Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 539: Help! Help!

When I got up, I saw that the sky outside was gray and hazy. I put on more clothesand walkedto the window. Instantly, I felt chilled-to-the-bone.

Another autumnhad come. It became colder and colder day after day. I thought there would be a sharp dropintemperature soon. I rubbed my palm andreluctantlyopened my shop.

These days, Yin Xinyue was busy, so shedidn’tspendthenightin the shop. My breakfast was always bought duringthe dinner of the previous night. I just needed to heat it in the morning.

After breakfast, I heldateapot in my handsandleisurelysaton my chair. I watched thepeoplemoveback and forth outside. I thought I was indulging myself a lot and wished to enjoy my life like this every day.

WhileI was having a nice dream, Li Mazi’s voice came from outside. Hestartled me, andI almostfelloff my chair.

“LittleBrother Zhang,bad things have happened!”Li Mazi looked panic-stricken.As he talked, he didn’t stoplookingoutsidetheshop.

My good mood wasshattered. I feltannoyed and scoffed athim. “Why are you so worried? What happened so early in the morningthat made you likethis?”

“There’s a bloody man outside. Right at your door!He said hehadsomething very urgent to tell you and that he needed your help…” Li Mazi pantedand gaspedfor his breath.

After listeningto him, I guessed this could be my next business case. I walked out of the antique shop. Not far from mewasaman who wassitting on the sidewalk. He looked pale, and half of hisface was coveredin blood. His clothes were torn and tattered.It looked like he had justescaped a brutal fight.

After lookingat him, anuncomfortable feeling rose inmy heart. “Hey, brother! Brother, wake up!”

He didn’t react to my call. I suddenly had a bad feeling about this.I hastilyreached under his nose to check his breathing. Luckily, he was still breathing. I exhaleda deep breath andturned to talk toLi Mazi, wholookeddumbstruck. “Call the ambulance! If you linger here, hecoulddie!”

Li Mazi gave me a nod and took out his phone to callthe ambulance. After the ambulance crew took the man into thevehicle, they asked, “Who’s his guardian?”

Li Mazi was afraid of taking responsibility. He hurried to explain the situation to the crew.“We don’t know him. We found him unconscious in front of our shop this morning.”

The ambulance crew staff had to call the policeas they were afraid that this man would die inside their ambulance.

Soon, two policemen came. They were patrolling thestreet and were in charge ofmaintainingorder and security in my neighborhood.The peopleliving in this area knew them well.

“Mr. Zhang, what happened?”

I told him about the situation. They noddedandtook a few photos of thebloodstainson the ground. Then, they followed the ambulance to the hospital.

I thought that this incident would endhere. However, three days later,asLi Mazi and I wereabout to closethe shop, the two policemen came again.

“That manhasbeen unconscious for three days. He woke up today. As soon as he woke up, he hurriedly asked to see you, Mr. Zhang. He said he needed your help. Hehassomething very important tosay to you.” After talking to me, the policemen took me to the hospital to see that man.

The man had strips of fabric bandage on his head, whichmade him look like anEgyptian mummy.

When we entered his patient ward, he was screaming.“I want to see Zhang Jiulin! Hurry! I need to see him as soon as possible! Otherwise, more people will die!” From his tone and words, I guessed he had encountered somethingfoul.

I frownedand walkedto his bed. I cleared my throat to get his attention. “I am Zhang Jiulin.Didyouget intosome trouble?”

When he sawme, his eyes turned bright. Hecheered upas if he had just grabbedastraw that could save his life. He grabbed my arm and screamed, “Master Zhang, hurry! Come save us!”

“Friend, don’t be stirred up. Calm down, and tell me everything slowly. If I can help you, I’m sure I will,” I said politely as Ipatted his arm.

The man finally calmed downand tooka few breaths to stabilize himself. Then, he carefully arranged his words. “The story I’m going to tell you, I hope to sharewith youonly. We can’t let other people know about it.”

I felt a little awkwardand lookedat the two policemen. Theygave me a forced smile then left the ward.

Li Mazi followed themand politely closedthe door of the room. “I’m his assistant. Please tell us the story.”

The man hesitated for a while. Eventually, he started to talk. “I am Tang Xianzu. I live in Tangjia Village in Zijin Mountain.Duringrecent years, many tourists have come to our village. Then, contractors came to exploit ourland.Whenthe construction teams came, they used excavators to turn up the soil in our fields. At first, the people in my village felt happy and thought that thesecontractorswereveryhard-working.However, after a while, we found that except for digging up our fieldsandleaving holes here and there, they didn’t do anything else. After a short course of fifteen days, they had dug a few hundred holes in our Tangjia Village…”

BecauseTang Xianzuwashurt, when he became stirred up, he couldn’tstopcoughing. I had to bring him a glass of water. I asked him to drinkandtalk more slowly.

Tang Xianzu calmed down and continued the story. Although the villagers all felt the construction teams wereactingstrange, their lands were requisitioned. They didn’t have any right to voice up.

Around a week ago, some good friends of Tang Xianzu came to himand toldhim that they wanted to go to the field and dig some treasures.

It turned out that their village had a special piece of land where no blade of grass could grow no matter what season it was. Evenduringthe drought season, whenall the other fields were dried and cracked,that piece of land stayed the same.

Tang Xianzu had heard from the elders in his village thatthatpiece of land was verystrange. In olden times, the central government had uniformly allocated the fields to the farmers in this village. However, anybody who got this piece of land couldn’t grow anything. When they grewcorn, no sprouts came out of the soil. When they grew rice, theplantsall died. The farmers couldn’t do anything. Gradually, no one wanted this land anymore. It hadturned into a piece of wasteland. Since there was no ownershipofthis land and was located in a remote corner, the construction teams had missed this spot. The kids in this village had always listened to the elders, so they neverwentto that place.

However, those real estate investors had dug more and more holes in the villages, so they seemed tobesearching for something. Tang Xianzu’s friends were smart. They guessed that their villagemight have somehidden treasures. Moreover, itcould be buried in that unwanted piece of land.

The friends got together and planned to go there at night time to see what it was.Tang Xianzu didn’t want to go with them. However,he was afraid that his friends would tease him for beinga coward. As such, hegatheredhis courage andfollowedthem.

At the firststepontothat piece of land, Tang Xianzu felta chill. He couldn’t help but shudder. He was startledby it and insistedthat he go home.

However, hisfriends told him that itwasnormal that the place was cold at night time. They threw him a hoeand askedhim to start digging.

None of them had expected that thatpiece of landwould havestrangely tough soil, which was as hard as reinforced concrete. When their hoes hit the ground, the coiling force tingled their purlicue.However, it also encouraged theminto thinkingthere was something underneath.

Tang Xianzu had exerted a lot ofeffortto dig a hole around half a meter deep. He pantedanddecided to sit down and smoke a cigarette to rest.

But then, rightatthis moment, he suddenly heard his friends scream. “Found it! We found it!”

Tang Xianzu hurried to that area. He saw that one of his friends haddone a good job at diggingwith his hoe and duga big holein theground. Something wassparkling inside.

When he came to thispart of the story, I could confirm that something oddwas inthatland. If itwasa real otherworldly item, would I be able to earn a huge sum this time?

I guessed Li Mazi shared the same thought.Herolled his eyes and urgedTang Xianzu to tell us more details.

Tang Xianzu nodded and continued,“We continued to dig. After a while, we founda sparkling stick.My friends resolutely used their hands to dig the soil around. They wanted to know what that stickwas. However, no matter how hard we pulled, we couldn’t take it out. That stick seemed to be growing inside the earth.As such, we decided to take a buffalo there to pull it. Whenit was completely drawn out, we recognized itwasmore than two meters long, witha shining, pointyend.It wasa spear used byageneralin ancienttimes. Everybody knew thatit wasa valuable antique. My friends hurried to wipe the dust and mud off the spear. They even washed it clean. After cleaning it, we were all surprisedand recognizedthat this spearwasmade of pure silver. The entire spear reflectedcold light!”

When he came to this part, I couldn’t help but feel excited. With my experience, I knew this silver spearhad tobe a great treasure! In ancient times, blacksmithing skills and techniques weren’t good at all.Metal objects wereveryexpensive. Normally, the soldiersused spearswith wooden handlesand metal pointy heads. They would never use pure silver to cast a spear. Thepersonthatcoulduse a silver spear like thismust have been anintimidatingly famous general in ancient times.

Moreover, as far as we knew, because this spear was buried in the ground, that piece of land couldn’t even grow a single blade of grass. It was enough to prove how formidableitsmurderous aurawas! It was able to kill all the living thingsin that land.

After thinking that I was going to gainthissilver spear, the corners of my mouth inadvertently rose.

However, when Tang Xianzu saw mesmile, he was scared. “Is something the matter?”

I then recognized that I was acting awkward.After pullingmyself together, I told him to continue his story.

Then, Tang Xianzu told me every detail oftheevent. After listening to the complete story, I had to snort to vent my irritation.

It turned out when these people saw the benefitsandforgot about their friendship. As soon as they saw the silver spear, they all wanted to make it their possession. No one cared about their long-term friendship anymore. However, there was only one silver spear. They discusseditandeventuallyagreed to weigh it and divide it equally.

They werereallywasting the heavenly treasure!

I didn’t waitforTang Xianzuto finishtalking. I snarled and said. “Did you melt that silver spear?”

“Oh, we didn’t…” Tang Xianzu shook his head repeatedly. “Even though my friends were so excited and happy, I couldn’t feel happy at all. I alwayshad a feeling that thesilver spear was evil. I had that feeling because whenever I touched it,achillwas sent tomy heart! It was socold that I thought my bloodhadfrozen for a moment!”

Tang Xianzu was afraid that they wouldend upinahorriblemess. He suggestedburyingthe silver spear backinits place andtoconsider that nothing had happened that night. However, no matter howhard hetried to persuade them, his friends still insistedon dividingthe silver spear. Tang Xianzu couldn’t talk them out of it.Feeling dispirited, he left.

When he got home, Tang Xianzuwasn’table topullhimself together. He had a feeling that somethingbadwould happen. He was flustered and restlessly anxious. When his wife recognized his abnormal behavior, sheaskedhim why.He didn’t dare to tell her the truth, so he casually found an excuse to comfort her.

Hecouldn’t sleep that night. Every time he closed his eyes, he smelled the scent of bloodthatemittedfrom the silver spear. Eventually, he decided not to sleep. He sat upand leanedagainst thebedrest,playinggameson hisphone.

He didn’t know how long he had been playing when his phone screen blacked out. He thought ithad runout of battery, so hewentto charge it.But when he turned around, he saw a man kneeling by his bed!

Since everything in front of him was pitch-black, he didn’t see that personclearly. He thought it was a thief. Instinctively, he blurted,“Who theheckare you? Whyhaveyou come to my house?!”

However, after the scolding, the shadowstartedto cry. At first, that shadow’s sobbing was low and indistinctive, buthis voice grew louder andclearer as time passed. Eventually, Tang Xianzu was touched. He forgotabout his fears and askedthe shadow,“Why are you crying in my house?”

The shadow didn’t react oranswer hisquestion. Tang Xianzu went to turn the light on. He then sawashadow kneeling by his bed.It had no physical body! It scared theheckout of him.

However, he didn’t want to scare his wife and kids,sohe tried to suppress his fearsand hold in hisscream. The shadow then got up. Tang Xianzu got a glimpse of a headless man wearing a set of armor. Blood was still drippingfromhis cut neck.

As the blood started toform a puddle onthe ground, Tang Xianzu smelled a familiar scent. Suddenly, he recognized it was the sameasthe smell he had sniffed when they dug up the silver spear!

Tang Xianzu was scared outof hiswits. He couldn’t help it anymore and let out a scream. Right after that, his wife opened the doorand enteredthe room. She askedhim if he was all right.

Tang Xianzu got himself together. He turned and looked again, but nothing was there.There was no shadoworpuddle ofblood. He exhaled in relief. Although it could have been a nightmare, he strongly believed that the silver spear wasn’t normal. As soon as itbecamebrighter the next morning, he went to find his friends...

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