Otherworldly Merchant

The moment I was about to close the skylight, I heard someone knock on the door.

I was confused. It was really late at night. Who would come to Lei Long’s house at this hour?

As I thought about this, I felt something grab my shoulder. I turned my head but didn’t see anything; no one was there.

I exhaled in relief, shivering right after.

Wait, where did Li Mazi and Lei Long go? They were right behind me! How could they disappear in the blink of an eye?

Fear flooded my heart. I remembered the knocking sound. Was it possible that Li Mazi and Lei Long were knocking on the kitchen door?

My scalp tingled as I thought about it. I didn’t hesitate and entered the house to stop the two.

However, as soon as I stepped into the house, I heard the kitchen door open with a squeak. It seemed I was too late.

Left with no choice, I got out and climbed up to see through the skylight one more time.

Li Mazi and Lei Long were stiffly moving into the kitchen. They picked up the golden bowl and walked toward the shadow. Then, they squatted next to her. The shadow began talking to them, and I could hear the indistinct sounds of her mutters.

I wanted to storm into the room to stop them, but the duo suddenly stood up. Lei Long walked to the chopping board and picked up a knife.

Li Mazi smiled as he stood in front of him. Then, he spread his limbs. It looked as if he was waiting for Lei Long to chop his arms and legs off.

Lei Long wielded his knife and aimed it at Li Mazi. I sweated in fright. Lei Long wants to take Li Mazi’s life! 

It was dangerous, but did I have a choice?

I jumped through the skylight and kicked Lei Long. At the same time, I took out another talisman and held it tightly in my hand. “Evil creature, you dare to take others’ lives so brazenly, surrender immediately!”

The shadow sneered. She ignored me and continued to eat the souls.

Lei Long hissed and got up. Then, he wielded his knife and tried to kill me.

I instinctively raised my leg and prepared to kick him away, but a strong force pulled my leg back halfway.

When I lowered my head to see what it was, I was shocked. Li Mazi was hugging my leg, glaring at me.

I saw the knife coming at me, and I threw myself to the ground to dodge. I evaded, but the knife still left a cut on my thigh!

As I lay on the ground, I angrily wiggled out of Li Mazi’s grip. Then, I rolled out of the kitchen. Li Mazi and Lei Long followed closely behind me.

Seeing that they were getting closer, I threw myself to the ground and picked up the golden bowl. I ignited the talisman with a lighter and shoved it into it.

“ARGHHHH!”

A terrifying roar came from the kitchen. Almost immediately after, I saw a dark shadow that swirled like a tornado. It came toward me and disappeared into the bowl.

Li Mazi and Lei Long were still attacking me. However, they were much weaker than before. I easily snatched the knife from Lei Long’s hand and threw it away. Then, I slapped each of them twice.

After being slapped, they quickly got a hold of themselves. They exchanged looks then glared at me. “What did you do to us?”

I angrily scowled. “Is this how you want to repay your savior? If it weren’t for me, you guys would be dead already!”

The two of them were frightened. “What happened?”

I told them about the events that just occurred, and their faces turned pale. Lei Long was especially scared. His temples were now covered in a layer of cold sweat. “Damn, she wants me to kill other people!”

“Damn it. If I get the opportunity, I’ll kill her! Anyway, why is my butt hurting?” Li Mazi rubbed his buttcheeks. Then, his hand touched something sticky.

Li Mazi was bewildered and saw that his palm was soaked in a thick and viscous liquid. “What is this?”

Lei Long laughed and said, “Were you so afraid that you peed yourself?”

“Nonsense! That wasn’t scary at all,” said Li Mazi.

However, a horrible thought came to my head. Did Li Mazi also get that creepy, moldy disease? 

I told myself it was impossible. After all, even if he got infected, it wouldn’t be so fast.

However, I couldn’t ease my mind, so I asked Li Mazi to take off his pants. I wanted to check what was going on.

Li Mazi was shy and didn’t want to. I fumed, “You almost died, and you still care about your dignity? We’re all men. Why do you need to be shy?”

Left with no choice, Li Mazi took his pants off so that I could have a look.

When I saw his buttcheeks, I couldn't help but shiver.

Li Mazi’s buttcheeks were moldy, with fluffy white hairs growing on them. The hairs were around half a centimeter long, and although they weren’t dense, they were still very awful to see.

Li Mazi pulled up his pants and asked, “What did you see?”

I didn’t want to scare him, so I didn’t say anything. Li Mazi wasn’t convinced, so he turned to ask Lei Long.

I shook my head at Lei Long, signaling him not to tell Li Mazi.

Lei Long kept his mouth shut, so Li Mazi exhaled in relief.

“Grandmaster, did you seal that ghost? I saw her scream and ran into the golden bowl earlier,” asked Lei Long.

I sighed. “I just scared her a bit. Sooner or later, she will show up again.”

Lei Long was worried. “What now? Why didn't you try to finish her off?”

“You think too highly of me.” I snorted. “It’s already good enough that I could scare her and make her quiet for a while. This thing that you’ve provoked is really scary. She’s much more powerful than any of the ghosts I’ve encountered so far.”

Lei Long was frightened. “Really? What do we do then? Don’t tell me that you don’t have any solutions.”

I said reluctantly, “If we want to subdue this otherworldly item, we need to know the story behind it. Once we have this knowledge, we can win. Anyway, we won’t be in danger tonight. Tomorrow, you have to take me to this friend that sold you the golden bowl. I have to know about the bowl’s origin.”

Lei Long sighed. “Why is my life so miserable? I just bought a golden bowl. How could it cause so much trouble?”

Just as I sat down on the sofa, I heard Li Mazi shriek. “Holy moly, what’s this? What happened to me?”

I had a bad premonition and turned to look at him. He had taken his pants off again. He was continuously spanking his butt. Behind him was a full-length mirror, which he used to observe his own butt.

Li Mazi saw the mold on his butt.

I had no choice but to comfort him. I asked him not to touch the mold as it wouldn’t be good if it grew faster.

Lei Long also comforted Li Mazi. “Don’t be scared. Look at me. I have mold all over my body, but I’m still alive.”

Then, he showed Li Mazi the moldy spots on his body.

When Li Mazi saw Lei Long’s horrible condition, he gawked in shock. Then, he shrieked again.

“Oh shoot, oh shoot... Even if I have to die, I don’t want to end up like that!”

For the rest of the night, Li Mazi was terrified. Every now and then, he would check his butt. If his entire body grew mold, his life would be over.

Now, I felt even more determined to solve this case.

We waited until dawn and asked Lei Long to bring us to the shop where he had bought the item.

Lei Long told me that his friend was famous in the circle of the antique business and had even gotten his hands on many national treasures. He was also into the black market business. Due to the nature of his profession, he was a cunning person.

However, when we arrived at his friend’s place, we saw that the door was closed. Although we kept knocking for quite a long time, no one came to open the door.

Lei Long called him, but no one picked up the phone.

In the end, we had to leave.

However, as soon as we turned around, a shadow flashed above our heads. Then, we heard a loud thud, and blood splashed everywhere.

The muffled sound shook my eardrums, and I couldn’t get a hold of myself for quite a long time.

Lei Long screamed loudly, which brought me back to my senses.

A broken, mangled body lay on the ground in front of us.

The muffled sound came from this person that had fallen off the building.

Since the building was around a hundred meters high, it would be strange if the body was still intact.

The body had broken into three sections. I saw a pair of legs, a torso, and a head. The scene was a mess. All the organs were scattered around, and blood had splashed far away. Eventually, the blood had created a smiley face on the ground.

Anybody who saw the incident would have a hard time standing, right?

At least, my legs felt like jelly.

Although I had seen all kinds of horrifying scenes, this tragic death had shocked me greatly.

“That’s Old Tie. He sold me the golden bowl!” Lei Long screamed. “He’s dead?!”

“Look at his hand.” Li Mazi suddenly pointed at the corpse’s hand. “His hand is still grabbing onto a pair of chopsticks!”