Otherworldly Merchant

Li Mazi nodded stiffly. His calves were shivering, and I wondered if he could even run later.

Senior Shu wore a serious face as he walked toward the cliff. He took out two nails from a coffin and fiercely stabbed the figure that was clinging onto the back of Li Mazi’s shadow. Right when the nails pierced the ground, I saw the figure wiggle, seemingly in a lot of pain.

Senior Shu didn’t dare to do things halfway. He used his feet to pound on the two nails, then he shouted at Li Mazi, “RUN!”

Li Mazi immediately dashed forward once he heard the signal. I also followed behind him.

We ran all the way to the stairs. I completely ignored how tired I was and simply made my way down.

The first half of the descent was fine. However, in the second half, things started to take a turn for the worse.

At first, I heard rattling sounds coming from the woods on both sides of the road as if someone were talking. But after a careful look, I didn’t see anyone there.

We began to see ‘people’ as we went further down. We saw human shadows swaying, moving back and forth in the woods close to the hanging coffin cliff. However, we couldn’t see their faces clearly.

Some even greeted us. “Are you here to burn some joss sticks?”

We didn’t answer; we simply kept running down.

The voice had followed us from the halfway up the mountain until we were about to leave the hanging coffin cliff.

Later on, the voice disappeared. In the next moment, we saw a woman in white clothes right at the intersection where we would exit the hanging coffin cliff. She was sitting still, her back facing us.

We both stopped tacitly.

Li Mazi wanted to talk, but I immediately stopped him as Senior Shu had told us not to talk to anybody.

I pointed to one side, signaling Li Mazi to simply walk around her!

Li Mazi gave me a slight nod and followed me into the woods. More and more shadows approached us in the woods. Some looked like modern people, but there were ancient people as well. We even saw some holding weapons, gazing at us.

I didn’t care about them, I kept on heading down the mountain.

“Are you here to offer your life?” The white-clothed woman suddenly asked.

I took a deep breath. It seemed that this white-clothed woman wasn’t good news.

We didn’t care about her and kept on dashing away.

However, after walking for a while, we were halted by an incident.

There was a bright place in front of us, with radiant sun beams. We would be under the afterglow if we moved forward.

What to do? I was quite restless and flustered.

We couldn’t move forward. Only God knew what would happen if we bathed in the afterglow of the sunset.

There was only one way left in front of us, which was to brush past the woman in white sitting on the stairs.

Although it was risky, it would be much better than breaching the taboos Senior Shu had told us about!

We gathered all of our courage, walking to the stairs and descending.

The woman in white opened her mouth again. “Are you here to offer your life?”

We didn’t bother to look at her. We brushed past her without look her in the eyes.

However, as soon as we got past her, a pair of icy cold claws grabbed my ankles. I was scared and wanted to turn my head around to check.

In the end, I forced myself to get rid of that thought. I had to avoid looking back at all costs. If I turned my head, the ‘yang flame’ on my shoulders might extinguish, which was even more dangerous.

“Do you know this woman?” The white-clothed woman asked out of the blue.

My heart throbbed. What does she mean?

While I was still hesitant, Li Mazi screamed, “Chu Chu, why are you here?!”

I was startled and quickly checked on him. He was slack jawed, staring at the white-clothed woman behind us.

Is Chu Chu’s here? No, that’s impossible. Li Mazi’s must be under some illusion! 

I grabbed him and tried to break free from the woman’s grip, but Li Mazi seemed to be rooted to the spot. I couldn’t pull him away.

I became anxious and pulled even harder, but to no avail.

I was really flustered and restless as the afterglow became stronger and was about to cover the two of us. I didn’t dare to turn around, either; I wondered if I should run away on my own.

While I was hesitant, Li Mazi suddenly moved forward. I was shocked, seeing him suddenly hopping on the stairs. The white-clothed woman was also nowhere to be seen.

Cold sweat streamed down my face as I knew Li Mazi had been possessed. I ran to grab him, since he was heading toward the afterglow.

However, I couldn’t stop him. In the end, I used the Sirius Whip out of desperation and lashed twice at his back.

Li Mazi screamed in pain, but his voice sounded like a woman’s. I tried to whip him one more time, but he was quick to sprint forward, jumping into the afterglow.

The gold, radiant sunbeams shone on Li Mazi’s body. Then, he turned around to look at me, laughing maniacally.

While I was helpless, Senior Shu’s angry voice came from behind me, “You bold evil creature! Get lost!” I looked back and saw Senior Shu already standing behind me. He was holding a familiar-looking blue talisman. It was one of the medium-level spirit talismans Chuyi had given him.

Senior Shu threw the spirit talisman, which flew and landed on Li Mazi’s body!

Li Mazi immediately shrieked and screeched, rolling on the ground in agony.

Senior Shu screamed at me, “Why are you standing there like an idiot?! Go grab him and bring him back!”

“But the afterglow…”

“It’s all right,” Senior Shu said, “Or else, we won’t be able to save Li Mazi’s life.”

I gritted my teeth and immediately jumped into the afterglow. I lifted Li Mazi and carried him over my shoulder, then I ran toward the Miao village.

Li Mazi had wiggled a bit at first. However, he soon stopped struggling and remained motionless on my back; it seemed he had lost consciousness. I ran all the way back to the Miao village, which left me panting. I put Li Mazi down and turned around to see Senior Shu behind us.

He slapped Li Mazi twice to wake him up. Li Mazi struggled and screamed, “Chu Chu!”

Senior Shu didn’t care about appearances and slapped Li Mazi again. “Not only you failed to do as I told you, but you even messed things up! You twerp, making me waste a medium-level talisman!”

Li Mazi was slapped awake. He looked around in a daze, then he shouted, “Holy crap, I just saw Chu Chu.”

“Shut up! It was just an illusion,” Senior Shu scoffed at him and said, “Quick, follow me!”

Li Mazi still felt restless, but I paid him no more attention and just followed Senior Shu as he walked toward his old friend’s house.

After we got inside and closed the door, I finally heaved a sigh of relief. “Senior Shu, what on earth happened?”