Chapter Summaries

Key plot points

• Zhao Gongzi brings Chen Miao to meet Fang Zheng, a renowned paper-offerings craftsman. Chen wants to learn the trade and insists on studying directly with Fang, paying the full 500,000 yuan Fang charges to teach his signature techniques.
• Chen says he can study for only a month. Fang initially objects, but agrees to assess his ability. Chen’s fast, precise bamboo work amazes Fang and the other craftsmen, making Fang suspect Chen has a hidden purpose.
• Chen explains that he inherited paper-effigy techniques but lacks a teacher and cannot overcome a problem that prevents his creations from qualifying for the eye-dotting ritual. Fang recognizes the Paper Effigy Maker’s Ten Commandments, confirming that Chen has an unusual inheritance.
• Fang decides to teach Chen paper-effigy making. After watching him work, he identifies the flaw: Chen’s bindings are technically precise but too rigid. To make a true effigy, Chen must treat it as a person, not merely an object.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is serious and decisive about learning, though he keeps his inherited techniques private until Fang questions his motives. His skill proves far beyond what his unmarked hands initially suggested.
• Fang Zheng shifts from seeing Chen as a casual hobbyist to recognizing him as a fellow inheritor. His pride in his craft softens into mentorship, and he empathizes with Chen’s struggle because he faced the same obstacle himself.
• Zhao Gongzi serves as Chen’s introduction to Fang and leaves once the lessons begin, offering Chen a place to stay.
• Liu Hao jokes about Fang’s special treatment and his own modest ambitions; Fang contrasts Liu’s limited goals with Chen’s apparent long-term potential.
• Fang also introduces Chen to Zhou Cheng and Liu Hao, his workshop assistants, before Chen’s technique draws all three men’s attention.

Significant themes

• Inheritance and broken transmission: Chen and Fang both possess fragments of a deeper craft but lack a complete lineage.
• Technique versus understanding: Precision alone cannot create a true paper effigy; the maker must grasp its human meaning.
• Mentorship and the value of time: Fang’s teaching can spare Chen years of trial and error, making the high price worthwhile.
• Respect for craft: Fang’s pride reflects the belief that skilled work requires more than materials and mechanical execution.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao asks Fang Zheng what “spiritual affinity” means in paper-effigy making. Fang explains that it comes from learning to recognize materials through extensive practice—or from a skilled teacher’s guidance.
• Fang tests Chen by having him sort bamboo splints by subtle differences in color, weight, and treatment. Chen groups thirty splints into seven categories; Fang identifies twenty-two, showing how much finer judgment the craft requires.
• Fang explains that written traditions can be vague, especially for someone learning alone. Building a good frame depends not just on following instructions, but on carefully seeing, feeling, and handling each piece of bamboo.
• Having accepted Chen’s payment, Fang teaches him the Fang family’s inspection mnemonic, joking that each repetition would cost extra. He then explains the mnemonic in detail.
• Liu Hao tries to overhear the lesson while Fang and Chen move inside, but remembers little. Zhou Cheng declines to help him.
• Fang clarifies that unsuitable bamboo need not be discarded: it can be further dried or used in lower-grade effigies. Chen, who runs a funeral home, realizes he can apply the same approach and considers the lesson worth its price.

Character development and interactions

• Fang Zheng reveals empathy for Chen as a fellow self-taught craftsman who has struggled without guidance. Though exacting about his fee, he is generous within the terms of their deal and shares practical knowledge beyond the mnemonic.
• Chen Miao proves observant but still inexperienced at judging materials. He listens carefully, recognizes the value of Fang’s instruction, and leaves with knowledge he can adapt to his own business.
• Liu Hao is curious and opportunistic, hoping to benefit from overhearing an expensive lesson, but gives up when he cannot retain it.
• Fang and Chen develop a teacher-student rapport, while Zhou Cheng remains reserved toward Liu Hao.

Significant themes

• Practice and expertise: Craft mastery comes from sustained, precise attention, not simply following written instructions.
• The value of mentorship: Guidance can spare learners years of discouraging trial and error.
• Tradition and its limits: Inherited manuals preserve knowledge but may leave crucial details unexplained.
• Resourcefulness: Materials that fail to meet the highest standard can still serve a useful purpose rather than being wasted.

Plot and events

• Chen Miao stays with Fang Zheng and receives intensive training in building effigy frames and covering them with paper. His exceptional talent lets him learn rapidly, and he becomes capable of making high-grade paper offerings.
• Fang Zheng shows him a finely crafted Golden Boy and Jade Maiden pair. Chen Miao senses that they are genuine Yin-energy-infused offerings and suspects they were made using a Yin Ground.
• Choosing a design that can aid cultivation and provide defense, Chen Miao begins making a General Effigy—an armored paper warrior meant to become especially powerful when paired with a Paper Horse.
• After two days of work, Chen Miao completes a basic General Effigy and performs the ritual eye-dotting at dawn. The effigy awakens and responds to commands.
• Chen tests its combat ability against the Scorpion Corpse. Though slow in ordinary movement, the General Effigy delivers an exceptionally fast, forceful slash, leaving a dent in the corpse. Chen concludes that Yin energy concentrates in its weapon and joints during attacks, and that durability depends on construction quality and materials.
• Chen decides to make the effigy a mount and improve its equipment before leaving.
• Meanwhile, a man calling himself “Suzuki” visits Fang Zheng’s shop asking for the owner. Liu Hao mistakenly calls him “Lin Mu” and fails to notice a small paper cutout attached to his shoe. When Fang Zheng comes to meet him, the visitor has vanished.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Miao proves highly adaptable, using his Right-Hand Ghost Meridian Aperture to improve his material assessments. He moves from student to capable maker, applying his knowledge independently and testing his creation thoughtfully.
• Fang Zheng takes pride in teaching Chen Miao, whose talent makes the lessons unusually rewarding. He also shares his treasured effigies because he trusts Chen to appreciate their craftsmanship.
• Liu Hao remains envious of Chen Miao’s access to materials and is careless with the mysterious visitor.
• Chen Miao and Fang Zheng develop a mutually appreciative teacher-student relationship; Fang teaches openly, while Chen respects both the craft and its deeper principles.
• Chen Miao and the General Effigy establish a bond through the eye-dotting ritual, after which the effigy obeys his commands.

Significant themes

• Talent and disciplined learning: Chen Miao’s aptitude accelerates his progress, but his practical skill comes from concentrated work and careful study.
• Craftsmanship and tradition: The chapter emphasizes that different schools share fundamentals, while quality depends on precision, materials, and understanding.
• Creation and cultivation: Paper offerings are not merely decorative; infused with Yin energy, they can grow stronger and serve as tools for combat and spiritual practice.
• Hidden danger: The unidentified visitor’s disappearance and the unnoticed paper cutout suggest an emerging threat beyond Chen Miao’s workshop.

Summary

• Key events: The author announces that readers’ support pushed monthly votes past 2,000 just before midnight. With only minutes remaining, the total was still short; longtime readers contributed what votes they could, and the author found one final vote by subscribing to an older book.
• Character developments: The author comes across as grateful, resourceful, and amused by the last-minute scramble. No fictional characters or plot developments appear.
• Themes: Reader support sustains an author’s work; small contributions can make a difference; and writing platforms’ rewards provide both recognition and practical income.
• Interactions: The author thanks readers, explains how monthly votes affect rankings and earnings, and asks for votes again in the new month.

Plot points and events

• Fang Zheng criticizes Liu Hao’s careless paper offerings, then visits Chen Miao, who has completed a human effigy and is now building a horse.
• Chen Miao plans to leave the next day to return to his Funeral Home in Shannan City. Fang Zheng agrees to teach him two days a week and offers to sell him supplies, though shipping makes that impractical. Fang Zheng also points him toward horsehair in the storeroom.
• Fang Zheng reflects that his other worker, Zhou Cheng, is diligent and reliable but lacks the money to become his apprentice.
• That night, the chapter reveals Fang Zheng’s unusual domestic life: he shares his bedroom with Xiuqin, a ghostly woman resembling the bride in an old wedding photograph, and is attended by a maid.
• While Fang Zheng sleeps, a paper-cut figure sneaks into the room and attacks him. Xiuqin intercepts it, injuring her hand. Fang Zheng wakes furious and pursues the attacker.
• Outside, a Human-Faced Spider ambushes Fang Zheng, while a three-tailed white fox knocks the maid aside. Xiuqin evades the spider’s silk and throws her hairpin, destroying the spider and leaving behind a pierced paper cutout.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Zheng is generous toward Chen Miao and increasingly invested in him as an apprentice, but his strongest loyalty is to Xiuqin. The attack reveals how fiercely protective he is of her.
• Chen Miao proves skilled and independent: he is ready to return home but agrees to keep learning from Fang Zheng.
• Zhou Cheng is shown as hardworking and dependable, though Fang Zheng regrets that he cannot afford to train him.
• Xiuqin appears gentle and attentive, yet demonstrates combat ability and protects Fang Zheng from the ambush.
• Fang Zheng and Xiuqin share a quiet, intimate routine: he talks with her, asks her opinion, and treats her as a partner rather than merely a supernatural presence.
• The maid serves Fang Zheng and follows his commands in the fight, while the spider and fox complicate the attack by confronting his supernatural attendants.

Significant themes

• Mentorship and inheritance: Fang Zheng’s skills and family legacy are valuable, and money shapes who can receive his training.
• Loyalty and devotion: Fang Zheng’s care for Xiuqin, including the resources he spends maintaining her, drives his response to the attack.
• The ordinary beside the supernatural: Workshop business and domestic routines coexist with ghosts, animated paper figures, and supernatural combat.
• A looming conflict: The attack suggests a wider struggle involving the Yin Gate and paper-based supernatural arts.

Plot points and events

• Fang Zheng and Xiuqin defeat a three-tailed fox, which turns into a Paper Cutout. They realize another half of a Paper Cutout may still be lurking nearby.
• Outside, a winged, red-faced monster attacks. It kills Fang Zheng’s longtime paper maid and seizes Xiuqin. Fang Zheng and Xiuqin fight back, joined by the Golden Boy and Jade Maiden, but the monster kills the two paper attendants and bites off Xiuqin’s head.
• Fang Zheng, overcome with grief, prepares to kill himself. A blade-wielding General Effigy and a newly completed paper warhorse arrive. The rider uses a whip to pull the monster back, then beheads it.
• Chen Miao, who made the General Effigy and warhorse, notices a surviving Paper Cutout escaping and sends his Scorpion Corpse after it. He then finds Fang Zheng about to stab himself.
• Chen Miao extracts Xiuqin’s soul from her damaged Paper Offering and performs a Soul Anchoring ritual to restore it to a new vessel. He tells Fang Zheng she will awaken when the incense burns down.

Character developments

• Fang Zheng shifts from determined resistance to devastating despair after Xiuqin’s apparent death, but Chen Miao’s intervention gives him hope.
• Chen Miao demonstrates growing skill and resourcefulness as a Paper Effigy Maker, completing the warhorse and using it and the General Effigy to defeat the monster. He also shows care for Fang Zheng and Xiuqin.
• Xiuqin fights fiercely alongside Fang Zheng, Golden Boy, and Jade Maiden, then is killed—but her soul is preserved and anchored to a new paper body.
• Golden Boy and Jade Maiden prove brave and coordinated in battle, but are destroyed by the monster.

Character interactions

• Fang Zheng and Xiuqin work together against the fox and later attack the monster to protect one another.
• Golden Boy and Jade Maiden coordinate their weapons to restrain and injure the monster, creating an opening for Fang Zheng.
• Chen Miao rescues Fang Zheng from suicide and restores Xiuqin’s soul, while Fang Zheng follows his instructions in stunned obedience.
• Fang Zheng asks who Chen Miao is; Chen Miao identifies himself as a Paper Effigy Maker.

Significant themes

• Grief and attachment: Fang Zheng’s bond with Xiuqin drives his desperate fight and near-suicide.
• Death, persistence, and restoration: Though the paper attendants are destroyed, Xiuqin’s soul can survive and be given a new vessel.
• Protection and sacrifice: The characters risk themselves to defend one another, while Chen Miao’s intervention turns apparent tragedy into a chance for recovery.

Plot points and events

• After returning from the encounter, Chen Miao discovers that the chapter has ended and reviews his rewards: one tael of Yin Virtue, Suzuki Yamato’s memory fragment, the Paper-Cutting Deity Invocation, and the Method for Making the Soul-Seizing Cherry Blossom Kimono.
• He suspects Scorpion Corpse handled additional threats while away, accounting for the substantial reward. The Great Tengu Chen Miao fought was likely only an imitation: mobile, but no match for the General Effigy in a direct fight.
• The Paper-Cutting Deity Invocation creates temporary, empowered paper figures through a prepared cutout and a blood-essence altar. Unlike the more demanding method for making demon ghosts, it is reliable but its power fades after a set time.
• Chen Miao learns that the Cherry Blossom Kimono is a yin object, deliberately made to house a soul that can be removed, unlike a polluted object, whose soul is fused to it.
• Fang Zheng reunites with his wife, Xiuqin, whose soul inhabits Chen Miao’s General Effigy. After witnessing their embrace, Chen Miao asks Fang Zheng how he kept her soul intact for so long.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao continues to study the techniques he acquires, comparing their uses and limits. He remains practical about threats beyond his ability to address, but is curious about the Island Nation’s methods and Fang Zheng’s unusual success.
• Fang Zheng is overwhelmed with gratitude and joy at being reunited with Xiuqin, promising to remember Chen Miao’s help for life.
• Xiuqin is revealed to be the conscious soul housed in the General Effigy. She and Fang Zheng share an emotional reunion, while Chen Miao awkwardly tries to stay composed.

Significant themes

• Different forms of spirit-making: Nurtured demon ghosts offer long-term potential, while invoked paper deities provide temporary strength.
• The bond between souls and objects: The chapter distinguishes souls fused to polluted objects from souls residing as removable “guests” in yin objects.
• Love, death, and preservation: Fang Zheng and Xiuqin’s reunion raises the mystery of how a soul can endure beyond the usual limits.

Key plot points

• Fang Zheng gives Chen Miao the surviving first volume of the Fang Family’s paper-effigy legacy and an unexplained cloudy pearl. He reveals that the actual Soul-anchoring Pearl was used to sustain Xiuqin, whose soul remains bound to her General Effigy.
• Chen Miao examines the heirlooms. The pearl shows no detectable supernatural properties, while the first volume describes aperture awakening, nourishment, and solidification—but not the later stages of cultivation. Chen Miao suspects the missing second volume contained those teachings.
• Through the Scorpion Corpse, Chen Miao witnesses Suzuki Yamato drawing an altar and attempting a ritual. The Scorpion Corpse interrupts him, but a phantom hand pulls out Suzuki’s soul. The creature cuts away and swallows half of it before the hand destroys the rest and vanishes.
• Chen Miao wonders why Suzuki’s death produced a Memory Fragment and whether the man’s accumulated wrongdoing—or the phantom hand—explains why Chen himself incurred no apparent karmic cost. He plans to test his theory on another heavily wicked target.
• Three-Tail, having swallowed its first soul fragment, separates from the Scorpion Corpse and begins digesting it. Chen stores both creatures separately and postpones examining Suzuki’s Memory Fragment until he can return to the Funeral Home.

Character developments and interactions

• Fang Zheng entrusts Chen with his family’s legacy, showing that he values Xiuqin above the heirlooms and does not want to regret learning what the mysterious pearl is. He then takes Xiuqin away to spend time with her.
• Chen Miao gains a rare cultivation text but also recognizes the limits of what survives. He continues investigating the Scorpion Corpse’s unusual abilities and considers how karmic debt might affect his actions.
• The Scorpion Corpse/Three-Tail proves protective and unexpectedly voracious: it saves Chen from losing Suzuki’s soul entirely, but its first soul-feeding leaves it unable to function until digestion is complete.
• Suzuki Yamato is revealed performing a blood-and-yin ritual, though his purpose remains unknown. The phantom hand’s intervention hints at a powerful entity connected to his altar.

Significant themes

• Legacy and loss: Fang Zheng passes on what remains of his family’s knowledge, while the missing volume represents an incomplete inheritance.
• Love and the limits of survival: Xiuqin’s continued existence depends on the Soul-anchoring Pearl, and Fang Zheng’s devotion outweighs his attachment to the legacy.
• Power and uncertain consequences: The phantom hand, Suzuki’s soul, and the Memory Fragment raise questions about supernatural forces and how wrongdoing, punishment, and karmic debt interact.
• Knowledge through risk: Chen Miao’s growing understanding depends on observing dangerous events and testing theories whose consequences are not yet clear.

Key plot points

• Chen Miao leaves Fang Zheng’s shop with Fang Zheng, who wants to make a paper offering for his late wife, Xiuqin. Chen invites him to Tianmen County so they can work together; Fang brings his supplies in a truck, which also solves Chen’s problem of transporting his horse.
• Before departing, Zhao Gongzi asks whether Chen can teach him supernatural skills. Chen cautions that they are difficult and dangerous, gives him protective talismans, and says they can discuss training if Zhao still wants to learn after a future encounter with a ghost.
• Back at Tianmen Funeral Home, Chen asks Shi Manman for a detailed report. He discovers she secretly used the Corpse-Stitching Secret Art on a dead worker without telling him.
• Chen sternly reprimands Shi for acting alone as an apprentice and risking herself and the funeral home. As Shi starts to accept that he is worried about her, she sees what appears to be the corpse strangling Chen.
• Shi breaks free of her paralysis, cries out, and attacks the apparent ghost with the bone needle Chen gave her. The illusion collapses: the “corpse” is a potted plant, and Chen is alive—the body she was holding was a broom.
• Shi, overwhelmed with relief, throws herself at Chen. Kong Fang enters with Fang Zheng, glimpses the scene, and panics, convinced he has witnessed something compromising.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows care through sternness: he wants Shi to understand that her lack of experience makes unsupervised action dangerous. He also treats Zhao cautiously, offering basic protection rather than immediately taking him on as a student.
• Shi Manman is proud of her competence and initially feels her master’s scolding is unfair, but recognizes his concern and prepares to apologize. The staged supernatural scare demonstrates her fear for Chen and her willingness to act decisively when she believes he is in danger.
• Fang Zheng eagerly accepts Chen’s invitation, intent on completing a careful offering for Xiuqin.
• Zhao Gongzi is curious about supernatural work, but Chen tries to temper his confidence with a reminder of its risks.
• Kong Fang’s accidental entrance ends the episode with comic embarrassment.

Significant themes

• Responsibility and limits: Skill does not erase the danger of acting beyond one’s training.
• Care expressed through discipline: Chen’s harsh reprimand stems from concern for Shi’s safety.
• Curiosity versus real danger: Zhao’s interest is shaped by seeing Chen succeed without witnessing the full risks.
• Fear, loyalty, and courage: Shi’s terror turns into action when she believes Chen is being attacked; the apparent crisis is ultimately revealed as a lesson or scare.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao shows Elder Fang Zheng the unfinished courtyard where he plans to practice making paper offerings. The layout is inspired by Zhong Cai’s courtyard and is intended to become a feng shui formation. Chen Miao keeps his basement concealed.
• Fang Zheng moves his materials into the new space, and Chen Miao arranges help and lodging for him.
• Chen Miao reports that he has created a temporary yin ground using the Soul-Calming Wood Set and a Yin-Gathering Talisman. Fang Zheng confirms that he once relied on a yin ground to make paper offerings, but his disappeared more than ten years ago.
• Chen Miao plans to make a Paper Effigy and then begin practicing the Paper Figure Yin-Congealing Method. He completes his usual cultivation and falls asleep while accessing Suzuki Yamato’s memory fragment.
• At 1 a.m., the Mummy escapes its Yin-Sealing Pouch, approaches the sleeping Chen Miao, and sends gray-white vapor into him. Chen Miao abruptly wakes, and two patterns illuminate on his chest: Fire Pit Hell and Ice Prison. He recognizes a panicked figure in Fire Pit Hell as Old Ghost.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao continues to act as a practical organizer, arranging Fang Zheng’s workspace, supplies, and accommodation. His excitement about developing his paper-making abilities is growing.
• Fang Zheng is encouraged by Chen Miao’s new temporary yin ground, which may let him pursue his long-held wish to make Xiuqin.
• Kong Fang briefly appears outside the office, chastises himself for barging in, and is reminded by Chen Miao to knock.
• The Mummy’s unexplained escape and apparent transfer of vapor to Chen Miao suggest a new, potentially dangerous connection between them. Chen Miao’s reaction shows that Old Ghost remains a personal threat.

Significant themes

• Tradition and inheritance: Yin grounds are essential to certain practices, yet can vanish, disrupting the transmission of skills across generations.
• Preparation and ambition: Chen Miao is steadily building the space and knowledge needed for his next stage of cultivation.
• Hidden dangers: A quiet, orderly night turns suddenly ominous as the Mummy acts on its own and Old Ghost appears within Chen Miao’s supernatural prison.

Key plot points

• While Chen Miao is asleep digesting a Memory Fragment, Old Ghost takes advantage of Three-Tail’s absence of control over the soul corpse and tries to escape.
• Chen Miao traps Old Ghost in his fire-pit Prison, then releases and brands him. Old Ghost’s pain forces him back into the mummy-like soul corpse, which briefly flees before returning and surrendering.
• Old Ghost admits he survived his apparent death by hiding inside the soul corpse. He had been unable to escape after an unknown monster fused the corpse with a scorpion and gave the scorpion control.
• Old Ghost confirms that he witnessed everything the Scorpion Corpse experienced, though he claims he could not interfere. Chen Miao makes clear that Old Ghost’s survival now depends on obeying him.
• Old Ghost explains that he fears death because, while being burned, he saw an endless void in which neither light nor sound—or even his own existence—remained.
• Chen Miao asks about the soul corpse. Old Ghost says he acquired it from a declining family, whose inheritance claimed it came from the Mortal World.
• Old Ghost then outlines Yin cultivation: Spirit Communion depends on Soul Body strength, which is largely determined by innate talent. Cultivators temper the Soul Body by “building a bridge” toward the Yin Gate; opening the gate is said to grant a new life in the Mortal World.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao responds to the attempted betrayal with controlled, deliberate force. He interrogates Old Ghost, tests his claims, and keeps him alive for the knowledge he may offer. The incident makes Chen Miao wary of sleeping again.
• Old Ghost shifts from a scheming survivor to a terrified supplicant, offering service and instruction in exchange for his life. His fear of annihilation reveals a vulnerability beneath his former confidence.
• Chen Miao and Old Ghost establish a new, unequal relationship: Old Ghost submits to Chen Miao, who holds the power to punish or destroy him. Chen Miao’s questions also expose Old Ghost as a witness to the Scorpion Corpse’s past.

Significant themes

• Fear of death and annihilation: Old Ghost’s vision of the void gives death a terrifying, existential dimension.
• Power, control, and trust: Chen Miao’s Prisons let him contain Old Ghost, but the attempted escape shows that even a supposedly secure arrangement can be exploited.
• Talent and limitation: Yin cultivation depends heavily on innate Soul Body strength, leaving many unable to advance despite their efforts.
• The pursuit of transformation: Spirit Communion and the Yin Gate promise advancement—and perhaps rebirth in the mysterious Mortal World.

Summary

Key plot points

• Old Ghost explains that Yin cultivators enter the mysterious Mortal World in soul-body form after successfully knocking on a gate. Though its nature is unknown, nearly all Great Xia’s Yin Cultivation methods are said to have originated there.
• He recounts a legend about a man with an extraordinarily strong soul who, while dreaming, discovered Yin Cultivation and taught it to his family. The man eventually died after his ninth entry into the Mortal World.
• A soul body can survive eight deaths there, though each death weakens it; the ninth annihilates it. This danger led some Yin grandmasters to suspect the Mortal World was a trap.
• Old Ghost says Yang Cultivation developed from Yin Cultivation. Fearing that the Mortal World would invade reality, Yin practitioners who refused to enter developed body- and vital-blood cultivation to counter Yin forces.
• Chen Miao asks why Yang Cultivation now dominates. Old Ghost points to Great Xia’s political and military power, the authorities’ access to Yin Cultivation secrets, specialized anti-Yin weapons, and Yin grandmasters’ greed and deaths in the Mortal World.
• Old Ghost says ordinary Yin cultivators who cannot connect with the netherworld are tolerated because they consume yin energy without affecting reality.
• Asked about the Star Lord of Ascending Life, Old Ghost says Curse Cult Star Lords can enter the Mortal World before reaching grandmaster level using an Aperture Key. The Administration has destroyed about half of the Curse Cult’s keys.
• After Old Ghost rests, Chen Miao recalls Fang Zheng’s decades-long inability to discover how to open a mysterious object. He suspects it may be an Aperture Key.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from treating Yin and Yang Cultivation as separate traditions to confronting the possibility that Yang Cultivation arose in response to Yin Cultivation. He also connects Old Ghost’s account of Aperture Keys to the object Fang Zheng described.
• Old Ghost serves as the source of the chapter’s hidden history, explaining the Mortal World’s dangers and Yin Cultivation’s decline. His self-mocking explanation of why weak Yin cultivators are allowed to live reveals his bitterness.
• Their conversation is inquisitive and reflective: Chen Miao challenges each explanation with practical questions, while Old Ghost answers from his experience and knowledge of the Curse Cult.

Significant themes

• Uncertainty and competing theories: The Mortal World’s nature and purpose remain unresolved, with even powerful practitioners divided over what it is.
• Knowledge and danger: The Mortal World offers cultivation secrets and potentially continued existence, but repeated entry risks permanent soul annihilation.
• Power and adaptation: Yang Cultivation began as a defensive response, yet political authority, technology, and strategic choices enabled it to overtake Yin Cultivation.
• Greed and decline: Yin grandmasters’ desire for the Mortal World’s benefits contributes to their deaths and the weakening of their tradition.

Summary

Plot and events: Chen Miao spends a sleepless night reflecting on Old Ghost’s revelations about cultivation and the Mortal World. He remains wary of Old Ghost until Three-Tail wakes and enters the Soul Corpse Ball, then draws the Scorpion Corpse inside as well. Chen Miao investigates the Murky Glass Bead he received from Fang Zheng. Blood, water, and other substances slide off it, and ordinary yin energy has no effect. After consulting the Fang family’s legacy, he discovers that only yin energy from his ghost meridian aperture makes the bead respond. A faint connection forms as he feeds it energy, but his supply runs out before the bead fully activates.
Character developments: Chen Miao’s caution and curiosity guide his experiments: he avoids damaging the mysterious bead and carefully tests it before committing to a cultivation path. He realizes he may be close to unlocking its secret, but remains unsure whether to prioritize strengthening his heavenly spirit aperture or nourishing his ghost meridian. He decides not to rush and turns instead to practicing the Paper Figure Yin-Congealing Method and making Paper Offerings.
Character interactions: Chen Miao’s trust in Old Ghost remains limited, though Three-Tail’s safe arrival eases his immediate concern. The Fang family’s inherited instructions provide the key clue that lets Chen Miao activate the bead’s first response. He also recalls Xiao Bai’s confidence about reaching the Mortal World, using it to judge that the bead’s requirements may be attainable without advanced cultivation.
Significant themes: The chapter emphasizes cautious experimentation in the face of dangerous mysteries, the importance of inherited knowledge, and the choices cultivation forces between competing paths. The bead’s response also deepens the mystery surrounding the Mortal World and the nature of aperture gates.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao finishes the conversation he had begun with Shi Manman the previous day. He warns her that supernatural dangers are far beyond what she has encountered and stresses that he is responsible for her safety.
• To help her prepare, Chen gives Shi Manman protective items and his Mortal Notes, a guide to past strange incidents and basic yin-cultivation knowledge. He plans to send her elsewhere to gain more practical experience, teach her Yin Condensation, and let her handle future suspicious bodies—provided she reports everything to him.
• Chen and Fang Zheng continue making a paper figure for Xiuqin. Fang expects to finish in fewer than seven days and appreciates having Chen’s workspace rather than working on a yin ground.
• Chen asks Fang about the unusual bead. Fang confirms it resists contamination and recounts extreme tests, including accidentally swallowing it while drunk. Chen is disgusted and loses his appetite.
• After Fang returns to work, Chen checks his book and discovers a new status: Broker, which prevents either side in a transaction from becoming hostile to him when he acts as a third party. He links it to the memories of Suzuki Yamato, a broker who speculated in souls and yin cultivation.

Character developments

• Chen Miao shows a more thoughtful, responsible side as a mentor. He makes sure Shi Manman receives encouragement as well as criticism, equips her for danger, and plans to advance her training.
• Shi Manman accepts her mistake seriously and responds to Chen’s guidance with renewed confidence and determination.
• Fang Zheng remains practical and blunt, revealing how thoroughly he tested the bead. He asks Chen to call him “Old Fang,” signaling a more familiar relationship.
• Suzuki Yamato’s past begins to influence Chen through the new Broker status and the revelation of his unusual business in souls and cultivation.

Significant themes

• Mentorship and responsibility: Chen recognizes that training Shi Manman means protecting her and preparing her for risks he understands better than she does.
• Knowledge passed on: The Mortal Notes preserves lessons from past encounters and may eventually help future practitioners.
• Caution in a dangerous world: Chen emphasizes vigilance, while the bead’s resilience and unexplained properties hint at mysteries still beyond his understanding.
• Memory and identity: Chen’s new status emerges from another person’s memories, linking past experiences to his growing abilities.

Character interactions

• Chen balances warning and encouragement with Shi Manman, then entrusts her with tools, knowledge, and greater responsibility.
• Chen and Fang work alongside each other, discuss the bead, and grow more familiar through Fang’s request to drop formal address.
• Chen’s reaction to Fang’s story provides a moment of dark humor amid the chapter’s training and supernatural concerns.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao learns from Suzuki Yamato’s memories that Yamato was a broker serving Yin Cultivators and onmyoji, and also hunted souls in Great Xia using Soul-Seizing Kimonos. Destroying one had cost Yamato roughly a year’s earnings.
• Yamato’s kimonos came from the island nation’s Hundred Ghosts Seat. Brokers like him were peripheral members; the organization’s true members were Apostles, led by seven Imperial Pillars. Chen Miao concludes that killing such brokers would earn yin virtue, though he sees little use for his own Broker status.
• After recovering his composure, Chen Miao returns to making paper offerings. He crafts a basic General Effigy, while Fang Zheng continues working on a body for his wife, Xiuqin, who spends the night beside him by controlling another General Effigy.
• Chen Miao uses his Centennial Heavenly Heart Fire to supply yang energy and awaken the crude effigy’s eyes, allowing him to begin practicing the Paper Figure Yin-Congealing Method without waiting for dawn.
• Following the Soul-Separation Formula, Chen Miao separates his soul from his body. Seeing his own body triggers loneliness and panic, but he suppresses those feelings with his Negative Emotion Storage ability.
• Chen Miao directs the General Effigy to approach, then enters it with his soul. He feels protected inside the paper body and discovers he can move its limbs.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao turns the knowledge gained from Yamato into a practical judgment: the brokers are potential targets, but the Broker status itself seems unhelpful.
• He shows growing confidence and experimentation as a paper-effigy maker, using the Heavenly Heart Fire in a new way and attempting soul-based cultivation.
• Chen Miao’s first separation from his body exposes his vulnerability to fear and isolation. He manages the reaction through his ability to remove negative emotions.
• Chen Miao’s connection with the General Effigy allows him to command it; his soul then inhabits it, suggesting a stronger bond between maker and creation.
• Fang Zheng remains devoted to perfecting a body for Xiuqin, who accompanies him at night through a General Effigy.

Significant themes

• Soul, body, and identity: Chen Miao experiences the unease of existing apart from his physical body and finds a measure of safety in the paper effigy.
• Power and practical experimentation: He adapts the Heavenly Heart Fire and paper-craft techniques to expand his abilities.
• Hidden organizations and cross-border dealings: Yamato’s memories reveal a broader network of soul-related trade and the hierarchy of the Hundred Ghosts Seat.
• Control and cooperation: Paper effigies can be commanded, but conscious spirits such as Xiuqin retain agency, complicating the relationship between creator and inhabitant.

Plot points

• Chen Miao, now accustomed to moving as a paper effigy, considers combining the General Effigy’s strength with the Paper Horse’s mobility, but decides that modifying the Spirit Effigy Sutra is beyond him for now.
• He reviews the link between body and soul: physical injuries can permanently damage the matching soul part and close its associated aperture, while soul injuries usually heal unless caused by specialized mystic arts.
• Chen Miao tests the Paper Figure Yin-Congealing Method. His stronger soul lets him consume yin energy faster, and he discovers its effect stacks with his five hells half-immortal body.
• The combined bonuses let him use three measures of yin energy in an hour, completing two days’ worth of cultivation; he can still cultivate normally afterward. He concludes his total cultivation speed is ninefold.
• He rules out using soul-splitting to have multiple paper effigies cultivate at once. Looking for more yin virtue to restore his five hells state and add another prison, he realizes the Mortal World may offer a way to obtain it.
• He decides to cultivate the ghost meridian first, hoping it will help him understand the aperture gates, enter the Mortal World, and find a source of yin virtue. He takes out the gray bead, eager to see what awaits him.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Miao grows more analytical and ambitious, testing how his abilities combine and revising his cultivation plans based on results.
• His interactions are primarily with his own soul, body, and cultivation methods: he experiments, observes the strain of remaining outside his body, and weighs the risks of changing his cultivation path.

Themes

• Experimentation and limits: Progress comes from testing combinations, but Chen Miao recognizes when an idea is premature or impossible.
• Body–soul interdependence: Damage to the body can permanently impair the soul and its apertures, while some soul-targeting arts can also affect bodily control.
• Efficiency and sacrifice: Faster cultivation brings physical strain and requires careful management.
• Ambition and uncertainty: Chen Miao accepts a slower start in pursuit of a potentially greater long-term reward through the Mortal World.

Key plot points

• Chen Miao practices making paper offerings before attempting a “perfect” one for storage in his book. The necessary materials would cost over a tael of yin virtue, so he wants to improve his skills and avoid wasting them.
• A week later, he watches Fang Zheng make a paper wife and notices that the eye-dotting incantation differs from the one in his own inheritance, despite using the same points. This leads him to wonder whether incantations might eventually be replaced by intention alone—and to question the authority of supposedly fixed teachings.
• Chen Miao transfers Xiuqin’s soul into Fang Zheng’s new offering, then anchors it there. Fang Zheng and Xiuqin thank him and leave together.
• Two days later, Fang Zheng sends Chen Miao a cartload of crafting materials for practice. Chen Miao realizes he has gained an older friend.
• The scene shifts to the Henggen Mountains, where Xiao Bai and Zhong Cai travel with an elderly guide to the Southern School of the Curse Dao. Xiao Bai reveals the hidden entrance by piercing the formation with streams of black and white energy from his eyes. The guide abandons his plans to test them and hurries to obey Xiao Bai.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao grows more reflective and independent in his thinking, moving beyond simply accepting inherited rules. He also recognizes Fang Zheng’s generosity as a sign of friendship.
• Fang Zheng completes the paper wife he wanted and, after Chen Miao helps reunite him with Xiuqin, later supports Chen Miao’s practice.
• Xiao Bai and Zhong Cai display striking power and composure, while their guide shifts from quietly plotting to deferring to them once Xiao Bai exposes the hidden hall.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and authority: Learning encourages Chen Miao to question established doctrines and the people who control them.
• Skill and resourcefulness: Chen Miao balances costly ambition with careful practice.
• Friendship and reciprocity: Fang Zheng’s gift reflects the bond formed through Chen Miao’s help.
• Power and deference: Xiao Bai’s effortless feat overturns the guide’s assumptions and establishes who holds authority.

Key plot points and events

• Over two months, Chen Miao completes most renovations at the Funeral Home and finishes a courtyard formation. Support from Xie Songde’s regular purchases and Yang Jiuhua’s talisman sales means his savings grow despite the costs.
• He crafts a Fine Yin-Armored Riderless General Effigy and uses it to accelerate his Yin-Congealing Method. Continued soul tempering boosts his progress further; he learns that different prisons within the Five Hells Immortal temper the soul in distinct ways.
• Chen Miao decides not to perform a Transcendence Rite for Old Ghost, preserving access to the older yin cultivator’s knowledge. He instead uses Ice Prison to suppress Old Ghost’s perception through the Scorpion Corpse.
• Chen Miao approaches aperture nourishment at remarkable speed. He also helps Shi Manman investigate her apertures; she can open either the ghost meridian or yin well, and chooses the ghost meridian to support her Corpse-Sewing Art.
• After confirming that moisture in his released yin energy marks the next cultivation stage, Chen Miao reaches aperture nourishment. He then uses yin energy to activate the bead, enters a soul-separated state, and finds a wooden door he identifies as the Yin Gate.
• Chen Miao knocks, hears the door being unbolted, and feels a pull urging him to enter—but returns to his room rather than opening it. The book updates with a new chapter, which recounts what would happen if he crossed over: Chen Miao appears in the Mortal World as Zhang Shun, is attacked and struck by a talisman, and later recovers with lasting damage to his soul body and cultivation speed.

Character developments

• Chen Miao becomes far more capable in cultivation, but tempers his pride by remembering Xiao Bai and the many powerful beings he does not understand. He remains cautious, especially about revealing his extraordinary progress or entering the Mortal World.
• Shi Manman trusts Chen Miao enough to try the Paper Offering method. Though the process causes her dizziness, sluggishness, and mental fatigue, she persists and identifies a suitable aperture.
• Old Ghost remains a valuable but contained source of information. Chen Miao chooses knowledge over the potential rewards of transcending him.
• Xiang Shang advances to a second round of the Body-Refinement Art and receives more Mind-Clearing Talismans from Chen Miao.

Significant themes

• Knowledge versus reward: Chen Miao forgoes yin virtue and yin marks to preserve Old Ghost’s knowledge.
• Rapid growth and humility: His extraordinary cultivation gains are checked by awareness of Xiao Bai and unknown powers beyond him.
• Caution in the face of the unknown: The Yin Gate promises entry into another life, but the book’s account reveals severe physical and spiritual risks.
• Trust and practical mentorship: Chen Miao carefully guides Shi Manman, adapting the method to her weaker soul body.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao supports Xiang Shang with talismans and helps Shi Manman explore aperture opening.
• He keeps Old Ghost available for consultation while limiting the ghost’s ability to observe the outside world.
• Chen Miao’s encounter with the Yin Gate is solitary, but the book’s new chapter dramatizes his imagined arrival in the Mortal World: as Zhang Shun, he faces a suspicious Daoist and a young man who attacks him with a tracking talisman.

Key plot points

• Chen Miao concludes that Notes on Achieving Divinity in the Mortal World treated his death during his previous Mortal World entry as a real death, even though he later woke in reality. He suspects that the person he became there counted as himself because he controlled both that person’s soul and body.
• The new chapter lets him investigate the Mortal World without suffering further damage to his soul. He wonders whether ordinary entrants, including Grandmaster Yin Cultivators, lose their strength or face more dangerous circumstances. His own good-and-evil perception worked there, though he remains unsure about yin energy.
• Chen Miao enters Chapter 12 as an observer, unable to control or affect his other self. He watches himself arrive in a mourning hall as a stowaway, apparently taking the role of a Daoist Attendant expected to read a funeral tribute.
• A middle-aged Daoist questions him. The man initially seems harmless, but Chen Miao’s perception registers a sudden, extreme surge of malice—and the Daoist looks at him as if he were a valuable treasure.
• Another Daoist Attendant reacts with fear. A talisman strikes Chen Miao’s forehead, plunging his vision into darkness. He experiences soul damage and ends the descent.
• The talisman’s image remains in his mind: it was a Spirit-Sealing Talisman.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao becomes more methodical, using the chapter to test his theories rather than relying only on Old Ghost’s secondhand claims.
• His other self interacts with a fellow Daoist Attendant, the middle-aged Daoist, and people gathered for the funeral. The contrasting reactions—one man’s apparent fascination and the attendant’s terror—raise new questions about Chen Miao’s identity or appearance in the Mortal World.
• The middle-aged Daoist’s swift change from seemingly benign to strongly malicious makes him a clear threat, while the other attendant’s fearful expression suggests he may recognize the danger.

Significant themes

• Identity and death: The chapter challenges whether a person’s alternate life and death count as their own.
• Knowledge versus control: Chen Miao gains insight by observing events, but cannot intervene or prevent the outcome.
• Rules and uncertainty: His abilities may function differently in the Mortal World, and the limits of entry remain unclear.
• Hidden danger: Ordinary-looking encounters can turn threatening in an instant, underscoring the need for caution.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao reflects on why a Spirit-Sealing Talisman could seal him, wondering whether occupying another body makes him similar to a ghost. Unable to answer, he focuses on surviving and learning more about the Mortal World.
• He reasons that knowing the sacrificial eulogy beforehand might help him react differently when entering the Mortal World. Studying the funeral scene, he infers that the deceased was an elderly, locally prominent person and drafts a eulogy.
• Unable to write convincing classical Chinese, Chen Miao asks his former teacher, Zhang, to revise it. Zhang produces a polished version and refuses payment at first, praising Chen Miao’s respect for the dead; he accepts the money only after Chen Miao says it comes from the deceased’s family.
• In the next version of the chapter, Chen Miao recites the eulogy—but the mourners react angrily. He learns the coffin contains an elderly person who died naturally and a woman who later took her own life, leaving instructions to be buried alongside them. The priest apologizes to the family, performs the proper rites, and uses a talisman.
• The priest then attacks Chen Miao, tests him with a finger-jab between the brows, and seals him with a talisman resembling—but not identical to—a Spirit-Sealing Talisman. Chen Miao suspects that people in the Mortal World know about beings like him.
• Chen Miao has Zhang revise a second eulogy suited to a couple buried together. However, the chapter’s counterpart remembers both versions and chooses the earlier, unsuitable one because there is only one coffin. Chen Miao decides to memorize only the second draft so the counterpart will have fewer options.
• The next morning, Chapter 12 has vanished from the book. Chen Miao concludes that the door to the Mortal World likely closes if left unanswered too long. Knocking again restores the chapter, but its contents have changed completely: he is no longer in the Funeral Hall.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao becomes more methodical, using observation, notes, research, and repeated tests to understand the book and the Mortal World. He also recognizes that his preparation can produce unintended results if his counterpart recalls conflicting information.
• Teacher Zhang is shown as a generous and accomplished classical-Chinese scholar who values Chen Miao’s profession and reverence for the deceased. Their warm mentor-student relationship is reinforced through their exchange.
• The Daoist priest shifts from conducting the funeral to treating Chen Miao as a possible threat, suggesting he recognizes something abnormal about him. The young apprentice’s fear also hints at wider awareness.
• The mourning family reacts with anger to Chen Miao’s incorrect eulogy, underscoring the ceremony’s importance and the family’s complex circumstances.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as survival: Chen Miao tries to turn observation and study into practical protection, but incomplete information remains dangerous.
• Uncertainty and control: The book’s changing contents and the door’s apparent time limit show that Chen Miao cannot fully control his access to the Mortal World.
• Custom, death, and respect: The funeral’s strict rites matter deeply, while the unusual shared burial reveals the emotional history behind the ceremony.
• The supernatural becoming known: The priest’s test and the apprentice’s fear raise the possibility that Chen Miao’s kind are familiar to people in the Mortal World.