Otherworldly Merchant

Hey guys, great news!  Two more top-performing sneak peek Chinese novels licensed from Zongheng have left VIP-only and are available for you to read, each with fifty chapters and a 2/day schedule!  These novels are Yama Rising, translated by Minotauruz (who did the great translation of Demoness' Art of Vengeance) and Star Odyssey, translated by OMA who did Warlock of the Magus World and City of Sin!  Both are veteran and highly capable translators, and I'm excited to bring this to y'all.

Yama Rising: This novel,...

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That night, Qin Sisi stayed with us. I told her to report to her Second Uncle that Qin Minghao’s sickness would resurface at around 3:00 AM in the morning. And that, before that time, we would be resting to regain our strength and composure. He was not to send anybody to disturb us during this time.

It was like a sedative to Mr. Qin. It allowed him to calm down and be at ease. 

We laid on the bed and listened to the time tick by as we waited for the night to come!

Soon, it was around 11:00 PM. I listened to see if there was any commotion in the corridor. Everything was clear. 

I then woke Li Mazi up and asked Qin Sisi to keep the watch while Li Mazi opened the door of the opposite room. 

Li Mazi gave me a nod and discreetly tiptoed away. It didn’t even take him five minutes to unlock the room. We quietly made our way out of our room and followed him. 

Before I left, I closed all the windows of the room and opened the bottle of liquid ether.

Liquid ether would evaporate at room temperature, so I was sure that the assassin would fall into our trap. After everything was ready, we held our breaths and hid in the opposite room.

To avoid being discovered, we didn’t even turn the lights on. The entire room was engulfed in darkness, and the world around us was dead silent.

I adjusted my breath as I carefully listened to the commotion outside.

Everything was quiet, too quiet.

For some reason, this complete silence gave me a flash of premonition. I felt like something very unfortunate was going to happen.

It was around midnight, and people were fast asleep at this time. If Mr. Qin wanted to send someone to murder us, that person should have arrived already. 

But what if Mr. Qin knew that we were prepared and decided to change his plans? 

I started to panic.

Even Qin Sisi noticed the abnormality. She mumbled to me, “Is something wrong?” 

”Don’t talk. Just wait for a while,” I advised.

After waiting for around ten more minutes, we began to hear faint sounds from the corridor. It sounded like someone was walking very slowly.  

“The assassin’s here.” Li Mazi became restless.

I furrowed my brows. Things were that simple. Since Mr. Qin knew that we were a problem, I was sure he’d sent an elite assassin, and a professional assassin wouldn’t create such loud footsteps.

However, it was also possible that the assassin was experienced and was deliberately making such noises to deceive us. Perhaps he wanted us to think that it was a maid or servant walking in the corridor.

Guessing from the footsteps, that person didn’t stop at our room but continued to move back and forth.

It’s almost midnight. Who would run around like this?

There were only two possibilities. The first possibility was that the person wasn’t an assassin. He was just a senior servant in the manor. 

The second possibility was that the cunning assassin wanted us to lower our guards.  

The footsteps echoed in the corridor as the person wandered back and forth twice. Eventually, they stopped at the door. I could even hear the tiny click the door made when they carefully turned the knob and pushed the door open. 

Damn, it was really an assassin! 

I pricked up my ears to catch any commotion.

To our surprise, after the door was pushed open, we didn’t hear any more sounds. This cheered me up as the other party seemed to have stepped into my trap. The liquid ether had worked.  

We had waited like that for more than ten minutes, which made me believe that the other person had been anesthetized. Without further ado, I opened the door and took a good look at the room opposite us. 

The door to the room was open, but no lights were switched on. It was still a mass of pitch-black darkness. But then, I saw a dark figure squatting on the bed. The figure was motionless.

It seemed the other person hadn’t had time to turn on the lights when they were anesthetized by the ether. I was elated and quickly switched the lights on.

But as soon as I rushed in, the shadow abruptly jolted up. “I’ve finally got you. I’ll avenge my eight thousand brothers!”

After the shadow said that, I felt a cold wind rush toward my neck.

I was frightened and instinctively jerked backward. “What’s going on?!”

Although I had retracted my neck, I still felt something reeking of blood pass above my scalp. It cut several hairs off my scalp, leaving a wound on my head.

“Run! Hurry!” Qin Sisi hissed and grabbed my arm. We rushed outside the room.

I knew my plan had failed as that person was well-prepared and didn’t faint. I didn’t say anything and immediately dashed out of the room.

As soon as I reached the door, the assassin started chasing after me. His hand wielded a long sword that danced in the air. I could even hear the sounds of friction created by the blade as it crossed through the air.

Still running for my life, I turned my head around to check. 

At first glance, I shivered in fright. It was no assassin! It was Qin Minghao!

Since Qin Minghao’s body was controlled by the departed soul, it explained why the ether didn’t work on him. 

Damn it! I cursed under my breath.

Qin Minghao held the Thunder Sword and approached me. Both of his eyes had turned sparklingly red, and his long hair flew even though there was no wind. The murderous aura that exuded from him was absolutely shocking. He looked really terrifying.

“Who locked the corridor door?!” Qin Sisi screamed in shock.

I immediately turned to the door at the end of the corridor. Sure enough, it was really locked. In other words, we could only move around in the corridor on the second floor. 

All of a sudden, I realized that Li Mazi and Gold-toothed weren’t following us. My heart sank one more time. Did something bad happen to them? 

When this thought popped in my head, my scalp went numb. I didn’t hesitate to scream, “Li Mazi, Gold-toothed, where are you?!”

At this moment, the door of the opposite room opened. Gold-toothed and Li Mazi craned their heads and looked around. I was speechless; I had been worried for nothing.

Li Mazi saw me screaming, so he hurried to ask, “You two, why did you run so far away?”

I watched Qin Minghao, who was approaching us, and cursed, “What else can we do besides running away? Hurry, seize the time and think of a solution!”

Li Mazi said, “You guys, get in! It’s safer to stay in this room!”

Then, Li Mazi retracted his neck. 

Qin Sisi was scared and kept holding onto my arms. Her voice shivered, “What should we do now?”

We didn’t have the time to think. We could only fight Minghao head-on as all my magical tools were in the room opposite us. 

I thought I was dealing with a human assassin tonight. The fact that a departed soul could appear before us was out of my expectations.

Left with no choice, I could only pick a mop nearby. I had to stall Qin Minghao and find the opportunity to get past him and enter the room. We would be safe then.

A cold, mechanical voice escaped from Qin Minghao’s throat. “You forced Yu Ji to kill herself. You plotted against my brothers. Haha, I want to take revenge. I want to take revenge for them!”

Then, he raised his sword and aimed at the crown of my head, forcefully hacking down. 

I was shocked. A blood-red glow emitted from the blade’s sharp edge. I was sure that my mop couldn’t fight against it. It would be easily cut off.

Damn it, what do I do? 

Qin Sisi was scared out of her wits. She could only beg Qin Minghao to let us go.

My eyes then fell to the door that locked the corridor. It was a sliding door with exquisite hollow carvings. I hoped that it could block the Thunder Sword.

Immediately after I got the idea, I pulled Qin Sisi. We backed off until we reached the hollow, sliding door. 

The Thunder Sword in Qin Minghao’s hand violently slashed and hit the sliding door. Immediately after, the sliding door created a sharp noise of metal rubbing on metal. It also increased the time the sword took to slash down. 

I seized this chance to pull Qin Sisi. We slid under Qin Minghao’s arms to get away from him.

The moment we slid away. I heard the sound of the sword hitting the ground. The sound was deafening and made my scalp go numb. I turned to check, and I saw that the rigid granite floor now had a neat crack. It was terrifying. 

I gasped. Just how strong is he? He was able to slash that deeply into the ground! If he hit a human being, he would cut them into two...

Luckily, we had escaped his attack. I didn’t dare to join the fight again or counterattack him. Actually, I didn’t even have time to think about it. I pulled along the petrified Qin Sisi and headed toward the room where Li Mazi was taking shelter.

While running, I screamed so that Li Mazi would hear me and open the door. 

Soon after, the door was opened. Li Mazi craned his neck out of the room. He even held two kettles in his hands. It looked like he was about to go out to rescue us.

After seeing that we had managed to flee from the enemy, he was elated. He encouraged us to quicken our pace.  

However, as soon as Li Mazi finished speaking, he suddenly noticed something. He cried out, “Oh no! Not good!” 

Right after that, he slammed the door shut with a loud thud.

You bastard! What have you done?! 

My heart raced frantically. I knew something unexpected had just taken place. 

The moment his door was about to close, a small bottle flew out of the opposite room and hit the door. The glass bottle shattered, and wisps of white mist rolled up, swirled, and emitted from the bottle. 

I lowered my head to see what had happened. Then, I fell into despair. 

It was the glass bottle of ether we had prepared. 

The ether in the bottle hadn’t volatilized all. I guessed that only half of it had evaporated. When the bottle broke, the ether began to change. It turned into a white mist that started to permeate the place.

I took a deep breath. My head had a throbbing pain which almost made me collapse on the ground.

We had been played big this time. If we inhaled the wisps of ether in the air, we would pass out, which would allow Qin Minghao to kill us with ease. 

I was too worried to advance any further. I could only stop.

At the same time, I turned my head around to check. Qin Minghao had just started to chase after us. He was dragging his Thunder Sword on the ground. He looked like a brutal and intimidating evil god.

I roared and threw the mop toward Qin Minghao. “There is no time to think. Hurry, get in that room!”  

The closer we got to the room, the stronger the smell of ether. I wasn’t sure if I could stop myself from inhaling it. I gradually started to have problems breathing, and my head turned cloudy.

This was the only chance we had. I tried my best to knock on the door. “Li Mazi, open the door. Quickly, open the door!” 

I could still hear Li Mazi and Gold-toothed quarreling inside. It seemed they were fighting over the matter of whether they should open the door for us.

I cursed then banged on the door harder. Qin Minghao was running toward us. There was no time.

The door hadn’t opened yet, but Minghao had already raised his Thunder Sword high in the air!

My body leaned against the door as I couldn’t stand up anymore. I slumped and slid along the board of the door. My consciousness blurred, and I eventually lost my senses.

Before I completely fainted, my only thought was… Would I be dismembered into pieces? 

While half-conscious, I heard Li Mazi’s voice, “Little Brother Zhang, wake up. You have to wake up! We don’t have time!”

I battled to open my drowsy eyes. At this time, I felt a head-splitting pain.

I tried to suppress my agony and sat up. “Where’s Qin Sisi? Are you guys all right?”

Li Mazi answered, “We’re okay. You two are okay, too. If we were late by just a few seconds, your leg would have been gone.” 

I felt a sharp pain at my leg. I tried to take a look at it, and I was frightened.

There was a very deep cut on my thigh; blood was everywhere. Although my wound was wrapped, the pain didn’t ease at all. 

“How long was I out?” I asked. 

“Just lay back,” said Li Mazi. “I guess it’s been around three minutes or so.”

“We’re still in danger,” I told him. “I’m sure Qin Minghao will slash and hack on this door!” 

As soon as I said that, a low thud came from the lavishly carved wooden door. Needless to say, it was Qin Minghao trying to break the door. 

Li Mazi was enraged. He glared at me. “Stop jinxing it!” 

Then, he ignored me and hurried to push a couch toward the door to block it. 

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