Chapter Summaries

Yang Jian learned that the Ghost Lake Incident had taken Cao Yang and Captain Yinzi and had been classified as an S-class threat. He agreed to join a captain team to deal with it after Headquarters offered resources, but demanded double the ghost candles.

• Yang Jian discussed Old Qin’s condition and the different methods of controlling ghosts with Shen Liang before leaving the golden statue at Headquarters.
• Yang Jian met Cao Yanhua, Wang Xiaoming, and Li Jun, asked about Chen Qiaoyang, and joked that he could cure Wang Xiaoming’s cancer for a ghost candle.
• Wang Xiaoming revealed that Cao Yang and Captain Yinzi had disappeared in the Ghost Lake Incident, which Headquarters had classified as an S-class incident that might escalate to SS-class.
• Headquarters offered Yang Jian ten red ghost candles and access to Supernatural Items, and said other captains would join the response.
• Yang Jian accepted the Ghost Lake mission because it threatened Dachang City, then demanded a second box of ghost candles as double pay.

Yang Jian agreed to join the effort to resolve the Ghost Lake Incident after negotiating for ten Ghost Candles and a valuable Ghost Incense. Headquarters planned to send four captains the next day, and Yang Jian returned to his villa to prepare and say goodbye to Miao Xiaoshan.

• Yang Jian agreed to join the Ghost Lake operation and persuaded Headquarters to give him ten Ghost Candles and a stick of Ghost Incense.
• Wang Xiaoming explained that Ghost Incense could make nearby ghosts enter dormancy, though its effectiveness varied with the ghosts’ number and strength.
• Cao Yanhua named Yang Jian, Liu San, Shen Lin, and either Li Jun or Wei Jing as the planned captain team, with Li Jun currently favored.
• Yang Jian agreed to gather at nine the next morning and said he would help rescue Cao Yang and Captain Yinzi if possible.
• Cao Yanhua rejected calls to bring in more captains, deciding four was the most Headquarters could risk committing.
• Yang Jian returned to his villa to prepare, say goodbye to Miao Xiaoshan, and take the painting with him.

Yang Jian returned the derivative Ghost Painting to Hell Apartment and gathered his team to prepare for the Ghost Lake Incident, an S-class supernatural event. He chose Feng Quan to accompany him while Tong Qian and Huang Ziya went to bring Feng Quan back to Dachang City.

• Yang Jian returned to He Tianxiong's villa, agreed to let Liu Zi and Sun Yujia stay and clean, and told Miao Xiaoshan he had to leave for a business trip.
• Yang Jian took the covered Ghost Painting to Hell Apartment in Dahan City and asked Sun Rui to keep it there as a link to the true Ghost Painting world.
• Yang Jian warned the figures in the apartment's paintings to honor their agreement and help him handle supernatural incidents, and they agreed to act alongside him.
• Yang Jian returned to Dachang City and told his team that several captains would join forces to handle the Ghost Lake Incident.
• Yang Jian decided to bring Feng Quan as a precaution and assigned Tong Qian and Huang Ziya to retrieve him, while the others stayed at Shangtong Building.

Yang Jian prepared for the Ghost Lake Incident by gathering supernatural items and creating a new ring that could make its wearer go unnoticed. After returning home, he discovered the ghost cabinet’s curse had resurfaced, with murky water spilling from it as a possible warning about the coming operation.

• Yang Jian brought Feng Quan to Safe House No. 1, where Feng Quan borrowed Wang Yong’s iron shovel and took three ghost candles for the mission.
• Yang Jian gathered several supernatural items and used his fifth-layer Ghost Domain to bind an imprisoned ghost into an iron ring that could make people overlook its wearer.
• Yang Jian told Feng Quan to meet him the next morning, then watched him leave and considered how the new ring could help safeguard the operation.
• Yang Jian returned home and found standing water flowing toward him from the fifth-floor corridor.
• Yang Jian discovered that the ghost cabinet had recovered in his room and was releasing murky water, leading him to suspect its curse was warning him about the Ghost Lake Incident or beginning a new transaction.

Yang Jian received Headquarters' summons and traveled to Zhongzhou City for the Ghost Lake Incident, with Feng Quan accompanying him and the Ghost Cabinet still following. The captains assembled, settled their distrust of Liu San, and met Shen Lin, whose strange appearance revealed his connection to memories; Yang Jian declined to lead the operation.

• Yang Jian left the flooded abandoned building after receiving Liu Xiaoyu's message and traveled to Zhongzhou City with Feng Quan.
• Li Jun confronted Liu San at the assembly point, burned one of his paper effigies, and demanded proof that Liu San's real body had come.
• Yang Jian arrived and backed Li Jun's demand; Liu San cut his finger to show that he was present in person.
• A shared memory of Shen Lin appeared in the captains' minds, and Shen Lin manifested on a park bench before introducing himself as Ghost Portrait.
• Li Jun proposed that Yang Jian lead the operation, but Yang Jian rejected the leadership role and said they should act together.

Yang Jian and the other captains investigated the abandoned city linked to the Ghost Lake Incident, and Liu San’s ghost candle drew out increasingly severe water-related phenomena. The city flooded around them, leaving Yang Jian to suspect that the supernatural lake might be forming there.

• A Hong explained that Cheng Hao and Captain Cao Yang had disappeared while investigating the Ghost Lake Incident, so the group began searching the city for clues.
• Yang Jian dispersed the clouds over the city, and Liu San lit a white ghost candle to draw out nearby supernatural presences.
• The candle brought out bloated corpses, foul water, and other signs of a supernatural rain; Li Jun burned away the phenomena with ghost fire, but they returned once he stopped.
• The group agreed to let the candle keep burning, and the water continued rising despite no ghost attacking them.
• As the water reached Yang Jian’s knees across the city, he wondered whether the supernatural phenomena were forming the real Ghost Lake.

Yang Jian and the other captains realized that they needed a medium to enter Ghost Lake, so they split up to search the city for clues. Yang Jian used a dead corpse to investigate, discovered it had no traces in the city, and sent Feng Quan to light ghost candles at the city's four edges as his search continued.

• The rising water sank a tissue and threatened to drown the captains, so Yang Jian transported everyone to a rooftop with his Ghost Domain.
• Shen Lin theorized that a missing condition kept them from seeing or contacting Ghost Lake, and Yang Jian identified that condition as a medium.
• Liu San extinguished the ghost candle, and the captains split up to investigate while agreeing to stay in contact and regroup if danger arose.
• Yang Jian used his cleaver's medium on a drowned corpse, but found no traces of its life in the city and concluded that the supernatural had brought it there from elsewhere.
• Yang Jian gave Feng Quan ghost candles and ordered him to light them at the city's eastern, western, southern, and northern directions; Feng Quan carried out the task.

Liu San and Shen Lin used different methods to investigate the Ghost Lake Incident in Zhongzhou City. Shen Lin entered an illusion reenacting the city’s past and replaced a young man, hoping to uncover Ghost Lake’s secrets by experiencing his death.

• A paper-effigy Liu San pulled a drowned woman’s corpse from a bathtub and merged with it by covering it in yellow paper, using the transformation to investigate Ghost Lake’s supernatural remnants.
• Shen Lin and Liu San walked through the unflooded part of the city as they searched for clues.
• Shen Lin made the city appear as it had before Ghost Lake, revealing normal-looking pedestrians who became drowned corpses when Liu San touched them.
• The crowd separated Liu San from Shen Lin, and Liu San stayed behind after realizing the city’s apparent prosperity was an illusion.
• Shen Lin replaced a young man in the crowd and planned to experience his death to learn Ghost Lake’s killing pattern and secrets.

Yang Jian investigated a drowned man's final movements and deduced that Ghost Lake's killing pattern required more than contact with its cursed water. He began testing the missing condition with Wang Shan while Liu San and Shen Lin also neared breakthroughs, but Li Jun and A Hong remained stuck.

• Yang Jian used the ghost candles and his Ghost Domain to trace a dead Zhongzhou City resident's final movements to a hotel room.
• Yang Jian found the man had drowned on a bed without being immersed in water, and concluded that the lake water was a trace of the killing rather than its source.
• Yang Jian discovered murky water and supernatural-tainted hair in the room, then found a basin beneath the bed and inferred that contact with the cursed water was one condition for being targeted.
• Yang Jian summoned Wang Shan and had him soak his feet in the murky water, but nothing happened, so Yang Jian continued searching for the remaining condition.
• Liu San's paper figure began struggling as he investigated a corpse, while Shen Lin waited for a young man to be killed by Ghost Lake; Li Jun and A Hong had found no leads.

Yang Jian, Liu San, and Shen Lin each investigated Ghost Lake and found ways into its supernatural domain. Yang Jian identified its killing pattern, Liu San discovered the corpses within the lake, and Shen Lin reached the surface to search for the ghost.

• Yang Jian tested the killing pattern with Wang Shan, who triggered it after closing his eyes and hearing waves; the water swallowed him and carried him into Ghost Lake.
• Yang Jian saw Ghost Lake briefly as Wang Shan vanished, confirming its location.
• Liu San used a bathtub of murky water to enter Ghost Lake, surfaced, then sank past rows of victims’ corpses and saw Cheng Hao before his paper figure fell apart.
• Liu San’s female corpse floated upward among other female corpses after the paper figure vanished.
• Shen Lin appeared in the lake as a drowned young man, changed back to his own form, and stood on the surface while searching for the ghost.

Shen Lin investigated Ghost Lake and discovered that its supernatural space could affect him through memories, while Yang Jian and the others gathered in Zhongzhou City to discuss how to deal with the incident. Shen Lin rejoined them in a white dress and said he knew where Ghost Lake was in reality.

• Shen Lin entered Ghost Lake through a memory, encountered female corpses, and escaped into another memory where he destroyed a Ghost Slave with a scarlet axe.
• Shen Lin returned to Ghost Lake in the form of the corpse in the white dress, then walked ashore and began circling the lake to investigate.
• Yang Jian met Li Jun and Liu San in Zhongzhou City and told them he had found Ghost Lake's killing pattern and a risky way to enter it.
• Liu San described how his paper figure entered Ghost Lake, where supernatural power was suppressed and submerged corpses included Cheng Hao.
• Yang Jian, Li Jun, Liu San, and A Hong discussed finding Ghost Lake's real-world location rather than letting it fully invade reality.
• Shen Lin emerged from a manhole cover wearing a white dress and told the group he knew where Ghost Lake was.

Shen Lin led Yang Jian and the others to Taiping Ancient Town, where he believed a river connected reality to Ghost Lake. After Yang Jian spotted a strange mask and an invisible street, the group split up to investigate the town and confirm the connection point.

• Shen Lin explained that a river flowing into Ghost Lake could let them enter it without triggering its killing pattern, then led the group toward Taiping Ancient Town.
• Yang Jian saw supernatural distortions around the town, sent Feng Quan to wait in the newer streets, and entered the old quarter with the others.
• Yang Jian seized a strange mask from a tourist and learned she had bought it beyond a bridge, on a street to the right.
• The group found a cold river beneath an old stone bridge, but no visible street to the right; Yang Jian concluded that an invisible street existed.
• Li Jun and Shen Lin went to confirm the river’s connection point, Yang Jian chose to investigate the invisible street, and Liu San sent paper figures to explore the town.

Yang Jian entered Taiping Ancient Town’s nonexistent old street through his five-layer Ghost Domain and found a strange connection between its goods and the Ghost Post Office’s banknotes. Meanwhile, Liu San’s paper figure approached an ancestral hall and was confronted by an eerie blind man.

• Yang Jian used his five-layer Ghost Domain to reveal the old street and spotted a woman in a red qipao wearing a jade bracelet identical to his own.
• Yang Jian entered the old street, where his Ghost Domain vanished, and explored its deserted shops and stalls.
• Yang Jian returned an angry human-face mask to a stall and received a three-yuan banknote, which he connected to the seven-yuan banknote from the Ghost Post Office.
• Liu San’s paper figure approached an ancestral hall, where a one-eyed old man told the dead man to leave.

Yang Jian explored a supernatural street in Taiping Ancient Town and found a paper effigy shop where eerie figures tried to force him to buy one. Meanwhile, Liu San’s paper figure encountered a hostile caretaker at the ancestral hall, and Shen Lin, Li Jun, and A Hong found the route to Ghost Lake and decided to wait for a mysterious boat at midnight.

• Yang Jian received a three-yuan banknote from an unmanned stall after returning a mask, while Liu San’s paper figure confronted the one-eyed caretaker at the ancestral hall.
• Liu San sent a paper figure into the ancestral hall, where the doors shut and smoke revealed figures dressed in old-fashioned clothes; the paper figure could no longer be sensed from outside.
• Shen Lin, Li Jun, and A Hong found the river and ferry crossing connecting Taiping Ancient Town to Ghost Lake, and Shen Lin said a black wooden boat would appear there at midnight.
• Li Jun decided the group would wait until midnight to board the boat and enter Ghost Lake.
• Yang Jian recognized a pharmacy from a stolen memory and explored a paper effigy shop, where paper figures moved and an unseen voice urged him to buy one for three yuan.
• Yang Jian drew out his green three-yuan banknote as the paper figures blocked the shop entrance.

Yang Jian explored the supernatural Ghost Street, bought a paper boat for three yuan, and discovered a lone Coffin Shop at the far end. As the street neared its nighttime closing, he hurried back and spotted a strange man leaving ahead of him.

• Yang Jian rejected the paper effigies and other goods, then paid three yuan for a dusty paper boat that he thought might be useful during the Ghost Lake Incident.
• He walked to the end of the abandoned Ghost Street and found a still-open Coffin Shop containing several coffins, including a spotless black one.
• After hearing a voice offer him a coffin for eighteen yuan, Yang Jian left without entering and retraced his path as the shop vanished into the darkness.
• Yang Jian passed the paper effigy shop again and noticed that its figures had moved and the mask stall had disappeared as the time approached six.
• As Yang Jian hurried toward the street’s exit, he saw a tall, sturdy man in old-fashioned clothes walking ahead, but the man did not respond when Yang Jian called out.

Yang Jian encountered the powerful, faceless figure known as the Faceless Man on Ghost Street, then returned to Taiping Ancient Town with a mysterious paper boat. After Liu San reported that a guarded ancestral hall had taken one of his paper people, Yang Jian agreed to investigate it with him.

• Yang Jian used his ghost hand to stop the Faceless Man, who wrote that he was searching Ghost Street for his face.
• The Faceless Man left Ghost Street and vanished without appearing in Taiping Ancient Town, while Yang Jian kept the paper boat he had bought.
• Liu San asked to examine Yang Jian's paper boat, but Yang Jian refused and shared only limited information about the ancient street.
• Liu San revealed that a top-tier Ghost Tamer guarded a supernatural ancestral hall and had taken one of his paper people.
• Yang Jian admitted he had noticed the ancestral hall and agreed to investigate it with Liu San, while explaining that he did not fully trust him.

Yang Jian and Liu San investigated the ancient town’s ancestral hall but found no sign of its one-eyed guardian, while Shen Lin, Li Jun, and A Hong waited near the ferry dock for the Ghost Lake operation. Strange events in the town mounted as a woman washed clothes without leaving water in her basin and the couple Yang Jian had met were found dead.

• Yang Jian entered the ancestral hall with Liu San and found recently burned offerings but no guardian or supernatural activity.
• Yang Jian said the ancient town was entangled with a supernatural space and memorized the unfamiliar names on its memorial tablets.
• Shen Lin, Li Jun, and A Hong hid when a middle-aged woman appeared from an alley and washed clothes by the river.
• Li Jun noticed the woman’s empty wooden basin had no water in it, but he stopped Shen Lin from investigating her so they could focus on Ghost Lake.
• Shen Lin told Li Jun and A Hong that the couple Yang Jian had met had died of an apparent natural death at an inn.

Yang Jian and the others boarded a ghostly boat at the ancient town’s ferry to enter Ghost Lake, but the boat required spirit money to move. As it carried them into an unfamiliar supernatural river, they realized one of the five passengers had been judged a ghost.

• Li Jun summoned the group to the abandoned ferry dock, while Liu San stayed behind briefly to investigate the ancestral hall before joining them.
• At midnight, a fog-covered river connected to a supernatural place, and an empty boat bearing an oil lamp drifted to the dock.
• The boat would not move until Liu San explained that passengers had to pay with spirit money, so Yang Jian handed over his seven-yuan banknote.
• Liu San burned part of the banknote at the boat’s oil lamp, reducing it to three yuan, and the boat began to carry them downstream.
• Liu San said the boat had charged only four yuan because it had judged one of the five passengers to be a ghost.
• The boat carried Yang Jian, Liu San, Li Jun, Shen Lin, and A Hong beyond reality, as the river widened and unfamiliar buildings appeared through the fog.

Yang Jian and the others drifted into a supernatural realm aboard the black ferry, which stopped at a deserted village pier. Though they saw no one board, Liu San found fare money that proved three unseen passengers had joined them, and their figures appeared in the water as the boat continued downstream.

• Yang Jian and the others realized the ferry had carried them into an unknown supernatural place, and A Hong and Shen Lin compared it to legends of the River of Oblivion.
• A Hong discovered that the river was not water, while Yang Jian reflected on how supernatural truths might eventually be concealed behind comforting legends.
• Liu San noticed the ferry approaching a second pier, where Yang Jian saw a dark road, old graves, and an abandoned village.
• Liu San found a newly burned three-yuan note, suggesting that up to three unseen passengers had boarded, though none of the group had seen them.
• The ferry left the pier, and three ancient, lifeless figures appeared among the passengers' reflections beneath the boat.

Yang Jian deduced that the Ghost Ship was sinking because it could carry only a limited amount of supernatural power, and that it was designed to transport ghosts into Ghost Lake. The group began discarding supernatural objects to keep the boat afloat, but it was still sinking when the chapter ended.

• After the boat grew heavier and water began flooding in, Yang Jian argued that supernatural power aboard—not the passengers’ weight—was making it sink.
• Li Jun threw a charred arm overboard, and Yang Jian stopped it from clinging to the boat; the boat then rose slightly.
• Yang Jian explained that spirit money lured ghosts onto the ship, which carried them into Ghost Lake to be suppressed, and he attributed the trap to people of the Republican Era.
• Li Jun urged everyone to discard supernatural objects, so Yang Jian threw away a sheet of yellow paper, but the boat barely rose.
• Shen Lin agreed to discard an object next as the boat continued sinking.