As Gong Lu died, his consciousness was whisked away to another dimension, one in which he was given another body, the young, healthy body that he had when he was still in his twenties.

But once Gong Lu got over the new body, he was shocked even further.

It seemed that Gong Lu was in a waiting room, one with no one in it except him. He sat in a cushioned chair, in absolute silence. With the chairs facing what seemed to be the front of the room, Gong Yu stood up and began to look around.

The walls and floors were made of perfectly clean white marble with no spots or blemishes, with a dark green rug on the majority of the floor. Besides that and the ten chairs which were spaced perfectly, in two rows of five, there was only a door that stood on the left side of the room. Of course, directions such as left, right, front, back, north, east, south, etc. were hard to ascertain, but Gong Lu just did his best. The door was unremarkable, made of an average shade of oak and with a silver-colored handle, but compared to the extremely simple chairs, the door wasn't too bad. In fact, the whole room was boring. Of course, Gong Lu didn't care, but still. For such a remarkable event as what was happening right now, it was unusually peaceful.

Suddenly, Gong Lu received the urge to open the door. It was extremely compelling. Surprisingly compelling, in fact, considering that Gong Lu was never a rash or excitable person, let alone after experiencing 104 years of age and even death. So, the fact that he felt this strongly about something, and especially something as mundane as opening a door, was dangerous. So, what could Gong Lu do but resist?

Stiffly, Gong Lu sat back down in the chair. Despite his every movement seeming to be against his very nature, the young man made progress, and eventually, he reached his goal. The moment he touched the chair, his compulsion completely disappeared without a trace, leaving him to ponder what just happened, and, while he was at it, his entire current situation.

First off, what was he doing here? The surroundings were greatly different than from what he remembered the surroundings were when he died. So, the logical conclusion was that he was reborn? There was some kind of afterlife? Or was he being reincarnated?

This was difficult, though. Gong Lu had just experienced death! He was extremely emotionally perturbed, considering that he remembered every moment of his life(and death). So, how was he supposed to react? As someone who was literally depressed to the point of not wanting to live anymore, he had treated death like an embrace. Now, he had been ripped from it and was not better, at all.

And it was just at that moment, when Gong Lu began sinking back into the inescapable despair and self-hate brought on by the actions of his life, that an unfamiliar voice sounded out.

"Gong Lu, you may enter. We have a lot to talk about."

This charming and soothing voice broke the young man out of his melancholy memories. Almost like a zombie, Gong Lu stood up and followed the speaker into the room beyond the simple door he saw earlier.

She was a beautiful woman, with a curvaceous figure and jade-white skin. She wore a stylish black suit from Nuan Yu's own wardrobe when she was young, and bore a solemn expression on her perfect face. "Why don't you take a seat. Let's talk."

"Truly you are worthy of being the number one achiever of karmic merit on Earth. To be able to resist Pandora's Box, you are something special. But that's beside the point. Before you say anything, I know you are currently very emotionally distressed. You just died, and your life before that event was also traumatizing. But I need you to focus." After saying this, the woman gave Gong Yu a piercing stare that seemed to bore into his soul before continuing. "You are in the Celestial Court. This is the place where we handle the reincarnation of all the deaths, across all point across the long river of time. As you can imagine, we are quite busy. First off, to explain how existence after death works.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It is quite similar to Earth's concept of reincarnation, but it's somewhat different. Here, your 'karmic merit' - this is not the official term, but it works better than the other terms considering your background - does not affect your peace in the afterlife, nor does it affect whether you are able to be reborn. Here, your 'karmic merit' determines the situation you are born into, the setting of the place you are born, and your innate abilities.

It is quite a complicated concept, but keep in mind that the universe in which Earth, your previous planet, exists, is only one planet of one of the galaxies of one of the universes of one of the realms of one of the planes. Needless to say, your home is extremely small. As such, the rules that you are used to and the laws that you treat as fact are only existent in your universe. There are countless other universes with different laws and ways of life. One, for example, could follow the concept of magic that was created on your planet and hold the energy known as mana, magic energy, or other things. What I'm trying to say is that you are currently at the crossroads. You can go to any universe, with any rules, with any theme, due to your excellent 'karmic merit'. You literally created world peace for the next hundred thousand years. You are in a writer's wet dream.

So, to analyze where you would feel most at home with, we took your life experiences, thoughts, and emotions, as well as the context of those, to find the places you would enjoy the most. We have narrowed it down to three choices.

The first choice is Gilae. Here, your talent for strategizing and scheming would be put to good use. The setting is much like medieval Earth, with the only key difference being that the world is much smaller and power is much more spread out. Based on your performances on Earth, if we placed you there with the proper background, you could very well replicate your feat on Earth.

The second choice is Heidas. This world operates similarly to the eastern fantasy novels on Earth. With powerful cultivation and high intelligence, you could become near invincible and live a very, very long life of comfort and pleasure in this world with a strength-based social hierarchy.

The third choice is Baor. This is somewhat similar to Heidas, but instead of cultivation, which is absorbing the Qi of the Heavens and Earth, martial arts and exercise are extremely pronounced. The effects are much greater when compared to Earth, and while not to the degree of Heidas, Baor also has a system based on strength. With your intellect and the talent you demonstrated with martial arts on Earth, you would fit very well into here.

So, what do you choose? After your decision, we will get into the specifics of how we're going to organize your life."

Gong Lu was... somewhat surprised, to say the least. It took him a few minutes to wrap his head around what he had just heard, a few more to expel the doubts he had, and some more to finally make his decision.

"I choose Heidas." He said after a dozen minutes, during which the woman was surprisingly patient.

"Great! Now, let's explain how this works. After I'm done talking, a screen will pop up in front of you. It will essentially act as a store, in which you can purchase perks for your next life using the 'karmic merit' points you accrued in your previous life. So, I'll leave you to your deliberations and come back when you're ready. Do keep in mind, though, your psyche can't survive long in this realm, so you have at most an hour before you're automatically expelled. So, try to keep your decisions quick!"

The woman did not lie. She vanished into thin air and was replaced by a blue screen the size of his torso. The blue screen hovered in midair and was divided into six sections.

But, Gong Lu was too preoccupied to look at it as of then. He had received a massive headache, and it felt as if dozens of facts were being crammed into his head, all at once.

After a few minutes of head-splitting pain, Gong Lu began to clear his mind in order to take a look at all the new things he learned.