War

Hearing these questions, Menahaos mysteriously smiled.

"Our ancient seer knew that this war would happen the day she was elected as the Myriad Chaos' main seer. That was before your clans were established or the notions of cultivation were made public."

"The reason why we haven't told you is because we are bound by an oath of silence. One that has been forced upon us." He calmly answered as his aura spiked for a millisecond before it came back to normal.

"The war being even more violent than anyone could predict, a lot of things went horribly wrong but a lot of good things happened. One of those things is the death of the one who enforced this oath upon us."

"We have plans, grand plans."

"As we are right now, we aren't worth anything. We are a third grade assembly of a mediocre Exior fold run by a pathetic Overlord who doesn't even hold a seat in the minor sphere of the Genesis council. The useless bastard wasn't even granted an honorary seat within the council of the Heavenly republic."

Hearing all these revelations, all the leaders presents heavily frowned, this was a dump of information that would destabilise a lot of the plans they had.

"If things stay like this, we won't go far."

"All of your thirteen clans are ones with histories so deep even I barely have enough authority to garner anything. You all are talents that in the world beyond, would be praised as gods among men and yet here you are, stuck at the edges of the Chaos realm as you slowly rot away."

"For how long can you keep acting? We know all of you have plans to expand beyond but can you?"

"You were born in these wastelands where sixth rate gods are worshipped and the realms beyond Chaos are myths."

The frown on the leader's faces deepened but they couldn't refute any of the words he was saying. They were simply unlucky.

No matter how glorious their clans used to be, those days were long gone.

"The only Pillars that exist in your clans are fossils that managed to survive the third war of creation. Can you imagine it? In a hundred Primordial Epochs, no cultivator has broken past that chasm."

"We are pathetic."

"But of course, I wouldn't be saying this if there wasn't light at the end of the tunnel." He said as a devilish smile appeared on his handsome face.

"Our ancient seer has a path. A path to glory."

"Before I continue, I'm gonna have to ask you to swear a dao oath of -"

Before he could even finish his words, a blinding flash of light flashed at him.

When he reopened his eyes, his pupils couldn't help but widen when he saw the disappearing golden chains that wrapped around all the leaders.

They had sworn their dao oath in an instant, with no hesitation.

Still surprised, his gaze panned around the room.

Though they stood there calmly, the flames of ambition and greed within their eyes burnt so fiercely they nearly shattered his soul defences and consumed him whole.

'The ancient seer truly doesn't miss.'

Lightly chuckling, he continued.

"Those flames, this ambition. That's why you were chosen and that is why our plan will succeed."

"Firstly, the ancient seer will help you recultivate using prime resources of the most prestigious lands of the highest worlds of our celestial reality. Those resources will push you to the peak of the Chaos Realm and beyond if you have the will to reach for it."

Shock immediately appeared on the faces of all the leaders, breaking their poised expressions but Menahaos didn't seem to be done as he continued.

"Secondly, we will gift your Heirs something called a mark of Origin. It will instantly push their cultivation to the peak of the Transcendent standard and if they put in the effort, they'll be able to reach the God standard."

Hearing this, their pupils violently widened as they heard this.

This wasn't something to be taken lightly. This could quite literally change the course of history if they played this right.

The cultivation world was complex beyond words and was constituted of multiple aspects who themselves held other even more complex aspects. It was a road that only became more difficult to walk on as time passed.

One of those aspects was standard or as other called it, innate grade or class.

To put it crudely, a being's standard was their ability to utilise their talent and the relationship their talents held towards the laws, in even simpler terms, it was the ability to bypass cultivation realms.

A lot of stories of talented cultivators being able to transcend their cultivation realms and fight opponents more than two major realms above themselves circulated within the lower rungs of the cultivation world but even such stories couldn't encompass the weight behind Standard.

To understand how standards worked and how logic breaking it was, a few notions had to be understood.

Just like most things in existence, innate grades followed the following hierarchy; Fodder, Elite, Saint, Earth, Heaven, Empyrean, Primal, Origin, Chaos, Eternal, Transcendent, Outer, Cosmic and God.

Innate Talent followed the same rankings.

Let's assume a random person was born with Heaven grade talent, this would mean that the fundamental runes that were engraved into their very existence were of the Heaven grade. Such a person, from birth, despite their talent, would still be at the Fodder innate grade.

Why?

As mentioned before, the innate grades referred to the relationship between one's talent and the laws.

Most would assume this would have to do with being favoured by the laws or the like but the truth was very different.

Innate grades were about the ability of one's talent to ignore and override the laws of existence.

Someone with Heaven grade talent had the innate potential to utterly ignore all laws until the Heaven grade but they had to work for it. How? By simply mastering their talent and bringing out most of its potential.

This was absolutely limit breaking considering the Ash pits, the lowest level of existence, were entirely made of Fodder laws.

This logic stayed consistent up until the Origin innate grade and talent.

This was where the real monsters started to appear.