Recaps

Yu Chen remembered his parents’ mysterious execution and discovered that the Corpse Mover possessed astonishing blood and vitality, likely making him an Innate Realm grandmaster. He joined the Corpse Mover at the Wang Household’s public tiger feast, where a gaunt old man reacted to Yu Chen with terror.

• Yu Chen recalled his parents’ graves, their execution, and the letter warning him not to investigate their past.
• The Corpse Mover brought Yu Chen a bucket of black dog’s blood and told him about the public tiger feast.
• Yu Chen used the Heavenly Eye of Minute Insight to see that the Corpse Mover had extraordinary blood and vitality and was likely an Innate Realm grandmaster.
• The Corpse Mover led Yu Chen down to Skybridge Street, where the Wang Household served tiger meat to the city’s residents.
• At the feast, Yu Chen noticed a gaunt old man staring at him, and the old man looked horrified when their eyes met.

Yu Chen learned that Deadmouth had been an honest, renowned coroner before witnessing the old man die at the Tiger Banquet. After burying him, Yu Chen accepted his ghost’s wish and saw in Deadmouth’s life lantern that he had once lied about a case involving twelve corpses.

• Corpse Mover told Yu Chen that Deadmouth had been a celebrated yamen coroner who had trained many others before becoming destitute and confused.
• Yu Chen and Corpse Mover ate at the Tiger Banquet, where Xie Qing arrived with Zhengqing Gang members and drew the crowd’s attention.
• Deadmouth choked on tiger tendon and died; yamen officials ruled it an accidental death and ordered Corpse Mover to carry the body to Qingfeng Mausoleum.
• Yu Chen and Corpse Mover buried Deadmouth, and Yu Chen summoned the old man’s ghost into the Scripture of Deliverance, where it kowtowed beside the Yellow Springs River.
• The Scripture of Deliverance revealed Deadmouth’s unfulfilled wish, and Yu Chen saw that the former coroner had broken his lifelong rule against lying when he examined twelve corpses in a case more than ten years earlier.

Deadmouth’s memories revealed how masked men coerced him into altering an autopsy record, helping frame Yu Tiesheng and Madam Yu for a massacre. After Deadmouth died without confessing, Yu Chen realized the condemned constables were his parents and that he had been implicated as their descendant.

• Fifteen years earlier, two masked men threatened Deadmouth’s family and forced him to change his autopsy finding from wolf-toothed clubs to mace-type weapons.
• Deadmouth learned that Yu Tiesheng and Madam Yu were the only people in Weishui who wielded Mandarin-Duck Bronze Maces.
• At a secret hearing, the altered record helped convict Yu Tiesheng and Madam Yu of murdering twelve people, and they were executed while their descendants were punished.
• Deadmouth lived in guilt and fear for years, then choked to death after seeing a youth who resembled Yu Tiesheng at a Tiger-Head Grand Feast.
• Yu Chen emerged from the memory and realized the framed constables were his parents and that he was their implicated descendant.

After learning his parents had been framed, Yu Chen vowed to find those responsible and began pursuing leads through Xie Qing and the Zhengqing Gang. He returned to Qingfeng Mausoleum, where the Corpse Mover sensed a profound change in him.

• Yu Chen burned spirit money at his parents' graves, vowed to find those who framed them, and sent Dead Man's Mouth's ghost to the Yellow Springs River after its final wish was fulfilled.
• The Scripture of Deliverance granted Yu Chen a Strengthening Foundation and Nourishing Origin pill, which further tempered his body and increased his Internal Force.
• Yu Chen visited Xie Qing and asked him to investigate a list of people who had been in Weishui fifteen years earlier, along with a household-extermination case in which twelve people died.
• Xie Qing ordered the Zhengqing Gang to begin investigating, while Yu Chen returned to his ordinary grave-watching life and bought food in the Hanging Bridge market.
• Yu Chen returned to Qingfeng Mausoleum and saw the Corpse Mover burying a corpse; the Corpse Mover noticed a profound change in Yu Chen.

Yu Chen learned how Zhang San'er had been murdered after seeking justice for his wife, and accepted the Scripture of Deliverance’s task to resolve the dead man’s grievance. The chapter ended with Zhang San’er’s final struggle revealing that he had seized Eldest Ji’s boot before drowning.

• The Corpse Mover offered to use his connections to keep Yu Chen from being exiled to Mobei, while Yu Chen treated exile with indifference.
• After the Corpse Mover left, Yu Chen drew the lingering ghost into the Scripture of Deliverance and received a ten-day task to settle its grievance.
• The Scripture revealed that the ghost belonged to Zhang San'er, a tea-shop owner whose wife had died by suicide after the Ji Family's Three Brothers assaulted and slandered her.
• Zhang San'er attacked the brothers at his wife's funeral, but they beat him, carried him away, and threw him into the frozen Weishui River.
• Zhang San'er briefly awoke in the river and clutched Eldest Ji's boot before he drowned.

Yu Chen vowed to fulfill Zhang San'er's final wish by bringing the Ji Family's Three Brothers to justice. After Zhang San'er's ghost identified his killers to Lin Yi, Lin Yi found the brothers with the missing boot and arrested them, warning that no one could release them without cause.

• Yu Chen promised Zhang San'er's ghost that he would make the Ji Family's Three Brothers lose their heads.
• Lin Yi examined the murderer's missing boot in the evidence room, where Zhang San'er's ghost appeared and recounted how the brothers killed him.
• Lin Yi recognized Eldest Ji as a former offender and led constables to arrest the brothers.
• The Ji Family's Three Brothers discussed burying the boot and laughed about their crimes until Lin Yi's men burst in and found it on the table.
• Lin Yi bound the brothers, took them to the constabulary, and threatened anyone who tried to release them.

Yu Chen ensured Lin Yi arrested Ji Family's Three Brothers for Zhang San'er's murder, but the chief constable tried and failed to secure their release. That night, several figures pursued their own secret plans, and the Corpse Mover warned a powerful fat man about the chief constable's ties to the Blackwater Gang.

• Yu Chen told Lin Yi about Zhang San'er's murder, and Lin Yi arrested Ji Family's Three Brothers using the matching boots as evidence.
• Ji Family's Three Brothers denied the murder, but Lin Yi refused to release them when Weishui's chief constable demanded it and mocked the chief constable with the evidence.
• Lin Yi searched for witnesses while a masked figure entered the constabulary, the chief constable visited an unmarked residence, and Yu Chen awaited news at Qingfeng Mausoleum.
• The Corpse Mover visited a fat man in a northern manor, discussed a young man's fate and the coming provincial inspection, and reported the chief constable's ties to the Blackwater Gang.
• The fat man reacted coldly to the report, and Weishui greeted the next day with clear skies after the storm.

After the boot evidence was secretly switched, Lin Yi was forced to release the Ji Family's Three Brothers and confessed his failure to Yu Chen. Learning that Zhang San'er’s killers remained free, Yu Chen resolved to deliver justice himself.

• Lin Yi discovered that the boot taken from Zhang San'er had been replaced with an unrelated white boot during the interrogation.
• The chief constable ordered the Ji Family's Three Brothers released, and Lin Yi was restrained as they left the constabulary.
• Yu Chen saw the brothers strutting through Hanging Bridge Market and later visited Lin Yi, who tearfully explained how the evidence had been switched.
• At Qingfeng Mausoleum, Yu Chen told Zhang San'er's ghost that the yamen could not provide justice and vowed to punish the brothers himself.

A ghost-masked man attacked the Ji Family's Three Brothers and brought them to Madam Zhang's mourning hall to punish them for what they had done to Zhang San'er and his wife. Meanwhile, Lin Yi awoke at the Weishui Clerk Office and set out with his saber, determined to act against the injustice.

• Qinghong entertained the Ji Family's Three Brothers at their home until a ghost-masked man broke in and subdued them.
• The masked man told Qinghong to keep her eyes closed until dawn, then beat the brothers and dragged them to Zhang San'er's former residence.
• At Madam Zhang's mourning hall, the masked man asked whether the brothers had begged when Zhang San'er and his wife pleaded with them, then killed Third Ji.
• The masked man told Eldest Ji that he had chosen a new way for the brothers to die so Qinghong would not be implicated.
• Lin Yi woke from his drunken stupor at the Weishui Clerk Office, remembered Zhang San'er's ghost, took his saber, and walked out.

Lin Yi set out to kill Ji Family's Three Brothers after the law failed to deliver justice, but found their residence in chaos and Qinghong too traumatized to explain what had happened. The next morning, he discovered the brothers dead, kneeling before Madam Zhang's coffin with their own heads in their hands, while Xiao Zihua had been arrested by the Inspection Bureau.

• Lin Yi resolved to punish Ji Family's Three Brothers himself and went to their residence, but found it deserted except for the frightened Qinghong.
• Lin Yi took Qinghong back to Huaqing Tower and stayed with her while the Inspection Bureau arrested Xiao Zihua for possessing unexplained wealth.
• A vegetable farmer discovered a brutal scene at Zhang San'er's residence and alerted the authorities.
• Lin Yi arrived at the scene and recognized Ji Family's Three Brothers among three headless corpses kneeling before Madam Zhang's coffin.
• Lin Yi saw that the brothers were holding their own heads and that the words “We three deserve ten thousand deaths!” had been written in blood.

Lin Yi investigated the Ji Family's Three Brothers' gruesome deaths while learning that his master, the Corpse Mover, had followed him and warned him not to pursue the Ghost-Faced Man alone. As the story of Yu Chen's execution spread through Weishui, Yu Chen pondered Madam Zhang's missing final wish and examined the Proxy Doll, a reward that could take one fatal injury in his place.

• Lin Yi questioned Qinghong and learned that a masked, black-clad man had taken the Ji Family's Three Brothers, whose heads had been twisted off by immense force.
• The Corpse Mover visited Lin Yi, explained that the killer had punished the brothers in the yamen's stead, and warned him not to investigate the Ghost-Faced Man alone.
• The tale of the Head-Taking Ghost spread through Weishui, prompting Xie Qing to silence the jianghu witnesses and frightening Li Er into behaving politely.
• Yu Chen learned from the Corpse Mover that the case had caused an uproar and gained him the name Head-Taking Ghost.
• Yu Chen wondered why Madam Zhang had left no final wish, then examined the Proxy Doll and learned it could absorb one fatal injury for its blood donor.

Yu Chen uncovered the story of Wang Hai, a porter whose reward for saving a Golden Sun Merchant Guild executive led the Blackwater Gang to torture him to death for his six Gold Zhu. The gang killed Wang Hai without learning where he had hidden the money.

• A Corpse Mover brought a burned corpse to Qingfeng Mausoleum, and Yu Chen summoned its ghost after burying it.
• Yu Chen used the Scripture of Deliverance to learn that the dead man was Wang Hai, a porter supporting his sick wife, young daughter, and elderly mother.
• Wang Hai saved a Golden Sun Merchant Guild executive from wolves and received six Gold Zhu as a reward, choosing money over work in the prefectural capital so he could return to his family.
• Word of Wang Hai's reward spread among the caravan's Weishui men, and the Blackwater Gang took him to the south of the city to seize the Gold Zhu.
• Wang Hai refused to reveal where he had hidden the money, so the Blackwater Gang beat him to death.

Yu Chen used the Infernal Ghost Mask’s new transformation ability to recover Wang Hai’s hidden Gold Zhu, exchange them for silver, and leave the money for Wang Hai’s family. Wang Hai’s wish then changed to Bone-Deep Hatred, leaving Yu Chen with a second last wish to fulfill.

• Yu Chen learned that Wang Hai had hidden six Gold Zhu beneath a locust tree and wished for the money to reach his family, not for revenge.
• Yu Chen discovered that the Infernal Ghost Mask could transform his appearance after absorbing blood and used it to take on his former-life appearance.
• Yu Chen retrieved the Gold Zhu, exchanged them for loose silver, and left the money inside Wang Hai’s home while his family slept.
• Wang Hai’s ghost shed its charred appearance but continued wandering beside the Yellow Springs River instead of crossing it.
• The Scripture of Deliverance revealed Wang Hai’s new wish, Bone-Deep Hatred, with a ten-day time limit.

Yu Chen avenged Wang Hai by killing the Blackwater Gang members who had murdered him and threatened his family, then burned their pavilion. The deaths sparked rumors of a vengeful ghost and turmoil among gangs across southern Weishui City.

• Yu Chen understood Wang Hai’s hatred and went to the Blackwater Gang’s territory in Southside Old Street to seek vengeance.
• Five Blackwater Gang men discussed taking Wang Hai’s family hostage and forcing them to reveal where the six Gold Zhu were hidden.
• Yu Chen killed Scarface Third Brother and the other four men by twisting their necks.
• The pavilion caught fire, and a night-soil carrier saw the blaze and the figures inside.
• News spread that five charred Blackwater Gang corpses had been found kneeling, prompting ghost rumors and unrest among gangs throughout southern Weishui City.

Yu Chen received Spirit Ox Tears and the Soul-Shaking Bell as rewards for fulfilling Wang Hai’s wish, then discovered that the Corpse Mover carried an astonishing amount of Blood Aura. After burying five Blackwater Gang members, Yu Chen went down the mountain to seek news from Xie Qing.

• Yu Chen tested Spirit Ox Tears, which revealed Blood Aura, and stored the Soul-Shaking Bell, which could stun those who heard it.
• The Corpse Mover brought five charred Blackwater Gang members to Qingfeng Mausoleum and asked Yu Chen to help bury them.
• Yu Chen used Spirit Ox Tears to see that the Corpse Mover had far more Blood Aura than anyone he had encountered, despite his pious talk against murder.
• Yu Chen reflected that he had killed the Blackwater Gang members himself because the authorities lacked evidence and the gang’s influence could protect them.
• After practicing punches, Yu Chen went down the mountain to look for news from Xie Qing about the matter he had asked her to investigate.

Yu Chen learned that the witnesses who testified against his parents had all disappeared, while Xie Qing uncovered serious doubts about the old case and suspected that Yu Tiesheng had been framed. The trail pointed to Yu Tiesheng’s former disciple, now Weishui’s chief constable, Xiao Zihua.

• Xie Qing told Yu Chen that every witness from the secret trial had died, vanished, or left Weishui within a year of the case.
• Xie Qing recounted how Yu Tiesheng and his wife had been convicted of massacring the Chen Household after their bronze maces were found at the scene.
• Xie Qing pointed out that Yu Tiesheng had no motive, had helped the Chen Household, and was too experienced to leave his weapons behind.
• Xie Qing reasoned that someone close to Yu Tiesheng could have stolen the maces and framed him.
• Xie Qing identified Yu Tiesheng’s adopted disciple, Xiao Zihua, as the current chief constable of Weishui and a possible suspect.

Yu Chen learned that Xiao Zihua, his father’s former disciple and Weishui’s escaped former chief constable, might hold clues to his parents’ case. After Yu Chen asked Xie Qing to find Xiao and protect Wang Hai’s family, the Corpse Mover revealed that Xiao’s escape had brought the conspirators’ plans to a head.

• Xie Qing told Yu Chen that Xiao Zihua had escaped prison after being arrested for bribery and corruption, and Yu Chen gave him Paper Crows to send news.
• Yu Chen asked Xie Qing to have the Zhengqing Gang protect Wang Hai’s wife, children, and elderly relatives, then returned to Qingfeng Mausoleum.
• The Corpse Mover reported that he could not identify who killed the Ji Family’s Three Brothers, and he suspected the Head-Taking Ghost had also killed five Blackwater Gang members.
• The Corpse Mover told the fat man that Xiao Zihua had escaped prison and said Xiao had stolen Old Brother Yu’s identity.
• The fat man dropped his harmless disguise and ordered the Corpse Mover to make it clean.

Yu Chen encountered Wang Ling’s grand funeral and learned that the Wang Household’s neglected, slow-witted son had died after choking on a steamed bun. Wang Ling’s lingering spirit appeared before Yu Chen, revealing an unfulfilled wish tied to the woman he had loved and secretly showered with gifts.

• The Corpse Mover visited Yu Chen for lunch, then said he was leaving Weishui for a few days to clean up a place outside the city.
• Yu Chen and the Corpse Mover saw a lavish funeral procession for Wang Ling, a young man from the Wang Household.
• The Corpse Mover explained that Wang Ling had been neglected after his mother died and had worked for years at a Wang Household woodcarving workshop.
• Townsfolk said Wang Ling had choked on a steamed bun and died before anyone could get him to a clinic.
• Yu Chen saw Wang Ling’s ghost grinning at him and recognized that the dead youth had an unfulfilled wish.
• The Corpse Mover recounted how Wang Ling had spent years carving and buying gifts for a woman who pawned his carvings.

Yu Chen discovered that Wang Ling's unfulfilled wish was to deliver a birthday gift to a woman and set out to fulfill it. Following Wang Ling's memories led him to Bright Moon Mausoleum, where the woman apparently lived.

• Corpse Mover left the city, and Yu Chen returned to Qingfeng Mausoleum with groceries while Wang Ling's ghost followed him.
• Yu Chen used the Scripture of Deliverance and learned that Wang Ling had five shichen to deliver a wooden figurine as a birthday gift.
• Yu Chen retrieved the figurine from Wang Ling's room at the woodcarving workshop and left without being recognized by a worker.
• Yu Chen followed the route in Wang Ling's memories out of the city and through a secluded forest.
• Yu Chen reached Bright Moon Mausoleum and confirmed that Wang Ling's beloved woman lived inside the cemetery.

Yu Chen discovered that Wang Ling’s beloved was his deceased birth mother, Li Qiu'e, and helped his ghost fulfill its final wish at her grave. As Wang Ling crossed the Yellow Springs, the gravekeeper arrived and realized the wooden carving could not have been left by the dead young man.

• Yu Chen entered Bright Moon Mausoleum and found the gravestone of Li Qiu'e of the Wang Household.
• Yu Chen remembered that Li Qiu'e had been Wang Ling’s mother and understood that Wang Ling’s gifts had always been meant for her.
• Wang Ling’s ghost placed the wooden carving before his mother’s grave, embraced the gravestone, and crossed the Yellow Springs after thanking Yu Chen.
• Yu Chen turned to leave, but saw the gravekeeper take the carving and mutter that Wang Ling had died that morning.
• The gravekeeper froze when he realized Wang Ling could not have left the carving after his death.

Yu Chen used the Infernal Mask to frighten the gravekeeper into confessing that he had stolen Wang Ling’s offerings to Li Qiu'e. The gravekeeper was arrested, and Wang Ling’s filial devotion became known throughout Weishui.

• Yu Chen realized that the Bright Moon Mausoleum gravekeeper had been selling the offerings Wang Ling left at Li Qiu'e’s grave.
• The gravekeeper took a wooden carving from Li Qiu'e’s grave and became terrified when he remembered that Wang Ling had been buried that morning.
• Yu Chen transformed into Wang Ling’s ghost with the Infernal Mask and frightened the gravekeeper into dropping the carving.
• The gravekeeper fled to town, where he confessed to stealing Wang Ling’s offerings while seeking protection from a soldier.
• After the nobles and dignitaries pressured the yamen, officers arrested the gravekeeper for theft, and Wang Ling’s filial devotion became widely known.

Yu Chen learned the Yu Step: Mortal Volume, encountered the chief of the Aura-Observing Bureau, and received a message from Xie Qing about Xiao Zihua. The chapter ended with a corpse mover heading toward a job involving someone who should have died fifteen years earlier.

• Yu Chen fulfilled Foolish Young Master Wang Ling's final wish and received the Yu Step: Mortal Volume from the Scripture of Deliverance.
• Yu Chen mastered the Yu Steps, discovering that they gave him traceless speed and let him briefly unleash tremendous power.
• Yu Chen collected his pay and met the Aura-Observing Bureau chief, whose probing gaze failed to pierce the Infernal Ghost Mask.
• Yu Chen concluded that his Heavenly Eye of Minute Insight could not see through Qi Refiners and felt instinctively repulsed by the chief.
• A paper bird from Xie Qing reached Yu Chen, prompting him to leave Qingfeng Mausoleum for news about Xiao Zihua.
• At Qingshan Relay Station, a burly corpse mover received a message and said his new job concerned someone who should have been a corpse fifteen years earlier.

Yu Chen tracked down the fugitive Xiao Zihua and confronted him in a remote courtyard. After easily defeating Xiao Zihua, Yu Chen left him helpless and at his mercy.

• Xie Qing told Yu Chen that Xiao Zihua was hiding in a courtyard eighty li south of Weishui City and gave him the address.
• Xiao Zihua waited anxiously for help from Ji Sixth Lord and the Blackwater Gang, realizing they had likely abandoned him.
• The sound of bells made Xiao Zihua drowsy, and the masked Yu Chen entered his room through the snow and wind.
• Xiao Zihua attacked Yu Chen with a saber, but Yu Chen caught it barehanded and crushed it.
• Xiao Zihua tried to flee, but Yu Chen blocked him, threw him into a wall, and approached him as he lay injured.

Yu Chen forced Xiao Zihua to confess that the Blackwater Gang’s first chief had ordered the framing of Yu Tiesheng for the Chen Household Massacre, then made Xiao repay his crimes. The Corpse Mover arrived, tested Yu Chen’s strength, and found Xiao Zihua already dead.

• Yu Chen broke Xiao Zihua’s legs and tortured him until he admitted stealing Yu Tiesheng’s golden maces and planting them at the Chen Household to frame Yu Tiesheng and his wife.
• Xiao Zihua revealed that the Blackwater Gang’s first chief had ordered him to steal the maces, while the gang’s six chiefs had killed the Chen Household’s twelve members.
• Yu Chen revealed his identity as Yu Tiesheng’s son and took Xiao Zihua away to repay his debt.
• The Corpse Mover arrived at Xiao Zihua’s courtyard and challenged Yu Chen, but Yu Chen’s power overwhelmed him and destroyed the courtyard wall.
• The Corpse Mover accepted Yu Chen as a potential ally and went inside to confront Xiao Zihua, only to find Xiao’s headless body kneeling in a blood-soaked room.

Yu Chen uncovered how Xiao Zihua helped the Blackwater Gang frame his parents in the Chen Household Massacre, then killed him while investigating the old case. He returned to Qingfeng Mausoleum resolved to pursue the gang’s chiefs and avenge his parents.

• The corpse mover found Xiao Zihua dead and reported that the mysterious Head-Taking Ghost had defeated him and might be investigating the Blackwater Gang.
• The county magistrate learned that the Head-Taking Ghost had a grudge against Blackwater and ordered preparations for the prefectural inspection to continue.
• Yu Chen concluded that Blackwater Gang chiefs had committed the Chen Household Massacre and that Xiao Zihua had helped frame Yu Chen’s parents after bearing a grudge against his father.
• Yu Chen learned that Xiao Zihua had accepted a bribe to free the killer of a Chen family daughter, then accepted Blackwater’s offer to frame Yu Chen’s father in exchange for becoming chief constable.
• Yu Chen resolved to keep pursuing those responsible for his parents’ deaths, beginning with Xiao Zihua and continuing against the Blackwater Gang’s chiefs.