Recaps

Yang Jian left the Ping An Hotel and went to the Ping An Building in J City to visit his mother, Zhang Fen, who worked there under Headquarters’ protection. After he entered the heavily guarded building, staff noticed the headless shadow accompanying him.

• Yang Jian left the hotel and reflected that ghost resurgence could only be delayed, not solved.
• Yang Jian took a taxi to the Ping An Building, believing J City’s crowded streets showed that people were seeking safety from supernatural incidents.
• Yang Jian showed his identification to the guards, obtained a temporary pass, and entered the building.
• Yang Jian asked the customer service woman to direct him to his mother, Zhang Fen, who was working on the twentieth floor.
• After Yang Jian entered the elevator, the customer service woman and her colleague saw his headless shadow and recognized it as a ghost.

Yang Jian was taken to the top floor of Ping An Building, where Li Yao tried to recruit him by warning that the Captain Plan could leave him vulnerable to its new rules. He rejected her confidence in the earliest Ghost Tamers and left the conversation convinced that far worse supernatural dangers were still emerging.

• Yang Jian noticed the elevator had been deliberately sent to the hundredth floor and called out whoever had arranged it.
• Li Yao introduced herself as an assistant at Ping An Building and said she had arranged the meeting because she wanted to speak with him.
• Li Yao told Yang Jian that only two Captain Plan positions might remain and that he was unlikely to be selected, despite being nominated.
• Li Yao urged Yang Jian to join her group, warning that the new rules could let others remove him from his position in Dachang City.
• Yang Jian challenged Li Yao's claim that the earliest Ghost Tamers no longer feared the supernatural and recalled numerous hidden dangers that had yet to emerge.

Yang Jian rejected Li Yao’s attempt to recruit him, and her group decided to consider eliminating him if he became a captain. He then visited his mother, Zhang Fen, and found her working safely at the company.

• Yang Jian argued with Li Yao, refused to join her organization, and left the meeting.
• After Yang Jian departed, Li Yao and the people hidden in a Ghost Domain discussed recruiting Feng Quan and agreed to eliminate Yang Jian if he became a captain.
• Li Yao’s group assessed Yang Jian as a potential threat, noting that Zhao Jianguo and Professor Wang supported his candidacy for captain.
• Yang Jian found his mother, Zhang Fen, working at the company and saw that she was being well cared for.
• The manager let Zhang Fen take the day off so she could spend time with Yang Jian.

Yang Jian visited Zhang Fen at her workplace in J City, concealed the truth about his situation, and arranged for her eventual return to Dachang City. After he left, Li Yao encountered an apparently deserted road and suspected she had been caught in the Fierce Ghost Road supernatural incident.

• Yang Jian told Zhang Fen that he had started a company and was in J City seeking investment, while she refused to quit her secure job.
• Yang Jian asked the Ping An Building manager to arrange an excuse to fire Zhang Fen so he could take her back to Dachang City later.
• Yang Jian left Ping An Building and waited at a nearby restaurant, intending to carry out another objective.
• Li Yao drove home from work and realized that the roads had grown unnaturally empty and seemed much longer than usual.
• Li Yao stopped her car, found herself alone on the road, and sent a distress signal as she suspected the Fierce Ghost Road incident.

Li Yao became trapped on a deserted highway in Yang Jian's Ghost Domain and believed a ghost was closing in on her. Yang Jian revealed himself and told her he would change her memories and make her a loyal employee.

• Li Yao found that her car had vanished and fled barefoot down the silent highway.
• Li Yao encountered a darkened road and a figure reading a bloodstained newspaper beneath a streetlamp.
• Yang Jian lowered the newspaper and asked Li Yao whether she had eaten, revealing that he had created the scene in his Ghost Domain.
• Li Yao demanded to leave, but Yang Jian said he wanted her to work for him because she knew J City's situation.
• Yang Jian told Li Yao he would change her memories and make her utterly loyal to him.

Yang Jian used the bloodstained newspaper in his Ghost Domain to overpower Li Yao and erase her memories. He decided to implant love and loyalty toward himself, leaving Li Yao unconscious as he began altering her past.

• Li Yao realized Yang Jian might have gained the memory-altering ability from the ghost involved in the Z City incident.
• Yang Jian revealed that Li Yao's phone and surroundings were illusions within his Ghost Domain, and her phone appeared as a slipper.
• Li Yao threatened Yang Jian and his family, but he explained that she had already lost by failing to strike first.
• Yang Jian covered Li Yao's face with the bloodstained newspaper, which took her face and memories without killing her.
• Yang Jian chose to erase Li Yao's memories after eight o'clock and implant lasting love, trust, and loyalty toward him.

Yang Jian tested whether his altered memories had changed Li Yao’s loyalties and confirmed that she believed she loved him. After Li Yao reassured her organization that Yang Jian would stay neutral, he decided to use her to learn about the group and J City.

• Li Yao woke beside Yang Jian and recalled their meeting, believing that she had pursued him because she loved him.
• Li Yao warned Yang Jian that the group would eliminate him if he refused to join them and became a candidate for the Captain Plan.
• Li Yao offered to work for Yang Jian if he made her his girlfriend, and he recognized that her altered memories had taken hold.
• When her organization questioned her absence, Li Yao claimed that Yang Jian had agreed to remain neutral and that they had settled their misunderstanding.
• Yang Jian confirmed that Li Yao’s organization had not suspected the memory alteration and decided to get information about the group and J City from her.

Li Yao explained how the capitalist organization called the Circle of Friends gained influence and why it might target Yang Jian over the Captain Plan. Yang Jian left for a seven-day training session, while Li Yao promised to watch over his mother and keep him informed about the group.

• Li Yao told Yang Jian that wealthy investors had funded early supernatural research and formed the Circle of Friends, which was now competing for Captain Plan slots.
• Li Yao explained that Yang Jian had been nominated after resolving an S-class supernatural incident and might become a compromise candidate, making him a target for the Circle of Friends.
• Yang Jian told Li Yao to monitor the group and gather information on its Ghost Tamers, and she agreed to warn him of any danger.
• Zhang Lei arrived to remind Yang Jian about training, saw Li Yao in his room, and waited downstairs while Yang Jian prepared to leave.
• Yang Jian asked Li Yao to protect his mother and conceal their relationship, then left for training as Li Yao happily hummed behind him.

Yang Jian told Zhang Lei that a coffin nail from the Starvation Ghost Incident could suppress the ghost inside him, but obtaining one would be difficult. Zhang Lei recalled another coffin nail in a graveyard he had seen through a ghost’s memories, and Yang Jian recognized the place as a location near the supernatural bus route.

• Yang Jian rode to the training with Zhang Lei, who asked him for a way to stop his ghost from reviving.
• Yang Jian explained that Zhang Lei would need a coffin nail like the one he had used to immobilize the Starvation Ghost in Dachang City.
• Zhang Lei recognized the nail and recalled seeing one in a ghost’s memories, though he could not identify the location.
• Zhang Lei described a dark graveyard with a broken gate and a coffin nail driven into a wooden post beside it.
• Yang Jian connected Zhang Lei’s description to a graveyard he had passed while riding the supernatural bus.

Yang Jian met Wang Xiaoming to seek a solution to his worsening physical condition and ghost revival. Wang Xiaoming suspected an unknown presence had manipulated Yang Jian’s resurrection and proposed turning him into a conscious ghost, but revealed that the ghost coffin experiment had failed.

• Yang Jian warned Zhang Lei to keep the coffin nail secret, then left with Shen Liang to meet Wang Xiaoming.
• Wang Xiaoming deduced that Yang Jian’s body was deteriorating and probed him about an unknown presence that might have arranged his resurrection.
• Wang Xiaoming argued that Yang Jian had been used and warned that the presence’s solution to his worsening condition would fail.
• Wang Xiaoming said he had planned to turn Ghost Tamers into conscious ghosts using the ghost coffin, but the experiment had failed.

Wang Xiaoming explained how Yang Jian’s suicide ritual had left one of the ghosts in his body dormant, then offered to help solve Yang Jian’s remaining problem in exchange for “it.” He revealed that the ghost bred in the Ghost Coffin had been crashed and fashioned into a coffin nail, leaving Yang Jian to question the origins of supernatural objects.

• Zhao Jianguo questioned Li Jun about Wang Xiaoming’s intentions and warned that the Captain Plan risked losing capable Ghost Tamers.
• Wang Xiaoming explained that his Ghost Coffin experiment had created a ghost rather than a Fierce Ghost-transformed human.
• Yang Jian decided to leave, but Wang Xiaoming claimed he could solve Yang Jian’s problem by exploiting the dormant state caused by Yang Jian’s suicide ritual.
• Wang Xiaoming offered Yang Jian a deal: he wanted “it” and would provide a new plan and a coffin nail-like object in return.
• Wang Xiaoming revealed that the object was the crashed ghost bred in the Ghost Coffin, prompting Yang Jian to wonder whether other supernatural objects were also ghosts.

Yang Jian weighed Wang Xiaoming’s offer to trade for the human skin paper as he headed to the training base, wary of both it and the Ghost Cabinet. Zhao Jianguo led him to Professor Bai’s lecture, where Yang Jian recognized that the professor was using ancient ghost legends to explain current supernatural events and calm the public.

• Wang Xiaoming said Yang Jian would eventually accept his offer and told Li Jun to let him complete the seven days of training before revisiting the matter.
• Yang Jian considered Wang Xiaoming’s offer, the human skin paper’s hidden traps, and the Ghost Cabinet’s demands, concluding that both options carried danger.
• Zhao Jianguo met Yang Jian on the road, explained that he had been dismissed rather than executed, and took him to the training base’s first class.
• Yang Jian entered Professor Bai’s lecture and learned from Zhang Lei that Bai Xuewen was a respected scholar who had translated Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.
• Yang Jian concluded that Professor Bai was using historical records and folk legends about ghosts to explain current supernatural incidents and ease public fear.

Yang Jian listened as Professor Bai argued that historical accounts of ghosts and the ancient City God could help explain paranormal incidents and city supervisors to the public. He silenced a heckler so Professor Bai could continue his lecture.

• Yang Jian understood that Headquarters wanted to use history to create a reassuring explanation for paranormal incidents.
• Professor Bai presented historical ghost stories as evidence that ghosts had long been recorded, but one trainee angrily objected that those stories did not match real ghosts.
• Professor Bai compared city supervisors to the ancient City God, prompting the trainee to mock the idea and argue with Zhang Lei.
• Yang Jian defended Professor Bai’s lecture and threatened the heckler, who recognized Ghost Eye Yang Jian and fell silent.
• Professor Bai thanked Yang Jian and resumed his lecture.

Professor Bai used images of pharaohs’ coffins to suggest that ancient mausoleums might have been built to imprison ghosts. At Wang Xiaoming’s experimental facility, he and Li Jun discovered that the ghost in the ghost coffin might have completed its gestation and was now inside the laboratory, where they faced it trapped.

• Professor Bai showed the listeners images of pharaohs’ coffins and suggested they might have been made to imprison ghosts.
• Wang Xiaoming ordered the ghost coffin sealed away after abandoning his experiment to turn people into ghosts, and Li Jun agreed to arrange its transfer.
• Wang Xiaoming noticed that the coffin lid had shifted and reasoned that the ghost inside might have completed its gestation and opened the coffin from within.
• Li Jun ordered an evacuation, but Wang Xiaoming realized the ghost was already in the laboratory, where staff stood motionless and lifeless.
• Li Jun lit a red ghost candle and tried to escape with Wang Xiaoming, but the candle burned rapidly as Wang Xiaoming insisted they seal the laboratory and contain the ghost.

Yang Jian weighed the risks of using the Human Skin Paper and the Ghost Cabinet to address his approaching ghost revival, then devised a plan to have the Ghost Cabinet revise a survival plan from the Human Skin Paper. As he opened the golden box, a strange darkness spread through the training base and the paper abruptly wrote “Ghost!”

• Yang Jian practiced shooting while considering his and Zhang Lei’s limited time before their ghosts revived.
• Yang Jian rejected relying on the Human Skin Paper’s survival plan alone and considered using the Ghost Cabinet to solve his problem.
• Yang Jian decided to ask the Human Skin Paper for the Mummified Bride’s location, then use the Ghost Cabinet to revise a survival plan at a manageable cost.
• Darkness spread through the training base, extinguishing lights and unsettling the Ghost Tamers as the shooting range grew cold.
• The Human Skin Paper erased its usual message and wrote “Ghost!” while Yang Jian felt the Ghost Eye inside him grow restless.

Wang Xiaoming and Li Jun escaped the laboratory, but Wang Xiaoming feared the released ghost was heading for the nearby training base. At the base, Yang Jian sensed a supernatural darkness and found a pair of strange hands tugging at his human skin paper.

• Wang Xiaoming condemned Li Jun for rescuing him, but Li Jun argued that Wang’s research was essential to humanity’s future.
• Li Jun suspected someone had released the ghost from the Ghost Coffin, and Wang Xiaoming concluded it had waited for them to leave the laboratory.
• Wang Xiaoming warned that the ghost might have reached the training base and ordered Headquarters to evacuate people and hold an emergency meeting.
• Yang Jian noticed the shooting range darkening despite the searchlights still glowing faintly.
• A pair of cold, stiff hands appeared on Yang Jian’s human skin paper and tried to pull it from him.

Yang Jian fought off an unknown ghost that tried to take the human skin paper, but it escaped with his Ghost Rope. After another attack struck the training base, Liu Xiaoyu warned him that a ghost had infiltrated the area, leaving Yang Jian to face the danger threatening the other Ghost Tamers.

• Yang Jian used his Ghost Eye and Headless Ghost Shadow against the stiff hands reaching for the human skin paper, but neither could stop them.
• Yang Jian released the Ghost Rope, which weakened the unknown ghost and forced it to let go of the paper, though it took the rope away as it retreated.
• Yang Jian suspected Wang Xiaoming had arranged the attack, but a scream from the dormitory made him realize the ghost was attacking others too.
• Liu Xiaoyu contacted Yang Jian by satellite phone and warned him to flee because a ghost had entered the training base.

Yang Jian realized that the escaped ghost from Wang Xiaoming's laboratory had attacked the training base and began trying to escape. As the other Ghost Tamers gathered to flee, the ghost appeared on the rooftop and caught one of them with Yang Jian's old straw rope.

• Yang Jian learned from Liu Xiaoyu that a dangerous ghost had escaped from Wang Xiaoming's laboratory, and he suspected it was the Ghost Coffin ghost that could suppress and absorb other ghosts.
• Yang Jian concluded the ghost had already begun killing Ghost Tamers and headed for the training base exit with his travel bag.
• Wang Jiang and Zhang Lei learned that Headquarters had ordered an evacuation, and Zhang Lei gathered the Ghost Tamers to flee together.
• The Ghost Tamers heard footsteps on the rooftop and began running, while one jumped from the fifth floor to escape.
• An old straw rope dropped from the rooftop, looped around the jumping Ghost Tamer's neck, and began dragging him upward as he pleaded for help.

Yang Jian tried to escape the training base, but every route led him back, so he used increasingly powerful layers of his Ghost Domain. He discovered that the barrier trapping him was the lid of the Ghost Coffin, meaning he was inside it.

• Yang Jian returned to the training base gates after trying to leave and concluded that a ghost was trapping him there.
• Yang Jian lit a Ghost Candle and walked onward, but it did not help him escape, so he extinguished it.
• Yang Jian opened the first, second, and third layers of his Ghost Domain, but a black wall blocked his path.
• Yang Jian opened the fourth layer despite the strain on his body and saw that the wall was an old wooden board resembling a coffin lid.
• Yang Jian realized that he was inside the Ghost Coffin.

Yang Jian discovered that the darkness at the training base was connected to the Ghost Coffin and prepared to survive by protecting the other Ghost Tamers. At Headquarters, Wang Xiaoming revealed that Wei Jing had become a ghost with the Ghost Coffin’s ability to suppress and absorb other ghosts, and the ghost had already begun growing stronger.

• Yang Jian found the Ghost Coffin at the edge of the darkness and suspected it was itself the ghost responsible for the training base incident.
• Yang Jian asked Liu Xiaoyu to check whether the Ghost Coffin remained in the laboratory and arranged for Li Yao to return his mother to Dachang City.
• Yang Jian headed toward the dormitory building to gather the Ghost Tamers and prevent the ghost from growing stronger through their deaths.
• Wang Xiaoming told Headquarters that his experiment on Wei Jing had failed and that Wei Jing had become a ghost invading the training base.
• Wang Xiaoming revealed that the ghost could suppress three ghosts in a Ghost Tamer and increase that limit by killing Ghost Tamers and taking their ghosts.
• The meeting fell silent when Wang Xiaoming warned that the ghost had likely already killed someone and begun to grow stronger.

At Headquarters, Wang Xiaoming classified the growing supernatural incident as the S-class Ghost Messenger and rejected a plan that risked releasing the Starvation Ghost. When Yang Jian asked for help from the training base, Wang Xiaoming agreed to investigate the ghost coffin, which might offer Yang Jian a way to survive.

• Feng Quan explained that the Ghost Coffin ghost required at least three ghosts in a room to satisfy its killing rule and would return after being contained, repeatedly attacking survivors.
• Jiang Shangbai proposed using the coffin nail against the ghost, but Wang Xiaoming refused because it could trigger another S-class incident by freeing the Starvation Ghost.
• Wang Xiaoming warned that the ghost might possess some of Wei Jing's intelligence and classified the incident as S-class under the codename Ghost Messenger.
• Liu Xiaoyu reported that Yang Jian was trapped at the training base, and Wang Xiaoming chose to help him despite Jiang Shangbai arguing that rescue was futile.
• Yang Jian asked Wang Xiaoming to investigate the ghost coffin's current state, and Wang Xiaoming agreed.

Yang Jian entered the ghost’s dark domain to gather the scattered Ghost Tamers before the fierce ghost could kill them all. After finding Huang Ziya and discovering a victim’s remains beneath the dormitory, he hurried upstairs, racing against the ghost’s growing threat.

• Yang Jian decided to avoid confronting the fierce ghost directly and searched the area around the dormitory for other Ghost Tamers.
• Yang Jian found Huang Ziya near the dormitory, brought her along, and told her to help contact Headquarters to locate the others.
• Yang Jian found blood and corpse fragments beneath the dormitory and realized a Ghost Tamer had already been killed.
• Yang Jian led Huang Ziya up the dark stairwell, saving his nearly unused Ghost Candle for a critical moment.

Yang Jian searched the dormitory building for surviving Ghost Tamers and gathered Huang Ziya and another man, while other survivors tried to regroup in the darkness. The chapter ended when Zhang Lei found a cold, stiff hand blocking the way and warned his group that the ghost was ahead.

• Yang Jian searched the dorm rooms and found a frightened Ghost Tamer hiding alone, then led him out after explaining that the ghost targeted isolated people.
• Huang Ziya told Yang Jian that Qian Yi was heading back from the first floor, and Yang Jian arranged to meet him at another emergency stairwell.
• Zhang Lei and Wang Jiang discussed how the group had become separated and decided to search the floors before leaving together.
• Wang Jiang received a Headquarters message that Yang Jian was alive and leading people up from the first floor, so Zhang Lei headed toward the emergency stairwell to meet him.
• Zhang Lei touched a cold, stiff hand in the darkness and told the others to retreat because the ghost was ahead.

After the group encountered the ghost on the fourth floor, panic scattered them through the dark dormitory. Zhang Lei realized they had been safe together because their combined ghosts could suppress it, but another Ghost Tamer was killed, and Yang Jian saw blood dripping from the fourth floor.

• Zhang Lei and the others fled after he warned them that the ghost was ahead, scattering through the dark corridors.
• Zhang Lei realized their group had possessed six ghosts between them, enough to suppress the ghost’s five, and regretted splitting up.
• A lone Ghost Tamer was seized by the ghost, which tore a ghost from his body and killed him.
• The ghost gained a sixth ghost and headed toward the right stairwell.
• Yang Jian saw blood dripping from the balcony corridor on the second floor and realized another Ghost Tamer had died.

Yang Jian learned that Qian Yi had lured them into the dormitory building as bait before fleeing, while Zhang Lei’s group had been scattered after encountering the ghost. After meeting the escaping Wang Jiang on the third floor, Yang Jian led his group back upstairs to find the others and improve their chances of survival.

• Huang Ziya reported that Headquarters had located Qian Yi fleeing toward the training base entrance, and Yang Jian realized Qian Yi had used them as bait.
• Yang Jian condemned Qian Yi and warned that he would kill him if the ghost did not.
• On the third floor, Yang Jian stopped Wang Jiang, who had fled alone after Zhang Lei led their group into an encounter with the ghost.
• Wang Jiang told Yang Jian that Zhang Lei and the other Ghost Tamers had disappeared during their retreat.
• Yang Jian persuaded Wang Jiang and the others to return to the fourth floor with him to search for Zhang Lei and the remaining Ghost Tamers.