Chapter 343 - 343 – Hidden Danger
Gravis exited the hall and saw his homeworld’s sky for the first time in six years. It looked similar to the sky of the lower world, but there was one clear difference.
SHOO! SHOO! SHOO!
The sky above him was nearly invisible due to all the flying carts and cultivators shooting around. Above the city, the Sky Community resided. Everyone with a certain minimum of strength could fly around and trade in the Sky Community. This made the Sky Community technically a part of the city, but a humongous one. There was over ten times the number of people in the Sky Community than in the city itself.
One should remember that the teleporting beggars Gravis was talking about were the beggars in the actual city, not the Sky Community. These beggars were more powerful than the people in the Sky Community. That was evident by the fact that they were allowed to live inside the actual city.
Some people might find the prospect of being a beggar to be degrading, but one shouldn’t be blinded by the beggar-status. Every single person actually residing in the city had supreme power. If even one of these people felt some pity for a beggar, they might throw something at them. Something that such a powerful person carried with them might be worthless to them, but an unprecedented treasure to the beggars.
Instead of looking down at the beggars, the people in the Sky Community were envious. They wished that they could have the strength to beg in the city’s streets. This was the city where the Opposer resided, and he surely wouldn’t pick some random spot to settle down.
This part of the world had the densest Energy out of everywhere else. The closer one got to the castle of the Opposer, the denser the Energy. That was due to two reasons. One, the spot was the absolute center of the world, and two, the Opposer pulled Energy to himself like a black hole.
It was common knowledge in the world that nearly all the Energy in the highest world was moving slowly to the Opposer. His attraction towards Energy was just ridiculous.
In the early days, people were afraid of being seen as stealing the Opposer’s Energy, but over generations and generations of progressively more courageous people, they had noticed that the Opposer didn’t care. They only had to keep a certain distance from his castle. Many lives had been ended by coming too close to the castle, which allowed them to judge the exact distance.
Due to this, the people created a city around his abode without him even ordering it. More people came due to the higher Energy, and they wanted to have buildings to live in. With more people came more buildings, which required more people to manufacture the buildings.
At some point, everything had been so overcrowded that a council for the city had been created, which established the rules. A minimum requirement for power had been put into place. After all, how dare some weaklings reside in such a prime spot? Someone stronger would simply beat them to death and take their place, which created an equilibrium for necessary power.
Legally, the Sky Community didn’t have a minimum requirement for power, but the fact that it resided in the sky created a requirement for power by itself. After all, only people in the Unity Realm could fly.
Gravis watched the Sky Community for some minutes as he was lost in his memories. He remembered how he had watched the Sky Community together with Stella and sighed.
’Stella had been so powerful that she even managed to gain a spot for her family in the main city. If she flew to the Sky Community, everyone would make way for her in fear. Yet, she always only watched it together with me, never flying up,’ Gravis thought with another sigh.
Gravis furrowed his brows as he looked up at the Sky Community. ’Heaven has created her with the goal in mind to hurt my father by hurting me. I guess she was a similar existence to the secret High Priest that created the Heaven’s Trial, someone that becomes powerful just to die for one of Heaven’s goals.’
Gravis shook his head. ’Such a life is tragic. Being destined to become powerful without a choice and then just dying. What’s the point of becoming powerful if you will die in such a short amount of time?’
After some minutes, Gravis regained his usual calm and smiled a bit. "Well, now I can finally fly up there and join them," he said with a smile.
This had been something that had always been out of reach for him. He had always longed to fly together with the others, and today, he finally had enough power to join them.
Whoosh!
Gravis flew into the sky, but he was rather slow. The dense Energy in the air suppressed him, and his full speed was only equal to his full speed when he had been at the initial Stage of Spirit Forming without his Lightning Board.
In comparison to his top speed in the lower world, this was nothing. It actually took him over a minute to reach the lowest flying shop. The Sky Community had been farther away than he had expected.
Gravis looked down at the city, and for the first time, he noticed its ridiculous size. He guessed that some walls were at the edge of the city, but he couldn’t even see them. Gravis guessed that the city was, at least, hundreds of kilometers wide.
’And everyone in this city is so powerful? That’s a ridiculous amount of powerful people. I wonder how many Gods reside in this city. How many immortals reside in this city?
Gravis was lost in wonder for some seconds.
"Oi, don’t take up space, kid," a voice came from the shop beside Gravis.
’Kid?’ Gravis thought and looked over. A young-looking man with fierce eyes looked at him. The person was in a bad mood, apparently. He was close enough that Gravis’ Spirit could reach him, and Gravis took a deep breath.
’What is this unreal, supreme power that I’m feeling?’ he thought with shock. The young man’s aura was so mighty that Gravis felt helpless in front of him. He was 100% sure that he wouldn’t be able to even survive a single slap.
"Oi, you deaf?" the guy said again. "Move!"
Gravis regained his bearings. "Oh, sorry," he said as he moved to the side where he didn’t block the entrance for new customers. "I was stunned by the feeling of your power, senior," Gravis said politely.
The guy just snorted. "It’s alright. The fact that you can even feel my power says good things about your strength, kid. But honestly, do you have a death wish?" he asked.
Gravis was a bit surprised. "What do you mean?"
The guy sighed. "Kid, you just reached the absolute bare minimum to fly up here. Everyone flying around here is way stronger than you. A single thought of some of the people here could kill you," he explained.
Gravis furrowed his brows. "There is no rule against killing someone?" Gravis asked.
The young man rolled his eyes. This kid really knew nothing. "It is forbidden to kill someone. If you kill someone deliberately, you will receive a heavy punishment, but if you do it accidentally, you only have to pay a fine."
Gravis rubbed his chin in thought. "And I guess that the fine is expensive, but not for everyone, correct?" he asked.
The young man nodded. "Smart kid," he said. "Most people don’t want to pay the fine, but if some progeny from some powerful Clan or Sect arrives, they won’t care about it. They have so much money that it oozes out of their every pore. They just charge through the Sky Community, and whoever dies, dies."
"But wouldn’t that be deliberate killing?" Gravis asked.
The young man groaned again. "Kid, money is powerful. If you give the guard enough money, it suddenly becomes an involuntary killing instead of a deliberate one. Of course, the guards are also under supervision, so they can’t break or bend the rules too much. As long as one can argue that they didn’t target you, it can become an accident with enough money."
Gravis took a deep breath. The Sky Community looked so peaceful from the ground. It looked like a happy market where everyone was able to exchange their stuff. Gravis hadn’t expected that such a peaceful looking place hid such danger.
"Thank you," Gravis said with an honest tone. This person might have actually saved his life.
"Eh, don’t mention it," he said. "Anyway, wanna buy something?"