Otherworldly Merchant

As soon as we got into the apartment, I asked Ms. Wu to help Xiaoqing’s body up. I then tied the red rope that was tied over the Soul Summoning Banner to her body. This sent the missing corporeal soul back to her body through the rooster. Afterward, I stuck a Soul Stabilizing Talisman onto her forehead.

Soon after, Xiaoqing woke up. She looked at us with drowsy eyes. “Mom... what happened? I… I feel like I had a horrible nightmare.”

Xiaoqing finally recovered, and she looked much more awake than before. Eventually, she regained colors on her face. Ms. Wu burst out crying. She hugged her daughter and comforted her.

Xiaoqing told me she had a strange dream. She saw herself wandering around the neighborhood, unable to find her way home.

She was anxious and uncomfortable. Moreover, her body felt very light, as if it could split and disappear at any moment.

However, all of a sudden, a handsome big brother called her name and grabbed her hand. He told her that he would take her home.

As soon as she touched him, she felt very comfortable. The feeling of being torn apart also disappeared at that instant. She was finally relieved and followed the handsome man home.

On the way back, Xiaoqing drifted into sleep. When she woke up, she saw that she was in her room. Everything felt like a dream, and yet, it was so real.

Ms. Wu hugged her daughter and sobbed. “It’s all right. It’s all right. It was just a bad dream, sweetie.”

I looked through the window and waited for Chuyi.

Around one hour later, Chuyi finally came. He was exhausted and spiritless; his expression was also tense. I came to open the door for him and guide him in.

He looked battered, with wounds all over his body. His white hoodie was torn, and there were some blood stains on it.

I poured him a cup of warm water and gave him some ointment. After a while, Chuyi regained his composure.

I heaved a sigh of relief. “Chuyi, what happened? Who hurt you? And, why did that puppet come to the park?”

Chuyi first scanned the room. In the end, his eyes fell onto Xiaoqing. Xiaoqing looked scared when he looked at her. However, I could tell that she liked him a little.

Since Chuyi had the appearance of an idol, and he was the type high school girls liked the most.

Chuyi didn’t answer me. He took out two talismans from his pocket and asked me to stick them onto the window and the door.

I did as he asked.

When I returned, he had already fallen asleep. It seemed he was worn out. I didn’t disturb him and found a blanket to keep him warm.

Ms. Wu curiously studied Chuyi. “Who is he? He looks skillful.”

I smiled. “He’s much more skillful than me. Anyway, you two should rest as well. My friend is really tired, and it’s best if we do not disturb him.”

Ms. Wu took her daughter back to the bedroom while I sat on the nearby sofa and watched over Chuyi.

Chuyi slept for two hours. He slowly opened his eyes and found me watching over him; he felt somewhat embarrassed.

I went over to him. “Chuyi, how are your wounds? Do you want to wrap them?”

He shook his head. “No, this is a corpse toxin. Ordinary ointment and medicines won’t be able to deal with it.”

I was startled. A corpse toxin! If we don’t treat it, Chuyi might become a zombie... 

He comforted me. “There’s no need to worry. I’ve found someone that can help me.”

While I was thinking about who could help us under such a circumstance, my phone rang. I picked it up and saw that it was Senior Shu.

As soon as the line connected, Senior Shu’s voice boomed, “You little bastard, you finally picked up the phone! I’ve been waiting down here for two hours! Why didn’t you pick the phone up?!”

I now noticed that there were more than thirty missed calls on my phone. They were all from Senior Shu.

I felt embarrassed. “Senior Shu, Chuyi was sleeping so I set my phone to silent mode. I didn’t want to disturb him.”

Senior Shu thundered again. “You bastard! Come down here right now and pick me up. I’m going to freeze to death!”

I forced a smile then hung up the call. I rushed downstairs to picked Senior Shu up.

Senior Shu was crouching and shivering in the cold beside a dumpster. After seeing me, he rushed toward and snatched my jacket, putting it on himself. At the same time, he asked me to compensate for his ‘mental damage.’

I gave him a bitter smile. “There is no time for compensation right now. We have to save Chuyi first.”

Senior Shu shot me a fierce look then followed me upstairs.

After taking a look at Chuyi, Senior Shu dropped his jaw in shock. “Holy crap! Who’s strong enough to wound you to this extent?”

Then, he wasted no more time and found an empty bowl to prepare the antidote.

First, he poured a turbid, yellow liquid into the bowl. Then, he added a black substance he had crushed into powder beforehand. Next, he added a handful of salt and starch then stirred the mixture. At the same time, he asked me to cook some sticky rice.

Ms. Wu walked out when she heard the commotion. I asked her immediately, “Do you have sticky rice in your house?”

When she confirmed that she had it, I asked her to cook some.

Senior Shu carefully applied and smeared the dough he had stirred on Chuyi’s wounds.

I looked carefully and saw a lot of small insects wiggling in the patches of dough. They were as big as ants but looked strange.

As Senior Shu finished applying the dough, Ms. Wu finished cooking the sticky rice.

Senior Shu then sprinkled the cooked rice onto the wounds to melt the dough a little bit. Afterward, he exhaled in relief and slumped on the couch. “Okay, he just needs to rest for several hours, then he’ll be all right.”

Chuyi nodded and drifted back into sleep.

I didn’t disturb him but turned to talk to Senior Shu. “What’s the substance you used to counter the corpse toxin?”

Senior Shu was still mad at me because I didn’t pick up his calls. He threw me a fierce look and barked angrily, “Don’t know.”

I couldn’t help but smile and apologize to him. I also promised him that after this matter was over, I would take him to a nightclub and find him a Russian girl. Senior Shu finally forgave me and decided to enlighten me.

The turbid liquid he used was ordinary rat piss, while the black substance was rat feces. The feces weren’t ordinary as it was the discharge from the rat whose fate was linked to Senior Shu’s. Also, that rat had eaten corpse flesh right before pooping.

Everybody knew that rats often ate rotten meat and dead bodies. The rats that ate dead bodies would be infected by the corpse toxin. However, since they had a strong adaptive ability, they could create an immune response and produce immune cells.

After those immune cells solved the corpse toxin, a part of them would stay in the body while the other part would be discharged through the feces. What Senior Shu had applied on Chuyi wounds was rat feces that contained those immune cells.

To get those feces, Senior Shu had spent a lot of effort as he first had to find a corpse that had already produced the corpse toxin. He then fed the corpse to the rat and waited to collect the discharge…

After listening to him, I felt nauseous. I was afraid that only Senior Shu could do such disgusting things.

I couldn’t help but laugh, though. This kind of stuff really left people speechless.

After the break of dawn, color had returned to Chuyi’s face. I went to buy a set of famous-branded clothes for Chuyi to change into after he took a shower. When he put on the new clothes, his charm erupted like a volcano. No one could resist him.

Not even those famous young idols could compare to him… I could tell that when I saw the mesmerizing looks on Ms. Wu and Xiaoqing’s faces.

Senior Shu half-joked, “Daoist Priest Chuyi can conquer both the young and the old. He reminds me of myself when I was younger.”

The old man made Ms. Wu and Xiaoqing blush.

Chuyi seemed to have fully recovered. Even his aloof, cold countenance returned. He checked Xiaoqing’s condition and looked pensive.

“Chuyi, is Xiaoqing okay now?” I asked.

Chuyi shook his head. “Although her soul has returned, there’s still strong Yin energy in her body. This Yin energy is strange, and I feel like someone intentionally left it in her body. If we can’t get rid of it, I’m afraid she will lose her soul again later.”

Ms. Wu was frightened and begged Chuyi, “Please, save my daughter!”

Chuyi sighed. “It’s not only Xiaoqing who has this problem. There are twenty-four virgin boys and girls who are in the same situation.”

I was startled and thought about that man who had bought twenty-four red silk scarves at once. I couldn’t be just a coincidence, right?

“Chuyi, do you know the story behind this?”

“I have a client who asked me to summon the soul of a student that was about to take the university entrance exam.”

That person was in the same situation as Xiaoqing, and the first thing Chuyi did was call their soul back.

However, Chuyi used a very special method to call the soul back since he knew that it would be extremely weakened. Even if he used the Soul Summoning Banner and the rooster, which were very gentle to the soul, there was a chance the soul could be damaged.

He eventually used a Corpse Puppet to summon the soul.

The Corpse Puppet was the best vessel to store souls as it didn’t have any side effects.

However, while he was summoning the soul back, Chuyi was shocked to find out there was more than one soul wandering around the neighborhood.

Chuyi decided to contact the Netherworld to communicate with those wandering souls, and he learned that their stories weren’t different from his client’s. He felt that there was more to this story; maybe it was all part of someone’s plan.

Of course, he couldn’t just stand by and watch them die. He decided to store all the souls he had met on the way into his Corpse Puppet.

After collecting a total of twenty-four souls into the Corpse Puppet, Chuyi was about to summon it back. However, he felt through puppet that there was a soul attempting to escape through its mouth. It seemed someone was summoning that soul...

He then established a mental connection with the Corpse Puppet and sensed my aura, confirming that I was summoning a soul in the park late at night. He knew something was off, so he called me through the Corpse Puppet, telling me not to move.

After hearing the story, I nodded.

There were twenty-four wandering souls, and only one of them had returned to its body. This meant that the other twenty-three souls were still in the Corpse Puppet. Would the Corpse Puppet be able to bear them?

Imagine a wooden barrel with a weight capacity of twenty kilograms bearing a weight of a dozen times its capacity... Would the wooden barrel be able to handle it?