Zhang Xiyu had departed to his afterlife but the matters of the mortal realm were still unresolved. Even though he succeeded in saving his family, their welfare was only temporary. While they only faced a few scars from the fire, the actual damage came from inhaling the poison. Zhang Xiwei and Zhang Xiang were the only ones who came out relatively unscathed from this incident.

Apart from this, Zhang Xiang desperately led an investigation behind what happened. His eyes stayed wide open every night, his heart craving for Zhang Xiyu's justice. But the emperor was half-hearted and so were his men. They looked at the previous grand estate which had turned into ashes and decided to call it a household accident. Uncle Chao was forced to bear the brunt of this damage. He was the one who was careless. He was the reason behind the malfunctioning of the Kang Beds.

Uncle Chao wept and begged for mercy but the officials were in no mood to let go of this ideal scapegoat. Zhang Xiang now had to run three ways. He had to bring the truth to light, he had to prove Uncle Chao's innocence, and he also had to take care of his sick family. Zhang Xiwei was also coming of age and soon her marriage would also loom over his head. But now that the estate was gone, his father bedridden and his brother dead, finance was also tight for the Zhang family.Zhang Xiwei consoled that she did not need to marry a rich, talented lord. A simple man would be fine. She knew it would be hard for her family to meet the dowry of an upper-class man at this point but Zhang Xiang told her to shut up and focus on herself. He will take care of it.

Such was life for the Zhang family, filled with such struggles. The emperor eventually abdicated the throne, Mother Zhang soon passed away, and his father had gone into a coma.

Years later, as if cursed by Zhang Xiyu's spirit, the Qing Dynasty started to feel its fall. General Qi had also grown old. His spirit broke as he saw the empire turnover. Zhang Xiyu had nailed it right to the point. And yet he could not do anything to prevent it.

But Zhang Xiyu could fairly care less about such affairs. His eyes had opened to a faint orange fog surrounding him.

I am.... Alive?

He sat up in a wooden boat which floated softly along the river, with no aim in sight. The boat moved on its own. Zhang Xiyu tried to stop it but it would not obey him.

He gave up and studied his situation. Huang Quan? But no, I still have my memories intact. The river is also…... not made of blood. No, this looks like the Sanzu River.

He read that in a Japanese mythology book before. How accurate that assumption is to reality, he did not know.

Soon the fog started to slowly dissipate.

He realized that the seemingly narrow river was actually vast beyond imagination. The river was so large, he could not even make out a 2D line around it.

The size of the river slowly justified itself as more boats started popping out of the fog. One boat, two boats. The number increased until there were countless of them floating away in the same direction as him. The individuals' age ranged from old to young. The old passengers sat peacefully, some silently weeping while some carried a slight smile on their face. The screamers were the young ones. Some tried to jump off the boat in hysteria but an invisible force pushed them back in. They screamed questions no one wanted to answer.

The rest were still asleep. Zhang Xiyu decided their way was more sorted and went back to sleep himself.

While dozing off he thought – 'I am dead. Now what?'

Around half an hour later, he woke up under a grand gate-like structure. The tall pillars were painted blood red. Intense wisps of smoke surrounded it. On a closer look, those wisps had blurry hands and a wailing mouth.

Gate of the Ghosts.

Upon passing through the gates, the foggy sky changed into a reddish hue. The landing port was now within sight. The ones working the port were seven-feet giants with irregular horns. Zhang Xiyu finally landed on the port.

"Move it! Move it! Cease your irritating cries! Yes, you are in Hell. Do you not see the board? You blind?"

The giants waved their maces and pushed the crowd through the entrance. What awaited Zhang Xiyu was a long, long line.

"Attention sinners! Stay in the line if you want to have a chance at reincarnation! If you want to be demon food then please step out, we are not against it!" A voice resounded through the hall as if speaking from a loud-speaker.

That made the crowd go silent. The scared ghosts didn't dare squeak under the radar of these monsters. Zhang Xiyu figured that it would take hours before his turn and decided to scan his surroundings as much as he could.

He first looked at his own body. For the most part, it looked the same. But there was a certain translucence to his body which would explain the lightness of it. Damn, I really turned into a ghost huh?

"It didn't used to be like this, Ashfoot. This palace was created long back ago. Times have changed."

"Then shouldn't the Lord keep up with it?" Ashfoot sneered.

"Soilwings, look at these pests! They are crowding the hall so much, soon I won't have space to stand!"

Soilwings agreed," And there is only one officer in this branch! Foghand hasn't gone back to his family for three centuries! I saw his wife the other day."

"Cindermask? That's rare."

"Of course, it is." Soilwings smiled wryly.

"She eloped with this other demon from the second circle. When I asked about Foghand she asked me back 'Who the fuck's Foghand?'.... truly miserable."

The two giants sighed pitifully.

Zhang Xiyu's waiting slipped away with the help of primetime hell gossip. He too noticed the unorganised methods of this realm. You could not blame such chaos on the demons. While they worked hard in their own way, they still lacked manpower. But the most important thing they lacked was a credible manager. Although Zhang Xiyu's scholar-official identity was dead with him, his intrinsic judgement was still present.

Finally, his turn came. This time it was no giant that handled the identity check, but a human?

At least he looked like one. The man looked like he was in his fifties and had a tired disposition.

"Name?" Zou Yaozu asked.

"Zhang Xiyu."

"Zhang Xiyu...." He put his hand in an enormous pot which was melded with the ground, and started chanting something strange.

A file popped out of the pot. Zou Yaozu skilfully snatched it midair and smacked it on the table.

Name: Zhang Xiyu.

Age: 26

Cause of Death: Burned and poisoned.

Occupation before death: Academician

'They die so young and brutally these days.' Zou Yaozu shook his head and looked at the man in question.

'Heavens. I can't go soft for each and every one of them.' He stamped a form and handed it to Zhang Xiyu.

"Walk straight ahead and enter that office over there. Mr. Foghand will set your trial date."

In Foghand's office, Zhang Xiyu sat quietly. Foghand was furiously filling away forms and flipping through his file.

"Strait-laced life, died of conspiracy. You are eligible for a normal trial. So that would be…...14 years from now onwards. The trial will determine the time and place of your reincarnation. Till then the demons will be guiding you through the sin elimination process so be obedient, okay?"

Zhang Xiyu pulled his lips in a thin line and looked at Foghand with deadpan eyes.

Let your wife go through it first! Bah!

Zhang Xiyu walked out of the office thinking, 'All in all, humans are stupid if they fear death. The heavenly ways were simply an administrative walkthrough to another life." He walked out with a lazy stride. Fourteen years of hell huh? Isn't that a bit too long?

Records say that he will be eating his words soon in the future.

On his way out of the office building, he saw a map of hell which was divided into eighteen levels. According to Foghand, he only had to go through four levels.

Hill of Ice, The Pool of Blood, Yard of stone mill, and Chamber of mirrors of retribution.

For the purification of his soul, he will have to go through these levels for the period of three years. After which he can laze around till his trial date. 

He walked up to the demon who was guarding the building and asked, "Excuse me. I was told there would be a guide waiting for me. Here's my judgement card."

The guard who was half asleep got annoyed and snatched the card away.

Three years of menial punishment. A youthful, bright soul.

The demon looked at him from top to bottom. A pretty one too.

The demon suppressed his happiness. I have landed on a golden bag of opportunity!

"Welcome! Little Zhang! I am your guide of hell. As for this judgement?" He threw the card back at him.

"We don't need it. Foghand hasn't been out in centuries and only handles paperwork. He doesn't know things have changed out here." the demon waved his hand.

"Oh! Where are my manners? I forgot to introduce myself. I am Blazebeast, your first friend in hell! Now let me take you to an awesome place." he grinned.

Zhang Xiyu felt sick of his fake attitude. Why is his acting so bad? Even Heng looks talented in front of this Blazebeast.

But for now, he had no choice but to follow this suspicious beast. He was in no position to refuse this giant nor could he make a complaint. He sighed; this is hell after all.

Blazebeast summoned a carriage out of his spatial ring. Zhang Xiyu sat in the back while Blazebeast handed the reins to the ghost horse. 

Zhang Xiyu had no idea where he was being taken to. When he asked Blazebeast about it, the demon said it was a surprise and tried to act cute. The result was very sickening.

To avoid seeing anything like that again, Zhang Xiyu let the ride stay silent and simply looked out of the window.

Zhang Xiyu was used to Earth and so the scenery of hell somewhat shook him. Black smoke and lava made up most of it. There were old, wrinkled ghosts who cried for help as the demons stood around to whip them. The scene changed to a female demon ripping apart a ghost's face and putting it on herself like a facemask. The demon cackled in delight while the woman screamed in pain.

Travelling furthermore, Zhang Xiyu saw a demon kidnapping a ghost child and then eating him up, limb by limb. His cries grow faint as his voice gets gobbled up by the monster.

Zhang Xiyu shut his eyes. He felt nausea creeping up on him. His back was drenched with cold sweat.

"This.... This is Lord Enma's justice?" His voice quivered.

The carriage stopped abruptly and Blazebeast whipped his head around in surprise.

"Lord Enma's justice?!" The beast was puzzled.

Upon looking at Zhang Xiyu's earnest eyes he determined that he was in fact not joking. This made him break out in boisterous laughter.

Zhang Xiyu grew visibly distressed at this reaction but the demon clutched his stomach with laughter.

"What's so funny?" Zhang Xiyu hissed.

"Little Zhang, I suggest you rethink your purpose in Hell."

"What?"

Blazebeast turned back and restarted the journey.

"This is no place for justice, Little Zhang. You have long days ahead of you. You will figure out why."

Zhang Xiyu was not satisfied with this cryptic answer and had to hold back his barrage of interjections because, they had arrived.

In this bleak, bloody atmosphere, a pure white villa stood out like a sore thumb. The building looked heavily out of place, like an untouched white tulip growing against wet dirt.

"We have arrived. I believe you will like this place." The demon again tried to smile amicably.

Zhang Xiyu wanted to go home already.

___________________________________________

Author's Note:

The Hellscroll starts to write its entries today. What do you think is happening in that villa? Why did Blazebeast take him there? Do you all love Blazebeast like I do?
⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝<3

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Let's get through another week! ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶