The True Immortal of the Ghostly Path: Making Paper Effigies in the Mortal Realm

When Gu Ming opens his eyes, he finds himself lying on the door panel of a funeral hall. A ring of ghostly handprints encircles his wrist, impossible to wash off, and his palm is clenched around a “life-buying coin.” An old smoker from the Demon Suppression Bureau tells him, “You took the money, so now you have to give up your life. That’s the rule. You have three days.”

In this world, imperial power has fallen into decline, and monsters and evil spirits run rampant. The living are more poisonous than ghosts, and there are more dead than dogs.

To stay alive, Gu Ming drags an unpainted, thin coffin and plunges into the public burial grounds outside the city. From then on, the world loses a down-and-out scholar and gains a paper effigy maker who walks between the realms of the living and the dead.

[Rituals of the Paper Effigy Maker]

1. Dot a paper figure’s eyes, but never its mouth. Don’t ask about the ghost behind you at midnight.

2. Paper has no heart in a place of utmost yang. In a place of utmost yin, paper gives birth to a soul.

3. Borrow the false to cultivate the true; consume baleful energy to refine the Dao.

Gu Ming sits upon the black stone throne in the Hall of the Underworld. Behind him stretches an army of paper figures as far as the eye can see. He slowly cuts open the yellow paper in his hands and grins at the gods and Buddhas filling the sky.

“An auspicious hour is upon us. Please, all of you… be on your way.”