Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 590: The Corpse-Born Locust Tree

A few nights ago, Zhang Henshui had some stomach irritation. Hemadehis way to the toiletunderthe moonlight. While sitting on the toilet, he thought he heard someone crying.

The voice was intermittent, so Zhang Henshui thought it was just the wind. He didn’t keep it in mind. After emptying his bowel, hewentback to his home. However, this time, he heard footsteps behind him, just as if someone was following him.

Zhang Henshui thought thatathief wasvisiting him. He walked a couple more steps, then suddenly turned around.He sawno one.

But when he was about to enterhishouse, he saw a shadow following him from the corner of his eye!

When he came to this part, he gulped his saliva thensaid, “When Itook a careful look, that shadowwas no longer there. I thought my eyes had tricked me. But from that night onward, every night, Ihavedreamedabout a man wearing a long robe. I have never seen his face, but Icanhear him crying.”

After talking, he smacked his tongue. “Couldhebe theperson who instigated me to jump into the river?”

I nodded.“It could be.Take me to your house to see.”

When Zhang Henshui saw theyellow fabricbag on my shoulder, he knew what Li Mazi and I didfor a living. He got upand led us to his house.

When we got to the village entrance, I saw a beefy man enjoying the shade. He looked relaxed.

When Zhang Henshui saw the man, his face changed drastically. He rushed to the man and shook his arm. The man didn’t react, just as though he was a wooden dummy.

“Not good!” Zhang Henshui patted his thigh. He rushed back to the row of willow trees at the riverbank and broke a twig. He came back and whipped the man hard.

After three hits, the beefy man opened his eyes. He lookedpuzzled. When he saw Zhang Henshui, he shouted, “Why are you hitting me?!”

“I’m saving your life.” Zhang Henshui exhaled in relief when the man woke up. He then turned and explained to us.

There was a rule thatwaskept through the generations in this village: People were not allowed to linger at the village entrance at noon or in the evening.

In the past, not many people believed in this superstition, especially in the sixties. The Red Guards had come and persistently asked the villagers to take down the big locust trees at the back of the village. Unfortunately, the farmers who joined the task of chopping down the trees all drowned in the next few days.

After that, some kids went to play by the chopped locust treesandwentmissing. The villagers had to spread out and look for them everywhere. In the end, they found them at the riverbank with wet shoes…

While talking, Zhang Henshui rubbed the willow twig in his hand. “This isamethod imparted by our ancestors. If someone sits there and loses consciousness, we should break a willow twig and hitthemthree times. It’s how we can savethem.”

This man had settled down in this village from another place, so he didn’t knowabout thetaboo. When he heard the story, his face changed. Hequickly left the place after thanking us. After hewasgone, I couldn’t help but observe the biglocusttree.

Awillow treehad a pureYin attribute but it could expel evil spirits.According tolegend, after the willow spirit was subdued by Guanyin Bodhisattva, it was put in her Jade Water Jar to be cleaned. Thatwaswhy willow branches had some spiritual energy.

Whetherthe storyZhang Henshui told me was realornot, if he had successfully helped the man wake up with the willow twig, it was true that the man had encountered something evil while sitting under the shade of that big locusttree.

I thought I knew the key information. A thick layer of black mist hovered around the locust tree, which became thicker and thicker down the tree trunk toward the root.However, the locust tree looked lushly green, and it didn’t appearto beclaimed by something foul. To me, it looked like acorpse-borntree.

When the decomposed remains of people or animalsnourishedthe seeds underground and the trees grew fromit, they becamecorpse-born trees.Thesekindsof trees had thick Yin energy, and they were notverytall.

In many places, lightning strikes would hit some trees during the rain. The tree barks would turn as dark as ink. Those trees were thecorpse-born trees that were about togain intelligence. However, they couldn’t resist the heavenly tribulation.

Anyway, it was easy to deal withcorpse-born trees. We just needed to digthemup and cutthem. “Zhang Henshui, whyhasn’tyour villagedoneanything to thistree?”

“It’snot that easy!” Zhang Henshui gawkedand shookhis head repeatedly like a rattle drum.

“As long as we don’tcomeclose to thistree, it won’t harm people. Moreover, during the yearsofnatural disasters, the people in the other villageswouldhave starved, but manyanimals happened to appearunder thislocusttree. That’s why generations of our village have been worshippingthis tree. We are afraid of it, but we also respect it.”

Iunderstoodhis idea. It was similar to worshiping the Fox Immortal. People knew that if they offended the fox spirits, they would be punished. Even so, people still wanted to worship them.

It was the villagers’ choice and a cultural feature of the place. I had nothing else to comment, so I asked Zhang Henshui to lead the way.

Soon, we arrived at his house. His wife greeted us and gave us a warm welcome when she heard that Li Mazi and Ihad cometo help her husband.

Zhang Henshui had a little daughter around three years old. The girl was sitting on the threshold and playing with a cloth doll. It seemed Li Mazi missed his little Nianchu, so he lingered and played with the girl.

I wasn’t as free as Li Mazi because I felt confused as soon as I entered thehouse. As it was noon, there was no Yin energy in thehouse. I checked with my compass and found nothing. Idecided towaitfornightfall.

We stayed inhishouse that afternoon. Li Mazi was so happy playing with the little girl. As for me, I found a cool room to take a nap.

At around twilight, Zhang Henshui’s wife cooked a table ofdeliciousfoods and invited us out for dinner. I woke up and washed my face. When I went to the table, I saw that Li Mazi was sitting and eating already. However, I didn’t see Zhang Henshui.

“Madam, brother Zhang isn’t home?” I asked.

Zhang Henshui’s wife waved her hand. “Brothers, you should eat first. Old Zhang went out to pick some watermelons for you. It’s good to have watermelon to cool down during the summer days.”

When she turned around, she mumbled to herself, “Old Zhang has become strange, though. He has gone out for quite a long time just to pick a watermelon!”

WhenI heard that,I feltsomethingwas wrong. Something had forced him to jump into the river at noonand now, it was twilight! Moreover, from what his wife just said, he had been out for quite a long time!

With that thought, I pulled Li Mazi, who was eating to his heart’s content. Li Mazi was surprised, but he got it quickly.

“Brother, if Zhang Henshui already rodeacraneto paradise,should webring himjustice for his wife’sand daughter’s sake?”

“Shutup! You are the one who’s going to rideacrane toparadise!” I cursed him since I was anxious. We ran to the riverbank where Zhang Henshui had jumped this morning.

Nomatter if itwas the manwearing the longrobe in Zhang Henshui’s dream or the old locust tree at the village entrance, they had somethingto do with this small river. If the poor villager was in danger, he must be around the river!

When we arrived, the waterlookedcalm. There was no ripple.

Li Maziwas panting.“Are we late?”

I didn’t talkand scurriedaround the river bank to look for him. Eventually, I saw somewater stainsandZhang Henshui’s clothes by apileof soil.

His garments were torn and deformed. It seemed he hadstruggledbefore he fell into the water. Li Mazi didn’t talk nonsense. He took off his shirt then jumped into the water.

I felt a little cheered upand thoughtthat Li Mazi still had hismorals. He had eaten mealswiththat family,and now hewas showingresponsibility!

I sat down cross-legged and read the “Sacred Text of Daoism.” As the sky was getting darker and the water was getting colder, only heaven knew what was in that river. Reading thesacredtext could help scare them. I had to seize more time for Li Mazi.

After around five minutes,nothingcameout ofthe water. I didn’t haveacalm mind to read thesacredtext anymore. I got up and went to the riverbankand screamed. “Mazi, where are you? If you can’t find him, get up here now!”

After a few calls, no one answered me. I was worried that Li Mazihaddrowned.However, I couldn’t swim well, so I could only stand anxiously on the riverbank.

Several minutes had passed. I looked at the calm water. My eyes reddened. In the back of my head, I thought that Li Mazi was already gone!

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