Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 624: Longevity Lock Charm

“Do you think we can trust that He Kui guy?” After Li Mazi said that, I felt interested in this case.

Li Mazi laughed and shook his head, shooting me a meaningful look

We had seen this a lot.Unfilial children made their parentsdiewith a grudge, and they were only scared when their parents came back fromthe deadto pesterthem. Moreover, when they came to askfor myhelp, they didn’t tell meaboutthe horrible things they had done to their parents. Thatwaswhy Li Mazi and I agreed that He Kui was lying or omittingthe fact that he and his wife weren’t filial at all.

Still, ghosts were ghosts. I couldn’t just ignorethe fact that aghost was troubling an innocent kid!

When we arrived at Baijia Village, He Kui was waiting for us at the village entrance. When he saw us, he rushed to us,andexcitedlygrabbedmy hand. “Master Zhang, you’re finally here.”

It seemed Li Mazi hadtoldhim about me. I didn’t talk nonsenseand askedhim to take us to his house.

He Kui looked hesitant. Li Mazi waved his hand indismissal. “Quickly, tell us if you’re experiencingsome trouble.”

“Master Zhang, Ihavesomething here. Please take a look.” He Kuihesitatedfor quite a long timebefore hecarefully took out a longevity lock charm from his pocket.

At first glance, the longevity lock charm looked like it was made of pure bronze. However, it had been oxidized in some corners; itdidn’t look likea valuable item. The strange feature about this longevity lock charm was that it had fresh mud and dirt stuffed at the carved slits on its surface. It lookedas though it had just been unearthed. “What’s wrong with this lock charm?”

He paledand puckeredhis lips. After a moment, he stuttered,“My father brought it to my house.”

“What?!” Li Mazi wasobservingthe longevity lock charm.After hearing that, he lookedscaredand threwthe lock charmatme. Imadea slight frownand askedHe Kui to continue.

“AfterI returnedhome from the South Sea, my little girlwasn’tgetting better. Her situationwasgetting worse. Moreover, my wife dreamedabout my father more often.I almostcracked last night, which is why I calledMr. Li to help me. Unexpectedly, this morning, I found this longevity lock charm on my daughter’s bed! I’m sure my father brought it to my house. I know it’s the lock charm my father always kept with him when he was still alive.When he passed away, I buried this lock charm with him.”

“Where is his grave?Could you takeme there tohavea look?”

If the dead had given away their grave goods, itnormallymeant they wanted to use these grave goods to exchange for the livingrecipient'slife!

However, in most of the cases, the dead just wanted to trick the living and make the living their partner. It was some sort of otherworldly marriage. Still, I was sure that the old grandfather wouldn’t havesuch an ideatoward his granddaughter. Thatwaswhy I wanted to go to his grave. I wanted to understand the meaning behind his actions.

He Kui didn’trefuse my proposal. He led us toward the paddy fields. He stopped at a location that looked lower than the fields around. A medium-size grave was situated in the middle of that piece of land.

There was only one grave in this area. I didn’t wait for him to show me the wayand tookthe lead. I bowed to the grave before carefully assessing it.

I had spent a good time observing it, but I didn’t find anything wrong.The only thing was that I saw onlyabit ofYin energy, which wasratherunusual.

This grave was located in a lower position than the land around, whichallowedthe water and cold energy to congregatearound it. In theory, the grave should have thick and furious Yin energy.Seeing that it wasrelatively clean, I thoughtthere might not be acorpse down there!

“Master Zhang, did you find anything?”

He Kui looked at mygrimace, and he panicked as he seemed to figure out something. I told him myguess and askedif we could open up the grave to confirmit.

He was bewildered at first,butwhen he heard that we should open up the grave, his face turned sullen. “I’m not sure about that. Is it okay if we don’t open the grave?”

“I see. Then, we’ll only observe thesituation for now.” I nodded as I understoodwhat he was feeling. His father should rest in peace. If wedidn’t feel hopeless about what to do, we shouldn’t unearth him.

I looked at the grave for a while and found nothing problematic with it. Then, I followed He Kui to visit his house.

His house was a blue brick house with a tiled roof. It looked really old, though. Although they could live in this rickety house, it was the worst-looking house in this village.

“Whydidn't yourenovate the house?” I sounded skeptical.

He Kui blushedandembarrassedlytoldus the story. “This is my father’s house. AfterI graduated, I got a job in the city. When I got married, Ispent almostall of his savings torenta house in the city. However, after I lost my job, I couldn’t pay the rent, so we decided to move back here.”

I disdained this man, but I understood that hismiserablesituation was surely related to his father. However, I didn’t want to discuss this with him. Instead, Iasked, “How is your daughter?”

“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Last night, she didn’t cry. She had a good sleep.”

When we talked about his daughter, He Kui finally had a smile on his face.

Li Mazi chimed in, “Could it be the effect of the longevity lock charm?”

“Eh?” He Kuididn’treact for quite a long time. In the end, he spoke gingerly, “If so, my father wouldn’t have tortured us right from the start…”

After he said that, Li Mazi didn’t talk anymore. They both turned to me.

I had thought about what Li Mazi had just mentioned. Many elders didn’t like theirdaughters-in-law, but they all loved their grandkids. Becauseof a grudge, Mr. He had pestered his daughter-in-law butthatdidn’t hinder him from loving his little granddaughter. However, I thoughtthatsomething elsewas scaringHe Kui’s daughter, not his old man.

“Yeah, it’spossible.”

Li Mazi noddedto showthat he agreed with my assumption. He Kui’s face turned complicated.He looked both doubtful and sorry.

As soon as we entered his courtyard, we heardachild crying. Her criesweregetting louder and louder. He Kuiwasworriedandrushed to the house. Li Mazi and I followed him. Then, we saw a young woman sitting on the edge of the bed. She wascomforting her crying baby. When the woman saw us, she hurriedly brought the kid to usand beggedus to save her daughter.

At first glance, I could already confirm that this little girl was being pestered by something foul. Her facewasash-gray. Her heavenlytemple was dark, and I saw a vague purple cloud above her head.

Little kids could see foul beings because ofthespiritual purple cloud above theirheads, which also represented the kid’s fate. As kids grew up, this spiritual cloud would slowly seep into theirbodiesand become their life essence.

The little girl’sspiritual energy was dispersing bit by bit. Ifthingscontinued likethis, she would dieinthree days. I hurriedly adhered a Yang Flame talisman on her forehead toprotecther life. Then, I started to assess this room. The room was filled with a black mist that torrentially rolled toward the bed.

It was no wonderthatthe purple spiritual energy on her head was eroded. Staying in this room was no differentfrom soaking in Yin energy for the whole day. Let alone a little girl, even an adult would be harmfully affected!

He Kui’s wife’s face washaggard. I knew the Yin energy here had affected her as well. I asked He Kui toopenall the windows anddoors andthen continued to watch. Strangely, the Yin energy in the room didn’t disperse. Even when the wind blew in and disturbed the Yin energy, after a while, the Yin energy congregated againand twirledabove the bed.

“What’s going on?” I frowned, muttering to myself.

“He Kui, Li Mazi,movethatbed to another place. I want to see if there’s something underneath.”

Except for dust, there was nothing else under the bed. Frighteningly, the Yin energy continued to move andspinabove the bed!

I asked the two men to move the bed to a few more locations. However, no matter where they put it, the mass of Yin energy followed it.

As Li Mazi saw that I kept watching the void above our heads, he knew therewasYin energy there. “Did you find the origin of the Yin energy?”

I shook my head. That mass of Yin energy kept spinning over there,butI couldn’t find where it originated.

Fortunately, the vortex of Yin energy had only moved around the bed. I picked up the baby and left the room, but it didn’t follow me. It meant that foul thingwasn’taiming at the baby. He Kui had thought that his kid had caught a cold, so he didn’t bring her out of that room. Buthe had accidentally put the little girl in danger.

He Kui’s wife immediately rushed into the room to gather some stuff and moved the baby crib out of the room.

Indeed, as soon as the kid was settled in her crib, the purple cloudaboveher headstabilized. I asked her parentsto tell meher date of birth. I wanted touse the Soul BeckoningTechnique to help herrecollecther spiritual energy.

Butas she was just an infant,herspiritual energy was feeble, and it was difficult to gather once dispersed. I could only collectpart ofit. However,she would recover naturally if wecould assure that her family wasn’tpestered again.

After we had solved the little girl’s dangerous situation, the couple heaved a sigh of relief. They continuously thanked me. I just waved my hands. “It’s all right.However, I can’t see where the Yin energyis comingfrom. I need to observe it again tonight.”

He Kui nodded. He asked his wife to cook us something.

Li Mazi and I werestarving.We quickly finished thefoodand took a nap.

At night, I asked He Kui’s family to stay and rest in the living room. Li Mazi and I hid in the child’s room, waiting!