Chapter Summaries

Luo Bin tracked Miao Yun with Miao Tu and the Grass Ghost Gu, but their search led them to a disfigured man who triggered the Thangka Lama Agong had given him. The man escaped across a river, and Luo Bin was surrounded by armed lamas while trying to help an injured stranger.

• Luo Bin discovered Huang Bing’s soul was missing from the copper bead and concluded someone had released it.
• Luo Bin and Miao Tu set out with the Grass Ghost Gu to find Miao Yun, who Luo Bin believed was not in mortal danger yet.
• The Grass Ghost Gu led them through town, where Miao Tu spotted a fleeing figure and chased after him with Luo Bin.
• Luo Bin recognized that the disfigured fugitive had triggered the Thangka and suspected he was the reincarnated Seventeenth Rinpoche, though this contradicted his belief that Kong An had already become a Tulku.
• The fugitive escaped across a river, leaving behind an injured man whose eyes had been gouged out, and eight armed lamas surrounded Luo Bin and Miao Tu.
• Luo Bin told the lamas that he had chased a strange figure and found the injured man, but had not harmed him.

Luo Bin followed the dead man's scent upstream while searching for Miao Yun, but his journey led him to a mysterious hill where strange holes appeared and disappeared. He spotted a ghostly face in one opening, while the Black-Gold Toad urgently warned him about something behind him that he could not see.

• Luo Bin recognized the kneeling man as a murderous villain and watched him die when the monks raised him, unaware that his intestines were hooked to the ground.
• Luo Bin sent Miao Tu back and told him to stay inside until the Grass Ghost Gu could locate Miao Yun.
• Luo Bin sensed that Miao Tu was watching him, then crossed the frozen river and followed the dead man's scent with Fourth Master Gray's guidance.
• A Gu insect bit Luo Bin and crawled back into his sleeve, puzzling him because he was the Miao King.
• Luo Bin reached a strange hill where clustered holes vanished, then reappeared as a person-sized opening containing a pale, blackened face.
• The Black-Gold Toad jumped from its jar and croaked a warning toward the empty space behind Luo Bin.

Luo Bin climbed a mountainside crawling with unnatural creatures and found a ghostly scene of a murder on a stone platform. The dead trapped him in their ritual, leaving Fourth Master Gray and the black-gold toad desperately trying to rouse him.

• Fourth Master Gray warned Luo Bin of danger, and a swarm of ordinary scorpions poured from holes before retreating as ghostly, human-faced creatures emerged.
• Luo Bin hurried uphill, reasoning that he needed to find the Seventeenth Rinpoche because only a Living Buddha could oppose Kong An.
• Luo Bin discovered buildings built into the mountainside and saw a vision of three people preparing to gouge out a kneeling victim’s eyes.
• The vision vanished, leaving a tortured skeleton and scattered ritual tools on the platform.
• The skeleton’s ghostly obsession immobilized Luo Bin and made him its death substitute as bone rods pressed against his temples.
• Fourth Master Gray and the black-gold toad cried out while ghostly figures closed around Luo Bin, but he remained motionless.

Luo Bin escaped a ghostly prison on the mountain and realized the returning sense of being watched might be connected to Miao Yun’s Life Gu. He continued toward the Seventeenth Rinpoche, unaware that He Dongsheng and Miao Tu were following him and believed his false display had left him frightened.

• Luo Bin destroyed the ghosts with blood from his tongue and used a Primordial Fiend-Subduing Talisman to escape the prison within a prison.
• Luo Bin reconsidered the repeated feeling of being watched and suspected a person was following him rather than a ghost.
• Luo Bin struck a wall with blood and snapped a talisman on it to mislead whoever was watching, then used a hand seal to summon the Gu Worms.
• Luo Bin recognized a trembling Gu Worm as a Life Gu and wondered whether it belonged to Miao Yun.
• Miao Tu and He Dongsheng appeared near the stone platform, and He Dongsheng mistook Luo Bin’s broken talisman for evidence that he was frightened.

Luo Bin discovered that Miao Tu had suffered Soul Seizure and concluded that a powerful enemy was following him. He mapped the execution prison’s hexagrams and searched the mountain for a place where he could draw the pursuer out, but the buildings held too few ghosts to serve his purpose.

• Luo Bin used the Golden Silkworm Gu to cocoon Miao Tu’s Life Gu, and Miao Tu’s remaining living soul warned him to be careful.
• Luo Bin deduced that Miao Tu had been possessed, that Huang Bing’s soul and Miao Tu’s body were in enemy hands, and that Miao Yun had likely been captured too.
• Luo Bin retraced his route, left misleading traces, and used the compass and his observations to calculate the mountain’s hexagram layout.
• Luo Bin recognized the mountain as an Execution and Punishment Prison and entered a building where a ghostly woman was being skinned, but decided there were too few ghosts there.
• Luo Bin searched more buildings for a suitable place to lure out his pursuer, finding people enduring different executions as his unease grew.

Luo Bin lured He Dongsheng into a trap and used the Purple Flower Lantern to force him out of his body, but He Dongsheng twice used Daoist spells to return to it. The chapter ended with five people restraining He Dongsheng’s soul with ropes as he tried to flee.

• He Dongsheng followed Luo Bin up the mountain, believing Luo Bin had exhausted himself searching the buildings, and sent Miao Tu to check on him.
• Miao Tu found Luo Bin apparently dying beside the Gray Immortal and the Black-Gold Toad, then left and returned with He Dongsheng.
• Luo Bin revealed that he had feigned weakness to lure He Dongsheng out, while He Dongsheng produced a wooden figure resembling Luo Bin and prepared to stab its head.
• Luo Bin used a hand seal and the Purple Flower Lantern to force He Dongsheng’s soul from his body, but He Dongsheng twice used Daoist spells to return to it before the lantern expelled him again.
• He Dongsheng tried to escape, but five people caught his soul with hair-like ropes and pulled him taut, nearly tearing him apart.

Luo Bin trapped He Dongsheng’s living soul and restored Miao Tu enough to learn that Miao Yun Wu was guarding danger. While searching He Dongsheng for Huang Bing’s soul, Luo Bin recognized the talisman, but a Buddhist prayer bead knocked his Copper Bead aside before he could strike.

• Luo Bin used the ghosts to drag He Dongsheng’s living soul from Miao Tu’s body and then freed Miao Tu from the ghost possessing him.
• Luo Bin restored some of Miao Tu’s awareness with his life gu and concealed him from the ghosts with Heavenly Cycle Concealment Talismans.
• Miao Tu pointed to He Dongsheng and stammered a warning about Miao Yun Wu guarding danger.
• Luo Bin threatened He Dongsheng with soul destruction or becoming lamp oil, then searched his body for the talisman holding Huang Bing’s soul.
• Luo Bin recognized the talisman and raised a Copper Bead to strike He Dongsheng, but a Buddhist prayer bead knocked it to the ground.

Luo Bin fought He Dongsheng and eight lamas, using the Primordial Purple Flower Lantern, Fourth Master Gray, and gu worms to keep them at bay. As He Dongsheng used a Wooden Figure to cripple Luo Bin’s wrist and force him toward flight, a withered hand suddenly attacked He Dongsheng.

• Eight lamas surrounded Luo Bin after mistaking him for an evil man, and they attacked when he failed to convince them of the misunderstanding.
• Luo Bin used the Primordial Purple Flower Lantern to separate five lamas’ souls from their bodies, then tried to kill He Dongsheng but was disrupted by the Three-Character Wisdom King Mantra.
• Fourth Master Gray blocked the lamas’ Buddhist Prayer Beads, while Luo Bin possessed him and sent gu worms after three attackers.
• The lamas used prayer wheels and chants to weaken Luo Bin, forcing him to extinguish the lantern; the lamas and He Dongsheng then returned to their bodies.
• He Dongsheng used a Wooden Figure to inflict severe pain in Luo Bin’s wrist as the lamas closed in, but a withered hand suddenly lunged from the steps and struck He Dongsheng in the lower back.

Luo Bin waited for the lamas to leave, restored Miao Tu’s condition, and followed the Seventeenth Rinpoche’s trail into a tower where he found him torturing He Dongsheng. The Rinpoche spoke only Tibetan, so Luo Bin told him that someone was obstructing his reincarnation and that he needed to come with him.

• The strange man stabbed He Dongsheng through the cheeks and dragged him up the steps, while Luo Bin used the Primordial Purple Flower Lantern to incapacitate the eight lamas and escaped with Fourth Master Gray.
• Luo Bin explained that the strange man was the Seventeenth Rinpoche and planned to find Kong An to rescue Mr. Xu and Taoist Bai Xian.
• Luo Bin met Miao Tu on the steps, then used a Copper Bead to draw the Gu insects from Miao Tu’s body.
• After the eight lamas left the next morning, Luo Bin followed the bloodstains to a nine-story wooden tower and descended through its eerie underground floors.
• Luo Bin found the Seventeenth Rinpoche salting and bandaging He Dongsheng’s wounds beside a statue of the Deity that followed Kong An.
• The Seventeenth Rinpoche spoke Tibetan, so Luo Bin told him that someone was the obstacle to his reincarnation and demanded that he come deal with that person.

Luo Bin learned that Black City Monastery’s followers mistook the Seventeenth Rinpoche for the reincarnated New Sinpo and recognized Luo Bin as their Chief Seat. He followed the Rinpoche toward another blood-soaked tower, while Qi Yu’s people guarded the wounded He Dongsheng.

• The Seventeenth Rinpoche tortured He Dongsheng as Luo Bin urged him to join him after killing the man.
• Qi Yu and three members of Black City Monastery’s Offering Family arrived, knelt to Luo Bin, and explained that they believed the Rinpoche was the New Sinpo and Luo Bin was the former Chief Seat.
• Qi Yu said the monastery intended to use the Rinpoche to challenge Dergé County’s Buddhist institution, while Luo Bin considered using the newcomers to help kill Kong An.
• The Rinpoche left for the upper level, and Qi Yu stopped Luo Bin from killing He Dongsheng, assigning one man to guard him and two to protect Luo Bin and the Rinpoche.
• Luo Bin followed the Rinpoche down the tower steps, and the Rinpoche led him along a branching stairway toward another tower filled with the smell of blood.

Luo Bin tried to stop Rinpoche from becoming a Sinpo by testing whether he would show compassion, then attacked when Rinpoche refused. A ghost with Rinpoche’s face intervened, leaving Rinpoche confused and seemingly more compassionate as the story ended.

• Rinpoche showed Luo Bin the bloodied apparition of his daughter Lhamo and explained that she had been killed at the stone platform.
• Luo Bin realized Rinpoche had not awakened and feared that the identity of Sinpo being fed to him would turn him toward evil.
• Luo Bin led Rinpoche away from the mountain and asked him to offer Fourth Master Gray a piece of flesh, but Rinpoche refused.
• Luo Bin attacked Rinpoche with a knife, but a ghost resembling Rinpoche seized his hand and stopped him.
• The ghost called Rinpoche a Living Buddha, bowed before him, and vanished, while Rinpoche appeared bewildered and more compassionate.

Rinpoche awakened and joined Luo Bin, explaining that they needed to stay together while they dealt with the dangers surrounding Black City Monastery. They reached a courtyard where Wu Dong was holding Miao Yun captive, and Wu Dong confronted the terrifying Rinpoche.

• Rinpoche cut flesh from his arm to feed Fourth Master Gray, then warned Luo Bin that danger was approaching.
• Rinpoche identified the Buddhist essence on Luo Bin and explained that he had sensed events through Yungdrung and the Living Buddha's insight.
• Rinpoche told Luo Bin that he would not separate from him, while Badan's spirit would seek revenge for his daughter Lhamo.
• Luo Bin sent Fourth Master Gray back to Black Prison Mountain to find Miao Tu, then led Rinpoche east through Aw a County.
• Luo Bin forced open a courtyard gate, where Wu Dong was guarding the tortured Miao Yun, and Wu Dong confronted Rinpoche.

Luo Bin confronted Wu Dong over betraying him and Miao Yun, then stopped Wu Dong from fleeing and bound him with a talisman. After freeing Miao Yun, Luo Bin learned that Miao Tu had been devoured, and Miao Yun urged him to kill He Dongsheng.

• Wu Dong welcomed Luo Bin, then begged for his life and claimed He Dongsheng had coerced him into betraying Luo Bin.
• Miao Yun accused Wu Dong of switching sides for personal gain, while Wu Dong insisted he had been trying to save him.
• Luo Bin revealed that He Dongsheng was crippled and near death, promised Wu Dong's family would be safe, and criticized Wu Dong for not resisting as Huang Bing had.
• Wu Dong suddenly tried to flee, but Luo Bin struck him with a copper bead and placed a talisman on his head.
• Rinpoche remarked that Luo Bin had made a dead man reincarnate, and Luo Bin answered that someone had not been fated to die.
• Luo Bin freed Miao Yun, who told him Miao Tu had been devoured and pleaded with him to avenge Miao Tu by killing He Dongsheng.

Luo Bin rescued Miao Yun and reunited him with Miao Tu, then planned to turn Black City Monastery against Kong An and deal with He Dongsheng. The Rinpoche sensed that Lama Agong had encountered a Sinpo and warned that a great calamity was coming.

• Luo Bin gave Miao Yun a Medicine Person Blood Pill and told him that Miao Tu would recover after his Life Gu devoured the ghost possessing him.
• Luo Bin decided to return and kill He Dongsheng, while planning to lure Kong An out of the temple with help from the Offering Family of Black City Monastery.
• Fourth Master Gray brought Miao Tu back, and Miao Tu warned Luo Bin that He Dongsheng controlled many vicious ghosts, including a Prison Warden.
• Luo Bin told Miao Yun and Miao Tu to keep Huang Bing safe and stay away from He Dongsheng and the more dangerous threat.
• The Rinpoche hurried out of town and said that Lama Agong had encountered a Sinpo, warning that a great calamity was coming.

Luo Bin and Rinpoche reached the Nine-Story Pagoda, where Qi Yu and his companions feared Rinpoche’s wrath over He Dongsheng’s escape. Luo Bin persuaded Rinpoche to spare them and ordered them to help capture Daren Lama Temple’s Tulku, while he resolved to find He Dongsheng and rescue Bai Xian and Xu Lu.

• Luo Bin and Rinpoche crossed the river and climbed Execution Mountain as Rinpoche explained its history and the Jinzhumami’s role in exposing false Living Buddhas.
• Qi Yu and his two companions caught up with Luo Bin and Rinpoche, then followed them to the Nine-Story Pagoda, where blood-drawn talismans bore faces resembling He Dongsheng.
• Luo Bin and Rinpoche found Qi Yu and his companions kneeling beside the dismembered corpse of the man Qi Yu had left behind, and Luo Bin realized they feared Rinpoche would punish them for He Dongsheng’s escape.
• Luo Bin persuaded Rinpoche to spare Qi Yu and the others, and Qi Yu promised to offer Daren Lama Temple’s Jom and Umze to the deity.
• Luo Bin ordered Qi Yu to prepare to capture the Tulku immediately, then resolved to find He Dongsheng and reunite with Bai Xian and Xu Lu.

Xu Lu learned that Black City Monastery was targeting him, then discovered that the rat who returned was Fourth Master Gray rather than Little Gray Spirit. Fourth Master Gray found Little Gray Spirit’s remains and was attacked by Gonpo, who ate its tail and declared that the rat smelled good.

• Lama Tsangyang warned Xu Lu that the Living Buddha of the Five Lama Court had been murdered and ordered him to stay inside Daren Lama Temple because Black City Monastery might try to use him.
• Fourth Master Gray appeared in Xu Lu’s room, and Xu Lu realized the rat was not Little Gray Spirit but Fourth Master Gray, who had come searching for him.
• Xu Lu tried to leave after Second Lady Hu confirmed Fourth Master Gray was real, but Lama Tsangyang and the other lamas blocked his way on the Tulku’s orders.
• Fourth Master Gray followed Little Gray Spirit’s scent to a snowy peak and uncovered a heap of severed rat remains, including Little Gray Spirit’s head.
• Gonpo attacked Fourth Master Gray, severed its tail, and ate it before turning toward the rat and saying it smelled good.

Luo Bin waited at the four-hill feng shui site for Fourth Master Gray to return with the Tulku, whom he recognized as Kong An reborn as Gonpo. As the Black City Monastery's Offering Family charged Gonpo, he sat down and appeared to accept his death, leaving Luo Bin stunned.

• Luo Bin waited in the snowy feng shui formation, intending to lure the Tulku there without revealing his identity to Xu Lu.
• Fourth Master Gray returned wounded and reported that the man they sought had eaten Little Gray Spirit.
• Gonpo arrived, and Luo Bin recognized Kong An's former physiognomy in the young Tulku's face.
• Gonpo asked Luo Bin why he had changed his mind and decided to kill him, while Fourth Master Gray accused him of eating human flesh as well as rats.
• At least thirty members of the Offering Family charged Gonpo, who sat cross-legged with his palms together and closed eyes instead of fighting.

Gonpo revealed how he had become a Living Buddha and manipulated events to have the Seventeenth Rinpoche killed as the reincarnated Sinpo. Luo Bin realized that his own choices had helped Gonpo’s plan, and the chapter ended with him considering whether Heavenly First’s Purple Flower Lantern could expose Gonpo.

• Gonpo told Luo Bin about the dead boy whose name he had taken and claimed he had become compassionate after becoming a Living Buddha.
• Luo Bin accused Gonpo of being Kong An in disguise, and Gonpo appeared to accept the accusation.
• The Offering Family attacked Rinpoche instead of Gonpo, tore him apart, and several members killed themselves.
• Gonpo explained that he had foreseen the deities’ presence and expected the Seventeenth Rinpoche to be killed as the reincarnated Sinpo.
• Gonpo praised Luo Bin for letting him become a Buddha and spread his Buddhist name, while Luo Bin wondered whether his Purple Flower Lantern could reveal Gonpo’s true nature.

Luo Bin was taken to Daren Lama Temple after Gonpo killed Rinpoche and declared that the Sinpo’s death fulfilled his prediction. While Xu Lu and Bai Xian discussed fleeing the monastery, Fourth Master Gray appeared, and Luo Bin began considering how he could exploit Gonpo’s weakness.

• Eight lamas arrived, and Gonpo told them to report that his prediction had come true and the Sinpo was dead.
• Lama Tsangyang led Luo Bin to Daren Lama Temple, where the assembled monks reacted with fear, reverence, and excitement at Gonpo’s victory.
• Xu Lu and Bai Xian decided they should leave Daren Lama Temple if Kong An’s danger was aimed at them.
• Fourth Master Gray dropped into their quarters, and Xu Lu reacted with surprise to what it said and did.
• Lama Tsangyang locked Luo Bin in an iron-walled room and said the monastery’s gekö and Deduos would guide him after he settled down.
• Luo Bin examined his confinement and murmured that he had discovered a weakness in the Living Buddha.

Luo Bin reasoned that Gonpo’s body limited Kong An’s power, but realized he could not defeat the Living Buddha alone. Xu Lu and Bai Xian helped him escape Daren Lama Temple, though Luo Bin suspected Gonpo had allowed it for a sinister purpose.

• Luo Bin concluded that Kong An’s soul was constrained by Gonpo’s body and that forcing Gonpo to act could drive Kong An to reincarnate again.
• Xu Lu found Luo Bin and revealed that Fourth Master Gray had told him Kong An was Gonpo, Little Gray Spirit had been eaten, and the Seventeenth Rinpoche was dead.
• Xu Lu and Bai Xian unlocked Luo Bin’s room and led him through the quiet temple to the back gate.
• Outside, Xu Lu raged that Kong An had used them as stepping stones while pursuing enlightenment.
• Luo Bin warned that Gonpo should not have let them escape, and Bai Xian grew wary as they realized Gonpo likely had a hidden motive.