Chapter Summaries

Rat said his final farewell to Xiao Xuan and departed, leaving the boy to grieve with Mo and Seventh Master. At the station, Xiao Xuan left Rat’s money with Mo for Blind Old Man, while Mo donated to Director Chen’s Welfare Institute before Xiao Xuan left with him.

• At dawn, Rat reminded Xiao Xuan to study hard, avoid stealing, and keep looking ahead before Seventh Master sent Rat on his way.
• Mo comforted Xiao Xuan and took him back to pack after Rat departed.
• At the station, Seventh Master gave Xiao Xuan a Peace Talisman, and Xiao Xuan gave Mo chips and asked him to return five hundred yuan to Blind Old Man.
• Mo promised to take Xiao Xuan to visit Blind Old Man whenever he wanted and donated fifty thousand yuan to Director Chen’s Welfare Institute anonymously.
• Mo learned that An Ning and Song Xiaotian had also donated to the Welfare Institute, then watched Director Chen and Xiao Xuan board the bus.

After the Blind Old Man died, I and my friends discovered that he had once planned to drown himself and learned how Rat and Xiao Xuan had given him a reason to live. In a dream after his funeral, I recognized the young fortune-teller as Tang Zhui, the founder of Six Lines Mysteries.

• I, Song Xiaotian, and Meng Yifan visited the Blind Old Man and found that he had died at home, so we arranged his funeral.
• We found the Blind Old Man's final letter, which revealed that he had planned to drown himself before meeting Rat and Xiao Xuan, and that he later lost his will to live after Rat died and Xiao Xuan left.
• Seventh Master told me that the Blind Old Man had died naturally on the day his allotted lifespan ended, though he could not explain how fate and the old man's despair were connected.
• I and my friends found the Blind Old Man's savings and followed his instructions to set aside the money for Xiao Xuan, while keeping the news of the death from him.
• I dreamed of the young fortune-teller again, and he introduced himself as Tang Zhui, whom I recognized as the founder of Six Lines Mysteries.

In a dream, the narrator met his Patriarch, who explained the limits of divination and urged him to rely on human will and the Dao. The Patriarch accepted him as a disciple and warned that a calamity awaited him soon.

• The Patriarch identified the narrator's two souls in one lifetime and used his natal hexagram to explain why his first-half fate could be read but his future could not.
• The narrator asked about his ultimate fate, but the Patriarch refused and taught him that divination should guide action rather than govern a person's life.
• The narrator accepted the Patriarch's offer of the Rite of Transmission and explained that he wanted skills to protect himself and help others.
• The Patriarch required the narrator to swear five sect rules, then gave him a jade pendant as proof of transmission and a token.
• The Patriarch warned that the narrator would soon face a calamity and cast another hexagram to help him seek good fortune and avoid misfortune.

After receiving a warning of deadly danger from the Patriarch’s Wandering Soul Hexagram, the narrator tried to avoid traveling during the National Day holiday. When Seventh Master invited him to Lin City to investigate a construction site’s strange accidents, the narrator refused, then realized his involvement might be necessary to protect Seventh Master.

• The narrator woke with the jade pendant the Patriarch had given him in a dream and interpreted the final hexagram as a warning of dangerous travel and a calamity he would get involved in.
• He spent two days on edge and decided to stay home during the holiday rather than join Meng Yifan and Song Xiaotian on their planned trip.
• Seventh Master invited the narrator to Lin City to help investigate a resort construction site where two workers had died in bizarre accidents.
• The narrator turned Seventh Master down because of the hexagram, but reconsidered after recalling the Patriarch’s warning that he would have to survive the calamity to gain something.
• The narrator concluded that the trip to Lin City was the calamity and that Seventh Master might also be in danger if he went without the narrator.

After the Patriarch warned him of an ordeal tied to Lin City, the narrator joined Seventh Master on the trip despite the danger. Their divinations both showed extremely ominous signs, and Seventh Master decided he had to face the ordeal rather than avoid it.

• The narrator told Seventh Master about the Patriarch’s dream transmission and ominous hexagram, then urged him to refuse the Lin City job.
• Seventh Master explained his ties to Lin Jinhua and said his duty and conscience required him to honor his promise.
• At the narrator’s suggestion, Seventh Master tossed coins while the narrator cast a six-lines reading for him.
• The narrator found that Seventh Master’s world line was struck by both the monthly and daily branches, making the hexagram even more ominous than his own.
• The narrator compared their readings and found matching signs, convincing Seventh Master that they shared the same perilous fate.
• Seventh Master concluded that avoiding a major ordeal could bring a heavier price, so he would go to Lin City and face it.

After deciding to travel to Lin City with Seventh Master, the narrator studied the Hexagram Character Formula in Six Lines Mysteries and tried meditating to cultivate its power. He dreamed of burning Du Ruhai’s house, then woke to find Song Xiaotian had doused him after a hole was burned in his bed.

• The narrator told Meng Yifan and Song Xiaotian that he would go to Lin City with Seventh Master instead of joining their vacation, then packed Six Lines Mysteries.
• The narrator read that the Hexagram Character Formula used the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams to cast spells, including techniques for revealing, trapping, and subduing Yin Souls.
• The narrator tried to cultivate by visualizing a flame, briefly saw one the size of a soybean, and concluded that his power was weak.
• The narrator fell asleep and dreamed that he cast Zhen Character, Samadhi True Fire, and burned Du Ruhai’s house.
• Song Xiaotian poured water on the narrator to put out a fire, and the narrator woke to find a hole burned in his bed.

Chen Mo traveled with Seventh Master to Lin City, despite the danger foretold by their hexagrams. On the train, an unidentified food-cart attendant left them breakfast and a note that appeared to predict what would happen to them in Lin City, leaving Chen Mo shaken.

• Chen Mo discovered he had burned a hole through his bed in his sleep and hid the truth from Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan.
• Chen Mo met Seventh Master at the station, and they discussed a hexagram predicting that four people would help them, including two women.
• Seventh Master warned that Meng Yifan and Song Xiaotian might come to Lin City because something could happen to them, but Chen Mo chose to go with him anyway.
• Chen Mo told Seventh Master that An Ning had returned to the Orphanage, then resumed reading during the train ride.
• A food-cart attendant left breakfast for Chen Mo and Seventh Master without stopping for other passengers.
• Chen Mo found a note addressed to him beneath the breakfast, read that it knew about their fate in Lin City, and trembled at the familiar handwriting.

Chen Mo and Seventh Master Zhao Qiankun met real estate developer Lin Jinhua, who asked them to investigate a construction site plagued by accidents and deaths. After hearing about the site's sinister history, Chen Mo realized the trouble might be worse than they expected.

• Chen Mo learned that Seventh Master's real name was Zhao Qiankun after they arrived at the station.
• Assistant He drove Chen Mo and Zhao Qiankun to Lin Jinhua's villa, where Lin explained that repeated accidents had disrupted construction and threatened costly shutdowns.
• Zhao Qiankun suspected a ghost was causing the accidents and explained how it could affect people, then learned that the site chef had recently lost his son.
• Lin Jinhua gave Zhao Qiankun and Chen Mo documents about the plot's history, and Chen Mo discovered that a major incident had occurred there during the Republican era.

The chapter recounts how the Seventh Concubine died in the Luo Residence and her daughter, Luo Xiuzhu, was mistreated after her death. A year later the household suffered a mysterious massacre, and Luo Xiuzhu vanished, leaving her fate unknown.

• A maid found the Seventh Concubine drowned in the well, and Luo Baichuan buried her without reporting the death to the authorities.
• After the Seventh Concubine died, Luo Xiuzhu suffered neglect and abuse in the Luo Residence while Luo Baichuan took two more wives.
• Strange events began in the Luo Residence a year after the Seventh Concubine's death, and eventually its gates remained closed for a month as a foul smell spread.
• Officials entered the Luo Residence and found all its residents dead: Luo Baichuan had killed the concubines before hanging himself, while the others had died of fright.
• The authorities found only thirty-nine bodies, and Luo Xiuzhu's body was missing; no one ever learned whether she was alive.

The narrator and Seventh Master read how the Luo Residence massacre led to more people disappearing, and how the occult practitioner Li Tushan proposed building a Thunder Ancestor Temple to suppress the spirits. The account leaves the spirits still undelivered, with their future dependent on the temple and the people’s worship.

• Boss Lin explained that no one knew whether nine-year-old Luo Xiuzhu survived the massacre at the Luo Residence.
• The narrator and Seventh Master read that men kept disappearing at night and were later found dead in the Seventh Concubine's room alongside out-of-town thieves.
• Li Tushan entered the Luo Residence alone at the Zi Hour and emerged safely the next morning.
• Li Tushan said he could neither eliminate nor deliver the vengeful spirits, but could stop them from harming people.
• Li Tushan proposed building a Thunder Ancestor Temple on the site and worshipping devoutly so the deity would suppress the spirits until they returned to the Underworld.

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.