Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis looked at his mother with interest. From what he could see, she probably had a great use in mind for his Law.

The Economistress smiled widely. "Gravis, you're about to earn a lot of money!"

"Am I supposed to increase the Will-Aura of other people with the True Law of Suffering?" Gravis asked.

"That's one application, but there's an application that brings even more money," the Economistress said. "Assuming you're willing to dirty your hands."

Gravis raised an eyebrow. "Continue," he said.

"There are two things you can do besides increasing someone's Will-Aura, but both of them are a bit cruel," she said.

"First of all, you can act as a torturer. Some Sects are very interested in taking over other Sects, and they obviously want to gather as much information as possible before attempting anything. Capturing someone of another Sect without being noticed or without it being linked back to them is already very difficult but siphoning the information out of the captured person is even harder."

"Time is of the essence when it comes to information, and the captured Cultivators know that. As long as they manage to resist divulging any information for about 50,000 years, their knowledge will already be very outdated at that point. They know that the longer they survive, the less their information is worth."

"Additionally, the captured Cultivator knows that they will die, which is why a lot of them just commit suicide after a bit. Committing suicide is very difficult, especially for a Cultivator. After all, we all hang on to our lives very much. Because of that, the suicide often only happens many years after being captured."

"Of course, there are Cultivators that know Soul Laws and Mind Laws, but the really powerful Sects have countermeasures for these Laws."

"That's where a torturer comes into play. First of all, the Cultivator needs a chance to survive, or they will just kill themselves as soon as the pain gets too powerful. Because of that, your client will ask you to torture their captive person for the maximum duration, which should be 15,000 years. If someone can survive 15,000 years, they won't succumb to the torture."

"This gives the captured person a slight glimmer of hope. They know that they only need to survive that long in order to be released. Of course, only very, very few people can survive something like that, and the pain will essentially break their Spirit into pieces."

"However, the person can survive as long as they divulge all the information they know. The long time of resisting pain will muddle their minds, making it very difficult for them to make rational decisions. Most of them will just shout out random nonsense in an effort to find relief from the pain. Of course, we have Formation Arrays that can detect if someone is speaking the truth."

"On top of that, the Cultivator knows that their Will-Aura would become more powerful after having resisted the torture for so long. It's a carrot and stick thing. On one side is one of the cruelest deaths, while on the other side is an increase to their Will-Aura, and the thing that keeps them going is the eventual hope that they can live through the torture."

Gravis nodded. "What about the Karmic Luck?" Gravis asked.

The Economistress smirked. "That's the thing. The client pays you to accept all the Karmic Luck debt. So, if your client dies, you will get all the accumulated sin assigned to you."

Gravis smirked. "That sounds like a bad thing initially, but I have actually so much Karmic Luck saved up due to my previous actions that it doesn't really matter, right? Yet, my client will pay me a lot of money for that, right?"

The Economistress nodded. "Right. You have created so many Peak Immortal Emperor Cultivators that your Karmic Luck storage is vast. You might not be under the effect of the Karmic Luck, but it's there, in the background."

Gravis nodded again. "What about the other method?"

"The other method is straightforward. You get paid to torture someone to death. That's it."

Gravis raised an eyebrow. "Why?" he asked.

"Two reasons. First, some people are just that angry with another person that they want to torture them to death, but they are more on the rare side. The other reason is more common."

"They want to deplete the resources of their opponent," she said with a smirk.

Gravis' brows furrowed. "And how is that supposed to work?"

"Your client will give you payment they deem appropriate for their target. Then, you start the torture. During the torture, the Sect of the victim will probably find out that you have one of their members in your shop. After all, the client wants them to find out, which is why they will probably make the information public."

"The victim probably doesn't even know who their captors are. Cultivators kidnapped with that intention in mind will never see the auras or faces of their captors. After all, the captors want to remain hidden."

"In the perception of the victim, they were attacked by several masked and cloaked figures. Then, they were knocked out, and the next time they open their eyes, they are in your shop."

"You will already have gotten the money, and you will start your torture. Some time later, the Sect of the victim will arrive at your shop, and they want to purchase the victim's freedom. The generally accepted price is ten times the payment the captor has given you. So, if the captors paid you one million God Stones, the Sect of the victim would need to pay you ten million God Stones."

"If they can't pay, the person will be tortured to death. If they can, the victim will be released. When the victim gets released, you keep half of the payment, and your client gets the other half. This means that both of you made money."

Gravis thought about his mother's words, and he realized that there truly were some rather original and effective applications for the True Law of Suffering. Sects always had more money than individuals, and Gravis could earn a lot of money for basically no investment.

Of course, the moral implications of taking such a job were not very nice, but Gravis didn't really care about that. He had already killed so many people. Torturing someone to death wasn't really worse.

It was just money.

Naturally, Gravis also realized that he would probably offend some Sects. Some of the Sects would demand that Gravis release the victim, but Gravis had to decline every time. Otherwise, his business would collapse.

While Gravis was in Opposer City, the other party couldn't do anything to him, but when he left, they could hunt him down for revenge. This could become very risky.

However, the risk was still manageable. By now, Gravis knew that all information about him had been deleted from the Information Pavilion. As long as he kept himself hidden, he would be able to evade his pursuers.

"Now comes the best part," the Economistress said with an excited smile.

Gravis looked at his mother with surprise. "There's more?" he asked.

She nodded. "On its own, Samsara wouldn't be enough of a pull to attract the attention of Sects, but if they come to you with the intention of getting some information, you can offer them Samsara as an alternative. Of course, due to the damage Samsara causes you, the price will be sky-high. I would put the price at 500 million for Star Gods and 100 million for Immortal Emperors."

Gravis' eyes widened. "Who would pay that?"

"Sects that want to know everything about their opponent, but that's not the draw. The draw is the fact that they get the information instantly. You live through the entire life of the person, and you know everything they know. However, that only takes you a second."

"This means that the Sect might even get information about a secret mission one of the other Sect's geniuses is currently undertaking. They essentially get all the information about what the other Sect is doing at the very moment. Maybe the other Sect is secretly planning a raid on another Sect, and they leave one of their mines alone for a couple of days? No one would mind. After all, what are the chances of someone attacking the mine in just a couple of days?"

"Do you get it?" the Economistress asked.

Gravis' eyes shone and nodded.

"Seems like I will become a torturer."