Chapter Summaries

Mo Qian discovered that the Underground Room contained suspiciously staged evidence and began doubting Yuan Yinxin, but a Three-Headed Mountain Fen blocked the exit. Meanwhile, Luo Bin prepared to build Yuan Yinxin’s Lamp Oil trap and organized the townspeople to gather materials at the Coffin House.

• Mo Qian noticed the Underground Room was too clean, the chains were oddly rusty, the puddle was too small, and the remains on the floor showed no signs of being eaten, leading him to suspect Yuan Yinxin had lied about his identity.
• Mo Qian crawled toward the exit but stopped when he smelled something foul and heard breathing; a Three-Headed Mountain Fen had placed its head over the passage opening.
• Luo Bin studied Yuan Yinxin’s diagram for a ring of Lamp Oil-lit rooms designed to trap an evil spirit inside the Coffin House.
• Luo Bin went to the courtyard and learned from Li Yuan and Yu Hao that no families had been harmed by evil spirits overnight and that the townspeople wanted to celebrate.
• Luo Bin postponed the celebration and ordered everyone to gather carpenters and wooden planks, then head to the Coffin House.

Luo Bin found that Mo Qian had not returned and pressed ahead with a plan to trap evil spirits in the Coffin House. After arranging the work, he returned home and found Gu Yiren asleep with traces of tears on her face, prompting him to confront his feelings for her.

• Luo Bin discovered Mo Qian was missing and wondered whether he had gone to Shang Liuli's house to discuss Yuan Yinxin.
• Luo Bin brought his plans to the Coffin House, where Yang Gong and the other carpenters agreed to build a wooden trap that could later be reinforced with brick and stone.
• Luo Bin told Li Yuan to supervise the construction and returned to the two-story house to rest before facing his parents that night.
• Luo Bin ate the meal Gu Yiren had prepared, then found her asleep upstairs with tears still at the corners of her eyes.
• Luo Bin realized he felt heartache for Gu Yiren and questioned whether he could truly feel nothing for her after they had shared so much hardship.

Gu Yiren resisted the little girl’s attempts to turn her against Luo Bin and accepted that neither he nor her cousin was to blame for their circumstances. She and Luo Bin reconciled through an honest conversation and fell asleep together, though Gu Yiren’s clenched fist and the little girl’s displeased stare hinted at unresolved tensions.

• The little girl told Gu Yiren that Luo Bin was using her and urged her to stay loyal to her cousin, Zhang Li.
• Gu Yiren challenged the little girl’s accusations, defended Luo Bin, and said she had decided what to do.
• Luo Bin worried that Gu Yiren would choose Zhang Li, then apologized for being unable to risk the lives of his companions and parents by entering Cabinet Mountain Village.
• Gu Yiren nestled against Luo Bin and told him he had not wronged her, while she remained sorry about her cousin.
• Gu Yiren and Luo Bin fell asleep in each other’s arms as Gu Yiren clenched her fist and the little girl watched from the doorway with displeasure.

Mo Qian remained trapped in an underground passage while Mountain Fen watched the exit, and Li Yunyi decided his Senior Uncle’s absence meant he was being tested. Luo Bin’s Coffin House was completed, and he prepared to lure his parents inside with Gu Yiren as night approached.

• Mo Qian recognized the demons outside as Mountain Fen, retreated into the Underground Room, and decided to leave after dark.
• Li Yunyi learned that the emotion flowers had lost their dew and, after hearing Senior Uncle was away, convinced himself that Senior Uncle was testing his abilities.
• Li Yunyi drew talismans and used them with a small coffin, releasing wisps of white and dark green smoke.
• Luo Bin inspected the finished Coffin House, praised the carpenters, and declared that anyone who harmed another person would be killed in turn.
• Luo Bin explained to Gu Yiren how she should trap his parents in the lamp-lit central room while he approached them, then wondered why Mo Qian had not appeared.

Mo Qian discovered that Yuan Yinxin might be tied to a power struggle involving the Manager, but evil spirits surrounded and overwhelmed him before he could warn Luo Bin or Shang Liuli. Later, Luo Bin waited for his parents, and Feng Luo and Gu Ya entered the Coffin House and pursued him.

• Mo Qian returned toward town, convinced that Yuan Yinxin was hiding something and that he needed to warn Luo Bin and Shang Liuli.
• Evil spirits surrounded Mo Qian in the streets, and he realized Yuan Yinxin might be the rival the Manager feared.
• Mo Qian tried to leap over a courtyard wall, but Luo Feng knocked him down, and the evil spirits closed in on him.
• Luo Bin waited with Gu Yiren as a piercing scream rang out and the roads remained empty until midnight.
• Feng Luo and Gu Ya arrived without blood on their hands, persuaded Luo Bin to open the door, and then pursued him inside.

Luo Bin learned that Mo Qian was badly injured and surrounded by Evil Spirits, while his parents’ possessed bodies tried to trick him into releasing them. He used Gu Yiren’s blood to immobilize them and left to rescue Mo Qian, telling Gu Yiren to watch over them.

• Gu Yiren warned Luo Bin that Mo Qian was still alive but in danger on Main Town Road.
• Luo Bin refused to trust Luo Feng and Gu Ya when they claimed they could help save Mo Qian.
• Luo Feng and Gu Ya taunted Luo Bin for hesitating to go outside and rescue his companion.
• Luo Bin spat Gu Yiren’s blood onto Luo Feng and Gu Ya, freezing their bodies, then shut them behind a door.
• Luo Bin told Gu Yiren he would go save Mo Qian and return before dark.

Luo Bin lured evil spirits away from Mo Qian and reached him badly mutilated, but the townspeople refused to shelter them. As evil spirits seized Mo Qian and began tearing him apart, Luo Bin ripped off his left little fingernail.

• Luo Bin used Gu Yiren's blood to immobilize evil spirits and escaped their pursuit to reach Mo Qian.
• Luo Bin found Mo Qian severely mutilated and unable to speak, then gave him seven pills and carried him toward a nearby courtyard.
• The townspeople refused to open their gates, and Luo Bin kicked one gate down while carrying Mo Qian.
• Four evil spirits grabbed Mo Qian and began pulling him apart as Luo Bin struggled to stop them.
• Luo Bin grabbed Mo Qian's left little finger and tore off his bloodied fingernail.

After Mo Qian was killed by evil spirits, Luo Bin brought his remains to the Two-Story House and sought Yuan Yinxin’s help. Yuan Yinxin warned that reviving Mo Qian as an evil spirit might only bring him more suffering, leaving Luo Bin to decide whether to burn the remains.

• Luo Bin watched evil spirits strip Mo Qian to his bones, then carried his remains away after the fog made the spirits disappear.
• Luo Bin told Gu Yiren that Mo Qian was dead and might become an evil spirit, then carried Feng Luo and Gu Ya to the Two-Story House.
• Gu Yiren found Mo Qian’s unfinished bloody message mentioning Yuan Yinxin, and Luo Bin went to fetch him from Zhang Baijiao’s Medicine Shop.
• Yuan Yinxin examined Feng Luo and Gu Ya, then told Luo Bin that Mo Qian’s ruined body would not survive regaining his senses and that burning him was also an option.
• Yuan Yinxin instructed Luo Bin to place candles in specific spots and recited words for him to remember.

After Mo Qian's death, Luo Bin weighed the risks of turning him into a Guide and went to get candles for the ritual. When the townspeople demanded he take charge, Luo Bin reassured them about the town's safety and used Mo Qian's suspicions to steer their thinking, leaving them questioning who controlled Cabinet Mountain.

• Luo Bin concluded that Mo Qian's death and the Nightmare Corpse poison left him little chance of surviving as an evil spirit, and agreed to find candles.
• Luo Bin collected a bundle of candles from Zhang Baijiao at the Medicine Shop.
• Li Yuan, Yu Hao, the Land Guards, and townspeople confronted Luo Bin, who told them that Mo Qian had already secured the town against night attacks and that a trapped gentleman had arranged daytime protection.
• Li Yuan suggested that someone might be controlling the demons and treating the town's residents as livestock, and Luo Bin shared Mo Qian's theory that fear and negative emotions were central to their predicament.
• Luo Bin attributed the theory to Mo Qian, encouraged the townspeople to question the town's origins, and explained that he needed to return to care for two people he had rescued.

Yuan Yinxin tested Luo Bin’s memory, took him as a disciple, and used the Sixteen Trigrams to reveal that Luo Feng and Gu Ya’s true selves remained beneath the Nightmare Corpse’s influence. The chapter left Luo Bin wondering whether Gu Yiren was the key to understanding the formation.

• Luo Bin recited the sixteen candle positions as he placed them, and Yuan Yinxin explained that they formed Fuxi’s Sixteen Trigrams.
• Yuan Yinxin offered to teach Luo Bin Mountain-and-Water Divination, and Luo Bin accepted him as his master despite worrying about leaving Cabinet Mountain.
• Yuan Yinxin instructed Luo Bin and Gu Yiren to light the trigram candles around Luo Feng and Gu Ya.
• Luo Bin saw the shadows of Luo Feng and Gu Ya shift between the Void Eight and Real Nine candles, revealing their suppressed emotions and true consciousness.
• Luo Bin inferred that the corpse poison and nightmare’s will controlled his parents, but Yuan Yinxin said his explanation was incomplete, prompting Luo Bin to suspect Gu Yiren mattered.

Yuan Yinxin used the Primordial Sixteen Trigrams and Gu Yiren’s blood to break the nightmare corpse poison controlling Luo Feng and Gu Ya, while Li Yunyi’s talismans suffered backlash. Li Yunyi prepared to unleash Nightmare against the outsider as Shangguan Xingyue left to identify who had interfered, and Luo Bin ended the chapter asking why his father was missing a knife.

• Luo Bin reasoned that the void and solid candles were connected to Gu Yiren’s status as a Heavenly Yi Noble, and Yuan Yinxin explained how the hexagrams represented the poison’s unseen control and the couple’s physical forms.
• Gu Yiren fed her blood to the Spirit Four Candle while Yuan Yinxin performed the hexagram ritual, extinguishing the other candles and breaking the corpse poison from Luo Feng and Gu Ya.
• Gu Yiren collapsed into Luo Bin’s arms after saying she was useful, while Luo Feng steadied himself and supported Gu Ya.
• Li Yunyi and Shangguan Xingyue suffered backlash as their talismans broke and the flowers in the courtyard withered; Li Yunyi placed a new talisman on his False Body and ordered Nightmare to kill outsiders.
• Shangguan Xingyue left to discover who had interfered, while Li Yunyi used his blood to awaken a strange vine and insisted that he would not fail.
• Luo Bin told Luo Feng what had happened after he left Cabinet Mountain Village and mourned Mo Qian; Luo Feng noticed a knife was missing from his waist, and Luo Bin asked him about it.

Luo Feng concealed Mo Qian’s death from Luo Bin while warning him about Shangguan Xingyue and Li Yunyi, and Shang Liuli began privately suspecting Yuan Yinxin. At the chapter’s end, Mao Yousan led Luo Bin’s real body toward Cabinet Mountain, while the Luo Bin in town found Yuan Yinxin engrossed in finger seals before he accepted his medicine.

• Luo Feng withheld that he had killed Mo Qian and told Luo Bin about the other woman’s scheme, prompting Luo Bin to swear vengeance on Shangguan Xingyue and Li Yunyi.
• Luo Bin went to find Shang Liuli, but she was away; at the Courtyard, she considered whether Mo Qian had discovered something suspicious about Yuan Yinxin and decided to watch him without telling Luo Bin.
• Mao Yousan revealed that he had searched for the real Luo Bin for months and led Luo Bin’s body up the mountain while it muttered in fear about Cabinet Mountain Village.
• Luo Bin went to the Medicine Shop, where Zhang Baijiao told him Yuan Yinxin had been unresponsive while making finger seals; Yuan Yinxin opened his eyes, greeted Luo Bin, and accepted the medicine he offered.

Yuan Yinxin accepted Luo Bin as his disciple, reassured him about his ordinary physique, and began explaining the deeper purpose of the altered Coffin House. Meanwhile, Shangguan Xingyue concluded that her Master was the person suppressing Li Yunyi, but a herd of strange mountain boars surrounded her before she could confront him.

• Yuan Yinxin examined Luo Bin, called his physique ordinary, and told him that comprehension mattered more as he affirmed him as his disciple.
• Yuan Yinxin confirmed that Luo Bin's parents were out of danger, then led him to the Coffin House to explain its greater purpose and the presence of the Five Elements.
• Shangguan Xingyue searched five places and found her senior brothers guarding their Flower Gardens, while her Master was absent from every location.
• Shangguan Xingyue realized that her Master was likely the person at the Mountain-Suppressing Cabinet suppressing Li Yunyi, despite having favored him.
• Shangguan Xingyue hurried toward town to question her Master, but human-faced, sheep-like mountain boars emerged from the trees and surrounded her.

Luo Bin memorized Yuan Yinxin’s feng shui teachings and retrieved a Five-Element Seal to protect himself from the Manager’s next move. Back at the Small Building, Shang Liuli recognized the seal and remained suspicious of Yuan Yinxin despite Luo Bin’s explanation.

• Luo Bin recited Yuan Yinxin’s teachings word for word, and Yuan Yinxin praised his memory before warning him to study the material gradually.
• Yuan Yinxin told Luo Bin to retrieve a Five-Element Seal he had left behind after sealing Si, while warning that the Manager might use more dangerous methods that night.
• Luo Bin found the seal beneath a broken stone tablet and discovered that touching it made him feel searing heat and near-fainting.
• Luo Bin returned to the Small Building and told Shang Liuli that Yuan Yinxin had advised them to stay cautious that night.
• Shang Liuli recognized the seal when Luo Bin showed it, listened to his explanation about Si, and continued to question what had really happened to Mo Qian.

Luo Bin reunited with his family and explained his relationship with Gu Yiren, while the family confronted the unresolved matter of Zhang Li. The chapter ended with Gu Yiren crying beside Luo Bin as Little Girl whispered that her cousin was pitiful.

• Shang Liuli left after asking to see the little seal again the next day, and Luo Feng lit the Oil Lamp.
• Gu Ya tearfully embraced Luo Bin, and he reassured her and Luo Feng that they were a family and that Gu Yiren would stay with them.
• Gu Ya brought up Zhang, causing Gu Yiren to drop a bowl; Luo Bin comforted Gu Yiren and cleared away the broken pieces.
• Luo Bin told his parents that he and Gu Yiren had chosen each other without betraying Zhang Li, and promised to save Zhang Li if he appeared in Cabinet Mountain Town.
• After dinner, Luo Bin comforted Gu Yiren as she cried in his arms, while Little Girl whispered that her cousin was pitiful.

Yuan Yinxin used a talisman to redirect Qin Jiumo and warned him not to interfere with Luo Bin, while revealing that Li Yunyi had sent the Hunter into Cabinet Mountain Town. Later, Luo Bin heard someone struggling with the Medicine Shop’s shutter and saw the Hunter outside.

• The Hunter visited Yuan Yinxin, knelt before him, and then left the Medicine Shop.
• Qin Jiumo followed the evil spirits to the Medicine Shop and recognized Yuan Yinxin as the Lord of Cabinet Mountain.
• Yuan Yinxin summoned Qin Jiumo with a talisman, ordered him to avoid Luo Bin and the Medicine Shop, and had evil spirits drag him away.
• Yuan Yinxin said that two blessings were about to arrive.
• Luo Bin woke when he heard footsteps and the shutter being pulled, then saw the Hunter outside holding a Jade Scepter.

Luo Bin fought the Hunter that pursued him through Cabinet Mountain Town, using the Five Elements Suppression Seal to destroy it. The Hunter dissolved into a skeleton, while Luo Bin lay injured and at risk of succumbing to his evil spirit instincts.

• Luo Bin escaped through the Side Door and drew the Hunter away from his family before confronting it on Town Road.
• The Hunter knocked Luo Bin down, and he swallowed Lamp Oil to suppress his evil spirit instincts before attacking again.
• Luo Feng and Gu Ya watched from an upstairs window as Luo Bin slid beneath the Hunter and climbed onto its shoulders.
• Luo Bin struck the Hunter's crown with the Five Elements Suppression Seal, which burned through its body until only a skeleton remained.
• Luo Bin was left badly injured, and the damage began triggering his evil spirit instincts.

Luo Bin survived the Hunter’s destruction and returned to the Two-Story House with the Five-Element Seal. Meanwhile, Li Yunyi’s Coffin Nightmare was destroyed, erasing his status as a Manager, so he headed to Cabinet Mountain Town to seize another.

• The Hunter crumbled into dust, and the surrounding evil spirits retreated as Luo Bin retrieved the undamaged Five-Element Seal.
• Luo Bin returned to the Two-Story House, where Gu Yiren, Luo Feng, and Gu Ya confirmed he was safe.
• Luo Feng and Gu Yiren discussed the Manager’s attempt to erase outsiders and concluded that Yuan Yinxin could defend himself.
• Li Yunyi watched his Coffin Nightmare burn and realized its destruction had erased his identity and control over the Nightmare Corpse.
• Li Yunyi left the Fenced Courtyard for Cabinet Mountain Town, intending to seize another Coffin Nightmare.

After the Hunter attacked Luo Bin, Shang Liuli told him the Town Bell had shattered, and they realized Yuan Yinxin was manipulating the Manager’s suspicions. Yuan Yinxin gave Luo Bin a book and took him along as the Manager prepared to come.

• Luo Bin woke, gave Shang Liuli the Five-Element Seal, and told her what had happened during the night.
• Shang Liuli revealed that the Town Bell had shattered and reasoned that Yuan Yinxin was leading the Manager into a series of mistakes.
• Shang Liuli chose to stay with Luo Bin’s family and examine the Five-Element Seal while Luo Bin went to report to Yuan Yinxin.
• Luo Bin told Yuan Yinxin about the Hunter’s attack, and Yuan Yinxin said the Manager would be even more impatient now.
• Yuan Yinxin gave Luo Bin an untitled book on observing mountains and assessing water, then set off with him as the Manager’s arrival seemed imminent.

Yuan Yinxin gathered Cabinet Mountain Town’s residents and selected five men to confront the hidden force controlling the mountain. He revealed that the town was a cage and began drawing blood talismans on the five, while Luo Bin watched closely.

• Luo Bin summoned the townspeople to the entrance, where Yuan Yinxin screened them and selected five, including Yu Hao.
• Yuan Yinxin told the crowd that he came from an old Taoist lineage, had been trapped on Cabinet Mountain, and believed someone controlled the mountain and imprisoned the town.
• Yuan Yinxin urged the townspeople to stay calm, said the hidden enemy would soon arrive, and charged the five selected men with dealing with him.
• Li Yuan dispersed the crowd, leaving Yuan Yinxin, Luo Bin, the five men, and several others at the entrance.
• Yuan Yinxin used blood from his cracked finger to draw talismans on the backs of the five men’s heads as Luo Bin carefully observed his method.