Chapter Summaries

Xie Hama’s talisman revealed that the yin soul inhabiting Huang Huaji’s body belonged to his subordinate general, who had replaced him and protected his own family. Wang Qilin defeated the soul inside the Wuji Tower, and Huang Huaji later told Steward Ding that the yin road had closed and answered his question about the subordinate general’s imprisonment.

• Xie Hama’s talisman drew the subordinate general’s yin soul out of Huang Huaji, revealing that it had taken over the old general’s body.
• Wang Qilin fought the yin soul in the Wuji Tower while Xie Hama took Huang Huaji outside, and Buddhist chants helped Wang Qilin destroy the soul and capture it in the Furnace of Creation.
• Wang Qilin found Xie Hama waiting outside, carried the weakened Huang Huaji out of the tower, and learned that Xie Hama had fled instead of helping him.
• Huang Huaji told Steward Ding that the yin road had closed more than ten days earlier and warned that another opening could bring the hundred ghosts walking at night again.
• Steward Ding asked whether Huang Huaji had helped decide to imprison his elder brother’s yin soul, and Huang Huaji replied that they had been soldiers who obeyed military orders.

Wang Qilin received Chan Master Sun’s scripture from Huang Huaji and discovered that his Furnace of Creation had refined the Six-Step Qi Jade into a Twin Fish Jade Pendant. After returning to the station, he shared sesame flatbreads with Heidou before sneaking out with Xie Hama to eat mutton.

• Wang Qilin learned another yin road had appeared and sent Xu Da to notify Shi Zhoushan while he left the general’s estate.
• Huang Huaji gave Wang Qilin Chan Master Sun’s scripture, explaining that it had been meant to destroy spirits left inside Wuji Tower.
• Xie Hama identified the supposed Buddhist scripture as the Daoist Baopuzi, and Wang Qilin saw that his Furnace of Creation had refined the Six-Step Qi Jade into a Twin Fish Jade Pendant.
• Wang Qilin returned to the station, found Heidou digging for rat nests, and gave him sesame flatbreads from the general’s estate.
• Wang Qilin and Xie Hama went out to eat, and Heidou chased after them and found Wang Qilin eating mutton.

Wang Qilin returned to the clinic at night to investigate his suspicions about Zhang Yuning, then recruited Xu Da and Xie Hama to help search the building. The group prepared to draw the clinic’s occupants outside so they could inspect the roof.

• Xu Da told Wang Qilin that Foolhardy had recently been visiting the clinic, prompting Wang Qilin to suspect the qi-eating ghost might have another purpose there.
• Wang Qilin climbed into the clinic after sunset and confronted Zhang Yuning, whose unusual agility and drooping facial features renewed Wang Qilin’s suspicions.
• Wang Qilin claimed he had seen someone suspicious and warned Zhang Yuning that he would bring men to search the clinic the next day.
• Wang Qilin persuaded Zhang Yuning to give him five Nine-Herb Great Replenishing Pills, pretending they were for his injuries and Xu Da’s kidney deficiency.
• Wang Qilin found Xie Hama and Xu Da and asked Xu Da to create a disturbance so they could get onto the clinic roof and investigate.

Wang Qilin and Xie Hama secretly searched Zhang Yuning’s clinic and discovered that he used enchanted paintings and paper lanterns containing little skin ghosts. As Xie Hama attacked him, Wang Qilin realized Zhang Yuning had no face, but the chapter ended with the back of his head turned toward them.

• Wang Qilin suspected Zhang Yuning had ties to the Blossoming Flower Pavilion and had turned the missing Foolhardy into an eerie painting.
• Xie Hama used a talismanic paper crane to reveal a little skin ghost inside Zhang Yuning’s lantern, which caught fire and gave Wang Qilin and Xie Hama a chance to sneak onto the roof.
• Wang Qilin watched Zhang Yuning check his window seals and retrieve hidden paintings, then saw him paint a lifelike cat and tear it up as a cat cried below.
• Zhang Yuning muttered that he had to act soon, tried to alter several paintings, and destroyed them when he was dissatisfied.
• Wang Qilin noticed Zhang Yuning’s self-portrait had moved and saw him paint a simple-minded face before setting down what appeared to be his own face.
• Xie Hama attacked Zhang Yuning with a fire talisman, but when Zhang Yuning looked up, Wang Qilin saw the back of his head instead of a face.

Wang Qilin and Xie Hama fought and defeated a Joined Half-Skulls that had been using Zhang Yuning’s identity. They discovered Zhang Yuning was trapped in a portrait and realized Foolhardy was likely imprisoned in another painting as the fiend’s intended body.

• Wang Qilin and Xie Hama battled the Joined Half-Skulls, and Wang Qilin used Heavenly Official’s Blessing Pills to strengthen his saber strikes and destroy it.
• Wang Qilin found no one in the room, but Zhang Yuning blinked from inside his portrait, revealing that he had been sealed in the painting.
• Xie Hama identified the creature as a Joined Half-Skulls and questioned how it had learned spells resembling those of the Blossoming Flower Pavilion.
• Wang Qilin and Xie Hama deduced that the creature had been weakening Foolhardy with eerie paintings and tonics so it could possess his body.
• Wang Qilin and Xie Hama concluded that Foolhardy was probably alive but sealed inside a painting too.

Wang Qilin gathered the scrolls after Foolhardy was trapped in a painting and promised to find a way to rescue him. Back at the post station, the Furnace of Creation produced a powerful Buddhist-Daoist mantra and a dangerous divine engraving, and Wang Qilin prepared to practice the mantra.

• Wang Qilin reassured Zhang Changgeng that Foolhardy was safe inside the painting and promised to save him, while refusing Zhang Changgeng's offer of Nine-Herb Great Replenishing Pills.
• Xie Hama retrieved a sheet made from an unknown exotic beast's cured hide, and Wang Qilin took it back to the post station with the other scrolls.
• Wang Qilin woke to find Wang Qiaoniang scolding Heidou for urinating in the water vat, then joked that she should beat him after breakfast.
• Wang Qilin discovered that the Furnace of Creation had refined the Lin Syllable Mantra and a Divine Engraving Diagram of Hayagriva Vidyaraja.
• Wang Qilin learned that Hayagriva Vidyaraja could protect a righteous bearer but punish wrongdoing, so he put the diagram away and prepared to practice the Lin Syllable Mantra.

Wang Qilin learned the Lin Syllable Mantra and accepted Shi Zhoushan’s invitation to a gathering of the county’s Minor Seals. While traveling to the county seat, he heard a ferryman recount a frightening death in Little Water Township.

• Wang Qilin memorized the Vajrasattva Heart Mantra and learned the Acala Vidyaraja Mudra, though he knew he still needed practice to master the Lin Syllable Mantra.
• Xiang Wei delivered Shi Zhoushan’s invitation, and Wang Qilin agreed to attend the next day while asking about rumors surrounding the Minor Seal position.
• When Xiang Wei threatened Heidou with a riding whip after the child insulted him, Wang Qilin cut the whip in two and sent Xiang Wei away.
• Wang Qilin and Xu Da took a ferry across the Subduing Dragon River to reach the county seat for Shi Zhoushan’s banquet.
• The ferryman told the passengers that a drowned woman’s body had floated faceup, then appeared in her coffin with her eyes open on the seventh day after her death.

Wang Qilin traveled to Auspicious County, where his shadow seemed to be drawn toward a dark shape beneath the river before he arrived safely in town. At the Heaven-Listening Bureau station, he met Hou Decai and tried to ask about the Minor Seal curse, but Hou avoided the question and left.

• As the ferry crossed the river, Wang Qilin noticed his shadow growing fainter and a dark shape beneath the water growing darker, so he recited a mantra and began cultivating.
• Wang Qilin and Xu Da entered Auspicious County, where Xu Da bought candied hawthorn skewers for children and scared off beggars who were chasing a ragged youth.
• Wang Qilin stopped outside the Leaning on Emerald Pavilion and sensed killing intent and wronged souls within.
• At the Heaven-Listening Bureau station, Wang Qilin met Hou Decai and realized Hou knew about the Minor Seal curse.
• Wang Qilin began asking Hou Decai about the curse, but Hou claimed he had business to attend to and left.

Wang Qilin arrived at the Heaven-Listening Bureau and fought Xiang Wei’s men after learning that he had been tricked about the banquet time. He forced the bureau’s subordinates to keep training, then met the other Minor Seals as Shi Zhoushan prepared to take them to dinner.

• Xiang Wei mocked Wang Qilin for arriving half a day early, and Xu Da confronted him after realizing he had lied about the lunch invitation.
• Wang Qilin challenged the bureau’s trainees, defeated White Tiger in a fistfight, then used a bamboo saber against the strongmen and Wandering Stars until Hou Decai stopped the brawl.
• Wang Qilin criticized the trainees for wasting the court’s money, and Xu Da claimed he had gone easy on Xiang Wei.
• Wang Qilin threatened to give his Minor Seal position to Xiang Wei, prompting Xiang Wei to order everyone back to practice.
• Wang Qilin supervised the trainees while Xu Da bought snacks, and Shi Zhoushan returned and praised their hard work.
• Chang Guizhi, Sun Miu, and Cui Wang arrived, and Shi Zhoushan announced that they would dine at the Prosperity Restaurant.

Wang Qilin joined his colleagues for a night out in Auspicious County, turned the Leaning on Emerald Pavilion’s embroidered-ball tradition into a quick profit, and asked about people sealed inside paintings. At dinner, Dong Jihu’s colleagues hinted that he might help with the case in exchange for Wang Qilin’s help on another case, but Sun Miu urged them to leave official business for a private discussion.

• Wang Qilin caught the embroidered ball outside the Leaning on Emerald Pavilion and sold it to an eager man for ten silver zhu.
• Shi Zhoushan hosted the Heaven-Listening Bureau group at the Prosperity Restaurant and asked Wang Qilin to recount how he solved the case at the general's residence.
• Wang Qilin asked his colleagues how to resolve the cases of people sealed inside paintings and the Joined Half-Skulls.
• Shi Zhoushan suggested Dong Jihu might know about the paintings because his second brother joined the Blossoming Flower Pavilion, but Dong Jihu said he knew little.
• Xiang Wei suggested that Dong Jihu help Wang Qilin with his case in exchange for help on Dong Jihu’s own case.
• Sun Miu proposed that Wang Qilin and Dong Jihu discuss their cases privately and called the group back to drinking.