Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 470: Bitter Coldness

Sincethe lobbywasburned down, there was no electricity. At night, we had to use candles to light up the place.

Li Mazi understood that I was about to summon the spirit. “Why didn’t you blowoutthe candles?”

“There’s no needas itsYin energy is verystrong. It won’t be afraid of the candles.”I thoughtabout the encounter from this afternoonandshook my head.

We hid in a corner of the kitchenand stayedstill, watchingthe deep hole.Baldywas scared but alsocurious.

Time ticked by.There was no indicationthat the spirit would come out, so webegan tofeelimpatient.

I thought that itwasn’t interested in bat bloodand that we would have to do it againtomorrow. But right when I wasabout to ask the people to go home, the candlesin the room suddenly flickered.

Then, a strong wind swept up from the deep hole,which broughtwith it drops of cold, blood-like liquid. The temperatureinthe room dropped sharply.

I knew it was about to come out. I turned tolook atthe mirror in the kitchen, tryingto see what it was. Unexpectedly, the wind camequicklyand leftfast.Everything happened inaround ten seconds. The surroundings calmed down after that.

“LittleBrother Zhang, did it come out?” Li Mazi’s voice camefrom the corner. He was puzzled.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.” The mirror didn’t show anything.

Baldysuddenly shriekedand pointedat the hole. “Impossible!”

I followedthe direction of hisfinger. The bat blood I had pouredearlierwas gone, leaving onlya fainttraceon the ground.

I was surprisedand tooka few steps forward to check. The soil inside the hole was frozen altogether!

“Isn’tthistooexaggerated?” Li Mazi followed behind meand droppedhis jaw when hesaw the scene.

Until now, the spirit hadn’t attacked us. However,itsYin energy was enough todestroyus.Once again,it didn’t appear to be an evil spirit.

Before Icould learnwhat it was, Iknew that I shouldn’tcarelessly attack it. I didn’t want to provoke this spirit.

“You should buy some offerings. We want to offersome cakes, incense, and fruits tothe spirit inthishole.Sincewe can’t play hard, we’llhave to do it the soft way.”

Baldybought the items I had asked forandstacked the offerings into a big pile by the hole.

I wanted to let the butchers go homeas theywouldn’t beuseful even if they stayed. However,Baldyinsisted that they stay with us. We could feel safer with more people at the scene.

I didn’t comment.We allcollected some blankets and gathered in a corner. From there, we could observe the hole. No one dared to sleep.

After midnight, everybody was tired. Gradually, they started to doze off. My mind began to blur. However, my intuition told me that the spirit would show up after midnight. I had to stay awake until it came.

In the end,my tirednessgot the best of me. I couldn’t defeatit. I pulled a blanket tightly aroundmyself and driftedinto sleep.

I didn’t know how long I had slept,butI was awakened by someone’s footsteps. At first, I thought someone was going to the toilet. However, the sound didn’t stopand kept coming from all around us.

I couldn’t sleep anymoreandsubconsciously cursed, “What the heck are you doing? Don’t you want to let people sleep?”

Afterscreaming, I was wide awake. I turned to check the people on my left and right. They were all sleeping. No one was walking. Iimmediately understood that itwas the spirit!

Li Mazi and the otherswoke up. “What’s going on?”

“Did you hear the footsteps?” I asked.

They all shook their heads.

Were my nerves so sensitive that I hadahallucination?

I walkedto the mirror to see if there werefootprintson the ashes. If the footsteps were real, there should be some traces.

However, when I came to the mirror, I found that all the ashes were blown awayand had now piled upat the foot of the wall.

“What’s going on?” Li Mazi was scared. Li Mazi was different fromBaldyand the other butchers. He just needed to look at me to know what Iwas thinking.

While talking, he gently touched the mirror. As soon as his fingers touched thesurface,the huge mirror shattered!

Theglasshad broken intocountless thumb-sized pieces, scatteringon the ground.

Baldyand the others heard the noise, so they came to see. At first glance, their facespaled in fright.

“Guys, you should all leave.”

I looked at the glass shards for a long time before I pulled myself together. I helplessly waved and dismissed theothers. I now knew I hadunderestimated the problem. My actions couldhave beenunder the spirit’s control the whole time.Perhaps, to the spirit, I wasn’t different from a clown.

Baldyalso recognized the seriousness of the situation. He didn’t ask the butchers to stay anymore.

Soon, all the butchers left. Only a bearded man remained. He looked at the glass shards on the ground then at me. His eyes sparkled as if he had something he wanted to tell me.

“Gao Erhu, if you need to say something, spit it out. Don’tactlike a sissy!” urgedBaldy.

Gao Erhu took a deep breath. “A few days ago, the mirror in my house also shattered like this.”

“What?” My pupils shrunkas I shifted my gaze to him.

“A fewdays ago, strange things started to happen in my house. Every night, at around midnight, my wife and Iwould beawakenedby aninexplicable coldness. We always felt thatsomeonewasgazing at us.” Gao Erhu remembered.

Baldywanted to say something, but I shot him a glanceand signaled athim to notinterruptGao Erhu’s story.

“Later on,whilemy wife was taking a shower, she touched the mirror of the washstand. The mirror cracked and shattered. At first, I thought the mirror was old so it broke by itself. But now, it seems my houseis also haunted!” Gao Erhuwas sweating. He had to wipe his forehead afterhe finished talking.

I thought the spirit that had haunted Gao Erhu’s house could be somehow related to the spirit that had wreaked havoc inthishotel. Anyway, since I had no clues, I decided to go to Gao Erhu’s house to see if I could help him.

Baldywas anxious after I said that. “Mr. Zhang, you can’t just leave me like this!”

He thought that I wanted to take this excuse to dodge his case. I smiledand pattedhis shoulder. “Don’t worry! If I’veaccepted this case, I will take care of it to the end.”He heaved a sigh of reliefand leftwith us.

That night, the three of us followed Gao Erhu to his house. Although his house was in the countryside, it wasn’t far fromthehotel. Due to the unbalance of the economy, his house was just a cottage. Thatwaswhy he had tried his best to sell pork in hopes ofmovingto the city later.

When we entered Gao Erhu’s house, I saw a massive cauldron in the yard.

“It’s used to boil asphalt. We use asphalt to pluck the pigs’hairs.”

As it was around two or three o’clock in the morning, the moonlight was bright and the sky was clear.A coldwind blew through the airand rattledthe iron hooks that were used to hold the meat. The noises they madeweren’tpleasant to the ears at all.

Li Mazi gulped and whispered, “Erhu, it feels really cold and dark in your place. Aren’t you scared of living here?”

“How could I not be scared?” Gao Erhu looked even more panicked than Li Mazi.

“Shh!”Baldysuddenly signaled us to stop talking. Then, he moved to meandcarefullysaid, “Mr. Zhang, I feel that the thing that has messed up my hotel is here!”

“Howdoyou know that?”Baldywouldn’t lie to me. If he saidthat, he must have found something.

“It’s my intuition!”Baldygritted his teeth. “Ihavestayed in the officeon thesixth floor of the hotel since we started decoratingthe rooms.Inthe beginning, everything was normal.Buta few daysbeforethe grand opening,the entire floor felt so cold every night. I thought I was just exhausted, soI bought a lot of ginseng to eat. However, I couldn’t resist the coldness.That’s why I think thatthe spirit I’veencountered and the one Gao Erhu has encountered are the same!When I walked into this yard, I immediatelyfeltthat cold aura. It’s the sameasthe coldness in my hotel.”

After talking,Baldyrubbed his head. “I didn’t do anything bad. Why does it pester me?”

However, to me, it wasn’t some random event.The spirit didn’t decideto pester Gao Erhu andBaldyrandomly.

I carefully assessedthehouse. Immediately, I spotted something wrong with the room on the right of the house.

I closed my eyes and read thesacredtext of Daoism. I triedto calm down tobetter pinpointthelocation. Indeed, that placeexudedstrongYin energy.

The problem started there. I opened my eyesand askedGao Erhu,“After the mirror in your house shattered, didanythingelse happen?”

He searched throughhis memory then shook his head.

“You didn’t even feelthe coldness at midnight?” I found it unbelievable. ThestrongYin energy was streaming unceasinglyfromthatroom, and his house was still calm. It wasn’t logical.

Gao Erhusounded unhappy.“No? Do you hope that something happens to my family?”

“Hey, do youwant ourhelp or not?” Li Mazi fumed. He pulled meand started to leave.

I then recognized thatmy question wasn’t worded properly. IcalmedLi Mazi then told the others about my doubts.

Gao Erhu paledand stammered,“That’sthe toilet in my house! Master, you have to help me! Otherwise, I can’t live here anymore!”

“Don’t be scared. We should take a look then.”

I asked Gao Erhu to open the door. Li Mazi grabbed meandworriedlyasked, “LittleBrother Zhang, are we going in there without anytools?”

When Li Mazi asked me, I suddenly remembered the time we had dealt with the weapons list. We were almost killed because we were careless.

“You have a point. Go withBaldyto the car to fetch my Sirius Whip. You can alsopick other itemsthat you think might be useful,” Isaid toLi Mazi andBaldy.

I listened to Li Mazi’ssuggestionjust to be safe. Li Mazi noddedand walked with Baldyout of the yard.

The distance was just dozens of meters, so I didn’t wait for him. After Erhu had opened the door for us, I followed him into the house.

He turned on the lights and asked me to have a seat on the sofa. Then, he went to his bedroom to wake up his wife sothatshe could greet us, too.

I smiled. I didn’t expect that this burly, rough-looking manto havemanners.However, not long after hewasgone, he rushed out with a panic-stricken face. Tears filledhis eyes.“Master, please save my wife!She’s… She’s dying!”

I dropped the cup of teaand dashedto his bedroom. His wife wasonthe bed, sleeping. There was a thick layer of frost on her face,which gaveher theappearanceof a frozen corpseyou would see inamorgue.