Otherworldly Merchant

The shaman doctor looked at me. Her eyes were opaque white, which were like two glass balls inlaid in her sockets. They looked scary.

She talked to me slowly. “It’s the wrath of the Lord of the Soil here. That’s the way he punishes the folks.”

“The wrath of the Lord of the Soil?” I couldn’t help but smirk. It was funny that she had come up with this idea.

However, looking at her serious face, I didn’t dare make my laughter audible.

Shortly after, a beefy man with a big belly came, holding a staff. He threw us a glance then sat down right before us.

“If anyone in this village dies, you will be buried with them! So, you should better solve this thing quickly,” the beefy man snarled fiercely.

I nodded repeatedly.

I understood that the big man wasn’t joking. Even if he killed us here, the police would never be able to figure it out.

Then, he would mince Li Mazi and I into pieces to feed the mountain wolves. We would completely disappear from this world.

If I wanted to solve the problem in Baisha Village, I had to know the whole story. Then, I patiently asked him. “What has happened to this place? You must tell me everything. Do not miss even a single detail.”

After listening to them, I learned that this man was called Niu Dazhuang, the ‘branch secretary’ of this village.

In such a remote area, being a branch secretary was the same as being a king. The superiorities in the town and district levels wouldn’t care about them, which gave them the freedom to do whatever they wished.

Niu Dazhuang had finished high school, which made him the man with the highest education in this village. As he was educated, he knew that the village wouldn’t become better but worse if they kept living this way. He determinedly used his title as the branch secretary of the village to create an “educational revolution.”

All kids must go to school, and all the villagers had to work to grow more crops. They must try harder with their lives on the line to throw away the title of a poor village.

Baisha Village was a poor place, but it had rich soil. If they could exploit the wasteland and turn it to their orchards or vegetable farms, their life would flourish.

Niu Dazhuang had good convincing skills. Under his advice, all folks, old and young, men and women, had joined hands to exploit the wasteland.

However, several days after they had started the exploitation, bad things had begun to happen!

They had dug up a lot of human skulls at the mountain flank. It looked like a collective tomb with piles of decayed horse bones.

And, there were so many rusted weapons, some of them stabbing into the skeletons. There was a skeleton that bore a lot of arrows. This scene looked really shocking to the folks.

As they were all superstitious, they thought it was a sign of bad luck. No one wanted to exploit the area further. Especially the female shaman. She had watched those skulls days and nights, chanting something throughout a day. The people had no idea what she was chanting.

She told the villagers that those skeletons were the otherworldly army managed by the Lord of the Soil. If they dug further, they would provoke the Lord of the Soil. So, the villagers didn’t dare to touch this piece of land anymore.

Niu Dazhuang didn’t believe in superstitions. He brought several young folks and continued to exploit the place.

Much to their surprise they eventually unearthed a stone tomb. They didn’t know who the owner of this tomb was because there was no tombstone. There was just a simple, blank plate of rock placed on the tomb.

They eventually found the entrance to the tomb. Niu Dazhuang got into the tomb first. He found an altar where only a clay jar was displayed.

There was nothing else. He didn’t even see a coffin.

Curiously, Niu Dazhuang took the jar and got out of the tomb. He opened the jar and found a small piece of bone inside.

After checking, they agreed that this small piece of bone could be a human kneecap.

And, the skeletons they had dug outside this tomb could be the remains of the people who had protected this tomb.

Several days passed after they had broken into the ancient tomb but nothing happened.

The villagers finally forgot their worries and gathered their courage. Then, they resumed their exploitation work at the mountain flank. To them, it wasn’t just a simple exploitation work, it was the promise of a better future for the next generation.

However, on the second day of their bustling activity, things started to happen.

At first, when the folks returned home at night time, they always felt like someone was following behind them. However, when they turned around to check, there was no one.

Then, when the folks shared meals, they checked to see if they had brought enough bowls for everyone. However, in the end, someone was always missing a bowl. They looked around and found many bowls full of rice brought to a remote corner unknowingly.

At night, when everybody was fast asleep, they were woken up by the commotions of a fight. It seemed like thousands of soldiers and horses were fighting on the mountain. Many were screaming in pain.

The strange phenomenon had happened for several days in a row, making the villagers anxious.

One day, some villagers sleep-walked to the mountain, where the skeletons stood up and chased them away. It was then that the villagers recognized the seriousness of this situation. If they were not able to solve it thoroughly, everybody in this village would die!

Then, they had invited me to come and deal with the strange situation.

The reason why they came to me was that Li Mazi had come here previously to collect some antiques and he had bragged about me as if I was a genius.

And, as Baisha Village had encountered such a dangerous situation, Niu Dazhuang thought that it could be because of the clay jar. He decided to contact me in the hopes of some help.

At that time, I didn’t think about it much. I thought that it was just some hallucination the villagers had experienced. In the end, I just sent Li Mazi instead of going there personally.

After Li Mazi came, he had carried out the steps as I had told him. He collected all the skeletons then blanched them in a large iron wok before incinerating them all.

Then, he filled the clay jar with quicklime and sealed it before throwing it into the lake.

Nothing had happened for several days. The villagers could go out at night without any problems.

However, as soon as Li Mazi left, the situation had gotten worse!

The villagers started to have weird dreams where they all saw a shadow standing on their knees. When they woke up, they found black footprints on their knees. And, Niu Dazhuang had checked all the footprints and confirmed that from the size, they were all from the same person.

Niu Dazhuang noticed the strange phenomenon. Immediately, he went to talk with the shaman doctor of the village, the old woman who had just cured Li Mazi’s legs.

After checking, the shaman said that they had provoked the Lord of the Soil’s wrath, and that they had burned the Lord of the Soil’s army. Of course, he was enraged now, and the shaman herself couldn’t do anything.

Of course, Niu Dazhuang didn’t believe in the shaman’s theory. No matter what, he had graduated from high school and he didn’t believe in supernatural things.

However, there were many things that couldn’t be proven with science. They belonged to the metaphysics category.

Niu Dazhuang trusted the shaman’s knowledge and attainment in metaphysics. There had been many cases of big hospitals being unable to cure the villagers, but she could easily treat them with some leaves and herbs. Everyone in the village had seen it, and not even Niu Dazhuang could deny it.

Niu Dazhuang was the branch secretary of this village. And since he was the one who started all this, he begged the shaman for help!

He implored the old shaman again and again, and she finally gave in. She told Niu Dazhuang, “I know a method but I’m not sure if it would work. No matter what happens, Niu Dazhuang, you have to bear the responsibility.”

Niu Dazhuang agreed immediately.

The shaman came to an ancient well in the village, saying that she needed to beg the Lord of the Soil through this well, and he would release some elixir into the well to cure the villagers.

Niu Dazhuang didn’t describe the complicated process. He just said that the old shaman had stayed and performed the ritual by the ancient well for the whole day. When it was twilight, she asked the folks to take the water from the well. Everybody must drink only a sip. They weren’t allowed to take more than that.

After they had drunk the well water, their symptoms started to ease up a little.

However, it was just temporary. Not long afterward, the sickness became even worse. Overnight, people began to have blisters on their legs with the worms wiggling inside.

They were baffled. Niu Dazhuang’s only option was to find the shaman for help.

And, when he found the old shaman, he was scared as he saw her trying to commit suicide!  

Niu Dazhuang stopped her, asking her why she had to do that. The old shaman told him that the Lord of the Soil would not let the villagers go. And now even the shaman was involved.

Helplessly, she decided to hang herself.

She would rather hang herself than be tortured to death by the Lord of the Soil. That kind of death was really horrible and tragic.

Niu Dazhuang comforted the shaman, stopping her from acting insane. He told her he knew how to save the villagers.

Of course, it was just to comfort the old shaman. Niu Dazhuang had no idea what to do.

They didn’t expect that Li Mazi and I would come at such a critical moment.

After I listened to their story, I groaned. The symptoms these folks were having and even the other details were absolutely the same as what Li Mazi had experienced.

I asked Niu Dazhuang, “The women in the village did join and dig up the skeletons, didn’t they? Why do only the men have a problem with their knees and not the women?”

Niu Dazhuang shook his head, “All the folks here had joined, including men and women, young people and old people, except for the shaman.”

That was completely bizarre. If it was as they said, the villagers were being punished because they had dug up the skeletons, then why didn’t it happen to the women? Did the Lord of the Soil have some sort of gender discrimination? 

No, that doesn’t make any sense!

Seeing me hesitating, Niu Dazhuang asked if I had any solution to this. They had begged the stars and then the moon, and now I was here. No matter what I requested, they would agree, as long as I could save the villagers from that evil disease.