A good-for-nothing master who has failed the Daoist certification exam seven times takes in a sharp-tongued apprentice born with a natural Daoist body.
The two of them look after a drafty, dilapidated temple. Its merit box is emptier than their pockets, they rely on acting skills to land jobs, and they rely on pills to cultivate. The master can keep up his lofty persona for three seconds before it falls apart, while the apprentice squats on the doorstep, eating buns and rolling her eyes, always ready to pull out a little notebook and record another one of her master’s embarrassing moments.
Then one day, the compass lights up.
Seven seals were left thirty years ago by Su Wen, the master’s late senior sister. From Nanjing to Zhengzhou to the Northeast, their trail leads to the unfinished business of the Nine Chrysanthemum Sect. Starting out so poor they can barely scrape together a coin, the pair livestream their exorcisms and sell pills for cash. As they pull up stakes and set formations, online viewers spin their exploits into “a thousand Daoists battling the Nine Chrysanthemum Sect.” The truth is, there are only two of them.
Everyday comedy and bickering between master and apprentice set the tone, with just a touch of lechery. Grand-scale magical battles switch straight into serious mode.
But pain lies beneath the comedy.
Su Wen’s manifestation of spiritual will appears once in each volume, progressing from “Senior Brother, the light is on,” to “She smiled,” and finally to rest. The master has guarded the dilapidated temple for thirty years, and the apprentice grew up within its walls. The master’s label is “all talk,” while the apprentice’s is “a coward.” The one who talks big keeps holding the line; the one who’s scared keeps charging in.
The medicine is fake, but the people are real.
The master and apprentice are so broke they’re rattling, and acting is all they have to swindle incense money. Until one day, the summons disk in the corner, untouched and gathering dust for thirty years, lights up...
On the outskirts of Nanjing, a high-paying black-market job has been forcibly activated.
The old con man and his sharp-tongued apprentice stuff their pockets with talismans bought on Pinduoduo and head down the mountain.
They have no idea that what awaits them isn’t an ordinary job, but a shocking evil scheme hidden for thirty years.
