That Path Of Life appeared to be covered in a layer of gold, emitting golden lighting. It was comparable to a magnificent treasure in the eyes of thieves, a warm fire in the harsh winter, and a drink of water in the eyes for those who were half dead of thirst in the unending desert.
There were numerous additional souls on it, dragging their feet heavily step by step, silently moving forward. There were souls with definite outlines and some that have very hazy shapes; even the colors vary between them. The footsteps were the sound he heard at that time.
Situated along the two sides of the Path Of Life, monitoring the every move of this group of souls, there were the Underworld Guards - Yin Binh, or people on earth also call them by a very dear name, the Grim Reaper.
They put on a massive black hood, covered from head to toe, the light from the path of life reflected off the axes and scythes they held in their hands, bordering on their sharpness and shape. Their body emitted a frightening eerie and profoundly creepy aura.
The Path Of Life had numerous small branches that formed an interwoven root structure. These small branches were the footprints of Yin Binh - the Underworld Guards. The soul, when being picked up by Yin Binh, would automatically follow the footprints outlined by them, then continued forward until those footprints created a small trail and then merged into the main branch - the Path Of Life.
Not stopping there, the spirits must continue their journey on the endless Path of Life until they reached the end of the road, which was marked by a massive gate known as the Judgment Gate, behind the two gates was where a trial takes place year-round and non-stop.
After the trial, if they were qualified for reincarnation, the Yin Ti Officials and Emperor would allow them to traverse a golden bridge, also known as the Reincarnation Bridge, to the Wash Lake to cleanse off all the memories from the previous life, then stood in front of the Stone Table of Shape, and chose for themselves, among the restricted mini stone pieces, a preferred form for their next lives. These souls would eventually conclude their journey under Yin Ti when they passed through the Gate of Birth.
In the event that the council of judges did not allow one's spirit to pass through, the soul would probably fall to the bottom of hell, where they would be imprisoned and subjected to various forms of hard labor until the debt was completely paid off.
That was the entire journey to reincarnation.
Binh An now grinned, knowing for sure that he would most likely be unable to pass through the reincarnation gate peacefully, so when the time came, he would have to stage a riot to carry out his plan, the Yin Ti Emperor would probably let it slide since he was a nobody anyway.
He made firm steps ahead, confidently thinking that.
Within three steps, all of a sudden, another earthworm unexpectedly surfaced, ambushed him, and made an attempt to swallow him whole.
In addition to remaining still, Binh An's face continued to be very eager, his lips also hung in a haughty smile, he purposefully dodged to the side, causing the worm to miss and got its head stuck right into the ground, blasting dust all over the place.
"Gosh! Not so fast!"
He said sarcastically, maintaining the proper pace, casually stepping forward.
The worm did not give up that easily, plunging forward, and scooping up all the surrounding sand. The more it was played, the crazier it became.
Binh An had no patience, nor did he want to play with it, he leaped into the air, landing just right across its body, stretching a hand to form a sharp blade, effortlessly slicing the worm in half, and then landed gently back onto the ground.
Without even sparing that dead body of the monster a glance, he wiped his hand to put out his magical fire and laughed.
“What a bunch of shrimp, yet, you dare to stop me.”
After stating that calmly, as if nothing had happened, he then proceeded on his trek to the Path of Life, which was long and vast, extending to infinity.
In reality, the Path Of Life was still pretty far away, it was just that The Path’s massive look that fooled you into thinking you were near.
The closer you got, the more hills and mountains there were. And the more sand grains there were on the road, the more difficult it was to walk. Against such a diabolical wind which was extremely harsh and lethal, his spirit could no longer withstand it, the further he went, the more his soul was slashed and ripped. At this rate, would he be able to reach the Path Of Life?
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
He couldn't walk, the wind became more and more fierce, preventing him from approaching anywhere near, as if he were a failed organ being rejected by the body's system.
However, for Binh An, this was just like fun and game, and one thing he knew for sure was that he himself loved to play, the more it tried to reject him, the more intrigued and stubborn he became, if it wanted to, he would play with it until the end.
He gathered all his strength, summoned all of his might, took a deep breath, and surged into the wind like one powerful storm slamming into another.
When the two eventually collided, the wind probably felt no match for its opponents and started to panic, it knew its place, quickly dissipated and disappeared, leaving behind a clear, unobstructed scene.
Once the vision was clear, Binh An finally was able to comprehend that the Path Of Life was already at the tip of his toes.
The wind has vanished, revealing a massive figure in dark black standing right next to Binh An, which startles him a little bit. He quickly glanced to the side, and there, right in front of his eyes, it was an actual Yin Ti Guard in person.
Binh An thought he had seen some illustrations of these figures in the books somewhere, but he never imagined he'd be able to see them in person.
The Yin Ti Guard or Yin Binh was twice as big as Binh An, and even more massive, not to mention the blade of the scythe he held appeared to be exceedingly hefty as if one swing could slice a boulder in half.
Looking closer, under the mantle of Yin Binh was a skeleton assembled from many different animal bones, and then reattached with some sort of black silk, which appeared quite horrifying, one person couldn't tolerate looking at them twice without feeling nauseous and afraid for their lives.
He smirked, showing his fang, in the end, he made it to the Path of Life as he wanted like he always did.
“I'll have to excuse myself!” He said in a calm manner.
Binh An was just about to stretch out his hand to pat on Yin Binh's body to show some of his friendliness when he suddenly froze. His entire spine went icy as if it was completely frozen, his hand could not feel the contact of flesh, and his body suddenly felt empty as if someone had pulled out all of his organs.
Right at that very moment, Binh An's eyes completely reflected the scene of a lifeless black shroud slowly tightening the weapon in his bony fingers, generating a creaking creepy sound. The light glimmering from the Golden Path, yet unable to reach any of them, a great dark and gloomy majesty figure, represented the destruction of all hopes, dreams, and happiness.
In that wind, these bones reek of rotten corpses, a strong stench of blood with the pungent smell of despair.
Binh An couldn't move, his whole body was against him. To make the matter worse, when Binh An accidentally met this Yin Binh's gaze, a succession of scenes suddenly flooded in, and flashed right before his eyes, causing Binh An to hold his head back.
He had heard somewhere that, Yin Binh is the child of Yin Ti, the Underworld, they are made up of fragments of all living creatures' lives, like a sheet of paper filled with their very own signatures, Yin Binh's eyes are like a flat static mirror, reflecting all the events of the person's life in them.
Of course, the legend was not wrong.
Binh An opened his eyes to suddenly find a hot red stream of blood on his hands, dripping onto the wet ground below. The glimmering light from the moon shone down on the narrow leaves in between busy trees, illuminating the bodies of corpses. The bodies were lying down under a great old tree, their eyes all wide open, staring at him, their face distorted with anger and hatred.
Binh An trembled and fell to the ground, yet, there was no ground to be found, what he just sat on was a pool of blood mixed with shredded meat that reek the horrifying stench, he gasped and turned to try crawling away, only to discover, right in front of him, the corpses were hanging in the air, they let out a head-splitting scream and immediately rushed out to strangle his neck with their creepy and satisfying laughter while doing the deed.
Binh An screamed and blinked a few times before returning to the sight of the golden gilded road stretching endlessly. The memories of Binh An's life came pouring back to him like floodwater bursting the embankment and like a rolling tsunami engulfing the shore in the blink of an eye.
Yin Binh's eyes reflected the most vivid but darkest memories of his life, the things that people desired to forget the most, memories that could ruin a person and made them go insane. No wonder those souls could only bow their heads and walk away, in fear of meeting something they weren't supposed to see.
All the things present here under Yin Ti, it's not something you took for pleasure, Binh An still couldn't overcome his posttraumatic stress or his psychological haunting ghosts, his sweat dripped excessively, poured down his eyebrows, and then settled under his chin, the muscle joints were too stiff, his chest felt tight and heavy, it seemed he could not find his own breath.
He felt pathetic and lost, considering how easily the Yin Binh could destroy him with just one look, the situation was downright terrible.
Binh An sneered at himself, yet still turned to the other Yin Binh right next to him, smiling and said.
"Thank you!"
Thank you for awakening him up to the fact that he stood here in the shackles of a sinner, not as an invited guest to stay.
Binh An started to regulate his breathing, at last raised his legs, turned into the crowd of spirits in front of him, and continued his remaining journey on the Path Of Life to reach the final destination, The harsh stone Gate of Judgment where the court lies.