Chapter Summaries

Chen Guowen refused to abandon the search for Fang Man’s killer, and he and Meng Yifan questioned the murdered security guard Wang Shujun’s wife. Her account linked the killer to a factory manager who paid Wang to conceal a motorcycle theft, and the story left them preparing to investigate suspects with Song Xiaotian.

• Chen Guowen told his father he would find Fang Man’s killer and seek to have him imprisoned, while promising not to take the law into his own hands.
• Chen Guowen and Meng Yifan returned to the factory, got Wang Shujun’s home address from Wang Hua, and visited his family.
• Wang Shujun’s wife confirmed that he had been paid five thousand yuan to keep quiet about a factory manager stealing a motorcycle.
• She revealed that the same manager invited Wang out drinking and promised him another ten thousand yuan before Wang was killed.
• Chen Guowen reasoned that the killer was a respectable-looking manager senior to Wang Hua who might have withdrawn money, and Song Xiaotian’s father called to say he was picking Song up from the detention center.

Song Xiaotian was released from detention and learned that he had likely lost his police career, though he tried to hide his disappointment. After hearing about the leads gathered during his absence, he agreed to investigate the suspicious factory managers and asked Meng Yifan and the narrator how they would respond if a close family member did something wrong.

• Uncle Song picked Song Xiaotian up after two days in detention and asked what he planned to do after being fired.
• Song Xiaotian acted unconcerned about losing his job, and Uncle Song encouraged him to try business or enjoy being young.
• At a restaurant, the narrator told Song Xiaotian about the leads they had found and gave him a list of suspicious factory managers to investigate.
• Song Xiaotian asked Meng Yifan and the narrator whether they would put justice above family if someone close to them did something bad.
• Meng Yifan said he could not put justice above family, and the narrator declined to give a definite answer because he believed his family were good people.

Du Ruhai threatened Chen Mo and Meng Yifan while demanding clues to Du Yuwei’s whereabouts, then Song Xiaotian reported that nobody on their suspect list had withdrawn money. After the three men drank together, Chen Mo woke to find the long-dead Wang Shujun standing over him, dripping wet.

• Du Ruhai visited Meng Yifan’s shop and offered to save the business and reveal who had Fang Man killed in exchange for information about Du Yuwei.
• Chen Mo denied knowing Du Yuwei’s whereabouts, and Du Ruhai revealed that he was Lü Zhengxian before threatening the men and telling Meng Yifan to find another line of work.
• Song Xiaotian told Chen Mo and Meng Yifan that none of the people on their list had withdrawn money, then urged them to face whatever hardships lay ahead.
• Chen Mo, Meng Yifan, and Song Xiaotian drank heavily and went to Chen Mo’s rented place to sleep.
• Chen Mo woke to find the long-dead Wang Shujun standing over him with water dripping from his hair.

After Wang Shujun’s spirit visited him, the narrator followed its clues and discovered that someone had silenced and burned the ghost. Recognizing the handwriting on a talisman revealed that Song Xiaotian had known who killed Fang Man, and the narrator left to confront the next clue.

• The narrator followed the water trail from his apartment to the fishpond, where Wang Shujun revealed that his tongue had been cut out.
• Wang Shujun pointed at the narrator, then collapsed in agony and burned away as the narrator watched.
• The narrator found a straw doll bearing Wang Shujun’s name and a talisman whose familiar handwriting led him to realize Song Xiaotian had known who killed Fang Man.
• After sitting awake until dawn, the narrator told Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan he was going to the residential complex where Li Xiumei’s remains had been dug up.

The narrator questioned an elderly neighbor about a scream she had heard fifteen years earlier and learned that a bespectacled man called “Brother Wen” had visited the couple in the apartment. He realized the First Case Offender was his father, Chen Guowen, and broke down as he told Meng Yifan and Song Xiaotian.

• The narrator returned to the residential complex alone and begged an elderly woman to tell him what she had heard fifteen years earlier.
• The elderly woman recalled a young woman screaming and naming two people with the surnames Li and Chen.
• She said the man surnamed Li seemed to be the young woman's husband and that a scholarly man with glasses, called “Brother Wen,” often visited them.
• The narrator realized “Brother Wen” was his father and wondered whether he had deliberately avoided asking the elderly woman because he feared the truth.
• The narrator left the complex in tears and told Meng Yifan and Song Xiaotian that Chen Guowen had killed Fang Man and was the First Case Offender.

Chen Mo learned that his father, Chen Guowen, had arranged Fang Man’s murder under Du Ruhai’s threat, and Du Ruhai sent them a video exposing Chen Guowen’s past crimes. The video ended with Du Ruhai taunting Chen Guowen about how Chen Mo would react to learning that his father had caused seven deaths.

• Song Xiaotian showed Chen Mo and Meng Yifan a bank record proving that Chen Guowen withdrew ten thousand yuan on the day Wang Shujun died.
• Song Xiaotian explained that Du Ruhai had likely threatened Chen Guowen into arranging Fang Man’s murder, and Meng Yifan angrily blamed Du Ruhai.
• Du Ruhai’s bodyguards delivered a USB drive containing a video, then left without confronting them.
• Chen Mo, Meng Yifan, and Song Xiaotian watched Chen Guowen tell Du Ruhai that he had once hired Lü Zhengxian and Li Yujiao to kill seven people while trying to save his son.
• Du Ruhai reminded Chen Guowen that he could expose the killings to Chen Mo, then mocked him by asking how his son would feel about the truth.

Chen Mo and the others watched a video revealing that his father hired Xiao Ming to kill Fang Man at Du Ruhai’s request. Song Xiaotian urged Chen Mo to make his father turn himself in and expose Du Ruhai, and Chen Mo resolved to do so while believing he deserved to die.

• A video showed Chen Mo’s father kneeling before Du Ruhai, who threatened to expose his past unless he helped kill someone.
• Du Ruhai gave Chen Mo’s father money and a photograph of Fang Man, directing him to hire Xiao Ming to kill her.
• Song Xiaotian punched a wall after learning Du Ruhai had orchestrated Fang Man’s death and treated it as entertainment.
• Chen Mo knelt before Song Xiaotian and apologized, blaming himself for the deaths caused by his father’s actions.
• Song Xiaotian told Chen Mo to persuade his father to turn himself in and implicate Du Ruhai, and Chen Mo agreed.

Chen Mo confronted his father at the Factory, accusing him of arranging the deaths that extended Chen Mo’s life and of killing Wang Shujun. After stopping Chen Mo from stabbing himself, his father promised to reveal the whole truth and turn himself in within two days.

• Chen Mo called his father and asked him to meet at the Factory, then went to his Office while Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan waited outside.
• Chen Mo accused his father of paying a driver to kill Fang Man and questioned him about Wang Shujun’s death.
• Chen Mo revealed that his father had used the Seven Deaths Life-Exchange Art to save him by arranging for Lü Zhengxian and Li Xiumei to kill seven people.
• Chen Mo blamed himself for the victims’ suffering and explained that his mother had left after learning how his life had been saved.
• Chen Mo accused his father of sabotaging the spirit-summoning ritual, helping him investigate Du Ruhai, and killing Wang Shujun to conceal his crimes.
• Chen Mo tried to stab himself with scissors, but his father stopped him and promised to tell the truth and turn himself in within two days.

Chen Mo struggled with whether to protect his father or report him, and Meng Yifan urged him to flee with his family and destroy the evidence. Overwhelmed by guilt, Chen Mo hid the USB drive, told Song Xiaotian where to find it if his father failed to turn himself in, and decided to die.

• Chen Mo told Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan that his father had asked for two days before turning himself in, and Song Xiaotian agreed to wait so Chen Mo's grandfather could see him.
• Meng Yifan suggested Chen Mo's grandfather might have known about his father's crimes and helped him lie, while Song Xiaotian said that did not necessarily mean the grandfather was involved.
• After Song Xiaotian left, Meng Yifan urged Chen Mo to flee with his father and grandfather, promising to destroy the USB drive and conceal the evidence.
• Meng Yifan gave Chen Mo the USB drive, and Chen Mo went home and drank alone while haunted by visions of the victims blaming him for their deaths.
• Chen Mo hid the USB drive under his bedroom pillow, texted Song Xiaotian to retrieve it and report his father if he did not turn himself in, and decided to die.

Consumed by guilt over the deaths caused by his father, the narrator tried to drown himself, but a woman who looked like Du Yuwei saved him. After Meng Yifan and Song Xiaotian found him, Song Xiaotian urged him to confront Du Ruhai instead of taking his own life.

• The narrator went to a bridge, where the victims of his father's killings and his mother appeared and urged him to die.
• The narrator stepped off the bridge, but a woman who looked like Du Yuwei caught him and then fell into the river with him.
• The woman revived the narrator with CPR and ran away after he regained consciousness.
• Meng Yifan and Song Xiaotian found the narrator on the riverbank after Zhao Laoqi told them where he was.
• Song Xiaotian said Du Ruhai was the real culprit in Xiaoman's death and challenged the narrator to fight Du Ruhai rather than kill himself.

Chen Mo tried to use Li Xiumei’s ashes to lure Du Ruhai into a chance for revenge, but Du Ruhai had prepared against her spirit and easily defeated him. As Du Ruhai’s bodyguards beat Chen Mo, Du Yuwei urged him to use his blood to cover his Yang Fire.

• Song Xiaotian gave Chen Mo Li Xiumei’s ashes and drove him to Du Ruhai’s private club while Meng Yifan tried to stop them.
• Chen Mo entered the club with the urn, but Du Ruhai recognized that it did not contain Du Mingyang’s ashes.
• An old man used a pestle and a talisman doll to suppress Li Xiumei, causing her scream to ring out before the urn went still.
• Chen Mo lunged at Du Ruhai with a knife, but Du Ruhai subdued him, took the urn, and ordered his bodyguards to beat him to death.
• As Chen Mo struggled under the attack, Du Yuwei told him to use his blood to cover the Yang Fire on his shoulders and between his eyebrows.

Du Yuwei possessed the narrator and used his body to attack Du Ruhai and his men, but Du Ruhai revealed a strange Buddha tattoo and struck back with unnatural strength. As the narrator’s body weakened, Du Yuwei transferred into the old man, who stabbed a knife into his own eye.

• The narrator smeared blood on his shoulders and between his eyebrows, allowing Du Yuwei to possess him and reveal everyone’s Yang Fire.
• Du Yuwei controlled the narrator as he extinguished a bodyguard’s three flames, causing the man to cut his own throat and sending the others fleeing.
• The old man prepared a straw doll and pestle to attack Du Yuwei, but the narrator briefly regained control and stabbed Du Ruhai in the shoulder.
• Du Yuwei extinguished Du Ruhai’s remaining Yang Fire, and the narrator noticed a Buddha tattoo on Du Ruhai’s chest that matched carvings associated with the cult.
• Du Ruhai punched the narrator and sent him flying, so Du Yuwei extinguished the old man’s final flame and possessed him, prompting him to stab his own eye.

The narrator fought Du Ruhai to stop him from trapping Du Yuwei, but Zhao Laoqi arrived and defeated the bodyguards. Zhao Laoqi then revealed that the man the narrator had nearly killed was only a surgically altered double, leaving Du Ruhai’s whereabouts uncertain.

• Du Ruhai restrained the possessed old man and used a talisman to immobilize Du Yuwei while the narrator tried to free her.
• Du Ruhai nearly stabbed the narrator, but the narrator wounded him and vowed to avenge Fang Man.
• Du Ruhai’s bodyguards pinned the narrator down until Zhao Laoqi arrived, defeated them, and severed their Achilles tendons.
• Zhao Laoqi stopped the narrator from killing Du Ruhai and revealed that the man was a plastic-surgery double.

The narrator learned that the Du Ruhai they had been fighting was an impostor and heard Zhao Laoqi explain the flaw in Lü Zhengxian’s Seven Deaths for a Life. Zhao Laoqi revealed that Lü Zhengxian’s original body and Du Ruhai’s soul had to remain alive, and he was heading to the basement after discovering its secret.

• The narrator and Zhao Laoqi beat the impostor, who refused to reveal who trained him or where his tattoos came from.
• The narrator removed talismans from the one-eyed old man’s corpse and Li Xiumei’s ashes, while a black shadow fled into the pool.
• Zhao Laoqi led the narrator toward the basement and explained that Du Ruhai had hired him to advise on resurrection and occult matters.
• Zhao Laoqi revealed that Lü Zhengxian had learned a deliberately altered version of Seven Deaths for a Life, leaving a fatal flaw in his possession of Du Ruhai.
• Zhao Laoqi explained that Lü Zhengxian’s original body and Du Ruhai’s soul had to stay alive, and that sending Lü Zhengxian’s soul back to his own body was the way to bring him to justice.
• Zhao Laoqi said he had been working toward that goal until he discovered the secret in the basement.

Zhao Laoqi and the narrator entered the basement to find the real Lü Zhengxian trapped in a wheelchair, but an iron cage fell on them and killed their captive. Du Ruhai confronted them and revealed that the narrator’s father had ordered him to kill seven people, leaving the narrator with a disturbing accusation to face.

• Zhao Laoqi used the impostor’s severed thumb to unlock the elevator, and they descended to the basement with him.
• They found the real Lü Zhengxian alive but nearly vegetative, while Du Ruhai occupied his body.
• An iron cage fell, killing the impostor and trapping Zhao Laoqi and the narrator inside it.
• Du Ruhai arrived and mocked the real Lü Zhengxian, who could only weep.
• Du Ruhai told the narrator that his father had hired him to kill seven people and claimed his father had made him a demon.

Du Ruhai confessed that Chen Mo’s grandfather had taught him a faulty version of the Seven Deaths Life-Exchange Art, and he revealed that he had arranged Du Yuwei’s death so he could resurrect her and make her love him. He withheld the secret of Chen Mo’s flaw, while Zhao Laoqi claimed he had seen the complete version of the art.

• Du Ruhai told Zhao Laoqi that poverty led him to kill people and use the Seven Deaths Life-Exchange Art to take over a wealthy man’s body.
• Du Ruhai blamed Chen Mo’s father and grandfather for giving him a faulty technique, then revealed that Chen Mo’s grandfather had been the one who knew and taught the art.
• Du Ruhai admitted that he had arranged for Du Yuwei to be killed because she rejected him, and said he planned to resurrect her with a reconstructed version of the art.
• Du Ruhai refused to explain Chen Mo’s flaw, saying he wanted to control Chen Mo’s emotions.
• Zhao Laoqi said Chen Mo’s grandfather had not used the complete version of the art, and Du Ruhai demanded to know how he knew.
• Zhao Laoqi replied that he had seen the actual complete version.

Du Ruhai escaped after Song Xiaotian arrived to rescue Chen Mo and Zhao Laoqi, and Chen Mo was taken to the hospital with severe injuries. The next morning, Chen Mo woke and found a video message from his father waiting on his phone.

• Du Ruhai refused to trade the complete version of Seven Deaths for a Life for his freedom, then fled through a concealed basement door when Song Xiaotian arrived.
• Song Xiaotian freed Chen Mo and Zhao Laoqi from the cage, and they escaped the clubhouse while Du Ruhai's bodyguards stood aside.
• Song Xiaotian cut Meng Yifan free, and Meng Yifan drove Chen Mo to the hospital as Song Xiaotian kept him awake.
• Chen Mo woke the next morning, turned on his water-damaged phone, and found a video message his father had sent the previous night.

Chen Mo watched a farewell video in which his father and grandfather confessed to arranging the Seven Deaths Life-Exchange Art and several murders to save him. He rushed home and discovered that both men had died by suicide, leaving him in shock.

• Chen Mo played a video where his father confessed that he and his grandfather had arranged seven deaths to save Chen Mo from a fatal illness.
• Chen Mo's father admitted hiring Lü Zhengxian, helping conceal Li Yujiao's murder, arranging Fang Man's death, and silencing Wang Shujun.
• Chen Mo's grandfather and father said they intended to atone for their crimes and urged Chen Mo to live decently.
• Chen Mo went home with Song Xiaotian, Meng Yifan, and Zhao Laoqi after hearing the farewell message.
• Zhao Laoqi entered Chen Mo's home first and returned to tell him his father and grandfather were dead.
• Chen Mo fought past Zhao Laoqi, Song Xiaotian, and Meng Yifan, then found his father and grandfather hanging from curtain cords.

After his father and grandfather died, the narrator attended their funeral while struggling with guilt and grief. During the vigil, Zhao Laoqi revealed that his wife and son had been victims of Seven Deaths for a Life thirty years earlier.

• The narrator woke at the funeral home after Zhao Laoqi had knocked him unconscious and tried to comfort him about his father and grandfather's deaths.
• The narrator attended the funeral with Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan watching over him, while relatives, coworkers, and friends offered condolences.
• Fang Man's parents came to pay their respects, and Song Xiaotian stopped the narrator from revealing that Fang Man had been deliberately killed.
• Song Xiaotian questioned Zhao Laoqi about his interest in Seven Deaths for a Life and told him that his son, Zhao Zimu, had died thirty years earlier.
• Zhao Laoqi confirmed Zhao Zimu was his son and revealed that his wife and son had been victims of Seven Deaths for a Life.

Zhao Laoqi recounted how he and his master fought a sprawling organization that used dark arts to exploit people. He revealed that its early Resurrection Through a Corpse scheme evolved into Seven Deaths for a Life, the complete version of which the organization developed thirty years ago.

• Zhao Laoqi explained that his master had adopted him, taught him Daoist arts and martial arts, and that his youthful arrogance had led to his wife and son's deaths.
• Zhao Laoqi described how Yin Souls could control corpses for ten to twelve hours, allowing the dead to appear resurrected and alter wills or transfer property.
• Zhao Laoqi recounted how he and his master investigated a businessman's suspicious will, traced it to a powerful organization, and fought it for years.
• Zhao Laoqi said that he and his master had built a small group to oppose the organization, which had members and professionals across the country.
• Zhao Laoqi confirmed that the Resurrection Through a Corpse case was the earliest form of Seven Deaths for a Life, and that the organization had developed its complete version thirty years earlier.