When he lunged for my throat, I easily sidestepped, and he went crashing into the dream wall.

With a nasty crunch, the weak wall shattered.

Immediately, the evil spirit sprang to its feet again, this time baring sharp teeth and glowing red eyes.

"You insufferable immortal! Why are you interfering in another's business?"

He lunged at me again, slashing with long, dirty claws. Sparks flew as I tossed his claws to the side with Destiny Blade. While my speciality had always been qi cultivation techniques, I was just as versed in sword cultivation. No one back at the Jade Heaven Sect could beat me in a fair match.

Just wanted to add that in. Add a little more awesome immortal-ness to my immortality, heh.

As the evil spirit went flying, I called out:

"Hey! So there's business between you and this old merchant, Sen Yu? What kinda business, eh? Wanna sit down and talk about it?"

The evil spirit flashed back up, growling and foaming at the mouth. The little bite marks all over his skin seemed to be glowing red with rage.

"It's between me and that bastard! Don't poke your immortal nose where it doesn't belong!"

He sprang forward, trying to chomp down on my goddesslike immortal arm. He was trying to ruin my immortal jade skin?! No way was I about to let him do that! That was going too far.

No mercy this time—I whirled Destiny Blade around and clonked the hilt down on his matted demonic head, sending him crumpling to the ground and screeching in pain.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Now..." I wiped my hands, returning Destiny Blade into the air. "You're gonna tell me what this business is, or I'm gonna make you."

The demon groaned and growled, writhing on the dream floor. But it was no use. I'd already cast the Spirit Freezing technique on him, so he couldn't even stand.

With his evil spirit face smushed against the ground, he panted for a moment, then hissed:

"I'll tell you...but only if you bring that backstabbing bastard Sen Yu here to face his crimes. He needs to hear what I have to say, too. I wanna see the look on his face when he realizes just who's been driving him mad."

I raised an immortal eyebrow. Hmm. So this guy wanted to drive a bargain.

"All right. You drive an easy bargain. I'll bring him here right now. But just so you know, you're not going anywhere, and you can't touch him."

I closed my eyes momentarily, focusing my energy on the Soul Pulling Technique. For most people, this technique took decades to master, but I'd managed to learn it in a few days, heh. I was pretty awesome for that, right?

"Sen Yu! Come here."

With that, there was a pop, and Sen Yu appeared on the ground next to me in his human form, thankfully no longer a stinking giant ravenous rat.

He scrambled to his feet, wheezing.

"Wh-what? What's going on? Where am I? Immortal Xia, what has happened? I just had a nightmare again! I was a rat, and there was the voice — "

"Yeah, yeah, we know. Sen Yu, meet the evil spirit desiring revenge on you. Evil spirit, Sen Yu. Though I'm fairly sure you two already know each other."

Sen Yu's big, bloodshot eyes fell on the writhing demonic spirit on the ground, and he froze.

"Zhuo...Zhuo Lan, my good friend...Is that you?"

On the dirty dream floor, the evil spirit — or rather, the vengeful spirit — thrashed around, biting and scratching but unable to stand.

"Yes, it's me, you fool! You backstabbing bastard! It's me who's been haunting you, and me who'll haunt you till the day I die for what you did! ARGHGHGHHH!"

Merchant Sen Yu shrieked as the vengeful spirit, Zhuo Lan, thrashed around and looked scary. I stood there, crossing my arms and sipping a cup of dream ginger tea I'd conjured out of the air.

Time for the tea.

Honestly, I already had an inkling of what had gone down between them...but we were about to see how correct I was.