JOS Chapter 126

The Reason As soon as Yama finished speaking, several people could feel hundreds of sharp eyes fiercely staring at them.

Xiao Xia and Miumiu felt chills throughout their bodies, put away their livestreaming equipment, and hid in the back row, no longer daring to joke around.

Some ghosts drifted out from the darkness.

The white objects that had been hidden behind the branches, appearing and disappearing intermittently, were indeed their eyes.

These ghosts had died miserably, each with different causes of death. From their clothing, it was clear they came from vastly different time periods. Standing together with their gruesome wounds and tattered possessions, the visual impact was overwhelming.

Xiao Xia couldn’t hold back and bent over to vomit. Miumiu fainted backward directly.

The three men had no time to care for these two girls at the moment, only glancing at them briefly, because the ghosts across from them began approaching.

Yama showed no fear and sternly questioned, “Why are there so many ghosts in this province? Why don’t you go to the underworld? Who permitted you to kill people in the mortal world and detain departed souls? If it’s because of this guardian deity…”

Yama placed his five fingers on the statue’s head. “I’ll destroy it right now.”

Seeing his fierce expression, the female ghost had a look as if he were a fox borrowing a tiger’s might. She looked up and laughed loudly. “Clearly everyone stayed willingly – what do you mean we’re being detained? If you can crush this stone, then go ahead and try.”

Jiang Feng said, “Was Wang Chao also willing?”

“He was willing.” The female ghost placed her finger coquettishly by her lips and smiled charmingly. “If you don’t believe it, go ask him whether staying in H Province was his choice. Such a wonderful place – once he came, he didn’t want to leave. By the way, isn’t he somewhere around here? After dying, he might have already come over.”

Some ghosts laughed along, their sinister laughter continuing endlessly. There were also groaning sounds that seemed muffled in throats, with heavy tones that made people’s hearts race uncomfortably, mixing in as well.

Jiang Feng sneered. “You ghosts of H Province really have exceptional talent for brainwashing.”

He had previously thought that Xiao Xia, Miumiu, and even Wang Chao were all affected in their thinking due to contracts.

That was true, but not entirely.

They had been poisoned too deeply. Even after their bodies suffered harm and people around them issued warnings, they still had no awareness. This couldn’t be achieved by simple contractual influence alone – there must be other factors at play.

So they had found it strange before, feeling this ghost was overly powerful.

In reality, it wasn’t particularly impressive.

“This stone statue has no magical power at all, but why can I see her smiling?” Yama looked down at the statue and said, “You said before that coming here to make wishes has nothing to do with the statue, and that neither the mortal world nor the underworld has a replacement for Yama’s role. These words should be true.”

Under his hand, the statue’s face changed slightly – the corners of its mouth curved into a larger arc, and it gently nuzzled against his hand.

Clear giggling sounds filled the air.

Yama continued. “Even if you still worship the guardian deity here after death, and even if the statue once truly had the power to grant wishes, by now, that power no longer exists. The statue’s consciousness cannot help those who come to make wishes fulfill their desires. On the contrary, it’s your consciousness that makes this statue appear still useful. But it’s just a broken piece of stone.”

As he spoke, he applied force with his fingers and actually crushed the statue’s head.

Chu Xuanliang stepped back in disbelief.

This statue was solid!

The stone top crumbled into fragments of various sizes, leaving behind a sturdy base. A wisp of black energy drifted out from the debris, which Yama inhaled through his nose.

Chu Xuanliang wanted to intervene but remained very cautious, patting Yama’s back. “What was that just now? Didn’t you see yourself inhaling it?”

“It was nothing,” Yama said. “Just an illusion.”

The female ghost asked in a low voice. “Really?”

Yama replied, “If you have the ability, try to control my mind.”

He tilted his chin slightly upward, looking at the crowd of ghosts ahead with a contemptuous attitude, even though he was the shortest among them.

“The guardian deity wasn’t fabricated by us – she’s really still alive,” an old ghost said in a weathered voice. “Whether you believe it or not doesn’t matter. She just isn’t here right now.”

Chu Xuanliang asked, “Wasn’t your guardian deity here killed by Taoist priests brought in from outside because she had become an evil god? How can a deity without faith survive?”

Hearing this, the female ghost covered her mouth and laughed. “What? Outside Taoist priests came to help suppress an evil guardian deity? Are you joking? Hahahaha, this is the funniest rumor I’ve ever heard.”

Some surrounding ghosts also laughed out loud. “Hehehehehe.”

Jiang Feng shouted, “Shut up!”

The ghosts fell silent and continued staring at them dangerously.

Jiang Feng found these ghosts’ emotions very strange.

Some seemed to worship the guardian deity here, still firmly believing in her existence to this day, causing changes in the statue. Others were dismissive of her and didn’t care if she suffered any harm. Still others knew her deeds and knew she had existed, but didn’t care. For example, the female ghost’s attitude was closer to the third type.

To her, the guardian deity was just a title with no other meaning.

An old ghost wearing clothing from the Republican era walked behind the statue and began rebuilding the broken stones from the ground.

His hands, covered with wrinkles and age spots, trembled as he supported the statue, carefully re-adhering the fragments, treating this discarded stone with serious care.

“Let me explain,” the old ghost sighed, his voice low. “Humans are indeed very selfish. But first came the war years, then the years of poverty. Having a guardian deity willing to fulfill our wishes – how could anyone hate that? The people here were only devout, longing for her protection. Such pure faith and wishes – how could they turn her into an evil goddess? No, she has always been our deity here.”

Jiang Feng heard scoffing sounds.

Several “younger” ghosts protested:

“I just live here happily. Since I arrived, I’ve never seen any so-called guardian deity. She’s not the deity of this place.”

“This is our territory. What we want to do is our right.”

The old ghost wasn’t angry, seeming already accustomed to this, and continued, “Our original intention wasn’t to harm people. I just wanted to stay in this place, waiting for the day she might return. I believe that as long as there are ghosts who can have faith in her, she can continue living. At least someone should remember her, so I cannot go to the underworld.”

“But forget about ghosts – even among the living, isn’t your society poorly managed? Have all crimes been eliminated? No, right? People have various natures, and after dying and remaining in the mortal world without punishment or concerns, they only become more willful and extreme. The ghosts here died in different eras, received different educations, and had completely different lives. Some never even saw the guardian deity. You want them to follow normal rules? That’s impossible.” The old ghost raised his head. “Should the wrongs they committed also be attributed to us? But they have no devout faith in the guardian deity whatsoever.”

Buzzing sounds filled their ears as some ghosts forcefully expressed their viewpoints.

Jiang Feng and the others ignored them.

Jiang Feng turned around, observing the air currents in the surrounding area.

He couldn’t read feng shui like Taoist priests did, since feng shui was a discipline of patterns that humans had compiled and summarized themselves. But he could see some obvious flows of energy.

“Why can the ghosts in H Province stay here continuously? Why have so many ghosts gathered here?”

“Because of the terrain.” The old ghost pointed into the distance, where stars dotted the sky and distant mountains left a black silhouette. “The overall topography of H Province doesn’t have major problems. But this location is similar to a basin. Mountains surround it on all sides, enclosing this place. The yin energy and vengeful souls of the dead were trapped here as well. During wartime, a single shell could kill dozens or even hundreds of people. There were too many vengeful souls, and their impact on this land grew greater and greater. Especially after this area was massacred, the situation changed dramatically. Without yang energy to suppress them, ghosts dared to walk the streets even during the day.”

Jiang Feng asked, “So there really was a massacre?”

“Yes. There was a Taoist priest surnamed Feng who came here and took away our guardian deity. I don’t know what he wanted to do, but it certainly wasn’t good.” The old ghost closed his eyes and placed his hands on his chest. “He originally wanted to directly strip the guardian deity from her golden body and take her away, but the formation was ultimately scattered by the powerful yin energy here. At the same time, the hundreds and thousands of vengeful souls suppressed under the golden divine statue wouldn’t allow him to do so. In his fury, he chose to kill all of us, scatter the divine power, and in the final moment, took our guardian deity away.”

It really was a Taoist priest surnamed Feng.

He had also hunted little mountain gods before. He seemed to particularly enjoy seeking out these types of shape-shifting beings.

Jiang Feng asked, “He took your guardian deity away?”

The old ghost replied, “Yes, she should still be alive, but I don’t know where she went.”

“Once, an outside mountain god helped by moving mountain ranges to correct the irregularities of this place. He succeeded, but then he left. Years later, H Province experienced an earthquake that required reconstruction. The original feng shui was destroyed, and the city planning failed to avoid directly clashing with the local energy, completely transforming this place into a land where souls cannot depart.” The old ghost spread his arms toward the sky. “This is the H Province you see now.”

Jiang Feng refuted him. “No, feng shui doesn’t have that much power.”

Feng shui was a gradual process.

During wartime, this place having many ghosts should have been normal. Because too many people died at that time, and the souls sent to the underworld kept appealing their sentence judgments due to dissatisfaction, causing the underworld to fall into temporary paralysis. When underworld messengers collected souls, they only prioritized taking cooperative souls to the underworld first.

If this place had its own guardian deity, perhaps she chose to protect her believers, allowing them to be overlooked by the messengers, which would be understandable.

After the war ended, the underworld began clearing the remaining souls left in the mortal world.

But it had to be said that there were simply too many people. Almost every day brought another thick layer of records to the Register of Merits and Demerits.

“No mountain god can move another mountain’s ranges. He must have used other methods to help the souls here escape their constraints and go reincarnate,” Jiang Feng said. “The yin energy in this area is already beyond normal limits. Even the statue at the entrance changed because of this. So when did H Province start becoming abnormal…”

Jiang Feng connected all the events, reasoning through them back and forth, until finally one name crystallized in his mind.

“The Taoist priest,” Jiang Feng said. “That Taoist priest who came to capture your guardian deity – what method did he use? Even if he eliminated the guardian deity’s divine power, with so many ghosts from this province trying to stop him, how could he possibly escape?”

The old ghost was stunned.

He couldn’t remember.

Yes, but how could he not remember?!

He had been forcing himself not to reincarnate, waiting for her return, yet he couldn’t even remember how she left.

Jiang Feng called out. “Chu Xuanliang.”

“I don’t know, but I haven’t detected any formations nearby,” Chu Xuanliang said seriously, studying the map on his phone. “The other party’s magical power might be far beyond mine. I’ll need to go out later and take a comprehensive look to be sure. But based on the current situation, it does seem like the result of formation interference. But this kind of formation… is it for gathering yin energy? Disrupting the surrounding energy to affect people’s minds? Anyway, such evil influences are definitely not orthodox Taoist techniques.”

While Chu Xuanliang was still pondering, Xiao Xia and Miumiu, who had been lying on the ground behind him, suddenly stood up.

Sensing movement behind him, Chu Xuanliang turned his head and asked, “You two? Hey—”

The two moved mechanically, grabbing sharp objects in their hands and thrusting them toward the back of Chu Xuanliang’s head.

Quick-eyed and quick-handed, Jiang Feng pulled the Taoist master over while simultaneously chopping each woman on the back of the neck with his palm.

Xiao Xia and Miumiu fainted again, still tightly gripping their pruning tools as they lay motionless on the ground.

Chu Xuanliang looked fearfully into the dark depths and shook his head to stay alert.

The female ghost laughed excitedly.

A group of ghosts looked at them with ill intent and began howling like they were celebrating:

“Two hours passed that quickly?”

“Can’t escape now!”

“Finally beginning!”

“Hahaha, stay here and play with us!”

“Another one of our people!”

“Listen to us – you can’t escape.”

“Sigh, don’t do this anymore – you’ll face retribution.”

The old ghost shouted urgently. “This place doesn’t allow killing! The mountain god established this rule – have you forgotten? Have you forgotten the punishment those ghosts received back then?”

Jiang Feng and Yama just quietly stared back at them.

Suddenly, the female ghost’s expression changed. “Why haven’t you been affected yet? Since you came to H Province, you should be people of H Province. Clearly they both…”

“So I said long ago,” Yama formed hand seals, golden light flashing in his pupils. He spoke coldly, “What do you things think you are?”

The female ghost pointed forcefully. “Don’t wait anymore – kill them! These Taoist priests definitely want to completely destroy H Province and send you all to hell together!”