Spirited Away to Another World

At the end of the hallway on the twelve floor of a university building, an auditorium that held a night class had just ended but the sound of discussions remained constant.

Walking away from the door of the auditorium was a youth in his 20's, a third year by the name of Cheng Xuan.

With the continuous pilling of project from the following days, all Cheng Xuan could do was complain from the demanding requirements his school was giving him and could not help but exhale his accumulated exhaustion.

"*Sigh!* Finally, I can go home now. Why did all my classes this week have to end until 7 p.m. anyway?"

From behind Cheng Xuan could hear voices of other students chatting away in glee but ignored them as he left the room.

He did not need to turn back to look behind him as Cheng Xuan remembered that they were at least eight to nine people left in his class as the rest left for other matters.

With their constant chatting or texting with their phones, Cheng Xuan couldn't help but feel irritated as their voices echoed through the hallway and started walking further away as he heard their conversation.

"Hey did you see the new movie coming this fall?"

"No, I haven't! Want to watch it together, but you're going to pay cause it was your idea!"

"Alright! But you have bring in a lady friend!"

"That's a good idea, I know someone who can..."

Inside the auditorium were groups of teens that either chatting, laughing or comparing their interest. While Cheng Xuan knew some of those topics, he did not feel the need to join.

After all, to him, such people could never be his friends.

In fact, Cheng Xuan never had any friends in the university that he studied in ever since his enrollment.

It was not that Cheng Xuan was bad in conversation, antisocial or had no interest in mind. His reason was simple, he had no desire to mingle with those who don't count their blessings, namely those who believe they are born with a silver spoon.

He was sure from experience that these students were not even close on a personnel level, as Cheng Xuan assumed that their only connection to one another was that there were all from wealthy families and each one just wanted to gain some good point towards other families with financial backing.

Because of that Cheng Xuan could not bring himself to be friends with those who only sought out benefits, or to those who had never understood or experience hardship, much less understood the effort their families put into giving them their current lifestyle.

But then Cheng Xuan thought.

'These people will never succeed in life if they don't experience hardships. Whatever, not my problem.'

After a producing another deep sigh, Cheng Xuan went into the nearest restroom and used the sink to splash water on his face to cool off.

As the water dripped from his face, Cheng Xuan looked at his own reflection in the mirror and thought: 'When was the last time I ever had a good night sleep.'

Because of his hectic schedule Cheng Xuan had to work in the night for more than two hours to earn money to pay his rent, and only ate packs of noodles in the morning for his classes.

Because his parents passed away six years ago, Cheng Xuan had to eventually learn the value of money the hard way.

Since it wasn't easy for him to earn as a student, the money that was left by his parent were mostly used for his tuition, so he had to use it sparingly for the rent in his apartment, various utilities and food.

It goes without saying that because of school requirements and necessities, Cheng Xuan had lost the privilege to entertain himself during his free time, so moments in where he can rest was already a blessing.

After cracking his neck, Cheng Xuan gave a short sigh then pulled out a towel in his pocket and whipped his face.

"... Right. I don't think I have any night-shifts today, so I guess I should go home."

With the thought no work later on in his mind, Cheng Xuan did not feel the need to rush home and leisurely took his time to walked in the hallway.

As he was headed towards the stairs, Cheng Xuan had stopped for a moment as he came across an elevator down by a corridor.

'This is...'

From what he was told, using the elevator in the night was strictly for the use of the Janitors, so most students were forbidden from using it unless it was an emergency.

But since this was a rare opportunity for him, Cheng Xuan felt that he should take advantage of this moment as no one was present in the hallway.

After making his way to the elevator, Cheng Xuan can't help but stop to admire the old elevator as he saw multiple eye catching grafitti that were on it's doors and walls.

The graffiti was mostly chinese characters, but because it was overlapping with one another, Cheng Xuan could only read some characters that took the largest space. Eventually, Cheng Xuan wondered why the school allowed such vandalism but he soon dropped the matter as it doesn't concern him.

*Click!*

...

*Ting!*

After pressing the button heading downwards, it didn't take long for Cheng Xuan to hear a ding as the elevator doors opened.

As he was about to enter, Cheng Xuan was shocked that the inside of the elevator was clean but he soon noticed that there was a weird symbol that was by the elevator button and the buttom row.

Although he was curious enough to touch the symbol for a moment, since he was not suppose to use the elevator, Cheng Xuan payed no further heed to the strange symbol and went inside so no one would catch him.

Just as Cheng Xuan entered the elevator, he failed to notice that the symbol that was by elevator button was glowing and had shortly disappeared as if it was never there.

"…"

???

"…"

As he was about to press the button to close the doors, Cheng Xuan felt that someone was calling from behind so he turned his head to look back.

Strangely, when he turned around to face the hallway, Cheng Xuan could not help but scratch his head in confusion as he was greeted by nobody. yet felt that someone was calling out to him so he called out whoever was there.

"Is someone there?"

With no one responding to his call, Cheng Xuan felt that something was suspicious but brushed it off as mere exhaustion or believed that it was probably his 'classmates' form of messing around before entering the elevator.

After double checking to make sure that no one was in the hallway, Cheng Xuan took a quick look at the panel and pressed the button that headed to the ground floor.

*Click!* *Ting!*

After pressing the button, Cheng Xuan quietly waited for the elevator to reach the ground floor.

.....

.....

.....

As he waited for the elevator and stared into space, boredom started to hit him, Cheng Xuan then checked the time in his phone and found the time was nearing eight. Cheng Xuan felt that by the time he got home, it was plenty of time for him to do a short gaming before going to sleep.

Just as he was about to yawn, the sound the elevator reverted to his ears for about two minutes, until he heard an out of place sound.

*CRASH!!!!*

"?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!WHAT THE HELL!!!!"

After being startled from the sudden crash, Cheng Xuan fell down to the elevator floor hard and tried to pull himself back up with his hand supporting him on the rails.

From that moment, Cheng Xuan felt a horrible premonition and continued to feel the elevator shaking violently. Strangely, Cheng Xuan suddenly noticed that the air around him started turning cold.

As he saw his own cold breath, Cheng Xuan started hearing low whispers and felt his hair stood on ends as he continued to hear those voices getting louder by the second!!!

Eventually, the voices he kept on hearing started to multiply and had caused him to quickly feel emotions of dread as he kept hearing those voices coming closer and closer to him until he heard them chanting right next to his ears!

With his skin crawling from the increasing whispers, Cheng Xuan felt that he had gone crazy as the voices kept telling him to 'pay the ghost'.

Normally, Cheng Xuan would not feel so unsettled after hearing voices. But for some reason, each time a voice got closer to his ear, he felt that there were invisible hands weighing down on his body and they were slowly reaching towards his neck!!!

"This must be a joke right! This must be a joke right!! Some body tell me this is nothing but a cruel joke!!!"

Panicking from what was happening, Cheng Xuan had no idea as to what to do and headed towards the elevator panel in the heat of the moment then started to madly press the emergency button repeatedly.

Halfway through his desperate attempt, Cheng Xuan started bashing the button with his fist but nothing had changed.

After the drastic change to his surrounding, Cheng Xuan could not help but feel panicked as he leaned against the corner of the elevator and tried to look around but failed to find the invisible specters as his felt fear growing stronger.

Cheng Xuan did not know what was going on or why this was happening to him, but one things for sure, something bad was about to happen.

Soon the sensation of falling came to him, the ground felt like there was no gravity as Cheng Xuan felt the elevator fall at a very frightening pace.

As Cheng Xuan could hear metal screeching past his ears getting louder and louder, he could not help but feel his heart beating louder and louder as well.

Panicking for his life, Cheng Xuan clutched on the railing for dear life then waited for the disaster to end and prayed that this was all but a nightmare and that he would wake up.

But with the continuous vibration going through his arms only made it clear - he was in a horrible reality in where he was going to die!

Time felt slow to him as the realization of death came closer, he knew that once the elevator hit the ground floor, Cheng Xuan's life would likely come to an abrupt end.

As he felt death growing closer to him, Cheng Xuan's life flashed before his eyes and he saw his childhood.

He saw his mother sitting by his side on the porch reading him a book, and he saw his father lifting him on his shoulder while he held his hands, and then reaching teen as he saw them - lying on the ground with no movement and a white sheet covering their faces.

...

After a moment of silence, he felt nothing but regret, Cheng Xuan closed his eyes and whispered what would be his final words and made an honest prayer 'I'm sorry mother, father, I can't fulfil a wonderful life like you wanted. If I ever survive this, I promise, I will live my life to the fullest.'

It was at that moment, Cheng Xuan felt that he lost all his senses and everything in that room turned dark.

But for some reason, before Cheng Xuan 'fell' into the darkness, he saw something he would never forget - he saw the bottomless pit knows as "the abyss".

***

Still inside the auditorium, a group of students had stayed and were still chatting. Due to being in deep discussion, no one had noticed that Cheng Xuan had already left, but this group had remained as they were absorbed in their conversation.

Just as they were about to start another topic, one of them broke out from their conversation and looked at the wall clock.

"Crap, the time is already 8:00, we should leave now before they close the gates..." As the students were about to leave, a girl started a conversation as they slowly left the room.

"Hey that reminds me of something, did you guys hear about an urban myth about this school?"

"Oh, what myth, sounds interesting, tell us about it as we walk towards our dorms."

Just as the students walked out the hallway, all of them started paying attention to the girls story as it piqued their interest.

Due to multiple sources, the girl explained to them had to summarised the story like this:

"Long ago, around the time when the campus was founded, there once was a group of students who volunteered to help renovate an old building in the campus.

Before they began, there were rumours circulating around their neighbourhood that a ghost was living inside the renovating building, so they had to place offering by the entrance before they could enter.

Each person who planned to enter the building had to give up some form of offering. Be it food, money, or a type of accessory, something had to be placed in the entrance or they will never be permitted to leave.

In the end, they were told by an old guard that can retrieve their offerings at the end of the day, so there was no need to fear of them being stolen.

It was told that the previous owner had also given a warning and they must never use the elevator at night if no offerings were placed. In the end, they followed the warning without much thought.

Unknowingly, one of the student did not place any offerings by the entrance.

After seeing a pile of money being placed on a small plate, he feared that the money he would 'offer' would be stolen by somebody and told a lie that he had already left an offering beforehand.

Unfortunately, that was his greatest mistake.

By the time they all entered the building, they all felt a sudden chill brush past them, but it didn't stop them from performing their task and ignored it.

At the end of the day, everyone came out to retrieve their belongings, except for one student. Due to their collected exhaustion, they immediately assumed that one of them had gone home before them, so they deemed the issue as a minor problem and placed the items in the lost and found.

As the days go by, more and more people started disappearing and by the time the building was finished. No one knew what become of them… In the end, they were unaware that the reason why they disappeared was because they started to ignore the offerings 'to pay the ghost.'

"…"

"OK, that sounds creepy."

"Wait a minute, the story doesn't sound complete. It's almost cut off in between...." A girl cut in the conversation.

"Yeah, the thing is, I only heard about this story when a senior was researching the history of the school for her thesis. She once told me that she found the urban tale from an old diary, but all I know is that the story was based on the rough translation and the rest of the text had faded way over the years, so no one knows the whole story."

"Mind if I ask as to why did you bring this story up?"

"I thought it was interesting, we were going to watch a horror movie anyway so I thought it might fit the mood."

"By the way, didn't the professor say that there used to be an elevator around here. I don't know why, but apparently it was closed down fifty years ago. Recently, it started being used after the renovation but most professors and janitors don't use it unless they had someone with them."

"Well I've never seen the elevator from the ground floor being used anyway, and I heard it was still under maintenance. Rumour has it that no one uses it to go down and most uses it to go up, I wonder why?"

"Maybe because of maintenance cost, I mean this building doesn't cover much of the campus so their trying to cut some cost in their budget..."

"Could be, but I think that....."

As the group of teens continued to chat away, no one had even noticed that someone had just been spirited away to another world.

---

*BING!*

[System has found a new soul entering the realm of spirits…

Initiating Spirited Away Protocol…

Name: Cheng Xuan

Age: 22

Requirements: Unique rank

All systems will commence assimilation to new host body…

Rebirth Protocol...Unavailable host body…

Reincarnation Protocol...Unavailable host body …

Summoning Protocol...Unavailable Area to Summon...

Soul Transfer Protocol Available host body …

Commencing transfer from 'Material Realm' to 'Spirit Nirvana Realm' to 'Yggdrasil Realm' proper procedures will be followed…

...

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

Re-evaluating, host body is not deceased, evolution of the soul will be taken into consideration,memories of the soul will remain intact as an exception.

Searching....Searching....Searching....*Bing!*

New Host Identified! Re-evaluating! *Bing!*

New Host Available....Compatibility 100% Intializing.....

*Bing!*

New Host Found!

Name: Stigma

Age: 10

Requirements: Unique rank]

---

At the same time, just as Cheng Xuan fell towards the abyss, another event was taking place.

Great Mordan City, a developed city that has established relations with multiple merchants and had become the main destination for trading with the surrounding areas and the main territory of the Naga Clan.

In the center of the city was a residences that was housing the main family of the Naga Clan. The residence would be described as an extravagantly large villa with multiple sentries patrolling in every corner.

With its wide and complex structure along with its large courtyard being patrolled by heavily armoured guards, it would be deemed a difficult hurdle for even a normal thief to enter its premises without being discovered.

And although the villa was filled with numerous guards, only a handful are seen on top of the walls due to an ominous weather.

Outside the villa was a thunderous storm, its downpour was fierce as thunder was crashing, with winds that were howling menacingly and could make any child cry and anyone feel a sense of dread.

From within a lavish room, an elderly like man was sitting on a chair facing the window with the ominous like storm. His stature was that of a veteran warrior with green hair and a long scar going down his forehead to his lips, making his appearance that much fierce.

He was wearing a long sleeved robe made of jade-like silk with stitching of golden embroidery, and the scent of citrus incense present.

A smoking pipe was resting on the right hand with the other slouching on the armrest, as he inhaled from his pipe and exhaled the smoke, he continued to stare outside of the window with boredom as his expression.

"Disciple Harrison, greets Great Elder." When he turned his head he found someone had entered the room and payed no heed from his greeting.

Before him was Harrison, his personal disciple, a man in his late 20's with a long green hair tied like a pony tail. A talented secretary only described to be a treasure among his peers, being known for his meticulous work ethics, majority the day to day task was being handled by him.

Without even looking at him, the man in the chair replied.

"Have you disposed of that failure?"

"...Yes, he was already considered a cripple in the family without any hope so most had ignored his existence and made no attempt in recognising his existence or where he came from. In fact, I had instructed a third party to make it look like a kidnapping or an accident, making sure even if he survived. The injuries he sustained will ruin his life..."

The one who Harrison spoke to was none other than the head elder, also known as the current patriarch of the Naga Clan.

From where he sat, the patriarch looked at the man for a moment then nodded without even caring about the process then looked away. For him, he just wanted the shame that was born in his family to disappear.

The failure the elder wanted to get rid of was a 10 year old youth that had a damaged vessel, because he was born in the main family, he had to remove all sign of him ever being born in the clan to hide the shame and only felt disinterest of his future.

From the moment that they found that the child had no talent in either Cultivation or combat, he was already deemed worthless to the clan and was thrown in the bottom of the clan's hierarchy. Even lower than a slave.

If it was found out that the failure was his direct descendant or if anyone from surrounding clans found out about his existence, it would be a great insult to the Naga Clan that had a long standing of supremacy in the region and a huge slap to this elder's face.

It would have sufficed if there was any hope in him cultivating into at least a higher stage, then sparring some time and resources was not a problem.

However, even after five years there was no change in his cultivation and only his younger brother, who was a year apart and was born from another woman, had shown the most improvement.

But the issue was the younger was born from a concubine.

To avoid a scandal from breaking out, they killed the concubine in advance, including anyone who knew her, and then swapped their origins in the process.

The younger was named Veritas, and he was widely accepted as someone born from the main family. While the older was then named Stigma[1] the failure who was born from a late concubine, the plan was full proof as the wife wasn't even aware of the switch much less of the concubine's pregnancy.

And since only the mother and father including two wet nurses were present during the birth, they resolved any loose ends by killing the wet nurses to permanently silence his origins.

Added to the fact that the wife had been exhausted from the labour, she was immediately separated from her child during her recovery and was placed under the Patriarch's supervision in the name of training.

Since the mother was not aware of his actual appearance, as it appeared as though the child was going through closed door cultivation, there was no cause for alarm .

As for the reason behind the elaborate planning, that was mainly due to the mother's origin of being the daughter of an allied clan. Because it was important to solidify the alliance, the Naga clan had to shroud Stigma and Verita's existence and the truth.

Though the problem was resolved from the switch, it was only temporary because there was another problem.

Because of the younger's upbringing, living the life of luxury without being punished for a number of years, he had accumulated the worst reputation by being influenced by his uncles and cousins who wanted to curry favors.

Because of their influence, Veritas had witnessed a number of crimes that ranged from kidnapping young women to beating citizens, which made him grow to enjoy their suffering as a form of entertainment.

Since then, and as time passed, the situation related to Veritas grew worse and out of control.

Fortunately, as the issues were all from the city they ruled, the Naga Patriarch make sure no news was leaked out. But it was only a matter of time until things got out of hand, which would lead a large set back to their plans.

To avoid further humiliation and suspicion of Veritas involvement, the main family's elders came up with a solution.

They would solve all problem by using Stigma as a scapegoat and let him take all the blame of Veritas's crimes, which would also follow the Patriarch's wishes to have him completely disappear in the guise of banishment.

"Good then, just wait a few days before that brat Veritas can go out of his room. That brat is nothing but trouble...."

Once Harrison stood up, the patriarch eventually turned his head away and looked outside, smoking with the look of indifference as Harrison closed the door behind him.

He had already avoided a major problem from occurring from his failure, so he had to focus on future goal.

'Veritas was being punished for his incompetence, but will return to neglecting his training and live the life of a waste. Ha...'

[1]Veritas – was name I choose to point out the irony of his name which means truth in Latin.

[2]Stigma – had to pick a name for his origins so I choose Stigma, which meant a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person