Chapter Summaries

Jiang Nuo, Si Yan, and Song Zheng investigated the courtyard at night and found a timid ghost draining A Wu’s yang energy. The ghost pointed them toward a powerful presence on the mountain, which Jiang Nuo planned to investigate the next day.

• Jiang Nuo woke Si Yan and Song Zheng at eleven, and the three went to investigate a sound outside.
• Jiang Nuo found A Wu sleeping inside a cramped child’s coffin and realized a ghost was absorbing his yang energy.
• Si Yan pulled Jiang Nuo and Song Zheng behind a coffin when a ghost floated into the courtyard and settled beside A Wu.
• Jiang Nuo blocked the ghost’s escape and questioned it, but it cowered and obeyed when he ordered it to stand.
• The ghost pointed toward the mountain when Jiang Nuo asked about powerful ghosts nearby, then fled the courtyard.

A Wu woke to find Jiang Nuo, Si Yan, and Song Zheng investigating the ghost in his room, and revealed that his father had made him sleep in a coffin because of a family curse. After discovering a hidden underground level beneath the courtyard, Jiang Nuo forced A Wu to lead them to the basement.

• A Wu woke in his coffin, saw a ghost, and learned that Jiang Nuo, Si Yan, and Song Zheng had come to investigate.
• Si Yan identified A Wu's blue facial mark as an azure ghost face curse, and A Wu said his father claimed he needed to sleep in a coffin to avoid dying young.
• Jiang Nuo found a hidden mechanism beneath the central coffin and learned that the underground coffins contained things.
• Jiang Nuo pressured A Wu to guide them downstairs despite the boy's warning that only the head of the household could enter the basement.

Jiang Nuo, Si Yan, Song Zheng, and A Wu discovered a basement filled with Yin-Gathering Coffins and corpses that were close to becoming ghosts. Si Yan suspected the dead had completed tasks imposed by an evil ghost’s curse, possibly including Simazi, whose Azure Ghost Face had disappeared.

• A Wu led the others to a hidden basement entrance beside the red-painted sign, where they found rows of altered coffins.
• Si Yan identified the coffins as Yin-Gathering Coffins designed to keep Corpse Qi from dispersing and nurture corpses into ghosts.
• Jiang Nuo and Song Zheng opened a coffin and found a corpse undergoing transformation, then discovered that the corpses belonged to A Wu’s uncle and grandmother.
• Si Yan questioned A Wu about his bluish birthmark, and A Wu said his father had once claimed to have faked a similar mark for him.
• Si Yan explained that an evil ghost’s curse could assign its victims tasks that continued even after death, and suspected the corpses had completed their tasks, including Simazi.

Song Zheng, Jiang Nuo, and Si Yan investigated the coffin shop’s basement and discovered a Flesh Corpse raised by A Wu’s father. Jiang Nuo used Song Zheng’s blood to lure the monster away, while Si Yan cleared the corner.

• Song Zheng deduced that each new generation of the coffin shop inherited a task involving a death, and that the Azure Ghost Face remained on A Wu until then.
• Jiang Nuo found ghost-raising materials among the corpses and coffins in the basement.
• A Flesh Corpse emerged, and Si Yan gave Song Zheng a Spiritual Power-infused dagger after warning him that his gun would not work.
• Song Zheng charged the Flesh Corpse, and Jiang Nuo slashed his arm to collect blood on his jacket.
• Jiang Nuo used the bloodied jacket to draw the starving Flesh Corpse toward him while Si Yan moved to clear the corner.

Jiang Nuo and the others subdued a Blood Corpse in the coffin shop basement and discovered the sorcerer’s corpse was still missing. Before leaving to investigate the mountain the next day, Jiang Nuo forced A Wu to keep quiet about what happened.

• Jiang Nuo trapped the Flesh Corpse in a hidden compartment, but a Blood Corpse emerged from another compartment and attacked the group.
• The Blood Corpse pursued Song Zheng, and Si Yan slowed it with silver needles before it turned its attention to him.
• Jiang Nuo beat the Blood Corpse, sealed it inside a compartment with a talisman, and placed paper figures in the coffins to prevent the bodies from becoming undead.
• Jiang Nuo noted that the sorcerer’s corpse was missing and said the group would search the mountain the next day.
• Jiang Nuo made A Wu swallow something that would kill him if he revealed what happened, and the four left the basement.

Jiang Nuo, Si Yan, and Song Zheng traveled with Simazi and A Wu toward the mountain, while Song Zheng tried to draw information from Simazi. Simazi revealed a history of family deaths and hinted at bitter resentment before Song Zheng changed the subject to the treasures on the mountain.

• Simazi woke late, found the courtyard unchanged, and questioned A Wu about whether anyone had made noise the night before.
• After breakfast, Simazi urged the group to leave for the mountain, and Song Zheng drove them there with A Wu seated apart from Simazi.
• Simazi asked about Jiang Nuo and Si Yan’s relationship, and Jiang Nuo claimed Si Yan was his wife and invented a story about stealing him from a gang boss.
• Song Zheng asked why Simazi ran a coffin shop, and Simazi said it was his family business and that he was not destined for wealth.
• Simazi described his mother, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew dying, then muttered that they deserved it and suggested he might die too.
• Song Zheng tried to comfort Simazi, then asked what treasures were among the goods on the mountain.

Simazi led Song Zheng, Jiang Nuo, Si Yan, and A Wu up the mountain, where he revealed his skill at orthodox exorcism when ghost miasma blocked their path. A Wu began to suspect that his father was connected to the bodies and ghosts in the basement, and noticed someone following them.

• Simazi led the group up the mountain and said the road ahead was too rough for their van.
• Jiang Nuo and Si Yan flirted in the van before catching up with the others.
• As the group climbed through the damp, sinister woods, Simazi muttered that they had nearly taken all the goods from the area.
• Ghost miasma suddenly appeared across the trail, and Simazi brought out the Three Pure Ones Bell and a ritual mirror.
• Simazi chanted and used righteous qi to exorcise the ghosts blocking their way.
• A Wu wondered whether his father was connected to the bodies and ghosts in the basement, then spotted someone following them.

A Wu repeatedly saw a ghost following the group as Simazi led them into an underground tomb, though no one else could see it. Jiang Nuo discovered Simazi had been leading them in circles and confronted him at knifepoint.

• A Wu saw a half-faced ghost behind the vines, then spotted it again on the mountain path while Jiang Nuo and the others saw nothing.
• Simazi uncovered a cement-reinforced entrance and led A Wu, Jiang Nuo, Si Yan, and Song Zheng underground, boasting about the tomb’s treasures.
• As the group descended, A Wu kept seeing the ghost and panicked, while Jiang Nuo and Si Yan could not sense it nearby.
• Jiang Nuo revealed that he had marked the passage wall and that they had been walking in circles.
• Jiang Nuo held a dagger to Simazi’s neck as Song Zheng drew his gun and Simazi accused them of tricking him.

Jiang Nuo and Si Yan followed a ghostly shadow through the tomb, where Simazi revealed that the apparent ghosts were people afflicted with the Ghost Plague. After Jiang Nuo claimed he could cure them, Si Yan explained that fierce ghosts transmitted the illness and that the infected would eventually become Yin Ghosts.

• Jiang Nuo, Si Yan, Song Zheng, A Wu, and Simazi followed a shadow through the tomb until they reached a blocked ledge.
• Jiang Nuo threatened Simazi with a photograph of Wang Laoliu's corpse, and Simazi confessed that the ghostly figures were sick people hiding in the tomb.
• Simazi summoned the people behind the wooden planks after Jiang Nuo said he could save them.
• More than twenty scarred, armed people confronted the group, and Si Yan explained how the Ghost Plague spread and worsened.

Jiang Nuo exposed the false prophecy that had lured the rotting men deeper into the tomb, revealing that their leader had likely sacrificed them to escape a curse. The group set off toward the deepest chambers to confront the malicious ghost, with Simazi forced to accompany them.

• The rotting men mocked Si Yan's diagnosis and threatened Jiang Nuo's group, but Jiang Nuo produced a cannon and made them reveal the location of the prophecy mural.
• Jiang Nuo burned away the fake mural's cloth covering and uncovered the original mural, which described a cursed treasure seeker ordered by a malicious ghost to bring twenty people as sacrifices.
• Jiang Nuo and Si Yan concluded that the first person cursed had brought the others underground to save himself, and Si Yan decided the malicious ghosts had to be eliminated to protect their victims.
• The men agreed to go deeper with Jiang Nuo, while Jiang Nuo and Si Yan suspected the person who faked the prophecy had another purpose.
• Song Zheng stopped Simazi from leaving, and Jiang Nuo handed out flashlights as the group entered the tomb passage.

Jiang Nuo and Si Yan led Song Zheng and Da Zhu’s group through the tomb to a black jade door that they could not open. They found a mechanical-looking tomb guardian and a hidden object near an ever-burning lamp, but the chapter ended before they could unlock the door.

• Jiang Nuo told Da Zhu to keep his people in line as the group entered the tomb’s lower levels.
• Jiang Nuo and Si Yan recognized symbols on the black jade door as matching those on the coffin lid in Simazi’s basement.
• Song Zheng tried to push the jade door, but it did not move, and Jiang Nuo pointed out a stone tomb guardian beside it.
• Jiang Nuo turned the guardian’s right eyeball and heard clicks while Si Yan noticed its left eye was aimed at an extinguished ever-burning lamp.
• Song Zheng climbed onto Zhang Linsan’s back to inspect the lamp, found something hidden there, and brought it back to Si Yan.

Jiang Nuo and Si Yan opened the jade door and entered a burial chamber filled with dangerous mechanisms and black jade Buddhas. They found the chamber’s central point, but Jiang Nuo’s attempts to activate it did nothing.

• Jiang Nuo warned everyone about the arrows, and Si Yan used an umbrella as a shield while trying to plug the opening with a stone.
• Several men rushed to collect gold and jewels, then died when the arrows resumed firing; Si Yan plugged the mechanism and opened the jade door.
• The group entered the burial chamber, where two black jade Buddhas shattered and the steps beneath them retracted.
• Jiang Nuo examined the chamber’s four imposing general statues and, with Si Yan’s help, found where their gazes converged.
• Jiang Nuo stepped on the chamber’s central point several times, but the mechanism did not activate.

Jiang Nuo opened a hidden mechanism with a gunshot, revealing a coffin that Simazi recognized as one used to nurture corpses into ghosts. After Simazi’s candle was blown out by an unseen presence, Jiang Nuo relit it with his power, leaving the wandering ghost unable to extinguish the flame.

• Jiang Nuo fired at the thick brick between Zhang Linsan and another man, breaking it and triggering the mechanism that raised a coffin.
• Simazi recognized the coffin’s patterns as those used to nurture corpses into ghosts and warned that a ghost was inside.
• Jiang Nuo and Si Yan questioned Simazi about his father swapping Wang Laoliu’s fate, and Simazi claimed he had nothing to do with it.
• Simazi lit a candle in the southeast corner, but an unseen presence blew it out.
• Jiang Nuo relit the candle with his power, and the wandering ghost failed to blow it out.

Jiang Nuo and Si Yan opened the coffin and found a sacrificial corpse bound with Soul-Suppressing Nails and a Yin-Containing Talisman, but an unseen ghost attacked the group. Jiang Nuo used his blood to change his vision and search the burial chamber for it.

• Jiang Nuo sheltered Si Yan from the coffin’s yin energy as they opened it and examined the decomposed corpse.
• Si Yan identified Soul-Suppressing Nails, and Jiang Nuo found a Yin-Containing Talisman and explained how the corpse had been both suppressed and nourished with resentment.
• Jiang Nuo questioned Simazi about the corpse-nurturing method, but Simazi denied knowing anything about it.
• Jiang Nuo placed another suppression talisman on the corpse, but an invisible force lifted a short man and twisted his neck.
• Si Yan and Jiang Nuo fought back against the unseen ghost, which they could neither see nor track with spiritual power.
• Jiang Nuo smeared blood across his left eyelid, turning his iris red as he scanned the burial chamber.

Jiang Nuo and the others discovered a second coffin containing human-skin layers and deciphered that the runes in both coffins were incomplete. After searching the burial chamber for an exit, Jiang Nuo noticed a dripping sound and asked where it was coming from.

• Jiang Nuo found and destroyed a ghost hiding in the wall while the men discovered a second coffin.
• Jiang Nuo scraped a curse off the coffin lid, and the group opened the coffin despite Simazi's warnings.
• Si Yan revealed layers of human skin beneath two skeletons, and Simazi explained they might have belonged to slaves buried as sacrifices.
• Song Zheng gave blood so Si Yan could reveal the runes, and Si Yan realized each coffin held only half of them.
• Da Zhu led a search for an exit, but Jiang Nuo noticed a dripping sound and asked where it came from.

As the third-level burial chamber filled with blood and began to collapse, Si Yan saw a vision of Jiang Nuo possessed by a strange voice urging him to jump to the bottom of the Eternal Life River. Si Yan recovered, found the exit beneath the coffin, and led everyone down to a narrow cliff path above underground water on the fourth level.

• The general statues began bleeding into the burial chamber as the room shook, and Si Yan found an exit beneath the coffin.
• Si Yan briefly hallucinated that Jiang Nuo had become a woman-voiced entity urging him to jump to the bottom of the Eternal Life River, but Jiang Nuo brought him back to his senses.
• Si Yan covered Jiang Nuo's eyes, recognized the coffin as the way down, and led everyone through the opening beneath it.
• Scarface and the bald man stole jewels before following the others, and a blood-red ruby in Scarface's haul grew brighter as the statues' strange water source vanished.
• On the fourth level, Jiang Nuo found that the group stood on a narrow path beside a bottomless pit with flowing water below, then handed out ropes as they continued forward.

Jiang Nuo and Si Yan followed a hallucination’s warning and jumped into the Eternal Life River, where they discovered a submerged bridal sedan chair and were attacked by human-faced monsters. They escaped upward after Jiang Nuo trapped the monsters in ice and burned them with a talisman.

• Jiang Nuo realized the group had circled back to the cliff where they had descended, and Si Yan suggested jumping into the Eternal Life River as their way out.
• Jiang Nuo and Si Yan jumped into the river together, followed by the others, and discovered a glowing wooden bridal sedan chair anchored to the riverbed.
• Si Yan and Jiang Nuo found a bound corpse dressed as a bride beside the sedan chair, and human-faced monsters emerged and dragged at the group.
• Jiang Nuo and Si Yan fought off the monsters while the others swam toward the surface, but the creatures pursued them.
• Jiang Nuo froze the water around the monsters and used a talisman to set them ablaze before swimming upward.

After surviving the river monsters, Jiang Nuo and Si Yan cleaned up and teased each other behind some rocks. Jiang Nuo then wondered whether a second soul had taken over Simazi in the tomb, and the chapter left the mystery unresolved.

• The group escaped the river monsters, and Jiang Nuo told the others he was a Daoist priest and Si Yan was the wife he had snatched.
• Jiang Nuo led Si Yan behind some rocks to change and clean off the monsters’ stench while the others stayed occupied with food.
• Jiang Nuo teased Si Yan, and the two kissed before dressing in clean clothes.
• Jiang Nuo pointed out that Simazi had stopped smoking since entering the tomb and behaved differently from the chain-smoker outside.
• Jiang Nuo and Si Yan considered whether two souls inhabited Simazi, with the tomb’s Simazi showing greater concern for A Wu and knowledge of the family’s inherited craft.

Jiang Nuo, Si Yan, and Song Zheng investigated the group’s tragic histories and suspected that something unnatural was happening to several of them. After Zhang Linsan secretly alerted Song Zheng to Old Xu and the others’ suspicious behavior, Jiang Nuo arranged for Song Zheng to carry him at the back of the group, leaving them room to talk.

• Song Zheng told Jiang Nuo and Si Yan about the group’s strange deaths, including the tragedies that befell Old Jia and Old Xu’s families.
• Jiang Nuo suggested they rest before searching underground for answers, and he gave A Wu one of the grilled fish.
• Old Xu and several others turned toward Jiang Nuo with black eyes and clawlike nails, but Zhang Linsan startled the group by waking Song Zheng.
• Jiang Nuo cast a spell toward Old Xu and the others, while Si Yan quietly agreed that something was wrong with them.
• Zhang Linsan stayed close behind Song Zheng as the group moved on, and Jiang Nuo caused him to twist his ankle so Song Zheng would carry him at the rear.

Song Zheng learned that the man disguised as Zhang Linsan was actually Zhang Lin, a police officer who had died and returned to find his older brother dead in his place. The group reached the fourth-level burial chamber, where two grave robbers died from stolen jewels embedded in their necks, and opening the enormous coffin revealed a zombie.

• Song Zheng confronted Zhang Linsan and learned that he was Zhang Lin, who had taken his dead older brother’s identity to investigate why his brother had died in his place.
• Zhang Lin said Simazi had once claimed to know who was cursed by a vengeful ghost, and that Zhang Linsan was one of the cursed people.
• Jiang Nuo and the others found the fourth-level burial chamber, where Scarface and Baldy died after jewels they had stolen from the third-level coffin appeared in their necks.
• Simazi objected to opening the enormous coffin, but the group pushed its lid open after the entrance sealed shut.
• A zombie opened its eyes inside the coffin, and Jiang Nuo began binding it with his red cord as Simazi shouted for everyone to run.