Ranga, who was leading the hunting team, did not think that the job would be very difficult. After all, his team was not like the greenhouse geniuses of sects who only knew how to fight in competitions. They were all warriors who would win against these greenhouse geniuses 10 out of 10 times. But to his surprise, the life mark of one of his subordinates vanished. He had died just like that. There was no signal, no call for help, not even the message that he was engaging the enemy. He had simply died without anyone knowing.
Ranga started considering possible explanations. He did not think that the geniuses who escaped could insta-kill a rank-2. Thus, either it was a powerful treasure or an expert protecting them in shadows. But an expert was highly unlikely. This was merely a secondary plane. And the statuses of these geniuses were not very high in their sect. So how could a law master or an upper-ascendant be protecting them? Thus, the only possible explanation was that they had a powerful treasure!
Soon, greed appeared in his eyes. He truly liked hunting the so-called geniuses. They were generally loaded with all sorts of treasures. And they were arrogant and inexperienced, making them easy to kill with trickery. He just needed to be a bit careful of that powerful treasure. If it could insta-kill a rank-2 soldier, it was at least law master rank. It would be a very suitable trump card for him in the future.
Thus, he commanded all his soldiers to move to the location of the recently dead soldier. But soon, he received a signal for help from one of his men. By the time he answered the call, there was silence on the other side!
Something feels off. Why are these guys running towards us? Shouldn't they have tried to escape? I will know once I look by myself.
Soon, he was about to reach the place where the help signal came from when suddenly, another help signal was received from not far away. He soon gained speed and reached the place where the recent signal came from. The sight before him left him dumbstruck.
Two demi-ascendants were beating his soldier, a rank-3, black and blue. Before he could do anything, a dark-green light flashed and the head of that soldier flew off. He could feel that the guy's soul was destroyed as well.
To think that 3 of his men died against two kids!
Soon, others from his team appeared. A total of 10 people. His team only had 12 members, except him. Now, he lost 3 of them to these worthless kids. Looks like his luck was not good nowadays.
Michael looked at the leader that had appeared just now.
Close to rank-4!
The others were also quite strong. Most were rank-2 but three were in rank-3 as well. This would have been a powerful lineup even for the main body. Currently, only he and Madeline were going to fight. They had asked Mark Gregory to run after luring these guys here. As both he and Madeline had methods to escape death, they were going to fight and hold these guys here. What he felt relieved about was that Madeline's method was quite full-proof. Even a divinity won't be able to break it.
As expected of the Samsara Sect, the sect from heaven-realm!
Michael made a signal to Madeline. This battle was probably going to be the hardest battle for Michael. Soon, they rushed towards the devils.
The devils started bombarding them with long-range attacks quickly. Each of those attacks carried a might of rank-2 or rank-3 power. If Michael was alone, he would have turned to dust before he could reach them! The devils were truly different from the so-called geniuses of sects or even other opponents Michael had faced before. These guys never made a mistake in battle. They were careful, cautious and cunning. Truly troublesome opponents. Madeline was doing her best to deflect the long-range attacks. It was not easy and even the shock-waves were battering their bodies badly. By the time they covered half the distance, they were already on their last legs, literally. Madeline only had a leg remaining while Michael only had the top half of his body left.
Madeline threw Michael towards the devils' lineup with all her strength. This was an all-or-nothing gamble!
Michael flew towards the devils. He saw the combined attacks of the devils nearing him. Just as he was about to be blasted into smithereens, the aura of ascendance emerged from his body! He was going to breakthrough to ascendance then and there!
The expressions of the devils changed. With a bang, their attacks dispersed. All sorts of laws became chaotic directly breaking their attacks. The world around them darkened instantly and the laws became turbulent. The law ocean seethed and soon a huge amount of life and death laws were drawn from the world around them. All this happened in the fraction of a second. Before the devils could react, Madeline started controlling the ambient laws of life and death unleashing the arts of life and death with the ambient laws. This was the skill of a law master! Dominating ambient laws!
The domain of life and death!
Life and Death lightning!
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Samsara distortion!
Life destruction!
One after other, secret arts of the Samsara Sect bloomed in the backwater plane of Aterna. This was the plan that Madeline and Michael had come up with.
Who was Madeline? She was the core disciple of Samsara Sect - a rank-6 ascendant. Even if in this form, her strength was sealed, her skills remained. While she could not call the ambient laws because of her sealed strength, she could still use these laws to cast her law arts. The problem of ambient laws was solved by Michael undergoing breakthrough at this moment.
The world around the devils became black and white. All life seemed to disappear and their bodies and souls started withering. This was the celestial art - life and death domain. In this domain, I shall determine life and death!
Next, lightning of green, yellow, black and blue colours fell. Each of these lightning bolts carried the power of life and death. The terrifying power fell upon the devils. Each attack seemed to carry the power of a law-master. The devils hurried to create their defences but another secret art attacked them - Samsara distortion. Soon, their life and death tangled together swinging them between life and death. As such, they were not able to control their own energy and their defences could not be set up! The lightning bolts struck the devils. The six rank-2 devils died directly while the others were severely injured! But things were not over yet, in their injured state, the power of life destruction fell on them. This was a mystic art that was one of the core legacy skills of the Samsara Sect. If this art was imparted to anyone outside the Samsara Sect, the sect would release a kill order for both the one who imparted it without permission and the one who received it. The devils found to their horror that powerful and mystical energy emerged from their own bodies and souls and directly destroyed their life-force! This was a skill that could not be blocked!
Another 2 of the devils died instantly. In this barrage of attacks, Madeline had killed 8 of these devils instantly! All this happened in under 5 seconds! This was the true might of a heaven-realm's genius, of a law-master who had cultivated powerful law arts. Even without amplification from law marks, she could slaughter a line-up of ascendants!
Michael was utterly shocked. This was not the first time he was seeing a law-master. He had seen quite a few of them. He remembered Gordon Marx, Roger and other experts he had seen. They were truly powerful and he was not confident that he would win against them even though he had overpowered psychic energy. But none of them was as terrifying as Madeline. They could not even compare!
I had become too cocky with my success! I thought that because my psychic path cultivation was powerful, I could kill law masters. Alas, if I was against Madeline, I would have died in an instant. Perhaps I could have escaped via psychic reincarnation but that would have been the limit. To think that law masters are truly this powerful! What about upper-ascendants who are above them? Can I truly escape an upper-ascendant with psychic reincarnation? I am not confident!
While he thought this, his tribulations had already started. The first time Michael had gone through the tribulations, it was with his main body. With his different powers, he was able to easily pass. But currently, he only had his psychic powers. He was also severely injured.
I truly might die in this tribulation!
But on his face, there was no fear. He viciously looked at the remaining devils and said:
"If you push us, I will detonate my law marks to create ambient laws. You should understand that the lady here is a clone of a law-master. With that, I will only lose a few law marks but you both will die here!"
The remaining 2 devils were severely injured. Thus, they only looked at Michael and Madeline once before retreating.
Michael was of course bluffing. Madeline's injury was too heavy and currently she was not able to fight. But the bluff had worked.
Now, I can focus on the tribulation.
Madeline looked at the guy who had come up with this suicidal plan. It was truly amazing to think of using ambient laws gathered during breakthrough to cast law arts. The main problem with the idea was range. The ambient laws were called by Mark Strong's breakthrough, so she could not control it at a large range. Thus, Mark had to be near the devils for the arts to affect them. Just closing the distance had caused both of them to suffer nearly fatal injuries. But this was a battle record that they could brag about for all their lives. Killing 11 devils of average rank-2 or rank-3 strength with only two demi-ascendant realm cultivators. Even in the Samsara Sect, this would be an unprecedented achievement.
She looked worriedly at the guy going through his tribulation. She did not have any strength to help him. She just hoped he would not truly die.
As she healed her injuries, powerful blasts of psychic energy would emerge from Mark and attack the tribulation clouds relentlessly. It was truly a tiring battle. Mark was only using psychic energy as his other powers were completely exhausted. After a long time, he managed to pass the tribulation. The power of law marks had been added to his body and soul and his body and soul rapidly healed. But he had used too much psychic power. Thus, after the tribulation collapsed, he lost consciousness and fell down from the sky. Luckily, Madeline had almost healed from her injuries. She immediately caught him.
Initially, she had only looked at him favourably because he was talented in the laws of life and death and because he had a good character. With time, she came to appreciate his persistence, effort and his overall personality. While it was not love, she did feel some attraction to this guy who tried his best in fighting against injustice. But it was nothing major, just a passing emotion. But this battle had truly made a mark in her heart. He was not the hero who saved the beauty but he did his best. That was enough.
To think that I ended up liking a kid. He is still so young, and so weak. He is hardly worthy to be my partner. But the performance he showed today has indeed put him as a candidate.
If you can truly reach the hight of cultivation that is worthy to be my partner, I will ask you out.
"Hmm, now that he has shown this performance, I can't lose such a talent. Very well, with the status of a core disciple, I mark you with the power of Samsara, accepting you as an Outer disciple of Samsara Sect!"
The powers of samsara emerged from her hands and went into Mark's body, soul and conscient. It was a profound power that even self-command could do nothing about. It was the mark made by the Ancestor of Samsara sect, an Honoured God realm cultivator!
Taking Michael with her, Madeline made her way towards the sect's fortifications.
But while Michael's tribulation was over, the tribulations of Aterna were still continuing.