Judge of Souls-Chapter 3 - Seeing Ghosts

Jiang Feng called the person who ordered takeout.

When he rode his electric scooter to this area, he felt something wasn’t quite right.

It was too cold.

It was already 9:30, and this area was sparsely populated. Dim streetlights were placed fifteen meters apart, and on the road, you barely saw any new vehicles for minutes at a time.

At the intersection ahead, a white candle was faintly lit. Even from a distance, he could see it with his eyesight. Despite the strong night wind, that slender flame never went out. The light was tiny and the outline blurry, but its shadow under the streetlight stretched over half a meter long, like a grotesque black ghost face dancing in his direction.

Jiang Feng raised his hand to cover his face; there was something strange in the air. He caught some of the fine particles with his hand, rubbed them between his fingers, and looked at them under the streetlight. They were black and crumbled easily – probably ashes from burned paper being blown his way.

Could A City have northwest winds in summer? Anyone who’d completed nine years of compulsory education should know that was highly unlikely.

His phone rang with a “beep beep” – there was still signal. Someone answered after a moment.

Jiang Feng spoke in a steady voice, “Hello, delivery.”

The other side asked, “Where are you? Come in a bit further, we can’t see you.”

Jiang Feng still remembered this area; urban legends were common among restaurant workers. He said, “I’m in front of the abandoned building.”

The person on the other end told him, “Come a bit further, we’re all hanging out on the street ahead! Keep walking along Garden Street, and you’ll see us.”

Jiang Feng held the phone without saying anything.

By now, he was very clear about what they wanted to do.

If it were a normal person, seeing a lit candle at an intersection in the dead of night and sensing something wrong, they’d probably find it creepy and leave immediately. Jiang Feng was certainly a normal person, just one with…a bit more courage than most normal people.

Laughter came from the other end. “Hey! Hurry up and deliver it, don’t you want your money? If you don’t deliver, we’ll file complaints!”

Jiang Feng gave a cold laugh. Was he afraid of complaints? He wasn’t even afraid of losing his job now. But this order was placed by phone, seven or eight hundred in meal costs, and it didn’t feel right to just let them save that money.

He cracked his knuckles with one hand and said, “Add me on WeChat, I need to confirm you’re inside first.”

The young man said, “Oh, quite an attitude you’ve got.”

They hung up, and the other person gave him a number to add, then sent him a group photo of them in front of the abandoned building.

In it, three young men were making ghost faces while holding flashlights, leaning against the building’s main door, with several other figures whose backs were visible in the background.

Jiang Feng squinted.

Quite a few people?

The other person shared their location and asked, “What’s your name?”

“My surname is Cao,” Jiang Feng said, “Cao Nima.” [TL: 曹尼瑪 which translates to “f*** your mother” in English]

The person on the other end was stunned for a moment before realizing he was being cursed at. Just as he was about to snap back, he found the call had already ended.

“Damn!” he roared in anger, about to call back when Spicy Crayfish stopped him. Spicy Crayfish said, “His WeChat location is still on, he’s already heading this way. Don’t argue with him, it’s good enough that he’s coming.”

The young man was still fuming. “F*ck! A delivery guy with such an attitude? Who gave him the courage?”

Spicy Crayfish said, “Let’s go inside, don’t waste time. This delivery guy seems pretty brave, looks like we’ll have some fun.”

So the group pushed open the first-floor glass door and went in one after another.

The girls clustered around Spicy Crayfish, expressing fear like dependent birds. The guys took things out of their bags and started applying makeup while walking. A few of the more timid ones were already regretting it, hanging back, wanting to leave but not daring to, wanting to stay but afraid to, looking completely cowardly.

Jiang Feng got off his electric scooter, preparing to walk in. It was so dark – if the scooter got damaged, having to pay for repairs would be troublesome.

Behind him, Liu Junlu saw the situation looking bad and hurriedly got off his car too, shouting, “Great Immortal! Great Immortal!”

Liu Junlu said breathlessly, “Great Immortal, wait, there are ghosts ahead!”

“Shut up,” Jiang Feng turned back to look at him coldly, “Don’t follow me.”

“Great Immortal, listen to me, there are real ghosts here, the real kind!” Liu Junlu said urgently, “Don’t you find it strange that with such a good location and such good construction, it ended up abandoned? Several Taoist priests I know have told me never to come here – this is a real haunted house!”

Jiang Feng didn’t often see unclean things. For normal people, fear should be the instinctive emotion when facing darkness and ghosts, but he felt he wasn’t afraid of ghosts, not at all. On the contrary, it seemed ghosts were more afraid of him.

“Then don’t come near,” Jiang Feng said, “I don’t know what your intentions are, but I don’t like people trying to get close to me.”

Liu Junlu took out a document from his side and continued. “No, it’s not about inheritance, Great Immortal, look, if you agree, I can transfer the household registration to you right now. Currently there’s only a few tens of millions in cash, but I have stocks, and there’s money in foreign currency accounts too. I have companies and land. I’m in industry, the asset liquidation is all genuine. Of course, you don’t have to like managing it, the company can be left to us, you can just take dividends each year.”

Just like that, he was casually talking about assets worth hundreds of millions or even billions. However, Jiang Feng remained unmoved. He picked up the two bags of takeout boxes, ignored Liu Junlu, and walked straight inside to collect his seven hundred plus delivery fee.

Liu Junlu watched his back and stomped his feet in frustration. He wanted to follow but didn’t dare get too close to this area.

This place was too eerie; he felt a gaze staring at him, making his whole body break out in goosebumps.

It’s fine, it’s fine. Liu Junlu reassured himself. He was still far away, there wouldn’t be any problems, it was just his imagination.

He rubbed his arms, preparing to return to the car.

Why was it so cold today? It hadn’t even rained, and it had been nearly forty degrees just a few days ago.

Liu Junlu pulled the car door but found it wouldn’t open. He banged hard on the window, calling for the driver inside to unlock it, but the driver sat in the driver’s seat playing with his phone, completely oblivious.

Liu Junlu’s temper flared, and he kicked the car door, but the person inside still didn’t respond.

Was this driver deaf? He’d fire him when they got back! Fire him!

Liu Junlu shouted. “Old Wang! Old Wang, open the door!”

The shadow behind him was gradually lengthening and began to move strangely on its own. The shadow gradually grew thicker, and two additional hands emerged from it, making gestures as if to strangle his neck.

Liu Junlu had grown tired of shouting and happened to look down, immediately noticing something wrong – why were there two shadows, and why were they so pitch black? He slowly turned his head, and after seeing the full picture, was so frightened that his soul nearly left his body. He fell on his backside and clumsily shuffled backward, trying to get away from that black shadow.

A woman’s eerie laughter rang out around him. She laughed softly, as if right next to Liu Junlu’s ear, seemingly gentle at first listen but carrying a bone-chilling coldness when heard carefully.

“Liu Junlu, do you remember me?!”

“Ah——!” Liu Junlu’s face turned pale, “Who… who are you?”

The female ghost burst into wild laughter. “I never thought I’d see you again! It’s fate, this is fate! You don’t have those shameless Taoist priests with you today, do you? I’ll make you pay with your life!”

As she spoke, she lunged at Liu Junlu.

Liu Junlu raised his hands to shield his face, wailing loudly, thinking his life was about to end, when the ancient jade on his chest emitted a white glow as the ghost approached, saving his life at the critical moment.

The female ghost was repelled by the white jade and finally separated from his shadow. She turned to glare at him fiercely.

Liu Junlu seized the opportunity, his survival instinct exploding, and gripping the ancient jade tightly, he turned and fled.

“Trying to run?” the female ghost charged forward again, “I’ll take you to see Big Sister! You must die here today!”

She entangled Liu Junlu’s feet, ignoring his wailing, and dragged him step by step toward the abandoned building.

****

After Spicy Crayfish and the others entered the first-floor lobby, they continued up the stairs, hoping to lure Jiang Feng upstairs. The lobby’s view was too open, which wouldn’t make for an interesting prank. Leading him upstairs was where the more exciting plans lay.

They walked in a line of twelve people. A young man walking in the middle-rear suddenly heard a series of footsteps. He stopped and turned around to see someone in white clothes pushing open the door and entering.

The sourc𝗲 of this content is freēwēbηovel.c૦m.

“He’s here, he’s here!” he excitedly patted the person beside him, quickly hiding behind the stair railing and taking props from his backpack. “Hurry up, get ready, brothers!”

There was no response from behind.

The man felt a chill on his back, and something smooth fell on his neck, feeling like wet hair. A thought emerged, and the string in his mind snapped with a “twang.”

He moved his eyeballs, not daring to turn around, afraid of blowing out the flame on his shoulder. Pretending nothing was wrong, acting as if he hadn’t noticed, his hand moved, searching for the glutinous rice he had brought in his bag.

After grabbing a handful, he threw it backward forcefully while mustering the greatest courage of his life to look behind him.

Where were his companions? Following behind him were clearly more than ten fierce ghosts in miserable death states. The smooth thing he felt on his neck was probably one of the ghost’s tongues.

“Ah—!” He turned and ran down the stairs, shouting, “Help! Help! Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha Buddha! God loves me!”

He saw the delivery guy as his savior and ran frantically in his direction. But before he could run two steps, he crashed into a chest as hard as iron.

The man looked up and met eyes with the “person” in front of him.

The other party opened its mouth, revealing rows of densely packed teeth, with saliva dripping from its incomplete lower lip.

Clearly, this wasn’t his delivery guy either.

The man couldn’t take it anymore and fainted, his eyes rolling back.

At this time, the livestream comments were all warnings, but unfortunately, Spicy Crayfish and the others had no interest in looking, still enthusiastically exploring the abandoned building.

[Someone’s fallen behind!]

[Damn, we lost one! That person stopped!]

[Quick, look back!]

[Sht sht sht sht! Freedom, democracy, civility, harmony...]

[Why aren’t they stopping? I saw his mouth move! How can’t they hear the sound when they’re so close?]

[Great acting, great acting.]

[Already called the police! Police have been called, comrades!]

At this point, the screen went black, and the room was sealed off. The viewers who had only watched halfway sat bewildered in their seats, still wondering whether what had just happened was intentional or if something had really happened in the abandoned building.

At this time, at another street corner slightly far from the back of the abandoned building, three figures stood.

“Damn!” a woman carrying a long staff cursed, “Is Fu Yuan coming or not? Does she really think she’s a little princess? Making me waste my time waiting here! Will she be responsible if someone dies in there?”

Next to her, a sturdy man with hair plastered to his scalp flicked the cigarette between his fingers and said, “Don’t say that, maybe she’s possessed? Have you ever seen Fu Yuan voluntarily do work? It’s practically a miracle in our Taoist community, okay?”

The woman angrily said, “I’m going in! Let her dawdle if she wants!”

The last person, a thin man in a suit, said, “Don’t make trouble. Don’t you know what kind of place this is? Wait a bit longer.”

The woman stamped her foot impatiently. “Damn! I’m just angry! Tell her the Senior Brother is here too, and I bet she’ll jump in front of us like she’s about to drop dead the next second!”

The man in the suit showed a helpless expression. “Wait a bit longer. Otherwise, you can file a complaint against her.”