Chapter Summaries

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.

• The narrator learned that the Seventh Master and Meng Yifan had taken Wang Guofu from the Teahouse while Song Xiaotian helped distract Du Yunting with An Ning.
• Song Xiaotian and the narrator guarded the Seventh Master's home, where Song Xiaotian fought off Du Yunting's bodyguards and sent Du away.
• The Seventh Master had beaten Wang Guofu, but Wang refused to confess and threatened to have them imprisoned.
• Song Xiaotian struck Wang Guofu with a stool and broke his hand with a hammer, forcing him to agree to name five other victims and give their addresses.
• Wang Guofu began reciting the first victim's details, and Song Xiaotian ordered him to speak louder.

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.

• Wang Guofu named five other targets and admitted that his employer had chosen people born on the fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month, leaving him to select seven from the list.
• Wang Guofu explained that he used destiny reading, divination, and physiognomy to exploit the targets’ obsessions, and confessed that he accepted three million to pay gambling debts and buy property.
• Seventh Master condemned Wang Guofu for using his skills to harm people and made him swear before the Thunder Ancestor never to use magic again.
• Song Xiaotian dumped Wang Guofu somewhere, and the group planned to send the seven victims’ ghosts on, starting with Liu Jing and Feng Gang.
• The narrator told Seventh Master that An Ning could regain control while possessed, and Seventh Master said she was naturally gifted and 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.

• Seventh Master explained that An Ning would need to accumulate Yin Virtue to offset her sins before becoming an Underworld Deputy.
• Seventh Master, An Ning, and the narrator returned to Liu Jing's home and tried to summon her so she could move on.
• Liu Jing possessed An Ning and tried to ambush Seventh Master, but he exposed her and urged her to accept that her life had ended.
• Liu Jing cried and admitted she regretted dying, then pleaded with Seventh Master to bring her back to life.
• Seventh Master explained that Liu Jing could not return to life but could be reincarnated, and she stopped clinging to her past.
• Liu Jing asked to see her husband and mother-in-law one more time, and Seventh Master and the narrator wondered 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.

• Seventh Master placed grievance-resolving talismans and played a scripture recording in Liu Jing’s apartment, then sealed the door to keep her from leaving.
• Chen went to meet Fang Yongshan and his mother, who had moved out of Liu Jing’s haunted apartment after their son died there.
• Chen told Fang and his mother that Liu Jing wanted one final reunion dinner before she departed and that the apartment could be sold once she left.
• Fang’s mother cursed Liu Jing, and Fang refused her request, offering Chen extra money to make Liu Jing disappear instead.
• Chen rejected Fang’s offer, gave up the job, and accused him of failing as a husband and father and of helping drive Liu Jing to her death.

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 argued with Fang Yongshan and left without returning the key, then agreed with the Seventh Master to return that night to help Liu Jing pass on.
• The Seventh Master reported that Feng Gang had accepted help passing on after considering his wife’s hardships.
• Chen Mo found An Ning handing out flyers by bluntly telling passersby that the houses were haunted, and taught her how to attract customers.
• Fang Yongshan called Chen Mo to apologize and said he would fulfill Liu Jing’s last wish, even if it meant cutting ties with his mother.
• Chen Mo arranged for Fang Yongshan’s family to meet Liu Jing at three the next afternoon, with plans to send her on her way 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.

• Chen Mo and his coworkers handed out flyers after his divination predicted a slow week for the shop.
• Pan Xiaorou arrived in her Ferrari and asked for Song Xiaotian and Chen Mo, who both tried to hide from her.
• Meng Yifan and Chen Mo found Song Xiaotian hiding in a wardrobe and dragged him out to meet Pan Xiaorou.
• Pan Xiaorou fed Song Xiaotian chicken soup, and he froze when she called him a man who would make a good husband.
• Pan Xiaorou recognized that Meng Yifan's shop sold houses where people had died and offered to refer him to a friend's family selling a large villa.

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.

• Pan Xiaorou told Meng Yifan that her friend Ding Ruoning had died by suicide two months earlier after losing her thirteen-year-old daughter.
• The narrator checked the list of seven deceased people and found that Ding Ruoning lived at the same Garden Villa address Pan Xiaorou had given.
• Pan Xiaorou kissed Song Xiaotian goodbye, and An Ning wondered aloud why Pan was rich while she was poor.
• The narrator and An Ning met Seventh Master, Fang Yongshan, and his mother at Liu Jing’s residential complex.
• Fang Yongshan asked Seventh Master if Liu Jing could stay with him, then admitted he regretted neglecting her and wanted to make amends.
• Seventh Master told Fang Yongshan that he should apologize and let Liu Jing leave, and they entered the dark apartment where her figure waited by the door.

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.

• Liu Jing’s final wish was fulfilled, and Fang Yongshan and his mother emerged from the house after sharing her illusory reunion dinner.
• Fang Yongshan paid the group twenty thousand, but Seventh Master refused his share because accepting business income could cost him his powers and lineage standing.
• The narrator paid An Ning her ten-thousand share, and he and Meng Yifan went to meet Gu An'an about selling Ding Ruoning’s home.
• Gu An'an signed an authorization agreement without notarization and explained that Ding Ruoning’s husband had agreed to sell the house.
• Gu An'an revealed that Ding Ruoning had hanged herself after her thirteen-year-old daughter also died by hanging at home six months earlier.

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.

• Meng Yifan asked Gu An'an about Sun Jiayu’s suicide, and Gu An'an said something had upset her but refused to share more.
• The narrator and Meng Yifan signed the agreement with Gu An'an, then discussed the ominous deaths with Song Xiaotian and Seventh Master.
• The narrator took An Ning to show a discounted property where an elderly man had died of a heart attack and persuaded a father and son to pay a deposit.
• The narrator handed the deposit to Meng Yifan and prepared to visit Ding Ruoning’s home that afternoon.

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.

• The narrator, An Ning, and Song Xiaotian met Seventh Master at Ding Ruoning’s villa and found its flower beds soaked despite the summer heat.
• Seventh Master explained that excessive yin energy had waterlogged the flowers and that blackening soil indicated deeply resentful spirits beneath the villa.
• The group prepared the bathroom for a soul-summoning ritual, and An Ning served as the Spirit Medium while the narrator called for Ding Ruoning.
• The bathroom light flickered and exploded, and a sinister wind blew the dust sheet off the mirror.
• Seventh Master led the others in chanting the Tranquilizing Mind Spirit Mantra, but Song Xiaotian stood and stabbed him in the neck with the knife.

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.

• Chen Mo hallucinated that Song Xiaotian killed Seventh Master and An Ning, then tried to kill himself before An Ning woke him.
• Seventh Master and An Ning woke Song Xiaotian and led everyone out of the villa, where they compared their hallucinations.
• Seventh Master explained that Sun Jiayu’s Yin Soul had attacked them because Ding Ruoning’s Yin Soul was not in the villa.
• Song Xiaotian investigated Ding Ruoning’s family and returned with documents revealing that three boys had sexually assaulted Sun Jiayu nine months earlier.
• Chen Mo and Meng Yifan read that Ding Ruoning had exposed the boys online while Sun Jiayu was recovering, and learned that the tragedy followed the exposure.

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 described how online users attacked Ding Ruoning's family and spread sexual rumors about Sun Jiayu, who later hanged herself.
• Ding Ruoning continued condemning her online attackers, while Limitless Heaven and Earth fabricated rumors targeting her after Sun Jiayu's death.
• The narrator found that Liu Tianyi, one of the boys who had assaulted Sun Jiayu, had died by jumping from a building five days earlier.
• Song Xiaotian explained that Liu Tianyi had woken his parents and grandparents before jumping from their fifteenth-floor apartment in front of them.
• The narrator and Meng Yifan suspected that Ding Ruoning had possessed Liu Tianyi and forced him to die before his family.

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 group showed Seventh Master their materials and agreed that Ding Ruoning and her daughter deserved sympathy, while debating whether revenge was justified.
• Seventh Master explained that Ding Ruoning would face punishment and lose her chance to reincarnate if she killed again, so the group had to stop her.
• Meng Yifan agreed to help after Seventh Master reminded him that he needed the mother and daughter to pass on before he could sell the villa.
• At Seventh Master's direction, the narrator cast a hexagram using Ding Ruoning's name and determined that she would kill Jiang Xiaoyu at Zi Hour.

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.

• Seventh Master explained to An Ning why Yin Souls were forbidden from harming the living, and the narrator reconsidered his own beliefs.
• The narrator confessed that he had lied: Ding Ruoning's target was Wu Binbin, whose age matched the clue he had calculated.
• Seventh Master rushed the group to Wu Binbin's residential complex, but they arrived just as Wu Binbin jumped from the building and died.
• Wu Binbin's family came downstairs in grief as residents gathered around the scene.
• Seventh Master confronted the narrator, who apologized but said he would still take revenge on Lü Zhengxian if he became a ghost, even if it meant punishment.

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 narrator argued with Seventh Master about letting Ding Ruoning take revenge, then discussed their contradictory approach with An Ning and Song Xiaotian over barbecue.
• The narrator recalculated his hexagram and predicted that Ding Ruoning would target Jiang Xiaoyu in two days, though an unknown intervention might prevent the revenge from succeeding.
• Two days later, Seventh Master called and said Ding Ruoning would kill a third person that night, and the narrator agreed to come help stop her.
• The narrator told Seventh Master that Ding Ruoning would act during the latter half of Zi Hour, then received and immediately deleted a video showing Sun Jiayu being sexually assaulted.
• The narrator condemned Sun Jiayu’s attackers and decided they deserved to die.

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.

• Seventh Master warned that Ding Ruoning’s revenge might continue beyond the three boys because she also blamed those who drove Sun Jiayu to her death.
• Song Xiaotian revealed that Jiang Nan and the other families had coordinated online attacks against Sun Jiayu, and the documents showed comments from their IP addresses.
• The narrator suspected Song Xiaotian had sent the disturbing video, but Song Xiaotian denied it.
• Seventh Master summoned the group to a hotel instead of Jiang Xiaoyu’s residential complex.
• Seventh Master introduced Zhang Bo, whom the Jiang family had hired to protect Jiang Xiaoyu and help capture Ding Ruoning.

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.

• Jiang Nan dismissed Jiang Xiaoyu’s wrongdoing and denied responsibility for the rumors that had driven Ding Ruoning and her daughter to their deaths.
• Seventh Master and Zhang Bo placed Evil-Warding Talismans and Child-Mother Talismans around Jiang Xiaoyu’s room and nearby rooms.
• The narrator secretly soaked every Child Talisman with urine, disabling them without Song Xiaotian or An Ning stopping him.
• At half past midnight, Jiang Nan’s wife screamed after seeing Ding Ruoning in the bathroom mirror.
• Seventh Master and Zhang Bo found that Ding Ruoning had appeared, but the Child Talismans had not reacted.
• Seventh Master concluded that Ding Ruoning was still present and had probably 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.

• Seventh Master used a talisman to check the people in the room, and An Ning ran away when he approached her.
• The narrator realized Ding Ruoning was possessing Jiang Nan as he attacked Jiang Xiaoyu and knocked Jiang Nan’s wife unconscious.
• The narrator and Song Xiaotian ran for help, while An Ning’s flight gave Ding Ruoning time to act.
• Seventh Master and Zhang Bo returned with An Ning and rushed upstairs after learning Jiang Nan had killed his son.
• Brother Liu took statements from the group and let them go after the police arrested Jiang Nan.

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.

• Brother Liu praised the narrator’s accurate divination about his mother and offered to seek his help again.
• The Seventh Master apologized to Zhang Bo for ruining his job, and Zhang Bo said Jiang Nan’s family had faced retribution before leaving.
• The Seventh Master drove away without addressing the narrator, Song Xiaotian, and An Ning.
• In the car, the narrator reasoned that Zhang Bo had deliberately warned them about the talismans and that the Seventh Master had hinted that An Ning should run.
• Song Xiaotian and An Ning realized the Seventh Master and Zhang Bo had likely stood aside after Jiang Nan’s cruel remarks changed their minds.
• The narrator concluded that Jiang Nan had wasted three chances for Jiang Xiaoyu to survive, and urged the others to keep the Seventh Master’s actions secret.

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 narrator, Song Xiaotian, An Ning, and Seventh Master burned reports and photos to summon Sun Jiayu, but she did not appear.
• Seventh Master used a compass and concluded Sun Jiayu’s yin soul was no longer in the villa, likely because her parents had taken her away.
• The narrator worried Ding Ruoning might continue killing keyboard warriors, while Seventh Master warned that the revenge would escalate.
• Song Xiaotian checked the residential complex’s surveillance and found Sun Yang had returned the previous night, with the car door opening by itself.
• An Ning showed the group an online post by Limitless Heaven and Earth accusing Sun Yang of killing Jiang Xiaoyu and the other two boys.