17 The Netherworld

As a God himself Mithamo was the most familiar with the cultivation level. Anyone who reached the level was nigh omnipotent. But in that nigh was the catch, the God level was not true omnipotence. This was best shown by the point that Gods could kill each other, and the Ancient Gods had done exactly that. The war they fought had ended in mutual destruction, killing all of them and severing the legacy of [Ancient] cultivation techniques that all but guaranteed cultivation to Godhood. With the death of Gods and the loss of the knowledge to become one came the rise of Cultivators who forged their own paths and figured it out afresh. This led to new rankings of the cultivation techniques, depending on the level one could reach by practising it. [Mortal] techniques allowed one to dominate all amongst mortals but did not let them actually step into the immortal way. The four adventurers escorting the Nyasanga clan all practised such techniques. [Core] techniques allowed the practiser to enter the immortal way and form a Gold Core. The quality of the core formed separated these techniques further with superior [Core] techniques forming a mightier core and bringing forth a more powerful immortal. [Sage] techniques allowed one to surpass the core formation and become a Sage. They were few and far between and guarded by major forces and clans. Such clans were called Sage clans, and were usually clans that had a Sage ancestor. At that level it was trivial to leave a lasting legacy for the younger generations to follow in the Sage's footsteps. [Immortal] techniques were techniques that gave true immortality. Even a Sage would sooner or later not escape death, even long lived as they were. These techniques were hoarded by Immortal Sects and Ancient Clans. They are the few groups that survived the Ancient God War albeit with incomplete legacies. An incomplete legacy from a God was nothing to scoff at. These groups lorded over entire star systems in the Starry Sky. At the top of the food chain were [Ancient] techniques, which paved the way to Godhood. In the entire Starry Sky there were only three Gods and Mithamo was one of them. It followed then that there were only three known [Ancient] techniques, as well as theoretically a few whole legacies that survived the Ancient War but had not yet been discovered. If an Immortal was a tiger then a God was a dragon. They simply could not be compared. An Immortal would not put a Sage in his eyes, but similarly a God would not bother with any lesser being, Immortals included. Hence it was incredibly strange that a God would give up all that to become mortal again. Yet Mithamo knew some major secrets that were privy only to Gods. The first was that the strength of the three Gods varied, just like in lower cultivation levels. Between himself, the Dragon God and the Spectre God it was the Dragon God who was strongest, followed by Mithamo who was weaker physically due to lacking the physical might inherent to dragons, yet making up for it with superior cultivation technique. The Spectre God lacked the physical strength or the superior cultivation technique of the other two, in fact he lacked a physical body altogether, but his soul techniques that had reached the Godhood level made him an undying cockroach that could not be killed, a most frustrating opponent. Gods rarely picked fights with each other, mostly because killing a God was a gargantuan task even for another God, and the backlash from the clash was not trivial at all. After all any casual strike by a God could wipe out billions of lifeforms, let alone if they went all out. This was why the Ancient War was such a catastrophe and so much legacy was lost. With so many Gods in the fray, any lesser lifeforms were not qualified to be in the vicinity of the battle. In the end all that ensued was mutual destruction and no winners or losers.

What would drive Gods to such madness? This was a question Mithamo had set out to investigate and answer. The Ancient War was a common knowledge and stuff of legends that even the mortals told it as creation stories, but this particular query had eluded historians who simply said the reason for the war died with those Gods who started it. After all, lesser beings were not qualified to know the reasons from the heavens. Thus Mithamo took it upon himself to look into it and made some startling discoveries. The reason for the Ancient War was a discovery by a group of the strongest Gods that there was a level above that of Godhood once one's strength as a God reached a certain level. At that point, one could fuse with the Starry Sky itself and gain True Omnipotence. However, there was a big catch, the more Gods existed, the harder it was to perform the fusion, as each God sourced power directly from the Qi reserves of the Starry Sky. If one God fused with the Starry Sky, all the others would be shut out from the Qi reserves. Obviously they would not just sit on their thumbs as they were weakened. Hence a battle royale ensued with the group that made the discovery seeking to go through with the fusion and the rest of the Gods seeking to stop it at all costs. When elephants fight it is the grass that suffers the most, untold destruction ensued in all realms. The war revealed that Gods were not equal in might, and that they definitely could meet their untimely death. As the Gods numbers dwindled the instigators finally attempted their fusion, with the strongest God during ancient times making the attempt personally under guard of his allies. However, in the end he failed to fuse with the Starry Sky and break through, and the rebound annihilated all the Gods fighting close by, as well as a large section of the Starry Sky,that led to a vast area of pure Yin Death Qi from the mass extinction of so many Gods altogether. This area gave birth to a new race of creatures, the Dark Spectres and that section of the Starry Sky became their territory, the Netherworld.