Death... and me

Phex pondered over the question for a bit before eventually deciding to explain. "You do know that the realm above the Elemental Transformation Realm can't be talked about, right?"

Rean and Roan nodded as Rean responded, "If we say its name, the heavens will punish us. Isn't that right?"

Phex confirmed. "Correct. To be honest, we demon beasts don't have a 'Stage Nine' level. We only use this name so that others can understand what realm we're in. But to be more exact, we're at the same level as those cultivators above the Elemental Transformation Realm."

That was something new that Rean, Roan, and Kentucky didn't know. Then again, they had to admit it made sense. After all, why would you be able to talk about the Stage Nine level for demon beasts and not the Transition Realm? Now they knew why.

Darian continued the explanation from there, saying, "The reason we can't surpass this 'Stage Nine' cultivation level is that the heavens of this place won't allow it. It doesn't matter how many times you try to break through into the next realm. The bottleneck simply won't budge. Do you know why?"

Rean and Roan pondered over it for a bit when Rean got an idea. "It has always bothered me. How come the same energy is always used for every single realm? Cultivation becomes harder and harder the further you go. At some point, even high-level Spirit Stones would start losing their effect. After all, it's still Spiritual Energy."

Rean then looked at Darian before asking, "It's the type of energy, right? At the very least, I believe that the concentration of Spiritual Energy in this 'Realm of Gods' is several times higher than any other place here."

Darian smiled in response, replying, "Smart! That's correct. It's the type of energy that isn't good enough. Spiritual Energy has its limits."

Darian then spread his Spiritual Sense and asked a subordinate to retrieve a few records in the Underwater Palace. Not too long after, a shark-type demon beast arrived at the hall while holding a few cylinders with its Spiritual Energy. After Darian dismissed the shark, he opened the cylinder, which had a few animal skins with some words written on them. It's just that Rean, Roan, and Kentucky couldn't understand what was written.

Seeing Rean, Roan, and Kentucky's puzzled expressions, Darian explained what was written for them. "These records were left behind by our ancestors who were on our planet long, long ago. They say that the path to the Realm of Gods was once open. From inside, they received the higher energy necessary for a breakthrough. Every time a demon beast reached Stage Nine, it would go through the door, entering the Higher Realms. There, it would finally enter the Stage Ten level. Of course, Stage Ten is the same as Stage Nine, just a name we use so that the heavens won't punish us."

Rean, Roan, and Kentucky could now understand why the Bestial Sacred Ground was so important for the Demon Beasts. It wasn't only limited to the extra strength they received from it. For the demon beasts at Stage Nine or those who could reach it, that place was more important than their lives.

Darian continued, "Unfortunately, the path to the Higher Realms had closed a long time ago. As for why that happened, no one knows."

Roan couldn't help but mention, "You did say that after Kentucky arrived on this planet, the Sacred Ground began to act on its own, right? If the passage to the Higher Realms really opens, then that's most likely the reason, the lack of Divine Demon Beasts. Perhaps you had the right amount of them before. But after it reached a boundary number, the path lost the Divine Demon Beasts' support and closed."

Darian, Phex, Xaon, and the other Stage Nine Demon Beasts couldn't help but feel amazed by the twins. They didn't say much, but they were able to guess the reason almost instantly. In the case of Phex's group, they took quite some time to come up with this theory. "I wonder if the education in that Sunkan Planet of yours was so much better than ours..." Phex murmured for a moment.

Darian quickly recovered and agreed with Roan's words. "That's what we think it to be as well. It seems like the addition of Red and Kentucky was the trigger to activate the Bestial Sacred Ground."

"Probably. That place is able to affect the entire planet, so it should be able to feel the presence of the Divine Demon Beasts of the world," Rean added.

Roan then asked something else. "What does the Bestial Blood Pond have to do with any of that? By the way, Red went against the demon beasts because he thought you guys kept killing demon beasts to fill that thing."

"Bullshit!" Phex immediately exclaimed. "I won't say that demon beasts haven't been thrown inside before. After all, that place exists for as long as our records go. However, I can guarantee that during my life, we have never filled it with anyone's blood. We don't know how it exactly works, but that place is capable of gathering the blood of the demon beasts who died anywhere in the world."

Rean and Roan immediately thought in their minds after hearing that, 'Just like the Soul Gem System mentioned in the mission. Well, it makes sense that they know about it as well after being in control of the demon beasts for so long.'

Rean then smiled as he raised his hand, telling them, "You might not know this, but I am certain of this. I came from Sunkan, where the level of formations is much, much more advanced. I can guarantee you that this Bestial Sacred Ground is controlled by a formation, a really ridiculously high-level one."

Phex and the others didn't find it surprising, with one of them responding, "We also think the same. It's just that we don't have any Formation Master capable of confirming it."

Darian then looked at Roan before saying, "You asked what the Blod Pond had to do with anything. I'm not sure if it's used to open the path to the Realm of Gods, but I'm sure it's used to increase the demon beasts' strength on our planet. That's because it never gets full as if it is in constant use. Since demon beasts eventually die, the balance is kept as well."

Roan nodded after hearing that. "That's good enough. So, what do you plan to do now?"

"Simple." Phex grinned as he continued, "It's time to escalate this war."