Otherworldly Merchant

I knew that type of grass; it belonged to the group of plants called Ferns. Although people wouldn’t use them as a source of food, they were useful because of their digestive properties. In other words, the more people ate the plant, the hungrier they would become.

I was disappointed, so I threw the fern back to the ground and lifted my head to look at the place above.

Yin Xinyue woke up while I was studying the fern. She told me she had seen Zhou Tufu feeding Zhou Laoshi with that grass.

It suddenly came to me; Zhou Laoshi’s sickness was indeed associated with those ferns.

Some commotion above my head roused me from my deep thinking.

Yin Xinyue’s eyes showed tension the moment she heard the noise. She thought that Zhou Tufu had returned.

I patted Yin Xinyue’s shoulder to calm her down.

It was then that we heard someone moving the stone. The only source of light in the cave was obstructed after that.

No need to wonder about it, I’m sure Zhou Tufu covered the entrance with a stone to prevent us from getting out!

I cursed the black-hearted Zhou Tufu under my breath.

After the footsteps faded away, Yin Xinyue asked, “What happened?”

I replied, “The cave was sealed.”

Yin Xinyue became more desperate and whined, “We’re going to die here.”

Then we heard more footsteps coming from above our heads.

For a moment I entertained the thought that Zhou Tufu might have turned the place into a latrine, and was in a hurry because of his diarrhea. Otherwise, why would he return? What did he want?

While thinking, we found a beam of light coming down from the entrance. It seemed that someone had slightly moved the stone.

I rushed and looked up; indeed, the stone had been moved. A familiar voice reached us afterwards, “Uncle, are you down there?”

It’s Li Meng!

I was excited. “Yes, yes, yes. We’re down here. Kiddo, how were you able to get here?”

Li Meng said, “Zhou Tufu went back to the village. I knew that something bad must have happened since he was alone, so I trailed him in secret. Then I saw him use a stone to seal this cave and imprison you.”

Yin Xinyue was elated. “Little Meng, save me. I’ll give you the Land Rover when we go back home.”

Li Meng was thrilled by that and hurriedly threw us a rope. I tied the rope around Yin Xinyue’s waist and asked Li Meng to pull her up first.

Li Meng was weak but Yin Xinyue wasn’t heavy; he was able to pull her up easily.

The two then dropped the rope into the cave, ready to hoist me up.

However, someone rushed out of the group of corpses as soon as my body was lifted. He moved as fast as a panther and reached my side instantly. I didn’t have enough time to react before he pulled me down.

I was terrified. I didn’t expect to find that there was a living being among those dried corpses!

Li Meng and Yin Xinyue couldn’t see what was happening down there. They screamed and asked me, “What’s going on?!”

I shouted loudly, “Pull the rope back, the corpses are coming back to life!”

Li Meng and Yin Xinyue heard me. They threw some stones into the cave out of despair.

However, the dried corpse spoke right at that moment. “Relax, it’s me.”

It’s Chuyi’s voice!

He was hiding amongst the dried corpses all this time without us knowing.

I observed the person before me using the faint light available. It was Chuyi! However, he looked ashen and was wearing ragged clothes. The fringe in front of his forehead was disheveled. He looked pitiful, which was a stark contrast to his usual idol-like appearance.

I could never imagine that Chuyi would have a day like that.

I hurried to ask him, “What’s happening? Why were you trapped here?”

“It’s okay. I’m here to talk to these dried corpses. I wanted to ask them about some details.” I was speechless. He can talk with dried corpses? What kind of talent is that?

Yin Xinyue approached the cave entrance. “What can we do to help you guys?”

Chuyi’s answer surprised me. “You two find a place and hide away, do not let Zhou Tufu find you. One more thing: go to Zhou Tufu’s house every night between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM and throw some raven’s blood there, then bring us some food after 1:00 AM…”

I asked Chuyi with concern, “Aren’t we giving ourselves away if we throw raven’s blood at his house? Zhou Tufu would catch us.”

The man smiled at me mysteriously. “Don’t worry! He’ll be unable to move at that time. Even if he saw you, he would be unable to do anything about it!”

I believed him after seeing his confident face.

Yin Xinyue and Li Meng were worried sick about us, but Chuyi asked them to leave in a hurry. Otherwise, if they were discovered, everything would have been in vain!

I didn’t dare to question Chuyi’s words. There was nothing else that I could do, so I sent the other two away.

I turned and asked Chuyi after they left, “What happened? How did you find this countryside village?”

Chuyi sighed and then told me the details.

It turned out that he had already spotted Zhou Tufu’s strangeness the first time he went to the village for the commission. That butcher was probably related to some evil cult!

That cult had spread in ancient times but had later disappeared in the waves of history. Chuyi didn’t expect to see its flame rising again from the ashes.

He knew the consequences would be unimaginably bad if he allowed them to exist.

That was why he wanted to clean them up at once. However, he couldn’t do it alone so he sought our help.

In other words, it was the real Chuyi who looked for us in the beginning. Zhou Tufu then impersonated him on our first visit to the mountain forest…

Chuyi led the group and entered the mountain first. Once there, Zhou Tufu ambushed him with a powerful magic attack, catching Chuyi unprepared and shoving him into the cave.

If it were an ordinary person, his life would have been snuffed out on the spot after the magic attack. Fortunately Chuyi wasn’t an ordinary being. He resisted and landed at the bottom of the cave.

He had been staying idle with the horde of dried corpses, seemingly entering a meditative state. He gradually discovered a way to communicate with them!

The dried corpses couldn’t actually think. However, a deep resentment remained from the moment of their deaths. The powerful energy that was gathered from all those grievances had piled up in the cave. While in his deep meditation, Chuyi somehow managed to connect to their resentment and talk to them.

The result had surprised him immensely.

He didn’t expect to find that the evil cult had been involved in a special part of history. Things went beyond his wildest imagination.

“What part of history was it?”

Chuyi didn’t answer me. He walked to the corpse lying in the farthest area and looked for something on its body.

Not long after, he took out a money pouch from the corpse.

The hemp pouch had an ancient and shabby look. It reeked of a moldy smell.

There were some dried roots inside.

“What is that?” I couldn’t help but ask him.

“A grain bag,” the man answered. “Back then, Boyi and Shuqi used pouches like this one to collect the ferns.”

“Boyi and Shuqi?” I couldn’t hide my surprise as I looked at Chuyi.

Of course I knew about Boyi and Shuqi. They were people with high moral standards who lived in ancient times. Their virtues were still recounted amongst people in the modern days.

The first virtue was modesty. Boyi and Shuqi were royal members of the Shang Dynasty, eligible to sit on the throne. They weren’t tempted by wealth and power, however, so they gave the throne to the prince and left with smiles.

The second virtue was integrity. They rejected the idea of becoming citizens of the new regime after King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang Dynasty, since they hated him and his persistent rebellious movement. Not wanting to eat grains harvested under the Zhou government either, they went to Mount Shouyang and collected ferns to eat and eventually died of hunger.

From the references, I suddenly remembered that Mount Shouyang was actually nearby. If so, could this mountain be that legendary Mount Shouyang?