Ace had long since noticed all of the familiar presences in the audience; still, he couldn’t be bothered with any of them. His sole focus was on doing whatever was necessary to help his mother with her tainted soul.

After doing what he could to pacify his mother’s anxiety, he calmly nodded at Leo before calmly stepping off Carter’s back with his Divine Beast right beside him.

The moment Ace’s group appeared, everyone’s attention had been focused primarily on Carter, Arianna, and Ace, but the moment Ace and Leo stepped towards them, one by one, the various experts began to look at Leo with shock that quickly turned into greed.

They were all knowledgeable experts. As such, it didn’t take long to figure out that the only way a beast at the sixth rank could emit such a terrifying aura was if it were a Divine Beast.

Fain was no exception. The moment he understood the truth about Ace’s familiar, he became all the more determined to recruit Ace to their side.

“Ace, was it?” Fain smiled amiably as he slowly floated towards the young genius. “On behalf of my master, welcome to…”

The warm smile on Fain’s face quickly turned to a frown as he watched Ace pass him by without so much as a glance in his direction as if he was nothing but air.

He was one of the very few experts who could claim to stand near the peak of their continent. There were very few who were qualified to treat him with such disregard, and as far he was concerned, Ace wasn’t one of them.

Still, he knew that virtually all young geniuses tended to be arrogant, much less a talent on the level of Ace, and because of how important it was to bring Ace onto their side, he quickly suppressed his displeasure, but by then, Ace and Leo had already landed in the centre of the ring.

“My name is Gol D. Ace, the top-ranked core disciple of the Yin-Yang Pavilion,” Ace said calmly, skilfully using his haki to replace battle-qi, allowing his voice to be heard even by those at the base of the War-God’s Mountain. “I originally came here to challenge those of the War God’s College, but after my visit to your War God’s Academy, it became painfully obvious that the standard of warriors produced by your O’Brien Empire is shockingly low.”

As he said that, Ace could feel the rising anger of the residents of the Empire. Many wanted to attack him there and then, but before they could make a move, Ace continued.

“Today, unless one of the so-called elites of your War God’s College can defeat my beast partner, Leo, I won’t bother to even step in the ring,” Ace declared before calmly stepping off the ring, leaving an overgrown, obsidian lion with a red hue coating the tip of its fur at the sixth-rank in the arena growling threateningly as he waited for his first opponent.

Even though his face was the picture of indifference, on the inside, Ace was chuckling to himself.

This was the first time he had Ace had ever acted with such arrogance in such a public setting, and he had to admit, it was pretty fun – mainly because it allowed him to vent at least a portion of the anger he felt towards the Empire whilst going a long way to establish the dominance of the Yin-Yang Pavilion.

He didn’t seem to mind that some of the most influential beings on the continent were glaring daggers at him right now, including the officials from other forces; he remained indifferent.

“What do you intend to do now?” Desri asked curiously as Fain landed back on the ground beside them.

“Give him exactly what he wants,” Fain cooly replied; a bolt of lightning flickered his eyes as he looked at the dark-haired teen standing just beside the ring. “Even if it is a Divine Beast, I refuse to believe that it’s as heaven-defying as its partner.”

As he said that, he gave a nod to Castro, one of his junior brothers who was in charge of training the elites of the college.

“Kanrem, go up,” Castro said coldly as an evil glint flashed across his eyes. “When you’re finished, I don’t want that lion to be able to leave the ring on its own. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” Kanrem replied before moving like a flash to appear on stage.

Ace couldn’t help but raise a brow, seeing who was sent up first.

Of the students present, there were over a dozen in the ninth rank, yet the student they sent up first was at the peak of the eighth rank.

The last time Leo had really let loose was against Alissa’s former master, a warrior at the mid-stages of the ninth rank, but as he knew Saber had suppressed the details of what happened that day, he doubted anyone outside of those present that day knew of this.

Still, they would definitely know from the battle against the Rohault Empire that Leo at least had the strength to defeat peak eighth-rank warriors. Add that to the fact that Leo was a Divine Beast, that it had been over a year since then, and that they couldn’t afford to lose; it didn’t make sense not to send one of the ranks nine warriors, but the fact that they hadn’t spoke volumes about the trust they had in the young man on stage.

It was only when Ace saw the man summon a pair of navy-coloured twin cudgels that realisation dawned on him.

“Kanrem Chanrim, fifth-ranked student of the War God’s College,” Kanrem announced icily as a dense killing intent erupted from him as his eyes fell on Ace. “The one who will make your beast partner suffer for your arrogance.”

It was only when Kanrem’s voice entered his ears that Ace looked up from the man’s ring, a sincere look of pity appearing on his face as he replied. “Good luck.”

Seeing the way Ace had looked at his ring, a bad feeling began to creep inside of Kanrem, but there was no stepping back now.

It was then that the hairs on the back of his neck stood on edge as he felt the surrounding temperature skyrocket.

Feeling as though he had somehow lost the initiative, Kanrem tried to regain his dominance by being the first to attack.

He launched himself towards the lion, swinging both cudgels at its head with all his might, hoping to crush him in one go, but that was just the beginning. It was then that he did something that caught many of the viewers by surprise.

“Supergravity Field!” Kanrem shouted, directly tripling the gravity and pressing down on Leo, hoping to keep the divine beast from moving.

The reason for everyone’s surprise was partly because it was rare for a warrior of the O’Brien to spend any time cultivating as a mage, even if they had the talent for it.

Take Olivier Akerlund, for example. Despite being so incredibly gifted as a warrior, his talent as a mage was not one whit inferior. Still, even after becoming a warrior at the peak of the ninth rank and knowing that the easiest and most time-efficient way to improve his strength was to cultivate his mageforce, the thought never crossed his mind – that was just part of the culture of the O’Brien Empire; mages were wholly inferior to warriors.

Still, there were quite a few who chose to become mages instead of warriors, and although much rarer, there were some who, like the students of the pavilion, focused on both paths using one to compliment the other.

So although slightly surprising, it wasn’t enough for so many to have so visibly shown their reaction. No, the main reason for their shock was because despite there being so many saints present, not one – including Desri – was able to sense the young man’s mage force, despite him apparently having reached the sixth rank.

And the fact that he could insta-cast a spell of the fifth rank with the power of a sixth rank only added to their surprise.

Still, Desri and a few of the other more powerful Saints had quickly understood the truth of the matter.

“Umbra Force Ring,” Desri muttered as he focused on the ring worn on the Kanrem’s right index finger.

The Umbra Force Ring was a very rare and expensive artefact with three incredible abilities. First, it acted as a storage ring. Second, it hid the mage force of the user. And last but not least, it increased the spiritual essence of the wearer by one rank, provided they were under the seventh rank. Meaning that, in reality, Kanrem was only at the fifth rank.

Still, whilst everyone else was getting over the shock of Kanrem’s abilities as a mage, a helpless sigh escaped Ace’s lips.

A few months ago, back when the “Demonic Trio” were going around destroying Saber’s branches one after the other, one of the branch vice-managers, a man in the mid-stages of the eighth rank, also had an Umbra Force Ring.

At the time, Killian could only fight one eighth-stage expert at a time, so Leo had to get involved and take on the other.

Leo already had the power to rival an expert at the ninth rank, so he didn’t think much of the man. But it was because of that negligence that a warrior that Leo didn’t put in his eyes was able to get the drop on him and injure him.

Although the injury was far from fatal, it still served as a wake-up call for him.

That in and of itself was all well and good, but Leo happened to be a petty Divine Beast. The moment he saw the ring, he understood what his sly opponent was planning.

Before the crowd could get over their initial shock, they were hit by another wave of surprise, this one far exceeding the shock caused by Kanrem.

Before Kanrem’s strike could land, a blazing aura made of pure beast force coated Leo’s body, all but incinerating most of both of Kanrem’s cudgels, but the most shocking thing was the aura emanating from Leo’s flames.

“Profound…” Desri muttered as he clearly sensed the infusion of the laws of fire.

“AHHHHHHHHHH!” Kanrem wailed, his pain-filled cries snapping everyone out of their shock. “MY ARM!”

Kanrem, who had leapt back to preserve his life, was now holding his seared stump of an arm.

Leo didn’t seem to hear the man’s cry as he disdainfully snorted before stepping on the severed hand on the floor before him, burning and crushing both the hand and ring.

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Book 10: Part 1 – 100 Years In The Celestial Realm