Black Feather Society

Time… is something that can be perceived… But never be seen. It can be felt yet not at the same time. But it is all in the game of mind. One's consciousness. An intertwining thread of perspective and perception. A work of psychology.

Like when one feels that a nap of two hours is short. And the same person feels overwhelmingly torturous to wait in queue for ten minutes.

It was the same for case Li Ning. For her, she felt that she had just fallen into the sea and lost her consciousness merely a second before she opened her eyes again. But this time, she was no longer underwater. She touched her chest… The burning pain was not longer there.

Wait… That should not be the point.

She was not wet. Not even a drop of moisture was on her body. And she… She was standing when she gained her consciousness.

"Hello little one."

A calm and resonant voice drew Li Ning from her series of confusion.

There before her stood two fine…. Majestic man. One was the epitome of light, dressed in white suit and white hair. Everything looked so… pure. And the other… She could not describe. The man was dress in ancient black Hanfu. Her knee length lustrous black hair complimented his light skin. His dark eyebrows were sharp and his eyes so deep…

"Hello?"

Came the unsure answer from Li Ning. Then she remembered where she was. A huge hall and all the six sides are painted white. She thought of something…

"Am I… Am I dead? Is this the afterlife?"

"…"

"…"

The man in black simply glare at the other man. Irritation written all over his face. The reciepient of the glare let out a nervous laugh before replying to Li Ning's question.

"Well… Yes… But not at the same time."

"…"

Li Ning gave the guy a questioning look.

"So… I'm dead. But also not dead?" 'What does that mean?' Her eyes accused the man in white.

"Well… There's a lot to explain. Let's start with the introduction. I go by many names. But since you are Chinese… I'm Yu Huang as you guys call me. And this is…" He pointed at the other guy who was clearly not pleased at the situation, "Yin Shen. And we have come to inform you that you don't belong to this world. But another world. And you are not fully you.

There is a half of… no one third of your soul in the other world. And your life has been filled with misfortunes because of your uncomplete souls. It is all because of the negligence of the administration of Life and Reincarnation Department. So we have to correct the mistake and send you back to your original world."

"…"

"Wait…"

Li Ning paused. She took a few seconds to breath in what had just been poured onto her. Only to reaclise that she really could not get what the man… Or God just said. So she could only exclaime. Out loud.

"WHAT!!!"

"How did someone like you even get to be the governor of heaven?" Yin Shen sneered.

"Well that not something a person who could not even ascend know about. Oh! Wait you're not even a person."

"It's not that I couldn't. It's because I wouldn't. Heaven is too boring for me."

"How dare you call heaven boring! What do you have that the heaven can't have? Huh!"

Yin Shen looked at Li Ning for a second. Then smirked at Yu Huang.

"I have descendants. Something you Heavener's don't."

"…"

"…"

"You might be right on that. But let me tell you, Heaven is not boring. You're just too much of…"

"Amm… If you could please explain my situation to me first…" Li Ning looked at Yu Huang "a better explanation first, and continue with your argument later… I would appreciate that. Please…"

"Ahmm!!" The governor of Heaven cleared his throat before he began to explain. "It's like this. Due to some error, your soul which should have been reincarnated in the Lan Xing dimension was split up. One third of your soul got reincarnated there while the remaining came to this world."

"And…" The concept of her soul being split was hard to absorb, but after everything that had happened, Li Ning longer tried to use her brain to make sense.

"And because your soul is not complete, you have been lives filled with misfortune. In both dimensions. So_"

"Wait. Lives? What do you mean?" Li Ning interrupted.

"Yes. Lives. This is not your first life in this world. It's the third…" Yin Shen answered.

Li Ning remembered her life… the life she had before she was brought there and couldn't help getting curious.

"What… How were they? My previous lives?"

"…"

[Hey! Shadow Lord. Will it okay?]

[Why are you asking me? This mess is caused by the negligence of you gods. Don't get me involved.]

[I've already agreed to make her have her memories when her souls get unified. If I give tell her more of her past life… Aren't you worried the girl would get into depression?]

[Depression? The fate that is waiting for there is harsher than the little misery she's facing now. If she doesn't learn to hard her mind, she would fail to fulfill her destiny. And the circle would never end…]

[Okay… I know what to do…]

The two powerful entities debated whether they should tell her not telepathically. Then Yu Huang reached out for her head, placing his hand on it. Li Ning felt a warm current pass through her head for a sec. Then they rushed in. The memories that were so familiar and foreign at the same time.

"Those are your memories from your past lives."

"…"

The girl did not respond. And the two men did not mind it at all. Because they knew she need time to process the memories that had been just dumped onto her.

Li Ning always had this thought that her life could not get any worse. Oh! How wrong she was! The memories of her past lives proved her wrong. Like her current life, she had been always alone in her past lives. No loved ones to rely on. At least in this life, she felt her mother's love and her grandfather's care and affection for her.

Sadly, the beginning of her past life began with her being an orphan. Her first life was hell with her being sold from here to there as a slave. She was not a human… She was not treated like one. She was just a thing for the rich to play when they wanted and throw their temper when they were irritated. She did not even live past her teens.

Her second life… It could not be said to be any different. It was just that she had some value. She was more of a weapon than a toy. She had been isolated and trained to kill people. An assassin. In the end, she ended up being killed by her own master.

Cold sweat ran down her spine. Li Ning teared up. These were her past lives… She was even more guilty… There she was complaining about her life being unfair. While her past lives…

Taking in her breath, she looked at the two who were patiently waiting for her.

"If… If you knew I lived such miserable lives, why did you not find me sooner. Why not in my first life?" 'Then I wouldn't have been lived such pitiful lives later…'

"It's not that I did not want to. It was because your soul… Well this part of your soul was not registered and could not be traced. Moreover, Hei and Bai1 could not find your soul since you did not appear in the list of death."

 "Then… How did you find me now?" Li Ning continued her queries.

"Did you remember the Shadow core? The black sphere with markings on it." Yu Huang reminded the young lady.

"Black Sphere?" Li Ning whispered to herself.

Then the image of the black and lustrous marble which she had thought was an illusion came into her mind.

Yu Huang saw from her expression that she remembered it and gave the answer to her previous question.

"That was what made us find you."

But it did not make Li Ning understand what she wanted to understand. Instead, it added more questions to the already plenty she had.

"But… How? I thought it was illusion. It just disappeared."

"No. It did not disappear." Yin Shen joined in.

"I didn't? Then where did it go? I looked for it everywhere but couldn't find it."

The Shadow Lord then pointed at her.

"It's there."

Li Ning looked at her tummy, where the Shadow Lord was pointing. Before she turned to him and gave a confused look. Seeing that, the man sighed before continuing.

"The core did not disappear. It got absorbed into you. That how I was able to find you."

"How_" The girl did not even complete her question.

She felt that her brain would be even more fried than it already was if she asked about it. But then she remembered something.

"You!!!" She pointed at the two. Accusation in her eyes and a fair amount of anger in them too.

"You killed me as soon as you found me!!!"