Otherworldly Merchant

While I was deep in thought, someone knocked on the door.

My body stiffened, and I quickly took out the ox tongue from my pocket, rubbing it on my eyelids. Then, I stared at the door.

The lacrimal glands of an ox were partly located on its tongue, and people said that ox tears could open one’s Yin and Yang Eye. As I had rubbed the tongue on my eyelids, I also smeared ox tears over them. This would allow me to see spiritual beings.

The other party knocked on the door several times, but we didn’t go to open. Eventually, they stopped knocking, and the sound of footsteps echoed again, heading in a different direction.

What’s happening? Did they sense my Celestial Spirit Great Formation and got scared? No, that’s impossible. The formation won’t create any energy fluctuation unless it’s activated. So, they shouldn’t have discovered its existence...

“Were you waiting for someone?” I asked the young man.

The man shook his head, “No, no one knows that I’m living here.”

That’s strange then... 

“Aaahh!” While I was deep in thought, the young man screamed. Luckily, he quickly covered his mouth and didn’t create too much of a disturbance.

“What’s wrong with you?” I glared at him.

The young man was fidgety as he looked at the ground. I also lowered my head and saw that footprints were gradually appearing on the lime powder I had sprinkled on the ground. Slowly, they were heading towards the heavy smoker’s bedroom.

I was sure that the heavy smoker and the opium pipe’s evil spirit had returned.

I turned to the young man, signaling him to stay silent and observe the scene.

Perhaps I hadn’t smeared enough ox tears on my eyelids, because I couldn’t see either of them. My eyes stung a little, and that was it.

However, I didn’t have time to care about my eyes as I was focused on the sound of footsteps, which was still echoing from the corridor outside. I concluded that it wasn’t the heavy smoker. After all, both the heavy smoker and the evil spirit were already in the room.

In that case, was someone walking outside? If someone suddenly stormed into the apartment, it would be a big problem. I nervously watched the door, hoping that the other party would not charge in.

The footprints eventually reached the rocking chair, stopping there. Soon after, the chair started to sway, and the lime powder I had sprinkled on it outlined the figure of a man; someone was now sitting in the chair.

I nodded at the young man, signaling him to take action. Then, I once again rubbed the ox tongue on my eyelids.

Very soon, my eyes started to sting so much that I couldn’t even open them.

Eventually, I mustered my strength and looked towards the rocking chair.

There was a dim shadow sitting in the chair, leaning towards the opium pipe and inhaling all the wisps of smoke coming out of it.

Beside this shadow, there was another figure, which I believed to be the opium pipe’s evil spirit. This figure was smaller and dimmer than the shadow sitting in the rocking chair. Moreover, I could see a very long queue [1] on its head…It was the queue hairstyle men wore in the Qing dynasty!

Does this mean that the opium pipe comes from the Qing dynasty? 

This figure didn’t inhale the wisps of smoke rising from the opium pipe but the soul of the heavy smoke. As his soul was inhaled, the heavy smoker became more and more blurry.

No wonder! I finally saw the light.

Sure enough, that opium pipe was a dangerous item. It could absorb other souls, which was no different from cannibalism.

The young man knelt in front of the rocking chair. “Father, your son has been unfilial, and I didn’t show you the respect you deserved while you were alive. I know I was wrong, so I will burn a lot of paper money for you and listen to your words. Please, don’t come back again to scare me.”

The heavy smoker was surprised. He shifted his attention from the opium pipe and looked at his son.

Apparently, he didn’t remember that the young man was his son. He was in a daze for quite a long time, gawking at the young man.

“It’s me, Chen Changsheng. I’m your son,” the young man repeatedly reminded his father’s ghost.

“S… Son?” The heavy smoker repeated the word, clearly puzzled. It seemed he didn’t remember what the word ‘son’ meant.

Chen Changsheng followed my instructions and recalled the memories the two shared. They didn’t share many memories, but they went to the amusement park once, had buffet dinner twice together, and so on.

Under the influence of Chen Changsheng’s words, the heavy smoker eventually returned to his senses. He cried out, “Son, it’s me, your father!”

Good, my plan’s going well! I nodded at Chen Changsheng, asking him to proceed with the next step.

Chen Changsheng kowtowed. “Father, you can be at ease and leave this world in peace. I will burn a lot of paper money for you. Moreover, I’m still young, and I don’t want to smoke. You coming home every day is bringing me harm.”

The heavy smoker was stimulated. “Help me. Son, help me…”

Sure enough, things aren’t that simple... 

However, as soon as the heavy smoker uttered those words, the door to the apartment was pushed open, and a figure charged into the room.

I wanted to shower that person with curses as barging in at this moment could have terrible consequences. If we alerted the evil spirit, it wouldn’t be any different from pushing Chen Changsheng into a pit of fire.

The person that had stormed in was Ru Xue. She smiled when she saw me. “I’ve finally found you.”

I couldn’t attend to her; I quickly looked at Chen Changsheng.

Sure enough, the evil spirit was furious, and it charged toward Chen Changsheng.

We could only fight now. I screamed at Chen Changsheng, “Hurry, activate the formation!”

Chen Changsheng was scared, but he reacted in time, throwing the chicken butt to the ground.

As soon as the chicken butt hit the ground, the formation was activated. All of the chicken bones vibrated, and the cry of a rooster echoed. Then, a bunch of light beams that the naked eye couldn’t see covered Chen Changsheng.

The figure, who was about to possess Chen Changsheng’s body, was expelled and disappeared into thin air.

Chen Changsheng was frightened. He rushed back to me, asking, “Is it over?”

“No, not yet.” I looked at Ru Xue coldly. “Why did you come here? Didn’t you have anything better to do?”

Ru Xue wasn’t pleased, rolling her eyes at me. “Did I miss something?”

I gritted my teeth in anger. “Do you think this is a joke? You almost killed us!”

“What?” Ru Xue was startled. “Does that mean that there was really a ghost here?”

I was so angry that my face flushed. “That’s the only thing you care about?”

Now, I understood how Li Mazi felt.

Chen Changsheng also fumed. “Big sis, why are you here? Just now, that ghost almost possessed me. I was lucky I managed to activate the formation in time!”

Ru Xue snapped, “You don’t understand anything. I’m his assistant, so it’s normal for me to assist him all the time.”

Chen Changsheng knew that Ru Xue was just bragging, so he decided to ignore her. He turned to me and asked, “What do we do now?”

I said, somewhat dejected, “Things don’t look good. We have managed to expel the spirit with the formation, but we have made him hostile as well. It’ll be much more troublesome to deal with him later.”

Chen Changsheng asked worriedly, “How do we proceed then?”

“We can only take one step at a time. We’ll have to see what happens tomorrow. I’ll take my leave now. I need to prepare some countermeasures.”

Before leaving with Ru Xue, I asked Chen Changsheng to clean his apartment. I couldn’t stand this messy and dirty room.

On the way back, Ru Xue was very excited. “What are you going to do next? Why don’t you prepare an altar to exorcise the spirit? Also, does your family have some Daoist robe or peach wood sword? I can take some pictures of you posing as a Daoist priest and publish them on the front page of some movie magazine!”

I got a headache from her twittering; I had to turn the speaker to the maximum.

When I got home, I went straight to bed. However, early in the next morning, I was awakened by the phone’s ringtone.

I drowsily grabbed my phone, getting shocked immediately after.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queue_(hairstyle)