Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yang disguised himself as a Guan Village ghost to stop Sun San from killing the Cui brothers, then lured the fanzi dog into chasing him so the brothers could hide their living presence. As dawn arrived, an enormous eye-shaped ripple spread over Guan Village, and its pupil made Zhou Yang’s Mindfulness boil over.

• Zhou Yang claimed the Cui brothers were people of Guan Village, but Sun San’s ghostly nature took control and attacked him before Sun San suddenly stopped and agreed to follow the rules.
• Sun San released the fanzi dog, which charged toward Cui Zhu, and Zhou Yang used his Mindfulness to lure it toward himself and send it running into the darkness with Sun San’s chains in pursuit.
• Zhou Yang called out that the dog was chasing ghosts, prompting terrifying arms to reach from the darkness as villagers crowded around the fire tower.
• Sun San used a white paper lantern to drive the reaching arms back, then entered the darkness with two patrol members while Zhou Yang concealed himself and the Cui brothers among the villagers.
• At dawn, an eye-shaped ripple of white light spread across Guan Village, and Zhou Yang saw a sunlike pupil form at its center; the sight made his Mindfulness boil over.

When a supernatural white light swept over Guan Village, Zhou Yang discovered that it drew souls out of their bodies and restored the damaged human skins worn by the ghosts. He rescued the Cui brothers from the same danger and, as the light faded around an eye-shaped ripple, prepared to test the white paper banner A Fu had given him.

• A sudden white light drove the ghosts into hiding and drew Zhou Yang’s soul from his body, but Huang Shaozi’s needle-pierced straw effigy caused enough pain to pull him back.
• Zhou Yang realized the light repaired the villagers’ human skins, helping keep the ghosts trapped inside them.
• Zhou Yang shook and slapped Cui Zhu and Cui He until their souls returned to their bodies, then warned them to hide from the light.
• Cui Zhu and Cui He thanked Zhou Yang, and he arranged to meet them at Old Zhang’s broken-down house after daybreak.
• Zhou Yang saw the eye-shaped ripple grow indistinct and took out A Fu’s white paper banner, intending to test its power and learn A Fu’s intentions.

Zhou Yang used A Fu’s white paper banner and discovered that A Fu had intended to seize his body, but the white light transformed his Ghost Mouths and Handprint Ripple into the Fat Mirror Lamp. After learning that the surrounding white light benefited his soul, Zhou Yang opened his Ghost Mouths to absorb it and felt his Mindfulness nearing its ninth strand.

• Zhou Yang distrusted A Fu and chose to test the white paper banner alone, sticking it to his chest while calling A Fu’s name.
• His Ghost Mouths expelled a bloody, skinned figure that cried A Fu’s name before the white light made it vanish and transformed Zhou Yang into a human-shaped mirror.
• Zhou Yang discovered that his new mirror-like ripple could recreate the appearance and Ghost Rhyme of Guan Village Zhou Yang more completely than his former Handprint Ripple.
• The Knife Credit Ledger renamed his ability “Supernatural Ripple (Oil Infant · Fat Mirror Lamp),” and Zhou Yang suspected A Fu had meant to claim his body through the banner.
• Zhou Yang concluded that the white light was harmless and beneficial to the soul, then opened his Ghost Mouths to draw it in without leaving his body.

After surviving the night guarding the fire tower, Zhou Yang condensed his ninth strand of Mindfulness and returned home with Zhou Baigou. He learned that Xiao Fei had truly died and that his parents were searching for his body, while Baigou set out to help them.

• The white light helped Zhou Yang fully condense his ninth strand of Mindfulness, bringing him to the numerical limit needed to forge an Upright Heart.
• At dawn, Zhou Yang and Zhou Baigou returned to the village, where the villagers recognized Zhou Yang and treated him as one of their own.
• Zhou Yang asked Zhou Baigou not to tell their family yet that he had saved two villagers, hoping to keep Zhou Heigou unaware.
• Huang Shaozi welcomed the brothers home and told them Xiao Fei had been taken by the Guo Family Ghosts and his parents were searching for his body.
• Zhou Yang worried that finding Xiao Fei's body might release the drowned ghost beneath his human skin, while Zhou Baigou decided to go help Xiao Fei's family search.

Zhou Yang tried to keep Zhou Baigou safe from Xiao Fei’s funeral, but Baigou insisted on going, and Huang Shaozi revealed she had once nearly killed him while following a ghost’s instructions. Zhou Yang left for the smithy after asking Huang Shaozi to protect Baigou, then encountered a chained figure with a shadow-puppet dog at the courtyard gate.

• Zhou Yang warned Zhou Baigou that Xiao Fei had not died peacefully, but Baigou insisted on going to help the Xiao Family.
• Huang Shaozi tried to stop Baigou, but he broke free and accused her of harming him with her scripture chanting and incense rituals.
• Huang Shaozi told Zhou Yang that she had once steamed Baigou in a wooden tub for four hours after a ghost warned her that something was following him.
• Zhou Yang asked Huang Shaozi to chant scriptures and burn offerings to protect Baigou, then left for the smithy to meet the Cui brothers later.
• Zhou Yang reached the courtyard gate and saw a thin, dark figure wearing a rusty chain with a shadow-puppet dog attached.

Zhou Yang received his wages from Sun San, then met the Cui brothers in hiding and learned how the Revelation Ceremony creates an Official Body. The ceremony’s gruesome steps left him wondering whether every official in the Great Zhao court was dead.

• Sun San delivered Zhou Yang’s wages and said he would assign him to his Patrol Team squad when Zhou Yang joined.
• Zhou Yang met Cui He and Cui Zhu in a cellar, where they told him they had hidden from the Patrol Team after receiving their pay.
• The Cui brothers offered Zhou Yang their two jin of paper copper coins, but he accepted only after urging them to use the money to buy fat for the Revelation Ceremony.
• Cui He explained that the Revelation Ceremony involved revelation, cleansing, fitting official organs, sprouting, and watering the shoot until an Official Seal formed.
• Zhou Yang concluded that the ceremony would kill almost any living person and wondered whether the Great Zhao court’s officials were all dead.

Cui He explained the brutal world under the Great Zhao court and why the first three stages of Guan Village’s Revelation Ceremony could be survived through inherited tricks. He revealed the Kneaded Clay Body and Flesh Bodhisattva Breath method, while the sprouting and seedling irrigation trials remained dangerous.

• Cui He told Zhou Yang that officials ruled over official slaves and wild folk with a cruelty worse than that of ordinary ghosts.
• Cui Zhu described how the Deliverance from Suffering escorts had been nearly wiped out by the court, and Cui He said their absence left people with few protections.
• Cui He explained that low Mindfulness and the danger of repeated life-or-death trials made cultivation difficult, while Zhou Yang described the higher stages of Upright Heart and Golden-Nature Will.
• Cui He revealed that his family’s inherited methods could fool Guan Village’s villagers during the first three Revelation Ceremony trials.
• Cui He described using clay to conceal his human aura and form a controllable clay body that could lose its head and organs in his place.

Zhou Yang realized that Guan Village’s white lantern light could seal the ghosts inside Human-Skin Ghosts, potentially helping Luan Xiaofeng and You Chuntian survive the Revelation Ceremony. He sent them to prepare Flesh Bodhisattva Bodies with fat paste and Luan Xiaofeng’s breathing technique.

• Cui He revealed his clay-body breathing technique, and Zhou Yang warned that it might not fool the Human-Skin Ghosts at the Revelation Ceremony.
• Cui He explained that his real name was Luan Xiaofeng and that he had wandered into Guan Village by accident, while Cui Zhu said his real name was You Chuntian and that he had entered deliberately to escape starvation.
• Luan Xiaofeng and You Chuntian offered Zhou Yang their paper money, believing they were unlikely to survive the ceremony.
• Zhou Yang reasoned that the Patrol Team’s white lantern light could seal the ghosts inside their human skins and prevent them from recognizing outsiders.
• Zhou Yang told Luan Xiaofeng and You Chuntian to use the paper money to buy fat paste, practice making Flesh Bodhisattva Bodies, and prepare for the Revelation Ceremony.

Zhou Yang learned that the final stages of the Revelation Ceremony turn people into vessels for evil ghosts and heard of the Visualization Method as a way to strengthen Mindfulness. Luan Xiaofeng revealed that Guan Village had once been Square Well Village, recorded in the evil Jinping Local Gazetteer, and that Zhou Yang’s village identity had been adopted from elsewhere; the chapter ended with uncertainty over whether the village’s history could be verified.

• Zhou Yang urged Luan Xiaofeng and You Chuntian to protect the paper money he gave them and asked why the final stages of the Revelation Ceremony were dangerous.
• Luan Xiaofeng explained that Seedling Sprouting lets ghosts take root in people and that the fat paste of Seedling Drenching scours away their consciousness.
• You Chuntian told Zhou Yang about the Visualization Method, which could gather a person’s thoughts around a mental image and help Mindfulness withstand prolonged assault.
• Luan Xiaofeng said the evil Jinping Local Gazetteer recorded Square Well Village, now Human-Skin Guan Village, and that village Zhou Yang had been adopted from another settlement.
• Luan Xiaofeng named Lady Village and Three Sacrificial Animals Alley as places mentioned in family stories, and said people had seen Square Well Village’s burial mounds but later could not find them.

Zhou Yang went to A Fu’s smithy and used a carefully staged confession to hide what he had done during the first three two-hour periods. After testing Zhou Yang with his ripples, A Fu believed he still had him under control, while Zhou Yang believed his performance had preserved their uneasy relationship.

• Zhou Yang left the Cui brothers and hurried to A Fu’s smithy, preparing to answer questions about the previous night.
• A Fu claimed Sun San had told him what happened, and Zhou Yang concluded from A Fu’s repeated accusations that A Fu knew nothing.
• A Fu questioned Zhou Yang about the fourth two-hour period, and Zhou Yang claimed he had used the white paper funeral banner incorrectly before revealing the little coffin and ruined straw figure.
• A Fu understood that the coffin had helped Zhou Yang survive the fourth period and let him enter the shed to work.
• A Fu called Zhou Yang’s name and sent ripples toward him, but Zhou Yang opened his Ghost Mouths in response.
• A Fu praised Zhou Yang’s improved breathing technique and left believing Zhou Yang remained under his control.

Zhou Yang finished forging a flat-tipped chopping knife for his future knife-credit dealings and learned the Knife Credit Ledger’s second story, which tasked him with helping Aji. When he returned home, his family told him Baigou had gone missing after going to help the Xiao Family, and Zhou Laogou and Zhou Heigou blamed Zhou Yang for not stopping him and questioned his loyalty.

• Zhou Yang forged and quenched a flat-tipped chopping knife, then used the Knife Credit Ledger to read the completed story of Queji and Aji.
• The ledger instructed Zhou Yang to extend knife credit to Aji, whose life or death was unknown, making Aji his Karmic Retribution Body.
• Zhou Yang left A Fu’s home and returned to find Zhou Laogou, Huang Shaozi, and Zhou Heigou waiting tensely in the courtyard.
• Huang Shaozi told Zhou Yang that Baigou had not returned after going to help the Xiao Family, while Zhou Laogou accused Zhou Yang of failing to stop him.
• Zhou Heigou mocked Zhou Yang for keeping his earnings and questioned whether he was truly loyal to the Zhou Family.

Zhou Yang tried to avoid being sent outside after dark, but Zhou Laogou attacked him and ordered him to search for Baigou. Baigou returned safely, and the family discussed Xiao Fei’s planned marriage to a dead woman who had floated down the river, leaving Zhou Yang afraid the ceremony would join their human skins with ghosts.

• Zhou Laogou ordered Zhou Yang to go out and find his brother, while Zhou Yang tried to convince him he was not capable of surviving outside.
• Huang Shaozi scolded Heigou for pushing Zhou Yang toward danger, and Zhou Laogou choked her before striking Zhou Yang when he intervened.
• Zhou Laogou ordered Zhou Yang to find his brother, but Huang Shaozi embraced him and urged him to stay home.
• Baigou returned before nightfall and said Xiao Fei’s body had been recovered from a pond in the back hollow.
• Baigou told the family that Xiao Fei had been matched with a dead woman who floated down the river and that their ceremony would take place in fifteen days, on the full moon.

Zhou Yang condensed the Ghost Ruler, tested the Fat Mirror Lamp on Guan Village’s fatty paste, and shaped a miniature stomach as part of his plan to kill Zhou Heigou. He then prepared for sleep and accepted the Knife Credit Ledger’s offer to sell Aji a knife on credit.

• Zhou Yang burned four taels of spirit money and endured the itching until blood-red Ghost Mouths around his navel formed the Ghost Ruler.
• Zhou Yang discovered the Ghost Ruler could brush aside ghost rhymes and conceal the aura of his living organs.
• Zhou Yang used the Fat Mirror Lamp to ignite the fatty paste, ate it, and formed a miniature stomach in his palm resembling Zhou Heigou’s uncanny stomach.
• Zhou Yang considered how to investigate Zhou Heigou’s stomach before carrying out his plan to kill him, then arranged for the Ghost Head Averting God to guard him.
• Zhou Yang opened the Knife Credit Ledger and agreed to sell Aji a knife on credit, making Aji his Karmic Retribution Body.

After Zhou Yang’s machete was rated mediocre by the Knife Credit Ledger, he entered Aji’s body and learned that Aji was trapped in an unresponsive state after an encounter at Nengsheng Liberation Temple. As Döden’s soul-summoning mantra failed, Zhou Yang opened Aji’s eyes for Zhuoma.

• The Knife Credit Ledger rated Zhou Yang’s machete mediocre, allowing ordinary abilities from Aji to be Imprinted at their normal strength.
• Zhou Yang awoke inside Aji’s body and heard Döden and Zhuoma trying to call Aji back from the Esoteric Treasury Domain.
• Zhuoma begged Döden to save Aji, while Aji’s murmurs revealed his affection for her and his memories of their family life.
• Döden recited a secret soul-summoning mantra, and Aji’s murmurs warned that anyone saved by it would suffer at the hands of a blood-drinking female ghost riding a wild mule’s hide.
• Döden concluded that Aji and Queji had encountered a ghost while building a golden stupa at Nengsheng Liberation Temple, and Zhou Yang opened Aji’s eyes for Zhuoma.

Zhou Yang awoke in Aji’s body and pretended to have lost his memory while learning that Aji’s consciousness could reveal the workings of secret rituals. After seeing men plunder his family’s possessions, he remained with Zhuoma as the bearded man confronted her about their family’s failure to complete its corvée work.

• Zhuoma and Gonpo rejoiced when Aji woke, but Zhou Yang claimed he did not recognize them or remember anything.
• Zhou Yang realized Aji’s murmuring revealed knowledge about mantras and the Six Lotus Offering, and he wondered whether the golden pagoda had changed Aji’s consciousness.
• Zhou Yang went downstairs despite Zhuoma’s protests and found men searching the family home and taking its valuables.
• Aji identified several objects as Zhou Yang examined them, while Zhou Yang accepted that he would have to live under Aji’s identity.
• The bearded man approached Zhuoma and Aji after the search, reminded Zhuoma that her family were household serfs, and challenged her about their failure to use their craft during corvée labor.

Zhou Yang gained the Mantra Point Xiameibamu's Tongue through his Ghost Ten Hands, driving Ding Gui away and drawing a threat of eviction against Zhuoma and Aji. Zhuoma resolved to leave and make a life elsewhere, while Zhou Yang promised to protect her for as long as he could.

• Ding Gui told Zhuoma that the Master of Zhandui had spared her and Aji but demanded their house, belongings, and savings as punishment for the failed golden pagoda.
• Aji revealed that the banded agate held the Mantra Point Xiameibamu's Tongue, and its mantra entered Zhou Yang's tongue and Ghost Ten Hands.
• Zhou Yang's Ghost Ten Hands appeared behind him, alarming Ding Gui, who fled after ordering Zhuoma and Aji to move out within an hour.
• Aji asked Zhou Yang to protect Zhuoma, and Zhou Yang promised to keep her safe while he remained there.
• Zhuoma urged Zhou Yang to leave with her and find a new place to live, saying they could make their own way like wild grass.

After Gonpo invited Zhuoma and Zhou Yang to stay near Narong Charnel Ground, he discovered Zhou Yang’s unusual knowledge of esoteric matters and urged that he be sent to a temple. Zhuoma refused, citing the fate of a gifted black-bone child, and the chapter ended with Gonpo asking how the siblings would handle their corvée duties and earn a living.

• Gonpo explained that zan demons were the souls of people who died violent deaths, and Zhou Yang pretended to be Aji while introducing Zhuoma as his elder sister.
• Zhou Yang identified Gonpo’s tsa-tsa and recounted the story of Gangba Aga and the dharma protector Sanzan Dorje, astonishing Gonpo and Zhuoma.
• Gonpo concluded that Aji had esoteric aptitude and urged Zhuoma to send him to the temple, but Zhuoma refused and told how gifted Yixi Wangjia had been killed for his bones.
• Gonpo invited Zhuoma and Zhou Yang to stay at his home near Narong Charnel Ground, and the siblings packed their few belongings and left the ransacked workshop with him.
• Gonpo brought the siblings to his settlement of corpse dissectors, gave them a room, and asked how they would meet their corvée duties and make a living.

Zhou Yang accepted Gonpo’s offer to become his disciple and learn sky burial rites, while Zhuoma agreed that he should take the work to help them survive. Gonpo began teaching Zhou Yang the trade, but their first corpse arrived, leaving Zhou Yang chilled by the family’s apparent joy at their daughter’s death.

• Zhuoma rejected her engagement to Akang of the Maji family and explained that the family had schemed to seize her household’s property.
• Gonpo offered to train Zhou Yang as a corpse carrier and later teach him corpse dismemberment, and Zhou Yang eagerly agreed to become a sky burial master.
• Zhou Yang bowed to Gonpo as his master, and Gonpo gave him a Gangba Aga tsa-tsa that felt faintly warm against his chest.
• Gonpo explained the sky burial procedures and warned Zhou Yang about corpses that must not be accepted.
• When people arrived carrying a dead girl, Zhou Yang accompanied Gonpo to receive them, then felt chilled by their joyful expressions.

Zhou Yang and Gonpo discovered that the child Zhuoma had been skinned before her death, but Deqin insisted that she had died naturally and must receive a sky burial. Gonpo was forced to agree, and Deqin ordered Zhou Yang to carry Zhuoma’s body up the mountain.

• Naren and Quzeng brought the unnamed child’s body to Gonpo, and Deqin named her Zhuoma.
• Zhou Yang opened the sheepskin bag despite Quzeng’s attempts to stop him and found Zhuoma’s body covered in blood with no skin.
• Gonpo explained that people who had lost their skin could not be offered to the dakinis, but Deqin insisted his master Jiawang Riba had declared Zhuoma’s death natural.
• Zhou Yang questioned why the temple had sent Zhuoma’s body to Gonpo when it usually handled such cases itself.
• Deqin demanded that Gonpo perform a sky burial before nightfall and ordered Zhou Yang to carry the body; Zhou Yang agreed.

Gonpo, Zhou Yang, Deqin, and the Naren Brothers carried Zhuoma’s body toward the sky-burial platform after the sang smoke rose in a single column, which Gonpo took as a sign that she resisted being taken by the dakinis. On the steep mountain path, the sheepskin bag began to bulge and gurgle, and Zhou Yang realized Zhuoma was moving.

• Gonpo told Zhou Yang to burn the sang branches and watch the smoke before the group left with Zhuoma’s body.
• Zhou Yang saw the smoke rise in a straight column, and Gonpo feared Zhuoma wanted to keep her body whole.
• As the path steepened, Zhou Yang took the sheepskin bag from the Naren Brothers and carried it on his back.
• Near the stone platform on Narong Mountain, Zhou Yang felt the bag grow cold and heard it gurgle as the body inside began to move.
• Zhou Yang set the bulging bag down and shouted that Zhuoma was alive, leaving Deqin, Gonpo, and the Naren Brothers staring at it in horror.