Chapter 111: Demon Race
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Bai Yu seemed to be just beginning her explanation, but Ethan was already horrified by the information he received.
Among the many things he had just heard, the one that shocked him the most was the death of the deities who had entered the place.
Ethan didn't know what kind of beings these deities were, but he was certain they were on an unimaginable level compared to his current self.
Even Bai Yu, who was clearly much stronger than the beings leading the mortal plane, seemed not to be on par with these deities.
The first time Ethan had heard of deities, he imagined immortal and indestructible gods who governed the laws of nature.
But now he was learning that half of these gods had been eliminated, and the others, as far as he understood, had fled from that dimension and then sealed it.
Did this not imply that whatever was beyond, in that dimension, was much stronger than the so-called gods above the two heavens?
What level of existence must they be?
Ethan had always aimed to cultivate to the peak of cultivation, to be the strongest of all, so that no one could hurt him or those he cared about.
He wanted to be no one's pawn and have control over his own destiny, and so on.
Reaching the level of these deities seemed like a good goal, even though he had no idea if he would ever get there.
But now knowing that even at that level one was not entirely safe made him feel that the path he had chosen had become even longer and perhaps more impossible.
He knew that his goal had never been completely feasible in the first place, but it was better to hope for something than nothing, and end up losing the will to move forward.
Having spent a lot of time alone in his past world, he had always tried to persevere and move forward even when life struck him from all sides.
He didn't want to give up because he knew that once he did, he would only fall deeper and perhaps never be able to resurface.
Now he was beginning to lose hope once again upon hearing this.
The only comfort he had was that he had some tools helping him to progress in this new world, and perhaps these would elevate him to a sufficiently high level in the future.
As Ethan got lost in contemplation of the various consequences of what Bai Yu had said, the latter, not paying much attention to Ethan's inner turmoil, waited a few seconds before continuing to explain what seemed to be the origins of demonic Qi.
"This new energy initially did not seem particularly harmful, but it soon became clear that this was not the case.
According to our knowledge of the past, as soon as the surviving gods discovered that this energy had leaked, they mobilized a great force to track it down and eliminate every trace of it.
This action might seem a bit exaggerated, but the damage this energy caused was severe enough to justify the means used.
This energy spread very rapidly, affecting many parts of the celestial plane.
All living beings in these areas gradually lost their rationality, becoming creatures driven entirely by their instincts.
If it had been only this, then it would not have been a great problem to eliminate all traces of this energy, but it was not so.
You might not know this, but the celestial plane is many times larger than the immortal plane, so vast that it was difficult to scour the entire plane in a short time.
Even with the intervention of all the remaining gods, it still took several decades to explore it completely, and during this period, the effects of this corruptive energy on the celestial plane worsened.
After several years, in the areas affected by this corruptive energy, a new race began to emerge.
The Demon Race.
These beings, although driven by their desires for destruction and chaos, retained their own consciousness and did not completely surrender to their instincts.
The reason why dealing with beings corrupted by this energy was relatively simple was that their consciousness seemed to be eroded over time, turning them into brainless beasts, making them easy to eliminate without suffering too much damage.
But it was different for enemies who could maintain their rationality.
Over time, they managed to think and evolve their consciousness and, within a few years,
the celestial plane found itself having to manage beings capable of learning the customs and languages of other races,
of camouflaging themselves among them and of causing all kinds of atrocities and chaos."
Ethan, having no idea what the celestial plane was like, could only vaguely imagine how damaging this could be.
"This gradually affected all races, ultimately leading to a great war that damaged much of the celestial plane, a war of proportions never seen before, involving almost all the races inhabiting the celestial plane.
This war lasted for centuries, and entire races were completely wiped out.
This is also considered the dark age of the celestial plane.
In the end, a way was found to detect this energy with reasonable precision, and with the joint action of the gods and all the other apex beings of each race,
they managed to start containing this ever-growing plague and eliminate it gradually.
This cleansing action lasted for some time, but eventually, almost all the places infected by this energy were eradicated, and the demon race was slowly eliminated as well, or at least, that was what was believed," she said, pausing.
Ethan waited for her to continue, while he thought about something:
'From what she said, demons had spread in the celestial plane.
Why did they not consider the possibility that they could also infiltrate the mortal plane?'
Ethan still knew little about this world, but he had done his fair share of research on its history, cultivation, and customs, and he could say that there had never been an event of this kind in the previous centuries of history he had read.
He had read mostly about all the significant events, leaving out only the less important ones.
He had never found any record of a race resembling demons.
As if to answer his question, Bai Yu continued.
"You see, all these events happened more than a million years ago, long before I was born, and in all this time, no trace of this energy has ever been seen again.
Therefore, the fact that this energy appeared in the mortal plane is unexpected.
You see, the bridge connecting the mortal plane to the celestial plane is practically one-way.
Once a person manages to cross it successfully, there is almost no chance of them returning.
The same applies to those born in the celestial plane.
They too have no way to descend to the mortal plane.
This applies to both living beings and anything else.
Therefore, it was never considered that demonic energy could spread to the mortal plane because the guardian of this plane would not have allowed it or at least would have noticed if such a thing had happened," she said with a frown.
At this, a question arose in Ethan's mind.
"If it is true that it is impossible for something to descend to the mortal plane, then how did the Amphora of the Seven Sages end up here?" he asked, finding the situation strange.
From what he had been told, the amphora and its owner had already ascended to the celestial plane.
So, there should be no way for them to return.
The amphora was clearly a powerful artifact, most likely not created in the mortal plane. So how did such an artifact appear here?
Now that he thought about it, Bai Yu had said that the previous owner of the artifact had already taken it when she had met him.
Could it be that he had obtained the artifact in the first place not in the celestial plane but here, in the mortal plane?
Perhaps the Amphora of the Seven Sages has the power to travel between the two planes?
"I'm not sure.
The Amphora of the Seven Sages is one of the oldest artifacts in history, almost dating back to the primordial era, an era about which very little is known.
In that era, there were many powerful beings who could rival the current gods governing the celestial plane, and perhaps even surpass them.
This artifact was forged by some of those beings, so it is considered very powerful and everyone desires it.
The chaos it created upon reappearing after so much time is proof of that.
The only person who knows more than any of us is certainly Yīng Hua,
but as I told you, she has never said much about herself or how she found this artifact,
which had long been considered lost."
Ethan understood and did not ask further about the matter.
Now the main issue was the demon race.
Ethan did not know if this race had already appeared here as well, but just the presence of demonic energy was a cause for alarm.
Ethan had no idea how long this energy had been present in the mortal plane, but it could not have been for long, otherwise, he would have already seen its consequences.
Just these individuals who went around and managed to use it without completely going mad was proof that this energy was just starting to spread, at least in the Long Empire.
Ethan had no idea about the rest of the continent, as he had never been outside the Phoenix Kingdom in the two years he had been in this world.
But he would certainly have heard if this energy had already appeared elsewhere; after all, it is too destructive to be ignored for so long.
This is what Ethan thought, and Bai Yu had a similar supposition.
But in a palace hundreds of miles away from the Phoenix Sect, Prince Jian, who had confronted his father about the appearance of this strange creature, seemed to have heard something completely different.
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