Chapter Summaries

Yang Jian tested whether the Ghost Cabinet could trade goods, offering dog blood in exchange for egg fried rice. The cabinet fulfilled the bargain and then asked him to move it outside.

• Yang Jian asked the Ghost Cabinet to help him find Zhao Lei, but it demanded his Ghost Eye in exchange for Zhao Lei.
• Yang Jian changed his request to a bowl of egg fried rice, and the cabinet demanded a bowl of blood.
• Yang Jian decided to test the deal with animal blood and used a bowl of dog blood from a wolfdog in the residential complex.
• The Ghost Cabinet took the dog blood and produced a steaming bowl of egg fried rice in its lower compartment.
• Yang Jian found a note beneath the rice asking him to move the cabinet outside.

Yang Jian tested what would happen if he refused the Ghost Cabinet’s demand to move it out, and discovered that ignoring it caused escalating supernatural changes. After moving it outside, he concluded that its transactions could continue endlessly, with humans ultimately bearing the greater cost.

• Yang Jian refused to move the Ghost Cabinet and watched it as fifteen minutes passed without incident.
• After another fifteen minutes, blackish blood poured from the cabinet, and a swollen female corpse began emerging from its lower compartment.
• Yang Jian used his Ghost Domain to move the Ghost Cabinet out of the old residence, causing the blood and the emerging corpse to disappear.
• Yang Jian found wet traces and black hair inside the cabinet, confirming that the corpse had been real, then considered how the cabinet’s demands and conditions worked.
• Yang Jian concluded that making further demands could trigger an endless, increasingly costly cycle of transactions that would ultimately harm humanity.

Yang Jian stored the Ghost Cabinet in a hidden clock tower and tried to learn Zhao Lei’s location, but the cabinet demanded a ghost in exchange. Back home, he let Zhang Liqin move in and asked her and Jiang Yan to investigate the plate from the cabinet as he began planning a company.

• Yang Jian placed the Ghost Cabinet on the unreachable top floor of a clock tower and asked it where Zhao Lei was.
• The Ghost Cabinet demanded a ghost, but Yang Jian refused to trade either the Ghost Rope or the Ghost Skeleton and decided to find another ghost.
• Yang Jian returned home and agreed to let Zhang Liqin stay, while teasing her about their relationship.
• Jiang Yan reacted with irritation to Zhang Liqin moving in, and Yang Jian explained that she would eventually work as his secretary.
• Yang Jian asked Jiang Yan and Zhang Liqin to find out the plate’s age and origin, then considered recruiting Zhang Han and Wang Bin for his future company.

Yang Jian joined Zhang Hua’s search of Shangtong Building, where officials hoped to find legal evidence against the company without causing public backlash. Yang Jian planned to use his supernatural abilities to uncover its secrets and eyed the building as a future office if it was seized.

• Zhang Liqin noticed Yang Jian’s corpse spots had faded, and he explained that his physical training only made him look normal temporarily.
• Yang Jian told Zhang Hua he would avoid unrelated city affairs, and Zhang Hua warned him that Shangtong Building had to be handled according to the law.
• Yang Jian asked Zhang Hua to help him obtain the building if Shangtong was sealed, and Zhang Hua said it could potentially be assigned to him after seizure.
• At Shangtong Building, Zhang Hua’s team prepared to execute the search warrant, but Yang Jian said he would use extraordinary methods to find evidence.

Yang Jian and Zhang Hua searched Shangtong Building and confronted its boss, Paul, in a gold-plated office where Yang sensed something unusual. Paul offered a record as a greeting, but Yang broke it, leaving Paul visibly displeased.

• Yang Jian used his Ghost Domain to locate a suspicious room on the forty-fifth floor, and Zhang Hua joined him.
• The receptionist tried to stop the elevator at the twentieth floor, but Yang Jian brought the group straight to the top floor.
• Yang Jian and Zhang Hua reached Paul's office, where the corridor lights flickered before settling back to normal.
• Paul greeted Yang Jian and tried to delay him with wine and conversation, while Yang accused him of hiring people through his company to target him before the Dachang City incident.
• Yang Jian broke open Paul's desk drawer, found a record inside, and snapped it in two when Paul urged him to listen to it.

Yang Jian confronted Paul at his company, discovered a hidden vault, and forced Paul to surrender while investigators searched the premises. As Paul played a mysterious cassette to plead his case, Yang Jian destroyed it, but its eerie sound continued from the wreckage.

• Yang Jian snapped the record Paul had kept and found that its unusual sensation disappeared with it.
• Yang Jian exposed a vault hidden behind the liquor cabinet, and Zhang Hua ordered his subordinates to open it.
• Yang Jian used his power to confine Paul to a sofa and warned him that leaving would make him disappear.
• Paul admitted that his company had sent the group that attacked Yang Jian's home and offered the company and its services as compensation.
• Yang Jian rejected Paul's offer and destroyed the cassette player and tape, but the rustling sound continued from the fragments.

Yang Jian faced Paul, who tried to force him to retreat with a cursed cassette recording. Yang Jian neutralized the threat and drowned Paul in the blood pool, then left the site after Headquarters approved his actions.

• Paul played a recording by the Preacher that threatened to kill everyone who heard it after a second beep, and he demanded that Yang Jian surrender and return his legs.
• Yang Jian dismissed Paul's confidence in the recording and opened the Ghost Eye, warning that Paul had turned the case into a supernatural incident.
• Yang Jian revealed that he and Paul were standing above the blood pool where Yan Li had revived, then threw the cassette fragments into it before they could produce a second beep.
• Yang Jian dropped Paul into the blood pool, where bloody hands dragged him under despite his offer to trade a ghost for his life.
• Liu Xiaoyu told Yang Jian that Headquarters had recorded the incident and approved his handling of Paul, and Yang Jian used the Ghost Domain to leave.

Yang Jian rescued Zhang Hua, then entered Paul's vault and killed the armed mercenaries inside. He seized three ghosts for a possible trade with the Ghost Cabinet and left the company’s investigation to Zhang Hua.

• Yang Jian found Zhang Hua badly wounded after Paul’s men opened fire from the vault, then used Ghost Shadow to remove two bullets and stitch his wounds closed.
• Zhang Hua warned Yang Jian that the vault held hostages and gold boxes containing ghosts.
• Yang Jian entered the vault through the gunfire and killed the two men and one woman who attacked him.
• Yang Jian found three occupied ghost boxes, reassured two hostages, and took the boxes with him.
• Yang Jian told Zhang Hua to investigate and shut down Paul’s company, claimed the vault building for his future use, and returned to Guangjiang Residential Area.

Yang Jian traded a sealed ghost to the Ghost Cabinet for Zhao Lei’s location, then received a new demand tied to a disturbing photograph. He left with the address of Zhao Lei’s room and one year to find the woman in the image.

• Yang Jian brought a golden box to the Ghost Cabinet and used the Ghost Shadow to place the bound corpse of a Ghost Tamer inside.
• The Ghost Cabinet gave Yang Jian a plaque identifying room 13 at the Caesar Hotel in Z City as Zhao Lei’s location.
• The Ghost Cabinet issued a demand for Yang Jian to find a woman within one year and gave him her photograph.
• Yang Jian recognized the photograph’s old house and red lanterns as the place where the ghost bus had stopped for the mummified bride, but he could not tell whether the woman was the bride.

Yang Jian learned that the ghost capable of altering memories was likely behind the crisis in Z City, where Tong Qian and five supporting Ghost Tamers had gone missing. He agreed to travel there the next morning with Xiong Wenwen, then learned that a plate from Ghost Cabinet dated back to the Republican Era.

• Yang Jian called Qin Meirou and learned that Tong Qian had disappeared during a supernatural incident in Z City, where five Ghost Tamers had been sent to support her.
• Yang Jian warned Qin Meirou that a ghost in Z City could alter memories and turn Ghost Tamers into Ghost Slaves.
• Zhao Jianguo told Yang Jian that the five supporting Ghost Tamers had also lost contact and that Headquarters still intended to send help for the ongoing A-class incident.
• Yang Jian agreed to fly to Z City the next morning with Xiong Wenwen, but refused additional teammates.
• Zhang Liqin told Yang Jian that the plate from Ghost Cabinet was made about seventy years earlier, and he connected it to the Republican Era.

Yang Jian reviewed the Z City Head Balloon Incident and prepared to investigate the memory-altering ghost, taking special equipment and deciding to bring the human skin paper. Before leaving, he found conflicting clues pointing to Rooms 13 and 31 at the Caesar Hotel, leaving him unsure which information to trust.

• Yang Jian reviewed the files on the Z City incident and learned that Feng Quan, Guo Fan, and three Supernatural Forum members had joined the search for the missing Tong Qian.
• Yang Jian prepared his equipment for the trip and decided to bring the face-covering cloth and the human skin paper because the memory-altering ghost made the investigation unusually dangerous.
• Jiang Yan showed Yang Jian the notebook pages she had reassembled from Zhao Lei's records, and he found characters that formed the message, “Room 31, Caesar Hotel, Z City.”
• Yang Jian compared the notebook’s Room 31 clue with the ghost cupboard’s message naming Room 13 and questioned whether either source was trustworthy.

Yang Jian arrived in Z City to investigate Tong Qian’s disappearance and the Head Balloon Incident, while distrusting the local Ghost Tamers because of a ghost that could alter memories. He landed safely and prepared to begin the operation with Xiong Wenwen.

• Yang Jian listened to Tong Qian’s final recording, which led him to suspect that the Caesar Hotel was connected to her disappearance.
• Yang Jian ordered Headquarters to keep Feng Quan and Guo Fan away from the Caesar Hotel because he could not trust anyone in Z City.
• The helicopter nearly struck a floating human head as it entered Z City airspace, and Yang Jian saw at least a hundred head balloons above the city.
• Yang Jian landed at a temporary command center in a park and met Z City liaison Zhang Gao.
• Yang Jian learned that Xiong Wenwen had arrived and asked Zhang Gao to take him to the boy so they could discuss the operation.

Yang Jian arrived in Z City with Xiong Wenwen to investigate the supernatural incidents centered on Caesar Hotel. At the hotel, he unexpectedly found Guo Fan and Feng Quan waiting for him, despite believing they had been transferred away.

• Yang Jian gave Zhang Gao orders to prepare a pickup, seal off Caesar Hotel, and identify the floating heads.
• Yang Jian took Xiong Wenwen's phone and told him to prepare for the mission, promising to keep him alive if possible.
• Yang Jian and Xiong Wenwen drove to Caesar Hotel, where Yang Jian explained that Tong Qian's disappearance might be separate from the Head Balloon Incident.
• Yang Jian arrived at the cordoned hotel carrying a body bag and found Guo Fan and Feng Quan waiting on the steps.

Yang Jian tried to keep Guo Fan and Feng Quan out of the Caesar Hotel because he suspected the ghost might alter their memories, but they entered anyway and agreed to investigate separately. Yang Jian followed with Xiong Wenwen, and the group encountered a smiling receptionist in the hotel lobby.

• Yang Jian warned Guo Fan and Feng Quan that they might have been affected by the memory-altering ghost and demanded that they leave the incident to him.
• Guo Fan refused to back down, while Feng Quan proposed that they investigate separately and offer support if needed.
• Guo Fan and Feng Quan entered the Caesar Hotel, and Yang Jian decided not to stop them by force.
• Yang Jian instructed Xiong Wenwen not to use his ability unless told, then led him into the hotel.
• The group saw a receptionist at the front desk despite the hotel having been sealed, and Feng Quan stopped Guo Fan from testing her rashly.

Yang Jian ignored Feng Quan and Guo Fan's argument and led Xiong Wenwen to investigate the hotel's second floor, where corpse-fluid footprints suggested a ghost was hiding. He entered the dark floor and traced the sound of someone eating to a restaurant, but his attempt to capture the unseen ghost with his Ghost Domain failed.

• Feng Quan warned Guo Fan against attacking the receptionist, while Guo Fan insisted they should deal with her before she became a danger.
• Yang Jian chose to investigate the hotel's second floor and found corpse-fluid footprints leading from the stairs to a sealed door.
• Yang Jian broke through the glass doors and entered the second floor with Xiong Wenwen, concluding that a ghost was inside.
• Yang Jian followed the sound of cutlery to a restaurant and spread his three-layer Ghost Domain across it to seize the ghost.
• The sound stopped, and Yang Jian saw through his Ghost Domain that his attempt had failed.

Yang Jian failed to capture the identity-less ghost that could alter memories and suspected it was a conceptual existence. He lit a white ghost candle to lure it back, and its black flame spread darkness through the Ghost Domain.

• Yang Jian found a freshly severed human face on a dining table and wondered how the ghost had escaped his brief Ghost Domain.
• Yang Jian concluded the ghost might have no physical form or identity and recalled that it had appeared as his dead father and as Zhao Lei.
• Xiong Wenwen urged Yang Jian to leave and warned that the white ghost candle could attract other ghosts, but Yang Jian decided to search for the ghost nearby.
• Yang Jian lit the white ghost candle, whose black flame covered the surrounding Ghost Domain in darkness.

Yang Jian used a ghost candle to draw out the ghost hiding in the hotel, but his attempt to attack triggered a swarm of corpses bearing Tong Qian’s eerie smile. He realized the hotel held a composite supernatural threat and ordered Xiong Wenwen to foresee what would happen next as the corpses began laughing.

• Yang Jian lit the white ghost candle, drawing a tall shadow to the restaurant door and a man hiding behind a newspaper into the room.
• More figures appeared at the restaurant tables, and Yang Jian decided to fight after the candle burned past its limit.
• Yang Jian extinguished the candle and released the ghost rope, which hanged the figures and revealed them as corpses with Tong Qian’s smiling face.
• Yang Jian recognized that the face-taking ghost had gained Tong Qian’s power and ordered Xiong Wenwen to use his ability to foresee the future.
• A chilling wind swept bloodstained newspapers toward Yang Jian as the hanging corpses stared at him and laughed.

Yang Jian and Xiong Wenwen tried to identify the corpse carrying the real ghost face while the restaurant’s ghosts overwhelmed Yang Jian’s Ghost Domain. Yang Jian lit a red ghost candle to halt the attack, leaving them temporarily safe amid the spreading supernatural danger.

• Yang Jian activated the third layer of his Ghost Domain and asked Xiong Wenwen to identify the corpse whose ghost face caused the fatal laughter.
• Xiong Wenwen warned that bloodstained red newspapers were invading the Ghost Domain and used his foresight to rule out the first several corpses Yang Jian targeted.
• As the Ghost Domain collapsed and another ghost entered the restaurant, Xiong Wenwen foresaw their deaths and urged Yang Jian to flee.
• Yang Jian withdrew the Ghost Domain and lit a red ghost candle just as the newspapers, laughter, and approaching ghost threatened them.
• The candlelight stopped the newspapers and laughter from reaching Yang Jian and Xiong Wenwen, and the tall black shadow turned and left.

Yang Jian and Xiong Wenwen escaped the restaurant with the ghost candle after Yang Jian recovered the ghost rope, but they also discovered signs of an unknown ghost from the hotel's second floor. Back in the lobby, Yang Jian found Feng Quan and Guo Fan missing and concluded they had probably gone to the fourth floor.

• Yang Jian used the ghost candle to leave the restaurant with Xiong Wenwen and retrieved the ghost rope from a corpse, causing the hanging bodies to fall.
• Yang Jian and Xiong Wenwen found black footprints that suggested an unknown second-floor ghost had waited for them, then followed the trail toward the corridor.
• Yang Jian led Xiong Wenwen back to the lobby, where he extinguished the candle after its flame slowed and the danger seemed distant.
• Yang Jian noticed Feng Quan and Guo Fan were missing and inferred from the elevator's position that they had likely gone to the fourth floor.

Yang Jian located Tong Qian’s missing phone in the hotel lobby and concluded that the smiling receptionist was Tong Qian beneath a stolen face. He used his ghost shadow to take control of her and cautiously approached.

• Yang Jian reviewed what the team had learned and warned that the hotel ghost had suppressed his Ghost Domain and that they should not use the white ghost candle again.
• Yang Jian’s satellite phone showed Tong Qian’s phone was less than ten meters away, apparently inside the lobby.
• At Yang Jian’s request, Liu Xiaoyu played an alert through Tong Qian’s phone, and the sound came from the receptionist.
• Yang Jian concluded that the receptionist was Tong Qian with a replacement face and explained that the ghost could steal and replace faces.
• Yang Jian sent his ghost shadow into the receptionist, took control of her body, and approached after confirming she did not react.