"Yes?"
Stella released a sigh. "You are saying a lot of things that don't seem to fit the basics of cultivation. You should know that I can believe some of them without evidence due to my teacher's words, but it's becoming harder and harder for me to believe you."
"So," Stella said with some discomfort. She didn't want to question Gravis, but she also couldn't just accept such claims. "Could you please elaborate on how you know these things?"
Gravis blinked a couple of times.
"Please, understand where I'm coming from," Stella said with more nervousness. "The basics of cultivation come from generations upon generations of Immortal Emperors, and we are just normal Immortals. You are basically saying that you know cultivation better than Immortal Emperors. This is very hard for me to believe."
Gravis blinked a couple of times more.
"I do know cultivation better than them," he said.
Stella took a deep breath through her teeth. That was a humongous and arrogant claim! However, she wanted to give Gravis a chance to explain himself instead of just dismissing his words as arrogance.
"And what makes you think so?" Stella asked.
"How powerful is the Battle-Strength of Immortal Emperors?" Gravis asked. "How powerful was their Battle-Strength when they have been Immortals?"
Stella furrowed her brows. "About as strong as mine," she said.
"And how powerful is my Battle-Strength?" Gravis asked.
Stella was a bit confused when Gravis said that. They had the same Battle-Strength. After all, their fight had been a draw.
'Wait!' Stella suddenly realized as her eyes opened wide.
She completely forgot that Gravis was a Late Minor Circulation Immortal!
As soon as Gravis had unveiled his true power, she had seen Gravis as an equal. She had seen Gravis as a rival and as a peak genius of the world, someone who could fight her on the same level.
But Gravis was an entire Circulation below her!
Stella took a deep breath as she remembered that the person that had nearly killed her was an entire Circulation below her.
She had already said that the Immortal Emperors had been about as powerful as her when they had been Immortals.
However, there were worlds between them and Gravis.
Gravis was an absolutely abnormal freak that didn't conform to basic cultivation!
Gravis saw that Stella realized what he was getting at.
"That's my proof."
