Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 548: Hunt in Mount Changbai

After a momentof confusion, I had to accept the fact and pull myself together to face Dorgon,who would appearatany second.

I could only imagine how crazy Dorgon would be when he knew that I had extinguished his mother’s last wisp of soul.

I stayed up the whole night to watch Mr. Jin. I didn’t dare to sleepand waiteduntil the break of dawn.

Not long after breakfast, Li Mazireturned. He asked, “How is it going?”

I told him about Abahai’s story, thensaidwithgreat emotion,“Did I do thewrongthing?”

“Everything has two sides. You shouldn’t blame yourself,” Li Mazi saidas hecomforted me.

I wore a wry smileand shookmy head.I wanted todrivethe topic away from this sad storyso I asked,“What about thetaskI asked you tocomplete?”

“Your brother Maziaced it, of course!” Li Mazi smiled.

The other day, after listening to Mr. Jin’s encounter with the peddler, I had secretly discussed a plan with Li Mazi. The plan was thatI would stay in the villa to protect Mr. Jin while Li Mazi would go to Mount Changbai to find the peddler that had sold the bow to Mr. Jin.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Mr. Jin, but many people didn’ttell me the whole truth when theyaskedfor my help. They always keptalittle secret. And,when they revealed their little secret, itoften broughtfatal danger to us!

Li Mazi told me that he had found the peddler who sold the bows and talked to him for quite a long time. He even told him about Mr. Jin’s situation. However, when he asked the peddler about the origin of the bow, he didn’t want to answer.Most of thoseold antiques were stolen from tombs. I could understand why the seller didn’t want to tell Li Mazi the story.

I just needed to confirm that Mr. Jin didn’t fool us. Li Mazi sounded worriedand asked,“Have you thought of a way to deal with Dorgon yet?”

I shook my head.

“There’s no need to hurry. We’ve been through worse. Dorgon is just a bluntax!” Li Mazi tried to cheer mewhenhelearnedI didn’t have any good ideas.

At thismoment, Ye Chen camein and pushed openthe door. He looked hesitant. “Masters, there’s something we need to discuss.”

“What’s wrong?”

“My boss feels so happytoknowthat you’ve finished off the ghost. He wants to go hunting in Mount Changbai today to celebrate. I think it’s dangerous. I hope that you two can talk him out of it.” Ye Chen stuttered a little bit. It seemed he thought that his bosswould bestupid enough to repeat his mistake. He had almost lost his life due to hunting, and now,sincehe had recovered a little, he started to walk on that path again.

However, my eyes sparkled. “Why shouldn’t he go? He must go hunting!”

“What?” Ye Chen looked stunned. Li Mazi didn’t get it, either.

I just smiledand whispered somethingto Li Mazi. Li Maziunderstoodit. He winked at me, then threw his arm around Ye Chen’s shoulderand usheredhim to the door.

Iwentdownstairs to find Mr. Jin. I saw himusea handkerchiefto rubsomething. When I came close, I was frightenedto seethe thing in his hand. It was the bronze bow that had been broken in half last night.

“Master Zhang, you shouldcomehunting with me tomorrow! I’ll take care of everything.” He sounded cheerful. He looked lively and high-spiritedbecausethe female ghostwas no longer pestering him. He looked at meand laughedgenerously.

I took the bow from him and held it high to check. The bow was intact and almostinperfect condition. There was no crack or patch on it. It looked like it had never been broken.However,last night, the Yin and Yang Umbrella had hit it andbroke it!

Mr. Jin was surprised. “What’s wrong?”

From his facial expression, I guessed that hesawthe intact bowwhenhe got up. I just shook my head. “No,it’snothing.”

However, waves were secretly rising in my heart!

I didn’t leave the villa last night, and Dorgon had mended the bow right under my eyes. I didn’t evennotice it.

Perhaps, he didn’t attack me last night because of the Yin and Yang Umbrella. I was scared. If he had attacked us last night, I would have died together with Mr. Jin…

Dorgon had lived up to his name ofGreat Qing Regent. His spirit was even stronger than I had imagined. I became more resolute in getting rid of him.

After Mr. Jinfinished his preparations,we got into the carand departedto Mount Changbai.

“Hey, where is Ye Chen? And, why didn’t Master Licomewith us?”When Mr. Jin saw that I wasthe driver,hedidn’tlookpleased. He fumed and took out his phone to call and reprimand Ye Chen.

I hurriedly stopped him. “Li Mazihassomeproblemsat home. He asked Ye Chen to help him solvethem. Mr. Jin,doyou mind?”

“Hahaha, we are brothers now. There’s no need to speakpolitely.” Mr. Jin laughed and started to call me brother. He was truly a Northeastern man,generous and amiable.

The mountainridgesin Changbai werecovered in snowall year-round, and they crossed three Northeastern provinces. Mr. Jin’s favorite hunting area was a small mountain on Changbai mountain ridge. It was called Cloudy Peak.

On the way there, he told me more storiesabouthis life. “I’m a pureblood Manchurian, a descendant of the Aisin Gioro royalfamily. After the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, we changed our family name to Jin.” Then, he self-mocked,“If I were born a few hundred yearsearlier, I could be a prince.”

Iunderstooditnow. Mr.Jinwas from the bloodline of the Aisin Gioro family. He could be Hong Taiji’s descendant! Thatwaswhy Lady Abahaihad torturedhim!

When we arrived at the foothills of Mount Cloudy Peak, it was twilight. Fortunately, Mr. Jin’s business covered a large area in the Northeast. There were some people from his subsidiary company here. They werepreparing the tents for us on the mountain.

After dinner, Mr. Jin couldn’t wait anymore. He pulled meand askedme to go to the mountain. He gave me abeautifullycrafted horn bow. “Now is thetime small animals come out to find food. It’s easy to spot the prey!”

It was cool to hunt in the cold wind.Iwas surprised to see that he was so invested in his hobby. I received the bowand admiredit for a while. I felt my interest in hunting growing. We brought several bodyguards with usand enteredthe mountain.

The afterglowinthe horizon dyed the clouds red. The rushing waters from the stream reflected on the wall of the mountain. Together, they created a magnificent picturethat unfoldedin front of my eyes.

I felt infatuated with the scene.I closedmy eyesasI wanted to imprintthe imagein my head. Suddenly, I heard the wind tearing. My eyes flew open.I saw that Mr. Jin had just shot an arrowandhit a wild rabbit. The rabbit convulsed at its spot. Then, itstopped moving.

“Mr. Jin, your archery skill is so good!” I couldn’t help but appraise him.

He laughedheartily.“Haha, Ihavegood luck! You should try, too!”

Men always found it interesting to play with the sword or the bow.Sincehe was urging me, I also tried to shoot. I got nothing. I could only comfort myself that each person has his expertise…

Mr. Jin shot some more small animals. When the sky was completely dark, we returned to the campsite. People then set upabonfire to roast the meat.

After a whole day of hunting, Mr. Jin was finally satisfied. Hewentto his tent to rest. The other bodyguards also found their spotsand slept.

As for me,I was still awakeand waitedin my tent.

Mount Changbai was the sacred mountain of the ManchurianImperialFamily. Every year, the Qing Emperor would take his important courtiers to this place topray.SinceDorgon was a Manchurian Prince, of course, he had some attachment to this mountain.

I was certain that he would showupto do his worship here. That was why I had agreed to go hunting with Mr. Jin.

Compared to waiting for him passively, it would be cooler topushthe snake to leave the cave.

I became anxious as I heard snoring from thetent next to mine. I lifted the fabric of my tent to check the sky. The moon was round and bright. I was more certain that Dorgon would show up!

Ghosts andspiritswere afraid of the sun, but they had a strange obsessionwith themoon since the full moon would help them absorb the moonlight energy much better.On afull moon night, many wandering ghosts and lone souls would come out for a walk.

Sincethe bow had beenrepaired, I was afraid that Dorgon would kill Mr.Jin today. I decided to watchover histent. I didn’t know why, but I suddenly fellintoa complicated mood.

I wanted to finish Dorgon as soon as possible. However, I was afraid of facing him. Itcouldbe because Ifeltsorry for Lady Abahai. I took a deep breath and decided not to thinktoomuch about it. Now, I just had to wait patiently.

A moment later, I heard rushing footsteps outside the campsite. It was midnight and we wereout in thewild. I pulled myself together quickly. I turned and found Ye Chen.

“Why are you here? Where is Li Mazi?” I felt surprised. I didn’t expect to see him here.

I was surprised because I had discussed specifically with Li Mazi that he would take Ye Chen to Mount Changbai to arrange the formation to eradicate Dorgon beforehand.SinceYe Chenhad comehere, it meant they had finished arranging everything.

Li Mazi had sent Ye Chen to notify me while he stayed at the spot. It wasn’t his working style.

“We’ve arranged everything. However, we couldn’t light up the candles. Master Li saidsomething was wrong, so he sent me here to find you,” explained Ye Chen.

I was bewildered at first. But then, I got it. I had asked Li Mazi to prepare the Five Elements Great Formation at the spot Dorgon would likely appear,as markedin the drawing I had given him.

Dorgon was much stronger than his mother, soanormalformation couldn’t trap him. Thatwaswhy I had asked Li Mazi to come here first tomake preparations.

The Five Elements Great Formation was an advanced formation that required the location to have mountains, waters, and woods.

The mountainrepresentsMetal. The small stream or riverrepresentsWater. Wehadtreesfor the Woodelement, and the soil underneath represents Earth. Now, we needed Fire!

Thatwaswhy I had advised Li Mazi to bring some candles. We could make some fire from the candles.

However, I had miscalculated the nature of tonight’s weather. The full moonwouldattract Dorgon, but it would alsoattractcountless wandering ghosts in Mount Changbai.

Aghostcould be troublingLi Maziandkeeping him from lighting up the candles. I was worried about Li Mazi now. There were a few times hehadn’t been able to deal withthe wandering ghosts in the mountains.

SinceDorgon hadn’t arrived, I asked Ye Chen to watch Mr. Jin and told him to call me if something happened. Then, I started to dash toward the formation’s location.

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