Chapter Summaries

Chapter 12 Summary

• Key events: After several days of hesitation, the narrator enters the bead’s mysterious door and appears in a dim prison corridor, where a hostile jailer mistakes him for a corpse stitcher and orders him to repair a badly mutilated body within two hours. The narrator identifies his tools—Bone Needles and Mulberry-Bark Thread—and uses the Corpse-Sewing Art, including a Soul-Guiding Needle and Throat-Sealing Knot, to stabilize the corpse and suppress its resentment. When the jailer discovers these techniques, he reacts with sudden fury and attacks. The narrator’s illusion barely affects him, and an enormous horned ghost appears over the jailer and cuts the narrator in half.
• Character development: The narrator responds to an unfamiliar and dangerous situation by quickly assessing his role, adapting to the tools and yin energy available, and relying on his craft. His confidence is limited, however: he recognizes his stitching is imperfect and misjudges the danger posed by the jailer.
• Character interactions: The jailer is domineering from the start, threatening the narrator and imposing a deadline. After inspecting the repaired corpse, he interprets the narrator’s ritual stitches as a provocation and attacks without explanation. The narrator tries to evade him and escape but cannot overcome the jailer or the ghostly force associated with him.
• Themes and outcome: The chapter emphasizes survival in an unfamiliar world, the risks of acting without understanding local customs, and the dangerous overlap between corpse work and spiritual forces. The narrator wakes outside the experience with severe head pain and a damaged soul body; a month of recovery is needed, and his cultivation speed is halved. He concludes that entering the Mortal World carries a serious cost.

Key plot points

• After his second Gate Knocking, Chen Miao realizes each entry into the Mortal World may give him a different identity and setting. He also suspects the gate closes at a specific time rather than exactly one day after entry.
• Reviewing the corpse-stitching chapter, he concludes the jailer’s rage was not caused by poor workmanship: he trained with Shi Manman and improved his stitching, but the chapter’s outcome stayed the same. He suspects the corpse was meant to produce something, or that the dungeon served a sinister purpose.
• The jailer’s uniform suggests an official institution may be involved in the dungeon’s disturbing practices. Chen Miao worries this means either the Mortal World is lawless or such cruelty is ordinary there.
• By waiting and observing, Chen Miao confirms the book’s chapter disappears when yang energy rises. He then knocks on the gate for a third time.
• The new chapter places him in a vast Buddhist hall among more than a hundred monks. When he stops tapping his wooden fish, a senior monk notices. Chen Miao tries to imitate the chanting but cannot keep up; another monk’s overwhelming goodwill draws him forward. The monk touches his head and speaks of Buddha’s mercy and dispelling wicked desires. Chen Miao dies without sensing any malice.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao adapts to the changing identities and settings, treating each chapter as a chance to learn about the Mortal World. He investigates methodically, tests his theories, and prepares for danger by training, making equipment, and refining his body.
• Shi Manman patiently trains Chen Miao in corpse stitching. Chen Miao struggles with the work but persists, while the two settle on different assessments of his eventual skill: Chen calls it “perfect,” she calls it “pretty good.”
• Chen Miao’s interactions with the jailer reveal the danger of the prison setting; the jailer’s yin-charged saber makes him exceptionally powerful. In the new chapter, the monk’s gentle demeanor and apparent benevolence prove no protection against death.

Significant themes

• Uncertainty and adaptation: Chen Miao must navigate unpredictable roles and rules with limited information.
• The gap between appearances and reality: A jailer’s authority may conceal institutional evil, while a seemingly compassionate monk can deliver death without malice.
• Knowledge through experimentation: Chen tests hypotheses about the chapter’s mechanics and learns the gate’s timing through observation.
• Moral ambiguity: The monk’s sincere-seeming goodwill complicates the idea that kindness, religious language, or lack of hatred guarantees safety.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao reviews his first three entries into the Mortal World: a mourning hall, a dungeon, and a temple. Each began with an urgent crisis, leading him to suspect that every entry brings an immediate threat.
• After the temple incident, he painstakingly transcribes and practices the monks’ sutra, hoping to avoid being identified. His recitation sounds convincing, but he is still seized at almost the same point as before. He wonders whether sincerity, rather than accuracy, is what the senior monk can detect.
• On his fourth entry, Chen Miao awakens bound to a wooden cross in a workshop-like room. A wooden-faced being attacks him, recognizes his use of Mystic Arts, and tests him with a talisman that identifies him as one of the strange intruders. Chen Miao dies.
• Comparing this event with an earlier encounter involving a Daoist priest, Chen Miao concludes that practitioners in the Mortal World know how to detect and deal with people like him.
• He ranks the four opening scenarios by difficulty: the temple is worst, followed by the torture chamber, then the mourning hall, with the dungeon easiest. He decides to investigate the latest scenario further.
• Returning to the room, Chen Miao identifies his attacker as a Human Puppet. Unlike the puppets described in the Thousand-Thread Puppet Art, which house ghosts, this one may contain its maker’s own soul. The corpse beside it is being converted into another puppet—and Chen Miao realizes he is intended to be its next material.

Character developments

• Chen Miao becomes more systematic and cautious, treating each entry as a chance to gather intelligence and test strategies.
• His attempt to master the sutra shows his persistence, but its failure reminds him that careful preparation may not overcome powerful supernatural forces.
• Shi Manman continues to look up to Chen Miao as a teacher, while privately enjoying the chance to instruct him in corpse-sewing. Chen Miao notices that he has begun hearing her thoughts, though he does not know why.
• Chen Miao’s growing knowledge of the Thousand-Thread Puppet Art helps him recognize the danger in the new scenario.

Significant themes

• Learning through repeated failure: Chen Miao uses each death and encounter to refine his understanding of the Mortal World.
• Disguise and detection: Intruders may be recognized through their behavior, abilities, or otherworldly nature, making survival dependent on more than imitation.
• Control and vulnerability: Chen Miao is repeatedly restrained, compelled, or overpowered, often unable to use his usual abilities.
• The body as material: The Human Puppet’s work turns human bodies into objects, raising the stakes of Chen Miao’s captivity.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao questions Shi Manman about his sutra recitation, then sends her back to work when she has nothing else to do.
• In the temple, his attempted imitation fails to fool the senior monk, who takes control of him.
• In the latest scenario, the Human Puppet confronts Chen Miao, reacts with alarm to his Mystic Arts, and tests him with a talisman before killing him.
• Chen Miao’s final realization reframes the encounter: he is not merely a captive, but the Puppet’s intended next victim and raw material.

Key plot points and events

• After reviewing the fourth Gate Knocking, Chen Miao sees little chance of changing events. Re-entering the chapter several times helps him notice a pattern across all four scenarios: each centers on knowledge or skills he already possesses—ceremonial rites, corpse-stitching, a soul-delivery sutra, and puppetry.
• He suspects the Mortal World may match its trials to the Gate Knocker’s experience, possibly under the influence of some hidden controller. The thought unsettles him, so he leaves to clear his head by the river.
• There he meets Li Fu, who asks whether Zhong Cai has returned with Xiao Bai. Chen Miao says they have not. He demonstrates Ironblood Eight Extremes, and Li Fu remarks that he could have a promising military future. Chen Miao brushes off the praise.
• Realizing that concerns about mysterious forces are premature while he is still far weaker than Elder Bamboo, Chen Miao regains perspective. He stops trying to solve the current Gate Knocking and records what he has learned.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from anxiety and speculation to a more practical outlook: focus on what he can do now, rather than worry about powers beyond his reach. He also continues to value Ironblood Eight Extremes, despite recently prioritizing another body-training art.
• Li Fu is supportive and attentive, checking on Xiao Bai and assessing Chen Miao’s training. Chen Miao responds respectfully but declines the implied military praise.
• Zhong Cai and Xiao Bai remain absent; their whereabouts are unexplained.

Significant themes

• Knowledge shapes experience: The Mortal World appears to tailor scenarios to what a person knows, creating challenges that are difficult but not wholly unfamiliar.
• Limits and perspective: Chen Miao learns to set aside worries he cannot yet act on and concentrate on immediate goals.
• Uncertainty and caution: The nature, rules, and possible controllers of the Mortal World remain unknown, so assumptions—especially about death, authorities, and its cultivation system—could be dangerous.
• Strength and discipline: Raw physical power is not enough; martial practice helps Chen Miao use his strength effectively.

Rules Chen Miao records

Known rules include the Mortal World’s link to his existing knowledge, the inability to use his real body’s yin-energy power there, the continued use of mental states, and the fact that death there does not kill him in reality. He also notes unanswered questions about the world’s authorities, practitioners, limits on deaths, social structure, and whether Immortals or Gods appear.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Over twenty-nine days, Chen Miao repeatedly attempts to enter the Mortal World through Gate Knocking. His Ghost Meridian nourishment has boosted his cultivation speed to fifteen times normal, but every attempt ends in death.
• He records the twenty-nine experiences in a notebook he calls the “Mortal World Death Note.” The recurring identities include funeral officiants, paper-effigy makers, puppets, monks, soul-summoners, corpse drivers, and corpse-sewers.
• His deaths reveal recurring dangers: mistakes or unusual behavior draw suspicion; masters and employers can be as lethal as supernatural threats; and practitioners often use talismans to test people.
• One especially mysterious attempt involves an incense inheritance. Chen Miao’s recitation of a mantra cracks a spirit tablet, apparently triggers a deity’s power through his grandfather, and gets him killed. He suspects the Six Jiangzhen Secrets: Divine Gaze may behave unusually in the Mortal World, especially near spirit tablets or statues.
• Chen Miao resolves to stop forcing entry and focus on cultivation until a safer opportunity—or the proper Gate Knocking method—becomes available. But as the thirtieth attempt begins, the new chapter appears to offer an unexpected opportunity.

Character development

• Chen Miao becomes more cautious and analytical, turning repeated failures into a practical record of patterns and risks.
• Despite frustration and uncertainty, he shows patience: he is willing to wait months or years rather than enter recklessly.
• His growing cultivation gives him confidence that time is on his side, even though it has not yet protected him from danger in the Mortal World.

Significant themes

• Learning through failure: Each death adds knowledge, even when it cannot prevent the next one.
• Caution and survival: Understanding a danger does not guarantee safety, especially in a world where suspicion and arbitrary violence are common.
• The uncertain nature of the divine: The incense episode raises questions about gods, spiritual possession, and the true nature of powerful beings.
• Persistence and patience: Chen Miao’s long-term cultivation contrasts with his desire for immediate progress.

Character interactions

• In most encounters, Chen Miao is vulnerable to masters, ritual leaders, families, and employers, who punish mistakes or treat him as expendable.
• Ritual masters and Daoist priests are especially wary, using talismans to investigate him.
• In the incense episode, Chen Miao’s “father” guides the ritual, while his “grandfather” is apparently possessed and attacks him after the spirit tablet cracks—an event that leaves Chen Miao with more questions than answers.

Key plot points and events

• After twenty-nine unsuccessful opportunities, Chen Miao finds a Mortal World identity that meets his three requirements: he knows how to handle the role, the initial crisis seems survivable, and no overwhelmingly powerful enemy is apparent.
• The identity is a low-ranking Third-Grade Paper Effigy Apprentice facing an assessment to advance to Second Grade. Promotion would bring more status and a valuable day off every week.
• To prepare, Chen Miao studies several paper-effigy and related craft manuals, then questions Fang Zheng about the rules and routines of his family’s old Paper Effigy Shop. He also practices making paper-offering frames—not to improve, but to deliberately reinforce clumsy techniques so he won’t accidentally reveal his skill.
• After reviewing the chapter, paying respects to his ancestors, and preparing himself, Chen Miao finally enters the Mortal World through the wooden door.
• The scene shifts to the Southern School’s Curse Dao hall, where elders identify a white-haired boy as Life Bringer, the fourth living member of their Six Star Lords. He chooses an aperture key and prepares to enter the Mortal World. The elders warn him not to act recklessly and say they will try to find him if he survives a month and resolves his identity problem.

Character developments

• Chen Miao is patient and methodical: he spends the chapter researching, gathering practical information, and preparing to conceal his abilities rather than rushing into the opportunity.
• He is also increasingly willing to accept risk. The identity is not perfect—its quiet temperament is less reliable than the Heavenly Lone Star destiny pattern—but its rarity convinces him to proceed.
• The white-haired Life Bringer is presented as powerful or unusual because of his special soul body, yet inexperienced with the Mortal World and dependent on the elders’ guidance.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao asks Fang Zheng detailed questions about the Paper Effigy Shop. Fang Zheng shares memories from his apprenticeship, while Chen Miao keeps the conversation focused on useful rules and working conditions.
• In the Black-Stone Hall, the elders guide Life Bringer through choosing an aperture key and caution him about the danger posed by Yin Cultivation practitioners.

Significant themes

• Preparation versus uncertainty: Chen Miao cannot control what awaits him, but he can study, plan, and reduce avoidable risks.
• Identity and concealment: Success depends on inhabiting a role convincingly without exposing who he really is.
• Opportunity and risk: Chen Miao accepts an imperfect opening because a safer one may not come again.
• Power and restraint: Both Chen Miao’s careful self-control and the elders’ warning to Life Bringer stress the importance of not acting recklessly in an unfamiliar world.

Key plot points and events

• Ma Jie confides that he has secretly paid a Second-Grade Apprentice to teach him frame-binding techniques. He hopes to advance, but keeps the knowledge from Chen Bai and offers to teach him later for a fee.
• Chen Miao, posing as Chen Bai, knows that an advancement test is imminent and that two paper offerings in their shared room are part of it. He suspects the shop owner is watching, so he hides what he knows and waits.
• After Ma Jie falls asleep, the paper offerings come alive and attack both apprentices. Ma Jie freezes when he sees his attacker and is strangled.
• Chen Miao fights back resourcefully: he uses a quilt, bench, candle, and water to burn the offerings and obscure one creature’s painted face, disrupting its ability to locate him.
• The shop owner arrives just as Chen Miao cries out that the paper offerings have come alive. One surviving offering slips into the owner’s sleeve. The owner orders Chen Bai to report to the Grade-B Courtyard the next day and has Ma Jie’s body removed.

Character developments

• Chen Miao/Chen Bai is cautious, observant, and strategic. He conceals his knowledge, anticipates the attack, and improvises under pressure, showing both practical intelligence and composure.
• Ma Jie is ambitious and eager to advance, but self-interested: he withholds what he learns and hopes to profit by teaching Chen Bai later. During the attack, he is overwhelmed by fear and dies.

Character interactions

• Ma Jie boasts about his lessons and ambitions, while Chen Miao gives little away and quietly listens.
• During the attack, the two apprentices face the paper offerings separately: Ma Jie is incapacitated, while Chen Miao actively fights them.
• Chen Miao performs panic for the arriving boss, who responds tersely by assigning him to the Grade-B Courtyard.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and self-interest: Ma Jie treats skills as something to buy and sell; Chen Miao’s restraint gives him an advantage.
• Survival through observation and adaptation: Chen Miao wins time by reading the creatures’ behavior and using ordinary objects creatively.
• Deception and hidden motives: The “test” is a deadly trap, the boss’s role remains unclear, and Chen Miao must conceal what he knows.
• The harshness of the Mortal World: Apprentices face exploitation, scarcity, and sudden death; advancement comes at a potentially lethal cost.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao survives the crisis at the Paper Effigy Shop, but Ma Jie dies despite knowing how paper offerings could be countered. Chen Miao suspects fear overwhelmed him.
• After returning to the Funeral Home, Chen Miao reflects on how he left the Mortal World. He suspects rising yang energy may have forced him to sleep, but recognizes that the rules are still unclear.
• Chapter 12 is marked complete. Chen Miao receives two qian of yin virtue, Liu Zhan’s Memory Fragment, a bundle of bamboo splints, and a wisp of obsession.
• He reasons that tongue-tip blood harmed both the paper offering and the soul within it, causing the offering to burn and the soul to die. He also realizes Ma Jie may have been intended as the next soul housed in an offering.
• When Chen Miao enters the bead again, he discovers the door to the Mortal World still pulls at him. He concludes that surviving there may have left an “anchor,” allowing him to return to the same location.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao grows more cautious and analytical, keeping watch after the owner leaves and later trying to infer the rules governing travel between worlds.
• Ma Jie’s death reveals the cost of panic: he knew useful protective knowledge but could not act effectively when terrified.
• The Paper Effigy Shop’s owner remains an ominous presence. Chen Miao suspects the owner suffered little loss from the destroyed offerings and may have planned to use Ma Jie’s soul.
• Chen Miao interacts with the bead’s system by inspecting his rewards and testing the door, but the purpose of the obsession fragment remains unknown.

Significant themes

• Fear versus knowledge: Knowing how to survive is not enough if fear prevents action.
• Exploitation and expendable lives: The shop’s offerings—and possibly Ma Jie—suggest people and souls are treated as replaceable materials.
• Discovery and uncertainty: Chen Miao advances by observing, questioning, and testing, but the rules of the Mortal World remain unclear.
• Survival and continuity: His unexplained return and persistent connection to the shop hint that surviving the Mortal World has lasting consequences.

Key plot points and events

• Back in reality, Chen Miao wonders whether the upgraded Notes on Achieving Divinity can be activated inside the Mortal World using a book found there. If so, he could access his stored talismans, weapons, and effigy, greatly improving his odds of survival. He suspects the Paper Effigy Shop’s owner may be the only person with books he could reach.
• Chen prepares equipment for his fine-grade General Effigy and feeds it yin energy, hoping to make it a powerful ally on his next visit.
• Using Liu Zhan’s memory fragment, Chen experiences Liu’s past. Liu Zhan is a poor young man repeatedly cheated and abused while trying to earn money for his family. His brother, Liu Ming, arranges for him to become an apprentice at Kong’s Paper Effigy Shop, sacrificing himself to secure Liu Zhan a chance at a better life.
• Liu Zhan works hard, grows healthier, and eventually delivers a paper offering to the wealthy household where he was once mistreated. The household rewards him, but when he uncovers the offering, he recognizes his brother’s face and realizes Liu Ming has been turned into a paper effigy.
• Liu Zhan destroys the effigy and confronts shop owner Mr. Kong. Kong reveals that Liu Ming’s sacrifice was the price of Liu Zhan’s apprenticeship. He then turns Liu Zhan into an effigy as well, keeping his soul while the public is told Liu Zhan was at fault.
• Back in reality, Chen records what he has learned: Kong’s shop is in the town’s southwest, a Yizhuang is in the northwest, and wealthy households deal with yin cultivators. He concludes that Kong operates by strict rules, even though he treats human life as expendable.
• Chen considers whether the timing of yang-energy surges governs the doorway between worlds, but avoids experimenting for fear of disrupting his return route. He enters the Mortal World again.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao becomes more strategic, preparing his equipment and studying the shop’s customs and owner’s rules rather than acting recklessly. He also recognizes that his current identity may offer advantages.
• Liu Zhan is diligent and hopeful, driven by the wish to support his family. His confidence rises when he returns to the wealthy household as a shop apprentice, but collapses upon discovering his brother’s fate; his attempt to avenge or challenge that injustice costs him his life.
• Liu Ming acts out of love for his younger brother, exchanging his own life for Liu Zhan’s apprenticeship and future.
• Mr. Kong appears to follow a consistent, transactional code: Liu Ming’s sacrifice buys Liu Zhan’s place, and Liu Zhan’s destruction of the effigy brings punishment. Chen contrasts this with the owner’s restraint toward Chen himself, whose actions apparently stayed within Kong’s rules.
• The gatekeeper once abused Liu Zhan but later avoids his gaze when Liu returns with the shop’s authority behind him, highlighting the change in Liu’s social standing.

Significant themes

• Poverty and power: Ordinary people in the Mortal World face exploitation, and even a chance at advancement may come at a terrible cost.
• Sacrifice and family loyalty: Liu Ming gives up his life for his brother; Liu Zhan’s determination to help his family shapes his choices.
• Rules over morality: Kong’s conduct is cruel but governed by boundaries. Understanding those rules may be essential to surviving him.
• Knowledge as preparation: Chen turns Liu Zhan’s painful memories into practical intelligence for navigating the Mortal World.
• Identity and survival: Chen weighs the risks of his current role, his access to resources, and the consequences of testing the world’s mechanics.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao wakes in the Mortal World and notices that no time seems to have passed there while he was away. He wonders whether the world freezes when he exits, but cannot determine how time works for everyone else.
• Ge Feng arrives to move him from the Third-Grade Apprentices’ quarters to the Grade-B Courtyard. Chen Miao cleans his old room and throws away Ma Jie’s urine-soaked bedding.
• On the walk, Ge Feng explains “Ghost Nodding,” a paper offering suddenly moving, and says the shop’s rules and countermeasures usually keep workers safe. The shopkeeper’s favor and the prospect of becoming a respected craftsman are why people accept the danger.
• In the new courtyard, other Second-Grade Apprentices try to make Chen Miao prepare their materials. He does so, then presents the finished batch as Ge Feng’s work, effectively making himself Ge Feng’s helper. Ge Feng agrees to arrange for him to learn Bone Binding, while the others retrieve their materials in frustration.
• Ge Feng takes Chen Miao to meet the shopkeeper, who leaves him in another courtyard for a lesson. After about half an hour, Chen Miao sees Ma Jie approach and is startled.

Character developments

• Chen Miao remains observant and cautious, investigating the world’s strange rules while concealing what he knows. He adapts quickly to the apprenticeship hierarchy and turns an attempt to exploit him into a way to secure Ge Feng’s support and access to training.
• Ge Feng initially treats Chen Miao as a compliant newcomer, but becomes pleased with him and takes him under his wing. He is ambitious and pragmatic, accepting supernatural risks in pursuit of craft skills and status.
• Ma Jie remains an ominous presence: his bedding and Ge Feng’s account suggest he encountered Ghost Nodding, but his sudden appearance at the end raises questions about what happened to him.

Significant themes

• Uncertain reality and time: Chen Miao questions whether time stops in the Mortal World when he leaves.
• Supernatural danger as ordinary work: The shop’s workers treat frightening events as occupational hazards governed by taboos and practical responses.
• Ambition and risk: Apprentices tolerate danger and hardship for the chance to become skilled, respected craftsmen.
• Hierarchy and self-preservation: Chen Miao navigates workplace pressure by avoiding open conflict while securing an advantage.

Character interactions

• Ge Feng mentors Chen Miao, explaining the trade’s dangers, ambitions, and social rules.
• Chen Miao follows Ge Feng’s advice not to let other apprentices walk over him, though he quietly redirects their imposed work to Ge Feng.
• The other apprentices try to take advantage of Chen Miao and resent his arrangement with Ge Feng.
• The chapter closes on Chen Miao’s shocked encounter with Ma Jie, setting up a mystery around Ma Jie’s fate.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao begins Bone Binding lessons with Ma Jie, who claims to be his instructor but is actually a remarkably lifelike paper effigy. Chen Miao recognizes similarities to effigies described in the Spirit Effigy Sutra and suspects the shop’s tradition differs from that text.
• Shopkeeper Li escorts Chen Miao back to the B-grade courtyard and warns him not to lose the route. Chen Miao discovers that Li, like Ma Jie, is not human, and senses that the shop owner is secretly observing him.
• Chen Miao suspects the owner has an ulterior motive, though he does not know what it is. He decides to behave carefully and maintain the appearance of being Chen Bai.
• Ge Feng explains shop routines: B-grade apprentices’ work is logged and inspected, days off cannot be swapped, and apprentices who fail to learn Bone Binding may be reassigned rather than dismissed. Chen Miao learns his next day off is the day after Ge Feng’s.
• Ge Feng warns that nights outside the shop can be dangerous. This prompts Chen Miao to think about his own family and the risks of leaving the shop.
• Chen Miao weighs three options for his day off: flee town, search for his family, or remain in the shop and keep a low profile. Each carries serious risks, so he postpones the decision.
• Near dawn, he notices the powerful sleepiness accompanying the rise of yang energy may be resistible, but chooses to return to reality to think and consult his notes. There, he immediately begins body tempering while the yang-energy surge continues.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao grows more wary and strategic. He studies the people around him, hides his suspicions, and carefully asks questions that might reveal escape routes or the shop’s rules. Though he considers violence, he recognizes that he lacks the strength—and cannot simply regard everyone as an enemy.
• Ma Jie establishes himself as Chen Miao’s instructor, while his paper-effigy nature raises questions about the shop’s methods.
• Shopkeeper Li appears friendly and helpful but is revealed to be nonhuman, intensifying Chen Miao’s distrust.
• Ge Feng acts as a generous, talkative senior companion. He shares food, explains practical rules, and offers warnings, while his easygoing manner contrasts with Chen Miao’s guardedness.

Significant themes

• Uncertainty and survival: Chen Miao’s choices all involve unknown dangers, forcing him to balance risk rather than find a clearly safe path.
• Identity and concealment: He must continue presenting himself as “Chen Bai” while privately investigating the shop and his circumstances.
• Trust and suspicion: Friendly guidance from Ge Feng coexists with the unsettling discovery that key figures in the shop are paper beings and that the owner may be watching him.
• Agency amid constraint: Chen Miao considers flight, investigation, and retreat, but his limited knowledge and power restrict his options. Returning to reality offers a rare chance to pause, plan, and strengthen himself.

Key events

• After returning to reality, Chen Miao finds that entering the Mortal World leaves him without mental fatigue. Since his guidebook contains no further clues about the Paper Effigy Shop owner’s scheme, he plans to use his upcoming day off to investigate the town, its dangers, trade, travel routes, and local institutions.
• He adds “look for books” as his top priority: a book might let him manifest more of Notes on Achieving Divinity in the Mortal World and provide crucial information.
• Chen Miao learns the day-off sign-out procedure while seeing Ge Feng off. Shopkeeper Li records each leave in a register, which Chen Miao suspects may have supernatural significance.
• At the shop, the other apprentices replace Chen Miao’s processed bamboo strips with unprocessed ones. He chooses not to confront them, avoiding a risky dispute.
• Cao Xiu, a locally influential apprentice who previously cheated Ge Feng out of leave, demands that Chen Miao trade away his day off. Chen Miao refuses and mocks Cao’s claim that he can do as he pleases. Though Cao is resentful, he cannot override the shop’s rules.
• Ge Feng returns that night carrying food for them to share. What he calls the town’s finest pig’s-head meat is, in fact, a human skull with a dead rat stuffed in its eye socket.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao becomes more methodical, turning his uncertainty into a research plan. He is also cautious and strategic: he avoids provoking the apprentices over the bamboo and relies on the shop’s rules to resist Cao.
• Ge Feng grows warmer toward Chen Miao, pleased to have company and eager to share food after his trip home.
• Cao Xiu’s entitlement is exposed: he expects Chen Miao to obey, but the shop’s internal rules limit his power. The other apprentices’ laughter further undercuts him.
• Shopkeeper Li remains pleasant but unsettling. Chen Miao now suspects she may not sleep, and the leave register becomes a new source of intrigue.

Significant themes

• Information as survival: Chen Miao needs firsthand knowledge of the town before choosing whether to flee, investigate, or lie low.
• Rules and power: The Paper Effigy Shop’s rules restrain people who may hold influence outside it, while trouble can still arise within those boundaries.
• Uncanny normality: Ge Feng’s cheerful, ordinary gesture contrasts sharply with the grotesque “food,” showing how supernatural horror is treated as everyday life in this world.

Plot and key events

• Ge Feng returns late to the paper effigy shop after walking from a neighboring town. He says he traveled with a stranger and was protected by a wooden charm he bought.
• Chen Miao notices that the charm is the source of the yin energy and soul fluctuations surrounding Ge Feng. He asks to inspect it, then secretly sends a powerful fire-pit mark into it, cracking the plaque.
• The broken charm reveals that Ge Feng’s supposed food and liquor are actually disturbing supernatural objects. Ge Feng concludes that something in the shop has protected them, orders the items discarded, and has the plaque burned.
• The chapter settlement rewards Chen Miao with yin virtue, a memory fragment, hundred-year pagoda-tree wood, a strand of lingering obsession, and instructions for crafting a Pagoda Tree Soul-Nourishing Plaque.
• Chen Miao learns that such a plaque houses a ghost, which may protect its wearer by driving off other ghosts—but can also harm or blind the wearer, provoke its resident ghost, and be taken by anyone. He suspects the seller used buyers to acquire ghosts without taking risks himself.
• Chen Miao asks Old Ghost about the lingering-obsession fragment. Old Ghost cannot identify it, so Chen Miao freezes him again rather than leave him to speculate.
• Chen Miao plans how to use his next day off to earn more yin virtue, while weighing the danger of mistiming his travel between worlds. Later, he studies his new memory fragment and discovers information about warding objects.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao becomes more cautious and strategic. He quietly intervenes to break Ge Feng’s charm, then conceals his role while helping dispose of the supernatural objects. He also weighs the rewards of exploiting plaque crafting against the ethical and practical risks.
• Ge Feng is revealed as trusting and somewhat naïve: he bought an expensive “protective” charm without understanding its costs. After the danger passes, his fear turns to anger at the seller, though he gives up on reporting him when he remembers the seller’s powerful connections.
• Chen Miao and Ge Feng share a tense but outwardly friendly exchange. Chen Miao steers Ge Feng away from drinking the suspicious liquid and manages the aftermath without admitting what he did.
• Chen Miao and Old Ghost have a transactional relationship. Chen Miao seeks Old Ghost’s knowledge, but when it proves unhelpful, he seals him again; Old Ghost pleads to remain unfrozen and tries to emphasize his expertise.

Significant themes

• Protection with hidden costs: The plaque can repel ghosts, but its “protection” comes from housing one and exposing its wearer to harm.
• Exploitation and responsibility: The seller appears to profit by passing danger to buyers and using them to obtain ghosts; Chen Miao recognizes the lucrative opportunity but questions whether he could safely or morally pursue it.
• Caution amid uncertainty: Chen Miao avoids acting on incomplete information, especially regarding supernatural rules and the risks of crossing between worlds.
• Knowledge and power: New artifacts and memory fragments broaden Chen Miao’s understanding, while Old Ghost’s limited knowledge highlights how much remains unknown.

Plot points

• Chen Miao absorbs Feng Yue’s memories and learns that ordinary families in Great Xia rely on Calamity-Guarding Objects to repel supernatural threats. These objects can be depleted and must be recharged at the Great Xia Exorcism Office; official help is available for a fee, but officials generally leave ordinary households to fend for themselves.
• The objects manifest as protective “household spirits”—Feng Yue’s family’s, for example, was a glowing white snake that swallowed a ghost. Chen Miao hopes to find a way to make one for the Funeral Home or his uncle’s house, though he suspects the knowledge may be difficult to obtain.
• Back in the real world, Chen Miao tests his new A Little Faster status. Combined with Foot Strength, it makes walking much faster and more enduring, but neither status works while running.
• Returning to the Mortal World, Chen Miao prepares to leave the Paper Effigy Shop. Ge Feng gives him twenty copper coins and asks him to bring back wine and meat.
• Before leaving, Chen Miao signs the shop’s Roll Book. He quietly touches it and discovers that Notes on Achieving Divinity in the Mortal World can manifest within the Mortal World, confirming a major new possibility. He leaves eager to explore.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao becomes more interested in the Mortal World’s supernatural systems and adds learning how Calamity-Guarding Objects are made to his plans.
• Ge Feng has recovered from his earlier worries and treats Chen Miao warmly, lending him money and asking him to bring back food.
• Shopkeeper Li assumes Chen Miao is cheerful because he is enjoying his break. She does not realize that his mood is due to his discovery about the Roll Book.

Significant themes

• Unequal protection: Supernatural safety depends largely on a household’s ability to pay for protective objects or official services.
• Discovery and possibility: Chen Miao’s growing knowledge—and the newly confirmed ability of his Notes to appear in the Mortal World—opens the door to further experimentation.
• Adaptation and resourcefulness: Chen Miao studies his abilities, makes practical plans, and conceals his discoveries from others.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao explores Qingjiang Town, mapping its roughly triangular layout. The Paper Effigy Shop and a large mortuary occupy two corners; the town gate and busy market are at the third.
• He quietly inspects the mortuary and detects protective yin-energy measures along its wall, as well as unusual coffins that his perception cannot penetrate. A visitor enters, confirming the site is active and likely overseen by a yin cultivator or corpse driver.
• In town, Chen Miao observes a contrast between ordinary street life and the dangers of the supernatural world. He reasons that wealthy residents rely on Calamity-Guarding Objects and ties to yin cultivators for protection.
• At the Great Xia Exorcism Office—effectively a shop—he discovers that its Calamity-Guarding Objects carry soul-body signals and can be bought for silver. He also sees customers have objects imbued with soul-body energy, though he cannot determine how the process works.
• With little money, Chen Miao buys food, liquor, incense, and spirit paper. In a secluded alley, he uses yin absorption and discovers a membrane around each of his nine apertures, blocking yin energy. He chooses not to break through it, judging that concealment is safer than gaining little power.
• As evening falls, he plans to scout for books to steal. Before he can, a pale young man calls him “Chen Bai.” Chen Miao senses yin energy around him and becomes alarmed.

Character developments

• Chen Miao becomes more cautious and observant, gathering information before acting and avoiding actions—such as testing the Exorcism Office’s defenses or opening his apertures—that could expose him to danger.
• His estimate of the Mortal World’s supernatural strength rises: even local yin cultivators may be formidable, and his former assumptions about the world’s power structure seem too conservative.
• His practical curiosity extends to Calamity-Guarding Objects, but his poverty frustrates him; he resolves to find another way to earn money.
• The final encounter unsettles him because someone knows the name “Chen Bai,” raising the possibility that his assumed identity is compromised.

Significant themes

• Order amid danger: Residents carry on with ordinary commerce and pleasure despite a world threatened by ghosts, relying on protective objects and established institutions.
• Knowledge versus risk: Chen Miao’s exploration reveals useful clues, but he repeatedly weighs discovery against the danger of attracting attention.
• Economic constraints: Even supernatural investigation depends on money; protection and knowledge have prices Chen Miao cannot easily afford.
• Uncertainty and adaptation: The Mortal World’s rules differ from Chen Miao’s expectations, requiring him to revise his assumptions and proceed carefully.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao watches farmers, market-goers, and patrons, using their behavior to infer how people manage life in a dangerous world.
• At the mortuary and Exorcism Office, he observes visitors and customers without directly engaging them, learning from their routines and transactions.
• The chapter ends with a direct, ominous interaction: a pale, yin-energy-bearing young man recognizes Chen Miao as “Chen Bai,” leaving Chen Miao to wonder how they are connected.

Key plot points and events

• A young Yin Cultivator who knew Chen Miao before he entered Kong’s Paper Effigy Shop approaches him. He says he is learning yin cultivation at Yizhuang and offers to take Chen Miao to see his younger brother.
• Chen Miao follows, wary of the man but reasoning that refusing might expose that he is not truly the person the man remembers.
• They arrive at a house where Chen Miao senses yin energy. Inside are the corpses of the couple who had been selling steamed buns, along with a Black Jiangshi.
• The young man reveals that the Jiangshi is Chen Miao’s younger brother. He says the original Chen Miao handed his brother over to him for corpse cultivation; in a few years, the Black Jiangshi will become a more powerful Leaping Hopping Corpse.
• The young man then asks whether he will ever see his own younger brother again. Chen Miao recognizes him as Liu Ming, elder brother of Liu Zhan, whose sacrifice had enabled Liu Zhan to become a Paper Effigy Shop apprentice.
• Chen Miao realizes his own entry into the shop may have involved a similarly dark bargain—and that the original Chen Miao may have willingly handed his brother over to be turned into a corpse.

Character developments

• Chen Miao continues concealing that he is not the body’s original owner. He stays outwardly composed while privately reconsidering the original Chen Miao’s past and the price of his own apprenticeship.
• Liu Ming appears calm and matter-of-fact about corpse cultivation, but his question about seeing his brother again hints at personal grief or longing.
• The younger brother is revealed to be a Black Jiangshi, his former identity only faintly recognizable beneath the transformation.

Character interactions

• Liu Ming speaks with apparent familiarity and confidence, steering Chen Miao to the house. Chen Miao follows partly to avoid raising suspicion.
• Liu Ming explains the younger brother’s condition without visible emotion, while Chen Miao struggles to understand why the original Chen Miao would have handed him over.
• The encounter connects Liu Ming’s sacrifice for Liu Zhan with the disturbing possibility that Chen Miao’s own apprenticeship came through an equally monstrous act.

Significant themes

• Identity and inherited guilt: Chen Miao must confront the possibility that the body’s original owner committed acts he cannot explain or undo.
• Sacrifice and exploitation: The chapter contrasts Liu Ming’s apparent self-sacrifice for his brother with the transformation of another brother into a corpse.
• Dehumanization and moral horror: The younger brother’s gradual conversion into a Jiangshi raises questions about whether he was already dead—and whether he was ever given a choice.
• Uncertainty and concealed pasts: Chen Miao’s assumptions about how he entered the shop collapse as new evidence suggests a far darker history.

Plot points and events

• At a bun shop, the young man explains that he and Chen Bai once exchanged their younger brothers as a way into the Paper Effigy Shop and the Yizhuang. He had brought Chen Bai’s brother to Chen Miao, believing he could then forget the past and live well. Seeing Chen Miao again revived his guilt and anger.
• The young man demands to know why Chen Miao had proposed the exchange, but Chen Miao has no answer. He suggests the man might find his brother among the wealthy townspeople’s collections, though warns that the rich may have subjected him to terrible treatment.
• The young man turns his Corpse-Control Bell against Chen Miao. Before he can attack, his terrifying master appears. Chen Bai takes the fallen bell and uses it to control the black jiangshi. The master then kills the young man by biting his throat, leaving him baffled by both Chen Bai’s skill and his master’s nature.
• Chen Miao uses an incantation to keep the three corpses from becoming resentful spirits. He then destroys the black jiangshi with his Fire Pit Hell mark, takes money and a booklet of Yizhuang contacts, and sets the bun shop ablaze.
• On his way back to the Paper Effigy Shop, Chen Miao encounters several ghosts and dispatches them with his peach-wood sword. He also sees a supernatural calamity-guarding object shaped like a glowing rooster and wonders how such objects are made.
• Chen Miao returns to the courtyard, where Ge Feng has been waiting. They share food and wine, and Ge Feng lets Chen Miao keep the leftover coins. Later that night, a fire breaks out in a house on the town’s eastern side.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains composed under threat, handles the bodies with ritual care, and uses the booklet to check whether it has value to him. His lingering uncertainty about his own past is evident, but he still focuses on practical goals and urgently returns to the shop.
• The young man reveals a painful history and admits he cannot explain his own choices. His resentment over his brother’s fate drives him toward violence, but fear of his master overwhelms him.
• Chen Bai emerges as more than the quiet apprentice others perceived: he had proposed the exchange and secretly knows how to control corpses.
• Ge Feng shows warmth and generosity toward Chen Miao, offering reassurance and refusing repayment.

Significant themes

• Guilt and moral compromise: The brothers’ exchange was a deliberate sacrifice made in the hope of survival and advancement, but its consequences remain unresolved.
• Exploitation and inequality: The bun-shop owners’ cruelty and the wealthy households’ treatment of people and spirits reflect a world in which the powerless are easily abused.
• Power and fear: The young man’s dependence on his master—and the master’s sudden violence—shows how authority can dominate even those who have gained supernatural abilities.
• Ritual and practical survival: Chen Miao balances compassion for the dead with the need to eliminate threats, gather useful items, and keep moving.

Key events

• After finishing his training, Chen Miao reviews the book’s recent rewards. His four days in the Paper Effigy Shop have brought unusually rapid gains, and he plans to use the dangerous hours after nightfall on his weekly day off to earn more yin virtue.
• The three side stories yield yin virtue and ritual supplies. The completed afterword, “Brothers,” grants further yin virtue, memories belonging to Xia Lang and Chen Liu, two Black Jiangshi teeth, two wisps of obsession, and the Corpse-Embracing Aperture-Opening Method.
• Chen Miao studies the method: corpse qi can open the body’s nine apertures, but it erodes them indiscriminately and may seriously injure or kill someone whose body is too weak. He suspects Xia Lang used it and wonders whether he was given only this one method.
• Wanting to learn about his younger brother and family, Chen Miao reads Chen Liu’s Memory Fragment. Villagers gossip that Chen Miao’s former thug leader was killed by a powerful person, but Chen Liu dismisses their judgment of his brother. He believes his brother’s harshness protected the family and is glad that, lately, he has seemed like his old self again.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is increasingly strategic: he sees the book as protection that could make exploring the wilderness worthwhile, while remaining cautious about his limited knowledge of Great Xia and its neglect of local safety.
• Chen Liu is loyal and affectionate toward his older brother. He interprets Chen Miao’s past ruthlessness as sacrifice for the family, and welcomes their renewed closeness.
• The old men’s gossip contrasts with Chen Liu’s personal understanding of Chen Miao: they judge him by his association with thugs, while Chen Liu remembers what that life provided for their family.

Significant themes

• Family loyalty and sacrifice: Chen Liu recognizes the burden behind his brother’s actions.
• Reputation versus personal knowledge: Outsiders condemn Chen Miao, but his brother sees the care beneath his behavior.
• Risk and survival: Both the aperture-opening method and Chen Miao’s plans for night exploration promise gains at potentially serious cost.
• Institutional neglect: The absence of nighttime patrols suggests that Great Xia leaves ordinary people largely to fend for themselves.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• After waking from a memory dream, Chen Miao learns more about his current identity, Chen Liu, and Chen Liu’s deep attachment to his older brother, Chen Bai. He expects little chance of encountering Chen Bai’s relatives in town.
• Chen Miao examines three more Memory Fragments. Two belonged to villagers killed by ghosts after they could not afford to replenish their Calamity-Guarding Objects; the third belonged to a servant beaten to death by his wealthy employer. The servant’s employer owns the residence with the enormous rooster.
• The fragments grant Chen Miao three useful passive statuses: Leg Strength, Heat Resistance, and Thick Skin. He realizes that statuses persist across Mortal World identities, unlike abilities gained through body cultivation. Each visit can therefore build on the last, making the Mortal World a gradual “snowballing” progression.
• Xia Lang’s memories reveal that the mortuary is run by Master Lin, also called Hunchback Lin, who is preparing to select a true disciple. The chosen disciple will inherit his teachings and possessions. Chen Miao wonders whether the Paper Effigy Shop’s owner will be invited, seeing the invitation—or its absence—as a clue to the two men’s relationship.
• Xia Lang’s fragment also gives Chen Miao Snort, a status that can make a target panic.
• Chen Miao sets two main goals: use days off to hunt the stronger ghosts that appear after dark, and find a safe opportunity to leave the Paper Effigy Shop. He avoids rushing into the dangerous escape conditions described by the notebook and decides to wait for a better opening.
• In the Mortal World, Ge Feng tells him that a house fire killed several people. Residents fear the dead may return as ghosts. Ge Feng distrusts the Demon-Suppressing Bureau’s responsiveness and says ordinary Calamity-Guarding Objects can handle only limited threats, so people may flee into neighbors’ homes to use their protection.
• Chen Miao confirms that the Paper Effigy Shop has no Calamity-Guarding Object, reasoning that one would threaten the shop owner’s soul-anchored Paper Offerings. He also suspects that yin cultivators and the Demon-Suppressing Bureau may be fundamentally opposed.
• After several quiet days of alternating work in both worlds, Chen Miao completes a premium General Effigy, including armor, weapons, and a warhorse. It costs two taels and five mace of Yin Virtue, his largest single expenditure so far. Excited to test its strength, he releases the Scorpion Corpse.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao grows more strategic: he recognizes the long-term value of persistent statuses, prioritizes steady gains over risky boss fights, and treats the notebook and new information as tools for planning.
• Chen Liu and Chen Bai: Chen Miao learns how strongly Chen Liu depended on his older brother, suggesting Chen Bai could have persuaded him to do almost anything.
• Chen Miao and Ge Feng: Ge Feng shares local knowledge about the fire, ghosts, and the limits of protective objects. Their conversation helps Chen Miao assess the town’s dangers and the shop’s unusual lack of protection.
• Chen Miao and Master Lin: They have not met, but Chen Miao begins tracking the upcoming disciple selection as a possible source of information about the mortuary and its connection to the Paper Effigy Shop.

Significant themes

• Cumulative growth: Persistent statuses make each Mortal World life stronger than the last.
• Risk versus patience: Chen Miao wants to develop quickly but avoids a reckless escape or premature confrontation.
• Fragile protection and social survival: Calamity-Guarding Objects offer limited safety, leaving ordinary people to rely on desperate measures—and sometimes on others’ protection.
• Uncertain loyalties: The possible divide between yin cultivators and the Demon-Suppressing Bureau raises questions about who protects the public and why.
• Investment and preparation: The costly General Effigy represents Chen Miao’s effort to turn accumulated resources into a powerful future advantage.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao tests his newly equipped General Effigy against Scorpion Corpse. On foot, the Crescent Moon Blade only dents Scorpion Corpse’s shoulder; mounted, the General Effigy’s charge creates a much deeper depression, demonstrating that riding boosts its power considerably.
• Chen Miao realizes the General Effigy is now strong enough to serve as an effective fighter in the Mortal World. He considers transferring Old Ghost into it so Old Ghost could hunt independently.
• Chen Miao releases Old Ghost from Scorpion Corpse and anchors him inside the General Effigy. The attempt to store the occupied effigy in the notebook fails.
• Old Ghost tests the effigy and estimates that it could defeat newly awakened yin cultivators and ordinary ghosts, though its performance against stronger opponents would depend on their abilities. He places it above a Grade-C investigator but below Grade B.
• Asked where he would rather reside, Old Ghost chooses Scorpion Corpse, fearing the paper effigy could be destroyed. Chen Miao returns him to the soul corpse and freezes him again.
• With the effigy tests complete, Chen Miao considers continuing his paper-crafting practice. Yang Jiuhua then calls to report that his business has landed its first job. Chen Miao accepts, anticipating a chance to earn yin virtue.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao grows more confident in the General Effigy’s combat potential and considers how to use it strategically in the Mortal World. He remains cautious, testing Old Ghost’s usefulness while keeping control through the Five Prisons Mark and his own authority over the effigy.
• Old Ghost demonstrates the effigy’s capabilities and gives a measured assessment of its limits. His choice to return to Scorpion Corpse reveals his fear of death; Chen Miao also knows Old Ghost is concealing how much the soul corpse has restored his spirit, but chooses not to confront him yet.
• Chen Miao and Yang Jiuhua move their working relationship forward when Yang reports his first client, and Chen Miao readily agrees to take the job.

Significant themes

• Power and practical limits: The General Effigy is formidable, especially on horseback, but its effectiveness depends on space, the opponent, and possible counters.
• Trust, control, and self-interest: Chen Miao uses marks and ownership to keep Old Ghost in check, while Old Ghost prioritizes his own survival.
• Parallel progress: Chen Miao balances developments in the Mortal World with opportunities in reality, hoping the new job will bring him closer to his next yin-virtue upgrade.