Otherworldly Merchant - Chapter 518: Tamamo no Mae-sama
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Chapter 518: Tamamo no Mae-sama

“Do you know where 

she is

 sealed?” I asked. 

“I don’t know the exact location, but I can sense Tamamo no Mae-sama’s

 

aura exuding from the mountain.” Jade Tail 

spread

 her 

arms

Yin Xinyue was curious. “Little fox, how can you speak Chinese 

so

 

well

? Aren’t you a Japanese fox?” 

“Tamamo no Mae-sama 

came from

 Chin

a

. That’s why we can speak the language. Moreover, I’ve been out for ten years already!” pouted Jade Tail. 

“I thought you just escaped

.

” I was surprised. 

W

e were sealed inside the silver fox

, and i

t was really hard to 

weaken

 

the seal

. Unfortunately, a Chinese master who liked to 

stick

 his nose in other

 people’

s business came and reinforced the seal. Later

, t

here was a time 

when

 they took out the silver fox to mend something. We took that chance and bewitched 

the

 expert in charge

,

 

making

 him destroy the seal. That’s how 

we were able to

 come out to play!” Jade Tail proudly lifted her chin. 

What

 did the man who reinforced the seal look like?” I asked. 

“Hmm, he 

looked 

similar to you…” 

“What?” I was amazed. 

“You are so annoying! How could I know 

what

 he 

looks

 like? I was still sealed at that time!” 

had to

 ask my grandpa about this matter 

the next time I saw

 him. 

Jade Tail yawned. She was 

dwelling inside an 

otherworldly 

item

, so she couldn’t endure 

the daylight for 

a long tim

e

. If she 

wanted

 to live longer, she 

had to

 absorb Yin energy like Jade Fang. She eventually turned into a crystal-clear glazed bead. I put her into my bag to protect her. 

Chiba frowned. “Mr. Zhang, this bead…” 

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep it safe. After everything is solved, I’ll give it back to you,” I said. 

We left 

the

 chamber. Urashima told us that Xiao Gao had woken up

 

and that he was about to call the police. 

“Please don’t. If the police 

come

 and seal this place, we 

won’t be able to

 do much. If we 

are un

lucky, they will take us to the station for oral confessions. It

 won’t be 

good for Xiao Gao

 as he will become the main

 suspect.” 

Since

 Xiao Gao wasn’t here, Chiba had to translate for us. Urashima thought it was reasonable. He agreed that he wouldn’t call the police

. H

owever, he hoped that we would bring back their Silver Fox Guardian as soon as possible.

 Since it was a hard task,

 I didn’t dare to promise anything

 and just said 

that I would do my best. 

It

 would be

 

silly

 to search

 the whole

 city

. Furthermore, 

we weren’t detectives. I decided to use a passive appro

ach

. We would wait here for Jade Fang. As long as we got him, the Silver Fox Guardian would return. 

Chuyi and I 

wanted to go 

to the mountain to check. However, Li Mazi’s waist was hurt

ing since

 Xiao Gao had bumped into him

; h

e didn’t want to go. Ru Xue 

wanted to

 stay with him

, too

. I asked Yin Xinyue to stay with them, but she insisted that she 

come

 with us. 

In the end, Chuyi, Yin Xinyue, Chiba, and I went to the mountain behind the shrine together. 

It was a small mountain

, and t

he mountain trail wasn’t 

very 

steep. The bamboo forest was silent

, and a

 thick mist hovered like a layer of miasma. Yin Xinyue pulled my arm. She looked scared. 

Chuyi pinched some soil between his fingers

 and observed it

. After a while, he said quietly, “

M

any people died here…” 

“This 

was

 a

 b

attlefield! Those samurais

 were 

fighting every day to claim the territory.” A voice came from my chest. It was Jade Tail talking. 

Chuyi chanted 

a

 spell. Little Lin protruded from his chest

. He floated and led 

the way 

for

 us. Soon, we saw a broken statue. We couldn’t tell what it used to be from 

its

 remains. 

When Little Lin passed the stone statue, he flashed like a broken 

television

 screen. I immediately 

understood

 

what was happening

. This stone statue was part of 

a

 sealing formation, which 

led us to believe

 that 

it

 was really vas

t as it 

cover

ed

 the entire mountain

.

“The power of the sealing formation is weakening,” I said. Since Little Lin was a 

spiritual

 being, if the formation was strong enough, 

he

 

wouldn’t be able to

 

go 

there. 

Chuyi nodded. 

Chiba asked, “Mr. Zhang, can we mend it?” 

“I assume we

’ll

 have to break the seal and create 

a new one

. Of course,

 th

e most dangerous moment is when we 

break

 the seal. If we are careless, Tamamo no Mae can escape before we can cast another seal…” I said. 

Chuyi suddenly gestured at my chest. I understood 

what he meant

. He was still cautious against Jade Tail. He was afraid that the two foxes were cooperating and they would take action 

once

 we lifted the seal. 

His worries

 

couldn’t be dismissed

If

 we accidentally released Tamamo no Mae, we couldn’t imagine the consequences.

“We should leave the mountain to prepare some 

things

. We’ll come 

back

 later,” I said. 

When

 

we returned

 to the shrine, I asked Li Mazi to buy something. 

Since

 Jade Tail could listen to our conversation, I casually told him some general items while 

I texted

 him

. I asked 

him to get me a bag of lime, a bag of jade fragments, a bag of lead powder, a few black snakes, iron nails, several shovels, and a bottle of rooster blood. 

Li Mazi smiled

“Little brother, the stuff you want has become more and more difficult to get. We’re in Japan

. Wh

ere should I go to get them?” 

Chiba 

glanced

 at the list. “We can get them in Kyoto. I can go with you.” 

Li Mazi was happy 

that

 Chiba wanted to accompany him

, but

 Ru Xue immediately intervened. “No, thank you. My husband can do 

everything by himself. Isn’t that

 right, honey?” 

Li Mazi was embarrassed. “All right, all right. I’ll figure it out later.

” 

“You should get them 

as soon as possible. You’d b

etter come back here

 

before nightfall. This time, the situation is 

rather complicated

,” I 

told

 him. 

“Okay, I’m leaving now.” 

Li Mazi and Ru Xue left first. Due to the language barrier, Xiao Gao went with them. Yin Xinyue, Chuyi, and I left for lunch.

At around 2:00 PM, Li Mazi, Ru Xue, and Xiao Gao 

returned. They told me

 that they 

bought

 all the stuff. 

“Little 

B

rother Zhang, I couldn’t find the jade fragments

, so

 I bought real jade and 

ground it

 into a powder. You don’t know how hard it is to buy jade in Japan. I spent a lot of money!” 

I checked the items. “It’s okay. I’ll pay you back.” 

H

ey, I haven’t asked you yet...

 But h

ow much 

can we

 earn this time?” 

“I’m not gonna mistreat you.”

 

Li Mazi 

would throw a tantrum

 if he knew there would be no payment. 

I asked Xiao Gao to take Yin Xinyue and Ru Xue 

on a

 tour or go shopping with them. 

T

his afternoon

 

would be a busy one

, and there would be nothing interesting to see. 

When we went to the shrine to find Chiba, Li Mazi became more lively

 and teased her

 

since

 Ru Xue wasn’t there. Chiba was polite enough to 

go along with him

I pulled Li Mazi asid

e and said

, “

Can

 you please mind your image? She’s a 

m

iko

, and y

ou asked her if she 

has

 a boyfriend. Do you want to be 

beaten black and blue

?” 

“She

’s s

uch a beautiful girl. It’s lame that she’s living like a nun.” Li Mazi shook his hea

d and sighed

You’re truly hopeless

!” I didn’t know if I should cry or laugh. 

The four of us went to the mountain. We decided that Chuyi 

would

 

break

 the seal while Li Mazi and I 

would prepare the new

 formation. 

We

 had to carry 

out the tasks 

at the same time

 to increase our odds of success

If it 

was

 a

n ordinary 

soul, we would just need a small formation to 

deal with

 it. However, this sealing formation was used to seal a fox spirit that had 

cultivated for

 several thousand years. We 

had to

 prepare a large-scale formation

 for it.

 

I used lime 

powder

 to draw a hexagram

. Then, 

I started to dig a ditch with Li Mazi

’s help

. The entire process took two hours. 

T

he sky above 

became

 darker in the 

meantime

. Afterward, we sprinkled the jade powder into the ditch

, covering it with

 lead powder

. I then

 poured the rooster blood to finish the arrangement. 

Jades were items with thick Yang energy,

 but they were

 

gentle at the same time

. My grandpa used to tell me that if we casually used stuff with thick Yang energy to seal evil

 spirits

, the

 spirits

 would 

fight

 back hard

. If that happened, they would

 be able to chip the seal bit by bit. 

Abe no Seimei’s seal was 

gentle

. That

 was

 why it could last for more than one thousand years.

After 

we finished with

 the outer 

layer

, we went to the core of the seal. There was a huge pine tree that stood alone in a vast

 and 

empty area. Chuyi 

was standing

 

under the tree. 

“I’ve been waiting for you guys for quite a long time. This place is the eye of the formation. I haven’t opened it yet

,

” 

h

e said. 

“Let’s start with the last step!” I said

.

But a

ll of a sudden, I felt so exhausted.

 

Everything in front of me turned black

.