Chapter Summaries

The narrator fought the Snake Spirit possessing Zhang Xu after it attacked him and blocked their escape. He forced the spirit out of Zhang Xu, but the python fled through the doors, so he called An Ning and told her to have Yi Yang stop it if possible.

• The narrator used Daoist seals to repel Zhang Xu and disorient the people under the Snake Spirit's control, while An Ning and Yi Yang escaped.
• The narrator confronted Zhang Xu about Tao Jingyu's pregnancy and demanded that he deal with the child, but Zhang Xu refused and attacked him.
• The narrator invoked the Spirit-Invoking Art, knocked out the controlled people, and overpowered the possessed Zhang Xu.
• The narrator threatened the Snake Spirit and forced it out of Zhang Xu's body, but the python fled through the doors.
• The narrator called An Ning and urged her to tell Yi Yang to stop the escaping spirit.

The narrator and his companions failed to catch the Snake Spirit, then brought its shed skin to Seventh Master to identify it. Seventh Master confirmed it was an Immortal Family member who had escaped the Northeast and described the rule forbidding such spirits from leaving.

• The narrator met Yi Yang and An Ning, learned they had not found the Snake Spirit, and proposed asking Seventh Master about the snake skin.
• The next day, the narrator took Yi Yang and An Ning to see Seventh Master, where Yi Yang recognized Zhao Qiankun as the man who had saved his master, Zhong Jiugang.
• The narrator showed Seventh Master the snake skin, and Seventh Master identified the Snake Spirit as an Immortal Family member from the Northeast.
• Seventh Master recounted how a Huang Family spirit had been hunted down and killed by lightning after trying to leave the Northeast, with the warning “Edict: Do Not Leave Shanhaiguan” found near its body.

Seventh Master explained why the Five Immortals were bound to Shanhaiguan and told the story of the Calamity Dragon and its stolen child. The child, Chang An'an, later escaped the Northeast and became the only spirit to leave Shanhaiguan alive.

• Seventh Master said Emperor Qianlong granted the Chuma Immortals five hundred years in exchange for staying within Shanhaiguan, and explained that Third Grandfather Huang and Third Grandmother Huang were among those bound by the rule.
• Seventh Master described Calamity Dragons as nearly powerless, highly fertile snakes whose offspring had defects and short lifespans.
• During Qianlong's reign, a Chuma disciple discovered that a wealthy merchant's daughter had been impregnated in a dream by a Calamity Dragon, and Eighth Grandfather Hu, Hu Tianbao, killed the snake.
• The Bai Family removed the merchant's daughter's child, but a giant python knocked the Bai immortal and the Chuma disciple unconscious and took the human-headed, snake-bodied infant.
• The Liu Family took the child, named her Chang An'an, and valued her Calamity Dragon lineage; thirty years ago, Chang An'an escaped the Northeast.

Seventh Master explained that Chang An'an, the last Calamity Dragon, fled the Northeast after betraying the organization and stealing something important from it. After learning that Chang An'an had fathered Pan Lijuan’s daughter’s unborn child, the group considered how to handle her and why she seemed weaker than before.

• Seventh Master told the group that Chang An'an had been rejected by the Liu Family and joined the organization only to escape the Northeast.
• Seventh Master explained that Chang An'an killed over a dozen organization members when they tried to take her abroad, then disappeared with an important secret.
• The narrator realized catching Chang An'an might reveal the organization’s secret, while Seventh Master warned that she remained dangerous.
• Seventh Master said the Bai Family should be asked to deal with Chang An'an’s unborn child and that the Liu Family should be informed of her betrayal.
• After the narrator described their fight, Seventh Master concluded that Chang An'an must have weakened over the years and agreed that capturing her could uncover the organization’s secret.

Fang Mingjie investigated the security guard Fang Mingjie as a possible identity assumed by the Snake Spirit Chang An'an. After learning of Fang Mingjie's mysterious recovery from a near-fatal illness, Fang Mingjie and his companions tried to make him swallow realgar powder, leaving the powder hidden in his family's food.

• Fang Mingjie examined the security shift schedule and learned Fang Mingjie had taken consecutive days off for his son's birthday; Tao Jianhua ordered him fired for delivering takeout outside work.
• Fang Mingjie asked Brother Liu to investigate Fang Mingjie, who reported that the guard had mysteriously recovered from a critical illness eight years earlier.
• Fang Mingjie suspected Chang An'an had possessed the real Fang Mingjie and used the guard's shift to evade them the previous night.
• Fang Mingjie, An Ning, and Yi Yang waited near a restaurant where Fang Mingjie had gone with his family, and Fang Mingjie explained how the Snake Spirit might have escaped them.
• Fang Mingjie disguised himself as a food safety inspector, entered the kitchen, and poured realgar powder into a bowl of fish with pickled mustard greens ordered for Fang Mingjie's private room.

The narrator, An Ning, and Yi Yang exposed Chang An'an as Fang Mingjie and confronted him about assaulting Tao Jingyu. Fang Mingjie said only someone from the Bai Family could save Tao Jingyu and her child, then began to cry when asked why she was his only victim.

• The narrator used realgar in fish soup to drive Fang Mingjie out of a restaurant, and the three friends pinned him down in an alley.
• Realgar forced Fang Mingjie's snake features to appear, but Yi Yang gave him talisman water that suppressed its effects.
• Fang Mingjie admitted he could not undo Tao Jingyu's pregnancy and said Bai Shufen had delivered him under similar circumstances.
• Fang Mingjie claimed Tao Jingyu was the only person he had harmed in the thirty years since fleeing the Northeast.
• Fang Mingjie glared at the group as his eyes reddened and filled with tears.

Fang Mingjie broke down and described the hardships he had endured as a snake and as a human. After learning why Li Mu had warned him against using his magic, he was left reflecting on the harm he had caused Tao Jingyu, then heard that he had been fired again.

• Fang Mingjie cried as he told An Ning, Yi Yang, and the narrator about being rejected by the Liu Family, injured after fleeing the Northeast, and exploited while working in an illegal coal mine.
• Fang Mingjie explained that he had possessed reporter Fang Mingjie's body to care for the man's family, but struggled to support his wife and two sons while working multiple jobs.
• Fang Mingjie revealed that Li Mu had beaten him and warned him that using magic would kill him, a curse he believed for nearly thirty years.
• The narrator reasoned that Li Mu had warned Fang Mingjie because using magic unleashed his Calamity Dragon nature, and urged him to consider the harm he had caused Tao Jingyu.
• The narrator told Fang Mingjie that his company had fired him again the previous day.

Song Xiaotian learned that Fang Mingjie, possessed by Chang An'an, had lost his security job and faced foreclosure, then promised to find him better work and help him escape the Northeast's pursuit. The next morning, Song Xiaotian told Seventh Master what Fang Mingjie had revealed, but the Northeast families had already arranged to come capture him.

• Fang Mingjie erupted when Song Xiaotian told him he had lost his job, and Song Xiaotian promised to find him work paying at least ten thousand.
• Song Xiaotian told Fang Mingjie that people from the Northeast might come for him, and Fang Mingjie accused him of setting him up before demanding a sworn promise of help.
• Song Xiaotian gave Fang Mingjie fake home and work addresses and decided not to ask about the organization's secret until Fang Mingjie trusted him.
• Yi Yang warned Song Xiaotian that the Liu Family would be difficult to deal with if they helped Chang An'an escape, and Song Xiaotian decided to discuss it with Seventh Master.
• Song Xiaotian went to Seventh Master's place the next morning and explained Fang Mingjie's situation, and Seventh Master lamented that Fang Mingjie had not told them sooner.

Chen Mo learned that Bai Xiaoyu and Chang Banpo were coming to arrest Chang An'an, and worried about how to protect her. He found Fang Mingjie a job at Meng Yifan’s new hotel, leaving Fang excited to become its lobby manager.

• Seventh Master told Chen Mo that Bai Xiaoyu and Chang Banpo would come to arrest Chang An'an for leaving Shanhaiguan without permission.
• Chen Mo worried that the Chang Immortals would punish him if Chang An'an was not handed over, but Seventh Master said he had no influence with them.
• Fang Mingjie called Chen Mo after discovering that the address Chen Mo had given him was fake, so Chen Mo promised to take him to a job.
• Chen Mo brought Fang Mingjie to Meng Yifan’s horror-themed hotel, where Meng offered him the lobby manager position on the condition that he stay until the hotel closed.
• Fang Mingjie accepted the job enthusiastically and promised to keep working there until he passed into nirvana.

Fang Mingjie explained that he wanted to remain human for the sake of his wife and children, and the narrator promised to help him avoid the Immortal Family. The Northeast visitors arrived intending to kill Chang An'an’s unborn child, and the chapter ended with the narrator and Yi Yang seeing the dead, monstrous offspring.

• Fang Mingjie signed an employment contract with Meng Yifan and told the narrator he would not return to the Northeast because he wanted to stay with his family.
• The narrator asked Fang Mingjie if he wanted to be human, and Fang Mingjie said he would flee rather than leave his wife and children.
• The narrator and Yi Yang picked up Mr. Cui and Yang Wei, who were possessed by Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu, respectively.
• Bai Xiaoyu revealed that the Immortal Family had ordered the Calamity Dragon’s offspring wiped out, and the group went to Tao Jingyu’s home.
• Bai Xiaoyu removed the offspring and told Tao Jingyu’s parents she would recover, then handed the narrator and Yi Yang a bag containing its body.
• Yi Yang opened the bag, revealing a dead baby with a human head and a snake’s body over a meter long.

After helping resolve Tao Jingyu’s family’s crisis, the narrator tried to dispose of Chang An'an's enormous stillborn offspring and settle the fee. Pan Lijuan refused to pay the agreed amount, but Tao Jianhua paid the balance, and the narrator left with a harsh warning about his marriage.

• The narrator and Yi Yang were horrified by Chang An'an's oversized stillborn offspring, and Pan Lijuan fainted after peeking into its bag.
• The narrator gave the bag to An Ning to deliver to Seventh Master, and An Ning managed to finish her noodles despite seeing what was inside.
• The narrator planned to charge Tao Jingyu's family eighty-eight thousand, but Pan Lijuan transferred only five thousand and argued that the narrator had merely run errands.
• The narrator left the Villa in anger, and Tao Jianhua followed to apologize and paid the remaining balance.
• The narrator told Tao Jianhua to move his assets out of his wife's name and find a younger replacement.

The narrator divided Tao Jianhua’s payment among himself, Yi Yang, and An Ning, then led Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu into the mountains to find Chang An'an. They found Fang Mingjie possessing Chang An'an’s body, and Chang Banpo accused him of breaking the Chang Family’s rules.

• The narrator split the eighty-eight thousand yuan into three shares and transferred Yi Yang’s and An Ning’s portions to them.
• The narrator told Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu that Chang An'an had fled into the mountains and persuaded them to wait until night to search.
• The narrator drove Yi Yang and the two spirits to the mountain near Meng Yifan’s hotel, where Chang Banpo detected Chang An'an nearby.
• Chang Banpo called for Chang An'an, but Fang Mingjie stepped out instead.
• Chang Banpo condemned Fang Mingjie for possessing a human body and leaving Shanhaiguan without permission, while Fang Mingjie defended his actions and challenged him.

Fang Mingjie challenged Chang Banpo’s authority and fought him, but Seventh Master secretly helped him turn the battle against Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu. After Fang Mingjie escaped, the group went down the mountain, where the narrator questioned why the Chang Family had sent Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu after him.

• Fang Mingjie rejected the Chang Family’s rules and mocked Chang Banpo for never having experienced human life.
• Chang Banpo attacked Fang Mingjie, and Yi Yang explained that an Illusion Technique had hidden their true forms from the narrator.
• Fang Mingjie took a pill to strengthen himself, while Bai Xiaoyu left Yang Wei’s body and joined the fight in her hedgehog form.
• Fang Mingjie used Red Talismans with Seventh Master’s help, making Bai Xiaoyu and Chang Banpo’s true forms disappear and causing Yang Wei and Mr. Cui to collapse.
• Fang Mingjie escaped, and the narrator helped Chang Banpo before taking him and Bai Xiaoyu down the mountain to eat.
• The narrator asked Chang Banpo why the Chang Family had sent him and Bai Xiaoyu after Chang An'an.

Chen Mo used flattery and heavy drinking to turn Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu against the elders who had assigned them to catch Chang An'an. After they complained about their treatment, the three swore to become sworn siblings before a statue of Second Master Guan.

• Chen Mo praised Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu as underappreciated talents and persuaded them to stop working so hard to catch Chang An'an.
• Chen Mo and Yi Yang drank with Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu, and Yi Yang gave Chen Mo a hangover pill after he vomited.
• Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu drunkenly complained about being disrespected by their elders and juniors.
• Chen Mo suggested becoming sworn siblings, and Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu eagerly accepted.
• The three swore their sibling oath before Second Master Guan, promising that anyone who broke it would be struck by lightning.

After getting drunk together, Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu accepted the narrator as their sworn younger brother, and he spent several days entertaining them while hiding that he was helping Chang An'an. He finally brought them to Seventh Master's place and confessed, but Chang Banpo insisted he would kill Chang An'an and take her snake heart back.

• After waking up beside Chang Banpo, the narrator reminded him and Bai Xiaoyu that they had sworn to become siblings while drunk, and Chang Banpo refused to back out of the oath.
• The narrator took Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu around to eat, drink, and enjoy human entertainment for several days while waiting for news about Chang An'an.
• When Chang Banpo asked about Chang An'an, the narrator brought the pair to Seventh Master's place and confessed that he was on Chang An'an's side.
• The narrator explained that Chang An'an had promised to care for Fang Mingjie's family and had not harmed anyone since escaping Shanhaiguan, but Chang Banpo remained furious.
• Chang Banpo rejected the narrator's plea for mercy and declared that he would kill Chang An'an and take her snake heart to complete his mission.

Seventh Master argued that Chang An'an’s escape and survival were the Chang Family’s responsibility and that killing her would violate Daoist principles and harm Fang Mingjie’s family. Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu were left unsure whether to spare her when Fang Mingjie and Yi Yang came out of the house.

• Seventh Master told Chang Banpo that the Chang Family had rescued Chang An'an, treated her as a breeding tool, and driven her to flee Shanhaiguan.
• Chang Banpo argued that the rule against crossing Shanhaiguan had to be enforced consistently, even though Chang An'an had reason to leave.
• Seventh Master invoked the three Earth Immortals and Daoist ideals to argue that sparing Chang An'an would follow nature and avoid harming Fang Mingjie’s family.
• Seventh Master praised Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu, leaving both immortals conflicted about whether to spare Chang An'an.
• Fang Mingjie and Yi Yang came out of the house.

Fang Mingjie pleaded with Chang Banpo to spare him for his family, then offered his snake core so he could become an ordinary human and no longer threaten anyone. Chang Banpo accepted the snake heart and core and left without killing him.

• Fang Mingjie showed Chang Banpo a family photograph and begged him to spare his wife, children, parents-in-law, and mother.
• Chang Banpo questioned whether Fang Mingjie could control his Calamity Dragon nature and said shielding him would cost him his chance to claim credit.
• Fang Mingjie offered to surrender his snake core and become an ordinary person, explaining that he had chosen human life and accepted its limits.
• Fang Mingjie spat out his snake core, and Yi Yang brought out the little Calamity Dragon's snake heart for Chang Banpo to take as proof of completing his mission.
• Chang Banpo accepted the snake heart and core, then left with Bai Xiaoyu without killing Fang Mingjie.
• The narrator asked Fang Mingjie if he mourned the offspring whose heart he had surrendered, and Fang Mingjie said he had lost countless broods before.

The narrator sent his new sworn siblings Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu back to the Northeast, then questioned Fang Mingjie about the secret box he had stolen from an organization. Fang Mingjie revealed he had once stayed with the narrator’s maternal grandparents, leaving the narrator shocked and eager to learn what happened during that visit.

• The narrator apologized to Chang Banpo and Bai Xiaoyu for deceiving them, and they accepted their sworn-sibling bond before he saw them off at the airport.
• The narrator met Fang Mingjie at a barbecue stall and asked about the organization’s secret and the box Fang Mingjie had stolen while fleeing.
• Fang Mingjie recounted how he escaped the organization, stole the box, and eventually reached Chongqing, where he was helped by an old woman.
• Fang Mingjie identified the woman as Liu Xiangqiao of Pear Blossom Village and recalled staying with her and an old man named Tang Mingqing.
• The narrator realized Fang Mingjie had stayed at Li Fuguang’s family home and urgently asked whether he had done anything during that week.

The narrator questioned Fang Mingjie about the box he had taken from the organization and learned that it contained an unusual black Buddha statue and documents about the leader’s death and Wu Huaqing’s takeover. The chapter left the narrator wondering how the statue linked Li Fuguang to the organization, after Fang Mingjie revealed he had lent it to Old Mrs. Liu’s husband, Tang, to study.

• The narrator asked Fang Mingjie about the box he had opened at Old Mrs. Liu’s house, and Fang Mingjie described its black Buddha statue with a third eye.
• Fang Mingjie recalled that the box’s documents said Wu Huaqing had killed the organization’s previous leader and taken control.
• Fang Mingjie described Wu Huaqing and said he had opposed the previous leader’s plans and intended to go abroad before Zhao Qiankun’s group attacked.
• Fang Mingjie said the organization worshipped the Buddha shown on the statue, though the documents gave no details about it.
• The narrator pressed Fang Mingjie about how the statue might have connected Li Fuguang to the organization, and Fang Mingjie admitted he had lent it to Tang to study.

The narrator learned that Fang Mingjie had lent the Evil Buddha statue to Li Fuguang’s grandfather before burying it near Pear Blossom Village and losing track of it. After hearing Fang Mingjie’s account, Seventh Master realized the organization’s leader had died long before its defeat, but neither he nor the narrator knew who or what the leader had been.

• Fang Mingjie told the narrator that he lent the Evil Buddha statue to Li Fuguang’s grandfather, then buried it in the mountains near Pear Blossom Village and could not find it after twenty years.
• The narrator questioned Fang Mingjie about the organization and the statue, then learned Fang Mingjie planned to work and support his family now that no one was pursuing him.
• The narrator played his recording of Fang Mingjie’s account for Seventh Master, who concluded the organization’s leader had died before the final stages of their struggle.
• The narrator and Seventh Master discussed the statue’s unknown material and suspected Li Fuguang’s grandfather had altered it, but they had no way to investigate.
• Seventh Master said he had never known the leader’s name, appearance, or gender, and the narrator asked whether the leader had even been human.