Chapter Summaries

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger learned the Apprehension Squad’s route and prepared a deadly ambush in the mountain pass. As Magistrate Chen and Old Daoist Sun’s escort entered the valley, Master Tiger’s roar threw the squad into panic, and the chapter ended with them spotting him in the woods.

• Master Tiger identified Zhao Erlong as a scout, and Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger robbed him to learn the route to Yinshan County.
• Zhao Erlong revealed that he had been ordered to inspect the border roads, then kept quiet about the encounter after the two men left.
• Cui Jiuyang laid a Beheading Five Phases Formation across the mountain road while Master Tiger prepared to kill Chen Weimin.
• The Apprehension Squad escorted Magistrate Chen and Old Daoist Sun into the valley with the five Longevity Pills.
• Master Tiger’s roar alarmed the escort, and Old Daoist Sun ordered the squad to protect the carriage.
• An Apprehension Squad member spotted Master Tiger moving through the woods with his saber.

Master Tiger and Cui Jiuyang confronted Magistrate Chen and Old Daoist Sun after the Apprehension Squad fled, and Master Tiger killed Magistrate Chen. Cui Jiuyang then hung Old Daoist Sun from a tree and asked how to return the life origin on the silver to its source.

• Master Tiger approached the Apprehension Squad while Cui Jiuyang used black water and rust to disrupt Old Daoist Sun and collapse Magistrate Chen's carriage.
• Zhao Erlong abandoned his gun and fled, prompting the other squad members to scatter and leave Magistrate Chen and Old Daoist Sun behind.
• Cui Jiuyang trapped Old Daoist Sun in a mire that swallowed him, while Magistrate Chen fled into Master Tiger's Withered Wood Maze.
• Magistrate Chen admitted he had sought advancement and defended his choices, then fired his Browning pistol at Master Tiger.
• Master Tiger revealed that the bullets could not kill him, killed Magistrate Chen by tearing out his heart, and ate it.
• Cui Jiuyang hung Old Daoist Sun from a tree and asked how to disperse the life origin on the silver back to where it came from.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger killed Old Daoist Sun and destroyed the pages describing his evil sorcery, then learned the Apprehension Squad had seized Cui Jiuyang’s belongings. After hearing Little White Pear’s plan to redistribute the county treasury’s silver, Cui Jiuyang decided to stay in Yangshan and prepare a rain-praying ritual, uneasy about taking the Longevity Pill.

• Cui Jiuyang burned the two pages of evil sorcery, and Old Daoist Sun died after the Beheading Five Phases Formation made him experience a vision of leeches draining his life.
• Master Tiger revealed the Longevity Pill, and Cui Jiuyang thought about his remaining half a year to live.
• Cui Jiuyang returned to the Inn and learned that the Apprehension Squad had taken his belongings and stewed his big rooster.
• Cui Jiuyang visited Little White Pear, told her what had happened, and heard her announce that she wanted to distribute the Treasury’s silver to the people.
• Cui Jiuyang changed his mind about leaving Yangshan and took Master Tiger to the Longjun River to prepare a rain-praying ritual, while questioning whether he should take the Longevity Pill.

Zhang Xiao'er, a skilled gambler, met two men while walking to Tai'an at night, and they invited him to a hidden gambling house in the mountains. He eagerly followed their lead after hearing about its games and scantily clad dealers.

• Zhang Xiao'er explained why he valued gambling and described the tricks he used sparingly to win.
• Zhang Xiao'er left his home village at night to reach the Bright Moon Gambling House before its new dice dealer began work.
• Zhang Xiao'er chased a moving lantern and caught up with two men, who welcomed him after fearing something was following them.
• Zhang Xiao'er discussed gambling with the two men as they walked and became excited when they praised a secret gambling house.
• The two men described the gambling house's games and scantily clad female dealers, and Zhang Xiao'er asked eagerly about it.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger discovered a brightly lit supernatural gambling house in the mountains and entered Moonlit Tower to investigate. After winning hundreds of silver dollars by calculating the dice, Cui Jiuyang placed his winnings on another bet as the other gamblers followed him.

• Cui Jiuyang spotted lights in the mountains, used the Eye-Opening Coin to detect demons and ghosts, and persuaded Master Tiger to investigate while they ate their roasted pheasants.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger entered Moonlit Tower, where greeters handed them silver dollars in red envelopes and the first-floor hall was filled with gamblers and lavish entertainment.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger were barred from the second floor because they lacked the required funds, so they joined a big-or-small dice table instead.
• Cui Jiuyang calculated the dice results and won over three hundred silver dollars with Master Tiger by his side.
• Cui Jiuyang wagered his winnings on big again, and the other gamblers at the table followed his bet.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger attended a second-floor spectacle at Moonlit Tower, where Xiaodaobai prepared to torture the captured dealer as part of a gambling game. Cui Jiuyang recognized Xiaodaobai as a Human Demon, and the old man began demonstrating his knives while the dealer remained bound on the table.

• A refined man apologized to Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger with gambling tickets, and Master Tiger warned that he was more dangerous than Old Daoist Sun.
• A gong summoned the second-floor gamblers, and a greeter announced a game betting on how many cuts the dealer would endure before dying.
• Greeters brought the bound first-floor dealer to the central table, and Cui Jiuyang recognized her as the woman whose gambling table he had won from.
• Xiaodaobai arrived and prepared an assortment of knives, while Cui Jiuyang used the Eye-Opening Coin to see that the guests and Xiaodaobai were demons.
• Xiaodaobai explained his knives and cut a bloody line across the dealer's chest as he began the demonstration.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger disrupted the Moonlit Tower’s torture spectacle, and Master Tiger ate the fox spirit’s sliced flesh until the executioner Bai Qingjin recognized him as an imperial guard. He Feixu proposed a wager over whether the two men could kill the fox spirit under his protection, and Master Tiger began the first attempt.

• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger complained about Bai Qingjin’s Thousand-Layer Snow performance, and Master Tiger eagerly ate the sliced meat.
• Bai Qingjin recognized Master Tiger as an imperial guard and hurriedly served him more meat.
• He Feixu offered to give them the fox spirit if they could kill her, but said they would work for him unpaid for a year if she survived both attempts.
• Cui Jiuyang accepted the wager, and He Feixu returned the gamblers’ stakes and cleared the hall for the contest.
• Master Tiger crouched with his saber and unleashed Tiger Guard as He Feixu prepared to protect the fox spirit.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger defeated He Feixu’s supernatural wager at the Moonlit Tower and left with the fox spirit, whom Cui Jiuyang exposed as only temporarily revived. After the fox spirit died and Master Tiger ate her, Cui Jiuyang slept in the cave until daylight.

• Master Tiger severed the fox spirit’s head with a swift saber, and He Feixu used his Crane Feather Treasure Fan to restore her briefly; Cui Jiuyang recognized He Feixu as a White Crane Manor disciple.
• Cui Jiuyang set up a Golden Light Stone-Splitting Formation, but He Feixu conceded the wager and let Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger take the fox spirit away from the Moonlit Tower.
• He Feixu asked whether Cui Jiuyang knew another famous cultivator named Cui, and Cui Jiuyang warned him that the Moonlit Tower was a lair of demons and monsters before leaving with Master Tiger.
• In the cave, Cui Jiuyang explained that He Feixu had only pinned the fox spirit’s severed head in place and that the effect would last about an hour; the fox spirit then threatened them, and Master Tiger struck off her head.
• The fox spirit reverted to her original form, and Master Tiger ate a fox leg while Cui Jiuyang ate soaked pancakes and slept until daylight.

In Tai'an, Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger heard rumors of hauntings at their inn and discovered that strange incidents had been troubling the prefecture for months. An inn waiter began recounting local supernatural stories, but the chapter ended as he started describing a dispute over a public privy.

• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger arrived in Tai'an and took a room at the Fulai Inn.
• Cui Jiuyang caught a hearth civet while bathing, and he and Master Tiger wondered whether it explained reports of strange noises at the inn.
• The pair sensed someone rubbing against their door, then found an inn handyman trying to paste Door Gods on it.
• The waiter explained that Tai'an had suffered many strange incidents and recounted how rolling children's heads had frightened antique shopkeepers on East City Antique Street.
• The waiter began telling them about local gangs fighting over control of a public privy on Changle Street.

Cui Jiuyang learned of a series of deaths and hauntings in Tai'an and suspected the Prefect of Mount Tai was unable to handle events in the city. That night, he caught a strange black figure trying to enter the room opposite and stopped it with a Talisman.

• A waiter told Cui Jiuyang how two gangs fought over a public privy, how their members died in a string of strange accidents, and how their former territory remained haunted.
• Cui Jiuyang reasoned that the Underworld Office should have dealt with the ghosts and wondered whether something had happened to the Prefect of Mount Tai.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger decided to climb Mount Tai the next day to ask the prefect for help.
• During the night, Cui Jiuyang saw a black figure licking a Door God picture off the opposite room's door and then opening it.
• Cui Jiuyang stuck a Talisman to the doorframe, and it bounced the figure back whenever it tried to enter.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger climbed Mount Tai and entered the Prefect of Mount Tai’s sanctuary to seek a way to reunite Master Tiger’s soul and body. A clerk named Lu Tu inspected their Soul-Anchor Pearl and asked Master Tiger why he refused to die.

• Cui Jiuyang discovered that an Essence-Eating Demon had tried to remove the door god portraits at the inn, then left with Master Tiger for Mount Tai.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger climbed Mount Tai and waited for sunrise at Sun-Watching Peak.
• Cui Jiuyang used the first ray of sunlight to open a gate into the Prefect of Mount Tai’s sanctuary and brought Master Tiger inside.
• Cui Jiuyang introduced himself and Master Tiger, Qi Danshan, to the green-robed underworld deity Lu Tu and explained that they sought to reunite Master Tiger’s soul and body.
• Lu Tu returned the Soul-Anchor Pearl and asked Master Tiger why he was unwilling to die.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger secured Master Tiger a temporary Ghost Constable position, only to learn that a month had passed inside the Prefect of Mount Tai's Daoist Grounds. His first assignment sent them to investigate disturbances caused by demons and ghosts in Mount Tai Prefecture, and they decided to get breakfast before starting.

• Lu Tu checked Master Tiger's virtue and arranged a temporary Ghost Constable assignment for him.
• Cui Jiuyang offered Lu Tu incense and paper ingots, and Lu Tu instructed Master Tiger to follow the Ghost Constable regulations.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger left the Daoist Grounds and discovered that a month had passed, costing Cui Jiuyang a month of his remaining lifespan.
• Master Tiger read his assignment to investigate the recent disturbances caused by demons and ghosts in Mount Tai Prefecture.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger decided to get breakfast before beginning their investigation.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger investigated strange events at the Taian Prefecture railway station after learning that two track workers had disappeared. They heard how the recovered worker, Chang Shoujin, woke from unconsciousness in terror and had gone mad, while the other worker remained missing.

• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger stopped at a tofu noodle stall, then Cui Jiuyang's divination led them back to the railway station.
• Cui Jiuyang paid for two laborers' noodles and learned that two railway workers had vanished while on duty seven or eight days earlier.
• A search party found Chang Shoujin unconscious beside the northern tracks, covered in blue-black handprints, while the second worker was still missing.
• Physician Sun Peixuan used acupuncture to revive Chang Shoujin after warning that his condition was likely not an ordinary illness.
• Chang Shoujin woke, hid beneath a table, and shouted that he would not go, prompting Physician Sun to declare him mad and beyond his ability to cure.
• The station notified Chang Shoujin's family and set aside a room for them to care for him.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger stopped a pair of child abductors at Taian Prefecture Station, then investigated Chang Shoujin’s strange condition. Cui Jiuyang discovered that Chang Shoujin had lost two souls and three spirits, but their whereabouts were unknown, leaving him without an obvious way to help.

• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger exposed a woman and a sallow-faced man as child abductors, and Master Tiger struck the man down while capturing the woman.
• At the Public Security Office, Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger gave the names Wu Yanzu and Qi Erhu, and the woman confessed to the crime.
• Station inspector Zhang Qi asked Cui Jiuyang to investigate the strange presence at the station and Chang Shoujin’s illness.
• Cui Jiuyang examined Chang Shoujin and explained that he had lost two souls and three spirits, leaving him frightened and unable to defend himself.
• Cui Jiuyang told Mrs. Chang and Zhang Qi that he could not perform a soul-calling because he did not know where Chang Shoujin’s missing souls and spirits were.

Cui Jiuyang learned that Chang Shoujin’s souls had vanished to an unknown place, a mystery shared by several other cases, and decided to investigate the railway tracks with Master Tiger. After arranging to buy two paper effigies for their plan, they returned to Fulai Inn and offered to deal with its haunting.

• Cui Jiuyang asked the Apprehension Division to investigate Chang Shoujin’s missing souls, but it confirmed their whereabouts were unknown and disclosed several similar cases.
• Cui Jiuyang told Master Tiger that Chang Shoujin could only be saved with numinous treasures and proposed investigating the railway tracks where the incident occurred.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger visited Funeral Street, where Cui Jiuyang ordered two empty husks made from ghost skin from a blind paper-effigy maker.
• Cui Jiuyang explained the craftsmen’s coded terms to Master Tiger and bought the other supplies they needed.
• At Fulai Inn, the waiter told Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger that a moving white face had been haunting the empty inn, and Cui Jiuyang promised to handle it that night.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger befriended the wandering ghost haunting the Fulai Inn, and their drinking helped him release his grudge and reincarnate. They then collected paper figures and prepared to investigate Chang Shoujin’s accident during his patrols.

• Cui Jiuyang invited the pale ghost into the room, and he and Master Tiger drank with him as he recounted his grievance against the Fulai Inn.
• At dawn, the ghost let go of his resentment and departed to be reincarnated, earning Master Tiger three points of Underworld Constable Merit.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger made an impression of Master Tiger’s waist token on yellow paper and tucked it behind the Fulai Inn signboard to deter ghosts.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger collected two paper figures from the Blind Old Man and went to the grove where Chang Shoujin had been found.
• Cui Jiuyang explained how steam trains worked while he and Master Tiger waited for the right time to perform the soul-attachment ritual.
• Cui Jiuyang began grinding ink mixed with ashes from his burned hair and blood from his fingertip.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger watched a giant python traveling along the railway take their paper effigies and saw the mysterious half-skeletal figure riding it. They reported the encounter to the Underworld Office, where Lu Pan received a message from temporary Ghost Constable Qi Danshan about disturbances in Tai'an.

• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger used paper effigies as bait and hid inside a Bagua Formation beside the tracks.
• A giant python as large as a train arrived, and bluish-black arms beneath its scales dragged the paper effigies away.
• The half-human, half-skeletal figure riding the python glanced at Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger, setting their protective formation ablaze.
• Cui Jiuyang told Master Tiger that the figure was a void beyond his perception, and Master Tiger sent their report to the Underworld Office.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger left without meeting Zhang Qi or Chang Shoujin's wife.
• Lu Pan studied a message from temporary Ghost Constable Qi Danshan about demons and ghosts causing trouble in Tai'an.

Lu Pan reported the Tai'an disappearances to the Prefect of Mount Tai, who identified the skeletal figure as a powerful being’s thought and ordered more Ghost Constables sent to the city. Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger then answered a summons to Dustpan Village, where they found crows gathering and met three other Ghost Constables.

• Lu Pan brought Master Tiger’s report about the skeletal figure to the Prefect of Mount Tai, who said it was only a thought and directed him to send more Ghost Constables to Tai'an.
• The Prefect of Mount Tai discussed Qi Danshan and Cui Jiuyang with Lu Pan, and Lu Pan agreed to tell them not to worry about the thought.
• Master Tiger received an order to investigate a missing Ghost Constable in Dustpan Village, and Cui Jiuyang accompanied him.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger found Dustpan Village surrounded by crows, and Cui Jiuyang blocked his ears against their cries.
• An old farmer, his son, and his daughter-in-law arrived, and the old man greeted Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger as fellow officers.

Cui Jiuyang and the Ghost Constables entered Dustpan Village, where a blocked Underworld Road left Wronged Souls wandering without resentment. They followed the smell of corpses to a walled compound and found over a hundred bodies, all apparently suffocated.

• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger introduced themselves to veteran Ghost Constable Hu Kaiji, his son Hu Hongzhu, and his daughter-in-law Hu Fanshi, who agreed to let Cui join their investigation.
• Hu Kaiji warned the group that a Ghost Constable had already gone missing in Dustpan Village and led them into the village to investigate.
• Cui Jiuyang saw Wronged Souls wandering through the village, while Hu Hongzhu failed to open a Ghost Gate; Hu Kaiji realized that someone had blocked the route to the Underworld Office.
• Hu Fanshi used her corpse-finding skill to lead the group to a high-walled compound watched by silent crows.
• Hu Hongzhu opened the compound gates, and the group found more than a hundred bodies in the courtyard; Master Tiger identified suffocation as their cause of death.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger investigated the bodies and offerings in Dustpan Village’s ancestral hall, finding clues that a small bird’s egg may have been part of the ritual. Their search was interrupted by an injured foreign priest, Thomas Byrne, who said he had returned because a congregant told him demons had occupied the village.

• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger entered the ancestral hall and found hundreds of Zhao family spirit tablets and a bright red feather among the offerings.
• Cui Jiuyang argued that the courtyard bodies had been deliberately positioned as a warning or act of revenge, while Old Hu considered whether they had been sacrifices.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger found small eggshell fragments in the offering brazier and suspected they belonged to the bird with the red feathers.
• Hu Hongzhu and his wife confronted an injured foreign priest who had arrived in the courtyard.
• Old Hu introduced himself and asked the priest why he had come to Dustpan Village, and Thomas Byrne said a congregant had reported that demons occupied it.