Starting that day, Gravis tried to read the book without stopping. He just sat in front of his father as he concentrated on the booklet with everything he had. In the beginning, Gravis thought that it was a bit awkward to just sit in front of his father, reading constantly.
Yet, his father just closed his eyes and sat there motionlessly. Gravis had no idea what his father was doing. So, Gravis just continued sitting there, trying to read.
Gravis didn't notice, but a lot of his siblings had come to visit. It wasn't that he had completely shut himself off, but that his father had put him into an isolated space. To Gravis, it just looked like his father was sitting there, doing nothing.
Meanwhile, his siblings saw Gravis for the first time and were quite surprised. The young boy was just sitting there, staring intently at a booklet. Many of them looked at the booklet and read some stuff in it. It wasn't hard to read such small writing with their power.
They quickly realized that their father was teaching Gravis how to forge. Some of his siblings were happy for him. Some were envious. Some only rolled their eyes. Though, the majority was envious that their father was teaching something to Gravis while they had never been taught anything.
Though, that was to be expected. The vast majority of Gravis' siblings were artificially raised to the Immortal Emperor Realm. Only a select few would go through the bitter path of cultivation. Of course, those few had also received some teaching from their father if they managed to come back from the lower world they had been assigned to.
Some of his siblings complained about the unfairness, but the Opposer just looked with boredom at them.
"You gave up on cultivation, and you won't be able to become stronger if you rely on me. Either you put in some work to temper yourself, or you just stay how you are. What's the point of teaching forging to you? Without the ability to comprehend new laws, you will, at most, be able to forge something for the Law Comprehension Realm. That's three entire Realms below yours," The Opposer would say.
Of course, many of Gravis' siblings only got angrier at that. In their eyes, their father was playing favorites. It felt so unfair. One of them even doubled down on his complaint.
"I raised you to the Immortal Emperor Realm. If you want, I can reduce your power back to the Body Tempering Realm. Then, you can start the path of cultivation again. At that point, I can teach you something," the Opposer said.
This person still wasn't happy with that. Yet, they didn't take their father up on his offer. Cultivation was just suicide! Why would anyone want to do that? They already had a high status and could get nearly everything they wanted with their power. What was the point in throwing their lives away to eventually achieve the same thing they already had?
"Smart decision," the Opposer said. "With your attitude, you would just throw your background around and get mugged and killed by the first bandit that sees your nice robes."
That particular sibling felt offended and quickly left. How could someone like their father become so powerful? He wasn't even able to talk with proper etiquette!
Orpheus also visited his father, and when he saw Gravis sitting there, he only lifted an eyebrow. "Why is he reading here?" he asked.
"I don't know," his father said. "I never told him he couldn't leave. If he feels more comfortable reading in front of me, he can. I don't mind either way."
Orpheus and his father talked for a long while, and he finally got to know the whole truth about his father and his problems. After his father was finished explaining, Orpheus sighed, but it wasn't because he was hurt.
Orpheus was happy that his father was able to make progress. Orpheus was also very smart, and he had thought a lot about life and happiness. He wasn't blinded by his father's illustrious status and had realized that his father probably also had problems that he didn't want to share with anyone.
The fact that his father shared some of his problems with Orpheus made him feel closer to him.
"You know," the Opposer said with a sigh. "You actually have the talent to become a Heaven's Magnate. There are not many things I lament, but I'm sad that you decided to stop cultivating."
Orpheus felt his insides shake a bit. His father hadn't said many positive things to him in his life. So, this small show of affection meant very much to him.
Yet, Orpheus only laughed bitterly. "I have no chance of reaching your Realm either way, so what's the point of becoming a Heaven's Magnate? A Star God and a Heaven's Magnate are the same thing to Heaven. When there is no possibility to break free, why should I continue? In the end, I'll just be a slightly stronger ant to Heaven. Nothing will change," Orpheus said.
"I'm happy with my wife and family. As long as we stay inside the city, there is no danger to us. Even if I became a Heaven's Magnate, the best thing in my life would still be my family. There will be no difference in happiness either way."
The Opposer sighed again. "You're right," he said slowly. "It's your life, and you define your happiness. It was only my inherent pride for my children that made me lament your decision to stop cultivating. I just want to say…"
"I'm proud of you," the Opposer said, shaking up all of Orpheus' emotions. His father had never said anything like this! Tears almost came out of Orpheus' eyes.
"Thanks, father," Orpheus said.
After some more talking, Orpheus left, throwing one last smile at Gravis.
After some weeks, Gravis was able to concentrate his Spirit enough to actually read the words. Yet, it was still very exhausting to his concentration, but Gravis didn't let that deter him. In actuality, he saw the constant stress on his Spirit as some kind of training.
His concentration had nearly run out when he had achieved Unity. Who knew, maybe he would need even more concentration in the future? Being better in something was always useful, even if it was a skill that was rarely used. It was a net positive!
The more Gravis trained his concentration, the easier it was to read. After two months, he had become used to it. Keeping up his concentration was stressful, but with his powerful will, he was able to force himself through the stress.
Like this, Gravis continued reading.
It took him six entire months to finish the booklet.
Bang!
Gravis fell onto his back as he finished reading the last word. He was finally done! If Gravis were only reading it, he would have been done about two months ago, but he was reading very slowly. After all, he had to remember everything in detail.
The contents of the book were very detailed and descriptive. There were even diagrams and descriptions of how the specific material looked when magnified many times. Apparently, when one magnified any material enough, they would find that matter was also just Energy.
Energy was Energy, and matter was Energy. This meant that everything was Energy. Were space and time also Energy? Was Gravity also Energy? Gravis wasn't sure, but it seemed that way. He had also seen and recognized some similarities and patterns between different materials. Gravis felt like he was on the cusp of understanding something, but he just couldn't make the connection.
"You done?" his father asked.
Gravis sighed in exhaustion. "Yes. I'm done."
"You remember everything?" his father asked again.
Gravis nodded. "Yep."
"Good, then let's get onto the next topic," his father said.
Gravis furrowed his brows and lifted his head to look at his father. "You won't test me?" he asked.
"Why?" his father asked.
Gravis sat back up again and scratched the back of his head. "Well, what if I didn't remember everything?"
"But you said you did," his father said, evenly.
"Yes, but what if I only said that to stop reading?" Gravis said.
"Would you do something like that?" his father asked.
Gravis scratched the back of his head more. "No," he said.
"There you go. Testing you is a waste of time," his father said.
Gravis sighed. He had realized by now that his father was logical to a fault. Gravis scratched his chin in thought. 'Maybe that's where I got some of my personality from?' he asked himself.
Whooop!
A Jade Token appeared in front of Gravis.
"This Jade Token has the information for all possible alloys for the materials. It's about 18 times the content," he said.
Gravis' eyes widened. "I already read for so long. Do you intend to keep me here forever?" he asked.
His father just blinked with a bored expression. "This shouldn't take more than a couple of hours," he said.
Gravis' eyes widened. "That fast? But didn't you say it was 18 times the content?" he asked.
"Yes, but the Jade Token will directly push the information into your Spirit. You just need to slowly get used to and comprehend it. As I said, it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours," his father said.
Gravis grabbed the Jade Token and looked at it with furrowed brows. Then, he looked at his father.
"Why didn't you just give the information about the materials to me in a similar way? After all, you said that the reading was mostly for training my concentration. I have trained my concentration to the highest point it can reach when I was only 10% into the book. Couldn't you have just given me a similar Jade Token then?" Gravis asked.
His father blinked with a bored expression again. "You knew the point of that exercise, and when you've reached that point, there was no reason to continue reading. I could have given such a Jade Token to you."
Gravis' ruffled his hair in frustration. "And why didn't you?"
"You didn't ask."
