When Damien was alive he had wondered if the afterlife existed. Would it be Heaven or Hell? Or would it be something else? He got his answer after dying. His soul was transported to a river with many grey blobs of light swimming toward something. He realized that he was also swimming in the same direction. Whilst swimming he suddenly wondered what would happen if he tried to eat one of the grey blobs. He decisively swam toward the nearest blob and devoured it. He discovered that after eating that grey blob he felt energized. He then went into a frenzy, devouring grey blobs left and right until he heard a voice: " Ho, what do we have here? A sentient soul in the River of Souls devouring other souls... Interesting." Damien then felt a force picking him up and taking him somewhere.
Unknown POV
In a magnificent palace, seven humongous thrones could be seen. Six humongous beings were sitting on six thrones while the largest one in the middle was empty. Their forms were blurry as if seeing them would be blasphemous. One of them suddenly vanished and reappeared with a golden blob of light in their hands. These six beings were the Progenitors and the Primordials. Sors had sensed an anomaly in one of their tributaries, the River of Souls, so they went to check on it. they were very surprised to see a golden mortal soul with a soul constitution even they couldn't recognize, devouring other souls without being overwhelmed by their memories. They picked up the soul knowing that Samadhi was going to be very mad at them for messing with Karma. Sors then returned to the palace with the soul. The others looked at them curiously, wondering why they had vanished so suddenly. They showed the soul to the others and told them what they had witnessed. One of the beings scolded Sors "Do you know the consequences of what you have done? You now owe Karma to a mortal! Even I can't cut the Strings of Karma for beings on our level. Were you even thinking? You know what you have to do, right?" "Yes, I know Samadhi. I will grant three wishes to the mortal. That should be enough to repay the Karma I owe him." Replied Sors. "Let me see your past" another being said as they came over. They saw Damien's whole life; his sickness, the Fatal Painforged Rebirth, and his death. "How can he have that Madman's complete technique? Wasn't it destroyed when he died?" they said with shock evident in their voice. He looked at the other beings and said "This boy was practicing the Fatal Painforged Rebirth when he was alive. The complete version. Unfortunately, he couldn't even break through to the Essence Body Condensation stage due to the low level of his world. Not only that, his soul somehow fused with a minuscule piece of Grandmother's aura. You all know how rare that is, even for us. His soul had already fused with it so it was safe but his physical body was not and that's why he was able to cultivate that technique so easily. Sors, I have bad news for you. With so many unique factors you need to give him at least 5 wishes to completely repay the Karma you owe him." Sors just sighed in reply and woke Damien's soul up. It had fainted due to being in their presence. Damien came back to his senses and looked at the humongous beings in shock. The strongest person he knew was his Grandpa but he had a feeling that even he would be annihilated if he tried to fight these beings. " Your grandfather is not even a baby to us. We created myriads of worlds including yours. So you shouldn't try to gauge us, it is beyond you. Besides, we don't mean you any harm, we just got curious. It has been a really long time since something made us curious so we will reward you with five wishes. You can ask for anything you want before you are reincarnated." Said one of the beings while glancing at another with a knowing look. Damien thought for a while before answering "First, I want all the knowledge about cultivation." Samadhi instantly refused "Too much knowledge will be harmful to you. We can only give you detailed knowledge about the Mortal Realms. Nothing more." Damien agreed as he remembered his Grandpa's advice. Suddenly he felt that there was some extra information in his soul. It was the detailed explanations of Mana, Body Tempering, Soul, and Paragon Paths and their stages in the Mortal Realms. "My second wish is that I want to keep the memories of my past life. Third, I want to be reincarnated as a member of the strongest species in existence. Fourth I want strong cultivation techniques of Soul and Mana Paths that are compatible with Fatal Painforged Rebirth and suitable for that species. Lastly, one of the two techniques has to be a Paragon Art." One of the beings looked at Damien with a mischievous gaze and said "You sure are greedy. Heh! I like it." Samadhi couldn't take it anymore and reincarnated Damien's soul. Before he did so he told Damien that he would find everything in his soul when he woke up.
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Author's Note:
Hey guys, I hope you like the story so far.
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See you in the next chapter