Ma Dayuan and Bai Shijing

Ma Dayuan and Bai Shijing were long-standing friends whose association becomes central to the exposure of Ma Dayuan’s murder: Bai Shijing recognizes a family martial technique, reveals that he and Madam Ma were involved in the killing, and is then killed by the disguised figure who has forced the confession.

Friendship and Recognition

Bai Shijing knows Ma Dayuan well enough to recognize the Throat-Lock Capturing Technique as a supreme skill of the Ma family, one that outsiders cannot use. Faced with an exceptionally tall, silent figure whose appearance he cannot make out in the darkness, Bai understands that the technique points specifically toward Ma Dayuan. His question about whether the stranger’s surname is Ma receives no answer, leaving the identity uncertain while intensifying his fear.

The Murder Revealed

The figure’s hold on Bai Shijing appears to tighten or ease in response to his words. When Madam Ma calls the figure Ma Dayuan, Bai becomes convinced that his dead friend has returned. Under this pressure, he begs for mercy and discloses that Madam Ma had secretly read Chief Wang’s will and repeatedly urged Ma Dayuan to reveal the secret of Qiao Feng’s birth. Ma Dayuan had refused; Bai’s account identifies that refusal as the context for Madam Ma’s scheme against her husband.

Betrayal and Aftermath

Bai’s confession establishes that he and Madam Ma were responsible for Ma Dayuan’s death, with Madam Ma as the chief schemer. The apparent ghost is, in Xiao Feng’s judgment, a martial-arts expert using disguise to frighten the pair into confessing, rather than a supernatural return. Once Bai has spoken, the figure kills him. The friendship between Ma Dayuan and Bai Shijing is thus recast by the crime: Bai’s familiarity with his friend’s family technique first exposes the threat’s apparent connection to Ma, while his final disclosure reveals his own betrayal.