"I still think this is going too far," Manuel said after some seconds. "The whole world saw your last trial, and your reputation will be forever tarnished in an unrecoverable way."
Gravis shrugged. "So?"
Manuel was a little taken aback, but then he laughed a little. "Yes, you're right. What does it matter what the world thinks about you? It has no impact on you," then, Manuel sighed. "It seems like my temperament is still not decisive enough."
Gravis rubbed his chin in thought. "I wouldn't be so sure about that," he said.
Manuel raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How so?"
Gravis smiled. "Because it hasn't happened to you, but to someone you consider a friend," Gravis said. "I would probably also be angrier if it happened to you or Joyce. We often feel more pain for someone we are close to than the person might feel themselves. Of course, it strongly depends on the situation, but I think in this case, this is true."
Manuel remained silent for a while. "I think you're right. If that had happened to me, I wouldn't care as much. After all, I know that my power speaks for me. If someone confronted me with that, I could just kill them."
Gravis nodded. "Exactly!"
Manuel walked closer and patted Gravis' shoulder. "It might seem cruel and unfair to my dead master, but I am happy that I met you, Gravis. You have shown me an entirely new outlook on the world, Heaven, and how a cultivator should be. If my dead master could see us, I think he wouldn't regret his death. He was just that kind of person."
Gravis also smiled slightly. "Thank you for your words, Manuel. I also consider you a friend," he said.
Manuel smiled more when he heard that. "Great! That's what I like to hear!"
The group talked some more for a couple of hours, sharing their experiences and outlooks on life. After the conversation lulled into silence, Gravis stood up. "No time to waste," he said.
The others looked at him reluctantly. "Why are you always so impatient?" Joyce groaned. "We haven't seen each other in eight months, and now you want to leave again."
Gravis shook his head with a smile. "I don't want to stop. If I indulge too much, I might become complacent. I can't risk that."
Joyce wanted to object, but she realized that Gravis was probably right. 'Is this why he has achieved his current power? I guess that's true. If I hadn't taken 90% of my breaks, I could have probably reached my current Realm a whole year earlier. My Will-Aura would probably also be more powerful. Is my current mindset really the right one for cultivation?' she thought with worry.
"Alright, I'll be going. See you in a couple of months," Gravis said as he stepped into the next door. The group also said their goodbyes, and like this, Gravis was alone again. "Let's see what you have for me this time, Heaven. Generally, there are only five trials, not including the last fight between all groups. This is already the third one. Your secret weapon will probably come at the fifth trial, so the next two will probably include more of your senseless and childish behavior."
The walk was longer than last time, and it took nearly an hour of walking. Of course, Gravis was walking leisurely. He wasn't walking much faster than a mortal. After all, he was in no hurry since he had to wait for a couple of months after that either way.
After the hour was up, Gravis arrived before another door. With a push, he opened it and entered. He saw an arena identical to the arena of his first trial. It was about a kilometer wide and circular with incredibly sturdy walls. Apparently, another fight was awaiting Gravis.
Yet, Gravis saw no enemy in the arena. Even when he entirely concentrated his senses, Spirit, and will, he still couldn't find an enemy. Gravis was sure that no one could escape his senses, even if there were a priest with the darkness element in here. Gravis also doubted that possibility. The arena was lit and about as bright as the outside during the afternoon. If there were a powerful darkness cultivator waiting for Gravis here, the arena would be pitch black.
But Gravis saw one peculiar thing. All his previous trials had two doors. One of them was the door, which he had entered from, and one door that led to the next trial. This trial had three doors. "So, my enemy will arrive from one of the two doors, huh?"
Gravis already had a suspicion of what this trial would entail, and he wasn't happy about that. Yet, there was nothing else he could do. He could only accept his current circumstances. At least, he wouldn't need to kill his own group. Gravis made sure that this wouldn't happen before he entered the Heaven's Trial.
Gravis leaned against one of the walls and closed his eyes. He would probably need to wait for a couple of days, and sure enough, about four days later, a five-man-group entered the arena from one of the doors.
Gravis opened his eyes and looked at the group, and the group looked at him. The group looked at Gravis with shock, surprise, and then bitter smiles. They knew of Gravis and his unheard of Battle-Strength. The fact that they felt that his cultivation already reached the Sapling Stage made them give up.
Their group was pretty powerful, and some of them could even put up fights against Sect Masters, but that made no difference. Some of them looked with melancholy at the ceiling. First, they lost their Sect Master, and now their Sect was about to lose their most talented disciples. Did Heaven want their Wind Sect to be eradicated?
Yes, the group was the group from the Wind Sect.
BANG!
A stele appeared in the middle of the arena. "Kill the opposing party to pass the trial," it read.
Gravis sighed and walked to the middle of the arena. The group released some heavy sighs as they also walked to the middle. One person of the group, who looked especially distraught, could only say one word. "Why?" he asked.
"I'll tell you why," Gravis said as he sat down near the stele. "The only thing I can do for you is to tell you everything about this farce. Let's talk," Gravis said.
The group was a little reluctant, but eventually, they complied. After that, Gravis started telling them everything about his life and journey. This was the first time where he told someone absolutely everything without holding anything back. He even told them all the secrets he knew about Heaven.
Telling other cultivators about his Homeworld in detail and his specific background would make many of them despair. After all, the gulf was just too vast. The concept of teleportation didn't even exist in this world, yet beggars in Gravis' home city could even do that? People who could fly were not even allowed into the city?
Gravis also explained the conflict between his father and Heaven in detail. He also told them about the concept of Karmic Luck and how this whole situation came to be. Either way, they would die, so the least he could do for them was to widen their horizons and explain how they ended up in this situation.
Explaining everything took multiple hours.
"And that's how you ended up against me. It's not that Heaven wants your Wind Sect to die, but because your Wind Sect is the closest Sect to me, except the Lightning Sect. Lasar, the Sect Master of the Lightning Sect, knows some of the things I told you, but not everything. That's why they have not sent anyone this year. If they had, I would probably fight against them instead of you."
Gravis sighed. "Yet, there is still one more bullshit trial. I would probably just fight you in the fourth trial then. Only the fifth trial is when Heaven will unveil its secret weapon."
"So, all in all, you are just innocent people that got dragged into this," Gravis finished explaining.
The group had gone through many emotions during the tale. They had been in awe about the power of the people in Gravis' Homeworld. They had also been shocked about the fact that there were three more grades of worlds above theirs. All of this just seemed too unreal and distant.
"So," one of them said after a while. "Even though we thought that we were free and unrestrained, in reality, we weren't? As long as Heaven exists, we can't be truly free?"
Gravis nodded. "Exactly. That's why Heaven is doing this. It can't send anything more powerful than a priest at me, so it can't kill me with a fight. That's why it is trying to rile me up, emotionally."
The group remained silent for a while. They were lost in thought for multiple minutes.
BANG!
Suddenly, one of them shot up to a standing position and looked at the ceiling. "Fuck you, you shitty-ass useless Heaven!" he shouted with his full power. "How are you even real? How could an existence that looks over the world be so petty, childish, immature, stupid, irrational, incompetent, and all-around retarded!?"
Gravis saw that and was a bit surprised. Sure enough, all Karmic Luck vanished from the person. As long as the highest Heaven watched, this lower Heaven wasn't allowed to strike anyone. It could only reduce the Karmic Luck of cultivators.
But what did this have to do with these five people? They were already about to die, so they might as well go out with a bang.
"Yeah!" another one shouted as he stood up. "You are the weakest of your kind, so you have to satisfy your fragile ego by forcing your control over this world! Why would you even be so stupid as to suppress everyone that had a Will-Aura in the Body Tempering Realm? It's because they are a danger to your shitty fucking Heaven Sect! You are weakening your results just so you can feel that you are in control!"
One person after the other shot up and started throwing insults at Heaven. Those weren't just baseless, random insults, but critiques that poked the worst part of Heaven. They mocked its failures relentlessly.
BRRRRR!
The Heaven's Trial started shaking. "Fuck you! You already doomed us to die, so why would we be scared by some shitty earthquake!?"
Instead of getting scared, the group grew even more fervent. This reaction showed that they had hit a sore spot. Heaven was angry, and they felt absolutely great and elated about that fact. The more the Heaven's Trial shook, the crazier the group got with their insults.
"As long as you don't insult the highest Heaven, it can't do anything," Gravis said.
The group continued crazily as they even spat on the ground and showed their asses in disrespect. The insults became more and more personal, but it never included any other Heaven.
Gravis watched this with a smirk, and up in the highest world, even the Opposer was a bit amused by this. When had it ever happened that a group of such incredible weaklings managed to insult their Heaven in such an unrelenting manner?
Even to him, this situation was amusing and peculiar.
