Chapter Summaries

Chapter summary

Key plot points

• On the Ghost Festival, Li Yichen visits Good Karma Hall to buy two candles, three sticks of dragon incense, and three old copper coins. The purchase costs nearly all his monthly allowance.
• The shop’s elderly owner hints that Li’s planned destination may be an abandoned White Temple in the west of the city. He refuses to explain further, saying he only wants to form a good karmic connection.
• After Li leaves, the owner senses both auspicious divine radiance and a netherworld aura around him, and speculates that Li may be connected to an important underworld figure.
• At Jinling University, Li’s three roommates tease him about the upcoming freshman welcome and their failed attempts to become orientation volunteers. Their joking is affectionate: they regularly share food with him because they know he is poor.
• Li works his usual evening shift at the campus parcel station. The manager, Sister Wang, pays him early because she is transferring the business to care for her injured husband. Li learns the job that has helped support him will soon be gone.
• Despite the late hour and the Ghost Festival, Li rides away from campus rather than returning to his dorm, apparently to carry out his undisclosed plan.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Yichen is hardworking, financially strained, and reluctant to accept help, but he clearly values the kindness of his roommates and Sister Wang. His purchase of the ritual items—and his decision to go out alone on the Ghost Festival—suggests he is pursuing something serious and possibly supernatural.
• The shopkeeper appears perceptive and knowledgeable about the occult. He offers Li a cryptic lead while keeping his own knowledge guarded.
• Li’s roommates show their brotherly affection through teasing and by giving him the best food. Their humor contrasts with Li’s worries about money and responsibilities.
• Sister Wang treats Li warmly and recognizes how much he has helped her. Her decision to leave is driven by family duty, echoing the chapter’s emphasis on caring for people over earning money.

Significant themes

• Kindness and reciprocal care: Li receives practical, unshowy support from friends and coworkers, while Sister Wang puts her husband’s needs ahead of her business.
• Poverty and responsibility: Li carefully weighs even small expenses and works long hours to cover his living costs.
• Fate and the supernatural: The Ghost Festival, ritual supplies, the White Temple, and the shopkeeper’s reading of Li’s aura establish an ominous spiritual mystery.
• Belonging and contrast: The roommates’ lively campus banter provides warmth and normality against Li’s secretive, potentially dangerous nighttime errand.

Plot points and events

• Li Yichen rides for two hours to reach the ruined White Temple, crashes into a large road hole, and abandons his badly damaged bicycle.
• At the temple, he accidentally brings down the last intact courtyard wall. Undeterred by the eerie cold and ghostly atmosphere, he prepares a midnight ritual using candles, copper coins, and Dragon Incense.
• He follows the inherited rite: bloodies and lights the incense, places it in the coins, and performs the Seven-Star Steps. The incense smoke forms three red-lit dragons; the coins become golden light that guides them into the phantom world within the candle flames.
• Li Yichen is left unsure what the ritual accomplishes. He knows it is a male-line family duty, meant to continue until 99,999 incense sticks have been offered, but he is now the last surviving member of his line. He decides to sleep at the temple.
• Meanwhile, the three dragons travel into the Netherworld. Their golden protection fades in the death energy, but they flare red and race toward an unknown destination. In a dark cave, a young man in black senses their arrival; after briefly shaking the surrounding mountains, he stills them, and the three lights appear before him.

Character developments

• Li Yichen is irreverent, practical, and easily frustrated, but he faithfully carries out a mysterious family tradition despite not understanding it. His awareness that he may be the last of his lineage adds a note of loneliness and uncertainty.
• The young man in black is introduced as a powerful, enigmatic figure, capable of halting a mountain’s violent tremors with a casual gesture.

Character interactions

• Li Yichen recalls his grandfather’s explanation of the ritual: it was inherited from distant ancestors and must be continued by every male descendant.
• The young man in the cave has no direct exchange with Li Yichen, but the arrival of the three dragons appears to connect them indirectly.

Significant themes

• Inherited duty and tradition: Li Yichen performs a rite whose purpose has been forgotten, bound to a vast ancestral obligation.
• Fate and the supernatural: The ritual sends tangible, mysterious forces into the Netherworld, suggesting consequences beyond Li Yichen’s understanding.
• Isolation and uncertainty: Li Yichen is alone in his family line and cannot know what the rite—or the dragons—will ultimately mean.

Plot points and events

• After gathering the final three blood-red drops needed to reach a total of 99,999, Li Haoran completes a cultivation breakthrough and attains the imperial rank. His ascension causes dramatic upheaval across the Netherworld, followed by an imperial aura that makes its ghosts bow.
• The Ten Kings of Hell congratulate him. Li Haoran introduces himself by name and declines any role in governing the Netherworld, saying he intends to pursue the Heavenly Dao instead.
• The Kings are relieved that he will not challenge their longstanding control of the courts. To welcome him and establish goodwill, King Qin Guang gives him three pieces of Netherworld Soul Jade. Though rare, the crystals’ greatest value is their ability to give an ordinary person a ghost body with immense potential.
• Li Haoran accepts the gift, recognizing that refusing it could create distrust. The underworld officials arrive and are instructed that his decrees carry the same authority as the laws of the ten courts.
• After the Kings depart, Li Haoran hurries to return to the mortal world and check on his descendants, whom he has not seen during a thousand years of cultivation. He disguises himself as a white-robed scholar and tears open space to leave.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Haoran emerges as powerful yet independent: he accepts recognition and diplomatic courtesies but refuses administrative duties, prioritizing his own cultivation and family.
• The Ten Kings balance respect for his new rank with concern over losing influence. Their relief when he declines governance reveals their attachment to power.
• King Yama mistakenly assumes Li Haoran will share administrative responsibilities, prompting the other Kings’ awkward silence. King Qin Guang then formalizes Li Haoran’s authority over the underworld officials, signaling the Kings’ goodwill.
• Li Haoran and the Kings maintain cordial relations through congratulations, an invitation to celebrate, and the gift of Soul Jade.

Significant themes

• Power and authority: Li Haoran’s ascension reshapes the Netherworld’s hierarchy, even though he chooses not to govern.
• Political self-interest and diplomacy: The Kings’ generosity and warmth coexist with their desire to preserve their control.
• Freedom versus responsibility: Li Haoran rejects office to follow his own path.
• Family and time: After a millennium devoted to cultivation, his first concern is the well-being of his descendants.

Key plot points and events

• The Netherworld rulers discuss Ghost Emperor Haoran after meeting him. King Qin Guang advises caution but says they should seek peaceful relations unless Haoran becomes a threat.
• King Yama privately tells Black and White Impermanence to watch for Haoran’s descendants in the Mortal Realm and cultivate a connection, hoping to benefit from the powerful family link.
• Haoran returns to the White Temple, reflects that the world’s diminished spiritual energy and increased foul energy favor ghost cultivation, and notices Li Yichen, whose bloodline makes him feel a strong kinship.
• Haoran realizes Li Yichen offered him incense and decides to reward him as his great-grandfather. While examining him, he wakes Li Yichen, who mistakes the contact for a prank and then suspects Haoran is threatening him.
• Li Yichen tries to trick Haoran into turning away and attacks him with a brick. The brick breaks against Haoran’s head without harming him.
• Haoran explains that Li Yichen is his tenth-generation descendant. Li Yichen understands that Haoran is a ghost and flees, but Haoran freezes the space around him, stopping him.

Character developments

• King Qin Guang presents himself as wary but confident, favoring diplomacy backed by readiness to use force.
• King Yama shows political cunning: he sees Haoran’s descendants as a chance to secure a valuable favor.
• Haoran is powerful and self-assured, but also affectionate toward Li Yichen and eager to act as a generous ancestor. His pride is quickly offended by Li Yichen’s disrespect.
• Li Yichen is comic, suspicious, and resourceful under pressure: he hides a brick, attempts a deception, and attacks when he thinks he has an opening. His courage collapses into panic once he realizes Haoran is a ghost.

Significant themes

• Power and diplomacy: The Netherworld kings weigh peaceful coexistence against the possibility of conflict with Haoran.
• Family and obligation: Haoran’s blood connection prompts him to protect and reward Li Yichen, while Yama hopes the family link can be exploited for political advantage.
• A supernatural world in transition: Haoran’s observations suggest that changing conditions may usher in an age favorable to ghost cultivation.
• Comedy through mismatched perspectives: Haoran treats Li Yichen as a beloved descendant; Li Yichen sees a creepy stranger and reacts with modern slang and improvised violence.

Character interactions

• The Netherworld kings agree on approaching Haoran cautiously, while Yama separately gives Black and White Impermanence a chance to build a connection through Haoran’s family.
• Haoran approaches Li Yichen with affection and curiosity, but Li Yichen responds with fear, insults, deception, and a brick attack.
• Haoran patiently explains their relationship, then uses his supernatural power to stop Li Yichen from escaping.

Plot points and events

• Li Yichen runs into his great-grandfather, the Haoran Ghost Emperor, and fears he has come to take him to the underworld. The ghost emperor says he is only visiting the mortal world.
• The Haoran Ghost Emperor learns that his family line has nearly vanished: only Li Yichen and his father remain. He is devastated, recalling how prosperous the clan was a thousand years earlier.
• His grief triggers an unnatural snowfall confined to the area around them. Li Yichen realizes the ghost emperor has immense supernatural power and hopes to get something valuable from him.
• Li Yichen consoles his great-grandfather by pointing out that other family lines have disappeared altogether. The ghost emperor takes heart, frees Li Yichen from the force holding him still, and declares that Li Yichen must continue the family line.
• When Li Yichen explains that he is single and too poor to attract a partner, he asks for money. The Haoran Ghost Emperor admits, to both their embarrassment, that he is broke.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Yichen shifts from fear to relief, then to opportunistic excitement as he recognizes his great-grandfather’s power. He also becomes more confident once he learns he is the family’s last young male descendant, using his poverty to negotiate.
• The Haoran Ghost Emperor moves from irritation and pride to deep sorrow over his dwindling descendants, then finds renewed purpose in Li Yichen. Despite his vast supernatural power and authority, he cannot fulfill Li Yichen’s practical request for money.
• Their relationship is comic and affectionate: the ghost emperor treats Li Yichen as a precious heir and issues a blunt command about continuing the family, while Li Yichen responds with irreverent questions and attempts to secure financial help.

Significant themes

• Family legacy and survival: The near-extinction of the Li line weighs heavily on the ghost emperor, who sees Li Yichen as its last hope.
• The passage of time and loss: A thousand years of change—including war and upheaval—has transformed a once-prosperous clan into a tiny remnant.
• Power versus practical hardship: The ghost emperor can alter the weather and restrain Li Yichen, yet neither his power nor status solves the immediate problem of money.
• Comedy through contrast: The supernatural grandeur of the Ghost Emperor clashes with Li Yichen’s everyday concerns about poverty, dating, and supporting a partner—and ends with the ghost emperor’s unexpected confession that he is broke.

Key plot points and events

• Li Yichen and the Haoran Ghost Emperor discover that neither has money. The Ghost Emperor, despite his lofty cultivation, admits he is broke.
• Li suggests learning supernatural skills to earn money, prompting the Ghost Emperor to offer him a cultivation method instead.
• The Ghost Emperor introduces the Great Netherworld Scripture, a powerful technique he found while traveling.
• He explains that the Li family’s elaborate incense ritual is Blood-Led Incense Burning, an ancient shamanic practice that works only for blood relatives. Each stick of incense gives the recipient a year’s worth of cultivation.
• The Ghost Emperor examines Li and declares him a poor natural cultivator. He proposes transforming Li’s constitution into a Netherworld Ghost Body, which would make practicing the Scripture far more efficient.
• Li initially fears becoming an actual ghost, but agrees once the Ghost Emperor clarifies that he will keep his physical body and remain outwardly ordinary. The Ghost Emperor prepares Netherworld Soul Jade to begin the transformation.

Character development

• Li Yichen shifts from frustrated and skeptical to eager once he hears about cultivation, supernatural abilities, and the benefits of the family’s incense ritual. His concern for romance and continuing the family line shapes his reactions.
• The Haoran Ghost Emperor reveals that his immense spiritual status does not mean material wealth. He is impatient and prone to smacking Li, but also protective of the family and determined to help his descendant overcome his lack of talent.

Significant themes

• Power versus practical needs: Even a Ghost Emperor’s spiritual achievements cannot solve ordinary problems like having no money.
• Family legacy and bloodline: The incense ritual depends on shared ancestry, and the Ghost Emperor’s plans are tied to ensuring the Li family continues.
• Cultivation as effort—and advantage: The Ghost Emperor emphasizes diligence, while the bloodline ritual and proposed body transformation offer extraordinary shortcuts.
• Humor through mismatched priorities: Li’s focus on money, girls, and physical consequences contrasts with the Ghost Emperor’s cultivation ambitions.

Character interactions

• Li teases the Ghost Emperor about being broke and repeatedly challenges his claims and explanations.
• The Ghost Emperor responds with stern lectures and comic head-smacks, yet continues trying to guide Li.
• Their exchanges show a blunt, quarrelsome but familial bond: Li complains and doubts, while the Ghost Emperor scolds him and looks after the family’s future.

Key plot points and events

• The Haoran Ghost Emperor uses the Netherworld Soul Jade to transform Li Yichen’s body. Li endures extreme cold, then agonizing pain as his flesh and bones become transparent; the Ghost Emperor intervenes with healing energy when his skeleton nears collapse.
• Li wakes to discover he can see clearly in the dark. The Ghost Emperor explains that Li now has a netherworld ghost body, making him partly a ghost cultivator.
• The body is unusually durable, improves Li’s cultivation of the Great Netherworld Scripture, and can shift between ghost and human forms.
• The Ghost Emperor reveals Li’s two innate abilities: Intangibility, which grants invisibility, protection from physical attacks, and passage through solid objects; and Mind Control, which can control another person’s body or let Li enter their dreams.
• He teaches Li the Great Netherworld Scripture, places a talisman seal on his forehead so they can communicate, and prepares to leave.
• Li stops him—not to say goodbye, but to ask for a ride back to school. The Ghost Emperor erupts in annoyance.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Yichen survives a painful transformation and quickly shifts from confusion to excitement about his new powers. His enthusiasm, especially his thoughts about using Intangibility to pursue women, shows his immature and opportunistic streak.
• The Haoran Ghost Emperor acts as a protective ancestor, closely monitoring Li and rescuing him when the transformation becomes dangerous. He is also proud of his gift and teaching, but repeatedly exasperated by Li’s irreverence.
• Their relationship mixes genuine care with comic bickering: the Ghost Emperor mistakes Li’s interruption for affection, only to learn Li wants practical transportation.

Significant themes

• Power comes at a cost: Li’s new abilities are gained through severe physical suffering.
• Inheritance and mentorship: The Ghost Emperor passes on both a transformed body and a cultivation technique to his descendant.
• Humor amid supernatural danger: Li’s blunt, self-serving reactions contrast with the grave transformation and the Ghost Emperor’s solemn intentions.

Plot points and events

• The Haoran Ghost Emperor flies Li Yichen back to Jinling University at terrifying speed, leaving Li Yichen nauseated and resentful.
• Playing on the Ghost Emperor’s concern for him, Li Yichen persuades him to provide magical power. The Ghost Emperor gives him ten years’ worth, warning him not to rely too much on outside help.
• Li Yichen channels the power through the Great Netherworld Scripture. In half an hour, he absorbs it, and his body becomes taller, muscular, and more handsome.
• When Li Yichen asks for more power, the Ghost Emperor refuses—but offers ten years’ worth for every additional girlfriend Li Yichen acquires. They bargain and settle on fifty years per girlfriend.
• The Ghost Emperor warns that Li Yichen can maintain his netherworld ghost body for only thirty minutes, then departs. Li Yichen tests the ability and finds he can sustain it for just over thirty-one minutes.
• On his way back to campus, Li Yichen greets an old woman eating by the roadside. Her head suddenly drops into her bowl, and she asks whether he can see her.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Yichen remains cheeky, opportunistic, and eager to bargain, but he also shows discipline by following the Ghost Emperor’s instructions and successfully absorbing the power. His new strength and ghost-body ability make him more confident—and his thoughts about earning power through dating reveal his shallow, flirtatious ambitions.
• The Haoran Ghost Emperor acts like a stern but indulgent great-grandfather: he teases and scolds Li Yichen, gives him a limited power boost, and sets conditions rather than simply granting more.
• Their exchanges are playful and transactional, with Li Yichen pushing for benefits and the Ghost Emperor maintaining boundaries.
• The final encounter introduces a potentially supernatural stranger, suggesting Li Yichen’s newly heightened abilities may be drawing him into further ghostly events.

Significant themes

• Power and consequences: The Ghost Emperor insists that gifts have a cost and that Li Yichen must cultivate rather than depend on handouts.
• Mentorship and limits: The Ghost Emperor helps Li Yichen while setting firm restrictions, balancing care with discipline.
• Comic ambition: Li Yichen’s bargaining and eagerness to turn romance into a source of power provide much of the chapter’s humor.
• The supernatural entering ordinary life: A casual walk back to campus ends with a startling ghostly revelation.

Plot points

• Li Yichen flees in panic after encountering a talking severed head, despite now being a ghost cultivator.
• Ouyang Xuanxuan drives alone to register at Jinling University. Her worried mother calls to scold her, while her father encourages her to let their daughter grow up.
• At an intersection, Li Yichen runs into the path of Xuanxuan’s red sports car. She brakes and swerves, but still hits him.
• Li briefly moves, leading Xuanxuan to think he may be alive, then spits blood and dies. His spirit rises from his body, and he tries to urge the distraught Xuanxuan to help him.
• Black and White Impermanence arrive, intending to watch for the Haoran Ghost Emperor’s descendant, whom they believe is at Jinling University. Spotting Li’s corpse, they decide to take his soul in.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Yichen remains frightened and impulsive despite his supernatural status. After the collision, he becomes a ghost but is frustrated that Xuanxuan’s grief prevents her from hearing or helping him.
• Ouyang Xuanxuan is eager for independence but still inexperienced. Her mother’s anxious call reveals their close, emotionally intense relationship; her father tries to calm his wife and support Xuanxuan’s independence. After the accident, Xuanxuan panics and feels guilty, believing she has killed Li.
• White Impermanence (Xie) is confident and scheming, having tracked the Ghost Emperor’s descendant through Judge Cui, though he has not confirmed the name.
• Black Impermanence (Fan) is blunt and mischievous, and jokes about punishing Li because he is handsome. The brothers’ banter shows their familiarity and contrasting temperaments.

Significant themes

• The boundary between life and death: Li’s sudden death turns him from a living cultivator into a spirit, while the arrival of the Impermanence officials makes the afterlife feel immediate and bureaucratic.
• Independence and parental anxiety: Xuanxuan’s journey to university contrasts her desire for freedom with her mother’s fear of letting go.
• Irony and dark comedy: A panicked attempt to escape one ghostly encounter ends with Li’s death, while the grim business of collecting souls is treated with casual humor.

Plot points and events

• After running over Li Yichen, Ouyang Xuanxuan drags his unconscious body from her car and tries to revive him.
• She tears open his shirt, performs chest compressions, and is about to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Li Yichen, who is secretly conscious, welcomes the attention.
• Black and White Impermanence arrive to take Li Yichen to the Underworld, saying his allotted lifespan has ended.
• Li Yichen tries to avoid being taken by flattering the two officials and giving them his name and background.
• When they realize he is the descendant of the Haoran Ghost Emperor—and that his great-grandfather has just returned—their attitude changes completely. They bow and hail him as “Young Master Yichen.”

Character developments

• Li Yichen is revealed to be conscious despite appearing dead. He is irreverent, flirtatious, quick-thinking, and willing to flatter his way out of danger.
• Ouyang Xuanxuan shifts from shock and grief to urgent attempts to save Li Yichen. Her attraction to his looks makes the rescue awkward and comic.
• Black and White Impermanence begin as intimidating, self-assured officials, but become anxious and deferential once they learn Li Yichen’s identity.

Character interactions

• Ouyang Xuanxuan’s earnest rescue attempts contrast with Li Yichen’s amused inner commentary.
• Li Yichen flatters the Underworld officials, hoping their commitment to justice will make them check his record.
• A misunderstanding over his name connects him to the Haoran Ghost Emperor, prompting the officials’ abrupt, respectful reversal.

Significant themes

• Comedy through dramatic irony: Li Yichen is aware of events while everyone else thinks he is helpless or dead.
• Power and status: The officials’ behavior changes instantly when they discover his influential ancestry.
• Improvisation and survival: Li Yichen uses charm and quick thinking to respond to a seemingly fatal situation.

Plot points and events

• Black and White Impermanence recognize Li Yichen as the descendant of the powerful Haoran Ghost Emperor and treat him with unusual deference.
• Li Yichen asks them to set aside his family connection and address him normally; after some negotiation, they settle on “Brother Yichen.”
• Learning that Ouyang Xuanxuan accidentally struck Li Yichen with her car, Black Impermanence tries to seize her soul. Li Yichen and White Impermanence stop him.
• Li Yichen chooses to return to his body rather than visit the Underworld. White Impermanence sends his soul back while Ouyang is attempting CPR.
• As Li Yichen revives, he instinctively kisses Ouyang. She thinks he deliberately took advantage of her and bites his lower lip before realizing he is awake.
• Ouyang suddenly remembers something and rushes to her car. Black and White Impermanence depart, pleased that Li Yichen may tell his great-grandfather how they helped him.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Yichen remains polite and modest despite his newfound connection to a powerful Ghost Emperor. He is also opportunistic and amused by Ouyang’s mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, though he denies taking advantage of her.
• Ouyang Xuanxuan is frantic with guilt and desperation as she tries to revive Li Yichen. When he unexpectedly kisses her, she reacts angrily and bites him; then she abruptly runs to her car.
• Black and White Impermanence shift from formal respect to treating Li Yichen like a younger brother. Black is impulsive and literal-minded, while White is calculating, hoping their rescue will earn favor with the Ghost Emperor. White also recognizes the possible romantic implications between Li and Ouyang.

Significant themes

• Status and connections: Li Yichen’s ancestry changes how others treat him, even as he tries to separate himself from that privilege.
• Self-interest beneath courtesy: The marshals’ kindness is partly motivated by the favor they hope to gain from his great-grandfather.
• Comedy from misunderstanding: The attempted soul-seizure, the kiss during resuscitation, and Ouyang’s bite all turn a near-death event into slapstick romantic tension.

Key events

• White and Black Impermanence offer Li Yichen help in the Underworld. White Impermanence draws a lasting communication talisman on Li’s palm using the River of Forgetfulness’s waters; Li can summon it with his mind.
• The two officials leave, and Li celebrates his new connections.
• Ouyang Xuanxuan discovers her new car is badly damaged, with a human-shaped dent and blood across the windshield. Li, who survived the impact thanks to his transformed body, is shaken by how close he came to dying.
• Xuanxuan blames Li for the damage, while Li points out that she hit him and tore his shirt while trying to save him. He threatens to call the police, but both secretly want to avoid explaining the bizarre accident.
• Afraid the police will alert her family and end her freedom, Xuanxuan admits fault. Li learns her name and starts negotiating over his shirt, jokingly accepting her offer of 50,000.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Yichen gains confidence from having powerful Underworld allies, then uses bluffing and humor to negotiate with Xuanxuan. He conceals his own worries about explaining his survival.
• Ouyang Xuanxuan shifts from furious and defensive about her car to anxious about family consequences, then reluctantly accepts responsibility. Her wealth is revealed when she readily offers 50,000 for a shirt.
• Li and Xuanxuan trade accusations and teasing, with their argument easing into a playful negotiation. White and Black Impermanence treat Li warmly, cementing their friendship.

Significant themes

• Unexpected survival and supernatural change: Li’s altered body lets him withstand a potentially fatal crash.
• Consequences and responsibility: The damaged car forces Li and Xuanxuan to confront who is at fault.
• Humor amid danger: Their quarrel and the exaggerated bargaining undercut the seriousness of the accident.
• New connections and opportunity: Li’s talisman and Underworld contacts give him support beyond the living world.

Key plot points and events

• After colliding with Li Yichen and damaging her sports car, Ouyang Xuanxuan throws him five bundles of cash, calling it compensation. Li tries to explain that he wasn’t asking for money, but she drives away before he can finish.
• She returns briefly to say she hopes never to see him again, then leaves once more. Li decides to keep the money for now and return it when he gets the chance.
• Upset about the accident and her damaged car, Ouyang calls her cousin Jiang Ruoyi and admits she secretly drove her father’s car to Jinling and hit someone.
• Ruoyi rushes to help, fearing the worst when she sees the dent and blood on the car. She wakes Xuanxuan, who casually says the man has already left. Ruoyi is stunned and worries that Xuanxuan may be hiding how serious the accident was.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Yichen remains principled despite being short of money: he never intended to accept compensation and plans to return it. He is bewildered by Xuanxuan’s abrupt, contradictory behavior.
• Ouyang Xuanxuan is proud and defensive, trying to settle matters with money and insisting she wants no further contact. Once alone, however, she breaks down, revealing her fear and exhaustion. After finally getting some sleep, she seems to have forgotten much of her distress.
• Jiang Ruoyi shifts from sleepy reassurance to urgent concern when she learns there was an accident. She acts protectively toward her cousin, but her alarming assumptions about the person hit create comic tension.
• Their interaction highlights the contrast between Xuanxuan’s impulsiveness and Ruoyi’s more responsible, though somewhat melodramatic, response.

Significant themes

• Integrity versus money: Li’s honesty contrasts with Xuanxuan’s assumption that cash can settle the situation.
• Miscommunication: Li cannot explain himself before Xuanxuan drives off, and Ruoyi misunderstands what happened based on the damage and blood.
• Family loyalty and responsibility: Ruoyi immediately comes to Xuanxuan’s aid, while the accident’s consequences loom over them.
• Comic contrast: The supposedly dire crash is undercut by Li’s survival and departure, Xuanxuan’s ability to nap, and Ruoyi’s dramatic fear that the victim may be dead.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Ruoyi questions her cousin, Ouyang Xuanxuan, about an encounter with Li Yichen. Xuanxuan insists he pretended to be unconscious and stole her first kiss, but leaves out that she took money from him. Ruoyi agrees to help her get revenge someday and offers her a place to stay while her damaged car is repaired.
• A tow truck takes Xuanxuan’s sports car to a private modification shop.
• Li Yichen returns to his dorm, where his three roommates confront him about missing a dorm inspection. He learns that students who were absent must volunteer to welcome incoming freshmen.
• Rather than being upset, Li’s roommates envy him because they see the volunteer assignment as a coveted chance to meet freshman girls. When Li hints that he has a plan to help them get volunteer spots, they fawn over him—but lose interest when he refuses to explain.

Character developments and interactions

• Ouyang Xuanxuan is embarrassed and resentful about her encounter with Li, framing it as a stolen first kiss and asking Ruoyi to help her get even. She remains affectionate and ingratiating toward her cousin.
• Jiang Ruoyi is protective and practical, arranging Xuanxuan’s lodging and car repair. She is also curious about Li’s apparent ability to recover and behave normally after the incident.
• Li Yichen is confused and briefly panicked about the inspection, even considering using his supernatural ability to alter university records if the punishment is serious. Once reassured, he teases his roommates by claiming to have a plan, then keeps it secret.
• Yang Weifeng, Sun Kai, and Zhang Yong begin as mock interrogators, then become comically eager to please Li when they think he can secure them freshman-welcome positions. Their enthusiasm vanishes when he refuses to reveal his plan.

Significant themes

• Comic misunderstandings and teasing: Xuanxuan’s account and the roommates’ exaggerated reaction create two parallel sources of humor.
• Camaraderie mixed with self-interest: The roommates call Li a brother but quickly withdraw their favors when he won’t share information.
• Romantic and social opportunism: The male students treat welcoming freshmen less as a university duty than as a chance to meet girls.

Plot points and events

• After an evening class, Li Yichen goes to visit Sister Wang at her parcel shop.
• He arrives as Madman Liu, a local thug, is pressuring her to transfer the shop for far less than its worth. He threatens to make parcels disappear so she will be stuck paying compensation.
• When Sister Wang refuses, Liu takes away her scissors and beats her. She fights back, scratching his face.
• Li Yichen intervenes with a brick. Despite Liu taunting him and daring him to strike, Li hits him repeatedly until Sister Wang stops him. Liu flees, terrified.
• Sister Wang worries that Liu will retaliate. She says she may close the shop rather than accept his unfair offer.

Character developments

• Li Yichen shows unexpected boldness and violence. He once would have feared a thug, but now feels confident because of his underworld connections—and even experiences a thrill as he beats Liu.
• Sister Wang is defiant and courageous, refusing to yield even when threatened and attacked. Afterward, her concern shifts to Li Yichen’s safety and the shop’s future.
• Madman Liu is exposed as a bully who relies on intimidation, but he loses control when confronted and retreats once Li Yichen proves willing to hurt him.

Significant themes

• Standing up to intimidation: Sister Wang and Li Yichen refuse to submit to Liu’s threats.
• Protection and loyalty: Li Yichen treats Sister Wang’s trouble as his own and puts himself between her and Liu.
• Violence and its consequences: Li’s intervention stops the immediate assault, but Sister Wang fears it will provoke revenge.
• Changing confidence: Li’s new sense of security contrasts with his former fearfulness.

Character interactions

• Liu tries to dominate Sister Wang through threats, financial pressure, and physical violence; she answers with anger and resistance.
• Li places himself between them, challenges Liu, and uses force to drive him away.
• Afterward, Sister Wang thanks him implicitly through her concern, but warns that his actions may bring consequences. Li insists he is not afraid, while she remains worried.

• Li Yichen takes over the courier shop: After learning the shop earns more than 5,000 yuan a month, Li offers to buy it from Sister Wang. She initially worries that Madman Liu will return to cause trouble, but Li argues that he can call on students from Jinling University for help. Sister Wang agrees to transfer the shop for 20,000 yuan, payable in monthly installments of 2,000. Li is delighted that the income will help cover his expenses and ease the burden on his parents.
• He resumes cultivating: Back in his dorm, Li is interrupted by the Haoran Ghost Emperor, who urges him to cultivate. Studying the Great Netherworld Scripture, Li wonders whether it is connected to Sun Wukong’s Great Celestial Immortal Scripture, then discovers it was supposedly created by the mysterious “Grape Ancestor.” Despite his doubts about the odd name, he begins practicing.
• Li’s cultivation produces dramatic effects: The scripture draws in the abundant negative energy around him, purifies it, and converts it into netherworld power. Li cultivates through the night, chilling the dorm so thoroughly that frost forms on the windows and doorframe and his breath freezes water in a cup. The Ghost Emperor observes that, because negative energy is plentiful while spiritual energy is scarce in the modern world, Li is progressing unusually quickly and may soon reach the Ghost Core Realm.
• A rushed departure: Realizing it is already morning, Li panics about being late for an appointment at the Administration Building. He jumps from the dorm window, uses the scripture to slow his descent, and proudly congratulates himself on the idea.
  Character developments and interactions: Li shows growing confidence and initiative, turning his money and university connections into an opportunity while remaining grateful to Sister Wang. She demonstrates generosity and concern for his safety by reducing the price and allowing installments. The Haoran Ghost Emperor acts as a demanding but approving mentor, pushing Li to cultivate and quietly assessing his progress.
  Themes: The chapter pairs financial independence and family responsibility with supernatural self-improvement. It also emphasizes resourcefulness, the contrast between modern scarcity of spiritual energy and abundance of negative energy, and Li’s humorous, impulsive confidence.

Plot points and events

• Rushing to alter the university’s orientation volunteer list before it is posted, Li Yichen accidentally channels energy through his body and speeds across campus so quickly that a jogger mistakes him for a ghost.
• At the administration building, he politely asks the elderly cleaner where the academic affairs office is. The cleaner is actually Principal Cao, though Li Yichen does not know this.
• Director Wang arrives, treats Principal Cao with exaggerated deference, and helps him clean, hoping to impress him. Principal Cao mentions that a student has gone upstairs looking for Wang.
• Li reaches the locked office, uses his netherworld ghost body to pass through the wall, and searches for the list. Finding nothing in the folders, he boots up the slow computer and locates the Word document.
• He adds his roommates’ names beneath his own and saves the changes. As Director Wang approaches, Li tries to shut down the computer, but it is still processing when the office door opens.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Yichen is panicked but resourceful. He shows off unexpected speed and uses his ghostly ability to enter the office, while trying to avoid being caught. His courteous exchange with Principal Cao contrasts with his covert, rule-breaking actions.
• Principal Cao is humble and approachable, choosing to sweep the building himself. He appreciates Li’s politeness and praises Wang’s dedication.
• Director Wang is eager to gain Principal Cao’s approval and interprets the encounter as a chance to advance his career. He remains unaware that Li has altered the list.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: the humble cleaner is the university principal, while Li’s apparent human sprinting is nearly supernatural.
• Ambition and authority: Wang’s fawning behavior reveals his desire for recognition, while Cao values practical dedication.
• Comic tension: Li’s desperate plan is repeatedly slowed by ordinary obstacles—locked doors, paperwork, and an outdated computer—until the approaching footsteps leave him at risk of discovery.

Plot points and events

• While invisible in his Netherworld Ghost Body, Li Yichen hides in Director Wang’s office as the director calls Student Union president Han Wenqi in to collect a newly printed welcome-volunteer list.
• Han notices the list has three more names than he remembers—Li Yichen has secretly added himself and his three roommates. Director Wang brushes off the discrepancy, and Han backs down, eager to stay in the director’s favor.
• After Han leaves, Director Wang privately dismisses his promise to help Han secure a future school position, then turns to something on the computer that disgusts Li Yichen.
• Furious, Li Yichen tips a kettle so hot water spills into the computer tower and shorts it out. He leaves unseen, pleased with the sabotage.
• Back at the dorm, Li Yichen’s three exhausted roommates arrive and immediately fall asleep, so he cannot tell them that they are now listed as welcome volunteers. He heads to class instead.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Yichen grows more confident using his ghost ability after Director Wang’s hand passes through him. He also shows a mischievous, retaliatory streak, sabotaging the computer when his anger gets the better of him.
• Director Wang presents himself as hardworking and supportive, but privately proves hypocritical and self-serving: he flatters Han when useful, then mocks him once he is gone.
• Han Wenqi is observant enough to catch the list’s altered headcount, but quickly retreats when challenged. His eagerness for Director Wang’s approval—and a possible future position—makes him vulnerable to the director’s manipulation.
• The roommates remain oblivious and exhausted; they ask Li Yichen to answer attendance for them, then fall asleep before hearing his news.

Significant themes

• Hypocrisy and opportunism: Director Wang and Han trade exaggerated praise, while the director’s private behavior contradicts his public persona.
• Power and self-interest: Han’s career hopes make him defer to authority, while Director Wang uses vague promises to maintain influence.
• Secret agency and comic revenge: Li Yichen uses his newfound invisibility to alter the volunteer list and punish someone he finds repugnant, blending supernatural adventure with humor.

Key plot points and events

• Li Yichen discovers that he and his three roommates—Yang Weifeng, Sun Kai, and Zhang Yong—have been assigned to welcome new students the next day. He dislikes the job, especially in the heat, and slips away from the angry, disappointed students who weren’t selected.
• Back at the dorm, he struggles to wake his sleeping roommates. When they ignore him, he uses his cultivation technique to frost his hands and startles them awake.
• The roommates threaten to gang up on him, so Li Yichen distracts them by announcing that all three have made the volunteer list. Delighted, they rush to confirm it.
• The three swagger to the noticeboard. Yang Weifeng shoves through the crowd by falsely claiming they are on student-council business.
• When students expose the claim as a lie, the crowd turns hostile. Yang Weifeng calls for the group to flee.

Character developments

• Li Yichen is resourceful and mischievous: he uses his icy ability to wake the others, then calms them by sharing the news. He is also more embarrassed and cautious than his boastful roommates.
• Yang Weifeng is exuberant and domineering, quickly taking charge and using his size and a false claim to get through the crowd. His confidence falters when the students challenge him.
• Sun Kai and Zhang Yong share Yang’s excitement and follow his lead, showing how eagerly the three embrace their selection.

Significant themes

• Comic bravado and consequences: The roommates’ swagger and deception turn a simple trip to check a list into a near-confrontation.
• Camaraderie through teasing: Li’s rough prank sparks a brief clash, but good news quickly reunites the roommates in shared excitement.
• Status and competition: The volunteer list provokes envy among students, making selection feel like a prize.

Character interactions

• Li teases and physically startles his roommates, then defuses their mock-threats with the announcement.
• The roommates enthusiastically celebrate the news, while Li trails behind, embarrassed by their showiness.
• Yang’s lie irritates the crowd; once other students call him out, the four are forced to retreat.

Key plot points and events

• In the dorm, Zhang Yong, Sun Kai, and Yang Weifeng jokingly compete over who is the most handsome. When asked to judge, Li Yichen shamelessly declares himself the winner, then leaves to check on the parcel station.
• Sister Wang gives Li Yichen the paperwork transferring the parcel pickup station to him. He signs the contract and feels relieved and proud to have secured the business.
• Sister Wang tells him she is returning to her hometown and pays Wang Bo for his final month. Concerned about losing a capable worker, Li Yichen asks Wang Bo to keep working at the shop. Wang Bo readily agrees, grateful for the opportunity.
• That night, after staying late to review six months of transactions, Li Yichen heads back to the dorm. He spots Madman Liu and another man sneaking toward the shop. Recognizing them as trouble, he approaches with a cold smile, apparently preparing to confront them.

Character developments

• Li Yichen shows confidence and humor in the dorm, then takes practical steps to manage his new business. He recognizes his limited availability and recruits Wang Bo rather than trying to handle everything alone. His response to the nighttime intruders suggests he is increasingly capable and unafraid of confrontation.
• Wang Bo is initially unsettled by Sister Wang’s departure and the loss of his income, but quickly accepts Li Yichen’s offer to stay on.
• Sister Wang demonstrates consideration by preparing the transfer and arranging to speak with the couriers. Her departure leaves the shop’s daily operations in Li Yichen’s hands.
• Zhang Yong, Sun Kai, and Yang Weifeng are portrayed as vain but playful roommates, while continuing to encourage one another’s plans to impress the incoming female students.

Significant themes

• Taking responsibility: Li Yichen moves from working at the parcel station to owning and managing it.
• Cooperation and mutual support: He offers Wang Bo continued employment, while Wang Bo’s help makes the business more manageable.
• Confidence and humor: The dorm-room banter contrasts with Li Yichen’s serious work and the looming confrontation.
• Threat and escalation: Madman Liu’s return suggests that the earlier conflict is not over.

Character interactions

• The roommates’ teasing contest ends with Li Yichen turning the question back on himself, earning their mock insults.
• Sister Wang supports Li Yichen through the transfer and implicitly hopes Wang Bo will remain involved.
• Li Yichen and Wang Bo establish a new working relationship through a straightforward, mutually beneficial offer.
• Li Yichen spots Madman Liu and his companion approaching the shop, setting up a likely confrontation.