Ghostfire and Forgetting the Self: I Fool Ghosts into Finding Salvation in Horror Movies

Chen Xuan, a graduate student in folk customs, transmigrates into a horror-film world and becomes the doomed “Third Eye” vessel in Double Vision. Just as he despairs, he inherits the deranged legacy of the Zuowang Dao: deceive people, ghosts, and even heaven and earth. The more believers a lie gathers, the truer it becomes.

So he tells cultists, “The Heavenly Court is empty. I’m the last celestial official.” He arranges ghost marriages between red-clad vengeful spirits and the “son of the mountain god,” then opens an “Underworld Office” in Hong Kong, where thousands of ghosts line up to be reincarnated. Every con makes him stronger, and sends him further adrift: celestial official, mountain god’s son-in-law, emissary of the King of Hell… These identities are all fighting for his soul.

When the ghosts truly believe his lies, and a fictional evil dragon begins to stir in the mountains, Chen Xuan can no longer tell: in this con, who is the real prey?