Judge of Souls - Chapter 90

After everyone witnessed with their own eyes that old man being buried alive by the villagers in the back mountain, they all turned their heads away, unable to bear watching directly.

Kong Su felt the muscles in her calves twitching spasmodically, and she could barely stand. Suddenly remembering something, she said, “Does this count as solid evidence?”

She took out her phone, wanting to capture this scene. But there was nothing on the screen – it was pitch black, and even turning on night mode made no difference.

Kong Su asked, “What’s going on?”

Huang Yu replied, “You wouldn’t still be thinking of getting online in this place, would you?”

Kong Su said, “Um…”

However, compared to the others, Kong Su was already calm enough. Looking at Ji Ruxi and the others, they had even forgotten to control their expressions, standing there with their mouths slightly agape like idiots.

Huang Yu patted her behind and said, “Back to the ancestral hall.”

Kong Su asked, “What’s wrong?”

“We’re going to burn those people’s clothes and hair, and drag them all in together,” Huang Yu said. “For such a universally celebrated event, everyone who witnesses it should have a share. How could we leave them out?”

Everyone agreed.

Jiang Feng turned back, and his foot kicked something like a ball.

The ball must have been quite heavy, as it only rolled half a turn before stopping. Everyone looked over and realized it wasn’t a ball, but a human head.

The head rolled another half turn on its own, turning its face toward the group, grinning widely. A childish voice asked, “Big brother, will you play with me?”

“Wahhhhh——” Tian Guang belatedly let out a scream and instinctively ran for his life. Halfway through his escape, he realized something was wrong and sheepishly walked back.

Jiang Feng bent down and asked, “How did you end up here?”

“I’ve always been here,” the head swayed like a tumbler, stubbornly righting itself. “Wait, I can’t find my body.”

In the distance, a headless torso was slowly walking toward them, groping around with difficulty because it couldn’t see the way.

Jiang Feng picked up the head and tossed it over. The body caught it, secured it on the neck, and then came bouncing over.

“Big brother,” she said, “I’m so bored. Will you play with me? They won’t play with me.”

Jiang Feng asked, “Who are ‘they’?”

The headless ghost said, “People just like you who suddenly ran in here.”

Several people began to stir restlessly.

“The professor! It must be the professor!” Tian Guang nearly cried, gripping his assistant’s arm tightly. “He’s not dead——!”

Jiang Feng said, “Please take us to them.”

“I can do that, but you need to be careful,” the little ghost said. “Can you take me out? Sister said Taoist priests can take us out. Are you Taoist priests?”

Huang Yu went to the ancestral hall first and swept away the substitute white burial clothes there. Since there were too many items, everyone took some.

When Kong Su held them in her arms, she felt somewhat disgusted, always feeling that these clothes were as detestable as those villagers and might suddenly transform into fierce beasts and pounce on her.

Then they followed the little ghost to find the university professor and the surgeon.

On the way, they encountered several more ghosts.

This illusory realm actually contained quite a few wandering souls. Besides the wandering souls, there were also malevolent spirits that were about to lose their sanity. Those malevolent spirits wandered frantically through the towns, searching for targets to attack. They wouldn’t attack other ghost souls, but when they saw living people, they would pounce on them with vicious intent.

Everyone was caught off guard and nearly got injured.

Huang Yu couldn’t use Taoist spells in this illusory realm and could only use a long staff to forcibly drive them back, allowing everyone to escape.

How could humans compare to the strength of malevolent spirits?

Huang Yu was having trouble holding them off and could only hope that her teammates had sufficient self-rescue skills when it came to running away. Who knew that these few artists and assistants had completely misallocated their skill points – they were purely good-looking but useless.

The investor was getting on in years and had trouble with his legs. Ji Ruxi, seeing the malevolent spirit’s torn-open abdomen, went weak in the knees and couldn’t walk properly. Her stomach kept churning with acid, and she forced herself to run, unfortunately tripping and spraining her ankle.

She was afraid that Jiang Feng and the others would abandon her, and knowing her own combat abilities were low, but remembering the old man’s death, she really didn’t dare to die. She grabbed onto Tian Guang’s leg nearby and cried, “Take me with you! Drag me along!”

Tian Guang desperately refused, “I’m not even familiar with you, little sister!”

Ji Ruxi demanded, “Are you even a man?”

Tian Guang replied, “I am a man, but I want to be a human first!”

“I’m so disappointed in you. I used to be your fan!” Ji Ruxi said indignantly. “Where’s your tough guy military persona? If you keep humiliating soldiers like this, I’m going to report you!”

Tian Guang shot back, “Where’s your spicy girl persona? Why are you pretending to be an innocent flower now?”

Kong Su thought, “…”

Where did these idiots come from?!

Tian Guang couldn’t stand her anymore and forcefully half-lifted her up. Ji Ruxi was much heavier than he had imagined, so he finally let go with one hand and really did drag her along, starting to jog in small steps.

“My hair——style——!” Ji Ruxi flailed wildly. “I’m going to kill you!”

Jiang Feng was about to take action when other ghost souls came out to help first.

Those wandering souls each bore different wounds on their bodies, all having died rather miserably. They rushed out and grabbed the raging malevolent spirit from both sides, saying to the group with disgust, “Hurry up and leave. Don’t run around for no reason. You’re so annoying!”

Several people with limited experience were instantly moved to near tears.

Ghosts had actually saved them.

Ji Ruxi wiped her tears and said, “Damn it, ghosts are more reliable than men!”

“…” Tian Guang said, “Aren’t you supposed to be self-reliant? Why are you depending on me?”

Huang Yu said speechlessly, “Ghosts were people before they died too, friends. Don’t talk like they became perverts after dying.”

Several people felt an inexplicable strength from the ghosts, while finding this place increasingly strange.

Two female assistants had been knocked down by ghosts and now needed care, plus there was the frightened investor. The bodyguard and retired soldier couldn’t spare their hands, so Tian Guang had to carry this mutually detested women on his back.

Kong Su asked the little ghost, “How did you die?”

The little ghost replied, “I don’t know. I’ve forgotten everything.”

Kong Su tried touching her neck – no wound marks were visible now. “What about your head?”

“I twisted it off myself,” the little ghost covered her own neck. “I was so bored with no one to play with me, I kept shaking it and shaking it until I twisted it off.”

Everyone thought: Holy crap!

After all, ghosts weren’t like humans – their limbs were connected by bones and blood vessels, but if they kept twisting… they really could twist them off.

“Right here.”

The little ghost stopped and pointed to a house ahead, saying, “You can go in now.”

Two wandering souls were lying by the window, carefully peering inside through the gaps. To show friendliness, they were even grinning with their mouths open.

Little did they know how terrifying this scene appeared to the people inside the room.

Tian Guang shivered and silently mourned for the people inside.

The little ghost said, “We can’t go in. You should hurry and hide.”

“Why?” Huang Yu walked around the doorway and didn’t feel anything particularly special. “This house seems ordinary enough. Why can’t you go in?”

“There’s an agreement,” the little ghost held out her pinky finger. “An agreement with sister.”

Huang Yu said, “Oh, I see.”

The door was pushed open, and before anyone appeared, as the door creaked, high-pitched screams were already coming from inside.

The surgeon’s eyes widened as he shouted, “Ahhhhh—— they’re coming in, they’re coming in!”

Even the professor, who always presented himself as a gentleman, screamed, “What do we do, what do we do!”

Huang Yu’s eardrums nearly burst. “Everyone shut up!”

Kong Su felt that this ghost village expedition was truly a persona-shattering program.

Both the university professor and the surgeon were tied up with ropes. Their pupils were dilated, looking somewhat collapsed. When they saw clearly that it was the group, their violently heaving chests finally calmed down a bit, and they stretched their necks forward, saying, “Taoist Jiang? You came in too?”

Jiang Feng nodded.

“Talismans! Talismans! Talismans, talismans, talismans!” the university professor said. “I was wrong, please save me!”

“Submit?” Huang Yu said, “Did you guys make a bet?”

Jiang Feng spread his hands. “There are none left.”

The university professor kicked his legs, babbling, “Then come save me quickly, help me untie these. Be careful upstairs, there are still ghosts upstairs! I really… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have looked down on you. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been brought to this kind of place. Give me another chance… I have a research topic now. I thought about a lot of things tonight, and I think I should change my research direction…”

Kong Su had already gone over to help untie them, saying sympathetically, “How did you end up like this?”

They hadn’t suffered any real harm, but they looked truly wretched. It had only been less than a day since they disappeared, right?

As they talked, several people came down from the second floor, standing at the edge of the stairs and looking down warily.

Both groups of people stared at each other, mutually probing.

The university professor tried to stand up, but because his legs were numb, he couldn’t stand steady at first and fell onto the bodyguard. The bodyguard helped support him, and he quickly swayed over to Jiang Feng’s side, putting his hand on Jiang Feng’s shoulder and saying, “Taoist master, be careful! They’re the ones who tied me up!”

His entire worldview had been completely overturned, and he hadn’t sorted it out properly yet.

Huang Yu said in surprise, “How can there be so many people?”

The guy upstairs said, “We’ve been here for a long time. What year is it outside now?”

The university professor asked, “Taoist master, Taoist master, can you beat them? We’re outnumbered.”

Huang Yu turned back and said, “They’re people! Living people just like you – what are you afraid of?”

The university professor said confusedly, “Huh?”

Kong Su found it hard to put into words. “Professor… you… sigh.”

Several people saw that they posed no threat and came down together.

The young man leading them said, “This place is the safest in the entire village. The ghosts outside still have their sanity, and they protect us. It’s very dangerous outside this place because there are those harmful black ghosts in the village. Some people came here before, but they wouldn’t listen to our advice and insisted on running out. In the end, they died and made those few ghosts even more vicious. We had no choice – if this continues, we’ll die.”

He pointed toward the professor, also looking helpless. “They just arrived and wouldn’t listen to our explanation, insisting on running out. I found it annoying too, so I could only tie them up first to let them calm down.”

The investor suddenly burst out with a sharp scream that stunned everyone.

“Those are my daughter’s clothes!” He pointed at a girl, trembling continuously. “You’re wearing my daughter’s clothes! Where is Yu Huan? Where is my daughter? Where is she?”

Mr. Yu suddenly softened his voice, asking fearfully, “Is she still alive?”

“She’s still alive. Today it’s her turn to go out and look for food,” the young man was also surprised but quickly adjusted his expression, saying, “Hello, uncle. I’m her classmate. You came to find her… she’ll definitely be very happy to know. If nothing unexpected happens, she should be back soon.”

Those few people were all somewhat moved.

They had been trapped in this place for who knows how many years and had never expected that there would still be a day when they could see family members. And the other party had gone through so much hardship to find them here.

This is what parents are like…

Having experienced so many terrifying things, everyone’s eyes grew warm, and they couldn’t help but start missing their families too.

After the investor heard him finish speaking, he seemed to have exhausted all his strength and collapsed weakly to the ground. He covered his face and began to cry.

Crying while also tugging at his eyebrows, wanting to laugh. His face was all twisted together, looking quite comical.