Chapter Summaries

Zhao Laoqi recounted how his recklessness led to his wife Shen Qingran and son Zhao Zimu being killed, and explained that the organization behind Seven Deaths for a Life had returned. He revealed that Du Ruhai, or Lü Zhengxian, was connected to the organization and that it had deliberately spread incomplete and incorrect versions of the art.

• Zhao Laoqi said he ignored his master's warning and joined a month-long fight that drove the organization’s senior figures abroad but failed to destroy it.
• Zhao Laoqi returned home to find that the organization had killed his wife Shen Qingran and son Zhao Zimu, and he later lost his master to illness.
• Zhao Laoqi explained that the organization had secretly returned and that Du Ruhai’s stand-in’s tattoo showed Du Ruhai, or Lü Zhengxian, had ties to it.
• Song Xiaotian questioned why Lü Zhengxian had learned an incomplete version of the art, and Zhao Laoqi said Lü Zhengxian likely contacted the organization only after becoming Du Ruhai.
• Zhao Laoqi revealed that the organization had deliberately circulated incomplete and incorrect versions of Seven Deaths Life-Exchange Art, including through former members.

Chen Mo and the others concluded that an organization was testing successive versions of the Seven Deaths for a Life Art, with Chen Mo and Du Ruhai among its subjects. As Chen Mo kept vigil for his father and grandfather, a masked visitor arrived, and he recognized her as his mother.

• Song Xiaotian suggested that the organization spread flawed versions of the Seven Deaths for a Life Art to experiment and improve it, and Zhao Laoqi agreed.
• Chen Mo and Zhao Laoqi reasoned that the fortune-teller who taught Chen Mo's grandfather the art might have belonged to the organization, and that Du Ruhai's body double was an observer working for it.
• Chen Mo, Song Xiaotian, Zhao Laoqi, and Meng Yifan discussed how Du Ruhai's connections and influence had harmed them and agreed they had little left to lose.
• Chen Mo spent the second night of his father's and grandfather's three-day funeral vigil, still struggling to accept their deaths.
• A masked woman laid flowers for Chen Mo's father and grandfather, and Chen Mo recognized her as his mother and ran after her.

Chen Mo searched for his mother after recognizing her at the funeral home, but she avoided him and did not attend the farewell ceremony. Du Ruhai arrived to pay his respects, demanded the complete version of seven deaths for a life, and left after Chen Mo threatened him.

• Chen Mo recognized his masked mother at the funeral home and searched for her with Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan, but they could not find her.
• Chen Mo hoped his mother would attend the next day's farewell ceremony, but she was absent from the crowd.
• Du Ruhai arrived at the ceremony, publicly offered condolences, and privately asked Chen Mo whether his grandfather had left him the complete version of seven deaths for a life.
• Chen Mo denied having the technique, while Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan argued with Du Ruhai.
• Chen Mo confronted Du Ruhai, warned him to protect the person in the wheelchair, and threatened to kill him; Du Ruhai left in anger.

After losing his father and grandfather, the narrator brought their inherited book, Six Lines Mysteries, to Zhao Laoqi, who explained its origins and the sins his family had committed through it. Zhao Laoqi said the dead men could not yet be reincarnated, but the narrator might help them through good deeds, leaving him unsure whether to study the book.

• The narrator buried his father’s and grandfather’s ashes and returned home, where he found Six Lines Mysteries among their belongings.
• The narrator asked Zhao Laoqi about the book, and Zhao Laoqi described its six-line divination system and its additional arts, including talismans and formations.
• The narrator found a note in the book crediting its contents to Tang Zhui and warning that wicked users would meet a terrible end.
• Zhao Laoqi told the narrator that his father and grandfather had used the book for evil, and that his father had killed Wang Shujun twice.
• Zhao Laoqi said the narrator’s father and grandfather could not be reincarnated yet, but his good deeds could help atone for their sins.
• The narrator asked whether he should study the book, and Zhao Laoqi advised him to act with reverence and compassion.

After Meng Yifan and the narrator paid compensation over the stigmatized apartment, their agency struggled to recover. A woman offered them a cheap apartment where her son had died, and his story linked the death to Du Yuwei, leaving them shocked.

• The court ruled that Meng Yifan's agency and the seller each had to pay half the compensation, so the narrator gave Meng Yifan 150,000 yuan.
• Meng Yifan and the narrator spent two weeks trying to revive the agency but failed to close a deal.
• A woman offered to sell her ninety-square-meter Xingke Road apartment for 300,000 yuan because her family urgently needed money for her husband's cancer treatment.
• The woman told Meng Yifan and the narrator that her college-student son had died suddenly with a look of terror on his face.
• The woman said her son had dreamed of a girl in a red wedding dress who promised to take him away, and the narrator and Meng Yifan recognized the description as Du Yuwei.
• The woman explained that Du Yuwei had pursued her son, bullied his girlfriend, and died after being hit by a car, leaving the narrator and Meng Yifan stunned.

Chen Mo and Meng Yifan learned that He Tao’s ghost was haunting his parents’ house and agreed to investigate it with Zhao Laoqi. As they prepared to summon He Tao’s soul, Chen Mo worried about why Du Yuwei had begun harming people.

• He Tao’s mother told Chen Mo and Meng Yifan that her son had died after being haunted by Du Yuwei and that strange sounds still came from his room.
• Meng Yifan agreed to handle the haunting before selling the house, and He Tao’s mother gave them the keys.
• Meng Yifan decided they could profit from the house and called Zhao Laoqi for help.
• Zhao Laoqi said they would inspect the house that evening and summon He Tao’s soul with one more person.
• Chen Mo called Song Xiaotian and invited him to dinner without telling him about the planned summoning.
• Chen Mo wondered why Du Yuwei was harming people and whether Zhao Laoqi would spare her.

Chen Mo and his companions tried to summon He Tao’s soul to learn why Du Yuwei had killed him, but Zhao Laoqi discovered that she had taken and likely swallowed two of He Tao’s souls. They then used a mirror to contact the lingering po in He Tao’s home, where Chen Mo saw a second shadow imitating him.

• Chen Mo, Meng Yifan, Zhao Laoqi, and a reluctant Song Xiaotian went to He Tao’s home to investigate his death and Du Yuwei’s attacks.
• Zhao Laoqi made Chen Mo serve as the spirit medium and began the soul-summoning ritual with Meng Yifan and Song Xiaotian’s help.
• When He Tao failed to possess Chen Mo, Zhao Laoqi determined that He Tao’s earth soul and human soul were missing and suspected Du Yuwei had swallowed them.
• Zhao Laoqi explained that Du Yuwei was killing people to grow stronger and might continue even after taking revenge on Du Ruhai.
• Zhao Laoqi used He Tao’s dressing-table mirror to seek answers from his lingering po, and Chen Mo saw another shadow beside him imitating his movements.

The narrator used the mirror to question He Tao’s lingering soul and learned that Du Yuwei had consumed two of his souls before he dispersed to help his father. Zhao Laoqi revealed that Du Yuwei was Su Wenjing, one of twin sisters whose reunion preceded her death, explaining why two women had appeared as Du Yuwei.

• The narrator learned from He Tao that Du Yuwei had eaten his earth soul and human soul, blamed him for her death, and was somewhere on a mountain; He Tao had also seen two Du Yuweis.
• The narrator urged He Tao to leave so his mother could sell the house to pay for his father’s treatment, and He Tao’s lingering soul dispersed.
• Zhao Laoqi explained that He Tao could no longer reincarnate because Du Yuwei had consumed his earth soul, and said he would have to stop Du Yuwei or kill her.
• Zhao Laoqi revealed that Du Yuwei’s real name was Su Wenjing and that she had a twin sister, Su Yajing, who was still alive.
• Zhao Laoqi explained that the Su family had sent one twin away after a Taoist warned they must never meet, but the sisters reunited two months before Du Yuwei died.

Zhao Laoqi revealed that Du Yuwei’s twin sister, An Ning, had reunited with her and helped plan to take Du Yuwei’s body, while he intended to stop Du Yuwei from killing again. After the group settled He Tao’s family’s affairs, the narrator received an unknown person’s invitation to meet at Tianxing Amusement Park at midnight.

• Zhao Laoqi explained that the Su Family had sent Su Yajing, later known as An Ning, to an orphanage because a priest had predicted the twins’ fates.
• Zhao Laoqi told the narrator and Song Xiaotian that An Ning had secretly stolen Du Yuwei’s body and was determined to help her take revenge.
• Zhao Laoqi said he had to kill Du Yuwei to prevent more innocent people from being hurt, leaving the narrator troubled by her family’s role in Du Yuwei’s suffering.
• Meng Yifan sold He Tao’s house for 550,000 yuan, gave 350,000 yuan to He Tao’s mother, and Song Xiaotian received 5,000 yuan.
• The narrator received a text from an unknown number asking to meet at Tianxing Amusement Park at midnight.

The narrator entered Tianxing Amusement Park to meet Du Yuwei, but discovered that armed men had ambushed him to capture her. After Du Yuwei possessed him and attacked one of her pursuers, the story left off with her tearing off a man's head.

• The narrator searched Tianxing Amusement Park for Du Yuwei until An Ning's unknown number warned him that an attacker was hiding in a tree.
• The narrator ran from a knife-wielding man, then stabbed another attacker who tackled him from a flower bed.
• The narrator escaped after striking the first attacker and pretending to offer him five hundred thousand, but a yellow talisman immobilized him.
• Du Yuwei possessed the narrator, revealing that the men had come to capture her rather than kill him.
• Two strange men approached with a yellow talisman and a Vajra Pestle, and Du Yuwei seized one by the neck and tore off his head.

Du Yuwei and the narrator fought a man empowered by the Evil Buddha, but An Ning arrived and rescued them. They fled together as more of Du Ruhai’s people waited outside.

• Du Yuwei killed one of Du Ruhai’s men and confronted the survivor, who said Du Ruhai wanted her to return and warned that Zhao Laoqi was hunting her.
• The surviving man used a blood-anointed Evil Buddha to overpower Du Yuwei and beat the narrator, while Du Yuwei admitted she could not defeat the force inside him.
• An Ning jumped from a tree and stabbed the man in the side, breaking the Evil Buddha’s control over him.
• An Ning warned that more of Du Ruhai’s people were outside, and she pulled the narrator away as he stomped on the fallen man.

An Ning rescued the narrator from Du Ruhai’s men, but their escape ended with her using an unexplained power to stop traffic cops from detaining them. She left him in a park to meet Du Yuwei, who revealed Du Ruhai might be monitoring An Ning’s phone, and the narrator apologized for what his father and grandfather had done to her family.

• An Ning escaped over a wall with the narrator, rode away with him, and let him take the motorcycle after he noticed her injured hand.
• The narrator sped through the city and leaned into a turn, prompting traffic cops to stop them; when An Ning whispered “Wen Jing,” the cops froze and she reclaimed the keys.
• An Ning dropped the narrator at a park, where Du Yuwei appeared holding the baby and asked whether he was hurt.
• Du Yuwei said An Ning had texted the narrator and that Du Ruhai might be monitoring her number, leaving the narrator worried that An Ning was in danger.
• The narrator told Du Yuwei that his father and grandfather had died and apologized because they had caused her family’s suffering while trying to save him.

The narrator walked through the park with Du Yuwei and her child, trying to persuade her not to kill anyone else despite learning why she wanted revenge. He offered his life to her, but the child protected him, and Du Yuwei told him to keep living before leaving.

• The narrator walked with Du Yuwei and her child and asked whether she liked He Tao; Du Yuwei said she killed him because he refused to be with her.
• The narrator urged Du Yuwei not to kill more people, but she said she needed to grow stronger to avenge herself and protect An Ning.
• The narrator admitted that his family had caused Du Yuwei's suffering and offered to let her kill him and devour his soul.
• The child blocked Du Yuwei from hurting the narrator, and Du Yuwei told him to live before leaving with the child.

Meng Yifan proposed making money by buying and handling haunted properties, and he persuaded Song Xiaotian and Zhao Laoqi to support the risky plan. Chen Mo remained uneasy as the chapter ended with Zhao Laoqi defending the need to adapt their methods to changing times.

• Meng Yifan showed Chen Mo and Song Xiaotian documents for several haunted houses and argued that they offered far greater profits than ordinary properties.
• Song Xiaotian objected to risking their lives, while Meng Yifan insisted they could rely on their experience, Chen Mo's inherited book, and Seventh Master.
• Meng Yifan urged Song Xiaotian to join by promising that success could bring them wealth and Ferraris, and Song Xiaotian began to agree.
• Meng Yifan revealed that he had already discussed the plan with Zhao Laoqi, who arrived and approved it.
• Chen Mo questioned Zhao Laoqi's judgment, but Zhao Laoqi said their work and methods had to adapt to changing times.

Chen Mo agreed to help Meng Yifan take on haunted houses after Zhao Laoqi insisted, but Zhao also asked him to stop Du Yuwei from killing again. Chen Mo suspected He Tao’s girlfriend was Du Yuwei’s next target, and the chapter ended with Song Xiaotian missing after going to investigate her.

• Zhao Laoqi persuaded Chen Mo and Song Xiaotian to support Meng Yifan’s haunted-house business, then asked Chen Mo to prevent Du Yuwei from killing anyone.
• Chen Mo admitted he had tried to talk Du Yuwei out of killing, but Zhao Laoqi argued that she would not kill Chen Mo and he could stop her in person.
• Chen Mo realized Du Yuwei might target He Tao’s girlfriend, and Song Xiaotian went to investigate her.
• Meng Yifan began arranging to take on haunted houses from other agencies while Chen Mo repeatedly called Song Xiaotian without getting an answer.
• Zhao Laoqi feared Du Yuwei had attacked Song Xiaotian, and the group waited at the shop and called him dozens of times, but he remained missing.

The narrator, Meng Yifan, and Zhao Laoqi went to Su Qian’s apartment after receiving an address in a text supposedly from Song Xiaotian, only to find her parents dead. The chapter ended when Song Xiaotian woke up and said he had never sent the text.

• Worried that Song Xiaotian was missing, the narrator, Meng Yifan, and Zhao Laoqi prepared to search for him, but a text claiming to be from him gave them Su Qian’s address.
• The three went to Su Qian’s apartment and, after Zhao Laoqi smelled blood and picked the lock, found her mother beheaded and her father dead beside her.
• Zhao Laoqi told the narrator and Meng Yifan not to call the police and wiped the door to remove their fingerprints before leading them away.
• Song Xiaotian called and said he had just woken up and had not sent the text.

After discovering that Du Yuwei and An Ning had used a lock of An Ning’s hair to track his actions and find Su Qian’s family, the narrator blamed himself for their deaths. Zhao Laoqi gave him a knife capable of killing Du Yuwei and left the choice to him.

• Song Xiaotian told Zhao Laoqi and the narrator that he had passed out after finding Su Qian’s address and had woken up in a school storage room.
• Zhao Laoqi found An Ning’s hair in the narrator’s pocket and realized Du Yuwei had used it, along with the narrator’s blood, to learn what he did.
• Song Xiaotian arrived as the police came to Su Qian’s home, and the group concluded that Du Yuwei had killed Su Qian’s parents while Su Qian was still missing.
• Song Xiaotian urged the group not to search for Su Qian, while Meng Yifan warned that Du Yuwei might continue killing other people.
• Zhao Laoqi gave the narrator a knife he said could kill Du Yuwei, and the narrator wondered whether he should use it.

Meng Yifan, Chen Mo, and Song Xiaotian celebrated their first haunted-house sale before recognizing the server, Su Qian, as a missing student whose parents had been murdered. They tried to stay out of her troubles, but when she vanished while carrying supplies, they feared something had happened to her.

• Meng Yifan, Chen Mo, and Song Xiaotian sold a haunted house after persuading the old lady's ghost to leave, then celebrated their profit at a barbecue stall.
• Song Xiaotian recognized the server as Su Qian from a school photo and explained that she had stopped attending school after He Tao's death and was hiding from Du Yuwei.
• Meng Yifan considered warning Su Qian, but Song Xiaotian urged them not to approach her and risk drawing her into more danger.
• The stall owners sent Su Qian to carry a heavy item to the storeroom, then complained that she had not returned and was not answering her phone.
• Meng Yifan, Chen Mo, and Song Xiaotian grew uneasy and wondered whether something had happened to Su Qian.

Chen Mo and his friends stopped Su Qian from injuring herself, then confronted Du Yuwei as she prepared to take revenge on her. Chen Mo offered his life to stop her, but Du Yuwei could not kill him and disappeared.

• Song Xiaotian, Meng Yifan, and Chen Mo found Su Qian hurting herself in the alley beside Du Yuwei.
• Chen Mo used chopsticks to clamp Su Qian’s middle finger until she calmed down and answered his questions.
• Chen Mo confronted Du Yuwei and urged her not to harm Su Qian or other innocent people.
• Chen Mo offered to die in Su Qian’s place and begged Du Yuwei to kill him, saying he no longer wanted to live.
• Du Yuwei lowered her hand instead of killing Chen Mo, then disappeared after he called out to her.

After Du Yuwei attacked Su Qian, the narrator and Song Xiaotian confronted her exploitative barbecue-stall employers, got Su Qian medical care, and helped her leave for Yu City. Song Xiaotian warned that Du Yuwei would keep killing while Du Ruhai remained alive, then confronted the narrator for failing to use Seventh Master’s knife.

• The narrator and his companions took the injured Su Qian back to the barbecue stall, where Song Xiaotian forced the owner to pay her full wages.
• The narrator paid for Su Qian’s treatment, and Meng Yifan bought her a train ticket to Yu City and transferred her eight thousand yuan.
• Su Qian thanked them and left for Yu City with food for the journey.
• Song Xiaotian said Du Yuwei would continue killing as long as Du Ruhai was alive and asked why the narrator had not used Seventh Master’s knife.
• The narrator admitted he had forgotten to bring the knife, and Song Xiaotian pointed out that it was at his waist.