Recaps

Zhou Yang uncovered A Fu’s ghostly cultivation method in Guan Village while guiding Ding Ling through the troupe’s dangerous encounters in Daliang Village. The arc ended with an unseen force choosing an opera and a corpse-bloated figure appearing behind Chang Dafeng.

• Zhou Yang completed “Performing for Ghosts and Gods,” sold a blade to Ding Ling through the Knife Credit Ledger, and began influencing her from within her thoughts.
• Ding Ling challenged Chang Dafeng’s demand that she perform Combing Hair at Midnight, learned the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting, and used Zhou Yang’s help to break a ghost’s hold on her.
• Ding Ling saw a web of Puppet Threads in the mirror, while Chang Dafeng concealed the presence of many puppets from the troupe.
• Zhou Yang learned A Fu’s Breathing of the Ghost, resisted A Fu’s attempt to control him, and discovered that A Fu had killed Cao Qing while cultivating him.
• Zhou Yang practiced Breathing of the Ghost and strengthened his Right Mindfulness Lock as he and Ding Ling investigated the strange differences between Guan Village and Daliang Village.
• Ding Ling, Gao Hongbo, and Li Yichun encountered a ghost at a stone house, and Zhou Yang pulled Ding Ling back from its influence as ghost mouths opened across her arms.
• Chang Dafeng prepared the troupe for Inviting Ghosts to Choose an Opera, while Ding Ling prepared the roe deer hide and intestines for her Gate of Opening.
• During the selection, an unknown force pulled the troupe’s linked fists toward one opera, but Chang Dafeng and Ding Ling redirected them toward Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister before a corpse-bloated figure appeared and their thumbs were crushed.

Zhou Yang and Ding Ling survived ghost attacks, learned Chang Dafeng’s ritual, and escaped his attempt to control Ding Ling before encountering the Opera Ghost. After waking in Guan Village, Zhou Yang used Ding Ling’s progress to strengthen his own abilities and uncovered which members of the Zhou family were ghosts.

• Zhou Yang and Ding Ling joined Chang Dafeng in defeating the attacking corpses, and Chang Dafeng killed Qian Heng after he confessed to sacrificing Shitou and following the Quail Fair ritual.
• Chang Dafeng explained Guan Village’s Official Bodies and taught Ding Ling the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting while insisting that she perform Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister.
• Ding Ling formed a Gate of Opening Averting God with Zhou Yang’s help, and Chang Dafeng secretly tainted it to control her.
• Zhou Yang helped Ding Ling escape into Daliang Village, erased Chang Dafeng’s suppression curse, and taught her Breathing of the Ghost, which she mastered through opera.
• Zhou Yang and Ding Ling discovered damaged paper figures and suspicious ancestral records before an encounter with the Opera Ghost blacked out Zhou Yang’s vision.
• Zhou Yang woke in Guan Village, evaded Huang Shaozi’s probing, and found reassurance in Ding Ling’s increased Mindfulness recorded in the Knife Credit Ledger.
• Zhou Yang collected soil from Cao Qing’s death site, absorbed Qian Heng’s and Li Yichun’s lingering images through the ledger, and copied the Zhou family’s eating habits to conceal himself.
• Zhou Yang imprinted Ding Ling’s Breathing of the Ghost, gained handprint ripples that erased Ghost Rhyme, and identified Huang Shaozi, Zhou Laogou, and Zhou Baigou as ghosts while determining that Zhou Heigou was not.

Zhou Yang and Ding Ling escaped the Opera Ghost’s domain, but Ding Ling remained behind and left Zhou Yang her paper garment. Back in Guan Village, Zhou Yang strengthened his ghostly abilities and accepted a dangerous fire tower watch as the Revelation Ceremony approached.

• Chang Dafeng revealed that the Opera Ghost haunted Daliangzi Village, and he and Ding Ling staged an opera to escape while Zhou Yang helped her resist the ghosts’ calls.
• Chang Dafeng sacrificed himself to help Zhou Yang carry Ding Ling across the bridge, but the Opera Ghost’s domain trapped them in another performance, and their play weakened the ghost and ended its domain.
• The Knife Credit Ledger recorded Ding Ling’s farewell and her paper garment for Zhou Yang, who grieved for her before returning to life in Guan Village.
• Zhou Yang took work at A Fu’s smithy, advanced his Mindfulness, and completed a ritual that created the Ghost Head Averting God.
• Zhou Yang used Ding Ling’s Ghost Painting ability to empower his new averting god and disguised himself as Zhou Heigou to investigate the family and the fields.
• A Fu warned Zhou Yang about guarding the fire tower and gave him a white paper banner, while Huang Shaozi and Zhou Heigou also urged him to return safely.
• At the fire tower, Zhou Yang met the watchmen and realized that the villagers were ghosts bound to histories attached to their assumed names, and he challenged Cui He to a fight the next day.

Zhou Yang survived Guan Village’s night watches, learned more about the Revelation Ceremony, and entered Aji’s body through the Knife Credit Ledger. As he joined Gonpo’s corpse-dissection community, he discovered that the supposedly dead Zhuoma was moving inside her burial bag.

• Zhou Yang concealed himself among Guan Village’s villagers during the Patrol Team’s shift change, then helped Cui He and Cui Zhu evade exposure before dawn’s white light returned souls to their bodies.
• Zhou Yang tested A Fu’s white paper banner and gained the Fat Mirror Lamp ripple, then absorbed the white light until he condensed his ninth strand of Mindfulness.
• Zhou Yang learned from Luan Xiaofeng and You Chuntian about the lethal Revelation Ceremony and told them to prepare with fat paste and Flesh Bodhisattva Bodies.
• Zhou Yang returned to A Fu’s smithy, forged a knife that made Aji his Karmic Retribution Body, and awoke in Aji’s body as Döden and Zhuoma tried to summon him back.
• Zhou Yang took on Aji’s identity after the Master of Zhandui seized the family’s home and belongings, then left with Zhuoma to stay with Gonpo near Narong Charnel Ground.
• Zhou Yang agreed to become Gonpo’s apprentice and learn sky burial, but felt uneasy when Naren and Quzeng brought a skinless girl’s body that Deqin insisted was dead naturally.
• Zhou Yang carried Zhuoma’s body toward the stone platform, heard the bag gurgle, and shouted that she was alive as Gonpo, Deqin, and the Naren Brothers stared in horror.