Chapter Summaries

On his first day as a Wandering Star in the Heaven-Listening Bureau, Wang Qilin studied an unsolved murder case while hiding the secret of his soul’s journeys to Earth. After Xu Da recounted the case, the station’s window mysteriously stood open again, darkening the room as a ghostly wind blew in.

• Wang Qilin altered the almanac to mark his first day at the Heaven-Listening Bureau as auspicious and reflected on how his journeys to Earth had led him to join.
• Wang Qilin read the Bureau’s case files until Strongman Xu Da arrived and asked about the Green Mountain County case.
• Xu Da described how a debtor found silver beneath a bed, bought meat that turned into a human head, and led authorities to a headless corpse buried in the abandoned house.
• Xu Da said the murder remained unsolved because the local Greater Seal had failed to discover who killed the man.
• Wang Qilin and Xu Da argued over the cold draft, then saw that the south-facing window had opened again and the daylight outside had turned dark and eerie.

Wang Qilin spent his first day at the Heaven-Listening Bureau with Xu Da, then discovered that the Furnace of Creation absorbed red smoke from Du Cao. After Du Cao gave Wang Qilin a saber manual and ordered Xu Da to report on a clinic, the source and meaning of the red smoke remained unknown.

• Wang Qilin and Xu Da discussed the archives’ mysteriously open window, and Xu Da told stories about the Bureau’s cases.
• Xu Da claimed he had spent his salary helping orphaned girls, so Wang Qilin paid for their lunch at a roadside stall.
• When Du Cao returned, Wang Qilin saw red smoke rise from his robe, and the Furnace of Creation absorbed it before disappearing.
• Du Cao asked Wang Qilin about his martial arts, and Wang demonstrated radio calisthenics and Military Boxing.
• Du Cao gave Wang Qilin the Eight Trigrams Soul-Returning Saber manual and ordered Xu Da to report on the Zhang family clinic.

Wang Qilin discovered that the Furnace of Creation had transformed the Eight Trigrams Soul-Returning Saber manual into the Lunar Soul-Severing Saber, which he mastered with startling ease. The next morning, Du Cao sent Wang Qilin and Xu Da to the Zhang family clinic to hunt a breath-eating ghost and give the new recruit his initiation trial.

• After the Eight Trigrams Soul-Returning Saber manual vanished, Wang Qilin used the Furnace of Creation and found it had become the Lunar Soul-Severing Saber manual.
• Wang Qilin practiced the new saber technique and learned every sequence in one night before the manual burned away.
• Xu Da returned drunk and wondered why Wang Qilin's room smelled smoky, but Wang Qilin pretended to be asleep.
• Du Cao sent Xu Da to collect Wang Qilin's official uniform, saber, and equipment from the county yamen.
• Du Cao explained that a breath-eating ghost haunted the Zhang family clinic and ordered Xu Da and Wang Qilin to kill it that night.

Wang Qilin and Xu Da investigated a haunting at the Zhang Family Medical Clinic and prepared to confront a qi-eating ghost after nightfall. When the ghost arrived, Xu Da gave Wang Qilin an Ice Plant Bead to help detect and ward off yin qi.

• Xu Da and Wang Qilin entered the clinic and found a charred talisman on the gate, confirming that something ghostly had visited.
• Zhang Yuning described how a qi-eating ghost had been asking dying patients to lend it a breath, and Xu Da argued that it could be driven away by refusing to keep dying patients overnight.
• Wang Qilin warned that the ghost might target healthy people instead, then spent the day patrolling the clinic without finding it.
• After the clinic staff left for the night, Wang Qilin and Xu Da noticed the bitter wind and swaying lanterns as the qi-eating ghost arrived.
• Xu Da explained how Ice Plant Beads detected yin qi and repelled evil, then gave one to Wang Qilin to hold in his mouth.

Wang Qilin and Xu Da found a corpse in the clinic’s mortuary that had been possessed by the qi-eating ghost, and they fled into the Zhang family’s ancestral shrine. They trapped the ghost’s head behind an offering table, but it emerged from the corpse as a hazy gray shape.

• Wang Qilin and Xu Da entered the mortuary and found a dead boy from the Zhang family, whom Xu Da recognized as having been alive the previous day.
• The qi-eating ghost animated the boy’s corpse and attacked Xu Da, but Wang Qilin pulled him through a back door into the ancestral shrine.
• Wang Qilin and Xu Da bolted the shrine door while the ghost peered through its crack from outside.
• Xu Da kicked the door apart while taunting the ghost, and he and Wang Qilin blocked the opening with an offering table.
• The boy’s corpse slumped against the blocked doorway, and the qi-eating ghost emerged from it as a hazy gray shape.

Wang Qilin killed a qi-eating ghost with the Lunar Soul-Severing Saber and received a Nine-Herb Great Replenishing Pill from the Zhang family. The Furnace of Creation refined the pill into a Heavenly Official's Blessing pill, which Wang Qilin swallowed, sending warmth throughout his body.

• Wang Qilin used the Lunar Soul-Severing Saber to destroy the qi-eating ghost, and the Furnace of Creation absorbed the crimson smoke it left behind.
• Wang Qilin and Xu Da spent the night at the clinic, then learned that Zhang Yuhu had been killed by the ghost.
• Zhang Changgeng thanked Wang Qilin and Xu Da by giving each of them a Nine-Herb Great Replenishing Pill.
• Wang Qilin found his pill missing and discovered that the Furnace of Creation had refined it into a white pill marked Heavenly Official's Blessing.
• Wang Qilin swallowed the refined pill, and a warm current spread from his dantian through his body.

Wang Qilin investigated strange windows at the station, only to learn that Master Cao’s cat Hupi had opened them. Du Cao then heard Zhong Erniu’s report that a ghost was tormenting his wife and planned to visit the Zhong Clan, whose head had recently died.

• Wang Qilin found a window open by itself and enlisted Xu Da to watch the station, but they discovered that Hupi had been opening the windows.
• Du Cao returned with Zhong Erniu, who reported that a ghost had tormented his wife for several days and that Zhong Youfu, head of the Zhong Clan, had died.
• Du Cao gave Zhong Erniu a talisman to protect his wife for twenty-four hours and promised to investigate the next day.
• Du Cao dismissed Xu Da’s concern about his health and said he feared the Zhong Clan case could change, noting that he had not been told of Zhong Youfu’s death.

After recovering from the qi-eating ghost, Du Cao traveled with Wang Qilin and Xu Da to investigate the Zhong Clan at Dismount Ridge. They met the newly appointed clan head, Zhong Youshou, whose apparent foolishness left Wang Qilin suspecting he was pretending.

• Wang Qilin took a bowl of braised mutton back for Du Cao, who regained some color and energy.
• Wang Qilin, Xu Da, and Du Cao traveled to Dismount Ridge to investigate the Zhong Clan.
• At the village checkpoint, the middle-aged man told Du Cao that the former clan head, Zhong Youfu, had died four or five days earlier and that Zhong Youshou was the new clan head.
• Zhong Youshou claimed the yellow dog beside him was not his, and the dog nearly bit Xu Da before Wang Qilin stopped it with his scabbard.
• A child showed Xu Da how Zhong Youshou used to choose one chestnut instead of two, but Wang Qilin suspected the new clan head was not truly stupid.

Du Cao and Wang Qilin investigated the Zhong clan’s claim that tenant farmer Zhong Erniu had fled into the mountains and uncovered signs that the clan was hiding a haunting. After Wang Qilin secretly took one of the children’s haunting coins, they planned to use the coming night’s danger to reach Zhong Erniu in the clan’s earthen jail.

• Zhong Youshou and a middle-aged clan member claimed Zhong Erniu had gone missing in the mountains and refused to explain where the man who reported the haunting had gone.
• Du Cao demanded to pay respects to the deceased patriarch, Zhong Youfu, and the clan reluctantly took him to the ancestral hall.
• Wang Qilin stayed behind with the children and secretly swapped one child’s copper coin for a copper zhu coin.
• Xu Da learned that Zhong Erniu was locked in the Zhong clan’s earthen jail rather than lost in the mountains.
• Du Cao identified the children’s coins as haunting coins that suppressed their yang energy and protected them from ghosts.
• Wang Qilin proposed waiting until the child without his haunting coin encountered a ghost that night, expecting the resulting chaos to let them reach Zhong Erniu.

Du Cao, Wang Qilin, and Xu Da investigated a disturbance in the Zhong clan village and found an infant spirit possessing Cui'er. After learning she had entered the upper compound shortly before the possession began, Du Cao led the group into the ancestral hall, where they confronted a young woman guarding a coffin and a soul-summoning bell.

• While waiting for nightfall, Wang Qilin, Du Cao, and Xu Da ate at a tea stall and joked about its reused bamboo skewers.
• The three heard cries from the Zhong clan village and freed Zhong Erniu and an old man from the underground jail.
• Du Cao found Cui'er sucking a goat's teat and drove an infant spirit out of her; Zhong Erniu said she had entered the upper compound to fetch embroidery thread.
• Du Cao used his Heaven-Listening Bureau token to pass the checkpoint and led Wang Qilin and Xu Da to the ancestral hall.
• Inside the hall, the three encountered a young woman tending an ever-burning lamp beside a coffin, an ascension bridge, and a soul-summoning bell.

Du Cao and Wang Qilin investigated the Zhong clan’s strange haunting and uncovered a plot involving Zhong Youfu, a vajra bell, and a pregnant woman. When they tried to expose the soul hidden beneath the bell, it instead released a swarm of infant spirits, and the underworld officer fled.

• Du Cao confronted Zhong Youshou and examined Little Stone, discovering that the child was possessed by an underworld officer.
• Wang Qilin suspected Zhong Youfu had evaded the underworld officer and arranged for his soul to enter the unborn child of a pregnant woman.
• Du Cao identified the ancestral hall’s bell as a vajra bell and explained that Zhong Youfu had used a haunting coin to obstruct reincarnation and hide his soul.
• The Zhong family disputed Du Cao’s claims, saying their customs and choice of clan head came from ancestral instructions.
• Du Cao released the underworld officer to lift the vajra bell, but its shadow broke apart into numerous infant spirits.
• The infant spirits scattered through the ancestral hall, the bell fell, Little Stone fainted, and Xu Da announced that the underworld officer had fled.

Wang Qilin and the others discovered that Zhong Youfu had secretly reincarnated and sealed infant spirits inside the Vajra Bell, but the spirits escaped and attacked them. Wang Qilin fought them off while Du Cao summoned his life-bound fierce god, which began emerging from his body as the infant spirits overwhelmed him.

• The Zhong family fled the ancestral hall and locked Zhong Youshou inside as the infant spirits tore apart the corpse in the coffin.
• Wang Qilin deduced that Zhong Youfu had entered a fetus during the day, sealed the infant spirits in the Vajra Bell, and was likely a reincarnation of earlier clan heads.
• An infant spirit knocked Xu Da aside, but Wang Qilin drove it beneath the coffin with the Lunar Soul-Severing Saber.
• Du Cao summoned the fierce god tattooed on his back, but the infant spirits swarmed him and began tearing at his flesh.
• Wang Qilin cut down two infant spirits with Night Battle in Eight Directions as the Furnace of Creation flew out.
• The fierce god emerged farther from Du Cao's back while Xu Da and Wang Qilin rushed to help him.

Wang Qilin and Xu Da survived the ancestral hall battle, and Du Cao was revealed to be alive but unconscious. Wang Qilin forced Zhong Youshou to end the reincarnation scheme and keep the case secret, while the bronze bell mysteriously entered Wang Qilin’s Creation Furnace.

• Wang Qilin killed the burning infant spirits after the fiend emerged from Du Cao and sacrificed itself, then found the coffin filled with minced flesh and shattered his saber.
• Xu Da confirmed Du Cao was breathing, and Wang Qilin confronted Zhong Youshou about the Zhong family’s reincarnation scheme and the pregnant woman.
• Zhong Youshou begged Wang Qilin to spare the clan, and Wang Qilin ordered him to dispose of the unborn monstrosity and never speak of the case again.
• Wang Qilin and Xu Da discovered the Zhong family had fled the ancestral hall, and Zhong Youshou handed over a bronze bell tied to the clan’s past and the evil art.
• Wang Qilin noticed the bronze bell had entered his Creation Furnace without being refined, then warned Xu Da that revealing the case would put them all in danger.

After Wang Qilin used the Creation Furnace to gain ten years of inner power, Shi Zhoushan promoted him to Lesser Seal and took the amnesiac Du Cao away to retire. Xu Da then warned Wang Qilin that the promotion had made him a scapegoat sent to die.

• Wang Qilin learned that the Heavenly Official's Blessing Pill could grant cultivators a year of cultivation and bought ten Nine-Herb Great Replenishing Pills from Zhang Changgeng with silver and an IOU.
• Wang Qilin used nine infant spirits and nine Great Replenishing Pills in the Creation Furnace to produce nine Heavenly Official's Blessing Pills, raising his inner power to ten years.
• Shi Zhoushan arrived with Xu Da, questioned Wang Qilin about the infant spirit case, and tested his combat skill with a punch.
• Shi Zhoushan promoted Wang Qilin from Wandering Star to Lesser Seal, gave him Du Cao's bloodwood seal, and took Du Cao away to retire.
• Wang Qilin offered to treat Xu Da at the Gathering Fragrance Restaurant, but Xu Da privately warned him that he had become a scapegoat sent to die.

Wang Qilin learned that the Minor Seal post in Crouching Dragon Township was cursed, with its holder killed each year by a vengeful ghost. As he and Xu Da discussed the curse over dinner, the strange grass carp Wang Qilin had saved disappeared from its jar.

• Zhang Yuning questioned his grandfather about Xu Da and Wang Qilin, and Divine Physician Zhang warned him not to discuss their affairs.
• Xu Da took Wang Qilin to the Gathering Fragrance Restaurant, where they watched a grass carp leap into the carp pool and Wang Qilin noticed it was secretly paddling despite appearing dead.
• Wang Qilin asked Xu Da why he had said his life was in danger, and Xu Da explained that Crouching Dragon Township's Minor Seal was killed by a vicious ghost every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh month.
• Xu Da said the ghost arose from a miscarriage of justice and had killed one of Master Cao's two fierce gods before being tricked into leaving.
• When the sweet-and-sour carp arrived, Xu Da realized it was not the fish he had chosen, and the waiter said that fish had disappeared on its own.

Wang Qilin and Xu Da investigated disappearing dishes at the Gathering Fragrance Restaurant and discovered that someone had been secretly sending food to two poor households. The clues pointed to a limping, one-armed Daoist whom the proprietor had recently turned away.

• The proprietor told Wang Qilin and Xu Da that dishes had vanished from his kitchen, and they tracked the lingering yin energy through nearby alleys.
• Wang Qilin noticed grease stains on a poor girl’s clothes, and Xu Da learned that her family had recently been eating fish and meat despite their poverty.
• The woman explained that food had appeared on her offering table along with drawings of a toad in a Daoist robe, and she revealed that Du Shiwu’s household had received food too.
• Wang Qilin brought both households to the restaurant and treated them to a meal while confirming that Du Shiwu had received the same toad drawings.
• The waiter recalled that the proprietor had driven away a limping, one-armed Daoist who had begged for food, and Wang Qilin warned the proprietor that he had narrowed his own path.

Wang Qilin tried to locate the Daoist who had been distributing stolen food, while rumors spread that the junior seal officer himself had performed the deeds. That night, a sinister visitor appeared at the station, and Wang Qilin and Xu Da fought him.

• Wang Qilin told the families and restaurant proprietor to credit him with the food deliveries and asked Xu Da to investigate the Daoist.
• Word spread that Wang Qilin had used magic to feed the poor, while he watched a grass carp that changed between floating dead and swimming whenever it was observed.
• After hearing mysterious knocks, Wang Qilin learned Xu Da had brought him an eerie painting, so he burned it despite Xu Da's protests.
• The Daoist arrived at the station and accused Wang Qilin of stealing credit for the food deliveries.
• Wang Qilin fought the Daoist with his saber, then bound him with saber wind so Xu Da could punch through his body.

Wang Qilin confronted the old Daoist over using magic to take food and persuaded him to join the township office as a Wandering Star. The Daoist accepted the job, leaving Wang Qilin with a new subordinate for the remaining three and a half months.

• Xu Da and Wang Qilin discovered that the old Daoist they had fought was a paper figure, and Xu Da injured himself in the encounter.
• Wang Qilin realized Du Cao’s servants knew Hupi was Du Cao’s beloved cat, despite Du Cao having been unconscious or amnesiac since returning from Dismount Ridge.
• After Xu Da’s search failed to find the Daoist, Wang Qilin staged a false report of a corpse to draw him out.
• Wang Qilin challenged the Daoist’s justification for taking food and argued that the Daoist had bullied weaker people.
• Wang Qilin offered the Daoist a paid Wandering Star position and threatened to call in the Heaven-Listening Bureau if he refused.
• The old Daoist calculated the term of the job and agreed to serve for three and a half months.

Wang Qilin’s father, Wang Liuwu, visited Crouching Dragon Township to confirm his son’s promotion and tell him the clan elders had arranged a marriage match. Wang Qilin agreed to return home with him, and the group went to the Gathering Fragrance Restaurant to eat and settle Xie Hama’s debt.

• Xie Hama told Wang Qilin that his life hung by a thread, strengthening Wang Qilin’s belief that he was cursed.
• Wang Liuwu arrived at the Heaven-Listening Bureau and confirmed that Wang Qilin had become a lesser seal officer.
• Wang Liuwu told Wang Qilin that the clan elders had arranged a marriage match, and Wang Qilin agreed to visit home with him.
• Xu Da booked a table at the Gathering Fragrance Restaurant, where Xie Hama apologized to Proprietor Zhu and promised to repay the missing food.
• A gentleman celebrating his grandson’s birthday came to Wang Qilin’s private room, apologized for taking the largest room, and offered everyone wine.

Wang Qilin returned to Great King Village with Xu Da and Xie Hama to visit his family, honor his ancestors, and consider a marriage match. He confronted the villagers who had once shunned his poor family, then gave his mother forty silver zhu as the story left the household preparing to host the village.

• After Wang Liuwu got drunk, Xu Da proposed that Xie Hama make paper women so they could open a brothel, and Xie Hama vanished into the ground to escape him.
• Wang Qilin traveled home with Wang Liuwu, Xu Da, and Xie Hama, and learned that his family had arranged a marriage meeting with Landowner Lu's daughter.
• The villagers gathered to welcome Wang Qilin, and he reminded them that they had avoided and neglected his family when it was poor.
• Xu Da intimidated the clan elders and wealthy villagers, then shared snacks with the village children while the family prepared a feast.
• Madam Wang née Lu worried that their food was inadequate, so Wang Qilin gave her forty silver zhu from his salary.