Otherworldly Merchant

However, I was still a little doubtful. Song Yushu told me that she was being controlled, so why did she sound normal now? She also knew that her rich, handsome boyfriend had plotted against her. How did she even know about the Parasitic Ghost King?

How could that air-headed woman know about the Parasitic Ghost King?

Song Yushu explained that yesterday, a man found her. He cut his finger and fed her a drop of his blood. Then, she finally woke up from her confused state.

That slender man told her everything. Song Yushu was scared. She knew her boyfriend had plotted against her. She begged the man to save her.

The man told her to find me because only I could save her.

I obviously knew that the man who had woken up Song Yushu was Chuyi!

I took out my phone and showed Song Yushu a picture of Chuyi. Song Yushu recognized him immediately. Chuyi was the man who had saved her yesterday.

I smiled as my heart began to feel warm. I had just spoken to him on the phone. He worried about my safety so he came over to help me.

But since he was here, how come he didn’t contact me before he left? Where did he go?

I told Song Yushu not to worry. Then, I called Chuyi. He must know how to deal with this bronze mirror.

I didn’t expect that we would hear Chuyi’s phone ring from the corridor outside.

I was startled and ran to open the door.

After the door opened, I saw Chuyi carrying a woman on his shoulders. He entered with a cold face. When he saw me, he gave me a slight nod as a greeting.

I was surprised. Who is he carrying?  I immediately opened the door wider. Chuyi threw the woman on the sofa. I saw that it was Ms. Song.

What was going on? Ms. Song was dead, wasn’t she? Who is this person?

Ms. Song and Song Yushu were in the same condition. They looked dirty with worn-out clothes; they seemed beggars. However, Ms. Song didn’t have any wounds. It looked like she was sleeping on the sofa.

When Song Yushu saw Ms. Song, she burst out crying. She stormed forward and hugged Ms. Song, crying and apologizing.

Chuyi signaled at me and Li Mazi to pull Song Yushu away. Song Yushu painfully struggled. She looked so regretful that her face started to turn pale.

I hurried to ask Chuyi, “What happened to this Ms. Song? Wasn’t she the skinned, burned corpse?”

Chuyi shook his head. “No, Ms. Song didn’t die. She was imprisoned in a secret underground chamber.”

"Who was that dead person?”

“Just a beggar on the street,” the man said. “The other party used that corpse to trick us in order to make us think that Ms. Song was dead.”

“Really?” I was bewildered. “They say that the closest family member has to torture the victim to death and take the soul out to create the Parasitic Ghost King. Ms. Song’s still alive, so how are they going to create the Parasitic Ghost King?”

Chuyi stretched his slender finger and lifted Ms. Song’s eyelid. He said with a cold smile, “Come and see if her soul’s still there.”

I checked Ms. Song’s eye, and I was taken aback. Ms. Song’s pupil looked vacant. It seemed as if her soul wasn’t there.

I looked at Chuyi in puzzlement. He explained, “After taking out the soul, one must ensure that the body doesn’t rot. That’s how they can create the strongest Parasitic Ghost King! That beggar was killed to ensure that Ms. Song’s body wouldn’t rot.”

I suddenly understood. A soulless body couldn’t live. Had that person forced the beggar’s soul into Ms. Song’s body?

This thought gave me a cold sweat. However, after looking at Chuyi’s eyes, I knew this absurd explanation was true.

“Damn!” Li Mazi was enraged. “For a stupid Ghost King, he dares to kill three people. That bastard sure has guts! Why didn’t that beggar, who was skinned and killed, become an evil ghost and haunt him?”

“That beggar wasn’t burned. He was soaked in strong acid, which eroded his body. Then, his soul was extracted and restrained with a special method…” Chuyi explained.

Li Mazi and I wrapped our heads over these words for a while.

“What should we do next?” I asked Chuyi.

He turned to look at Song Yushu. “Next, I need Ms. Song Two to cooperate with me.”

Song Yushu said, “For my sister, I will do anything.”

Chuyi nodded. Then, he asked me to carry Ms. Song to the bedroom. When I walked out again, I saw him observing the bronze mirror.

I furrowed my brows. “Chuyi, do you know the origin of this mirror?”

Chuyi looked pensive. “I can’t confirm anything right now.”

Then, he asked Song Yushu to take off her shirt.

It seemed Song Yushu was used to being naked in front of men. She stripped off her clothes without any hesitation. Chuyi held the bronze mirror and shone it over the face on Song Yushu’s back. At the same time, he bit his finger, mumbled something, and used his blood to outline the face reflected in the mirror.

Something strange happened after that. Song Yushu’s body twitched and convulsed as if she had gone crazy. I looked at her with worry. I was afraid she would die.

A moment later, she slowly turned around. Tears rolled down from the corners of her eyes. “No man is good!”

She gritted her teeth as she stressed each word.

After hearing her voice, I knew it was the real Ms. Song.

It seemed Chuyi had forced Ms. Song’s soul out.

I nervously looked at Song Yushu. I didn’t know who was standing in front of us.

“Tell me the date of your birth,” Chuyi demanded.

“Humph! Even if my soul vanishes, I won’t let you get what you want!” Ms. Song snorted.

Chuyi slightly frowned. “You’re stubborn! I’m here to save you…”

I walked forward. “Ms. Song, we’re here to save you. Even if you don’t care about your own life, you have to think about your sister. If you don’t cooperate with us, you and your sister will become someone’s Parasitic Ghost King. Then, you would likely do something that people hate and the heavens grudge against. You won’t even have a chance to reincarnate.”

After all, they were blood sisters with a strong bond.

Ms. Song stayed quiet for a while then agreed. “As long as my sister survives, I’ll do it.”

Chuyi said, “Don’t worry. I’m here now, and you guys will be alright.”

Ms. Song told us the date of her birth. It was June 22nd, 1990.

After knowing her birthday, Chuyi’s face changed. He took a deep breath and studied Ms. Song.

From my impression of Chuyi, he only had two facial expressions. They were either blankly cute or an expression with the words, ‘The page cannot be displayed’ over them.

He had changed his usual expression so I knew there was something wrong with Ms. Song’s birthday. “Is something the matter?”

The man said, “I seem to know this bronze mirror’s origin! The other party wanted to turn the Song sisters into a Parasitic Ghost King because he wants them to replace the thousand-year-old resentful soul in this mirror…”

I really wanted to ask who the thousand-year-old resentful soul was.

However, Chuyi waved his hand. “We should solve this other problem first.”

Then, he took a sip of water and sprayed the bronze mirror. The bloody face he had drawn on the mirror disappeared. Song Yushu closed her eyes and fell to the sofa.

However, she soon got up with tears on her face. She pulled her hair and screamed, “Sister, it’s all my fault!”

I guessed that Ms. Song’s speech had touched Song Yushu.

Chuyi told me, “Zhang Jiulin, go to the market and buy some Black Gold Powder. I need to use it.”

“Black Gold Powder?” It was the first time I heard the name. I didn’t know what to do.

Chuyi hesitated for a while. In the end, he took out a small notebook and jotted down an address and a number. I could call the number to contact the seller of the Black Gold Powder.

I didn’t ask much and left.

After I had followed the address Chuyi had given me, I found a second-hand market near Beijing’s Panjiayuan Market. In the deepest corner, I found the man selling Black Gold Powder.

When I saw him, I was astounded. It was the old man who had swapped his fate with some mice, back when Li Mazi and I dealt with the Golden Perianth. Chuyi sent me to this man? 

I was baffled for quite a long time when I saw him.

However, when he saw me, he didn’t look surprised. It was as though he had expected me to come.

I didn’t say much. When he knew that Chuyi had sent me, the old man took me to where the Black Gold Powder was.

When I saw the process involved in making Black Gold Powder, I almost puked. The so-called Black Gold Powder was a mixture of dark gold and human pelvis ground into a powder.

The old man didn’t find it nauseous enough, so he explained, “It’s not easy to make the Black Gold Powder. The gold we use here is taken from the dead and the pelvis from someone who had committed suicide…”

After I got the Black Gold Powder, I hurried to report to Chuyi. After being in the same place as that old man, I was disturbed.