Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng encounters Hui Ming’s funeral procession and recalls that, in another account, Hui Ming died after a ritual taboo drew a “Joy Spirit”—a euphemism that can refer to a corpse transformed by something uncanny. This procession seems different: Hui Ming’s prepared body radiates an unnaturally upright, divine aura.
• Lin Feng notices hidden dead people and unusually large Yin Soldiers approaching. The Underworld Bureau’s soldiers pass him but move toward Hui Ming’s coffin. Their cold presence terrifies the mourners and forces the coffin to the ground.
• Golden script ignites on Hui Ming’s body, and three flames appear around him. The radiance drives the Yin Soldiers away, after which the corpse falls back into the coffin. The procession resumes.
• At Ridge County’s Ancestral Hall, Fire Virtue Daoist has Daoist Xu’s body removed and rings a bronze bell. A flock of falcons appears and devours the corpse, leaving only bones.
• An assassin attacks Fire Virtue Daoist with a poisoned dagger, but the Daoist reveals an extra arm that pulls the attacker into his sleeve. He then punishes the disciples responsible for guarding the hall: some are killed by the falcons, while others are brutally whipped.
• Lin Feng suspects the attack and the punishments may be part of a ploy to draw Fire Virtue Daoist away. He spots people sneaking toward the county’s temples and realizes several powers are maneuvering against one another.
• Hui Ming’s temple is among the targets. The intrusion awakens the Guo Emperor, whose divine presence emerges in response.

Character developments

• Lin Feng remains cautious and observant, interpreting events through his knowledge of spirits, rituals, and local factions. He avoids confronting the Yin Soldiers and tries to understand the competing forces.
• Fire Virtue Daoist is shown as formidable, composed, and ruthless: he easily neutralizes an assassin, then uses lethal and physical punishment to discipline his followers.
• Hui Ming is presented as more than an ordinary corpse. His body’s preparations and protective radiance can repel Underworld forces, though the reason for this remains unclear.

Significant themes

• The ambiguity of the supernatural: “Joy Spirit,” divine radiance, corpses, and gods may conceal dangerous or taboo realities.
• Authority and consequence: The Yin Soldiers represent bureaucratic power in the Underworld, while Fire Virtue Daoist enforces control through fear and punishment.
• Ritual and protection: Proper preparation and ritual markings can determine whether the dead remain vulnerable or can resist supernatural threats.
• Political and religious conflict: Several factions compete for influence, and apparent incidents may be deliberate diversions.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng yields the way to the Yin Soldiers, who ignore him but threaten the funeral procession.
• The mourners and monk panic when the coffin is dropped; the monk’s concern about the corpse seeking a body underscores the danger of mishandling the dead.
• Fire Virtue Daoist confronts the assassin and his own disciples, responding to the attack with swift violence and public discipline.
• The unseen intruders provoke the Guo Emperor’s intervention, signaling that the conflict is widening beyond the Ancestral Hall.

Key plot points and events

• Ridge County erupts into supernatural violence. A Western Xia warrior is killed by an unseen force, while ritual masters and uncanny creatures roam openly through the town.
• Lin Feng searches for the two missing Daoists, slipping past the dangers unseen. He finds prisoners who have been tortured and discovers that Witch Cult followers have effectively replaced the imperial authorities, punishing even a respected scholar.
• Lin Feng rescues the prisoners, sends them to the uncanny Guesthouse for safety, and continues searching. In the Ancestral Hall, he encounters a spatial barrier made of tangled blood qi and finds that a god is being worshipped there.
• The barrier attacks him with a roc, a hunting dog, and multiple Joy Spirits. Lin Feng withstands the assault and uses uncanny hands to drag the Joy Spirits away. The hunting dogs carry an aura he recognizes as that of a mountain god.
• Meanwhile, Fire Virtue Daoist enters the Ancestral Hall’s forbidden rear courtyard alone. A concealed assassin ambushes and beheads him; accomplices seize the body, and the group escapes using talismans.
• The attackers return to a distant tomb and reveal themselves as Western Xia agents. They remove Fire Virtue Daoist’s mask and discover he is a mountain ogre. Stitches along its back conceal a skinned person sewn inside—the person who had been made to become Fire Virtue Daoist.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains composed amid the chaos, using stealth, wind, and his growing spiritual power to investigate and protect victims. His reflections on the Joy Spirits suggest growing suspicion that the death ritual is designed to create them.
• Fire Virtue Daoist is revealed to have been an impostor: a human was concealed inside a mountain ogre’s hide and made to assume his identity.
• The Western Xia agents demonstrate careful planning and coordination, working together to kill the impostor and recover his body for examination.
• The rescued prisoners gratefully hail Lin Feng as their “righteous lord,” but he promptly silences them when their noise becomes inconvenient.

Significant themes

• The collapse of legitimate authority: Witch Cult forces dominate Ridge County, while supernatural beings roam where they should be restrained.
• Deception and hidden identities: Fire Virtue Daoist’s apparent identity masks a gruesome human-and-ogre construction, and the Western Xia agents disguise themselves with human-skin masks.
• Rituals as instruments of harm: What appears to be a path to spiritual ascent may instead mass-produce Joy Spirits.
• Power and vulnerability: Lin Feng can face supernatural attacks directly, yet ordinary people—including a respected scholar—are left exposed to cruelty and arbitrary punishment.

Key plot points

• Two disguised Western Xia Iron Kites and an assassin examine a corpse fused with mountain-ogre skin. They conclude the man’s unstable soul and lack of an appeasement rite may have caused the transformation, then destroy his altered spirit.
• Their unseen leader, speaking from a hole in the tomb passage, falls silent. A supernatural attack traps the group: the assassin is driven to kill one Iron Kite, while “Master Hui Ming” kills the other by tearing off his head. The assassin escapes outside, only to find the entire funeral procession beheaded; he, too, is killed.
• Master Hui Ming retrieves the body of Old Daoist Xu from the hole where the hidden speaker had been. Xu has been dead for about a day, leaving his true condition—and the identity of the voice—unexplained. Hui Ming disappears with the corpse.
• Elsewhere, Lin Feng finds a basement containing carefully tended bodies in a state of feigned death. They are hosts for Gu, fed food mixed with maggots. He realizes the worms may live in symbiosis with their hosts rather than simply consuming them.
• Recalling that local shamans exploit sick people instead of sending them to doctors, Lin Feng suspects the basement’s occupants were gathered under the pretext of a plague. He notices that the symbiotic hosts’ way of life has changed.

Character developments and interactions

• The Iron Kites and assassin are methodical and capable, but their skills and anti-yin weapons prove useless against the sudden supernatural assault. Their confusion highlights how completely their attacker controls the encounter.
• Master Hui Ming is revealed as a stitched-together, beheaded corpse who escaped the funeral procession. He acts with brutal efficiency, killing the intruders before leaving with Old Daoist Xu’s body.
• Lin Feng approaches the Gu hosts as potential victims to be rescued, then revises his theory after recognizing their unusual symbiosis. His investigation connects the strange creatures to the shamans’ exploitation of the sick.

Significant themes

• Human exploitation: The shamans may be using a supposed plague to gather vulnerable people and turn them into hosts.
• Uncertain life and death: Bodies speak, souls transform, and the dead move—making ordinary distinctions between living, dead, and monstrous unreliable.
• Incomplete understanding: The characters can identify clues, but major questions remain about the hidden speaker, Xu’s status, and the Gu hosts’ altered existence.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng investigates a strange compound where people appear to have both Gu Worms and plants inside their bodies. His aura provokes unseen, spirit-like beings that feed on it.
• After feeding them more aura, he draws out a huge, snake-like spirit bearing the aura of a Mountain God. When Joy Spirits attack, Lin Feng rings a bell transformed from his hand and drives them away.
• He detects a hidden presence and forces it to reveal itself: an ancient, sheepskin-clad figure calling himself the Old Sheepskin Boatman. They fight. The boatman distorts space with a river-like force, flooding Lin Feng’s mouth and clothes with water and sand, while Lin Feng uses the expanded Net of Luo, magical weapons, and ghostly restraints to capture him.
• Lin Feng extracts the boatman’s memories. They show a Yellow River sacrifice led by Li Yuanhao, who is drowning tribal nobles in hopes of summoning or obtaining something. After several failed attempts, a clay-jar-like object finally reaches the riverbank.

Character developments

• Lin Feng becomes increasingly intrigued by the strange spiritual ecology and formation around him. He shows confidence and resourcefulness, using his aura as bait and deploying multiple powers when threatened. His conduct also reveals a ruthless, jailer-like side.
• The Old Sheepskin Boatman is exposed as more than a mysterious intruder: he once served Li Yuanhao, personally carrying victims into the Yellow River and checking whether the sacrifice had worked.
• Li Yuanhao appears in the recovered memory as determined and merciless, willing to repeatedly sacrifice nobles to achieve his aim.

Significant themes

• Experimentation and hidden systems: The unusual coexistence of Gu Worms, plants, and spirits suggests deliberate methods or a larger formation whose purpose remains unclear.
• Power and containment: Lin Feng’s investigation becomes a contest of capture and escape, emphasizing that knowledge is often gained through force.
• Sacrifice and political cruelty: Li Yuanhao treats people as expendable offerings in pursuit of an uncertain supernatural result.
• The uncanny and the unseen: Spirits, distorted space, and concealed presences make ordinary surroundings feel layered with hidden realities.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng first engages the spirits by feeding them his aura, then confronts the boatman after the spirit’s appearance exposes a concealed presence.
• The boatman’s river-based attack briefly puts Lin Feng under pressure, but Lin Feng counters by restraining and capturing him.
• Through the boatman’s memories, Lin Feng witnesses his past collaboration with Li Yuanhao: the ruler directs the ritual while the boatman carries victims into the river and reports each failure.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng witnesses the Old Sheepskin Boatman retrieve a cracked clay jar from the Yellow River. The damage triggers a supernatural disaster: darkness, unnatural winds, panicked animals, and bells that sound like dripping water.
• Li Yuanhao orders the bells shot down, kills the blinded, panicking shaman, and restores order through forceful commands. The vision ends with the Boatman disappearing into the river.
• Back in the present, Lin Feng protects the Boatman when hostile local gods attack. He defeats a Mountain God and confronts a river god, while Daoist Xu uses a ritual to send a message before dying.
• The Boatman admits that something has found him, but vanishes before explaining what was dug up. A decaying ancient deity—associated with the Fusang Tree—then overwhelms the area with an aura of corruption. Daoist Xu and the local gods rot away, and Lin Feng dies.
• After leaving the game, Lin Feng reflects on the possibility that things he cannot see may still be present. He connects this idea to the mysterious entity associated with the Human Skin and Human Shedding, and to Professor Han, who remains alive but inexplicably unconscious.
• Lin Feng prepares to leave the factory to fulfill Teacher Qie’s request, intending to investigate the cemetery and later uncover the Boatman’s secrets.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng shows quick thinking and confidence in battle, using his Imperial Guard identity and ritual powers to challenge the local gods. His death deepens his suspicion that hidden entities can remain present even when they seem to have vanished.
• The Old Sheepskin Boatman is revealed to be tied to the cracked jar, the Yellow River, and a mysterious buried thing. Fear finally overtakes his usual composure, and he disappears before revealing the truth.
• Li Yuanhao is shown as decisive and ruthless: he kills the shaman to prevent further panic, then imposes discipline on the soldiers.
• Daoist Xu, gravely injured and in hiding, seizes his last chance to relay a secret message. Lin Feng finds him, but Xu dies during the confrontation with the ancient deity.
• Professor Han remains a troubling mystery: his body appears normal, but he cannot be awakened, and supernatural methods fail to affect him.

Significant themes

• The danger of what cannot be seen or understood: apparent emptiness or disappearance may conceal something that has been there all along.
• Corruption and decay: the ancient deity’s aura attacks life itself, even affecting Lin Feng’s powerful body.
• Power, authority, and allegiance: Lin Feng’s imperial credentials clash with local gods and shamans who reject the Heavenly Court.
• Knowledge and sacrifice: Daoist Xu dies trying to pass on a secret, while Lin Feng’s curiosity drives him to investigate the Boatman and the hidden forces around him.

Plot and events

• After leaving the Kiln, Lin Feng travels to Hongzhou’s airport and then to the public cemetery to fulfill his promise to Teacher Qie. On the journey, he carves a Nuo mask from South Seas Jianmu; the carving’s uncanny “intent” stirs homesickness in the driver, prompting him to long for home.
• Lin Feng studies Teacher Qie’s sketches, which point to his Vertical Eye, lungs, six Land God spells, and a mysterious “three heads.” He concludes that he still needs powerful outside forces and plans to strengthen his Haunted Village by organizing its unruly inhabitants into a structured religious system centered on a Zuan Wangye temple and sacrificial rites.
• At Teacher Qie’s father’s grave, Lin Feng reads aloud the scholar’s achievements, then shares and burns Teacher Qie’s final writings. They propose that a profound cultural rupture during the Zhou dynasty concealed a transition from gods to humans. Lin Feng also suspects the Mount-Viewing Kiln, Fu Hao, Wu Ding, and the Heaven-Bearing Temple are connected to hidden heavenly secrets. He promises that he will remember Teacher Qie, and secretly adds the name “Son, Qie Yi” to the gravestone.
• After nightfall, an unseen attacker approaches the cemetery. Lin Feng detects the figure with his Vertical Eye and realizes moonlight is involved. He cuts through a spatial “Mirror Body” with a newly mastered sword technique, No-Gap, but the attacker enters the Desolate Village and heads toward “Professor Han.”
• Lin Feng lures the attacker with burned Longevity Worm powder. The creature resembles Teacher Xun but radiates corruption, chaos, and the Five Turbidities. Lin Feng’s masked Haunted Village allies batter it with uncanny weapons, while he focuses on preventing it from using its spatial abilities. Meanwhile, moonlight seems to affect the cemetery attendant’s perception, leaving him with a vivid, dreamlike memory of an unusually perfect moon.
• The next morning, Lin Feng reads a live online search thread about people missing in the mountains. A woman’s tattoo resembles Di Ting, leading him to wonder whether she is surnamed Hong.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains dutiful and thoughtful, honoring his promise to Teacher Qie and expressing lasting loyalty. At the same time, he becomes more strategic: he recognizes that the Haunted Village’s allies need an orderly hierarchy and uses its territory and inhabitants tactically in combat. He also demonstrates new swordsmanship and sharpened supernatural perception.
• Teacher Qie is remembered as an extraordinary, persistent scholar whose research reached beyond ordinary history and whose ability to “see through time” saved Lin Feng. His final theories deepen the mystery surrounding the Kiln and ancient history.
• The driver is unexpectedly affected by Lin Feng’s carving and its intent, which awakens a powerful desire to return home.
• The cemetery attendant experiences an uncanny, peaceful night and feels inexplicably warmly toward Lin Feng, though he does not know what happened.
• The attacker is revealed as a dangerous, space-manipulating creature, apparently connected to the same disturbing supernatural phenomena surrounding Professor Han and Teacher Xun. Its presence suggests that the attempt on Lin Feng is part of a continuing threat.

Significant themes

• Memory and loyalty: Lin Feng’s promise to remember Teacher Qie becomes a personal act of preservation amid secrets that may erase or distort history.
• Hidden history and unreliable records: The chapter explores the possibility that ancient history was deliberately obscured during a major cultural rupture.
• Order amid the uncanny: Lin Feng seeks to turn the Haunted Village’s chaotic spirits into a coordinated system he can rely on.
• Intent and influence: Carving, moonlight, and supernatural presence can shape human emotion and perception.
• Reversed roles and escalating danger: Lin Feng, usually the pursuer, is now being hunted, forcing him to defend himself against increasingly sophisticated enemies.

Plot and key events

• Lin Feng reviews the near-extinction of the Northern and Southern Lands’ old factions. Most of the Eight Liangs and Three Branches have died out, scattered, or abandoned their ancestral trades; the Listening Hong Family is among the few surviving lineages.
• A rescue worker’s report of an unusually enormous moon over Shuzhong reminds Lin Feng of the moon he saw the previous night. Concerned about strange creatures and the killing of Professor Han, he leaves the cemetery to investigate, intending eventually to travel to Mount Li.
• Hong Ni, a gifted listener from the Hong Family, wakes in hospital after a failed expedition into Shuzhong’s remote mountains. Though her group is reprimanded by the authorities, she remains determined to pursue the questions her trip raised.
• Hong Ni unexpectedly finds herself in a bar with Lin Feng. He explains that he recognized her family connection from her name and equipment, and questions why she is risking her life when her family has left tomb-raiding behind.
• She tells him her father discouraged her interest in their past, but her exceptional hearing and curiosity led her to discover fragments of the family’s training. She carries a carved Di Ting pendant bearing the Ksitigarbha Heart Mantra. Lin Feng recognizes it as a powerful spiritual treasure and tells her to protect it.
• Hong Ni shows him a photograph of a Sky Pearl that appeared alongside the pendant. Seeing it triggers a powerful connection in Lin Feng: he senses a heavenly fire associated with a meteorite and briefly experiences a vision of himself burning. He breaks the connection and asks where the pearl is; Hong Ni does not know.
• Lin Feng uses a supernatural technique to prevent Hong Ni from telling others what she witnessed, then offers help with occult dangers in exchange for a paid subscription to his channel. He learns that the Sky Pearl has mysteriously reappeared in Hong Ni’s dreams: at four each morning, a matching string of beads appears in her hand.
• Lin Feng ends by remarking on the unusually large, round moon, linking Hong Ni’s experience to the wider mystery in Shuzhong.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng shifts from researching the region’s history to actively investigating its anomalies. He is wary of the dangers but intrigued by the Sky Pearl, and combines supernatural authority with blunt pragmatism.
• Hong Ni is revealed as curious, rebellious, and unusually perceptive, but inexperienced in the family’s former trade. Her confidence gives way to alarm when she sees Lin Feng’s powers; nevertheless, she remains determined to learn what is happening.
• Their exchange is unequal: Lin Feng questions and guides Hong Ni, while she supplies information about her family and the mysterious object. He protects her from disclosure but also recruits her as a potential client.

Significant themes

• Tradition and survival: Old lineages and practices have largely disappeared, while descendants inherit fragments of knowledge without understanding their cost.
• Curiosity and danger: Hong Ni’s search for answers draws her toward forces she cannot control; Lin Feng repeatedly warns that powerful treasures and supernatural threats carry real risks.
• The persistence of the supernatural: Folk beliefs and ancient powers survive despite changing institutions and fading traditions.
• Unexplained forces converging: The giant moon, the mountain expedition, the Sky Pearl, and Lin Feng’s vision suggest that several mysteries may be connected.

Key plot points and events

• Hong Ni explains that the Sky Pearls on her wrist have been drawing her toward the remote mountains of Shuzhong. During an expedition, her group encountered inexplicable phenomena: a human-sized Human-Faced Insect resembling their leader, a cave that unsettled her, and the sound of someone entering it at night—though no one admitted to doing so.
• The expedition’s satellite positioning failed, and the group eventually had to turn back. Lin Feng suggests a disturbing possibility: they may have been somewhere without satellites, and the people who emerged from the mountains might not be the same people who went in.
• Hong Ni’s compulsion to return has eased since she came back, but it remains. Lin Feng decides to watch her overnight and investigate the Sky Pearls.
• At four in the morning, the beads materialize on Hong Ni’s wrist amid a distortion in space. They are made from meteorite and protected by intense heat. When Lin Feng reaches for them, six enormous, cloud-treading Mastiff Hounds appear and circle him.
• Lin Feng’s internal Thunderclap makes the hounds wary. A powerful Spiritual Master then arrives, calms the hounds, and explains that he raised them and later killed them; they retain affection for him.

Character developments

• Hong Ni becomes increasingly frightened as Lin Feng’s questions make her reconsider what happened in Shuzhong and whether her returning companions were truly her original group.
• Lin Feng moves from listening to actively testing the Sky Pearls. He also connects Hong Ni’s mystery with broader questions about space, timelines, and other unresolved supernatural cases.
• The Spiritual Master appears as the apparent owner or guardian of the Sky Pearls. His calm authority over the hounds suggests a close, complicated history with them.

Significant themes

• Unreliable identity and memory: The expedition’s members may not have returned unchanged—or may not even be the same people.
• Space beyond ordinary understanding: The failed positioning system and the beads’ sudden appearance suggest travel into places or dimensions outside normal reality.
• Compulsion and hidden guidance: The Sky Pearls seem to lead Hong Ni toward something, though she cannot understand their purpose.
• Protection mixed with danger: The beads may be an important guide or relic, but approaching them provokes a lethal defense.

Character interactions

• Hong Ni cautiously recounts her experiences while Lin Feng presses her with unsettling questions, forcing her to confront possibilities she had dismissed.
• Lin Feng knocks Hong Ni unconscious when she cannot sleep, then keeps watch over her wrist as the beads appear.
• The hounds hunt and encircle Lin Feng; he responds with his Thunderclap rather than attacking outright.
• The arriving Spiritual Master reassures Lin Feng and presents himself as the hounds’ former keeper, suggesting the confrontation may be rooted in the beads’ history rather than simple hostility.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng recognizes the figure emerging from the Sky Pearls as the dead Spiritual Master’s surviving Intent. It takes him into a vivid memory of the Lhazhang Ancient Temple, where the young Spiritual Master explains the temple’s beast-breeding duties and its worship of the Roc.
• The temple faced demons during breeding and birth seasons, searched the mountains for bloodlines, and held a fourth ritual, Slaughter Day. Its Root Teacher—believed to be an incarnation of the Roc’s eyes—created the Sky Pearls from a meteorite. The Spiritual Master says the temple is trying to find its Root Teacher. Lin Feng wakes holding the cold pearls.
• Concerned about threats in Shuzhong and the enormous, possibly supernatural moon, Lin Feng enters the game to manage his time and resumes his investigation in Ridge County.
• He confronts the Old Sheepskin Boatman, who is possessing a ritual master called Master Qu. Lin Feng proposes a temporary alliance, revealing that both sides seek an object that escaped from the Yellow River and that it may be hidden in the Ancestral Hall.
• When Lin Feng presses Master Qu about the Hall’s supposedly empty rooms, the Boatman detects the trap and attacks. Lin Feng kills him, burns the corpse, and follows an invisible Medium toward the Hall.
• Lin Feng investigates the Fire Virtue Daoist’s residence. He kills the Daoist and finds a mountain ogre beneath the mask, then discovers that another Fire Virtue Daoist appears soon afterward—also a mountain ogre. The chapter ends as a red-clothed deity statue being paraded through the streets reaches the residence.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains observant and pragmatic: he neither judges the ancient Spiritual Master’s past nor resists him without cause, and he uses negotiation with the Boatman to gather information. He is also willing to cooperate when useful, though his promise not to arrest the Boatman is explicitly limited to his current life.
• The Spiritual Master’s Intent is revealed as a guide rather than an immediate threat. It shares the history of the Sky Pearls, the temple, and its search for the Root Teacher, though its memory sequence is disturbing and physically visceral.
• The Old Sheepskin Boatman is cautious and sharp enough to spot Lin Feng’s probing, but his attempt to attack ends in his death.
• The repeated mountain-ogre disguises complicate Lin Feng’s understanding of the Fire Virtue Daoist and suggest that the impostor or creature may be changing.

Significant themes

• Ancient belief and hidden worlds: Layered skies, demons, anomalous beasts, and the Roc’s supposed power blur the boundary between myth and reality.
• Identity and possession: The Spiritual Master survives as an Intent; the Boatman borrows another person’s body and abilities; mountain ogres wear human disguises.
• Pragmatism and trust: Lin Feng treats alliances as temporary arrangements, while both sides conceal information and test each other.
• Unresolved history: The Sky Pearls’ purpose, the Root Teacher’s whereabouts, the Ancestral Hall’s secret, and the repeated Fire Virtue Daoists remain unanswered.

Key plot points

• Hong Ni wakes beside Lin Feng, who returns the powerful Sky Pearls to her as a family heirloom. He says they appeared on their own and may not disappear this time.
• Lin Feng tells Hong Ni he plans to return to the mountains and asks her to go with him. Though surprised by his confidence in the dangers she described, she agrees after a few days to prepare equipment.
• In the game, Lin Feng confronts Master Qu, the Old Sheepskin Boatman’s current body, and proposes a division of responsibilities: Lin Feng will deal with several threats and investigate the Ancestral Hall, while Master Qu handles another. Master Qu agrees to guide him there, provided Lin Feng does not interfere with what he intends to retrieve.
• Master Qu reveals that the beings in the Ancestral Hall are “Immortals,” though they are not the kind associated with the Heavenly Court. Lin Feng suspects they are isolated and lack powerful backing.
• Lin Feng and Master Qu enter the Ancestral Hall with Ugly Slave. They pass rooms that seem empty but contain invisible Immortals, then reach a maze-like formation governed by the Twenty-Eight Mansions and Seventy-Two Pentads. Master Qu calculates the route and says they must wait until the moon is overhead.
• In a room, an unseen Immortal knocks over and breaks a chair, warning Lin Feng not to behave as though he owns the place. Master Qu says the Immortals are diminished and largely witless.
• Master Qu realizes Lin Feng had been fishing for information and accuses him of being a monster himself. Their exchange reveals mutual suspicion and hints of broader political and supernatural conflicts.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains composed and calculating. He returns the Sky Pearls to Hong Ni, persuades her to join his expedition, and negotiates with Master Qu while concealing his own abilities and motives. In the Ancestral Hall, he observes the environment carefully and tests the limits of the unseen beings.
• Hong Ni is initially bewildered and nervous, but Lin Feng’s acceptance of her account convinces her to accompany him. Their exchange is teasingly blunt, though his reassurance gives her confidence.
• Master Qu / the Old Sheepskin Boatman is revealed as manipulative but not all-knowing. He agrees to cooperate out of necessity, yet sets strict conditions and remains wary of Lin Feng. He also recognizes that Lin Feng is probing him and suspects he is something inhuman.
• Ugly Slave, a heavily armored Western Xia man, accompanies them as a silent guide or guard.

Significant themes

• Trust and deception: Lin Feng and Master Qu cooperate while bargaining, bluffing, and withholding information.
• The limits of knowledge and power: The “Immortals” are mysterious and dangerous, but apparently weakened; even powerful supernatural beings may be vulnerable without allies.
• Hidden identities and uncertain humanity: Master Qu calls Lin Feng a monster, and Lin Feng’s unusual nature is repeatedly suggested.
• The danger of curiosity and greed: Master Qu warns Lin Feng not to touch anything recklessly, while the broken chair demonstrates that the unseen residents can affect the physical world.
• Wider political and supernatural stakes: The discussion points beyond Hongzhou toward strange beasts in Shuzhong and the Daoists and state preceptors traveling into Western Hunan.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng and the Old Sheepskin Boatman discuss whether the Song Dynasty needs another supernatural threat when its own political corruption, disasters, rebellions, and succession crises already threaten its future.
• An unseen “immortal” tries to affect Lin Feng and Chounu but cannot harm or possess either of them. The Boatman reveals these beings are supposed to be Corpse-Release Immortals—practitioners who shed their bodies to attain immortality. Many, however, failed and became little more than earth.
• The Boatman says he once found supposed Corpse-Release Immortals in the Yellow River, along with evidence of a much stranger event: a banquet vision experienced by aristocratic scions during the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties.
• The scions described a perfect otherworld called the Heavenly Mother Secret Realm and created the Heavenly Mother Banquet Painting. Though the painting itself is unintelligible, its preface and other records say the guests believed they had consumed immortal food and drink, granting them life for a century—after which they would need to find the Heavenly Mother again.
• Beneath the Yellow River, the Boatman discovered writings, bones, and exactly 172 clay jars. The writings, apparently made by servants, record the aristocrats’ desperate search for the Heavenly Mother and the brutal punishment of servants who tried to flee or spoke of supernatural events.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng stays quiet and listens closely, recognizing that the Boatman’s story may matter to his next moves. He suspects the Yellow River chamber may have transformed the Boatman, and notices oddities in the evidence, but does not interrupt.
• The Old Sheepskin Boatman shows both knowledge and bitterness. He mocks the supposedly immortal beings as powerless and failed, then admits that terror can overwhelm reason—even in himself.
• Chounu is angered by the “immortal’s” harassment and wants to fight back, but the Boatman stops him and gives him potent provisions instead.
• The Boatman treats Lin Feng and himself as beings alike, which helps explain why he is willing to confide in him.

Significant themes

• Fear and power: The servants endure violence and silence because they fear both their masters and the chaos beyond the estate.
• Failed immortality and delusion: The story distinguishes genuine spiritual practice from people who merely claim or imagine immortality.
• The unreliability of evidence: The painting cannot be understood, and the chamber’s preserved writings, jars, and bones raise questions about what really happened.
• Human-made calamity: The chapter suggests that political and social corruption may be more than enough to ruin a dynasty; it may not need a supernatural monster.
• Complicity and oppression: Loyal servants are treated as disposable tools, while their masters’ pursuit of the Heavenly Mother leads to cruelty and terror.

Possible typo/editorial issue

• The phrase “the strength of an Immortals” appears grammatically incorrect; it may be intended as “the mettle of an immortal” or similar.

Key plot points and events

• The Old Sheepskin Boatman reveals that, after being swept into the Yellow River Secret Chamber, he found intact treasures and jars among rotting corpses. Desperate and starving, he ate a spoiled “immortality pill” from a corpse and gained strange knowledge, though its effects may have transformed him.
• A supernatural watchman with a snake-like neck confronts Lin Feng and the others. The Boatman drives it off with a whistle that affects Ugly Slave but not Lin Feng.
• Using the stars, time, and geomantic calculations, the Boatman guides Lin Feng and Ugly Slave through identical moon gates. The landscape eventually pales and changes into a deserted Ghost Market.
• They find a stele bearing the name Yang Yun Song, apparently intended to suppress something in the earth veins. The Boatman says the Mother of Heaven is here, along with dangerous Immortals, and warns the group not to use magic.
• The Boatman recounts an earlier episode: an aristocratic household used grotesque alchemical rites involving animal entrails and herbs. The master appeared to exist in multiple forms, had an unseen baby, and eventually cried that his experiment had succeeded before vanishing.
• In the Ghost Market, the group discovers an eerie, demon-banishing half-talisman over a warehouse. The Mother of Heaven approaches, appearing as a Taoist priest. The Boatman claims she was once subdued and used to bury young aristocrats in auspicious graves before sending them away in jars. Lin Feng doubts this, seeing the priest as already transformed into the Mother of Heaven’s likeness.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng pieces together the possible link between the Boatman’s pill, the “Corpse-Release Immortals,” and the missing bodies from the Jin Family’s excavated tombs. He remains skeptical and alert, especially about the Mother of Heaven.
• The Old Sheepskin Boatman demonstrates expertise in geomancy and control over the supernatural watchman. His account of the chamber suggests his knowledge may come from the pill’s revelations, but his past and transformation remain uncertain. He directs the group while explaining his reasoning.
• Ugly Slave follows the Boatman’s instructions at speed, tiring under the effort; the Boatman’s whistle causes him to stagger and retch.
• The Mother of Heaven is presented as an ambiguous, apparently dangerous entity. The Boatman frames her as once controlled, but Lin Feng interprets her current form as evidence that she may have overtaken her would-be captor.

Significant themes

• Immortality and corruption: The “immortality pill” promises revelation or transformation but is tied to decay, bodily horror, and uncertain identity.
• Unreliable knowledge and perception: The Boatman’s explanations are assembled from fragments and supernatural insight; appearances—such as who is the master, or who controls whom—cannot be trusted.
• Ritual, power, and exploitation: Aristocratic wealth enables grotesque alchemy and burial rites, while servants and others suffer or die.
• Time, fate, and geomancy: The changing Formation depends on precise timing and the stars, making survival a matter of reading unstable patterns correctly.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• The Old Sheepskin Boatman explains that a Daoist once tried to solve the Mother of Heaven threat by being sealed in a coffin, but instead became another Mother of Heaven. The decayed ritual master now seeks ingredients for a supernatural banquet, including the inscription on Master Yang’s Demon-Suppressing Stele.
• Lin Feng questions the Boatman about the infants’ cries and the fate of Third Brother. The Boatman admits that Third Brother and others were buried as funerary offerings, and that he has been secretly drugging Ugly Slave so the infants will feed on him and fall asleep.
• The Boatman warns Lin Feng not to use spells against the ritual master, only martial arts. Lin Feng attacks with his sword and decapitates the creature, but the severed head chants a Shangqing incantation, releasing a powerful Divine Being.
• A feng shui formation activates, revealing that the land’s earth veins are suppressing the Divine Being. Lin Feng recognizes connections between the formation, Master Yang, and the Qi-Observing lineage.
• Lin Feng discovers that the missing talismanic seals are not components of an incomplete formation: they are its trigger. He calls them down, unleashing the earth veins’ force.
• Lin Feng realizes the apparent confrontation is not simply between him, the Boatman, and the Mother of Heaven. Master Yang’s side and Lin Feng oppose the Boatman, Daoist Qingqi, and the Divine Being; he accuses the Boatman and Daoist of wanting his body.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng stays composed amid the infants’ cries and the supernatural danger. His unusual body and martial skill make the Boatman’s “no spells” restriction advantageous. He also uses his Qi-Observing Dharma Eye to understand and activate the formation, revealing a deeper connection to the Qi-Observing lineage.
• The Old Sheepskin Boatman reveals his willingness to sacrifice Ugly Slave and his knowledge of the infants’ role. Though he claims a debt to Master Yang, Lin Feng increasingly suspects his motives—and accuses him of coveting Lin Feng’s body.
• Ugly Slave bravely draws the infants away by offering his blood and the prepared bait, though the Boatman’s plan puts him in grave danger.
• The ritual master appears as a decayed, grotesque figure, but his severed head displays genuine spiritual cultivation and releases the Divine Being.
• Daoist Qingqi emerges from the ritual master’s clear qi and fights the Boatman, leaving their loyalties and intentions suspect.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and exploitation: The great families’ burial customs and the Boatman’s use of Ugly Slave show how people are treated as offerings or tools.
• The danger of overreaching: The Daoist’s attempt to outwit the Mother of Heaven transforms him into another monstrous threat.
• Hidden loyalties and contested inheritance: The formation’s link to Master Yang and the Qi-Observing lineage complicates the apparent alliances.
• Power through perception: Lin Feng’s ability to read qi and recognize the formation’s true purpose shifts the balance of the confrontation.
• The limits of appearances: The decayed ritual master, the seemingly incomplete formation, and the Boatman’s professed loyalties all conceal more than they reveal.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng’s fight activates Yang Jipin’s Giant Alligator Demon-Suppressing Formation, which draws on Hongzhou’s earth veins. Thunder, floods, tremors, and strange dreams spread across the region.
• Xia Song notices the disturbance but dismisses it as a minor threat. Confident in his political power and imperial backing, he believes his ambitions are secure and orders his household to continue its music and dancing.
• The Formation’s power disperses the lingering decay around Lin Feng and draws the attention of local household gods. It also wins over Daoist Liang, advancing Lin Feng’s quest.
• Lin Feng learns that the Old Sheepskin Boatman is inhabited by the Mother of Heaven, while the Shangqing Daoist’s failed attempt at immortality left him a decaying, inhuman being. The Calamity Tai Sui that Yang Jipin once suppressed has already escaped.
• The Daoist offers Lin Feng an Ascension to Immortality Diagram and an invitation to a banquet. Lin Feng refuses, seeing no reason to bargain with forces whose era has passed.
• The Daoist unleashes a temptation tied to the Tai Sui. Lin Feng resists and calls on his weapons, talismans, and divine powers. Yu Lei’s skeletal claw hesitates, puzzling Lin Feng.
• The Mother of Heaven suddenly attacks the Daoist, apparently recognizing something in the claw. Lin Feng receives Yang Jipin’s Giant Alligator Demon-Subduing Meridian-Settling Art, a powerful but dangerous method for using earth veins to suppress spirits.
• The infants awaken and attack Lin Feng. The Mother of Heaven dissipates, leaving behind a sheet of skin bearing the Ascension to Immortality Diagram. Lin Feng’s quest reaches 3/4.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng gains a major formation technique and demonstrates confidence in his strength, but remains wary: using the art carries responsibility because it can affect an entire region. Yu Lei’s hesitation hints at an unresolved connection or secret.
• Xia Song is shown as ambitious, calculating, and certain that political authority will protect him. His dismissal of the supernatural disturbance contrasts with the real upheaval unfolding around him.
• The Mother of Heaven shifts from speaking with Lin Feng to attacking the Daoist, suggesting she has recognized something important. Her final act may be deliberate, but her motives remain unclear.
• The Shangqing Daoist tries first to persuade Lin Feng with promises, then resorts to force when refused. Despite his schemes and claims, he is weakened and trapped.
• The Daoist and Mother of Heaven argue over the meaning of “innate qi” and their respective claims to authority; their rivalry becomes central while Lin Feng watches for an opening.

Significant themes

• Human authority versus supernatural power: Xia Song trusts political rank, while Lin Feng’s actions reveal forces beyond government control.
• The cost of power: The Formation grants Lin Feng new abilities but risks harming ordinary people, making responsibility inseparable from strength.
• Failed ambition and lost opportunity: The Daoist’s interrupted ascent and the escaped Tai Sui show how plans can collapse at the final hurdle.
• Changing eras and legitimacy: Lin Feng views the old gods and spirits as needing to adapt to the new order—or face suppression.
• Hidden motives and uncertain alliances: The Mother of Heaven’s intervention and Yu Lei’s hesitation suggest that apparent enemies and allies may conceal deeper ties.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Feng witnesses the Old Sheepskin Boatman’s apparent suicide and Daoist Qingqi’s spiritual collapse. The “Mother of Heaven” possesses Qingqi, turning his pure qi into feathers and maggots before he dissolves into filthy qi.
• Lin Feng realizes the Mother of Heaven had been pursuing her own plan all along and sees him as the final obstacle. When she attacks, he captures a trace of her essence in a clay jar, then reverses the local feng shui and suppresses her power.
• Using the area’s earth qi, Lin Feng rides a giant alligator to Hongzhou and announces himself as Imperial Guard Lin Youzhi, acting under Lord Xia’s orders. He kills the Three Mountains Recluse; the nearby wildland deities flee. His mission counter advances to completion, apparently because Daoist Liang has surrendered by some unexplained means.
• The event creates a supernatural disturbance across Hongzhou: household gods withdraw, officials’ seals react, and people dream of a divine temple associated with “Zuan.” Xia Song hears Lin Feng’s proclamation but remains unconcerned, absorbed in thoughts of returning to Bianjing. His old servant, however, senses that Lin Feng’s power is abnormal.
• Afterward, Lin Feng receives three new Historian clues: a vanished feng shui master and an unknown post road in Weizhou; a “Mother of Heaven” spirit-possession incident in Shuzhong; and mysterious moonlit ruins in the desert connected to Menzang E’pang and the White-Haired Wind.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng proves able to withstand and redirect enormous feng shui forces, though doing so exposes him to severe backlash. He gains a clearer understanding of the risks and limits of feng shui practice. His playful use of the alias “Lin Youzhi” lets him claim the power while disavowing responsibility as Lin Feng.
• Daoist Qingqi fails to confront his inner “true self” and is consumed by the Mother of Heaven, demonstrating the failure of his spiritual discipline.
• The Mother of Heaven is revealed as a schemer, not simply an evil presence Qingqi might have subdued. She tries to flee after Lin Feng disrupts her plan but is crushed by his counterattack.
• The Three Mountains Recluse becomes an unexpected target of Lin Feng’s public mission and is killed before he can understand why.
• Xia Song appears confident and detached, treating the upheaval as no reason to interrupt his private routine. His servant is more perceptive and recognizes Lin Feng as a threat to the expected order.
• Lin Feng’s choices are now shaped by practical connections: the Weizhou clue may strengthen his Vertical Eye, while the Shuzhong clue may help with Professor Han and concerns the Mother of Heaven.

Significant themes

• Inner discipline and self-knowledge: Qingqi’s downfall follows from his failure to face his true self.
• Power and peril: Feng shui can command the forces of nature, but even skilled practitioners risk catastrophic backlash.
• Hidden plans and shifting interpretations: What seemed like Qingqi’s corruption becomes evidence of the Mother of Heaven’s longer scheme.
• Identity and responsibility: Lin Feng separates himself from his public actions through his “Lin Youzhi” persona.
• Foreshadowing and choice: The three clues open distinct paths, each tied to unresolved supernatural mysteries and possible future dangers.

Chapter summary

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng weighs three possible paths: the Feng Shui Master’s legacy in Weizhou, the Heavenly Mother Banquet Painting’s Shuzhong, and a dangerous desert expedition. He chooses to investigate the deep mountains of Shuzhong first. A desert ruin, reportedly revealed by the steppe disaster known as the White-Haired Wind, remains a possible future pursuit.
• While Hong Ni arranges specialized expedition gear, Lin Feng studies the White-Haired Wind and concludes that the desert trip would be perilous: the blizzard can disorient and freeze travelers, and the game gives no clues about what makes the ruins worth seeking.
• Lin Feng tries to simulate the Giant Alligator Demon-Subduing Art on a bronze geomantic model. He finds that the technique depends on living momentum and “qi,” so it cannot be reproduced on an inanimate simulation.
• Taking advantage of the equipment-delivery delay, Lin Feng crafts a great brass urn intended to be at least an Eighth Rank magical artifact. He uses concentrated intent, human aura, borrowed incense, and inscriptions based on four of the Land God’s Six Tones. He plans to seal it with strips rather than permanently encase it in copper.
• Lin Feng uses Gamalang’s Mediumship Potion and the meteorite Sky Pearl to probe the heavens and investigate the Root Teacher before entering Shuzhong. This brings him into contact with Calamity Hound mastiffs and the Spiritual Master.
• The Witch Cult’s ox-headed ritual-altar protector confronts the Spiritual Master, binding him with blood-red Joss Paper. The mastiffs react; one summons a Golden Retriever, apparently after killing its owner. The Spiritual Master transforms into a huge, flame-covered mastiff, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains methodical and adaptable. He tests the limits of a technique, plans dangerous journeys carefully, and uses the waiting period to prepare powerful equipment and gather intelligence.
• Hong Ni returns with expedition preparations underway; her expertise and contacts mean the gear should arrive in about three days. She readily lends Lin Feng the Sky Pearl, showing her trust in him.
• The ox-headed Witch Cult protector has gained authority over the Haunted Village and now acts like its village chief. He uses that power to restrain the Spiritual Master.
• The Spiritual Master shifts from observing Lin Feng to being attacked by the ox-headed protector. The Calamity Hounds’ behavior suggests some connection or loyalty to him, though one reluctantly leaves to fetch the Golden Retriever.
• Lin Feng’s forces—the Pioneer General and the merit officers—stand ready to protect him during the ritual work.

Significant themes

• Preparation amid uncertainty: Lin Feng must choose between enticing opportunities without having complete information.
• The limits of imitation: A technique rooted in living “qi” cannot be recreated through mechanical simulation alone.
• Rules versus the uncanny: Ghosts follow rules, while uncanny entities distort time and logic. Bringing structure to the Haunted Village gives its protector greater command over it.
• Power and influence: Lin Feng’s condensed intent functions almost like a decree, shaping people’s responses and enabling his magical work.
• Dangerous bonds and loyalty: The mastiffs’ reactions to the Spiritual Master hint at relationships that may carry a cost.

Key plot points and events

• Through mediumship, Lin Feng witnesses Lhazhang Ancient Temple consumed by supernatural flames. The Root Teacher remains alive at the center, flames pouring from his body, while the temple’s elders and Spiritual Masters willingly burn alongside him. Lin Feng concludes that the temple was deliberately destroyed by its own leadership and wonders what it worshipped.
• The Root Teacher wears the same Sky Pearls Lin Feng now owns. The flames seem powerful enough to help Lin Feng further refine himself, but the vision ends before he can test them.
• Back in the present, Lin Feng finds Golden Fur and the bull-headed Witch Cult Dharma Protector amid signs of a violent fight. Golden Fur flees after Lin Feng draws in a woman’s captive soul. A corpse-aura-filled Human-Faced Owl then attacks from the moon; Lin Feng kills it and retrieves a scroll marked “Talismanic Suppression.”
• Suspecting a Great Tomb nearby, Lin Feng compares the owl with Professor Han’s drawing, which depicts a vastly larger creature. He completes a great brass urn, studies the local feng shui, and obtains Jianmu and materials for setting up Formation Banners.
• The chapter then introduces another expedition already entering the mountains: a grave-robbing party divided into three factions. Its leader is a casually dressed young man accompanied by two armed men; a hard-bitten outlaw leads another group; and a third group appears to be foreign enthusiasts of anomalous creatures. They had once sought to fund Xun Yanyu’s research, but she refused.

Character developments

• Lin Feng grows more curious about Lhazhang’s destruction and recognizes the flames as a possible means of strengthening himself. He remains cautious and methodical, investigating the owl, tomb clues, and feng shui rather than rushing ahead.
• Golden Fur is shown to be ferocious and murderous, but its motives remain unclear.
• The Root Teacher is revealed as an ordinary-looking yet extraordinary figure at the heart of the temple’s fiery destruction; his fate and the purpose of the ritual remain mysterious.
• The mountain expedition’s members are characterized as risky and mistrustful: the outlaw appears especially ruthless, while the young leader’s casual appearance contrasts with the armed guards around him.

Significant themes

• Ritual, sacrifice, and religious mystery: Lhazhang’s leaders accept destruction, raising questions about their faith and the object of their worship.
• Danger and ambition: Lin Feng seeks power through dangerous forces, while grave robbers risk their lives for wealth or opportunity.
• Trust and survival: The expedition’s divided factions reflect the treachery common in grave robbing, where alliances are fragile and danger may come from companions as well as the wilderness.
• The supernatural as an uncertain frontier: The owl, the Great Tomb, and the temple flames suggest forces whose scale and meaning are not yet understood.

Character interactions

• Lin Feng observes the temple’s leaders united in their apparent acceptance of the flames, then returns to a tense encounter with Golden Fur and the Dharma Protector.
• He captures the soul Golden Fur had been holding, but Golden Fur escapes, leaving Lin Feng with unresolved questions about the pursuit.
• Lin Feng kills the attacking owl and examines its scroll, connecting it to the possibility of a nearby tomb.
• The incoming expedition’s three factions travel together despite their likely mistrust, setting up potential conflict between the armed young man’s party, the outlaw’s men, and the foreign anomaly-seekers.

Plot points and events

• A group of more than forty high-ranking operatives enters the mountains in search of alleged ancient ruins. The team includes John, representing the Life and Prehistoric Science Association; wanted criminal Black Vajra and his men; and Mr. Luo, hired as their guide.
• Mr. Luo uses a geomantic compass and divination to choose their route. Lin Feng, who has overheard the group, recognizes signs of the Law Teachings in Mr. Luo’s methods and follows with Hong Ni.
• Lin Feng questions Hong Ni about her earlier trip into the mountains. Her memories of a farmhouse, an old village, and the Tea Horse Road become hazy and disturbing. He discovers the tourist site she described does not exist; Hong Ni recalls that she and her companions ate strange food there and feels sickened by the memory.
• Before entering the deeper mountains, Mr. Luo performs a ritual honoring Wang Lingguan. Black Vajra recognizes the heavy metal object he carries as a Tianpeng Ruler, a powerful ritual implement that could also serve as a formidable weapon.
• The group walks for hours, apparently circling through the mountains. Mr. Luo remains tireless and composed, repeatedly checking his compass. When rain begins, he announces that they have arrived.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng is cautious and perceptive: he identifies Mr. Luo’s spiritual lineage, spots the inconsistencies in Hong Ni’s memories, and decides to follow the expedition rather than enter the mountains alone.
• Hong Ni begins regaining clarity around Lin Feng, but her recollections grow less coherent and reveal a frightening possibility: her earlier experience may have involved a fabricated place and disturbing food.
• Mr. Luo is introduced as an accomplished, enigmatic guide. He insists he is responsible only for showing the way, yet his ritual skill, strength, and stamina command respect.
• Black Vajra is a wanted criminal who is wary of Mr. Luo’s capabilities and quietly recognizes the danger of the Tianpeng Ruler. He keeps his observations from his men.
• John relies on Mr. Luo’s expertise and coordinates the expedition, while Black Vajra promises security and protection.

Significant themes

• Ambition and immortality: Powerful organizations pursue supernatural lore and advanced technology in hopes of extending life.
• Unreliable memory and hidden danger: Hong Ni’s fading recollections suggest that the mountains may distort perception or conceal a sinister past.
• The supernatural beneath the ordinary: Divination, ritual objects, and geomancy guide an ostensibly organized expedition.
• Trust and concealed motives: The association, criminals, and spiritual guide cooperate, but each appears to have different aims and reasons for caution.

Plot and events

• In a rain-soaked mountain pass, Mr. Luo leads Black Vajra’s party to a distortion in the landscape. He insists Black Vajra send someone through first; Xiao Qi enters and returns unharmed, reporting a village beyond. John confirms there is a village, though he disputes Xiao Qi’s claim that it is Miao.
• Lin Feng and Hong Ni follow. Lin Feng identifies the settlement as Qiang and recognizes that the group has entered a vast, human-shaped tomb arranged like an altar. Its fifteen sacrificial pits represent the body’s organs and limbs; the path is the throat, and the village a lung. The tomb is far grander than its apparent status warrants, and its location may explain why the Sky Pearl has sensed its former master.
• Lin Feng suspects the village’s name, “Tea Horse Road,” has been imposed rather than remembered. He also realizes Hong Ni previously ate the villagers’ gruel, which contains concentrated resentment. An elderly woman offers him a bowl, but he refuses; Hong Ni sees the gruel’s true nature and vomits. Lin Feng’s spirits move into the village as he waits for events to unfold.
• At night, Mr. Luo gathers John and the others and presses them to share what they know before entering the mountains. He interprets the village’s painted “stories” as depicting King Mu of Zhou’s Eight Steeds and a campaign against the Dog Rong, while cautioning that the images may be distorted or sinister rather than historical.
• Mr. Luo warns that refusing the village’s food will not protect them. In a room where Black Vajra’s men had been staying, John steps on a huge, colorful caterpillar. Mr. Luo reveals that the missing men have been transformed into insects—and that this is only the beginning.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains analytical and self-assured, using his spiritual vision to map the tomb and identify the danger. He protects Hong Ni but also bluntly points out how fortunate she is to have survived eating the gruel.
• Hong Ni is frightened by their impossible passage and the village’s supernatural reality. Her earlier visit has left her vulnerable, and the sight of the gruel’s contents overwhelms her.
• Mr. Luo emerges as knowledgeable and calculating. He controls the expedition’s progress, compels Black Vajra to send Xiao Qi ahead, and later challenges John to disclose his information. His apparent calm gives way briefly to a ghostly, unsettling presence.
• John is fascinated by the spatial distortion and eager to explore, but he dismisses Xiao Qi’s identification of the village. He remains evasive when Mr. Luo demands information, then becomes horrified when confronted with the transformed men.
• Black Vajra is wary of the expedition and suspects the mission will be costly. He obeys Mr. Luo’s demand to send Xiao Qi forward, then pulls Xiao Qi back when John insults him.
• The old woman and villagers appear hospitable, offering food and selling embroidery, but their ceremonial dress and the resentment in the gruel reveal a sinister purpose.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: The village’s welcoming surface conceals a supernatural trap; its “food,” stories, and even its name are unreliable.
• Power and hierarchy: The tomb’s scale seems to exceed the rank of its presumed occupant, while Mr. Luo uses authority and expertise to control the expedition.
• Burial, servitude, and dehumanization: The sacrificial victims are treated as possessions in death as they were in life, and the transformed men suggest the tomb strips people of their humanity.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Historical texts and ritual expertise provide clues, but Mr. Luo acknowledges that the village’s depictions may be distorted and that the danger is only beginning.

Plot points and events

• Lin Feng keeps vigil outside the Stockade through a night that never ends. The Haunted Village shields Hong Ni, while strange spirits and processions roam the Tea Horse Road. A sound from the Di Ting statue at Hong Ni’s neck drives the watchers away.
• Lin Feng reviews clues about the place: several of the “shipwreck bros” have vanished, the sacrificial pit lacks bones, and the Human-Faced Owl is absent. A waterlogged doglike creature appears carrying a corpse-stinking hand with a large seal, apparently trying to lure him; Lin Feng refuses to take the bait.
• Hong Ni wakes, and Lin Feng explains that dawn is being withheld because people remain alive in the Stockade. Her ancestors’ protection, he says, is why she survived her earlier visit. He notes that her family’s blessings are unusually strong.
• When the moon disappears, a Golden Crow rises over a distant tree. Lin Feng sees that the scene is a grotesque imitation: the bird is a stitched corpse, and the “divine tree” is long dead. He heads toward the Stockade with Hong Ni.
• Mr. Luo’s group emerges from a deadly encounter with the female shamans, with roughly half their members lost. One survivor has become a half-human, half-caterpillar monster. Mr. Luo kills it with the Tianpeng Ruler, using powerful ritual incantations and a shattered copper coin.
• The Spider Grannies appear as the Stockade’s monstrous guardians. Lin Feng recognizes their actions as part of a sacrifice ritual: checking in, eating, and transforming into insects are prescribed steps. As the grannies pursue the fleeing survivors, Mr. Luo orders everyone to fire. Lin Feng instead leads Hong Ni into the Stockade, where poison slime and still-twitching crushed insects cover the ground.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Feng remains composed and observant, relying on his abilities rather than reacting to the night’s horrors. He recognizes that the apparent sunrise and divine imagery are fraudulent, and begins to understand the Stockade’s ritual logic. He gives Hong Ni blunt but reassuring explanations, then pulls her toward the Stockade despite her fear.
• Hong Ni wakes confused and frightened, realizing that her survival was due to ancestral protection. Her Di Ting statue unexpectedly helps repel the night’s watchers. She depends on Lin Feng as the crisis escalates.
• Mr. Luo proves capable and decisive, wielding the Tianpeng Ruler and ritual spells to kill the transformed man. Yet he is frightened by the Spider Grannies and prioritizes escape, ordering the group to fight rather than stay behind.
• John is horrified by the shamans’ insect transformations but has kept Mr. Luo alive and drags him out. The surviving group is fearful and divided by self-preservation; Black Vajra and others join the fight with firearms and an iron slingshot.
• The Spider Grannies shift from seemingly harmless old women to active predators, while the “Golden Retriever” behaves like a lure, testing Lin Feng’s restraint.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and ritual: The Stockade’s horrors follow an organized sequence rather than random violence; failed steps appear to require replacement.
• Appearance versus reality: The sunrise, Golden Crow, and sacred tree imitate divine imagery while concealing death and decay.
• Protection, inheritance, and obligation: Hong Ni’s survival is tied to her ancestors and family blessings, suggesting that inherited protection can be powerful but also comes with hidden stakes.
• Fear and composure: Ordinary people are overwhelmed by the transformations and monsters, while Lin Feng’s calm observation helps him identify patterns and choose his next move.