Otherworldly Merchant

“That’s good,” Senior Shu said. “I will need to use the remains of those criminals, unearth twenty of them. Remember, the more evil the criminals were, the better. You should go now. Everything must be ready before 8 PM.”

The Chief was startled and looked at Senior Shu with fearful eyes. “Senior Shu, what will you do with those corpses? I’m a government official, so it’s not convenient for me to do these things.”

I was enraged. “Don’t do it then. We’ll no longer take care of this matter. You can just wait for the Five Ghosts to come to your police station again. Since they have dared to intrude the place in broad daylight, their evil and resentful energies have far surpassed that of ordinary evil spirits. In case you don’t know, they can kill people very easily…”

My threat worked, and the Chief repeatedly apologized to us. “Please don’t get angry. I’m going to get it done right now.”

I nodded and asked him to hurry.

Senior Shu asked Zhang Ai to take us to a traditional Chinese hospital. We wanted to buy herb grinding mills and some human blood.

Zhang Ai was puzzled. “Senior Shu, why do you want these strange things?”

“You’ll know when the time comes.”

Of course, I knew what Senior Shu wanted to do with these things. He was going to grind the skeletons of the criminals into powder. However, I didn’t tell Zhang Ai so as to avoid scaring her.

After we had prepared everything, we returned to the police station to rest. We called the Chief, and he told us that he was still preparing the things we needed; it would take him one more hour.

We later discovered that the Chief had contacted a local gangster to get the job done.

Around one hour later, a group of people brought twenty bags into the morgue. They threw the bags there and left in a hurry. I guessed they all thought it would bring them bad luck to stay here any further.

The Chief was very thoughtful. Not only did he move the corpses directly to the morgue, but he also put a tag on each bag that listed the deceased person’s basic information like their name, age, and the crime they had committed.

He told us to be careful as we had to return the corpses after we were done with them.

Senior Shu readily agreed with him.

“Tonight, there’ll be a big fight in this place. I’m afraid it’ll be very tough and dangerous. You should limit the number of people who will stay in the police station. Also, no one should be on duty tonight,” Senior Shu told the Chief.

The Chief agreed.

After the Chief was gone, I read some of the tags on the bags. These people had committed horrible crimes. They raped, killed, burned down homes, and received bribes. There was even one person who had committed treason.

I asked Senior Shu, “Were these people considered very sinful?”

Senior Shu answered with a smirk, “Of course.”

I couldn’t help but worry as the chances of these wicked souls reincarnating weren’t big. If we moved their remains like this, we could anger them, which could put us in danger.

Senior Shu smiled. “It’s okay. When the time comes, I’m sure they’ll be so scared that they won’t even recognize their own corpses!”

Li Mazi chimed in, “Of course they won’t. You are going to crush them into powder, aren’t you? It would be strange if they could recognize their bodies at that time.”

Zhang Ai looked at us with a strange expression. I guessed she didn’t believe that we would grind these skeletons into powder.

Senior Shu said that there was no time to waste, so he started taking action. At first, he found a big basin to break the bones. After breaking the bones, we used the herb grinding mills we had bought to grind the bones into powder.

I wasn’t surprised by the process. However, Zhang Ai couldn’t stand it, and her expression changed again and again. She had tried very hard to put up with it for around five minutes. Then, she left the room.

The three of us took turns crushing the bones, putting the powder back into the bags after we were done. We had ground up all twenty skeletons in less than one hour.

As everything was done, it was now time to wait patiently. Senior Shu wanted us to take action after all the staff in the police station had clocked off.

However, Zhang Ai thought that it would be dark by the time the staff clocked off. Fiddling with these skeletons at such a late time was really scary to her, so she directly called the Chief and asked him to let the staff leave earlier.

After all the staff had left, I went to lock the door to the police station. We then took a walk around the office. With the morgue as the center, we marked twenty areas. Senior Shu asked us to dig a small hole in these marked areas and put the bags of skeleton powder in there. After everything was done, we had to drip some blood drops onto the bags.

I was curious as to why Senior Shu did that, but I didn’t ask. We had to seize the time and do the job.

It was really unnerving to bury the bone powder this late.

After we completed the tasks, the sky was already dark. We then gathered in the morgue and asked Senior Shu what to do next.

Senior Shu’s eyes shifted from Li Mazi to Zhang Ai. “You two shouldn’t stay in the police station tonight. I’m not sure if I can protect the two of you.”

Li Mazi wasn’t pleased. “I’ve experienced all kinds of hardships. Would I be afraid of some ghosts?”

Zhang Ai didn’t say anything. However, I could tell that she didn’t want to leave. After all, we were taking risks to protect her. Since she was the cause of this, if she left, she would feel guilty.

Senior Shu answered, “It’s okay if you don’t want to leave, but you’ll have to stay inside the morgue tonight. You shouldn’t step outside out it as staying in the morgue would be safer.”

Li Mazi was surprised. “Why would it be safer to stay in the morgue?”

“Sometimes, the most dangerous place is also the safest.”

Li Mazi smacked his tongue and kept quiet.

Senior Shu looked at me and said, “Come, let’s have a walk.”

I knew that Senior Shu wanted to tell me something in private. I followed him.

Senior Shu took me all the way to the office and looked at me with a heavy countenance. “Are you scared? You still have time to back off. You can take your woman with you and go somewhere far away. As long as the Longquan Villa people don’t spot you, you can still live the life of a normal man.”

I chuckled. “Senior Shu, what’s the point of saying all of this now? Do you think I still have a way back?”

Senior Shu sighed. “It’s because you don’t know the seriousness of what will happen tonight. If we make a mistake, let alone losing your life, you won’t even have a chance to reincarnate.”

I gasped. What Senior Shu had just told me was beyond my expectation. Originally, I was confident in Senior Shu’s skills, but now, it seemed that not even Senior Shu had faith in himself. I wondered what kind of situation we were encountering this time.

Senior Shu kept silent for a while then asked, “Have you ever heard of the Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts?”

I knew about the Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts. This legend had originated during the shogunate period in Japan. It was a parade of many ghosts and monsters. Wherever they went, corpses laid everywhere and people lived in misery. However, I didn’t know how this was related to this case.

“The black feather they sent us is actually the feather of a catcrow. Catcrows are a sort of half yin and half yang animals. In folktales, they are messengers of the Netherworld that live in the world of the living. They specialize in waking up sleeping monsters and ghosts. The Longquan Villa put a catcrow feather between the pages of the Wordless Heavenly Book to awaken the souls imprisoned in the book. I counted the number of pages. There are one hundred pages, which means that the book is the home of one hundred souls.”

He continued, “I’m afraid those one hundred souls have been awakened already. Tonight is the time they are free to do whatever they want, and they’ll give birth to a magnificent Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts. If we are careless, we won’t be able to control the situation. The formation I have set up is called Fiery Thunderbolt Formation, but I’m not sure if it can subdue one hundred evil souls. Sigh, if the situation goes out of our control, the consequences will be terrible for me as I set up the formation.”

I rarely saw Senior Shu look as distressed as he did today. Since he wasn’t confident about the battle that was going to happen tonight, I knew things could get very dangerous.

We had lost the physiological battle before even starting. I immediately comforted him. “Senior Shu, I don’t think we’ll lost if we work together. Moreover, if we can’t handle it, we still can call the Zhang family for help.”

Senior Shu forced a smile. “It’s useless. I guess the Zhang family is also in trouble. The Longquan Villa’s schemes run deep. In order to deal with a little girl like Zhang Ai, they’ve used such a tremendous otherworldly item. To deal with the Zhang family, they’ll use something even stronger. It would be good enough if the Zhang family can preserve some of its elite force.”

I was startled. It was just the beginning of the battle, and Senior Shu believed that the Zhang family already had the lower hand in the situation. If this continued, it wouldn’t be long before the Longquan Villa eradicated the Zhang family.

I took a deep breath and didn’t dare to think about it further. “Senior Shu, is there any other solution?”