The battle results from the tournament were posted on the bulletin board of the Dead Sea Sect the next day. It caused a storm to arise not only inside the Sect but across several kingdoms and empires as well as sects across the entire Divine Sea Sect's territory. This was because the three renowned geniuses of the Dead Sea Sect had all lost to a no-name candidate. Before this day, almost no one had heard Michael Rageberg's name. But after the results were out, he suddenly became extremely popular. People rushed over to find all the information that was available about him. And what they found stunned them to no end.

Michael Rageberg was actually a lone-cultivator. He did not have a master but he had risen to the top with his own hard work and grit. People even found out that he had been a part of Liberty College under Black Lotus Sect which caused the information to eventually spread back to the Liberty federation. Many of Michael's students heard the news were left stunned. Never had they thought that their teacher all those years ago was someone so formidable. In the Marx mansion, Sheryl read about this news with complicated emotions. The same day, battle videos of the candidates were released by the Dead Sea Sect. While the final's video would be released some years later, these videos made the several curious people aware of Michael's power level as well as his appearance. All the candidates from the remaining six seas also went through his information as well as his battle-videos. Another place where he became famous was the Rutherford clan. Charles was known to be a bloodline prodigy in the entire clan. While he was not the strongest or most talented in the clan's younger generation, he was still among the strongest. But such a fellow had been beaten by a no-name cultivator who did not even have a bloodline! This was something that caused all the younger generation of the clan to take an interest in Michael.

As Michael's information was shared, in just under a day, people made their impression of the winner of Dead Sea Sect's martial competition winner. There were few who were awed by Michael's achievements and took him as their idol. But most of the younger generation had a view that Michael was no one to pay much attention to. First of all, he was already 42 years old. So the time that he could get in the accelerated room was only 8 years. In contrast, both Razor Marx and Ross Tyson had about 15 years while Charles Rutherford even had 25 years. Thus, it would not be surprising if they surpassed Michael after seclusion. And besides, no one truly took this competition to heart. After all, true competition was yet to begin. It was only the final stage which mattered. The divine children along with the geniuses from different seas were going to come together at the final stage. It was only after this competition that people would consider anyone seriously. But while people easily dismissed Michael's name, he had already spread his name across billions of people, a feat quite impressive nonetheless.

The next day, Michael was given a choice among the rewards - an imprinted psychic ability, a life-treasure or a bloodline. Michael looked through the available options. The psychic abilities available were mostly defensive psychic abilities - abilities that would prevent one's conscient to some extent. Protecting the conscient became more and more important as one progressed in cultivation. Not only because it protected one against psychic cultivators but also because it protected against tribulations. The tribulations of cultivation would sometimes aim for one's conscient as well. With a fragile conscient, even with sufficiently powerful cultivation, one might fail and die. In fact, this was one great limiting factor for many cultivators. Of course, Michael could directly manipulate psychic energy and so he had no need of such abilities. This was one advantage that all psychic cultivators had. As a result, psychics generally managed to cultivate to a high level. But psychic talent was rarer than divine beasts and becoming a psychic cultivator was a fate that not even the richest could afford. To solve this particular problem, the cultivators came with a new solution to the problem. They started imprinting their conscients with protective psychic skills. Even though these people did not have psychic energy, they could use these imprinted skills with their natural will and protect themselves against tribulations. But getting these skills were not easily found and only psychics or divinities could form them. As a result, they were an extremely high-price resource.

The protective skills came in five different grades. Each grade was meant to be superimposed over the lower grades to form a stronger ability. The protective skill available to him was only the lowest grade. Michael did not even bother thinking about it. With his psychic energy control and reserves along with recovery attribute, his conscient was as strong as it could be. Even upper ascendants with all the protective skills stacked did not have a conscient as powerful as he did. And this was true of most other psychic cultivators as well.

Apart from that, several bloodlines were in the option as well. Bloodlines were divided into many different categories. There were normal bloodlines which imparted some attribute to the cultivator - for example, Richard Segal's fire-affinity bloodline, Razor Mark's primal warrior bloodline or Ross Tyson's temporal boost bloodline. These bloodlines required one to cultivate the bloodline and awaken them. This required resources as well as time. But these were the most common bloodlines. In fact, Kandrif's bloodline in Aterna was also a normal bloodline. Then, there were divine bloodlines - bloodlines which emerged from mythical beasts or entities in the divine realm. For example, the world tree bloodline that after awakening a single time allowed an ordinary demi-ascendant to reach the battle strength of a rank-2 ascendant cultivator. Of course, there were no divine bloodlines in the prize. And Michael neither had the time nor the resourced to cultivate a bloodline at this point of time. Thus, he unhesitantly chose to have a life-treasure forged for himself.

As he was the winner of the tournament, the materials made available for his life-treasure were all high quality and were present in good enough quantity. As a result, he would be able to obtain a decent weapon but forging an armour like the prince of the dead was not possible. Besides, Michael was confident in his command of life laws when it came to healing. Thus, he wanted to get a good weapon from himself.

Life-treasure was a treasure that remained with a cultivator throughout their lives and as one grew stronger, the treasure would become stronger as well. In fact, the treasure was like another incarnation of oneself. While one could choose the size and form of the treasure, the attribute and properties of it came from the cultivator themselves. Of course, as one grew stronger, one could make treasures with stronger materials which would result in a superior treasure. But Michael was not interested in getting superior materials. Currently, he wanted to increase his strength as quickly as possible.

After he conveyed his decision, the elders of the sect gathered all the required materials to forge the weapon. Michael was asked to sit at the centre of an intricate formation. The different materials were placed in the different nodes of the formation. Michael was given an inscription diagram of a sword. This was the weapon that he had chosen. The reason? It was because it was the most common weapon. As a result, there were many cultivation techniques, swordplay manuals and experts to learn from. Since Michael was starting from basics, he chose the most stable and secure path.

The process of forging began. The elder in charge started chanting the notes from a scripture. His words seemed to contain an ancient power that was summoning laws and changes across the formation. Michael could feel the power of the scripture - also known as Treasure Scripture. This scripture was an ancient scripture that had been in the cultivation world since immemorial era. No one knew who created such brilliant scripture. But it was for sure that this scripture had passed the test of time and was widespread in almost all the super-planes as well as primary planes. As the mystical ancient power emerged and combined the materials in a specific way, Michael felt as if his conscient itself was being refined! Fire emerged from the power of the scripture and started forging the sword together with Michael's conscient. Had it been other people, they would have fainted with pain. But Michael easily sat through the entire process. After all, his conscient had the recovery attribute.

After a long time, Michael felt the outline of the sword coming into being. Slowly but surely, the outline solidified and a sword emerged in the air. This sword looked completely unassuming. Usually, life-treasures contained engravings and other beautifying characteristics. But this sword simply did not have any such thing. From the hilt to the tip, it was black and there was not even metallic lustre on the sword. But despite that, there was a sharpness in the sword that could easily slash through a demi-ascendant. Michael grabbed the hilt of the sword and held his life-weapon for the first time. He could feel the sword as if it was a part of himself. As he willed, the sword turned into black smoke and entered his body and soul and emerged in his conscient beside the dao-tree. It was indeed a mystical, magical experience. Michael could feel that the sword had completely joined together with his core. It was as if he was the sword and the sword was him. Thus, the sword also had properties that were rarely seen in other life-treasures. For example, normal life-treasure could only bear shattering a limited number of times after which it took time for it to recover. The time of recovery generally varied in days. Thus, if one's life-weapon broke in battle, one might not be able to use it immediately again. But it was not so in Michael's case. His sword could recover almost endlessly. Then there was the will in the sword. It was the source of the sword - willpower that was deep like the ocean. While it did not increase the power of the sword by much, it was the concept of the sword that contained Michael's will. As a result, it could demonstrate sword arts and sword qi that other swords might not be able to demonstrate. In simple words, this decided Michael's potential in the sword path cultivation. One could say that Michael's sword path potential was as deep as the ocean. Apart from this, the sword could channel all forms of energy that Michael could master. Overall, it was the ideal weapon for him. Of course, its power was proportional to Michael's.

The elder conducting the forging ceremony said:

Young man, this is a good sword. You have good potential in the sword path. I suggest that you focus your time in sword cultivation. Also, it is nice to give a good name to a good weapon. I will leave it to you to chose its name. You may leave now.

Michael saw his sword and remembered something that he had lost many years ago and had only found back recently. It was something that he did not want to lose again. Thus, he named his sword - Ambition.

After this, he went over to the cultivation pavilion again. But this time, he went over to get a sword cultivation manual - Five Stance Sword. This was a sword-cultivation manual that allowed one to cultivate the sword path. According to this cultivation art, one had to master all five stances before one would be able to form sword light. Once one managed to form the sword light, one could follow the mantras given in the manual to practice and raise the level of one's sword qi. This was a composite manual that taught sword qi as well as swordplay. Sword qi was closely associated with one's attainment in swordplay. This was the cultivation manual that was most general among the cultivators of the sword path. As this technique was pretty old, the errors had been ironed out. Also, one could reach great-master attainment in the sword path following this manual. This was already quite good. After all, there were no techniques that reached the world-master attainment realm. This was because each world-master created their own personal and unique world through their techniques and it was impossible to follow in someone else's footsteps. As grandmaster realm decided the base of the world-master realm, people generally preferred to research their own path to the grand-master realm even when different methods were available. Cultivating this generalized technique till great-master realm would not bias his sword path in any direction and he would be able to form his own path later.

Followed by this, Michael immediately entered the accelerated cultivation room. He was going into seclusion for the next 8 years. Though, for others, it would only be a month.

After a month, Michael re-emerged and decided to get some combat practice to get in tune with his increased combat strength. He had a few months of time before the second part of the test and he wanted to be as prepared as possible.

Hundreds of thousands of kilometres away, in the Endless Sea Sect, a ship was sailing through the sea. This ship was filled with disciples from the endless sea sect. In all the sects under Divine Sea Sect, people could only get by with sect points. And sect points were hard to obtain. Using one's money to buy sect-points was possible but it was guaranteed that you would be making a loss. Also, the points were expensive and even tycoons did not buy points if they could do missions. As a result, the disciples generally did missions that contributed to the sect. These missions were ranked on the basis of danger and expertise. More difficult missions required more capable people in more dangerous situations but the sect-points awarded were higher as well. The missions generally included the following type of missions:

Governance missions - The huge territory of the sect was governed by many kingdoms and countries. But the sect needed to maintain a grip over the situation. As a result, people from the sect were appointed as envoys to these kingdoms. This needed a good grasp of politics and decent strength to maintain the holds of the sect over the masses.

Daily / Maintenance missions - These missions required one to maintain the resources of the sect. For example, the farms of the sect that produced crops which were used as cultivation resources, the several arrays and inscriptions that were used in the facilities of the sect, the several mundane jobs that were done at the sect. For example, acting as a receptionist in the library.

Expertise based missions - Different cultivators might pick missions that were based on their special abilities. For example, forging treasures, making arrays or inscriptions and so on.

Combat missions - Missions related to battles. Sometimes as mercenaries or sometimes as soldiers or commanders for the army of different forces. People could also act as bodyguards in some cases.

Exploratory missions - Missions that were related to exploring the hidden areas of the law ocean and conquering/subduing them.

From this, one could see that there were various different missions that the disciples had to do to gain resources from the sect. This was the overall sect system. This was quite different from the clan system where initially, resources were provided without responsibility. But after one reached some level of power, they would have to contribute to the clan. This could, in a sense hinder the progress at later stages in cultivation as one would have to earn enough resources for one's descendants as well.

In the Endless Sea Sect, trade was the most thriving business. Why? It was because of the endless sea itself! Of the seven seas, the dead sea was dead and did not have enough resources. There were a few resources in small amounts at the bed of the sea but extracting them was difficult. Yang sea was practically boiling and similarly did not have much cultivation resource. Sludge sea was also resource-poor. Blood sea and chaos sea had some cultivation resource but were not remarkable. It was only the endless sea and paradise sea which were filled with cultivation resources and contributed to trade. But finding the resources in the sea was a challenging task, especially in the endless sea. One needed to know the map of safe areas which were not under the territory of sea-kings and had to navigate to these places and mine the resources. But in the endless sea with its prominent illusions, it was easier said than done. Thus, skilled navigators were present in each ship who constantly solved the laws of illusion in the sea and mapped the sea.

One of the navigators on the ship was taking a break and chatting with his friends. Suddenly, one of his friends said:

Man1 : Brothers! Did you hear about the result of martial competition of the Dead Sea Sect? A black horse emerged!

Man2 : Yeah! We all heard it. Nothing serious, he will not last much longer in the competition.

Navigator : Wait, what? There was an upheaval? I don't know this. What happened?

Man3 : Oh, brother Amber might not have heard as you were constantly on the job. In the tournament, a no-name cultivator won. From what we know, he is a lone cultivator. He is a celestial and managed to defeat the three geniuses of Dead Sea and win the finals.

Amber : Is that so? This is surprising! I had thought that one of the three geniuses would win for sure.

Man1 : Listen you all! I would not have restarted this topic had I not received extra information. I have a few friends from my hometown who work in the Dead Sea Sect. One of them works as a medicine boy. Recently, he told me that he had been nursing one of the three geniuses - Ross Tyson. It appears that Ross was injured badly and will take around half a month to be treated!

Amber : This is a severe injury! At the mortal stage, even a cut off limb or cracked skull can be healed in a few days by superior medicines. For him to be under treatment for so long, what happened?

Man1 : Brother Amber, you think that this is surprising? Let me tell you. This friend of mine is a social butterfly and he has lots of friends. He especially likes passing around gossip. From what he told me, it is not just Ross Tyson, but the other two geniuses were similarly injured at the same time! On the day of the competition! What does this tell you?

Amber : You mean to say that this dark horse of martial tournament beat the three geniuses so bad that they all retired for half a month? Is this information believable?

Man1 : Of course! My friend does like to gossip but he never spreads rumours. Since we know that the three geniuses have received a beating, I suspect that this Michael is not a simple person. He might be a peerless talent!

Amber : Wait a minute! His name is Michael?

Man3 : Oh! How careless of me! The person who won the tournament is called as Michael Rageberg. He is around 42 years old. He is quite handsome as well.

Amber's expression changed at this revelation. He looked at his friends and said

Amber : Does any one of you have his picture?

Man2 : Here you go, brother. This is his battle-video.

Amber looked over at the battle video and he felt countless lightning bolts hit his mind. This was the same Michael Rageberg that he knew - the Emperor of Aterna. And he was strong!

Of course, this Amber was Ambrose - Michael's second knight.

Lord Michael has always been powerful, but now, his power is simply terrifying! To beat the three geniuses close to death - this is akin to beating three rank-1 ascendants! Lord has even become a celestial! And here I thought that I have made so much progress. To some extent, I even felt that I might close the gap between him and me. But looking at this video, the gap has increased further still. I guess that Lord Michael had his own lucky encounters. I will need to visit the Divine Sea Sect in the near future.