This chapter opens with a flashback to the previous chapter, in which Dr. Barlow and his siblings are in the middle of a confrontation with a mountain man. The man is a formidable opponent, and the siblings disappear in a flash of recognition. The flashback reveals that the man is still the same man, and that he still dares to use his body as a weapon against the man. He is still afraid of the calamity spirit, and he wonders why the weather has suddenly become cloudy and why the vortex has become cloudy. He wonders if the showdown between fate and man will be different in this time round. He asks if the woman is a calamity spirit as well, and she answers that all the other spirits are afraid of her. He explains that he was wandering around this morning when he came across two people, one of whom sent a large number of calamity spirits. He was