Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• After reviewing the book’s information, Chen Miao concludes there is a 90% chance that the man he killed was Suo Kun: the man had a real head, controlled a leader Gu Scorpion, and had come to collect Wen Hao’s flying skull. Without the Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet, Chen Miao believes the man could not cast another curse.
• Confident that he understands Suo Kun’s abilities—and aware that another Suo Kun may be nearby—Chen Miao prepares for a rematch. He reinforces a lighter safety helmet and travels from Shannan City to Lin’an, where the unfinished development featured in the book is located.
• At the site, Chen Miao finds jars of black Gu Scorpions on the eighth floor, apparently part of Suo Kun’s established base. He avoids killing them, reasoning that doing so might alert Suo Kun, and experiments with ways to delay them.
• Peach wood shavings alone fail to stop the scorpions, which can climb the walls. Sulfur paste and realgar paste slow their emergence, while adding peach wood shavings directly to the barrier unexpectedly makes them emerge faster.
• Chen Miao changes tactics: instead of sealing the jars completely, he creates an open, winding route from them and places mixed Insect-Attracting and Insect-Killing Pills along it and on the ninth floor. His aim is to lure and distract the scorpions long enough to gain time in a fight with Suo Kun.
• The book then reveals an unexpected result: Suo Kun has chickened out, apparently avoiding the confrontation.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao grows more confident and methodical. He uses the book as a tactical guide, tests his assumptions, adapts when his barriers fail, and prioritizes delaying the Gu Scorpions over destroying them.
• Suo Kun remains offstage, but his preparations—especially the scorpion jars—suggest a long-standing base and a serious threat. His apparent retreat contrasts with Chen Miao’s readiness to face him.
• Chen Miao has no direct encounters with classmates or friends in Lin’an; he deliberately focuses on preparation and scouting instead.

Significant themes

• Preparation and strategy: Chen Miao succeeds through observation, experimentation, and contingency planning rather than brute force.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: The book provides valuable clues, but Chen Miao must still interpret them and account for alternative explanations.
• Control versus instinct: Suo Kun may command the Gu Scorpions, yet Chen Miao exploits their insect-like attraction to bait and distract them.
• Reversal of expectations: After preparing for a dangerous showdown, Chen Miao learns that his opponent has chosen not to appear.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao reads a new version of the book’s events. It shows that although his earlier actions stopped the gu insects from attacking at the unfinished buildings, Suo Kun could still have killed him a week later by attacking Elder Uncle’s home. The vision confirms that waiting in Tianmen County would have been dangerous.
• Determined to ensure Suo Kun cannot escape, Chen Miao decides to change plans: instead of waiting for him, he will ambush him on the seventh floor. He aims to strike before Suo Kun can command the Leader Gu Scorpion.
• Chen Miao expects the book’s predictions to update at eight that evening, when he would otherwise have messaged Suo Kun. He plans to use the revised information to choose a hiding place within the Pinwheel’s effective range.
• He carefully assembles weapons, talismans, concealment supplies, insect-related pills, and other tools for the confrontation. He also exchanges some yin virtue for Incense Sticks and decides to bring the compass and Yin-Sealing Pouch as contingencies.
• By early afternoon, his preparations are complete. He takes the Black Umbrella and drives toward the University Town, where he once lived.

Character developments

• Chen Miao becomes more decisive and proactive. The book’s warning convinces him that merely preventing the immediate attack is not enough; he must eliminate Suo Kun.
• He is cautious rather than overconfident: he admits he does not know how to counter the Leader Gu Scorpion, avoids relying on uncertain pills, and prepares several backup tools.
• He reflects that Suo Kun, like himself, seems dependent on external tools and may have come to Great Xia seeking greater strength.

Significant themes

• Changing fate through action: The book’s predicted future warns Chen Miao of danger, but he believes his choices can alter what happens next.
• Preparation and uncertainty: Chen Miao cannot guarantee what will work, so he plans for multiple possibilities.
• The cost of leaving an enemy alive: Stopping one attack does not remove the threat; Suo Kun remains capable of striking later.

Character interactions

• Suo Kun remains an unseen but central threat. His refusal to confront Chen Miao directly prompts Chen Miao to seek him out instead.
• Chen Miao’s aunt appears in the book’s grim future, where she is seen carrying a knife during the attack at Elder Uncle’s home, though the circumstances remain unexplained.
• Elder Uncle is the intended victim in that future scenario, making Chen Miao’s decision to act now feel urgent.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao returns to Lin’an University Town and feels unexpectedly nostalgic, briefly easing the tension he has been carrying.
• He visits a cosplay shop that has expanded into a larger business. Its owner is Zhao Gongzi, a college friend who has become a successful cosplayer and shop proprietor.
• Chen Miao asks Zhao to make a back-mounted harness for his Black Umbrella, modeled on a sword scabbard but designed for quick removal. Zhao demonstrates a flexible clip system, then builds a harness that holds both the umbrella and Chen’s Peach Wood Sword securely while allowing him to draw either quickly.
• Zhao refuses payment, saying the work is trivial to him. Chen gives him a Peachwood Talisman for protection and tells him to carry it.
• They joke about the past, including Chen having hidden Zhao’s social-media posts. After Chen leaves the university town, his cheerful mood fades. He returns to the hotel, gathers his things, and sets off.

Character developments

• Chen Miao shows a playful, boastful side with his old friend, but his moment of youthful ease is temporary; once he leaves campus, he resumes his serious, burdened role.
• Zhao Gongzi is revealed as a prosperous and skilled cosplayer whose ability to embody characters also informs his confident, theatrical manner. He remains generous and warm toward Chen.

Character interactions

• Chen and Zhao reconnect through friendly teasing and shared college memories. Zhao helps with Chen’s practical request without demanding payment, while Chen repays him with a protective talisman.
• Their conversation balances humor with familiarity: Chen boasts about becoming a funeral-home director, and Zhao recalls that Chen had hidden his Moments posts.

Significant themes

• Nostalgia and the passage of time: The university town lets Chen briefly reconnect with the lighter person he was in college.
• Friendship and generosity: Old bonds endure through practical help, joking, and mutual gifts.
• The contrast between ordinary life and danger: The custom harness is a practical tool, while the talisman hints at the supernatural risks awaiting Chen once he leaves.

Plot and key events

• Chen Miao reaches the Unfinished Building before dark, memorizes the seventh-floor layout, and hides in a room in Unit Two, where he expects Suo Kun to be.
• Suo Kun arrives unexpectedly at 7:30 p.m., earlier than Chen Miao anticipated, accompanied by several people. Chen Miao stays concealed, activating protective and stealth abilities rather than risking an early attack.
• In the darkness, Chen Miao uses the book to read a future passage: it describes him defeating Suo Kun with his sword after empowering himself with talismans and charging through incense smoke. The passage suggests his plan can succeed, but leaves important details—especially the smoke’s role and the timing—unclear.
• Chen Miao notices that Suo Kun’s companions are being turned into Flying Skulls one at a time. He realizes that an earlier attack might have been easier, but accepts that the chance has passed and waits for the right moment.
• At 10:10 p.m., Suo Kun concludes that his intended “disciple” has failed to appear. He plans to use nine Flying Skulls and intends to learn Great Xia’s cultivation methods before returning to train his own followers. A concealed Gu Scorpion crawls onto his face and camouflages itself.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains disciplined under pressure. He adapts to the unexpected arrival, uses his abilities cautiously, and manages regret through his Iceheart State. Rather than act on incomplete information, he decides to wait and watch Suo Kun’s movements through the Flying Skulls.
• Suo Kun is confident and ambitious. He treats the missing disciple as a minor setback and sees the confrontation as an opportunity to acquire Great Xia’s techniques and enhance his own power.
• Chen Miao and Suo Kun do not meet face-to-face in this chapter. Their conflict unfolds indirectly through Chen’s surveillance of Suo Kun and the Flying Skulls, while Suo Kun remains unaware of Chen’s presence.

Significant themes

• Patience and tactical restraint: Chen Miao’s survival depends on resisting the urge to strike before he understands the situation.
• Knowledge versus uncertainty: The book offers a glimpse of a successful outcome, but not enough information to remove the risks or explain how the victory happens.
• Adaptation under pressure: Chen Miao improvises around darkness, sound, and changing circumstances.
• Power and ambition: Suo Kun’s desire to combine rival traditions reflects his drive for dominance and his confidence in exploiting others.

Plot points and events

• At dawn, Suo Kun becomes angry that no one has arrived to meet him. He gathers his supernatural servants—the Flying Skulls, Ghost Babies, and Gu Scorpions—and investigates a strange sound coming from a room.
• His creatures enter but do not return. Through a Flying Skull’s borrowed vision, Suo Kun discovers they are all smiling at a pinwheel, a fan, and a lit phone. Unable to explain the scene, he orders the Skull to attack.
• Meanwhile, unexplained footsteps circle Suo Kun. He cannot see their source until he uses a Flying Skull’s viewpoint, revealing a sword-wielding man—Chen Miao—standing behind him.
• Chen Miao’s Spirit-Sealing Talismans immobilize two Flying Skulls. As he closes in with his red-glowing sword, Suo Kun begs to surrender, but Chen Miao does not stop.
• A mummy-like figure suddenly catches the sword. Its red mist dissolves the remaining Flying Skulls and leaves both Suo Kun and Chen Miao unable to move.
• An old man appears and questions Suo Kun about joining the Curse Cult. Suo Kun eagerly agrees to serve, but the mummy absorbs his spirit through the seven black openings in its face, killing him.
• Chen Miao witnesses Suo Kun’s phantom being consumed. The chapter ends as the mummy turns toward Chen Miao and places a hand on each of his shoulders.

Character developments

• Suo Kun shifts from arrogant confidence to suspicion and fear as his supernatural forces are neutralized. He abandons his earlier defiance and pleads to join the cult, but dies before he can escape.
• Chen Miao appears as the unseen figure stalking Suo Kun and attacks decisively. His reaction to the mummy’s intervention is restrained but shocked.
• The old man reveals himself as the authority behind the encounter, while the mummy proves to be an overwhelmingly powerful and lethal presence.

Significant themes

• Power and helplessness: Suo Kun’s many minions and techniques prove useless against forces he cannot understand.
• Illusion, perception, and the unknown: The unexplained footsteps and the creatures’ strange fixation on ordinary objects unsettle Suo Kun before the true threat appears.
• False promises of belonging or immortality: Suo Kun’s eagerness to serve the Curse Cult—and his belief that Great Xia offers immortality—ends in his destruction.
• Escalating danger: Chen Miao seems to be the main threat, but the mummy’s arrival reveals a still greater power.

Character interactions

• Suo Kun commands and communicates with his supernatural creatures, trying to use them to investigate and defend himself.
• He confronts Chen Miao only briefly, pleading for mercy as Chen Miao attacks.
• The old man questions Suo Kun about joining the Curse Cult; Suo Kun agrees, but the mummy kills him.
• The mummy then turns its attention to Chen Miao, ending the chapter on a direct, ominous encounter.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao realizes Suo Kun likely arranged to meet a Curse Cult member at the same location, leaving Chen Miao trapped after Suo Kun’s death.
• A little old man and his desiccated corpse control Chen Miao. The corpse moves like an exoskeleton, forcing him to follow the old man.
• Chen Miao briefly hopes his Gu Scorpion can attack the old man, but the man catches and bites it in half.
• The old man disables the Fan, then pins the room’s Flying Skulls and Ghost Babies to the walls with silver needles.
• He inspects Chen Miao’s equipment and discovers a Soul-Calming Scripture hidden beneath a sticker on a Memorial Tablet. He identifies it as a text associated with the Curse Buddha lineage and takes the tablets, while leaving the incense.
• Finally, he strips Chen Miao of his talismans, tools, and other possessions, joking that Chen Miao seems to collect junk.

Character developments

• Chen Miao shifts from searching for an escape to accepting that he is thoroughly outmatched. He stays guarded, answers selectively, and conceals his knowledge of the Incense-Burning Method.
• The old man emerges as exceptionally powerful, perceptive, and curious. Rather than killing Chen Miao immediately, he questions him and examines his unusual collection.
• Suo Kun’s death remains the one consolation Chen Miao can take from the situation, despite his own predicament.

Significant themes

• Plans undone by unforeseen events: Chen Miao’s ambush fails because of his timing and Suo Kun’s hidden arrangements.
• Power and helplessness: Chen Miao’s preparations prove useless against the old man’s strength and the corpse’s control.
• Caution and concealment: Chen Miao weighs every answer, knowing that revealing too much could put him—or others—in danger.
• Dark humor and ritual: Chen Miao’s claim that he gives the dead incense and a literary send-off contrasts with the scene’s menace, while the old man treats his ritual objects with amused scrutiny.

Character interactions

• The old man interrogates Chen Miao about his skills and equipment, while Chen Miao responds evasively or with dry humor.
• Chen Miao’s attempt to attack through the Gu Scorpion fails instantly, underscoring the gap between them.
• The old man recognizes the hidden scripture, takes the Memorial Tablets, and disarms Chen Miao, turning their conversation into a one-sided examination.

Plot points and events

• Old Ghost dismisses Chen Miao’s protective gear as “junk,” but spares him after deciding Chen Miao can compensate for the trouble of testing Suo Kun. Chen Miao realizes Old Ghost may have been interested in his Curse Buddha–style Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet, and cautiously agrees to offer himself in Suo Kun’s place.
• Old Ghost uses a Bone Needle to tattoo a Headless Daoist yin tattoo onto Chen Miao. The process floods Chen Miao with freezing sensations and chaotic thoughts. Old Ghost then absorbs the nine Ghost Babies into needles and adds them to the tattoo, forcing Chen Miao to endure their cries, pain, and despair. Chen Miao stays conscious by relying on his Iceheart State and briefly activating Negative Emotion Storage.
• The dried corpse releases Chen Miao and dissolves into blood-colored mist that enters Old Ghost. Old Ghost declares Chen Miao a member of the Curse Cult’s Curse Dao, Southern School, Thirteenth Branch. He warns him to avoid the Administration, explains that the tattoo can expose his affiliation, and says its embedded Ghost Baby must be fed yin energy or it will consume Chen Miao’s vital essence.
• Old Ghost leaves with most of Chen Miao’s equipment, then returns to add that the tattoo can be concealed unless Chen Miao’s emotions expose it or he uses the cult’s Mystic Arts. He identifies himself as Old Ghost and vanishes in red mist.
• After recovering, Chen Miao kills the six remaining Flying Skulls with his damaged Peach Wood Sword and collects the Bone Needles. The book then marks the chapter complete, awarding yin virtue and two manuals, but no memory fragment from Suo Kun. Chen Miao suspects the dried corpse was yin sha nurtured by the navel yin well.

Character development

• Chen Miao proves resourceful and composed under extreme pressure. He studies Old Ghost’s motives, chooses his words carefully, and endures the tattooing without losing consciousness. Though frightened and physically weakened, he remains alert to the risks surrounding his book and new affiliation.
• Old Ghost comes across as unpredictable and casually cruel, treating Chen Miao’s ordeal as enjoyable craftsmanship. Yet he also offers practical instructions and advice, suggesting he sees Chen Miao as useful—or at least promising—rather than merely disposable.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao navigates Old Ghost’s probing questions by agreeing to “compensate” him with himself, which averts immediate danger but leads to the forced tattooing.
• Old Ghost’s relationship with Chen Miao shifts from detached assessment to enthusiastic, possessive initiation: he tattoos him, claims him as a cult member, and gives him rules for surviving within and outside the cult.
• Chen Miao cannot openly resist during the encounter, but his internal calculations and later actions show he retains some agency.

Significant themes

• Survival through judgment and restraint: Chen Miao’s ability to read danger and choose his responses matters more than strength.
• Coercive belonging and compromised identity: The tattoo makes Chen Miao a Curse Cult member without consent, placing him between the cult and the Administration.
• Endurance and self-control: His mental disciplines help him withstand both physical pain and the Ghost Babies’ emotional assault.
• Knowledge as danger: Chen Miao’s abilities, the book, and his connection to the Curse Cult could all expose him to powerful enemies.

Key plot points and events

• After killing Suo Kun, Chen Miao hears the gu scorpions stirring and quickly escapes the building. Without their master, they do not pursue him.
• He returns to his hotel exhausted, sleeps until noon, and later releases the negative emotions he had stored. The surge briefly makes the Headless Daoist mark—and the Ghost Baby hidden within it—appear on his arm.
• Chen Miao experiments with feeding the mark yin energy. It reappears, but consumes the energy rapidly and fades before he can inspect it fully, leaving him worried about how much it will take to satisfy the Ghost Baby.
• He reviews the cost of the encounter: he lost most of his talismans, equipment, Ghost Cubes, and both Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablets; his Seven-Star Peach Wood Sword was also badly weakened. He received 1 tael and 2 qian of yin virtue, bringing his total to 3 taels and 6 qian.
• The Ghost Baby’s rib has returned to normal inside the Black Umbrella, suggesting the creature was either removed from Lin’an or destroyed.
• Chen Miao examines his rewards: Suo Kun’s notes contain 38 Head-Down Curses, many of which inflict sensory distortions or torment without directly killing their victims. He then turns to the Ghost Scorpion Breeding Manual.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains shaken by the ordeal but accepts his losses as preferable to dying. His new concern is the Ghost Baby attached to his arm and its apparent need for yin energy.
• Old Ghost’s intervention saved Chen Miao, but it came at a steep material cost: Old Ghost took numerous tools and artifacts, including the Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablets. Chen Miao still does not know how Old Ghost discovered their secret.
• Suo Kun’s death ends his control over the gu scorpions, allowing Chen Miao to escape.

Significant themes

• Survival and sacrifice: Chen Miao considers lost equipment a fair price for making it out alive.
• Power with hidden costs: The Ghost Baby drains yin energy, while Head-Down Curses impose harmful side effects—even when used to help someone.
• Moral unease: Chen Miao questions the mindset behind curses that offer no genuinely positive outcomes.
• Uncertainty and consequence: The chapter closes with the Ghost Scorpion Breeding Manual still unexplored, while Chen Miao faces the lingering consequences of Old Ghost’s intervention.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao reads the Ghost Scorpion Breeding Manual and learns about its three tiers:
  • Ghost stripe: tougher and more venomous than ordinary scorpions, but otherwise similar.
  • Ghost face: dominates ghost-stripe scorpions, develops unpredictable special abilities, and has venom that can harm ghosts.
  • Ghost fiend: created by feeding a ghost-face scorpion multiple ghosts. It is extremely difficult and costly to raise, and its strength depends on the scorpion’s potential.
• Chen Miao concludes that raising ghost-face scorpions would offer better value than pursuing the much harder ghost-fiend tier. He also notes that scorpions bond to their keeper through the keeper’s blood and cannot be passed on; if control fails, they may devour their keeper.
• That night, Chen Miao summons the Ghost Baby through his yin tattoo. Although he recognizes the tattoo’s power, he worries that Old Ghost may have hidden motives and that accepting the Ghost Baby could draw him toward the Curse Cult’s darker practices.
• Choosing to free the infant spirit, Chen Miao performs a Transcendence Rite. The Ghost Baby’s black qi dissipates, its eyes clear, and it smiles before vanishing. The tattoo fades, leaving only the Headless Daoist image.
• The book records the rite as a completed side story. Chen Miao gains two qian of yin virtue and the status “Infant spirit affinity,” which makes infant-spirit ghosts naturally feel close to him and instinctively avoid harming him.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is cautious and practical about supernatural power: he assesses the scorpions’ strength, cost, and risks rather than pursuing the strongest option blindly.
• He also shows moral resolve. Despite the Ghost Baby’s obedience and the temptation of greater power, he refuses to treat the infant as a tool or risk becoming an evil cultivator.
• Chen Miao’s bond with the Ghost Baby is intimate and unsettling at first, as the tattoo creates a bloodlike connection and lets the spirit understand his intentions. Their final exchange—its smile and his answering smile—turns the moment into a compassionate farewell.
• Chen Miao remains suspicious of Old Ghost, questioning whether the tattoo and Ghost Baby might serve Old Ghost’s interests rather than his own.

Significant themes

• Power versus moral cost: Supernatural strength may bring danger, expense, dependence, or moral compromise.
• Control and exploitation: The ghost-scoprion keeper’s bond can become lethal, while Chen Miao rejects treating the Ghost Baby as a means to power.
• Compassion and release: The rite offers the infant spirit peace and rebirth, while also giving Chen Miao hope that his own tattoo may someday be removed.
• Uncertainty and mistrust: Chen Miao cannot know Old Ghost’s true intentions, so he must make choices based on both caution and principle.

Key plot points and events

• After performing the Child-Deliverance Incantation, Chen Miao discovers that his Six Jiangzhen Secrets has gained the suffix “Divine Gaze.” This version lets him perform rituals from within 50 meters of incense, delay their activation by a minute, and control incense smoke for a targeted Transcendence Rite. He also learns that Divine Descent and Divine Arrival are higher, unexplained stages.
• Testing the upgraded method, Chen Miao learns to shape incense smoke, briefly cloak himself, and conceal his Yin Mark. Ordinary incense hides it for one minute; incense redeemed from the book lasts five. Using the Yin Bridge Aperture doubles those durations, suggesting it may offer a long-term way to counter the mark. Only the Fiend-Subduing Mantra works for concealment.
• He spends the night drawing five Fine Talismans, then visits Zhao Gongzi and gives him a talisman to use if his protective Peachwood Talisman cracks. He advises Zhao to flee to the police station rather than wait for Chen Miao’s help.
• Back in Tianmen County, Chen Miao reviews the funeral home’s growth and plans to hire additional staff, including a Master of Ceremonies, hearse driver, cold-storage attendant, and sales representatives. He decides Shi Manman can continue handling mortuary cosmetics and that the cook should return.
• Chen Miao begins researching scorpions so he can raise Ghost Scorpions, seeking a safer and more flexible way to fight than relying on close-range sword combat.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao becomes more confident in the Incense-Burning Method and thinks strategically about two possible ways to remove the Yin Mark: steadily strengthening the Yin Bridge or attaining a higher divine suffix.
• He takes Zhao’s safety seriously, though Zhao is surprised by the supernatural warning because it clashes with his memories of Chen’s rowdy, ordinary side. Zhao accepts the talisman and hangs it beside his existing Peachwood Talisman.
• Chen Miao shows growing responsibility as funeral-home owner, prioritizing staffing and sustainable operations over maximizing his personal income. He also considers Li Fu’s welfare and Shi Manman’s development.

Significant themes

• Power and uncertainty: Chen Miao gains new abilities but does not know which deity, if any, is behind them or what the higher stages require.
• Preparation over recklessness: Talismans, protective advice, and Ghost Scorpions reflect his effort to reduce danger and broaden his options.
• Growth and responsibility: His supernatural advancement develops alongside the funeral home’s expansion and his concern for employees and friends.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao investigates how to cultivate Ghost Scorpions and learns that each stage requires forty-nine scorpions to fight to the death. Producing one second-stage scorpion takes 2,401 scorpions; a third-stage one takes nearly 120,000.
• Emperor Scorpions—the type Suo Kun used—cost at least 100 yuan each. Chen calculates that even a second-stage scorpion would cost about 240,000 yuan, while Suo Kun’s apparent stock of Ghost Scorpions likely represented an enormous investment in both money and time.
• Chen considers using cheaper, common scorpions instead, which might make third-stage cultivation affordable, but he first tries to find a supplier for Emperor Scorpions.
• His friends and online sellers cannot help. Xie Songde promises to ask around, while Yang Jiuhua points Chen toward a large scorpion farm several hours from Lin’an.
• Chen offers Yang a job at his funeral home, but Yang declines because his livestreaming is going well.
• Concerned that Yang’s work could expose him to supernatural danger, Chen offers protective talismans. He ships Yang a Peachwood Talisman and several Spirit-Sealing Talismans, along with instructions.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is practical and resourceful, carefully weighing the costs, labor, and time involved in raising scorpions. He is also considerate: despite teasing Yang, he takes the risk of Yang’s livestreaming seriously and quietly sends extra protection.
• Yang Jiuhua remains friendly and independent. He helps Chen find a scorpion farmer but turns down steady employment, preferring his successful livestreams and occasional eulogy work.
• Chen reaches out to Zhao Gongzi, Zhong Cai, and Xie Songde for information, showing how he relies on his network; none can immediately identify an Emperor Scorpion source.

Significant themes

• The cost of power: Cultivating stronger Ghost Scorpions demands vast resources, time, and specialized infrastructure.
• Practical problem-solving: Chen adapts his plans when the ideal materials prove expensive and hard to find.
• Friendship and protection: Chen’s concern for Yang shows his loyalty and willingness to help, even when Yang does not ask directly.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao returns to Tianmen Funeral Home, checks that everything is running normally, and writes three days’ worth of eulogies in case his planned trip delays him.
• He updates Luo Zhiyong about hiring a master of ceremonies and checks that Shi Manman is doing well; she still has the funeral home’s only Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet.
• Chen Miao draws Spirit-Sealing Talismans, reflecting that he often gives them away to protect people he knows.
• During cultivation, he rethinks the order for developing his nine apertures. Because the yin markings and the old ghost have made survival more urgent, he plans to prioritize the heart yin cavity, which aids recovery, and the perineal life-and-death point, which removes bodily weak spots.
• The next morning, he drives to a remote scorpion farm and meets its owner, Shi Lang. Chen says he intends to buy at least 2,500 scorpions.
• Shi Lang has only about 300 adult emperor scorpions available, and most are reserved for a major repeat buyer. Chen suspects this customer is someone connected to Lin’an City, but cannot buy enough emperor scorpions and turns instead to the farm’s East Asian scorpions.
• Shi Lang explains the stock, nest sizes, bulk pricing, and different rates based on size and sex. Chen asks how many scorpions exceed eight centimeters.

Character developments

• Chen Miao is becoming more cautious and practical: he prepares the funeral home for his absence, keeps supplying protective talismans to others, and adjusts his cultivation priorities toward staying alive.
• Shi Lang is straightforward and commercially minded. He initially doubts Chen’s seriousness but leads him through the farm once Chen names a large order.

Significant themes

• Protection and responsibility: Chen’s willingness to give away talismans shows his concern for familiar people, even when it uses up his supplies.
• Survival and adaptation: The threat of the yin markings and the old ghost prompts Chen to revise his cultivation plan.
• Preparation and practical compromise: Chen plans ahead for work, travel, and cultivation, and switches scorpion types when his first choice is unavailable.

Character interactions

• Chen coordinates with Luo Zhiyong about eulogies and recruitment, and checks on Shi Manman’s situation.
• At the farm, Chen and Shi Lang discuss the scale of Chen’s purchase, the farm’s species and stock, and pricing. Their exchange ends with Chen assessing the available larger East Asian scorpions.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao buys 2,500 large East Asian scorpions from Shi Lang. He considers buying enough to cultivate a third-stage batch, but rejects the plan because transporting and cultivating so many at once would attract suspicion.
• He discovers that Gold in Stone can single out the best-quality scorpion in view. Since he can use it only once an hour, he plans to use the ability strategically.
• At the funeral home, Chen Miao prepares forty-nine jars and begins the first stage of Ghost Scorpion cultivation, using scorpion powder and his own blood. After a day, one scorpion remains in each jar; they have molted and darkened in color.
• He tests whether naturally exceptional scorpions can match cultivated ones. Comparing uncultivated scorpions against first-stage scorpions, he confirms that at least some naturally gifted scorpions equal them in quality. This suggests a future way to find high-aptitude scorpions for cultivating a Ghost Fiend Scorpion.
• Gold in Stone also singles out Li Fu in a cafeteria full of younger people, suggesting the ability can assess people as well as objects—but Chen Miao does not yet know what “quality” means in a person.
• Chen Miao dismantles the damaged Seven-Star Peach Wood Sword. Its black handprint has penetrated almost all the way through the century-old wood, leading him to suspect the mummy is exceptionally powerful. He salvages five talismans and wood shavings, then starts making a replacement sword himself.
• He continues training Shi Manman, teaching her blind stitching as the next step toward becoming a Thread-Arranging Child. He outlines the longer path ahead, including bone identification and eventually confronting a Malevolent Corpse.
• After his scorpion test, Chen Miao begins the second cultivation stage, expecting to produce his first Ghost Pattern Scorpion.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao becomes more strategic about using Gold in Stone and begins considering its broader applications. He prefers to make his own peachwood weapons to build his skills rather than delegate the work to Zhao Gongzi.
• Shi Lang sells Chen Miao the scorpions and helps pack them for transport, while watching him closely enough that Chen Miao avoids buying an unusually large quantity.
• Shi Manman has progressed enough in the Coffin-Linked Corpse technique to begin learning blind stitching from Chen Miao.
• Chen Miao thinks about Xiang Shang, who has apparently made no progress with his talismans after three months, contrasting Xiang Shang’s slow learning with the importance of talent.

Significant themes

• Natural aptitude versus cultivation: Chen Miao finds that exceptional innate quality can rival the results of deliberate cultivation.
• Power and uncertainty: Gold in Stone offers new advantages, but its standards and limits remain unclear—especially when applied to people.
• Caution and resourcefulness: Chen Miao weighs cost, time, and the risk of drawing attention before committing to large-scale plans.
• Skill through practice: He chooses hands-on sword-making and continues Shi Manman’s demanding training, emphasizing gradual improvement.
• Escalating danger: The mummy’s corruption of the sword suggests that a formidable threat may be stronger than Chen Miao previously understood.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao endures his first attempt at a third round of the Body-Refinement Art. It is significantly more painful, but his yin-pattern tattoo and Iceheart State help him withstand it.
• Hoping to improve his fitness beyond his daily cultivation, Chen asks Li Fu to teach him the boxing routine he practices. Li agrees to teach him a version of Military Boxing the next morning and explains that it is a widely known routine, not a secret art.
• Chen visits his apprentice, Shi Manman, who is struggling with blind stitching: she has sewn an eyeball and eyelid together. He leaves without interrupting or consoling her.
• Chen asks Zhong Cai whether runes can be split across separate objects and assembled later, hoping to redesign the Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet so its Soul-Suppressing Field can be deployed flexibly without alerting the old ghost.
• Zhong Cai consults a feng shui practitioner and reports two methods. Splitting a single, continuous rune is difficult and weakens its effect; a formation made of independent runes can be separated, provided the pieces use suitable matching materials and cinnabar is applied at their joints.
• Chen concludes that the vertically arranged columns of the Soul-Calming Scripture may be separated and reassembled. He now needs to work out how to divide and join them.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen is increasingly proactive about improving his body and adapting his tools to new threats.
• Li Fu is friendly and willing to teach Chen, while setting a sensible boundary by postponing the lesson until he has rested.
• Shi Manman’s early training proves difficult, though Chen gives her room to practice rather than stepping in.
• Zhong Cai helps Chen by seeking outside expertise and relaying practical information.

Significant themes

• Persistence through pain and failure: Chen accepts that body refinement and Shi Manman’s training both require repeated practice.
• Practical experimentation: Chen looks for workable ways to improve his physical training and redesign the memorial tablet.
• Knowledge shared through relationships: Chen’s plans advance through Li Fu’s instruction and Zhong Cai’s help.
• Adaptation to danger: The old ghost’s discovery of the active tablet pushes Chen to rethink how he can use the Soul-Suppressing Field.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao develops a concealed, three-piece Combined Soul-Calming Wood by joining cypress boards with mortise-and-tenon joints and inscribing the Soul-Calming Scripture across them. The device works only when the boards are assembled in the original order, and its protective field activates before they are fully joined.
• The design is discreet but costly, slower to assemble than his old tablet, and requires maintenance as the cinnabar wears away. Chen decides it is a workable temporary solution and considers asking Zhao Gongzi for improvements.
• Chen Miao completes the Ghost Pattern Scorpion’s transformation by inscribing its marking with ink mixed with his blood. Their new bond lets him direct it mentally or with special spoken commands.
• He tests its abilities and feeding routine: yin energy supports its growth, daily blood strengthens the bond, and chicken blood tempers its shell. The scorpion also eats other scorpions to sustain itself and improve its potential; it consumes two of the four ordinary scorpions Chen gives it.
• The next morning, Chen meets Li Fu at the Cold Storage to learn Ironblood Eight Extremes, the combat version adapted from Baji Fist. Li tells him to record the demonstration on his phone and begins with the first form, “City-Breaking Spear.”

Character developments and interactions

• Chen shows careful planning and resourcefulness, balancing the need for concealment against the cost and practical drawbacks of his new protective tool. His limited yin virtue also makes him cautious about future scorpion-raising expenses.
• The iceheart state appears to strengthen Chen’s mind: he can command the Ghost Scorpion easily and use his eyes-closed perception to track it.
• Chen treats the scorpion as both a creature to study and a developing asset, testing its control, sensing, and feeding requirements.
• Chen expects Li Fu to teach like a traditional master testing a disciple’s aptitude, but Li takes a practical, modern approach. Their exchange adds humor and establishes Li as a straightforward instructor.

Significant themes

• Practical adaptation: Chen modifies tools and training methods to suit real-world needs rather than relying on convention.
• Preparation and trade-offs: Greater concealment and improved capabilities come with costs, maintenance, and risk.
• Control and cultivation: Chen’s bond with the Ghost Scorpion—and its growth through yin-yang interaction and predation—shows power developing through sustained care and resources.

Key events

• Li Fu teaches Chen Miao an eight-move fighting routine, explaining how the moves build strength and identifying three particularly useful moves for real combat.
• Li Fu says he is teaching Chen Miao for self-defense because Chen Miao has developed a “vicious air.” He warns him that violence carries consequences. Chen Miao practices the routine and finds its movements come naturally.
• Over the following month, Chen Miao becomes more focused on self-improvement. He crafts a spare Peach Wood Sword, five more Peachwood Talismans, and—on his first try—a set of interlocking soul-calming plaques from century-old cypress.
• Qi Ning’s reward for a captured Head-Down Sorcerer arrives: fifteen points, of which Chen Miao has thirteen after repaying Qi Ning. Chen Miao saves them rather than spending them.
• Chen Miao expands his talisman stock and trades talismans through Qi Ning for Ghost Cubes and Support Spray, including a particularly profitable exchange of thirty talismans for three of each.
• The funeral home fills its vacant positions. Zhang Yi, Chen Miao’s former mentor, returns after struggling at the Fushou Funeral Center. Chen Miao hires him partly because he is unlikely to be poached back by Du Xiang. Zhang Yi works especially hard after returning, leaving Chen Miao more time for himself.
• By the end of the month, Chen Miao’s third aperture—the heavenly spirit yin aperture—has fully developed. He confirms that it is linked to mental power and that its completion strengthens several of his abilities.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows increasing discipline, developing his fighting skills, crafting tools, managing his resources, and testing his supernatural abilities. His growing menace is noticeable even to Li Fu.
• Li Fu proves surprisingly capable despite his age, but pain after the final move reveals his physical limits. He balances practical instruction with a warning against abusing what he teaches.
• Qi Ning acts as Chen Miao’s trading intermediary, helping him obtain Ghost Cubes and Support Spray in exchange for talismans.
• Zhang Yi returns to Chen Miao’s workplace after professional setbacks. Their earlier good relationship and Zhang Yi’s difficult circumstances influence Chen Miao’s decision to hire him.

Significant themes

• Preparation and self-reliance: Chen Miao steadily builds his combat abilities, supplies, and supernatural strength.
• Power and responsibility: Li Fu’s warning emphasizes that self-defense skills can become dangerous and carry consequences.
• Pragmatism and trust: Chen Miao makes calculated choices in hiring and trading, while still honoring past relationships.
• Growth with limits: Chen Miao’s abilities advance, but Li Fu’s age and the costs of rare items show that strength and resources are not unlimited.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao discovers that the Heavenly Spirit Yin Aperture does not immediately let him cast Ghostly Blindness; he suspects a suitable Mystic Art is also required. Its passive benefits are substantial, however:
  • It doubles his Eyes-Closed Perception range to twelve meters.
  • It lets him communicate easily with his Ghost Pattern Scorpion, and Iceheart State allows him to sense simple replies.
  • It improves his resistance to illusions, helping him break free of the Pinwheel through willpower rather than spending yin energy.
  • With Iceheart State, it improves his talisman-drawing efficiency and helps him endure body-refining pain.
• Chen Miao’s Ghost Pattern Scorpion is growing unusually quickly, likely helped by his regular visits to Shi Lang’s breeding facility and the high-quality scorpions he feeds it. It may become a Ghost Face Scorpion after the New Year.
• After completing a demanding Ironblood Eight Extremes move, Chen Miao receives praise from Li Fu for his aptitude. Li Fu regrets that Chen never joined the military, though Chen believes his progress depends on the cultivation methods and opportunities he found elsewhere.
• Chen Miao tests Shi Manman’s blind corpse-stitching by secretly placing a model head inside a damaged model corpse. She detects the tampering, corrects her stitching, and applies corpse wax to repair the holes.
• Chen Miao warns Shi Manman that mistakes in corpse-sewing can increase resentment and create ghosts. He praises her caution but tells her to use the Soul-Guiding Needle, Throat-Sealing Knot, and Corpse-Binding Knot if she encounters a similar risk.
• Chen Miao leaves for Shannan City to inspect Xiang Shang’s first talisman, drawn after four months of practice, and to meet Xie Songde.
• Elsewhere, Yang Jiuhua prepares a cemetery livestream titled “Have you burned joss paper today?”

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao recognizes the Heavenly Spirit Yin Aperture as an exceptionally useful support ability and becomes more eager to resolve the danger of his Yin Mark so he can develop his apertures further. His martial training and body refinement have also rapidly improved his physique.
• Shi Manman has advanced to blind stitching for ten minutes and shows sound judgment when she discovers and repairs the deliberately complicated model. Chen Miao shifts from playful testing to serious instruction, emphasizing vigilance and safety.
• Li Fu admires Chen Miao’s quick mastery of boxing and believes he could have excelled in the military. Chen politely keeps his own view: his current abilities owe much to the cultivation path he discovered.
• Chen Miao and Shi Lang have become friendly through Chen’s paid lessons and repeated visits, which also give Chen access to better scorpion feed and practical breeding knowledge.

Significant themes

• Preparation and complementary abilities: Chen Miao’s new aperture strengthens existing skills rather than granting an immediately usable illusion technique.
• Learning through experience: Chen’s training methods and Shi Manman’s practical tests expose weaknesses that ordinary practice might miss.
• Caution amid supernatural work: Improper corpse-sewing can have deadly consequences, so careful inspection and corrective procedures are essential.
• Opportunity and circumstance: Chen’s success depends not only on talent but also on finding the right methods, resources, and mentors.

Plot points and events

• Yang Jiuhua opens a livestream about New Year’s paper offerings for ancestors. He explains the customs and taboos, then jokes that none of the superstitions will actually cause anything to happen.
• He takes his viewers to a cemetery plaza where people are burning offerings, intending to test the taboos. He watches mourners perform the ritual and takes photos, provoking chat’s jokes and skepticism.
• Yang steps on ashes from a finished fire. An elderly man notices and tells him to apologize, but Yang feigns ignorance until the man walks away.
• Yang plans to burn his own paper and pour water on it, but a small whirlwind suddenly sweeps through the plaza, gathering burning offerings and growing into a flaming vortex.
• He explains the phenomenon as a scientifically caused fire whirlwind. As it approaches, however, he recites a strange, poetic line about an old friend arriving on the wind. The stream’s chat reacts as if he has been possessed and begins chanting Buddhist incantations.

Character developments

• Yang Jiuhua presents himself as irreverent, confident, and skeptical, treating solemn traditions as material for a livestream experiment. His composure falters briefly when an older man confronts him, but he quickly resumes joking. His final, uncanny verse complicates his earlier insistence on rational explanations.
• The viewers shift from playful amusement to quiet attention as they watch people honor their ancestors, then return to teasing Yang. The sudden whirlwind makes them alarmed and superstitious.
• The mourners are shown as sincere and restrained: some carefully follow familiar rituals, while others quietly express grief and remembrance.

Themes

• The chapter contrasts folk belief and scientific explanation, especially through Yang’s dismissal of taboos and his account of the fire whirlwind.
• It also emphasizes the emotional meaning of ritual: despite Yang’s jokes, the mourners’ offerings reveal grief, memory, and connection with the dead.
• The ending introduces uncertainty, suggesting that rational confidence may not fully explain everything that happens.

Character interactions

• Yang banters with his viewers, who encourage, mock, and challenge him throughout the stream.
• An elderly man confronts Yang for stepping on ashes, exposing the tension between Yang’s content-making and the respect others show the ritual.
• The mourners’ quiet observances contrast with Yang’s disruptive commentary, while the viewers’ final chants turn his strange behavior into a comic—but unsettling—spectacle.

Key plot points and events

• Streamer Yang Jiuhua disrupts a large fire whirl at a paper-burning plaza, unaware that locals believe it is their ancestors collecting spirit money. They scold him and warn that he will suffer bad luck; he apologizes and moves elsewhere.
• He finishes burning his own offerings, then heads to a nearby cemetery. Speaking to viewers, he acknowledges that he does not believe paper offerings help the dead, yet understands that the ritual can comfort the living.
• After the cemetery empties, Yang settles down in the plaza to eat pork head meat and peanuts and drink liquor while continuing his livestream.
• He hears a cracking sound and discovers that the peachwood talisman given to him by an old school friend—now a funeral-home director—has broken. At the viewers’ urging, he smears blood on three accompanying talismans and tests one by tossing it into a pile of ash. Nothing seems to happen.
• When he returns to his food, Yang realizes he has been eating a piece of half-burned paper rather than pork. The chapter ends with him staring at the cold ashes where his meal should have been.

Character developments

• Yang Jiuhua remains bold, irreverent, and eager to entertain, even when his stunts offend locals. He also shows a reflective side, recognizing the emotional value of rituals despite his skepticism.
• His confidence begins to crack as supernatural signs intrude: first the broken talisman, then the inexplicable substitution of burned paper for food.
• The viewers shift from joking and encouraging risky content to expressing alarm when Yang appears to eat ash.

Significant themes

• Tradition versus skepticism: Yang treats folk beliefs as customs to explain, while locals regard them as sacred and consequential.
• Comfort and self-deception: Yang admits people may find reassurance in rituals even when they doubt their literal effect.
• The supernatural and the unknowable: The broken charm and vanished food suggest that Yang’s skeptical performance may have entered genuinely dangerous territory.
• Entertainment and risk: Audience pressure encourages Yang to push his content further, blurring the line between a stunt and real peril.

Character interactions

• Locals rebuke Yang for disrupting the fire whirl, revealing the religious meaning they attach to it.
• Yang jokes and speaks candidly with his livestream audience, who tease him about his protective charm and urge him to test the talismans.
• The talismans connect Yang to his former schoolmate, the funeral-home director, whose warning about what to do if the charm breaks becomes newly ominous.

Key plot points

• After drinking and leaving his original spot, Yang Jiuhua realizes he has somehow returned to the place where his food, liquor, and backpack are lying—even though the backpack on his shoulders has turned into a bag of ashes.
• He believes he is trapped in a supernatural “Ghostly Wall.” Every attempt to escape brings him back to the same offerings. Advice from his livestream viewers—including splashing himself with urine and wearing his underwear over his head—doesn’t help.
• Alone and frightened, Yang keeps walking through the night, livestreaming and making jokes about his final wishes. He avoids eating or drinking the offerings, fearing they may not be what they appear to be, and repeatedly calls the police. The calls either get him scolded or fail to bring help.
• As the night grows colder, he gathers discarded-looking clothes and scraps to stay warm. Eventually, exhausted and freezing, he buries himself under the scraps and falls asleep.
• At dawn, an old man wakes him. Yang discovers that the “clothes” he wore were burned paper garments, and the material covering him was yellow paper and spirit money—offerings for the dead.

Character development and interactions

• Yang shifts from dismissing his confusion as drunkenness to accepting that he may be in supernatural danger. Though terrified, he stays resourceful and determined, taking suggestions from viewers, seeking warmth, and trying different ways to summon help.
• His livestream audience provides companionship and encouragement, though their suggestions range from practical reassurance to absurd folk remedies. Yang’s exchanges with them help him feel less alone.
• Yang’s calls to the police show his desperation: he first reports a ghost, then claims to be lost and injured, and finally knowingly risks being reprimanded to attract a response.
• The old man’s arrival ends Yang’s ordeal, but his discovery of the paper garments reveals just how thoroughly the supernatural experience distorted his perceptions.

Significant themes

• Fear and uncertainty: Yang cannot tell what is real, and ordinary objects become potentially dangerous or uncanny.
• The need for human connection: The livestream chat sustains Yang emotionally when he is isolated.
• Survival and resilience: Despite panic, cold, hunger, and failed escape attempts, Yang keeps improvising and holding on until morning.
• The blurred boundary between life and death: The burned offerings and paper clothing suggest Yang has spent the night among funerary objects, reinforcing the chapter’s eerie supernatural atmosphere.