Judge of Souls - Chapter 100

Then Mr. Zhou appeared outside the window. He jumped up to look inside, but it was really too high, so he hurriedly ran to the front door to knock.

Chu Xuanliang went over to let him in.

Mr. Zhou rushed past him into the house. Yangyang was still swaying unsteadily like a black shadow – unable to maintain human form when away from Jiang Feng, so he grabbed onto his pant leg with one hand and looked at Mr. Zhou.

“Yangyang! Is this my Yangyang?!” Mr. Zhou sat in front of him, momentarily speechless, opening his mouth but not knowing what to say to him.

“What do we do now? What will happen to this child?” Mr. Zhou grabbed Jiang Feng and asked, “Can he not even reincarnate?”

Chu Xuanliang said, “I’m very sorry, his condition is really…”

Mr. Zhou’s anger flared up from his heart, and he jumped up. “What exactly did that Miao family do! Those beasts – where are they!”

Jiang Feng pointed toward the corner.

Mr. Zhou was shocked. “They…”

Jiang Feng: “Mm.”

Mr. Zhou’s expression immediately became dejected. The people were already dead – what could be done?

Chu Xuanliang glanced at Mr. Zhou and said, “It’s not necessarily too terrible. I’ll take him back to my sect and slowly dissolve the malevolent energy. As long as he persists and doesn’t transform into a malevolent ghost, he should be able to go reincarnate before long.”

Mr. Zhou: “Really? That… that’s wonderful. Please take extra care – any amount of money is fine.”

As they were talking, two underworld messengers appeared outside, standing by the window to lead away the two people in the corner.

Chu Xuanliang had to stay here to call the police and handle the aftermath. Jiang Feng still had details he was concerned about, so he left first to go to the underworld for interrogation.

****

In the Hall of Yama, the two knelt side by side below the hall.

The Judge flipped through the Register of Merits and Demerits to make records, then raised his eyes to coldly scan the two people in front.

The great hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The two finally regained their consciousness and were terrified in this hall.

This soul-swapping technique was far too familiar. It must be related to that fake Judge’s Brush again. Perhaps it was the same person.

Judging from the timing, this Taoist priest had swapped souls for them earlier than the previous Shaoling Mountain group. He wondered if they could still find him.

The Judge asked, “Where is that person?”

“I don’t know. I only know his surname is Feng, and he appears and disappears like a ghost. After he helped me swap souls, he vanished.” Mrs. Miao clenched her hands and said, “After that child was miscarried, he kept clinging to me, crying in my ear. I was scared too. I couldn’t find Taoist Master Feng, so I could only use the previous method to contain him first. I didn’t know who to ask for help and was afraid of being exposed. But that bottle didn’t work – it kept attracting other ghosts to attack me, and I didn’t dare throw it away…”

The Judge said, “Naturally. Since he was already dead, he became a dead soul. This child’s fate was too light, and he died young. Originally dying at your hands already gave him some resentment toward you. Later entering your belly prevented him from reincarnating, deepening his resentment. If you had continued the pregnancy, his soul might have absorbed malevolent energy and become a malevolent ghost. What would be born might be a ghost fetus, and it would also prevent him from achieving rebirth.”

Mrs. Miao pointed at her husband and cried. “But I did it all for him! I wanted a child so much… If I divorced, I could have had children…”

Her husband opened his lips and said uncontrollably, “I always knew about my fate – I would never have descendants.”

Mrs. Miao’s sorrowful expression froze. She tilted her head slightly, her expression changing from disbelief to horrified unfamiliarity. Countless heavy emotions flashed through, finally settling on indifference.

She couldn’t cry.

She hadn’t really loved him that much after all.

What a scumbag.

Having said this, there was nothing left to hide. Her husband’s attitude became frank. “I consulted a Taoist priest to find out clearly. I have money. As long as I could give birth to the child, I could keep him alive.”

He glanced sideways at Mrs. Miao, actually showing some resentment. “Why did you do such unnecessary things? If you hadn’t done it, you wouldn’t have brought trouble upon yourself, wouldn’t have implicated me!”

Mrs. Miao looked up and laughed loudly, then cursed at him.”Beast!”

“You shut up! You’re so cruel and ruthless, I think you’re the beast!”

“I’m cruel and ruthless? You watched me miscarry repeatedly, went out constantly looking for mistresses, watched your own children die yet lived so carefree and comfortable – if you’re not a murderer, what are you!”

Yama forcefully struck the gavel. The two covered their ears and screamed once in the huge sound wave.

Yama said in a deep voice, “Insolent.”

White Impermanence sneered. “To dare make noise in front of the Hall of Yama – truly thinking death isn’t enough.”

The two fell silent.

Their natural lifespans shouldn’t have been this short. But one relied on evil and crooked ways to steal others’ souls, while the other deliberately ignored his wife’s miscarriages and philandered, causing three fetuses and one young child to die successively. Such harm to living beings naturally couldn’t be forgiven.

Yama asked, “How did you meet that Taoist priest? Who introduced you?”

Mrs. Miao breathed heavily, then lowered her head and said, “Online. I joined many Taoist and Buddhist exchange groups, and then one day, someone in one of the groups invited me to join another group and sent me that Taoist master’s business card. I thought I’d try it… Later I found everything was effective. He read my fortune several times and was extremely accurate…”

The corner of Yama’s mouth twitched.

Nowadays criminals all used the internet, but he didn’t even have a phone.

Look, how disadvantageous this was for his case work.

Mrs. Miao continued recalling. “From his accent, he couldn’t distinguish between L and N sounds. Also, I never saw his face, but I saw his hands. Women are sensitive to skin color – the first time I met him, his hands were rather pale, but the second time I saw them, they had darkened by at least two shades. Why?”

Yama and the Judge remained unmoved.

This person must have swapped souls to extend his life.

Yama said, “You dare question this Lord?”

Mrs. Miao didn’t dare speak anymore.

There were no doubts about their lives – they were directly sent to hell. When they had washed themselves clean before the Mirror of Sins, then they could be exiled to the riverbank to await reincarnation.

****

The Judge’s spirit returned from the underworld and received a call from Taoist Master Xuanyi.

Taoist Master Xuanyi slapped his forehead and said, “Oh my, I know now! I found the origin of this talisman!”

He grabbed the talisman and flipped through it.

He said no wonder this soul-rejecting talisman pasted on the outside of the bottle imprisoning Yangyang seemed so familiar – it indeed had some connection to the Qianyuan Dao.

“This is a long story. I was wondering why I couldn’t remember before – this goes back many years.” Taoist Master Xuanyi sighed, “The Feng family used to run a small Taoist temple in a certain county in H Province. Times weren’t good then, and smaller temples basically couldn’t survive. But the Feng family head had some ability and was quite reputable in that area… However, I heard from my master that the ability was questionable, because the frequency of supernatural incidents in such a small place was too high. Ahem… You know, during special times, some Taoist priests would do such things.”

Jiang Feng: “…”

Xuanyi said seriously, “Of course we didn’t. We’re a major temple!”

Jiang Feng said with difficulty, “…Is that so?”

“Back then they came to A City with other temples to exchange knowledge with Qianyuan Temple.” Taoist Master Xuanyi quickly changed the subject, smacking his lips. “So-called learning, they would always draw talismans for each other. They were a small temple with no foundation, and except for a few secret talismans, there wasn’t much that couldn’t be taught. It depended more on talent – what couldn’t be told were the binding spells. With a supportive attitude, we taught what we could.”

“Seeing this soul-rejecting talisman reminded me – this was the only specialty talisman the Feng family drew after absorbing the strengths of various temples. My sect should still have one pressed in the back warehouse, kept like a memento.” Taoist Master Xuanyi commented, “My master said this talisman was useful but neither fish nor fowl, harmful to imprisoned souls, so he didn’t let us learn it. It was only kept for face-saving reasons. He also said the Feng family’s Taoist arts were all evil – self-researched, probably on the wrong path.”

Jiang Feng: “From what you’re saying, the Feng family wasn’t very clean before.”

“Sigh, nowadays even orthodox temples inevitably have some bad apples. As for being unclean, indeed many people are tempted by profit. As for whether their Taoist arts were clean or not, I dare not say.” Taoist Master Xuanyi said, “What they did doesn’t matter – they were wiped out over a hundred years ago. Such a small branch wasn’t even orthodox, so there are no records.”

Jiang Feng and Yama had already gone through all Taoist priests surnamed Feng within the past five hundred years and questioned suspicious people, but had never heard of any massacre incident.

Jiang Feng asked, “Why were they massacred?”

“A spiritual treasure appeared in the world, probably?” Taoist Master Xuanyi said, “I don’t remember clearly either. I haven’t lived that long – just occasionally heard my master mention it. I heard the Feng family obtained some treasure and attracted covetous people. People in that era were crazy about getting rich, and no one was managing things – no, the people managing also wanted to get rich – so they were massacred.”

Jiang Feng frowned. “What treasure was it?”

“The most ridiculous thing is, no one actually knew or had seen it. At the time it was just a rumor, and they all swarmed over.” Taoist Master Xuanyi said, “So my master felt that the rivers of blood back then were just driven by delusions. There was no peerless treasure at all. Even if there had been, ordinary people’s fate couldn’t handle it. Look at the Taoist priests and ordinary people who went to rob – most died. Ill-gotten gains can never be obtained.”

Jiang Feng understood. “Can you send me materials about the Feng family?”

Taoist Master Xuanyi: “What materials? What materials could there be? They weren’t any orthodox Taoist sect to begin with – just using the Taoist banner. Even their exchanges were uninvited visits by that temple master. Look, some people even say Sun Wukong and Red Boy are deities of our Taoist sect. What can we do… But I can help you ask around.”

Jiang Feng: “…”

He could hear the resentment.

“Good.” Jiang Feng said, “Thank you for the trouble.”

Taoist Master Xuanyi: “No need, no need. With such evil people still living freely in the world, I can’t rest easy either. Tell the underworld, and I’ll search more.”

Jiang Feng: “Mm.”

****

Because he had been accompanying Chu Xuanliang and made a trip to the underworld, Jiang Feng hadn’t attended classes for some time.

He first forcibly sent the little Mountain God back, while Tangyuan was taken to the underworld for placement. The little Mountain God cried himself hoarse but ultimately had to comply.

When he finally went to school that day, Zhang Yangyang grabbed him and asked, “Where have you been running off to lately?”

Jiang Feng thought he was a semi-informed person, so he didn’t hide it and said, “Busy with underworld matters.”

Zhang Yangyang suddenly sighed. “Can I become an underworld messenger after I die too?”

Jiang Feng asked curiously, “You want to be an underworld messenger?”

Zhang Yangyang scratched his head embarrassedly. “Isn’t it still an official position, big or small? And underworld messenger sounds so cool!”

“Mm…” Jiang Feng said, “If you can maintain it, then you indeed could after death. The underworld is also short-staffed.”

Jiang Feng paused, then said, “I think you’d better not think about such things. Thinking too much about… mysterious matters is hard to say.”

Zhang Yangyang: “…Really?”

Jiang Feng: “Mm. And being an underworld messenger isn’t cool at all.”