Death... and me

Roan didn't know what was happening. Instead, he simply kept looking at the sphere with the eye symbol inside it. 'I can't help but feel familiar yet foreign energy coming from it. Dark Element? Not exactly...what is it? There's way too little information for me to figure out.'

Somehow, Roan felt that this sphere was bad news, so he decided to leave it aside for the moment. 'Instead, I need to find the idiots first. Rean and Kentucky can still do since they can use Dark Element. Kentucky has a natural Dark Element Affinity, while Rean has his Dark Star that can gather it. However, Celis and Red are completely vulnerable if they touch another sphere like this one.'

It was then that Roan remembered all of the other demon beasts and Zasfins that entered the Bestial Sacred Land. 'I just hope that their extremely high cultivation is enough for them to defend themselves.' Without wasting any time, Roan pulled out his White Star and attacked the sphere in front of him.

'Death Style, Third Form, Three Claws of the Dragon!'

*Swish, swish, swish!*

*Crack, crack, crack...*

*Shatter!*

Surprisingly, the sphere was pretty fragile. Let alone Roan, even a cultivator at Foundation Establishment wouldn't have any issues destroying it. It's just that someone other than Rean, Roan, and Kentucky would probably be dominated by the eye inside the sphere before they thought about it. 'I doubt this is the only one. I better keep a lookout for others.'

However, the moment Roan destroyed the sphere, he began to hear demon beast cries from everywhere. The only thing was that these cries didn't seem to be coming in his direction. Instead, they felt more like cries of pain, immeasurable pain. Roan immediately thought about the soul-controlling power of the sphere and dashed out of the area, moving in the direction of the closest cry.

When he arrived there, all he could see was another demon beast turning into specks of red light. Of course, nothing killed it. It just died on its own. Not only that, but all the demon beasts near this underground region were suffering the same fate. 'Not only did that sphere keep control over the demon beasts' souls, but it was also the thing that kept them in this world.'

Roan finally understood what was happening in this crimson world, coming up with a conclusion as he thought, 'No wonder the concentration of demon beasts is so ridiculously high. We already know that the Bestial Sacred Ground absorbs the blood of all demon beasts who die on the planet. However, it doesn't only absorb their blood but their souls as well.'

'I haven't seen other regions yet, but I believe they're packed with demon beasts as well.' Roan was right. All one had to do was to look at the place Rean first arrived. How could so many sea demon beasts appear at the same time after just a little blood was spilled on the water? It meant that they had always been around to start with.

The only thing that could make them leave a scene were stronger demon beasts. The demon beast that appeared near Rean and the worm that attacked Kentucky and Celis were very good examples. 'Which means that the origin of these demon beast souls was, in fact, from the demon beasts from outside who died on the planet before. I don't have any guarantee that I'm right, but it's the only thing that fits this situation so far.'

Roan continued with his train of thought, pondering, 'The only reason the concentration of demon beasts isn't any higher is that the demon beasts themselves keep killing each other.'

That also happened in Rean's case, so Roan was right about that one as well.

'That also explains why I haven't seen any demon beast at Stage One or Two. There were very few at Stage Three, and the majority was definitely above this level.' Roan then looked at the disappearing demon beasts before returning to the area with the shattered sphere. Roan then grabbed a small shard of the sphere before putting it in his spatial ring.

Yes, Rean used the Communication System to get ahold of two Spatial Rings, which were extremely rare. Why? Because that would be the perfect cover for their Soul Gem Dimensional Realm. Besides, it also worked in case Rean and Roan were too far away from each other. It would be definitely better than using bags to carry things. That's how important the Zasfins thought the communication system to be since even Elemental Transformation Realm cultivators like Fizer found it expensive.

Of course, compared to the enormous realm of the Soul Gem System, the ten cubic meters of space inside the Spatial Ring made Rean and Roan feel like there wasn't any space there to start with. The two simply couldn't be compared. Not to mention that those Spatial Rings didn't have the power to hold any life inside, only inanimate objects.

After one last look around the area, Roan took a passage that was behind the sphere when he first entered the area. This time, Roan finally saw what seemed to be the outside world. He was right. After one entire day of fighting demon beasts nonstop, dead ends, and following any path up he could find, he was now on the surface.

Roan looked around for a moment and could see a few demon beasts who hadn't noticed his presence yet. Instead, they seemed more aware of their own presences, as if trying to control themselves to not attack each other. Roan ignored that and immediately activated Rean's Light and Spiritual Sense bending skill through his White Star's Light Element Gathering ability.

After that, he looked in the direction where he could feel Rean's presence before dashing away. He wasn't able to move in a straight line before because of the tunnels, so he ended up somewhere even further away. In any case, Rean wasn't in his mind at the moment. Instead, what was going in his mind was...

'Spheres that control the souls of demon beasts and make them fight. Their bodies are probably byproducts of the blood absorbed from the dead demon beasts of the world. Just why is there such a thing in this place?'