The test of combat was the second test that was meant for screening candidates. The test was conducted by sending all the candidates into the combat pavilion. The combat pavilion was another important structure in the Divine Sea Sect. It had been created by multiple divinities simultaneously putting in serious effort. As a result, it was one of the most important structures of the sect. The subsidiary sects and sects of other lone divinities did not have this.

When one obtained divinity, they would have forged their unique path of laws, many times forming new laws in the process which did not exist naturally. For example, Leonor Rageberg's living mountain law combined different laws to form a law that did not naturally exist. This was extremely rare to see in mortal or lower ascendant stages but in the upper-ascendant realm, the laws would become more and more specialized before finally changing into something unique. Thus, the entire path from mortal to an upper-ascendant could be seen as akin to exploring the laws and finding one's path. But the path of divinities was completely different. As one became divine, one would need to learn more and more laws. This would act as the foundation of their law making it more and more powerful. As the power of one's law grew, their cultivation would increase. Thus, a one-star divinity could only use a single law that they had divinity in but two-star or higher divinities could use a multitude of laws. At six-star and above, the divinities may have multiple unique laws in their command. This process continued till one reached the peak of the divine realm - a nine-star divinity. At that point, the personal law of divinity would reach the bottleneck for a qualitative transformation.

As the Divine Sea Sect had many divinities, working together, they managed to encode many laws in the combat pavilion. As a result, it was not wrong to say that the pavilion was an independent world in itself, though an extremely specialized and hard-coded one. This was the reason why there were cultivation rooms as well. A divinity, who had comprehended many laws, could easily make a cultivation room with some effort.

The combat pavilion was an independent world, inside of which people could experience combat with a controlled level of danger. The pavilion had many halls, each with unique uses. There was the practice hall, where people would go to practice combat. In this hall, one could select the type of opponent one wanted to battle. The hall would then generate an automation of desired strength, form and attainment realm. Then, there was the techniques hall where one could obtain guidance on the techniques one wanted to learn. There were similarly other halls that simulated different environments for battle, a battle between armies and so on. It was a comprehensive resource that helped the disciples prepare for planar exploration. Of course, in a controlled environment, it was impossible to gain real life-and-death experiences. But, it was still better than what most of the other Sects had. It was sufficient to make a foundation, which through real-life experiences would be solidified further.

The combat pavilion was present in a different location and so, the candidates who passed the test were all teleported to the new location. Inside, the candidates were all sent to different practice rooms. The combat pavilion could simultaneously test multiple candidates, reducing the time that it would take compared to a tournament-style test. The candidates were all sent into different practice rooms to battle different automata. These automata would grow stronger with each defeat until the candidate was defeated and evicted from the practice room. Michael and the rest went in, prepared for battle. The initial battles of these candidates were transmitted to all subsidiary sects, as a means of increasing the popularity of selected candidates.

Michael entered the practice room. It was the first time he was seeing an artefact created by the divinities and he was thoroughly impressed. The combat pavilion was incredible. Here, in the practice rooms, one could fight to their heart's content. The injuries and death that occurred in the practice room would all be reversed as one exited the room. This was an extremely advanced application of laws of life and death, something that Michael could not fathom easily. The laws of life that he practised were capable of restoration as well, but they would not work well for others. Every life form had its unique features and life energy profile. Michael's law was based on his life energy. If Michael used his laws to heal others, the result would not be much better than the weakest of mortal stage healing spells. But the construction in combat pavilion could heal the injuries of anyone who was injured inside. This phenomenon used many other laws besides the laws of life and death. As Michael was looking around the practice room, a light-spirit emerged on the other side of the room.

Micheal: Hmm, this light-spirit is only as strong as a normal demi-ascendant. He does not have any bloodline or special trump cards. Is this the minimum requirement of the sect?

The battle began soon after. And there was no surprise. Michael easily overpowered the light-spirit, shattering it with a powerful punch. In video transmission, most of the candidates were seen winning against the first opponent quite easily though only a few of them shattered the light-spirit with a single attack. Soon, another light-spirit emerged, but this time, it was much stronger. Though it was still in the realms of mortals, it could give even ordinary celestials a fair amount of trouble. Michael managed to win again, with a few moves. He did not have to use any of his special abilities and only his base power was sufficient to thrash opponents of such level.

This was the true testing condition of the Sect. As long as one managed to win against the second light-spirit, one would be seen as having passed the test of combat. While it was incredibly easy for Michael, the same could not be said for all candidates. Razor Mark had to fight for tens of moves before defeating the light-spirit and many others were struggling. The candidates at this stage were all still mortals. Some might have the strength to contend with ascendants, but none of them was truly ascendant. For mortals, a celestial demi-ascendant was accepted as the peak. Some geniuses could surpass that peak, but it was generally through powerful bloodlines. Among all the candidates, the people who could pass the second trial without bloodline power amounted to less than 50. And among the candidates who had passed, many struggled bitterly against the light-spirit. When the trial ended, about 100 candidates were disqualified again.

After the two tests, only around 150 candidates were remaining. It was easy to see that admission in the Divine Sea Sect was extremely strict. But after this, they continued and even more powerful light-spirits spawned. One must understand that while these magically generated opponents imitated a certain level of strength, their combat methods were extremely rigid and predictable. In a normal battle, your opponent would plan the tempo of the battle to the last moment and use surprise attacks and abilities as well. But these light-spirits did not have such intellect or special abilities. They directly used their strength, either through martial-arts or through spells. Thus, even if one defeated the light-spirit of a certain level, it did not mean that one would be able to defeat other cultivators on the same level as well.

The battles continued as more and more candidates were thrown out. The light spirit's strength rose in each trial and soon, it was a formidable rank-1 ascendant. At this stage, most of the candidates had been thrown out and only a handful remained. These were the supreme geniuses as well as the divine children! In total, there were less than 30 remaining candidates. At this stage, the battle transmission to the sects was stopped. Only the disciples of the sect could keep seeing. This was to prevent the secrets and trump-cards of these geniuses from leaking. As the battles got heated, more and more candidates started using their trump cards. The battles became more and more violent, displaying an insane level of combat standard that left the current disciples of the Sect shocked. The batch this time was known to be best among the past several batches. This was mainly because quite a lot of divine children were participating this time. But the remaining supreme geniuses were not to be underestimated either.

In one room, a person was fighting savagely with the light-spirit. The spirit was already exuding might comparable to rank-2 ascendants. Clad in black armour, this man fought with reckless disregard for his own life. It was different from others who despite knowing the transience of their injuries did not dare to completely disregard their defence. It was as if the man had absolute confidence in his defence! As the battle proceeded, the man was constantly suppressed by the light spirit but any of the injuries he received healed at incredible speeds. The battle continued and the light-spirit kept accumulating damage. In the end, the light spirit shattered. The man could barely take a breath when another light spirit spawned, this one even stronger, comparable to peak rank-2 ascendants. He was the prince of the dead - Razor Mark.

In another room, another man was fighting a similarly strong light-spirit. He was wearing martial arts robe and no defensive gear making him quite susceptible to injuries. But in the battle, he seemed to block all the light spirit's attacks with the staff in his hands. It was as if the region around him was a no-access zone and nothing could get in without getting a taste of his staff. Let alone physical attacks, even magical spells did not manage to enter his domain! Lightening, flames and lots of other spells seemed to surround him but nothing came inside that fixed radius. He advanced and retreated at will, easily playing around with the light spirit. He gave off the air of an expert fighting a novice. Even if the novice was stronger, as long as they did not know how to use their strength, they could be subdued by even a weaker expert. This person was the martial prince - Ross Tyson.

In another room, a different man was tearing through the light spirit. He was like a war god descended from heavens, thoroughly thrashing the spirit. His momentum was palpable making even the viewers nervous. Just using brute force, he was smashing through all spells and techniques! He was personifying power and how with sufficient power, everything else became meaningless. This was the inheritor of divine blood, Charles Rutherford.

In another room, another man was fighting the light spirit. He had a sword in his hand, completely unassuming and pitch black. He used the sword skillfully as sword energy constantly emitted from his sword. Black lustre seemed to be swirling him, covering parts of his limbs. His presence was strong, much stronger than any rank-1 ascendant. But most importantly, when one saw him, one would feel as if he was independent of the world. It was as if he was in total command, be it life or death. Even the heavens themselves could not control his fate. He gave off the impression of a giant who was rebelling against the heavens! The might he displayed was no less than the previous candidate, thoroughly overwhelming the light spirit. But while in Charles' case, his strength seemed unrefined and crude, his strength was completely controlled and his techniques were exquisite. This was the prince of commoners - Michael Rageberg.

In another battle room, a man was constantly blinking around launching powerful spells. He was constantly shifting his position making it so that the light spirit was unable to hit him in the slightest. The spells he cast were overlayed and amplified making a rudimentary spell formation. The battle continued as he kept his tempo and battled the light spirit, slowly but surely damaging it. This was the supreme genius of spells and quick casting - Richard Seagal.

In another battle room, a girl was standing but the entire world around her was twisting and turning in a way that nothing seemed to even come near her. Each of her actions seemed to cause the space and time to fluctuate making it hard for the untrained to understand what was going on. She did not even seem to be taking her opponents seriously. Even before any attacks reached her, the distortions would dissipate their power. Also, with each attack, a fearsome backlash would scatter the light spirit to some extent. Even without trying to actively destroy the light spirit, she passed rounds after rounds of the trial! She was the daughter of Chaos Sea - Trisha Lane.

In another room, a man was fighting. His presence seemed like a fleeting dream, as none could grasp it. He seemed to be there but not at the same time. When the light spirit's attacks hit him, he seemed to dissolve back into oblivion only to appear elsewhere and bombard the light spirit with extremely precise and powerful attacks. He was the illusory sun prince - Thor Archon.

In another room, one could see a lady battling with another light spirit. The entire room was up in flames as if a flaming hell had descended! The heat seemed to follow her directions as it converged and diverged with her actions constantly barraging the light spirit. She was the Vermillion princess - Shaner Flamespark.

In another room, one could see a child constantly running around as the light spirit constantly barraged her with powerful explosive spells. But the speed of this child was off the charts and none of the spells or attacks hit her. Sometimes, they ran into each other and cancelled. Sometimes, the spells would miss her by a silver, sometimes they would detonate prematurely, sometimes they would veer off target. It was as if fate itself did not want any harm to come to her! People knew her as divine daughter Alexis. As she ran around, he collided with the light spirit. The light spirit, which was in the middle of casting a powerful spell, was distracted and blew up due to the backlash!

In other rooms, other incredible geniuses and divine children could be seen battling the light spirits. As the spirits became more and more powerful, the candidates started getting evicted. As the threshold of power reached rank-3, Richard, Razor and most other geniuses were evicted. At this stage, even Thor and Ross were only barely hanging on. After a while, they were defeated as well. In the next round, the light spirits were bonafide rank-3 ascendants. In this stage, even Charles and Michael were not able to hold on for long and were defeated after a short battle. But few people were not evicted! They were the divine children. None of the divine children was eliminated. Among the other geniuses, only the daughter of chaos sea proceeded. As the spirits became stronger, the combat ability of these geniuses was slowly revealed.

The gap between rank-3 and rank-4 was quite massive. Most importantly, there were no ordinary rank-4 ascendants! Many commoners managed to cultivate till rank-3. Thus, till rank-3, one had a decent idea of how much strength a common rank-3 ascendant would have. Here a common rank-3 ascendant referred to someone who only followed a few of the main paths and did not have any special abilities. That is, bloodlines, blessings, weapons etc were not included. Till rank-3, one could still find people like that. But in rank-4, no one did not have their unique special abilities. And that's why one could find a great spectrum in the rank-3 ascendants based on ability. It was possible to have a rank-3 ascendant so overwhelmingly stronger than another that they could kill the other in a short battle. But neither of them would be able to handle a single serious blow from a rank-4 ascendant.

In the end, the different divine children were also defeated by rank-3 opponents but the difference between them and Michael was still too vast. Only the daughter of Chaos sea - Trisha Lane lasted as long as the divine children and only a few among the divine children were stronger than her. If one were to categorise these supreme geniuses according to strength, the first tier would have the 10 divine children and Trisha. While there were gaps between them, they were negligible and not enough to give decisive advantage in a battle. The next tier was supreme geniuses like Michael, Charles and some other geniuses who had divine blood. The third tier had exceptionally talented candidates like Ross Tyson, Thor Archon and a few others. The fourth tier was geniuses who had great talent and who had worked similarly hard - Richard Seagal and Razor Mark and others like them. Anyone below them was far too below to be considered a supreme genius. In a sect of Divine Sea Sect's calibre, only supreme geniuses mattered. The rest would only qualify as decent disciples and would not be given any special attention. Only the supreme geniuses were nurtured with effort in the sect. In the second trial, Michael had proved his place among the supreme geniuses, even if he was not among the top.