The Heavenly Wandering Sword

Chapter 51

He looked over the entrance to the gate and walked through. There were yokai guards, but they paid him no attention, sensing nothing off about him. The first thing he noticed was the complete and utter chaos that was in the city. There weren’t enough Reapers to gather up the people as appropriate while there also seemed to be much more souls than usual. It had the effect of souls wandering around aimlessly, searching for the last thing in their life that they had wanted. Some called the names of loved ones while others hopelessly searched for a food item or a wine they had especially cherished when they were alive. He shook his head as he came across a rather distressed Reaper, a young looking man who wore the black uniform of the Reapers cajoling a group of souls to a specific portal to be transported. There were too many for him to sort properly, so he seemed to be sorting the ones that he could.

There were countless scenes like this in the city, and it seemed like it was carefully orchestrated. Normally, Reapers increased when there were more souls and then the ones who weren’t being used would retreat to a state of suspended animation. Reapers were souls that had tried to commit the ultimate sin of failing their heavenly tribulation or trying to bring someone back from the dead. In death, they were sent to serve the Underworld and the Deathly Court. The Deathly Court was formed up of the various Underworld deities that rules over each specific aspect of death.

“Hey, you, get over here. Why are you wandering there?” One of the yokai guards waved over at him. “The ceremony is about to start, you better hurry to the palace.” Li Jian stared at the guard who shook his head and pointed towards the center of the city where the Deathly Palace was. He nodded at the guard before turning to walk that way. After a while of walking, he found more and more yokai gathering around him all going towards the same direction. He would follow the crowd of them until they got to the gate of the Deathly Palace.

Standing multiple stories tall, the Death Palace was built from polished bones of various creatures including humanoid ones that had died throughout history. It was a ghastly sight, filled with incenses everywhere that emitted a blackish smoke containing the pure scent of death. In front of the massive palace was formed a large, raised platform with a hooded figure chained in the middle, and high level yokai standing around it. He spotted multiple yokai lords, each a warlord in their own right. It was rare to see so many high levelled yokai all gathered together. Normally, each warlord had a small region underneath one of the Underworld deities that they ruled over and fought for resources for.

Once it seemed enough of the yokai had been gathered, a figure appeared to stand on the platform. It was a beautiful female figure with skin as white as the snow while her eyes glowed as red as the sun itself. Although her lips were a beautiful shade of radiant red, they couldn’t hide the razor-sharp fangs under them. This was the Underworld Duchess of Undeath Mei Min. In life, she had been a powerful vampire queen that had her black soul sent to the underworld finally after a one thousand year reign of terror. In her death, her powers had been powerful enough to allow her victory over the previous Deity of Undeath.

The crowd cheered on as the figure stood, basking in the adoration of the crowd before the vampire Duchess finally putting up a hand for silence.

“Denizens of the Underworld, for too long we have suffered under the yoke of limitations. We are limited to only the souls that we are allowed to feed on. We were given the Underworld and told to rule it. While the Deities up above bask in glory and radiance, we are damned to the dark. Today the Underworld Deities will offer you all a taste of a soul most magnificent, indeed the soul of a heavenly goddess. With her demise, the above ground will fall to our rule. I present to you all the Goddess of Life herself as an offering!”

She reached up and ripped off the hood to reveal Sun Ming, indeed the deity of life. Her usually radiant face was downcast, as if the Underworld itself was sapping her of her heavenly spiritual force. Li Jian was stunned; how had the Underworld gotten their hands on a Heavenly Deity? Even the binds that held her was a forbidden artifact known as the Blood Soul Binds. It had the power to bind any entity as long as they had spiritual force.

The crowd roared in approval, cheering for her as she basked in the attention with a large, fanged smirk as she looked over at the restrained deity. “Sister Sun, please don’t be upset. It’s about time that some of your blessings were given to the Underworld too.” She caressed the Goddess of Life’s face with her claw like nails mockingly while in her other hand was held a pitch-black dagger with a red gem in the pommel. Li Jian recognized the dagger as something that should have been sealed long ago. It was known as the Soul King, an entity that had once been a noble sword reforged in the fires of the Underworld as a weapon to be used against the Heavenly Deities in the war that had rocked the divine world thousands of years ago.

“Master. I sense him.” Kon Wang said inside his mind. Li Jian’s sword spirit Kon Wang was an entity that had been called the Void Emperor. The Void Emperor was the master of the Void domain, a domain that existed in between life and death where only the void itself awaited. The reason his sword was named the Void Bringer was because the sword itself was forged inside the pressures of the void itself, a creation that had been ages before the deities themselves had existed. It’s origins known only to the Universal Dao, it was also known as the King of Swords for the simple reason that Kon Wang was its sword spirit. In this manner, Kon Wang recognized any and all sword spirits that existed.

“I sense the Skull Dragon. He is still inside the dagger.” Li Jian acknowledged the message mentally and thought hard about what to do next. The Skull Dragon was the original entity of death, created in a miasma of spiritual energy by the Universal Dao when time itself started. It had existed in the Underworld until a forbidden ritual was carried out to seal it inside the Soul King’s sword as its sword spirit. It was so powerful that it had been sealed away through the cooperation of the Heavenly Deities and the Divine Hunt Deities so that the dagger would never fall into anyone’s hands. However, it seems that the seal had been released. This was something which threatened to tip the balance completely, and it should never be allowed.

All around the raised platform, the various yokai roared in hunger. Yokai fed on souls as food, although the Pact had always been that the Underworld separated good souls worthy of reincarnation as protected ones while those who sinned were denied reincarnation, and had their souls devoured by the Underworld. The more powerful the person was in life, the more valued their soul was. The soul of a heavenly deity was enough to feed the entire underworld, increasing the power of any yokai who was able.

“Sister, you look a bit pale. Is the air here not suitable to your liking?” Mei Min cackled mockingly as she ran the flat side of the dagger over the cheek of Sun Ming. “Don’t worry dear sister, soon you won’t have any need of any air.” A slight tilt of her wrist drew a cut over the cheek of the restrained deity while the yokai all around them could sense the heavenly vitality that flowed out even from that small cut. Mei Min true to her nature licked her tongue over the droplets of blood and let out a long sigh of satisfaction. “So rich, and so full of life. Sister, I will enjoy this. Each cut will feed my flock with vitality. The same vitality that you have been gifted with but which we have been denied. You will see Sister Goddess, you will see that which you cherish so dearly be taken away by your own life.” With a sneer on her face, she ran the flat of the dagger down to her collar bone and kept the black steel pressed against her throat. “Shall I bleed you slowly or bleed you quick? Will I sample you bit by bit or feast upon your life force in gluttony?”

“Master. He is getting restless.” Kon Wang could sense that the Skull Dragon was stirring in its prison and longed to get out. The blood of a deity would be enough to completely undo the seals, releasing the vicious sword spirit into the underworld. Li Jian made his decision.

“Kon Kon, I will be taking on the Underworld. The Pact will be broken and re-forged by sword and steel.” The Pact had been something which had been agreed to by all sides to the agreement, and then enforced by the Universal Dao. In this case, Li Jian was not sure what had happened that the Universal Dao had allowed this to happen. “Master, I am with you. He cannot be allowed to be released. The Dao will not like this.” Li Jian smiled to himself as he placed a hand on the ebony handle of his Void Bringer sword. “Through the lightning of the heavens and the flames of hell, let it be known that the sword is absolutely.”