Chapter Summaries

Yang Jian investigated the waterlogged corridor after Lin Shan’s apparent ghost resurgence and Zhang Lei’s disappearance. He rescued Zhang Lei from the corpses beneath the water, then realized the ghost was inside Lin Shan’s room.

• Shen Liang agreed to give Yang Jian three Ghost Candles and Lin Shan’s second-ghost slot if Yang Jian resolved the incident.
• A hotel waitress’s corpse surfaced in the corridor, and Zhang Lei emerged from the water alive, only to be dragged under by numerous corpses.
• Yang Jian used his Ghost Eye to see the corpses beneath the seemingly shallow water and entered his Ghost Domain to reach Zhang Lei.
• Yang Jian’s ghost shadow released Zhang Lei from the corpses, and the dead bodies floated to the surface.
• Yang Jian concluded that the ghost was in Lin Shan’s room as a waterlogged hand emerged from behind its half-open door.

Yang Jian confronted Lin Shan, who remained conscious in a water-swollen state near a Ghost's revival, and threw him from the eighteenth floor to prevent the situation from worsening. Yang Jian jumped after him to test whether the Ghost Rope could restrain him, while Zhang Lei hurried to the first floor.

• Zhang Lei realized Yang Jian's preparations had saved his life after Yang Jian dealt with the floating corpses.
• Lin Shan emerged from his room, waterlogged but conscious, and demanded to know why Yang Jian had saved Zhang Lei instead of him.
• Shen Liang ordered Yang Jian to deal with Lin Shan, and Lin Shan threatened to kill everyone after learning no one would save him.
• Yang Jian bound Lin Shan with the Ghost Rope and kicked him out of the eighteenth-floor opening.
• Yang Jian jumped after Lin Shan to test the Ghost Rope, while Zhang Lei headed for the elevator to check on them.

Yang Jian used the ghost rope to stop the ghost reviving inside Lin Shan’s corpse outside Ping An Hotel. He confirmed the ghost was contained and requested a box from Headquarters.

• A group gathered outside Ping An Hotel and discussed Lin Shan’s likely ghost resurgence and the danger of the situation.
• Lin Shan’s corpse fell from the hotel, and foul water began spreading around it.
• Wang Jiang recognized Lin Shan and warned everyone to stay away from the corpse and its water.
• Yang Jian arrived, rebuked the onlookers, and inspected Lin Shan’s corpse as the ghost inside began to revive.
• Yang Jian’s ghost rope restrained the reviving ghost and stopped the spreading threat.
• Yang Jian requested a box, and Shen Liang arranged one as an armed helicopter arrived with a container.

Yang Jian handed Lin Shan’s sealed corpse over to Shen Liang and demanded overtime pay, while warning Headquarters that his ghost resurgence could become impossible to contain. Afterward, Wang Jiang approached him and learned that Lin Shan might have killed several girls, including the woman Wang Jiang loved.

• Zhang Lei reached the hotel entrance and found Yang Jian guarding Lin Shan’s sealed corpse as it thudded inside the box.
• Shen Liang arrived by helicopter, collected the box, and gave Yang Jian three white ghost candles as overtime pay along with the red candle Professor Wang owed him.
• Yang Jian told Shen Liang he would refuse further assignments unless a major incident occurred, and warned that Headquarters might be unable to stop him if he suffered ghost resurgence.
• Yang Jian took the candles and waited outside while emergency crews handled the hotel aftermath and Zhang Lei patrolled the area.
• Wang Jiang introduced himself and explained that Lin Shan had been his university classmate and rival, whom he suspected of killing several girls from their department.
• Yang Jian told Wang Jiang that female corpses had been found on the hotel’s eighteenth floor, and Wang Jiang hurried inside to identify them.

After Lin Shan’s ghost was contained, Wang Jiang searched the flooded hotel corridor for the girl he loved and discovered she was among Lin Shan’s victims. Yang Jian challenged Wang Jiang’s desire for justice, leaving him to consider that power determined who could survive.

• Wang Jiang entered Lin Shan’s flooded hotel room to search among the corpses while Zhang Lei cleaned up the scene.
• Wang Jiang found a corpse bearing the girl’s distinctive Peppa Pig toenail art and realized Lin Shan had killed her.
• Wang Jiang confronted Yang Jian, who argued that justice without the power to enforce it was dangerous.
• Yang Jian explained that he had killed people to protect those important to him, then admitted he had initially mistaken Wang Xiaoqiang for someone else.

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.