Recaps

The narrator and Seventh Master read how Li Tushan guided the locals in building the Thunder Ancestor Temple to contain the Luo Residence’s wronged spirits, while a noon-time accident killed five workers. They learn the temple was later demolished and its statue destroyed, leaving the spirits’ fate uncertain.

• Li Tushan persuaded the locals to demolish the Luo Residence and build the Thunder Ancestor Temple, warning workers to leave the grounds during the noon hours.
• Outside workers ignored the warning and rested at the site at noon, when collapsing structures crushed five of them to death.
• The remaining workers followed Li Tushan’s instructions, and the temple was completed without further accidents; the locals believed it kept the wronged spirits from harming anyone.
• The narrator and Boss Lin heard Seventh Master recount stories of the temple’s supposed protection and learned that Li Tushan had been a real master who died in a fire.
• The narrator read that decades after its construction, locals demolished the Thunder Ancestor Temple and smashed its statue.

The narrator learned how the Thunder Ancestor Temple’s destruction unleashed trouble at the former Luo Residence, and how Daoist Song used a Three Powers Formation and renewed worship to protect the villagers. The trouble returned when Boss Lin began developing the land, unaware of its history because the residents had kept it from him.

• The Seventh Master explained that the Thunder Ancestor Temple had suppressed the wronged souls and that the villagers’ unity had kept them quiet for years after its destruction.
• As strange incidents spread around the former Luo Residence, Daoist Song recognized the wronged souls and set up a Three Powers Formation with Qian and Kun mirrors.
• Daoist Song told the villagers to worship the Thunder Ancestor again, and the hysteria stopped as peace returned to the area.
• A developer used harassment and forced demolition tactics during compensation negotiations, alarming residents who kept Thunder Ancestor portraits at their homes.
• Boss Lin halted the project, took over the land, and offered the residents fair compensation, but they hid the site’s history from him.

Boss Lin hired Seventh Master and the narrator to investigate the dangerous construction site where wronged souls had resisted two experts. Before they set out, the narrator learned that Lin Xiaohua was gravely ill and destined to die young, then Seventh Master explained how worship and local temples enabled him to summon deities.

• Boss Lin explained that he had been cheated into developing the site and could not cancel the compensation agreements, so Seventh Master agreed to investigate it that night.
• Boss Lin offered to pay the pair 880,000 after they resolved the matter, and the narrator noticed that Lin Xiaohua looked seriously ill and showed signs of an early death.
• Seventh Master told the narrator that Lin Xiaohua likely had leukemia and would probably not live past thirteen, but said Boss Lin already knew and there was no need to repeat the warning.
• Boss Lin left to deal with officials at his company, and Lin Yin took Seventh Master and the narrator on a drive before bringing them to a temple to Erlang Shen.
• Seventh Master explained that he could summon deities only after worshipping them and when a temple to them existed nearby.

Lin Yin accompanied Seventh Master and the narrator during the day before they returned to the construction site at night to investigate its spirits. After the narrator spotted a little girl inside, Seventh Master concluded that Seventh Concubine had likely been responsible for the later deaths and had targeted men because she most resented her husband.

• The narrator and Seventh Master paid their respects to Erlang Shen, then spent the afternoon with Lin Yin.
• That night, Assistant He and bodyguards drove Seventh Master and the narrator to the construction site and waited outside while they prepared to investigate.
• While circling the site, the narrator saw a little girl vanish inside one of the buildings.
• Seventh Master reasoned that the girl was unlikely to be Luo Xiuzhu or one of the male victims killed afterward.
• Seventh Master explained that the spirits of victims could be mindless and that the original ghost might still be the one killing people.
• Seventh Master concluded that Seventh Concubine had killed the later victims, all men, because she most hated her husband for turning a blind eye to her suffering.

Seventh Master and the narrator entered the unfinished hotel at the site of the former Luo Residence to investigate the extreme yin and the ghosts controlled by Seventh Concubine. After chasing a shadow upstairs, they found six figures hanging in the stairwell, and one turned out to be An Ning.

• Seventh Master explained that Seventh Concubine had killed the people at the Luo Residence and afterward, and that the site’s evil made their chances of dealing with it only about ten percent.
• Seventh Master and the narrator surveyed the construction site, then entered despite the freezing chill and the unstable compass readings.
• They reached the unfinished hotel on the former Luo Residence site, where Seventh Master warned that the extreme yin was dangerous and gave the narrator a life-saving talisman.
• A dark shadow flashed past them, and Seventh Master chased it up the emergency stairs with the narrator following.
• On the second floor, they found six black-clad figures hanging beside a wall, and one swayed around to reveal An Ning.

The narrator and Seventh Master were confronted by an illusion showing six people, including themselves, as corpses, which they recognized as a death warning. They found the ghost of Luo Xiuzhu, the missing daughter of the Luo family, and asked how she had died.

• The narrator saw corpses resembling An Ning, Song Xiaotian, Meng Yifan, Pan Xiaorou, himself, and Seventh Master, but Seventh Master dispelled the illusion.
• The narrator connected the four brother lines in the ominous hexagrams to An Ning, Song Xiaotian, Meng Yifan, and Pan Xiaorou, while Seventh Master warned that the corpses' black clothes and shoes foretold death.
• Seventh Master used a talisman to strike a ghost watching them and found a frightened little girl on the stairs.
• The narrator recognized the ghost as the girl he had seen outside and learned that she was Luo Xiuzhu, Luo Baichuan and Seventh Concubine's daughter.
• The narrator recalled that Luo Xiuzhu's body had never been found after the Luo Residence tragedy, and Seventh Master gently asked her how she had died.

The narrator and Seventh Master questioned Luo Xiuzhu, a child ghost, and discovered that their understanding of the Luo Residence’s massacre might be wrong. As they tried to leave before Zi Hour, Xiuzhu warned them that going outside would kill them.

• Luo Xiuzhu told the narrator and Seventh Master that she had washed the concubines’ clothes and been beaten, but she did not know how she died or where her mother was.
• Xiuzhu said that the other ghosts bullied her and that her father, Luo Baichuan, hit her.
• The narrator and Seventh Master reconsidered the account of the Luo household’s destruction and decided they needed to investigate what had really happened.
• Seventh Master led the narrator toward the stairs to leave before Zi Hour, and Xiuzhu followed them downstairs.
• Xiuzhu warned them that they could not leave because they would die outside, just as she had.

Seventh Master and the narrator became trapped in a Ghost Wall at the hotel, which Seventh Master traced to their own fear and psychological suggestion. As he prepared to break through with Thunder Magic, the little girl warned that something buried there would kill him if he used it.

• The darkness outside swallowed Seventh Master when he stepped through the hotel entrance, and he reappeared from the second floor unable to escape the Ghost Wall.
• The little girl begged the narrator not to leave and asked to go with them, while the narrator promised to help her when they returned.
• Seventh Master explained that their fear had made them vulnerable to the Ghost Wall and decided to break it with Thunder Magic.
• The little girl tugged at Seventh Master's clothes and warned that something buried there would hurt him and leave him dead if he used Thunder Magic.
• The narrator asked the girl whether someone had buried something there to kill them if Seventh Master used Thunder Magic.

The Seventh Master’s Thunder Magic backfired, leaving him unconscious as a terrifying entity entered the hotel and drove the narrator and Luo Xiuzhu to flee. After falling into a shaft and waking in a room from the Republican era, the narrator realized he was in the Luo Residence before Luo Xiuzhu was killed.

• The Seventh Master ignored Luo Xiuzhu’s warning and used Thunder Magic against the Ghost Wall.
• The lightning reversed and struck the Seventh Master, knocking him unconscious.
• A terrifying entity entered, so the narrator carried the Seventh Master away with Luo Xiuzhu following.
• The narrator and the Seventh Master fell through an open shaft, and the narrator later woke in a room resembling one in the old Luo Residence.
• The narrator overheard children speaking about Luo Xiuzhu and realized he had arrived before her death.

The narrator followed Luo Xiuzhu through the Luo Residence and witnessed the bullying and abuse she suffered as a child. When a young woman tried to intervene, Second Sister ordered servants to take the woman away, leaving Xiuzhu injured.

• The narrator followed two children to find Luo Xiuzhu washing clothes alone at night.
• The children knocked Xiuzhu down, mocked her, and forced her to kneel before pouring water over her.
• When the children insulted Xiuzhu's dead mother, Xiuzhu shoved one of them into the water, and the children ran to report her.
• Second Sister arrived with servants and beat Xiuzhu while insulting her and her mother.
• A young woman protested and wept over Xiuzhu's injuries, but Second Sister ordered servants to take the young woman away.

Chen Mo witnessed Xiuzhu’s death in a vision of the past and learned that the Second Madam ordered her body hidden in the sealed well where Xiuzhu’s mother had died. Unable to escape or find Seventh Master, Chen Mo followed a divination to a damp side room and heard someone call his name.

• Chen Mo tried to stop the Second Madam from beating Xiuzhu but passed through her, realizing he was witnessing events from a hundred years earlier.
• Xiuzhu died in the rain, repeatedly calling for her mother, while Chen Mo watched helplessly.
• The Second Madam ordered the servants to hide Xiuzhu’s death and throw her body into the sealed well where the Seventh Concubine had died.
• Chen Mo divined that Seventh Master was southwest near water and searched until he found a side room beside a fish-filled stone vat.
• Chen Mo found the room empty until a faint voice called, “Chen Mo...”

The narrator found the injured Seventh Master inside a cabinet in a ghost realm recreating events from a hundred years earlier. Seventh Master chose to investigate the old murders there rather than seek a way out, leaving them to focus on four suspects.

• The narrator found Seventh Master injured in a cabinet and helped him sit down.
• The narrator and Seventh Master considered who might have buried something beneath the hotel, though Seventh Master rejected Boss Lin as a likely culprit.
• Seventh Master explained that they were trapped in a ghost realm, an illusion formed by a magnetic field, and described two ways to escape.
• Seventh Master decided to uncover the truth behind the old incident before leaving the ghost realm.
• The narrator and Seventh Master reviewed the clues and identified Seventh Concubine, Ninth Concubine, Xiuzhu, and Master Luo as their four main suspects.

The narrator and Seventh Master weighed four possible ghosts behind the deaths at the Luo Residence, then investigated a conversation between the Second Concubine and the steward. The Second Concubine revealed that Luo Baichuan had likely pushed the Seventh Concubine into a well, though she had not witnessed it herself.

• The narrator considered the Seventh Concubine, Xiuzhu, the Ninth Concubine, and Luo Baichuan as possible ghosts, noting evidence that both supported and contradicted each suspicion.
• The narrator and Seventh Master left the room and discovered that the Luo Residence had shifted from autumn to a snowy winter day.
• The narrator and Seventh Master heard the Second Concubine and the steward speaking privately in Luo Baichuan's room.
• The Second Concubine admitted that she had accidentally beaten Xiuzhu to death and said Luo Baichuan had most likely pushed the Seventh Concubine into the well.

The narrator learned that the fat bitch had spread a false rumor about Seventh Concubine, likely leading Master Luo to kill her, and that Ninth Concubine had died under suspicious circumstances. The narrator and Seventh Master realized the Luo Residence disaster left one more body than the household should have contained, raising the question of whose body it was.

• The fat bitch admitted she had spread the rumor that Seventh Concubine was having an affair, though she did not know whether it was true.
• The narrator suspected Master Luo had killed Seventh Concubine after hearing the rumor and wondered whether Xiuzhu was his daughter.
• The fat bitch claimed Ninth Concubine died of illness, while the steward said she resembled Seventh Concubine, cared for Xiuzhu, and handled sorcerers’ tools.
• The narrator and Seventh Master noticed that Xiuzhu and Ninth Concubine had both died before the Luo Residence disaster, leaving only thirty-eight household members.
• The narrator and Seventh Master realized that thirty-nine bodies had been recovered, meaning the disaster site contained one extra body.

The narrator and Seventh Master investigated the Ninth Concubine’s possible connection to the Seventh Concubine and searched her bedchamber. They found ritual tools and a Qiongqi carving, suggesting the Ninth Concubine may have been deliberately bringing misfortune to the Luo Residence.

• The narrator and Seventh Master considered whether the Ninth Concubine had faked her death and might have become the Seventh Concubine through Resurrection Through a Corpse or Seven Deaths for a Life.
• They searched the nearly empty Luo Residence and found the Ninth Concubine’s carefully maintained bedchamber.
• The narrator and Seventh Master searched beneath the bed and discovered a wooden chest filled with talismans, cinnabar powder, and ritual implements.
• Seventh Master identified a talisman as a Yin-Gathering Talisman and recognized a stone carving as Qiongqi, a ferocious beast associated with ruining feng shui.
• The narrator suspected the Ninth Concubine had used Qiongqi to damage the Luo Residence’s feng shui.

The narrator and Seventh Master found a letter containing a cruel version of Seven Deaths for a Life and reconsidered Ninth Concubine’s identity and the Luo Residence deaths. They concluded that Ninth Concubine was likely Seventh Concubine’s sister, who tried and failed to resurrect her, though the ghost that disrupted the ritual remained unexplained.

• Seventh Master found a letter addressed to Xu Xiu from Xu Changming and read its instructions for Seven Deaths for a Life.
• The narrator and Seventh Master realized Ninth Concubine had likely sought to resurrect Xiuzhu, but the ritual’s outcome did not fit that theory.
• The narrator proposed that Ninth Concubine and Seventh Concubine were biological sisters and that the extra body had been intended as Seventh Concubine’s vessel.
• Seventh Master recognized that Master Luo and six wives matched the ritual’s required one man and six women, while the other residents could have served as living sacrifices.
• The narrator reasoned that a ghost frightened the residents to death and disrupted Ninth Concubine’s ritual, causing it to fail.

Chen Mo and Seventh Master were chased through the Luo Residence by Master Luo and its strange, pupil-less inhabitants until Xiuzhu helped them hide. Xiuzhu said her father controlled the people and that she was hiding from him, and Chen Mo asked her to name her mother.

• Chen Mo and Seventh Master found Master Luo staring at them in Ninth Concubine's room, and he demanded to know why they were in A Xiu's room.
• Seventh Master kicked Master Luo down, and he and Chen Mo fled, but Master Luo appeared again in the main hall and confronted them.
• Pupil-less people joined Master Luo in chasing Chen Mo and Seventh Master through the Luo Residence.
• Xiuzhu opened a room and let Chen Mo and Seventh Master inside, where they barricaded the door against the pursuers.
• Xiuzhu told Chen Mo that her father controlled the people and that she was hiding from him.
• Chen Mo asked Xiuzhu what her mother's name was.

The narrator and Seventh Master discovered that Master Luo’s ledger contained a fake Seven Deaths for a Life ritual, likely planted by Ninth Concubine to persuade him to sacrifice his other concubines. They opened a hidden room in the study and found Ninth Concubine lying on a bed.

• Xiuzhu told the narrator that her mother was named Hong Bao'er and that Ninth Concubine had been the only person who treated her well.
• The narrator and Seventh Master found a ledger describing a fake Seven Deaths for a Life ritual that called for six women close to Master Luo to die.
• The narrator and Seventh Master deduced that Ninth Concubine had faked her death and given Master Luo the false ritual to mislead him.
• The narrator identified the tiger and ox statues as parts of a Yin-Yang Lock, and Seventh Master calculated the combination using Qimen divination.
• The narrator and Seventh Master turned the statues in the correct order, opening a hidden room where they found Ninth Concubine lying on a bed.

The narrator and Seventh Master discovered Ninth Concubine’s apparent death was maintained by seven lamps, but Master Luo’s household attacked them. With Seventh Master gravely weakened, the narrator used the Hexagram Character Formula to escape and charged into a wall to dispel the illusion.

• Xiuzhu rushed to Ninth Concubine, and Seventh Master explained that she was held in an apparent-death state by Northern Mao’s Soul-Separation Art and Seven-Star Lamps.
• Master Luo led the Luo Residence’s concubines and servants into the study, where Seventh Master’s Spirit-Invoking Art blasted many attackers away before he collapsed, visibly aged and bleeding.
• The narrator carried Seventh Master toward the Life Gate while Master Luo’s people pursued them, then used the Zhen Character, Fan Yin to repel a servant.
• The narrator’s jade pendant grew hot, and Seventh Master told him to dispel the illusion by believing the wall was fake and passing through it.
• The narrator used the Zhen Character, Eight Gates Method and charged into the wall with Seventh Master on his back.

Chen Mo escaped the ghost wall with the badly injured Seventh Master and got him to a hospital, where he waited for news. He learned that only a few hours inside had corresponded to nearly two days outside, and his friends arrived in Lin City after he called them.

• Chen Mo carried the unconscious Seventh Master out of the construction site and Assistant He rushed them to a hospital.
• Assistant He told Chen Mo that they had entered the site on the first and it was now noon on the third, leaving Chen Mo confused about the lost time.
• Chen Mo followed the Seventh Master into the emergency room and noticed more than thirty missed calls from Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan.
• Chen Mo called Song Xiaotian, who said he and Meng Yifan had flown to Lin City after failing to reach him, and Chen Mo heard Pan Xiaorou with them.

After Seventh Master was badly injured at the construction site, he woke in the hospital and explained that Thunder Magic had depleted his kidney essence, which he expected to restore with medicine. Song Xiaotian reasoned that someone targeting Boss Lin had buried the object that caused the backlash, and Boss Lin said he knew who had done it.

• Song Xiaotian, Meng Yifan, and Pan Xiaorou arrived at the hospital, where the narrator told them Seventh Master had been injured using the Spirit-Invoking Art while weakened.
• The narrator called An Ning and asked her to come to Lin City, and she agreed to book a flight.
• Doctors found unusual electrical injuries and unexplained weakness in Seventh Master, then said he would wake within an hour or two.
• Song Xiaotian suspected that an enemy of Boss Lin had buried something at the construction site to trap Seventh Master.
• Seventh Master woke, explained that Thunder Magic had depleted his kidney essence, and wrote a prescription for his recovery.
• Assistant He brought Boss Lin to the ward, and after hearing that someone had targeted him through the construction site, Boss Lin said he knew who was responsible.

Boss Lin suspected the previous developer of sabotaging the construction site, but Seventh Master insisted on completing the investigation despite his injuries. As the narrator prepared to question villagers about Ninth Concubine, Song Xiaotian identified Xu Family Village as a more promising source of information.

• Boss Lin said the previous developer, a gang leader he had threatened, might have sabotaged the site, and promised to investigate.
• Seventh Master refused to abandon the job and said the accounts of the Luo Residence's past needed closer investigation.
• Seventh Master told the narrator to question the villagers and investigate whether Ninth Concubine had descendants who were behind attacks on the Thunder Ancestor Temple.
• The narrator returned to the hotel and found Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan organizing their clues, including the name Xu Changming.
• Song Xiaotian told the narrator that Ninth Concubine, Xu Xiu, and Xu Changming likely came from Xu Family Village, where people might know more about the past.

Chen Mo and his companions considered whether Xu Family Village could reveal what happened at the Luo Residence and struggled to explain the time lost during Chen Mo and the Seventh Master’s trip through the ghost wall. After sleeping, Chen Mo woke to find that more than two hours had apparently passed while he used the bathroom, leaving the time anomaly unresolved.

• Song Xiaotian showed Chen Mo information about Xu Family Village and suggested Xu Xiu or Xu Changming’s relatives might know what happened at the Luo Residence.
• Chen Mo told Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan that he and the Seventh Master had entered the construction site two nights earlier but emerged on the third, despite experiencing less than twelve hours inside.
• Meng Yifan proposed that they might have been unconscious before entering the ghost wall, but Chen Mo said he had felt no effects of going without food or water.
• Song Xiaotian tried to hide from Pan Xiaorou in Chen Mo’s room, but Chen Mo opened the door and Pan Xiaorou dragged Song Xiaotian back to their room.
• Chen Mo fell asleep, woke at two in the morning to use the bathroom, then discovered the sky was bright and his phone showed it was past five.

I went with An Ning and Assistant He to Xu Family Village to investigate Xu Xiu and Xu Changming, whose story the construction-site residents had passed down unreliably. There, I learned that Xu Xiu, known as Xu Xiangu, had lived to be over a hundred and was still alive in the present day.

• I told Assistant He that I wanted to investigate the Luo Residence in Xu Family Village rather than rely on distorted stories from the former construction-site residents.
• I met An Ning at the airport and briefed her on what had happened, reassuring her that the Seventh Master was recovering.
• Assistant He led us through the tourist attraction and onward to the residential area where Xu Family Village's original residents lived.
• I gave an old man cigarettes and asked him about Xu Xiu and Xu Changming.
• The old man recognized Xu Xiu as Xu Xiangu, a centenarian from his grandfather's generation, and I realized she was the Ninth Concubine and had survived to the present day.

The narrator and An Ning learned that Ninth Concubine had died at the same time they and Seventh Master lost consciousness at the construction site. At her funeral, they questioned her nephew about the Luo Residence, and he began explaining how another aunt, Xu Miao, had entered the household.

• The narrator learned that Xu Xiangu had died three nights earlier at exactly eleven at night, just as he and Seventh Master had been struck by lightning and fallen unconscious.
• The narrator, An Ning, and Assistant He went to the village funeral and the narrator paid his respects with a donation.
• The narrator approached a sad elderly man, who revealed that Xu Xiangu was his aunt and accepted money to answer questions about the Luo Residence.
• The old man said his aunt Xu Miao had first gone to work as a maid at the wealthy Luo Residence and later sent her impoverished family a huge sum of money.
• The narrator asked whether Xu Miao had married the master of the Luo household.