Otherworldly Merchant

After Senior Shu and I ate something, we went to bed. Dreamily, I thought I heard the strange noise from last night again. Moreover, it was very distinctive this time. Feeling curious, I got out of the tent and followed the noise. It was from the woods not far from us. At this moment, the miasma had mostly dispersed. I wanted to go there to see what was crying. 

“Did you forget what I told you?” At this moment, Senior Shu’s voice arose. With a dark face, he pulled me back to the tent. Then, he started to give me an earful. “Kid, were your ears stuck with donkey hair, or did you think that you’ve lived long enough? That’s not something we can peep or interfere with!” 

I was so scared I couldn’t speak. However, I was doubtful. Why was Senior Shu so wary of this place? 

A moment later, when he looked better, I smiled servilely and asked, “Grandpa, did something bad happen here before?” 

Senior Shu snorted, then started to speak with an indifferent tone. “You want to know? In 1942, when the Kuomintang army marched along the Burma highway to fight the evil Japanese army, a regiment of theirs passed this place. In one night, the entire regiment had disappeared…” 

“What?!” 

I took a deep breath. However, I thought it shouldn’t be true. At that time, the situation was chaotic. Perhaps the Kuomintang troop was ambushed and destroyed by the enemy. 

“The next day, when the Kuomintang army’s leaders learned about this, they sent some scouts to investigate. The scouts were gone, too.” 

When Senior Shu came to this, his eyes were full of fear. He sounded a little panicked. “A regiment has around one thousand soldiers. Even if the entire regiment was destroyed by the enemy, there should be many traces left. Yet, they found nothing!”  

“What happened after that? No more investigation?” My stomach churned, but I was still curious. 

Senior Shu waved his hand helplessly. “After the rebellion succeeded, the Kuomintang government sent people here to do further investigations. They got nothing in the end, so they made an excuse to fence up the place. They said that the mountain had too many wild and dangerous animals. Some disciples of the Mysticism School also came here to investigate the case. However, they all suffered the same fate. No one came back alive, and not even the bodies of the dead were found.” 

“Are we still going there?” I felt as though a little drum was playing rapidly in my heart. 

Senior Shu saw that I was scared. He smiled to calm me. “No need to be so tense, grandson! There are so many mysteries and secrets on this thousand-year-old big mountain, but we are not going to investigate anything. As long as we stay content with our lot, I think we should be all right.” 

After talking, Senior Shu picked up his Holy Mother Scepter and left the tent. I held the Yin and Yang Umbrella in my left hand while my right hand held onto the wolf-eye flashlight. On my waist, I had the Sirius Whip and the Emei Piercer. I scurried behind Senior Shu into the woods. 

I thought it would be boring up there. But as the miasma had thinned out, it felt cool. The breeze sometimes brushed by, which made me feel comfortable. 

However, that comfortable feeling was soon replaced by the cold. It felt as cold as falling into an icy cave or standing in front of an air conditioner running at its maximum speed in the middle of the freezing winter. I kept blowing my breath into my palms. Still, I shivered in the cold. 

“Don’t panic. The place that has the Undead Grass will be much colder than this. You will feel better when you get used to it.” 

Senior Shu took out a talisman as big as my hand and adhered it to my chest. Immediately, I felt a warm current flow from my chest to my entire body. When I walked, it felt much warmer. 

Gradually, I got used to the ambient temperature. After walking a few miles, we saw a stone monument, which was the source of the cold. contemporary romance

Behind the stone was a domed tomb. From its appearance, I guessed the tomb’s owner was from the North. The locals here preferred to hang the coffins on the mountain flank rather than burying them. Senior Shu looked excited. He began to walk faster. 

“A buried coffin will have a higher chance of growing the Undead Grass!” 

However, when we approached the grave, Senior Shu was enraged. From where we were standing, the grave looked intact. However, it had been looted. From the other side, we saw that the grave was dug, and the coffin was scattered on the ground. 

Senior Shu sniffed the air. Then, he rubbed the coffin a few times. In the end, he made a sad conclusion. “We are late. Someone has beat us to it.” 

I shone my flashlight over the grave. From the color of the coffin and the moisture of the mud, the grave had been just unearthed. I guessed it was done in the past two days. With that thought, I felt flustered. “Senior Shu, do you think the people from the Longquan Villa are behind this to trouble us?” 

“Impossible. Even if they want to trouble us, they don’t need to risk their lives to come here for the Undead Grass.” 

Senior Shu shook his head. “You don’t need to worry that much. Of course, many people want the Undead Grass. It just happened to be taken before we got here, though. We can look for it somewhere else.”  

Although his voice sounded calm, his face showed a sense of loss. I didn’t talk anymore. I gritted my teeth and walked forward. 

At this moment, thudding sounds echoed behind us. It sounded like someone was hitting a staff onto the ground. I thought it was Senior Shu’s walking stick. After a few steps, Senior Shu had passed me already. However, the thudding sound continued to echo behind me. 

As soon as I was about to turn my head around to see, Senior Shu gently cleared his throat. I got it immediately. I shouldn’t care about the things that weren’t my business!

We had walked a few hundred meters. When the strange sounds disappeared, I relaxed and asked Senior Shu, “What was that noise?” 

Senior Shu thought then answered faintly, “When a tomb is unearthed and the corpse is revealed, it will become a zombie under the moonlight.” 

“A zombie...?” 

I was shocked and dropped my jaw. A series of scenes from Lin Zhenying’s movies flashed in my head. I now recognized that it wasn’t the thudding noise from a walking staff. It was the sound that the zombie created when it hopped around. 

“Senior Shu, why didn't we deal with that zombie? Although it didn’t want to hurt us, what if it left the mountain and killed people down in the village?” 

“It would be heaven's will. If it happens, we can go deal with it. However, we can’t take action now.” Senior Shu sighed. 

I thought about it for quite a long time before I understood what he meant. I shook my head and continued to walk behind him. 

After that short episode, I thought it wouldn’t be hard to find the Undead Grass. Unexpectedly, we had moved in the depths of the mountain for quite a long time and found many cold graves, but we hadn’t seen any blade of Undead Grass.

Senior Shu became dispirited. He sighed then said, “Either someone had come and taken the Undead Grass on this mountain before us, or there is no Undead Grass here. I’m afraid we will have to go and look somewhere else.” 

“Why don’t we go to the peak to take a look?” 

I was still unwilling. We had moved around the mountain flank but we hadn’t entered the peak yet because Senior Shu thought that it would be too dangerous up there. 

“That’s our last chance. However, you have to wait for me outside. Do not follow me.” Senior Shu warned me first.

He then added as he was afraid that I wouldn’t agree with him, “It’s better for the both of us. Otherwise, I will have to lose my focus to help you.” 

It wasn’t that he was being pretentious. Under normal circumstances, I could indeed support him. However, if we faced something too intimidating, I would be a burden to him. In the end, I gave him a nod. 

As I had agreed, Senior Shu smiled and turned around. Using the Holy Mother Scepter to support himself, he started climbing to the mountain peak. 

I followed behind him. When we were about to reach the peak, the temperature dropped sharply. Although I had that talisman from Senior Shu, my body still shivered involuntarily. 

However, I wasn’t panicked, but excited. I said, “Senior Shu, what do you think?” 

“Things are almost right. There could be something up there!” 

Senior Shu excitedly rubbed his hands and increased his speed. However, before we reached the peak, two strange people suddenly dashed toward us on the small mountain path. 

I didn’t know if they were humans or ghosts. However, even from a very far distance, I could feel the cold exuding from them. Moreover, one was wearing white clothes while the other was wearing black clothes. At first glance, they looked like the Black and White Impermanence, two deities from legends. 

My legs turned jelly-like. I gulped and whispered to Senior Shu, “What should we do now?” 

Before Senior Shu answered, the two strange people talked in unison. “Return to where you came from. Otherwise, we’ll kill you.” 

Their voices were hoarse and matched with each other, which produced a robotic effect. In this ambiance, their words lingered in our ears. 

Senior Shu kept silent. He grabbed my arm and turned around. We descended the mountain. 

After walking for a while, I turned around to check. The two strangers, one in black and one in white, didn’t chase after us. I exhaled, still feeling fearful. “Were they humans or ghosts? What were they doing there?” 

“I don’t know, either.” Senior Shu’s brows slammed together. He rubbed his temple. “If they are humans, how can they have such thick Yin energy? If they aren’t humans, how can they have shadows?” 

I admired and respected Senior Shu even more now. I was frightened at that time and didn’t have the mind to observe. Fortunately, Senior Shu had recognized that they had shadows. 

“If they are humans, there’s nothing to be afraid of. We can just storm in there!” I suggested. 

The fearful thing was the unknown. If they were humans, even though they were fierce, I wouldn’t be so scared of them. I wanted to return to see if we could brush through them to take the Undead Grass. 

“It seems you didn’t notice that the cold didn’t come from the Undead Grass. The cold came from those two freaks!” Senior Shu paused for a while then said, “You sensed the Yin energy from them, didn’t you?” 

I felt irritated and shook my head in frustration. Senior Shu was right. Those two had thick cold air exuding from their bodies. That was why I didn’t know if there was Undead Grass up at the peak of the mountain. It wasn’t wise to go back and risk our lives. 

We then headed back to the place we had camped.

As we were about to reach the campsite, Senior Shu halted and sniffed around. His face turned strange. “There is Yang energy around. Someone has visited our place!”

done.co