Haiyang Huohua’s conscious starts to light back up he looks around. He sees a world of black earth and seas of fire. The fire is a mixture of white and blood red flames. The black earth is barren with the only “life” being a few rotten trees and a few red skinned humanoid figures.

Haiyang yells, “WHERE THE HELL AM I!” His voice seems loud to him but it doesn’t spread more than a meter before it just dies off. He takes a few deep breaths to reclaim the little calm he has left. He looks at his hands to find them translucent and pearly white. He looks around to see other such translucent figures, and all of them standing in an orderly line. Haiyang is situated between a figure that looks frail and old. While the other looks burly and quite young. Haiyang stands up and joins the line.

The line moves slow but steadily. Haiyang grew more calm after verifying that he had indeed died. He hated it but there was nothing he can do about it and Haiyang assured himself that it had nothing to do with the spirit behind him that gave angry glares whenever he freaked out. He kept waiting with the other spirits of the presumed dead, but grew bored. He started to study all the red skinned humanoids That flew overhead and walked on the black ground. The humanoids he just called demons all were very different from each other. Some were tall or short, skinny, or fat, some had horns, while others had hair, and some were just bald. The only similarity was they had razor sharp claws and needle like teeth, and they all were holding weapons of some kind. The weapons they held were in great variety. There were swords, spears, axes, and some he couldn’t name.

Haiyang started to think about what would await him at the end of this line. He thought about the Yellow Springs, or if he was in the Ten Courts of Hell. The latter made him break into a cold sweat, or would be if souls sweat, as in the Ten Courts of Hell he would be tortured for eternity.

It felt like hours before Haiyang met a different view of scenery. That was bridge that hung over a white translucent river that when looked at gave Haoyang the soul form of goosebumps.

During the wait Haiyang observed as many more souls were added to the line. Some of the souls were like himself and let out yells while some stayed silent. The souls yelled out in different ways. Some of them yelled in agony, some in terror, while some yelled in anger and resentment. There was alsos the few oddballs that yelled out in joy. He ignores the yells and all the new souls as he starts to think. He starts to line up various legends and stories he heard during life. Till his mind shout out, “THIS IS THE SIX PATHS OF REINCARNATION!”

“The black land and the sea of fire, then the bridge over the river of lost souls it all lines up with the Six Paths,” He thinks to himself. The idea makes him go ecstatic as he knows he’ll live again. He starts to think about life and all the good and bad things he has done. His thought process lines up with not be bad enough to be a hungry ghost or a hell being, but yet not good enough to be a Deva or Asura. He’s left with the options of human or an animal. He wouldn’t mind being an animal except that they always draw the short end of the stick. That even sticks true to the novels he read where animals can become magical beast or demonic beast. They might grow strong and grow intelligence but they always get captured and treated harshly. Except for of course the protagonist's demonic beast always get treated well and are usually stronger than normal.

“Sadly such worlds don’t exist, and even if they did I end up a farm animal or something,” He says to himself. That thought makes him depressed again, but the thought of life makes him feel somewhat better.

A few hours later Haiyang makes it toward the front of the line of souls. There he sees an old woman and a bowl of tea. ‘That must be grandma Meng and her tea that makes you forget all details about your previous life,’ he thinks. Every once in awhile Haiyang would see souls try to run away from drinking the tea and it would look like a invisible hand would grab that soul and force them to drink from the bowl of tea as they scream in agony. The same thing happened soul after soul some compiled while some denied and were forced to drink the tea as they screamed in agony.

Finally it was his turn to drink the tea he complied after seeing the previous souls deny and get forced to. So he just says, “Junior thanks senior,” and bows hands cupped. He straightens his back and goes to drink his tea and it hits his mouth but he doesn’t swallow it. As he looks up to grandma Meng and tried to put on the most spaced out expression as possible attempting to trick Grandma Meng. But he knows his planned failed when Grandma Meng put on a knowing smile. But she didn’t say anything and that made him extremely happy but tried his best to keep it from showing up on his face.

Then Grandma Meng says in a calming voice, “Go to the cave the third closest. Then walk straight through.” But as those words left her mouth his excitement died down knowing that this cave should be the path of animal. He almost lets out a sigh but then realizes that the tea is still in his mouth so holds it in. He walks towards the third path of reincarnation slowly and steady.

As he walks away he hears Grandma Meng say, “I only let you do that little stunt because you showed respect and was honestly the best soul to come through here in awhile. So do great things.” Haiyang is so surprised that he almost jumps up not only because of what she said but also because her voice sounded like it was right next to him. He continues to walk normal just in case of some weird god type person tries to call him out. As he reaches the cave he slightly slows his pace but it’s not noticeable. He walks into the cave and towards the light at the end of the tunnel and just as he is about to step into the light he quickly spits out the greenish brown tea. Then he quickly steps into the light. As he is enveloped by the light his vision swims and his conscious darkens he puts on a slight smile and goes unconscious.