2 No rush!
The seven stairs of the underworld were similar to the seven stairs of heaven. One can visualize this as seven layers of a cake but the difference was powerful underworld beings tend to live in deeper layers of the underworld whereas powerful beings of heaven tend to live in the upper level of heaven.
So for an easy understanding, one can view two inverted triangles with the base facing each other. In the upper layer of the underworld, although it's very big, it's not organized and corrupt energy was very weak which limits the upper limit of the cultivation. Needless to say, corrupt energy was very high in deeper levels which was the main reason for the powerful beings to live there.
In between heaven and underworld, there existed countless mortal worlds supplying faith energy and corrupt energy to heaven and underworld respectively. No one knows how souls were created but the purity of one's soul determined its journey to the underworld or heaven. The purity of a soul is affected by deeper desires before its death. The deeper the desire for revenge, lust, and hatred more the chances of a soul falling into the underworld.
Connecting the mortal world, underworld, and heaven is the bridge of rebirth(BOR). BOR is like a soul river flowing around each layer of 2 'triangles' absorbing souls in different layers and generating corrupt and faith energy which in turn give rise to sin crystals and virtue crystals respectively.
There was a saying -everything has a price. This was more so in the underworld as one could buy anything they wanted if they had enough sin crystals. Sin crystals unlike paper currency in the mortal world have inherent value as it was one of the prime resources for cultivation.
No one knows who built the BOR. Even the most undying creatures in the underworld and heaven were clueless about its origin. Although no one had access to the BOR, over the years both the underworld and heaven discovered numerous features of the BOR.
One such feature was checkpoints in each layer. Each layer had 5 checkpoints in the East, West, North, South, and central areas.
Whoever had control over those checkpoints could gain access to naturally born sin crystal mines. Of course, the value of crystal mines increases as one goes deeper into the underworld because of the presence of rich corrupt energy. Using these crystals one can exchange for anything in the underworld market.
Just like the origin of the BOR, the underworld market was also shrouded in mystery. But one of the popular theories in the underworld stated that BOR and the underworld market were deeply connected. Both of them were acting like recycling mechanisms of the world which was necessary for the sustainable present and future.
Another feature of the checkpoint was - it acted as an entrance for the mortal world to the underworld and vice versa. Upon one's death depending on the number of impurities in the soul it could emerge in the first level (surface) or the seventh level( abyss). Underworld forces use this checkpoint to recruit more members into their organizations.
In the Eastern Checkpoint of the surface level,
A guard responsible for the recruitment of new members was busy aligning the new souls in order. Newly arrived souls in the underworld won't have any external body as such, they look like a bunch of fist-sized fireballs. If one looked carefully into the souls one could even notice a tinge of black shade in the red fireballs. It was because of the impurities. The same soul would appear pitch black if it appears in the abyss level.
After the general check of soul strengths, souls would be inducted into basic external bodies. These basic bodies were cheaply available in the underworld market and one could even use already available bodies in the underworld. After the induction, souls would gain consciousness and start their cultivation journey in the underworld.
On average, a recruitment guard would encounter millions of souls every day and every day appears to be the same for him because of the repetitiveness of the work. But he would not complain even if it's a thousand time more boring work because it's one of the risk-free jobs in the underworld. Any noble family in the underworld would fight tooth and nail to get a job of this nature as they were aware of the ruthlessness of the underworld.
That particular day, a guard was carefully noting down the soul strengths of each soul and passing them into a different person. He knew that his 99% of work was meaningless because the soul strength of almost all the new souls was just average with limited potential for cultivation. But one couldn't overlook that 1% chance, where there was a slight chance for high potential souls.
Once he discovered a high potential soul he would be heavily rewarded with sin crystals which would make his cultivation journey a lot easier. He was just like most of the other people who were very well aware of their mediocre soul potential and, more crappy one's soul potential, higher the requirement for cultivation resources. So from a certain perspective, he was desperately hoping for a miracle every day with a lot of patience and persistence.
Suddenly some strange phenomenon happened in the checkpoint which distracted the guard. As he looked at the phenomenon his pupils dilated to an abnormal degree. He quickly stood up and rushed to inform his superiors.
In the headquarters of the Eastern underworld (Surface),
A snow-white beautiful girl with black hair, wearing military general attire, sat on a chair doing all sorts of hand gestures in front of a virtual screen on the table. Her every gesture could induce all sorts of desires for an observer. But unfortunately, no one was able to appreciate her beauty in that isolated room.
FYI technology was not limited to the mortal world anymore because of its convenience. Even the underworld market had become a sort of e-commerce market, hence everyone in the underworld was adept at using technology. But in the underworld, there was no such thing as the internet. All devices had inbuilt access to the virtual world with the help of space laws.
Suddenly that girl gets a call on her virtual screen. She frowned in annoyance. Nevertheless, she picks up the call.
"What is it?" her voice was a bit irritated.
But all of a sudden,
BOOM!
The table in front of that girl crumbles because of the erratic energy flow from her hands. She was in no state of control as happiness and excitement overwhelmed her mind completely.
She immediately rushes out of her room mumbling incoherently with tears overflowing her beautiful cheeks.
'Finally …..finally …a miracle.'
.
.
.
Leo opens his eyes slowly without knowing where he was. The first thing he notices is a middle-aged man with a dark crown on his head and a beautiful girl that can't be described in mere words looking at him like he was some sort of a zoo animal. Both of their eyes were misty and their hands were tightly clenched into a fist as if they were excited beyond words.
Leo didn't know what was happening. The last thing he remembered was him witnessing Greg's ruthless massacre. The first thing that came to his mind was whether he was saved from that disaster. But he quickly rejected that idea as he was very well aware of his conditions back then. Even an almighty doctor could not be able to save him at that state. The next thing he thought was whether he was reincarnated.
'Looking at their expression and the setting of this luxurious room ….. it's just like those novels I read back then. They are looking at somebody who is not me. Hehe …it looks like I got the second chance. Lucky me!'
'But wait ….why am I not receiving the memories? Am I missing something?'
'I don't want to act out of normal in the initial phase. As it would alarm the relatives of this new body and it can potentially threaten my life. Before I get a clear understanding of this world I need to mind my every action. Yes …that's the general trend of those novels.'
'So let's wait for the memories …no rush!'
.
.
.
.
After half an hour nothing happened. Leo started to panic. Suddenly a soothing voice calmed his nerves like a gentle breeze.
"Hello, are you alright?"
Leo looked at the source of the voice and carefully sized the girl.
'Man she is too beautiful. Hopefully, I am not her brother or something.' Leo prayed silently in his heart.
"Yes, Where am I ?" asked Leo tentatively. Leo was damn sure that it was some sort of cultivation world as it was humanly impossible to have that kind of beauty and charm. Even the middle-aged guy standing beside her emanated powerful pressure that was not normal in any way.
" You are in the eastern region of level 1 underworld ." The girl said without blinking as if she had memorized the entire phrase countless times.
