Judge of Souls-Chapter 8 - Female Ghost

The man in the suit walked past the female ghost, took off his shoes, and introduced himself. “My name is Chu Xuanliang. Actually, I came here to ask you about what happened in the abandoned building.”

“I didn’t smash the stone statue, I don’t know about that. I didn’t kill anyone either, I don’t know about that,” Jiang Feng said quite directly, pointing at the female ghost. “If you don’t believe me, you can ask her.”

Chu Xuanliang: “How did you know someone died in the abandoned building? When did you leave yesterday?”

“I saw Liu Junlu’s ghost,” Jiang Feng sat down on the sofa, moved some things aside from the other side, gesturing Chu Xuanliang to sit wherever he liked, and said, “I went home after delivering the takeout.”

“……” Chu Xuanliang probed, “You’re strangely calm. If you were an ordinary person, this shouldn’t be your reaction at all.”

Jiang Feng said, “If I were an ordinary person, I wouldn’t even be able to see her. Being ordinary or not, and being a good person or not, are two different things.”

“It wasn’t him,” the ghost girl stood on her tiptoes, twirling her two chubby fingers together, and said, “That fat uncle was pushed down by another big ghost. We call her Elder Sister because she was the first one there. The person who smashed the stone statue wasn’t even there yesterday.”

Chu Xuanliang frowned.

Although ghosts were known for telling tales, sometimes their words were more trustworthy than those of the living. Unlike living people, they didn’t have so many vested interests, and unless they were doing it for fun, what reason would they have to lie?

Moreover, there were indeed traces of possession on two people at the scene, but they couldn’t remember anything.

Chu Xuanliang came this time to investigate the situation. He had prepared many questions to interrogate Jiang Feng, but none were needed now because he was just an ordinary person.

Logically, his suspicions should be cleared by now, but that sense of discomfort just wouldn’t dissipate. Chu Xuanliang always trusted his instincts, so he maintained his suspicion and said, “I feel like you know something. I hope you’re not hiding anything from me.”

Jiang Feng checked his phone and said, “I need to go to work now, take her away with you now.”

But he really couldn’t take this female ghost away.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

Chu Xuanliang said awkwardly, “If she doesn’t want to come with me……”

Jiang Feng said to the female ghost. “Don’t you want to go home? He can help you find your home.”

The ghost girl hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Alright then.”

Chu Xuanliang: “……”

Huang Yu had been worried about Chu Xuanliang going to find Jiang Feng alone, concerned that something might happen, since they still weren’t sure about his background. After waiting a while without seeing him return, she was about to go look for him when he happened to come through the door.

Not only did he return, but he was also carrying a swaying small porcelain bottle.

“Why did you bring back a little ghost?” Huang Yu asked in surprise. “Does that Jiang Feng really have issues? Does he keep ghosts? Is he practicing evil arts?”

Chu Xuanliang sighed. “It’s complicated. He’s just an ordinary person. This ghost followed him home from the abandoned building yesterday, and today he asked me to take her away.”

Huang Yu was silent for a moment, then asked, “…Is he still alive?”

Chu Xuanliang said, “Alive, and this ghost is quite obedient.”

Obedient ghosts weren’t rare, but they weren’t common either. However, to find an obedient ghost in that chaotic place under the abandoned building seemed rather absurd.

Of course, when they spoke of obedience, they weren’t referring to whether the ghost would harm people randomly, but rather whether they would accept passing on to the afterlife.

Chu Xuanliang placed the bottle containing the little ghost in front of an incense altar and said, “Let’s help her pass on.”

Huang Yu didn’t hold much hope, but together with Chu Xuanliang, they each took a corner and recited the “The Supreme Dongxuan Lingbao Celestial Venerable’s Sutra on Delivering from Suffering and Removing Sins.” After finishing, they found it had no effect.

Chu Xuanliang wasn’t ready to give up, so he gathered several friends from their group to help.

However, after an entire afternoon passed, the female ghost still remained peacefully in the porcelain bottle. She neither became violent nor showed any changes.

After a long while, probably feeling bored, the female ghost jumped out of the bottle on her own.

Her sudden movement startled the five or six fellow Taoists who were reciting sutras outside.

“Without Senior Brother here, we really can’t deal with this ghost,” Huang Yu said. “Only one statue at the abandoned building has been destroyed, yet she can already run free. She’s clearly not an ordinary ghost. Maybe we should ask Master.”

The Senior Brother she mentioned wasn’t from their own sect, but rather one of the most outstanding among the younger generation, named Jiu Tian. When they were young and their master took them visiting, they had to address him according to seniority. Since it wasn’t appropriate to call him “Ninth Brother,” they simply called him “Brother.” After getting used to it, they changed it to “Senior Brother.”

One fellow Taoist said, “Even Senior Brother and Master probably couldn’t directly help a ghost of this level to pass on, right?”

The standard approach for dealing with such powerful ghosts was to first try reasoning with them. If they weren’t harming innocent people, their wishes could be granted. If they wanted revenge, help could be requested from the underworld. If they insisted on causing harm, then they would be forcibly eliminated.

The last option wouldn’t be chosen unless absolutely necessary.

That fellow Taoist said, “Why don’t we ask her what she wants? A child’s wishes might be easy to fulfill?”

Huang Yu went over and crouched down to ask, “Little friend, what do you want?”

“I want to see my mom and dad one more time, I love them so much,” the ghost girl said, swaying her head. “What I regret most is that after my husband killed me with an ax, I don’t know how they’re doing. If I went missing and they couldn’t find me, what should they do? They must be so pitiful.”

Huang Yu felt chills all over when she heard the word “husband,” and took a fresh look at her, asking, “Were you quite old when you died? Then why do you appear like this?”

The ghost girl squinted her eyes and smiled happily, “Because…this way I can be with them forever! I’ll always be mommy’s little baby!”

Huang Yu momentarily doubted her understanding of life. Did people’s IQ drop after becoming ghosts?

But she didn’t dare say that out loud.

The ghost girl continued, “I want to go home. I want to go home, sister, can you take me back to look? I really just want to look.”

“You’ve been dead for so long, your home probably isn’t there anymore,” Huang Yu advised. “When people die, it’s like a lamp being extinguished. If you report to the underworld, you might have a chance to see them.”

The ghost girl: “No, I’ve only been dead for seven years, sister.”

Huang Yu was shocked again. “You’re a new ghost?!”

Seven years wasn’t new – seven years was quite old for a wandering spirit, but compared to this ghost girl’s magic power and soul strength, she was indeed incredibly powerful, almost terrifyingly so.

Chu Xuanliang thought for a moment and asked: “What’s your name?”

“Luo Xiaomei,” the ghost girl raised her hand and said. “My brother is called Luo Haozhi, and my home is in X City, X County……”

She remembered her address and people very clearly. Chu Xuanliang asked a friend for help to search the system, and quickly found the corresponding information, which was reported to him.

Luo Xiaomei came from a poor family. She was born in a very remote mountain valley, and later moved to a relatively more prosperous village when her mother remarried, where she eventually got married.

Her personal records showed her as missing rather than deceased. The time of her missing person report differed from her stated time of death by about four months. After her death, her husband moved away from their original house and transferred the property to her parents and brother’s names, presumably as compensation.

However, this place was quite far from A City and wasn’t under A City’s jurisdiction.

In other words, if the registered information was correct, her parents and brother were now living in the house where she was killed.

“Oh… they’re still living there…” Luo Xiaomei pondered thoughtfully. “That’s great, I can go find them! But I don’t know the way, brother, will you take me?”

They definitely needed to take her. She wasn’t a tadpole – they couldn’t just let a ghost go searching for her mother alone across thousands of miles.

The worry was that with Luo Xiaomei’s level of power, if she suddenly went berserk and they couldn’t contain her, things would get very bad.

But thinking again, if she wanted to cause trouble, she’d had plenty of opportunities since leaving the abandoned building, so why would she have held back until now?

After much consideration, although Chu Xuanliang was hesitant, he still agreed to her request. Huang Yu couldn’t stand idle and decided to go along.

Chu Xuanliang packed his compass, Huang Yu carried her staff, and they borrowed two enhanced demon-dispelling talismans from their Taoist friends. After preparing sufficient magic implements, they took Luo Xiaomei to her home.

They spent a day on the bus, then transferred several times to different minibuses, traveling through the night before finally arriving at Luo Xiaomei’s home the next afternoon.

Actually, they had taken many detours in the middle.

In this area, buying tickets at the station for many buses was very troublesome, so people usually rode halfway and transferred at the roadside. The transfer stops had no signs, relying entirely on local residents’ habits and experience.

Chu Xuanliang and Huang Yu had never lived in this area and naturally didn’t know the system. They wandered around, unable to figure out the big bus routes, relying on asking for directions along the way before finally, with difficulty, approached their destination.

Luo Xiaomei recognized the later part of the route and pointed the way, finally speeding up their progress.

Huang Yu’s hot temper almost made her give up halfway.

Luo Xiaomei eagerly flew to the door of a household and stood there motionless, gesturing for the two to hurry over.

The buildings here weren’t old – as the economy developed, rural areas began construction and opening up, and many Western-style houses and rural villas had sprung up in recent years. Luo Xiaomei’s family had one of these.

It was a large courtyard.

A woman was holding a large basin, scooping something from a water vat.

Chu Xuanliang walked over and asked through the iron gate. “Excuse me, are you Luo Haozhi’s mother?”

The woman looked up, saw his attire, and asked in accented Mandarin. “Who are you?”

Chu Xuanliang took out an approved document from his chest – this was something he’d gotten from a partner organization. He said, “I’m here to ask about some matters.”

The woman straightened up and anxiously asked, “Did he do something wrong?”

Chu Xuanliang and Huang Yu walked into the courtyard, and the woman didn’t stop them.

Luo Xiaomei urged from the side. “Please ask them, ask if they still remember me? I’m so happy, I’m back!”

Chu Xuanliang paused, then asked: “Do you know Luo Xiaomei? She’s been missing for seven years.”

The woman’s expression changed upon hearing this, then she threw down her gourd ladle and said, “That worthless slut must have run off with another man! What missing? She just eloped! Comrade Police Officer, you don’t need to look for her anymore, what’s the point of finding someone like that?”

Huang Yu: “Are you sure? Isn’t she your daughter? I received reports about domestic violence from your son-in-law…”

“That’s all lies, my son-in-law is a good person! She was lucky he even noticed her back then, but she couldn’t stay content, always causing trouble here and there.” Mother Luo said, “Who reported this to you? Don’t let them fool you!”

Chu Xuanliang listened with horror, turning his gaze to observe Luo Xiaomei’s expression. The ghost girl’s face remained unchanged, sitting on the wooden chair in the living room swinging her legs, holding her cheeks in her hands and smiling sweetly.

Chu Xuanliang now felt that smile was like it had been painted on her face, unnaturally sweet.

Luo Xiaomei said, “You’re still the same as before, my mother.”

Chu Xuanliang wanted to stop Mother Luo, but the woman continued rambling. “She’s been like this since she was little, I didn’t raise her myself, I worked outside just to support her, gave her good food and drink, otherwise where would she be today? But she never listened to anything!”

Luo Xiaomei pointed to a room nearby and said, “That’s the room where I died. I saw my blood splash out, covering the entire wall, my head facing that balcony, unable to move. I didn’t know if I was dead yet, but he still came over with a wine bottle and scarred my face.”

“Yes, I remember now. He compensated my parents with this house, then ran away, they clearly knew everything, but acted like they knew nothing.”

Chu Xuanliang’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “Then the police……”

“There were no police,” the ghost girl tilted her head. “They never reported it.”

“Yes, I remember now.” She blinked, her mouth beginning to twitch, tears flowing down her face. The red liquid stained her entire face. “They didn’t even give me a grave. Because local customs say that if you carve words on the tombstone of someone who died wrongfully, they’ll follow it back to seek revenge. They wrapped me in cloth, buried me far, far away, and then left.”

Chu Xuanliang: “You……”

“It hurts so much… it really hurts so much…” she began sobbing, raising her hand to touch her neck. “Why did they treat me like this? What did I do wrong?”

Beside him, Huang Yu grabbed Chu Xuanliang’s arm. “This doesn’t look good, Chu Xuanliang!”

It looked like she was about to go berserk!

The woman finally stopped talking and asked, “What were you all just saying? What are you looking at?”

A loud baby’s cry rang out from upstairs.

“Oh, my grandson is awake!” the woman hurriedly ran upstairs, “Old man! You old fool, get over here quick! Hurry up!”

Luo Xiaomei watched her pass by, finally dropped her expression, and said coldly, “I’m angry.”

The next second, vigorous black qi burst from her body, shrieking screams and fierce howls mixed with the suddenly gusting wind, almost piercing their eardrums.

The light inside the house gradually became obscured by the yin energy, growing darker and darker.

Chu Xuanliang heard the sound of a door closing behind him, raised his hand to shield his face to prevent sand from getting in his eyes. He—

Huang Yu angrily said, “F*ck! I just really have to say what’s on my mind!”