Gravis was first a bit surprised, but after thinking about it for some seconds, he realized that it actually made sense. How big was his family? On top of that, how long did his siblings live? For the first five to fifteen births, a sibling might be interested, but after that?
At some point, it was just more of the same. At the same time, there wasn't much that connected them to their parents. Yes, the first couple of hundred years, they might still feel a connection to their parents, but after that?
One had to remember that most of his siblings had been raised to the Immortal Emperor Realm by his father. They would have their own families already, and the restriction of visiting their father only a couple of times could also estrange them.
They would visit their father and mother, and nothing would have changed. His father continued sitting in his room while his mother also rarely left. His parents had lived for an incredibly long time. They had basically seen everything there is to see, so there was not much excitement for traveling.
"Huh, that actually makes more sense," Gravis said.
Orpheus sighed. "Sorry that I didn't tell you sooner."
"No, I get it," Gravis said. "I was young, and that my family didn't care about me would have hit me pretty hard."
Orpheus drank more of his own coffee. Gravis wasn't really interested in Orpheus' coffee, so he was the only one drinking. "But you don't care anymore, do you?" Orpheus asked with a smile.
Gravis slowly shook his head. "It makes sense, and I'm not a child anymore. If there is no love or companionship, the only thing that connects family is their blood, and what is that worth? I'm not angry at them, because I think the same. Why should I feel the need to visit my siblings that don't care about me? That would be just an uncomfortable situation for both of us," Gravis explained.
Orpheus sighed again. "Don't think too badly of them. Many of them still keep in touch with our parents. It's just that many of them have been desensitized to their growing family. Our family is less like a family and more like a Clan."
"Though, the difference to a normal Clan is that we don't share the same troubles and living space. Bad experiences connect people," Orpheus explained.
Gravis only nodded.
"Let's change the topic," Orpheus said. "So, you're going to a Natural World next?" he asked.
Gravis furrowed his brows. "No, why would I? I'm more interested in the Battle Techniques of a Battle World."
Orpheus was confused for a second but then realized something. "Oh," he said slowly. "You didn't talk to father about your cultivation yet?" he asked slowly.
Gravis felt like something was up. "No, I didn't," he said.
Orpheus laughed a bit. "Seems like I took away some of the surprise, but I'm sure father won't mind," he said while taking another sip from his coffee.
Gravis looked skeptically at Orpheus. "And I'm guessing you don't want to explain that to me?" he asked.
Orpheus shook his head with a smile. "Father would explain it better. So, just be prepared for a surprise regarding your cultivation when you talk to him."
Gravis smirked a bit. "Alright. I don't have a problem with surprises. They make life more colorful," he said.
Orpheus also nodded, and they remained silent for some seconds. After that, Orpheus smiled again. "Can you show me?" he asked.
"Show what?" Gravis asked.
Orpheus snorted. "I want to see Heaven's body," he said with a friendly tone, but Gravis heard the excitement in his voice. "I've never seen a Heaven before."
Gravis also smiled. "Sure," he said.
Whooop!
A one-meter-long black worm filled with eyes appeared on the table. Orpheus looked at it with interest. "Wow, it looks completely different than I've imagined," he said. "I thought they would be more humanlike."
Gravis put the body back into his Spirit Space. "I thought the same thing. Their conduct is very humanlike, and they mostly only care about humans. I expected them to have a similar body to us, but apparently, that's not true."
Orpheus scratched his temple in thought. "I wonder if all Heaven's look like this or if it's only the lower Heavens."
"What do you mean?" Gravis asked.
"Well, what if this is only a child version of Heaven? After all, the lower worlds are the weakest. It could be that this is only a child," he said.
Gravis thought about this for a while. "Possible, but I'm not sure. Though, it was acting a bit child-like."
After that, the topic changed about some other things, but the most important things had already been discussed. Yet, there was one last surprise.
"By the way," Orpheus said, "Did you know that father lifted the rule that we can only visit him once per century about a week ago? I was really surprised about that," he said.
Gravis was also a bit surprised but quickly realized why. His father had finally realized some of his feelings, and growing closer to his children might help. Though, Gravis didn't tell Orpheus. Realizing that one of their parents had never loved them is a hard blow. It was up to his mother and father to tell them.
Orpheus noticed Gravis' change in expression. "You know something," he commented.
Gravis nodded. "Yes, but I shouldn't be the one to tell you why. You should ask father when you visit him. It's his reason to tell," Gravis said.
Orpheus snorted. "Great. First, I keep you in the dark about your cultivation surprise, and now you keep me in the dark. Guess I deserved it," he said with a laugh and drank more of his coffee.
Instead of smirking, Gravis only sighed. Orpheus wanted to lighten the mood, but this topic wasn't a light one.
Of course, Orpheus also noticed that Gravis didn't go along with his joke, which made him furrow his brows. Apparently, the reason was not so simple.
After they talked some more, Gravis left. It was about time that he spoke to his father about his cultivation. Though, a surprise waited for him when he came home.
"You should wait for a bit. Your father is currently talking to one of your sisters," his mother transmitted to him.
Gravis was a bit surprised but shrugged. "Sure," he said and leaned against the wall beside the door. He only had to wait until they finished talking.
Like this, Gravis waited for about ten minutes until the doors opened.
Out of the door stepped a beautiful, young-looking woman. Of course, with her powerful cultivation, one couldn't tell her age just by appearance. She wore a lot of jewelry and magnificent robes that radiated a kind of calm aura. All in all, she appeared to be a loving and kind woman.
"Tch," she spat with a sneer when she left, and just like that, all of Gravis' goodwill had evaporated. That disgusted sneer of hers had completely destroyed the calm and friendly image. She actually had some amazing guts to sneer like this after talking with their father. She should know that their father saw this.
This could only mean that she didn't care about what their father thought of her. Gravis immediately realized that she was one of his siblings that didn't care about family. Imagine not seeing your father for one hundred years and then leaving with such a disgusted sneer.
Well, if his father did something horrible, Gravis could understand that, but he knew his father pretty well. His father was very fair towards everyone and kept himself out of most things. He wouldn't be interested in forcing something onto someone else or forcing them to do something. He let his children do whatever they wanted.
The woman noticed Gravis and looked surprised for a split-second. Then, her expression immediately morphed into a sweet smile. When Gravis saw that, his disgust grew. 'I hate hypocrisy,' he thought.
"You're the current center-child, right?" she asked with a sweet smile. "I wanted to meet you earlier, but I was too busy. I'm sorry," she said with a sad tone. "My name's Melody. What's yours?" she said with a smile, offering her hand.
Gravis still had his arms crossed. He looked at the offered hand for a second and then looked into Melody's eyes. "If you were actually interested in meeting me, you would know my name. You don't need to act like you care about me."
Melody had an offended expression on her face. "How rude!" she said in an offended tone. "You shouldn't talk like that to your big sister! It would help if you learned some manners, because, in the future, you won't be under father's protection anymore. At that time, saying things like this could get you into a lot of trouble!"
Gravis looked at her with a bored look. "As I said, you don't need to act like you give a shit. We have no connection between us, so my opinion doesn't have any influence over you," he said as he stepped away from the wall. Then, he slowly walked to the door leading into his father's room.
Melody looked offended again, but she quickly huffed and pulled her nose up. How dare this weakling talk to her like that? Didn't he know that she could kill him with merely a thought?
Yet, instead of talking more to Gravis, she shook her head and walked away. "Some people should really know their place," she said silently, knowing full well that Gravis could hear her.
Gravis didn't care about what Melody said. Her opinion had no relevance to him.
So, instead of answering, Gravis entered his father's room. Like previous times, his father sat in the same position.
"Are you finished dealing with your emotions?" his father asked as he opened his eyes.
Gravis nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I feel much better now," he said as he sat down in front of him.
His father nodded back. "Good, because I have bad news for you," he said.
Gravis' furrowed his brows.
"Yes?" he asked.
"One of your friends died some days ago," he said.
