Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 542: The Panicked Villagers

Thevillage’s Achievement and Virtue Memorial Arch was built in the center of the graveyard. The Village Elder said they did that togatherthe ancestors’ souls to protect the villagers.

Li Mazi snorted disdainfully, but I thought it was a good idea. Although ordinary souls didn’t have much power, whenthe souls of theancestors congregated, they could somewhat bless their descendants.

However, when wearrived atthe Memorial Arch, we found that the door was closed. Aloud noisecamefrom the inside.

I didn’t dare to enter the placeand haltedby the door. I assessedthe placefirst. However, I was surprised and skepticalto find that there wasno Yin energy in there.

The Village Elder came and tried to push the door open. It was locked from the inside.

He immediately craned his neck and shouted, “Open the door! It’s me!”

Then, eyes peeped out from the slits between the doors and the frame. After they had confirmed that it wastheVillage Elder, they opened the door.

The momentthe double door opened, we couldn’t help but drop our jaws.Around one hundred people weresqueezedin a small house of around twenty square meters. All of them had theirbacksonanother person’schest. They packedthe place. The adults had to hold the kids over their heads or let the kids sit on their shoulders. All of them wore a panicked face.

My first impression was that it was a scenefroman end-of-the-world movie.It was a live-action version of an apocalypse movie!

Under thedimlight, I saw an old man with a cane in his hand. He was tryingto squeeze out of the crowd.Whenhe finally gotoutof the crowd, he took a deep breath then turned to the Village Elder. “Sir, did you see Master Zhang?”

When the Village Elderstepped forwardto call them to open the door, he happened to see our shadows as well. The light inside the memorial hall wasn’t enough for them to see us clearly. The old man’s eyes weren’t good, either.

Whenthe Village Elder heard that, he moved aside to let the others see us. “Here they are. But whyare youall hiding in the memorial hall?”

When the old man heard that I was Zhang Jiulin, he stepped forward and got on his knees. He begged me.“Master Zhang, please save us!Please save the folks in Tangjia Village!”

I hurried to lift him and asked the people to leavethesmall hall.Before the otherworldly item attacked them, they could diefromsqueezing in there…

It seemed they had almost cracked. When I asked them togoout,theylooked like bees fleeing a broken hive. They scatteredand founda place to adjust their breath.

“This is Sanye –Third grandpa. He’s theoldest personin our village,” saidtheVillage Elder.

I also called him Sanye.

“After Tang Xianzu and his friends dug up the silver spear, the poultries in the village started to disappear. We didn’t notice the phenomenon until it became frequent. People began to worry. However, no one got hurt, so they decided to ignore it.”

The Village Elder patted his thighand blamedhimself. “I was too worried about the silver spear that I forgot to investigate this case.”

I was speechless. However, I didn’t give any comment but asked Sanye to continue talking.

Sanye nodded. I caughtagleam of fear in his opaque eyes. My heart sankasI knew that at his age, there weren’t many things that could scare him.It seemed thesituation was much more complicated than I had thought!

When Sanyefinishedtalking, Li Mazi and I frownedand exchangedlooks. It turned outthat whenthe Village Elder came to welcome us this morning, Sanyeledpeople with high creditsto visiteach family in the village.

Although it was just somemissingchickensandducks, it was part of the villagers’ income. Sanye wanted to count and summarize the numbers of losses, times, and frequencies. He wanted to be well preparedto report the case to me.

Right whenthey were about to finish their visiting trip, all the domestic animals in the villageturnedcrazy!

The dogs barked loudlyand thechickens and ducks fluttered. Even the mice hiding underground got out and fled. It seemed something horrible was about to happen.

Sanye was the oldest in this village. He had experienced many things, but he had never seen anything like this before, let alone the other folks.

He consulted with his men and they agreed to gatheratthe village entrance to wait for me. However, as soon as they gatheredeveryone, a terrifying event occurred!

Hundreds of giant weasels appeared on the only road in the village. They gazed at the people like tigers watching theirprey. They even ground their teeth.

Nobody had seen a scene like this before.Feelingfearful, they all rushed to the Achievement and Virtue Memorial Arch to hide.Thatwaswhythey hadpacked in this tiny hall.

I now understood why therewasblood in the houses. The weasels had eaten the poultries there.

However, I was certain that those weasels weren’t ordinary ones. Even if they were strong enough, theywouldn'tbe able to eat big domestic animals like dogs or pigs.

I guessedthere could bea weasel spirit in this village. I then pried, “Sanye, do the people in your village worship the House Immortal Protectors?”

Sanye’s eyes turned bright. “Oh, you are a true master! Our village has many refugees from Northeastern areas. They have the tradition of worshipping the Yellow Immortal. Before the foundation of the nation, wehada Yellow Immortal Temple in the village. It was destroyed, though.”

However,Sanyehad never seen the Yellow Immortal feast on domestic animals.Why didso many weasels come to his village this time?

I nodded and didn’t want to lingeronthis topic. “Can you take me to see those bewitched young men?”

Sanye waved his hands. The folks then carried out a few young men who were tied up. As soon as they appeared, theyreekedofthe horrible smell of feces.Theircrotches were yellow and swelledup. I almost puked.

I considered thingsandtook out a few talismans, handingthem to the Village Elder. I asked him to stick the talismans onto the victims’ foreheads.Then, they shouldgive a bath to those men.

The Village Elder embarrassedly received the talismans and asked his people to work on it.

After I askedSanye for the location of theruinsof the Yellow Immortal Temple, Iwent there withLi Mazi.

“LittleBrother Zhang, slow down! Slow down!” Since Li Mazi had been at hometakingcare of Ru Xue for a long time, his physique wasn’t good anymore. He couldn’tkeepup with me.

I shot him a despising glance. “Dude, can you move faster? If you can’t, you should go home and feed your baby!”

“Haha,let’s not talk about that…” Li Mazi gave me a despicable grin. Then, he pulled himself together.“Brother,doesthis case relate to the Yellow Immortal?”

I shook my head since I wasn’t sure. The House Immortal Protectors were animals with intelligence. Theyhad received human worship, and they would protect houses and domestic animals. The House Immortal Protectors varieddependingon the area. There were foxes, weasels, hedgehogs, snakes,and more. However, the most famous ones were the Northeastern Fox and Weasel Immortals!

Although the House Immortal Protectors originated from animals, as long as they receivedproperworship, they wouldn’t harm people. Thatwaswhy Ithoughtit was weird. If the Yellow Immortalwasn’tpleased with the people here,it could have carried out a punishmentwhenthetemple was removed a few decades ago. Why would it wait until now?

But if it had nothing to do with the Yellow Immortal, how could we explainthebig weasels that wreaked havoc in the village?

Li Mazi didn’t understand the story. After listening to me, he looked puzzledand asked,“So, is it dangerous?”

“No, it isn’t. The House Immortal Protectors can deal with normal people. However, they will stay away from experienced people like us.”

“All right,that’sgood then…” Li Mazi rubbed his chest.I lookedat his despicable appearanceand felt the urgeto slap him.

We went to the mountain peak where we found a collapsedandtattered structure. It used to be the Yellow Immortal Temple of Tangjia Village. Sanye told me that there would only be one structure at the mountain peak.We couldn’t get it wrong.

Even though they said it was a temple, it only had one wall and a few pillars. From a distance, I saw pieces of the broken Yellow Immortal statue. It lookedsoweathered.

“This place is even dirtier than a toilet. Do we need togoin there?” Li Mazi took a look then complained.

I didn’t respond. I went to the temple to see. There were only spider webs and dust. There was no Yellow Immortal here. Otherwise, the place wouldn’t be so dirty.

Li Mazi followed behind me. “What did you find?”

I shook my headand was readyto leavewhenLi Mazi began tosink!

I hurried to pull himup. I now recognized that we weren’t walking on the compacted ground but something looked likeathree-layered wooden floor. Since it was old, Li Mazi hadbrokenit while walking.

After pulling Li Mazi up, I kneltby the hole to observe it. There was a dark chamber hiding underneath.

Due to the angle, I couldn’t see the interior clearly, but I could recognize that the ground of the chamber looked much cleaner than up here. Moreover, my nostrils caught the smell of fresh blood!

“Hurry! Lift this floor!” My intuition told me that there was an important clue down there. I was excitedand askedLi Mazi to help me lift the wooden tilesonthe floor.

“And you said that yourBrother Li can’t do this and that! Without me, would youhavediscovered thishiddenchamber?” Li Mazi soundedcontent.

I looked at himand wasspeechless. Anyway, thisguysomehowhadstrange luck!

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