Chapter Summaries

Cui Jiuyang and the Hu family investigated Dustpan Village with Father Thomas, who revealed that he had visited twice before and found red feathers during a village sacrifice. They discovered the village square was crowded with silent crows, which repeatedly returned after the Hu family tried to drive them away, leaving Cui Jiuyang with a glimpse of something hidden beneath them.

• Father Thomas argued with the Hu family about religion before Cui Jiuyang ended the dispute and the group resumed searching the courtyard.
• Thomas found a red feather and explained that he had seen similar feathers during a sacrificial ceremony on his first visit to Dustpan Village two months earlier.
• Thomas described returning nearly a month later, when more crows had gathered and the villagers had seemed alarmed.
• The group counted more than 170 bodies, finished searching the courtyard and ancestral hall, and followed Thomas to the village square.
• The group found the square densely covered with silent crows, and Mrs. Hu and Hu Hongzhu failed to drive them away as they repeatedly returned.
• Cui Jiuyang glimpsed something beneath the crows, but they blocked his view.

Cui Jiuyang and his companions uncovered evidence that the villagers had imprisoned a red divine bird and sacrificed it, then realized Father Thomas had witnessed a later ceremony rather than the bird’s offering. They decided to seek the clan elder’s sacrificial record, and Hu Hongzhu began questioning a wronged soul with his Soul-Locking Chain.

• Master Tiger used Tiger Guard Roar to kill or drive away the crows, revealing a stone formation beneath the square’s surface.
• Cui Jiuyang uncovered a 365-stone sacrificial formation and identified the nearby hut as the bird’s prison from its runes and gourds.
• Inside the hut, Cui Jiuyang recognized Oracle Script accusing the villagers of imprisoning a god, but he hid his understanding from the others.
• Cui Jiuyang questioned Father Thomas and learned that Thomas had seen only a feather during the ceremony he recorded, not a bird.
• Cui Jiuyang reasoned that an earlier sacrifice had involved the bird and proposed finding the clan elder’s sacrificial text by asking a ghost.
• Hu Hongzhu summoned a Soul-Locking Chain, looped it around a wronged soul’s neck, and called it over.

Cui Jiuyang found Zhao Changsheng’s ritual text and instructions showing that the village had captured and sacrificed a Five-Colored Sparrow in a sinister formation. He pieced together how Zhao’s scheme led to the villagers’ deaths, though the being the formation served remained unknown.

• Old Hu questioned the Wronged Soul, which pointed Cui Jiuyang and the others toward Zhao Changsheng’s grand residence at the west end of the village.
• Cui Jiuyang and the others entered the crow-filled house and searched its rooms without disturbing the Wronged Souls.
• Cui Jiuyang found Zhao Changsheng’s study and a ritual text describing an offering of a Five-Colored Sparrow.
• Cui Jiuyang discovered instructions for capturing the bird and arranging the sacrificial formation, whose runes made him suspect a connection to Mount Tai.
• Cui Jiuyang concluded that Zhao Changsheng had followed the instructions, sacrificed the bird, and brought disaster upon the village instead of the promised prosperity.

Cui Jiuyang discovered that the crows surrounding the village carried fragments of the Five-Colored Sparrow’s resentful soul, which had trapped the group inside and prevented them from opening the Ghost Gate. He concluded they had to resolve the bird’s resentment to escape, and sensed that doing so might provide the opportunity he needed to advance to the Second Extremity.

• Cui Jiuyang hid two suspicious scripture sheets and showed Hu Hongzhu and Old Hu Zhao Changsheng’s invocation, which named the sacrificed divine bird as a Five-Colored Sparrow.
• Father Thomas recalled that strange events had begun after the villagers sacrificed the bird, while Cui Jiuyang suspected the crows were blocking the Ghost Gate and sealing the village.
• Cui Jiuyang led the group toward the village entrance, but he pulled Old Hu back just before a swarm of crows attacked the spot where Old Hu had stood.
• Cui Jiuyang realized the Five-Colored Sparrow’s shattered remnant soul had spread through the crows, giving them a shared will and driving their vengeance.
• Cui Jiuyang told the group they had to deliver the bird’s soul rather than kill the crows, and he sensed that resolving its resentment might help him reach the Second Extremity.

Cui Jiuyang began a ritual to deliver the Five-Colored Sparrow’s lingering soul, while the villagers struggled to hold their assigned positions. Father Thomas interfered with holy water, reigniting the bird’s resentment and forcing Cui Jiuyang to contain it as the ritual began to fail.

• Cui Jiuyang assigned Old Hu, Hu Hongzhu, Hu Fanshi, and Master Tiger to guard the formation’s four positions, while he told Father Thomas to stay outside the square.
• Cui Jiuyang used five grains and well water to summon the Five-Colored Sparrow’s spirit, then recited The Most High Compassionate Salvation Scripture to calm it.
• Old Hu resisted an illusion of a divine bird and its egg, Hu Fanshi defended the candles from crows, and Master Tiger fought off waves of attacking crows.
• Cui Jiuyang’s second recitation eased the bird’s malice, but Father Thomas approached and sprinkled holy water into the ritual pit, contaminating the grains.
• Cui Jiuyang cursed Thomas and used the Five Emperors’ Coins and paper talismans to restrain the enraged spirit, then tried to guide its resentment outward.

Cui Jiuyang helped the Five-Colored Sparrow's remnant soul pass on, then broke through to the Second Extremity and sent the village's wronged souls to the Underworld Office. Father Thomas woke with memories of 1910, and Cui Jiuyang noticed the mysterious power he had sensed in Thomas had vanished.

• Cui Jiuyang fed the wavering Five-Colored Sparrow, which faded away as the crows flew north.
• Cui Jiuyang collapsed from exhaustion, then recovered and advanced from the peak of the First Extremity to the Second Extremity.
• Cui Jiuyang sent Hu Hongzhu, Hu Fanshi, Old Hu, and Master Tiger to guide Dustpan Village's wronged souls to the Underworld Office.
• Cui Jiuyang woke Father Thomas, who claimed he was still in 1910 and did not recognize the people around him.
• Old Hu questioned Thomas, and Cui Jiuyang sensed that the power formerly residing in Thomas had disappeared and began to remember what it was.

Cui Jiuyang discovered that Father Thomas had encountered the Bone-Faced Figure, who appeared to have altered his memories and corrupted his religious teachings. After the Underworld Office authorized a cautious investigation, Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger kept Thomas company until they could seek He Feixu’s help, and Cui Jiuyang began examining Thomas’s bleeding ear.

• Cui Jiuyang realized Thomas’s stories about scripture came from a green-eyed scholar resembling the Bone-Faced Figure they had seen by the railway tracks.
• Thomas said his ear began bleeding after he arrived in Taian Prefecture, and he recalled that a refined middle-aged man had treated it for free.
• Cui Jiuyang suspected the Bone-Faced Figure had tampered with Thomas’s mind and asked Master Tiger to contact the Underworld Office.
• The Underworld Office permitted an investigation but warned Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger to handle matters involving the Bone-Faced Figure with extreme care.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger spent the day accompanying Thomas through Tai'an City while he preached corrupted tales, then Cui Jiuyang unwound the bandage to examine his ear.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger brought the increasingly mad Father Thomas to the Moonlit Tower to learn what had caused his condition. He Feixu began preparing to erase Thomas’s recent memories with Crane Feather Needles, but Cui Jiuyang’s questions about Thomas’s missing outer ear made him stop, leaving Cui suspicious and He Feixu wary.

• Cui Jiuyang, Master Tiger, and Father Thomas arrived at the Moonlit Tower and met He Feixu.
• Cui Jiuyang asked He Feixu to examine Thomas, and He Feixu explained that Thomas’s madness came from contact with a powerful being whose identity he claimed not to know.
• He Feixu said he could restore Thomas by using Crane Feather Needles to erase his memories of the past several years, though the treatment would not truly cure him.
• He Feixu had Thomas lie facedown and prepared the needles, while Cui Jiuyang asked whether He Feixu had treated Thomas’s swollen ear.
• Cui Jiuyang questioned what had happened to Thomas’s ear canal and whether his left ear could still hear, alerting He Feixu to his suspicions.
• He Feixu put away the needles and moved to leave, while Cui Jiuyang apologized and tried to stop him.

Cui Jiuyang discovered that a living ear-reporting spirit had been hidden in Father Thomas’s bleeding ear, and Master Tiger cut it free so Cui Jiuyang could capture it. When the spirit refused to reveal its master, Cui Jiuyang returned with the others to question He Feixu, but the Moonlit Tower had vanished.

• He Feixu told Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger to leave the Moonlit Tower once Father Thomas woke, and Thomas regained consciousness the next morning.
• On the mountain path, Cui Jiuyang noticed something moving inside Thomas’s bleeding ear growth and realized it contained a living creature.
• Cui Jiuyang signaled Master Tiger, who cut off the growth, revealing a tiny ear-reporting spirit that Cui Jiuyang trapped inside a barrier.
• Cui Jiuyang tried to make the ear-reporting spirit reveal its master, but it endured the heat and stayed silent.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger turned back with Thomas to question He Feixu, but the Moonlit Tower had disappeared from the valley.

Cui Jiuyang pursued He Feixu to learn the origin of Father Thomas's Ear-Reporting Spirit, but He Feixu fled through the mountains and revealed his skill at escaping Cui's spells. The chase ended with Cui's lightning damaging He Feixu's Crane Feather Treasure Fan and breaking one of its feathers.

• Cui Jiuyang discovered He Feixu had escaped the Moonlit Tower and caught him trying to navigate the Nine-Bend Twisting Intestines Formation.
• He Feixu found a way through the formation and fled, while Cui Jiuyang pursued him and questioned him about Father Thomas's Ear-Reporting Spirit.
• Cui Jiuyang sensed that He Feixu carried faint demonic qi and realized he was likely a white crane demon trained at White Crane Manor.
• Cui Jiuyang used the Great Five Emperors' Coins and talismans to attack, but He Feixu evaded them with his Crane Feather Treasure Fan.
• Cui Jiuyang's lightning struck the Crane Feather Treasure Fan, breaking off one of its white feathers.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger tracked He Feixu from Tai'an to the mountains around Mount Tai, using the Prefect's divine power to follow his trail. They reached the site of a battle between He Feixu and evil-path practitioners, but arrived after everyone had disappeared.

• Cui Jiuyang told Master Tiger that He Feixu was a white crane demon and used his clothing and feather to divine his whereabouts at Dai Temple.
• Cui Jiuyang's divination revealed He Feixu was somewhere in the mountains around Mount Tai, so he and Master Tiger set off after him.
• Cui Jiuyang tracked He Feixu's movements in a bowl of water as they followed winding trails through the mountains.
• The bowl showed He Feixu meeting several people and fighting them with his Crane Feather Treasure Fan against their ghostly evil arts.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger sensed the battle's spiritual energy and rushed toward it, but found He Feixu and his opponents had vanished.

After He Feixu vanished during a battle with a group Cui Jiuyang suspected were connected to the Bone-Faced Figure, Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger pieced together clues about the Bone-Faced Figure and the Underworld Office’s recent actions. Guided by an image of the Moonlit Tower in Cui Jiuyang’s divination bowl, they returned there determined to investigate its unexplored floors.

• Cui Jiuyang divined that He Feixu had vanished without a trace after a bald man struck him with a ghost hand, and Master Tiger found no evidence that the giant python had been at the battlefield.
• Cui Jiuyang reasoned that He Feixu was connected to the Bone-Faced Figure and that an event six months earlier had caused the Underworld Office to focus on the Bone-Faced Figure.
• The Prefect of Mount Tai appeared to guide Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger toward the Moonlit Tower through the image in Cui Jiuyang’s bowl.
• At a train-station noodle stall, Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger heard that people had recently gone missing or gone mad, and they resolved to uncover the truth.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger entered the Moonlit Tower at night and headed inside to investigate its third and fourth floors.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger reached the Moonlit Tower’s third floor, where guests gambled painful memories on the eight sufferings of human life. After seeing the first half of a dead laborer’s memories, Cui Jiuyang recognized the danger of losing and faced the deadline to place a bet.

• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger learned that they had to defeat every gambler on the third floor to reach the fourth, where the stakes were painful memories rather than worldly possessions.
• Cui Jiuyang recognized the striped dealer as a dream-eating tapir, who used a Nightmare Ball made from a dying person’s memories to run the gambling game.
• The tapir explained that guests who lost would have their painful memories taken, while winners could exchange their winnings for tokens to buy treasures.
• Cui Jiuyang watched the first half of a dye worker’s memories, which showed his poverty, his sick mother, and his wish to marry Xiao Lan.
• The memory ended as the worker considered stealing cloth during the coming chaos of war, and the tapir gave the guests until the incense burned out to place their bets.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger wagered on the dyehouse laborer’s bitterest suffering and correctly chose death after witnessing his final night amid a city’s invasion. They won gold-and-silver cards, and the dealer began the next round.

• Cui Jiuyang studied the gamblers’ reactions, then waited until the incense nearly burned out before telling Master Tiger to bet on death suffering.
• Cui Jiuyang wagered memories of his life as a corporate drudge, while Master Tiger placed his own memories at stake.
• The Nightmare Ball showed the dyehouse laborer fleeing the invading soldiers with his mother and Xiao Lan, only to be shot as the soldiers seized the women.
• The dealer ruled that death was the laborer’s bitterest suffering, and Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger received gold-and-silver cards for their winning bets.
• The dealer took out another Nightmare Ball and announced that the next round would use the same rules.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger won another round of the Sea of Suffering gambling challenge by betting on the man's suffering of birth, then decided to stop gambling and seek a way to reach He Feixu. Cui Jiuyang claimed he had uncovered the table's secret, prompting the remaining gamblers to offer to withdraw if he revealed it.

• The Nightmare Ball showed Cui Jiuyang the story of a man whose wife drowned in a Yellow River flood while he struggled to rescue her and their child.
• The hook-nosed man bet on separation from loved ones, while Cui Jiuyang told Master Tiger to bet on suffering of birth.
• The man's story continued through famine, his son's forced conscription, and his eventual despair and suicide after learning General Liu had died without his son returning.
• The fat man declared that Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger had correctly identified the man's greatest suffering and awarded them another pair of cards.
• Most gamblers left, and Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger chose not to continue because they needed to reach He Feixu on the fourth floor.
• Cui Jiuyang claimed he could win every round and asked the hook-nosed man and the handsome youth to let him and Master Tiger clear the challenge; both agreed to withdraw if he revealed the secret.

Cui Jiuyang exposed the Nether-Ring Snake’s gambling trick and reached the Moonlit Tower’s fourth floor with Master Tiger. There, Zhang Xiao'er demanded a dangerous wager for He Feixu’s whereabouts, and the first Seven Emotions and Six Desires Domino revealed an apparition of Cui Jiuyang recounting his past.

• Cui Jiuyang explained that the third-floor dealer was a greedy Nether-Ring Snake who fabricated the gamblers’ life illusions and manipulated the bets to make them lose.
• The defeated dealer was escorted away, and Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger climbed to the fourth floor, marked by a screen depicting a Demon-Ghost Revelry.
• They met Zhang Xiao'er, whom Cui Jiuyang recognized as a Human Demon, and asked him for He Feixu’s whereabouts.
• Zhang Xiao'er demanded that they wager one of their three souls and two of their seven spirits, and serve his master if they lost.
• Zhang Xiao'er proposed a three-round game with Seven Emotions and Six Desires Dominoes, and the first piece plunged Cui Jiuyang into darkness before an apparition of himself began describing his past.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger lost the first round of the Seven Emotions and Six Desires Dominoes after visions provoked their emotions and reduced their tiles to one point. Cui Jiuyang suspected Zhang Xiao'er’s perfect scores and six-month tenure were connected to the Bone-Faced Figure, then turned over a desire tile that revealed Ninth Lady.

• Cui Jiuyang watched his joy tile expose his vanity, and its points dwindled from eight to one.
• Master Tiger’s anger tile showed his grandfather condemning his betrayal of Chen Weimin, and his tile also fell to one point.
• Zhang Xiao'er revealed seven tiles worth eight points each and won the round.
• Cui Jiuyang concluded that emotional disturbance caused the tiles’ points to fall, while Zhang Xiao'er appeared unaffected by the visions.
• Cui Jiuyang learned Zhang Xiao'er had worked at the Moonlit Tower for half a year, matching when the Underworld Office began tracking the Bone-Faced Figure.
• Cui Jiuyang whispered a plan to Master Tiger, then revealed a nine-point desire tile whose vision showed Ninth Lady.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger uncovered how to resist the Seven Emotions and Six Desires Dominoes, defeated Zhang Xiao'er, and freed He Feixu from the Moonlit Tower. He Feixu reassured them that the tower would honor the result, and Cui Jiuyang urged them to leave before discussing what had happened.

• Cui Jiuyang resisted the desire dominoes by accepting and examining his feelings, keeping his points steady at eight.
• Cui Jiuyang taught Master Tiger the same approach, helping him confront the illusion of Chen Weimin and turn his domino into an eight.
• Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger won the second round, then Cui Jiuyang outscored Zhang Xiao'er in the decisive third round.
• An attendant escorted Zhang Xiao'er downstairs, leaving Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger alone on the fourth floor.
• He Feixu appeared, thanked Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger for rescuing him, and assured them the Moonlit Tower would honor the match's outcome.

Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger left the Moonlit Tower with He Feixu, who agreed to explain the strange events after they reached Tai'an City. Over breakfast, He Feixu asked what Cui Jiuyang believed friendship meant, and Cui Jiuyang began describing different kinds of friends.

• He Feixu evaded Cui Jiuyang’s questions about where he had been held and the half-skeleton scholar riding a giant python.
• Cui Jiuyang exchanged four gold-and-silver tokens for a five-hundred-year Dragonkind Demon Beast hide and a set of nine-palace, eight-trigram Apotropaic Coins.
• After leaving the Moonlit Tower, He Feixu said he had entered it willingly but also claimed he had had no choice, then agreed to explain himself in Tai'an City.
• Cui Jiuyang, Master Tiger, and He Feixu went to Dingxiang Workshop, where Cui Jiuyang set up a soundproofing Magic Formation.
• He Feixu asked Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger what they thought of friendship, and Cui Jiuyang described companions, fair-weather allies, and friends bound by life and death.

He Feixu told Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger how he met Xuanyuan, helped him establish the Moonlit Tower, and learned that Xuanyuan was the younger twin brother of the Mount Tai Lord. He then revealed that Xuanyuan Mountain was a barren reflection of Mount Tai in the primordial underworld, where he had been banished before Cui Jiuyang rescued him.

• He Feixu recalled meeting Xuanyuan in a ruined temple, where they studied a Zhenlong Chess Game for three months and became close friends.
• He Feixu said Xuanyuan later revealed that he was fading away, and He Feixu helped him by establishing and managing the Moonlit Tower to gather demonic and ghostly energy.
• He Feixu explained that Xuanyuan and his elder brother had fought over their family properties, and that Xuanyuan's wisp of consciousness had sought to break free from his brother's seal.
• He Feixu revealed that Xuanyuan's elder brother was the Mount Tai Lord, leaving Cui Jiuyang and Master Tiger stunned.
• He Feixu explained that Xuanyuan Mountain was a formless reflection of Mount Tai in the primordial underworld and described the desolate place where he had been banished.