When Qi Liang revealed the secret of the fourteenth lantern, the conspiracy deep in the mountains of western Hunan truly came to light. The ancient books of Chenzhou Fu Sect record the chilling truth: What burns in every soul-inducing lamp is the soul of a living person that has been stripped away by the forbidden technique of "Taiyin Refining". The remnant soul awakened in Qi Liang's body is none other than the disciple of Yuan Tiangang who presided over the experiment on living corpses thousands of years ago.
As the "Human Skin Lantern" reflects more memory fragments, a shocking layout spanning the Huangchao Uprising in the late Tang Dynasty, the assassination of the Jinyiwei in the Ming Dynasty, and the warlord melee in the Republic of China gradually becomes clear. What the corpse exorcists in western Hunan have guarded for generations is actually the "Three Soul Lantern Array" that extended the emperor's life. When Qi Liang ignites the seventh soul flame, the Japanese Onmyoji suddenly appears to snatch the bronze mask - they need not only the forbidden technique, but also the "Blood Moon Prophecy" sealed in the lantern that can control time and space.
From the living talisman paper workshop in the forbidden area of Fu Zong in Chenzhou to the physical Buddha refining site in Miaojiang Gu Village, Qi Liang discovered that behind all the strange folk customs, they all pointed to the same dark truth: the "Zuying Rebellion" twenty years ago was just the latest chapter of this human sacrifice ceremony that has lasted for thousands of years. And when all forty-nine lanterns light up, Qi Liang will witness with his own eyes in the illusion that he is the most critical chess piece in the conspiracy - the soul sealed in the fourteenth lantern has never been someone else's soul.
