Death... and me

"Because of the war between the three realms, the souls of the dead were being constantly destroyed as well. After all, you never know when Soul Devils might appear on the battlefield with that many dead. But with the war over, no one was caring about the Dead Souls around anymore. Thanks to that, Soul Devils began to appear right and left nonstop," Kafan explained.

"Of course, the high-level cultivators that were still alive noticed that problem and tried to intervene. Unfortunately, they simply didn't have cultivation energies to go around and destroy the Soul Devils and the Dead Souls anymore. Anyone with Divine Stones and similar at that time was rare, really rare."

"At some point, these same cultivators began to die, even those at the Space-Time Realm and Divinity Realm. They were strong, no doubt. However, that was as long as they had cultivation energy to fight. Without cultivation energy, they could only rely on the power of their bodies."

"I can't even imagine how it felt to not be able to control space, time, divine energy, and these things anymore. For those old monsters that were only alive because of their cultivation realm, living was probably nothing but torture. Then there was the Soul Devils. They did what they could to fight against the Soul Devils, but as more Soul Devils continued to appear, these Space-Time and Divinity Realm experts began to die, too. That is not counting those who simply decided to end their lives now that they couldn't cultivate any more."

Roan pondered a bit and asked. "When did you come out? Was it at this point of the story?"

Kafan nodded. "Indeed. After the experts of this side of the Universe got this weak, my Death Spirit race didn't have to fear being hunted anymore. If anything, we could totally dominate this side of the Realm of Gods with our strength, even if we were very few. After all, there was no lack of dead souls around for us to transform into Death Energy."

Still, Roan found it strange. "There is one thing I don't understand. Just like Death Spirits, there are other races out there that can also cultivate through the use of other energies. For example, faeries use karma, and kibins use virtues. Such races are rare, but considering the size of half of a Universe, sure, there were more of them on this side, right? Shouldn't they also have dominated this side with the Death Spirits?"

Kafan shook his head. "Did you hear my story at all? What part of my Death Race was hunted down you didn't understand?"

"Ah!" Only then did Roan remember that part. "Indeed..."

Death Spirits could cultivate without Divine Energy. Since the cultivation energies were disappearing, any race that could cultivate without them immediately became the public enemy number one. That was another reason Kafan hid with his Death Spirit race. As for the other races... they didn't have an expert at Kafan's level who could totally escape on his own even if the whole half of the Universe was pursuing him.

"Simply put, the other races that could cultivate without the main cultivation energies were completely eliminated before the situation reached a point where they would hold the absolute advantage," Kafan concluded. "Not to mention that such races usually have great difficulty cultivating and are usually very few in numbers. How could they escape the hunting of the rest of the half of the Universe? Even my Death Spirit race, which has me at the top, got most of its members killed before I took the rest and hid. Let alone the others."

Kafan sighed. "By the time we came out of hiding, there was no other race on this side of the Universe that could cultivate without the main cultivation energies. They had been eliminated a long time before that."

Roan nodded. "I understand. That was the moment when your Death Spirit Race rose to power."

"Not quite," Kafan shook his head. "I told you, didn't I? This side of the Universe was brimming with Soul Devils. Deaths and more deaths continued to happen with no reincarnation path to take care of the dead souls. When we came out, the Soul Devils had already taken the normal experts' place. Angels? Devils? Living Beings? They were done for already. If anything, the moment we appeared, we became the Soul Devils' main enemy instead."

"It's quite funny, isn't it?" Kafan couldn't help but ask. "There isn't much of a difference between Soul Devils and Death Spirits. Yet, we simply couldn't feel more threatened. The main difference between both races is that Soul Devils use dead souls directly. They are pretty much a huge agglomeration of many dead souls together. As for us, Death Spirits, we first have to convert the dead soul into Death Energy before making use of it. Each method has its advantages and problems."

Roan knew that. "Converging the dead souls first to only then use their energy is a very lengthy process. I can imagine how slow a Death Spirit's cultivation is. As for Soul Devils, their cultivation relies on absorbing dead souls directly. That's because they are, in the end, just a bunch of dead souls merged together. Their cultivation speed is many times faster, but the problems were obvious. The main one is definitely memories. The more they gather, the more jumbled their consciences become."

Kafan nodded. "When a Soul Devil is born, it is nothing more than a crazy existence that doesn't know anything. Too many consciences and memories are fighting each other inside that soul devil. Yet, this crazy existence goes around killing and absorbing even more dead souls without a limit. Very feel Soul Devils can really become a single entity with a single conscience. But..."

"But there were just way too many Soul Devils, so Soul Devils that succeeded in becoming single consciences began to appear due to the huge number of them. Pretty much a brute force method," Roan concluded Kafan's words.

"Exactly," Kafan sighed once again. "Now, it was up to our Death Spirit Race, which had just a few tens of thousands of members at that time, to find a solution."