Soul Venerable (Re-written)

 

Morgen World consists of an uncountable number of ‘planes’ like underwater air bubbles that stick to each other closely. There’s actually no exact record of how long Morgen World has existed, but the oldest historical writings suggest that it has experienced three great eras: The Primordial Era, The Dawn of Gods, and the Age of Heroes.

It first was self-explanatory; the Primordial Era is the time where the world was still in its infancy. The energy level of the world was so high that they could support the existence of Primordial Beasts, each being a literal incarnation of nature. Some were as big as mountain ranges, some possessed a body as large as moons, some could be considered as sea, clouds, sea of forest et cetera. 

Intellectual lifeforms such as humans, elves, dwarves, mermen, giants, and others are merely livestock or slaves for the primordial beasts that ruled the world, if they even existed at all. As the lifeform located on top of the food chain, primordial beasts were not only insanely powerful, but also numerous.

It is said that the original Morgen World was actually a supreme material plane before the primordial beasts claimed some territory and then sever the material plane into the countless dimensions like what it is today. Of course, that hearsay whose sources dated back more than a million years ago couldn’t be verified, therefore they are merely legends and myths.

The second great era is the Dawn of Gods which started from a million years ago until ten thousand years ago. The Dawn of the Gods signifies the departure of the primordial beasts. Perhaps, they left after claiming their own dimension, or perhaps the gods slaughtered them all, it was irrelevant. This was the era where gods ascended and slaughtered each other, competing for land (territory), believers (slaves), and resources (wealth).

Near the end of the Dawn of Gods, civilization started to develop. In fact, the oldest writings existed a hundred thousand years ago in some ancient elven civilization. There were absolutely no records whatsoever regarding what happened before them. That being said, some of the oldest creatures in Morgen world are actually decrepit living fossils who existed since the late stages of Dawn of the Gods.

After the Dawn of Gods was the Age of Heroes. There was merely one significant change from the two: Divine Ascension has become incredibly difficult due to the change of dimensional laws of Morgen World. During the Dawn of Gods, there would be gods ascending every thousand years or so. The highest record was three divine ascensions within a period of one hundred years, yet divine ascension became almost impossible in the Age of Heroes.

Ten thousand years ago, an extradimensional lifeform later known as Astral Beast breached Morgen World’s dimensional laws. The Sacred Alliance kept a tight record about any information regarding the Astral Beast, but Shion knew it was actually a denizen of the Astral Realm (the void between Morgen World and other planes).

The Astral Beast were rumored to be as powerful as the Primordial Beasts, but there was no record regarding primordial beasts, so how can one compare between the two?

However, the astral beast being stupidly powerful beyond mortal comprehension was an empiric historical record. At that moment, the gods who could walk the earth with their true body are being rejected by the dimensional laws just as the astral beast was. Their influence became extremely limited, not allowing them to interfere with the material world meant they could not defend them from otherworldly invaders such as this one.

But, on the brink of despair, the heavens will often leave a way out.

When half of the inhabitants of Morgen World have been murdered, the world’s karmic luck experiences a great change. It was as if the Morgen World World’s Will altered the dimensional laws so that it could protect itself. Under the support of dimensional laws, the strongest intellectual species in the world become even more powerful until they eventually produce a peerless expert incomparable to any mortal.

Thus, the first hero was born.

“The First Hero was known as the Eternal Time Dragon, the leader of the dragon tribes in her era…” Shion muttered silently as she continued reading the historical records.

The Hero was venerated as the Hero because the world’s karmic luck is centered around them. Not only does the hero enjoy extreme luck to the point of being dogshit, they were also protected by the world’s dimensional laws. Everything that they’d do would bring benefit to themselves, they would always gain territorial advantage in the environment they fought in.

One of the example of their dogshit luck was how the First Hero dug a random pit in the ground and suddenly found a tomb of an immemorial dragon with its wealth intact, or while casually resting on top of a dormant volcano only to suddenly find out that there was a primordial healing spring underneath…

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call the hero as the darlings of the world.

“If you fight against the hero, you’ll find yourself fighting against the world itself. Your karmic luck would be siphoned continuously to empower the hero. Harmless unlucky events such as tripping over a small pebble will escalate into meeting hailstorms during a sunny day or even one’s weapon breaking during battle.” Shion chuckled at the dogshit luck of the Hero.

Yet, even with that kind of dogshit luck, the First Hero was still unable to win against the astral beast.

This gave birth to the existence of the Braves, a group of people underneath the hero who received the world’s blessings, yet not to the point of being dogshit.

If the hero could freely choose between landing a head or tails as they wish, then the brave would be correct 70-80% of the times through sheer dumb luck. Perhaps tossing a coin into the air couldn’t be used as the perfect analogy, but it could represent the idea.

That being the case, it became common sense that every Hero would form up a party of Braves to cover up the Hero’s deficiency. Although it was unknown how many Braves existed in that period, the First Hero managed to kill the Astral Beast with their help.

“Until now, the Astral Beast’s corpse is still locked behind the vault of the Sacred Alliance, while the First Hero’s Divine Ascension officially signifies the beginning of the Age of Heroes. The First Hero was the only one who managed to ascend in the last ten thousand years, proof that divine ascension requires far more than skills, knowledge, racial traits, bloodline, accumulation and dogshit luck stacked together.”

Worshipping the Eternal Time Dragon which was the First Hero, the Eternal Dragon Church was born under the light of glory. One of its most famous blessings was the blessing of lifespan which grants the blessed one an extended lifespan without any consequences whatsoever, longer youth period and other time-related miracles.

As the progenitor of time-path, the First Hero was also the one who made the prophecy about 72 otherworldly invaders that would threaten Morgen World, indirectly creating the systematic foundation of the Sacred Alliance in central continent and its Hall of Heroes where the inheritances of Heroes and their Braves would be left for future generation.

“The world regains peace after the death of the Astral Beasts and the ascension of the First Hero. However, in the year 4.005 A.H (Age of Heroes), the second otherworldly invader arrived according to the First Hero’s prophecy… It was a different type of astral beast, but still having the power beyond mortal comprehension.

The second otherworldly invader was far stronger than the first, which forced the World’s Will to produce forty-eight supporting Braves, the most amongst all generations. The Second Hero formulated strength-path and refinement-path; and by extension, he was also the progenitor of body runes and bloodline power. It was also in his time that enslavement-path, sword-path, and a few other minor martial paths were formed by his Braves…”

“The third otherworldly invader came three thousand years after the 2nd, which was at the year 7.468 A.H. Morgen World’s five continents were united under the banner of the Sacred Alliance, but their preparation was lacking when the invader resurrected the dead as zombie and undead soldiers…”

Due to the lack of a better word to describe the 3rd otherworldly invader, it was universally accepted by Morgen World inhabitants that it was simply referred as the Undead Calamity, led by the spectral Undead Sovereign ‘Grim Reaper’.

The Third Hero was the one who established the Twelve Main Divine system, allowing twelve powerful gods to establish pantheons and re-establish their presence to the mortal world, granting them divine powers. In her era, religious divine blessings (faith-path methods) were developed at the speed of light thanks to the eleven popes being Braves at the same time (the Third Hero was the pope of the Eternal Dragon Church, thus all of them are popes).

And since nine out of the Twelve Main Divines carried the divine concepts of the nine elements, this era was also the time where nine elemental paths (earth, water, fire, wind, metal, lightning, wood, light, and dark) were developed greatly.

However, where there is light would always be darkness. It need to be said that the Undead Calamity is not a dumb creature like the astral beast who rely on their own body to kill, the Grim Reaper was highly intelligent. To convert the locals into its cause, the Grim Reaper spread necro-path inheritances in a large scale, and by extension, blood-path and bone-path.

After all, the resources those paths need could be gathered from everywhere, thanks to the constant warfare happening in the world.

Though, due to the suppression of the Twelve Main Divine churches, necro-path wasn’t too widespread.

“The forth otherworldly invader arrived roughly 200 years ago in the year 10.098 A.H., the infamous Demon King Maximilian who hailed from a distant Demon World breached the dimensional wall in the extreme south. Even If he did nothing for a thousand years, the entire southern continent would be corrupted by chaos, weakening the dimensional wall and allowing other otherworldly invaders to easily come to Morgen World. Killing him as soon as possible is the best course of action.”  

To fight against Maximilian, the World’s Will gave birth to the Fourth Hero, ‘Seven Spear’ Lamost the Martial Sovereign. He invented spear-path, as opposed to the relatively more popular pure offense sword-path.

Lamost was supported by eight braves: ‘Bright Saint’ Anais, ‘Undying Juggernaut’ Yurnero, ‘Darkblade Shadow’ Drogan, ‘Beast Sniper’ Eleanora, ‘Celestial Siren’ Yulsaria, ‘Great Archmage’ Mordred, ‘Violet Lightning’ Murasaki Shizuku and ‘Multicast’. He mounted a full assault into the extreme south where Demon King Maximilian breached the dimensional wall.

That full-assault resulted in a humiliating defeat as the Sacred Alliance’ main army was obliterated, with two braves killed in action: ‘Violet Lightning’ Murasaki Shizuku and ‘Celestial Siren’ Yulsaria.

Both were ‘Great Archmage’ Mordred’s wives and students.  

Motivated by his loss, the ‘Great Archmage’ Mordred took 4 years to construct the flying fortress Alistair, using up all of his resources while the others barely maintained the frontline from crumbling. When he returned, he spearheaded the fight against Demon King Maximilian’s army for 7 years before Maximillian was killed and the demon army was pushed back into the dimensional breach.

Unfortunately, the power of chaos has contaminated the land severely, terraforming the extreme south into the environment of Demon World. Active volcanoes were everywhere, littered with demonic man-eating-plants and other demonic entities who stench of sulfur.

To stop this corruption, the Great Archmage froze the extreme south with [Profound Dao Ice] which also stabilized the dimensional laws from crumbling. Now, the extreme south was a land of permafrost with the occasional demons traversing into Morgen World.

Killing all the leftover demons turned into a daunting task that could never be finished due to the semi-permanent dimensional breach, thus he formed a bastion amidst the land of eternal ice and snow, ‘Galatreon’, to solve this problem.

As his semi-permanent dwelling after killing Demon King Maximilian, Galatreon soon developed from an isolated fortress into the holy land of refinement-path, which was his primary cultivation path. And for that reason, it was chosen as the capital of the permanently neutral, world-spanning organization: The Hunter Association.

“In Lamost’s era, he and his Braves invented wisdom-path, information-path and brought refinement-path into a new height… His era brought modern cultivation categorization, separating cultivation to various ‘paths’ which optimize cultivation resources generation and all aspects of cultivation indirectly.” Shion chuckled. The victor was always the one who wrote the history. Lamost was that brazen to distort the credit for inventing wisdom-path and information-path.

Despite experiencing the 4th Calamity directly, ‘Shion’ wasn’t too bothered by the distortion of history. She continues reading the article in her information-path tablet to gain more understanding regarding recent events. She wasn’t reading history-related articles merely as a cover to fulfil her ‘country hick’ identity who never went outside of her hometown, but also to catch up with the recent happenings.

“2 years ago in the year 10.300 Age of Heroes calendar, the ‘Great Archmage’ Mordred returned from one of his dimensional adventures but he was different. His recent travel records include: Deathmist Plane, Frozen Desecration Plane and Corpse Blossom Plane which was originally known as Orchid Blossom Plane before he massacred its 2 billion intelligent lifeforms and all the non-intelligent creatures in it, turning the plane brimming with life into a dead world.”

“From his travel records and his latest research topic, it was inferred that he was planning to create artificial Heroes, desecrate the gods, destroy the Sacred Alliance, invite more otherworldly invaders and enslave the inhabitants of Morgen World…” Shion was almost unable to hold back her laugh. The historians are so imaginative that they actually guessed the truth.

“The ‘Great Archmage’ Mordred was very identical to the profile of the 5th Otherworldly Invader prophesied by the First Hero. After secret investigations by his former allies, they confirmed that the ‘Great Archmage’ Mordred had become a puppet. His physical body was taken over by a Devil King from Devil World…”

Shion nodded as she admitted that the historians are truly eloquent and imaginative enough to have fooled the world with ridiculous stories.

‘The rank 6 Sovereigns and the Gods of Morgen World weren’t idiots, they knew that the Sacred Alliance and some of the Twelve Main Divines were both scared and greedy for Mordred’s refinement-path methods. The modernity brought by Mordred also threatened the mortal’s overreliance on the Divines, which would cut off their source of faith, thus they took action as quickly as possible to decrease his ‘modern’ influence.

Also, the prophecy was bullshit, the First Hero was the strongest god of the Twelve Main Divines, she made that up! Thus, the rank 6 Sovereigns said nothing regarding the whole 5th Otherworldly invader farce… In fact, a few of them fanned the flames so that the Sacred Alliance acted faster before gathering all intel, which resulted in the current inactive state of Multicast and Anais, while two Braves retired early.’ Shion silently stroked her chin.

‘Nevertheless, they still killed my daughter and direct disciples in an attempt to plunder Galatreon. I bet if my Mage Tower was in Galatreon, they wouldn’t wait to attack it directly even if that means the destruction of the only Fortress-City that could block the unceasing demons and chaos corruption.’

Shion pinched the spot between her eyebrows as a habit. Now that she had the channel to catch up with the new happenings, she could plan her actions better.

She’s hidden while the enemy was in the open, it should be easier for her to take the initiative, but the fact is, she couldn’t do anything at all due to her lack of power. A rank 0 cultivator could barely defeat a rank 1 under special circumstances, it would be impossible for her to have a match with a rank 2. As for scheming against a rank 6 demigod? If stepping an ant could be considered as a battle, then that wouldn’t even be considered as one.

That being said, Shion used her special identity to get a spot in Hartina Southeast Hunter Academy as a first year transfer student. This wasn’t due to her interest in bullying little children who just started their cultivation journey, but the hunter academy students would be given legal opportunity to grow while being protected by the academy professors.

Yes, this design was intentional. This was a byproduct of setting up the Hunter Association and having the organization sponsoring the existence of ‘hunters’ in the name of ‘protection’. Morgen World is not a peaceful world, over 80% of the lifeforms in the world are hostile beasts or other races vying for living space. The constant warfare only paused when there’s an otherworldly invader threatening the whole world.

Of course, Shion was capable of growing by relying on her own power, it would be faster if she just worked as a Hunter instead of a student of a Hunter Academy. But the main reason why she chooses this relatively slower path is because it is safer and legal.

The Hunter Association’s goal was always for development and protection of locals, harboring and generating wealth was a byproduct. It wouldn’t be accepted by super factions of each continent if not for the tremendous benefit it offered. In any case, the Hunter Association not only increased the stability of any region that housed its branch office, it also indirectly spread countless inheritances collected by Galatreon.

It’s a win-win situation while those that refuse the arrival of the Association in their kingdoms would be left behind.  

As Shion continued planning her future action while reading various articles regarding the latest happenings, a country bumpkin-looking youth approached her.

This man only wore pants and leather overcoat, leaving his rune-engraved chest exposed to the air. The only weapon attached to his body was a warhammer which was tied on his back. Also, he wore ten cheap rings on all of his fingers, which increases the impression that he was a true country bumpkin who lacks a sense of fashion.

“Are you the newcomer who sent the challenge letter?” The youth asked while being surprised at Shon’s small appearance.

Slightly over two weeks has passed since the disqualification of Violet Sword Blaze in the hunting festival, which meant the biannual event had just ended a couple of days ago. Due to his excellent performance in the hunting festival, nobody bothered this #1 in the event’s ranking.

Yet, there are always exceptions.     

Shion deactivated her information-path tablet and stood up. “Yes. It seems that you’ve forgotten that it was you who put the condition of winning in combat as the only way to make you join a team.” She dusted her butt as she faced him.

The youth scratched his ear in annoyance. “That’s true, but are you sure that you’re capable of defeating me in combat?”

“I do.” Shion casually answered. “You’ll be my team member soon.”   

The youth sighed as he shook his head. “Is this arrogance of the ignorant? You must’ve forgotten to do your homework.”

“Nope, I challenged you specifically after investigating you, ‘Wild Savage’ Arakawa Kenji.” Shion pursed her lips.