My Ghost Blows Out the Light series comprises two main parts, totaling eight volumes, released in this order: Candle in the Tomb (Jingjue Gucheng), The Lost Caverns of Longling, The Wrath of Time in Yunnan, The Divine Palace of Kunlun, Grave Robbers' Chronicles: The Yellow Skin Grave, The Tomb of the Sea of Nothingness, The Fury of Xiangxi, and The Coffin Mountain of Wuxia.

From February 2006 until the end of February 2008, I spent a full two years writing, resulting in a manuscript of roughly two million characters. During this period, I invested significant effort, but the rewards were equally substantial. Through this book, I connected with many friends, both those I have met and those I have not. If you enjoy this series, we should consider ourselves friends; please allow me to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you. Sharing the stories I wrote with so many people is the greatest joy for me. Today, as the complete work concludes, I wish to offer a brief review of the entire creation process of Ghost Blows Out the Light, dedicated to the readers who love it.

I am often asked which volume I am most satisfied with. Now that the entire Ghost Blows Out the Light series is complete, I will offer this “Director’s Self-Critique.” As the author, evaluating one’s own work is an interesting endeavor.

The core elements and themes of the eight volumes are all distinct, and the intended expression differs in each. During the serialization process, I could only write a few thousand characters daily. Due to time constraints and personal preferences, I rarely revised sections I had already written, and crucially, I never had a story outline—to this day, I am still unsure what my outline was. Even for myself, I often didn't know what unexpected situations the next chapter would bring; much of it was improvisation, which constituted a great deal of the pleasure in the creation process.

It is difficult to name one volume among the eight that is my absolute favorite; every volume has chapters and narrative segments I am very pleased with. However, in my own view, every volume also possesses shortcomings and flaws. If I were to revise them, they would undoubtedly be much better, but that would inevitably result in a labored quality, sacrificing the delight of spontaneous creation.

Below, I will comment on each volume in the order of its creation, detailing its characteristics, the writing process, the characters introduced, the background, and the chapters I personally found satisfying versus those I believe were deficient.

Ghost Blows Out the Light is an adventure novel, rooted in the principles of Yi and Feng Shui, which serve as the underlying current running throughout. Although the book contains numerous elements, only the word "adventure" can encapsulate its essence; it is decidedly not merely a tomb-raiding novel, nor is it a simple horror, supernatural, or tired mystery/suspense story. Ancient tombs are merely the settings for the explorations; what the book narrates is a series of adventurous journeys utilizing traditional Chinese crafts and theories.

Candle in the Tomb (Jingjue Gucheng)

The first installment of the Ghost Blows Out the Light series, Jingjue Gucheng, can be divided into a first and second half. The first half concludes at the underground military fortress in Black Wind Pass in the Wilderness Valley; this section primarily serves to establish a framework or platform, lacking clear threads connected to the main plot. This half was intended to be written in the style of folk legends or rural anecdotes—the kind of tales about zombies and black donkey hooves found deep in the mountains.

Once the archaeological team enters the desert to search for the Jingjue Ancient City, distinct geographical and cultural elements are introduced: the Western Regions desert, the Peacock River, the Twin Saints Mountain, the Thirty-Six Kingdoms, the Loulan female corpse, and the Dunhuang murals. Mentioning these elements immediately evokes an air of mystery. Therefore, in the Jingjue Gucheng section, I made the sense of mystery the core of the story. The Queen of Jingjue never actually appears in the end; she remains mysterious to the very last. This volume also incorporates elements of archaeological puzzle-solving.

As the very first volume, its greatest flaw, in my current view, is that some parts were written too simply and hastily, with rather loose logic. I wrote as I went along, completely failing to consider how the subsequent story would unfold; there was no outline. The satisfying aspect is that the descriptions and narration feel relatively authentic and vivid.

This seemingly genuine, rustic, and mysterious style was precisely what I aimed to convey while writing the first volume.

Speaking of "authenticity," I recall questions frequently asked: Is Ghost Blows Out the Light based on true events? So many terms, specialized vocabulary, geographical locations, and Feng Shui concepts appear that someone unfamiliar with them could not possibly write them. Are these elements real or fabricated?

First, I must state clearly that Ghost Blows Out the Light is a story, a novel—it is absolutely not documentary literature, nor is it a memoir. Truth and fiction are interwoven. If one were to distinguish between real and fictional, it would only be possible by examining a specific term or a particular scene.

For instance, in the Wilderness Valley segment, the location is fictional, but the setting—the Kanto Army underground fortress—is historically real; ruins still exist today in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia. It is rumored that the great forest fire in the Greater Khingan Range back then was triggered by the explosion of ammunition buried by the Kanto Army.

Regarding the terminology, I must offer an explanation: calling tomb raiding "Dao Dou" (literally "flipping the bucket") and calling burial objects "Ming Qi" (underworld artifacts) are specialized industry terms that genuinely exist in reality. However, calling the corpse found in an ancient tomb a "Zongzi" (sticky rice dumpling) is entirely my own original fabrication; this term never existed before.

Here is another example: The book describes how Mojin Xiaowei (Gold Diggers) must carry a Mojin Talisman to engage in tomb raiding activities. The term Mojin Xiaowei dates back to the Three Kingdoms period, but it did not persist as a traditional profession, existing for only a few decades. All the supposed traditional rules for the Mojin Xiaowei—including lighting a candle in the southeast corner and the iron law of "no raiding from cockcrow till the lamp goes out"—are entirely fabricated by me and are not factual. No such thing as a Mojin Talisman has ever existed in the world, nor does it have an actual prototype. I hope my readers understand this and are not misled by my stories.

There are countless similar examples throughout the Ghost Blows Out the Light series. The historical background of every ancient tomb and adventure location, the prototypes of various mysterious flora and fauna, the Feng Shui metaphysics, folklore, and geography—all contain elements of both truth and falsehood, often existing as a mixture. Furthermore, these details are adjusted according to the needs of the plot. To explain everything would certainly take more than three or five days, so I will not elaborate further here.

The Lost Caverns of Longling (Longling Mikou)

The second volume of the first part of Ghost Blows Out the Light, The Lost Caverns of Longling, is actually divided into three distinct parts: first, the Longling expedition discovering the Western Zhou Ghost Tomb; second, the Mojin Xiaowei searching for treasure in Black Water City; and third, the emergence of the Xian King's Zhong technique in the Shi Beidian Coffin Shop. Although this volume contains three stories, my primary aim here was to highlight the core element of suspense. Some might call Ghost Blows Out the Light a suspense novel, but I don't entirely agree. Overall, it has little to do with "horror." If we speak of suspense, I believe it is merely one of many elements in the book, not the primary one. Only The Lost Caverns of Longling is packed with cliffhangers reminiscent of traditional storytelling, a volume that is genuinely breathtaking.

While writing The Lost Caverns of Longling, I began to consider the overall structure of the story. To link the first two volumes with what followed, I arranged long flashback sequences detailing how Partridge Whistle apprenticed, took the oath, robbed the Southern Song Dynasty Jiang Ancient Tomb, and subsequently journeyed with Elder Liaochen and Father Thomas to explore Black Water City.

The subtitle of Ghost Blows Out the Light is "The Bizarre Experiences of Tomb Robbers," meaning the focus is primarily on the exploits of the Mojin, but as a secondary thread, the stories of the Banshan Daoist and Xieling Royalists began to appear gradually. The narrative thread was confirmed to revolve around the bottomless Ghost Cave, making The Lost Caverns of Longling function like a needle weaving threads together. The extensive flashbacks in this volume served to adjust my thinking and test my ability to handle narratives set in different eras, using legends from the Republican period; one could say I was advancing through exploration.

In this volume, the parts I am personally most satisfied with include "Shadow of the Lamp," "The Coffin Anomaly," and "The Soul-Suspension Ladder," along with the chapters on the wild cats and "No raiding from cockcrow till the lamp goes out." The sections with significant flaws are the excavation through the Fish Bone Temple and the Tongtian Great Buddha Temple in Xixia Black Water City. Because I planned for this section to reach one million characters, I deliberately slowed the narrative pace. Additionally, I should mention that since I was updating daily on Qidian (a web novel platform), I started using many obscure and difficult characters to create greater resistance against online pirates stealing content.

The Wrath of Time in Yunnan (Yunnan Chonggu)

When writing the third volume of the first part, The Wrath of Time in Yunnan, I was watching the World Cup, which made the experience particularly memorable. It was a severe test of energy, stamina, and willpower. The volume concerning the Tomb of the Xian King in Yunnan centers on adventure as its core. I personally enjoy watching films and was very fond of The Abyss and Alien. True adventure involves exploration plus risk. Later, I saw a preview for the remake of King Kong featuring a scene where an exploration team uses a Gatling gun to battle giant centipedes in a valley—I absolutely loved that kind of scene. An expedition team using old-fashioned gear: white-water rafting in an inflatable boat, the wreckage of a downed military aircraft, ghostly Morse code signals, a Chicago typewriter, giant insects that haven't died in millennia, the corpse-cave effect that swallows everything, hacking through the undergrowth in harsh jungle and fossil caves—this combination launched Yunnan Chonggu. It is entirely composed of traditional adventure elements reminiscent of a treasure map, infused with a touch of strange the supernatural and science fiction. This volume represents the convergence of old and new adventure elements.

In The Wrath of Time in Yunnan, the story type shifts entirely to "exploration." This volume features fewer characters, with the bulk of the text dedicated to describing the treacherous terrain and various bizarre traps. Regarding the human-skin map contributed by Blind Chen, I initially had no concrete concept for it, arranging things merely as bizarre as possible. As the writing progressed and these mysteries were unveiled, even I felt a sense of surprise. The initial design for the Xian King's tomb was one that could only be accessed when the heavens collapsed. I even had a fanciful idea that a large passenger jet would crash before the Mojin team, thus blowing open the tomb's great doors. However, I reconsidered, thinking that many friends would be flying later, and such a depiction might be unsettling. Furthermore, in the section about the ghost signal, I used a transport plane belonging to the American volunteer air force during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, so I eventually settled on describing the heavenly collapse as a bomber that crashed decades earlier. This sense of gravity and destiny in the plot was something I could not predict beforehand.

The part I am more satisfied with in this volume is the creation of the fictional Zhong technique; I finally managed to make it internally consistent, and I am quite impressed with myself. Additionally, I am very pleased with the sections on the Gourd Cave, the Deep Pool in the Sinkhole, the Huo family's immortal insects, and the ghost signal.

However, as this volume is quite long, it has many flaws, mainly due to poor pacing control. What I am least satisfied with is forgetting some of the earlier clues planted as I neared the end, resulting in them not being utilized when they should have been.

The Divine Palace of Kunlun (Kunlun Shengong)

The Divine Palace of Kunlun, the fourth volume of the first part of Ghost Blows Out the Light, is filled with mythological color. China is vast and rich, and different regions nurture distinct cultures and legends. Any Chinese mythology inevitably involves Mount Kunlun; it is the spine of heaven and earth, the birthplace of the Ancestral Dragon, the divine palace of the Queen Mother of the West, and the lair of northern demons. Kunlun, stripped of myth and legend, hardly seems like Kunlun. Ancient texts describe the true appearance of the Queen Mother of the West in Kunlun as monstrous. My personal imagination pictured her as a great fish; I once saw the world's largest freshwater fish at a natural history museum, and it truly resembled a dragon.

The plot of this volume involves the Epic of King Gesar. The epic poem celebrating the hero-king who mastered the enemy's precious jewel is inherently rich in mythological color. Thus, in this Kunlun section, I incorporated many unconventional elements bordering on the mythical: the Fish King of the Wind-Eroded Lake, Immeasurable Karma Fire, Naiqiong Divine Ice, the Great Black Heaven Thunder Strike Mountain, the Crystal Freedom Mountain, the Evil Luo Sea City, and the Gate of Disaster. This adventure is bizarre and colorful, like stepping into a realm of illusion. The Divine Palace of Kunlun is a volume where the adventure takes place in a celestial realm. Despite the abundance of mythological elements, I maintained the consistent principle of leaning as close to the real world as possible; naturally, there is no true mythology involving flying through the heavens, achieving immortality, or divine talismans.

Due to scheduling and contractual reasons, the first part of Ghost Blows Out the Light concluded after The Divine Palace of Kunlun, ending with a perfect climax at Beihai Park in Beijing. Chapter 234 fully incorporates all content, and the physical book is flawless. Of course, this grand finale belongs only to the first part.

Among the first four volumes of Ghost Blows Out the Light, my favorite sequence appears in Tibet. However, due to length constraints, that section was included at the end of the physical Yunnan volume. It describes a part of Hu Bayi's battle against a wolf pack in an abandoned temple under the moonlight in Tibet shortly after he joined the army. In truth, these chapters should absolutely be counted as belonging to the final Tibet-focused volume.

The part I was least satisfied with is the poor control of the pacing, which resulted in insufficient space to develop the plot upon finally entering the Phoenix Palace.

In March 2007, there was a last-minute decision to write the second part of Ghost Blows Out the Light. It was almost identical to the first part; when I started writing, I had virtually no overall concept, only a general goal: to write two prequels and two sequels in the second part, with content that would stand relatively independently compared to the first part.

The structure of the first part had many omissions, and I hoped that while writing the stories of the second part, I could also supplement the first part. I was uncertain at the time, but the final result was quite satisfactory.

Grave Robbers' Chronicles: The Yellow Skin Grave (Huangpizi Fen)

If I followed my initial plan, I was supposed to feature four different key elements across the four volumes of the second part of Ghost Blows Out the Light. The main reason for writing the prequels was to invigorate my thinking and writing style, preventing myself from losing patience due to an overly rigid timeline.

The Yellow Skin Grave is a volume with a very strong historical setting. Its core elements revolve around the various eerie legends concerning weasels (yellow-skinned long-tailed field mice), the tombs and coffins of non-human entities, and the unique Jianghu (underworld/martial arts) system specific to Northeast China—all elements that greatly interested me. However, due to the particular historical backdrop, many terms and content were inevitably restricted. Unlike the intellectually vibrant 1980s, the protagonist of this era is not yet mature, but his overflowing passion cannot be stopped by any difficulty.

I have visited the ruins from the Japanese invasion period in Hailar and Dalian, including crematories, prisons, and European-style hospitals and research institutes. These left a deep impression on me, so I set the story's background amidst such places. In this volume, what I feel I wrote most satisfactorily are the descriptions of the weasels' mind-reading abilities and the incineration room, as well as the bizarre incident where Old Sheep Skin was struck by lightning fire after his death. It carried a great sense of weight. Regarding physical objects, I felt the part about the "Strange Soup" was bizarre yet very real. The major flaw is that I forgot to include some very interesting elements, and the treatment of the Man-Bear section was too rushed.

The Tomb of the Sea of Nothingness (Nanhai Guixu)

As a continuation of the first part's stories, my descriptions of "Dao Dou" in the previous volumes led me to believe that among traditional Chinese professions, many carry immense risks, the highest risk belonging to the Dan people who dive for pearls at sea. The prototype for the sea-pearl divers in the South China Sea originates from the Beihai region of Guangxi; Dragon Households and Otter Families have been diving for pearls and opening oysters since the Qin and Han dynasties, yet few people seem to write about their stories.

Therefore, in this volume, sea pearl diving and the legends surrounding this trade are the key elements. One viewpoint suggests that the once glorious Maya civilization was founded by ancestors who crossed the sea from China during the Western Zhou Dynasty, given the numerous similarities between the two cultures. The myth of the sun-shooting hero is a crucial component of Huaxia civilization.

I once considered depicting the mythical divine arrow at the bottom of the sea as a genuine giant weapon, where the Mojin Xiaowei and the Dan people, lost in the chaotic Sea of Guixu, ultimately activate the divine arrow that shook a hundred dynasties, shattering the ocean above them and escaping to life. However, when writing, I forgot this concept. But escaping with the help of the Dragon Soldiers—a real maritime spectacle—was still a heart-stopping adventure.

The methods described, such as using watermelons stuffed with quicklime to kill vicious underwater fish and relying on the "Sitian Fish" to navigate the boundless ocean, are not my fabrications. These practices genuinely existed in Southern China in the past. What I am more satisfied with in this volume is the depiction of the black market on the island, and some of the sea disaster sequences, like the "Qiankun Leap," also struck me as good. What I am most dissatisfied with is the section detailing the corpses of the sea bandits in the bottom hold of the Sea Willow; that part was crude and had significant room for development. The events in the Mother-of-Pearl Sea should also have been expanded, but the length and word count of each volume are a difficult constraint to overcome. The plot and content cannot be too much or too little, and controlling this without an overall outline is challenging—perhaps this is the difference between amateur and professional skill.

The Fury of Xiangxi (Nuqing Xiangxi)

During the writing of this volume, my working hours were very relaxed, allowing for a more leisurely pace. Therefore, purely in terms of prose, I believe The Fury of Xiangxi is the most refined of the eight volumes. Because restrictions on modern subject matter were increasing, I decided to set this prequel back in the Republican era, allowing myself to unleash my creativity fully.

Previously, I casually invented the three major systems of tomb robbing—Faqiu, Mojin, Banshan, and Xieling—just for convenience. As the story unfolded, the origins, lore, legends, and techniques of these trades gradually took shape. Since the previous books focused mainly on Feng Shui surveying for tomb robbing, many people, including those who imitated me by writing so-called tomb-robbing novels, only knew about surveying the dragon (veins), failing to realize the many strange and unique tomb-robbing methods existing in folk traditions.

Therefore, the core of this volume focuses on tomb-robbing methods other than the "Wang Zi Jue" (Surveying Formula). I believe a story set in Republican-era legend must possess two qualities: the rhythm of a storyteller and characters resembling chivalrous bandits, enhanced by various slang and jargon. Only then will it capture the spirit of historical folk tales and become interesting. My writing about the Black Water City section previously was tentative, and I dared not expand it greatly. But with past experience, writing this volume came naturally and skillfully. In it, I invented an entirely new conceptual system of jargon, the Shan Jing (Mountain Classics), which includes completely fictional elements like the Changsheng Mountain and Moon Gate systems.

Furthermore, this volume set several records. First, it features the largest cast of characters; previously, I worried about my ability to control dual protagonists and a large rotation of supporting characters simultaneously. But after writing so much, I could not have shown zero improvement; the manipulation of characters and the description of backgrounds in this volume are now second nature. Moreover, the plot significantly supplemented the first part and also connected across the four volumes of the second part, exceeding my initial plan, which made me very happy.

Regarding the geographical setting, stories set in Xiangxi have been written about countless times in literature, but themes like witchcraft, corpse driving, and "falling into the cave" become tiresome if overused; I personally dislike them. Therefore, in The Fury of Xiangxi, I wrote about the various legends of Bottle Mountain, striving to differentiate it from those hackneyed tales.

Additionally, this volume introduced several new pieces of equipment, such as the Centipede Hanging Mountain Ladder and the Tunneling Armored Beetle. Furthermore, Blind Chen's "Listening to Wind, Hearing Thunder" technique, and identifying hidden graves by keenly smelling the earth, are all folk tomb-robbing methods. These can be considered a fine summary of the major tomb-robbing systems I invented, which is the part I am most satisfied with. Another two sequences I personally feel were written well are the mass battle between the chickens and the ancient tomb centipede, and the sequence where the Xieling bandits mistakenly triggered the mercury mechanism in the tomb.

The three parts I am least satisfied with are: first, Hua Ling and Old Man Yang had too little plot before they died; second, the section where Partridge Whistle and the Six-Winged Centipede fall into the Immeasurable Hall was described rather confusingly; and third, the scene where the Elixir Chamber is discovered felt rather flat.

The Coffin Mountain of Wuxia (Wuxia Guan Shan)

As the final volume of the entire series, Wuxia Guanshan carries a substantial burden. The most pressing issue is the word count. Based on the contractual agreement, the first three installments of the second volume fell short by about 30,000 words combined, which had to be absorbed into this last volume. Consequently, this volume is an epic, containing an extra half a book’s worth of material, yet even with this addition, the length still feels insufficient.

In the original plan, the four bronze talismans that form the main thread of the entire work—symbolizing the four states of existence in the cosmos—were intended to be introduced one per volume. However, that would have necessitated at least five volumes, so some plot elements had to be streamlined.

Additionally, this volume was planned to finally reveal the true reason why the Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Arts became a damaged text, and to detail the history of the previous owner of the Mojin Talisman. The entire Ghost Blows Out the Light series begins with the fragmented volume of the Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Arts, and it will conclude with the story of its destruction back then. Aside from the exploration of the Immortal Village, these narrative threads are woven into the final volume.

Furthermore, this installment explains why only three ancient talismans remain, and recounts the history of the Faqiu Seal being destroyed in the Ming Dynasty. The story is set near the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, against the backdrop of the utterly bewildering Coffin Mountain, and involves significant plot twists.

The Yangtze River Gorges span over seven hundred li, flanked by countless mountain ranges, a dense tapestry of peaks and valleys. This region has historically been the confluence of the mysterious Ba culture and the Chu culture, teeming with countless myths and folk legends, some of which cast shadows of ancient history; military secrets, ancient plank roads, cliffside hanging coffins… these have left an immeasurable space for later imaginations.

The primary thread running through the entire narrative—the Guanshan Zhi Mi Fu (Mountain-Gazing Guide to Mysteries Ode)—is a rhyme similar to a folk ballad, including the Guanshan Ju Zang Lu (Mountain-Gazing Tomb Excavation Record). These were originally original creations for another work of mine. Due to a change in the writing schedule in 2007, they were suddenly incorporated into the second part of Ghost Blows Out the Light, causing the other book to be canceled, and it will never appear in any form again.

There are three aspects of this volume I am most satisfied with: first, the Shadowless Immortal Bridge constructed by the golden swiftlets; second, the Mountain-Gazing Divine Brush, which draws doors upon the earth; and third, the spectral sound guiding mysteries in the ancient tomb of King Wuyang. Moreover, the legend of the Black Pig Opening the River and the origin of the Coffin Mountain Bone Theft Diagram are strokes of sheer inspiration. In these fictional narratives, many well-known legends—such as the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd meeting across the Heavenly River, the Divine Brush Ma Liang, and the ancient painting The Bandits Looting the Tomb—are deconstructed from entirely new perspectives within Wuxia Guanshan, whether these legends are true or false.

The flaw is that because too much content was concentrated in the final volume, certain parts inevitably lacked the depth of development and feel rushed. The ending cannot be called entirely perfect, especially since Duo Ling finally dies. In contrast to my early preference for incredible, almost unbelievable events, for an epic work written over two years, I feel that the plain and authentic is the true path. In the last six chapters, I mainly aimed to expound upon the core philosophy of the entire Ghost Blows Out the Light series: the three chapters on the "Ghost Cap" illustrate that one must not be superstitious about Feng Shui, and the concept of "Heaven and Man as One" resides in the heart, not in the land. The final three chapters on "Extremes Breed Reversal" explain the secret to the Mojin Captains protecting themselves and surviving.

Finally, regarding my Ghost Blows Out the Light series, the two parts spanning eight volumes start with Jingjue Ancient City and conclude with Wuxia Guanshan. In my view, it could have continued for another eight books, but the new plan is already mature, and I am eager to pursue it, so there are no plans to continue Ghost Blows Out the Light; this series ends here.

I would like to extend my special thanks to all the readers who love this book, and to the teachers at Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House and Qianxihhe Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. Without your strong support and help, this work, Ghost Blows Out the Light, would never have seen the light of day.