Chapter Summaries

Luo Bin explored the Gui Market’s missions and accepted a task connected to Zhongshan baijiao, then discovered a notice about Cloudmist Mountain that could lead to the blood peach wood he sought. Long Liang watched his movements and recognized that the name Luo Bin matched a wanted person sought by Six Mountain Yin.

• Long Liang told his companion that Luo Bin had seemed truthful and powerful, and advised against trying to take his ritual artifacts.
• Luo Bin entered the Gui Market’s mission hall and read notices offering Zhongshan baijiao, lightning-struck jujube wood, and other rewards.
• Luo Bin accepted the mission involving the crested rat’s Crimson Robe and the location of Zhongshan baijiao, signing the market’s agreement to complete it.
• Luo Bin spotted a Cloudmist Mountain mission offering a Heaven’s Heart compass or Mountain-Crushing Lightning Willow, but the clerk said an elder had to accompany him on the high-level task.
• Luo Bin left the Gui Market, while Long Liang’s companion reported that he had lost track of him and suspected he had walked the hexagram positions.
• Long Liang revealed a portrait of a young man named Luo Bin and explained that Six Mountain Yin had posted a highly rewarding mission to find someone with that name.

Luo Bin returned to Su Su and Su Jian’s village after preparing supplies in the city, paid them for hosting him, and arranged for them to hold his money and identity card while he stayed away. Meanwhile, Gui Market officials showed Lu Si a photograph of a different man named Luo Bin, and Lu Si left angrily after confirming the mistaken identity.

• Long Liang and his companion compared a man named Luo Bin with the wanted portrait and concluded that the men were different.
• Luo Bin stayed overnight at a city hotel, exchanged gold for cash, bought supplies, and returned to the village in the evening.
• Luo Bin asked Su Su to keep his identity card and half his money, offering the other half as payment for his stay.
• Su Jian urged Su Su to accept the money and avoid upsetting Luo Bin, whom he believed to be a highly capable practitioner.
• Wu Dong and Long Liang presented Lu Si with a photograph of Luo Bin, but Lu Si recognized that the man was not the wanted boy and left in anger.

Luo Bin studied the Crown Rat assignment and used Rewind to copy talisman inscriptions onto cloth, making his own Small Banner. He slept through a female corpse’s strange visit, then woke sore and prepared to continue his work.

• Long Liang and Wu Dong discussed Six Yin Mountain’s hunt for Luo Bin and agreed to pass along their information while avoiding both sides.
• Luo Bin reviewed the documents about the Crown Rat and copied inscriptions from his original Small Banner onto black cloth using Rewind.
• Luo Bin attached the cloth to a Bronze Rod, creating a Small Banner that he believed could restrain ghost objects.
• A female corpse crawled out from beneath Luo Bin’s bed, repositioned his sleeping body as if laying him in a coffin, and lay still beneath him.
• Su Su considered visiting Luo Bin but returned to bed, believing they belonged to different worlds.
• Luo Bin woke sore, pocketed the Small Banner, and noticed Su Su waiting near his door before asking whether the sky had changed.

Luo Bin traveled to the Southeastern Three Mountains and used Feng Shui to find the Crown Rats’ nest, while the Zhou Family planned to stop him. Fan Jie agreed to help them capture Luo Bin, and the Zhou Family pursued him into the mountains.

• Su Su served Luo Bin Laba porridge and gave him a bank card before he left for the Southeastern Three Mountains.
• The Zhou Family learned Luo Bin had crossed the bridge toward the mountains and discussed killing him to protect their control of the Crown Rats.
• Fan Jie agreed to help the Zhou Family capture Luo Bin in exchange for their last Zhongshan baijiao, but refused to kill him.
• Luo Bin used primordial calculation and the Yin-Yang Arts to identify the Northern Peak and follow a direct route toward the Crown Rats’ nest.
• Zhou Qiang suspected a traitor had revealed the route, while Fan Jie told him to confront Luo Bin and prepared to use his bells to suppress Luo Bin’s fate.

Luo Bin found the Crown Rats’ burrows and used the Yin-Yang Arts to lure the rats into a trap, killing many with the Small Banner and a knife. As the swarm gathered around their dead, he escaped through the rocks and ran toward their burrows, with Fan Jie realizing he was drawing the rats away from their mountain.

• Luo Bin located the Crown Rats’ burrows on North Peak and identified the rocky streamside as their feeding grounds.
• Fan Jie and Zhou Qiang followed Luo Bin, watching him draw talismans in blood and hide among the rocks.
• After night fell, Luo Bin used the Small Banner to immobilize Crown Rats drawn to his Assembly formation and killed them with a woodcutter’s knife.
• More Crown Rats gathered around the bodies, forcing Luo Bin to crawl away through the rock crevices as the creatures shrieked across the mountainside.
• Fan Jie spotted Luo Bin running toward the Crown Rats’ burrows, realized he was luring them away, and followed him.

Luo Bin used Feng Shui Arts to locate a hidden Crown Rat stockpile and found a whole strip of zhongshan baijiao inside a cavern. As he tried to take it, Zhou Qiang and Fan Jie caught up with him, and Zhou Qiang demanded that Fan Jie help kill him.

• Luo Bin lured Crown Rats away from the Rat Den, then changed course after calculating that the stockpile lay northeast.
• Zhou Qiang and Fan Jie followed Luo Bin, planning to stop him from harming the Crown Rats and the Zhou Family.
• Luo Bin used a slice of zhongshan baijiao to stay alert and followed the wind to a concealed rat hole leading into a cavern.
• Luo Bin found chests and boxes in the cavern, along with a whole strip of zhongshan baijiao, and tried to put it in his backpack.
• Zhou Qiang confronted Luo Bin and ordered him to surrender the zhongshan baijiao, then urged Fan Jie to kill him.

Luo Bin resisted Zhou Qiang and a Crown Rat’s attempt to kill him, then turned their attack against Zhou Qiang. Fan Jie claimed he had intended to save Luo Bin and came to collect bell-mountain white resin, leaving Luo Bin unsure whether to trust him.

• Zhou Qiang ordered the Crown Rat to kill Luo Bin, and the spirit used its power to force Luo Bin’s hands toward his own neck.
• Luo Bin resisted the compulsion, but the Crown Rat entered his body and the attack continued as Zhou Qiang threatened him again.
• Luo Bin sensed mortal danger and redirected the Crown Rat’s power, making it strangle Zhou Qiang; the Crown Rat also died as it fled Luo Bin’s body.
• Fan Jie applauded Luo Bin and revealed bells he said could have endangered him, insisting that he had never intended to kill him.
• Fan Jie explained that he had come for bell-mountain white resin and viewed Luo Bin’s arrival as fortunate; Luo Bin asked whether he should thank him.

Luo Bin completed the Crown Rat mission, returned to the Gui Market, and sought information about another target. As the Gui Market elders gathered to grant him elder status, they revealed that a powerful faction was searching for someone with his exact name.

• Fan Jie proposed that he and Luo Bin work together to hunt ghosts and corpses, but Luo Bin refused and burned the Zhou Family's storage site to keep the Crown Rats away from their den.
• Luo Bin entered the Rat Den, retrieved three Crimson Robes, and left the mountain with Fan Jie following him.
• Luo Bin returned to the Gui Market, handed over the Crimson Robes, and requested information about the Witch Doctor in exchange for lightning-struck jujube wood.
• The shopkeeper led Luo Bin to the elders' courtyard, where Long Liang praised his success and about sixteen elders scrutinized him.
• An elder explained that a powerful faction had given the Gui Market a crucial mission to find someone named Luo Bin.

Luo Bin became an elder of the Gui Market and learned that Six Yin Mountain was searching for him. When Lu Si offered to restore his frail body, Luo Bin suspected a trap and refused, leaving their encounter unresolved.

• Wu Dong welcomed Luo Bin as a Gui Market elder, gave him a Ghost-Face Jade Pendant, and told him he could access the Cloudmist Mountain assignment.
• Long Liang brought Luo Bin the assignment and offered to help him reach Cloudmist Mountain in exchange for assistance with a personal matter.
• Lu Si of Six Yin Mountain arrived and examined Luo Bin's body and facial bones, concluding that his appearance and temperament did not match the Luo Bin they sought.
• Lu Si offered to use a Six Yin Mountain technique to restore Luo Bin's health, but Luo Bin refused and warned that he would suspect a trap if Lu Si insisted.

Luo Bin settled into his role as an elder at Gui Market, studied its wares and notices, and discovered that Six Yin Mountain had placed a massive bounty on him. After Lu Si waited outside for days, Luo Bin finally left Gui Market, and Lu Si pursued him.

• Long Liang warned Luo Bin to avoid Lu Si and showed him to the seventeenth elder's residence, where Luo Bin studied primordial calculation through the night.
• Luo Bin toured Gui Market with Huang Bing, examined its costly goods, and went to inspect the task notices.
• Luo Bin found a notice offering rare rewards for information leading to him or his capture, and wondered whether he had truly offended Six Yin Mountain.
• Lu Si waited outside Gui Market for two days and three nights, growing increasingly furious as Luo Bin failed to emerge.
• Luo Bin left Gui Market and hurried into a vehicle, and Lu Si hailed another vehicle to chase him.

Luo Bin joined forces with Fan Jie to confront Lu Si at Fan Jie's residence, where Fan Jie unleashed a horde of corpses protected by Talisman Pacts. Lu Si destroyed the corpses and injured Fan Jie, and Luo Bin stepped in as Lu Si prepared to attack again.

• Luo Bin visited Fan Jie and agreed to take the ghosts while Fan Jie claimed the corpses.
• Lu Si kicked open Fan Jie's gate and charged into the residence.
• Fan Jie activated a Talisman Pact, filling the courtyard with mist and sending corpses after Lu Si.
• Luo Bin warned Fan Jie that Lu Si could destroy the corpses, but Fan Jie trusted his defenses.
• Lu Si crushed the corpse horde, burned the Talisman Pacts, and caused Fan Jie to cough blood.
• Lu Si raised a bronze bead to attack again, and Luo Bin stepped in front of Fan Jie.

Luo Bin and Fan Jie killed Lu Si, a Six Yin Mountain master who tried to capture Luo Bin, and stopped his soul from escaping. Luo Bin trapped Lu Si in a human-skin garment, intending to use him as lamp oil.

• Luo Bin distracted Lu Si by mentioning Zhou Sanming, then struck him with Hexagram Speech Manifestation.
• Lu Si's soul left his body to ring the Calling Bell, but Fan Jie used his bells to force it back inside.
• Fan Jie summoned a corpse from beneath the bricks, and it tore Lu Si's body in half.
• Luo Bin stopped Lu Si's shadow from turning into a ghost while Fan Jie subdued it with the Bell-Subduing Technique.
• Luo Bin covered Lu Si's soul with a human-skin garment and captured it as lamp oil.

Luo Bin sealed Lu Si’s ghost and recovered his ritual artifacts, then negotiated a fair division with Fan Jie. The two kept the valuable Crystal Bottles and copper artifacts but agreed to destroy a sinister tool tied to consuming people’s vital essence.

• Luo Bin sealed Lu Si inside the Human-Skin Garment with talisman seals, and Fan Jie praised Luo Bin’s handling of the ghost.
• Luo Bin and Fan Jie discussed Lu Si’s connection to Six Yin Mountain and the threat of practitioners using Lifespan Theft.
• Luo Bin stripped Lu Si’s corpse of ritual artifacts, including three Crystal Bottles, copper items, and a rusted knife in a bowl.
• Fan Jie proposed taking the Goldfish Water, but Luo Bin divided the Crystal Bottles and copper artifacts into two sets so neither man lost out.
• Luo Bin identified the rusted knife as a sinister tool like Zhou Sanming’s and proposed destroying it together; Fan Jie accepted Luo Bin’s fair division.

Luo Bin questioned Lu Si’s trapped soul to learn how to use the copper beads, then freed Fan Jie’s fierce corpses by releasing the souls inside them. As dawn approached, Luo Bin refused to keep Fan Jie’s other ritual artifacts and prepared to visit the Hua family with him.

• Fan Jie agreed to take the bodies and ritual artifacts, while Luo Bin concealed the Calling Bell and Bronze Club and examined the human-skin gloves and copper beads.
• Luo Bin summoned Lu Si’s soul from the Human-Skin Garment and made the green soul-devouring female ghost bite him until Lu Si agreed to explain how the copper beads captured and released souls.
• Luo Bin used talismans to return the souls trapped in the copper beads to Fan Jie’s fierce corpses, though the beads shattered after each use.
• Fan Jie rang a bell to lead his restored corpses back into the well, then thanked Luo Bin for saving them.
• Luo Bin destroyed the bronze bowl and knife instead of taking them, and Fan Jie praised his uprightness.
• Fan Jie invited Luo Bin to visit the Hua family with him before they went off to take care of business.

Luo Bin saw signs that Fan Jie would be imprisoned and warned him against going to the Hua Family, but Fan Jie continued driving there. The signs on both men vanished before Luo Bin spotted two strangely dressed figures on a roadside path, leaving him alarmed by what he had seen.

• Luo Bin noticed signs of imprisonment on Fan Jie’s face and urged him to stay with him.
• Fan Jie dismissed the warning and drove toward the Hua Family, suspecting the Zhou Family might be behind the danger.
• Luo Bin saw signs of imprisonment appear on his own face and wondered whether the Hua Family was in danger.
• The signs disappeared from both men as they traveled, and Luo Bin ordered Fan Jie to stop the car.
• Luo Bin ran back along the road and recalled seeing two people in extraordinarily strange clothes on a small path.

Luo Bin recognized two Tibetan monks connected to Kong An and confronted them in the woods. After they overpowered him with a ritual weapon and chanting, he used Hexagram Speech Manifestation to dive into the river.

• Luo Bin realized the two dark-skinned men in red robes were monks linked to Kong An, told Fan Jie to leave, and went to face them alone.
• Luo Bin tracked the monks to a crude hut by the river, where he found them eating beside a bonfire.
• One monk attacked Luo Bin with a sword-pestle, and Luo Bin used the Calling Bell and Bronze Club to fight back.
• The monks countered with chanting that left Luo Bin dazed, then kicked him into the riverbank and advanced with a black rope.
• Luo Bin used Hexagram Speech Manifestation to ease his pain and plunged into the river to escape.

Luo Bin fled through a river cave while a monk attacked him with a Buddhist Staff, leaving him unable to understand why Kong An wanted him dead. At the Hua Family estate, Hua Qi’s soul had scattered after taking the drugs, and Fan Jie hurried to find Luo Bin’s help as Luo Muye and Gu Qing debated what to do about the monks.

• Two monks searched the river by striking its surface with their Buddhist Staffs while Luo Bin swam underwater toward a cave.
• A monk ambushed Luo Bin at the cave entrance and swept his Buddhist Staff at him, but Luo Bin seized it and dived away.
• At the Hua Family compound, Fan Jie told Hua Ying that Hua Qi’s soul had scattered after she secretly took the drugs, then offered to find a yin-yang master.
• Luo Muye and Gu Qing disagreed about going to the Tibetan Lands and decided to send the two monks away first.
• Fan Jie searched the woods for Mr. Luo and called for help, while Luo Bin swam deeper into the cave with a monk pursuing him.

Luo Bin escaped the monks through a mountain tunnel and fled into the woods, hoping to find a place that could suppress their deities. After hiding in a hollow tree, he encountered a severed hand and an empty human skin before the monks cornered him, and he realized the skin looked familiar.

• Luo Bin reasoned that a powerful feng shui site might suppress the monks’ deities and make them vulnerable to his Copper Beads.
• Fan Jie failed to find Luo Bin and drove away, while Luo Muye arrived at the wooden house and found signs of a struggle and ropes used to bind people.
• Luo Bin emerged from the mountain tunnel, spotted the monks following him, and ran deeper into the woods while searching for a suitable hiding place.
• Luo Bin crawled into a hollow tree, ate Zhongshan baijiao, and discovered an empty human skin and a severed hand inside.
• Luo Bin fled the tree hollow and found the two monks blocking his path; with danger behind him, he recognized the human skin as strangely familiar.

Luo Bin survived an ambush by two monks with help from Jin Youde’s skin and four ghosts, then killed the monks with Copper Beads. After waking the next day, he found no sign of the deities he had expected to possess them and began questioning An Kong’s motives and how to hide himself.

• Two monks attacked Luo Bin, but Jin Youde’s skin and four ghosts intervened and disrupted their assault.
• Luo Bin used the Calling Bell and Bronze Club to suppress the monks’ Wisdom King mantra while the ghosts drained their yang energy and strangled them.
• The monks drew blood talismans on their faces, forcing Jin Youde’s skin and the ghosts to retreat, so Luo Bin struck each monk’s fontanel with two Copper Beads.
• Luo Bin summoned the green wraith, but Jin Youde and the other ghosts vanished; he then ate Zhongshan Baijiao and passed out.
• Luo Bin woke the next day and confirmed that both monks were dead, but found no objects made from flayed corpses or evidence of deities inside them.
• Luo Bin wondered why An Kong had sent the monks after him and how he could conceal himself, concluding that he probably could not stay in Greater Xiang City much longer.

Luo Bin returned to Gui City after defeating two monks from the Tibetan Lands and sold their strange possessions to Wu Dong. He learned that Lu Si had been missing for six or seven days, while Wu Dong wondered why Daxiang City had three people from Six Mountain Yin.

• Luo Bin concealed the two monks' bodies, retrieved his belongings, and made his way back to Gui City rather than returning to the Su family home.
• Luo Bin asked Huang Bing to have the unidentified objects appraised, then rested and reflected on his recent encounters and possible change in fortune.
• Wu Dong and Long Liang met Luo Bin in the main hall, where Wu Dong identified the objects as rare lama possessions and offered to buy them for Gui City's use.
• Luo Bin explained that a lama who was a Temple Master had sent people to give him the objects, and he agreed to receive part of their payment in cash and part in gold bars.
• Wu Dong told Luo Bin that Lu Si had been missing for six or seven days, then remarked that Daxiang City had three people from Six Mountain Yin while other Gui Markets had only one.