"Look, it's old man Yao... you geezer finally decided to reincarnate?"

King Yama patted his belly while grinning at the soul standing in front of his throne.

"Yah. I got tired with same old same old. I think why not restart anew?"

The soul belonged to Yao Huang, a deity-level cultivator famed to have reached the pinnacle of Dao. Usually, a deity-level cultivator like him was practically immortal, able to stay in the living world indefinitely as long as their energy remained stable. However, this particular person had decided to end his long, long life and grace the wheel of life with his presence once again.

It wasn't the first time, so King Yama understood. Immortality, after all, could be lonely.

"Alright, alright, let's see... your karma isn't too bad. You just want to sightsee the world, right? I'll just give you an average life. Do you want to reincarnate as your descendants or your enemy's descendants?"

"Just give me drama-free life please..."

He didn't want to be bothered with those high-octane actions in the martial world again. Too tiring. He just want to see how the new world would be now that blissful peace had finally been settled with the ascension of the new wise emperor.

"I've finished the procedure. Go to the pool of reincarnation."

"Ay. When I come here again, let's have a drink."

Yao Huang made a gesture of holding a cup with his fingers.

"Haha! Sure, sure! Next!"

Leaving King Yama's court, Yao Huang was escorted to the queue at the side of a fenced cliff. If he looked down, he could see uncountable amount of jugs stretching as far as eyes could see. Each of the jugs lead to a new life. As for the destination and the form that someone would take after diving in... only King Yama could tell.

"Here you go, drink it all. Next, please."

A gentle voice called out at the end of the line. When Yao Huang reached it, he saw a middle-aged lady pouring fragrant tea into cups with her jade ladle.

Lady Meng Po, Old Lady Meng, the Lady of Forgetfulness. She brewed the infamous Five-Fragrance Tea and then offered them to the reincarnating souls. Those who had these tea would be washed off of their memories, allowing them a fresh start in their new life.

"My fair Lady Meng, you're as beautiful as always. Why don't you reincarnate together with me? I'll be sure to bring you happiness."

Yao Huang gently took her hand, and then planted a soft kiss on its back.

"Glib-tongue!"

Old Lady Meng pushed his hand away with a slight smile. She then laid out three cups on the table.

"Old man Yao, your soul was burdened with too much karma, so you have to drink three. The first will let you forget your techniques, the second will let you forget your cultivation, and the last will let your soul began anew."

Yao Huang took the first cup, sniffing it with great delight, and then slowly savoring its taste.

"Is it really good?" The soul behind him gulped.

"Well... you won't be able to remember, but its taste is out of this world," Yao Huang replied.

He was about to drink the second cup when suddenly, a ray of light went past his side, landing right on the first cup that he had set on the table. The cup was blasted away into dust.

"..."

Everyone in the vicinity saw what had happened. They had a huge question mark on top of their head.

Another ray of light shot out, this time piercing through the cup on Yao Huang's hand!

"Everyone duck!"

Ray of lights blasted off in all direction, creating explosions everywhere they'd landed. The tranquil atmosphere soon turned into chaos.

"What the heck is going on?!"

"Look! Look up there!" Someone yelled, pointing at the dark sky of the underworld.

Yao Huang squinted. A huge, slithering shadow had filled the entire sky. At the end of that shadow was a beast's head shaped like a horse, yet with rows of teeth as sharp as blades and a pair of gigantic deer horns.

"A Dragon?!"

Everyone was shocked. What's a dragon doing in the underworld? This isn't the southern sea, alright?

Rays of light once again rained down. This time, they could tell that the rays came from the dragon. No, more precisely, they came from something, or someone, on top of the dragon!

"Where is she?!"

A thundering voice shook the entire world, causing the souls to tremble in fear. To have such an arrogant tone in the ruling of King Yama, whether it was an idiot or not, the souls could tell that it must be at least a deity-level cultivator!

At the same time, thunders and fire filled the sky. From the sound of it, it seemed that the guardians of the underworld, Ox-Head and Horse-Face, had entered the fray to subdue the cultivator.

The souls watched with bated breath until someone yelled,

"Hey, get back! Something's falling!"

Everyone jumped back from the edge of the cliff. From above, a huge rotating wheel fell down from the sky with a deafening rumble.

When it fell, the wheels crushed the numerous jugs beneath the cliff, causing the water inside to mix with one another, creating one giant pool of black water. The wheel slowly sunk into the water until only a small part of it stayed floating.

"Nooo! The pool of reincarnation!"

"W-what should we do now?"

"Everyone! Stay away from the pool! We can't tell where you'll end up if you fall in there!"

The underworld staffs had rushed over, pulling the souls away from the cliff.

In the middle of this mess, the fight in the sky had grown even fiercer. The cultivator was truly strong, even able to overpower the two guardians. King Yama's troops had arrived to assist them, but that just made the cultivator pour out more deadly techniques, seemingly ignorant of the innocent souls below.

Thunders blazed and steel needles rained down, turning the underworld into a scene of carnage.

Yao Huang and several other cultivators helped the staffs to carry over weaker souls to the side, where a protection array had been erected to protect them for the time being. They couldn't join the fight now, since it could mess up the underworld's karma even further. The best that they could do was to wait until the guardians could take the rogue down.

It was at this moment that a ray of light flit past the array toward Lady Meng's pavilion. The Lady and her servants were still moving the jugs containing the Five-Fragrance Tea, and thus couldn't get away on time.

"Lady Meng!"

Yao Huang jumped with all his might, tackling Lady Meng away from the trajectory of the ray. It exploded, sending two several meters away, rolling toward the edge of the cliff.

'Damnit!'

Without thinking, Yao Huang kicked Lady Meng's body away from the cliff. In return, he alone crashed onto the cliff's fence... which easily buckled up under his weight and broke into pieces.

"..."

'Ah... King Yama... you should've used metal fences instead...'

As he was thinking about that stuff, he fell into the black pool with a loud splash.

"Old man Yao!"

"Quick, someone help him!"

"Lady Meng, you can't! If you fall in there, you'll be shredded to pieces! Don't go!"

"Venerable Yao! Hold my fork! Oh shit, I can't see him anymore..."

"Venerable Yao-!"

"..."

As he sunk deeper and deeper, the voices quickly faded away.

Within the swirling darkness, Yao Huang's soul felt pressure coming from every direction. In the first blink, he was squeezed into a small dot. In the next blink, every fiber of his soul was pulled in all direction, threatening to break him apart. The pain was incomparable to his past tribulations. Compared to this, they were mere walk in the park.

If he stayed here any longer, his soul would be ripped apart, and he would no longer 'exist'. It was the feeling of 'true death'. Forget about unable to reincarnate, his everything would be removed from the world's memory, as if he had never been there in the first place.

"...No!"

Fear crept into his heart for the very first time in thousands of years. He had to get out of there! Now!

Waving his arms in the dark, murky water, he noticed a faint light in the distance. Usually, this kind of light would stay in the bottom of the jugs, signifying the entrance to the path of reincarnation. However, the pool was unstable at the moment. He couldn't tell what kind of thing he'd end up as.

Who knows, he might end up as cockroach!

"...Ah, damnit! Cockroach is fine!"

Anything was better than disappearing for all eternity!

Finally making his mind, he willed his torn soul toward that light...

---

"..."

"..."

"...Pain-!"

A gasp escaped the small child's mouth, causing the adults to turn their head to look.

"Still alive. It seems that the child's compatibility isn't too bad."

"Does it matter? It's just a temporary vessel anyway. We've finally found satisfactory candidates. In a few days, we'll transfer the beast again."

"What about the child?"

"What about it? Don't tell me that you've grown sentimental?"

"Heh. You wish. Anyway, I don't think it'll hold for long. Let's go."

The two men walked out toward the door. One of them gave out an order to the guards outside.

"Keep this room sealed. If the beast managed to break out of the kid's seal, subdue it immediately."

"Understood!"

"So, about that candidate..."

"Hmm, if I remember it correctly, the name's Han-"

The door was finally closed, sealing the room from the outside world. Without light coming from outside, the room was covered in total darkness.

The child slowly got up into a sitting position.

"Pain... what's going on? Did I reincarnate into a sickly body?"

Yao Huang tried moving his new body's limbs. Everything worked fine, saves for the pain coursing through his body. When he swiped his fingers over his arm, he noticed that it was covered in thick, sticky liquid.

He took a sniff. It smelled like iron.

"...Blood?"

Hmm... he might had reincarnated into a dangerous situation... but at least he's still a human, not a cockroach!

'As long as I'm still a human, then I can cultivate!'

He had lost all his techniques after drinking the first cup of Five-Fragrance Tea, but he still retained the memory of his old self, as well as his knowledge of cultivation. With that, he could restore his strength back to his peak.

'Still, it will unbalance the karma of this world... ahh, whatever, I'll just leave it to King Yama to settle when I get back there!'

He tried to stand up, and accidentally noticed something.

Some... things were jutting out from his behind. He could feel it now that he was sitting down. When he turned around, what he saw shocked him silly.

Five glowing tentacles were attached to him, each of them swaying with the wind. No, not tentacles... they looked soft on the touch, and a bit feathery.

Could it be... tails?

Curiously, he poked one of the tails with a finger. It swayed away in response. The touch felt like sinking into a soft pillow.

'The heck? Did I reincarnate into a fox demon?!'

At that moment, he felt something assaulting his soul. A soft, yet prideful voice echoed within his head.

"This One's name is Kokuo."

The shadow of a huge, white beast filled his vision.

"Such a weak and small vessel... This One will take you over!"