"Make sure you wet the rag first!" A loud guard pointed at me as I knelt on the ground.
"I know!" Dipping the rag into the bucket of water, I wrung it before wiping a blade at the bottom of the mountain.
I was punished to do hard labor for three hundred years and received some sort of talking education. The Mountain of Blades was clear and the shine of the metal didn't appear to have any dust. Still! I was ordered to wipe each blade clean every day!
No matter how tired I felt, I could not rest. Even though I was bad and killed lots of people on earth, the Underworld had moved away from physical torture for the most part, so I was spared. But then I did truly repent and turned a new leaf. Many souls faced torture for sure as it wasn't completely eliminated.
Although I did consider carrying rocks up hills and then having to do so again and again as torture. I could not wait for the punishment to end!
A young woman copied my actions and dabbed a blade with a wet cloth. She was a soul that I befriended in purgatory. If you could even call it friendship. She never spoke.
"Hey, stop that. I'll do it. You'll just cut yourself," I nagged her.
She wasn't completely useless, but she couldn't do anything right.
She didn't care to listen to what I said. Not even noticing that a part on her arm had started bleeding, she continued wiping blades.
I grabbed the rag from her and yelled, "Gao Yi Fei, listen to me when I tell you something!"
Her big eyes stared at me. Her face was expressionless.
"Heavens, how can you be the Sect Leader of Invigorating Essence? You've become so dense!"
Yes, the mindless soul was Gao Yi Fei. Perhaps, the reason Sect Leader Qie and Kong Shuguang could not revive her was because a part of her soul had entered the Underworld. Not just the Underworld, but purgatory where security was largely present.
"Year two hundred and ninety-nine... I'm almost out of here Yi Fei," I told her. She tilted her head.
"Don't worry. I'll get you out of here. I'll find a way to get you back to your body."
She stared at me while I kept up with my task of wiping blades.
"You know, Kong Shuguang really loved you. He tried everything to get you back, even killing me."
She didn't understand what I was saying, only stared at me with those empty eyes.
"I wonder when you go back if you would even want to stay. Everyone you know will be gone. It's been hundreds of years. Maybe Invigorating Essence will still be there, but Kong Shuguang..."
The last time I saw him, he was Lu Kai.
"Hey, you." The guard came back.
"I'm working diligently, I'm not slacking off." I told him.
"Your times up. Follow me to the gates."
"Already?! My goodness! Okay. Okay. I'm coming." Throwing the rag back into the bucket of water, I lifted my skirt and followed the guard. Looking behind me, Gao Yi Fei still had that completely blank expression. Running to grab her arm, I pulled her as I chased after the guard.
"So what's the process? What do I prepare?" I asked the guard. He led me to the exit gate back into the Underworld. Another worker dressed in black, looked over documents. Must had been my papers.
The worker said, "You'll get a Soul Case Manager and they'll go over your case for your next life."
Excited, I clasped my hands together. Gao Yi Fei stood by me.
"Who's she?"
"Uh... she's my sister. You see she accidentally ended up in here."
"What are you talking about? We don't make mistakes in letting souls enter purgatory if they're not meant to be here."
"Look her up! Her name is Gao Yi Fei. Occupation: Sect Leader of Invigorating Essence."
Sighing, he took out a Locator gadget and quickly searched her name.
"What the--? She's not listed as deceased."
"But her soul is here, isn't she? You wouldn't want this on your head, would you?"
"Well-- No! But she's not entirely dead! It's a huge--"
"You will be in even more trouble if word gets out that a soul slipped passed all purgatory protocols. Since I'm going back to the Underworld, I'll bring her with me."
"Wait--"
Before he could stop us, I pulled Gao Yi Fei and went out the gates. Into the barren land of dark sand dunes, we were transported on a silver platform back to the land of wandering souls.