Judge of Souls - Chapter 113
Yama had confirmed earlier that there was only yin energy in the house, but no traces of ghost souls, so the problem was most likely with the people.
Most of the rescued tourists had to be sent to hospitals for preliminary examinations. Because there were too many disaster victims, they were temporarily distributed to different hospitals according to their injury severity.
Jiang Feng asked for the names of several hospitals and decided to visit them one by one.
Wu Teng and the others were all fine.
They had been lucky – when the roof collapsed, they happened to be right next to the pillars and had crouched down accordingly. Apart from being frightened, they didn’t seem to have any discomfort.
They could move around freely, so they went to another, more distant hospital on their own.
The group took two taxis and drove there. Their sightseeing plans for the day were also temporarily shelved.
Wu Teng sat in the back seat, buried in his phone, liking and commenting on some related incidents.
Watching a group of people gossiping there, he found it amusing. Touching his heart that had just calmed down, he felt the experience had been too thrilling.
Fresh, and exhilarating.
He took out his phone and joined the crowd in criticism:
“Just came out of that house. Fortunately, I wasn’t injured, but thinking about it carefully, it was truly both terrifying and infuriating. Such a popular scenic spot, yet there was the horrifying scene of roof collapse. If we hadn’t been lucky this time, probably all hundred of us would have been crushed to death inside. The fact is, before I left, quite a few people had already perished. This must definitely be due to inadequate maintenance work, which led to this oversight. Where did all that tourism revenue end up going? It’s really thought-provoking. [Eating melon emoji] Just how malicious must the parties involved be to think of making this dirty money? I wish all related parties could receive punishment and experience it personally.”
He added popular hashtags, and being a party to the incident, his comment was quickly pushed to trending.
Wu Teng watched the constantly jumping follower and like counts and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He then went to like comments on previous marketing account reposts.
“Hahaha awesome 666!”
He unconsciously touched his throat. The person next to him nudged him and frowned. “Wu Teng, Wu Teng, I’m talking to you! Did you hear me or not?”
“Huh?” Wu Teng looked up and asked, “What did you just say?”
As soon as he spoke, both he and his friend were startled.
His friend beside him said, “Holy crap, what’s wrong with you? Were you so scared you lost your voice?”
Wu Teng pinched his throat, coughed dryly twice, didn’t feel any phlegm, but there was indeed something stuck in his throat, making him very uncomfortable.
“What’s going on?” He himself wasn’t clear either. “It was fine before we went to the scenic spot.”
The others didn’t think much of it. “What did you eat last night? Or did you shout loudly just now?”
“No, I didn’t shout much…” He coughed hard again, feeling that uncomfortable sensation clearly increasing.
“Wasn’t he just with us the whole time?”
“Right.”
“Forget it, we’re going to the hospital anyway. Whether there are external injuries or not, let’s get a checkup first. Who knows if anything got damaged just now?”
“Right.”
Wu Teng’s chest tightened, and he felt inexplicably panicked, then continued playing with his phone.
On the other side, Jiang Feng was investigating when he encountered a female ghost halfway.
The female ghost stood in the shadow of a roadside shop, looking at Yama with deep emotion, almost tearful.
The two thought she had grievances to voice, so they went over to inquire.
The female ghost brushed aside the hair on her face and sobbed. “I’m your mother!”
Yama: “……”
Jiang Feng: “……”
Yama grabbed the female ghost and stuffed her under his feet, stepping on her hard.
The female ghost seemed crushed by a thousand-pound boulder and let out a wail. No longer daring to linger, despite the scorching daylight outside, she twisted her body and fled directly.
Yama said expressionlessly, “Let’s go.”
They walked out of the next hospital and saw the female ghost again at the entrance.
This time the female ghost was sixty or seventy years old, wearing an old-style cotton jacket, her face covered with wrinkles. She opened her arms toward Yama and shouted, “My baby!”
Yama was furious and threw a punch at her face. The ghost was knocked back more than ten meters, and after steadying herself, she covered her nose with a bewildered expression. Coming to her senses, she turned and ran.
The third encounter was with a voluptuous mother ghost.
Yama could no longer bear it and grabbed the female ghost by the neck, asking, “Who told you to repeatedly come here seeking death?”
“It was… it was Wu Teng who asked us to come be your mother,” the female ghost said tremblingly. “What kind of mother do you actually want?”
Yama grabbed her and stepped on her a few more times before letting her escape.
Jiang Feng didn’t know who Wu Teng was. But they figured that someone who knew them and had also encountered disaster at the scenic spot could only be those few people from the hotel today.
But what grudge could they have against Yama?
Jiang Feng immediately called Chu Xuanliang, asking him to pay attention to that group of tourists staying next to them at the hotel. If they returned, to help confirm whether the few people were affected by this incident and whether they had yin energy on them.
Chu Xuanliang was checking the news, holding the remote control, feeling speechless. “How is it you again?”
There was a lot of static on Jiang Feng’s end, and the signal wasn’t very good, so he said, “I’ll hang up first. We’re almost done here, I’ll be back in a bit.”
****
Two hours later, Wu Teng and the others returned to the hotel exhausted.
The people in front were talking quietly, feeling that it was uncharacteristically quiet beside them, so they turned around to look for Wu Teng.
“Wu Teng, why are you so silent today?”
Wu Teng lifted his head slightly, tried to speak, and discovered he had completely lost his voice.
His throat felt very uncomfortable, and he even had some difficulty breathing. But when they had just checked at the hospital, they found no problems. The doctor said his tonsils were just a bit red, possibly because he had been frightened earlier and temporarily lost his voice. The doctor told him to drink more cold water or herbal tea and see how it went, and didn’t prescribe any medicine.
“Should I buy you a can of Wang Lao Ji?” his friend said. “There’s a vending machine over there. I’ll go buy you a bottle.”
Wu Teng opened his mouth and mouthed “thank you.”
Chu Xuanliang was sitting in the lobby, about to go over and strike up a conversation. He happened to see Wu Teng open his mouth, and thick black energy poured out, even more sinister and dense than the yin energy on malicious spirits. He was immediately shocked and jumped up to walk toward him.
Wu Teng’s face suddenly changed color at the same time. Looking ahead, he stepped back two paces, his legs shaking, his eyes showing terror.
Chu Xuanliang sensed something was wrong and looked in that direction, discovering a ghost also standing at the stairway. The ghost wore waiter clothes and looked at Wu Teng expressionlessly, standing in place with standard posture.
Chu Xuanliang hesitated momentarily, not knowing whether he should deal with this ghost first or check on Wu Teng’s condition.
Seeing Wu Teng was about to run, he didn’t have time to think much and directly slapped a talisman on him.
Wu Teng’s friend was the first to react, grabbing Chu Xuanliang’s hand and shouting, “What the hell are you doing!”
Chu Xuanliang pulled out a talisman and stuck it on Wu Teng’s neck, then immediately let go.
Wu Teng breathed hard. “I…”
He was stunned. “I can speak again?”
His friends were also bewildered. “Huh?”
Chu Xuanliang beckoned: “Come with me, don’t remove that thing.”
Wu Teng covered the talisman with both hands, afraid it would fall off. He followed Chu Xuanliang with small steps while gesturing to his friends.
The waiter didn’t seem to have any intention of harming people or resisting, but seeing Chu Xuanliang approach, it retreated to the second floor to maintain distance from him.
Chu Xuanliang swiped his card lightly, pointed to his room, and let the ghost enter as well. Wu Teng’s friends followed in complete confusion.
With so many people standing in the standard room, it seemed very crowded.
Once the door closed, Wu Teng pointed at the ghost in the corner and said, “Yesterday, what I saw yesterday was all real! Why is he in my room? Why is he haunting me!”
“You called me over,” [the ghost said].
“I didn’t! Bullshit! I don’t even know you!”
“You went to the scenic spot today? Did you make that house collapse?”
“I’ve been staying at the hotel the whole time. My corpse is still here, I can’t leave.”
“Your corpse?”
The waiter pointed at Wu Teng again. “Yesterday, he moved my corpse into the hotel wall.”
“I didn’t! Don’t say such things, okay? I’m about to piss myself from fear! Who moved your corpse? If you were…” Wu Teng continued to refute.
Chu Xuanliang arranged the room, placing several talismans in the corners, then went over and pressed his hand over Wu Teng’s mouth, blocking his following words.
Wu Teng made muffled sounds.
Chu Xuanliang made a gesture for everyone to keep quiet, then started calling the police.
Wu Teng’s friend took the opportunity to ask, “What’s going on?”
Wu Teng said, “Can’t you all see?”
Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads.
Wu Teng exhaled, the talisman on his neck swaying constantly with his movements, and said, “There’s a ghost. What I said yesterday was all true!”
The waiter ghost said coldly, “It was you. You called me over. I came uncontrollably. You’re a ghost messenger, right? I’ve fulfilled your request, so you should also satisfy my conditions. The underworld has rules.”
“It should be related to what you said.” Chu Xuanliang put down his phone and said, “Even if what you say doesn’t exist, reality will develop according to your description. So you’d better speak less, especially ominous words.”
Wu Teng gasped.
“Holy crap, no wonder everything you say comes true!” The friend beside him immediately jumped up, pointing at him and warning, “From now on, you fucking keep your mouth shut!”
Wu Teng’s eyes glistened with tears, his heart somewhat unable to bear it.
What kind of superpower was this?
Chu Xuanliang seemed to know what he was thinking and said, “This isn’t a superpower. Now when you open your mouth, you affect reality, forcibly commanding ghost souls to act according to your words. But as he said, can you satisfy him?”
Wu Teng shook his head frantically.
“Right, you can’t. But the underworld order is strict, even ghost messengers can’t violate it.” Chu Xuanliang said, “If you’re unlucky, you might directly encounter a malicious ghost who will tear you apart for being unable to satisfy them. Meeting a ghost like this one, you won’t die, but you’ll accumulate underworld sins for breaking your word. Most importantly, you now have dense yin energy, which easily attracts ghosts and makes you suitable food for various demons and spirits.”
Wu Teng trembled all over. “Then I…”
“I don’t know, let’s see.” Chu Xuanliang said, “Now we need to know why you have the ability to command earthbound ghost souls and even change reality. What’s the scope of this ability – is it only speaking, or does thinking work too? Will it be contagious? Will it evolve to become stronger? When did it start, and what’s the source?”
Wu Teng asked, “So what do we do now?”
Chu Xuanliang pulled out ten yuan from his wallet. “Let’s experiment first. Say: ‘Chu Xuanliang will win first prize if he buys lottery tickets.'”
Wu Teng gave him a strange look but still said, “Chu Xuanliang will win first prize if he buys lottery tickets.”
Chu Xuanliang: “While I’m gone, don’t let him speak, not even open his mouth.”
Everyone indicated they understood.
Fifteen minutes later, he returned to the room and placed the lottery ticket on the table.
“But…” a girl looked up in confusion, “Don’t lottery tickets only draw tomorrow?”
Chu Xuanliang: “……”
“Why didn’t you say that earlier?” Chu Xuanliang said helplessly, “Then try again. Say something random. Start with small things, let’s see the probability of them coming true.”
Wu Teng thought for a moment and said: “Chu Xuanliang will win if he buys scratch-offs now, and he’ll get ‘one more bottle’ if he buys drinks.”
Chu Xuanliang stared at his mouth and noticed the yin energy was even heavier than before. He was puzzled, uncertain whether it was because he spoke prophecies or if it was growing rapidly on its own.
Let’s try again and see.
He put on his coat and went out again.
Another fifteen minutes later, he returned with a bag.
Due to the magic array he had set up in the room, all the yin energy was trapped inside. As soon as he pushed open the door, the air was faintly blackened.
Chu Xuanliang took out the items and scratched open five scratch-off tickets consecutively, saying, “All losers.”
He then twisted the bottle cap, which also read “Thank you for your patronage.”
“I,” Wu Teng said with a dejected face, “So I—”
His friend quickly covered his mouth.
Everyone approvingly patted his shoulder.
That person said, “I’ll take charge of his foul mouth. I definitely won’t give him a chance to speak ominously!”
As soon as he spoke, the visibility in the room dropped another level. Everyone even began to feel somewhat cold.
“To be honest, your situation has gotten more serious.” Chu Xuanliang sat down by the table, opened his laptop, and said seriously, “I need to consult my master. From now on, don’t speak, and don’t engage in any thinking. Close your mouth, empty your mind, and repeatedly count from one to a hundred.”
Wu Teng nodded.
He rolled his eyes toward the ceiling and began counting continuously.
“Can you change the talisman, Taoist master?” Wu Teng kept his mouth tightly closed, making muffled sounds in his mouth: “My throat feels so uncomfortable, like there’s a stone stuck inside, I can barely make sounds.”
Chu Xuanliang turned around, looked at him worriedly and said: “This isn’t a solution. Why is your condition deteriorating so rapidly?”
He was about to pull out a blue talisman when there was a knock at the door.
It was Jiang Feng and Yama returning.
Jiang Feng saw the yin energy inside and raised his eyebrows. “What’s going on here?”
“Wu Teng.” Chu Xuanliang introduced. “Don’t know what’s wrong, he has throat problems.”
“Wu Teng? So it’s you?” Yama didn’t expect the culprit to appear so quickly and sneered. “I heard you wanted to find me a mother?”
“Huh? I didn’t. What do you mean find you a—” He realized suddenly, “Ah, I just replied to a comment online, and it was sarcastic! I didn’t say it out loud. Does that count too?”
Chu Xuanliang pondered for a moment, typed on the keyboard, and added “text” after “speech” in the notes.
This was truly—terrible.
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