Oceania was currently buzzing with activity. Several sects were making their move, calling back most of the disciples that they had dispatched due to other tasks. All these sects were preparing for an unprecedented event, the expedition to a new world! Rumours of the Might secret realm being an independent world had been floating around for a long time, but this was officially confirmed recently by the large sects in the dominion. A world was not a broken entity like a dominion. A world was a complete system of laws that could support the life of trillions of living beings at once. Independent worlds were extremely rich in resources, their situation was completely different from the 26 dominions which were just the debris of the past 33 worlds. A world, in terms of size, was only comparable to one dominion, but the laws there would be stable, leading to the existence of elements required for life to exist on an incomparably large scale.

Most native cultivators of the 26 dominions felt that the structure of the universe was what they saw. They believed that there was an ocean of chaotic laws and inside the ocean, islands of various size floated around. It was only these islands that could support life and cultivation. This was their view of the universe as a whole. Surprisingly, this view was an almost accurate picture of the explored universe, except that the scale of the universe was much grander than what one could imagine. The universe was primarily filled with void, or nothingness. The presence of manifested laws in the universe was extremely thin. While the laws of the universe could still influence the void, it was in a passive state. Due to this, unless a cultivator could possess their own law, they would not be able to exist for a long time in the void ocean. This made it so that only upper ascendants could venture into the actual universe. In this vast ocean of nothingness, there were many areas where the laws of the universe would be manifested in different ways. When the laws manifested in a stable manner, it led to the creation of a world. When these laws were manifested in unorthodox ways, special realms were created. These realms were also called secret realms and they consisted of otherworldly powers and resources that simply couldn't exist under "normal" conditions. The natives of various worlds would cultivate to form their own laws before they could explore the universe. This was almost exactly the same as how the law ocean was. The law ocean was actually a miniature universe!

Could such a happening be a simple coincidence?

While the different worlds in the universe were scattered around in nothingness, they had still formed clusters among themselves. From an extremely zoomed out perspective, one could see three different clusters in the current universe. These clusters were actually the 3 different Godly Nations of the cultivator's universe - The Heaven Empire, The Truth Empire and The Ancient Empire. Inside the cluster of Heaven Empire, one could see an abnormally large dark world, a world that was completely chaotic inside, a place where life could hardly survive. On a closer look, one would find that this large world was actually a combination of 26 different broken worlds mashed together. This was the picture of 26 dominions from the perspective of other worlds, a place where life was rare, a backwater place for cultivation. But some centuries back, a miracle had happened in this desolate place. A small tunnel had opened from this world to a world far away, outside the 3 clusters. Initially, this was just a small and temporary fluctuation caused due to scars of time immemorial. But someone had stabilized the entire tunnel making it a shortcut connecting the two worlds across the void ocean. This was the work of Devil Ancestor, a true god! With his power, he had established a spatial pathway through nothingness! The 26 dominions, being a hub of chaos, were a major camp for the devils. This tunnel had allowed the devils to easily connect one of their major camps to the far off world, allowing them to attack and retreat at will. The Devil Ancestor had made sure to keep the tunnel open. Alas, his operation was "remembered" by the Heaven Emperor as he woke from his meditation. The Heaven Emperor could easily destroy the tunnel, causing all of Devil Ancestor's work to be null. But, the Heaven Emperor of now was no longer the same Heaven Emperor who had started the meditation. He now carried the knowledge of "future" like other true gods! While he had won the last time, it had been too hard. He had lost many things and was very lucky. He couldn't count on being lucky again. He was no longer going to solve problems with his power, even if could. Thus, he had gone to his trusted partner, the Wisdom Emperor. Together, they had taken almost a century to craft a device that could cleanse the tunnel from Devil Ancestor's control! Followed by that, he had secretly allowed one of his subordinates to plant the cleanser inside the tunnel, where the device had not only stripped the devil ancestor's territory but had also enlarged the tunnel while making it even more stable. This was basically taking all of Devil Ancestor's hard work in the last few centuries for himself! This was completely different from the earlier style of Heaven Emperor, so even the Devil Ancestor had been caught off-guard.

But while the tunnel had been established, the world was still unfamiliar territory for the forces of the 3 Godly empires. While gods including Heaven Emperor knew of the existence of the Lord of Might, they did not have any contact. The known universe was too huge, and even gods would find it difficult to travel across even the explored universe. The actual universe might as well be infinite, holding secrets that even Gods were not privy to. Thus, there were many things that even gods did not know. For example, what kind of place was the Might secret realm? Did they really have an astral legacy? What resources could be traded between these checkpoints? Could the native cultivation methods of that world be used by beings of other worlds? Finding the answer to these questions was a challenge that carried a lot of danger to the explorers. While gods themselves might not be in danger, which god was free enough to just go exploring. The three empires were always neck to neck, and the loss of personnel in the expedition could create a disadvantage for the empire acting as the vanguard. Thus, Heaven Empire decided to sacrifice the "prisoners of war" and sent forth the decree to the existing sects in the chaotic ocean to explore the new world. This was why all sects in Oceania were moving towards the new world.

Divine Sea Sect, being the de-facto leader of the sects in Oceania, was the leader of the expedition as well. And while the sect was taking huge risks to complete the expedition mission, they were hopeful about obtaining rich rewards as well. The sect had recently acquired a plane that acted as the waypoint between their base camp at Jupyter and the space tunnel. This plane was naturally Aterna. After the Heaven Emperor made a move, the plane had been connected to the space tunnel through a golden path, making it the perfect docking point for the expedition to depart from. Thus, as plans were set into motion, bigshots started arriving in Aterna one after the other. These included many divinities like Fate Seer and Sword Saint as well as the geniuses in their camp as well. The notable figures of the older generation disciples included Krill Nash, Nostradame and Perseus Pendragon. The geniuses of Michael's generation included Vermillion Princess Shanner Flamespark, Undead Prince Razor Mark, Martial Prince Ross Tyson, Daughter of Chaos Trisha Lane, Dense Prince Roy Gander, Encompassing Prince Ray Gander, World Tree's chosen Kelhus Rutherford, Fate's Chosen Alexis Reeves, Sword Angel Elaine Silver and Vanishing Prince Raven Rothschild. Each of these was a notable figure in the sect's younger generation. Their backgrounds and talents were all enough to shock countless beings in Oceania. While they were not the entirety of what Divine Sea Sect had to offer among their younger disciples, it was a significant proportion of the sect's chosen seeds.

Naturally, these geniuses had met and known each other for a long time. As such, they were quite friendly and treated their peers with respect. After all, only geniuses could accompany geniuses in the cultivation journey. Most of them had been present during the entrance test of the Divine Sea Sect, and hence, they had seen each other's abilities first hand. Over the years, they had kept track of each other's progress as well. Michael naturally welcomed them to his home plane and showed them around. While he was not close to all of them, he too was acknowledged by the group as a chosen seed of the sect. He especially enjoyed chatting with Razor and Ross, with who he was personally close. Razor, Ross and Michael could be considered as the underdogs of the group, as their background was not as impressive as others.

After the entrance ceremony, Razor had chosen to stay in the Dead Sea Sect for cultivation. While he could have chosen any place, Dead Sea Sect was his home and also most suitable for his cultivation. While he was still under the discipleship of Elder Raval, the Dead Sea Divinity had also given him much guidance. His comprehension of the law of death had become very high and he had also reached rank-2 ascendant realm. His undead techniques and armour treasure gave him absurdly high defence and recovery. On the other hand, his attack and manoeuvrability were not high. He had already chosen to focus on defence and recovery as his speciality. Thus, he had formed his combat system around the "tank" template. Among the chosen seeds he would be considered as one of the weakest ones. Ross had chosen to join the Divine Sea Sect as a disciple. He was a cultivator of the law of wind, thus he had naturally joined the camp of Blue Wind Divinity. Over the years, Blue Wind Divinity had given him some lessons as well, through which he had also attained rank-2 ascendance. With his martial talent, he had already learned the flow of strength to major completion and also mastered a few other flows to minor completion. These flows complemented his agility and allowed his speed and attacks to be powerful. His combat system was of the "speedster" template.

Combat-system was a popular term used by cultivators to define the system of abilities that complemented each other, maximising the combat power of cultivators. The five basic aspects of combat between cultivators were - attack, defence, agility, recovery and energy. Attack referred to the offensive abilities of cultivators. This was not necessarily physical strength or spells. Even treasures like sword or explosives were covered under "attack". "Defence" and "Recovery" were similarly defined. "Control" referred to the control over one's body, energy as well as the battlefield. "Energy" referred to the overall energy level of the cultivator. It was also the foundation of combat, the cultivation level. Energy not only decided the total endurance of a cultivator, but it also decided how strong their attack, defence, recovery etc. will be. All abilities could be overloaded with energy to exhibit greater power. A divinity and a mortal using the same skill were completely different concepts. Thus, every cultivator would practice skills that focussed on these five aspects. This was the traditional wisdom present since the immemorial era. Of course, combat between cultivators depended on many other aspects like territory etc. but it was not counted under the basic aspects. In the ancient era, the Wisdom Emperor talked about several templates of combat systems. These templates included "tank", "ranger", "attacker", "warrior", "spell master" and "assassin", "hunter" and so on. He had gone on to detail these combat systems with a significant amount of research, benefitting all cultivators.

Creating one's combat system was a difficult process but once created it would maximise the potential of the combatant. Michael himself had been stuck on this question for a long time. While Michael had fought in a lot of battles, his style of fighting basically included close-combat and overwhelming strength. The combat template that best suited his personality was naturally the "warrior" template. Alas! He had already decided on the laws that he was cultivating. While the laws of life and death were extremely powerful, they were most compatible with "support-type" combat templates like "assistants", who could buff allies and debuff enemies. After that, the combat class of "spell master" could be considered as there were many powerful spells that could affect life and death. The "warrior" template was the most unsuitable to the laws of life and death. Warrior combat class required that one should have somewhat balanced abilities in all five aspects of combat, mostly focussed on physical powers and martial arts rather than spells. The laws of life and death had very little compatibility with the "warrior" template. While there had been some seniors who had walked the path of warriors in the Samsara Sect, they were a small minority. If Michael were to choose that path, he would not be able to get much help from his predecessors, which would limit his potential. While he could choose other combat classes, it did not sit well with his instincts. Thus, he had yet to decide the direction that he would choose.

"How's your cultivation been, Michael? Still worried about your combat system?", asked Ross.

"Yeah. I really can't decide.", replied Michael somewhat dejectedly.

"You are walking too many paths. You can't become a master of everything. People have limited energy. You have invested yourself in too many things. This is why you are not able to form a combat system either. I would suggest that you give up on some of your paths and focus on the cultivation of laws. It will make your burden lighter", said Razor.

"But I don't want to. It goes against my instinct! I have a feeling that I can somehow combine some of my paths, but I have not made a lot of progress in that direction. Cultivation really is hard, a mistake along the journey can truly end your path.", Michael said.

Ross sighed before saying, "I can feel your pain, bro. You had no choice but to choose the laws of life and death. You did not have any support in your initial years, making the start of your path crooked. Even now, none of the elders in the sect can help you as none of them cultivates the laws of samsara. I have heard from my father that there is a Samsara Sect in the heavenly realm, which specializes in the samsara laws. Alas! You can't get their guidance. Still, I believe in you. What you have achieved is nothing short of impressive, even from the standards of divinities when they were younger. There is a reason you got the moniker of Miracle Worker among the disciples of the sect. I believe that you will pull through this slump and rise like a dragon in the future! Come, cheers to you!". He then downed the glass of alcohol he had.

Michael gave a slight smile before taking a sip from his glass as well.

"What do you guys think about the others? Especially the divine children.", Razor suddenly asked.

"What do you want to know? You should already know Alexis, she is the child of Elder Fate Seer and Elder Sword Saint, already rank 3 ascendant in the laws of fate. I heard that she has also awakened her bloodline 3 times, making her capable of battling law masters on equal terms. It clearly shows how background matters a lot in cultivation, at least before the realm of path. Then, there is Elaine Silver, Elder Sword Saint's daughter with his previous wife. She is rank-3 and cultivates the law of swords. She is suspected to be very close to the law master realm. Again, awakened her bloodline 3 times. Also, her blessing tyrannical qi together with the law of sword gives her attacks the power to slay law masters in a single slash. In terms of the attack aspect, she is already reaching the threshold of rank-5! She can be considered a true monster. Then there is Raven Rothschild, Sludge Sea Divinity's youngest son. His blessing is also focussed on agility, and he too has the same cultivation as the other two. Of these three, the most dangerous is Elaine, most difficult to deal with is Raven and the most likely to survive is Alexis."

"The guidance of divinities truly makes a lot of difference.", said Michael after smiling bitterly. Even though he had been working extremely hard, his progress was much behind the divine children of his generation. Personal lessons from divinities had allowed these children to surpass their peers in cultivation. Their blessings and treasures gave them an edge over others in the same realm. Michael really couldn't compete! While he had also grown stronger and could be said to be comparable to rank-4, it was not the same as the divine children. Rank-4 was only a cultivation rank, and it did not tell much about the actual strength of cultivators. If one were to take Roger, Michael's past subordinate in Kanjur, he could now defeat him head-on. But then, there were some disciples from older generations, both in the Divine Sea Sect and the Samsara Sect, who could wipe the floor with Roger and even dozens of rank-4 of that calibre would only be a warm-up to them.

Every barrier stage in the cultivation process would usually accumulate a lot of cultivators who were unable to cross the wall and move to the next stage. Overall, such ranks could be divided into five grades based on the combat strength one passed. These grades were called initiate, adept, master, super and divine. Law masters could similarly be divided into these grades. Initiate law masters were those who had only achieved the corresponding cultivation realm but did not have any abilities to completely show their strength. These cultivators were only stronger based on the virtue of their energy or cultivation realm. Roger would be an example of this grade. Most of the wild cultivators were usually stuck in the initiate grade as they lacked the support of sects or other organisations. After a law master stabilized their cultivation and developed enough understanding to show the might of their cultivation rank, they would be considered adepts. Gordon Marx who Michael had met in Jupyter was in this stage. Only when a cultivator accumulated great understanding and polished themselves thoroughly would they be considered as masters. Only such cultivators deserved to be called law-masters! If Michael were to fight such cultivators, he might be able to do some damage but he would definitely be defeated. This was also the grade where one could try to attack the wall. Below this grade, there was zero chance of a breakthrough. Even among those who had mastered their law, the number of cultivators who became upper-ascendants was minuscule. Beyond this stage was the stage of supers. Super grade cultivators were stronger than what should ideally be possible at a certain stage. This might be due to special bloodlines, legacies of unorthodox paths or unnatural talents. Michael, Ross or Razor would be categorised in this category if they were to reach the law-master rank. Beyond this was the divine grade or the level that was beyond mortals. Most divine children would be in this stage when they became law-masters due to the tremendous amount of resources they had access to. Alas! A divine grade law master and a divine grade path master were completely different things. In the divine sea sect, even Perseus couldn't be called a divine-grade path-master. There was another grade that was almost legendary, which was the unrivalled grade. Historically, it was almost never the case that two unrivalled grade law-masters faced each other in battle. Such geniuses were so rare that they would usually be alone in their eras. This is especially true for unrivalled path-masters. Each of them was recorded in history. They were even more famous than divinities! Such geniuses were either killed by elders of opposing faction or went on to become bigshots that shook the 3 empires. Many of them had become gods as well. When Ross said that Elaine could slay a law-master in one attack, he meant master grade, rank-4 cultivators. It simply meant that Michael would not last one move against her. The gap between them had almost remained the same since the time he last saw her!

"You are forgetting someone.", Razor said solemnly.

"Who?", asked Michael curiously.

"Ah! He means Kelhus. Kelhus Rutherford. Remember that bastard Charles Rutherford who died to that terrorist in Kanjur. Kelhus is his elder brother. He is the successor disciple for Gold Leaf Divinity. It is rumoured that he is beyond the divine grade and can possibly reach unrivalled grade as a law-master. He is actually very close to becoming a law-master. I talked to the guy, he is very humble and friendly, completely opposite of Charles. But he gives me a sense of danger that I get from the elders in my sect, cultivators who have formed their laws! He is definitely not simple. In our generation, he is perhaps the strongest in the whole of Oceania. He is also very low-key by nature and has hardly been seen battling. As such, I don't have any information on his abilities."

Michael was shocked by what his friends had revealed. While his peers did not understand what unrivalled meant, Michael knew very well. He had seen it in close proximity in the internal battles at Samsara Sect. The head-disciple candidate of Samsara Sect - Ragnar Periya, was an unrivalled law-master. The fact that he was undefeated in the heavenly realm in the 100 years that he had stayed as rank-4 was enough to say. Even god-children had been defeated by him. He could be considered the greatest spellmaster in the realm of law in the known universe. While there were some other people in the three empires that could be considered unrivalled, they had not fought each other yet. As the result of arena battles depended on lots of things including preparations, battle stage and even the rules of battle, it was very hard to conduct a fair battle between candidates who might be neck-to-neck. While it did not matter for the masses, unrivalled geniuses would never step into a game they knew was biased. Michael did not believe that Kelhus was as much of a monster as Ragnar, but since there were rumours and Kelhus had yet to reach the law master realm, he might be able to reach that level in the future. Michael's dao heart was intensely fluctuating with his fighting spirit, but he calmed it down and kept drinking. He was currently not even a match for Alexis, let alone beings like Ragnar. But, he would try to reach that level as well.

"Apart from these four, the others are more or less on our level. Shanner, Trisha, Roy and Ray are all quite strong but not as monstrous as those guys. I would love to fight them and see who's better. After all, our cultivation is the same level, and so are our backgrounds. We can play on a level field!", said Ross before looking at Razor, who was giving him a weird look.

"...."

"What you undead bastard, do you want to say something to this young master?", shouted Ross. He had clearly gotten drunk.

"You always seem to forget about Michael when you say we are from a similar background. Are you forgetful or shameless?", said Razor sarcastically.

Ross's face flushed for a bit before he said, "Of course, I am not including Michael. He is a freak, one that even divinities don't dare to predict anything about. Even Fate Seer can't see his fate! From now on, whenever I say 'we', it means you and me, understood?"

Razor only gave him an eye-roll in return before going back to drinking.

While Michael might have made the best of his circumstances, he would not let that be an excuse for his weakness. He was going to fight. If he couldn't do it with one clone, he would create another one! Michael did not believe in blaming circumstances. Fate was never fair. But Karma was. As long as he worked hard, he would get results.