Chapter Summaries

Seventh Master used a staged scare and a talisman to put Brother Liu into a trance, then tried to recover his missing memories. Brother Liu recalled an old man he called “Grandfather,” and Seventh Master realized someone had hidden the memory behind a barrier that replaced the hypnotist’s face with Brother Liu’s greatest fear.

• Chen rode with Brother Liu to Seventh Master's house, where Seventh Master deliberately startled Brother Liu with a broken teacup and Ding Ruoning's ghost.
• Seventh Master burned a talisman to put Brother Liu into a stable trance and explained how fear had made him susceptible to the technique.
• Seventh Master guided Brother Liu through a reconstruction of the night he left work, while Ding Ruoning formed the alley from his memories.
• Brother Liu recalled an old, hunched man and cried out “Grandfather,” prompting Seventh Master to end the reconstruction.
• Seventh Master concluded that the hypnotist had hidden the memory behind a barrier that made Brother Liu see the person he feared most instead.

Seventh Master and the narrator tried to break the barrier in Liu Jianye’s memories by helping him face his fear of his grandfather’s ghost. In a recreated childhood memory, Liu Jianye cried out to his grandfather as the ghost vanished, leaving the barrier’s fate unresolved.

• Seventh Master said he could not break the memory barrier that changed the hypnotizer’s face into Liu Jianye’s greatest fear.
• The narrator suggested that helping Liu Jianye overcome his fear of his grandfather might lift the barrier, and Seventh Master questioned Liu Jianye about it.
• Liu Jianye said his grandfather had died but appeared to him as a ghost and wanted to take him away.
• Ding Ruoning used Ghost Wall to recreate the childhood scene of Liu Jianye encountering his grandfather’s ghost at a fresh grave.
• Seventh Master guided young Liu Jianye from fear toward grief and told him his grandfather still loved and missed him.
• Young Liu Jianye called out to his grandfather, who smiled lovingly and disappeared.

Seventh Master helped Brother Liu recover his memories, revealing An Yutong had lied about being home when Liang Yi arrived and that a masked man carried a heavy travel bag out of the building. The chapter left them suspecting Liang Yi was inside the bag and might still be alive.

• Seventh Master removed Brother Liu's childhood fear of ghosts, clearing the barrier in his memories and helping him recall the face of the man who hypnotized him.
• Seventh Master and the narrator studied the man's features and concluded he was a powerful, wealthy criminal tied to the martial underworld.
• Seventh Master guided Brother Liu to remember the surveillance footage, which showed Liang Yi entering An Yutong's building and a door opening and closing on the thirteenth floor.
• Brother Liu realized An Yutong had lied about being home when Liang Yi arrived.
• The footage showed a masked man carrying a heavy travel bag from the thirteenth floor at midnight, and Seventh Master noted that the man shared the hypnotist's build and half-metal ears.
• The narrator suspected Liang Yi had been inside the bag and believed she might still be alive.

Brother Liu recovered his memories and identified the man who abducted Liang Yi as the same man who had hypnotized him. After checking on a missing child and discussing the omens with the Seventh Master, the narrator set out to investigate Liang Yi.

• Brother Liu remembered that An Yutong had conspired with a man to kidnap Liang Yi, and he recognized that man as the one who had summoned him and erased his USB drive.
• Brother Liu planned to have a sketch artist draw the suspect, while the narrator urged him to investigate An Yutong's car.
• The Seventh Master told the narrator that seeing hearses was a bad omen but the missing child was likely safe and could be found by the grave.
• The narrator called Meng Yifan and learned that the child had been found by the grave after a deceased relative led him there.
• The narrator borrowed the Seventh Master's car and went to investigate Liang Yi, wondering why Liang Yi had approached An Yutong.

The narrator confronted Liang Yi’s parents at the residential complex and concluded that their son-favoring household had shaped Liang Yi’s people-pleasing nature. After Brother Liu reported that An Yutong had lied about damage to her car, the narrator went to wait for her at the school gates.

• The narrator questioned Liang Yi’s parents as they demanded money from the complex owner, and they tried to attack him when he accused them of neglecting their daughter and favoring their son.
• The narrator drove away and reasoned that Liang Yi had grown up neglected and may have sought money from An Yutong to escape her family.
• Brother Liu told the narrator that An Yutong’s car had no damage, despite her claim that it had been scratched, and that she had left it at the dealership without plans to collect it soon.
• The narrator went to the school gates that night to wait for An Yutong.

The narrator drove An Yutong home while seeking information about Liang Yi, then dreamed that An Yutong taunted him that Liang Yi would never be found. After waking, he questioned Meng Yifan about a fortune-telling remark that seemed to connect with his dream.

• The narrator told An Yutong about Liang Yi's difficult life and asked her to share any leads; An Yutong agreed to ask around at school.
• The narrator watched An Yutong stand outside her residential complex for several minutes before going inside.
• The narrator dreamed that Liang Yi led him to An Yutong's complex, where An Yutong revealed she knew he was searching for Liang Yi and said nobody would ever find her.
• The narrator woke in a cold sweat and heard Meng Yifan say that obsession with money could lead people to extremes.
• The narrator urgently asked Meng Yifan to repeat what he had said about going to extremes.

Chen investigated Liang Yi’s disappearance and confronted the woman posing as An Yutong, revealing that she was actually Liang Yi. The chapter ended with Liang Yi frozen as Chen challenged her to admit the truth.

• Brother Liu told Chen that Liang Yi had chronic anemia, had sold her blood several times, and that An Yutong had unsuccessfully applied to change her major to law.
• Boss Xu told Chen that online rumors and attacks on his family had exhausted his patience, and Chen promised to deliver an answer that night.
• Chen picked up An Yutong at the university and drove her out of the city to test his theories.
• When Chen pretended to strike her, the woman instinctively shielded her head, leading him to accuse her of being Liang Yi, who had been beaten by her family.
• Chen explained that the woman had claimed An Yutong’s car needed repairs because she could not drive and was afraid people would discover the truth.

Liang Yi revealed that she had used soul possession to take over An Yutong’s body and had killed her, driven by years of poverty and resentment. She defended her actions as a fight against an unfair world, leaving the narrator speechless in the cold wind.

• The narrator concluded that Liang Yi was likely the perpetrator and confronted her with the theory that she had possessed An Yutong’s body with help from a hypnotist.
• Liang Yi admitted she would take the narrator to An Yutong and led him to a secluded spot outside the city.
• Liang Yi revealed that An Yutong’s soul had been destroyed and her own body disposed of, leaving her as the only An Yutong.
• The narrator accused Liang Yi of killing an innocent person, but she showed no guilt and said poverty was the only crime deserving forgiveness.
• Liang Yi described the abuse, deprivation, and financial hardship she had endured, insisting that she had fought for fairness and lamenting that her fate seemed impossible to change.
• The narrator listened to Liang Yi’s anguished account and found himself unable to respond.

Liang Yi explained that she had taken over An Yutong’s life to escape poverty and gain power, while insisting the law could not punish her. After embracing the narrator, she injected him with a powerful anesthetic as the man who had hypnotized Brother Liu and several others approached, and the narrator lost consciousness with his call to An Ning still connected.

• The narrator asked Liang Yi whether she had possessed An Yutong to escape her poor family, and Liang Yi said she wanted to use An Yutong’s resources to rise in society.
• Liang Yi said she sought power rather than wealth and insisted that no existing law could convict her.
• The narrator told Liang Yi that An Yutong had been the victim and asked who had helped her take the body, but Liang Yi refused to name him.
• Liang Yi hugged the narrator and said he was the only person who had cared whether she lived or died.
• Liang Yi injected the narrator with a potent anesthetic as the man who had hypnotized Brother Liu and several others emerged from the darkness.
• The narrator collapsed and realized that he was the one destined to disappear and die as his phone showed an hour-long call with An Ning.

The captive narrator confronted the man who had helped Liang Yi and revealed that the organization had secretly monitored and hypnotized people revived through Seven Deaths for a Life. The man tried to hypnotize the narrator with an Evil Buddha pendant, but the attempt failed, leaving the captors baffled.

• The narrator deduced that the man’s group had worked with Liang Yi to capture them and destroy An Yutong’s soul.
• The man said Lü Zhengxian had become Du Yunting after his schemes got him and several members of the organization killed.
• The man revealed that the organization monitored people revived through Seven Deaths for a Life and had hypnotized the narrator throughout their life.
• The man admitted he had crippled the thug who once ambushed the narrator and Meng Yifan when they were eighteen.
• The man tried to hypnotize the narrator with an Evil Buddha pendant, but the narrator resisted and told him to call them Dad for an explanation.

The narrator endured imprisonment and torture by Qingyuan, who tried to hypnotize him to uncover a secret within him. When Qingyuan stabbed him, the narrator’s other soul, Li Fuguang, emerged and destroyed the hypnotic pendant before vanishing, leaving the narrator wounded and still captive.

• The narrator resisted Qingyuan’s hypnosis and taunted him, so Qingyuan left him bound in darkness without food or water.
• After roughly two days, Qingyuan returned and stabbed the narrator in the thigh while demanding he submit.
• The narrator’s other soul, Li Fuguang, emerged, and Qingyuan tried to hypnotize him with a pendant.
• The pendant exploded, and Li Fuguang warned Qingyuan before disappearing without freeing the narrator.
• Qingyuan ordered the narrator given nutrient solution and treated enough to keep him alive, then left him captive.

Chen Mo endured days of torture in captivity, then used incantations taught by a hallucinated Patriarch to ease his pain. Just as he feared no one would find him, An Ning emerged from a hidden room and killed one of his captors.

• Chen Mo suffered untreated pain while his captors kept him alive with nutrient IVs.
• Third Brother gave Chen Mo a little water, taunted him with congee, and left after Chen Mo cursed him.
• Chen Mo dreamed of the Patriarch, memorized his incantations, and discovered they eased his physical pain.
• Chen Mo remained captive for two more days and grew weaker while thinking of the people he cared about.
• An Ning came out of the hidden room, killed a captor with a saber, and swayed as she tried to recover.

An Ning rescued the narrator from captivity after following directions from a mysterious dream, and they escaped the room into the countryside. When the narrator collapsed from exhaustion and blood loss, An Ning carried him on her back as they tried to get away.

• An Ning cut the narrator’s ropes and explained how she had hidden in a crate on a truck after a young man appeared in her dream and told her where to go.
• The narrator assessed the guards and surroundings, and he and An Ning left the room while the others were likely eating.
• An Ning helped the narrator outside and guided him around the building toward a small path.
• The narrator collapsed from exhaustion and a bleeding wound, then urged An Ning to find a signal and contact Seventh Master and Song Xiaotian.
• An Ning refused to leave him behind and hoisted him onto her back.

The narrator and An Ning escaped their pursuers with help from Du Yunting’s crossbowmen, then reached a hospital, where the narrator later woke up. Seventh Master and Xie Peng told him An Ning was safe and that Song Xiaotian had been detained after going to Liang Yi’s school.

• An Ning carried the injured narrator as she fled, then stood to fight three pursuers when they caught up.
• The narrator shielded An Ning from the men’s beating until Du Yunting’s bodyguard and two other crossbowmen killed the pursuers.
• The crossbowmen carried the narrator and An Ning to a motorcycle, left them with a key, and took the Broadsword.
• An Ning tied herself to the narrator on the motorcycle and got him to the hospital, where he collapsed and underwent surgery.
• The narrator woke in a hospital ward with Seventh Master and Xie Peng, who confirmed An Ning was safe and said Song Xiaotian had been detained after going to Liang Yi’s school.

After waking from an eleven-day ordeal, the narrator learned that Song Xiaotian had been detained and that Liang Yi’s biological parents’ home had been burned down in an arson attack. As he recovered in the hospital with An Ning by his side, he discovered that Du Yunting’s men had rescued them, and Seventh Master believed they had been waiting to save him.

• Seventh Master told the narrator that Song Xiaotian had been detained for attacking Liang Yi at school and that Liang Yi’s biological parents’ home had been destroyed by arson.
• The narrator saw how much weight he had lost after his captivity, and Xie Peng fed him congee while recounting how Seventh Master and An Ning had watched over him.
• The narrator woke to find An Ning beside him, and she checked his fever, heated congee, and stayed with him overnight.
• The narrator told Seventh Master that Du Yunting’s men had killed their captors, carried him and An Ning to the road, and given them a motorcycle.
• Seventh Master concluded that Du Yunting’s men had likely been waiting nearby to rescue the narrator.

The Seventh Master explained that Lü Zhengxian had saved the narrator because he feared the organization would take control of Weihai Group and saw the narrator as a useful counterweight. The narrator suspected the secret Qingyuan sought was tied to Li Fuguang and the Two Souls in One Lifetime fate pattern, but could not understand what it might be.

• The narrator wondered whether Lü Zhengxian had saved her because of his fixation on An Ning, but the Seventh Master said Lü Zhengxian had specifically come to save her.
• The Seventh Master reasoned that Lü Zhengxian was no longer the organization’s equal and had likely saved the narrator to protect his company, wealth, and status from its control.
• The Seventh Master linked the organization’s assistance to Lü Zhengxian, Lin Jinhua, and Liang Yi to its efforts to cultivate wealth and future power.
• The narrator asked what the organization was, and the Seventh Master said its origins, leadership, and doctrines remained impossible to verify.
• The narrator wondered whether Qingyuan’s interest in Two Souls in One Lifetime revealed the secret within her, but she could not see what secret she and Li Fuguang might share.

After recovering from his injuries, Chen Mo visited Liang Yi to ask about her betrayal and the fire at her biological parents’ home. He gave her a fountain pen and urged her to change, then left without seeking revenge.

• Seventh Master could not explain why Li Fuguang had emerged from Chen Mo, and Chen Mo worried that the organization might target him again.
• Song Xiaotian and Pan Xiaorou visited Chen Mo in the hospital, and Pan Xiaorou transferred Boss Xu’s three-hundred-thousand-yuan payment to him.
• Chen Mo divided the money, giving a hundred thousand yuan each to Song Xiaotian and An Ning.
• After leaving the hospital on crutches, Chen Mo went with Song Xiaotian to meet Liang Yi near her school.
• Chen Mo asked Liang Yi whether she had set fire to her biological parents’ home, and her silence and trembling hand confirmed his suspicion.
• Chen Mo gave Liang Yi a fountain pen, urged her to treat others kindly and stop making mistakes, and walked away.

While recovering at Seventh Master's house, the narrator asked whether his fate pattern could be changed and searched metaphysical books for clues about his two souls, without finding answers. The chapter left off as a wealthy visitor began describing dreams of a deceased relative and asked Seventh Master about Lanjiang City's most notorious haunted house.

• On the way back, Song Xiaotian asked whether they would let Liang Yi continue possessing An Yutong, and the narrator explained that they could not prove the possession but hoped Liang Yi would stop harming people.
• Song Xiaotian drove the narrator to Seventh Master's house, where he stayed to recover and study.
• The narrator noticed a locked, talisman-sealed room and wondered why Seventh Master was keeping a ghost inside.
• Over breakfast, the narrator asked Seventh Master about changing a fate pattern so he would not bring harm to a future wife, and Seventh Master offered to ask around for a method.
• The narrator read metaphysical books while staying with Seventh Master, but found no explanation for his two souls in one lifetime.
• A wealthy man came to consult Seventh Master about dreams of a deceased relative, then asked whether Seventh Master knew Lanjiang City's most notorious haunted house.

Tan Chongming told Seventh Master and the narrator that the ghost visiting his dreams was Tan Wannian, his biological father, whose family was murdered at Splendid Embroidery Manor thirty years earlier. Tan Wannian said he was trapped somewhere and was repeatedly dragged away by a mysterious blackened hand; Seventh Master recalled that police had blamed Tan Wannian for killing his family.

• Seventh Master identified Splendid Embroidery Manor as the site of a family massacre and later murders.
• Tan Chongming explained that Tan Wannian was his biological father, who had given him to his younger brother to adopt.
• Tan Chongming recounted how his family emigrated after seven relatives, including Tan Wannian, were murdered thirty years earlier.
• Tan Chongming said Tan Wannian had visited his dreams for about a month, claiming he was trapped among people and strange things before a blackened hand dragged him away.
• Seventh Master noted that Tan Chongming had dreamed only of Tan Wannian and recalled that police had announced Tan Wannian killed his entire family.

Mr. Tan recounted the Tan family massacre and the unresolved contradictions surrounding the police conclusion that his uncle, Tan Wannian, killed his family and himself. The chapter left the investigation focused on Tan Wannian’s unexplained death and his final request to leave the bodies untouched for seven days, a wish the authorities overruled by cremating them.

• Mr. Tan said his father had rejected the official report and appealed the case, while Seventh Master recalled that police blamed Tan Wannian’s obsession with immortality and hallucinogenic elixirs.
• Mr. Tan explained that Tan Wannian became devoted to Taoism after his first wife died and later shut himself away to seek a way to save his second wife from cancer.
• Mr. Tan said police found Tan Wannian holding the murder weapon, but the victims had been stabbed by someone using the right hand even though Tan Wannian was left-handed.
• Mr. Tan revealed that Tan Wannian had no fatal injuries or poison in his body, and Seventh Master said the evidence about the killer’s dominant hand made the official account unlikely.
• Mr. Tan said Tan Wannian left a letter instructing his father not to disturb the bodies for seven days, but police removed them for autopsies and they were forcibly cremated.