Chapter Summaries

Qu Zan subdued Doji Cizhu after he attacked him and Guocuo, then handed him over to Nyepa for punishment. After collecting the Four Ritual Objects, Qu Zan presented them to Jiamo and received the Peacock Wisdom King Esoteric Method.

• Qu Zan restrained Doji Cizhu with Ghost Hands and freed Guocuo from the Human-Skin Cocoon.
• Qu Zan and Guocuo took Doji Cizhu to Nyepa, who promised the academy would punish him and compensate Qu Zan.
• Qu Zan returned to his quarters, reflected on having collected all four ritual objects, and slept.
• The next day, Qu Zan visited Duo'erna, then brought the Peacock Tail Feathers, lotus flowers, Auspicious Fruit, and Juyuan Fruit to Jiamo.
• Jiamo praised Qu Zan, retrieved a Golden Box, and presented the Peacock Wisdom King Esoteric Method as one of Corpse Camel Temple's Four Great Methods of Mind Secret.

Qu Zan studied the Peacock Wisdom King Esoteric Method under Elder Jiamo’s guidance, entering a dangerous visualization that nearly overwhelmed his consciousness. He completed the first stage, Wisdom King's Karma-Flame Heavenly Guard, and received the method through empowerment.

• Jiamo brought Qu Zan to a secluded scripture hall and warned him that deep visualization could consume time or drive a practitioner mad.
• Qu Zan memorized the Peacock Wisdom King’s image and felt his consciousness merge with the deity’s overwhelming presence.
• Qu Zan dispelled his visualization after the immense Wisdom King nearly destroyed his consciousness.
• At Jiamo’s instruction, Qu Zan visualized a fire offering with the Four Ritual Objects, and flames consumed a sea of blood in his mind.
• Qu Zan visualized himself becoming the Peacock Wisdom King, received golden scripture through empowerment, and comprehended the first stage, Wisdom King's Karma-Flame Heavenly Guard.

Qu Zan successfully visualized the Peacock Wisdom King and fused Indra’s power into the deity image, strengthening his consciousness in only five breaths. After Jiamo warned him about the dangers of Mind Secret cultivation, Duo'erna recognized his progress and began explaining deity mantras.

• Qu Zan bound the Peacock Wisdom King in his consciousness with the twenty-four Eyes of Indra, turning the Karma Fire black and increasing his consciousness from 5.5 to 5.9.
• Qu Zan learned from Jiamo that only five breaths had passed and that Mind Secret cultivation could distort his disposition; Jiamo explained that true Virtuous Knowledge followed the middle way.
• Qu Zan left the Evil-Subduing Institute, considering how his new cultivation could help him demonstrate stronger memorization to Scripture Master Huode.
• Duo'erna noticed Qu Zan’s more inwardly restrained gaze and identified his progress in the speech, mind, and body secrets.
• Duo'erna said Qu Zan was ready to learn the Peacock Wisdom King’s deity mantra and began describing the two major mantra systems.

Duo'erna taught Qu Zan how secret bright mantras worked and warned him about the dangers of praying to gods and Buddhas. Qu Zan performed his first ritual to the Peacock Wisdom King, asking for antiques and treasures, when someone knocked at the door.

• Duo'erna explained the difference between general and secret bright mantras and warned Qu Zan that mastered rituals could attract unknown beings.
• Duo'erna discussed possible explanations for why Vengeful Ghosts bore the names of gods and Buddhas, and told Qu Zan that Mahavairocana had not responded for a long time.
• Duo'erna assured Qu Zan that his empowerment by the Peacock Wisdom King meant he could pray without bizarre incidents, then told him to choose what to ask for.
• Qu Zan drew a Dharma Mandala, visualized the Peacock Wisdom King, and recited a mantra while asking for antiques and treasures.
• A gust of wind swept through the room, and someone knocked at the door of the private residence.

Qu Zan learned that Doji Cizhu had been condemned and joined Geshe Guocuo in seeking compensation from his confiscated property. While searching Doji Cizhu’s residence, they discovered the living Flesh-and-Blood Bodhisattva and Qu Zan found an antique that contained fortune essence.

• Geshe Guocuo told Qu Zan that Doji Cizhu had been stripped of his Geshe degree, expelled, and sentenced to drown in a cowhide sack, while his assets would be confiscated for compensation.
• Guocuo explained that the monastery and officials would take most of the compensation, then showed Qu Zan an authorization to inventory Doji Cizhu’s residence.
• Qu Zan told Duo'erna he was leaving early, and she let him go as he praised the Peacock Wisdom King for the windfall.
• Qu Zan and Guocuo entered Doji Cizhu’s residence with an elderly monk as a witness and found jars of organs, surgical knives, and the Flesh-and-Blood Bodhisattva.
• Qu Zan recognized six bloody eye holes on the creature and used Indra's Eye to examine its joined bodies before searching for valuables.
• Qu Zan found an antique, and a prompt asked whether he wanted to absorb its fortune essence.

Qu Zan and Guocuo searched Doji Cizhu’s residence and uncovered a hidden compartment filled with treasure and forbidden wet-body ritual implements. After dividing the recovered wealth according to their due shares, they left, and Guocuo planned to produce and sell Nectar Scale-Moistening Paste.

• Qu Zan absorbed fortune essence from antiques in Doji Cizhu’s residence, increasing his physique and consciousness.
• Qu Zan used Indra’s Eye to find a concealed compartment beneath the floorboards.
• Qu Zan and Guocuo discovered a cache of gold, silver, jewels, and wet-body ritual implements, which Qu Zan refused to touch.
• Guocuo and Qu Zan inventoried the treasure with the disciplinarian as a witness, and Guocuo gave Qu Zan an esoteric saber.
• The Qiangzuo arrived and accepted the inventory, and Qu Zan and Guocuo left Doji Cizhu’s residence.
• Guocuo told Qu Zan he had made Nectar Scale-Moistening Paste and planned to buy ingredients to produce more for sale.

Qu Zan secured his gold with Duo'erna, rapidly completed his Vinaya Studies, and joined the monastery procession traveling to Rika City. When the group prepared to stop at Bado Manor, he reflected on his former life as a serf and felt ready to face his old owners.

• Qu Zan left his 150 taels of gold with Duo'erna, who agreed to keep it safe without charging interest.
• Qu Zan recited the difficult final section of Vinaya Studies, and Huode praised his rapid progress and told him he would become a Geshe after returning from Nagarjuna Victory Temple.
• Qu Zan, Namkha, and the other monks departed with a procession of more than two hundred people to attend the Water and Land Universal Salvation Assembly.
• During the journey, Qu Zan recognized a mountain where he had encountered the [Goddess of Eloquence] and learned from Namkha that the procession would stop at Bado Manor.
• Qu Zan reflected that he had once escaped Bado Manor as the serf Nangsheng, but believed his changed appearance, Dharma name, and uncanny power meant he no longer had to fear his former owners.

Qu Zan returned to Bado Manor with the monks of Corpse Camel Temple, where memories of his family’s suffering and the serfs’ forced winter labor surfaced. After Bado Vire welcomed the procession, Qu Zan noticed signs of the family’s changing fortunes, and Wangze assigned him and his companions to paint scriptures on a guest-room wall.

• As the procession neared Bado Manor, Qu Zan recalled how generations of his family had died there and how their bodies had been discarded.
• Namkha asked Qu Zan about the winter manure and ice-channel levies, and Qu Zan explained the harsh labor imposed on the serfs.
• Bado Vire and his family welcomed the monks, while Qu Zan noticed the absent Tsering and the dissatisfaction of Vire’s two sons.
• Qu Zan, Namkha, Jiumo, and Gama were assigned a cramped first-floor room, and Jiumo and Gama complained about their accommodations.
• Wangze told Qu Zan and his companions to paint scriptures and mantras on the room’s north wall at the manor lord’s request.

Qu Zan learned that Tsering had become a monk after being offered as a sacrifice, and his return to Bado Manor brought back memories of his parents’ deaths and his own abuse. He resolved to destroy the Bado Family someday, then arrived at Nagarjuna Victory Temple and discovered corpses and severed limbs hidden inside its Guardian Heavenly King statues.

• Qu Zan learned from a serf that Tsering had become a disciple at Nagarjuna Victory Temple after Bado Manor made a Five-Extremities Offering.
• Qu Zan relived his traumatic childhood in a nightmare and decided that he would destroy the Bado Family when he had the chance.
• Qu Zan left Bado Manor with the monks and traveled toward Rika City, suspecting that the manor was interfering with his cultivation.
• Qu Zan arrived at Rika City and saw the grandeur of Nagarjuna Victory Temple during the Dharma Assembly.
• Qu Zan used Indra’s Eye to inspect the Guardian Heavenly King statues and saw that their hollow interiors held corpses and severed limbs preserved with butter.

Qu Zan arrived at Nagarjuna Victory Temple with Corpse Camel Temple’s party, then sold his antiques in Rika City and discovered an ancient gau box with a powerful restorative ability. He bought the relic and left when a young Jomo nun asked to inspect it.

• Indra's Eye made the flesh-body guardian statues crack before Qu Zan withdrew his power, and Elder Sajie greeted Corpse Camel Temple’s elders at the temple gate.
• Qu Zan declined Namkha’s invitation to explore Nagarjuna Victory Temple and went to sell his antiques in Rika City.
• Qu Zan found an Enlightened One’s gau box that could preserve and restore its holder’s state, and he bought it for ten taels of secret silver.
• A young Jomo nun asked to borrow the gau box, but Qu Zan declined and walked away.

Qu Zan discovered that the gau box was a Ghost-God Relic and bound it, learning that it recorded the state of his body, speech, and mind. He attended the start of the Water and Land Universal Salvation Assembly, where a towering statue of Nagarjuna Bodhisattva’s true form stood in the main hall.

• Qu Zan overheard Zhulin and an older Jomo discussing the gau box and suspected Zhulin had noticed something unusual about it.
• Namkha told Qu Zan that Nagarjuna Victory Temple’s Debate trials used noxious smoke and could drive monks mad or kill them.
• Qu Zan connected with the gau box through visualization and bound the Ghost-God Relic, which recorded his three mysteries of body, speech, and mind.
• Qu Zan examined the Buddha statue and its dried red stain, wondered about its connection to Shakyamuni, and wore the gau box around his neck.
• Qu Zan and the other monks gathered in the main hall as the Water and Land Universal Salvation Assembly began, facing a towering statue of Nagarjuna Bodhisattva’s true form.

Qu Zan attended the Water and Land Universal Salvation Assembly and discovered unsettling signs around Nagarjuna Bodhisattva’s statue. During the dangerous Smoke-Fog Debate, a Scholar Monk lost an argument and smashed his head against the stone floor, dying in front of the others.

• Qu Zan saw smoke rising from the assembly attendees and gathering toward Nagarjuna Bodhisattva’s statue, whose nostrils seemed to inhale it.
• Qu Zan learned that Scholar Monks would take part in a debate on the third day of the assembly.
• Namkha explained that Concentration Incense sharpened and stirred the mind during Smoke-Fog Debate, and the temple announced a Heavenly Horse as the champion’s prize.
• Qu Zan watched Scholar Monks debate fiercely as the incense drove their emotions to extremes.
• A Scholar Monk accused his opponent of sophistry, then smashed his head against the stone floor and died.

Qu Zan realized that the Nagarjuna Bodhisattva Statue was absorbing the deaths of monks as sacrificial offerings, while the Smoke-Fog Debate intensified fear and confusion. He won his first debate, but after Chilie injured Jiumo and caused Gadeng to collapse, Qu Zan faced Chilie in the fourth round.

• Qu Zan saw scarlet wisps rise from dead monks and flow into the Nagarjuna Bodhisattva Statue, while Namkha, Gadeng, and Jiumo discussed the deadly debate and its effects.
• Qu Zan silently prayed to the Peacock Wisdom King as another monk died, and Namkha learned that Chilie was a disgraced Geshe from Nagarjuna Victory Temple.
• Qu Zan defeated Danzeng in the first round by arguing that beings who relinquished attachment to impermanence did not necessarily suffer.
• Jiumo lost to Chilie in the second round, fell from the Bamboo Couch, and burned his arm; he accused Chilie of using debate to kill opponents.
• Gadeng lost to Chilie in the third round, vomited blood, and fainted, leaving Qu Zan to face Chilie in the fourth round.

Qu Zan faced Chilie in a debate and turned Chilie’s Mind Secret attack against him. The chapter ended with Chilie tormented by Qu Zan’s illusory Karma Fire while the onlookers watched in awe.

• Jiumo and Namkha warned Qu Zan that Chilie could influence his mind, but Qu Zan went ahead with the debate.
• Chilie used questions about the changing body and mind to argue that the self did not exist, while Qu Zan initially agreed.
• Qu Zan countered that changing things could still exist and that the self had effects, leaving Chilie unable to answer.
• Qu Zan invoked the Peacock Wisdom King’s Karma-Flame Heavenly Guard and hijacked Chilie’s senses with the illusion of burning Karma Fire.
• Chilie stripped off his robes and struggled on the ground to escape the nonexistent flames as Qu Zan dismissed his torment as past sins catching up with him.

Qu Zan won the Scholar Monk debates and tamed a fierce blood-sweating mare, naming her Bodhi. That night, Tsering arrived at Qu Zan’s door unexpectedly.

• Qu Zan won the Scholar Monk debates and was invited to choose a horse at Nagarjuna Victory Temple.
• Qu Zan mounted the unruly red mare and held on until she submitted to him.
• The head Scripture Master gave Qu Zan a saddle and bridle, and Qu Zan named the mare Bodhi.
• Qu Zan rode Bodhi for half a day, returned her to the stable, and asked the stable monk to care for her.
• Qu Zan told Namkha, Jiumo, and the others about Bodhi, then opened the door to find Tsering waiting outside.

Qu Zan followed Tsering to answer questions from Nagarjuna Victory Temple’s Discipline Academy, concealing his hatred for his former tormentor. The elders questioned him about the man wearing a Hell’s Beings ring whom he had seen inside the Mirror of Sin, and explained that the group’s members controlled powerful Vengeful Ghosts and called themselves lords of different hells.

• Tsering escorted Qu Zan through the temple, unaware that Qu Zan had once been the slave child Nangsheng he bullied at Bado Manor.
• Qu Zan learned that Tsering had become a Scholar Monk after Geshe Geran took him in as an Attendant Monk, and added Geshe Geran to his list of people to avenge.
• Qu Zan entered a stone tower house and met the head of Nagarjuna Victory Temple’s Discipline Academy and the gathered elders.
• The academy head said Chilie had killed himself after suffering under Qu Zan’s Mind Secret illusion.
• The elders asked Qu Zan about the ring-wearing man he had seen in the Mirror of Sin, and Qu Zan confirmed that Tuya had told him the man was not her father.
• A Dharma Protector Elder explained that Hell’s Beings was a group whose members controlled powerful Vengeful Ghosts and named themselves lords of particular hells.

Qu Zan learned that the false Dzongben may have been created by the Vengeful Ghost [Formless Tathagata], then overheard that the Dharma Protector Elders were escorting something connected to the Buddha. That night, a Vengeful Ghost approached his room, leaving him trapped between a faceless figure outside and a bloodied face forming on the ceiling.

• Qu Zan questioned how the false Dzongben could have entered the Mirror of Retribution World and worn a ring representing Hell's Beings without realizing his identity was false.
• The head of the Discipline Academy identified [Formless Tathagata] as the likely power behind the false Dzongben and revealed that an attack on the Ancestral Temple about a hundred and fifty years earlier had taken its bound ghost-god power.
• The Dharma Protector Elders discussed an item they were escorting back and began to mention the Buddha before sending Qu Zan away.
• Qu Zan returned to the Monks' Quarters and went to sleep, but woke to eerie crying and a supernatural presence drawing near.
• Qu Zan saw a motionless shadow outside his door, blood dripping from the ceiling, and a faceless figure waiting outside as a human face began forming in blood and flesh overhead.

Qu Zan fought Danbai, the Weeping Arhat, whose uncanny sobbing infected people with sorrow and weakened them. After Danbai’s ghostly body resisted Qu Zan’s Ghost Hands, Qu Zan used them to pull himself close and pressed Indra’s Hand against Danbai’s forehead.

• Danbai revealed that his sobbing had killed his family and threatened to drag everyone into hell with him.
• Qu Zan resisted the sorrow by visualizing the Peacock Wisdom King and crushed Danbai’s ghost face with Indra’s Hand.
• Qu Zan suppressed a corpse outside, but the sobbing spread through the Monks’ Quarters and turned nearby monks into ghost thralls.
• Danbai emerged in a towering, twisted Vengeful Ghost body, and Qu Zan’s Ghost Hands could no longer suppress him.
• Qu Zan used the Ghost Hands on Danbai to pull himself across the ground, then pressed Indra’s Hand against Danbai’s forehead.

After Qu Zan suppressed the revived Danbai, Nagarjuna Victory Temple secured the courtyard and counted the dead, while Namkha and Jiumo searched for their missing junior brother Gyatso. Qu Zan remained bound to the [Weeping Arhat] until Queji brought out a supernatural Corpse-Wrapping Khata to contain it.

• Nagarjuna Victory Temple sent Monk Soldiers to guard the courtyard as monks carried out the corpses of those killed by the Vengeful Ghost.
• Namkha and Jiumo returned from the Secret Medical Institute, examined the bodies, and found no sign of Gyatso.
• A Monk Soldier told Namkha and Jiumo that Qu Zan had suppressed the Vengeful Ghost and that one more body remained inside.
• Qu Zan warned Queji that the [Weeping Arhat] was only temporarily suppressed and asked what reward Nagarjuna Victory Temple would give him.
• Queji's monks brought a Golden Box containing a Corpse-Wrapping Khata, whose unfolding revealed the eerie outline of a corpse.

After surviving the Weeping Arhat, Qu Zan recorded the encounter and chose a dangerous uncanny object as his reward. He selected the Ghost Rope, and Queji explained how it had killed its conjurer and an audience before the monks imprisoned it.

• Queji wrapped the Weeping Arhat in the Corpse-Wrapping Khata, and monks placed the restrained Vengeful Ghost in a Golden Coffin.
• Qu Zan followed Queji to the Evil-Subduing Institute and described the previous night's events for the record.
• Qu Zan reviewed the reward booklet and asked for an uncanny object capable of restraining Vengeful Ghosts.
• Queji showed Qu Zan a golden booklet of five uncanny objects, and Qu Zan chose the Ghost Rope.
• Queji told Qu Zan how the Ghost Rope had bound twenty people into a ball of flesh and how the monks had burned the remains to ashes.