Arc 9Chapters 201–225
No recap yet.
No recap yet.
After the group rescued Wang Guofu from Du Yunting, Song Xiaotian tortured him until he agreed to reveal the names and addresses of his victims. Du Yunting left after Chen warned him that there was plenty of time ahead.
Song Xiaotian and the others forced Wang Guofu to reveal how he had targeted seven people for a hired killer, then made him swear before the Thunder Ancestor never to use magic again and abandoned him. As Seventh Master prepared to help the victims’ ghosts move on, he learned An Ning could control herself while possessed and said she might become an Underworld Deputy after death.
Seventh Master tried to persuade Liu Jing to stop clinging to her life and accept reincarnation. Liu Jing agreed but asked to see her husband and mother-in-law once more, leaving Seventh Master and the narrator unsure whether they would agree.
Chen visited Fang Yongshan and his mother to ask them to grant Liu Jing’s final wish: a reunion dinner before she departed. They refused and demanded that Liu Jing be driven away, so Chen abandoned the job and denounced Fang for how he had treated his wife and son.
Chen Mo failed to sell Fang Yongshan’s house, then coached An Ning on how to market haunted houses. Fang Yongshan later changed his mind and agreed to meet Liu Jing the next afternoon so she could pass on at sunset.
Chen Mo and Meng Yifan tried to hide from Pan Xiaorou when she arrived at their shop looking for Song Xiaotian, but she found them and brought him homemade chicken soup. After accepting that they had deceived her to save Meng Yifan, Pan Xiaorou offered the shop a lead on a large villa whose owner had recently died.
Pan Xiaorou connected Meng Yifan with her late friend Ding Ruoning’s family, and the group realized Ding was one of seven people who had died by suicide two months earlier. Later, Fang Yongshan regretted how he had treated Liu Jing and asked to keep her with him, but Seventh Master told him to apologize and let her go as they entered her dark apartment.
After Liu Jing’s final reunion dinner, Fang Yongshan and his mother left grieving, and the narrator’s group settled the payment. The narrator and Meng Yifan then met Gu An'an about selling Ding Ruoning’s house and learned that both Ding Ruoning and her thirteen-year-old daughter had died by hanging there.
The narrator and Meng Yifan signed an authorization agreement with Gu An'an to sell the villa where Ding Ruoning and her daughter Sun Jiayu had died, but Gu An'an kept the reason for Sun Jiayu’s suicide private. The next day, the narrator taught An Ning to handle a property sale and secured a deposit from interested buyers before preparing to visit Ding Ruoning’s home.
The narrator, An Ning, Song Xiaotian, and Seventh Master investigated Ding Ruoning’s villa and discovered signs of overwhelming yin energy and deep resentment. When they summoned Ding Ruoning’s soul, a violent disturbance erupted, and Song Xiaotian suddenly stabbed Seventh Master in the neck.
Chen Mo, Song Xiaotian, An Ning, and Seventh Master survived a ghostly hallucination in the villa and learned that Ding Ruoning’s daughter’s Yin Soul had attacked them. Song Xiaotian investigated the family and discovered that Sun Jiayu had been sexually assaulted by three boys, and that the tragedy began after Ding Ruoning exposed them online.
The narrator and Meng Yifan learned that online abuse had helped drive Sun Jiayu and Ding Ruoning to their deaths, and that a user called Limitless Heaven and Earth had spread targeted rumors about Ding Ruoning. They then discovered that Liu Tianyi, one of the boys who assaulted Sun Jiayu, had died by jumping from a fifteenth-floor apartment in front of his family, and suspected Ding Ruoning had possessed him to take revenge.
The narrator and the others consulted Seventh Master about Ding Ruoning’s revenge, and he told them they had to stop her from killing so she and her daughter could pass on. The narrator cast a hexagram and learned Ding Ruoning planned to kill Jiang Xiaoyu at Zi Hour that night.
The narrator and his companions tried to stop Ding Ruoning from killing a boy, but the narrator revealed that her target was Wu Binbin, not Jiang Xiaoyu. They arrived too late to save Wu Binbin, and the narrator admitted that his desire for revenge made him unable to fully accept Seventh Master's principles.
After defying Seventh Master over Ding Ruoning’s revenge, the narrator reconsidered the consequences and calculated that Jiang Xiaoyu would be in danger in two days. Seventh Master later called to arrange stopping Ding Ruoning’s next killing, but an anonymous video of Sun Jiayu being assaulted made the narrator furious and reinforced his support for her revenge.
The group learned that Jiang Xiaoyu’s father, Jiang Nan, and the other families had helped smear Sun Jiayu online, making them major culprits in her death. As they prepared to protect Jiang Xiaoyu at a hotel, Seventh Master introduced Zhang Bo, a yin-yang practitioner hired to help stop Ding Ruoning and persuade her to reincarnate.
Jiang Nan revealed his callousness while Zhang Bo and Seventh Master prepared talismans to protect Jiang Xiaoyu from Ding Ruoning. After Ding Ruoning appeared in a mirror without triggering the talismans, Seventh Master suspected she had possessed someone in the group.
Seventh Master tried to identify Ding Ruoning’s host, but An Ning fled and distracted him while Ding Ruoning possessed Jiang Nan. Jiang Nan killed Jiang Xiaoyu before the police arrived, and the group was released after giving statements.
After Jiang Nan killed Jiang Xiaoyu under Ding Ruoning’s control, the group left the police station and discussed how the Seventh Master and Zhang Bo had quietly allowed Ding Ruoning to act. They concluded that Jiang Nan’s own words had caused both men to withdraw their protection, and the three returned to the car at dawn.
The group returned to the villa to summon Sun Jiayu and persuade her to stop Ding Ruoning’s revenge, but discovered Sun Jiayu’s spirit had been taken away. After learning Sun Yang had brought Ding Ruoning back to the villa, they found that Limitless Heaven and Earth was spreading news of the three deaths and accusing Sun Yang.
The group investigated the account Limitless Heaven and Earth, whose posts were targeting Sun Yang’s family, and concluded that Wang Guofu was behind it. After Song Xiaotian traced the account to a rented apartment, they realized Sun Yang might attack Wang Guofu first.
The narrator and the others confronted Wang Guofu over his online harassment of Ding Ruoning’s family and secretly planted a talisman to block his abilities. Wang Guofu broke down and blamed his poverty for his crimes, while the narrator condemned him.
Wang Guofu was forced to divine his own death and predicted that a nonhuman being would kill him that night. The group waited at his residential complex for Ding Ruoning, and the chapter ended when their geomantic compass began to move.
Seventh Master and the others entered Wang Guofu’s apartment and found him possessed, dead, and chopping off his own hand. After they subdued him, Ding Ruoning possessed Song Xiaotian and, driven into a frenzy, turned on everyone trying to stop her.
Seventh Master captured Ding Ruoning after she attacked Song Xiaotian, but he said she could not be sent to the Underworld yet because she had killed four people. Chen Mo and the others acknowledged that their pursuit of revenge had made things worse, and Chen Mo went with Seventh Master for the night.