Judge of Souls - Chapter 99

Jiang Feng and Chu Xuanliang were sitting in the pavilion outside playing on their phones when they sensed the overflowing yin energy. Soon after, Tangyuan, Mr. Zhou, and the little Mountain God running on his short legs came rushing out of the house one after another.

Mr. Zhou stopped at the doorway, disoriented, “Where did it go? Yangyang?”

Jiang Feng and his companion had already chased after the dark shadow.

The little Mountain God emerged from behind Mr. Zhou, stretching out his hand and shouting, “Waa—wait for me, Daddy! Tangyuan!!”

Mrs. Zhou followed to the doorway, her face pale. “Honey! Honey, what’s happening?”

“It’s nothing, nothing.” Mr. Zhou was covered in cold sweat as he tried to comfort her, but his appearance was hardly convincing.

In his urgency, he patted Mrs. Zhou’s hand to get her to go back inside first, then went to chase after the little Mountain God.

Mr. Zhou asked, “Where are they?”

The little Mountain God said, “Follow my dad!”

Mr. Zhou immediately picked up speed.

“Pick me up!” The little Mountain God stamped his feet angrily and complained: “Tang—yuan! You’re so annoying!”

After the dark shadow came out of the house, it wandered aimlessly around the residential complex. Having appeared suddenly, its undisguised heavy yin energy quickly attracted the surrounding demons and monsters.

Jiang Feng looked up and saw a female ghost with long hair floating through the air, letting out eerie laughter.

The dark shadow heard this and panicked, then calmed down and quickly identified the right direction, turning to fly toward Mrs. Miao’s house.

Jiang Feng’s two legs couldn’t keep up with it at all. Seeing more and more ghost shadows appearing around them, he knew this was bad. In his peripheral vision, a black and white figure flashed by—Tangyuan was chasing closely behind, barking loudly.

Chu Xuanliang pulled out a talisman, quickly recited an incantation, and threw it at Tangyuan.

****

Mrs. Miao and her husband were sitting leaning against the bed in the master bedroom, with the TV on, talking quietly.

The redness and swelling on Mrs. Miao’s face had subsided a little, but it was still quite obvious.

She nestled in her husband’s arms, feeling his chest rise and fall, watching the two people arguing in the TV drama, her thoughts drifting away.

Was she willful? She didn’t dare to be.

Sometimes she wondered—were they like a married couple?

No, it actually wasn’t normal.

Everything she possessed made her afraid to make any willful choices, not even normal complaints. She was afraid of being abandoned; she would have nothing left.

When he said: “The person I love most is you,” she could believe it—at least he loved her. Even if he was just placating her, it proved he didn’t want to lose her.

If only she could give birth to a child, she thought. Then she would have a real family member, and her child would be her greatest support. They could depend on each other. Blood would be their strongest bond.

Mrs. Miao had miscarried twice before.

The first time was at four months, when she inexplicably fell while going out. Her mental state collapsed at the time, and it took her a long time to recover.

The second time was at five months, when she had a dream and woke up the next day to find the bed covered in blood.

During that period, she was in a daze, as if she were possessed.

She felt this was truly too supernatural, and greater fear overwhelmed her. She used to believe in neither Buddhism nor Taoism, much less metaphysics, but after this, her life was shrouded in dark clouds. She needed somewhere to vent and find support, and she was willing to believe anything that could give her peace of mind.

So she began visiting various Taoist temples and Buddhist monasteries.

Through friends, Mrs. Miao found several famous fortune tellers and had her fortune read according to her birth date and time. The Taoist priest told her that her husband had a monk’s fate and would have no descendants.

She was very angry at the time and didn’t believe it, so she went to find another person.

The result was that after consulting several times, she got the same answer every time.

There were no such coincidences in the world. If she didn’t divorce, she would never have children in this lifetime.

But then, a turning point appeared. Perhaps because she had been asking around everywhere and word had gotten out, a Taoist priest came to find her proactively, telling her that she could have her own child.

Even with a monk’s fate, one life could be exchanged for another to deceive heaven. As long as after she became pregnant, she could find the soul of a child with good birth dates, abundant fortune, but who died young, and have it put into her belly as a replacement, she could successfully give birth.

Because the underworld would claim the original soul, but what she was carrying would no longer be the original one.

Mrs. Miao was tempted and asked, “So would it be my child or someone else’s child?”

“It would be born by you, with the same blood as you. Raised by you, it would call you mother.” The Taoist priest smiled. “This is how human biology defines it—wouldn’t this be your child?”

Mrs. Miao asked, “Would this be a ghost fetus?”

The other person smiled again. “Yes.”

Although Mrs. Miao was tempted, she didn’t know where to find a child with good birth dates, abundant fortune, who had died young.

Meeting the first two conditions but still dying young? She surely wasn’t going to kill someone, was she?

So after calming down, she gave up on this matter.

In the same residential complex lived a couple surnamed Zhou.

The two were loving, and their child was clever. Mr. Zhou was very family-oriented, handsome, and gentlemanly. Mrs. Miao had seen them many times, and each time she saw them, she felt somewhat jealous.

That day, following her husband’s instructions, she took Tangyuan for a walk. The nanny had forgotten to bring the leash, and Mrs. Miao felt annoyed looking at it, just wanting to quickly walk the dog around and bring it back, so she didn’t go get the leash. She unexpectedly saw the Zhou couple by the roadside.

They nodded and smiled at her, with Mr. Zhou taking photos of his wife with his phone. Their son was obediently crouching not far away playing with stones.

As if possessed by a ghost, Mrs. Miao patted Tangyuan’s back and whispered, “Go play with the little brother for a while.”

Tangyuan heard this and ran over excitedly.

She never expected it would develop like this!

After the initial shock and guilt, Mrs. Miao was ecstatic.

That road was by the complex’s side gate, where there was usually no traffic at all. The road surface was wide, with eight lanes on each side—how could it be such a coincidence that a speeding car just happened to drive by on the side?

So many coincidences—this was Heaven’s will! Heaven’s will!

Mrs. Miao immediately went to find that Taoist priest. The priest said that shortly after death, the soul would remain nearby, waiting for the underworld messengers to claim it. Following his instructions, she secretly captured that child’s soul and brought it to the Taoist priest.

She didn’t ask what would happen to her own child’s soul, subconsciously ignoring this question.

She wanted a child too much… wanted it so, so much…

“Darling, why aren’t you talking?” Her husband patted her back and said, “Are you still angry with me? I told you, the person I love most is you.”

Mrs. Miao was lost in thought. Hearing that phrase he had said thousands of times, her heart couldn’t help but skip a beat.

She looked up, about to speak, when the room’s curtains suddenly fluttered and then rose straight up.

Her husband said in confusion, “Huh? I closed the window, didn’t I? What’s going on?”

“Ahhh—!” Mrs. Miao screamed in terror, shrinking backward, pointing: “Ghost!”

Her husband could only see a faint black mist in the air and rubbed his eyes.

Then a dog burst in.

Mrs. Miao was startled. “Tangyuan?”

She came to her senses and opened her arms to Tangyuan. “Tangyuan, come to Mommy. You’ll protect me, won’t you? Tangyuan, Mommy loves you! Come here quickly!”

Tangyuan jumped up, pinning the black mist in the air beneath itself, staying against the wall away from her.

At the same time, there came knocking sounds from the glass window, along with low whimpering. That was true wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves, making one’s hair stand on end.

She saw a pale face pressed against the glass outside, with hair hanging down, impossibly long.

Her heart beat violently, about to burst.

With a loud “bang,” Mrs. Miao blinked, and her whole body shivered bleakly.

The glass had shattered!

Four or five ghosts surged in, and Mrs. Miao lunged toward Tangyuan. She felt that only being with Tangyuan would be safe.

But Tangyuan completely ignored her, and Mrs. Miao could only hug it.

The ghosts charged straight over, flying into Mrs. Miao’s body.

Mrs. Miao looked down and saw her lower abdomen rapidly swelling, tearing pain invading her brain.

She stared wide-eyed, her eyeballs bulging, holding her breath. She couldn’t hear her own screaming in her ears; the man who had dodged away was looking on in horror.

Mrs. Miao’s eye muscles twitched as memories flashed by like a slideshow again.

She had had a child, and this time she could give birth healthily.

That period was the happiest time of her life.

She could fantasize about the future; she had new hope.

She never expected that when she was six months pregnant, she would be knocked down by Tangyuan. Once again, she watched as the child was taken from her body.

At that time, a line of poetry suddenly came to mind.

[The so-called future is nothing but the past. The so-called hope is nothing but fate.]

Everything was just a predestined cycle of destiny.

When she was in utter despair, her husband indeed went to find another woman.

Mrs. Miao found it somewhat laughable.

What was the point of finding more women? The children born would either not be his, or wouldn’t live long.

Mrs. Miao used all her strength to lunge forward and embrace her husband.

Her husband tried to push her away in terror, but she smiled slightly at the corner of her mouth, tightly clasping his waist. Her eyes were full of love.

The ghosts flowed from her body into her husband’s body.

At this moment, she inexplicably felt a sense of satisfaction. Toward her husband, toward his mistress, and toward herself.

What a failure—her life was such a failure.

She was humble, base, and despicable, while her husband was heartless, excessive, and shameless.

She would be with her husband forever.

“Command—!”

Mrs. Miao felt a burning, stinging pain on her back, and her abdomen felt somewhat better. She let go and fell backward, seeing Jiang Feng’s grave expression. Then she closed her eyes and fell into darkness.

****

Jiang Feng jumped in to check, and before Mrs. Miao and her husband’s souls could be torn apart, he pulled them out and pushed them aside. Immediately after, Chu Xuanliang slapped two talismans on the evil ghost’s forehead, bouncing the ghosts in the room away.

Because many fierce ghosts had been attracted inside, the surrounding temperature dropped sharply.

Chu Xuanliang shivered and generously scattered all the talismans from his bag. Jiang Feng grabbed a few and stuck them on the windows, finally managing to suppress them.

Jiang Feng took a blanket and covered Mrs. Miao and her husband, then clasped his hands in a small bow.

Chu Xuanliang sighed as he watched. “How did it come to this?”

“Their yang lifespan was exhausted.” Jiang Feng paused, then corrected himself. “Their yang lifespan was completely depleted.”

The souls of those two people stood in the corner, still in a daze. Having been frightened and impacted by fierce ghosts, they were very unstable and temporarily couldn’t hear them speaking.

Tangyuan whimpered in pain before finally releasing Yangyang from under its belly. It rolled on the ground, drooping its eyelids.

Chu Xuanliang touched its belly. “Well done. Good child.”

“Can you forgive it?” Chu Xuanliang said to the dark shadow. “It didn’t mean to cause your death.”

The dark shadow was blurry and indistinct. Jiang Feng went over and pressed his hand on its head, and it finally showed some human form.

Yangyang nodded upon hearing this.

Tangyuan barked once more.

Yangyang learned to say, “Good child.”