JOS Chapter 148.2 (end)

Feng Youdao was vomited onto the ground by him and rolled around ungracefully. His hair and hairstyle were also messed up, and he looked at him with hatred.

“Too disgusting…” Liu Shan silently floated away a bit and said to Feng Youdao, “You… smell too bad. Some people stink, but you can still taste something fragrant. Your stink is completely stinky. You’ve even made our Mountain God stink.”

Feng Youdao leaped up from the ground, jumping two or three meters high. His face showed joy as he went to drive the Judge’s Brush again.

The magical treasure that had shown no response since his soul was scattered still had no movement, as if it were just a dead object.

“Why?” Feng Youdao didn’t believe it, grabbing the brush body and changing his posture, looking questioningly at Zong Ce, “Why still can’t I use the Judge’s Brush? This is clearly the Mountain God’s body! Could it be that even he can’t?”

He then denied himself, “No, since you could drive the Judge’s Brush, there’s no reason he couldn’t.”

Zong Ce, lying on the ground, began to laugh maniacally, opening her eyes a crack to see the azure sky in her vision.

“You… used me,” Zong Ce said in a low voice, “How did you do it?”

“You only learned the form without understanding the meaning – should I be blamed for that?” Feng Youdao withdrew his attention from the brush body, “The Hundred Ghosts Sacrifice was originally a formation I prepared for myself. First scatter the soul fragments, then place the sacrificial flesh at the formation’s eye. It’s just that you prepared the Mountain God’s body for me, and only the Mountain God’s body could withstand the Judge’s Brush’s killing intent, especially this Mountain God from Unnamed Mountain who had considerable connection with the Judge. Hahaha! This formation was originally extremely dangerous, and originally no one was helping me. Thank you so much for making such thorough preparations for me. Now, both the Mountain God’s soul and spirit have been sacrificed by you in the formation! Zong Ce, you did all this! You were the one who killed your master!”

Zong Ce made a dry gasping sound from her mouth. Chu Xuanliang supported the back of her head to lift it up and took a defensive stance against Feng Youdao.

“You want to die together?” Feng Youdao said, “Now no one can kill me. I——”

“Hm?”

Feng Youdao’s laughter stopped as he looked at his left hand.

The Judge’s Brush began to tremble on its own, and increasingly violently.

Feng Youdao initially thought the brush was responding to him, so he held it up to his face.

That vibration suddenly stopped, bringing Feng Youdao’s soul to a violent shake.

Feng Youdao instinctively blinked.

Then came another shake.

This feeling he had experienced not long ago… his soul was being drawn away and shaken by the Judge’s Brush.

“What!”

Feng Youdao immediately threw away what was in his hand and retreated three meters away.

Chu Xuanliang sensed a familiar magical power and said joyfully, “Jiang Feng?”

The brush that had fallen to the ground trembled again, and Feng Youdao’s soul fluctuated slightly. But it didn’t have much effect.

Feng Youdao said with satisfaction, “Nothing to fear!”

His new body’s soul was just now in the formation, reconstructed from his own three souls and one spirit, plus the Mountain God’s six scattered spirits.

Both Mountain God and himself – how could he be shaken by the Judge’s Brush?

The heavy aura around the Judge’s Brush gradually turned white and condensed into a human form.

That person had at least seventy percent resemblance to Feng Youdao’s current face, only appearing more majestic and imposing by comparison.

The Judge reached out and grasped his weapon that was finally recovered, then looked toward Feng Youdao ahead.

“Feng Youdao,” the Judge said coldly, word by word, “Today I shall make you the first soul to be completely annihilated under the Judge’s Brush.”

Feng Youdao said, “Did you hear clearly? This is the mortal world! What can you, a Judge, do to me!”

The Judge pointed the brush at him. “But you are also not a person of the mortal world.”

“You——” Feng Youdao’s ears rang, his heart beat violently. Blood rushed from his chest to his brain.

He widened his eyes and saw a spirit’s phantom leaving his body.

Neither the Mountain God’s nor his own.

“Ah…” Feng Youdao’s expression froze, “You…”

The Judge looked at him coldly.

The Judge’s Brush was made from his chest bone – how could it kill him? When Zong Ce absorbed his divine soul into the brush and the formation activated, Feng Youdao handed over the Mountain God’s soul fragments for fusion, and he replaced one of them.

“Master… Master…” Zong Ce watched as the spirit belonging to the Mountain God scattered away from Feng Youdao’s body, reaching out trying to catch it.

Empty – nothing remained in her palm.

Several wisps of white soul fragments finally dissipated in the bright sunlight.

Zong Ce cried out in despair, looking at Jiang Feng with pleading entreaty. “Why… why won’t you help me? Wasn’t he a good person? Can’t you pity him?”

She had drawn Jiang Feng into the Judge’s Brush thinking that when the Hundred Ghosts Sacrifice formation activated, rather than letting Feng Youdao revive, the Judge would choose to revive the Mountain God instead.

But he hadn’t.

With only a wisp of divine consciousness in the mortal world, Jiang Feng didn’t have the advantage fighting Feng Youdao. And the Judge’s Brush had escaped his control, so he used this last opportunity to kill Feng Youdao.

“Are you all… heartless?” Zong Ce dug her fingers into the soil, tears bursting like a dam. “But what did he do wrong? I thought he would be like you, but he wasn’t… What’s wrong with us wanting to live! Why won’t you just give us this chance!”

The Judge looked down at the brush in his hand, his fingers tightening to grip it firmly.

“Zong Ce. Though your name appears not in the Register of Merits and Demerits, you bear heavy sins of killing. From today, this lord shall bring you to the Underworld, to be imprisoned in the Hall of Yama for eternity, guarding the Judge’s Brush as atonement.”

Zong Ce laughed coldly.

The Judge flicked his sleeve. “Do not remain stubbornly deluded. There has never been resurrection in this world. Even if you saved him, he would not be himself. Bearing resentment, no longer able to reincarnate. But he is not your cultivated little ghost, and you are not his master.”

The Judge’s gaze swept over everyone, finally instructing Chu Xuanliang. “I shall depart first. You bring people to handle this place.”

The Judge took away Zong Ce, but as for handling things, Chu Xuanliang had no idea what to do.

He sat on the ground, recalling all that had happened before, not wanting to move at all.

When the voices became clamorous and various sects rushed to V City to handle the anomalies, Huang Yu finally awakened.

The last scene before she fainted was quite shocking. When her consciousness returned, the first thing she did was ask Liu Shan, “Did you accomplish something?”

Liu Shan gave her a leisurely eye roll, turned around, and showed her his back.

Huang Yu: “??”

Junior brother wracked his brains. “He… bought a few minutes of time, so he still has some merit.”

Huang Yu looked at Chu Xuanliang again, seeing him lost in thought and motionless, and asked, “What’s wrong with him? Soul taken?”

Junior brother: “Middle-aged male depression?”

Huang Yu pointed at the little Mountain God crouching to the side drawing circles. “What about him?”

Junior brother: “Left-behind child’s resentment?”

Huang Yu: “…”

What kind of people was she following?

……

Chu Xuanliang thought he wouldn’t see Jiang Feng again, but just one month later, Jiang Feng appeared before him again.

“You…” Chu Xuanliang asked carefully, “Lost something again?”

Jiang Feng said, “I’ll come look occasionally. Contact by phone if there’s anything.”

Chu Xuanliang: “By ‘anything’ you mean…”

Jiang Feng nodded. “Mm.”

Chu Xuanliang said with great joy, “That’s wonderful! But what does this count as?”

“New business. Underworld Divine Lords may come down to inspect in turns,” Jiang Feng said meaningfully, “Be a good person.”

Chu Xuanliang: “…I understand.”

Jiang Feng was satisfied. “Mm.”

Chu Xuanliang hesitated for a long time before asking, “What about Zong Ce? How is she now?”

“Reflecting,” Jiang Feng said, “Also waiting to die. She was repeatedly severely injured and has no believers – her lifespan is not long.”

Did the Judge’s Brush truly have consciousness?

Zong Ce thought it did.

When she had followed the underworld official and risked going to the Underworld to steal the brush.

Ordinary people couldn’t even approach the Judge’s Brush, and she had been possessed by some mysterious impulse to choose the Fifth Hall’s Judge.

She had only looked once and was entranced by the aura outside the brush body.

But she still gripped the brush handle firmly.

Her arm lost sensation in that instant – she even thought her soul had left her body.

This was the Judge’s Brush, the legendary divine weapon.

Zong Ce thought she might die here, feeling only desolation in her heart.

Death was death – she had no one to care about anymore. Living a few more years would just mean watching Feng Youdao live happily while she had no ability to take revenge.

So she refused to let go and instead gripped tighter.

At this moment the aura on the brush body disappeared, and a thought traveled up her arm into her mind, strangely calming her emotions.

In that moment, she felt this brush was actually alive.

It was talking to her.

Zong Ce’s tears instantly poured out. “Please save my master. Like you, he was also formed from Judge’s bones. He was harmed by villains, and I want to avenge him.”

The Judge’s Brush actively restrained the aura around its body.

Zong Ce smiled and tucked it into her embrace, immediately running out of the great hall.

“How could the Judge’s Brush possibly have consciousness?” Fan Wujiu laughed upon hearing this, “Who told you that? A great evil object of the underworld like the Judge’s Brush cannot possibly have its own consciousness. Even if it had life, it would have long been ‘killed’ by itself.”

Zong Ce didn’t care what he said.

When the Judge placed the brush in the great hall, she sat beside the brush stand, touching the brush body and staring blankly.

Sometimes she could get extremely faint responses, so faint she thought they were her own illusions. When she lay on the desk to sleep, she was always particularly peaceful, as if someone was gently stroking her head.

The Judge walked lightly behind Zong Ce, recalled the brush from the stand, and turned to leave again.

The Judge’s Brush would certainly not develop intelligence.

But when the Mountain God of Province V died, Unnamed Mountain didn’t immediately fall into ruin and still retained some traces and spiritual power of the Mountain God. After Zong Ce left Liu Village with part of the Mountain God’s bones, she gained the ability to control and use the Judge’s Brush. When Feng Youdao tried to seize the Mountain God’s flesh, he only needed the six spirits that the Mountain God used to control his body.

How long does it take for three souls to generate seven spirits? In a place like the Underworld, perhaps hundreds of years, perhaps over a thousand years. The karmic connections between heaven and earth are sometimes difficult to explain clearly.