He started off as a bright young student with amazing intellectual prospects and a slightly deformed appearance. But he was flunked in the all-important Imperial exams because the Emperor didn’t like his face.

In old China, flunking the exam was the kiss of death for any hope of career outside street-sweeping or noodle-flipping. Poor Zhong was so ashamed that he killed himself outside the Imperial palace.

Sent straight to the hell of Diyu for the crime of suicide, he was noticed by Yanluo Wang, who was impressed by his scholarly credentials. “Clever and dead? That’s just the person I’m looking for!”

Zhong Kui was given the title of Chief Ghostly Demon Killer. Not the career choice his mother had been hoping for, but never mind. From now on, he was to become an amazingly popular figure and always in demand for protection from nasties. After all, who doesn’t have a few demons that need quelling occasionally?

Zhong Kui carries a sword, but his signature demon-slaying technique is to crush them beneath his bare feet.

When he runs out of demons to quell, he heads off to tackle the ones in Japan under the name Shoki.

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Article last revised on April 21, 2019 by the Godchecker data dwarves.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders

References: Coming soon.

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