Soul Lock

One Deity and One Ghost

For the next ten years, Ju Xin lived as the God of Compassion. He was highly diligent, trying to answer all the prayers and helping people if he could do so. Therefore, it wasn't surprising that people regarded him highly and built many temples for him. Although Ju Xin was fair and generous towards everyone, in his heart the Kingdom of Dong was special even when he was long forgotten.

Being a deity or ghost, the last life was crucial and; therefore, these souls weren't given the Tea of Oblivion. Because of this reason, Ju Xin couldn't get his beloved tea and still remembered his last life with all the unpleasant details. Still, as nothing was the fault of his people, he was determined to give them the help he couldn't when he was their king. If there was a drought, he would seek help from Yushi Huang, the Rain Master, and when spring came, he would seek Hou Ji, the Lord of Millet Grains, for healthy crops. But, he refused to get credit for his help.

Interestingly enough, when Ju Xin's name appeared in the Book of Deities, the monk of the Grand Temple saw Ju Xin as a young woman in his foreboding dream. As a result, the paintings and statues of him portrayed him as a she. Ju Xin didn't mind it, he even found it useful as the Kingdom of Dong wouldn't resent him further for being reincarnated as a deity.

Ju Xin was working for people day and night with a sincere heart, but his diligence didn't make all gods happy. Although nobody knew about it, Heaven wasn't that pure of a place full of selfless deities. Some of them were quite greedy, selfish, childish and even bad-hearted. When Ju Xin reincarnated as a god, most of them despised him, saying he didn't deserve it. He was just a miserable king with no achievements, so it didn't make any sense why he was there among them.

As they already judged Ju Xin to their heart's content, his willingness to help made them believe that he was faking it in order to show them he was worthy. They let him do whatever he wanted, thinking he would get tired of pretending soon. However, in time, Ju Xin proved them wrong and unintentionally, he stole their believers. It didn't occur to them that if they had answered the prayers, their believers wouldn't switch to Ju Xin.

Overwhelmed with anger and resentment, most of the gods and goddesses started to bully him under the leadership of Lei Gong, the God of Thunder. They talked behind him and joked about him, but Ju Xin ignored them. Later, they directly asked him personal questions like how he died or why he didn't help his people, and when Ju Xin smiled softly, but refused to answer, they justified their wrong presumptions. They never invited him for the tea parties or lent him any help.

However, no matter what they said or did, Ju Xin kept his calm. He was already used to being alone, so he didn't need a lot of friends; Yushi Huang, Hou Ji and How-chu, the God of Air, were more than enough acquaintances for him.

When he had free time, he sat in his small golden palace built on the same day he ascended, and read whatever he could find or just watched the living world, sitting on a cloud.

Like that, Ju Xin spent ten years. However, someone wasn't as lucky as him.

Ten years.

Wen Lan spent ten years in Huang-quan, fighting and consuming Yin souls for power. When he had seen Ju Xin reincarnated as a deity, he had lost his reason and had taken the Ghost Door so that he could have a chance for revenge. At first, it seemed like a good idea, but after spending a little time in Huang-quan, he was regretful. It was of course full of Yin souls who didn't come there by their own choice, so the entire place was chaotic. Fighting, yelling, killing, haunting living souls and eating flesh were the only activities. Because of the pungent smell of blood and rot, Wen Lan puked for ten days.

But it was too late...

For a long while, he lay on a relatively hidden corner without doing anything, at least he didn't have to eat or sleep anymore. He watched the ghosts and tried to understand life in Huang-quan. Apparently, you could just bring some materials and build your own living place wherever you want. Then you had to leave a part of your ghost fire to keep the others away. If you found something that wasn't marked with ghost fire, you could claim it and exchange it with something you needed later in the Ghost marketplace.

Like the living world, the underworld also had its borders. There were four Ghost Kings in each compass direction and they all had their own colors to identify their ruled souls. Bei An, the King of North, had green; Nan Han, the King of South, went with orange; Xi Yan, the King of West, chose grey; Dong Qing, the King of East, preferred red. As the ghost fire above Wen Lan's head was grey, he was a citizen under Xi Yan, but he couldn't care less about it.

Observing around for a long time with disgust in his heart, Wen Lan longed for death. As reincarnation was out of the question, Wen Lan decided to find a way to end his existence. He tried to; smash his head to a solid surface (it only made him dizzy for the next three days), hang himself (he needed help to put the brick back so that he could save himself from the rope), drown himself (he sat underwater for a day, but as it was pitch black, he got bored soon), and as the final shot, he tried to eat some street food (he almost died of disgust and stomachache, but almost). Proving he was really an undying ghost, he wandered around Ghost cities of the West, talked with (if it was possible) other ghosts and tried to find a way. He tried and tried and tried...

Although it wasn't the answer he was looking for, one day he learned something very useful. After playing fifty rounds of Go, the elderly ghost confessed that he was using a hidden gate to go to the living world whenever he felt like seeing his robbery partner, conveniently who was also his wife. After playing another fifty rounds of Go and letting him win all the time, the ghost was willing to share the exact spot of the gate with Wen Lan.

That very night, Wen Lan found the hidden spot which was a rotten willow tree and went up to the living world. Filling his dead lungs with fresh night air, for the first time in a long while, he was peaceful. He sat under the living willow tree which was symmetrically positioned with the rotten willow tree of the underworld, and watched the sleeping village for a while with melancholy. He missed being alive.

Damn Ju Xin!

Even if it was Wen Lan's own choice to take the Ghost Door, the reason of his stupid action was Ju Xin. Four lives... Somehow a single person ruined his life four times.

Sighing in defeat, Wen Lan stood up and decided to wander around the village. Maybe he could find a monk to ask how to kill a dead soul. As it was already midnight, there was no light or a person. With the grey ghost fire above his head, Wen Lan let his feet drag him until he saw a flickering little light ahead.

He went towards it and saw it was a tiny temple with a few incense sticks, candles and oranges as an offering on the altar. He tilted his head upwards to look at the painting of the devoted deity. It was a female deity with her brown hair falling to her waist and a beautiful smile on her lips while her brown eyes were looking amiably. Although the painting was highly amateur, it gave a sense of familiarity to Wen Lan. Frowning, he took a step back and read the plate above the temple.

Ju Xin, the Goddess of Compassion who reaches her hand for everyone

Wen Lan slumped onto the hard ground, his head feeling dizzy. What kind of joke was that? Who reaches 'her' hand for everyone? Really?! That bastard ruined his kingdom, let alone his life, but people were worshipping him?!

All night long, Wen Lan sat in front of the tiny temple, his head in between his hands and his disbelieved eyes on Ju Xin's painting. When the first light of the morning showed itself, he raised on his feet with a new resolution in his mind. He touched the oranges on the altar and made them rot, then he returned back to Huang-quan.

He quickly built a small house for himself and got himself a whip from a murderer's soul after beating him to death (well, you know what I mean). As he was an extraordinary general in his second life, those weak souls had no chance before him.

In the following years, he blackened his heart and buried his humanity. He fought whoever he saw and learnt to absorb their Yin souls. The more he absorbed, the more powerful he became, and his notorious name was heard in every city. Soon, Xi Yan called him to his palace and offered him to be his general. Wen Lan accepted it immediately and killed countless enemies for the Ghost King.

To Wen Lan's luck, Xi Yan and Nan Han fell into a fight in the yearly feast and Xi Yan was killed in the duel by Nan Han. As Wen Lan was his beloved general, he claimed the throne and the other kings approved. He changed his name into Lan Ye (blue leaf) and the color of the West area changed from grey to blue.

Ten years of struggling finally brought success and Lan Ye was ready for revenge.