Afterlife Department

Chapter 581 – Bad Luck

"AH! What a fine day!" Huo Ling exclaimed in a loud voice as he leaned out of the window to look at their surroundings. He took a deep breath and breathed in fresh air from their surroundings.

"Seriously… who are you, people?" Lu Xiu asked as he drive the carriage.

Huo Ling heard him but he ignored him. Yi Bing, as usual, is silent. Wu Ling is frowning in displeasure while Qian San just smiled. Qi Bai, after seeing that Lu Xiu won't harm them, he resumed eating his snacks.

Instead, it was Shi Yi who spoke. "Didn't boss Luo tell you?" he asked and blinked, keeping his innocent act. "We are looking for the elixir of immortality." He told Lu Xiu.

Lu Xiu snorted. But, he didn't say anything else. This is the nth time that he asked them that question and this is the nth time that they didn't take his question seriously. They can see that he is secretly observing them throughout the trip and they didn't care. They have something more important to do. Even if he will really kill them, they can just take new identity again and resume their task. But, fortunately, although Lu Xiu is suspicious, he is a good person.

They have been travelling for a week now and, based from the map that they bought before in the Cuiyi Town, they are nearing the Guanling Province where the Snow Clouds Spring Blossoms Mountain was located.

"Did you feel a response?" Yi Bing asked the five of them.

Huo Ling, Qian San, Wu Ling, Shi Yi and Qi Bai shook their heads. They didn't feel a response from their soul assignments. Usually, the soul of the one that just died would linger in the place where they died. Then, after seven days, that soul would be sent to reincarnation. Of course, with the help of a grim reaper. Seven days are given as the time limit for the grim reaper to help the soul reincarnate.

Peaceful souls, like You Ri, would pass on and directly go to reincarnation on their own. But, for souls that have attachments, they have to resolve their attachments first before going to reincarnation. Or else, something will go wrong with their reincarnation and they might become a plant or an animal in their next life. This is where the grim reapers enter. They will help the souls resolve their attachments, which they call 'ferrying'.

Usually, they would immediately be sent where their soul assignment is. But, sometimes, mishaps happen. Like in the last world, with You Ri's soul, that has now been labeled as 'Abnormal Soul' like Huo Ling's before. This time, they also can't sense where their respective soul assignments are. Huo Ling, at one moment, thought that he must have had some bad luck stuck on him that he got from the previous world and he infected Qian San, Wu Ling, Shi Yi and Qi Bai with it. He silently apologized at them for one second before he forgot about this.

"What do you think happened to their souls?" Shi Yi asked as his eyes widened in fright when he thought of something. "You don't think… there is a Soul Eater here, do you?" he asked them.

"Shut up. This world is already hard as it is. What would it be if there is also a Soul Eater here?" Wu Ling asked. "We are just waiting to die!" he said.

"We are already dead." Qi Bai 'kindly' reminded him as he chewed on his pastry.

"Now, now." Qian San pacified them. "I don't think that there is a Soul Eater here. But, something might have happened to their souls." he said.

"Like what?" Yi Bing asked.

"Uh… I once overheard another senior grim reaper who once went to a wuxia world and said that there were mystic weapons." Qian San answered.

"'mystic weapons'?" Huo Ling asked.

"En. Like a Soul-Trapping Dagger. The soul of that person who was killed by that dagger would be trapped in the dagger." Qian San explained.

"Woah! No wonder you look calm unlike us!" Shi Yi told Qian San.

But, Huo Ling and Yi Bing fell silent. Not only did they have encountered about problematic soul assignments before, they also somewhat have some knowledge about wuxia worlds.

"… you don't think that there might be a similar weapon in this world?" Huo Ling asked them.

Qian San, Wu Ling, Shi Yi and Qi Bai instantly froze.

Yi Bing poured another bucket of cold water on them. "We are in a wuxia world." He spoke. "Didn't you think that it might be the same wuxia world as that senior grim reaper that you have overheard talking?" he asked Qian San.

Qian San's smile became stiff. "… no way… it can't be that… coinci… dental…" he said as his voice trailed off.

"If the souls have been dispersed, then we can't do something about it. But, the soul's status of being dispersed and gone forever should have appeared on the Death Note." Yi Bing said. "But, their statuses are all 'alive'. That means that they should still be alive but just somewhere that we don't know. And since we can't directly teleport to them, that means that the place where they are currently in is somewhere we can't have access to." He explained. "It is off-limits to us, outsiders of this world. That means that it is protected by the rules of this world." He told them.

Qian San, Wu Ling, Shi Yi and Qi Bai shut up as their faces paled when they thought of the possibility. "T – then… this means…" they muttered and shuddered.

"It means that their souls must be currently trapped." Yi Bing said. "Also… I don't know what would happen to us if we were also caught… if our souls could still return to Stable World in case we were also trapped." He told them.

Qian San, Wu Ling, Shi Yi and Qi Bai felt like their souls now could leave their body. They wanted to return! They never asked for this kind of task!

"Hey! Don't be a pessimist!" Huo Ling hit Yi Bing.

Yi Bing didn't answer. Huo Ling didn't tell him to not be alarmist, so, that means that Huo Ling agrees to what he said. Yi Bing's face turned grim. This world is much harder than the previous world.

Although Huo Ling also thought that what Yi Bing said is possible, he didn't take it seriously. "Hey. If their souls are really trapped, including Zhuo Xia's, then, how much grudge does that person, or people, that did this to them, have?" he asked and tried to recall all the dramatic plots of the wuxia drama and novels that he have watched and read, respectively, before.

"'grudge'?!" Qian San, Wu Ling, Shi Yi and Qi Bai exclaimed as they looked at Huo Ling in shock.

Huo Ling looked at them. "Trapping one's soul meant that they do not want the ones that they will trap to rest for eternity, since their souls are trapped, they can't enter reincarnation." He explained.

Qian San, Wu Ling, Shi Yi and Qi Bai now understood. That's right. They are here to send those souls to reincarnation. But, if those souls were trapped, then they can't help those souls enter reincarnation.

"Fck!" Wu Ling cursed. "This world really is very troublesome! Not just world-wise, but also people-wise!" he said.

Huo Ling and Yi Bing grimaced. Indeed, the person, or people, who trapped Zhuo Xia's and the other four's souls really is giving them, grim reapers, so many troubles, albeit unknowingly and unintentionally.

Shi Yi cried without tears while Qi Bai's speed in eating his snacks increased. It showed that he is frustrated.

Qian San helplessly smiled. "Let's give that person, or those people, a good smacking for creating lots of troubles for us." he told them.

"Defintiely!" Wu Ling immediately agreed.

Huo Ling also nodded. This time, his assignment was replaced because the first one, You Ri, had an accident happened to her soul. Huo Ling doesn't want any mishap to happen to this task of him this time! Or else, he… he'll –

Yi Bing looked at him. Huo Ling also looked at Yi Bing. Huo Ling will cry… he can only accept his fate of being so unlucky recently.

Yi Bing imperceptibly smiled. Huo Ling was indeed unlucky, for he always died at the age of twenty-three. But, not long after he became a grim reaper, this bad luck of his seemed to disappear. Yet, it actually didn't and this bad luck of his just transferred to his tasks.

It seems like this bad luck of his won't be leaving him sooner in the future…

Meanwhile, Lu Xiu who was eavesdropping on them didn't hear anything useful, as what he only heard from them is them 'excitedly' talking about this trip, which is going to the Snow Clouds Spring Blossoms Mountain. This is the illusion spell that Yi Bing casted before he started their discussion inside the carriage.

Thus, Lu Xiu, hearing nothing of importance from the grim reapers' discussion, he decided to enjoy the scenery.