Death... and me

After Sesame put away the two Devil's Spatial Rings, he opened another Spatial Gate and left with Roan. On the way, the two analyzed the information on the Jade Slip.

"I didn't expect the Devils to really use the Dead Souls that were supposed to go to the Reincarnation Path," said Roan as he read the details. Turns out that Belial truly used dead souls, which other Devils couldn't do. As mentioned before, Devils love Living Souls, which greatly improves their cultivation speed. Dead Souls, on the other hand, were pretty much useless in general.

Sesame pondered a bit. He obviously had a must more extensive knowledge than Roan, so he could make some guesses. "If I'm not wrong, the trick behind it is that Belial doesn't directly use the Dead Souls to increase his cultivation. Instead, he might have found a way of using them to channel Devilish Energy in an easier way. Of course, this is just a conjecture."

Roan had to ask. "Is it okay for Devils to take away the Dead Soul that was supposed to go into the Reincarnation Path?"

Sesame shook his head. "I don't think it is a good thing. But then again, Belial is an Elder Devil. Besides, it seems like he had never passed his cultivation method to others. You probably already know that Dead Souls have little use to Devils. But that's not all. They are also harmful to them."

Roan nodded. "We could guess that the other Elder Devils didn't intervene in exchange for Belial not sharing his methods. If his technique got out and all the Devils used it, it might have a bad effect on the Reincarnation Path. The Soul Energy that creates new souls in the Reincarnation Path is recovered with their deaths, after all."

Sesame then continued to look into the Jade Slip. "Well, his cultivation methods mean little to us. With your Divine Sense Bending Skill and my Treasure Hunting ability, we will know whether Belial is present at home and if the Fragment is really there. If Belial is there, then it's better to not risk it."

Roan had no issues with the plan. "That's good. Anyway, from what I can see here, he lives pretty near to the Reincarnation Path. It makes sense since he uses Dead Souls. How come he didn't appear during the last Soul Guiding Competition?" During the competition the twins won, there were quite a few Elder Devils and their descendants. Yet, Belial, who lived close by, didn't come, nor did any of his clan members.

"That's pretty simple," Sesame could imagine the reason. "We know that the other Devils most likely know Belial has a fragment himself. Would they also let Belial try for the Underworld Relic?"

Roan had to admit Sesame was right. "That makes sense."

Thanks to Sesam's capability to travel through space, the journey back to the Reincarnation Path was quite smooth and fast. From there, they used the Jade Slip to find the exact location of Belial's Clan.

"It should be that place," Sesame exited the Spatial Gate once again with Roan, and both looked in the distance. Instead of a clan, it could be said to look more like a small city. The Clan area was enormous.

Sister Orb immediately warned them from inside the Dimensional Realm. [I can feel the presence of several formations. You better be careful when you decide to approach it.]

Sesame and Roan had no intention of getting close, though. "Sesame, what is the range of your perception regarding the Fragments?"

"The Universe Fragments are absolutely top ranked within the things I can feel the presence. If it is in this place, I will find it." Sesame seemed pretty confident. "There is no need for us to enter the Clan. Let's fly around it to see if I can detect it from outside first."

"No problem," Roan agreed with him. "I can feel some Elemental Space and two Space-Time level Divine Senses. Fortunately, I'm already at the Spac Bending Realm, and their Divine Senses are too far. They can't break through Rean's Bending skill."

Sesam sighed in response. "This skill of yours is truly great. You can hide from higher-level enemies and use it to tell their approximate cultivation and location." Of course, he wouldn't waste time on that. "Forget it. Let's go."

Back in the Swamp of No Return, the explosion of Dark Element and Develish Energy settled down a little. The Elder Devils that had been monitoring the situation finally noticed that the Spatial abilities responsible for making one lose their way inside the Swamp also disappeared. Not only that, but time returned to normal in the Swamp Area, which confirmed their suspicions.

Mephisto, the one who lost the Underworld Relic during the last competition, was the first one to take the initiative. He wanted to know if he could find anything in the Swamp that could replace the Underworld Relic. Even Elder Devils got lost inside, so whatever was provoking that phenomenon was bound to be very useful even for Devils at his level.

Mephisto wasn't the only Elder Devil there. All the others were using their Divine Senses to keep an each on each other. Seeing that Mephisto ignored the possibility that the Swamp might come back to normal and jumped inside, the other Elder Devils couldn't hold back anymore and sped inside. Naturally, they all made a beeline to the Center of the Swamp.

There was an exception, though. It was Rui, the Light Devil Clan leader. He held the Underworld Relic in his hand, ready to use it if necessary.

"Clan Leader, aren't we going after them?" One of his subordinates also saw the movements and asked Rui.

Rui shook his head, though. "There is no need for us to risk it. We just got the Underworld Relic, which is enough for our Clan at the moment. Besides, you know 'who' is about to descend into the Underworld. We should focus on that instead."

Suddenly, Rui noticed that another Elder Devil appeared on his Divine Sense Range, quickly speeding into the Swamp. "Seems like even Belial couldn't hold himself back."