An hour later.
In the city hundreds of miles away from the sea shore.
Sam initially thought the city would be in the middle of the forest. However, contrary to his expectations, there is no sign of even a single tree around the city.
Even the city itself is almost like an ancient ruin. There are not many intact buildings. Most of them are destroyed. The city is full of signs of past battles and struggles.
As for the people inside, there are barely around a thousand people. That is all. Out of them the majority are in mortal plane. A few hundred Astral plane cultivators. As for the fifty odd cultivators that surrounded Sam at the beach, they are the only Divine Plane cultivators in the city.
Sam was welcod inside and was taken to the personal office of the leader in the central building.
The leader has cald down and she arranged so drinks and food for Sam.
"Before I answer your questions, may I know who you are and where you ca from?" She asked with so hope.
Even though Sam gave so vague answers before and didn't seem too interested about answering in detail, since they decided to cooperate, she just hoped that he would answer her.
"I am Sam.
I am a person from another realm. A realm with beings that are far more powerful that the ones here. And I ca here to establish my influence here."
Sam was direct this ti. The reason he didn't answer the first ti is because he knew even if he told them, they wouldn't believe him. His origin and goal will appear more like a story to them and nothing else.
Without any sense of trust, it would take a long ti for him to convince them.
But now that he proved that he is not allied with whatever those sea creatures are, there is at least so middle-ground for him to talk to them.
"I see." The leader was surprisingly calm. At least she appeared to be.
"Do you have any other questions that you want to ask?" Sam asked.
"I do. May I know what you an by increase your influence here?"
Sam smiled and said.
"Whatever I am about to say, I am going to tell you this with complete honesty. So, believe it or not, that is your choice.
As I said before, I am from a place that is ruled by beings that are stronger than you can even imagine. And those beings have given people like , a mission or rather a ga to play.
That is to go into the isolated worlds like yours and conquer them. To establish our influence here, we can either subdue the people of this world, or make you follow the sa path as we do, or make you beco devout to the sa gods as we do.
The end goal will be the inhabitants of this world coming under the command and guidance of people like .
And I am sure, I am not the only one to co here."
"So, you ca here to conquer us? To make us submit to you?" She asked with her eyes wide
open.
"Not exactly. Unlike a lot of my peers, I don't really have a god that I am devoted to. I am not interested in spreading any faith here and I am not interested in colonizing or subduing you with force or other tactics.
But I am indeed interesting in spreading my own influence and bringing you all under my guidance. And I am hoping we can find a common ground through which I will give you the things you need for your compliance to my guidance.
And my guidance will not be permanent.
It will be temporary.
Once this ga is over, in almost five years, your world will no longer be isolated. It will be part of the rest of the infinite cosmos. And that will lift the barrier to your growth."
"That ans...."
"Yes, whatever cultivation ceiling your people have been experiencing for generations will disappear. You can go out of this planet and explore the world. You can et a myriad of races, to new technologies, new experiences and new avenues.
And if you agree to work with for the next five years, I will not only destroy whatever it is that is troubling the humans of this world, I will also help you adapt to the new world in the next five years. So, that you will be ready when it is your ti."
"I...I..."
"You don't have to answer it now. First let's discuss about the problems that you have. I will get started on them. After that, contact the other settlents that you ntioned before and tell them about my offer.
Also tell them about the possible presence of so of my peers and advice them to not work with them."
"Why? Isn't it our choice to choose the best person to ally with?"
"True, it is your choice. And I am not going to convince you otherwise, by trying to beat their offers. From what I understand, they will try to give you things like blessings, inscriptions, trinkets, weapons, and even enlightents and cultivation techniques.
They will offer you a lot in the nas of the gods they worship.
They will be very tempting and will also show imdiate results. And the promises they make will be delightful and convincing.
I am not going to offer you any of that stuff now. I am not going to make any such vague promises of brighter tomorrow.
Because as I said before, I don't have a god that I need to please by gathering new believers. I won't be treating your like the entities that are nothing but a bunch of faith providers.
Instead, I will work with you. Understand your problems, help you reclaim your land and help you grow to achieve a better future. And all the things offer are mine and mine alone. There will also be a price for that.
And I am doing it, not because I am a good person or a benevolent apostle of divine grace. It is out of pure selfish motives. The more land of yours that I have under my control, the more people that I can bring under my wing, the more rewards will I get for the mission.
Those peers that I told you about are doing for the exact sa reason, but they will not reveal
this to you."
"But..." The lady was about to interrupt, but Sam continued.
"Why I am revealing this? Because I want you to be clear about what I will possibly do in the future, if your people do not comply and even go against my explicit advice.
In this mission, my peers are my competitors. Their sole purpose is to disrupt my conquest and suppress my influence. Which makes them my enemies. And anyone that is in support of my enemies, will be my enemy as well.
As I said before, I am not a benevolent apostle of divine grace. I will deal with my enemies, the way they should be and I would rather not kill or destroy the people that I barely even
know. I hope you can clearly explain this to them.
Now, if you are done, I have so questions of my own."
The lady fell into a deep thought and then sighed.
"This is a lot to digest. But for now, let's talk about what you want."
"Tell , what exactly caused your world and its humans to be in the state they are now."
"How much do you know?"
"Not much. But I would like to know the story from the start."
The lady sighed and said.
"Alright, I will tell you everything I know.
As you ntioned. This world has a barrier, a limit to how much we can grow. However, this
world did allow a lot of our people to reach that limit. So, there was a ti when a bunch of old people who are in their strongest state, were sick and tired of just letting the ti take their lives away, despite being the strongest.
It was told that all of them could sense that there is sothing beyond that limit and sothing beyond our world.
But none of them were able to reach it through cultivation.
So, to move past it, they all looked for different thods. And one of those thods is experintation on the beasts. Three people in particular, lost themselves in that experintation. We don't know exactly what they have done, but because of a mishap in their experints, they changed. The three humans that represented the pinnacle of human species, turned into three abominations.
They turned against humanity and other species in the world. They started turning them into these weird creatures that you saw. They started occupying the water, sky and the land.
Of course, one thing they succeeded in is that their strength surpassed even the strongest beings that ever existed in this world. So, whatever resistance the humanity's strongest put
up at that ti was beaten.
Their onslaught continued until we finally reached the current state.
Humans are now but a minor species that is struggling to survive and established six
settlents across the planets.
Our settlent in smallest one of them all."
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