Things were grim, and they knew it. Their fortress would not last the night, already, he could hear the walls break. There’s still many fighting outside, trying desperately to resist the Devourer Dragon’s forces, but here was the ‘support’ group.

“This is it. It was an honor fighting alongside all of you.” He said, his voice was breaking.

“We failed this world.” A 8th-star cultivator spoke, a true master craftsman, and he made many of the powerful Qi-weapons for the front line warriors. A formation expert tapped his shoulders, and nodded.

“We were naive.” A woman said. “We didn’t see the betrayals until it was too late.”

“Indeed. The Devourer Dragon’s corruption and temptation was too much.” They all collectively sighed. He nodded too. He was there when so many he thought he could trust betrayed their cause. When did it even happen?

When did the Devourer even get to them?

There was a loud crack outside.

A woman shouted. “We may have failed this world, but we know where the Devourer Dragon is going next. We must warn them.”

“How? That world is too far, far too distant! Maybe if we had the time to build our most powerful Qi-formations it might be possible, but it’s too late for that now.”

The woman, a ritual master of the 9th-star, shook her head. “No. There’s still a way, but it will cost us all our lives.”

Everyone stared. The woman then explained of an ancient soul-transmigration ritual meant to send one’s soul to another place. For one person, it’s incredibly risky, and the power of one soul certainly will not survive such a long journey across worlds, where the energies of the great stars are harsh.

“Alone, we are not much. But together. We all do not have time left, and the Devourer comes for us anyway. Let us all do this together. Perhaps, we can still warn the other world.”

The many experts looked at each other and they agreed. The walls were breaking, and they had all been prepared to die. Perhaps, to die together, and make a final warning to another world, it appealed to them, that it was a good, noble death.

They all died to the ritual. Experts, master healers, crafters, makers, all who lived for many thousands of years.

Many of them gave up hope, but little did they know that their act of self-sacrifice and true unity of spirit caused all their souls to fuse into one. A special soul capable of surviving the journey across the astral space with little decay. It travelled across the stars within days.

That special soul of theirs soon found a new body in a world that has yet to see the Devourer Dragon’s invasion, in a young infant named Mingwei.