Waking Up With Five -Tails

"Look, it's old man Yao. So you finally decided to reincarnate?"

King Yama patted his belly while grinning at the soul standing in front of his throne.

"Yeah. I got tired of the same old, same old. Why not just start anew?"

The soul belonged to Yao Huang, a deity-level cultivator famed to have reached the pinnacle of Dao. Usually, a deity-level cultivator like him was practically immortal, able to stay in the living world indefinitely as long as their energy remained stable. However, this particular person had decided to end his long life and grace the wheel of life with his presence once again.

It wasn't the first time for such a thing to happen, so King Yama understood it well. Immortality, after all, could be a lonely experience.

"Alright, alright, let's see... your karma isn't too bad. You just want to sightsee the world, right? I'll just give you an average life. Do you want to reincarnate as your descendants or your enemy's descendants?"

"Just give me a drama-free life please..."

He didn't want to be bothered with those high-octane actions in the martial world again. Too tiring. He just wanted to see how the new world would be now that blissful peace had finally arrived with the ascension of the wise emperor.

"I've finished the procedure. Go to the pool of reincarnation."

"Ay. When I come here again, let's have a drink."

Yao Huang made a gesture of holding a cup with his fingers.

"Sure, I'll be waiting! Next soul, step forward!"

Leaving King Yama's court, Yao Huang was escorted to the queue at the side of a fenced cliff. If he looked down, he could see the uncountable amount of jugs stretching as far as eyes could see. Each of the jugs leads to a new path of life. As for the destination and the form that someone would take after diving in... only King Yama could tell.

"Here you go, drink it all. Next, please."

A gentle voice called out at the end of the line. When Yao Huang reached it, he saw a middle-aged lady pouring fragrant tea into cups with her jade ladle.

Lady Meng Po, Old Lady Meng, the Lady of Forgetfulness. She brewed the infamous Five-Fragrance Tea and then offered them to the reincarnating souls. Those who had drunk this tea would be washed off of their memories, allowing them a fresh start in their new life.

"My fair Lady Meng, you're as beautiful as always. Why don't you reincarnate together with me? I'll be sure to bring you happiness."

Yao Huang gently took her hand, and then planted a soft kiss on its back.

"Glib-tongue!"

Old Lady Meng pushed his hand away with a slight smile. She then laid out three cups on the table.

"Old man Yao, your soul was burdened with too much karma, so you have to drink three cups. The first two will cleanse your soul from acc.u.mulated side-effects of your cultivation, while the last cup will free you from the shackles of your past memories."

Yao Huang took the first cup, sniffing it with great delight, and then slowly savoring its taste.

"Does… does it taste good?" The soul behind him gulped.

"Well... you won't be able to remember, but it's definitely out of this world," Yao Huang replied.

He was about to drink the second cup when a ray of light flashed by his side, landing straight on the first cup that he had set on the table. The pure-white porcelain was blasted away into dust.

"..."

Everyone in the vicinity saw what had happened. Question marks began to pop up on top of their heads.

Another ray of light shot out, this time piercing through the cup on Yao Huang's hand!

"Everyone duck!"

Ray of lights blasted off in all directions, causing explosions everywhere they'd landed. The tranquil atmosphere soon turned chaotic.

"What the heck is going on?!"

"Look! Up there!" Someone yelled, pointing at the dark sky of the underworld.

Yao Huang squinted. A huge, slithering shadow had filled the entire sky. At the end of that shadow was a beast's head shaped like a horse, yet with rows of teeth as sharp as blades and a pair of gigantic deer horns.

"A Dragon?!"

Everyone was shocked. What's a dragon doing in the underworld? This isn't the southern sea, alright?

Rays of light once again rained down. This time, they could tell that the rays came from the dragon. No, more precisely, they came from something, or someone, on top of the dragon!

"Where is she?!"

A thundering voice shook the entire world, causing the souls to tremble in fear. To have such an arrogant tone in the ruling of King Yama, whether it was an idiot or not, the souls could tell that it must have possessed at least the strength of a deity-level cultivator!

The pitch-black sky was suddenly brightened by a flurry of fire and lightning. The two guardians of the underworld, Ox-Head and Horse-Face, had entered the fray to subdue the cultivator.

The souls watched with bated breath until someone yelled,

"Get back! Something's falling!"

Everyone jumped back from the edge of the cliff. From above, a huge rotating wheel fell down from the sky with a deafening rumble.

The wheels crushed the numerous jugs beneath the cliff, causing the water inside to mix with one another, creating one giant pool of black water. The wheel slowly sunk into the water until only a small part of it stayed afloat.

"Nooo! The pool of reincarnation!"

"W-what should we do now?"

"Stay away from the pool! Nobody can tell where you'll end up if you fall in there!"

The underworld staff quickly rushed over to pull the souls away from the cliff.

In the middle of this mess, the fight above had grown even fiercer. The rampaging cultivator proved to be so strong that he was able to overpower the two guardians. King Yama's troops had arrived to provide assistance, but that just made the cultivator pour out deadlier techniques, seemingly ignorant of the perils of the innocent souls below.

Thunder roared and steel needles rained down, turning the underworld into a scene of carnage.

Yao Huang and several other cultivators helped the staff to carry over weaker souls to the side, where a protection array had been erected to protect them for the time being. They didn't dare to join the fight in fear of muddling up the underworld's karma even further. They could only hope that the guardians would be able to take the rogue down before he could do further damage.

It was at this moment that a ray of light flit past the array toward Lady Meng's pavilion. The Lady and her servants were still moving the jugs containing the Five-Fragrance Tea, and thus couldn't get away on time.

"Lady Meng!"

Yao Huang jumped with all his might, tackling Lady Meng away from the trajectory of the ray. It exploded, launching the two toward the edge of the cliff.

"Damnit!"

Without thinking, Yao Huang kicked Lady Meng's body away from the cliff. In return, he alone crashed onto the cliff's fence... which easily buckled up under his weight and broke into pieces.

"..."

'Ah... King Yama... you should've used metal fences instead...'

He proceeded to fall into the turbulent black pool with a loud splash.

"Old man Yao!"

"Damn it, he fell into the pool!"

"Lady Meng, you can't! I know how you feel, but you shouldn't be so rash!"

"Venerable Yao! Hold my fork! Oh shit, I can't see him anymore..."

"Venerable Yao-!"

"..."

As he sunk deeper and deeper, the voices quickly faded away.

Within the swirling darkness, Yao Huang's soul was swallowed by waves of crushing pressure. In the first blink, he was squeezed into a small dot. In the next blink, every fiber of his soul was pulled in all directions, threatening to break him apart. The pain was incomparable to his past tribulations.

If he stayed here any longer, his soul would be ripped into shreds, and he would no longer 'exist'. It was the feeling of 'true death'. Forget about being unable to reincarnate, his everything would be removed from the world's memory, as if he had never been there in the first place.

"...No!"

Fear crept into his heart for the very first time in thousands of years. He had to get out of there! Now!

Waving his arms in the dark, murky water, he noticed a faint light in the distance. Usually, this kind of light would stay at the bottom of the jugs, signifying the entrance to the path of reincarnation. However, the pool was unstable at the moment. He couldn't tell what kind of thing he'd end up as.

Who knows, he might end up as c.o.c.kroach!

"Screw it! Becoming a c.o.c.kroach is also fine!"

Anything was better than disappearing for all eternity!

Finally making his mind, he willed his torn soul to move toward that light...

---

"..."

"..."

"...Pain-!"

A gasp escaped the small child's mouth, causing the a.d.u.l.ts to turn their heads to look.

"Still alive. It seems that the child's compatibility isn't too bad."

"Does it matter? It's just a temporary vessel anyway. We've finally found a satisfactory candidate. In a few days, we'll transfer the beast again."

"What about the child?"

"What about it? Don't tell me that you've grown sentimental?"

"Yeah, right. Anyway, I don't think it'll hold for long. Let's get out of here."

The two men walked out toward the door. One of them gave out an order to the guards outside.

"Keep this room sealed. If the beast managed to break out of the kid's seal, subdue it immediately."

"Understood!"

"So, about that candidate..."

"Hmm, if I remember it correctly, the name's Han-"

The door was finally closed, sealing the room from the outside world. Without light coming from outside, the room was covered in total darkness.

The child slowly got up into a sitting position.

"Pain... what's going on? Did I reincarnate into a sickly body?"

Yao Huang tried moving his new body's limbs. Everything worked fine, saves for the pain coursing through his body. When he swiped his fingers over his arm, he noticed that it was covered in thick, sticky liquid.

He took a sniff. It smelled like iron.

"...Blood?"

Hmm... he might have reincarnated into a dangerous situation... but at least he's still a human, not a c.o.c.kroach!

'As long as I'm still a human, then I can cultivate!'

Since he only drank one cup of Five-Fragrance Tea, he had managed to retain the memory of his old self.

'Will it unbalance the karma of this world…? Whatever. I'll just leave the difficult stuff for King Yama to settle when I get back to the underworld.'

When he tried to stand up, he accidentally noticed something that made him break up in cold sweat.

Five glowing tentacles were attached to his behind, each of them swaying with the wind. No, not tentacles... they looked soft on the touch, and a bit feathery.

Could it be... tails?

He poked at one of the tails. It swayed away in response. The touch felt like sinking into a soft pillow.

'The heck? Did I reincarnate into a fox demon?!'

Suddenly, he felt something penetrating through the boundaries of his soul. A soft, yet prideful voice echoed within his head.

"This One's name is Kokuo."

The shadow of a huge, white beast filled his vision.

"Such a weak and small vessel... This One will devour you whole!"