Chapter Summaries

Plot points

• Yang Jiuhua escapes the cemetery after regaining control of his body. He finds his belongings and three intact triangular talismans, despite remembering using one, and leaves with his cracked Peachwood Talisman.
• Reviewing his livestream, Yang discovers that much of the night he remembered never happened as he experienced it. The recording shows him eating ash, running in circles, putting on paper clothes, making calls on a dead phone, and sleeping in paper scraps. The tips and viewers he remembers interacting with are absent from the stream’s records.
• He realizes supernatural forces may have kept him from seeing the talismans. Frightened, he calls Chen Miao, who advises him to leave the area immediately and meet him.
• Chen Miao reviews the stream and concludes Yang was likely affected by “Ghostly Blindness,” though he cannot tell whether the cemetery’s ghosts were already there or were created by Yang’s actions.
• Meanwhile, Xiang Shang successfully draws a Spirit-Sealing Talisman after persistent practice. Chen warns him to limit practice to two hours a day; Xiang agrees.
• Xie Songde asks to buy more talismans and invites Chen to inspect a scorpion-breeding operation he has invested in and purchased. Chen postpones both decisions while considering Yang’s situation, but the facility’s size sparks his interest in using “gold in stone” on its scorpions.
• Yang travels to Shannan City and, visibly shaken, reunites with Chen, pleading for help.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Jiuhua shifts from confused relief to terror as he compares his memories with the livestream footage. He recognizes that his experience was distorted and places his trust in Chen.
• Chen Miao stays calm and practical, advises Yang to leave the haunted area, and carefully considers the cause of the incident. He also sets firm limits on Xiang’s training and weighs Xie’s offers.
• Xiang Shang is proud of his first successful talisman, but accepts Chen’s warning about overexertion.
• Xie Songde continues trying to support and engage Chen through purchases and business opportunities.
• The old cemetery man briefly helps Yang, then burns the scattered paper scraps, leaving Yang with unsettling doubts about what happened.

Significant themes

• Unreliable perception: Yang’s memories diverge sharply from recorded reality, making it unclear which parts of his experience were genuine.
• Supernatural danger and uncertainty: Ghostly Blindness may explain Yang’s ordeal, but the source and nature of the entities remain unknown.
• Trust and reliance: Yang turns to Chen as his protector, while Chen takes responsibility for guiding others safely.
• Ambition balanced by caution: Xiang’s enthusiasm for talisman-making is tempered by Chen’s concern for his health.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao treats Yang Jiuhua’s lingering weakness by burning a Yin-Dispelling Talisman into water. The drink clears residual yin energy left by the ghosts that attacked him.
• Yang Jiuhua asks Chen to explain his encounter. Chen suspects the ghosts targeted him because of his actions at the haunted site and warns him not to resume paranormal livestreaming. He explains that many locations Yang visited had likely already been cleared by the Emergency Affairs Administration.
• Chen brings Yang back to Tianmen Funeral Home and offers him a room. Yang decides to stay for a while and work there, learning to assist with funeral ceremonies.
• Chen introduces Yang to Luo Zhiyong. Their reunion quickly becomes friendly, and the three share a meal at the funeral home.
• Chen examines Yang’s cracked peachwood talisman and finds several traces of yin energy. He tells Yang to activate another talisman immediately if it cracks again.
• Yang learns that the strange conversations and folk remedies he experienced during the haunting were likely creations of his own mind, not ghosts impersonating viewers or a police officer.
• When Luo realizes Yang’s story involves talismans and supernatural threats, Chen finally reveals his own abilities and gives Luo protective items. Luo is stunned to learn that his boss and old classmate is a spirit medium.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Jiuhua moves from frightened and exhausted to relieved and grateful. The encounter has made him abandon paranormal streaming for now; he chooses to repay Chen’s hospitality by working at the funeral home.
• Chen Miao acts as healer, protector, and practical guide. He is candid with Yang, offers him a place and work, and eventually decides Luo should also know about the supernatural danger around them.
• Luo Zhiyong is initially curious about Yang’s account but avoids prying. Once Chen explains the truth, Luo is shocked by Chen’s secret identity.
• Chen, Yang, and Luo quickly fall into an easy camaraderie, despite not having been especially close before. Chen also reveals that Shi Manman is his apprentice, surprising Luo.

Significant themes

• Skepticism and belief: Real supernatural events can still be dismissed or explained away, and public skepticism can make genuine incidents difficult to distinguish from staged ones.
• Consequences and caution: Yang’s curiosity and actions at a haunted location brought danger upon him, prompting Chen to warn him against repeating the risk.
• Trust and friendship: Chen’s help deepens his bond with Yang, while his disclosure to Luo marks a new level of trust.
• The supernatural behind ordinary systems: The Administration quietly handles real hauntings, while rumors and livestreams can unintentionally help persuade the public that such places are harmless.

Chapter summary

• After moving into Chen Miao’s Funeral Home, Yang Jiuhua discovers that working as a funeral master of ceremonies does not suit his restless, impatient nature. He also decides he cannot safely resume his nighttime paranormal livestreams: he lacks the means to protect himself, and Chen Miao cannot act as his full-time bodyguard.
• Seeing someone release fish into the Twin Ridge River gives Yang Jiuhua an idea for a safer streaming format. He begins livestreaming by releasing animals, praying, and promising to discuss local customs and folk taboos. He explains—somewhat theatrically—how his earlier recklessness led to a frightening encounter, and says he hopes to accumulate virtue and atone for his past behavior.
• Viewers are skeptical, though loyal fans urge him to tell the truth. The analytical fan TX001 asks to visit Chen Miao and requests a protective charm, explaining that he watches Yang’s streams because he believes supernatural beings exist and wants to see when Yang encounters one. Chen refuses to sell him charms for now, warning that charms alone cannot reliably protect him.
• Yang changes his username from Underworld Bailiff Jiuhua to Devout Believer Jiuhua and asks Chen for guidance on folk taboos. Chen explains that taboos are passed down because breaking them can cause trouble in the right place and at the right time, but no one can reliably predict those conditions. He advises Yang to avoid graveyards and other death-related locations at night, as well as hospitals, accident scenes, murder sites, and suspicious objects.
• When Chen reveals he plans to return to Red Leaf City and invites Yang along to check whether his earlier problem is resolved, Yang is horrified at the prospect of going back.

Character developments and themes

Yang shifts from thrill-seeking paranormal streamer toward cautious, self-described believer. He remains a performer—his dramatic retelling is embellished—but now takes the danger seriously and agrees to follow Chen’s advice. Chen acts as a practical mentor, setting limits on his help while giving Yang clear safety guidance. The chapter explores the tension between skepticism and belief, the risks of treating supernatural danger as entertainment, and how inherited customs may encode hard-won knowledge even when their rules cannot be fully explained.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao and Yang Jiuhua arrive in Shannan City, where Xie Songde joins them. Chen’s main goal is to inspect Xie’s newly acquired scorpion farm and find rare scorpions for his Ghost Pattern Scorpion, which eats two scorpions daily.
• At the farm, Chen selects five unusually high-quality scorpions from five breeding rooms. He asks to stay five days and repeat the process, with the owner’s cooperation.
• Chen then takes Yang Jiuhua and the others to the graveyard connected to Yang’s haunting. Yang feels cold, and Chen sees that the area contains elevated yin energy, though not enough to normally produce a ghost.
• Two Emergency Affairs Administration investigators arrive to treat the graveyard. One sprays a pale-purple substance that rapidly disperses the yin energy.
• Investigator Ye Shuhan identifies Yang and orders the group to come to the county office. He also confiscates Chen’s ID and insists Chen accompany them, citing a need to verify his credentials.
• Chen messages someone for help. At the office, Ye and his colleague Xu Baiyu privately dismiss Chen as an overreaching outsider, unaware of his standing. After a call from a city captain, Ye is told to question the group and release them if nothing is wrong. The group is soon let go.
• Xu later reviews Chen’s file and realizes he has completed four assignments in six months and is highly regarded. Ye resents what he assumes are Chen’s connections.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is practical and focused on securing food for his scorpion, but he also checks on Yang. He stays controlled when Ye treats him with suspicion and contacts someone rather than escalating the confrontation.
• Yang Jiuhua is uneasy about the graveyard and the investigators, but Chen reassures him that he has nothing to hide.
• Xie Songde supports Chen’s arrangements at the farm and offers to call for help at the office; Chen says he has already contacted someone.
• Ye Shuhan treats Chen and his group with hostility, apparently due to jurisdictional rivalry and suspicion of outsiders. Learning Chen’s record does not soften him; instead, he assumes Chen benefits from connections.
• Xu Baiyu initially follows Ye’s lead, but is surprised by Chen’s file and seems uncomfortable with Ye’s resentment.
• The Administration’s actions reveal both practical supernatural procedures and internal bureaucracy, rivalries, and status-consciousness.

Significant themes

• Institutional rivalry and territorialism: Investigators from different regions distrust one another and guard their jurisdiction.
• Appearance versus reality: Chen is dismissed as an ordinary, boastful peripheral member, though his record shows substantial ability and experience.
• Bureaucracy and connections: Advancement and authority appear entangled with personal influence, fueling Ye’s bitterness.
• Supernatural work as routine administration: The yin-energy treatment is handled with specialized equipment and procedures, showing how paranormal threats have become part of official work.

Plot points and events

• After visiting the Administration, Chen Miao returns to his hotel room. He notes that his Yin Mark reacted strongly there, but that his iceheart state and heavenly spirit yin aperture kept him stable.
• During the night, Chen Miao senses a sudden surge of yin energy and hears thudding. He initially suspects something is inside the wall, but discovers the source is Yang Jiuhua, kneeling in paper clothes.
• Chen Miao realizes Yang has attracted several ghosts, not just the one the Administration had identified. Using incense and the Soul-Calming Incantation, he burns away the paper garments and performs rites for the spirits.
• Once the last garment is gone, Yang collapses. Chen dispels the remaining yin energy and revives him with talisman water.
• Yang remembers dreaming that the ghosts surrounded him and ordered him to kneel. Chen says he has dealt with the spirits for now, but advises Yang to sleep in his room the next night and later make offerings at the graveyard.
• Yang’s Peachwood Talisman has cracked, so Chen lends him four Ghost Cubes for protection. Yang chooses to stay in Chen’s room that night.
• Chen checks his book and finds the chapter marked complete, earning yin virtue and five memory fragments.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows greater confidence and competence in handling supernatural threats. He carefully distinguishes between hostile spirits and those who may simply need help moving on, and avoids subduing them unnecessarily.
• Yang Jiuhua learns that his earlier encounter involved multiple spirits. Though frightened, he trusts Chen and accepts his help and protective items.
• Xie Songde witnesses the danger and becomes less confident in his own Peachwood Talisman. He considers using the scorpion farm to strengthen his relationship with Chen, but decides not to press him.
• Chen directs Xie and his secretary to keep the hotel staff from interfering, and later reassures Yang while explaining what happened.

Significant themes

• Compassion over force: Chen chooses rites of release rather than simply suppressing the spirits, judging that they are not deeply malicious.
• Responsibility and consequences: Yang’s actions drew the ghosts to him, but their potential to haunt others makes resolving the situation important.
• Growing supernatural capability: Chen’s tools, knowledge, and composure let him protect others while investigating the mystery.
• Trust and obligation: Yang depends on Chen, while Xie considers how best to cultivate a relationship with him without being pushy.

Key plot points

• At a cemetery, Chen Miao watches Min Hua and his grandson Min Jie mourn Min Rui, who died but briefly returned as a ghost. Min Hua had recognized the paper clothes burned for his son and prepared a meal for him; Min Rui’s attachment eased, and he would likely have moved on soon.
• Chen Miao reflects on how some people fear ghosts while others long to see lost loved ones. He then parts from Xie Songde and returns with Yang Jiuhua to Old Yang’s scorpion-breeding facility.
• Over four days, Chen Miao examines the remaining Memory Fragments and gains five stacked levels of Ancestor’s Protection (V). Burning a thick stack of paper offerings activates a pale-golden shield that can last all night, resist yin energy and ordinary ghosts, and let Chen harm ghosts in close combat. However, while protected, he cannot absorb yin energy, and strong yin rapidly drains the shield.
• Chen Miao selects eighty promising scorpions, hoping they will help his Ghost Pattern Scorpion evolve into a Ghost Face Scorpion.
• Back in Tianmen County, Yang Jiuhua prepares to leave. Chen gives him another Peachwood Talisman, unaware that Yang feels guilty about the cost of the charms and cannot repay him.
• Chen offers to help Yang or his livestream viewers with paranormal problems, charging around twenty thousand yuan per case. Yang eagerly agrees to promote his services, then instantly turns around when Chen offers him a ride.

Character developments and interactions

• Min Hua struggles to accept his son’s death, but takes comfort in believing Min Rui visited and has now returned to the afterlife. He and Min Jie share a tender moment as they decide to burn more offerings.
• Chen Miao is moved by the contrast between grieving families and people frightened of ghosts. He also recognizes that his new protective ability expands his combat options, despite its limitations.
• Yang Jiuhua reveals the hardship behind his livestream persona: he endured frightening stunts to support his paralyzed father, struggling mother, and younger sister. Though grateful to Chen, he hides his inability to repay the charms and focuses on earning money.
• Chen and Yang’s relationship shifts toward an ongoing professional partnership: Chen offers paranormal assistance, and Yang sees a way to connect him with clients.

Significant themes

• Grief and love: The dead may be feared by strangers yet deeply missed by family.
• Sacrifice and endurance: Yang’s performance persona grew from financial desperation and devotion to his family.
• Unexpected protection and responsibility: Chen gains power through ancestral offerings, while his willingness to help others opens a new path for his abilities.

Key plot points and events

• During the New Year’s Eve accounts, Chen Miao learns the Funeral Home made substantial profits: he earned over 300,000 yuan in less than half a year. Chen Weiyi is proud of him, though he winces at the generous 100,000-yuan staff bonus.
• Chen Miao proposes renovations to improve the Funeral Home. Chen Weiyi reveals the lease renewal is uncertain, apparently due to pressure from Du Xiang. Chen Miao calls Xie Songde for help; soon afterward, the lease is secured, along with the chance to lease an adjoining mu of land at the same rate.
• Chen Miao plans to expand northward, build a new cremation room, and replace the outdated furnace with a suitable secondhand model. The costly project will delay other renovations, but the added land gives him more options.
• He also intends to incorporate the Ghost-Blinding Formation into the site’s future layout and create a courtyard using Zhong Cai’s spring-breeze formation. He remains unable to reach Zhong Cai, who had promised to teach him talismans.
• Chen Miao reveals that his Ghost Pattern Scorpion has advanced into a Ghost Face Scorpion. Its three tails are a physical mutation, while its actual abilities are concealment, tail extension, and paralyzing venom.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows growing business sense and generosity, while becoming more alert to threats against the Funeral Home. He recognizes that Du Xiang may be obstructing the lease and seeks help rather than waiting passively.
• Chen Weiyi remains protective and pragmatic: he worries about the lease and expenses but supports Chen Miao’s plans once the land is secured. His pride in his nephew is clear.
• Xie Songde provides timely behind-the-scenes assistance, prompting Chen Miao to feel he owes him a favor.
• Chen Miao and the staff share a warm New Year’s moment when he gives the gatekeeper a red envelope.
• Chen Miao and Zhong Cai have an unresolved connection: Chen Miao is grateful for the promised talisman lessons but worried by Zhong Cai’s silence.

Significant themes

• Family loyalty and mentorship: Chen Weiyi’s support helps Chen Miao build on the Funeral Home’s legacy.
• Ambition and reinvestment: Chen Miao treats profits as resources for long-term growth, even when upgrades require patience.
• Networks and hidden power: Business prospects depend not only on merit but also on relationships and influence.
• Growth and transformation: The Funeral Home expands, while the scorpion’s evolution signals Chen Miao’s continuing development in the supernatural world.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao discovers that his three-tailed Ghost Face Scorpion, whom he names Three-Tail, has developed three abilities: concealment, tail extension, and paralyzing venom.
• Concealment makes Three-Tail nearly impossible to detect while it stays still, even with Chen Miao’s special perception. Its tails can stretch up to two meters without breaking concealment, letting it attack like a hidden trap.
• Three-Tail’s venom can paralyze both the body and consciousness. Chen Miao’s subconscious can remain partly aware, but cannot act while his body is paralyzed. The venom’s strength makes it useful against people, though Three-Tail is vulnerable if its surprise attack fails.
• Chen Miao’s heart yin cavity begins improving him gradually. His strength has risen by about half, and his blood replenishes more slowly after he draws it for talismans—evidence of increased healing. He also gains some resistance to Three-Tail’s venom, managing to make his body twitch after being stung.
• The chapter ends when a Headless Daoist tattoo appears on Chen Miao’s left arm, signaling that the Curse Cult has arrived.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Miao is impressed by Three-Tail’s unusual abilities and becomes increasingly confident in its usefulness, especially its concealment. He tests its venom on himself and monitors his body’s changes.
• His relationship with Three-Tail is affectionate as well as practical: he names it and uses it to guard the Funeral Home.
• Chen Miao’s physical development is gradual rather than dramatic, but his growing strength, healing, and venom resistance suggest his heart yin cavity is steadily transforming him.
• Three-Tail’s abilities and Chen Miao’s experiments reveal the limits of both its venom and Chen Miao’s subconscious: awareness alone cannot overcome paralysis.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: Three-Tail’s venom is potent, but its predictable attack leaves it exposed; concealment is what makes its power effective.
• Gradual transformation: Chen Miao’s heart yin cavity produces slow, accumulating changes rather than an immediate breakthrough.
• Experimentation and adaptation: Chen Miao tests abilities firsthand and adjusts his understanding of what he and Three-Tail can do.
• Security threatened by danger: The chapter’s calm progress ends abruptly with the Curse Cult’s arrival.

Key plot points and events

• On Lunar New Year, Chen Miao’s previously dormant Yin Mark develops a crimson triangular pointer aimed toward Shannan City, signaling a summons from the Curse Cult.
• Chen prepares extensively for a possible confrontation, packing weapons, talismans, incense, protective materials, and other tools.
• At midnight, the Yin Mark becomes intensely hot. Chen suppresses the pain for two hours with incense and the Six True-Descent Arts, believing he has resisted its control.
• The book reveals what would happen if he continued refusing: the next night would bring severe, recurring pain, and the third night would kill him as the mark spread across his body. Chen realizes the summons cannot safely be ignored.
• Chen disguises himself using human-skin paper and corpse wax, arranges for his uncle to manage the Funeral Home, and sets out toward the pointer’s destination.
• He discovers the gathering is at the Low Mountain Villa District, where Xiang Shang owns a villa. Chen suspects entry may be a test of the summoned members’ abilities. He gets through the guarded gate using a homeowner’s key.

Character developments

• Chen Miao is more capable and better equipped than he was two months earlier, but remains cautious about Old Ghost’s power and the Curse Cult’s intentions. He chooses preparation and disguise over confronting the summons openly.
• He shows a growing determination to preserve his independence: he refuses to let the Cult make him obedient, but the book’s warning convinces him that outright resistance carries a deadly cost.
• Shi Manman helps disguise Chen without pressing him for an explanation, showing trust and loyalty.
• Old Ghost remains an unseen but influential presence: his mark has placed Chen under the Curse Cult’s control, though Chen believes Old Ghost may not intend to simply get him killed.

Character interactions

• Chen quietly asks Shi Manman to alter his appearance, then gives her the remaining disguise materials.
• He informs his elder uncle that he will be away and leaves him in charge of the Funeral Home, while also notifying the employees and sending them money.
• At the villa entrance, Chen presents a homeowner’s key to the suspicious guard and is allowed inside.

Significant themes

• Control versus autonomy: Chen resists becoming someone who obeys the Cult’s summons automatically, even when refusal is dangerous.
• Preparation under uncertainty: He gathers tools, hides his identity, and makes practical arrangements before entering an unknown situation.
• Escalating consequences: The Yin Mark’s punishment intensifies from temporary pain to death, revealing that the summons is coercive rather than optional.
• Identity and concealment: Chen’s disguise reflects the need to protect himself as he enters the Cult’s gathering.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao reaches Villa 001, where an unnerving woman with blended blue-and-red energy admits him. He puts on a self-fitting human-skin mask marked with a star chart and joins three masked yin cultivators, each apparently at the “entering yin” stage.
• The book updates with a future account: Chen and roughly two dozen others are gathered in a vast underground Basement beneath four villas. Elder Bamboo and three senior figures—including Old Ghost—oversee a series of tests. Chen’s Black Umbrella absorbs a fellow recruit’s Ghost Babies, while other newcomers face attacks from supernatural creatures.
• The Curse Cult announces its plan to attack the Shannan City Administration the following night. A recruit is later killed for trying to leak information, confirming Chen’s suspicion that the group is testing its members and watching for betrayal.
• Chen conceals some of his abilities, including the Pinwheel, and is assigned to the rear guard. The cult’s operation ultimately moves to a mountain cavern, where Chen recognizes the person they rescued: the dangerous female cultivator previously captured by the Administration.
• The woman identifies Chen as an Administration agent. Elder Bamboo’s followers attack him. Chen calls on Old Ghost, briefly stopping one attacker, but the other is a hollow bamboo construct. Chen is killed by bamboo strips, while Elder Bamboo declares that cooperation allows members to kill anyone without needing justification.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen remains observant and cautious, using his Yin-Yang Eyes and perception to assess others while withholding information and avoiding actions that might expose him.
• Old Ghost’s ambiguous behavior deepens Chen’s mistrust: he neither exposes Chen’s concealed ability nor clearly protects him when the attack begins.
• Elder Bamboo emerges as a ruthless leader who uses tests, executions, and the promise of unrestricted violence to enforce loyalty.
• The rescued cultivator recognizes Chen despite his disguise and directly triggers the attack on him.
• Chen’s appeal to Old Ghost briefly changes the man’s opponent’s behavior, but it does not save Chen.

Significant themes

• Deception and surveillance: Masks, disguises, hidden powers, and loyalty tests make it difficult to know whom to trust.
• Power and coercion: The Cult measures strength and punishes suspected betrayal with death.
• Moral corruption: Elder Bamboo’s promise that members may kill at will presents violence as a reward for cooperation.
• Foreknowledge and survival: Chen’s changing book gives him crucial information, but knowledge cannot guarantee safety when others control the situation.

Plot points and events

• After reading chapter ten, Chen Miao realizes the coming gathering is organized to attack the Shannan City Administration and rescue a female heretic cultivator who knows the Six Livestock Art. He suspects the rescue matters because she possesses something the organizers urgently need.
• Since he cannot stop the operation, Chen Miao plans to alter his assigned role by revealing more of his strength. His ultimate plan is to join the rescue vanguard and kill the woman, believing her death may be necessary to avoid his own.
• He considers warning a newcomer who may be an Administration mole, but decides the risk is too great and that a warning probably would not save the man from Old Ghost and the others.
• Chen Miao instead focuses on Old Ghost, suspecting he has withheld information about Chen Miao’s Pinwheel and may be testing him. He hopes to exploit Old Ghost’s motives to learn more.
• While waiting, Chen Miao recognizes that the woman who brings people to the group may be a Paper Effigy—or something more disturbing, possibly involving the human skin mask she wears. He considers how he might fight her.
• That night, the woman summons Chen Miao and five others to the Basement. He notices his Headless Daoist yin mark fading, observes the gathering crowd, and looks for the other newcomers. The chapter ends as Old Ghost and the other three arrive; Old Ghost briefly smiles at him.

Character developments

• Chen Miao remains controlled and pragmatic, weighing risks rather than acting on sympathy. He is willing to kill the rescued cultivator if that is what survival requires.
• His growing awareness of how little he understands about cultivation—and the fading yin mark—deepens his sense of vulnerability.
• He becomes more strategic about Old Ghost, shifting from simply fearing him to considering how to use their uneasy relationship.

Significant themes

• Survival and moral compromise: Chen Miao’s plans prioritize staying alive, even at the cost of another person’s life.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Each new revelation expands the danger without giving Chen Miao enough certainty to act safely.
• Deception and hidden identities: The possible mole, Old Ghost’s concealed intentions, and the woman’s apparent human disguise all reinforce the threat of misreading people.
• Power and vulnerability: Chen Miao’s reflection on cultivation highlights the gulf between his perspective and the forces around him.

Character interactions

• The woman quietly brings people to Chen Miao, then summons him and the others to the Basement.
• Chen Miao considers intervening on behalf of the newcomer but ultimately chooses not to contact him.
• Chen Miao and Old Ghost exchange a brief look; Old Ghost’s fleeting smile suggests he remains interested in Chen Miao, though his intentions are unclear.

Plot points and events

• Elder Bamboo welcomes three new members to the Southern School Thirteenth Branch and announces that the group has a task requiring their help.
• Chen Miao reveals his yin mark while watching Old Ghost, noticing a flicker of unease that suggests Old Ghost cannot track changes to it in real time.
• A ghost baby sent by Infant Man approaches Chen Miao but becomes submissive under his stare. When Infant Man sends several more, they play harmlessly around Chen Miao’s feet instead of attacking.
• Infant Man commands the babies to kill. Chen Miao opens his Black Umbrella, which absorbs all four; a hidden hook from Three-Tail then pierces a spider sent toward Chen Miao. The displays unsettle the onlookers and reduce the hostility directed at him.
• Elsewhere, the leather-clad man survives a series of probing attacks, though his experience differs from what Chen Miao remembers from the book.
• Elder Bamboo’s associate announces the group’s target: the Shannan City Administration, to be attacked the following night. The members are ordered to remain in the villa until then.
• Chen Miao suspects Elder Bamboo controls both the man and woman accompanying him, who appear to be Paper Effigies. Old Ghost may know the truth.
• Infant Man confronts Chen Miao over the lost ghost babies, but backs away as Chen approaches. Other members mock him after Chen leaves.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao stays composed under scrutiny and uses his equipment and Three-Tail’s concealed ability to discourage attacks without revealing everything he can do. He accepts that the Black Umbrella may now draw attention.
• Infant Man shifts from amused confidence to anger and embarrassment after losing his ghost babies and spider. Despite challenging Chen, he avoids getting within one meter of him.
• The other cultivators initially watch Chen as a target of amusement, then become wary—and possibly covetous—after seeing the Black Umbrella’s power.
• Chen Miao and Old Ghost share a quiet, strategic exchange: Chen tests Old Ghost’s awareness of his yin mark and reads his reaction.
• Elder Bamboo and his attendants maintain a controlled, coordinated front; their similar voices help Chen infer that the attendants are under Elder Bamboo’s control.

Significant themes

• Power and intimidation: Chen Miao’s restrained displays shift the group’s attitude without requiring him to explain his abilities.
• Hidden identities and uncertainty: The possible Paper Effigies, concealed weapons, and unknown motives make appearances unreliable.
• Changing outcomes: The leather-clad man’s altered experience suggests Chen Miao’s actions may be changing events he thought he understood.
• Hostility within the group: The members’ mockery and opportunism show that the branch is an uneasy gathering rather than a united community.

Key plot points

• After the attack on the Shannan City Administration is planned in the Basement, Chen Miao wonders how powerful Elder Bamboo is and whether the cultists’ calm means they know the Administration is vulnerable.
• Old Ghost appears in Chen Miao’s room without being detected. He asks about the Ghost Baby’s disappearance and probes how Chen Miao removed its Yin Mark. Chen Miao claims the Ghost Baby starved to death; Old Ghost’s anger briefly flares, but he accepts the explanation.
• Chen Miao offers Old Ghost a piece of baleen in exchange for information. Intrigued by the object—and Chen Miao’s promise to save him similar finds—Old Ghost agrees to explain the Curse Cult.
• Old Ghost reveals that the Curse Dao has Northern and Southern Schools, divided among thirteen Star Lords. Their own Southern School branch serves the Star Lord of Ascending Life, whose position is currently vacant. Elder Bamboo hopes the Administration operation will help him claim it.
• The Administration’s investigators may not be especially strong, but its buildings are protected by powerful Feng Shui formations and it monitors Old Ghost and Elder Bamboo. Chen Miao is expected to lure its four Grade-C Investigators away so Elder Bamboo can subdue them and the cult can enter.
• Chen Miao realizes killing the female evil cultivator may undermine Elder Bamboo’s ambitions and invite his retaliation. Still, he thinks he may have no choice. Old Ghost reassures him that an Administration connection alone will not expose him once he bears a Yin Mark. After Old Ghost leaves, Chen Miao rests without finding a safe way forward.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains cautious but increasingly assertive: he challenges Old Ghost, conceals what he knows, and bargains with a rare object. Learning how vast the Curse Cult is forces him to revise his assumptions about the Administration, Old Ghost, and the Flying Jiangshi. Despite his fear, he resolves that he may have to take the risk of killing the female cultivator.
• Old Ghost is intrigued by Chen Miao’s unusual knowledge and resources, but his curiosity carries menace. Their relationship remains a tense, transactional one: Old Ghost tests Chen Miao and gives only limited information, while Chen Miao uses luck and bargaining to gain answers.
• Elder Bamboo is established as a powerful, ambitious leader whose operation is tied to his bid for the vacant Ascending Life Star Lord position.
• Chen Miao’s interactions with Mummy and his other defenses reinforce that even his precautions may not keep powerful figures from getting close; Old Ghost enters unnoticed, and Mummy helps him take the offered object.

Significant themes

• Power and hidden hierarchies: The Curse Cult’s structure is far larger than Chen Miao understood, while the Administration’s defenses make institutional power more important than an individual’s strength.
• Knowledge as leverage: Chen Miao trades a valuable object for information and uses concealment and careful questioning to protect himself.
• Survival through ingenuity and luck: Chen Miao’s unusual resources help him negotiate with stronger people, but his survival still depends on uncertain choices.
• Conflicted loyalties and risk: Chen Miao’s possible attack on the female cultivator could make him an enemy of Elder Bamboo, yet doing nothing may be just as dangerous.

Plot points and events

• The day after the Basement incident, Chen Miao stays at the villa and notices that most of the Curse Cult members keep their distance from him. The old woman is especially intriguing: she also instinctively maintains a gap of more than two meters, making Chen Miao wary.
• That evening, Chen Miao examines Leather-Jacket Man’s unnaturally balanced, bamboo-pierced corpse in the Basement and suspects it was arranged as a warning or display.
• Elder Bamboo outlines a four-part operation against Shannan City: lure its Investigators, rescue prisoners, hold off reinforcements, and cover the retreat. He assigns members according to their abilities.
• Elder Bamboo asks Chen Miao to demonstrate any other abilities. Chen Miao reveals the Pinwheel, whose effect draws most observers into pleasant childhood memories. One man resists, apparently because he lacks such memories; another person’s Yin-Yang Eyes let him avoid the effect, though using them rapidly drains his Yin energy.
• Several members respond with intense malice, apparently coveting the Pinwheel. Elder Bamboo assigns Chen Miao to the team holding off the enemy. The old woman receives no assignment, and Chen Miao joins the team’s two existing members.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains observant and cautious, studying both the corpse and the people around him. He suspects Elder Bamboo’s assignment reflects distrust rather than a lack of ability.
• Elder Bamboo is calm and methodical, organizing the mission while carefully assessing Chen Miao’s capabilities.
• Infant Man still resents Chen Miao, though his hostility is now mixed with hesitation. Another member mocks him by suggesting Chen Miao looks more twisted.
• Old Ghost finds Chen Miao interesting, while several others’ reactions to the Pinwheel reveal greed and potential hostility.
• The old woman remains an unexplained presence: she keeps her distance from Chen Miao and is repeatedly overlooked during the mission assignments.

Significant themes

• Distrust and concealed motives: Members hide their abilities, fear Chen Miao, and may covet his Polluted Objects.
• Power and its limits: The Pinwheel’s effect is powerful but can be resisted, and Chen Miao’s placement suggests that ability alone does not guarantee trust.
• The past and innocence: The Pinwheel’s effect depends on cherished childhood memories, raising the unsettling possibility that some people have no innocence to recall.
• Violence as spectacle: Leather-Jacket Man’s carefully balanced corpse appears designed to be seen, turning death into a message.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao joins an interception team with Feng Shui Master and Puppeteer. Puppeteer tries to trade for Chen’s Pinwheel, but Chen refuses his offers of one or two Puppet Monkeys.
• At the Administration, Feng Shui Master lays a large feng shui formation around the underground Prison. Its thick, disorienting fog hides the entrance; special flags let the team see farther through it.
• Feng Shui Master leaves, telling Chen and Puppeteer to guard the entrance. As they advance, Chen uses Three-Tail’s venom to incapacitate guards, while Puppeteer kills those he reaches.
• Puppeteer, still coveting the Pinwheel, secretly marks Chen and sends a swarm of puppets—including five that self-destruct—to kill him. Chen anticipates the betrayal and has Three-Tail incapacitate Puppeteer. The puppets waste their attacks on a stone.
• Chen goes to the Prison entrance and hides nearby. When the rescue team emerges with the weakened female evil cultivator, he releases a cloud of smoke that the rescuers mistake for an attack. They leave without realizing the woman has become completely unresponsive.
• Chen escapes through the fog. On his way out, he shouts a false identity—claiming to be Old Ghost, a Yin Tattooist affiliated with the Curse Dao—to confuse two Investigators, who are left unsure whether they actually heard him.

Character developments

• Chen Miao stays cautious and strategic, prioritizing the survival route he found in his book over experimentation. He quietly thwarts Puppeteer and helps the rescue team escape while concealing his own involvement.
• Puppeteer reveals his greed and murderous nature. His interest in the Pinwheel turns into an attempt to ambush Chen, but his plan fails quickly.
• Feng Shui Master demonstrates the power of his formations, creating a vast, disorienting fog, then departs once his part is done.
• The rescuers are competent and wary, but they misread Chen’s smoke as an enemy defense and fail to notice the rescued woman’s changed condition.

Significant themes

• Preparation and foresight: Chen’s reliance on the book and his ability to anticipate danger keep him ahead of his enemies.
• Deception and perception: The formation, Chen’s concealment, and his final planted identity all manipulate what others can see or believe.
• Greed and betrayal: Puppeteer’s desire for the Pinwheel escalates into an attempted murder.
• Violence versus restraint: Chen disables opponents when possible, while Puppeteer kills eagerly.

Character interactions

• Chen rejects Puppeteer’s repeated trade offers, provoking resentment that later becomes an assassination attempt.
• Chen and Puppeteer work alongside each other but compete over targets, with Chen repeatedly disrupting Puppeteer’s attempts to act first.
• Feng Shui Master gives Chen and Puppeteer flags and instructions for navigating the fog before leaving.
• Chen secretly intervenes in the rescuers’ escape, then misdirects the Investigators with a voice they cannot confidently place.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao follows the returning yin mark to meet the Curse Cult survivors. The operation has cost at least six members, including the Puppeteer Chen Miao killed.
• Paper Effigy Woman takes Chen Miao with her on a long journey into the mountains, through a cave system, to a hidden underground settlement.
• There, Elder Bamboo reveals that the rescued Female Evil Cultivator is dead. The four members of the rescue team are pinned to the ground, and he threatens the others with having to sever a limb.
• A prisoner spots tiny puncture wounds and poison on the dead woman’s scalp. After confirming she was poisoned, he accuses the other three rescuers.
• Elder Bamboo has the poison detector killed anyway, then Old Woman uses a ritual involving his corpse, the dead woman’s scalp, and her blood to animate him. The corpse passes over the rescuers and singles out Chen Miao.
• Elder Bamboo asks whether Chen Miao killed the woman. Chen Miao admits it, explaining that he had sent her to the Administration and believed she would kill him if she survived. When Elder Bamboo threatens him, Chen Miao says he knows the Six Livestock Art—and Elder Bamboo’s bamboo splints freeze in midair.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains composed despite being singled out and openly confesses to the killing. His knowledge of the Six Livestock Art gives him leverage against Elder Bamboo.
• Elder Bamboo shifts from feigned disappointment to cruel, calculated intimidation. His apparent willingness to punish everyone gives way to a targeted confrontation with Chen Miao.
• Old Woman demonstrates a disturbing corpse-working ability, using a stitched scalp and blood to make a dead man identify the killer.
• The rescuers are desperate to survive: one tries to appease Elder Bamboo, while another exposes the poison and blames his companions.
• Paper Effigy Woman guides Chen Miao to the hidden gathering; Old Ghost watches the final confrontation with a conflicted expression.

Significant themes

• Survival and self-preservation: Characters sacrifice others—or body parts—to avoid becoming victims themselves.
• Power and coercion: Elder Bamboo controls the gathering through threats, while Chen Miao counters him with specialized knowledge.
• Guilt and responsibility: Chen Miao owns the consequences of killing the woman, framing it as a choice made to prevent his own death.
• Uncertainty and suspicion: The corpse ritual turns the group’s fear toward Chen Miao, transforming a hidden crime into a direct confrontation.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao claims he knows the Six Livestock Art and offers to prove it by making a Six Livestock Doll. Elder Bamboo sends the others away and has the necessary materials brought.
• While they wait, Old Ghost questions how Chen Miao learned the art and why he killed the woman who possessed it. Chen Miao admits he acted without certainty: killing her gave him a chance to survive, while sparing her meant certain death.
• Chen Miao recognizes Old Woman as a Corpse Stitcher and identifies her technique. Elder Bamboo postpones further discussion until Chen has proved his claim.
• Using a ghost held in a Ghost Cube, Chen attempts to split its soul and place part of it inside the doll. His first attempts fail when the soul collapses, so he consults his mysterious book between tries.
• On the fourth attempt, Chen manages to cut away and insert ten pieces of the soul without destroying it. The doll pulses, and Chen explains how it absorbs and draws out a target’s six livestock emotions. Elder Bamboo accepts the demonstration, and his hostility toward Chen fades.
• Chen checks the book again and sees that he still dies at Elder Bamboo’s hands, though more quickly than before. Others will die in that future as well, and Chen looks toward Old Ghost and Old Woman.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains pragmatic and composed under pressure. He relies on observation, experimentation, his book, and a developing ability to perceive the soul rather than pretending to have mastered the art.
• Elder Bamboo shifts from suspicion and menace to apparent acceptance once Chen proves his skill—but Chen understands that this change is temporary.
• Old Ghost is impressed and unsettled by Chen’s knowledge, especially his ability to identify Old Woman’s art.
• Old Woman watches Chen closely after he correctly identifies her as a Corpse Stitcher.
• The paper-offering man supplies Chen’s tools and passes the finished doll to Elder Bamboo.

Significant themes

• Survival through calculated risk: Chen chooses the option that offers even a slim chance of living.
• Knowledge and adaptation: Chen’s broad but incomplete learning, persistence, and willingness to consult the book help him overcome repeated failures.
• Temporary reprieves and foreknowledge: The doll secures Chen’s immediate safety but only postpones the death he has already glimpsed.
• Unstable trust: Elder Bamboo’s softened attitude is not a guarantee of safety; the chapter ends with the threat—and the danger to others—still unresolved.

Key plot points

• The Paper Effigy Man returns with the Six Livestock Doll. Chen Miao explains how to release the emotions stored in its pagoda-wood core, then demonstrates it for Elder Bamboo.
• Elder Bamboo orders Chen Miao to make six Six Livestock Souls, each filled to its emotional capacity, before the Lantern Festival—giving him ten days. He promises to explain why he needs the art once the work is done, emphasizing that Chen Miao is essential to his plans.
• Chen Miao is assigned a paper-effigy woman as a bodyguard and confined to a small stone chamber. She occupies the only exit, making clear that he is being watched and cannot leave freely.
• After settling in, Chen Miao checks the rewards for completing chapter ten: yin virtue, memory fragments from Xiao Fang and Huang Feng, and the Thousand-Thread Puppet Art. He considers the yin virtue he earned against the karmic debt of killing them, but recognizes that neither amount can resolve his larger predicament.
• Studying the puppet art, Chen Miao finds it far more comprehensive than the techniques displayed by the puppeteer. It describes three levels of puppet control, including the use of a ghost and the transformation of a human into a puppet. Reading the chapter’s afterword leads him to suspect that humans are not merely convenient materials but are special in some way.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains outwardly cooperative with Elder Bamboo while sharing only what he judges safe. He is observant and pragmatic, assessing his captivity, rewards, and the limits of his leverage.
• Elder Bamboo is pleased by Chen Miao’s demonstration and treats him as indispensable, but withholds his true purpose until the deadline. His confidence suggests he believes Chen Miao has little choice but to comply.
• Old Ghost explains that Yin Tattooists need a master, childhood training in secret arts, and a specific opened ghost meridian—not just drawing ability. Chen Miao probes whether Old Ghost might teach him; Old Ghost evades the possibility of taking him as a disciple and leaves.
• The paper-effigy woman becomes Chen Miao’s assigned guard and communicates little, but her position ensures he cannot escape the chamber.

Significant themes

• Captivity and constrained agency: Chen Miao is given a task and some information, but remains under surveillance and dependent on Elder Bamboo.
• Knowledge as power—and leverage: Chen Miao chooses what to reveal, while Elder Bamboo withholds the reason behind his request. The exchange is shaped by who controls information.
• Karmic consequence: Chen Miao weighs the yin virtue gained from killing against the debt incurred by deliberately taking lives.
• The instrumentalization of humans: Across different supernatural arts, humans appear as materials for paper effigies, puppets, corpses, and other creations. Chen Miao’s new suspicion that humans possess a unique quality hints at a larger underlying principle.

Key events

• Chen Miao reads the chapter’s afterword, which recounts his imprisonment by Elder Bamboo’s group. He is made to produce Six Livestock Dolls and gradually allowed limited freedom within their mountain stronghold.
• During his wanderings, he discovers Zhong Cai imprisoned. Later, Elder Bamboo explains that the Five Hells Six Livestock Reincarnation Art is a method of becoming immortal, requiring specialists and a vessel.
• The vessel is Xiao Bai, who is lying in a stone coffin. Chen Miao realizes he is implicated in the plan and considers sabotaging it, but Elder Bamboo anticipates his intentions and has him immobilized and controlled by a bamboo-bodied man.
• The ritual succeeds: Elder Bamboo consumes Xiao Bai’s soul and takes over his body. The transformed Xiao Bai kills Old Ghost and Old Woman with a glance, then turns toward Chen Miao. Chen Miao dies without learning whether Elder Bamboo has truly become immortal.
• Disturbed by this account, Chen Miao recognizes that Zhong Cai and Xiao Bai are in danger, but sees no clear way to save them. He chooses to rest rather than act rashly.
• After sleeping for ten hours, Chen Miao resumes making Six Livestock Dolls from the supplies Elder Bamboo provides. He secretly intends to exploit his control over the process, potentially earning Yin Virtue by performing “physical Transcendence Rites” on some ghosts.
• He completes seven dolls, stops before the next batch, and checks the book. A completed side story, “Beast of Burden,” grants him five qian of Yin Virtue.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from alarm and helplessness to cautious calculation. His supposed importance earns him some freedom, but he remains a prisoner and understands that his future is dangerous. He hides his concern for Zhong Cai and Xiao Bai, then quietly looks for an opportunity to benefit from his assigned work.
• Elder Bamboo presents himself as controlled and calculating, closely watches Chen Miao, and treats his compassion as a potential threat. He ultimately uses force to prevent Chen Miao from interfering with the ritual.
• Xiao Bai is revealed as the ritual’s vessel, chosen because of his unusual constitution. After Elder Bamboo takes over his body, he displays overwhelming, frightening power.
• Zhong Cai is imprisoned, and Chen Miao’s sight of him confirms that the two are connected to Elder Bamboo’s plans.
• Old Ghost and Old Woman participate in the ritual but are killed by the transformed Xiao Bai.
• The Paper Effigy Man checks Chen Miao’s condition, supplies him with materials, and collects his work. Elder Bamboo interprets Chen Miao’s compliant behavior as helpful.

Significant themes

• Immortality and its cost: The ritual achieves a form of transcendence through the destruction of Xiao Bai’s soul and the deaths of others.
• Captivity and constrained agency: Chen Miao has limited freedom and little power to intervene, so he relies on patience, concealment, and small acts of subversion.
• Compassion as both strength and vulnerability: Chen Miao’s sympathy for Xiao Bai exposes his intentions to Elder Bamboo, while also motivating his resistance.
• Moral ambiguity and exploitation: Chen Miao considers turning some ghosts away from their assigned purpose to gain Yin Virtue, blurring the line between survival strategy and wrongdoing.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao secretly keeps about one ghost from every four Ghost Cubes. His new Soul Body Perception status lets him sense ghosts and judge their condition while cutting them apart, making the work safer and more precise.
• A Memory Fragment from the female evil cultivator reveals nothing about Elder Bamboo’s Five Hells Six Livestock Reincarnation Art, confirming it is likely exclusive to Elder Bamboo’s group.
• Studying the book, Chen Miao reasons that Elder Bamboo controls him only when he becomes suspicious—especially if Chen Miao shows compassion. To stay safer, Chen Miao plans to earn Elder Bamboo’s trust by finishing the Six Livestock Dolls early rather than delaying the work.
• Early completion might lift the stone chamber’s restrictions and give Chen Miao a chance to question Old Ghost, who may know the art’s details. Chen Miao considers buying another Whale Whisker to secure Old Ghost’s cooperation, but postpones the exchange to avoid unnecessary risk.
• Chen Miao continues training the Extreme Yin Body-Refining Art and cultivating an aperture, hoping to build strength before the ten-day deadline. He plans to test whether he can manage a fifth training round.
• The next morning, he automatically calls out that he wants to go to work, then realizes how aptly this reflects the book’s chapter-ten extra-story title: “I really am a fucking beast of burden!”

Character developments

• Chen Miao becomes more strategic: instead of relying on delay, he focuses on managing Elder Bamboo’s perception of him and creating opportunities to learn the truth.
• He remains cautious, avoiding unnecessary contact with Old Woman and postponing the Whale Whisker purchase until it is needed.
• He is also committed to building his physical strength, viewing every gain as an improvement in his chances of survival.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao’s main concern is his relationship with Elder Bamboo: he believes appearing compassionate raises the danger he poses, while diligent work may reduce Elder Bamboo’s suspicion.
• He sees Old Ghost as a possible source of information because Old Ghost appears willing to talk for a price and respects, rather than fears, Elder Bamboo.
• His brief call to the paper-offering woman is practical and automatic, underscoring how completely his life has become organized around labor.

Significant themes

• Survival through calculation: Chen Miao weighs trust, risk, timing, and information rather than acting impulsively.
• Labor and exploitation: His work may be both a means of staying alive and a form of control, captured in the “beast of burden” joke.
• Strength and agency: Training and gathering knowledge are Chen Miao’s ways of preparing to resist a situation largely controlled by others.