In a short amount of time, the major sects in the dominion geared up and began to make their way towards the space gate. The different golden paths connecting to the space gate became filled with treasure ships that could travel across the void. These ships were massive, even the smallest ones carrying many cities on them. This was the first time since the ancient war of 5 emperors that these ships had been brought out. Just the accumulation of several warships left the native cultivators reeling in shock.
Who would've thought that super-sects were so powerful!?
This was the thought floating in the minds of most of the native cultivators. Even the newly ascended divinities were not familiar with these ancient treasures. Only ancient divinities had memories of the 5 Emperor's War when such battleships had dotted the universe. These massive and powerful ships travelled across the golden paths, going towards the Might secret realm. On Aterna, the natives were fortunate enough to see the ships from many different factions in their full glory as it was an important dockyard for the expedition. Several ships would dock and undock from the plane, going on to the golden path. But while this was a wonderful sight to watch, Aterneans did not have much to do with the expedition. The native cultivators of Aterna were very weak. Thus, none of them was required to go to this expedition, even among the people who had already become disciples of the sect. Michael was the only person from Aterna who was going on this expedition.
Michael did not know why the sect was this focussed on this expedition but he did not have much of a choice except to go. While the plane had become more stable and was becoming powerful, without the support of Fate Seer Divinity, it would be impossible for them to stand on their own. As he had already formed good relations with Fate Seer Divinity, he naturally belonged to her camp. There was no way he could leave. If something happened to Fate Seer during this expedition, Aterna would not survive either. Besides, all the rising stars from Fate Seer divinity's camp were going on this expedition, hoping to make big gains amidst the risk. How could Michael cower at this stage? Thus, he had already made his preparations to go. He made contingency plans for many cases, even for his possible death on the expedition. While these plans wouldn't do much, it could at least ensure that his friends and family members would survive without anything happening to them. Then, he boarded the largest ship from the Divine Sea Sect, alongside the other young geniuses.
Michael was pondering on some problems in his room when suddenly there was a bang on his door.
"Old Michael! What are you doing all alone in your room? Come out to the deck, we are going to see the sceneries of the law ocean. We will be entering the space gate very soon, it will hard for us to enjoy the scenery in that case.", Alexis' voice came from across the door.
"I am coming in a while. You should go ahead."
"Old Michael, come up as soon as you can, we will be on the deck."
After finishing his meditation, he made his way to the deck of the ship. Just the ship's sheer size meant that the deck was extremely large and wide and would take a long time to fly across. But such problems had been conveniently removed using spatial technology that Michael did not understand anything about. The ship itself had a core spirit that could communicate with the passengers through their thoughts while deploying magic like teleportation or spatial bending for their service. Michael was able to locate the group very quickly. As he went on to the deck, others looked towards him and smiled.
Over the last few days, these geniuses had been in frequent contact with each other. They had talked and played together, making them close to each other. While they were not very good friends, they could be considered acquaintances. Alexis said excitedly, "Old Michael, see there! There are so many fishes! How beautiful!"
Looking at the multi-coloured fishes that were swimming alongside their ship around the golden path gave Michael a surreal feeling. While these fishes were currently subdued due to the pressure from the golden path, they were actually very good hunters. Since they were found in large groups, even a law master would die if they met these fishes alone. These fishes were considered one of the more frequent dangers found in the law ocean. While the law ocean was fairly desolate in life, many lifeforms still survived inside this ocean. Most of these species had their minds warped around by the chaotic laws, making them unintelligent. But they were at least in the ascendant realm with many powerful beasts even in the upper ascendant realm. While ascendants could travel across the ocean, only law masters were able to cope with most of the dangers in the law ocean. If other ascendants with ordinary backgrounds were to run into these fishes, it would have been a nightmarish experience, one between life and death. But for him and his peers, these were just beautiful fishes that they could see on a journey. This was the difference in standing and background.
"Do you want to catch one of these fishes? The golden path protects us but doesn't protect them. We can try to kill one or two and pull them inside.", suggested Roy.
"No no! You will scare them away!", Alexis swiftly stopped him. "Old Michael, what do you think? Can you capture them alive? I want a small one as a pet!", she said.
"Alexis! How many times have I told you not to call him Old Michael? You are being disrespectful!", chided Elaine.
"He doesn't mind! Old Michael, do you mind?"
Michael could only smile helplessly at the antics of this girl. Time was a subjective concept in the law ocean due to the presence of many different chaotic laws. Other worlds had a fixed flow of time from what he had heard. It was indeed true that he was old as compared to Alexis, even if one took only his second life. In his subjective time, he was already reaching a hundred years of age. Others had not lived that long, especially Alexis who was only 20 years old. While he was not old at all, against this girl who had yet to become a proper adult, he could hardly say anything. As he looked towards Elaine to express that he was fine with it, he saw the man standing beside her. Memories of his recent defeat against him came to his mind.
After talking to his friends, Michael and others had decided to challenge Kelhus to a spar, just to see his abilities. It had been a crushing defeat for them, and Kelhus had not even moved from where he stood! And it was not only Michael's group that was defeated, the other group with Trisha Lane, Shanner Flamespark and the Gandar brothers faced the same outcome. Kelhus was outrageously strong for his age and cultivation level. Having cultivated the law of heavenly fire, he could control heavenly flame's aura to a large extent. Heavenly fire was so powerful that even divinities were scared of it. Even the aura condensed from the fire was enough to defeat the geniuses on this ship. While he did not spar with the divine children, it was more to leave them some face. The outcome of the battle would have been his victory, even if he did not win easily.
Michael just smiled and nodded at the two, before talking to Alexis. He used his psychic powers to slowly enslave one of the fishes. After a long time, he managed to get the fish inside the golden path and scooped it up to give it to Alexis, who accepted his gift happily. Alexis, to Michael, was like a young child. He did not have any ulterior motives towards her and treated her like a little sister.
As the younger generation disciples were having fun chatting together, in a room of the ship, Fate Seer divinity Miranda Reeves was looking at Alexis through a holographic image. Her eyes contained deep love alongside worry and pain. She closed her eyes as a drop of tear flowed down and fell off her cheek. Suddenly, a tender voice emerged from the room beside her, "Don't worry, I am still here. Anything that tries to hurt her will have to go through my sword."
"Danzo, you know that she is carrying the calamity fate. It has been growing stronger with time. I am worried that she would perhaps face her first calamity soon. The calamity falling on her is not something that we can be involved in. We had that personage take a look already, and even he is not confident. I have a revelation that we might find an answer in the Might secret realm but I have no idea what the answer is! What do I do?! Why does my child have to face this calamity?!", as Fate Seer was about to break down, a man clad in white robes appeared by her side pulling her into his embrace. Four stars carrying intense sword intent circled his head.
Holding Fate Seer, he said, "Don't worry. He should be able to get the Lord of Might to take care of our problem. Calamity Fate is not without any solution. In the historical records of the sect, we have seen the mentions of people who were tampered by calamities and became powerful cultivators. We will find some way, don't worry."
As the Sword Saint divinity was consoling Fate Seer, in a secret secluded room in the ship, a figure looked at them and Alexis with reptilian eyes before sighing.
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Time continued to pass and in a few days, the expedition ships were already at the space gate. In a luxurious hall of the central ship, the young geniuses of the sect were sitting alongside the divinities and their personal disciples. They were being briefed about the nature of the journey further ahead. Blue Wind Divinity was explaining to everyone, "After we enter the space gate, we will be inside the space tunnel joining the two worlds. This space tunnel will carry us through a deeper interlayer of space to the Might secret realm. Deeper interlayers of space, as you all know, are the layers of space not visible to us directly in the main layer. Ascendants like you can enter the first layer with brute force but the layers of space are immeasurable. Even us divinities have not found the end of space, as such. Of course, the deeper you enter into the interlayers, the more powerful the spatial laws are. As such, you can move extremely fast using the deeper space. The path that we are following is in an extremely deep layer of space. Even us divinities will be facing fatal circumstances if we go beyond the protective barrier of the ship and the golden path. The golden path has stabilized the space to a large extent and also protects us coarsely from powerful space monsters. But we don't know when mishaps might happen. Therefore, you all are prohibited from going to the outer areas from now on. You all must stay inside at all times."
His words caused Alexis to pout. Blue Wind purposefully ignored her before continuing, "The spatial tunnel will take us through the void universe, where the presence of other laws is already faint. Due to the abundance of spatial laws, you youngsters will not be able to feel the laws that you cultivate. As such, your strength will fall drastically. So, you must all learn how to fight without relying on laws. This is extremely important as this situation would perhaps persist in the Might secret realm as well. You all should have some trump cards up your sleeve like treasures and bloodlines. Learn to use them better. The sect will also be providing you with custom-crafted treasures that will help you all survive the expedition."
The young disciples again nodded.
"Also, the journey will take 10 years."
"What!?", Alexis shouted abruptly.
Blue Wind Divinity said apologetically, "The distance between the two worlds is extremely vast. Even in such a deep interlayer of space, we will take a long time of 10 years to reach the other world. But you all will have many ways to pass the time."
"How can there be ways to pass the time? We won't even be able to cultivate! What will we do all this time!? And my peers in the sect will overtake me! Mom! Why did you not say this before?!", Alexis started throwing a tantrum on the spot. But the feeling was mutually shared among the younger disciples. All of them were only some decades old, thus the time that they had experienced was quite small. Suddenly being stranded in a ship for 10 years was completely unexpected and unpleasant. While these geniuses had become cultivators with a lifespan of hundreds of thousands of years, their mental state was not the same as cultivators who had already lived for a very long time. To divinities, 10 years was not even enough for a quick cultivation session. Even upper-ascendants were not affected by 10 years at all, as they had experienced a lot of things. This was the difference in willpower. These disciples of the sect were still mortals in their mindset, even if they were powerful. One of the purposes of this journey was to actually train the willpower of these geniuses and mould them into true cultivators.
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Michael kept a poker face but he was not much affected. 10 years was not a long time for him.
"All of you have specific training plans that we have created for you. These 10 years will be extremely important in developing your mindset and also in imparting you some skills that will be crucial to surviving in secret realms. It will also prepare you all for your future expeditions as upper-ascendants. You all will be assigned personal trainers, who will keep track of your progress. Now, you all should rest for today as from tomorrow onwards, you will hardly have any."
With this declaration, the core disciples all went off one by one. Michael also reached his room after talking to his friends, only to find Fate Seer Divinity sitting on his chair. Controlling his surprise, he bowed and gave his salutations.
"Elder Fate Seer, what task do you have for me?", asked Michael.
"How do you know that I have a task for you?", Fate Seer said.
"...", Michael truly did not have an answer to the question. He had never thought that Fate Seer would see him again personally. This was the second time he was meeting with her alone. Hence, he assumed that she wanted him to do something.
"You don't need to be nervous around me. I am your patron and likely to be your future teacher. I see that you have been cultivating well over the time I did not see you. Your laws are no longer crooked, and your foundation is more robust than most of the disciples. Even though you lack resources to swiftly increase your strength, you have been working hard all the same.", Fate Seer said. She then continued, "I have come to look for you to give you these two scrolls." Saying so, she brought out two scrolls from her space storage.
As soon as Michael saw these two scrolls, his intuition started blaring. He could feel that the two scrolls would be very important to him. Seeing this reaction from his psyche, he understood that these scrolls did not have any common techniques but perhaps valuable techniques that would be very rare. But, his expression did not show any changes as he only looked at the scrolls for one glance before looking back to Fate Seer.
"Very well, you have great self-control, as expected of someone who has achieved self-command! You might even reach self-mastery one day!"
Michael's eyes widened from having his speciality revealed. Thousands of thoughts emerged in his mind. While it was known that he had a powerful will, the exact extent of it was not known to anyone except himself. Self-command was extremely rare to find, even among divinities! According to legends, self-command could be evolved into self-mastery, at which stage, cultivators would be able to use their powers to the limit. This was extremely scary. Generally, any cultivator would polish their willpower over a long time to push their body, soul, spirit and laws to extract greater battle strength. But still, one would hardly be able to grasp 50 per cent of their full power. But once one attained self-mastery, they could use full potential. This would directly double one's strength, which was a terrifying increase for divinities. Michael had always wanted to reach that realm but he still couldn't see the boundary. Even in the historical texts of the sect, such a realm had not been achieved by anyone known.
"Elder, please don't jest! I can't even see the boundary of that realm.", Michael replied. Since his secret was already in the out, there wasn't much he could say.
Fate Seer looked at him for a while in silence before saying, "Your vast willpower was one of the reasons why the sect did not invest heavily in you. You are very unique among your peers. We can see through them, even Kelhus, who is almost reaching the unrivalled grade. You, on the other hand, are an anomaly, a variable. Other divinities are not sure of your background. They think that you are the reincarnation of some powerful divinity undergoing Samsara rebirth. Hence, they are either greedy to gain your secrets or scared of the unknown. Many elders aside from myself are eyeing you. If this expedition doesn't go well, they will definitely make their moves. What do you want to say about that?"
"Elder Fate Seer, I do indeed have a secret, but I am not sure if it should incite greed. I am not the reincarnation of a divinity. Even if you capture me and try to study me, you wouldn't get much. But I can't say what the ramifications of such actions would be. After all, the world is vast, and even divinities are only paws in the games between gods!"
"...", This time, it was the Fate Seer divinity who was left speechless. She could feel that Michael was trying to threaten her but she really couldn't take chances with the gods. She could feel through her law that antagonizing Michael could lead to huge uncertainty in her fate. She looked at Michael for a long time before sighing, "You are indeed worthy of your monicker as the Miracle Worker. If any other ascendant had tried to threaten a divinity, they would have disappeared from existence. You being alive right now is a miracle. Still, I can feel that you are indeed touched by the machinations of gods. While this mostly dooms your fate, it is also your protection amulet for the time being. I don't want to do anything with you, because you are a true variable in fate. But now, I have been forced into a desperate situation. So I can only take this gamble."
Saying so, she pushed the two scrolls towards Michael, who caught them in his palms.
"These scrolls carry two skills that should be very suitable for you. The first scroll contains the skill called Martial Instinct. This is a psychic ability that acts as guidance to increase the martial awareness of cultivators. It can be considered legendary for any cultivator as it increases their talent in the martial path. While it will not make you a martial genius like Ross Tyson, but you will have acceptable talent through this. Of course, it is a one-time use skill. The second scroll is called Astral Strength Martial Scripture. This is a legendary martial arts cultivation technique that allows cultivators to grasp martial strength through their conscient's makeup. In a sense, it allows one to generate strength with willpower. This is the only astral legacy present in the Divine Sea sect. To get this scripture on your own merit, you would have to be a successor disciple of a divinity. Both of these techniques should be able to transform you into a decently powerful martial cultivator, enough to take on most rank-4 law masters in their suppressed state. This can be considered as the advance payment for what I am going to ask of you."
Listening to Fate Seer divinity's explanation, Michael did not show any haste to look at the scripture and looked over to her. Fate Seer divinity looked at him and said, "Alexis is my only child in this world. You might already be aware that powerful cultivators find it harder to procreate. It is very rare to have children once one becomes a divinity, which makes them even more precious. This is the reason divinities are willing to break off a small part of their laws to bless their children with divine blessings. You know that a mother will always love her child the most in this world. Alexis is extremely dear to me, and I don't want her to come to any harm. But, she was born with a special fate known as calamity fate. It is an ancient phenomenon that creates calamities for its host. While one can gain many benefits from passing a calamity, there are extremely high chances of one dying. Even in the sect's historical records, anyone has never known who has survived all calamities. Alexis is a good child, and she also works hard in cultivation. But she is not likely to survive the upcoming calamity. And even I am unable to truly do anything to change her situation. What I want you to do is to tie your fate with her through my law spell. As both of you are equivalent in strength, and your fate has been muddled through the intervention of higher powers, there won't be a backlash from Alexis' fate. Doing this will make it so that you will be forced to undergo the calamity with her. Naturally, it will be extremely dangerous. But you are a bet that I am willing to take. If you can help her survive this calamity, I will swear on my law that I will protect your home and family!"
Michael stood still for a while with his eyes closed. But countless thoughts were churning in his mind at great speed.
This is a very risky decision. Alexis is stronger than me, if she can't pass this tribulation, I should have an even smaller chance. But it's not set in stone. I have many methods of surviving, including psychic reincarnation. Even if I can't escape, I can still survive as Mark Strong in Heaven Realm. At least, I am not betting my life. But I am still betting a lot. Most of my cultivation will be crippled if the main body ends up dying. It will be very hard to progress. I will also not be able to return to the Law Ocean for a very, very long time. Also, if I don't manage to save Alexis, Fate Seer might destroy Aterna just because of her anger! There is a lot to lose! But not taking this responsibility is hardly a choice. Fate Seer might just kill me right now. Besides, can I even say no? If she wants, she could tie my fate to Alexis even without my consent. I never really had a choice. But still, opportunity and danger go hand in hand. If I can truly make her take an oath, it will be the greatest insurance for Aterna in the future. A divinity with Fate Seer's stature can easily take care of a small plane. It will solve the most basic crisis of security for the plane. I guess I can only give my best.
After making all considerations, Michael took a deep breath before looking at Miranda. Looking into her eyes, he said, "Elder Fate Seer, I promise that I will try my best to protect your daughter. I am willing to die trying. But I also hope you can take an oath on your law that as long as Alexis gets through this calamity alive, you will protect my home plane and become the patron of Aterna. You will not take advantage of my home and will allow them to progress without interfering with the Aternean way of life."
Fate Seer nodded before saying the vow. Four mysterious bright stars emerged on her head before flickering and disappearing. Now, if she broke this promise, she would suffer a powerful backlash. It wouldn't kill her but it would injure her severely. Seeing this, Michael relaxed. Fate Seer then said, "You should train in these martial arts and increase your strength. It would help both you and your plane in surviving." After this veiled threat, Fate Seer disappeared from Michael's room. Michael stood still for a time before sitting down and starting his training with the two new techniques. He could feel that Martial Instinct would resonate with acceleration and intuition from his psychic legacy to level up. This would allow his martial talent to increase more than what Fate Seer had initially assumed, making him only slightly inferior to Ross Tyson. The Astral Strength Martial Technique was a method to manifest martial power through his willpower. Given his vast willpower, he would easily be able to reach the martial strength to crush ordinary rank-4 ascendants. He could also make this martial art resonate with his dao, making it even more powerful. With will manifestation, he would truly be able to defeat real law masters! While Michael had completely entered the cultivation process, Fate Seer had already reached the most secret and secluded room in the ship.
In that room, a man with a muscular build was sitting on a throne. His skin was dark, his features well defined. His eyes were slit vertically like a reptile while two harns were present on his head. His presence was like the universe itself, vast and immeasurable. It was so that if he wanted to, he could destroy the firmament and rend the natural laws. There was a natural but oppressive aura of dominance around him, which could not be hidden despite the man consciously trying to limit his powers. Sword Saint divinity and Blue Wind divinity were standing subserviently in the room! As Fate Seer entered the room, she bowed deeply to the man, her expression containing respect and fear.
"You have chosen well Fate Seer. That child has shadows of multiple gods on him. Even I am not sure what their machinations are. His fate is completely variable. He is your best option before we reach the Might Secret Realm."
"I can hope that this plan succeeds, Sir.", Fate Seer said.
The man smiled at her before looking across the barriers at Michael and falling into deep thinking.
Child, you are a pawn piece of more than one god. Just who is behind you, and what are they planning?