Anyone Kong Xunzhen considered a friend naturally deserved a closer look from Chen Miao.
The Corpse Stitcher was an elderly woman named Zheng Mei.
Two figures stood behind her.
No, one was a person, and the other was a corpse draped in painted skin!
The Southern School Corpse-Sewing Secrets contained an introduction to painted skin, but Chen Miao had never worked with it because of the materials involved.
He had even omitted that section when he first started teaching Shi Manman, afraid that she might be of poor character and stray down an evil path. Only after he learned more about her circumstances did he teach her the part concerning painted skin.
Chen Miao had seen quite a few yin objects and ghosts made from human skin, such as Elder Bamboo's two personal guards back then, and Shopkeeper Li and the others in Kong's Paper Effigy Shop. But this was his first time seeing painted skin in a Corpse Stitcher's hands.
Generally, Corpse Stitchers wore the painted skin they made themselves. They rarely draped it over corpses.
Unless this corpse was special somehow?
Just as Chen Miao used his own methods to examine the painted-skin corpse, its previously rather vacant eyes suddenly shifted and fixed on him. At the same time, the elderly woman chatting with Kong Xunzhen also looked his way.
A hint of surprise appeared in her eyes before she said to Kong Xunzhen, "This disciple of yours has quite an eye."
Kong Xunzhen smiled.
"It isn't his eye. His soul body is naturally strong."
Understanding dawned on the elderly woman.
"You really are fortunate. You went so long without taking a disciple, and now you've taken three at once."
As she spoke, Weng Bo, the Corpse Keeper beside her, also glanced at Chen Miao.
That sweeping glance