Chapter Summaries

Jiang Chen entered a coffin maker’s home and mocked the blind, deaf ghost while stealing its coffins. When the Coffin Maker Lao Tian claimed he had seen Jiang Chen dead and dismembered, Jiang Chen felt his body begin to tear apart and turned threateningly toward him.

• Jiang Chen warned the group about the escaped lame ghost, then broke into a nearby house after receiving no answer to his calls.
• Jiang Chen found a blind, deaf man with a wood-chopping blade and learned he was the Coffin Maker Lao Tian.
• Jiang Chen discovered coffins sized for people at different stages of life and carried one out, ignoring Lao Tian’s protests.
• Lao Tian cowered in a corner and said he had seen Jiang Chen dead, dismembered, and stuffed into a coffin.
• Jiang Chen felt tearing sensations in his body, became deranged, and declared that Lao Tian deserved to die for knowing his secret.

Jiang Chen fought Lao Tian, a top-level vengeful ghost who admitted to being dead and attacked to protect his secret. Jiang Chen unleashed Taiyi Thunder and destroyed the house, leaving Chen Xue and the others stunned and afraid of him.

• Jiang Chen revealed that he had been killed, revived, and feared Lao Tian would expose his secret, then attacked him with the Yin God Hammer.
• Lao Tian used his strange ability to make Jiang Chen feel the pain of the injuries he had suffered when he died, while striking at him with a cleaver.
• Jiang Chen evaded Lao Tian with the Kui Ox Drum and began reciting the Thunder Curse as Lao Tian pressed his attack.
• Jiang Chen used Taiyi Thunder to unleash golden lightning, annihilating Lao Tian and the house on the left.
• Chen Xue, Zhao Erhu, and the others witnessed Jiang Chen's power and felt a deep, instinctive fear of him.

Jiang Chen interrogated the dying old Tian about the night he made a coffin on Qishan, provoking him with increasingly bizarre questions until Tian Youmin killed himself against the Yin God Hammer. The hammer recorded Tian Youmin’s name, while the others watched Jiang Chen’s relentless questioning in stunned silence.

• Jiang Chen saved old Tian from the Taiyi Thunder and questioned him about what he had seen and heard on Qishan.
• Old Tian panicked as Jiang Chen recounted how he had followed a bloodied woman up the mountain and built a coffin containing his own dismembered body.
• Jiang Chen pressed Tian about the Corpse-Born Child and Ghost Bride, even asking whether the child had been boy-girl twins.
• Jiang Chen tied old Tian to a locust tree and continued questioning him while the others watched in shock.
• When Jiang Chen threatened him with the Yin God Hammer, old Tian seized it and smashed his own head against it, and the hammer gained the name Tian Youmin.

Jiang Chen led the others toward the Eastern Village to investigate Lao Tian’s death, while Tang Yi connected the coffin maker’s fate to the Ghost Bride Jiang Susu. Tang Yi recounted how Jiang Susu was forced into a wedding and died after being pushed down a mountainside, leaving the group with a possible explanation for the village’s haunting.

• Jiang Chen said he would investigate Lao Tian’s death in the Eastern Village, and his teammates chose to accompany him rather than stay behind with his sack of ghost heads.
• The group found empty blood bowls outside the Eastern Village houses, and Jiang Chen revealed he had collected ghost blood as exorcism supplies.
• Tang Yi suggested that Lao Tian’s death might be linked to the Ghost Bride Jiang Susu and began explaining her history.
• Tang Yi said Jiang Susu’s parents accepted betrothal gifts from the wealthy Zhou Family despite her objections, and the family forced her into a wedding.
• After the Zhou Family discovered Jiang Susu was not a virgin, a dispute erupted involving her lover Zhang Qiang and both families.
• During the ensuing chaos, Jiang Susu was pushed down the mountainside, struck her head, and bled in her red wedding dress.

Tang Yi explained Jiang Susu’s death and the curse that wiped out the villagers who had wronged her, while the group searched the east of the village. They suspected the other teams had encountered the Ghost Bride and hurried toward Qishan to rescue them.

• Tang Yi recounted how Jiang Susu was killed, how the clan elder and Zhang Qiang died in eerie wedding scenes, and how the curse killed the villagers involved while sparing the Zhou Family.
• Yang Chan speculated that Jiang Susu had been pregnant and sought a coffin for her child, and Jiang Chen reacted with unusual excitement at the idea of ghosts having babies.
• Jiang Chen and the others found signs of fighting and ghost remains as they searched the east of the village.
• Zhao Erhu suggested the other teams had followed the Ghost Bride up Qishan after hearing the dogs bark nearby.
• Jiang Chen urged everyone to hurry to the mountain and save the missing teams.

Yang Yuetong and the surviving fighters searched Qishan for the Grave-Guarding Ghost’s grave after it repeatedly revived and killed members of their group. As the ghost approached a Black Market Unusual Person, a man named Bai Yi startled it with a megaphone and gave the man a chance to escape.

• A second Wedding Procession appeared after the group had killed the first, and the Ghost Bride revived inside its sedan.
• The group realized the Ghost Bride was a Grave-Guarding Ghost and searched for its grave, suffering more deaths and injuries along the way.
• Yang Yuetong found the ghost’s grave and saw the ghost climb out behind the Black Market Unusual Person while a man secretly followed it.
• The ghost whispered to the Black Market Unusual Person, but Bai Yi suddenly grabbed the ghost and shouted into a megaphone, letting the man flee.

Jiang Chen confronted Jiang Qianqian, the Half-Body Blood Garment, and used a Two-Star Deer Power Immortal transformation to withstand her curses. He overpowered her with his blood qi and seized her, threatening to amputate her head.

• Jiang Qianqian attacked Jiang Chen after he asked her about the child, but he startled her by licking her ghostly face to test whether the blood was hers.
• Jiang Qianqian renewed her assault with dark red shadows, so Jiang Chen drew a Two-Star Monster Transformation Card and transformed into Deer Power Immortal.
• Jiang Chen gained Demon-Dominating Body and Rain-Prayer Technique, then used his surging blood qi to scatter the shadows and resist the memories they forced into his mind.
• Chen Xue, Yang Chan, Chen Xiaoyu, Tang Yi, Zhao Erhu, and Yang Yuetong watched as Jiang Chen advanced on Jiang Qianqian.
• Jiang Chen shouted at Jiang Qianqian and grabbed her head, saying her wound was too severe to save and should be amputated.

Jiang Chen learned that Jiang Qianqian could revive from her grave and guarded it rather than destroy it. Other Unusual People mistook his actions for sympathy or bewitchment until he smashed the revived ghost's head with the Yin God Hammer.

• Jiang Chen tore off Jiang Qianqian's head, burned her body to ash with his blood qi, and put her head in his sack.
• Yang Yuetong told Jiang Chen that the grave-guarding ghost repeatedly revived from her grave, and Yang Chan stopped her from suggesting its destruction.
• Jiang Chen examined the grave and stationed himself on top of it with a hammer.
• Zheng Yuan and the other Eastern Village Unusual People arrived, and Yang Dantong pointed out the ghost's grave.
• Jiang Chen refused to let anyone approach the grave, prompting the others to suspect that he had been bewitched or pitied the ghost.
• When Jiang Qianqian emerged again, Jiang Chen supported her chin with one hand and smashed her head with the Yin God Hammer.

Jiang Chen kept the female ghost trapped in her grave by killing her whenever she revived, then threatened to use Zhao Erhu and other men’s urine to force her out. The Unusual Persons joined in enthusiastically, leaving the female ghost panicking as a line of men gathered around her grave.

• Jiang Chen buried the female ghost’s corpse and her severed heads together, refusing to dig up her grave because he claimed it would disrespect her.
• When the ghost revived but stayed underground, Jiang Chen called to her and threatened to bring Zhao Erhu, a twenty-year virgin, to piss on the grave.
• Jiang Chen led Zhao Erhu to the grave and persuaded him to take part by comparing the sacrifice to Buddha’s selfless acts.
• Two more Unusual Persons volunteered, and Jiang Chen allowed them to photograph themselves but forbade them from recording anyone else.
• More men asked to join, and the female ghost panicked as a line of Unusual Persons assembled around her grave.

Jiang Chen and the Unusual People tormented Jiang Qianqian’s ghost by showing off and testing their techniques on her grave. When she finally emerged in a fury, Jiang Chen washed and killed her, ending the Grave-Guarding Ghost for good.

• The Unusual People filmed themselves boasting about their role in exorcising the ghost, and Jiang Chen recited a poem while Jiang Qianqian cursed them from her grave.
• Jiang Chen suspected Jiang Qianqian might be nearing her final revival, so he made wooden stakes and provoked the gathered Unusual People into adding their techniques to them.
• Jiang Chen tested the stakes by plunging them into the grave, while the Unusual People judged their methods by Jiang Qianqian’s screams.
• Jiang Qianqian crawled out of the grave, enraged and humiliated, and the group scattered from her.
• Jiang Chen used the Rain-Prayer Technique to wash Jiang Qianqian clean, then killed her with two hammer blows, ending the Grave-Guarding Ghost.
• The Unusual People dug up Jiang Qianqian’s bones and smashed them, while Jiang Chen let them do so.

Jiang Chen searched Qishan and helped his exhausted companions clear more ghosts before heading toward Northern Village. Reading a Netherworld Messenger’s report about the corpse retriever Old Yao, he realized that Old Yao had supposedly drowned despite being a Dredging Sect disciple.

• Jiang Chen questioned the group about child ghosts, then ordered them to search Qishan again and support the others in Northern Village.
• Jiang Chen dealt with three more vicious ghosts himself, giving the exhausted group time to recover before they descended the mountain.
• The group found that Jiang Hongyu and the others had already cleared the houses along the route, so Jiang Chen read a report about Old Yao and the pregnant female corpse he had retrieved from Qishui.
• The report said Old Yao had taken the corpse home to deliver her baby, then was found drowned headfirst in a water vat after disappearing for several days.
• Jiang Chen realized that Old Yao had been a Dredging Sect disciple and questioned how someone with underwater breathing techniques could have drowned.

Jiang Chen led the group through a cursed area filled with bloody air and strangely smiling corpses, which he mutilated in ways he believed were necessary. At the Qishui River, they found four Martial Sect Disciples losing a desperate fight against a powerful blood corpse, while Qin Tiancheng continued to conceal his full strength.

• Jiang Chen followed the increasingly strong bloody smell and led the group toward the source of the disturbance.
• Jiang Chen carved the blood-red corpses’ mouths, drove nails into their foreheads, and arranged their bodies in disturbing poses, saying their deaths should look abnormal.
• Jiang Chen and the others reached the Qishui River and saw four Martial Sect Disciples battling a blood-red woman near a wooden house.
• The blood corpse tore flesh from Senior Brother Sun and bit off Zhao Daniu’s arm, while the disciples’ attacks did little to stop it.
• Qin Tiancheng fought with the group but ignored the female disciple’s demand that he stop holding back.

Jiang Hongyu and the group faced a terrifying red-eyed boy whose illusion nearly ensnared everyone, but Jiang Chen resisted and the boy collapsed. The Blood Corpse revived her dead son by feeding him her flesh, and he returned as a feral creature.

• The red-eyed boy trapped the onlookers in a blood-red illusion and left sinister red marks on their bodies, while Jiang Chen remained unaffected and turned the boy’s power back on him.
• Jiang Hongyu attacked the collapsed boy with a series of powerful fist techniques, leaving him apparently dead in a crater.
• The grieving Blood Corpse crawled to her son and fed him her own flesh as Jiang Hongyu called for the others to stop her.
• The boy’s body regenerated, and he revived as a mindless beast like the Blood Corpse.

The corpse-born boy transformed into a Blood-Clad Ghost and sent the group fleeing, but it stopped when Jiang Chen drew near. Jiang Chen struck Qin Tiancheng with the Yin God Hammer, then pretended he had meant to hit the ghost behind him.

• The corpse-born boy’s resentment erupted into a terrifying Blood-Clad Ghost, forcing Jiang Hongyu, Zhao Daniu, and the others to flee.
• The ghost pursued Qin Tiancheng, who tried to trick a group of Unusual People into standing and fighting it for promised rewards.
• Jiang Chen waited with the Yin God Hammer as Qin Tiancheng approached, and the ghost halted more than ten meters away from him.
• Jiang Chen activated the Demon-Dominating Body and struck Qin Tiancheng with the Yin God Hammer, leaving him badly wounded after his jade pendant saved his life.
• Qin Tiancheng accused Jiang Chen of attacking a Martial Sect Disciple, and Jiang Chen claimed he had meant to hit the ghost behind him by mistake.

Jiang Chen used the curses on Qin Tiancheng to make the Martial Sect disciples believe he had been corrupted by the Blood Corpse. Jiang Hongyu bowed to Jiang Chen’s threat and let him kill Qin Tiancheng, while Little Boy protested that he had done nothing to them.

• Jiang Chen warned Qin Tiancheng to check for curses, and Qin Tiancheng began experiencing pain, burning lungs, and a ravenous hunger.
• Jiang Chen smeared Ghost Blood on his hand and claimed Qin Tiancheng had been corrupted by the Blood Corpse.
• Zhao Daniu and the other Martial Sect disciples agreed that Qin Tiancheng was beyond saving, while Jiang Hongyu recognized his earlier selfishness.
• Jiang Hongyu felt terrified by Jiang Chen’s gaze and, despite her reluctance, authorized him to purge Qin Tiancheng.
• Jiang Chen announced that he would kill Qin Tiancheng for everyone’s safety, and Little Boy protested that he had neither harmed them nor used curses.

Jiang Chen killed Qin Tiancheng, then blamed the little boy and fought him after the ghost attacked. When the Blood Corpse rushed to protect the boy, Jiang Chen destroyed her with lightning, leaving the boy and the others facing his demonized form.

• Jiang Chen killed Qin Tiancheng with the Yin God Hammer and secretly absorbed his remnant soul.
• Jiang Chen staged a tearful farewell for Qin Tiancheng and rallied the Martial Sect Disciples to blame the little boy for his death.
• The little boy attacked Jiang Chen at terrifying speed and tried to force a curse into his body.
• Jiang Chen used Complete Demonization, Divine Firmament, and Purple Palace to blast the boy with lightning.
• The Blood Corpse shoved the boy aside and lunged at Jiang Chen, who seized her and burned her to a charred husk with lightning.
• Jiang Chen surveyed the horrified onlookers while the wounded boy remained nearby.

Jiang Chen used his demonized strength to batter the little boy, then pursued Yu Sheng, who had revived as a Blood Corpse. He killed Yu Sheng again with Divine Firmament and found him reviving once more, this time with a hammer in his mouth and his lips sewn shut.

• Jiang Chen accepted Jiang Hongyu's explanation that he was a Chuma Family successor and continued hammering the little boy.
• After more than thirty blows, Jiang Chen struck the little boy with the Great Strength Bull Demon Fist and sensed something elsewhere.
• Yu Sheng woke among the Ghost Corpses, found himself pinned down with Steel Nails, and pulled them out as Jiang Chen approached.
• Jiang Chen claimed he had come to drive away Yu Sheng's bad luck, but Yu Sheng fled from his hammer and Jiang Chen struck him down with Divine Firmament.
• Yu Sheng revived again with a hammer in his mouth and his lips sewn shut, and Jiang Chen prepared to hit him once more.

Jiang Chen repeatedly killed the resurrecting Corpse-Born Child while the other Unusual Persons watched, until an old man warned that killing him would bring disaster to Qishui. Jiang Chen kept the boy barely alive and asked Zhao Erhu to explain who the Old-School Corpse Salvagers were.

• Jiang Chen used his Sledgehammer and lightning to kill the blood-red corpses whenever the Corpse-Born Child revived inside them.
• The Unusual Persons realized Jiang Chen had anticipated the resurrections and were stunned by his brutal, carefully justified exorcisms.
• The Corpse-Born Child challenged Jiang Chen to ask why he could not be killed, but Jiang Chen prepared to strike again.
• A lean old man rushed in and warned that killing the boy would bring catastrophe to Qishui, while Jiang Hongyu identified him as one of the Old-School Corpse Salvagers.
• Jiang Chen twisted off the boy's head and smashed his body to stop him resisting, then asked Zhao Erhu what the Old-School Corpse Salvagers were.

Zhao Erhu explained the Nine Sects of the Long River’s grim history and the sacrifices they made to protect the Nine Provinces. Jiang Chen killed Little Boy despite Old Yao’s warning, then fought off Old Yao before a new threat appeared along Qishui’s dark banks.

• Zhao Erhu told Jiang Chen that the Nine Sects of the Long River had protected the basin through brutal methods and mass self-sacrifice before the Mount Tai King purged them.
• Old Yao identified Little Boy as the River God’s Son and warned that killing him would bring disaster to Qishui.
• Jiang Chen crushed Little Boy’s head, declaring that no River God would be allowed to wreak havoc in the Nine Provinces.
• Old Yao charged Jiang Chen with a Boat-Bottom Spike, but Jiang Hongyu and the others intervened before he slipped past them.
• Jiang Chen struck Old Yao with his hammer and sent him flying, then noticed something ahead along Qishui.
• Jiang Hongyu spotted the danger on Qishui’s pitch-black banks and ordered everyone to run.

A furious river god raised the Qishui into a massive wave, trapping Jiang Hongyu and the others as Jiang Hongyu prepared to sacrifice herself so they could escape. Jiang Chen intervened and used the Rain-Prayer Technique to rise before the wave, gathering the might of the falling heavens around himself.

• The Qishui surged into a towering, bone-filled wave, and its hostile will pinned the group in place.
• Jiang Hongyu threatened the riverbed creature with the Martial Sect and the Mount Tai King, but the wave kept rising.
• Jiang Hongyu realized the group had been caught in a test of the Nine Provinces' higher-ups and prepared to take a pill and escape alone.
• Jiang Chen stopped Jiang Hongyu, claimed her pill as payment for protecting everyone, and walked toward the wave.
• Jiang Chen prayed for rain, climbed a staircase of torrential water, and raised his sledgehammer as a vast rain-formed figure gathered the might of the falling heavens.