Judge of Souls - Chapter 94

Mrs. Miao suddenly stood up. She couldn’t see the dog, but she could see the little Mountain God. She saw him floating half in the air alone, and heard several familiar barks.

Jiang Feng said with a stern face, “Come down quickly. Dogs are not for riding.”

The little Mountain God slid down from the dog’s back, turned around to close the door, then sat down on the carpet at the entrance and began taking off his shoes.

Mrs. Miao trembled all over and said excitedly, “Is this my child?”

Jiang Feng turned around. “??”

The little Mountain God ran toward him with his legs spread wide. “Daddy!”

“Call me mommy!” Mrs. Miao opened her arms toward him and choked up. “Baby, you’ve grown so big…”

Jiang Feng: “……”

The little Mountain God looked at her with confusion and came to Jiang Feng’s side.

Jiang Feng picked him up. “This is my son.”

Mrs. Miao’s hands froze in the air, looking at them awkwardly. “Ah?”

The big dog Tangyuan also walked over, circling around the little Mountain God, standing up on its hind legs trying to touch him.

Jiang Feng touched its chin, and it simply rubbed against his hand, even putting its neck under his hand.

This dog didn’t seem like one that would go mad and bite people. It still retained its reason and was enthusiastic and gentle.

Jiang Feng didn’t understand dogs well, but this breed was extremely popular online, always appearing in various bright-eyed silly photos. Even just glancing at them briefly, he knew something about husky behavior.

Smart, but because of low obedience, they appeared quite silly. They almost never actively attacked humans, let alone a pregnant owner’s belly.

“Is Tangyuan here?” Mrs. Miao gripped her hands tightly, looking at the empty space in front of her. “Taoist master, what exactly do you see? Can you tell me? What is it doing now?”

Jiang Feng: “It’s not doing anything, just sitting quietly beside us.”

Mrs. Miao: “It’s not attacking me?”

“No.” Jiang Feng said, “I think you might have some misunderstanding.”

As he spoke, he glanced again at the fluffy-haired dog beside him.

Although Tangyuan had been following Mrs. Miao, after seeing the little Mountain God, it quickly betrayed her and instead seemed less close to Mrs. Miao.

However, when it came to huskies, perhaps all unreasonableness was reasonable.

Mrs. Miao calmed down a bit and sat back down on the sofa. She deliberately kept her distance from Jiang Feng, sitting at the farthest diagonal corner. She sighed. “What should we do now, Taoist master? Do I have other things on me? Besides hearing dog barks, I’ve also heard crying sounds. Is my child around here?”

There was indeed a faint aura of malevolence around her, but Jiang Feng didn’t want to scare her, so he only said, “There’s nothing around you right now. This dog doesn’t have any malevolent aura either, it hasn’t affected you. It just wants to follow you.”

Mrs. Miao’s face changed. “Does that mean it will follow me home? No! Taoist master, I’m scared. Whether it has malevolent aura or not, I’m scared! My child was killed by it pouncing… Although I know it probably couldn’t understand… but I really don’t want to see it anymore. Whenever it appears, I lose sleep. If this continues, I’ll go crazy…”

Jiang Feng looked at Tangyuan.

Given Mrs. Miao’s situation, if it wasn’t the dog’s problem, it meant there were other ghosts haunting her. The dog might be trying to protect its owner, but obviously the effect wasn’t very good.

“Regardless of whether there’s subjective malice, staying with ghost spirits for a long time is indeed bad for the body.” Jiang Feng said, “You can leave it here first.”

Mrs. Miao covered her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

Jiang Feng hummed in acknowledgment and asked, “Besides dog barking, what other unusual situations have there been?”

“Baby cries.” Mrs. Miao said, “I can’t tell if it’s the same person either. Occasionally, really very occasionally, I hear it. I don’t even know if it’s my imagination anymore.”

Mrs. Miao said, “But if the bloody handprints on the painting represent the number of people, there are clearly more than two children.”

“Have you been to any dirty places, or hospitals? Have you offended anyone?”

“None of those. I’ve always had good relationships with people.”

Jiang Feng continued asking. “When did you start experiencing similar situations?”

“I’ve felt something strange since the miscarriage, but I wasn’t sure. It’s just gotten more serious recently.” Mrs. Miao said, “My husband says I’m depressed and having hallucinations, so I don’t know what to do now.”

Jiang Feng: “Can I go to your house to take a look?”

“It’s better not to. My husband doesn’t like outsiders coming over.” Mrs. Miao said with difficulty, “I just want to quickly deal with the ghost around me. Is there a way?”

Jiang Feng expressed understanding, pulled out something from under the coffee table, and handed it over. “You can temporarily carry this talisman with you. Contact me if anything unexpected happens.”

Mrs. Miao quickly reached out to take it. “Then… I’ll be fine now?”

“Let’s see how things go first.” Jiang Feng said, “Currently we don’t know what ghost is haunting you. If there are problems with the talisman, you can call me. But from what we can see now, if it has tried to harm you several times without success, its magic power shouldn’t be strong. With this talisman, there won’t be any danger.”

Mrs. Miao hesitated to speak, but finally looked at Jiang Feng and accepted it.

After sending Mrs. Miao away, Jiang Feng turned around and found that the little Mountain God and the dog had disappeared from the living room.

He searched toward the bedroom area and found both the person and dog had crawled under the bed. But because there was a wooden board partition under the bed with limited space, their bottoms were sticking out.

Jiang Feng kicked with his toe, and two faces poked out from under the bed, looking at him with big innocent eyes.

Jiang Feng looked down at them condescendingly and asked, “What do you want to do?”

The little Mountain God hugged Tangyuan with one arm. “It says it likes daddy and wants to stay here to keep you company. It also says it wants to eat beef.”

“It’s already dead, it won’t eat beef.”

“But beef is also delicious when dead.”

Jiang Feng said, “I’ll send you back to Shaoling Mountain in a couple of days.”

“I don’t want to!” The little Mountain God forgot about fighting for Tangyuan’s rights and stood up excitedly. “I don’t want to! I saved you, please cherish your own life.”

Jiang Feng: “I do cherish it.”

The little Mountain God gestured with his hands. “So I have such great merit!”

Jiang Feng: “But you still have to go back to Shaoling Mountain. I can ask Taoist masters to recite more scriptures for you, wishing you early success in cultivation.”

The little Mountain God’s face darkened.

“You’ve changed——!” The little Mountain God stepped back accusingly. “You’ve become a demon teacher!”

Jiang Feng took a deep breath. “I’ll send you back the day after tomorrow.”

“Waah——” The little Mountain God spun on his heels and tried to pounce onto the husky for comfort. But Tangyuan was one second faster and darted away, disappearing from the doorway. The little Mountain God crashed solidly to the ground.

Jiang Feng: “……”

“Doggy!!”

The little Mountain God looked up toward where it disappeared. His reddened nose left a trail of crystal snot. He sniffled but still held back from crying. But to maintain his composure, his facial features looked extremely fierce.

“The day after that then, daddy. I’m too pitiful.” The little Mountain God negotiated with him, “Even the dog doesn’t like me anymore.”

Jiang Feng could only pick up the little Mountain God with one arm while pulling out his phone with the other to call Mrs. Miao.

“Tangyuan seemed to have run back just now. Be careful on your end.”

“What?!” Mrs. Miao panicked. “What should we do now? I just got on the highway.”

Jiang Feng rubbed his forehead. “Let’s meet again. Is it today or tomorrow for you?”

Mrs. Miao: “I’ll get off at the next toll booth and come back to your house to find you. Is that okay?”

Jiang Feng looked at the time. “That’s fine.”

This gave Jiang Feng time to eat, and he also called Chu Xuanliang over.

The two arrived almost simultaneously and were both somewhat surprised to see each other.

When Mrs. Miao entered, Jiang Feng’s gaze lingered on her for two extra seconds. He hadn’t expected that in such a short time, the malevolent aura around her had intensified by another layer. But there were indeed no other malicious ghosts around.

The husky emerged from behind again, seeming very surprised to see Jiang Feng again, excitedly running a circle around him.

Jiang Feng had Chu Xuanliang hold the dog and said it was fine, then sent Miss Miao away again.

Chu Xuanliang said with a dark expression. “You called me here just for a dog?!”

Suddenly remembering Jiang Feng’s unusual status, he sighed resignedly. “Never mind. A dog is just a dog.”

Jiang Feng really didn’t have a dog leash, and couldn’t restrain it with chains like a human soul.

Jiang Feng pretended not to hear and said, “I wanted you to help investigate this woman.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Chu Xuanliang said, “Have her go to the Taoist temple for a look. She’s obviously encountered something dirty. Can you tell what it is?”

“According to her account, she’s very likely being haunted by a ghost fetus. She had a miscarriage last year… but calculating by time, if what’s following her is her own child, it shouldn’t have such high intelligence. It wouldn’t deliberately hide from me, but should be following her closely without leaving her side.” Jiang Feng said, “So whose child is on her?”

Chu Xuanliang’s expression immediately became serious.

What they feared most was getting involved with ghost fetuses or young children. Those little things had no discernment, struck ruthlessly, and easily implicated innocent people around them. It was impossible to stay out of it.

Chu Xuanliang asked. “Alright. What’s strange about her?”

Jiang Feng: “I’m temporarily skeptical of her story. On one hand, she panicked and told me she was haunted by an evil ghost, that her spirit was about to collapse, and she was constantly experiencing terrifying things. But she kept emphasizing the dog and was particularly agitated about the dog’s whereabouts. When I mentioned going to her house to take a look, she immediately refused. When I said there might be other ghosts around her, although she hesitated, she still left.”

Generally, when people discover they’re being haunted by ghosts and trust the Taoist master in front of them enough, let alone bringing him home for a look, they’d be willing to give him their house.

But what Mrs. Miao seemed to hate more was actually the dog.

****

Chu Xuanliang took Tangyuan back to the Taoist temple for ideological work, using talismans to create a cage for it to prevent it from running around. Forced to be separated from Mrs. Miao, it kept barking frantically. It would be even better if they could find someone who spoke dog language to counsel it and help it find peace soon.

As for Mrs. Miao’s situation, it really wasn’t difficult to investigate, because it had caused quite a stir at the time. Anyone in the residential complex would know if asked casually.

“That Mrs. Miao does have some history. Yes.” Chu Xuanliang said, “In January last year, Mrs. Miao and her husband took their dog out for a walk. At that time, they didn’t put a collar on the dog. On the road, they encountered a family of three from the same complex who were out for a stroll. The child was only three years old then.”

Chu Xuanliang said, “Huskies are quite enthusiastic, so when it saw the child, it went over. But that child was quite afraid of dogs, and with the husky being large and not on a leash, he ran away. He ended up running frantically all the way to the middle of the road, unfortunately encountered a car accident, and died on the spot.”

Jiang Feng: “……I see.”

Chu Xuanliang: “So, we’ve found the ghost?”

Jiang Feng: “We don’t know for sure yet. Let’s go to the victim’s family tomorrow to take a look first.”

Chu Xuanliang: “Alright, I’ll drive over to pick you up tomorrow.”