Otherworldly Merchant

The person holding the lantern was a man wearing a shroud.

The man had a thick layer of white powder on his face, while his cheeks and his lips were painted red. He wore a Chinese landlord hat and held a lantern in his hand.

What’s up with his appearance? He looks like a paper doll from a funeral supplies shop!

His face was pale, and his movements stiff. He was no different from those zombies seen in horror movies.

I gasped and felt my scalp going numb. Although I had guessed that it was some sort of Lantern-Lighting Ghost, I couldn’t suppress my fear now that I was facing him.

Since even I was scared, how could Ms. Wu not be!

She looked at me, shaking in fear. She wanted to know my opinion. I gestured to her to maneuver around him without touching him.

Ms. Wu nodded and anxiously advanced forward. I followed her through the trees along the path.

The moment I brushed past the man, I saw that both of his hands were nailed by coffin nails into the lantern he was holding. It didn’t seem like he noticed us as he walked past Ms. Wu.

Shortly after, we were a distance apart from one other. I exhaled in relief and wiped the sweat on my forehead. I signaled to Ms. Wu to move forward.

However, before we could move, we heard hopping footsteps behind us.

I quickly turned around and was shocked to see the man standing behind me; he was around one meter away from me.

The corners of his mouth rose as if he was smiling. However, his eyes were still tightly closed. A strange wind blew over, which billowed his clothes.

Damn, why is he following me? I have to stay away from this guy.

The man was clearly dead, and watery blood was oozing from his nostrils and mouths, which left streaks on the powder on his face.

“Stand still!” Unexpectedly, the dead man talked. His voice was cold and mechanical.

I stared in shock. “Who are you?”

“Wait for me,” he suddenly said. “Wait for me.”

“Just who the hell are you?!” I gathered my courage and shouted at him.

“Wait for me. Wait for me.” The strange sound kept escaping his throat. After listening to him, my scalp went numb. I didn’t know if I should leave or stay.

Ms. Wu whispered, “Grandmaster, what should we do? Who is this man?”

I pondered then told her, “You should find a safe place and hide. I’ll deal with him.”

Ms. Wu nodded and left. I took out the Peach Soul Flower and gazed at the man. “Have you ever come across a young girl’s soul? Her corporeal soul is missing, and I suspect it might be related to you.”

The man didn’t answer and kept repeating, “Wait for me. Wait for me.” I wondered whom or what he was waiting for.

Eventually, I shouted, “Bastard, who the heck are you? If you don’t talk, don’t blame me for being rude!”

Then, I raised the flower and threatened him with it.

However, the man didn’t move and kept repeating the same words.

I was baffled by his behavior and had no idea what was happening.

Eventually, I ran out of patience. I felt that he was just stalling to prevent us from moving forward. He didn’t want to let us know what lay ahead.

I decided to ignore him and called Ms. Wu so that we could continue our trip.

As soon as I prepared to leave, a girl’s voice came out from the dead man’s mouth. “Mommy!”

The voice was vague, as if from a girl calling for her mother in her sleep. However, I was sure that she had just said, ‘mommy.’

Ms. Wu shivered when she heard the voice, and the Soul Summoning Banner in her hand dropped to the ground.

She said as tears filled her eyes, “That’s my daughter! Daughter, where are you? Where are you?!”

"What?” I had a headache. I didn’t expect that her daughter’s soul would be inside the dead man. Who had sealed her soul in his body?”

Ms. Wu got on her knees. “Grandmaster, please save my daughter! Take her soul out of that corpse!”

I pulled her up. “Don’t panic. Let me think of a solution.”

Honestly, I was also bewildered. If the objective was to deal with the corpse, I could have just used the Peach Soul Flower. However, Ms. Wu’s daughter’s soul was sealed within it, so I couldn’t attack it directly. Her soul wasn’t stable, and even a little bit of Yang energy would be enough to destroy it.

Left with no choice, I could only negotiate with the other party.

Of course, negotiating with the corpse would be pointless as it was just a puppet. I had to find the one who was controlling it.

I knew that when someone used the Corpse Control Technique, they couldn’t be more than three hundred meters away from the corpse. I called out loudly and asked to talk with the corpse’s master.

I called several times, but no one replied. While I was having a headache thinking about what to do next, my phone rang.

I looked at the phone and discovered that Chuyi was calling me.

Chuyi would always show up when I needed him the most.

I was happy and hurried to pick up the phone.

“Stay there, I’m coming,” said Chuyi.

“Where are you?” I was startled. How could Chuyi know where I was?

However, he already hung up the call. I tried to call him back, but his phone was off.

Ms. Wu anxiously looked at me, hoping that I could find a solution.

Since Chuyi had asked me to wait for him, it was better to do so. I took Ms. Wu and hid behind a big bush. We observed the corpse from there.

The corpse stood still, his face turned toward us. Although his eyes were closed, I felt that he was watching us.

My imagination started to run wild. Chuyi asked me to wait for him here. The corpse also kept repeating the sentence, ‘wait for me, wait for me...’

It almost seemed as if he was trying to convey Chuyi’s message. Does that mean that Chuyi is the one controlling the corpse puppet? However, why would he do something like this? 

I panicked at the thought of Chuyi being the person behind all this.

My mood was all over the place. What should I do if my theory turns out to be correct? Should I listen to Chuyi, or should I help Ms. Wu? 

Everything had a cause, and Chuyi must have had his reasons to do what he was doing. I decided to wait and ask him when he arrived.

Ms. Wu had started to get anxious. “What’s going on?”

I took a deep breath and said, “We shouldn’t talk. Let’s just wait.”

Not long after, a slender man quickly walked toward us. He seemed to be in a hurry. I narrowed my eyes and saw that it was Chuyi.

After seeing him, I walked up to him.

“Are you summoning a soul?” Chuyi asked as he picked up the Soul Summoning Banner on the ground.

I nodded and called Ms. Wu.

Chuyi asked, “Is the soul you’re looking for inside this puppet?”

I nodded. “Are you controlling this corpse?”

Chuyi nodded and then snapped his fingers. The corpse puppet walked up to him like a robot, waiting for his next command.

“You should take away the soul and draw a Soul Stabilizing Talisman. Then, stick it to her body. I’ll look for you later.”

From his anxious tone, I could feel that the situation was serious.

I nodded.

To my surprise, this corpse puppet contained not just one soul but ten. Chuyi asked us to find the soul we were looking for by listening to its voice. Then, he sealed the soul inside the Soul Summoning Banner and asked us to leave.

Ms. Wu received the Soul Summoning Banner and kept calling her daughter’s name, Xiaoqing, as we walked back to her apartment.