Chapter Summaries

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.

An old man recounts how Xu Xiu joined the Luo Residence to avenge her cousin-aunt, who Luo Baichuan murdered after believing false rumors. The account reveals the old man's connection to Xu Changming, but leaves Xu Xiu's revenge and the girl's death unexplained.

• The old man said Luo Baichuan killed his older cousin-aunt by pushing her into a well after hearing rumors that she had been unfaithful.
• Xu Xiu and the old man's father investigated the death and uncovered the truth.
• Xu Xiu decided to marry into the Luo Residence, kill Luo Baichuan, and take her cousin-aunt's daughter away, relying on her knowledge of the Red Lotus Method.
• The old man said the Luo Residence was later wiped out, but he did not know the details of Xu Xiu's revenge or how the daughter died.
• The narrator learned that the old man's father was Xu Changming and that he had apparently joined an occult sect before returning to the village with a missing hand.

The narrator and Seventh Master suspected Ninth Concubine’s recent death was connected to the Ghost Wall and planned to summon her Yin Soul. While staying with the old man, the narrator found letters revealing Xu Changming’s past and recognized a possible connection to Song Xiaotian’s family.

• The narrator told Seventh Master what the old man had shared, and they agreed Ninth Concubine’s death seemed suspicious.
• Seventh Master urged the narrator to stay in the village overnight and try to summon Ninth Concubine’s Yin Soul.
• The old man invited the narrator and An Ning to stay and showed them Xu Changming’s belongings.
• The narrator found letters from Song Qingshan and learned that Song had saved Xu Changming after the organization hunted him, prompting Xu to retire to his village.
• The narrator noticed Song Qingshan’s name sounded familiar and asked An Ning whether Song Xiaotian’s father was named Song Qing.

Chen and An Ning found no useful clues in the old man’s house, so Chen planned to summon the Ninth Concubine’s soul that night. Before the ritual, Chen became suspicious of Assistant He and warned An Ning to keep a knife ready, leaving them wary of what he might do.

• Chen wondered whether Daoist Song was connected to Song Xiaotian’s father, Song Qing, but An Ning said the similar names were probably a coincidence.
• The old man prepared rooms for Chen, An Ning, and Assistant He, and Chen paid him three hundred yuan for their stay.
• Chen explained the village’s favorable feng shui to Assistant He while they walked around, though he privately thought Assistant He was being insincere about liking the countryside.
• At Zi Hour, Chen went to wake Assistant He for the soul-summoning and noticed that Assistant He had been using his phone despite claiming he had slept.
• Chen told An Ning that Assistant He seemed suspicious and handed her a folding knife, and An Ning worried he might sabotage the ritual.
• Chen told An Ning to stab Assistant He first if he tried anything.

Chen Mo went to the Ninth Concubine Xu Xiu’s home with An Ning and Assistant He to summon her soul. When the natural-death ritual failed, Chen Mo used a method for victims of unnatural death, and Xu Xiu possessed An Ning.

• An Ning picked the lock to Xu Xiu’s house with a hairpin, and the three went upstairs to the altar.
• Chen Mo offered incense and called for Xu Xiu using a ritual for someone who had died naturally, but nothing happened.
• An Ning suggested Xu Xiu might not have died naturally, so Chen Mo repeated the summons using a ritual for unnatural death.
• A cold wind swept through the closed house, and the group heard Xu Xiu cough.
• Xu Xiu possessed An Ning and spoke to Chen Mo in an elderly woman’s voice.

Chen Mo summoned the Ninth Concubine to learn the truth about the Luo Residence, and she explained her guilt over Xiuzhu’s death and how she had plotted revenge on the Luo family. She left Chen Mo with a question about the Qiongqi statue.

• Chen Mo respectfully asked the Ninth Concubine about the Luo Residence and explained that he needed to resolve the haunting there.
• The Ninth Concubine revealed that she had married Luo Baichuan hoping to take Xiuzhu away, but she had been unable to protect her, and Xiuzhu was beaten to death and thrown into a well.
• The Ninth Concubine said she had faked her death using the Soul-Separation Art and arranged for Luo Baichuan to revive her with a Seven-Star Lamp on Lunar New Year's Eve.
• The Ninth Concubine explained that she had deceived Luo Baichuan into killing the other concubines and using the Luo Residence's people as living sacrifices to revive her.
• The Ninth Concubine said she wanted revenge that would doom the Luo family beyond redemption, then asked Chen Mo whether he had seen the Qiongqi statue.