Chapter 789: Underworld (1/2)

Gravis looked at the head with furrowed brows. He hadn't noticed this person at all, but Stella had been able to feel him.

”How did you notice him?” he asked.

Stella noticed that Gravis wasn't angry at all, which meant that he truly wasn't connected to this uninvited guest. ”He used the Law of Shadow to hide. I know that you already know this Law, but he probably also had the Law of Shadow as his Avatar. This meant that his Law of Shadow exhibited the power of a level four Law.”

Gravis nodded. ”Additionally, the level difference between us is too much,” Gravis said. ”If I were an early Major Circulation Immortal, I might have noticed him.”

Stella nodded.

”Do you recognize his aura?” Gravis asked.

Someone had become so interested in Gravis that they had commissioned a Peak Immortal to keep watch over him. This meant that at least one Sect Master was already very interested in Gravis' secrets.

”I don't need to recognize the aura to know who that is,” Stella said. ”This style of espionage is trademarked by one of the organizations.”

”Organizations?” Gravis asked. ”So, it's not a Sect?”

”Not entirely,” Stella said as she crossed her arms. ”They are similar to Sects but not identical. Usually, Sects take territories for themselves and work under one banner. This organization is different in the sense that they are all over the world without any real headquarter.”

Gravis scratched his chin. Based on what Stella said, Gravis could already imagine the organization. ”Let me guess. You said that they weren't really Sects and that they are basically all over the world without a headquarter. Do they teach their own members?”

Stella's eyes shone a bit in surprise, and she shook her head.

Gravis looked closely at the head. ”If they don't teach their disciples, it probably means that they recruit them from outside. However, nearly any Immortal is a Cultivator that all the Sects want. This means that membership for this organization is either nonexclusive or that no one wants to go against them.”

”Is it a kind of mercenary organization?” Gravis asked.

Stella was surprised that Gravis managed to combine the clues this quickly. ”Yes,” she answered. ”The organization is called Underworld, and they have a monopoly over anything unsavory.”

”For example?” Gravis asked.

”Assassinations, espionage, intelligence gathering, manipulation, forbidden techniques, burglary, debt collection, and any other kind of task that the world sees as unsavory,” Stella said.

Gravis' brows furrowed. ”Something like that can truly only exist in human society,” he said.

”What do you mean?” Stella asked.

”Such an organization would never exist among beasts,” Gravis said.

”How are you so sure?” Stella asked with interest. She wanted to know where Gravis was coming from.

”Hypocrisy,” Gravis said. ”You only order an assassination on someone when you don't want others to know that you were the one that wanted the target killed. If beasts want to kill someone, they just kill them. They don't need to pay someone else to do it. The other actions you named are similar. Only if some kind of hypocrisy is involved would someone employ another power for such things.”

”Well, maybe not everything. Intelligence gathering and trade might not need hypocrisy, but the remainder does.”

Stella thought about Gravis' words. On some level, Gravis was right, but it didn't sit right with Stella that he was talking about humans like that. He was a human too, wasn't he? Additionally, she was also a human. By talking about humans like this, Gravis was indirectly also talking about Stella like this.

”You really dislike hypocrisy, right?” Stella asked.