The next day, all four finalists including Michael gathered in a hall. Inside, there was a battle stage, reinforced and barricaded heavily. Even if ascendants were to fight with their full power on this stage, it would be hard for them to do much damage. This was actually one of the stages that were used by inner and core disciples of the Dead Sea Sect for regular practice. Michael, Razor, Ross and Charles entered the hall and were welcomed by quite a few elders. All of these elders were in the upper-ascendant realm, each of them capable of destroying worlds and sundering creation. There were 9 elders who were going to act as the audience which was a surprise to Michael and the rest.

After entering, Razor went over to one of the elders and kowtowed. The elder had an amicable smile and he pulled Razor away from the rest to talk in private. Michael understood that this elder perhaps was Razor's teacher. At this point, Ross Tyson came over and said

Ross : Brother Michael, who would have thought that we would end up fighting in the finals of the tournament. If I may ask, where do you come from?

Michael : Brother Ross, I am an itenerant cultivator. I have had a few teachers but none have been exceptional cultivators. Most of what I know comes from my lucky encounters, adventures and hard work. I am from humble backing and can not compete with the likes of you all.

Ross : Brother, there is no need to be concerned about backing. After all, we live in a world where the path of cultivation exists. Today, you might lack backing. But maybe in the future, you would be strong enough to no longer need any backing. Besides, with your talent, entering the Divine Sea Sect and finding a suitable teacher would not be too hard.

Michael : That is indeed true. And I also look forward to visiting the Divine Sea Sect. Here, I only hope that we can decide the victor fairly in the battles from now on.

Ross : Don't worry, brother. The Dead Sea Sect will not favour their prince. After all, there is a guy who represents the name of Rutherford clan. Even my father is not someone the sect can take lightly. But most importantly, this competition is not as important as you think it is. The reason why so many elders have turned up is so that they can get a rough idea of our strength so that they can gamble more accurately. Anyway, what would you chose if you get a place in top 3?

Michael : I will choose a life-treasure. I have yet to have one and having one will increase my combat strength the most.

Ross : That is indeed a good choice as it will the most tangible increase in your strength. From what I know, you have only 8 years in the cultivation room before you turn 50. It is not sufficient time to awaken a bloodline or master a psychic ability. But one can master a life-treasure in that time. I hope you can get a pretty good life-treasure. Even if you can't get one here, I will ask my father to make one for you. Consider this as a small token of my friendship.

Michael : If I can't get a place in top 3, I shall impose on you. Thank you.

While Michael did not think that the other party would truly gift him a suitable life-treasure, the conversation still showed him Ross's friendly intentions.

The format of the last battle was decided - It was a battle royale! All four of the candidates would fight and whoever remains standing throughout would be first and so on. This was a pretty unique choice but this was a martial competition and not exactly a competition of raw strength. One had to make tacit alliances and tread carefully or else they would be eliminated.

The elders powered the formation around the stage and then, the four candidates took their place in the four corners. Michael had never been in a battle royale scenario, especially in a competition. This was a battle stage that had three powerful celestials along with a divine bloodline inheriter in a battle royale. One could imagine how expensive this battle video would sell! After the selection process of Divine-Sea Sect was over, and these people had made some progress, the Dead Sea Sect would definitely sell this battle video.

As the signal was given, all the four candidates jumped into the ring. Michael's eyes flashed with a mysterious light as he slowed his movement. Surprisingly, both the prince of the dead and the martial genius aimed themselves towards the prodigy of the Rutherford clan, much to the latter's shock. He immediately ignited his bloodline directly reaching a level of power that could force back average rank-1 ascendants. Razor's armour appeared almost instantly and his strength too rose rapidly to great levels. Laws of death danced around him forming a domain and death energy congregated around him, so thick that it could be seen. Black energy emerged from thin air and circled him making him look like a hellion. Ross Tyson, on the other hand, took out his staff and the laws of wind emerged around him carrying him at incredible speed. He too ignited his bloodline, something he had not done yet in the tournament and as a result, his speed increased by another level. His bloodline allowed him to accelerate his body beyond its limits, granting him a speed that could render every defence meaningless. He arrived in front of Charles in only an instant before swinging his staff at the later. While it looked like a single swing, his staff was vibrating at an extreme frequency! As soon as the staff hit Charles shoulder, the vibrations intensified and started reinforcing each other. It amplified the might of the attack to a whole new level. This was a martial skill he had only barely mastered, and it contained the mysteries of the flow of strength! Even with his extreme speed and great-master attainment level, he could only barely execute the technique. This was actually one of his trump cards but he started with it.

Charles was completely flabbergasted by this turn of events. He had known both Razor and Ross for some time and they were on good terms. Besides, as they were called the three geniuses of the Dead Sea, there was some degree of cohesion between them. Logically, they should have attacked Michael first and removed the extra. But here he was, facing Ross' attack. He did not even have the time to react before he was hit by Ross' staff's swing. The might of the attack caused the ground beneath him to squeak and his legs were forced to kneel! A flame of anger appeared deep in his heart. But before he could erupt with his strength, Razor attacked him with a punch laced with concentrated death energy! He blocked the attack with his arm but he was in an awkward position which meant he could not bring forth enough force. The punch sent him crashing against the ground for some distance. His arm was turning black from the death energy but his world tree bloodline rapidly purified the energy out of his body. He was angry now. Golden smoke emerged from his body forming an exquisite armour around him.

He got up swiftly and pounced on Razor. Both of them clashed in the middle of the stage with their hands locked in a wrestle. But ultimately, Charles had the bloodline of divinities. He easily overpowered Razor and forced the other party to the ground. As Razor's knees hit the ground, they shattered from the impact! He winced in pain. Charles took advantage of the situation and decided to throw a heavy punch at him to take him out of commission for a few moments. But before his hit could land, his punch was stopped by a staff! The collision seemed to rattle the air and caused shockwaves to blast out. If this had been Jupyter, this shockwave would have been enough to destroy a good enough area. But in this semi-plane, it only caused some shockwaves.

Despite his strength, Charles was forced back several steps. Ross, on the other hand, was sent flying but managed to land gracefully. At this time, a punch directly landed on Charles' nose. The surprising thing was that he had not seen it coming! And the punch was strong! The attack was more powerful than Razor's punches. His nose immediately snapped and blood flew out. His eyes watered and his vision blurred. Then, another punch landed squarely at the cavity of his ribcage directly finding him in a vulnerable spot! This punch was stronger than last! Much, much stronger. The armour near his heart cracked and shattered. His heart took the attack and he felt a deep pain that knocked his breath out. He retreated another few steps and coughed out blood. But by this time, he had healed his nose and his vision had returned. He could clearly see the final candidate in front of him - Michael Rageberg.

Michael had unleashed his full power in his first punch - his cultivation, dao intent, battle-body mixed with the Formless Concealment Art. It would not have been effective in normal circumstances given Charles' perception. But facing the other two geniuses, he did not have the mind to spot Michael's sneak attack. Michael's attack had indeed been quite powerful but the effect was hardly anywhere near anticipated. While he did break other party's nose, it was a minor injury at most. It was not enough to do much against someone like Charles. Besides, his face had not been protected by the golden armour. This had surprised Michael greatly. Initially, he had thought that the gap between his strength and Charles' strength would not have been too much but it seemed that he was mistaken. Charles was indeed the strongest out of all of them. Thus, in his second attack, Michael used a trump-card he rarely needed to use in past many battles - Perfect Persona Blessing. As a result, he managed to hurt Charles pretty badly.

The shattered part of the armour slowly recovered as golden smoke congealed to fix the hole due to Michael's punch.

Followed by this, Ross swung his staff again at him executing the same technique - the flow of strength. But this time, Charles took the hit without shifting a muscle! His entire body remained straight. Soon, terrifying energy started bellowing from within his body. His strength climbed steadily completely surpassing what rank-1 ascendants could ever reach! He was stepping into the realm of rank-2 ascendants!

He grabbed Ross' staff and directly snapped it in half. The staff turned into smoke and returned to Ross as he retreated. Charles looked at his challengers. Ross Tyson - the great martial genius of Green Valley Sect. The greatest prodigy of the first tier sect, a celestial with incredible talent. Razor Mark - the greatest prodigy of the Dead Sea Sect's younger generation - another celestial with great talent. And finally, the dark horse of the competition - Michael Rageberg. A lone cultivator who reached his strength with grit and talent. And as he looked at these characters - a single thought echoed in his mind.

Plebeians!

The anger he felt at his humiliation erupted as his eyes turned red. He looked at the three of them and yelled, his voice thundering in their ears:

Charles : You plebeians! You dared to spill my blood, the blood of divinities! You all are mere commoners. You think that your talent makes you qualified to stand in the same place as the rest of us with divine blood? You are all simply misguided. For all the talent in the world, you all are still nothing but ants to me! I am not a celestial - I don't have the talent, I am not a martial-arts genius, I don't have talent in that either. Even with so many resources, I am not as exceptional in my cultivation like this bastard here. But so what? I don't need talent, I don't need the celestial path! Celestials are only kings among commoners - but no commoner can stand against divine bloodlines like mine! And you commoner, without even a bloodline, you have managed to spill divine blood. You should be proud as long as you live as I will send you to hell soon enough!

Charles was a genius of the Rutherford clan - he indeed had divine blood. After all, even normal celestials who stood above countless mortals could not cross the boundary and challenge a rank-one ascendant. But he could even challenge a rank-2 ascendant, the disparity between him and other normal cultivators was actually as huge as sky and earth. His bloodline was exceptionally pure and so, he did not really even need to refine his bloodline to increase his power. He just needed to seal a part of his power and build pressure on his bloodline which would awaken it again and again. He was a heaven-favoured genius in all sense of the word. For this reason, he had sealed three-fourth of his power! But now that he was beaten till he coughed blood, he was bubbling with anger. He was after all, only 25 years old. And his limited experience made him extremely arrogant. Now, he had unsealed his remaining power and had directly reached rank-2 ascendant strength. This had caused him to lose about ten years worth of time! Now, if he wanted to awaken his bloodline a second time, it would take ten years longer! But he was left with no other choice! One on one, he could beat any of these guys even in his sealed state. But now, he had been bullied by these bastards. How could he, of divine blood be bullied so easily?

Michael thought that Charles was quite immature. Giving up ten years worth of effort just in a fit of anger was something very childish in his eyes. This was the true genuine arrogant young master that Michael had seen, the only problem being that he had the capital to act arrogantly.

As soon as Charles said this, he charged towards Michael leaving explosive shockwaves in his wake. The battle hereafter was completely one-sided. Charles singlehandedly bulldozed through the other two candidates injuring them to various degrees. The battle continued for only a few seconds but both Razor and Ross were severely injured. Charles found it quite weird that these he had yet to even land a hand on Michael! These guys were acting like his freaking retainers! This got him angrier and he thrashed the other two brutally. Michael was only standing there and watching the other two get thrashed brutally. While Charles was busy beating the crap out of Ross and Razor, a black aura was constantly emerging around Michael's arms and infusing back in. His hand had already turned completely black at this point! Had Charles been as good of a combatant as Michael, he would have noticed unusual behaviours from the start. Michael had not been engaged in most of the battle. He had only attacked twice, each punch landing on Charles and drawing blood, each punch timed perfectly when he was vulnerable. Apart from that, Michael had been standing on the sidelines! Who would be stupid enough to hamper one's own future and chances to fight a battle for the sake of others? Clearly, there was something wrong!

It was Michael's new psychic technique that he had not thought valuable at first - Illusion.

It was one of the psychic techniques from the Wisdom Emperor's legacy! At first, Michael had thought that this technique would allow him to cast illusions - but it was true only in a general sense. Michael was fairly proficient in illusion methods, using his energy. But he did not know any laws of illusion. Thus, while his illusions could fool conception realm experts, condensation realm experts or demi-ascendants would be able to see through them easily. As a result, he was a bit put off by the technique. But he had been terribly wrong. None of the techniques in the legacy was simple. The illusion technique cast people's conscient under powerful illusions! But this was extremely subtle and needed time to set up. But once it was set up, one could use subtle suggestions to manipulate another person. Even ascendants would fall in his trap without ever finding out! This was the true terror of psychic path. One could directly affect the psyche of others - where one was generally the most vulnerable. Ross Tyson and Razor Mark were proud geniuses under heaven and each of them had a fair chance of winning in a one on one battle with Michael. But they had easily fallen for his trap and were used as tools in this battle! This was the true power of a psychic cultivator and Michael was only scratching the surface!

As for why he chose to go against Charles, there were two reasons for it. First of all, Charles' divine bloodline gave him a degree of protection against psychic attacks. Thus, he could not be influenced and controlled easily. Also, with intuition, Michael had already known that Charles was hiding his strength. Though he had not been sure of how strong Charles was. Even he was surprised right now.

After a few moves, the prince of the dead was beaten to unconsciousness. He was completely covered with blood and his body was broken in different places. His bones were jutting out from his flesh and one could even see some of his innards scattered around! This was the pathetic end of a peerless genius who was known across the entire Divine Sea Sect's territory. Billions of youth across thousands of kingdom worshipped him as their idol! The next to fall was Ross Tyson. His staff was broken more than three times in the battle and he too looked like he was about to die. Both their injuries were severe and it was likely that they would take some days of recuperation even with the help of incredible medicines to be back at their peak.

After beating them up, Charles looked at Michael and gave a chilling smile. He looked at him like a lion would look at its prey. Michael had barely moved from his place throughout. Thinking that he had scared the other party into immobility, he sneered and said:

Charles : Now that the annoying flies have been dealt with, it is time that I kill you slowly. I left them with their lives because they have some backing in the Sect but you are a total nobody. You should not have provoked me! Now I will kill you by separating your soul from your body and torturing you for years!

Michael : Is that so? Sadly, You don't qualify for that. Perhaps the patriarch of Rutherford clan can do so, but you are too young.

Michael's reply left the youth stunned. But Michael was not telling complete fabrication either. After all, he had been tortured by the devils for a million years and all the torture methods of the devils had been developed by the devil ancestor himself. And the devil ancestor was a being who stood on the same level as Patriarch Rutherford!

Charles felt great fury erupting from the depth of his heart! The patriarch of the Rutherford clan was a divinity, even upper-ascendants of other forces called him His Excellency Gold Leaf. For the members of the Rutherford clan, he was their heaven! They worshipped him! Now, this mere plebeian was tarnishing his patriarch's name! This caused deep rage to burst out from the depths of his heart as Charles howled and charged at Michael. But as he reached Michael, Michael smiled. Then, he attacked.

A pitch-black arm hit Charles square in his chest. The attack directly shattered all his armour, ribs as well as his heart and lungs. His chest was broken open and he was sent flying! But, another black hand grabbed his skull and directly caved it in! Not only was Charles' body hit badly, but even his soul was also attacked as he directly went into a coma! Then, Michael banged him back on the ground. The impact crushed the ground as well as all the bones in Charles' body! His golden armour disintegrated and blood splashed all over the ground! The battle was over.

The elders outside were looking on with wide eyes! Even they had not expected for Michael to so thoroughly smash Charles. The barrier surrounding the ring was removed and they rushed in instantly with many medicines being applied to the broken bodies of the three geniuses! Michael's hands returned to his original fair colour. This was his skill will-manifestation - his true trump card. Over time, he had become much more proficient in its usage. Now, he did not need to form the giant phantom before releasing the skill and could even control the energy so that he did not suffer from any backlash energy. This, however, was not a result of an increase in the skill level but due to increase in his mastery of psychic energy. Over the years, Michael's psychic cultivation had made it so that his control over psychic energy had reached master level attainment. As a result, he could now safely use the skill. Though it still took all his energy to cast it once and he could only use a few attacks. But these attacks could severely injure a rank-2 ascendant! And Charles was not even a rank-2 ascendant but only had the strength of one. He did not have the durability of law marks! As a result, he had been beaten near to death by Michael!

In the aftermath, the different elders cleared the ring and directly took the geniuses to the infirmary. Meanwhile, Michael was escorted back to his quarters. There had been one elder from the Rutherford clan acting as a referee of the match and he had wanted to take action. But he had been stopped by a terrifying aura that would have completely disintegrated him in a whiff. The man had refrained from doing anything and had only looked as Michael went away. This was because he knew that Michael had already caught the attention of divinities! After all, no ascendant could kill him with just a whiff of their aura - only divinities could do so!

In the different semi-plane, the same two divinities were also looking at the final battle. After the battle, they conversed

The candidates this time are all quite good. The kid from Green Valley - Jack's son and the kid from our sect - Raval's disciple, both are talented. But Jack's son is actually the one with greater talent and his future is quite stable. Raval's disciple would have to work hard to match this guy. As for the kid from the Rutherford Clan, his talent is trash. But with his bloodline, it won't be too hard to become a powerful upper-ascendant before the selection battles. But there is no hope for him to ever reach the divine realm. As for the final guy, even I don't know what to make of him. Clearly, his talent is mediocre at best. His age is already high and his sensitivity is not all that great. Besides, he has even cultivated unbalanced laws. But then he has also cultivated the dao and psychic paths - the most esoteric paths there are. I can make no prediction on him.

What you are saying is indeed true. But due to this, I like this kid even more! He is unpredictable! No one knows his future. Besides, while his talent is not high, he clearly has his own fate or else how could he have grasped the two esoteric paths? With the push from our sect, he might also reach the upper-ascendant realm before the selection and if he can hone his psychic cultivation, he will be an important resource. I am going to personally transmit his information to the Sect and make him a reserved candidate! Let me see what other surprises he can give us!

Meanwhile, in a different corner of the plane:

Damnit! I did not find the culprit even after looking through different candidates at the Dead Sea Sect. I can only continue with the plan with the spare node that I have prepared. I guess my luck is not supporting me even with extracting fortune from so many cultivators! Divine blessings are indeed terrifying!