Chapter Summaries

Lin Hanzhi promised Qi Gu he would share the truth about his past, while Qi Gu awakened the fishermen’s memories and offered to help them say goodbye to their families through dreams. The first fisherman returned from his wife’s dream with news that she and their daughter had found a good life, and the others prepared to visit their own families.

• Lin Hanzhi promised Qi Gu that there would be no secrets between them and that he would tell him the truth.
• Qi Gu used a golden talisman to awaken the fishermen’s memories of repeating the same voyage and dying for over thirty years.
• Qi Gu offered to help the fishermen enter their families’ dreams and said they must then go to Guixu beneath the sea to await reincarnation.
• Lin Hanzhi gave the fishermen packs of compressed biscuits to take into their families’ dreams.
• One fisherman entered his wife’s dream and learned she had remarried, and that her new husband treated her and their daughter well.

A woman dreamed that her late husband forgave her and Lin for remarrying, and a packet of biscuits from the dream appeared in her room, confirming that he had returned. The ghost brothers failed to reach their elderly parents but learned that Sea Flower Village once hunted people believed to be incarnations of the Sea Lord and abandoned them at sea.

• The woman told Lin that her late husband had visited her dream and forgiven them both, then found the packet of biscuits he had brought her in the dream.
• The ghost brothers tried and failed to contact their elderly parents, and the youngest brother said he would try again that night.
• After Lin Hanzhi began to leave, the ghost brothers shared a rumor their wives had heard about the Sea Lord Temple.
• The brothers explained that Sea Flower villagers searched for suspected Sea Lord incarnations during disasters, tied them to tree trunks, and abandoned them at sea.

Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi pieced together how the Sea Lord’s sacrifices and Qi Gu’s Extreme Yin Constitution were connected as they sailed toward the Sea Lord Temple. The voyage remained calm, and the group’s snack break ended with Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi sharing the last cat’s ear while their teammates reluctantly joined in.

• Qi Gu reasoned that sacrifices near the Man-Faced Conches might have caused the creatures to multiply, and that the Sea Lord had sensed him because of his Extreme Yin Constitution and mistaken his longing for faith.
• Lin Hanzhi agreed that sacrifices were crucial, while the others watched the pair analyze the situation in sync.
• Miao Yue told the fake fisherman to start the boat, and Qi Gu showed the real fishermen how to follow Undead Fish toward Guixu.
• The group sailed the final stretch to the Sea Lord Temple without incident as Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi shared a bag of cat’s ears.
• Mu Xingchen and Pubu Gesang tried the snacks and later fought over the remaining pieces, while Miao Yue looked on in dismay.
• Lin Hanzhi gave Qi Gu the final cat’s ear, and Qi Gu smiled and ate it.

Qi Gu and the others approached the ominous Sea Lord Temple, where marine life dwindled and they encountered a venomous Peach Blossom Jellyfish. Blind Fish and Shuishui then warned them that red conches near the shore had devoured a shark, leaving only its skeleton.

• The group felt an instinctive fear as the Sea Lord Temple came into view, while Qi Gu explained that people sensed supernatural danger differently.
• Qi Gu caught a Peach Blossom Jellyfish in his net, admired it without touching it, and released it back into the sea.
• Qi Gu observed that marine life had become scarce near the temple, and Lin Hanzhi used the net to catch Blind Fish.
• Blind Fish warned the group that something was wrong at the temple, and Shuishui said red conches near the shore had eaten a shark down to its skeleton.

Shuishui and Xiao Yu warned Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi about a shipwreck filled with skeletons covered in blood-red conches that could kill sea creatures. Shuishui’s description helped Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi recognize the ship’s connection to the Man-Faced Conches, and the ghost and fish continued their journey after Qi Gu urged them to leave the area.

• Shuishui recalled hiding in a sunken ship’s cabin and finding hundreds of skeletons covered in red conches.
• Shuishui and Blind Fish later saw red conches kill a shark and leave its skeleton behind, prompting them to chase Qi Gu’s speedboat and warn the group.
• Qi Gu asked Shuishui about the skeletons, and she described their missing limbs, cloth face coverings, and the plank sealing the cabin entrance.
• Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi realized what the shipwreck was and how the Man-Faced Conches had been bred.
• Qi Gu thanked Shuishui and Xiao Yu, told them to leave the nearby waters, and the pair swam onward.

Qi Gu and the others reached the Sea Lord Temple and investigated the Man-Faced Conches covering its path and wall. They discovered that one conch was still alive and that the creatures’ mucus had strengthened the temple wall.

• Miao Yue, Mu Xingchen, Pubu Gesang, Qi Gu, and Lin Hanzhi waded through the Man-Faced Conches to reach the temple.
• Miao Yue and the others kicked conches on the wall and found that most were empty shells.
• Mu Xingchen accidentally struck a live Man-Faced Conch and recoiled in fright.
• Qi Gu explained that conch mucus had stained and hardened the lower section of the wall.
• Lin Hanzhi tested Qi Gu’s deduction by stabbing both sections of the wall, piercing only the upper part.

At the Sea Lord Temple, Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi realized the temple was built to imprison the Sea Lord, not worship it, and discovered six lives buried beneath its foundations. Qi Gu identified the construction method as Living Sacrifice Piling, leaving the group to face the truth of the temple’s cruel origins.

• The group punctured more Man-Faced Conches, found the lower ones were mostly dead, and put on masks Mu Xingchen had brought to bear the stench.
• Qi Gu examined the Pixiu statues and concluded that the Sea Lord Temple was meant to cage the Sea Lord rather than appease it.
• Lin Hanzhi proposed that the Film Crew Ghost had distorted the story of the Sea Lord’s capture and encouraged people to worship it.
• Qi Gu found six clusters of black threads emerging from beneath the temple walls, and Lin Hanzhi’s Bone Blade warned him of danger.
• Qi Gu explained that the temple’s builder had used Living Sacrifice Piling, burying six children alive in the foundations to confine the Sea Lord.

Qi Gu and Pubu Gesang lured little ghosts out with snacks and a mobile game, then asked them for information about the Sea Lord. The six ghosts gathered, and Qi Gu saw the gruesome injuries that had killed the last three.

• Lin Hanzhi suggested luring the buried ghosts with things children liked, so Pubu Gesang started a mobile game while Qi Gu offered snacks.
• A little ghost boy came out to watch Pubu Gesang play, then took over the game and defeated the enemy team.
• Qi Gu lured two more little ghosts out with snacks, and they eagerly ate Want Want Little Mantou.
• Pubu Gesang asked the boy for leads on defeating the Sea Lord, and the children warned that it was powerful and had once been imprisoned through Living Sacrifice Piling.
• Qi Gu offered the children a packet of Little Mantou for each ghost they brought out, and all six ghosts gathered together.
• The last three ghosts accepted snacks, revealing their horribly crushed and deformed heads.

Mu Xingchen overcame his fear of the three headless-looking little ghosts, and Qi Gu’s group befriended them with milk biscuits. One ghost told how he volunteered as a living foundation sacrifice to avenge his big sister, who died after proving her skill as a sailor while men blamed her for the storm.

• Mu Xingchen reassured the three little ghosts that their flat heads did not frighten him, and they lowered their hands from their heads.
• The three ghosts ate the milk biscuits, befriending Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi’s group and joining the other little ghosts around them.
• Qi Gu asked the ghosts about their past, and the liveliest one said he had volunteered as a living foundation sacrifice to avenge his big sister.
• The ghost recalled how his sister supported them by fishing and was excited to join a boat, despite Min Di’s custom forbidding women to go to sea.
• After the boat disappeared in a storm, the boy defended his sister against a fisherman who blamed her, and later learned she had saved the crew from crashing into rocks by cutting the sail rope.
• The rescued fisherman confirmed the sister’s actions, but some villagers still insisted that a woman’s presence at sea had caused the storm.

The little ghost and other orphaned children endured the villagers’ blame as sea disasters continued, until a Taoist tried and failed to defeat the Sea Lord. When the children volunteered to become living foundation sacrifices to avenge their families, the Taoist found the courage to stand against the monster.

• Villagers blamed the little ghost’s sister for the storms, but burning her belongings did not stop the sea disasters.
• As more children lost their families, the little ghost shared his hut with five others, including the little scholar, and they survived by gathering food on the shore.
• A Taoist led villagers and government runners to confront the Sea Lord, but he misjudged its strength and barely escaped with the party.
• The Taoist tried to leave, but the six children stopped him and pressed him to reveal that living foundation sacrifices could help defeat the Sea Lord.
• The little ghost and the other children agreed to be buried alive despite the pain and the risk of their souls being destroyed, and their resolve inspired the Taoist to stand and fight.

A Daoist helped six children prepare a Human Stakes Formation to imprison the Sea Lord, while the county magistrate supported their plan. After the children were buried beneath the temple foundation, the Daoist sacrificed himself to lure the Sea Lord to the floating island, leaving only his robe behind.

• The Daoist explained the Human Stakes ritual to the six children, who agreed to be buried alive to bind the Sea Lord.
• The Daoist gave the children travel money, and they spent only enough to buy one malt candy each before waiting outside the county office.
• The magistrate welcomed the children, answered the little scholar’s question about the Book of Documents, and heard the others’ small requests.
• The Daoist chose a floating island for the temple, and the magistrate presided as the six children were buried at the pit’s corners.
• The Daoist completed the Human Stakes Formation, then burned his cultivation, soul, and flesh to summon the Sea Lord.
• The island shook as the Sea Lord arrived, and the Daoist vanished, leaving his indigo robe as he looked southwest toward home.

The ghosts recounted how the Sea Lord Temple had once been the Seven Righteous Ones Temple, before a Confusion Ghost erased its history and helped the Sea Lord regain power. After learning that a sorcerer had entered the water near the temple thirty years earlier, Lin Hanzhi and Qi Gu prepared to confront the Sea Lord and promised to free the children.

• The villagers first honored the Seven Righteous Ones at a temple built to imprison the Sea Lord, but the Confusion Ghost later changed their perceptions, destroyed the memorials, and restored worship of the Sea Lord.
• The six children said they had failed to stop the deception and feared the Sea Lord, though it had remained trapped by the seven souls’ prison.
• Lin Hanzhi asked whether a sorcerer had visited thirty years earlier, and the ghosts recalled that he had checked the seal before diving into the water with diving equipment.
• The ghosts pointed out where the sorcerer had entered the water, and Lin Hanzhi memorized the location while deciding to deal with the temple first.
• Qi Gu promised to free the children and protect others from the Sea Lord, and the group headed to the temple.
• Lin Hanzhi hurried ahead of Qi Gu at the entrance and coaxed him to let him enter first.

Lin Hanzhi and Qi Gu investigated the Sea Lord Temple and discovered its candles were made from human flesh and blood. As Four-Claws swarmed them from the darkness, the group struggled to fight them off.

• Lin Hanzhi opened the Sea Lord Temple’s doors and found two freshly burning candles beside the altar.
• Lin Hanzhi threw one red candle outside, where red sea snails devoured it and revealed what it was made of.
• Qi Gu asked about the Sea Lord’s ability, and Lin Hanzhi responded gravely before spotting a Four-Claw.
• Lin Hanzhi pinned the first Four-Claw with his Bone Blade, but many more crawled out and attacked from every direction.
• Qi Gu tried to draw a talisman while his Bone Blade defended him, and Mu Xingchen covered his head as a Four-Claw clawed at his hood.

Mu Xingchen and the others fought off a flood of four-claws in the Sea Lord Temple before Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi revealed they had been drawing the creatures out so they could trap them. Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi then explained their theory that the Sea Lord controlled a ghost with cognition-distorting powers because those abilities belonged to the Sea Lord himself.

• Mu Xingchen used a hand seal to drive a four-claw away, then fought alongside Pubu Gesang as the creatures swarmed the group.
• Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi unleashed forty-six Bone Blades to suppress the four-claws, and Qi Gu sucked them all into the Purple-Gold Gourd.
• Miao Yue revealed that she had not been fooled by Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi’s plan, while Pubu Gesang complained that they had not told him beforehand.
• Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi explained that they had investigated a vicious ghost and concluded that the Sea Lord controlled it and possessed its cognition-distorting ability.

Qi Gu and the others traced the Four-Claws’ route through a crack in the Sea Lord Temple, hoping it would lead them to the hidden Sea Lord. While Miao Yue’s Route-Finding Beetle followed the creature, the group waited and shared snacks.

• Lin Hanzhi explained that the sunken ship had been used to quarantine plague victims and that their remains may have helped restore the Sea Lord’s power.
• Qi Gu reasoned that the blood candles and temple walls concealed and protected the Sea Lord’s existence.
• Qi Gu followed the Four-Claws’ trail to a narrow crack at the base of the temple wall.
• Qi Gu had Mu Xingchen tie a cord to a dazed Four-Claw, and Miao Yue released her Route-Finding Beetle to follow it into the crack.
• The cord went taut and stopped moving, so the group waited for the beetle while Lin Hanzhi handed out boneless chicken feet.

Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi followed the beetle to the shore where the Sea Lord lay beneath the water, and prepared to dive together. As they changed into wetsuits inside the temple, Qi Gu got his suit on but found its zipper stuck above his lower back.

• After the beetle was reeled in and returned to the Gourd, it led the group from the safe house to the shore.
• Miao Yue identified the Sea Lord’s location beneath the waves, and Qi Gu decided that he and Lin Hanzhi would dive while the others waited on shore.
• Lin Hanzhi urged Qi Gu to stay behind, but Qi Gu insisted on going with him, so they gathered wetsuits and oxygen tanks.
• At dusk, Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi went into the Sea Lord Temple to change, leaving the drone outside.
• Qi Gu pulled on his wetsuit, but its zipper jammed above the hollow of his lower back.

Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi shared an awkwardly intimate moment while fixing Qi Gu’s wetsuit, then joined the others before the tide came in. When Qi Gu struggled to dive, Lin Hanzhi caught his wrist and led him underwater.

• Qi Gu gave up trying to fasten his wetsuit, so Lin Hanzhi inspected the zipper and pulled a grain of sand from it while standing close behind him.
• After the zipper was fixed, Lin Hanzhi asked Qi Gu to wait while he calmed down, and both emerged half an hour later with flushed faces.
• Mu Xingchen assumed Lin Hanzhi was embarrassed about helping Qi Gu dress, while Pubu Gesang wrongly suspected they had secretly eaten spicy snacks.
• Qi Gu urged the group to head down before the tide came in, and he and Lin Hanzhi put on their oxygen gear and entered the water.
• Qi Gu’s attempt to dive left him paddling in place, so Lin Hanzhi caught his wrist and guided him underwater.

Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi descended into the dark waters beneath the Sea Lord Temple as the Longevity Lock began warning them of nearby ghostly energy. They reached the submerged mountain, where the lock was flashing almost continuously.

• Lin Hanzhi swam downward with Qi Gu, who checked that he was all right in the dark water.
• Qi Gu noticed the Longevity Lock beneath his diving suit flashing, and Lin Hanzhi recognized it as a charm that detected ghostly energy.
• Lin Hanzhi realized an elder in his family had likely enchanted the lock, recalling his father's visit to the same location years earlier.
• The Longevity Lock flashed more frequently as Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi descended toward the submerged mountain beneath the Sea Lord Temple.
• Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi saw that the mountain's underwater portion was much larger than its peak above the surface, and bubbles rose from its hollow-looking rock.

Lin Hanzhi and Qi Gu followed the beetle’s trail through an underwater cave, where Qi Gu’s Longevity Lock revealed a bloodline-based teleportation formation bearing the Lin family mark. Lin Hanzhi recognized it as his father’s mark, and Qi Gu comforted him as they continued onward.

• Lin Hanzhi tied their rope to a Bone Blade at the cave entrance, and Qi Gu guided his arm around his waist as they swam inside.
• Lin Hanzhi sped up after Qi Gu pulled his arm around his waist, then slowed when Qi Gu wrote that there was no rush.
• Qi Gu’s Longevity Lock glowed red, and a set of runes lit up on the cave wall in response.
• Lin Hanzhi recognized his father’s mark at the center of the runes, while Qi Gu identified the formation as a bloodline-linked Teleportation Array.
• Qi Gu asked whether Lin Hanzhi recognized the mark, then suggested they ask the Spirit Medium once they returned to shore.
• Lin Hanzhi leaned his head briefly on Qi Gu’s shoulder before they continued swimming.

Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi found the Sea Lord’s coral lair, but an ambush by the Film Crew Ghost revealed that the Sea Lord was still manipulating events. After they subdued the Four-Claws and freed the ghost, they continued toward the surface, leaving the Sea Lord’s fate unresolved.

• Guided by the beetles’ secretions, Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi reached a cavern where the Sea Lord’s true form stood as enormous red coral riddled with holes.
• As Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi turned to leave, the Film Crew Ghost—covered in Four-Claws—attacked and pulled out Lin Hanzhi’s oxygen hose.
• Qi Gu restored the hose with a spell and, shaken, checked that Lin Hanzhi was breathing normally; Lin Hanzhi admitted he had deliberately baited the enemy.
• Lin Hanzhi killed the Four-Claws controlling the Film Crew Ghost, which revealed itself as an ordinary water ghost and wrote a plea of innocence in the sand.
• Qi Gu collected the Film Crew Ghost in the Gourd, and he and Lin Hanzhi swam toward the surface without confronting the Sea Lord.