Recaps

Yang Jian warned Wang Bin’s family that his residential complex was not safe, then assessed the curse and damage left by his encounter with the fourth-stage Ghost Infant. Meanwhile, a figure escaped a crushed golden box in the hospital and walked into the darkness, leaving the city’s terror to spread.

• Yang Jian agreed to let Wang Bin’s family stay but warned them that danger would eventually reach the complex.
• Yang Jian discovered a bluish-black palm-print curse on his shoulder and decided to rest before making further plans.
• Yang Jian considered the human skin paper’s dangerous method but chose to delay using it while he recovered and prepared a safe house and escape route.
• A figure in the hospital crushed open a golden box, chewed on what appeared to be Ye Feng’s head, and put on an old burial robe.
• The figure left the hospital room as the surrounding gloom swallowed Ye Feng’s head, while Sun Yi’s corpse and a severed arm remained behind.

After the failed operation, Wang Xiaoming documented what they had learned about the Ghost Infants and their source, while Dachang City’s collapse accelerated. As Ghost Infants began appearing downtown, Yang Jian recognized that the source ghost was harvesting the city and refused Wang Xiaoming’s demand that he save everyone.

• Wang Xiaoming wrote a report describing the failed operation and the discoveries about the Ghost Infant’s stages and source ghost.
• As the haze lingered, Dachang City emptied out, and construction of Zhang Xiangui’s safe house slowed despite his efforts to keep workers on site.
• Yang Jian, Zhang Wei, and Jiang Yan played a computer game until the power failed, and Yang Jian discovered the city’s power station had gone down.
• Wang Xiaoming told Yang Jian that Ghost Infants had appeared in the downtown area, and Yang Jian concluded that the source ghost had begun harvesting the city.
• Wang Xiaoming asked Yang Jian to save the city’s residents, but Yang Jian said he could not reverse the disaster alone, and Zhang Wei called him a noob.

Yang Jian rejected Wang Xiaoming’s proposal to lure the Starvation Ghost into the safe house, but said he might attempt another direct contact if he could make dangerous preparations. After ordering Wang watched and barred from the fifth floor, Yang Jian left to handle an urgent matter.

• Wang Xiaoming offered Yang Jian rewards and a place in the Captain Plan if he resolved the Starvation Ghost Incident, but Yang Jian said he could only attempt another direct contact and needed a way to overcome the second condition.
• Yang Jian refused to use the safe house as bait and threatened to kill Wang Xiaoming if he targeted it.
• Yang Jian told Liu Xiaoyu to send two special personnel to watch Wang Xiaoming, and instructed Zhang Wei to break Wang’s leg if he tried to reach the fifth floor.
• Yang Jian received a text message, said he was going out to play Jesus, and told Jiang Yan and Zhang Wei to handle matters while he was gone.

Yang Jian drove through Dachang City, now overrun by Ghost Infants, and reached an old residential complex to investigate a reported threat. Inside an apartment, he encountered a second-stage Ghost Infant and stopped, unable to attack it safely.

• Yang Jian drove past a third-stage Ghost Infant and continued through the devastated city, reflecting on the failed operation and his weakened condition.
• Liu Xiaoyu contacted Yang Jian to say someone wanted to speak with him, while he headed to an old residential complex in the southern district.
• Yang Jian remembered the coffin nail pinning a shadow to the White Bone Tree and considered using it against the source ghost, but feared releasing an even greater threat.
• Yang Jian climbed to the fourth floor of Building Three and followed blood and signs of a struggle into an apartment.
• Yang Jian found a second-stage Ghost Infant at the entrance to a dark room and realized he could not touch it.

Yang Jian rescued Zhang Liqin from a haunted residential complex, but discovered that she bore a ghostly curse and might not survive. After the city’s spreading danger and his own bleak prospects drove him to despair, he decided to gamble against fate.

• Yang Jian knocked the second-stage Ghost Infant aside, entered the room, and found a mutilated corpse before spotting Zhang Liqin hiding on the balcony.
• Yang Jian carried Zhang Liqin out, but a female reporter’s cries drew Ghost Infants, and he drove away as they dragged her into the haze.
• Yang Jian questioned Zhang Liqin about the dead coworker and learned she had come to his home over a car contract and had earned a commission from him.
• Yang Jian showed Zhang Liqin the bluish-black curse mark on her chest and warned that the ghost would eventually find her.
• Yang Jian stopped on the expressway, despaired over the darkness ahead, then returned to the car and drove off to gamble against fate.

Yang Jian returned to Guangjiang Residential Area and warned everyone that the Ghost Infants could reach them within three days, then assigned the safe house’s limited places while refusing one for himself. He called Ghost Tamer Headquarters to arrange a conference about Dachang City’s survival, and Wang Xiaoming arrived as Jiang Yan pleaded with Yang Jian not to die.

• Zhang Xiangui reported that the workers had fled and the unfinished safe house could sustain its occupants for only ten days.
• Yang Jian told the residents that the ghostly threat would likely reach them within three days and that everyone who had breathed the haze was at risk.
• Yang Jian ordered the group to prepare for nineteen people to shelter in the safe house, reserving places for Wang Xiaoming and Jiang Yan as well as three for Ghost Tamer Headquarters, but not for himself.
• Yang Jian contacted Liu Xiaoyu and asked her to organize a telephone conference with Deputy Minister Cao Yanhua and other decision-makers at Headquarters about Dachang City’s survival.
• Jiang Yan confronted Yang Jian on the fifth floor, begged him not to die, and tried to persuade him to enter the safe house with her.
• Wang Xiaoming arrived, and Yang Jian told him the conference would leave him with nothing more to do than enter the safe house.

Yang Jian told Ghost Tamer Headquarters that resolving the Starvation Ghost Incident required him to survive a dangerous attempt and release a powerful, unknown ghost. He asked Headquarters to approve the risk, then prepared to begin his plan the next day, uncertain whether he would live.

• Zhao Jianguo organized a confidential phone conference after Yang Jian said Dachang City's survival was at stake.
• Yang Jian explained that contact with the source ghost and a way to contain it were both necessary, and that he had less than a twenty percent chance of surviving the first step.
• Yang Jian revealed that he knew a place holding a possible replacement for the lost restraining item, but getting it would mean releasing an unknown ghost that could cause an even greater disaster.
• Yang Jian gave Headquarters until six the next evening to decide whether to accept the risk of releasing the ghost.
• Yang Jian told Wang Xiaoming that he would begin the plan after Wang and the others entered the safe house, and admitted he had called Headquarters so it would share responsibility for the consequences.
• Wang Xiaoming left after wishing Yang Jian success, and Yang Jian watched the darkening sky, wondering whether he would see the world again.

Yang Jian left the safe room and prepared a dangerous experiment at Zhang Wei's former home, using the Ghost Rope and Ghost Mirror in an attempt to survive by becoming a vicious ghost. The chapter ended as he uncovered the mirror and began the experiment.

• Yang Jian entrusted the human-skin paper to Zhang Wei and told him to give it to Wang Xiaoming if Yang Jian did not return by the ninth day.
• Yang Jian drove to Zhang Wei's home with the Ghost Rope and Ghost Mirror, while the people left outside the safe room watched him go.
• Yang Jian set up a phone so Wang Xiaoming could observe, then prepared the Ghost Rope around his neck and positioned himself before the covered Ghost Mirror.
• Liu Xiaoyu told Yang Jian that the operation had been approved and that the state would bear the consequences; Yang Jian told her not to contact him again unless he initiated it.
• Yang Jian counted down, pulled away the cloth covering the Ghost Mirror, and began the terrifying experiment.

Yang Jian used the Ghost Mirror, the headless ghost shadow, and the Ghost Rope in a risky plan that left him apparently dead. As Wang Xiaoming watched, the Ghost Mirror began forcibly separating the shadow from Yang Jian’s corpse, setting the struggle between the ghosts in motion.

• Yang Jian prepared the Ghost Mirror, let the headless ghost shadow enter his body, and removed the gold foil from the Ghost Rope as Wang Xiaoming watched remotely.
• A matching figure emerged inside the Ghost Mirror and imitated Yang Jian as the rope strangled him and his body lost its vital signs.
• Wang Xiaoming watched for hours and concluded that Yang Jian had died, while the ghost shadow and Ghost Rope remained locked in a hidden struggle over his corpse.
• Three hours after Yang Jian was hanged, the Ghost Mirror began expelling the headless ghost shadow from his corpse, and Wang Xiaoming noticed a slight movement.

Wang Xiaoming watched Yang Jian’s corpse begin to move as black shadow fluid spread from it, and he realized Yang Jian was using the ghost rope, ghost shadow, and ghost mirror to force the ghosts into conflict. The phone died just as Yang Jian’s corpse was sucked onto the mirror, leaving his planned return from death uncertain.

• Wang Shanshan collapsed at home, and Wang Haiyan discovered that her heart had stopped; Wang Bin considered calling Yang Jian but remembered his daughter’s warning that she would die if Yang Jian died.
• Wang Xiaoming saw Yang Jian’s corpse sway as black fluid dripped from it and spread across the floor.
• Yang Jian’s swaying corpse touched the ghost mirror, and its feet stuck to the surface while the rope held it in place.
• Wang Xiaoming realized Yang Jian was trying to create a conflict between ghosts and wondered whether the dead could be revived.
• The black shadow overcame the ghost rope, which fell away, and Yang Jian’s corpse was sucked onto the ghost mirror.
• Wang Xiaoming’s phone ran out of battery, cutting off the video before he could see whether Yang Jian returned from death.

Yang Jian’s corpse became the medium in a struggle between the ghost shadow and the ghosts inside the ghost mirror, while Wang Xiaoming considered the significance of Yang Jian’s method. The chapter ended with the human skin paper quietly waiting for another chance after Zhang Wei found its box had briefly opened.

• The ghost shadow and the ghosts inside the mirror fought over Yang Jian’s corpse, alternately pulling it toward and away from the mirror.
• Wang Xiaoming reflected that Yang Jian’s actions resembled his research into the second stage of the ghost coffin and could reveal a new way to control evil ghosts.
• Jiang Yan worried about Yang Jian, while Zhang Wei tried to comfort her and was slapped by her and Zhang Xiangui.
• Zhang Wei discovered that the golden box had opened and its lock and gold foil were damaged, exposing the human skin paper.
• The human skin paper wrote that Yang Jian was about to succeed and lamented that it had missed an opportunity, then fell silent again.

After seven days of conflict between the Headless Ghost Shadow and the ghost mirror, Yang Jian revived, but only his head returned to life inside the mirror. He pulled free with his head turned backward and an unnaturally jointed body, leaving his condition uncertain.

• For six days, the Headless Ghost Shadow and the ghost mirror struggled over Yang Jian's corpse, and the mirror began reversing the body's decay.
• The Ghost Eye's red light drove the mirror's ghosts away, but on the seventh day it went dark, and Yang Jian's head was drawn into the mirror as the two supernatural forces fell silent.
• Yang Jian revived inside the mirror, and the hand reaching for his face was snapped apart by a hand that reached in from outside.
• Yang Jian pulled his head out of the mirror, found it facing backward, and stood up without pain despite his body moving with dislocated joints.

Seven days after Yang Jian disappeared, Dachang City continued to collapse while the headquarters considered abandoning it. Yang Jian revived and returned to Guangjiang Residential Area, where Wang Bin set out carrying his daughter’s corpse to cremate it.

• The headquarters learned that Yang Jian had made no contact and discussed the dwindling supplies in Wang Xiaoming’s safe house and the worsening crisis in Dachang City.
• Yang Jian revived beside the ghost mirror with half his body still ghostly, forced his head back into place, and removed the ghost rope from his neck.
• Yang Jian covered the ghost mirror, drove back toward Guangjiang Residential Area, and decided to check on the people he had left there before continuing his plan.
• Wang Bin decided to cremate Wang Shanshan’s corpse despite Wang Haiyan’s fears, then carried the body out with a candle to find the prepared diesel.

After returning to Guangjiang Residential Area, Yang Jian found Zhang Liqin alive and used his Ghost Domain to survey the area. He contacted Headquarters for the first time in seven days, prompting preparations for a rescue operation, then set out to test his new power against two Ghost Infants.

• Yang Jian returned to Guangjiang Residential Area, secured the Ghost Mirror, and discovered that his corpse-like condition had not improved.
• Yang Jian found Zhang Liqin hiding in the building and promised to clear the surrounding ghosts.
• Yang Jian expanded his Ghost Domain across the residential area and sensed numerous ghosts nearby.
• Yang Jian called Headquarters and announced that he was officially online, prompting Liu Xiaoyu to alert the organization.
• Cao Yanhua ordered an emergency meeting and preparations for the second phase of the plan and a rescue operation.
• Yang Jian spotted Wang Bin carrying Wang Shanshan and vanished from a rooftop to confront two approaching third-stage Ghost Infants.

Yang Jian rescued Wang Bin from two Ghost Infants and discovered he could erase spawned ghosts by using the Ghost Shadow to disperse the power sustaining them. He cleared Guangjiang Residential Area of Ghost Infants but decided to focus on the source ghost in Dachang City.

• Wang Bin carried Wang Shanshan's corpse down the stairs and found Ghost Infants approaching from both directions.
• Yang Jian appeared behind Wang Bin, moved him and the Ghost Infants to an open road, and attacked one of the creatures.
• Yang Jian used the Ghost Shadow's power to disperse the Ghost Infant's sustaining power, causing it to vanish, then eliminated a second one the same way.
• Yang Jian summoned the Ghost Infants across Guangjiang Residential Area and erased them all with the Ghost Shadow.
• Yang Jian decided not to keep clearing spawned Ghost Infants and chose to confront the source ghost instead.

Yang Jian revived Wang Shanshan by restoring some of the Ghost Eye’s power, and she revealed that the source ghost was at Seventh Middle School. He entered the school to retrieve the coffin nail, rejecting Wang Xiaoming’s plan to use Zhang Han as bait.

• Yang Jian found Wang Shanshan’s body and restored the Ghost Eye mark on her wrist, causing her to wake up.
• Wang Shanshan told Yang Jian that the ghost was at the entrance to Seventh Middle School, and he realized Ye Feng’s message had referred to the school.
• Yang Jian traveled to Seventh Middle School and found its haze suppressing his Ghost Domain.
• Wang Xiaoming proposed using Zhang Han as bait while Yang Jian retrieved the coffin nail, but Yang Jian rejected the plan and warned him to prepare a heavy gold coffin.
• Yang Jian ended the call and entered Seventh Middle School, where the haze closed around him.

Yang Jian searched the campus for a coffin nail but realized the Door-Knocking Ghost’s Ghost Domain had shifted to the city center. After receiving warnings that Zhao Kaiming was nearby, he was startled when an unknown figure entered his Ghost Domain.

• At the command center, Cao Yanhua and Zhao Jianguo discussed Yang Jian’s decision to reject Professor Wang’s plan and inspected the golden coffin prepared for the Starvation Ghost.
• The communications officer reported that Yang Jian’s phone had detected Zhao Kaiming, prompting Cao Yanhua to review Zhao Kaiming’s file and warn Yang Jian to be careful.
• Yang Jian crossed the campus through his Ghost Domain, avoiding the thousands of Ghost Infants surrounding him.
• At the school toilet, Yang Jian realized the Door-Knocking Ghost’s Ghost Domain had moved near the pedestrian street, so he decided to return there to find the strange space and retrieve the coffin nail.
• Yang Jian received messages warning him that there was an inside man and Zhao Kaiming was nearby, then an unknown figure entered his Ghost Domain through the toilet door.

Yang Jian confronted Zhao Kaiming, who revealed that an invisible ghost had directed him to cultivate the Ghost Infant and gather ghostly fragments for its revival. After their fight ended in a stalemate, Yang Jian spotted the source ghost and fled to retrieve the coffin nail, while Zhao Kaiming secretly planned to use Yang Jian against both ghosts.

• Zhao Kaiming entered Yang Jian's Ghost Domain and explained that an invisible ghost inside him had guided his plan to gather ghostly parts through the Ghost Infant.
• Zhao Kaiming attacked Yang Jian, but Yang Jian tore off his limbs and head, only for the invisible ghost to restore his body each time.
• Yang Jian saw the source ghost approach the school and realized it had spotted him through his Ghost Domain.
• Yang Jian threw Zhao Kaiming's head toward the source ghost and escaped through his Ghost Domain to retrieve the coffin nail.
• Zhao Kaiming planned to let the invisible ghost revive his family, then use Yang Jian to contain both ghosts and free himself from them.

Yang Jian traced the route from No. 7 High School to a hidden basement beneath Hongfa Temple and entered the sealed space to retrieve the coffin nail. He removed the nail pinning a towering black ghost to a White Bone Tree, leaving the creature free.

• Yang Jian used his Ghost Domain to reconstruct No. 7 High School and locate the corresponding site at Hongfa Temple.
• Yang Jian found a hidden basement beneath the temple, where a gold-covered wooden door concealed the place he had visited before.
• A bald temple master warned Yang Jian that opening the door would release something terrifying, but let him proceed after Yang Jian said he needed the coffin nail to save Dachang City.
• Yang Jian entered the dark space, photographed the black figure pinned to a White Bone Tree, and wrapped the coffin nail in gold foil.
• Yang Jian pulled the coffin nail from the figure's chest.

Yang Jian returned to Seventh High School with the coffin nail and found Zhao Kaiming’s message saying his plan had succeeded. As an invisible ghost eroded Yang Jian’s Ghost Domain, he concealed the nail and used himself as bait, unaware that the approaching figure was Zhou Zheng.

• Yang Jian took the coffin nail from the hidden room, warned the bald master to flee, and returned to Seventh High School within ten minutes.
• Yang Jian found the campus empty of Ghost Infants and discovered Zhao Kaiming’s recorded message saying his plan had succeeded.
• Footsteps appeared in the corridor, but Yang Jian could see only black footprints as an invisible ghost began eroding his Ghost Domain.
• Yang Jian shrank his Ghost Domain and waited with the coffin nail, then wrapped the nail in gold foil and reduced his Domain further to tempt the ghost into range.
• A figure in an old burial garment stood less than two meters behind Yang Jian; it was Zhou Zheng, the Ghost Tamer killed by the Ghost Infant.

Yang Jian fought a source ghost that used footsteps as bait and appeared in Zhou Zheng's form, but the confrontation abruptly vanished. He discovered that time had returned to forty minutes earlier, just as a recording from Zhao Kaiming warned that his plan had succeeded and the ghost was in the school.

• Yang Jian waited in the impenetrable gloom as empty leather shoes circled him, and he realized the footsteps were bait without knowing the source ghost was close behind him.
• A blackish-green hand seized Yang Jian, and he opened his Ghost Domain, revealing the source ghost in Zhou Zheng's form.
• The ghost pinned Yang Jian's wrist with a dried-up finger and tried to bite his head, but the Ghost Rope held it back while the Headless Ghost Shadow raised the coffin nail to attack.
• Yang Jian's consciousness blurred, and the ghost, his injuries, and the surrounding gloom disappeared as his Ghost Domain returned to full strength.
• Yang Jian heard Zhao Kaiming's recording, checked the satellite positioning phone, and found that time had returned to forty minutes earlier.

Yang Jian learned that the source ghost had reset time by forty minutes, undoing his nearly successful plan while leaving his memories intact. He accepted Wang Xiaoming’s long-range sniping strategy and took position outside Seventh High School, preparing to use his Ghost Eye and the coffin nail to kill the ghost.

• Yang Jian told Wang Xiaoming that the source ghost had reset time and erased the progress of their operation.
• Wang Xiaoming concluded that Zhang Han could not be used as bait and proposed using Yang Jian’s Ghost Eye to fire the coffin nail at the ghost from beyond the reset’s range.
• Yang Jian accepted the plan, left Seventh High School, and climbed a communications tower more than a thousand meters away.
• Yang Jian used his Ghost Eye to look through the haze and reasoned that the source ghost was still inside the school.
• Yang Jian began releasing the Ghost Shadow to suppress the Ghost Eye’s revival as he prepared to locate and snipe the source ghost.

Yang Jian stacked three Ghost Eye Ghost Domains to pierce the haze and locate the Starvation Ghost Incident’s ghost in Seventh Middle School. He pinned it with the coffin nail from over a thousand meters away, ending the incident as the haze dispersed.

• Yang Jian covered himself with the Ghost Shadow and compressed his Ghost Domain, but its red light could not penetrate the haze around Seventh Middle School.
• Yang Jian opened successive Ghost Domains through stacked Ghost Eyes, allowing the red beam to pierce the haze and reveal the school.
• Yang Jian searched the campus with the beam and found Zhou Zheng’s motionless body in the north gate guardroom, with the Starvation Ghost inside it.
• Yang Jian sent the coffin nail into the ghost’s forehead from over a thousand meters away, and its body collapsed like an ordinary corpse.
• The haze over Dachang City rapidly dispersed, ending the Starvation Ghost Incident.

As the gloom over Dachang City receded, Ghost Tamer Headquarters sent Zhao Jianguo and a team of Ghost Tamers to support Yang Jian and contain the restrained Starvation Ghost. Yang Jian kept watch at Seventh High School, heard Zhao Kaiming warn him about the dangers of becoming a hero, and waited as the team began securing the corpse.

• Wang Xiaoming reported that the gloom was dissipating because Yang Jian had restrained the source ghost, and Cao Yanhua ordered an advance team into Dachang City.
• Zhao Jianguo and Li Jun led Ghost Tamers and special operations personnel through the city, with Zhao Jianguo heading toward Yang Jian and Li Jun sent to retrieve Professor Wang.
• Yang Jian guarded the motionless Starvation Ghost corpse at Seventh High School and decided not to take its coffin nail or burial shroud.
• Zhao Kaiming appeared before Yang Jian, warned him that his success would make him a target, and vanished as an illusion.
• Zhao Jianguo arrived with Ghost Tamers and ordered his team to contain the Starvation Ghost in a heavy metal box.

Yang Jian handed the restrained Starvation Ghost over to the authorities and warned them that it was far more dangerous than they understood. He returned to the residential complex to check that Wang Xiaoming had not taken the Ghost Mirror, then reunited with Jiang Yan as Dachang City was declared safe.

• Yang Jian warned Zhao Jianguo and the other Ghost Tamers not to experiment on the Starvation Ghost and said that if it escaped, they would all die.
• Zhao Jianguo ordered the corpse sealed in a gold box, welded shut, and transported under heavy guard while the team inspected Dachang City.
• Yang Jian left No. 7 High School and used his Ghost Domain to return to the residential complex, worried Wang Xiaoming might take the Ghost Mirror.
• Li Jun thanked Yang Jian for saving Dachang City, and Jiang Yan ran over to greet him.
• Yang Jian told Jiang Yan to wash up and said Dachang City was safe, since the Starvation Ghost had also resolved the other supernatural incidents.