Otherworldly Merchant

Baisha Village was situated deep inside a mountain on the outskirts of the city. Half a month ago, the villagers had unearthed something, and from that moment, the entire village had begun to run afoul. They understood that the thing could be some sort of otherworldly item, as such, they contacted me and asked for my assistance to resolve that issue.

However, since I wasn’t in the mood to do so, I sent Li Mazi instead. Due to which made this issue happen.

Li Mazi’s circumstances made me think of two possibilities.

The first possibility was that the young widow he had slept with was the problem. Perhaps she had mastered evil techniques and used poisonous insects on Li Mazi.

And the second possibility was that Li Mazi hadn’t properly taken care of the otherworldly item in that mountain village. And now, the calamity on his legs was actually that item taking revenge on him.

I carefully analyzed the details, and I thought that the second possibility was more likely.

Even though the young widow could be fierce, she couldn’t make Li Mazi have the same nightmare every night, let alone leave black, rotten footprints on his knees.

When we arrived at Baisha Village, it was around 4 AM or 5 AM, at the break of dawn.

It was a time when people should have been sleeping quietly. However, I didn’t expect to see the entire village well-lit and dogs barking everywhere.

I could even hear people groaning. 

Damn, there is definitely an otherworldly item wreaking havoc here!

At that moment, Li Mazi woke up. Seeing us entering the village, he groaned louder, “Little Brother Zhang, it’s not good. My knees hurt so badly, I don’t think I can put up with it for much longer.”

I hurriedly comforted him, “Don’t worry. If your knees are reacting to this place, it proves that something problematic is here. Once we find the cause, we’ll know how to deal with it.”

Li Mazi nodded, asking me to visit a family in the east of the village. His little widow lover stayed there. “We should stay there for a night and investigate the situation.”

I nodded as I drove away. Eventually, my car pulled to a stop in front of the widow’s house. I was a little hesitant as I was about to knock on her door. It was considered bad luck to knock on a widow’s house at night.

However, while I was hesitating, the door was pulled open from the inside. A pretty countryside woman stood and looked at us from the door. “Who are you looking for?”

“It’s me, Li Mazi.” Li Mazi craned his neck out, his head protruding from the car. “I need to talk to you.”

Seeing Li Mazi, the young widow became enraged. “You swindler, you dare come here again?!”

Then, she stormed forward to grab Li Mazi, trying to pull him out of the car.

I was startled. Li Mazi was a patient with a serious sickness now. The woman could cause his death!

I rushed forward to stop the widow, asking her, “What happened?”

The young widow sobbed. “You’ve put us into misery, you know? Our folks here, young and old, are tortured so badly by that thing! I called you and you didn’t even pick up the phone. You… you have to pay for our folks’ lives!”

I became more restless. If I couldn’t clarify what had happened here, it would escalate to the point that I couldn’t solve it at all.

I didn’t know the customs here. However, from the strong reaction of the young widow, I could guess the folks here weren’t friendly at all. If we approached them recklessly, we would be beaten up to death by the enraged villagers.

Thus, I said nothing but got in the car to leave immediately.

However, it was too late. The woman’s shriek had alerted many villagers. They flooded out from their houses, surrounding my car.

Looking at the machetes, the hoes, and even some shotguns in their hands, I panicked. I rushed into the car and locked the doors. Leaving only a slit, I shouted at them, “Guys, calm down! What’s going on? Please tell me, don’t act rashly!”

I suddenly recognized a strange phenomenon. Most of the people surrounding my car were women. There were just a few young men in this crowd. However, they all stood behind the women, looking limp.

My heart began to flutter. 

Do they have the same sickness as Li Mazi?

In the loud cursing and yelling of the enraged villagers, I understood most of the situation.

The last time, when Li Mazi came to resolve the otherworldly item issue, although he had reduced the strange phenomenon here and took the money, the situation had become worse later!

Previously, the villagers had encountered some bad things and they were just a little frightened. However, ever since Li Mazi had solved the otherworldly item problem, the strange things happening here had drastically increased. They hadn’t stopped bothering the villagers. Because of this, many villagers here were tortured beyond what they could describe.

Of course, we were the first people they thought of. However, for some unknown reason they could not contact us via phone. And they didn’t know where we lived so they subconsciously thought that we were swindlers who took their money and ran away.

After putting all the events together, I hurried to explain it to the folks, “Don’t worry. We’re here this time to solve this thoroughly. If we die, you guys won’t have a decent ending, either!”

Listening to my advice, the villagers finally calmed down. I got out of the car and asked them to arrange a place for us to rest.

I couldn’t believe that they decided to confine me and Li Mazi in the Earth Temple which was opposite to the young widow’s house. And, to prevent us from calling the police, they even confiscated our cellphones.

I was mad as they’d put us under house arrest. They thought that law enforcement was too far away and no one would come here to deal with them.

However, a powerful dragon shouldn’t quarrel against the local serpent.

Right now, if I argued with them, it would trigger the dispute between two sides. Eventually, I couldn’t do anything else but bring Li Mazi to the temple.

The villagers sent two guys to watch us. They told us that we would talk in the morning. At night time, it was not convenient to discuss things.

I nodded, asking them to send someone who was in charge to talk to us in the morning.

The situation could be much more serious than I had expected. I must solve it as soon as possible.

Li Mazi’s knee problem seemed to get more severe. He groaned unceasingly in pain. I peeped through the slit at the door, and I could hear people whimpering throughout the small village.

Then, it suddenly popped up in my head that it could be something very scary.

Are all the men in this village in the same situation as Li Mazi? Are their knees all rotting?

Today, the crowd that had circled me included only women. Several men were standing behind but they didn’t look steady.

The audible whining further proved that the folks in this village could have the same ‘odd disease.’

I already had a headache. I wasn’t a doctor. Even if I could solve the problem of the otherworldly item, their disease couldn’t be resolved. At most, it wouldn’t get worse.

Would the folks here spare my life afterward?

I wanted to ask Li Mazi what was the otherworldly item that had started making this mess in Baisha Village, and how he had treated it.

However, Li Mazi was fast asleep.

These days, he had been continuously tortured and he couldn’t get much sleep at night. As he had finally fallen asleep, I didn’t want to disturb him. Eventually, I lay down next to him, sleeping with all my clothes still on.

However, at the break of dawn, I was woken up by a pungent stench.

At first, I thought it was some weird smell inside this abandoned Earth Temple. However, I soon realized that something was wrong. The stench reeked of rotten meat.

Thinking about the rotten meat, I remembered Li Mazi’s injury. I hurried to roll the legs of his pants up to check if Li Mazi's injury was turning worse or not.

However, as soon as I rolled the legs of Li Mazi’s pants up, the smell of rotten eggs stormed into my nostrils. I didn’t look but rushed to the corner and retched.

I tried hard to pull myself together. However when I glanced at Li Mazi’s legs, I wanted to vomit more.

Li Mazi’s injury wasn’t limited around his knees. It had spread out fast and reached his heels. The blisters appeared as if he was scalded with boiling water. There were so many of them, and black worms were wiggling inside the bubbles.

My entomophobia came back to me, a chill creeping down my spine.

I was so scared I had forgotten my urge to vomit. I checked Li Mazi’s forehead and found he had a high fever. 

Shit! He’s not sleeping. He’s fallen into a shock due to high fever!

I forcefully knocked on the door, asking the men on watch outside to find the doctor. Li Mazi couldn’t hold it anymore.

An aunty standing outside talked to me nonchalantly through the slit at the door. “Not a big deal. Don’t panic.”

Then, she strolled away.

I had been waiting for quite a long time when that aunty came back with the doctor.

She brought over a wrinkled-faced old woman whose face was decorated with strange symbols. She had white hair and was shrouded in a black coat. She looked like a shaman.

They pushed open the door and the old woman came to check Li Mazi’s injury. She squatted next to him, taking out a silver needle. She asked Li Mazi to stay put and disinfected the needle by heating it with a lighter.

Then, she began to prick the blisters on his thigh.

I asked the aunty, “What is she doing? Why is she dressed like that?”

The aunty threw me a sidelong glance. “She’s the life-saving God in our village. Without her, many would have died.”

I was startled. Is she a divine doctor?

However, she didn’t look like a divine doctor but a shaman. Knowing this, I kept silent for a while. 

What year is it? Why do shamans still exist? They aren’t afraid of failing in their treatments and killing people?

However, I couldn’t deny the fact that this old woman was quite capable. After receiving her treatment, Li Mazi’s blisters slowly faded and flattened. They became a layer of translucent dead skin, clinging on his thighs.

Although it still looked really scary, it wasn’t as disgusting as before since I could still recognize that they were his legs.

Li Mazi finally woke up. However, his situation wasn’t really promising. He looked confused.

I sighed, asking the shaman, “What kind of disease is it?”