Otherworldly Merchant

I was immediately stunned. The driver had his eyes closed; his face was tense, as if he were afraid of something.

Lin Longshan said, “Little Liu, stop the car. Let this brother get off to do his business.”

The driver didn’t pull the car over; he kept driving with his eyes closed.

Lin Longshan had yet to notice the driver’s strange behavior, so I signaled him to look at the driver.

Lin Longshan shrieked in fear the moment he did.

I immediately covered his mouth as this would be the worst moment to make a ruckus.

I was certain that the driver was possessed, and he would become hostile if the spirit inside him was alerted. If we smashed against a tree at the speed we were going, we would either die or end up disabled.

This remote, desolate area didn’t have any dwellers. Getting hurt here wouldn’t be any different from signing a death sentence.

Lin Longshan looked at me in fear, gesturing me to quickly come up with a solution.

I forced myself to calm down, then I turned around and looked at the car behind us.

The other driver was also driving with his eyes closed.

“Crap, something’s wrong,” Lin Longshan suddenly said, “It seems like… we’re going back…”

“What?” I checked both sides of the road and noticed how both cars had turned around; we were somehow heading back to the lumberyard.

Since we weren’t prepared, we would definitely die if we spent the night at the lumberyard!

Li Mazi pointed at the door, wondering if we should jump off the running car.

I cursed in my heart, Are you crazy?! The car is running at 150 km/h! We’ll die if we jump...

I drew the Sirius Whip, preparing to force the driver to stop. At the same time, I motioned Lin Longshan to be ready to take the wheel.

I wanted to subdue the driver so that Lin Longshan could seize the chance to stop the car.

However, the car slowed down before I could make a move. I was surprised, thinking that the driver was scared.

However, I felt desperate once the lumberyard came into view. I didn’t expect that we were already that close.

It was of no use to stop the car right now. We could only wait for the driver to park inside the lumberyard.

Lin Longshan jumped off the car before it came to a complete stop.

Li Mazi and I also got off, while pulling the driver out of the car.

The driver was now unconscious.

Lin Longshan poured his anger on the driver, kicking him twice. “You bastard, were you trying to kill me?!”

I hurried to stop him, since it wasn’t the driver’s fault.

”Just put this guy inside the trunk and leave. Perhaps we can get out of the forest before the night falls!” Lin Longshan suggested.

“Those evil spirits don’t want us to leave. Whoever tries to drive the car will be possessed.”

Lin Longshan was dumbfounded. “Brother, don’t tell me that we’re going to stay here tonight...”

I could only nod. “There’s no other way.”

“What?” Lin Longshan yelped, dropping his jaw in fright. “You’re joking, right? We have to stay here? Wouldn’t this be like a death sentence?”

“We don’t have a choice,” I answered, “We have to spend the night here. Don’t worry. Although we can’t expel those evil spirits, it’s not difficult to protect ourselves.”

Lin Longshan nodded after hesitating for a while. “All right, let’s give it a try.”

Then, he glanced at the two unconscious drivers. “What should we do with them?”

I propped them up and pressed their philtrums. It worked, and they soon regained consciousness. They looked at me in puzzlement. “What… What just happened? When did I fall asleep?”

Lin Longshan reprimanded them for being useless, but the drivers were still clueless. They even urged us to get into the cars and drive back. Too bad that it was too late!

It seemed their minds had gone blank even before they had gotten in the cars. In other words, they had been controlled right from the start.

Lin Longshan cursed, “Get in the car your sister! We have to stay in the lumberyard tonight. Damn, both of you caused all this.”

Then, he quickly brought us to the sheds. He wanted to use the wood beams to seal all windows and doors.

Li Mazi sneered. “Closing doors and windows will also eliminate our escape route.”

He was right. After all, there was no way a window could stop an evil spirit. Instead, we were the ones who would need to use it if we encountered something dangerous in the room.

Lin Longshan asked for my opinion. I gave him a nod, indicating that he should follow Li Mazi’s indications.

Since the two drivers had been possessed once, their Yang energy had gotten low while their Yin energy had increased. I wanted to cook some ginger soup for them so that they could expel the Yin energy.

However, we looked around and saw that there was no ginger left. I felt puzzled. How could they not store ginger in a place like this? During the bitter cold winter, drinking ginger tea was good for the body. And, I knew that ginger was an essential spice for Northeastern people who worked away from home.

Lin Longshan was also puzzled. He often brought them free ginger. Two days prior, he had just delivered another batch of ginger. While wondering about the fact, he ran to the kitchen to check and found the leather bucket they used to keep ginger empty.

Lin Longshan yelled and cursed, “Those bastards even took away all the ginger!”

I didn’t think that the lumber workers had taken the ginger away. As they were in a rush, they probably even forgot to take essential products, let alone the ginger.

Something popped up in my head. “Lin Longshan, do you have lime here?”

“No, we don’t.”

However, I looked around the room and found something that could replace lime, flour and salt.

I poured flour and salt into the wok and stirred them up; then I placed a handful into the leather bucket.

Soon after, black handprints had appeared on the bucket.

Lin Longshan screamed in fear, almost landing on his butt.

“It seems it was not a living person to steal the ginger,” I said, “It could be Zou San’er, the stone statue, or even the resentful souls of the bandits.”

“That stone statue can move?” Lin Longshan looked at me in disbelief.

“Of course,” I said, “That stone statue became an otherworldly item. If it has ascended and turned into a spirit, it can do anything humans can.”

Li Longshan was scared and hurried to throw the leather bucket outside.

Then, he burned three joss sticks, setting them on the altar where they worshiped Grandma Huangsan.

“No need to pray. It’s useless.” I took out a cigarette and threw it to Li Mazi, then I lit another one for myself and puffed deeply.

Grandma Huangsan should always appear with a smile. However, although the statue in front of us also held a smile, hers was sinister. I was sure that someone had tampered with the statue!

Lin Longshan looked at me, puzzled by my answer. “Why is it useless? We always worship Grandma Huangsan.”

“You should check and see if there’s something on Grandma Huangsan’s back.”

Lin Longshan turned the statue around to check, and he told me in fear, “There seems to be a red fingerprint!”

“That’s mouse blood. Someone is using mouse blood to bribe Grandma Huangsan. That’s why she hasn’t helped you lately,” I told him.

“What?” Lin Longshan’s fear rose to a new level. “Grandma Huangsan can be bribed? I’ve worshiped her for more than ten years. Shouldn’t she protect me?”

I replied coldly, “Animals will always act instinctively. They don’t have human emotions. Even if you’ve kept one for a hundred years, it will betray you once someone else feeds it. Let’s go, we should return to the shed!”

Lin Longshan took a glance at Grandma Huangsan’s statue while gritting his teeth in rage. In the end, he also decided to throw the statue outside. “Damn, how bold of you! I won’t worship you anymore!”

Lin Longshan then asked me, “What should I worship?”

“As long as you don’t do anything that makes your conscience feel restless or guilty, the virtue you’ve accumulated would protect you, even if you don’t worship a thing.”

Lin Longshan smiled bashfully, not making any other comments.

The sky outside was already dark when we got back to the room. It was around just 4 PM, but it was getting dark really fast at Xingan Ridge.

Lin Longshan was scared; he kept nervously looking through the window.

I turned to talk to the two drivers. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to suffer a bit. I need to tie you down, but it’s for everyone’s sake.”

The two drivers agreed. I guessed they saw my skills and they trusted me.

I tied them to the bedposts and asked Lin Longshan to close doors and windows, while we all sat on the beds.

I decided to go to the kitchen and cook something once I saw that Lin Longshan was still panic-stricken. The sorghum wine available could boost his courage.

The more people were afraid of ghosts, the stronger the ghosts would become. If people weren’t afraid of them, the ghosts would be afraid instead! This was a well-known principle since ancient times!

The world outside was submerged in darkness after we finished having dinner and drinking the sorghum wine. We switched all of the lights on.

I didn’t plan to deal with the spirits that night, since we didn’t have anything prepared. We just needed to defend ourselves and take a chance to probe the spirits’ intentions.

Our bodies felt warmer and more comfortable after drinking two glasses of wine. The previous worries had vanished from our minds.

I was neither worried nor restless as it was a case that Chuyi had arranged for us; it meant he thought the two of us could handle things well.

Li Mazi also changed after drinking the wine. Even if a tiger were lurking out there, he would jump out to beat it up.

The sorghum wine was of good quality, that was probably why we felt the way we did.

Shortly after, strong gusts of wind started to blow over from the forest. This wind didn’t sound like the typical wind one would hear.

The wind sounded more like a woman crying and weeping as it meandered through the tree branches.

My fear started to grow after listening to the wind.

The wind grew louder and harsher, eventually making all the windows rattle noisily. Then, rain started to fall. The bean-sized raindrops began to hit the roof, sounding as if someone was knocking at the door. I instantly had goosebumps, but not because of fear. It was my trypophobia flaring up.

The rain made rattling noises with the wind. Lin Longshan told me that this stormy weather would last for a while.

“It’s good that it’ll take a while for the rain to stop. Rainwater has heavy Yang energy. Ordinary ghosts or evil spirits would avoid going out!”