Lightning Is the Only Way

SHING! SHING!

Gravis and Eve appeared in a gigantic hall.

However, the hall was completely empty except for one humongous apparatus.

Gravis looked to the front at the apparatus. It was some kind of machine with an incredible number of tubes. Gravis could see emblems moving through the tube at insane speeds. If he were still in the Immortal Realm, he wouldn't even be able to follow the emblems, and he would only see a cacophony of colors shooting through the tubes.

The emblems all had different colors, and they shone with light. However, not every emblem shone with the same intensity. Some of them seemed to be almost lightless, while others shone as bright as stars. The color of the light also adapted to the color of the emblem.

Gravis looked to the tube at the top, and his eyes widened.

Gravis only saw a mass of light!

He knew that there were emblems shooting through the tubes, but the tube that led every emblem downward to the other tubes had so many emblems moving at such ridiculous speeds that he couldn't discern them.

That had to be millions or billions of emblems going through that tube per second!

As soon as the emblems went through the first tube, they entered a metallic box. The metallic box wasn't isolated, and Gravis could see what was going on inside.

An insanely complex Formation Array was sorting the emblems at ridiculous speeds and shooting them down different tubes.

The rightmost tube was completely empty.

The second tube to the right only had one emblem go through every couple of minutes.

The next tube had even fewer emblems going through it.

However, the next tube showed a noticeable jump.

Around six emblems per second shot through that tube.

The next one was slightly slower than the previous one, but the following one was just as fast as the fastest tube.

The next three tubes became faster and faster until Gravis arrived at the left-most tube, which was the fastest.

After the emblems shot through those tubes, they were sorted again. Gravis noticed that the emblems were sorted according to the intensity of their light, not color.

Lastly, the emblems were sorted according to color.

When the emblems reached the numerous tubes at the bottom, they arrived at a Formation Array that teleported them away.

"Can you guess what the Sorting Machine does?" Eve asked.

"These should be all the fights going on in the highest world, right?" Gravis asked, looking at the topmost tube.

"Correct," Eve answered.

Gravis gulped.

He knew that the highest world was gigantic but seeing so many fights happening at the same was awe-inspiring. So many people were constantly fighting each other, and every emblem represented at least two beings that would fight to the death.

There were probably millions if not billions of fights to the death going on at this very second!

If Gravis were to fight someone, his fight would only be one of those emblems.

"What does the intensity of the light represent?" Eve asked him.

"The Battle-Strength of the fighters," Gravis said. "The first Formation Array probably sorts the emblems according to Major Realms. The first on the right is probably for Divine Gods, which is why there is not a single emblem going through there. Cultivators in that Realm don't fight as often, there are not as many, and they can live for far longer."

"Correct," Eve said.

"The second one is for Ancestral Gods. There are far more Ancestral Gods, but not that many. The third one is for Star Gods and, sure enough, there seem to be even fewer Star Gods than Ancestral Gods in this world."

Eve looked at Gravis. "You don't seem surprised. Were you born in the highest world? Most Ascenders would be shocked by this."

Gravis smiled bitterly. "Yes, I was born in the highest world, but I went through the lower, middle, and higher worlds."

"Makes sense," Eve commented.

"The next one is probably for Peak Immortal Emperors. At first, I was a bit surprised that there are only six emblems per second, but I forgot that Peak Immortal Emperors can live for a very long time. Six per second is already quite a bit, with everyone having 200,000 years of longevity. According to math, the relation between tribulations and normal fights is around 1:1," Gravis said.

"Yes," Eve confirmed. "There are some Peak Immortal Emperors that only comprehend Laws until their tribulation arrives, and there are some Peak Immortal Emperors that fight multiple times in that timeframe."

Gravis looked to the left. "The lowest Realm is the Unity Realm?" Gravis asked.

"Fights below the Unity Realm lack destructive power," Eve explained. "However, even the fights between Unity and Nascent Nourishing Cultivators get mostly sent to the archive. Nearly all of those fights won't have Judges looking over them. Only the ones in important cities and Sects will have Judges overseeing them."

Gravis nodded. "I'm guessing that the color represents the danger to the surroundings, right?"

"Quite smart," Eve commented. "Yes, they represent the danger to society. The Chief Instructor assigned you to Red Four through Six and Black Four through Six. The color represents the danger to the surroundings, and the number represents the intensity of the light."

Gravis listened intently to Eve.

"There are six grades to the colors. The lowest is grey, which means that not even any mortals will be in danger during the fight."

"The second lowest is white, which means that mortals are in danger."

"The third lowest is yellow, which means that Cultivators in the first three Realms are in danger."

"The third highest is orange, which means that several true Cultivators are in danger."

"The second highest is red, which means that a great number of Cultivators are in danger. Red generally represents fights between powerful Cultivators in a small city or town filled entirely with Cultivators."

"The highest is black, which means that a huge number of Cultivators are in danger. Black generally represents fights in major cities or inside unrelated Sects. For example, two Peak Immortal Emperors could get into a conflict right beside a huge Sect filled with Immortals and Immortal Kings."

"Do I only need to protect the Cultivators or also the mortals and their belongings?" Gravis asked.

"It depends on the color," Eve explained. "You are only assigned to red and black, which means that you only need to protect the lives of the Cultivators on the Unity Realm or above. However, you can also protect the mortals, the buildings, the animals, or whatever you want. You have to protect the Cultivators, but everything else is up to you. No one will complain because you saved their house from destruction."

Gravis nodded. "And the intensity of the light?"

"The intensity of the light represents the Battle-Strength. The lower Realms don't have a difference in intensity since we have the manpower to send someone from a higher Realm to overlook the fight, making the Battle-Strength of the combatants irrelevant."

"The Immortal, Immortal King, and Immortal Emperor Realm have four intensities. The Peak Immortal Emperor Realm has six due to the gulf between the Peak Immortal Emperor Realm and the Star God Realm."

"An intensity of one means that the Peak Immortal Emperors don't know any level six Laws. Those are exclusively Peak Immortal Emperors born in this world and some from some weaker worlds with looser Ascension requirements. They represent the absolute bottom, and they are as weak as it gets in their Realm."

"An intensity of two means that the combatants both know one level six Law. This represents about 50% of all Peak Immortal Emperors, and they are the average."

"An intensity of three means that the combatants can both theoretically jump a level. The difference in Energy, Spirit and physical power between the Peak Immortal Emperor Realm and Star God Realm corresponds to four levels. So, in that sense, a jump of one level doesn't truly exist. However, if there were a Cultivation Realm one level higher than a Peak Immortal Emperor, the combatants with an intensity of three could fight those."

"These are the above-average Peak Immortal Emperors, and some of them already know more than one level six Law."

"An intensity of four means that the combatants can theoretically jump two levels. These fights are much rarer, and the fighters all know several level six Laws. They are generally considered as the most powerful Peak Immortal Emperors since meeting Peak Immortal Emperors with an intensity of five or six is basically impossible due to their rarity."

"An intensity of five means that the combatants can jump three levels. That would be someone that is close to comprehending a level seven Law or someone that knows an incredibly powerful level six Law, like the Major Law of the Elements. These people are exceedingly rare."

Gravis nodded. Stella and Manuel belonged to that group.

"An intensity of six basically only exists in theory. Those Cultivators do exist, but they basically never fight. An intensity of six means that someone knows a level seven Law. When a Cultivator comprehends a level seven Law, they nearly always directly become Star Gods, essentially making such fights nonexistent."

Gravis nodded again. Exar belonged to that group.

"So, I'm responsible for fights in Cultivator towns, cities, and Sects. However, I'm only responsible for the fights between Peak Immortal Emperors that can jump at least two levels, right?" Gravis asked.

"Correct. You'll only overlook the most powerful Peak Immortal Emperors. You shouldn't have much work to do since there aren't that many. One person is easily enough to overlook all of these fights. The overwhelming majority of fights are of the first three intensities."

Gravis nodded.

As Gravis thought about the different intensities, he thought about what intensities his friends would have.

Stella and Manuel were the only ones with an intensity of five, and Exar was the only one with an intensity of six, assuming he was still a Peak Immortal Emperor.

Aris was probably between four and five, but the Sorting Machine would probably count him as five.

Skye, Liam, Azure, and Ferris were probably an intensity of four.

The remainder was probably on an intensity of three.

Cera was probably the only one on an intensity of two.