The Young Taoist Comes Down the Mountain: Where Are the Zombies?

My name is Qin Xuanzhu. I’m a nobody among Daoist sects, a half-baked young acolyte. My master, Xuanjizi, is a greedy drunk who kicked me down the mountain under the pretext of “gaining experience and earning incense money.” Later, I found out the old geezer was just trying to dodge his bar tab! Armed with a chipped peachwood sword, a stack of badly drawn talismans, and a busted compass whose needle jumps around, I returned to Qingzhu Village at the foot of the mountain. I’d barely arrived when I ran into a corpse-raising incident at Grandpa Wang’s house. The talisman I’d drawn wrong only made the walking corpse hop around more excitedly, and it nearly scratched me into a cat-faced mess.

From then on, I became Qingzhu Village’s resident “exorcist,” dealing with little rural hauntings: a dustpan spirit sweeping up dust, a weasel stealing chickens, and a chamber-pot spirit spraying urine. My master would occasionally come down the mountain to “offer guidance,” but really he was just there to mooch food and drink, pushing me into fights while he hid nearby and drank. From a half-baked acolyte to a novice Daoist, I survived by relying on the experience my master had beaten into me. I met a stiff-necked young Daoist from Maoshan, a kindhearted red-robed ghost named Su Wan, and later joined my master on a tomb expedition, encountered Xiaocui, a fox from Qingqiu, and met the wise monk Huiming of Golden Light Temple. Together, we Buddhists, Daoists, and demons fought zombies and battled monsters.

From minor village skirmishes to the zombie horde besieging Heifeng Mountain, from dueling hopping corpses to sealing away two Zombie Kings, I eventually faced the Zombie Emperor, born of the power of the underworld. This unorthodox Daoist stumbled through my master’s endless schemes to become a rural Daoist Venerable who protects the region. But at the very moment the Zombie Emperor was sealed, I realized it was all just the beginning. Beneath the underworld lurks an even more terrifying Zombie Ancestor, waiting for me to face it!