Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 534: Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

No matter what, Hong Tianbao didn’t agree to use strong forceagainst hisfather.Being leftwith no choice, we had to take turnswatchingOld Hong throughthe nights to preventhimfrom running away.

Unexpectedly, Old Hongdidn’t leave the house for a few days.At night, he wouldtormentthe three of us, so wewere mentallyexhausted.

I didn’t dare to relax this time. From the previous fight, I could tell that thespirit’s IQ wasn’t low. Perhapshe was trying to wear us outand find the right opportunity to escape.

Anyway, I couldn’t endure staying up so many nights in a row. Tonightwas my turn to watch Old Hong. After a while, I became tired and sleepy. I slowly closed my eyes.

Drowsily, I thought I heard someone talking. The voice was so close to me that every time that person spoke, the moisture from their mouthreachedmy face. It felt cold and damp, which wasn’t comfortable at all.

I thought Hong Tianbao and his brother were talking. Instinctively, I waved at the source of the noiseand signaled atthem to move away from me and not to disturb my rest.I extended my hand but didn’t touch anything. Nobody was standingor sitting near me.

I got up immediately. I looked around and saw Hong Tianbao and his brother sleeping on the floorofthe living room. I tensed upand turnedto check Old Hong’s room.Thedoor to his room wasopen.

I rushed there to check; no one was inside. I ran out of the house to see. No one was in the yard, either.

While I was thinking where Old Hong couldhave gone, a red flame illuminated the night sky.

Ohshoot, that old manwentto burn people’s houses again…

It was all I could think about.Then, I acceleratedand ranat my maximum speed toward the flame.

When I reached that place, I saw many people surrounding the flames. Hong Tianbao and his brotherranafter me.By lookingat theirembarrassed attitude, I knew they had the same thoughtsasme. Old Hongcould haveset this fire.

The villagers carried water from their houses to put out the fire. The owner of the house was sitting on the ground. He was screamingthat half of his life’s savings were gone…

It took them an hour to put out the big fire. Although no onewashurt, the house was burned down.

I carefully searched through the crowdbutdidn’t see Old Hong. In other words, after he set the fire, hehad runaway. I was afraid that he would do some more damage, so I called Hong Tianbaoand askedhim to go to the field to check.

Later on, Hong Tianbao took me back to his home. Since it was almost dawn, Old Hong would havereturnedhome already. The otherworldly item wouldn’t go out during the day.

Indeed, when wereturnedtohishouse, we sawthatOld Hong’s door was closed. It was obvious that hehad returnedand slept.

I pushed the door, but it was locked from the inside. Iknocked severaltimes. No one came toopenthe door.

Arson was a serious crime. I exchanged looks with Hong Tianbao. Right after that, I kicked the door with all of my strength.

It was goodthatthe wooden doors in the countryside weren’t really tough. I had easily kicked it open. I spotted Old Hong immediately. He looked shockedto seeI hadkickedhis door open.Hegazed at me withhis opaque eyes. A moment later, he finally pulled himself together. He pointed at my noseand scoldedloudly.“You prick! What are you doing?!”

I didn’t have time to listen to his nonsenseand saidcoldly,“Did you setthat house onfire?”

It wasn’t beyond my estimation that he didn’t have any impression of what he had done. I had to exert my effort to explain to him that he was possibly controlled by an otherworldly item. And, that the otherworldly item that had controlled him wasthered turban.

Old Hong didn’t believe me. When he heard that I intended to do something with his red turban, he immediately protected his head and screamed, “You want my red turban? You’llhave to walkonmydead bodyfirst!”

“Hmph, people who become rich inhumanly should be burned to death!”

I then heard a cold voice in my ears, butit didn’t come from Old Hong.Hong Tianbao was smoking quietly nearby, so it wasn’t him, either.

Could it be thatOld Hong had set that house on fire because the house owner had done something inhuman orbecamerich from fraud?

I was surprised.Thisold man had repeatedly mentionedsomefamily and healso talked abouteradicating the Qing monsters. Atthis moment, I seemed tounderstand theorigin of the otherworldly item.

I pulled Hong Tianbaoand askedhim to use the iron chain totemporarilytie and lock Old Hong in his room.

Hong Tianbao knew that his father wasn’t himself. No matter how loud and filthy Old Hongscreamedat his face, he kept an indifferent attitude and locked him up.

Fortunately, nobodyknewthat Old Hong had set that house on fire. We didn’t need to worry about the policecomingto our door. Not long after that, Hong Tianjiang came home. He slumped on the chair and sighed when he saw his father tied up.

Sincethe two brothers were home, I told them about my assumption.

I had a feeling thatthe Hongfamilyhadarelationship with Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement.We were in Jintian Village, the location of theTaiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising.

During the late years of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial courtstopped doing its workand the people were unbearably tortured by the corrupted officials. They couldn’t endure it anymore. At that time, a farmer called Hong Xiuquan stood up. He called the people to join Christianity from the West.He said that peopleshould worship God. Together, they would destroy the Qing monsters. With the helpofYang Xiuqing, Feng Yunshan, and Xiao Chaogui, the Jintian Uprising succeeded.

Hong Xiuquan established a new nation called the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which advocated to beat the local tyrants and re-divide the fields. He proclaimed himself as the Heavenly King. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement soon spread to the entire country.All theTaiping soldiers wore redturbans. They thought if they did that, God would protect them and that no mortal weapons could harm them.

Countless Taiping soldiersfell, but they were replaced by the new waves of soldiers. Thepeople of the great Qing Dynasty were frightened. They had lost a lot of land to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. However, the tremendous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement eventually faileddue tointernal and external troubles. The Qing Dynasty chopped Hong Xiuquan into pieces and put his remains intoacannon. They shot the cannon to set anexample of punishment to the rebels.

I thought that Hong Xiuquan didn’t want to accept his failure. A wisp of his soul had dwelled inthered turbanand waswaiting for a chance to resurface!

Of course, the two brothersdidn’tbelievemy assumption.

Hongtian Baosaid,“Most of the people in this Jintian Village are the descendants of the rebellious soldiers. If it happenedasyou said, whydidn't ithappen toother familiesin this village? Why did it happen tomy family?”

I said nothing but was persistent with my guess since it was the only reliableoneI had until now.

Hong Xiuquanwasthe King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It was normal that he didn’t want to accept his failure. At that time, the Taiping HeavenlyKingdommovement had claimed half of the country. Hong Xiuquan was unwilling to give up this supreme power.

Anyway, the brothers were stunned by my speech. In the end, theydecided to trust me. If wehadthe correct direction,our next moves weresimple. We needed to make Hong Xiuquan accept the fact that his Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was gone. We would need to replaythe wayhis rebellious force was defeated.

However, to ensure nothingwould gowrong, I decided to make everything clear. I told the brothers to find a plan to get the red turban. I needed to check the red turban to see if that spirit was the Heavenly King, Hong Xiuquan.

However, for a few days in a row, wedidn’t havea chance to take action. Although Old Hong was tied up,whenever we wentnear him, he would scream and struggle hard.

The situation was beyond my estimation. I originally thought it was similar to other otherworldly items. Butfrom the current situation, I guessed this otherworldly itemwas very strong. Its purpose was probably to restore the ancient kingdom!

Old Hong had been locked up for three days. Hong Tianbao served him well every day, butsince Old Hong always tried tochase him away, the burlyandfatty manweptsometimes.

Iwassad for him. Itfelt as if asharp thornwas growingin my heart.

Old Hong didn’t cooperate with us, so my investigation had encountered aroadblock. I leaned against the walland thought aboutwhatstrategy I should useto get that red turban.

Old Hong was strangely guarded against me. Last time, Hong Tianbao and I had broken his door.I guessed that the incidentmust havegiven him some trauma.

If the other party had been a little boy, I could have directly taken action. Unfortunately, he was a lankyandsenile old man. If I forcefully took action, I would provoke the spirit in his bodyand maybe even causeOld Hong’s death.

“Jiulin, brother.” Hong Tianbao came to me. He leanedagainstthe wall next to me and slowlysatdown. His image in mymindhadgonefrom a jade trading businessman to a small business boss who had just gone bankrupt. He looked dispirited.

Duringthese pastfifteen days, he was the one that had to bear the mental pressure and strain the most.

I looked at him and didn’t know what to say to comfort him. The current situation wasn’t positive. I could only pat his shoulder to calm him. “Brother, don’t worry. We can solve this.”

He gave me a nod and puffed his smoke deeply. Then, he rubbed his face. He looked better afterward.

After tryingtosmile, he said, “Brother Jiulin,I’m a straightforward person, sojust tell me the truth. Isthe current situationvery troublesome?”

“Yeah,this isrelatively hard to solve! I’ve been watching your father these days. Hismindhas beenaffected. Moreover, he’s really old. Ifthings continuelike this, his bodywon’t be able tobear the consequences.” I told him what wasworryingme.

After listening to me, Hong Tianbao put out his cigarette. “Three days. Give me three days! I promise you I will take the red turban off his head and give it to you.”

Then, he seemed tohave madeup his mind on something very important. In my eyes, his footsteps became heavier. I didn’t know what method he would use to get the red turban, but I was sure it wasn’t a good method.

Except forhandingmeals, Old Hong wouldn’t let anybody approach him. If Hong Tianbao hadacceptedthis tough task, Iknew that I shouldprepare thenecessary items!

I carriedspirit talismans and refined salt with meat all times.Moreover, in a countryside village like this,there were plenty ofgranular foods. I could always get them at the critical moment.

However, I still needed one thing. I needed a top-Yang attribute item to activate the Heavenly Dipper Formation. Mostotherworldlyspirits wouldn’t dare to enter the Heavenly Dipper Formation. But if thespiritwas really Hong Xiuquan, he wouldn’t be afraid of my formation. I needed anotherpillarto supportmy Heavenly Dipper formation!

If the otherworldly item had chosen Old Hong, Old Hong would be in danger. I needed to use the extrapillarto protect him.

Since I couldn’t leave this place and the Hong brothers didn’t want other people to know that his father was in grave trouble, I had to call Li Mazi.

Li Mazi was as despicable as usual. “Hey man, I know you can’t live without me!”

I laughed and scoffed. Then, Ibriefed him about the situation. “Within three days, you must bring the purple clay teapotI gotlasttime to Jintian Village.”

When he heard my stern voice, he stopped teasing me. “I promise that before the sun sets tomorrow, you will see me.”

After hanging up the call, I couldn’t help but smile to myself. I thoughtthat my buddy over there was still useful.

AfterI had preparedeverything, I returned to my roomand tooka nap.I was wornout. OnceLi Mazi came and I got the red turban,it would bethe critical moment.

Ihadto put myself in the best fighting mode beforehis arrival!