JOS Chapter 148.1 (end)

“Jiang Feng ah——— Fellow Daoist Jiang!” Junior brother let out a sharp, frenzied howl that mixed harmoniously with the surrounding shrill ghostly wails.

The tightly wound string in Chu Xuanliang’s mind was pulled by his voice, but instead calmed him down. He looked toward Zong Ce, many clues surfacing in his mind.

She had no reason to kill Jiang Feng, but how else could her recent actions be explained?

Jiang Feng had clearly been helping her deal with Feng Youdao just now, yet Zong Ce would rather perish herself than kill Jiang Feng to vent her hatred? If she were such a person who didn’t understand the bigger picture, she wouldn’t have painstakingly set up this magical formation and waited for Feng Youdao to come. Nor would she have lain dormant for so many years for revenge.

Moreover, Jiang Feng was after all a Judge of the Underworld – he wouldn’t die so easily.

Chu Xuanliang held down his panicking junior brother, telling him to be careful and retreat to their previous safe position first.

Zong Ce seemed to be using over a hundred spirits with strength comparable to Ghost Kings to sacrifice and forge a magical formation. Now that the restraints on the fierce ghosts were removed, the ghosts struggled desperately and yin energy flourished greatly. With their strength, they were probably the most dangerous people here.

Chu Xuanliang said, “Don’t move recklessly, lest we get caught in the crossfire.”

Junior brother: “This is really immortals fighting! What should we do next?”

Chu Xuanliang: “Watch first. See what he’s going to do.”

Feng Youdao ultimately couldn’t resist, and his soul was pulled out of his physical body by the Judge’s Brush. That body rapidly aged, brown spots appeared on the skin, and it collapsed softly to the ground.

But the Judge’s Brush didn’t stop. His soul continued to be violently pulled.

Feng Youdao was terrified.

“You——” Feng Youdao shouted, “He’s already dead! His soul was dismantled by me. Didn’t you see it with your own eyes back then?!”

Chu Xuanliang was shocked.

He had dismantled the Mountain God’s soul!

Just like that commission at the hospital years ago, after Zhao Ta was killed by Sun Yi, Zong Ce recombined their three souls and seven spirits, letting Zhao Ta’s two souls and one spirit enter Sun Yi’s body to control it, living on as “Sun Yi” from then on.

If the Mountain God had also been dismantled into three souls and seven spirits, those scattered soul fragments would have no support and would quickly disappear. That would be true soul annihilation.

Why did it have to go to such extremes to completely destroy everything?

Zong Ce remained unmoved, only looking at him coldly.

Feng Youdao discovered that Zong Ce was determined to perish together with him. Still making a final struggle, when the world in his vision showed overlapping double images, he finally cried out. “No! Spare me, I’ll tell you where he is, spare me!”

Feng Youdao’s soul couldn’t move in the air, but his voice produced two echoes.

Junior brother was dumbfounded. “He…”

Chu Xuanliang nodded. “He’s almost done for.”

Feng Youdao’s expression was rapidly changing.

Some cold, some mad, some laughing wildly.

His soul was already becoming unstable.

“In the bag I brought, go see for yourself!” Feng Youdao said, “I preserved his soul fragments. You have to believe me! I scattered his soul fragments into the bodies of little ghosts. As long as there’s a Judge’s Brush, he can come back to life…”

Before he finished speaking, his soul and spirit had already separated, his final words still floating in the air, slowly dissipating.

Zong Ce immediately picked up Feng Youdao’s bag and threw it toward the Judge’s Brush. However, after destroying Feng Youdao, the Judge’s Brush lost its divine power and fell to the ground.

The formation blazed with light. Feng Youdao’s magical constraints on the cultivated little ghosts completely disappeared, allowing the fierce ghosts in the bottles to break free and rush out.

“Command——” Zong Ce used all her blood energy to maintain the formation, her face already deathly pale. Still not daring to relax, she concentrated fully on trapping this group of fierce ghosts within, to prevent the Mountain God’s soul fragments from escaping.

Black energy erupted around the Judge’s Brush. The already unstable patchwork soul fragments instantly scattered and began to attract each other, swimming and searching.

Seeing this scene, Chu Xuanliang finally understood.

Was Zong Ce trying to reassemble the Mountain God’s soul fragments?

But how could someone whose soul had been completely scattered be resurrected? Even if resurrected, he would only be a spirit condensed from the resentment of hundreds of sacrificed fierce ghosts.

Did she really think that life and death could be reversed in this world?

Chu Xuanliang hurried to stop her but couldn’t get close. “Zong Ce, are you mad? You’re harming him!”

“I’m not!” Zong Ce said stubbornly, “This is what you all owe him!”

Chu Xuanliang: “Even if he comes back to life, he won’t be the same person anymore!”

The Mountain God had gained consciousness from the condensation of mountain spiritual energy. He represented the spiritual energy, goodwill, and benevolence of mountains and waters. At the same time, influenced by the Judge, he possessed righteousness that ordinary Mountain Gods didn’t have.

He should have been a being worthy of respect in this world, absolutely not like this – losing his original body and left with only a blank consciousness. Even that consciousness was no longer pure and would be influenced by others.

Who was he?

Would he still be that Mountain God from before?

But it was too late, and they were powerless to do anything.

Zong Ce murmured. “It will be fine… Master…”

Mountain Gods were different from humans – his physical body was originally created by heaven and earth.

He was born in an unnamed mountain in V Province. Now that he had perished, naturally another could be created.

Perhaps it would take ten thousand years, perhaps more than ten thousand years, but the reborn Mountain God would no longer be the original Mountain God.

Now Zong Ce was using a hundred ghosts as sacrifice to forcibly catalyze his emergence.

He wouldn’t be a ghost spirit – he would have his own body and could still live in this world.

Zong Ce told herself this over and over.

These were all what they owed him, and these people deserved to die.

The hundred ghosts were absorbed by the formation’s eye and transmitted to the center of the formation.

The black mist gradually condensed into a human silhouette that became clearer and clearer.

Chu Xuanliang could make it out. Head, waist, legs.

At the same time, he could feel the mountain and river energy disappearing. The withered grass on the ground rapidly dried up, then paradoxically sprouted anew just as quickly. The entire unnamed mountain lost its natural primitive power and was faintly turning toward being out of control in this tug-of-war.

“No way…” Huang Yu leaned against a tree and sat up straight. “Did it really succeed?”

Zong Ce held her breath.

The changes began to accelerate, and the speed of black energy gathering also increased.

Eyebrows, face – it was the same person.

Finally the black mist dispersed, everything returned to tranquility as if nothing had happened. Only a man in heavy ancient robes stood there with his eyes closed.

That face was all too familiar.

Only one word came to Huang Yu’s mind.

“Damn!”

How could such an inhuman technique succeed? How could it succeed!

“Master!” Zong Ce crawled toward him, her vision blurring white. Looking at that blurry silhouette, she called out tearfully. “Master!”

She couldn’t tell if she was happy or sad, only knowing that her long-held wish had finally come true, and she wanted to cry in the Mountain God’s embrace like before.

Because of others’ mistakes, their endless lives had all stopped on that day over twenty years ago.

“Master, I missed you so much…”

The “Mountain God” opened his eyes at her call, the corners of his eyes lifting, chin slightly raised. He surveyed his surroundings but revealed disgusting eyes.

Huang Yu’s heart seized up.

It would have been better if it hadn’t succeeded.

Zong Ce’s expression froze on her face, the corners of her mouth twitching. Blood flowed down her lips as she said stupidly, “No…”

The “Mountain God” bent down and picked up the Judge’s Brush that had fallen to the ground, holding it up to admire.

“I clearly succeeded… clearly I won…” Zong Ce muttered in confusion, falling into intense self-doubt.

“Master!” She suddenly shouted loudly, “Master, it’s me, I’m Zong Ce! You still remember me, don’t you?”

“Of course I remember you.” The “Mountain God” flicked the long brush in his hand, the smile at the corners of his mouth impossible to suppress. Looking down at Zong Ce with contempt, he said proudly, “I succeeded. I knew he could lift the Judge’s Brush. Thank you for making this new body for me.”

“Impossible!” Zong Ce screamed hoarsely, “This is impossible!”

Feng Youdao threw back his head and laughed. “Hahaha! I was just deceiving you. Such clumsy acting, and you believed it.”

“Feng Youdao!” Zong Ce ground his name between her teeth, “Do you even know how to write the words ‘beast’!”

Feng Youdao said indifferently, “What kind of good person are you? You’re not even human, so don’t talk to me about justice. You wanted to kill me, I just went along with your wishes.”

“The Judge’s bones – do you know how many years I studied them?” Feng Youdao said, “I was the first person to obtain Judge’s bones, the first to research the Judge’s Brush, the first to modify the Register of Merits and Demerits, and the first to create the Hundred Ghosts Sacrifice Formation! You actually used this method to compete with me? How many of your Taoist arts did I teach you – do you still remember?”

The first brush Feng Youdao made, he gave to Feng Nansheng. Feng Nansheng was someone who had helped him when he was in trouble. Whether it was from ill intentions or flattery didn’t matter.

Making a Judge’s Brush required a large number of powerful fierce ghosts to create its killing aura, and also a sufficiently tough brush body to support that killing aura.

The first one was a failure he had researched based on his father’s formation, refined using a spirit creature and a small river god he had captured for many years as sacrificial materials. But even divine souls couldn’t suppress the brush’s inherent deadly aura and weren’t very useful.

Shortly after Feng Youdao made that brush, he finally thought of using Judge’s bones to supplement the brush body’s spiritual power. Although the consumption was enormous and the conditions for using the brush were harsh, he had indeed secretly summoned the Register of Merits and Demerits, so he gave that inferior product to Feng Nansheng.

The other party was later killed by Zong Ce, and the Judge’s Brush was also seized. To escape Zong Ce’s pursuit, his soul fled to the unfinished building. Later he helplessly encountered Jiang Feng and was brought into the Underworld.

Later he experimentally made one using the Mountain God’s bones, but it failed during creation. He felt it was useless and troublesome to keep, so he gave it to a ghost to confuse people.

The ghost created a mortal world underworld, widely recruiting underworld officials to uphold justice – such an idea truly opened his eyes. Unfortunately, it was also later destroyed by Jiang Feng.

The Judge’s Brush he had always kept in his hand, of the highest quality and nurtured for years with spiritual objects and creatures from various places, had also just been destroyed by Jiang Feng.

Although it couldn’t compare to the genuine article, he was definitely the person in this world closest to being a Judge.

Feng Youdao crouched down, slowly extending his hand toward Zong Ce, looking at her with pity. “I told you – those who obstruct my great enterprise must die.”

In his eyes, the Mountain God and Zong Ce were the ones who deserved to die.

He had given Zong Ce life beyond the Register of Merits and Demerits! He had taught her countless Taoist arts. He was clearly her benefactor, yet Zong Ce had betrayed him.

As for the Mountain God – when he was only one step away from immortality, the Mountain God suddenly appeared and casually mentioned taking back the Judge’s bones.

Those were clearly his things! His entire Feng family had died because of those bones – what right did the Mountain God have to take them back? Before taking them back, how should those dozens of lives be repaid?

Yet he couldn’t resist, because this world followed the law of the jungle, and before the Mountain God, he was the weak one.

Now, he had come for revenge.

Feng Youdao’s hand gripped Zong Ce’s neck and gradually tightened. He savored watching Zong Ce being pressed to the ground by him without resistance.

Chu Xuanliang drew out talismans and blocked him. “No, stop!”

The talismans struck an invisible barrier in front of Feng Youdao, blocking the talisman attack for him.

Chu Xuanliang couldn’t help but curse. “Damn!”

Zong Ce’s face had already changed color. She was already suffering from severe blood loss and looked drowsy. Chu Xuanliang didn’t know what her physical condition was exactly, but generally speaking, she would die.

Just when everyone was at their wit’s end, Liu Shan suddenly appeared behind Feng Youdao, pounced forward, and swallowed him in one bite.

The scene fell into eerie silence.

Before long, Liu Shan couldn’t stand it and burped, and Feng Youdao crawled out of his mouth again.

Liu Shan frowned and said stubbornly like a child. “Give back our Mountain God’s body! If you won’t give it back, then return the energy here too!”

Feng Youdao was stunned and didn’t react for a moment.

Chu Xuanliang and the others were completely dumbfounded too.

A black shadow suddenly flashed over everyone’s heads. Chu Xuanliang, now jumpy at every movement, immediately looked up and discovered it was actually a mountain xiao swinging its long arms, moving through the nearby area.

The little Mountain God was riding on the mountain xiao’s neck, one hand firmly gripping the fur on its body, his body swaying back and forth but still managing to stay steady. He waved his other hand, encouraging Liu Shan. “Quickly, quickly, mountain xiao, I’ll give you power!”

Feng Youdao immediately tried to counterattack with the Judge’s Brush, but Liu Shan grabbed his shoulders and once again swallowed him with lightning speed.

Chu Xuanliang questioned his life. “Am I… blind?”

Huang Yu couldn’t respond to him – she had already fainted from emotional excitement since seeing Feng Youdao being swallowed and spat out.

Junior brother cried out. “What is this thing!! What kind of place is V City!”

Liu Shan had swallowed Feng Youdao but wouldn’t digest him. The other party was uncooperative, causing Liu Shan’s belly to bulge outward constantly, as if someone inside was throwing punches and kicks.

However, he himself was formed from the energy of the ancient divine beast Qiongqi and had no true form, so there was no danger of being burst open.

The little Mountain God encouraged. “Hold it in, hold it in! I’ll give you power!”

Liu Shan said with a stern face. “You’re not my Mountain God.”

“But I’m also a Mountain God!” The little Mountain God said, “Daddy said you can come to my mountain, I can take care of you.”

Liu Shan said with disgust. “Your daddy is already dead.”

Junior brother disapproved. “How can you talk to a little child like that?”

The little Mountain God thought for a moment and said in confusion, “…Didn’t he die a long time ago?”

Chu Xuanliang: “…”

That makes so much sense.

Yes, almost forgot about that.

Liu Shan’s face turned red and white alternately. After holding it for a long time, he still covered his mouth and said, “I really can’t hold it anymore!”

Then he bent over and vomited him out with a “wah.”