Chapter Summaries

Plot and key events

• Chen Miao proposes using the Great Compassion Soul-Sealing Original Vow Sutra to suppress Zhong Cai’s yin energy by inscribing it directly on his body, making Zhong Cai function like a Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet.
• Xiao Bai warns that the scripture might restrict Zhong Cai’s abilities or prevent his soul from leaving his body.
• Chen Miao explains a workaround: Zhong Cai can rearrange his muscles to activate the inscription and shift them back to deactivate it.
• Chen Miao draws the scripture on Zhong Cai’s back, but the resulting field fails to conceal all of Zhong Cai’s yin energy. Rather than add another inscription and impose excessive restrictions, Chen Miao wipes it off.
• He retrieves Old Ghost, a former Curse Cult Yin Tattooist he captured, and proposes having him tattoo the scripture as a yin mark instead. Zhong Cai agrees, and Old Ghost begins.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows his growing skill and resourcefulness, adapting an old technique to solve Zhong Cai’s problem and changing course when the first attempt proves inadequate.
• Xiao Bai acts protectively toward Zhong Cai, raising practical concerns about the inscription’s effects.
• Zhong Cai is willing to trust Chen Miao’s plan and agrees to the tattooing.
• Old Ghost’s intimidating appearance contrasts with his fearful deference toward Xiao Bai, who was once his victim. His relief at Zhong Cai’s approval suggests how thoroughly he now fears the group.

Significant themes

• Adaptation and experimentation: Chen Miao repurposes familiar spiritual techniques and revises his approach when they fall short.
• Trust and consent: The plan affects Zhong Cai’s body and abilities, so Chen Miao explains the risks and waits for approval.
• Power and reversal: Old Ghost’s past cruelty contrasts with his present subservience, while Xiao Bai’s survival has changed their power dynamic.

Plot points and events

• Old Ghost completes a new yin-mark technique on Zhong Cai. After first tattooing his back, he presses a ghost against it; the marks absorb the ghost and reveal a scripture, producing a Soul-Suppressing Field.
• The field initially spreads across nearly half the mountaintop, then contracts and reshapes itself to cling closely to Zhong Cai. Zhong Cai can control its size.
• Old Ghost explains that the ghost has become an unconscious soul bound within the yin mark, serving as its core. His method combines ideas from the Mortal World’s Ghost Body legacy with the Yin Mark Spirit-Transference Formula.
• Chen Miao praises Old Ghost and lets him return to his research with the Soul Corpse. Old Ghost departs in the form of a sheet of human skin carried by the wind.
• Chen Miao asks Zhong Cai and Xiao Bai how long they will remain in Tianmen County. Zhong Cai leaves the decision to Xiao Bai.
• Just as Zhong Cai’s treatment appears complete, Old Ghost rushes back to the mountain. Three newcomers arrive below, and Chen Miao recognizes one: a smiling man who introduces himself as “Smiling Face.”

Character developments and interactions

• Old Ghost proves far more skilled and inventive than Chen Miao had realized, adapting his research into a practical, controllable ability. He remains wary of Chen Miao’s power and eager to return to his studies.
• Chen Miao gains new respect for Old Ghost and immediately sees a possible combat use for Zhong Cai’s field: drawing nearby ghosts toward him.
• Zhong Cai adjusts to his restored condition and is pleased with how easily he can control the field. His concern for Xiao Bai remains central to his choices.
• Xiao Bai is present during the demonstration and watches Old Ghost’s technique closely.
• Shi Manman, despite her own experience with needles, is impressed by Old Ghost’s speed and precision.
• The closing arrival of Smiling Face abruptly shifts the scene from Zhong Cai’s recovery to a potentially significant encounter.

Significant themes

• Ingenuity through adaptation: Old Ghost makes progress by combining incomplete knowledge with other techniques.
• Power and visibility: Zhong Cai’s field could expose him to other yin cultivators, but his ability to contract it helps address that risk.
• Loyalty and responsibility: Zhong Cai’s likely unwillingness to leave Xiao Bai shapes Chen Miao’s expectations.
• Unexpected developments: The sudden return of Old Ghost and arrival of Smiling Face leave the chapter on a cliffhanger.

Key plot points and events

• A year earlier, Chen Miao destroyed a Flesh Buddha at the Thank Heaven Bathing Center. The incident gave him the Soul Shrine Crafting Method and Soul-Splitting Projection Technique, and brought him into contact with a smiling member of the Curse Buddha Lineage.
• Three powerful bald Curse Buddha members arrive at Twin Ridge Mountain. Old Ghost warns Chen Miao, but Xiao Bai clarifies they are not the pursuers he recently evaded.
• The intruders capture several Ghosts on the mountain. Chen Miao responds by spreading his Nethermist Domain, recalling his Ghosts, and attacking with arrows formed from Yin-Energy hair.
• The attack fails against the three black Buddha apparitions surrounding the newcomers. The apparitions charge up the mountain, crushing everything in their path.
• Chen Miao sends Shi Manman through a mirror to safety. Old Ghost remains beside him.
• The newcomers reach the summit and are identified by Xiao Bai as the Southern Curse Buddha School’s three Bodhisattvas of Joy, Anger, and Sorrow.
• Xiao Bai launches his Five Prisons Marks, but a three-faced Buddha statue emerges from a case on the Sorrowful Bodhisattva’s back and draws the marks onto itself. The three Bodhisattvas greet Xiao Bai as the “Star Lord of Ascending Life” and wish for his evil karma to endure.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains calm despite Old Ghost’s alarm, but reacts decisively when the Bodhisattvas threaten the Ghosts he must return to the Administration.
• Old Ghost’s loyalty is reinforced: he prefers Chen Miao’s protection and opportunities to study Yin Marks over the danger of falling into the Curse Buddha Lineage’s hands.
• Xiao Bai demonstrates knowledge of the Curse Buddha hierarchy and recognizes the Bodhisattvas. His attack is immediately countered, exposing the visitors’ preparation.
• Shi Manman follows Chen Miao’s order to escape without hesitation.
• The exchange between the Bodhisattvas and Xiao Bai suggests a personal or factional connection, though its meaning is not yet explained.

Significant themes

• Power and preparedness: Chen Miao’s formidable domain and attack are ineffective against the Bodhisattvas’ defenses.
• Protection and responsibility: Chen Miao’s response is driven partly by his obligation to safeguard and return the Ghosts.
• Hidden histories and affiliations: The visitors’ greeting hints at a deeper relationship between Xiao Bai and the Curse Cult’s factions.

Key plot points and events

• Xiao Bai’s Five Prisons Mark fails against the black Three-Faced Buddha statue, confirming that the statue prevents both his mark and Yin-Yang Dharma Eye from targeting the three Bodhisattvas directly.
• Zhong Cai attacks the Wrathful Bodhisattva but is blocked. Though the Bodhisattva withstands his charge, Zhong Cai tears flesh from his arms and absorbs the resulting blood mist to heal himself—revealing the advantage of his Flying Jiangshi endurance.
• Chen Miao and Xiao Bai coordinate: Chen Miao vanishes into the mist while Xiao Bai stirs the mountain’s scattered yin energy into a tornado, disrupting the Joyful and Sorrowful Bodhisattvas’ perception and creating an opening.
• The Joyful Bodhisattva transforms into a 2.5-meter-tall monster and attacks Xiao Bai. His palm strike disperses the mist and knocks Xiao Bai off balance.
• The Joyful Bodhisattva detects Chen Miao’s spatial disturbance, identifies him as the “benefactor” associated with his destroyed shrine, and locates him despite his concealment.
• Chen Miao is revealed as a towering, fiery-red beast, gripping the Joyful Bodhisattva’s arm. The Bodhisattva’s smile finally falters.

Character developments

• Xiao Bai recognizes that the black Buddha statue neutralizes his strongest abilities. Rather than attack the Bodhisattvas directly, he adapts by supporting Chen Miao and disrupting their senses.
• Zhong Cai demonstrates both formidable strength and the regenerative, blood-draining advantage of a Flying Jiangshi, though the Wrathful Bodhisattva proves exceptionally durable.
• Chen Miao moves from concealed support to direct confrontation, revealing a powerful transformed form and confronting the Joyful Bodhisattva with confidence.
• The Joyful Bodhisattva shifts from friendly persuasion to monstrous aggression. His composure cracks when Chen Miao takes hold of him.

Significant themes

• Preparation versus adaptability: The Bodhisattvas’ statue counters Xiao Bai’s established powers, forcing him and Chen Miao to rely on teamwork and alternate tactics.
• Hidden strength and underestimated opponents: The Bodhisattvas discount Chen Miao, only to discover that he is far more dangerous than they assumed.
• Predator and prey reversed: The Bodhisattvas arrive intending to capture Xiao Bai, but Chen Miao’s emergence turns the encounter against them.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao silently coordinates with Xiao Bai, who understands and follows his plan.
• Zhong Cai engages the Wrathful Bodhisattva in a brutal exchange, injuring him while using his blood to recover.
• The Joyful Bodhisattva tries to persuade Xiao Bai to come willingly, then attacks when he receives no response.
• The Joyful Bodhisattva recognizes Chen Miao as the one responsible for his lost shrine and confronts him—only for Chen Miao to seize his arm and taunt him about losing his smile.

Plot points and events

• The Flame Giant Ape (Chen Miao) humiliates the Joyful Bodhisattva by striking him and demanding he stop smiling. The Bodhisattva’s shifting emotions—joy, wrath, and sorrow—make him grow stronger, but blood-red hair from a broken Three-Faced Black Buddha statue restrains him.
• The Sorrowful Bodhisattva breaks the statue and flees. Xiao Bai drains the Joyful Bodhisattva’s yin energy, weakening him; the Flame Giant Ape then kills him.
• Xiao Bai’s Five Prisons Marks leave the Wrathful Bodhisattva engulfed in fire. At Chen Miao’s request, Xiao Bai stops short of killing him, but Chen Miao then burns him to death himself.
• Shi Manman returns through a mirror realm with the captured Sorrowful Bodhisattva. Xiao Bai declines to interrogate him and asks Chen Miao to kill him; Chen Miao burns him and the Joyful Bodhisattva’s remains, restoring the summit.
• Chen Miao concludes the three Bodhisattvas came because of the Mortal World. Xiao Bai and Zhong Cai decide to leave for the Southern Curse Dao School’s base, where they will be safer. They depart without a farewell, leaving Chen Miao to wonder whether greater strength could have kept them there. He checks the Notebook and resolves to go to the Mortal World.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows force and control in battle, but his concern for Xiao Bai and Zhong Cai becomes clear when their departure leaves him feeling powerless. He accepts their practical reasoning and turns toward the Mortal World.
• Xiao Bai decisively helps defeat the Bodhisattvas, then chooses safety over remaining with Chen Miao. He refuses to waste time interrogating the captive.
• Zhong Cai supports Xiao Bai’s decision and explains that staying would expose everyone to further attacks.
• The Bodhisattvas are overcome: the Joyful Bodhisattva’s emotional instability first empowers him, then leaves him vulnerable; the Wrathful Bodhisattva is killed; and the fleeing Sorrowful Bodhisattva is captured and executed.
• Shi Manman brings the captive back through the mirror realm, while Old Ghost—too frightened to stay—leaves with her.

Significant themes

• Power and helplessness: Chen Miao can win the fight, but still cannot protect his companions from the larger threat.
• Emotion as both strength and weakness: The Joyful Bodhisattva’s shifting feelings increase his power but make him unstable.
• Protection through separation: Xiao Bai and Zhong Cai leave not from lack of loyalty, but to reduce danger to themselves and Chen Miao.
• Resolve after loss: Chen Miao’s regret becomes a decision to pursue the Mortal World and confront the threat directly.

Chapter 21: “Neither Joy, Nor Anger, Nor Sorrow”

Key plot points

• After defeating the three Curse Cult bodhisattvas of joy, anger, and sorrow, Chen Miao receives yin virtue, three Memory Fragments, and two legacies.
• Flesh Is Frail, Deliverance Sutra teaches cultivation methods and the Flesh Buddha Body, which grows stronger by refining other people’s bodies and souls. Though it claims that a Buddha body can ascend after a century of worship, Chen Miao doubts this promise.
• Steal Heaven, Replace Buddha lets its user create a Buddha statue from part of a target’s soul. The statue can divert certain soul-targeting mystic arts and, when fused with other statues, transfer power between linked people. Its key weakness is that the statue must be protected.
• Chen Miao recognizes that the bodhisattvas’ need to guard their statue constrained them during the fight. He also wonders whether storing such a statue in the Mirror Realm could protect him from some soul-targeting attacks, and plans to test the idea.
• Chen Miao goes to the Funeral Home to absorb the three Memory Fragments. During the six hours he is occupied, Xiao Bai and Zhong Cai return to collect their companions.
• They discover that one companion has been captured by the Administration. Its rapidly deployed reinforcements overwhelmed the group despite their speed and concealment.
• Xiao Bai warns that their journey back may be dangerous, mentioning his encounter with the three bodhisattvas. Before the others can question him, a voice asks whether the Star Lord of Ascending Life is present.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao studies the new techniques analytically, questioning the Sutra’s claims and identifying the practical limits of the Buddha-statue art. His thoughts also show growing concern about strengthening himself.
• Xiao Bai has successfully survived the bodhisattvas’ attack, but offers his companions little explanation. His warning heightens their anxiety.
• Zhong Cai and the two remaining companions are shaken by Xiao Bai’s revelation and the Administration’s growing strength. Their reunion quickly turns tense as they anticipate further danger.

Significant themes

• Power and sacrifice: The Flesh Buddha Body gains strength through killing and consuming others, disguising brutality as spiritual “deliverance.”
• Faith versus skepticism: Chen Miao doubts a promised path to ascension that conflicts with what he knows about cultivation.
• The limits of power: The Buddha-statue technique is potent but creates a vulnerability that opponents can exploit.
• Escalating danger: The Administration’s rapid reinforcements and the mysterious new visitor suggest that neither side can assume safety.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao watches the three Memory Fragments and learns Joy, Anger, and Sorrow are triplet brothers who survived a ruined childhood by relying on one another.
• A monk from the Curse Buddha Lineage takes them as disciples. Once they become Wayfarers, they realize he sees them as ingredients for a yin artifact, not as people. They alert the Administration, then kill him after he returns gravely wounded. His belongings confirm their special shared talent: soul fusion.
• The brothers rise through the Curse Buddha ranks using that talent. A Nine Luminaries Buddha offers them the chance to earn promotion together into a single Nine Luminaries seat. They receive the mystic art Steal Heaven, Replace Buddha and a way to locate the Star Lord of Ascending Life, leading to the battle atop Twin Ridge Mountain.
• From the memories, Chen Miao realizes Xiao Bai may be pursued by other Curse Buddha members. He regrets not giving Xiao Bai a Soul Shrine for instant communication, but cannot reach him now.
• Chen Miao gains the combined third-tier status Soul fusion. Testing it on a Soul Shrine, he discovers he can transfer soul power between his main body and its split soul. If the split soul grows beyond half his soul power, their consciousnesses switch bodies: the Shrine’s split soul becomes his “original,” while his physical body becomes a clone. He reverses the transfer and begins considering the status’s limits and a possible important use.

Character developments and interactions

• The brothers’ childhood hardship binds them tightly together. Their shared suspicion of their master leads them to expose him to the Administration and ultimately kill him, leaving them with only one another’s trust.
• Their master’s apparent warmth proves to conceal exploitation: he intends to harvest their soul bodies for personal advancement.
• Chen Miao shifts from learning about the brothers to worrying about Xiao Bai’s safety. His experiment with Soul fusion reveals a potentially profound change to how he understands his own body and consciousness.

Significant themes

• Trust and betrayal: The brothers’ only mentor plans to use them, deepening their distrust of outsiders.
• Survival through solidarity: Their shared talent and loyalty make the triplets powerful and enable them to advance together.
• Identity and embodiment: Soul fusion blurs the boundary between original and clone, body and consciousness.
• The cost of ambition: The brothers’ rise depends on a dangerous mission, while their former master’s ambition turns his disciples into intended sacrificial tools.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao tests his Soul Fusion ability and confirms it has a built-in limit that prevents him from transferring enough soul power to destroy his main soul.
• Through his Twin Birth connection, he can fuse with a ghost. If he transfers more soul power than the ghost possesses, he gains control of it; that control remains as long as he leaves the transferred soul power in place.
• He realizes Soul Fusion functions much like possession and considers whether it could be used indirectly on people through the “Steal Heaven, Replace Buddha” technique and a shared Buddha statue.
• He successfully controls a ghost and makes it invite his split soul to descend. When the ghost summons protective power by burning offerings, that power burns the ghost’s own soul but leaves Chen Miao’s fused soul untouched. By placing his soul on the ghost’s exterior, he creates the seemingly impossible sight of a ghost surrounded by yang-aspected protective power.
• He upgrades Soul Body Perception through Soul Body Resonance to the third-tier status Spirit Communication. This lets him see and physically draw a soul body out of the Five Prisons Common-Faced God Shrine, despite its soul-restraining formation.
• Before testing how Spirit Communication might help him enter the Mortal World, he receives an Administration alert about a Curse Cult conflict near Shannan City. The accompanying image includes Xiao Bai and Zhong Cai.

Character developments

• Chen Miao becomes more confident in his ability to manipulate and control soul bodies, while carefully testing the limits and dangers of his powers.
• His discoveries suggest new possibilities for controlling others and resolving a problem in the Mortal World without using Soul-Dissolving Water.

Significant themes

• Power through experimentation: Chen Miao methodically tests abilities, uncovering both their safeguards and risks.
• Possession and control: Soul Fusion blurs the line between connection and domination.
• Unexpected coexistence: Chen Miao’s fused soul can withstand protective power that destroys the ghost hosting it, producing an apparent contradiction between yin and yang.
• Escalating capability: The new status expands Chen Miao’s influence from sensing souls to physically manipulating them.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao experiments on ghosts connected through Twin Birth, controlling them and testing how they respond to soul fusion and protective power.
• He reflects on the earlier relationship between the Joyful and Sorrowful Bodhisattvas and considers whether their shared abilities enabled possession.
• The Administration’s alert introduces Xiao Bai and Zhong Cai as figures connected to a potentially significant Curse Cult conflict.

Key plot points

• Chen Miao examines a photo showing Xiao Bai and Zhong Cai fighting alongside the Curse Cult’s Star Lord Rank Controller against a powerful Curse Buddha Buddha.
• An internal Shannan City Administration report confirms that the Buddha overwhelmed all three and abducted Xiao Bai. The other two pursued him into the mountains, but the Administration lost track of them.
• Chen Miao concludes Xiao Bai is likely being taken alive to the Curse Buddha’s territory in the Mortal World. The incident makes him fear what might happen if his own circumstances were discovered.
• Determined to become stronger, Chen Miao enters the Aperture Pearl and performs another round of gate knocking. A new Notebook entry appears to offer a way to resolve the Soul-Inquiry Hall issue.
• Over the next several days, he manages his growing Blood Gate operations. With too many Apostles entering missions and too few souls to serve them, he prioritizes marked [Elite] Apostles and limits responses to others.
• He also sends novice yin cultivators from the Tianmen Funeral Home on supervised group expeditions to nearby villages, giving each a Blood Pupil disguised as a golden elixir for protection.
• On the tenth day, Chen Miao rolls an identity that interests him and, that evening, opens the door to the Mortal World.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from concern for Xiao Bai to anxiety about his own vulnerability, then responds with resolve: he needs greater strength and must stop delaying his plans.
• Xiao Bai is revealed to have been captured, though Chen Miao reasons the Curse Buddha’s faction wants him alive.
• Zhong Cai and the Star Lord Rank Controller survive the confrontation and pursue the Buddha, but their fate remains unknown.
• Chen Miao takes a protective, managerial role toward his friends and the funeral-home trainees, balancing their safety against the limits of his soul power.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: Even a prominent figure like Xiao Bai can be seized, underscoring the danger Chen Miao faces.
• Preparation and risk: Chen Miao strengthens his position before entering the Mortal World, while carefully managing scarce resources.
• Protection and secrecy: He equips trusted companions for dangerous work but conceals the Blood Pupils’ true nature from the Administration.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao wakes in the Mortal World under the identity of Chen Ergou, an eighteen-year-old orphan staying at the Cangzhou Kong Clan’s estate.
• He reviews the history he learned from the Notebook and Blood Gate Apostles: Ergou’s ancestor secretly supplied bamboo to the Kong Paper Effigies when rival families tried to cut off their materials. That support helped the Kong Clan seize Cangzhou’s paper-effigy trade and establish its long dominance.
• Ergou’s father was mortally injured after offending another yin-cultivation family and brought his son to the Kong estate for protection before dying.
• Chen Miao knows that the Kong Third Master plans to recommend Ergou for the Cangzhou Demon-Suppressing Bureau, provided Ergou passes the Third Master’s questioning and the Soul-Inquiry Hall’s scrutiny.
• Having washed and rehearsed Ergou’s identity, Chen Miao is escorted to meet the Third Master and formally pays his respects. The chapter ends as their meeting begins.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao carefully prepares to inhabit Ergou’s life, memorizing the family history and reminding himself, “I am Chen Ergou.” His choice reflects a desire for a safer, more independent path.
• The Kong Clan values Ergou’s ancestral loyalty but has little need for his modest cultivation or inherited bamboo craft. The Third Master’s proposed bureau position offers Ergou a practical future rather than further training within the clan.
• Chen Miao recognizes the Third Master’s resemblance to Kong Xunzhen, his former-life master, and reflects on the strange connection between his past and present lives.
• The chapter establishes a polite but consequential relationship between Chen Miao and the Kong Third Master: the latter is both a potential patron and a source of scrutiny.

Significant themes

• Identity and performance: Chen Miao must convincingly assume another person’s history and personality.
• Loyalty and legacy: The Chen ancestor’s support shaped the Kong Clan’s rise, creating a debt that still affects Ergou’s fate.
• Pragmatism and opportunity: Chen Miao chooses an identity that offers relative security, status, and room to cultivate.
• Continuity across lives: The encounter links Chen Miao’s present circumstances to his former-life master.

Key plot points and events

• Third Master Kong questions Chen Miao about his identity and cultivation. He renames him Chen Yang, and Chen accepts without protest.
• Kong reveals that the men who hunted Chen and his father have been captured. Chen chooses to have them killed immediately rather than save his revenge for himself, explaining that sending them to his father’s grave matters more to him than personally taking revenge.
• Kong says he plans to recommend Chen for the Demon-Suppressing Bureau. Chen remains firm in his choice even after learning this could affect his future.
• Kong probes the history of the Chen and Kong families. Chen carefully recounts how the Chen family helped the Kongs survive a past crisis, while downplaying his own family’s contribution. His account calms Kong’s suspicions and helps establish trust.
• After questioning Chen about his family’s inherited craft and background, Kong begins explaining the arrangements for Chen’s Bureau assessment. Their conversation is interrupted when Kong Xunzhen arrives.
• As Chen leaves, he sees Xunzhen and uses [Clearheart] to suppress his emotional reaction. Xunzhen glances at him without recognition and enters the courtyard.

Character developments

• Chen Miao/Chen Yang presents himself as obedient and measured, but acts strategically. He adapts his answers to avoid arousing suspicion while learning more about his identity and situation.
• His choice to have his father’s killers executed shows that his grief and desire for closure outweigh any personal wish to deliver vengeance himself.
• Third Master Kong moves from testing Chen warily to warming to him. Chen’s composed answers, knowledge of family history, and respectful flattery help lower Kong’s guard.

Significant themes

• Revenge and grief: Chen prioritizes ensuring his father’s killers die over taking vengeance personally.
• Identity and reinvention: Chen accepts a new name and navigates a life whose events are beginning to diverge from the Notebook’s record.
• Trust, deception, and social maneuvering: Both men probe one another, while Chen uses selective truth and tact to preserve his standing.
• Family legacy and obligation: The families’ old debt shapes Chen’s treatment and the conversation about their shared history.

Character interactions

• Chen and Third Master Kong: Their exchange begins as an interrogation, develops into a discussion of revenge and ancestral ties, and ends with Kong more trusting of Chen.
• Chen and Kong Xunzhen: They do not speak, but their brief encounter is emotionally charged for Chen; he conceals his reaction, while Xunzhen passes him without apparent recognition.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao returns to his room after unexpectedly encountering Kong Xunzhen in Cangzhou. He sets aside questions about Kong’s situation, reasoning that his immediate priority is joining the Demon-Suppressing Bureau.
• He checks the Notebook’s revised account of events. Though the changes have altered his route into the Bureau, it still predicts that he will be exposed and killed during testing at the Soul-Inquiry Hall.
• Determined to remove the remnant soul inside him, Chen Miao prepares carefully: he activates Deep Ravine Breath Concealment to hide his spiritual fluctuations, then uses Spirit Communion to locate the soul fragment in his left arm. He also cloaks himself in mist to avoid being clearly observed.
• Using Soul-Splitting Technique, False Speech, and Twin Birth, he draws the remnant soul out of his arm. Soul Fusion lets him infuse it with his own soul power until he can separate it from his body.
• Rather than destroy the remnant soul, Chen Miao uses Blood Pupil, the Five Prisons Common-Faced Deity Lord’s ritual objects, and the Five Prisons Common-Faced God Shrine to summon the remaining soul portion from his original body. The summoned fragment is placed inside the Notebook, where it fails to return after the ritual ends.
• With the fragment contained, Chen Miao allows the separated soul to rejoin the body. The chapter ends with “Chen Ergou” opening his eyes, his soul and physical form now aligned—what Chen Miao calls “true possession.”

Character development

• Chen Miao acts with patience and caution, prioritizing secrecy and planning over curiosity about Kong Xunzhen.
• His growing mastery of linked states and ritual techniques allows him to solve a problem that ordinary practitioners would likely address by destroying the remnant soul.
• By the end, he has achieved a genuine possession of Chen Ergou’s body, making the distinction between Chen Miao and his new identity more consequential.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao briefly reflects on his surprising encounter with Kong Xunzhen but chooses not to pursue him yet.
• His main interaction is with the remnant soul: he draws it out, joins it to his soul power, and ultimately arranges for the other soul fragment to be trapped in the Notebook.

Significant themes

• Identity and possession: The chapter explores what makes a body and soul truly belong together.
• Preparation and control: Chen Miao survives by anticipating danger and carefully combining abilities and ritual tools.
• Changing fate: The Notebook’s account changes with events, but it still warns of a deadly test, motivating Chen Miao to take action before entering the Bureau.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Cang, patriarch of the Chen Family, senses incense smoke in Cangzhou’s capital that does not belong to his family. He orders Chen Su to investigate the newcomer’s lineage.
• Chen Su reports that Chen Xian found no other incense practitioners at the site where the Blood-Haired Fiend had appeared. He did learn that a powerful Incense-Burning Heir once visited Jiangya County, but no one knows who it was.
• Chen Cang suspects the heir may have been a lone practitioner whose family’s incense tradition died out. He wonders whether the Blood-Haired Fiend could have acquired the heir’s inheritance, while Chen Su considers that unlikely. Chen Cang cautions that even an Otherworldly Fiend receiving an incense inheritance cannot be ruled out, then tells Chen Su to prioritize the disturbance in the capital.
• At the Kong Residence, Kong Yunshuo encourages the recently returned Kong Xunzhen to keep helping the Chen Family search for the Blood-Haired Fiend, since the effort could strengthen ties and help Xunzhen regain his place in the family.
• Yunshuo offers Xunzhen’s brother-in-law, Li Zhou, a place in the Demon-Suppressing Bureau. Though Kong Family members consider such assignments a dead end, it could give Li Zhou a useful opportunity and help him build a career.
• Yunshuo says Kong Yue and Chen Yang will also be sent to the Bureau. Chen Yang’s struggling Bamboo-Weaver Chen Family had sought help only as a last resort, so the Kong Family intends to repay its past kindness by arranging a position for him. Yunshuo asks Xunzhen to encourage the three to support one another.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Cang is unsettled by the possibility that an Otherworldly Fiend could receive an inheritance, revealing his anxiety about forces beyond ordinary expectations.
• Chen Su follows his ancestor’s orders and offers a reasoned, skeptical assessment of the Blood-Haired Fiend’s possible connection to the incense heir.
• Kong Xunzhen shows gratitude toward Yunshuo and concern about placing his impetuous brother-in-law in the Kong Family. He accepts the Bureau opportunity and is eager to return to his wife, who waited for him for over ten years.
• Kong Yunshuo acts as a mentor and family intermediary: he seeks to restore Xunzhen’s standing, advises him to honor his wife’s loyalty, and arranges opportunities for Li Zhou and Chen Yang.
• The chapter links the two families’ concerns: the Chen and Kong families both manage relationships and obligations while confronting uncertain threats.

Significant themes

• The unpredictable nature of inheritance and power: Chen Cang refuses to dismiss the possibility that even a fiend could gain an incense-burning legacy.
• Family loyalty and reciprocity: The Kong Family’s support for Chen Yang honors the Bamboo-Weaver Chen Family’s past kindness, while Xunzhen is reminded to value his wife’s devotion.
• Status versus opportunity: The Demon-Suppressing Bureau is a low-prestige assignment within the Kong Family, yet it may offer outsiders such as Li Zhou and Chen Yang a chance to advance.
• Strategic alliances: The search for the Blood-Haired Fiend also serves as a way to maintain ties between the Chen and Kong families.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao spends three quiet days at the Kong Residence, carefully keeping to his cover as a grieving orphan. He returns to reality twice to make arrangements before committing to a longer stay in the Mortal World.
• He must remain absent from reality to pass the Demon-Suppressing Bureau’s third screening stage: a surprise test conducted when yin and yang converge. Returning to his real body at that moment previously left it unresponsive and landed him in the bureau’s prison.
• To keep his unattended body safe, Chen entrusts its protection to his split soul in a shrine and arranges for nutrient solution from the Administration, with his disciple Shi Manman overseeing its upkeep. His split soul cannot manage bodily functions such as digestion and elimination.
• Kong Yunshuo summons Chen and introduces him to Kong Yue and Li Zhou, the other two people being sent to the Demon-Suppressing Bureau on the Kong Family’s recommendation.
• Kong Yunshuo warns them that they represent the family and must avoid mistakes. Kong Yue will enter as a Junior Banner Officer, while Chen and Li Zhou will serve under her as one unit.
• Chen promptly pledges his loyalty to Kong Yue, recognizing that her status and protection could help him survive in an institution he knows little about. Li Zhou follows with his own declaration, but only after Chen has spoken first.
• The three depart for the Demon-Suppressing Bureau. Chen feels as if he has finished a tutorial and is beginning the real game, though he knows the danger is real.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows caution and strategic thinking, preparing for the screening’s hidden stages and for the risks of leaving his real body unattended. He adapts quickly to the Kong Family’s hierarchy and offers Kong Yue support for practical reasons.
• Kong Yunshuo demonstrates his formidable cultivation by overwhelming the recruits with his soul pressure, then balances intimidation with promises of rewards and advice to cooperate.
• Kong Yue receives authority over the group as a Junior Banner Officer and accepts Chen’s pledge.
• Li Zhou appears nervous at first and later imitates Chen’s pledge, regretting that he was not the first to do so.

Significant themes

• Surveillance and preparedness: The bureau’s screening is deliberately deceptive, forcing Chen to anticipate checks beyond the announced procedures.
• Loyalty and hierarchy: The recruits are presented as a team, but their relationships are shaped by Kong Yue’s rank and the Kong Family’s influence.
• Pragmatism and survival: Chen’s allegiance is sincere enough to be useful, but primarily reflects his calculation that cooperation and protection will keep him safe.
• Reality versus game-like framing: Chen’s “tutorial” metaphor marks his transition into a more serious and uncertain phase of life.

Key plot points

• Chen Miao, Li Zhou, and Kong Yue arrive at the vast capital of Cangzhou Prefecture. Chen Miao notices that a powerful feng shui formation keeps the city’s yin energy unusually low, much like a protected city in the real world.
• They reach the prefectural Demon-Suppressing Bureau, whose large aboveground complex conceals a much more powerful underground center. Chen Miao senses strong soul-power fluctuations below, then limits his perceptions and relies on [Clearheart] to stay composed.
• In a courtyard, Kong Yue identifies the young recruits from the prefecture’s prominent families: the Corpse-Driving Wang Family, led by direct-line member Wang Tingsong, and the Corpse-Stitching Feng Family, led by the reserved Feng Xiuyuan.
• Kong Yue also explains that Chen Wei belongs to the Incense-Burning Chen Family, a powerful and reclusive faction. Unlike the other families, which send recruits annually, the Chen Family sends one heir every ten years. Its Incense-Burning Heirs enjoy much higher status and should not be challenged.
• A Demon-Suppressing Guard enters and angrily summons everyone. An incense-smoke barrier protects Chen Wei, while the others—including Chen Miao—cover their ears against the force of his shout.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains observant and cautious, recognizing the city’s defenses and the Bureau’s hidden strength. His interest in the Incense-Burning Heir also prompts him to wonder whether he might ever obtain that identity himself.
• Li Zhou eagerly claims familiarity with the local families, then admits he cannot identify the recruits. His impulsiveness disappoints Kong Yue.
• Kong Yue initially hopes the newcomers might become reliable allies, but judges them as unpromising and resolves to make her own way. Her determination is sharpened by her father’s low standing in the Kong Family.
• Chen Wei is established as an exceptionally privileged figure, whose protected status draws everyone’s attention.
• Kong Yue gives Chen Miao and Li Zhou practical advice about the families and their likely roles, while the recruits collectively watch and assess Chen Wei.

Significant themes

• Hierarchy and inherited privilege: Family lineage determines status and prospects within the Bureau; Chen Wei’s position far exceeds that of the other recruits.
• Caution and self-reliance: Kong Yue prepares to depend on herself, while Chen Miao carefully controls his perceptions in a potentially dangerous environment.
• Hidden power beneath appearances: The peaceful city and imposing Bureau are protected by formations and concealed forces that are not immediately visible.
• Unequal opportunity: The contrast between annual recruits from the three families and the Chen Family’s rare, prestigious heir highlights how unevenly advancement is distributed.

Key plot points and events

• A Demon-Suppressing Guard uses a powerful sound-based Mystic Art to knock most of the recruits off balance, demonstrating the danger of the Bureau and the Guard’s strength. He warns the scions to abandon their entitlement and obey Bureau rules.
• The recruits are taken underground to the Soul-Inquiry Hall and screened one at a time. Their turns reveal differences in status and temperament: Chen Wei goes first, Wang Tingsong quickly follows, while the Feng family yields to Kong Yue and later to Li Zhou.
• During Chen Miao’s screening, a middle-aged examiner draws out his soul to check for foreign or remnant souls. Chen Miao briefly resists to test the process, causing pain and his soul to destabilize, but he stops when instructed. His soul matches his body, and he passes.
• After everyone passes, the examiner and the Guard discuss the rarity of Otherworldly Fiends. The examiner notes Chen Miao’s unusually strong soul, though the Guard dismisses it as merely a promising foundation.
• Background checks proceed smoothly, and Chen Miao officially becomes an ordinary Demon-Suppressing Guard in Cangzhou Prefecture. His career is only beginning.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao stays observant and cautious, recognizes the danger of the Guard’s ability, and tests the Soul Inquiry despite its risks. His strong soul draws the examiner’s attention, but he leaves without learning this.
• The black-clad Guard establishes authority through force and blunt warnings. He emphasizes that status offers no protection unless recruits are stronger than their superiors.
• Kong Yue remains composed and unaffected by the sound, and the others defer to her when she enters the screening room.
• Feng Xiuyuan yields his place to Kong Yue, and his family members later show similar restraint.
• The examiner recognizes Chen Miao’s strong soul but says nothing to him; the Guard remains skeptical that potential alone will lead to distinction.

Significant themes

• Power and hierarchy: Family status matters less than strength and obedience inside the Bureau.
• Caution and self-control: Chen Miao’s resistance shows the cost of acting impulsively, while stopping allows the screening to conclude safely.
• Potential versus achievement: A strong foundation may attract notice, but it does not guarantee future success.
• The unknown supernatural threat: The screening’s search for Otherworldly Fiends underscores the hidden dangers the recruits may face.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao and the others arrive at the Cangzhou Prefecture Demon-Suppressing Bureau, where their posts have already been assigned. Chen Wei becomes a Fire Banner Assistant; Kong Yue and Wang Tingsong become squad leaders; Feng Xiuyuan joins the Prison Suppression Department; and Chen Miao, Li Zhou, and four others become low-ranking Demon-Suppressing Guards.
• They learn that the bureau has six departments: three military branches for field operations, discipline, and prisons, and three civil branches for records, equipment, and defense. The civil departments have considerable influence because the military branches depend on them for supplies and administration.
• The Demon-Suppression Department divides the prefecture into five districts, each overseen by a Five Element Banner. The group is assigned to the western district’s Fire Banner, commanded by Han Yu, whose terrifying power leaves Chen Miao wondering how formidable the bureau’s senior leaders must be. He also recognizes the danger of his own secret being discovered.
• The following morning, Instructor Wen from the Records Department arrives to teach the recruits the bureau’s required cultivation art, Ghost Body. They may retain their clan teachings, but must make Ghost Body their primary practice—except for Chen Wei, whose status as an Incense-Burning Heir exempts him.
• Instructor Wen leads the recruits to a training ground, where he reveals many different Ghost Body Manifestations as possible choices for them.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is cautious and guarded, avoiding unnecessary exploration and remaining mindful that exposure could be fatal. He follows the others during training without showing much emotion.
• Chen Wei’s privileged position is made explicit: his clan status places him above ordinary officers and exempts him from the bureau’s standard cultivation requirement.
• Li Zhou tries to keep pace with the faster recruits by spending a burst of yin energy, but cannot sustain it and falls to last place. Chen Miao finds her effort amusing and does not slow down for her.
• Kong Yue takes the lead when Instructor Wen sets off; Wang Tingsong, Feng Xiuyuan, and Chen Wei also outpace Chen Miao and Li Zhou.

Significant themes

• Hierarchy and privilege: Rank, clan standing, and institutional role shape the group’s opportunities and obligations.
• Power and danger: Han Yu’s strength signals the bureau’s formidable upper ranks and reinforces Chen Miao’s fear of being discovered.
• Competition and self-reliance: The recruits are expected to keep up on their own, as Li Zhou’s struggle receives little assistance.
• Institutional identity: Ghost Body is presented as a shared discipline that defines bureau service, even as elite recruits like Chen Wei receive exceptions.

Key plot points and events

• Instructor Wen explains how a Ghost Body Manifestation is cultivated: a ghost is sealed into a black-flame Yin Mark, then activated at a special Bureau site. The activation determines the manifestation’s final form.
• Manifestations have five tiers—mortal, malevolent, fiend, ghost king, and ghost god. New recruits like Chen Miao are normally limited to the mortal tier; higher tiers depend on rank, merit, and imperial privilege.
• The Bureau classifies manifestations as Mystic Arts enhancements, physical enhancements, or special abilities derived from ghosts.
• Chen Miao considers how to choose a manifestation that supports both his cover identity and his secret methods. He decides to strengthen the Spirit-Guiding Effigy-Control Art so he can appear to use the legacy of his bamboo-craftsman family, while keeping his more distinctive powers concealed.
• After receiving booklets listing available manifestations, Chen narrows his options to Blade Shadow, Miasma Fiend, Thunder Yin, Illusion Kill, Spirit Shatter, Origin Binding, Spirit-Sealing, and Miasma Plume. As he weighs them, Kong Yue looks toward him.

Character developments

• Chen’s prior knowledge of the Ghost Body method becomes relevant now that he has joined the Bureau. He approaches the choice strategically, balancing combat utility with the need to avoid exposing his hidden abilities.
• Instructor Wen presents the system and its rules without apparent personal bias.
• Kong Yue’s attention turns to Chen at the chapter’s end, setting up a possible interaction.

Significant themes

• Power and hierarchy: Access to stronger manifestations is tied to rank, merit, and political privilege; the imperial family appears to control the system.
• Identity and concealment: Chen must make his public abilities fit his supposed heritage while keeping his real powers secret.
• Strategic choice: A manifestation is not merely a combat upgrade—it can shape a cultivator’s role, reputation, and future options.

Character interactions

• Instructor Wen lectures the recruits, explains their limited first opportunity, and leaves them with booklets to choose from.
• Chen observes the other recruits’ manifestations as examples and considers how his own choice will appear.
• Kong Yue looks directly at Chen just as he is deciding, but no conversation occurs yet.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao asks Kong Yue to advise him on choosing a Ghost Body Manifestation. She recommends strengthening his existing control abilities rather than compensating for weaker offense.
• From her suggestions, Chen Miao chooses Essence Binding, which enhances restraint techniques and works especially well with his Spirit-Guiding Bamboo Control: stronger bamboo splints will make its binding power stronger.
• Li Zhou asks for help next. His many choices are all offensive, despite his limited and poorly matched Mystic Arts. Kong Yue advises him to fill a gap in the squad by choosing a defensive, movement, or illusion ability.
• Because Li Zhou seems reluctant and unlikely to cooperate well in coordinated combat, Kong Yue changes her recommendation and selects Wind-Chasing, a movement aspect that improves short bursts of speed and leaves confusing afterimages. Li Zhou accepts.
• Chen Miao spends the remaining time memorizing the Ghost Body Manifestations in the booklets, hoping the knowledge will help him in a future life.
• Instructor Wen collects the booklets and takes the recruits to receive their tattoos. After waiting for hours, Chen Miao enters a vast underground chamber and sees a grotesque, humanoid statue made of countless limbs, whose many eyes appear to watch him.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows good judgment by seeking advice and choosing an aspect that complements his strongest ability. He also quietly turns the training materials into preparation for a future life.
• Kong Yue takes a strategic, squad-focused approach, aiming for complementary abilities. She is careful not to impose on Chen Miao and Li Zhou, who are not her family’s subordinates, but becomes more directive when advising Li Zhou.
• Li Zhou wants to choose abilities based on personal preference, but his weak, scattered Mystic Arts make his offensive selections impractical. He reluctantly defers to Kong Yue, partly because of her powerful family backing, and feels better when he realizes Chen Miao is also accepting her guidance.
• Kong Yue and Chen Miao discuss their abilities constructively; her assessment earns his trust. Her exchange with Li Zhou is more strained, as his reluctance changes how she plans to use him in the squad.

Significant themes

• Strengthening what one does best: Chen Miao’s choice reflects the value of building on existing strengths rather than chasing broad but unsupported power.
• Individual preference versus team needs: Kong Yue prioritizes squad balance, while Li Zhou resents giving up his preferred choices.
• Preparation and long-term thinking: Chen Miao memorizes the available abilities not just for the present, but for a possible future life.
• Power and hierarchy: Li Zhou’s deference to Kong Yue is shaped by her status and connections, not simply by the merits of her advice.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao descends into the pit to receive the Origin Binding Ghost Body Manifestation from an elderly tattooist.
• The old man tattoos Chen Miao’s back, then merges a ghost’s soul body into the marks. Chen Miao endures the painful, scorching process with the help of [Clearheart].
• Instructor Wen is surprised by Chen Miao’s toughness and speculates that the trauma of his family’s destruction may have changed his soul body. He considers Chen Miao promising, though wishes they had found him sooner.
• Inside the hollow statue, the tattooist seats Chen Miao on a cushion and surrounds him with thousands of burning incense sticks. He instructs Chen Miao to remain until the smoke becomes invisible.
• The incense awakens the power Chen Miao identifies as incomplete divinity, the same kind of force involved in “Six Jiangzhen Secrets: Divine Descent.”
• Chen Miao realizes that Ghost Body Manifestations may draw their power not from ghosts, techniques, or tattoos, but from Immortals and Gods.
• When the incense smoke fills the statue, a divine force enters Chen Miao’s back and freezes the space. His divinity resists the freezing and begins tracing the incoming power back to its source. Alarmed, Chen Miao suppresses it before the confrontation can escalate.

Character developments

• Chen Miao shows notable endurance and self-control during the tattooing and the statue’s supernatural trial.
• He becomes more aware of the incomplete divinity within him and its ability to resist—and possibly challenge—external divine power.
• Instructor Wen recognizes Chen Miao as unusually capable, though he remains uncertain about the cause.

Character interactions

• The old man is blunt and intimidating, warning Chen Miao not to scream or touch his freshly tattooed back. His manner seems to soften slightly after the procedure.
• Instructor Wen watches Chen Miao’s performance and discusses his potential while waiting outside.
• Chen Miao follows the old man’s instructions but ultimately acts on his own judgment when he senses his divinity pushing back against the force entering him.

Significant themes

• Divine power beneath ordinary practices: The chapter suggests that Ghost Body Manifestations and their standardized marks are channels for power originating with Immortals and Gods.
• Power and danger: Chen Miao’s divinity can resist a supernatural force, but following it to its source could provoke a threat he is not ready to face.
• Endurance and hidden potential: Chen Miao’s resilience draws attention, while his unusual inner power hints at abilities beyond what others understand.