War.
It was something fundamental to existence. Since time unknown, the world had always had wars. Michael, who was born in the time of disunity knew about wars as well. The war between light and dark races was because their cultivation methods were incompatible. The resources they needed were incompatible as well. Thus, Michael had seen wars growing up. But Michael now realized that his comprehension of the word 'war' had been too shallow. The mythical scenes of dragons, giants, ferocious beasts and other mighty beings played in front of his eyes. It was incredible.
Michael did not think a lot. He just wanted to kill till he could. The rage that had been burning inside him erupted. He unhesitantly used his powers - be it any path. As soon as the armies of both sides collided, there was utter chaos on the battlefield. But finding opponents was not difficult. Devils had an aura to them that made it easy to identify them even in all the chaos. Michael simply leapt to the nearest devil he saw. This was a rank-3 ascendant. This was the average strength of beings in this battle. As soon as Michael charged towards the devil, the other party turned to see Michael. He could see a look of disdain flash on his face as he attacked Michael with a magic attack. The devilish powers bloomed in his hands and dark blue light flashed towards Michael. The devil then simply moved on to find another prey. But before he took a step, a palm slammed onto his head. Green and yellow radiance flashed and his entire body opened with numerous wounds spraying blood all around. The last thing the devil soldier saw was Michael's back as he moved towards another devil.
The battle was chaotic. Anyone could be killed anytime. Huge casualties appeared on both sides in only the first few minutes of the battle. Michael followed a simple strategy, attack with everything that he had. Over the past year, Michael had grasped the life and death seal. It was one of the basic law arts generally given to outer-disciples of the Samsara Sect. The power of this art emerged from the fact that it could be stacked to make it more powerful. The complexity would increase with every stacking with the highest number of stacking possible being 9. Michael could use a two-layer seal which was amplified by his 12 law marks. It was a powerful attack for a rank-1 ascendant but was nothing spectacular. But Michael also infused his dao-intent, which was now backed by his extremely powerful will, to it. As a result, the attack power of this simple two-layer seal was comparable to a full-powered attack from a rank-3 ascendant. To add to that, Michael also added invisible psychic energy to his attacks making them even more deadly to devils not prepared for it.
As a result, Michael would kill an opponent with every attack. Most of those he attacked were rank-3 and few were rank-2. There were hardly any rank-1 on the entire battlefield. Madeline followed Michael stealthily, hidden by a method that he could not figure out. But no one noticed her in the chaotic environment. She just followed Michael and did not attack much. She only made a move when Michael was about to be ambushed. With her watching his back, Michael acted completely fearlessly. He would go for the kill as soon as he decided on his next opponent. Most devils would underestimate him not bothering to defend and would only send a casual attack in his direction. This caused them to pay the price when Michael's deadly attacks reached them.
Michael was able to survive such attacks because his dao-intent could be used defensively as well. With the improved dao power, he could block attacks from rank-3 ascendants easily. Thus, by the time the devils noticed him, he had killed more than 20 devils. Soon, his actions caught the eyes of attentive devils and they started targeting him. But Michael had no problem if more devils came his way. He had already prepared to sacrifice his clone in this war. Soon, he fell into a stalemate as three rank-3 devils surrounded him. There was hostility in their eyes but also a trace of fear. Michael did not stop. Using all his power, a psychic blast emerged from him. The devils were prepared for it, still, they blanked for a moment. In that short moment, Michael killed one of them. He tanked the attacks from the other two and forcibly moved to kill another one. By the time he turned to hunt the third one, the other party had already escaped. Michael did not bother chasing him and moved to the nearest devil.
He felt as if there was no end to his rage. All the suffering of his past life, all the pain and grief turned into rage. Michael kept killing. He forgot about the war, forgot Madeline, forgot himself. There was only one thing on his mind - killing. It was the state known as bedevilment. It was said that the state was dangerous as a cultivator would lose their reasoning in this state. They would not even value their life, becoming completely enamoured with their obsession. The battle continued.
Even with Michael's crazy killing streak, he was not noticeable in the sea of cultivators. The rank-2 and rank-3 cultivators were numerous like drops in the ocean. Only law masters at rank-4 were visible in this sea of cultivators. But even law masters were not as eye-catching as upper-ascendants and formation incarnations. The battle went on for a few hours but the Hollow-Tiger army, with their momentum managed to reach the altar where the star cannon was placed. Krill Nash jumped onto the altar which was as huge as a mountain and with a single swing of his sword, cut apart the cannon along with the altar. The hollow-tiger army behind him roared as their morale increased. But Krill's expression at the moment was extremely ugly!
We've been had! They used a replica to lure us out. We must retreat fast!
He gave the command to retreat soon. Alas, how could Jaren and Theo give him this chance? Medussa Green appeared on the rear of the Divine Sea Sect's army along with the army of green devil faction. This was the planned encirclement for which Jaren had spent all his accumulated savings. Krill's expression became uglier as he watched the path to retreat being blocked. He knew that they had fallen into a trap and it was likely that the battle's result had been decided. He might be able to escape with his life but his career was over after this. This defeat would even have him expelled from his position as a legacy disciple. He could see his dreams and ambitions shatter.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
The situation of the hollow-tiger army on the battlefield changed suddenly as they were encircled and hit from two sides. The army started to struggle against superior numbers and their momentum came to a complete halt. Krill was battling desperately against Theo while thinking of a way to resolve this.
Madeline followed behind Mark in the battle. She was not worried about his fate, as she had already added the symbol of Samsara to him. It was a symbol that she was able to get because of her status as a core disciple. The function of the symbol was simple - it marked the disciples of Samsara Sect. The symbol gave her the ability to recruit people in the outer-sect of the Samsara Sect. It was greatly coveted even in the heavenly-realm. But using the symbol was not simple. She could use the symbol on people who she felt were worthy but the symbol had an independent judgement function as well and would judge the candidate. Only when the candidate passed the judgement would the symbol fuse with their body and soul making them people of the Samsara Sect. Else, the symbol would return to her. The symbol she had used on Mark had fused with him making him an outer-sect disciple of the Samsara Sect. For the disciples of Samsara Sect, as long as they were within the reach of the sect, it was impossible to kill them. Even divinities would not be able to do so!
This was one of the features of Samsara Sect that disciples of other sects were especially envious towards. Only the Samsara Sect which had the legacy of life and death had such magical abilities. Other sects had other means to protect their disciples but no other sect could compare to Samsara Sect in this regard.
Madeline saw how Mark killed on the battlefield in bedevilment. She did not think that Mark was this sensitive about the death of natives and common people. But looking at the scene, she felt sweet. Her ideology was different from others and very few empathised with her ideals. Cultivators were generally indifferent to the plight of masses. They did not consider mortals anything better than ants. Thus, even when mortals became collateral damage in their battles, they did not feel much guilt. After all, would you feel guilty if you accidentally killed an ant? The devilish cultivators even used the common people as fuel for their cultivation. But there was no faction that protected mortals. Madeline wanted to create a faction like that. She believed in protecting the mortals. This was her belief and Mark was a person who not only agreed but followed this ideology to an extent as well.
She kept track of Mark's condition. He was bleeding from many wounds, was completely drained of celestial energy and even his soul seemed a bit dim. But there were no signs of him stopping his killing anytime soon. She was also keeping a track of the battlefield. As the army of green-devil faction appeared and the hollow-tiger army fell into a lurch, Mark also showed signs of awakening from his bedevilment. As his eyes regained clarity, his legs could no longer hold his weight and he collapsed.
"Have you vented enough? It was quite the sight, I am impressed by your strength."
Mark replied with a wide smile and tears in his eyes, "Even if I killed so many devils, can the plane be saved? Why does heaven want the innocents to suffer?"
"Don't worry, you have done quite a bit. Now, let me lend a hand to the side of righteousness. To think that the devils dare to encircle and kill the orthodox army, they need to be taught a lesson of blood!"
Madeline then activated the arrangement to return to sect. Golden radiance emerged from her and covered Mark as well. Soon the golden radiance shone bright like a sun and a bridge appeared connecting her to the distant heavenly-realm. She grabbed Mark's hands and stepped on to the bridge.
The battle was going on and the hollow-tiger army was in a precarious situation. Krill had given up on all thoughts of escaping. He just wanted to deal these devil armies a big blow so that the Sect could still salvage the situation. As a cultivator, he had been ready for death since long ago. He was not like the normal disciples of the sect. He was a military disciple of the war department. The hollow-tiger army was his home and it was also his life. He did not want to abandon the army. Thus, he had decided to die with his brothers-in-arms.
He was single-handedly fighting Jaren and Theo. Both of them were strong and Krill was barely holding on. Jaren was especially tricky as he was a psychic cultivator as well. Thus, Krill was having a hard time bringing out his complete strength. The psychic on their side - Viridian was no match for Jaren. The devils were frankly stronger than the convoy from the sect. The fact that they had lost was not unreasonable with this gap in strength.
As Krill was fighting, a bright golden light emerged from the battlefield. It was extremely eye-catching and soon a golden bridge appeared over the battlefield.
This... Is this the legendary samsara bridge? There is someone from Samsara Sect here?
He concentrated his energy to take a look. He could see two people on the bridge, a girl and a guy. They seemed to be moving away under the currents of Samsara. Just as he was processing this, a sigh echoed across the world.
The entire world started thrumming with power. The law ocean froze and all combatants were left frozen.
"To think that the devils are so brazen in the vassal worlds. Since fate has made me witness this, I can't pretend that I did not see anything. Juniors of the devil dao, this move is called the palm of samsara. If you can survive this, it shall be your fate."
As the words ended, terrifying fluctuations emerged all over the battlefield. A huge palm emerged covering everyone! The sheer size of this palm was unimaginable. It was a palm that could hold a world!
As the palm condensed, entire world thrummed. Law ocean churned and unimaginable pressure pressed down on all devils. The expressions of Jaren, Theo and Medussa turned extremely ugly while the many devils started howling in despair.
Krill could see everything that was going on, he could see the law ocean shattering due to the pressure but he did not feel anything. It was as if he and the devils were in different dimensions. In fact, none from his side were facing any pressure.
The palm swiftly descended. Even before it landed, many of the weaker devils turned into dust. All devils started using their live-saving methods. The majestic city at the back shone with black light and many devils close to the city were teleported inside. As the palm crashed with the horde of devils, it dissipated like an illusion. But the scene left in its wake completely shocked Krill and the rest. It was a sea of blood. It was the blood of millions of devils. Krill did not know how many devils survived that terrifying palm of samsara, but he decided to swiftly retreat. The casualties of the army this time were too high. They had to go back beyond the fortifications before deciding on the next plan of action.
As he left with his army, what was left behind in the law ocean was a sea of blood in the shape of a palm!