Chapter Summaries

While gathering firewood in Daliang Village, Ding Ling, Gao Hongbo, and Li Yichun encountered a strange stone house that seemed to reappear wherever they fled. A ghostly figure seized Ding Ling, and ghost mouths opened across her arms as the chapter ended.

• Zhou Yang warned Ding Ling to avoid Li Yichun and asked about the troupe’s origins and the dangerous Obstruction Circles where its members met.
• Gao Hongbo spotted a derelict stone house, so he, Ding Ling, and Li Yichun hurried away from it.
• The trio found an identical stone house in another direction, and Li Yichun screamed that he saw a red-clad female ghost before claiming his eyes had deceived him.
• Gao Hongbo smelled a cloyingly sweet stench and ran toward the stone house, while Li Yichun fled the forest without Ding Ling.
• Ding Ling saw a woman in a colorful opera costume in the doorway and began walking toward her until Zhou Yang’s calls brought her back to her senses.
• A blurry figure grabbed Ding Ling’s hands, and black holes opened across her arms as ghost mouths wailed.

Zhou Yang helped Ding Ling escape the ghost’s influence and return to the opera troupe, where they learned Shitouzi had died and heard Qian Heng’s account of his fall. As night came, Li Yichun arrived at the courtyard gate, and Chang Dafeng ordered Qian Heng to let him in.

• Zhou Yang led Ding Ling away from the stone house until she could no longer smell the corpse stench.
• Ding Ling returned to the troupe and learned that Qian Heng claimed Shitouzi had died after falling down a slope while chasing a roe deer.
• Chang Dafeng questioned Qian Heng about Shitouzi and warned him against helping the boy flee the deadland.
• Ding Ling told Chang Dafeng that she, Gao Hongbo, and Li Yichun had encountered a ghost at a stone house, while withholding how she had been bewitched.
• Qian Heng tried to bar the courtyard gate against a voice claiming to be Li Yichun, but Chang Dafeng ordered him to open it.
• Li Yichun stumbled into the courtyard, battered from fleeing through the forest, and Zhou Yang wondered whether he still smelled the corpse stench.

As Li Yichun’s terror over a red-clothed ghost deepened, Chang Dafeng restored order and prepared the troupe for Inviting Ghosts to Choose an Opera. Ding Ling began preparing roe deer hide and intestines for the Gate of Opening, while Zhou Yang considered how the ritual’s Curse Art worked.

• Li Yichun insisted that a long-haired female ghost in red had followed him, and Chang Dafeng slapped him until he said his eyes had been playing tricks on him.
• Chang Dafeng ordered the troupe to prepare for Inviting Ghosts to Choose an Opera and assigned Ding Ling the roe deer hide and intestines for her Gate of Opening.
• Ding Ling skinned and butchered the roe deer, then hung its hide and cleaned intestines beneath the eaves.
• Zhou Yang explained that opening the Gate of Opening required a false belly and intestines prepared with ashes bearing the aura of the Curse Art, and he reflected on the method’s curse ritual.
• Ding Ling decided to reserve enough roe deer hide for the false belly and later cooked wild vegetable and offal soup for the troupe’s supper.

Li Yichun and Chang Dafeng performed the ritual to invite ghost guests to choose an opera, while Ding Ling explained to Zhou Yang that the troupe’s ritual was staged but required everyone to believe in it. When Chang Dafeng announced a guest had arrived, Li Yichun answered with an eerie, painted-on smile, leaving Qian Heng alarmed.

• Li Yichun secured the courtyard and walked backward around it while inviting the ghost guests to choose an opera.
• Chang Dafeng explained that the incense smoke signaled the guests had arrived, then sifted sand to lay down a supposed ghost road.
• Ding Ling told Zhou Yang that the sand and opera selection were tricks, but the troupe had to act as though ghosts were present for the ritual to work.
• Qian Heng grew uneasy when Li Yichun asked whether Gao Hongbo would return, then noticed Li Yichun had become strangely dazed.
• Chang Dafeng announced a guest had arrived, and Ding Ling and Qian Heng invited it to choose an opera.
• Li Yichun repeated the invitation with a sweet, unnatural smile, frightening Qian Heng.

During the Ghost Opera Selection, Zhou Yang realized an unknown force was steering the troupe toward Three Battles with the White Bone Demon while Chang Dafeng fought to choose Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister. Chang Dafeng’s choice prevailed, but the struggle crushed the thumbs of Chang Dafeng, Li Yichun, and Qian Heng, and a corpse-bloated figure vanished after appearing behind Chang Dafeng.

• Chang Dafeng began the Ghost Opera Selection with Qian Heng, Li Yichun, and Ding Ling, and their linked fists drifted toward Three Battles with the White Bone Demon.
• Zhou Yang realized an unknown force was pulling their fists while Chang Dafeng tried to steer them toward another opera plaque.
• Ding Ling followed Zhou Yang’s instruction to help Chang Dafeng, and their combined force redirected the fists toward Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister.
• A corpse-bloated figure appeared behind Chang Dafeng as he forced their fists onto the Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister plaque.
• The plaque fell, bloodied, and the struggle crushed the thumbs of Chang Dafeng, Li Yichun, and Qian Heng before the figure disappeared.

As the troupe assigned roles for “Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister,” Chang Dafeng chose to play Zhong Kui’s sister and gave Ding Ling the lead role of Zhong Kui. Zhou Yang suspected Chang Dafeng had a hidden motive, but before he could uncover it, the ghost arrived at the courtyard gate.

• Qian Heng and Li Yichun panicked over their injured fingers and the approaching ghost, while Chang Dafeng defended choosing “Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister.”
• Chang Dafeng assigned himself Zhong Kui’s sister, Qian Heng Sword Ghost, and Li Yichun Umbrella Ghost, then named Ding Ling to play Zhong Kui.
• Chang Dafeng argued that his role would support Ding Ling and keep the performance from falling apart, leaving Qian Heng and Li Yichun unable to object.
• Zhou Yang questioned Chang Dafeng’s motives and wondered what secret the role of Zhong Kui’s sister held.
• Ding Ling sensed the corpse stench at the other side of the gate, and three evenly spaced knocks sounded from outside.

Zhou Yang realized the ghost could copy opera passages and use its singing to affect people, while Chang Dafeng’s hidden method appeared to be moving into the main room. The chapter ended as Chang Dafeng began singing from the doorway, apparently preparing to confront the ghost.

• The ghost outside changed its song to the passage Zhou Yang had once sung through Ding Ling, and Ding Ling began singing along as a ghostly aura overtook her.
• Zhou Yang used Breathing of the Ghost through Ghost Mouths in Ding Ling’s palms, clearing the aura and restoring her senses.
• Ding Ling detected the stench of decay in the right side room, where Qian Heng and Li Yichun had hidden, and Zhou Yang suspected Li Yichun had become a ghost.
• Ding Ling glimpsed a bloated corpse form in the courtyard, and Zhou Yang saw it enter the main room.
• Chang Dafeng stamped his boot and sang from the main room’s doorway about preparing weapons and surrounding the gates.

Zhou Yang and Ding Ling watched Chang Dafeng use Opera Communion with Spirits and a Ghost Candle to stop the ghost wearing Gao Hongbo’s face from reaching the main room. As another opera song began in the opposite room, the threat remained unresolved.

• Ding Ling told Zhou Yang that Chang Dafeng was performing as the Fire Judge, and Zhou Yang realized the singing could bring the character to life.
• Chang Dafeng’s green-fire Fire Judge turned into crows and attacked the gate, revealing Gao Hongbo’s ghost in huadan costume.
• Gao Hongbo’s ghost swallowed the Fire Judge, then transformed its face and rushed toward the main room.
• Chang Dafeng lit the Ghost Candle and summoned the Corpse Bloat Form’s power while Zhou Yang steadied Ding Ling and took control of her body.
• Chang Dafeng assumed the form of Zhao Gongming and struck down the Fire Judge’s shadow, halting Gao Hongbo’s ghost at the doorway.
• A new opera song began in the room opposite, leaving Zhou Yang and the others facing another unknown danger.

Chang Dafeng’s Opera Communion with Spirits failed to suppress the ghost possessing Gao Hongbo, while Li Yichun emerged from the side room with an alluring face. Zhou Yang and Ding Ling began singing an opera passage through the Ghost Mouths in an attempt to break through the ghosts’ encirclement.

• Gao Hongbo’s corpse developed a second painted face as Chang Dafeng tried to summon the Lord of Thunder against the ghost.
• Li Yichun emerged from the side room wearing a charming, unfamiliar face, and Gao Hongbo’s corpse sang with her.
• Zhou Yang told Ding Ling they would sing an opera passage about Gao Chong’s final charge, and Ding Ling agreed to risk her life with him.
• Zhou Yang returned control of Ding Ling’s body to her, and she stepped into the hall as they prepared to sing.
• Zhou Yang and Ding Ling made the Ghost Mouths sing, beginning with the line, “Look ahead at that dark opening; it must be the bandits’ lair.”

Chang Dafeng and Ding Ling defeated two Puppets that attacked the opera troupe, leaving only the two of them alive. Chang Dafeng concealed his knowledge of the village’s ghost and promised to teach Ding Ling, while a terrified voice began pleading with someone called Shitou in the right wing room.

• Chang Dafeng feared that two ghosts had arrived and nearly lost his resolve, but Ding Ling emerged and performed opera communion with spirits as a great general.
• Chang Dafeng sang as the Lord of Thunder and destroyed the corpse bearing Zhao Gongming’s painted face, while Ding Ling struck Li Yichun’s corpse with her spear and ruined its beautiful face.
• Chang Dafeng burned Li Yichun’s corpse to ashes, then returned to Ding Ling and insisted the attackers had been Puppets.
• Ding Ling questioned Chang Dafeng about whether the village’s killer was a ghost or a Puppet, but Chang Dafeng denied that a ghost was involved and promised to teach her the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting.
• A frightened man called out from the right wing room, begging Shitou not to pursue him and admitting that he had pushed Shitou down a mountain.

Chang Dafeng confronted Qian Heng over Shitou’s death, and Qian Heng confessed that he had used a passage from the Health Preservation Scripture in an attempt to become a ghost. Chang Dafeng killed him as he began reciting the scripture, and Zhou Yang saw a shadow rise from Qian Heng and merge into Ding Ling’s shadow.

• Chang Dafeng stormed into the side room and accused Qian Heng of taking the evil path after Qian Heng admitted he had pushed Shitou off a cliff.
• Chang Dafeng beat Qian Heng and demanded to know whether he had used Shitou’s life to turn himself into a ghost.
• Qian Heng confessed that he had recited the Health Preservation Scripture and followed the Quail Fair ritual after Shitou died.
• Chang Dafeng stabbed Qian Heng as he began reciting the scripture, then stabbed him again until he could no longer speak.
• Zhou Yang saw a black shadow rise from Qian Heng’s body and merge with Ding Ling’s shadow, and wondered if he could collect the shadows of the dead while in a Manifestation Body.

Zhou Yang discovered that his Manifestation Body could collect the lingering shadows of people who had recently died nearby as Chang Dafeng explained why he killed Qian Heng and gave Ding Ling a rough map of dangerous places. The chapter left Ding Ling weighing Chang Dafeng’s warning that a ghost would be a separate being, not the person who died.

• Zhou Yang recognized the lingering shadows of Qian Heng and Li Yichun and realized his Manifestation Body could collect recently dead people’s shadows.
• Chang Dafeng gave Ding Ling a route map as an initiation gift and told her about the Quail Fair in Baligou Township.
• Ding Ling reasoned that Chang Dafeng had killed Qian Heng partly to prevent him from becoming a ghost and partly to win her trust.
• Chang Dafeng explained that quails served as tokens to keep ghosts from entering the Quail Fair and said he had brought Qian Heng there.
• Ding Ling challenged Chang Dafeng’s motives for killing Qian Heng, and he warned her that a person who died to become a ghost would not remain the same person.

While disguised as Ding Ling, Zhou Yang questioned Chang Dafeng about Guan Villages and learned they supplied Official Bodies to the Great Zhao court, whose officials could be as dangerous as ghosts. Chang Dafeng then burned Qian Heng’s corpse and prepared to teach Zhou Yang the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting.

• Chang Dafeng explained that the Livestock Raising Scripture sacrificed human lives to create evil ghosts and warned against becoming one.
• Zhou Yang asked about Guan Village, and Chang Dafeng said Guan Villages produced Official Bodies for court officials, including Primordial Corpse bodies in the highest-ranked villages.
• Chang Dafeng warned that alerting the Great Zhao authorities could be more dangerous than attracting ghosts, and said Guan Village ceremonies corresponded to different Official Bodies.
• Chang Dafeng and Zhou Yang carried Qian Heng’s corpse into the courtyard and burned it with a flame from a Ghost Candle.
• Chang Dafeng said he would teach Zhou Yang the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting so he could open the first door and raise an Averting God.

Zhou Yang and Ding Ling planned to escape Chang Dafeng’s control and investigate the ghost’s lair in Daliangzi Village, while Chang Dafeng prepared Ding Ling to perform Zhong Kui. Chang Dafeng explained Mindfulness and began teaching Ding Ling how to sense her accumulated strands.

• Chang Dafeng insisted that he and the others would perform Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister in three days, despite knowing a powerful ghost was responsible for the deaths in Daliangzi Village.
• Zhou Yang proposed that he and Ding Ling return to the village, find the ghost’s lair, and search for a way to survive; Ding Ling agreed to go after learning the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting.
• Chang Dafeng showed Ding Ling Zhong Kui’s costume and said she would wear it after opening the Gate of Opening, so she could communicate with ghosts and gods at any time.
• Chang Dafeng described Mindfulness as the resolve and principles a person retains through life-threatening crises, and explained that it could be cultivated through hardship.
• Chang Dafeng told Ding Ling how to sense her strands of Mindfulness by feeling for pulses beyond her heartbeat.

Chang Dafeng explained how Mindfulness resists ghosts and how an Upright Heart can restrain them, giving Zhou Yang a new direction for his cultivation. Ding Ling discovered she had four wisps of Mindfulness but told Chang Dafeng she had three, then prepared to make a false belly as Chang Dafeng began explaining a faster Creating a Zhen ritual.

• Chang Dafeng explained that accumulating more than nine wisps of Mindfulness could form an Upright Heart, allowing a person to restrain ghosts with a cultivation method.
• Zhou Yang considered why he and Ding Ling had more Mindfulness than the limit but had not formed an Upright Heart, while Chang Dafeng advised Ding Ling to check her own pulse.
• Ding Ling detected four wisps of Mindfulness and, after consulting Zhou Yang, decided to tell Chang Dafeng she had three.
• Chang Dafeng said no one could check another person's Mindfulness unless they had mastered an Upright Heart powerful enough to affect their surroundings.
• Chang Dafeng instructed Ding Ling to singe and soften the roe deer hide and sew it into a fist-sized false belly, then explained that two recent deaths would let them perform Creating a Zhen without following the draft's usual timing and three-day ritual.

Chang Dafeng taught Ding Ling how to create an Averting God by drawing on the lingering Ghost Rhyme attached to Qian Heng and Li Yichun. After capturing their shadows in the false belly, he handed Ding Ling a dagger and began a song whose next steps remained unknown.

• Chang Dafeng explained that Creating a Zhen fixed a ghost or god’s gaze within the practitioner’s Eight Gates as an Averting God, and warned Ding Ling that using Qian Heng and Li Yichun’s names could draw the Daliang Village ghost.
• Chang Dafeng instructed Ding Ling to wear the dead men’s clothes, repeat their names in the courtyard’s northwest corner, and burn the clothes when their shadows appeared.
• Ding Ling saw Qian Heng and Li Yichun’s shadows, while Zhou Yang recognized the opera ghost’s Ghost Rhyme clinging to them.
• Chang Dafeng used the Ghost Candle to gather the shadows, and Ding Ling pressed her bloody fingerprints inside the false belly before trapping its opening with a needle.
• Chang Dafeng handed Ding Ling a dagger and began singing as the captured thing thrashed inside the false belly.

Ding Ling used an opera performance and her blood to draw ghost shadows, hoping to capture one as the material for her Gate of Opening Averting God. After enduring the ghosts eating the false belly’s contents, she and Zhou Yang tried to stomp on a shadow, and the chapter ended when Zhou Yang felt his foot sink into something like mud.

• Chang Dafeng had Ding Ling sing Gongsun Yan’s scene, and her Opera Communion with Spirits drove the ghosts back and shrank her false belly.
• Ding Ling cut the false belly, using its contents and her blood to draw the gazes and shadows of vicious ghosts.
• Chang Dafeng explained that Ding Ling had to endure the ghosts eating the false intestines, then stomp on a shadow to make it her Gate of Opening Averting God.
• Several ghost shadows ate the intestines as Ding Ling struggled to endure the pain, refusing Zhou Yang’s offer to take control of her body.
• After the ghosts finished eating, Ding Ling and then Zhou Yang missed their attempts to stomp on the escaping shadows.
• Zhou Yang rushed after the last small ghost shadow and stomped down, feeling his shoe sink as though into mud.

Zhou Yang discovered that his Gate of Opening had opened as Ding Ling formed an Averting God, while Chang Dafeng secretly tainted it with corpse fluid from his Bloated Aspect. Ding Ling learned that her Averting God could mimic voices and appearances, and Zhou Yang wondered why its power resembled the opera ghost’s.

• Zhou Yang felt his Gate of Opening open as Ding Ling stepped on a ghostly shadow and formed an Averting God.
• Chang Dafeng used the Bloated Aspect’s corpse fluid to taint Ding Ling’s new Averting God, intending to gain a means of controlling her.
• Zhou Yang told Ding Ling he could remove the taint and explained that he had let Chang Dafeng’s trap succeed to keep him unsuspecting.
• Ding Ling used her Averting God to imitate Shitou’s voice and appearance, startling Chang Dafeng before revealing herself.
• Chang Dafeng said Ding Ling’s Averting God ability overlapped with Opera Communion with Spirits and warned her against trying to control more Averting Gods too soon.
• Zhou Yang noticed that Ding Ling’s Averting God resembled the opera ghost in its abilities.

Ding Ling and Zhou Yang escaped Chang Dafeng’s house at the fifth watch, but Chang Dafeng used the Averting God to try to summon her back. The chapter left Ding Ling’s fate uncertain as the Bloated Aspect clamped its hands around its own neck.

• Chang Dafeng dressed Ding Ling as Zhong Kui and ordered her to rest before learning opera, while Zhou Yang planned their escape.
• The Averting God’s Bloated Aspect entered Ding Ling’s room as corpse water, confirmed she was asleep, and returned to Chang Dafeng.
• Ding Ling woke at the fifth watch, and Zhou Yang took control of her body to use Breathing of the Ghost and climb out through the window.
• Zhou Yang fled down the slope and into Daliang Village, while Chang Dafeng discovered the empty room.
• Chang Dafeng called for Ding Ling to return, and the Bloated Aspect clamped its hands around its own neck.

Zhou Yang removed Chang Dafeng’s suppression curse from Ding Ling and discovered that her Averting God appeared differently to each observer. He then guided Ding Ling through Breathing of the Ghost, but she was terrified by the flayed ghost she saw and struggled to continue.

• Zhou Yang seized Ding Ling’s Averting God and used Breathing of the Ghost to erase Chang Dafeng’s suppression curse.
• Zhou Yang saw that Ding Ling’s Averting God resembled her, but Ding Ling said it looked like a man from her dreams; when Zhou Yang brushed aside its hair, he saw a featureless face.
• Chang Dafeng stopped his Bloated Aspect from strangling itself and Ding Ling, then left the courtyard without realizing his curse had been removed.
• Zhou Yang returned control to Ding Ling after opening the Ghost Mouths across her body, but withheld Breathing Lock because it would let him control her.
• Ding Ling saw a flayed ghost as she tried to use Breathing of the Ghost, became terrified, and told Zhou Yang that it was turning into her.