Lightning Is the Only Way

How did Gravis resist the impact of Samsara?

He simply took all the emotions inside himself and oriented them to the extreme of Apathy.

All of Gravis' emotions still existed, but it was like he didn't feel them.

He basically became an emotionless Formation Array, only leaving a tiny part behind to wake him up later when everything was over.

The danger of Samsara was that the onlookers felt the emotions of all the people they had met in their life, making it hard to discern what their true self was.

The emotions hit Gravis, but they were just incredibly irrelevant. They simply had no significance.

Because of that, only a couple of hours after entering, Gravis entered a similar state to when he focused on comprehending a Law.

Time lost its meaning, and it was like Gravis was sleeping. He was only picking up information but not processing it.

Because of that, the several million years of illusion seemingly passed by in just a few hours.

Resisting Samsara had been even easier than Gravis had expected.

However, the other two didn't have it nearly as easy.

Samsara was showing the lives of these Cultivators successively, not simultaneously. This meant that one life finished before the other one began.

The person whose life was looked at first fell into a crisis of regret. He had a lot of regrets, and he couldn't empathize with his previous self, slowly making the person unable to differentiate who he actually was.

One could say that this was dangerous but also harmless.

The person would still have a personality after escaping Samsara, but they would be forever changed.

Essentially, they would become a different person.

However, the other one had major issues.

Turns out, watching someone else's life was far more dangerous and far worse than watching one's own life.

After years and years of watching a stranger's life, the second person started to think that they were the first person.

They assumed around 80% of the personality of the other person while the first person had changed a little bit.

Gravis didn't infuse Samsara with Deep Wood's Destruction.

After all, he didn't want them to die too quickly.

When the first life was done, the second life began.

Both of them were horrified as they realized that it wasn't over.

How long would this go on!?

Would this torment go on forever!?

When one got through a life once, one would believe that it was the end, but if it started again, one would despair.

After all, if there was a second time, there could also be a third or fourth time.

The two new people watched the life of the second person.

The funny thing was that, since the second person had basically become the first person, the second person felt like watching their own life was watching the life of a stranger.

Eventually, so many perspectives and emotions mixed together that both of them didn't know who they were anymore.

They started to become so unsure of their own convictions, personality, and goal that they couldn't accept any of these things.

Just halfway through the second life, both of them lost their wills.

They were filled with memories and concepts, but they just couldn't act on these concepts.

If one recorded all the knowledge inside of Cultivator, put it in a book, took out the Cultivator's Spirit and mind, and replaced these things with the book, the outcome would be the same.

The book knew the same things as the Spirit, but it couldn't act upon it.

The information was identical, but it was impossible to act upon that information.

A book didn't have a will. A book about forging wouldn't just get up and start forging.

They were both still alive, but the things that made them, them, were gone.

Now, they were no longer different from the mindless puppets Arc had summoned when he showed Gravis the power of the Law of the Living World.

Time passed.

"Oh, what? Oh! I'm back!" Gravis uttered as he saw himself return to reality.

Only an instant had passed in reality, but an eternity had passed for the three of them.

However, the eternity was irrelevant to Gravis.

It was like he had just taken a nap.

The two Cultivators in front of Gravis had empty eyes as they started to fall towards the ground. Even if they knew the Laws and had the ability to fly, they didn't use them.

After all, they were empty inside.

BOOOM! BOOOM!

The two heavy bodies of the Star Gods fell to the ground, not moving.

Their minds didn't work anymore.

"Nooo!" an aggrieved shout came out of the dark castle.

SHING!

The woman with green hair appeared beside the two Star Gods in shock. "What have you done to them!?" she shouted at Gravis.

"Well, they're alive but also dead. It's kind of hard to explain," Gravis said.

SHING!

Gravis appeared beside the two corpses and entered their Spirit. Without any resistance, entering someone's Spirit was easy.

However, Gravis found nothing in their Spirits.

Why were their Spirits empty!?

Where was his loot!?

Then, Gravis looked at the girl beside him. "Quite sneaky. You act like you cared about them, but you actually just stole their valuables."

"Shut up, you monster!" she shouted with hatred. "You killed my two brothers! How dare you!? You're a Judge! You're supposed to protect us, not kill them!"

"Mhm," Gravis uttered without being impressed, not buying it. "So, what are you going to do about it?"

The woman gritted her teeth in hatred and frustration.

She couldn't do anything!

She wasn't any more powerful than her brothers, and Gravis also hadn't made a mistake while doing his duty.

She was helpless!

Luckily, she hadn't attacked Gravis. If she did, he could kill her.

However, Gravis wasn't allowed to kill her right now. After all, he was only here as a Judge, not as himself.

"Just you wait," she said with hate. "I will find out who you are, and I will make sure that you won't live a life of peace!"

"K."

Gravis' blunt answer enraged the woman even more, making her throw even more threats at Gravis, who didn't care one bit.

"Anyway," Gravis said, "since they don't have any valuables, I'll leave them to you. Who knows? Maybe you can help them recover?"

The woman glared at Gravis, but she also looked at her two brothers.

They were still alive!

Their Spirits were uninjured!

This meant that they would recover, and if they didn't, she simply had to find someone that could heal them.

In fact, the woman hadn't stolen their valuables.

The two of them had entered the fight without any valuables. They only had their weapons on them.

Why?

Because they knew that there was a chance that they would die. Because of that, they left their valuables with the green-haired woman.

The woman loved her two brothers, and she would do everything in her power to help them, no matter how many God Stones she had to pay!

"Huh, I wasn't even needed. Good job, Black Sentry," a third voice spoke.

Gravis' eyes opened with surprise, and he looked upward.

It was Eve!

"Why are you here?" Gravis asked in surprise.

"I was supposed to overlook the fight between you and those two," she said, gesturing at the two mindless Star Gods.

"Oh, yeah, right," Gravis said. "You said you were my replacement."

Eve nodded. "Anyway, that was a hell of a first job, but if you can deal with that, you can deal with anything. I need to go back. Later!"

SHING!

And with that, Eve was gone.

"Later!" Gravis shouted after her.

Then, Gravis took out his own emblem and broke it, vanishing too.

The woman seethed in hatred for some more minutes, but then, she focused on the two bodies.

She would help them recover!

Would she succeed?

Well, some things had to be explained first.

How difficult was it to heal a physical body?

Easy.

How difficult was it to heal a Spirit?

A bit harder.

How difficult was it to heal a Will-Aura?

One needed to comprehend the Law of Freedom to do that or go through an incredible amount of tempering. That was far harder than the previous two, making it nearly impossible.

How difficult was it to heal a will?

Well, what was a will?

A will was the active component of the mind. The Spirit had all the person's information inside of it, but something was needed to interact with and change the information.

If a Spirit was a book, a will was the person reading the book. They could do the things inside the book and alter the book.

In essence, a will was sentience.

It was the ability to think.

So, in order to repair sentience, one needed to understand the Law of Sentience.

Sadly, these two were Star Gods, making the Major Law of Sentience relatively useless to them.

This meant that one needed to get someone that knew the True Law of Sentience.

And if someone already knew the True Law of Sentience, comprehending the True Law of the Dead World and the True Law of Life was only a matter of time.

In essence, Cultivators that knew the True Law of Sentience were either Heaven's Magnates or Heaven's Magnates in waiting.

Would the woman be able to get a Heaven's Magnate to heal her two brothers?

That was a stupid question.

However, she would spend a fortune and accrue favors all over the world to invite powerful doctors, alchemy masters, and Cultivators to take a look at her two brothers.

Sadly, none of them knew the True Law of Sentience.

Attacks that damaged the will of a Cultivator basically didn't exist. No one would even be able to tell why the two Star Gods couldn't do anything. In their eyes, the two Star Gods were in perfect health.

This was why Gravis wasn't afraid of letting the two live.

If a Heaven's Magnate wanted to go against Gravis, these two Star Gods would be the least of his worries.

Why had Gravis let the two "live"?

Well, Gravis wasn't allowed to kill the woman, so he had to search for another way to repay this debt of revenge.

So, Gravis decided to gift her something cruel.

Hopeless hope.