Chapter Summaries

Ji Li found a photograph fragment and learned that the other Blue and White Porcelain Jars contained more fragments that might form a phone number. After a mysterious figure watched him and vanished, Ji Li found strange liquid at the spot and suspected the building held one ghost too many.

• The Hundred-headed Strange Infant gave Ji Li a torn photograph fragment marked with the number 3.
• Su Qin'er returned with another fragment marked 1 and told Ji Li that Zhan Xun had found a Blue and White Porcelain Jar in the attic.
• Ji Li explained what he had found in the attic and sent Zhan Xun and Su Qin'er to collect the jars from the remaining floors.
• Ji Li spotted a black-clad figure near the car, but it disappeared before he could catch it.
• Ji Li examined a pool of strange liquid where the figure had stood and concluded that the building had twelve ghosts but only eleven number fragments.

Ji Li and his team uncovered a phone number by arranging fragments found with the porcelain jars, then Ji Li called the mysterious woman and passed her supernatural-investigation test. She agreed to discuss hiring him after returning to Shanming City in five days, while Ji Li took the ghostly jars into his Bronze Ancient Coffin for safekeeping.

• Yu Guo told Ji Li that the mysterious woman's calls were growing more frequent and hurried, suggesting that time was running short.
• Zhan Xun and Su Qin'er brought Ji Li the porcelain jars and fragments they had found; Ji Li assembled eleven fragments into a phone number.
• Ji Li and the others concluded that the figure from Room 101 could not have been a newly formed Ghost Embryo, since its size and clothing did not fit.
• Ji Li called the mysterious woman, who accepted him for the real job and said she would return to Shanming City in five days to discuss the employment.
• The woman gave Ji Li her rare surname, Hei, and Ji Li stored the ghostly Blue and White Porcelain Jars inside his Bronze Ancient Coffin.

After the Moon Platform operation, Ji Li and his companions drove away with clues about Ms. Black and her son, while Xiao Qian Duyue sensed an omen connected to Su Qin'er. The omen materialized when Su Qin'er saw a ghost watching her from the forest.

• Ji Li examined the family photograph and identified Ms. Black as their employer, while noting the child had been deliberately defaced.
• Xiao Qian Duyue searched the car for the source of her ominous premonition and noticed a faint strand of black aura emerging from Su Qin'er's hair.
• Su Qin'er grabbed Xiao Qian Duyue's arm and cried that someone was staring at her from outside.
• Ji Li concluded that Su Qin'er had seen a ghost, and Xiao Qian Duyue confirmed that the ominous thing had sought her out first.

Su Qin'er repeatedly saw an unseen ghost drawing closer to her as the group tried to return to the Seventh Branch, while Ji Li secretly slowed their drive to observe what happened. The chapter ended with Ji Li shooting out two tires and declaring that they could not leave.

• Su Qin'er described a small, pale, hairless figure watching her, and Xiao Qian Duyue confirmed that black energy had marked Su Qin'er for calamity.
• Ji Li told Zhan Xun to slow down instead of returning quickly to the Seventh Branch.
• After nearly twenty minutes on the road, Su Qin'er saw the figure again and said it had moved closer.
• Ji Li searched the woods but found nothing, then concluded that the ghost was approaching Su Qin'er to kill her.
• Ji Li shot out the car's front and rear tires and told Xiao Qian Duyue that they could not leave.

Ji Li pushed Su Qin'er to recover from her panic and help investigate the ghost, while Zhan Xun and Xiao Qian Duyue challenged his ruthless approach. After Su Qin'er agreed to cooperate, Ji Li revealed that he planned to use the next sighting to test the ghost's Supernatural Ability.

• Ji Li told Su Qin'er to analyze the ghost, but she panicked and fled from the car.
• Ji Li aimed at Su Qin'er, but Zhan Xun stopped him and ran after her to bring her back.
• Xiao Qian Duyue questioned whether Ji Li was happy with his way of living, and he said they wanted different things.
• Zhan Xun helped Su Qin'er regain her composure, and she returned and offered to cooperate with Ji Li.
• Ji Li noted the ghost's sightings at 5:47 and 6:00 and proposed measuring how far it approached, but Su Qin'er objected to being used as a reference point.
• Ji Li said he wanted to use the next sighting to test the ghost's Supernatural Ability.

Ji Li, Xiao Qian Duyue, and Zhan Xun waited for the ghost haunting Su Qin'er, hoping to locate it with their Sin Objects. They failed to see or sense it, leaving them to fear that it could ignore Sin Objects and kill without being stopped.

• Ji Li, Xiao Qian Duyue, and Zhan Xun took positions around Su Qin'er and waited for the ghost to appear.
• The Third Personality warned Ji Li not to trust the mission information, while the Second Personality speculated that the Ghost Embryo or the extra ghost might be connected to Branch No. 9.
• When the thirteen-minute interval elapsed, Su Qin'er spotted a pale, featureless child watching her beside a tree.
• Ji Li sent out the Hundred-headed Strange Infant, and Xiao Qian Duyue used the Eye of Calamity, but neither Sin Object detected the ghost.
• Su Qin'er reported that the ghost had come closer, and Ji Li and the others left without finding a way to see or stop it.

Ji Li tried to protect Su Qin'er from a ghost whose appearances escalated every thirteen minutes and brought Fang Shenyan to help. At the fourth interval, the ghost did not appear, but Su Qin'er froze before regaining consciousness and announcing its absence.

• Ji Li concluded the ghost was too powerful to confront, called for help, and decided to return to the Seventh Branch with Su Qin'er.
• Fang Shenyan arrived in a battered van and gave Ji Li dossiers on Huang Banxian and Milton Clyde, who were waiting at the Seventh Branch.
• Ji Li warned that the ghost would come for Su Qin'er in three minutes, while Fang Shenyan refused to use his mask to save her.
• At 6:42, Su Qin'er, Xiao Qian Duyue, and Zhan Xun waited for the ghost's fourth appearance, but nothing appeared.
• Su Qin'er froze for half a minute, then regained consciousness and said the ghost had not come the fourth time.

After Su Qin'er survived the fourth ghost encounter, Ji Li suspected the danger had not truly passed, then met Huang Banxian and Clyde to discuss the upcoming Joint Reception. He offered Huang Fengjiao a bet: three sentences in exchange for his right leg.

• Su Qin'er celebrated surviving the fourth encounter, but Ji Li and Xiao Qian Duyue investigated and found no trace of a ghost.
• Ji Li concluded the ghost had either abandoned its pursuit or already achieved its objective, then returned with the others to the moat.
• Ji Li met Huang Banxian, Clyde, and Yu Guo at a café and suspected the Branch No. 9 visitors were trying to trick him.
• Huang Banxian claimed his visit had nothing to do with Gu Xingjian and said Gu would not join the next mission.
• Ji Li aimed his handgun at Huang Banxian's leg and offered him a bet: three sentences in exchange for his right leg.

Huang Banxian revealed that the Ninth Branch was seeking cooperation with Ji Li and left him a business card for a feng shui association connected to Ms. Black’s troubles. As the mission approached, Ji Li assigned Yu Guo to investigate the association and decided to find out whether a ghost had entered Su Qin’er.

• Huang Banxian told Ji Li that his employer was a fifty-nine-year-old man surnamed Black, then explained that the Ninth Branch wanted to exchange information about their related missions.
• Huang Banxian gave Ji Li a business card for Hidden Wind Carries Water and confirmed that Gu Xingjian would not participate in the mission.
• Huang Banxian told Clyde that Ji Li was not someone they could afford to provoke and privately considered Yu Guo his target.
• Ji Li and Yu Guo discussed whether the Nameless Ghost Item had entered Su Qin’er, recalling how a ghost might replace an Executive Staff member as one had with Li Xing.
• Ji Li gave Yu Guo the business card and ordered him to investigate the feng shui association and Ms. Black’s difficulties while Ji Li checked whether Su Qin’er harbored a ghost.

The Seventh Branch gathered to analyze Su Qin'er’s encounters with ghosts, while Ji Li suspected she had been marked or made part of a ghost’s plan. To keep the ghost from achieving its goal without killing her, Ji Li put the Hundred-headed Strange Infant inside her and left her trapped in a nightmare.

• Tong Guan began analyzing the mission and handed the discussion over to Ji Li when he returned to the Seventh Branch.
• Fang Shenyan suggested killing Su Qin'er early if they could not determine whether she was human or a ghost.
• Ji Li confronted Female Voice in the corridor, accused her of lying, and left as she began to cry.
• Ji Li reasoned that Su Qin'er might be marked by a ghost or used as a hidden piece in its plan, and decided that preventing the ghost's goal was better than killing her.
• Ji Li placed the Hundred-headed Strange Infant inside the sleeping Su Qin'er, who seized his sleeve in terror, and then forced himself free and left.

Ji Li briefed the team on their employer, Hei An'an, and the uncertain ghosts they might face. Yu Guo revealed that every member of the Feng Shui Association had been murdered and marked with a counter-clockwise circle, leaving Ji Li to wait for the mission details to connect the clues.

• Ji Li identified Hei An'an as the employer and learned that much of her personal information was classified.
• Yu Guo reported that the Feng Shui Association had shut down, while Ji Li explained that he had encountered three possible ghosts at Moon Platform.
• Su Qin'er said the third ghost had already targeted her before the mission began, worsening the team's anxiety.
• Yu Guo revealed that all twenty-six Feng Shui Association members had been decapitated, with a counter-clockwise circle carved into each forehead.
• Ji Li decided that the mission details would be the key to connecting the case's confirmed and hidden threads.

Ji Li and the Seventh Branch received a joint mission with Branch No. 9 to assist Hei An'an and identify which of the many ghosts was the Source Ghost. After contacting Hei An'an and setting out for her location, Ji Li left the Seventh Branch while an unseen woman watched him go.

• Ji Li read the mission email, which required the staff to protect Hei An'an, identify the Source Ghost, and bring it back to their branch for a doubled commission.
• Yu Guo, Zhan Xun, Su Qin'er, Jiang Jiang, Ma Huaiyu, and Fan Ru reacted to the mission, while Ji Li called Hei An'an to arrange their meeting.
• Hei An'an told Ji Li to meet her at No. 4314 Qingyuan Road shortly after midnight, and Ji Li ordered everyone to prepare to leave.
• Ji Li questioned what the mission's special commission meant as the group gathered to depart.
• Ji Li heard an unseen woman sobbing, rebuked her, and left with Yu Guo and the others as she watched from the empty Seventh Branch.

On the way to No. 4314 Qingyuan Road, Su Qin'er saw a child’s face replace her reflection and began clawing at herself, but Ji Li forced her to regain her senses and insisted there was no ghost inside her. At the villa, Yu Guo recognized the address as the place where A Lian had worked as Hei An'an’s tutor.

• Ji Li considered the mission annotations while the van drove toward No. 4314 Qingyuan Road.
• Su Qin'er saw a child’s face in the window reflection and tore at her own face in terror.
• Ji Li grabbed Su Qin'er by the throat until fear brought her back to her senses, then asked what she had seen.
• Su Qin'er said a child had crawled out of her eyes and taken on her face, while Ji Li assured her there was no ghost inside her.
• Zhan Xun stopped the van at Hei An'an’s dark villa, and Yu Guo remembered that A Lian had worked there as a tutor.

Ji Li and the Seventh Branch met their employer, Hei An'an, who hired them to find her missing son within three days. As Ji Li noticed suspicious details about her villa and the sealed second floor, he demanded to know what supernatural incident was behind the boy’s disappearance.

• Yu Guo grew agitated after learning that Hei An'an was connected to A Lian, and Ji Li warned him to focus on the mission.
• Hei An'an arrived at the villa and ordered Su Qin'er to clean the blood off her people before entering.
• Yu Guo noticed Hei An'an’s elaborate makeup seemed inconsistent with her plain habits, while Ji Li observed that the villa’s layout blocked sunlight and yang energy.
• Hei An'an told the Seventh Branch that her son had disappeared five days earlier and gave them three days to find him.
• Ji Li noticed an iron door sealing off the second floor and pressed Hei An'an to explain the supernatural incident she believed was connected to her son’s disappearance.

Ji Li questioned Hei An'an about her missing son, Ren Jiayun, and reviewed the places she believed he had visited. He concluded that Hei An'an seemed more interested in finding her son's corpse than rescuing him, then pointed out that she had overlooked the place Ren Jiayun visited most: her house.

• Hei An'an told Ji Li that Ren Jiayun had reported seeing something strange before he disappeared, but she had hung up before hearing what it was.
• Yu Guo summarized Ren Jiayun's background and identified four places Hei An'an thought he frequented: Xiangyanghua Kindergarten, Kapok Photo Studio, Tangren Wax Museum, and Tianming Mountain Cemetery.
• Ji Li recognized Tianming Mountain Cemetery as the location of Branch No. 9 and asked why Hei An'an had listed the places instead of calling the police or searching for her son.
• Hei An'an explained that she believed Ren Jiayun might be dead and that she wanted him found within three days, dead or alive.
• Ji Li told Hei An'an that she had missed the place Ren Jiayun visited most often: her house.

After Ji Li rejected Hei An'an’s unreliable leads, he sent Yu Guo to secretly watch her while the rest of the team pursued Ren Jiayun’s nanny. Their investigation was interrupted by a ghost appearing on the road, and Ji Li found Jiang Jiang’s severed head impaled above a sign.

• Ji Li dismissed Hei An'an’s four locations as unreliable and planned to investigate Ren Jiayun’s nanny, kindergarten teacher, and father.
• Ji Li assigned Yu Guo to secretly monitor Hei An'an and report her whereabouts every two hours.
• The remaining six employees drove toward Ge Hong’s home, but Jiang Jiang suddenly saw a ghost carrying a bleeding human head by the roadside.
• Ji Li ordered Zhan Xun to turn back, and the team found a bloodied head impaled atop the road sign.
• Ji Li recognized the head as Jiang Jiang’s, while Jiang Jiang remained hidden inside the van.

Ji Li remembered a vision in which Jiang Jiang was killed by the ghost child and tried to change the prophecy by staying away from Ge Hong’s home. The ghost child still appeared at 12:37 a.m., leaving Jiang Jiang’s neck split and forcing Ji Li to flee with him.

• Ji Li woke at the villa at 12:30 a.m. with memories of a vision in which the ghost child killed Jiang Jiang, and realized the vision was a warning of death.
• Ji Li ordered Zhan Xun, Su Qin'er, Fan Ru, and Ma Huaiyu to go to Ge Hong’s home without Jiang Jiang, then stayed behind with him.
• Jiang Jiang told Ji Li that he had seen the ghost carrying a severed head and realized it was his own.
• Ji Li decided to wait for the ghost child instead of leaving, but it did not appear where Jiang Jiang could see it after seven minutes.
• Ji Li noticed Jiang Jiang’s neck split open and identified 12:37 a.m. as the ghost child’s first appearance.
• Ji Li grabbed Jiang Jiang and ran, explaining that the ghost child would appear several times before cutting off his head.

Ji Li tried to save Jiang Jiang from the Ghost Child’s staged killing by using the Bronze Ancient Coffin and the Ghost Embryo. The plan left Jiang Jiang trapped in the coffin with two injured civilians as the Ghost Embryo began to stir, while Ji Li recalled Xiao Qian Duyue’s warning that contact with a ghost embryo meant certain death.

• Ji Li reasoned that the Ghost Child was likely the Root Cause Ghost and realized its attack on Jiang Jiang had marked him for a staged killing.
• Ji Li broke into a villa and shot the owners before putting them in the Bronze Ancient Coffin, then had Jiang Jiang bring out nine Blue and White Porcelain Jars.
• The Ghost Child appeared to Jiang Jiang on the chandelier, though Ji Li could not see it, and Ji Li realized its attacks were progressing faster than expected.
• Ji Li ordered Jiang Jiang to enter the coffin with a Blue and White Porcelain Jar, hoping the Ghost Embryo would mature by killing the injured owners and block the Ghost Child’s next attack.
• After sealing the coffin, Ji Li waited as screams came from within and remembered Xiao Qian Duyue’s warning that touching a ghost embryo would kill him.

Ji Li left after Jiang Jiang died in the coffin and the Ghost Embryo emerged, reflecting that three lives had earned him only the words “Ignore Sin Objects, Unsolvable Killing.” Meanwhile, Zhan Xun’s group searched for Ge Hong’s home, where Ma Huaiyu encountered a ghostly child and fled, only to collide with Zhan Xun.

• Ji Li placed the Blue and White Porcelain Jars into the Bronze Ancient Coffin, discarded a corpse, and left as police arrived.
• Fan Ru and Zhan Xun searched Pingxin Road for No. 122 while Ma Huaiyu supported the uneasy Su Qin'er.
• A ghostly child grabbed Ma Huaiyu’s trouser leg and asked whether he had seen its mother.
• Ma Huaiyu kicked at the child, abandoned Su Qin'er, and ran through the alleys.
• Ma Huaiyu collided with Zhan Xun, who told him they had found Ge Hong's house and asked where Su Qin'er was.

Zhan Xun and Ma Huaiyu returned to Ge Hong’s house after realizing the child Ma Huaiyu had encountered was likely Ge Hong’s son, not a ghost. They found Ge Hong’s corpse inside a large jar and discovered an open Blue and White Porcelain Jar beneath her, leading Zhan Xun to realize she had sacrificed herself to contain it for her child.

• Ma Huaiyu told Zhan Xun that a child had grabbed his pant leg and asked whether he had seen his mother, prompting Zhan Xun to recognize the child as likely Ge Hong’s son.
• Zhan Xun and Ma Huaiyu returned to Ge Hong’s house, where Fan Ru showed them a large jar beside the stove.
• Zhan Xun opened the jar and found Ge Hong’s swollen corpse curled inside it.
• Fan Ru and Zhan Xun removed Ge Hong’s corpse and found an open Blue and White Porcelain Jar at the bottom of the larger jar.
• Zhan Xun realized Ge Hong had climbed into the jar herself to suppress the porcelain jar and protect her son.