Luckily, Liam had been warned by Stella. The shaking of his body was only internal, and one couldn't see anything on the outside.
Another interesting thing was that Liam didn't show any fear in his eyes, and he also didn't glance at the corner of the halls. This meant that Liam didn't know that Gravis had a beast body.
'Stella had kept this secret of mine from her brother,' Gravis thought. His heart was warming at the fact that Stella kept his secrets safe even from the closest person in her life. This was an incredible show of trust.
Liam glanced at Gravis, but his eyes only had a complex mix of emotions inside them.
Surprise, a bit of wonder, a bit of hope, and a bit of rage.
Liam had no idea what he should think of Gravis.
On one hand, Gravis had done something horrible to his sister.
On the other hand, Gravis had solved Stella's issue with her Will-Aura.
Under normal circumstances, Liam would still hate Gravis, but it was difficult to feel hatred towards Gravis now.
Why?
Because Liam knew that Gravis was here to help them escape.
Would a monster risk their life and pay so many Immortal Stones for these emblems just to save the two of them? Liam had already received his emblem when Stella had grabbed his arm.
If Gravis had only been ready to save Stella, Liam could still rationalize hating him. After all, Stella cared about Liam, and Liam knew that. If Gravis wanted to use Stella like everyone else, he would have ignored Liam.
Yet, he had also spent 50 million Immortal Stones for him, a person that hated Gravis.
Gravis was not a kind person, and Liam knew that. Gravis wouldn't save anyone that hated and despised him.
However, for Stella, Gravis was even willing to make such a sacrifice for Stella, all so that she could feel happy.
Gravis and Liam didn't like each other, but Gravis still helped Liam just for Stella.
Because of that, it was difficult for Liam to hate Gravis right now.
Liam and Stella stopped beside the Sect Master and looked at the people gathered.
Liam had known about this tournament, but he had not expected Gravis to be here.
However, to him, even though he hadn't expected Gravis to be in the tournament, if Gravis took part, it wasn't surprising that he was in the finals. If Gravis took part in this tournament, there would be no one that could stop him in the same Realm.
Yet, when Liam saw Gravis' opponent, he still became nervous.
Liam knew Gravis' Battle-Strength very well, but there was a gigantic issue with Gravis' opponent.
Winning against this opponent didn't require someone to have a great Battle-Strength. In fact, it was basically impossible.
If Gravis were at the same level as the Holy Son Candidate of the All-Matter Sect, he could win, but not with a level disadvantage.
The last minutes passed, and it was finally time for the fight.
Gravis and the Holy Son Candidate entered the arena, and the signal to begin had been given.
Yet, the two of them didn't directly fight.
Instead, they were only looking at each other.
A normal onlooker might be confused, but the upper echelon of the Nine Elements Sect knew what was going on.
Gravis and his opponent were conversing with their Spirits.
"Why do you want to marry Stella?" Gravis asked.
"The same reason why everyone wants to marry her," the Holy Son Candidate answered emotionlessly. He had never shown any kind of emotion ever since he had entered the hall. It was like he was an emotionless iceberg.
"And that reason is?" Gravis asked.
"You don't know?" the Holy Son Candidate asked without any surprise. "Although, now that I think about it, you don't belong to any Sect. So, it actually makes sense that you don't know."
"Could you explain?" Gravis asked.
"Fine," the Holy Son Candidate answered. "Take this as a show of respect from my side for making it this far. You are very powerful, and if you were a Peak Immortal King, you might even win against me. I don't like to make enemies since making enemies is stupid. So, let me explain."
"The Holy Maiden knows the Law of Empathy. The Law of Empathy can build a connection between two people. With Dual Cultivation, the connection will be strengthened significantly."
"You mean sex, right?" Gravis asked.
"Yes, I mean sex, but we call it Dual Cultivation," the Holy Son Candidate answered emotionlessly. "The connection that the Law of Empathy can produce in Dual Cultivation allows the partner to comprehend the Laws of the partner that knows the Law of Empathy."
Gravis' eyes widened. That was possible!?
"Of course, one session isn't nearly enough. You need to stay in Dual Cultivation for thousands of years to comprehend all the Laws of your partner, but it basically has the same effect as staying in a Law Comprehension Area for every single one of their Laws at the same time," he explained.
"But don't you have access to basically all the Law Comprehension Areas?" Gravis asked in confusion. "It doesn't sound that would be worth it for you."
"It wouldn't be," the Holy Son Candidate answered. "However, my All-Matter Sect has control over the Secret Zone that allows someone to comprehend the Law of Apathy. I know the Law of Apathy, and with the Law of Apathy, cultivating with someone with the Law of Empathy becomes very worth it."
'So that's why he is always emotionless,' Gravis thought. 'He knows the Law of Apathy and probably completely follows it. He is similar to Mortis, but not completely the same. Mortis still has other emotions like rage and pride, even if they are not the most positive ones. However, this guy is completely emotionless.'
"What does the Law of Apathy do?" Gravis asked.
"The Law of Empathy builds a connection and transfers parts of the Laws to the partner," the Holy Son Candidate explained. "You can see these little Law snippets as something that the owner can easily recover quickly."
"However, with the Law of Apathy, I can pull on that connection. I can pull more and more snippets out of my partner and vastly speed up the process. It wouldn't even take 10,000 years to comprehend all the Laws of the Holy Maiden of the Nine Elements Sect."
Gravis frowned. "And what happens to the Holy Maiden then?"
"She will lose about half her comprehension of the majority of her Laws. She only needs to spend something like 50,000 to 100,000 years to regain them. Obviously, she will be of no use to me anymore after that."
Gravis felt a chill run down his spine.
The Holy Son Candidate continued emotionlessly. "However, she is an incredibly talented Cultivator, and women often hold grudges for a long time. We obviously can't allow her to escape, or a Peak Immortal Emperor might one day charge into the All-Matter Sect and kill everyone."
"Therefore, we have to pull the problem out by its roots," the Holy Son Candidate finished coldly.
Gravis' insides were on the verge of exploding right now, but he appeared terrifyingly calm on the outside. "So, in short, you will strip Stella of most of her Laws and then kill her. Is that it?"
"Yes," the Holy Son Candidate answered. "Why would you care? You are not part of a Sect, and you don't know her. Power is everything, and killing other Cultivators is normal. This is no different than just killing her."
To a certain extent, Gravis had to agree with the Holy Son Candidate. This wasn't much different from simply killing any other Cultivator. Cultivators constantly killed each other, and doing something like that wasn't that despicable. Death is death, after all.
However, Gravis loved Stella. Just because Cultivators constantly killed each other didn't mean that Gravis had to sit on the sideline and allow everyone to kill his loved ones just because he had killed Cultivators in the past.
They were humans, not beasts. Emotions of belonging, love, and kinship were what made a human a human. Sure, there were also emotions like arrogance, hate, greed, and so on, but humans were complex, to begin with.
So, in short, Gravis saw not much problem with the action in itself but with the chosen target of the action. One should never forget that Gravis was not a kind and friendly person. However, he was fiercely protective of his loved ones.
This guy wanted to force himself on Gravis' loved one for thousands of years and then kill her.
Gravis' eyes shone coldly.
'Everything's ready. Stella and Liam have the emblem.'
'I don't need to hold back anymore!'