"Is this the Secret Name Torture Chamber?" a young man with blue hair asked.
"It says so on the sign, yes," Gravis answered the stupid question.
"I would like to ask for some will-tempering," the young man said. His eyes wandered to the other people in the room.
"AAAAHHH!"
Five other people were impaled on spikes around Gravis, all of them without disguise. Will-tempering didn't need them to spend money to disguise themselves. After all, there was nothing shady going on.
The other five people were also there to temper their wills, and they were having the time of their lives judging by their painful screeches.
"Stop! I don't want to anymore! AAAHH!" one man shouted in pain.
"You paid for 50 years. You get 50 years," Gravis answered absentmindedly.
"No, please! I can't take this anymore! I can't survive 50 years! You can keep the money!" the guy shouted through pain-filled screams.
"You paid for 50 years. You get 50 years," Gravis answered again.
The newest person became a bit nervous when he saw all the people being tortured in the big room. Some of them were even more powerful than him, but they were still shouting with so much pain.
This created a kind of curiosity in the new client. Pain had long since become irrelevant to such powerful people. Pain was already unimportant for Unity Realm Cultivators. Meanwhile, the clients were all Peak Immortal Emperors, at least.
For people this strong, it was basically unimaginable to feel so much pain that they wanted to die. It just felt impossible. They wouldn't even bat an eye if someone skinned them alive.
"What would you suggest for me?" the newest client asked.
"You're a level two Star God with a Will-Aura equivalent to the level two Star God Realm. If you want a one-level increase, the chances of your death are at around 5%, and you would need to survive for 250 years. If you want a two-level increase, you would need to survive for 400 years. The chances of your death would be 30%. Three levels come to 500 years, and chances of your death are at 50%," Gravis explained.
The newest client was surprised. "How come the times get shorter and shorter? Shouldn't each tempering require more time than the previous one?"
"A mortal walking 100 kilometers will find that the last ten kilometers feel equally as hard as the previous 90 kilometers. The mortal carries the exhaustion and stress of the first 90 kilometers with them at the end. The longer you are under the torture, the more stressful it gets," Gravis explained.
"Oh, I see," the man said with a nod. "What can I get for three million God Stones?"
"That's a two-level increase," Gravis answered. "Keep in mind that the chances of you dying are at 30%. You might think that's not much, but by the end of it, your mind will nearly break, and you will basically lose yourself. You will become a mass of instincts that just want the pain to end. The last piece of rationality in your mind will completely focus on keeping you from killing yourself, while the remainder of you will scream bloody murder."
The man took a deep breath as he heard Gravis' explanation, but he also felt a bit of excitement.
This was the very familiar feeling of tempering.
It was a brush with danger.
"I will take the two-level increase," the man said with conviction.
Gravis summoned an emblem and handed it over to the man. "For any procedure with a death rate of above 10%, you need a Vice-Sect Master of your Sect to sign here. It's to protect myself from any enmity with your Sect in the case that you die."
The man looked awkwardly at the emblem. "I don't really have a Sect," he said.
"Then get an authentication of your aura from the Information Pavilion that says that you have no more powerful relatives or colleagues," Gravis answered.
The eyes of the man squinted with discomfort. "That's like 150,000 God Stones, and I need to visit the Information Pavilion without disguise."
"Take it or leave it," Gravis answered. "Securing my future is more important than the money you bring in."
The man hesitated.
"I'll come back later," he said.
Gravis nodded.
SHING!
The man teleported away.
He wouldn't come back again.
Why?
Because he had lied.
The man had belonged to a Sect, and his master had told him that he shouldn't go to the torture chambers. In a fight, the man would still have control over his life since he could unleash his strength, but by tempering oneself with the Law of Suffering, one could only rely on their tenacity.
Strength didn't necessarily equate to tenacity. Even a one-level increase would push someone beyond the point of rationality. It genuinely required someone to come into life-threatening danger, which meant that the pain had to be so powerful that one had to actively resist the urge of committing suicide.
At that point, Battle-Strength became irrelevant. Even tenacity itself became irrelevant.
At that point, one would be confronted with their own personality and goals.
Someone that only lived for power had a very high chance of dying. In their irrational state, they would start questioning their goals. What was the point of going through so much pain? What would power even give them? When they became powerful, they wouldn't need to go through pain, but they could also do that now. They didn't need power for that.
Someone with a loving family had the highest chance of survival. At that point, one wouldn't only think about themselves, but about the suffering of their loved ones. The thought of their loved ones grieving over them would push them forward.
Gravis had also been in an irrational state near the end of his adventure with the Sin Monster.
He had only focused on surviving, while Mortis had done everything else.
If Gravis hadn't had Stella, his children, and all of his friends, he would have probably just killed himself.
Of course, after getting through that thing, Gravis couldn't believe that he had thought about killing himself. The thought was so distant from what he actually believed.
Yet, Gravis had been in an irrational state due to all the pain.
How many people, when they got sick or severely stressed out, had wished that they were dead?
If that person had the ability to instantly kill themselves with a thought, would they have done it?
For Cultivators, it didn't need a conscious effort and a long process to commit suicide. Cultivators could just make their bodies explode with a thought.
A single slip-up in one's mindset was enough.
The very reason why this client's master didn't want him to undergo this form of tempering was that his master knew that the client didn't have much to live for.
Sadly, things often looked clearer to the onlookers than to the affected people.
The client himself believed that he had a powerful will, and he believed that nothing could stop him.
He believed that his master and everyone else just underestimated him.
In the end, the client wouldn't even ask his Vice-Sect Master.
Something inside of himself was stopping him.
Maybe it was a silent voice deep inside of himself telling him that his master was right?
Anyway, the client wouldn't return.
But instead, another person returned.
"The decade is over. What came of the torture?" a cloaked person asked after entering, showing an emblem.
Gravis looked at the emblem and knew that this was regarding his first client.
Gravis pocketed the emblem and summoned a jade token, which quickly flew over to the new arrival.
The new arrival looked through the jade token, and their eyes shone beneath their cloak.
There was so much valuable information in there!
The million God Stones had been worth it!
"She cracked under the pain and gave up all the information about three years ago," Gravis answered. "She is currently still being held in one of the rooms but without the torture. Since you have received the information now, I will release the client in one day."
The cloaked person still felt a bit uncomfortable about the fact that their captive was still alive, but there was nothing they could do about it.
"Thank you," the cloaked person said.
"It's my job," Gravis answered.
The cloaked person looked at the screaming people in the hall with a weird look and then teleported away.
They had to act fast!