Otherworldly Merchant

"What’s wrong?” I asked. 

"Your shop’s on fire!” 

My body shook as if I’d received an electric shock. When I turned around, I noticed that the paper objects gathered in front of my shop were burning. The scene looked especially scary in the quiet of the night. 

When paper burned, the flames should be light yellow. In this case though, they were red, and they’d dyed my whole antique shop in a blood-red light. 

One had to keep in mind that only souls permeated with incredibly strong resentment would emit flames of this color!

Is it possible that a very strong soul resides in the jade lamp?

I continued to observe. The locked door of my shop suddenly opened, and a bloody eye gazed at me through the red flames.

There was no pupil, only the sclera and a trickle of blood at the corners. It was filled with endless hate that it wished to release.

I didn’t have the guts to watch further. I turned around and firmly closed the door, leaning against it and gasping for breath. 

Yin Xinyue asked me, “What happened? Why are you sweating like that?”

I replied, “I’m fine, it’s nothing.”

Yin Xinyue pondered for a while and then asked, astonished, “Is there an otherworldly item at your place? Did you collect another one?” 

I waved my hand hastily, signaling her not to make a fuss. 

Yin Xinyue seemed discontent, but her voice was full of excitement. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I’ve been looking for something stimulating since we returned from Hong Kong. If I’d known earlier, I would’ve invited my friends here and shown them a new world.” 

I reprimanded her, “Don’t speak. Listen to the movements outside, and don’t make that thing come to our door.”

Yin Xinyue nodded and stuck her ear to the door, listening carefully. 

However, the world outside had already quieted down. There was no hint of sound, and even the howling of the wind was barely audible. 

Once again, I pushed the door open and peeked at my antique shop through the crack. The paper objects were already burned to a crisp, and the bloody eye was nowhere to be seen. 

That bloody eye earlier was too surreal... was I hallucinating?

After waiting for a while and confirming that there was no danger, I opened the door and told Yin Xinyue to bring back the camera she’d set up outside. We had to check the recording. 

I’d heard that souls with strong resentment could affect even electronic devices. As such, there was a chance that the camera had captured their silhouette! 

But, after carefully replaying the recording a few times, I heard neither the shriek of the woman nor saw the bloody eye. 

Disappointed, I was about to ask Yin Xinyue to turn the camera off when the screen suddenly shook.

I gazed at it, feeling that something was fishy. 

Then, a horrifying face suddenly popped up on the screen, opening its mouth wide and twisting its face into a creepy smile.

The figure was very close to the camera, and its face filled the entire screen. 

That face scared me out of my wits, and I was able to recover only after a while. I asked Yin Xinyue to stop the video and started searching my memories.

At last, I remembered whose face was that, and I was filled with fury. Fuck! Isn’t that the old farmer that sold me the jade lamp?!

Why did he appear here in the middle of the night? He’s definitely related to the strange events I’ve been experiencing these last few days!

I sprang the door open and dashed out. The anger made me forget all fear. I roamed in the dark night, looking for the old farmer. 

It seemed that he knew about the lamp’s strangeness and deliberately tried to harm me. 

Yin Xinyue followed behind me. “Did you discover anything?” 

I said, “Someone is trying to harm me, and there’s a chance I might die.” 

Yin Xinyue was finally scared. “If you don’t have a solution, how about asking that Daoist priest in Hong Kong’s Mitu Temple for help?”

I didn’t want to bother the mysterious man. If there was a first time, there’d be a second, and then a third. It would end up harming my business and career if it became a habit.

I declined her suggestion. “No need... but, I won’t just sit by and wait for death. I’ll find a way to counterattack.” 

Yin Xinyue was very excited and hurried to cheer me up. 

Later, we didn’t return to my shop and spent the rest of the night in the shop I’d rented. 

Seeing me exhausted, she offered to give me a massage to relieve my fatigue. I couldn't resist the temptation and accepted her offer. I lay on the sofa while she opened her legs and sat on my back, giving me a massage.

I probably wouldn’t forget that feeling for the rest of my life. The ambiguous atmosphere and the feeling of ecstasy that came along with her intoxicating fragrance...   

The night passed, and as soon as the sky brightened, I hurried back to my shop. 

Everything looked normal. The interior of the shop hadn’t changed a bit. I observed the area where I’d buried the jade lamp, and there was no change, either.

I unearthed the jade lamp and wiped away the quicklime layer. The lamp looked the same, except that the black on the handle had faded a little.

After seeing the fading black, a name suddenly appeared in my head: Myriad Corpses Lamp!

This name was like a bomb exploding in my head. My mind went blank. If it was really the Myriad Corpses Lamp, I was in great trouble! 

As the name suggests, the Myriad Corpses Lamp was a lamp that had been soaked in corpse oil. Not in the oil of one or two corpses, but hundreds of them. 

Jade had a high density, which made it hard for ordinary liquids to seep in. However, corpse oil was an exception. The black color on the handle was due to the corpse oil seeping into it.

Since there was some corpse oil that wasn’t fully absorbed, it meant that someone had recently died in the hands of the jade lamp! 

Watching my gloomy countenance, Yin Xinyue couldn’t hold back her curiosity and asked, “How is it? What happened?”

I took a deep breath and replied, “This thing is called a Myriad Corpses Lamp, and it’s a very dangerous item! You can now go home. I’ll stay in the shop to catch ghosts.”

“Catch ghosts? That sounds awesome! I’m going to accompany you. How can I help you?” 

“You don’t need to do anything,” I reprimanded her. “Go. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”  

“No matter what you say, I’m not going to leave.” Yin Xinyue smiled and applied some lip gloss to her lips. “I’ll shamelessly keep pestering you, hehe!”  

“Hehe.” I grimaced and mimicked her laughter. “Do you really want to help me?” 

“Of course,” Yin Xinyue blurted out. “I really I want to help you.” 

“Good,” I said. “I want you to bring me several bottles of normal saline solution. The higher the concentration, the better.”

“You want an intravenous drip? You know that it’s not good for your body, don’t you?” 

“I have a use for it.” I glared at her. “Don’t talk nonsense if you don’t know things.”  

Yin Xinyue looked at me, aggrieved, and then left obediently. 

Shortly after, she returned with a bundle of saline solution bottles. “This is highly-concentrated normal saline solution.”

I found a bucket and poured all of the solution into it. Then, I threw the jade lamp into the bucket.

Around one hour later, the normal saline solution had become turbid. Black liquid had appeared in the water, and after I’d fished out the jade lamp, I found a layer of black liquid on its surface. 

I gathered the black liquid and burned it with my lighter. The liquid slowly burned, gradually turning from black to blood red. In the end, only some fragments were left. 

I gasped. “It’s indeed a Myriad Corpses Lamp!” 

“How mysterious.” Yin Xinyue gawked. “It’s my first time seeing impurities getting extracted from jade ware.” 

I asked her, “Do you know what this black thing is?” 

Yin Xinyue shook her head. “No, I don’t.” 

“It’s corpse oil,” I said. “To be more precise, it’s the oil collected from roasting a dead body that’s no more than five days old.” 

Yin Xinyue was dumbstruck. 

I continued, “It seems I’ll really need your help tonight…” 

Yin Xinyue asked, “What can I help you with?”

I smiled. “I’ll keep it a secret for now as I don’t want to scare you. You’ll know in due time.” 

I went to that shop selling paper objects and brought some dolls, money, houses, and jewelry made of paper. Once home, I waited for night to fall. 

Yin Xinyue asked me, “Why do we need to act at night? Isn’t it safer to do it in broad daylight?”

I replied, “It would indeed be safer, but also useless. The soul residing in the jade lamp isn’t going to come out in broad daylight. How are you supposed to catch it if it doesn't even appear?” 

Yin Xinyue nodded, embarrassed.