After receiving information from the fortune teller, I am now making my way back home.

I wish I could make it home faster. During my time spent lost in the city, I kept thinking unsettling thoughts.

What if they found out that I've left the river and that somehow Jun was responsible for it? What if someone had spotted us and waited till we were seperated to attack?

What is the ghost who possessed my body up to right now? Could he be pretending to be me? Are my parents in danger?

And now, during this time consuming journey between the city and my town, I'm starting to have those bad thoughts again.

This isn't good for my mind. When I have too much time to think, I only ever seem to think about bad things. If I keep this up, my emotions will be in disarray and I won't be able to think clearly when the time comes. Think happy thoughts, Zhang Shun.

By the time, I reached the town of dreams the sun was already setting and I had reached the bridge, when I saw a large figure standing on the other end of the bridge, looking in my direction. At first I ignored him but the closer I got to him I realised... He wasn't just looking in my direction. He was looking at me. His eyes were tracking me...

From a long distance away, I skid to a halt.

Dark complexion, a comically large beard befitting of his large body and wielding a golden hilted sword.

"I have been watching you, shui gui. What do you think you are doing repeatedly trespassing here?"

"That wasn't my intention, I'm just travelling around. I don't mean any harm."

"Regardless of your intentions, there is an agreement with the shui gui town. You ghosts stay away from any other towns and the exorcists stay out of your affairs. You have broken that so you will be erased."

He raises his sword in a fighting stance blocking off the entire bridge.

"Please let me pass. I don't want to fight."

He doesn't give a response and continues staring me down. It's not that he didn't hear me. He purposefully listened but refused to interact.

I don't like these kinds of people. Stubborn. So righteously stubborn they won't even dignify you with a response.

Impossible to negotiate with. Impossible to reason with.

No... maybe I just haven't found the right circumstances to negotiate with him yet.

He's probably an exorcist... Maybe I should bring up Amelia? She was the one who told me to go to the city after all.

No, I mustn't. What if the exorcists aren't too pleased after finding out Amelia gave me that info? I could be risking throwing her under the bus.

...

I can't think of anything else. I'll just keep prodding at him till he gives me something.

"Why do you have to exorcise me? I haven't harmed anyone."

The silence continues.

"Why did the exorcists make that agreement anyways? Why not just send a whole bunch of exorcists to exorcise the shui gui?"

"Things are a lot more complicated than that, shui gui. There's a reason the exorcists decided to herd all of the shui gui in that town."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A reason... I guess there would be but would it kill you to give me the details? Also, I just noticed but since the beginning he has been referring to the exorcists as 'the exorcists'. As if he were addressing a separate party. Is he not connected to them?

"And what reason would that be?"

Silence ensues... again.

The sun set and the sky's almost completely darkened.

He hasn't moved to attack me.

If he won't make the first move neither will I. No need to seal my fate because I had an itchy trigger finger.

We stood there unmovingly, unblinkingly even after the roosters had crowed and the sun rose again. Not a single word uttered between us.

Sooner or later he will have to leave for food and rest, lest he collapse. You can't win a war of attrition against a ghost who needs neither food nor sleep.

Seven days passed and yet he was somehow still standing there on the bridge. Steadfast like a statue.

What kind of human could possibly go seven days straight without food, water or sleep? In fact, how has no one noticed him?

Unless...

"Hey, what's your name?"

After seven days, he finally returns his sword to his scabbard and stands normally instead of in a stance.

"If it will make you accept your fate, my name is Zhong Kui."

"Zhong Kui, I'm just guessing but if you aren't connected to the exorcists, why do you want to kill me here?"

"That is the duty given to me by King Yama. To be the King of Ghosts and maintain discipline and order amongst all ghosts. And you, shui gui, are currently the biggest obstacle to that duty."

King Yama... That's the king of hell! That means this Zhong Kui guy is a ghost too... That's why he doesn't need to eat or sleep. He's a ghost just like me. No... He's on a whole different level above me.

"Why am I obstructing that duty? If I were to return to the town now, I wouldn't be hurting anyone right? Actually I haven't hurt anyone at all!"

"No. Your return is precisely what I aim to prevent."

"Why? What will my return do to obstruct your duty?"

"You seek to exorcise all the shui gui within that town and that will disrupt the plans the exorcists have."

Exorcising all of them was indeed on my mind. Which is why I asked the fortune teller how many shui gui were currently possessing bodies in my town.

"What exactly is so bad about exorcising the shui gui and what are the exorcists planning?"

"The shui gui are gathered in that town so that their presence may use up the negative energies. Exorcising them will leave us without a way to rid the town of those negative energies. And if that happens, a bigger disaster than just shui gui will be awaiting. Will you not give up on your plan to eliminate the shui gui?"

"So if I give up, you'll let me go free?"

"No. I cannot guarantee you won't. And you should be in the afterlife anyways. I'll just be sending you there now."

You just said the one thing you shouldn't have.

"I should be in the afterlife?! The shui gui who possessed my body should be the one in the afterlife! Why should I be go to the afterlife in its place?"

"All spirits without bodies all should be in the afterlife. We've just had to compromise with the shui gui. And right now the one in your body has a body. But what about you?"

"This isn't fair! My body belongs to me! Why should that monster be allowed to keep it?"

"Don't fear the afterlife. You have lived a righteous life and you have confronted your own demons."

He's avoiding trying to answer my question... He knows it's wrong to kill me the way I am now. He's making excuses to himself that spirits without bodies like me need to be sent to the afterlife, but he's willing to compromise with the shui gui's existence. He's a stubborn hypocrite. He's steadfast in his conviction that I'm a threat to the exorcists' plans and that he is in the right.

"With such good karma, you should be able to enter Heaven."

Those words were said to comfort me but mostly to comfort himself, by the fact that the spirit he slayed will enter Heaven. If he had told me a few weeks ago, that I could enter the afterlife, I would probably have been overjoyed at the possibility of meeting Jun again. But Jun isn't dead anymore. She's living, breathing and waiting for me!

"Entering Heaven doesn't mean anything to me! I should still be alive right now! Both my body and spirit may be separate right now but they still exist in this world!"

"Enough. I have given the explanation you desired. Accept your fate and depart to the afterlife, Zhang Shun. This is for the best. Rest assured. Your town will not fall to disaster."

"I don't really care about the town anyways! I'm not that good of a person. It's Jun Ling and our families that I'm worried about! What if we could get rid of the negative energy in a different way? What if the shui gui aren't needed? Actually what even is the source of all that negative energy? Let me help, I want to help!"

"There is no other way. Give up. I don't wish to slay a spirit who hasn't done anything truly wicked but since you refuse to depart to the afterlife willingly, I have no other choice. I'll be sending your soul to the afterlife now."

He draws his sword and reverts to his fighting stance.

This insincere, hypocritical, self-righteous, stubborn old man... But I'm equally hard headed. I won't roll over and die so easily.

I have my own convictions that I'm ready to fight for too!