Li Zhongzhi, the scholar from Laiwu, possessed an unyielding and upright character. Every few days, he would die once, lying rigid as a corpse, only to revive after three or four days. When asked where he had been, he would only smile and remain silent.

Zhang Sheng, from the county town, also died every few days. He confided in someone privately, saying, "Li Zhongzhi is Yama himself. Every time I go to the Underworld, I serve as his deputy." Zhang Sheng could recall every character of the couplet on the gate of the Hall of the Ten Kings of Hell. When someone asked him, "What business did you conduct in the Underworld yesterday?" Zhang Sheng replied, "It cannot be spoken of in detail, but I was summoned to interrogate Cao Cao and administered twenty strokes of the cane."