Judge of Souls - Chapter 5

Jiang Feng held his phone, leaving the room to search for a signal. Earlier when he went upstairs following the location, it suddenly cut off halfway. If it weren’t for those people’s piercing screams, he really wouldn’t have found his target.

A girl pleaded, “Come… come back soon.”

Jiang Feng: “……”

Heh, impossible. Come back to chat? He was just a delivery person.

After Jiang Feng left, the remaining people in the room couldn’t help but panic again. Of the initial group of twelve, one had disappeared, three had fainted from fear, and one had been attacked. Those who were still awake forced awkward laughs while making conversation to avoid the surroundings becoming too quiet.

They could only silently pray that no new ghosts would appear during the time Jiang Feng was gone.

Even though this area was known as a haunted building and many people had visited before, why did they end up being the ones to encounter trouble?

Jiang Feng hadn’t walked far from the door when he ran into a figure. He stopped at a distance, turned on his phone’s flashlight function, and shone it forward.

Liu Junlu was crouching at the corner of the staircase, his gaze moving between upstairs and downstairs, looking confused. When suddenly hit by the light, he trembled, looked toward its source, and seeing it was Jiang Feng, jumped up and called out, “Great Immortal! So Great Immortal, you’re here!”

“How did you die?” Jiang Feng gestured for him to step back a bit, examining him, “I was only gone for a moment, weren’t you supposed to have gone back?”

“I’m dead?” Liu Junlu looked even more surprised than him, mumbling repeatedly. “I’m dead? How did I die?”

Jiang Feng pointed downward. “Look down.”

Liu Junlu’s mind felt like it was stuffed with cotton, soft and unclear. Only after being told did he follow the instruction to look down.

His feet weren’t touching the ground; more precisely, the part near his feet was becoming transparent, invisible.

The phone’s light passed through his body without any obstruction, while his exposed arms and chest had hideous scars, with rotting flesh turned outward at the joints, clearly showing his body had been pieced together.

He didn’t dare touch his face, his appearance already imaginable, and it was remarkable that Jiang Feng could maintain his composure while facing him.

Liu Junlu’s mind suddenly cleared as he remembered what happened before his death.

“I’m dead, yes, I’m dead!” Liu Junlu waved his arms saying, “That female ghost dragged me into the building, then another female ghost took me upstairs and forced me to jump down! I died from the fall!”

He became agitated for a moment, but shortly after felt like there wasn’t much worth getting excited about. Previously he had been terrified of death to the point of neurosis, but after actually dying once, it seemed not so bad? In fact, both his mind and spirit felt lighter, and the soreness and pain he had always felt in his body were gone.

Jiang Feng asked, “What grudge did that female ghost have against you?”

“I… don’t know.” Liu Junlu’s first reaction was to deny it, but he unconsciously spoke the truth. “I’ve offended many people in the past, I don’t remember her, and she didn’t reveal her name.”

Jiang Feng glanced at him sideways, admiring, “It’s rare enough for others to encounter ghosts when going out, but you managed to run into a ghost who has a grudge against you, that’s quite something.”

Liu Junlu was still unable to process the news of his own death, yet strangely his emotions seemed to be missing a piece, preventing normal reactions, which made him particularly uncomfortable, as if he wasn’t himself anymore.

Liu Junlu smiled bitterly. “Great… Great Immortal, please take me out of here. I’ll accept anything, just take me out!”

Jiang Feng: “You’re already a ghost, what are you afraid of?”

“I’m scared. I know I’m a worthless person, but do you know how frightening crowds are? Aren’t ghosts just transformed humans?” Liu Junlu said, “This building is full of ghosts, she’ll come looking for me soon, she won’t let me go so easily!”

Jiang Feng’s thoughts stirred, and he asked, “How many are there here?”

Liu Junlu wasn’t certain, it was just a vague feeling. “At least over a hundred?”

A look of astonishment flashed across Jiang Feng’s face.

Over a hundred ghosts in one building? Were they breeding like parasites? What kind of place was this building?

Liu Junlu thought for a moment, then pleaded again. “Great Immortal, please help collect my corpse, you don’t even need to do it yourself, just inform my son. But it needs to be quick, don’t let the stray dogs around here eat my body.”

This request sounded really strange, and Jiang Feng’s mouth twitched as he said, “Alright.”

Liu Junlu stiffly turned around to lead the way.

They should be on the third floor now, not far from the stairwell.

Jiang Feng put one hand on the railing, holding his phone to check for signal. After turning three circles, Jiang Feng looked up, but instead of seeing the first-floor lobby, he saw another deep, dark staircase.

Like an endless Penrose staircase, they were still on the third floor.

Jiang Feng looked at Liu Junlu. Liu Junlu quickly waved his hands to clear himself. “It wasn’t me!”

Jiang Feng: “I know.”

He was still waiting for him to collect his corpse, what would be the point of trapping him?

“Great Immortal?” Liu Junlu looked at him puzzled.

Shouldn’t this kind of thing be effortless for him? Could a ghost trap a god?

It seemed absurd.

Jiang Feng didn’t know what the other was thinking, but he truly had no solution for these supernatural events. He asked, “Where is that female ghost who made you jump?”

Liu Junlu shuddered all over, showing extreme fear. Pointing upward, he said, “There. On the rooftop.”

Jiang Feng turned in a new direction. “Then let’s try going up.”

****

At the back of the dangerous building.

After the three had waited impatiently, Fu Yuan finally arrived fashionably late. She drove her red sports car, parking hundred meters away, and jogged over.

“Tch.” The woman carrying the long staff clicked her tongue and said, “Men are all pigs.”

The other two Taoists: “……”

That was quite a harsh criticism.

Indeed, Fu Yuan was definitely the type that men liked, so even though her personality wasn’t great, she still managed to get by.

The man in the suit said, “Xiao Huang Yu, let’s resolve this matter first, then you can argue with her. This situation is quite troublesome.”

The woman called Huang Yu snorted. “You think I’m like her?”

Fu Yuan walked up to the three. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

Except for the man in the suit, the other two didn’t even give her a glance, and directly started taking action.

The first thing they checked was the Teng Snake stone statue that had been reported broken during the livestream.

Six statues were buried in six positions around the building, and if any one of them was damaged, it would cause major problems.

However, when the group gathered above the pit, they tragically discovered that it really was broken.

The wind was strong around them. Fu Yuan had previously suffered spiritual power backlash, and her internal organs were still aching, not yet recovered. Smelling the dusty air, she covered her chest and coughed once.

The crew-cut man with a cigarette in his mouth said with a hint of sarcasm, “Fu Yuan, if you’re not feeling well, you didn’t need to come. There’s no salary for you this time.”

The man in the suit coughed once and changed the subject. “This statue absolutely couldn’t have been broken by an ordinary person.”

This was no ordinary statue; it was much more solid than regular stones. Though it looked small enough to be held in one’s arms, it actually weighed over five hundred jin. How could it possibly have been smashed like this with just one shovel?

Fu Yuan asked, “Who broke it?”

The man in the suit handed over his phone, “This person.”

It was a thin male wearing a loose black hoodie. The image was somewhat blurry, but after adjusting the clarity, he looked like an ordinary person lacking exercise.

The crew-cut man squatted down to examine the crack, dusted off his hands and pondered, “Hmm… strange. Interesting.”

Huang Yu stamped her foot, feeling cold in her limbs. She asked, “Is there a cold front in A City recently?”

The man in the suit: “Where would a cold front come from?”

Huang Yu: “If not, why is there such a strong northwest wind at this time?”

The crew-cut man pointed in the direction they came from, “No, when we were standing over there, it was definitely a southeast wind.”

Everyone looked toward the building.

In other words, it wasn’t about wind direction, but rather the air was continuously surging toward the dangerous building.

The man in the suit: “Let’s go, let’s head in.”

The four entered the building, and this empty commercial building seemed particularly quiet. However, in their eyes, the entire building was foggy, and they couldn’t see the true scene beyond a meter away, while sounds of laughter continuously came from upstairs.

Fu Yuan took out a wind-turning talisman and started the air flow in this area.

The man in the suit took out a compass and began searching for living people in the building.

“Here’s one.” Huang Yu pulled out a person from beside the staircase railing and threw him to the ground. “Still alive, quite lucky.”

This person probably fainted too quickly, and the ghosts here had no grudge against him. With insufficient spiritual energy and unable to steal his name, they could only temporarily let him be.

So being a coward wasn’t entirely without benefits.

The man in the suit squatted down, recited two phrases, and pressed a finger to his forehead.

That unconscious young man suddenly opened his eyes and mumbled, “Delivery… delivery…” Unable to say a second word, he fainted again.

Crew-cut man: “… Is he confused from hunger?”

“No, their livestream plan was to trick delivery people to come, then prank them,” Huang Yu said. “He must be referring to the delivery person.”

When Fu Yuan heard the words “delivery,” a face flashed in her mind. She thought it couldn’t be such a coincidence, and pushed the thought away.

The man in the suit calculated the positions of the remaining people and said, “Third floor, let’s go.”

The crew-cut man hoisted the unconscious man onto his shoulder and followed behind them up the stairs.

As they walked, all the minor ghosts in the vicinity scattered on their own, not daring to block their path.

Even for them, approaching this place still felt creepy. After all, not all the residents of the building were timid little ghosts.

They successfully found the room on the third floor. The man in the suit, walking in front, paused at the doorway, where two large bags of food containers were still placed, showing the delivery had made it up. Everyone in the room was lying on the ground, barely breathing.

After checking, they still had vital signs, so they were temporarily left alone.

The crew-cut man put down the man he was carrying, letting all the troublemakers lie together neatly.

Huang Yu counted and said, “There are ten people in the room, plus the one downstairs, that’s only eleven. But they clearly came as twelve people, and with the delivery person, it should be thirteen. Where are the other two?”

They had come around from the back of the dangerous building, so they hadn’t seen Liu Junlu’s car parked far away at the street corner in front. Otherwise, they would have known three people were actually missing.

And that person wearing black clothes who had shattered the Teng Snake stone statue with one shovel was also there. Huang Yu felt around and pulled out a strand of long hair from his back that couldn’t possibly belong to him. He had most likely been used.

The man in the suit frowned and continued calculating.

However, the compass showed no other reactions for the moment, proving that someone had used certain methods to conceal their whereabouts.

It seems they were dealing with someone from their own circle.

Sure enough, Fu Yuan found a red talisman paper in the corner.

“Looking at the pattern on this, there should be others around. This is a maze formation, there should be five pieces,” Fu Yuan said. “With one of the six guardian stone statues broken, quite a few vicious ghosts are rushing to come up from below. That delivery person isn’t here, perhaps they were taken away as a sacrifice, likely in danger. We need to hurry over.”

The crew-cut man said regretfully, “Hope he hasn’t been scared to death yet.”

With Fu Yuan’s casual tear of the talisman, Jiang Feng and Liu Junlu finally walked out of their vicious cycle.

Watching the sign on the wall change from “3” to “4”, Liu Junlu was so moved he sobbed, nearly scaring himself into a second death.

Jiang Feng: “……”

What use did he have for this ghost?