I shook my head. “No, it’s beyond our capacity. We can’t help it either. You’d better find another expert!”

“No,” the ship owner said resolutely. “I already found you guys. You guys must help me solve this. Don’t you otherworldly merchants have a rule? As long as you accept the mission, you must see it through to the end!”  

“But I don’t have a solution.” I forced a smile. “If we keep doing this, we will just waste each other’s time. Eventually, you will die faster.”

The ship owner sighed. “I’ll be honest with you. I have asked many experts but they were either swindlers or haven’t mastered their skills. That’s why I had to endure a lot of hardship. After consulting an expert in this field, I was told that an otherworldly merchant who could deal with the Golden Perianth is capable of dealing with the thing that’s been pestering me. Please don’t deny that. Sometimes, being humble isn’t really good.”

After listening to the strange words from the ship owner, I knew he had some dark scheme in his head. “What do you mean? We can’t help you with this case.”

The ship owner spoke coldly. “You want to let it go and ignore me? I don’t think you’re able to face the consequences.”  

Li Mazi snarled indignantly. “Why don’t you try to call the police and have me arrested?! We didn’t kill anybody nor did we burn any house. I’m telling you, I’m not afraid of you.”

The ship owner talked at a moderate pace. “If you

don’t 

help me, I won’t survive the night. If I die in a strange manner tonight, do you think you can deny that you know me? No matter what, everyone on this ship has seen you guys tie me up. When the time comes, even if you have more mouths, you won’t be able to defend or explain yourselves …”

After listening to the ship owner’s tone of voice, I started to feel irritated.

How could I be that careless? I have been an otherworldly merchant for several years, and I shouldn’t have made such a rookie mistake!

I suddenly recalled the rule that my grandpa told me. 

Ignore it for a lifetime or take care of it for a lifetime! 

Am I really bound by such an invisible rule? 

The more I thought about it, the more plausible it had become in my mind. I couldn’t help but curse under my breath.

The ship owner was being reasonable. It was true that we couldn’t just brush our hands and walk away.

Although I had a terrible headache, I could only agree with him. I would have to come up with a solution.

Anyway, Li Mazi had concluded that the ship owner was trying to threaten us, so he didn’t want to join this mission any further.

I clearly understood his bad intentions. He simply wanted to increase the commission. Eventually, the ship owner agreed to triple the price.

I decided to study the situation more thoroughly.

Yesterday, the ship owner had farted the whole night, and I don’t think that the otherworldly item wanted to tease us. There must have been some purpose.

So, what was its purpose?

 I felt like it wanted to use the stench to cover itself and prevent us from spotting it.

Well, if it wanted to hide, we would break its protective barriers and expose it!

I made a list of things and asked the ship owner to prepare them.

Rhino horn, peach wood, a machete some butcher had used to slaughter buffalos, and even some ox’s tears.

Looking at the list of unfamiliar items, the ship owner annoyedly asked me why I needed these.

I told him, “Just prepare them timely. You don’t need to think about what to do with them.”

Those items were really rare. Especially in Nanjing, where there were strict rules, rhino horn trading was banned. However, the ship owner still managed to find a rhino horn in the end.

After he had collected all the required items, I asked him to buy four gas masks.

Then, we returned to the small cabin one more time.

Since we got the gas masks this time, even if he had made a big fart, I wouldn’t bat an eye.

But now, I had a headache…

Were the things we’d prepared even going to work?

When the night fell, we opened the door to help ventilate the room. Then, we did what we had done yesterday: We tied the ship owner tightly onto a chair.

Tonight, the ship owner was smarter because he had learned from his experience. Before we tied him, he had taken out a piece of sponge from his pocket and put it into his mouth. By doing this, he didn’t need to eat Li Mazi’s stinky sock.

After we had prepared everything, we squatted by the door and watched.

At first, everything was calm. From midnight onward, the ship owner began to grit his teeth and struggled hard. Since we were prepared, we weren’t worried. Meticulously, we walked around and checked the antiques in the room. We wanted to see if any antique would react strangely.

After one round, nothing happened.

I knew that this item had some intelligence. It was aware that we were well-prepared today, so it didn’t want to create a big commotion. The ship owner shook for a while then drifted into sleep.

I held the rhino horn and began to walk around the storage room. The rhino horn had a natural scent that would produce a special reaction to any otherworldly item that exuded a stinky smell. Otherworldly items with different attributes would have different reactions. I just needed to check the rhino horn to determine the area of the otherworldly item.

However, I had been too optimistic. The room was perfectly normal, and I did not spot anything strange.

I became doubtful. 

What if that otherworldly item isn’t stored in this collection room?

It was impossible though. Yesterday, that item had controlled the ship owner and made him fart, preventing me from finding it. It was enough to prove that the item was kept in this room.

Tonight, the otherworldly item didn’t do anything to conceal itself, which was weird. 

Could someone have stolen that otherworldly item when we weren’t paying attention?

A horrible thought suddenly popped up in my head.

I immediately called Li Mazi and Yin Xinyue and asked them to check if there was an empty glass box or any item that had been replaced.

However, we weren’t familiar with the items in this room. After checking, we didn’t see anything missing.

Eventually, we thought we should ask the ship owner to check the room.

I checked on the ship owner and found him sitting on his chair, but his eyes were fixed on something. His mouth fell open and his face turned from green to purple. It seemed the man wasn’t breathing.  

I was startled and followed the ship owner’s gaze.

A clock hung on the opposite wall. That clock looked pretty plain and ordinary. However, after gazing at it for several seconds, I immediately felt dizzy.

Right after that, I felt a massive hand trying to strangle my neck, preventing me from breathing. I couldn’t even move my eyes away and just kept staring at the clock. It was just a short period of one minute, but it felt like I was almost throttled to death.

“Hey, hey, hey!” However, right at this moment, I heard Li Mazi’s voice.

As Li Mazi shook me, I was finally able to move my gaze away and breathe normally. I squatted and gasped for my breath.

While trying to control my breathing

, 

I thought about the ship owner.

I had been suppressed for one minute and was almost killed. What about the ship owner, who had been strangled for a longer time?

I said nothing and kicked the ship owner.

The ship owner and his chair fell to the ground. When he fell, he screeched. Then, he used the last bits of his strength to breathe. He was shivering, hating that he couldn’t just suck in all the air in the room.

Li Mazi was confused and looked at us in bewilderment. “What happened to you two?”

At this moment, I was still frightened.

My limbs were all numb and I struggled to move them. However, I mustered the last bit of my strength and jumped up, took off the clock from the wall, and turned it face-down onto the ground. “Don’t look at this clock. It’s evil.”

Li Mazi was taken aback. “Since when was this thing hanging there? I didn’t notice it last night.”

I said, “We don’t have time now. Hurry, check if the ship owner’s still alive. We can’t afford him dying here or else we will all be in danger!”

It was good that the ship owner was slowly recovering.

However, he was struggling to breathe. His body was convulsing, and his saliva dripped from the corners of his mouth.

Without hesitation, I untied him from the iron chain and let him lie on the ground. At the same time, I massaged his chest to facilitate his breathing.

When the ship owner resumed his consciousness, he screeched and cried, saying that he had just experienced a walk around the gate to Hell. He had even seen the Ox-Head and Horse-Face guardians as they were preparing to take his soul…

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter