Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis left the Eternal Fire Sect without any fear.

He had known from the very beginning that he could do what he wanted.

Gravis knew the True Law of Control and the True Law of Freedom, which meant that he knew more about these two things than any Peak Divine God in existence.

He knew exactly how much control he had, and he also knew exactly how much control the other side had.

In a fight, the Sect Master of the Eternal Fire Sect could sneeze Gravis out of existence, but Gravis was still the one in control.

As long as she couldn't stop Gravis from escaping, he would be the one in control.

If she had decided to attack, Gravis would have simply activated his Law of Perceived Reality. Sure, the Sect Master would be able to see through it if she questioned her own perception, but she wouldn't do that.

In her perception, she would have killed Gravis.

Then, she would have left.

Gravis wouldn't even need to move.

Then, Gravis could simply come and go by keeping himself hidden with the Law of Perceived Reality.

He wouldn't even need to fight her at this very moment.

He could simply continue on with his life, find his next tempering opportunity, and after that, he could simply become a level three Ancestral God and fight her as his next tempering opportunity.

Nothing the Sect Master could do mattered to Gravis.

Gravis would be free to do whatever he wanted to do anyway.

The only difference would be the fate of the Sect Master.

She had never been a danger.

She had only been a minor hindrance.

However, the Sect Master quickly left Gravis' thoughts as he concentrated on something else.

Gravis arrived at the nearest city and went to the Teleportation Formation Array.

After paying a lot of money, Gravis was teleported to the southwest of the Core Region of the highest world.

After arriving at his destination, Gravis teleported a couple of times. All the different Ancestral Gods overlooking the Teleportation Formation Array didn't notice him.

After an hour, Gravis arrived at a building with unreasonable proportions.

Just the walls of the building were millions of kilometers tall. It was completely black, and it had no decorations. In essence, it only looked like a gigantic wall in Gravis' path.

Gravis paused as he admired the building.

It was ridiculously gigantic.

Even more, it was made of Hard Complex Materials, which was an indescribable waste of resources.

Formation Arrays littered the building with many different forms of restrictions.

Some of these restrictions even used the Major Laws of Control and Suppression to counter the Major Law of Freedom. This meant that the Major Law of Freedom wouldn't grant one access to circumvent the suppressive forces.

No one below the Divine God Realm could sneak into this building.

After all, no one below the Divine God Realm knew the True Law of Freedom, right?

Well, Gravis did.

Initially, Gravis had planned to enter this building via the official route. He could simply use his Major Law of Perceived Reality to appear like a normal Ancestral God, and he would be let in.

But hey, since he already knew the True Law of Freedom, why not use it?

Gravis went to the wall of the building.

The Formation Arrays ignored Gravis, even when he entered their area of effect.

Then, Gravis transformed into Void Lightning and used the True Law of Hard Complex Materials to silently move through the tiny openings in the wall.

A normal person would need to use the Law of Space to teleport through the wall, but the Formation Arrays would pick up the vibrations of space. Sure, Gravis could still hide with the Law of Perceived Reality, but why should he go through that trouble? Simply going through the wall was easier.

Gravis materialized inside the building, and he immediately saw his new surroundings.

Black.

Pure black.

Absolute darkness.

Gravis' eyes became completely useless in this overwhelming darkness.

Even more, Gravis' Spirit Sense also became nearly useless.

He could only perceive the surrounding 50 kilometers with his Spirit Sense, which basically meant blindness to someone that could normally perceive millions of kilometers of their surroundings.

Whoom!

Gravis activated his True Law of Freedom with his Spirit Sense, and the surroundings immediately cleared up.

Restricting one's perception counted as a form of suppression, and the True Law of Freedom didn't care about suppression. To the True Law of Freedom, suppression didn't exist.

Gravis looked at his surroundings with newfound clarity.

Emptiness.

There was nothing.

No grass, no trees, no animals, no mortals, no light, no earth, no water.

There was only air, the ground, which was made of the same material as the walls and ceiling, and darkness.

However, Gravis could see some Cultivators. Some were walking blindly in the darkness. Some were sitting down with open eyes. Some were even walking around with drawn weapons.

None of them could perceive their surroundings.

They were all blind in this place.

How powerful were all of these Cultivators?

They were all Ancestral Gods.

'The reports were pretty accurate,' Gravis thought. 'The Darkest Stygian Sect is really all about the True Law of Heavenly Darkness.'

This was the Darkest Stygian Sect, a Sect on the same level as the Eternal Fire Sect.

However, in terms of ideology and management, the Darkest Stygian Sect was the complete opposite of the Eternal Fire Sect.

The Eternal Fire Sect increased its power via faction-based conflict inside its borders. The Eternal Fire Sect valued clever and strategic leaders and united factions over individual power.

The individual adapted to the collective.

In comparison, the Darkest Stygian Sect increased its power via individual conflict inside its borders. It was forbidden to create groups or factions bigger than three members. Even more, members of the same faction were forbidden from helping their colleagues if they were in a battle.

The only safe place in the Darkest Stygian Sect was the very center. That was where the headquarters of the Darkest Stygian Sect lay.

Inside the headquarters, some Formation Arrays were used to make it easier to perceive one's surroundings. That was also the only place where fighting was prohibited.

Everywhere else was a land of pure hostility and destruction.

The only way to get resources, gain Law Comprehension, and gain a higher position in the Sect was to kill the other Sect Members.

Everyone would enter a darkness-filled land filled with hostility.

Seeing another human in this land was not an occasion for joy and companionship but for stress and fear.

If one saw another human, a fight would most likely break out.

If one side was stronger than the other side? The stronger side would simply kill the weaker side to gain resources and Contribution Points.

If both sides were equal? That would be amazing tempering.

If both sides didn't know each other? They would just fight.

If both sides knew each other and didn't like each other? They would fight.

The only occasion when no fight broke out was when two friends or allies saw each other, and even that wouldn't be without any danger.

After all, backstabbing and betrayal existed.

The building surrounding the Darkest Stygian Sect was only around ten million kilometers wide, which would normally be inside every Ancestral God's Spirit Sense. However, with this darkness around everyone, these ten million kilometers were absolutely gigantic.

Thousands upon thousands of years would pass between each conflict.

The only way to orient oneself in this darkness was a small emblem everyone carried, which showed one the way to the center of the Darkest Stygian Sect.

What would the disciples do between fights?

They would take out Virtualization Arrays and comprehend Laws.

The Darkest Stygian Sect only had a single Law Comprehension Area, but they had several very talented Formation Array Masters that knew to create an incredible amount of different Virtualization Arrays.

The Smart Cultivator couldn't even attempt to rival the Darkest Stygian Sect in terms of Virtualization Arrays.

Even more, the Virtualization Arrays were exceedingly cheap for the disciples. One dead disciple could pay for at least one Virtualization Array for a level seven Law, and that was without counting the personal wealth these disciples carried with them.

However, it was still dangerous to comprehend Laws here.

If two people met, they would see each other at the same time.

The one that was comprehending a Law would need longer to react than the person that was currently on the hunt.

That was why it was very risky to comprehend Laws here.

However, the disciples were forbidden from comprehending their Laws in the safe center of the Sect.

It was a land of danger, stress, fear, suppression, and apathy.

Many different Laws on the more apathetic side of the emotional and perceived reality categories were far easier to comprehend here.

It was also a fantastic place to increase one's Will-Aura.

Even more, every disciple got access to a Law Comprehension Area for a level nine Law, free of charge.

All this darkness?

At the center of the Sect was a Law Comprehension Area for the level nine Law of Heavenly Darkness, and it continually poured out Heavenly Darkness.

The building would isolate the Heavenly Darkness, essentially creating a gigantic Law Comprehension Area for the Law of Heavenly Darkness.

A disciple could sit down at any place in the Sect and try to comprehend the level nine Law of Heavenly Darkness.

Heavenly Darkness was everywhere.

In the Darkest Stygian Sect, the collective adapted to the individual.

Individual power was more important than everything else.