Otherworldly Merchant

Old Hong’s screeching was ear-splitting. Eventually, he calmed down and coughed until he vomited blood.

I knew this would happen again so I shouted, “All of you, close your eyes! Don’t look at those shadows and keep chewing soybeans!”

Then, I stuffed a handful of soybeans in my mouth. The others immediately followed suit.

When everyone lowered the shotguns and filled their mouths with soybeans, I saw a shadow over my head. It moved through the branches of the big trees, then it jumped down and mingled with the crowd before I could get a better view.

“All of you, be careful!” I said, “You, and you. Yeah, the five of you, come here.”

The suspicious shadow had landed close to that group of five; I wanted to make sure it hadn’t possessed one of them.

The group of five wasn’t cooperative. I was worried about any looming dangers, so I didn’t think twice and fired a shot at the muddy soil near their feet. They were clearly shaken as they finally walked toward me.

“Drop your guns,” I ordered.

They did as they were told, discarding their guns and shakily raising their hands.

“Good, now get on with chewing and eating soybeans. Right now! Chew!” I shouted at them.

They immediately obeyed.

However, nothing strange happened.

In other words, that shadow didn’t possess any of them.

I allowed them to move back to their original positions. My eyes scanned the crowd back and forth, trying to see if anyone was acting strange.

However, it was difficult to tell with the naked eye, so I ordered them to continue chewing the soybeans.

Right then, I suddenly heard someone screaming behind me, “It’s m-moving…!”

I was perplexed. “What is moving?”

“The decapitation platform’s moving!” The workers were quite flustered. “The statue just took a step forward.”

I grabbed my shotgun and went over to check. Sure enough, I saw a deep ditch on the ground, which had been created by the movement of the platform.

“Run! The platform has come back to life! The platform has come back to life!” A bearded lumber worker shouted in fright, “If we don’t run, we will all die!”

“Tie Han! What the hell are you talking about!” Lin Longshan cursed and commanded, “Stay where you are!”

Tie Han seemed delirious. “No, you’re the one who is talking nonsense! Brothers, he wants to sacrifice us to worship the decapitation platform! Run for your lives!”

“I will shoot down whoever dares to run away!” Li Mazi fired a shot to the sky.

However, the gunshot was unable to subdue the crowd; the lumberjacks left their positions to scramble around in fear. The scene was a complete chaos.

I was so infuriated that my face was turning purple. That Tie Han was definitely doing it on purpose!

I thought about storming forward to pin him down when I suddenly felt a cold wind behind my back. I turned around to check, and the decapitation platform had moved again. This time, it was coming after me!

I couldn’t avoid it in time and was pressed under the platform. Two of my ribs were probably broken; it was very painful, and I couldn’t breathe. I felt I was going to pass out soon.

However, I had to hold on. Everyone there would die once I lost consciousness!

Another person among the frenzied crowd fell to the ground. It was a ghastly view; his head flew up in the sky and blood splashed everywhere.

At the same time, someone shrieked, “Another one died! Another one died!”

I checked on Tie Han and saw that he was preparing to run away amidst the confusion.

I gathered the last bit of my strength and said to Li Mazi, “Capture Tie Han and tie him to this statue!”

“Got it,” Li Mazi replied and chased after Tie Han; they started to brawl.

Lin Longshan was standing on one side with a blank look on his face.

A knife was in his hand, and he didn’t have a shadow under his feet.

Crap, that shadow possessed Lin Longshan! I didn’t dare to attract his attention. I knew he would turn around and kill me if I did.

I struggled painfully underneath the platform, trying to break free. However, Lin Longshan had already turned my way. There were dark circles under his eyes, and blood was running down from his forehead, dyeing half of his face red. He held a cigarette in his mouth as he walked towards me while wearing a cold grin.

“Stop!” I angrily yelled, “Lin Longshan, wake up! Or else, your wife and children are going to die!”

However, I couldn’t make him snap out of it. It seemed as if he didn’t hear my voice as he squatted in front of me.

I seized the chance and reached out to take the knife in his hand.

Lin Longshan didn’t avoid my touch; his hand felt as rigid and cold as stone.

With his other hand, he took the cigarette in his mouth and put it into my mouth, motioning me to take a puff.

Puff you sister!

“Well well, no one had ever dared to reject Black Vulture’s cigarette.” He sneered coldly.

Black Vulture!

My body went stiff.

How could it be him? Is this Black Vulture, the legendary bandit from ‘Tracks in the Snowy Forest’? Was his soul still roaming in this world? 

“You’ve died already,” Instead of being afraid, I roared, “You’re dead! Yang Zirong killed you!”

“That damn Yang Zirong was an army spy! I’ll kill you today, and no one will be able to stop me. I’m Black Vulture!”

He then stood up and raised the knife in his hand to chop my head off.

I shouted and called Li Mazi for help.

While I was screaming, Li Mazi had grabbed Tie Han and pinned him down on the decapitation platform. At the same time, Lin Longshan hacked with his knife, accidentally cutting off Tie Han’s head. Blood splashed over my face like rain.

Before I closed my eyes, I caught a glimpse of Lin Longshan gawking as if he couldn’t believe what had happened. Then, he crouched and slumped like jelly on the ground.

I knew I’d won. I took a deep breath, but my chest hurt so much that I eventually blacked out.

When I woke up, I saw Li Mazi calling someone to lift the stone statue off my chest. I was dejected that I didn't pass out for longer. Now, I would have to endure more pain.

Anyway, even seven or eight strong lumberjacks were unable to lift the stone statue.

I gasped as I talked, “First untie the thread used to restrain the souls on the decapitation platform!”

That soul-subduing thread was the red string with some coins attached to it.

They hurried to untie the soul-subduing thread and noticed how easy it was to lift the platform once it had been removed.

My chest felt lighter as soon as the statue was moved away. I vomited a mouthful of blood and Li Mazi squatted down as he prepared to take me to the hospital.

I waved my hand and asked him to put me down. There was something I needed to solve first.

”What are you going to do?” Li Mazi asked.

I asked the workers to unearth all the skeletons near the platform; close to thirty were found. I also asked them to pick up the coins scattered around and to string them together with the red thread. We had to use the thread to tie all the skeletons together.

The workers eventually tied up the thirty or so skeletons together with the string, before burying them as I told them to.

I heaved a sigh of relief and asked Li Mazi to take me to the hospital after everything was settled.

The pain was so bad that I fainted again on the way back. By the time I woke up, I was already in the hospital. Moreover, although my wounds had all been treated, the pain in my chest remained.

“One of your ribs is broken. You’ll have to be very careful when you do it with Yin Xinyue later on,” Li Mazi teased me.

“Get lost!” I shooed him with a wry smile.

Lin Longshan came to visit me not long after. He brought a lot of supplements. “I’m so sorry. They told me that I almost cut your head off.”

Li Mazi couldn’t hold his tongue, “Well, if you say you’re sorry, you have to show that you’re sorry!”

Lin Longshan was bewildered, but he was quick on the uptake. He took out a check, and began to write the figures. I didn’t see how many zeros there were, but Li Mazi looked really pleased.

Later I saw it was for one million renminbi.

I then asked Lin Longshan, “What was the deal with Tie Han? Why did he do that?” Lin Longshan sighed and told me Tie Han’s story.

When Lin Longshan had wanted to open that lumberyard, a very old hunter was dead set against it. The old hunter had grown up in Mount Daxing’an, and his house was near the decapitation platform.

However, he alone couldn’t stand up against Lin Longshan and his men. He was expelled soon after. That old hunter was Tie Han’s father.

Later on, the old hunter returned with a completely different attitude. He was very respectful to Lin Longshan; his only request was for his son to be hired.

Lin Longshan accepted. The old man went back to his home in peace after Tie Han was recruited.

As I listened to Lin Longshan, I made the connection and felt cold sweat running down my back; the old hunter had to be one of Black Vulture’s bandits.

He wasn’t a normal bandit, either. He probably was the ‘Mountain Eagle.’

The Mountain Eagle was the existence closest to Black Vulture.

Back then, the bandits that had claimed the snowy forest and lived there all the time, and the forest was home to countless evil creatures, ghosts, and monsters. Which bandit hadn’t killed people? It would be strange if they did not bump into ghosts and resentful spirits as they went through the forest and mountains. The Mountain Eagle was the person in charge of dealing with paranormal activities.

Seen from a different perspective, the Mountain Eagle’s status was almost on par with Black Vulture.

The Mountain Eagle had the best survival skills, and there was an unspoken belief: the bandit lair would never be destroyed as long as the Mountain Eagle watched over the decapitation platform, since he would keep on finding new recruits.

Tie Han had to be the descendant of the last Mountain Eagle. Now that the last Mountain Eagle was dead and the decapitation platform was sealed, the legendary Black Vulture should be also gone for good, right?

I asked Lin Longshan to take care of Tie Han’s funeral. No matter what, that was the Mountain Eagle’s area, and we were the ‘invaders’ in a sense.

Thanks to the strong faith they had held in their hearts, two generations of Mountain Eagles did not hesitate to suffer in silence. They had been subtle, even attempting to recruit Lin Longshan’s workers to become bandits.

Faith was mankind’s most precious treasure.

People were willing to do anything to protect their beliefs, even if they had to sacrifice their lives!

Thanks to faith, any life could become extraordinary.

No matter if you were an official or a bandit; you’re worth being respected if you have such a strong faith.