Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao reviews his latest death in the book and tries to explain why he failed to detect the dangers in Sealed Gate Village. He suspects the zombies can conceal themselves in the household coffins and may possess unusual abilities—or may not be ordinary zombies at all.
• He also notes that people from other villages seem to know something about Sealed Gate Village, but regrets that his counterpart in the book didn’t ask them more.
• Qi Ning calls to report that Zhong Cai sent him a text the night before containing only the words “Sealed Gate Village.” Zhong Cai can’t be reached, so Qi Ning fears he may be trapped there.
• Chen Miao confirms that Zhong Cai went to the village and offers to accompany Qi Ning. They agree to leave as soon as Chen Miao is ready.
• Before departing, Chen Miao checks on Xiao Bai at the Administration, where the child is shyly surrounded by two little girls.
• The two men set out in Qi Ning’s off-road vehicle. Chen Miao shares information about the village he learned from the book, then reflects that the latest version of events has changed again: he died, but gained more information.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains cautious but chooses to help Qi Ning, apparently out of concern for Zhong Cai. He is frustrated by his earlier mistakes, yet methodically uses the book’s changes to form new theories and prepare better.
• Qi Ning is worried about Zhong Cai and trusts Chen Miao’s judgment and reliability. His view of Chen Miao is shaped by reports describing him as cautious, dependable, and loyal.
• Zhong Cai is absent, but his cryptic message establishes the immediate rescue mission.
• Xiao Bai appears safe and settled at the Administration, offering a brief, reassuring contrast to the danger ahead.
• Chen Miao and Qi Ning quickly form a cooperative partnership: Qi Ning invites him along, and Chen Miao openly shares what he knows.

Significant themes

• Knowledge gained through repeated failure: Chen Miao’s deaths are frightening, but each new version of the book provides clues that may help him survive.
• Uncertainty and hidden danger: The village’s inhabitants, the zombies’ nature, and the knowledge held by neighboring villagers remain unexplained.
• Loyalty and trust: Chen Miao’s willingness to risk himself for Zhong Cai, and Qi Ning’s confidence in him, emphasize the value of personal bonds.
• Preparation versus recklessness: Chen Miao scrutinizes his past errors and seeks to act more carefully, even as the book’s incomplete information leaves him uncertain.

Key plot points and events

• While traveling to Sealed Gate Village, the narrator meets Qi Ning, who has also received a message from Zhong Cai containing only the village’s name.
• A local elder warns them away and explains the village’s grim traditions: its population is almost entirely elderly, and widowed residents are sent back there to die. A spouse’s body must remain at home until the surviving partner also dies; afterward, younger relatives return briefly to bury them.
• The elder shares rules said to bring misfortune if broken: stay indoors after dark and extinguish lights after midnight; outsiders must not enter occupied kitchens or touch their contents; bell-marked, thresholdless houses are unoccupied; never remove an occupied home’s threshold; yield to others at narrow bends; and obey the customs. Electronic devices and photography also malfunction.
• Suspecting Zhong Cai has “disappeared” after violating a rule, the narrator and Qi Ning hike to the village. They find no obvious clues and take shelter in an empty, thresholdless house with bells at its entrance. Inside are two coffins filled with dried flowers but no bodies.
• Near midnight, they extinguish the lights but remain awake. The entrance bell rings, and a figure enters. The narrator hides under the bed; Qi Ning hides in a wardrobe. When the narrator sees green eyes beneath the bed, he strikes with his peach-wood sword, and the figure vanishes.
• Qi Ning, who saw nothing, calls the incident “ghostly blindness.” The narrator uses an Illusion-Breaking Talisman and realizes the blindness is his own: what he took for Qi Ning is an illusion, while eerie eyes fill the room. He fights through the night and dies of exhaustion.

Character developments and interactions

• The narrator is cautious but determined, paying the elder for information and pressing on despite the warnings. His funeral-industry experience helps him interpret the unusual coffins and dried flowers.
• Qi Ning is observant and practical, noticing the elder’s hesitation and helping investigate the village. During the nighttime encounter, however, the two are separated by the narrator’s distorted perception.
• The elder is initially reluctant to speak, but becomes helpful after the narrator offers more money. His warnings establish the village’s danger without explaining its cause.
• The narrator and Qi Ning begin as partners in the search, but the supernatural attack isolates the narrator and makes him doubt his own senses.

Significant themes

• Custom and taboo: The village’s rules may be protective, threatening, or both; outsiders enter without knowing what they mean.
• Death and return: The village’s population decline, aging residents, coffins, and burial practices make death an ordinary part of its life.
• Unreliable perception and isolation: The “ghostly blindness” makes the narrator mistake illusion for reality and leaves him fighting alone.
• Curiosity versus caution: The pair knowingly enter a place everyone warns them about, and their investigation ends in disaster.

• Plot and revelations: After learning more from an elderly villager, Chen Miao identifies several dangerous gaps in Sealed Gate Village’s “customs.” The bodies are kept at home rather than buried, young people leave immediately after funerals, and the village seems inhabited only by elderly widows and widowers. He suspects these practices are actually taboos—and that the old man forgot crucial warnings. Chen Miao also realizes the village contains not only groups of zombies but groups of ghosts, making the danger more severe than he expected. Unable to turn back, he focuses on how to survive and possibly rescue Zhong Cai.
• Character developments and interaction: While driving, Qi Ning notices Chen Miao’s anxiety and tells a crude joke that makes them both laugh, easing the tension. Chen Miao then asks how investigators detect and counter ghostly blindness. Qi Ning explains that Ghost-Crying Spray, talismans, and special glasses can help; without equipment, a person can spit out tongue-tip blood and watch whether its mist remains visible. Strong yang energy may even repel a ghost, though Qi Ning admits that recognizing the onset of blindness often comes down to intuition.
• Key turn: Chen Miao considers whether closing his eyes could evade ghostly blindness. Qi Ning points out that he could not know whether his eyes were truly closed or navigate that way. Chen Miao, however, remembers his unusual Eyes-Closed Perception ability and wonders whether it might let him escape the effect.
• Themes: The chapter turns village customs into potential survival rules, emphasizing that incomplete knowledge can be deadly. It also builds dread through the revelation that multiple kinds of supernatural threats are present, while contrasting that danger with the characters’ humor, resourcefulness, and reliance on uncertain knowledge.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao and Qi Ning reach a nearby village, where a friendly old man agrees to let them park. Chen Miao pays him and asks for information about Sealed Gate Village.
• The old man warns them away, then draws a route following a dry riverbed to the abandoned village and describes its history: a capable former chief led the villagers to prosperity, after which the population moved out of the mountains.
• He recounts the village’s unusual threshold customs and reports that a young visitor recently went missing after spending the night there. A spiritual practitioner was also called in; Chen Miao realizes this likely refers to Zhong Cai and the hiker Zhong Cai had gone to rescue.
• The old man says Sealed Gate Village has had no chief since its former leader died, though villagers still gather there for funerals. They apparently do not sleep in the village.
• Chen Miao raises another puzzle: despite being elderly and without young residents, the villagers seem to receive a regular supply of varied food. The old man has no convincing explanation.
• Asked why dried flowers are placed in coffins, the old man says they leave room so a wandering ghost cannot climb in. Chen Miao points out that this sounds like belief in ghosts. He denies believing, calling it merely an inherited custom.
• Chen Miao and Qi Ning leave for Sealed Gate Village.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is observant and persistent, using money, polite conversation, and a cover story about folklore research to draw out information. His questions expose gaps in what the old man understands and sharpen the mysteries around the village.
• Qi Ning is more skeptical and blunt, remarking that relocated villagers can live comfortably while leaving their elderly behind. He is also surprised by how easily Chen Miao lies.
• The old man is hospitable but superstitious and wary of Sealed Gate Village. Though he dismisses ghost beliefs when challenged, his own explanation reveals that such ideas shape local customs.
• Chen Miao and Qi Ning work together as investigators: the old man’s account confirms details Chen Miao already knows while adding the recent disappearance and other unresolved clues.

Significant themes

• Superstition and denial: People may reject belief in ghosts while still observing customs designed to guard against them.
• Tradition and hidden history: Sealed Gate Village’s rules appear tied to its former chief, but their origins and purpose remain unclear.
• Neglect and social responsibility: Qi Ning’s comment highlights the cost of the villagers’ migration for the elderly who remained behind.
• Mystery and investigation: Strange customs, disappearances, unexplained food deliveries, and the village’s continued use for funerals build suspense as the pair approaches.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao and Qi Ning follow a dry riverbed down the mountain and reach Sealed Gate Village near dusk. Chen calls Zhong Cai, but the call goes unanswered; the faint phone signal soon disappears entirely once they enter the village.
• The village initially seems ordinary, though its houses are unusually uniform: three stories, one door, and seven windows. The elderly residents watch the newcomers but show no clear hostility, and Chen senses no unusual yin energy.
• Chen notices that the houses are aligned east–west rather than in the customary north–south direction. He suspects the layout may be connected to the feng shui formation Zhong Cai mentioned.
• Instead of choosing an empty house, the pair decide to seek shelter with a resident. Chen reasons that a previous visitor’s troubles may have resulted from his own actions, and that an occupied home seems safer.
• An old man agrees to host them. While inspecting his frequently used kitchen, Chen wonders how the village’s jiangshi could cook, and whether a Flying Jiangshi might control other corpses.
• Inside the house, Chen sees two coffins and realizes they are placed directly on the floor—an unsettling detail that ends the chapter.

Character developments

• Chen Miao grows more alert as seemingly ordinary details reveal possible anomalies. He uses evidence and cautious reasoning to guide their decisions, while trying to connect the village’s layout, Zhong Cai’s warning, and the jiangshi.
• Qi Ning supports Chen’s judgments, helps assess the village, and takes the lead in asking the resident for shelter. He remains cautious but is willing to follow Chen’s reasoning.

Significant themes

• The ordinary concealing the uncanny: The village looks normal at first, but its architecture, missing signal, and unexplained household practices suggest otherwise.
• Caution and inference: Chen and Qi Ning weigh risks rather than assuming the villagers are hostile.
• Unanswered supernatural questions: The feng shui layout and the jiangshi’s ability to cook hint at a larger force—possibly the Flying Jiangshi—whose nature remains unclear.

Character interactions

• Chen and Qi Ning discuss the village’s appearance, its unusual orientation, and where to stay, gradually reaching decisions together.
• The elderly villagers silently observe them without directly approaching or threatening them.
• Qi Ning politely asks an old man to host them; the chapter ends as Chen notices the two coffins in the man’s house.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao and Qi Ning take shelter in a villager’s house. Its two coffins rest directly on the floor, which the old man claims is a local custom. He warns them not to go outside at night and to turn out the lights before midnight.
• They inspect their room with Revealing Spray, find no immediate danger, and prepare their equipment. Chen gives Qi Ning protective talismans. The book then reveals the likely consequences of their choices.
• In the book’s account, they hear someone cooking in the dark after midnight. The next night, they investigate and discover the figure is not human. Similar cooking sounds come from occupied houses throughout the village, suggesting there are at least thirty ghosts among the residents.
• The open coffin in their host’s house reinforces their suspicion that the coffins are connected to the danger. They retreat rather than confront the figure.
• When they try to leave the village, they keep returning to its entrance. Chen suspects a ghost maze; an Illusion-Breaking Talisman reveals layer upon layer of spectral hands covering their faces, while Qi Ning’s Ghost-Crying Spray and blood-spit only briefly help. They remain trapped, possibly as punishment for breaking the nighttime taboo.
• After several days, a blast sounds near the western clearing. A figure rises into the air, and Zhong Cai’s distant scream confirms he is still alive. The airborne figure’s green eyes turn toward Chen and Qi Ning; then green-eyed figures across the village look at them. Chen is killed by biting.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen is cautious and analytical, using the Secret Manual, talismans, and the changing book to interpret the village’s customs and threats. He equips Qi Ning for safety and stops him from exploring further too soon.
• Qi Ning is prepared and capable, carrying specialized gear and taking the first watch in the book’s account. He helps investigate the nighttime cooking and repeatedly tries to clear the spectral hands obscuring their vision.
• The two work closely together, share observations, and ultimately decide not to challenge the village’s apparent ghosts directly. Their teamwork cannot overcome the supernatural trap.
• Zhong Cai remains an unresolved presence: the pair fear he may be dead, but his scream proves he has survived somewhere in the village.

Significant themes

• Taboo and punishment: The village’s rules—especially avoiding the outdoors at night—may be enforced by supernatural forces.
• Uncertainty and unreliable appearances: The old man’s explanations, the residents, the cooking figures, and even the village’s layout are difficult to trust.
• Knowledge versus helplessness: Careful observation and specialized tools reveal more of the danger, but do not provide a way to escape it.
• Isolation and entrapment: The ghost maze keeps the pair inside the village, while its residents appear to be waiting passively for death.
• Foreknowledge and dread: The book exposes the disastrous outcome of their investigation in advance, turning each discovery into a warning rather than reassurance.

Key plot points and events

• After reviewing the book’s new information, Chen Miao concludes that the zombie cooking downstairs is the old man’s wife, and that similar zombies may exist in every village household. Their transformation may be linked to something about the corpses—or their coffins.
• The book indicates that going outside at night would trigger the village’s taboo and let ghosts cloud their vision. Chen Miao and Qi Ning therefore stay inside, despite learning that a Flying Jiangshi is buried beneath the clearing.
• Chen Miao decides they cannot simply leave: they lack proof that would persuade the Administration to send adequate help, and provoking the Flying Jiangshi would be suicidal. He plans to spend the remaining days gathering information and prioritizes finding Zhong Cai, who may still be alive.
• The night unfolds as expected. In the morning, Qi Ning reports that the old man brought up hot water and that the porridge he claimed to cook was probably reheated.
• Chen Miao speaks with the old man, who seems ordinary and kind, though Chen Miao suspects he may have a problem with his memory. The two investigators then head to the clearing.
• Chen Miao calls toward the ground beneath a large pagoda tree, suspecting Zhong Cai may be buried there. He suddenly senses goodwill from the tree, ending the chapter on a supernatural discovery.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao remains cautious and analytical, weighing the risks of escape, investigation, and seeking help. Though troubled by the danger, he uses Iceheart to steady himself and commits to finding Zhong Cai.
• Qi Ning is shaken by the night’s events and grows suspicious of the old man, but Chen Miao reassures him. He trusts Chen Miao’s judgment and follows his lead at the clearing.
• The old man appears hospitable and behaves normally, but his belief that he cooked the food himself raises doubts about his memory and what happened overnight.
• Chen Miao and Qi Ning discuss the old man’s nature and the limits of what they can report, then work together to search for Zhong Cai.

Significant themes

• Knowledge versus power: The book provides clues, but Chen Miao lacks the strength and evidence needed to act safely or secure help.
• Caution and responsibility: Chen Miao refuses both a reckless escape and a direct confrontation, choosing instead to gather information and rescue Zhong Cai.
• Uncertainty and distorted reality: The village’s inhabitants, the old man’s memory, and the dangers beneath the clearing all remain difficult to verify.
• Unexpected connection: The goodwill Chen Miao senses from the pagoda tree hints that even something seemingly ominous may not be hostile.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao approaches the large pagoda tree after sensing goodwill from it. The goodwill disappears when he moves away from one particular spot and returns when he steps back, hinting at something unusual about the location.
• He offers the tree incense, then notices a split in its trunk and an eye-like shape inside. He almost strikes it with his peach-wood sword, but the hollow sound makes him suspect the eye—and the goodwill—may come from something hidden inside rather than from the tree itself.
• At Chen Miao’s request, Qi Ning climbs the tree and discovers a hollow containing bones and the missing Zhong Cai. Chen Miao gets ropes from the village, and the two work together to bring Zhong Cai down safely.
• Chen Miao finds a blood-red spell symbol on Zhong Cai’s chest and washes it away. Zhong Cai revives, weak and dehydrated.
• Zhong Cai explains that he managed to answer Chen Miao’s call and send Qi Ning a text before becoming immobile; the message was delayed because he lost signal.
• Asked what happened at the site, Zhong Cai reveals that someone established a Three Pagoda Tree Yin-Gathering Formation to gather yin energy and nurture corpses.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is cautious but observant: he tests the tree’s reaction, revises his theory after hearing the hollow strike, and chooses to rescue Zhong Cai rather than take a reckless risk. He shows respect through the incense offering and care when reviving Zhong Cai.
• Qi Ning proves physically capable and dependable, climbing into the tree and following Chen Miao’s instructions. His discovery and rescue efforts help bring Zhong Cai back.
• Zhong Cai is revealed to have been trapped under a spell and left in a near-death state. His bitter reaction to having sent the text shows he regrets the decision that may have led to his predicament.

Significant themes

• Caution and deduction: Chen Miao avoids acting on his first interpretation and adjusts his theory based on evidence.
• Cooperation and trust: Chen Miao and Qi Ning coordinate the dangerous rescue, while Zhong Cai’s delayed message connects the group.
• The uncanny beneath the ordinary: A thriving, seemingly benign tree conceals a hollow, bones, and a victim.
• Occult danger: The revelation of the yin-gathering formation expands the mystery from a trapped person to a deliberate supernatural scheme.

Plot and events

• Chen Miao rescues Zhong Cai, who is exhausted after being trapped in Sealed Gate Village. Chen Miao already knows some of Zhong Cai’s discoveries from the mysteriously changing book, but lets him recover before discussing their next move.
• The book recounts Zhong Cai’s investigation: he found that corpses in the village’s coffins were actually unusually flexible zombies, and that figures cooked at night while other presences watched from supposedly empty houses.
• Zhong Cai identified three enormous pagoda trees as the likely basis of a yin-gathering feng shui formation. When he tried to chop one down, a surge of icy yin energy appeared and gray mist covered the village. He hid inside the tree and survived using a life-saving talisman, but became trapped.
• Chen Miao, Qi Ning, and Zhong Cai are also unable to leave. They decide not to attack the trees directly, since doing so could unleash more zombies than their limited supply of talismans can handle. Instead, they plan to deal with the village’s threats in stages: first the zombies in the coffins, then the ghosts in empty houses.
• That night, the group examines a coffin. Chen Miao discovers needles beneath it and matching punctures in the corpse’s fingers, along with crude stitches on its back. He recognizes the corpse-stitching method known as a “coffin-linked corpse,” which preserves a body by connecting it to the coffin.
• The coffin is strangely difficult to move until they pry it loose. Beneath it, they find a huge carved talisman—the chapter ends before they can determine its purpose.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Miao is methodical and resourceful, using his reading and prior suspicions to interpret the new evidence. He takes charge of the investigation while allowing Zhong Cai to rest.
• Zhong Cai is revealed as brave and investigative: he explored the village, confronted a zombie, identified the formation, and survived by adapting when trapped. His knowledge of corpse-driving and feng shui guides the group’s plan.
• Qi Ning trusts Chen Miao and supports the rescue and investigation. He initially proposes chopping down all three trees, but accepts Zhong Cai’s more cautious reasoning.
• The three work cooperatively, share their knowledge, and avoid confronting the villagers or the supernatural threats unnecessarily. The old man remains quietly present and appears to sleep through the group’s nighttime activity.

Significant themes

• Knowledge versus danger: Careful observation and accumulated evidence offer a way forward, but understanding the threat does not make it safe.
• Cooperation and restraint: The group survives by sharing expertise and choosing a measured plan over a reckless attack.
• The uncanny hidden within the ordinary: Common coffins, familiar village customs, and massive trees conceal supernatural mechanisms.
• Entrapment and escalating mystery: The village’s barriers prevent escape, and each discovery—the zombies, formation, corpse-stitching, and carved talisman—raises new questions.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao reads an account of the previous group’s attempt to investigate Sealed Gate Village. They found Corpse Dissolving Incantations carved into coffin bottoms; the spells drew corpse qi out of bodies rather than dissolving them.
• The group sabotaged the incantations and disposed of a zombie, but zombies soon surrounded the house. Trapped with no escape, they died.
• Chen Miao concludes that destroying the pagoda trees would provoke an immediate siege. He also suspects the village’s Three Pagoda Tree Yin-Gathering Formation is concealing the yin energy it collects.
• Once Zhong Cai recovers enough to walk, Qi Ning tries to leave the village and alert the authorities. Chen Miao joins him, but all three return to the village, apparently unable to escape.
• Chen Miao suspects that Zhong Cai may himself have become a taboo: simply coming into contact with him could prevent anyone from leaving.
• While exploring the village, the three inspect two more hollow pagoda trees and find human remains inside, including the body of the young man Zhong Cai had been searching for.
• Chen Miao guides the group to inspect coffins. They discover the Corpse Dissolving Incantation before they can accidentally sabotage it.

Character developments

• Chen Miao uses the previous group’s account to plan more cautiously, drawing conclusions from its failures and steering the others away from risky actions.
• Qi Ning is eager to escape and seek help, but the failed attempt leaves him discouraged and in trouble.
• Zhong Cai is recovering physically, but the discovery of the young man’s body and the failure to leave deepen his distress.

Significant themes

• Knowledge versus uncertainty: The account offers useful clues, but crucial questions—such as what summoned the zombies or how the formation hides yin energy—remain unanswered.
• Entrapment and taboo: The villagers’ rules appear to govern escape as well as survival, and the group may have crossed an unknown boundary without realizing it.
• Hidden, long-running evil: The practices and deaths in the village may date back to a migration fifty years earlier, suggesting a deeply rooted scheme.

Character interactions

• Qi Ning pushes to leave after hearing Zhong Cai’s story; Chen Miao allows the attempt, while Zhong Cai watches with hope.
• The three link arms to cross the village boundary, but their return confirms that they remain trapped.
• Chen Miao takes the lead in directing their investigation, asking Qi Ning to inspect the pagoda-tree hollows and later steering the group toward the coffins.

Key plot points and events

• Zhong Cai discovers a Corpse Dissolving Incantation carved beneath the coffins. Unlike a Spirit-Sealing Talisman, it slowly removes a corpse’s qi and turns a zombie back into an ordinary corpse.
• The inscription deepens the mystery: the village’s Three Pagoda Tree Yin-Gathering Formation seems designed to nurture corpses, yet the coffins are also dissolving them. The ground beneath them shows no expected signs of corpse-qi saturation, and Zhong Cai cannot determine where the formation’s yin energy goes.
• The trio decides to confront the ghosts in an empty house rather than attack the zombies. Chen Miao reads the book’s account of a failed attempt: the ghosts exploit “ghostly blindness,” causing the group to attack one another. Ghost Cubes can capture them, but supplies are limited.
• Chen Miao’s Resolving Grievances with Jiangzhen Incantation fails on the captured ghosts, but the True Soul-Calming Incantation works. He helps one ghost pass on, suggesting the spirits may have died naturally, though why they linger remains unclear. More ghosts arrive, and the account ends with the trio dying.
• Determined to try a different approach, Chen Miao brings out a Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet bearing the words “God of the Mortal World.” He places it at the house’s entrance, reasoning that ghosts enter through the doorway, then waits with Zhong Cai and Qi Ning as the bell rings at midnight.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhong Cai carefully analyzes the relationship between the formation, the coffins, and corpse qi, but admits the evidence does not yet fit together.
• Chen Miao takes the lead in planning and chooses an unconventional strategy: using the memorial tablet to block or seal ghosts at their entry point.
• Qi Ning questions Chen Miao’s plan, while Zhong Cai’s familiarity with Chen Miao’s Incense-Burning Method makes him curious about the tablet’s possible connection to its mysterious deity.
• The trio rely on cooperation and caution, especially after learning that ghostly blindness can make them attack each other.

Significant themes

• Uncertainty and incomplete knowledge: Both the corpse rituals and the ghosts’ lingering presence resist easy explanation.
• Strategy over force: Direct attacks risk disaster, so the group experiments with incantations, Ghost Cubes, and the memorial tablet.
• The boundary between life and death: The ghosts may have died naturally, yet remain in the village; the chapter leaves their reasons unresolved.

Plot points and events

• The Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet traps two ghosts without triggering an attack. Worried that the village’s ghosts and zombies may be linked, Chen Miao avoids harming them and proposes collecting every ghost from the empty houses.
• Zhong Cai and Qi Ning take the second tablet to capture the ghosts while Chen Miao stays behind. By morning, they have gathered dozens inside the tablets’ soul-suppressing fields; the ghosts weaken in daylight but survive.
• The three investigate the coffins and disrupt the arrangement keeping the zombies active: they raise each coffin off the ground and plug its holes. With the setup disturbed, the zombies’ cooking becomes clumsy and incomplete, and the corpses grow stiffer—evidence they are approaching true undeath.
• The change leaves the elderly villagers with half-cooked meals, making the trio question their actions. Chen Miao concludes that the unknown creator, not the villagers, is responsible.
• On September 27, the zombies fail to return to their coffins before dawn and are destroyed by sunlight. Gray mist envelops the village, and a terrifying figure appears over the West Village Square before racing toward the trio.
• In the ensuing fight, the figure kills Qi Ning and Zhong Cai almost immediately, ignoring their weapons and protective items. Chen Miao’s enhanced sword also fails; the creature reveals that it can speak and has awareness. It kills Chen Miao by breaking his wrist, choking him, and forcing incense sticks into his mouth.

Character developments

• Chen Miao is cautious and strategic, preferring containment and investigation over directly attacking the supernatural forces. His experiments uncover how the coffins sustain the zombies, but he is ultimately powerless against the newly revealed creature.
• Qi Ning and Zhong Cai trust Chen Miao’s judgment and volunteer to help capture the ghosts. Their cooperation and preparation cannot protect them from the final threat.
• The elderly villagers remain largely unaware of the trio’s actions, but the worsening food highlights the human cost of disrupting the village’s unnatural routine.
• The creature is revealed as intelligent and capable of speech, making it more dangerous than the mindless ghosts and zombies the trio had faced.

Significant themes

• Caution in the face of the unknown: The trio treats the village’s supernatural phenomena as potentially interconnected and avoids reckless attacks.
• Discovery and unintended consequences: Their investigation produces real progress but harms the villagers’ daily lives and ends with the destruction of the zombies that had been cooking for them.
• Limits of preparation and power: Even extensive equipment, teamwork, and careful planning prove useless against the creature.
• The cost of uncovering hidden systems: Once the trio disrupts the village’s underlying arrangement, a more dangerous force emerges.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao explains the tablet’s effects and lays out the capture plan; Qi Ning and Zhong Cai accept his reasoning and take on the fieldwork.
• The three collaborate on the coffin experiment, share responsibility for the villagers’ worsening meals, and prepare together for the final confrontation.
• In the last fight, Zhong Cai’s sacrifice briefly gives Chen Miao a chance to attack, but the creature kills each of them in turn.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao realizes the Flying Jiangshi may have targeted him because he knows the Incense-Burning Method, perhaps out of resentment toward people who used it against the creature before.
• His existing plan still works for trapping the evil spirits and destroying the village’s zombies at dawn. But destroying the zombies would make the Flying Jiangshi emerge early—and even an incomplete Jiangshi could kill the three of them.
• Since ordinary and even powerful talismans and weapons have failed, Chen Miao concludes that victory will require weakening the Jiangshi with multiple debuffs.
• He questions why the creature emerges before it is fully advanced and suspects the zombies are linked to its cultivation through the Coffin-Linked Corpse and Corpse Dissolving Incantation.
• While investigating how the Three Pagoda Tree Yin-Gathering Formation supplies the coffins with yin energy, Chen Miao discovers that the energy is concentrated in the walls. Scraping away plaster and probing between the stones, he uncovers a tree root.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from despair over the Flying Jiangshi’s overwhelming strength to methodical investigation, looking for the mechanism behind its early emergence and a way to exploit it.
• Qi Ning and Zhong Cai return briefly to deliver two evil spirits into the Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet’s field, then head back out. Chen Miao cautions them to avoid “ghostly blindness.”
• Chen Miao also reflects on how the Administration might repurpose the Mystic Arts of captured evil cultivators, recognizing that techniques and formations can be used differently by different people.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as a burden: Chen Miao’s mastery of the Incense-Burning Method may make him a target.
• Strategy against overwhelming force: Raw strength and powerful weapons are insufficient; understanding an enemy’s constraints may be the key.
• Hidden connections: The discovery of yin energy within the walls suggests that the village’s structures—and perhaps the exposed root—are part of the formation sustaining the zombies and Flying Jiangshi.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao discovers that yin energy is stored in roots growing through the walls of Sealed Gate Village’s houses. The roots appear to have been built into the houses from the beginning, suggesting the village’s formation has been in place for decades.
• He theorizes that the village chief designed the arrangement to nurture a Flying Jiangshi. The village custom of returning widowed elders to Sealed Gate Village may have supplied corpses for the process, with zombies serving the surviving elders and ghosts possibly preventing visitors from escaping.
• Chen Miao, Qi Ning, and Zhong Cai spend the night catching ghosts, collecting seventy-eight in all. By day, they rest in shifts.
• After Zhong Cai experiments with the roots, the group discovers that a second formation conceals and circulates yin energy. The houses act as nodes, drawing energy through their embedded roots; thirty occupied houses contain coffins that consume some of it. Something in the western clearing receives what the coffins produce.
• Searching for the formation’s core, Chen Miao finds two stones near the village entrance. Touching one and using Yin Gathering gives him a vision of the entire network: three great pagoda trees, more than a hundred house-nodes, and flows of yin energy connecting them.
• Qi Ning pulls Chen Miao away before the stone’s power can kill him. Chen’s right arm has turned dark blue and is judged beyond saving. He repeatedly loses consciousness, then awakens to find a black-nailed hand piercing his heart. He dies.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao proves observant and resourceful, reasoning out the hidden formations and devising a method to move the Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablets without entering their dangerous fields. His determination to understand the system ultimately exposes him to lethal danger.
• Qi Ning shares the exhausting work of capturing ghosts and later acts quickly to pull Chen away from the stone.
• Zhong Cai contributes his expertise through experiments that confirm how the roots store and release yin energy and reveal the second formation.
• The three cooperate closely, alternating labor and rest, then splitting up to search for the formation’s core. Their teamwork gives way to tragedy when Chen is isolated at the stone and fatally attacked.

Significant themes

• Tradition as coercion: The village’s customs may conceal exploitation, binding elderly people to a fate chosen by their descendants.
• Hidden systems and interlocking schemes: Houses, roots, trees, coffins, ghosts, and the western clearing form a vast mechanism whose pieces only become clear through investigation.
• Knowledge at a cost: Chen’s insight uncovers the formation’s workings but leads him into direct contact with a deadly force.
• Care and complicity: The zombies’ apparent role in caring for elders is entangled with the village chief’s broader corpse-nurturing scheme.

Plot points and events

• After reading the book, Chen Miao confirms that his right arm is unharmed and realizes his experience has revealed a hidden second feng shui formation beneath Sealed Gate Village.
• The formation’s underground network concealed the yin energy gathered by the Three Pagoda Tree Yin-Gathering Formation and carried away corpse qi produced by the zombies.
• Chen Miao pieces together the village’s sinister purpose: the corpse qi was being routed to a buried, incomplete Flying Jiangshi to help it advance. The tradition of keeping the dead at home before burial—and even the creation of cooking zombies—served this scheme.
• He concludes that the Corpse Dissolving Incantations in the coffins must remain intact for now. Reducing the corpse qi too much could alert the Flying Jiangshi and bring it out before they can weaken it.
• Chen Miao considers two possible vulnerabilities: the large stone at the village entrance, likely a core of the second formation, and the corpse qi flowing through the network.
• He rejects using incense smoke from the Six True-Descent Arts: it cannot reliably travel through the network, and it needs an opening in a zombie’s defenses to affect it. Making that opening would require a dangerous close approach, likely costing the attacker’s life and his century-old peach wood sword.
• While reviewing his Miscellaneous Arts List, Chen Miao notices an unused art and begins to suspect it could make a workable plan.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Miao demonstrates sharper investigative reasoning, connecting clues from the book, the formation, the village’s customs, and earlier encounters into a coherent explanation.
• He is excited by the discovery but remains cautious, prioritizing keeping the Flying Jiangshi underground until they have a way to weaken it.
• Zhong Cai’s earlier discovery of the second formation provides an important clue, though Chen Miao now understands its function more fully than Zhong Cai did.
• The chapter contains no direct confrontation; Chen Miao’s main interaction is with the evidence and with the remembered findings of his companions.

Significant themes

• Custom as camouflage: Seemingly ordinary village traditions conceal a deliberate, long-term corpse-refining scheme.
• Systems and hidden design: The formations, zombies, and corpse qi form an interconnected mechanism whose purpose becomes clear only when the clues are combined.
• Caution under threat: A potentially effective tactic is useless if reaching the target would cause unacceptable losses.
• Adaptation and ingenuity: Chen Miao keeps searching for an unconventional solution when his obvious options fail.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao recognizes the Curse Dao: Corpse-Substitution Technique, which links a caster to a corpse and draws on its corpse qi to improve strength, defense, and recovery.
• He devises a plan to use the thirty corpse-bearing bodies in Sealed Gate Village to draw corpse qi back out of the underground network.
• Two obstacles stand in the way: the Corpse Dissolving Incantation drains qi from the corpses, while the village’s second feng shui formation pumps qi from the houses into the network. Chen Miao concludes he must disrupt both.
• He cannot identify the formations’ house-level nodes, so he considers using the Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet’s field to suppress the large stone at the village entrance—the presumed core of the second formation.
• Chen Miao realizes Qi Ning might recognize the technique and report his connection to the Curse Cult. Unwilling to trust Qi Ning, he decides his survival plan must also keep the investigator from discovering what he is doing.
• Three hours later, after Qi Ning and Zhong Cai wake, Chen Miao shows them the opened wall. The group investigates the second formation, and Zhong Cai suggests one exists.
• While the others work from the book’s instructions, Chen Miao digs beneath the two entrance stones. He discovers they are one buried U-shaped stone, inscribed with the words “Wind Gate Village.”

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from simply studying the technique to building a risky, practical escape plan. His resourcefulness is matched by his secrecy and fear of exposure.
• Zhong Cai contributes to the investigation by proposing the existence of a second feng shui formation.
• Qi Ning remains a potential ally in the group’s work, but Chen Miao sees him as a serious threat because of his official role and possible ability to identify the Curse Cult technique.
• The three cooperate in investigating the village, though Chen Miao conceals his deeper intentions and works separately at the entrance stones.

Significant themes

• Survival through ingenuity: Chen Miao combines knowledge of occult techniques, corpses, and feng shui to seek a way out.
• Knowledge as both tool and danger: His expertise helps him plan, but using it may expose him to the authorities.
• Distrust and secrecy: Even under immediate danger, Chen Miao cannot rely on Qi Ning’s promises or principles.
• Hidden structures and buried truths: The discovery that the “two stones” are a single inscribed U-shaped marker hints that the village’s apparent layout conceals deeper connections.

Key plot points and events

• Qi Ning and Zhong Cai discover that the village is actually named Wind Gate, not “Sealed Gate.” Chen Miao suspects the name may relate to the village’s second feng shui formation.
• Zhong Cai uses a corpse-character tattoo—given to him by a Yin-Pattern Tattooist—to confirm that a stone contains an unusually dense concentration of yin energy. Chen Miao identifies it as likely the core of the second formation.
• Drawing on a book he once read, Chen Miao proposes that two nested, interacting formations are at work. Their combined purpose may be Corpse Nurturing.
• Chen Miao recalls sensing something beneath an empty plot and now believes a walking corpse is buried there. For over fifty years, the village’s many walking corpses may have fed it corpse qi.
• Zhong Cai fears the buried corpse could be an exceptionally powerful Leaping Hopping Corpse—or even a Flying Jiangshi. The three men may be badly outmatched, but Chen Miao argues that the corpse is unfinished and could perhaps be weakened.
• Chen Miao proposes a plan, asking Qi Ning to remain alone with a Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet while he and Zhong Cai carry out the next step.

Character developments

• Chen Miao turns his observations into a theory and takes the lead despite the danger. He is determined to act rather than wait helplessly.
• Zhong Cai reveals another unusual skill from his years of wandering, but the threat of the buried corpse shakes his confidence. He nevertheless holds back his doubts and stays with the group.
• Qi Ning trusts Chen Miao and readily agrees to help, showing loyalty and resolve.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and deduction: Clues from the stone, formations, and Chen Miao’s reading allow the group to piece together the village’s hidden purpose.
• Courage in the face of overwhelming odds: The characters choose a risky attempt over certain inaction.
• The consequences of long-term occult practice: Decades of corpse-qi accumulation may have created a threat beyond what the group can handle.
• Trust and cooperation: The plan depends on each man accepting a role despite uncertainty.

Character interactions

• Zhong Cai’s tattoo helps verify Chen Miao’s suspicion about the stone, strengthening the group’s shared investigation.
• Chen Miao explains his theory and asks Zhong Cai to assess what kind of corpse might result; Zhong Cai’s expertise reveals how serious the danger is.
• Qi Ning places his confidence in Chen Miao, while Chen Miao asks him to undertake a solitary and potentially difficult task.

Summary

• Plot and events: With five days remaining before the Flying Jiangshi fully forms, Chen Miao begins testing the first stage of his plan. Qi Ning waits at the village entrance with the Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet, ready to place it on a stone for only thirty seconds when signaled. Zhong Cai guards Chen Miao as he prepares to draw a Corpse-Substitution Curse on one of the village corpses. The group uses agreed flashlight signals to stay in contact. Chen Miao checks the updated book and confirms that this first step should work, though the later problem—provoking the unfinished Jiangshi by stealing its corpse energy—remains unresolved.
• The ritual: Chen Miao prepares chicken blood, cinnabar, and his own blood. The curse must be drawn over the corpse’s navel, which becomes an opening that converts yin energy into corpse qi. A matching talisman on Chen Miao’s own navel will connect the two and allow the transfer. The corpse’s talisman must be drawn correctly on the first attempt, since traces of the blood ink would prevent a successful retry. Chen Miao begins the ritual.
• Character development and interactions: Chen Miao takes charge and carefully divides responsibilities, prioritizing secrecy and preparation. He gives Qi Ning protective talismans and a Yang-Suppressing Talisman from Zhong Cai, while warning him to flee rather than fight if danger arises. Zhong Cai questions the need to act at night, but accepts Chen Miao’s reasoning: the buried zombie could emerge unpredictably, and the villagers’ food must not be disturbed. Zhong Cai also shows discretion by guarding outside rather than watching the ritual.
• Themes: The chapter emphasizes planning under a strict deadline, the risks of acting on incomplete information, and the value of trust and cooperation. It also highlights the ritual’s unforgiving precision: one mistaken stroke could jeopardize the entire operation.

Key events

• Chen Miao fails his first attempt at drawing the Corpse-Substitution Curse on a corpse, but succeeds on the ninth. He then spends another hour and a half carefully drawing the curse on his own belly.
• He activates the technique and enters a half-corpse state. His strength rises dramatically, but he experiences distracting supernatural noise and feels aversion to the Peach Wood Sword.
• The corpse linked to him begins drawing corpse qi from underground, though the initial flow is too weak to meaningfully harm the Flying Jiangshi.
• After Qi Ning activates the Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet, the flow of corpse qi increases. Chen Miao tests whether injuring himself will speed absorption, but the Peach Wood Sword burns his hand and repeatedly prevents it from healing.
• Chen Miao ends the technique before overexerting himself. He suffers burns, wrist pain, and weakness, realizing that the technique may suppress the body’s natural limits rather than simply strengthen it—and that pushing too hard could cause injury afterward.
• He concludes that he cannot use multiple substitute corpses at once. Instead, he plans to destroy the Corpse Dissolving Incantations beneath the other coffins, disrupting the village’s supply of corpse qi and drawing the Flying Jiangshi out. He considers using the Corpse-Control Bell to weaken it.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows patience and caution, carefully observing the technique rather than blindly trusting the written instructions. His experiment reveals both its potential and its risks.
• Zhong Cai senses that Chen Miao’s method is ominous and unlike the Incense-Burning Method, and realizes Chen Miao has other secrets. Nevertheless, he trusts Chen Miao’s character and considers him a friend because Chen came to protect him.
• Qi Ning activates the Soul-Sealing Memorial Tablet as instructed and experiences its chilling effect firsthand, leaving his hand painfully cold.
• Chen Miao coordinates calmly with Zhong Cai and Qi Ning, asking Zhong Cai to signal Qi Ning when the experiment is ready. The group returns to their lodging and resumes taking turns on watch.

Significant themes

• Power and bodily cost: The half-corpse state grants impressive strength, but may do so by disabling self-protection, leaving consequences once it ends.
• Trust despite secrecy: Zhong Cai recognizes Chen Miao’s unorthodox nature but judges him by his actions rather than demanding full disclosure.
• Experimentation and caution: Chen Miao treats supernatural knowledge as incomplete, testing details and limiting risk.
• Strategic problem-solving: Since he cannot increase the number of active corpse links, Chen Miao seeks to alter the larger system sustaining the Flying Jiangshi.

Key plot points and events

• On the fifth day, Chen Miao tells Qi Ning and Zhong Cai that their next plan is dangerous and cannot be tested: it will likely draw out the fifty-year-old zombie the village has been raising.
• Qi Ning suggests waiting for reinforcements, but Chen Miao warns that his growing sense of impending danger suggests an unknown event will occur within two or three days. He also doubts that the likely Grade-D investigators—or even a Grade-C—could defeat the zombie.
• Zhong Cai agrees with Chen Miao, and Qi Ning ultimately commits to the plan. Chen explains their roles: Qi will wait at the village entrance, while Chen and Zhong handle the rest.
• Chen goes alone to the house where he used the Corpse-Substitution Technique. While the old man cooks porridge downstairs, Chen takes hair and nails from the corpse in the coffin and places a Corpse Driving talisman in its mouth.
• Upstairs, Chen prepares a second corpse-substitution incantation and uses a Heart-Linked Talisman to connect himself to the corpse. Because the technique makes him “half-corpse,” he can bypass the talisman’s normal restriction against linking the living to the dead.
• Chen rings the Corpse-Control Bell. The corpse thuds inside the coffin, and Chen’s arm rises involuntarily, confirming that the link and control have worked.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen shows caution as well as resolve: he openly explains the risks to his teammates rather than concealing them, and he seeks to improve the plan before acting.
• Qi Ning moves from skepticism and a preference for waiting to accepting Chen’s judgment once he understands the danger and the limited value of reinforcements.
• Zhong Cai firmly backs Chen, believing his unusual Incense-Burning Method may be their only chance, and offers to do whatever the plan requires.
• The teammates’ trust and cooperation let Chen proceed without opposition.

Significant themes

• Risk versus delay: Waiting for help may seem safer, but the approaching threat could leave no time.
• Trust and shared responsibility: Chen makes sure his companions understand the stakes, and they choose to face them together.
• Ingenuity and rule-breaking: Chen exploits the half-corpse state created by his technique to overcome the Heart-Linked Talisman’s usual limitations.
• Uncertainty and foreshadowing: Chen’s increasing sense of danger and the plan’s untested nature build anticipation for the zombie’s emergence.