The five figures cloaked in black seemed to smirk when Gravis asked them what they wanted. This made Gravis even surer that they didn't come to have a nice and decent talk. Their appearance didn't particularly radiate trustworthiness and kindness.
"500,000 Immortal Stones for each of you," the person at the front said with mirth. "After you pay, we will leave and not trouble you again."
Gravis lifted an eyebrow. "So, you're just bandits?" Gravis asked.
"We call ourselves freelancers, but yes, you would call us bandits," another one said.
Gravis looked at the strung-up torsos at the back. "And if I don't pay, I will probably join them, right?"
"You're a smart boy," the leader said. "Yes, those who don't pay will join us on our altruistic quest. We like to take money from the rich and give it to the poor, which is us, of course."
Gravis blinked once in boredom. "Why go through all of this? Why not just kill the ones that don't pay? You would get all their wealth that way."
"We're not stupid, boy," the leader said with an arrogant tone. "Bad things happen to Cultivators that kill the weaker ones. As long as we don't kill them, everything's fine."
"What if I don't have the money?" Gravis asked.
"You have the money," the leader said with a smirk. "500,000 Immortal Stones isn't much for an Immortal King such as yourself. However, on the chance that you are truly so poor, you will just have to accompany us until we are finished with our altruistic quest. However, that might take a while."
This made a lot of sense now. These five people didn't torture these other Cultivators out of cruelty but to convince them to finally pay. It was impossible to look into someone's Spirit Space without risking a soul battle on the enemy's home turf. Additionally, they would need to have a powerful Cultivator that knew several Laws regarding the Deep Wood Element.
If the Immortal Kings had the money but acted like they didn't, they simply had to live like this for thousands of years or until they decided to pay. If they didn't have the money, they couldn't prove that they didn't have it. After all, the bandits didn't know what was inside the Cultivator's Spirit Space without risking a counterattack inside the Cultivator's Spirit Space.
"If you want, you can also buy the freedom of these poor sods behind me," the leader said as he gestured to the ten hanging torsos. "We don't care who pays, as long as someone pays."
"Stop wasting time," another one interjected. "Maybe he already called for help and is only waiting for someone to arrive."
"Sorry," the leader said with a smirk. "Sometimes, I get lost when I talk to a customer."
Then, the leader looked at Gravis again. "So, what's your choice? You have five seconds to decide. Otherwise, we will take it as a no."
Gravis wasn't worried at all since it wasn't hard to feel their Cultivation. Their cloaks hid their appearance, but they purposefully showed their aura. After all, if the enemy didn't know the bandits' power, they were more likely to attack. The bandits wanted to make some easy money, not fight.
The hanging torsos were either Early Minor Circulation Immortal Kings or Mid Minor Circulation Immortal Kings. Meanwhile, all five of these bandits were Late Minor Circulation Immortal Kings. No wonder that they said that they wouldn't kill their "customers". Their customers were exclusively weaker than them with a numerical disadvantage.
This was obviously not a fight for tempering. This was only a one-sided robbery.
"Let me deal with this," Gravis said to Siral.
Siral bowed respectfully.
These poor bandits sure were unlucky. They hadn't met one but two Cultivators that could kill them easily. Gravis was only an Early Minor Circulation Immortal King but had an insane Battle Strength. Meanwhile, Siral was using his Law of Humility to also appear like an Early Minor Circulation Immortal King.
Siral wasn't very good in direct confrontations, but that was in the context of the Core Region and fighting someone on his level. Fighting someone one level below him was not an issue as long as the enemy wasn't some incredible genius. Additionally, the Minor Circulation and Major Circulation were separated by two battle levels. Siral would have no issue in dealing with them in less than ten seconds.
"Time's up!" the leader shouted as everyone took out their weapons. "Welcome to the party!"
After that, all five of them split up and surrounded Gravis and Siral in some kind of battle formation. Several different Elements appeared on their weapons as they readied their attacks.
WHOOOOOM!
And then, Gravis activated his Will-Aura, and all five of them were suppressed by over 40%.
These five bandits were only two levels above Gravis, and Gravis had the Will-Aura of a Late Major Circulation Immortal King.
WHOOOOOM!
And then, Gravis used his Major Law of Suppression.
The bandits felt like their bodies were surrounded by incredibly hard metal. It was so very hard to move!
They had been suppressed by 90%!
WHOOOOOM!
And then, Gravis activated his Law of Storm's Pressure. The surroundings were compressed, making it far more difficult for them to move. They were now suppressed by 94%.
CRRRRR!
A Frost Domain appeared, which quickly entered their bodies. Their joints and muscles became rigid as they started to freeze over.
All five of them tried to move, but their movements were already far too slow to break the growing ice. Breaking such a kind of suppression required one to continually move their body to break the ice before too much of it gathered. However, with their slow movements, this was impossible.
In just a second, their joints and muscles were completely frozen. Of course, they were still alive since they were Immortal Kings. Something like this wasn't enough to kill them.
"Spare us!" the leader transmitted with his Spirit in panic.
The other four also pleaded as best as they could. They offered all their belongings to Gravis. They were willing to do everything for him!
Gravis was a bit interested in that offer, but not overly much.
The Energy of their being was worth more than their wealth. Additionally, he would get their wealth anyway.
Gravis lifted a fist and opened it.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
And lightning destroyed all the bandits.
The lightning quickly vanished into nothingness. Gravis retrieved their lightning into his Life Ring to hide his ability to absorb others from Siral. A second Gravis was quickly created inside Gravis' Life Ring out of all the gathered lightning. Then, that Gravis entered Gravis' Spirit Space and fused with the actual Gravis.
With this short move, Gravis was now close to becoming a Mid Minor Circulation Immortal King. Only a little bit was left, but Gravis wouldn't break through now. He still needed to temper himself against Siral's tribulation opponent.
A shower of wealth appeared as the belongings of the bandits were ejected into the world, and Gravis gathered everything up with his Spirit Space.
There were around eight million Immortal Stones in their belongings, quite a big haul. However, just as expected, their Energy was worth more.
How many Immortal Stones would Gravis need to go from an Early Minor Circulation Immortal King to a Mid Minor Circulation Immortal King?
Around 20 million.
The bandits' bodies had given Gravis the equivalent of around 18 million Immortal Stones while also handing him eight million normal ones.
Like this, Gravis had earned around 26 million Immortal Stones.
The torsos also fell to the ground, but Gravis ignored them. An Immortal King wouldn't die from such a fall. They wouldn't even be injured. The poison would probably vanish slowly, and even if it didn't, their bodies would heal on their own as long as no one else decided to injure them further.
Gravis had no interest in getting acquainted with these unfortunate people.
So, why did all of this happen?
Did the bandits have bad Karmic Luck? Was Gravis in luck this time?
No.
The bandits only had a slightly below-average level of Karmic Luck. They had obviously done some questionable acts in the past, but nothing that was too far out of line.
So, why did these bandits have this misfortune of running into Gravis? This could only be attributed to bad luck, right?
Kind of, but that wasn't the reason.
The reason why they had this misfortune was because of the Karmic Luck of their captives. These ten captured people had average or slightly above-average Karmic Luck.
However, there were ten of them versus five of the bandits.
This meant that the ten captors had collectively far more Karmic Luck than the bandits.
One last reason was Gravis' own lack of Karmic Luck.
Was running into a group of five bandits two levels above one's own Cultivation level luck?
Of course not!
Who would call something like that luck!?
Over 99% of Cultivators would call something like this a calamity! It was already incredibly difficult to fight two levels above oneself, and there were five of them!
It was simply Gravis' own power that allowed him to turn this case of bad luck into good luck.
Gravis got reminded of the words that his father had spoken to him before Gravis had left for the lower world. "Let others use their Karmic Luck to gather resources and then simply kill them. Look at it like raising pigs."
Today, Gravis had benefitted from the Karmic Luck of the ten captives, and he wasn't sure if something like this had ever happened to him before.
'Huh, is this how it is to have Karmic Luck?' Gravis thought. 'Some suicidal idiots just charge at you to hand you all their wealth.'
'I could get used to this.'
Gravis gestured to the southeast with his head, and Siral bowed respectfully again.
SHING! SHING!
And then, both of them continued on their journey.