Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao studies “Curse Dao: Six Livestock Doll,” which describes a doll that collects emotions associated with six harmful traits: hypocrisy, jealousy, evasion, resentment, greed, and ruthlessness. It can intensify those traits in people, while someone possessing all six may absorb the emotions instead.
• Chen Miao realizes Xiang Shang’s group did not become disturbed inside the escape room; their behavior changed the following day. He suspects the doll’s effects may be connected to someone who disappeared after the group’s Sunday outing.
• He questions Li Zi, who explains that her coworkers became unusually irritable and reckless on Monday. She also confirms Sun Yi missed work after trying to resign.
• Li Zi recalls that Sun Yi left the escape room carrying a doll, supposedly a prize token. She also says she dreamed about Sun Yi after waking.
• Chen Miao contacts Qi Ning at the Administration. The branch cannot act immediately, citing other priorities, and estimates it will take at least three days before they can intervene.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao moves from studying the doll’s mechanics to identifying Sun Yi as a likely link in the case. He presses Li Zi for details, then seeks help from Qi Ning, but is frustrated by the delay.
• Xiang Shang and Li Zi are reunited and affectionate in the hospital. Their tender moment is interrupted by Chen Miao, who focuses on investigating what happened rather than engaging with Xiang Shang’s teasing.
• Li Zi provides crucial information about the group’s Monday behavior, Sun Yi’s absence, the doll, and her disturbing dream.
• Sun Yi, though absent, emerges as a central figure: she left the outing with the doll and then vanished from work.

Significant themes

• The chapter contrasts the danger of supernatural forces with the corruption of human nature.
• The Six Livestock concept presents destructive personality traits as emotions that can be amplified and manipulated.
• Institutional delays heighten the tension: Chen Miao may have identified a lead, but he must wait for the Administration to act.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao realizes the Administration won’t be available for three days—the same day the book predicts disaster will strike. He worries that whoever is targeting his friends may know the Administration’s schedule, leaving them vulnerable whether the attacker acts or lies low.
• Xiang Shang joins him and vents about how unfair it is that danger has interrupted his new relationship with Li Zi. His complaint prompts Chen Miao to reconsider why the two of them were targeted.
• Qi Ning reports that Sun Yi died in her room two nights earlier and warns that the other escape-room participants may also be in danger or dead.
• Chen Miao deduces that all seven people who attended the escape room are marked for death. Sun Yi was likely the person with all Six Livestock traits, and died shortly after absorbing the emotions from the Six Livestock Doll. The doll’s creator is now targeting the other six, with Xiang Shang and Li Zi’s deaths delayed because Chen Miao has been protecting them.
• Ordinary countermeasures, including odor-removing spray and a Mind-Clearing Talisman, have failed to remove the mark on Xiang Shang and Li Zi. Chen Miao instead reasons that the attacker’s connection to the mark may depend on yin energy.
• Seeing Xiang Shang close a door gives Chen Miao an idea: he may be able to isolate the couple from yin energy rather than erase the mark. He plans to use the Curse Buddha: Great Compassion Soul-Sealing Original Vow Sutra, which previously concealed yin energy at the Little Wooden House.
• Chen Miao has two days to master the sutra’s inscription. His plan is to hide Xiang Shang and Li Zi within its protective area on the third day, when their Peachwood Talismans are predicted to shatter and the attacker’s patience runs out.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from anxious uncertainty to a practical plan, using Xiang Shang’s casual remark about a door to spark a new insight. He remains protective of his friends and accepts the risk of attempting a sutra he has not fully mastered.
• Xiang Shang expresses fear and frustration through humor, mourning the interruption of his relationship with Li Zi. Though he cannot help solve the mystery, he trusts Chen Miao and returns to Li Zi.
• Qi Ning provides crucial information about Sun Yi and mobilizes help, while urging Chen Miao to protect the couple.
• Sun Yi becomes central to Chen Miao’s theory: her death may have triggered the threat to the other escape-room participants.

Significant themes

• Protection under uncertainty: Chen Miao must act without knowing the attacker’s identity or full abilities.
• Friendship and responsibility: He puts himself under pressure to keep Xiang Shang and Li Zi alive.
• Countering curses with curses: Chen Miao’s proposed defense—using a Buddhist sealing sutra against Curse Dao—sets up a conflict between opposing mystical arts.
• Time pressure and fate: The repeated three-day deadline, Sun Yi’s death, and the predicted destruction of the talismans make the threat feel increasingly inevitable.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao gives Xiang Shang two more Peachwood Talismans, leaving Xiang and Li Zi with three each—enough, according to the book, to protect them for two nights. He leaves them at the hospital to avoid drawing danger toward Tianmen Funeral Home, promising to return by Thursday night or Friday morning.
• Xiang Shang fears that Chen Miao is abandoning him, but Chen assures him he is working on a way to save him. Xiang is reassured by the promise and by the knowledge that Chen has not given up.
• Back at the Funeral Home, Chen delegates upcoming ceremonies to Tao Bo and cancels Shi Manman’s lessons so he can devote nearly all his time to copying the Curse Buddha · Great Compassion Soul-Sealing Original Vow Sutra. Unable to read Sanskrit, he memorizes the characters’ strokes by copying them repeatedly.
• On Thursday, Chen asks Shi Manman to find small pieces of writable wood. She brings him five blank memorial tablets. Though amused by the unexpected choice, Chen tests one, finds it suitable, and fills it with densely written scripture.
• He then orders ten blank cypress memorial tablets from a workshop and sends Shi Manman to collect them.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is practical and focused: he keeps Xiang and Li away from the Funeral Home while urgently preparing a possible means to save them. His slap and blunt reassurance show both his frustration with Xiang’s despair and his concern for his friend.
• Xiang Shang moves from disappointment and fear to cautious hope when Chen makes clear that he is actively trying to help.
• Shi Manman follows Chen’s instructions quickly and literally, interpreting “writable wood” as memorial tablets. Chen initially questions the choice but recognizes its usefulness and adapts his plan.
• Tao Bo is mildly displeased at being assigned the ceremonies, but accepts the arrangement.

Significant themes

• Loyalty and reassurance: Chen’s promise that he has not given up matters deeply to Xiang, even though the outcome remains uncertain.
• Preparation under pressure: Chen sacrifices time and routine to master the scripture and acquire materials.
• Unexpected usefulness: Shi Manman’s overly literal solution turns out to be practical, suggesting that unconventional tools may serve a serious purpose.
• Humor amid danger: Funeral Home gossip and the memorial-tablet misunderstanding provide comic relief alongside the looming threat.

• Chen Miao prepares the Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablets. He chooses cypress because the Little Wooden House was made from it, and he knows the material’s effects better than those of alternatives. Rather than buy costly raw wood, he orders finished tablets from a manufacturer and practices writing the sutra on ordinary ones. His Sanskrit lettering has improved, though mistakes remain common. Because the experiment could consume much of his yin virtue, he carefully budgets materials and avoids expensive century-old cypress.
• Chen Miao takes precautions before beginning. Shi Manman returns with the tablets in the afternoon. Chen Miao waits to rest, eat, and shower before starting, then redeems chicken blood and cinnabar and begins the ritual process with grinding, brushwork, Iceheart, and Yin Gathering.
• Xiang Shang and Li Zi fear for their safety. At Central Hospital, Chen Miao has not arrived by Thursday evening. Xiang Shang discovers that one of his three Peachwood Talismans has broken, and Li Zi reports that Zhang Ya and the others have died. Xiang Shang tries to reassure her that Chen Miao will handle things, as he always has.
• Xiang Shang recalls Chen Miao’s character. He tells Li Zi how, as a child, Chen Miao cleverly ended a gang’s threats by giving them money and then contacting the police, leading to their arrest. After Chen Miao’s parents died, he became quieter and chose to study funeral services, but Xiang Shang now sees that he was still the same bold, resourceful person. This strengthens Xiang Shang’s confidence in him and moves Li Zi.
• The danger escalates. As they talk, another Peachwood Talisman breaks—this time into six pieces. Li Zi is holding matching fragments, showing that the talismans protecting both of them have failed.
  Themes and interactions: The chapter contrasts careful preparation with urgent supernatural danger. Chen Miao’s thrift and methodical approach reflect his caution, while Xiang Shang’s childhood story presents him as consistently daring and dependable. Xiang Shang’s reassurance comforts Li Zi only briefly; the breaking talismans leave both facing a growing threat.

Key plot points and events

• After staying up all night beside Li Zi, Xiang Shang finds Chen Miao waiting at the hospital the next morning. Two of Xiang Shang’s peachwood talismans have broken.
• Chen Miao arranges Li Zi’s discharge and takes the pair to a hotel near the police station, giving them a nearby source of help if the danger returns.
• At the hotel, Chen Miao lays out three memorial tablets and a Peach Wood Sword Blank. He warns Xiang Shang and Li Zi not to approach the tablets until he gives them one, since their protective scriptures could alert their unseen enemy.
• Chen Miao tells them plainly that they have encountered ghosts—and that someone is controlling them to cause harm. He demonstrates his supernatural abilities and explains that he can defend against such forces.
• He gives Xiang Shang and Li Zi instructions, then hands each a memorial tablet to place them within its soul-suppressing protection. Chen Miao closes the curtains, settles in a corner, and waits.
• After a long, uneventful hour, Xiang Shang and Li Zi talk quietly to calm themselves. At 11:30, a knock at the door seems to be a food delivery—but Chen Miao recognizes that the expected danger has arrived.

Character developments and interactions

• Xiang Shang remains devoted to Li Zi and trusts Chen Miao without hesitation. Once he learns the threat is supernatural, his fear gives way to fascination: he jokingly—but firmly—decides Chen Miao must be cultivating immortality and asks to learn his “arts.”
• Li Zi is frightened and clings to Xiang Shang, but follows Chen Miao’s instructions and settles into the plan.
• Chen Miao reveals more of his knowledge and abilities, choosing honesty so his companions will be prepared. He is cautious about teaching Xiang Shang, suspecting that involvement with the supernatural may bring further danger, but agrees to teach him after the immediate crisis.
• Chen Miao takes charge of the group’s preparations, balancing reassurance with careful concealment and defense.

Significant themes

• Trust in the face of the unknown: Xiang Shang and Li Zi depend on Chen Miao despite their fear and limited understanding.
• Preparation and vigilance: The hotel’s location, protective tablets, and precise instructions show Chen Miao anticipating a renewed attack.
• Curiosity versus danger: Xiang Shang’s excitement about Chen Miao’s abilities contrasts with Chen Miao’s concern that entering the supernatural world could expose him to greater risks.

Plot points and events

• A food delivery arrives while Xiang Shang, Li Zi, and Chen Miao are in a dim room, each concealing a Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet. The waiter seems unable to notice Chen Miao.
• The waiter brings in a black umbrella that is not theirs. It opens by itself, releasing the ghost Sun Yi, whose arrival chills the room and leaves Xiang Shang temporarily unable to move.
• Li Zi recognizes Sun Yi and calls her by name. Sun Yi turns toward Li Zi, but Chen Miao intervenes, placing a memorial tablet at Sun Yi’s feet and trapping her within its soul-suppressing field.
• Sun Yi attacks the barrier using black energy formed from four grotesque faces. Chen Miao lights eight incense sticks, and their smoke enters the faces, calming and weakening them. The remaining smoke briefly affects Sun Yi, leaving her unable to resist the tablets.
• Xiang Shang regains movement and throws his own memorial tablet into the field, reinforcing it. He then protects Li Zi by holding her while they share a tablet.
• Chen Miao throws the Ghost Cube toward the umbrella. A shadow leaps from it toward Xiang Shang and Li Zi but collides with the cube and disappears.
• Using the distraction, Chen Miao reappears behind the waiter and attaches a blood-marked Spirit-Sealing Talisman to him. The waiter collapses, leaving a spectral figure behind. Chen Miao is relieved that the maneuver succeeds.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao proves quick-thinking and composed, coordinating the containment of Sun Yi, exploiting the Ghost Cube collision as a diversion, and sealing the waiter.
• Xiang Shang initially freezes under Sun Yi’s influence but pushes through it, helps strengthen the barrier, and shields Li Zi.
• Li Zi recognizes Sun Yi, suggesting a prior connection, though the chapter does not explain their history.
• Sun Yi shifts from a smiling, seemingly familiar presence to a hostile attacker, then is weakened and contained.
• The waiter remains oblivious to Chen Miao and the supernatural events until he becomes the target of the Spirit-Sealing Talisman.

Significant themes

• Preparation and teamwork: The memorial tablets, incense, Ghost Cube, and talisman work together as the group responds to danger.
• Deception and timing: Chen Miao uses concealment and a carefully timed distraction to complete the takedown.
• Control versus vulnerability: Xiang Shang’s temporary paralysis contrasts with his effort to act, while the ghost’s power is countered by coordinated supernatural tools.

• Chen Miao prevents the chapter’s original disaster. Knowing that a hidden ghost had possessed the waiter—and that another ghost could possess Xiang Shang—he acts before either can trigger the chain of deaths that would have strengthened Sun Yi. He restrains the first ghost with a Premium Spirit-Sealing Talisman, then adds Xiang Shang and Li Zi’s Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablets as protection.
• He destroys both ghosts using layered methods. Chen Miao lays out sacrificial offerings, arranges twelve incense sticks into a four-direction barrier, and slowly recites the Descending the True Evil-Subduing Incantation. The smoke enters the restrained ghost, which vanishes; Chen Miao then uses the talisman’s remaining power to immobilize Sun Yi and kills her with the Peach Wood Sword. He notices that the Scripture also prevents a ghost’s black qi from escaping its soul-sealing area.
• Sun Yi’s final reaction hints at lingering feeling. Before disappearing, she looks at Li Zi in Xiang Shang’s arms with envy. Chen Miao also observes that the faces formed inside the first ghost’s six vortices appear stiff, unlike Sun Yi’s earlier faces.
• Chen Miao turns to the larger threat. He keeps the Ghost Cube and its captive ghost rather than claiming its Yin Virtue, hoping the Administration can use it to identify whoever is behind the attacks. Once the chapter’s immediate danger has passed, he calls Qi Ning to report that he has captured a ghost.
• Character developments and interactions: Chen Miao’s growing experience and preparation let him handle threats that once would have overwhelmed him. Xiang Shang and Li Zi survive and remain frightened until he tells them it is safe. Xiang Shang confronts Chen Miao about the supernatural smoke and flying talisman, insisting, “And you still say you’re not cultivating!” Chen Miao sidesteps the accusation by urging him to take the recovering Li Zi home first.

Plot and key events

• After the hotel incident, Chen Miao leaves the room with the black umbrella, worried that someone behind the attacks may strike again. He hides the umbrella in another hotel rather than risk carrying it.
• He also has Xiang Shang take away a travel bag containing the three Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablets, keeping their scriptures from Qi Ning’s view.
• Chen Miao counts the cost of the incident: making the tablets and fighting the ghosts consumed most of his yin virtue and five Peachwood Talismans, leaving him with just five qian of yin virtue and two talismans.
• At a coffee shop, he tells Qi Ning about the ghosts and the Ghost Cube. At first he downplays the danger, but then admits that two ghosts emerged from the umbrella and another possessed the waiter.
• Qi Ning recognizes this as evidence of a deliberate supernatural plot, takes custody of the umbrella and Ghost Cube, and promises that the Administration will investigate. He advises Chen Miao to stay with Xiang Shang and Li Zi in Shannan City while they are protected.
• Qi Ning lends Chen Miao a replacement Ghost Cube. When Chen Miao checks his book afterward, the “Six Livestock” afterword is complete—but a new one, “Shepherd,” has appeared.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Miao is increasingly cautious and resourceful: he conceals valuable items, weighs the risks of keeping the umbrella, and chooses to disclose it once he realizes it could help expose the mastermind.
• He remains practical about his supernatural tools, calculating their costs and planning ways to conceal the tablets’ inscriptions without losing their power. He also begins considering how to replenish his dwindling supplies.
• Qi Ning responds decisively once he learns about the umbrella, shifting from confusion to treating the event as a serious investigation. He trusts Chen Miao’s account, takes responsibility for the evidence, and arranges protection and compensation.
• Chen Miao and Qi Ning cooperate: Chen Miao provides the key evidence, while Qi Ning brings the matter to the Administration and supplies a temporary Ghost Cube.

Significant themes

• The cost of survival: Protecting others and defeating ghosts drains Chen Miao’s hard-won resources, forcing him to balance duty against scarcity.
• Caution and trust: Chen Miao initially withholds details to protect his methods, but recognizes that sharing crucial evidence is necessary to pursue the hidden culprit.
• Escalating mystery: The umbrella and coordinated attacks suggest a mastermind, while the sudden “Shepherd” afterword signals that Chen Miao’s supernatural troubles—and opportunities—are continuing.

Key plot points and events

• After sensing a wave of malice near Xiang Shang’s home, Sun Yi’s narrator stays to protect him, but the threat vanishes and the Administration finds no answer.
• The narrator returns to Tianmen County, leaving Xiang Shang two memorial tablets, a Ghost Cube, and Qi Ning’s contact information as safeguards.
• A week later, Xiang Shang’s father reports that Xiang Shang is dead, killed by Li Zi, who then jumped from a building. The narrator prepares Xiang Shang’s funeral but cannot bring himself to look at the body.
• Moved by Xiang Shang’s father’s grief, the narrator promises to care for him and his wife as a son. At that moment, the familiar malice returns, and the narrator dies in the father’s arms.
• Reading the afterword, Chen Miao realizes the attack is due the following morning. He suspects the assailant can hide his malice and that he may get only one chance to detect him, but has no plan yet.
• The chapter’s rewards give Chen Miao a fragment of Sun Yi’s memory, the Curse Dao: Six Livestock technique, and the Soul-Splitting Technique.
• Chen Miao learns that Sun Yi is a true six livestock soul: her marks conceal special soul bodies, making her difficult to detect through yin energy. The mastermind is using the six people tied to her obsession to complete those marks; afterward, she could rapidly reach malevolent-fiend rank and spread or implant six livestock emotions.

Character development and interactions

• The narrator’s guilt and grief over failing to protect Xiang Shang deepen into a heartfelt bond with Xiang Shang’s father. Though bereaved, the father comforts the narrator, who promises to become his son and care for him.
• Chen Miao shifts from mourning the narrator’s fate to analyzing the looming threat. He doubts the Administration can help him conceal his presence and tries to understand the enemy through the newly acquired techniques.

Significant themes

• Helplessness and delayed protection: The narrator takes precautions, but the hidden attacker strikes after seeming to disappear.
• Grief and chosen family: The narrator’s promise to Xiang Shang’s father offers consolation, even as it immediately precedes tragedy.
• Manipulation and obsession: The mastermind exploits Sun Yi’s fixation on six people to complete her transformation.
• Hidden danger: Six livestock souls can conceal themselves within their emotions, making ordinary detection unreliable.

Key plot points

• Chen Miao studies the Soul-Splitting Technique and works out how it combines with the two Six Livestock arts:
  • Six Livestock + Six Livestock Doll can gather livestock emotions and refine a six-livestock soul.
  • Six Livestock Doll + Soul-Splitting can link a doll to its maker or give it abilities taken from a ghost’s soul.
  • Six Livestock + Soul-Splitting can split a true six-livestock soul’s imprints into independent subsidiary souls controlled by its main soul.
• Soul splitting is slow and dangerous: it can destroy a ghost, while splitting one’s own soul risks severe mental damage or death. It cannot be used to separate the souls of a living person from their body.
• Chen Miao reasons that the enemy probably does not possess a powerful, completed six-livestock soul. He suspects the enemy needed Sun Yi to create one, and has since lost several ghosts—including Sun Yi, a false six-livestock soul, and another ghost sealed in the Ghost Cube.
• This leads Chen Miao to think the enemy may now be gathering information personally. He plans to identify the suspected spy without raising alarm, then use Qi Ning and surveillance footage to locate and arrest him. He remains cautious, knowing a mistaken judgment could let the enemy escape or attack again.
• Remembering Sun Yi’s memory fragment, Chen Miao goes to Xiang Shang’s home to examine it. Xiang Shang is out taking Li Zi to the hospital, but tells Chen Miao the door code. Chen Miao finds it in Xiang Shang’s contact notes, enters the house, and prepares to use the fragment.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows careful analytical thinking as he assesses the enemy’s resources and revises his estimate of the threat. Though encouraged by his theory, he uses iceheart to control his excitement and avoid acting recklessly.
• His exchange with Xiang Shang is casual and familiar: Xiang Shang jokes that Chen Miao can sleep on the doorstep if he cannot guess the code, while also explaining that he is caring for Li Zi.
• Chen Miao’s reflections also reveal that he is increasingly confident in his understanding of the enemy’s methods, but still recognizes the danger of overconfidence.

Significant themes

• Power through combination: The mystic arts become far more versatile when used together, suggesting their creators developed them as coordinated systems.
• The cost of power: Soul manipulation can grant control and new abilities, but carries grave risks for both ghosts and practitioners.
• Cautious inference: Chen Miao weighs evidence and alternative explanations rather than treating his suspicions as certainty.
• Hidden organization and threat: The well-matched arts imply a powerful group behind Curse Dao and Curse Buddha, reinforcing the danger Chen Miao faces.

Key plot points and events

• After sleeping in short intervals, Chen Miao reviews Sun Yi’s memories. He learns that Sun Yi hid her true feelings behind a sociable, accommodating persona. Jealousy over Jia Bo’s interest in Li Zi—and Jia Bo’s humiliating remark during the escape-room outing—helped trigger her emotional instability.
• Sun Yi’s later actions and outbursts repeatedly involved emotions tied to the Six Livestock Doll. After returning home, she encountered a shadowy figure.
• Memories from after Sun Yi’s death show her killing Wang Hongjun and three others, being destroyed by Chen Miao, and finally being placed inside a black umbrella. The umbrella’s holder was a woman with fair, smooth skin and dark red cords on both wrists, giving Chen Miao a possible lead.
• Chen Miao gains the status “Temporary negative emotion storage,” which lets him seal away current negative emotions and choose when they erupt, for up to one day. He uses it to remove the Six Livestock emotions lingering from the memories, then relies on the iceheart state to suppress later emotions.
• Xiang Shang returns near six in the morning with Li Zi, explaining that she needed someone to look after her. He settles her in the spare room, then asks Chen Miao for a “Foundation Establishment Pill” and presses him to explain cultivation.
• Chen Miao is about to share some information, but overhears Xiang Shang privately wondering whether Chen Miao has a special power or “cheat” and whether a major upheaval is coming. Chen Miao loses enthusiasm for teaching him—though Xiang Shang has correctly guessed something is going on.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao uses Sun Yi’s memories to piece together the emotional causes behind the escape-room events and obtains a potentially useful clue about the umbrella’s owner. He also learns to manage negative emotions more quickly, while remaining wary of Xiang Shang’s impulsiveness.
• Sun Yi is revealed as outwardly agreeable but inwardly jealous and resentful, especially toward Li Zi. Her suppressed feelings escalated during the outing and became entangled with the Six Livestock emotions.
• Xiang Shang brings Li Zi home out of concern, though Chen Miao notices he initially headed toward the master bedroom. His joking request for a pill turns into earnest curiosity about cultivation, mixed with private calculations about Chen Miao’s abilities.
• Li Zi appears embarrassed by Chen Miao’s scrutiny and is cared for by Xiang Shang after the frightening events.

Significant themes

• Hidden emotions and social masks: Sun Yi’s pleasant public persona concealed jealousy and resentment.
• Emotional vulnerability and control: Negative feelings can become dangerous when amplified, but Chen Miao gains tools to contain them.
• Suspicion and changing loyalties: The mystery of the umbrella-wielding woman deepens, while Xiang Shang begins to view Chen Miao as someone whose knowledge may be crucial to surviving what lies ahead.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao tells Xiang Shang about the supernatural people and dangers he has encountered, though he leaves out what may happen the next morning.
• Xiang Shang asks Chen to teach him how to protect himself, insisting he does not want to rely on Chen for every emergency.
• Chen tests whether Xiang Shang can use the Fiend-Subduing Mantra from the Six Jiangzhen Secrets. Despite memorizing and reciting it while holding incense, Xiang Shang produces no effect.
• The failed test deepens Chen’s suspicion that the Six True-Descent Arts require something beyond simply knowing the mantra—possibly a connection to his mysterious Notes on Achieving Divinity in the Mortal World. He messages Zhong Cai to ask about the Incense-Burning Method.
• After ruling out several dangerous or impractical arts, Chen decides to teach Xiang Shang talisman-making. Xiang Shang agrees to gather the necessary supplies and find a discreet place to practice, ideally a house with a basement.
• Chen returns from getting food to find Zhong Cai’s reply has arrived, leaving the chapter on a transition.

Character developments

• Xiang Shang shifts from joking about Chen’s “golden finger” to showing genuine concern and resolve. He wants to become less dependent and avoid being a burden.
• Chen Miao moves past his hesitation about teaching Xiang Shang. He remains cautious, but commits to finding him practical ways to defend himself. The failed mantra test also sharpens his curiosity about the rules behind his powers and the mysterious book.

Character interactions

• Chen recounts his experiences to Xiang Shang, who listens closely and presses for a way to survive supernatural encounters.
• Chen tests Xiang Shang’s ability with the mantra, then chooses talismans as a safer, more suitable discipline.
• Xiang Shang enthusiastically embraces the plan, joking that enough talismans should let him overwhelm any ghost.
• Chen contacts Zhong Cai for information about the Incense-Burning Method.

Significant themes

• Self-reliance and responsibility: Xiang Shang wants to protect himself rather than depend on Chen.
• The limits of knowledge: Memorizing a technique is not necessarily enough to use it; supernatural arts have hidden prerequisites.
• Protection through preparation: Chen favors a practical skill that can help Xiang Shang face danger, while avoiding methods that are too risky or demanding.

Key plot points and events

• Zhong Cai explains that the Incense-Burning Method was once a prestigious tradition, but its lineage seems to have faded. Its inheritance is unusual: only one person at a time holds the right to use it, and a disciple cannot wield its power until the master dies. Some believe the inherited qualification allows communication with Immortals and Gods.
• Chen Miao, intrigued by the possibility, studies his mysterious book through the night.
• The next morning, he gives Xiang Shang two Spirit-Sealing Talismans for protection and leaves for the Funeral Home. While escorting him, Chen Miao senses persistent malice and suspects it comes from a woman watching him near the breakfast shops.
• He drives away and contacts Qi Ning, who takes him to the Administration to review surveillance footage. The book’s account reveals that Qi Ning and three colleagues track the woman to a hotel, but all four die inside—apparently killing one another—while the woman escapes.
• The account continues: Chen Miao keeps Xiang Shang and Li Zi close, exhausted by weeks of constant vigilance. When they later stay at the Funeral Home, he struggles to give the couple privacy. One afternoon, he wakes to Xiang Shang stabbing him; Li Zi is already dead. Chen Miao dies.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao grows more curious about the Incense-Burning Method, but remains cautious and disciplined when he senses the woman’s hostility. He protects Xiang Shang with talismans and seeks Qi Ning’s help.
• Zhong Cai serves as Chen Miao’s source of information, while admitting that his knowledge of the method is incomplete.
• Xiang Shang appears affectionate and playful with Chen Miao, accepts the talismans, and later helps care for him during his prolonged stress. The book’s final revelation radically undermines this apparent trust.
• Qi Ning responds to Chen Miao’s warning by investigating the suspected woman, but dies with his team.
• Li Zi is initially part of the close-knit group around Chen Miao, but her death alongside his—followed by Xiang Shang’s betrayal—turns their domestic arrangement into a source of horror.

Significant themes

• Inheritance and exclusive power: The Incense-Burning Method is less about learning techniques than inheriting a singular spiritual right.
• Caution and hidden danger: The woman’s unseen malice and the team’s unexplained deaths show how little Chen Miao can rely on appearances or conventional investigation.
• Trust and betrayal: Xiang Shang’s apparent loyalty makes the ending especially shocking.
• The book’s uncertain nature: Its account anticipates events and ends with Chen Miao’s death, raising questions about whether it predicts fate, records another reality, or somehow shapes what happens.

Key plot points

• Chen Miao realizes Qi Ning and the others were not victims of a wrong turn: they had been lured into a trap by the woman behind the ghost attacks. He concludes that warning Qi Ning could backfire, so he decides to join the investigation and respond as events unfold.
• His resources are limited. He has used his strongest Spirit-Sealing Talisman and given away his remaining ordinary ones. He plans to rely on the Six Jiangzhen Secrets, his temporary ability to store negative emotions, and the iceheart state to resist the woman’s six-livestock emotions.
• Chen Miao asks Zhong Cai to lend him protective items, but Zhong is out of town and cannot help in time.
• At the police station, Chen Miao identifies the woman in surveillance footage. Though she appears like an ordinary, polished office worker, she had watched Chen Miao and his companions while hiding in a corner; a red cord on her wrist also supports his suspicion.
• Investigators trace her to a nearby hotel and identify her room through guest records. Qi Ning warns Chen Miao that the woman is dangerous: four people died besides Sun Yi, and strange incidents at the escape room suggest she has operated in Shannan City for roughly two years.
• Chen Miao insists on accompanying the police, offering to use the Incense-Burning Method to attack from a distance. Captain Kui arrives, recognizes the method, and approves bringing Chen Miao along with Qi Ning and three other officers.
• Before the team sets out, Chen Miao reviews the surveillance footage. It appears ordinary, but the book’s newly updated account reveals where the hidden problem lies.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao becomes more proactive and accepts personal risk, choosing to intervene rather than remain safe while his companions face the trap. He also carefully evaluates his limited tools and prepares to resist the woman’s mental or emotional attacks.
• Qi Ning takes Chen Miao’s warning seriously and organizes a police response, but initially tries to keep him out of danger. He respects Chen Miao’s abilities while doubting his experience working as part of a team.
• Captain Kui is introduced as one of the bureau’s four Class C Investigators. His recognition of the Incense-Burning Method gives Chen Miao’s unusual skill credibility and authority within the investigation.
• Chen Miao and the police cooperate: he identifies the suspect, while the officers use surveillance and hotel records to locate her.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and uncertainty: Chen Miao’s book offers clues, but not enough to make the future certain; acting on incomplete information could itself create danger.
• Preparation under pressure: With key talismans unavailable and the threat escalating, Chen Miao must build a strategy from the abilities and tools he still has.
• Appearance versus reality: The suspect’s respectable, ordinary appearance conceals her involvement in ghost-related crimes.
• Trust and teamwork: Chen Miao’s talents make him useful, but Qi Ning’s hesitation highlights the difference between individual skill and coordinated group action.

Key plot points and events

• Qi Ning leads Chen Miao and three Investigators—Ding Min, Jiang Hong, and Wen Yong—to a hotel to investigate a woman suspected of being dangerous. The plan is for Chen Miao to act first, with the others ready to follow.
• Chen Miao enters alone, using Hide-and-Seek and his iceheart state. He lights incense in the fourth-floor corridor but avoids being noticed by a cleaner and later by guests, despite hiding awkwardly in doorways.
• Watching the surveillance feed, the Investigators realize that Chen Miao’s concealment appears unusually effective. Jiang Hong is impressed and hopes to learn the ability.
• Chen Miao stops outside room 0410, not the room 0412 the group expected, and begins chanting. Qi Ning checks the room layout and recognizes that 0410 is where the woman was seen entering in the earlier footage.
• Qi Ning concludes that the woman may have booked one room but gone to another, and that Chen Miao has detected something suspicious. The team abandons the wait-and-see approach and prepares to move in.
• The four Investigators spray themselves with protective substances, apparently activating their buffs, and ready themselves to enter.

Character developments

• Chen Miao demonstrates calm, practical judgment and a powerful concealment ability. His choice to investigate 0410 suggests he can detect danger or unusual energy beyond what the surveillance footage reveals.
• Qi Ning shows sound leadership: he monitors the operation, reassesses the evidence quickly, and recognizes the danger of the team’s original assumptions.
• Ding Min is alert to risk and urges the team to intervene when Chen Miao’s behavior seems likely to draw attention.
• Jiang Hong is socially playful and eager to acquire Chen Miao’s concealment skill, but his confident room count initially distracts from the real significance of Chen Miao’s choice.
• Wen Yong joins in the teasing banter, while Qi Ning keeps the group focused.

Significant themes

• Appearances versus hidden reality: The woman may not be in the room the team expects, and Chen Miao’s odd actions conceal a sounder judgment.
• Trust and uncertainty: The team must decide whether to trust Chen Miao’s instincts without knowing exactly what he has detected.
• Preparation and teamwork: The operation depends on Chen Miao acting first and the Investigators coordinating their response.
• Competence beneath awkwardness: Chen Miao’s visibly strange behavior looks foolish from the surveillance room, yet his actions may prevent the others from walking into a trap.

Character interactions

• Ding Min stops Chen Miao from taking his own car, helping protect the operation’s secrecy. Jiang Hong teases her about him, and she deflects the joke by reminding Jiang Hong of his own request for a matchmaking introduction.
• The team exchanges lighthearted banter before the mission, but becomes serious as they monitor Chen Miao.
• Jiang Hong’s questions about Chen Miao’s ability and the group’s debate over the room numbering contrast with Qi Ning’s growing concern as he realizes Chen Miao may have uncovered a trap.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao uses the Six Jiangzhen Secrets to lift the woman’s six-livestock soul mark, following clues in the changing book about where she will emerge.
• He positions himself outside room 0412. When the woman comes out, he alerts the team, and Wen Yong knocks her down with a punch and kick. Jiang Hong stops Wen Yong from continuing to attack her.
• The team captures the woman and returns to the Administration. Ding Min explains she will be detained while the Administration investigates her.
• While waiting, Chen Miao reads the chapter’s reward: six qian of yin virtue and the Six Livestock Soul-Splitting Technique. He learns the woman created her marks by repeatedly cutting off pieces of her own soul and refining them with six-livestock emotions.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao’s careful use of the book and incense helps the team avoid the injuries they suffered in an earlier version of events. He keeps his sensing ability’s details vague and grows uncomfortable with Jiang Hong’s attempts to get close, choosing to ride with Ding Min instead.
• The woman is revealed to have undergone a dangerous, self-inflicted process twice to make soul marks. Chen Miao realizes she may have intended to repeat it for all six livestock emotions.
• Wen Yong shows overwhelming physical force, while Jiang Hong restrains him. Ding Min answers Chen Miao’s questions and exchanges contact details with him.
• Qi Ning later summons Chen Miao, carrying the Black Umbrella, which catches Chen Miao’s attention.

Significant themes

• Knowledge changes outcomes: Chen Miao’s foreknowledge and careful adjustments prevent a repeat of the team’s earlier misfortunes.
• Power at a cost: The woman’s method offers a way to cultivate the art without harming others, but requires extreme self-mutilation of the soul and risks madness or death.
• Institutional pragmatism: The Administration captures and studies dangerous beings rather than simply killing them, suggesting its knowledge and tools are built through research.
• Moral ambiguity: Chen Miao is intrigued by the woman’s technique, yet recognizes its danger and hesitates to imitate it.

Plot and events

• Qi Ning offers Chen Miao a full Investigator position in Shannan City, using the black umbrella as his entry ticket. Chen declines because the job would require regular assignments and he wants to focus on rebuilding and expanding his funeral home.
• Qi Ning instead offers him a Peripheral Investigator role: Chen can act independently, report or resolve supernatural incidents, and earn contribution points without taking assigned missions. Since he would receive no points if Tianmen County’s Investigator resolved an incident first, Chen realizes he will need to handle cases himself. He accepts.
• Chen registers at the Administration, receives credentials, and gets an account for the agency’s app. The incident’s contribution points will be credited once its outcome is finalized.
• Back at Tianmen Funeral Home, Chen reviews the cost and rewards of the recent incident. He spent one tael and one qian of yin virtue, mainly on Incense Sticks and Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablets, but earned one tael and eight qian. His net gain is six qian, bringing his total to two taels and one qian. He resolves to make a Seven-Star Peach Wood Sword to reduce his reliance on costly Incense Sticks.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen weighs career security against independence and his business priorities, choosing the flexible Peripheral Investigator position rather than becoming a full Investigator.
• Qi Ning encourages Chen’s recruitment, explains the role’s limits, and is pleased to gain him as a peripheral member.
• Chen calls Xiang Shang to buy him a meal after realizing he has not eaten all day. Xiang Shang delays returning to learn Talisman Drawing because of Li Zi.
• Back at the funeral home, Shi Manman brings Chen fruit, prompting his joking distinction that apprentices do not hinder his progress.

Significant themes

• Independence versus obligation: Chen prefers the freedom to pursue his own goals over the demands of a formal post.
• Practical rewards and resource management: Spiritual work offers tangible gains, but talismans and ritual materials carry steep costs.
• Institutional access and cooperation: Chen’s new credentials and agency account make future assistance and rewards easier to obtain, even as local competition affects who gets credit for resolving incidents.

Plot points and events

• After surviving a dangerous ordeal, Chen Miao decides he would rather run Tianmen Funeral Home peacefully than repeat the experience.
• He realizes Tao Bo may have resigned because Du Xiang, the new owner of rival Fushou Funeral Center, is poaching staff. Du Xiang’s aggressive but legitimate tactics include higher wages, discounted services, and more sales staff.
• Chen Miao prepares for Tao Bo’s possible departure by recruiting through local accounts, job platforms, and his classmates’ group. He matches Tao Bo’s advertised pay and records three days of overtime for him, but avoids a general wage increase that could destabilize the business.
• Chen Miao examines a black umbrella with faint yin energy and keeps it in a cabinet rather than performing a deliverance ritual, saving it as a possible reserve for later. He considers securing supernatural objects in a locked cabinet or converting the funeral-home basement into a protected workspace.
• He writes instructions for Xiang Shang on making Spirit-Sealing and Yin-Dispelling Talismans, adding practical lessons from his own frequent practice. He leaves out techniques he considers useless, dangerous, or dependent on methods Xiang Shang does not know.
• Chen Miao considers preparing written materials for Shi Manman but decides to teach her verbally instead.
• After resting, he speaks with Tao Bo, who seems distracted and hesitant. Chen Miao suspects Du Xiang has already approached him, but resolves not to compete by escalating wages.
• Chen Miao settles back into routine: handling funeral-home work and, in his spare time, practicing talismans, reciting incantations, copying scriptures, and prioritizing the construction of a Seven-Star Peach Wood Sword.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is pragmatic and increasingly organized. He plans for staff turnover, manages costs carefully, stores dangerous or valuable items, and shares his growing technical knowledge with Xiang Shang. Though he has gained power and experience, he still wants a stable, ordinary life.
• Tao Bo appears uncertain and may be considering an offer from Du Xiang. Chen Miao thanks him for covering the work and explains his overtime pay, but does not pressure him to stay.
• Du Xiang emerges as a more calculating and restrained rival than Du Rui, using business competition and recruitment rather than obvious wrongdoing.
• Xiang Shang is given focused, practical instruction in two talisman techniques. Shi Manman remains someone Chen Miao intends to teach, but through personal guidance rather than written notes.

Significant themes

• Stability versus ambition: Chen Miao values a peaceful, sustainable business more than the rewards of dangerous supernatural encounters.
• Pragmatism and restraint: He avoids rash rituals, unnecessary wage competition, and teaching techniques that could be misused.
• Knowledge and practice: Chen Miao’s daily repetition has given him unusually deep practical insight, making his written guidance more valuable than he realizes.
• Preparation and security: His plans for storage, a protected basement, and a new weapon show him adapting to the growing demands of supernatural work.

Plot points and events

• Over three weeks, Chen Miao studies the Seven-Star Peach Wood Sword instructions and makes four templates, ruining more than forty blanks. He develops Beginner-level carving skill and learns the sword’s exact dimensions, Big Dipper carving pattern, blood channels, and coloring process.
• To avoid compromising the weapon, he redeems century-old peach wood, cinnabar, rooster blood, and black dog blood using yin virtue. He realizes the exchange measures each item by quantity, not by how much the sword requires.
• Chen Miao carefully crafts the real sword, completing its carving, grooves, and pigment work while managing the limited time he can keep yin energy around his hand.
• He tests it with a Bloodlight Talisman. The seven stars illuminate in sequence, and the blade leaves a crimson afterimage when swung.

Character development

• Chen Miao’s patience and discipline show in his extensive practice and willingness to discard flawed work. His carving and talisman-making experience give him the confidence and precision to complete the sword.
• He becomes more resourceful, adapting the coloring process into stages so he can work within his yin-energy limit.

Character interactions

• There are no substantial conversations or direct interactions. Chen Miao’s connection to Qi Hui appears briefly in his reference to Qi Hui’s dog, Blackie, while considering how much blood the exchange provides.

Significant themes

• Practice and mastery: Repeated failures turn complex techniques into skills Chen Miao can rely on.
• Precision and ritual: The sword’s measurements and construction details are essential to its intended power.
• Resourcefulness and preparation: Templates, careful planning, and staged work allow Chen Miao to overcome practical limits.
• Craftsmanship rewarded: After weeks of effort, Chen Miao achieves a successful and visibly powerful result.

Plot and key events

• Chen Miao finishes a Seven-Star Peach Wood Sword, giving him greater confidence against supernatural threats. He turns leftover wood into ten Peachwood Talismans and keeps an earlier, less powerful sword blank rather than dismantling it, considering that Xiang Shang might need it.
• Over the next three days, he makes seven talismans: six ordinary ones—four Spirit-Sealing and two Yin-Dispelling—and one premium Spirit-Sealing Talisman.
• Crafting has cost him heavily: his yin virtue falls from just over two liang to one liang and three qian. Because he wants to keep one liang in reserve in case of threats such as the Curse Dao or Curse Buddha, he limits further spending.
• Qi Ning tells him his Administration contribution points have arrived: 48 points. The breakdown includes rewards for earlier incidents and a 30-point special contribution.
• Chen Miao learns that the captured woman belongs to the Curse Cult, also called the Ancestral Cult, a dangerous evil-cultivator organization. Its members may be identified by hidden Yin-Pattern Tattoos, which appear when their emotions intensify. Qi Ning warns Chen Miao not to investigate the group on his own.
• The woman’s tattoo likely grants concealment. Curse Cult tattoos generally depict either a Headless Monk or a Headless Daoist. Her unfamiliar techniques may help the Administration identify other cultists and earn further contribution points.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao becomes more prepared and cautious, building his stock of weapons and talismans while carefully budgeting his limited yin virtue.
• He remains practical about his new points, recognizing that future rewards tied to the captured woman’s secrets may be difficult to earn.
• In messages with Qi Ning, Chen Miao probes the source of his reward and asks how to recognize Curse Cult members. Qi Ning shares what he can but stresses the danger of acting independently.

Significant themes

• Preparation under uncertainty: Chen Miao invests in tools and reserves resources because he does not know what threats may come.
• Knowledge as protection—and danger: Learning the Curse Cult’s signs helps identify threats, but the group’s ability to hide in plain sight makes it especially hazardous.
• The value of cooperation: Qi Ning directs Chen Miao to report information to the Administration rather than confront the cult alone.
• Resource management: Chen Miao balances crafting, trading, and saving yin virtue for emergencies.