Soul Lock

The House of Reincarnation III

Ox-Head and Horse-Face brought Wen Lan into the House of Reincarnation for the third time. Although in appearance, Wen Lan was only in his twenties, his soul was three-life old. Therefore, he felt extremely tired and slumped to the hard ground, pretending not to hear the objections of Ox-Head and Horse-Face.

Before long, a silver light appeared above the red throne and transformed into a ghastly female figure.

"You sure love to die young, ha?" she said blithely as if it was a merry occasion or it was Wen Lan's own decision to die young and in misery.

As there wasn't an appropriate answer, Wen Lan just shrugged. It was obvious she knew him from before, but he couldn't care less about it.

The Master of Life-and-death rubbed the corner of her black hole, feeling slightly embarrassed as he didn't share her humour. She faked a cough before saying "you want to keep it short this time?"

"I just want to disappear," Wen Lan said matter of factly.

She widened her black holes of eyes, "someone else also said the same once." Maybe this Soul Lock thing was affecting both sides, making them resemble each other. She took a mental note to investigate it further.

"So can you make me disappear?" Wen Lan asked with hope.

She shrugged, "well, I can't give you that just because you want it. You have to reincarnate."

"Oh."

"But you can remove Soul Lock and I can help you forget your previous lives!" She declared proudly, pointing her weirdly long index fingers to herself.

Wen Lan looked at the transparent knot with melancholy. He had three really tough lives without achieving anything, so maybe forgetting could be nice. But...

"Well?"

"No," his heart did the talking. If he had to summarise his previous three lives, he would say; betrayal, disappointment and anger respectively. As he already saw the bottom, he could give it another chance. He wasn't ready to let Ju Xin go.

"Then I won't call the Tea of Oblivion," she made a hand gesture and something red disappeared even before appearing.

Wen Lan stood up, feeling it was his time to go.

"Now, let's see your door," she ran her hand through her hair and five red cards appeared on her grip. She threw them into the air and the cards disappeared. A second later, the door whose plate was HUMAN illuminated with a red light.

"Congrats Lan Lan, your accumulated good deeds enabled you to be reincarnated as Human again. Work hard and become a Deity next time," she gestured to him to go to the Human Door.

Wen Lan bowed his head respectfully and opened the Human Door ajar, but before entering through the door, he noticed the transparent knot around his finger was gone!

He slammed the door, making all three freeze.

"What happened?" he yelled, showing his empty finger.

"Well," she started, but Ox-Head interrupted her.

"He needs to go now! There is a newcomer!"

"You heard the man, Lan Lan, please go," she almost begged him, but he shook his head.

"He is about to enter!" Horse-Face cried out and as it was impossible to push Wen Lan through the door without his will, she snapped her fingers and Wen Lan's figure transformed into a bolang gu and flew to her hand.

After a second later, Ju Xin entered alone with a golden glimmer emitting from him.

"Don't tell me..." the Master of Life-and-death started, but a flying red card from her hair stopped her. The card flew around Ju Xin who didn't look like he was impressed and landed on Her Majesty's hand.

She declared "DEITY!" as the Deity Door opened and an invisible force hauled Ju Xin through the door and slammed itself back.

While the remainder of golden glimmer was floating in the air after Ju Xin, Wen Lan jumped up and down on his wooden stick, the beaded threads hitting the drum and making dum dum voices.

Finally the goddess remembered Wen Lan and snapped her fingers, breaking the spell. With a loud thud he fell to the ground in his own form only to jump back on them.

"What does it mean?!" he yelled with a shaky voice, "how come he can be selected as Deity?! After all those bad things he had done?!"

"It is Heaven's choice, who are you to judge?" she threw Deity card back in her hair, "no more Soul Lock, he is impossible for you from now on, so you should go now."

"Well," Wen Lan chuckled bitter-sweetly in his madness, "I will go then," he said and with a sudden move, he opened the Ghost Door and jumped through it. He heard the goddess yell loudly behind him, but it was too late.

One deity and one ghost...

With that, there was no more reincarnation for them.