Taoist Qianhe

Early the next morning, Taoist Simu shook his bell, preparing to lead that line of corpses onward.

Lin Yan watched from the side, finding it novel, and could not help asking, "Martial Uncle, is the craft of driving corpses hard to learn?"

When Simu heard that, his spirits rose, and his little mustache perked up.

"Hard? It's extremely hard! You have to know the roads, calculate the hours, understand corpse-speech, and guard against all kinds of sudden situations!"

His eyes rolled, and he looked toward Uncle Jiu.

"Senior Brother, why not let Ah Yan come with me for a trip? Let him see the world and learn something practical. It's better than spending all day at the Public Mortuary staring at a coffin!"

Uncle Jiu pondered for a moment. Seeing Lin Yan's eager look, and then thinking that Old Master Ren had already been reburied and that the Public Mortuary had nothing going on for the time being, he nodded.

"That works too. Ah Yan, go with your Martial Uncle and temper yourself for a few days. Listen to your Martial Uncle in all things. Do not act rashly."

"Yes, Master!" Lin Yan was overjoyed.

Taoist Simu lived in the mountains several dozen li away, in a quiet wooden building.

Living on this same mountain was also an eminent Buddhist monk, Master Yixiu.

By the time they reached the wooden building, it was nearly dusk.

An old monk with kind brows and benevolent eyes, dressed in a gray monk's robe, was sweeping the ground in front of the door. It was none other than Simu's "old rival" and friend, Master Yixiu.

"Monk, I'm back! And I brought my Senior Brother's newly accepted precious disciple!" Simu shouted in his carefree, rough manner.

Master Yixiu stopped his broom, pressed his palms together,