Lightning Is the Only Way

For the first time, Gravis could appreciate the true size of the city. It was absolutely massive.

Gravis turned his gaze to the Sky Community, and what he felt shocked him even more.

His Spirit couldn't even reach the highest point!

Gravis' Spirit Sense had been absolutely humongous in the middle world, but it was suppressed in the highest world. Yet, his Spirit could still see around 150,000 kilometers into the distance, but even at such a height, a ton of people were still moving around erratically. The Sky Community was absolutely packed with people.

Yersi and Orthar were also shocked by the number of buildings and people flying around. They had never seen so many living beings in one place before.

Gravis' mother noticed their shocked expressions and had to giggle a little. "Do you want to know the actually surprising part?" she asked.

"Tell me," Orthar said, but then he remembered something. "Please," he added. Humans used please and thanks a lot, and he had to adapt to that way of talking, even if it felt unnatural.

"Nearly every person you can see on the streets are either below the Immortal Realm or beggars," she said. "You actually can't see the true inhabitants."

The three of them looked at the packed streets. Yet, over half of the people were still teleporting around. Additionally, as they looked closer, they saw that Gravis' mother was right. There were a ton of people below the Immortal Realm.

How was this possible? All of these teleporting people were beggars? Then, where were the actual inhabitants?

Everyone looked at Gravis' mother with curious eyes, and she enjoyed the feeling of telling someone else about her home city.

"The actual inhabitants teleport from building to building," she said. "They don't even go into the streets. As long as you have a registered home in the city, you are allowed to directly teleport into public buildings and teleport back into your home."

"In actuality, the number of beggars in comparison to inhabitants is one to 10,000," she said.

The three of them looked in shock at the streets. Not even Gravis had known that. They could already see tens of millions of beggars. Did this mean that this city had over a hundred billion people!?

Where would they even all fit!? Immortals needed some space, and they wouldn't be fine with just some square meters of living space.

"I already know your next question," Gravis' mother said. "Look over there," she said as she guided their senses to an inconspicuous building. It was a one-story tall, normal-looking house.

"This house houses around 1,000 people," she said.

"How!?" Yersi shouted.

Gravis narrowed his eyes. "The Law of Space," he commented.

"Correct," his mother said. "The space inside the house is compressed to allow more people to live inside it. Every house needs a Formation Array that compresses space. Creating and maintaining this Formation Array is very expensive, especially since it requires an Array Formation Grandmaster that has comprehended the Major Law of Space to set it up. Generally, only Star Gods or stronger can do that."

"But the owners probably still earn a lot, I presume?" Gravis asked.

Gravis' mother nodded. "The owners mainly set these Formation Arrays up themselves. So, even though Immortals, Immortal Kings, and Immortal Emperors can live in the city, the actual buildings are mainly owned by Gods. It's uncommon that an Immortal can actually own a building in the city."

"Of course, things have changed drastically recently. In the past, most Gods only owned a single building, but now, most of the buildings are owned by a few people more powerful than Star Gods," Gravis' mother said.

Gravis narrowed his eyes. "What happened?" he asked. What could shake up this city with such intensity?

"Gravis," his mother said with a chuckle. "You forgot the time dilation. You are now around 2,000 years old, but ever since you have started cultivating, only around 25 years or so have passed in this world. 25 years for the highest world feels like yesterday to us old people."

Now, Gravis understood.

What had happened?

His father had happened!

His father had killed every Star God in the world. Because of that, most of the owners of the buildings in the city died at the same time. After this event, the even more powerful Gods probably split up all the buildings, increasing their revenue by a ridiculous amount.

"Only 25 years have happened since that event, huh," Gravis commented, lost in thought. "To me, it feels like it was so long ago."

Stella.

That was a name Gravis hadn't thought of in forever. Back then, he had been devastated, but he had also just been a young teenager. After 2,000 years, even such an emotional event had faded into obscurity.

It was like his dead childhood friend had never existed.

This was one of the effects of time. Everything faded.

Gravis also remembered something else as he thought back.

"How powerful was Stella before she died?" Gravis asked.

"She was a Shooting Star," his mother said solemnly. "Her cultivation was artificially increased by Heaven, but that amount of power also sapped Heaven of a lot of Energy. In the end, she was only a single Realm below me, and I'm at the same Realm as the most powerful beings in the world, except for your father."

"Her Realm is called a Divine God," she said. "After the Star God Realm comes the Ancestral God Realm, and only then comes the Divine God Realm. The highest, normally achievable Realm is called a Heaven's Magnate."

The three of them made some quick calculations and finally knew how powerful the Opposer and his wife actually were. If one said that the Body Tempering Realm or Demonic Beast Realm were the first Realms, a Heaven's Magnate would be the thirteenth Realm!

Gravis could still resist the impact, but the other two felt a feeling of helplessness. They were only in the Law Comprehension Realm, which was the sixth. Yet, beside them stood someone in the thirteenth Realm. The difference between them and Gravis' mother was even greater than the difference between them and a mortal!

They had already lived for over a thousand years, but there was still so much farther to go?

Meanwhile, Gravis tried to come to terms with the fact that his childhood friend had been a Divine God. He had always known that she had been powerful, but only now could he truly see the true extent of her power.

The only feat of power she had ever shown Gravis had been that one star she had created at the end. She had shown nothing else of her power to him. It was like she had been a mortal, just like him.

Gravis opened his right hand and looked at it.

WHOOOM!

He used the level three Law of the Elements to create fire and fused it with the Laws of Gravity, Space, and Time. In no time at all, Gravis also had a small star floating above his hands.

It was not hard for him to do that.

Gravis looked at the star for several seconds, not knowing what he was actually thinking about.

PACK!

Gravis felt the flick of his mother's finger on his forehead. "Hey, stop imitating your father," she said. "I don't want you to become someone that always sits at home, glaring into his room."

Gravis quickly regained his bearings. "Have I been glaring?" he asked.

Everyone present nodded.

Gravis sighed and shook his head to forget these melancholic thoughts. He had better things to do.

Suddenly, two rings appeared in front of Yersi and Orthar.

"Beings below the Immortal Realm are only allowed in the city if they have an Immortal King as a backer. Gravis is not an Immortal King yet, so I will be your backer for the time. Put these rings anywhere on your person. They automatically give off an aura that the guards and everyone else can feel."

Yersi flipped open one of her scales and put the ring beneath it while Orthar put it somewhere near his hidden octopus-beak. After they put the rings away, Gravis felt a peculiar feeling from them. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was, but they somehow felt a bit different. This was probably the aura his mother was talking about.

"Gravis, get your ring," his mother said. "Immortals without a residence or a backer are not allowed into most shops."

Gravis remembered his Obsidian Ring, which he still kept inside his Spirit Space. He had briefly used it in a fight, but he hadn't actually worn it in forever.

Gravis summoned it and put it on his person. After that, he looked at it.

Sure enough, it was no different from the other two rings. Only the design and aura were slightly different.

After that, Gravis' mother, Orthar, and Yersi parted ways with Gravis. Gravis' mother would take them on a tour while Gravis had to sell some stuff.