Chapter Summaries

Qin Tianqing persuaded the Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds to leave and urged Luo Bin to investigate why he had been summoned to Cabinet Mountain. Luo Bin connected the puppets there to his grandfather’s past and realized his own history might be tied to Cabinet Mountain, before Qin Tianqing’s remark about why he had been unable to return alarmed him.

• Qin Tianqing agreed to leave the area with the Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds disciples, then warned Luo Bin to uncover why he had been summoned and how he might be connected to Yuan Tianshu and Cabinet Mountain.
• Luo Bin examined the remains and recognized that the Shaman and other figures were linked to puppets, recalling that he had once been turned into a string puppet by his grandfather’s shadow puppetry.
• Luo Bin remembered that his grandfather had controlled village children with puppets and wondered whether his childhood ordeal and his arrival at Cabinet Mountain were part of a larger scheme.
• Luo Bin told Qin Tianqing the full story and showed him the talisman engraved into his back; Qin Tianqing said Mr. Mao was protecting him and that this explained why he had been unable to return.
• Luo Bin became alarmed when Qin Tianqing’s final remark sounded wrong to him.

Luo Bin and Qin Tianqing sought shelter in the Mountain Cave while discussing the dangers surrounding them and the possibility that Gu Yiren was gone. Elsewhere, Yuan Tianshu identified Yuan Yinxin as the person behind recent events and ordered Yuan Ying to lure the newcomers to him, then used a puppet to stab himself.

• Luo Bin insisted he and Qin Tianqing leave so he could find Yi Ren and guard against the schemes surrounding them, and Qin Tianqing agreed.
• Qin Tianqing warned Luo Bin about the Cloth Puppets and Corpse Puppets that attacked people after dark, then led him into the Mountain Cave.
• Qin Tianqing told Luo Bin that Gu Yiren might already be gone, while the Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds Disciples gathered around three fires for warmth.
• Yuan Ying reported that a man carrying white and purple lanterns had escaped after confronting him and Yuan Tianshu's forces, and Yuan Tianshu concluded the man was Yuan Yinxin.
• Yuan Tianshu told Yuan Ying to show weakness and draw the homeless newcomers to his cave, then made a puppet stab him in the abdomen.

Luo Bin and the Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds disciples set out to search for Gu Yiren, while Mao Yousan’s party arrived at Cabinet Mountain and began tracking something in the forest. At Cabinet Mountain Taoist Grounds, Yuan Yinxin strengthened his defenses and gathered Emotion Flower Fruits as he prepared for threats from the Inner Mountain and the newcomers.

• Luo Bin shared his dried meat with the Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds disciples, then led a group of ten out to search for Gu Yiren while eight stayed behind.
• Mao Yousan traveled toward the mountain with Luo Xianshen, five purple-robed Dao Corpses, and Xu Jin, then stopped the vehicle and headed into the forest after Xu Jin’s remark clarified his search.
• Yuan Yinxin recovered by eating Emotion Flower Fruits and learned from Yuan Yi that a purple-robed Taoist, five Dao Corpses, a Yin-Yang Practitioner, and an ordinary man had reached the Outer Mountain.
• Yuan Yinxin focused on containing the old madman in the Inner Mountain, believing the Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds disciples might become his weapon after Yuan Lu and the other disciples died.
• Yuan Yinxin ordered Yuan Yi to gather every available Emotion Flower Fruit, while Yuan Yi and the other Cabinet Mountain Taoist Grounds disciples grew increasingly uneasy.

Luo Bin and Qin Tianqing’s group were surrounded by Skin Person puppets and other puppets in a torrential downpour. As the Gu worms struggled to hold them back, Luo Bin unleashed the Black Blood Vines and their Moss Eaters, leaving Qin Tianqing and the disciples stunned.

• Luo Bin ordered Qin Tianqing and the disciples to head back while he continued searching, but he soon sensed danger and told everyone to retreat together.
• The group spotted the dead Fang Zhi on the path, then saw puppets closing in from several directions.
• Qin Tianqing formed a defensive circle around Luo Bin as heavy rain reduced visibility and weakened the disciples’ concealed weapons.
• Luo Bin played his ocarina and sent Gu worms against the attackers while Qin Tianqing urged the disciples to hold formation.
• Qin Tianqing noticed Luo Bin’s spreading shadow and the Black Blood Vines, which produced infant-shaped Moss Eaters that swarmed the puppets.

In the rain, Luo Bin used Blackblood Vine and Moss Eaters to overwhelm Yuan Ying’s puppets, while Yuan Ying fled from a pursuing shadow. Luo Bin suspected the attack was bait connected to Yuan Tianshu, recalled the shadow, and then saw Gu Yiren beckoning him to come alone.

• Yuan Ying used the rain to attack Luo Bin and his companions with Human-Skin Puppets and puppets, but Moss Eaters tore through them.
• Yuan Ying tried to flee, but a black shadow sprang from a tree and chased him.
• Luo Bin realized the fleeing attacker might be luring them into a trap set by Yuan Tianshu, so he stopped Qin Tianqing from pursuing.
• Luo Bin concentrated on controlling Blackblood Vine, recalled the shadow and Moss Eaters, and the Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds Disciples watched in fear.
• Gu Yiren appeared between the trees and beckoned for Luo Bin to come to her alone, and he started toward her.

Luo Bin followed Gu Yiren through the Inner Mountain as she warned him that Yuan Tianshu had lost control, but he grew suspicious that she was another impostor like the Shaman. After she fell from a mountain path, Luo Bin fled alone and began sensing a voice calling his name.

• The Heavenly Mechanism Taoist Grounds Disciples realized that Luo Bin had been right and that the person they had mistaken for Gu Yiren was the Shaman.
• Gu Yiren told Luo Bin that Yuan Tianshu had thrown Cabinet Mountain into turmoil and was searching for them, then led him deeper into the woods.
• Luo Bin noticed that Gu Yiren showed none of the fear he associated with her and suspected that she was not the real Gu Yiren.
• On a narrow mountain path, Luo Bin deliberately used the unstable ground to try to escape Gu Yiren, but she let go first and fell down the slope.
• Luo Bin returned toward the place where he had parted from Heaven-Dumping Qin and the disciples, searching for shelter as a voice called his name through the rain.

Luo Bin found the real Gu Yiren hiding in a passage, then escaped with her from the pursuing Gu Yiren. After Gu Yiren warned that Yuan Tianshu was about to break free and might use Zhou Sanming, Luo Bin realized the Mountain Cabinet was on the brink of chaos and faced a choice about how to stop it.

• Luo Bin hid in a hollow tree to evade a Gu Yiren who urged him to follow her, and discovered another Gu Yiren hiding in the passage below.
• A third Gu Yiren warned Luo Bin not to reveal himself to the figure below, then led him to a concealed cave.
• Gu Yiren told Luo Bin she could not leave, warned him not to trust any version of her he met again, and said Yuan Tianshu was about to break free.
• Gu Yiren struggled to explain that someone was in danger, and Luo Bin concluded Yuan Tianshu might be plotting to use Zhou Sanming as a pawn.
• Luo Bin knocked Gu Yiren unconscious and realized that Yuan Tianshu's escape could let him seize the inner mountain and plunge the Mountain Cabinet into chaos.

Luo Bin tried to protect Gu Yiren and warned Zhou Sanming not to be used as a pawn, while Qin Tianqing’s disciples uncovered a fake Gu Yiren searching for Luo Bin. After Gu Yiren woke and revealed how her other selves and a trapped person were connected, she suddenly tried to stab Luo Bin, leaving him fighting to stop her.

• Luo Bin gave Gu Yiren medicine person blood and urged Zhou Sanming to stop being Yuan Tianshu’s pawn.
• Qin Tianqing spotted a fake Gu Yiren at the cave and kept the disciples there to wait for Luo Bin.
• Zhou Sanming’s two bodies resolved to kill Luo Bin, restore their missing soul, and followed the Goldfish Water toward Wooden Puppet Village.
• Gu Yiren told Luo Bin that her other selves possessed her and that she knew where a trapped person was.
• Gu Yiren suddenly tried to stab Luo Bin, and he seized her wrist and shoulder to stop her.

Luo Bin and Gu Yiren crossed a flower-covered mountain path and a carved stone bridge to reach the mausoleum where Yuan Tianshu was trapped in a coffin. Luo Bin recognized the four armor talismans on the coffins and began searching the chamber for a way to stop Yuan Tianshu from escaping.

• Luo Bin used the Jade Star Qimen Compass and talismans to protect Gu Yiren from possession, then followed her out of the cave.
• Gu Yiren led Luo Bin through the sorrow-inducing flower fields and across the stone bridge toward Yuan Tianshu.
• Luo Bin and Gu Yiren entered a chamber where a hand protruded from Yuan Tianshu’s coffin, and Gu Yiren warned that he was about to escape.
• Luo Bin deduced that Yuan Tianshu’s outside soul had been trapped and suspected Yuan Yinxin and possibly Li Qingxiu had plotted against him.
• Luo Bin identified the four armor talismans carved into the coffins and noticed an inscribed stone stele near the next passage.

Luo Bin pieced together how Primordial Calculation’s branches guarded Cabinet Mountain and deduced that Yuan Tianshu’s soul fragment had been sent out through a talisman beneath his corpse. He planned to summon the fragment back into Yuan Tianshu’s body and reseal the coffin, turning Yuan Tianshu’s own soul-summoning scheme against him.

• Luo Bin read the stele and learned that Primordial Calculation’s Outer and Inner Mountain branches had maintained the tomb’s suppression across generations.
• Gu Yiren hid with Luo Bin as the Inner Gate’s Tomb Guardian passed through the Stone Chamber, then explained that he appeared nightly and that the mountain’s puppets were not controlled by Yuan Tianshu or the villagers.
• Luo Bin theorized that Yuan Tianshu had betrayed his sect, left a flaw in the tomb’s suppression, and had a portion of his soul trapped in the Inner Mountain.
• Luo Bin deduced that a Spirit-Sending Talisman beneath Yuan Tianshu’s corpse had sent out a fragment of his soul and that Yuan Yinxin’s betrayal had prevented Yuan Tianshu from returning.
• Luo Bin told Gu Yiren they should remove the Spirit-Sending Talisman, summon Yuan Tianshu’s Yin Spirit back into his body, and reseal the coffin with the four armors.

Luo Bin opened Yuan Tianshu’s coffin and struggled to form the Soul Summoning Hand Seal while the awakened soul resisted him and hinted that Luo Bin and Gu Yiren would be trapped in the mountain. Elsewhere, Zhou Sanming found Yuan Tianshu imprisoned on a stone bed and gloated over his former enemy.

• Luo Bin arranged Fate-Suppressing Objects around Yuan Tianshu’s coffin, opened it, and discovered the corpse covered in white feathers with the Spirit-Sending Talisman on the coffin wall.
• Luo Bin tried to position Yuan Tianshu’s hands into the Soul Summoning Hand Seal, but Yuan Tianshu’s suppressed soul awakened and repeatedly broke the seal.
• Yuan Tianshu mistook Luo Bin for his traitorous disciple and warned that Luo Bin and Gu Yiren would be trapped and die while trying to perfect the mountain’s seal.
• Luo Bin pinned Yuan Tianshu’s fingers with crane-bone nails as Yuan Tianshu urged him to explore the passage leading deeper inside the tomb.
• Zhou Sanming and his secondary body found Yuan Tianshu lying on a stone bed in the Mountain Cave, and Zhou Sanming mocked him for being imprisoned as he once had been.

Zhou Sanming killed what he believed was Yuan Tianshu, but the body behaved like a puppet, making him flee the cave before he realized he might have been deceived again. At Cabinet Mountain, Yuan Yinxin fed Bright God Flower Affection fruits and asked the ghost to identify itself.

• Yuan Tianshu taunted Zhou Sanming about Luo Bin and the Yellow Father Ghost, provoking Zhou Sanming into resolving to kill him.
• Zhou Sanming tore the Good Corpse Core from Yuan Tianshu and struck his head, but the body twisted like a puppet and no yin spirit appeared.
• Zhou Sanming left Central Cave Mountain with the Good Corpse Core and headed toward Wooden Puppet Village, then turned back after suspecting another deception.
• Yuan Yinxin explained that Bright God could eat manifested yin spirits and offered it Flower Affection fruits to keep it fed.
• Bright God ate all the fruits in the ritual ground, and Yuan Yinxin asked it what kind of ghost it was.

Luo Bin tried to seal Yuan Tianshu, but Yuan Tianshu’s escaped yin spirit returned and shattered the soul-summoning formation. As Yuan Tianshu’s corpse began to burn, Luo Bin confronted the Divine Yin Spirit with the Suspended Tortoise Mirror, which suddenly tilted toward something unseen.

• Yuan Yinxin realized his talisman array had broken after the six-eared deity asked whether he was looking for her.
• Luo Bin prepared to seal Yuan Tianshu, but Gu Yiren sensed someone approaching and warned him to run.
• Luo Bin used the White Flower Lantern to reveal Yuan Tianshu’s escaped yin spirit beside the coffin and dispersed it with the Blood Peach Sword.
• When the formation failed, Luo Bin drove the Thunderstruck Blood Peach Sword into Yuan Tianshu’s mouth, cut open his abdomen, and removed his corpse core to start corpse liberation.
• Yuan Tianshu’s yin spirit returned and struck Luo Bin from behind, but Luo Bin raised the Suspended Tortoise Mirror and challenged him to calculate what he carried.
• Yuan Tianshu’s yin spirit vanished, and the Suspended Tortoise Mirror tilted toward the right as if drawn to something nearby.

Luo Bin struggled to withstand Yuan Tianshu’s relentless attacks while Mao Yousan tried to repair the cracking talisman that linked him to Luo Bin. As Yuan Tianshu’s Yin Spirit declared the fight was over, Luo Bin raised his empty hands with a newly sinister expression.

• Yuan Tianshu’s Yin Spirit rammed Luo Bin repeatedly, nearly wrenching the Blood Peach Sword from his grip and leaving him badly injured.
• Mao Yousan examined the withered flower garden’s strange feng shui and used his blood and Bell Clashes to mend the cracking master talisman.
• Luo Xianshen stayed where Mao Yousan had left him and watched as the Taoist’s efforts failed to stir the mountain’s stagnant energies.
• Yuan Tianshu’s Yin Spirit reasoned that Luo Bin’s protections had limits and continued attacking until Luo Bin spat blood.
• Luo Bin let go of the Thunderstruck Blood Peach Sword, then raised both empty hands and regarded Yuan Tianshu’s Yin Spirit with a sinister expression.

Mao Yousan possessed Luo Bin and confronted Yuan Tianshu’s Yin Spirit, refusing to trust his offer of a truce. He left Yuan Tianshu’s fate uncertain as he used a Calling Bell technique to strengthen the sword purifying the Yin Spirit.

• Mao Yousan revealed himself as the one possessing Luo Bin and challenged Yuan Tianshu’s claims about his disciple and grand-disciple.
• Mao Yousan offered Yuan Tianshu a chance to sell himself in exchange for help, but warned that he would not let Luo Bin lose.
• Yuan Tianshu proposed that Mao Yousan take Luo Bin and Yi Gu away while he dealt with his disciple.
• Mao Yousan sent Yi Gu outside and appeared to consider Yuan Tianshu’s proposal as the two kept their distance.
• Mao Yousan abruptly rang an invisible Calling Bell, making Yuan Tianshu’s Yin Spirit weaken and the Thunderstruck Blood Peach Sword sink farther into his original body.
• Mao Yousan rejected Yuan Tianshu’s offer, saying he trusted himself more than a promise.

Luo Bin tried to destroy Yuan Tianshu and the tomb formation, but a hidden guardian attacked while Yuan Tianshu’s Divine Yin Spirit returned toward its coffin. With another presence emerging from a tomb passage, Mao Yousan took control of Luo Bin and fled.

• Yuan Tianshu’s Yin Spirit fled after recognizing Luo Bin’s Calling Bell, and Luo Bin deduced how the coffin formation and Jade Turtle Talismans worked.
• Luo Bin removed the Crane-Bone Nails and drove the Thunderstruck Blood Peach Sword deeper into Yuan Tianshu, attempting to destroy his body and the formation anchor.
• A silent, seemingly inhuman figure appeared and attacked Luo Bin, injuring Mao Yousan’s soul through his possession of Luo Bin.
• Luo Bin immobilized the figure with Copper Beads and restrained it with the Calling Bell, but a second presence began forcing its way out of a tomb passage.
• Yuan Tianshu’s Divine Yin Spirit returned toward the coffin and struck Luo Bin from behind, so Mao Yousan withdrew with him through the tomb passage.

Mao Yousan escaped Luo Bin’s body by tearing off the talisman-covered skin on his back and used it to attack the Tomb Guardian, while Yuan Tianshu broke free and pursued Luo Bin. With Gu Yiren’s help, Luo Bin used the benevolent corpse Pill and White Flower Lantern to counter Yuan Tianshu, then charged at him.

• Mao Yousan made Luo Bin cross the bridge and reach a stone platform, where the Tomb Guardian and several strange figures blocked their way.
• Mao Yousan tore free from Luo Bin’s body inside a piece of Luo Bin’s skin and attacked the Tomb Guardian, leaving Luo Bin in severe pain.
• Yuan Tianshu appeared in his Feathering body after escaping his confinement, while Gu Yiren’s voice urged Luo Bin to push him down.
• Gu Yiren entered Luo Bin’s White Flower Lantern, and Luo Bin swallowed the benevolent corpse Pill to resist Yuan Tianshu’s Hexagram Speech Manifestation.
• Luo Bin activated the White Flower Lantern, raised a Divine Yin Spirit, and charged at Yuan Tianshu.

Luo Bin survived the confrontation with Yuan Tianshu by pushing his Ascended Corpse into the ravine, then Gu Yiren carried him into the forest as he lost consciousness. At the mountain summit, Mao Yousan escaped possession but could not divine Luo Bin’s location, while Luo Xianshen watched him grow anxious below the mountain.

• Luo Bin shoved Yuan Tianshu’s Ascended Corpse off the stone platform, took the Good Corpse Core, and collapsed from his injuries as the remaining Yin Spirits stayed trapped.
• Gu Yiren carried Luo Bin away from the platform, and Yuan Tianshu’s Yin Spirit fled into the ravine rather than pursue them.
• Luo Bin lost consciousness in the mountain forest, unable to see the stone bridge or identify the other Yin Spirit.
• Mao Yousan awoke at the summit with both Bell Clashes and the jade talisman shattered, and concluded that at least three beings there could perform Yin Spirit Projection.
• Mao Yousan tried to divine Luo Bin’s whereabouts, but his hand formed a scrambled hexagram, suggesting Yuan Tianshu had left something on Luo Bin to block the divination.
• Luo Xianshen noticed Mao Yousan’s anxiety as the latter prepared to enter the mountain.

Gu Yiren left the injured Luo Bin and followed a crowd of apparitions pointing deeper into the valley, while the Black-Gold Toad and Luo Bin’s Gu Worms tried to guide him after her. After waking days later, Luo Bin followed them to the valley’s deepest recess, where he found Gu Yiren beside an enormous azalea.

• Gu Yiren used powder scraped from a Corpse Core to stop Luo Bin’s bleeding, then saw a bloody-necked man who vanished when the Black-Gold Toad struck him.
• More than a hundred apparitions appeared and pointed deeper into the valley, and Gu Yiren walked after them despite the Black-Gold Toad’s warnings.
• The Black-Gold Toad took a Good Corpse Core and followed Gu Yiren as she and the apparitions disappeared into the valley’s depths.
• Luo Bin woke after several days, found Gu Yiren and the Black-Gold Toad missing, and followed the direction indicated by his scattered Gu Worms.
• Luo Bin reached several crude houses and found Gu Yiren sitting beside the azaleas, her clothes stained blackish red, as the Black-Gold Toad called to him.

Luo Bin searched the sorrow-filled courtyard for Gu Yiren and encountered a corpse, ghostly visions, and a spectral version of her warning him to hide. He climbed into a cabinet and found the real Gu Yiren unconscious beside him as the door shut by itself.

• Luo Bin found a dried female corpse beneath the azalea tree and took the Black-Gold Toad and its Corpse Core, but the toad continued croaking.
• Luo Bin saw a figure enter a room, found an old painting of the Primordial Calculation Mountain Gate, and sensed a dangerous presence he could not understand.
• Luo Bin followed a sorrowful Gu Yiren into another room, where he saw six murdered ghosts and a spectral Gu Yiren warning that someone was coming.
• The ghosts pointed Luo Bin toward a cabinet, where he found the real Gu Yiren unconscious; the cabinet door closed on its own.