Death... and me

Roan thought about the other side of the Universe. "Kafan, with your power and your Pocket Dimensional Realm, couldn't you simply go to the other side? You can even communicate to the other experts at the same level as you through the manipulation of the laws, can't you? It sure shouldn't be that difficult for you to traverse to the other side."

"Now, it wouldn't be a problem indeed," Kafan added. "The two sides of the Universe have stabilized, so it is possible if I try at this moment. However, the story was completely different back then. The power of the split of the Universe left the crossing point impossible to traverse. It was just too chaotic. The spatial storms and time inconsistency in the whole region near the splitting point were deadly even for someone at my level."

"It wouldn't be before several millions of years that it would start to calm down," Kafan continued. "Of course, if we waited until that time, my Death Spirit race would have been completely wiped out. I wouldn't be surprised even if a few Soul Devils at my level appeared by then."

"I see..." Roan didn't know about the consequences of the split, but he could tell Kafan's words made sense. "You had no choice but to deal with the Soul Devils before they got too strong."

Kafan confirmed Roan's words. "Yes. Of course, it wasn't all bad news. The Soul Devils did indeed dominate this side of the Universe by them. However, that was because all the other races were basically mortals now. It didn't mean the Soul Devils themselves had grown too strong. The strongest Soul Devils that developed a single consciousness were something around the Transition Realm. That was far from enough to be a risk to my Death Spirit Race."

"While my Death Spirit Race members were hidden with me, it didn't mean they stopped cultivating," Kafan recounted their story. "I went around while carrying everyone in my Pocket Dimensional Realm. Obviously, I kept myself out of sight and never intervened with anything. I didn't even get close to any living beings during those hiding years to not raise suspicion."

"Nonetheless, I made full use of the dead battlefields where countless dead souls roamed without objective. I collected just enough Dead Souls to send to my Death Spirit members in my Pocket Dimensional Realm before once again hiding and only coming out many years later to refill my pocket Dimensional Realm with more dead souls."

Rean, who was hearing everything, couldn't help but narrow his eyes. 'Now that I think about it, doesn't that mean the Death Spirits are preventing the dead souls from reincarnating as well? It might be something good at this moment with the situation on this side of the Universe. But back then, before the Universe split, I'm pretty sure no one liked it very much. The idea of having their souls converted into Death Energy to increase a Death Spirit's cultivation was probably quite terrifying. I don't quite like this...'

Roan snorted through their soul connection. 'So what? Everyone cultivates the way they can. Death Spirits can only use Dead Souls to cultivate. Or what? Are you saying that we should have just waited to die because our methods were too despicable? Would you have just sat around and waited for your spirit to disappear?'

Rean went silent. At the very least, the Death Spirits weren't like the Soul Devils, going into rampages to acquire more and more souls. They seemed to have a conscience... or at least Kafan did. 'Fine, I probably would still take them to cultivate.'

'Hmph! At least you were not a hypocrite,' Roan said before turning his attention back to Kafan.

Kafan didn't hear their conversation, obviously, so he just continued his tale. "By the time we left our hiding, most of the Death Spirits in my care were in the Void Tempering Realm and above. Not to mention, they were trained by me, so they obviously were much stronger than those Soul Devils, even if my death spirits didn't have the cultivation advantage."

"That brings me to another question," Roan interrupted Kafan. "I know I was born in the Universal Transition Organization as a copy. However, how are Death Spirits, the real ones, born? Soul Devils basically are an agglomeration of countless dead souls, but what about the Death Spirits?"

Kafan smiled. "That is another reason why our Death Spirit Race has such small numbers. In fact, we are a little similar to Soul Devils in this regard... it's just that we are not an agglomeration of Dead Souls. Instead, we are a single dead soul that evolved itself into a Death Energy form."

Roan narrowed his eyes. "No wonder you said Death Spirits aren't exactly alive. They evolved from a dead form, so they are still somewhat dead. Still, how come there are only Death Spirits on this side of the Universe? Shouldn't the other side, which also has many battles, have a lot of Death Spirits as well?"

Kafan shook his head. "You were right... until the point when the Universe was split into two. After that, the other side of the Universe didn't have the conditions to give birth to Death Spirits anymore."

"Why?" Roan asked back.

"Because of the Reincarnation Path," Kafan answered. "Before, the reincarnation path took care of the entire Universe's dead souls. Thanks to that, it often missed a few dead souls here and there. When you take the size of an entire universe, those few dead souls that were not brought to the Underworld would have an extremely low chance of becoming a Death Spirit."

Kafan continued. "However, now that the Reincarnation Path is on the other side and only has half of the Universe to deal with, it simply doesn't miss any Dead Soul anymore. Every single Dead Soul, as long as it isn't purposely locked in the Living Realm for some reason, will definitely go to the Underworld. Naturally, it became impossible for Death Spirits to appear on the other side. There were definitely several Death Spirits on the other side after the split, but after such a long time, all of them probably died already. That's why you haven't found a single one there."

Kafan then remembered a certain Death Spirit. "Well, there is one Death Spirit who survived up to this day on the other side. Perhaps you will meet him someday."