Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 495: Besieging Cao Cao in the Eight Diagrams Formation

The rat heard me. It jumped a few times on my shoulder, then dashed forward like a lightning bolt.

I ran afterit. Soon, Inoticeda wisp of Yin energy that was quitesimilar to the Yin energy that had swirled above Li Mazi’s head.

After around ten minutes, I saw a shadow pulling Li Mazi’s ghost ahead of me. Li Mazi didn’t want to go with it, and was trying toresistat every step.

I exhaled in relief once I sawLi Mazi’s complete soul. I strode forward, shouting at the shadow, “How dare you! You stole a living man’s soul!”

The shadow was startled andshivered. He took a few steps back, talking in a dark and glum voice, “He unearthed my body. I’m taking revenge…”

The shadow pestering Li Mazi was undoubtedly Zhang Yang’s ghost. Although he hadstrong resentful energy, he was a new ghost. He was still afraid of me. I made good use of thispoint, yelling, “You fool! You’ve been deceived! We were there to help investigate your death. We wanted to find the real murderer!”

“Is it true?”Zhang Yang’s expression froze, his face puzzled.

I took the chance and used the Hundred Ghost Pouch to collect his and Li Mazi’s souls. Then, I turned to find the rat. I wanted to ask it to take me toSenior Shu.However,it had alreadyleft.

It seemedSenior Shudidn’t want to show up. Otherwise, he would have saved Li Mazi already. I sighed andreturnedto the Police Bureau.

While crossing the small bridge, I heard the water splashing underneath. As I was remindedabout thescene from before, my scalp became numb. I closed my eyes andsprintedaway.

Along the way, I became increasingly worried that Cao Cao would wreak havoc and kill more people while I wasn’t in the Police Bureau.I rushed to the guest room as soon as I entered the building.

The arrangement in the room remained the same. Li Mazi was lying on the bedwhileChief Liu was sitting on the edge, looking at the Eight Diagram with a stern face. When I entered, he heaved a sigh of relief. “Howdid it go?”

“Everything should be fine now…” I answered him,askinghim to leave right after.

When I was alone in the room, I released Li Mazi’s soul and chanted the spell to make his soul return to his body.

Li Mazi started to breathe as soon as his soul returned. His three Yang flames were burning again. However, as his soul had been affected by Zhang Yang’s Yin energy, his Yang flames were still weak. Thatwaswhy he had yet towake up.I placedhis bodyatthe center of the formation.

I could protect him there, and I could even use him tolureCao Cao.

Afterward, I invited Chief Liu to the room to wait with me.At thismoment, the wind had subsided outside and snow started to fall.

At first, the snowflakes were as big as rice grains. However, they grew bigger with time,reaching the size of afeather. Snow fell and stacked on the tree branches in the courtyard, eventually breaking them.

It was the first time I had seensuch a strong snowfall.I couldn’t help butgoout to watch. The entire world seemed to have only one color, with the gray sky connected to the whiteearth. This was the most beautiful naturalscenery I had ever seen.

Chief Liu followed me. He brushed the snow off his shirt, asking,“The snowfall is getting heavier. Would that thing still come?”

“It certainly will!” I sounded resolute.

We were talking aboutCao Cao.He wouldn’tlet a stormor snow hinder him from what he wanted to do.

As soon as I said that, I heard the wind howlingand rushing towardthe Police Bureau.

My spirit was boosted.“Here he comes!”

Ipulled Chief Liu to hide behind a trash bin. After all,the wind was so fast that we couldn’t get into the house before it.

As soon as we hid away, Cao Cao entered the gate of the Police Bureau. His figure flashed and reappeared in the dormitory.

He went to Chief Liu’s room first. Seeing no one there, he went to Li Mazi’s room.

Seeing that, Chief Liu sweated in fright. His voice shivered as he spoke,“That was incredible!”

Then, he gave me a thumb-up.

I shook my head with a smile andturned to look at Cao Cao.

After seeing no one in Li Mazi’s room, Cao Cao eventually went to my room. My door was left open so that he could see Li Mazi lying inside at first glance. However, he didn’t get in, and only paced back and forth in thesamespot.

“Young master, what’s he doing?”Chief Liuwas puzzled.

Iput on a seriousface andaskedChief Liu not to talk. I fixed my eyes on Cao Cao, my heartracing.

I just realized I had underestimated Cao Cao’s mistrustful nature.He would have entered the room if I had closed the door. Butasthedoor was wide open, he wouldn’t take the initiative to get in.

Ifthis continued, all of my preparations would have beenin vain. And, it would be even more difficult to subdue him later.

What you feared the mostwould eventually come true!

Cao Cao lingered at the door for a while, then he turned to leave.

I couldn’t be subtle anymore.When he passed by our hideout, Ijumpedout from behind the trash bin, yelling, “Blacky Cao!”

Cao Cao was the second son of his family,and he had a dark skin tone. When he was young, people had always made fun of his dark skin. Blacky was the nickname people had given him, which he hateda lot. Thatwaswhyhe turned around right awaywhen I yelled his nickname; his eyes turned red as he gazed at me.

My plan was toprovoke him andquickly runto my room. However, I tripped when I jumped out, landing on my face like an idiot.

Cao Cao stormed after me. Although he couldn’t behead me now, he would still be able to hurt me!

Thesword’s cold light was reflected on the white snow,blindingmy eyes.

I wanted to run, but it was too late.SoI directly rolled on the ground. At the same time, I grabbed a handful of peanuts andthrewthem at the Seven Star Sword.

Chief Liu had prepared the peanuts while we were waiting for Cao Cao. He wanted to drink some liquor with peanuts to warm up. However, they became quite handy forme at the moment.

Cao Cao changed his expression when he saw the peanuts. He was frightenedandbackedoff, which was out of my expectation. The peanuts could only damage his Yin energy a little bit. He didn’t need to react in such an exaggerated way.

However, it didn’t end here. Cao Cao took a few steps back to avoid the peanuts, but his Seven Star Sword got hit, sending sparks everywhere. Then, it disappeared.

“What the heck…?”

I dropped my jaw, notbelievingwhat I saw.I couldn’t understand why a divine weapon was so easily broken.

However, before I could pull myself together, Cao Cao laughedand threw himselfin the snow. Then, something even more surprising happened—the broken Seven Star Swordrecovered. When Cao Cao got up, the sword was radiating cold light in his hand one more time.

“Why are you still standing there? Hurry, get in!”

I didn’t have time to think much. Before Cao Cao came, I pulled Chief Liuand rushedinto the room. Then, I banged the door shut.

I realized that the Seven Star Sword hadrecoveredthanks to the Yin energy Cao Cao absorbed from the snow.

Water had Yinproperties. Thatwaswhyspirits and ghostsoften liked tolivein rivers or wells. Snow was asort of frozen waterwith highly-concentratedYin energy!

Moreover, while falling from the sky,thesnowflakes had absorbed the dirt in the air. Whenthe snowpiled up on the ground, it looked white and clean, but it was actually filthy underneath.

Chief Liu patted his chest andlookedat the door. He asked me cautiously, “Did he leave?”

I closed my eyes, although still ‘looking’ at the door. I saw Cao Cao lingering there.

I then explained to Chief Liu.“No, he’s hesitating, deciding whether to enter the room or not.”

But I still hadn’t figured out how the peanuts could smash the Seven Star Sword.

The peanuts I used were fried ones, whichhad thin Yang energy. But if they were enough to hit and break the Seven Star Sword, it could only mean one thing—the sword was fake!

Actually, after Cao Cao was forced to offer the sword to Dong Zhuo, the Seven Star Sword had disappeared from history. Luo Guanzhong, the author of ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms,’didn’t mention the sword in his book. I was certain that the sword wasn’t returned to Cao Cao later. If so, the sword in Cao Cao’s handwas just a counterfeit. It could have been made of wood or mud. Thatwaswhy it couldn’t even withstand a light attack.

I was afraid ofhimbecause ofthe sword. But now, Cao Cao didn’t seem so dangerous.

“Chief Liu, don’t worry. We should just wait.”

Around ten minutes later, the closed door was blown open. Cao Caocharged inwith bloodshot eyes.Seeing the three of us sitting at the center of the room,he hesitated, carefully watching the Eight Diagrams underneathour feet.

“Hahaha, it’s the formation that peasant ZhugeLiangused to play with.Are you tryingto make yourself look like a joke?

Cao Cao recognized the Eight Diagrams. However, he ignored it anddashedforward.

“Success!”

I couldn’t control the joy in my heart. Chief Liu and I removed Li Mazi from the Eight Diagrams. Then, we pulled the rope.As the rope was pulled, the raincoats and fabricswe used to cover the mirrors were all lifted. Except for the direction towards the door, the other sevendirectionsbegan to reflect light.

A white halo burst from the center of the formation, directly imprisoning Cao Cao.

Actually, when Chief Liu and I were taking those steps, Cao Cao could haveseizedthe time to leave the Eight Diagrams formation. However,hemissed the chance due to his initial hesitation.

His face changed when he saw the white halo. He knew he had been trapped and that itwouldn't beeasy to escape. Heused his hands to hit his head and fell to the ground.

At this time, he was facing the most perilous gate of the formation: The Death Gate! It didn’t look special to the naked eye,but to people in this business, the Death Gate had mountains of skeletons that fumed green smoke. In the distance, I could still feel the strong breath of Death. Ibacked off out of reflex.

“What are you looking at? I see nothing over there.”

Chief Liu studied the door, notgetting what was happening.

I smiled, then dripped two drops of oxtearsfrom a small bottle on my palm. I used my finger to smear the ox tears on Chief Liu’s eyelids. “Take a looknow!”

Chief Liu turned and looked. His face instantly changed. “Can we escape this place?”

“Don’t worry. After I deactivate the formation, the Death gate will disappear.”

Then, I slowly stepped forward, respectfully bowing to Cao Cao. “Chancellor Cao, please receive my greeting.”

Cao Cao knew he was imprisoned; his face paled. Under the light from seven mirrors, he was like Sun Wukong after having beenconfined by the Band-tightening Spell. He kept hitting his own head, his face twistingdue to the pain.

He had attempted to escape from the Death gateseveraltimes. Ultimately, he failed.