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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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