Ambrose was already vomiting blood in the shop when a demi-ascendants under that cultivator came over and picked him up. His face was badly caved in and blood was already pooling on the ground. Although he was healing his wounds at a visible rate, it was still not sufficient. The guy picked him up carrying him over to their leader. Ambrose felt scared. He had not thought that he would truly be caught. It was not that he did not want to fight but that there was no way to fight back. It was a feeling of powerlessness and helplessness that took hold of his mind. The ascendant looked at him and sneered. He slowly mutilated Ambrose bringing out grunts and howls of pain from him. He continued it for a while, hoping to see the other party beg for his life. But Ambrose did not beg and the fight never left his eyes. He got frustrated and took a break.

> You brat, have made us run quite the distance. What, did you think that you would join the Dead Sea Sect? Even in the Dead Sea Sect, you are nothing much. You are nothing but an insect who anyone can crush! Without strength, no matter how much flattery you give the elders, no one will save you. Now, I will separate your flesh and bones and make you feel pain...

> Ambrose : Hahaha! You are a fucking idiot. If you had not decided to hold a show and had killed me in your first strike and swiftly tried to run, you perhaps would have succeeded. But you just had to act cool..

Before the ascendant cultivator could understand, a sword pierced through his heart! Not only him but the other people in the street watching the show were stunned as well. The black sword was plain - as if it had been made by an apprentice blacksmith. But sword qi mixed with an incredible amount of energy had directly split his heart into two. He tried to move his head back to see the attacker but was met with a powerful punch to the temple. His skull caved in from the impact and even his soul suffered. A terrifying storm if energy entered his body with the punch and crushed his bones and organs. He dropped on to the ground, shivering and vomiting blood.

Michael stood there calmly but his presence was so overwhelming that none of the demi-ascendants dared to move at all. The feeling that he gave was no weaker than an ascendant. Even before Michael had gone into seclusion, due to celestial energy, his presence was quite strong. Ordinary demi-ascendants would not approach him to make troubles. But many things had changed after the seclusion. The directly visible growth was enough to stupify any of the three geniuses.

During this time, he had managed to cultivate both the body-forging art as well as the compression techniques to consummation. The benefits of this were visible quite easily. As his energy density had increased to almost 10-fold his base, his combat strength had again raised by a significant amount. The raw physical power of his body was also at the demi-ascendant level. Adding his celestial cultivation to the raw physical power from his body, he was as strong as his peak before the seclusion without using his dao-intent or battle-body spell. With his full power now, he would be considered among the stronger rank-1 ascendants. Apart from this, his cultivation of the sword path had progressed very well. In 8 years, he managed to reach the master level attainment in his sword path. Thus his swordplay, as well as sword qi, had reached the master level and could pose danger even to rank-1 ascendants. And his opponent was only an ordinary rank-1 ascendant. It went without saying that he never stood a chance.

 Ambrose looked at Michael and smiled. It was a genuine smile of happiness of seeing his lord after a long time. Michael returned his smile and then went ahead to kill the remaining demi-ascendants. He did not even need to move from his place as sword qi merged with celestial energy and travelled through the air to split them apart - body and soul. All of the demi-ascendants died with a single slash each, unable to escape or retaliate. Ambrose shuddered at the scene. Years ago, when he had last seen Michael, the later would have had to put his life on the line to deal with even one of these guys. But now, he could kill them as easily as flipping his hand. Michael went over and gave some medicines to Ambrose which healed his injuries significantly. At this moment, the ascendant rose up. He too had healed himself in the meantime. He looked at Michael with some fear and said:

> Who are you? You dare to go against the Endless Sea Sect? Are you not afraid of death? My Lord is Nelson Padrick - a rank 2 ascendant! It would be in your favour that you surrender yourself to me and cripple your cultivation. Then perhaps, Lord Nelson would spare you. Or else, you will end up dying along with this traitor!

What answered him was sword-light. He tried to stop the light with his own power but he was suppressed. The sword qi ravaged his body leaving behind a deep cut as his blood flowed out. He was stunned at the response! While he did not think that the other party would actually listen to him and cripple his cultivation, he also did not think that he would give no face to his lord! He cursed his fate. It seemed that today, no one gave his lord any face. Angrily, he broke a talisman that he had been given by Nelson. It contained his will as well as the power to launch three of his full-power attacks. As soon as the talisman was activated, a huge spell formed. This spell was also a great-master rank spell but it was many times more powerful than Richard's spell during the ceremony. The power was so terrifying that Michael had to get serious as well.

The ascendant sneered at them before saying:

> You bastard thought that just because you have some power, you can do anything you want! You dared to attack me wantonly? Die!!

Michael was stunned at this response. First of all, he had not yet truly launched a fatal blow or else the other party would have had no chance to survive. He was still checking out his own power. But more importantly, he was a powerful celestial! Due to the divine decree, usually, people did not dare to truly launch fatal attacks at him. This had happened even back in the Marx mansion's battle. But now this person launched such a powerful attack at him. Was he not afraid of the divine ones or was he simply an idiot?

If this was before his seclusion, he would have had to take Ambrose and evade the attack. Perhaps, he would have been badly injured. But now, it was not the same. He slashed once with his sword. But it seemed as if the world itself was split into two! Black sword light emerged and directly cut apart the spell coming towards him. After cutting through the spell, it hit the ascendant. All of his law marks stacked together to stop the sword qi but it was useless. All his law marks were split in half and destroyed! Followed by this, his body and soul were split into two. But the sword light did not stop even after it cut the ascendant cultivator into two and continued on to cut apart the building behind him! The sword light was so terrifying that the cultivators who were looking at a good show all scattered immediately. There was no one in the crowd who could take on this sword light! Even the senior in Dead Sea Sect embassy was startled. This was Michael's full power attack! He had used will-manifestation with his sword.

During the seclusion, the gains that he had made in the psychic path completely overshadowed the celestial path. One of these gains was his trump-card skill will-manifestation. He had managed to cultivate this trump card - will manifestation to the second level. And the improvement was breathtaking. The art became extremely energy efficient and much more powerful. Now, at the cost of one-tenth of his energy, he could form an entire armour of will-manifestation! When he used this technique at full power, Michael's entire body would turn pitch-black and his battle strength reached the level where rank-2 ascendants would have to run for their lives! Right now, he had channelled a huge amount of energy through his sword - ambition. Yes, the technique could not only be used with his body but also with his life-weapon. As a result, it was even more deadly! Michael could easily overpower ordinary rank-2 ascendants.

This was a terrifying level of power for a mortal to have! Hardly ever had a mortal without bloodline reached a level as terrifying as this! Most importantly, because the efficiency of the art had increased by almost 100 times, Michael could now maintain his manifestation for some time before he ran out of juice. As a result, this technique was no longer a trump-card but could be used as a regular battle-technique! Also, Michael had been constantly training his psychic energy control over many years and he was already at the peak of master level attainment. In fact, he could reach the great-master attainment any day and once he made the breakthrough, his psychic skills, including will-manifestation would become more powerful.

So, Michael was not at all worried about this Lord Nelson. Even if the other party had a powerful backing, Michael's status as a supreme genius would shield him. And if he was stupid like his subordinate, Michael would send him to hell personally.

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Ambrose was now so stunned that he forgot to close his mouth. What did he see? This was the power of rank-2 ascendant! In fact, he did not think that the other party would have a talisman like that. Had he known this, he would not have called Michael. He did not think that even Michael could survive the incoming attack if he did not evade. And if he evaded, Ambrose was sure to get hit. In fact, when he saw the talisman he was already prepared to die! But Michael simply slashed the spell apart along with the caster. Did that not mean that Michael could fight rank-2 ascendants. This realization caused him to gasp.

Michael then turned to Ambrose who had more or less healed from his injuries.

> Michael : So, how did you get yourself into such a situation? You are supposed to be the sly one! Anyway, follow me. We need to handle the aftermath before anymore trouble comes knocking.

Saying so, he went over to the Dead Sea Sect with Ambrose in tow. The first thing he did was to register Ambrose as his retainer. Then, he lodged a complaint against Nelson Padrick. The complaint was simple - "his subordinate tried to harm my retainer and even launched a fatal attack at me using a personally crafted talisman from Nelson". Thus, he lodged an attempted murder charge at Nelson. At other times, this would not have been important. But now? The entire endless sea sect's legal department was thrown into chaos as soon as they received the enquiry. This was no ordinary celestial but a supreme genius! Michael's name already carried the seal of divine ones! This meant that he had been chosen as a seedling by the divinities! Not all supreme geniuses could afford this treatment! And now, a fatal attack was used against someone like that.

Even Michael, who was unaware of his importance in the Divine Sea Sect, did not think that his complaint would be taken this seriously. Immediately, investigation teams were formed and a thorough investigation was conducted. In under a day, Nelson had been deemed guilty! After all, his subordinate did use fatal attacks against a supreme genius and put his life in danger. Michael having the strength to overcome this was not the important part. If he had not gone into seclusion, then? Or if it was another supreme genius weaker than Michael, then? And so, the responsibility fell on Nelson Padrick. While he was not executed because he was not an active participant and he was truly unaware, it still caused him a huge problem. As a punishment from the sect, he had to do grunt mining work for 200 years! This was a harsh punishment.

Meanwhile, Michael and Ambrose talked happily about their experiences in the super-plane. Michael was honestly happy that he could find Ambrose again. While he had been in this foreign plane for many years, he had been alone and could not find anyone to confide in. But now that Ambrose was here, Michael found this friend a source of release. He talked about how he had to forge his identity, purchase cultivation and research to obtain power. He also talked about how he battled ascendants in life and death situation and made his breakthrough. Ambrose felt that Michael's experiences were actually quite heroic considering all that he had done was cooking and bootlicking. But nonetheless, his progress had stunned Michael as well. Because the last time they were together, Ambrose was only a perfect-body realm warrior and now he was a mighty demi-ascendant. His progress was akin to flying. Michael was very impressed with Ambrose's story as well, how he had to go up step by step and become a disciple of the Endless Sea Sect.

After the two exchanged their stories, Ambrose finally figured out the secret to Michael's powers - his psychic legacy. Ambrose might have asked Michael to share the legacy if he had psychic talent but he had none. Ambrose was again reminded of the many times Michael had created miracles in Aterna. He had a simple thought:

Sure enough! No matter where a genius is, sooner or later they shine with their brilliance.

While Michael was not a powerful cultivator yet, he had tremendous potential. With his intelligence and maturity, as long as he was not completely down on his luck, he would be able to cultivate to the upper-ascendant realm. And knowing Michael, perhaps the divine realm was also a possibility. Ambrose felt this very deeply and his loyalty to Michael grew. This was a reasonable thing. Anyone would only follow you as long as you were worthy in their eyes. Had Michael engaged in depravity after obtaining the throne to Aterna, Ambrose might have considered becoming independent if his power equalled Michael. But Michael had the talent as well as maturity to not waste that talent. Thus, Ambrose was firm in his belief that following Michael was the right decision. Many times, it was not the instant benefits that mattered but the long term ones.

After they talked for a long time, they finally felt satisfied. Ambrose asked Michael:

> Ambrose : What is your plan? What are you going to do next?

> Michael : Well, the plan is to show off as much as I can! I have already won the martial competition of the Dead Sea Sect. As a result, my value has gone up. If in the final competition, I can beat a few divine children, my value would increase by a lot. Then, I am thinking of using the remaining time to collect sect points. And finally, at the end of three years, I will use my sect points to issue a mission for protecting the plane. If I am lacking in points, I will take a loan. But to be granted a loan, the sect needs to see value in me. So, I need to show off my talent and that is exactly what I will do.

> Ambrose : Michael, I don't think that it will be that hard. If the devil colonel is dead as you have said, we will have sufficient time. Your abilities are growing well and with time, your position in the sect will improve. You just need to keep improving and Aterna will be safe under your shadow. I have realized this after coming here. In Aterna, no matter how strong one became, the survival of the race mostly depended on the overall strength of the race. But that was because growth was limited. But here, it is not the members' strength that establishes a sect but the ancestor's strength. If the divine sea sect did not have divinities, they would have eroded into nothingness long ago. To protect the plane, we don't need to be strong individually but we need a single transcendant cultivator. And you are the only one Aterna has who has a chance to make this come true. As long as you become a peerless expert, Aterna will be saved for sure. Thus, you only need to focus on your progress. As for diplomacy and social relations, leave them to me. After all, a single person can't do everything by themselves.

> Michael : Thanks brother. If you handle this, I will be relieved. On another note, do you know where Ramsus and Remeus have been?

> Ambrose : Not at all. I have not even left the sect after coming to this plane. Had you not won the martial competition, I would have remained there till I could be sure to leave safely. I still don't understand, what exactly happened? From the accounts of spies we sent earlier, all people appear at the same place together. Why were we separated?

While Michael knew that the reason was perhaps that ancient one's intentions, he did not share this with Ambrose. There were only a few secrets that he kept, but that contained everything related to the divine ones. He knew that divinities were not beings mortals could talk randomly about. And his contact with these two beings was his own fortune that would bring him endless problems if others came to know about it. After all, Michael did not know which divinities had helped him and how were their relations with the divinities of Divine Sea Sect. While receiving the grace of divinities was generally a good thing, it was highly dangerous as well. If an enemy divinity targeted him, Michael could only die.

After this was settled, Michael went forward to register Ambrose properly. He was already a disciple of the Endless Sea Sect and so, it was not too hard to get him accommodation in the Dead Sea Sect. They had decided that Ambrose would stay with Michael for the duration of before the tournament after which he would go back to the Endless Sea Sect to prepare. Michael planned to go on expeditions after the tournament to earn sect points and he planned to take Ambrose as well. While this was a dangerous business, the rewards were lucrative. Also, as Michael was a psychic cultivator, his survivability was perhaps even higher than divine children. Thus, he was in a position to take dangerous missions even more. After this, Michael went ahead with his schedule to practice his combat against beasts that were reared in the Dead Sea Sect. He had improved significantly, most important being his improvements in will manifestation and sword path. His celestial path cultivation had also improved and so, he needed to change his battle style accordingly to match his current strength. Michael had been a brute force warrior throughout his time in Aterna. He took hits willingly if he could hit harder. It was a barbaric and brutish way of fighting - there was no elegance to be seen. This was the reason why Dracus Ming all those years ago had refused to teach him. Michael's hand to hand combat was still very similar to his early days. But as he had a life weapon now, it made sense to use it.

As all this was happening, far away from the Divine Sea Sect, two men made their breakthroughs to the demi-ascendant realm. But their combined breakthrough was not weaker than Michael's. As both of them became demi-ascendants, law energy gathered around them increasing their strength to ridiculous levels for demi-ascendants. There was a sense of resonance between these two men as if they were the same but different. This resonance caused their strength to increase further.

If Michael or Ambrose saw these men, they would recognize them immediately. They were Ramsus and Remeus.

An elder appeared behind them. He said:

> Good, very good. You guys have done well. Now, it is time for this old man to take a trip with you. Prepare yourselves, we are going on an expedition through the law ocean!