Heavenly Beings and the Spirit Realm

"To think there was someone here."

A woman was standing on the center of the cliff, without even showing any signs of fear she stood there with no form of fear, as if she never noticed the cliff was falling apart, the woman who suddenly showed up had put Stigma on guard.

She showed up out of nowhere, and even if she had no evil intentions she wouldn't have spoken first.

Looking at her Stigma noticed her clothes, it was consist of a white gown with multiple layers which had some embroideries, and a white veil which was covering her face so only her mouth, and her hands were only seen, her body was completely covered, her hair was very long as it reached all the way to the ground facing the valley.

On her hand was a flute that was as long as her arm, and she had no form of jewelry or accessory what so ever, she reminded him of how women should wear when they are from a humble background.

While her face showed only melancholy, he was able to tell that it was for another reason than being in danger.

Adding her weight and all that she wore, it was strange as to why the cliff wasn't even cracking from the additional weight even after she landed, from who knows where, would have made it fall by now.

No one spoke for a moment, Stigma was observing her if she was hostile, while she observed him as if he was a child caught in a prank.

It looks as though both were sizing each other up, but it was more like she was waiting for his response.

He started weighing in his options, things would go badly if the conversation went south, and things would develop into being a pawn in a plan.

After thinking for a moment he had to respond, so he couldn't just sit there like an idiot, but he was nervous over another matter so he had to speak up.

"Excuse me, can you not stand on the ledge, your making me nervous just by looking at you, the ground isn't stable and I don't like it if you're going to fall,"

Stigma in his previous life, had almost fallen off the rails of a building, so he had acrophobia when he was a child.

But after a few years, he was able at least able to stand on high grounds to some extent, but if the ground showed that it was weaker than usual then he will be nervous even for other people.

Unfortunately silence was the response given to him, but the woman moved her hand to cover her mouth and giggled changing her poker face of pessimism to that of an innocent smile underneath.

She then walked towards him, showing no signs of fear as she did such actions, she then sat beside him with no signs of anxiety when she was walking on unstable ground, looking intently at Stigma.

"You show concern to someone you don't even know, I can tell you really are concern for my well fare, so be at ease and thank you."

The woman spoke with a mature voice that sounded that she was in her twenties, with obvious signs that she is grateful for concern for her.

Out of curiosity he tried to take a closer look at her face.

She would be considered an Asian beauty, with a smile she looked at him which made him feel nervous as he never spoken to a pretty girl before.

Her eyes shined golden jewels made from precious metals, her skin was pure white like snow and had no signs that any form of injuries or age, there weren't even traces of cosmetics on her cheeks, or on her lips, she would be a perfect example of a natural beauty of women, when they are raised in a healthy environment.

If she were to enter a party, many would turn heads as she walked away and try to look at her again.

"Now then, what are you doing here?" The woman still had an expression of gratitude, but her face showed concern to the youth before her.

"There was a ritual here not long ago, and its effects would still be in effect so I suggest you eat somewhere else as it will affect your health." She said it as a matter of fact, feeling the youth was unaware.

He started looking at her reaction, normally when people are asking question, their tone is what always give them away, she was obviously trying to figure out what he was doing with all the food, which may look to outsiders as a strange ritual.

"I was giving offerings to the deceased bellow, and I have to wait until this stick is burned out by tradition."

No matter the cost he had to do this, he was not only giving offerings to the ones below but to also his parents.

He had done so every day since their passing and he would never miss it, but two day have passed, so he had to give more offerings for his parents to make up for it, so he was against in stopping even if other are concern for him.

The woman looked at him intently, only this time he felt a wave of energy that was pricking his skin as she observed him.

"Do you know, what a 'Soul Burial' is?"

The question was out of nowhere, but he had heard about that term before, it was when he was using 'Soul Eater' on the deceased, and each time he used that skill, a notification keeps appearing with the phrase 'skill Soul Burial was linking with Soul Eater'.

"No, I only know the word, but not the meaning."

Stigma was being honest, he had seen the skill only worked a few times, on humans like in the cave they transformed into butterflies and flew up, when he tried it on the wolves they formed into smaller versions of themselves and ran in the sky.

"A 'Soul Burial', is a ritual or more accurately a phenomenon, when soul of the deceased are passed on to the spirit realm, it takes almost a 100 years for mortals with no Zen energy or more if the soul has Zen energy. The souls here have already passed on, but their time was not even within the minimum 50 years, it was less, also there appears to be two more that had passed on not long after in the same area, and you are here giving offerings to them as an act of kindness."

Her look was full of curiosity, waiting for his answer.

"Would it be weird, if I told you it was me who did it?"

He had to be honest, if he spoke and something was off, then he will be in some form of trouble.

Looking at him from up and down, a face of curiosity became the face of bafflement, she was either surprise to hear an out of the blue comment or she would never had expected him to be honest.

She then giggled again and said.

"Would you lie to save yourself, and gain something?" She was looking forward for his response with a trace of joy.

"I don't see a reason why I have to, but I will sometimes, after all I'm giving offerings because they helped me in some way."

Shrugging as he answered, if she knows about the 'Soul Burial' then she must one of those 'experts' that Gus had told him about those who have lived through a long time with abundant knowledge or someone who has used the skill.

"Interesting, you have different forms of energy after you were reborn, and you choose to be honest to one who was suspicious, and the first to have found out about it, yet you choose to believe I have no ill will."

She continued giggling, like she had heard a good joke for the first time.

After giving her response she looked at the youth with kind eyes like a mother who found out her child had returned home.

"Very well, I see you are not an ominous soul like the others. As a reward I will answer any question you have."

She smiled as looked forward to what his questions are and was excited to answer all of them.

"Who are you? Why you here? And by others do you mean there is more like me?" Stigma had many questions but the obvious ones had to said, since anyone would ask them.

Like she was expecting the question, she came prepared with her answers consecutively.

"I am a Heavenly Being or accurately a human turned into a goddess, Heavenly Beings are originally mortals that had reached the apex of their abilities and gained immortal life after death, we are similar to overseers who make sure other worlds do not collide with one another."

"I am known by many titles, the judge of the innocent, performer to the deceased, the disciple of life, and the goddess of death, but never had I heard my name ever spoken for no one knew my name not even myself. It was like that since I can remember."

She had a tone that was similar to remembering a bad memory.

When he heard here tone, he was stunned, it sounded like she was beyond the lifespan of a normal person, when she appeared to be in her late twenties.

"As for why I am here, it is as I had said, the Soul Burial is considered a natural event when people die, it is also dangerous if any living being were to be around a still active formation, the being would slowly lose energy and pass on early. After a hundred years their souls will go through a purification phase, but even when they die they will produce different types of energy that could be harmful to normal people, some will have forms of grief, anger, madness, despair, greed, rage and all other forms that make up a human driven by madness. That is why they take a hundred years to be purified until they can pass on."

She then summoned fire out of nowhere and continued, ignoring Stigma's bewildered gaze.

"If they still have regrets, then they will be called 'earth-bound spirits', spirits bound to the earth that refuse to let go if their regrets. Which will have the area they are bound to gain some form of energy, however it is considered dangerous that it even drive any being mad or insane, so no man, beast or Heavenly Being would be near one."

The flame on her finger started to turn from bright red, to orange, to green and finally black.

"However on this area, they had passed on before the minimum time which was still 70 years at least, you were here before but you were dead, which is unique on its own." She stared at him like some endangered animal that she wanted to keep.

"Which leaves me to your final question, you are not the only one to have the same circumstances of having your old memories or have memories of someone else's, but very few meet requirements that allows them to meet their full potential."

"It appears as though your soul is the only one to have been sent here when you were in your body in the spirit realm correct, that is a rare event that happens only a millennia would appear. I will give you a visual example on that issue, so listen well."

The beauty then explained to him the situation he was in.

Imagine this, there are three realms, one is a realm where you are from, the second is another realm with life, and the third is in between those realms that leads you to the realm of the spirits or the dead.

Normally, when one perishes, they go to the spirit realm and go through the cycle of rebirth, same goes for the other world.

However as you can guess, the worlds have more lifeforms than the spirit realm can handle.

As such, dilemmas such as Stigma's case are few in numbers.

The spirit realm is like a large ocean that has all the deceased swimming through them, the realm itself is mysterious that even being of other worlds would get lost if they venture through it without a lifeline, along with other realms each of them have a special net, making sure that only those form their world will be reborn back to their realm.

Now if someone was summoned to another world, then the world where the summoning took place will bear the price of bearing another world's life.

People who transferred to another are those who entered a rift in space in time, when worlds collide in a form of an earthquake so they would appear to arrive at another world, but they just got their accidentally since the rift will close afterwards.

Those who are reborn in another world will have their memories intact as their souls enter an unborn child.

All of these events have one thing in common, they were like tunnels with a predetermined exit.

In the case of Stigma, who are spirited away, it is when the boundaries of his realm has a permanent small entrance that was formed from their worlds spirits life force, but it is only a one way trip since it opened his world, to the spirit realm.

In his case, it's was similar to entering into a cave with multiple entrances like a maze, and getting lost endlessly walking around aimlessly, until he can find a way out from guessing.

Stigma was lucky, since another life force was losing his life and was in the border of life and death that match his requirements so they overlapped, Cheng Xuan had his memories but lost his body, while Stigma kept his life and body but lost his original soul and merged with Cheng Xuan.

Hence, he is considered a unique individual not just by the standards of this world but from the Heavenly Beings point of view as well, as such he will be blessed or plagued.

With all the information he was getting, the questions were being raised instead.

But he wanted to learn as much as he can so had to make full use of it.

"Also, I can answer a few more questions, but please keep in mind, Heavenly Beings are not to get involved with mortal live, since you are mortal with the afterlife's mysterious powers so some will try to speak to you."

After she said those words, Stigma started thinking rapidly, but some questions will be answered by himself eventually.

After a flurry of questions, she answered them all but she never said anything about the other Heavenly Beings as it was not his place.

So, he had asked the final questions that will change everything.

"How do I cultivate?"