(MC POV)
Even after the sun had risen, those Practitioners still stuck around the town so we had to sneak away under my cloaking Technique.
Even if I know the power difference between the Earthen Plane and this Plane now, I don't exactly want to be in a position where I have to kill everyone I see. The cleanup will be too troublesome.
But finally being on the road again felt good, since that meant I'm actually making progress to get back home.
Muon was also headed to the capital city as well so we ended up travelling together anyway, which allowed me to ask more questions.
"There's one thing I remembered… What do you know about fallen gods?" I asked, remembering about Sylphy.
It's still taking me quite a bit to get used to my feminine voice.
Muon stiffened the moment she heard my question.
"Where… Has Senpai encountered one?"
"Huh? Err… I had met one by chance back in the Earthen Plane. She told me she was a fallen god and used to be the goddess of wind or something. Is that a problem?"
Muon sighed, "I'm not sure if Senpai has ridiculously high or ridiculously low luck… Fallen gods are seen as traitors to all of us."
I think I heard some dangerous words there.
"Traitors?"
She nodded, "This is going to be quite a long story. Incidentally how much do you know about the Gods?"
"Admittedly, not much. I only know they exist from the fallen god I met and what you've told me so far."
"Then does Senpai know about the 'Great Ones'?"
"Those giant tentacled thingies? As unfortunate as it may be, I do know them."
Her eyes widened at me, "Don't tell me… Senpai has met one?"
I nodded my head, "I almost died back then, but I believe a god had saved me from it."
"I really don't know if Senpai is very fortunate or very unfortunate…"
"Anyway, what about them?"
"Unnn… While Origin created everything, they were the byproduct of existence where they sought to return everything back to 'nothingness'. When they attempted to consume Origin itself, several Gods had decided to side with them."
I made a face at her, "Isn't Origin like… You know… Basically everything? It should be omnipotent and omniscient right? This should be something that shouldn't have happened?"
"Omnipotent yes, omniscient no," She explained with a wry smile. "But even so, due to the fact that Origin was split so many times in order to make everything exist, it was not in its strongest form. If it was just the Great Ones, it would have been a simple victory for us. But at least a third of the Gods had chosen to switch sides with false promises of power and authority the Great Ones would grant them."
I made a face, "Are they dumb? If Origin gets consumed, wouldn't they cease to exist too?"
"That is correct, but the Great Ones convinced them that they would remake everything after consuming Origin to grant them the privileges promised."
"Those hoes ain't loyal."
Muon chuckled, "Indeed they weren't. But in the end, we won and those Gods who had betrayed us had their divinity stripped from them and banished, forever to be known as 'fallen Gods'. Most of them are repentant of their betrayal, but there are still the small number who harbor resentment still. For Senpai to meet one who isn't spreading chaos, I guess that particular one should be a repentant one."
I frowned, "If those unrepentant ones are just going around causing trouble, wouldn't it be better to just get rid of them?"
She smiled, "That's what we're here for. Origin granted them a second chance to redeem themselves and if these Gods aren't going to take it, we also act as their executioners."
Scary.
"So all 'fallen gods' are the ones who sided with the Great Ones?" I asked.
I remembered Sylphy talking about being a 'recent fallen' or something like that, does that mean it only happened recently?
Muon shook her head, "Most of them are, but there are a few who have made mistakes and are punished similarly. While the traitors have no time limit to their punishments, the others would have their Divinity restored after a certain amount of time."
I pointed to myself, "Is there… Any chance that I'm actually a fallen god?"
Muon shook her head, "You wouldn't even be able to channel Origin if that was the case."
Sylphy had also thought I was like her, a 'fallen god', but it seems like she was mistaken.
Ughh… Why am I even learning all of this now? I would have been fine just staying back on the Earthen Plane and living an easy life with my disciples...
No, that option is already out the window. Since Muon told me that renegade Star Power users get targeted by their patrons for not doing work, I'll need to make sure my disciples are never inconvenienced by this.
Mmhmm, since I selfishly picked them up to take care of them, I shouldn't impose such troubles on my cute disciples. It's my duty to learn what I can and give them the good life they deserve.
Hey, I can work hard if I need to ok?
"Speaking of which, I don't think you ever did tell me what you're actually doing here?" I pointed out.
"Oh, the noble in charge of that town was planning to rebel against the crown, so I was sent there to--"
I shook my head, "No, no. I meant here as in this world and as an Origin wielder."
"Ah… There had been a sudden spike in Origin energy in this World, so I was tasked to investigate the source of it. It's nothing serious though, there have been multiple instances of this happening throughout the other Worlds and most of the time it's just false alarms."
"And the other times?"
"The other times are the Gods of that world doing something they shouldn't be doing. Even then, those are mostly done accidentally rather than intentionally."
Let's just hope it really isn't anything to worry about.
I chanced looking behind me to see the group of men trudging along, all of them keeping their heads down.
"So what about them? They seem to be residents of this Plane right?"
Muon shrugged, "I picked them up from the slave market. They have their uses and it's also to keep up appearances. I would get way too many questions travelling alone and, if need be, they can help me with miscellaneous tasks."
How convenient.
"Does Master want a group of man slaves too?" Xun Guan asked suddenly.
I looked down at her, "Huh? Where did you even get that idea from? There's no way I would want that, you know?"
"Umm… My apologies… It's just that if Master wanted to, I could split myself and create a group of followers too."
"Oh right, I can't believe I forgot you could do that."
"Master did say you could do it as well too… So I never thought I needed to do it."
"Speaking of which… I wonder how it would feel like if I were to split myself here? Let's give it a try."
With that line of thought, I tried to split myself into multiple bodies and…
One thousand clones of me popped up around the area.
Here's one thing that you need to know, this Technique was also supposed to split the clothes I'm wearing on the clones as well.
But since Xun Guan is acting as my clothes, the only actual non-living thing on my body right now is actually just my boxers.
So when a thousand of my clones popped up in my female form, all of them were only wearing a set of men's boxers and nothing else.
By the time I had unsummoned the clones, the men that had seen the spectacle had collapsed onto the ground with blood bleeding out of their noses.
Muon looked at her followers with a complicated face, "Umm… Should I say… As expected of Senpai?"
I squatted down on the ground and covered my face with both hands…
I think I should just transform myself back into a male...
