Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao explains the worsening supernatural crisis in Great Xia and outlines his plans for Tianmen County, including what he needs the group to do.
• He invites everyone to bring their families to Tianmen County so they can live near the future feng shui formation. For relatives unwilling to move, he offers protective talismans and smaller formations.
• Chen Miao warns that even the Yin-Cleansing Formation cannot prevent every ghost or supernatural incident. Since he cannot handle everything alone, he wants the group to learn how to protect themselves and respond.
• He presents booklets listing many cultivation legacies and lets most of them choose what to study. Shi Manman is exempt because she already has experience and several arts of her own.
• Yang Jiuhua eagerly tries to choose numerous techniques, but Chen Miao limits everyone to one cultivation art and one mystic art. He advises them to choose different abilities so they can work as a team.
• Xiang Shang asks how Chen Miao himself learned so many arts. Chen Miao replies, “We’re not the same,” leaving the question unresolved.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is frank and considerate with this trusted group, planning for their families’ safety as well as their training. He shifts from acting as the group’s sole supernatural problem-solver to preparing them to share that responsibility.
• Yang Jiuhua and Ji Mo are especially excited to learn from Chen Miao; Yang is so enthusiastic that he wants to study many techniques. The others also show interest, though with varying degrees of excitement.
• Shi Manman is surprised by the scale of the crisis but is allowed to bring her family. Her existing knowledge of yin arts distinguishes her from the rest.
• Xiang Shang supports Chen Miao and helps Li Zi understand what he is offering. He also asks the question the group is wondering about: why Chen Miao can use so many abilities.
• The group’s discussion emphasizes mutual support: Chen Miao advises them to specialize in different arts so their skills complement one another.

Significant themes

• Preparation and shared responsibility: Chen Miao recognizes that one person cannot address every supernatural threat and trains others to help.
• Family and security: The offer to relocate relatives, or protect them from afar, shows the importance of personal ties amid a growing crisis.
• Cooperation through specialization: Rather than having everyone learn the same techniques, the group is encouraged to build complementary strengths.
• Limits and unequal paths: Chen Miao stresses that mastery takes years, while his final remark suggests his own abilities come from circumstances unlike theirs.

Key events and plot points

• Chen Miao gives six people time to choose two cultivation inheritances each, taking care not to pressure them into particular paths.
• Their choices reflect different roles and motivations:
  • Xiang Shang chooses iaido swordsmanship and Yin Dart, favoring techniques that do not require yin energy.
  • Li Zi chooses Spirit-Medium Underworld Communion and Yin Blood Art, aiming for a Spirit Medium and possible talisman user.
  • Yang Jiuhua chooses Spirit Effigy Sutra and Yin Blood Art, hoping to become a Paper Effigy Maker.
  • Ji Mo chooses Thousand-Thread Puppet Art and Extreme Yin Body-Refining Art, envisioning a future of piloting puppet armor.
  • Luo Zhiyong chooses Yin Mark Spirit-Transference Formula and Corpse-Speech Art, seeking a practical way to protect his family while indulging his curiosity.
  • Shi Manman, who had already been excluded from the new choices, receives further instruction in two of her existing arts.
• Chen Miao confirms that each person willingly accepts the path before transmitting their inheritances. He performs twelve transmissions, spending twelve jin of yin virtue. The others are advanced from complete novices to the point where they need only open their apertures—a leap that can otherwise take years or prove impossible.
• Shi Manman returns to Lin’an to resign from her job and prepare to resume work at Tianmen Funeral Home. The others, except Xiang Shang and Li Zi, go home to persuade their families; Chen Miao gives them protective peachwood talismans. Xiang Shang and Li Zi begin arranging to buy a house.
• Chen Miao then visits the Tianmen County Administration, where he reveals that he is its newly appointed branch director.

Character developments and interactions

• The group’s choices clarify their distinct ambitions: Xiang Shang and Li Zi plan complementary combat roles, Yang Jiuhua is inspired by Chen Miao’s General Effigy, and Ji Mo adapts his interest in that art toward puppets and armor. Luo Zhiyong remains cautious but wants the means to defend his family.
• Shi Manman remains connected to the group despite being excluded from the new selections, receiving special instruction from Chen Miao.
• Chen Miao acts as a mentor, respecting each person’s preferences, checking their consent, and investing heavily in their cultivation.
• At the Administration, Chen Guokun has declined a chance to move to Shannan City after learning Tianmen’s outpost would become a branch, but grows frustrated when no director or resources arrive. Tong Yu shares his confusion. Chen Miao’s unexpected appearance resolves the mystery.

Significant themes

• Choice and consent: Chen Miao lets people choose their own paths and confirms their willingness before transmitting the arts.
• Mentorship and investment: His costly transmissions give the group an extraordinary head start, though they do not yet understand its value.
• Practical ambition: Characters adapt supernatural arts to their own strengths, interests, and everyday concerns.
• Opportunity and uncertainty: Chen Guokun’s career decision—and the unexplained delay in establishing the branch—show how institutional changes can reshape personal prospects.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao begins the first meeting of the Tianmen County Branch Administration, explaining that supernatural incidents are expected to increase across Great Xia.
• The branch is severely understaffed, and Headquarters cannot spare personnel. Chen Miao plans to recruit Peripheral Investigators and request trainee Investigators when new instructions arrive.
• He tells Chen Guokun and Tong Yu that, as the team grows, Kun may become deputy director and Tong may lead the operations and interrogation teams.
• Chen Miao gives them cultivation updates: Kun has developed vital blood power and is close to qualifying for Grade C; Tong expects to need another six months to a year.
• He distributes valuable cultivation supplies he redeemed from Headquarters: Vital Blood Pills, Peachwood Talismans, and other talismans. He says he will invest his points in strengthening the branch’s staff.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao establishes himself as a confident, generous leader. Though inexperienced in Bureau administration, he recognizes his limits, delegates responsibility, and uses future positions and resources to motivate his colleagues.
• Chen Guokun initially worries that the branch’s new title will bring little real opportunity. Chen Miao’s plans and gifts win his loyalty, and Kun firmly pledges to serve the branch.
• Tong Yu is less troubled by the staffing situation. He shares Kun’s astonishment at the rewards and joins his pledge of support.
• Chen Miao’s practical promises and generosity turn an awkward meeting into a warm, enthusiastic one. Kun briefly considers the better-resourced Shannan City branch but quickly rejects the thought.

Significant themes

• Leadership through trust and investment: Chen Miao builds commitment by sharing resources, delegating authority, and offering a path for advancement.
• Scarcity and preparation: With supernatural threats rising and staff in short supply, the branch must develop its own people rather than rely on Headquarters.
• Loyalty and ambition: Kun’s doubts give way to allegiance once he sees that the new branch offers both opportunity and support.

Key events

• Wang Wei and Pei Ran agree to travel to Tianmen County with Brother Hua and Chen Bai, hoping to investigate what Chen Bai told them and perhaps capture a malevolent fiend to restore Pei Ran’s strength.
• Before leaving, they take a modestly paid commission to assess a woman’s husband, who vanished for several hours and returned claiming he would become an immortal. Since then, he has acted erratically and obsessed over mystery novels and horror films.
• Wang Wei performs a spiritual examination at the couple’s home but detects no ghost. She advises the wife to seek psychological help for her husband and gives her a Mind-Clearing Talisman and a Spirit-Sealing Talisman, sacrificing her profit.
• After Wang Wei and Pei Ran wait until late at night, the husband suddenly rushes for the exit, insisting he is ready to become an immortal. Pei Ran restrains him—until a dark red Blood Gate appears in place of the front door.
• Compelled by the gate, Pei Ran releases the man, who runs through it and disappears. The gate vanishes, leaving the couple terrified and the wife unconscious.

Character developments and interactions

• Wang Wei acts cautiously and compassionately: she avoids promising a supernatural cause, performs her examination, and helps the client beyond what the fee requires.
• Pei Ran remains supportive of Wang Wei and steps in to restrain the husband. The Blood Gate’s pull briefly overcomes his control, revealing that even he is vulnerable to it.
• The husband shifts from strange but seemingly manageable behavior to frenzied, single-minded urgency when the gate appears.
• The wife is deeply worried about her husband, trusts Wang Wei’s assessment, and is ultimately overwhelmed by the supernatural event.
• Wang Wei and Pei Ran rely on each other throughout the commission, but neither understands—or can resist—the Blood Gate.

Significant themes

• The uncertain boundary between supernatural and ordinary explanations: Wang Wei finds no evidence of a haunting, yet a plainly supernatural event soon occurs.
• Compulsion and loss of control: The Blood Gate exerts an irresistible-seeming urge on Pei Ran and draws the husband to his disappearance.
• Compassion amid danger: Wang Wei prioritizes the client’s welfare over making money.
• Mystery and foreshadowing: The gate’s appearance raises a new, urgent question about its nature and what happened to the husband.

Plot points and events

• Shi Manman returns to Tianmen County and resumes work at the Funeral Home. Her Corpse-Sewing skills have advanced enough that she can work independently.
• Her Ghost Scorpion has reached the second stage, Ghost Face, with four tails and three additional abilities: it can burrow through earth, control a corpse’s limbs, and dissolve flesh with potent poison. It cannot control the Soul Corpse, and its corpse-control ability does not make a body stronger.
• Shi has fed it five of Chen Miao’s ten Fire Souls. The remaining five may help it reach the final Ghost Fiend stage, though it digests Fire Souls slowly.
• Hua Jianming and Ji Hong arrive at the Funeral Home. Chen Miao admits that he used the name “Chen Bai” when they first worked together, explaining that he was cautious. Hua accepts the apology without complaint.
• Hua says Pei Ran and Wang Wei are finishing a commission and should join them soon. He also learns that Shi Manman is Chen Miao’s disciple and has already reached Entering Yin.
• Chen Miao briefs Hua and Ji on recent events in Great Xia and invites them to remain in Tianmen County. Hua initially plans to move his family to the capital.
• Chen argues that Tianmen County may offer better practical protection: he has Administration authorization and a simplified Grand Feng Shui Formation, and wants Hua’s help establishing a Yin-Cleansing Formation. Hua is struck by how much Chen’s status and influence seem to have changed.

Character developments and interactions

• Shi Manman has matured into a capable Corpse Stitcher and a formidable cultivator, giving Chen confidence in both the Funeral Home and her safety.
• Chen Miao shifts from cautious newcomer to an influential organizer. He is candid about his earlier deception and uses his official authority to recruit Hua for a broader protective effort.
• Hua Jianming respects Chen’s caution but remains focused on his family’s security. Chen’s proposal makes him reconsider Tianmen County as an alternative to the capital.
• Ji Hong reacts angrily to the Island Nation Onmyoji’s treachery and supports the discussion of recent events.

Significant themes

• Protection through cooperation: Chen hopes local practitioners and the Administration can defend a smaller county more effectively through rapid response and shared formations.
• Caution and trust: Chen’s false name is treated as understandable in a dangerous profession, while his honest explanation helps build rapport.
• Growth and responsibility: Shi’s advancement and Chen’s expanding role show how personal development is becoming tied to protecting others—especially family and community.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao warmly invites Hua Jianming to work with him at the Tianmen County Branch Administration. Hua asks for time to consider, citing his family, and Chen accepts without pressure.
• Ji Hong jokes that, as a lifelong bachelor, he has no family to hold him back. He reveals that he wants to find an apprentice and pass on his knowledge as a Grave Keeper; Chen agrees to keep an eye out for a candidate.
• Ji Hong agrees to transfer his Peripheral Investigator affiliation to Tianmen County.
• Chen outlines a joint business venture: a complete funeral service staffed by practitioners of yin cultivation. The team could handle funeral preparation, burial sites, and burial rites, with Wang Wei potentially offering help related to the deceased’s final wishes. They could also take contracted supernatural work for other Administrations and private clients.
• Chen gives Hua and Ji a tour of the Funeral Home and introduces its staff. Both visitors are impressed by the workplace and its prospects.
• After meeting Li Fu, the Cold Storage administrator, Ji recognizes something unusual about him: he sees a forest of gravestones standing in shadow behind the old man.

Character developments

• Hua Jianming is surprised and slightly intimidated by Chen’s elevated position, but gradually becomes enthusiastic about the practical opportunity Chen is offering.
• Ji Hong reveals his loneliness and his wish to pass on his Grave Keeper knowledge. He is receptive to settling in Tianmen County and joining Chen’s plans.
• Chen Miao demonstrates tact and ambition: he respects Ji’s existing ties before proposing an affiliation transfer, and presents a thoughtful plan that gives his companions stable work.
• Li Fu is introduced as a retired mausoleum guard who works at the Funeral Home; Ji’s vision suggests he may have a hidden supernatural nature or ability.

Significant themes

• Community and belonging: The Funeral Home offers older practitioners companionship and a place to settle, not merely employment.
• Passing on knowledge: Ji’s search for an apprentice highlights the importance of legacy and continuity.
• Practical cooperation: Chen’s venture brings together different specialized skills to create a broader service network.
• Hidden supernatural abilities: Ji’s perception of gravestones around Li hints that unusual powers may exist beyond recognized cultivation traditions.

Character interactions

• Chen treats Hua and Ji as respected partners, easing Hua’s discomfort over their changed status and inviting both into his plans.
• Ji’s bachelorhood prompts a brief, awkward exchange with Hua, then leads to Ji asking Chen to help find him an apprentice.
• Chen consults Ji rather than unilaterally transferring his affiliation, reinforcing their mutual respect.
• The tour introduces Hua and Ji to the Funeral Home staff and helps them picture themselves fitting into its community.
• Ji’s question about Li Fu shifts the mood at the chapter’s end, raising a new mystery about the Cold Storage administrator.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao decides not to question Old Li about the protection he unknowingly carries, sparing him unnecessary worry.
• Hua Jianming agrees to settle in Tianmen County. He buys a modest house near the funeral home so he can establish a Feng Shui Formation; Ji Hong moves into the funeral home’s dormitory.
• Chen Miao and Hua spend a long night discussing the Heavenly Gate Feng Shui Formation. Their complementary strengths—Chen’s theoretical knowledge and Hua’s practical experience—raise Chen’s hopes of completing it.
• Their work is interrupted when Earthly Chief Star Chen Jizhen summons Chen Miao to discuss the Blood Gate, which has appeared in multiple incidents.
• Wang Wei and Pei Ran, who have not yet arrived in Tianmen County, were involved in those incidents. After hearing Chen Miao’s account of their past work together, Headquarters offers either to keep them in local custody or send them to Chen for supervision. Chen chooses to receive them.
• Chen Jizhen reveals that the Blood Gate appears to be selecting followers. On his drive to Shannan City, Chen Miao also sees the immense fissure left by the events and reflects on the limits of human power against nature.

Character developments

• Chen Miao shows growing discretion and responsibility, choosing not to burden Old Li and accepting oversight of Wang Wei and Pei Ran. His confidence in the Feng Shui Formation grows, though the devastation in Shannan City reinforces his humility before the forces of heaven and earth.
• Hua Jianming commits to Tianmen County and eagerly shares his hands-on expertise, becoming a valuable collaborator.
• Ji Hong settles into the funeral home dormitory and plans to explore the surrounding area with Hua.
• Wang Wei and Pei Ran remain offstage, but their connection to the Blood Gate brings them under official scrutiny.
• Chen Jizhen offers Chen Miao a choice that both entrusts him with responsibility and signals Headquarters’ regard for him.

Significant themes

• Theory and practice: Chen and Hua’s distinct forms of expertise make them more effective together.
• Trust and responsibility: Chen is given custody of people tied to a dangerous phenomenon and accepts accountability for them.
• Human limits: The scale of the Shannan City fissure reminds Chen that even powerful practitioners may be insignificant beside natural or supernatural forces.
• Uncertainty and vigilance: The Blood Gate’s apparent recruitment of followers raises the possibility of a wider threat, amid lingering fears of schemes connected to the Island Nation.

Character interactions

• Chen and Hua bond through intensive discussions about Feng Shui, with each learning from the other.
• Chen and Ji Hong coordinate the newcomers’ arrangements in Tianmen County.
• Chen recounts his past dealings with Wang Wei and Pei Ran to Chen Jizhen, who weighs his assessment before offering him custody.
• Li Quan silently observes the unusual deference Chen receives from a senior Headquarters figure.

Key plot points

• Chen Jizhen tells Chen Miao that the Blood Gate may be intelligent and appears to be selecting people for missions.
• The Administration has found eight cases across Great Xia, all involving ordinary people with no apparent connection to yin cultivation. Six victims have died; two survived.
• Those who enter the Blood Gate are transported to a place resembling ancient Great Xia, take on new identities, and receive missions tied to supernatural incidents. Completing a mission earns them a reward of unusual power. Failing or dying still lets them return—but they then die within a day in an apparently ordinary accident.
• The Administration has been unable to prevent these deaths, even with intervention or confinement. No ghostly cause has been detected.
• Chen Jizhen explains that the Blood Gate can appear wherever there is anything resembling a door, including inside the Administration’s dungeons. The Administration plans to investigate abnormal behavior and detain people affected, but has no way to stop the Gate or protect detainees.
• Chen Miao realizes the Gate may have been active since its first appearance, with undiscovered victims, and feels greater urgency to finish Tianmen County’s feng shui formation.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao moves from surprise to alarm as he learns the scale and mechanics of the threat. He raises the possibility that the Gate acted from the beginning, which Chen Jizhen confirms the Administration is also considering.
• Chen Jizhen calmly briefs Chen Miao on the Administration’s findings and planned response, while acknowledging its helplessness.
• Chen Miao recognizes the grim bind facing anyone identified as affected: they may die through the Gate’s accidents or, if detained, become unable to complete missions and effectively await death.

Significant themes

• Unseen, uncontrollable danger: The deaths appear accidental, leaving even the Administration unable to identify or counter their cause.
• Power at a cost: The Gate’s rewards can make ordinary people increasingly dangerous, but pursuing them risks death and eventual discovery.
• Institutional helplessness and moral entrapment: The Administration’s only available measure—detention—may itself seal a victim’s fate.
• Escalating uncertainty: The Gate may have been operating longer and on a wider scale than anyone knows. Chen Miao likens it to the “King of Hell’s roll call”: whoever it summons seems destined to die.

Plot points and events

• After learning about the Blood Gate, Chen Miao considers whether it might select cultivators, whether it is a kind of polluted object, and what its connection might be to Immortals, Gods, or other beings. He keeps these questions to himself because asking could expose how much he knows about the Mortal World.
• Back in Tianmen County, he pushes ahead with plans for a feng shui formation. Wang Wei and Pei Ran arrive under supervision after being questioned by the Administration. They explain that they saw their employer’s husband enter the Blood Gate and return hours later in despair, saying he had failed to become an immortal. He later killed himself.
• Over the following month, Chen Miao focuses on the formation. He and Hua Jianming complete the Three Pagoda Tree Yin-Gathering Formation on Twin Ridge Mountain, which begins drawing yin energy toward the site and activates a field. They will wait to see whether it improves the larger Yin-Cleansing Formation.
• To allow construction at the main funeral-home premises, Chen Miao moves its staff to the North Branch. He plans to return them once the formation’s effects are confirmed. He also intends to meet with Luo Zhiyong and others to discuss future plans.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao becomes increasingly urgent and proactive, driven by the Blood Gate’s implications and the need to secure Tianmen. He carefully avoids asking questions that might reveal his knowledge.
• Wang Wei and Pei Ran are exhausted and shaken by their interrogation and the events they witnessed. Once they learn Chen Miao arranged their transfer, they trust him enough to share their account, though their continued supervision limits their choices.
• Hua Jianming works with Chen Miao on the formation and is visibly tired afterward; Chen Miao urges him to rest. Xiang Shang assists and asks how the formation works.

Significant themes

• The limits of knowledge: The Administration has theories about the Blood Gate but cannot explain its nature or the world within it.
• Power, belief, and disillusionment: The man who hoped to become an immortal returns convinced he has failed, then dies by suicide.
• Security and preparation: Chen Miao responds to uncertainty by building protective infrastructure and organizing the funeral home.
• Duty and constrained freedom: Wang Wei and Pei Ran cooperate with Chen Miao, but remain under official supervision.

Summary

As Great Xia’s supernatural crisis worsens, yin energy rises rapidly and Tianmen County experiences five supernatural incidents in a month. Chen Miao, busy refining the Feng Shui Formation, does not handle the cases himself: Wang Wei and Pei Ran lead the responses, while Xiang Shang, Yang Jiuhua, Ji Mo, and Li Zi accompany them to learn. Repeated exposure eases the group’s fear of ghosts, and Yang Jiuhua even helps stop a rogue ghost with a peachwood talisman. Chen Miao also asks Chen Guokun to take the group along on future cases, helping them gain experience and prepare for the danger ahead.
People from other cities increasingly seek Chen Miao’s help through wealthy businessman Xie Songde’s connections. Wang Wei and Pei Ran handle most outside assignments, subject to reporting requirements and local check-ins. Meanwhile, families connected to Chen Miao’s circle—including those of Hua Jianming, Yang Jiuhua, and Luo Zhiyong—move to Tianmen County as the situation worsens.
Xie Songde chooses to stay, trusting Chen Miao’s reliability over the uncertain safety of the capital. He becomes an unpaid broker, connecting Chen Miao with construction crews and suppliers through the networks of his friends Hong Fan and Song Peilin. Those two moved to the capital, where property prices surged, official restrictions constrained them, and capable spirit mediums proved difficult to access. They and other small businessmen now share the support of a few independent masters, who are often too busy to help when needed. Their experience confirms Xie Songde’s decision: in Tianmen County, Chen Miao can reach several capable masters easily.
Two days after Chen Miao and Hua Jianming confirm that Twin Ridge Mountain is absorbing yin energy left over by the simplified Yin-Cleansing Formation, Chen gathers everyone at the funeral home for Tianmen’s first yin-cultivation meeting. The Lunar New Year is still half a month away, and Chen Miao is twenty-six.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao increasingly acts as a leader and organizer: he delegates fieldwork, helps others build competence, maintains outside work connections, and convenes the cultivation meeting.
• Xiang Shang and the others grow more confident through practical exposure to supernatural incidents; Yang Jiuhua’s courage earns praise from Chen Guokun.
• Xie Songde demonstrates loyalty and sound judgment by staying in Tianmen County. His relationship with Chen Miao is mutually beneficial: he supplies business connections, while Chen Miao provides trusted protection.
• Hong Fan and Song Peilin discover that wealth and status mean less in the capital. Their difficulties contrast with the accessible help available through Chen Miao’s network.

Significant themes

• Escalating supernatural danger: Rising yin energy and frequent incidents signal that the crisis is spreading.
• Preparation through experience: Learning and field exposure help people move beyond fear toward practical capability.
• Trust and community: Reliable personal relationships prove more valuable than money or prestige alone.
• Unequal access to protection: Masters are scarce and overbooked in the capital, while Chen Miao’s network offers a more dependable, cooperative alternative.

Key events

• Chen Miao tells his group that Tianmen County’s feng shui formation is complete. It has reduced the county’s yin energy to one-third of the level outside, with the aim of lowering it to about one-fifth.
• He reveals that the simpler Yin-Cleansing Formation alone was not powerful enough, so he and Hua Jianming improved it by incorporating the Three Pagoda Tree Yin-Gathering Formation.
• Rather than spread that formation across the whole county, Hua suggests placing it at a single site to draw yin energy away from everywhere else. Chen chooses Twin Ridge Mountain, which is remote and already avoided because of a local “mountain ghost” legend.
• The plan works: Twin Ridge Mountain gathers the county’s excess yin energy. To manage the resulting danger, Chen proposes planting yinwood there to absorb some of it and building a Ghost-Blinding Formation to trap ghosts drawn to the mountain.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen reflects on how far he has come since he was a novice practitioner—and on the absence of Zhong Cai, who once accompanied him.
• Hua Jianming proves a valuable collaborator, proposing the practical solution that makes the countywide formation effective.
• The group responds with relief and celebration, especially Yang Jiuhua, who enthusiastically praises Chen. Chen shares their happiness but shifts the gathering’s mood by explaining the remaining risks.
• Chen’s approach shows his growing confidence as a planner: rather than try to eliminate danger everywhere, he concentrates it somewhere he can monitor and control.

Significant themes

• Collective safety and responsibility: The formation offers families in Tianmen County some protection from supernatural threats.
• Pragmatic problem-solving: The yin energy cannot simply be erased, so Chen and Hua redirect it and plan to contain its consequences.
• Progress with new risks: Securing the county creates a dangerous concentration at Twin Ridge Mountain, making every solution a new challenge.
• Change and loss: Chen’s reflection on his rise and Zhong Cai’s absence underscores how unpredictable life and relationships can be.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao proposes drawing the ghosts of Tianmen County to Twin Ridge Mountain. This would reduce encounters in populated areas and help contain the county’s ghost problem despite the mountain’s dense yin energy.
• He considers using the Fu Tree Setting Sun Feng Shui Formation to turn gathered ghosts into “Golden Crow Fruit,” whose fire souls could help suppress the remaining ghosts. He also wants to keep the mountain’s ghost population at manageable levels.
• Twin Ridge Mountain could become a controlled training ground for Xiang Shang and the other aspiring yin cultivators, and later for trainee investigators. The Administration has begun recruiting thousands of investigators’ children for rapid training and deployment; Tianmen’s branch will receive a small allocation.
• Chen Miao does not reveal this larger plan yet, but the group approves of the existing Three Pagoda Tree Yin-Cleansing Formation.
• He assigns Yang Jiuhua and Ji Mo to resume livestreaming after entering yin, under the new name Tianmen Dragon Hall. Their initial broadcasts will teach the public basic supernatural safety and protective practices, with Administration authorization required.
• The team discusses the channel’s direction, and their suggestions help develop Chen Miao’s ideas.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows strategic ambition: he wants to protect the public, train his people safely, and build a capable Tianmen team. His past dangerous assignments make him especially cautious about sending inexperienced cultivators into the field.
• Yang Jiuhua and Ji Mo are given a new public-facing role, shifting from their earlier entertainment-style content to practical education.
• Hua Jianming and the others actively contribute ideas, showing growing trust and collaboration within the group. Chen Miao keeps the long-term mountain-training plan to himself until it is more certain.

Significant themes

• Turning danger into an asset: Twin Ridge Mountain’s ghosts and yin energy might be managed and used for training rather than simply eliminated.
• Preparedness and controlled risk: Safer practice could make future fieldwork less dangerous.
• Public education amid crisis: Authorized livestreams can give ordinary people basic tools to protect themselves.
• Collective planning: Chen Miao’s plans become stronger through the group’s participation.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao considers how to make Tianmen County a secure base, especially as he may need to leave for cultivation or government missions.
• He wants Tianmen’s yin cultivators to stay by choice, not obligation. The Tianmen Dragon House might build local loyalty, but it will take time to become useful, and older cultivators may see it as merely an intermediary.
• After hearing his colleagues discuss their work, Chen Miao proposes transforming Tianmen Funeral Home’s main branch. Ordinary funerals will move to the North Branch, while the main branch will stop offering modern services such as cremation and cold storage.
• The main branch will instead provide traditional funeral rites performed by yin cultivators—including preparing and dressing bodies, writing and reciting eulogies, feng shui, grave-guarding, suppressing yin energy, and investigating the yin realm.
• Chen Miao declares that Tianmen will take on jobs and bodies other yin cultivators fear or cannot handle, aiming to make Tianmen Funeral Home and the Tianmen Dragon House renowned across Great Xia.

Character developments

• Chen Miao moves from quietly seeking a way to retain his people to making a bold, defining commitment. His determination recalls his earlier choice to study funeral services, which shaped his present career.
• Xiang Shang is startled by Chen Miao’s resolve, then becomes inspired and begins imagining the futures of Tianmen County, Chen Miao, and himself.
• The other cultivators are initially stunned, but Chen Miao’s confidence persuades them that his ambitious plan may be achievable.

Significant themes

• Belonging and loyalty: Chen Miao hopes to create a community people choose to remain part of.
• Tradition and identity: Traditional funeral rites become a way to distinguish Tianmen from competitors and give yin cultivators a shared purpose.
• Ambition and conviction: Chen Miao’s willingness to accept even the most dangerous work reflects his belief that bold choices can shape the future.
• Reputation and recognition: He wants Tianmen to become a respected symbol within Great Xia’s yin-cultivation profession.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao interrupts the group’s discussion to present his plan and invites their opinions.
• Xiang Shang jokes about Chen Miao’s uncle objecting to closing the funeral home, then questions what the main branch will become.
• Chen Miao explains the traditional-service model and delivers a forceful declaration that leaves the group awed, while Xiang Shang’s surprise turns into admiration and excitement.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao and the others plan Tianmen Funeral Home’s future. They agree to adapt the courtyard spring-breeze formation so the whole property feels welcoming to ordinary visitors, rather than unnervingly cold.
• They decide to handle both genuine supernatural cases and ordinary funerals. Wealthy clients may pay for the more elaborate Complete Traditional Funeral Services, while ordinary families can receive affordable services. The Administration’s contribution-point system can reward the team for difficult or unprofitable work.
• New Administration policies allow registered peripheral investigators to earn points for resolving incidents and let Branch Administrations temporarily borrow investigators from nearby regions for a second reward.
• Chen Miao plans to share the Paper Figure Yin-Congealing Method with the team to strengthen their cultivation and unity. Other business ideas, such as selling talismans, are left for later.
• Ten days later, Yang Jiuhua successfully becomes a yin cultivator at Twin Ridge Mountain and demonstrates the Yin Blood Art, prompting envy among those still awaiting their breakthrough.
• Before Lunar New Year’s Eve, Chen Miao is surprised when Xiao Bai arrives at his office.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows himself to be a pragmatic leader: he welcomes Hua Jianming and Ji Hong’s expertise, balances commercial goals with fair treatment of ordinary families, and uses the Administration’s new policies to support the team.
• Hua Jianming and Ji Hong contribute most of the practical planning, especially on feng shui and funeral operations.
• Yang Jiuhua’s breakthrough marks a major step in his cultivation and inspires his colleagues.
• The group supports Chen Miao’s plans and works toward building Tianmen Funeral Home into a cohesive, capable organization. Chen Miao’s delight at seeing Xiao Bai hints at a meaningful reunion or new development.

Significant themes

• Balancing public image and supernatural identity: the funeral home must retain its unusual expertise while making ordinary visitors feel comfortable.
• Fairness and sustainability: the team aims to serve regular families affordably while earning income from wealthier clients and receiving official rewards for public service.
• Cooperation and growth: shared techniques, mutual aid, and flexible deployment help cultivators develop and meet wider challenges.

Plot points and events

• Xiao Bai visits Chen Miao after more than four months away. He reports that his master is recovering and should wake in about two months, once the soul crystal has taken effect.
• They discuss the Mortal World’s Soul-Inquiry Hall, which has enabled the Demon-Suppressing Bureau to capture dozens of Yin Cultivation practitioners. The captured souls may strengthen Heaven-Ascending Grandmasters, creating a serious threat to the real world’s practitioners.
• The Curse Cult has found a countermeasure for some entrants, but it works only for Grandmasters who enter through the normal Gate Knocking process—not for those using Aperture Keys. The Cult is also close to taking control of a town’s Demon-Suppressing Bureau, which could let its members enter and gather in the Mortal World with less risk.
• Rather than exploit Great Xia’s current crisis, the Curse Cult has used it to target weakened foreign organizations and acquire their scarce Aperture Keys. Xiao Bai has been occupied with these operations, and his special abilities make him especially valuable in the Mortal World.
• Chen invites Xiao Bai to stay for New Year’s Eve, but Xiao Bai declines because he has work to do. He came to give Chen an update and wish him a happy New Year.
• Wanting to give Xiao Bai a New Year’s present, Chen offers him a collection of cultivation arts and mystic arts. Xiao Bai is surprised by the unusual gift.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen’s affection for Xiao Bai has deepened: he now sees him as a child under his care, and worries about his weight and well-being. He understands more fully why elders sometimes struggle to express concern directly.
• Xiao Bai is a powerful, important figure within the Curse Cult, yet around Chen he can relax into the role of a cared-for child. Chen’s warmth comforts him, even as his obligations keep him from staying.
• Their conversation blends personal concern with strategic matters. Chen is delighted by the news of Xiao Bai’s master, while Xiao Bai appreciates Chen’s kindness and promises to bring his master back once he wakes.

Significant themes

• Family and belonging: Chen’s care offers Xiao Bai a home-like bond beyond his duties in the Cult.
• Duty versus personal connection: Xiao Bai wants to spend time with Chen but remains tied to the Cult’s work.
• Pragmatic power politics: The Curse Cult avoids reckless action during Great Xia’s crisis, instead pursuing strategic gains and preparing to expand into the Mortal World.
• Care expressed through action: Chen’s New Year gift—however unconventional—shows his affection when words alone are not enough.

Key plot points and events

• Xiao Bai declines most of Chen Miao’s cultivation manuals, saying his Yin-Yang Dharma Eye and Five Hells Immortal Body are already enough to focus on—and are still changing as he grows.
• At Chen Miao’s insistence, Xiao Bai chooses the Extreme Yin Corpse-Refining Secret Record, hoping it may help restore some flexibility to his master Zhong Cai’s zombie body. Chen Miao warns that the method is slow and could be risky, so Xiao Bai plans to test it first in the Mortal World using a substitute body.
• Chen Miao uses his Notebook to pass Xiao Bai the corpse-refining legacy and the Six Livestock Soul-Splitting Technique. He suggests Xiao Bai use it to control six zombies, potentially making him powerful enough to challenge all but a Heaven-Ascending Grandmaster.
• Xiao Bai is astonished by Chen Miao’s effortless transmission of knowledge and leaves before the Curse Cult grows suspicious. He takes only a few premium Mind-Clearing Talismans, since other talismans would likely be used up quickly within the cult.
• After seeing Xiao Bai off, Chen Miao feels unexpectedly lonely and wonders whether he is becoming like his own elder uncle. Meanwhile, a hidden observer watches the Funeral Home and declares that the Curse Dao’s Star Lord must have no weaknesses.

Character developments and interactions

• Xiao Bai shows restraint and a practical focus on mastering his existing abilities. His concern for Zhong Cai motivates his choice of legacy, and he approaches the risky experiment cautiously.
• Chen Miao acts as a generous mentor and protective uncle, but also has strategic reasons for helping: Xiao Bai’s future activities may bring Chen Miao rewards and intelligence through the Notebook’s side-story chapters. His farewell reveals growing attachment to Xiao Bai.
• Their relationship is warm and trusting: Chen Miao guides Xiao Bai, shares powerful techniques, and worries about the dangers he faces; Xiao Bai gratefully accepts the help.
• The unseen observer introduces a note of menace, suggesting that Xiao Bai’s importance—and possible vulnerabilities—are being watched.

Significant themes

• Power and its costs: Xiao Bai’s new techniques could greatly expand his strength, but experimenting on Zhong Cai carries serious risks.
• Family care mixed with self-interest: Chen Miao’s gift is sincere, yet he also benefits from the connection.
• Secrecy and surveillance: Xiao Bai must conceal his visit from the Curse Cult, while an unknown figure monitors the Funeral Home.
• Uncanny cultivation: Chen Miao’s direct transmission of knowledge is so extraordinary that even the Curse Cult’s standards make it seem mysterious.

Key plot points and events

• A wooden-faced assassin emerges from Chen Miao’s cabinet while he sleeps. He uses wooden spikes to form a cage around Chen and thrusts them inward.
• Chen is unharmed: the spikes shatter against him before they can pierce his skin. The assassin retreats into the cabinet, while Chen’s blood-red hair briefly spreads across the floor.
• Chen recognizes a spatial escape technique and wonders whether the attacker followed Xiao Bai. He suspects the Curse Cult has plans involving her.
• The attacker, Wan Chuan, reaches Twin Ridge Mountain after escaping without triggering Chen’s precautions. He reflects on his history as a highly successful assassin and the poison-infused wooden-spike technique he developed after failing to kill a monk.
• Wan Chuan realizes Chen’s extraordinary toughness means he is not an ordinary low-level practitioner. He speculates that Chen may belong to the Administration and considers reporting the possibility that Xiao Bai, the Star Lord of Ascending Life, has divided loyalties.

Character developments

• Chen Miao is revealed to possess immense physical durability and a blood-red hair ability. He remains composed after the attack, though he regrets the damage to his expensive mattress.
• Wan Chuan is confident in his assassination skill but unsettled by Chen’s resistance. His ambition to become a Star Lord shapes his interpretation of the encounter, and he begins considering how it might benefit his standing.

Significant themes

• Hidden strength and misjudgment: Chen’s apparent low cultivation rank conceals formidable physical power.
• Betrayal and suspicion: The mission focuses on Xiao Bai’s outside connections, and Wan Chuan quickly reframes Chen’s strength as possible evidence of divided loyalties.
• Assassination and adaptation: Wan Chuan’s history shows how he refined his methods after failure, while the failed attack highlights the limits of even carefully developed techniques.

Character interactions

• Wan Chuan attacks Chen while he sleeps, but Chen’s defenses and toughness defeat the attempt.
• Chen links the attack to Xiao Bai and the Curse Cult, while Wan Chuan independently interprets Chen’s strength as a reason to suspect Xiao Bai and report their connection.

Key plot points and events

• Wan Chuan prepares to escape into a tree using Wood Merging Art, intending to return once he has claimed the title “Life Bringer.”
• Chen Miao catches him by using False Speech to draw him out, then kills him with a punch through the chest before Wan Chuan can fight back.
• Chen Miao puts Wan Chuan’s body into his mirror space and checks his Notebook, gaining yin virtue, a memory fragment, and the arts Wood Merging Art and Gu Wood Art.
• He spends yin virtue to learn Wood Merging Art. It uses existing wood and costs less yin energy than Yin-Yang Mirror Escape, but lacks that art’s conjured mirrors and Mirror Realm.
• Chen Miao tests the technique, traveling through a tree across Twin Ridge River. Afterward, he absorbs Wan Chuan’s memory, raising his wood affinity and spatial resonance.
• The memory reveals that the Curse Cult currently means Xiao Bai no harm. Chen Miao concludes the cult may send another watcher when Xiao Bai visits, but expects to be free of his soul seal by then.

Character developments

• Chen Miao acts on a sudden protective impulse toward Xiao Bai, interpreting his violence as an “uncle’s anger.” He also treats Wan Chuan’s corpse as a potential resource rather than burning it.
• Chen Miao gains a new skill and develops wood affinity, improving his ability to use Wood Merging Art.
• Wan Chuan is revealed as skilled in wood-based techniques, but his confidence and escape plan fail when Chen Miao exploits his susceptibility to False Speech and his own spatial awareness.

Significant themes

• Protection and attachment: Chen Miao’s concern for Xiao Bai drives his decisive violence.
• Power through knowledge and adaptation: Chen Miao turns Wan Chuan’s death and memories into new abilities and information.
• Practicality and resourcefulness: Chen Miao values escape techniques, storage uses, and even the possible future use of corpses.
• Fate and preparation: The approaching end of Chen Miao’s hundred-day soul seal shapes his expectations about confronting the Curse Cult.

Character interactions

• Wan Chuan initially looks down on Chen Miao and plans to return later, but Chen Miao interrupts his escape and kills him.
• Chen Miao’s thoughts repeatedly frame his actions around protecting Xiao Bai, though Xiao Bai is absent from the confrontation.
• The memory fragment gives Chen Miao insight into the Curse Cult’s intentions and helps him anticipate its next move.

Plot and key events

• After Xiao Bai leaves, Chen Miao spends New Year with his relatives and friends in Tianmen County. He meets their families and gives them protective Peachwood Talismans.
• Xiang Shang and Li Zi marry on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month; Chen Miao’s cousin Chen Muqing and Shao Qidong marry three days later. Chen Miao serves as a groomsman at one wedding and helps bar the door at the other, enjoying the latter—and the red envelopes.
• Seeing his friends and cousin build peaceful lives strengthens Chen Miao’s resolve to train the Yin Cultivators at the Tianmen Funeral Home so they can protect that peace.
• Two months later, Chen Miao watches the progress of his Hundred-Day Soul Seal, which remains stuck at 99/100.
• During those two months, Yang Jiuhua, Li Zi, Ji Mo, and Luo Zhiyong all enter Yin after opening their Apertures on Twin Ridge Mountain. Yin Energy there reaches alarming levels.

Wider developments

• Yin Energy is rising across Great Xia: its concentration is now 4 in Tianmen County, 8 outside it, and 12 on Twin Ridge Mountain. At around 10, ordinary locations become Yin Ground, where Talismans can be drawn—but prolonged exposure threatens ordinary people.
• Great Xia’s limited supply of Yin-Cleansing Formations cannot protect all its cities. The government therefore promotes a simplified Vital Blood cultivation exercise nationwide, officially as a fitness routine, while also installing special streetlights and materials that provide or store Yang Energy to slow Yin Energy’s rise, especially in rural areas. These measures help, but cannot replace the Formations.
• With Yin Energy at 8, Ghosts are becoming much more common: roughly one in ten accidental deaths may produce one. Administration branches across the country are overwhelmed—except Tianmen’s, which is notably an exception.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from enjoying family celebrations to recognizing what his work is meant to safeguard. The weddings deepen his commitment to defending ordinary life.
• He interacts warmly with the families of his friends, sharing talismans as a practical gesture of care. At the weddings, he playfully tests the groomsmen at the door and takes pride in his role.
• His newly trained companions’ progress offers a hopeful counterpoint to the national crisis, though the growing danger around Twin Ridge Mountain remains troubling.

Significant themes

• Protecting ordinary life: Personal milestones such as weddings give Chen Miao a clearer reason to keep training others.
• Collective resilience and state intervention: Great Xia uses mass exercise, infrastructure, and formations to confront a threat too large for any single measure.
• Unequal limits of protection: Yin-Cleansing Formations are scarce, and even extensive preparations may not keep pace with the changing world.
• A looming supernatural crisis: Rising Yin Energy increases both environmental danger and the likelihood of Ghosts forming.

Plot points and events

• After two relatively quiet months in Tianmen County, four supernatural incidents occur. The Administration handles three; the fourth, at Tianmen Funeral Home’s North Branch, is transferred to the main branch.
• Chen Miao and the funeral-home team conduct their first Complete Traditional Funeral Service. Chen leads the mourning rites, Wang Wei retrieves the escaped ghost, and Shi Manman suppresses it inside her own body. The deceased’s family, initially angry about the transfer, cooperate after witnessing the team’s abilities. The five yin cultivators involved each receive five contribution points.
• Chen spends the two months studying the Ghost-Blinding Formation, installing it at the North Branch and developing rules that help ordinary employees avoid ghosts. He creates unusual but protective employee rules for both funeral-home branches and establishes rules for ghosts kept at Twin Ridge Mountain.
• Trainee investigators have had limited experience so far. Chen plans to let them—and Xiang Shang’s group—practice handling the contained ghosts.
• Chen suddenly senses that his perception has sharpened. The Hundred-Day Soul Seal has vanished, leaving only the Blood Pupil’s Mark. His Mystic Mirror can now reach 200 meters, and his Nethermist Domain can cover all of Twin Ridge Mountain.
• He discovers that his Heavenly Spirit Yin Aperture is full, putting him at the peak of Aperture Cultivation and one step from the Netherworld Realm. He suspects the soul seal may have protected him by forcing him to rest while his soul body healed.
• Curious about returning to the Mortal World, Chen enters his Aperture Key and sees the gate. He then notices a new chapter in Notes on Achieving Divinity in the Mortal World, suggesting that entering would lead to danger—but he remains eager to find out what might kill him.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen grows stronger while refining practical ways to protect employees and control ghosts. Despite his breakthrough, he chooses curiosity about the Mortal World over immediately pursuing the next cultivation stage.
• Wang Wei, Shi Manman, Hua Jianming, and Ji Hong each contribute to the funeral service, demonstrating the team’s coordinated abilities. The family’s fear replaces its anger, and its cooperation helps the five-day service conclude smoothly.
• Chen intends to give the trainee investigators more hands-on experience, showing his interest in developing their confidence and competence.

Significant themes

• Protection through rules: Chen’s formations and employee protocols turn knowledge of supernatural threats into practical safeguards.
• Rest and recovery: The soul seal, though presented as a negative status, may have protected Chen and enabled his recovery and growth.
• Duty and teamwork: The successful funeral service depends on each yin cultivator fulfilling a distinct role.
• Curiosity and risk: Chen is tempted to enter the Mortal World despite a clear warning that doing so may end badly.