Chapter Summaries

Key plot points

• Chen Miao and Fu Yun reach Wanning Town after a five-hour carriage ride. Chen notices how local settlements help extend Cangzhou Prefecture’s vast feng shui formation, though its reach appears to end around Wanning.
• Fu Yun welcomes Chen into his home and asks him to visit the mountain the next morning. Over dinner, he explains that the town depends on mountain resources and a tea garden controlled by the mayor and wealthy families. His daughter, Fu Xiang, has been at the mountain shrine for a month.
• Fu Yun reveals that Fu Xiang is his only child by his late first wife, who stood by him during poverty. His devotion to her has led him to spend much of his wealth seeking help. He curses the Mountain God Shrine but is clearly afraid of it.
• After dinner, Chen promises to investigate the mountain the next morning. That night, he leaves a paper effigy and crow in his bed as a decoy, places a soul-linked shrine there as a return point and escape route, then secretly travels toward the mountain by merging with trees.
• At the Mountain God Shrine, the keeper sends Fu Xiang away after her worship. He then detects someone approaching. A gray fox enters the shrine and transforms into a man dressed like the keeper.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is cautious and resourceful: he declines wine because he has plans for the night, prepares safeguards at Fu Yun’s residence, and quietly sets out to investigate before dawn.
• Fu Yun is grateful and emotionally invested in saving Fu Xiang. His account of his late first wife explains his special attachment to their daughter, while his subdued fear of the shrine hints at its power.
• Fu Xiang appears devoted to the mountain god, worshipping at the shrine before returning home.
• The shrine keeper appears outwardly solemn and protective of the shrine, but his alertness—and the fox’s arrival—suggests hidden dangers or secrets.

Significant themes

• Faith, fear, and control: The Mountain God Shrine commands both worship and dread.
• Family devotion and sacrifice: Fu Yun’s efforts are driven by loyalty to his late wife and concern for their daughter.
• Preparation and hidden power: Chen relies on concealment, decoys, and supernatural escape methods, while the fox’s transformation points to deception within the shrine.
• Systems and reach: Chen’s observations about feng shui formations show how interconnected settlements can amplify power across a region.

Plot points and events

• A newcomer reports to the Shrine Priest that repeated visits to the Gui District Ghost Market have failed to locate the trader selling a thousand-year yin-wood statue. The Shrine Priest tells him to keep searching and says he may contact the trader later.
• The newcomer proposes marking and sacrificing the seller, but the Shrine Priest warns him not to risk disrupting their effort to obtain the statue.
• The Shrine Priest detects someone listening. Two foxes pursue the intruder—Chen Miao—who escapes through the trees.
• Chen Miao realizes his surprise at hearing about the statue gave him away. He draws the foxes’ attention by showing them the wooden carving, then vanishes with it, confirming their interest in the object.
• The foxes suspect the seller has been using the statue to draw out interested buyers. They resume the pursuit, and the Shrine Priest prepares to intercept Chen Miao by changing forms.
• One fox suddenly collapses while its counterpart keeps running. A fox from a nearby resting pack transforms and charges out. Chen Miao notices one pursuing presence disappear, then reappear directly ahead of him—ending on a cliffhanger.

Character developments

• Chen Miao stays resourceful under pressure, using the carving to manipulate the foxes and buy himself an opportunity to escape. His carelessness about revealing his face leaves him exposed.
• The Shrine Priest is cautious and focused on securing the statue, but is also a formidable tracker who takes direct action when the pursuit demands it.
• The gray fox is openly vengeful and eager to kill Chen Miao, while the Shrine Priest urges caution.

Themes

• Deception and uncertainty: The statue may be a lure, and both sides try to infer the other’s motives.
• Greed and risk: The foxes’ desire for the statue pushes them into a dangerous pursuit.
• Resourcefulness versus power: Chen Miao relies on misdirection to evade opponents with superior tracking abilities.

Character interactions

• The newcomer seeks the Shrine Priest’s advice about finding the trader and suggests attacking the seller; the Priest rejects the plan.
• Chen Miao taunts the pursuing foxes with the carving, provoking them to chase him.
• The foxes discuss whether Chen Miao is baiting them and debate how cautiously to proceed, while the Shrine Priest takes the lead in setting an interception.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao realizes two foxes have trapped him within a limited area, likely through a supernatural technique. After deliberately letting them close in, he reveals his Flame Giant Ape form and catches both.
• The Red Fox mistakes him for an Immortal’s disciple and offers tribute, referring to a “Fox Immortal.” Chen Miao refuses to trust the foxes’ words and kills them; one fox dies in animal form, while the other becomes a middle-aged man.
• The Gray Fox survives by switching bodies, then plots to report Chen Miao to its sect. Chen Miao tracks him down with blood-colored strands from his ape form and kills him again.
• Chen Miao retrieves the Red Fox’s body, returns to the Fu residence, and stores his shrine in the Notebook to avoid having his main soul summoned back unexpectedly.
• The Notebook records the side story as complete, rewarding him with Yin Virtue, two memory fragments, the Fox Immortal Offering Manual, and the Method for Making Flesh Incense. Suspecting the thousand-year yin-wood fox carving may be significant, Chen Miao examines it before studying the new inheritance.

Character developments

• Chen Miao shows greater caution: he recognizes that the foxes may be deceptive and chooses not to question them while they are in a position to manipulate him. He also learns he can use his powerful forms more freely in remote mountain terrain.
• The Gray Fox is resourceful enough to escape death once through body-switching, but its confidence and hostility lead it to expose itself—and it remains no match for Chen Miao.

Significant themes

• Cunning and mistrust: The foxes rely on deception and supernatural tricks, while Chen Miao survives by anticipating their motives.
• Power and territorial conflict: The foxes frame the encounter as a dispute between disciples and Immortals, hinting at larger factions and rules beyond the immediate fight.
• Discovery through danger: The battle reveals the possible significance of the fox statue and gives Chen Miao access to new occult knowledge.

Character interactions

• The foxes try to bargain with Chen Miao by promising offerings and invoking the Fox Immortal, but he kills them before learning more.
• After escaping in a new body, the Gray Fox privately vows revenge and threatens ordinary foxes nearby; Chen Miao then tracks it down and kills it again.
• Chen Miao’s final investigation of the fox carving connects the encounter to a potentially broader supernatural mystery.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao wakes after more than ten days away from reality, finding his body stiff and injured. He uses vital blood to recover and concludes that staying away for a month would be risky.
• He activates Zhang Shan’s Memory Fragment. When Shi Manman tries to adjust and undress him as part of her care routine, he wakes and catches her hand. She explains that she has been nursing him for days; afterward, she blushes and rushes away.
• Chen Miao uses his [Clearheart] status to suppress the feelings he overhears from Shi Manman, then studies the status gained from Zhang Shan’s memories: [Whatcha Looking At?]
• Zhang Shan’s memories reveal how he acquired the ancestral statue he intended to sell at the Star Ruins Ghost Market, and how a taunt prompted him to resist arrest and get killed. His powerful final fixation produced the new status.
• After breakfast, Chen Miao activates the remaining two Memory Fragments. By noon, he has learned more about the Incense Way and obtained two identical statuses: [Fox Immortal’s Favor].

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is still adapting physically and mentally to returning from the Mortal World. His wariness carries over into reality, and he avoids addressing Shi Manman’s apparent feelings by suppressing his own response.
• Shi Manman has been diligently caring for her unconscious master. Her composed manner breaks once she leaves the room, revealing her embarrassment and emotional attachment.
• Zhang Shan, through his memories, is shown to have been a formidable cultivator with techniques involving flesh seeds, ghost souls, and talismans. His pride and obsession with a final insult shaped his death and the status Chen Miao inherits.

Significant themes

• The lasting effects of the past: Chen Miao’s time in the Mortal World continues to affect his body and instincts after he returns.
• Obsession becoming power: Zhang Shan’s fixation at death crystallizes into a status, turning personal grievance into a usable ability.
• Unspoken affection and avoidance: Shi Manman’s care suggests deeper feelings, while Chen Miao chooses not to confront them.
• Hidden spiritual traditions: Zhang Shan’s memories introduce the Incense Way and the worship of Immortals, expanding the chapter’s supernatural lore.

Key plot points and events

• From the memories of the two men he killed, Chen Miao learns that the Incense God Shrine is part of the broader Incense Way, whose practitioners contact Immortals and Gods through the Incense Realm to gain power.
• Chen’s incense-burning inheritance is among the strongest branches: it lets an heir send thoughts directly into the Incense Realm. At the [divine descent] level, an heir may even send their soul body there, improving their connection and helping them advance toward [divine arrival].
• The two men were Immortal-Worshippers of the [spirit medium tradition]. They relied on divine statues as intermediaries, so their power was weaker than that of Incense-Burning Heirs. Their fox transformations, body-hopping, and tracking abilities came from the fox immortal they worshipped.
• The chapter outlines other forms of worship: the Five Great Immortal Houses—fox, weasel, hedgehog, snake, and rat—along with worshippers of [mountain gods], [river earls], and [Buddha]. Regional customs differ: the spirit medium tradition is prominent in Cangzhou but suppressed in Lanzhou.
• The slain men’s sect was preparing to convert to the Blood Incense Path, which uses blood sacrifice to contact the Incense Realm directly. Though this avoids the statue “middleman,” its practitioners are treated as Evil Cultivators and face extermination by the Demon-Suppressing Bureau.
• After absorbing these discoveries, Chen wonders what Immortals and Gods truly are, then turns his attention to the [fox immortal’s favor] status.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao gains a broader understanding of the Mortal World’s religious and cultivation systems, while recognizing how much he still does not know.
• The two dead worshippers’ memories provide the chapter’s exposition; their failed attempt to move beyond intermediary worship reveals the dangerous ambitions of their sect.
• Chen’s curiosity about the nature of Immortals and Gods remains unresolved, but he chooses to focus on the fox immortal’s favor he already possesses.

Significant themes

• Power and mediation: direct contact with the Incense Realm grants greater power than relying on statues.
• Risk and reward: different forms of worship offer different benefits, obligations, and dangers.
• Religious diversity and regional control: beliefs vary across provinces, and some traditions must operate in secret.
• Limits of knowledge: even extensive learning leaves fundamental questions about divinity unanswered.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao reviews the five abilities granted by the Fox Immortal’s Favor: fox transformation, bewitchment, enhanced supernatural smell, illusion-casting, and Form Change, which lets a user possess a nearby fox at the cost of the fox’s soul.
• He understands why the two Fox Immortal cultists were dangerous: their blessings, strengthened by the cult’s mystic arts, made them fast and difficult to deceive. Their deaths came partly from using their escape abilities to confront him instead of fleeing.
• Chen Miao wonders whether he can use the Favor despite never worshipping a Fox Immortal, but first replenishes the soul crystal powder in his Soul Shrines and intends to recover memories his split soul gained from Blood Pupil’s Apostle.
• After returning to the Tianmen Funeral Home, he learns that supernatural incidents have become more common as the rise in yin energy slows. The Home has grown busier, and its younger cultivators have begun handling manageable cases.
• Chen Miao gives Shi Manman booklets of general-purpose mystic arts to copy and distribute as a benefit for the staff.
• He goes into the mountains to test the Fox Immortal’s Favor. When he activates it, the divinity within him stirs—a surprising development that ends the chapter.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows his growing interest in understanding and applying supernatural powers, while also taking responsibility for the Funeral Home’s resources and staff.
• Fu Xiang’s earlier decision to become a Chosen Goddess is explained as a lingering effect of bewitchment.
• Xiang Shang, Yang Jiuhua, and Ji Mo have gained confidence through successfully resolving two incidents. Hua Jianming moves from worrying about them to trusting their abilities, while envying their access to inherited mystic arts.
• The Funeral Home staff welcome Chen Miao back after his long absence. He consults them about recent events, then asks Shi Manman to organize the distribution of his copied techniques.

Significant themes

• Power and devotion: The Favor’s tangible abilities help explain why the Fox Immortal tradition attracts followers, though only a minority receive the blessing.
• The cost of supernatural power: Transformation weakens physical toughness, while Form Change destroys the fox’s soul.
• Growing responsibility: Chen Miao uses his knowledge not only for himself but to strengthen the Funeral Home and its staff.
• Knowledge and escalation: The discussion of yin-energy signatures suggests that deeper supernatural phenomena require higher-level understanding; the stirring divinity hints that Chen Miao’s own power may be evolving.

Key events

• Chen Miao’s incomplete divinity reacts to the Fox Immortal’s favor, drawing the newly granted power into him. He realizes this works much like the Six Jiangzhen Secrets: the Notebook may have bypassed the usual requirements for gaining a connection to an immortal being.
• He tests the favor’s first power, enhanced smell. He can distinguish scents across a radius of up to five kilometers, though maintaining that range quickly drains the power. His sense of smell still works inside trees and through mirror space, but the latter muffles and reduces it.
• Chen Miao then tests Shapeshifting, becoming a large, luminous white fox. The form carries a sacred aura that he suspects comes from his divinity, but he suppresses the glow and alters his coloring and size to blend into the landscape.
• In fox form, he discovers he can sprint up a mountain in seconds. His speed, reflexes, and ability to track moving targets all improve. After testing himself across several peaks, he prepares to try the next ability, Form Change.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Miao remains cautious and analytical, testing each new ability while conserving the favor’s limited power.
• His experience deepens his understanding of the Notebook and his incomplete divinity, though he remains unsure whether the Notebook has deceived the Fox Immortal or another divine being.
• His fox form recalls the two Fox Immortal Disciples who once pursued him: he recognizes that their speed and tracking abilities explain how they kept up, and sees how shapeshifting could now help him evade similar pursuers.

Significant themes

• Divine power and its cost: Chen Miao’s abilities are potent, but using them drains a finite reserve.
• Transformation and adaptation: Shapeshifting offers both extraordinary strength and practical camouflage.
• Secrecy and uncertainty: Chen Miao questions how the Notebook grants divine connections and whether the beings involved know about it.
• Experimentation and mastery: He carefully tests the limits and interactions of each ability rather than relying on assumptions.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao spends time testing Form Change, discovering he can take over a fox’s body within several thousand meters. The transformation feels like his own body gradually replacing the fox’s.
• He learns that the form’s duration is limited: Divinity-enhanced fox form lasts about ten minutes, while Fox Immortal’s Favor alone can last at least an hour.
• By spending his remaining Divinity during Form Change, Chen Miao protects the fox he leaves behind. The process becomes a complete exchange of locations rather than killing the target, and he finds he can use Form Change again immediately—though the second use will lack Divinity’s protection.
• Chen Miao concludes that Divinity can fundamentally alter Fox Immortal powers. His incomplete Divinity remains on his status panel but cannot currently be activated.
• He suspects that Immortal-Worshipper statues may help restore his Divinity. He already has one from Zhang Shan and plans to test it after returning to the Mortal World. He also wonders whether complete Divinity would make him an Immortal rather than a human.
• Back at the funeral home, Chen Miao tests Bewitchment on Blackie, Qi Hui’s dog, making it obey commands—including meowing. He tells Qi Hui to give Blackie extra food.
• After planning his next steps, Chen Miao returns to the Mortal World. He has an unexplained feeling that he has forgotten something.
• Shi Manman receives his message asking her to continue looking after him. She assumes he approves of her previous care and downloads massage videos again.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao becomes more methodical about investigating his powers and forms a new plan to restore his Divinity. He also shows amusement and affection toward Blackie.
• Qi Hui, aware that the funeral home is tied to extraordinary events, decides staying connected to it may help him in the uncertain future. He humorously resolves to ignore anything that happens between Chen Miao and Blackie.
• Shi Manman interprets Chen Miao’s brief message as approval and eagerly resumes her familiar routine.
• Blackie is bewildered after being enchanted into obeying Chen Miao.

Significant themes

• Power and its costs: Divinity enhances Chen Miao’s abilities but is limited, and using other divine techniques may carry serious consequences.
• Identity and transformation: Chen Miao questions what he might become if his Divinity is fully restored.
• Adaptation to a changed world: Qi Hui chooses to stay near the supernatural rather than flee it, hoping the connection will protect him.
• Comic misunderstandings: Qi Hui’s reaction to Blackie and Shi Manman’s interpretation of Chen Miao’s message provide humor amid the chapter’s supernatural developments.

Summary

• Chen Miao wakes in the real world and finds no new developments in his Notebook. At dawn, he tells Fu Yun he is going to investigate the Mountain God Shrine. Fu Yun declines to accompany him, anxious to keep his involvement secret, but hopes the visit will save his daughter, Fu Xiang.
• At the shrine, Fu Xiang is tending the statue and remains under the lingering supernatural charm of the Fox Immortal Disciples. Chen Miao identifies himself as a Demon-Suppressing Guard and explains that he is investigating a heretical shrine. Fu Xiang realizes her father must have contacted him and becomes angry, but stays to look after the shrine.
• Chen Miao detects an unusual aura in the statue’s abdomen and discovers a concealed mechanism behind its sash. He inserts the Fox Immortal Wood Carving into the hidden cavity, activating the statue and revealing that it contains divinity.
• The discovery suggests the shrine was not obviously supernatural during the local guard’s earlier inspection: without the carving, the statue was effectively an empty shell. Once activated, however, it could have enabled a blood-sacrifice cult to prey on Wanning Town and nearby settlements.
• Chen Miao’s fragmentary divinity responds to the statue’s divinity and draws most of it into his body through the carving. He deliberately leaves a trace behind so he can present evidence when reporting the case.
• After removing the carving, Chen Miao ends the illusion hiding his actions and orders Fu Xiang to come to the Bureau as an evil-god devotee. Frightened and confused, she denies serving an evil god, says she was bewitched, and asks to see her father.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao acts decisively and pragmatically: he investigates without pretense, uncovers the shrine’s hidden mechanism, absorbs most of its divinity, and preserves a small amount as proof.
• Fu Yun remains anxious and protective of his daughter. He avoids being publicly associated with the investigation but entrusts Chen Miao with trying to save Fu Xiang.
• Fu Xiang is still under the Fox Immortal’s influence, yet her reaction to Chen Miao’s accusation suggests she may retain some awareness and fear the implications of her involvement. She appeals to her father as a witness that she is not truly a cultist.
• Chen Miao and Fu Xiang clash over the investigation: she tries to stop him from touching the sacred statue, but he restrains her and later takes her into custody.

Significant themes

• Deceptive appearances: The statue seems ordinary until the carving activates its hidden divinity, illustrating how supernatural threats can evade routine scrutiny.
• Faith, coercion, and responsibility: Fu Xiang’s charm raises doubts about whether she is a willing follower or a victim of supernatural influence.
• Power and practical judgment: Chen Miao uses the divinity to strengthen himself while leaving enough evidence to support an official report.

Plot points

• Chen Miao realizes Fu Xiang’s faith in the mountain god collapsed when he exposed the shrine as an Evil God site; she had been bewitched, not knowingly serving evil.
• He leaves Fu Xiang with her father, Fu Yun, and warns him to keep her available for the Demon-Suppressing Bureau’s investigation. Fu Yun offers money to protect her, but Chen Miao accepts only one banknote and promises to explain the circumstances honestly.
• Traveling back in fox form, Chen Miao discovers that absorbing the Fox Immortal statue has restored and increased his divinity, suggesting that absorbing more statues might remove its “incomplete” status. He resolves to focus first on completing the Guards’ recruitment period.
• Back in the prefectural capital, he tells Kong Yue about the shrine and presents the wood carving. She brings it to her uncle, Kong Yunshuo, and Chen Xian, an Incense Way Authority.
• Chen Xian determines that the carving is an ordinary worship statue with a trace of immortal aura, but the secretive activity around it is suspicious. He advises Kong Yue to report the matter for possible merit and considers having his family investigate further.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows caution and pragmatism: he protects Fu Xiang from immediate suspicion while warning Fu Yun not to hide her, and he keeps the truth about the shrine while embellishing the account he gives Kong Yue.
• Fu Xiang is frightened and insists she was bewitched rather than an Evil God’s minion. Fu Yun comforts her but remains anxious, even trying to bribe Chen Miao for leniency.
• Kong Yue shifts quickly from concern about Chen Miao’s safety to taking the shrine report seriously. She consults the authorities and acts decisively once Chen Xian gives his assessment.
• Kong Yunshuo is affectionate toward Kong Yue but briefly feels slighted when she gives the statue to Chen Xian instead. Chen Xian’s expertise resolves the question and raises broader concerns about other Incense Way practitioners.

Significant themes

• Faith and manipulation: Fu Xiang’s devotion proves vulnerable to deception, and exposing the shrine’s true nature breaks that belief.
• Duty versus corruption: Chen Miao refuses Fu Yun’s attempt to influence the investigation, emphasizing accountability.
• Power and ambition: The statue’s effect on Chen Miao’s divinity gives him a potential path to greater power, though he prioritizes his official responsibilities.
• Hidden threats: An apparently ordinary statue may be connected to secret activity and a wider Incense Way presence.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao learns that ranking among the top three recruits is the clearest way to transfer from Ghost Market patrol duty to the field-focused Purge Department. Catching illegal entrants could help him distinguish himself, but he plans to proceed cautiously.
• The investigation into the Mountain God Shrine in Wanning Town confirms that two Fox Immortal Disciples intended to perform a blood sacrifice. Chen Miao and Kong Yue each receive a minor merit. The suspects have already fled, while Fu Xiang is cleared of suspicion and freed from the mystic art placed on her.
• Kong Yue regrets that they missed the chance to stop the suspects and earn a greater merit. Chen Miao reminds her that the outcome of a fight was uncertain, and that receiving credit without danger is fortunate.
• Li Zhou, jealous of their recognition, makes a pointed remark about Chen Miao marrying Fu Xiang. Kong Yue rebukes him and sends him to take the first patrol.
• Later, Xiong Yi asks why Chen Miao has not found more illegal entrants. Chen Miao claims the ones he has spotted are in Yi District, where their group has little influence. In truth, he has already identified several in Ren District and is waiting for attention to fade before acting.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Miao remains patient and strategic. He values advancement, but avoids reckless action and deflects Kong Yue’s regrets with a pragmatic view of risk. He also feels he has repaid Fu Xiang by ensuring she was cleared.
• Kong Yue is pleased by their merit but initially regrets missing a larger reward. She is protective of Chen Miao, defending him from Li Zhou and even suggesting a future match within her family.
• Li Zhou reveals his envy through a disparaging comment about Chen Miao and Fu Xiang. Kong Yue’s sharp response exposes the gap between his standing and her high opinion of Chen Miao.
• Xiong Yi wants more arrests for the group’s benefit but recognizes that patrol guards from their districts lack status in Yi District.

Significant themes

• Advancement through merit: Chen Miao’s career prospects depend on standing out during recruit training.
• Patience and calculated risk: He resists chasing rewards impulsively, both after the Wanning case and in planning future arrests.
• Jealousy and status: Li Zhou’s resentment and the hierarchy between Ghost Market districts show how recognition and background shape relationships.
• Duty and reciprocity: Chen Miao’s concern for Fu Xiang reflects a sense of responsibility after she helped him.

Key plot points and events

• The Mysterious Merchant offers to help Chen Miao catch illegal entrants, but Chen declines, confident in his own method.
• Chen’s familiar “Whatcha Looking At?!” call triggers another arrest. The target initially escapes when Li Zhou fails to act, but Chen uses a limited-use Immobilization Spell to stop him.
• The stallholders discuss how illegal entrants prey on Ghost Market visitors and argue that the deeper solution is to catch the “rats” who enable them.
• Kong Yue confronts Li Zhou over his failure to support the arrest. She recognizes that his lingering resentment toward Chen—after being excluded from earlier merits—could endanger the team.
• Kong Yue arranges a change in the patrol team. The administrators remove Li Zhou and replace him with Kong Tian, a veteran Kong-family patrolman.
• Though initially disengaged, Kong Tian becomes enthusiastic after earning a minor merit with Chen and Kong Yue. He is then invited to join a larger operation targeting the “rats,” which could reward every participant with merit.

Character developments

• Chen Miao is increasingly effective at identifying and apprehending illegal entrants, but his limited-use spells make each arrest carry a cost. He also prefers working without the Mysterious Merchant’s help.
• Kong Yue shows sound judgment and growing distrust of Li Zhou. She acts decisively to protect the team by seeking his replacement.
• Li Zhou reveals that his resentment has become serious enough to undermine teamwork, leaving Kong Yue concerned about his reliability in more dangerous situations.
• Kong Tian shifts from a burned-out, dutiful veteran to an ambitious and eager patrolman after earning a merit and seeing a chance for advancement.
• The Mysterious Merchant and other stallholders serve as witnesses to Chen’s reputation and voice concern about the harm illegal entrants cause in the market.

Significant themes

• Trust and teamwork: Li Zhou’s refusal to cooperate shows how personal grudges can compromise a group’s safety.
• Merit and ambition: Recognition quickly changes Kong Tian’s motivation, while the prospect of reward drives participation in the larger operation.
• Treating causes, not symptoms: Catching individual illegal entrants helps, but the stallholders argue that stopping the people who facilitate their entry is the lasting solution.
• Power and privilege: Kong Yue’s family connections secure an experienced replacement, giving her team an advantage even as it bends the spirit of the recruit assessment.

Character interactions

• Chen politely turns down the Mysterious Merchant’s offer, while the merchant and nearby stallholders admire Chen’s success.
• Kong Yue reprimands Li Zhou for failing to help; his dismissive response confirms her doubts about him.
• Kong Yue consults her family and secures Kong Tian’s transfer.
• Chen and Kong Yue’s successful arrests help Kong Tian earn merit, and the coming operation gives the newly formed team a shared opportunity.

Plot points and events

• Gui District and neighboring Ren District plan a joint operation to capture Rat, a notorious illegal entrant. Recent captures have yielded the same intelligence and Rat’s secret signal, giving the patrol guards confidence—but Rat is known for escaping.
• Kong Yue assigns Kong Tian to block Gui District’s only exit with his bone-manipulating Ghost Body Manifestation, [Bone Chi]. Chen Miao is tasked with preparing restraints.
• Kong Yue supplies Chen Miao with a box of roughly five hundred blood bamboo splints—valuable tools worth at least twenty-five jin of yin virtue—and directs him to hide them beneath stall platforms throughout the district.
• The guards’ plan is to activate their Patrol Tokens when Rat is spotted. This strengthens the market’s feng shui formation and disables Rat’s passage for one minute. They must capture him during that brief window, before he can flee into another district.
• Chen Miao completes the preparations, while Kong Tian seals the entrance with a wall of bones. Kong Yue also hides paper explosives in the cave ceiling and discreetly covers the glowing stone overhead.
• The Ghost Market opens. Chen Miao and Kong Tian begin their ordinary patrols, knowing Rat and the other illegal entrants will likely wait until later. The chapter ends as another group prepares outside the market in Cangzhou City.

Character developments and interactions

• Kong Yue shows careful leadership, balancing confidence in the plan with concern about failure and public embarrassment. He has arranged substantial resources and multiple contingencies.
• Kong Tian responds eagerly and vows not to let Rat escape. His defensive abilities make him suited to hold the entrance, though doing so leaves him effectively pinned in place.
• Chen Miao remains practical and observant. He accepts the task, recognizes the cost of the splints, and notices the thoroughness of Kong Yue’s preparations.
• The three coordinate closely, discussing the capture plan and backup measures before dividing their responsibilities. Competition with Ren District adds pressure: whichever district lands the capture may claim the credit.

Significant themes

• Preparation versus uncertainty: The patrol guards plan extensively, but Rat’s skill and the one-minute window make success far from assured.
• Duty, reputation, and credit: The operation matters not only for its reward but also for Gui District’s standing among the Ghost Market patrols.
• Scarcity and value: The costly splints highlight the importance of resources and the personal cost of preparing for dangerous work.

Key plot points and events

• Ghost Face assembles eight black-robed operatives and orders them to kill Chen Yang, a patrolman in Gui District of the Star Ruins Ghost Market. He promises a Rat will extract them to safety and pays them in advance.
• Ghost Face explains that Chen Yang has repeatedly exposed illegal entrants in Gui and Ren Districts, disrupting the group’s operations. He wants Chen killed inside the Ghost Market so the authorities will blame illegal entrants seeking revenge and Rat, rather than investigate the organization.
• Ghost Face and his associate plan to have the killers murdered outside Cangzhou after the job and used as sacrifices, ensuring no witnesses survive.
• During his patrol, Chen Miao finds no illegal entrants at first and wonders whether Rat will still operate after recent arrests. He then senses a series of fleeting malicious gazes, followed by eight hostile intentions converging on him.
• Chen realizes the eight have come specifically to kill him.

Character developments

• Ghost Face is revealed as a calculating organizer who treats both the patrolman’s death and his own operatives’ deaths as tools for protecting the organization’s plans.
• Chen Miao remains alert and analytical, noticing that the attackers’ malice is unusually controlled and piecing together that the sightings are coordinated.
• The eight operatives accept the dangerous assignment after receiving payment and assurances of an escape route, unaware—or unconcerned—that Ghost Face intends to sacrifice them afterward.

Significant themes

• Betrayal and expendability: Ghost Face’s promise of safe passage masks his plan to kill the operatives once they have served their purpose.
• Concealment and misdirection: The attack is designed to make the authorities blame other criminal elements and hide the organization’s involvement.
• Duty and danger: Chen’s success at detecting illegal activity has made him a direct target.
• A broader conflict: Ghost Face’s final remark suggests the Incense Way is not the only force or path shaping events in Cangzhou Prefecture.

Character interactions

• Ghost Face warns the operatives of the assignment’s risks, answers their concerns about escape, and silences further objections through his intimidating presence.
• His masked associate distributes the transport tokens, then questions Ghost Face about the motive for the killing.
• The mysterious merchant tries to engage Chen during patrol, but Chen dismisses him and continues working.
• Chen’s interaction with the attackers is indirect: he senses their hostile attention but does not yet see them, until their intentions converge and reveal their target.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao senses that the eight people surrounding him intend to kill him, realizing the operation to capture Rat is likely failing. He triggers his Ghost Body Manifestation and hidden Blood Bamboo splints, while the cavern’s paper shade briefly blinds everyone.
• The attackers recover quickly and rush Chen Miao. He uses the transposition spell in his Patrol Token—not his limited immobilization spell—and is transported to the Ghost Market administrators.
• Chen Miao reports the attack to Wei Feng and Su Ran. He is returned to the Gui District alongside Lu Zhan, a chief administrator whose arrival was arranged through the spell’s altered target.
• Lu Zhan’s Thousand-Armed Yin Fiend manifestation overwhelms the attackers, seizing two immediately. The rest scatter among the district’s practitioners, using wooden plaques that appear to have no effect against him.
• Lu Zhan replenishes Chen Miao’s token spells, then departs through the glowing cavern stone with Wei Feng and Su Ran. Chen Miao and his colleagues restore order.
• The mysterious merchant presses Chen Miao to explain how the infiltrators were caught. Suspicious, Chen Miao uses the immobilization spell and summons Lu Zhan. The merchant escapes capture by shedding his clothing and fleeing in the form of a small mouse.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows composure under threat, uses his resources strategically, and becomes more suspicious of the merchant. His quick response earns Lu Zhan’s praise.
• Lu Zhan is revealed to be a formidable administrator whose many arms can seize opponents and wield ghosts and weapons at once. He supports Chen Miao by restoring his spells.
• Kong Yue’s earlier choice of the Three-Origin Yin Attendants is put in context: although Thousand-Armed Yin Fiend offers strong early control over many Paper Offerings, her chosen manifestation is expected to scale better.
• Chen Miao and the administrators move from emergency reporting to coordinated intervention; afterward, Chen Miao works with Chen Yang and Kong Tian to stabilize the district.
• The mysterious merchant acts inquisitively and evasively, then confirms his unusual nature by escaping as a mouse.

Significant themes

• Preparedness and resourcefulness: Chen Miao survives by choosing the right spell at the right moment.
• Power and specialization: Ghost Body Manifestations differ by user, and their value depends on how well they fit a person’s strengths and long-term needs.
• Hidden identities and mistrust: The attackers’ disguise, the merchant’s strange behavior, and his escape leave the true threat unresolved.
• Authority and cooperation: Chen Miao’s alert enables higher-ranking administrators to intervene, while the district’s residents help return life to normal.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao explains that his ability briefly sensed malice from the man who turned out to be Rat, prompting him to relocate Lu Zhan. Lu admits he was caught off guard when Rat escaped amid the confusion, but promises Chen Miao full credit and replenishes his patrol token.
• Wei Feng and Su Ran tease Lu Zhan over his success and suggest he might be tempted to keep Chen Yang’s achievements quiet so Chen stays in the Ghost Market. Lu leaves, insisting Chen will receive proper credit—especially since Third Master Kong is interested in him.
• Fire Banner Commander Han Yu reviews reports on recruits. He praises a Wang family recruit’s information-gathering and is surprised by another recruit’s ability, then sends out three letters to test what the prominent family scions can accomplish.
• With illegal entrants driven off or lying low, Chen Miao, Kong Yue, and Kong Tian are summoned by the Ghost Market superintendent. Their patrol tokens are replaced with Demon-Suppressing Guard tokens, ending their Ghost Market patrol service. Kong Tian reflects that he earned two minor merits only after joining Chen and Kong Yue, and says he will rely on them going forward.
• Li Zhou returns from the Ghost Market to find Kong Xunzhen waiting. Kong tells him that Chen Yang and Kong Yue each earned one minor and one intermediate merit, and their replacement earned two minor merits. All three have been transferred to a new assignment; Chen may rise in rank and Kong Yue’s promotion path is shortened if they succeed.
• Kong Xunzhen contrasts their prospects with Li Zhou’s likely stagnation, warns him to improve, and offers to help him leave the Ghost Market after his recruit period—but says it is his last chance. Li, consumed by resentment, blames others and angrily wishes them dead.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows sound judgment and earns recognition, though he remains matter-of-fact about leaving the Ghost Market.
• Lu Zhan regrets Rat’s escape but acts fairly toward Chen and confirms he will receive full credit. Wei Feng and Su Ran’s teasing reveals their envy of Lu’s rising prospects.
• Kong Tian shifts from frustration about his long, uneventful posting to gratitude and loyalty toward Chen Miao and Kong Yue.
• Li Zhou is confronted with the consequences of his poor performance. Rather than accept responsibility, he grows more resentful, hinting at a darker turn.
• Kong Xunzhen is stern but offers Li Zhou one final opportunity to change.

Significant themes

• Merit and advancement: Recognition and promotion follow demonstrated ability, while stagnation has consequences.
• Responsibility versus resentment: Li Zhou refuses to own his failures, contrasting with Chen Miao’s practical conduct and Kong Tian’s willingness to learn.
• Uncertainty and ambition: Han Yu’s tests and the new assignment suggest that recruits’ futures—and their rivalries—remain unsettled.
• The end of an era: The trio’s transfer closes their Ghost Market patrol chapter and opens the way to greater responsibilities.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao travels on horseback with a twelve-person party: three distinguished squads, two Banner Assistants, and feng shui master Su Yang.
• Their destination is the Eastern Mausoleum, one of Cangzhou Prefecture’s Four Mausoleums. They are investigating why its yearly output of yinwood has fallen by a third.
• Chen Miao learns that the Four Mausoleums refine corpses and other yin materials, supplying the prefecture with vast resources—including more than ten thousand ghosts annually.
• The mausoleums are connected to Cangzhou’s grand feng shui formation, which channels the prefecture’s yin, filthy, and turbid energies into them. Chen Miao recognizes this as a far larger parallel to the formation system he knows from Tianmen County and Twin Ridge Mountain.
• Kong Yue says the Eastern Mausoleum has a Main Mausoleum and five other areas, each reportedly containing something as dangerous as a blood fiend. She explains that blood fiends can overwhelm cities and can only be dealt with by grandmasters on the Heaven-Ascending Steps.

Character developments

• Chen Miao is excited by the journey and the chance to see the Eastern Mausoleum, but his curiosity is mixed with calculations about its enormous potential for producing yin virtue.
• He briefly imagines owning such a resource, then recognizes that the mausoleum depends on a vast, sophisticated regional formation far beyond anything he could build.
• Learning about blood fiends makes him reconsider the scale of danger and the power of Cangzhou Prefecture.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao asks Kong Yue about the Eastern Mausoleum and blood fiends. She shares what she heard from her family’s Third Master while admitting she has never visited the site herself.
• Their conversation moves from the mausoleum’s layout and resources to the threat posed by blood fiends and the strength required to stop them.

Significant themes

• Scale and ambition: Chen Miao compares local formations and resources with Cangzhou’s immense system, revealing how much larger the world is than his own experience.
• Power and danger: The contrast between malevolent fiends and blood fiends underscores the limits of ordinary strength.
• Resource and environmental management: Cangzhou’s formation redirects harmful energies into the mausoleums, turning them into productive sources of yinwood while improving the wider region.

Key plot points

• Chen Miao’s group reaches the hidden Eastern Mausoleum at dusk. A stone sentinel, activated by Wu Bin’s official token, recognizes the party and opens a passage through the mist.
• The sentinel’s eyes are controlled by the Eastern Mausoleum Chief Steward. Chen Miao briefly feels his body slip from his control, but his innate Clear Heart, Mystic Mirror ability lets his subconscious take over and protect him.
• As the party climbs through the mist, Kong Yue explains the Chief Steward’s high rank: the Four Mausoleums stand on the same institutional level as Cangzhou’s Six Departments. Fan Yu argues that the Demon-Suppression Department’s Banner Commander Han may still be stronger in combat, but Kong Yue recalls her uncle warning that the Chief Steward alone could contain threats that all five Banner Commanders might fail to stop.
• The group emerges onto a flat-topped mountain, where the severed summit has been turned into a garden and complex of ancient buildings. Deputy Steward Li Mu welcomes them without leaving his place.

Character developments

• Chen Miao remains alert and curious, but the encounter with the sentinel reveals the Chief Steward’s influence—and gives Chen Miao a chance to demonstrate the automatic protection of his mental ability.
• Kong Yue shows her knowledge of the Mausoleum and takes the role of guide, cautioning Chen Miao and Kong Tian to respect its hierarchy.
• Fan Yu voices a more dismissive view of the Mausoleum’s strength, contrasting with Kong Yue’s growing respect for it.
• Chen Wei’s privileged treatment—riding in the carriage while others travel on horseback—stirs resentment among the Bureau’s new guards.

Significant themes

• Rank, authority, and respect: The Mausoleum’s standing rivals that of the Six Departments, and proper etiquette matters even during an assignment.
• Hidden power and appearances: The mist conceals a formidable institution, while the seemingly passive stone statue serves as the Chief Steward’s eyes.
• Privilege and resentment: Chen Wei’s status creates a visible divide between family elites and ordinary recruits.
• Measured confidence: Chen Miao is briefly affected by the sentinel but remains protected by his own abilities, while Kong Yue’s warning encourages caution rather than bravado.

Character interactions

• Kong Yue explains the sentinel and the Chief Steward’s status to Chen Miao, then urges him and Kong Tian to behave respectfully.
• Fan Yu challenges Kong Yue’s assessment of the Chief Steward, but she does not argue; his disagreement reflects their different assumptions about martial strength.
• Chen Miao observes the recruits’ resentment toward Chen Wei’s special treatment.
• Li Mu’s courteous welcome is undercut by his refusal to move, leaving Chen Miao intrigued by the Deputy Steward’s manner.

Key plot points

• Wu Bin’s delegation arrives at the Eastern Mausoleum and is welcomed by Deputy Steward Li Mu. Li Mu pays particular attention to Wu Bin and Chen Wei, puzzling Chen Miao.
• The delegation enters the mausoleum’s imposing great hall. Chen Miao notices that its ninety-nine steps and elevated seat evoke imperial or divine authority.
• The Chief Steward receives them with deliberate informality and questions why Fire-Banner Commander Han Yu did not come in person. Wu Bin explains that Han has other duties; the Chief Steward accepts this, though he says he may visit Han himself.
• The Deputy Steward explains why the Bureau sent the delegation: the Eastern Mausoleum’s yinwood output has steadily worsened over three years. First its quality fell, then fell further after reported feng shui and earth-energy problems, and this year both quality and quantity declined.
• Previous explanations and inspections have not resolved the issue. The Bureau now wants to investigate directly, but is cautious: without evidence, a forceful response could drive away workers who are difficult to replace.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao observes the mausoleum’s architecture and political symbolism, and wonders whether the Chief Steward’s authority is meant to suggest that of a ruler or even an immortal. He also suspects the Chief Steward may already know the Bureau’s real reason for visiting.
• Wu Bin remains formally respectful despite the Chief Steward’s probing and intimidating manner, privately worrying that he has been sent to handle a matter beyond his standing.
• The Chief Steward appears casual and unhurried, but his questions and authority make the delegation uncomfortable. He challenges Han Yu’s absence without openly escalating the encounter.
• Li Mu handles the welcome and briefing, while her unusual attention to Chen Wei leaves Chen Miao curious.

Significant themes

• Power and hierarchy: The stairs, elevated seat, and seating arrangements emphasize rank and authority.
• Institutional stalemate: The Bureau must investigate declining production but cannot easily replace the people stationed at the mausoleum.
• Suspicion and hidden knowledge: The official explanations may not tell the whole story, and Chen Miao doubts the investigation is truly a secret.
• Isolation and entrapment: Eastern Mausoleum staff are effectively unable to transfer elsewhere, shaping both the Bureau’s caution and the local administration’s position.

Plot and events

• The Chief Steward abruptly vanishes without any detectable use of yin energy or soul power, revealing a level of strength that makes Chen Miao abandon thoughts of testing the Eastern Mausoleum.
• Deputy Steward Li arranges lodging for Wu Bin’s nine promising Fire Banner recruits and agrees to let them visit all five burial grounds the next day.
• Kong Yue explains the five sites—Shadow Cave, Ghost Cry Gorge, Black Fog Cliff, Desolate Valley, and Heavenly Ruins Tomb—each associated with one of the five Blood Fiend-level ghosts.
• Separately, Wu Bin and feng shui master Su Yang plan their investigation. Though presented as a survey of the Mausoleum’s feng shui, their real aim is to discover what it is hiding. They intend to stay as long as possible and use the recruits’ exposure to yinwood production to gather clues.
• That night, a masked figure meets the Chief Steward. The Mausoleum’s hidden operation is nearing its next stage: they will begin after the investigators depart and the yinwood collectors arrive. The Chief Steward hints at a long-standing personal history with people he expects to encounter again.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao recognizes the Chief Steward’s overwhelming power and becomes more cautious, but the dangerous burial grounds spark his curiosity rather than fear.
• Kong Tian reacts nervously to the coming trials; Kong Yue reassures him that the next day will reveal the Mausoleum’s dangers more clearly. She privately concludes that Chen Miao has performed exceptionally well.
• Wu Bin coordinates with Li Mu and directs the investigation with Su Yang, who is cautious about being noticed. Wu Bin explains that both the Bureau and the Mausoleum prefer to avoid open conflict.
• The Chief Steward and the masked figure speak with mutual awareness of the Bureau’s probing. The figure dismisses the Chen Family heir as a minor threat, while the Chief Steward presses for a timeline.

Significant themes

• Power and caution: The Chief Steward’s effortless disappearance underscores how far beyond Chen Miao’s experience the Mausoleum’s leaders may be.
• Investigation and political restraint: The Bureau and the Mausoleum understand each other’s motives but maintain a diplomatic façade rather than risk direct confrontation.
• Hidden schemes and foreshadowing: The planned operation involving yinwood, the masked figure’s confidence, and the Chief Steward’s cryptic anticipation suggest a deeper conspiracy and unresolved past.
• Facing danger: The burial grounds are intended to expose recruits to threats beyond the Bureau’s protection and temper their inexperience.