Waiting Hall

Alex begun scratching an annoying itch on his neck as Da Siming vanished from their sight. Since Yasomagatsuhi appeared, the skin on his neck felt strange. At first, Alex thought nothing of it.

"Hold up," Arahabaki noticed his hand on the neck. "Why are you scratching? You don't have a biological skin…"

No swelling, like a mozzie bite, yet Alex felt like something was burrowing into his soul.

"I don't know," Alex mumbled as Arahabaki leaned in for a closer look.

A sudden pinch and he winced at Arahabaki. "What was that for?"

Arahabaki pointed at the crumbling debris in the ceiling above them as he pulled Alex aside. "Not me, them."

Alex looked up as another stream of dust fell towards him, and he quickly dodged in time. The sensation vanished. Maybe it was a small rock irritating his neck, and he thought nothing of it or Arahabaki's smirk.

"Whatever you do, do not ask questions regarding Nüwa," Arahabaki warned as they followed Kanghui and the two guards, one with a horse's head and the other with the head of an ox, while stepping on the remains of the statue, a rubble of dust and small stones, in the entryway.

"I may be new, but I'm not retarded," Alex replied. "Although if she knows Yasomagatsuhi, why did she look surprised at his appearance?"

Alex had imagined that Yasomagatsuhi was some fearsome monstrous being who almost slaughtered Jiuwei. Unexpectedly, the primeval being rocked up, looking like a nobleman.

"Yaso has many appearances and many voices," Arahabaki said. "Like the rest of us, but most of us stick to one or two form. He doesn't. Takes a while to recognise him, either through his voice or his appearance."

"So I can also have many forms?"

"Well, hypothetically yes. Shape-shifting isn't an easy skill," Kanghui replied. "Look at Yata's brothers. The only shape-shifting they do is enlarging their size."

"But Yata can."

"Yata is one of the better ones."

Alex glanced at Kanghui as she spoke to a visibly intimidated guard with a horse's head. No expression, like nothing had happened.

Alex noticed her digging her the heel of her boot into the rubble of the statue and twisted her heel with such viciousness that they heard loud crunches emanating only from her heel.

He noted silently to himself, not to mention Nüwa's name as they walked through the entryway into a large, busy hall.

Personnel of all appearances, from human to animals sat midair in front of several holographic monitors all over.

The scenery was surreal and futuristic beyond words for Alex, who thought he already seen everything. His jaw dropped when he saw a personnel, a tiger headed humanoid, leaped upwards to the station as a holographic monitor opened.

"This is the central control room of all ghost cities," Horse-face mentioned casually as they went past. "The Courts of Hell oversee this place."

"That's a lot of cities," Alex begun counting the many screens scattered mid-air before Arahabaki dragged him along towards the middle of the hall.

"Because there are territories in other worlds under our control. Not only Earth," Horse-face replied.

"So there are aliens with us?"

Ox-face grunted with amusement.

"Eh…"

"Yes, and no. Each world develops almost the same way. It only depends whether a mammal or reptile comes out of the evolutionary race first and the trials dealt," Horse-face explained.

"Let me guess… dinosaurs are the first evolution on Earth?" Alex asked.

"Yes. The second evolution is mammalian humanoids. The floods came in and the third evolution remains within human domains."

"I belong to the third evolution and you two are the second?" Alex asked, pointing at a grunting Ox-face.

Horse-face nodded and added, "every legend involving a demon or an immortal with animal characteristics is talking about the second evolution."

"So who here is from the first evolution?" Alex asked.

"Not Kanghui and I," Arahabaki answered. "We are the aliens. The first gods."

Oh yeah, they said that they had other worlds like Earth, Alex thought as another circular formation laid carved in gold on the ground in the middle of the hall caught his attention. The design differed from the one in the Plum House.

A small reception Ming styled mahogany desk was in front of the formation. As they came closer, Alex made out the Chinese archaic character of Ghost written in the middle of the formation surrounded by the familiar-looking inscriptions of a geomantic compass, usually used for Fengshui divination.

Upon reaching the desk, a ghostly apparition manifested itself as a young yet stern looking bespectacled man in a suit.

Horse-face leaned in and show his pendant.

"Direct or regular?" the young man asked.

An irate Horse-face flicked him in the forehead. "Look at who is behind you, idiot."

The receptionist peered over his shoulder and cringed.

"Direct then. Please proceed through the waiting hall," the receptionist said as he slowly faded into thin air while a large door appeared.

Kanghui pushed the door open to reveal a large grand hall filled with the unmistakable clacking noises of mahjong tiles, and dices shaking.

"A CASINO?" Arahabaki blurted out Alex's thoughts.

Mahjong tables were around outnumbered the other tables set up for a game of dominoes or dice. The tables of the 'Big or Small' game, Da Xiao, were the most crowded and scattered in between mahjong tables. Dealers were busy shaking the rattling container or yelling out for bets.

Alex noticed no card tables or roulette. Most of the gambling participants wore ancient garments. Only one or two in more modern day dressing and they were playing mahjong with the older ones. Was the wait that long?

"Waiting room for ghosts who want to reincarnate," Horse-face replied while Kanghui looked nonplussed at the venue.

"Looks more like a big chain casino," Alex said, "but no poker tables, roulette, baccarat tables."

"There are other halls for those with even longer waiting time - they have poker and baccarat. This one is the final hall, a shortcut to the Courts."

"They are just gambling away some trinkets to wild away their time." Horse-face gestured to the side piles of the mahjong tables. "Bored ghosts are never good."

A sudden musical tone played over the hall. The entire waiting area went into a muted silence now.

"NUMBER 1123457, CALLING FOR NUMBER 1123457 - please come to the queueing section."

Most of the apparitions started checking a glowing number on their forearms. So that was the mark.

"NUMBER 876555, CALLING FOR NUMBER 876555 - please come to the queueing section."

"NUMBER 44578953, CALLING FOR NUMBER 44578953 - please come to the queueing section."

In the middle of this hall, a holographic screen appeared, flashing the numbers in red on the display, reminding Alex of the government counters where a person had to take a number and wait.

Alex guessed it was a lottery announcement, judging from the expressions of glee or the arms thrown in the air. But for what?

Words of congratulations mixed with hearty slaps on the back of three ecstatic ghosts who were busy hopping their way in great joy to a large black door. It almost looked like a scene where someone had struck the lottery.

For some odd reason, they were lugging their wins in bundles.

"Reincarnation allows them to bring those winnings with them?" Alex pointed at the bundles the ghosts were carrying towards the door.

"They think they can bribe for a better reincarnation," Kanghui said with a shrug, "not like it works, but oh hey… that's how the Courts get a stash to sell in the ghost cities."

Alex stared at her in astonishment. The ghost realm was functioning like a corrupt country. Bribery and even taking other's stashes for sale was getting a bit too much for his straight-laced self. However, it didn't look like this method of collection would yield much, if so few were making it up to the queuing section.

"Three at a time only?" Alex asked. Little wonder why the ghosts filled up the halls.

Horse-face shook his head. "Random. They can announce hundreds or thousands of numbers out in one round. Depends on how many Mengpo can process."

"So, where is the washing machine to clean the memories?" Alex recalled what Kanghui said about Mengpo and the image of a laundromat appeared in his mind.

"Her department is after the tenth Court of Hell."

"If they reincarnate as animals, insect or plants, they won't return here?" He asked.

Horse-face shook his head and replied, "depends on how much they can recall after Mengpo washed their memories away. The cleaning process isn't a 100% foolproof. Some may keep their appearances based on the image of the last animal or plant they reincarnated into."

"But animals and plants don't have ghosts," Alex mumbled.

"Some trees and animals you may have seen in Ming City around are ghosts of the same creatures. Not all have gone through the final evolution," Horse-face said.

"Look at yourself as an example. Your soul stores the memory of your last body within, so you look human, but you are not any more," Kanghui added as Arahabaki stopped at a gambling table along the path to another door.

With Alex, Kanghui and the guards engrossed in their conversation, they failed to see a small blackish orb of energy slip from Arahabaki's sleeve - the very one he picked from Alex's neck earlier.

Yasomagatsuhi had discreetly planted a tracker as an orb, but the tracker was not Yasomagatsuhi's. It is an obsolete Xitian technology that Arahabaki had seen in the ancient past. What was Yasomagatsuhi doing with it and who did it belong to?

"Clear." Arahabaki whispered the command out of earshot, and the wisps disappeared, revealing the symbol of a golden crow which vanished in an instant.