Otherworldly Merchant

This young man was an orphan. His mother had passed away when he was young and his father, due to pressures of life, had joined a band of tomb robbers and disappeared. The young man was raised under the support of the villagers. To him, being able to fill his stomach was already the happiest thing in the world, let alone going to school.

When he grew up, he started to cultivate the poor fields of the family in order to make ends meet.

He thought that later on in life, he would marry a nice woman and together, they would grow crops and feed livestock.

However, he never would have thought that his father would return home one day. This completely overturned his quiet life.

It was really late that day. He heard a knock on his door. An old voice called his name from the outside.

The young man was bewildered and walked to open the door.

Standing at his door was an old man wearing worn-out clothes. He looked gory and his face had a horrible scar. After his opaque eyes saw the young man, his spirit was boosted. He grabbed the young man’s hands and said excitedly, “Son, is that you?”

The odd old man had scared the young man, who hurried to close the door to keep him outside. However, the old man didn’t care. He aggressively stormed in and declared, “I’m your father!”

The young man was really frightened. He observed the old man for a while then finally came to the conclusion that the old man’s appearance was really similar to his own!

He didn’t have a deep impression of his father because his father had left him when he was still a child.

The commotion from the young man’s house had alerted the neighbors. They hurriedly checked on him and determined that this old man was indeed the young man’s father!

At the time, the villagers still treated the young man well. Since they knew he was poor, they supported him by giving him food to feed his father.

The young man watched his father. In his heart, his emotions were mixed. He didn’t know how to treat his father.

They had spent that awkward night without speaking to one another…

The young man had to take care of the cows during the day. He was already exhausted when he got back and quickly drifted into sleep.

When he woke up, he found his father sleeping next to him. A letter was placed on the table.

Since the young man couldn’t read, he gave the letter to his neighbor to read.

His neighbor was shocked after reading the letter. It was a testament made by the young man’s father!

The letter stated that if the young boy had received the letter, it meant his father was already dead. The father had asked his son to bury him in a vertical position. The instructions were to use peach wood stakes to pin his father’s limbs and heart, then bury him on the highest mountain.

After the burial ceremony, his father would give him a small gift. But the letter didn’t mention what the gift was.

However, I vaguely guessed that the mentioned gift was the “Night Pearl.”

The young man gawked in shock. He hurried home and found that his father was not breathing! However, he didn’t know why his father had wanted him to torture his body in such a gruesome way.

Although the young man wasn’t well-educated, he knew that it wasn’t good to treat his father’s body like that. Perhaps, if he did that, his father would never be able to reincarnate.

That's why he didn’t follow his father’s instructions and just buried him…

However, the same night, some bad events happened!

At first, the roosters in the village started to crow very late at night. In daylight, people saw that their poultries were missing. Some dogs had been killed at their place with their bellies torn open.

At first, the villagers thought the wolves came down from the mountain and wreaked havoc in the village. They didn’t really care too much about it. However, as time went by, more and more poultries died and disappeared. People in the village then formed patrolling teams to guard the village at night.

The patrolling team saw something that completely changed the young man’s life!

They saw the young man’s father walk down from the mountain and knock on his door.

The young man’s father was still wearing burial clothes and his body exuded the horrible smell of a decomposing body. His eyes were wide open, but he looked like a moving corpse that didn’t have a soul.

Then, they saw the young man walk out of his house with his head held low. He was following his father.

In front of the patrolling team, the two sneaked into a house and started to swallow the chickens alive!

The members of the patrolling team had almost wet their pants. They knew it was the act of a zombie. Early the next morning, the entire village heard of the incident.

The villagers came and arrested the young man. They asked him why he had done that. When the young man learned that his father had come to see him and took him to eat live chickens, he was baffled.

But when he saw his deceased father on his bed, he had no choice but to believe in what the others had told him.

It seemed the villagers were right. He had slept with his father’s corpse for one night.

The young man was terrified; he begged the villagers to help him bring his father back to the coffin. To prevent his father from getting out of the grave, they placed many big stones to cover the cave in hopes of keeping the corpse inside.

The young man was also worried that he would sneak out unconsciously to eat the neighbor’s poultries again. He tied himself up and closed his door from the outside.

However, their preventive measures didn’t work. His father had mysteriously pushed all the big stones aside and got out of the cave grave.

Early the next morning, the young man found his father lying at his door with his mouth open. In his mouth was the bead.

The young man was helpless. He brought his father back to the coffin, put his coffin to the grave and worshiped the bead in front of his grave. This time, he used more stones to seal the grave. Then, he left to find some expert to help him with his father’s case.

The folks in the village noticed that everything resumed to normal when the young man wasn’t around. His father’s corpse didn’t descend the mountain and they didn’t lose their roosters or ducks anymore. The quiet daily life in the village resumed.

They didn’t know when it started, but the people in the village had started calling the young man ‘jinx.’ They even blamed him for his father's death. Though his father was already dead, he couldn’t close his eyes and came to his son’s door every night.

The more the rumor had spread, the crueler the villagers became. Eventually, they didn’t let the young man stay in the village any longer. The young man didn’t want to cause more problems for his village, so he decided to leave on his own.

After he had left, the village’s life had returned to its normal state.

However, when we came to the village, the corpse had descended the mountain again. No one dared to touch the corpse. Because of this, they had sent the young man a message to return home and fix the problem.

Then, the young man arrived and met us. We already knew everything that happened after that.

After listening to him, Li Mazi and I were surprised.

Now, my biggest doubt was what the young man’s father had wanted to do. What did he mean by that testament?

Why did he want his son to pin him with peach wood stakes?

What was the bead he had in his mouth? Why did he want to give it to his son?

I was astonished and looked at the young man. “If we want to solve this case, I’m afraid we will have to follow your late father’s testament.”

The young man stooped and wept silently. I knew he wasn’t willing. However, we didn’t have any other option. Otherwise, the consequence would become even more serious!

Li Mazi and I talked the young man into the plan. Since he was helpless, he could only nod.

I guessed that the young man’s father had known he would become a zombie when he left his son his testament.

I had to know what the bead could do.

I suddenly remembered something. When the young man was a child, his father had left him to do some tomb-robbing. “Young man, do you know what your father did when he was alive?”