Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Ge Feng explains the Demon-Suppressing Bureau’s corpse policy: families receive one tael of silver for each body sent to Grave Mountain, while unauthorized burial or cremation brings a fine. The system offers households some protection from ghosts, though it could also make vulnerable people targets for those with evil intentions.
• Chen Miao learns that Grave Mountains generally have one Corpse Keeper and one apprentice, with the apprentice inheriting the role. Corpse Keepers raise Corpse-Guarding Dogs and may command a rare, powerful Corpse Hound King. Chen Miao recognizes the black dog with white fur on its tail that accompanied the apprentice.
• Ge Feng says the dry riverbed and abandoned villages are rumored to be haunted. The river was diverted, possibly so a powerful person could create a nearby lake, displacing the villages along its banks. Several abandoned villages remain along the old river route.
• Discussing the mountains prompts Ge Feng to realize that old hunters may own Protective Objects suited to mountain travel, possibly offering a cheaper source than other sellers.
• As he falls asleep, Ge Feng mentions wanting to explore Grave Mountain after mastering Paper Offerings. He also warns Chen Miao that Cao Xiu has been mocking Chen Bai, but advises against provoking him because his family is wealthier.
• Alone, Chen Miao reflects on Grave Mountain’s hidden secrets and the Bureau’s larger role in maintaining order. He suppresses his thoughts with the iceheart state and sends his Paper Cutout to work as the Yōkai Smoke Wraith.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao continues gathering knowledge through careful questions, connecting local customs to the wider supernatural system. His curiosity shifts toward Grave Mountain and the Demon-Suppressing Bureau, and he wonders whether he could join the Bureau in another life.
• Ge Feng acts as an informal guide, explaining customs and dangers from experience. His enthusiasm about finding Protective Objects from hunters gives way to drunken speculation about Grave Mountain and concern for Chen Bai.
• Their friendly, trusting exchange is shaped by Chen Miao’s attentive listening and Ge Feng’s willingness to share—though Ge Feng eventually grows too drunk to continue.

Significant themes

• Protection and exploitation: The corpse-for-silver policy helps ordinary families defend themselves from ghosts, but its incentives and penalties also expose them to coercion.
• Power and inequality: A powerful person’s supposed desire for a summer retreat may have displaced entire communities, while poorer people must navigate supernatural dangers with limited resources.
• Knowledge and danger: Curiosity helps Chen Miao understand his world, but Ge Feng warns that exploring haunted places without proper guidance or protection can be fatal.
• Hidden systems: Everyday practices, Grave Mountain, and the Demon-Suppressing Bureau all conceal deeper rules and purposes that Chen Miao is only beginning to uncover.

Key plot points and events

• In Qingjiang Town, a working-class couple decide to postpone buying a Calamity-Guarding Object. The husband believes an old bronze mirror and peach branches will keep ordinary evil things out while they save money.
• Their son Li Shan appears to be eating meat in the kitchen, but the bloody food contains part of his own tongue. The man drives the apparent creature away by spitting blood at it, only to realize his wife has also been possessed and is strangling him.
• Before the man can die, a black-smoke figure enters through the window, pulls the ghost from his wife, and tears it apart. The smoke then leaves, brushing against a peach branch.
• The figure is Smoke Wraith, a new Yōkai created by Chen Miao from a Paper Cutout. Chen can control it and see through its perspective. It moves silently and slips through openings without damaging buildings, though it has limited duration and range.
• On patrol, Smoke Wraith finds a wealthy household watching a fight between a Mountain Goat and a Vengeful Ghost as if it were entertainment. A young man quietly takes a black, goat-shaped Calamity-Guarding Object and smashes it on the floor.

Character developments

• The working-class husband’s confidence in improvised protections proves misplaced; in the crisis, he regrets not buying a Calamity-Guarding Object. His practical, money-conscious outlook leaves his family exposed.
• The couple’s ordinary domestic hopes—saving for better tools and their son’s future wedding—are abruptly overtaken by supernatural danger.
• Chen Miao is pleased by Smoke Wraith’s capabilities and uses it for freer, quieter surveillance than General Effigy allows.
• The young man in the wealthy household distinguishes himself from the others by acting deliberately rather than simply watching.

Significant themes

• False security and the cost of delay: Traditional wards may deter ordinary threats, but they cannot replace stronger protection against powerful spirits.
• Wealth and unequal exposure: The poor must weigh safety against basic expenses, while the wealthy can treat supernatural danger as a spectacle.
• Supernatural horror within domestic life: Familiar routines and family affection turn suddenly uncanny and lethal.
• Observation and intervention: Chen’s unseen patrol lets him witness danger and potentially act, while the wealthy family’s detached spectatorship raises questions about complicity.

Character interactions

• The husband reassures his worried wife and explains his plan to rely on household wards while saving money.
• The mother scolds Li Shan for sneaking food, only to discover the horrifying evidence that the apparent child is not what he seems.
• The husband tries to protect his wife and son, but his possessed wife turns on him; Smoke Wraith then extracts and destroys the possessing ghost.
• In the wealthy home, the middle-aged man, two women, and children watch the supernatural fight together, while the young man slips away and destroys the goat-shaped protective object.

Key plot points

• Zhu Sheng smashes the family’s Calamity-Guarding Object during a Ghost attack. When the household spirit vanishes, the Ghost enters the room, leaving Zhu Sheng’s father and concubine vulnerable.
• Zhu Sheng reveals that his father’s protective charms are gone: one is around Zhu Sheng’s neck, another around his mother’s. His concubine had given her charm to her nephew. Zhu Sheng makes clear that his father’s favored children are protected, while he and his mother have long been cast aside.
• As the concubine strangles the father, the father recognizes that he neglected the wife and son who had supported him before he became wealthy. Smoke Wraith appears, pulls the Ghost from the concubine, destroys it, and leaves.
• The father asks Zhu Sheng’s forgiveness. Zhu Sheng kills him and the concubine, then kills the two younger children despite initially promising to take them to their grandfather. He tells his mother that they have only each other.
• Chen Miao continues patrolling and discovers that Ghosts are more powerful when encountered outside a human host: possession seems to drain their strength, though it helps them surprise human targets. He considers focusing on Ghosts inside homes to conserve Smoke Wraith’s power.
• That plan proves dangerous. A household spirit attacks Smoke Wraith, forcing Chen Miao to retreat. After several more fights, Smoke Wraith is nearly depleted.
• Chen Miao uses its remaining power to investigate the Cao residence, concerned the Cao family may retaliate after Cao Xiu attacked him. The residence is protected by dozens of household spirits, which overwhelm Smoke Wraith. Chen Miao makes the Paper Cutout self-destruct to escape.
• Back in bed, Chen Miao resolves to find a way to kill Cao Xiu without arousing suspicion, inspired by his status effects. The chapter ends with Hunchback Lin and a young man emerging from Grave Mountain.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhu Sheng acts decisively against his father’s household, protecting his mother and exposing the family’s favoritism. His apparent plan to spare the younger children gives way to further violence, underscoring his bitterness and isolation.
• The father briefly recognizes his betrayal of his first wife and son, but his remorse comes too late; Zhu Sheng kills him.
• Chen Miao learns how possession affects Ghost strength and adapts his strategy, but the Cao family’s defenses reveal the limits of Smoke Wraith’s power. He shifts toward planning Cao Xiu’s death indirectly.
• Hunchback Lin’s appearance with an unidentified young man introduces a new development beyond Chen Miao’s patrol.

Significant themes

• Family loyalty and betrayal: The father abandons those who supported him as he rises in wealth, while Zhu Sheng’s response turns from protection into revenge.
• Remorse and consequences: The father understands his wrongdoing only when he is dying; his apology cannot repair the harm.
• Fear and power: Wealthy families’ fear of death drives their reliance on protective charms and formidable household spirits.
• Strategic adaptation: Chen Miao studies how Ghosts and protections work, but each discovery also exposes new risks.

Key events

• Hunchback Lin updates a young relative and new apprentice about corpse-qi collection. Grave Mountain yields corpse qi every three days, while deserted villages will produce a first batch in about fifteen days and then once a week.
• The young man explains that their collateral branch must prove itself to the Flying Corpse Lin family to earn a place in its inner circle. He believes the family is poised to rise after seeing the abilities of Third Uncle’s new disciple.
• Hunchback Lin agrees to expand operations but warns that deserted villages need safeguards. He also rejects the young man’s suggestion to drive Kong’s Paper Effigy Shop out of town, suspecting it has powerful backing. Instead, they plan to use the young man’s apprenticeship banquet to demonstrate the mortuary’s strength.
• Back in the Hotel, Chen Miao reviews the results of his day off. His yin virtue has risen from five liang and seven qian to one jin and two liang, a gain of six liang and three qian.
• Much of that gain came unexpectedly: a Transcendence Rite in a deserted village earned two liang and eight qian, and four ghosts encountered along the way earned another one liang and one qian. In total, he defeated fourteen ghosts and collected fourteen Memory Fragments.
• Chen Miao also gained improved yin absorption, miscellaneous materials worth nearly two liang of yin virtue, and more obsession fragments—bringing his total to twenty-one. He received no legacy drop and still does not know what the obsession fragments are for.
• He ends by considering which status to improve with his newly accumulated yin virtue.

Character developments and interactions

• The young apprentice is ambitious and eager to secure recognition for his branch, advocating faster operations and a show of strength against Kong’s Shop.
• Hunchback Lin is cautious and experienced. He supports his apprentice’s goals but prioritizes avoiding conflict with a potentially powerful rival.
• Chen Miao is pleased with his gains but tempers his expectations after realizing ghosts are less common than he assumed, appearing mostly near midnight. He also recognizes that unexpected opportunities—especially the deserted village—can greatly increase his rewards.

Significant themes

• Ambition versus caution: The apprentice pushes for rapid advancement, while Hunchback Lin weighs the risks of provoking a stronger opponent.
• Opportunity and uncertainty: Chen Miao’s greatest rewards come from an unplanned detour, while his assumptions about ghost activity prove unreliable.
• Progress through accumulation: Yin virtue, fragments, and materials steadily expand Chen Miao’s options, even as their uses and the best way to invest them remain uncertain.

Key plot points

• Chen Miao decides to postpone completing Five Hells Immortal. Its cultivation and combat benefits would be limited in the Mortal World, where he cannot open his apertures, while survival there is his immediate priority.
• He considers six statuses to upgrade, then rules out Mist Condensation, Ancestor’s Protection, Eyes-Closed Perception, Soul Body Perception, and Iceheart for various limitations. Hide-and-Seek is his final choice because improved evasion could help him survive threats and escape the Paper Effigy Shop’s owner.
• Before spending his yin virtue, Chen Miao opens five of his fourteen Memory Fragments, hoping to discover a better option. Most memories are disjointed, and the statuses are mostly familiar: Thick-Skinned, Heat Resistance, and two instances of A Little Faster.
• The one new status, Hunger, makes people and animals feel intense hunger for about half an hour. It affects Chen Miao himself and proves distracting, though Iceheart helps him endure it. He decides it is not worth upgrading.
• Chen Miao saves his yin virtue and enters the Mortal World. There, he finds that Thick-Skinned has a much more noticeable effect than it did in reality. After getting up, he sees Ying Xiu in the courtyard, visibly astonished.

Character developments

• Chen Miao’s priorities shift from accelerating cultivation to maximizing his chances of surviving the Mortal World. He approaches status selection methodically, judging drawbacks as well as strengths.
• He continues to test new abilities carefully, including Hunger’s effects on humans, animals, Old Ghost, and himself.
• His experience reinforces that statuses found among ordinary people may come from a fairly limited, recurring pool.

Significant themes

• Survival over power: Evasion and longevity may be more valuable than direct strength when facing a much stronger opponent.
• Patience and resource management: Chen Miao delays spending scarce yin virtue until he has examined more possibilities.
• Experimentation and adaptation: He tests Hunger systematically and learns that statuses can behave differently in reality and the Mortal World.
• Uncertainty and opportunity: The Memory Fragments offer little useful information, but future discoveries may still change his plans.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao tests Hunger on a mukbang streamer, a roadside dog, Old Ghost, and himself. It works on the first two and on Chen Miao, but has no effect on Old Ghost.
• The chapter ends with Chen Miao encountering Ying Xiu in the courtyard; her astonishment sets up an unexplained reaction.

Plot and events

• Chen Miao notices that Cao Xiu’s hostility briefly fades, then returns. While the apprentices work, Chen helps Ge Feng with materials and practices Bone Binding.
• Cao Xiu, convinced that Chen Miao is still an obstacle, plans to have him killed during an upcoming day off. He is confident in his own skills and expects to advance to Grade-A and become Boss Kong’s disciple.
• As Cao Xiu works, Chen repeatedly makes a quiet snort at crucial moments, startling him into breaking or ruining his frames. Cao Xiu’s outbursts draw mockery from the other apprentices. When he threatens their families, one points out that Chen was the one making the sound.
• Cao Xiu realizes Chen is responsible but decides not to confront him directly, instead planning to use a different group to kill him. Chen’s interference leaves Cao Xiu with only two completed frames, below his daily quota. The storeroom attendant accepts a bribe but still records his failure.
• Ge Feng celebrates Cao Xiu’s setback and warns Chen to be careful when he goes out. The two discuss protective equipment; Chen says he will seek reliable secondhand gear through family connections.
• The next day, Chen opens mystery boxes and gains Night Vision, a special status that lets him see in darkness. After testing it, he prepares to enter the mortal world again to torment Cao Xiu further.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao stays outwardly calm while covertly disrupting Cao Xiu’s work. He recognizes that Ge Feng has noticed a pattern, so he resolves not to use the same tactic again. He also shows concern for Ge Feng’s safety.
• Cao Xiu shifts from confidence to frustration and humiliation as repeated failures expose his temper. His threats reveal how he uses family influence to intimidate others, while his plans to kill Chen escalate their conflict.
• Ge Feng openly supports Chen and ignores Cao Xiu’s demands. He celebrates Cao Xiu’s punishment but remains worried about the danger Chen faces.
• The other apprentices mock Cao Xiu and resist his threats, though his threat against their families makes them wary.

Significant themes

• Hidden power and retaliation: Chen uses precise, concealed interference to undermine Cao Xiu without revealing his full capabilities.
• Abuse of privilege: Cao Xiu relies on wealth and family influence to intimidate others and evade consequences, but his bribe cannot erase his recorded failure.
• Friendship and mutual protection: Ge Feng and Chen warn one another and show genuine concern amid the escalating danger.
• Progress and preparation: Chen’s training, search for dependable protective gear, and acquisition of Night Vision prepare him for the coming confrontation.

Key plot points and events

• In Kong’s Paper Effigy Shop, Cao Xiu uses cotton earplugs to block Chen Miao’s distracting snorts and works faster. At lunch, however, he develops an inexplicable hunger, repeatedly forces himself to eat until he collapses, and is carried back to his room. His bizarre behavior causes the other apprentices to wonder whether something supernatural has affected him.
• Cao Xiu misses his work quota for a second day. Chen Miao realizes the manager witnessed the incident, so the shop’s boss may be watching Cao Xiu. He decides to wait for a safe opportunity before using the fear-inducing Three-Eyed state to make Cao Xiu fail again and trigger the shop’s three-failure rule.
• Chen Miao enters the Man-Faced Ape’s Memory Fragment. Its memories reveal that it was once a hunter who killed an ape but died in the fight, later becoming the Man-Faced Ape. The memories also show a mysterious Corpse Stitcher accompanied by grotesque creations, suggesting that some dangers in the mountains are deliberately made.
• Chen Miao gains Ape Leap, which greatly improves jumping, climbing, and coordination. Testing it, he discovers he can bound between walls without losing height, turning an experimental jump into an exhilarating new ability.
• Reviewing three more fragments yields Illusion and Three Figures in the Mirror, alongside Thick-Skinned. His accumulated fragments also raise Thick-Skinned to five stacks and several other states to three.
• Chen Miao tests Illusion on his reflection. He experiences a convincing visit from a woman offering him a business card, but the recording shows no visitor or card. He concludes that the state creates a private, target-specific illusion that can vanish when its falsehood is exposed.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains calculating and cautious: he weighs the risks of targeting Cao Xiu again, investigates his new states, and quickly recognizes their potential.
• Cao Xiu is increasingly undermined by Chen Miao’s influence. His anger over the earlier quota failure persists, but his uncontrolled eating causes another failure and makes him a subject of suspicion.
• Ge Feng and the other apprentices are baffled by Cao Xiu’s behavior and discuss possible explanations, unaware of Chen Miao’s role. Ge Feng also notices Cao Xiu has now missed his quota twice.
• The manager and fourth-grade servants intervene when Cao Xiu overindulges, while their report makes Chen Miao aware that the boss may have learned of the incident.

Significant themes

• Power and secrecy: Chen Miao’s supernatural abilities work best when their source remains hidden, but strange outcomes risk attracting attention.
• Cause and suspicion: Cao Xiu’s bizarre actions prompt the apprentices to suspect supernatural interference, illustrating how easily unexplained events generate fear.
• The supernatural as human-made danger: The Corpse Stitcher’s creations suggest that some threats are not natural monsters but products of deliberate, sinister craft.
• Discovery and experimentation: Chen Miao tests new states methodically, turning unexpected abilities into practical knowledge—and, in Illusion’s case, recognizing a potentially vast range of uses.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao reviews his newly acquired statuses and spends nearly all his yin virtue—falling from one jin and two liang to just three liang—to upgrade Hide-and-Seek into Mirage Doppelganger Form.
• The ability creates a lifelike, silent mirage of Chen Miao. While it exists, his real body is concealed and gives off no signs of life; maintaining the mirage gradually drains his soul power.
• Testing reveals that the mirage has no physical substance, cannot speak, and can only be controlled where Chen Miao can see it. His real body, however, is exceptionally well hidden—even perception fails to detect it.
• Chen Miao discovers he can see and control the mirage through a drone’s video feed, so he buys a secondhand drone. But distance increases the soul-power cost, limiting the usefulness of sending the mirage far away.
• Reflecting on how the Mortal World differs from reality, he realizes that yōkai might serve the role that drones cannot there, and hurries back to the Hotel to test the idea.

Character developments

• Chen Miao approaches the new power as an experimentalist, carefully probing its limits rather than dismissing it over its flaws.
• He initially feels the upgrade is disappointing, then recognizes that its chief strength is concealment—not creating a convincing physical double. Reframing the ability lets him see its tactical potential.
• His frustration over the drone’s limitations quickly turns into renewed excitement when he thinks of another way to use the mirage.

Significant themes

• Concealment and deception: The ability’s greatest value is hiding Chen Miao’s real body while presenting a decoy.
• Adaptation and creative problem-solving: Chen Miao finds practical uses by testing the status, reconsidering its purpose, and applying technology in unexpected ways.
• Power and trade-offs: The status offers strong concealment but consumes yin virtue and soul power, while its mirage has clear limits.
• Different worlds, different tools: A solution that works in reality—using a drone—may not work in the Mortal World, prompting Chen Miao to consider supernatural alternatives.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao’s main interaction is with the mirage, which he directs through a series of experiments; it faithfully imitates his movements but cannot touch objects or make sound.
• He bargains with a young drone operator and buys the drone at a premium.
• Ordinary people fail to notice the mirage as it moves silently through the street, demonstrating how effective its appearance can be as bait.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao reflects on his experiments from the previous night: a simple yōkai can act as his eyes and guide the Mirage Shadow. Exhausted, he postpones further tests.
• Cao Xiu returns to work after his strange episode, but the overwhelming hunger he experienced the day before is gone. Unable to prove that something supernatural happened, he continues his apprenticeship.
• At lunch, Cao Xiu forces himself to eat, then works on Bone Binding. Other apprentices secretly interfere with him: one appears to have tampered with his drink, another mixes defective bamboo splints into his supply, and Ge Feng waits to play a part in the plan.
• Repeated broken splints and urgent trips to the latrine leave Cao Xiu unable to finish a frame. Desperate to pass inspection, he offers ten taels for a completed one. Ge Feng supplies a frame, then claims it as his own when Cao Xiu submits it.
• Shopkeeper Li rules that the frame was not Cao Xiu’s and declares Cao Xiu’s work a failure. With three consecutive failures, Cao Xiu is ordered to pack and leave.
• Chen Miao recognizes the apprentices’ scheme as a carefully coordinated trap. He also realizes that merely having Cao Xiu expelled would not satisfy him, since Cao Xiu might remain a threat.
• After Cao Xiu returns to the courtyard, Chen Miao uses [Status: Illusion] on him. The illusion leads Cao Xiu to the shop owner’s room to plead for help; Chen Miao suspects this will end badly for him.
• Shopkeeper Li later announces that Cao Xiu has been stripped of his apprentice status for entering another courtyard without permission. A new Second-Grade Apprentice, Zhu Sheng, is assigned to Cao Xiu’s room.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao grows more cautious and observant, recognizing both the apprentices’ ingenuity and the need for abilities such as poison detection. He quietly uses his illusion ability to direct Cao Xiu toward a likely fatal outcome.
• Cao Xiu shifts from confident schemer to desperate victim of others’ manipulation. His social standing and family position depend on remaining an apprentice, so expulsion terrifies him. He turns to Ge Feng for help, only to be betrayed.
• Ge Feng and two other apprentices cooperate in a layered plan to make Cao Xiu fail. Their interactions reveal how suspicion, opportunity, and prior conflicts can turn ordinary apprentices into effective plotters.
• Zhu Sheng arrives with a humble greeting, but Chen Miao recognizes him from an earlier family scandal and doubts that his modest manner reflects his true nature.
• Chen Miao and Cao Xiu exchange a tense look before Chen Miao activates his illusion; Ge Feng, meanwhile, offers Cao Xiu apparent help and then publicly denies having sold him the frame.

Significant themes

• Human cunning and betrayal: Chen Miao concludes that people can be as formidable as mystical arts. The apprentices’ coordinated scheme relies on deception, sabotage, and a calculated betrayal.
• Vulnerability and status: Cao Xiu’s standing in his family depends on his apprenticeship, making his professional failure a threat to his identity and future.
• Appearance versus reality: The apprentices’ behavior, Zhu Sheng’s humble welcome, and Cao Xiu’s supposed supernatural misfortune all conceal more complicated motives.
• Retaliation and manipulation: Chen Miao does not simply accept Cao Xiu’s expulsion; he uses his own powers to steer events toward a more consequential outcome.

Key events

• After Zhu Sheng joins the Paper Effigy Shop, Chen Miao suspects he has seized control of his family’s assets—and that his father’s fate is likely grim. Chen decides the other apprentices’ attempts to recruit Zhu Sheng are unwise, since Zhu is not merely clever but ruthless.
• That night, Chen senses a soul body visiting the apprentices’ rooms. It leaves without incident, but he wonders whether it was checking on Ying Xiu’s absence or inspecting Zhu Sheng.
• In the Mortal World, Chen spends five qian of yin virtue on supplies and spends the morning developing a “mirage double.”
• Grade-C Investigator Xi Sheng arrives to recruit Chen for a mission beginning in the early hours. Chen cleanses his room of yin energy, packs, and accompanies Xi Sheng to the city bureau.
• Xi Sheng explains that the operation targets the Hundred Ghosts Seat, an organization of ordinary people and Onmyoji. Its members include seven Imperial Pillars, three groups of Apostles, and a supreme leader known as Hundred Ghosts.
• The mission is to follow a Grade-A Investigator into a large Sacrifice Ritual site, disrupt the ritual, and rescue Great Xia civilians caught up in it. Chen’s team is expected to fight the organization’s Snake Group, whose ninja-like members specialize in combat, stealth, and assassination. The enemy may also include one of the Seven Imperial Pillars, though the identity is unknown.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains cautious and pragmatic. He hopes to avoid major combat and benefit from the mission, but recognizes that its scale is much greater than he expected. He keeps his earlier knowledge of the Hundred Ghosts Seat—and his encounter with Onmyoji—partly concealed from Xi Sheng.
• Ge Feng is quiet and withdrawn after the events at the shop; Chen chooses not to disturb him with questions about the apprentices’ days off.
• Xi Sheng gives Chen the mission briefing and reassures him that the Grade-A and Grade-B Investigators will handle the main threats, leaving Chen’s group to fight around the perimeter.
• Zhu Sheng is portrayed as a potentially dangerous new apprentice, while Chen’s judgment of him contrasts with the other apprentices’ eagerness to recruit him.

Significant themes

• Caution amid escalating danger: Chen tries to prepare carefully, but his hoped-for low-risk opportunity becomes a major operation.
• Power and ruthlessness: Zhu Sheng’s rise suggests that control within the shop may come through force and ambition.
• Secrecy and incomplete knowledge: Chen withholds information, while both the mission’s enemy leadership and the night visitor’s intentions remain uncertain.

Key events and developments

• The author reflects on 2025, his first full year writing professionally after leaving his job. His folklore novel found some success, making the career change financially viable.
• His wife became pregnant, and their son was born safely in February. The family then faced a frightening medical crisis that left the author spending many nights near the ICU. Although he initially believed things would be all right, the fear affected him more deeply in retrospect.
• Working from home while frustrated by his declining novel, he became irritable and short-tempered. Over several months, his mother, father, and wife each confronted him. The arguments prompted him to recognize his behavior and begin changing.
• He describes this personal growth as his greatest achievement: learning to take responsibility as a husband, father, and son.
• Professionally, he acknowledges that the protagonist in his earlier novel changed too abruptly. Becoming a father may have influenced his outlook, but he believes limited writing skill and personal pressures were the main reasons the character transition felt clumsy.
• He discusses his current novel, which began with a large backlog and extensive outlines. It attracted fewer readers at launch and missed a major promotional opportunity, but its readership improved as the story grew. He is close to earning a quality badge and intends to keep using his more deliberate outlining process.
• He decides to continue writing folklore-focused fiction under his current pen name, while possibly exploring other genres under different names.

Character developments and relationships

• The narrator moves from defensiveness toward self-awareness, accepting that he was chiefly responsible for tensions at home and making an effort to improve.
• His wife is supportive but direct: she repeatedly raises concerns about his temper and later jokes that writing supernatural fiction has weakened his “yang energy.”
• His parents and other family members tolerate his difficult moods, but eventually set limits. His father also proves more effective than the narrator at calming the crying baby.
• The narrator’s experience of parenthood changes his feelings toward children and suffering, making him more compassionate.

Themes

• Personal growth and family responsibility: New roles as husband and father force the author to reassess himself.
• Life shaping art: Parenthood and hardship affect both his perspective and his writing, though craft limitations also matter.
• Persistence and improvement: Careful planning, practice, and patience help the new novel gain momentum despite a weak launch.
• Gratitude and community: The author thanks readers for their subscriptions, votes, and encouragement, especially the supportive longtime-reader group.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao learns that the Hundred Ghosts Seat is an influential, largely independent organization supported by the Island Nation. It has spread its supernatural kimonos internationally, earning the hostility of other countries’ supernatural groups. The Island Nation chose Great Xia for its sacrifice so Great Xia would bear the consequences if it failed; the Administration plans to disrupt the ritual and capture the perpetrators.
• To prepare for their operation, Chen Miao and Grade-C Investigator Xi Sheng compare abilities. Chen Miao reveals his Tobacco Pipe, peach-wood sword, talismans, and incense-burning method.
• They spar in the bureau’s Training Room. Chen Miao’s strength matches a Grade-C Investigator’s, but Xi Sheng’s superior technique gives him the advantage. Xi Sheng is struck by Chen Miao’s exceptional stamina and toughness, which seem closer to Grade B.
• Xi Sheng equips them for the raid: specialized sprays, communication earpieces, Yin-Sealing Pouches, a protective undersuit, a dagger, and modified wall-breaching devices designed to damage the unusual altar.
• Chen Miao changes, packs only essential gear, and spends the remaining time talking with Xi Sheng. Just as they are about to depart, the bureau assigns a new teammate. Chen Miao senses malice from the newcomer.

Character developments

• Chen Miao becomes more confident about the mission after learning why the sacrifice is being held in Great Xia. He openly demonstrates his abilities and discovers that his physical strength is formidable, though he recognizes his lack of formal combat technique. He also thinks through how his energy and Yin Cultivation might interact with the bureau’s supplies.
• Xi Sheng begins by viewing Chen Miao mainly as a Yin Cultivation practitioner with limited physical ability. Their sparring changes his assessment: Chen Miao’s durability and stamina appear to exceed Grade-C standards. Xi Sheng remains professional and considerate, helping Chen Miao prepare without making a spectacle of their training.
• The newly assigned teammate is introduced as a source of immediate unease; Chen Miao detects hostile intent, though its cause is not yet revealed.

Significant themes

• Trust and cooperation: The operation requires Chen Miao and Xi Sheng to share information and coordinate their strengths.
• Limits of classification: Chen Miao’s physical capabilities do not fit Xi Sheng’s expectations of a Yin Cultivator, suggesting that official grades and assumptions may not capture the full picture.
• Preparation and uncertainty: Specialized equipment and the unusually sturdy altar underline the risks of the raid and the need to plan for surprises.
• Political self-interest: The Island Nation’s choice of Great Xia as the ritual site reflects its willingness to shift danger onto another country.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao and Xi Sheng openly discuss their abilities, then test them in a friendly but serious sparring match. Xi Sheng teaches Chen Miao how to use the mission equipment and lends him a dagger.
• Xi Sheng introduces Chen Miao to acquaintances but does not invite them to watch the spar, earning Chen Miao’s respect.
• Their cooperative preparations are interrupted by the bureau’s last-minute addition of a teammate, whose hostile aura immediately puts Chen Miao on guard.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao meets Su Chen, a newly assigned teammate whose friendly manner clashes with the hostility Chen Miao senses from him. Su Chen probes Chen Miao about his yin cultivation and invades his personal space; Chen Miao responds bluntly, while Xi Sheng keeps their exchange from becoming a fight.
• Chen Miao’s notebook reveals a new chapter predicting that Su Chen will endanger his life. Though puzzled by Su Chen’s relatively weak yang energy, Chen Miao reads on as the team begins its operation at an industrial park.
• The team clears two factory buildings, then encounters hidden ninjas in an office building. Chen Miao spots them with his Yin-Yang Eyes and uses his smoke rope to expose one, whom Xi Sheng kills.
• In the basement, Xi Sheng destroys a floor altar—but the team discovers they are still trapped by a second altar on the ceiling. Su Chen wounds two investigators who arrive to help, then steps beyond the altar’s boundary and abandons the others. The group later discovers a larger altar that drains their blood and vitality.
• Chen Miao uses his Centennial Heavenly Heart Fire to disrupt the altar, allowing everyone to escape the basement. Outside, they find the park transformed into a vast, solid mirror maze. Reflections conceal the ninjas, and the maze separates the group. Chen Miao is repeatedly stabbed and eventually dies from blood and vitality loss.
• Back in the present, Chen Miao finishes reading and enters the chapter through his notebook, freezing the outside world. He realizes how the trap works and wonders whether he can withdraw before the events unfold.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains observant, self-reliant, and sharp-tongued. His notebook gives him advance warning, and his ability to enter its chapters may let him change the predicted outcome.
• Su Chen presents himself as sociable but shows intrusive behavior and, in the chapter’s future events, betrays the team by attacking rescuers and leaving the trapped group behind.
• Xi Sheng acts as the team’s practical leader: he mediates the tension between Chen Miao and Su Chen, coordinates the operation, and protects the team during the initial fight.
• The uneasy dynamic between Chen Miao and Su Chen foreshadows the betrayal, while Xi Sheng’s cooperation with Chen Miao contrasts with Su Chen’s deception.

Significant themes

• Foreknowledge and agency: Chen Miao’s notebook reveals a deadly future, but his ability to enter the chapter raises the possibility of resisting it.
• Betrayal and mistrust: Su Chen’s concealed intentions turn a dangerous mission into a trap.
• Hidden threats and distorted perception: The layered altars, invisible barriers, and lethal mirrors make appearances unreliable.
• Survival under pressure: Chen Miao’s quick thinking repeatedly helps the team, but the escalating trap ultimately overwhelms him.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao, Xi Sheng, and Su Chen approach an industrial park as part of an Administration operation. Xi Sheng outlines their route through several buildings.
• Xi Sheng equips a powerful, vital-blood-powered mechanical exoskeleton arm with launchable restraint nets, armor plates, and blood-power replenishment syringes. Su Chen uses a bladed arm shield and short sword.
• As they move through factories, Chen Miao notices Su Chen secretly touching concealed altar-like markings on the walls. He suspects the Hundred Ghosts Seat has prepared the entire park as a trap and that Su Chen may be an insider.
• Chen Miao reasons that the chapter’s predicted disaster may be tied to Su Chen’s presence. Though he considers avoiding the final office building, he follows the known course of events, believing it may leave him room to survive.
• At the office building, Chen Miao spots a ninja hiding above the entrance and helps defeat him with his smoke-based abilities. Xi Sheng delivers the killing blow.
• At the basement entrance, Chen Miao senses an ambush. His Smoke Cords expose and restrain two ninjas; Xi Sheng kills one with his mechanical arm, while Su Chen stabs the other.
• Chen Miao then repeatedly stabs the defeated ninja to ensure he is dead, surprising Xi Sheng and visibly unsettling Su Chen.

Character developments

• Chen Miao grows more wary and calculating: he detects the concealed markings, recognizes the likelihood of a trap, and weighs whether changing events could improve his odds. He also demonstrates strong awareness and combat utility.
• Xi Sheng displays pride in his expensive exoskeleton and confidence in its power, while remaining an effective frontline fighter.
• Su Chen appears increasingly suspicious: his repeated contact with hidden markings suggests a connection to the enemy or prior knowledge of the site. His reaction to Chen Miao’s extra stabbing hints at unease.

Significant themes

• Foreknowledge versus choice: Chen Miao knows how events may unfold but must decide whether altering them is safer than following the known path.
• Trust and betrayal: The operation’s secrecy is undermined by the possibility of an insider among the team.
• Preparation and power: The contrast between advanced mechanical equipment and Chen Miao’s supernatural abilities highlights different forms of combat strength.
• Survival under uncertainty: Even when danger is anticipated, the characters cannot know how extensive the trap is or what consequences their choices will bring.

Character interactions

• Xi Sheng and Su Chen compare equipment and discuss their ambitions, with Su Chen wishing he could afford an exoskeleton and Xi Sheng planning to add a mechanical leg.
• Chen Miao watches Su Chen closely, deliberately changing position to confirm his suspicious behavior.
• Chen Miao’s early warning and smoke abilities support Xi Sheng in the fights, while Xi Sheng acknowledges Chen Miao’s usefulness.
• Su Chen praises Chen Miao’s yin-cultivation abilities, but Chen Miao’s final actions leave him visibly uncomfortable.

Key plot points

• Xi Sheng, Su Chen, and Chen Miao investigate a basement altar. After they damage its markings, an invisible barrier traps them inside.
• Xi Sheng calls for backup. When two Grade-C Investigators arrive and try to break the altar, Su Chen attacks them—and then attempts to leave.
• Su Chen reveals himself as a member of the Hundred Ghosts Seat. He claims the trapped investigators should be honored to serve the organization’s cause.
• Chen Miao, apparently trapped with the others, proves able to pass through the barriers. Using Mirage Shadow, he confronts Su Chen and subjects him to the Fire Pit Hell mark, forcing him to drop an object that lets people cross the altar’s boundary.
• The investigators escape the altar, but Su Chen dies after spitting corrosive blood. Chen Miao discovers that altar markings cover the entire room, suggesting the basement itself is part of a much larger ritual.
• Outside, they find the world transformed into a Mirror Maze, despite having left the basement earlier than events in the book originally described. Chen Miao suspects an Imperial Pillar of the Hundred Ghosts Seat is involved and proposes waiting for a Grade-A Investigator, hoping to alter the story’s outcome.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao reveals the ingenuity and power behind his quiet demeanor. He had kept his real body at the entrance and used Mirage Shadow as a decoy, allowing him to bypass the barriers and surprise Su Chen. He also uses his knowledge of the chapter’s events to steer the group toward a possible rescue.
• Xi Sheng shifts from trusting Su Chen to confronting the betrayal and taking charge after the escape. The revelation makes him question both the Administration’s intelligence and the scale of the threat.
• Su Chen is exposed as a deeply embedded Hundred Ghosts Seat operative. He resists interrogation, attempts to flee, and ultimately dies without revealing his organization’s plans.
• The investigators initially treat Chen Miao as one of their trapped companions, but his ability to cross the barrier leaves them—and Su Chen—stunned. Afterward, they cooperate to secure the escape device and assess the larger danger.

Significant themes

• Deception and hidden identities: Su Chen’s treachery mirrors Chen Miao’s concealed use of Mirage Shadow.
• Knowledge and agency: Chen Miao uses foreknowledge of the chapter to change events, though the Mirror Maze shows that altering one outcome does not necessarily avert the larger crisis.
• Institutional vulnerability: Su Chen’s infiltration undermines confidence in the Administration and suggests the threat is widespread.
• Escalating danger: The altar proves to be part of a structure-wide ritual, while the Mirror Maze signals that the crisis extends far beyond the basement.

Key plot points and events

• Xi Sheng argues that the Investigators should search for the others rather than remain idle. He suspects a powerful feng shui formation is shaping the crisis and believes gathering more people may offer a chance to break it.
• Chen Miao refuses to join the search, judging the mirror maze’s narrow passages too dangerous for him to fight through alongside the others. A fellow Investigator challenges his right to disregard orders, but Xi Sheng ends the argument and respects Chen Miao’s choice.
• Before Xi Sheng and the other two enter the maze, Chen Miao gives them protective talismans and Peachwood Talismans, plus a Wayfinding Talisman to help them navigate. The maze seals their entrance, and they do not return.
• An altar pattern begins drawing Chen Miao’s blood and vital energy toward an office building, forcing him into the maze. He is quickly overwhelmed by a group of more than a dozen Ninjas.
• While being dragged away, Chen Miao sees a vast factory containing an altar filled with trapped civilians and Investigators—including Xi Sheng. Above it are a figure inside a triangular mirror, apparently an Imperial Pillar of the Hundred Ghosts Seat, and a Grade-A Investigator who seems unable to enter the maze.
• Realizing that destroying the nearby office building is impractical and that the maze may be his only option, Chen Miao prepares a new strategy. He combines Mirage Shadow with a specially made Paper Effigy, then anchors a severed fragment of his soul inside it.
• The soul-anchored effigy becomes more responsive and agile. Chen Miao discovers he can activate his yin-absorption state through the effigy itself—an unexpected breakthrough.

Character developments and interactions

• Xi Sheng shows leadership and tactical judgment, balancing urgency with caution. He respects Chen Miao’s independence and accepts his help.
• Chen Miao remains self-directed and pragmatic, willing to aid others without submitting blindly to authority. He risks part of his soul to improve his chances of survival.
• The hostile Investigator’s contempt for Chen Miao’s peripheral status is exposed as misplaced, especially after Chen Miao equips the group with useful protections.
• Chen Miao and Xi Sheng part on respectful terms, while the Investigators’ departure leaves Chen Miao isolated.

Significant themes

• Judgment versus obedience: Chen Miao argues that rank does not guarantee sound decisions; Xi Sheng favors respect and cooperation over coercion.
• Sacrifice and mutual aid: Chen Miao gives the team valuable tools despite choosing a separate path.
• Adaptation under pressure: Faced with escalating danger, Chen Miao experiments with paper offerings and soul techniques rather than relying on brute force.
• Entrapment and uncertain power: The maze, altar, and Grade-A Investigator’s apparent inability to intervene suggest that even formidable figures are constrained by the larger scheme.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao discovers that his split soul inside a paper offering can activate states, much like his original body. The Paper Effigy Double can use physical states such as Ape Leap, though its capabilities remain constrained by its materials and by the need to imitate what Chen Miao himself can do.
• He tests an Eight-Foot Crow paper cutout, chosen for its ability to speak. It can reproduce Chen Miao’s voice, but at first its recitation of the Fiend-Subduing Mantra produces only a brief response from the incense and fails to invoke the full technique.
• Chen Miao strengthens the link between the crow and his split soul with a Soul-Hooking Thread, connecting the crow’s head to the paper offering’s brow. The crow’s vision then becomes available to him, and its mantra successfully produces incense smoke.
• Further tests show the double has nearly 80 percent of Chen Miao’s strength, though it lacks body-protecting astral energy and the powers of the nine apertures, while the crow itself is time-limited.
• Chen equips the double with a Peach Wood Sword, bamboo splints, supplies, incense, and a Wayfinding Talisman. By burning paper himself, he can also give the double the ancestor’s protection state remotely. He sends it into the mirror maze, then studies the chapter’s instructions to prepare for what comes next.
• The story shifts to Sasaki, a member of the Hundred Ghosts Seat’s Snake Group. After seeing Lord Mirror Pillar’s Mirror Realm help him cut down Great Xia investigators, Sasaki becomes a fervent admirer and hopes to earn a place as the Pillar’s personal guard.
• Guided through the Mirror Realm, Sasaki spots a lone man carrying a wooden sword. Believing him an easy target, Sasaki attacks from the mirrors. As he strikes, the man says, “Give Me a Hand!”

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao grows more inventive and confident as he turns the paper double into a capable, remotely supported combat asset. His experiments show both his technical skill and his excitement at discovering new uses for his arts.
• Sasaki’s admiration for Lord Mirror Pillar develops into ambition: he wants to prove his loyalty by capturing more Great Xia fighters. His confidence in his own attack is undercut by the unexpected voice from his target.
• Chen Miao’s double, the Eight-Foot Crow, and Chen’s original body work together as a coordinated system: the crow speaks and provides vision, the double acts, and Chen supplies remote protection.

Significant themes

• Ingenuity and adaptation: Chen combines different mystical arts to solve the double’s limitations.
• Identity and imitation: The Mirage Shadow must resemble its original, while the paper double gains abilities that exceed the disguise’s apparent limits.
• Power and perception: Sasaki mistakes a seemingly weak opponent for an easy victim, while his faith in Lord Mirror Pillar is shaped by what he has seen through the Mirror Realm.
• Preparation and hidden advantages: Chen carefully equips and tests his double, while Sasaki’s confidence leaves him vulnerable to an unexpected counter.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao uses Eyes-Closed Perception to navigate the Mirror Realm’s maze. He senses that its mirrors are solid barriers that block perception while revealing the paths between them.
• When Ninjas attack from the mirrors, Chen tests “Give Me a Hand” and discovers that mirror-images can be selected as targets. He repels the attackers with bamboo splints and illusion-status effects, then spreads dense mist through the passage using Yin Absorption and Mist Condensation.
• Inside the Mirror Realm, the Ninjas mistake their own Onmyoji ally for Chen and kill him in the smoke. Chūnin Kamikawa arrives, identifies the dead man, and executes one of the Genin for their incompetence. When the remaining two hesitate to enter the mist, Kamikawa kills them too.
• Kamikawa’s Onmyoji send several Yōkai into the mist, but the creatures are destroyed before they can locate Chen. A Wind Demon briefly draws the mist away, only to be consumed by it. Kamikawa abandons the pursuit and heads elsewhere, leaving guards behind.
• Unaware of the confrontation behind him, Chen reaches the end of the passage and finds the factory and altar described in his notes. He looks up and sees two people above.

Character developments

• Chen is resourceful and inquisitive, testing his abilities in combat and quickly using what he learns about the mirrors and mist.
• Kamikawa is ruthless and pragmatic: he punishes failure, but chooses not to waste his force against an opponent he cannot readily reach.
• The Onmyoji who summons the Wind Demon sacrifices a prized asset in hopes of earning Lord Mirror Pillar’s favor, but loses it without success.
• The Genin’s confidence collapses into panic as they realize they have been deceived and cannot confront Chen’s mist.

Significant themes

• Perception and deception: The mirror maze distorts appearances and leads the Ninjas to kill an ally.
• Improvisation and hidden abilities: Chen turns unfamiliar surroundings and powers into tactical advantages.
• The cost of ambition and hierarchy: The Onmyoji risks his prized Shikigami for status, while Kamikawa treats subordinates as expendable.
• Isolation and uncertainty: The mist conceals Chen and leaves his enemies unable to understand or control what is happening.

Character interactions

• Chen probes the mirror-images’ nature while fighting the Ninjas, then avoids direct pursuit by using the mist.
• The Genin misidentify their Onmyoji ally as Chen; Kamikawa confronts them, exposes their mistake, and punishes their failures.
• Kamikawa directs the Onmyoji to use Yōkai against Chen, then orders his group to withdraw when the Wind Demon is destroyed.
• Chen’s final encounter with the two people above is left unresolved.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao surveys the altar: its central Altar Core is protected by a mirrored shell, while forty-nine ordinary people occupy the middle ring and Administration Investigators sit helplessly in the outer ring.
• He learns that the Investigators’ attacks on the Core, altar, and forty-nine outer nodes have all failed. Their later attempt to destroy unusual factory buildings rescued trapped colleagues, but the buildings were replaced by mirrors and the Ninjas forced them back.
• The altar’s forty-nine nodes once held Cherry Blossom Kimonos, each containing nine sealed souls. Investigators who tried to destroy them instead became overwhelmed by the suffering associated with the nodes.
• Chen knows the ritual is about to begin: mirrors will close in, filling the empty nodes with living or dying Investigators. The Hundred Ghosts Seat’s plan targets the Administration’s powerful vital blood, and stopping the ritual may soon be impossible.
• While three Grade-B Investigators debate their next move, Chen tells a friendly Grade-C Investigator to have them protect him, then enters an empty node himself.
• Above, the Mirror Pillar tells Grade-A Investigator Lei Zhan that the forty-nine original offerings volunteered because they had lost faith in humanity and hoped gods would remake the world. He claims the altar can be undone by someone who endures the offerings’ memories without surrendering to their despair.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao acts decisively despite being an overlooked peripheral member. He understands that the Investigators’ deliberations are futile and takes the risk of entering a node, relying on a Grade-C Investigator to convey his warning.
• The Administration Investigators are capable and have identified promising approaches, but their failures have left many injured, demoralized, or psychologically compromised. The Grade-B leaders continue searching for a solution without recognizing Chen’s likely importance.
• The Mirror Pillar is confident and treats the ritual as inevitable. He explains its ideological basis and taunts Lei Zhan, while revealing that node victims experience the original offerings’ memories and pain.
• Lei Zhan remains restrained until the Mirror Pillar speaks of gods; he rejects the idea, calling them helpless wretches. The exchange exposes their opposing beliefs.

Significant themes

• Despair versus agency: The offerings’ disillusionment drives them to surrender their lives to a promised divine intervention, while Chen acts despite being dismissed and seemingly powerless.
• The danger of imposed salvation: The Hundred Ghosts Seat presents destruction as cleansing and divine arrival as hope, exploiting people’s suffering to serve its own ritual.
• Sacrifice and empathy: The altar’s outer layer is tied to the pain of its willing victims; overcoming it requires experiencing that suffering without being consumed by it.
• Underestimated individuals: The powerful Investigators have failed, leaving the possibility of change to Chen, the person least likely to be taken seriously.

Key plot points and events

• After guiding the Mirage Shadow stand-in through the altar’s forty-nine outer nodes, Chen Miao becomes trapped in a dreamlike state. He cannot control either his stand-in or his real body, and must endure the memories of the people connected to the altar.
• He relives three tragedies:
  • A hardworking man loses his wife, parents, and son to a neighbor who murders them after a dispute over a public path. The bereaved man is prevented from taking revenge, becomes isolated and consumed by grief, and eventually accepts help from a mysterious figure.
  • An orphaned food-delivery worker is injured in a hit-and-run. Finding no family contacts on his phone, he refuses surgery because he believes his life is not worth the cost. A mysterious figure offers him a chance to change the world, and he accepts.
  • A newlywed husband’s wife disappears during their honeymoon. His search leads him to an underground bar, where he finds her trapped as a mutilated, mannequin-like figure inside a fish tank. He clings to her, but she later dies; he brings her ashes home and mourns her.
• Each memory overwhelms Chen Miao with grief and despair. Though he could use [Negative Emotion Storage] to suppress the feelings, he deliberately refuses, believing that doing so would trap him like the Investigators in the altar’s nodes.
• Chen Miao appears to succumb, raising his hand as if to accept an unseen figure’s offer. But at the last moment, he reaches into his chest bag and pulls out incense sticks. Their mysterious, ethereal voice draws the attention of everyone in the factory—including two figures above.

Character developments

• Chen Miao endures the memories without suppressing his emotions, consciously accepting the pain as necessary to find a way out. His apparent collapse conceals a sudden, purposeful action.
• The three people whose memories he experiences are each driven to the edge by loss and abandonment. Their encounters with mysterious figures offer them a means of escape or change, which each accepts.

Significant themes

• Grief and despair: Each memory portrays suffering so deep that outsiders cannot understand it through words alone.
• Isolation and neglect: The bereaved man is shunned, the delivery worker has no family to call, and the husband’s search for his missing wife goes largely unanswered.
• Injustice and helplessness: Ordinary people are failed by social pressures, indifference, or circumstances beyond their control.
• Endurance versus suppression: Chen Miao believes confronting painful emotions—not suppressing them—is essential to resisting the altar’s influence.

Character interactions

• The first man’s dispute with an encroaching neighbor escalates from obstruction and violence against his father to the murder of his entire family; the village and relatives then restrain him when he seeks revenge.
• The injured delivery worker is treated by hospital staff, but his lack of family support and his refusal of treatment leave them unable to stop him from leaving.
• The husband seeks help from police, media, and the embassy, then discovers his wife in the underground bar and desperately tries to protect her.
• Mysterious figures approach the bereaved man, the delivery worker, and the husband, while Chen Miao’s final display of incense interrupts the apparent pattern and captures the attention of the observers.