Gravis arrived at the Purist Sect without being noticed. With Gravis' current power and grasp over the Emotional Laws, no one in this world could find him when he wanted to stay hidden.
When Gravis saw Stella again, they embraced each other.
Stella tried to hold back her tears, but they just wouldn't stop when she saw Gravis.
Stella was so happy that Gravis hadn't died!
When Gravis felt Stella's emotions, he was assaulted by guilt.
He had hurt Stella.
Yet, there was no other way.
The only ways to avoid this happening in the future were either to stop advancing or keep his tempering a secret.
Gravis couldn't choose either option.
Gravis and Stella spent the next couple of years together without any outsider interfering.
However, 1,000 years later, Gravis got an idea.
"Hey, do you want to visit the Nine Elements Sect?" Gravis asked.
Stella was a bit taken aback by the idea.
"But aren't we still being hunted?" she asked.
"So?" Gravis asked.
Stella wasn't sure how to respond to that.
When Gravis saw Stella hesitate, he burst out into laughter. "Oh, you're so cute and innocent sometimes," Gravis said with a chortle.
Stella pouted when she heard Gravis' words. "Hey, I'm not innocent!"
Gravis' laughter only increased when he heard her protests.
"Honey, you have been born into this higher world," Gravis explained with a warm smile. "That means that you have never reached the peak of a world. Honey, when you reach the peak of power, you can do whatever you want."
"If I want, we can both stroll around the Nine Elements Sect without being detected, and even if I appeared openly, what can they do?"
"Tell me, what can they do if I want to walk around their Sect?" Gravis asked with a smile.
Stella thought about how everything would go down.
The Nine Elements Sect would probably become hostile, but what if Gravis unveiled his power?
What could they do then?
There were only two options.
Resist and die or comply and live.
There was no third option, and only idiots would choose the first option.
Stella remained silent for a bit as she thought about her previous home.
In actuality, Stella wasn't really interested in going back. Most of her memories of the Nine Elements Sect were of struggles for power or being suppressed by Nira.
Stella didn't view the Nine Elements Sect as her home.
In comparison, her time in the Purist Sect had been nothing other than wonderful.
She had a high status.
She had a lot of friends.
She had a lot of power.
She wasn't suppressed.
She had her brother.
And, most importantly, she had Gravis.
Yet, there was one thing that called Stella back to the Nine Elements Sect.
"I want to visit my teacher's grave," Stella said.
Gravis remembered the powerful woman that had given her life for Stella. Back then, Gravis had been tempering himself against Stella, and he had done his best in killing her.
Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the perspective, their power had been about equal.
If Stella's teacher hadn't stopped the fight, both of them would have died.
Stella's teacher obviously hadn't sacrificed her life for Gravis but for Stella. Nevertheless, Gravis was deeply grateful for her sacrifice.
Because, without her, Gravis and Stella wouldn't have fallen in love.
"Is her grave in the Nine Elements Sect?" Gravis asked.
Stella nodded. "She spent most of her remaining short life with Liam and me, but she ultimately died in the Nine Elements Sect. After all, she had to inform everyone of what had happened and what they should do after her passing."
Gravis nodded. "So, you wanna go?"
Stella nodded again, but her mood had worsened due to the bad memories.
Now that Liam and Stella had become so powerful, Stella wanted to say goodbye to her teacher one last time.
Stella contacted Liam, who quickly arrived.
By now, Liam and Stella were both Early Major Circulation Immortal Emperors.
Sadly, their Battle-Strengths were worlds apart.
Liam could fight one level above himself, which was already beyond impressive for such a powerful Immortal Emperor. After all, this meant that Liam was able to fight Vice-Sect Masters.
Yet, Stella could confidently fight three levels above herself.
This meant that Stella was more powerful than any Sect Master but slightly weaker than Ancestors.
Stella had basically reached the maximum achievable Battle-Strength.
Fighting four levels above herself needed a body, Spirit, and Energy with maximum potential.
There were some resources that could increase these three aspects, but they were exceedingly rare, even in this world.
This meant that there was no one in this world that had all three aspects of their power tempered to the maximum, except for Gravis.
Gravis' body was as powerful as the body of a beast, and Gravis' Energy and Spirit were a level stronger than a human.
This was the most that a Cultivator could achieve.
Yet, that wasn't as relevant to Stella.
She was fine with jumping three levels.
After all, that was already the maximum that one could achieve normally.
Sadly, all of this meant that the brother, who wanted to protect his sister, was left behind in power yet again.
The three of them met up and started traveling to the Nine Elements Sect. Of course, it was Gravis that teleported all of them. Otherwise, this would probably take several hours.
A couple minutes later, the three of them arrived above the Nine Elements Sect.
When Gravis had seen the Nine Elements Sect for the first time back then, he had been surprised about their wealth.
However, the Nine Elements Sect didn't appear as wealthy now.
After all, Gravis had had enough wealth at one point to build multiple Nine Elements Sect.
His wealth had been truly terrifying.
Back then, Gravis had also only guessed the functions of a couple Formation Arrays, but now, he could see the workings of all of them.
Gravis' Spirit Sense stretched over the entire Nine Elements Sect.
No one noticed.
"Is there anyone you want killed as revenge?" Gravis asked the two of them.
Stella silently shook her head.
The only person Stella would have wanted to kill had been Nira since she had been the source of all her past suppression.
Yet, Nira was already dead.
Because of that, Stella wasn't interested in shedding more blood.
However, Liam didn't immediately reject the offer.
"Is anyone even still alive after such a long time?" he asked. "It's been over 150,000 years. That's already 75% of an Immortal Emperor's longevity."
Gravis nodded.
"There is one," he said. "He's the current Ancestor."
This piqued Liam's interest.
"Who is it?" he asked.
"A young man with red hair. Back then, he had been one of the two Vice-Sect Masters," Gravis answered.
"Herius?" Liam asked.
Memories of Herius shot through Liam's and Stella's minds.
"I don't know his name, but he should have been the younger of the two Vice-Sect Masters back then," Gravis explained. "The old Ancestor is probably not around anymore. The older Vice-Sect Master is probably also gone. If Herius is the name of that one young Vice-Sect Master from back then, it should be him."
Gravis looked at Liam.
"So, want me to kill him?"
