Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis and his mother talked a long time about how to set up the shop, and eventually, they came to a consensus.

Gravis would give his mother 20% of all the earnings. In return, she would get the shop, handle all the bureaucracy, and be responsible for the security in his shop. The fact that she was handling the security was the most important thing. People that know that they will be tortured to death might become rowdy and attack Gravis. If his victim were an Ancestral God, Gravis would die.

With the help of his mother, Gravis didn't need to fear anyone inside his own shop. Only Peak Divine Gods could fight his mother, and Peak Divine Gods wouldn't enter the shop of a Star God torturer. They had access to the real torturers, which were basically all Divine Gods themselves.

It took the Economistress only a couple of years to set up the entire shop, and before he knew it, Gravis could already start working.

His shop was in the main plaza of Opposer City, an incredibly expensive location. Back when Gravis had set up the Gravitas, he hadn't been in the main plaza. After all, these shops were just far too expensive, and the Economistress would have never gotten her investment back. The shop itself would have been far more expensive than all the money Gravis had made back then.

In fact, the rent was 10 million God Stones per millennium.

Gravis quickly set up his shop and looked at the sign on top of the entrance.

"Secret Name Torture Chambers."

Gravis decided to call it as such because he couldn't unveil the actual name, which was simply the Gravitas Torture Chambers.

'The Gravitas is branching out,' Gravis thought with pride.

First, the Gravitas was a forge.

Then, it was a trading firm.

Then, it was a Sect spanning millions of worlds.

And now, it was a torture chamber.

Gravis sat down in his shop while wearing a disguise. Wearing disguises in Opposer City was forbidden, but they could be worn inside buildings as long as the owner of the building didn't call the guards.

And then, Gravis simply waited.

The Economistress hadn't only invested in the shop's location and bureaucracy but also in marketing.

The Economistress had paid another 100 million God Stones to send people to the different Sects. These people would inform the Sects about the Secret Name Torture Chambers and their services.

Of course, the Economistress didn't inform Sects with Divine Gods in them. The most powerful Sects she informed were the ones on the level of the Eternal Fire Sect.

With all the marketing, Gravis wouldn't need to wait too long for his first customer, and sure enough, just a couple of months after opening the shop, his first customers arrived.

Five figures holding a body entered Gravis' shop. All of them were cloaked, and their auras couldn't be felt.

But wait, wasn't it forbidden to enter Opposer City while being disguised?

Well, the disguise regulation was only there to protect the public. As long as someone applied for an exemption, they could still wear their disguises. Of course, there were two restrictions regarding that.

First of all, the people would need to wear disguises specifically created by the city guards. These disguises would hide the people from everyone but from the commanders in Opposer City.

Second, they had to pay a hefty sum for such an exemption. These five people probably paid 100,000 God Stones just to wear their disguises.

The five of them looked at Gravis, who was also disguised.

"You know the True Law of Suffering, and you offer your services to anyone between the Peak Immortal Emperor and Peak Ancestral God Realm?" one of them asked in a distorted tone.

"Correct," Gravis answered, also in a distorted tone.

"Prove that you know the True Law of Suffering," one of the customers said.

Gravis gestured to a spike hanging from the ceiling. These spikes were connected to Gravis via Formation Arrays. There were about 25 long spikes in the room, and when they got activated, they would spear through a Cultivator and keep them in place while inflicting the True Law of Suffering unto their being.

One of the customers walked over and touched the spike. Then, he looked at Gravis, which was a signal to start.

Gravis activated the Formation Array.

BANG!

The spike extended out of the ceiling, penetrated the person's hand, and hit the ground.

"AAAAHHH!"

The person immediately started shouting in pain and fell on their knees.

CRK!

Then, the person cut off their hand immediately, severing the connection to the spike.

"Satisfied?" Gravis asked.

The person took a couple of breaths and informed his colleagues.

People on their level had never come into contact with the True Law of Suffering, which had made them skeptical of its power. After all, it was difficult to imagine a pain so strong that one wanted to kill themselves.

They talked for a long time via voice transmission.

After a minute, the five gathered together again and looked at Gravis.

"What are your prices?" one of them asked.

Gravis gestured to the wall, which had all the prices listed.

The five of them looked over, and they took a deep breath.

Sure enough, this was expensive.

Nothing cost less than a million God Stones.

However, they became even more surprised when they saw the "specials" section.

There was something on there that cost five billion God Stones!

"Instantaneous and extremely thorough information extraction – Ancestral God level – five billion God Stones."

The five looked at that in shock. Their entire Sect didn't even have a billion God Stones, and this guy wanted five billion for this service!

After a while, they made their decision.

"We would like the Peak Immortal Emperor information extraction," one of them said.

'Of course, my first clients chose the cheapest option on the menu,' Gravis thought with annoyance.

"That will be one million God Stones. Keep in mind that I will know the victim's identity and that I will also hear all the information. Of course, the information will be classified for the next 50,000 years. After that, the information shouldn't be relevant anymore anyway."

"That's fine. How long will it take approximately?" one of them asked.

"I would need to feel the aura of the person first. If you want me to make an approximation, unveil their identity first," Gravis said.

The person currently holding the unconscious person looked at someone in their group. That someone nodded, and the hood of the unconscious person was taken off.

It was a green-haired, beautiful woman, and she was a Peak Immortal Emperor.

Gravis looked at her Law fragments and could read through her personality.

Kind, forgiving, loyal, but loses control over their emotions easily.

In short, it was a normal woman, but on the kinder side.

'Well, sucks to be her,' Gravis thought.

"She's a tough one," Gravis said. "There's a 30% chance that she will kill herself. If she doesn't, she will probably give up all the relevant information after only around a decade or so due to her weak Will-Aura. You can either wait here for a decade or return later. Everything should be done by then."

"Also, keep in mind that if she decides to reveal the necessary information, she will be teleported to a secret location one day after you receive the information."

The last sentence made the customers a bit nervous. "Can't we simply pay you more to kill her after?" they asked.

"No. The hope must be real for the torture to work. If I break my word once, it will be difficult for me to continue working. I doubt that you have the finances to secure my future."

The five of them looked at each other again.

"Fine," one of them said, handing a million God Stones over.

Gravis pocketed the God Stones and teleported the woman into a separate room. The spikes in the main room were only for people that wanted to undergo Will-Aura training.

Silence.

"When will you start?" one of them asked.

"I already did," Gravis answered. "The rooms of the captives are isolated. She is currently screaming her lungs out."

"Oh, okay," the guy said awkwardly. Obviously, he felt a bit uncomfortable about all of this.

Gravis was also a bit uncomfortable. After all, he was basically torturing a nice woman.

However, money was money, and if he needed something, Gravis could be morally flexible.

"One of us will return in a decade," one of them said.

Gravis summoned an emblem and threw it over. "This is the emblem that represents the current captive. I will give the information of the captive only to the person carrying this emblem. If she decides to kill herself, I will also tell them of the result. Additionally, as policy demands it, I will return 50% of the payment if she kills herself."

The five of them looked at the emblem, nodded, and teleported away.

Gravis simply remained sitting on the floor in the middle of the room.

He could hear the painful and screeching screams from his one and only current captive.

It was like her throat became inflamed as her screams destroyed it.

She continually shouted and pleaded, even going so far as to tell Gravis about her children and family.

Her Sect needed her, and she couldn't betray the Sect. The Sect held all her family, and if she betrayed them, her family might die in an attack.

Gravis noted these things down.

She was already starting to divulge information without noticing it.

The torture would only stop when she shouted that she had divulged everything about her Sect she knew and when the Formation Array gave the sign that she had spoken the truth.

That would be the only time when the torture would stop.

Gravis didn't like it, but he had to earn some money.

People died all the time during fights, and this was only a more painful death.

The process was different, but the result was the same.