Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Xu Feng completes his mountain check-in route safely, then questions a convenience-store owner about the Earth God shrine. He learns that Master Liang, a shrine painter and Yin-Yang practitioner, helped establish it and gets Liang’s contact details.
• Xu Feng suspects the shrine’s “Earth God” is an ugly, poorly made impostor—weak, but able to watch him. He checks for security cameras and plans to investigate the shrine at night.
• He travels to Wanquan County to find Master Liang. When Liang’s shop is closed, local women tell Xu Feng he is working at the county Funeral Home.
• Xu Feng enters one of several funeral halls, signs the condolence register under a false name, donates money, and respectfully offers incense to the deceased.
• He notices that the incense smoke gathers around him and disappears into his pocket. Realizing the smoke should belong to the deceased, he investigates and discovers that an old Knife Coin—used in offerings to the Youdu Lord—is consuming it.

Character development

• Xu Feng remains methodical and cautious: he gathers information through casual conversation, checks for surveillance, and carefully observes supernatural signs.
• His familiarity with funeral work gives him confidence in the Funeral Home, while his sincere respect for the dead shows that his practical approach does not erase his sense of duty and reverence.
• The convenience-store owner is friendly and talkative, while the local women readily share what they know about Master Liang.

Significant themes

• Ritual and rightful ownership: Incense belongs to its intended recipient; another entity taking it violates the order rituals are meant to uphold.
• Decline and imposture: The shrine’s false god suggests that traditional spiritual authority has weakened or been displaced.
• The ordinary alongside the supernatural: Everyday errands, funeral customs, and casual conversations become part of Xu Feng’s investigation.
• Respect for the dead: Xu Feng treats an unknown deceased person with genuine solemnity.

Character interactions

• Xu Feng draws information from the convenience-store owner by steering their familiar conversation toward the shrine and Master Liang.
• He joins the local women’s chat and learns where Liang is working.
• At the Funeral Home, Xu Feng’s respectful conduct reassures the organizer, who allows him to remain in the hall.
• Xu Feng’s encounter with the incense smoke leads him to the Knife Coin in his pocket, setting up the next stage of the mystery.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Feng kneels in a Funeral Hall and discovers that his Knife Coins of Offering to the Youdu Lord absorb incense smoke—not only from the deceased’s offerings but also from incense directed toward Houtu. He quietly tests the effect while watching to see whether the local funeral masters notice.
• He considers whether the new Earth God Temple might be connected to the land itself, or even be a Haunted Land God, but has no proof yet. He performs additional rites, and the smoke from his Prayer Petitions also settles into his clothes.
• Xu Feng learns about the Chi family and the local funeral trade. Its work is controlled by a few established families, making it difficult for an outsider to enter.
• During the Chi family’s funeral, the procession is delayed because the deceased’s body has curled severely and cannot be placed straight in the coffin. Both Master Zhu and Master Liang fail to correct it.
• Xu Feng steps in, identifies trapped gas and changes in the body’s fascia, and releases the pressure. The corpse relaxes enough for others to straighten it, allowing the funeral to proceed.
• Afterward, a worker tells Xu Feng that such incidents have been happening more often. Xu Feng is alarmed and asks what he means.

Character developments

• Xu Feng shows growing confidence and practical expertise. He studies the funeral masters, investigates local customs, and intervenes decisively when faced with a difficult corpse. His respectful conduct toward the deceased contrasts with his discomfort over the incense his coins have taken.
• Master Zhu is presented as a composed, experienced practitioner, though his ritual authority does not enable him to solve the corpse’s physical problem.
• Master Liang also proves unable to handle the body’s abnormal stiffness, despite being one of the town’s leading funeral masters.

Significant themes

• Tradition amid change: Wanquan County’s customs and family-run funeral businesses persist despite a changing world.
• Expertise versus appearance: Xu Feng’s youth initially seems at odds with his ability, but his practical skill establishes his credibility.
• The uncanny entering ordinary life: The incense’s strange behavior and the increasingly frequent corpse abnormalities suggest a growing supernatural disturbance.
• Livelihood and exclusion: The funeral trade’s stability protects established families while making it difficult for outsiders to find a place.

Character interactions

• Xu Feng offers condolences to the Chi family and uses a formal hand seal to show respect to the funeral coordinator.
• He observes Master Liang and Master Zhu at work, then earns the attention of both by solving the corpse problem.
• The funeral workers first look to the established masters for help, but ultimately accept Xu Feng’s instructions and straighten the body under his direction.
• A worker’s final remark about the incidents becoming more common opens a worrying new question for Xu Feng.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Feng learns from a local man that Wanquan County’s funeral trade was once dominated by the Hu family. Of the surviving practitioners, Master Liang specializes in temple design and site selection, Master Zhu in exorcisms and rituals, and Master Ma is a less-skilled generalist.
• Corpses have recently been curling up when the appointed burial hour arrives. Families are advised to cremate or bury them quickly; otherwise, practitioners may have to perform “Corpse Coughing,” a feared ritual believed to bring illness or misfortune to descendants.
• Suspecting a disturbance in the Earth Qi, Xu Feng checks the local feng shui with his Mirror and sees Black Qi throughout the area. He concludes the problem began in Shishui and may have spread, so he books day trips to other cities to investigate its range.
• Speaking with Master Liang, Xu Feng discovers that several Earth God temples have been moved after drunk drivers crashed into them. More alarming, Liang says that the temples—and many household statues—are consecrated at Shishui’s Great King Temple. Xu Feng recognizes this as the unsettling temple connected to his earlier investigation and is deeply shaken.
• Xu Feng abandons plans to take an Earth God shrine niche up the Mountain, returns there by rented motorcycle, and checks in at the Small Courtyard. He also orders suturing needles and considers whether he might one day reattach the slain Giant Alligator’s head to appease Grandpa Earth.
• Xu Feng searches records about Daoist Song Chuming. Public accounts portray him as a secluded alchemist who achieved Daytime Ascension, but other sources describe a legendary fighter who spent decades defeating supernatural enemies, including the Giant Alligator at Shishui. After retreating into seclusion, he reportedly ascended years later. Xu Feng is struck by the contradictions—and then finds an online claim that Song may actually be a ghost.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng moves from gathering local funeral customs to actively investigating a wider supernatural crisis. His suspicions about the Earth Qi strengthen, and the Great King Temple revelation undermines his hope that local Earth God statues are harmless.
• The local man gives Xu Feng practical background on funeral customs and the strange behavior of corpses. Master Liang, initially a more formal contact, becomes forthcoming after Xu Feng’s earlier actions build rapport; his complaints about drunk drivers lead to the crucial temple information.
• Xu Feng’s concern for his own survival remains prominent: he asks whether he can obtain Zhao San’s Eight Characters after the game ends, even if it means giving up marriage and children.

Significant themes

• A spreading, poorly understood danger: The Black Qi and altered corpses suggest that the Earth Qi problem is expanding beyond a single location.
• Tradition and fear: Funeral rituals attempt to manage the dead, but their costs and consequences trouble the living as much as the supernatural threat itself.
• Unreliable history: Song Chuming’s official reputation conflicts sharply with accounts of his exploits, leaving Xu Feng unsure what—or whom—to believe.
• Ordinary carelessness, extraordinary consequences: Drunk driving damages sacred sites, while the temples’ connection to the Great King Temple turns seemingly mundane accidents into part of a larger mystery.

Key events

• Xu Feng investigates online claims, organizational records, and historical texts. His analysis shows the organization’s danger has genuinely increased, not merely become more noticeable.
• He concludes the Giant Alligator is at the center of the threat. The local funeral masters are poorly prepared, leaving him with little support beyond his own skills and equipment. He also marks the organization and Song Chuming as uncertain.
• Hoping the game can help, Xu Feng decides to turn his courtyard into a shrine to the Youdu Lord, replacing his earlier plan for a Mount Tai Stone Guardian.
• He performs an elaborate ritual using buried Knife Coins, offerings, incense, and a Divine Tablet. The Coins accept his offerings, and the ritual proceeds through its formal stages.
• When Xu Feng attempts to summon the god’s divine spark, supernatural notifications appear and his body moves without his control. A green, mountain-shaped flame appears. In this altered state, he writes a name on the tablet: Ren Bo, identified by a notification as the Yan Earth Uncle.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng shifts from researching the threat to taking direct action, demonstrating resourcefulness, resolve, and a willingness to risk a dangerous ritual.
• He recognizes that the local funeral masters may be no more capable than he is, so he cannot rely on them.
• His interaction with the Youdu Lord is formal and uncertain: Xu Feng makes offerings and petitions for protection, while the deity’s presence seems to take control of him and use his body to inscribe the tablet.
• The game’s notifications connect the real-world ritual to the supernatural rules Xu Feng has encountered in the game.

Significant themes

• Rising danger and isolation: Xu Feng faces a worsening threat with little dependable help.
• Faith, ritual, and uncertainty: He follows traditional rites despite not knowing the Youdu Lord’s nature or whether the deity can truly protect him.
• The boundary between game and reality: Game-like messages and supernatural forces appear during a real-world ceremony.
• Protection through sacrifice and risk: Xu Feng attempts to fortify his home, but invoking divine aid means surrendering some control over himself.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Feng consecrates a Divine Tablet bearing the name Ren Bo and hangs up a portrait of him, formally establishing the Forest Ranger’s Small Courtyard as an Earth God Shrine. Incense offerings strengthen both the shrine’s deity and Xu Feng’s Earth Uncle Protective Talisman.
• The shrine’s spiritual energy begins marking out its territory. Xu Feng fears Ren Bo might push toward dangerous neighboring powers, including the presence in the Ancient People’s Tomb, but the boundary stops five paces from the courtyard.
• Xu Feng also makes offerings at the northwest corner, where Knife Coins are buried and the Youdu Lord appears to receive them. He cannot explain how this presence coexists with Ren Bo’s shrine, but senses it is dangerous to disturb the coins.
• Xu Feng carefully worships both powers, leaves a light burning like a shrine lantern, meditates, and goes to sleep. He does not know that Ren Bo stopped at five paces because he currently lacks the strength to go farther.
• The chapter explains Ren Bo’s former role as a local official with duties resembling an Underworld Constable’s: guiding souls, settling disputes, and judging grievances. Xu Feng’s repeated offerings of paper money may carry obligations even though he has not formally bought land in the Underworld.
• Meanwhile, Zhang Jun works overtime on a report about mountain men who died in accidents. Unable to access restricted files, he studies corpse and check-in photos for patterns.
• After dreaming of being pushed off a mountain, Zhang Jun reexamines the hikers’ photos and suspects that someone—or something—may have been standing beside them. He sends a picture for technical review, but the resolution is too poor. Undeterred, he compares all the photos of one hiker, fixating on the man’s apparent glances behind the camera.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng shows growing competence as a shrine-builder and caretaker, but remains anxious and cautious around forces he cannot understand. He treats both Ren Bo and the Youdu Lord respectfully, while his instinct to avoid provoking the latter shows his awareness of the risks.
• Ren Bo is established as a fierce, battle-ready figure rather than a kindly old god. Though newly installed in the shrine, he is already claiming territory and gathering strength.
• Zhang Jun is introduced as exhausted but conscientious. His data-analysis instincts overcome his fatigue, turning an unsettling dream into a possible lead.
• Xu Feng’s relationships with the supernatural powers are marked by ritual respect and uncertainty; Zhang Jun’s interactions are mostly bureaucratic, with colleagues dismissing his late-night request as overwork.

Significant themes

• Ritual, authority, and territory: Consecrating a shrine establishes spiritual jurisdiction, but boundaries and rank are complicated.
• The unseen world intruding on ordinary life: Offerings, buried coins, and unexplained deaths connect Xu Feng’s shrine work with Zhang Jun’s investigation.
• Duty and exhaustion: Xu Feng, Ren Bo, and Zhang Jun all continue their work despite physical or mental strain.
• Clues hidden in plain sight: Zhang Jun’s suspicion emerges from small details in routine photos, suggesting that the danger may be present even when it goes unnoticed.

Key plot points and events

• Xiao Zhang is found asleep at his desk after the night shift, exhausted and shaken by the photographs of the dead mountain villagers. He senses that an unseen, emotionless “witness” observed their deaths—and realizes that the people in his office may similarly appear nonhuman to the villagers, watching through cameras and systems.
• Though the thought frightens him, Xiao Zhang cannot warn Xu Feng and Wang Wu without evidence. The Captain later reviews his actions and raises the threat level from Blue to Yellow, indicating a heightened likelihood that an unidentified force is involved.
• Xu Feng’s new Earth God shrine appears to keep wild monkeys at a distance. He travels to villages where Master Liang rebuilt Land God temples, finding that each shrine has a spiritual presence—apparently a ghost—but villagers report no unusual incidents.
• His train plans are disrupted by geological-disaster cancellations. Although the disasters seem ordinary and seasonal, their timing adds to his unease. After finding no sign of a local City God, Xu Feng decides to confront the haunted Land God near his shop that night.
• Xu Feng gathers supplies, prepares a ritual and writes Earth Uncle a petition explaining his plan. He expects the confrontation to involve both himself and Earth Uncle against the haunted Land God. At nightfall, he sets out to “strike.”

Character developments

• Xiao Zhang moves from routine analysis toward a disturbing intuition about the nature of observation and the possible presence behind the deaths. He remains cautious, refusing to treat suspicion as fact.
• The Captain takes Xiao Zhang’s concerns seriously enough to escalate the official alert, despite the lack of confirmation.
• Xu Feng grows more confident in his spiritual backing but remains wary. Rather than acting recklessly, he investigates, prepares carefully, and accepts that he may be entering a dangerous contest.

Significant themes

• Observation and dehumanization: To the mountain villagers, modern systems and their unseen operators may seem as nonhuman as supernatural watchers.
• Evidence versus intuition: Xiao Zhang’s fear feels meaningful, but he struggles to distinguish insight from unsupported speculation.
• Uncertainty and foreboding: Ordinary events—disasters, quiet villages, and unseen spirits—take on threatening significance without yielding clear answers.
• Preparation and responsibility: Xu Feng recognizes that confronting the haunted shrine could involve Earth Uncle as well as himself, and prepares accordingly.

Character interactions

• The Captain looks after Xiao Zhang, urges him to rest, and takes over the unfinished work; later, he responds to the situation by upgrading the risk alert.
• Xiao Zhang considers contacting Xu Feng and Wang Wu but ultimately stays silent because he lacks evidence.
• Xu Feng questions villagers under the cover of being a motorcycle-travel video maker. They provide no reports of strange events, leaving his suspicions unresolved.
• Xu Feng communicates his intended action to Earth Uncle through a written petition and offerings, treating the planned confrontation as a joint spiritual undertaking.

Plot points

• Xu Feng sets out alone at night to deal with the corrupted Earth God statue at the village entrance. He worries more about being caught by villagers than about encountering the supernatural.
• On a separate route down Yunjia Mountain, experienced hiker Chen Ye is followed by unexplained footsteps and glimpses a face that appears human but feels deeply wrong. He resists the urge to run, reasoning that panic could send him off the dangerous trail.
• Xu Feng approaches the village shrine after its residents have gone to sleep. Using incense ash, cloth marked with Ren Bo’s name, consecrated water and soil, rope, and cinnabar, he seals the statue’s senses, binds it, and draws symbols intended to suppress its malign influence.
• He places the statue in a consecrated sack and carries it away, avoiding security cameras. On the ride back toward the Forest Ranger’s Courtyard, he senses something matching his speed. He stops, sees the same kind of eerie face, and approaches it with several ritual tools ready.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng remains composed and methodical during the ritual, relying on preparation and practical adaptations when traditional incense offerings may not reach the shrine. His confidence edges into uncertainty when the pursuing presence appears, but he responds by changing tactics and preparing multiple defenses.
• Chen Ye demonstrates disciplined survival instincts: despite mounting terror and apparent hallucinations, he stops to check his condition and avoids running on hazardous terrain. His rational explanations begin to fail as the face continues to appear.
• Xu Feng and Chen Ye do not meet. Both confront a similar unseen threat, suggesting their separate encounters may be connected.

Significant themes

• Reason versus the supernatural: Chen Ye checks measurable conditions, but everything appears normal despite his growing certainty of danger.
• Preparation and discipline under threat: Both men resist reckless reactions and rely on experience, observation, and deliberate action.
• Tradition adapted through pragmatism: Xu Feng modifies ritual practice with available materials while preserving its underlying logic.
• The danger of appearances and isolation: The empty mountain, abandoned village, and humanlike face blur the boundary between ordinary hazards and supernatural menace.

Key events

• Xu Feng investigates a human face that lures him toward a concealed cliff. He recognizes the danger, avoids falling, and identifies the apparition as a likely wraith.
• Its unusually strong, prickling presence seems inconsistent with an ordinary wraith. Xu Feng finds no signs that the mountain’s energy or local conditions explain it, leaving the encounter unresolved.
• Reflecting on his progress in Corpse Stitching, Xu Feng realizes that advancing beyond [Furnace Mastery] will require both greater technical precision—through study and practice, including mortuary cosmetics and medicine—and a deeper understanding of the craft.
• Back at the Forest Ranger’s Courtyard, he completes protective rituals and makes offerings. A sudden gust carries the paper money to the northwest corner, revealing that a spirit is present there.
• Xu Feng begins Stitching Calamity on the Haunted Land God. As he removes the statue from its sack, it suddenly shatters. He quickly stitches an invisible enclosure around the pieces, containing whatever caused the break.
• He discovers unusually thick Incense-Fire Threads and sees the statue’s Five Viscera, each wrapped in colored cloth. One cloth bundle is conspicuously oversized and radiates ghostly energy so dense that it appears to have become physical.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng remains calm and observant under supernatural threat, relying on practical tests and learned knowledge rather than panic. He also shows growing ambition, planning to study further to improve his craft.
• He treats the unseen spirit in the courtyard cautiously and respectfully, offering words of peace and bowing toward its corner. His practices reflect respect for the dead and concern about preventing conflict.
• Xu Feng’s methods draw on teachings from both his master and Grandpa Li; he notices that Grandpa Li’s version of the ritual is more orderly and rhythmic.

Significant themes

• Craft as an evolving discipline: Mastery requires both refined technique and a broader philosophy, and Xu Feng knows he has not yet reached perfection.
• Respectful coexistence with the supernatural: Rituals and offerings acknowledge spirits even when no harm has been done.
• Appearances can deceive: The cliff’s darkness hides a natural trap, while the statue’s sudden collapse and anomalous contents suggest concealed forces at work.
• Uncertainty and escalation: Xu Feng can interpret much of what he encounters, but the powerful wraith-like presence and the haunted cloth signal dangers he does not yet understand.

Plot points and events

• Xu Feng confronts the scrap of cloth, whose ghostly energy erupts as soon as he removes it from the bag. It clashes with Earth Uncle’s incense offerings, producing violent winds that make the flames flare rather than go out.
• To weaken the cloth, Xu Feng replenishes the incense, formally appeals to the gods for witness, then uses a cleaver and furious cursing to channel a forceful attack. The blow tears through the ghostly energy, giving him an opening to perform Stitching Calamity.
• After nearly half an hour of stitching, Xu Feng draws the remaining ghostly energy back into the cloth and seals it. He burns the prepared paper and escorts the gods back inside.
• Examining the scrap, he finds old, crude stitching and a bloodstain. He concludes the cloth itself is not the ghost: the blood is the source of its supernatural energy. He adds “Blood” to his notes about the Earth God temples and suspects whoever is behind them may not control—or may fear—the source.
• Xu Feng names the finished item Ghost-Blinder. It can plunge a chosen object within roughly ten paces—and no larger than about two cubic meters—into total darkness, where living things can wither.
• Exhausted by the ritual, Xu Feng goes to bed, but sleeps unusually well. In a dream, Earth Uncle Ren Bo appears to ask for Ghost-Blinder. The next morning, Xu Feng confirms through incense divination that a request has been made, and offers the item to Earth Uncle.

Character development and interactions

• Xu Feng shows resourcefulness and resolve, adapting to a dangerous supernatural confrontation without relying on game abilities. His respectful, inclusive ritual reflects both caution and practical faith.
• He becomes more analytical after the fight, treating the bloodstain as a clue to the broader mystery rather than merely celebrating his success.
• Xu Feng and Earth Uncle cooperate during the battle: Earth Uncle’s offerings and flames help hold the ghost at bay, while Xu Feng creates the opening to seal it. Their relationship shifts toward a more direct exchange when Earth Uncle later requests the item through a dream.

Significant themes

• Ritual, belief, and practical action: Xu Feng combines formal offerings with improvised tactics and physical effort.
• The limits of control: The dangerous blood may come from a source its apparent maker cannot command.
• Mystery and investigation: The cloth provides a new clue connecting blood to the Earth God temples.
• Reciprocity with the divine: Xu Feng offers incense and assistance, while Earth Uncle’s request suggests an ongoing relationship of mutual obligation.

Plot points and events

• After receiving the strip of cloth from Earth Uncle, Xu Feng leaves it on the offering table rather than burn or bury it, avoiding a possible conflict over which deity should receive it. Three incense sticks produce no response.
• With his immediate duties done, Xu Feng studies introductory geomancy. He focuses on material he can cross-check, avoids practical instructions he cannot verify, and plans to build his knowledge from basic principles.
• Xu Feng investigates an online post arguing that Daoist Song Chuming was a ghost. The poster, “Holding a Bagua and Watching Cartoons,” supports the theory with old texts, county records, and photographs of the remote Fuyun Cave—also known as the supposedly haunted Man-Eating Cave.
• The poster claims the cave was used to isolate and bury people with infectious diseases, making it impossible for a living Song Chuming to have emerged from it unchanged. Xu Feng finds the evidence unsettling, though skeptics offer alternative explanations. He notices the poster’s IP address is in Shishui.
• At Shishui First Hospital, Chen Ye is cleared of his fever after an ordeal on the mountain, but remains shaken. He recalls a ghostly face, feels as though something is missing from him, and suffers disrupted sleep and a blocked nose. He decides to deal with the uncanny effects later and focus on recovering first.

Character development and interactions

• Xu Feng is cautious and methodical: he avoids risky ritual choices and unverified teachings, and approaches the online claims with initial skepticism before taking the documented evidence seriously. His trust in Song Chuming begins to weaken.
• Chen Ye appears physically improved but psychologically unsettled by what happened. His fear of Awang Village and uncertainty about whether he suffered shock or spiritual harm remain unresolved.
• Xu Feng’s connection to Earth Uncle is shown through the offering ritual, while his unease about the “old hands” suggests lingering doubts about relying on the two deities for protection.
• The online researcher’s persistence and evidence-based presentation impress Xu Feng, despite the poster’s dramatic tone.

Significant themes

• Caution and verification: Small mistakes in geomancy, medicine, or ritual practice may have serious consequences.
• Uncertainty between the ordinary and supernatural: Historical records and present-day experiences offer clues but not definitive answers.
• Trust and doubt: Xu Feng’s confidence in Song Chuming is challenged, while Chen Ye struggles to interpret his frightening experience.
• Knowledge as preparation: Xu Feng studies because the dangers around him make ignorance feel unsafe.

Key plot points

• Xu Feng spends five days cautiously collecting and performing Stitching Calamity on another Earth God statue. The resulting Ghost-Blinder appears assembled from ordinary statues and bloodied clothing, which deepens his suspicion of Song Chuming and other supernatural forces. He messages forum user Holding a Bagua and Watching Cartoons for help.
• Xu Feng recalls that Song Chuming’s sacred birthday—a celebration of his ascension—is two months away and worries it could bring a dangerous public spectacle.
• Returning to the Great King Temple area, Xu Feng sees Wang Guan watching him from behind a curtain. The boy immediately hides, suggesting he has become afraid of Xu Feng.
• On the sixth day, Xu Feng’s geomancy studies lead him to suspect that Third Grandpa Temple Village is a natural energy-gathering site deliberately obstructed by temples and cliffs that may have been designed to suppress or sever its “dragon” energy.
• His Broad Learning and Rapid Recall improves from Initial Exposure to Understanding, making him quicker and more capable at studying. However, he realizes his body cannot keep pace with his increasingly demanding mind and resolves to seek physical cultivation in the game.
• A weary hiker, Chen Ye, arrives asking to worship the god. He says he dreamed his soul had been frightened away on the mountain and brought back to this place by the Earth God. Xu Feng initially rejects his story, but divination gives Minor Fortune, and three coins land character-side up, confirming that the deity summoned Chen Ye.

Character developments

• Xu Feng has become more cautious and guarded, habitually concealing his baton and assessing strangers for vulnerabilities. He is also growing from a novice into a more capable geomancy student, though he recognizes both his physical limitations and the risks surrounding the supernatural events.
• Wang Guan appears less bold than before and now seems frightened of Xu Feng.
• Chen Ye is introduced as exhausted and unsteady, yet persistent in insisting that his dream brought him to the temple.

Character interactions

• Xu Feng reaches out to a forum user for guidance while continuing to distrust nearly everyone around him.
• His brief encounter with Wang Guan reinforces Xu Feng’s doubts about the boy’s claims concerning Grandpa Earth.
• Xu Feng dismisses Chen Ye’s explanation and shuts the door, but the divination results persuade him that the Earth God really did call the man there—raising the mystery of how the deity could retrieve a soul from far away.

Significant themes

• Growing knowledge and its limits: Xu Feng’s learning accelerates, but his body remains a constraint.
• Distrust and vigilance: The supernatural danger has made Xu Feng wary of people and institutions alike.
• Hidden structures and deliberate control: Xu Feng’s geomancy suggests that the village’s landscape and religious buildings may conceal a calculated effort to restrain powerful energy.
• Faith, fate, and supernatural agency: Chen Ye’s arrival indicates that the Earth God may exert influence beyond the narrow reach Xu Feng thought it possessed.

Plot points and events

• Chen Ye arrives at Xu Feng’s temple after being directed there in a dream. Xu Feng recognizes that Chen Ye has lost part of his soul, likely causing his dazed state and his tendency to speak without thinking.
• Chen Ye pays respects to Earth Uncle, whose unsettling portrait makes him uneasy. Xu Feng explains that the deity’s unusual appearance reflects his ancient nature.
• Xu Feng performs a soul-calling ritual, using incense and water to reconnect Chen Ye with Earth Uncle and retrieve the missing soul. Chen Ye drinks the ritual water and faints; Xu Feng expects him to recover after resting.
• While waiting, Xu Feng wonders about Earth Uncle’s growing powers and his own limits, then dismisses the speculation as beyond his local responsibilities.
• In a separate scene, Captain and Xiao Zhang finally meet Mr. Tang to report their case after repeated delays. Mr. Tang’s forceful, confident manner shapes the meeting. He asks Xiao Zhang to explain what he thinks happened, beginning with whether the incident was truly an accident.

Character developments

• Xu Feng demonstrates confidence and ritual expertise, but remains conscious of the limits of his own influence and Earth Uncle’s reach.
• Chen Ye is mentally impaired by the missing part of his soul, yet remains perceptive and open-minded. He recognizes Xu Feng’s competence and cooperates with the ritual.
• Xiao Zhang feels intimidated by Mr. Tang’s commanding manner, while still trying to fulfill his role as presenter.
• Mr. Tang is introduced as energetic, hospitable, and highly authoritative; his questioning suggests he will scrutinize the report rather than accept its initial conclusions.

Significant themes

• The supernatural within ordinary life: ancient deities and soul rituals exist alongside modern jobs, offices, and official reports.
• Power and limits: Xu Feng reflects that both his abilities and Earth Uncle’s influence have boundaries.
• Belief and discernment: Chen Ye neither accepts nor rejects the supernatural wholesale; he judges it by the evidence and the practitioner’s skill.
• Control and authority: Xu Feng’s calm command of the ritual contrasts with Mr. Tang’s forceful control of the meeting.

Character interactions

• Xu Feng guides Chen Ye through the offering and ritual, reassuring him and explaining what is happening.
• Chen Ye’s candid remark about Earth Uncle’s frightening appearance briefly unsettles the exchange, but Xu Feng responds without rebuke.
• Xu Feng treats Chen Ye’s fainting as an expected part of recovery and waits beside him.
• Mr. Tang directs the Captain and Xiao Zhang’s meeting, assigning roles and pressing Xiao Zhang to clarify whether the reported “accident” was really one.

Plot points

• Deputy General Manager Tang reviews Xiao Zhang’s report but insists on hearing his assessment directly. Under pressure, Xiao Zhang admits he suspects unseen watchers observed the Mountain folk die. He imagines them as emotionless, indistinct beings that welcomed the deaths but did not cause them.
• Tang abruptly ends the meeting and sends Xiao Zhang and the Captain away. The Captain says Tang was unusually gentle and warns that he is normally quick-tempered.
• Outside, Xiao Zhang worries that officials will leave others in danger. The Captain explains that their department can report and recommend action, but decisions belong to higher-ups.
• In a private phone call, Tang tells another official that the incidents likely stem from foul energy leaking from an unstable Earth Vein near Yunjia Mountain and the Longevity Grotto. He believes the sealed entity below is not emerging and downplays the Mountain folk’s deaths as an unfortunate consequence.
• Tang orders that no replacements be sent to the area until he has gone up the mountain to clear the energy; the two surviving Mountain folk should remain if safe. He resists pressure to act immediately, citing other crises and his own safety, but angrily rejects abandoning the region because it was costly to seal in the past.
• Tang reveals that disasters are occurring across several regions. He believes an old crisis is returning, with no retreat left: they must either prevail or die fighting.

Character developments and interactions

• Xiao Zhang begins defensive and cautious, but Tang’s forceful questioning pushes him to voice suspicions he lacks evidence to support. He leaves troubled by the higher-ups’ apparent control over whether people are protected.
• Mr. Tang is intimidating and blunt, using both coaxing and intimidation to extract an honest assessment. In private, he proves experienced and pragmatic, willing to delay action to avoid needless deaths—but fiercely opposed to surrendering the region.
• The Captain acts as a reassuring mentor to Xiao Zhang, explaining Tang’s temperament and reminding him of the limits of their authority.
• Tang’s phone conversation shows a tense working relationship with a superior: the other official defers to Tang’s expertise, while Tang rebukes their fear and insistence on haste.

Significant themes

• Limited power and institutional responsibility: Frontline workers can report danger but cannot decide how to respond.
• Truth under pressure: Tang’s interrogation draws out Xiao Zhang’s private impressions beyond the official report.
• Sacrifice versus preservation: Tang weighs the danger of acting against the cost of abandoning a hard-won seal.
• A looming, widespread crisis: The return of old dangers and simultaneous disasters suggest that the current incidents are part of a larger, escalating threat.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Ye wakes at Xu Feng’s forest ranger’s courtyard after Xu Feng restores his soul. Chen explains that he lost it near Awang Village and promises not to return there.
• A report comes in about a major road collapse in Shishui. When a second collapse swallows rescuers, Xu Feng suspects the disaster may be connected to Grandpa Earth rather than ordinary geology.
• Chen offers Xu Feng a red envelope in gratitude. Xu Feng returns it, suggesting instead that Chen drive him to Shishui. Chen eagerly agrees, hoping to know Xu better.
• Xu packs protective supplies—including Incense Ash, soil, ointment, a talisman, and the Needle—and heads toward the disaster site.
• Near the cordon, Xu orders Chen to stay in the car after spotting the Temple Priest of the Great King Temple. The priest says Grandpa Earth has awakened and is “eating people,” and implies that Xu belongs to a dangerous mountain community he mistakes for someone else.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Ye moves from disoriented survivor to grateful admirer of Xu, treating him as a teacher and readily helping him. He follows Xu’s safety instructions without hesitation.
• Xu Feng remains practical and dryly humorous, but the collapse makes him increasingly wary of the supernatural threat. He takes action despite recognizing how vulnerable he may be.
• The Temple Priest is unsettling and appears half-dead. His mistaken identification of Xu lets him reveal information about the awakened Grandpa Earth, the dangers around the mountain, and a “Blessed Land.”
• Xu and Chen establish a courteous, reciprocal relationship: Xu refuses payment but accepts a ride, while Chen welcomes the chance to repay him.

Significant themes

• Different perspectives on danger: What powerful figures consider minor can be catastrophic for ordinary people.
• Growing supernatural threat: The collapse and the priest’s account suggest the disaster is part of a larger, unnatural danger.
• Reciprocity and gratitude: Xu turns Chen’s attempted payment into a mutual favor rather than accepting money.
• Unequal vulnerability: Xu’s preparations and anxious humor show that even someone with unusual abilities may be far from safe.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Feng realizes the Temple Priest may carry the backing of Grandpa Heaven, just as he himself carries Earth Uncle’s protection. Their mutual caution prevents a confrontation, but the Priest’s claim that Grandpa Earth has awakened deepens Xu Feng’s concerns about the Great King Temple and Song Chuming.
• Xu Feng watches rescue efforts at the collapse site from a rooftop. A victim is recovered without visible injuries but is dead. Using his Precious Mirror, Xu Feng sees corrupted earth energy coiled beneath the pit, swallowing those who fall into it.
• A deep, cow-like sound rises from underground. Xu Feng recognizes it as the voice of earth energy gone wrong—an ill omen and a threat more serious than an ordinary evil spirit.
• Xu Feng tells Chen Ye that people at the site likely cannot be saved, but identifying the source of the disturbance may prevent further harm. He warns Chen Ye to keep his parents indoors and accepts a ride back.
• Xu Feng returns to his mountain temple to retrieve tools by re-entering the game. He hopes to overcome the restrictions on the Robe of a Hundred Virtues and possibly bring out his treasured blade. After Chen Ye makes offerings to Earth Uncle, Xu Feng loads a save at the Three Matron Temple—and is immediately hit by the stench of corpses.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng remains cautious and pragmatic: he avoids challenging the Temple Priest without his usual equipment, observes the disaster from a safe distance, and quickly shifts to preparing for a larger threat. He is increasingly troubled by the possibility that Grandpa Heaven and Grandpa Earth are as dangerous as the Yellow River Demon Corpse.
• The Temple Priest shows wariness toward Xu Feng and withdraws rather than risk a conflict. His remarks make Xu Feng reconsider who—and what—stands behind the Great King Temple.
• Chen Ye trusts Xu Feng, seeks his explanation of the strange sound, warns his family, and drives him back. Xu Feng gives him a deliberately fanciful explanation before revealing the real danger.
• Xu Feng offers incense to the dead and has Chen Ye make offerings to Earth Uncle, reinforcing the chapter’s links between spiritual allegiance and protection.

Significant themes

• Escalating supernatural danger: The collapse is not merely an accident; corrupted earth energy is actively consuming people, and Grandpa Earth’s awakening may signal a still greater crisis.
• Limits of preparation and power: Xu Feng recognizes that he cannot act effectively without the right tools, so he retreats to prepare rather than take reckless action.
• The unseen beneath ordinary life: The ground’s hidden, living presence turns a familiar environment into a source of danger.
• Duty amid helplessness: Xu Feng cannot save those already caught in the collapse, but he still pays respect to the dead and seeks a way to stop further harm.

Plot points and events

• Xu Feng returns to the game at Three Matron Temple and is overwhelmed by the stench of the corpses he has been sewing. He offers incense to the Longflow River God, then checks his character panels.
• His Yin Virtue Protection continues to accumulate as he puts the waterlogged dead to rest, and his standing in Luoyin County has grown: he is now a recognized expert in Spirit Suppression and Corpse Stitching. The affinity of his Master, Mr. Li, and the county’s Land Spirit has also risen.
• The game assigns Main Storyline Three, which asks Xu Feng to give Zhao San a life without regrets. Its long-term goals include destroying the Ancient Corpse and Immortal Elixir beneath Third Grandpa Temple Village; defeating an Earth-Fire Cult elder; taking over and sustaining the new Earth God Shrine; sewing the Yellow River Demon Corpse; accomplishing a Great Stitching Calamity and funeral lament; and passing on Corpse Stitching at unprecedented mastery before dying in the shrine.
• Completing the storyline will unlock Cartridge Mailing, a feature that promises to deliver a new game cartridge to Xu Feng in three days.
• Xu Feng realizes that his success on earlier tasks has made the final assignment exceptionally demanding. He resolves to help Zhao San live without regrets, while hoping the game will allow him the same.
• Xu Feng and his exhausted Master prepare to continue stitching the many corpses uncovered around the village. Grandpa Li is directing villagers to search for more burial pits. After Master falls asleep sitting up, Xu Feng lays him on dry grass. Grandpa Li scolds Master for treating him like a stranger, then has Xu Feng help carry him indoors.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng has become more capable and influential, but the new storyline makes clear how much responsibility now rests on him. He is concerned that the work may wear Master down and quietly cares for him.
• Master remains devoted to the work despite exhaustion. His brief, automatic answer about their technique changing shows how drained he is; he soon falls asleep.
• Grandpa Li continues organizing the villagers and watching over the pair. His angry scolding of Master is rooted in concern and familiarity, not hostility.
• Xu Feng shows respect to the Longflow River God, speaks deferentially with Master, and responds to Grandpa Li’s instructions, reinforcing the close, practical bonds among them.

Significant themes

• A life as transformation: The storyline frames Zhao San’s life as a progression toward responsibility, legacy, and death.
• Duty and inheritance: Xu Feng must not only master Corpse Stitching but preserve and pass it on, potentially restoring the lineage.
• Success brings greater burdens: Xu Feng’s prior achievements have raised expectations rather than easing his work.
• Care amid hardship: Exhausting labor and grim surroundings are balanced by the characters’ concern for one another.

Key plot points

• After uncovering bodies beneath the mountain, Xu Feng and Master remain at Third Grandpa Temple Village. Master is still asleep, and Mr. Li apologizes for the trouble the two have endured.
• Mr. Li takes Xu Feng for a walk up the mountain, both to exercise and to speak privately. The villagers blame the outsiders for disturbing their peace, but Xu Feng accepts their resentment as a natural response to fear and remains focused on the task.
• On the climb, Mr. Li notices that Xu Feng’s essence, energy, and spirit are unbalanced. He teaches him a breathing method, demonstrating how breath coordinates the body and advising him to practice calmly, without force.
• Mr. Li and Xu Feng discuss the buried bodies. Mr. Li plans to cast a divination that night. If bodies are found in all three planned excavations, it would mean the Earth Vein had gone bad long ago, undermining the ancestors’ efforts to suppress it.
• Mr. Li suspects someone concealed the truth from him—and that the death of his descendant may not have been as straightforward as he once believed.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng shows composure and pragmatism: he understands why the villagers resent him without taking it personally. He listens closely to Mr. Li’s instruction and accepts the breathing lesson, though Mr. Li stresses they are not formally master and disciple.
• Mr. Li reveals his concern for Xu Feng’s health and his deep attachment to the village he has watched over all his life. Despite his age, he is vigorous and capable, and he shares a valuable skill with Xu Feng out of reluctance to see his talent wasted.
• Their relationship grows warmer through the walk and lesson. Xu Feng respects Mr. Li’s boundaries, while Mr. Li trusts him with doubts about the village’s history and his descendant’s death.
• The villagers remain fearful and resentful toward Xu Feng and Master, treating the outsiders as convenient targets rather than blaming Mr. Li.

Significant themes

• Human nature under fear: People seek visible targets for anxiety, even when those targets are not truly responsible.
• Composure and duty: Xu Feng stays focused on what he came to do rather than seeking approval or indulging resentment.
• Balance and self-cultivation: The breathing lesson presents stillness, yielding, and naturalness as ways to harmonize body and spirit.
• Hidden history and uncertainty: The bodies may reveal that the village’s long-standing efforts to protect the Earth Vein were based on a mistaken understanding—and that a personal death was concealed or misrepresented.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Feng reflects on Mr. Li’s suspicion that his son’s death may be connected to the sudden appearance of so many corpses. Xu Feng believes Mr. Li should be approached honestly rather than manipulated.
• He practices imitating Mr. Li’s Breathing Method, recognizing that mastering it requires patient, whole-body training.
• Xu Feng asks his master whether Corpse Stitching can reach “Flawless Perfection.” His master explains that perfection is not simply making a corpse look alive: the work should prepare the dead for burial and help them—and their loved ones—find peace. A corpse that looks disturbingly “almost human” is the real failure.
• At night, the group resumes stitching corpses. As Xu Feng works, his perception shifts: he sees bodies less as people or forms and more as structures whose parts must be aligned so their qi can flow. He becomes markedly faster, though his stitches are less delicate.
• Xu Feng’s master worries that he has lost sight of the corpses’ humanity. Mr. Li argues that Xu Feng has not abandoned the craft’s taboos: he still bows to each corpse, treats it respectfully, and covers its face. He urges the master not to interrupt what may be Xu Feng’s own developing understanding.
• Mr. Li reveals that the divination is settled and that he plans to “break ground” twice. First, he will open his son’s grave to investigate the cause of death.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng shows patience in training and begins to develop a personal philosophy of Corpse Stitching. His intense focus brings greater speed and technical insight, but also risks emotional detachment.
• His master shares a practical, compassionate view of the craft: the dead must be fit for burial and at peace. He is troubled by Xu Feng’s apparent numbness, reflecting his belief that corpse workers must remember the dead were once people.
• Mr. Li acts as a perceptive guide. He defends Xu Feng’s transformation while acknowledging the importance of ritual, and moves from suspicion toward directly investigating his son’s death.
• The exchange between master and Mr. Li highlights their differing readings of Xu Feng’s behavior: the master sees danger of straying from the craft’s human obligations; Mr. Li sees a new understanding grounded in respectful practice.

Significant themes

• What “perfection” means: Technical realism is only one possibility; dignity, peace, and proper burial may matter more.
• Skill versus humanity: Efficiency and mastery can distance a craftsperson from the people behind the work, making ritual and compassion essential safeguards.
• Patience and gradual transformation: Both the Breathing Method and Xu Feng’s craft demand sustained effort, with progress emerging in unexpected ways.
• Tradition and personal understanding: Xu Feng’s master’s teachings provide a foundation, but Xu Feng may be developing his own interpretation of the greater Way.

Plot points and events

• Mr. Li warns Master that Earthbreaking is dangerous because it involves disturbing an Earth Vein and confronting the Ominous Fiend within it. He hires specialist Earthbreaking craftsmen and tells Master and Xu Feng to stay out of the work.
• After a night of corpse stitching, Xu Feng again enters an unusually focused state. Master learns from Mr. Li that “Flawless Perfection” lies in the Dao and the perfected body, but cannot reproduce Xu Feng’s technique himself.
• Xu Feng wakes rested but unsettled by his experience. He offers a chicken to his Baleful Blade, noting that the Three Matron Temple’s influence suppresses the blade and his Robe of a Hundred Virtues. He hopes the future Longflow River God Temple might gain similar power.
• Master explains that Earthbreaking craftsmen specialize in graves touching Earth Veins, ill-omened graves, and blighted land. Their most important skill is the first strike of the hoe, which warns or drives off the land’s unseen owner.
• Thinking about Mr. Li’s words and his own strange experience, Xu Feng considers whether he is meant to enter a tomb. He connects the tomb beneath Third Grandpa Temple Village to the Mysterious Womb Underground Palace and to his theories about the Five Elements and the face-like arrangement of local sites.
• Over several days, Xu Feng and Master retrieve and stitch more damp corpses. Mr. Li stays mostly out of sight, maintaining the illusion that he remains in the village.
• Mr. Li eventually arrives with three burly, farmer-like Earthbreaking craftsmen. Once all the corpses have been handled, villagers confine their animals and everyone is ordered to stay inside the Three Matron Temple while the craftsmen begin their work at night.
• As they wait, Master tells Xu Feng that he learned some of his trade by secretly following Mr. Li’s son. Both Mr. Li and his son had shown him kindness and helped him earn a living.
• Xu Feng wakes to a rooster’s crow and the sound of gongs. The Earthbreaking craftsmen are calling people out, but Mr. Li is nowhere to be found—until Xu Feng discovers him kneeling before the Nüwa Goddess.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng grows more curious about the tomb and the mysteries beneath the village, while remaining unsure what his corpse-stitching experience means. He also shows practical care in managing his dangerous blade through offerings.
• Master admits that Xu Feng’s stitching has surpassed his own ability to enter the same state. His recollection of Mr. Li and his son reveals gratitude and a debt of kindness.
• Mr. Li remains secretive and protective, keeping the younger men away from the dangerous Earthbreaking. His concealed movements and final appearance kneeling before the goddess deepen the mystery around him.
• Xu Feng and Master work closely through the exhausting corpse-stitching, then share a quiet conversation that brings Master’s personal history with the Li family to light.
• The Earthbreaking craftsmen are introduced as skilled, physically imposing specialists. They praise Xu Feng and Master’s work before taking over the dangerous task.

Significant themes

• The danger of disturbing hidden forces: Earthbreaking is treated as a serious act that can provoke an unseen owner or Ominous Fiend.
• Skill, mastery, and imperfection: Xu Feng’s unusual technique raises questions about what “Flawless Perfection” means and whether mastery comes through the Dao or the body.
• Mystery and foreshadowing: Xu Feng’s theories about tombs and the village’s elemental layout, together with Mr. Li’s disappearance and prayer, point toward deeper secrets still to be revealed.
• Tradition and mutual obligation: Master’s story shows how knowledge can be passed on through acts of generosity, even outside formal apprenticeship.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Feng finds Mr. Li kneeling in prayer at the Nüwa shrine. Mr. Li asks him to draw a fortune, catches the falling divination stick, then returns it to the cylinder without reading it.
• Mr. Li suddenly appears physically and spiritually depleted: his hair has turned completely white, and he can barely stand. Outside, he smashes the divination cylinder against a rock; afterward, his posture straightens and he walks without his cane.
• Mr. Li asks Xu Feng and his master to move a large urn to a wind-shielded shelter outside the Three Matron Temple. Inside, Xu Feng discovers several badly decayed corpses. Their intestines are infested with Gu, while witchcraft preserves their faces in strange smiles.
• Master recognizes one corpse as Bu Zhi and tries to approach it, intending to use Corpse Stitching to restore or tend to him. Mr. Li restrains him and knocks him unconscious to protect him.
• Mr. Li explains that the Gu and witchcraft form a trap aimed at him, especially dangerous to blood relatives and anyone emotionally vulnerable. He believes his son, “Second Baby,” took the spell’s intended blow.
• Mr. Li tells Xu Feng to put all the remains in the urn and burn them so they can rest. He confesses that he feels he failed his children and says he no longer wishes to keep guarding the place or seek merit or remembrance.

Character developments and interactions

• Mr. Li shifts from a serene, seemingly exhausted old man to someone who regains his resolve after destroying the divination cylinder. His grief and guilt become explicit as he accepts that the dead cannot be saved and asks Xu Feng to help lay them to rest.
• Xu Feng follows Mr. Li’s instructions despite his unease, witnesses the supernatural remains, and responds with concern by asking how he can help.
• Master is shaken when he recognizes Bu Zhi. His grief drives him to attempt Corpse Stitching, but Mr. Li stops him before he can expose himself to the spell.
• Mr. Li and Master clash over whether Master should approach Bu Zhi; Mr. Li ultimately protects him by rendering him unconscious. Mr. Li then explains the danger to Xu Feng and entrusts him with the task of burning the bodies.

Significant themes

• Grief, guilt, and parental responsibility: Mr. Li sees the deaths as a personal failure and carries deep sorrow over his children’s suffering.
• Limits of restoration: Master wants to use his craft to repair Bu Zhi, but Mr. Li insists that this is beyond what can be undone.
• Duty and release: After more than fifty years of guarding the place, Mr. Li chooses to abandon that duty and the merit attached to it.
• Protection and sacrifice: The trap was designed for Mr. Li, but Second Baby suffered its effects instead; Mr. Li also risks conflict to keep Master away from danger.
• Supernatural danger tied to emotion and kinship: The witchcraft exploits family bonds and emotional vulnerability, making grief itself a source of peril.