Gravis hadn't been so angry in a very long time, and he was sure that it wasn't because of Mortis.
The Nine Elements Sect DARED to suppress Stella!?
The Nine Elements Sect was suppressing the person Gravis loved. Gravis wanted freedom more than anything else, and Stella also knew the Law of Freedom. Suppressing Gravis or his loved ones was one of the worst things that someone could do in Gravis' mind.
However, Gravis was still clearheaded enough to make rational decisions. He wouldn't eliminate the entire Sect just because some people with a high status made some horrible decisions. Gravis would only take revenge on those that actually supported this idiotic decision.
"I feel quite a bit of anger coming from you," Mortis' voice suddenly appeared in Gravis' mind. "That's a nice change of pace for once."
Gravis narrowed his eyes. "Your comments are not helping right now," Gravis answered.
"What happened?" Mortis asked neutrally.
Gravis told Mortis everything about what had just happened and his guesses.
"You won't mind if I make the Nine Elements Sect our enemy?" Gravis asked after telling Mortis everything.
"No," Mortis answered directly. "You obviously have a good enough reason for it. Just because I prefer Joyce doesn't mean that I dislike Stella. She is still one of the very few beings that I would consider a friend. If you didn't take revenge, I would be the one that would."
Gravis was relieved when he heard Mortis' words. Gravis didn't want to implicate Mortis because of his conflict. He wasn't like Mortis, who simply didn't care that much about how his actions affected others. Hearing Mortis' support only strengthened Gravis' resolve.
'I need to plan everything out,' Gravis thought. 'When I win the tournament, the Nine Elements Sect will surely try to twist facts to avoid handing Stella over to me. This means I need to have a way to flee with Stella from the headquarters of the Nine Elements Sect. Luckily, I bought that one emblem from Underworld. Without it, this would be much harder.'
Gravis scratched his chin as he thought. 'The first hurdle will be to appear close to Stella without being noticed. This means that I need to appear more normal. Being able to win against the strongest geniuses in the world with a four-level difference would be too conspicuous. I should increase my Realm first. The Late Major Circulation Immortal King Realm sounds just perfect.'
'I still have 350 years left, which is more than enough. Seems like it's time to pay another visit to the beast territory.'
A cold gleam appeared in Gravis' eyes. 'However, this time, it's not for tempering, but for corpses.'
Gravis teleported away and directly journeyed to the beast territory. It only took him a couple of days.
Just like previous times, Gravis entered the beast territory via the underground. When he met Narcissus again, Gravis exchanged some pleasantries with him and informed him of why Gravis was here.
Narcissus didn't mind, but he told Gravis that he shouldn't go against the beast territory in the future. Right now, Gravis was about to consume Peak Immortal Kings, and every Peak Immortal King was important. Usually, it didn't matter. After all, only other beasts would consume these Peak Immortal Kings, and these other beasts were still in the beasts' camp.
However, Gravis was a human, and every Peak Immortal King that died to him would be lost.
This gave Gravis pause as he slightly altered his plan.
"Siral," Gravis said as he summoned his Life Ring.
"Yes, Master," Siral answered.
"Go and collect information about High-Level Sects. The beasts are kind enough that they are willing to allow me to consume some of their beasts, and its only right that I should equalize the losses of both sides," Gravis said.
"Understood, Master. What kind of High-Level Sect are you searching for?" Siral asked respectfully.
"The most important criterium is the personality of the Sect Master. You should know by now what kind of people I absolutely despise. The next most important criterium is that they should be from the Nine Elements Sect's faction. The last criterium is their Realm. They need to be a Peak Immortal King. When you found a fitting Sect, inform me," Gravis ordered.
"Yes, Master," Siral answered.
Siral had already proven to be quite useful to Gravis, but his true worth would only appear when Gravis went through with his grand plan.
Siral was a master in espionage and assassination. He was like a silent, hidden blade that was ready to strike.
Gravis put the Life Ring away and informed Narcissus of his intention. Narcissus said that this was a fair exchange and that everything was fine. Gravis didn't owe the beasts anything like this.
Gravis had planned to consume two Peak Immortal Kings in the beast territory, but that had changed. Now, he would only consume one.
After entering the beast territory, Gravis quickly searched for some Peak Immortal Kings. However, he didn't directly choose the first one. While he was already here, he could also search for expensive ore. After all, Gravis needed some powerful weapons.
Because of that, Gravis was searching for a Peak Immortal King that had a metal affinity. Beasts with metal affinities always cultivated near some high-grade ore.
It took about a day, but Gravis found his target.
It was a kind of steel falcon that sat on top of a mountain of ore.
'Four levels, huh?' Gravis thought. 'The last time I was here, four levels were very difficult to surmount, but now, they are basically nothing.'
'This is not tempering.'
Gravis quickly declared his challenge and waited for all the trees to move away. It was important to give the trees enough time to retreat. After all, they were also Cultivators, basically.
After the trees had left the vicinity, Gravis took out his World Weapon. He didn't need to keep it hidden inside the beast territory since beasts were not really great at forging. Not even Narcissus would recognize a World Weapon.
The falcon screeched and transformed its body into tough steel. It obviously knew several Battle Laws related to defense. Its level five Law had something to do with wings. Gravis wasn't entirely sure.
The only thing he was sure of was that the falcon was very, very fast, nearly too fast for Gravis to react.
The falcon had amazing defense and ridiculous speed. Killing something like that would have been very challenging for Gravis in the past.
However, now, everything was different.
The falcon hadn't expected Gravis to be able to react in time. After all, Gravis was four levels lower than it, and it specialized in speed. If Gravis had warned the falcon of his power, it wouldn't have attacked him this directly.
Yet, just as stated previously, this was not tempering. There was no reason for Gravis to warn the falcon.
BZZZZ!
Gravis' saber crackled violently with Divine Lightning as he slashed down.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The explosion was gigantic as it destroyed thousands of kilometers of the surroundings.
This was Lightning Crescent with Divine Lightning.
This attack was not a joke.
Ssshhh!
The sound of wind could be heard as the vacuum was filled again.
The falcon was dead, and Gravis absorbed its Energy.
At the same time, Gravis looked over to the ore mountain and saw that its surface had liquified. His Lightning Crescent had been powerful enough to liquify a considerable portion of the mountain but not powerful enough to completely destroy the matter of the mountain.
This demonstrated that the mountain was of incredible quality.
'This material should be at the Peak Immortal King Realm,' Gravis thought as he looked at the mountain. 'Not a crazy good help against Immortal Emperors, but more than enough for all Immortal Kings.'
With Gravis' Law of Perceived Reality, he manipulated the surroundings as he simply pocketed the entire mountain. No beast in the surroundings would notice that the mountain had vanished. They just wouldn't pay any attention to this area.
Gravis immediately entered the earth to find a good place to reach the next Realm, and after some minutes, Gravis became a Late Major Circulation Immortal King.
One had to remember that a Peak Immortal King had a ton of Energy, more than enough to make Gravis jump two levels.
Wait, but then why did he want a second Peak Immortal King? Hadn't he already reached his goal?
The answer was obvious.
Gravis obviously wouldn't enter the Nine Elements Sect with his actual body. In fact, this same body of Gravis' was already a copy. A second one was currently sitting in Arc's clearing.
Gravis broke Arc's emblem and returned to the clearing. Then, he handed over the emblem to his other body. The other body then broke the emblem and went back to the beast territory.
This other body would travel back to the human territory while waiting for Siral to contact him.