Prologue: An interesting soul

Inside the realm of the underworld, numerous souls could be seen existing. It was in this world that a soul would end up when someone died. These souls would be primitives at first and have no memory of themselves before they died but after some time they would develop their own personality based on who they were before their death.

From there on they had 4 paths they could choose. The first path was the choice to reincarnate and live another life without their previous memory. The second was to serve a Death God as one of his soldiers and have a chance to cultivate to become a Death soldier. The 3rd option was to go on with the afterlife and accept death. Finally, the final option was to wait and explore the underworld before choosing one of the paths.

The underworld was extremely vast, so vast that it could be considered limitless. It occupied a mass of dark-green fog than experts liked to call death qi. Normally qi should not be seen but felt. However, in this world, the quantity of qi was so huge and it was so compressed than it formed a fog. Strangely though all those souls could still see each other.

There was no matter in this realm and nothing that could be considered as alive. Only mass of dark-greenish fog and souls. In the distance, 3 mass of lights could be seen in 3 different directions. The Azure light represented reincarnation and life.

The white light represented the afterlife and the other light was a mix of dark red and dark violet and it symbolized the Death God army. The souls couldn't contact each other. They didn't even have access to their memory before their death. They could only instinctively follow their own path based on their personalities.

A death soldier appeared among them. He belonged to the army of the Fallen Death God from the Fallen realm. The Fallen realm was one of the 13 Death God realm. He was amongst the highest of the ranks in the military, a lieutenant. Unfortunately for him, he had committed a large mistake which caused him to be assigned this mission. To find a particular soul amongst this mass.

Tempering with these souls was forbidden as they had to choose their own path. As such his mission had to be extremely discreet. He had no choice in such matters. His error in judgment caused his formation to be destroyed and all his soldiers under him to die. He had only survived because of his higher cultivation but still, his Warlord wanted his soul to be destroyed for his incompetence. Only the general directly over him succeeded in pleading for him so he could survive.

Now he had to do this mission well because it was his last chance.

Since his cultivation was high he already had part of his memory back and he remembered his name. He remembered having the name Ivan. Ivan began his search out of the central region where he was teleported. He was given a Legendary ranked item for his search. One was a cloak which allowed him to disguise his aura. Unless a warlord personally inspected him while focusing entirely on him, he would not be discovered.

The second item was a magic compass allowing him to search for the soul he was looking for. He didn't understand how his general had done it but he succeeded in marking the soul he was interested in and the compass was pointing in its direction. Ivan took 50 years to finally find this particular soul.

The underworld was too vast after all. Even though there were not a lot of souls which had chosen the 4th path to stay in the underworld there was still a lot of souls after all. Men were dying every minute and the realm was still in expansion because of that. It was an ordinary blue soul like any other. The only thing particular about this soul was the blue shield around it. He hadn't ever seen that kind of shield before. He couldn't understand the purpose of this shield but it was clear that a high cultivator had placed it on this soul.

'As expected. How could this mission be so simple? It is impossible that they would take so much risk just for a simple soul. *sigh*. At least I didn't waste 50 years of cultivation for anything.'. Ivan was truly regretting committing this mistake. If he hadn't been fooled by the enemy he wouldn't have had to waste 50 years of cultivation.

Not only that but for 50 years he could only see that mass of dark-green fog and those souls making it the dullest journey he had ever taken. He wouldn't dare to cultivate here even though there was a huge mass of death qi. Those warlords were no fools, the moment he started absorbing this qi he would be discovered.

*clench teeth*. 'If I ever see those disciples from the Holy Flame Sect again, I will make them understand what pain is'. For now, he could only fantasize. He shook his head. Ivan placed his palm in front of him and suddenly a huge suction force appeared. The soul he was looking for was immediately attracted to his palm. He placed the soul inside his storage equipment.

Once this was done he crushed his teleportation talisman to get away from this godforsaken place.

Teleportation talismans were extremely expensive and rare. In general, once someone had it he would not sell it and only people at the warlord level could have it. His general shouldn't have even gotten into contact with it and was very lucky to get one.

It allowed one to immediately escape the realm and go into the fallen realm. This was a high-risk operation, and so the shorter he stayed here the better it would be. Immediately after that, the energy in the talisman was freed. It tore the space apart allowing a crack in space to appear. He didn't hesitate and ran inside the passage.

The tunnel then disappeared and everything was back to normal as if nothing had appeared here. Suddenly many divine senses began to scan the area. It was evident that they had sensed the crack in space. But those divine senses disappeared seconds after.

The Warlord whose divine sense appeared here knew that it was futile to continue to scan here so they left. They already understood that someone had used a Teleportation Talisman, and even though they were suspicious they could do nothing about it.

If someone could so easily know the coordinate where those talismans led to they wouldn't be so expensive. If a Death God had used his divine sense in all those 50 years Ivan would have been discovered immediately but a Death God wouldn't be so bored as to scan the underworld with his divine sense. There was nothing which could interest them after all.

...….

Fallen Realm, Red Star city

Ivan reappeared in a remote corner of the city his general Red Star was governing. He was satisfied to see his city once again. His journey had been incredibly boring and now he could finally relax. His punishment was over. He removed his legendary cloak which was preventing anyone from seeing his appearance and was masking his aura. At the level of an Undead Lieutenant, he could already grow flesh. He looked like a 30-year-old male with grey hair.

If he appeared in the mortal realm he would have looked handsome. He wore a mix of dark and grey armor with a sinister appearance. He flew in the direction of General to deliver the soul. With his rank, he had the right to fly inside the city. Unfortunately, he couldn't just barge in inside the compound so he had to announce his presence to the servants and the guards.

Fortunately, the Red Star General wasn't cultivating so he could meet him directly.

'I have made a pretty sh*itty blunder' but at least I am glad I was under a general who treated me well'.

Immediately after he entering his general's chamber and closed the door to face him alone he felt an extreme sense of danger. But before he could even make a move he was blasted in the head by a mass of pure red fireball. He couldn't even scream as his head was engulfed in a focused blast of Hellfire.

While he was consumed he couldn't understand how he didn't even sense the elements gathering around him and how the spell arrived so fast that he couldn't even react. It was the spell of his general, he recognized it. But he shouldn't have been this strong and proficient.

'Was he hiding his strength? And why did he attacked me?'. But he couldn't continue this line of questioning. He died full of grievance, confusion, and hatred. He only left a pile of ash and a storage ring. Even his armor was consumed to cinder.

A man appeared before the ash and the ring. His head was full of slick blood red hair that reached his neck. A white robe was draped over him. He was tall and appeared vicious and violent. His eyes remained cold and calm. His aura was so powerful he would make any mortal die just from him releasing it if they were 1 km away from him. It was a wonder how Ivan thought this person was nice.

He waved his hand and the ash disappeared. There was no trace of a fight, no trace that someone had been here other than him. If someone was told that there had been a fight here no one would believe it. Even a warlord wasn't as proficient at killing and erasing his traces as that. The man bent over to pick up the ring.

From the moment he appeared to this moment, his movements remained ordinary. It was as if for him he didn't take a human life but the life of a single insect. An insignificant being which had no effect on him. He slowly and calmly got back to his seat at the end of his chamber and sat down. He looked inside the ring. He knew there probably wasn't anything useful for him since a mere lieutenant couldn't have anything that could catch his eye.

But he was always meticulous, always proficient. It was his habit written in his bones. He didn't find anything useful except for the soul. So he removed the soul from the ring and kept the ring for himself. He took a moment to organize his thought and then he opened his mouth:

"Hello, child. You must be confused by what is happening here. How do you feel? Tell me"

"... Where am I? And who are you? Why am I here?"

"You are curious. That's good. It means that your mind is still functioning even though your memory is not there. I already knew that your soul was not in its primitive state any longer but it seems like you are already reasoning properly. Very good."

"..."

"First of all let me present myself. My name is Horus Orion. I came from the Profound Heaven Sect from the Profound Realm. But here they call me general Red Star. It is very nice to meet you, young man."

"...Why did you kill that man?" He could see everything that was happening outside of the ring thanks to the seal outside his soul. Unfortunately, he didn't know how he could see everything but that wasn't important to him right now.

"Who? Oh him? Ilan? This man was dead anyway. Do not feel anything for someone you barely know. It will not do you any good if you continue to think like that in this world. You will have to change if you do not want others to step over you. Anyway, As for Ilan, we entrusted him in a war against a sect called the Holy Fire Sect.

Unfortunately, he lost miserably. He fell in a trap, lost all his soldiers, ran away with his tail between his legs and barely killed any of his opponents. It was pathetic. Anyway if it was only that we wouldn't have killed him.

After all, he is a lieutenant with pretty high cultivation and not some basic soldier. But we found out that he gave some pieces of information to another Warlord under the Fallen Deathgod probably to obtain more resources. Warlords are in competition with one another so that was high treason.

Our warlord was furious and wanted me to kill him. So since he was going to die I used him so that he could go pick up your soul. Picking up soul is highly forbidden and frown upon so I just had to kill him to not leave any witness.

And since he had a high cultivation base he could do things more easily and had less chance of getting caught. Plus he was desperate. I told him he was going to die if he didn't do it and I tried to defy that order but it was an order from the Warlord. And so he was perfect for the job."

The soul listened. It tried to organize the information in his head. But it felt that something was wrong. After 15 seconds it talked"...Something sounds wrong. It sounds pretty convenient that you needed someone to pick up my soul and you just so happen to have a lieutenant on death row"

"...? Your point?"

"My point is every information that this Ivan guy had you had it too. Everything he knew you knew better because you are of a higher rank than him. It sounds to me like you were the one giving the information. In my eyes, I believe that you are the traitor.

But it is just a hypothesis. The fact that you kept his ring is also probably to plant pieces of evidence and since they trust you they wouldn't believe that you did it. They would believe Ivan dit it because it is more convenient to think that this idiot must be losing his war on purpose. Is that right?"

"..."

"..."

*sneer* "You could understand this so quickly. Very good. You understand even more why I couldn't let him go. If you could figure this out, others too. And then they would understand that I am not only the traitor but also someone who steals souls.

But tell me. If you understand all this why would you want to antagonize me by saying this? I could simply destroy your soul right here right now. After all, you know what I did."

"...I have nothing to lose anyway"

"What do you mean?"

"I tried to reincarnate. It took me hundreds of years to reach the azure light and it didn't work. Then I tried to go to the afterlife and it took me thousands of years to reach the white light. But it didn't work either. I don't want to go to serve a Deathgod.

I would rather kill myself that serving as a cannon fodder for someone else, let alone someone I do not know. So I did not try to reach the third light. So you cannot do anything worse to me. Besides we have been talking for so long. You are more powerful than me and yet you talk so politely to me. So you probably want something from me"

"... Alright. You are perfect as expected. Looks like I didn't make all these efforts for nothing. You nailed it again. If you hadn't impressed me I would have killed you anyway whether you had offended me or not. Because you would not have been of any use"

"..."

"Now I will tell you why I brought you here. I am not from the underworld you see? I am from a realm that is in a war against the underworld. The man you see in front of you is just a clone. As I told you earlier I am from the Profound Heaven sect and my real name is Horus. In clear we can say that I am a spy.

Normally it should have been as simple as that. But there has been a problem. My main body died. Someone probably killed me for my researches. I do not know who did it but I need you to investigate it, find out who did this, who betrayed me and kill them all."

"... If I do this I would need to be a lot stronger from what I have seen so far. I have not been here for long but it looks like people in this world are a lot stronger than me. Possibly a lot stronger than people in my previous world but I do not remember anything. Only bits and pieces. What's more, what would I get in return?"

"I will give you talents to go against all the genius of this world and reach the peak in strength. Potential to surpass even me. Plus I will also give you all my researches on bloodline.

Even if I didn't reach the peak in these researches I was still pretty close. Unfortunately for you If you want to reach the peak in that field you will have to work on it on your own but I believe you can do it. As for what is bloodline you will have to learn what it is on your own?" *sneers*.

"..."

It is not that Horrus didn't want to make him understand. It's just that he disdained giving such basic knowledge. He would feel that his intellect was insulted if he had to explain such basic things.

"Sounds good. But I've already told you that I can't be reincarnated"

"Since I told you all of that I obviously have a way to make you reincarnate. Moreover, It will not just be a simple reincarnation. I have a way to make you keep all your memory. What do you think? "

"...Alright. I see no reason to refuse as I have nothing to lose. I accept".