Otherworldly Merchant

It was obvious that Little Lin had good days with Chuyi. His soul had resumed its original shape. The little boy now wore a gold-sparkling red dudou. When he saw me, he started clapping his hands and beaming at me. The boy didn’t forget me, his first master. 

“Get in there through the slit and see if you can track it down through its smell.” 

Chuyi brought a scale to Little Lin’s nose. The little ghost closed his eyes to concentrate and sniffed the scale. Then, he plunged swiftly into the ground. 

“Cough. Cough…” 

As my father-in-law was old, he couldn’t endure the cold weather. I took off my coat and put it over him. After turning back to see the slit the sword had made in the ground, I waited, feeling tense. 

Soon, Little Lin returned. He looked a little embarrassed. He shook his head and pointed at the ground. 

Chuyi sighed and retrieved Little Lin to the calabash. “Little Lin said that the Eight-hundred-mile Scaled Dragon has run deep into the earth.” 

Except for the dead who were buried, there were a lot of other unknown creatures in the ground. With Little Lin’s cultivation base, he didn’t dare to enter too far underground. 

The Scaled Dragon made good use of the soil to cover its Yin energy. In other words, we couldn’t track it down from here. 

On the way back, I felt a little awkward as this was a very tough case, and it had happened to my family. 

My father tried to comfort me, while Chuyi put on a dark face. He said nothing. 

When we got home, Yin Xinyue was sleeping as she didn’t get enough sleep these days. Chuyi’s presence was like a sedative to us, which made her feel safe. I tucked her in bed and went outside to talk to Chuyi. 

“Do you know where we can find water nymph’s tears?” 

“Possibly in Laizhou Bay.” Chuyi recalled then said, “I remember some seniors mention that mermaids used to show up in Laizhou Bay.” 

“When?” 

“Before the Reform. There was a big turmoil at that time, but the government had suppressed the news.” 

There was a village called Dragon King in Laizhou Bay, where a dam was located. The old people said it was built a very long, long time ago. During the Shang Dynasty, this area had a horrible drought. King Tang of Shang sent his army here to rescue the people. They decided to break the dam in Dragon King Village to release the water. Unexpectedly, not long after they started to dig, dark clouds began to congregate in the sky, followed by heavy rain. 

Afterward, people assumed that the dam was the ‘Dragon Eye.’ Throughout the ages, as long as there was a drought in the area, people would go to the place to dig, and the same thing happened every time. In the end, all the people were convinced that it was the Dragon Eye. 

After the Reform, the government sent a famous expedition team to Laizhou Bay to investigate the Dragon King Village’s Dragon Eye. However, they were beset by a brutal water nymph, which resulted in the deaths of the entire team. 

This expedition team was rich in expertise as they had previously explored the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and even the underground mausoleum in Kunlun Mountain. They had survived the hardest circumstances, but all of them were killed in Dragon King Village. The situation was beyond shocking. The government tried to conceal the news. 

Moreover, except for the members of the expedition team, many villagers had seen the mermaids. Despite the efforts of the government to hide the news, it spread quickly. 

Chuyi kept silent. I was still curious and asked, “What happened after that?” 

“After that…” Chuyi suddenly shed a tear. Except for the instance when the little Daoist boy had sacrificed himself to save us, I had never seen him cry before. I became worried and asked him again. 

“After that, many otherworldly merchants went there. They all died, including the one I loved the most.” 

He lifted his head, wiped his tears, and tried to smile at me. “Thank you. If it weren’t for you giving me this chance, I’m afraid I would have never thought about stepping in Dragon King Village again.” 

I was baffled. I had never thought that Chuyi carried so many burdens on his back. I felt something falling inside me. I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t. In the end, I mumbled, “Brother, we should go together!” 

It was a fact that Chuyi’s loved one had died in Dragon King Village. But regardless of whether we could find the mermaid, how could I refuse to go there to investigate? 

After that, we returned to our respective rooms to rest. The next morning, I told Yin Xinyue that I was going with Chuyi to find the water nymph’s tears. 

I knew it would be extremely dangerous this time, so I didn’t tell her where we were going. “Honey, stay home and take care of our parents.” 

“Hubby, I… I’m so sorry you have to take on the danger…” 

Yin Xinyue smiled like a tabby cat. I understood her mind. On one hand, she didn’t want me to take risks. On the other hand, she couldn’t stand to see her parents suffering. No matter what, it hurt her. 

“Wife, stay home and wait for me. We’ll be back soon.” I stroked her silky hair. I smiled while feeling a sharp pain in my heart. 

When we were about to depart, Yin Xinyue and her mother were crying. My father-in-law had red-brimmed eyes like the first time he saw me. He grabbed my hand and shakily said, “Son, don’t worry about us. Yin Xinyue’s here with us.” 

To be assured, Chuyi discreetly released Little Lin before we left and asked him to stay here. If something wrong happened, he would notify us immediately. 

Laizhou Bay wasn’t far from this village. Since Chuyi drove a sports car, we got there in four hours. He used the navigation system to reach an antique street. I understood that he wanted to prepare something, so I followed him without asking. 

One hour later, Chuyi had bought a tripod from the Xia Dynasty, a Five Thunder Heavenly Master Talisman, and a bust of Jiang Ziya. 

Linking these to the legend Chuyi had told me before, it wasn’t hard to imagine how these items would work. Jiang Ziya went fishing without bait. He waited for the fish to bite his empty hook proactively. According to the legend, Jiang Ziya was a famous fisherman, so he would somewhat be a threat to the mermaid. 

The Five Thunder Heavenly Master Talisman was powerful in that it could suppress all kinds of monsters and ghosts. At the same time, the tripod was the symbol of power, which in itself had a strong aura. But I knew the Xia Dynasty tripod Chuyi had bought was a fake one. “Hey, do you have any plan on what to do with this fake tripod?” 

“It’s the best container to keep the water nymph’s tears. It can store the Yin energy in the tears, and we don’t want the Yin energy to evaporate.” 

After Chuyi said that, I noticed that the corners of his mouth curved into a faint smile. I realized that he was even more handsome than I had originally thought. 

However, it wasn’t a happy journey from Laizhou City to the bay. Although the interprovincial roads in Shandong had improved a lot, the roads in Laizhou were horrible. I thought it might be because of the big traffic volume here. There were so many big trucks.

It was a distance of a couple of dozens of miles, but we were stuck in traffic jams several times. We finally arrived at Dragon King Village after 3:00 PM. 

When the car pulled to a full stop, I wanted to get out to find someone to ask for the way. Unexpectedly, Chuyi grabbed my arm and said coldly, “Jiulin, do you trust me?” 

“I do! What’s wrong?” 

He made me confused and skeptical. 

Chuyi wore a cold face and looked at the people moving outside. His voice was icy cold. “The villagers here are xenophobic. You know, there’s an 80% possibility that the otherworldly merchants were killed by the villagers that year.” 

“What…” I was shocked. How could it be?

Still, the national expedition team and Chuyi’s loved one were all hotshots in the field, but they had all died. And, the common people in the Dragon King Village weren’t even hurt. It spoke up about the problem here. 

Moreover, we had been held captive by the locals more than once while solving the otherworldly items throughout China. Since Chuyi’s loved one had died here, my wish to go out and ask for directions was gone. I sat idly and sank into my thoughts.