Gravis had initially planned to find another opportunity to temper himself. After all, that was the very reason why he had only become a level one Ancestral God.
However, everything had turned out differently from what he had planned… as always.
Gravis' Will-Aura had reached the level of a level four Divine God during Samsara. Gravis had been under an intense feeling of doom and danger for the ten million years of Samsara, which had done wonders for his Will-Aura.
This put Gravis in a very awkward position regarding tempering.
With his strengthened True Law of Suppression, no Ancestral God could possibly resist Gravis' illusions, making him unkillable in the Realm.
Yet, Gravis also couldn't kill level nine Ancestral Gods since he simply couldn't muster enough power to injure them, even if they simply stood there without doing anything at all.
That meant that Gravis needed to fight Divine Gods now, and for that, Gravis needed to increase his Realm and Law comprehension.
Talking about tempering, Gravis started to feel rather frustrated.
Everyone else found tons of opponents on their level. It was almost like they found someone they could temper themselves against as soon as they took a foot out of the door.
These people went to competitions, tournaments, wars, and whatever, and they always found great tempering. There were so many people to choose from.
And Gravis?
It was always one of two extremes. Either Gravis found people that he could crush with a thought or people that could crush him with a thought.
There was no middle-ground.
All of that had started to happen in the higher world.
Gravis had needed to actively search for his opponents back then, and he had to keep himself hidden because of his beast body.
He had actively searched for the turtle.
He had actively used Siral's tribulation to get an opponent.
Mortis had actively searched for that Black Demon.
Gravis and Mortis had actively sought out Nira.
Gravis hadn't conveniently met a good opponent ever since then.
The highest world was even worse.
Mortis had gotten that one opponent in the war, but that was it.
After that, Gravis had only met incredibly weak people, and when that passed, he was confronted with something he couldn't do anything against, his Sin Aura.
Then, when he finally managed to get past the Sin Aura thing, Eve had appeared with the desire to kill him. He had been helpless in front of her.
After that came the entire thing with the Eternal Fire Sect. Gravis couldn't just fight against the other members since there were basically no really powerful Star Gods back then.
The only time Gravis got some great opponents was in the Heaven's Trial.
And then?
Gravis wanted to temper himself against a level six Ancestral God, but instead, he got confronted with tons of Peak Ancestral Gods and Divine Gods that wanted to kill him.
How was he supposed to fight against any of them?
As soon as he clashed with one of them, they would call over everyone else, and Gravis' life would be over.
What was he supposed to do in that scenario?
He could only run.
In his downtime, Gravis had read some stories while being with Stella, and he had realized that the main characters always conveniently found opponents that were on their level.
These elders always only looked back and said that all of these fights were between the junior generation, whatever the fuck that meant.
The powerful people always seemingly ignored the main character until he became powerful enough to fight them.
The real world didn't work that way!
Did the Peak Sects act like Gravis was part of the Ancestral God generation and only send level six Ancestral Gods against him?
Of course not!
That would be idiotic beyond compare!
Instead, the Peak Divine Gods kept watch over him, and they directly took personal action.
'Can't I just get a normal opponent that wants to fight me for whatever reason?' Gravis thought with frustration. 'Do I always have to search through the entire world to find a good opponent?'
'Anyway, there's nothing I can do about it. I mean, being chased by someone far more powerful than me is also a form of tempering, and I got my tempering. After all, my Will-Aura is now on the level of a level four Divine God, and I have comprehended several powerful Laws.'
'Why can't I just have normal tempering?'
Gravis looked at Mortis. "So, you wanna increase our Realm first before we test out the Elemental Synchronicity?"
"Sounds good," Mortis answered. "How do you want to do it? We don't have any money right now."
Gravis only smirked. "But we have the True Law of Perceived Reality. We can essentially go anywhere."
"Why not look for a nice Law Comprehension Area for Heavenly Lightning?"
Mortis frowned. "That's risky. If a Divine God just so happens to be there when we surface, we're done for. We also don't have enough Energy to create a clone."
"Well, it's risky for me, but not for you," Gravis said with a smirk. "As long as you don't directly charge into a Peak Sect, no one can find you in your intangible state. There should be some Law Comprehension Areas for Heavenly Lightning in non-Peak Sects."
"Okay, which ones?" Mortis asked.
"I don't know! Just find out," Gravis answered with annoyance.
"How?" Mortis asked.
"I don't know. Go to like an Information Pavilion or something," Gravis answered.
"Where?" Mortis asked.
"Like some city…"
And then, Gravis realized what Mortis meant.
Divine Gods would overlook the major cities, and Mortis would need to become tangible to interact with the Information Pavilion. At that point, he would be found out.
Especially Opposer City, as the capital of commerce, would be overlooked heavily. Sure, the Peak Sects wouldn't make any trouble inside Opposer City, but they would surround the city as soon as Mortis was unveiled.
Mortis could become intangible, but the Peak Sects might have methods to unveil his location. At that point, Mortis would always have someone follow him, no matter where he went.
Gravis violently scratched the back of his head in frustration. "Why is this so hard!?" he shouted.
"Because the Peak Sects are the rulers of the world," Mortis answered calmly.
"I know that! That was a rhetorical question," Gravis snapped back.
"I know, but I am you, and with a rhetorical question, you are asking yourself, and you just answered your own question through me," Mortis answered calmly.
Gravis rolled his eyes. "Shut up."
"You were the one asking me."
Gravis groaned. "Fine, fine! You win! Now, how do we get to an Information Pavilion?"
"You know, you overlooked something else, Gravis," Mortis said. "Getting to the Information Pavilion is one thing, but we also have to find a way to pay them."
"We don't have any money right now."
Gravis' brows furrowed.
Whenever they had needed money, Gravis had simply opened a business.
But now?
For a business, Gravis needed customers, and to get customers, he would need to conduct his business in a public place. However, Divine Gods would overlook these places.
"What about killing someone?" Gravis asked.
"That would pull all the Divine Gods to that place, at least in this location. Sure, we can go somewhere else, but as soon as we reach the surface, any Divine God can find us. The Peak Sects are absolutely everywhere right now, and the only safe location is the deep underground."
"We can't kill someone for wealth. We can't interact with anyone. We can't find out where the natural resources are."
Gravis violently scratched the back of his head again.
He hadn't expected that the Peak Sects would be suppressing him to that degree.
Gravis couldn't even leave the deep underground without walking into danger.
After a while of silence, Gravis looked to the side.
"We are mole-people now."
Mortis raised an eyebrow.
"We live in the underground for our entire lives. As mole-people, we have to live like mole-people."
Mortis only looked at Gravis with a weird look.
"And you are suggesting what exactly?" he asked.
Gravis pointed in one random direction.
"Mole-people are blind, and they don't know where they have to go! So, as blind mole-people, we have to also blindly move around!"
"Eventually, we will come across something that can be converted into money!"
Mortis only blinked without amusement.
"You do know that the highest world is a bit big, right?"
"Mole-people don't question the world! They dig!" Gravis answered.
Mortis blinked once again.
Then, he shrugged.
"Sure, why not."
