In This Life • Tale Of The Nine Tailed • Lee Rang

Chapter 4

When a fox turns 100, It can transform into a beautiful woman or become a man who has relations with one. However, a fox of 1000 years receives the sky's blessing and becomes a celestial fox. Its abilities match that of a powerful shaman which allows it to see what are miles ahead.

—It is said that a 2000 year old fox can transcend between the land of Iife and the land of death.
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10 years ago

"Lee Yeon is enjoying life out there and you're here. All lonely and sad, abandoned by the ones you love. Hell of a hell, Rang.", Lin says from behind with an amused tone

Time in hell runs different, it's been an eternity since he heard another voice...or seen another person, and whoever it was, Rang was damn relieved. The young gumiho turned around and studied the well dressed man, he had only seen the man twice in his 639 years of life, but he recognised him at a glance, "Ryu Lin?"

"Just Lin.", The older gumiho confirmed

Rang tilted his head, "How are you here?"

"It seems like you've forgotten that I'm almost 1.5 millenniums older than you."

Rang smiled, he always liked this man's humour, "What's a grandfather like you doing in death? Got tired of your immortal life? Looking for a nice care home to settle down?"

Lin chuckled, "Well, I don't usually roam around other people's hell for fun."

Rang understood what the latter meant and sighed, "I can't give you anything. In case your wrinkled brain has forgotten, I'm dead."

"But I can give you something."

"And what might that be?", Rang tested

"To see your brother- who successfully came back to life because of you-and family again.", Lin put his hands in the pockets of his trouser, feeling proud of what he had just offered, "In other words, rebirth"

"Rebirth?", Rang laughed at the ridiculous word, "Don't get me excited, you're literally in hell with me right now. My hell."

"The dragon's pearl.", Lin suggested, confident that it would shed some light in Rang's ignorance.

Rang went silent and his expression changed from playful to serious. The dragon's pearl is one of the four gems of the four mountain spirits intended to protect all creation. The other items include; The mirror of the moon, the fox bead and the golden hourglass.

Sacred treasures of the mythical world and its powers are infinite, hence why the items are kept by the most powerful mountain spirits...Lee Yeon, Ryu Lin, Sa Ddo and Seo Hwa.

To bring someone back to life with the dragon's pearl would be a piece of cake, which is why Rang became suspicious, "But why rebirth? Not reincarnation or simply being brought back to life right here, on the spot."

"Reincarnation is random, how can you be sure that you'll be recognised? It'll be a shame if you really turned into a Dokdo shrimp.", Lin reasoned, "And don't you want to have a happy start at life for once? To have your own happiness without the pain you had to go through...no abandonment from your own mother...no objections over your existence...moreover, if you go back now, your name on the list of wanted criminals would resume. And even if you go back like this, you know that there's not much time left for you in this life anyway, you were dying. You're not stupid enough to be brought back to life just to face the harsh reality of slowly dying...again."

"So what would it be? Continue or restart?", Lin asked, his wicked smile reminds Rang of himself when he used to go around and torment humans. He loved being the choice giver then see them suffer the consequence of their own decisions.