Otherworldly Merchant

After Qin Minghao’s wound was treated, the Qin family took him home. To prevent him from hurting himself again, they had to put him in a straitjacket. Moreover, there was always someone watching him to prevent him from running away.

Qin Minghao was so enraged that he tried to bite his tongue off to kill himself, which led his family to keep his mouth stuffed with a medical sponge.

As a result, Qin Minghao began to stop eating. Mr. Qin tried to talk him out of it, but he didn’t listen. In the end, they reached an agreement. If Mr. Qin freed him of his restraints, he would eat again.

Mr. Qin was helpless, so he had to do as Qin Minghao had requested. His brother actually kept his words and started to eat again. However, every night, he’d run to the river and yell at the sky for treating him unfairly. Then, he’d attempt to kill himself.

The guards had to stop him every time.

It wasn’t realistic to let him continue acting like that.

Mr. Qin eventually remembered the Zhang family in Jiangbei. Given his brother’s condition, he was either pestered by some evil spirit or was suffering from a mental illness.

However, they were pretty sure that it wasn’t a mental problem, which left them with only one conclusion. He had encountered an evil spirit! That was why he decided to seek help from the Zhang family. Although he wasn’t willing to let outsiders know about this private matter, he didn’t have a choice.

The Zhang family attached great importance to this matter as the Qin family was a big client of theirs. They immediately sent several experts to help. Of course, they had to sign the non-disclosure agreement.

After asking for some details, the four experts understood the situation and prepared to subdue the soul in the sword at night time.

However, the resentful energy in the sword was really massive. It was beyond what they had imagined.

In the end, the formation the four experts had set up backfired on them. They grabbed the sword and tried to cut their own throats.

The strangest thing was that after the sword absorbed human blood, the originally blunt edge had become much sharper. It could now easily cut a small tree.

After that, the Zhang family sent more powerful members to deal with the otherworldly item, but the outcome was the same. They couldn’t finish the item and almost lost their lives.

As such, the Zhang family no longer dared to act recklessly. They called for a meeting to come up with a solution.

Eventually, an old man who was my grandfather's assistant in the past remembered my grandfather’s words from back then.

They realized that the seal on the otherworldly item had expired.

My grandpa was a capable man and could only seal that thing; he wasn’t able to subdue it. This proved that the soul in the item was very intimidating. The higher-ups of the Zhang family all agreed that they had to find the one who tied the knot in order to untie it.

They guessed that my grandpa had used some secret technique of his branch to seal the soul and concluded that I might know it as well. That was why they had sent the gold-toothed man to invite me to join this case.

After listening to him, I fell deep in thought.

I had a lot of doubts, but the biggest one was the origin of the blood-drinking sword. Just where had it come from? An otherworldly item was a physical entity and couldn’t appear out of thin air.

“Mr. Qin, do you know anything about that sword?”

Mr. Qin said, “When it first appeared, I thought it looked familiar. I felt like I had seen it before. But I couldn’t remember when and where… After we took my brother to the hospital, a servant called from home. The servant said that they found an open passage in my brother’s room that led to a cave. There was a fine agarwood box in the cave, but the box was now empty. When the servant told me that, I finally remembered that fifteen years ago, a strange old man had come to my house to deal with some paranormal activities. Eventually, he buried something in my brother’s room. At the time, I was just a teenager, and I wasn’t allowed to ask about these kinds of things, so I don’t really know much. However, I suspect that the old man was the one who buried the sword in my house fifteen years ago.”

There was no doubt that the strange old man was my grandfather.

Thanks to the information I got from the Zhang family and Mr. Qin, I could conclude that my grandpa had buried that sword there. Qin Minghao was eventually bewitched by the departed soul, and he had unearthed it.

Mr. Qin saw me sink in my thoughts. “Do you have a solution yet?”

I looked pensive and said, “The Zhang family has various methods at its disposal. Did they figure out the origin of the sword yet?”

Qin Minghao was a little surprised. “I’m really busy, so I don’t think they would report such things to me. Gold-toothed, come here.”

The gold-toothed man rushed over. “Mr. Qin, do you need anything?”

"Do you know anything about that sword?”

The gold-toothed man nodded. “I do.”

“Good. Please tell Mr. Zhang what you know,” said Mr. Qin.

I had something on my mind, so I wanted to confirm my theory and see if I could find any additional clues.

However, I was a little disappointed that their assumption wasn’t different from mine.

From what Mr. Qin told us, I had a rough idea of where that otherworldly item had come from.

There was a famous story about a suicide that took place at the Wu River.

Back then, Xiang Yu, the powerful Hegemon King of Western Chu, had managed to overthrow the tyrannical Qin dynasty.

However, he later fell into Liu Bang’s treacherous trap. His great army was besieged at the Wu River, and only twenty-eight of his men survived.

Xiang Yu’s subordinates talked him into crossing the Wu River to return to Jiangdong and gather his army one more time, but Xiang Yu answered, “We’ve lost our momentum! It’s not that I, Xiang Yu, am not capable. It's the heavens that want me dead!”

He then led the twenty-eight surviving horsemen and rushed towards the enemy army. Wherever he went, blood streamed like a river. Xiang Yu had killed several enemy generals.

His horsemen cried while looking at him. They all believed that it was the heavens’ will to destroy Xiang Yu; he could never lose otherwise.

Since it was the heavens’ will, even if he was the invincible Hegemon King of Western Chu, how could he fight back?

Xiang Yu took his Thunder Sword, pointed it at the sky, and shouted. He cursed the heavens for being blind. Then, he killed himself with that sword. The twenty-eight horsemen followed him and committed suicide as well.

The Wu River surged and gobbled up the invincible Hegemon King of Western Chu, making him disappear into the river of history.

No one had ever thought that Xiang Yu’s soul would wake up again after several thousand years.

Everything seemed to match. When Qin Minghao was controlled by the soul, he cursed and shouted at the sky, saying, “The heavens wants to destroy me! Even if I’m a ghost, I’m still a hero. I’m going to find you and ask for justice!”

I sighed. When the Hegemon King of Western Chu was alive, he was considered invincible. Now, his resentful energy was massive, and he didn’t even fear the heavens.

Could an otherworldly merchant even deal with him?

As I thought about this, I admired my grandpa even more. He was able to seal Xiang Yu all by himself, which proved how skilled he was.

Mr. Qin saw me contemplating for quite a long time. He said, somewhat dejected, “I didn’t expect that item to be so scary. If you turn down this case, I won’t blame you. Just consider that one hundred thousand renminbi as your traveling fee.”

Then, without waiting for my answer, Mr. Qin turned and left.

The gold-toothed man and Li Mazi winked at me and asked me to accept the money and leave. After looking at Mr. Qin, I knew he didn’t really count on the Zhang family and didn’t want to embarrass them further.

However, I wasn’t ready to give up. I had a feeling that if I followed the Thunder Sword, I would be able to see my grandfather one more time.

In the end, I slapped the table and jolted up. “Mr. Qin, I accept this mission.”

The gold-toothed man closed his eyes in despair.

Li Mazi was likewise bewildered.

Mr. Qin was also surprised. He turned and asked, “Do you know how to deal with this situation?”

“No,” I said. “But, how can I know if I don’t give it a try?”

“Haha.” Mr. Qin suddenly laughed oddly. “It’s good for the youth to be bold, but you shouldn’t act rashly…”

“I’m not being rash,” I directly interrupted Mr. Qin.

Mr. Qin shrugged. “Mr. Zhang, if something unexpected happens, I’m afraid we won't be able to protect you.”

“I’m not afraid of death,” I answered coldly.

I was rather tame usually, but when I had to abide by my principles, I was more stubborn than anybody else.

Since this was related to my grandfather, I had to see it through to the end. Moreover, I had a very important clue now. Something was wrong with Mr. Qin. He acted as if he did not want this matter to be solved.

The gold-toothed man was so worried that he began sweating. While wiping his sweat, he apologized to Mr. Qin. “Mr. Qin, forgive me, but I need to talk to him.”

“No need,” I sneered. “I’m accepting this task in the capacity of an otherworldly merchant. It has nothing to do with the Zhang family.”

The gold-toothed man reluctantly sat back on his stool.

Mr. Qin also had no choice but to sit. He restored his elegant bearing, and his odd expression was nowhere to be seen. “All right, you’ll have to sign this life contract then. I know a bit about your profession, and no matter what happens to you, we won’t be responsible.”

Li Mazi was scared. He gently pulled the hem of my shirt and signaled at me not to sign. However, I didn’t hesitate to receive the contract and signed it, handing it back to Mr. Qin right after.

Mr. Qin was surprised. I guessed he didn’t expect me to be this direct as I didn’t agree to sign the non-disclosure agreement earlier.

However, he didn’t say anything. He checked the document and stored it away. He then stood up and motioned at us. “All right, follow me.”

Mr. Qin walked in front while Li Mazi was behind me. The gold-toothed man gave me a wry smile, but he didn’t go with us.

I turned around and looked at him. “Why are you lingering? Let’s go.”

The gold-toothed man waved his hand. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to accompany you, Young Master…”