Chapter 18: Chapter 18
~1.9k words · 2026-06-22
CHAPTER 18: The Immortal Who Knew Too Much
Zhang barely had time to withdraw his hand from the sphere before the void around him shattered like glass.
He was back in his cubicle, gasping, the jade token cold against his chest. The familiar hum of celestial machinery filled his ears, but something was different. The air felt wrong. Charged. Like the moment before a thunderstorm.
A shadow fell across his desk.
"Zhang Wei."
The voice was smooth, cultured, and utterly devoid of warmth. Zhang looked up to find a woman standing before him. She was tall, with silver hair that flowed like liquid mercury and eyes that shifted between colors—gold, blue, crimson, gold again. She wore a pristine white robe embroidered with characters that hurt to look at directly.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: Detected Entity - Immortal Li Mei]
[Position: Auditor, Department of Internal Investigations]
[Warning: Do not attempt deception. Auditor Li Mei has 10,000+ years of experience detecting lies.]
Zhang's mouth went dry. Internal Investigations. That was the celestial equivalent of the IRS, the FBI, and the Spanish Inquisition all rolled into one.
"Auditor Li Mei," he said, standing and bowing. "What an honor. Can I help you with something?"
Li Mei's eyes settled on a pale green—which Zhang had learned meant she was amused, not angry. Yet.
"You accessed restricted records seventeen minutes ago," she said. "Records pertaining to your own death. Would you like to explain why?"
Seventeen minutes. That meant the system had flagged him almost immediately. Zhang's mind raced through possibilities. Denial? Pointless. She had the logs. Deflection? Risky. She'd probably seen every excuse ever invented. Truth? Maybe. But not all of it.
"I was curious," Zhang said. "I died unexpectedly. I wanted to understand what happened."
Li Mei's lips twitched. "Curiosity. A mortal trait. One we usually correct within the first century of service."
"Then I guess I'm a slow learner."
She laughed. It was a pleasant sound, like wind chimes, but it made Zhang's skin crawl. "You're either very brave or very stupid, Clerk Zhang. I haven't decided which yet."
"Could it be both?"
"Possibly." She reached into her sleeve and produced a scroll. "I've been reviewing your file. Interesting reading. You've only been here a few weeks, and already you've bypassed several security protocols, accessed restricted data, and modified your own access level."
"Creative problem-solving?"
"Unauthorized system manipulation."
Zhang held his breath. This was it. The moment where she either deleted his soul or dragged him to some celestial prison for the rest of eternity.
But instead of condemning him, Li Mei unrolled the scroll and handed it to him.
"Read it."
Zhang took the scroll cautiously. The characters were written in gold ink that seemed to move as he looked at them. It took him a moment to understand what he was reading.
It was a list. Names. Hundreds of them. All mortal souls who had died due to administrative errors in the last five years.
And none of them had been reincarnated.
"They're still here?" Zhang asked, his voice barely a whisper.
"Somewhere," Li Mei said. "The system doesn't delete them. It... redistributes them. To various departments. Labor, mostly. Data processing. Maintenance of the celestial infrastructure."
Zhang thought of the Hell of Unending Data Entry. The warning he'd received. The token that had shown him the truth.
"They're slaves," he said.
"Indentured servants," Li Mei corrected. "There's a difference. In theory."
"In theory."
She smiled again, but this time there was no amusement in it. "I've been investigating these discrepancies for three centuries. Every time I get close to the source, something happens. Leads vanish. Witnesses are reassigned. Evidence gets lost in the system."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you found something I couldn't." Li Mei leaned closer, her eyes fixed on his. "The record you accessed—the log of the error that killed you. It mentioned a specific responsible party. Clerk ID 2319."
"Supervisor Hu," Zhang said.
"No." Li Mei shook her head. "That ID doesn't belong to Hu. It belongs to someone much higher in the hierarchy. Someone who's been covering their tracks for millennia."
Zhang's blood ran cold. "Who?"
"I don't know. The ID is encrypted with a level of security I can't bypass. But you..." She studied him like a specimen. "You have a unique ability. You think like a mortal. You see the system not as sacred code, but as a tool to be manipulated. That perspective is valuable."
"So you want me to hack the celestial bureaucracy."
"I want you to find out who's been killing mortals and enslaving their souls." Li Mei's eyes shifted to a deep, angry red. "And I want you to bring them to justice."
---
The next three days passed in a blur of data analysis and system navigation. Zhang barely slept. He barely ate. The celestial cafeteria served ambrosia that tasted like whatever you wanted most, but he couldn't be bothered to enjoy it.
He had work to do.
Li Mei had given him access to certain backdoor protocols—off-the-books pathways through the celestial network that allowed him to move undetected. In exchange, he sent her regular reports on his findings.
And he was finding a lot.
The pattern was subtle, buried under layers of bureaucratic noise. But once Zhang knew what to look for, it became obvious. Souls were being misrouted at an alarming rate. Always the same type: mortals who died young, with high karmic potential. Creative minds. Problem-solvers. Innovators.
People like him.
"Why?" Zhang muttered, staring at his screen. "Why target specific types of souls?"
He cross-referenced the data with Li Mei's files. The souls that were taken—the ones never reincarnated—were all being sent to a single location. A department that didn't officially exist.
Department 0.
Zhang tried to access its records. Nothing. Tried to find its location. Nothing. It was as if the department had been erased from the system entirely.
But nothing was ever truly deleted. Not in a bureaucracy. There were always traces. Backups. Memos that someone forgot to shred.
He found one such memo buried in a file from three thousand years ago.
[INTERNAL MEMO - EYES ONLY]
[FROM: Director of Special Projects]
[TO: Department 0 Personnel]
[SUBJECT: Soul Harvesting Protocol Update]
The memo was brief, but it confirmed everything Zhang suspected. Department 0 existed. It was harvesting souls. And it was using them for something called the "Great Work."
Whatever that meant.
Zhang was about to dig deeper when his jade token pulsed with a message.
[URGENT: Your presence is requested at the Celestial Tribunal]
[Reason: Review of Unauthorized System Access]
[Time: Immediately]
[Note: Failure to appear will result in automatic soul deletion]
Zhang's heart stopped.
The Celestial Tribunal. That was the highest court in the heavenly bureaucracy. The place where even immortals feared to tread.
He'd been caught.
---
The Celestial Tribunal was nothing like Zhang expected.
Instead of a grand hall with marble pillars and golden thrones, it was a small, cramped room that looked exactly like a municipal courthouse. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. The air smelled of stale coffee and desperation.
And behind the judge's bench sat a man who looked like he'd been born in a suit.
"Zhang Wei," the judge said, his voice tired. "You've been accused of unauthorized system manipulation, accessing restricted records, and conspiracy to undermine celestial governance. How do you plead?"
Zhang glanced around the room. No jury. No audience. Just him and the judge.
And one other person.
Supervisor Hu sat in the corner, arms crossed, smirking.
"Not guilty," Zhang said.
The judge sighed. "Of course you are. They always are." He shuffled through papers. "Let's see what we have here. Evidence of tampering. Logs of unauthorized access. Testimony from Auditor Li Mei—"
"Li Mei?" Zhang's head snapped up.
"Who confirmed that you accessed the system without proper authorization," the judge continued. "And that you attempted to access Department 0 records."
Li Mei. She'd set him up.
"Wait," Zhang said. "She's the one who told me to investigate."
"She told you?" The judge raised an eyebrow. "So you admit to the investigation?"
"No, I—" Zhang stopped. Realization hit him like a brick. "She set a trap. She wanted me to access the records so she could report me."
"Auditor Li Mei has been investigating corruption in the celestial bureaucracy for three centuries," the judge said. "She's one of our most trusted agents. Why would she set a trap for a junior clerk?"
Because she's the one behind it all.
The thought hit Zhang like a lightning bolt. Li Mei wasn't trying to find the culprit. She was protecting them. She'd used him to find out how much a mortal could discover—and when he got too close, she'd thrown him under the celestial bus.
"Supervisor Hu," the judge said, "you have something to add?"
Hu stood, brushing off his robes. "Yes, Your Honor. I have evidence that the defendant was planning to hack the Core Administrative Interface and modify his own destiny."
"That's a lie," Zhang said.
"Is it?" Hu pulled out a jade token. "I have logs showing that Zhang Wei attempted to access destiny modification protocols. The same protocols that, if used improperly, could allow a mortal soul to ascend to immortality."
The judge's eyes narrowed. "Is this true?"
"It's not what it looks like," Zhang said. "I was investigating—"
"Investigation is not your job, Clerk Zhang," the judge interrupted. "Your job is to file paperwork. To process destiny reports. To follow the rules." He leaned forward. "The rules exist for a reason. They maintain order. They prevent chaos. And when someone breaks them, they must face the consequences."
Zhang opened his mouth to argue, but a notification appeared before him.
[TRIBUNAL VERDICT: Guilty]
[Charge: High Treason Against Celestial Order]
[Punishment: Eternal Indentured Servitude - Department 0]
Department 0.
The place he'd been trying to find.
The place where souls went to disappear forever.
"No," Zhang whispered.
"Take him away," the judge said.
Two celestial guards materialized at Zhang's sides, grabbing his arms. He struggled, but their grip was like iron.
"Wait," he shouted. "I have proof. I have evidence that Li Mei—"
But the guards were already dragging him away. The last thing Zhang saw before the doors closed was Li Mei standing in the hallway, watching him with those shifting, unreadable eyes.
She smiled.
And then the world went dark.
---
Zhang woke up in chains.
He was in a massive cavern, lit by flickering green crystals. Thousands of souls were chained to workstations, their fingers flying across interfaces made of pure light. The air hummed with the sound of data processing.
And in the center of it all stood a massive machine—a sphere of interlocking gears and runes, just like the one he'd seen in the Core Administrative Interface.
But this one was different.
This one was bleeding.
Crimson energy dripped from its gears, pooling on the floor below. The souls working nearby seemed to be drawing power from it, their chains pulsing with the same red light.
"Welcome to Department 0," a voice said.
Zhang turned. Li Mei stood behind him,
Zhang barely had time to withdraw his hand from the sphere before the void around him shattered like glass.
He was back in his cubicle, gasping, the jade token cold against his chest. The familiar hum of celestial machinery filled his ears, but something was different. The air felt wrong. Charged. Like the moment before a thunderstorm.
A shadow fell across his desk.
"Zhang Wei."
The voice was smooth, cultured, and utterly devoid of warmth. Zhang looked up to find a woman standing before him. She was tall, with silver hair that flowed like liquid mercury and eyes that shifted between colors—gold, blue, crimson, gold again. She wore a pristine white robe embroidered with characters that hurt to look at directly.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: Detected Entity - Immortal Li Mei]
[Position: Auditor, Department of Internal Investigations]
[Warning: Do not attempt deception. Auditor Li Mei has 10,000+ years of experience detecting lies.]
Zhang's mouth went dry. Internal Investigations. That was the celestial equivalent of the IRS, the FBI, and the Spanish Inquisition all rolled into one.
"Auditor Li Mei," he said, standing and bowing. "What an honor. Can I help you with something?"
Li Mei's eyes settled on a pale green—which Zhang had learned meant she was amused, not angry. Yet.
"You accessed restricted records seventeen minutes ago," she said. "Records pertaining to your own death. Would you like to explain why?"
Seventeen minutes. That meant the system had flagged him almost immediately. Zhang's mind raced through possibilities. Denial? Pointless. She had the logs. Deflection? Risky. She'd probably seen every excuse ever invented. Truth? Maybe. But not all of it.
"I was curious," Zhang said. "I died unexpectedly. I wanted to understand what happened."
Li Mei's lips twitched. "Curiosity. A mortal trait. One we usually correct within the first century of service."
"Then I guess I'm a slow learner."
She laughed. It was a pleasant sound, like wind chimes, but it made Zhang's skin crawl. "You're either very brave or very stupid, Clerk Zhang. I haven't decided which yet."
"Could it be both?"
"Possibly." She reached into her sleeve and produced a scroll. "I've been reviewing your file. Interesting reading. You've only been here a few weeks, and already you've bypassed several security protocols, accessed restricted data, and modified your own access level."
"Creative problem-solving?"
"Unauthorized system manipulation."
Zhang held his breath. This was it. The moment where she either deleted his soul or dragged him to some celestial prison for the rest of eternity.
But instead of condemning him, Li Mei unrolled the scroll and handed it to him.
"Read it."
Zhang took the scroll cautiously. The characters were written in gold ink that seemed to move as he looked at them. It took him a moment to understand what he was reading.
It was a list. Names. Hundreds of them. All mortal souls who had died due to administrative errors in the last five years.
And none of them had been reincarnated.
"They're still here?" Zhang asked, his voice barely a whisper.
"Somewhere," Li Mei said. "The system doesn't delete them. It... redistributes them. To various departments. Labor, mostly. Data processing. Maintenance of the celestial infrastructure."
Zhang thought of the Hell of Unending Data Entry. The warning he'd received. The token that had shown him the truth.
"They're slaves," he said.
"Indentured servants," Li Mei corrected. "There's a difference. In theory."
"In theory."
She smiled again, but this time there was no amusement in it. "I've been investigating these discrepancies for three centuries. Every time I get close to the source, something happens. Leads vanish. Witnesses are reassigned. Evidence gets lost in the system."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you found something I couldn't." Li Mei leaned closer, her eyes fixed on his. "The record you accessed—the log of the error that killed you. It mentioned a specific responsible party. Clerk ID 2319."
"Supervisor Hu," Zhang said.
"No." Li Mei shook her head. "That ID doesn't belong to Hu. It belongs to someone much higher in the hierarchy. Someone who's been covering their tracks for millennia."
Zhang's blood ran cold. "Who?"
"I don't know. The ID is encrypted with a level of security I can't bypass. But you..." She studied him like a specimen. "You have a unique ability. You think like a mortal. You see the system not as sacred code, but as a tool to be manipulated. That perspective is valuable."
"So you want me to hack the celestial bureaucracy."
"I want you to find out who's been killing mortals and enslaving their souls." Li Mei's eyes shifted to a deep, angry red. "And I want you to bring them to justice."
---
The next three days passed in a blur of data analysis and system navigation. Zhang barely slept. He barely ate. The celestial cafeteria served ambrosia that tasted like whatever you wanted most, but he couldn't be bothered to enjoy it.
He had work to do.
Li Mei had given him access to certain backdoor protocols—off-the-books pathways through the celestial network that allowed him to move undetected. In exchange, he sent her regular reports on his findings.
And he was finding a lot.
The pattern was subtle, buried under layers of bureaucratic noise. But once Zhang knew what to look for, it became obvious. Souls were being misrouted at an alarming rate. Always the same type: mortals who died young, with high karmic potential. Creative minds. Problem-solvers. Innovators.
People like him.
"Why?" Zhang muttered, staring at his screen. "Why target specific types of souls?"
He cross-referenced the data with Li Mei's files. The souls that were taken—the ones never reincarnated—were all being sent to a single location. A department that didn't officially exist.
Department 0.
Zhang tried to access its records. Nothing. Tried to find its location. Nothing. It was as if the department had been erased from the system entirely.
But nothing was ever truly deleted. Not in a bureaucracy. There were always traces. Backups. Memos that someone forgot to shred.
He found one such memo buried in a file from three thousand years ago.
[INTERNAL MEMO - EYES ONLY]
[FROM: Director of Special Projects]
[TO: Department 0 Personnel]
[SUBJECT: Soul Harvesting Protocol Update]
The memo was brief, but it confirmed everything Zhang suspected. Department 0 existed. It was harvesting souls. And it was using them for something called the "Great Work."
Whatever that meant.
Zhang was about to dig deeper when his jade token pulsed with a message.
[URGENT: Your presence is requested at the Celestial Tribunal]
[Reason: Review of Unauthorized System Access]
[Time: Immediately]
[Note: Failure to appear will result in automatic soul deletion]
Zhang's heart stopped.
The Celestial Tribunal. That was the highest court in the heavenly bureaucracy. The place where even immortals feared to tread.
He'd been caught.
---
The Celestial Tribunal was nothing like Zhang expected.
Instead of a grand hall with marble pillars and golden thrones, it was a small, cramped room that looked exactly like a municipal courthouse. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. The air smelled of stale coffee and desperation.
And behind the judge's bench sat a man who looked like he'd been born in a suit.
"Zhang Wei," the judge said, his voice tired. "You've been accused of unauthorized system manipulation, accessing restricted records, and conspiracy to undermine celestial governance. How do you plead?"
Zhang glanced around the room. No jury. No audience. Just him and the judge.
And one other person.
Supervisor Hu sat in the corner, arms crossed, smirking.
"Not guilty," Zhang said.
The judge sighed. "Of course you are. They always are." He shuffled through papers. "Let's see what we have here. Evidence of tampering. Logs of unauthorized access. Testimony from Auditor Li Mei—"
"Li Mei?" Zhang's head snapped up.
"Who confirmed that you accessed the system without proper authorization," the judge continued. "And that you attempted to access Department 0 records."
Li Mei. She'd set him up.
"Wait," Zhang said. "She's the one who told me to investigate."
"She told you?" The judge raised an eyebrow. "So you admit to the investigation?"
"No, I—" Zhang stopped. Realization hit him like a brick. "She set a trap. She wanted me to access the records so she could report me."
"Auditor Li Mei has been investigating corruption in the celestial bureaucracy for three centuries," the judge said. "She's one of our most trusted agents. Why would she set a trap for a junior clerk?"
Because she's the one behind it all.
The thought hit Zhang like a lightning bolt. Li Mei wasn't trying to find the culprit. She was protecting them. She'd used him to find out how much a mortal could discover—and when he got too close, she'd thrown him under the celestial bus.
"Supervisor Hu," the judge said, "you have something to add?"
Hu stood, brushing off his robes. "Yes, Your Honor. I have evidence that the defendant was planning to hack the Core Administrative Interface and modify his own destiny."
"That's a lie," Zhang said.
"Is it?" Hu pulled out a jade token. "I have logs showing that Zhang Wei attempted to access destiny modification protocols. The same protocols that, if used improperly, could allow a mortal soul to ascend to immortality."
The judge's eyes narrowed. "Is this true?"
"It's not what it looks like," Zhang said. "I was investigating—"
"Investigation is not your job, Clerk Zhang," the judge interrupted. "Your job is to file paperwork. To process destiny reports. To follow the rules." He leaned forward. "The rules exist for a reason. They maintain order. They prevent chaos. And when someone breaks them, they must face the consequences."
Zhang opened his mouth to argue, but a notification appeared before him.
[TRIBUNAL VERDICT: Guilty]
[Charge: High Treason Against Celestial Order]
[Punishment: Eternal Indentured Servitude - Department 0]
Department 0.
The place he'd been trying to find.
The place where souls went to disappear forever.
"No," Zhang whispered.
"Take him away," the judge said.
Two celestial guards materialized at Zhang's sides, grabbing his arms. He struggled, but their grip was like iron.
"Wait," he shouted. "I have proof. I have evidence that Li Mei—"
But the guards were already dragging him away. The last thing Zhang saw before the doors closed was Li Mei standing in the hallway, watching him with those shifting, unreadable eyes.
She smiled.
And then the world went dark.
---
Zhang woke up in chains.
He was in a massive cavern, lit by flickering green crystals. Thousands of souls were chained to workstations, their fingers flying across interfaces made of pure light. The air hummed with the sound of data processing.
And in the center of it all stood a massive machine—a sphere of interlocking gears and runes, just like the one he'd seen in the Core Administrative Interface.
But this one was different.
This one was bleeding.
Crimson energy dripped from its gears, pooling on the floor below. The souls working nearby seemed to be drawing power from it, their chains pulsing with the same red light.
"Welcome to Department 0," a voice said.
Zhang turned. Li Mei stood behind him,