Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis had already informed himself about some good places. After all, not just any apartment would do. Some Immortals were willing to buy a tiny closet just to get a Residency Ring, but Gravis had other plans. He wanted a place with a lot of space, beauty, and methods to increase his comprehension of Laws.

He didn't want to share rooms with anyone else. Sure, Orthar and Yersi would live with him, but they wouldn't all want to cultivate in the same room. After all, everyone was interested in different Laws. Taking turns in comprehending Laws was insanely wasteful in Gravis' mind.

Because of that, around 70% of the apartment complexes fell through. Most people were only interested in the Residency Ring that allowed them to visit the stores. This city had everything that one could buy, and the good shops only allowed people inside that had a Residency Ring.

Due to that, theoretically, there were far, far more inhabitants than one would think. In actuality, around 90% of the official inhabitants of the city weren't even in the city. They were outside, cultivating. These people only paid rent for a tiny closet apartment to have access to the city's shops.

Of course, there were also a ton of people that actually lived in this city, and when there's a need, there's a business opportunity.

The last 30% of apartment complexes were catered to Immortals who lived and cultivated in the city.

What about Gods?

Gods wouldn't live in some apartments. They would either straight up buy their own building or live somewhere else. This city had a ton of stuff for Immortals, but when one became a God, it was far harder to find the stuff they needed. These advanced things could only be found outside the city, in powerful Sects.

Gravis went over to a building he had already scouted out. From the outside, it looked like a lovely one-family home, but inside, there were thousands of kilometers of cultivation land and apartments.

This was an apartment complex catered towards actually cultivating Immortals and Immortal Kings. One could say that this complex was for the very rich Immortals and poor Immortal Kings.

The three of them entered the apartment complex without an issue. Surprisingly, this apartment complex also required someone to have a Residency Ring to enter. Well, that was to be expected, actually. If someone didn't even have the money to rent a closet, they wouldn't have the money to rent these luxurious apartments.

After entering, the three of them found themselves in a small office. In order to conserve the amount of space the apartment complex had, the main hall was only comprised of a small office. After all, the inhabitants directly teleported to their own apartments and wouldn't go through here.

Behind a small desk in the middle of the office, the three of them could see a beautiful woman dressed in a white blouse and a black pencil skirt.

"Welcome!" she said with a smile as she stood up from her desk. After walking around it, she slightly bowed in front of the three of them politely. "How can I help you?" she asked.

"Hello," Gravis said. "We would like to rent an apartment for the three of us. We want three separate cultivation rooms and a beautiful, central landscape where we can meet if we want."

The smile of the woman widened. "That's not a problem. We have plenty of these kinds of apartments," she said. "Though, there is one small procedure we have to take care of first."

"Money?" Gravis asked.

The woman nodded shyly. "Yes. Please display at least 50,000 Immortal Stones to prove that you have the funds. I trust that you have the funds, but my boss would kill me if I skipped this step."

Gravis chuckled a bit. "No problem," he said.

Then, he summoned the 300,000 Immortal Stones they could theoretically spend without endangering the Gravitas. Thanks to the Law of Space, the entire room wasn't filled to the brim with the Immortal Stones.

"Thank you," the woman said in a cheerful tone. "Well then, when would you like to start renting? If you plan to rent an apartment at a later date, you have more options to choose from."

"We want to start renting in about 95 to 99 years," Gravis said. "We just recently opened our own shop, and we're making a lot of money. Of course, we will be in our shop for the entire duration of the lease, which is why we are only searching for an apartment in around 95 to 99 years."

The woman nodded a couple of times. "We can definitely work with that," she said. "How long do you plan to rent the apartment?"

"We don't know yet," Gravis said. "We don't know the prices for tools to assist in Law Comprehension yet. Most of our money will probably go to that, but we will probably stay here for several centuries."

"That's good to know," she said. "This helps me to find a more fitting apartment. Some of our apartments have built-in areas for specific Laws, which would be a more cost-efficient way of comprehending Laws. After all, not everyone has the funds to cultivate with the assistance of Riddle Tomes or Virtualization Arrays."

"I take it you wish to rent an apartment with a centralized landscape and three separate areas with Virtualization Arrays enabled?" she asked.

"Yes, that's what we're looking for," Gravis said.

What's a Virtualization Array?

Virtualization Array is short for Law Virtualization Formation Array. A Virtualization Array could transform an area into a place that perfectly demonstrated one or several Laws. Additionally, even though virtualization was in the name, a Virtualization Array actually physically transformed the entire place. It was not just an image but an actual transformation.

One could say that Virtualization Arrays were mobile and optimized Law Comprehension Areas. Natural Law Comprehension Areas often had a ton of different Laws mixed in, with many Laws only being there partially. In comparison, a Virtualization Array perfectly demonstrated an entire Law, making it far more efficient.

Yet, these Virtualization Arrays were incredibly expensive. The main reason was that using a Virtualization Array didn't create any dependence.

The highest world had a mountain of different methods to comprehend Laws, nearly all of them cheaper than Virtualization Arrays. Yet, the cheaper the method, the more dependence one would have on these methods.

One of the cheapest methods was to directly transfer a Law into the Spirit or Soul of someone. Someone with some Laws regarding the mind was able to engrave the knowledge of a Law into someone else's mind. Of course, only if that person allowed it to happen.

Like this, someone would instantly comprehend a Law.

So, theoretically, someone could directly teach someone the entire Middle Law of the Dead World instantly.

Of course, the problem with that was that the person had not comprehended the Law on their own, giving them no experience in comprehending Laws. This meant that there were instances in which an Immortal understood the Law of the Dead World but wasn't even able to understand a level two or level three Law without tempering.

And the more powerful one got, the more complex the relevant Laws became. This meant if one had used this method once, there was a considerable likelihood that they would need to use it again to make any progress, creating a dependency.

Even worse, the providers that gave these services knew exactly what effect they had on others. Due to that, the first three services for level one Laws and the first service for level two Laws were free of charge.

Additionally, the prices for level one Laws were so low that even a poor person in the Unity Realm could afford it. For the level two Laws, a Unity Realm Cultivator would need to save up a little bit, but it would still not be a problem to buy that.

Level three Laws were also cheap, only needing the average wealth of an early Nascent Nourishing Cultivator.

Yet, starting at the level four Laws, the price skyrocketed to be even more expensive than Virtualization Arrays for level four Laws. Sadly, the customers had no other option but to pay if they wanted to become more powerful.

These customers had already bought several level one and level two Laws. Yet, these level one and level two Laws were the most important Laws for every Cultivator. Understanding these Laws was what gave the Cultivators the experience they needed to comprehend the more complex ones. These Laws were the basics and the easiest to understand.

So, the poor customers were already in a downward spiral, which they couldn't escape from on their own.

This was the cruelest and most damaging way to comprehend Laws.

A less damaging way would be to slowly learn the Law from a teacher. The Cultivator would receive a bit of experience, but not nearly as much as when they understood the Law on their own.

The method that most Cultivators used was Riddle Tomes.

These were books that were specifically written in such a way that one would only be able to decipher the riddles if they made progress in a Law. This book didn't teach the Laws but only served as an indicator if the Cultivator correctly understood the Laws.

Sometimes, it happened that Cultivators came to wrong conclusions while comprehending Laws, which led them in the wrong direction. These Riddle Tomes existed to keep the person on the right track.

The Riddle Tomes were the most efficient way to comprehend Laws. They were still expensive, but not nearly expensive as the Virtualization Arrays, and they only created a slight dependency.

Meanwhile, Virtualization Arrays were the most expensive, except for some genuinely exotic methods, but were also dependency-free. They simply showed a Law Comprehension Area. That was it. Everything else depended on the Cultivator.

The woman was happy when she heard that Gravis was looking for an apartment with a spot for three separate Virtualization Arrays.

This was a big customer!