Otherworldly Merchant

I immediately looked back to see Chuyi’s reaction and he confirmed my guess.

This place was indeed Mount Shouyang, the real one. Boyi and Shuqi had died in that cave because of hunger. They had witnessed the brutal ruling of the Zhou Dynasty before they died; that was the reason for their lingering resentment after their deaths, as they left this world with concerns about the welfare of the common people.

Evil cultists eventually found their corpses; they dried them and sealed the resentment energy inside the grain pouch, to later harness it against the Zhou Dynasty.

The grain pouch had slowly turned into an otherworldly item. The two dried corpses remained, strengthening the effect of the pouch and turning the mountain cave into a lair of hungry ghosts.

The descendants of that evil cult took care of the place for several thousand years, luring and entrapping people to make them die of hunger. Their resentment energy would be used to nurture the grain pouch.

The grain pouch had continuously absorbed human resentment, becoming stronger and stronger. It already had accumulated an astounding level of hate!

According to legends, this was the way to ‘nurture’ otherworldly items.

Most of the otherworldly items were created by chance. Although some were good and some were bad, otherworldly items wouldn’t be harmful as long as people didn’t violate any taboos.

Man-made otherworldly items were different, since they would listen to their owners. No matter how evil the deed was, the item would do everything to accomplish it.

That difference alone broke the rules. All the otherworldly merchants disdained that sort of otherworldly items…

Of course, becoming the grain pouch’s master would involve some side effects. Even Daoist priests had to give up on a lot of things, let alone someone who had become the master of something that evil!

All of your family members would starve to death once you became the master of the grain pouch!

Zhou Tufu’s closest and only family member was Zhou Laoshi.

Although Zhou Tufu had a black heart, he had a lingering affection for his brother and didn’t want him to starve to death because of him. So, he used evil magic to find someone to die in his place.

And of course, we were the scapegoats.

Once we died of hunger in the cave, the grain pouch would absorb our resentment energy and spare Zhou Laoshi.

I understood and was infuriated by the situation once I heard Chuyi’s explanation. I couldn’t believe that Zhou Tufu could just use a random person’s life to exchange for his brother’s.

“Do you have any plans for retaliation?” I asked.

Chuyi said, “It’s easy to dispel Zhou Tufu’s evil magic since it comes from the grain pouch. The grain pouch can’t do anything to us as long as we don’t have any resentments or grudges. It is fine as long as we keep our hearts as clean as water.”

However, after all the things he had done to us, trying not to hate Zhou Tufu was easier said than done.

I was afraid that only Chuyi would be impervious to those grievances thanks to his incredible skills.

Chuyi comforted me. “Well, it’s a good opportunity to talk about otherworldly merchants and their tricks. In any case, this place is separate from the world, which makes it a good place to train. You’ll be able to handle a lot of tasks by yourself if you can calm your mind to study.”

Anyway, that was the only thing we could do.

I suddenly remembered the message Chuyi gave me in the pig pen. “Have you ever gotten out of this place?”

Chuyi nodded, “Yeah, I did go out once to deal with Zhou Tufu directly. However, I changed my mind after considering that the grain pouch issue would remain unsolved whether I killed him or not.”

I couldn’t help but laugh since Chuyi could get out easily if he wanted to. He had willingly gone back to the cave after running away.

Chuyi taught me a part of ‘the sacred text of Daoism’ to ease my mind. “You can chant the text to calm down in case you encounter danger.”

The text worked well. At least, I didn’t lose my mind during the following days.

It would be strange if one’s mind didn’t crack after being imprisoned in a place where sunlight was blocked off.

Yin Xinyue and Li Meng had done things as Chuyi had asked them to. They went to Zhou Tufu’s house every night around midnight to throw the raven’s blood and then delivered some food to us. As for me and Chuyi, we slept during the day and he would teach me about otherworldly items at night.

Time flew fast; a week passed by in the blink of an eye. I reaped great benefits during that week. The knowledge I gained during that time was massive when compared to what I had previously accumulated.

Zhou Tufu had not shown up even once during the past week. It seemed as if he had forgotten about us. My heart became restless.

How long do we have to wait if Zhou Tufu doesn’t appear? 

 Will I become a Peking Man?

Luckily, my life as a prisoner came to an end shortly after…

It was after 1:00 AM on that day and we had yet to see Yin Xinyue or Li Meng delivering food to us. I started to worry.

They would normally arrive earlier and never later than 1:00 AM. It was way past our appointment time and we hadn’t heard anything from them.

Did they encounter something dangerous? 

I wanted to go and check on them since the situation could be urgent.

However, just as I was about to get up, I heard footsteps above our heads. A dark object was thrown into the cave.

I hurried to turn on my phone’s flashlight.

My jaw dropped in fright as soon as I did that!

It was a corpse that only had skin and bones. There wasn’t a bit of blood on the body, only a layer of skin lingering on top of the bones. It looked like a freshly-made specimen.

I checked it carefully and found it was Zhou Laoshi!

I didn’t expect for him to die; he had actually starved to death. He died with his deep-sunken eyes open and his teeth exposed.

“Good, good, good.” Zhou Tufu’s voice came down from the cave entrance.

I lifted my head right away and saw Zhou Tufu maliciously looking at us.

I looked at Chuyi right after that; he indifferently threw me a meaningful glance, implying that I should keep calm and simply sit down.

I sat down next to him. I knew the grain pouch’s resentment had just affected that so I quickly began to chant a part of the ‘sacred text of Daoism’ to clear my mind.

I had to keep a cool mind to prevent myself from creating any resentment energy that could awaken the grain pouch.

“You are indeed patient!” Zhou Tufu said with an irritated tone, “You’re so patient that you ended up killing my brother! I want your life as compensation!”

I ignored him and continued to chant the sacred text.

“You little bastard,” Zhou Tufu snorted and said, “You think you’ll be safe acting that way? Aren’t you worried about the little girl’s life?”

My calmness slowly drifted away after hearing Zhou Tufu’s threat.

Yin Xinyue and Li Meng were captured. Are they all right?

Although the sacred text of Daoism was powerful, it could only work as a support; it couldn’t bring a complete calmness from deep down.

The sacred text stopped working after Zhou Tufu used Yin Xinyue to unsettle me. I jumped in rage and shouted, “What did you do to them?”

I heard Yin Xinyue calling for help as soon as I said that. Her voice was so faint and weak that it made my heart ache.

I hated that I couldn’t just fly and escape from that cave to stab Zhou Tufu to death!

I glanced at Chuyi to see his reaction. He was like a statue; eyes closed and unmoving to keep his composure. He seemed to be dozing off, completely unaffected by the current situation.

Zhou Tufu sneered. Yin Xinyue’s call for help and his laughter were blending in my head; my rage only became stronger. I didn’t know why I was so angry at the moment; I felt as if I had turned into a barrel full of gunpowder.

I clearly knew that the grain pouch was causing this but I couldn’t control myself. My self hypnosis wasn't working, either.