Chapter 336: Ultimate grade fourth axis The old man looked at Ethan with a calm smile again. "If you join me, I will answer your questions. If you do not, then I will not answer." Ethan thought for a moment. This faction was undeniably powerful. "Are you the ruler of this faction?" Ethan asked directly. The old man brushed his beard and laughed loudly. "I am only a branch manager, and she is my assistant." Ethan’s eyes widened. A completely new world of power opened before him once again. His system had always been omniscient until now. But the moment he arrived here, it did not know anything. Its law of karma did not work on these guardians. Ethan was certain this force was far beyond his and Yumiko’s comprehension. "I do not know whether you are good or bad people. Without knowing your faction’s motto, I cannot join. I do not want to join a faction willingly today only to destroy it myself in the future because of a misconception." "Hahahahaha. My friend, you are very bold. You clearly know you are no match for me, let alone my entire faction, yet you can still say this, I like that confidence within you. But rest assured, my faction is not an evil one. Conflicts for resources exist, but that is normal everywhere. So, what do you say?" The old man spoke calmly. "Can I come here to cultivate regularly if I join? And if it turns out someday that you are an evil faction and are deceiving me now, then when I have enough power, I will destroy the faction for today’s betrayal. Do you still want me to join?" Ethan asked with the same calm tone. "Where am I getting this ridiculous amount of confidence from? I had to dance like Tarzan just to reach this floor, and now I am sitting in front of someone stronger than every being in the origin dimension, yet I am not scared at all. Maybe I am a psychopath." Ethan rebuked himself silently. For some strange reason, his inner self refused to back down and insisted on treating the old man as an equal. "Hmph. Audacious." The girl who had been silent beside the old man finally spoke. An infinite pressure crashed down on Ethan. In that moment, he felt as if he stood before a cosmic beast, while he himself was nothing more than an ant. The old man did not stop her. He wanted to see where this young man’s confidence came from. "Master inviting an ant like you is already the greatest reward you will ever receive. And you dare speak of destroying the faction? Alone? Just because master is silent does not mean you stand on equal ground with him. Know your place, insect. Do you think I will spare a bug simply because it reached this floor?" Blood streamed from Ethan’s mouth and eyes. [Master, please apologise. We are no match for them right now.] But Ethan did not hear Yumiko’s voice. His brain was on the verge of collapse. His thoughts faded and his senses twisted. He could no longer think or respond. Just as Yumiko prepared to reveal herself to apologise, something snapped deep inside Ethan’s source of origin. A primordial beast awakened. Yumiko’s voice froze in her throat. Tears rolled down her cheeks. [This is master’s true presence.] A silent explosion seemed to echo through the world. Ethan opened his eyes. Those eyes were stripped of any emotion and compassion. They were like endless voids. And that void gazed at the woman. The moment Ethan’s gaze landed on her, she collapsed. She vomited from the sheer terror before falling completely. Lifeless! The woman was gone. Even her origin,which was being preserved in the headquarter of the Realm of Ascension, vanished instantly. The old man shot to his feet. "Sir, please calm down. We mean no harm. This was only a test," he said, panic breaking through his voice. He knew exactly what had happened to the girl. Only the leader of the Realm of Ascension could erase someone like that. Not even the vice leader had such authority. Ethan remained seated, looking at the old man with those calm, empty eyes. The man felt his soul being sucked toward that endless void. Now he fully understood why the girl had collapsed in terror. If his mental strength had been even a little weaker, he would have died instantly. He felt as insignificant as dust right now. "What is he? How can the mausoleum give birth to such an existence? No, this is impossible. We should not have done this. We threatened a god. We are finished. Even our leader is nothing but an insignificant ant before this entity.",the old man was loosing his sanity every passing seconds. Regret stabbed through him. He should have stopped the woman. Now he understood the source of Ethan’s confidence. Then everything snapped back to normal. Reality returned. The crushing void vanished. Ethan blinked and saw the woman’s lifeless body on the ground. "Huh? What just happened?" Ethan remembered nothing of what just occurred. He remembered only that the woman placed immense pressure on him, and then everything became blank. "Yumiko, what happened?" Ethan asked. Yumiko was still in a daze. She had always believed Ethan possessed power similar to the strongest origin being in the origin dimension, but today she realized she had been wrong. The entire origin dimension had been wrong this entire time. [Master, that woman suddenly died.] She said only that much. Since Ethan remembered nothing, it meant his original self still did not permit him to know the truth. The restriction remained. "Old man, did you kill her?" Ethan asked in confusion. At that moment, the old man finally understood why the supreme law of the mausoleum had restricted him earlier. It was not acting willingly. It had been forced to do so because of a restriction placed on her. The old man was a seasoned monster. He immediately knew how he should respond. "Yes, my friend. She was too impudent, so I punished her. As you said, if you ever feel that we are an evil faction, you may destroy us. And you may come here anytime you want. I am giving you full authority, equal to my own." He spoke with a gentle smile. Ethan cursed him internally. "What an old fox. Something terrifying clearly happened here, but he will not say a thing." "Alright then. Put my name in your faction. I am going to break through. By the way, I do not feel any change in my body. Where is my fourth axis?" Ethan asked. "When you begin your breakthrough process, an ultimate grade fourth axis will merge with you," the old man said politely. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂 "What are the grades?" Ethan asked curiously. "Floor one to floor eleven: Legendary Grade, level one to eleven. Floor twelve to floor twenty-two: Epic Grade, level one to eleven. Floor twenty-three to floor thirty-three: Mythical Grade, level one to eleven. Floor thirty-four: Supreme Grade. Floor thirty-five: Origin Grade. Floor thirty-six: Ultimate Grade," the old man replied. But he did not mention that only up to floor thirty-five could someone obtain a graded axis. The origin grade was the highest grade achievable throughout all branches of the Realm of Ascension. This was because on floor thirty-six, the manager lived there, and there was no one in all of creation who could defeat someone above the origin realm while still being in the third dimension. The ultimate grade was personally created by the leader of the Realm of Ascension, the origin source of the entire branch. By granting it, he was essentially giving 100% control of this branch to Ethan, as soon as the old man sent the information to him.