Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 643: Cleverness May Overreach Itself

After a while, the blades on the ground seemed tocome tolife. They movedtoward uslike shark fins surfacing on the sea.

I took a step back.At thismoment, Li Mazi’s voice suddenly came to me. “LittleBrother Zhang, help me!”

I couldn’t believe itand turnedto look. Li Mazi was tiedtoa pole. A female ghost wasraisinga knife above him. His bean-sized eyes turned watery when he saw me. “LittleBrother Zhang, save me! I don’t want to die here. This ghost is so ugly! I don’t want to be killed by her!”

I shot him a disdainful glance.So, you want to die in the hands of a beautiful ghost?

I rushed toward himand usedthe Emei Piercer to smash the female ghost. Then, I curtly cut off the rope that was tying Li Mazi.After checking his bodyonce, I found he wasn’t injured in any way.

“Why are you here?” I was puzzled.

He blinked, still looking rathervulgar. He lowered his voice. “You know, all the items in this Ghost City are top quality. We just need to get one. After that,we won’t need to worry about a thing for the rest of our lives!”

I was speechless. I shouldn’t havesavedhim. For the sake ofmoney, hecame to aplacehe shouldn’t have come to. Li Mazi giggledand awkwardlychangedthe topic. “Little Brother Zhang, why are you here? What have you got?”

“Of course, I…”

I suddenly felt a lump in my throat. I couldn’t speak.My mind became muddled, then empty.

Li Mazi wrapped his arm around my shoulder and smiled. “I think I’vefoundsome goodstuff. You should come with me and see.”

I shot him a doubtful glance. “Isit somethingdangerous?”

Li Mazi gave me a scornful look. “Little Brother Zhang, we are in the Ghost Market. What kind of otherworldly item would dare towreak havoc here?”

“I saw a strange bead. Tch, tch, if wegetit, we will berich!” Li Mazimadea faceand said,“Hurry up! I don’t want someone else to get it!”

I felt that something was wrong, but I couldn’t tell whatit was. Perhaps, I was just too cautious.

Since the Ghost Market had opened, ghostsofall shapes had come and mingled with humans. It was a strange scene.

Li Mazi pulled me to the center of the marketand pointedat a booth above. He said, “You see,that item is on that booth. I’veasked around and the people have told me it’s something called the mermaid’s tears. It’s priceless!”

Mermaid’stears?I heard something explodeinside my head. It felt as though a lightning strike had hit me right at my head. I looked at Li Mazi. He was waving his handswhile describingthe good qualities ofthe mermaid’stears.

“Get lost!”

I stabbed the Holy Mother Scepter at him. He felt the painand wrinkledhis face. Looking at me, he groaned, “Little Brother Zhang, it’s okayifyou don’t need the mermaid’stears, but you shouldn’t vent out your anger on me.”

I looked at him in fright.Washe the real Li Mazi?

I bit my finger and smeared bloodovermy eyes. After taking anotherlook at him, I saw the man was still groaning. The three Yang flames were burning on him. He was a living person.

“Little Brother Zhang, are you all right?” He waved his hand in front of mein bewilderment.

I shoved his hand aside and said, “I’m okay.Stay here and wait for me.”

Then, I ran to the village entrance. However, I couldn’t sense Zen MasterBaimei’s whereabouts. Li Mazi followed me, gasping for his breath. “Little Brother Zhang, what happened to you? You look bewildered and frightened.Has aghost possessed you?”

I shot him a fierce glance. He cameand walkednext to me.

“Hey bro, tell me.Haveyou seenanynice female ghosts? Any beautiful girls? I knew it! Show me, show me!”he said despicably.

I pushed him aside. His face turned redas he pitched his voice. “Zhang Jiulin, I’vecomehere from so far away. I was worried about you, but you’re afreakingungrateful dude. Why do you do this to me? Do you think Iwillalways stayaroundandlet you bully me?”

Suddenly, heraisedhis fist and punched my stomach. I feltasharp twinge. I couldn’t believe itand liftedmy head to look at him. Li Mazi was vanishing right in front of me.

Iloweredmy head and saw half a blade wasstabbedinto my stomach. Blood was dripping from the knife. Drops of my blood fell to the floor.

Zen MasterBaimeiput me on his backand rantoward the village. “YoungBenefactor, were you in an illusion?”

I shivered in pain. I couldn’t even speak, so I nodded at him.

“Merciful Buddha.”

He carried me upstairs and put me on the bed. Then, he said, “Be patient. Endure it for a while.”

Then, before Icould react, he pressed on my shoulder blade and pulled the blade out of my stomach.

I crouched my body in pain, cursing Zen MasterBaimeiand his ancestors in my mind. I was lucky that the small knifehadn’tstabbed my stomachtoo deeply. It had barely missedmyinternalorgans. Otherwise, I would have diedalready.

He quickly poured some medicinal powder on the wound. I heard itsizzle. Frightened, I tried to look at my wound. Miraculously, my wound was closing at a speed the naked eye could see.

A few seconds later, there was no wound on my stomach anymore. Ifit weren’t for the blood on the bedsheet, I wouldhave thoughtthat Iwas neverinjured.

Zen MasterBaimeilooked sullen. He sat next to me andsaid, “Iwasin theillusiontoo. Iwas the onewho stabbed you. I’m really sorry.”

My teeth itched. I really wanted to grab the knife andstabitinto his stomach.

He stood by the windowand lookedat the flaming screen in midairin silence. Iwent to him and said, “Zen Master, even if we lost this match, we still have a chance!”

Zen MasterBaimeiturned to me. His face had resumedhisusual aloofness. He brought his palms togetherand chanted, “Merciful Buddha.”

The sky outside had turned dark. It wasn’t favorable to us at all.After resting for a while, we left the inn. Althoughthe battle didn’t haveafixedarena, we didn’t want to cause troubleatthe inn. If Chuyi got involved again, I thought I would collapse this time.

During thedaytime, the sky was gray here. Still, it was better than navigating the areaat night.At thismoment, the sky was purely dark. Zen MasterBaimeiwas walking just half a meter in front of me, but I could only see the light from his dimly glowing beads.

At night, the ghosts on the street looked even more terrifying. Eyesglowed of different colors everywhere, like floating flames.

“Master, wait for me.”

Zen MasterBaimeiwas walkingquickly. The light from his beads was moving far ahead of me. I had to run to catch up to him.After we leftthe village, we went to the wasteland. I decided to use the Invisible Needle to trace the path. This thing was useful, but it used a lot of energy.

After around twentyminutes, my head couldn’t bear it anymore. I had to retrieve the Invisible Needle.All theimages the needle had sent to me were black.

I had thought that moving through the night in Fengdu would be scaryand filled withmany strange noises.However,it was the opposite. There was no noise here. Even the sounds of our footsteps were absorbed by the darkness.

It made me even more anxious. I stayed close to Zen MasterBaimei as Ididn’t dare to stray away from him. I was afraid that I would easily get lost here.

Zen MasterBaimeididn’t say a wordand keptwalking forward. The further we walked, the colder itbecame. My teeth almost clattered. I said, “Zen Master, where are we going?”

He halted. From the light of his mala beads, I saw that hisface was blank.My heart sank. He was being controlled!

“Zen Master!” I roared.Myshoutcarried abundant Yang energy.Undersome conditions, loudly shouting could shoo the ghosts away. However, I had done that just to try my luck. If it could control Zen MasterBaimei, how could it be a normal ghost?

Indeed, he didn’t even bat an eye on me. He continued walking forward. Soon, he disappearedfrommy sight. I was so flustered. I rushedandgrabbedhis kasaya.

No matter what kind of trapYin-YangTiger had set up for us, Ihad to gowith Zen MasterBaimeianddestroyit! The Yin energy around us was getting thicker. I had goosebumps all over my body. Zen MasterBaimeididn’t have any reaction to the environment. He draggedme alongand walkedforward.

I sneezed, feelingthatI was about tofreeze.

“Screwit! Ten more minutes!” I shouted and read the Sacred Text of Daoism in my head. After walking further for a while more, I felt my skin crack.After calculating the time, I boldly screamed, “Five minutes. I’ll walk for five minutes more!”

Time ticked by, but it didn’t seem likeZen MasterBaimeiwouldstop in the next second. I was almost frozen. A layer of frost had appeared on my body.

“Ohshoot! I’m not going to do this anymore! I’m going back!”

I turned around and was about to leave. Zen MasterBaimei, who hadn’t done anything butwalkthe entire time, suddenly pulled me back. He even pushed my back.

In the night, I felt as thoughmy body was falling free. I kept cursing in my head.

I guessed Zen MasterBaimeiwas being controlled byYin-YangTiger. But since theywereequally matched, if he wanted to control Zen MasterBaimei, he must be within one hundred meters from us. In other words, he had witnessedourevery move…

I landed on the ground with a thud. The soil here felt soft, but my body felt likecrackedice. I wanted to get up, but I heard the windrushabove my head. I turned my head around to see. A shadow was moving toward me.

When I sawaglowing white lightin his hand, I knewZen MasterBaimeihad just jumped toward me.

Ptui!

He landed on me, andI vomited blood. I didn’t care who was controlling him nowand pushedhim aside. He fell on the ground next to me, which startled me.

“Master? Zen Master?” I called him.

He wiggled and got up. With his palms brought together in front of his chest, he chanted“Merciful Buddha”then looked at me.“YoungBenefactor, are you okay?”

Besidestelling him that I was all right, I couldn’t complainaboutanything else. “Zen Master, what just happened?”

Zen MasterBaimeicovered my mouthand loweredhis head to whisper into my ear. “When something reaches an extreme, it can only move in the opposite direction. I just checked it.Thesurroundings of thiswellhavethe thickest Yin energy in Fengdu.However,this well is the place with the strongest Yang energy. We can stay here tonight.”

“Wereyou pretendingthe entiretime?”

“Of course. It was todeceiveYin-YangTiger’s team…”

I felt a little angry. “Master, if they show up now, we’llhave no way to escape!”

Zen MasterBaimeifrowned, then relaxed his wrinkled face. He said firmly,“They won’t come here.Right now, theythinkthat we aredead.”

“Master, don’t forget about the three bosses oftheGhost Market!”

I sighed. “If weweredead, the Demon Kingwouldannounce thatYin-YangTigeris the winner. How couldour trick deceive them?”

Zen MasterBaimeiwas perplexed.Hehadn’t thought about this. He felt embarrassed and admitted, “It seems I didn’t calculate everything this time.”

I couldn’t blame him. At night, ourmovementswerelimited. Finding a spot to hide wasacommon idea.

But now, what I was worried about the most was that this place wasatrap thatYin-YangTiger had arranged for us! Right when I had suchthoughts, we heard people laughing above our heads.