Liam and Stella looked at their teacher's disintegrating hand with shock and horror.
All rage vanished from Stella's mind as she shot to her teacher. "I'm sorry!" she shouted emotionally as she held her teacher. "I didn't mean it! I was angry!"
Stella's teacher smiled at Stella and stroked her hair. "I know," she said. "It's alright."
"Why!?" Stella shouted. "Why did you sacrifice your life for mine!?"
"Because you are more important to me than this old life of mine," she said. "My tribulation would have come in a couple thousand years anyway, and I wouldn't have been able to comprehend a level six Law until then. My life was already over. So, instead of living these last few years without reason, I decided to sacrifice this last bit of life to extend yours."
Liam only looked with shock at his teacher. His teacher would die? She had been like a mother to them!
After a while, Liam also shot to his teacher with tears in his eyes, embracing her tightly. He didn't want to lose her!
Gravis sighed as he saw the three of them embrace. Suddenly, he missed his family too. He had only been here for a couple of days, but he already started to miss his three kids and his parents.
'Sadly, my journey in the higher world has only begun,' Gravis thought.
However, Gravis also looked at Stella. For some reason, he was actually happy that Stella didn't die.
He admired Stella. She knew a ton of Laws, and she even knew the Law of Empathy. Additionally, she had warned Gravis several times instead of simply accepting the challenge and scoring an easy kill.
In her mind, Gravis had been no danger at all to her. She had no reason to warn him several times to not throw his life away. This meant that she honestly didn't want to kill him.
On top of that, she hadn't unleashed her most powerful attacks immediately. Instead, she only demonstrated her powers slowly in front of him, hoping that Gravis would accept that she was more powerful and concede. Gravis was sure that Stella would have accepted Gravis' submission and wouldn't have killed him.
From the very beginning, she didn't want to kill Gravis.
Did Gravis want to kill Stella?
He was fine with killing her for his own power, but he wasn't a big fan of it. She had proven that she was actually a nice person.
Sadly, being a nice person wasn't enough for Gravis. She had been a powerful opponent, and he wanted to temper himself. He had killed so many nice people before, so what would make this one different?
However, Gravis actually preferred this outcome over her death. Gravis had received his tempering. He had upgraded his Law of Danger and managed to learn a ton about the Major Law of the Elements. His Will-Aura had also already increased by a level.
Gravis got what he came here for, and Stella didn't die.
'No reason to remain here,' Gravis thought. 'We met, we fought, and now our paths will split again.'
Gravis turned around and checked the map in his head for the next resource point. This first fight had been a doozy, but he doubted that something like this would happen again.
"Please, wait," Stella's teacher said to Gravis.
Gravis turned to them again. "Yes?" he asked.
"Do you not feel it?" she asked Gravis.
"I don't know what you're referring to," he said.
Stella's teacher smiled as she gently pushed Stella and Liam away.
"I lived for a very long time, and I have seen countless people," she said.
"And I am certain that there is a connection between you and Stella," she said.
Gravis furrowed his brows while Stella looked at her teacher in confusion. Then, she also furrowed her brows at Gravis.
"Him?" Liam nearly spat. He was still angry that Gravis had nearly killed his sister.
"I see something in you," the woman said to Gravis. "You have something that Stella needs."
Gravis blinked in a bored manner. "Do you want to extort me now?" he asked.
The teacher laughed a bit. "No," she said. "I'm not referring to something material."
"I'm talking about your mindset," she said.
"I still don't get it," Gravis said.
"You don't?" she asked with a smile. "I have seen who you are when you've fought, and I think I understand you pretty well. You have something that Stella needs more than anything right now."
Gravis still couldn't follow.
"What are you talking about, teacher?" Stella asked. "What could I possibly need from him?"
"Silly girl," she said as she stroked Stella's hair again. "Let me show you," she said as she turned to Gravis again.
"My interference and my subsequent saving of Stella's life has made it more difficult for her to temper herself in the future. The interference of others is always damaging to one's cultivation."
"Yet, let me ask you," she said. "I have also saved your life with my interference. Has this damaged your cultivation?"
"No," Gravis said immediately.
Liam and Stella looked at Gravis with surprise. No? But his Will-Aura was so powerful! Someone with such a powerful Will-Aura must have battled all their opponents directly and without interference. The more powerful someone's Will-Aura, the more devastating the interference of someone else would be.
How could something like this not impact Gravis' cultivation?
"This is what I meant," Stella's teacher said. "Stella is at a crossroads for her future cultivation now. If she makes a wrong decision, her life will end, or she will never be able to temper herself again. However, this humongous issue that plagues Stella's mind is nothing to you."
"You might be able to lead her out of this tribulation," she said.
Gravis glanced at Stella for a second.
Why wasn't this interference an issue?
Back then, when Commander Rime had interfered in Gravis' tempering, Gravis had decided to kill Commander Rime to keep his pure path to power. He had been the victim of the same circumstance back then. Someone had interfered, and Gravis' path to power had been compromised.
However, all of this changed with two realizations.
The first realization had been when the middle Heaven showed Gravis that a pure path to power was an illusion. It was all only in the mind of the Cultivator. As long as someone didn't think pureness to be important, interference wouldn't be able to damage them.
This could be likened to losing one's lifelong partner. If the partner of this person died, they would be damaged beyond repair.
Why?
Because of their love.
So, what if the feeling of love could be eradicated? Would the loss of one's partner still matter? Would it hurt them?
No.
An example like this felt cold and sterile, but it demonstrated the effect of distance. If one didn't assign their power and tempering to some pureness, one wouldn't be damaged by interference.
Another thing was the Law of Freedom.
The interference of someone else theoretically counted as someone else pushing their will and decision on top of the Cultivator. Freedom was not part of physical reality but perceived reality.
In very simple terms, if someone believed themselves to be free and didn't care about someone else's interference, their interference wouldn't matter.
Sadly, all of this was easy to explain but nearly impossible to actualize.
Stella was powerful, but she didn't go through the intense suppression and pain that Gravis had been subjected to. Only when one's path was completely destroyed would one be able to realize that the path had been unimportant in the first place.
"So, you wish for me to help Stella escape from her predicament?" Gravis asked.
Stella's teacher nodded.
Liam didn't like this one bit, and Stella had mixed feelings about this. Her emotions were still riled up by the image of the burning skull right in front of her, making her feel very apprehensive and a bit fearful of Gravis.
"Honestly," Gravis said, "I would, but I can't. You have seen my Avatar, and with your experienced eyes, you might even know the Law. So, let me ask you, why is it that so few people know this Law?"
Stella and Liam remembered Gravis' Avatar, but they had no idea what Law it had been.
"I think I know," the teacher said. "I have never seen this Law with my own eyes, but I've heard descriptions."
Liam's and Stella's eyes widened in shock. A Law that their all-powerful teacher had never seen?
"The reason why so few beings know of this Law is that it can't be taught," Gravis said. "You have to find it out yourself."
However, instead of feeling dejected, the teacher only smirked a little bit. "Yes, but it's a Situational Law, is it not?" She asked.
Gravis nodded.
"So, even though you can't teach it to others, you can create situations that allow someone to comprehend the Law for themselves."
Gravis' brows furrowed.
"I mean, kind of, but it isn't that easy," he said.
"Can't you try at least?" the teacher asked.
Gravis hesitated a bit as he looked at Liam and Stella.
Liam was obviously very against this decision. If Gravis had to show them this Law, he had to travel with them. Traveling with someone that hated him so much? That would be like serving his head on a platter.
After some seconds, Gravis looked at the teacher again with a raised brow.
She had noticed how Liam had reacted, and she sighed. No matter what she said, Liam wouldn't just bury his hatred for Gravis, and no Cultivator would invite someone like that to travel together with them.
"Please," Stella said, eliciting glances from Gravis and Liam.
"I trust my teacher. If she thinks that you can help me, then please…" she said.
Liam and Gravis looked with shock at Stella.
This didn't conform to the image they had of Stella in their minds!