Chapter Summaries

Tao Chong, Liu Xipu, and Ning Houchun investigated rumors of a Mountain Specter in Xiushan Village and discovered a strange cave in the woods. They fled after a video showed a gaunt boy dragging a corpse into the cave, unaware that a conspiracy was taking shape.

• Tao Chong, Liu Xipu, and Ning Houchun rode to Xiushan Village to investigate rumors of a curse and a Mountain Specter.
• An old man directed the three to the village, and the village chief welcomed them while warning that no one could leave after nightfall.
• Tao Chong found an ominous oval mark carved into the bedside table in his room and photographed it before the three went into the woods.
• The three discovered an unusual cave guarded by stone steles, a hemp rope, and bells, then saw a gaunt boy enter it with a sack.
• Liu Xipu filmed the cave entrance, and the video showed the boy dragging a woman's corpse instead of a sack.
• Tao Chong, Liu Xipu, and Ning Houchun hurried back to the village as an unknown conspiracy began to unfold.

Tao Chong escaped being sacrificed in the mountain cave, but the village’s supernatural threat claimed the family transporting him, and he was left injured and hiding in the forest. He discovered a pale head reflected on his phone as he worried about Liu Xipu and Ning Houchun, who remained in the village.

• Tao Chong, Liu Xipu, and Ning Houchun returned to the village chief’s house and were drugged during dinner.
• Tao Chong awoke bound to a cart and realized the villagers were taking him to the cave; he secretly retrieved the knife hidden at his waist.
• As the family of four prepared to throw him into the cave, Tao Chong killed A-Qiang and kicked his body into the darkness, then snapped the bell rope while trying to escape.
• A strange rune appeared on the foreheads of A-Qiang’s parents, and a little boy dragged them into the cave as Tao Chong limped away.
• Tao Chong hid in the forest and found that his phone’s black screen reflected a pale head resting on his shoulder.

Zhang Chen, Chong Ying, and Little Nirvana followed Lu Sheng west and found an Infant Burial Tree attacking Tao Chong. After Zhang Chen destroyed the tree, Tao Chong begged them to rescue his brothers, who were trapped in a nearby village.

• Chong Ying joined Zhang Chen and Little Nirvana for a ghost hunt, and Lu Sheng revealed that he was an exorcist and offered to come along.
• Lu Sheng used astrological divination to lead the group out of Xiangtan City toward a mountain range in the west.
• Zhang Chen sensed a frightened person in the forest and found Tao Chong trapped by a tree bearing women's heads and writhing roots.
• Zhang Chen split the tree with his bone blade and swallowed its trunk, causing the branches and heads to crumble into ash.
• Lu Sheng identified the tree as an Infant Burial Tree, formed from the resentment of newborn girls buried beneath it.
• Tao Chong asked Zhang Chen to save his brothers, who were trapped in the village, and Zhang Chen demanded to hear what had happened.

Zhang Chen and Lu Sheng investigated Xiushan Village’s sacrifices and entered the cave to find the source of the violent aura sealed below. After solving the stone stele’s puzzle and descending through a spiraling passage, they heard bones and flesh twisting near the exit.

• Zhang Chen questioned the village chief, who revealed that villagers sacrificed outsiders to keep a ghost from taking people and described how the seal was broken on Lunar New Year’s Eve.
• Lu Sheng deduced that a boy had exploited the ancestral taboo and entered the cave, while the powerful creature beneath it likely remained sealed.
• Zhang Chen and Lu Sheng reached the cave entrance, found its bell rope damaged, and entered a torchlit hall scattered with skeletons.
• Zhang Chen rearranged the blocks of a central stone stele, opening a passage underground as violent energy surged from below.
• Zhang Chen and Lu Sheng ran through a long spiraling corridor and heard bones and flesh twisting near its exit.

Zhang Chen and Lu Sheng discovered that the boy ghost was feeding human corpses to a sealed creature and had sacrificed himself to merge with it. As they searched for a way down, they found a mural revealing the creature’s origin as Qu Ping, a monstrous infant who survived an attempted exorcism and vanished after devouring nine monks.

• Zhang Chen tried to devour the boy ghost, but rotten flesh from the millstone’s passage blocked his attack.
• The boy willingly let the millstone grind him up, and his blood, ghostly energy, and soul marrow flowed into the sealed passage.
• Lu Sheng concluded that the boy had fed humans to the creature below and was trying to merge with and control it.
• Zhang Chen could not open the passage, so Lu Sheng told him to search the chamber; they found a bronze mural depicting the monster’s origins.
• The mural recounted how the County Magistrate’s infant son Qu Ping was born with five hands and two faces, ate raw flesh, and killed guards after his father was slain.
• Imperial Inspector Sima ordered Qu Ping’s corpse taken to a temple, but the nine monks who tried to exorcise it were eaten, and the infant’s body disappeared.

The bronze mural showed how Master Chang Liu and eleven Daoists tracked the monstrous infant to a mountain cave, where it awoke as they prepared a formation. Zhang Chen discovered that the mural’s Bagua diagram was a hidden mechanism and opened a passage underground.

• The monstrous infant massacred Xiushan County’s residents, killed a young man who tried to stop it, and transformed after swallowing a Soul Stone.
• Master Chang Liu and eleven Daoists arrived in Xiushan County, found it deserted, and used the Grand Taiji Formation to locate the infant in the mountains.
• Chang Liu led the Daoists into the infant’s cave and began setting up a formation, but the monster opened its eyes before they finished.
• Zhang Chen noticed the mural’s Bagua pattern was different, pressed his palm against it, and triggered a hidden passage beneath the wall.

Lu Sheng reached the sealed chamber, removed a ghost fused into the chained monster, and tried to recruit the creature, but it broke free and attacked. Zhang Chen rescued Lu Sheng and stayed behind to fight the monster as Little Nirvana carried Lu Sheng away.

• Lu Sheng descended through the passage and found a gray, ten-armed monster chained in a circular chamber beside the remains of twelve Daoists.
• Lu Sheng struck the boy ghost fused into the monster with Mimi Kirimaru, destroying the ghost and calming the creature temporarily.
• Lu Sheng touched the twin Chiyuan Soul Stone in the monster’s chest and asked Nurarihyon to follow him, but the monster attacked as its chains began to break.
• Zhang Chen escaped the endless corridor, found Lu Sheng injured, and carried him out of the chamber.
• Zhang Chen called Little Nirvana to take Lu Sheng away as the mountain collapsed and the monster broke free.
• Zhang Chen faced the freed monster as its ten cleavers swept toward him.

Zhang Chen defeated Qu Ping by letting him devour his flesh and then consuming him from within, but the feast awakened a ravenous, beastlike hunger in Zhang Chen. After regaining control, he learned that Lu Sheng was the Great Yokai Nurarihyon, who had approached him out of curiosity ahead of an organization’s plan to capture him.

• Zhang Chen fought Qu Ping head-on until Qu Ping absorbed enough of his flesh to transform into a young man and say his name.
• Little Mouth urged Zhang Chen to devour Qu Ping, but Qu Ping instead swallowed Zhang Chen’s body, which was made up of flesh without bones.
• Mouths erupted across Qu Ping and consumed him from within, allowing Zhang Chen to re-form and triggering a system error as his Main Soul Satiety rose by 3%.
• Zhang Chen became a ravenous beast and attacked a deer, then lunged at Little Nirvana before a flash of light restored his consciousness.
• Zhang Chen returned to the school with Lu Sheng, then attacked him on the rooftop and discovered that Lu Sheng could evade as a shadow.
• Lu Sheng revealed that his true form was Nurarihyon, a Great Yokai, and said the organization’s plan to capture Zhang Chen would not begin for another year.

Zhang Chen discovered that his flesh had begun merging with the Soul Stone, creating a hidden negative byproduct alongside a transformed Little Mouth. After discussing the change with Chong Ying, he asked Lu Sheng to suppress his dangerous hunger when needed, and Lu Sheng agreed for one year in exchange for an introduction to Chong Ying.

• Zhang Chen observed a strand of concentrated flesh inside his Soul Stone, then learned that the main soul seal had released another 10%.
• Little Mouth absorbed the newly emerged dominant entity and explained that Zhang Chen's flesh could merge with the Soul Stone, though an undetectable negative byproduct had also formed.
• Chong Ying told Zhang Chen that Elder Wu believed her Four-legged Spider Demon might eventually consume the Butterfly Charm sealed in her Soul Stone.
• Zhang Chen met Wang Yizhi for breakfast, and Lu Sheng backed away after recognizing her and realizing he would be a third wheel.
• Zhang Chen asked Lu Sheng to use illusions to suppress his hunger whenever necessary, and Lu Sheng agreed for one year while asking Zhang Chen to arrange a meal with Chong Ying.

Over the next year, Zhang Chen grew close to Lu Sheng, learned more about the eternal organization, and prepared for a trip to Japan to recover Liu Nuo’s body. As summer ended, Zhang Chen’s flesh suddenly surged in the Floating City, where he spotted Blood Demon, ranked No. 23 among the jailers.

• Zhang Chen arranged Lu Sheng’s dinner with Chong Ying, and Lu Sheng later teased Zhang Chen about two-timing after his own evening went badly.
• Lu Sheng told Zhang Chen that Ironhead was The Custodian, whose many clones could avoid death as long as their safes remained unopened, and named Shuten Doji as an especially detestable elder.
• During summer break, Zhang Chen visited Liu Nuo, learned how far her spiritization had progressed, and agreed to travel to Japan with Jia Xin in half a year.
• Zhang Chen trained under Shen Hou and Lian Yuxin in the Imperial Capital, while also spending time in the city with Chong Ying.
• On the final week of summer break, Zhang Chen’s flesh surged while he lunched with Chong Ying in the Floating City, and he saw the red-eyed Blood Demon outside the restaurant.

Zhang Chen encountered the murderous Jailer Minister Gu Chen in Floating City and later traveled with Lian Yuxin to the annual Jailer Realm auction to buy blood from a powerful insect-realm being. After Zhang Chen won the item, an insect attacked him, and the bidder in the bamboo hat had disappeared.

• Gu Chen intimidated Zhang Chen and Chong Ying at a restaurant, killed a male server, and asked Zhang Chen about the Blood Demons Wu Zhong and August Rodin, whom Zhang Chen had killed.
• Zhang Chen learned Gu Chen had been imprisoned for a week and decided to add him to the list of people he intended to kill.
• After the holiday, Zhang Chen returned to school with Wang Yizhi and Little Nirvana, while Yui followed Lu Sheng as an informant.
• Lian Yuxin told Zhang Chen about the annual auction and helped him borrow eighty High-Grade Ghost Crystals from Shen Hou and herself.
• At the auction, Zhang Chen bid against a Jailer Minister in a gray bamboo hat and bought the insect-realm blood for ninety High-Grade Ghost Crystals.
• An insect tried to burrow into Zhang Chen's chest, where a mouth swallowed it, and the bamboo-hatted bidder had vanished.

Zhang Chen watched the auction’s powerful buyers compete for rare treasures, then spent half a year preparing to return to Japan with Jia Xin while Lu Sheng’s deadline drew near. On the eve of the capture operation, Lu Sheng offered to help if Zhang Chen agreed to kill Shuten Doji.

• Zhang Chen stayed at the auction with Lian Yuxin, where Mo Qing bought an ink-wash scroll and an American Jailer Minister bought the Endless Deep Sea map and the black hexagonal crystal.
• Zhang Chen returned to school, and Little Nirvana postponed her advancement so she could travel to Japan with him half a year later.
• Zhang Chen trained through the next six months, strengthened his Divine Sea, and grew closer to Lu Sheng while feeling uneasy about their approaching deadline.
• Jia Xin arrived to plan the Japan operation, met Lu Sheng, and heard him offer to guide them into Japan; Jia Xin later explained their plan to investigate the Eternal organization while avoiding unnecessary battles.
• On the day before the capture operation, Lu Sheng told Zhang Chen he would help if Zhang Chen agreed to kill Shuten Doji.

Five paranormal-enthusiast students visited the haunted lockers beneath a Shibuya overpass, where Kazuya placed a mysterious note inside locker 0707. As black hair emerged from the darkness, the others fled while Kazuya remained behind, laughing.

• Minako persuaded four classmates to visit the haunted lockers and arranged for Kazuya to put a wish note inside one.
• The five students entered the eerie space beneath the overpass, and Kazuya approached locker 0707 with its key.
• Kazuya opened the locker and saw a dead infant hidden inside, though the others saw only an empty space.
• A second, unexplained note appeared in Kazuya's hand, and the infant's black hair took it and swallowed it.
• Black hair began spreading near the trash bins, so Minako and the others ran while Kazuya stayed by the lockers, laughing madly.

Minako and the others fled to a shrine, where Kazuya vanished from their memories and photographs as the curse closed in. Minako recovered her memories of wishing for Kanazawa to be crushed, then killed Kae with Yuta as a handsome man watched from an audience beneath a strange stage.

• Minako, Kae, Kanazawa, and Yuta reached a shrine and found tea and cushions waiting for them.
• Minako discovered that the group’s photographs showed only four people and that a corpse-like hand had appeared on her shoulder.
• Kanazawa questioned Minako about a key and a rooftop photograph as black hair broke through the shrine’s paper door and snapped its protective ropes.
• Minako remembered wishing for someone to be crushed to death, and the black hair dragged Kanazawa outside, where a truck ran him over.
• Minako recalled that Kazuya had given her the key and that she had written the wish; she then strangled Kae while Yuta watched before helping dismember her.
• A handsome man applauded as the street vanished and the shrine appeared on a circular stage.

Zhang Chen considered Lu Sheng’s offer to help him in Japan, while Wang Yizhi secretly questioned Lu Sheng and asked him to watch over Zhang Chen. After Chong Ying returned as a Hell’s Prefect, Zhang Chen met Jia Xin to discuss their plans, but Gu Chen arrived and sealed the space around them.

• Zhang Chen postponed his answer to Lu Sheng’s offer to travel to Japan and went to consult Jia Xin.
• Wang Yizhi confronted Lu Sheng about who controlled Japan, showed him a probe embedded in her shoulder, and asked him to keep an eye on Zhang Chen.
• Chong Ying met Zhang Chen after surviving a Saw-themed mental trial, becoming a Hell’s Prefect with her main soul seal unlocked by 30 percent.
• Zhang Chen brought Chong Ying to Jia Xin, who warned that Gu Chen was approaching with an aura far stronger than the Blood Demon’s and ranked twenty-third among Hell’s Prefects.
• Jia Xin and Zhang Chen tried to flee, but Gu Chen sealed the surrounding space and appeared below the hotel in a white suit.

Gu Chen attacked Zhang Chen and threatened Xiangtan University, forcing Zhang Chen and Jia Xin to defend the campus and its students. Jia Xin unleashed the Dragon Slaying Slash, severely injuring Gu Chen, who survived and faced him with renewed killing intent.

• The red sun appeared over Xiangtan University as Lu Sheng sensed Gu Chen’s bloodlust and left his dormitory to help Zhang Chen.
• Gu Chen pressured Zhang Chen to put away his token and come down, then seized Little Nirvana with a giant hand of flesh and blood.
• Zhang Chen freed Little Nirvana while Jia Xin confronted Gu Chen, who made the blood inside the campus’s teachers and students surge.
• A ripple from the library calmed the campus blood and restored the sky, while Zhang Chen summoned the Divine Marquis and Jia Xin prepared to fight Gu Chen.
• Jia Xin drew the Roaming Dragon Sword and unleashed the Dragon Slaying Slash, shattering Gu Chen’s defenses and severing his left arm.
• Gu Chen crawled out of the blood left by the attack, badly injured, and fixed Jia Xin with killing intent.

After Lu Sheng sealed Gu Chen in an illusion, Zhang Chen and his companions prepared to leave for Japan. Divine Marquis warned Zhang Chen about the mission and its dangers, and the group departed for Nagoya to pursue their objective.

• Gu Chen transformed into a Blood Demon after Jia Xin's Dragon Slaying Slash failed to kill him, but Lu Sheng appeared and sealed him in an illusion.
• Zhang Chen checked on Wang Yizhi, then led Jia Xin, Chong Ying, and Lu Sheng toward Changsha City as Divine Marquis arrived and took Gu Chen back to the capital.
• Divine Marquis told Zhang Chen about the Hell Envoy groups entering Japan, the five Huaxia Hell Wardens, and the need to protect Old Master Wu's disciple and leave Japan after completing the mission.
• Divine Marquis explained that Gu Chen could only be legitimately killed if Zhang Chen replaced his position, leaving Zhang Chen troubled by the nature of the Hell Envoys.
• Zhang Chen agreed to cooperate with Lu Sheng against Shuten Doji, and the four bought tickets to Nagoya Chubu International Airport.

Zhang Chen and his companions flew to Japan with Lu Sheng, who explained why Shuten Doji could not be attacked until the organization’s boss was restrained. He described Shuten Doji’s terrifying murderous aura and proposed that they meet him in Kyoto before planning their next move.

• Lu Sheng used Nurarihyon’s dream-like ability to make the plane appear empty to other passengers and explained that the cabin was reserved for their discussion.
• Zhang Chen told Jia Xin about his agreement with Lu Sheng, and Jia Xin proposed killing Shuten Doji before infiltrating the organization for intelligence.
• Lu Sheng refused to attack Shuten Doji until the organization’s boss was restrained, warning that betrayal would otherwise put him in grave danger.
• Lu Sheng described Shuten Doji’s ability to see through illusions and his overwhelming fear-inducing aura, noting that he had not fought him in over three hundred years.
• Lu Sheng proposed taking the group to Kyoto to meet Shuten Doji, warning them not to overestimate their abilities and to run if anything went wrong.

Lu Sheng explained Eternal’s research, organization, and artificial humans to Zhang Chen and Jia Xin, then brought them to Nagoya to hide from the operation targeting Zhang Chen. The group split up between Nagoya University and Meidai Affiliated Hospital, where Zhang Chen planned to conceal himself from the Custodian.

• Lu Sheng told Zhang Chen and Jia Xin that Eternal researched immortality and the human brain, and described its members, management, and expansion beyond Japan.
• Lu Sheng revealed that the organization used artificial humans with preserved brains and mechanized bodies capable of carrying Soul Stones, ghostly energy, and soul marrow.
• Lu Sheng led Zhang Chen, Jia Xin, and Chong Ying from Nagoya Chubu International Airport to Nagoya University, explaining that prestigious campuses were safe from the organization’s harm.
• Lu Sheng arranged dormitory rooms for Jia Xin and Chong Ying, but warned Zhang Chen that the Custodian would soon lead an operation to capture him.
• Lu Sheng directed Zhang Chen to hide at Meidai Affiliated Hospital, where the ghost insect’s bloody aura could mask him and the Custodian’s fear of hospitals might keep him away.

Shuten Doji learned that Lu Sheng might work with Nurarihyon and considered intercepting him, while a cat-loving woman in Nagoya killed a burglar who broke into her home. The chapter ended with the burglar dragged into her room as the sounds of his body being torn apart filled the hallway.

• The Custodian showed Shuten Doji images of Zhang Chen's group and Gu Chen killing his clone at Xiangtan University.
• Shuten Doji proposed joining forces with The Custodian to intercept Lu Sheng in Japan, but The Custodian left without agreeing.
• Shuten Doji wondered whether Nurarihyon would dare oppose the organization alongside a Level 3 Jailer Minister.
• A burglar entered the cat-loving woman's home in Nagoya, kicked a stray cat to death, and crept upstairs.
• The burglar saw the dead tabby return and walked past the woman's bedroom, where long fingernails pierced his skull and dragged him inside.