Dragon's Soul

Chapter 1: An End and A Beginning

There is a saying that for every beginning there is also an end, but this is not always the case.

At least not for Lang Lei, who was born as the 2nd son of a successful business entrepreneur. Lang was born with a gift, since the age of three he was able to remember everything he saw and learn from it, he could recite books he only read once word for word and paint perfect pictures of his memories. This was however, not only a blessing but also a curse. Thanks to this gift Lang would be considered a genius, but because of this he would walk a lonely path, being the only one at his age with an intellect such as his.

Ever since then, he had immersed himself in gaining knowledge. He did this for no real reason, but purely out of curiosity. From an early age, Lang had always been a “the pen is mightier than the sword”-type of person, he did not see the point of violence and the only reason he learned military tactics was because they tied in with history. There was also the fact that his father had always taught him to be kind to others and to always help those in need, thus enforced his beliefs. But all of these beliefs would, on one fateful day, prove to be misguided. For nothing is clad in black and white.

It started out like any other day, Lang was getting ready for school, today was the first day of the new school year. Instead of going to university where he belonged, his parents had made him enroll with the rest of the kids his own age in the hopes that he would be able to make some friends.

Lang was now 12 years old and was known around the world as a prodigy who possessed vast knowledge in science, art, history and even other more obscure subjects such as military tactics.

He had gone to school, as always, even though it did not offer him any knowledge that he did not already know. He would go to school and just sit there for hours to learn about things that he had known about for years. All due to his parents hopes of giving him a normal childhood. And after an uneventful day at school, he would go home. His teachers and classmates paid him no mind. Lang had always been alone, normal students and teachers just couldn’t relate to him, not that they tried to.

To his surprise, there was a man whom he did not know, sitting in his kitchen when Lang got home today. He learned that his father had let the man into their home because the man was laying in front of their house, injured. The man wore plain clothing, and there was a faint smell of blood coming off from him, most likely from his injury.

The man claimed that a passing car hit him, but that he was ok and would be alright with a bit of rest.

There was not anything out of the ordinary with the man, but Lang thought that something was off about him. In the end, he ignored his gut feeling and left for his room.

His father had offered the man to stay for dinner or if the man needed, he would drive him to the hospital. To which the man declined and asked to simply be allowed to rest on the sofa for a bit.

Before dinner, everyone in Lang’s family tried to strike up a conversation with the man, they had asked him what he did for a living, to which he simply replied “I help send people to a better place.”

After a light dinner, Lang headed to his room to read a book and get some sleep early. His father led the man to the door and said his goodbyes, while everyone else went to bed.

Lang hopped onto his bed, and opened a book to read before going to sleep like usual, today he had picked a book about religion, mainly focusing on reincarnation. This particular topic was mentioned in school today and Lang had never really thought about it before, so he figured he would give it a read.

But in the middle of the night, Lang heard a scream. It was obviously odd to hear a gut wrenching scream in the middle of the night so he put down his book and left his room to investigate.

Any regular teen would have simply ignored the scream or ran to their parents, but not Lang. He had always been the independent type, who didn’t ask for help unless he absolutely needed it.

Eerie red moonlight shone on him as he walked down the stairs and a flash of light caught his attention. It was the moonlight reflecting off a bloody knife. Lang had stumbled onto the bloody scene of the man, whom his father had let into their home, stabbing his father.

Lang panicked, he realized that this man was the serial killer that they were talking about on the news this morning, the one that had killed nine people.

He tried to run to the phone to call for help, but instead stumbled to the ground. As he tried to get up the man had noticed him and came running.

He saw the limp body of his older brother lying in the kitchen staring at him, with empty lifeless eyes, still holding an empty plastic cup in his hand. Lang had stumbled due to his brother’s leg.

A sharp pain was felt on his back. Lang realized that the man had stabbed him and that he would most likely die.

Lang’s mother had heard all the commotion and came running down from the 2nd floor of their home. To her horror both of her sons and husband were laying on the floor. She let out a miserable scream, but it soon stopped and was replaced by the mad laughter of the man.

Lang heard him laughed as he proceeded to slowly walk past Lang holding his blood-stained knife, then ran towards Lang’s mother.

Lang’s life flashed in front of his eyes.

Lang began to question himself, why was it that he had to die, why was it that this was happening to him. At that moment, in a flash, he realized that so far he lived an empty life, he had done nothing but gather knowledge and live by that ridiculously black and white philosophy his father had ingrained into him.

Lang screamed in his mind ”WHY?!! Why did this have to happened?!!”.

While staring blankly at his father’s bloody corpse, if he had not let this man into their home none of this would’ve happened. Lang’s mother would still be alive, his brother would also be alive and Lang himself would not have to die.

The sharp pain from his back, the sight of his dead family members further pushed Lang into despair and hatred, hatred for their killer but also for his own powerlessness.

At that moment Lang swore that if he were to survive this ordeal he would not live like he had before. He would live a different life, a life for himself and no one else, because he had nothing to blame but his lack of power and his family’s misplaced trust in other people.

Lang took his last breath and his vision blurred out. He believed that this was the end and his life had ended without him truly even living it. Thus he swore that if there was indeed a next life, he would obtain power, power to rule over others, power to shake even the heavens. And so this marked the end of his life, but for some, the end is only the beginning.

Chapter 2: New Life

Today was a joyous day because it marks the year of the creation of the Heilong Kingdom located on the Wulin continent. It was also the day of the Stellar Alignment that only happens once every 1000 years. The Heilong Kingdom had been established since the end of the great war between humanity and the Black Soul Eating Dragon, also known as Heilong. In honor of defeating the dragon, the kingdom was named after it.

The Heilong Kingdom wasn’t the only kingdom, nor was it the largest kingdom, it was actually the weakest kingdom and definitely the one with the least history. However, it was made up of people from different kingdoms that had been wiped out during the war.

Festivals and parties were at a full swing today, especially for one family, the Zhou clan.

The Zhou clan lived in a small city that could be categorized as a big town, that went by the name of Blue Tear City. Despite not being a large city, it had all the necessities of one due to its location at the very border of Heilong Kingdom.

Lots of merchants and people would pass Blue Tear City, thus allowing a large amount of money to flow into the city and made the residents wealthy.

Blue Tear City was run by three clans, the Zhou, Wu, and Liu. Each clan having control over a different aspect of the city.

The Zhou controlled the regulation of trade, making it the wealthiest of the three clans. While the Wu controlled a small army stationed to protect the town, thus making them the law enforcers of the city. And finally, the Liu who neither had the most wealth or power but control most of the land in the city. They alone own basically half of the city’s farmlands and possess the longest history in the city, being able to trace their lineage back to the founders of Heilong Kingdom.

The Zhou and Wu clan had a friendship spanning over many generations and were in league with one another. Whereas the Liu clan remained secluded by themselves, believing they were above the other clans and residents of the city because of their lineage.

Today the Zhou clan would be welcoming the newest addition to their family. The wife of Zhou Cheng the leader of the Zhou clan, had just given birth to his first son named Zhou Zhang.

Zhang’s birth was just like any other baby, but the midwife panicked when he came out, he was a particularly odd baby, unlike most babies he did not cry when he was born. She had thought that he was possibly stillborn.

But as soon as he opened his eyes, a ray of blood-red moonlight from the stellar alignment shone on his tiny body which attracted the attention of everyone in the room.

Zhang’s mother picked him up and cradled him gently in her arms, as he stared at her and everyone in the room intently.

“What a precious looking child you are.” She said as she cradled him in her arms.

Their mansion was filled with activity, maids and servants were running left and right in preparation for the big party that was going to be thrown tomorrow to celebrate Zhang’s birth. Invitations were being sent out to the other clans, and to just about everyone in the city, anyone who had considerable status would be at the party.

The next day, the Zhou mansion was filled with people, servants were outside keeping an eye on horses and carriages while their masters were congratulating Zhou Cheng.

Gifts of gold, jade, and other expensive things were stacked into a small mountain. Every guest was seated to a table filled with various food that would make anyone’s mouth water. Beautiful maids were pouring wine and dancing to add to the festivities.

Zhou Cheng was so happy that he had ordered his servants to allow everyone who wished to join the festivities to enter the mansion. People that usually would not be at such a social gathering soon flooded into the mansion and seated nonetheless.

Everyone was enjoying the food and the dancing until an old man dressed in rags walked in the front door. The man’s clothes were so tattered he was practically half-naked, and his body gave off a foul smell that made everyone take a few steps back as he walked in their direction.

“Is this the place that’s giving out free food?” The old man said cheerfully.

Zhou Cheng’s servants assisted the man to his seat as ordered to by their master.

“This way sir.” A maid said as she led him to a table.

“Oh, my so much food, and all of it looks so good.” The old man said as he stuffed food into his mouth with his hands, paying no mind to anyone else at his table. As soon as he finished a dish, he would move on to the next and then the next until there was no more. Servants would bring more food, but the man’s appetite was enormous, everything they brought soon disappeared into his stomach.

Not so long after the man had entered the mansion, Zhang’s mother, Zhen Jin, who was known as the prettiest woman in the city walked out of her room carrying Zhang in her arms.

Soon she was surrounded by a sea of people hoping to see the newborn and offer their blessings. But then a foul odor flew into her nostrils, which make her almost gag. Then she noticed standing in front of her was a man dressed in rags.

The man proceeded to thank her and husband for the food and offered to give them his greatest treasure, and a few words to the baby.

Zhen Jin thought to herself, “what could this man possibly have that her family did not already have?” Nonetheless, the treasure of someone of his status was probably worth nothing to her. But she kept quiet and simply smiled.

The man pulled out from his pocket a pitch black jade pendant, with an exquisite dragon carved onto it. The man said, “This has been in my family's possession for hundreds of year and is carved out of the crystallized heart of a dragon.”

The pendant had a strange glow to it, although it was pitch black there was a somewhat blue sheen to it, which mesmerized everyone who looked at it.

Stunned by the appearance of the pendant, Zhen Jin did not say a word except for “thank you” and received the pendant from the man.

The man then proceeded to say, “Your child’s future will be riddled with tragedy but also filled with greatness. He will experience the most terrible ordeals and enjoy the best world has to offer. He will stand on top of millions with power that can bring down the heavens or he will be like me, penniless, homeless, and alone. Being born during the Stellar Alignment and blessed by the Blood Moon could be viewed as a blessing, but it can also be viewed as a curse.”

Everyone was left speechless to what the man had just said, they did not know whether to laugh or cry at what he said.

Zhen Jin however was furious, she had not heard anything the man had said after he had told her that her child’s life would be filled with tragedy. She was certain that this man was a lunatic and then ordered her servants to kick the man out of the mansion. And in a fit of rage, she tossed the pendant the man had given Zhang into the pond in her garden on her way back to her room.

In the morning, when the servants came to nurse Zhang, they found that the pendant which was thrown into the pond by her mother somehow ended up around his neck. And when they tried to take it off, there was a strange force that kept them from touching it. No matter who tried to touch it they weren’t able to, and the only one who seemed to be able to touch the pendant was Zhang.

Eventually, the people in the mansion gave up trying to take the pendant off Zhang’s neck.

A few months had passed since Zhang was born, and the city was once against filled joy, the leader of the Wu clan’s wife had given birth to a daughter, named Wu Ling.

Zhou Cheng and his wife Zhen Jin brought their son to the Wu clan’s mansion to celebrate Wu Ling’s birth.

In no way did Wu Ling’s party fall shorts of Zhang Zhou’s, esteemed guests filled the Wu mansion and to everyone’s surprise Wu Tong who was the leader of the Wu clan had engaged his daughter Ling Wu to Zhou Zhang.

This was to change the long-lasting friendship among the two clans into family ties. And thus two destinies were tied together, Zhang and Ling were to be married when they both reached the age of sixteen.

“Brother Zhou, don’t you think our two kids are meant for each other?” Wu Tong said as he and Zhou Cheng watch their wives cradling the two newborns.

“How am I supposed to know? All we can do it hope they get along or else we might end up being terrible parents for doing this.” Zhou Cheng said with a chuckle.

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As a baby Zhang was very well looked after. Teams of maids and servants helped his mother him take care of him around the clock.

He was given the finest clothes and the best things that could be bought. From silk woven blankets to gorgeous tiny articles of clothing that were made especially for him.

One could say that besides Ling no other baby was treated as wonderfully as Zhang in Blue Tear City. Being the first and only child of the richest and more influential man in the city had it’s perks.

Zhang was like any other baby who was showered with love and care grew very quickly. By the age of eight months, he had started waddling all around the Zhou clan’s mansion. Sometimes he even managed to waddle away from the watchful eyes of the maids assigned to watch over him.

Some of the maids often said “ if you take your eyes off the young master for a second then he might disappear right before your eyes.”

By the time Zhang was around two he was reintroduced to Ling. The two toddlers quickly became playmates as their parents often left them together. They would mumble baby talk and giggle about with each other when together. They became so attached that one of them would start crying if they were separated.

As Zhang’s father and Ling’s father watched the two children play they felt at ease about their decision to engage the two.

“See I told you it was a good decision.” Ling’s father Wu Tong would often say to Zhang’s father Zhou Cheng.

Thier attachment grew as the months and years went by and the two toddlers became small children. The two playmates became the best of friends who were inseparable from each other. Without a worry or care in the world the two of the spent every waking minute playing with each other.

Besides each other they didn’t really have any friends that were the same age. This of course is because there were no other clans besides the Liu clan who were equal to the Zhou and Wu clan. Meaning that no other children were fit to be their friends status wise. If given the chance there were many people who wanted to kidnap these two children and demand a ransom from the two families. Thus, they only had each other as friends, well not that they minded only having each other.

When Zhang was not playing with Ling, he was exploring the clan’s large garden. Zhang could be described as a very curious and adventurous child who could run about for hours on end and not become bored. Zhang often spent his time sitting under a large apple tree that was on top of a hill that overlooked a part of the city. He and Ling would often play under the cool shade of the apple tree on hot summer days.

All this being said Zhang’s time was not all spent playing once he reached the age of four his father arranged for a private tutor to come to their home and teach him. Zhou Cheng wished to groom his son and provide him with the best tool needed in life. Thus, Zhang was taught all kinds of things by the many private tutors the clan employed.

He learned art, literature, basic etiquette, and other general knowledge that one should know. Zhang was about to learn everything taught to him at an astounding speed that made his tutors all awestruck. As the eventually ran out of things to teach him, they soon left one after another ashamed of their lack of knowledge. In the end, only one tutor stayed behind to teach the young boy.

Although Zhang was able to quickly learn many things he did not seem to enjoy sitting in a classroom, writing poems or drawing pictures. Instead, what he truly enjoyed with learning about the sword. Due to his adventurous personality, Zhang really enjoyed learning how to hold a sword or ride a horse.

One time he scared the living daylights of out of the maids assigned to watch over him. Zhang had climbed up on a horse for the first time while the reins were being held by a male servant. Once Zhang was on top of the horse he accidently pulled on the mane of the horse which caused it to go mad and kick about sending him flying off the horse. Seeing this, all of the servants rushed to where Zhang fell to see if he was okay, worrying about his safety.

When they got to him they could see that one of his knees had scrapped on a rock and was bleeding. However strangely Zhang got up as if he did not feel a thing and climbed back up onto the horse that knocked him off.

This however was not the only odd thing about Zhang. Often times late at night he would wake up screaming and yelling. And when asked what happened he would tell everyone that he saw scary looking man chasing him.

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Time flew by Zhang grew to be more handsome by the day, and his trusty childhood friend Ling grew more beautiful. People called them a pair made by heaven itself.

Zhang had recently turned ten years old, he was like any other child of his age, except sometimes he would talk about things that someone his age would have no knowledge about. When asked how he knew such things he would say that he saw them as fuzzy images in his dreams. One dream that he could clearly recall was that of a man laughing and running towards him wielding a knife on his hand, to which he would wake up screaming.

Most people just shrugged it off as the random talk of a child, who was probably just repeating what he heard an adult had said.

Now at the age of ten, Zhang would have to take the city’s internal essence test that happened once a year in a few months. Which basically measures the amount of essence a person possessed. Essence being the energy needed to bend the elements to one's will.

Essence was in every living thing; some called it the soul, others called it life energy. Essence had many uses, one could harness the powers of nature and bestow it to their weapons for combat. For instance, someone with essence related to lightning might be able to bestow their sword the power of lightning. If one was able to train and reach a higher level, they could possibly shoot lightning from their fingertips; or use the elements to strengthen their bodies beyond the realms of man.

There were ten basic levels, and each level they managed to pass, they would be able to produce enough essence to prolong their lives and if someone was able to pass the ten basic levels they would be able to live indefinitely and be labeled immortals or saints. But this was easier said than done, average people would only be able to reach the 6th or 7th level at most through hard work and countless years of training. And some geniuses would be able to reach the 8th or 9th level, and even less would be able to reach the 10th level and so on.

Although it was very hard to become saints, there were quite a few of them in the Wulin continent, mainly because once they became a saint they would be free from illness, aging and live indefinitely.

Zhang was waiting for his turn to test his essence level with Ling. The vast majority of the residents of Blue Tear City had come to see the tests. An official from the capital of the Heilong Kingdom came to administer the test for those between the ages of ten and sixteen, to record their level and see if they would later qualify to attend the Royal Academy for gifted youths in the capital of the kingdom.

To be able to attend the Royal Academy was an honor that most of the families dreamed of, but the requirements weren’t easy to fulfill. Every age group had a set of parameters for essence levels and one had to be at least two levels higher than the average of their age group and a high elemental amplitude to even be considered for admittance.

As the line began moving, Zhang heard the official call out names of people being tested and their levels and amplitude. They would have to walk up the stage watched by the entire city and sprinkle a drop of their blood into a transparent crystal. The crystal would then glow in different colors telling people what element they had the high amplitude, and a number would also appear on it reading their essence level.

Typically, someone at ages of ten through twelve would have an essence level of one, and someone at the age of thirteen through sixteen would most likely be a level 2. Whereas essence could be increased and trained, amplitude was what one was born with and would never increase or decrease.

Ling and Zhang were an inseparable pair that was often seen playing together and being born only a few months apart they would be taking the test at the same time.

When it came to their turn for the test Zhang walked up to the stage where he was greeted by a kind looking old man who happened to be the official who administered the test. The official had picked up a clean needle and pricked Zhang's index finger and directed him to the transparent crystal on the center of the stage.

Zhang then sprinkled a drop of his blood onto the crystal, and in an instant it projected his age and essence level, which as 10 years old and level 1. He waited for the crystal to change color to reveal what element he had an amplitude in, but it remained transparent. Disappointed and somewhat ashamed, Zhang walked off the stage.

Ling had run up to Zhang and asked him if his finger hurt, to which he laughed and said, “no.” Ling then wrapped his finger with her handkerchief, told him to “stop pretending it didn't hurt” and walked towards the stage.

Zhang couldn’t help but smile because it truly didn’t hurt, it wasn’t that he was pretending it didn’t hurt nor was it that he was distracted by something and didn't notice the pain. Zhang simply could not feel pain, ever since he was born Zhang had never been able to feel pain. No one knew of this besides his parents.

As Zhang was busy staring at his finger, the crowd suddenly roared, as the official read out Ling’s test. Wu Ling, age ten, essence level three, the high amplitude in the element of water. Not only was her amplitude high but she was also two levels ahead of the average of her age group. From this day on, Ling would be labeled a genius.

If Ling’s essence kept increasing at the age of sixteen, she would be admitted for sure into the Royal Academy.

Seeing Ling’s results Zhang cheered for her and smiled, he was truly happy for her but also in a corner of his heart sad he was sad because of his poor results.

Ling came running down from the stage towards Zhang, with a broad smile across her face as her silky black hair flew in the wind.

The two of them walked shoulder to shoulder on their way home from the exam. Seeing that Zhang was somewhat sad, Ling tried to cheer him up.

“You’ll do better next year for sure Zhang!” She said.

Zhang not wanting her to worry about him, he said, “I sure will! Next year I might even do better than you Ling.”

And so they continued on their way home, when they had reached Zhang’s home, he took Ling’s hand and told her that he wanted to show her something.

The two ran through the mansion, and out into the garden. The Zhou clan had a massive garden that expanded from the back of their home onto a hill. Filled with all sorts of unique flowers, and fruit trees, one would be able to immerse themselves into nature here.

Zhang and Ling ran up to the hill and stood under a big apple tree. Zhang began to climb up the tree and Ling soon followed. Once they reached the top they were able to see the whole city and the sun setting.

Smoking chimneys and the people walking around the city could be seen from here. The sight was something to behold for these two.

Zhang picked an apple and handed it to Ling, and the two would sit and chat until it was time for Ling to go home.

Zhang was laying on his bed tossing and turning, he was having a dream that he often had, in this dream he would see a man running towards him wielding a bloody knife, and the knife would reflect an eerie red color due to light from the moon. Every time Zhang would wake up panting, the dream seemed so real, and after each time, he saw this dream his head would be filled with a bunch of just random knowledge. Things that he knew nothing about would become common knowledge to him.

He didn’t think too much about it, it became a common occurrence for him and would happen quite frequently.

At first, he would question why he kept having the same dream, who was that man and why did he attack Zhang. Many questions popped up but like all else with time, everything goes away.

Zhang woke up the next day somewhat tired from the lack of sleep, but nonetheless still energized, he began dressing to get ready because his tutor was coming.

His father hired a private tutor for him, the tutor taught various subjects such as literature, geography, art, and overall basic etiquette.

But today was different, Zhang waited for the tutor to come in his study room, but the tutor never showed up, instead when the doors opened an old man dressed in all white robes walked in.

The old man had long droopy eyebrows, a well-kept beard and long white hair that was kept tied in a bun. He then said with a smile, “you must be Zhang, your father invited me here to teach you how to cultivate your essence, I will also continue to teach you what your previous tutor was teaching you.”

Thus began Zhang’s path into cultivating, the first thing he was taught was the various uses of essence. He learned that a person who used their essence to strengthen their bodies would be classed as warriors, and people who used their essence to manipulate outside forces would be called mages. Generally, people pick one or the other, everyone had their own preferences but once they reached sainthood it would all be the same since they would have mastered control over essence.

Next, he was taught how to channel and make his essence flow. He had to sit cross-legged with his eyes closed and breath in and out while imagining a flowing river, that started from his stomach and circulated to every corner of his body.

He was told once he mastered this he could be able to use the energy in two ways, he could channel it into his body parts to make them stronger than they normally would be or if he had the talent release it from his body and make it take shape.

Most people were only able to channel it within their bodies because it was much harder to keep the released energy condensed as a whole and take shape when outside of the body. Hence, there were fewer mages than warriors.

Zhang would try to circulate his essence but each time he was able to gather some, in an instant it would disappear. As if he was trying to get water out of an empty well.

No matter how hard he tried, he was not able to gather any energy. His teacher checked his vitals and said that his body was perfectly normal but oddly, it possessed very little essence within it. Zhang was told that he would just have to train ten times harder than the average person if he wanted to advance. And without a word Zhang would keep attempting to gather his inner energy again and again.

Not seeing any results, however, his teacher offered him an alternative. Instead of strengthening his inner energy, strengthen his body. Instead of gathering energy inside a vessel and use that energy to strengthen the vessel, they would instead directly strengthen vessel itself.

This method wasn’t widely practiced due to the slow pace and amount of time and effort required, it was not a method for the weak-willed simply said.

However, not wanting to fall behind Ling any further Zhang gave it his all. He would wake up every morning and strap weights onto his arms and legs like his teacher told him and run laps from his house all the way to the hill in the back of the garden. Roughly a mile-long stretch to the hill from the house and as soon as he got back he would have to start over.

He would have to do this until he no longer felt the weights on his body, and when he wasn’t able to they would be exchanged for heavier weights. Sword play was also taught while the weights were strapped onto his arms and legs.

When Ling came over to play, Zhang would always be too busy training, he did not want to be left behind by her.

He would eat, sleep, and train until he dropped with these weights on. One would think that a ten-year-old wouldn’t have the determination to go on after a day, but Zhang was different.

Thanks to his weird dreams he possessed knowledge that someone his age wouldn’t normally possess, and this made him mature much quicker and had a firmer and decisiveness that others in his age did not.

Ever since he started training Zhang always had a weird feeling in the back of his mind, he felt that something or someone was telling him to get stronger and obtain more power. It made him feel afraid of being weak and afraid of being left behind thus, he would always push himself to the limit.

His parents encouraged him by getting the best doctors, and physicians to keep Zhang at top shape. He would be given rare medicines that helped one to recover faster. What would take a normal person three days to recover, he was able to recover in a day thanks to the medicine.

Most of his training was done alone, and did not need any supervision, so his teacher would only come to every couple of days to see his progress and teach him the ways of the sword.

Zhang learned two different sword styles, the first used a traditional long sword and was meant to follow a certain flow to use the enemy's power against them, which was more appropriate for one on one duels.

The 2nd style uses two swords a long sword and a short sword, this was a good style to use when fighting many people, one would use the longsword to keep enemies back at a safe distance and when closing in use the short sword to finish them off.

One followed a flow that was best for defending and fighting long battles, whereas the other was best for its explosive movements and fast attacks. Zhang honed his skills in both styles and would soon master all of the techniques that his master taught him.

Also only recently did Zhang notice that if he trained at night under the light of the moon he would not feel tired at all, it was as if the moonlight was giving him strength. He didn't know exactly why this was the case or did he really bother to look into it, but now he would often sleep during the day and on nights when the moon shone he would train through the night.

Zhang would keep training day in and day out and gradually grew stronger by the day.

Chapter 3: Strength

Today, Zhang started his day by strapping two weights to his leg and two weights to his arms each weighing roughly fifty kilograms. He also tied a weight of one hundred kilograms on his back.

Then Zhang would proceed with his daily routine of running from his home to the hill and back.

If someone were to watch him, they won’t think he was carrying so many extra weights, because Zhang was running so fast it looked like he was gliding a bit off the ground.

After one hundred laps, he tossed away the weights which made a heavy thump sound as they hit the ground.

"Time to get heavier weights", he sighed.

It had been six years since Zhang started training his body instead of his inner essence. His current strength could be considered monstrous for a sixteen years old, if one were to compare his strength with someone training inner essence he would be around a level five.

This would place him at the level of a regular full grown adult in their prime. Although he was still a little bit off from the ultimate limit of a regular person.

For the last six years he never bothered taking the essence exam again, mainly because there was really no exact way to measure his strength. If he were to sprinkle his blood on the reading crystal, it would still read an essence level of one.

Thus it was pointless to take the exam and being laughed at for his low level, so Zhang would rather spend that time training.

After weight training he would walk up to a cauldron filled to the brim with iron sand. Zhang was currently training his fingers to achieve a technique that would make his fingers hard as iron.

This technique required Zhang three years of grueling hard work to accomplish. Although he was already at the last level of the "Iron Fingers" technique, Zhang kept practicing hoping to even further strengthen his fingers.

He had long ago mastered the two sword forms his teacher had taught him. Now, the swords had become like extensions of his arms. Zhang preferred the dual swords technique the most. His father had found him a pair of swords made of "Blood Iron".

Blood iron was unbelievably hard, even harder than steel. This was due to how it was made. When a swordsmith was forging blood iron they would have to forge their blood into the iron in flames formed using their cultivation base. The blood would mix with the iron and add a part of the swordsmith’s essence and vitality into it. This made the weapons made out of blood iron a fourth tier weapon. Which would make them very good weapons. Since weapons were classed the same as the levels of cultivation.

Swords such as these were fairly rare and not many smiths were able to make them. So eventually the method to make them was lost.

As a stroke of luck Zhang's father had acquired them in a faraway village on one of his business trips. He spent a sizable sum of money before the previous owner was willing to part with them. But what was money to Blue Tear city's richest man.

The swords had a bloody red sheen in contrast with its black blade. A murderous aura was given off every time they were unsheathed. This showed that countless lives had been taken by these swords over the years.

As he was practicing his swordplay, Zhang noticed that someone was watching him.

Actually he knew who it was, it was Ling. Shortly after he has started training six years ago, Ling would come every day to watch him.

He, out of the corner of his eye, could see her sitting intently watching him.

She wore elegant white robes, that complimented her glossy long black hair. With cherry colored lips, flawless snow white skin, and beautiful hazel colored eyes.

Ling was currently hailed as Blue Tear City's genius, and it's most beautiful young maiden with many suitors trying to win her favour.

Her essence level was currently five, and a few months ago she received an invitation from the Royal Academy to join them when the new school year started.

This called for a huge celebration in the city. The Royal Academy is what all the youths wanted to attend, but only one in a thousand, youths with extraordinary talent, were selected.

In the long history of Blue Tear City, Ling was the first ever to be selected. This gave all the residents of Blue Tear City a sense of pride and joy.

As Zhang finished his daily routine, he turned towards Ling with a broad smile and asked her what she wanted for breakfast.

To this she replied, "Want to make a guess?"

Zhang smiled, the two of them had a deep understanding of each other. So of course he knew what she wanted.

But of course he had to tease her. So he replied, "Nope." He picked up some weights and started juggling them.

Ling retorted with a "guess I will just go eat alone hmph" and started walking off.

Zhang laughed, jumped up into a ten feet tall tree and grabbed a basket of food he had left there earlier.

He then jumped down and ran after her. She turned back and laughed. Of course she had noticed the smell coming from the basket long before Zhang had grabbed it from the tree.

The two of them were practically a married couple after being together for so many years.

Neither of them really understood love, but after so many years they've become irreplaceable person in each other's lives.

After eating breakfast, Zhang would continue his training and Ling had to go back home to meet her teacher.

Ling's teacher, a level eight Mage, who rarely accepted students. But after seeing her potential, he accepted her as a disciple and then began teaching her at the age of eleven.

Every day she would have to train by channeling and manipulating essence.

After Ling left, the garden became quiet, Zhang soon fell into his regular pace of training.

As he trained his mind fell into a state of emptiness. And soon images would begin to flash in his mind.

He learned how to enter a dream like state while being awake. This allowed him to see the visions or shall we call them dreams that he would usually have.

From these dreams he would learn a great deal about various things, although many of the things he saw were strange and couldn't be applied to everyday life, others proved to be beneficial in his training.

He developed a great understanding of the human body thanks to these dreams. They allowed him to train to the limit without hurting himself. His knowledge about the body would put a seasoned doctor to shame.

Although the dreams were very beneficial to him, he did not dive too deep into them. Because once he had pushed himself into the dream state for far too long, he began sensing a murderous entity appeared within his mind and began to spread across his entire consciousness and shook his soul as if wanting to take over his mind, but oddly enough a strange black spark would appear and pushed it back, cleansing his mind.

After training he would soak in a bath of medical herbs that helped to increase his strength and restore the energy in his body.

As the medical bath energized him, Zhang fell asleep.

He woke up hours later, rubbed his eyes and looked out the window to see the sun setting.

"%!?%^*% it's time for dinner!", he yelled. Hurriedly, he got dressed and ran to the dining room.

And so a regular day for Zhang ended.

Little did he know these days would soon come to an abrupt end.

A few miles away from Blue Tear city outside of the border of the Heilong Kingdom, storms were brewing.

A mass of soldiers, clad in red armor laced with gold thread, stood in formation. Holding up red flags with a golden lion head in the center.

Anyone would know that this was the flag of the Siwang Empire. The Wulin continent’s second largest empire that neighbored the western border of the Heilong Kingdom.

It is roughly twenty times bigger than the Heilong Kingdom and its borders ran along many kingdoms.

The soldiers were waiting for their commander to appear.

They were just one of the many battalions taking part in today's mission. There was a total of one million soldiers mobilized to the eastern border of the Siwang Empire.

A man walked in front of the rows of soldiers dressed in shiny golden armor with red lacing and began talking.

"Today we shall bring glory to the empire, and ensure that our empire lasts thousands of years.", he said.

The soldiers roared and cheered him on.

"All soldiers rest and prepare, for in a few hours we and the other battalions will march across the borders of those puny kingdoms and add them to our glorious empire." The commander roared.

The sight of soldiers hurriedly saddling their horses and sharpening their weapons soon followed.

Soon scouts were sent out and the soldiers got into formation and began their march.

They had to march in the dark only aided by the little moonlight that there was. They did not wish for the other side to know they were coming.

A few soldiers were conversing amongst themselves.

"Be careful there might be demonic beasts in this forest."

Demonic beasts were animals that had absorbed a large amount of essence from nature and gained intelligence.

Once an animal became a demonic beast their offspring that followed after would be a demonic beast as well.

Generally, demonic beasts only appear in forests with a high concentration of essence. And they usually live in packs. So if one was unlucky to run into one demonic beast they'd most likely soon run into a whole pack.

Most demonic beasts that lived in packs aren't too strong individually but when swarmed with hundreds of thousands of them, even mighty armies would disappear.

Even if one ran into a demonic beast that wasn't part of a pack, it could kill a regular human or two.

Or if one was really unlucky there was a chance of running into a divine demonic beast, which is a demonic beast that reached sainthood. These beasts were extremely intelligent and powerful and a single one can easily wipe out a whole city or two. And there was a rumor that they were even able to speak like humans.

The army was now in the border of the Heilong Kingdom, roughly ten miles away from Blue Tear City. A man dressed in green robes had ridden out of the city to greet them.

This man who greeted the army was the leader of the Liu clan, Liu Bei (yes <_< >_> lol). Liu Bei saluted the Siwang army’s general, after getting off from his horse.

"Liu Bei greets your lordship" he said as he kneeled on one knee.

The general dressed in golden armor then asked, "Have the preparations been complete?"

"Yes milord, everything is going smoothly. I have instructed my men to infiltrate the city guard. They will open the gates for us once I’ve given the signal." Liu Bei said,

"Good! Your Liu clan will be the new master of this city and the surrounding cities once we conquered them." The general said with a smile.

On the city wall, guards were keeping watch and chatting with each other.

One of the guards spotted something in the corner of his eye. He saw a speck of light illuminating the forest. He squinted his eyes and was able to make out a vague figure in the darkness. Soon he gasped at the sight he saw, rows and rows of figures made their way out of the forest.

And to add to his surprise the city gates began to creak and slowly opened. The guard realized what was happening, but before he could even utter a word, a hand covered his mouth and in a flash a knife ran across his throat.

He fell on the ground and the last thing saw was the other guards were also being dispatched in the same way.

Not so long after the soldiers of the Siwang Empire rushed in through the city gates, they began to systematically occupy the city walls.

Liu Bei and the general clad in golden armor walked to the top of the walls and looked down into the city.

The general told Liu Bei to kneel so he can bestow Liu Bei a gift.

Liu Bei was filled with joy, soon his family would control this city and the surrounding ones. So he excitedly got on his knees.

He then heard the unsheathing of a sword and looked up, horrified to see the general swing his sword at Liu Bei and before he could say a word his head rolled onto the floor .

The general laughed and pulled out a piece of red crystal shaped like a heart. This was called a "Soul Stone" and had the power to absorb essence. He hovered the stone over the corpse and a bluish light came out and flew into the crystal turning a small part of it purple.

This was Liu Bei's soul, theoretically speaking, a soul was made up of pure essence. The stronger a soul was the more essence it contained.

Tonight each and every soldier of the Siwang Empire was given a soul stone. Their mission was to slaughter every person within the city and to collect their souls.

These soul stones would be sent back to the empire for the emperor to use and increase his power.

Soon, the city was filled anguished screams.

Zhang was awoken in the middle of the night due to the screams and ran out of his room seeing his family’s servants hurriedly packing things.

His father came running holding his mother’s hand. "Zhang pack lightly we are leaving, soldiers from the Siwang Empire have invaded and they are indiscriminately slaughtering people. We are going to escape from the city with the Wu Clan through our clan’s underground tunnels."

The Zhou and Wu clan had jointly built a system of underground tunnels that leads out of the city and were connected to safe houses throughout the city. The tunnels’ existence was only known by certain members of each of the respective clans.

Soldiers were attempting to knock down the gates to the Zhou Clan.

Loud bangs could be heard as the gate was being struck. Eventually, although the gate was really solid it broke from the hinges and slammed to the ground.

After the gates fell, soldiers rushed into the mansion. Where they were met with the Zhou clan's private army.

Composed of three hundred elite soldiers the clan had trained for many years, the Siwang Empire’s foot soldiers met a quick end.

The same thing happened at the Wu residence, but instead of three hundred soldiers there were one thousand two hundred soldiers. Both clans were a force to be reckoned with in Blue Tear City.

The Wu clan was able to quickly gather their belongings, ran into the tunnels and sealed the entrance.

Whereas the Zhou clan wasn't as fortunate, after defeating the first wave of soldiers, cavalry soldiers from the Siwang Empire rushed in and quickly dispersed throughout the mansion.

Zhang's parents were in the process of unlocking the entrance to the tunnel when horsemen charged into the courtyard.

Zhang jumped at one of them and silently slit the man's throat through the opening in his armor.

He screamed, "Mother, Father!! Go!! I'll keep them here, I'll catch up to you soon."

His father knew the seriousness of the situation, but he had faith in his son's abilities so he took his wife's hand and dashed into the tunnel.

Zhang unsheathed his swords and was ready to dispatch of anyone who would try to go into the tunnel.

There were at least twenty cavalry soldiers facing Zhang. He gracefully dashed at them. He threw one of his swords with a deadly precision. The sword soared through the air and pierced a soldier’s neck. The sword was thrown with such force that it also knocked the man off his horse.

The other soldiers were utterly stunned.

What they failed to realize was that when Zhang had thrown his sword, he did not stop and kept running while slashing the legs of their horses.

Without them knowing what had happened, their horses began to, one by one, slump on the ground, making some of the soldiers lose balance and fall towards the ground.

Once they had fallen to the ground Zhang took advantage of them and quickly dispatched them to afterlife.

It did not take him long to kill all the twenty soldiers.

One would think that Zhang would be scared because this was his first time killing anyone.

But actually, Zhang was used to death, he would often dreamed of the man killing him with a knife.

This was the same at that but he was the one who did the killing, a part of himself seemed to encourage this.

After killing all twenty soldiers, before Zhang could even catch his breath, many more rushed into the courtyard.

There was no end to the soldiers coming into the courtyard and soon there wasn't enough space for more come in.

Facing such a large group of enemies, most people would be scared out of their wits, but Zhang wasn’t like most people.

Rather, he was mapping out how to best face this group of enemies.

He knew if he even let one soldier pass, his family would be in danger. So he punched his arm into the wall collapsing it into the tunnel.

The soldiers lifted their shields and went into formation, boxing Zhang in from three sides.

Zhang jumped into the sky and as he landed he did a horizontal slash and cut one of the soldiers into two.

And as soon as his feet touched the ground he started to sprint while slashing wildly at the soldiers.

Some soldiers lost their limbs due to the sharpness of Zhang's sword, others lost their lives. None of them were left unharmed as Zhang ran past them.

The soldiers soon realized they were no match for this youth and began falling back and rearranging their formation. Archers started coming in behind them and shoot countless arrows at Zhang.

Zhang was able to dodge and parry some of the arrows but against a large number such as this it was impossible for someone at his level to come out unscathed.

An arrow landed and stuck itself into Zhang's shoulder, then another into his leg, and another and another. Soon he became riddled in them.

The soldiers couldn't believe that Zhang was still standing with so many arrows pierced in him. They winced imaging the amount of pain he was in, but actually Zhang could not feel a thing.

He was born not being able to feel pain luckily.

But he felt tired, fighting hundreds of opponents alone was easier said than done. Nonetheless, he stood his ground and continued fighting.

The soldiers had reported back to the golden general and he was on his way to where Zhang was.

What the golden general saw when he arrived was horrifying.

Zhang's body was covered in arrows and a few spears were stabbed into his back while sitting on a small hill of corpses.

The general knew he had to kill Zhang and quickly. He gathered essence in his palm which ignited into a flame. He is in fact a Mage and one at the 8th level that specializes in fire magic.

A massive fireball flew across the courtyard and smashed into Zhang throwing him off the hill of corpses and smashing him into a wall knocking him unconscious.

Believing Zhang to be dead, the commander ordered another squad of soldiers to come in and collect the bodies of the dead soldiers.

Some of the bodies were cut into mush, none of them were left intact. The most horrifying thing was some of them weren't dead just cleaved into two at the hip.

The general walked up to Zhang, ignited another fire ball and was about turn Zhang into ashes. When he suddenly heard a voice.

The voice sounded ancient, at first he wasn't able to make out where or what the voice was saying. Just random words in no particular order.

After a while he was able to make out what it was saying.

"Guess I will help you this time, for awakening me from my death-like sleep." The voice said.

And instantly Zhang's body ignited and was covered by pitch black fire.

The general jumped back and launched his fire ball at Zhang, which seemed to be swallowed by the black fire.

Zhang's body began to rise as if some unknown force was lifting him up or as if a puppeteer was manning his puppet.

He flew toward the general at high speed and swung his sword. The general parried his strike but the pure power behind it numbed the general’s arms.

Zhang continued his onslaught of slashes that seemed to follow no style or technique.

The general's armor was covered in cut marks, some pieces were even falling off.

The general used fire magic and infused it with his sword, igniting the sword. He was barely able to fight evenly with Zhang even though he could not sense any essence in Zhang's sword strikes, just pure physical strength.

He knew that if he dragged the fight on he would be no match for Zhang so he quickly ordered all of his soldiers to charge.

The general knew that he was not a match for Zhang one on one, but when it was ten on one or a hundred on one he definitely would be at an advantage..

But as soon as they surrounded Zhang the devilish black fire began lashing out like whips. Whoever was touched by it slumped over and fall lifeless onto the ground.

This terrified the general. Suddenly Zhang's speed increased, it looked as if he was teleporting and before long ended up in front of the general and slashed off his arm.

He knew he couldn't beat Zhang at that point so instead he stood still. Zhang had appeared in front of him once more and lunged the sword into his heart.

He, then, used all his might to pull Zhang closer to him and pulled out a soul stone from his pocket and smashed it with his remaining hand.

"Haha if I'm going to die I’ll take you with me." He screamed.

The soul stone emitted a massive explosion that rocked the whole city.

Normally this would not happen, but the general was a level 8 Mage and used all the essence he had left to ignite countless souls that was in the soul stone.

The whole Zhou mansion and a good part of the city was gone. Only a massive crater was left.

Chapter 4: A New Place

Blue Tear City rumbled, as all the energy stored in the soul stone ignited and exploded. A whole section of the city was now gone.

The underground tunnel shook as the Wu and Zhou clan were evacuating. The part of tunnel they were in was located outside of the city, so it did not collapse like the other parts of the tunnel.

Ling had stopped in her tracks and stared back at the direction they had came from. An image of Zhang had flashed in her mind, and she suddenly started running back towards the city.

She knew something had gone wrong and that she had to go back. She had to go back for Zhang, no matter how strong he was he did not possess much essence and how would he be able to take on a whole army alone.

But before she could even take a few steps her path was blocked by the clan’s soldiers. It was their duty to keep Ling, her family and the Zhou clan’s members safe. For this, many of their brothers in arms had died.

The 300 soldiers of the Zhou clan had most likely all died to buy enough time for them to escape.

Ling's father walked towards his daughter, and tried to persuade her. He told her that Zhang would be probably fine, and they'd be able to meet up with him at the capital where it is safe.

Not far away from Ling, Zhang's mother had fainted. She had been worrying about Zhang ever since she entered the tunnel. And the explosion had made her imagine all sorts of nightmarish scenes, where her son was killed.

Both of the clans resumed their evacuation soon after the tremor. They were almost at the end of the tunnel and would soon reach an underground safe house, where they could stay for a few days and then proceed to the capitol.

Unknown to them, their greatest fear had indeed came true. In the crater where the explosion happened, a black colored flame flickered as the wind blew and soon disappeared. Zhang had indeed gone to the world of the dead and was no longer part of the living world.

The soldiers of the Siwang Empire went frantic, their commanding officer had just died and they were still in enemy’s territory. Out of the 10,000 soldiers only roughly 4000 are alive. Zhang was able to kill possibly 200 or so of them, while the explosion and the ground collapsing down had claimed the lives of the rest.

That night, the Siwang Empire had successfully taken over ten cities within the Heilong Kingdom, along with many other cities in various neighboring kingdoms. And also collecting millions of souls, slaves, and lots of wealth to send back to the empire.

The kingdoms neighboring the Siwang Empire fell into a state of panic. Alone, they were no match for the Siwang Empire. So each kingdom sent out hundreds of messengers and emissaries to their neighbors asking for aid.

As the continent fell into chaos, a particular person was oblivious to it all. This person being of course Zhang. He was currently laying on top of a hill. A hill located in a place called the underworld, also known as hell to some.

When the golden armored general ignited the essence in the soul stone and caused the explosion, Zhang’s necklace flashed and a black fire engulfed his whole body and turned it into dust. The necklace had converted his body into pure energy much like the souls that the soldiers were collecting. The pure energy was then used to open a rift in space and send his soul to the underworld, where he would have a chance of living. Where there is life there is hope.

Zhang had just awoken to find himself in a strange place that he had never been to before. The sky projected an eerie green color, white mist were everywhere making visibility terrible, howling winds could be heard, lightning could be barely seen flashing the across the sky, and sense of death hung in the air.

Zhang only recalled that he was impaled by countless arrows and had blanked out.

He wanted to find his family and Ling so he got up and began walking. He couldn't tell which direction he was going and his sense of time slowly disappeared also.

What seemed like day had pass would be only a few hours to Zhang. As he kept walking, he soon saw the figure of a person, wearing a long white robe with long flowing hair.

"Hey! You there, can you tell me where this place is?" Zhang called out.

But he did not receive a reply. Despite this he kept walking closer to the figure, and when Zhang reached an arm’s length distance from the person he once more asked the same question and even tapped the person shoulder.

And to his surprise the figure began to turn around, but what would surprise him even more was the. It was a man, not just any man, but one with one of his eyeballs popping out from the socket and dangling, a part of his head was sunken in and his brain was visible. His mouth slowly began to open, and as it did, flies flew out and maggots fell out. There was no possible way for the man to be alive, he was most likely an undead!

"Welcome to the underworld!!!", he screamed.

Then suddenly his hands launched at Zhang and took hold of Zhang's neck and began to exert force.

To Zhang's horror he could not pull off the it’s hands, and in addition to the currently bad situation the white mist surrounding Zhang suddenly lifted and thousands of undead were revealed as they move all around Zhang.

Undead with missing limbs, bloated stomachs, charred bodies, and undead of all shapes and sizes surrounded Zhang,then one by one they latched onto him.

There was no way for Zhang to break out of the mob of undead, and he was gasping for air but to no avail. Until his pendant flashed once and the black fire once more appeared. Each time it touched an undead, it would instantly turn to dust and as if feeding the fire, making it bigger and spreading faster.

Soon enough all the undead had been exterminated, leaving little patches of black fire where they were standing. Then all of a sudden all of the black fire floated into the air, and flew towards Zhang.

Not knowing what was happening Zhang stood there dumbfounded, and as the black fire reached Zhang it was sucked back into his pendant.

And a sudden feeling spread throughout Zhang, he could sense his essence circulating throughout his body, although only a minuscule amount which had never happened before.

Zhang touched his pendant, and for the first time in his life, he started to wonder ‘what the heck was this pendant?’ Over the years it became practically a part of him, he never took it off, nor did it ever part from him.

Zhang decided that it was not safe to stay in one place. Who knows if more undead would come here or if something more sinister was lurking around within the mist. Zhang kept moving as quickly as possible through the mist, then suddenly he came to a complete stop.

He almost ran off the ledge of a very steep cliff, if not for the fact that he accidentally kicked a rock when he was running and heard it fell down the cliff, he would’ve ran off the ledge.

To his amazement the mist suddenly dissipated and revealed a massive city that stretched further than the eye could see, and what seemed like rivers of people heading towards the city. He could make out that these were people and not undead, or at least he hoped so, because they were not dressed in all white like the undead that attacked him. The odd thing was that the people were all in orderly lines, and did not run about.

Zhang decided to head towards the palace because it was so far the only sign of people that he encountered. Each step he took toward the city the more details he would notice about it. It had many towers that spiraled into the clouds, walls that stretched across the horizon, and gave off a dominating aura.

When he finally reached the back of the line heading to the city, Zhang walked up and asked a man who was standing in front of him in line. "Sir can you happen to tell me where this place is?"

The man turned back toward Zhang and said "Do you not know? Are you perhaps one of those people?"

"What people?” Zhang replied all confused.

"I'm not sure how to tell you this kid but you're dead, this is the underworld. Were you not paying attention when you entered into the gates of hell and were briefed by the reapers?" The man asked.

The man's words made Zhang remember when the countless soldiers attacked him and after managing to fight for a while he blanked out. He should have realized sooner because why didn't he have a single wound on his body? Obviously if someone had saved him or if he somehow got away he would still have an immeasurable wounds on his body.

As the shock and realization slowly kicked in, the man began speaking to him once more.

"It’s okay kid, it takes everyone a bit of time to accept that they are dead. Like for instance, who would've thought that I died because I choked on that piece of tofu I was eating. Might be a dumb way to die but well, we all end up in the same place no matter how we die. Since you seemed to missed the briefing I suggest you follow me when we get into the city. It is probably fate that we met today."

Zhang simply nodded and stood waiting in line like everyone else. The man would occasionally talk to him about this and that. For instance, once a person entered hell they would be sorted based on their good deeds and sins. Those who had done more good deeds than evil would be sent to the city to wait for their turn to be reincarnated again, those who have done more bad than good were sent to the 18 levels of hell where they would undergo an unimaginable torture to make up for their sins.

Also, the place where Zhang appeared before was called the Forest of the Forgotten. Those whose bad deeds outweigh their good deeds but not by very much that they would be sent into the 18 levels of hell. They were exiled into the forest for a certain amount of years before they would be judged once more. So they would lose their minds wandering in the white mist and would become like animals, while others who were able to hold on to their humanity will eventually be let into the city.

Hell also has its own hierarchy, which starts with Yama (King of hell) sitting at the top, then the ten Diyu (judges of hell), the vice Diyu who were more than one can count, then the soldiers of the army of the underworld, and regular people who had died. The Yama ruled over all of the underworld and kept the order, while the Diyu and their assistants judged the dead based on their sins.

While the army of the underworld was comprised of souls who did not wish to be reincarnated and wanted to stay in hell. These were mostly people who wished for power, or had very strong lingering thoughts of their loved ones. Because if they stayed in hell they could possibly one day be reunited with their loved ones, instead of reincarnating and forgetting all their memories. But it would took one of strong willpower to wait because ten years in hell was equivalent to one year in the mortal plane. One would have to wait for thousands of years before one of their loved ones to appear.

Zhang also found out that once they entered the city every soul would be given a crystal card. This card could be used as currency in hell, everyone's deeds will be weighed once more and a corresponding number will appear on the card. Then when one wanted to purchase something they could simply transfer the points from the card to the other person.

As souls there was no need to eat, but most prefer to do so, although it provided no substance, they would still want to be able to taste and enjoy food. People started hotels and, shops that sold this and that.

When Zhang entered the city he was welcomed by a kind looking old lady, who directed him to stand on a scale. When she read the number that appeared on the scale, she was amazed. Although Zhang was only 16 years old, his good deeds outweighed most people who lived most of their lives doing good. This was because Zhang had sacrificed himself so others could live. If not for him, the entire Zhou clan and most likely the Wu clan would've all died. The thousands or so lives of the Wu clan and the hundreds of the Zhou were all saved by him. Thus, Zhang was given an astonishing number of points to use.

She then told him that since he had done so much good when he was alive, he would most likely not needed to wait that long to reincarnate. The lady also told Zhang to be careful in the city, because, although only those whose good deeds outweigh their bad deeds were let into the city. However, not everyone stayed good, people were not judged again after they entered the city and like any other place, the city also had crime and evil doers.

But in Zhang's mind he had not once even thought about reincarnating, he would either join the army of the underworld or somehow find a way to return in the world of the living. He also realized that the underworld is probably the perfect place to train and cultivate, due to the the difference in time between it and the mortal plane. This also meant the army of the underworld was immensely powerful. Little did Zhang know that everyone in the army of the underworld was at least a level 8 mage or warrior with a large number of them having reached sainthood and an exceptional few who have even gone beyond that level.

Zhang and the man whom he was talking to while waiting in line was called Yun Zhao. As they entered the city, they saw a mixture of old ancient buildings and many newer buildings. It only showed how long the City of the Dead had been around. Buildings of all shapes and sizes littered in the city, but what stood out the most was a huge palace that could be seen even in the distance. The palace had four massive towers at each corner, a massive dome in the center and then a few smaller looking domes to the side. It gave off an intimidating aura of dominance.

The streets were filled with people dressed in all sorts of different manners, and speaking all sorts of different languages. Zhang was able to make out what some of the people were saying, some of the languages seemed out of this world to him. But thankfully, the majority spoke the same language as he did.

Having never left even Blue Tear City before Zhang was in a daze, he had never been to a city this big before. That being said, how can any city in the world of the living be close to the City of the Dead. Countless people died every day and constantly ended up in the underworld. Although not all of them were concentrated in this one city because there were other cities, but this one happened to be the capital of the underworld.

As Zhang walked around the city, he spotted someone running down the street. As the person got closer, Zhang was able to make out that it was a girl around the age of sixteen much like himself. But her beauty stunned him, her skin was white as snow, with fiery red hair that seemed to go to past her waist and red pupils that seemed to draw him in. He stood there awestruck by how beautiful she looked. Then he saw that she was being chased by two soldiers dressed in pure black armor.

Zhang decided to help the girl get away.

"This way." he yelled at her.

The girl nodded and followed him, the two of them ran into an alleyway, where Zhang had previously seen a bunch of barrels stacked up on a wagon. As they ran past the wagon Zhang kicked it and all the barrels started rolling off the wagon blocking the alley.

After running for a while the two stopped to catch their breath, Zhang didn't know when, but he was holding onto the girl’s hand. When he realized, he quickly let go and looked at her. The girl was clearly blushing because of having her hand held by a stranger.

"Thank you for helping me back there, my name is Yuying, what’s your name big brother?", she said.

Her voice sounded like a heavenly instrument, that soothed the soul.

"You can call me Zhang." He said with a smile.

"How long you been in the city?" Yuying asked Zhang while looking intently.

To this, he shook his head and told her that he had just entered the city today.

"Why don't I show you around the city as a thanks for helping me out earlier?" Yuying said.

The two of them visited all sorts of places around the city, food stalls, shops, iconic places, there were even tourist locations. Who would've thought that the underworld would have tourist attractions. Zhang and Yuying spent the whole day having fun. Although he only met her for not even a day the two of them truly enjoyed each other’s company.

They found a spot to sit down in a busy restaurant and began telling each other stories. Zhang learned that Yuying was actually born in the underworld and had not died.

He couldn't help trying to catch glimpses of her when he had the chance, this girl was too beautiful. If she was in Blue Tear city she would be as beautiful as Ling, but instead of giving off an unapproachable lady like aura like Ling, she would have a friendly one that made it easy for anyone to become her friend.

Unlike in the world of the living, the night in the underworld had no stars and no moon. The world would become pitch black and only the lanterns that contained hellfire would illuminate the streets.

Yuying told Zhang that it was time for her to go back home.

"Will we ever see each other again?" Zhang asked.

"We will leave that up to fate big brother, if it is meant to be then it shall happen. I've had the most fun ever for the first time today."

"How about I walk you home?" Zhang asked her, while smiling.

Yuying shook her head and told him it was alright, and began walking away.

Zhang wanted to grab her hand and ask her to stay a while longer, but like she said if they were meant to see each other again they would.

Yuying glanced back at Zhang after walking a considerable distance away, then she began walking again. She walked all the way to the Palace in the center of the city and up toward the giant gates. There were two giant dragons carved into the gates and a team of ten soldiers clad in pitch black armor stood guard. When they saw Yuying walked toward the gates, instead of stopping her, they saluted.

"Princess, the king has sent men looking for you all day." the lead guard said.

"Tell father I'm back now." Yuying said as she walked into the palace toward the throne room.

When she opened the doors to the room there was a big bulky man dressed in black robes with dragons engraved on to it. He was seated on a golden chair or well a golden throne. This man was known to everyone in the underworld as the Yama.

"Father I'm back!" Yuying yelled with a smile.

The man got up from this throne walked towards her and patted her head.

"You silly girl, always causing trouble. Now go to your room and rest, also no more sneaking out of the palace without guards who knows what kind of trouble you might run into." The Yama said.

Zhang was sitting in a room in an inn he had rented, he didn't know where Yun Zhao was. He stood up and walked toward the bed then laid down. He couldn't get Yuying out of his mind, but as he thought about her Ling popped up in his head. "She is probably worried sick about me." he sighed.

"One day we will meet again Ling, one day I'll come back for you." Zhang said as he closed his eyes.

Earlier today he sensed a bit of essence build up within his body after the black fire entered the pendant. He held up his pendant and stared at it. He decided to do something he had never tried before. Zhang was going to enter a blank state of mind and then infuse what little essence he could into the pendant then see if there is a reaction. By entering a blank state of mind he would be able to pick up slight changes if anything were to happen.

As he did so, an immense aura suddenly gushed out of the pendant, and in Zhang's mind he could see a pair of golden eyes looking at him. He couldn't see anything except for the pair of eyes, but a voice soon followed. "Hey you whelp", the voice said.

Zhang was still dazed by the aura that gushed out of the necklace so he didn't reply.

"Thank you for waking me up. I've been asleep for a while or I guess I've been dead for a while." The voice said with a chuckle.

"Was it you who saved me from the ghosts?" Zhang asked.

"No, I was simply using the opportunity to gather more essence, since you alone do not supply me with enough to keep my consciousness awake." The voice said.

Zhang came to a realization, it wasn't that he was not able to produce his own essence it was that whenever he did, the pendant would absorb it all.

" It was you! You've been the one that's been keeping me from gathering essence!" Zhang yelled.

"I needed it or else my consciousness would fade away and I would disappear. But I will tell you this after absorbing those undead, a small portion of my power has returned now. I don’t need to take from you anymore. I am one who remembers those that have showed kindness to me, so I will help you become powerful and leave the underworld." The voice said.

Then a golden drop flew out of the pendant. It projected a powerful aura of pure condensed energy.

"I have refined some of the essence from the souls into a single drop of pure energy and also added a little extra something for you. If you absorb this your level will raise quite a bit." The voice said and the golden pair of eyes disappeared.

Zhang tried to talk to it again but it did not respond. Gripping the golden drop in his hand, Zhang was somewhat torn. He wanted to be angry at the voice for robbing him of his power for the last 16 years, but a part of him also felt gratitude. If he indeed had essence like a regular person, he would have not trained physically and would become reliant on his inner energies instead.

He took the golden drop and placed it in his mouth and swallowed it, and the golden drop slowly expanded from inside his stomach and spread throughout his body. It then began emitting a visible aura around Zhang.

Chapter 5: Against Heaven's Will

The golden tear drop, circulated throughout Zhang's body and dispersed its power into his body.

After a day Zhang finally stood up, as the golden tear had completed integrated into his body. Surprisingly his essence is now at level 4. After being stuck at the first level for most of his life, Zhang was filled with joy. Then suddenly he heard the mysterious voice once more.

"Although your body lacks the ability to produce a lot of essence, thanks to that drop of pure essence it has reached the 4th level unexpectedly. This is probably the highest level you can reach if you were alive."

"What is the point if I am dead? What’s the point of having power now? I have no one to protect, nothing to fight for." Zhang sighed

"Indeed you are dead, but not all things stay dead. There is actually a way to for you to go back to the world of the living, without having to reincarnate actually. But first I need to devour more souls, my power is lacking and there is no way for me to help you." The voice said

"What??!! There's a way for me to go back?!! Zhang yell

"There is a certain place in the underworld, a forbidden place, called "The Pool of Regrets. This pool links with the other side, but usually it only lets souls pass one way, meaning it only sends souls into the underworld. But every 1000 years during the solar alignment and if one had enough power they could reverse the flow and return to the world of the living as a loose soul. And once you are in the world of the living there are many ways to revive, for instance you can possess someone or if you manage to gather enough negative energy from a battlefield perhaps you can condense it into a body. But first you must gather 100,000 souls of the dead and the best place to do that is within the 18 levels of hell. I can coat you in a layer of energy making you invisible to weak souls. Also you must make haste the solar alignment in going to happen within two years’ time" The voice said

"How will I gather the souls? And where is the Pool of Regrets? Zhang asked

"Simple I will lend you a bit of my power, use the black flame to absorb the souls into the pendant. And the pool of Regrets is within the Palace of the Yama." The voice said

A layer of mystifying black energy coated Zhang's body, and made his body appear transparent. And from the pendant a black fire shot out and revolved around Zhang, constantly flickering as if it would go out any second.

For the next six months Zhang began mapping the city of the dead. He would have to find a quick route from the 18 levels of hell to the Yama's palace. Because once 100,000 souls go missing it will obviously cause a huge stir in the underworld. The Yama would certainly send out army of the Underworld. And only possessing the little power he has how would Zhang contend with them. Even if the mysterious voice from the pendent helped him, he didn't believe that he would be able to make it out. Because he needed all the energy from the 100,000 souls to reverse the flow of the Pool of Regrets to escape.

Zhang had spent the vast wealth he had gotten hiring people to map out every party of the capital. Even though six months had passed only sixty percent of it was mapped. The entire city was simply too big, and was filled with too many alleyways and streets to be entirely mapped out quickly.

The 18 levels of hell were located outside the capital, pass the Forest of the Forgotten. The tricky part of the plan was to sneak into the 18 levels of hell and then make it out and cross through the Forest of the Forgotten. The forest was huge and covered in dense fog that made one lose any sense of direction they had. Zhang would have to navigate his way through while possibly being chased by the Army of the underworld, which had many experts in it.

So today Zhang had set out from the capital and headed into the Forest of the Forgotten, he wanted to leave markers, so he could make out a path later on. The day of the solar alignment was quickly approaching, so he had to make sure there was no loose ends to his plan.

Zhang made a trial of rocks and marked various trees, as he made his way across the forest. Luckily he had not run into any of the mad souls that were banished into the forest. After he made it across the forest he saw an imposing fortress, with a massive tower in the center, this place being the 18 levels of hell. He activated the energy that the pendant had coated on him, and decided to scout out the fortress.

Zhang had to test out to see if any of the guards were able to see him, because it would be simply stupid to try to sneak in if they could see him. And so he made his way toward the main gate, of the fortress.

He saw groups of people in chains being escorted into the fortress by group of guards. Zhang got closer and closer at a relatively slow pace, he had to make sure not to make any noise. Eventually he reached the gate unnoticed, and walked right in. There were countless guards in the fortress, hundreds of thousands of them. What stood out the most in the fortress was the entrance to the giant tower. It looked like a monster with its mouth open, and everyone walking into it was simply walking into a monster's stomach.

Zhang made his way across the forest and back into the city, unnoticed by anyone. He came back to the inn he had been staying in and pulled out a huge map and began making a route.

Two months have passed since Zhang's trip through the forest, the map of the capitol was about eighty percent complete. Zhang was able to make connections with various powers within the city, using his wealth. He had planned for them to make disturbances throughout the city on the day of his escape. He even was able to get himself a map of a small section of the Yama's palace. The map had about ten percent of the palace on it, and he was hoping to find a more complete one before the day of the Solar Alignment.

Throughout this whole time the voice from the pendant had never once talked to Zhang. But he is now able to somewhat control its power, Zhang was now able to make four small black flames appear, and move at his will. Zhang decided to spend the rest of his time, trying to control more of the fire. Because the better he can control it the quicker he will be able to gather the 100,000 souls and escape.

The day before the Solar Alignment, Zhang headed out of the city and into the Forest of the Forgotten. He would have to gather the 100,000 souls and reach the Pool of Regrets during the Solar Alignment which would happen at midnight. Zhang would have a total of ten hours to gather the 100,000 souls. He figured any longer than ten hours was too long, the larger the gap of time the more room there was for errors to appear in the plan.

And so Zhang walked into the fortress, and into the gate of the 18 levels of hell. Zhang witnessed the horrifying scenes that played out in the tower. Although it is a tower but the 18 levels are actually located under the tower, and one would start from the first level and walk all the way down to the 18th level. The lower one went the more dangerous it became, because the lower levels only contain people who had sinned heavily or people who were too strong to be kept in the upper levels.

Zhang's goal was the 6th level, he didn't want to go too deep. Nor did he want to absorb the souls of those who had sinned lightly. He felt those people didn't weren't necessarily evil compared to those in the lower levels, so Zhang decided to spare them.

There were many terrifying scenes playing out in the 18 levels. The first floor that Zhang entered was called "The Mountain of knives." Where sinners are thrown off cliffs and land on mountains of sharp blades sticking out. While other were climbing trees with knives or sharp thorns sticking out of trunks and branches.

As Zhang saw the exit to the 2nd floor, a smile appeared on his face. It did not take him very long to locate the exit, which was a good sign. But right when Zhang crossed the threshold through the exit, a loud bang rang in his ears. He turned his head back to see a giant Minotaur holding a huge trident standing at the exit he had just passed.

"Who dares to pass without permission!!!" the Minotaur screamed

Zhang's heart sank at that very instant. If he got caught on the very first floor, then his entire plan would be a failure. All that time that went into planning would be for nothing. But to his surprise the minotaur started swinging its trident at the ground randomly, nowhere near Zhang.

"It seems he detected that I had passed the exit but does not know where I am." Zhang said with relief.

Suddenly an immense heat struck Zhang, and as he turned his vision away from the minotaur he saw giant pots of oil. And huge lines of people being lead to jump into these sizzling hot pots of oil. This floor would be the floor where sinners were fried in oil cauldrons. But being dead they wouldn't actually die, but they would still feel the pain from the torture. These poor souls would have to experience being burned in pots of oil over and over again until they make up for all their sins.

Zhang winced as he imagined the pain these people would have to experience every waking minute until they redeemed themselves. The heat emitting from the cauldrons alone caused the air to be suffocating, let alone the actual heat of the oil.

But his goal would still be the 6th floor, the people here did not deserve to be destroyed. So Zhang quickened his pace, and soon he saw the exit to the 3rd floor. And to his surprise this time when he passed the exit nothing happened, like when he passed the first exit.

Having passed the exit, Zhang had entered the hell of dismemberment where sinners are dismembered by various means, including sawing, slicing into half, mashing/pounding into pulp, being crushed by rocks/boulders, being run over by vehicles, etc.

Each floor gave off a different aura, and as one went deeper down the aura felt more sinister and eerie. The atmosphere and conditions would get worse and worse. Zhang felt suffocated by just passing from one floor to the next, but oddly enough the guards that were torturing the sinners seemed to not be affected at all.

Zhang continued running until he reached the Hell of Burning, where sinners would be set aflame and thrown into smoldering hot inferno. The air was dry and burned the back of Zhang's throat, his energy sapped away much quicker. It eventually came to the point where he decided he had to kill one of the guards and find out how they seemed perfectly comfortable in these conditions. Although Zhang could have gone back into the previous floor and start gathering the 100,000 souls, from those who sinned less, he decided not to.

It wasn't because his moral compass was always pointed in the right direction, but when he decided he would do something, Zhang would do it. He would not turn back nor would he waiver, Zhang would simply push on harder. That is how he had lived his life from an early age. If he couldn't practice his cultivation like everyone else, that did not mean that he would stop, it just meant he had to keep trying harder and in different ways.

Thus so he pushed on and finally passed the Hell of Burning and entered the Hell of Ice. Also known as The Ice World where sinners are frozen in ice. Some unclothed sinners suffering frostbite in an icy world and their bodies eventually fall apart or break into pieces. The air was dry and cold, while the wind was fast and sharp. If one was unlucky a really strong wind could pass by and caused the person to be knocked into freezing cold water. Or worst yet bet cut in two. Although one could not die in the underworld but pain could still be felt. To the strong this could be seen as a sort of mental training to wash away fear and pain but to the weak it would be one of the worst possible ways of torture. The Hell of Ice was by far the hardest level that Zhang has been on, he had been cut countless times by the wind, and his entire body coated with small pieces of ice.

Luckily the exits and entrances to the levels were located relatively close to each other, and always in a certain distance from each other. Because if one had to roam each floor it would take countless years let alone hours. Each floor was like its own world, and was vast and boundless.

Finally, Zhang reached his goal the 6th floor. This floor is known as the Pool of Blood, where those who have murdered would be sent. Each floor after this the prisoners would have had committed greater sins than murder. The Pool of Blood, had no guards, nor did it have any land nor trees. The whole level was simply just blood, in some parts a person would find themselves knee-deep in blood, while other parts they would be in well over their head. Or if they were unlucky they would end up in some almost bottomless parts. The sinners would simply drown in blood. The blood here symbolized the blood of the innocent people who was spilled, and that the sinners would never be able to get the blood off their hands.

Having arrived at his destination, Zhang reached into his inner soul, where a massive black fire was burning. And made 100,000 small black flames appear. Normally this would not be possible in the mortal world, but because in the underworld the essence in the air is much more concentrated, Zhang is able to form so many flames.

And so all of the 100,000 flames flew up into the sky. All the sinners looked up in amazement and confusion. Some of them have been here for hundreds or even thousands of years and this had never happened before. It was a sight to behold, 100,000 black fires swirled in the sky and then began to descend like falling stars. Each fire would fall on one sinner, and the sinner would be set blazed in black fire and turn into nothingness. Then the black fire would fly back toward Zhang and then into the Dragon Pendant.

Although Zhang is able to now independently control the black fire without the help of the Dragon Pendant, due to a part of it entering his soul from the golden drop. He still needed to use the pendant to store the souls. The mysterious voice that neither sounded young nor old, or like a man or a woman had told him that if he were to absorb the souls into his own body he would at most be able to hold ten or so and anymore would cause him to explode. Also that if he were to absorb the souls himself he would at most be able to get ten percent of the soul’s total energy, whereas the Dragon Pendant is able to absorb all 100%.

Many of the sinners seeing what happened began to frantically scream and run, while others seemed to embrace it. This would be their way out; they wouldn't have to suffer anymore. They would finally be free of everything. Not much time passed before Zhang had been able to collect 100,000 souls. The Dragon Pendant now had a frightening amount of energy in it, and Zhang would use it to reverse the flow of the pool of regret and go against heaven's will. Zhang would cheat death and fate.

After collecting all the souls Zhang began to ascend through the floors. But now a problem presented itself, he was no longer invisible to the guards or the other souls. The coating that the mysterious voice had put on him had no faded away, and the massive amount of energy that was in the Dragon Pendant was like a beacon and gave off a peculiar aura and golden white glow around Zhang.

As he made his way back through the 6 floors, Various sinners would be attracted to Zhang and follow him. But when Zhang reached the exit back to the 5th floor he made a massive black flame appear and sealed the exit up. He did not want any of the murders follow him, if it were the souls from the first 5 floors, then that would be fine but not these murderers.

Zhang entered into the 5th floor and just like in the 6th floor a massive group of sinners began following him, luckily the 5th floor had very few guards so none of them was alerted. But was Zhang reached the exit a group of guards saw him.

"HALT!!! Any further and we will send you lot to oblivion." one of the guards yelled as he and the rest of the guards unsheathed their swords and readied their spears.

But to their amazement small black fires appeared out of nowhere and engulfed the group of guards.

Zhang would not give the guards any mercy, because a soldier was a soldier, in other words if one is a soldier who is ready to kill then they must be ready to be killed. That is a simple law of the battlefield that everyone must follow. To be ready to take a life, one must be ready to lose a life.

The sinners following behind Zhang all had mixed feelings; some were excited while others were scared. But they all knew one thing that this would be a chance in a lifetime to escape. For those with light sentences they obviously choose to stay until their time was up. But for those who had to be punished for thousands or tens of thousands of years, they choose to follow. They did not care if following Zhang meant they would be sent to oblivion and disappear, at least it would be better than being tortured for tens of thousands of years.

When they entered the 4th floor a group of guards was stationed at the exit, but this time the group of guards chose to run. While one of them pulled out a strange-looking orb, the orb was green and had odd designed carved into it. The guard sent his energy into the orb and made it fly into the sky. And once it was in the sky the orb exploded and sent off a green wave of light across the sky. This was a signal that the guards used to call for reinforcements and that prisoners were leaving their assigned floors in large numbers.

If wasn't unheard of for sinners to amass and try to escape. So this was simple protocol for the guards. They would recall all the guards and have them amass at the exit to the 4th floor and then engage the sinners and push them back. Many sinners would be killed and fade away. This would set an example for the other sinners not to act up.

Soon the sinners from the 4th floor joined with those from the 5th floor and the group doubled in size. Although they were following Zhang they were not with him. He paid no attention to them, and simply kept moving and eventually reached the exit to the 4th floor.

An army of guards was present, with weapons drawn. They guards were naturally fewer in numbers then the sinners but they had weapons, and their energy was not sapped away due to being tortured. So they were very confident in containing the sinners and pushing them back. There was a total of 100,000 guards assembled on the 4th floor and if their essence was measured they'd all be categorized as level 8 warriors.

One hundred thousand level eight warriors would be an elite force in the world of mortals, but these were simply regular guards in the underworld.

In a flash the sky was once again filled with black fire and like before the black fire began to rain on the guards, Zhang decided to absorb the souls of the guards so if he needed to he would have a store of energy to pull from in a time of need. The energy that the guards gave him was many times more than the prisoners, due to their high level.

And so Zhang entered the exit to the 3rd floor. Surprisingly only a small group of guards were located on the other side of the exit. This was due to the floors not successfully communicating to each other. Also the fact that Zhang had wiped out the guards at the exit in the 5th floor too quickly.

So once more a guard pulled out a green signal orb and sent it into the sky, and also once more sinners congregated and joined the sinners following behind Zhang.

When the exit was in sight, this time an army of 200,000 guards was present. And the same scene unfolded once more. The sky was blocked out by black fire and the guards would again be annihilated. Using the black fire did not cost Zhang any energy because of the high energy levels in the air, and the low energy consumption of the flames themselves.

When Zhang reached the exit into the 1st floor he did not see a massive army of guards waiting for him like before, but this time it was the gigantic Minotaur from before. And to make things worst he had two friends, who were both Minotaur’s of a similar size.

The sinners following Zhang were stricken with fear, but they did not choose to turn back because they had simply gone too far. And freedom was almost in reach.

Chapter 6: Gatekeeper's Fury

The three massive minotaurs stared coldly at Zhang and the sinners behind him while emitting blood thirsty aura, that would make a person’s legs go numb and shake. Some sinners even got on their knees and began kowtowing and begging for mercy while others tried to run in the opposite direction and back down to the lower floors.

Hundreds of thousands of sinners were fleeing in all directions. But they were too late trying to escape, because suddenly, hundreds of thousands of guards also marched in through the gate. From the lower floors many guards came and blocked the entrance to the lower levels, while many soldiers from the fortress above and from elsewhere also began descending and blocking the exit out of the 1st floor.

The sinners were now boxed in by the guards from every direction. Some guards could be seen floating in the air, which meant they were saint level guards.

In Zhang’s mind the mysterious voice suddenly said, “It’s time, use half of those souls that you stored after the 100,000″.

“All guards fall into formation and support the gatekeepers!” A commanding guard bellowed.

But then suddenly a loud bang sounded. One of the minotaur was knocked back and fell onto a bunch of guards, crushing them to death. One of its arms holding a giant axe had been cut off, and it spun around in the air, before falling to the ground.

“Damn, it didn’t die!” Zhang yelled in his mind.

Zhang was currently enveloped in a blue light, this was the essence that he collected. Normally was not visible to the naked eye but due to such a high concentration it could now be seen. Zhang now possessed the power of the hundred thousands guards that he had absorbed and stored in the pendant.

Ironically, it only enabled him to knock down the minotaur and wasn’t able to kill it.

The two standing gate keepers roared and charged at Zhang with blood-shot eyes. While the saint level guards began to fly closer and circle around Zhang. The two minotaurs swung their giant axes, while the saint level guards launched various attacks toward Zhang from a distance. Bolts of lightning, fireballs, ice lance, and many other things were all approaching Zhang from all directions.

Zhang was only able to dodge some of the incoming attacks, while the layer of essence covering his body fended the rest.

The two minotaur almost bisected Zhang, but he luckily was able to dodge by a hair’s breadth. Zhang knew dodging wasn’t the answer, because eventually the power he got would disappear soon and he who only had the cultivation of a level 4 warrior would be like an ant to these experts, so he decided to counterattack.

The area around Zhang was slowly being engulfed in a sea of black fire. Guards were backing away left and right, and saints quickly flew away. While the minotaurs, despite their huge size, were able to agilely jump back and not get engulfed by the fire.

A metre away from the two minotaur gatekeepers, the 3rd gate-keeper who fell over was slowly getting back up. Although Zhang was able to cut off its arm with the black fire, unlike the guards that he encountered so far, the minotaur did not die.

Zhang decided to change target, he saw one of the saint level guards flying around him. What he now needed the most was a weapon. Up until now, he had relied on the black fire and did not bother to pick up any weapons. N that the black fire was ineffective against the gate keepers, Zhang needed to arm himself.

He noticed that there was only one guard who possessed two swords. The swords had pitch black colored hilts, which looked particularly different from what the other guards had. The guard was dressed in gleaming black armor, that looked flawless. Little did Zhang know, this guard was the commander of all the guards in the whole fortress.

Zhang formed hundreds of thousands of black flames once more. The flames ascended into the sky and flew around at amazing speeds. Some stayed near Zhang and flew around him to protect him, while others began to home in on the guard in black armor.

Each flame flew in its own unique path like it had a mind of its own, which made it even harder for the black armored guard to evade. Amazingly, none of the flames touched him despite the level of difficulty he faced.

The man was a veteran of thousands of battles, while Zhang had just recently stepped on to the path of taking lives. Thus gave the guard an advantage over Zhang, despite being currently weaker than Zhang. He knew he only had to evade until the energy boost Zhang got faded away or when the gate keepers and other guards closed in. Zhang was like a child holding a steel sword, he had no experience, while the guard was like a sword master holding a stick.

If he faced him head on and based on his current power he would lose to Zhang for sure. But if it was based on skill he had the upper hand.

“Damn, this isn’t working!” Zhang cursed in his mind.

The fire that chased after the black armored guard began to slow down and change its directions. The hundreds of thousands of flames began to go in all four directions and descended upon the regular guards on the ground. Countless guards scattered and ran like a bunch of ants. They knew how powerful the fire was and knew that they had no chance of survival if they were even touched by it.

Although some guards managed to evade, vast majority of them were still hit. Soon it all flew back to Zhang once more which increased his power even more.

Zhang quickly ran to where one of the guards had met his demise, picked up a sword and ran toward the gate keepers. Despite their strength, the gatekeepers were not capable of flying like the saint level guards nor the powered up Zhang. Thus, they were slower and held at a disadvantage despite their tough bodies and almost infinite strength.

If killing the gate keepers was not an option then Zhang would have dismissed the idea then.. One of the gate keepers swung downward at Zhang with his massive axe. Zhang skillfully dodged the swing, and then proceeded with a jump onto the minotaur’s arm while wildly slashing.

The minotaur tried to swat Zhang off its arm but to no avail, Zhang was simply too fast at this point. Due to its huge size, it took a while for Zhang to reach its head. And then he jumped and stabbed the minotaur in one of its eyes. Then he slashed again the other eye before he jumped back onto the ground.

A terrifying cry sounded after Zhang had landed on the ground. The minotaur covered its face with the one arm that was not disabled as it cried in pain. Without wasting any time, Zhang ran for its ankles and slashed its tendons with that, the gate-keeper fell over on the ground.

“One down, 2 more to go”, Zhang murmured.

The one gate-keeper who had not been injured yet roared and began charging at Zhang, while wielding dual axes. Many of the guards rearranged their formations and once again they started to encircle Zhang.

Sinners who tried to escape before began picking up weapons from the fallen guards, and then rushed at some of the guards. If they ran they would die later, if they didn’t they would also die. So they decided to fight, some sinners even put on the armor of the fallen guards and during the confusion, tried to mix in with them.

The minotaur charging at Zhang suddenly started glowing, a bright red aura covered its entire body and the two massive horns that was on top of its head also turned red.

“Everyone retreat! The gatekeeper has gone berserk.”,the black armored commander yelled.

The gatekeepers were born from the accumulation of essence in one of the fiery pits of the underworld over the countless years. And due to the essence in the pit being tainted by hatred and malicious intent, once the minotaur had gone berserk, it would indiscriminately attack everyone. Being born from the accumulation of energy their bodies were extremely tough and their attacks extremely powerful. To the point that even though their cultivation had not yet reached sainthood, they would still be able to fight saints while saints were not able to contend them.

Guards and sinners were being mashed up indiscriminately with each other, either fighting or fleeing from the direction the gatekeeper was charging trying to avoid getting killed.

“Guess I have to use it now,” Zhang said in his mind.

All of a sudden the aura around Zhang increased dramatically, and changed into a much darker shade of blue. Zhang was using the rest of the souls he stored up to now, besides the 100,000. He figured out that, after he got rid of the gatekeepers, he would still be able to gather some more from the guards because he could always simply kill more guards.

Zhang knew that even if he managed to defeat the gatekeepers, there would be many more stronger opponents to block his path. And if he wasted anymore time here, he would miss the solar alignment and would be stuck in the underworld for another 1000 years which is equivalent to 100 years in the mortal realm.

If he was able to escape 1000 years later, which was 100 years in the mortal world, he would most likely came back to a different, unfamiliar world. The current kingdoms would have already fallen, new faces would replace the familiar ones. And the scariest thing would be that his loved ones couldn’t even recognize him anymore.

Due to the fact that he would have aged 1000 years later, he would became an old man. Although time in the underworld moved at a different pace than the mortal world, one would still age, even though aging here would be somewhat slower than the mortal world.

And thanks to the high essence present in the underworld, the people in it lived a lot longer than those in the mortal world, which allowed them to be able to wait until they were reincarnated.

Zhang launched countless black flames at the minotaur but had no effect on it. It continued its charge toward Zhang coming closer and closer.

“I need to think of something and fast!”, Zhang said in a small panic to himself.

And then an idea popped into Zhang’s head. He focused all the energy he had into his right foot, and stomped onto the ground with all his might.

BANG!!!

A gale of dust blew in all directions pushing Zhang out of view, and cracks could be seen snaking across the ground.

The charging gatekeeper simply swung his axe, which swept all the dust blocking its view away and kept on charging. But once the gale of dust had dissipate, a massive, deep crater was now visible. The gatekeeper could not stop due to the momentum he had and tumbled down into the crater.

“Ha, I can’t fight you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t trap you!” Zhang laughed. Having gone berserk, the gatekeeper which possessed little intelligence to begin with, had no means of getting out of the deep crater. It simply began smashing its axes against the walls of the crater and roared out in rage.

Zhang focused his eye on the last gatekeeper that would stop him, the one that was missing an arm. He dashed to it and with a few swings, disabled its remaining limbs.

All that was left to do was to make sure the saint level guards couldn’t stop him. He knew that the guards could not kill him as long as he was in his current state, but sadly the saint level guards were fairly experienced and fast, so he could not kill them either.

He made a mad dash for the exit, while cutting down all the guards in his path. Seeing this, the sinners also began running instead of fighting the guards.

Zhang had made his way out into the fortress. Now all he had to do was to pass through the Forest of Forgotten, reach the Pool of Regret and reverse its direction using the power of the Dragon Pendant together with the accumulated souls so he could escape from the underworld.

When suddenly, a giant palm fell from the sky and smashed onto him. Before he could get up, another one slammed, then another and another. Soon enough, a small crater was formed and Zhang was practically imprinted into the ground.

A man dressed in bloody red robe appeared in the sky and gave off an intimidating aura.

The sinners behind Zhang simply stared into the sky and fell on their knees, seeing that their only hope of escape had been crushed. The guards finally caught up and assembled behind the sinners.

“Drag them all back down there and for that boy, send him to the lowest level with that old monster.” The man in the red robe said.

“Yes, milord!” the black armored saint said.

—————————————————————————————-

(A bit before Zhang made it out of the 1st floor of hell)

“Your majesty terrible news!!!!! There has been a massive escape from the 18 Levels of Hell!”, cried a soldier as he kneeled with panicked expression on his face.

Seeing the soldier in that state the Yama calmly said waving his hand, “The guards can handle it, no need to panic. These things happen all the time.”

“No your majesty!, This prison break is of an unprecedented level, hundreds of thousands of guards have perished. If we don’t hurry and act, the number will most likely go over a million or two.”, the soldier stated.

“WHAT?!! How can some regular sinners kill hundreds of thousands of guards? Within the 18 Levels of Hell no one was capable of doing this. All of the prisoners placed in there were continuously weakened by their punishment. The stronger ones should be contained at that place. The only one that was capable would be that one in the 18th level who was going to be moved soon.”, the Yama furiously said, slamming his hand on the arm of his throne.

“Your majesty reports say that a young lad, who is able to manipulate black fire had caused all this. The casualties so far are all due to him. The sinners are simply following behind and have yet to engage any of the guards.”

Silence descended in the room, while the Yama fell into deep thought.

“Black flames, it can’t be! The only thing that could create black fire had perished a thousand years ago.”, the Yama thought to himself.

“Have one of the judge personally go and stop them, now!” The Yama said.

With a bow the soldier quickly ran out of the room while the Yama sat on his throne and once more fell into deep thought. Not long after, a knock could be heard on the door.

“Father, are you in there? It’s me, Yuying.”

As the door slowly creaked open, a pretty girl with fiery red hair walked in carrying a tray of food. There were different foods on the tray, each looked very delicious.

The Yama seeing his daughter brought him food, he was particularly happy and his mood improved right away despite what was happening. Over the countless years he lived, he had fathered many children but this daughter was his favorite.

From an early age, she showed that she was extremely capable of amazing feats and was also gifted with extreme beauty. Many suitors came and asked for her hand but most eventually gave up, except for one.

“Father try these desserts that I made.” Yuying cheerfully said as she put the tray onto the desk in front of the Yama.

The Yama picked up and ate a dessert his daughter personally made. A smile could be seen on his face as he ate.

“I also wanted to talk about that engagement that you had arranged for me.”, Yuying said timidly, lowering her lowering her head.

A loud bang resounded as the Yama slammed his palm onto the desk. He was clearly not happy that Yuying had brought this topic up.

“No, there is nothing to discuss. The arrangements have been made and you are betrothed to the 3rd son of the judge of the Northern hell.”, the Yama yelled.

And in a fit of rage, he swung his arm and the tray of food all fell on the ground.

Tears slowly formed in the corner of Yuying’s eyes, and began to flow like rivers. She then ran out of the room as she cried. She had always been against the engagement. To the point of running away from the palace when the Judge of the North came with his son to make the engagement official.

But despite running away, the Yama did not punish her. He did not even yelled at her when she came back. Instead, he acted very kind to her but secretly increased the guards that kept watch over her. But this time, he had to make it clear that the engagement was set in stone and there was no way of changing it.

He knew his daughter was the type that once she had set her mind, there was no way of changing it. So, at first, he tried to act as if nothing happened and maybe it would slowly ease the thought into her mind. But that did not work, so now was the time to act like a tyrant and instill it into her.

—————————————————————————————-

Zhang woke up to find himself chained into the wall in a cell of what was known as the 18th level of hell, also known as Avici.

This was the lowest level in the 18 Levels of Hell, the level where only a few were imprisoned. There was no physical torture on this level, just pure psychological torture.

Prisoners would be chained up in cells, some would be blindfolded in pure darkness and deafening silence as water dripped near them until it drove them mad. Or a feast fit for kings to eat would be set just out of reach of the sinners making it so they could only look but not eat. The sinners here would have to suffer for all eternity or until they lose all sense of reason.

Chapter 7: Fateful Encounter

After waking up, Zhang found himself chained to a solid and sturdy wall with very heavy, thick, strong chains. ( >_> <_< hehe) But to his amazement there were tons of delicious looking foods in front of him. However, this was kept just out of arm's reach due to the chains.

Delicacies that Zhang had never seen before in his life and ones that was very familiar to him were all placed in front of him just a bit out of arm's reach. Just by looking and smelling the food, it would make anyone drool. However there was no point in struggling to get some of it because there was no possible way to reach it.

"If you want some, just condense the energy in the necklace into an object and use that to get some.", the mysterious voice said.

AZhang was able to make a fork out of essence. Luckily, even though the guards had dressed Zhang in a prisoner’s uniform and took away all his belongings, the pendant he always wore was still there. It was not that they didn't take it, it was that the necklace had a will of its own and would always appear again on Zhang's body one way or another.

After having his fill, Zhang fell asleep. Unknown to him, there was someone who was watching him the entire time.

A while later, Zhang woke up and to his amazement there was another person in the cell. An an old man that appeared to be a thousand years of age with a white beard that seemed to be an extension of his white silky hair together with his long droopy eyebrows covering his eyes. was chained to the wall adjacent to him. This startled Zhang because before he fell asleep there was no one in the cell beside him. This old man somehow ended up in the cell with him without even noticing despite being asleep. If someone had entered or opened the cell, Zhang would have at least woken up.

"I see you have woken up. Mind telling this old man how you ended up here?" the old man asked.

Although somewhat surprised that the old man was there, Zhang began telling the old man how he died and how he ended up in the lowest level of hell. The entire time he was in the underworld he had no one to talk to nor anyone who conversed with him besides Yuying and that one man who waited in line with him. So talking to this old man made Zhang feel as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. It made him feel that at least there was someone here willing to listen to him.

After telling the old man his story, Zhang asked how the old man ended up on this floor. “I am called Xin Tao”, as he started to tell his story. When Xin Tao was still alive, he was a cultivator who had luckily stumbled upon a treasure that allowed him to reach sainthood.

Shortly after becoming a saint, he used this opportunity to propel his clan to newer heights of power and influence, to the point of establishing a kingdom. Like the majority of kingdoms in the Wulin continent which had a saint or two as founders and protectors.

Xin Tao eventually became bored with governing his kingdom and left to travel the continent, leaving his descendants to rule in his place as he traveled. Through his travels, he encountered many other saints. A few of these saints were just like him and were exploring the vast continent themselves. Although saints could fly and travel at a faster speed than regular people, the continent was simply too vast and there were many unexplored areas which was enshrouded with mystery.

After sometime, Xin Tao became a part of a group of traveling saints. Being immortal, what these people lacked the most was companion. Some were lucky and had spouses or family members who had attained sainthood. But most of them were not, and after becoming saints, they would have to watch as their loved ones aged and passed on right before their eyes. Despite having many ways to prolong a person's life, there was no other method besides reaching sainthood for them to be an immortal. They say the longer we wait, the harder our hearts will become.

Thus, this group of saints decided to become friends and travel with each other to keep company. They went far and wide and eventually, they stumbled upon an unexplored gorge that leads to a dense forest. The essence within the forest was a staggering ten times higher than which would be normally present in the mortal plane.

Because of this, many demonic beasts gathered there. These demonic beasts fed off the energy coming from the forest and multiplied to huge numbers. However, none of them were a threat to their group. Due to the abundance of demonic beasts inhabiting the forest they decided to name it, “The Beasts’ Nirvana". Due to encountering such an odd place for the first time, the group decided to explore it in its entirety.

While exploring, they found an enormous cavern at the side of a steep mountain. The entrance to the cavern opened on the side of the mountain roughly a hundred feet off the ground. Being a curious group they entered and began exploring. The inside of the cavern was like another world. There was a small, dense forest growing within it inhabited by many odd-looking creatures. As they went deeper and deeper, some of them felt that they were being watched. But when they used their powers to scan the area they did not find anything out of the ordinary and so, they continued.

After some time, they found a small opening in one of the walls of the cavern. To their amazed to see that the small opening lead to a massive room filled with treasure. Small mountains of gold and silver, rivers of jade and precious gems filled the entire room. And if one looked closer there were many unique looking artifacts scattered about and mixed in with the gold and silver.

These would be recognized as various magical items. Objects such as spatial rings that could store other items within them, using a small pocket dimension. Swords that were empowered with lightning, water, and fire. There were also many other artifacts with unknown powers laying around.

Even extremely rare materials such as liquid mithril were found in huge pools. Liquid mithril was extremely rare and only appeared naturally. It appeared in a liquid state but if a cultivator used a special method to refine them and then infuse some of their energy in it, the liquid mithril would turn into an extremely hard but light artifact. Cultivators would be able to turn the liquid mithril into any shape they wanted, which meant that they could create a weapon with endless possibilities or a lifesaving object in a dire situation.

Anyone who stumbled upon such treasures would go mad from excitement,even this group of immortal saints. Although there were plenty of treasures laying on the ground, none of them felt the need to contend with each other. The various treasures were all divided up beside the precious metals, precious gems, and liquid mithril.

The saints decided to delve deeper and would divide these items later because carrying these items now would be of no use. Refining the liquid mithril would take too long so they decided to leave it for later.

As they went deeper, there was much more treasure lying about. Soon they stumbled upon an altar and atop the altar was a sword. The blade of the sword was made entirely of some sort of crystal and was nearly transparent. It gave off a blue glow and if one looked closely they'd be able to see that there was an intricate moon etched into the blade.

They had all come to the conclusion that the sword was none other than the legendary "Rising Moon" which was one of the most sought after treasures in the world. These treasures consisted of:

Falling Sun - short sword

Rising Moon - long sword

Star Shooter - bow

Endless Abyss - cape

Underworlds Heart

Eternal Flame

Heaven's Lost Armor- Armor

Although there were many rare magical items scattered across the continent and many more were created every day. These seven legendary treasures possessed mythical powers that no one had been able to replicate. It was rumored that whoever was able to possess even one of them would have the power to wipe out an entire empire or face an endless armies alone. Simply possessing one would bring an infinite power and influence.

And thus it began, for all of the saints fell into greed. All but Xin Tao, as he did not see the point in honor or power. What was honor and power when one had to fight friends and companions. Being a man of righteousness who sought power to protect his family and friends, he wanted no part in this struggle and so, he decided to simply watch from afar. Believing that his companions would simply compete for the Rising Moon. But once one of them acquired the sword in his possession, the others ganged up and drew the weapons they had acquired a short while ago.

Attacks flew in all direction and without enough time to even bind the sword with his blood the first one who grasped the Rising Moon met his demise. Then, to Xin Tao's disbelief, the others began slaughtering each other. These people had traveled with each other for years and had been through thick and thin together. But now, they were using any means possible to kill one another.

He knew that he had to stop them somehow so Xin Tao joined the fray. He hoped to prevent any more senseless killing between the group. Sadly, they also wanted his life. Luckily Xin Tao was fairly strong and was able to hold his own against the others. He made sure to hold back so that he would not fatally wound anyone. But that would prove to be a fatal error. There was only Xin Tao and another individual left standing while the rest were either dead or on the brink of death due to heavy injuries.

The last individual tossed his weapon to the ground knowing he was no match for Xin Tao and promised he would no longer seek to obtain the Rising Moon. Believing his words Xin Tao began treating his injured companions who were on the brink of life and death. But when his attention was elsewhere, a blade sank into his back and pierced his heart. Then the same blade was pulled out and cut his neck. Xin Tao fell to his knees and onto the ground. Fill with rage, he used all of his power and turned the one who stabbed him into a mist of blood. But the wounds he received were fatal.

But the story did not end there. After dying, Xin Tao ended up in the underworld where he joined the underworld army. Where he found out that there were individuals who had attained a power beyond saints. He too, one day would obtain such power and eventually became a judge in the underworld.

Hundreds of thousands of years soon passed as he stayed in the underworld. Until one day, he ran into one of his descendants, he learned that their entire clan had been massacred by a rival kingdom. No one was spared, not even children. His entire clan of thousands were all killed, the graves of their ancestors were all dug up and all the bodies were hung up on the walls of their kingdom's capital.

That was when Xin Tao decided that he had to get revenge for his clan. He decided that he would use his influence as a judge of the underworld and then use the same method that Zhang was going to use to return to the world of the living. And wipe out the ones that did this to his clan. The only difference was that he would use his own power to reverse the flow of the pool. His plans however did not succeed, he ran into another judge on his way and his path was blocked. Then the other judges came and engaged in battle with him. Although they were called judges, they were all assistants of the ten Diyu and each of them were all powerful individuals. Xin Tao was only a low level judge to begin with and was comparatively weaker than the majority of judges.

Xin Tao was then captured and sent to where he was now and many years have flown by ever since then. But soon, he would be transferred to another place. There were many places where sinners were kept and the 18 Levels of Hell was only one of these places. The 18 Levels of Hell held weaker prisoners, basically regular sinners. Xin Tao was only imprisoned here because they needed a place to detain him but he was soon going to be transferred to one that held stronger prisoners.

After the story ended the two men sat there in silence. Zhang was somewhat dejected because the solar alignment had ended. Until Xin Tao told Zhang that he had a way to help Zhang escape. He told Zhang that the 18th floor that they were in was very unique. And only the 18th floor was special because there was a treasure hidden here. He had learned while he was still a judge that the Underworld's Heart was hidden here but no one knows where. A sinner who had once been imprisoned on this floor had hidden it after stealing it from the treasury of the underworld.

The Underworld's Heart had the power to manipulate essence in unbelievable ways. It had been a regular gem that had been formed when the planes were created and had absorbed the energy within the underworld for countless years. If one acquired it he would had the power to move mountains and diverge rivers on a whim. He or she would be able create objects by utilizing just from the latent essence within the surroundings. Out of the seven treasures, the Underworlds Heart was one of the most mysterious. As to why the mortals knew about it, no one knows. Perhaps someone who had reincarnated did not completely lose their memories and from that person the Underworld's Heart was introduced into the mortal world.

If Zhang had the Underworld's Heart, he would be able to use it to escape the 18 Levels of Hell and then use it to reverse the flow of the Pool of Regrets. But finding it was easier said than done. Xin Tao had seen that Zhang was able to still use his powers despite being chained which constantly absorbed the essence within his body.

There were no guards stationed on this floor and they would only came down once in awhile. So they two of them had all the time in the world to search. And since Zhang was able to use his powers they would be able to get out of the chains and out of the cell. Xin Tao did not want to rot away in the underworld so he would join Zhang in returning to the world of the living.

The two of them would search every nook and cranny of the 18th floor. When guards came down they would pretend to still be bound by the chains. And when the guards left they would continue their search. After combing the massive 18th floor a few times they decided to rethink their methods. And came to the conclusion of searching the individual cells which they had not searched.

The reason they had not done so before was because if the other prisoners knew that Zhang and Xin Tao were free to roam about they might tell the guards. But the two knew they had to do it or else they might very well not find the Underworld's Heart.

Although the 18th floor was massive there weren't that many people kept within it. Only a few thousand or so people were kept here. Xin Tao had begun teaching Zhang various martial arts, spells, and techniques. Zhang was now able to use his energy to put the other prisoners to sleep so the two could search the cells. Xin Tao, despite not being chained up anymore, could not gather any essence as the very air itself lacked essence. While Zhang had to rely on the essence stored within the necklace.

The two of them had some close encounters with guards, almost leading to their capture when sudden inspections happened. Eventually, they had searched all of the cells but made no progress on finding the Underworld's Heart. With no other means but to continue searching, the two of them pressed on.

Until one day, after searching the entire floor for god knows how many times, in a fit of rage, Zhang smashed his fist into the wall of their cell. To which he heard a thump, which was odd because the wall was supposed to be made of solid stone. And there were no other cells next to his.

Zhang condensed some energy into his fist and once more hit the wall and another thump sounded but the wall was still solid with only a slight indentation. He did not know whether to use more energy or not because on the off-chance that there was a surprise inspection the guards would be able to sense the energy he would be giving off. After conversing with Xin Tao, the two decided to wait until after an inspection happened before attempting again.

Oddly enough, no inspections happened and weeks went by. The longer they waited the more impatient they grew. Thankfully, after two months an inspection happened. And the very day after, Zhang was stood in front of the wall and had drawn a large amount of energy from the Dragon’s Pendant. This time when his fist connected to the wall, a loud bang sounded and cloud of dust scattered throughout the room. When the dust dissipated, a small fist sized hole could be seen.

There was clearly another room behind this wall. But when Zhang peered into the hole it was too dark for him to perceive anything. So he began pounding at the wall again and again until the hole was big enough for a person to climb through.

Chapter 8: Fate and Destiny

Zhang and Xin Tao both entered the hole together. Zhang used a bit of his essence and created an orb of light which floated into the air and illuminated the hidden room. The instant the orb of light was created light flooded to the once pitch black room.

The room looked exactly the same as Zhang and Xin Tao's cell. That's when the thought hit Zhang. Perhaps the one who hid the Underworlds Heart had created an identical room to the original cell he was locked in. Then hid the Underworlds Heart in the original room that he was locked in and when he was taken away, the room somehow became sealed and blended into the walls.

The man had probably been under strict surveillance so he could not hide the Underworlds Heart any elsewhere, but only to the cell where he was imprisoned in. And if he did not create an identical room and hid the Underworld’s Heart here, there was a chance someone else would be imprisoned in the same cell he was in and they'd stumbled upon it. Had Zhang not hit the wall in rage, he would have never realized that there was something on the other side. Also, if a regular sinner was imprisoned here they'd have no way of breaking the wall.

"The person who did this was indeed too crafty. But luck was on our side this time.", Xin Tao said happily.

Zhang nodded while smiling also. And the two of them returned to their cell and Zhang used some essence to mask the hole.

"Zhang there is one more thing we have to do in order to successfully return to the world of the living. On our way to the Pool of Regrets we must sneak into the treasury of the underworld and locate the Book of Fate. And once we do, we need to tear out our pages from the book. Or else, once we left the underworld they would be able to find us using the book." Xin Tao worriedly said.

The Book of Fate contained the record of everyone's destiny in their previous life, current life, and next life. A person's time of birth, time of death and all the events that have happened and are going to happen were all recorded within the book. The book records also what’s currently happening in a person's life. Also, by tearing out one's page from the Book of Fate a person would not be bound by destiny nor fate any longer. Not only would they not be bound any longer but those who had relations with them will also no longer be bound.

The destiny of those close to them would became blank. Or if their pages did not become blank, at the very least, all the events triggered by the person with the tear out page would not show up in the book. A false history would show up instead. Those not bound by fate and those close to them would no longer die from illness, or accidents. Only from old age or if someone were to murder them would these people die.

Zhang and Xin Tao began to plan how to escape the 18 Levels of Hell and then sneak into the Palace of the Yama.

In the end, they came up with two plans. The first plan was for Zhang to absorb the souls of all the prisoners in the lower floors and then use all of that energy to break out and then directly enter the Yama's palace. The only downside to that was there was a chance of them alarming strong experts who could stop them. Zhang could only use a certain amount of energy from the necklace if he were to use too much he would be at the risk of self-destruction, an overload of sorts.

The second plan would be for them to wait for the next inspection and kill the guards inspecting. Then put on the guard's armor and try to sneak out and once they got out, sneak into the palace. This plan would have them to wait much longer and there was still a chance of getting found out.

Xin Tao assured Zhang that if they were able to enter the palace he would be able to take Zhang directly into the treasury and Pool of Regret. This was all due to his experience from being a judge before.

They decided to go with the 2nd plan and if they were found out Zhang would absorb as many souls as he could and then charge out of the 18 Levels of Hell.

And from the recent inspections they figured the next one would be in two months or so.

Each time an inspection happened a squad of full armored guards would descend and check every cell. Once they reached the floor they'd break into teams of two and once the inspection was over they'd regroup and ascend then returned to their barracks. Thankfully, none of the guards were truly acquainted with each other due to the huge number of guards and the constant shifting and moving to different prisons.

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Outside of the 18 Levels of Hell, the whole underworld was celebrating. In two months’ time the 99th princess of the underworld, Yuying, would tie the knot with the 75th son of the Northern Diyu. The engagement had taken place two years ago and in two months it'll be the third year which would be the date of the wedding.

Occasions such as this rarely happened in the underworld so sinners werewas pardoned 100 years off their sentences. And the regular residents of the underworld would all enjoy a small gift of deed points on their crystal cards.

The 99th princess was said to be extremely beautiful and gifted. So everyone was looking forward to the wedding day in the hopes of catching a glimpse of her on her way to the groom’s home.

Everyone was happy, but naturally Yuying who was against the whole thing was not. But there was not much she could really do, butwe hoped that someone would come and take her away.

The mere thought of this made her feel like laughing at herself,. Because who in the underworld could save her? The ruler of the underworld himself had arranged this marriage sadly, there was no way of stopping it sadly.

Just thinking about the marriage reminded her of that pig that she was engaged to. The man hads no shame and there were rumors that he would use his influence to abduct young girls and have his way with them. How could she marry someone like that? Let alone she did not have any feelings for him except for disgust.

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Two months had passed and the inspection of the 18th floor was pushed up to the day before the royal wedding. The Yama had given all of his subjects a day off to celebrate this joyous occasion. He felt that the 75th son of the Northern Diyu of the North would become a perfect match pair forwith his daughter. His daughter was gifted with an extreme beauty and talent while the son of the Diyu of the north was the same. Thus, the two would make a power couple together and also help the two families unite as one.

For the guards, today would be just like any other day but little did they know, today would be the day the underworld would beis sent spiraling into chaos.

Zhang and Xin Tao satwere sitting in their cell patiently waiting for the guards to arrive. Zhang still had the hundreds of thousands of souls stored within his necklace if he needed its power. The guards would stand no chance against him if he were to go on a killing spree.

Xin Tao had told him that he was lucky this prison only had weak guards. There were places that Diyu personally guarded and they were many times stronger than saints. Their power levels were astronomical and not something either of them can handle. And besides the places the Diyu guarded, there were places where all the guards were stronger than saints or made entirely of saints.

The thought of someone many times stronger than a saint was a foreign concept to Zhang. He had learned that saints were extremely powerful in the mortal realm as a child and still believed so till today.

Not long after the inspection began, a click sound could be heard coming from the door’s cell where Zhang and Xin Tao were in. Two guards dressed in armor walked in, from head to toe they were encased in armor.

The second they walked in, a small black flame flew in directly from the opening of their helmets. Once the fire made contact with them, their bodies turned into a puff of dust and their swords and armors fell to the ground.

Before the swords and armors hit the ground, Zhang had dashed and caught them as to not make any noise. He did not want to risk attracting more guards here.

Zhang handed Xin Tao a suit of armor and donned a suit of armor himself. Luckily the armor partially covered their faces so if they played it cool, no one would possibly notice them.

Soon, the inspection was over and the guards began congregating before the exit. Xin Tao and Zhang were able to blend in as the guards were forming ranks. After forming ranks, the guards began ascending the floors. This time Zhang's necklace no longer emitted any energy so no one noticed as he ascended the floors.

Once they reached the fortress on the very top, the next part of the plan would begin. They would now have to find a way to get out unnoticed or begin to go on a rampage.

Xin Tao slowly regained some of his power as he stepped outside into the fortress. The air was once more filled with essence unlike in the 18th level where there was none or very little.

Both Zhang and Xin Tao decided they would enter the guard’s barracks and then in the dead of night sneak out.

The guards in the fortress had four shifts each lasting roughly six hours. After six hours another group of guards would come relieve them of their duties. When the switch occurred there would be a small interval of time where no one was truly keeping guard and this would be the best time to sneak out.

Zhang was able to acquire another sword within the barracks when it was time to leave. He preferred using two swords better than one. It would allow him to engage in battle with a larger group of enemies if needed.

There was only one gate in the fortress that could be used to get in or out. But Zhang decided that they instead would use a different means of escape.

When no one was looking, two men did the unthinkable, they jumped off over the gates of the fortress. The walls of the fortress were hundreds of feet tall and any regular person that fell off from it would meet their end. Luckily, Xin Tao was around and he could fly. Although he wouldn't be able to fly for a long duration of time due to just regaining his powers, Xin Tao would be able to slow their landing.

Although Xin Tao was able to somewhat slow their descent they were still falling at a very fast speed.

Bang!!!

As Zhang and Xin Tao crashed into the ground it caused the ground to shake a bit.

The two made a mad dash into the Forest of the Forgotten. Lucky for them, after they ran into the forest a thick fog rolled in and covered the ground.

The thick fog also blanketed the forest making it very hard to navigate. Not wanting to attract unseeded attention neither Zhang nor Xin Tao used their powers. Slowly, they made their way through the forest.

"Senior, this is the 3rd time we passed by this tree. Last time I had broken a branch off as a marker." Zhang said to Xin Tao.

The fog had made them lose all sense of direction. They were running around in circles this entire time.

"Perhaps we should rest for the night. We are in no rush, the pool and book aren't just going to grow legs and walk away." Xin Tao said with a smile then jumped into a tree. Zhang did not question and also jumped up a tree.

"It is safer up here, we won't run into any lost souls up in here." Xin Tao said.

Zhang nodded and closed his eyes to rest. Soon he and Xin Tal both fell asleep and the next time they woke up would be the day of the royal wedding.

The fog has lifted when the two of them woke up. Thus, they began to cross through the forest once more.

After a few hours, Zhang could see an opening out of the forest. It was like a light at the end of a tunnel.

Suddenly a pair of hands extended from out of nowhere and grabbed on to Zhang's legs. The arms pulled his legs while he was mid run causing Zhang to lose balance and tumble-down.

That was when he saw countless mad souls surrounded him. Xin Tao had also been grabbed and surrounded. Groans and screams could be heard all around. The forest we now filled with noises.

Black fire ignited within Zhang's palms and turned all the mad souls around him into nothingness. The forest once more became quiet.

Oddly, there was one mad soul still standing. This fellow was emitting an odd red aura. Its eyes were completely white, pitch black veins could be seen all over its body and a massive amount of killing intent was being projected from it.

"Zhang get back that is a Fallen Soul!!! With our current strength we can't beat it. GET BACK NOW!!" Xin Tao screamed.

Fallen Souls were souls that had overtime became corrupted by negative energy and after being corrupted, they assimilated with many other souls. Over time, they became extremely powerful and were hard to deal with. A fallen soul would corrupt and then assimilate other souls. Thus, if a single fallen soul were to get loose in a city in the underworld, a catastrophe would happen.

Zhang quickly jumped back and tried to create some distance between him and the fallen soul. Zhang's black fire could only deal with those who were weaker than him or those who were a bit stronger than him. But if the opponent's power vastly out stripped his, it would not work.

However, in an instant he came up with an idea. Why not use this fallen soul's power to his advantage. If he were to lure it close to the city, then all the guards would be preoccupied with dealing with it. Then, in the confusion, he and Xin Tao would be able to sneak in unnoticed.

Though this was easier said than done. The fallen soul was many times more powerful than Zhang and he wasn't sure if he would be able to keep himself out of its grasp. But it was do or die . If he did nothing, then he would die or if he tried to fight the fallen soul alone then he would also die. So the only option he had left was to get someone else to fight it for him.

While Zhang was contemplating, the fallen soul suddenly lunged at him. He was able to dodge by a hair's breadth. Due to his momentum Zhang tumbled behind a tree.

The fallen soul charged at the tree where Zhang was behind and with a wave of its hand, the tree fell over and crashed into the ground. Zhang began running in a zigzag path weaving between trees. He would use the trees to keep the fallen soul from getting near to him.

As Zhang and the fallen soul breezed through the forest, Xin Tao quickly followed behind at a safe distance.

Soon the city was in sight; what seemed odd to Zhang was all the red lanterns and festive decorations that could be seen on the walls and on the gate.

"ROAAAR!!!!!!!" The fallen soul howled.

All of the people within the gate and in front of the gate turned back and saw the fallen soul. Then a mass panic happened, many people did not even know what a fallen soul was but also fell into panic due to the deathly aura that was leaking out of its body.

While those that knew, were in a deeper state of panic because they had heard the horror of what would happen if one of those things got into the city.

Seeing the souls in front of the gate the fallen soul changed targets. It totally ignored Zhang and went after a group of souls. Instead it lunged at Zhang it lunged into a group of innocent bystanders.

Bang!!!!

A thunderbolt fell from the sky and struck the fallen soul. Then after the first thunderbolt ten more fell from the sky. Each thunderbolts carried huge amount of power, each strike was able to shake the ground and would probably char any unlucky soul that was close by.

The fallen soul screamed due being attacked incessantly by the thunderbolts. Its screams made the faint hearted souls fell to their knees. Even someone who would be considered brave would shake in their boots.

Eventually, hundreds of lightning bolts had snaked from the sky and landed on the fallen soul. But as soon as they appeared the thunder bolts came to a sudden halt.

A crater was formed where all the lightning bolts landed. After all the dust cleared, the fallen soul was no more. It turned completely into nothingness due to the thunderbolts. A figure could be seen flying in the air after the thunderbolts stopped.

"Hpmh! Dare to cause trouble on the day of my son’s wedding. You’re courting death!" The man floating in the air said as he flew away.

Zhang who had mixed into the fleeing crowd with Xin Tao, they watched all of thunderbolts which landed on the fallen soul in amazement.

But not wanting to waste the opportunity, the two sneaked into the city as everyone else was still left in a daze.

Once they entered the city they found out that today was the wedding of Yuying, the 99th princess of the underworld and the 75th son of the Northern Diyu.

"Probably just a coincidence.", Zhang said in his mind as he and Xin Tao headed for the palace.

The wedding would be a perfect opportunity for them to sneak into the palace and escape. Because everyone would be preoccupied with the celebration.