Gravis' eyes widened in shock.
The debt had been paid off?
How!?
According to Gravis' calculations, he still had around 75% of the debt remaining.
"Are you letting me off?" Gravis asked with furrowed brows.
While saying these words, Gravis also looked around.
His father wasn't here.
"No, I'm not," Orthar said neutrally. "Your debt has been paid off. That's the truth."
Gravis furrowed his brows. "What happened? How is my debt suddenly paid off?"
"You are no longer alone, Gravis," Orthar said. "The Myriad Sect paid off your debt."
"The Myriad Sect?" Gravis asked in shock. "But how?"
How could the Myriad Sect get 17 billion God Stones in only 15,000 years?
That was enough to buy an Elder-position in the Eternal Fire Sect!
Only Ancestral Gods could have so much wealth, and the Myriad Sect didn't have Ancestral Gods.
"You are the reason why so many of your friends have ever even reached the Star God Realm, Gravis," Orthar said. "Without you, nearly all of them would already be dead. Part of their success is thanks to you. Because of that, when your friends become more powerful, you get part of their associated Karmic Luck."
"That alone was already enough to deal with 30% of your total debt. Your remaining debt has been paid off by the efforts of the Myriad Sect's Ancestor."
"Ancestor?" Gravis asked. "The Myriad Sect doesn't have an Ancestor."
"They do now," Orthar answered.
Gravis remained silent as he took all of Orthar's words in.
Gravis had put so much work into surviving this tribulation.
He had done so incredibly much, and the last 15,000 years had been stressful beyond compare.
'Yet, I actually didn't need to go through so much,' Gravis thought with a complex expression.
'Orthar's right. I'm no longer alone.'
'I thought that I needed to deal with this issue all on my own. After all, that's always how it has been. My friends have always been below me in power, and I have been the one helping them.'
'That is still true to some extent, but quantity is also a form of quality.'
'Alone, my friends still wouldn't be able to make any significant headway on this issue, but together, they have accomplished even more than me.'
"I've made a mistake," Mortis said from the side. "I've never asked the Myriad Sect what they were trying to do to help Gravis. I disregarded their help from the very beginning, believing that they wouldn't help with much."
"I should change that approach," Mortis said as he scratched his chin in thought.
Gravis nodded with a sigh, but then, his face morphed into a warm smile.
"I'm no longer alone," Gravis said slowly. "I don't have to bear all this pressure on my own."
Mortis also nodded.
"So, how has it been being me for 15,000 years?" Orthar repeated.
Gravis looked at Orthar in confusion.
"Think about what you have done and why you have done it," Orthar said.
SHING!
A Sin Monster appeared on Orthar's finger. "Your father," Orthar said.
Gravis' eyes widened as he realized everything at once.
How hadn't he noticed it before!?
Hadn't he assumed Orthar's mantle for the past 15,000 years!?
A monster was consuming Gravis' Energy, and if he didn't gather enough Energy, he would eventually die to this monster.
So, what had Gravis done?
He had gone to lower worlds and had increased the power of an uncountable number of Cultivators to become more powerful. They were gathering Karmic Luck for Gravis, but in a sense, one could also say that they were gathering Energy for Orthar.
Karmic Luck was only the representation of the Energy they were gathering.
In order to keep up with the consumption of the monster, Gravis had to work his ass off for 15,000 years. He had to be completely efficient!
Even more, Gravis had started viewing people not as people but as Energy.
Gravis hadn't been looking at the person but at the Energy and Karmic Luck they represented.
Every Cultivator had represented a certain amount of Energy, and when someone became a Peak Immortal Emperor, Gravis became excited.
If one of them managed to become a Star God, he would be elated.
So much Karmic Luck!
When Gravis thought about the possibility that he or Mortis might have to kill a Star God to remain safe, he had also despaired.
One Star God was worth so much Energy!
He couldn't let them die beneath his hands!
Gravis' entire outlook on life and Cultivation had transformed, and he realized that for the past 15,000 years, he had viewed the world similar to how Orthar viewed it.
Everything was just numbers.
Everything boiled down to efficiency.
There was no time for anything else.
"Stressful, isn't it?" Orthar asked.
Gravis sighed and nodded.
Gravis had been a bit angry with Orthar. After all, Orthar was the one that had sent the Sin Monster after him.
However, after staying in Orthar's shoes for so long, Gravis couldn't really bring himself to become angry with Orthar.
This was probably every day of Orthar's life, minus the pain.
One could say that Heaven appeared cold and apathetic.
Yet, why was Heaven like this?
Because it simply didn't have any time to pay attention to the individual.
Gravis had also realized something else.
If he had access to the Law of the True World, Gravis would have probably even created autonomous beings to manage all the Sects under him. Gravis had been at his limits when it came to micromanagement and concentration. Having several autonomous beings to deal with the issues would have been preferable.
When would Gravis check up on them?
Not very often.
He would leave the beings to deal with everything, and they could contact him if they needed something.
So, would this be any different from how Orthar managed the lower Heavens?
No.
The lower Heaven Gravis had met back then had gone against him and broke several rules. Gravis had also started believing that all Heavens were like that and that the highest Heaven wanted to deal with him.
The actions of the lower Heaven had reflected badly on all the other Heavens.
Yet, when Gravis had fused his Spirit with lightning, Orthar had come down to check up on the lower Heaven.
And as soon as Orthar got involved, Gravis' stressful life had become far easier.
The same thing could have happened if Gravis had created autonomous beings to manage his Sects.
The victims would have believed that Gravis wanted to hurt them when his goal had actually been the opposite.
He wanted them to become powerful.
Gravis had seen so many parallels between his situation and Orthar's situation.
"Was this your purpose?" Gravis asked.
"Not entirely," Orthar answered. "I created the Sin Monster just to force people to gather Karmic Luck. I never intended for it to be a simulation of my life."
Gravis furrowed his brows. "Then how come it has been so similar for me?"
"Because you did the most efficient thing to gain Karmic Luck," Orthar said, "and the most efficient thing is what I'm doing. Together with your unique abilities, you managed to emulate being me to some degree."
Gravis sighed.
Gravis hadn't thought about how his actions looked like. He had simply done the thing that gave him the most Karmic Luck and Energy.
Because of that, he had subconsciously done the same thing Orthar did.
"How can anyone else survive something like that?" Gravis asked. "I worked so hard, and I even had the help of an entire Sect. Yet, I could have died in just another 5,000 years. Are the Sin Monsters supposed to be a death sentence?"
"Your situation was different," Orthar said.
"Different?" Gravis asked with furrowed brows.
"The multiplication of your Sin Monsters could only be slowed down with Energy, but that's not normal. Usually, the Karmic Luck you gather would also slow down the Sin Monster's multiplication."
Gravis' eyes widened.
Right!
Wouldn't the gathering of Karmic Luck also slow down the Sin Monster's multiplication?
"If your Sin Aura had followed the normal rules, you would have had two Sin Monsters at the end due to your impressive speed of gathering Karmic Luck," Orthar explained.
"Two!?" Gravis shouted. His anger had returned for obvious reasons. "I had over 2,000! Why!?"
Surprisingly, Orthar smirked a bit.
"You've comprehended a Law. You just don't know it yet. If I hadn't made it so hard for you, you wouldn't have comprehended it."
"Law?" Gravis asked in surprise.