Chapter 384: Eyes to the Stars
It was dense and compressed with a huge amount of demonic energy. If it weren\'t for the seal he placed over it, this thing would\'ve immediately spread corruption everywhere.
But aside from the overwhelming amount of sin and evil in this soul, Cedric could sense the presence of a strange yet familiar aura within. It felt the same as that strange alien lifeform that the Demon God devoured out of desperation to increase his strength.
As it turns out, whatever that was tainted his nature, and it\'s corruption seeped to his very soul.
The idea that the Demon God of all people was corrupted by something else was truly ironic. He wasn\'t even aware that he\'s already dead because he spent his last waking moments as a mere puppet to the residual will of the alien lifeform he devoured.
But this goes to show how dangerous the vast expanse of the cosmos truly was. Even Cedric has no clue what that strange lifeform was. He never heard or seen anything like it. He only saw its remains being used as a weapon by the Demon God, and even then, he still feels creeped out by it.
Additionally, the fact that despite it not being an intact corpse, it could still release a miasma that could wither all life meant that whatever that thing was, it should\'ve been a massive pain in the ass to deal with when it was still alive and kicking.
He couldn\'t imagine a creature that could spew life withering miasma to be an easy target to hunt down.
How in the world did the Demon God get his hands on its remains was a secret he took to his grave. And somehow, because he forcibly devoured it, he was corrupted by it.
If it wasn\'t for this taint, Cedric wouldn\'t have hesitated to delve into the memories of the Demon God. Now, he\'s reluctant to do so because he didn\'t want to be infected by this unknown thing.
Fortunately, the seal he placed on it kept it contained. The years he spent perfecting his runic arts were worth it after all, because if it wasn\'t for that, this could\'ve been disastrous.
But this takes him back to his original dilemma. What should he do with this soul?
\'It\'s a pity to keep it sealed.\'
\'This thing holds too much energy that could be filtered and used for many things. If harnessed correctly, it could become a potent source of power that could sustain both continents for years easily.\'
\'But the taint...how should I deal with it?\'
It\'s not like Cedric didn\'t think about seperating the two before. He thought about creating a tool—it could be a runic formation or a unique item—that would allow him to isolate the taint of the strange lifeform so that he could make use of the Demon God\'s soul.
However, doing that would be difficult. Even though he hasn\'t made an attempt yet, he could tell that much.
Be it human or demon, a soul is a soul; it\'s what makes a person unique—the very source and proof of their existence, their origins. The soul is the most complicated existence there is, and even within the alliance, only the Wise Dragon Clan had deep knowledge and inheritance about it; that\'s what makes them special.
Simply put, it is way too difficult to achieve what Cedric wanted to happen, even though in paper it sounded simple enough.
He could study it and make several experiments, but even that poses a risk that doesn\'t seem worth the effort.
Still, it\'s a damn shame for this to be left as is.
"Argh! Whatever. I\'ll postpone it for now. I\'ll try to think about a way. For now, I just want to relax."
**
Several months passed since Liberation Day.
Humanity enjoyed these peaceful days. Even now, some of them still can\'t believe that they\'re truly free of demons. Yet the fact that they could only see ghosts of them in the Hell Dives, because that\'s still a thing up to this day, proved that this was real.
Because of the knowledge that they don\'t have to live in constant fear anymore and that they could relax and completely enjoy the peace this time since it\'s no longer a temporary one, the world seemed to become even more colorful and vibrant than before.
Some thought that they were maybe just seeing things, while others took it seriously. After all, without the democratic corruption plaguing the world, its recovery was completely unhindered.
And that\'s just exactly what was happening.
Acala didn\'t need to halt her own recovery just to keep up appearances anymore. As soon as the Demon Race were wiped out, she released her restraints and used the tools she had available to completely heal herself.
The bindings of the oath were gone when the enemies went extinct. Acala no longer has to live in fear and is no longer in constant threat of being enslaved or used as a tool.
Additionally, with all the things that Cedric brought to this planet, Acala was swiftly making strides towards evolution. It\'s still going to take some time for that to happen, but time is on their side now.
Speaking of Cedric, the man has been occupied lately.
No, he wasn\'t busy with his women. They had all the time to be together because there\'s no longer any threats that they have to worry about. He was busy with something else entirely, though.
Cedric hasn\'t been in Prime Earth these past few months. He spent time roaming around the solar system, where Prime Earth was, to do something quite important.
You see, the Sacred Celestial Tree, a unique natural treasure that could mimic the day and night cycles and could connect to several worlds through a spatial passage, has fully matured. And if it wants to continue growing, it must connect to other worlds to absorb spacetime energy for nourishment.
This coincides with Cedric\'s follow-up plans for humanity\'s future.
Now that they have any enemies to be worried about, they can begin setting their eyes to the solar system. They could begin colonizing other planets to gather more resources.
Humans already have a space fleet. The pilots for the fighter jets and the mechas have been in idle training since the end of the liberation war and could definitely use some real field exercise.
This was the natural progression for their race. It\'s already a given that humanity will never stop progressing, but they sure as hell can procrastinate, and Cedric can\'t have them doing that.
So, to that end, he personally made a move.
Until recently, the solar system, where Prime Earth was, still had lingering traces of demonic corruption. This proves that the Demon Race had been here before.
From what Cedric saw, they deemed these planets useless since they didn\'t spot any valuable resources here. And since they were demons, their very existence leaves behind traces of corruption that lingered after they left.
Some planets he visited were strongly corrupted; others were just slightly so. Of course, he did what he had to and cleansed them of corruption. After the worlds were healed, he began judging them according to their potential. Those that passed his standards or were at least good enough to be humanity\'s new frontier were gifted with the seed of the Sacred Celestial Tree.
These seeds won\'t germinate. Even if they could, they wouldn\'t, because these planets just don\'t have any energy to spare to nourish them. Instead, these seeds function as pins that the main tree could sense. And once Cedric allows it to, the Sacred Celestial Tree establishes a link to the seeds he left behind, creating a passage between worlds.
This was handy because even though humanity built a space fleet, they still haven\'t mastered cosmic travel.
Going from Prime Earth to the edge of the solar system where it\'s at will take a very long time to do so. Humans simply don\'t have the means to sustain that kind of expenditure. Obviously, they also can\'t use Cedric means because that required extensive knowledge about space and time laws—things that\'s completely out of their grasp for now.
The spatial passage that the Sacred Celestial Tree creates will serve as a shortcut for them to access these worlds for their colonization efforts. The tree will take care of the complicated matters for them; all they need to do is take people in and begin transforming the connected planets into habitable land for humans.
Right now, the tree could only connect to three planets at the same time. But that much was enough to keep humans occupied for a long while.
But as the Sacred Celestial Tree grows up, the number of worlds it could connect to will increase as well. It\'s even possible for it to connect to every single world, realm, or star within this solar system; it just needs time and an extensive amount of care to do so.
That said, everybody has to start somewhere, and most have to start somewhere small.
This is where humanity\'s foundation will start. It will be their first step towards the alliance.