Chapter Summaries

The narrator was born as a blood-feeding demon fetus after a powerful fox demon placed its soul inside him to escape heavenly lightning. Wu Banxian agreed to take him as a disciple and guide him along the mystic path, but died from the narrator’s first tribulation as he carried him out of the village.

• Nineteen bolts of lightning struck around the Wu family courtyard when the narrator was born, and an old hunter found a dying eight-tailed woman who asked about the family.
• The midwife urged the narrator’s father to abandon the strange, fur-covered newborn, but his grandfather summoned Wu Banxian for advice.
• Hundreds of weasels and foxes surrounded the courtyard, bowed toward the house, and vanished when Wu Banxian told the family they meant no harm.
• Wu Banxian identified the narrator as a demon fetus possessed by a powerful fox demon and warned that he would face at least eighteen deadly tribulations.
• Wu Banxian offered to save the narrator by making him his disciple, though the narrator would suffer the five afflictions and three deficiencies and might never see his family again.
• As Wu Banxian carried the narrator beyond the village entrance, he suddenly died, blood pouring from all seven openings of his head.

Wu Banxian died after taking the narrator away, and the family brought the child home, where foxes and weasels began delivering game for the child to drink as blood. Three years passed peacefully until someone died in the village on the narrator’s third birthday, and the villagers blamed the child.

• Wu Banxian died soon after leaving with the narrator, so the family took the child home and paid compensation to his relatives.
• The narrator refused milk and would drink only blood, while the family worried about how to feed the child.
• Foxes and weasels brought rabbits to the family’s courtyard, and Grandpa and Father used the rabbits to feed the narrator.
• The animals continued delivering game, improving the family’s meals as the narrator grew up drinking blood.
• The narrator turned three, and after someone in the village died, the villagers accused the child of causing the death.

On his third birthday, Wu Jie tried to make a friend and accidentally spilled pheasant blood over the boy’s clothes, prompting the boy’s mother to beat him. The next morning, she was found mauled to death, with the foot she had kicked Wu Jie with gnawed to the bone.

• Wu Jie ran out to join children playing in the sand, but they fled after calling him a blood-drinking freak.
• A chubby boy stayed to play with Wu Jie and shared his candy with him.
• Wu Jie brought out his bowl of pheasant blood to share, and the boy spilled it over himself.
• The boy’s mother attacked Wu Jie, but Grandpa returned and carried him home after apologizing.
• The next morning, villagers found the boy’s mother dead in the hills, her body mauled and the foot she had kicked Wu Jie with gnawed to the bone.

After Ma Laosan's wife died in a gruesome and mysterious way, her spirit and the village's suspicions turned against the narrator. Weasels and foxes intervened at her funeral, but the next day her grave was found open and her body was gone.

• Ma Laosan's wife disappeared during the night and was found dead in the hills, covered in wounds that looked like animal bites.
• The narrator's father found that his spirit paper would not burn and his incense broke into an ominous pattern while paying respects to Ma Laosan's wife.
• The narrator's family and Ma Laosan dreamed that the dead woman blamed the narrator for her death and demanded that he be killed.
• Ma Laosan came to the narrator's home with a woodcutting blade, but Grandfather dared him to act and Ma Laosan left without harming the narrator.
• The coffin fell when its ropes snapped, then a white-backed weasel led hundreds of weasels and foxes to strike it three times, allowing the burial to proceed.
• The day after the burial, villagers discovered that Ma Laosan's wife's grave had been opened and her body had vanished.

Ma Laosan’s dead wife returned from her shattered grave and repeatedly visited the Wu family, warning that time was running out. After she said “three days left,” Dad feared she would kill the whole family in three days.

• On the night of her burial, Ma Laosan’s wife appeared at the Wu family’s window and said, “Four days left.”
• Grandpa confronted Ma Laosan’s wife with his broadsword, and she limped away after repeating her warning.
• The next morning, villagers found Ma Laosan’s wife’s grave broken open, and Ma Laosan assumed someone had stolen her corpse.
• The following night, Ma Laosan’s wife returned to the Wu family’s window and said, “Three days left.”
• Dad wondered aloud whether Ma Laosan’s wife meant to kill the family in three days.

After Ma Laosan's wife frightened the Wu family, they brought Granny Liu to help, but she discovered that a powerful, injured immortal soul lived within three-year-old Little Jie. Granny Liu refused payment and promised to protect the family, leaving them with a new explanation for the animals' reverence when Jie was born.

• Grandpa sent Dad to Thirty-Li Hamlet to hire Granny Liu to deal with the Wu family's troubles.
• When Granny Liu saw Little Jie, she knelt and kowtowed, calling him an honored immortal.
• Granny Liu examined Little Jie and sensed a powerful immortal soul with at least a thousand years of cultivation, though it was gravely weakened and unconscious.
• Granny Liu returned Dad's hundred yuan, added a hundred of her own, and pledged to protect the Wu family.
• Granny Liu's explanation led the family to understand why weasels and foxes had kowtowed toward their home when Little Jie was born.

Old Mrs. Liu explained that Ma Laosan's wife could become a deadly Corpse Demon on the seventh day after her death, and the family prepared to stop her. After two nights without an attack, the family waited anxiously as the seventh night arrived, and heavy footsteps announced her approach.

• Old Mrs. Liu told the family that Ma Laosan's wife had broken out of her coffin and would become a Corpse Demon unless they destroyed her before the seventh day.
• Old Mrs. Liu asked Dad to obtain a black dog, three mature roosters, and a burial outfit for the child, while Dad ordered the outfit from a shop.
• The family and Old Mrs. Liu kept watch through the night, but Ma Laosan's wife did not appear, and they waited through another night as the seventh day approached.
• Grandpa prepared his old killing saber, and Old Mrs. Liu instructed Dad to take the black dog outside and bring it back after midnight.
• A black whirlwind swept through the courtyard, every village dog barked, and the air turned cold as heavy footsteps and a stench of decay approached the gate.
• Old Mrs. Liu recognized the approaching presence and announced that Ma Laosan's wife had arrived.

Ma Laosan's wife attacked Grandpa and Granny Liu as a Corpse Demon, but Granny Liu summoned the Willow Immortal and used the roosters to drive her toward the gate. Dad appeared in the gateway as the demon tried to escape.

• Ma Laosan's wife burst through the courtyard gates and demanded that Wu Jie be brought out so she could kill him.
• Grandpa stood between the demon and Wu Jie while weasels and foxes swarmed her, but she hurled them aside and devoured one.
• Grandpa struck Ma Laosan's wife with his saber, and Granny Liu blocked her corpse miasma with pipe smoke before driving her back.
• Granny Liu summoned the Willow Immortal, whose blows burst into flames against the Corpse Demon.
• Grandpa released the prepared roosters, whose crowing frightened Ma Laosan's wife into fleeing toward the gateway, where Dad appeared.

Dad’s mistimed arrival disrupted Granny Liu’s plan to drive off Ma Laosan’s wife, and the corpse ghoul broke into the house searching for Wu Jie. As she attacked Mom, an eight-tailed fox shadow appeared and a woman’s voice spoke through Wu Jie, blasting the corpse ghoul out of the window; Wu Jie then collapsed.

• Dad arrived at the gate with a large black dog, interrupting the weasels and foxes as they fought the corpse ghoul.
• Granny Liu struck the corpse ghoul with her pipe while the animals and the dog tried to hold her back, and the roosters’ crowing failed to make her flee because the dog blocked the gate.
• The corpse ghoul crashed through the bedroom window, seized Grandpa’s sword, and kicked him down before searching for Wu Jie.
• Mom concealed Wu Jie’s vital energy beneath the Funeral Shroud, so the corpse ghoul could not sense him and threatened to kill Mom instead.
• An eight-tailed fox-shaped shadow appeared, and a woman’s voice spoke through Wu Jie before golden light struck the corpse ghoul and sent her flying out the window.
• Wu Jie convulsed and collapsed into Mom’s arms.

Granny Liu and the Yellow Immortal defeated the Corpse Demon, but the battle left Granny Liu badly injured and Little Jie unconscious. After Little Jie recovered, Granny Liu warned Grandpa that he would face a deadly calamity on his ninth birthday, and he woke three days later.

• Granny Liu struck the Corpse Demon three times, scattering Ma Laosan's wife's soul, while the wounded Yellow Immortal and surviving animals left the courtyard.
• Grandpa and Dad rushed inside after Mom cried that Little Jie had collapsed, and Granny Liu explained that the Immortal Being's Primordial Spirit had driven off the Corpse Demon but weakened itself.
• Dad took Ma Laosan's wife's body to the mountain, Grandpa buried the dead weasels and foxes, and he took the injured Granny Liu to a hospital in town.
• Granny Liu warned Grandpa that Little Jie faced a calamity every three years and must stay inside on his ninth birthday, a trial beyond her power to help with.
• Little Jie woke up three days later.

After recovering from the attack by Ma Laosan’s wife, the narrator grew up healthier but remained lonely and feared his six-year tribulation. On the eve of his sixth birthday, the Zhang brothers attacked his family, and his father grabbed a broadsword after the youngest Zhang brother struck him.

• Ma Laosan’s wife was found dead in the hills, and Ma Laosan buried her again.
• The narrator woke after three days and suffered a fever; Granny Liu explained that the fox Immortal had weakened itself saving him, and he soon recovered.
• The narrator gradually stopped needing blood and grew up with foxes and weasels as his companions, while his family feared his coming six-year tribulation.
• Grandpa went to Thirty-Li Hamlet to invite Granny Liu to help protect the narrator before his sixth birthday.
• The youngest Zhang brother fought Dad over the family’s vegetable plot, then returned with his four brothers and attacked Dad and Mom.
• The narrator bit the youngest Zhang brother after he struck Dad, but the man slapped him down; Dad then rushed inside and returned with Grandpa’s big broadsword.

The Zhang Family brothers beat Wu Jie’s father, and Granny Liu warned that the youngest brother would die because he had slapped Wu Jie. Grandpa tried to warn him with a way to ward off the Yellow Weasels and foxes, but the youngest Zhang brother was found dead the next day.

• Wu Jie's father chased the five Zhang Family brothers away after they beat him and struck Wu Jie.
• Granny Liu told Grandpa that the Immortals would avenge Wu Jie and that the youngest Zhang brother was in danger.
• Granny Liu advised Grandpa to tell the youngest Zhang brother to keep village dogs and white geese in his home that night.
• Grandpa went to warn the youngest Zhang brother, but he stayed inside and Grandpa could not reach him.
• The eldest Zhang brother found the youngest Zhang brother hanging from a roof beam the next day.

The youngest Zhang brother was found hanging beside a dead weasel, and Granny Liu warned that the Zhang family had offended a yellow immortal. That night, before his body could be placed in a coffin, the youngest Zhang brother sat up and came back to life.

• The eldest Zhang brother found the youngest Zhang brother hanging from a roof beam beside a dead weasel and summoned the villagers.
• Grandpa took the youngest Zhang brother’s body down while the Zhang brothers accused him of causing the death.
• Granny Liu told the villagers that the Zhang family had offended a yellow immortal and urged them to prepare the body for burial.
• The second Zhang brother knocked the weasel down and smashed its corpse with a shovel despite Granny Liu’s warnings.
• Granny Liu predicted that misfortune would befall the second Zhang brother, and Grandpa worried about Little Jie.
• That night, the youngest Zhang brother sat up on the bed before he had been placed in a coffin.

After the Zhang brothers discovered their dead fifth brother sitting up and laughing, Grandpa and Granny Liu went to investigate. Granny Liu identified him as possessed by Second Master Yellow, who vowed to punish the Zhang Family and demanded chickens as his first terms.

• The Zhang brothers argued over funeral costs until the fifth brother sat up on his bed and laughed, terrifying everyone.
• The eldest Zhang brother fetched Grandpa and Granny Liu, and the two went to the fifth brother’s house.
• Granny Liu declared that Second Master Yellow had possessed the fifth brother rather than bringing him back to life.
• Second Master Yellow threatened to torment the Zhang Family over its offense against his ancestor and warned Granny Liu and Grandpa not to interfere.
• Grandpa pleaded for mercy, but Granny Liu stepped in and offered to meet Second Master Yellow’s terms.
• Second Master Yellow demanded that they bring him a few chickens to taste.

Granny Liu tried to negotiate with the yellow weasel possessing the youngest Zhang brother by offering it chickens, then attacked when it began eating them raw. The weasel refused to leave, and Granny Liu started a ritual to drive it out.

• Grandpa struggled with the yellow weasel’s revenge against the Zhang family, but Granny Liu persuaded him to ask them for chickens.
• Granny Liu explained that yellow weasels could possess corpses and demand food, though this one wanted to bring ruin and death to the Zhang family.
• The eldest Zhang brother brought several chickens, and Granny Liu gave them to the possessed youngest Zhang brother.
• The youngest Zhang brother devoured a hen raw, and Granny Liu struck him with her pipe and seized him by the neck.
• Granny Liu invoked the Chang Immortal and demanded that Second Yellow leave, but the weasel refused, so she began drawing on the youngest Zhang brother’s forehead with pipe ash.

Granny Liu drove the Yellow Weasel possessing the fifth Zhang brother from his body, but warned the Zhang family that the creature might retaliate against the second Zhang brother. That night, the second Zhang brother went mad after killing another Yellow Weasel, and Granny Liu began treating him as he appeared close to death.

• Granny Liu expelled the Yellow Weasel from the fifth Zhang brother and told the Zhang brothers to bury his body and beware of retaliation.
• The Zhang brothers paid Granny Liu a hundred yuan, and she advised the second Zhang brother to keep dogs and geese at home.
• The second Zhang brother's wife summoned Grandpa and Granny Liu after he went mad during the night.
• Grandpa and Granny Liu found the second Zhang brother crouching in a bloodied courtyard beside a dead Yellow Weasel and eating a chicken.
• Grandpa confronted the second Zhang brother, but he collapsed and began convulsing, bleeding, and foaming at the mouth.
• Granny Liu ordered Grandpa and the second Zhang brother's wife to hold him down, then inserted silver needles into his body.

Granny Liu stopped the Zhang Family's second son from dying by piercing the malevolent energy inside him, but a more powerful Yellow Weasel continued possessing him. Grandpa found the white-tailed weasel hiding on a roof beam and confronted it while Granny Liu struggled to hold the second son back.

• Granny Liu used cold well water to freeze the malevolent lump in the Zhang Family's second son's belly, then pierced and ruptured it with a silver needle.
• The second son resumed breathing, but soon began moving and attacking like a weasel, prompting Granny Liu to reveal that a second, more powerful Yellow Weasel was in the courtyard.
• Grandpa searched the courtyard and the rooms with his broadsword but found no sign of the Yellow Weasel while Granny Liu fought the possessed second son.
• Grandpa spotted a white tail on a roof beam, struck it with a teacup, and confirmed that a spiritually cultivated weasel was hiding there.

Grandpa brought Little Jie to the Zhang brothers’ home to stop the white-tailed weasel from controlling the second Zhang brother. Little Jie’s Ancestor took over and ordered the weasel and the second Zhang brother to stop, before the man collapsed.

• Grandpa tried to drive the white-tailed weasel off the roof beam, but Granny Liu called him to bring Little Jie instead.
• Grandpa hurried home, woke Little Jie, and took him to the Zhang brothers’ house, where the possessed second Zhang brother was attacking Granny Liu.
• Little Jie told the second Zhang brother to stop, but the weasel appeared and the man charged toward the gate.
• Grandpa rushed to block the second Zhang brother, who knocked him aside, while Little Jie grabbed the man’s trousers and was dragged along.
• A huge eight-tailed fox-shaped shadow appeared behind Little Jie, and the second Zhang brother fell to his knees as Little Jie’s Ancestor spoke through him.
• The Ancestor ordered the second Zhang brother and the white-tailed weasel to leave the matter alone, and the second Zhang brother kowtowed before collapsing.

After the second calamity, Granny Liu warned Little Jie that his ninth birthday would bring an even more dangerous one. On that day, despite his family’s efforts to keep him home, Little Jie sneaked out with his friend Xiao Pang to catch grasshoppers.

• The Immortal inside Little Jie emerged, frightening Grandpa and Granny Liu before Little Jie collapsed and slept for two days.
• Granny Liu explained how the Yellow Weasel’s poisonous fumes caused the deaths and near-death, then warned that Little Jie’s third calamity would come when he turned nine.
• Three uneventful years passed, and Little Jie began second grade while his family returned to ordinary life.
• On Little Jie’s ninth birthday, Grandpa left to help the village pig butcher after warning Little Jie to stay inside.
• Xiao Pang called to Little Jie from outside, and Little Jie climbed out the window to go catch grasshoppers with him.

Little Jie and Xiao Pang went grasshopper hunting, but a rooster pecked Xiao Pang while stealing a grasshopper, and his scream startled Grandpa Wang’s donkey into throwing him from his cart. Little Jie and the villagers rescued Grandpa Wang, but Yellow Weasels and foxes appeared after Grandpa Wang struck Little Jie, and the chapter ended hinting that Grandpa Wang still suffered a misfortune.

• Little Jie and Xiao Pang split up in the fields to catch grasshoppers, and Xiao Pang stopped to relieve himself.
• A huge grasshopper landed on Xiao Pang’s backside, and a rooster pecked it free and carried it off, leaving Xiao Pang screaming in pain.
• Grandpa Wang’s donkey bolted at Xiao Pang’s scream, throwing Grandpa Wang into a roadside ditch.
• Little Jie hurried to help Grandpa Wang, who blamed him for the scream and struck him twice.
• Little Jie saw Yellow Weasels and foxes watching Grandpa Wang and begged them not to hurt him.
• Villagers helped Little Jie carry Grandpa Wang out of the ditch, but something still happened to him.