Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Ye Qianfan and Shen Lang return to the Ancestral Hall after the Roving Exorcist Disciple and the little monk have searched it and left. The visitors had retrieved two bamboo poles and a memorial tablet from the Ancient Well, but missed the valuable items below.
• Ye Qianfan cannot enter the water because his paper body would be damaged. Shen Lang volunteers to dive, hoping to prove useful despite his fear and limited abilities.
• Shen Lang claims the purple qi protecting him should keep ordinary demons and ghosts at bay, then jumps into the well.
• After two minutes with no sign of him, Ye Qianfan grows alarmed. Bubbles rise when he stirs the water, but he cannot tell whether Shen Lang is in trouble.
• Ye Qianfan prepares to use the Bagua Mirror to summon the Human-Faced Bug. The Daoist within him warns that Shen Lang may have entered a secret passage or underground river. The bug’s silk cannot navigate turns, and releasing it could make it uncontrollable and dangerous.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Lang shows courage and a desire to contribute, volunteering to retrieve the bones even though he sees himself as cowardly and incapable. His confidence in his protection leads him to take a serious risk.
• Ye Qianfan is practical and protective: he lowers a bamboo pole to help Shen Lang, calls for him to surface, and considers summoning the bug when there is no response. His frustration at Shen Lang’s silence gives way to clear anxiety.
• The Daoist acts as a cautious adviser, interrupting Ye Qianfan’s plan with a logical explanation for Shen Lang’s disappearance and a warning about the risks of using the bug.
• Ye Qianfan and the Daoist briefly clash in urgency: Ye Qianfan demands a direct answer, while the Daoist urges him to consider the well’s hidden route before acting.

Significant themes

• Courage and self-worth: Shen Lang’s willingness to take on a dangerous task reflects his effort to overcome his sense of uselessness.
• Risk and responsibility: A well-intentioned rescue attempt may create further danger, so Ye Qianfan must balance haste with caution.
• The unknown beneath appearances: The well may conceal a passage or underground river, suggesting that the apparent depth and stillness of a place can be misleading.

Key plot points and events

• Ye Qianfan needs to search the well for Shen Lang but cannot enter it in his current body. The Daoist suggests using Ye Fu, the water-like creature, and Ye Qianfan’s Spirit Possession Art to explore through him.
• Ye Qianfan releases Ye Fu and possesses him with part of his soul, allowing him to see and guide Ye Fu directly.
• Ye Fu descends into the well, where Ye Qianfan finds heaps of spirit tablets and debris but no sign of Shen Lang or the Evil God’s remains.
• After spotting bubbles, Ye Qianfan discovers a narrow underwater passage and squeezes Ye Fu through it. Beyond the passage is a larger space.
• To Ye Qianfan’s shock, Shen Lang is alive, already on shore, drinking tea and watching a performance with an elaborately dressed woman.

Character developments

• Ye Qianfan acts quickly on the Daoist’s advice and adapts to exploring through Ye Fu. Possession gives him an unfamiliar sense of physical heaviness compared with his usual insubstantial paper-shell existence.
• Ye Fu proves well suited to underwater exploration: he can move through the water without breathing and squeeze through a very narrow opening.
• Shen Lang is revealed to be safe and apparently at ease, contradicting the danger Ye Qianfan expected.

Significant themes

• Improvisation and unconventional problem-solving: Ye Qianfan turns to possession and Ye Fu’s unusual body when he cannot enter the water himself.
• The uncanny and the bodily: The chapter contrasts Ye Qianfan’s floaty paper-shell form with the weight of Ye Fu’s body, while treating Ye Fu’s inhuman nature as useful rather than frightening.
• Appearance versus reality: The dark, cluttered well suggests danger and uncertainty, but its hidden passage leads to the unexpected discovery that Shen Lang is alive and relaxed.

Character interactions

• The Daoist bluntly advises Ye Qianfan to use Ye Fu and reminds him that he has learned Spirit Possession Art.
• Ye Qianfan follows the advice, using his soul to control and perceive through Ye Fu.
• Ye Qianfan’s search culminates in the surprising sight of Shen Lang sharing a seemingly peaceful scene with an unknown, richly adorned woman.

Key plot points and events

• Disguised as Ye Fu, Ye Qianfan witnesses a disturbing scene at the Empress Dowager’s opera: she turns her head a full 180 degrees to look toward him. When her maid asks what is wrong, the Empress Dowager says she thought someone had arrived, then has the maid turn her head back.
• The maid serves the Empress Dowager and Shen Lang red pastries presented as Pine Nut and Jujube Cake. Ye Qianfan recognizes them as red candles, but Shen Lang eats them as if they are delicious—and the Empress Dowager happily encourages him to eat more.
• Ye Qianfan and the Daoist infer that the well is anchored by a Dragon Lair and is also the Empress Dowager’s Flooded Tomb. Its baleful energy has transformed a blackfish into a flood dragon and a village boy into an Evil God.
• Ye Qianfan asks whether he can defeat the Empress Dowager and her maid. The Daoist says no: their ability to manifest indicates they have developed golden bones. He explains that their bones, combined with the skin of a Painted Skin ghost, might help him make Ye Qianfan a flesh-and-blood body.

Character developments and interactions

• Ye Qianfan is startled by the Empress Dowager’s impossible movement, but remembers he is not human in his current form and stays still to avoid detection. He also recognizes the candles disguised as food.
• The Empress Dowager appears composed and hospitable despite her unnatural body. She shares the pastries with Shen Lang and is pleased by his apparent enjoyment.
• Shen Lang behaves as though the wax pastries are ordinary food, eating them enthusiastically. His reaction highlights how strange the tomb’s supernatural reality is.
• The maid calmly tends to the Empress Dowager, physically turns her head back into place, and serves the pastries.
• The Daoist provides an explanation of the supernatural forces and identifies the golden bones as valuable, while warning Ye Qianfan that the pair are beyond his current strength.

Significant themes

• The uncanny hidden in ordinary rituals: Tea, opera, hospitality, and dessert become unsettling through the characters’ inhuman bodies and behavior.
• Transformation through supernatural forces: The Dragon Lair’s baleful energy can radically alter beings, turning a fish into a dragon and a boy into an Evil God.
• Death as a possible path to restoration: The Empress Dowager and her maid are threats, but their golden bones may also offer a way for Ye Qianfan to regain a physical body.

Key plot points and events

• Ye Qianfan learns that the golden bone in the tomb may let him reconstruct his body. Despite the Daoist’s warning that the Empress Dowager and her ghosts are too powerful, he chooses to stay and pursue it.
• Hoping Shen Lang’s protective aura will save him, Ye Qianfan shouts to break the Empress Dowager’s spell. Shen Lang briefly wakes, realizes he is eating a candle disguised as jujube cake, then falls under her influence again.
• The maid catches Ye Qianfan and suppresses him with her ghostly qi. He uses the Mirror of a Hundred Demons to summon a Black Flood Dragon, but the Empress Dowager destroys it with a supernatural execution blade.
• Shen Lang finally awakens when the Empress Dowager attacks him. A golden dragon of protective qi bursts from him, destroys the ghosts, and makes the false palace and opera vanish.
• Shen Lang finds the Evil God’s remains—small child’s bones bundled in clothing—and returns toward the well.
• Ye Qianfan stays behind to seek the golden bone. He enters a stone-built tomb passage, narrowly escapes spear-wielding stone soldiers, and reaches a three-way junction, where he prepares to use divination blocks to choose a route.

Character developments

• Ye Qianfan proves determined and opportunistic: although frightened and physically vulnerable, he risks staying in the cavern for a chance to regain a body. His attempts to save Shen Lang are both brave and increasingly desperate.
• Shen Lang is briefly deceived by the ghost opera, but the golden dragon’s protective power reveals the strength of his safeguard and restores him to awareness.
• The Empress Dowager is shown to be a formidable, commanding ghost who can destroy summoned supernatural creatures and manipulate her surroundings.
• The maid acts as the Empress Dowager’s enforcer, overpowering Ye Qianfan with her ghostly presence.

Significant themes

• Risk and ambition: Ye Qianfan believes opportunities must be seized despite danger, especially in a world where advancement depends on gambling.
• Appearances and deception: The opera, candle disguised as food, and illusory palace conceal the ghosts’ true nature.
• Protection and vulnerability: Shen Lang’s hidden safeguard is overwhelmingly powerful, while Ye Qianfan’s makeshift body leaves him exposed.
• Cunning and survival: Ye Qianfan relies on disguise, timing, and quick reactions rather than strength.

Character interactions

• Ye Qianfan questions the Daoist about protective auras, then uses that knowledge to try to wake Shen Lang.
• The Empress Dowager manipulates and indulges Shen Lang, while Ye Qianfan repeatedly interrupts her ghost opera.
• The maid captures Ye Qianfan and plans to turn him into a source of nourishing taisui soup.
• Shen Lang’s golden dragon protects him, defeats the Empress Dowager and her followers, and clears the way for him to recover the child’s bones.

Plot points and events

• Ye Qianfan uses the Divination Blocks to choose the left passage and enters a burial chamber filled with pottery, valuables, and human remains. He ignores most of the treasures, wary of hidden dangers.
• A recorded shout from a rare Sound-Recording Conch initially scares him, but the Daoist explains the device’s value and function.
• Examining the bones, Ye Qianfan realizes that the small skeleton Shen Lang retrieved may belong to a different child—not the Evil God.
• He opens the central coffin and finds a corpse wearing a Golden Silk Garment, protective soft armor that resists water, fire, blades, and spears. He also discovers that four finger bones beneath gold nail guards have been refined into the sought-after golden bone, and stores them inside Ye Fu.
• Ghostly energy reforms and strikes him, but the garment protects him. The Daoist tricks the forming ghost into dispersing by invoking the Mirror of a Hundred Demons and naming it a Five-Power Demon.
• Ye Qianfan gathers bones and uses Ye Fu to control the Evil God’s skeleton as a puppet, hoping the terracotta soldiers will let it pass. Before leaving, he retrieves the Sound-Recording Conch and a luminous pearl.
• The terracotta warriors attack despite the Daoist’s assumption that they would recognize the skeleton. Ye Qianfan escapes their spears by abandoning the puppet and dissolving Ye Fu into water, but the ghost maid approaches from behind. He is trapped between both threats.

Character development and interactions

• Ye Qianfan is resourceful and pragmatic, using his unusual body, the Divination Blocks, and the Mirror to overcome danger. His haste to recover the Evil God’s remains also leads him to take extra loot.
• The Daoist provides useful knowledge but makes a risky guess about the terracotta soldiers, forcing Ye Qianfan to fend for himself.
• Ye Qianfan and the Daoist trade sharp remarks, especially when the Daoist’s advice proves unreliable.
• Ye Fu serves as Ye Qianfan’s storage space and escape tool, enabling him to carry the golden bones and animate the skeleton.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and uncertainty: Old artifacts and supernatural rules offer advantages, but neither the Daoist nor Ye Qianfan can fully predict what will happen.
• Resourcefulness under pressure: Ye Qianfan improvises with his abilities and whatever he finds, repeatedly adapting to new threats.
• The danger of greed and haste: Though cautious at first, he takes the pearl and presses onward, leaving himself vulnerable as enemies close in.
• Identity and mistaken remains: The child’s bones raise doubts about whether the skeleton Shen Lang found truly belongs to the Evil God.

Plot points

• The terracotta warriors initially block Ye Qianfan, but a recording of the Empress Dowager’s voice makes them retreat. Ye realizes they mistake him for her because he carries her golden bone.
• As the Ghost Maid attacks, Ye throws the stolen Luminous Pearl into her mouth. This enrages her, but the warriors interpret the pearl as evidence that she is carrying the Empress Dowager’s property and block her.
• Ye escapes through the Underground River while the Ghost Maid is trapped. He explains that she cannot discard the pearl because she is only a maid and would not dare abandon the Empress Dowager’s possession; the warriors will keep stopping her until the Empress Dowager returns and takes it.
• Ye reaches the surface with the Evil God’s skeleton, then discovers that his own body is missing.

Character developments and interactions

• Ye Qianfan stays composed under pressure and improvises a clever escape by exploiting the warriors’ rigid rules and the Ghost Maid’s obedience to rank.
• The Daoist is frightened by the Ghost Maid but becomes impressed by Ye’s quick, carefully constructed plan.
• The Ghost Maid grows increasingly furious and helpless as the warriors repeatedly obstruct her.
• The terracotta warriors prove literal-minded: they follow their single rule about the Empress Dowager’s belongings, regardless of the Ghost Maid’s commands.

Significant themes

• Rank and obedience: Fear of the Empress Dowager governs both the warriors and the maid.
• Cunning over strength: Ye escapes a powerful opponent through timing, deception, and an understanding of others’ rules.
• The consequences of theft: Stolen objects trigger the conflict and become the means of escape.
• Unresolved mystery: The disappearance of Ye’s body creates a new question at the chapter’s end.

Plot points and events

• Ye Qianfan discovers that his Paper Puppet body—the vessel holding his two souls and five spirits—is missing. The Daoist warns that without it, Ye’s soul will gradually deteriorate until he loses his identity and eventually vanishes.
• Ye suspects Shen Lang took the puppet and rushes to find him, but controlling Ye Fu’s tentacled body on land is slow and awkward. He initially drags the Evil God’s remains along, then hides them in the Night Watchman’s room so he can move faster.
• On the way, Ye Fu devours several animals, including a trapped rabbit, despite Ye Qianfan’s reluctance.
• Ye reaches the room where Fugui and Shen Lang are keeping watch over the Night Watchman. They believe Ye’s body is cold, unnaturally light, and possibly little more than skin, but Fugui insists he will recover.
• Shen Lang and Fugui plan to take Ye and the Evil God’s remains to the graveyard, hoping to clear the stage and find a way to save him.
• The regenerating Night Watchman laughs and warns them that their “friend” may not be human.

Character developments and interactions

• Ye Qianfan is frightened by the threat to his soul but stays focused on finding Shen Lang and preventing the remains from causing further danger. His struggle to control Ye Fu also highlights how alien and difficult this body is.
• The Daoist bluntly explains the consequences of losing the puppet and pushes Ye to act quickly, even criticizing his slow progress.
• Fugui shows concern and loyalty by covering Ye with his own clothes and refusing to accept that Ye may be beyond help.
• Shen Lang admits he does not understand Ye’s condition and agrees to Fugui’s plan, though he remains uncertain.
• The Night Watchman appears to be regenerating and uses the moment to sow doubt about Ye’s humanity.

Significant themes

• Identity and the body: Ye’s soul depends on a separate puppet body, while his current form is visibly monstrous and difficult to control.
• Humanity and appearances: Ye’s friends treat him as a person, but the Night Watchman challenges whether he is human at all.
• Loyalty and uncertainty: Fugui and Shen Lang try to help Ye despite not knowing what has happened—or what Ye has become.
• Urgency and survival: The characters must act quickly to recover the puppet and clear the stage before their situation worsens.

Key plot points and events

• The Night Watchman taunts Shen Lang, claiming Ye Qianfan is a monster rather than human. Shen Lang angrily knocks its head and newly grown organs to the floor, while Fugui covers them with straw and urges everyone to focus on the trial.
• Shen Lang prepares to carry the unconscious Ye Qianfan to the graveyard, but the Roving Exorcist Disciple barges in, accusing him of hiding clues.
• The disciple’s monk examines Shen Lang’s bundle and identifies its contents as a child’s skeletal remains. The disciple realizes these are the genuine Evil God’s remains and takes them, leaving Shen Lang and Fugui behind.
• The disciple summons the Yellow Weasel Immortal to deal with them. The creature’s gray breath traps Shen Lang and Fugui in an illusion, allowing the disciple and monk to escape with the remains.
• The Yellow Weasel Immortal reveals its appetite for human flesh and begins eating the Night Watchman, a Humanoid Taisui whose organs can regenerate.
• While the creature is distracted, Ye Qianfan returns through a window and re-enters his body. He attacks with the Mirror of a Hundred Demons, attempting to capture the Yellow Weasel Immortal.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Lang fiercely defends his companions and the remains, but is outmaneuvered by the disciple’s ambush.
• Fugui acts as Shen Lang’s voice of caution, then stands ready to fight alongside him.
• Ye Qianfan proves resourceful despite his apparently lifeless body, secretly returning at the crucial moment.
• The Roving Exorcist Disciple exploits Shen Lang’s hard-won discovery, showing himself to be opportunistic and prepared to use supernatural allies.
• The Yellow Weasel Immortal is revealed as a predatory, human-eating monster, though its greed gives Ye Qianfan an opening.
• The Night Watchman continues provoking Shen Lang but becomes helpless prey to the Yellow Weasel Immortal.

Significant themes

• Trust and betrayal: The disciple breaks the group’s agreement to share clues and steals the remains.
• Appearance versus humanity: The Night Watchman’s claim that Ye is not human raises doubts about identity, while several supposedly human figures behave monstrously.
• Resourcefulness under pressure: Ye’s timely return and use of the demon-catching mirror turn a dire situation into a possible counterattack.

Key plot points and events

• Ye Qianfan captures the Yellow Weasel Immortal with the Mirror of a Hundred Demons. The mirror reveals the creature’s true form and lights the Bagua character for Gen, associated with mountains.
• Shen Lang and Fugui are fighting enemies they only imagine. Ye wakes them by splashing water in their faces.
• Both men recall confusing, apparently conflicting events involving Ye, the well, and the Evil God’s bones. Ye invents a version in which he retrieved the real bones and the Roving Exorcist Disciple stole Shen Lang’s.
• Shen Lang searches for the bones he remembers carrying up, but cannot find them. Seeing the butcher reduced to a head, he decides he must have been caught in an illusion.
• Ye claims the bones he has are fake and that the real ones are hidden in the ancestral hall. He persuades the others to go retrieve them, while Shen Lang privately suspects Ye is lying.

Character developments and interactions

• Ye Qianfan stays composed and improvises a convincing cover story, steering Shen Lang and Fugui away from questioning his actions.
• Shen Lang tries to reconcile his memories with the evidence, then accepts the illusion explanation—though he remains suspicious of Ye.
• Fugui is confused by his own memories but follows Ye’s lead and urges the group to recover the bones.
• Their conversation relies on each character’s partial recollections: Shen Lang supplies details that help Ye’s fabricated account sound plausible, while Fugui reinforces the confusion.

Significant themes

• Unreliable memory and illusion: The characters cannot be certain which events they experienced and which were fabricated.
• Deception and improvisation: Ye exploits the uncertainty by inventing a story, while Shen Lang’s suspicions remain unresolved.
• Appearance versus reality: The weasel’s transformation and the disputed bones echo the broader uncertainty about what is real.

Key plot points and events

• Ye Qianfan finds the bones in the Ancestral Hall, and Shen Lang realizes they are different from the small skeleton he found earlier. The group heads to the Cemetery to complete the final step.
• The Roving Exorcist Disciple and the monk are missing, leaving the group unsure whether the ritual has been completed.
• Fugui volunteers to handle the bones, but Shen Lang insists they face the danger together, honoring their oath to share their fate. Ye Qianfan says he can test whether the bones are genuine.
• The Roving Exorcist Disciple suddenly ambushes Ye Qianfan at knifepoint, accusing the group of tricking him with fake bones. Shen Lang and Fugui point out that they never claimed their bones belonged to the Evil God.
• When the Disciple threatens to stab him, Ye Qianfan deliberately drives himself onto the blade, then turns and kills his attacker with the Demon Fang Dagger.
• Ye Qianfan calmly retrieves the bones and urges the others to continue. Shen Lang and Fugui notice his apparent lack of humanity and ask whether he is human. Ye Qianfan pauses, realizing his secret may be exposed.

Character developments and interactions

• Ye Qianfan remains composed under threat and reveals a startling willingness to injure himself to gain an advantage. His remark that he is “no longer human” hints at a mysterious past and transformation.
• Shen Lang shows loyalty and a strong sense of shared responsibility, refusing to let Fugui face the final danger alone.
• Fugui wants to repay his friends by taking the risk himself, but is shaken by Ye Qianfan’s counterattack and apparent nature.
• The Roving Exorcist Disciple, enraged by his losses and convinced the group is to blame, turns to hostage-taking and is killed when his threat backfires.

Significant themes

• Loyalty and shared fate: Shen Lang’s oath with Fugui makes them insist on facing danger together.
• Desperation and blame: The Disciple’s resentment over his followers’ deaths drives him to lash out at the group.
• Identity and humanity: Ye Qianfan’s self-destructive tactic and cryptic confession raise questions about what he has become.
• Composure in danger: Ye Qianfan’s calmness contrasts with the Disciple’s escalating panic.

Key plot points and events

• After Fugui discovers a sword protruding from Ye Qianfan’s back, Ye explains that his soft armor protected him and that he accidentally trapped the blade beneath his arm.
• The three men bury the Evil God’s bones in an earthenware jar. Fugui prays that the spirit will release Ghost Village, its villagers, and the man who protected her.
• A golden apparition of Huang Moli appears, smiles goodbye, and ascends into the sky, shrinking from a child into a baby. The Night Watchman’s calls accompany her departure.
• The offerings transform into seven Demon-Quelling Office tokens, confirming that the men have passed the assessment. Ye gives one to Shen Lang, while Fugui celebrates his new status.
• Their relief ends when a hand breaks through the earth. The men flee as the Night Watchman announces the approaching Ghost Wind and warns that Ghost Village will soon be no more.
• Ye realizes they must reach the Passage Well before the village disappears. A vast storm of resentful dead pursues them—including the recently killed Roving Exorcist Disciple, who singles out Ye for revenge.

Character developments and interactions

• Ye Qianfan stays practical and decisive: he explains his apparent injury, recognizes the danger in the Night Watchman’s warning, and leads the escape.
• Fugui moves from anxious gratitude and prayer to excitement over passing the assessment, then back to panic as the Ghost Wind closes in. He fears for his life and the future he has just gained.
• Shen Lang shares in the trio’s work and celebrates their success, joking that their new affiliation will protect Fugui’s shop.
• The three cooperate in burying the remains and escape together, though Fugui’s fear contrasts with Ye’s urgency and judgment.

Significant themes

• Release and letting go: Huang Moli’s farewell suggests that burying her remains and acknowledging her father’s long atonement finally allows her spirit to depart.
• The persistence of resentment: Even after the Evil God is laid to rest, the accumulated anger of Ghost Village’s dead becomes a new threat.
• Hope overturned by danger: The men’s success and Fugui’s plans for the future are immediately threatened by the Ghost Wind.
• Consequences and revenge: Ye’s killing of the Roving Exorcist Disciple comes back to haunt him as the dead man joins the pursuing ghosts.

Key plot points and events

• Ye Qianfan and Fugui are cornered by a fast, immense ghost wind. Ye’s Mirror of a Hundred Demons is useless because the wind is made of ghosts, not demons.
• Fugui throws Ten Thousand Taels of Gold and his abacus beads at the ghost faces, briefly driving them back but failing to stop the wind.
• Ye uses yellow talismans to form a shield, but the ghost wind curls around it.
• As the two accept that they may die, Shen Lang urges them not to give up. He smashes the jade pendant around his neck and releases the Golden Dragon soul inside.
• The dragon’s roar forces the ghost wind back. Ye and Fugui climb onto its back, and Shen Lang directs it north toward the Passage Well, escaping Ghost Village.

Character developments

• Ye Qianfan shifts from desperate attempts to escape to standing by Fugui and facing death together. He remains resourceful, though his available tools are poorly suited to ghosts.
• Fugui bravely tries to protect his companions with his beads, then resigns himself to fate when they prove insufficient. His fear of heights becomes evident once he is aboard the dragon.
• Shen Lang shows resolve and optimism, refusing to surrender. He sacrifices his jade pendant—and the dragon soul it contains—to rescue the others.

Significant themes

• Perseverance over fatalism: Shen Lang insists that giving up guarantees defeat, even when the situation seems hopeless.
• Friendship and loyalty: Ye and Fugui choose to face danger together, while the group works to save one another.
• Sacrifice and resourcefulness: Fugui uses what he has, and Shen Lang gives up a treasured artifact to create a chance of escape.

Character interactions

• Ye and Fugui share a grim but affectionate willingness to die together rather than abandon each other.
• Shen Lang challenges Fugui’s resignation and rallies the group.
• Ye pulls Fugui onto the dragon, while Shen Lang guides it, turning their individual efforts into a joint escape.

Plot points and events

• At Demon-Quelling Office headquarters, Eunuch He reviews the Nuo Master assessment results. More than 300 candidates passed overall, but many were lost at Ghost Village, a notoriously lethal site.
• A report brings surprising news: Ye Qianfan, Shen Lang, and Qian Fugui survived Ghost Village and completely resolved its problem. Eunuch He celebrates their achievement and orders the final assessment to begin.
• The three arrive at Dragon Gate Inn, where a servant explains that successful candidates will be taken to headquarters the next day for a final physical examination. Those who pass will be officially registered and receive rewards and assignments.
• Ye Qianfan privately panics: as a paper man, he has no pulse and may not pass an ordinary medical examination. Qian Fugui discreetly tips the servant, who offers to help with their needs and advises them to rest.

Character developments and interactions

• Eunuch He is pleased by the strong overall results and especially impressed that three candidates cleared Ghost Village. He sees the recruits as valuable potential assets for the understaffed office.
• Ye Qianfan shifts from relief at surviving Ghost Village to anxiety about the next obstacle, which threatens to expose his inhuman nature.
• Qian Fugui shows practical social skill by tipping the inn servant and establishing a friendly relationship.
• The servant welcomes the candidates and explains the procedure, while Eunuch He’s guards share news and congratulate him.

Significant themes

• Luck and strength: Eunuch He and his guard acknowledge that survival depends on both ability and circumstances, and that the world offers little fairness.
• Institutional necessity and danger: The Demon-Quelling Office needs capable recruits for deadly assignments, making survival valuable but also likely to lead to further peril.
• Appearance and hidden identity: Ye Qianfan’s paper-man body makes a routine examination a serious threat, foreshadowing the danger of concealment.
• Success as only a beginning: Passing Ghost Village earns the trio a place in the next stage, not safety or official acceptance.

Key plot points and events

• Fugui tips an attendant at the Demon-Quelling Office’s inn, hoping to learn what is safe. The attendant only advises them to rest early and does not offer food or hot water, leading Fugui and Ye Qianfan to suspect those services are dangerous.
• Ye Qianfan recognizes Fugui’s attempt to read the attendant; the three joke about Shen Lang’s relative inexperience with dealing with people.
• The group enters the bustling Dragon Gate Inn, crowded with apparently dangerous Nuo Masters fresh from trial grounds.
• Shen Lang asks whether the inn provides women, then requests rooms. Ye Qianfan insists on separate rooms, and all three ultimately take one each.
• After they settle in and avoid the food and drink, a scream—apparently Fugui’s—rings out in the middle of the night.

Character developments and interactions

• Fugui shows caution and practical social insight by interpreting the attendant’s behavior, while lightly teasing Shen Lang.
• Ye Qianfan proves observant and perceptive, quickly understanding Fugui’s indirect inquiry. He also urgently needs privacy to repair his injured body, though he does not explain this to the others.
• Shen Lang is hungry and tired but accepts the warning; his joking exchange with the others reveals both his easygoing nature and their different backgrounds.
• The three share friendly banter, but their separate rooms leave Fugui alone when the midnight disturbance begins.

Significant themes

• Caution in a dangerous setting: Even ordinary comforts may be unsafe, so the characters must read subtle warnings.
• Experience and social perception: The scene contrasts Shen Lang’s sheltered upbringing with the hard-earned instincts of Fugui and Ye Qianfan.
• Suspense and foreshadowing: The inn’s ominous rules and the sudden scream suggest that danger has reached them despite their precautions.

Plot points and events

• Ye Qianfan and Shen Lang rush to Fugui’s room after hearing an alarm. Fugui, pale and panicked, insists he did not kill anyone.
• They find a woman in a red bellyband lying under Fugui’s quilt. Ye Qianfan sees no obvious wounds and wonders whether she is alive, though she is not breathing. Shen Lang checks her and finds a pulse: she is unconscious, not dead.
• Ye Qianfan suspects the Demon-Quelling Office has set another test, designed to catch people after they think they have passed and let their guard down.
• They discover many guests unconscious throughout the inn. Eunuch He arrives with guards and maids, orders the unconscious people splashed with wine, and has them roused.
• Eunuch He strikes a large bronze gong, waking everyone fully. Guards search the rooms and bring out two dead men, who appear to have drowned in their bathtubs after passing out.

Character developments

• Ye Qianfan remains alert and pragmatic around death, quickly investigating the woman and interpreting the mass unconsciousness as a possible trap.
• Shen Lang is well-meaning but initially misunderstands Ye Qianfan’s request to touch the woman, becoming embarrassed before checking her properly.
• Fugui is frightened and defensive, worried that the body in his bed will make him look guilty.
• Eunuch He presents himself as disdainful and authoritative, treating the guests’ predicament as a spectacle and taking control of the inn.

Significant themes

• Vigilance and deception: Apparent success may be part of a test, and danger can follow when people relax.
• Appearance versus reality: The woman seems dead but is only unconscious; the guests’ unexplained collapse may be an engineered assessment.
• Power and humiliation: Eunuch He’s forceful arrival and the guards’ rough methods underline the authorities’ control over the guests.

Character interactions

• Ye Qianfan directs Shen Lang to check the woman’s condition; Shen Lang’s awkward misinterpretation briefly creates comic tension.
• Ye Qianfan reassures Fugui indirectly by focusing on investigating rather than accusing him.
• Eunuch He and the inn attendant exchange formal, deferential remarks, while He orders the guards to revive the guests and inspect the rooms.

Plot points and events

• After nearly everyone emerges from the inn, Eunuch He reveals that the inn’s food, drink, and bath were part of a test: the Demon-Quelling Office had used a special sedative to catch candidates who let their guard down.
• He announces that anyone drugged is disqualified. The candidates protest, arguing they were not told the test was still underway and that they deserve another chance.
• Eunuch He responds by having a guqin brought in. Ye Qianfan notices its purple aura and learns from the Daoist that it is an exceptional treasure, likely made partly from rare materials. The Daoist warns that its music may affect Ye Qianfan as well, since he lacks a physical body, so Ye Fu plugs his ears.
• Eunuch He plays. The drugged candidates lose control of their bodies and crawl out of the inn in a line. Once they are gone, he stops playing and has the servants remove the instruments.
• He tells the remaining candidates to report to the Demon-Quelling Office after daybreak for medical examinations and membership processing. A lame candidate asks whether disabilities will disqualify someone.

Character developments and interactions

• Eunuch He shifts from stern examiner to a commanding, almost scholarly presence when he plays the guqin, then returns to his usual manner afterward. He enforces the test without yielding to the candidates’ protests.
• Ye Qianfan recognizes the danger of the guqin and takes the Daoist’s advice, asking Ye Fu to protect his ears. He remains alert to the examination’s implications, especially the question about physical disability.
• The Daoist explains the guqin’s unusual properties and identifies Eunuch He’s mastery—not simply the instrument—as the source of his transformed presence.
• The candidates react with anger and disbelief, while the lame candidate’s question raises concern over whether the final examination will exclude people with disabilities.

Significant themes

• Vigilance and responsibility: Candidates are judged not only on survival but on whether they remain cautious in dangerous circumstances.
• Fairness versus harsh standards: The candidates see the test as undisclosed and unfair; Eunuch He treats failure to anticipate danger as a fatal flaw.
• Power and mastery: Eunuch He’s transformation suggests that skill and unity with a powerful instrument can profoundly alter how a person is perceived.
• Physical ability and belonging: The final question leaves open whether disability will limit access to the Demon-Quelling Office.

Key plot points and events

• Eunuch He explains that the Demon-Quelling Office’s examinations are meant to identify poison and hidden injuries that could endanger recruits and their teammates. He insists the Office accepts people based on ability, not physical condition.
• Fugui worries that his demon-poisoned leg will disqualify him. Ye Qianfan reassures him that he removed the infected flesh and advises him to treat the wound with allicin.
• Shen Lang estimates that Eunuch He is a powerful second- or third-grade cultivator—far stronger than the Ghost Village’s Evil God. He speculates that Eunuch He may have placed the village inside its barrier as a trial for recruits.
• Ye Qianfan leaves to prepare for the next day’s blood and physical examinations. Unable to sleep, he asks the Daoist how to conceal his condition from the blood test.
• The Daoist says four golden finger bones are insufficient to make a flesh puppet, but suggests using the Soul Cultivation Great Method found in Ye Qianfan’s books. Its third stage, a “Devouring Great Method,” can strengthen the spirit and help refine a flesh puppet.
• With only a few hours before dawn, the Daoist urges Ye Qianfan to attempt the method. Ye Qianfan is skeptical that he can reach the required stage so quickly.

Character developments and interactions

• Ye Qianfan remains focused on surviving the examination and acts pragmatically, though he is increasingly anxious about his own vulnerability.
• Fugui depends on Ye Qianfan’s help and advice, then worries about being rejected because of his injury.
• Shen Lang shows confidence in his assessment of Eunuch He’s strength and speculates about the purpose of the Ghost Village trial.
• The Daoist offers a desperate, unconventional solution, but Ye Qianfan challenges his vague explanations and doubts the plan’s feasibility.
• Eunuch He is presented as both formidable and practical: his examinations are framed as safeguards for the recruits rather than tests of physical perfection.

Significant themes

• Ability versus physical limitation: The Demon-Quelling Office claims to value talent over disability, while still screening recruits for conditions that might threaten a team.
• Trust and mutual protection: Ye Qianfan treats Fugui’s wound, and the examinations themselves are justified as a way to protect teammates.
• Desperate improvisation: Faced with scrutiny and a severe time limit, Ye Qianfan must consider a risky, unorthodox cultivation method.
• Power and uncertainty: Eunuch He’s strength—and the true purpose behind the Ghost Village trial—remains a source of speculation.

Summary

Ye Qianfan tries to advance in the Soul Cultivator method. Because he can already send his soul wandering beyond the heavens, he discovers he has effectively reached the method’s second level. The next stage requires him to be struck by a soul creature, so he asks Ye Fu to lash his soul.
The punishment causes excruciating pain, far worse than physical injury. Ye Qianfan nevertheless insists on continuing, determined to enter the Demon-Quelling Office and regain his physical body. Even after the Daoist warns that his soul is growing thinner and may be destroyed, Ye Qianfan accepts the risk and asks for another strike. Ye Fu obeys, while the Daoist repeatedly revives Ye Qianfan when he passes out.
At dawn, Ye Qianfan’s soul suddenly shines with golden light and reforms, stronger and more solid than before. He has successfully reached the method’s third level. His sea of qi has also expanded from roughly the size of a bowl to that of a stream, and circulating the method now generates about one-twentieth of his source power. The Daoist suspects that this breakthrough may have raised Ye Qianfan’s rank dramatically, but Ye Qianfan does not yet know what rank he has reached.

Character developments and interactions

• Ye Qianfan shows fierce resolve and willingness to endure extreme pain for his goals, though his determination borders on recklessness.
• The Daoist begins by teasing him, then grows genuinely concerned and tries to persuade him to stop; when the breakthrough succeeds, he is delighted and curious about its effects.
• Ye Fu silently follows Ye Qianfan’s request, delivering the soul-strikes necessary for the breakthrough.

Significant themes

The chapter emphasizes perseverance, sacrifice, and the dangerous cost of pursuing power. It also suggests that hardship can produce extraordinary transformation: Ye Qianfan’s painful training not only advances his cultivation but greatly strengthens his soul and energy.

Key plot points and events

• The Daoist explains how a cultivator’s Qi Sea grows with rank, from bowl-sized at Ninth Rank to a boundless sea at the highest levels. A creek-sized Qi Sea makes Ye Qianfan a Seventh Rank cultivator, putting him on par with Shen Lang and allowing him to use stronger techniques and Magic Treasures.
• The Daoist urges Ye to find combat and movement techniques, but prioritizes advancing his Soul Cultivation Art before Shen Lang’s group takes him to the Demon-Quelling Office. Ye absorbs four pieces of golden bone, though his soul power reaches only about half of the level’s requirement.
• To complete the next stage, Ye needs a living person’s blood. The Daoist suggests killing someone, while Ye objects to the cruelty; using animal blood might compromise the assessment.
• Fugui arrives with a badly injured leg. Ye seizes the chance to draw blood from him using the Corpse Control Technique. Fugui emerges feeling better, while Ye’s Paper Puppet fingertip has gained a trace of bloody color.
• Shen Lang sees the pair emerge and misreads their suggestive exchange, wondering whether he has interrupted them.

Character developments and interactions

• Ye Qianfan has advanced rapidly to Seventh Rank but still needs more materials to perfect his soul cultivation. He is reluctant to kill for blood, yet opportunistically takes it from Fugui’s wound.
• The Daoist acts as Ye’s blunt, pragmatic mentor, emphasizing both the importance of Qi Sea size and the need to prepare for the upcoming assessment.
• Fugui is in considerable pain from his leg injury, but Ye’s intervention seems to ease it—whether through treatment or bloodletting is left comically ambiguous.
• Shen Lang observes Ye and Fugui’s oddly phrased conversation and becomes awkwardly suspicious.

Significant themes

• Cultivation and power: Qi Sea capacity determines a cultivator’s rank and what techniques or treasures they can use.
• Ethics versus necessity: Ye questions the cruelty of killing for blood, but still needs a practical way to meet the cultivation requirement.
• Comic misunderstanding: Fugui’s gratitude and Ye’s satisfied response sound intimate out of context, prompting Shen Lang’s awkward speculation.

Key plot points and events

• After the previous night’s eliminations, about a hundred Nuo Masters remain to report to the Demon-Quelling Office for examinations.
• Ye Qianfan passes the blood test by using the Corpse Control Technique to produce a convincing drop of blood.
• The second examiner, an imperial physician, appears to offer a way to bypass the physical examination—but demands 100 taels of gold, claiming the money must be shared among officials throughout the process.
• Ye suspects the examination is a widespread bribery scheme, with Eunuch He likely taking the largest share. The price is enormous: ten spirit stones by Ye’s calculation.
• Unsure how to proceed, Ye asks the Daoist for advice. The Daoist tells him to go to the latrine, and Ye follows the instruction.

Character developments

• Ye Qianfan remains resourceful and composed: he passes the blood test through clever use of his technique, then quickly recognizes the physician’s supposed examination as a scam.
• Though reluctant to spend such a large sum, Ye is determined to get through the obstacle and is willing to consider a risky solution.
• The Daoist takes on the role of an enigmatic adviser, offering Ye an unexplained plan.

Character interactions

• The physician pressures Ye to pay for a favorable examination, presenting the bribe as the price of joining the Demon-Quelling Office.
• Ye questions the physician’s motives and asks the Daoist what to do.
• The Daoist directs Ye to the latrine; Ye complies, while the physician allows him to leave but warns that the offer will not last.

Significant themes

• Corruption and exploitation: The recruitment process appears less like a legitimate examination and more like an organized system of bribery.
• Ingenuity under pressure: Ye uses both his supernatural abilities and quick judgment to navigate obstacles.
• Power and access: The chapter suggests that entry into a prestigious, lucrative organization may depend as much on money and connections as on merit.