The Nine-tailed Fox gets put on trial

Wu Yun closes his eyes involuntarily when he crosses the barrier separating the mortal world from the underworld. He almost expects to feel some palpable difference in the air, but he can breathe as well as he did before.

He turns around and sees the shimmering gate, showing a distorted Lian Feng and Zou Qiao on the other side.

"What is that?" Lu Meng says, coming besides Wu Yun an Lan Tian and pointing ahead at a bridge over a murky river, where several gathered people are waiting in front of tall wooden gates.

"I think we're supposed to go there too," Lan Tian says, walking ahead and pulling Wu Yun with him by their joined hands.

The landscape is dismal. The ground is grey and ashy, and each footfall kicks up a cloud of dust. A few sad leafless trees with twisted trunks dot the bare hills surrounding the dark river.

The bridge is old and dilapidated, and creaks with each step, burdened by millennia of carrying the dead.

The three of them join the queue waiting in front of the gates. All the dead seem to thread peacefully on, some of them cry silently, but most have accepted their fates.

"They look no different than living people," Wu Yun says, looking at the people in front of them, all of different ages and sizes, still carrying with them the trappings of their lives.

"It's the soul that makes you human, and they all have their three hun souls, so of course they don't behave any differently. A ghost still carries with it the memories of having lived," Lu Meng says, looking at the gates ahead with trepidation. "I worry how Jiang Tanmei is doing, since his souls have splintered. I don't expect him to look anything like these people."

The old woman in front of them hears them talking and turns around, giving them pitying looks. "Such young men...I was already an old woman when I died, but the three of you are too young to be here." She shakes her head sadly and continues walking as the queue moves.

"Granny looks hale and strong, she could have lived a few years more," Wu Yun says, slightly guilty that this dead woman is sharing her sympathy with three people, who are still very much alive.

The old woman doesn't smile like Wu Yun expected her to, she just looks ahead at the line of ghosts with a pained look. "It wasn't my health that failed me. It was water. Our entire village has been experiencing a drought for the past years. I think more of us will be joining this procession soon."

Wu Yun wishes he hadn't asked. The old woman looks close to tears now.

"Didn't you pray, and ask for rain?" Lu Meng asks, ignoring the look Wu Yun shoots him.

The old woman nods. "We did, for a long time, but not even drizzle came. Eventually we stopped. We needed the food more than the gods."

They all fall silent, and soon enough it's their turn at the gates.

Wu Yun couldn't see them from the distance, but two creatures are guarding the gates, preventing the dead from simply walking in. They're both tall and muscular, and wear short robes, embroidered with gold writing. One of them has a horse's face, complete with a shining mane trailing down his forehead and neck. The other has the face of an ox, with two long horns sprouting horizontally from his temples, and turning up at the corners.

As intimidating as they look they don't seem to have any aggressive intent.

Horseface turns to the old lady. "Mu Ping, died from deprivation, no wrongdoings or sins to atone for," he says while reading from a stone stele.

Oxhead takes Granny Mu's hand, and stamps it with a bright red seal. "Hall of innocent souls," he says in a bored tone.

Granny Mu bows to both of them and then turns around to look at Wu Yun, "I don't know how much time I have before reincarnation, but perhaps we'll see each other again in Youdu."

Wu Yun nods at her, despite having no idea what Youdu is.

Lu Meng notices his confusion. "The capital of the Underworld, they say it's larger than any human city."

Horseface ignores Lu Meng and starts reading aloud from his stele, "Lu Meng, died from poisoning, no wrongdoings or sins to atone for."

Oxhead stamps Lu Meng's hand just as he had done for Granny Mu and he steps inside the gates, where Wu Yun assumes he'll be waiting for him and Lan Tian.

Wu Yun is next, and he feels oddly anxious under the scrutiny of Horseface's large eyes. "Wu Yun, died from poisoning, stole ritual food offerings to the dead."

Wu Yun turns back to look at Lan Tian with a frightened look.

That doesn't sound good.

Is he really going to face punishment for that? He isn't even really dead.

Oxhead takes his hand and stamps it with another red seal, but the words are different. "Hall of King Songdi."

"Wait, there's been a mistake," Wu Yun says, trying to reason with Oxhead.

Oxhead is unmoved by his pleas. "Hall of King Songdi."

He pushes Wu Yun through the gate, as Horseface turns to the stele in his hands.

On the other side of the gates a crowd of ghosts are waiting their fates, divided into groups. Small green imps, with disheveled spiky black hair, and potbellies are holding banners with the names of different halls. The ghosts mill around the banners of the hall they've been assigned to by Oxhead, in different states of anxiety.

Wu Yun doesn't join the terrified looking crowd beneath King Songdi's banner, and remains close to the tall gates, waiting for Lan Tian.

Lan Tian shows him the stamp on the back of his hand as soon as he comes through. "I guess Wan Mi was right. We did get punished for our actions."

Wu Yun would be finding the situation funny, if they didn't have a limited time window to find Jiang Tanmei's souls, and weren't even sure where to start looking.

Lu Meng breaks away from the group of ghosts under the Hall of Innocent souls banner, and comes talk with them.

"You should come, we'll start moving soon."

"Uhm, we have to atone for our sins first, apparently," Wu Yun says, showing him the stamp.

"You should go ahead and start looking for Jiang Tanmei's souls, we'll find a way to join you," Lan Tian says, noticing the panicked look in Lu Meng's eyes.

Wu Yun feels something sharp against his knee and looks down to see an imp's black claws digging into the fabric of his robes. "Stop talking and join your groups, we need to keep walking," the imp says, showering each word in a rain of spit.

He and Lan Tian join the crowd under King Songdi's banner, where the imp carrying it is going around checking everyone's hands to confirm they have the right stamp.

Once he's done checking everyone, the little imp starts walking ahead, guiding them through one of the ten doors in the open-air ante-room they're all gathered. There's no decoration in the room, just tall stone walls with an open view of the cloudy night sky.

The imp approaches the stone door with the characters 'King Songdi' carved above it, and it opens for him, swiveling loudly on invisible hinges.

"How are we going to get out of this?" Wu Yun asks Lan Tian, as they follow the crowd through a dimly lit corridor.

"You'll find a way," Lan Tian says, his amber eyes almost glowing in the gloom.

"And what will you do?" Wu Yun asks, smirking. He feels better, despite himself, knowing that Lan Tian trusts him to find a way out.

"I'll wait for you to find a way to get us out of this."

Wu Yun tries to muffle his laugh, but he doesn't quite manage to, because he hears the imp shouting from the front, "Quiet! We're going to enter the King's Hall."

The corridor opens into an ample room with a high ceiling and several red pillars supporting it. Against the north wall, on a raised dais, sits a man with a long black beard, he wears red robes, and a stiff square hat. He's sitting on a high-backed chair, behind a large table with several bamboo strip scrolls organized in front of him. He has a judge's gavel in one hand, and a short ivory staff in the other.

Two large banners with black characters hang at the sides of his table. One of them reads 'justice', and the other 'punishment'.

Imps, and demons of mostly human appearances, save for the fangs protruding out of their mouths or heads, or animal body parts, hold court. They sit in two rows on each lateral wall of the room, watching the group of ghosts with amused expressions, and gleeful looks of mischief.

King Songdi calls them forward, and they all arrange themselves in front of him. Wu Yun and Lan Tian are too slow to notice that everyone is moving back towards the end of the line, trying to delay their judgment for as long as possible, and so end up in the front. Only one man is ahead of them, shivering on his thin legs as he looks up at the King's dour face.

"You are here to be sentenced for your sins. I will sentence you according to the crimes of: ungratefulness and disrespect to the elders, escaping prison and evading punishment, drug trafficking, disrespecting tombs and ceremonial offerings, and inciting unrest," the king says, twisting the gavel in his hand.

Wu Yun turns to Lan Tian and whispers, the words almost a hiss, "How can eating food offerings be as bad as drug trafficking?"

Lan Tian bites the corner of his lower lip to keep himself from laughing at Wu Yun's indignation.

One of the imps pulls the man in front of Wu Yun by his tattered robes towards the king, and makes him kneel on the floor in front of the dais.

A demon with the hooves of a goat and the head of a snake pushes a huge gold mirror towards the King's table, so it faces both him and the man on the floor.

The mirror fogs up briefly before showing the man in the tattered robes slipping through the bars of a cell, and then climbing a wall to disappear from view. The image fades as the mirror reflects the astonished faces of the gathered dead.

King Songdi addresses the man in front of him, "Was that you in the mirror?"

The man nods, lowering his head. "Yes, your Majesty."

"Do you acknowledge your crime of escaping a human prison before your sentence was finished?"

"Yes, your Majesty."

King Songdi strokes his long beard with an air of quiet dignity. "What do you have to say in your defense?"

"Your Majesty, I escaped from prison because I got notice that my eldest son was gravely ill, and I wanted to see him before he died. I planned to return to prison to fulfill the rest of my sentence, but I died before I could even see my son again."

There are murmurs of consternation and sympathy among the other ghosts, and loud laughter from the demons at the man's poor luck.

For his part Wu Yun very much doubts he had any intention of returning to prison, but he feels sorry for him, nonetheless.

The King mulls the man's tale over, still stroking his beard. "It's commendable of you to wish to see your son again. I sentence you to having your heart ripped out by imps for two years, before being reincarnated." He slams the gavel down on the table with a loud thud.

The man kowtows deeply, hitting his forehead against the marble floor. "Thanks to his Majesty for his kindness."

One of the imps takes the man away, and then it's Wu Yun's turn.

He steps towards the dais and kneels without any prompting from the imp.

The mirror shows him taking the food from the small altar outside the inn, and the next image shows him eating it.

When King Songdi asks, Wu Yun acknowledges his crimes, trying his best to look remorseful.

He doesn't try to defend himself, because if the man who escaped from prison got only two years, he imagines the King will only give him and Lan Tian a slap on the wrist.

King Songdi strokes his long beard for a moment, thinking over Wu Yun's sentence, before announcing, "I sentence you to ten years chained to the copper pillars, to be grilled alive!"

Behind him, Lan Tian curses beneath his breath.

Wu Yun gets up to his feet, and points an accusing finger towards King Songdi, "Wait! That's not fair, how come he only got two years, and I get ten for eating food? I demand another trial!"

A loud drone fills the room as all the ghosts start murmuring to each other and the demons and imps cackle maniacally.

King Songdi drops his staff and gavel and slaps both his hands heavily on the table, turning his half-lidded, inquisitive eyes on Wu Yun.

---

A.N.: Horseface and Oxhead are two mythological creatures, and are not my creation, although I took liberties with their roles. Same goes for King Songdi, who is one of the ten kings of hell. I couldn't find exactly what court of hell you end up in for eating food offerings, but I know for sure it's a sin, so I put Lan Tian and Wu Yun in the court of King Songdi because he deals with tomb raiders, and that's basically the same thing. Also, rip Lara Croft.