Heading deeper into the circle they were coming across traces of the poison overlord.
"Looks like it was attacking something." Sasha said.
"The divine beast will be born soon who would try to attract its attention now?" Warren asked looking at the sky as the clouds grow more and more vivid and the energy in the area dwindled. The scale of Csepel was would barely even be a a hundredth of the divine beasts birth.
"Hard to say for now this poison is still fairly fresh so it has not been too long." Sasha added.
Before it could speak one of its clones was suddenly destroyed, "Their is something to the west it destroyed my phantom before it could detect anything."
"What do you all think human or beast?" Daer asked.
"Human." Warren and Elaine agreed on that while Sasha had no clue.
"I'd have to agree it seems we will have to be even more cautious." Daer said.
"Rat focus most of your phantoms in the between the area your clone was destroyed and where we are heading." Warren instructed.
"Understood." The rat replied. It was far more terrified of Warren now after he had seen his strength.
After a few hours of them progressing all the phantoms the rat had sent to investigate had been destroyed without learning any new information. It was a problem but something be aware as the birth of the divine beast would soon dawn on them.
"Excluding the group I have no information about I've discovered 5 other groups in the vicinity. One is a of people wearing yellow robes with a sword piercing into a cloud on it. The second is a group of people wearing green and white robes that has a half heart symbol that also had a snake coming out of it. The third is a roc with a few weaker immortal birds around it. The fourth is a hell hound also with a pack of weaker immortal beasts. The last is naturally the poison overlord but its alone and currently sleeping."
"The Sacred Sect, and the Life-Death Clan are here as expected of our neighbors." Daer said.
"Still who is the last group to be able to deal with the phantoms without being noticed?"
"I can think one one but if its them this is a bigger deal than we can imagine." Daer replied.
"I can only think of one from the great sects is it that one?" Sasha asked.
"The Fortune-Sealing Sect the sealers of Karma and the ones who convinced the world to seal the leviathan. If it really is them then we will retreat immediately." He said because of they were involved things would get tricky. Of the the great sects they were the only one where the entire sect cultivated a divine path and it was that of Karma.
"Would they be here because of the Cult of the Beast?" Sasha speculated.
"It hard to say but whatever the reason if it is them the ramifications of what happens here today are far greater than we can expect." Daer said.
"I will organize our priorities now. One if the Fortune-Sealing sect is here we will retreat immediately no matter what we are doing. Two is our lives don't fight till death run if you feel the slightest danger. Three will be the capture or killing of the divine beast. Four will the the capturing of immortal beasts if injured call for Sasha to tame it she will keep herself hidden. Five is the other sects. We have are competing against them but we also have a good relationship with them so avoid engaging unless attacked first. Of course still be wary of them they likely won't try to kill us but if they have the chance to rob us they will likely take it. Any questions?" Warren said while taming a divine beast for the sect would be good it was still unknown what path it would be of so it was not worth risking their lives for.
"What if it is a divine beast at the level of the leviathan what then?" She asked since the value of a divine beast would be affected by its path.
Hearing the other realized they had overlooked something so simple because they were not sure if the Fortune-Sealing sect was here. If it really was them then this would easily explain why they would show up here.
As Warren was about to speak a single bolt of heavenly lighting struck down from the sky. This was not meant to harm or hurt the beast but to acknowledge it as a divine beast as its body finally began to form.
"If it is such a divine beast then no matter the cost we much retrieve or kill it no one else should get it." Warren solemnly said watching the birth unable to get closer if he wanted.
At this moment all the immortals were watching in great anticipation of what would be born. It took minutes for the light of its birth to begin to die down but what was left was a black tortoise the size of a hand. It may be a newborn and small but from birth it was already a perfect immortal.
The black tortoise began looking around full of curiosity after being born but it was at that moment that the speculation was confirmed and the Fortune-Sealing Sect appeared. Wearing purple robes with a serpent eating its own tail on the back they immediately grabbing hold of the beast but it was short lived as it easily slipped out of their hands.
"That's not a black tortoise its the Cosmos Wander Tortoise." Sasha said as the only one there who would have the knowledge to be able to recognize it.
"Sasha are you positive?" Warren turned to her asked.
"Yes I've seen the record of it in the sect. Although it looks similar to the black tortoise its shell is different. You can see a single sapling growing out of its shell only something the Cosmos Wander would have." She explained.
While Sasha was explaining the tortoise was easily evading the capture attempts of the Fortune-Sealing Sect. No formations were capable of containing and being newly born it had no Karma for them to make use of causing them to struggle to capture it.
While they were struggling to capture the beast the poison overlord was about to make its move.
"Sasha bring out all your beasts and alert the sect leader we need reinforcements we cannot let anyone else have it." Warren quickly ordered her but just as she was about to do that a massive sealing formation appeared enclosing them all. It was something that had been prepared well in advance to not be noticed.
"Elaine how fast can you break through this formation"
"It would take at least two hours this was prepared well in advance." She said from that she also guess it was them who had a conflict with the Poison Overlord.
"Then we have no choice but to fight we cannot let anyone capture this beast. It is one of the only creatures capable of walking the path of reality." Warren said having heard of it in his long life.
While they were discussing the poison overlord was moving. It was an enormous spider that was a vivid purple. It's exoskeleton also appeared like that of scales causing it to glisten under the moonlight.
As it moved a mist spread out from its body luckily since it also wanted to capture the tortoise it was not deadly but it would still paralyze the cultivators here overtime. On the other side the humans had naturally prepared antidotes in preparation of facing this beast while the beast were relying on the natural resistances of their bodies.
With no choice the leader of this expedition from the Fortune-Sealing Sect came out to face the spider.
"We have already deduced through our victory through Karma cease your pointless struggle." The leader spoke still hiding his appearance under a hood.
"My territory… my beast." The spider replied in an eerie voice that was impossible to tell if they were male or female.
"Then as you wish inner world! Karmic Ties to Hell." The man spoke enveloping the entire area in his inner world.
Naturally in response to the release of an inner world the rest of the immortals began releasing their own as well. As the over 20 inner worlds overlapped with each other clashing 5 inner worlds had had forced the rest to recede unable to maintain inner worlds outside.
"Inner World! Divine Light!
"Inner World… Death Can Die."
"Inner World. End of Paths."
"Inner World! Shadow of Eclipse!"
As it stood the five with the strongest inner worlds were the cultivator from the Fortune-Sealing Sect, the Sacred Sect, the poison overlord, and the greater beast the roc and Warren.
Because these five were far more powerful than the rest they forced the rest of the inner worlds to collapse. Normally such a thing would not be a problem but since the Fortune-Sealing Sect had also set a formation to trap everyone they could not even use their inner worlds to escape and were thus trapped in the overlapping space of the five inner worlds.
Now with five inner worlds superimposed over each other it would be a competition of who could defeat the other's first.