Chapter Summaries

Cui Jiuyang woke to a thick, silent fog that cut off his phone signal and trapped him in a loop as he tried to reach town. He entered Old Li’s open courtyard to find the shepherd and his sheep missing, though their familiar stench remained.

• Cui Jiuyang woke at 8:45 a.m. to a fog so dense it obscured the sky and the view from his window.
• Cui Jiuyang found that his gas stove would not light and his phone had no signal, so he set out on his electric scooter for breakfast.
• Cui Jiuyang rode through the fog for several minutes and found himself back at his own gate, then repeated the ride and returned there again.
• Cui Jiuyang tried to get help from Widow Wang, but no one answered her gate and the village was eerily silent.
• Cui Jiuyang followed the wall to Old Li’s open gate, called for him, and entered the courtyard when neither Old Li nor his sheep appeared.

Cui Jiuyang returned to his empty home in a village swallowed by thick fog and tried to convince himself that everyone had evacuated. After night fell, a wrinkled face appeared against his window, leaving him trapped inside and terrified.

• Cui Jiuyang searched the village chief's home but found no one, and realized that nothing alive remained in the village.
• Cui Jiuyang returned to his house and discovered that his electric scooter had disappeared, briefly hoping someone had taken it.
• Cui Jiuyang entered the house, bolted the door, ate instant noodles, and found that the power was out and his phone had no signal.
• Cui Jiuyang watched the fog churn outside his window by candlelight as darkness fell.
• A wrinkled face emerged from the fog and pressed against the window, so Cui Jiuyang yanked the curtains shut.

Cui Jiuyang endured a night of knocking, eerie faces, and voices trying to lure him outside, then asked what the first caller wanted. The fog vanished in daylight, leaving him cautiously testing whether the danger had passed.

• Cui Jiuyang refused to open the door when a muffled voice urged him to come outside.
• Cui Jiuyang saw a window full of black-eyed faces, fell, and extinguished his candle before the power returned and the faces disappeared.
• A voice claiming to be Cui Jiuyang’s Great-Grandfather, Cui Chengshou, tried to coax him out, but Cui Jiuyang remembered that Cui Chengshou was buried in the family cemetery and shouted for it to leave.
• The first caller returned and said they were going to send off the Drought Ghost so rain would fall on the village.
• Cui Jiuyang asked what the caller meant, and daylight blazed as the fog dispersed.
• Cui Jiuyang opened the door, found the courtyard empty, and tested the silence by throwing a shoe before sitting down to smoke.

Cui Jiuyang crossed the courtyard gate and found himself in an old village, where he met Cui Chengshou, who claimed to be his great-grandfather and summoned him from the future. Cui Chengshou explained that they shared an extreme yang fate and needed to perform rites to send off a Drought Ghost.

• Cui Jiuyang stepped through the vermilion gate and saw his modern home and village transformed into an old settlement.
• Cui Chengshou greeted Cui Jiuyang as his great-grandson and proved their connection by showing an identical ancestral jade pendant.
• Cui Jiuyang punched Cui Chengshou, then heard that the Heaven and Earth Creation Art had summoned him from the future to help become an immortal.
• Cui Chengshou explained that they had been summoned because both had an extreme yang fate and asked Cui Jiuyang to help send off a Drought Ghost.
• Cui Chengshou described how a Drought Ghost brought prolonged drought and said they could deal with it by performing rites to deliver its soul.

Cui Chengshou forced the Great Locust Tree to surrender its branch-woven belt, which let Cui Jiuyang bridge yin and yang. After explaining the belt’s effect, Cui Chengshou took Cui Jiuyang toward the mountain for their next task.

• Cui Chengshou told Cui Jiuyang that he planned to send off the Drought Ghost and gain a powerful dharma body, then said they needed the Great Locust Tree’s belt.
• Cui Jiuyang set up a red-thread octagonal formation while Cui Chengshou whipped the Great Locust Tree and collected its blood-colored sap.
• Cui Chengshou made Curse-Blood Beads from the sap and used them to torment the Great Locust Tree’s divine soul until a small green figure emerged.
• Cui Chengshou trapped the green figure in the formation, and the Great Locust Tree surrendered a branch-woven ring into Cui Jiuyang’s Sky-Catching Cloth.
• Cui Jiuyang wore the ring as a belt the next morning and felt unusually light as Cui Chengshou explained that half his divine soul was on the road between yin and yang.
• Cui Chengshou told Cui Jiuyang not to scream at unfamiliar sights and led him toward the mountain.

Cui Chengshou helped Cui Jiuyang recover a Ghost-Driving Mallet from the bones of a powerful fox and sent him to retrieve a Soul-Guiding Bell from an ancestral pine. Dense fog engulfed the graveyard, where an unseen voice warned Cui Jiuyang not to take the bell and told him to be careful whom he trusted.

• Cui Chengshou and Cui Jiuyang dug into a mountain hollow and uncovered the skeleton of a giant fox.
• Cui Chengshou used a ritual cauldron to turn the fox's bones into a Ghost-Driving Mallet for Cui Jiuyang.
• Cui Chengshou took Cui Jiuyang to the ancestral graveyard and told him to retrieve a bronze Soul-Guiding Bell from an old pine.
• Dense fog suddenly filled the graveyard as Cui Jiuyang tried to reach the bell, and its ringing sounded from all directions.
• An unseen voice warned Cui Jiuyang not to take the Soul-Guiding Bell and urged him to be careful whom he trusted.

Cui Jiuyang grew suspicious of Cui Chengshou after a voice in the fog warned him not to trust someone named Cui Cheng, then he was lured from bed by a fragrance. He woke beneath the Great Locust Tree before a white-haired old man who held a jade token.

• Cui Jiuyang retrieved the bronze bell with a peach branch while Cui Chengshou explained that he had stumbled onto the Underworld Road.
• Cui Jiuyang questioned Cui Chengshou about the fog and learned that Great-Grandfather reacted urgently when he mentioned the name Cui Cheng.
• Cui Chengshou returned home with Cui Jiuyang, prepared a rooster and a black dog for the next day's ritual, and shared the meal with him.
• Cui Jiuyang fell asleep worrying about the fog, the Drought Ghost, and Cui Chengshou's secrets.
• A fragrance drew Cui Jiuyang out of the house and to the Great Locust Tree, where a white-haired old man spoke with the tree spirit.
• The old man waved a jade token before Cui Jiuyang and jolted him awake.

Cui Jiuyang learned from an elderly Cui Chengshou that his younger self had summoned him from the future to seal a drought ghost, but the failed ascension had killed him and left the ghost free. The old man could offer no way to prove his identity or earn Cui Jiuyang’s trust, leaving their next move uncertain.

• Cui Jiuyang confronted the elderly Cui Chengshou, who explained that he and the younger man at the house were both versions of himself.
• Cui Chengshou recounted how he summoned Cui Jiuyang to seal a drought ghost so he could complete his merit and ascend.
• Cui Chengshou said the heavenly gate’s astral winds broke the seal, the ghost became a Ghost Immortal, and Cui Jiuyang’s body and soul were destroyed in the ensuing battle.
• Cui Jiuyang realized the elderly Cui Chengshou was a dreamlike wisp of divine consciousness from the future and could not physically help his younger self.
• Cui Jiuyang questioned how he could trust Cui Chengshou, and the old man admitted he had no answer.

Cui Jiuyang faced the Drought Ghost while two versions of Cui Chengshou urged him to take opposite actions. Though he pretended to obey his young Great-Grandfather, he disrupted the sealing ritual and left the Drought Ghost’s power divided between himself and the awakened old Cui Chengshou’s divine soul.

• Cui Jiuyang’s elderly Great-Grandfather warned him in a whisper not to follow the young Cui Chengshou’s instructions as they lured the Drought Ghost closer.
• The two Cui Chengshous each urged Cui Jiuyang to strike either himself or the Soul-Guiding Bell, while the young one claimed the old one was an evil corpse.
• Cui Jiuyang struck his own head three times with the Ghost-Driving Mallet, collapsing as the young Cui Chengshou began sealing the Drought Ghost into him.
• Cui Jiuyang secretly struck the Soul-Guiding Bell with the mallet, interrupting the ritual and triggering a backlash that injured the young Cui Chengshou.
• The Drought Ghost’s power remained partly sealed inside Cui Jiuyang, while the old Cui Chengshou’s divine soul absorbed more than half of it and began to awaken.

Cui Jiuyang watched his two Great-Grandfathers battle over ascension, and both were gravely wounded before merging their fates. The younger Great-Grandfather survived with the older man's soul within him, and he and Cui Jiuyang returned home.

• The two Great-Grandfathers destroyed the Drought Ghost, then the younger Great-Grandfather revealed his plan to refine the older man's Divine Soul and ascend to the Eight Extremes.
• The Great-Grandfathers fought, and their attacks burned through the Five Warlords Register, freeing the demons and monsters bound inside it.
• A Bloodsucking Sickle attacked Cui Jiuyang, distracting the older Great-Grandfather long enough for the younger man to pierce him with a wooden sword and bring him down.
• The younger Great-Grandfather was then struck by the older man's Soul Sword, which shattered his dantian and nearly ruined his soul.
• The Great-Grandfathers joined hands and recited their final words, after which the older man's figure faded into the younger man's dantian.
• Cui Jiuyang helped the younger Great-Grandfather stand, and they slowly walked home together.

Cui Chengshou gave Cui Jiuyang The Eight Extremes and explained that the young man could not return to the future and had little time to live unless he cultivated. After leaving home to seek the eight extremes, Cui Jiuyang became a fortune-teller in Jining, where he stopped peddler Wang Dali over a deadly prediction.

• Cui Chengshou apologized to Cui Jiuyang and spent a month writing three books for him: The Eight Extremes, his cultivation insights, and his travel records.
• Cui Chengshou told Cui Jiuyang that he could not send him back to the future and that the Drought Ghost's yin energy had shortened his life, but cultivation could restore it and eventually let him return.
• Cui Chengshou warned Cui Jiuyang to stay away for nine years, and Cui Jiuyang left the village to seek the eight extremes.
• Cui Jiuyang established himself as a fortune-teller in Jining and gained a reputation after saving two lives.
• Cui Jiuyang saw an aura of mourning around the returning peddler Wang Dali and predicted that someone in his household would die that day.
• Cui Jiuyang called Wang Dali to his table and asked whether he had been away on a long journey.

Cui Jiuyang saved Huzi from a rat spirit’s attack, making his reputation spread throughout Jining Prefecture. As his divination business grew, two deputy caravan captains from Shengdelong Chamber of Commerce invited him to meet their chairman.

• Wang Dali thanked Cui Jiuyang for saving his wife, and news of the diviner’s accuracy and kindness spread.
• Huzi stole offerings from the Land God Temple, and a rat spirit caused him to fall gravely ill after the Land God tried to frighten him with nightmares.
• Huzi’s family sought help from Cui Jiuyang, who used nine cat whiskers to drive the rat spirit’s fur from the boy and restore him.
• Cui Jiuyang’s reputation grew as people flocked to his stall for divinations and advice.
• Meng Da and Meng Er invited Cui Jiuyang to visit Shengdelong Chamber of Commerce, and he accepted.

Cui Jiuyang joined a gathering of local occultists at Shengdelong, where Fifth Master Yang offered fifty silver dollars to decipher mysterious writing. As the others tried to identify it, Cui Jiuyang introduced himself to the young Nuo Opera performer Jiu Yizhi, leaving the cipher unsolved.

• Cui Jiuyang’s divination about Shengdelong’s business yielded no result, which he took as a sign of danger and opportunity.
• Meng Er brought Cui Jiuyang to Shengdelong’s council hall, where he met Xiang Qiming, Spirit Medium Wei, Jiu Yizhi, and other invited experts.
• Fifth Master Yang distributed rubbings of mysterious characters and offered fifty silver dollars to anyone who could explain them.
• Spirit Medium Wei asked for a quiet room, while Xiang Qiming mocked her reliance on an immortal for answers.
• Cui Jiuyang asked the young woman her name, and she introduced herself as Jiu Yizhi.

Cui Jiuyang’s drawing revealed a Malevolent Flood Dragon coiled inside the missing Iron Rhino, frightening the gathered masters. As the group confronted the threat behind the sunken cargo boat and vanished statue, Spirit Medium Wei became convinced the creature was real.

• Fifth Master Yang explained that a cargo boat had sunk in the canal with no survivors, and a massive Iron Rhino had been found in its hold.
• Old Man Xiang translated the inscription on the Iron Rhino, which said it had been cast during the Ming dynasty to subdue the Yellow River.
• Spirit Medium Wei and Ninth Lady said evil forces had corrupted the Iron Rhino and caused the boatmen’s deaths; Fifth Master Yang revealed the statue had vanished from a northern docks warehouse after a collapse injured workers.
• Cui Jiuyang showed his drawing of a four-clawed Malevolent Flood Dragon sleeping inside the hollow Iron Rhino, and the gathered masters reacted with alarm.
• Old Man Xiang suspected Cui Jiuyang was trying to scare off rivals, while Spirit Medium Wei believed the Malevolent Flood Dragon was truly inside the statue.

Cui Jiuyang impressed the experts with his knowledge of the missing great iron rhinoceros and joined them in investigating strange accidents at Fifth Master Yang’s wharf. Mama Liu uncovered evidence of two powerful ghostly creatures, and Old Man Xiang traced them to the east, leaving the group with a direction to pursue.

• Cui Jiuyang recalled how the great iron rhinoceros had once suppressed a Malevolent Flood Dragon in the Si River.
• Spirit Medium Wei questioned why Fifth Master Yang was searching for the missing rhinoceros, and he described fatal accidents at the wharf.
• Old Man Xiang suggested investigating the wharf, and the group went to the cargo warehouse with Meng Da and Meng Er leading them.
• Mama Liu detected an alien evil by vomiting dead tadpoles and told Cui Jiuyang that a ghostly creature was present.
• Mama Liu used river water and mist to reveal two figures near the place where the Iron Rhino had been kept, but their power exceeded hers.
• Old Man Xiang divined that the ghostly creatures had come from the east, somewhere not far away.

Cui Jiuyang’s group learned that foreign ghosts had taken the great iron rhinoceros to Lake Taibai, while Old Man Xiang pushed to retrieve it quickly for the reward. The story then shifted to Miss Abe and her assistant Togo arriving in Jining City to meet Fuxiang Commercial Association chairman Lu Zhongqian.

• Cui Jiuyang confirmed the spirits came from the east, and Spirit Medium Wei identified their method as a corrupted Five-Ghost Transport Technique that carried the iron rhinoceros to Lake Taibai.
• Spirit Medium Wei chose to pursue the dangerous matter after Meng Er suggested Fifth Master Yang might pay generously to reopen canal traffic.
• Cui Jiuyang proposed inspecting the sunken boat before going to Lake Taibai, but greedy Old Man Xiang urged the group to head straight for the iron rhinoceros.
• Miss Abe learned that two of her Message Cranes had split apart and told her assistant Togo that Lu Zhongqian needed to decide sooner.
• Lu Zhongqian welcomed Miss Abe and Togo after learning they were Japanese guests sent by Governor Zhang’s adjutant, Chen.
• Togo asked Lu Zhongqian whether he had prepared the items requested in the telegram.

Cui Jiuyang and the others investigated the salvaged ship, where he discovered cracks forming a Japanese imperial chrysanthemum emblem and Spirit Medium Wei was attacked by a fire-marked beetle. The beetles killed Old Man Xiang’s myna, while Miss Abe learned that two Red-Flow Beetles had been extinguished, leaving the group to depart the wreck in grief.

• Cui Jiuyang led the Ninth Lady through the forward cabin and found chrysanthemum-shaped cracks in the wall that he recognized as the Japanese imperial emblem.
• Spirit Medium Wei was bitten by a fire-marked beetle, and the Ninth Lady treated her wound while Mama Liu trapped the beetle in water.
• Cui Jiuyang and the others found Old Man Xiang mourning his dead myna beside another crushed fire-marked beetle.
• Miss Abe received a note from Togo reporting that two Red-Flow Beetles had been extinguished at the wreck.
• Old Man Xiang left the wreck carrying his myna’s body, as the others fell silent around him.

After Mynah’s death, Cui Jiuyang and the others returned to the wharf and accepted rooms at the guildhall. A night raid interrupted their rest, and they joined the fight against the intruders.

• Old Man Xiang mourned Mynah as the loss of his son once again, while Cui Jiuyang suspected Japanese occult adepts had taken the Iron Rhino and killed Mynah.
• Meng Da and Meng Er arranged for Cui Jiuyang and the others to stay at the guildhall, though Old Man Xiang went home to bury Mynah.
• Cui Jiuyang woke to a commotion and divined that danger was coming from the south, with a friend lending aid.
• Ninth Lady, wearing a nuo mask and wielding a fishing spear, urged Cui Jiuyang to grab a weapon and fight the attackers.
• Mama Liu pinned down one intruder while Meng Da fought another, and Ninth Lady chased a fleeing man through the guildhall.

Cui Jiuyang and the others discovered that the attackers were corpses controlled by Gu sorcery, and identified Yang Jing as the disguised sorcerer when he fled. After Granny Wei destroyed the Gu insects, Cui Jiuyang found Ninth Lady asleep after her fight and realized she was drunk.

• Cui Jiuyang blinded the black-clad attacker with a flash, then knocked him down with a bronze horse ornament and discovered he had been dead for days.
• Meng Da and the guards found that all three attackers were dead crewmen from a ship that had sunk recently.
• Cui Jiuyang deduced that Puppet Gu insects had been controlling the corpses and warned Meng Da that a sorcerer was hiding among the guards.
• Yang Jing fled when Meng Da called the guards back, and the guards pursued him.
• Granny Wei drew three Gu insects from the corpses and destroyed them with liquid from a porcelain bottle.
• Cui Jiuyang found Ninth Lady asleep in the corridor, woke her while trying to remove her Nuo Mask, and smelled alcohol on her.

Cui Jiuyang learned that the Japanese were seeking a hydrological chart of the ancient Ji River and materials about the mysterious Jidu Shrine. With Fifth Master Yang's records in hand, he and the others traveled to Lake Taibai, where they discovered the Iron Rhino lay underwater and prepared to retrieve it.

• Cui Jiuyang identified the Japanese as the likely attackers, and Fifth Master Yang explained that they had pursued a Ji River chart and once offered him a painting in exchange for it.
• Fifth Master Yang gave Cui Jiuyang the early Tang hydrological chart and other records about the Ji River and Jidu Shrine.
• Cui Jiuyang and his companions traveled south to Lake Taibai to recover the Iron Rhino the Japanese had brought there.
• Spirit Medium Wei relayed that her Gray Family Immortal had located the Iron Rhino at the bottom of the lake.
• Mama Liu gave everyone tadpoles to hold in their mouths so they could breathe underwater, then she jumped into the lake first.