Chapter 40 – Heaven
Gravis saw a round crater with a diameter of nearly 100 meters. Everything had been swept away, and the still-standing trees at the crater's border were burning fiercely. In the middle of the crater was a round rock, around one meter high. The rock sat at the exact position where the bandit used to be.
"A meteorite," Gravis concluded.
Out of nowhere, a meteorite had struck the bandit. When the bandit and Gravis were initially speaking, they stood at a distance of a couple of meters. What were the chances that a random meteor just suddenly struck the exact position of the bandit? This was no mere "bad luck". This was a deliberate action.
On top of that, Gravis had felt an unimaginable fear before it happened. Gravis wasn't delusional. He knew that he didn't have any kind of secret, highly advanced sense of danger. Such a sense would take forever to develop, and his cultivation realm was way too low for that. This sense of fear was a deliberate warning.
A sudden meteorite and an unexplainable feeling of fear.
Only Heaven could do something like this. For some reason, Heaven wanted to kill this bandit immediately and not implicate him. Gravis also understood why Heaven warned him, even though it really didn't like him.
If Heaven could just kill him like it pleased, with a meteor or a lightning strike, for example, then there was no fair chance for him. Heaven had only stolen his karmic luck and used soft tactics up until now. There were surely rules that it needed to follow. Also, if Heaven could just straight up kill him, Gravis' father would have never allowed him to cultivate.
As Gravis thought more about it, he got another idea. Maybe, it wasn't the rules stopping Heaven from killing him. It had killed the poor bandit just fine. Maybe, it was because of Gravis' father. Heaven could bend its own rules however it pleased with others, but if it bent the rules with Gravis, his father would probably grow furious.
Gravis had heard from Orpheus that not every world had the same Heaven. Heaven in his homeworld was its own entity and only cared about its own earth. Heaven of his homeworld was the strongest Heaven of all, and every other Heaven was below it. This meant Heaven of this lower world was not the same Heaven as his homeworld.
On top of that, it was obviously way weaker than Heaven in his homeworld. Since Gravis' father was as strong as the highest Heaven, this Heaven in the lower world was obviously much weaker. If Heaven of the lower world pissed his father off…
"So, that's the reason…"
Gravis remembered that the bandit wanted to insult his parents. Insulting his parents? Gravis felt like he understood how Heaven felt.
It was like a situation, where two young kids stood beside a sleeping tiger, and one of the two watched the other one taking out a stick to poke it. The first kid immediately grew panicked and used everything to stop the other from poking the tiger. "You can die if you want, but don't pull me into this!" was probably what this lower Heaven thought.
As his time in the lower world progressed, Gravis began to understand Heaven more and more. First, the luck. Then, the soft tactics. Now, the direct interference. Gravis' father ensured that Heaven would keep by its own rules. Heaven could only interfere to a certain degree regarding Gravis.
Without his father, Gravis would have long died. Though, on the other hand, if Gravis didn't have his father, he would be way luckier than now. What an interesting contrast. So, there actually was a certain degree of contrast and balance. Everything had its advantages and disadvantages.
"If that is true, is Heaven actually fair?" Gravis muttered to himself. Slowly, he began to feel like something in him brightened lightly. It felt mysterious. It felt like something that he never had, suddenly appeared. He felt a slight warmth coming from within.
"Is this karmic luck?" he asked himself. As if it answered him, he felt it slowly vibrate. Heaven heard everything. Maybe, this was Heaven's method to try to get him over to its side. If he accepted Heaven, he wouldn't be this unlucky anymore. He would probably stumble upon great opportunities, and together with his Elemental Synchronicity, he would soar through the cultivation path.
Yet, if he accepted Heaven, he would forever be under its rule. Heaven would never allow anyone else to grow as strong as itself again. If he followed Heaven, he would always remain beneath it. On top of that, he would betray his whole family. If Gravis' father decided to offer peace with Heaven, it would probably accept happily. His father obviously had not, though. This meant there was a deeper reason.
Gravis turned to look at the meteorite. Heaven is fair? If Heaven truly were fair, it would not break its own rules to protect its own hide. On top of that, if the bandit actually managed to utter, what he wanted to say, Gravis' father probably wouldn't care. Why would the Opposer care about the ramblings of an ant? Yet, Heaven, even if the possibility was incredibly small, decided to ignore its own rules. It was only fair when it wanted to be.
Gravis sneered. "Fuck off."
Immediately, he felt the warm feeling inside of him vanish, and he heard a loud thunder coming from the sky. There were no clouds or even lightning. It was just a loud thunder.
Gravis grinned. It seemed like Heaven was angry that it didn't succeed.
Gravis had never been on the same path as everyone else. Everyone else lived their life in karmic luck. They were all trying to grow closer to Heaven. Heaven was the supreme ruler of everything on earth, in their heart. Trying to understand Heaven's rules? Trying to grow closer to Heaven? Trying to leave their life at Heaven's mercy?
Gravis was different. Gravis' family were the only ones, who fought against Heaven. They were the only enemies of Heaven. Everything under Heaven was under its mercy, except Gravis' family. That was because they had his father. They were destined to never walk the same path as Heaven. They would remain enemies as long as one side was still alive.
That was why his father was called the Opposer.