Gravis and Ferris traveled for around two days to the north. The Empire was relatively close to the core of the continent, but not that close. The fact that they took two entire days proved as much.
The closer they got to the bulwark and the Grand Lake, the bigger the Striders seemed. Their sheer size was incredibly breathtaking. From the top of the Mountain of Pride, they hadn't appeared as gigantic, but when they arrived at the bulwark, the Striders simply appeared massive.
Even though they were still over 200,000 kilometers away from them, the closest Strider already seemed so massive that Gravis couldn't even see its head anymore. Its closest leg looked like a bridge that led to an entirely new world, which was its torso. The closer Gravis got, the more he could feel the sheer power of them.
"We're nearly there, Gravis!" Ferris said with excitement. "I've already announced our arrival to the guards of this place. They know me, so we have no issue with entering. Don't attack anything, and don't release any of your power. The plants are not fans of slaughter and battles."
"No problem," Gravis said with shining eyes. He had some things that he could offer the plants, but he hoped that they would allow him to comprehend them without any payment. The reason for that was that paying a plant or a beast was difficult.
Paying a human was not an issue since Gravis would only need to hand over some treasures or currency, but plants and beasts were not interested in that. They were more interested in tempering and food.
After some more seconds, Gravis noticed that the environment had changed. A towering and wild forest appeared with trees several kilometers tall. That size surely was impressive, but Gravis had seen trees just as big in the lower world. Could plants also control their sizes?
Right now, Gravis was just two-meters tall. After all, every King could freely control their size, and most of them were always in their smallest possible size. It was just easier to travel like this.
Ferris passed the line of trees and entered the massive forest without being stopped as Gravis followed him. "Where are we going, Ferris?" Gravis asked.
"To the Empress of the Bulwark Empire, the Plant Ultimate," Ferris answered. "We first need to discuss everything with her."
"We can meet the Empress just like that?" Gravis asked.
"Sure!" Ferris answered directly. "The Plant Ultimate is a nice and welcoming being. I talked to her once before."
Gravis was a bit surprised at how easy it was to meet an Ultimate, but he accepted it. This surely would make things easier. After around a minute, the two of them reached a several-kilometer-wide clearing in the forest. The only thing present in that clearing was a humongous bed of flowers.
Gravis looked at the bed of flowers and, for some reason, felt peaceful. Some kind of harmony radiated from this place, which surprised him. 'Is this a Law?' he asked himself in his thoughts.
Ferris landed before he entered the clearing, and Gravis did the same. Ferris knew better how to act in the presence of an Ultimate.
"Keep the weight of your body as light as possible, but don't fly," Ferris transmitted to Gravis as he took the lead. Then, Ferris stepped into the meadow, onto the field of flowers.
Gravis watched him closely and saw that Ferris was only barely lifting his feet. Instead of walking forward, it was more like he shuffled forward. Like this, he didn't step on any flowers but pushed them to the side instead. Of course, some of them couldn't avoid the destiny of being stepped on, but Ferris' body was very light right now. Even a mortal flower would survive a step from him.
Gravis copied what Ferris was doing and moved similarly. With the help of his Spirit, he was able to move more flowers out of the way than Ferris, but even with that, he still had to step on some of them. Without flying, this couldn't be avoided.
Their speed slowed down significantly due to their new method of moving, but it still only took a couple of minutes for them to arrive in front of the Plant Ultimate.
Ferris lowered his head, and Gravis followed. Showing his respect to someone much older and much more powerful than him was not something to be ashamed about. Strength had to be respected, and even though Gravis will undoubtedly be more powerful than her in the future, right now, the Plant Ultimate deserved his respect.
What were they bowing to?
It was a 30-centimeter-tall, yellow daffodil. It was surrounded by other flowers, but interestingly, all the flowers had their heads turned away from the daffodil.
Even if one didn't know that this was the Plant Ultimate, one's eyes would still be drawn towards this particular flower. It just seemed… special. It didn't look any different from a normal daffodil, but it somehow just felt different.
"Do you understand what moving through my domain means?" an ethereal voice appeared inside Gravis' and Ferris' minds. It sounded like nature itself was speaking, and Gravis felt like he saw the whole forest speaking to him via this one voice. It almost felt like this was not the voice of only one being.
Gravis looked back at the path he had tread through the field of flowers. His footsteps were still there, and even if he hadn't stepped on the flowers with any weight, their bodies were still bent. His stroll to this position had left behind footprints, even though he had done his best to avoid that.
Gravis' eyes were even and neutral as he looked at his footprints. Then, he turned to the daffodil and looked at it.
"In our journey to gain something we desire, we involuntarily leave behind a path of destruction, but as long we try to minimize the destruction, new life will grow. After some time, it will be as if we have never stepped through this field," Gravis said.
Ferris' eyes widened in realization. Yes, this field of flowers was a very good analogy for the path of cultivation. Reaching the Plant Ultimate was impossible without stepping over plants, but they could still try to minimize the damage.
If they had recklessly stepped over the flowers without paying any attention to them, the flowers would die, and it would take a long time until new flowers grew.
The Plant Ultimate remained silent, so Gravis continued.
"To achieve what we desire, we are forced to step over others. Yet, as long as we are careful, everything will recover. If I hadn't paid attention to these flowers while walking, I might have killed many of them. That would have been unnecessary since I managed to reach you without killing any of them regardless."
Suddenly, Gravis smiled and bowed to the Plant Ultimate again. "Thank you for the lesson, Plant Ultimate," Gravis said sincerely.
The Plant Ultimate remained silent as Gravis waited for more of her words.
WHACK!
Suddenly, Gravis was smacked by a green root that shot out of the earth. He couldn't react to the attack and was flung to the distance until his flight was halted when he hit a mighty tree. The tree didn't even receive a dent while Gravis felt his back hurt.
"The fuck are you on about!?" the same voice from before said in the same harmonious tone. "I'm not trying to teach you some useless-ass, morally-superior, pacifistic herbivore ideology, you dumbfuck! I meant that you better have a good fucking reason to disturb my cultivation!"
Gravis wasn't really injured since that strike wasn't aimed to injure him. Yet, his mind went wild with shock and confusion as he heard the words from the Plant Ultimate. Right now, the daffodil was quickly swaying around, like it was mad, which looked rather comical to him.
The Plant Ultimate saw Gravis' stunned look. "What? Didn't expect that, did you? You think I'll go, 'Oh great talented youngster, you have seen through my wise and holy teachings. I shall grant you one wish'? Oh, shut up! What 'stepping carefully on your way to power'? What is this weakling shit!? You think just because I'm a flower, I'm some naïve-ass, weak-willed pacifist? Are you mocking me!?"
She rapidly said all of this with her melodious and harmonious voice, which was in stark contrast to the actual words she spoke. During all of this, her head bopped left and right in anger.
Meanwhile, Gravis only watched the Plant Ultimate with shock and horror.