Chapter Summaries

After Chen Ji’s second uncle and aunt bribed a doctor to have him committed so they could claim his inheritance, Chen Ji encountered the strange patients on the hospital’s sixth floor. A silent young man, Li Qingniao, recognized Chen Ji as someone destined for another world, while the old man warned him that his relatives could take his property.

• Old Liu diagnosed Chen Ji with severe post-traumatic stress disorder after a bribed evaluation and agreed to admit him to the hospital.
• Chen Shuo and Wang Huiling left Qingshan Psychiatric Hospital after paying Old Liu fifty thousand yuan, planning to have Chen Ji declared without civil capacity and take his house.
• Two nurses restrained Chen Ji in the sixth-floor ward, where the patients gathered around him before an old man introduced himself and showed Chen Ji a sketch made in advance.
• The old man led Chen Ji to Li Qingniao, who had been silent for six months but told Chen Ji that he would go to another world and that people from Uttarakuru would handle the smuggling.
• The old man warned Chen Ji that Chen Shuo and Wang Huiling might use a court ruling to seize the inheritance his parents had left him.

Chen Shuo and Wang Huiling ransacked Chen Ji’s villa, only to discover that he had mortgaged it to Brother Pao, who arrived to claim it. Chen Shuo realized Chen Ji had orchestrated the confrontation and revealed that he was at Qingshan Psychiatric Hospital.

• Chen Shuo and Wang Huiling entered Chen Ji’s villa, discarded his memorial photo and certificates, and searched for the property deed and valuables.
• Brother Pao and Erdao arrived, saying Chen Ji had mortgaged the villa for fifteen million and told them to take it.
• When Chen Shuo and Wang Huiling used Chen Ji’s diagnosis to challenge the mortgage, Brother Pao ordered Erdao to break Chen Shuo’s finger and slap Wang Huiling.
• Chen Shuo argued that Chen Ji had deliberately misled them and Brother Pao, since Chen Ji had inherited at least thirty million and could repay the loan.
• Brother Pao questioned Chen Shuo about Chen Ji’s background, learned he had been specially recruited to the Army Foreign Languages School, and asked where he was.
• Chen Shuo told Brother Pao that Chen Ji was at Qingshan Psychiatric Hospital.

Brother Pao uncovered the scheme that had put Chen Ji in Qingshan Hospital and learned that Wang Long had escaped punishment for killing Chen Ji’s parents. Chen Ji killed Wang Long but died from his wounds, while Li Qingniao sent him onward and Brother Pao left with Old Liu.

• Brother Pao forced Old Liu, Chen Shuo, and Wang Huiling to explain that Chen Ji had no serious mental illness and discovered Old Liu had helped Wang Long evade trial.
• Old Liu revealed that Wang Long had killed Chen Ji’s parents in a hit-and-run, and Brother Pao took Old Liu upstairs while Erdao dealt with Chen Shuo and Wang Huiling.
• Chen Ji recalled his childhood with his parents and refused to sell Li Qingniao the cicadas from when he was twelve.
• Chen Ji attacked Wang Long with a dagger, but Wang Long stabbed him; Chen Ji then bit Wang Long’s neck and killed him.
• Brother Pao arrived too late to save Chen Ji, who asked him to send evidence of Old Liu’s illegal deal with Chen Shuo and then died.
• Li Qingniao covered Chen Ji’s eyes and sent him onward, while Brother Pao covered him with his jacket and left with Old Liu.

Chen Ji awoke in the body of a dead man during a Secret Intelligence Directorate interrogation of suspected Jing Dynasty spy Zhou Chengyi. After witnessing Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit kill Zhou Chengyi’s family and the steward, Chen Ji bargained for time to find information and was given a quarter of an hour.

• Chen Ji revived in a ruined room while Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit interrogated Zhou Chengyi about Jing Dynasty spies in Luo City.
• Men in black brought Zhou Chengyi’s hidden family into the room, and Cloud Goat killed Zhou Chengyi’s wife, son, and a maid while Bright Rabbit killed his daughter.
• Cloud Goat offered to spare either Chen Ji or the steward if one gave him information, and Chen Ji asked for half an hour to find some.
• Chen Ji attacked and killed the steward with a shard of porcelain, then repeated his request for time to find information.
• Cloud Goat agreed to Chen Ji’s bargain but gave him only a quarter of an hour.

Chen Ji uncovered a secret message in Zhou Chengyi’s home and became entangled in the Secret Intelligence Directorate’s hunt for a Jing Dynasty spy. As Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit threatened to interrogate him, Chen Ji offered a lead on the shop that sold the paper instead of the address in the message.

• Chen Ji discovered alum in Zhou Chengyi’s kitchen and used vinegar to reveal a secret message on the xuan paper directing readers to Li's Sweet Water Shop in Lijing Lane.
• Zhou Chengyi attacked Chen Ji, but Bright Rabbit subdued him, and an icy stream flowed from Zhou Chengyi into Chen Ji.
• Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit sent eight men to raid the shop, then refused to let Chen Ji go and threatened to interrogate him.
• Chen Ji resisted Cloud Goat’s needles and briefly threatened to cut his own throat with a porcelain shard.
• Chen Ji said the message was likely written by an important Jing Dynasty figure and urged Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit to investigate the shop that sold Zhou Chengyi the xuan paper.

Chen Ji escaped the Secret Intelligence Directorate with Imperial Physician Yao, who refused to hear about the night’s events and worried that the Directorate’s Twelve Zodiac Animals would bring trouble to Luo City. Back at the Zhou residence, Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit planned to use Chen Ji as bait to catch a Jing Dynasty assassin while investigating Xuan paper shops.

• After Zhou Chengyi died from concealed poison, Chen Ji identified the paper’s handmade texture as a way to narrow down its shop, but a visitor arrived at the gate asking for him.
• Cloud Goat recognized Imperial Physician Yao and let Chen Ji leave with him, while Bright Rabbit warned Chen Ji not to reveal anything and said they would visit again.
• On the way home, Imperial Physician Yao told Chen Ji to avoid the Secret Intelligence Directorate and refused to hear about the night’s troubles.
• Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit concluded that Chen Ji was a Jing Dynasty spy and planned to let the Jing Dynasty’s Military Intelligence Directorate send an assassin they could capture.
• The Directorate’s men found two shops selling matching Xuan paper, and Bright Rabbit took the shopkeepers and assistants to interrogate them while Cloud Goat stayed behind to handle the corpses.
• Cloud Goat used blood to animate the corpses as shadow puppets, then tossed copper coins to a beggar child before leading the dead away.

After bringing Chen Ji back to Great Peace clinic, Old Yao gave him a place among the apprentices, but an icy force from Zhou Chengyi's death began tormenting him overnight. Morning stance training helped suppress the cold, and Chen Ji learned that the apprentices' families were due to visit and pay tuition, leaving him uncertain about his own family.

• Old Yao took Chen Ji to Great Peace clinic beside Prince Jing's Estate and told him to discard the bloody porcelain shard before entering.
• Chen Ji joined his fellow apprentices in their sleeping quarters and worried that Bright Rabbit and Cloud Goat would still suspect him.
• An icy current from Zhou Chengyi's death surged through Chen Ji overnight, and he woke at dawn with the cold still raging inside him.
• Old Yao drove Chen Ji and the other apprentices into stance training, where a warm current arose whenever Chen Ji held the correct pose and gradually suppressed the ice.
• Old Yao told the apprentices to wait for their families to pay tuition and reminded Chen Ji to collect three hundred and twenty wen for the lost medicine, prompting Chen Ji to wonder whether he had a family in this world.

Chen Ji waited all day for his family to bring his tuition, but they never came, leaving him at risk of losing his apprenticeship with Old Yao. He arranged to earn money by doing Liu Quxing’s chores, then learned that he, Liu Quxing, and She Dengke had been born at the same time on the same day.

• Chen Ji practiced tooth-cleaning with Liu Quxing and She Dengke, who discussed Old Yao’s bad mood and the next day’s test.
• Liu Quxing’s mother brought his tuition, clothes, and snacks, while She Dengke’s brother delivered cured pork later that day.
• Chen Ji waited from morning until evening for his family, but no one came, and Old Yao threatened to dismiss him unless he paid his tuition.
• Chen Ji asked for a month to earn the tuition himself and offered to pay extra each month afterward.
• Liu Quxing offered Chen Ji copper coins to do his chores, and Chen Ji accepted the work.
• She Dengke revealed that he, Liu Quxing, and Chen Ji had been born on the same day, month, year, and hour.

Chen Ji discovered that the icy current inside him could drain tendrils from a medicinal ginseng root and form a mysterious bead, then stayed up to study for his examination. When Chunhua arrived from Prince Jing's Estate seeking urgent help for her lady, Old Yao refused to go after a dire divination and sent Chen Ji in his place.

• Old Yao refused Steward Wang's request to treat the Li Family's old madam, citing a divination and recalling their previous dispute over payment.
• Chen Ji worked through the evening, but the icy current surged through him and drew six tendrils from a fifty-year-old ginseng root into a transparent bead.
• Chen Ji hid the bead, worried Old Yao would discover the damaged ginseng, and began studying the General Outline of Medicine for his examination.
• Liu Quxing admitted he had meant to help Chen Ji, then secretly studied at night until She Dengke caught him.
• Chunhua arrived from Prince Jing's Estate and pleaded with Old Yao to treat her lady, but his second divination showed great misfortune.
• She Dengke volunteered to go in Old Yao's place, but Old Yao ordered Chen Ji to go instead.

Chen Ji went to the prince’s residence after Old Yao refused to attend and was ordered to examine Consort Jing after her miscarriage. He argued that her miscarriage was not caused by a poison taken that night and concluded that prolonged poisoning might be responsible.

• Old Yao sent Chen Ji to the prince’s residence, where Chunhua warned him to obey its rules and keep what he saw secret.
• Chunhua told Chen Ji that Consort Jing had miscarried and that two maids had been beaten to death; he also saw servants being punished outside Evening Star Court.
• As Chen Ji approached Evening Star Court, he felt an icy current flow into his body, then heard Consort Yun and Chunrong discussing Consort Jing’s miscarriage and the suspected poison.
• Chunrong ordered Chen Ji to examine Consort Jing and threatened to have him beaten to death when he hesitated, so he offered to find the culprit if poisoning was involved.
• Chen Ji asked about Consort Jing’s pregnancy and health, then concluded that if poison had caused the miscarriage, it must have been administered over a long period rather than that night.

Chen Ji discovered that Consort Jing's miscarriage was caused by lead poisoning from a beautiful glass cup, then returned to the clinic exhausted. There, a powerful icy current surged through his body, leaving him frozen in a martial stance as he fell asleep beneath the apricot tree.

• Chen Ji persuaded Consort Jing to let him search her room for the source of her chronic poisoning.
• Chen Ji found that Consort Jing's blue glass cup contained lead and was causing her poisoning.
• Consort Yun suggested that Consort Jing's family had given her the cup, and Chen Ji noticed Consort Yun's white cat had been beating Consort Jing's black cat.
• Xibing escorted Chen Ji back to the clinic and offered to have new clothes made for him on Consort Yun's behalf.
• Chen Ji returned to the courtyard and was overwhelmed by an icy current, which he suppressed with the Stone-Bearing Stake-Embracing Technique before falling asleep standing beside the apricot tree.

Chen Ji tested the bead with the black cat and discovered that an unseen force repelled the cat when it tried to take it. Back at the medical hall, he learned Old Yao was leaving to treat the Liu Family’s dying patriarch, while the cat continued to watch from hiding.

• Chen Ji woke in the west wing, wondered whether Consort Jing’s miscarried fetus had caused the icy current, and went to draw water with the bead in his sleeve.
• The black cat followed Chen Ji through the streets, but the bead’s gray mist released an invisible force that pushed it away when it tried to take the bead.
• Chen Ji returned to the medical hall and learned that Old Yao was leaving to treat Old Patriarch Liu, who had collapsed after a young relative died in the Secret Intelligence Directorate’s prison.
• Liu Quxing and She Dengke argued over Liu Quxing’s distant ties to the Liu Family as Old Yao’s carriage departed.
• Chen Ji noticed that the black cat had stayed nearby, hiding beneath the eaves and watching them.

Chen Ji cared for the injured black cat and invited it to follow him, discovering that their written pact had a supernatural effect. The chapter ended with the cat speaking to him.

• Chen Ji bought a baozi with his last two coins and left it for the black cat, which eventually took it before leaving.
• Chen Ji spent the day studying medicine while She Dengke and Liu Quxing stayed in the rear courtyard.
• The black cat returned to the clinic with fresh wounds, and Chen Ji treated them while it fell asleep against his hand.
• Chen Ji wrote a letter of service naming the cat “Dark Cloud,” and the cat pressed its paw into vermilion paste to accept.
• The letter burst into starlight, and a voice asked Chen Ji what was abnormal about the world.

Chen Ji discovered that Dark Cloud could speak and gained a powerful new energy after Dark Cloud swallowed the crystal bead. Dark Cloud used his newfound strength to take revenge on the white lion cat, then returned to the medical hall just before Liu Quxing came looking for the cat he heard.

• Chen Ji learned that Dark Cloud had always been sentient and counted ten ridges on the cat’s palate.
• Dark Cloud swallowed the crystal bead, and Chen Ji sensed a warm current enter his body that he could guide with his will.
• Dark Cloud sneaked into Prince Jing’s Estate and ambushed the white lion cat at Flying White Pond.
• Dark Cloud beat the white lion cat and licked the pastries in Flying Cloud Court before returning to the medical hall.
• Liu Quxing entered the courtyard and asked Chen Ji whether he had seen a stray cat, but Dark Cloud had vanished from the counter.

Chen Ji survived a deadly surge of icy current with Dark Cloud’s help and ignited two furnace fires at his Tianshu acupoints, beginning his cultivation. He was left facing a huge debt for the ginseng before Cloud Goat arrived at the clinic door at midnight.

• Liu Quxing urged Chen Ji to leave the clinic and give up trying to become an imperial physician, but Chen Ji asked for time to think.
• The icy current overwhelmed Chen Ji, and Dark Cloud searched the medicine cabinet for something to save him.
• Dark Cloud brought Chen Ji an old ginseng root, which absorbed much of the icy current and produced six beads that Dark Cloud swallowed.
• Dark Cloud poured its molten current into Chen Ji, helping him ignite both Tianshu acupoints and drive the remaining icy current back into his dantian.
• Chen Ji realized the ginseng had cost thirty taels of silver and worried that he could not repay the clinic.
• Cloud Goat knocked on the clinic door at midnight while Chen Ji was alone.

Cloud Goat came to Taiping Medical Hall because the Secret Intelligence Directorate lacked evidence against the Liu Family, and Chen Ji agreed to help in exchange for payment. After bargaining for fifty taels per merit, Chen Ji directed Cloud Goat to return to Zhou Chengyi's residence, while a hidden black cat followed them.

• Cloud Goat entered Taiping Medical Hall and told Chen Ji that Bright Rabbit had found Xuan paper shops linked to the Liu Family but no evidence against them.
• Chen Ji deduced that Cloud Goat needed help before the Liu Family's old master's death turned the arrests into a crisis.
• Cloud Goat stabbed Chen Ji with a silver needle when he demanded payment, but Chen Ji insisted Cloud Goat needed his expertise and could earn merit by exposing the Jing Dynasty's secret-letter method.
• Chen Ji asked for a Secret Intelligence Directorate post, then settled on fifty taels for every merit he helped Cloud Goat earn.
• Cloud Goat agreed to take Chen Ji to investigate, and Chen Ji redirected him from the Xuan paper shops to Zhou Chengyi's residence, admitting he had withheld clues.
• Cloud Goat rode off with Chen Ji, while a black cat that had watched from the rooftops followed them.

Chen Ji and Cloud Goat escaped an arrest by the Bureau of Punishments and returned to the Zhou Residence, where Chen Ji identified a copied book as a likely coded message. With the Liu Family gathering outside after its old patriarch’s death, Chen Ji had only a quarter of an hour to decipher it.

• Chen Ji asked Cloud Goat about animal controllers and Dao cultivators, then covered his face as they encountered Lin Chaoqing and the Fish-Dragon Guard.
• Cloud Goat fought off the Bureau of Punishments’ arrest attempt and escaped with Chen Ji, then warned him that cultivators had to keep their practices and realms secret.
• At the Zhou Residence, Chen Ji reasoned that Zhou Chengyi had used borrowed books to pass intelligence and selected a copied volume as the likely clue.
• Bright Rabbit arrived and reported that the Liu Family patriarch had died and that the family was marching on the residence with armed men.
• Cloud Goat learned that the Liu Family had arrived demanding an explanation, leaving Chen Ji only a quarter of an hour to decipher the message.

With the Liu family threatening to storm the Zhou residence, Chen Ji searched Zhou Chengyi’s books for evidence that a Liu family member had colluded with the enemy. He discovered where the evidence could be found and escaped with Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit, leaving the group racing toward Liu Shiyu’s house.

• Cloud Goat gave Chen Ji fifteen minutes to find evidence while the Liu family gathered outside the Zhou residence.
• Chen Ji searched Zhou Chengyi’s books, while Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit confronted Liu Mingxian at the gate and learned the Liu family was preparing to attack.
• When Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit decided to abandon Chen Ji, he revealed that he knew where the evidence was and persuaded them to take him along.
• Chen Ji and the secret agents escaped over the back wall as Liu family members prepared to set the Zhou residence ablaze.
• Chen Ji asked about the provincial graduate who had died in the inner prison, learned his name was Liu Shiyu, and directed the group to his house.

Chen Ji, Cloud Goat, and Bright Rabbit evaded the Liu Family and the Bureau of Punishments while searching a sealed residence for evidence. Chen Ji found a book just as Lin Chaoqing confronted Bright Rabbit, but the chapter ended before they could examine it.

• Cloud Goat sent Seven Characters and the other agents west as a decoy, while he, Bright Rabbit, and Chen Ji hid from the Liu Family.
• Lin Chaoqing confronted Cloud Goat and demanded evidence, but Liang Gou'er accidentally slashed Lin Chaoqing's bamboo hat before recognizing him and apologizing.
• Cloud Goat, Bright Rabbit, and Chen Ji escaped during the confusion, though Cloud Goat coughed up blood as he carried Chen Ji away.
• The trio entered a sealed residence and searched its study for evidence as the Fish-Dragon Guards arrived.
• Bright Rabbit drew her saber to face Lin Chaoqing, and Chen Ji emerged from the study holding a book he had found.

Chen Ji uncovered evidence that Zhou Chengyi had secretly passed intelligence to Liu Shiyu, resolving the Liu family case. As the investigators left to confront the Liu family, Dark Cloud stole the ginseng and a book Chen Ji had handled.

• Chen Ji explained how Zhou Chengyi had altered characters in copied books to encode the message that the director would meet him after the affair was accomplished.
• Lin Chaoqing offered Chen Ji a position in the Bureau of Punishments, but Chen Ji chose to remain with Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit.
• The Liu family surrounded Liu Shiyu's residence and threatened to burn it, so Lin Chaoqing ordered his men to hold them back.
• Chen Ji identified a handwritten copy of the seventh section in Liu Shiyu's room and reasoned that Zhou Chengyi had already sent out the first seven sections.
• The investigators found all seven sections in Zhou Chengyi's handwriting, confirmed the evidence against Liu Shiyu, and prepared to leave with the books.
• After Chen Ji returned a ginseng root and a book to their places, Dark Cloud secretly took both and escaped through a gap into the night.