Volume 1 : Path through Purgatory

Chapter 2 : Rebellion

“I WANT TO LIVE!”

“I DON’T WANT TO BE ERASED!”

“I AM ZHANG GUI !!”

His voice echoed across the valley shattering the silence that had been maintained for countless years. His words seemed to carry with them the same mysterious current that had inhabited every part of his soul by now. It thrilled through every other soul in the valley. One by one,like thousands of candles lighting up the bleak world, each soul awakened. It was like a spark that had ignited their will to live on. Their eyes regained the shine that had been lost, their faces regained the emotions that had vanished. Their memories were now their own again. The sudden influx of memories and emotions left most of them on the verge of tears. No one ever truly wishes to cease from existence, even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there.

The current was truly a heaven defying existence or perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it a hell defying existence. As it spread across the thousands of souls in the valley, it repeated the miracle that had saved Zhang Gui moments ago. It was like a scene out of wonderland, in that bleak black and white world, there was a sudden emergence of thousands of living beings. The crowd of translucent floating beings was no more. Everyone had recovered their physical bodies, everyone was on the ground, everyone was alive.

Time stood still. No one moved an inch, all the souls turned their eyes towards Zhang Gui. He was no leader, if anything he was one of the sheep- following the shepherd was all he knew. He did not even intend to revive all these souls. “It is all that stupid mysterious current’s fault.”

But, the sudden cries of some of the revived souls drew the attention away from him. The cries got louder and louder, the agony and pain within those gut wrenching screams stabbed the hearts of anyone who heard them. As Zhang Gui turned towards the source of the cries , he saw a scene that he couldn’t possibly ever forget.

Those blood curdling screams were emanating from the souls that had entered the pond of reincarnation prior to being revived. The mysterious current seemed to have managed to save them but it could not save them from the mercurial liquid seething in the pond. It almost looked like the liquid was furious, the previously calm pond that relieved the souls of all their burdens and caused them to depart with such kind and satisfied countenance, was now boiling with its waves crashing left and right. The souls that used to peacefully take baths in the ponds were now being drowned by the maniacal Pond. Their recovered bodies were being melted under the influence of the liquid. Some of them tried to swim towards the edge hoping to pull themselves away from the psychotic liquid while others could not resist as much, they simply drowned, never to be seen again. A terror filled cry was all they could manage to leave behind before the liquid rushed inside their bodies leaving no part unscathed.

Zhang Gui took a step forward intending to give a hand to those swimming towards the edge but it was all for naught. None could even get close to the shore before being gobbled down to the depths of the Pond.The skin,flesh,bones - all proved to be nothing before the Pond of Reincarnation. Eventually, even the last of the screams stopped when the vocal cords melted along with their faces. After a while only the vapours arising from the melted ‘bodies’ remained. Soon after, the Pond returned to its previous tranquil state with not a ripple to be seen. No one had survived and the vapours arising from the surface of the killer liquid were the only proof that they ever existed.

Everyone felt a newfound feeling of dread rise up within them. All those anywhere near the Pond found themselves taking a few steps back. A solemn realization struck Zhang Gui, he had recovered his body, he had overcome the suppressive power of this forsaken place, but so what ? If his end was anything like the end of those in the pond then perhaps it would have been better to remain a soul. What prevented the inevitable eventual panic attack was the feeling of a thump on his back. Turning around, he saw a boy or perhaps what was a man of short stature with hair, the colour of hazel and light brown eyes. Just like Zhang Gui, this boy felt too young to have died and sent to hell.

“Many thanks Brother Gui, You saved us all.” , the boy said with a nervous smile. Somehow that nervous smile and those words ended up giving Zhang Gui a much needed assurance. “ I am called Bo.”, said the boy while shaking Zhang Gui’s hands. One by one, many revived souls came forward to express their gratitude.

Meanwhile, there was one person absolutely livid about the situation. It was none other than Old Lady Meng. She could be seen hunched over a patch of moist soil. An observant bystander would know that it was the very same place Zhang Gui had broken his tea cup causing the Five-Flavoured Tea of Forgetfulness to splatter on the ground. Her eyes were no longer kind, a deadly glare emerged from them directed towards Zhang Gui. The smile on her face had vanished only to be replaced by a frown. A deep crease could be seen on her forehead. If someone had suffered a loss at the hands of the mysterious current, it would have to be Old Lady Meng. The tea that she put all her efforts into, the tea that needed 99 years of brewing, the tea which needed her to carefully grow 5 heavenly grade herbs - that tea had been nullified by the current. She was enraged beyond comprehension. The sharp screams of the melting souls gave her some joy, almost causing a sadistic smile to appear on her face, but it did not lessen the anger she held against Zhang Gui.

Zhang Gui, on the other hand, was faced with an increasing number of questions regarding his plan of action. The souls had assumed that he had a plan. The only problem was that he didn’t have any.

Nevertheless, he could feel their hopeful gazes at him. If only they knew … he was as clueless as them.

The man who had made such heroic declarations just a few moments ago, never thought of what he would do afterwards. What were they supposed to do ? Run back onto the bridge ? Run forward towards the Palace on the mountain? He had proclaimed that he did not want to be erased but how should he go about making that happen? Did they have a customer care type of service that could answer his queries?!

Luckily for Zhang Gui, an opportunity presented itself to him rather quickly. A black robed figure could be seen flying towards them. It was the man Zhang Gui had seen lording over the Bridge of Karma. He landed next to Old Lady Meng and seemed to whisper something to her. The next moment, she packed up her stall and left for the Palace but before leaving, she shot a hateful glare towards Zhang Gui. Angering a mythical figure like Lady Meng made him feel uncomfortable but now was the time to throw caution to the wind. Thousands of souls were expecting him to come up with a solution and the best one he could come up with was standing right in front of him.

Pointing at the black robed man he shouted, “ It's that man, he is the reason we are all trapped here. Defeat him and we can all be free.”

Zhang Gui had made yet another proclamation that he did not think through. A man he had only seen once before had suddenly been labelled the source of all the grievances harboured by the souls. Birds of a feather flock together and so, the invigorated souls just like their leader did not think much about it and immediately swarmed towards the black robed man. The black robed man had irked him back when he first saw him over the bridge. There was a sense of disdain in his voice and eyes that would make one think that he was looking down at them like they were ants. “So what if he could fly? So what if he was powerful ? A single man can’t possibly beat thousands … could he? Perhaps we can take him as a captive and then figure out how to escape.” Such overconfident musings formed the bulk of Zhang Gui’s thoughts.

“What nonsense is this guy spouting?”, the black robed man was baffled. He had overseen the transition of souls to reincarnation for countless years but never had he seen such an outrageous soul before. By now Zhang Gui’s ‘troops’ had surrounded him. But that is as far as they were destined to reach. To the black robed man, they were nothing but farts in the wind - slightly irritating but of no real concern.

“Enough!”, only one shout from the black robed man was enough. The sonic vibrations of his voice boomed through the souls. It pierced through their eyes and left their limbs paralysed. They could no longer move. It was only then that they realized how powerless they truly were. A single word had rendered the entire ‘army’ sterile. But the black robed man was not done with them just yet. A slight wave of his sleeve seemed to summon all kinds of planetary winds. A force equivalent to a hurricane tossed the pitiful paralysed army back. Most of them blacked out unconscious from the impact.

Only Zhang Gui and a few of his compatriots behind him seemed to be left standing. Maybe it was the black robed man’s intention or the protection provided by the mysterious current coursing through his body or perhaps it was both, but the winds had left him unscathed.

The black robed man had an amused look on his face. A half-pleased sneer could be seen. He picked up a small stone from the ground tossing it up and down in his hands playfully. “Take this!” and with that he threw the rock flying towards Zhang Gui. The rock was not too fast, if anything, it could be called slow and it flew in a straight line directly towards Zhang Gui’s head and yet …. He could not move to dodge it. He closed his eyes shut , bracing himself for the inevitable strike.

A shrill scream resounded in the valley but it was not Zhang Gui’s. Evidently, he had been saved by Bo who was on the ground writhing with a deep wound on his forehead. Blood had covered his face and hair making him look completely red. “We had just met, why would you try to protect me.”

A sudden outburst of energy originated from the mysterious current flowing through his body. He felt as if his blood was boiling, his body heated up sending a surge of power all over his body. His muscles tensed up. When he had seen that rock hurtling towards him, he had felt fear. What came after fear was naturally anger. Zhang Gui truly hated the look on the black robed man’s face. That look of disdain and superiority reminded him of the look on his high school bully’s face. He would beat Zhang Gui daily with that same expression. Raining punches and kicks down on Zhang Gui, he would ask , “ Why are you so weak? So pathetic?” He felt like he was no longer as weak as he was back then, the current had given him the power and courage needed to overcome any obstacle. Gritting his teeth, he pushed his legs off the ground and started running towards the black robed man intending to punch him square in the face.

“This lowly mortal soul actually dares to attack me. What gall!”, the black robed man similarly felt indignant and filled with rage. The fight was over in a split second. Everything had happened too fast, Zhang Gui could not even comprehend what was happening before realizing that he was defeated. One moment he was rushing up to the man trying to plant a punch and the next moment he was smashed to the ground with the man’s wrapped tightly around his neck.

“ You bastard! Is this all you have got? With only this much you dare to rebel against the Tenth Court of Hell?”, said the black robed man. With one hand restraining Zhang Gui, he rained punches on his face with his other hand. Zhang Gui’s face was battered badly. His body had bruises all over painting his skin blue. One could not be sure as to how many bones had been broken but the number would surely be in the dozens.

All the while, the pain had dulled for Zhang Gui. After a certain point, the pain was non-existent, in fact, it felt like he had lost all sensation, perhaps his spinal cord had been damaged. His mind was busy trying to understand but he still could not comprehend - where was the mysterious current? It had vanished ever since the first punch hit him. Like a treacherous lover, it had left him helpless in the moment when he needed it the most. Still, he tried to beckon to it, hoping that it would give him the power to turn things around.

The black robed man seemed to have read his mind , “ Hahaha, is this what you are looking for?” As he said so, he unleashed a bright glowing orb with sparks of lightning surrounding it from his palm. “ You think you deserve the Vitality Thunder? I don’t even know who was foolish enough to give this to you or how you got it but it is no longer yours.” He was about to continue his punches when a command rang out from the Palace standing on the mountain behind them.

“Minister Wei, stop beating him and bring in him already. The other emissaries have already arrived.”

With a reluctant look on his face, the black robed man - Minister Wei halted his assault. With a grunt, he dragged Zhang Gui’s body up the mountain to the Palace. He had been badly battered, his mind was constantly in and out of consciousness. The blabbering Minister Wei was the last thing he heard.

“You are a lucky one brat, for a mortal soul to be brought to the Xue Palace is a rare honour. Although I wouldn’t be too happy given your circumstances. Brat, you have been charged with the crime of inciting a rebellion against the Tenth Court and you will be judged personally by the Tenth Yama King!”

Soon after, Zhang Gui fainted.