As the battle in calamity space came to an end, Michael and Alexis woke up in the Iron Lion tribe. While the fight had gone on for days in the calamity space, only a day had passed in the Sumeru world. As such, the Iron Lion tribe had not taken any drastic steps and only observed the two people. As they woke up, the elders in the tribe all breathed a sigh of relief. After all, they had just taken a large loan to conduct the ritual. After the two confirmed that there was nothing to worry about, the elders of the tribe immediately started the preparations to go to the Azure sky city for the tournament. Michael had received another boost in his strength, making them even more optimistic about the situation. The preparations went on as usual and soon, some tribe elders and the patriarch left their tribe with their younger tribesmen.
On the way, they crossed the dense jungle that surrounded the habitat of the Iron Lion tribe. Alexis, being curious about everything, asked, "Patriarch, how are we going to the Azure sky city? Are we going to walk all the way? Why did we not use the beast carriages that I saw yesterday in the stables?"
"It's because we are not going far. We are just going to the relay point built by the tribe alliance. From there, we will be teleported directly to the vicinity of Azure sky city. Then, we will have identity checks before we enter the city. It will at most take us a day.", the patriarch replied.
As they moved forward, they came across several wild beasts, but the elders of the tribe expertly chased them away. Again, curious Alexis asked, "Why do they simply chase these beasts away? With the strength of the elders, they should be able to kill them in a single blow."
"It's because there is no need to do so. These beasts are only mindless animals looking for food. They are part of nature, so they don't deserve our hostility. We only kill these animals when we hunt for food or if we don't have any other way but to kill them. Most of the time, we only chase them away with aura.", one of the elders chimed in this time.
Having a ponderous expression, Alexis said, "This is so strange. In the place that I have lived, there are hardly any forests. There are some forests but humans or other intelligent races would usually form expeditions to go into the forest and kill these animals for their bodies. I have never seen cultivators give up on the source of spiritual energy or resources."
The patriarch looked at Alexis in thought and said, "So, what would happen if one day, all forests are destroyed, and all these wild animals are killed. What will you do then?"
Alexis replied, "Is there a need to consider such a long time span? The super plane that I live in naturally regrows the forests. It will be a very, very long time before the power of the plane is depleted. Later, we can migrate to different planes. If I can become a divinity, I can live anywhere in the law ocean."
"If that is the case then let me ask you, what is the foundation of divinities?", the patriarch asked.
"It would be their law, or in your case their dao. What else do they need?", Alexis replied as if stating the obvious.
The patriarch then turned to Michael who was slowly following them for a long time silently. "What do you think young man?"
"If we talk about one divinity, their most important foundation is their law or dao. But after that, it is also their believers. Without believers, it will be extremely hard to progress, and their realm would get stuck till their lifespan ends. Thus, while their strength is important, mortals are the key to unlock their future. But, I think that patriarch doesn't mean a single divinity but the entire class of beings. In that case, the foundation is naturally the mortals. Only because mortals cultivate do the new divinities emerge. For beings of such level, only through collaboration can they improve. If there were no new divinities, all of them would end up becoming gradually stagnant in their realm. A divinity can't exist outside of everything else. Thus, their foundation is tightly bound to mortals."
"Correct! Very well put!" The patriarch praised Michael. "The foundation of cultivators is always the mortals. As long as one hasn't become a god, they are still completely dependent on others for many things. Only a god can exist alone. But, even such beings know the value of mortals and would not go on meaningless massacres. In our case, this world and nature sustain the mortals. Thus, we naturally don't harm nature beyond necessary. Of course, what the people in your world do is not completely wrong. After all, your world is still fairly young, and much more vast and connected compared to our world that is isolated. In that case, it is fine for you to exploit the resources to a large extent. Especially when there is the crazy competition to become stronger, it makes sense personally to exploit nature to cultivate. Young civilizations don't understand the principle of conservation. Only scarcity can drill that into the mind of an entire civilization."
Alexis felt that what the patriarch said made sense but she did not think more about it, but Michael could infer the underlying message in the patriarch's answer. The Sumeru world had been isolated for too long, leading it to become stagnant and old. Cultivators had reached a stage where the world was not able to sustain them, leading the cultivators to especially take care of the world. It was the hardship of cultivators living in an isolated world.
After some more walking, their team reached the gathering waypoint.
As soon as the group reached the waypoint, a mocking voice travelled over.
"Isn't this the Iron Lion Patriarch? To think that you still want to try in this tournament after the humiliating defeat that you all suffered in the last tournament! You truly have a thick face!"
The voice naturally attracted the attention of the entire convoy. The patriarch's face showed clear displeasure looking at the source of the voice.
"I don't remember the Saruman Snake tribe obtaining the slots to inheritance.", the patriarch replied.
"While both of our tribes did not get a slot of inheritance, we are not on the same level. We were second from the top in the local group while you were second from the bottom. You should put more effort into training your tribe members than finding arguments."
"If you are so confident, why don't we bet on the results of this tournament?"
"Oh! Seems like you have some confidence in your juniors this time. Sure, when have the Saruman Snakes been afraid of anyone?"
The Saruman Snake tribe was another small tribe in the vicinity of the Iron Lion tribe. The tribes competed with each other, especially during tournaments. For a tribe to maintain their strength, having new blood was necessary. The tribes took the tournament of junior cultivators very seriously. The Saruman Snakes were a long-time adversary of the Iron Lion tribe. In the last few tournaments, the Iron Lion tribe had been performing poorly. It was mainly due to the previous patriarch's abrupt death, which led to instability in the tribe for some time. Even though the current patriarch was trying to bring the tribe back on track, it was easier said than done. The tribe's resources were spread thin, making it hard for the new cultivators to cultivate swiftly.
"Of course, I have confidence! Let's see who gets the last laugh!"
The tribes waited on the waypoint for some time. Michael and Alexis interacted with the descendants from other tribes alongside the members of the Iron Lion tribe. The more Michael saw the cultivation methods of other tribes, the more he could visualize his future path of astral cultivation. Initially, Michael was only participating to repay the favour of the Iron Lion tribe. But he later came to know that participants who showed good performance would be given inheritances from the Great tribes, helping their future cultivation. If he could rank in the top 100 of the continent, he would get the best possible inheritance in the rock city, greatly simplifying his path to the rank-4 astral realm. This was an opportunity to gain the strength of an upper-ascendant! Thus, Michael was greatly motivated and was seizing up his possible opponents while formulating battle strategies.
After the wait, all nearby tribes had gathered on the waypoint. The patriarchs of different tribes engraved their dao power in the teleportation formation, directly jumping across space along with everyone.
As soon as Michael found his bearing, he was shocked by the humongous planetary object floating in the sky. He had heard that Azure sky city was a floating city, which had interested him. After all, only upper-ascendants could defy gravity in this world. Even the strongest path masters wouldn't be able to float an entire city. Of course, Michael knew that there were native divinities in this world, cultivators who had cultivated to rank-7 or above, thus, it was not out of ordinary to have a flying city. But Michael had imagined the city as the size of a city in Jupyter and not an entire country. Michael could not even imagine the power required for such a massive landmass to defy gravity. The next thing he noticed was the several large expedition warships from Oceania. He easily found the Divine Sea Sect's warship too. Finding the expedition group relieved his burden of being alone in a new world, making him smile with joy. Alexis had a similar reaction as she saw the sect's warship in the sky.
Before the group could move to have their identities verified, a powerful pressure completely froze everyone in the group! From the sky, two beams of light rapidly descended, landing in front of the group. Before others could react, Alexis who was completely untouched by the pressure ran towards them shouting, "Dad!".
One of the figures that had appeared was Danzo Silver, the Sword Saint Divinity of Divine Sea Sect. Taking Alexis in his embrace, he showed a happy expression. The pressure surrounding the group vanished afterwards, allowing the people to register the shock that they were feeling on their faces.
Heavens! That girl was actually the daughter of a bigshot! How did she get involved with our group?
The other person with Sword Saint divinity was an elegant and handsome man with a black tattoo of angelic wings on his forehead. He looked at the Iron Lion patriarch and smiled. "You have done very well. You will receive a handsome reward for your efforts. Come with me."
The patriarch was ecstatic!
Yes! My gamble had paid off! Now, I will be able to cash in the rewards!
He looked at the group, giving instructions before moving towards the divinity from the winged tribe. Michael naturally went towards Sword Saint divinity as well. But before he could move more than a few steps, he was frozen again by pressure.
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"Where are you coming brat?"
The winged tribe divinity questioned with displeasure. He had never seen anyone misbehave in his presence, let alone a child who had yet to fully create his dao. He was currently attending guests from the outside world as well. What would these guests say looking at this blatantly rude behaviour?
"He is a part of our sect, please let him through!", Alexis' voice came with urgency.
Hearing this, the winged tribe divinity removed his pressure. Michael smiled awkwardly before moving forward.
"Fellow daoist, you all have already started taking people from this world in your sect?" The native divinity asked with a frown.
"You are wrong, fellow daoist. Michael is not a native of this world. He just lost his celestial cultivation in the previous battle.", Sword Saint divinity replied.
This caused the expressions of both the winged tribe divinity as well as the Iron Lion patriarch to change drastically! The winged tribe divinity turned to Iron Lion Patriarch and said, "Did you bless this child?"
While he had asked the question in a smooth voice, his presence had changed completely. His voice directly caused the laws around to quake! His intense emotions caused his powers to leak, causing the entire area to tremble! The patriarch paled in fright and knelt speaking hurriedly, "Lord, it was not me or anyone in my tribe. We have upheld the laws and not granted any core blessings to any outsiders! I swear on my totem!"
The image of an iron lion emerged from his body before going back in. He had sworn a totem oath, a surefire way to prove his innocence.
Looking at the deteriorating situation, Michael quickly said, "I had obtained the awakening blessing from my homeworld. Please don't suspect the patriarch."
This time, everyone was shocked, including Sword Saint divinity!
"What did you say?", the winged tribe divinity asked in disbelief.
Michael quickly summarized his experiences. Seeing that there was a relation between Aterna and Might secret realm and this world had accepted him and awakened him, Michael took this chance to bring the truth to light.
After his explanation, everyone was shocked. Swiftly, both divinities brought out crystal tags from their sleeves and communicated their finding. Before long, two figures directly stepped out from the void of space. One of them was a muscular man with reptilian eyes and the other had wings on his back. They were naturally Diablos Pendragon and Icarus, the two gods currently present in the Azure sky city.
Their appearance did not disturb the surroundings at all, it was as if they had always been standing there. Michael could not even feel their presence with any of his senses. It was as if they were in completely separate worlds. Icarus looked at Michael circulating a small amount of dao power in his eyes, directly looking through all of his abilities. He managed to look through time and fate with slight effort and deduce everything Michael had done after entering the Sumeru world. After making sure that he did not receive any blessings from the world, Icarus had already confirmed Michael's story. This caused some excitement to show up on his face. He smiled at Michael, showing a kind expression.
Michael did not even register anything unusual about the gaze. Even with psychic intuition and self-command, he did not find any traces of the probe that Icarus had done. He was confused by the appearance of two unknown beings in front of him. He was expecting either Fate Seer divinity or some other divinity to come. He was already familiar with the several divinities that had come with the expedition but he hadn't seen these cultivators before. Before he could make any further guesses, the two divinities on the scene immediately bowed down to the newly appeared men. Michael similarly bowed to show his respect. As he looked back at them, he found that they were already standing in front of him. But in a moment, he realized that the divinities had not moved from their place at all but he had been summoned across space to their position. He did not even realize when it had happened! Sensing Michael's confusion, Sword Saint divinity sent a voice transmission to him,
"Michael, the ones in front of you are Icarus and Diablos Pendragon, dao gods of Great Winged tribe and Divine Sea Sect respectively."
Hearing this, Michael's expression changed as he lost his composure. This was the first time he had come face to face with gods! Looking at the ethereal aura surrounding the two figures, Michael was even more convinced. The two gods had perfectly controlled their powers, so Michael could not even sense their existence. But, their status still leaked through, overwhelming mortals and dominating them into submission. It was the difference between a mortal and a god, a fundamental difference in their life level. This was the first time Michael had felt such a thing. He instinctively knew that a single gaze from these two beings could wipe him out of existence.
Icarus said to Michael, "Child, you have obtained the blessing of this world from your home plane. This should be nothing less than a miracle. It might be a very lucky thing for both worlds as well as yourself. I can't confirm what is going on before doing careful deductions. Why don't you come and stay in the city for a while? I will gather my comrades and then we can deduce the secrets behind this phenomenon."
Michael bowed and accepted the offer. Before the eyes of a completely stunned crowd, the small group vanished.
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Across the Sumeru world, two massive super-continents stood covering the majority of the world. In between the two continents was the rock island, a small land that was the true power centre of the Sumeru world. On this island lived the Lord of Might, the strongest and most ancient dao god of the known universe. As the entire Sumeru world leader, Lord of Might was a spiritual pillar of countless beings. But in reality, he did not do anything except cultivating his dao. After all, he was the god-king of the world. Because he had lived for a very very long time, he had already seen through the highs and lows of life. Thus, he did not interact with anyone aside from a few gods in the world.
Sumeru world was an ancient world that was already reaching its natural end. While it was still a matter in the far future, it was something that had been worrying the gods of the world. After all, their cultivation pathway was supported by the world. Its death would not impact high-level cultivators a lot but it would sever their legacy. The dao gods and Lord of Might naturally did not want to see that happen. Thus, they had been searching for a solution for a long time. But out of the blue, they suddenly came across an outsider who had their world's blessings! This was the breakthrough that they were searching so desperately for! The Lord of Might felt excitement after a long time!
The gods across the world got to know about the breakthrough on the same day. Thus, the next day, they all gathered in the Azure sky city, going through the information that they knew about Aterna. As Divine Sea Sect was the owner of the plane, they naturally had a great amount of information about it. They even shared the research results and deductions obtained by several research cultivators in the 20 years after the war. Naturally, all the information was sold by the sect and not provided for free. Fate Seer divinity, who was still recuperating after the destruction of her star was naturally the greatest beneficiary of this trade, improving her financial situation that had been running dry due to buying several research results related to laws of fate. After going through a vast amount of information, the gods discussed among themselves.
"It should be related to the fragments that we had lost during the prehistoric war. There are not a lot of other possibilities."
"You are right, but this is very very improbable. The prehistoric cataclysm had indeed broken off the fragments of the world, it should be impossible for any fragment to survive into a new world. After all, the world-will was not harmed during the cataclysm. So how is there a new plane in existence? How did the new will get born?"
"You are forgetting about the primordial origin fragments!"
"Don't be ridiculous! If that small world had even the smallest origin fragment, the Divine Sea Sect would have found it long ago. I don't believe that they would let the fragments of the most powerful treasure of the primordial era be as it is."
"What makes you so sure that they don't have it already?"
"It is truly not clear if they have it. But even if they do, it won't be easy to use the power of that fragment. We have refined our fragment for hundreds of millions of years before it was usable. I don't believe that Diablos can do it on his own!"
"They say that he was the beast companion of a true god."
"Even true gods can't! It is not something that a single god can easily control!"
As the discussion between gods' projections was heating up, the Lord of Might tapped his fingers on his chair, shutting up everyone with his gesture.
"The outside world is not stable. Going after another fragment brings us no benefits in the short term but will increase the risk by a large amount. Rather than that, we should focus on the fact that miraculously, one of the world fragments has developed into a new world. This nascent world has not only grasped our core blessings but also grasped the celestial cultivation pathway. This is our chance to improve the foundation of our world. Come up with your proposals on how to do this."
Hearing their leader's comment, the gods started proposing different methods to benefit from this situation.
"What is there to think about? We should just go and capture that nascent world. We can dissect it and absorb it. It will supplement our world naturally."
"I don't think that the Divine Sea Sect will allow that to happen without asking for an outrageous amount of resources in return."
"What can those weaklings do to us? One against twenty, do you think that they have any chance?"
"That is a true god sect! Also, that true god was already an emperor! When he resurrects, he will definitely settle the score with people who harm his family!"
"Is that something to be scared of? As long as Lord advances to true god, we wouldn't have anything to worry about!"
"What are you saying? Devouring that plane will not solve the problem of weakening of the world-will. Besides, we are already fighting the devil ancestor, who is also a true god. Lord can't advance easily due to the weakening of world-will. This method is not stable at all. Besides, what we need is just the information of celestial mechanism from that plane. The plane-will itself if not beneficial to the world-will. Also, since it was created from the world fragment, it is more like a child to the world-will. The world-will might not devour it even if we were to serve that plane. It would perhaps even cause the world-will to lash against us. We should use the laws of fate to tie the worlds together and form an information channel. Not only can we obtain what we want, but we can also establish a cultivation foothold in the 3 divine countries and expand our cultivation pathway. It can lead to much greater collaboration with Oceania."
"Do you think that the Heaven Emperor would allow that to happen?"
"The Heaven Emperor is busy dealing with the other two emperors. Do you think he has the time to meddle in our matters?"
As the discussions continued, the gods finally came to a decision. None of them noticed the deep contemplation of Lord of Might at that time.