I Became a God in a Strange World
A reading guide for IBGSW. Compiled from Chapters 1–120. SPOILER WARNING!
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Demon-Suppression Bureau Hierarchy
12
Chapter 82 finally lays out the general ranks: above a Commanding Officer are generals of lower, middle and upper grade; above those are the silver and gold generals; and at the very top is the King-General, who commands the entire Demon-Suppression Bureau.
Ranks are listed low to high.
| Rank / Title | Role & Scope |
|---|---|
| Menial Worker | Bureau support staff; non-combatants. |
| Order Envoy | Rank-and-file exorcists and field officers. Very high mortality: past case records often list every accompanying envoy as dead. The Fan brothers are Order Envoys (ch 23). |
| Deputy General | Ranks above the envoys. Wan'an County's bureau once had two (ch 6). |
| Commanding Officer | Head of a county-level bureau. Usually a ghost-controller; most served only six months to a year before dying (ch 23). |
| Chief Commanding Officer | The officer in charge of a county bureau. Su Long held this post in Wan'an forty years ago (ch 18); Zhao Fusheng holds it now. |
| Deputy Commander | A deputy post at a larger bureau, such as Deputy Commander Zheng of Baozhi County (ch 23). Chapter 82 notes that controlling a Baleful-tier ghost already puts him at Lower General strength, though the court hasn't formally promoted him. He is called "Deputy" because the court promised to transfer him to the prefectural seat as Deputy General Commander (ch 103); after losing to Zhao Fusheng he is a commander in name only. |
| Lower General | The lowest general grade, above a county Chief Commanding Officer. Zhao Duan was promoted to this rank and given oversight of two neighboring counties' bureaus (ch 7). |
| Lieutenant General | The middle general grade. Only a ghost-controller of Lieutenant General rank or higher can move a person's Soul-Life Register between bureaus (ch 9). |
| Upper General | The highest of the three general grades (ch 82). |
| Silver General | Above the three general grades, below the Gold Generals (ch 82). |
| Gold General | Elite court generals. A Gold General placed the ghost-suppressing brand on Wan'an's West City cemetery when the bureau was founded (ch 22); Gold Generals are said to control ghosts of Disaster-tier or higher (ch 45), or Calamity-tier or higher (ch 120). Such controllers have lost joy and sorrow and are held in check only by the court (ch 120). The Ghost Carriage came with the ghost of a Gold General who revived decades ago (ch 120). |
| King-General | The rank that commands the entire Demon-Suppression Bureau (ch 82). |
| Other titles |
Supreme General: Jia Yi, the top court
figure whose Baleful-tier ghost powers the Soul-Life
Register's talismans (ch 8).
Yellow-grade General: an old general's
title, mentioned in connection with a general named Xu Yu
from over fifty years ago (ch 7).
Bronze General: an informal title the Fan
brothers use for Baozhi County's bureau head
(ch 2); it isn't part of the formal ladder.
"General" on its own is also used loosely as a form of
address.
|
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Bureau Mechanics & Rules
10
- Soul-Life Register: Everyone who joins a bureau signs it with a blood pact and is bound to their post for life. Leaving the assigned territory for more than three days triggers retaliation, from injury up to the destruction of the soul (ch 5). Its punishment is carried out through the "ghost language" of Jia Yi's ghost, which turns offenders into ghost servants (ch 8–9).
- Annual Case Quota: Each bureau must close three ghost cases a year, or the Register's backlash is triggered (ch 24).
- Transfers & Promotion: Higher-ranked officers can authorize the transfer of a lower-ranked person's Register. Merit or exceptional ability can earn a promotion to a better posting.
- Bureaus and the Court: Bureaus answer to the court in name, but in practice defer to each other mainly by strength. Sending a revived ghost's corpse into another bureau's territory counts as a provocation (ch 24).
- Territory & Court Records: A commanding officer can't leave their county without authorization; breaking it brings the Register's backlash (ch 102, 108). Zhao Fusheng slips free of its hold by a way she hasn't explained, and Zheng He is more frightened of that than of being suppressed (ch 102). Each officer's origins, ghost and methods are registered and submitted to the Emperor, and the court sends a replacement ahead when an officer's ghost nears reviving (ch 120).
- Unwritten Protection: Bureau personnel aren't marked merely for hearing or mentioning a case, even when a bureau member's ghost revived and killed. Zheng He says it has never failed, though Zhao Fusheng doesn't know how the court arranged it (ch 120).
- The Cemetery Brand: Wan'an's West City cemetery is held down by a ghost-suppressing brand that must be renewed every year by a general-rank officer (ch 22–23).
- Ghost-Controllers: People who host a ghost entity inside their body to borrow its power, at the cost of a short lifespan and mental degradation (irritability, violence, murderous urges). Using the ghost's power drains life force, and the residue leaves the host more unstable (ch 20–23).
- A Controller's End: When a controller's ghost starts slipping out of control, the controller is killed by someone holding an official token, and the ghost is taken away. Su Long was killed this way in Great Han year 206, aged 31, after about a year and a half in the bureau. In return for his service, the court looks after five generations of his family (ch 18–19). A controller's ghost that breaks loose after death can start a new ghost catastrophe (ch 30).
- Case Records: The bureau shelves case scrolls by date, and keeps a roster of past personnel recording each person's age, entry date, and date and cause of death. Turnover is very high (ch 17–19).
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Hell's Investiture of the Gods
十八层地狱The Eighteen Levels of Hell
Ghost Gate
- 一
Level 1
Holds evil spirit-tier ghosts and below
- 二
Level 2
Still can't hold a Disaster-tier ghost
- Levels 3–17 still sealed (level 3 costs 10,000 merit)
- 十八
- The System: Zhao Fusheng carries the Investiture of the Gods in her sea of consciousness. It speaks to her in prompts and runs on merit, earned by solving ghost cases and saving lives (ch 1, 10).
- Its Purpose: Ghost entities cannot be killed, but they can be sent into reincarnation, or confirmed into a divine position on the Investiture of the Gods (ch 10–11).
- Divine Positions: Unlocking the first divine position costs 100 merit. Not every ghost qualifies: a Baleful-tier ghost is not eligible for investiture, so a ghost must first advance to at least Calamity-tier (ch 10, 53). The first position was a one-time discount: the second costs 10,000 merit, and she expects the third to cost many times more (ch 114, 120). Two ghosts that balance each other, like those in the Liu Clan Ancestral Hall, would need two positions opened at once (ch 120).
- The First Investiture: The Zhao couple's two ghosts, each Calamity-tier, were pieced whole with their door planks and became Disaster-tier. Zhao Fusheng conferred them as the Door Gods with the black divine tablet, which suppressed their killing rule on the spot (ch 112–113). Rewards: 3,000 merit for the first investiture, plus 2,000 for resolving a Disaster-tier case (ch 113–114).
- The Investiture Token and the Gods: The token (the divine tablet) can summon the gods and lets her use part of their abilities for merit, but if the merit offered to sustain them is insufficient they may take her life. A bound god likely can't be dismissed, and the Door Gods' wish is to carry their daughter on their backs (ch 113–114). The Door God's power can duplicate ghost door planks, and for 500 merit she can brand a ghost shadow on a door to block malignant ghosts (ch 113–114). Gods can also advance in tier as they gather merit (ch 114).
- Hell and Investiture Balance: Opening a divine position upsets the balance with Hell and costs merit to settle (200 the first time), and the Investiture urges her to raise Hell to keep pace (ch 113–115).
- The Eighteen Levels of Hell: Sealed when the system awakens (ch 1). Zhao Fusheng opens the first level for 100 merit (ch 53). It can hold Evil Spirit-tier ghosts or weaker and suppress them, but it's shallow: it can't contain several ghosts above Vicious-tier, and a ghost that exceeds its limit may escape. The first level also holds the Shikong Golden Bell, which suppresses a Baleful-tier ghost where Hell alone cannot (ch 101). The second level opens for 1,000 merit (ch 115), but still can't hold a Disaster-tier ghost or the Ghost Carriage (ch 116). The third level costs 10,000 merit (ch 120).
- Merit Costs: Nearly everything costs merit: suppressing a reviving ghost item, calming her own ghost after using hell, failed capture attempts, and keeping hell open inside a special ghost domain, which drains merit continuously (ch 48–90). Suppressing a reviving ghost costs 2–20 merit (ch 101), and blocking the door planks' possession cost 50 (ch 111). After the first investiture, new deductions such as "public sentiment" and "tendency toward death" appeared, which she reads as the Investiture reining her in (ch 114).
- Borrowing Power: Using the ghost on her own body costs one-third of her life force per use (ch 20), and its influence must be cleared with merit afterwards (ch 21, 48).
- Rewards: Resolving a case can earn large amounts of merit, lower a ghost's tier, change its killing rules, and grant ghost items. Solving Beggars' Alley earned 150 merit (ch 48); the Goutou Village case earned 1,000 (ch 79).
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Ghost Entity Classification
6
Six tiers, lowest first. Paperman Zhang confirms the order in chapter 30, and a footnote in chapter 110 adds Tribulation-tier at the top. Tiers aren't raw strength alone: they also weigh how widely a ghost can kill or spread. A ghost that kills one person at a time stays lower, while one that can enslave many ranks higher.
| Tier | Characteristics & Behavior |
|---|---|
|
Evil Spirit-tier ●○○○○ |
The lowest classified tier, and a threshold: a ghost that breaks through it can form its own ghost domain, while one below it can only create a minor illusion barrier (ch 15–17). Almost every past case in the bureau's records involves an Evil Spirit-tier ghost, and even these routinely killed the envoys sent after them. |
|
Vicious-tier ●●○○○ |
Above Evil Spirit-tier (ch 30). The Beggar Ghost was knocked down to this tier after its corpse was dismembered (ch 48). |
|
Baleful-tier ●●●○○ |
Jia Yi's ghost is at least this tier, and its "ghost language" can kill remotely and bind victims as ghost servants (ch 8–9). The ghost on Zhao Fusheng's own body is Baleful-tier (ch 19–20). Not yet eligible for investiture (ch 53, 115). Zheng He's ghost is Baleful-tier too (ch 101). Two Baleful ghosts killing together can reach Calamity-tier destructive power (ch 104). A domain that covers a whole mansion needs at least this tier (ch 103). |
|
Calamity-tier ●●●●○ |
Above Baleful-tier. Su Long's old case scroll warns that the Liu Clan's Ancestral Hall ghost may be Calamity-tier (ch 18). The minimum tier for investiture (ch 53). Gold Generals control ghosts of this tier or higher (ch 120). |
|
Disaster-tier ●●●●●○ |
Tied to ghost fog and the dreaded blood moon (ch 22). Gold Generals control ghosts of this tier or higher (ch 45). The Zhao couple's two ghosts reached it by retrieving their door planks and piecing themselves whole (ch 112, 116); the Ghost Carriage is also Disaster-tier (ch 113, 115). Only a Disaster-tier ghost qualified for investiture so far (ch 113). |
|
Tribulation-tier ●●●●●● |
Named only in a translator's footnote as the tier above Disaster (ch 110). No ghost is placed here yet. |
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Ghost Items & Artifacts
10
- Human-Skin Lanterns: Lanterns of human skin burning human oil. Their light creates a "domain of the dead": a ghost takes anyone inside it for dead and leaves them alone (ch 1).
- Ghost Lantern: The Zhang family heirloom that hides its carrier from a ghost's perception (ch 26).
- Ghost Hand: Taken from the dismembered Beggar Ghost. When it asks for something, no one, human or ghost, can refuse, but the system warns that what it takes in the end may be your life (ch 48).
- Substitute Paper Figurine: Recovered after sealing the Formless Ghost at Goutou Village; it shares its owner's name, blood and flesh (ch 79).
- Name Registers: Some ghosts kill by list. The One-Name Register at the almsgiving ghost's banquet marks whoever is called next (ch 38–39), and the ghost carriage keeps a ghost name register of its own (ch 92).
- Shikong Golden Bell: Taken from the Ghost Carriage and held in Hell. One bell can suppress a Baleful-tier ghost, and it can trace targets through time. It also guides the Ghost Carriage (ch 101, 106, 116).
- Ghost Carriage: A Disaster-tier catastrophe: a ghost driver, a ghost horse and a sealed black coffin. The driver holds a register and "invites" whoever's name is written in it. Without the Bell it only senses that its target is near. It carries the ghost of a Gold General who revived decades ago (ch 115–116, 120). Hell can't hold it, and Zhao Fusheng can only flip the register's pages with the ghost arm, which cracked doing so (ch 116, 119).
- Life-Buying Ghost Coin: Given by the Fortune Ghost. No malignant ghost can resist it, and a ghost that takes it generally leaves. She keeps it in Hell (ch 101–102).
- Door Planks: The coffin boards the Zhao couple lay on became their great malevolent objects. Without them the ghosts are incomplete; with them they advance to Disaster-tier. Touching a marked door marks you (ch 104–106, 111–112).
- Black Divine Tablet: The Investiture Token from the first investiture. It summons the Door Gods but may turn them on her if merit runs short (ch 113).
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Ghost Protocol Principles
8
- Killing Rules: Ghost entities do not kill at random; they act according to strict triggers. Most past cases were solved not by force but by finding the rule and deceiving the ghost into "believing" it had finished killing, so that it left. Example: a water-borne ghost marked anyone who saw their reflection, and was beaten by survivors blindfolding themselves (ch 17).
- Immortality: Ghost entities cannot be destroyed by conventional physical force.
- Handling Methods: The bureau's usual options are driving a ghost away or suppressing it into dormancy (ch 23). A third, older method is dismemberment: cutting a ghost's corpse apart lowers its tier and power, and the pieces can become powerful ghost items (ch 22, 30).
- Growth: Ghosts can advance in tier by killing (ch 18). A tier recorded decades ago may no longer be accurate (ch 19).
- Revival: Any kind of death can produce a ghost, but the conditions are unknown (ch 30). Two ghosts can't normally share one domain without clashing (ch 20).
- Marking: Many killing rules work by marking. Touching a marked door, or in the Ghost Carriage's case merely hearing or discussing it, can mark you. Marked people's family members die with them (ch 105–106, 111, 120).
- Ghost Domains & Revival: Evil Spirit-tier and above can condense a ghost domain; how fast it forms, how large it is and how many it traps depend on tier. Inside, you can't leave (ch 110). After reviving, a ghost's rule follows the circumstances of its death and it acts on instinct, without reason or memory (ch 108, 119). Ghost-controllers revive more easily with every case handled (ch 120).
- Terms: "Malignant ghost" (厉鬼) is the general word for a dangerous, killing ghost, not a tier of its own. "Ghost servant" (鬼伥) refers to someone whose life is controlled by a ghost.
