Outside Huangnipu, Gu Shen rescued A Luo from drowning during a ritual ceremony for the river god. The moment the girl coughed up water, a bloody seal appeared on his palm - this was the curse of the tombkeeper: every time he saved someone, he owed a cause and effect, and he had to pay for it with his life in the future. The next day, the Suppressing Evil Division's cavalry raided the village, claiming that A Luo was the sacrifice chosen by He Bo, and that Gu Shen saved a heretic privately and should be executed. The villagers held torches and surrounded the ruined temple, intending to burn to death the tombkeeper who had caused the disaster. In the firelight, Gu Shen opened the book of cause and effect passed down from generation to generation. The people he had saved - the crazy old man performing Nuo opera, the fox fairy under the locust tree, the sleeping bones at the bottom of the river - all turned into the names on the contract. He bit his fingertips and pressed a bloody mark on each name. "Saving people is a debt, but you have forgotten one thing." Gu Shen raised his head and looked at the approaching torches, "The tombkeepers collect debts and never have to pay them back." When the first torch was thrown into the temple, all the contracts burned at the same time. The crazy old man put on his Nuo mask, the fox fairy opened his bloody eyes, and the bones at the bottom of the river climbed up to the shore. Tonight, he wanted to make the Zhenxie Division understand: Those rescued by the tomb guards are never prey.
