Otherworldly Merchant

Soon, I remembered Zhang Yi. He was a famous politician during the Warring States period. When the States of Chu and Qi joined forces to deal with the State of Qin, the King of Qin sent Zhang Yi to try to break the alliance between Chu and Qi. 

Zhang Yi was a smart person. At first, he bought a few important officials of King Huai of Chu. Then, he enticed King Huai of Chu by ceding some land to him. 

Soon, King Huai of Chu agreed to break the alliance with the State of Qi. Within one day, he demolished the alliance that Qu Yuan had spent years building.

After that, when King Huai of Chu learned that he was tricked by Zhang Yi, he turned his embarrassment into anger. He declared war against the State of Qin! Qu Yuan knew it wasn’t good for the State of Chu to start a war now. He immediately talked to King Huai of Chu, which resulted in his exile. With a grudge, he hugged a rock and jumped into the river to commit suicide. People later gave him the posthumous title as the ‘Water God of Miluo River.’ 

It was no wonder the males in Zhang Henshui’s family all died in the water. There was such a great grudge between the two families. However, although I understood and sympathized with Qu Yuan, I didn’t agree with his extreme methods! 

At the same time, I felt lost. I hadn’t expected that a famous sage like him, whose name had been passed down through generations, wouldn’t be able to escape the grudge and resentment of this mortal world… 

I suddenly pulled myself together to chase after him. However, the other party had left quite a long time ago. I was angry and shouted at Li Mazi. “Why didn't you chase after him?!” 

He didn’t talk as he was looking at the big locust tree with Zhang Henshui. Both of them dropped their jaws in surprise. I turned to look at the tree with doubt. I was stunned to see the tree releasing waves of rolling black mist. 

At the same time, the temperature dropped again. Gusts of cold wind were coming. We saw wandering ghosts congregating from all directions! 

Some had their eyes popped out, while others stuck out their long tongues. Many had swelling, white faces. Most of them wore dripping, ancient clothes. They looked like a horde of drowning ghosts. They hovered and spun above our heads. They cried, then laughed. 

A moment later, the migrant worker returned with a green jade flute. As soon as he blew the flute, the ghosts received the order and swarmed toward us at the same time. 

I didn’t think that the situation would become this dangerous so fast. I had to defend with the Sirius Whip. After each whip, I was able to clear a large number of ghosts. However, this horde of ghosts seemed to be endless. I would never be able to clear them all. 

Standing next to me, Li Mazi opened the Yin and Yang Umbrella. After having used it many times, Li Mazi now knew the basics to control the Yin and Yang Umbrella. While using the umbrella to attack the ghosts, he was also able to protect himself and Zhang Henshui. 

I suddenly blushed and felt that my disciple had finally grown up, catching up to the master. Anyway, while he was fighting hard on the other side, he shared the pressure I had to bear. 

After the magic power of the Sirius Whip was drained, I screamed and whipped one last time while reciting a spell to beckon spirits. 

This time, Lu Dongbin didn’t tease me. As soon as I read the spell, I felt my body much lighter and my arms much stronger. While screaming, I jumped and swept off all the spirits! 

The migrant worker seemed to sense something. He put the jade flute away and hid in the woods. 

I asked Lu Dongbin to take me to him. However, the Immortal started to talk with his deep and magnetic voice. “You need to find the one who tied the bell to untie it. The cause-effect relationship in the mortal world should be solved by the mortals themselves. I can’t help you.” 

After he said that, my body felt heavier. The Sirius Whip in my hand became soft again. I cursed under my breath and thought that this great Immortal wasn’t reliable at all. He left as soon as he finished! 

Li Mazi blinked his small eyes and asked, “Little Brother Zhang, should we go after him?” 

He was still dazed by my intimidating move when Lu Dongbin controlled my body. 

I turned and looked at the evil-looking big locust tree. Biting my lower lip, I made up my mind. “If we let him go this time, it will be harder to catch him the next time!”

Then, I took the lead and ran after the other party. 

Not long afterward, we saw the migrant worker. He was walking in the woods as though he hadn’t expected that we would chase after him. 

Anyway, his strong point was magic illusions. Since Lu Dongbin had helped me solve that enormous horde of water ghosts, there shouldn’t be anything dangerous now. I didn’t want to hide. I screamed then rushed toward him. 

The worker heard me. He turned, and his face changed drastically before he desperately jumped into the bushes. 

Since we had spent a lot of energy to deal with the water ghosts, we couldn’t shorten the distance between us. Fortunately, we were still able to see his figure ahead of us. 

Gradually, a plain farmyard appeared in my field of vision. The man directly entered the house and didn’t even lock the door. He might have thought it was useless to do so. 

When I came to the farmyard, I was surprised to see that it was just a paper model with reed poles and colored paper sheets. A dozen paper dolls stood inside the yard. Those paper dolls looked animated. They looked like real humans from a distance. 

I carefully assessed the place. The house shouldn’t have a back door. To prevent the other party from using magic illusion again, I smeared the huo xiang perfume one more time. Then, I entered the house first.

The place was empty; no one was in there. 

“Could he be invisible?” mumbled Li Mazi, who was feeling puzzled. 

Then, we heard the man laughing outside. “Hahaha, you’ll all die today!” 

“Crap, we’re trapped!” I was surprised when I heard his voice. 

If that fellow was able to create illusions, the worker we just saw might have been an illusion. It wasn’t his real body that lured us into this farmyard! 

I had a bad premonition. Pulling Li Mazi and Zhang Henshui, I wanted to run outside. However, when we got to the yard, all the paper dolls in the yard were revived. 

To be exact, they weren’t paper dolls. They were corpses! More than ten zombies were standing upright in the yard. A thick, white mist lingered over them. Although I was more than ten meters away from them, I still felt the cold air they were emitting. 

Standing behind the zombies was a woman wearing a black, silk veil. I recognized her. She was the woman who had worshipped Qu Yuan with the migrant worker earlier. The migrant worker was standing next to her, coldly looking at me. 

The woman was holding something that looked like a rough net. As soon as she started to shake it, the zombies started to hop. They uniformly turned and jumped toward us! 

When Li Mazi looked at the green-faced zombies with long fangs, his heroic spirit vanished instantly. He hurried to hide behind me. With a dark face, I took out a spirit talisman and palmed it on the head of the nearest zombie. 

Although my spirit talisman wasn’t a special one used to subdue zombies, I believed it could hold it back for a while. Unexpectedly, the zombie halted for a few seconds before my yellow talisman turned black and shattered into pieces! 

At the moment the spirit talisman was blasted, all the zombies became angry. They raised their hands with long fingernails and aimed at us. 

I took a step back and closed the door of the house. I then hurriedly moved all the furniture to block the door.

In the meantime, the horde of zombies started to bang on the door!