Otherworldly Merchant

“What?” Li Mazi was shocked and looked at me in puzzlement. “How do you know that? Your grandfather lived until he was seventy years old and basically died of old age. How could this be related to him?”

“I’ve never learned the reason for my grandpa’s death. However, I heard from other people that on the day of my grandpa’s death, something strange happened. Many people saw a person wearing a gold robe enter my house. That person was covered completely in a red flame. Later on, I learned that it was a Ghost King! Ghost Kings don’t come to this mundane world regularly. But when my grandpa died, one appeared. I suspect that my grandpa’s soul was melted by that Ghost King and that’s why he died.”

“It’s extremely rare to see a Ghost King in this world. Moreover, that uncle told me that his mother had told him in his dream to come and find me no matter what. That makes me suspect that a wisp of my grandpa’s soul remnant urged her to do so!”

When I came to this part of my explanation, I gritted my teeth. “Anyway, what's so great about a Ghost King? If I confirm that this is related to my grandpa’s death, I will definitely send it to the eighteenth layer of Hell. It will never be able to reincarnate!”

Li Mazi grabbed my shoulders and said, “Little Brother Zhang, listen to me. Things are serious this time. No matter what, your opponent is a powerful Ghost King. Promise me that you will keep your head clear. You can’t act on your emotions, you know? Promise me.”

I nodded and said, “Don’t worry. I know what to do.”

Soon after, the uncle brought me the materials I had asked him to collect.

I found a stainless steel basin and heated it up on a charcoal brazier. Then, I poured some clotted blood and ink into the basin. I asked Li Mazi to use a pair of chopsticks and stir it forty-nine times clockwise and then thirty-six times counterclockwise.

Li Mazi didn’t speak and just did as I asked him.

At the same time, I stayed by the coffin and watched it. I wanted to set up a five-thunder thread around the coffin. As the five-thunder thread could prevent the corpse from exuding Yin energy, it would alert the Ghost King, causing it to come after us to take revenge.

I also kept an eye on the things in the house. If the Ghost King wanted to stay in this world, it needed a very powerful otherworldly item to dwell in. Otherwise, its soul would vanish.

However, even after I checked the uncle’s house for a while, I didn’t find any antiques.

All right, I’ll ask him about this later! 

If his mother told him that there was some otherworldly item, there surely was one.

Soon after, Li Mazi had finished stirring the bloody substance. The mixture of blood and ink looked like dark-red glue.

I used a sheet of gauze to extract the fluid and poured it all into the chalk box. Then, with Li Mazi holding the other end, we started to mark the blood-like substance all over the coffin. Soon after, the thick lines created a big net.

I put three burning joss sticks into the slit of the coffin and made an offering to the grandmother so that she could be at ease for a while.

If we did it this way, the Ghost King wouldn’t be able to absorb the Yin energy from her soul.

Next, I asked the uncle to take us to see the naked zombie.

The uncle glanced outside; the sky was completely dark.

He didn’t know what to do. “How about we go tomorrow? It’s really late right now. I’m afraid that the female zombie will do something very bad. As for my mother... No one dares to stay here and keep an eye on her...”

I said, “There’s no need to worry. If we find the female corpse, she won’t have time to harm your mother. Your mother’s safe for now.”

The uncle still hesitated. It seemed the female corpse had scared him a lot.

I kept urging him, and he finally nodded his head in agreement. He gritted his teeth then took us to see the female corpse.

“I was worried that the corpse would come back to life, so I sealed her in the coffin and put her inside a cave,” the uncle explained.

That cave was in a remote place away from the village. On the way there, he kept asking me if I could handle it.

For now, I was focused on investigating my grandpa’s death, and I wasn’t afraid of the dangers. I assured him, “Don’t worry. Since I’m here, I’m sure there will be no problems.”

Soon after, the uncle led us to a mountain. After climbing it, we stopped at a cave in the middle of the mountain flank.

The cave wasn’t big, just enough to accommodate a person’s grave. With the aid from my flashlight, I saw a shabby coffin inside.

However, since the cave was covered with some vines, the interior wasn’t clearly visible.

I wanted to go there and check, but the uncle stopped me. “Grandmaster, allow me to say that this female corpse is really scary. Just recently, when I went around to collect the items you asked, I heard from the people that last night, they heard an old man screaming in pain around the mountain. You must be careful. If you’re not confident, we should come here tomorrow morning. And, if it’s okay, I will ask two strong young men to guard you.”

I waved my hand. “There’s no need. How could we leave now that we’ve already arrived?”

However, what the uncle said had planted doubt in me. Didn’t he say that there was a beautiful woman in this coffin? Why did they hear an old man crying and screeching? What did the two have in common?

My strong curiosity made me feel hurried. I didn’t mind what the uncle said and strode toward the cave. I pulled off the vines in front of the cave, which revealed the coffin.

As soon as I glanced at the coffin, I gawked in shock and almost tripped myself. It looked so familiar!

The front of the coffin had two words carved on it, which were '弓' — Bow and '长' — Long. Together, they formed the word '张' — Zhang, which was our family’s surname.

This kind of lettering was our Zhang family’s unique method.

The name ‘Zhang’ was a kind of protective charm that the ancient deities had given to our Zhang family.

Carving the family name onto coffins could help protect the later generations. The principle behind this was similar to writing talismans. They were both full of powerful natural energy.

Moreover, this coffin looked a little flatter and longer than a normal coffin. It was also the way our family had done things since my ancestors’ time. In other words, the person lying in this coffin could be one of my Zhang family’s ancestors.

From the shabby level of this coffin, I guessed it was around ten

years old. During this period of time, only my grandpa could have used it.

Is that my grandpa’s coffin? 

Last night, the people here heard an old man crying and screeching. It could be my grandpa.

But what about the naked female corpse in the coffin? I couldn’t understand that part. Although I was nervous, I reached my hands to lift up the coffin lid.

Li Mazi was anxious and jumped toward me. “We shouldn’t open the coffin. I just saw something.”

My hands retracted, and my head turned much clearer.

It seemed I had been bewitched and led to open the coffin, even though I wasn’t well prepared.

I asked Li Mazi, “What did you see?”

Li Mazi took a deep breath and said, “I saw a shadow sit on the coffin. However, it disappeared right after. Still, from the shape, I recognized that it was a naked woman.”

“What?” I immediately turned to take a look at the coffin, but there was nothing on the lid.

“Were you hallucinating?” I asked.

Li Mazi looked frightened and turned to the coffin. “I don’t know, but I think I saw a beautiful woman smile at you. I don’t know what she meant by that.”

“Open the coffin,” I said. “ We need to open it. I want to check what’s inside.”

Then, I took out the Sirius Whip and sprinkled the soybeans I had prepared around the coffin. I also put a handful of soybeans in my mouth. While I chewed the beans, I tried to open the coffin.

Li Mazi followed suit. After he had chewed and swallowed the beans, he started to help me open the coffin.

We had opened the coffin a little, but everything was normal. There was no black smoke or noise.

However, this situation didn’t seem normal at all. That was why I had just lifted a little and not the entire lid. I shone the flashlight into the coffin and carefully looked inside.

What I saw made me drop my jaw in shock.

There was a female body inside the coffin. The body had flawless skin, and her facial features were exquisite. Her hair reached her waist, and she calmly lay inside the coffin, just as if she was sleeping.

Is she a Ghost King? Still, why is she lying in my grandpa’s coffin? And, why isn’t her body decomposing?

Everything was so unbelievable. I took a deep breath to calm myself down.

“Grandmaster, you’ve seen the corpse. Should we go now?” asked the uncle. “We should hurry. I feel that something is wrong.”

“Oh, what’s wrong?” I looked at him in puzzlement.

The uncle kept silent for a long moment then said, “Just recently... You and Mr. Li smiled strangely at the coffin.”

“What?” I was shocked and looked at Li Mazi. Li Mazi also looked at me with a dumbstruck face. He shook his head to me and said, “No, I didn’t smile.”

“But it’s true,” the uncle said. “I can say you were forced to smile. The muscles on your face bulged and twisted, and your smile looked awkward. I’m not lying to you. You were really smiling.”

I was startled. If we smiled and didn’t notice anything, there could only be one explanation... We were bewitched by that beautiful corpse.

Everything was too strange, so I decided to leave for now.

I closed the coffin, nailed it, and turned around to leave.

I asked the uncle to lead the way while Li Mazi and I followed him.

The uncle basically ignored us quickly descended the mountain.

I deliberately slowed down and pulled Li Mazi’s shoulder. “Li Mazi, slow down. I need to tell you something.”

“What is it?” Li Mazi turned to ask me.

“There’s something wrong about that uncle. He purposely made us leave the mountain.”

Li Mazi was bewildered. “How do you know that?”

I said, “We didn’t actually smile; he tried to deceive us. Moreover, did you notice that his shadow doesn’t coordinate with his body? It sometimes separates from his body.”

Li Mazi was frightened and sweated. “Little Brother Zhang, stop joking. Why would that uncle trick us? Don’t tell me that the Ghost King is controlling his body...”

“Wait and act on my signal. We can’t alert him.” I patted Li Mazi’s shoulder. Then, we both accelerated to keep up with the uncle.