Judge of Souls-Chapter 33 - Sixth Night

After the orange lights appeared, Jiang Feng and Chu Xuanliang didn’t waste any time. They ran straight out of the room and hurried downstairs.

Zhang Yangyang bounced along behind the two, his face and body covered with talismans. He whispered, “Wait up, guys! Can’t you watch where you’re going?”

The motion-sensor lights in the hallway weren’t working, so he had to carefully step down the stairs to avoid falling. In the moment it took him to look down, the two ahead had disappeared.

“Damn, damn, damn!” Zhang Yangyang was about to cry. These two were such irresponsible guardians!

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he found the two actually waiting for him.

Zhang Yangyang hid behind them and asked quietly, “What’s going on? Is there another truck?”

Chu Xuanliang said, “No truck this time.”

Hearing this, Zhang Yangyang summoned the courage to look outside.

It was true, no large truck this time, but along both sides of the road, there was a line of young boys dressed in white shirts and shorts. They were queued up one after another, walking forward along the main road.

Their walking posture was strange, legs extending outward with bodies swaying unsteadily, as if they couldn’t stand properly.

And their faces were identical to the ghost mask that had been pressed against their window earlier. Bright red circular blush, lips stretched to the ears, sharp teeth, and eerie smiles.

Zhang Yangyang asked, “Are these lantern monks?”

Chu Xuanliang replied, “Lantern monks are yokai from Japanese legend. About eleven or twelve years old, with bright red faces, carrying lanterns that are actually their heads. It’s said that wherever lantern monks appear, murders will follow.”

Zhang Yangyang: “Huh? Are ghosts so sophisticated now, going international?”

Chu Xuanliang was speechless. “I’m saying these are NOT lantern monks!”

Jiang Feng said, “They’re neither monks nor ghosts. They’re just puppets with masks on their faces. And their hands aren’t carrying lanterns, they’re cradling something.”

“Cradling what?” Zhang Yangyang rubbed his eyes and said, “How can you guys see everything from so far away? Maybe my eyes are ruined from playing too many video games?”

Chu Xuanliang pulled him back a bit to prevent him from being exposed, and said, “Skulls. They’re cradling skulls.”

Zhang Yangyang already found this deeply disturbing.

Jiang Feng added, “There’s something inside the skulls that looks like blood.”

Zhang Yangyang felt like he was about to explode.

“How many people have died in the city recently?” Zhang Yangyang counted them one by one, horrified. “This can’t be right! The numbers are staggering. Shouldn’t there be mass panic by now?”

Chu Xuanliang said, “Not that many people have died. They’ve just been punished to varying degrees. Some got sick, some were frightened out of their wits, others had their tongues or limbs cut off. But the death count isn’t high.”

Zhang Yangyang: “Then these skulls are…”

Chu Xuanliang nodded. “Dug up from somewhere, I suppose.”

Chu Xuanliang cast a concealment spell on himself and led the other two forward. He gestured for them to stay quiet and not make any unnecessary sounds.

The three walked along the road, and Jiang Feng’s sense of unease grew stronger.

It was an uncomfortable feeling that he couldn’t quite describe.

The front part of this yin-yang road was identical to the normal street, but as they went deeper, the orange lights in the sky multiplied, making the surroundings brighter.

After walking for over half an hour, the road finally connected to a different place.

It seemed to be some kind of wilderness with no tall buildings, only towering trees and weeds.

The three faintly heard some shouting. Following the sound, they quickly walked over and saw two huge pagoda trees growing together in an embrace. In front of the trees was a clearing with an altar in the center, surrounded by a group of dark figures.

A woman was kneeling on the altar, wearing a yellow dress, screaming without restraint. “Save me! Let me go! Don’t kill me!”

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Zhang Yangyang made a sound of recognition. “This woman… looks familiar?”

Jiang Feng reminded him. “The person I rescued from the river earlier.”

Zhang Yangyang: “Right, right, right! How did she end up here?”

Chu Xuanliang: “Seems like she’s also someone they want to kill.”

Chu Xuanliang looked around, assessing the enemy’s strength and their chances of escape.

…It didn’t look good.

He took out several talismans and distributed them to his companions. “Take these. If things look bad, run as fast as you can, but make sure you don’t get lost.”

While the three were dividing up Chu Xuanliang’s protective talismans, a flash of silver light appeared on the altar. The woman’s head separated from her neck and rolled down.

They all froze, not expecting events to unfold so quickly.

The head rolled five or six times on the ground. The eyes were still wide open, and the lips with lipstick kept opening and closing. “Let me go! I know I was wrong, please forgive me, I’ll do anything!”

Zhang Yangyang shook his head forcefully, trying to banish the image from his mind.

Blood flowed down from the altar, and the paper-faced people holding skulls stepped forward to catch the dripping blood.

The blood flowed continuously, far exceeding the normal amount a person could bleed.

After collecting the blood, the little ghosts raised their heads toward the moon in a gesture, then drank it all in one gulp.

Chu Xuanliang exclaimed in shock. “What are they doing?”

Zhang Yangyang said, “Only ghosts would know that!”

Before he finished speaking, a ghost mask suddenly appeared in front of them, pressed right against Jiang Feng’s nose, making eye contact with him.

“Come, drink this cup of the wicked woman’s blood, and let’s punish her together.”

He swirled the blood in the skull and said, “Judge Daren is administering justice for civilian grievances. If you want to enter the Underworld, you’d better hurry.”

As he spoke, hundreds of masked figures near and far turned their heads in unison, staring at them.

It was truly spine-chilling.

They had been exposed.

Jiang Feng’s fingers moved slightly, pushing away the masked figure. “I won’t drink. Who did you say is the Judge?”

“Why won’t you drink?” The mask pressed closer insistently, “You’re not sympathizing with her, are you? This woman had an affair with someone else’s husband, then pushed the pregnant wife down the stairs, causing two deaths. The laws of the mortal world couldn’t punish her. Look how well she’s been living! Spending money freely, living carelessly, even mocking that poor woman. But the Judge is fair—he punished this proud and hateful person.”

The masked figure’s voice was hoarse and deep. “If you don’t drink, you can’t enter the Underworld main hall to see the Judge. Drink.”

A thought flashed through Chu Xuanliang’s mind like lightning, and he suddenly asked, “Who are you?”

Masked figure. “Me? We are the messengers of the Underworld.”

Zhang Yangyang: “What?!”

Countless eyes stared at them eagerly, taking another step closer.

Zhang Yangyang didn’t dare raise his hand to refuse, yet had nowhere to hide, so he just bit his teeth and leaned back.

Chu Xuanliang’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he was about to shout “Run!” when the orange lights in the sky disappeared once again, and everyone woke up in their room.

“Holy sh*t!” Zhang Yangyang recalled the bloody scene, cold sweat covering his entire body. His heart still pounding, he said, “What the hell was that?!”

It had been a hair-raising experience.

Chu Xuanliang exhaled a heavy breath and blinked hard.

“It looked like a trial to me,” Chu Xuanliang said. “Think about it: the Yellow Springs road in the mortal world. A group of orange lights and puppets disguised as Underworld officials. Plus criminals being punished for their wrongdoings. They even had a so-called ‘Judge.’ Doesn’t it resemble a mortal version of the Underworld? Very likely it’s exactly what Impermanence Daren mentioned—someone with a fake Judge’s pen pretending to be divine.”

Zhang Yangyang: “Was that truck driver from yesterday also being judged? But… wasn’t that an accident? Does one accident mean you deserve to die? What kind of grudge requires such revenge?”

“That’s not right!” Chu Xuanliang pressed his forehead and said, “Last night, that truck driver said ‘a month ago, he ran over and killed someone,’ but the file we found during the day stated that the migrant worker was standing by the roadside and was killed by cargo falling from the truck. There’s a difference between ‘running over’ and ‘being crushed to death.'”

They had missed this discrepancy when they heard it yesterday and hadn’t been suspicious.

Chu Xuanliang stood up and said, “I’ll ask Impermanence Daren for clarification today.”

Actually, they didn’t need to ask much more; they already had a premonition.

White Impermanence specifically summoned the young migrant worker’s soul to question him.

More than a month ago, the truck driver had killed the migrant worker at a traffic light intersection due to fatigued driving and speeding.

Afterward, the trucking company stepped in. Taking advantage of the fact that there were no surveillance cameras in that section of the road, they used a combination of threats and bribes to settle the matter. The compensation, initially agreed at 150,000 yuan, was eventually reduced to 80,000 yuan. Seeing that the deceased’s family consisted of widows and orphans who were easy to bully, they stopped paying altogether.

“One hundred and fifty thousand to buy a life, and they still thought it was expensive. Life is so cheap in their eyes,” the migrant worker lowered his head and laughed sarcastically. “Now it’s better—a life for a life. I find it satisfying. If I see that couple in the Underworld, I definitely won’t let them off.”

White Impermanence said, “You won’t see them. Their souls haven’t been brought back.”

“That’s good, then,” the migrant worker said. “You’ve lived for so many years; you wouldn’t understand me!”

“Zheng Shi! The judgment of right and wrong lies in your own heart. You were wronged, but what did his wife do wrong? Aren’t you now just like him, thinking that life is so cheap? If life can be determined on a whim, how noble can it be? If he satisfies your wishes today, he will inevitably go against someone else’s tomorrow. Who should rightfully be the one punished? Besides, how do you know the Underworld cannot give you justice? He’s taking it upon himself to punish on behalf of the Underworld, and there’s not a bit of righteousness in that.”

White Impermanence sighed, “You’re just a mortal. I truly don’t need to understand you. Fine, come back with me for now.”

Chu Xuanliang hurriedly said, “Please wait, Impermanence Daren.”

“Tonight,” White Impermanence pointed at Jiang Feng, “you go alone. Follow the ‘Yellow Springs Road’ all the way forward; you should be able to see the fake ‘Hall of Yama.’ You two shouldn’t follow.”

“Why?” Zhang Yangyang asked anxiously. “That would leave my brother Jiang all alone and vulnerable!”

“The Underworld will send people to follow behind him. You don’t need to worry about anything else,” White Impermanence’s expression became solemn. “This person dares to impersonate our Underworld and arbitrarily pass judgment. We will not tolerate it. They will be severely punished as a warning to others.”