Tales of the Inter-dimensional Trickster Chapter 1

“As for you, you shall be sent to the Animal Path to bode your new life!”

“Wait, kind sir, please don’t do this to me. I only committed one or two bad deeds. It shouldn’t warrant such a heavy punishment!”

“This is less a punishment and more a lesson for you to reflect upon your own soul. Although Granny Meng’s soup should make it a clean slate by then.”

As the wailing man was dragged away, Jie Jun stuck his head out from the queue to witness the man being thrown to the murkish green pool that smelled suspiciously like animal faeces.

“Please anyone! Save me!!!!”

Jie Jun shook his head as he stared at the man’s pathetic attempts to climb out of the pool. Surely the man must have been really bad to have gotten such treatment.

However, who could say that they were a great person deserving heaven at the very end of their life. Jie Jun sighed as he attempted to recall his last few moments, but it was to no avail. The soup had already started to kick in. The finer details in his life were being erased bit by bit the longer he stood there.

“Is there truly no silver lining? Am I truly doomed?”

Looking at the various different coloured pools in front of his eyes, he wondered which would be the one he would end up being thrown in. As he waited for his turn to be judged, he stared up into the red sky, or whatever it was that was on top of him.

“Was I a good person? Did I do anything right? I never had much time to think about all these things… Living in the 21st century already took plenty of effort. How could I afford to be any better? Like this…, wouldn’t it have been better to just have fun instead of conforming to the norms of the world? This way, even if I did die, at least I could smile in this queue, no?”

As he smirked at his own realisation, he realised his turn was up. The previous fellow had been thrown into the pale white pool which emanated emptiness. When he looked up, he saw the judge looking down upon him condescendingly.

“What’s so funny? Was his pain part of your pleasure?” The judge questioned.

“No sir! I was… just thinking about my own life.” Jie Jun gulped as he explained.

“Oh really?” The judge answered with an unconvinced look.

Jie Jun was now even more scared than ever. First impressions were important and there was no doubt he ruined one of his last few opportunities in his life(or rather, death). It was only now did he realise that he was not as composed as before, and that he wanted to live, or at least live a better life in his next reincarnation. His palms became sweaty as he prayed to himself that whatever judgement came would be benevolent and kind.

Unfortunately, fate dealt a cruel hand as the judge announced: “Hungry Ghost path it is!”

Jie Jun stifled his urge to fight back because he knew that no matter what he said or did, his life would only get worse. His felt bitter over his powerlessness, wishing for something to give him another chance, even if he knew it was practically impossible.

Before the guards came up to grab him, he stopped them.

“I’ll make my own way there.”

He secretly wanted to stall for time, even though he knew it had no meaning to it, as he pretended to act with dignity as he faced reincarnation.

The judge allowed it. A mere mortal’s dignity might not be important, but he respected this sort of bravery when one met his end. And just as Jun Jie was about to step into the pale white pond that would swallow his soul, the golden pool erupted with a bang!

Just as he thought that he might be able to escape into another pool in the midst of the chaos that would ensue, a flying house came out of the golden pool and rushed straight towards him.

He only managed to cough out a swear before he was pinned by it and flew together with it towards the clearest pool. Although he had only died for a few hours, he was aware that that pool led to the Human path.

“NOOO PLEASE BRING ME TO THE DEVA PATH!!!!!!” Jun Jie screamed as he plunged into the clear pool.

As if it didn’t bother, the house ignored him and continued down its path. However, before they crashed into the pool, the judge swiftly got in their way. Unleashing a bloody aura, he summoned a halberd and was prepared to cut down any anomalies in the system of the death cycle.

“Whichever senior it is with his artifact, please step aside and give me some face.” The judge implored, unwilling to offend the one in control of the “flying house” which somehow had the capability to break past time-space laws to enter hell.

However, the flying house did not stop as it spearheaded Jie Jun through the judge like a hologram and entered the clear pool.

“Haiz.” The judge could only sigh. Beings of much higher power generally had less regard for the rules and he could only report this mishap to his superiors and hope they did not punish him. As he looked down the clear pool, he could see the soul that was being pinned disintegrating from the sheer force of entry. “To have the luck to witness and perish to such an item is probably the fate of a con artist.”

That’s right. Guang Jie Jun. Aged 25. A small time insurance agent that (occasionally) conned his clients so as to ensure he could feed himself. Perhaps he wasn’t a bad person, but the act of lying heavily went against the rules in hell which resulted in his heavy, yet somehow appropriate sentence. To enable him to experience the hunger he should have felt if he had not conned others. However, through some way or another he managed to escape this sentence. Usually, one that reincarnates needed to go through a suitable reincarnation to balance out their personality and guide them eventually to the right path. One that reincarnated inappropriately might end up becoming warped and twisted. Unfortunately, with Jie Jun’s termination, that was no longer necessary.

• -

In the midst of the galaxies, a screaming soul was breaking down as it sped through the Human path. As it broke off, bits and pieces of the soul were absorbed by the abnormal house charging through.

“This isn’t how I want to die!!!!” Jie Jun screamed in his heart.

Disregarding his opinions, the house continued to absorb more and more of Jie Jun until he disappeared and it sped along until it was caught by the orbit of a certain planet. One much bigger than the Earth Jie Jun was familiar with. As it went on, it became akin to a falling star as it fell down to the grounds of a thick jungle, creating a large crater that incinerated the forest a hundred meters around it. The house remained intact and the surrounding flora and fauna kept their distance from it due to the heat it emanated.

In a clear white space, a ball containing the facial features of Jie Jun appeared. Weakened, yet somehow clearer than before. His soul’s breakdown had somehow dispersed the effects of the soup he consumed earlier, allowing him to maintain a general grasp on his own memories. He still vividly recalled his adventure in hell and vowed to never go there again if he could. The ball looked around, curious as to where he was at, before he saw a small golden hologram of a house. Much like the one that so “kindly” brought him here. He cursed at it for the pain it brought but couldn’t help but feel somewhat grateful for being able to avoid the Hungry Ghost path because of it.

As he came closer to study the hologram, he studied its features closely, intent on finding out how it could be so powerful. However, as he looked at the hologram, it slowly started resembling a cottage, before changing into a high-rise building and then into a large tent. This hologram seemed intent on displaying the concept of “home”. The longer he stared into it, the more he felt a sense of familiarity with the golden light and he decided to touch the light.

Instantaneously, he was sucked into it and felt a pain no worse than the one he experienced during his amazing “free-fall” adventure. As he screamed once again, he lost his consciousness as the golden light probed into the eyes of his soul and seemed to possess him.

Authors Note: Hi all, I hope you all take interest with this novel. As you can tell, I used the 6 paths of reincarnation in the beginning which can be generally be broken down into: Path of Hell, Path of Hungry Ghosts, Path of Animals, Path of Asura, Path of Humans and the Path of Deva. The first 3 paths are generally negative while the last 2 paths are generally positive. The Asura path is a mix of both good and bad. More will be explained and referred to in the future so I hope you all enjoy this story!

Done Done note: Well, if you lot are interested in this 6 path thingy then you can check out this link: http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/six-states.shtml If you guys like this story then I will continue to host it on my site. If not, then have a nice day and watch out for the next upload I guess.