Otherworldly Merchant

I protested after making up my mind, “But I think Zhou Tufu wouldn’t keep her here. It is an orchard, so people would come daily to check their fruits. It’s easy to be exposed here…”

I thought that the fake Chuyi would advise me about something and persuade me to continue moving further.

However, the man didn’t say anything in rebuttal. He just started to walk down the mountain.

We hadn’t moved two steps and I heard someone calling for help from behind.

I heard the voice and my scalp felt numb. It was a female voice calling for help; it sounded quite similar to Yin Xinyue’s voice!

Although it was unclear and interrupted, this was still a clue. How could I let it go?

I immediately called the fake Chuyi, resolutely heading towards the source of the call. The impostor followed close behind me.

People didn’t grow fruit trees there. Not even a blade of grass was found in the surrounding hundreds of square meters; the entire place was bare. As I made my way up, the voice calling for help became louder!

This time, I was certain it was Yin Xinyue’s voice. Her voice had always been tender and loving, but it was filled with fear and anxiety at the moment. My heart ached and I forgot everything else including the warning message.

I rushed towards the place where the voice originated from. It seemed to come out from a cave.

I gawked in astonishment when I got there; that cave was a vertical shaft reaching the bottom of the mountain and the space inside was just a vast mass of darkness. I didn’t know how deep it was, but Yin Xinyue’s call for help arose from the bottom.

Heat attacked my brain. I wanted to jump down to save her.

However, I eventually got a hold of myself, as I couldn’t do that. This is a well, a talking well! 

If I jumped, something very dangerous would happen. My little life would go down the drain and it would be impossible to rescue Yin Xinyue.

I tried to suppress my stirring heart as I asked, “Yin Xinyue! Are you there?”

“Help me! Help me!”

Yin Xinyue screamed louder.

I immediately comforted her. “Don’t you worry. I’m going down there to save you.”

All right, I don’t care about those damn taboos. I need to save her right now! I don’t care if I put myself in danger!

However, I felt a hand grabbing my arm and pushing me before I could climb down. I was about to fall into the deep pit after losing my balance.

I was shocked by this so I turned my head out of instinct, finding it was the fake Chuyi who had just pushed me.

His face had a malicious and cold smile, an expression the real Chuyi would never use.

I was scared as I looked at him. “What is your intention?”

“Nothing,” the man said, “You interfered with our business. You must be punished…”

“You’re not Chuyi,” I exposed him and asked, “Who are you?”

He laughed and raised his hand to pull and tear his facial skin off. His face was then revealed.

Damn, it’s Zhou Tufu!

I felt disgusted. “You bastard! You dare impersonate Chuyi. Aren’t you afraid that he would kill you?!”

Zhou Tufu’s smile turned even more sinister and replied, “Shut it! He can’t even save himself now. He can’t save you!”

“Bullshit!” I cursed. “Chuyi is really powerful. How could he not be able to protect himself? Don’t talk nonsense.”

My heart was racing, although I tried to sound confident.

I thought Zhou Tufu was telling me the truth. If Chuyi was all right, he would have arrived and saved me right then. He didn’t need to throw me that piece of paper… What had that man done to Chuyi?

“Good then,” Zhou Tufu smiled and said, “I shall send you to reunite with him!”

Zhou Tufu pushed me again, trying to send me down into the cave.

Flustered, I grabbed a rock by the cave’s entrance. Zhou Tufu didn’t let me go. He drew the sword on his back and aimed at my hand.

I could only let go of the rock in such a desperate situation.

His sword still drew a cut on my arm however, which was neither deep nor shallow.

My body was falling free, cold wind blowing at me. I tried grabbing onto something but only found slippery walls on both sides. There was nothing else…

The cave was so deep that I had yet to reach the bottom. As time passed, my worries grew bigger; I would die if I couldn’t slow down my fall.

I swiftly stretched out all my limbs, trying to stick to the stone wall. I had to be persistent, regardless of the painful scratches.

The space grew wider as I fell, however, to the point I was unable to reach the wall. Fortunately, I wasn’t very hurt, eventually landing with a grunt.

I gritted my teeth and stood up, although my body was aching. There was only one thing in my head at the moment: I had to save Yin Xinyue!

I heard her after a while. “I-I’m here…”

I switched on my phone’s flashlight and scanned the place. Finally, I saw Yin Xinyue’s silhouette in a corner, her body curled into a ball. She couldn’t help but burst out crying once she saw me.

I immediately rushed forward and pulled her close, trying to gently comfort her. “Hush, Yin Xinyue, don’t cry. I’m here. I’m here to save you, OK?”

She wiped her tears and tried to stop sobbing. “Brother Zhang, check this place… Look, what are they?”

“What?” I didn’t get it so I increased the brightness of my phone’s flashlight. My heart thumped haphazardly when I saw the surroundings.

Gosh, have I just fallen into Hell? Is this the layer of hungry ghosts in the eighteen layers of Hell?

Dried corpses packed that subterranean space.

The dried corpses were not decomposed, but their skin had turned dark. You could see they were from different eras by observing their clothes, ranging from ancient to modern times.

The facial features of those corpses were twisted strangely, and their bodies only had skin covering their skeletons. Their empty sockets gazed at us…

I took a deep breath. The air in that place was filled with the smell of decomposed things.

I hugged Yin Xinyue tighter, taking her to a spot where it didn’t have any corpses. I didn’t dare to look at those corpses further and just used a tender, soft voice to ease Yin Xinyue.

She finally regained her composure. Then she told me desperate news.

Yin Xinyue’s encounter indeed happened the way I had imagined. When she went to Zhou Laoshi’s house, she found him eating a strange plant that Zhou Tufu had given him.

Yin Xinyue found it strange. Why was Zhou Laoshi unwilling to eat the big fish or the prawns we had bought for him but wolfed down the rough and unsavory looking plant?

She wanted to go and ask him. But then her nape felt numb and she directly fell unconscious. The little peach wood sword was taken from her hand.

She woke up and found herself in that place. Moreover, she had found a dying Chuyi in a corner with wounds all over his body. However, those wounds didn’t seem to be created with external force or cuts. It looked as if his skin had cracked.

Chuyi looked skinnier and it seemed as if he could barely move his eyes.

He didn’t say a thing.

Yin Xinyue hurried to help him treat his wounds, but she didn’t have anything that could help him. She could only wrap his wounds a little bit.

She unknowingly went to sleep after that. Chuyi was nowhere to be seen when she woke up. She thought he had escaped from that cave.

I was crestfallen. Chuyi was practically an invincible figure in my heart, yet someone had tortured him like a dog. And one more thing, how did he escape from this place?

Yin Xinyue had also said that after Zhou Tufu ambushed her and left her unconscious, the first thing he had done was to take the little peach wood sword in her hand.

That action alone made it obvious that Zhou Tufu was aware of the function of the peach wood sword. Perhaps he was also someone with great skills!

He can impersonate people, change his face, his voice, and even his shape… It seems that we are fighting against a great enemy this time! 

No wonder Zhou Tufu was so haughty; Chuyi would find it hard to protect against him.

My heart sank to the bottom and I reprimanded myself for being stupid. Chuyi had clearly warned me against the three taboos, and yet, I had touched them all. Damn!

Yin Xinyue asked, “Do you have any way to escape this place?”

“No need to worry, I have a plan,” I said to comfort her.

Yin Xinyue knew that I was trying to make her feel better, so she didn’t ask any further.

I scratched my head while I thought of a possible solution. How could we escape from here?

Meanwhile, more questions continued to pop up in my head.

Why did Zhou Tufu want to impersonate Chuyi to trick us into going to this place? What about these dried corpses? What was their purpose?

Yin Xinyue soon drifted into sleep in my arms. She was quite weak since she hadn’t eaten nor drunk any water for a whole day.

I gently helped her lay down, then I looked around for something that could help us escape. However, there was nothing aside from a lot of grass on the ground; finding strong vines that we could use was out of the question.

I squatted and picked a blade of grass while trying to overcome my distress.

This place doesn’t receive sunlight or enough water. How could grass grow here...?