Otherworldly Merchant

The flashlight shone to the toilet from the yard, which elongated Zhi Qiang’s shadow.

It turned out that there was another shadow in front of his, and that shadow was headless. It was wielding a massive machete, ready to hack down at any second!

Zhi Qiang was all alone in the toilet. So, whose shadow was that?

While people were scared, an old worker finally reacted. “Start praying to Grandma Huangsan!”

Several men rushed back to the shed. However, before they could get in, they all heard a screech. The shadow had slashed Zhi Qiang. They saw the head of Zhi Qiang’s shadow fall off his neck and roll on the ground. Blood spurted and streamed down…

Everybody was petrified in shock. Several workers slumped on the ground in fright. They then hid in the sheds and worshipped Grandma Huangsan for the whole night.

For the whole night, they heard the sound of someone walking around the vast lumberyard. This person wanted to enter their sheds but seemed afraid to do so. The shadow reflected on their windows scared them out of their wits.

They stayed like that until the break of dawn. They then went to the toilet to check. Zhi Qiang was beheaded, and his blood had dyed the entire toilet in red. The smell of the toilet plus the stench of blood made people vomit.

Lin Longshan was notified. When he arrived and saw the scene, he was also shocked. The lumber workers didn’t dare to stay there anymore. As Lin Longshan was afraid that more people would be killed, he hastily buried the corpse and brought his other workers away with him, leaving the lumberyard.

At the same time, he invited some shamans to deal with this problem. However, as soon as the shamans heard about the deaths, they didn’t dare to come. In desperation, Lin Longshan had to invite Chuyi.

In the past, Chuyi had checked the geomancy of this land and advised him to set up the lumberyard here. That was how Lin Longshan knew him.

After Lin Longshan said that, I felt something was wrong. Deep in the forest dwelled so many spirits, animals, and even ghosts. However, it was rare for them to take people’s lives without a warning or indication.

Except for monsters, only evil ghosts would do that!

I was puzzled. Lin Longshan had said that the second man died after seeing the first victim. In other words, there was a chance that the second victim was killed by Zou San'er, the first victim.

Additionally, the third man was beheaded by an executioner. This meant the second and third victim didn’t die due to the same person. Was there more more than one evil spirit?

I told Lin Longshan my doubts. He shook his head like a rattle drum. “I’m also at a loss. But I suspect that Zou San'er was the executioner. Perhaps his soul couldn’t rest in peace and—”

When he came to this part of the story, he suddenly shut his mouth. It was as if he had just slipped his tongue.

I was surprised and looked at Lin Longshan. “Tell me, why do you think so? Why would he come back to kill people?”

Lin Longshan said, “No particular reason. People who died in the woods would have a lot of resentment building inside them. Also, Zou San'er was a hot-tempered man. I think it was likely for him to become an evil ghost after he died.”

Li Mazi sneered and said, “Boss Lin, are you sure you contacted Zou San'er’s family to compensate them?”

Lin Longshan’s face darkened. “What do you mean?”

Smelling the hostile atmosphere between them, I interrupted their conversation. “Hey, don’t quarrel. Since it’s still early in the morning, we should seize the opportunity and go there and check.”

Lin Longshan nodded then took us to the car to go to the lumberyard.

On the way there, he told us that it would take two hours to reach the destination. In other words, we would only have one hour before night fell. After one hour, we would have to leave the forest.

“If it’s not a problem, we should sleep at the lumberyard tonight!” I suggested.

After hearing my suggestion, cold sweat fell from Lin Longshan’s forehead. “Brother, we can’t. I don’t know much about your profession. If I stay, I won’t be able to help you and it’ll be more dangerous. If not, we should use two different cars…”

I hesitated then agreed with him. It wouldn’t be helpful for us if Lin Longshan stayed, anyway.

We soon entered the forest. As soon as we got in, exuberantly thick branches and leaves hindered the sunlight. It felt like it had suddenly turned dark. The drivers had to turn on the light.

This place had a wide road, which was used to transport the wood. Although the road was wide enough, the tree branches still created a roof over it. Some sunbeams managed to pierce through the leafy coverage, shining on the ground like golden scales.

I quite enjoyed this scene. Nature had done quite a good job, turning this whole road into a green corridor.

After two hours, we had traveled more than fifty kilometers. “Lin Longshan, are we entering the inner area of Xingan Ridge’s territory?”

Lin Longshan smiled and explained, “We’re still on the periphery. No one has ever entered the real inner area. I’m afraid that even if someone went there, they never returned…”

I was astonished. We had traveled for more than fifty kilometers and this was still the periphery. How vast is this forest? It’s huge!

As I lived in a city, it was really rare to see such a big forest. I decided to enjoy the scenery. This place was more interesting and beautiful than any level 5A scenic area. [1] If I had the chance, I would bring Yin Xinyue here to go on an adventure.

Soon after, we entered the lumberyard. This lumberyard was really big. It was even bigger than two football fields. A huge pile of woods sat in a corner, while broken branches, twigs, and leaves were everywhere. Some plain wooden lodges were situated in the East. I guessed they were the workers’ sheds.

Li Mazi asked, “Boss Lin, do you have permission to cut the timbers here?”

“Of course I do. The Department of Forestry is very strict these days. Without permission, you will be jailed for several years. Also, you will be fined until you sell all of your assets,” Lin Longshan answered.

I was a little sad that they were allowed to exploit the woods in this beautiful place. This place was the property of humanity. They shouldn’t grant anybody permission to take down the trees.

I first asked Lin Longshan to take me to see the stone statue they had unearthed.

I suspected that the stone statue was an otherworldly item and had killed three people!

Lin Longshan drove us to the back of the sheds.

Around three or four kilometers away from the sheds, we found the stone statue.

That stone statue didn’t look like someone had carved it. There was no trace of carving work and it looked as if nature had created it that way. Although they said it looked like a kneeling person, it was really abstract. Without a close look, we couldn’t tell that it was a kneeling person.

The stone statue was covered in a thin layer of some black substance. I scratched it and the substance was easily scraped away.

“When we unearthed this stone statue, we saw this shell-like thing. I feel like it’s some dried bird poop,” guessed Lin Longshan.

I told him, “This is not bird poop. This is blood!”

“Blood?” Lin Longshan’s face paled in fright.

“Yes, it’s dried blood. I guess this layer of blood is around seventy or eighty years old, but it doesn’t feel like human blood.”

“Oh.” Lin Longshan exhaled in relief. “It’s good that it’s not human blood.”

“Dig it up,” I said. “I want to see if Zou San'er’s body is still there.”

Lin Longshan hesitated. “The corpse should be decomposing by now. It’s not good to dig it up.”

Since Lin Longshan didn’t want me to see the corpse, he had to be hiding something from me. I was enraged but didn’t show it. I just told him to hurry up because we didn’t have much time left.

Lin Longshan was helpless. He started digging. Shortly after, we saw Zou San'er’s body.

I thought the body would be decaying by now, but I was wrong. Instead, it had turned black and was in a kneeling position.

The entire body turned black? Was he poisoned?

I looked at Lin Longshan and said, “What happened? Why has the corpse turned black, and why hasn’t it decomposed?”

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAAAA_Tourist_Attractions_of_China