Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 501: Desperate Battle

As soon as Ilaiddown, someone banged on the door. It was Zhou Tian’s wife. She looked worried. “Master, my mother-in-law just called. She said thattheevil thing has come to trouble her. Please help her!”

“Dammit it.” I patted my thigh,put on my jacket,and descendedthe stairs. The otherworldly item was hurt. Itwas so angry that it attacked the grannie. Howcould I make such a mistake?

I leftthe neighborhoodand hopped ina taxi.After givingthe driver five hundredrenminbi, I asked him todriveat maximum speed to the grannie’s hotel.

When I enteredthe hostel, I saw the grannie lying on the sofa. She didn’t look hurt at all. Iexhaled in relief and asked,“Auntie,are you okay?”

She didn’t answer me. Instead, she asked,“How is my son? Is he safe?”

She wasn’ton thesame pageasme. I suddenly felt that something was wrong. I frowned. “Auntie, after I left, did something happenatthe hostel?”

“I’m just an old woman. What could happen to me?” Auntie noticed my stern faceandseemed to realize something. She quickly asked,“Is something the matter?”

“Somethingdoesn’t feel right.” I didn’t explain muchand rushedto the single-story house behind the hostel. The box on thealtar table had disappeared.

The grannie entered the house after me,droppingher jaw in shockright after.“Before you came, I checked onceand it was still here. Where did it go?”

“It seemsitcouldn’t stand still…” My face darkened.

I took out the compassand checkedaround the altar. When Imovedinthe Southeast direction, the compass handle shook hard.Thisindicated that there was some Yin energythere and that the box had possibly escapedinthat direction.

I slowly moved forwardwhile followingthe handle. I then found a one-square-meter wide holeinthe Southeast corner of the house.

The box must have escaped through that hole. Whenthe granniesaw me frown, she explained, “That’s acoal hole. We usedit avery long time agoto throw cinders away.”

“Auntie, stay home and wait for me.” It was pointless todwell onthis hole further. I told her to stay andentered the hole. Then, I invitedaspiritto carry me.

Itwassaid thatoneshouldn’t opentheireyes whenthey were invitinga carrying spirit. However, I needed to use the compass to track the otherworldly item, soI hadno choice.

This time, I had invited a little boy wearing a red dudou[1]. His head was giantand his eyes sparkled with a blue light.

The boy was shivering.Perhapshewas scared of the compass in my hand.“Don’t worry, kid. This compass of mine is used to deal with evilspirits. Just take me tomydestination, andI will reward you.”

The boy understood meand movedfaster. I followed the compass handle. Eventually, I confirmed that the box had gone to Zhou Tian’s house.

When westopped, Idroppedsome blood on the ground to reward the little boy. A small ghostsuch ashim could easily vanish. Thatwaswhy hehadagreed to help meinexchange for some drops of blood topreservehis soul.

He wasaself-reliant ghost, whichwasmuch betterthanthe ghosts that harmed people to strengthen themselves!

I hurried to return to Zhou Tian’s villa. Before I entered his house, I saw his wife sitting at the entrance with both handsplacedon her knees.She lifted her head, her blank eyesgazingat the roof. She looked really strange.

I wanted to ask her what happened, butacommotion occurred. Things werebeingthrown in the house. I turned and stormed into the house, catchinga wisp of a red shadow flying toward Zhou Tian’s bedroom.

Although itmoved very quickly, I had caughtaglimpse of it and sawthat it didn’t have legs. Thisspiritdidn’t havealower body!

I noticed that all the movable itemswereonthe ground, like the chairs, table, small decorations, and even the teapot.They were allbroken into pieces.

I was surprisedand thoughtthat thisspiritwas rather odd. It liked to throw things and wassostrong that it could shatter all of the items.

I wasdeep in thought when someone suddenlyscreamed in the room. Then, the same throwing commotion resounded.

All of my defensive tools were left in the grannie’s hostel. As I had just raced against thespirit, I didn’t have time to get them. For now, all I could do was to pick upacactusfromthe groundand dashinto the bedroom.

The instant I got into the room,ared mist attacked me. I didn’t have time to chew the cactusthat the attack hurled metothe ground.

“Cough…” I felt something sweet in my throat,which made me spitblood. Then,Ifelt a sharp pain inmy chest. I felt asif I was beingdeep-friedwith hot oil.

Sweatrolleddownmy foreheadas Irolledon the ground like a drug addictin agony, my bodyshaking uncontrollably. I knew I just needed to chew onthepiece of cactus to ease this pain, but my hands were shaking too hard. I couldn’t hold anything.

At thismoment, someone got outofthe room. From the corner of my eye, I was scared to see that it wasZhou Tian’s wife!

She had a mockingfaceas she assessedme. With a broken hacksaw blade in her hand, she looked downatmeand sneered. “You’re courting death!”

It was the spirit’s voice. Zhou Tian’s wife was possessed.

But then, I realizedthat this made no sense at all. If she had been possessed, who was the woman sitting at theentrance?

Before I could analyze the situation, I felt a sharp painin myankle. I stooped and sweated in fright. The woman was sitting on my thighs. She was usingthe metal hacksaw blade to saw my leg! I didn’t even haveanystrength in me to resist!

At the moment my life was at stake, the door sprang open one more time. A dim shadow flew fast toward the woman’s hand.

As itcamecloser, I recognized it was the little boy wearingthered dudou; the same boy that hadbroughtme here. He didn’t stop when he entered the roomand bitZhou Tian’s wife’smiddle finger.

In the human hand, the middle fingercontains most of thebloodessence.Whenever themiddle fingerissqueezed,Yang energywillbe released. Thatiswhy itispopular to use chopsticksto squeeze the middle finger. It can expel the ghost when people are possessed.

The little boy’s sudden attackhadsavedme!

The spirit from the box wasfocusedon sawing my leg, so it couldn’t react in time when the boy attacked it. Zhou Tian’s wife screamed, and the legless red shadow left her body, turningto attack the boy.

The spiritgrabbedthe boy, making itscream in pain. I gritted my teeth and sat up. I quickly pickedup a piece of cactusand chewed it. Soon, the heat expanded in my mouth, and the pain in my chestsubsided.

“Screwyou!”

Icouldn’t think of other ways of attackingthespirit,soI bitthe tip of my tongue andspatthe blood on thespirit. The red shadow sizzledand fumedsmoke.

It released the boyas it felt the danger. Then, like a tiger watching itsprey, thespiritglared atme.

I knewthe spiritwasfrightenedand hesitant,but after I hadspat my blood,I didn’t have any other means to attack it. The ball cactus could keep me safe, but it couldn’t help the boy.

Neither of usmadeamove. We just staredat each other in a deadlock.

I knew it would attack me soon, so I madea bet.I turned and picked up the Sirius Whip. Ipretendedto read some spells andlashed atthe spirit.

Thespirithesitated for only one second. Then,before the whip could hit it, it turned into a red mistand fled.When it completely disappeared,I heaved a sigh of reliefand slumpedtothe ground.

The boy flew to meand gaveme a shy smile.At thismoment, I didn’tfind himas terrifying as before.His smile wasrather kind. Isaid, “Kid, you want to follow me, right?”

My grandpa used to tell me thatlonelylittle ghosts often wanted to stay with otherworldly merchantsbecausethey didn’t want tovanish forever.

If they were luckyandfollowed the right master, they couldeven revive. The little Daoist boy Chuyi had kept was a good example.He, too, had the chance to come back to life. Unfortunately, he perished to help me.

It was a goodmoveto adopt a little ghost. They weredifferent fromtheevil ghostswhoharmed people. However,I didn’t have the habit of keeping ghosts with me. I just wanted to find a suitable ghost for Chuyi.

Indeed, the little boy nodded when I asked him. Then, he stooped his headand playedwith his fingers, notdaringto look at me.

I guessed he was afraid that I wouldrejecthim. I smiled at him and found a piece of white paper. I foldeda crane,dropped a bit of blood on it,and gestured tothe little ghost to enter the crane.

The boy jumped in joy. He got on his knees and gave me three kowtows before turning into a wisp of smoke. Then, he enteredthe paper crane.

I put the craneinmy wallet and went to the bedroom. Zhou Tian wasweaklybreathing, still on his bed. The bronze box was placed next to him.

It seemed thespiritwas scared andhadn’treturned to the otherworldly item.The situationwas exactly what I wanted!

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dudou

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.