Otherworldly Merchant

“Do you think we can trust that He Kui guy?” After Li Mazi said that, I felt interested in this case. 

Li Mazi laughed and shook his head, shooting me a meaningful look

We had seen this a lot. Unfilial children made their parents die with a grudge, and they were only scared when their parents came back from the dead to pester them. Moreover, when they came to ask for my help, they didn’t tell me about the horrible things they had done to their parents. That was why Li Mazi and I agreed that He Kui was lying or omitting the fact that he and his wife weren’t filial at all. 

Still, ghosts were ghosts. I couldn’t just ignore the fact that a ghost was troubling an innocent kid! 

When we arrived at Baijia Village, He Kui was waiting for us at the village entrance. When he saw us, he rushed to us, and excitedly grabbed my hand. “Master Zhang, you’re finally here.” 

It seemed Li Mazi had told him about me. I didn’t talk nonsense and asked him to take us to his house. 

He Kui looked hesitant. Li Mazi waved his hand in dismissal. “Quickly, tell us if you’re experiencing some trouble.” 

“Master Zhang, I have something here. Please take a look.” He Kui hesitated for quite a long time before he carefully took out a longevity lock charm from his pocket. 

At first glance, the longevity lock charm looked like it was made of pure bronze. However, it had been oxidized in some corners; it didn’t look like a valuable item. The strange feature about this longevity lock charm was that it had fresh mud and dirt stuffed at the carved slits on its surface. It looked as though it had just been unearthed. “What’s wrong with this lock charm?” 

He paled and puckered his lips. After a moment, he stuttered, “My father brought it to my house.” 

“What?!” Li Mazi was observing the longevity lock charm. After hearing that, he looked scared and threw the lock charm at me. I made a slight frown and asked He Kui to continue. 

“After I returned home from the South Sea, my little girl wasn’t getting better. Her situation was getting worse. Moreover, my wife dreamed about my father more often. I almost cracked last night, which is why I called Mr. Li to help me. Unexpectedly, this morning, I found this longevity lock charm on my daughter’s bed! I’m sure my father brought it to my house. I know it’s the lock charm my father always kept with him when he was still alive. When he passed away, I buried this lock charm with him.” 

“Where is his grave? Could you take me there to have a look?” 

If the dead had given away their grave goods, it normally meant they wanted to use these grave goods to exchange for the living recipient's life! 

However, in most of the cases, the dead just wanted to trick the living and make the living their partner. It was some sort of otherworldly marriage. Still, I was sure that the old grandfather wouldn’t have such an idea toward his granddaughter. That was why I wanted to go to his grave. I wanted to understand the meaning behind his actions. 

He Kui didn’t refuse my proposal. He led us toward the paddy fields. He stopped at a location that looked lower than the fields around. A medium-size grave was situated in the middle of that piece of land. 

There was only one grave in this area. I didn’t wait for him to show me the way and took the lead. I bowed to the grave before carefully assessing it.

I had spent a good time observing it, but I didn’t find anything wrong. The only thing was that I saw only a bit of Yin energy, which was rather unusual. 

This grave was located in a lower position than the land around, which allowed the water and cold energy to congregate around it. In theory, the grave should have thick and furious Yin energy. Seeing that it was relatively clean, I thought there might not be a corpse down there! 

“Master Zhang, did you find anything?” 

He Kui looked at my grimace, and he panicked as he seemed to figure out something. I told him my guess and asked if we could open up the grave to confirm it.  

He was bewildered at first, but when he heard that we should open up the grave, his face turned sullen. “I’m not sure about that. Is it okay if we don’t open the grave?” 

“I see. Then, we’ll only observe the situation for now.” I nodded as I understood what he was feeling. His father should rest in peace. If we didn’t feel hopeless about what to do, we shouldn’t unearth him.

I looked at the grave for a while and found nothing problematic with it. Then, I followed He Kui to visit his house. 

His house was a blue brick house with a tiled roof. It looked really old, though. Although they could live in this rickety house, it was the worst-looking house in this village. 

“Why didn't you renovate the house?” I sounded skeptical. 

He Kui blushed and embarrassedly told us the story. “This is my father’s house. After I graduated, I got a job in the city. When I got married, I spent almost all of his savings to rent a house in the city. However, after I lost my job, I couldn’t pay the rent, so we decided to move back here.” 

I disdained this man, but I understood that his miserable situation was surely related to his father. However, I didn’t want to discuss this with him. Instead, I asked, “How is your daughter?” 

“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Last night, she didn’t cry. She had a good sleep.” 

When we talked about his daughter, He Kui finally had a smile on his face. 

Li Mazi chimed in, “Could it be the effect of the longevity lock charm?” 

“Eh?” He Kui didn’t react for quite a long time. In the end, he spoke gingerly, “If so, my father wouldn’t have tortured us right from the start…” 

After he said that, Li Mazi didn’t talk anymore. They both turned to me. 

I had thought about what Li Mazi had just mentioned. Many elders didn’t like their daughters-in-law, but they all loved their grandkids. Because of a grudge, Mr. He had pestered his daughter-in-law but that didn’t hinder him from loving his little granddaughter. However, I thought that something else was scaring He Kui’s daughter, not his old man. 

“Yeah, it’s possible.” 

Li Mazi nodded to show that he agreed with my assumption. He Kui’s face turned complicated. He looked both doubtful and sorry. 

As soon as we entered his courtyard, we heard a child crying. Her cries were getting louder and louder. He Kui was worried and rushed to the house. Li Mazi and I followed him. Then, we saw a young woman sitting on the edge of the bed. She was comforting her crying baby. When the woman saw us, she hurriedly brought the kid to us and begged us to save her daughter. 

At first glance, I could already confirm that this little girl was being pestered by something foul. Her face was ash-gray. Her heavenly temple was dark, and I saw a vague purple cloud above her head. 

Little kids could see foul beings because of the spiritual purple cloud above their heads, which also represented the kid’s fate. As kids grew up, this spiritual cloud would slowly seep into their bodies and become their life essence. 

The little girl’s spiritual energy was dispersing bit by bit. If things continued like this, she would die in three days. I hurriedly adhered a Yang Flame talisman on her forehead to protect her life. Then, I started to assess this room. The room was filled with a black mist that torrentially rolled toward the bed. 

It was no wonder that the purple spiritual energy on her head was eroded. Staying in this room was no different from soaking in Yin energy for the whole day. Let alone a little girl, even an adult would be harmfully affected! 

He Kui’s wife’s face was haggard. I knew the Yin energy here had affected her as well. I asked He Kui to open all the windows and doors and then continued to watch. Strangely, the Yin energy in the room didn’t disperse. Even when the wind blew in and disturbed the Yin energy, after a while, the Yin energy congregated again and twirled above the bed. 

“What’s going on?” I frowned, muttering to myself. 

“He Kui, Li Mazi, move that bed to another place. I want to see if there’s something underneath.” 

Except for dust, there was nothing else under the bed. Frighteningly, the Yin energy continued to move and spin above the bed! 

I asked the two men to move the bed to a few more locations. However, no matter where they put it, the mass of Yin energy followed it. 

As Li Mazi saw that I kept watching the void above our heads, he knew there was Yin energy there. “Did you find the origin of the Yin energy?” 

I shook my head. That mass of Yin energy kept spinning over there, but I couldn’t find where it originated. 

Fortunately, the vortex of Yin energy had only moved around the bed. I picked up the baby and left the room, but it didn’t follow me. It meant that foul thing wasn’t aiming at the baby. He Kui had thought that his kid had caught a cold, so he didn’t bring her out of that room. But he had accidentally put the little girl in danger. 

He Kui’s wife immediately rushed into the room to gather some stuff and moved the baby crib out of the room. 

Indeed, as soon as the kid was settled in her crib, the purple cloud above her head stabilized. I asked her parents to tell me her date of birth. I wanted to use the Soul Beckoning Technique to help her recollect her spiritual energy. 

But as she was just an infant, her spiritual energy was feeble, and it was difficult to gather once dispersed. I could only collect part of it. However, she would recover naturally if we could assure that her family wasn’t pestered again. 

After we had solved the little girl’s dangerous situation, the couple heaved a sigh of relief. They continuously thanked me. I just waved my hands. “It’s all right. However, I can’t see where the Yin energy is coming from. I need to observe it again tonight.” 

He Kui nodded. He asked his wife to cook us something.

Li Mazi and I were starving. We quickly finished the food and took a nap. 

At night, I asked He Kui’s family to stay and rest in the living room. Li Mazi and I hid in the child’s room, waiting!