Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yang worked at A Fu’s smithy while the Knife Credit Ledger absorbed a lingering image from Crooked Lane. He learned that the dead man was Cao Qing, who had been killed after trying to escape Guan Village, and the ledger completed its story as Zhou Yang faced the approaching Revelation Ceremony.

• Zhou Yang collected a black wisp from a figure trapped in a wall, adding it to the incomplete story “Performing for Ghosts and Gods” in the Knife Credit Ledger.
• Zhou Yang saw what appeared to be a human skin hanging from an old locust tree, then followed A Fu into the smithy and suspected that A Fu was a human skin leaking corpse oil.
• A Fu told Zhou Yang to save money for thirty jin of grease before the Revelation Ceremony, which he described as opening children up to reveal what they were like inside and out.
• A Fu questioned Zhou Yang about fleeing Guan Village and said Cao Qing had been scouting for a way out; Zhou Yang stayed quiet and later sharpened a strip of iron while waiting for A Fu to leave.
• The lingering image at Zhou Yang’s feet revealed that Cao Qing had begged A Fu not to wall him up or take him to the Revelation Ceremony before he died with his organs removed.
• Zhou Yang checked the Knife Credit Ledger and found that the story “Performing for Ghosts and Gods” was complete.

Zhou Yang learned that the Knife Credit Ledger could let him sell a blade on credit to Ding Ling, who would become his Karmic Retribution Body, but he postponed the transaction until he could investigate it safely. He continued working in Guan Village, where he relied on the dead’s last words and a carefully maintained persona to avoid drawing suspicion, and left the smithy by a different route.

• Zhou Yang read the Ledger’s unfinished story about Ding Ling and learned that selling her a blade on credit could resolve her crisis and make her his Karmic Retribution Body.
• Zhou Yang hid the Ledger and blade, deciding not to make the sale while A Fu was nearby.
• A Fu returned, assigned Zhou Yang to melt scrap iron into ingots, and told him to begin learning to swing the sledgehammer the next day.
• Zhou Yang helped A Fu work and watched him handle red-hot iron with his bare hand without being burned.
• After work, Zhou Yang took a different route home to avoid appearing to scout an escape from Guan Village.

Zhou Yang endured the hostility of his supposed family in Guan Village while preparing to sell a knife on credit to Ding Ling. After reviewing the Knife Credit Ledger and waiting until night, he willed the sale, and the blade shot into the ledger.

• Zhou Yang returned to the Zhou household and withdrew to his room, where he checked his Knife Credit Ledger.
• Huang Shaozi brought Zhou Yang scraps for dinner and reminded him that he was expected to die at the Revelation Ceremony in half a month.
• Zhou Heigou inspected Zhou Yang’s meal and suggested keeping him hungry so he would be too weak to act.
• Zhou Yang ate, washed his dishes, and noticed Zhou Baigou watching him in the dim yard.
• Zhou Yang opened the ledger and willed the knife sale to Ding Ling, sending the blade into the page as a streak of white light.

Zhou Yang learned that the poor blade he sold to Ding Ling would make her life dangerous and limit his ability to imprint her powers. He woke inside Ding Ling’s body in Daliang Village as the Lampstand Opera Troupe discussed her illness and the village’s apparent haunting, leaving both Zhou Yang and Ding Ling aware of the strange presence they shared.

• The Knife Credit Ledger revealed that Zhou Yang could imprint abilities from Ding Ling, but the weak blade would make the imprint ineffective and put their connection at risk.
• Zhou Yang fell asleep, then woke to hear three members of the Lampstand Opera Troupe complaining about the village’s strange condition and Ding Ling’s worsening illness.
• The troupe members said Troupe Leader Chang Dafeng had been searching the village but had not explained what was happening.
• Zhou Yang realized that Ding Ling’s body was female, and his touch triggered her startled reaction.
• Ding Ling opened her eyes, while she wondered whether the male voice in her head was real and Zhou Yang considered how to speak to her.

Zhou Yang listened as Chang Dafeng told the opera troupe that a ghost or gui haunted Daliang Village and explained how to use Combing Hair at Midnight to reveal its form. Chang chose Ding Ling to perform the dangerous ritual, and Zhou Yang answered her silent question about refusing him.

• Chang Dafeng confirmed that the troupe had encountered something supernatural and warned that their bound feet made escape impossible.
• Chang Dafeng explained that the troupe might drive away a gui by performing an opera, but they had little hope against a ghost.
• Chang Dafeng introduced Combing Hair at Midnight as a way to see a ghost's true form and gave Ding Ling instructions to perform it at midnight.
• The troupe members stayed silent as Ding Ling realized they expected her to take the risk, and she wondered whether she could refuse Chang Dafeng.
• Zhou Yang recognized Ding Ling's silent question and answered her, asking whether she could refuse him.

Zhou Yang advised Ding Ling to refuse Chang Dafeng’s midnight ghost ritual and demand the troupe’s opera technique for communicating with the divine. Ding Ling threatened suicide to gain leverage, and Chang Dafeng invited her to name what she wanted in exchange for performing the ritual.

• Zhou Yang encouraged Ding Ling to decide whether she could refuse the troupe’s request and suggested she ask Chang Dafeng for the secret technique of communicating with the divine through opera.
• Ding Ling took a hairpin and pressed it to her neck, threatening to kill herself rather than comb her hair at midnight to see a ghost.
• Ding Ling told the troupe members she would rather die and become a ghost than risk being left without a body, frightening the gathered performers.
• Zhou Yang took control of Ding Ling’s body when Chang Dafeng fixed her with an intense stare.
• Chang Dafeng explained why women were barred from performing opera, praised Ding Ling’s toughness, and asked what she wanted in exchange for undertaking the ritual.

Zhou Yang, possessing Ding Ling, demanded that Chang Dafeng teach him the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting before he faced the ghost. Chang Dafeng revealed a Ghost Candle and challenged Ding Ling to light it with her gaze, promising to teach her the art if she succeeded.

• Ding Ling asked Chang Dafeng for the method of letting opera take possession of someone and commune with the divine, and he promised to teach her the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting after the ghost matter was handled.
• Zhou Yang insisted on learning the art first and warned Chang Dafeng not to give him a fake or delay him with claims about years of basic training.
• Chang Dafeng's glare made the troupe members panic, but Zhou Yang endured it and realized his strong Mindfulness helped him resist the technique.
• Chang Dafeng sent everyone else out, retrieved a bone Ghost Candle, and demonstrated that he could light it with his eyes.
• Chang Dafeng challenged Ding Ling to light the Ghost Candle and promised to teach her the art and make her his heir if she succeeded; otherwise, he said she would still be sent to face the ghost.

Zhou Yang used Ding Ling to light Chang Dafeng’s ghost candle and forced him to hand over the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting. After Chang Dafeng left, Ding Ling realized Zhou Yang could control her body and asked whether he would stay by her side as they faced the dangers ahead.

• Zhou Yang imagined the ghost candle bursting into flame, and its wick lit with eerie green fire.
• Chang Dafeng extinguished the candle, then gave Ding Ling the divine painting containing the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting.
• Chang Dafeng warned Ding Ling not to use the painting’s methods on the method for seeing ghosts and left her alone until midnight.
• Ding Ling realized Zhou Yang had controlled her body and asked him to explain their connection.
• Zhou Yang reassured Ding Ling that they would face future trials together, then protested when she asked what would happen when she went to the latrine.

Ding Ling and Zhou Yang studied the dangerous Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting, and Zhou Yang warned her not to practice it without him. As Chang Dafeng explained how to identify kui and ghosts in a spirit-channeling mirror, Zhou Yang asked about a presence with neither telltale sign, and Chang Dafeng panicked.

• Ding Ling examined the draft on the back of the divine painting, and Zhou Yang explained its Eight Gates and operatic practices to her.
• Ding Ling proved she had memorized the draft, and Zhou Yang warned her never to practice it alone because ghosts could harm her.
• Chang Dafeng explained that the villagers were suffering soul loss and warned the troupe that the dead could return as kui.
• Chang Dafeng told Ding Ling how to distinguish kui by threadlike energies from ghosts surrounded by rippling Ghost Rhyme in a spirit-channeling mirror.
• Zhou Yang asked what it meant if a ghost showed neither sign, and Chang Dafeng fearfully insisted that such a ghost could not be there.

Ding Ling performed the midnight mirror ritual while Zhou Yang guided her, but the ghost’s arrival caused her Mindfulness to plunge. Zhou Yang chose to stay with her as a terrifying operatic voice spoke through her.

• Chang Dafeng and the others withdrew to the side room, leaving Ding Ling alone to face the mirror at midnight.
• Zhou Yang counted Ding Ling’s comb strokes and encouraged her to stay bold as she completed the ritual.
• After Ding Ling stopped combing and called for the presence three times, the room fell silent and Zhou Yang could no longer hear her thoughts.
• Zhou Yang saw Ding Ling’s Mindfulness fall below zero and realized he might be dragged down with her, but decided not to abandon her.
• A shrill operatic voice came from Ding Ling’s mouth, singing about breaking a leg bone, stretching human skin over a drum, and offering Pei Lang a heart.

Zhou Yang regained control of Ding Ling while ghosts in the dressing mirror ensnared her with bloody puppet strings. He tried to break the ritual by singing a curse and whipping the mirror.

• A ghostly opera bewitched Ding Ling as bloody strings appeared in the mirror and cut her face and hands.
• Zhou Yang recited lines from The Art of the Mind and forced his way through a closing door-like barrier to control Ding Ling’s body.
• Ding Ling’s hair continued singing as Zhou Yang saw ghosts trapped in a net of bloody strings inside the mirror.
• Zhou Yang checked the Knife Credit Ledger and found Ding Ling’s Mindfulness had risen to 6, while his own remained unaffected.
• Zhou Yang took a horsewhip, asked Ding Ling for an operatic curse, and sang as he struck at the mirror.

Zhou Yang broke the mirror that had let a ghost influence Ding Ling, then learned from her that the mirror contained many figures trapped among Puppet Threads. Chang Dafeng recognized Ding Ling’s escape as a sign of Mindfulness and questioned her, but Zhou Yang suddenly felt the world spin before he could answer.

• Zhou Yang swept the riding crop across the opera trunk, breaking the mirror and ending the ghost’s influence in the room.
• Ding Ling told Zhou Yang that she had seen many figures woven into a net of threads inside the mirror, and Zhou Yang urged her to warn Chang Dafeng that the village had multiple puppets.
• Ding Ling reassured Zhou Yang that she was brave enough to protect him, even after sensing that he had been frightened.
• Chang Dafeng saw that Ding Ling had escaped the ghost’s control and concluded that she possessed three or four strands of Mindfulness.
• Chang Dafeng entered the room and asked Ding Ling what she had seen in the mirror, but Zhou Yang felt the world spin before he could answer.

Ding Ling described the Puppet Threads and many figures in the mirror, but Chang Dafeng concealed the danger from the troupe and warned her not to frighten them. Zhou Yang woke in Guan Village to Huang Shaozi’s pounding and threats, and Huang Shaozi entered with the three Zhou men, who agreed that family should benefit before outsiders.

• Ding Ling heard pounding inside her head and worried that her benefactor had left, while Chang Dafeng demanded to know what she had seen in the mirror.
• Ding Ling described a web of threads and many figures, and Chang Dafeng identified the threads as Puppet Threads and claimed the ghost outside was a puppet.
• Chang Dafeng stopped Ding Ling from revealing that there were many puppets, warning that the troupe could not perform if the others learned the truth.
• Zhou Yang awoke in Guan Village to Huang Shaozi pounding on his door and shouting for him to get up.
• Zhou Yang composed himself and pretended to have just woken as Huang Shaozi broke through the door with Zhou Laogou, Zhou Heigou, and Zhou Baigou behind her.
• Huang Shaozi threatened Zhou Yang, then smiled at the three Zhou men, who echoed her claim that family should benefit before outsiders.

Zhou Yang defused Huang Shaozi’s suspicion by confronting her as an unloved son, then left the courtyard and began suspecting Zhou Heigou might be a living person. He discovered that the Knife Credit Ledger had unlocked the ability to imprint Ding Ling’s skills, but headed to A Fu’s smithy before he could study his experiences further.

• Zhou Yang challenged Huang Shaozi with questions about her treatment of him, prompting her to adopt a loving motherly persona and demand that he repay her kindness.
• Zhou Yang promised to be filial, then left for work while Zhou Heigou warned him to keep his word.
• Zhou Yang greeted Guan Village’s villagers by giving his name, then reasoned that Zhou Heigou’s personal hostility might mean he was human.
• Zhou Yang checked the Knife Credit Ledger and found three Good Karma and the newly available Imprinting ability, which could copy a portion of Ding Ling’s skills for one Good Karma each.
• Zhou Yang put the ledger away and continued toward A Fu’s courtyard, hoping to find time to think while working at the smithy.

Zhou Yang mistook A Fu washing a human skin for a ghostly scene, then worked through the morning at A Fu’s smithy while weighing the dangers of Guan Village. Exhausted, he opened the Knife Credit Ledger and saw a prompt asking whether to enter a knife sale.

• Zhou Yang entered A Fu’s courtyard, saw what looked like a bloody ghost washing human skin, and grabbed a shovel in fear.
• A Fu emerged from the hall, and Zhou Yang claimed he had come to level puddles in the road before A Fu sent him to work.
• Zhou Yang wondered whether A Fu and Guan Village’s residents were Puppets or ghosts, but decided he was not ready to use a mirror to see their true forms.
• A Fu gave Zhou Yang iron slag to smelt instead of teaching him blacksmithing, and Zhou Yang chose to finish the chores before asking about the craft.
• After A Fu left, Zhou Yang rested from the exhausting work and opened the Knife Credit Ledger, which displayed a prompt to enter a knife sale.

A Fu taught Zhou Yang the Breathing of the Ghost, which opened terrifying Ghost Mouths across his arms and gave him temporary strength at the cost of his flesh and blood. Zhou Yang resisted A Fu’s attempt to control his breathing, then accepted that he would learn the method while keeping his life in his own hands.

• Zhou Yang helped A Fu forge iron, and A Fu used the Revelation Ceremony to introduce the Breathing of the Ghost.
• A Fu caused Ghost Mouths to open across Zhou Yang’s arms and tried to teach him to control them through the Right Mindfulness Lock.
• Zhou Yang broke the skinned figure’s hold over his ghostly breath, formed a shadow of his own, and shut the Ghost Mouths.
• Zhou Yang confronted A Fu with a hammer and realized A Fu had killed Cao Qing but was keeping him alive to cultivate him.
• A Fu burned paper copper coins to replenish his strength, warned Zhou Yang not to teach the method, and left him his wages.
• Zhou Yang checked the Knife Credit Ledger and found Breathing of the Ghost: Right Mindfulness Lock (First Level) listed among his abilities.

Zhou Yang returned home, considered the dangers beyond Guan Village and the approaching Revelation Ceremony, then practiced Breathing of the Ghost. He raised Right Mindfulness Lock to the third layer and discovered that closing most of his Ghost Mouths reduced their paper-money consumption without diminishing his power.

• Zhou Yang found Huang Shaozi acting warmly toward him and learned that Zhou Laogou and his older brothers were working in the fields.
• After Huang Shaozi left to bring water to the men, Zhou Yang searched the courtyard and thought about why Zhou Laogou had warned him not to leave the village.
• Zhou Yang counted his paper money, calculated how much fat paste he needed for the Revelation Ceremony, and considered tanning his own skin as a fallback if he could not escape.
• Zhou Yang burned paper money and used its smoke to practice Breathing of the Ghost, opening Ghost Mouths across his arms, legs, chest, and abdomen.
• Zhou Yang saw that his Breathing of the Ghost had reached the third layer of Right Mindfulness Lock and found that closing most Ghost Mouths lowered their consumption without reducing his power.

Zhou Yang ate the ghosts’ food and discovered that his Ghost-Breathing skin could absorb nourishment from it, easing his weakness. He considered using Ghost Qi in the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting, noticed his Mindfulness had increased, and settled Ding Ling’s knife credit as he prepared to investigate Daliang Village.

• Huang Shaozi brought Zhou Yang a lavish meal of raw pig lung, blood, fat, and rice, and insisted on watching him eat.
• Zhou Yang found the ghost food delicious, ate it all, and realized his skin absorbed its chilling aura even though his body could not digest it.
• Zhou Yang suspected the meal had nourished him through his skin and considered combining Ghost Qi with the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting.
• Zhou Yang saw Zhou Baigou watching him in the courtyard, then found that his Mindfulness had risen from five to six in the Knife Credit Ledger.
• Zhou Yang considered teaching Ding Ling Ghost Breathing and investigating the flow of time and location between Guan Village and Daliang Village, then settled Ding Ling’s account.

Zhou Yang saw a mirror vision of a ghost disguised as a puppet before sinking into darkness. Meanwhile, Ding Ling went to gather firewood with Li Yichun and Gao Hongbo, who both tried to question her about the Opera Communion with Spirits method, and she heard her benefactor's voice answer her at the end.

• Zhou Yang saw a bloodstained female ghost in a mirror, recognized the circling threads around her as ghostly ripples, and lost consciousness in darkness.
• Ding Ling argued with Li Yichun as they set out to gather firewood, then refused to tell him about the Opera Communion with Spirits method.
• Gao Hongbo joined Ding Ling and Li Yichun, but Li Yichun signaled that Ding Ling was forbidden to discuss the method, and Gao Hongbo turned cold toward her.
• Ding Ling looked down at silent Daliang Village and called for her benefactor in her heart.
• Ding Ling's benefactor answered that he had already come back, and she smiled with joy.

Zhou Yang learned that Chang Dafeng had concealed the mirror’s revelation and was suspicious of his intentions toward Ding Ling. He discovered the troupe planned to let the ghost choose their opera that night, before performing for it three days later.

• Zhou Yang returned to Ding Ling’s thoughts and noticed that morning had arrived in Daliang Village while Guan Village was still dark, deepening his doubts about the connection between the villages.
• Ding Ling told Zhou Yang that Chang Dafeng had seemed unsurprised by the group of puppets in the mirror and had ordered her not to tell the troupe; Zhou Yang suspected the troupe leader was manipulating the others.
• Ding Ling revealed that Chang Dafeng had asked her to meet him alone at night to practice makeup, so Zhou Yang warned her not to be alone with him when he was absent.
• Ding Ling explained that the troupe had chosen to perform just after noon three days later and that, that night, the ghost would select the opera by knocking over one of the title plaques.