From the beginning of this turbid world, the Taoist priest descended the mountain.

In ordinary, respectable families would avoid a coffin at all costs.

Even those in legitimate professions consider the mortuary an unlucky place.

I wouldn't steal a coffin, of all things. And your coffin isn't made of gold!

But now, the coffin with the imperial edict and talisman for warding off evil spirits has been lost, and someone has come to the mortuary to steal it!

Anyone who steals a coffin can't possibly be a good person.

Lin Hao took a deep breath and looked at Sanbao beside him, saying, "Sanbao, let's cast a divination to find out what's inside. What's inside will be a scourge outside."

Sanbao nodded and took out six copper coins from his pocket. These copper coins were the Tongbao coins of the previous Qianlong Emperor.

He went straight to the open space outside and started tossing coins. After tossing them a few times, he rummaged around with his hands and then spoke.

"The White Tiger is in the west, and the Gate of Life and Death is in the east. There is a crown and belt on its back, which corresponds exactly to the Gate of Life. It should be heading north."

When the master accepted the Three Jewels, because there was no transmission of ordination, it was difficult to teach them the true skills.

Lin Zheng had been traveling the world for many years and was also proficient in some of the five arts of divination: mountain, medicine, fate, physiognomy, and fortune telling. Seeing that Sanbao had spiritual energy, he simply taught him a trick of Qimen Dunjia for divination.

Unexpectedly, Sanbao, that kid, actually has some spiritual roots and wisdom.

He mastered the art and, although at Lin Zheng's insistence, he didn't easily tell fortunes for others, his divination skills, especially when searching for something, were surprisingly accurate.

Lin Ye leaped onto the roof and activated his spiritual vision, immediately seeing the same black mist over the northern forest.

He turned and looked back at his junior brother, who was fiddling with copper coins.

This kid's got some skills. I originally thought the third brother was just a lucky charm. Turns out, he's got some real talent.

He jumped down from the roof and said directly to Lin Hao, "Senior Brother, give me a few talismans."

"Hmm? Junior brother, what are you going to do?"

"I'll go take a look and find some clues. Master will be back soon, and we need to give him an explanation. Don't worry, I'll just go and take a look. I won't do anything dangerous."

……

North of Qingshi Town, in an old forest.

A group of people dressed in black carried three coffins sealed with ink lines and yellow talismans pasted on the sides of the lids.

The leader had a sinister look on his face. They moved through the old forest to avoid being discovered by passersby.

"Head of the lamp, why are we going to the mortuary to steal coffins?" one of the attendants asked.

They deliberately placed a malevolent spirit at the Mei family's rice shop to lure the three brothers from the mortuary there, their aim being to sneak into the mortuary and steal the coffin.

The man called "Lantern Master" said coldly, "The county magistrate's brothers are all experts. Among them, the third and fifth brothers are even Ming Jin masters. Master Huang only has the martial arts graduate as his Ming Jin master. If this fight breaks out, we'll be the ones who suffer."

"Then why steal the coffin?" the man asked, still puzzled.

The head of the lamp clearly lost his patience and slapped him hard twice.

"Wisdom! Master Huang said that having nothing better to do is to cultivate wisdom. If we can't beat them, didn't our Tan'er Sect pry the 'method of raising corpses' out of those corpse-driving people from western Hunan? The three corpses inside are all masters from the provincial capital's canal gang, who were ambushed and killed outside. They're full of resentment! Think about it, even if this thing can't beat the few masters under the county magistrate, it's still a top-notch living corpse. As long as we can hold them off, the Tan Master can use magic to curse the county magistrate to death."

The Goose City Altar Cult has always been Master Huang's henchman.

The Tan'er Sect has a Tan Master in Goose City, and the Tan Master has two Lamp Masters under him.

Master Huang always had them do some shady things.

After hearing the head of the lanterns' explanation, the attendant suddenly understood.

As expected, Master Huang was very shrewd, knowing that living people can't be trusted at all.

Upon seeing the county magistrate arrive, they assumed that a righteous official had come and all became opportunists.

The dead are the safest bet; they work tirelessly and can be pieced together and used again even if they are broken.

But soon, he discovered something else.

"Head of the Lantern Clan, but according to you, these corpses are quite ferocious. What if they suddenly rise from the dead on the way?"

"In broad daylight, did your mother rise from the grave to sew you a bellyband? If you keep babbling like this, I'll send you to meet that corpse-driver." The head of the lantern cursed loudly.

As the group walked into a dense forest, the head of the lantern suddenly saw a dark shadow flash by in front of them.

I rubbed my eyes and found nothing there, so I thought I must have been seeing things.

The group arrived at a narrow pass, a shady and windproof place, higher in the west and lower in the east, with the White Tiger and Golden Demon rising in the sky. It was a proper place for raising corpses.

Actually, the feng shui around Qingshi Town used to be quite good. During the Great Hong Dynasty, which was dominated by Han people, two people from here even passed the imperial examination.

In the span of those twenty years, the surrounding feng shui rapidly deteriorated, turning Hanyang from a prosperous town into a vassal state of Goose City.

If it weren't for the convenient transportation, people would still be transporting food by horse and water.

It's likely that Qing Shi Town is in a similar state to other towns and villages. Even so, there are far fewer people in the town compared to twenty years ago.

It seems that things have been unsettled here ever since Old Master Huang's father, Old Master Huang, died.

Just then, a cold wind suddenly arose.

A cold wind blew up the yellow talisman pasted on the coffin, and the lamp master, quick as a flash, pressed the talisman directly onto the coffin.

They may be bad, but they're not stupid. Lin Zheng, the magistrate of Qing Shi Town, is a truly capable person; the talismans he draws are indeed excellent.

If it weren't for this thing suppressing the evil spirit in the coffin, something bad would probably happen before nightfall.

However, at that moment, the other two coffins suddenly made strange noises, as if something was scratching at the coffin lids.

The members of the Tan'er Sect who were carrying the coffin panicked and lost their balance, dropping the coffin to the ground.

If the coffin is placed on the ground, and the contents inside come into contact with the earth, something terrible might really happen!

The lamplighter didn't have time to stop it.

The moment the coffin hit the ground, the lid was blown off.

A surge of black energy erupted directly from within.

Then two people dressed in black funeral clothes, their faces bloodless, their bluish-black fingernails digging into the ground, slowly crawled out of the coffin.

"It's come back to life! Run!"

Someone in the crowd shouted this, and the followers of the Tan'er Sect scattered in all directions like rats in a pot that had been set ablaze.

But the trees here are tall and the forest is dense, so the sunlight can't get in.

Before they could run far, a dark shadow flashed by.

The zombie came into contact with the earth's energy and sprang up from the ground in the blink of an eye.

He pounced on the cultist and bit his neck through.

Seeing that things had gone wrong, the lamplighter gritted his teeth and pulled a cloth bag from his pocket. He then took out a shriveled umbilical cord from the bag and swallowed it whole without even chewing it.

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he muttered something.

"Grandma's Temple, Grandma's in charge... I offer my children and grandchildren to Grandma. Grandma's satisfied cravings, and I'm full. Grandma, come!"

He exhaled a breath of foul air, and a female-headed demon emerged from his breath and lunged at the disciple who had just asked the question.

It's quite obvious that the Mei family rice shop incident is really inextricably linked to them.

The man was bitten by the evil spirit and his blood was quickly drained.

"Head of the lamp, what are you doing?"

"The lamplighter, he's one of us."

Everyone was immediately filled with fear and apprehension. What was he doing at this moment?

"I'll use this to your advantage! If you can't subdue these two living corpses, none of you will escape!"

The living corpses arise from malevolent energy, but can be subdued by even more ferocious evil spirits.

It just so happens that this lamp holder, while not knowing anything proper, happens to possess a unique skill in nurturing evil spirits.

He traded his own son and the altar master for this.

The evil spirits were even more vicious than the two living corpses; the three evil creatures bit the members of the Tan'er Sect to death in no time.

Black energy surged from the body of the evil spirit and drifted towards the two living corpses that were chewing on them.

A voice rang out from the surroundings.

"So the things I lost from my house were here with you."