Chapter Summaries

Chen Mo and the others fought off the villagers, then fled into the big house when the villagers returned with hunting guns. Inside, they discovered letters from Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan’s father that revealed the truth behind the killings, leaving them shaken.

• Chen Mo and the others defeated several villagers in a fight, but Zhang Rong warned that they needed to restrain the adults and protect the siblings before dawn or a ground collapse.
• The villagers returned with hunting guns, forcing Chen Mo and the others to flee toward the big house while Zhang Rong’s arrows failed to hit anyone.
• Chen Mo used the Li Character Bewildering Soul Formation to disorient the armed villagers, killed several with his shovel, and escaped into the big house as they fired after him.
• Zhang Rong and Zhuge Ming helped Chen Mo bolt the doors, and the group took shelter inside while the villagers stayed outside.
• The senior fellow disciples found letters from Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan’s father, and Chen Mo and the others learned that the letters explained the killings in the village and of the siblings’ family.

Shen Zhiyi’s father’s letters connected the village’s history to the Mohist School and explained how Tang Family Village and Zhang Family Village came to be protected by Judge Cui and the Fox Immortal. The account ended by identifying Shen Siwei, Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan’s biological father, as the traitor whose actions brought misfortune to the villages.

• The narrator explained how the Mohist School split into three factions and how its suppression left the Chu Mohists among the survivors.
• Tang Fangxian led his clan into the mountains after the Ming cause fell and settled near Zhang Family Village.
• Judge Cui appeared in Tang Fangxian’s dream and told him to build a temple with statues of Judge Cui and the Fox Immortal to protect both villages.
• Tang Fangxian built the temple, and villagers later found a fox’s body inside it, which he buried in a prepared chamber.
• More than two hundred years later, Tang Fangxian’s descendants enclosed the deteriorating temple in a house rather than risk rebuilding it.
• The account revealed that the villages’ misfortune was connected to Shen Siwei, a collaborator with the Japanese and the biological father of Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan.

After fleeing into the mountains with his family and stolen gold, wanted collaborator Shen Siwei found refuge in Tang Family Village, where villagers saved his family without knowing who he was. Afraid they and the neighboring Zhang Family Village would expose him or take his gold, he massacred both villages and continued killing anyone who returned.

• Shen Siwei fled with his family and gold into the winter mountains, where Tang Family Village villagers found them and brought them back to their village.
• Shen Siwei invented a story about his family being pursued by enemies, and the villagers cared for his sick parents and daughter, Shen Zhiyi.
• Fearing the villagers would discover his identity or covet his gold, Shen Siwei and the men in his family killed everyone in Tang Family Village overnight.
• Shen Siwei poisoned Zhang Family Village's water source, then killed the survivors and buried the villagers' bodies in a nearby grove.
• Over the next two years, Shen Siwei killed villagers who returned to visit relatives, turning both villages into scenes of slaughter.

After reading Shen Siwei’s confession, the group learned how his crimes destroyed both villages and how his household was later wiped out, leaving Shen Zhiyi and Shen Zhongliang. The narrator then suspected that Tang Fangxian was an ancestor of his Patriarch, Tang Zhui.

• Shen Siwei was frightened by the Judge Cui and Fox Immortal statues and began to fear retribution for killing the villagers.
• A group of suspicious newcomers settled in Tang Family Village, and Shen Siwei confessed his crimes to the deities in writing.
• The narrator and the others concluded that the newcomers had nearly wiped out Shen Siwei’s household, sparing only Shen Zhiyi and Shen Zhongliang, who was Gou Dan.
• The group identified Zhang Family Village as the Abandoned Village and the unearthed bones as the villagers Shen Siwei had poisoned.
• The narrator connected Tang Fangxian to his Patriarch, Tang Zhui, because they shared the surname Tang and a northern accent.

Chen Mo and his companions decided to rescue Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan despite uncertainty about the karmic consequences and the danger to the villagers. They prepared to draw the armed men away from the courtyard so Zhang Rong and the others could escape over the wall.

• Zhuge Ming worried that saving Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan would make the group bear the karma of their father Shen Siwei's crimes, but Zhang Rong insisted they should help them.
• Zhang Rong and Chen Mo debated what to do with the women and children, since tying them up might leave them trapped if the ground collapsed that night.
• Zhang Rong stayed with Zhuge Ming and another senior brother to prepare for a fight against the armed men, while one person remained behind to protect the siblings.
• Chen Mo's group found the courtyard empty and reasoned that the men outside feared the enormous statues inside the building.
• Chen Mo proposed drawing the armed men toward the gate, then hacked through its lock with his entrenching shovel and slowly pulled the gate open.

Chen Mo and Zhang Rong’s group killed the armed men, searched the village, and threatened the remaining villagers while trying to protect Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan. As they hurried to move the siblings to higher ground, their guard rushed out warning that the ground was about to collapse.

• Chen Mo joined Zhang Rong and the others in fighting the armed group, and they killed all of its young and middle-aged men.
• The group found only empty guns and used them to force a surrendering villager to kneel before Zhang Rong killed him.
• Chen Mo questioned a frightened old man about entering Shen Zhiyi’s room, beat him, and threatened the villagers into staying at the entrance and leaving the siblings alone.
• Chen Mo refused to tie up the villagers and proposed moving Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan to a high spot near a tree that had survived the collapse in their time and space.
• As the group reached the large house, the senior fellow disciple ran out with Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan and warned them that the ground was about to collapse.

Chen Mo and Zhang Rong tried to survive as an earthquake swallowed Tang Family Village, then vanished back to their own time at dawn. They hoped Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan had survived and made it down the mountain.

• Chen Mo saw a crack split the main hall floor as smoke rose from it and the Fox Immortal’s statue, while strange greenish lights spread across the sky.
• Zhang Rong led everyone to higher ground as the earthquake began, then shouted Zhuge Ming and the other disciples away from the village.
• Chen Mo and Zhang Rong returned to Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan when the terrified siblings fell away from the tree, and helped them hold on as the village collapsed.
• Chen Mo told Shen Zhiyi to take Gou Dan down the mountain after dawn and find the police, explaining that he and Zhang Rong came from the future.
• Gou Dan and Shen Zhiyi vanished as dawn broke, and Chen Mo and Zhang Rong found themselves back in their own time beside the wasteland where Tang Family Village had been.

After the group returned to Zhang Family Village, they speculated that the Fox Immortal might have caused Tang Family Village’s collapse. Chen Mo then dreamed of following a strange man to a cave where a voice called his name, before Zhang Rong’s slap woke him.

• The group left the pit after paying their respects to Judge Cui and the Fox Immortal, then returned to Zhang Family Village through heavy snow.
• Zhang Rong asked why the ground around Tang Family Village had collapsed decades earlier, and Zhuge Ming suspected the Fox Immortal had caused it.
• The exhausted group treated their injuries and went to sleep, believing Gou Dan would not return to the mountain.
• Chen Mo dreamed that he followed a strange robed man to a dark cave and heard a hoarse voice calling his name from inside.
• Zhang Rong slapped Chen Mo awake after the others feared he had died when he did not respond.

After Chen Mo woke from a strange dream, he and his companions spent another cold night in the mountains, wondering when help would arrive. At Zhang Rong’s request, Chen Mo began teaching the others how he analyzed situations, leaving them with a question about whether they would keep a found bag of cash.

• Chen Mo woke after Zhang Rong and the others struggled to rouse him from a dream about the cave.
• The group cooked fish soup and talked about their bleak, uncertain life in the mountains.
• Zhang Rong and Zhuge Ming asked Chen Mo to share his way of analyzing problems, and Zhang Rong took notes.
• Chen Mo explained that people should look past appearances to the essence of a situation, using a Ferrari and an electric scooter as an example.
• Chen Mo said people also needed to understand their own primal selves, then asked whether they would keep or report a roadside bag containing a hundred thousand in cash.

Chen Mo explained how recognizing his own selfish impulses could help people understand others, using a lost wallet and a falsely accused roommate to illustrate projection. After the group talked late into the night, the familiar knocking sounded again just as they were about to sleep.

• Zhang Rong and the others said they would turn a large amount of found money over to the police, while Chen Mo said he would keep it unless he learned it belonged to someone in need.
• Chen Mo argued that people should recognize their own innate human nature to judge others more accurately.
• Chen Mo used a roommate who falsely accused someone of stealing a phone to explain projection, and Zhang Rong identified the accuser’s suspicion as reflecting his own dishonest tendencies.
• Zhang Rong and the others praised Chen Mo, and the group continued talking until nearly two in the morning.
• As Zhang Rong prepared to turn off the light, the familiar knocking sounded again.

Chen Mo and Zhang Rong tracked the mysterious four-legged creature that had knocked on their door, but its fresh footprints led them to a place Chen Mo recognized from a dream. The chapter left them searching for a cave where something had seemed to know Chen Mo’s name.

• A mysterious creature knocked at the shelter again, and Zhang Rong and Chen Mo found huge, hand-shaped paw prints outside.
• Zhuge Ming connected the knocking to the animal Gou Dan had described, and the group stopped tracking it after Zhang Rong warned it might have companions.
• The group agreed that Zhang Rong would keep watch that night and Chen Mo would take the next shift.
• The next day, Zhang Rong and the others found fresh tracks and began searching for the creature.
• Chen Mo recognized the area from his dream and told the others that a nearby cave held something that seemed to know his name.

The narrator and Zhang Rong’s group found a cave matching the one from the narrator’s dream and discovered an old man inside. The old man turned out to be Gou Dan, leaving the group bewildered about how he could appear as both a child and an elderly man.

• The narrator led Zhang Rong and the others to the cave from the dream.
• Zhang Rong led the group a few meters into the cave, where they saw what looked like a giant rat.
• The supposed giant rat crawled toward the entrance and was revealed to be a filthy, frail old man.
• Zhuge Ming suggested the old man had made the handprint-like tracks outside their cabin.
• The old man cried when Zhang Rong offered him a compressed biscuit and touched the narrator and Zhang Rong.
• The narrator recognized the old man as Gou Dan, who nodded and burrowed into the narrator’s arms.

The group reunited with the elderly Gou Dan, who died soon after they found him, and buried him in the snow-covered mountains. His death left them wondering how he had survived alone and whether he had encountered his younger self across different spacetimes.

• Zhang Rong and the others realized the dying old man was the boy Gou Dan they had met decades earlier in his spacetime, and Shi Xiu found that he had a death pulse.
• Zhang Rong fed Gou Dan a compressed biscuit as he had when Gou Dan was a child, and Gou Dan died holding it in his mouth.
• The group buried Gou Dan and discussed how the young Gou Dan might have seen his elderly self, while concluding that Shen Zhiyi had probably died before reaching the mountain.
• Shi Xiu said Gou Dan's survival amid illnesses and parasites might have required supernatural influence, and Zhang Rong left a biscuit at his grave.
• As the group passed the cave on their way back, Zhang Rong asked Chen Mo whether Gou Dan had really called his name in a dream despite being unable to speak.

Chen Mo and the others explored the cave where Gou Dan had been found, heard a terrifying roar from an unknown creature, and fled. That night, Chen Mo dreamed again of a man entering the cave and calling his name, but he ran away before answering the call further.

• Zhuge Ming, Zhang Rong, Shi Xiu, Chen Mo, and their companion entered the cave to search for the person calling Chen Mo in his dreams.
• The group heard a huge creature roar like a tiger and ran out of the cave.
• Zhuge Ming said the roar resembled a tiger's but sounded unnaturally ferocious, and the group decided not to investigate further.
• Chen Mo dreamed of the strange man leading him to the cave again and heard the voice inside call his name.
• Chen Mo asked who was calling him, then remembered the roar and fled the dream without entering the cave.

After enduring days of worsening cold and a recurring dream that urged him toward a cave, the narrator decided to investigate alone. He entered the cave and discovered murals with Classical Chinese annotations that appeared connected to the Mohist School.

• The narrator asked Zhang Rong whether he had watched him during Grandmaster's test, and Zhang Rong admitted that he had been ordered to keep an eye on him.
• The narrator dreamed of being led to the cave for seven consecutive nights, and the growing urge to enter overcame his resistance.
• The narrator decided to investigate the cave alone without telling Zhang Rong or the others.
• After Zhang Rong and the others teased him about being single, the narrator claimed he had a girlfriend and was chased from the room.
• The narrator took an entrenching shovel and flashlight to the cave, walked past the place where they had heard a tiger roar, and found murals with Classical Chinese annotations on the walls.

The narrator examined murals depicting ancient Mohist research and reflected on how their ideas resembled later scientific theories. The final murals showed people fleeing a passage and a lone figure approaching a circle marked “nothingness,” leaving the narrator alarmed and uncertain about what they meant.

• The narrator read a mural describing Mohist mechanics and compared it with Newton’s laws of motion.
• The narrator recognized another mural as depicting the Mohist School’s research into pinhole imaging.
• The narrator studied an abstract mural about time and space, connecting Mohist ideas to relativity and the recent spacetime disorder involving Zhang Rong and the others.
• The narrator saw a mural of five people turning back and fleeing a passage, then found another showing one person nearing a circle marked “nothingness.”

Alone in the cave, the narrator found ancient murals that appeared to predict his return and the fates of Shen Zhiyi and Gou Dan. He discovered that the tiger’s roar came from a cinnabar-coated wall engineered by Tang Family Village’s Mohist ancestors, and wondered whether they had also foreseen the disruption of spacetime.

• The narrator recognized murals depicting five people entering the passage and himself returning alone, matching his group’s past visit and his present situation.
• He inhaled cinnabar powder, sneezed, and triggered a thunderous tiger-like roar from the wall.
• The narrator found tiny carvings on the wall and concluded that the villagers had used cinnabar and magnetic fields to create a human-made wall phonograph.
• He identified the figures in another mural as Shen Zhiyi and young Gou Dan, with a later scene showing Shen Zhiyi as a ghost and Gou Dan as an old man.
• The narrator realized the murals appeared to predict the siblings’ altered fate and wondered whether Tang Fangxian and the others had foreseen the disruption of spacetime.

The narrator followed apparitions of his deceased father, mother, and grandfather deeper into the cave, where they led him to a coffin. After opening it and removing a fox mask from the corpse, he discovered that the face beneath was his own.

• The narrator saw a mural of armed men surrounding five people and feared it depicted him and his companions facing danger.
• Three figures appeared beside him, and he recognized them as his deceased father, mother, and grandfather.
• His deceased loved ones beckoned him farther into the cave, then vanished beside a coffin.
• The narrator opened the coffin and found a human corpse wearing a fox mask.
• He removed the mask and saw that the corpse had his own face.

Chen Mo dreamed that he found a corpse identical to himself in a cave and met another version of himself, but woke back in Zhang Family Village before learning what the encounter meant. He remained convinced the cave and its revelations had been real, and asked Zhang Rong about his girlfriend.

• Chen Mo found a lifelike corpse resembling him in a cave, but it rapidly crumbled into ash.
• Chen Mo wondered whether the corpse and cave were connected to disordered space-time, then saw another person with his face.
• The stranger said, "I am you," and Chen Mo's Soul-Illuminating Mirror technique failed to affect him.
• The stranger shook Chen Mo until Zhang Rong's voice and a slap woke him from his sleeping bag in Zhang Family Village.
• Chen Mo followed Zhang Rong to lunch, still troubled by the cave, then asked whether Zhang Rong knew he had a girlfriend.

Chen Mo struggled to distinguish his memories from dreams after learning that someone resembling him may have returned to the village in his place. He warned the others that people might be coming to kill them, and Zhang Rong decided to contact Grandmaster using Maoshan’s Soul Communication Technique.

• Chen Mo questioned Shi Xiu about being a simp, and Shi Xiu’s answer matched a memory that made Chen Mo doubt whether he was dreaming or losing his mind.
• Chen Mo asked Zhuge Ming about his whereabouts and learned that someone had returned before dark the previous day, skipped dinner, and slept until noon.
• Chen Mo suspected that the person who returned might have been someone who looked exactly like him, and decided to stay with Zhang Rong and the others.
• Chen Mo warned the group that armed attackers were coming, but Zhang Rong initially doubted his dream and questioned how the Tang Family could find them.
• Zhuge Ming wondered whether Chen Mo’s dream was prophetic and noted that Grandmaster had not sent anyone to retrieve them after nearly twenty days in the mountains.
• Zhang Rong stood up and said he would try to contact Grandmaster using Maoshan’s Soul Communication Technique.