The World Before

Moments earlier, Kibo had learned something that made Seiryu lose control.

Kibo saw a frozen chunk of Suzaku's energy inside a large mountain of black ice. The people from Yukigakure have been unknowing killing the Phoenix and preventing her resurrection.

The Black Ice Tundra was Yukigakure's testing location for the Chunin Exams. Every once and a while, they sealed the land and siphoning the rainbow energy that leaked out from the testing grounds. They then took that energy and implanted it into Chakra beasts for many generations.

It forced the creatures to mutate and grow far stronger in order to provide a challenge for the Genins taking the exams.

Kibo didn't quite understand the problem, but as soon as Seiryu explained, the Azure Dragon's killing intent invaded the air, waking the Yukikage at the same time.

She was about to complain, but when she looked into Kibo's eyes, she saw something that wasn't human.

Kibo's eyes had horizontal slits in them, similar to Seiryu's; he had grown fangs and claws, and was patting his chest trying to calm Seiryu down while saying, "They didn't know what they were doing, Seiryu."

After collecting himself, Kibo saw the Yukikage staring at his current appearance.

"Stay away from me, you monster!" Setsuna shouted in fright.

Kibo smiled before he walked over to her, took a chip off of the Kage's hat, and handed it back to her.

"I'll be visiting you proving grounds, if you don't want this getting out, I suggest you not tell anyone what you saw here." Kibo leaned over and then whispered something in her ear.

The Yukikage pulled back and stared at Kibo in absolute horror.

"How do you know of that?" Setsuna shrieked.

Kibo smiled because he felt Seiryu's features retracting. When he was finally restored to his original appearance, Kibo bared his fangs as he said, "That's my secret! All you need to know is what will happen if you tell anyone of our encounter."

"That's it?!!! You're letting her off! She fed my sister to monsters!!!" Seiryu shouted in Kibo's mindscape.

Kibo then sighed before activated his Gen-Jutsu the 'Nine Circles of Hell' on her.

"Better?" Kibo said as he watched the Yukikage start screaming in fear.

"It's a start!" Seiryu fumed before Kibo and flew off.

He felt a little bad about using such a torturous illusion technique on her, but sating Seiryu's anger took precedence.

Not to mention, fear is a good deterrent. Kibo couldn't risk having Seiryu's existence leak out to the rest of the world yet.

So far only some members of Konohagakure and his Hoshi Clan members know of Seiryu's existence. Now he had to add a foreign Kage to that list.

After flying towards the largest flat land in the region, Kibo appeared over an expansive icy tundra where all one could see was black ice and snow so dark, it completely absorbed all the light that touched it.

The land looked like it was an empty void that didn't belong on this earth.

The blackened terrain stretched all the way to the great solid mountains which were made of translucent blue stones.

Activating his Tengan, he saw dozens of Chakra beast contaminated with the Sacred Beast's 7 Colored Chakra.

Kibo flew around for a few hours, searching for where the Rainbow Chakra was densest.

When they found a vibrant flaming rainbow aura, Seiryu was convinced that this was Suzaku's energy.

Thanks to Kibo's new inner 3rd eye, he could see deep inside the icy tundra's terrain and through the bedrock miles beneath the earth.

After searching a few miles beneath the earth, Kibo could make out a massive and complex underground temple.

The architecture was reminiscent of a Shinto Shrine, only it had a small devastated civilian's quarters.

Most of the buildings were crafted from stone bricks, clay tiles, and wooden materials. On them were complex carvings somewhat resembling the Uzumaki Clan's Fūin-Jutsus.

The positioning of the civilians' district surrounded the shrine on all corners with elevating sections of the city the closer it got to the center, making the highest spot a place of worship for what Kibo believed to be the Pheonix.

The temple was covered in carvings, murals, and portraits of a Phoenix. Everything from the architecture to the furnishing was adorned with gold, silver, copper, and rare jewels.

At the center of the Temple's black tiled roof, was a massive 7 colored Nine Winged Phoenix effigy made from different tinted metals.

The statue's eyes, beak, and claws seemed to be made from different expensive gems that shined with the appropriate coloration.

Kibo also saw that a powerful time-space barrier was surrounding the entire subterranean archaeological ruin.

However, small cracks in the shield could be seen at various locations leaking Suzaku's energy.

According to Seiryu, the energy was fire from her soul.

"A piece of her body must be hidden inside the area! The barrier and the sealing Jutsu the Yukikage have used on this land has kept it from accumulating. My sister had a chance of revival, but no longer."

"Why not? If I beak the Barrier, can't she just resume her resurrection?" Kibo questioned.

"The spark is gone. There is no soul in these flames, and will probably die out within the next thousand years or so," Seiryu replied.

Through he could probably breach the barrier, but he was unsure of if he should break it. If the flame was in such a precarious situation, containing it might be the only thing keeping the feather from collapsing.

"Navi, can my Teleportation Relic make it though the Kekkai Ninjutsu without disturbing it?"

"Yes, all the host needs is to mark teleportation relic with the proper spatial coordinates. There will be no disturbance to the structural stability of the barrier," Navi replied.

"Is there any place that the relic can't take me?" Kibo asked scratching his head.

"As long as the Host has the proper spatial coordinates, then the relic will be able to go anywhere completely unhindered," Navi answered making Kibo jump up and down in joy.

He pulled out the relic and marked the location.

After setting the place he was standing on as the return point, Kibo activated the teleportation.

With a quick blink of his eyes, Kibo found himself on top of the underground temple.

He was smothered in the warmth of the Pheonix's residual Chakra and felt a sense of calm. Other people would have to seal off their Tenketsu here, or else risk mutation like his people did. Kibo, however, already had an immunity to this kind of Chakra Radiation.

He then looked over the fallen civilization and moved to touch one of the pillars holding up the shrine.

Kibo's mind was pulled through time as he saw the ancient civilization that practiced, not the art of the Ninja, but Immortal Cultivation!

They still used Chakra, but the people didn't need hand signs. Most of their abilities were activated at the wave of a hand, through thought, or simply through speaking.

They trained in 3 different types of cultivation.

Mental Cultivation, which often led to the discoveries of new Do-Jutsus. By absorbing Chakra into their brains, they stimulated the techniques they used over time. Eventually, they would manifest their training in the form of a Kekkei-Genkai, specifically eye mutations.

The second type trained their bodies, they even had rare physique Kekkei-Genkais that were suited to using Sage-like Powers combined with Martial Arts.

The last was the Spiritual training and spell casting, these people were born knowing how to cast certain Immortal Arts that their predecessors had mastered, and if they mastered a Sennin Jutsu to perfection and beyond, it could become ingrained into their genetics as the future offsprings' Kekkei-Genkai.[1]

The benefit of this was that it severely lowered the cost and requirement to cast such a Jutsu after it became their bloodline ability.

The most surprising was that there were many Chakra Beast that had the power and intelligence of tailed beasts.

They appeared to be the cultivator's partners, and from time to time, they could be seen fusing with these beasts before growing stronger together.

"This must be why Seiryu referred to himself and Kurama as a Dao Beast. I just thought it was a nice way of saying that we're partners. But as it turns out it was far more important," Kibo thought as he looked at the sealing markings.

It appeared that through the use of Fūin-Jutsu, like the one Minato used on his son, they were capable of storing the beast inside their bodies.

Therein lies the most important aspect of the technique, it didn't just seal the Nine-Tailed Fox as Minato did, it created a very small spatial world inside them. Just big enough to store the beasts.

In fact, if it weren't for how inferior they are when it came to housing space, environment, and ability to nurture the Chakra Beasts, Kibo would have thought it was a Star Chamber.

Eventually, these people would obtain the legendary status of Immortal before heading out into the cosmos to search for other worlds so that they may further their training.

Unfortunately, after many years, a calamity came to this planet in the form of the Ōtsutsuki clan. Not just Kagura but a whole army of these god-like beings.

They were single-handedly responsible for destroying the world of Immortal Cultivation before planting their God Tree Seedling.

Kibo watched as the Ōtsutsuki clan slaughter all of the world's remaining cultivators and used their blood to nourish the seedling over and over again. Every day, news from other comrades and live-streamed projections showed their people dying out in battle.

Once the seed reached maturity, it was dropped to the ground by Kaguya herself.

As the God Tree Seed touched the Earth's soil, the world's entire Chakra density dropped drastically.

If it weren't for Indra coming up with hand signs, it would have been impossible for people to cultivate like they once did in the past.

And now Kibo was curious as to what the outcome of that battle would have been like if they knew about the hand seals.

If the Chakra density was higher, then their current attacks would definitely experience a rather sizable amplification. His battle with the Yukikage taught him that.

Kibo moved on and continued to search the area, all while writing down everything that was worth remembering.

He found a large set of murals that told more history. It appeared the people of this place continued to survive by burying themselves deep within the earth and sealing off the village in a time and space barrier.

They continued to send out Immortals to their death while training up new ones, bidding their time until the Ōtsutsuki planted their god tree. After that, this place slowly died off. No teachers left alive were capable of raising up Immortals. The rest fleed this planet once they knew the fight was lost.

From that point on, Kaguya was assigned to watch over the Fruit of the God's growth, but during Earth's final struggle, which every member of this village took part in, the rabbit goddess was critically injured by the United Immortal Sect's sacrificial attack.

Kaguya had not died but lost all knowledge of her past. By the time she had reawakened her memories, she had realized that she had eaten the fruit that she was supposed to guard.

Fearing her family's return she enacted her plans to grow another fruit.

Kaguya began sending countless humans to die as sacrifices so that the tree could absorb the Chakra they were born with, and bare another fruit. She didn't even spare her sons.

As she tried to take back the Chakra endowed upon them by eating the God Fruit. A sole survivor of the final battle returned, watched, and recorded the Ōtsutsuki Clan's actions, up until he finally died of old age.

He was not an Immortal, only a disciple of one. But thanks to him continuing to cultivate, he lasted for several hundred years longer than most mortals. Unfortunately, he died before the final battle against the 10 tails and Kaguya's sons.

Kibo was jolted by the information, some of the world's legends began to make sense to Kibo.

As he pondered, Seiryu spoke up, "This...No it can't be. It is! This is our Master's birth world!"

Kibo almost choked on his own spit as he said, "Care to repeat that?"

"I didn't recognize it because of the great changes to the environment, but tens of thousands of years ago, this place was definitely where master first started off her journey to godhood. We were born from her creation technique using a large patch of stars as material. The Karma that she was rewarded for creating us, eventually led to her reaching god status and breaking through the Void to reach a higher realm. When we were young she told us stories of the ancient world you've described, and the descriptions match up."

Kibo felt distressed, "Why does it sound more and more like the Ōtsutsuki clan has some grudge against your master."

Seiryu began to worry before he asked, "What if something happened to her? Kibo if she's no longer able to protect our realm, then everyone can come to feed off of it like the Otsutsuki."

Kibo began to think the worst. Perhaps at one time, she protected the entire realm from the other god and god-like beings. But if something happened to her, the enemies she'd amassed would definitely come to seek revenge on her realm of origin.

"I know you're worried, but I promise you. If I become a god, I will search for her when I leave this realm. If she is still alive, I'll find her we have a happy reunion, if she is dead I shall seek out vengeance for you," Kibo declared in earnest.

Seiryu smiled as he nodded his head before giving Kibo his thanks.

"By the way, why didn't you tell me about the way people cultivated in the past?" Kibo asked, feeling a little upset.

Seiryu chuckled and answered with a simple tone, "I do not know how humans cultivate. The way monsters cultivate have completely different rules and even more so for Divine Beasts like myself. I'm more curious as to how these people knew about us, after all since the day we were created, we never came to this planet. At least, I don't remember coming here. Everything I know about this place comes from my master's words, I think I recall master promising to build us shines before she left, but she never told us where it would be built."

Kibo sighed. As he began to look through different sections of the city, he found some pretty interesting cultivating techniques inscribed on stone, but the biggest was the hoard of knowledge kept in their archives.

Inside the temple was a secrete room where Kibo found a dust-covered skeleton blocking his path. After taking a finger bone, he apologized to the final cultivator that had perished before the end of Kaguya, then proceeded to give him a proper burial.

After placing his hands together, he said a short prayer "May your reincarnation go well and your merits be rewarded in the afterlife. I give you my word that I shall rid this world of the Ōtsutsuki Clan's presence, once and for all."

Kibo then headed to the pedestal where the skeleton was sitting under.

On the altar in front of him, was the 9 Winged Phoenix statue made from gold and other expensive gems. Kibo then moved the wings and spread them out in a certain pattern.

After a clanking noise was heard, a huge hidden floor hatch opened up with a hiss.

Going down it, was a spiral staircase that led deep into the Earth. Along the walls were many drawers filled with cultivation techniques and the written history of the world before its downfall.

Kibo had to be careful when touching the documents as they could shatter into dust at the slightest twitch. When he reached the bottom, thanks to his Tengan, he knew there was one last hidden room.

As he made his way down Kibo had pulled out a series of these long box-shaped drawers and left them open in a specific manner.

As he opened the last row of containers, he backed up and noticed the obvious cross shaped pattern they made before the room began to shake slightly and the wall in front of him lowered.

Kibo slowly stepped forward into a spacious dome-shaped room and saw something that made his heart quake.

Floating above a golden egg covered in thick blood ink seals, was an almost completely decayed feather with seven beautiful colors emanating from it.

Kibo slowly approached the pillar-like altar as he felt Seiryu's sorrow and happiness, "There isn't much left of her, but thanks to master leaving a feather of hers and your strange Star Chambers, maybe there's still hope for Suzaku's resurrection. Kibo, you can make another one of those Star Chambers, right?"

Kibo nodded his head and said, "We're about to find out."

There was barely any energy left on the Phoenix's feather, but he thought there was a lot less of Seiryu's energy when he took him in and healed the dragon.

"Hopefully, Suzaku's condition will be better." Kibo thought as he placed his hands on the feather while he carried the Star Chamber Relic in the other.

Kibo was ready to absorb the feather. But as he touched it, his mind was transported to a star-filled space.

Realizing he was in outer space, Kibo tried to hold his breath, but after calming down he realized he wasn't really floating through the vacuum of space but viewing the feather's past.

Taking a deep breath in, Kibo looked around to see a fairy-like beauty sitting in the lotus position a few feet away.

She had long blond hair and crystal turquoise pupil-less eyes. Kibo had never seen such a beautiful facial structure, not in this life or in the last. Her body was well proportioned, and she was more than well endowed.

As she sat in the vacuum of space, ignoring everything around her, Kibo gulped and shook because he thought he was looking at Seiryu's creator.

Just as he was about to let go of the object and return to reality, she waved her hand, making every star in his vision gather together before they began to fuse.

Suddenly, four distinct silhouettes appeared from out of the bright lights and shrunk until they were close to her size. The 4-Divine Beasts incomplete forms started circling around her as she suddenly turned around and looked directly into Kibo's eyes. Almost like she could see him.

Kibo looked to his left and right, then all the way around before returning to the Goddess' vision and said, "Okay that's weird. There's no way she can see me. But there's no one else here. What is she staring at?"

"I'm staring at you. After all, I have been waiting for your arrival!"