Death... and me

Kafan then explained. "If I want, I can indeed go to the other side of the Universe at the moment. The problem is that I wouldn't be able to come back anymore."

"Not come back anymore?" Roan thought about it. "Is it because of the lack of cultivation energies on this side while the other side is full of it?"

Kafan was happy Roan noticed why. "That's exactly the reason. You see, to open a passage to go from this side to the other side is somewhat difficult, but with my powers, I can do it. That's basically because this side of the Universe has absolutely no resistance whatsoever."

Roan remembered something. "It's like how our Divine Sense can go further than the other side, or how my Spatial Gates connect so many times further away than the other side as well. The lack of cultivation energies left this side too vulnerable, so one's moves are many times more powerful."

"Exactly," Kafan nodded. "That said, If I go all out, I can open a passage from this side to the other side. However, the other way around is not possible. Oh, just so that you know, it is not me who is opening those Pseudo-Temporal Paths; they are natural occurrences."

Roan didn't find it surprising. "I know. On this side, you use Death Energy. There are no cultivation energies at all. If it was you who opened the Pseudo-Temporal Paths, I would definitely have noticed the presence of Death Energy in the passage."

Kafan confirmed Roan's words and continued. "Yes. Of course, even though I can open such paths, I never do that. After all, if I open them, that means others on the other side would be able to use them to come here. I definitely don't want a bunch of intruders coming to this side nonstop. For the living races of the side of the Universe who don't have even an iota of cultivation, such a thing would only spell calamity."

"What about the Pseudo-Temporal Paths?" Roan asked back. Those were paths that Kafan couldn't control, after all.

"Part of my deal with the Vruve Organization is that once they find a Pseudo-Temporal Path that connects to this side, they will conceal it and prevent anyone else from entering. As I said, my deal with them is quite important to their side, so they are obliging without complaining at all. It has been like this all these countless years."

Kafan then sighed. "Well, now and then, groups like yours happen to find the paths first and end up on this side. My Death Spirit Race makes sure to capture them and use the Vruves to return them all to the other side. What the Vruves do with such individuals, I don't know, now do I care. The lives of some few unlucky experts are nothing compared to what is at stake here."

Roan had no complaints about that. If anything, he would have done the same. "Well, whatever. I just need to warn you that the Vruves don't know about me. Master, you better not open your mouth."

"Hmph!" Kafan's expression turned dark. "They dared to try to kill you just a few years after you arrived on the other side. Let alone tell them anything. I'll make sure to take a few layers of skin from them during the next few encounters."

"It would be better not to," Roan answered. "If you suddenly have such a change of behavior exactly while our group ended in this place, they might suspect something and come after my group on the other side."

Kafan wasn't happy to hear he shouldn't make a move, but he understood Roan was right on this point. "Sigh... fine. I'll just pretend that nothing happened then. In any case, you are already in the Peak Stage of the Elemental Space Realm. Soul Gem's little toy truly helped you a lot. It won't be long before the Vruves don't have the power to deal with you that easily."

Kafan then asked. "Still, I need to know. Just how the hell did your cultivation improve so fast like this? The amount of Divine Origin Energy necessary should be ridiculous for such speed. Did you find some unknown Divine Stone Mine with high-level Divine Stones?"

"Hum... something like that," Roan answered. Since Kafan already knew about the system and Soul Gem, there wasn't really a need to hide it from him. He used his Divine Sense and quickly recounted the story of the Ruins of the Stars, followed by how they acquired a huge amount of Divine origin Energy cores.

"Such a thing happened... I do remember the Ruin of Stars since it was in this Universe even before the extinction sphere's event. That place was truly terrifying. Huban, I, and a few other experts at our level joined forces and tried to open that thing. Yet, even with our full power, the barrier protecting that thing didn't even budge. To think it finally opened after so many years..."

Roan didn't want to wait for Kafan to few impressed and went straight into the next topic. "Alright, now you know what happened. There are two other things I still want to hear from you. One of them is your relationship with Soul Gem. How did you meet on this side, and why did Soul Gem reach out to you to talk about the system."

"The other thing is related to the Ruins of the Stars themselves. You see, Rean's father, before he reincarnated, just happened to be an Archangel. Not only that, but he is an Archangel from outside of this Universe. From what we found about him, he was the reason why the Ruins of the Stars ended up like that and fled in a different spaceship before ultimately ending up on Earth. However, the time difference between when the Ruins of the Stars was sabotaged to the time Rean was born was ridiculously long, it was even longer than the events of the Extinction Sphere."

Roan's expression turned serious. "What do you know about it?"