Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Grave Keeper Jiang Wei arrives with two trained hounds to escort Chen Miao, Kong Yue, and Kong Tian to the Shadow Cave. He explains that the three groups of visitors have been assigned to different burial grounds and may rotate later.
• Jiang provides daily rations: special flatbreads made to help circulate Vital Blood in the Eastern Mausoleum’s dense Yin Energy. Kong Yue samples one and thanks him warmly.
• On the route down the mountain, a Feng Shui Formation produces thick fog and convincing figures that call out using names and memories. Chen Miao suspects these are not ordinary illusions but apparitions formed in the fog; his [Clearheart] ability cannot dispel them. Jiang’s hounds help keep the group on the safe path.
• Once they reach level ground, the fog and the mountain behind them vanish. Chen Miao reasons that the formation both conceals the Mausoleum from outsiders and makes escape difficult for intruders.
• At the Shadow Cave, Jiang supplies Nether-Eye Sand Goggles, which reveal what is hidden, and tough Cocoon Membrane Garments, which protect the wearer’s Soul Body from Soul Cocoons. Chen Miao puts them on and sees the cave glowing eerily against the newly darkened surroundings.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains cautious and observant, analyzing the formation rather than trusting what he sees. He also recognizes that the figure in the fog cannot truly know him as “Chen Miao,” since that is not his Mortal World name.
• Kong Yue is cordial and confident, treating Jiang warmly and politely. Her friendly “Brother Jiang” visibly pleases him.
• Jiang is practical and helpful, explaining the rations, the dangers of the route, and the protective equipment. His duties extend to supplying the group and relaying reports to his superiors.

Significant themes

• Perception and deception: The formation blurs the line between illusion and reality, and familiar memories can be used to lure travelers off course.
• Preparedness and protection: Survival in the burial grounds depends on following guidance and using specialized equipment.
• Control and confinement: The Mausoleum’s defenses protect its secrets but also make escape difficult.
• Courtesy amid danger: Small gestures of trust and gratitude help establish rapport even in a threatening setting.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao and his companions enter Shadow Cave, where the Nether-Eye Sand Goggles reveal only blurred outlines. Ghosts look much like people wearing Cocoon Membrane Garments, making it easy to mistake one for a companion.
• Chen discovers that his Yin Control and Spirit Communication abilities are largely useless: the cave’s dense yin energy and drifting soul-power fluctuations overwhelm his senses. The energy he can identify matches that of his Cocoon Membrane Garment—and the Blood Fiend Soul Cocoon in the cave.
• After about a hundred meters, Jiang Wei leads the group into a Grave Keepers’ resting point. Inside, they remove their goggles and rest by an oil lamp.
• Jiang Wei explains that Grave-Guarding Dogs can navigate the cave without goggles because their eyes have been adapted using water prepared with Nether-Eye Sand. He also warns that Wall-Erosion Ghosts may enter through cracks; their faces can be used as fuel for the lamps.
• At Kong Yue’s request, Jiang Wei describes the cave’s layout. It is divided into three patrol sections, each assigned to a different Grave Keeper. Cocoon Membrane Garments signal when someone crosses into another section.
• Because the Deputy Steward has informed the Grave Keepers about Chen Miao’s group, they are free to explore all sections, including the core area where the soul cocoon lies.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao adapts to the cave’s unusual dangers and recognizes that his abilities cannot reliably distinguish ghosts from the cave’s ambient supernatural energy. He suspects the Steward may have a hidden reason for letting them investigate.
• Jiang Wei acts as their guide, explaining the cave’s hazards, patrol system, and practical survival methods. His two dogs remain calmly at his side.
• Kong Yue asks Jiang Wei for a fuller explanation of the cave, revealing that her earlier knowledge of the burial zone was incomplete.
• The companions rely on Jiang Wei’s expertise while weighing the risks of investigating further.

Significant themes

• Limits of perception and power: Chen Miao’s usual abilities fail in an environment saturated with supernatural forces.
• Danger hidden in familiarity: Ghosts resemble companions, while the oil lamp’s fuel turns out to be a preserved face.
• Suspicion and freedom: The group is permitted to explore the cave freely, leaving Chen Miao uncertain whether this reflects the Steward’s confidence, innocence, or disregard for them.

Chapter Summary: “Yinwood”

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao considers whether killing the Blood Fiend known as the Soul Cocoon would be worthwhile, but concludes that its likely reward in yin virtue is modest compared with killing many weaker ghosts.
• Jiang Wei explains the Shadow Cave’s yinwood and the ghosts that produce it:
  • Cocoon membrane comes from the Blood Fiend’s Soul Cocoon.
  • Nether-eye sand comes from the Eyeless Puppet Spirit.
  • Weeping rock paste, produced by the Wall-Erosion Ghost, is poisonous to living beings and can weaken ghosts. It is also used in ghost-capturing equipment, including Jiang Wei’s whip.
  • Resentment-settling water forms in pools inhabited by water ghosts. The pools are dangerous, though recent collection has reduced the amount of the substance and the immediate threat.
  • Cold bone powder comes from Bone-Crying Ghosts, whose cries disorient people. The ghosts have recently been cleared, and powder-made earplugs can counter them.
  • Earth-nightmare marrow forms around corpses sealed in rock, where Earthbound Nightmares remain trapped. The mineral is mainly used in feng shui formations, including some at the Eastern Mausoleum.
• Jiang Wei reveals that ghosts from the Shadow Cave undergo ethereal transformation before being sent to the Demon-Suppressing Bureau.
• The Soul Cocoon causes this transformation: it draws in nearby souls and alters their bodies, producing unusual features such as extra heads, limbs, or wings. Feng shui formations limit its pull, while Cocoon Membrane Garments protect Grave Keepers during surges.
• Chen Miao connects these altered ghosts to the strange forms known as Ghost Body Manifestation, suggesting the two are related.
• Jiang Wei proposes taking Chen Miao, Kong Yue, and the others to see the ghosts firsthand. They set out together.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows a practical, calculating attitude toward danger and rewards, then becomes increasingly intrigued by the Shadow Cave’s supernatural systems. He makes a significant connection between ethereal transformation and Ghost Body Manifestation.
• Jiang Wei acts as an experienced guide, explaining the cave’s dangers, resources, and protections. He offers to show the group the ghosts so they can adjust before he leaves.
• Kong Yue and the other two accept Jiang Wei’s invitation, continuing their exploration as a group.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as protection: Understanding each ghost’s behavior and the uses of yinwood helps the Grave Keepers manage the cave’s dangers.
• Practical risk and reward: Chen Miao weighs the potential gain from confronting a powerful monster against safer, more profitable alternatives.
• Transformation and the uncanny: The Soul Cocoon’s ability to reshape souls introduces a possible origin for the bizarre forms of Ghost Body Manifestation.
• Danger managed through systems: Protective clothing, tools, feng shui formations, and scheduled collection make the Shadow Cave’s supernatural hazards more controllable.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao, Kong Yue, and Kong Tian explore the Shadow Cave with Jiang Wei. Chen Miao infers that the cave functions as a cultivation base, supplying the Demon-Suppressing Bureau with Ghosts that have completed metamorphosis.
• Near the Soul Cocoon’s core cavern, Jiang Wei warns them to remove their Nether-Eye Sand Goggles: the Cocoon’s influence can damage their eyes. Chen Miao’s [Night Vision] status lets him see better than the others, while the Kong siblings use Paper Offering birds to guide themselves.
• The group reaches the Soul Cocoon, a huge black cocoon surrounded by dangerous strands that can pull the soul from anyone below Grandmaster. Jiang Wei demonstrates by throwing a captured Water Ghost into the strands; it is drawn into the Cocoon.
• The Cocoon’s surface then displays thousands of faces—Ghosts still undergoing metamorphosis. Jiang Wei says the Bureau removes completed Ghosts only once a year, and estimates that one or two thousand may be inside.
• On the way out, Chen Miao remains troubled by the faces and later asks Kong Yue questions about what he sensed.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao uses his Notebook to enhance his vision and quietly studies the cave’s routes. His attention shifts from the Cocoon’s size to an unsettling perception: through [Heart Illumination], he senses complex, humanlike thoughts from the Ghosts inside.
• Kong Yue confidently guides Chen Miao by taking hold of his arm when she cannot see clearly; she later notices his fixation on the Cocoon and urges him to leave.
• Jiang Wei acts as guide and instructor, explaining the Cocoon’s dangers and demonstrating its power with the Water Ghost.
• Kong Tian follows his sister’s Paper Offering method, which helps the siblings navigate the darkness.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and hidden purpose: The Shadow Cave appears less like a battlefield than a facility for transforming Ghosts for the Bureau.
• The uncanny nature of metamorphosis: The Cocoon’s process is powerful, dangerous, and only partly understood.
• Doubt and perception: Chen Miao’s unusual ability reveals something that contradicts his experience—Ghosts seeming to possess complex emotions—leaving him suspicious that the Cocoon is not what it appears to be.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao asks Kong Yue whether a Ghost can retain human consciousness. Kong Yue explains that a displaced Soul Body can survive inside a Paper Effigy, while Kong Tian says a newly formed Ghost may retain awareness briefly before losing it.
• Kong Tian recounts a folk belief that a person might be “reborn” as a conscious Ghost. Kong Yue clarifies that this resembles Ascension: a Heaven-Ascending Grandmaster who completes all ninety-nine steps can leave their body behind and enter the realm of Immortals and Gods. Only two people are said to have reached that stage; one succeeded and one failed.
• Chen Miao reveals that the Ghost inside the soul cocoon in Shadow Cave seemed alive. Kong Tian jokes that such a “newborn soul” should belong with the Great Xia Imperial Family, and Kong Yue sharply rebukes him for the dangerous remark.
• The trio continues investigating Shadow Cave but finds nothing suspicious. Kong Yue proposes searching the other burial areas. Chen Miao suggests checking overlooked locations—such as a pool of resentment-settling water, a sealed Earthbound Nightmare, and remains left after the Bone-Crying Ghosts were removed.
• After three days without results, Kong Yue tells Jiang Wei they are moving on. On the fourth day, Chen Miao arrives at Ghost Cry Gorge, another of the Eastern Mausoleum’s five burial areas.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains observant and cautious, sharing his suspicion about the soul cocoon while helping Kong Yue plan a more focused investigation.
• Kong Yue demonstrates knowledge of Ghosts and Ascension, protects the group from Kong Tian’s reckless comment, and persists in investigating despite the lack of evidence.
• Kong Tian contributes theories and stories but is impulsive; his joke alarms Kong Yue and makes him recognize the danger of speaking carelessly.
• Kong Yue’s trust in Chen Miao is reinforced: she sees him as the one person around her who gives her peace of mind.

Significant themes

• Death and transformation: The chapter explores the boundary between human, Ghost, and a possible post-death rebirth.
• Ambition and limits: Ascension represents an almost unattainable goal, achieved by only two figures in centuries or millennia.
• Caution and responsibility: Kong Tian’s joke shows how careless words can endanger individuals and their family.
• Persistence in investigation: Though the group finds no clues, Kong Yue insists that overlooked evidence may remain.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao, Kong Yue, and Kong Tian arrive at Ghost Cry Gorge with Grave Keeper Jiang Wei. A fierce, cold wind blows outside, but abruptly dies upon entering the gorge; the entrance has a windless rest area.
• Jiang Wei gives them Wind Ocarinas made from naturally perforated rock. Worn around the neck, the ocarinas absorb the harmful “ghost wind” and sound against the gorge’s sorrowful wailing.
• Curious, Chen Miao hands his ocarina to Kong Yue and steps into the wind alone. The cold affects him only briefly because he activates his diamond water-fire ape state.
• When the ghostly weeping fills his ears, it stirs deep sorrow. His old ability, Sorrowful Wind and Wood, activates automatically, letting him turn his own sorrow into a wind—but the gorge’s wailing keeps replenishing it. He realizes the effect intensifies the longer he stays and retreats before it overwhelms him.
• Kong Tian then tries the gorge without an ocarina. He is immediately overcome, trembling and sobbing. Jiang Wei pulls him back, but his tears continue. Kong Yue and Jiang Wei look to Chen Miao for an explanation; Chen Miao replies, “I’m just not one to cry.”

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows curiosity and unusual resilience. His sorrow-manipulating ability, once used to help people cry during funeral rites, proves only partly effective against the gorge’s relentless influence. He appears much less emotionally vulnerable than Kong Tian.
• Kong Tian is overwhelmed almost instantly, suggesting the ghostly wailing affects people differently. His tentative request to try the gorge also hints at lingering self-consciousness about a past incident.
• Kong Yue allows Kong Tian to test himself, showing she does not want him to remain burdened by what happened before.
• Jiang Wei playfully expects Chen Miao to struggle, but stays ready to pull him out; he acts quickly when Kong Tian is affected.

Significant themes

• Different forms of resilience: Chen Miao’s internal defenses and Kong Tian’s emotional response contrast sharply.
• The limits of control: Chen Miao can redirect sorrow, but cannot stop the gorge from continually generating it.
• Compassion and emotional release: Chen Miao’s past funeral work involved helping mourners express feelings they had bottled up, adding irony to his claim that he is not one to cry.

Key events

• After Kong Tian’s emotional collapse in Ghost Cry Gorge, Kong Yue decides everyone should wear a Wind Ocarina before entering. The instruments absorb the ghostly wind and muffle its cries, making the gorge far more bearable.
• Jiang Wei explains that Ghost Cry Gorge is a short, single-path area with seven bends and relatively few ghost types. Its most dangerous inhabitant is the Blood Fiend, also called the Lord of a Thousand Howls. The familiar cries are only its howls weakened as the wind passes through holes in the cliffs; hearing the source directly would be much worse.
• The holes also contain Whispering Wind Shards, ghosts transformed by the yin energy and cries trapped inside them. They can escape and invade sleepers’ dreams, so anyone resting must keep someone awake. The bends provide sheltered rest stops, lit by lamps using weeping rock paste from Shadow Cave.
• Kong Yue chooses to press on. Jiang Wei guides the group through the gorge, explaining its hazards and local yinwood. Chen Miao becomes particularly interested in the Echo Wanderers, sensing that they share a mysterious condition with ghosts in soul cocoons.

Character developments and interactions

• Kong Yue is cautious after seeing Kong Tian’s ordeal and takes the practical precaution of equipping the group with Wind Ocarinas.
• Kong Tian is embarrassed by his earlier breakdown. Jiang Wei’s glance brings the incident back to mind, while Kong Tian privately admires Chen Miao’s ability to withstand the emotional effects.
• Jiang Wei acts as an experienced guide, explaining the gorge’s dangers and safety rules. Kong Yue thanks him, and he responds casually.
• Chen Miao remains observant and analytical, examining how the cliff holes shape the shadows and noticing the Echo Wanderers’ unusual condition.

Significant themes

• Preparation and survival: Protective tools, vigilance, and knowledge of local hazards are essential.
• Nature shaped by supernatural forces: The cliff formations appear natural but are influenced by the Lord of a Thousand Howls.
• Unresolved mystery: Echo Wanderers resemble ghosts in soul cocoons, raising questions about whether their shared condition is coincidence or evidence of a deeper connection.

Plot points and events

• After Jiang Wei leaves, Chen Miao, Kong Yue, and Kong Tian discuss how to investigate Ghost Cry Gorge. They wonder why Jiang did not take them to meet the Lord of a Thousand Howls, the Blood Fiend linked to the gorge’s ghostly winds and cries.
• Chen Miao suggests asking Jiang directly when he next brings supplies. Since their investigation is only disguised as training, they can report any restrictions to their superiors rather than risk probing a dangerous Blood Fiend themselves.
• He argues that they should focus less on the Eastern Mausoleum’s “root causes”—Blood Fiends, the Grand Feng Shui Formation, and its administrators—and instead investigate the Ghosts and other observable effects. Their goal, he says, is to “treat the symptoms, not the cause.”
• Kong Yue agrees, reasoning that a modest, documented finding could put their team ahead of the other recruits if the others pursue the elusive underlying problem.
• Chen Miao proposes capturing a Whispering Wind Shard and studying its effects. Even if they discover nothing unusual, they can record their observations and submit a useful report. Kong Yue enthusiastically approves.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows practical caution and strategic thinking. He is concerned both with avoiding risks beyond the team’s abilities and with ensuring their assignment produces a tangible result. His plan also reflects his worldly familiarity with workplace reporting.
• Kong Yue shifts from uncertainty to confidence, adopting Chen Miao’s strategy and admiring his plan to document their work.
• Kong Tian raises doubts, first about Jiang Wei’s omission and later about the risk that the other teams might uncover the root cause. His questions prompt the group to clarify the trade-offs in their approach.
• The three rely on one another’s ideas, but Chen Miao largely guides the discussion, while Kong Yue turns his suggestions into the team’s chosen course.

Significant themes

• Pragmatism over ambition: The team chooses a manageable investigation over confronting powerful, potentially dangerous causes.
• Limits of knowledge and authority: They recognize that, as recruits, they lack the ability or position to solve the Eastern Mausoleum’s deepest problems.
• Documentation and measurable success: Careful records can make work valuable even without a dramatic discovery.
• “Treat the symptoms, not the cause”: The chapter’s central principle is both an investigative strategy and a cautious way to secure practical gains.

Key plot points and events

• The group begins testing ways to capture a Whispering Wind Shard hidden in an aperture high on the cliff.
• Kong Tian uses a Mystic Arts–imbued Finger Shot to pull a shard out, but it escapes into a crack’s shadows and scatters into many soul-power traces. Chen Miao realizes his Spirit Communication can sense it, though he cannot track it.
• Chen Miao then uses a blood bamboo splint to restrain a second shard and draw it out. It escapes the moment it fully leaves the aperture, apparently becoming intangible.
• Following Chen Miao’s suggestion, Kong Yue forms a Paper Effigy designed to contain a soul body. Chen Miao draws a third shard partway out, and the Paper Effigy absorbs it just as it clears the aperture, successfully capturing it—though the shard continues struggling inside.
• Chen Miao asks Kong Tian to document the capture and both failed attempts, along with later tests of the shard’s ability to invade dreams. He provides a notebook and pen, then prepares to sleep while Kong Yue keeps watch.

Character developments and interactions

• Kong Tian tries to prove himself with his Finger Shot, but the shard’s escape initially embarrasses him. He is relieved when Chen Miao’s own method also fails, and then takes responsibility for recording the experiments.
• Chen Miao demonstrates perceptiveness and adaptability: he recognizes that ordinary restraints are insufficient, recommends Kong Yue’s soul-containing paper offering, and emphasizes careful documentation.
• Kong Yue trusts Chen Miao’s advice, successfully captures the shard with her Paper Effigy, and agrees to watch over him as he sleeps.
• The three work cooperatively: Kong Tian tests his technique, Chen Miao supplies practical ideas, and Kong Yue executes the method that succeeds.

Significant themes

• Experimentation and learning from failure: The failed attempts reveal the shard’s unusual escape ability and guide the group toward a better approach.
• Teamwork and complementary skills: Their different abilities combine to capture what none could manage alone.
• Careful observation and record-keeping: The group treats the encounter as an investigation, preserving results for future testing.
• The uncanny nature of the supernatural: The shard can scatter through shadows, evade restraints, and resist containment even when captured.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao wakes after experiencing a dream induced by a Whispering Wind Shard. He recalls being an ordinary person whose family and village were slaughtered by yin cultivators; after he dies, the dream shifts through a village and a blurred scene before ending at Ghost Cry Gorge.
• The group questions how the shard could contain memories of Ghost Cry Gorge, which lies in the Eastern Mausoleum, as well as the other places seen after the dreamer’s death. They suspect the scenes may relate to the current problem in the mausoleum.
• Kong Tian records their observations and theories. He then experiences the shard’s dream himself and reports seeing the same events as Chen Miao, though his reactions are more intense and he takes longer to wake.
• The group captures more shards. Kong Yue and Chen Miao compare their dreams: their initial experiences differ, but the events after death are strikingly similar. Chen Miao repeats the experiment and confirms that the scenes are the same but viewed from a different perspective.
• A third shard supports their conclusion: the dreams appear to recount different people’s lives, but all three share the same post-death experiences. The group begins to infer a connection to the Eastern Mausoleum, but Jiang Wei arrives with flatbreads before they can finish discussing it.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is observant and analytical, noticing that the village and blurred scenes may be as significant as Ghost Cry Gorge. He volunteers to test the shard again and identifies the difference in dream perspective.
• Kong Yue shifts from concern to excitement as the evidence suggests a broader mystery. She directs the experiments, safeguards the shard, and compares her dream with Chen Miao’s.
• Kong Tian carefully documents the group’s findings and participates in the dream test. His stronger physical reactions and slower awakening underscore the shard’s effect.
• The three work cooperatively, checking their impressions against repeated tests rather than relying on a single dream. Jiang Wei’s sudden arrival interrupts their discussion; Kong Tian quickly hides the notes, suggesting the findings are sensitive.

Significant themes

• Memory and death: The shard’s dreams seem to contain experiences extending beyond the dreamers’ deaths.
• Evidence and uncertainty: The group treats the first dream as a possible anomaly, then gathers more accounts to test the theory.
• Shared fate and mystery: Different lives converge on the same unexplained events, hinting at a larger connection to the Eastern Mausoleum.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Wei explains that the Lord of a Thousand Howls is not a conventional creature with a visible body: it supposedly extends throughout Ghost Cry Gorge, wherever ghost wind and wailing occur. The cliff holes that trap Whispering Wind Shards are manifestations of its power. He describes it as a snake-like presence spanning the gorge, with seven bends.
• Kong Yue questions how something as vast as the gorge could be a Blood Fiend, and whether it must have a separate true body. Jiang Wei admits he has never seen one and suggests that Steward Lin Shi, who oversees the gorge, may know more.
• Kong Yue decides not to approach the steward, judging it unnecessary and potentially risky. She instead asks about the remaining Whispering Wind Shards and Echo Wanderers. Jiang Wei estimates that a few hundred shards and fewer than a hundred Echo Wanderers remain.
• After Jiang Wei leaves, Kong Tian worries that he may have overheard their conversation. Chen Miao tests the rest area’s soundproofing: sounds cannot pass through its boundary, though Whispering Wind Shards and Echo Wanderers can enter.
• Chen Miao reflects that his perception detected soul-power fluctuations and connections among the cliff holes, while the Mystic Mirror’s view from above revealed a snake-like pattern across the gorge. He suspects a feng shui formation may conceal or explain the entity, but chooses not to investigate further.
• Kong Yue redirects the group toward collecting more Whispering Wind Shards so they can complete their task.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Wei is helpful, sharing what he knows about the gorge and offering to introduce the group to Steward Lin Shi. He remains cautious in what he can confirm, distinguishing hearsay from his own experience.
• Kong Yue is curious and analytical, probing the Lord’s nature and asking about local resources. She shows practical judgment by declining to involve a powerful steward and focusing on the group’s assigned goal.
• Kong Tian continues recording observations in his booklet and displays anxiety about being overheard. Learning that the rest area blocks sound reassures him.
• Chen Miao combines skepticism with careful observation. Although he has detected evidence of the Lord’s presence, he avoids pursuing the mystery and supports Kong Yue’s practical course.
• The group relies on one another: Kong Yue leads the questioning, Jiang Wei supplies information, Chen Miao checks the rest area’s protections, and Kong Tian records what they learn.

Significant themes

• The hidden nature of power: The Lord of a Thousand Howls may be a vast, landscape-spanning entity rather than a discrete monster.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Jiang Wei’s account is suggestive but unverified, and even Chen Miao’s unusual perception cannot settle the question.
• Pragmatism over curiosity: The group chooses immediate task completion over investigating a potentially dangerous mystery or approaching a high-ranking official.

Key plot points and events

• The team catches twenty Whispering Wind Shards and discovers that five produce dreams containing only memories from before the ghosts’ deaths. Kong Yue records the finding, pleased that it could improve the recruits’ standing in the Demon-Suppressing Bureau.
• After nightfall, Chen Miao hears voices and investigates. He sees Echo Wanderers moving through invisible threads stretched across Ghost Cry Gorge; their movement through the threads creates syllables and sentences.
• Chen Miao discovers that illusory sound stones inside the cliff holes make the threads disappear when removed, suggesting the stones absorb sound and help shape the gorge’s strange acoustics.
• Using the Mystic Mirror, Chen Miao draws an Echo Wanderer to him. His Twin Birth ability initially fails to connect, but succeeds after he freezes the ghost with Ice Prison. He repeats the process with a second Echo Wanderer and receives memories from both.
• Chen Miao returns to guard Kong Tian while Kong Yue goes to investigate the Echo Wanderers. He reviews the memories through Clearheart and finds clearer evidence about the ghosts’ deaths, including a masked murderous yin cultivator, cliffs surrounding their village after death, and slender branches binding them.

Character developments and interactions

• Kong Yue is ambitious and eager to make a strong impression at the Bureau. The Shard discovery lifts her spirits, and she recognizes Chen Miao’s value, resolving to secure more resources for him.
• Chen Miao remains intensely curious and resourceful. He tests the gorge’s supernatural mechanisms, adapts when Twin Birth fails, and becomes more serious after seeing the Echo Wanderers’ memories.
• Kong Yue and Chen Miao coordinate effectively: she trusts him to investigate and guard Kong Tian, while he keeps watch over the resting place through the Mystic Mirror.
• Kong Tian remains asleep and under protection throughout the investigation.

Significant themes

• Memory as evidence: The Shards’ dreams and Echo Wanderers’ memories may reveal the truth behind the ghosts’ deaths.
• Investigation through experimentation: Chen Miao tests the threads, stones, and ghosts systematically, turning strange phenomena into clues.
• Ambition and loyalty: Kong Yue’s career goals coexist with her growing appreciation of Chen Miao’s talent and her concern for the team.

Plot points and events

• The Echo Wanderer’s memories reveal that many ghosts in Ghost Cry Gorge died unnaturally in similar ways, apparently connected to masked Yin Cultivators. Chen Miao suspects the Eastern Mausoleum is involved in something sinister, but decides to investigate cautiously rather than get drawn into a dangerous conflict.
• He identifies two possible leads: a village in Cangzhou Prefecture surrounded by sheer cliffs, and strange vine-like branches that immobilized a victim. He does not know whether the leads are connected.
• Chen Miao and Kong Yue discuss the Echo Wanderers’ behavior and record their observations. They notice that only Echo Wanderers high in the air make sounds.
• After two more days, the team leaves Ghost Cry Gorge and heads to Black Fog Cliff, the third of the Five Grave Zones. There they encounter Wang Tingsong, who claims his team found something but taunts them that they will not be able to find it.
• Jiang Wei explains that Black Fog Cliff is dominated by coffins and zombies. Its special coffins release black fog during the day, and patrol guards use Hanging Rune Tokens to pass safely through the fog.
• Kong Yue spots a clear gap in the fog. Jiang Wei says some coffins have recently stopped producing it, despite repairs, and that the cliff’s yinwood output has fallen sharply. The team enters the fog to investigate.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains wary and pragmatic: he wants to learn enough about the Eastern Mausoleum to protect himself, but sees the matter as beyond his rank and responsibility.
• Kong Yue continues to lead the investigation methodically, asking questions at Black Fog Cliff and noticing the unexplained gap.
• Jiang Wei provides practical explanations and guides the team, while tactfully giving Kong Yue and Wang Tingsong space to speak.
• Wang Tingsong is boastful and deliberately unhelpful, using his team’s discovery to provoke Kong Yue’s group.

Significant themes

• Concealed corruption and moral unease: Evidence hints that people may be deliberately killed to supply the Eastern Mausoleum with bodies and ghosts.
• Self-preservation amid larger dangers: Chen Miao balances curiosity with caution, seeking knowledge mainly so he will not be caught unprepared.
• Investigation through anomalies: Across the grave zones, unusual disturbances—abnormal ghosts, silent Echo Wanderers, and failing coffins—suggest deeper problems.
• Specialized knowledge and power: The Wang Family’s expertise with zombies gives them confidence at a site where other guards may be at a disadvantage.

Plot points and events

• Kong Yue spends two days investigating Black Fog Cliff but finds no explanation for its problems. She plans to move on the next day.
• Chen Miao discovers that the cliff contains not only corpse-filled coffins but also ghosts and soul bodies: Eclipse Shadows in the daytime fog and Bound Spirits trapped in cracks. Their memories show masked cultivators massacring at least ten villages.
• The evidence raises troubling questions about the Eastern Mausoleum’s supply of more than ten thousand ghosts to the Demon-Suppressing Bureau each year—especially where its “abnormal” ghosts might be going. Chen Miao suspects a larger, hidden scheme but keeps his findings to himself.
• While walking the cliff’s plank paths, Chen Miao asks Kong Yue about the Profound Pass Corpse Lord. She explains that flying jiangshi are ranked from First to Seventh Jia, with strength and cultivation time shaped by the quality of the Corpse-Nurturing Ground. The Wang Family owns a Seventh Jia flying jiangshi, but the Corpse Lord is stronger: it is rumored to be a hiba, a rank beyond flying jiangshi.
• The thousand-plus coffins hanging around Black Fog Cliff help disperse the hiba’s leaking Corpse Qi. If containment failed, the Corpse Lord could devastate any city it reached. Kong Yue says the Eastern Mausoleum’s powerful feng shui formation was built by imperial and Demon-Suppressing Bureau experts to contain the Blood Fiend, but local authorities cannot rebuild it themselves.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao grows increasingly wary as his investigation reveals mass killings and possible irregularities in the ghost supply. His questions about the Corpse Lord are partly an attempt to judge the danger facing the Eastern Mausoleum.
• Kong Yue admits she has found nothing, but provides Chen Miao with a detailed explanation of corpse ranks and the limits of local authority. Her confidence in the containment system is tempered by concern over what would happen if the Corpse Lord escaped.
• Their conversation shifts from technical curiosity to a shared recognition of the stakes, though Chen Miao does not reveal his discoveries.

Significant themes

• Hidden violence and institutional secrecy: Ghost memories expose mass slaughter, while the fate of abnormal ghosts remains unexplained.
• Fragile containment: The Eastern Mausoleum’s safety depends on an ancient, specialized formation and ongoing measures that local officials can only patch.
• Escalating supernatural threat: The hiba represents destruction on a regional scale, suggesting that the dangers beneath the mausoleum may exceed ordinary cultivation ranks.

Key plot points and events

• Kong Yue explains that the Demon-Suppressing Bureau restricts major corpse-driving families to prevent them from amassing enough zombies to threaten Great Xia. The Wang Family must raise most of its corpses in the Four Mausoleums, where the Bureau can monitor them.
• Chen Miao wonders whether some of the coffins at Black Fog Cliff belong to the Wang Family. Kong Yue suspects Wang Tingsong may be using family zombies to gather information, but sees no way to intervene.
• The next day, Jiang Wei leads Chen Miao, Kong Yue, and Kong Tian to Desolate Valley, the Eastern Mausoleum’s fourth burial zone. Seven chains bind a sealed fiend at the valley’s center, while yin miasma leaves the surrounding land barren.
• Jiang Wei explains that the valley induces relentless hunger and bodily wasting. Grave Keepers must eat withered vein wood marrow daily to resist its deadly effects, though it does not remove the hunger.
• The sealed fiend, the Mountain-Bound Starveling Lord, is said to have been a Heaven-Ascending Steps Grandmaster who starved himself for seven years while practicing a method called “corpse liberation into immortality.” After his resentment turned him into a fiend, his ghost domain caused mass starvation across nine county towns before the Demon-Suppressing Bureau intervened.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao recognizes that a Hiba would be too powerful to confront and that fleeing would be his only option. He also agrees that the Bureau’s restrictions on the Wang Family are sensible.
• Kong Yue connects the Wang Family’s corpse-nurturing practices to Wang Tingsong’s possible knowledge of the Black Fog Cliff coffins, but concludes the Eastern Mausoleum cannot help.
• Jiang Wei serves as guide and source of history, clarifying that the Mountain-Bound Starveling Lord may be even more dangerous than the Profound Pass Corpse Lord at Black Fog Cliff.
• Hearing the tale, Chen Miao begins to see the Blood Fiends at Shadow Cave and Ghost Cry Gorge as comparatively less formidable.

Significant themes

• Power and oversight: The Bureau limits powerful families to prevent private forces from rivaling the state.
• Corruption through ambition: The Starveling Lord’s pursuit of immortality leads to monstrous transformation and widespread death.
• Danger hidden in the past: The Mausoleum’s sealed threats embody the lasting consequences of unchecked cultivation and supernatural forces.

Plot and key events

• Jiang Wei explains the Desolate Valley’s safeguards: specially cultivated trees replenish its vitality and indicate the strength of the Mountain-Bound Starveling Lord’s seal. Grave Keepers must report trees that wither unusually quickly or slowly.
• The seal must be carefully balanced. If tightened too much, the Lord withdraws its power and harms the valley’s production of valuable yin materials; after withdrawing, its next eruption can be dangerously powerful.
• Chen Miao, Kong Tian, and Kong Yue test the Lord’s hunger influence by delaying their wood marrow. The hunger steadily intensifies; Kong Tian and Kong Yue give in first, and Chen Miao lasts about ten minutes before eating his portion. It eases the hunger but does not remove it.
• Jiang Wei tours them through the valley, explains their duties and its materials, and warns them about the dangers.
• Kong Yue investigates the valley but again finds nothing useful. Chen Miao encounters several kinds of ghosts, including Withered Husks, Crawling Haunts, Rotten Wood Calamities, and Chain Corpses. Wood marrow protects him from the corrosive effect of a Rotten Wood Calamity’s attack.
• While checking his Notebook, Chen Miao upgrades the [Hunger] status. Its new form, [Hunger Delusion], can cause hunger-driven hallucinations and bingeing—or sustain hunger until it increases the target’s power.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains observant and experimentally minded. He tests the valley’s influence, wonders whether the Mountain-Bound Starveling Lord can sulk, and discovers a potentially useful new status.
• Kong Tian and Kong Yue also try to resist the valley’s hunger but eat their wood marrow before Chen Miao does. Kong Yue continues her search despite another fruitless investigation.
• Jiang Wei acts as their guide and instructor, explaining the valley’s delicate management and the risks of mishandling the seal.
• Chen Miao and his companions cooperate with Jiang Wei’s tour, while his questions and private deductions show his growing curiosity about the Lord’s behavior.

Significant themes

• Control and balance: The seal cannot simply be strengthened as much as possible; the valley depends on maintaining a fragile equilibrium.
• Hunger as both danger and power: The Lord’s influence harms visitors, while Chen Miao’s upgraded status suggests unsatisfied hunger can also enhance strength.
• Supernatural forces and livelihood: The imprisoned Lord’s condition directly affects the valley’s valuable resources, tying its dangers to the Grave Keepers’ work.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao tests his upgraded second-tier Hunger Delusion on himself. It conjures an irresistible vision of Sichuan dishes and intensifies his hunger.
• The status’s power boosts more than physical strength: it also strengthens Chen Miao’s yin energy and soul body. As his hunger grows, his third-tier Yin Control detection range expands, eventually doubling. He wonders whether a third-tier upgrade could make the effect still stronger, but lacks the yin virtue needed.
• Chen Miao is eager to leave the Eastern Mausoleum: he has been away from his real-world body for ten days, and only one burial zone remains to investigate.
• As Chen Miao, Kong Yue, and Kong Tian prepare to leave Desolate Valley, they watch Grave Keepers bring in coffins to replenish the corpses used to cultivate yinwood. Chen Miao senses a ghost inside one corpse; his Twin Birth ability is repelled, linking it to the same kind of soul body he encountered before.
• Jiang Wei explains that the Eastern Mausoleum imports corpses that already contain—or are close to forming—ghosts. Chen Miao concludes that ordinary Grave Keepers likely know nothing of the suspicious corpses, so any corruption probably originates among the Mausoleum’s leadership.
• The group heads toward Heavenly Ruins Tomb, where visitors may stay only during the day and cannot spend the night. Jiang Wei says the restriction was likely established about ten years earlier, before the recent problems Chen Miao has been investigating.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao learns that Hunger Delusion can amplify his supernatural abilities, not merely his body, and carefully avoids testing its limits by harming himself.
• His suspicions about the Eastern Mausoleum deepen as he watches the corpse delivery and tests one of the corpses.
• Kong Yue’s curiosity leads the group to observe the Grave Keepers at work. She also asks Jiang Wei about the next burial zone and its restrictions; Chen Miao probes when the rule began.
• Jiang Wei answers their questions and warns them about the tomb’s rule, but appears unaware of the deeper issue Chen Miao detects.

Significant themes

• Power and restraint: Greater strength comes at the cost of extreme hunger, and Chen Miao weighs experimentation against the risk of damaging himself.
• Hidden corruption and hierarchy: Ordinary workers may be innocent or uninformed, suggesting that wrongdoing—if present—lies with those in authority.
• Rules and unanswered history: The tomb’s longstanding restriction complicates Chen Miao’s effort to connect current events with the Mausoleum’s past.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao, Jiang Wei, Kong Yue, and Kong Tian reach the Heavenly Ruins Tomb, a vast crater shrouded in mist. Kong Yue recounts a legend that villagers once settled inside it and all died within a year; Jiang Wei explains that the meteor likely created a natural site where yin energy gathers.
• Jiang Wei gives everyone a wooden talisman for protection and uses a special method to find the changing entrance. The group jumps through the mist onto a walkway spiraling down the crater wall.
• Inside the mist, Chen Miao finds that several abilities are restricted: he cannot use yin control or the Wood-Merging Art, and the Mystic Mirror cannot reach beyond the mist. Jiang Wei warns them to ignore anything that appears, since the talismans keep it from attacking them.
• A ghostly presence follows Chen Miao, matching his pace and breathing against his neck. Rather than panic, he grabs it and discovers pagoda catkins hidden in the mist. Touching them sends a memory into his mind. He releases them, then continues downward.
• At the bottom, Chen Miao sees a village and recognizes the surrounding sheer cliff as the same place he saw in the Echo Wanderer’s memories.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Wei acts as the group’s guide and authority, explaining the site’s dangers while withholding the method for locating its entrance.
• Chen Miao remains curious and composed despite losing access to important abilities. He confronts the haunting presence directly and investigates the catkins rather than destroying them.
• Kong Yue and Kong Tian follow Jiang Wei into the crater, while Chen Miao brings up the legend and questions the crater’s origin.

Significant themes

• The limits of power: The tomb’s mist suppresses Chen Miao’s usual abilities, forcing caution and reliance on observation.
• Folklore versus explanation: The villagers’ deaths are attributed to divine punishment in legend, while Jiang Wei offers a supernatural-geographical explanation.
• Memory and place: The catkins contain a memory, and the landscape confirms a connection to the Echo Wanderer’s visions, suggesting the tomb’s history is still unfolding.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao realizes the murders and ghost memories point to the Heavenly Ruins Tomb inside the Eastern Mausoleum—an exceptionally hidden place that ordinary investigators could hardly reach.
• At the bottom of the pit, the group encounters a village. Jiang Wei tells them to channel yin energy into their Pagoda Tree Wood Tokens, causing the scene to speed up like fast-forwarded footage.
• As the village’s history races by, its inhabitants disappear and its buildings decay into ruins. Once the illusion stops, a massive pagoda tree becomes visible beside the village.
• Jiang Wei identifies it as the Old-Year Pagoda Tree Lord, a Blood Fiend whose influence created the village, the ghosts, and the yinwood. The Eastern Mausoleum’s mist merely conceals the tomb; the rest of the site remains in its original state.
• Chen Miao pieces together a conspiracy: masked practitioners allegedly killed people, brought their bodies to the Eastern Mausoleum with the management’s cooperation, and used the tree’s power to create and bind ghosts. Those ghosts were then placed in other Burial Zones and disguised as local spirits, before being smuggled out with the annual yinwood shipments to the Demon-Suppressing Bureau. The scheme has lasted at least three years.

Character developments

• Chen Miao uses his observations and the ghosts’ memories to connect the tomb, the tree, and the apparent trafficking scheme. He becomes increasingly alarmed as he realizes the scale and duration of the crimes.
• Kong Yue and Kong Tian are initially confused by the changing village and the tree’s sudden apparent arrival. They learn that the illusion affects perception and can make observers forget what they have seen.
• Jiang Wei acts as the group’s guide, explaining the illusion, the tree’s identity, and the tomb’s history.

Significant themes

• Concealment and deception: The illusion alters both what people see and what they remember; the Eastern Mausoleum’s restricted access and concealment further protect the operation.
• Abuse of power and institutional complicity: The suspected cooperation of the Mausoleum turns a hidden supernatural site into part of a long-running criminal scheme.
• Escalating discovery: Each answer reveals a broader and more disturbing mystery, leaving Chen Miao to wonder how many people have been killed and how many ghosts have been taken.

Character interactions

• Jiang Wei instructs Kong Yue, Kong Tian, and Chen Miao to use their tokens, then explains how the illusion changes with their yin energy.
• Kong Yue questions Jiang Wei about the village and later asks whether the tree is the Blood Fiend.
• Chen Miao silently observes the others’ reactions, compares them with his own memories, and reconstructs the conspiracy from Jiang Wei’s revelations.

Key events

• Jiang Wei explains that the Old-Year Pagoda Tree Lord both consumes and returns memories. Touching it floods a person with memories, which can strengthen the soul body, but the practice is risky and should be done no more than once a month.
• Kong Tian goes first, followed by Kong Yue and Chen Miao. All begin trembling as the memory surge takes hold.
• Jiang Wei realizes Chen Miao has not yet reached the Netherworld Realm and pulls him away, fearing the surge could damage his memories. Chen Miao confirms he still remembers who everyone is.
• The Notebook reveals that Chen Miao gained 800 Memory Fragments, worth eight jin of yin virtue, in only a few seconds.

Character developments and interactions

• Kong Tian eagerly welcomes a rare chance to strengthen his soul body, especially as a collateral member of the Kong Family.
• Kong Yue is initially curious, then joins the exercise once Jiang Wei assures her that Kong Tian’s reaction is normal.
• Jiang Wei acts protectively, intervening quickly when he fears Chen Miao is in danger. He later prevents Chen Miao from returning to the tree.
• Chen Miao remains cautious, using the Mystic Mirror and checking the Notebook before touching the tree. He is not distressed by losing the opportunity to temper his soul; he is astonished by the unexpected reward and tempted to go back for more.

Significant themes

• Power and risk: The memory surge can strengthen the soul, but overexposure may blur the boundary between one’s own memories and others’.
• Unequal opportunity: A rare training benefit is especially meaningful to Kong Tian, who otherwise has few chances to improve through family support.
• Caution versus temptation: Jiang Wei prioritizes safety, while Chen Miao’s sudden gain of yin virtue makes him want to push his luck.