Otherworldly Merchant

Lin Longshan shook his head. “How could I possibly know?”

“When the corpse turns black and doesn’t decay, there are two possibilities. The first reason is that it was poisoned by corpse toxin, which would turn it into a zombie shortly after. The second one is that the victim had eaten a lot of mercury or heavy metals, which poisoned him to death. Mercury can preserve the body, preventing it from decomposing. However, it will turn the corpse black…”

Lin Longshan said nothing. He looked at the corpse with a guilty conscience.

I could guess the reason for Zou San'er’s death. He likely disobeyed his team leader or offended someone here. He was thus tormented to death.

In short, he was murdered.

Unfortunately, I was just an otherworldly merchant, not a policeman. This was the sort of thing I couldn’t afford to manage. If we pushed Lin Longshan on the matter, the two of us wouldn’t be able to get out of here alive.

People said that there are two kinds of people you should never provoke, ship owners and forestry station owners. Since the forest and the sea were remote and isolated places, if these guys wanted to kill you, it would be as easy as killing a fish or chopping down a tree.

“Dig this nearby area,” I said.

Lin Longshan brought over his driver and made him dig the place.

Shortly after, I saw something strange.

It was a white bone as big as an infant’s hand. It was somewhat round with several small holes.

I observed it and guessed it was an animal’s skull.

I asked Lin Longshan to take a look. Since he grew up in the Northeastern, he must know about the animals here.

After checking, Lin Longshan recognized it and said, “It’s a rooster skull.”

A rooster skull?

I was dumbstruck for a while. Shortly after, I came up with a possibility that made me shiver in fear.

I asked him to dig deeper.

The driver kept digging, and soon after, he had unearthed several other rooster skulls.

“If I’m not mistaken, we will find some human remains if we dig deeper,” I said.

The driver wasn’t totally convinced, but he still thrust his iron shovel into the soil and dug deeper. Sure enough, he found something that made him gawk in shock soon after.

There were really human skeletons down there and they were all missing their heads.

Around the skeletons were also scattered some copper coins.

I grabbed his shovel and dug the soil on both sides. More and more coins appeared in front of me.

I took a deep breath and threw the shovel aside, stomping on the skeletons three times. Then, I jumped out of the pit and asked, “Did anyone bring some red thread?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“In that case, let’s go! We don’t have the necessary equipment, and something very bad will happen in this lumberyard tonight.”

When Lin Longshan saw the skeletons, he was already frightened. After hearing my words, he immediately got in the car.

Li Mazi kept looking at me. I growled and said, “Why are you standing there? Quickly, move!”

While getting inside the car, Li Mazi asked me, “Is that the rumored Ghost Linking Thread?”

I nodded. “Yeah, we must get out of here before it gets dark. Otherwise, I’m afraid we will die here!”

Li Mazi was scared and quickly followed me to the car, occasionally checking the rear mirror.

“Did you find something?” Lin Longshan asked.

I said impatiently, “Why did you choose this place to bury the corpse? Why not somewhere else?”

Was it purely a coincidence? No, I don’t buy it. This forest is huge, no way they just happened to choose that place!

“We thought of this place because it is always under the sunlight. That’s why we chose it.”

I frowned. “When we choose a location for a tomb, we often choose where the sunlight can’t reach it. Why did you choose this place?”

Lin Longshan sighed. “Brother, let me tell you honestly. Zou San'er was a person with learning disability that I personally brought here. He worked in my lumberyard for many years, and he’d earned enough money to raise a family. I had even wanted to find him a good wife, but right at that moment, he was murdered by another worker. I think you understand what I had to do in such a case, right? I had done what a boss had to do. I could only bury Zou San'er.”

“I knew that Zou San'er had died unjustly and that his soul couldn’t rest in peace. As such, I chose a place under direct sunlight in hopes that the sunlight could suppress his grudge…”

Lin Longshan was acting as if everything he’d done was right and just.

Although I was furious, I didn’t show it. I even pulled Li Mazi aside and signaled at him not to talk. If Lin Longshan discovered that we wanted to report this matter to the police, the two of us would be in grave danger.

I tried not to continue the topic and analyzed the situation. “That stone structure was actually a decapitation platform. This decapitation platform was used to subdue the evil souls underneath it. Since you’ve unearthed the platform, the evil souls underneath are now free to wreak havoc!”

“A decapitation platform?” Lin Longshan gulped. “To whom did the skeletons under the platform belong? And, why did we also find chicken heads here?”

I patiently explained them the whole story.

The skeletons belonged to the bandits that had claimed this area.

However, not just anybody could become a bandit. To join the bandit band, there was a challenge they needed to overcome.

They would cut a rooster head and put it on the decapitation platform. Then, they would check it the next morning. If the chicken head fell off the platform, it meant their ancestors didn’t want to recruit that person because he could ‘betray’ them one day. If that happened, that person would later be beheaded.

But if the chicken head stayed on the platform, it meant the ancestors accepted him. It also meant their ancestors would protect his life once in the future.

Everybody knew that when the bandits were captured, they would be decapitated. That was why they chose the decapitation platform as their guardian.

The skeletons underneath the platform were from the poor bandits that didn’t pass the guardian’s ‘test.’ They died unjustly and were later tortured by the sunlight and suppressed by the platform. It would be strange if there was no resentful energy here.

Furthermore, this place had likely been unearthed once in the past!

When that happened, the resentful souls must have threatened the people living here. To stop them, an expert had used an old method in the Northeast called the ‘Ghost Linking Thread.’ They would chain coins to a red treat then tie the skeletons to the decapitation platform to seal the resentful souls.

Since it happened a long time ago, the red thread was gone and only the coins were left behind. If no one had provoked them, these souls would still be sleeping. However, as their skeletons were exposed, something horrible would happen tonight.

It was also the reason why I urged them to leave the lumberyard as fast as possible.

After I finished talking, Lin Longshan paled in fear. He took a deep breath. “Did Master Chuyi want to harm me? He chose a bandit lair for me to build my lumberyard on!”

Certainly, Chuyi didn’t do that to harm Lin Longshan. He had his reason, which neither of us knew.

I called Chuyi and asked him for the details. However, my call didn’t get through.

This wasn’t strange as Chuyi specialized in disappearing. It was already lucky that we could contact him once out of ten calls.

“How are you going to deal with those resentful bandit souls?” Lin Longshan asked.

“We can only use the Ghost Linking Thread. Let’s see if we can subdue them. Otherwise, we will need some other solution.”

Lin Longshan nodded.

“Little Brother Zhang, I need to pee…” Li Mazi suddenly said to me.

I was puzzled. Normally, when Li Mazi said this to me, he implied something.

I shot him a glance and saw that Li Mazi was nervously watching the driver. I followed his eyes and watched the driver as well...