Otherworldly Merchant

After I returned, I was a little confused and asked Chuyi, “How could they extract gold powder from some corpses?”

“In ancient times, there was a torture that forced people to swallow gold powder until they died. When the heavy metals in their body exceeded a certain threshold, these people would die.”

I shuddered. This type of torture was too wasteful. Normal people could not understand it.

Chuyi continued, “Everything’s ready. We have to wait for our chance now.”

I was worried as Chuyi had only prepared the Black Gold Powder and nothing else. “I brought the Sirius Whip. Will it work?”

Chuyi sighed emotionally. “She’s also a woman with an unlucky fate. We don’t need to go that hard on her.”

I knew he was talking about the thousand-year-old resentful soul in the mirror.

Song Yushu kept weeping next to me, which was really annoying. I wanted her to stop.

However, Li Mazi told me that Chuyi had asked her to cry because he needed to use her tears tonight.

Well, the items Chuyi required were all strange. From my impression, when a Daoist priest subdued ghosts or demons, except for peach wood swords, they would only use talismans.

We waited until dawn. Chuyi finally stood up and woke up Song Yushu. She was sleeping after she had cried a lot.

“Are we going to take action now?” Song Yushu asked.

Chuyi nodded then told us the next steps.

We remembered his plan.

Then, he used the leftover crow blood from last time and marked Song Yushu’s seven orifices.

Crow blood could attract negative things, and the seven orifices were the places where ghosts were most likely to enter the human body.

After smearing the crow's blood on her face, will the resentful soul in the mirror try to possess her body? 

However, Chuyi had his reasons for his actions. I didn’t question him.

He took out a comb and sprinkled Black Gold Powder on it. Then, he handed Song Yushu the comb and asked her to apply some makeup in front of the mirror.

Song Yushu received the comb and used the bronze mirror to apply some makeup.

With dabs of blood on her face, her image in the mirror looked terrifying. However, she was still checking it and doing makeup. This looked like a scene from a horror movie.

My eyes were fixed on the bronze mirror. I knew that if something abnormal happened, it would show in the mirror first.

Soon enough, strange things appeared in the mirror. Song Yushu’s reflection in the mirror started to blur. After, it reached a certain level of blurriness, it became clearer and clearer.

The mirror showed an exquisitely beautiful face. That’s when I knew the resentful soul in the mirror had finally shown up.

However, that stunning face only appeared for a while. It vanished shortly after.

Since it had showed up for just a very short moment, I wondered if I was hallucinating.

As I was thinking, a strange wind blew through the room from the southeast corner to the northwest corner.

Chuyi immediately signaled me. I quickly ran toward the bronze mirror and sprinkled the Black Gold Powder I had kept in my pocket on it. Then, I held the mirror tightly to not let the powder wash or blow away.

The moment I clutched the bronze mirror, Song Yushu began to roar angrily. She forcefully grabbed my arms. With a strong pull, she hurled me away and reached her hand toward the bronze mirror.

Li Mazi made a quick decision. He wielded the peach wood stick that had Song Yushu’s tears and moved toward her.

Song Yushu seemed to be very afraid of the tears. She immediately retracted her hands and backed away several steps.

However, she didn’t want to let go of me, either. She swiftly stormed toward me.

I knew Song Yushu had been possessed by the evil thing in the mirror. I got up and was prepared to run.

Chuyi swiftly stood in front of me. He coldly shouted at Song Yushu, who was approaching us. “Stop!”

Chuyi’s shout seemed to carry endless, subduing power. His voice made Song Yushu tremble unceasingly. Eventually, she had to lean against the wall to steady her body.

“Evil creature,” Chuyi said with an icy-cold face. “It’s been thousands of years and time couldn’t wash away the resentment in your heart. If you don’t let go today, don’t blame me for being merciless.”

“Haha.” Song Yushu laughed coldly. “Men, none of you are nice! You must die! All of you must die!”

Then, she didn’t hesitate and charged forward.

Chuyi looked at Li Mazi. Li Mazi immediately used the willow twig that was dipped in Song Yushu’s tears. He used it to lash at the woman continuously.

Song Yushu was afraid of the willow twig. Li Mazi forced her backward until she reached the remote corner.

“Why? Why?!” Song Yushu suddenly screamed and whined. “Why do you all want to bully me?! I died but I still can’t find peace!”

Song Yushu charged forward one more time.

Li Mazi hurried to wave his willow twig in an effort to resist!

However, this time, Song Yushu didn’t avoid him. The moment the willow twig hit her body, a strange wind exuded from her. It directly attacked me.

I was startled and turned around, preparing to run away.

But it was too late. The strange wind blew onto me and made me tremble. I was sent to the ground. The bronze mirror in my hands had become as heavy as a one-thousand-kilogram stone. It was getting heavier and heavier as it was pressing and suffocating me.

Chuyi cried, “The Black Gold Powder!”

Li Mazi received the order. He took the plastic bag of the Black Gold Power I had bought and smeared all the contents onto the bronze mirror.

The bronze mirror became lighter on me, so I put it down.

The bronze mirror wiggled and jolted like a big koi. It sent the Black Gold Powder in the air. Chuyi immediately used his hands to press the mirror down. However, it was struggling so hard he couldn’t keep it still.

Eventually, he said coldly, “I gave you a way to live but you didn’t treasure it. Don’t blame me for being cruel then!”

Li Mazi used the willow twig and whipped the bronze mirror. However, it jumped higher and bounced harder. Through the Black Gold Powder layer, I vaguely saw a woman with peerless beauty. She was screaming and struggling like crazy. However, she made no sound.

The willow twig was no use now. In the end, Chuyi directly splashed the entire bowl of tears onto the mirror.

The bronze mirror went frantic in the blink of an eye. It vibrated as if it now had a motor. It clanged noisily on the ground. The beautiful woman in the mirror turned old and ugly at the very same moment. Her face had a lot of wrinkles. Her skin loosened and sagged. Eventually, she had become like a dried corpse that couldn’t wiggle much.

Chuyi used the Black Gold Powder to cover the mirror entirely, the mirror finally stopped vibrating. Everything returned to normality.

I exhaled. My body went soft, and I crouched to the side. “Is it over?”

Chuyi shook his head. “No, I’ve just temporarily sealed it. I will need to bring the mirror to Dabei Temple and see if Zen Master Baimei can give peace to this resentful soul.”

I was disappointed. I couldn’t believe that even Chuyi couldn’t deal with the soul in the mirror.

I was curious and asked Chuyi, “Who’s the resentful soul in the mirror? How can her grudge be so strong?”

Chuyi answered, “She’s Yang Guifei.”

“Yang Guifei?!” I was astonished and dropped my jaw in shock. I looked at him disbelieving.

Li Mazi also stuttered and said, “You mean that the one sealed in the copper mirror, the thousand-year-old resentful soul, is Yang Yuhuan? One of the Four Beauties of Ancient China?”

Chuyi nodded and said, “That’s right.”

Li Mazi and I were shocked. We couldn’t get a hold of ourselves after quite a long time.

I recalled the woman in the mirror, who was a little curvy with an exquisitely gorgeous face. I felt that only Yang Guifei could have such beauty!

The woman who was said to be so beautiful that even birds and fishes were captivated by her, that even the moon and the flowers were jealous of her… She was the most beautiful woman of the Tang dynasty, and we had just seen her.

“Yang Guifei was born on June 22nd, which is the same birth date as the Song sisters. That’s why it’s easy to turn them into a Parasitic Ghost King in order to replace Yang Guifei’s soul. That’s also why the two were plotted against, I suppose,” Chuyi said silently. He glanced at Song Yushu. “People who were born on that time and date are weak. They should have something to believe in. Otherwise, people will lay their evil eyes on them.”

“Why did you use those strange things to deal with Yang Guifei?” I asked Chuyi. “If Yang Guifei was Emperor Xuanzong’s most beloved consort, how did she end up being sealed in this bronze mirror?”

Chuyi sighed. “Ancient people used to say that beautiful women often had poor fates. For a woman in the palace harem, in order to survive, she must use her beauty to obtain the emperor’s love. She must try her best to get close to him. Eventually, she was accused of a crime against the country. She was killed in Mawei.”

Yang Yuhuan was born during the most glorious time of the Tang dynasty.

She was gifted with singing and dancing talents. She was much more talented than most people.

Later on, Li Mao – the Prince of Shou married her. They were a loving couple.

However, her beauty was enough to shake the country. One day, she had mesmerized Li Mao’s father, the incumbent Emperor Xuanzong, with her beauty. At first glance, Emperor Xuanzong was stunned! He thought she was a deity and he had yearned for her crazily.

Eventually, he ignored what people called incest and took his son’s wife. He made her his Guifei.

Emperor Xuanzong had treated Yang Yuhuan very well. For example, when she wanted to take a bath, the emperor renovated Huaqing hot spring into her exclusive private pool.

Yang Yuhuan liked lychees and Emperor Xuanzong didn’t hesitate to send his subordinating royal horse service to run eight hundred miles to deliver lychees from Lingnan, only to please Yang Yuhuan. Later, this event became known as the story of exhausting horses to death in exchange for the concubine’s smile.

However, the feast soon ended. Emperor Xuanzong spent every night with Yang Guifei and ignored his imperial court. Eventually, it led to the Anshi Rebellion. The rebellious force killed all the way to Chang’an.

To avoid the war, Emperor Xuanzong brought his cortege to Mawei. As they had never liked Yang Guifei, the generals forced Emperor Xuanzong to leave his throne that night and accused Yang Guifei of harming the country. They forced the emperor to kill her or else, they wouldn’t help him get back his nation.

In desperation, Emperor Xuanzong had to bestow death upon his most beloved concubine.

This sorrowful love story was later written into the great poem, Song of Everlasting Sorrow, by Bai Juyi. The two most famous verses include, “The boundless sky and endless earth may pass away, but this vow unfulfilled will be regretted for aye!”

Yang Guifei had a tragic death in the end. At first, she was fed with gold powder. This was aimed to destroy her grease-like skin. Then, the emperor gave her a strap of white silk to commit suicide.

After Yang Guifei ate the gold powder, her skin turned really bad. A woman who relied on her beauty to survive had her skin destroyed. How could she be willing? She checked herself in the mirror every day.

However, in the mirror, she was still ugly. She thought the bronze mirror was blunt and that it couldn’t reflect her beauty. She asked her servant to polish it with crow blood.

The bronze mirror became clearer but her face became uglier day after day.

She had to use her best cosmetics to cover her damaged face. Powder and lipstick could cover her face but they couldn’t patch her mental wound. Yang Guifei’s tears streamed down her face every day. This also washed away her makeup, which showed her damaged skin. Eventually, Emperor Xuanzong didn’t love her anymore. She commited suicide in Mawei.

Yang Guifei died but her soul couldn’t rest, as it was bound to this bronze mirror.

That was why Yang Guifei was afraid of the Black Gold powder and tears from a woman. These two things had destroyed her beauty. Although she was now just a stuck soul, she still kept the habits she had when she was alive.

Since she had used crow blood to wipe the mirror, it explained why it could attract the crows!

I sighed and felt pensive.

Is it true that beauty always brings disaster? I wasn’t so sure about it. Yet, a woman who gets what she wants and obtains her position thanks to her beauty is like a candle flame flickering in the wind. No matter how high she has climbed, she could fall at any minute.

Yang Guifei was happy because she was born with a beauty that could bring down a country.

However, Yang Guifei’s life was also a tragedy because she was born with such beauty!