Otherworldly Merchant

After calling Li Mazi, I asked Lei Long to tell me more about the person that sold him the golden bowl.

I had to know whether he’d wanted to harm Lei Long or not.

However, Lei Long had already decided that his friend wanted to harm him. He purposely twisted the information and made his friend sound like the culprit. Unable to get anything useful out of it, I could only drop the subject.

Soon after, Li Mazi arrived with a plastic bag full of dirt. He panted like an ox and said, “Holy moly, if you need a favor like this later, don’t call me. On my way here, people looked at me as if I had just escaped from an asylum.”

I burst out laughing. I could imagine Li Mazi trying his best to explain to the people why he had to dig up some soil.

Li Mazi was puzzled and asked me, “Why do you need a bag of dirt? Can you sell this stuff for money? I can dig up a hundred-meter plot of land around your antique shop.”

I laughed. “No, it’s not for sale. I need to test Lei Long’s golden bowl.”

Then, I handed Li Mazi the bowl.

Li Mazi was immediately attracted to the bowl. He turned the bowl around in his hands and studied it. After a while, he frowned. “There’s something wrong with this golden bowl.”

“Oh, what is it?” I was surprised that Li Mazi had spotted something. I asked for his opinion.

“This golden bowl is an otherworldly item, but it should be part of a set. There should also be a pair of chopsticks. We have the bowl here, so where are the chopsticks?”

After listening to Li Mazi, I also frowned.

Right, how could I not think about that? This sort of otherworldly item should be in a pair. We have only the golden bowl here, which means that the golden chopsticks are missing… Jewelry shops often sell these items in pairs, right? 

I nodded and looked pensive. “It seems the golden bowl has shown its spirit because the golden chopsticks were missing.”

I remembered my first case, when I dealt with a pair of embroidered shoes that got separated. At the time, Li Mazi had almost lost his life. There was also the case of the ancient ax and zither, where their respective owners were tossed around a lot.

In ancient times, only rich and powerful families could own an item like this golden bowl, so the spirit in the golden bowl could be from a family of warriors. Some ghosts became more ferocious after their death; I had to be cautious if I wanted to deal with this bowl.

I scooped up some soil and put it in the golden bowl. Then, I carefully watched the bowl to see if there was any reaction.

We waited anxiously for half an hour, but nothing happened.

I reluctantly took all the soil out.

Lei Long was very anxious. He asked, “What’s happening? The soil from your shop didn’t work?”

I explained, “Perhaps it’s because it’s still daytime. Even if there’s a gruesome spirit in this bowl, it’s sleeping right now. If we don’t attack it, it won’t come out. The soil from my shop can only subdue it. If it doesn’t come out, then of course, the soil is useless. We should try again tonight!”

Lei Long nodded in puzzlement.

It was around 6:30 PM, which meant there was still some time until midnight. In order to succeed in one attempt, I chose to wait until the spirit showed itself before using the soil.

Lei Long bought us a quick dinner. I could tell that this fellow was broke because he owed money to the restaurant as well. I really pitied him. He was a well-educated man with a decent job, but now he didn’t even have money to buy a meal. I decided to pay in his stead.

Lei Long was touched and continuously thanked me.

I gave Lei Long one thousand renminbi. “After we solve this case, I want you to give me the golden bowl. I won’t charge you any fee for this case.”

Lei Long agreed immediately and happily received the one-thousand-renminbi note.

“When will you pay the money you owe your friend for buying this bowl?” I asked.

Lei Long couldn’t hold his anger. “I’m not going to pay him! That man has ruined my family. It’s good enough that I haven’t killed him!”

I saw that the situation had gotten a little serious. I hadn’t confirmed if his friend wanted to deliberately harm him. I’d just casually mentioned him, and now Lei Long was too deep into the matter.

I warned him, “I’ve only assumed that your friend might want to harm you. You shouldn’t jump to any conclusion as of now. You should talk to him first!”

Lei Long nodded. However, from his tone, I could tell that he was already very biased.

I knew that Lei Long wouldn’t listen to my words, so I just continued to watch the golden bowl.

After dinner, we waited at Lei Long’s house. Li Mazi didn’t have anything to do, so he began to explore the place. He glided here and there like a ghost. Inadvertently, he entered the kitchen that was packed with dead animals.

When Li Mazi saw the piles of dead puppies, kittens, and mice in the kitchen, he almost peed himself. After looking at Li Mazi’s frightened face, I laughed.

Time ticked by, and it was soon past midnight.

I started observing the golden bowl one hour ago. Under the light, the golden bowl looked black. There was a layer of mist on the surface, but if one took a careful look, the layer would disappear.

It was the materialization of Yin energy. Only an extremely resentful spirit could do that. My heart was now filled with fear.

As soon as it was past midnight, Li Mazi tensed up. He muttered to me, “Should I put the soil into the bowl?”

I waved my hands at Li Mazi. “Not yet. We should just watch for now. Do it when I give the signal.”

Li Mazi nodded.

Soon after, a strange phenomenon took place.

At first, a dark shadow appeared above the bowl. It looked as if a small doll was spinning around it.

Then, the bowl began to vibrate, issuing a clanging sounds when hitting the table. Although the vibration was minor, it didn’t escape my eyes.

I took a deep breath and called for Li Mazi. “Hurry, put the soil in!”

In the meantime, I also took out a Ksitigarbha Talisman and prepared to use it.

That talisman was a gift from Zen Master Baimei. He’d given me three to use in case of emergency.

The moment I saw that layer of mist on the surface of the golden bowl, I’d decided to use the talismans… The evil spirit was really powerful, and I wasn’t sure if I could deal with it.

The golden bowl seemed to feel the pressure coming from the soil. It wasn’t ready for a fight, so after shaking several times, it quieted down and laid still like an inanimate item.

Lei Long carefully asked, “Is it done?”

I furrowed my brows because I knew it wasn’t that simple. I carefully touched the bowl, and it was freezing cold.

As I was about to pick up the golden bowl, something strange happened. The bowl suddenly became very heavy; it was as if it had taken root in the table. No matter how hard I pulled, I couldn’t lift it.

I was shocked. I stood up and held the bowl with both hands and pulled harder. Still, the bowl didn’t move.

Li Mazi looked at me with a confused face. “What are you doing?”

“This golden bowl won’t move,” I answered.

When I retreated my hands, I was frightened. I saw that my palms were completely pale. It was as if no blood was inside my veins.

I became even more fearful. What secret is hidden in the bowl? How come I couldn’t lift it up? 

Li Mazi also reached out and tried to take the bowl. However, as soon as he touched it, he retracted his hands. “Holy moly, is this a golden bowl or an ice bowl?”

Lei Long wasn’t convinced, so he also tried to touch the bowl.

Unexpectedly, the bowl began to shake as soon as Lei Long’s hands touched it, and he was able to pick it up easily.

However, since he exerted much more force than needed, the golden bowl was sent up into the air. It slipped off his hands and fell, sprinkling the dirt everywhere.

Li Mazi was enraged. “You’ve done more damage than good!”

Afterward, he prepared to gather the dirt on the ground and put it back into the golden bowl.

However, it was too late. Li Mazi had just taken a step forward when the golden bowl projected a dazzling golden light. The light beams from the bowl were so strong that we couldn’t open our eyes.

I vaguely saw a strange figure emerging in the splendid golden light. It was a woman who calmly hovered above the golden bowl.

“Who are you?” I took a deep breath and looked at her.

The woman blurted out, “I’m very hungry.”

“Hungry? You can starve!” retorted Li Mazi. He wasn’t scared but yelled and scolded her, “Who the heck are you?”

The woman didn’t mind us and headed toward the kitchen, passing through the door and disappearing.

The golden light projected by the golden bowl subsided and vanished. The bowl turned back to its dim, dark appearance.

Lei Long nervously looked at me and said, “Grandmaster, she went to the kitchen…”

Yeah, I can see that! I threw Lei Long a sidelong glance then tiptoed to the kitchen. Since the resentful soul could talk to us, I knew that it was really powerful.

I held the talisman in my hands and shivered. I wondered if the talisman in my hand could really defeat the woman.

When I came close to the kitchen door, I heard loud chewing noises.

I took a deep breath then pasted the talisman onto the door. I turned to Lei Long and asked, “From where can we see the scene inside the kitchen?”

Since we were facing a powerful female ghost, I didn’t dare to go there alone.

Lei Long thought for a moment then answered, “There’s a skylight; we can see the kitchen from there.”

“Let’s go. We’ll look at the scene through the skylight.”

I took the other two out of the house and carefully climbed to the skylight. Then, I looked down into the kitchen.

The woman was squatting in a dark corner of the kitchen, and dead animals surrounded her.

Her mouth was wide open and she was eating something. Her hands casually grabbed a translucent form from the pile of corpses and brought it to her mouth.

I was startled. This ghost could directly eat souls!

Every living being in this world had a soul, and each soul had three components. They were the Earthly Soul, Heavenly Soul, and Mortal Soul.

After a person died, their Heavenly Soul and Earthly Soul would return to heavens and earth respectively, while the Mortal Soul would stay in the body.

As such, whenever people saw ghosts, what they were looking at were incomplete Mortal Souls. It was also the reason ghosts didn’t have a sane mind.

Since those animals were killed tragically, their ‘Mortal Souls’ should still be in their bodies. If that female ghost could directly take the souls out and devour them, then she couldn’t be weaker than a Ghost King.

Since I wasn’t well-prepared, I didn’t have the guts to provoke her. I decided to call it a night. Tomorrow, we would prepare the right tools and take care of her!