Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Xu Feng helps Grandpa Li dispose of the remains found in the shed. Under Li’s guidance, he uses Yellow Prayer Paper, an incantation, and a bamboo pole to place the Gu-infested intestines into a large vat. The chant calms the intestines, and Xu Feng acquires the Gu-Driving Insect Spell.
• To break the witchcraft on the severed heads, Xu Feng covers their faces with prayer paper and drives peachwood nails between their brows. He places the heads in the vat without touching them.
• The Earthbreaking Masters burn the shed and its contents. A wind from the temple clears the foul smoke, and Li and Xu Feng sit outside while the fire consumes the evidence.
• Li explains that his son and grandson were murdered through ancient Gu and witchcraft. The methods were designed to conceal the cause of death, evade Li’s soul-summoning, and take advantage of his failure to pass the Life-and-Death Mystery Gate.
• Li intends to investigate three likely groups: the Earth-Fire Cult, three families of tomb raiders, and local Yin-Yang practitioners and troublemakers. His declared willingness to kill anyone suspicious alarms Xu Feng, who urges him to consider motives and evidence rather than act indiscriminately.
• Li accepts Xu Feng’s reasoning but remains intent on confronting the suspects. He takes down his long-unused treasured sword and invites Xu Feng to witness what a sword immortal can do.

Character developments

• Xu Feng proves capable and composed while performing dangerous rites. He gains a new spell and, more importantly, shows judgment by challenging Li’s revenge-driven plan.
• Grandpa Li moves from grief toward fierce anger and a desire for vengeance. Though he speaks of killing on suspicion, he remains clear-minded enough to acknowledge Xu Feng’s counsel. Taking up his old sword reconnects him with ambitions he abandoned when he became a Temple Priest.

Significant themes

• Hidden evil and delayed justice: The murder was carefully disguised, and Li only discovers the truth after many years.
• Revenge versus discernment: Li is prepared to punish broadly, while Xu Feng warns that anger can lead to killing the wrong people.
• The limits of power: Li’s spiritual standing and abilities could not protect his family or reveal the crime while it was concealed.
• Old aspirations rekindled: Li’s sword and memories of his youth suggest that the coming pursuit may let him reclaim a part of himself.

Character interactions

• Li patiently instructs Xu Feng in the rites, while Xu Feng follows his guidance despite the disturbing work.
• Li confides the details of the murder and his plans for revenge; Xu Feng listens, expresses sympathy, and respectfully challenges him.
• Li responds to Xu Feng’s caution with approval rather than anger, then invites him to join the next stage of events.

Key plot points and events

• Temple Priest Li burns the contents of the great urn, ignoring the voices of the trapped wraiths. He then prepares to travel with Xu Feng using a method called Incense-Burning Horse Ride, which follows the earth veins. Xu Feng must keep his eyes covered while they cross the Dragon Vein.
• Before leaving, Li explains that studying the preserved corpses of Corpse-Liberation Immortals in their Underground Palaces could help Xu Feng advance his Corpse Stitching craft. Xu Feng realizes those remains may hold answers for several branches of his technique.
• A supernatural wedding procession carries them to Dayuan Town. There, Li spends much of his accumulated inner cultivation to seal the town’s entrances, exits, and Yin-Yang passages with incense-smoke talismans.
• Li and Xu Feng enter the town to eliminate people involved in harmful witchcraft and Gu. Li kills them as he works from the outskirts inward, including the Beggar Chief, but spares the coffin-shop owner and needle maker. The town’s other practitioners watch in fear, unsure whether they might be targets.

Character developments

• Xu Feng remains wary of Li’s growing violence, but also learns from him. Li’s advice gives him a new direction for investigating how to perfect his craft.
• Temple Priest Li acts with ruthless purpose, justifying his killings as punishment for those who harm others. He is also visibly burdened by shame before the gods, covering his face and letting his hair hang loose.
• Master awakens and is comforted by Li. He is left in charge of the Three Matron Temple while Li is away.
• Zhang Kun, the needle maker, panics when he sees Xu Feng with Li, mistakenly believing Xu Feng brought the priest to kill him.

Significant themes

• Knowledge gained through observation: Xu Feng sees Li’s technique and wonders whether similar methods inspired Stitching Calamity.
• Moral certainty and vengeance: Li treats his mission as a justified purge, though his indiscriminate, silent violence leaves others terrified.
• The supernatural embedded in ordinary life: A market town, merchant warehouses, and familiar shops become a setting for earth-vein magic, ghosts, and hidden practitioners.
• Fear and misunderstanding: Bystanders cannot know Li’s motives, and Zhang Kun mistakes coincidence for a personal vendetta.

Character interactions

• Li comforts Master, then entrusts him with the temple in his absence.
• Xu Feng questions Li about his travel method and the Underground Palaces, gaining both practical knowledge and a possible path forward in his craft.
• In Dayuan Town, Li ignores the people who try to approach him; his actions speak for him, leaving the town’s practitioners too frightened to challenge him.

Key plot points and events

• As they circle Dayuan Town, Xu Feng realizes its layout is a feng shui formation that gathers wealth and qi while also accumulating dangerous baleful energy. Stone lions, buried chains, and red cloth are meant to contain that force and the vengeful dead.
• The town’s qi circulation sparks a new insight for Xu Feng: Corpse Stitching releases trapped qi, while sealing qi could turn living things into corpses. He also wonders whether he can control the miasma stored in his Robe of a Hundred Virtues rather than release it indiscriminately.
• Mr. Li asks whether Xu Feng was frightened when he killed the Earth-Fire Cult members. Xu Feng says no; he believes Mr. Li has only cut away the cult’s outer defenses. Mr. Li explains that he intends to break their spells and challenge their shamanic methods with his own inner alchemy.
• Mr. Li thrusts his sword into the feng shui formation, releasing its half-human, half-corpse inhabitants, and kills them all. He then advances through waves of corpses, venomous insects, and other attacks, overwhelming them with his immense kidney essence and qi.
• Two young Daoists secretly observe the battle from a warehouse. They recognize Mr. Li as an extraordinarily advanced cultivator whose qi can overpower even the Earth Vein’s attacks.
• At the cult’s courtyard, Mr. Li finds that most enemies have fled. In the rear yard, he kills those whose leaking elixir qi depends on the Earth Vein for suppression, but leaves a few alive. He sends Xu Feng outside before dealing further with the site.

Character developments

• Xu Feng gains a deeper understanding of qi, feng shui, and the principles behind his own techniques. He begins considering how controlled, restricted qi might be used offensively.
• Mr. Li displays total confidence and formidable power. His drive to confront the Earth-Fire Cult is personal: they have taken his son’s and grandson’s blood and bones.
• The two young Daoists move from nervous curiosity to awe and dread as they realize they are witnessing a near-Immortal fighting the cult.

Significant themes

• The movement of qi: Circulation sustains life and prosperity; trapped or blocked qi brings death.
• Power and mastery: Mr. Li’s precise, overwhelming force contrasts with the cult’s reliance on spells, insects, corpses, and talismans.
• Knowledge through experience: Xu Feng’s understanding develops as he connects what he has read with what he witnesses.
• Revenge and consequence: The cult’s actions have brought it into conflict with an opponent who has both personal reasons and the strength to retaliate.

Character interactions

• Mr. Li teaches Xu Feng by explaining the formation and describing how he intends to counter the cult, while Xu Feng listens and draws his own conclusions.
• Xu Feng trusts Mr. Li enough to follow his order to leave the rear courtyard without questioning him.
• The two Daoists whisper to one another from hiding, trying to assess the strangers’ identities and reassure themselves that they are safe.
• The chapter ends with Xu Feng recognizing the terrible scale of the cult’s mistake in provoking Mr. Li.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• After the battle, Xu Feng surveys the devastated alley and gathers the bodies to reduce the risk of disease. The violent qi is fading, but the deathly atmosphere still requires a rite to dispel it.
• Xu Feng examines a corpse transformed through the third stage of Cicada-Shedding and Snake-Sloughing. Its earth-qi scales make it far harder to cut than an ordinary body, and he worries that later-stage corpses could be even more formidable.
• Drawing on his research, Xu Feng considers whether the process represents a physical rebirth toward immortality. He wonders if the Earth-Fire Cult is producing Corpse-Liberation Immortals, and estimates that reaching the fourth stage may take at least a century.
• A scream and the clash of weapons erupt inside the house where Mr. Li is confronting an unseen opponent. Mr. Li chants a Daoist invocation, while his powerful breathing produces thunder-like sounds and a wind strong enough to roll severed heads toward the courtyard.
• Xu Feng stays outside rather than interfere, reasoning that entering would only hinder Mr. Li.
• Two Daoists in a distant warehouse hear the battle. The junior brother admires Mr. Li’s thunderous Ancestral Qi; the senior brother fears that Mr. Li’s opponent must be exceptionally powerful, but is also drawn to witnessing the fight.
• Elsewhere, the Earth-Fire Cult mourns the loss of its Earth-Suppressing Elixir Furnace and many followers, and fears that its Earth Immortal has been harmed. One person remains composed, studying ancient bamboo manuscripts associated with Ancient Shu and the era of the Earth Immortal.

Character developments

• Xu Feng is cautious and analytical: he studies the transformed corpse, connects it to his research, and keeps clear of Mr. Li’s fight rather than risk becoming a burden.
• Mr. Li reveals formidable cultivation. His chanting and internal refinement create thunder and powerful winds, suggesting he is fighting an opponent dangerous enough to force him to use serious techniques.
• The senior Daoist feels both terror and longing. He recognizes the immense gap between his own cultivation and Mr. Li’s, yet is tempted to approach and witness the battle.
• The junior Daoist remains comparatively naïve, impressed by the spectacle but lacking his senior brother’s understanding of how rare and difficult such power is.
• The Earth-Fire Cult figure with the bamboo manuscripts stands apart from the group’s distress, hinting at deeper knowledge or a larger plan.

Significant themes

• The pursuit and cost of immortality: Cicada-Shedding and Snake-Sloughing may be a path of bodily transformation, but its grotesque stages blur the line between cultivation, death, and rebirth.
• Power and its limits: Mr. Li’s display impresses observers, while the senior Daoist’s reflections emphasize how few practitioners ever reach the highest stages.
• Restraint and responsibility: Xu Feng chooses not to interfere, and the senior Daoist suppresses his urge to witness the battle because he has a companion to protect.
• Ancient mysteries: The references to Ancient Shu, witchcraft, and old manuscripts suggest the cult’s practices draw on knowledge far older and stranger than ordinary cultivation.

Character interactions

• Xu Feng keeps his distance from Mr. Li’s private confrontation, offering no help until it is safe to do so.
• The two Daoists interpret the sounds of the battle differently: the junior admires Mr. Li’s technique, while the senior worries about the opponent’s strength and restrains his urge to investigate.
• The Earth-Fire Cult’s members share concern over their losses, but the manuscript-holder’s composure sets him apart.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• After escaping the storm-lashed alley, Xu Feng hears the fight in the courtyard fall silent. Mr. Li calls him back and reveals that he has defeated the enemy, though he is badly wounded.
• The opponent is a Corpse Immortal, which Mr. Li dismisses as a Corpse Demon. It is a hollow, headless corpse worshipped by the Earth-Fire Cult; its body leaks a strange white liquid that reminds Xu Feng of Blood Marrow.
• Mr. Li explains that the corpse belonged to an ancient Fangshi who sought to become an immortal after death. The Earth-Fire Cult later unearthed him and used material from his body in alchemy and in its harmful Witchcraft and Gu practices.
• Xu Feng wonders whether the cult’s techniques are connected to the doctrine of “Cicada-Shedding and Snake-Sloughing.” Mr. Li thinks the corpse may have been used to refine pills related to that doctrine, but the ancient Fangshi likely predates the teaching.
• Mr. Li asks Xu Feng to place the corpse in a nearby alchemy furnace and burn it, declaring that it has no place among the living.
• As Xu Feng struggles with the task, Mr. Li explains that the Earth-Fire Cult has three loosely connected branches:
  1. The Cult Leader and those buried beneath Third Grandpa Temple, who seek eternal life through Corpse Liberation.
  2. Proselytizing elders, who worship the Corpse Immortal and practice evil arts and Gu.
  3. A criminal underworld faction led by the unseen Old Rat, which uses Witchcraft and Gu for schemes, scams, and illicit work.

Character developments

• Xu Feng remains alert and cautious, preparing to defend himself even after the storm ends. He is disturbed by the corpse but listens closely, gradually gaining a clearer understanding of the cult.
• Mr. Li is revealed to be seriously injured after the battle, with deep wounds and a ruined sword, though he insists he feels invigorated. His reflection on the recurring significance of the number three—and his fear that Xu Feng may be the last person he sees—suggests he senses his life may be nearing its end.
• Mr. Li also shows a protective side: he had kept Xu Feng away while extracting information from surviving cult members, apparently to spare him from witnessing the process.

Significant themes

• The corruption of the quest for immortality: The cult treats death as a temporary stage and pursues eternal life through corpses, alchemy, and forbidden practices.
• Death and bodily transformation: The Corpse Immortal embodies the horror of attempts to transcend death, while the discussion of Corpse Liberation and “shedding” raises questions about what survival or rebirth really means.
• Hidden structures of evil: The Earth-Fire Cult is not a unified organization but a network linking religious zeal, occult experimentation, and ordinary criminality.
• Mortality and foreboding: Mr. Li’s words about his life’s recurring “threes” and his possible final meeting with Xu Feng cast a shadow over their relationship.

Character interactions

• Xu Feng checks on Mr. Li, who downplays his injuries and directs him to dispose of the corpse.
• Mr. Li answers Xu Feng’s questions about the Corpse Immortal and the cult, while Xu Feng connects the discoveries to earlier teachings about Cicada-Shedding and Snake-Sloughing.
• Their conversation is both instructional and personal: Mr. Li reveals the cult’s history and structure, but also hints at his own approaching end.
• The chapter closes with Xu Feng having managed to load the corpse into the furnace but facing a new practical problem: he has no idea how to operate it.

Plot points and events

• With Mr. Li’s help, Xu Feng burns the Earth-Fire Cult’s Corpse Immortal in an ancient alchemy furnace, then smashes the furnace after the creature’s screams stop.
• Xu Feng is surprised that one blow destroys the furnace. Favorability-system notifications reveal that several deities from Dayuan Town’s Martial Temple—including Lord Guan and Lord Yue—have noticed his actions and grown more favorable toward him. Xu Feng suspects divine power aided him because he acted in accordance with the natural order.
• Mr. Li explains that the temple honors the two lords and says they will not interfere. He plans to hunt down the tomb robbers, while leaving the cult’s Elder of Transmission alive for now so the man can make his final attempt to curse him.
• Mr. Li and Xu Feng travel to another town. Mr. Li swiftly kills the tomb-robber leaders and their associates, completing most of his revenge campaign, though Xu Feng recognizes that others will eventually take their place.
• At breakfast in Luoyin County, Xu Feng notices that Mr. Li’s health has worsened: his hair is thinning, his eyes are cloudy, and his wounds keep reopening. Mr. Li has nevertheless found the Elder of Transmission, who is waiting at the Three Matron Temple and intends to use its Earth Qi against him. They set out to confront him.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng becomes more aware of the supernatural forces surrounding him, especially the deities who watch but generally do not intervene unless people take action themselves. He also quietly pockets useful items from the dead, with Mr. Li’s tacit permission.
• Mr. Li remains calm and decisive, explaining little but guiding Xu Feng through the furnace’s destruction. His worsening condition hints at the cost or limits of his power, even as he continues his relentless hunt.
• Xu Feng worries about Mr. Li’s health and wonders whether he himself could one day be killed just as easily. Their practical, familiar exchanges—including Mr. Li eating Xu Feng’s breakfast—show their close, grandfatherly rapport.
• Mr. Li tells Xu Feng that killing the Elder of Transmission will give him “a few decades of peace”: Xu Feng’s accumulated Yin Virtue makes him valuable, and enemies will eventually seek to exploit it.

Significant themes

• Divine attention without intervention: The gods observe events but largely leave people to act, rewarding initiative rather than preventing every evil.
• Natural order and moral action: Mr. Li suggests that aligning with the laws of heaven and earth can grant strength.
• Temporary justice: Destroying the cult and killing the robbers addresses immediate threats but cannot prevent new criminals from emerging.
• The cost of power and protection: Mr. Li’s deteriorating body contrasts with his formidable abilities, while Xu Feng’s growing spiritual value promises future danger even after this conflict ends.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Feng understands that Mr. Li’s concerns reach beyond the Mysterious Womb Underground Palace. Mr. Li urges him to recognize the value of accumulating Yin Virtue and connecting with the deities, even if Xu Feng sees himself as only a corpse stitcher.
• Their conversation is interrupted when people discover the headless bodies left by Mr. Li. Panic spreads through Luoyin County, while Xu Feng wonders whether stitching and burying the dead will earn him Yin Virtue.
• Mr. Li’s real target is not merely the Earth-Fire Cult’s members but the cult’s entire pursuit of immortality.
• The surviving cultists, led by the Elder of Transmission, begin excavating an underground palace beneath a site opposite Third Grandpa Temple Village. They plan to use local spirits, an ominous earth vein, and a ritual involving the blood and birth details of Mr. Li’s descendant to curse Mr. Li.
• The excavation is dangerous: cult members vanish, while the Elder remains underground to conduct the ritual. Mr. Li and Xu Feng observe from nearby, aware that a strange, harmful “Qi-Born Canopy” over the site is consuming people.
• Mr. Li reveals that he has been tracking the Elder and killing those who aided him. Rather than simply kill the Elder, he intends to enter the underground palace, take its Immortal Elixir, and make the Elder consume it—denying him the immortality he seeks.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng remains modest and practical. He wants to protect the Earth God Shrine, honor his master’s work, and ensure the dead are properly cared for; he doubts he can take on grand responsibilities. Mr. Li gently challenges this limited view by emphasizing the long-term worth of Xu Feng’s good deeds.
• Mr. Li is revealed as patient, formidable, and driven by revenge for Bu Zhi. His calmness contrasts with the brutality and precision of his plan.
• The Elder of Transmission is confident in his knowledge of geomancy and occult ritual, but his carefully prepared safeguards cannot prevent his followers from disappearing.
• Xu Feng and Mr. Li share a quiet, watchful partnership as they monitor the excavation and discuss the danger.

Significant themes

• Good deeds and moral consequence: Ordinary work, such as caring for the dead, can accumulate Yin Virtue and matter beyond the present.
• Ambition and the limits of knowledge: The cult’s elaborate theories and rituals do not guarantee control over supernatural forces.
• Revenge and poetic justice: Mr. Li seeks not just to defeat his enemy, but to make him experience the frustration and loss he inflicted on others.
• Death and immortality: The cult’s pursuit of eternal life is set against Mr. Li’s determination to make its members’ ambition fail.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Feng, Mr. Li, the Earth-Fire Cultists, and their Elder of Transmission endure days at the excavation site, tormented by enormous mosquitoes and surrounded by supernatural hazards.
• Xu Feng witnesses two unsettling phenomena: a growing Canopy that makes people vanish without a trace, and a headless black dog whose corpse fur forms eyes and whose presence drives cultists to imitate beheading themselves.
• On the ninth day, the cultists take a gravel-filled rooster underground, apparently as part of a ritual intended to sever Mr. Li’s head through sympathetic magic.
• Mr. Li tells Xu Feng to follow later, then attacks the cultists with his sword, effortlessly cutting through them and even splitting the Canopy.
• Three Earthbreaking masters arrive with specialized tools and insist Xu Feng wait while they calculate the right time to break ground—midnight, despite Xu Feng’s expectation that the work would be done at dawn or noon.
• Mr. Li uses a small bell to gather and refine the souls of the fallen cultists. He then enters the passage and confronts the Elder of Transmission.
• After prolonged, horrifying screams, Mr. Li emerges with the elder’s intact corpse, still ringing the bell. Xu Feng suspects that Mr. Li extracted the elder’s soul and is refining it.

Character developments

• Xu Feng grows more wary and psychologically strained after days amid the wilderness’s inexplicable dangers. He recognizes that Mr. Li operates on a vastly higher level of supernatural power.
• Mr. Li reveals both his overwhelming combat skill and a frighteningly ruthless side: he not only kills his enemies but appears to destroy or torment their souls.
• The three Earthbreaking masters show confidence in their specialized craft but are visibly shaken by Mr. Li’s treatment of the dead and the elder.
• The Earth-Fire Cultists are shown as vulnerable despite their rituals and tools; the mosquitoes and Mr. Li’s abilities overwhelm them.

Significant themes

• The wilderness as a realm of incomprehensible horrors: The Canopy, headless dog, and supernatural rituals make the landscape itself feel threatening.
• Unequal levels of power and knowledge: Xu Feng’s abilities are modest beside Mr. Li’s, while the Earthbreaking masters possess expertise Xu Feng does not understand.
• The cost of supernatural power: Mr. Li’s bell suggests that death may not end suffering, raising the stakes beyond ordinary combat.
• Fear and endurance: The characters survive through patience, specialized knowledge, or overwhelming strength, but none can remain untouched by the ordeal.

Character interactions

• Mr. Li instructs Xu Feng to wait before following him, while the Earthbreaking masters hold Xu Feng back so their “real boss” can proceed safely.
• Xu Feng observes and questions the masters, contrasting his limited understanding with their technical expertise.
• The group witnesses Mr. Li’s bell work in stunned silence; their reactions reveal how disturbing and unprecedented his methods are.
• Mr. Li’s confrontation with the Elder of Transmission is heard rather than seen, with the bell and screams communicating the encounter’s brutality.

Plot points and events

• After the Elder of Transmission’s death, Xu Feng and Mr. Li prepare for three Earthbreaking Masters to excavate the Funerary Coffin at midnight. Xu Feng obtains a ritual branch from the Three Matron Temple’s Treasure Tree.
• While examining the Elder’s corpse, Xu Feng discovers signs of Cicada-Shedding and Snake-Sloughing: the Elder had survived the transformations and become partly inhuman. The body’s unnatural, lifelike appearance helps Xu Feng understand that a successful corpse-stitching must look unmistakably dead.
• The Earthbreaking Masters perform their preparations, including smearing soil on their heads, then begin digging while Mr. Li and Xu Feng turn away.
• Mr. Li tells Xu Feng that the real danger lies beneath the Three Matron Temple. In a few days, he intends to destroy the evil spirits in the village’s three entrance trees, break the Earth Fiend, and enter the tomb again—even though divination predicts a major calamity.
• Mr. Li reveals that the gods have already punished him for his actions. He believes he must still enter the Underground Palace to make matters right, and asks Xu Feng to carry his body out if he dies there.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng remains practical and helpful, arranging the ritual branch and assisting with preparations. His examination of the Elder’s corpse also advances his understanding of corpse stitching.
• Xu Feng becomes angry when he learns the gods punished Mr. Li while earthly criminals remain at large. Mr. Li explains that divine justice follows different rules: Mr. Li, as a Temple Priest, is bound by heavenly commandments, while living criminals are subject to human law and will face judgment after death. Xu Feng accepts the explanation and apologizes for his disrespect.
• Mr. Li appears calm and resolute despite his injuries and the danger ahead. He sees entering the tomb as a matter of conscience, not merely duty, and entrusts Xu Feng with the possibility of recovering his body.
• The Earthbreaking Masters follow their customs, work discreetly, and avoid interrupting Xu Feng’s examination or Mr. Li’s private conversation.

Significant themes

• Justice and accountability: Different people answer to different systems of law, but no one can ultimately escape judgment.
• Duty and conscience: Mr. Li believes he must confront the danger himself, even at the cost of his life.
• Death and appearances: Xu Feng learns that a corpse must look dead for a stitching ritual to succeed; technical perfection alone is not enough.
• Tradition and ritual: The excavation’s rules and preparations reflect the respect paid to the earth, spiritual forces, and the boundary between the living and the dead.

Plot points and events

• Xu Feng agrees to take part in the Immortal Elixir trial, expecting only this and the final trial beneath the Third Grandpa Temple to remain.
• A bark alerts the group to a crisis. The Earthbreaking masters have breached the Underground Palace’s mural, releasing a supernatural darkness that distorts distance, sound, and perception.
• Following Mr. Li’s warning, Xu Feng stays near a tree and prepares to defend himself. A creature imitates Mr. Li’s voice and appearance, then attacks: it is a Fangshi-made tomb Puppet inhabiting a dead Black Hound.
• Xu Feng strikes the Puppet with his blade. Invisible hands push him aside just before a heavy stone crushes the creature’s head; he scatters Ritual Rice over its corpse.
• The tree Xu Feng had leaned against develops a face resembling his own and calls his name, attempting to seize his soul. Recognizing it as a predatory Mountain Spirit, Xu Feng uses his strength and blade to break into its trunk.
• Mr. Li’s bell dispels the darkness and halts the tree. He explains that the Earthbreaking masters broke the mural, releasing the darkness, and identifies the dog-creature as a tomb Puppet. The masters have also killed the other attacking Black Hounds.

Character developments

• Xu Feng remains decisive and self-reliant under pressure. He uses observation and knowledge of folklore to identify the threats, while relying on his blade, strength, Ritual Rice, and protective abilities.
• Mr. Li shifts from calmly overseeing the trial to urgently directing the group, then returns with his bell to end the danger. His explanation clarifies that the crisis came from the breach, not from the Earth-Fire Cult’s dead members rising.
• The Earthbreaking masters are revealed to have caused the incident by opening the mural, though they defend themselves against the attacking Hounds.

Character interactions

• Mr. Li warns the group to stay together and guard their backs, but Xu Feng must act independently when separated from him.
• The Puppet exploits Xu Feng’s familiarity with Mr. Li by copying his face and fragments of his speech.
• The Mountain Spirit targets Xu Feng directly, repeatedly calling his name to weaken his hold on his soul; Xu Feng counters by attacking its trunk.
• After the darkness lifts, Xu Feng turns to Mr. Li for an explanation, and Mr. Li identifies the supernatural threats and their origins.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as survival: Xu Feng’s understanding of spirits, souls, and ritual objects helps him interpret the attacks quickly.
• Deception and unstable perception: The darkness warps sound and distance, while the Puppet uses a trusted face and voice as a lure.
• Self-reliance amid danger: Xu Feng cannot depend on Mr. Li’s immediate help and must make his own decisions.
• The consequences of disturbing the past: Opening an ancient tomb releases forces shaped by its long burial, including the Puppet and the yin-fed Mountain Spirit.

Key plot points and events

• Mr. Li takes Xu Feng into the relocated Underground Palace, where three Earthbreaking masters have dug a side chamber. Its Mural depicts the tomb owner’s burial and journey toward the Netherworld.
• Mr. Li explains that the palace itself is easy to enter; the real danger was a Fangshi trap. A Puppet—made from a subdued Yin Ghost and Baleful Qi sewn into a corpse—emerged when the site was opened, but Mr. Li dealt with it.
• The Mural shows the burial ritual, the tomb owner passing the Three Officials, and many strange divine figures. Mr. Li urges Xu Feng to study their forms and spiritual qualities as a foundation for advancing his Corpse Stitching.
• Xu Feng memorizes the images but cannot yet understand their deeper meaning or improve his skill.
• Afterward, the Earthbreaking masters perform a rite to send off the ghosts. Mr. Li makes offerings of incense, talismans, and money, then asks them to help change an Earth Vein. They refuse, saying the work requires a rare master.
• The next morning, the Earth-Fire Cult’s Elder of Transmission has been placed in a coffin with the bell above his head. Mr. Li and the Earthbreakers carry him down the Mountain. Xu Feng’s master later joins them.
• Xu Feng learns that the Mountain’s Spirit-Infested Trees can be made into high-quality Corpse Stitching thread. Mr. Li then shows him another coffin containing a fragrant black liquid, insisting it is valuable and encouraging Xu Feng to touch it.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng remains eager to learn but recognizes the limits of memorizing without understanding. He also grows suspicious that Mr. Li is withholding information about the Elixir of Immortality and the Elder’s body and soul.
• Mr. Li acts as guide and teacher, explaining the Mural and pressing Xu Feng to memorize the divine figures. He is also respectful toward the Earthbreaking masters’ rites, negotiates for their help, and keeps some matters secret from Xu Feng.
• Xu Feng’s master confirms the trees are suitable for making thread and reminds Xu Feng that Corpse Stitching materials extend beyond hemp.
• The Earthbreaking masters prove skilled at excavation and ritual work but draw a firm boundary around the more difficult task of altering an Earth Vein.

Significant themes

• Learning versus understanding: Xu Feng can retain what he sees, yet cannot grasp its deeper principles; real mastery requires more than memorization.
• Tradition and spiritual practice: Murals, burial rites, offerings, and ghost-sending rituals reflect a world in which craft and supernatural belief are intertwined.
• Knowledge kept hidden: Mr. Li teaches Xu Feng but also appears to exclude him from important plans, creating uncertainty about his motives.

Plot and events

• In the Underground Palace, Mr. Li offers Xu Feng the liquid from a Corpse-Liberation Coffin. Xu Feng suspects it contains the remains of Corpse-Liberation Immortals, but cautiously touches it and receives a game prompt identifying it as a single-use, equippable item: Corpse-Liberation Chang Decoction, a middle-grade item.
• Its properties are Suppression, Preservation, Communion with Spirits, and Dispersal of Yin Energy. The blackened liquid has absorbed the dissolved remains of multiple Corpse-Liberation Immortals, making it especially effective at restraining Yin beings and protecting a corpse. Xu Feng realizes it is an exceptionally powerful medicinal bath, though its recipe cannot realistically be recreated.
• Meanwhile, Luoyin County’s Forensic Coroner visits Third Master Wang, desperate for help. The bodies of men killed by Mr. Li—now identified as Ferocious Corpses—are beginning to reanimate. With Xu Feng, his Master, and other experienced local figures absent or gone, the Coroner cannot manage them.
• Wang advises him to keep the corpses contained for several days, arrange a Spirit Suppressor, and watch for the return of the Corpse Stitching craftsmen. Political concerns make immediate action risky: the magistrate’s mother has an upcoming birthday, and officials are wary of reports of corpse reanimation. The Coroner pays Wang, takes his advice, and leaves.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng is cautious but curious: despite his revulsion at the liquid’s likely origin, he studies its properties and recognizes both its extraordinary value and its disturbing source.
• The Forensic Coroner is frightened and overwhelmed, pleading with Wang and offering him silver. His predicament reflects how dependent the county has become on a small number of specialists.
• Third Master Wang appears calm and pragmatic, weighing the Coroner’s bribe before giving advice. He prioritizes keeping trouble out of sight until the politically sensitive days have passed, and privately wonders whether the county must now rely on Zhao San.
• Their exchange mixes genuine danger with comic deference: the Coroner calls Wang a grandfather and a bodhisattva, while Wang treats the crisis as something to postpone and manage.

Significant themes

• The cost of power: The decoction’s strength comes from the dissolved bodies of Corpse-Liberation Immortals, making its usefulness inseparable from its grim origin.
• Expertise and dependence: With key practitioners absent, ordinary officials are left helpless against supernatural threats, and the county’s safety hinges on a few specialists.
• Politics versus public safety: Wang delays dealing with the corpses partly to avoid upsetting the magistrate and contradicting official claims of harmony.
• Yin and Yang: Xu Feng recognizes the decoction as a rare force in a Yin-filled place that can restrain ghosts and other Yin entities.

Chapter summary

• Return through a troubled world: Xu Feng and his master travel home with a coffin, joining a large caravan for safety. Reports along the road describe escalating unrest, with executions becoming common and the innocent dying alongside the guilty. Xu Feng reflects that every place has its own character, hearing strength and vitality in the travelers’ singing.
• Xu Feng and Mr. Li part on uneasy but generous terms: Xu Feng recalls their candid conversation. Mr. Li admits he distrusted Xu Feng and therefore handled the Elixir of Immortality alone, partly to protect him and partly because he did not want to rely on human nature. He warns that practices such as the Fangshi arts may seem easy to dismiss when young but could tempt someone later; mastering one’s own heart is rare. Xu Feng understands Mr. Li’s reasoning, though the distrust still hurts. Mr. Li eases the tension by giving Xu Feng the spirit trees that will wither when he repairs the altered feng shui and Earth Vein. Xu Feng may keep or sell whatever he recovers from them. They agree that Xu Feng will return in about four months to help with the dangerous work.
• A warmer master-apprentice relationship: On the road, Xu Feng teases his master about singing and asks about techniques for making thread from bark or tree cores. His master explains that Xu Feng has learned what he needs to survive; finer, nearly invisible stitching belongs more to physicians and is usually reserved for wealthy clients. Their joking about the county magistrate and Xu Feng someday inheriting the master’s book shows growing trust and affection. Xu Feng is content with their modest life and grateful for his master.
• Homecoming: After crossing into Luoyin County, Xu Feng feels the local Earth God’s protection and delights in being home. He and his master deliver the coffin to the Earth God Shrine, carefully preserving its contents. Xu Feng spots a man watching them flee and, with his master’s silent approval, pursues him on horseback.
• A new summons: The man stops and addresses Xu Feng first as “Lord Zhao,” then corrects himself to “Third Master.” He is Old-Leg Wu, an errand runner paid by the county coroner to alert him when Xu Feng returned. The coroner urgently needs Xu Feng’s help because trouble has broken out at his home.

Character developments and interactions

Xu Feng is more confident and established than before: he can pursue a stranger decisively, and others now treat him as someone with authority. He remains thoughtful, reflecting on mistrust, morality, and the value of home. His master is protective but increasingly relaxed with him, allowing teasing and offering greater access to his knowledge. Mr. Li’s honesty and practical generosity preserve their relationship despite the hurt caused by his caution.

Significant themes

• Trust and human nature: Good intentions do not eliminate suspicion; Mr. Li chooses caution while acknowledging its emotional cost.
• Mastery of the self: Wisdom lies in governing one’s own heart, a task few can truly accomplish.
• Mentorship and inheritance: Xu Feng’s growing access to his master’s craft reflects deepening trust and the passing on of knowledge.
• Home and belonging: Luoyin feels precious to Xu Feng because it is familiar and recognizes his place in it.
• Unrest and duty: Widespread violence forms the backdrop to the journey, while the coroner’s summons hints that Xu Feng’s return will quickly draw him into local trouble.

Plot points and events

• Xu Feng and his Master return to the temple construction site. Old-Leg Wu tells Xu Feng that the road has become safer because the steady flow of workers has driven off wolves and wild dogs.
• Xu Feng’s Master gives pastries to the carpenter overseeing the work. The carpenter treats the temple’s Incense Ash with great reverence and explains how it will be placed in the foundation alongside the deity’s birth-date document and written petitions.
• The carpenter selects an auspicious date ten days away and sets the groundbreaking for the Second Quarter of the Si Hour. Xu Feng is chosen to turn the first shovel of earth, establishing him as the temple’s priest and principal authority.
• Xu Feng reports that Mr. Li’s killings have left many bodies at the Funeral Shop, some close to Corpse Reanimation. His Master advises Xu Feng to stitch them and send off their lingering energy, but not to alter or dispose of them. He should have the complainant and a witness present, avoid making decisions about the bodies, and leave responsibility to the authorities.
• The county Forensic Coroner arrives in a panic and begs Xu Feng and his Master for help.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng shifts from his earlier irritation with Old-Leg Wu to a more considerate manner, and he takes on greater responsibility for the temple and his work as a Corpse Sewer.
• His Master formally entrusts Xu Feng with the temple’s leadership and passes on practical lessons about avoiding legal and political blame.
• The carpenter is shown as both skilled in auspicious-date calculations and deeply respectful of religious procedure. He and Xu Feng’s Master cooperate closely in planning the foundation ritual.
• Xu Feng considers asking Old Ma to serve as a witness. His Master agrees Old Ma would be appropriate, though difficult to persuade.
• The Forensic Coroner’s desperate arrival signals that the corpse problem has become urgent.

Significant themes

• Responsibility and succession: Xu Feng is increasingly expected to act independently, both as temple priest and professional corpse-handler.
• Practical caution amid uncertainty: His Master emphasizes doing only the assigned work and avoiding decisions that could expose Xu Feng to blame.
• Custom, belief, and craft: The temple’s construction is governed by ritual observance as well as skilled tradesmanship.
• The danger of entanglement with authority: The corpses are both a supernatural threat and legal evidence, leaving the Forensic Coroner trapped between preventing reanimation and preserving the case.

Plot points and events

• Coroner Zhou urgently asks Xu Feng and his master to deal with several bodies that will not “move on” and appear to be turning into zombies. Xu Feng agrees as a good deed and rides with Zhou to his funeral shop.
• Luoyin County feels more desolate than before, following Mr. Li’s violent sweep through its criminal and underground trades. Xu Feng also senses an unusual stagnation in the town’s atmosphere, though the map shows no changes.
• At Zhou’s shop, Xu Feng examines the funeral arrangements and finds a local folk deity, the Peaceful Joyful Duke of Good Fortune, rather than the usual Zhong Kui. He offers incense, but receives no sign of the deity’s favor. A separate blood offering appears to have been eaten by something more sinister.
• Once witness Old Ma arrives, Xu Feng inspects the bodies in the courtyard. Though they have been exposed to sunlight, their ominous readings persist. He discovers that their energy has hardened below the abdomen and become trapped. He plans to sew them up and have Zhou seal their seven orifices to prevent the energy from stagnating again.

Character developments

• Xu Feng is compassionate and confident, treating Zhou’s request as an opportunity to help. He remains observant, investigating the shop’s rituals and diagnosing the bodies carefully rather than acting rashly.
• Coroner Zhou is frightened and desperate, yet willing to sacrifice his prized donkey if it means getting help. His anxiety eases somewhat once Xu Feng arrives, though he remains visibly tense.
• Xu Feng’s master encourages him to help and deliberately lets him handle the people and situation himself, seeing it as a chance for him to develop his own approach.
• Old Ma presents himself as a trusted, good-natured witness and supports Xu Feng’s reputation.

Significant themes

• Compassion and duty: Xu Feng helps without an official summons or expectation of reward.
• Learning through experience: His master lets him take the lead in dealing with others.
• Folk belief and spiritual uncertainty: The local deity’s apparent inability to suppress the corpse energy—and the unexplained blood offering—suggest forces beyond ordinary funeral rites.
• Order versus stagnation: The trapped energy in the bodies mirrors the broader sense that something in Luoyin County has become unsettled.

Character interactions

• Zhou repeatedly appeals to Xu Feng and his master, while Xu Feng’s casual offer to take Zhou’s horse is misunderstood as a demand for his valuable donkey.
• Xu Feng questions Zhou about the case and insists on arranging a witness before proceeding.
• He reassures the anxious Zhou, studies the bodies in front of Zhou and Old Ma, and explains his diagnosis and next steps.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Feng examines the severed corpses and concludes that their transformation likely began around the third day after death. He determines how to repair their wounds and broken bones, and confirms that their souls have dispersed; the problem is corpse transformation rather than restless spirits.
• He asks Coroner Zhou to air out the shop, prepares Righteousness Soup, and waits for nightfall. Zhou fears the corpses will be more dangerous after dark, but Xu Feng refuses to break the corpse-stitching taboos. Old Ma backs Xu Feng, citing his past success.
• Before dusk, Xu Feng offers prayers to the County Land God and City God. When the dogs suddenly fall silent, Zhou rushes back in fear, only to find the corpses lying peacefully still.
• At night, Xu Feng boards up the shop and performs the rites and stitching. He completes the work over three nights, telling Zhou to plug the corpses’ seven orifices and wait until after the magistrate’s mother’s birthday and three hearings before burning or burying them.
• Afterward, Xu Feng notices lingering yin energy in the shop, a strange shrine in the Ghost Gate direction, and the Joyful Lord’s apparent indifference to people. He suspects Luoyin’s feng shui may be involved, but doubts it explains why the corpses transformed only now. He realizes he has questions for Old Ma.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng shows growing confidence and professional authority. He relies on his forensic knowledge, follows ritual rules despite pressure, and handles the work methodically. He also remains practical about hygiene and attentive to unusual details.
• Coroner Zhou begins anxious and skeptical, even warning that nightfall could make matters worse. Once he sees the corpses remain still and Xu Feng succeeds, he becomes admiring, apologetic, and eager to show hospitality.
• Old Ma acts as Xu Feng’s supporter and intermediary, reassuring Zhou and affirming his trust in Xu Feng. He later insists on treating Xu Feng to dinner.
• Zhou’s fear and Old Ma’s confidence contrast with Xu Feng’s calm insistence on procedure; their changing attitudes reinforce Xu Feng’s earned reputation.

Significant themes

• Ritual discipline and professional responsibility: Xu Feng will not ignore established taboos simply because the job seems manageable.
• Earned trust and authority: His competence gradually turns Zhou’s doubt into admiration.
• The uncertain boundary between practical knowledge and the supernatural: Forensic observation, medicine, rites, divine favor, yin energy, and feng shui all shape Xu Feng’s approach.
• Unresolved mystery: The shop’s supernatural traces and Luoyin’s landscape may be connected to the transformations, but the cause remains unclear.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Feng and Old Ma share a meal near the County Yamen. Xu Feng discusses his errands: buying provisions for the Earth God Shrine’s craftsmen, reserving supplies for upcoming rites, offering money at the City God Temple, burning paper for the Day and Night Wandering Gods, and purchasing clothes. He is struck by how costly it is to establish and maintain a shrine.
• Old Ma explains that the county magistrate is hosting seven days of performances for his birthday and to honor his deceased father. The ceremony will also include offerings to wandering spirits, local spirits, and Joyful Lord.
• Xu Feng asks about Joyful Lord, said to be a mountain lord whose tomb was struck by lightning and washed out in a flood. Old Ma recounts how the mountain’s graves were disturbed over time and how unidentified remains were gathered at the Charity Nunnery. He suspects the story of Joyful Lord was invented by tomb robbers to conceal their activities.
• Xu Feng remains doubtful. He senses something ominous in Joyful Lord’s origins, especially the tale of lightning striking an Underground Palace, which he regards as an ill omen steeped in Savage Malevolence.
• Xu Feng returns with supplies, successfully rents a large cart without a deposit thanks to his reputation, and treats the shrine’s craftsmen to food and drink. On the auspicious day, construction begins in fine weather.
• Preparations for the foundation ceremony proceed: Xu Feng sets up two large incense sticks as a symbolic gate, then prepares to honor the site’s guardian deities and notify the Earth God. Just as the appointed hour nears, an unexpected event interrupts.

Character development and interactions

• Xu Feng shows growing responsibility as the shrine’s founder, thinking ahead about supplies, labor, ceremonies, and expenses. He uses tact and praise to draw information from Old Ma, but privately questions the stories he hears and trusts his own ominous intuitions.
• Old Ma is generous and sociable, admiring Xu Feng’s appetite and strength. He enjoys telling local stories and shares his tomb-robbing theory in confidence, though his account is based on rumor rather than firsthand knowledge.
• Their friendly meal becomes a way for Xu Feng to gather information: Old Ma’s tale introduces Joyful Lord and the mountain’s burial history, while Xu Feng’s questions reveal his skepticism.
• The shopkeeper’s trust in Xu Feng is evident when he lets him rent a cart without a deposit; the craftsmen, in turn, are encouraged by the provisions he brings.

Significant themes

• Duty and practical burdens: Establishing a shrine involves not just faith but money, logistics, and responsibility.
• Folklore versus truth: Old Ma’s explanation may be local gossip or a cover story, and Xu Feng is alert to the possibility that the accepted tale hides something stranger.
• Ritual and the spirit world: The chapter presents offerings and ceremonies as part of everyday life, while hinting that supernatural forces may carry real danger.
• Reputation and trust: Xu Feng’s standing has tangible value, allowing him to secure a cart without a deposit.

Key events

• As construction of the Longflow River God’s shrine is about to begin, a foul wind carries a strange dark cloud from the Yellow River toward the site. The animals and workers grow restless, and the Old Shopkeeper recognizes the cloud as a bad omen.
• To protect the auspicious timing and his reputation, the Old Shopkeeper performs a rite: he presents offerings to the spirit tablet of Lu Ban and a second, veiled tablet, then uses talismans and a bowl of water to identify the spirit making trouble.
• The bowl gives no visible sign. The Old Shopkeeper interprets this—or whatever he sees in the water—as a warning and tries to withdraw from the project, claiming he may have miscalculated.
• Thunder sounds over the river, and the cloud rapidly turns pale and dissipates. Doctor Qi calls it an auspicious display of the deity’s power. Master urges the Old Shopkeeper to continue, and work resumes.
• Xu Feng concludes that building the shrine has provoked something in that stretch of the Yellow River. The thunder was not his doing, and may have been a pre-existing defense against whatever threatened the site.

Character developments and interactions

• The Old Shopkeeper proves practical and reputation-conscious: he tries to manage the omen with ritual, but retreats when he believes the danger is real. Once the cloud disperses, he regains his composure and directs the ceremony.
• Xu Feng watches carefully, suspects the rite has revealed more than the Old Shopkeeper admits, and recognizes that the shrine-building itself may be a provocation. He is left wondering whether the thunder was meant to counter a threat such as the Yellow River Demon Corpse.
• Master explains the hierarchy of local and state-sanctioned river gods, dismisses the idea that the Yellow River’s supreme deity is personally offended, and helps steer the Old Shopkeeper back to work.
• Doctor Qi makes a dark joke about selling life-saving pills, then reframes the thunder as a favorable omen—an interpretation that helps calm the situation. He and Master coordinate to keep construction moving.

Significant themes

• Local power and practical faith: People rely on nearby gods and rituals they can actually reach, even while acknowledging greater, distant deities.
• Reputation and obligation: The Old Shopkeeper’s role and the auspicious timing leave him little room to abandon the work.
• Ambiguous supernatural signs: The cloud, silent water, and thunder are open to competing interpretations; characters use ritual and rhetoric to make sense of them.
• Hidden danger and preparation: The apparent mishap may reveal that something opposes the shrine—and that some protective force may already be in place.

Plot points and events

• After an earlier disturbance among local spirits, another force suppresses them, allowing Xu Feng and Master to resume the rammed-earth ritual for the Longflow River God.
• Xu Feng leads the ceremony: the group offers prayers to Heaven and Earth, informs the local Earth God that the river god’s temple will stand here, and warns nearby wandering ghosts not to cause trouble. Xu Feng then buries a birth-date document and Incense Ash in the rammed earth.
• The ritual succeeds, and Xu Feng gains the status [Favored by the Gods], making him more likely to attract the attention of the river god and other gods.
• Master tells Xu Feng that he must build a Fire Hearth. He explains that Human Fire is sustained through a seven-day ritual involving specific offerings and Yin Virtue; Xu Feng must tend it continuously. Xu Feng worries that this could further drain his already limited Yin Virtue.
• Xu Feng and Master suspect the Old Shopkeeper witnessed something unusual during the ritual. Master advises approaching him with generosity rather than pressure, so Xu Feng buys food, wine, and small gifts.
• At dinner, the Old Shopkeeper admits that the ritual may have disturbed something in the Yellow River, reminding them that a Suppressing Object lies beneath that stretch of the river.

Character developments

• Xu Feng successfully completes his first major temple ritual and gains divine favor, strengthening his standing as a temple priest. He also shows practical concern about the cost of the Fire Hearth and his scarce Yin Virtue.
• Master acts as both teacher and mentor, revealing the purpose and procedure of Human Fire and emphasizing survival and careful judgment of people.
• The Old Shopkeeper is visibly troubled by what he witnessed. Though reluctant to speak at first, he begins sharing his concerns after Master and Xu Feng show him kindness.

Significant themes

• Ritual and legitimacy: Formal prayers establish Xu Feng’s authority and define how the new temple relates to Heaven, local spirits, and the Earth God.
• Power and its costs: Divine favor brings opportunity but also greater attention from unpredictable gods; Human Fire offers protection and utility but consumes resources and demands constant care.
• Tact and compassion: Master’s approach to the Old Shopkeeper suggests that understanding someone’s temperament can succeed where confrontation would fail.
• Unseen danger: The disturbed spirits and the buried Suppressing Object hint that the ritual may have awakened a larger threat.

Character interactions

• Master congratulates Xu Feng, entrusts him with caring for the temple, and privately teaches him how to establish Human Fire.
• Xu Feng signals his concern about the ritual’s strange events; Master understands and agrees that the Old Shopkeeper should be approached carefully.
• Master and Xu Feng use a meal and thoughtful gifts to put the Old Shopkeeper at ease. He then warns them that something beneath the Yellow River may have been stirred.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Feng learns that six Suppressing Objects were placed in this stretch of the Yellow River during the previous dynasty to contain water ghosts. The Great Ox before Fisherfolk Village is the most dangerous: it suppresses the river’s own resentment and Earth Qi and may be an ancient artifact recovered after a change in the river’s course.
• The county gazetteer may be found with a scholarly family or at the Ritual Office. The City God Temple could also hold relevant records: the local City God was once the official responsible for controlling the river.
• Xu Feng suspects the Demon Corpse may lie beneath the ox and that its seal has weakened. He wonders whether bringing the Longflow River God nearby provoked the “dragon’s mouth” pinned under it, though the ox’s thunderous response appeared to restrain it.
• The Old Shopkeeper explains how his questioning technique works: ripples reveal ghosts, breath reveals gods, and talisman ashes reveal beings that are neither. He saw an ox in the ashes, which he took as evidence of the Suppressing Object. Master believes him and notes that the shopkeeper has placed his family’s Fire Virtue Star Lord tablet at the worksite for protection.
• Master lays out the history: the Suppressing Objects came first, then the Daoist who taught Stitching Calamity slew the Fell Dragon, and Fisherfolk Village appeared afterward.
• Xu Feng asks to inspect the village, but Master warns that its residents are hostile to outsiders. He will arrange for Uncle Sun, a Yellow River Corpse Collector, to escort Xu Feng.
• The next morning, Xu Feng goes to the county town to consult the Ritual Office gazetteer. Old Ma instead greets him with unexpected enthusiasm and introduces him to Constable Cha, head of the yamen’s three squads.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Feng is curious and increasingly suspicious that the Yellow River’s ancient protections are failing. He presses Master and the Old Shopkeeper for details, then decides he needs to investigate Fisherfolk Village himself.
• Master shares local history and cautions Xu Feng against approaching the village alone. He trusts the Old Shopkeeper’s account.
• The Old Shopkeeper confesses the basis of his questioning method and seems genuinely ashamed of his earlier mistake; his protective offering suggests he takes responsibility for the construction site.
• Old Ma appears eager to draw Xu Feng into an undisclosed matter, presenting it as good news and bringing him to meet Constable Cha.

Significant themes

• Old safeguards and emerging danger: The Suppressing Objects once controlled supernatural threats, but Xu Feng fears their power may be waning.
• Knowledge through investigation: Local history, ritual practice, and firsthand inquiry help Xu Feng assemble the sequence behind the river’s mysteries.
• Trust and caution: The Old Shopkeeper’s honesty earns Master’s trust, while the villagers’ reputation makes even a nearby visit risky.
• Human limits before ancient forces: Xu Feng jokes that a corpse sewer cannot match legendary figures who subdued dragons and rivers, even as he becomes drawn into their unfinished legacy.