Otherworldly Merchant

I shook my head. “Hurry up! If you don’t go, this small fishing village will be destroyed!”

Li Mazi stomped his feet in anger and threw a tantrum. However, there was nothing he could do to make me go with him, so he gritted his teeth and said, “I’m leaving! I will come to collect your dead body later! Why on earth did I befriend someone like you?!”

Then, he threw me the Peach Soul Flower. “Catch it!”

I smiled and said, “Thank you.”

Nobody was perfect, and my fatal weakness was that I was too kind at times.

I shoved the Peach Soul Flower into my pocket and jumped into the lake.

The freezing lake water immediately made me shiver.

The icy-cold water of the Heavenly Dragon Lake reached my neck and made it hard for me to breathe; the coldness of the water wasn’t normal. Moreover, we were approaching the ancient tomb, and we would drown if we kept moving forward.

Since the villagers were dazed and couldn’t control their bodies, they wouldn’t survive without my help.

I ran to one of the men carrying the coffins and took the Corpse Scattered Essence out of his mouth.

As soon as the Corpse Scattered Essence was taken away, his body weakened. He slumped into the lake and instinctively started to wiggle.

I ignored him and hurried to the others. I took the Corpse Scattered Essence out of their mouths as well.

After I had helped three or four people, some people finally woke up. After seeing me take out the Corpse Scattered Essence, one of the guys yelled, “You bastard! You’ve offended the Scarlet Spirit Saintess. You will be punished for it!”

I glanced at him and said coldly, “If you want to live, hurry and wake up the other folks.”

“You’ve ruined our sacrifice ritual. You must die!” Then, he charged toward me and stretched both of his hands to strangle me.

I didn’t talk and directly kicked him away. “Fool!”

At this moment, most of the folks I had helped recovered their sanity. After realizing what had happened, they were strangely enraged. All of them swarmed toward me and started to attack me.

I directly dove and swam to the lakeside.

“Cough! Cough!”

The people whom I didn’t help were now coughing. They spat out the Corpse Scattered Essence, and some even coughed blood.

As the ritual was now ruined, they had recovered their sanity. This was good because I didn’t need to go and help the others.

The villagers wiggled in the water. When they all awakened, they recognized that their planned sacrifice had failed. All of them looked upward and started to scream and cry. Then, they wanted to find me to take revenge.

I turned around and ran for my life. What’s wrong with those folks? Why did they want to offer their lives as sacrifices to that ancient tomb? 

It was really absurd.  Since the villagers were affected by the Corpse Scattered Essence, their bodies were weak. I was able to ditch them not long after they had started to chase me.

I gasped for my breath and sat by a big tree to rest. From a distance, I looked back to see them.

The villagers stood on the lakeside and looked at the water as the gold-threaded cedar coffins were sinking. The folks sighed and cried at the scene.

In the end, Old Zhao stood up and cursed, “Those two bastards! No matter what, we must capture them. They’ve offended the Scarlet Spirit Saintess. If we don’t calm her wrath, we’ll all die due to those crystals. Only when we sacrifice them to the Scarlet Spirit Saintess, will we be able to enjoy a happy life.”

“Go get them! We must capture them!” All the villagers looked frantic and started yelling. “They’ve offended the Scarlet Spirit Saintess. She’s not going to spare us.”

Once one was brainwashed, it didn’t matter how weak they were. The frenzy got the better of the villagers, and their energy levels were boosted. They scattered and searched around like crazy.

I sighed. The Corpse Scattered Essence was really intimidating as it could turn so many villagers into soulless puppets.

I swiftly turned around and hid behind the big tree. I contemplated things for a while. Why did that Scarlet Spirit Saintess brainwash those villagers? Why does she want them to sacrifice their lives as offerings to the ancient tomb?

I stayed hidden and didn’t dare to fall asleep all night. At the break of dawn, I was both mentally and physically exhausted. However, I didn’t dare to rest and directly sneaked back into the village to check the situation.

The villagers had said that the Scarlet Spirit Saintess wouldn’t spare their lives. 

Since they had failed to sacrifice me, she would punish them for sure.

I felt that some evil cult had brainwashed those villagers. During the course of history, evil cults had always tried to deceive people and take advantage of them.

The only difference was that the leader of this cult was a ghost.

I discreetly intruded the village and climbed up to a luxuriant locust tree to observe the situation below.

Given the time, Li Mazi should be about to return. I felt more confident with that thought.

It was just 6 AM in the morning. The exhausted villagers hadn’t left their warm beds yet.

Right at this moment, a horrible shriek arose, which broke the silence of the early morning. A woman ran out of her house. To my horror, her body was covered with blood and she looked shocked.

“Somebody help! Please come! My son, Zhuzi, is in trouble!” The middle-aged woman was terrified. She couldn’t even run to her gate and stumbled and rolled to the ground.

Soon after, people went over to help. They asked her about the situation. More and more people gathered.

A moment later, a large group of people had entered her house. Right after that, retching and gasping sounds arose. I could even hear someone kneeling and begging for mercy.

I saw Old Zhao on his knees. “Honored Scarlet Spirit Saintess, we’re going to capture those fugitives right now. Please, don’t be angry! Don’t be angry!”

Then, he stood up and got out of the house. The other folks followed after him.

After they had all gotten, Old Zhao gathered everybody. His voice was resolute. “The Scarlet Spirit Saintess said that if we can’t find the escaped sacrifices, then there’s no need to mention wealth, honor, gold, or silver. We shouldn’t even dream about continuing our lives!”

All the villagers were scared and asked Old Zhao to report to the Scarlet Spirit Saintess that they were going to catch the fugitives immediately.

Then, they grouped people together. Groups of three or five people were formed as they headed toward Heavenly Dragon Lake to search for me.

After all the villagers were gone, I slid down the big tree and went to see how tragic Zhuzi’s death was.

Before I entered the house, I was overwhelmed by a thick smell of blood. It was really nauseous.

I took a deep breath and pinched my nose as I took each step forward.

When I saw the situation in the room, I was horrified.

A dried body was hung down from the ceiling. Blood dripped to the ground as the body swayed.

The corpse didn’t have a face. The victim’s face had been peeled off when the victim was still alive, which left bare, gory muscles. It was truly frightening.

Also, the peeled face was stuck to the bedroom door! The hollow facial skin seemed to have a life of its own as it gazed at me. I felt my scalp going numb and shivered all over.

Since I was frightened, I backed off and prepared to leave the place. The scene made me too uncomfortable.

However, a shadow suddenly flashed in front of me. Then, something cold tightened around my throat.

Someone was strangling me with a rope! I was shocked and subconsciously wanted to turn my head around to see.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a person wearing black clothes. I couldn’t see his appearance, but I could feel his murderous aura.

This man wasn’t from this village because his figure was unfamiliar.

This person was strangely strong. I was afraid that he had graduated from some martial art school. I stretched my arms to resist, but the man suddenly pulled my neck and dragged me to the floor. I struggled hard, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t escape his stranglehold.

The man sat on me and pressed onto my body. He wore a black mask that concealed his face. However, his eyes were familiar. I was sure that I had seen him somewhere.

However, I didn’t have time to remember where I had seen him as I couldn’t breathe.

I struggled in desperation. Luckily, I managed to grab a chair and hit him hard. The chair broke, but the man was unfazed. He continued to strangle my neck, his eyes sparkling with morbid desire to murder me.

One again, my life was being hung on a slim thread.

My eyes blurred, and my brain was starting to lack oxygen. My strength slowly drained.

My life was literally over this time. However, I was unwilling to die as I didn’t even know who my murderer was…

The moment I had almost given up, a small thing jumped off the ceiling beams. It chittered and attacked the man’s face.

The man was bewildered. He screamed and loosened the rope around my neck. Then, he rolled away from my body.

I greedily took in the fresh air then turned to look at him.

The man wearing black clothes was rolling on the ground. Both of his hands were clutching his face. Grabbing his face was a red-haired rat, which looked almost like a red hedgehog. No matter how hard the man tried, he couldn’t get the rat off his face.

A series of footsteps came from the gate of the house. I was scared and looked at the source of the noise; I was afraid that the villagers came back.

But when I saw Senior Shu’s small figure, I cheered up. Senior Shu was like a rat that had homes everywhere. I saw him almost everywhere I went.

Senior Shu sniggered and revealed his two big front teeth. “Kiddo, did you just get beaten up? Tell me, how are you going to repay me this time?”

I panted and waved my hand. “You can have anything you want, but let’s just capture that man first!”

“All right.” Senior Shu readily agreed. Then, he started chanting something inaudible.