Otherworldly Merchant

“Pop! Pop!”

Leeches burst one after another, and the piece of paper was now dyed red.

Shortly after, the paper started to act as if it was a dry sponge; it began to absorb the blood. The sheet that was as thin as a cicada wing swelled up, with the rough surface starting to smoothen. Now, it looked like a piece of skin.

Senior Shu carefully picked up the remains of the dead leeches. As the seconds ticked by, the piece of paper looked more and more like skin… human skin, to be precise.

We all grimaced as we could vaguely guess the mystery behind this piece of paper. We assumed that it was human skin.

Senior Shu knew this kind of paper and the threat it brought. He didn’t wait for the paper to suck enough blood to fully recover. He took out a talisman and threw it toward the sheet of paper.

A flame ignited and started to burn. Soon after, it enveloped the paper.

I looked at Senior Shu’s pained expression. I knew he couldn’t bear to see his talisman go.

Li Mazi went to Senior Shu and asked in a fearful voice, “Senior Shu, this piece of paper, is it made of...”

Senior Shu threw him a glance then gave a slight nod. Li Mazi shivered.

Someone had used human skin to make a book. It would be strange if nothing abnormal happened.

As the flame burned, the human skin began to release the smell of burnt tissue. It slowly curled up and made more crackling sounds.

While we were watching and thinking about the situation, a smaller flame detached from the big fire and flew toward me. The flame filled my whole field of vision, and hot air blew in my face.

When it arrived in front of me, the flame turned into a human figure covered in fire. He shrieked in pain and charged toward me.

His shrills were the same as the monsters from the Hollywood movie ‘Alien.’ Before I could react, the man jumped onto me and pressed me to the ground. He hugged me tightly, just as though he wanted to die with me.

Instinctively, I drew my Sirius Whip and gave it a lash. The Sirius Whip hit the man, but it couldn’t harm him much.

At this critical moment, I thought about the Big Dipper Sirius Spell. If I used this spell, all of my physical strength would be drained, and I would be in a weakened state for several days. However, I didn’t have the time to consider that much. My life was more important.

As I started chanting the spell, I suddenly heard a rooster crowing. The burning figure seemed to have received a strong attack. It left my body and flew out of the window.

After the figure left through the window, it drifted away with the wind and disappeared. The piece of human skin gradually turned into ashes. Amidst the ashes, I vaguely saw a Chinese character that was written with a brush. It was the character for ‘grievance.’

I exhaled in relief. That thing is finally gone.

I quickly got up from the ground and checked my chest.

I had a burn on my chest, and the black color had seeped into my skin. Although it didn’t hurt or feel itchy, the spot felt a little numb. Perhaps it was a psychological effect.

Zhang Ai walked toward me, looking at me with an odd expression. “...Are you okay? Why did that thing attack you? Are you a jinx or something?”

“Enough of your nonsense!” I panted in rage and glared at Zhang Ai.

I then turned to Senior Shu and asked, “Senior Shu, that thing managed to escape, right? Without the otherworldly item gone, the ghost will have to find another place to hide in. The best place for it to hide would be an uninhabited area. I’m sure it will attack people again.”

Senior Shu nodded. “Sigh, this freaking item is really hard to deal with. Zhang Ai, you better take us to see that Wordless Heavenly Book. Right, how many pages did that book have?”

Zhang Ai shook her head and said, “I didn’t really pay attention.”

I understood the meaning of Senior Shu’s words.

When he asked about the number of pages in the Wordless Heavenly Book, I guessed he had assumed that each page of the book had a resentful soul.

Earlier, Zhang Ai told us that the people in charge of the evidence room had heard many cries coming from the room, which kind of proved this possibility.

A single soul was enough to threaten our lives, and we had no idea how many were hiding in that book!

We couldn’t delay this matter, so we rushed with Zhang Ai to the Police Department. We needed to see that Wordless Heavenly Book.

On the way there, Senior Shu was worried about my burn marks. He asked, “Is there anything unusual about your burns?”

I touched the burn marks. Besides the numb feeling, there wasn’t anything abnormal about them.

Senior Shu’s expression turned even more serious. He warned me, “Now that you have ghost marks on your body, evil creatures will prioritize you when attacking. You must be cautious at all times.”

I gave him a wry smile. There were so many people at the scene, and the Longquan Villa was trying to deal with Zhang Ai. As such, why did I become the target? Did the Longquan Villa change their mind? Or, did that evil ghost attacked the first person it saw?

When we got to the police station, we first went to the morgue to check the corpse. It was charred black, and there was a big hole in its belly, which exposed the victim's internal organs. Since it was kept in a freezing cabinet, there were pieces of ice all over the organs.

I looked at the corpse’s fingers. Sure enough, his ten fingers were very well-preserved. They still had color and were flexible enough.

At first glance, this seemed a case of spontaneous human combustion. When spontaneous human combustion happened, the fire would start inside the body and burn outward until nothing was left.

Thus, it was strange that his fingers weren’t burned.

Li Mazi seemed to notice something. He asked in surprise, “What’s this?”

Li Mazi was squatting and studying something. The morgue only had a dim, incandescent light. I had to squat next to Li Mazi to see what was there.

There was a small altar underneath the bed in the morgue. It included a tray of fruit offerings and a small incense burner. There were freshly burned ashes in the burner.

Since we were too far earlier, I didn’t smell the joss sticks. But as soon as I squatted down, I could smell the aroma clearly. These joss sticks hadn’t been burning for long.

As we were watching, a gruff and rude voice came from behind us. I was startled and shivered.

It was an old man with three joss sticks in his hand, who looked very pale under the dim light. He limped toward us with a cold smile on his face.

“Who are you?” I subconsciously asked.

The old man didn’t reply. When he came closer, I noticed that he had wrinkles all over his face and a goatee.

The old man looked at Zhang Ai with a discontented face. “Officer Zhang, you’ve finally shown up. I’ve been looking for you for days.”

Zhang Ai wore a bitter smile. “Uncle Liu, why did you want to see me?”

”You already know the reason,” said Uncle Liu. “I’ve told you many times that you should either cremate this body or get me a companion. You ignore me because you think I’m a petulant old man, right?”

Zhang Ai was embarrassed. “Uncle Liu, please don’t say that. I’ve been working very hard on this case. Don’t worry, I’ll fulfill your request very soon.”

”Don’t try to deceive me,” Uncle Liu said. “If you don’t deal with this corpse today, I’ll quit.”

Zhang Ai hurried to explain, but Uncle Liu ignored her. He held the joss sticks in his hands and respectfully walked toward the bed. Then, he planted the sticks into the incense burner and muttered, “Please, make yourself at home and forgive the offenders.”

Senior Shu observed Uncle Liu then asked, “Uncle, who told you to place the incense burner here?”

Uncle Liu glanced at Senior Shu and asked, “What? Is it illegal?”

“No, it’s not that.” Senior Shu explained, “It’s just that you’re doing it wrong. You won’t be able to calm the resentful soul this way. Quite the contrary, you’re enraging it, which might lead it to harm people. Look at the smoke. There are no wisps rising up, right? It’s because the God of Death is eating all the wisps of smoke, while the victim can only watch helplessly. If you were in its shoes, wouldn’t you be angry as well?”

Uncle Liu had believed Senior Shu’s explanation. He prepared to extinguish the joss sticks.

Senior Shu awkwardly stopped Uncle Liu. “Don’t do it. The God of Death is enjoying its meal. If you take the offerings away, you’ll make it angry, which would cause more trouble.”

Uncle Liu was shocked. “What should I do?”

Uncle Liu was a superstitious man. That was why Senior Shu could easily persuade him. No wonder he was so afraid of that corpse; the psychological factor also played a role.

Senior Shu smiled. “You can just leave this mess to us. Before they take the corpse away, we’ll stay here and help you watch the morgue.”

Uncle Liu was overjoyed. “Yes, please do. Thank you for your help!”