Chapter Summaries

Jiang Chen went upstairs to investigate the apartment complex’s ghosts and entered Room 401 to mediate a couple’s argument. He left the quarrel ghosts baffled by his behavior and convinced Zhang Qiang to let him sit beside Liu Lijuan.

• Jiang Chen performed a Soul Summoning rite in Room 301, then headed upstairs with Su Ling.
• Su Ling told Jiang Chen about the ghost of a woman who searched for her child and blamed others for the murder she had committed herself.
• Jiang Chen heard Zhang Qiang and Liu Lijuan arguing in Room 401 and decided to mediate.
• Jiang Chen entered Room 401 with Su Ling, locked the door, and introduced himself to the bewildered couple.
• Jiang Chen invited Liu Lijuan to sit beside him and persuaded Zhang Qiang that the arrangement would help him mediate.

Jiang Chen tried to mediate Zhang Qiang and Liu Lijuan’s domestic dispute, but their accusations revealed a wardrobe corpse and hints of other gruesome deaths. As the couple prepared to show him and Su Ling their dead child, Su Ling grew increasingly afraid.

• Liu Lijuan accused Zhang Qiang of cheating after finding a suspicious contact in his phone, and Jiang Chen offered excuses that briefly helped Zhang Qiang.
• Liu Lijuan called a number saved as Nine Provinces Mobile, and a woman greeted Zhang Qiang as “Brother Zhang” before he grabbed the phone and hung up.
• Zhang Qiang opened a wardrobe to reveal a man’s corpse, but Jiang Chen examined it without fear and insulted the couple while trying to explain their behavior.
• Liu Lijuan accused Zhang Qiang of comforting a neighbor whose husband and child had died, and Jiang Chen claimed the neighbor had tried to seduce him.
• Zhang Qiang accused Liu Lijuan of leaving their child unattended until the child froze in a refrigerator, then offered to show Jiang Chen and Su Ling the child.

Jiang Chen investigated the deaths of Zhang Qiang and Liu Lijuan’s child, then provoked the couple into exposing their buried anger and secrets. Liu Lijuan and Zhang Qiang transformed into Vengeful Ghosts and began a violent battle in Apartment 401, while Jiang Chen shielded Su Ling.

• Zhang Qiang showed Jiang Chen and Su Ling the frozen corpse of his child, but Jiang Chen calmly tried to wake the child before returning the body to the refrigerator.
• Liu Lijuan and Zhang Qiang argued over the child’s death, and Jiang Chen’s remarks intensified their anger until they attacked each other.
• Jiang Chen used Zhang Qiang’s phone to reveal suspicious calls from a woman saved as his cousin’s wife and from a contact saved as Mother, enraging both spouses.
• Liu Lijuan transformed into a Vengeful Ghost, and Zhang Qiang revealed his own horrific form before the two ghosts clashed and filled Apartment 401 with Yin Qi.
• Su Ling trembled at the fight while Jiang Chen stood in front of her to shield her from the ghosts’ influence.

Jiang Chen turned the ghosts’ curse against the vengeful couple and attacked them, then used the Green-Skinned Little Drum to blow up Liu Lijuan. Zhang Qiang was left staring at his wife’s scorched remains as Jiang Chen recovered his strength.

• Jiang Chen protected Su Ling while coaching the vengeful husband and wife into fighting each other.
• The ghosts realized Jiang Chen had manipulated their argument and advanced on him, while Liu Lijuan’s curse pushed Su Ling to voice her grievances.
• Jiang Chen redirected the curse into anger at the couple, accused them of causing deaths upstairs, and attacked Liu Lijuan with a knife.
• Jiang Chen struck the Green-Skinned Little Drum twice, sending blue-green lightning into Liu Lijuan and exploding her body.
• Jiang Chen took an Elixir and told Zhang Qiang that his wife had blown up, prompting Zhang Qiang to turn and see the remains.

Jiang Chen killed Zhang Qiang, investigated the bloody apartment at 502, and discovered Building Four had become Building 14. The chapter ended when a distressed woman from 501 asked about her missing child and Jiang Chen suggested the child might be dead.

• Jiang Chen struck the Kui Ox Drum twice, killing Zhang Qiang after the second blast left him barely alive long enough to utter “Pain.”
• Jiang Chen searched Zhang Qiang’s corpse for Ghost Artifacts and told Su Ling to do good deeds.
• Su Ling explained that the twin sisters who lived in 502 had tried to share the same boy, each ending up with half of him.
• Jiang Chen broke into 502, found it empty, and noticed the building across the way was marked Building 14 instead of Building Four.
• Jiang Chen wondered whether the strange building was connected to Zhang Chunyu and her pursuit of a shrine that might help her become a Blood-Clad Ghost.
• A woman from 501 asked Jiang Chen whether he had seen her missing child, and he suggested the child might have died.

Jiang Chen taunted a grieving woman with an increasingly absurd account of her missing son, repeatedly claiming to have rescued and then lost him to various horrors in the complex. The woman ultimately concluded that Jiang Chen had thrown her son down a well and began wailing as her ghostly aura grew stronger.

• The woman accused Jiang Chen of knowing what happened to her son, and Jiang Chen provoked her with insults about the boy.
• Jiang Chen claimed he saw the child being chased by a cat-faced man, then said he rescued the boy and handed him to a security guard before taking him back.
• Jiang Chen said he left the boy with Zhang Chunyu in Building Four, then returned and took him away after she warned that Zhang Chunyu was a vicious ghost.
• Jiang Chen claimed he tossed the child into a well filled with hair, where a mass of hair swallowed him before he could scream.
• The woman decided Jiang Chen had killed her son and began wailing as her terrifying aura grew.

Su Ling begged her dead sister, Su Qiao, to save her from the vengeful woman in apartment 501, and Su Qiao took control of her body. Jiang Chen defeated the woman with the Kui Ox Drum and brutal follow-up attacks, then carried her into apartment 501, claiming he might know where her son was.

• The older woman’s appearance and resentment nearly drove Su Ling to scratch off her own skin, but a blood-red presence in her shadow pulled her into apartment 502.
• Su Ling asked Qiao Qiao to kill the woman, and her clothes turned red as she lost consciousness and became Su Qiao.
• The enraged woman attacked Jiang Chen, who froze her with the Kui Ox Drum and blasted her with a lightning ball.
• Jiang Chen stabbed the woman with the Assassination Short Knife and drove enhanced Steel Nails into her head until she was near death.
• Jiang Chen carried the dying woman into apartment 501 and told her he might know where her son was.

Jiang Chen killed the auntie in 502 after discovering the corpses of her victims and learning how she had accidentally scalded her son to death. He restored Su Ling’s strength with a pill, then decided to enter Buildings 1 and 4 to rescue anyone still alive and confront the dangers there.

• Jiang Chen searched 502 and found murdered adults’ body parts along with the auntie’s rotted child, prompting her memories of accidentally killing her son in a bathtub of boiling water.
• Jiang Chen stabbed the auntie dozens of times until she died, then left her head in the toilet and exited the apartment.
• Jiang Chen gave Su Ling a Spirit-Gathering Pill +3, which quickly restored her strength after she had been possessed.
• Jiang Chen refused to rest and announced that he and Su Ling would investigate Buildings 1 and 4 to save more people.
• Su Ling followed Jiang Chen out of Building 7 and realized that the security guard might now be prey rather than a threat to them.

Jiang Chen and Su Ling entered Building Four after it changed into Building 14, where no residents could be found. As they climbed, Su Ling recounted how the painter Zhang Chunyu had died in a bizarre accident.

• Jiang Chen left a message in Building Seven for the ghosts he had summoned, telling them where to find him.
• Jiang Chen and Su Ling saw strange figures watching them from Building One, and Jiang Chen taunted the ghosts as they began coming downstairs.
• Jiang Chen noticed that Building Four had become Building 14, and Su Ling warned him about its dangers and the powerful residents of Building One.
• Jiang Chen and Su Ling searched the empty apartments on the lower floors of Building 14, then heard faint sounds from above.
• Su Ling told Jiang Chen that Zhang Chunyu had predicted her death and was later found dead with a pen in her throat after suffering a heart attack.

Su Ling told Jiang Chen what she knew about Zhang Chunyu, and he hid with her before ambushing and killing a pig-headed ghost in Building Four. They reached the rooftop and found more than a dozen ghosts gathered there, all staring at them.

• Su Ling told Jiang Chen that Zhang Chunyu had foreseen her death and buried the entire building while seeking revenge.
• Jiang Chen pulled Su Ling into apartment 502 to hide from a pursuing ghost with a butcher's knife.
• Jiang Chen ambushed the pig-headed ghost, crippled it with his cleaver, and cut off its head.
• Jiang Chen and Su Ling climbed to the rooftop, where they found a gathering of more than a dozen ghosts.
• The assembled ghosts turned their eyes toward Jiang Chen and Su Ling.

Jiang Chen confronted Zhang Chunyu on Building Four’s rooftop and humiliated her by showing the ghosts a recording of her being frightened by his story. As the ghosts attacked, he activated Demon Transformation and drew the Thunder Method and Wind Summoning.

• Zhang Chunyu confronted Jiang Chen and taunted him while the ghosts of Building Four surrounded him.
• Su Ling refused to help either side and moved aside to watch.
• Jiang Chen played a recording of Zhang Chunyu getting frightened in his taxi, humiliating her before the other ghosts.
• Zhang Chunyu ordered the ghosts to torture and kill Jiang Chen, but he rushed toward them eagerly.
• Jiang Chen invoked Demon Transformation as Two-star, Great Immortal Yang Li and randomly drew the Thunder Method and Wind Summoning.

Jiang Chen used his newly strengthened body and demonic wind to kill the cat-faced old woman, but Zhang Chunyu summoned three half-body blood garments and dozens of ghosts to overwhelm him. Surrounded on the rooftop as Zhang Chunyu neared her advancement, Jiang Chen appeared trapped with no way out.

• Jiang Chen discovered that his transformation had greatly increased his strength and granted him three varieties of the Thunder Method.
• Jiang Chen blasted the attacking ghosts with demonic wind, then seized and killed the cat-faced old woman.
• Zhang Chunyu called for the security guard, Old Mr. Li, and the figure in the well to help kill Jiang Chen, promising freedom if she advanced into a blood-clad ghost.
• The three half-body blood garments and dozens of ghosts arrived on the rooftop and surrounded Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen unleashed Divine Firmament Thunder against the ghosts on Building Four's rooftop, then used Purple Palace to destroy nearly all of them. Zhang Chunyu remained alive, still attempting to become a blood-clad ghost.

• Zhang Chunyu ordered Building One's ghosts to kill Jiang Chen and sacrifice his flesh and blood so she could break through early.
• Jiang Chen summoned Divine Firmament Thunder, killing two top-level vengeful ghosts and badly injuring the ghost infant.
• Jiang Chen blasted apart the ghosts' black hair and drove the rooftop crowd into a frantic retreat while they continued to generate Ghost Qi.
• The ghosts rushed Jiang Chen and grabbed hold of him, believing they could defeat him at close range.
• Jiang Chen unleashed Purple Palace, destroying the attacking ghosts, then stamped out the remnant souls of the three half-body blood garments.
• Jiang Chen looked toward Zhang Chunyu, the only one left alive, who was still trying to break through to a blood-clad ghost.

Jiang Chen destroyed Zhang Chunyu with Taiyi Golden Thunder, but her surviving shrine released a terrifying old man: the Fierce Soul Knocking Ghost. After surviving the old man’s death curse and a crushing blow, Jiang Chen realized this was likely only a projection and prepared to test his strength against it.

• Zhang Chunyu attacked Jiang Chen, using her death-vision power while he tried to frighten her with a prophecy of her demise.
• Jiang Chen recited a thunder incantation and struck Zhang Chunyu with Taiyi Golden Thunder, blasting her body apart while leaving her shrine intact.
• The shrine released the Knocking Ghost, who cursed Jiang Chen to die and made his heart stop until he invoked the Divine Firmament, Purple Palace, and Taiyi Thunder Methods.
• The Knocking Ghost struck Jiang Chen and sent him crashing into the ground, but Jiang Chen recovered and concluded that his opponent was probably a projection rather than the true Fierce Soul.
• Jiang Chen decided the projection would be a suitable opponent for testing his strength.

Jiang Chen faced the door-knocking old man while Su Qiao tried to save him, but he sent her away so he could fight without restraint. He unleashed Complete Demonization and prepared the third beat of the Kui Ox Drum with golden thunder as the old man answered with a deadly barrage of knocks.

• The door-knocking old man knocked on empty air, causing every door in the community to sound and knocking Su Qiao out of the sky.
• Jiang Chen gave Su Qiao a Spirit-Gathering Pill +3 and hurled her away, telling her to keep running and stay alive.
• Su Ling remembered how her family had died protecting her and resolved to avenge Jiang Chen, despite fearing what she would become if she died.
• Jiang Chen activated Complete Demonization, then used Divine Firmament to scorch the old man's arm and interrupt its knocking.
• Jiang Chen struck the Green-Skinned Little Drum a second time, then fed it golden thunder from Taiyi to trigger its third beat.
• The old man rapidly knocked on the nonexistent door as golden light blazed and an explosive impact filled the area.

Jiang Chen destroyed a divided soul of Chen Shan with a devastating thunderstrike and permanently inherited the Thunder Method. He took Su Ling home after the community was destroyed, while an unnoticed doctor ghost escaped the area.

• Jiang Chen annihilated a wisp of Chen Shan’s divided soul and received 50,000 Ghost Qi.
• Jiang Chen permanently inherited the Thunder Method after his Demon Transformation ended.
• Su Qiao rescued Su Ling from the road, and Jiang Chen invited Su Ling to stay at his home after the community was destroyed.
• Jiang Chen collected the shrine and three Ghost Artifacts before leaving with Su Ling in a taxi.
• A doctor ghost who had hidden in the garbage escaped more than an hour after Jiang Chen left.

After recovering from his battle with a Blood-Clad Ghost, Jiang Chen was summoned to join the Yellow Springs Squad’s dangerous operation in Jingjiang Resettlement Community. The Netherworld Messengers found the community eerily empty, and Jiang Chen agreed to come if Xu Lei promised him quadruple Points rewards.

• Jiang Chen slept until the following evening after exhausting himself with the Thunder Method and Kui Ox Drum.
• Xu Lei briefed the Yellow Springs Squad on the danger tied to a Violent-Death Ghost and the possibility that it was connected to Ghost King Earth Bodhisattva.
• Xu Xingfeng asked after Jiang Chen, but Xu Lei learned from Jiang Chen’s sister that he was still sleeping, so the squad began its operation without him.
• The Netherworld Messengers entered the community, found charred ground and no ghosts in the places they searched, and gathered in Apartment 202 to discuss the threat.
• Jiang Chen called Xu Lei to ask about mission rewards, and Xu Lei promised quadruple Points if he dared to come.

The Netherworld Messengers searched Buildings Three and Four but found no ghosts, then investigated Building Seven and mistook its grisly traces for evidence of a powerful killer. As they uncovered increasingly horrific scenes on the second floor, Jiang Chen realized the team’s reactions were generating ghost qi and stopped Su Ling from calling Xu Lei.

• Xu Lei hung up on Jiang Chen, while Qiu Hong warned Xu Xingfeng to keep her away from him.
• A one-armed Netherworld Messenger failed to detect any ghosts in the building, so Xu Xingfeng ordered the team to search Buildings Three and Four; both were empty of ghosts.
• The team found signs of a battle near Building Four and concluded that a violent-death ghost might have devoured the other ghosts.
• In Building Seven, the Netherworld Messengers found residents dead in horrifying scenes and suspected a terrifying ghost had killed them.
• Jiang Chen heard system notifications reporting the team’s surprise and told Su Ling to stop repeatedly calling Xu Lei.
• On the second floor, the team found bodies nailed to walls and a man dead beside numerous peepholes, then heard a shout from apartment 201.

The Netherworld Messengers investigated a residential building and pieced together a series of carefully staged murders, growing fearful of the mastermind. At Unit 301, they discovered a message pointing to Jiang Chen and Yang Chuan, while Xu Lei noticed she had missed more than a dozen calls.

• Jia Kuan identified signs that a cabinet ghost had been tortured and killed, and the group suspected someone had used the building’s residents to stage multiple murders.
• Xu Xingfeng inferred that a family of three on the third floor had been targeted in a planned sequence of killings, alarming the Netherworld Messengers.
• Qiu Hong urged the team not to retreat, but Xu Xingfeng decided they would investigate further before calling in a team leader.
• At Unit 301, the group found a message saying the soul summoner had gone to Building 4 or Building 1 and naming Jiang Chen’s address in Jade Garden Residential Complex.
• Xu Lei confirmed they were neither in a Ghost Domain nor an illusion, then found more than a dozen missed calls on her phone.

Jiang Chen confirmed that he had cleared Jingjiang Resettlement Community and used Xu Lei’s promised reward as leverage while considering how to negotiate for additional benefits. After reviewing his gains, he drew a Four-Star Monster Transformation Card to prepare for a future encounter with Young Kui.

• Xu Lei and the Netherworld Messengers realized Jiang Chen had cleared the community, searched the buildings, found no ghosts or Ghost Artifacts, and withdrew under a confidentiality order.
• Jiang Chen told Xu Xingfeng that he had infiltrated the community as a mole and killed the ghosts after his cover was blown, then reminded him of Xu Lei’s promised fourfold reward.
• Xu Xingfeng and Xu Lei argued over who would pay the enormous reward, while Qiu Hong and Old Zhao joked that Xu Lei should be sent to Jiang Chen.
• Jiang Chen counted more than 190,000 ghost qi, four Vengeful Ghost-level Ghost Artifacts, and roughly 50,000 base Underworld Points from the cleared community.
• Jiang Chen decided to use the reward dispute as leverage to negotiate an allowance, then asked the system to draw a Four-Star Monster Transformation Card so he could face Young Kui again.