"What do you want, Bhaal? Come to torment me once again after so many years?"Rjali says. "Not really, I just wanted to say goodbye to an old friend," Bhaal replies. "Cut the crap, Bhaal. I may be imprisoned here, but even I can see how damaged your divine body is. The damage you got from Hu Yan Bo's strange soul attack has messed up your cultivation, making you unable to heal your divine body. You are dying, aren't you?"
Rjali says as a smile creeps on her face. Suddenly, the scene pauses, and a flashback begins to play. In the vast expanse of the Ganwu Universe, power and ambition often drove mighty beings to forge alliances, even among mortal enemies. Among these was Bhaal, the formidable warrior Immortal Army Lord, renowned for commanding legions of fearsome soldiers and wielding unparalleled secret techniques when it came to manipulating the origin law of space, origin law of lightning, and origin law of light.
His ambition was insatiable, and his eyes set upon a legendary supreme treasure known as the Celestial Prism, which was a rumored treasure from a long extinct, highly advanced ancient race known as the Darasri Prothean Clan, and was now hidden in an ancient, mysterious temple, with its coordinates hidden deep within the deeper regions of the extraterritorial battlefield as indicated by a piece of map shown by a rectangular like object he had previously found in Eden Prime.
Bhaal knew that the map was incomplete and needed to find the other rectangular object. He later found it during his adventures when he tracked it to a spirit master, Immortal Marquis Suo Luo Pu, who was also searching for the treasure.
At first, the two fought, each seeking the rectangular fragment, but eventually came to a truce, since their power back then was almost equally matched. knowing none of them would find the Dasari Prothean Temple if they did not work together,
Recognizing the strength of Suo Luo Pu, the Pinnacle spirit master Immortal Marquis, whose strength was close to a Low Immortal King, Bhaal approached him with a proposition. The two, despite their differences, shared a common goal: to seize the Celestial Prism before it fell into the hands of rival powers. Bhaal, with his vast soul slave armies comprising 1000 Universe Level soldiers, 300 Domain Masters, and 80 World Masters, combined with his mastery over the Law of Space, Law of Lightning and Law of Light, would provide the brute force and battlefield strategy, while Suo Luo Pu's mastery of soul techniques and Spirit Arts would infiltrate and bypass the treasure's defenses as for the who got the treasure, Bhaal sayed that he only wanted the celestial prisim as for anyother treasure witin the temple it would go to Suo Luo Pu.
Suo Luo Pu was skeptical at first but later agreed, since he saw that he did not have much to loose would bring the largest amount of man power, he new the Dasari were an ancient mysterious race who possessed vast fortunes stored in their temples, he had had of how the universe master pen gong had found one allowing him to accumulate a fortune so vast that he was able to found the Universe Star River Bank which has become one of the five Leviathans of Humanity,
Their alliance was forged in secrecy, a dangerous partnership born of mutual necessity due to the fact that each of them had an alien rectangular metal object that contained the coordinates for the treasure's location. Their joint operation was meticulously planned.
They traversed treacherous extraterritorial battlefields using Bhaal's legendary ship called Dark Nebula, and just for precaution, he used his secret space-control techniques to conceal their movements from even universe venerables within the extraterritorial battlefields.
As they approached the treasure's location, they found a destroyed, barren planet, nearly destroyed and devoid of any life. On landing on the planet, the two alien rectangular objects guided them to a sealed temple floating amidst a collapsed valley. The duo faced overwhelming defenses: automaton guardians, spatial distortions, and soul traps designed to annihilate intruders.
But they were not alone. Hu Yan Bo, a Spirit Master Immortal Marquis and renowned master of soul techniques and space law, who was travelling in his yun mo ship together with his soul slaves, sensed the disturbance of two immortals fighting and descended with his soul slaves to investigate, finding the Ancient Dasary Prothean Temple. He appeared as a 3-meter-tall humanoid with two flexible antennas on his forehead.
The two sensing Hu Yan Bo decided to attack him in order to keep the secret of the Dasari Prothean Temple to themselves. A fierce three-way clash erupted. Bhaal's slave army clashed with Hu Yan Bo's soul techniques, while Suo Luo Pu's spirit slaves fought to seize the relic, but inevitably failed due to the temple's advanced defenses. Amidst the chaos, Hu Yan Bo's mastery over soul seals and space laws proved combined with his 9 Immortal army lord soul slaves, proved superior despite the overwhelming numbers of Bhaal, with his vast soul slave armies comprising 1000 Universe Level soldiers, 300 Domain Masters, and 80 World Masters were systematically destroyed, the only ones who atleast put up a fight were the world masters.
In the critical moment, Hu Yan Bo, desperate to level the playing field, launched a devastating soul technique aimed directly at Bhaal. Though Bhaal was a genius Immortal Army Lord capable of contending with Immortal Marquis, Hu Yan Bo's skill in soul techniques was greater. He was struck down by a powerful soul attack, and his soul was severely wounded.
Hu Yan Bo's technique involved implanting a series of subtle, almost imperceptible soul imprints within the target's consciousness, which gradually erode their soul imprints and divine essence with each passing moment. The process began with the sealing of the immortal's core soul fragments, causing their spiritual energy to slowly destabilize and decay.
As the soul imprints weaken, the immortal's divine power becomes increasingly fragile, rendering them vulnerable to subsequent attacks. Over days, this relentless decay reduces the immortal's vitality and energy to a near-death state, paving the way for a final, decisive strike either through complete energy annihilation or soul destruction, ultimately claiming their life. Although due to Bhaal's high constitution, he was not affected during their fight, but with time, he began feeling changes within his body.
Realizing Hu Yan Bo's immense threat, Bhaal and Suo Luo Pu coordinated a final, desperate assault. Bhaal's space and lightning attacks tore through the battlefield, while Suo Luo Pu's soul attacks aimed to weaken Hu Yan Bo's soul defenses, while Bhaal's were aimed at weakening their bodies. The explosion of energy from both their attacks caused Hu Yan Bo, together with his soul slaves, to be gravely injured.
Hu Yan Bo, realizing he could not win, decided to escape with his soul slaves using their now severely damaged Yun Mo spaceship, though their destination was unknown.
Suo Luo Pu, realizing that he could have the treasure all to himself after noticing Bhaal was injured and the slave army destroyed, decided to betray Bhaal, trying to launch his own attack. Bhaal, realizing that he had no chance of winning, knew he had to come up with a plan in order to survive.
Bhaal decided to take action, and he took both of the Alien rectangular objects, which showed the location of the Ancient Dasari temple. which was known to vanish and reappear in a different place, but Suo Luo Pu didn't know about this info. He then flew towards his ship Dark Nebula, and stored it in his world ring, and with his last remaining strength, burned his divine energy and used the powerful escape technique known as Beast God Escape to retreat.
Suo Luo Pu tried to follow Bhaal, but he was too fast, since he was unable to reach him, Suo Luo Pu decided to leave Bhaal and focus on obtaining the Celestial Prism. He decided to go try to open the inner temple, only for the entire structure to vanish out of thin air, leaving him with nothing but the losses; he had lost all the map leading to the Ancient Dasari Temple.
Suo Luo Pu, who was now filled with rage, placed a huge bounty and listed it on the Universe Mercenary Alliance bounty listings. He was offering 1 billion Universe Coins to anyone who managed to kill Hu Yan Bo and 20 billion Universe Coins to anyone capable of killing Bhaal.
It was during this time that Rjali, a talented Universe-level spirit master who worked as a bounty hunter in the Universe Mercenary Alliance residing within Gunwa universe County, tracked Bhaal using her Automaton Ship's advanced systems. Automaton Ships are crafted by the beings of the Automaton Race. Even the lowest-grade ships are classified as C Grade. Unlike typical ships controlled by AIs, Automaton Ships possess a self-regulating consciousness, effectively controlling themselves. They are usually designed in the shape of pyramids.
Since the materials used in their construction are exclusive to the Automaton Race, an Automaton Ship is considered the pinnacle of its grade, meaning a D Grade Automaton Ship is regarded as D9 Grade. Its value is extraordinarily high, far surpassing the price of a human-constructed ship of the same grade. The ship's autonomous control, powered by the Automaton's abilities, results in extraordinary performance, making these ships the most technologically advanced in the Original Universe. Leveraging the unique capabilities of the Automaton Race, these ships can form specialized formations and execute advanced combat techniques, such as the Nine Absolute God Country.
Rjali thinking this was going to be an easy job because he new Bhaals power had dropped from immortal level to universe level tried to capture him alone this is when he learnt that Bhaal always has a back up, as Rjali who was a Universe Level spirit master from the Anjialuo Clan used her telekinesis abilities and brought Bhaals body which was lying on an empty moon close to her for examination Bhaal pointed his golden ring (currently the ring is possessed by Aria) on her and suddenly a small needle like metal shot from his ring hitting his head and entering her sea of consensus permanently integrating with her body and soul.
The moment it melded with her, Bhaal gained total control over her. Rjali still had all her memories, but a deep sense of loyalty towards his new owner, Bhaal, developed. Any smallest sense of disrespect would result in the needle reacting adversely, causing immense pain to the host, forcing her to follow any command, no matter how degrading it may be.
Later on, various ships tried to catch up with them, but Rjalis Automaton's ship always managed to outrun them. Bhaal traveled with Rjali for around 200 yrs using the dark universe and finally reached their destination, it was a life planet called Eden Prime, which was located in a star system called Duzahk, which he had previously acquired, when he purchased the Auroran starfield from the Ganwu Universe Country in one of their auctions when he was still a relatively new but extremely rich immortal Army Lord cultivator of the Virtual universe company whose wealth rival that of universe venerable.
The Auroran starfield is around 200 million light-years from Ganwu Main Star Sector, where Ganwu Universe Country is located. Bhaal's planet, called Eden Prime, was part of a faction that he founded, known as The Independents, who ruled most of the galaxies within the Auroran Starfields. Bhaal's organization was a loose collection of neutral planets and stations from various subraces of the human race scattered across the starfield. Their ranks include smugglers, independent trade convoys, and mercenary guilds, who were headed by universe-level cultivators personally appointed by Bhaal.
Aside from the independent there were other smaller factions which include the militarized Hegemony, which considers itself the successor to the ancient Domain and primarily uses low-tech ships; the religious Luddic Church, which opposes advanced technology and blames it for societal woes; the radical Luddic Path, a splinter group seeking to destroy technology through violence; the Persean League, a large alliance of planets opposed to the Hegemony, utilizing midline ships; the Sindrian Diktat, a military dictatorship based in Askonia and a key fuel producer; and Tri-Tachyon, a technologically advanced corporation involved in AI research, often clashing with other factions. These factions shape the political landscape of the sector, each with distinct ideologies, military strengths, and goals. For some reason, Bhaal never bothered to interfere with them despite his Immortal Army lord status.
Rjali found out that Bhaal had placed a slave called Karadun, a powerful domain-level spirit master from the Na Shi Race, as its ruler, who also had a similar needle in his sea of consciousness, which had permanently integrated it with his body and soul, making him an eternal slave. Rjali discovered that Bhaal used the planet as a last safe refuge. After around 50 years of Bhaal trying to research ways of fixing his body and soul, he had no luck. It was then that he decided to return to Faerun with her slave Rjali to seek ways to cure himself. He used magic to gain access to the infinite staircase, which is said to connect to multiple universes.
After packing most of his treasures, he left Karadun to continue ruling Eden Prime and departed to Faerun with Rjali. When they arrived in Faerun, Bhaal's cultivation power had dropped to the Planetary level, and his vitality was slowly draining; based on Rjali's calculation, he had only 1000years left to live.
They later traveled to the forest of wryms, where Bhaal, using his abilities, blew up a large crater, then placed Rjali's Automaton ship within its center. This was also when Bhaal took Rjali inside the Automaton ship and imprisoned her for 500 years, why only he knows. After that, he covered the hole using earth magic and built his Large estate to act as the base of operation in Faerun.
During this time Bhaal traveled across Faerun looking for possible answers to his situation and it was when he travelled to the library fortress of Candlekeep in the pretense of a mage seeking knowledge this is where he found a theoretical research done by the lich Vecna in which he talked of how one could become immortal by taking over a beings soul and body through a highly complicated and dangerous ritual,
The only limitation was that, for this to work, one needed the body of his or her own kin, a truly disgusting ritual only to be performed by those who are of the most vile of hearts. Bhaal later had a chance encounter while in Candlekeep with the legendary seer Alando, who prophesied as follows:
"Listen well, for I have seen what fate has set into motion. The Wyrm shall wander the earth, and a pestilence will trail in his wake an affliction so fierce that all who bear witness to his passing shall fall victim to the plague. When shadows cast darkness upon the lands, our divine lords will walk among us as equals, their presence a testament to hope amid despair. As conflict erupts across the Dales, the great lizards of the north shall descend with fire and fury, unleashing chaos upon the land. In the Year of the Turrets, a vast host will emerge from the east like a swarm of locusts, threatening to consume everything in their path. And beware, for the Lord of Murder shall meet his end, yet from his doom shall rise a score of mortal progenies, sowing chaos in their wake. These serve as warnings of the tumult that lies ahead. I speak no more." Alando said, as the flashback ended
" I just wanted to see you before I die," Bhaal says as one of the Silverium Guards brings him a chair. " You actually believe that prophecy, even if you somehow find out someone from your kin is capable of handling your soul, what if his or her body can't use genetic energy?" Rjali says.
"Don't worry, I have found the perfect successor. "Bhaal says as a video of Aria and Yinrou fighting against the other crimson bloods plays. "What a spiritual master that young, and you gave him the gold ring," Rjali says.
"I have already integrated the ring with he body, so in a sense she is your master, but she will never know what the ring actually does. The next time we meet, I will have a new body and soul far stronger than before." Bhaal said. "To think you would use your own children as pawns, you are a monster, Bhaal," Rjali said as Bhaal began to leave, ignoring her shouts,