C1595 Bertain
Indigo Wraith, hailing from the ranks of the Star-Spawned Terror, shuddered at the mention of the Great Demon God Bertain. He had endured a crushing defeat in the Everlands and was subsequently imprisoned in the Moonfall Sanctuary for many years. His return to the extraterrestrial realm came alongside Taishi's emergence, borne with the bronze coffin.
By aligning himself with Taishi, he joined the Boulderdawn, effectively renouncing his ties to the Sky Fiend Clan.
Now, it was he who escorted Yu Yuan to meet the Great Demon God Bertain...
The thought of the formidable elder, potentially observing from the remnants of the battlefield, filled Indigo Wraith with unbearable shame and a cold shiver down his spine.
"I haven't been granted permission to remain here, so..."
With a heavy sigh, Indigo Wraith, having brought Yu Yuan this far, turned and walked back towards the smooth, wall-like rock face.
A massive, black demonic flower materialized on the wall, its petals undulating with space magic.
As Indigo Wraith stepped into the flower's bud, the apparition vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
His departure left the world in utter silence.
The ruins of palaces and the desiccated bones around them seemed to whisper to Yu Yuan of the fierce battles that had raged here long ago.
"How odd..."
Yu Yuan murmured, feeling an uncanny familiarity with this ancient extraterritorial battlefield, as if he had visited it more than once before.
Memories, once dormant, stirred to life in his mind.
To his left lay a Titan warrior, his head shattered, towering over a dozen feet tall in gleaming silver armor, seated amidst the rubble.
Yu Yuan recalled the image of this very Titan, his skull crushed by a hurled warhammer.
Directly ahead, the fragmented remains of Silverscale Tribe warriors were strewn about.
A flicker of recollection passed through his mind...
He remembered a radiant burst of light that had erupted among these warriors millennia ago, obliterating them in an instant.
A hundred meters behind him, an elder of the Starborn lay with a robe dusted in cosmic patterns, a hole piercing from his forehead to his brain.
It seemed that with a mere glance, Yu Yuan had conjured a soul blade that had cleaved through the elder's mind.
Next to the Starborn elder, a platinum Shura appeared to have been slain in flight, his natural armor sundered by a blade that had pulverized his heart.
Yu Yuan surveyed his surroundings, noting that as time had eroded the land, the vital energy within the bodies of the Otherkin had been completely drained. Surprisingly, he had been the one to slay many of these formidable Otherkin warriors. The memories of these events were clear in his mind.
"This ancient battlefield seems to be where I first made a name for myself in the extraterrestrial Star River. It was here that the mightiest among the Otherkin began to take notice of me," Yu Yuan mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
Suddenly, a bizarre spectacle unfolded.
A Titan warrior, whose head had been shattered, rose from his seated position as if he had been resurrected.
A Starborn elder, dead for tens of thousands of years, dusted off his robe, his mummified face revealing a serene smile.
Members of the Silverscale Tribe, their skeletons incomplete, appeared to be hastily reassembled as they supported each other to their feet.
The Everlands archdemons, devoid of any vital energy, creaked as they too slowly rose, their hollow, web-filled eye sockets staring blankly.
Further away, the more fragile members of the Crypt Clan, Fire Lizard Tribe, Wingkind, and Shadowkin, along with the skeletal remains of humans, seemed to flicker with newfound sentience.
With a whoosh, Yu Yuan gracefully ascended, hovering midair over the ancient battlefield, his gaze sweeping across the landscape.
The once-dead clansmen, numbering in the tens of thousands, now appeared to be animated, as if spirits had taken possession of their bodies, transforming them into demonforms.
A cacophony of voices erupted from their mouths as the various Otherkin conversed in their native tongues. The sounds emanating from their tongueless, fleshless mouths were eerily unnatural, sending chills down one's spine.
Yu Yuan watched the ghostly scene before him with a grave expression, feeling as though he had been abruptly transported back to that bygone era...
Once, this place teemed with life from all races, serving as a bustling marketplace for intertribal trade.
Beings from different tribes poured in through the Starway, offering up their Astral Domain's unique goods in exchange for rare treasures that could enhance their bloodlines.
They haggled animatedly, sharing tales of cosmic wonders and discussing the latest weather patterns and celestial storms.
Then, one fateful day, disaster struck.
Cultivators and the Demon Army of the Everlands descended upon this place, and a brutal slaughter ensued.
Yu Yuan gazed upon the fallen human cultivators, their demonforms a dull, grayish-brown, moving with such stiff and comical motions as they clashed with the otherkin warriors of this realm.
Humans spoke in their own tongue, while evilkind let out ferocious roars, and warriors from various races shouted at the top of their lungs...
A history long vanished was now eerily re-enacted after tens of thousands of years, as if a host of ghosts had returned to the mortal world.
Yu Yuan fell silent.
He realized that the Demon God Bertain had descended, fragmenting into tens of thousands of devil souls, inhabiting the corpses of the fallen from various races, reenacting that bygone era.
These tens of thousands of Otherkin appeared as independent entities, each with its own distinct soul.
These corpses uttered different words and engaged in various actions.
In that moment, Yu Yuan had the sudden impression that if the Demon God Bertain chose to intervene, he could single-handedly alter the course of the battle.
With a mere thought, the Demon God's dark will could possess the spirited bodies of tens of thousands of combatants, either seizing direct control or manipulating them with psychic force.
Perhaps he could even affect wars occurring elsewhere simultaneously.
Solar Spirits, cultivators of the Unbound realm, archdemons of the eighth and ninth levels, Demon Gods, platinum Shuras, and Starborn warriors like Beru—all might find themselves unable to evade Bertain's soul erosion.
Even the highest primordial spirits might not be spared...
Considering the interstellar conflicts and the brutal wars waged by the various races against the Everlands, if he truly wished to intervene, could he not effortlessly alter the outcomes?
He ought to possess the capacity to dominate every battle he was aware of through his own might!
If so, what gave the humans and evilkind of the Everlands the right to dominate the extraterrestrial Star River?
With this thought, Yu Yuan suddenly felt a sense of oppression.
From mere subtleties, he had recognized the horror of the Demon God Bertain, sensing that this formidable being needed no allies to upend the existing order of the Everlands.
Bertain exuded a presence that could be summed up in twelve words: all-knowing, ever-present, and all-powerful!
With such a being existing beyond the Everlands...
Yu Yuan felt a tinge of bitterness in his heart. He soberly recognized that the Everlands' current standing might solely be due to the Great Demon God Bertain, who had merely been an observer all this time.
He was the one who had permitted the rise of the Everlands!
But why?
As this thought crossed his mind, Yu Yuan noticed a towering figure with a thick, luxuriant red beard that nearly covered most of his cheeks on the extraterritorial battlefield.
The old man's red beard seemed unnatural, appearing from a distance like flames.
His eyes were also a deep red, as though he had spent too many nights awake, now bloodshot.
Yet, his spirit was vibrant, radiating an energetic and lively aura.
"Qi, welcome back."
His voice was deep and warm, yet filled with a sense of strength.
It seemed as though nothing in the universe could disturb his peace or instill fear in him.
For he was Bertain.
His address of "Qi" shocked Yu Yuan as if he had been electrocuted. He instinctively rubbed his eyes and gazed at him intently.
"You, you..."
Yu Yuan faltered.
The master from his memories, shrouded in obscurity, had appeared on the extraterritorial battlefield after so many years, now standing before him with a smile.
But wasn't it supposed to be the great Demon God Bertain who had agreed to meet him here?
Had his master's body been taken over by Bertain or transformed into a demonform?
His gaze darkened sharply.
"Don't be consumed by speculation. If you have any questions or confusion, feel free to ask me directly."
The tall, red-bearded old man looked at Yu Yuan with a gaze full of admiration and reassurance, then said softly, "Not only as Hong Qi, but also in your first life, I was your guide. Your comprehension of Spirit Magic, your access to the soul sea beneath the Everlands, and your success in ascending to godhood—all were because I am your master."
Yu Yuan was completely dumbfounded by these words.
In his first life, as Taiyin the God-King, was the Great Demon God Bertain really his guide?
How could that be?
"Is it through me that you wish to enter the soul sea beneath the Everlands?" Yu Yuan demanded.
"Through you?" The Demon God Bertain shook his head and chuckled dismissively. "Foolish boy, it's you who passed through me to enter the soul sea. I, Bertain, was the first to be favored by it; you are merely the second."
"And as for why I allowed the Everlands to flourish, hehe."
He looked at Yu Yuan with a smile and asked, "What is the most crucial step for the humans of the Everlands to reach the pinnacle and secure a Supreme God position?"
Yu Yuan appeared confused. "Is it the transformation of the dominant soul into the primordial spirit?"
"Who am I? And from which Sky Fiend race do I hail?"
"You are the leader of the Star-Spawned Terror, the chief of the Primal Demon."
"God and demon, merely a letter's difference. Do you truly believe there's an essential distinction?" Bertain inquired.
Yu Yuan was taken aback.
"The way for the Human Race to ascend to the supreme primordial spirit was revealed by me to you, and then from you to others. In the Infinite Galaxy, aside from the cosmic giant beasts, only we, the Star-Spawned Terror, and your Human Race's primordial spirits are immortal. The moment a human's dominant soul metamorphoses into a primordial spirit and attains immortality, they become one of my kind."
"The so-called primordial spirit is, in essence, the Primal Demon."
"Every time a supreme being from the Everlands is born, at the instant their dominant soul transforms into the primordial spirit, our Primal Demon Clan gains a new member."
"Why, then, would I seek to suppress my own kin?"
