Chapter Summaries

Qin He found a patch of chili peppers near the Mass Grave and brought them back to the Corpse Burning Facility, where the others discovered that eating them raw was painfully spicy. Later, as the corpse transport arrived, Qin He slapped Ling Zhonghai while claiming he had killed a mosquito.

• Qin He found wild chili peppers growing among the ruins by the Mass Grave, picked a large bundle, and collected seeds.
• Qin He told the Corpse Burners that the peppers could be eaten, but Liu Sanjin tried one raw and spat it out, while Old Liangtou insisted they were ornamental.
• Qin He washed the peppers, strung them up by the stove to dry, and learned that Officer Xu would return the next day.
• Ling Zhonghai agreed with Gao Linkun and Li Tie to distribute the corpses fairly and stop making trouble for Qin He.
• Qin He told Ling Zhonghai not to move, slapped him, and showed the stunned men a dead mosquito in his palm.

Qin He defied Ling Zhonghai and cremated three vicious corpses, whose Shadow Plays revealed how a family’s betrayal ended in all their deaths. After Zhang Jin Kou judged them, Qin He received three rewards.

• Qin He struck Ling Zhonghai, and Li Tie and Gao Linkun dragged the furious chief into the duty room to stop him from attacking a Corpse Burner.
• Qin He cleaned and sewed shut the eyes of Xiong Jiu, Xiong Wenlang, and Liu Siniang, then suppressed them with Corpse Suppressing Nails and cremated all three together.
• Qin He watched the family’s Shadow Plays and learned that Xiong Wenlang killed Xiong Jiu and Liu Siniang with poison after discovering their scheme against him, then died in an accidental fall while disposing of their bodies.
• Zhang Jin Kou judged the three dead, and Qin He received Lockpicking Art, Chamber Arts, and ten years of inner strength.

After learning Lockpicking Art and Chamber Arts, Qin He woke to find Crippled Li had been struck by calamity and wondered whether saving money endangered Corpse Burners. He spent all his coins on cooking supplies and ended the chapter passing a crowded cattle-market stall where someone was slicing beef.

• Qin He learned Lockpicking Art and Chamber Arts, then slept as two figures in Pointed Hats hooked the Xiong family's three phantoms from the ashes and vanished.
• Qin He collected his pay and saw the swaddled child’s steward claim the Xiong family ashes.
• Qin He found Crippled Li deaf and blind after contact with Calamity Qi, while Old Liangtou blamed his habit of saving money and said Qin He had saved Liu Sanjin from the same fate.
• Qin He feared that keeping money might bring disaster, so he spent his coins on a large iron pot, salt, and iron nails.
• Qin He passed the cattle market and saw a crowd gathered around a stall where someone was slicing beef.

Qin He tracked down a thief, took half the stolen silver, and used it to buy supplies and build a stove at the Corpse Burning Facility. After preparing a lavish meal, he was visited by Luo Jiu, who asked about Liu Cang, the Snake Immortal.

• Qin He caught Hou Xiaoliu after he stole a money pouch and made him split a silver ingot in half.
• Qin He spent the money on beef, cooking supplies, and ingredients, then returned to the Corpse Burning Facility.
• Qin He gathered stones and mud, built a stove, and prepared dough, bamboo utensils, and a meal.
• Qin He cooked chili-fried beef and white-flour steamed buns while sixteen corpses arrived from the Marshal's Office.
• Luo Jiu entered the Corpse Burning Facility without making a sound, showed Qin He a portrait of Liu Cang, and asked about him.

Qin He uncovered Luo Jiu as the Punishment Slave, an executioner sent to investigate Liu Cang’s death, and killed him in the Corpse Burning Facility. As Qin He burned the body, he used the Shadow Play to witness Luo Jiu’s life.

• Luo Jiu tied Qin He up and prepared to torture him, then accused him of killing Liu Cang.
• Qin He admitted killing Liu Cang, broke free with the Bone Shrinking Technique, and attacked Luo Jiu with a hundred Corpse Suppressing Nails.
• Qin He recognized Luo Jiu as the Punishment Slave of the Di Barbarians’ Eight Tribes Torture Prison and refused to negotiate.
• Qin He placed Luo Jiu in the Corpse Burning Furnace and burned him, taking care to limit coal use and smoke.
• Qin He watched the Shadow Play reveal Luo Jiu’s entire life.

Qin He learned the Merit Golden Body Art after burning Xing Nine’s remains and escaping suspicion at the Corpse Burning Facility. The Flying Fish Guard’s search failed, and Xing Nine was left dead while Qin He returned to his ordinary life.

• Xing Nine’s history revealed that he had risen from a captive to the Di people’s foremost executioner before Liu Yazhi sent him south to investigate Liu Cang’s death.
• Zhang Jin Kou’s judgment granted Qin He the Merit Golden Body Art, which he learned and discovered cultivated spiritual merit rather than inner force.
• Qin He burned Xing Nine’s remains, cooled the furnace, and erased the traces of his presence in Room Seven.
• The Flying Fish Guard searched the Corpse Burning Facility and questioned its staff, but no one reported seeing a stranger.
• Qin He collected food money and went to buy coarse-grain buns as rumors about Xing Nine spread through the city.

Qin He ran into the missing Xu Changshou outside Little Cui Tower and learned that Doctor Qiao had prescribed a three-day visit there to cure his raging inner fire. Later, Qin He joined a crowd watching the Three Rivers Gang and Caohe Gang brawl, and ended up buying sunflower seeds to enjoy the spectacle.

• Qin He avoided going to Mass Grave because he feared Di spies might be watching him.
• Xu Changshou told Qin He that Doctor Qiao had diagnosed him with raging inner fire and prescribed a visit to Little Cui Tower, where he spent three days and much of his silver.
• Qin He heard that the Three Rivers Gang and Caohe Gang were fighting and ran to watch the brawl.
• Caohe Gang reinforcements arrived, the crowd blocked the Three Rivers Gang from escaping, and the fight expanded when reinforcements for both sides joined in.
• Qin He climbed a tree to watch, then bought two ounces of sunflower seeds from a vendor near the crowd.

Qin He avoided the scrutiny around the East City Corpse Burning Facility and burned Zheng Laosan, a boatman killed in a gang brawl. Zheng Laosan’s memories revealed that Liu Changan had repeatedly visited haunted Ling'an Alley in disguise, but Qin He chose not to investigate and focused on his reward.

• Qin He watched the aftermath of a deadly fight between the Three Rivers Gang and the Caohe Gang, then noticed that people were covertly observing him near the Corpse Burning Facility.
• Qin He stayed at the facility instead of going to the Mass Grave, and the Flying Fish Guard’s encirclement drew attention from spies and other watchers.
• Qin He received Zheng Laosan’s corpse and discovered that a powerful groin kick had killed him during the gang brawl.
• While burning Zheng Laosan’s body, Qin He saw in the Shadow Play that Liu Changan had visited Ling'an Alley in disguise several times.
• Qin He decided not to pursue the suspicious visits, reflected on the Black Robed Man’s connection to the Abyss, and received a Fire Stone as his reward.

Qin He used an Abyssal Fire Stone to burn corpses faster and more thoroughly. Meanwhile, Liu Changan opposed An Baogu’s plan to raid the Imperial Prison, but An Baogu sent the Di Barbarians to attack the Capital City that night.

• Qin He activated the Fire Stone, using Abyssal Fire to burn Zheng Laosan’s bones faster and retrieve the Fire Seed afterward.
• A Flying Fish Guard Battalion Commander mistook a black cat for a disturbance and killed it during a night patrol.
• Liu Changan met An Baogu and other conspirators in a hidden courtyard after giving the password, “Beneath Whitehead Mountain.”
• An Baogu proposed raiding the Imperial Prison, but Liu Changan objected and warned that the plan was reckless.
• An Baogu dismissed Liu Changan and ordered the remaining Di Barbarians to kill in the Capital City.

An Baogu terrorized the Capital City in search of the Punishment Slave, slaughtering soldiers and civilians before raiding the Northern Commandery Imperial Prison. Finding the Punishment Slave absent, he went to the East City Corpse Burning Facility, where an unknown man killed him with a shovel.

• An Baogu set fires and caused panic across the Capital City to draw defenders away while he searched for the Punishment Slave.
• An Baogu killed the scar-faced Battalion Commander, soldiers, and an entire household as he made his way through the city.
• An Baogu stormed the Northern Commandery Imperial Prison, then escaped after discovering the Punishment Slave was not there.
• An Baogu headed for the East City Corpse Burning Facility and attacked a man in the cowshed who had borrowed milk.
• The man struck An Baogu dead with a metal shovel before answering who he was.

Qin He killed An Baogu, the Di barbarian spy leader known as Right Horse, and secretly burned his body at the Corpse Burning Facility. After gaining the Qi Gazing Technique, he discovered and destroyed a black snake spirit feeding on the burners’ Yang Energy, while the Capital City began to face the aftermath of the night’s violence.

• Qin He killed An Baogu, drank the remaining milk, and carried the corpse and heavy blade back to the Corpse Burning Facility under cover of night.
• Qin He burned An Baogu’s body, forged the heavy blade into an ugly shovel, and learned from the Shadow Play that An Baogu had been a brutal Di barbarian commander codenamed Right Horse.
• Qin He received the Qi Gazing Technique and saw that Deathly Aura and foul qi at the facility had formed a black snake that drained the Corpse Burners’ Yang Energy.
• Qin He grabbed the black snake and destroyed it with the heavy blade, then burned An Baogu’s belongings and erased the evidence of his death.
• Qin He handed over the ashes and collected his pay as the Capital City woke to the corpses and devastation left by the night’s violence.

Wei Zhongliang concealed the scale of the Di attack from Zhu Youxiao by presenting the raid as a victory, while Liu Changan learned that An Baogu had not returned. The chapter left An Baogu’s whereabouts uncertain as Liu Changan worried over the failed return.

• Wei Zhongliang berated the Northern Commandery officials for allowing An Baogu to breach the Imperial Prison and failing to capture the Di spies.
• Cui Chengxiu advised Wei Zhongliang to establish the facts before impeachment memorials reached the imperial desk.
• Wei Zhongliang told Zhu Youxiao that the Flying Fish Guard had destroyed a Di spy den, captured seven spies, and killed twenty-six.
• Wei Zhongliang described An Baogu’s assault on the Imperial Prison as a fierce diversion and explained that three Thousand-Household Commanders had stopped him.
• Liu Changan received word from his spies that An Baogu had not returned all night.

Liu Changan feared that An Baogu’s disappearance would make Lord Aquina suspect him, while Qin He prepared a new shovel and spent his money before entering the Capital City. After Qin He gazed toward the Imperial City, a lethal aura struck at him, and he escaped an attack from a golden dragon.

• Gantuji told Liu Changan that An Baogu had vanished after leaving the Imperial Prison, and Liu Changan suspected that Lord Aquina would blame him.
• Qin He commissioned Tie Sanqi to forge his iron shovel, then spent lavishly on food, drink, a bath, and clothes as his internal force surpassed sixty years.
• Qin He entered the Capital City and used the Qi Gazing Technique to inspect the Imperial City’s purple and gray qi.
• A slaughterous aura attacked Qin He from the Imperial City, but he blocked it with his magical power and dodged as the ground exploded.
• Qin He withdrew the Qi Gazing Technique and glimpsed a golden dragon opening its eyes in the Imperial City’s Divine Light.

Qin He watched the public execution of seven supposed Di spies, then was drafted by the Flying Fish Guard to help at the Corpse Burning Hall after An Baogu’s attack left it short-handed. He accepted the dangerous assignment, hoping its higher-quality corpses and possible rewards could improve his prospects.

• Qin He learned that meat increased his inner strength faster than vegetarian food and spent most of his remaining silver on a lavish meal.
• Qin He watched the crowd cheer as seven alleged Di invader spies were executed at West Market, recognizing that the spectacle served the court’s purposes despite its dubious truth.
• Chang Wen arrived at the Corpse Burning Facility with two subordinates and ordered Qin He to report to the Corpse Burning Hall, which had suffered heavy losses in An Baogu’s attack.
• Xu Changshou explained the opportunity and warned Qin He to keep his head down, while noting that the Flying Fish Guard might reward him with a reusable corpse-suppressing item.
• Qin He packed clothes and concealed several Corpse Suppressing Nails before following Chang Wen to the Corpse Burning Hall.

Qin He entered the Flying Fish Guard’s Corpse Burning Hall as a conscripted Corpse Burner and used his Qi Gazing Technique to inspect its protections and hidden dangers. He was assigned one of seven headless corpses to burn, while Deathly Aura seeped from behind a heavy iron door.

• Qin He was led underground into the Corpse Burning Hall with five other conscripted Corpse Burners.
• Qin He recognized the Soul-Capturing Lamp and saw how it drew lingering spirits from corpses and suppressed them.
• Qin He noticed dense Deathly Aura leaking from behind a heavy iron door and flowing into a clay jar.
• The one-eyed Corpse Burning Official ordered Wei Wu to assign the new arrivals seven corpses for practice.
• Wei Wu assigned each of the six Corpse Burners a room and a corpse, then warned them that they could run if a corpse rose.
• Qin He and the others uncovered seven headless bodies bearing the distinctive shaved heads and rat-tail braids of the men beheaded at West Market.

Qin He and the other Corpse Burners incinerated a dangerous group of headless corpses, while the Shadow Play revealed that one belonged to habitual thief Hou Zhuang. Hou Zhuang had been executed as a substitute for a Di barbarian spy after he was wrongly arrested during an investigation into a major theft.

• Qin He discreetly gave each headless corpse a Corpse Suppressing Nail as the Corpse Burners prepared them for incineration.
• A corpse at the Western City Corpse Burning Facility burned through two Corpse Suppressing Talismans, and Wei Wu scolded the Corpse Burner before replacing them.
• Qin He and the others waited for the corpses to burn, then cleaned and stitched them after Wei Wu declared them safe.
• The Shadow Play revealed that Hou Zhuang had become a habitual thief and taken in the young beggar Hou Xiaoliu as his godson.
• The Five City Marshal's Office arrested Hou Zhuang after thieves stole grain and valuables from Prince Zhongshan's manor.
• Flying Fish Guard agents transferred Hou Zhuang to the Imperial Prison, where he was mutilated and executed as a substitute for a Di barbarian spy.

Qin He ignored Wei Wu’s warning and chose a dangerous corpse from the yellow-cloth section, then burned it and watched the dead man’s memories. The corpse belonged to Chen Yutang, whose family had been executed after Governor Lu Xiang used a grain-buying scheme to force merchants to supply military provisions.

• After finishing his first cremation, Qin He chose a corpse from the yellow-cloth section despite Wei Wu’s instructions to take a local body.
• Qin He drove ten Corpse Suppressing Nails into the corpse, kept its talisman, and cremated it over two hours.
• The shadow play revealed that the corpse was Chen Yutang, a wealthy merchant from Xuzhou with three sons and a harmonious family.
• Governor Lu Xiang used the merchants’ reluctance to sell grain to lure them into selling moldy grain, then arrested them for undermining military supplies.
• Lu Xiang had one merchant family executed to frighten the others into exchanging good grain for bad grain, and Chen Yutang’s family was the one put to death.

Qin He burned a vicious corpse on the verge of becoming a jiangshi, but the reward was the useless Ox Riding Technique. Suspecting the Soul-Capturing Lamp was suppressing his rewards, he wondered whether an accident could befall it without putting the Corpse Burning Hall in danger.

• Qin He learned that Chen Yutang had become a vicious corpse after Lu Xiang executed his family, then received only five years of internal strength for burning him.
• Qin He suspected the corpse-burning rewards were being downgraded and secretly selected a corpse bound in iron chains while Wei Wu watched.
• Qin He used twenty Corpse Suppressing Nails to restrain the hairy corpse, which took three hours to burn completely.
• Qin He learned that the corpse had been murdered by his clansmen and received the Ox Riding Technique as his reward.
• Qin He suspected the Soul-Capturing Lamp was causing the poor rewards and considered whether an accident could happen to it.

Qin He worked in the Imperial Prison’s Corpse Burning Hall and learned that many of its corpses had been stolen and recovered from a temple. The Corpse Burners revealed that the room behind the Hall’s iron door was actually the Corpse Suppressing Hall.

• Qin He rejected the thought of killing people for rewards and resolved to burn more vicious corpses instead.
• After their shift ended, Wei Wu locked Qin He and the other Corpse Burners in a cell and left them food and water.
• The Corpse Burners ate and introduced themselves, including Tao Dayong, Li Ergou, and Qian Mancang.
• Tao Dayong told them that corpses had been hijacked from across the country and that the Flying Fish Guard found some at Jing'an Temple on Plough Ox Mountain.
• Qin He decided to visit Jing'an Temple to look for a windfall, while Qian Mancang explained that the room behind the iron door was the Corpse Suppressing Hall.

Qin He escaped his cell and secretly entered the Corpse Burning Hall, where he burned dozens of corpses and subdued a Hairy Zombie. He then turned to the iron-bound coffin, leaving its contents unrevealed.

• Qin He learned that the Flying Fish Guard's Second Corpse Burning Hall was called the Corpse Suppressing Hall and held corpses that could not be burned.
• Qin He picked the cell lock with a straw, slipped beneath the faulty stone doors, and entered the empty Corpse Burning Hall.
• Qin He burned corpses in twenty-eight furnaces, using more than a hundred Corpse Suppressing Nails to keep them from moving.
• Qin He opened the talisman-covered coffin and found a Hairy Zombie, which he subdued with Corpse Suppressing Nails and burned in a furnace.
• Qin He confirmed that the Hairy Zombie was at peace, then approached the second coffin bound in iron chains and runes.