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A line of naked men and women stood at the edge of the room. Old and young, skinny and fat, tall and short, they appeared to be a completely random assortment of people.
Their faces were empty.
Each stood atop an array, and each array connected to a conduit. The conduits fed into a single path and terminated in a larger array at the center of the chamber, where a single figure stood.
Stood--or rather, hovered. The figure floated above the ground by about a chi, and seemed more a flickering tower of black sludge than a human being.
Now, this figure had it within his power to take human form, and perhaps would have done so were it not for the presence of another human-shaped presence outside the array, clad in red, whom the former presence found singularly annoying.
Masses of sludge didn’t have mouths to reply to every trivial utterance, and moreover, could pretend they didn’t have ears to hear said trivial utterances.
Hua Cheng knew He Xuan could still hear him, but did tend to shut up when He Xuan went to such gruesome lengths to ignore him. And indeed, at the moment, the only sound within the chamber was an echoing drip from the ceiling above.
Hua Cheng looked on as black pulses of energy flowed from He Xuan’s array down the conduits toward the empty shells. With every pulse, the people at the ends looked more lifelike, became less empty. Soon, they began to twitch.
Hua Cheng stroked his chin, examining the design of the complex array, monitoring the shift of energy in the room. He winced slightly with each pulse that left He Xuan’s form--Hua Cheng had tried making clones before, but found it a draining endeavor--creating E'ming was enough for him. He couldn’t quite fathom He Xuan’s endurance in this regard.
But He Xuan remained slow and patient, unfazed by the process of tearing off pieces of his own cold fire. Energy left him, but he didn’t dissipate.
Eventually, Hua Cheng got bored and took to swiping E'ming around. Then, bored of that, he stared up at the dripping ceiling for a time and considered whether he ought to expend the energy to repair the leaks--and, for that matter, whether He Xuan would even appreciate such an effort to begin with.
He looked again toward the mass of sludge at the end of the array.
Hua Cheng… truly couldn’t understand the other ghost king’s tastes, at times.
All of a sudden, the transmission ended, and the mass of sludge slowly re-formed into a human shape. The human shape settled back onto the ground.
Upon regaining eyes, He Xuan met the sight of Hua Cheng grinning cheekily and clapping.
“Thank you, Black Water for that meticulous demonstration.”
He Xuan rolled his eyes. “You’re welcome.” Upon stepping out of the array, he turned back toward it and swept his foot through a puddle, splashing water into it. The water steamed up and the array collapsed: the conduits shrank away like a trail of burning gunpowder until they reached the shell arrays, at which point several glowing circles appeared around the smaller arrays, sealing the clones within.
He Xuan rubbed his hands together and held his chin up high, peering at the long row of bodies. He was proud of his work.
Back when he was a child, the adults in Fu Gu had been intimidated by his precocious intelligence. “Scarily smart”, they would say in hushed tones. But he hadn’t meant any harm back then.
He Xuan hadn’t ever intended to be scary. But, if that cruel tyrant above forced the mechanism of his intelligence to crank along in this way, so be it. There would be no more poetry for him, no more clever manipulation of language for its own sake.
Constructing clones--now that was an art. Forging believable personalities, animating lifeless facsimiles, maneuvering hundreds at a time on an infinite weiqi board--
Any gentleman would call it vulgar.
But, He Xuan pondered, that was just because they were afraid, and knew they would never be able to do it as well as he did--not even the other ghost king. He Xuan sensed Hua Cheng’s restless twitching during the soul transfer process and knew, knew that he himself was the only extant being who had truly mastered this craft.
(He sometimes wondered about that legendary ghost king who had been defeated before he was born. He Xuan had asked Hua Cheng once about that Bai Wuxiang. Hua Cheng’s answer had been… passionate. Entirely too biased for He Xuan’s interest.)
Hua Cheng followed He Xuan’s gaze toward the clones. All but two of them were modeled on a medley of Middle Court officials--he recognized these ones. Some of them had done wrong amidst their climb to heaven. Some of them had scores with the citizens of Ghost City.
And some of them, some of them were just bad at dice.
Both ghost kings would see to the disposal of the originals, but the construction of the clones was entirely He Xuan’s doing. His specialty.
Hua Cheng motioned toward two bodies he didn’t recognize. They were both children.
“Those two. Where are they headed?”
He Xuan answered without turning his head. “There’s a child near my territory with the potential to ascend as a literature official. These two are my own invention, not based on pre-existing humans. They will accompany him. They will be close. One will be sacrificed the just before the official ascends, and cause him a great deal of grief. The other will be appointed to the Middle Court when the time comes, due in part to that grief.”
Hua Cheng raised a brow. “Meticulous indeed,” he mused.
He Xuan hummed.
Hua Cheng twisted his lips, as though he wanted to ask a question, but couldn’t quite spit it out.
“What?” He Xuan said drily, glancing at the other ghost king.
Hua Cheng flared his nostrils. “What what? You were just a living manifestation of cow shit for half a shichen, and now you want to act familiar?”
He Xuan turned fully toward the other demon, not answering. He folded his arms, waiting.
Hua Cheng glared at him for a time, but finally waved his arms with a sigh. “Fine. How do you do it without diminishing yourself?” He motioned toward the clones. “Them. Doesn’t it damage you? And after they’re made, how do you handle them all at once?”
He Xuan snorted. A glimmer of a smile even seemed to spark in his eyes, but swiftly vanished. “I vastly prefer them to the noise of that city of yours. At least I can control these.”
“Mm, yes, but how?”
He Xuan’s lips flattened out into a line. “Shouldn’t you know? Didn’t you also gain power in Tonglu? Why should lending some of it to meager shells diminish it? If you devour a hundred thousand, what’s a couple hundred?”
Hua Cheng furrowed his brows, drumming his fingers on E'ming’s pommel. “But that’s just energy, not soul. You use your soul to make those clones.”
“It’s not just energy. The soul is eaten, and becomes one with you. What makes you think it’s just energy?”
Hua Cheng was taken aback. “I’ve never eaten souls.”
“Bullshit.”
“I’m telling you, I’ve never eaten souls. After a kill, I absorb the energy, but there’s no personality or history that comes with it.” Hua Cheng folded his arms indignantly. He chose to ignore those early days before he learned flesh. No one had to know about that, and moreover, even if he did happen to eat a handful of souls--as a person on horseback might happen to swallow a fly--it wasn’t like he retained the personalities long afterward.
Hua Cheng’s time in the volcano was a shameful chapter in his existence. He hoped no one else would learn what he had done, what he had been back then. His insides clenched at the mere possibility that His Highness would ever stumble upon that monument to his desperation…
He Xuan looked bewildered. “You absorb the energy but not the soul?” His eyes darted down to E'ming and narrowed. “Let me see that.”
“What? No, I’m not giving E'ming to you, are you crazy?”
He Xuan sniffed. “Just hold it out, let me examine it.”
Hua Cheng huffed, but reluctantly unsheathed the scimitar. In a moment, He Xuan was before him, cocking his head as he inspected the curved blade up and down. He put a finger to the edge, then quickly retracted it and took several steps back.
Hua Cheng smirked. “Had enough?”
He Xuan glanced back to E'ming. “A powerful object. Looks like it not only sunders flesh, but soul. So, it appears you have eaten souls, but first that thing mashed them up and made them easy to digest for you, like a mother preparing food for a toothless infant.”
Hua Cheng shifted his stance and narrowed his eye. “Are you looking to fight?”
He Xuan snorted. “In my realm? I’d like to see you try.”
Feeling the air around him growing colder and more liquid, Hua Cheng grit his teeth and sheathed E'ming.
He Xuan turned his back to the other ghost king, facing the clones once again.
“To finish addressing your question, if you ever wish to create clones of your own, you might want to try eating and processing souls like an adult. You might figure out how to do the trick.” He waved his hand up. “Anything else?”
No one answered.
He Xuan turned back around, but found the space Hua Cheng had occupied was now empty.
Good riddance.
He Xuan turned on his private communication array anyway, in case Hua Cheng had any parting business he had neglected in his abrupt exit.
He paced back toward the clones. They were alive now, but required additional fine-tuning--the next steps would be to gradually stalk and capture the original subjects, imbuing the clones with the bouquet of small traits that made them recognizable individuals, reading back through the originals’ histories, and then swiftly replacing them.
The pair of children, though, they could be let out--
A voice invaded He Xuan’s mind.
“MING XIONGGGGG!!! WHERE ARE YOU??? I’VE BEEN TRYING TO GET IN TOUCH WITH YOU ALL DAY!!”
Of course as soon as he turned his private communication array back on, this would happen. He Xuan grit his teeth, but reluctantly put a finger to his temple.
“I’m working. What do you want?”
“Ohhh… well, I don’t want to bother you if it’s important. But…”
He Xuan clenched his fists.
“...A new restaurant opened in Yong An’s capital. I heard all the most fabulous poets and singers gather there. Wanna dress up as mortals and check it out?”
He Xuan was about to reprimand Shi Qingxuan for wasting merits on frivolous and decadent activities rather than serving the people who prayed to him. However, it just so happened that at that moment, a loud gurgling erupted from the place within him which imitated a stomach.
...After all that work making clones, He Xuan had to admit he was hungry.
“Fine. I’ll meet you at your place in a shichen.”
“Great, see you then!”
He Xuan could almost see the stupid, bright-eyed face Shi Qingxuan wore. He grumbled and shut off his private array. If Crimson Rain wanted to contact him, he could send one of his damn insects over.
One shichen. Shi Qingxuan was doubtless trying out several dozens of priceless silks and gossiping to the other gods about his upcoming outing. But He Xuan had better things to do.
He Xuan made his way to the place where Ming Yi was kept. It was nice and spacious--about as nice and spacious as a prison could be. Observing the real thing, He Xuan changed into his Ming Yi disguise.
“Why do you even bother keeping me?” Ming Yi drawled. “Everyone who knew me before is long dead. For all everyone knows, ‘my’ personality is yours.”
He Xuan pursed his lips, but didn’t answer. Although he didn’t find it overly difficult to manage his numerous clones in heaven, it was different when he himself played a role.
--When he had to play the role of ‘best friend’ to someone he hated to the bone.
So, for the remainder of the shichen before He Xuan had to show up in heaven, he chatted with Ming Yi: about the soil quality of recently deforested land, about treating wood for walls, about constructing foundations that could withstand earthquakes and floods.
For all his scheming and revenge plots, He Xuan didn’t intend to skimp on his Earth Master duties. And Ming Yi was useful alive. He Xuan gave the man books as well as ink and paper to fill up his own, and studied what the the man came up with. Ming Yi enjoyed prison as anyone else would--he didn’t. But he still felt responsibility. He was meant to be the Earth Master, and if all he could do was instruct the person who impersonated him, well then it was better than there being no Earth Master at all.
At least Ming Yi’s influence would still be felt on earth.
When the time came, He Xuan bid farewell to his prisoner and rose up to heaven.
Shi Qingxuan met him with a smile.
“Ming-xiong! So glad you could come on short notice!” He posed in a fashionable new outfit. “Does it look good, Ming-xiong?”
“Mn,” He Xuan grunted. He himself wore a simple robe and cap. He still held his monk’s spade, as though just getting back from work.
“Oh, Ming-xiong, you can’t go carrying that dirty thing into the restaurant--come on, leave it up here before we go down, alright?”
He Xuan shook his head. Making the shovel smaller, he tucked it into his sleeve.
Shi Qingxuan beamed. “Alright, that’s fine too.” He took He Xuan’s arm. “Now let’s go!”
.
As it turned out, the portions at this restaurant did nothing to satisfy He Xuan’s hunger. Not only that, but Shi Qingxuan kept him from ordering too much, saying that this wasn’t the sort of place he could just stuff his face like a vulgar man.
He Xuan scowled.
Shi Qingxuan turned to him and bit the inside of his cheek. He didn’t want to leave so early, but he could tell that Ming Yi wasn’t happy here.
“Ahh, Ming-xiong… what’s wrong?”
“I’m hungry. This isn’t enough.”
Shi Qingxuan sniffed. “You’re always so hungry! I don’t think I’ve met anyone who eats as much as you!”
He Xuan mumbled, “I was just working. It takes a lot of energy. I didn’t train in a cultivation sect like you and your brother.”
Shi Qingxuan offered He Xuan a weak smile, patting his shoulder. “That’s alright Ming-xiong…” He laughed lightly. “To be honest, I was never that great at inedia myself. I’ve always felt that it’s alright to enjoy good food and wine, so long as one stays pure at heart. Is that too naive, do you think? Hahaha…”
Shi Qingxuan watched his companion’s face turn sour. He sighed, then dropped a crumble of silver on the table.
“Okay, how about we go somewhere else where you can eat your fill, huh?”
“Thank you,” He Xuan grunted.
They left, rematerializing in a stall on the outskirts of the city. Shi Qingxuan changed into simpler clothing, although anyone passing by would still be able to tell that this was a well-to-do young master. He Xuan wore the same clothes as he had in the fancy restaurant--either way, he looked like a poor student--fashionable in the right light in wealthy areas, nothing special in humbler surroundings.
Shi Qingxuan cocked his head and tapped He Xuan’s shoulder with his fan. “Ming-xiong, are you sure this little place will be enough for your appetite? Looks like you could eat the whole stall and still not be full!”
He Xuan didn’t pay the teasing any mind, just placed his order and sat down on a bench. He scanned his surroundings. This place felt familiar; it felt like--
A solemn air fell over his face.
Observing Ming Yi’s expression, Shi Qingxuan scrunched his brows. It almost looked like Ming Yi was… sad.
He reached over to He Xuan’s forearm. For a moment, the cold man seemed to relax, until all of a sudden his hairs raised and he jerked his arm out of Shi Qingxuan’s hold.
“Don’t touch me,” he snapped.
Shi Qingxuan huffed a laugh. “Somebody’s crabby. It’s alright, Ming-xiong, you’ll get your food soon enough.”
Shi Qingxuan turned his head around after the food arrived and his companion tore through it. It truly was vulgar, the sound of Ming Yi’s lips smacking, the grunting. But Shi Qingxuan could overlook such things, especially when his companion was in a mood. Shi Qingxuan just sat, gazing out at the humble surroundings and distant bustling, fanning himself.
When the slaughter was through, Shi Qingxuan smiled at the other. “You picked out a nice place, Ming-xiong, it’s very quaint.”
He Xuan grunted in acknowledgement. “It reminds me of a place from back home.”
“Oh, that’s nice! Ming-xiong, why don’t we go there sometime?”
He Xuan’s aura gew cold. “It closed,” he answered, wiping his face and standing up. He began walking away.
“...Oh.” Shi Qingxuan left a generous payment on the table, then followed after. “Hey, aren’t you in charge of building things? Why don’t you just build a new one on top of it? I could help pay for it!” He beamed up at his companion. Behind his fan, he added, “I’ll keep the expense a secret from ge. It’ll be our special place.”
He Xuan’s clenched his fists and tightened his jaw.
Shi Qingxuan blinked in confusion.
“...Ming-xiong?”
He Xuan stopped walking, relaxing his spine and exhaling.
Shi Qingxuan’s face pinched. He fanned himself vigorously. “Aiyoh, Ming-xiong, what was in those dumplings? Your breath is terrible! Aiyah, I think I could almost hear the screams of the dead when you opened your mouth just then!”
He Xuan froze for a moment, then continued walking. “I had been working on purifying the soil. It involves working with compost and manure.” Taking the monk’s spade out of his sleeve and restoring it to its original size, he bit out his next words, “I’m sorry if my job is too unclean for the likes of you.”
Shi Qingxuan’s eyes widened. “Oh, Ming-xiong, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to--”
“It’s time I got back to work.”
In the blink of an eye, He Xuan had drilled into the earth with the shovel, leaving only a pile of dirt behind.
.
Shi Qingxuan sent several gifts to the Earth Master residence over the next few weeks. Faceless as he was when it came to money, He Xuan cashed them quickly and used them to pay off some of his debt to Hua Cheng. Eventually, he sent an apology letter to the fengshui residence and invited Shi Qingxuan to accompany him on some of his daily tasks.
Doing work together, it was easier than leisurely activities in either heavenly or earthly capital. And Shi Qingxuan wasn’t as loath to get his hands dirty as most of the other gods in heaven.
It was easier not to slip up like this. He Xuan tried to keep his eating habits to himself.
Nevertheless, he couldn’t ignore how Shi Qingxuan’s nose pinched up whenever He Xuan opened his mouth a little too wide.
.
One night, about a year later, He Xuan received a private message.
“Hey Black Water, got something you might be interested in here. Heavenly official running a human trafficking ring. Come to my place, I’ll let you do the honor.”
Some scribbling on the floor before a threshold, and He Xuan was in one of the many dungeons below Paradise Manor.
Hua Cheng grinned at him. He Xuan folded his arms.
“Is this just your way of trying to raise my debt?”
Hua Cheng waved a hand. “No way! Besides, this one is a close aide of Ling Wen; I’m sure one of your clones will be able to extract plenty of information while impersonating her. We’ll have to work quickly, though, her absence will be missed--can you make a clone in under a day? Hey, if you eat her soul, will it be easier to do? Here, be my guest.” Hua Cheng motioned toward the prisoner.
He Xuan looked over toward the woman. Her eyes were wide with fear, and she struggled against her chains. She seemed to be shouting, but an invisible barrier between them muffled the sound.
“Fine, I can make a clone of her.”
Hua Cheng slung an arm around his shoulder, punching him in the ribs. “Hey, Black Water, what’s with that face? Aren’t I offering you a meal? I mean, it’s not free exactly, but like you said before, spying isn’t hard for you, so is it really that high of a price to pay?”
“Get off of me.” He Xuan shoved the other ghost king away with a force that would kill any mortal, and maybe a few lesser gods. He wiped his robes down, as though dusting off any residue Hua Cheng may have left.
Hua Cheng frowned, rubbing the spot where He Xuan had struck him. “What’s with you today?”
He Xuan sighed. Slowly, he turned his head toward Hua Cheng. “This is the last one. There are already over a hundred clones in heaven--isn’t that enough?”
Hua Cheng tilted his head. “And yet many more who’ve done wrong. What should we do with them?”
“Kill them! I don’t care. But I’ve been… trying to cut down on the soul-eating.”
Hua Cheng jerked his head back in shock. “What?!”
He Xuan grit his teeth. “I haven’t gone soft, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s just…” His nose twitched. “Qingxuan notices the smell on my breath. It’s bad form for a heavenly official.”
Hua Cheng’s eye went wide. Several questions sprouted in his mind, and for a moment he was struck dumb.
‘Qingxuan’?
‘On his breath’?
If Black Water wasn’t going soft, then what was this? Hua Cheng, after all, would have fewer qualms about eating souls if it weren’t for the lingering influence of His Highness--if it weren’t for knowing how disgusted He would be…
In many ways, He Xuan was no colder than Hua Cheng. Life, to a ghost king, meant something different than it did to most.
But Black Water… Not eating souls…
Could the black sea turn into mulberry fields in a night?
He Xuan flared his nostrils. “The plan is still on as usual. This is only so I don’t sabotage it.” He held his jaw firmly. “I will avenge my family. The Water Tyrant will fall.”
Hua Cheng raised an eyebrow. “And… ‘Qingxuan’?”
He Xuan turned away from him.
“He… will not die. What he does afterward is up to him.”
Hua Cheng: "…"
Before Hua Cheng could respond, He Xuan snapped, “I don’t want to hear your shit. Let me eat my last meal in peace.” Abruptly, he dispersed the barrier separating the two ghost kings from the heavenly official.
Her screams filled the chamber.
He Xuan began to open his mouth.
.
It was over quickly. He Xuan took his leave, leaving no trace.
Hua Cheng stood in place for a while. He unsheathed E'ming, stroking along the blade. He thought about times he had suppressed deep in his memory, and how many souls he had destroyed in order to survive. He wrapped his hand around the blade, letting it cut deeply into his fingers.
He lifted his head. A wave of zeal filled him.
Qiandeng Temple would not lack incense tonight.