Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 541: White Horse, Silver Spear, Charming Luo Cheng

“Yeah, we should check it out, too. It’s on the way,” said the Village Elder. He wiped his sweat.

Although the Village Elder didn’t want to go, hesteeled himselfandtookme there. When we reached a small outcrop, he told me it was up there.

I asked him to stay and wait with Li Mazi. I would go there alone.

Soon, I saw theplotof land. It looked exactly asdescribed. It was barren, and therewasn’t a single blade of grass.There were holes of various sizes. I thought that Tang Xianzu and his friends had done that. Dust and soil blew with the wind,which gavethe place a forlornandeerie feeling.

“Cough, cough…” Suddenly, a chill ran up myspine.I had to jump a few times to warm up. When I felt warmer, I walked toward the biggest hole.

I seemed to see faintdark air filling andrisingfrom the hole. Strangely, the dark airswirledaround me as if it had recognized my presence.

“Isthisa provocation or what?” I mumbled to myself. Then, I smeared oxtearsovermy eyes. Afterward, I scanned the entire piece of land.

Atfirst glance,the sight scared the living daylightsout of me. I almostfellon my butt. The entire land emittedresentful energy. It would be strangeifit could grow plants!

The spot I was standing on happened to be the center oftheland, which had the thickest dark air. I couldn’t helpbut takein a deep breath. What thing could have such intimidating resentful energy?

This amount of resentful energy could kill all the people in the villageasit could change thegeomancyof the place.

However, the otherworldly item had just stayedinthis piece of land. It had never come out to harm people. I supposed the otherworldly item’s owner wasn’t a badpersonwhenhe was alive.

However, he must havedied a tragic death, whichmade a wisp of his soul stay inhisweapon. That’s howtheotherworldly item wasborn.

It also proved that Tang Xianzu didn’t lie to me. He was wounded by that headless horseman, and the headless horseman had shown him mercy.

I didn’t know why, but I had a feeling that this shouldn’t be too hard to deal with, despitethe incidentlookingstrange.It was an otherworldly item with a great deal of resentful energy, but it didn’t want to kill the ones that had disturbed it.It didn’t seem to bea stubbornandevil ghost.

Thatwaswhy I didn’t want to linger hereand wentdown the mountain where the Village Elderand Li Mazi werewaiting.

When Li Mazi saw me, he asked,“Did you find anything?”

I told them my assumption. After listening to me, Li Mazi nodded, but the rims of the Village Elder’s eyes turnedred.Sincehis reaction was so strong, Iasked,“Do you know something?”

He shook his head. However,we could tell that he was thinking otherwise.“There’sa legend people have passed through the generations in our Tangjia Village. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but...” The Village Elder had tears in his eyesas he began to tellus the legend.

It turned out Tangjia Village wasn’t called Tangjia at first. It was called Zhongzi Village.During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, this area was disputed land. After the Sui Dynasty ended, many people claimed the lands and proclaimed themselves as kings. In history, it was recorded as the Eighteen Heroes of the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Amongst the eighteen heroes, Li Yuan had the strongest force. Hemade hiseldest son, Li Jiancheng, the Crown Prince. However,his other son,Li Shimin, was much stronger than Li Jiancheng in majoraspectssuch ascommanding the army, ruling,and solving the matters of the imperial court.

Slowly, Li Jiancheng began to envy his younger brother! He was afraid that his brother would take his title asCrown Prince.Hetried his best to eradicate the generals thatwere loyal toLi Shimin.

Duringthe battleinZhongzi, Li Jiancheng knew that the enemieswerelurking everywhere. However,he still forced Li Shimin’s general,Luo Cheng,to advance!

Thefamous general Luo Chengwasbesiegedandeventuallyfellinto a quagmire. He was killed by countless arrows. In the end, the enemytookhis head as a battle reward. Rumor said that when they burned Luo Cheng’s body, thearrowheadsfrom his body weighed several pounds. It was enough to tell how horrible his death was.

Luo Cheng was a handsome man with invincible spear techniques. He was known as the Stern Cold Spear Charming Luo Cheng.

The loyalanddedicated general Luo Cheng was plotted against by Li Jiancheng. Before he died, all of his resentmentwassent to his silver spear.

Hiswarhorse, whichwasnamedLittle White Dragon, had also jumped into the quagmire to commit suicide.

The enemy was impressed by Luo Cheng’s bravery and Little White Dragon’s loyal heart. They buried Luo Cheng’s remains with his horse in Zhongzi.

Afterward, Zhongzi became the place where people came to show their respect to the hero, Luo Cheng. They built him a temple. However, after the foundation of the People’sRepublic of China, the temple was demolished. The Zhongzi Village was renamed Tangjia Village.

After listening to this story, I felt a little touched. Amongthemany heroes in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Luo Cheng had the worst end.

The Tang Dynasty was about to take over the country, but he was ambushedand waskilled by countless arrows. I felt somewhat lost.

Li Mazi alsothoughtthat somethingwas strange. “Village Elder, why do you look so emotional?”

“I’m considered to be Luo Cheng’s descendant.”

I was shocked. “Isthattrue?” Although I admired and sympathized with Luo Cheng, I had always thought that he was just a fictional character. There was no one like him recorded in the official history.

Unexpectedly, the Village Elderbecamemad after I asked him that. “Hmph! All the crows in this world are black! After Li Shimin got the throne, he forgot about his general, who had bathed in blood to help him. He wanted to keep a clear namefortheLi family, so he ordered the historian to remove the event where Li Jiancheng had plotted against himanderased Luo Chengfrom history.Anyway, there’s no perfectly windproof wall in this world. Even if hewasthe Emperor, he couldn’t muffle all the people. Afterward, the legend of the Stern Cold Spear Charming Luo Cheng spread...”

After talking, the Village Elder became anxious. “Do you think Tang Xianzu and his friends dug up Luo Cheng’s spear? If it’s Luo Cheng’s spirit, please don’t hurt him.”

“It’s possible…” Although I hadn’t seen the spear, from what Tang Xianzu had encountered and the resentful energy I had witnessed up there, I could roughly concludethat thespirit of Luo Cheng was behind this!

If itwasLuo Cheng, I thought I could talk to him and solve this event in peace. I didn’t hurry to see those young men but asked the Village Elder to show me the silver spear.

The Village Elder nodded. “After that event, the folks in our village thought that the spearwasn’tsomething good. They wanted to put it backinits place. However, no one dared to enter that land, so we’ve placedit in a house in the village for you to see.”

Tangjia Village wasn’t big. There was only one small pathinthe village.Still, although we were inbroad daylight,I didn’t see anyone walk along thepath.None of the houses had the lights on.

The entire village was dead silent.There were nodogs barking, either. Normally, peoplewho livedin the countrysidekeptdogs to guard their houses. When those dogs saw strangers, they would bark like crazy.

Thewind blew,which waftedathick smell of blood toward me.Ididn’t feel well as a bad premonitionhad cometo me. It seemed something horrible had happened here.

The Village Elder blushed. Hiseyes bulged incredulously. Since he was too scared, he shiveredas he walked.

“What happened?” Li Mazi askedin a careful tone. Right from the start, he had felt that the Village Elder wasn’t a nice man. He became even more vigilant now.

I couldn’t helpbut becomecautious. The Village Elder shook his head. He looked even more bewildered. “How could it be?! When I left the village to welcome you, everything was all right. How could it have turned into this?”

Then, hewentto knock on the doors of some houses. Some had the doorslocked. There was no one inside thehomes.

However, we saw blood splashed on the yardsofmanyof thehouses. It didn’t smell like human blood but rather, the blood of domestic animals.It was nowonder why the entire village was so quiet.

Li Mazibecameanxiousdue tothe scene in front of him. He sounded scared and said, “What should we do now?”

“We need to take a look atthe spearfirst!” I told him. I frownedand urgedthe Village elder to move faster to the house where they had kept the spear. The situation there was the sameas inthe other houses. No one was there.

The Village Elder didn’t have the mind to care that much. Hewentinsidethe house and opened a wooden closet. However, it was empty.

“What happened? The silver spear was kept here!Did someone steal it?Do they notwant to live anymore?!” The Village Elderscolded angrily. He was bewildered.

“Hurry!Take us to your village’s Achievement and Virtue Memorial Arch!”I hurriedlysaid tothe Village Elder.

He knew the seriousness ofthesituationand rushedtoward the Memorial Arch.

Although he was an old man, he was much faster than Li Mazi andme.This was especially truewhen we had to climb the stiff mountain path. Li Mazi and I felt embarrassed.

I had heard that peoplewho livein mountainous areas were tenacious.I had nowwitnessed itfor myself.

The Village Elder thought that the spear was stolen. But I thought that it had run away by itself. Tang Xianzu told me that two people couldn’t lift the silver spear. Thus, even if someone wanted to make a bet, that personwouldn’thave the ability to steal it!

If the spear had left by itself and something horrible had happened to this village, I had to reconsider the origin of this otherworldly item.

Were the Village Elder and I both wrongabout the spirit’s identity? Could it be someone else?

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