Otherworldly Merchant

As the donkey-drawn cart was approaching the village, the dog barking became louder and clearer. 

Indeed, all the dogs in the village acted as Uncle Chen had told me. They were barking crazily, and I could sense fear in their barking. It seemed something very dangerous or horrible was about to take place. 

I frowned. “Uncle Chen, since when did the dogs start barking at you? You’ve been selling tofu for so many years. Did it just happen recently?”  contemporary romance

Uncle Chen thought for a moment. “I don’t remember the time clearly, but I’m sure it started last year.” 

It seemed the village had something new, or the villagers had changed the geomancy. Otherwise, the dogs wouldn’t frantically bark like that. Dogs were a type of spirit animal. They could feel the existence of ghosts and souls, and they would bark when they felt endangered. That was why people in rural areas liked to keep dogs. It wasn’t just to prevent thieves, but also to prevent ghosts from entering their houses. 

I didn’t dare to imagine the thing that was scaring all the dogs. However, I was sure it was a big boss! My intuition told me that this case wouldn’t be solved as easily as the previous cases. I called Li Mazi to bring me the Holy Mother Scepter and the Yin and Yang Umbrella. 

Uncle Chen became tense when he saw my cautious expression. “Immortal, did you notice something?” 

I frowned and said, “Those dogs are barking at an ominous thing.” Then, I stood up on the cart to check out Xiaoliu Village. It was twilight, the moment when day and night, Yang and Yin shifted. If there was something foul in the village, now would be the time it would show up or leave a mark. Even if it could conceal itself, I would sense the anomaly through the abnormal air movement. 

However, we had entered the village, and I hadn’t noticed anything. I even felt that this village was quite peaceful compared to other places. This place gave me an unknown but firm feeling. 

The people here might have been worried that the trucks could break their roads, so they had installed two big rock columns at the village entrance to narrow the road. The space between the two columns was just enough for a small vehicle to pass through. Uncle Chen was worried that his cart would brush the columns here and there, so he got out of the cart. I also followed him to the back to help him push the cart. 

After we passed the columns, before I could get on the cart, I saw many people congregating. They were pointing at us. They didn’t look angry but worried. A middle-aged man walked out of the crowd. He came and offered Uncle Chen a cigarette, and said with a twisting face, “Brother Chen, the dogs in our village keep barking. I think you should…” 

That middle-aged man wanted to ask us to leave politely. Uncle Chen didn’t become mad. He puffed his cigarette then said in a serious tone, “Old Liu, I’m not here to sell tofu. I’m here to help.” 

Old Liu was bewildered. His gaze turned to me and the yellow bag on my back. His eyes became vigilant. He stiffly asked, “Brother, what do you mean?” 

“Uncle Chen thought that his house had a problem, so he came to me for help. I’ve checked his house carefully. I found nothing strange about it. That’s why I think the problem lies within your village. We’ve come here to take a look. If you don’t believe me, we can leave,” I said faintly. 

Since Old Liu didn’t give me a polite look, I wasn’t going to be polite to him. 

Old Liu’s countenance changed. He sternly looked at me and then at Uncle Chen. Then, he turned to the people behind him and said, “Stop watching. Go home for dinner, folks!” 

After he said that, the crowd dispersed. It seemed this man had some power in this village. After all the people left, he put on a wry smile and extended his hand toward me. 

“Good evening, I am Liu Dali, the Village Elder of this village.” He apologized for his manner and told us about the situation in the village. He understood that the problem wasn’t from Uncle Chen for two reasons. One, when Uncle Chen wasn’t in the village selling his tofu, the dogs still barked crazily. Two, when some villagers ate tofu, the dogs barked crazily. However, the commotion wasn’t as big as when the tofu seller came. 

Being the Village Elder, Liu Dali was concerned for his people’s wellbeing, so he had to push the blame on Uncle Chen. Recently, he had secretly invited some geomancers. They came and did some exaggerated moves, achieving nothing, or ran away with a panicked face. Some had asked Liu Daly to pay a huge sum to help this village. However, as Liu Dali was keeping this problem a secret from his villagers, he couldn’t ask them to contribute money. In the end, nothing had been resolved yet…

After he said that, he sighed and pulled my arm. “If you hadn’t come here, Master, I think I would have asked the folks in our village to stop eating tofu forever! Please, help us!” 

“Hmph!” Before I could answer, Uncle Chen snorted and pulled his donkey cart. It seemed he was leaving. 

I felt he was angry that Liu Dali had pushed the blame for this unfortunate event on him. Liu Dali and I hurried to stop him. Unexpectedly, the old man wanted to leave, no matter what.

Feeling helpless, I told him, “Uncle Chen, the thing that has caused trouble here somehow relates to tofu. We would need to use your tofu tonight. I don’t think you should leave…” 

“Okay, I’ll leave my tofu here for you to help this village, Immortal Zhang. Don’t let it harm people,” said Uncle Chen.

Then, he threw a hostile look toward Liu Dali. He left his donkey cart in the village and went home. I shrugged and looked at Liu Dali. 

Liu Dali smiled reluctantly. “Chen Tofu is a good man. However, he’s too stubborn.”  

After this short event, the sky was completely dark. Liu Dali and I pulled the donkey cart to his house and tied the donkey by the stack of woods behind his house. He kindly invited me to have dinner at his home. No matter what, I needed to wait for Li Mazi to bring me my tools, so I agreed. 

Liu Dali happened to have a dog in his house. When I came to the courtyard, I saw the dog lying on the ground, whining. It was curling its body into a ball. Its head was cocked to the side. It ignored me, a stranger who had just intruded into the house. 

I frowned and wanted to approach the dog to see what it was looking at. It could help me guess the direction of that foul thing. Unexpectedly, as soon as I moved close to it, the dog jumped up. I was lucky that it was chained. Otherwise, it could have bitten me already! 

The dog saw that I had stopped approaching it and didn’t mind me anymore. It laid back down. This time, it looked in another direction. I decided to try a few more times. The dog reacted in the same way. However, it would change its direction every time it laid down. I thought that this wasn’t a good method. 

I wanted to wait and see what would happen at night. If that thing was interested in tofu, I thought it would come out, no matter what. 

A little girl around four or five years old stayed in Liu Dali’s house. He told me she was his granddaughter, a kindergartener in the village. After dinner, the little girl nicely sat down and did her homework. She asked Liu Dali to help her from time to time. I liked kids, so I played with her for a while. 

After the little girl finished her writing exercise, Dali’s wife took her to the bedroom. I lifted my head to check the clock. It was 8:00 PM already, and Li Mazi hadn’t come here yet. I took out my phone to call him, but the line didn’t connect. 

I frowned. I took out the Emei Piercer from my bag and rushed outside. Liu Dali hurriedly ran after me. “What’s wrong?” 

“Uncle Liu, stay here and wait for me. I’m going to fetch my friend.” 

I didn’t turn around and ran directly to the village entrance. Along the way, I heard the dogs bark non-stop. I recognized that the situation was even more serious than I had imagined. Those dogs had been barking for more than two hours. They should be exhausted. What made them bark and howl with no regard for their lives? 

When I reached the village entrance, I realized that I should call Ru Xue. She told me that Li Mazi had departed right after receiving my call. He had left three hours ago! The strange thing was that the distance only required one hour!

“Li Mazi, are you here? Li Mazi!” 

I was bewildered for a while, but I pulled myself together and called his name. However, my voice was silenced by the deafening dog barks. Moreover, Li Mazi wasn’t in the village. If he was, he would have called me. I thought he had accidentally provoked that foul thing. Ordinary people could easily enter the village. This time, Li Mazi was carrying the Holy Mother Scepter and the Yin and Yang Umbrella, two powerful weapons. The evil creatures would automatically consider him their enemy.  

I patted my thigh in regret. But then, I thought of a solution. I could read the spell to awake the Holy Mother Scepter. Once the Holy Mother Scepter radiated gold light, I could spot Li Mazi’s whereabouts! 

It required a lot of magical power to cast the spell from a distance. However, to save Li Mazi, this was the only solution I had. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, ready to read the spell. At this moment, Liu Dali suddenly called me. We’d exchanged numbers before dinner; that was why he had my number. 

“Uncle Liu, what’s wrong?” I thought he wanted to know where I was, so I told him that I was at the village entrance. While talking with him, I kept scanning the place. 

Liu Dali’s voice was shaking on the other end of the line. “Young Master, you should come back. Hurry! Something... Something’s wrong here…” 

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