Recaps

Chang Dafeng took Ding Ling to the river and explained that the village’s mirrored banks made escape impossible, then admitted he had lied about the threat in Daliangzi Village. As Ding Ling heard a familiar voice calling her and reciting an opera passage, her resentment faded.

• Chang Dafeng scrubbed his rotten, bluish-gray arm in the river and complained that Ding Ling’s Mindfulness had resisted his Gate of Opening Malefic Force.
• Chang Dafeng taunted Ding Ling about her lost spirit, while she briefly retorted that he was the one whose lover had died.
• Chang Dafeng pointed out that the opposite bank mirrored their side and warned Ding Ling that crossing the river would bring her back to where she started.
• Chang Dafeng admitted that the threat in Daliangzi Village was neither a Puppet nor a group of Puppets, and claimed he had lied to keep the others from panicking.
• Ding Ling heard someone call her name, resisted answering, then lost her grievances when he recited an apology from an opera.

Zhou Yang sang Ding Ling an unfamiliar operatic song that he hoped could hold the Opera Ghost spellbound, but first he cleared up the hurt caused by his sudden departure. Ding Ling listened closely when he sang it again, leaving Zhou Yang with hope that the song might help them escape.

• Ding Ling blushed at Zhou Yang’s opening lines, then admitted the new operatic song sounded fresh but showed little interest.
• Zhou Yang realized Ding Ling resented him for leaving her alone when the Opera Ghost threatened her.
• Zhou Yang explained that he had left because he faced a deadly predicament of his own, and Ding Ling apologized for blaming him.
• Zhou Yang sang the passage again, and Ding Ling became absorbed in it.

Ding Ling learned that Chang Dafeng’s Gate of Rest Averting God was connected to a real ghost called Daliao, which had helped him escape the Opera Ghost at the cost of his arm. She agreed to perform “Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister” with Chang Dafeng, while she and Zhou Yang planned to stage “Wujia Slope” within the performance; they returned to the opera troupe’s camp to prepare.

• Ding Ling became absorbed in thoughts about Wang Baochuan and Xue Pinggui until Chang Dafeng shouted her back to attention.
• Chang Dafeng admitted that the being occupying Daliangzi Village was the Opera Ghost and said he had summoned the Gate of Rest Averting God to escape it, losing his left arm in the process.
• Ding Ling told Zhou Yang that Chang Dafeng’s Gate of Rest Averting God was connected to a real ghost named Daliao, a dead funeral worker who drained the vitality of the living.
• Zhou Yang told Ding Ling to agree to perform “Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister” with Chang Dafeng and proposed staging “Wujia Slope” within the opera.
• Chang Dafeng released Ding Ling from the Bloated Aspect’s control, and the two returned to the opera troupe’s camp on the ridge.

Ding Ling and Chang Dafeng prepared to use their opera performance to distract the dead of Daliangzi Village and escape across the river. As the show began, the silent corpse-villagers gathered before the stage, leaving the performers surrounded by the dead.

• Chang Dafeng explained that he would use his Averting God to possess a straw man dressed as a military general and serve as Ding Ling’s attendant.
• Chang Dafeng reviewed the escape plan: Ding Ling would sing Pink Butterfly, perform Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister with him, then lead him to the river and across the bridge.
• Chang Dafeng warned Ding Ling that the Opera Ghost and other dead villagers carrying Ghost Rhyme would come to watch, and that she must perform without error.
• At dusk, Ding Ling beat the gongs and drums to summon the dead while Zhou Yang watched from behind the curtain and Da Le possessed the straw man.
• Corpse-villagers arrived with stools and silently gathered around the stage, including a grotesquely bloated man, a woman whose head nearly fell off, and their children.

Ding Ling and Zhou Yang prepared to perform Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister for the dead of Daliang Village, while the Opera Ghost demonstrated that it could imitate even an unsung passage. When the appointed hour arrived, Da Le took the stage as the Lantern Ghost and Ding Ling entered as Zhong Kui.

• The dead gathered before the stage and used their Ghost Rhyme and knee-slapping to demand that the opera begin early.
• Ding Ling sang a passage from The Drunken Imperial Consort behind the curtain, calming the ghosts, but Zhou Yang heard the Opera Ghost sing the rest of the tune in Ding Ling's voice.
• Zhou Yang warned Ding Ling to steady herself and conserve her strength until the performance began at the fourth quarter of the hour of the dog.
• Da Le lit the Ghost Candle in its lantern and went onto the stage as the Lantern Ghost to clear the way for Zhong Kui.
• Ding Ling strode onto the stage as Zhong Kui as drums and music began.

Ding Ling opened her first Gate while performing as Zhong Kui, and she and Chang Dafeng began the ghostly procession from the courtyard toward the bridge. As the dead villagers joined their song, a sinister hand reached Zhong Kui from behind, untouched by the Ghost Candle.

• Ding Ling performed Zhong Kui’s journey home, opened her first Gate, and used her averting spirit to burn away the foul blood and silence the dead audience.
• Da Le Averting cleared a path through the corpses, and Ding Ling followed the lantern ghost from the stage to the courtyard while the Ghost Candle burned rapidly down.
• Chang Dafeng appeared as Zhong Mei, met Ding Ling’s Zhong Kui at the door, and began the opera’s marriage procession with her.
• Da Le Averting led Ding Ling and Chang Dafeng onto the village road as the dead villagers lined up and joined the opera’s song.
• A foul-smelling, withered hand landed on Zhong Kui’s shoulder, and the Ghost Candle’s flame failed to burn it.

Ding Ling and her companions struggled against the Opera Ghost as they led Zhong Kui’s wedding procession through a crowd of dead villagers. After the ghost began calling for “Ding Niang’er,” Ding Ling lost sight of the road, and Zhou Yang used his Mindfulness to send out a Supernatural Ripple.

• The Opera Ghost’s hand tore through the Ghost Candle’s protective fire and tried to pull Ding Ling from the procession.
• Chang Dafeng urged Ding Ling to keep walking, and the Da Le Averting God burned the corpse gripping her shoulder with its lantern, freeing her.
• The dead villagers linked together to extinguish the ghostly fire, then sang mournfully and called for “Ding Niang’er.”
• Ding Ling told Zhou Yang that the Opera Lady in the ruined house had been called Ding Jiu.
• The Ghost Rhyme obscured Ding Ling’s sight and pushed her toward the cries, so Zhou Yang warned her not to let the ghost call her away and released a Supernatural Ripple.

Zhou Yang and Ding Ling escaped the dead villagers’ trap when Chang Dafeng used the straw figure’s sun-shielding paper to make the corpses bow to it. They left Daliang Village, but the ghost Da Le caught up with Chang Dafeng by the river, where a face formed on another sheet of sun-shielding paper.

• Zhou Yang combined his Mindfulness with Ding Ling’s to break the Ghost Rhyme’s hold and free her from the darkness.
• Chang Dafeng called the ghost Da Le “senior brother,” and corpse fluid formed a Zhong Kui mask and Chang Dafeng’s face on the straw figure’s sun-shielding paper.
• The dead villagers reached for the paper, then fell to their knees and mourned it as their parents, while their own faces rotted beneath sun-shielding paper.
• Chang Dafeng led Ding Ling away from the village toward the river, and Zhou Yang asked about Chang Dafeng’s history of playing female roles and whether he had ever married.
• The ghost Da Le’s yellow shadow rushed past, and Chang Dafeng joyfully greeted his senior brother as a face formed on a sheet of sun-shielding paper before him.

Chang Dafeng led Ding Ling and Zhou Yang to the bridge and revealed that Ding Ling was meant to guard the Rear Slaughter Gate, while Ghost Da Le attacked her. Zhou Yang regained his senses through his connection with Ding Ling, but she could no longer speak, leaving their survival uncertain.

• Ghost Da Le slipped beneath Chang Dafeng’s veil and ate part of his face while he stood motionless.
• Chang Dafeng and Ding Ling continued to the bridge, where Chang Dafeng unexpectedly declared that Ding Ling would guard the Rear Slaughter Gate and hold back the Gate of Death.
• Zhou Yang used his Supernatural Ripple to block Chang Dafeng’s Bloated Aspect Averting God, but Ghost Da Le struck Ding Ling with yellow paper and spread its Ghost Rhyme through her body.
• Zhou Yang lost his senses when Ding Ling stiffened, then regained perception after she answered him through their connection.
• Zhou Yang saw that Chang Dafeng’s face had rotted and both his arms hung limp, while Ding Ling told him that she could no longer speak.

Zhou Yang refused to abandon Ding Ling and learned that Chang Dafeng intended to use her in an attempt to revive his senior brother. Zhou Yang and Ding Ling combined their powers to resist, but the ghost Da Le suppressed their attempt to chant the Health Preservation Scripture.

• Ding Ling confessed her wish to see Zhou Yang before dying and urged him to leave her behind.
• Zhou Yang refused to leave and vowed that he and Ding Ling would either survive or die together.
• Chang Dafeng explained that entangling two ghosts could open the Gate of Life and revealed his plan to revive his senior brother through Passing Through the Yin Body.
• Zhou Yang joined his thoughts with Ding Ling's, activated Breathing of the Ghost, and used their combined Mindfulness to make the Ghost Mouths chant the Health Preservation Scripture.
• Zhou Yang glimpsed a black-covered statue in a vision before Chang Dafeng interrupted and declared that becoming a ghost required a ritual.
• The ghost Da Le suppressed the Ghost Mouths on Ding Ling's body and forced them shut.

Zhou Yang and Ding Ling were trapped as the Opera Ghost’s Ghost Rhyme began turning Ding Ling into a paper figure, while Chang Dafeng used his singing to manipulate the Opera Ghost and Ghost Da Le. Chang Dafeng’s plan partially worked, but Ghost Da Le began changing its face into Zhong Kui’s mask and forming a third face resembling his senior brother.

• Zhou Yang reflected that reciting the Livestock Raising Scripture had shown him indistinct scenes, and Ding Ling asked whether he would befriend a principled ghost; he said he would.
• Chang Dafeng sensed the Opera Ghost’s arrival as it sang and placed an icy hand on Ding Ling, whose body began turning into a paper figure under its Ghost Rhyme.
• Ghost Da Le’s Ghost Rhyme clashed with the Opera Ghost’s, and Chang Dafeng saw the Opera Ghost’s face appear beside his senior brother’s on the sunshade paper.
• Chang Dafeng sang from Farewell My Concubine, drawing out the Opera Ghost’s Ghost Rhyme until it overwhelmed Ghost Da Le and changed both faces on the paper to resemble the Opera Ghost.
• Chang Dafeng sang Zhong Kui’s lines and changed his own face into Zhong Kui’s mask, but the Opera Ghost could not change its face; Ghost Da Le then began forming the mask and a third face resembling Chang Dafeng’s senior brother.

Chang Dafeng sacrificed his life to Ghost Da Le, freeing Ding Ling from the sunshade paper and allowing Zhou Yang to carry her out of Daliangzi Village. As they fled, Zhou Yang and Ding Ling found themselves surrounded by a crowd with the Opera Ghost’s face, demanding that they perform.

• Chang Dafeng realized Ding Ling was not his senior brother and died after deciding to use his remaining life to help her.
• Ghost Da Le used Chang Dafeng’s sacrifice to tear the sunshade paper from Ding Ling and hold off the Opera Ghost.
• Zhou Yang used Breathing of the Ghost and Supernatural Ripple to carry Ding Ling across the bridge and escape Daliangzi Village.
• Zhou Yang followed an angler toward an opera that seemed to lie ahead, then saw the same angler emerge from the darkness and point toward them.
• A crowd with identical rosy faces gathered around Zhou Yang and Ding Ling, clapping and urging Ding Ling to sing.

Zhou Yang and Ding Ling performed an opera to defeat the Opera Ghost, escaping its domain as it turned into a paper figure. Ding Ling asked Zhou Yang to tell her his full name and location, but he urged her to go, leaving her alone with her feelings and the opera’s final lines.

• Ding Ling washed off her makeup and played Wang Baochuan, while Zhou Yang used Mindfulness to make the Ghost Mouths sing as Xue Pinggui.
• Their performance moved the paper spectators to tears, and they became paper figures as the Opera Ghost repeated the opening lines.
• The Opera Ghost stiffened as its Ghost Rhyme returned to it, and warm light broke through the darkness, ending its domain.
• Ding Ling asked whether Wang Baochuan would reunite with Xue Pinggui and begged Zhou Yang to tell her his full name and whereabouts.
• Zhou Yang told Ding Ling to go without worry, and she wept as she recited the opera’s final lines alone.

After being expelled from Daliangzi Village, Zhou Yang returned to Guan Village and found that Ding Ling had become the Opera Lady and left him a debt of love. The chapter ended with Zhou Yang grieving for her and holding the paper cloak she had left behind until daybreak.

• Zhou Yang was swept out of Daliangzi Village as the Knife Credit Ledger recorded that he had disturbed the Zhan and that Ding Ling answered that she had no regrets.
• Zhou Yang awoke in Guan Village after only a little over two hours had passed and found the ledger’s second page stained with blood.
• The Knife Credit Ledger declared that Zhou Yang owed Ding Ling a debt of love and recorded that she had left him a paper garment.
• Zhou Yang wondered how Ding Ling had become the Opera Lady and reasoned that the role was connected to the Zhan but distinct from the Opera Ghost.
• Zhou Yang saw that Ding Ling had preserved her abilities in the ledger and read the blessings she had sewn into the paper cloak.
• Zhou Yang held the cloak and sat grieving for Ding Ling until daybreak.

Zhou Yang used the paper garment and his sincerity to soften Huang Shaozi, then learned more about Zhou Heigou’s routine in the fields. When he asked for another job, Huang Shaozi assigned him to guard the fire tower, a dangerous night duty linked to many deaths.

• Zhou Yang noticed that Zhou Laogou and Huang Shaozi treated him more warmly, likely because of Ding Ling’s paper garment.
• Zhou Yang shared Heigou’s meal with Huang Shaozi and questioned her about Heigou’s daily work in the fields.
• Huang Shaozi revealed that Zhou Heigou watched the fields every day and that Zhou Laogou sometimes joined him there.
• Zhou Yang asked Huang Shaozi to help him find another job so he could earn enough paper copper coins.
• Huang Shaozi arranged for Zhou Yang to guard the fire tower in three days, leaving him alarmed because the night job had been tied to many deaths.

Zhou Yang realized Guan Village might be correcting anyone who threatened its control, but accepted the dangerous fire-tower job to use it as a chance to learn about the village’s entrance. At A Fu’s smithy, he assessed his growing Mindfulness and wondered whether A Fu had condensed an Upright Heart.

• Zhou Yang refused Huang Shaozi’s order to guard the fire tower, testing her tolerance, but agreed after she insisted and asked that his big brother help him.
• Zhou Yang walked through the villagers’ welcoming facade and considered how he might escape Guan Village.
• Zhou Yang went to A Fu’s smithy, found A Fu absent, and began smelting scrap iron as instructed.
• Zhou Yang felt eight distinct strands of Mindfulness and considered how to condense an Upright Heart after passing nine.
• Zhou Yang saw no sign of A Fu and wondered whether A Fu had used an Upright Heart to tether a ghost.

Zhou Yang completed a step in the Gate of Opening Ritual for Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting while A Fu was away, after checking the smithy for Ghost Rhyme. A Fu returned unexpectedly and questioned Zhou Yang about wandering around his property, leaving Zhou Yang to deny it.

• Zhou Yang forged scrap iron, and Chang Dafeng’s remnant image filled in the opening paragraph of a new story in the Knife Credit Ledger.
• Zhou Yang prepared Cao Qing’s deathly earth and bloodstained name-strip, carefully following the ritual’s steps rather than rushing them.
• Zhou Yang used the Supernatural Ripple to check the shed for Ghost Rhyme but found none.
• Zhou Yang burned Cao Qing’s name-strip and mixed its ashes into the earth while A Fu was away.
• A Fu returned and asked why Zhou Yang was not working and had been wandering around his place; Zhou Yang denied wandering.

Zhou Yang concealed his independence from A Fu while learning about the ninth layer of Breathing of the Ghost and its possible supernatural abilities. After Zhou Yang left, the real A Fu returned to the shed and dealt with black hair growing from the flayed figure’s chest.

• A Fu questioned Zhou Yang about his morning work, but Zhou Yang recognized that the questioning was a bluff and decided to keep wearing Ding Ling’s paper clothes.
• While they forged iron, Zhou Yang pretended to remain under A Fu’s control as A Fu explained that the ninth layer of the Right Mindfulness Lock could produce either a Phantom-Grown Limb or a Supernatural Ripple.
• A Fu warned that further Breathing of the Ghost methods might let Zhou Yang use his skin to wrap a ghost, prompting Zhou Yang to wonder whether A Fu had already condensed an Upright Heart.
• A stiff, false version of A Fu waved Zhou Yang away from the gatehouse, then shriveled and vanished behind its doors after he left.
• The flayed figure burned the black hair growing from its chest with a red-hot iron, then put on its yellow skin and became a sagging, numb A Fu.

Zhou Yang investigated the fire tower and gathered the final words of dead people who had guarded it, learning how dangerous each night watch could be. He left for A Fu’s house considering the dead official slave’s account of Guan Village and the mysterious dawn that had killed him.

• Zhou Yang went to the village entrance at dawn and examined the fire tower, where lingering shadows warned him about being eaten by patrols and other families.
• One shadow described how guards faced danger across four night watches, including a midnight feast and a sudden dawn that exposed its body after its soul hid.
• The shadow revealed that it had been an official slave who entered Guan Village as Third Cui, learned the Cui family’s Possession Method, and hoped to pass the Revelation Ceremony.
• Zhou Yang walked toward A Fu’s house, pondering the Fanhe Burial Ground, the families’ methods, and what caused the fourth watch’s deadly dawn.

Zhou Yang stayed home from A Fu’s closed smithy, sharpened tools while recording a ghost story in the Knife Credit Ledger, and prepared to open the gate to create a zhen. He used Ding Ling’s paper clothes to conceal his room, then cut open the false belly at the Wei hour, spilling blood and intestines as the ritual began.

• Zhou Yang found A Fu’s smithy shut, returned home, and noticed Huang Shaozi’s reaction to his unexpected arrival.
• Zhou Yang sharpened iron and household tools as lingering shadows entered the Knife Credit Ledger, which revealed a story about a golden pagoda that transformed and drew women to couple with it.
• Huang Shaozi left Zhou Yang alone at home, but he decided not to search the other rooms and instead prepared for his ritual.
• Zhou Yang discovered that Ding Ling’s paper clothes could expand to cover his room, then retrieved his paper money and false belly from beneath the water vat.
• At the Wei hour, Zhou Yang adopted Gongsun Yan’s righteous bearing, recited opera lines, and slashed open the false belly, spilling its bloody intestines.

Zhou Yang completed the Gate of Opening ritual and created the Ghost Head Averting God, then used its abilities to evade a surprise inspection by his family. The averting god revealed it could detect the dead and transform Zhou Yang into another living person, leaving him disguised as Zhou Heigou.

• Zhou Yang used Supernatural Ripples and his Ghost Mouths to trap the ghostly shadows in the fake belly, burned it, and drank the ashes to complete the Gate of Opening ritual.
• Zhou Yang created the Ghost Head Averting God, which could smell deathly auras and warn him when ghosts or gods watched him.
• The Ghost Head Averting God sensed the Zhou family approaching, so Zhou Yang hid it and pretended to have been resting when Huang Shaozi, Zhou Laogou, and Zhou Heigou entered his room.
• Huang Shaozi rebuked Zhou Heigou for suspecting Zhou Yang, while Zhou Laogou shielded Heigou and ordered him to apologize.
• After his family left, Zhou Yang discovered that the Ghost Head Averting God could copy a living person's appearance and used its power with his paper clothing to transform into Zhou Heigou.

Zhou Yang Imprinted Ding Ling’s Averting God ability and discovered that Huang Shaozi’s feelings toward him had changed after he showed her genuine emotion. Though Huang Shaozi could not cancel his fire-tower assignment, she gave him a wrapped object for protection, and Zhou Yang left disguised as Zhou Heigou to follow him to the fields.

• Zhou Yang used ten deeds of Good Karma to Imprint Ding Ling’s Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting ability onto his Ghost Head Averting God, then declined to Imprint her Right Mindfulness Lock.
• Zhou Heigou tried to turn Huang Shaozi against Zhou Yang, but she defended her son and later cursed Zhou Laogou while chopping in the woodshed.
• Zhou Yang spoke sincerely to Huang Shaozi, who embraced him and gave him a cloth-wrapped object to use while guarding the fire tower.
• Huang Shaozi refused to cancel Zhou Yang’s assignment but let him leave without breakfast, and he disguised himself as Zhou Heigou and followed his faint living qi toward the fields.

Zhou Yang secretly watched Zhou Heigou let Zhou Laogou eat viscera from a strange, regenerating stomach on his belly, then escaped notice and continued toward A Fu’s house. He carried Huang Shaozi’s bloodstained straw effigy and approached A Fu, intending to ask about guarding the fire tower.

• Zhou Yang avoided haunted Guo Family Alley and crossed Guan Village’s strange crop fields, where green rice stood upright despite the approaching harvest.
• Using Zhou Heigou’s life aura to disguise himself, Zhou Yang hid near the fields and watched Zhou Heigou feed Zhou Laogou from a gash in his abdomen.
• Zhou Yang realized a purplish patch on Zhou Heigou’s belly concealed a stomach that could produce viscera, possibly as preparation for the Revelation Ceremony.
• When Zhou Heigou falsely pointed out a supposed intruder, Zhou Yang stayed hidden, and Zhou Laogou searched elsewhere without finding him.
• Zhou Yang opened Huang Shaozi’s bundle, inspected the bloodstained straw effigy bearing his name, and put it away again.
• Zhou Yang saw A Fu watching him from his courtyard and approached, planning to ask about guarding the fire tower.

Zhou Yang worked for A Fu while probing him about the danger of guarding the fire tower, which he was scheduled to do the following night. A Fu warned him that the first day would be deadly and gave him a white paper banner, leaving Zhou Yang outwardly grateful but wary of A Fu’s motives.

• Zhou Yang visited A Fu and learned that only nine days remained before the Revelation Ceremony, while A Fu urged him to work longer so he could afford grease.
• Zhou Yang refused A Fu’s request for extra hours by claiming his mother would not let him return home late.
• While working, Zhou Yang told A Fu he would guard the fire tower the next night and asked about the danger; A Fu hinted that living people like Zhou Yang might not return.
• A Fu warned Zhou Yang that the night and the first day afterward would be dangerous, then gave him a white paper banner to wear and told him to call A Fu’s name in his heart.
• Zhou Yang recognized that A Fu had deliberately made him anxious before offering help, but he pretended to be grateful and left with the banner.

Zhou Yang accompanied Zhou Baigou to the fire tower and discovered that the villagers’ introductions restored a web of old relationships among the ghosts wearing their identities. After confronting Cui He over a past grudge, Zhou Yang arranged to meet him at Old Zhang’s ruined houses the next day.

• Huang Shaozi warned Zhou Yang to return home if he faced danger, while Zhou Heigou urged him to stay near the fire tower and come back safely.
• Zhou Yang and Zhou Baigou reached the fire tower, where Wang Guiren, Cui Zhu, Cui He, and the other watchmen introduced themselves and resumed old connections.
• Zhou Yang realized the villagers were ghosts whose assumed names unlocked fixed histories of friendships, promises, and disputes.
• Cui He confronted Zhou Yang over a missed fight at Old Zhang’s ruined houses, and Zhou Yang challenged him to meet there the next day.
• Zhou Baigou rushed to defend Zhou Yang, with Xiao Fei following, and Cui He backed off before accepting the challenge.
• Zhou Yang used the Ghost Head Averting God to identify the living people among the ghosts and considered fishing as a way to grow closer to Zhou Baigou.