CHAPTER 2 :
ON THE PATH OF REINCARNATION
After an unknown period of time, Long Chen regained his consciousness. When he opened his eyes, a very mysterious scene unfolded in front of him. Far off in the distance, about 800 meters from where he was, there was a mysterious white light in the shape of a huge door. It looked the door of the heavenly palace where the Heavenly King resided. What was amazing and astonishing, was that; there was a very long path made of the same mysterious white light energy leading to the white light door. And Long Chen was currently standing on it slowly moving towards the mysterious door. The path was full of intangible and illusionary people walking on it towards the white light as if the Heavenly King had summoned his people to his palace.
"Is this an illusion?". Long Chen asked himself in bewilderment. He was shocked and amazed by the scene in front of him.
"No! This is not an illusion. Then if it's not an illusion, what the heck is this place and why is everyone in this place look illusional and intangible?". Long Chen's heart started pounding fiercely. But then he thought of something else. "Wait a minute. They are not illusions. They are …!" Long Chen became confused and shocked when he thought of a certain possibility. "They are all souls. That means I am also in my soul form."
Yes. He was not wrong. The illusionary and intangible people were all souls of the ones that died at a certain time and currently they were all walking on this mysterious path towards that mysterious door. Long Chen was also a soul since he had died in an accident. Or rather, he was hit by a truck.
"If they are all souls, that means I am already dead and currently in my soul form. And if that's the case, then this path and that door-like white light are … are the Path of Reincarnation?" For a moment, Long Chen became speechless and shocked again.
Back then, Long Chen had been anticipating for his death in his whole life. He also roughly knew what he will encounter after his death, but he didn't expect all that to be exactly what he was witnessing now. He had mysteriously known about the path of reincarnation and what it's purpose was from nowhere. Everything that he knows now appeared in his mind in the past out of nowhere. It's as if he had experienced a lot of things and had the knowledge about the Immortal worlds and chaos. Everything would appear mysteriously in his mind.
He knew exactly what one's soul would experience and go through if it passed via the door-like white light which was the gate of reincarnation.
Once someone dies, his/her soul would walk along the path of reincarnation 'which was the white path underneath his feat that extended all the way to the gate of reincarnation' and step through the gates of reincarnation. Once a soul steps through it, the soul will go through a process of cleansing; which is known as Soul Cleansing, where the soul will be perfectly cleansed erasing all the past memories, emotions and severing all karmic threads tied to the soul. The soul will then become pure like an unborn infant's soul, and later it's sent to reincarnate in different worlds as different beings. When they get reborn, they never have any of their past life's memories, experiences, emotions or even habits. They become like infants who know nothing at all; where they now adapt to the new world they were reborn in.
And now in front of Long Chen was the same path and gate of reincarnation he knew so much about. For a moment, he was stuck in a dilemma not knowing what to do. On one side, he didn't want to pass through the gate of reincarnation. It was as if there was something in his soul that don't want him to go through that gate. On the other side, he wanted to experience a new life that he ever wanted to have; having parents and siblings who cared and loved him. He wanted to experience the warmth of a family.
But at the same time, he didn't want to have his memories and past experience completely erased. He wanted to experience his next life with his current memories and experience he had so as to be someone unique in the community. But he also knew that even if he passed through that gate and experience the soul cleansing, there was no guarantee that his next life will be as he wanted it to be.
He didn't know what to do. He couldn't turn back even if he wanted to, which was impossible and he was also afraid of what will happen if he moved towards the gate of reincarnation.
"Hmm …? This is?" While Long Chen was trying to find a solution to his problems, he felt an invincible and mysterious power guiding him towards the gate of reincarnation slowly.
He tried to control his soul body not to move forward, but he found out that it was useless. His soul was moving forward slowly against his own will.
"No. I don't want to enter that gate now. I am not prepared for it." Long Chen felt flustered. He was afraid of the unknown that was waiting for him once he steps through the gate.
"No, no! I can't go now… I can't get through that gate for the time being. I have to find a way to resist this force and stop my soul from moving forward." Long Chen grit his teeth and forced all the strength of his soul body to resist that force. He was not afraid of hurting his soul. He had an unknown confidence that no one could hurt or injure his soul. He didn't know why he felt so.
On the white path of reincarnation, illusionary and intangible beings were unconsciously walking towards the gate of reincarnation slowly. But suddenly, about 600-700 meters away from the gate, a more condensed soul suddenly stopped moving.
The white path that countless souls were walking on suddenly trembled when the soul stopped moving. It was as if the path was dissatisfied that a mere soul was going against it.
The trembling became stronger and countless souls were shaking as if they would disperse at any moment.
When Long Chen saw that his soul had resisted the force and stopped moving, he let out a sigh of relief. But before he could think further on what to do, he felt the path under his feet trembling at an increasing intensity as if the path it self was angry because of what Long Chen had done.
Long Chen felt a feeling intense danger emerge inside him. As if the path was preparing to attack him. He knew all this strange reaction of the path of reincarnation was because of his own actions. While he was thinking on what to do, an invincible and terrifying ancient aura that could make devils and ghosts alike tremble in fear, emerged from deep down in his soul and spread out from Long Chen.
When the path of reincarnation felt the terrifying aura, it suddenly quieted down and became timid like a child in the presence of his/her parents. The weird thing was that not a single soul apart from Long Chen felt the terrifying aura. Long Chen looked baffled as he checked himself. He didn't understand a single thing that happened, but he felt all that had happened.
Long Chen didn't think much about it. He only wanted to find a way out and go far away from this creepy path. He didn't know that the aura that had come from him had scared the path of reincarnation, such that it didn't want to force him to move again. It was really scared of him.
Long Chen didn't care about all that. He was just looking around so as to think of a way to get out of there. What he didn't know was that he possessed a very terrifying type of soul that even the Gods would never want to think about even if they wanted to. His soul was completely different from normal souls.
"Ok now. What should I do, because I can't stay in this place for long. I need to find a way to solve this problem."
While Long Chen was deeply immersed in his thoughts, he heard a huge boom sound from the void outside the path of reincarnation. That sound startled him awake.
"What was that?" Before he could even find the origin of that sound, he witnessed a scene that made his scalp tingle from shock and fear.
Outside the path of reincarnation, the void cracked like glass breaking and a huge golden palm stretched out of the cracked void at a terrifying speed and moved towards the souls on the path of reincarnation. The palm was so huge that it looked like a mountain. On top of that, it moved at a very terrifying speed. Whatever it passed through, the souls were turned into nothingness.
Before Long Chen could react, the palm had already arrived in front of him and suddenly grabbed his soul and retreated back to the crack at an even higher speed. All of this happened in less than a second.