Lord Black Water's Second Chances: Twisted Wonderland

New Life after a Wretched End

For some souls, death ushers them into an era of endless torment, encasing their existence in a ceaseless abyss of misery. Among these unfortunate souls is He Xuan, or previously known in his mortal years as He Sheng.  His spirit is scarred from years of anguish and unfulfilled desires. An array of heartbreaking experiences binds him to this perpetual state of suffering. He lives three lifetimes. The first life is tougher for him as his memories are lost, but the endless misfortunes and tragedies that befall his life remain a mystery to him, leaving him questioning why all this is happening to him.

Before he died, he recalls his first death and overhears Shi Wudu's interference and why his life became a living hell.

In his interference, was why he lost everything; his love, parents, and dear younger sister; his life was destroyed, all that comes is loss and suffering. Filled with rage and a heart full of vengeance with the realization, he returned as a Ghost; specifically a calamity level ghost.

As a calamity ghost, he seeks revenge, filled with hatred towards the Shi Brothers, but that revenge is all for naught.

So caught up with his thirst for vengeance and wanting to be victorious, little did He Xuan know that Shi Wudu had another plan which made He Xuan's vengeance for his loved ones to be folly.

In his sorrowful rage and despair, he burns his ashes and disintegrates only to be reborn again in a new life without recollection of the past and witness the series of tragedies befalling his beloved ones once again, but this time, no ghosts or gods ruin his life but life itself.

Now, as he stands by the ocean, he hopes to never be reborn again.

Not in this life. 

Not in this hell. 

It's an unforgiving ride full of endless trauma and profound despair that renders his spirit to endure pain indefinitely.

He Xuan stands on the brink, his whole being aching for the moment before him to herald the end of his torment. Each beat of his heart is a drum of hope, resonating through the void, a desperate plea for peace at last. But in the corners of his mind, a sinister doubt casts long shadows, entwining his thoughts with whispers of doom.

"This is not the end..." the voice hisses, as chilling and inescapable as the fate it predicts.

"The cycle is ceaseless" it declares with a merciless certainty.

"Die, be killed, whatever happens to you, and you will rise to suffer it all once more..."

"...endlessly..."

"You will never escape this curse you bare..."

Each word hammers into him, prying at the edges of his hope, leaving fissures of despair.

Faced with the infinite loop of agony, He Xuan feels the sting of tears, the sharp catch of breath in his throat. Yet, in the crushing grip of inevitability, he finds himself nodding, a silent concession to his fate.

The thought of enduring this torturous existence, again and again, claws at him, an agony too profound to bear as he somehow felt this cycle would start again.

"Why must it be this way?" He Xuan's voice cracks with no one to speak with other than himself.

His words only a murmur lost in the vastness around him, yet laden with a despair so deep it echoes off the unseen walls. His body trembles, not just with fear, but with the rage and sorrow of a being ensnared in a fate too cruel.

His eyes, shimmering with unshed tears, search the shadows for an answer, a reprieve that he knows, in his heart, will never come.

The deathly silence of the lake stirs with his quiet murmurs, like whispers barely dancing over the expanse of stillness.