Uncle Nine: You were supposed to drive corpses, so you summoned the Monkey King!

Uncle Nine carried the broken dragon nail wrapped in yellow cloth into the main hall of the mortuary.

Uncle Nine walked up to the statue of the Three Pure Ones.

Reaching under the lotus pedestal of the base, a small hidden compartment pops open.

Uncle Nine inserted the Dragon-Slaying Nail, took two Evil-Suppressing Talismans and stuck them on the hidden compartment door, then pushed the base back into place.

Lin Chen and Master Simu stood by and watched.

"Uncle-Master, why don't we just strike these nails with lightning and fire? We can keep them for the New Year." Lin Chen leaned against the pillar.

Uncle Nine patted the cinnabar dust off his hands and glared at Lin Chen.

"What do you know! This Dragon-Slaying Nail has absorbed the earth's evil energy. If it collides head-on, it will blast the evil energy apart." Uncle Nine pointed to the hidden compartment.

"We must first use the incense of the ancestral master to dispel its malevolent energy. After a while, I will set up an altar and perform a ritual to slowly refine it."

Master Four Eyes yawned and stretched.

"Alright, alright, Senior Brother, you can continue your practice. I'm going to wash my face. This banana grove smells of rotting tree roots, it's giving me a headache."

Si Mu went to the backyard.

As darkness fell, the aroma of meat wafted through the mortuary.

The aroma is mixed with the scent of medicinal herbs.

Lin Chen was already seated at the octagonal table in the main hall.

Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai ran out of the kitchen carrying bowls and chopsticks. They looked at the empty space in the center of the table and swallowed hard.

A shrewish roar came from the backyard.

Uncle Nine, dressed in a Taoist robe, walked towards the gate, looking around as he went.

"Lin Jiu! Where do you think you're going!"

The kitchen door curtain was lifted.

Aunt Zhe rushed out carrying a black clay pot that was bigger than a washbasin.

As soon as the lid of the casserole was lifted, steam billowed out.

There were three large soft-shelled turtles, accompanied by an old hen, deer antler, and ginseng, with a layer of oil floating on top.

Uncle Nine stopped in his tracks, his face turning pale.

"Junior sister, I have an appointment with the town mayor tonight to discuss bridge repairs, so I won't be eating at home." Uncle Nine stepped back, his hand touching the door latch.

Aunt Zhe slammed the clay pot onto the octagonal table, making the chopsticks on the table jump.

"Repair a bridge? What kind of bridge are you repairing at night? The Bridge of Helplessness!" Aunt Zhe took two steps forward, grabbed Uncle Jiu by the back of his collar, and dragged him back to the table.

"You have to drink this 'Farewell My Concubine' tonic soup today, or I'll force you to!" Auntie Zhe pushed a large bowl in front of Uncle Jiu and picked up a soup ladle to scoop out the meat.

Uncle Jiu frowned as he looked at the turtle head in the bowl.

Lin Chen picked up a piece of chicken and put it in his mouth to eat.

"Uncle-Master, Aunt-Master has been cooking this all afternoon. The heat is perfect. You should hurry and cook it while it's hot," Lin Chen encouraged from the side.

Master Four Eyes chimed in, "That's right, Senior Brother, your Earth Master realm has just stabilized, and it's precisely the time when you need a major boost."

Uncle Jiu didn't dare to get angry at Aunt Zhe, so he could only pick up the bowl and close his eyes.

Just as I was about to pinch my nose and force myself to drink the soup, someone knocked on the door of the mortuary.

"Bang bang bang!"

"Help! Uncle Nine, help me!"

A man's shout came from outside.

Uncle Jiu quickly put down the turtle soup he was holding.

"Something's up! Qiu Sheng, go open the door!" Uncle Jiu said sternly.

Qiu Sheng put down the half-eaten steamed bun in his hand and ran over to unplug the door.

As soon as the door opened, a figure stumbled in and rolled twice on the floor.

The man lay sprawled on the stone slab of the courtyard, panting heavily.

Lin Chen walked over and looked down.

The man's yellow Taoist hat was gone, his robe was torn into strips, a patch of the hem was charred, and his face was covered in black mud and blood.

The man was tightly clutching an oil-paper umbrella in his arms.

"Maoshan Ming?"

Master Simu came out carrying a rice bowl and kicked the person on the ground.

"Where did you go begging for food? You're in such a sorry state."

The people on the ground heard the sound and struggled to get up.

Mao Shanming saw Uncle Nine and Si Mu clearly in front of him, and tears streamed down his face.

"Uncle Jiu! Master Si Mu! We've finally seen a living person!" Mao Shanming cried, tears streaming down his face.

Uncle Jiu asked Wencai to pour a bowl of hot water.

"Come inside and talk. What trouble have you gotten yourself into?" Uncle Nine looked at the oil-paper umbrella in his arms but didn't sense any malevolent aura.

Mao Shanming was helped to sit down at the Eight Immortals Table by Qiu Sheng.

His stomach growled as soon as he sat down, and Mao Shanming stared at the turtle soup on the table.

Aunt Zhe moved her chair to the side with a look of disdain.

"Where did this beggar come from? This is for my Lin Jiu to nourish her body!"

Maoshan Ming didn't care about anything else. He grabbed a steamed bun from the table and stuffed it into his mouth, choking so hard that his eyes rolled back in his head.

Wencai brought over hot water, and Maoshanming drank three large bowls to catch his breath.

He placed the oil-paper umbrella he was holding on the empty chair next to him and tapped the handle.

"Come out, it's alright now, we're in Uncle Nine's territory."

White smoke wafted out from the gaps in the umbrella, landing on the ground and transforming into two figures, one large and one small.

It was those two ghosts, Da Bao and Xiao Bao.

As soon as Da Bao came out, he saw Lin Chen opposite him and was so frightened that he took several steps back and shrank behind Maoshan Ming's chair.

Last time during the bandit incident, Lin Chen's Crimson Divine Fire and Geng Metal Armor-Piercing Qi terrified Da Bao.

Xiao Bao, however, was quite carefree. He ran up to Wen Cai and made faces at him. Wen Cai was so startled that he dropped his chopsticks.

"Alright, we've eaten and drunk enough, let's get down to business." Uncle Nine tapped the table.

Mao Shanming wiped the oil off his lips.

"Uncle Jiu, I almost lost my life out there this time."

"I left Renjia Town a while ago, thinking of heading south to see if I could find some jobs doing feng shui and exorcising evil spirits."

Master Si Mu interrupted him with a cold laugh.

"With your meager skills, you think you can catch ghosts? You should be grateful if you don't get caught by them yourself. Traveling around with these two ghosts to swindle people, you're bound to fail sooner or later."

Mao Shanming shrank back, not daring to refute Si Mu, and could only continue speaking.

"Master Four Eyes is right. I traveled south and arrived at the territory of Qing Shi Town. I heard that there is a place called Huang Shi Village, 130 li west of Qing Shi Town, which has been quite unsettled recently."

"I figured it's good that things aren't peaceful, because that's when I can do business."

Lin Chen leaned back in his chair and started cracking a handful of sunflower seeds.

"And then you went to get yourself killed?" Lin Chen asked.

Mao Shanming blushed.

"Brother Lin is joking. I went to Huangshi Village, but as soon as I got to the entrance, I felt a chill all over my body."

"That place is a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, with only one exit, shaped like a gourd."

"In broad daylight, there wasn't a soul in the village. Every house had its doors tightly shut."

Mao Shanming continued.

"I knocked on a farmer's door, hoping to ask for a bowl of water. A blind old man opened the door."

"As soon as he heard that I was from out of town, without saying a word, he released a black dog that was bigger than a calf to bite me."

Da Bao poked his head out from behind to add to the discussion.

"That dog was ferocious! I tried to reveal myself to scare it, but it wasn't afraid of ghosts at all and charged at me, almost tearing my soul apart!"

Uncle Nine frowned.

"Ordinary dogs fear ghosts, vicious dogs eat the yin. A dog that can bite ghosts must have been raised on the flesh of the dead."

Mao Shanming nodded repeatedly.

"Uncle Jiu is wise! I finally managed to escape the village, but it was already dark. With nowhere to go, I spent the night in a dilapidated mountain temple outside the village."

"Then, around midnight, I heard the sound of gongs and drums coming from the village. This gonging in the middle of the night was really eerie."

Maoshan Ming picked up the teacup, his hands still trembling.

"I didn't dare go by myself, so I sent Da Bao over to check the situation."

Everyone looked at Da Bao.

Da Bao felt uncomfortable being stared at by several Taoist priests, so he moved closer to Xiao Bao.

Da Bao made a swallowing motion and began to recount what he had seen in Huangshi Village the previous night.

"I followed the sound of the gong into the village. In the middle of the village was a large threshing ground with several torches burning there. The firelight was greenish and not warm at all."

Da Bao gestured with his famous hands.

"In the middle of the threshing ground, there were seven black stone coffins placed side by side. There wasn't even a coffin lid."

"All the villagers knelt around the coffin. The blind old man held a broken gong, and every time he struck it, they would kowtow."

Lin Chen spat out the sunflower seed shells and asked.

"What's in the coffin?"

Da Bao shuddered in fright.

"They were people. Seven people wearing ancient armor. As soon as the moon came out, those stone coffins seemed to come alive, absorbing all the moonlight from the sky."

"The moonlight shone on the coffin, and the mouths of the people inside were open, exhaling white breath. They were inhaling the moonlight."

Da Bao became increasingly frightened as he spoke, and his voice rose in pitch.

"I was hiding in a tree. A person in a coffin turned his head and looked at me. His eyes were red and had no pupils."

"Just one glance, and I felt like I couldn't move. They were pulling me towards the coffin. If it weren't for Xiaobao holding onto my life tablet, I wouldn't be back."