Shi Manman

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Shi Manman (时慢慢)
Gender	Female 496
Affiliation	Tianmen Funeral Home; formerly the Forensic Medicine Department in Lin’an City 496 622 625
Occupation/Role	Mortuary makeup artist, Corpse Stitcher, yin cultivator, and Chen Miao’s only formal disciple 620 625
Cultivation Realm	Entering Yin, confirmed by Chapter 625 625
Status	Alive in her latest documented appearance 816
First Appearance	Chapter 88, the earliest appearance in the provided passages 88

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Mortuary-restoration practitioner	88 89	Assists Chen Miao with Luo Yucheng’s reconstruction. Already has conventional restoration skills and experience handling human skin.
Southern School Corpse-Sewing apprentice	90 93	Chen Miao accepts her as a student and later gives her a spare copy of his corpse-sewing book. Initially, he retains control over rare materials and their production methods.
Blind-stitching training	213	Progress in the Coffin-Linked Corpse technique allows her to begin blind stitching, the next step toward becoming a Thread-Arranging Child; attainment of that title is not confirmed.
Ten-minute blind stitching	217	Detects a concealed model head inside a damaged practice corpse, adjusts her stitching, and repairs the holes with corpse wax.
Nearly complete blind stitching	253	Performs almost all stitching without sight. Ordinary body preparation no longer provides enough difficulty for her training.
Aperture compatibility identified	278	Uses a Paper Offering to investigate her apertures. Finds the ghost meridian and yin well suitable, choosing the ghost meridian to support corpse sewing. This is not yet a confirmed aperture opening.
Body-Cleansing Liquid preparation	381	Successfully tolerates her first supervised bath and declares that she will open her apertures before her forty-eight-day deadline.
Yin Dart acquired	496	Receives Chen Miao’s first direct technique transmission to another person, costing him one jin of yin virtue.
Yin Dart strengthened; second inheritance received	497	A second transmission greatly improves her throwing power. Also receives the full Water-Suppressing Mystic Scripture, with instructions not to neglect her primary corpse-sewing inheritance.
Aperture Opening stage observed	506	Jiao Yue identifies her as an Aperture Opening practitioner, possibly still in its first phase. The passage does not establish an exact breakthrough date.
Feng Corpse-Sewing Art possessed	621	Listed among the inheritances she already owns; its acquisition date is not specified.
Existing arts deepened	622	Receives two further transmissions in existing inheritances, including improved understanding of Corpse-Sewing Art.
Entering Yin; independent Corpse Stitcher	625	Explicitly confirmed to have reached Entering Yin. Her practical experience and repeated transmissions make her sufficiently skilled that Chen Miao can no longer guide her in corpse sewing.

Background / History

Before joining Tianmen Funeral Home, Shi Manman had studied mortuary restoration. When she could not find work in that field, she worked as a doctor’s assistant at a cosmetic-surgery clinic. Handling skin grafts there later allowed her to recognize Chen Miao’s Human-Skin Paper by touch 89.

Her interest in supernatural corpse restoration began with Luo Yucheng. Chen Miao’s initial reconstruction appeared worse than what she could have achieved conventionally, but the face subsequently repaired itself and its stitches disappeared. Unable to explain the result, she approached him with approximately twenty thousand yuan and asked to learn his craft 88 89 90.

Chen Miao agreed under two conditions: she would work at Tianmen Funeral Home for ten years, and she would neither disclose nor use the techniques without his permission. He refused payment and initially withheld the manufacturing methods for rare materials while assessing her character. Her attentive help gradually encouraged him to take the apprenticeship more seriously 90 93.

She is an only child. Her parents, Shi Cheng and Cheng Yarong, describe her as rebellious despite her normally quiet manner. During a family dispute involving her grandfather’s estate and gold bars, she proposed hiring Chen Miao to summon the deceased man’s soul, refusing to withdraw merely because her parents disapproved 184 512.

Appearance

• Large eyes: Specifically noted immediately before her first Yin Dart transmission 496.
• Fair complexion: Her face visibly flushes after an embarrassing exchange with Chen Miao 764.
• Four-tailed scorpion tattoo: The manifestation of her Ghost Scorpion is visible on her arm during mountain training 714.

Personality

Shi Manman is ambitious about practical skills rather than limitless knowledge. She seeks an apprenticeship because she wants to perform restorations that seem impossible, but later rejects the idea of spending her entire life pursuing an unreachable ideal. She prefers attainable progress and trusts Chen Miao to help arrange her path 90 513.

She is diligent and comfortable with grim work: she studies an opened anatomical model while eating lunch and finds demanding forensic assignments rewarding. Her willingness to practice through failure contrasts with occasional overconfidence, notably when she secretly applies a corpse-stitching technique without consulting her master 214 269 379 496.

Her composure does not mean she is fearless. Believing Chen Miao is being strangled, she overcomes her paralysis and attacks the apparent ghost. During actual captivity, she follows his survival-first advice by pretending to accept the Curse Cult’s recruitment rather than making a futile stand 269 514.

Abilities & Skills

Corpse-Sewing Art

• Restoration: Combines stitching, corpse wax, and mortuary makeup to repair damaged remains 88 217.
• Blind stitching: Develops from short practice sessions to performing nearly all stitching without sight 217 253.
• Ghost prevention: Her inheritance primarily prevents or suppresses ghosts within corpses; many techniques require advance preparation rather than providing an immediate combat response 383 496.
• Safety procedures: Learns the Soul-Guiding Needle, Throat-Sealing Knot, and Corpse-Binding Knot. Chen Miao warns that mistakes can increase resentment and create ghosts 88 217.
• Ghost lure: Stitches an open circle onto Shi Ying’s back to draw a ghost toward attempted possession 502.
• Hidden-seam recognition: Can see supernatural stitching on a human-skin substitute that ordinary people cannot perceive 520.
• Advanced consultation: Examines Zhong Cai’s Flying Jiangshi body and develops several possible treatments intended to contain his corpse qi 717 718.

Forensic Examination and Remains Identification

• Conventional examination: Assists with arranging dismembered remains and documenting cut marks, decomposition, missing parts, and signs of injury 498.
• Blood-needle identification: Draws blood into a hollow Bone Needle and channels yin energy through it, causing it to move among body fragments 504.
• Body separation: Distinguishes two sets of remains by whether their pieces are connected through Corpse-Sewing Thread 506.
• Missing-remains search: Uses corpse material, bloodstained soil, cinnabar, hair, and thread in a directional procedure. A needle in a bowl subsequently serves as a guide for the search 506 507.

Yin Dart

• Natural aptitude: Chen Miao observes unusually smooth movements and suspects her precise hand control as a Corpse Stitcher contributes to her talent 497.
• Initial accuracy: After the first transmission, she can strike a head-sized area on moving targets within five meters, though her longer-range throwing power is limited 497.
• Improved force: After a second transmission, she throws a pen hard enough to pierce a water bottle 497.
• Improvised weapons: Uses ballpoint pens wrapped in Evil-Breaking and Bloodlight Talismans against ghosts before her commissioned darts arrive 500 502 503.

Yin Cultivation

• Paper Figure Yin-Congealing Method: Initially uses Paper Offerings for aperture exploration and cultivation. The process causes dizziness, sluggishness, and mental fatigue 278.
• Interruption precautions: Stops practicing that method in Lin’an because a shared dormitory and unpredictable assignments make interruptions likely; Chen Miao approves her decision 496.
• Water-Borrowing alternative: Receives the Water-Suppressing Mystic Scripture, whose cultivation method works best in water but also permits medicinal solution to be applied around the apertures 496 497.
• Perception: Detects unusually strong yin energy in the morgue and recognizes corpse qi during the mountain trial 503 714.

Four-Tail Ghost Scorpion

Her companion is confirmed at the second stage, Ghost Face, with four tails and four abilities 625.

Ability	Application and limits
Retract and Extend	One of its four documented abilities; further mechanics are not described in the supplied passages 625.
Burrowing	Moves rapidly through the ground without damaging its structure. Cannot carry Shi Manman with it 625.
Corpse Control	Controls a corpse’s limbs but does not strengthen the body. Cannot control the Soul Corpse 625.
Dissolution	Uses potent poison to dissolve flesh; Chen Miao estimates that it could dissolve an entire corpse 625.

• Chen Miao selects its original scorpion from more than a million candidates and supplies exceptionally good feed 520.
• By Chapter 625, it has consumed five of ten supplied Fire Souls. The remaining five are intended to support advancement to Ghost Fiend, but that advancement is not confirmed in the provided context 539 625.
• It emerges to protect Shi Manman during the mountain trial, but Xiao Bai suspends it in midair and weakens her connection to it 716.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Bone Needles / Corpse-Sewing Needles — Used for stitching, supernatural remains identification, and self-defense 269 501 504 505.
• Corpse-Sewing Thread — Used with blood and yin energy in corpse-related procedures 501 506.
• Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet — An essential tool for performing her Corpse-Sewing Art 183.
• Yin Darts — Carries eighteen by the time of her abduction; two are missing afterward. During training, she is restricted to unfinished darts without the power of completed Yin Darts 511 714.
• Peachwood Talismans — Protective items; fragments of a shattered talisman help Chen Miao reconstruct the attack on her dormitory 500 511.
• Paper talismans — Uses Spirit-Sealing, Yang-Suppressing, Mind-Clearing, Evil-Breaking, Bloodlight, and Illusion-Breaking Talismans, including premium versions 500 503.
• Ghost Cube — An external aid supplied by Chen Miao for unexpected supernatural incidents 383 500.
• Mortal Notes — Chen Miao’s guide to previous strange incidents and basic yin-cultivation knowledge 274.
• Corpse-sewing book — Receives a spare copy as Chen Miao becomes more committed to teaching her 93.

Relationships

• Chen Miao — Master, employer, and protector. Their initially cautious arrangement develops into a close apprenticeship. She shows apparent romantic feelings, but he continues to identify her as his apprentice and avoids addressing those feelings directly 90 269 379 764.
• Shi Cheng — Father; objects to her involvement in the family’s supernatural soul-summoning proposal 184.
• Cheng Yarong — Mother; worries that Shi Manman’s intervention could worsen family tensions 184.
• Shi Ying — Roommate and forensic colleague. Becomes openly supportive after Shi Manman saves her, and later alerts Chen Miao to her disappearance 502 506 511.
• Chen Xue — Forensic colleague whose skepticism gradually gives way to trust after witnessing Shi Manman’s abilities 499 502 504.
• Xie Songde — Chen Miao’s associate; provides his private contact number and arranges Shi Manman’s opportunity to accompany forensic assignments 383.
• Jiao Yue — Administration investigator who initially challenges her unregistered status, then permits her work following orders from above and assists the investigation into her disappearance 505 506 511.
• Feng Ping / Feng Buping — Experienced Corpse Stitcher and concealed Curse Cult member. Presents herself as a helpful senior before arranging Shi Manman’s abduction 512 513 519.
• Xiao Bai — Familiar companion from the funeral home. Overwhelms her in training, then carries her by flight to gather equipment for Zhong Cai’s examination 716 717.
• Zhong Cai — Cooperates with her experimental examination of his Flying Jiangshi body 717 718.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Apprenticeship and Safety Lessons

Shi Manman’s restoration work becomes part of Tianmen Funeral Home’s charitable services, contributing to its growing reputation and business. As her skills develop, Chen Miao arranges practice opportunities and considers forensic work to advance her corpse-identification training 173 253 379.

After she secretly uses a corpse-stitching technique on a dead worker, Chen Miao reprimands her and stages an illusion in which he appears to be attacked. The incident tests her response to danger. He subsequently provides protective items, notes, and plans for supervised field experience 269 274.

Lin’an Forensic Work and the Twin Remains Case

Through Xie Songde, Shi Manman gains field experience with forensic personnel. She intends to return to the funeral home after learning Bone Reading and Form Recognition rather than build a permanent career in Lin’an 383 498.

A dismemberment case leads to ghost attacks in the forensic dormitory. She protects Shi Ying, defeats the immediate threats, and deduces that the apparently separated head and body belong to different ghosts. Her colleagues follow her to the morgue because they consider her their safest protection 502 503.

Her subsequent identification work provokes Zou Shang, whose nephew is implicated in a killing. Administration and departmental intervention allow her to continue despite his attempts to stop her 504 505 506.

• Her ghost-hunting appears as an extra chapter in Chen Miao’s mysterious Notes, earning him yin virtue 503.
• Chen Miao suspects a karmic or master–disciple connection created by technique transmission. He also worries that her risky choices could generate karmic debt for him 504.

Curse Cult Abduction

Shi Manman disappears after meeting Feng Ping. Evidence in her room suggests that she woke during an attack and attempted to resist with Yin Darts; her Ghost Scorpion is also taken 511 516.

In captivity, she pretends to join the Curse Cult to stay alive, but Blind Man begins tattooing her with his ghost-associated equipment. Chen Miao arrives in Fire Ape form, interrupts the procedure, and kills him. He later returns her stolen scorpion 514 515 520.

Feng Ping’s involvement makes Shi Manman a target in an attempt to manipulate Chen Miao. His retaliation leads to confinement and an Administration investigation; afterward, he reassures her that she can return to work without revealing the full consequences 519 526 534.

Return to Tianmen County

After receiving further instruction, Shi Manman leaves Lin’an to resign and resume work at Tianmen Funeral Home. She returns as an independent Corpse Stitcher with a four-tailed Ghost Face Scorpion 622 625.

Among Hua Jianming, Ji Hong, Wang Wei, Pei Ran, and Shi Manman—the county’s five strongest yin cultivators apart from Chen Miao—she is judged strongest in both professional skills and combat capability. Her infrequent fighting leaves the others unaware of her actual battle strength 631.

Mountain Trial and Advanced Corpse Work

Shi Manman serves as her training team’s combat and support core despite restrictions on her darts and Ghost Scorpion. The trial exposes the gap between her abilities and Xiao Bai’s overwhelming power 714 716.

Afterward, she examines Zhong Cai’s Flying Jiangshi body and proposes several treatment plans. During the later Bodhisattva confrontation, she returns through a mirror realm with the captured Sorrowful Bodhisattva 717 718 725.

Caring for Her Master

When Chen Miao’s soul remains in the Mortal World, he entrusts his physical care to Shi Manman. She wipes his body with warm towels and moves his limbs to reduce stiffness. His unexpected awakening reveals her embarrassment and emotional attachment, which he chooses not to confront 734 764.

Notable Quotes

“Knowledge is infinite, while human energy is finite. Using the finite to pursue the infinite is doomed to get you nowhere.” 513

“My master told me to keep a low profile while I'm out in the world.” 507

“I'll join. Untie me. We're on the same side now!”
— Her survival-minded response to forced Curse Cult recruitment 514

Trivia

• She studies anatomy while eating takeout, startling Chen Miao when he visits her makeup room 379.
• Chen Miao’s hour-long explanation of yin-cultivation professions puts her to sleep after several demanding technique transmissions 497 498.
• Seeing Chen Miao with wooden antlers, she asks whether he is attending a comic convention and whether she can come along 816.