Judge of Souls - Chapter 117

They had shouted too loudly, and the sound carried through the wall to Jiang Feng’s room.

“Who is jealous of my beauty!” the meme face said in exasperation, “This is the face that all netizens love the most! It’s the most perfect face!”

Yama gestured for them to be quiet. But it was already too late.

The evil god turned his head nearly one hundred and eighty degrees, targeting the computer in the corner, and through the computer, connected to their network.

A magnified face appeared on their computer screen.

The person who had been laughing exaggeratedly now tried to make an angry expression, which looked rather comical.

Just as he was about to speak, Jiang Feng pressed down on the back of his head, forcing him down.

The other party let out an unwilling roar of anger.

“What do you want to do!”

“What do I want to do?” Jiang Feng took the needle from his hand, “Isn’t it my turn now?”

The other party said, “Do you want to stab me? I am a god! You can’t kill me this way!”

A female student cried out loudly:.”Ah… a god!”

A guy beside her shuddered. “Are you crazy? Are you brainwashed?”

“No! Don’t you remember? There was a very popular internet protection god online before. Netizens drew anthropomorphic pictures of him, created a wave of fan art, built a supertopic, wrote jokes and novels, and no matter what they did, they liked to check in and sign in for this internet god. Is that the one?” The girl gestured as she spoke to them, “Remember that period when people online worshipped various gods and various koi fish, asking for reposts and such? Then someone said, even third-rate characters have status now, so why doesn’t the internet that billions of people use have a representative god? So they used various memes to create one, saying that reposting it could make you happy, remember?”

Reminded by her, several people suddenly remembered.

“Oh, at first it was about sharing jokes, like sources of happiness, right? They even made that protection god into memes.”

“Right. Originally it was a topic for making wishes. I really liked checking in at the time because it had various funny shares, which were quite interesting. Later, because no one managed it, the homepage became full of curses and various dark insults, so I stopped going.”

“That kind of thing could become a god too?”

“The daily reposts were huge, and it became even more popular after being made into memes. But wasn’t it all just jokes? Who would hope to actually rely on this platform to fulfill their cursing content? Some were about hacking someone’s computer and releasing private photos, leaking private chat records, making someone’s phone explode while they were sleeping… Would a god actually fulfill these things?!”

Yama said, “Those who cursed on the page, even if they didn’t believe the internet god could do it, deep down they still believed the other party would receive some retribution, while hoping someone could seek justice for them. It was the massive accumulation of these emotions that he received, and then the intention to help netizens realize their wishes appeared.”

The girl said, “But… but how did it become like this? When this topic first appeared, it was quite positive. Although everyone was sharing their unlucky experiences, the overall mood was humorous and positive.”

“Whatever desire people had most strongly for him to do, that’s what he became like,” Yama said. “Evil and crooked paths have always been shortcuts. If that page you mentioned could have maintained positive guidance and content, it might have gradually been forgotten by people and never appeared. Or it might have grown stronger through these positive thoughts and appeared as a different entity after thousands of years. But by borrowing from malicious energy, it gained a physical form in a very short time and could control those who believed in it.”

Yama walked over and said, “I’ll go take a look. You all stay here and don’t move.”

In the screen, Jiang Feng really grabbed the needle and began stabbing the meme face.

The internet god felt no pain from the damage, showing no change throughout. He had no sense of pain at all, and his body was like a soft rubber object. The needles that were stabbed in were quickly bounced back out.

The internet god asked, “What exactly are you? Why can you grab hold of me?”

“You’re not qualified to ask this question,” Jiang Feng squatted down to pick up the fallen needles, looked up and said, “You’re the thing here.”

The other party chuckled coldly: “I am a god, you cannot kill me. No one in this world can kill me.”

Yama happened to push open the door and walk to face the two of them.

The underworld managed souls in the mortal world, and could also manage demons, spirits, and supernatural beings, but really didn’t want to manage such a thing. First, it originally had no life, only existing through evil thoughts. Even if it cultivated for a long time, it was destined never to have the chance of reincarnation or entering the cycle of rebirth, so the underworld couldn’t possibly receive it.

This kind of being wasn’t under the underworld’s jurisdiction, and the underworld had no intention of managing it either.

“Do you still want to kill me?” the evil god observed their expressions and said, “This is impossible. As long as someone believes in my existence, I am an immortal true god in this world! You can’t kill me, and I can’t kill you either. How about this – we don’t interfere with each other. I won’t come looking for you anymore, and you let me go this time, how about it?”

Yama said, “Would something born from evil thoughts have such a thing as credibility? Once your power becomes stronger, the first ones you’ll want to kill will be us, right?”

“No,” the other party laughed wickedly, “I’ll kill that person named Wu Teng first. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have been unlucky enough to encounter you two.”

Yama wasn’t very surprised. “Your logic is indeed disgusting.”

Jiang Feng stopped stabbing. He had Yama watch this thing, bent down to casually sweep up the needles and put them back in the bag. Finally remembering the woman still lying on the ground, he went over to drag her into the bathroom to prevent her from suffering further troubles.

The several people watching from the computer on the other side all spat out blood in unison.

This man… Liu Xiahui at least held someone for a while, but this man he…

“How many people have you killed?” Jiang Feng clapped his hands and said, “Including those you killed with yin energy at the tourist attraction.”

“Wasn’t that Wu Teng who killed them?” The internet god squinted and said, “No one will blame me for the mistakes.”

Jiang Feng: “Then we definitely can’t let you go back.”

Yama: “You will die here today and atone for your crimes with death.”

“You really want to kill me?” The internet god looked up and laughed loudly, “Kill a god? What will you rely on?”

To kill a god, speaking of it, was actually quite simple. Throughout history, how many deities had disappeared in the long river of time? They just needed to lose the faith that supported them.

The internet god crossed one leg and said, “I’ll tell you how to kill a god. Someone once told me a story online, a legend passed down through generations in their area. I think it might actually be true.”

“It happened in nearby H Province. There was a county there with a famous Taoist temple. The Taoist priests in the temple worshipped a protection god that truly existed but wasn’t very powerful. Later war broke out and lasted for several years. At one point, that place became a battlefield, and countless wronged souls remained nearby, unable to move on. Because of the devastation, unable to ignore it, the guardian god once manifested and used his magical power to protect everyone. But the humans who had suffered terribly in the war couldn’t bear it anymore. After they discovered the god’s existence, their initially devout prayers turned into excessive evil demands. Because of this change in thinking, that protection god gradually became a highly powerful evil god. He didn’t distinguish between good and evil – outsiders would be killed as soon as they arrived.” The internet god said, “Because of the strong beliefs of the locals and local wronged souls, no one could defeat that evil god. The local Taoist temple wanted to stop it, but in the end the entire temple was wiped out. Finally they invited a Taoist priest from a neighboring county. When that priest found himself in danger and knew he couldn’t win, he turned to killing everyone in the village, and then that guardian god finally died too.”

“Haha, but you can’t possibly kill me, because you can’t kill hundreds of millions of people!” he laughed proudly, “You can only watch as I rule the world! I will make this world the most beautiful place!”

The name H Province sounded somewhat familiar, but Jiang Feng couldn’t remember where he had heard it.

He was certain he had never been there. And hearing about the war, that was already decades ago.

Speaking of Taoist temples, that familiar feeling became stronger.

Oh——

It was what Taoist master Xuanyi had mentioned to him. The Taoist surnamed Feng who held the fake Judge’s Brush was originally from H City.

Jiang Feng temporarily set aside this thought and looked at the internet god, saying: “Someone like you is actually quite pitiful. Your life is entirely determined by others, and others don’t really care about you at all.”

“You’re talking nonsense! I’m the one who determines other people’s lives,” the internet god said, “I can make them feel happy! Don’t you all say to eliminate the roots completely? That’s exactly what I’m doing!”

Jiang Feng opened his phone and clicked to report each post on the topic page one by one. Finding the workload too big, he started contacting online customer service, hoping they would handle this supertopic.

Someone from the room across shouted:

“That’s useless, young friend! This website’s processing speed is mysteriously awkward, and if you don’t have enough complaints, they won’t pay any attention to you! This website’s stance is totally biased!”

Jiang Feng continued holding his phone.

Yama: “Did you hear that?”

Jiang Feng nodded. “I heard.”

He called Officer Ye, asking him to help shut down a supertopic.

“…” Officer Ye said, “Your Brother Ye doesn’t have enough authority. This company is too big, and the boss is stubborn. I can’t speak up.”

He quietly gave Jiang Feng a phone number. “Don’t say I told you. Goodbye, friend.”

Jiang Feng first searched for the number on WeChat and found this person was Deng Bian, who had arrested him before and was Officer Ye’s superior. So he applied to add her, then took two photos of the internet god and sent them over.

Deng Bian was also startled and quickly called. “Jiang Feng, right? What the hell is this thing? You encountered it again?”

“Internet god,” Jiang Feng said, “An evil god. So far it has killed quite a few people.”

He briefly explained what had happened.

“…I’ll go file a complaint,” Deng Bian said in a weary tone, “Don’t send me this kind of stuff to look at anymore. Speak properly, don’t send pictures.”

Jiang Feng: “Are you okay?”

Deng Bian: “I’m really not very good.”

Jiang Feng could hear it.

Deng Bian hung up the phone immediately after speaking.

It was just an entertainment supertopic, and because no one managed it, the latest content was filled with various negative information.

Using connections to contact relevant personnel, after they negotiated with the website, the staff quickly handled it.

At the same time, to establish correct ideological guidance, in the topics related to #Protection God#, they posted the Socialist Core Values, changed the character design to an animated image of the Chinese rabbit, with five shining stars in the background.

The internet god who had been arrogantly clamoring just moments before instantly changed expression after all related topics were deleted.

The dark energy around Yama began to visibly dissipate, while this so-called deity’s face shape rapidly changed, constantly shifting between round, square, and triangular shapes. His features stretched quickly, transforming into various familiar meme expressions, and finally his body gradually became transparent.

He was really about to die.

“No——No!” He struggled to grab onto Jiang Feng, unable to understand. “No! You can’t do this, how is this possible? It won’t work! What about their faith? Don’t they want me to help them fulfill their wishes anymore?”

“Malice has no such thing as faith,” Jiang Feng pried open his hands, “It’s just that because it’s on the internet, people can vent freely. Their strong malice might not last long at all, just being particularly vicious when it flares up, then they throw what they’ve done to the back of their minds afterward. So I said, they don’t really care about you at all. Things recorded on the internet do leave traces, but similarly, they’re just data. They’re much more unreliable than you imagine.”

The internet god reached out with his hand again, looking at Jiang Feng unwillingly.

The next second, only his final desperate roar remained in the air. “No——!”