Zhong Kui awakens on the shores of the Red River.

Lost, with no memories of who or where he is.
He travels upstream through the ruins of abandoned cities and towns until he reaches 8 Shining Gates. All lead to Kunlun, a city made of brilliant light. Gods and Goddesses living within. None of whom acknowledge Zhong as anything more than a cursed eye sore who reeks of black magic.

Outside the Shining Gates, Zhong meets Kuilong the Sleeping, a blind and narcoleptic sage dragon. Kuilong is able to communicate with Zhong as the dragon listens to Zhong Kui’s very thoughts. Kuilong teaches Zhong Kui of the curses that took not only his eyes and voice but his memories as well:

-His eyes, transformed into monstrous red pits of fire, allowing him to see through the veil and sense evils invisible to the mortal world. However, the accursed magic that caused this change also made it so that no God nor mortal may gaze upon him for long.
-His teeth became beastly, sharp and unseemly. This transformation allows him to speak to the spirits of the dead, but at the cost of speaking to the living.

According to Kuilong, the curses would have taken his heart but the magic is kept at bay, for Zhong Kui was a Hero who protects his heart and everything close to it with all his life.

After leaving the Mountain City of the Gods and his newfound friend Kuilong, Zhong Kui lived in isolation. He'd save those who’s cries echoed throughout the void from the Evil that haunted them. Although most were grateful, humanity found the few glimpses of him unsightly, beastly, and occasionally terrifying. Rumors of him being a devil in disguise began to spread despite his many heroic deeds.

Life is Lonely for Zhong Kui, the newly titled ‘King of Ghosts’.

Zhong is stopped by a sealed ninth gate while seeking to aid whoever he sensed crying for help through the void. A surprise to him and even the dead he communes with, as it was the cry of a God.

Warned by these Guardian Spirits not to proceed, for nothing good comes from that which can surprise the dead. He ignores the spirits, exclaiming that he would never ignore cries of help that only he may hear.

Zhong Kui, in a fit of rage after days of trying to enter the gate and worried that he failed to save a being in distress, cracks his head against the gate walls and faints.

In his dream, a woman stands before him.
She’s impossibly beautiful.
The King of Ghosts is invited inside.

After waking, Zhong Kui finds the gates open and ventures inside, past what looks to be a magical forest, where a woman dressed in a light rose gown stands waiting in front of a brilliant palace.

Here he learns her name and her story.
She is Izanami no Mikoto, the Goddess of Creation, trapped by her lover after she attempted to bring peace to the world of her creations.

After finishing her story, she asks why Zhong does not speak or look at her.
The King of Ghosts responds by writing that it is out of respect, for no living being is allowed to gaze upon him for long or hear his voice.

Izanami turns his head and stares deeply into the red void of fire that replaced his eyes. For a moment they flash a cold blue.
Her whispers fill his head, she’s beyond the living.

Zhong Kui feels Happiness, it’s Rare. For as long as he can remember, he has never truly been seen and has never truly been heard.

Time goes by and the King of Ghosts continues to hunt the increasing evils plaguing both humanity and the world, all while content that he can return to the ninth gate and spend time with Izanami.
_____

The humans from Ordos Village, the first town Zhong Kui liberated from vengeful wraiths, began to question why he has been frequenting Kunlun despite being a recluse.
They ask Kunlun for a way to prevent his travels through their town. Although they are grateful, they fear that the evil he can see only hurts those near him.
Kunlun, unaware that Zhong Kui has been traveling to the land of the Gods, had now discovered he has been entering the realm of the accursed Nagi Gate. A land in another plane of existence, parallel to Kunlun, where no worldly creature living nor dead should be within.
Thought to be forever sealed and lost to space and time.

Afraid of what may come, the deities plan to follow Zhong Kui.
The King of Ghosts is the only one who can lead them into this other land that is ironically within the same gates they reside themselves.

They plot to eliminate the Goddess legends say is trapped within.
_____

Zhong Kui, on his return to Izanami is confronted by Kuilong in a dream, begging him to travel to the tomb of the old gods to learn more of the goddess Izanami. The blind dragon has heard commotion and felt hostility over the name in the minds of the gods and recalls Zhong Kui thinking of a goddess with the same name.

Upset by the nature of the conversation and the similarities of what was said between Kuilong and the spirits who did not trust Izanami, Zhong Kui ignores both the dream and the visions of the spirits he once considered companions. The King of Ghosts continues to Izanami’s Palace.
_____

Kuilong, worried for Zhong Kui, flies to the tomb of the old gods and discovers:

The 9th gate was once Izanagi, Izanami’s former lover, who converted himself into magic to seal her away as she became aggressive towards humanity. Izanami had become so jaded by the greed and selfishness of the mortals and the Godlings, further broken by the discovery of Izanagi’s affair, she had begun to revoke her gift of creation. Her actions changed her very core and she had become a god of a different order, Death.

Kuilong in a trance, communes with the very nature of the world and learns further:

Unfortunately, with the reincarnation of the human woman Izanagi once loved, the strength of the Nagi Gates weakened and Izanami grew more powerful with hatred.
She broke free and set out to destroy the woman then the world, only to find herself fall in love with the hero that gave the woman his heart.
After many failed attempts at wooing and seducing the man, Izanami violently ripped the girl from existence and cursed the man.
Eyes that no one could look at since he wouldn't look at her and a voice that can’t be heard since he ignored hers.
The final punishment for the man that refused her, his memories are taken.
As he forgets about the woman he loves and Izanami hates,
Izanami rests back in her realm to let the hero’s curse grow.

Kuilong, afraid of what’s to come after discovering this truth, flies to Kunlun as quickly as the dragon could in hopes of finding Zhong Kui before the worst comes to pass.

_____

Zhong Kui, silently followed by the Warrior Gods of Kunlun in pursuit of destroying Izanami. Also followed by a handful of denizens from Ordos Village, fearing that the gods won’t close the gates after they handle the celestial threat, possibly leaving other worldly visitors to roam the planes of their world in search for meaning and food.

Zhong Kui enters the 9th Gate for the last time.

Shortly after, the Gods arrive and enter the 9th Gate.
The humans of Ordos City stay back and wait for the Gods to return.

Zhong Kui makes it to Izanami’s Chambers.
As he enters he catches a glimpse of Izanami, smiling.

A light flashes followed by shadows swallowing what's left.
An explosive force knocks the King of Ghosts back and begins to render him unconscious and as he fades away he sees a group of Gods adorned in armor and weapons made of pure light approach Izanami.
_____

Kuilong lost in the woods near Kunlun, desperate to help Zhong but burdened by the dragons own curse, falls into a deep sleep and collapses mid flight, crashing in shrubbery just beyond the Nagi Gate.
_____

Zhong Kui awakens to the voices of the spirits who stayed with him. Shouting and screaming, unable to speak correctly, the spirits look afraid.

Remembering what happened moments before he became unconscious, he stumbles to the cold heartless body that was where Izanami once stood. The body isn’t Izanami’s.
Zhong Kui fights to remember. In a fit of rage and pain he screams.

This was the first time any living creature heard his voice since he awoke on the shores.

In his pain, he remembers another woman, he remembers true love.
In his rage, he remembers her torn away by a creature of light covered in shadows.

The spirits scatter and Zhong Kui is left alone with the body in front of him and his own thoughts. The body of the woman he remembers loving.

The people of Ordos witness the Gods return, and as they expected, the Gods leave the gateway open which will allow the creatures of this new plane to venture out. The humans decide to travel into the domain in search of a way to destroy the gateway. Upon entering the lands just past the gates, the citizens stumble upon Kuilong in the shrubbery. Thinking they lucked upon a dangerous creature defenseless, they relentlessly spear Kuilong, killing the dragon. The man who landed the final blow takes a tooth from the Dragon as a trophy.
_____

Izanami appears to a broken Zhong Kui and asks if he’d take her hand, offering to release his true loves soul to the afterlife rather than destroying it.

Zhong Kui, familiar with the executions carried by the Gods, refused Izanami knowing that her soul has already been destroyed.

Izanami laughs and shouts out that although he deserves his curses, he doesn’t deserve her blessings.

She reaches her hand out and rips out the Ghost King’s right eye.
In a heartbeat louder than a war drum, Zhong Kui relives it all.
He was a hero, he was in Love. The rush of memories hurt Zhong Kui more than any wound he could imagine.
Hatred of the being that cursed him, that took everything away from him, that brought his love back just to be die in front of him began to overflow.

Zhong Kuis scream can be heard a second time.

Izanami smiles and points to the body which begins to fall apart.
She says that the woman thought to the very end he’d save her.
Izanami reaches out and rips out his left eye and with a kiss, she tears out his tongue. As she vanishes from Zhong Kuis sight, so did she from this plane of existence.

Zhong Kuis screams can be heard for the third and last time as he sheds tears of blood.
Zhong Kui struck with grief, gauges his heart out and collapses trying to make it to his wife’s remains.

His heart continues to beat.
_____

A dead man holding a beating heart near the remains of another body with a heart ripped out. Such was the sight of the Ordos Citizens. They knew Zhong Kui would never do such a horrible thing, and that the other gods were responsible. Regardless, they were frightened.

The King of Ghosts’ guardian spirits, given form in this dimension at the edge of reality, beg the humans to help Zhong Kui for his heart still beats he may yet be saved.

Then his heart must no longer beat!
Shouts a man who steps forward and with one quick motion plunges Kuilong’s tooth into the Ghost King’s heart.

The citizens, despite being sad that it ended this way, all agree that Zhong Kui could have sought vengeance had he survived. Even if not, he’d still be a harbinger for evil’s presence throughout the lands he travels.

The Ordos Citizens flee Izanami’s palace as the specters begin to scream.
They shut the gate and before they even have a chance to think of a way to seal the entrance, the gateway vanishes.

Believing they were safe and their work done, they return to Ordos.
_____

Years pass by as the spirit of Zhong Kui resides mostly in a Hellish Dimension, known as the Land of Infinite Nightmares, his curses keep him tethered to his body and to the world he both was born in and died in.

Frozen in pure anger, Zhong Kui is confronted by King Yan the Lord of Hell.

King Yan, confused about what to do with Zhong Kui since he lived a life more noble than most humans, especially burdened as he was.
Sadly, in killing himself he committed a grave sin.

King Yan, in a moment of surprising empathy and anger at the amount of innocent lives taken by Izanami, offered Zhong Kui a chance to return to the world he’s bound using King Yan’s own Life Force.

King Yan, shares one last sentiment with Zhong,
Anger and acceptance, Love, Sacrifice, Life.
These Shape a Great Man.

Unfortunately for all, Zhong Kui returned no longer a man.
The curse converted most his body to pure black magic and his life force was now that of a Gods.

Zhong Kui’s first sight upon waking was his own heart pierced with his friend Kuilongs tooth.
Angry and unable to think of anything but vengeance, Zhong asks his guardian spirits who pierced his heart and what was the fate of Kuilong.

The spirits refuse to answer fearing what he has become and what he might do. Zhong Kui commands them to tell him and with the power of Zhong Kui’s new authority over the spirits they answer.

After learning of Kuilong’s murder and murderers, Zhong Kui devoured all that was left of the poor souls who once stood by his side as he was upset by their resistance.

Zhong Kui destroyed the Gateway and absorbed all the magic that was left of Izanagi, destroying a huge portion of Kunlun.

Zhong Kui travels to Ordos where they appear to be celebrating their victory over the proclaimed dangerous dragon, Kuilong.
No sooner than catching a glimpse of the festival did the King of Ghosts break, they forget who saved them.
In mere moments all that was left of the village was a sight of pure horror.
There are no more living souls in Ordos, the dead fear traveling there as well.

Zhong Kui, now the Blood Devil, ventures back to Kunlun to dispatch the Gods that executed his love. As quickly as he arrived, he leaves.
Another bloodbath in his wake, even the gods were no match for the pure power and rage of Zhong Kui.
All hope is lost.

The Blood Devil continues forward, his power infinite, seemingly fueled by the hatred he has within and the power of all he’s devoured.
_____

Centuries have past, there are no more living souls in the realm.

Izanami reveals herself to the motionless Blood Devil, the King of Ghosts, formerly Zhong Kui.

He doesn’t remember who he is, what he is.

There’s a woman in front of him wearing a blood red dress

She’s Pink Death with Red Lips,
She smiles at him.
He will never be the same.

He doesn’t know who she is,
He remembers Love.

Sadly it’s too late.
Love has meaning, but not to him.
When his heart begins to race,
all he knows is anger.

Unable to fatally harm Izanami, the Blood Devil stops as if allowing her escape.
Genuinely surprised by the aftermath of her actions and what’s become of Zhong Kui and the world she created, Izanami Exits this reality for the last time.