In the Sumeru world, fleets of warships were currently docked in the airspace around one of the largest cities of the eastern continent. This city was located in the sky, making it easier for the large expedition ships to dock around it. At the same time, the city was huge. Even the large-scale warships of the sects from the law ocean, which were as large as countries in the mortal world were easily docked around it without covering the entire space. This was the capital city of the Great tribe of Wings, Azure. Azure city was one of the key places in the Sumeru world, a centre for trade, commerce and a congregation of thousands of tribes. The city was ruled by the Winged tribe, one of the eight great tribes of the Sumeru world. The winged tribe, as their name suggested, cultivated totems of winged beasts. Their astral avatars granted them the ability to fly at incredible speeds. Flight for cultivators was a common ability in the law ocean but it was not so for the tribes in Sumeru world. Only cultivators who had completely formed their dao and reached grade-4 astral cultivation could float on air with the power of their cultivation. This threshold was equivalent to only upper-ascendants being able to fly with their own power. Thus, the proportion of cultivators who could fly in the Sumeru land was very small, if one ignored the cases of winged astral avatars.

The winged tribe was actually a conglomeration of several tribes, all sharing the commonality of flight. They were specialized in speed and manoeuvrability and were the largest ariel force in the world. Thus, they were the first to contact the large airships of the outsiders. After initiating the contact, they communicated with the foreign cultivators on board and created diplomatic relations. This allowed the two groups to share information and dissolved the tensions between them. While neither side trusted the other completely, they treated each other with courtesy and respect. Due to this, the winged tribe allowed the outsiders to come to their capital city. Of course, they were confident in their ability to handle any problems that the outsiders might cause. After all, there was a god guarding the city.

As both sides communicated, they learned more about each other's abilities as well as cultivation pathways. To the winged tribe, who had been isolated from the three divine countries in the Sumeru world before the advent of devils, it was an unprecedented learning opportunity. Even though the cultivation system of outsiders was not suitable in the Sumeru world, there was a lot of wisdom hidden in their path that would help their tribe. It would also help them in fighting the devils. The cultivators from the law ocean were also very interested in the cultivation system of the natives of the Sumeru world. This was one of the main gains from their expedition, a complete astral legacy! While both sides hid all core secrets and skills, the common knowledge from two different systems was enough for the two groups to study for a long time. Thus, for the last few months, the outsiders from Oceania and the winged tribes notable cultivators had exchanged pointers and studied together.

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Inside Azure city, in one of the posh sectors, the disciples from the sects were interacting together in a fancy resort. Surrounded by the forest, they were either sparring or telling each other stories from their cultivation or adventures.

"I am telling you, Razor, the forest spirits here allow you to meditate very easily. As I had said before, our cultivation is much more difficult than you guys. We have to meditate constantly to sharpen our willpower and consciousness. When our mental strength reaches a suitable level, we can increase our astral avatar's grade. Without mental strength, there is no point. It is our foundation. You guys can directly cultivate the laws around the world into your bodies, which is extremely convenient. In our case, once a cultivator forms their dao, they need sufficient willpower and consciousness power to constantly improve and expand their dao. Each improvement becomes more and more tied to willpower and mental strength."

Razor, who was strolling along with another disciple of the winged tribe was having a heated discussion. He refuted the point bluntly, "Law cultivation is not easy. It tests your comprehension to the extreme. While we don't need to condition our mental strength, the process of creating a new law is much more troublesome than the process of creating your own dao. If expanding your dao is like drawing a painting, then forming your law is akin to solving a math problem with no solution in sight. It requires a lot of work and great luck to succeed in the later stage of our cultivation pathway whereas it is much easier for you all. Just look at the makeup of cultivators in our two systems. Less than one in a million cultivators of the celestial pathway manage to reach the peak ascendant stage whereas the number is almost ten times that under your system. It is because while your system is much more stable and has more potential for improvement. Alas, you guys are limited by the entry barrier of blessings of the world or you would have many more powerful cultivators."

The disciple he was talking to frowned and said, "I still think that our system is more difficult. But your point about having appropriate blessings is correct. The blessings of the world are not easy to obtain. A large portion of blessings is obtained by rituals by shamans who use the dao power of cultivators as offerings to the world in exchange for the world's blessing. Or else, if we just use the power of the world without replenishing it, the path to cultivation will end for all. But most cultivation tribes have their own methods to bless newborns. Thus, it is not really a problem for us. But if you guys want to be blessed, it will not be easy. After all, we are bound by the code of tribes and can't make these decisions on our own. If Rock Island directs us to do so, we will engage in trading for blessings but we haven't received any such directions yet. I don't think that you all will receive any powerful blessings, but some of you might be able to get an ordinary blessing to get started on our cultivation path. Would you be interested in that?"

"Sigh! No, I would rather not. I don't want to become a jack of all trades and a master of none. Given how difficult the path of cultivation is, I would rather focus my efforts on cultivating laws. Although the issue of suppression will be there, at higher stages, it becomes negligible. Also, there is much more guidance for me on this path. Cultivating in a foreign system will only give half the results with twice the effort. But I do know someone who would be perfect for obtaining such a blessing.", Razor replied.

"Do you mean your friend Michael? I am indeed interested in him. For him to already have stepped onto the path of consciousness and dao, he would perhaps be the most suitable among all of you to obtain a blessing. When he returns and starts cultivating our path, I would really like to spar with him. After all, I want to see how good a genius from your world is!"

Similar discussions were going on around them as the disciples exchanged their knowledge and experiences. It was another one of highly productive sessions for both sides.

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In the central palace of the winged tribe, the divinities from different sects of Oceania were also studying different parts of the cultivation system from this world in great detail. At the same time, in one secret room completely sealed with overwhelming power, four people were currently engaged in a discussion. They were Fate Seer and Sword Saint divinity along with the muscular person with reptilian eyes and horns, Diablos Pendragon and another man having solid wings behind his back, the dao god in charge of the Winged Tribe, Icarus. The Winged tribe patriarch had initially not given much importance to the expedition from Oceania. With his powerful senses, he had already scanned all the ships and seen through all the secrets of the members. While he did not understand a lot of foreign mechanisms or treasures, he could roughly measure the energy level of these things, giving him a clear picture of the power of the entire fleet. That was also why he allowed the expedition to dock at his capital city, he had been confident in his strength to handle the entire fleet if they tried anything shady.

Alas! he received a rude awakening when he met Diablos Pendragon in person. As Diablos released his energy, the fully corporeal dao of primordial dragons danced around him, showing his status of a dao god! This was completely out of his expectations and he had been extremely shocked and somewhat scared of Diablos then. With the ability to fool his dao sense, Diablos could have easily landed a powerful surprise blow. Icarus was not worried about dying, but it was only because Diablos was not that powerful yet. He could see that he had only ascended recently and was lacking in accumulation. If Diablos had been much more powerful, he could have truly slain Icarus with enough preparations and an ambush. That had been a truly eye-opening event for Icarus, who had never thought that his dao sense could be fooled.

Only later did he find out that it was due to a powerful concealment treasure created by a true god who specialized in refinement. The event had put a lot of pressure on Icarus, clearly showing him the outsiders' stance, "We have enough means to hurt you, so you better not think that we are weak." The negotiation for cultivators of his level usually worked around the deterrence of mutual destruction. While Icarus had more accumulation compared to Diablos, he was far from being at the level where he could kill the other party. In the entire Sumeru Land, only the Sumeru Lord would be able to do so. Diablos could easily try to ambush him and escape afterwards. At the same time, the entire fleet, as well as the entire city, had also become hostages and chips in the negotiation. Overall, Diablos' ability to hide his presence from dao sense had given him a superior hand, despite being weaker than Icarus. Followed by that, the two dao gods had discussed their dao trying to find inspiration for future growth. For experts of their level, further growth was harder than scaling the universe. The accumulation of a god was inadvertently tied to their experience and knowledge. Interaction with others of the same level was one of the best ways for grasping valuable knowledge. Apart from discussing their respective paths, Diablos also asked for two more things, first, introducing him to the other gods of the world and second, helping Fate Seer divinity in coming up with a solution against calamity fate. By now, all the gods in Sumeru land had already met with Diablos once using their projections. As it was inconvenient for all gods to gather before the upcoming thousand tribe tournament, they decided to meet with Diablos during the tournament itself. They were also planning to make matters public and formally acknowledge the Oceanians as guests and allies to their world during the tournament. The details of an alliance between both sides would only be settled in a combined meeting with all gods and important divinities. Before that, they were working towards understanding the calamity fate and its possible solutions.

"This calamity fate is very complex, and we don't have any records of it. Without looking at the actual person, I can't design a ritual for the condition with just the records that you have. But we have researched plenty of blessings related to fate. If you are willing to pay the price, you can have the research records of other tribes as well, and even have the Sumeru Lord himself conduct the ceremony. I believe that with our research in shamanism and the power of so many dao gods and the world-will, we can even eradicate this problem completely. Whether you can afford it or not is a different matter.", Icarus said confidently.

"Currently, we have already formed a preliminary list of things that can be exchanged. I think that Fate Seer and Sword Saint can come up with a satisfactory offer, you should remain carefree about that. Well, all this will only make sense if the girl manages to pass the first calamity. If not, we can only let things go.", Diablos replied while looking in a certain direction. The power of his dragon dao focused on his eyes, allowing him to pass through the confines of space and the laws of the world to directly see Alexis' current situation. But what he saw caused him to raise his eyes in surprise.

Looking at his reaction, Icarus also riled up his dao strength and looked in the same direction trying to catch Diablos' gaze. What he saw was a large hall where a large ritualistic magic circle had been drawn. In the centre of the magic circle was a young woman who was a bit pale, as if she had lost all signs of life. It only took him a glace to see through her suspended animation state, but it nevertheless impressed him. He thought to himself, These outsiders also have pretty miraculous powers. Their application of laws is very interesting. Suspending her between life and death not only makes it so that she is not killed easily by the calamity, but it also weakens the calamity fate surrounding her. What a brilliant method! Alas! the power of this method seems to be failing and will soon run out. Looking at the several shamans surrounding the magic circle, he could see that this was only a small tribe. The fact that such a tribe was holding a fate-shaman awakening ceremony was already impressive. After all, this was one of the better rituals that only large tribes were able to conduct. Also, he could see another man in the core of the magic circle. This person looked as if he was taking the role of anchor in the process of awakening the fate-sense of the woman. Awakening the power to sense fate required one to choose a suitable anchor who would act as the main source of fate that would be sensed by the blessed. Generally, it was one of the elder fate-shamans who would take the role, as they had a certain degree of control over their fate. Given that this tribe was unlikely to have fate-shaman, this man should be the one filling the role. The man was good looking and gave off a powerful aura, likely a genius of the tribe. Icarus could feel that this man had reached grade 3 in cultivating his astral avatar and had formed his dao to a large extent. He would be a great talent even in the great tribes. Looks like this tribe has been blessed with luck. The upcoming tournament might be their chance to shine.

What a pity that the chance of this ritual working is too low without a fate-shaman. Even if it were to work, the ability to sense fate would not be able to help the girl in any way. Even if coupled with her innate blessing to obtain favourable fate subconsciously, the result is nowhere enough to deal with the calamity. The girl will likely die soon. Sigh! How terrifying!

"Well, at least there is some hope. If the ritual succeeds, she might be able to survive.", Icarus said before removing his gaze. What he didn't know was that Diablos was surprised due to a completely different reason.

This kid is truly resourceful. Not only did he manage to grasp the cultivation method of this world, but he has also already created a base. His power is even greater than before he started the expedition. How did he manage to get a blessing? The tribesmen of this world are extremely guarded when it comes to important blessings that allow one to cultivate astral avatars. How did he manage to convince them to bless him? Given that he has destroyed his law marks, he might even be able to blend in like a native. Alas, the tribe that blessed him would already know the truth. I can't act carelessly to plant a spy at this stage. But there is no need to bring this to Icarus' notice. After this thought, Diablos shared the information secretly with Fate Seer and Sword Saint divinities.

After their meeting, Fate Seer and Sword Saint divinity exited from the sealed room. Fate Seer divinity then went on to meditate while trying to find a chance to save her daughter from the upcoming calamity.

I can feel that Alexis is at a turning point. It seems like Michael is trying to awaken fate-sensing blessing through the ritual. Danzo has already gone to obtain the resources for the fate-interference ritual. I need to act in conjunction with the fate-sense ritual to make sure that it succeeds! Even though the chances of success in defying fate are minuscule, I have to try my best!