Every Lifetime I Fall {COMPLETED but undergoing revisions}

Chapter 1: This Familiar Place

I'm dead.
Again.

I find myself opening my eyes to the Underworld. Spirits going from one place to another. Scholars, peasants, nobles, we are all the same now. The criminals and sinners had their own space to repent. I remember those days. I was a sinner in a past life.

It was all because of that kid, Lu Kai!

If he hadn't been courting death in that lifetime then I would have stayed alive and well.

This time... he really leveled up. Now as Yang Zi Huo, he rules the demon sect, Bleak Night. Feared by many and hated by the majority, the pugilist world is conquered by his reign.

I was taken in by him into his sect but not as a disciple or even a measly foot soldier. No, I was his maid. Having to wait on him hand and foot, just thinking about it makes my blood boil! If only I remembered my past lives with him, I would have given him a good beating. Well... not that I could have, he was much too strong.

He was surrounded by the Immortal Sect Leaders in a trap, set to kill him. But I was stupidly so in love with him that I took the Unity Light Blow summoned by the sect leaders and died. He, of course, probably used that time to escape with his life barely intact.

Back in the Underworld, the dim sky and rocky walls enclosed the land of wandering souls. The river sparkles clearly, tempting us to swim, but we knew better.

I have to meet up with Ji Nian because he was set to manage my case. In the Underworld, souls get assigned a case manager to go over their progress and good deeds. The more good deeds you do, the better it is for them to get you a preferable lifetime the next time around. They can get promotions if the souls they manage dedicate their wills to cultivating and are good people. The very bad souls would have to endure punishment until they could be reassigned a case manager. That's happened to me before.

"Back so soon?" He doesn't even look up at me. He's used to me coming and going. And he cannot stand me.

"Aw," I say nonchalantly and take a seat in front of his desk. Either side of us there were thousands of case managers meeting up with restless souls eager to go back and reincarnate.

"Let me guess... You met Wu Yi Huai?" He already knew what happened. I met that same guy and died because of him again. All because I'm stupid and fell in love with him.

"..."

"You! You! You make my life so hard!"

He starts to lecture me again. I seem to be the only problem soul he has. Most of his other souls have done well in their lives and their good deeds have rewarded him with material goods and life essence pills bestowed by the Underworld Lord.

"I can't get my promotion because of you..."

"How many times are you going to say that?"

"Until you can get it into your head to avoid Wu Yi Huai."

Wu Yi Huai... he was Yang Zi Huo's past life. Actually the first reincarnation that I'd met and caused me to become cursed every time I see him. I don't know how many times he has reincarnated, but Wu Yi Huai was the first version I met.

"Well, if I didn't have to drink the Tea of Forgetfulness then I wouldn't run into him."

"You know that's not allowed. Everyone has to drink it if they want to go back."

"Then you see why we have a problem!"

"Last time you were sure that you'd pound it into your brain to avoid him!"

"Maybe someone above your head is making us meet again by fate! You don't know who is above above your boss..."

"Ow, oh my neck," he dramatically reaches behind his neck and winces in pain. I'm also tired of seeing him each time I come back! Can't I get a new case manager? One with less flair to overreacting?

"Are you sure he's not my fated...?"

"If he was would you have died countless time as an unwed spinster?"

He— the nerve!

"Then how come my fated never appeared each time?!"

"I don't know... I really don't know..." he says as if he's given up.

"Whatever, what now?"

"You're going back."

"Wow, so quick?"

"Someone has been doing good deeds in your name. So many good deeds that you can go back in fifteen years."

I mean it's not three hundred.

"That's not bad."

"We had to extend another five years because you have a track record of ending your life early... ugh... so wasteful."

"Not like I do it on purpose!"

"If it was once then I would believe that, but no! It's been many times. Now go away! I don't want to see you until you come back all old and wrinkly!"

"Wait! So the good deeds that have been done in my name... which name?"

I've had at least four lifetimes now... which could it be?

Looking closer at his file, Ji Nian says, "Right here it's written, Luo Na Li."

Luo Na Li... the lifetime when I was sent to purgatory for my sins? Just who would do anything to rectify the dishonor I'd committed as a disciple of Crimson Snow Valley?