Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• After the workers carefully clear the grave, more than a dozen men lift the extraordinarily heavy coffin from the ground. Their effort makes Chen Miao’s earlier, near-solo attempt seem even more remarkable.
• Once the workers leave, Chen Miao prepares to open the coffin. He finds it has six Coffin Nails instead of the usual seven: the Earth Nail is missing, a suspicious omission given the grave’s circumstances.
• Removing the first nails releases a large amount of corpse qi. Chen Miao withstands it and asks Hua Jianming to send the ordinary workers farther down the mountain.
• When Chen Miao removes the Four-Corner Nails, the Heaven Nail creaks and the coffin lid blasts into the air. Sunlight begins dispersing the corpse qi, threatening to expose and ignite the body.
• Chen Miao catches the lid, attaches four Yin-Gathering Talismans to its underside, and reseals the coffin. Pei Ran explains that the talismans will build enough yin energy to counter the sunlight, allowing them to reopen it safely before nightfall.
• Chen Miao opens the coffin again once the conditions are safer. The corpse, preserved for thirty years and covered in thick keratin, is revealed—but it does not move, despite appearing to have become a jiangshi.

Character developments

• Chen Miao shows exceptional strength, composure, and practical knowledge. He prioritizes protecting the workers, acts quickly to shield the corpse from sunlight, and uses talismans strategically rather than simply waiting until night.
• Hua Jianming trusts Chen Miao to handle the dangerous work and supports him by clearing the area. He also warns him about the sunlight’s effect on the corpse.
• Wang Wei initially doubts Chen Miao’s decision to hold the lid down and does not understand his talisman strategy, but Pei Ran’s explanation reveals that Chen Miao has planned ahead.
• Pei Ran demonstrates understanding of Chen Miao’s method and calmly explains it to Wang Wei.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and improvisation: Funeral customs and talisman techniques help the characters interpret the coffin’s unusual construction and respond to danger.
• Protection amid risk: Chen Miao accepts exposure to corpse qi and acts to keep both the workers and the body safe.
• Unanswered mysteries: The missing Earth Nail raises questions about whether the patriarch was already at risk of becoming a corpse, and what the Island Nation Feng Shui Master intended.
• Suspense and the uncanny: The preserved, jiangshi-like corpse’s failure to move creates a new mystery at the chapter’s end.

Character interactions

• Hua Jianming defers to Chen Miao’s expertise while helping manage the workers and warning him about the sunlight.
• Chen Miao keeps the dangerous work away from ordinary people, then coordinates with Hua to clear the site.
• Wang Wei questions Chen Miao’s apparent decision to hold the coffin shut, while Pei Ran clarifies how the Yin-Gathering Talismans make that temporary measure work.

Key plot points and events

• The corpse in the coffin has become a leaping hopping corpse, and two Coffin Nails are missing. Chen Miao warns that removing its corpse qi may not eliminate all danger.
• He proposes either burning the corpse or using the Nine-Nail Demon-Sealing Method. Hua Jianming persuades the client, Xiong Jie, to accept the latter after presenting burning as the safer—but more drastic—option.
• Chen Miao says removing the corpse qi will take only one or two hours, astonishing Hua. To do it quickly without revealing another technique, he secretly chooses the Corpse-Substitution Technique rather than his incense-based Six Jiangzhen Secrets.
• Chen Miao prepares the corpse and himself with runes, clears the surrounding yin energy, and disguises the technique’s activation with a ritual involving talismans and a Peach Wood Sword. Ji Hong confirms that the corpse qi is rapidly disappearing.
• In less than twenty minutes, the corpse qi is gone. Chen Miao then begins preparing the nine nails needed to seal the corpse, shaping two nails from century-old peach wood.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao demonstrates exceptional skill, speed, and resourcefulness while concealing the true source of his power. His careful use of a cover ritual shows he is wary of revealing his identity or the methods associated with his background. He is also notably frugal, saving even the peach-wood shavings.
• Hua Jianming acts as mediator with the client and trusts Chen Miao despite the unusual method. Chen’s repeated successes deepen Hua’s admiration, while also making him wonder whether Chen is being paid enough to ensure they can work together again.
• Xiong Jie initially resists damaging his grandfather’s body, but accepts the nail-sealing method after Hua explains the risks and contrasts it with cremation.
• Ji Hong arrives to verify the results. His ability to sense corpse qi confirms Chen Miao’s success and reassures Hua that the work has been completed properly.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: Chen Miao stages a conventional-looking ritual to hide the actual technique he uses.
• Trust and negotiation: Hua balances the client’s wishes against the need to prevent future danger.
• Skill and reputation: Chen’s unusual competence repeatedly surprises his colleagues and raises questions about his value and background.
• Practicality and restraint: Chen chooses the fastest discreet method, while the group seeks a solution that protects the corpse without compromising safety.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao prepares to secure Old Master Xiong’s corpse, revealing an unusually extensive collection of supernatural supplies—including black dog blood, glutinous rice, a Black Donkey Hoof, and many Zombie Fangs.
• He seals the weakened corpse with peach wood nails and a Spirit-Sealing Talisman. At Hua Jianming’s request, Xiong Jie inspects his grandfather before they close the coffin.
• Lacking a hammer, Chen Miao drives the coffin nails in with the heel of his hand, carefully checking the wood around each nail to avoid damaging the lid. The group is struck by the unexpected display.
• Once the coffin is secured, Chen Miao clears the remaining cemetery yin energy with a gentle breeze. The party returns to the Xiong estate before nightfall, leaving the coffin in a funeral home until the burial in two days.
• In a closing scene, the Mountain Physiognomy Organization in the Island Nation learns that a planted stake—part of its Mountain-River Five Elements Formation—has been removed early. Its leaders fear Great Xia may have uncovered their larger Mountain-River Overturning plan.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao demonstrates preparation, precision, and confidence, while his bizarre stock of supplies puzzles Ji Hong. His practical improvisation with the coffin nails further impresses—and surprises—the others.
• Ji Hong recognizes the supernatural items but is left wondering where Chen Miao obtained so many Zombie Fangs.
• Hua Jianming oversees the burial work, lets Xiong Jie inspect the corpse, and helps arrange the coffin’s removal.
• Xiong Jie expresses gratitude for the group’s help and gives Chen Miao his business card, offering assistance in Beitai City. Chen Miao accepts and exchanges contact details, though he regrets not having the right business card with him.
• Wang Wei correctly guesses that Chen Miao is checking the coffin lid to ensure he has not damaged it. Even the capable Pei Ran is astonished by Chen Miao’s barehanded technique.

Significant themes

• Preparedness and competence: Chen Miao’s readiness and adaptability help the group complete a dangerous task safely.
• Respect and closure: Xiong Jie’s chance to see his grandfather and the careful sealing of the coffin underscore the importance of letting the dead rest in peace.
• Hidden larger conflict: The final scene shifts the story from the local burial to a broader conspiracy, suggesting the group’s actions may have disrupted a long-term scheme targeting Great Xia.

Key plot points and events

• Mountain Aspect’s leaders learn that Great Xia’s Administration has discovered and removed the fire anchor of their secret Mountain-River Five Elements Formation. The formation took decades to build, and its exposure threatens Mountain Aspect’s long-term plan to emerge from hiding and dominate the world.
• Yamamoto Munehiro asks Ishikawa, one of the formation’s designers, to travel to Great Xia and investigate whether the displaced anchor can be salvaged. Ishikawa accepts, pledging absolute loyalty.
• In Beitai City, Chen Miao spends another day sightseeing and considers staying there part-time. He calculates that taking more supernatural-investigation jobs and selling protective talismans could eventually earn enough to buy a local home.
• Chen considers asking Hua Jianming, Wang Wei, and Pei Ran for future work, while reflecting that Yang Jiuhua and Ji Mo’s recent “hauntings” were ordinary mishaps: a child setting clothes on fire and a loose switch screw turning on a light.
• At the funeral home, guard Feng Fan detects a burning smell around a wealthy client’s newly delivered coffin. The coffin grows hot, smoke seeps from it, and it suddenly explodes in a burst of fire. A piece of the lid knocks Feng unconscious.
• Half an hour later, Hua Jianming receives urgent news: the client’s grandfather’s corpse is missing.

Character developments and interactions

• Yamamoto Munehiro shifts from hearing alarming news to organizing a response, selecting Ishikawa for a dangerous mission.
• Ishikawa demonstrates unwavering devotion to Mountain Aspect by volunteering despite the risk.
• Chen Miao grows attached to Beitai City and begins thinking pragmatically about building a local livelihood through jobs and talisman sales. He weighs possible professional connections with Hua, Wang, and Pei.
• Yang Jiuhua and Ji Mo are shown as earnest investigators whose recent cases were resolved through mundane explanations, giving their work an unintentionally comic reputation.
• Feng Fan, initially distracted by a short drama, responds responsibly to the suspicious smell and investigates, but is injured when the coffin erupts.
• Hua Jianming’s discussion with Chen is abruptly interrupted by news of the missing body, drawing Chen and the others into a new crisis.

Significant themes

• Secrecy and ambition: Mountain Aspect’s decades-long infiltration reflects its desire to remain hidden until it can make a dramatic bid for power.
• Supernatural claims versus ordinary explanations: Yang and Ji’s cases highlight how apparent hauntings may have simple causes, contrasting with the genuinely uncanny coffin incident.
• Work, money, and belonging: Chen’s plans show his interest in turning his abilities into a sustainable career and finding a place to settle.
• Escalating danger: The chapter moves from comic, everyday misunderstandings to a violent supernatural mystery, ending on a cliffhanger.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• The Xiong Family patriarch’s coffin is found at the Funeral Home with its lid blown off and the body missing. A staff member, Feng Fan, was injured when the lid struck him.
• The coffin’s interior is badly charred, but there are no remains or ashes. The damage appears to have come from inside.
• Chen Miao rules out an ordinary corpse revival: the corpse qi had been removed, Coffin Nails driven in, and a Spirit-Sealing Talisman attached. He is also puzzled by the presence of fire.
• Chen Miao asks to review exterior surveillance footage. He spots a flash of light near the West Gate and finds soot-blackened razor wire on the wall.
• Hua Jianming recognizes that the area beyond the wall contains the old grave. After hearing what Feng Fan witnessed, Hua realizes the old grave’s fire and wood formations were not missing or accidentally destroyed: they had been inside the coffin.
• Hua sends Wang Wei and Pei Ran to guard their employer’s home while he and Chen Miao head toward the grave.

Character developments

• Hua Jianming moves from confusion to a major realization about the old grave’s feng shui formation. He also takes responsibility for the situation rather than blaming Chen Miao.
• Chen Miao demonstrates expertise and sharp observational skills, identifying the useful surveillance clue among eight fast-moving feeds and tracing it to the old grave.
• Wang Wei and Pei Ran follow Hua’s instructions, first going to the hospital to question Feng Fan and then being redirected to guard the employer’s home.
• The Funeral Home manager is frightened and apologetic, but insists his staff did not tamper with the coffin.

Significant themes

• Hidden causes and mistaken assumptions: What seemed like a missing or broken part of the grave’s formation was actually concealed inside the coffin.
• Limits of expertise: Even Chen Miao, the group’s specialist on corpses, cannot initially explain what happened.
• Shared responsibility and cooperation: Hua and Chen investigate together, while the others handle separate tasks.

Character interactions

• Hua questions the manager, then directs him to provide exterior surveillance footage.
• Chen guides the investigation and asks Hua to send Wang Wei and Pei Ran to question the injured witness.
• Hua trusts Chen’s judgment, follows the clues with him, and responds to the new information by assigning the others to protect their employer’s home.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao and Hua Jianming discuss the zombie that burst from its coffin as a fireball. They realize the Feng Shui Formation’s fire and wood elements may have been hidden inside the coffin, but neither can explain why the formation activated only after the coffin had been at the Funeral Home—or why the zombie spared everyone and returned to the old grave.
• Chen Miao checks the grave pit and finds it empty. The soil is warm and unusually dry, confirming the fireball had been there but has since left.
• Suspecting it may have gone toward the village, Hua Jianming tries to contact Wang Wei, Pei Ran, and Xiong Jie. None answer. He and Chen Miao fear the zombie may be at the Xiong family estate, alert the local Administration, and hurry there.
• At the estate, Xiong Jie wakes from a dream in which his grandfather leads him back to the old grave, where a fireball crashes into the pit. Taking the dream as a possible warning, Xiong decides not to move the grave until they can consult a more capable Feng Shui master. He even considers traveling to the Island Nation to find one.
• As Xiong prepares to return to bed, he sees firelight in the window. He realizes the fireball is not outside: it is burning behind him in the room, while the window shows its reflection—and his own figure standing before it.

Character developments

• Chen Miao remains cautious and methodical, using the Mystic Mirror to verify the grave is safe before calling Hua Jianming up. He recognizes that the situation exceeds their understanding.
• Hua Jianming is shaken by the discovery that he missed the formation inside the coffin. Though he has no explanation for the zombie’s behavior, he takes practical steps to warn the authorities and search for it.
• Xiong Jie shows how much he relies on Feng Shui and his family’s good fortune. His dream strengthens his reluctance to relocate his grandfather, and he decides to seek a more skilled master rather than act hastily.

Significant themes

• The limits of expertise: Even experienced characters cannot explain the formation or the zombie, emphasizing the mystery and danger of the supernatural events.
• Uncertainty and hidden forces: The fire and wood elements were concealed, the zombie’s movements defy logic, and apparent firelight proves to be a reflection—nothing is as straightforward as it seems.
• Family legacy and belief: Xiong’s choices are shaped by his grandfather’s history, the family’s prosperity, and his faith in Feng Shui.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao and Hua Jianming compare theories and cooperate, with Chen Miao protecting Hua from the danger near the grave.
• Hua Jianming tries to mobilize Wang Wei, Pei Ran, and the Administration, but the unanswered calls heighten their alarm.
• Xiong’s imagined encounter with his grandfather shapes his decision about the grave; in the present, his fear prompts him to call Hua Jianming for help.

Key plot points and events

• Wang Wei and Pei Ran return to the Xiong estate and discover a servant’s body burned to charcoal, though the bedclothes are untouched.
• In Xiong Jie’s room, they find another charred body standing by the window. They suspect the Fire Corpse has returned from the mountain and may have killed the family.
• Their phones have no signal, and a Ghostly Wall prevents them from leaving the estate. Lacking illusion-breaking talismans, they decide to summon the servant’s lingering soul to help Wang Wei escape the barrier.
• The summoned soul is also charred. Despite Pei Ran’s warning, Wang Wei lets it possess her. Burns appear on her body, so Pei Ran knocks the soul out with a Spirit-Sealing Talisman and a willow switch.
• The soul dissipates, and Wang Wei wakes in terror, describing a vision of fireballs and burning Fire Corpses. Pei Ran then sees the curtains glowing red from firelight outside.

Character developments and interactions

• Pei Ran acts cautiously and protectively: he shields Wang Wei, prioritizes their escape, and intervenes immediately when possession harms her.
• Wang Wei is resourceful and determined, but takes a dangerous risk, choosing possession over waiting because she believes the Fire Corpse may attack them.
• Their trust is clear: Wang Wei relies on Pei Ran to stop the possession if needed, and he follows her instructions without hesitation.

Significant themes

• The limits of preparation: Their talismans and techniques prove inadequate against an unfamiliar supernatural threat.
• Risk and responsibility: Wang Wei accepts personal danger to find a way out, while Pei Ran must decide when to override her choice to protect her.
• Escalating uncertainty: The burned souls, inexplicable deaths, Ghostly Wall, and approaching fire suggest the danger is connected to the Xiong family’s grave relocation and Feng Shui formation—but its nature remains unexplained.

Plot points and events

• At an underground altar in the Island Nation, Yamamoto Zonghong learns that the Fire Aspect incident in Great Xia was an accident. He tells his associate not to investigate further and says Ishikawa will remove and rebury it after tonight.
• Trapped in the Xiong Family estate, Pei Ran carries the badly burned Wang Wei away from the fire corpse. His Premium Spirit-Sealing Talisman only briefly repels it, so he invokes his spirit using the Wood Pendant and escapes through a second-floor window.
• With a ghostly wall blocking their route and the fire corpse pursuing them, Pei Ran tells Wang Wei to flee while he confronts the creature. His invocation summons a blood-red female ghost, who extinguishes the corpse’s flames and pins it down.
• Pei Ran and Wang Wei try to escape, but the ghostly wall remains intact. When the ghost is overwhelmed and the fire corpse closes in again, Pei Ran sends Wang Wei away with blood-colored mist and charges back into the estate, grappling the corpse to keep it from pursuing her.
• Hua Jianming arrives and learns what happened. He recognizes that the estate’s feng shui formations have been twisted into traps: the plant-preserving formation creates the ghostly wall, the insect-repelling formation produces bone-eroding wind, and the water formation conceals events from outsiders.
• Hua realizes that the estate’s formations—earth, metal, and water, possibly joined by wood—have combined with the Fire Corpse to form a new five-elements formation. He suspects the corpse is being used as a “wedge” to activate formations at multiple sites, and rushes in to stop it.

Character developments and interactions

• Pei Ran shows resourcefulness and fierce devotion to Wang Wei, repeatedly putting himself in danger to protect her. His extreme invocation leaves him badly injured, and he ultimately chooses to draw the fire corpse away alone.
• Wang Wei is weakened but determined to stay with Pei Ran. Even as he tries to send her to safety, she pulls him forward; when he separates them, she tries to follow and calls desperately for help.
• Hua Jianming shifts from investigator to decisive responder. Though he initially restrains Wang Wei because neither of them is a combatant, his understanding of the formation gives him a clear reason to enter the estate.
• Yamamoto Zonghong remains calm and calculating, treating the Fire Aspect’s mishap as part of a larger plan and preparing to conceal or relocate it.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and love: Pei Ran’s choices are driven by his determination to save Wang Wei, even at the cost of his own life.
• Courage under impossible odds: The characters act despite limited power, uncertainty, and escalating danger.
• Hidden designs and interconnected threats: The estate’s seemingly helpful formations are part of a larger scheme, and the Fire Corpse may activate similar traps elsewhere.
• Appearance versus reality: The manor’s comfortable surroundings and protective formations conceal deadly effects and prevent outsiders from seeing the truth.

Plot points and events

• Hua Jianming explains that the fire corpse keeps reigniting because the intact Five Elements Formation supplies it with energy. He leaves to destroy the remaining formations, telling Chen Miao to hold the corpse off without wasting his strength.
• Chen Miao confronts the fire corpse with repeated, powerful attacks, while Wang Wei tends to the unconscious Pei Ran. She gives him a Vital Blood Pill she had secretly saved for him and treats his wounds.
• Pei Ran wakes and learns that Chen Miao has continued fighting the fire corpse. He explains that Chen Miao separated him from the female ghost attached to him, though he does not know whether Chen Miao destroyed her.
• Pei Ran and Wang Wei realize Chen Miao seems able to withstand the corpse’s flames without using visible vital-blood power. They speculate that he may have refined himself into a zombie. Pei Ran decides to go help Hua Jianming break the formations, with Wang Wei supporting him.
• Chen Miao eventually binds the fire corpse with bamboo splints, then uses the Corpse-Substitution Technique and pins it down with his unprotected body. The corpse’s flames burn him, but the corpse qi he draws from it repairs his injuries.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows exceptional strength and fire resistance, then shifts from brute-force attacks to a more strategic way of containing the fire corpse and using its corpse qi to recover.
• Pei Ran survives after overextending himself with Deity Invocation. Despite his injuries, he remains determined to help end the danger by assisting Hua Jianming.
• Wang Wei reveals her care for Pei Ran through the pills she secretly prepared and her attentive treatment of him. She worries about him taking further risks but agrees to accompany him.
• Hua Jianming takes responsibility for dismantling the formations, while Chen Miao buys him time.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and care: Wang Wei’s concealed preparation reflects her desire to protect Pei Ran without encouraging him to take dangerous risks.
• Strength through adaptation: Chen Miao turns the fire corpse’s energy and his own unusual technique to his advantage.
• Uncertainty about identity and power: Pei Ran and Wang Wei question whether Chen Miao’s abilities come from a form of self-transformation into a zombie.
• Cooperation under pressure: Each character contributes differently—Hua Jianming breaks the formations, Chen Miao restrains the corpse, and Pei Ran and Wang Wei move to assist.

Plot points and events

• Hua Jianming, Pei Ran, and Wang Wei finish dismantling three Feng Shui formations and hurry back to Chen Miao, fearing the fire corpse may still be dangerous.
• They find Chen Miao standing among scorched flowers beside the corpse. He explains that once the formation was broken, the corpse weakened and he defeated it.
• Hua Jianming extracts two glowing red beads from the corpse’s eye sockets. He identifies them as rare, yang-leaning, fire-attribute spirit objects and suspects they powered the corpse’s flames.
• Reconsidering the Five Elements Formation, Hua Jianming realizes the missing wood element was inside the corpse too. He finds a green seed hidden in its abdomen, explaining that wood had continuously fed the fire.
• The seed suddenly sprouts, pierces Hua Jianming’s palm, and falls back onto the corpse. It triggers explosive growth: vines rapidly form an enormous tree, nearly twice the height of the villa.
• The tree bears black, charcoal-like fruit that ignites into fireballs. Sensing danger, Hua Jianming urges everyone to retreat, then recalls a myth about the Fusang Tree, where ten suns dwell in its branches.

Character developments and interactions

• Hua Jianming proves perceptive and methodical: he solves the formation’s elemental puzzle and identifies the hidden seed, but is baffled by its transformation and recognizes the danger of the burning fruit.
• Chen Miao confirms his strength by defeating the fire corpse. He stays alert as events escalate, but even his quick intervention cannot stop the tree from growing.
• Pei Ran and Wang Wei support Hua Jianming in dismantling the formations; Wang Wei spots the tree’s fruit and helps reveal the new threat.
• The group shifts from relief at the corpse’s defeat to alarm and caution as the seed produces a seemingly supernatural tree.

Significant themes

• Hidden forces and mistaken assumptions: The wood element was concealed inside the fire corpse, showing how appearances can obscure the true structure of a danger.
• Nature’s power and transformation: A tiny seed unleashes immense, uncontrollable growth.
• The limits of knowledge and control: Even experienced practitioners cannot explain the tree, and Chen Miao’s force is ineffective against it.
• Myth and reality: The Fusang legend becomes a possible clue to the extraordinary tree—and the fiery “suns” appearing in its branches.

Key plot points and events

• A fireball falls from the giant tree and reveals a charred soul body. More than a hundred fireballs then break free, surround Hua Jianming, Wang Wei, and Pei Ran, and make escape impossible.
• As the fire spirits close in, dense fog suddenly envelops the estate. It blocks sound and conceals what happens; when it thins, the fire spirits are gone, leaving only scorch marks.
• The group discovers Chen Bai is missing. They find him beneath the now-bare tree, apparently pulling it from the ground. Chen Bai uproots and topples the enormous tree.
• Chen Miao explains that he suspected the fire spirits depended on the tree. The fog appeared just as he reached it; afterward, he found the weakened tree easy to pull down.
• Beneath the roots, they uncover a skeleton entwined in them. Hua Jianming decides they should leave it undisturbed and wait for the authorities.
• The Beitai City Administration arrives, takes the group into custody, and separates them for questioning. An official identifies Chen Miao by his concealed name and workplace: “Chen Miao, Tianmen Funeral Home?”

Character developments and interactions

• Hua Jianming responds to the danger by urging everyone to flee, then remains cautious even after the fog removes the immediate threat. He is stunned by Chen Miao’s strength and chooses not to disturb the skeleton.
• Wang Wei and Pei Ran face apparent death together, holding hands and accepting their fate. Their close bond is emphasized; afterward, they search anxiously for Hua Jianming and Chen Bai.
• Chen Miao acts decisively, testing the tree and uprooting it, though he cannot explain the fog. His hidden identity is exposed at the chapter’s end.
• The group’s concern shifts from survival to accounting for Chen Bai, then to investigating the tree. Their cooperation gives way to uncertainty once the Administration separates them.

Significant themes

• Power and the inexplicable: The supernatural threat overwhelms the group, while Chen Miao’s extraordinary feat introduces another mystery.
• Uncertainty and incomplete understanding: The fog’s effect, the tree’s role, and the skeleton’s significance remain unexplained.
• Trust, loyalty, and shared peril: Wang Wei and Pei Ran’s devotion stands out amid the crisis.
• Hidden identities and consequences: The authorities’ recognition of Chen Miao suggests that his concealed past may become important.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• The Administration identifies Chen Miao as Chen Bai, tracing him through his flight records, links to Zhong Cai, and Administration gear in his bag. Chen Miao realizes that using his own ID on modern transport made him easy to track.
• During questioning, he learns that nearly everyone at the Xiong family estate died in the corpse-burning incident. Only Xiong Jie’s family survived because they had left town; the Administration is still investigating whether the disaster was deliberately orchestrated.
• After leaving the Administration, Chen Miao reunites with Hua Jianming, Ji Hong, Wang Wei, and Pei Ran. They accept that the job is lost and agree not to investigate the case themselves, since it is beyond their abilities.
• Chen Miao gives Wang Wei a zombie fang to treat Pei Ran’s wound. He also agrees to help them subdue a future ordinary vengeful ghost so Pei Ran can seal it.
• The group buys a large supply of Chen Miao’s talismans, earning him 7 million. Chen Miao then proposes exchanging talisman-making methods for ten fine talismans of each type, plus discounted future purchases.
• Hua Jianming, Ji Hong, Wang Wei, and Pei Ran each contribute methods. The new designs include the Lesser Five Elements Talismans, several practical or specialized charms, and a Spirit-Binding Soul-Locking Talisman.
• Chen Miao learns all eleven new types with startling speed, reinforcing the others’ admiration for his talent. Two days later, the Administration lifts their restrictions, but Shen Mo summons Chen Miao back—alone.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains guarded about his identity and appearance, but is open with the Administration about his movements. He turns the group’s need for protection into a profitable talisman sale and a way to expand his collection of techniques. He presents his talent modestly, despite quickly mastering every new design.
• Hua Jianming shares his deductions about the estate’s feng shui formation, urges the group to leave the larger case to the Administration, and helps arrange future work for Chen Miao. He also trades the Lesser Five Elements Talismans.
• Wang Wei readily agrees to future work with Chen Miao, prioritizes Pei Ran’s recovery, and offers a talisman method in the exchange.
• Ji Hong contributes three unusual talisman methods, while Pei Ran’s recovery remains a concern after losing his malevolent fiend and being injured.
• The group’s recent brush with death strengthens their trust and makes them eager to buy protective charms and maintain ties with Chen Miao.

Significant themes

• Secrecy and traceability: Chen Miao’s use of his real travel identity exposes how easily modern records can reveal a hidden past.
• Survival and its cost: The estate tragedy shows how narrowly the group escaped, putting lost earnings and possessions in perspective.
• Skill as power and livelihood: Chen Miao’s talent brings him wealth, professional connections, and access to new techniques.
• Cooperation and mutual benefit: The talisman exchange turns individual knowledge into an ongoing partnership, while the group’s decision to leave the estate investigation to the Administration reflects awareness of their limits.

Key plot points and events

• Director Shen Mo tells Chen Miao that parts of his file are restricted even from Shen. He invites Chen to hear about the Xiong Family incident and be kept informed of related cases. Chen agrees, partly because he welcomes the chance for more work.
• The Administration learns the Xiong Family’s history from Xiong Jie’s great-aunt. Decades earlier, Xiong An became interested in feng shui while studying in the Island Nation. After their mother and stepfather died, he brought his sister back to Great Xia and soon became a remarkably successful businessman.
• Before his sudden death at fifty, Xiong An arranged his own burial in elaborate detail, claiming it would protect his descendants for a hundred years. The family prospered for decades, until recent financial troubles led Xiong Jie to move the grave.
• Investigators discover that feng shui was not what sustained the family’s wealth: a powerful company had quietly rescued its business for thirty years. After that company was sanctioned, a successor firm offered weaker support, unable to prevent losses from Xiong Jie’s investments.
• The Administration suspects the complex formations may be connected to Mountain Aspect, a discreet Island Nation organization of Feng Shui Masters. It has detained senior executives of the company that recently helped the Xiong Family and will continue investigating. Whether Xiong An was deceived or knowingly involved remains unresolved.
• Chen leaves without telling Hua Jianming and the others what he has learned. On the plane, he reviews his rewards: Yin Virtue, several memory fragments—including ones belonging to Ishikawa Yū and Xiong An—and two feng shui techniques. He opens Ishikawa Yū’s fragment.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows curiosity and willingness to take on dangerous or unusual cases, while keeping the truth to himself when he parts from Hua and the others.
• Shen Mo treats Chen as a potentially valuable asset because of his restricted file and invites him into the investigation, though he makes clear Chen can refuse.
• Xiong An emerges as an ambitious, secretive figure whose business success and carefully planned burial had seemed supernatural, but whose true role in the events is still uncertain.
• Xiong Jie’s great-aunt provides the family history that helps the Administration reconstruct the case.
• Chen and Hua Jianming’s group part amicably, unaware—or, in Chen’s case, not yet informed—that their earlier feng shui theory was mistaken.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: The family’s supposed ancestral blessing was actually underpinned by corporate financial support.
• Uncertainty and investigation: Key questions about Xiong An and Mountain Aspect remain open, suggesting the case is not finished.
• The limits of inherited fortune: The Xiong Family’s prosperity depended less on an ancestor’s grave than on fragile outside backing.
• Hidden knowledge and unequal access: Chen’s restricted file and the Administration’s confidential findings point to secrets beyond ordinary understanding.

Chapter summary

• Ishikawa Yū’s memories reveal the Xiong family’s history. Ishikawa was a member of the Island Nation’s Mountain Physiognomy Organization, which had manipulated Xiong An for decades. It arranged the deaths of Xiong An’s mother and stepfather, helped him prosper, then engineered his setbacks and false cancer diagnosis. Convinced that feng shui was the cause, Xiong An accepted their guidance and chose the burial site meant to secure his descendants’ fortune. The organization continued supporting the Xiong family in secret.
• The scheme collapses at the Xiong family estate. As the Great Xia Administration began investigating the organization’s activities, Xiong Jie moved Xiong An’s grave. Ishikawa possessed Xiong Jie’s corpse, becoming a Fire Corpse, and attacked those who knew too much. After Chen Miao defeated him, Ishikawa used a formation to summon more than a hundred fire souls. A mysterious fog suppressed them, and strands of hair seized control before the attack could succeed.
• Chen Miao uncovers a larger threat. Ishikawa’s memories show that the Fu Tree Setting Sun Formation is part of the Mountain-River Five Elements Formation, which in turn relates to the organization’s long-running “mountain-river collapse plan.” Chen Miao learns that a completed Fu Tree formation could produce 108 powerful, flying fire souls—enough to devastate a city if deployed together. He suspects the organization’s plan targets the Great Xia Administration, or possibly Great Xia itself, but does not yet know its full design.
• Chen Miao gains new abilities and knowledge. His new Qi Sensing status lets him detect special energy fields, which he tests on a fire bead taken from the Fire Corpse. He also receives the Five-Wheel Earth Vein Regulation Technique, an Island Nation feng shui inheritance covering five-element principles, practical site and layout knowledge, and several mystic techniques. Studying the Fu Tree formation teaches him how Golden Crow Fruits can serve as vessels for sacrificed souls.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from investigating the Xiong family’s immediate troubles to recognizing a possible city-wide threat. He considers alerting the Administration but worries about explaining his source, so he decides to wait for developments and hopes the Administration’s monitoring of the organization will lead to answers. He also wonders whether his new inheritance makes him a feng shui master.
• Ishikawa Yū is revealed as a committed operative who sacrificed himself to activate the formation after his possession scheme failed. Even as his consciousness faded, he could not understand the fog that stopped his attack.
• Xiong An is shown as a tragic pawn: he believed the organization’s deception and sacrificed his remaining life for what he thought would protect his family.
• Xiong Jie is portrayed by Ishikawa as lacking judgment; his decision to move the grave helped bring the organization’s hidden operation into the open.
• Chen Miao’s interactions with Hua Jianming inform his thinking about the limits of feng shui expertise: experience in burial-site feng shui does not necessarily equip someone to handle every kind of formation. He also recalls Chen Mo saying the Administration has begun monitoring a company tied to the Xiong family.

Significant themes

• Manipulation and misplaced trust: The organization exploits Xiong An’s fears and sacrifices, presenting its schemes as help.
• Hidden threats and collateral damage: A network of seemingly minor formations and spirit objects may conceal a devastating plan.
• Limits of knowledge and responsibility: Chen Miao understands enough to see the danger, but not enough to explain or stop the larger conspiracy yet.

Key events and plot points

• Chen Miao lands in Lin’an City and visits Zhao Gongzi before going to see his apprentice, Shi Manman, who is still at work.
• Zhao Gongzi says he plans to open a branch in a larger, more distant city, where the anime market and conventions offer better prospects despite greater competition. Chen Miao teases him about his dramatic, “Little Nezha” persona.
• While waiting, Chen Miao reviews his notebook and considers the aftermath of the Beitai City incident. He has kept twenty fire souls, intending to use some to strengthen his own Ghost Scorpion and the rest to help Shi Manman raise one for protection.
• Chen Miao realizes the upgraded notebook can settle a chapter early when it judges that the remaining circumstances can no longer affect the incident. He is pleased that settlements need not wait until every related ghost is dealt with.
• He examines his newly fused Water and Fire Immunity state. It prevents physical harm from water and fire by converting damage into Vital Blood loss, with weaker flames unable to penetrate its resistance at all. He also considers combining it with Ape Arms, Bronze Body and has been spending Yin Virtue and Memory Fragments on state fusions.
• Still tired from using the Nethermist Domain in the Xiong Family Estate battle, Chen Miao falls asleep at Zhao Gongzi’s workplace. Zhao quietly covers him with a blanket.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao continues to plan for Shi Manman’s safety and his own supernatural growth. He is analytical about his abilities and the notebook’s mechanics, but his fatigue leads him to resolve to rely on less exhausting methods in future jobs.
• Zhao Gongzi shows ambition by planning to expand his business, while keeping his playful, swaggering manner. Despite their teasing friendship, he shows quiet care by covering the sleeping Chen Miao.
• Shi Manman does not appear directly, but Chen Miao’s plans to equip her with a Ghost Scorpion and Mystic Arts reflect his concern for her independence and safety.

Significant themes

• Preparation and responsibility: Chen Miao uses his resources and experience to protect both himself and his apprentice.
• Growth through experimentation: His careful testing of fused states highlights the practical costs and limits of supernatural power.
• Rest amid danger: Even a capable practitioner has physical and spiritual limits, making recovery and choosing efficient tools essential.
• Quiet friendship: Their banter gives way to Zhao’s understated act of kindness.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao wakes from a nap and meets Zhao Gongzi for dinner, saying he is going to visit his apprentice, Shi Manman.
• Shi describes the demands of forensic work in Lin’an: most cases involve living victims, while her small pathology team handles deaths, autopsies, and difficult scenes. The work is unpredictable and exhausting, but she finds it rewarding and is getting along well with her colleagues.
• Chen gives Zhao two lengths of century-old jujube wood to make throwing darts, and a length of century-old peach wood to shape into a ghost-fighting sword. He also explains how to make peachwood talismans from the leftovers.
• At a hotel, Chen learns that Shi has stopped practicing the Paper Figure Yin-Congealing Method because her crowded dorm and irregular schedule risk interrupting her cultivation. He approves and plans to teach her the Water-Borrowing Yin-Congealing Method, with medicinal solution as a convenient alternative to bathing in water.
• Concerned that Shi lacks reliable ways to confront ghosts, Chen decides to pass on the Yin Dart technique. He considers teaching her the Six Jiangzhen Secrets but rejects the idea because the Incense-Burning Method may attract dangerous attention.
• Chen uses his notebook to transfer the Yin Dart technique to Shi, spending one jin of yin virtue. She wakes with a noticeably sharper gaze.

Character development and interactions

• Shi is busy but enthusiastic about forensic work, and her colleagues value her corpse-handling skills.
• Chen takes a more active role in Shi’s safety and training, adapting her cultivation to her work schedule and giving her direct combat abilities.
• Zhao initially misreads Chen’s plan to share a room with Shi, but Chen clarifies that he intends to teach her. Zhao also shows excitement about crafting supernatural weapons and talismans, which Chen expects him to make in flamboyant, unconventional styles.
• Chen and Shi interact with trust and ease: she readily follows his instructions and accepts his training.

Significant themes

• Practical mentorship: Chen adjusts his teaching to Shi’s circumstances and prioritizes skills she can use to defend herself.
• Duty and exhaustion: Shi’s account shows the relentless demands placed on forensic workers.
• Power with risks: Chen’s technique-transferring ability makes training others possible, but he avoids methods that might expose them to supernatural dangers.
• Preparation and self-reliance: Chen equips both Shi and Zhao so they can face threats without always depending on him.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao tests Shi Manman’s newly acquired Yin Dart skills. At first, she is accurate at close range but lacks throwing power at longer distances.
• He transmits Yin Dart to her again. Her technique improves dramatically: she throws a pen with enough force to pierce a water bottle. Chen Miao concludes that she can defend herself effectively, especially with proper darts.
• Chen Miao then passes on the full Water-Suppressing Mystic Scripture, a Corpse Retriever inheritance. He cautions Shi Manman not to study it too deeply before mastering the Southern School Corpse-Sewing Secrets.
• While she rests, Chen Miao explains yin cultivation, the groups and practitioners he has encountered, and his future interest in visiting the Island Nation. She falls asleep during his long account.
• Chen Miao reviews his resources and spends Memory Fragments to fuse Impervious to Water and Fire with Ape Arms, Bronze Body, creating the new state Diamond Water-Fire Ape.
• He tests the transformation, discovering three modes: a powerful, defensive fire-ape form; a fast, explosive water-ape form; and a balanced normal form that can also manifest ape-like arms.

Character developments

• Shi Manman gains greater competence and confidence with Yin Dart, revealing natural aptitude for the skill. She also receives a substantial new inheritance, though she is still recovering from the strain of the transmissions.
• Chen Miao shows growing concern for Shi Manman’s safety, investing resources in her training and explaining the dangers she may face. He also continues developing his own power and carefully manages his remaining resources.

Significant themes

• Power paired with responsibility: Chen Miao gives Shi Manman tools for self-defense while warning her to handle her new inheritance cautiously.
• Knowledge and preparation: Skills, instruction, and understanding of different yin-cultivation traditions are treated as essential forms of protection.
• Resource management and advancement: Chen Miao weighs the cost of transmissions against future upgrades, then uses Memory Fragments to improve his abilities.
• Versatility through balance: The new state combines distinct strengths—defense, strength, speed, and adaptability—while each specialized form has trade-offs.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao guides Shi Manman through practical tests, checks on her comfort after each transmission, and gives her advice about her abilities and inheritance.
• Their relationship is marked by trust: Shi Manman follows his instructions, while Chen Miao openly shares knowledge and concerns he seems to have few other people with whom to discuss.
• After ensuring she is asleep and settled, Chen Miao takes another room and privately tests his new transformation.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao leaves to select scorpions for breeding and promises to teach Shi Manman when he returns. Shi Manman reflects on the Yin Cultivation knowledge he shared, but admits she fell asleep before she could absorb it all.
• Shi Ying calls Shi Manman about a new case, but tells her to return to the department rather than go directly to the scene. Suspicious, Shi Manman checks with Chen Xue and learns the location herself, avoiding a possible delay.
• At a riverside wasteland beneath an overpass, the team finds seven or eight bloodied black plastic bags. An angler discovered them and opened one, fearing at first that they contained fishing bait.
• At the autopsy room, Chen Xue assigns Shi Ying to take notes and Shi Manman to help unpack and arrange the remains. The bags contain most of an adult body, but no head.
• The assembled remains are identified preliminarily as those of a woman aged roughly twenty to thirty-five, dismembered after death two to three days earlier. The cause of death cannot be determined from the torso, and the victim’s identity is unknown.
• Shi Ying observes that the lack of dirt suggests the body was dismembered somewhere clean, perhaps a bathroom. Chen Xue cautions her to separate evidence-based conclusions from speculation and not to offer theories that might mislead investigators.
• Shi Manman begins to share her own findings, but Zou Shang, leader of the case team, abruptly enters before she can finish.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Manman becomes more alert to workplace politics and deliberately verifies Shi Ying’s directions rather than relying on her. She remains composed and focused on her work, though she resolves that she can leave once she learns Bone Reading and Form Recognition.
• Shi Ying seems uncomfortable around Shi Manman and may have tried to inconvenience her. She wants practical experience but is assigned note-taking instead; despite noticing useful details, she is corrected for presenting speculation beyond her forensic role.
• Chen Xue continues to value Shi Manman’s precision and professionalism, especially her reverence for the dead. She mentors Shi Ying firmly while maintaining high expectations for Shi Manman.
• The tension between Shi Manman and Shi Ying is visible in their clipped exchange and the awkward silence in the car. Chen Xue notices but does not intervene.

Significant themes

• Evidence versus conjecture: Forensic conclusions must stay grounded in what the body directly reveals; unsupported theories can distort an investigation.
• Workplace rivalry and trust: Shi Manman’s uneasy relationship with Shi Ying shows how competition and resentment complicate professional cooperation.
• Respect for the dead: Shi Manman’s careful handling of the remains reflects a reverence that sets her apart and influences Chen Xue.
• Professional growth: The case tests the interns’ skills and judgment, while Chen Xue’s guidance clarifies the standards expected of forensic examiners.

Plot points and events

• Zou Shang returns home after his wife, Wu Lan, urgently calls him. Their nephew, Wu Feng, begs for help and admits he believes he killed his ex-girlfriend.
• Wu Feng recounts getting drunk, visiting his ex, and later waking amid blood and tools, with only fragmented memories of dismembering a body. He tried to clean up and conceal evidence, then hid after hearing that dismembered remains had been found.
• Wu Lan pleads with Zou Shang to save Wu Feng, explaining that she treats him like a son because she and Zou have no children. When Wu Feng resolves to turn himself in, Zou stops him and tells him to keep quiet and claim he went straight home.
• Unable to find a legitimate way to protect his nephew, Zou decides to redirect suspicion by connecting the current case to an unsolved dismemberment from three years earlier. He reviews that old case, then visits the autopsy room under the pretext of helping with the investigation.
• While examining the remains with his back to the room’s camera, Zou secretly takes an extra sample, apparently for his own purposes.
• Back at the office, Shi Manman says she suspects the remains may belong to two different people. She explains that she has unusual corpse-related perception. Shi Ying mocks the idea, but Chen Xue takes Manman seriously and leads the group back to the autopsy room for another examination.

Character developments and interactions

• Zou Shang is torn between his duty and loyalty to Wu Lan and Wu Feng. Though he initially resents Wu Feng’s repeated troublemaking, he chooses to interfere with the case and secretly manipulates the evidence.
• Wu Lan shows deep devotion to Wu Feng, even offering to die with him. Her words shake Zou and help prompt his decision to act.
• Wu Feng shifts from panic and pleading to briefly accepting responsibility and preparing to surrender, but Zou’s intervention redirects him toward concealment.
• Shi Manman reveals her paranormal ability and trusts her own impression that the remains may not be from one person.
• Chen Xue proves open-minded and decisive: despite the lack of conventional evidence, she respects Manman’s judgment and agrees to recheck the remains.
• Shi Ying dismisses Manman’s claim as ridiculous, then becomes uneasy when Chen Xue appears to believe it.

Significant themes

• Family loyalty versus professional ethics: Zou risks compromising an investigation to protect his wife’s nephew.
• Guilt and sacrifice: Wu Lan’s childlessness shapes her attachment to Wu Feng, while Zou’s guilt over their infertility makes him reluctant to refuse her.
• Truth versus concealment: Wu Feng’s attempted cover-up and Zou’s covert evidence tampering contrast with the forensic team’s search for facts.
• The rational and the supernatural: Manman’s unusual perception challenges the team’s assumptions, while Chen Xue’s experience makes her cautious but receptive.
• A mystery within the case: The possibility that the remains belong to two people raises doubts about the investigation and may connect to the earlier unsolved murder.

Plot points and events

• At the autopsy room, Shi Manman argues that the remains may come from two victims, based on her ability to see ghosts and what she sensed while examining them. Team Leader Zou Shang dismisses the claim, reprimands Chen Xue for taking it seriously, and bars the women from the autopsy room.
• Zou Shang returns home and presses his nephew, Wu Feng, about the killing and the missing victim’s head. Wu Feng insists he killed only one person but cannot remember where he left the head.
• Zou Shang admits to his wife, Wu Lan, that he is obstructing the investigation: he carved a mark on the remains to imitate an unsolved murder from three years earlier and secretly substituted another woman’s DNA sample. He fears the missing head could expose Wu Feng—and himself. Wu Lan supports him, while Zou Shang accepts that he may be caught.
• The next day, Zou Shang presents the carved mark as a link to the old case. Investigators find no head or useful surveillance footage, and the DNA results take several days.
• The DNA comparison eventually shows that all the remains belong to one person, apparently contradicting Shi Manman’s assessment. Chen Xue tells her to rest while she and Shi Ying handle another case. Shi Manman briefly doubts her abilities.
• In the early hours, Shi Manman senses a sudden rise in yin energy in the dormitory. Armed with an extensive collection of talismans and enchanted pens, she investigates the source. The energy intensifies outside Shi Ying’s room; unable to open the door, Shi Manman knocks and calls to her.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Manman remains confident enough to investigate a supernatural disturbance, but the DNA results unsettle her and make her question her perceptions. Her preparation shows how seriously she takes her master’s training.
• Zou Shang reveals himself as deeply compromised: he is manipulating evidence to protect Wu Feng, yet recognizes the danger and accepts that he may face consequences. His marriage to Wu Lan is marked by loyalty and shared guilt.
• Wu Feng is frightened and unreliable, unable even to remember where he disposed of the victim’s head. Zou Shang and Wu Lan pressure him to cooperate and stay quiet.
• Chen Xue is reprimanded for listening to Shi Manman, but later tries to reassure her after the DNA findings.
• Shi Ying appears pleased when Shi Manman’s theory is dismissed, setting up the tension around the strange activity in her room.

Significant themes

• Corruption and complicity: Zou Shang deliberately falsifies the investigation to protect family, drawing Wu Lan into the conspiracy.
• Evidence versus intuition: Scientific DNA results seem to disprove Shi Manman’s supernatural perception, leaving her uncertain.
• Loyalty and sacrifice: Zou Shang is willing to risk his career and freedom for Wu Feng and Wu Lan.
• Supernatural danger: The sudden increase in yin energy shifts the story from a stalled forensic case toward an immediate paranormal threat.