Chapter Summaries

The narrator and Seventh Master debated whether the Evil Buddha was an independent creature, an invented god who gained consciousness, or the organization’s leader, and whether Li Fuguang was connected to him. They decided to investigate Li Fuguang’s maternal grandfather’s research in Pear Blossom Village, where his maternal grandmother Liu Xiangqiao still lived.

• The narrator reasoned that gods might be powerful beings confined to particular regions and suggested that the floods in Chinese and Western traditions could have been the same event.
• The narrator conjectured that the Evil Buddha might be a real creature, an invented god made conscious by offerings, or the organization’s leader, and proposed that Li Fuguang had been reincarnated as himself.
• Seventh Master concluded that Li Fuguang might be the Evil Buddha or the organization’s leader and warned that he was dangerous.
• The narrator told Seventh Master that he could not sense evil in Li Fuguang or access memories of the Evil Buddha or the leader, despite possessing Li Fuguang’s memories.
• Seventh Master said they needed to learn what Li Fuguang’s maternal grandfather had done with the Evil Buddha statue and whether he had left records.
• Seventh Master told the narrator to visit Pear Blossom Village and seek out Li Fuguang’s maternal grandmother, Liu Xiangqiao.

The Horror Hotel opened with a crowd of prominent guests, and Meng Yifan showed the group its horror-themed rooms. Their tour turned frightening when a room filled with Jiangshi came to life and a ghost appeared in the bathroom mirror.

• Song Xiaotian returned from his honeymoon and heard the narrator's embellished story about Fang Mingjie and the supernatural beings.
• The narrator, Song Xiaotian, An Ning, and Yi Yang brought flower baskets to the Horror Hotel's opening, where Meng Yifan welcomed them and praised the turnout.
• Fang Mingjie, now the hotel's lobby manager, guided them through the hotel and showed them the Horror Funeral Home room.
• The room's curtains closed, its lights went out, and eight coffins opened to reveal Qing Dynasty Jiangshi.
• Song Xiaotian screamed and fainted near the door, while the narrator spotted a red-clad female ghost reflected in the bathroom mirror.

The narrator remembered that Wu Huaqing had been among the hostages Uncle Song rescued overseas and told Uncle Song that the organization’s leader shared his name. Uncle Song recognized Wu Huaqing as Infinite Daoist, a prominent Feng Shui master, and began to question whether his old mission had been a setup.

• After recalling Old Master Song’s story, the narrator took Song Xiaotian to Uncle Song’s teahouse to ask about Wu Huaqing.
• Uncle Song confirmed that Wu Huaqing was among the hostages he had rescued and said he later learned Wu Huaqing was a leading Feng Shui master known as Infinite Daoist.
• The narrator told Uncle Song that the leader of the organization that had captured him was also named Wu Huaqing, though he had no proof they were the same person.
• Uncle Song reacted with shock, and Song Xiaotian asked whether his father’s superior might have been involved.
• Uncle Song recalled that his superior had sent him on an earlier mission to arrest criminals overseas before Wu Huaqing and several others were kidnapped.

The narrator and Uncle Song traced Wu Huaqing’s return to China to his effort to build influence and suspected he had arranged the death of Uncle Song’s former superior. After seeing Wu Huaqing’s powerful connections, the narrator and Song Xiaotian realized they could not confront him directly and wondered whether Li Fuguang was the reason Wu Huaqing stayed away from Lanjiang City.

• The narrator asked Uncle Song whether his former superior had died after Uncle Song returned from overseas, and Uncle Song confirmed that the man had died of liver cancer.
• The narrator suggested that someone had switched the superior’s medication, and Uncle Song admitted he had suspected foul play but feared investigating would endanger his family.
• Uncle Song explained that Wu Huaqing was in China, had built a powerful network as the Infinite Daoist, and lived in a large villa in City A.
• Uncle Song sent the narrator a photo of Wu Huaqing with a prominent man, and the narrator realized Wu Huaqing had connections that could make retaliation against him deadly.
• Song Xiaotian and the narrator questioned why Wu Huaqing had not used his connections to target them in Lanjiang City, and the narrator suspected Wu Huaqing feared Li Fuguang.

The narrator learned that Wu Huaqing was the organization's leader and had once met Seventh Master, then traveled with An Ning and Yi Yang to Pear Blossom Village to investigate Li Fuguang's past and search for Fang Mingjie's buried box. The chapter ended with Tang Wengui explaining that Li Fuguang's grandmother was staying with relatives and had been left nearly blind by the family's tragedies.

• Seventh Master recognized Wu Huaqing as a famous figure and showed the narrator a photograph of the two of them together from eight years earlier.
• Seventh Master said Wu Huaqing feared Li Fuguang and wanted something from him, and urged the narrator to investigate Li Fuguang's background in Pear Blossom Village.
• The narrator drove to Pear Blossom Village with An Ning and Yi Yang, hoping to learn about Li Fuguang and find Fang Mingjie's buried box.
• Tang Wengui welcomed the group and invited them to eat at his home before taking them to Li Fuguang's maternal grandmother.
• Tang Wengui explained that Li Fuguang's grandmother lived with relatives in turn and had lost most of her sight after her grandson disappeared and her family died.

The narrator visited Li Fuguang’s childhood village and reunited with his elderly maternal grandmother, while hiding his connection to her. He learned that Chang An'an had once taken a small Buddha statue to the grandmother’s husband, who studied it and kept written notes.

• The narrator brought gifts to Uncle Gui and his wife, who reluctantly accepted them after he insisted.
• Uncle Gui led the narrator to Li Fuguang’s grandmother and explained that she had lost her sight after grieving for her missing grandson.
• The narrator met his grandmother, spoke with her about Seventh Master, and asked about Chang An'an’s stay years earlier.
• The grandmother recalled that Chang An'an had carried away a case and had lent a small Buddha statue to her husband to study.
• The grandmother said her husband had written and drawn in a notebook while researching the Buddha statue, and the narrator realized those records might contain clues.

While searching Li Fuguang's maternal grandfather's belongings, An Ning found a notebook tracing the Evil Buddha's origins to the Buddhist-Daoist Controversy and a persecuted Daoist priest named Gongsun Jing. The account ended as Gongsun Jing met the three-eyed Buddhist monk Daojue.

• The narrator, An Ning, and Yi Yang searched Li Fuguang's maternal grandfather's notebooks and found one depicting the Three-Eyed Strange Buddha.
• The notebook described the Buddhist-Daoist Controversy and the competing claims surrounding the Laozi Transforming the Barbarians Theory.
• The notebook traced the Evil Buddha's birth to a period when Emperor Wenxuan favored Buddhism and suppressed Daoism, forcing Daoist priests to become monks or die.
• Gongsun Jing, a Daoist priest known as Kongyang Daoist, entered the secular world to help people and restore Daoism's reputation.
• Gongsun Jing met Daojue, a Buddhist monk born with three eyes.

The story recounts how Daoist Gongsun Jing and Buddhist monk Daojue became friends and traveled together to help people amid the conflict between Buddhism and Daoism. They tracked down a Ghost King terrorizing a region, and Daojue stopped Gongsun Jing from killing her, proposing instead to reform her and improve Daoism’s standing.

• Daojue was ostracized for his three eyes and his Dharma name before meeting Gongsun Jing, who admired his unusual appearance and invited him to join Daoism.
• Gongsun Jing and Daojue became close friends and traveled together, hoping to ease the conflict between Buddhism and Daoism through their good deeds.
• The pair learned from the City God that a Vengeful Ghost had escaped the Underworld and terrorized the countryside after avenging her murdered family.
• Gongsun Jing and Daojue returned to the mountain and cornered the Ghost King, who tried to tempt Gongsun Jing into sparing her.
• Daojue stopped Gongsun Jing from killing the Ghost King and proposed taking her to a Daoist temple to reform her and improve Daoism’s reputation.

The notebook recounted how Gongsun Jing’s attempt to reform the ghost king ended with the deaths of his Daoist temple’s disciples and Daojue’s descent into becoming the Evil Buddha. After recognizing the ghost king on the Sin Domain Map, the narrator and his companions found no clues about Li Fuguang’s origins and decided to search for a box Fang Mingjie had buried.

• Gongsun Jing brought the ghost king to his Daoist temple, but Buddhist monks spread false rumors that led Emperor Wenxuan to order the temple’s destruction.
• Gongsun Jing released the ghost king and killed himself, believing Daojue had betrayed him; the ghost king was captured and sent to the Sin Prison.
• Daojue died while seeking justice for Gongsun Jing, then became an Evil Buddha and massacred the Buddhist temple.
• An Ning, Yi Yang, and the narrator read the notebook’s uncertain accounts of Daojue and the ghost king’s later fates.
• The narrator confirmed that the red-clad ghost on the Sin Domain Map was the ghost king, and the group discussed whether Li Fuguang was Daojue reincarnated.
• After finding no further clues in the notebooks, the narrator proposed finding the box Fang Mingjie had buried.

Chen stayed with the old lady and learned that Li Fuguang had fallen ill every Lunar New Year's Eve as a child, then used divination to search for a buried box on the mountain. After wandering without a clear place to dig, Chen met an old fisherman who asked whether the thing he was seeking belonged to him.

• Chen stayed with the old lady, who told him stories about Li Fuguang's childhood and his recurring New Year's Eve fevers.
• Chen agreed to keep the old lady company for a few more days and went to Uncle Gui's house for breakfast.
• Chen cast a hexagram that placed the buried box somewhere southwest on a moist, wooded mountain slope but gave no distance.
• Chen, An Ning, and Yi Yang climbed the mountain with supplies from Uncle Gui and wandered without knowing where to dig.
• Chen and his companions met an old fisherman beside a pool, and the fisherman asked whether the thing Chen sought belonged to him.

The narrator followed a mysterious old man’s directions up the mountain, enduring unnatural heat and cold while searching for the object that belonged to Li Fuguang. After reaching the old man again at the end of another path, the narrator asked whether he still had farther to go.

• The narrator told the old man that the object belonged to him, then asked how to find it.
• The old man directed the narrator up a mountain path, and the narrator left An Ning and Yi Yang behind.
• After enduring increasing heat for two hours, the narrator found the same old man waiting ahead and learned he had taken a shortcut.
• The old man sent the narrator along another path, where the temperature plunged; the narrator recognized the unnatural cold as an illusion and mentally persuaded himself it was warm.
• After walking for an hour and eating a flatbread, the narrator found the old man again and asked how much farther he needed to go.

The narrator found Fang Mingjie's buried box and uncovered the Evil Buddha statue inside, then experienced visions that revealed the Evil Buddha, Monk Daojue, the leader, and Li Fuguang were the same person. He hurried down the mountain with the box and met An Ning and Yi Yang, who said the fisherman had just left.

• An old man gave the narrator another set of directions, and the narrator followed the path until he found a bald, three-eyed man beneath a tree.
• The three-eyed man ran off and vanished, leading the narrator to dig up Fang Mingjie's box, which contained documents and the Evil Buddha statue.
• The narrator discovered cinnabar on the statue's Third Eye and realized Li Fuguang's grandfather had used it to paint the Evil Buddha to life.
• Monk Daojue, Gongsun Jing, the red-robed Ghost King, and a blood-covered old man appeared to the narrator, who saw memories linking the Evil Buddha, Daojue, the leader, and Li Fuguang as the same person.
• The narrator carried the box down the mountain and learned from An Ning and Yi Yang that the fisherman had left a few minutes earlier.

The narrator returned to his grandmother after finding the box and notebook with help from a mysterious old fisherman, whom he suspected was a local deity. Seeing that his grandmother had kept the yard full of flowers while waiting sixteen years for Li Fuguang, he finally revealed himself as her grandson, though she remained unsure.

• The narrator suspected the old fisherman was the mountain god or earth god and bowed to thank him for guiding them to the box.
• The narrator gave Yi Yang the box and notebook to take to Seventh Master and stayed behind to keep his grandmother company.
• His grandmother showed him the flower-filled yard she had maintained because Li Fuguang loved flowers and might someday return.
• The narrator heard his grandmother worry that she would die before Li Fuguang came home and knelt before her.
• The narrator told his grandmother, "I'm Li Fuguang. I'm home," then recalled private memories to prove his identity.

Chen Mo revealed to the Old Lady that he carried Li Fuguang’s memories, and she welcomed him back, asking him to stay with her. The Old Lady died peacefully the next morning, leaving Chen Mo to grieve and reflect on how Li Fuguang’s upbringing had shaped the person he became.

• Chen Mo convinced the Old Lady that he knew things only Li Fuguang could have known, and she wept over his long absence.
• Chen Mo promised to care for the Old Lady and asked her to keep his identity from Uncle Gui and the others; she agreed to go with him to the city.
• The Old Lady spent the night with Chen Mo nearby, then died peacefully in her sleep the next morning.
• An Ning stayed in the village with Chen Mo while relatives and villagers kept vigil for the Old Lady.
• Chen Mo reflected that the village and Li Fuguang’s family had given him humanity, even though he had awakened his memories as the Evil Buddha.

After burying the old lady, Xiao Chen learned more about Li Fuguang’s origins and the Evil Buddha’s history from Seventh Master. Seventh Master realized the Evil Buddha had targeted him even before he knew the organization existed, leaving him to wonder why.

• Xiao Chen buried the old lady, offered incense to the deity on the mountain, and took her memorial portrait with him when he left Pear Blossom Village with An Ning.
• Seventh Master comforted Xiao Chen and confirmed that Gongsun Jing and Monk Daojue’s story was true.
• Xiao Chen and Seventh Master concluded that Wu Huaqing had sealed the Evil Buddha’s soul in a statue, which was later released and reborn through Li Fuguang’s mother.
• Seventh Master reasoned that Li Fuguang’s upbringing and early death had shaped him to reject the Evil Buddha’s identity and memories.
• Seventh Master recalled that the organization had targeted him before he knew it existed and suspected the Evil Buddha had held a personal grudge against him.

Seventh Master and Chen Mo realized the Evil Buddha’s grudge likely came from one of Seventh Master’s past lives, and Seventh Master decided to let go for Xiuzhu’s sake. Chen Mo returned to Meng Yifan’s home planning to move out, but Meng Yifan persuaded him to stay.

• Seventh Master explained that before age twenty he had kept a low profile and could not understand why the Evil Buddha had targeted him.
• Chen Mo reflected on whether people should suffer for past lives’ actions, and Seventh Master described retribution as the natural cycle of cause and effect.
• Seventh Master realized he had likely offended the Evil Buddha in a past life, and he chose to let go of the old grudge for Xiuzhu’s sake.
• Chen Mo returned to Meng Yifan’s place and began packing to move out because he did not want to live in his family home.
• Meng Yifan returned, insisted Chen Mo stay, and put his packed belongings back in place.

The narrator and his coworkers watched Du Yunting preach about karma at a university, despite knowing he was Lü Zhengxian, a killer responsible for their loved ones’ deaths. Pan’s Father then came asking for help because Pan Lijuan’s family had fallen ill after she underpaid a Feng Shui master, and the chapter ended with him appealing to Xiao Chen.

• The narrator, Song Xiaotian, and Yi Yang watched Du Yunting urge students to do good and warned that his speech was hypocritical because he had caused many deaths.
• The narrator told Yi Yang that Du Yunting was responsible for his former girlfriend’s death and Song Xiaotian’s sworn younger sister’s death.
• Pan’s Father visited the shop and explained that Pan Lijuan had agreed to pay a Feng Shui master sixty-six thousand but gave him only sixty-six hundred.
• Pan’s Father said Pan Lijuan and her niece Jingyu had become bedridden, while her husband was also unwell, after the Feng Shui master changed their home and office.
• Song Xiaotian blamed Pan Lijuan for bringing trouble on herself, but Pan’s Father asked Xiao Chen for help because she was his sister.

Wang Xiaoxian explained that the Pan family’s torment likely came from a Lu Ban School curse, so Wang Xiaoxian asked Tao Jianhua to pay for peace and safety. After taking the money, Wang Xiaoxian set out with Seventh Master to meet the feng shui master, who turned out to be Seventh Master’s old romantic rival; Seventh Master also revealed that the Evil Buddha was likely searching for Gongsun Jing’s reincarnation.

• Wang Xiaoxian and Song Xiaotian visited the Pan family and found Pan Lijuan, her daughter, and Tao Jianhua suffering after a feng shui master’s curse.
• Wang Xiaoxian warned Tao Jianhua that the curse might have been cast by a Lu Ban School successor and advised him to compensate the feng shui master rather than risk breaking the spell.
• Tao Jianhua transferred two hundred thousand to Wang Xiaoxian, who planned to use part of it to appease the feng shui master and split the rest with Song Xiaotian and Yi Yang.
• Wang Xiaoxian called Seventh Master, who agreed to accompany him to meet Wang Xiaoxian, the Lu Ban lineage successor and Seventh Master’s former romantic rival.
• Seventh Master told Wang Xiaoxian that the Evil Buddha, Monk Daojue, was probably trying to find Gongsun Jing’s reincarnation.

The narrator and Seventh Master reasoned that Gongsun Jing might have become an immortal instead of reincarnating, complicating the Evil Buddha’s search for him. They visited Wang Xiaoxian to seek his help, but found him still furious over a woman who had deceived him.

• Seventh Master explained that orthodox Daoists who received the Rite of Transmission could be judged by the Three Great Emperor-Officials and become immortals instead of entering reincarnation.
• The narrator questioned why the Evil Buddha, Monk Daojue, would seek Gongsun Jing if he knew Gongsun might not have reincarnated.
• Seventh Master said Wang Xiaoxian’s intelligence connections could help them find Gongsun Jing and perhaps free Li Fuguang from the narrator’s body.
• The narrator and Seventh Master drove to Wang Xiaoxian’s village and found him sitting outside his house.
• Wang Xiaoxian told Seventh Master he wanted to kill the woman who had tricked him, saying her family’s actions had made his lost hand feel wasted.

Zhao Qiankun and Seventh Master persuaded Wang Xiaoxian to reveal where they could learn about a person’s past and present lives, then tricked him into thinking he was joining them. They planned to visit Hanging Peak Ancient Temple next Monday and seek out the monk Huixin.

• Zhao Qiankun paid Wang Xiaoxian 130,000 yuan in compensation for the woman who had hired them both.
• Seventh Master told Wang Xiaoxian that the organization had returned, but Wang refused to come out of retirement until Seventh Master begged him.
• Wang Xiaoxian consulted his notebook and directed Seventh Master and Zhao Qiankun to Huixin at Hanging Peak Ancient Temple in Fengdu City.
• Wang Xiaoxian said they should offer incense and wait ten minutes in the Mahavira Hall; if Huixin did not appear, they should leave.
• Seventh Master tricked Wang Xiaoxian into going inside to pack, then fled with Zhao Qiankun and Xiuzhu.
• Seventh Master and Zhao Qiankun decided to visit the temple next Monday without casting a divination first.