03 Let's Not Meet Again

"Alright, fine!" he resigned upon seeing her expression turn grimmer, "But please don't take my previous words that way, Bai. That's not what I meant, you're not a villain but it was the wheel of fate that had ruled it out as... such," the figure confessed, a tad bit hesitant.

"It's still the same!" spat the girl.

"In the end, whatever fucking wheel that is, it still thinks that someone died because of what... me? I didn't even touch her how did I kill another person?!"

As the words hung heavily in the air, Bai Feiyin felt her heart drop in despair as she uttered each word.

"Why? Do they expect me to be a saint, to run a charity? To be a willing victim when I know that I'm being taken advantage of? I'm already done with my work with you! You've ascended, shouldn't I be a normal person in my fourth life? So, why am I being punished for not giving away my hard-earned money to some old crone trying to tear my limb?"

The figure fell silent, fueling Bai Feiyin's frustration.

"I should be done being your contractor! Why am I being held in contempt like this?!"

"... that should be the case," Hong replied but his words lacked conviction.

Bai Feiyin shook her head in dismay.

Despite not having blood on her hands, in the Heavenly verdict, she had inadvertently caused the demise of two lives and set in motion the slow destruction of three more.

The old woman's disabled husband is left alone with no one to care for him.

The son's grieving pregnant fiancée, who had lost her will to live. And the unborn child, fatherless before birth.

With this, the good karma she had accumulated over three lifetimes was instantly nullified and gone red.

Filled with resentment, the girl worded sarcasm, "You're not even sure of any damn thing and you say you're a god. What a total sham—huh? What the... hell?" her next words came to a halt and her swollen eyelids grew wider with fear and anxiety, "W-what's happening to my ha... hands? H-Hey Hong! My hands!" Bai Feiyin called out in panic when she noticed her arms fading.

Hong didn't appear to be surprised as though he had seen this coming, "We can't stay here for long, Bai. The soul collectors, they have started retrieving the soul from your dead body. I'll just have to remind you that if you stay, your fate... will be with Yama on the eighteenth hell," he explained calmly like it wasn't about someone's life and death.

Hearing the mention of King Yama much less the eighteenth hell, Bai Feiyin's head throbbed mercilessly.

She's really going to hell?!

"N-no way, not in hell! I don't wanna be purged and set on fire!" she exclaimed frantically. She may have mentioned selling her soul to the devil earlier but she was only bluffing!

Who in their right mind would do that even in desperation?

[A/n: you contracted a beast tho]

"..."

Bai Feiyin grabbed her long hair strands and turned to the iridescent figure, "Hong, do something about this! It's all your fault for not helping me out with that woman!"

She watched as her limbs slowly vanished into thin air. 

"I told you, I can only send you back," the man replied mirroring her helplessness.

"W-What past exactly? No, be specific Hong! In... In what lifetime will—ah dang it! Why is it so fast not the face, already? Oh crap... Hong, do it now! Just... just do it but not in the first life!"

The words she spoke became inaudible after her mouth started to deteriorate in the atmosphere. Good thing, Hong was able to salvage her and send her back before the creatures of death successfully seized her soul. 

Saving her with just the remaining half of her head as the medium that still connected her with the living.

Soon the light that shrouded his body ceased, revealing a tall and lean man with brilliant, fiery red hair.

A remarkable figure akin to a jade beauty if not for the striking masculinity and scales that covered his entire forearm. But once dazzling pair of red ruby orbs soon had gradually turned dim, losing their charm and power.

"I won't be asking for forgiveness," his eyes were akin to a vortex filled with unspeakable emotions, grief was in plain sight. "It was my shortcoming that led us to this. But this is the only I could protect you. I..."

Although his voice grew weary, a rare affectionate gaze lingered on the spot where she was.

Hong watched as her reflection was consumed by the spiraling portal. 

"For your sake. Let's... not meet again..."

As soon as she vanished, the space within her consciousness, where they had once been, began to crumble, drowning out Hong's strained voice. Suddenly, his heart thumped with a rhythm unfamiliar to a deity, putting the beast god on edge.

Clenching his tightening chest, Hong was overwhelmed. A sense of loss bored into his newly beating heart, driving him to the ground with vacant eyes.

But this farewell was inevitable.

Their bond and connection had come to an end, and he had come to terms with it. Yet, at this moment, Hong was conflicted.

Why is it that the sheer thought of her departure left him feeling suffocated and desolate?

It's just that Bai Feiyin, that mortal companion, was now nowhere to give him the answer he was missing.

***

And thus, Bai Feiyin was once again sent back in time. Still stumped at how things had become.

She had never believed in superstitions or curses. Yet, here she was, back at the beginning because of some karmic influence.

"You treacherous snake. I knew from the start that you couldn't be trusted! I should have roasted you when we first met! Not signing a sham contract!"

The anger in her system didn't subside.

 "Sending me back to my first life? Fantastic! Just perfect!"

Too perfect to fuck her up, that is!

Fuming, her voice dripping with hate and sarcasm. She specifically told him not in this life, that hopeless guy!

Does he expect her to wag her tail and feel merry by reliving a painful reality with her late family knowing what will become of them in the future?

Such a cruel fate binding her once again.

Bang Feiyin's tears poured like a lava fall, her eyes glistened with fierce proclamation of challenge.

"You want to toy with me? So be it! I will scour the mountains and hunt you down! I don't believe that I go back in time, you, my contracted beast won't go back as well," she uttered resolutely.

Face beet red, burning in rage, she stared intently at the pigeon bloodstone inside her palms with a mark of a serpent's slitted eyes.

"Those two other lives filled with war and bloodshed weren't lived in vain. Since you've sent me here, I will bury you along with those greedy pigs from the Bai Main Branch who owe me and my family four lifetimes' worth of debts!"