Chapter Summaries

Zhang Chen survived the horrors of Room 1408 after gaining access to a fragment of another being’s ability and a calm, perceptive state of mind. He discovered that the Dolphin Hotel had seemingly reset around him, and he followed manager Rodin Tomson back to Room 1408, where the air conditioner and telephone had mysteriously malfunctioned.

• Zhang Chen awoke after an hour in Room 1408, realized he could use a small part of the other being’s ability, and broke out of the room.
• Zhang Chen found the woman in white torn apart in Room 1410 and rescued the infant from the white-haired old woman before swallowing and defeating her.
• Zhang Chen rode the elevator to the lobby and learned that the hotel had no manager named Olin; Rodin Tomson was now the manager.
• Zhang Chen claimed that Room 1408’s air conditioner was broken, and Rodin Tomson agreed to inspect it with him.
• Zhang Chen and Rodin Tomson found Room 1410 restored and discovered that Room 1408’s air conditioner and telephone were not working.

During his mind trial, Zhang Chen uncovered that Olin was a visitor from the Devouring Realm who had staged the trial to speak with him and warn him about Kou Xu and five deadly Nightmares. The trial ended successfully, and Zhang Chen emerged marked as an Officer.

• Zhang Chen accepted Olin’s upgrade to Room 4001, where he found a painting connected to Room 1408 and confronted Olin, who revealed that he was once known as Kurd.
• Zhang Chen attacked Olin, but a spatial ability returned him to the bed; following Olin’s directions, he opened a hidden safe with the key from Room 1408, causing a sealed black-patterned space to form.
• Olin revealed that he was Kou Ran of the Devouring Realm and warned Zhang Chen not to trust Kou Xu, advising him to seek the Abyss of Ten Thousand Sins before entering the Devouring Realm.
• Kou Ran named Faceless, Black Woman, Tengu, Green Ghost, and Ksitigarbha as five powerful Nightmares living in the human world, then vanished as the Underworld Consciousness disrupted their meeting.
• The Underworld ended Zhang Chen’s mind trial and declared it a success; the black liquid was absorbed into his chest, and the mark on him changed from “Eye” to “Officer.”

Zhang Chen passed the Jailer Realm’s mental trial, became a Level 3 Jailer Minister, and advanced his origin energy to gain Divine Sea. Lian Yuxin took him to the monthly auction, where they saw several powerful Jailer Ministers gather before it began.

• The Jailer Realm’s main consciousness judged Zhang Chen fit to become a Jailer Minister, unsealed 1% of his Main Soul, and promoted him to Level 3 after he devoured the monster formed from his Soul Stone’s energy.
• With Lian Yuxin guiding him, Zhang Chen advanced his origin energy into a liquid Water Domain and acquired the ability Divine Sea.
• Lian Yuxin gave Zhang Chen clothes, explained Main Soul unsealing progress, and took him to the auction house using her Ghost Crystals.
• Zhang Chen and Lian Yuxin entered through the Premium Passage and received private seats at the monthly auction.
• Lian Yuxin introduced Aunt Shui, a Level 1 Jailer Minister ranked 52, and warned Zhang Chen about Ape Man, a powerful Top Twenty Jailer Minister.
• The auction began as a masked middle-aged man rose from beneath the arena floor to welcome the guests.

Zhang Chen and Lian Yuxin attended a monthly auction where Zhang Chen recognized a severed mouth as belonging to a powerful Devouring Realm creature and had Lian Yuxin buy it. The auction moved on to its final treasures, including Void Water won by Aunt Shui and a captured Nightmare that the Ape Man wanted.

• An Ape Man demanded that the auction skip its rules, but the auctioneer refused and began selling the items.
• Zhang Chen watched weapons, equipment materials, and a high-grade ghost sell before recognizing a mouth in a crystal coffin as a Devouring Realm creature’s remains.
• Lian Yuxin bought the mouth for thirty mid-grade Ghost Crystals so others would assume she wanted it for her master.
• Aunt Shui outbid a Level 3 Jailer Minister and won a bottle of Void Water for eighteen high-grade Ghost Crystals.
• The auctioneer presented a captured Nightmare that had never entered the Zero Realm, and the Ape Man raised his plaque to bid for it.

After Zhang Chen returned from the auction, Shen Hou made him his disciple and revealed that a lord wanted to meet him. Old Master Wu then questioned Zhang Chen about his mental tempering, and Zhang Chen admitted that Kou Ran had told him to find him in the Abyss of Ten Thousand Sins.

• The Ape Man seized the Nightmare at the auction, took its resentment crystal, and left after overpowering it.
• The auction’s final item was insect-world blood that could strengthen an insect Main Soul or ghost insect, but no one could afford the eighty high-grade Ghost Crystals starting price.
• Lian Yuxin received Shen Hou’s summons and took Zhang Chen back to Shen Hou Mansion, where Shen Hou asked about his mental tempering and accepted him as his disciple.
• Shen Hou sent Zhang Chen to meet the lord who had requested him, and Old Master Wu brought Zhang Chen to a small restaurant.
• Old Master Wu asked Zhang Chen what had happened during his mental tempering, and Zhang Chen revealed that Kou Ran had instructed him to find him in the Abyss of Ten Thousand Sins.

Zhang Chen learned from Old Master Wu that Kou Ran had once been the prison envoy Guan Ran before becoming a Nightmare, and returned home after Old Master Wu sent him back. A letter then warned Zhang Chen of a dangerous ghostly creature in Jinxi County, where Master Pu Hu was hiding from it.

• Old Master Wu told Zhang Chen that Guan Ran had once been a prison envoy who killed the Nightmare inside his Soul Stone, later devoured the Dolphin Hotel, became a Nightmare, and was imprisoned in the Abyss of Ten Thousand Sins.
• Old Master Wu offered to take Zhang Chen as his disciple, but Zhang Chen explained that he had already become the Divine Marquis's disciple; Old Master Wu then sent him home and asked him to notify him before seeking Kou Ran.
• Zhang Chen asked Lian Yuxin about the Jailer Hundred Man Ranking and learned that its next tournament would be held in the Imperial Capital in about three years.
• Zhang Chen returned to his parents, found a letter from Master Pu Hu, and rushed out after reading that a ghostly creature had appeared in Jinxi County.
• Master Pu Hu hid in a damaged building in Guancang Town as a huge, fat creature with a safe covering its head climbed toward him, carrying a wrench impaled with a woman's corpse.

Zhang Chen arrived in Guancang Town and rescued Chong Ying and Puhu from the regenerating safe-headed butcher. After the three withdrew, Zhang Chen learned that the creature had repeatedly revived and that its safe could not be opened, then prepared to investigate it himself.

• Police killed a headless-murder suspect in a condemned building, but a safe absorbed the scattered heads and formed a butcher that slaughtered the officers.
• Puhu and Chong Ying fought the butcher repeatedly, but it regenerated each time and left both of them badly injured.
• Chong Ying attacked with her spider legs and venom, but the butcher shattered her lower body and nearly killed her.
• Zhang Chen arrived, tore apart the butcher's flesh and bones, and destroyed its body with a Black Coffin, but the safe survived.
• Zhang Chen withdrew with Chong Ying and Puhu, learned that the safe could not be opened and the butcher had revived more than ten times, and prepared to investigate its latest regeneration.

Zhang Chen destroyed the stitched head inside the safe and obtained a ghostly bone, which he gave to Master Pu Hu to help protect Jinxi County. After returning, he took Chong Ying to dinner and bought roses before going to surprise Wang Yizhi, while Chong Ying misunderstood his attention.

• Zhang Chen lured the fat butcher to the abandoned building's interlayer, destroyed most of its body, and left scraps behind to test how it respawned.
• Zhang Chen tore open the safe despite its resistance, crushed the stitched head inside, and ended the blood-red aura spreading through Guancang Town.
• Zhang Chen gave the ghostly bone to Master Pu Hu, who accepted it and returned with Zhang Chen and Chong Ying to the county town.
• Zhang Chen took Chong Ying to a restaurant, where she ate all five dishes while he went home to shower and change before seeing Wang Yizhi.
• Zhang Chen walked with Chong Ying to a flower shop, bought a hundred roses, and gave her one rose as thanks for accompanying him.

Liu Nuo learned that the Eternal organization had postponed its plan to capture Zhang Chen for a year and a half. After reuniting with Wang Yizhi, Zhang Chen met a tiny being derived from his main soul, agreed to treat it as a friend, and named it Little Mouth.

• Liu Nuo read the Eternal organization's notice that it would organize a capture operation against Zhang Chen in a year and a half, and resolved to modify his ghostification.
• Zhang Chen returned to Wang Yizhi's complex with Chong Ying, then secretly entered Wang Yizhi's room after Chong Ying went to sleep.
• Zhang Chen surprised Wang Yizhi with a rose, and they reunited before falling asleep together.
• A tiny mouth-only creature called Zhang Chen out of bed and explained that it was a kind-consciousness derivative of his main soul, awakened when the seal lifted by one percent.
• Zhang Chen tested his connection to the creature, agreed to an equal friendship, and named it Little Mouth before it returned to his Soul Stone.

Zhang Chen examined his new Jailer Minister abilities, learned from Little Mouth not to consume the mouth in his crystal lattice yet, and promised to gather Ghost Crystals for Little Nirvana’s advancement. A week later, Liu Nuo summoned him to an underground laboratory, where he found her looking paler and surrounded by a heavier ghostly aura.

• Zhang Chen scanned his body and reviewed his new abilities, including his Divine Sea and Blood Bone Body, then wondered whether he could still condense blood essence.
• Little Mouth warned Zhang Chen not to eat the mouth stored in the crystal lattice until the time was right, and said it could speak to him for about ten minutes a day.
• Zhang Chen told Little Nirvana that he had found what it needed to become a Nightmare and urged it to collect Ghost Crystals; Little Nirvana worried that advancing might sever their master-servant bond.
• After spending a week with Wang Yizhi and Chong Ying, Zhang Chen received Liu Nuo’s call and agreed to meet her the next morning, while concealing the visit from Chong Ying.
• Zhang Chen followed his watch’s signal to an underground laboratory beneath Zhuojin Tower in Wangjiang Tower Park and found Liu Nuo there, looking paler and bearing a stronger ghostly aura.

Liu Nuo prepared to perform a lengthy operation to perfect Zhang Chen’s ghostification, while Zhang Chen promised to retrieve her physical body in a year and a half. The chapter ended as Liu Nuo began the operation, which could take several days.

• Liu Nuo explained that her soul could not inhabit artificial bodies and warned Zhang Chen that Japan’s organization was too powerful for him to challenge yet.
• Liu Nuo led Zhang Chen through calibrating the old laboratory equipment, then told him the organization planned to capture him alive in a year and a half using three Elders and ten high-level VIPs.
• Liu Nuo described her plan to perfect Zhang Chen’s ghostification after he became a Hell Warden, and Zhang Chen agreed to the procedure and promised to retrieve her body.
• Zhang Chen contacted his parents and Wang Yizhi before changing into an experimental suit and lying on the laboratory platform.
• Liu Nuo outlined the three stages of the operation, including injecting ghostly aura and fusing a newly synthesized element called É with Zhang Chen’s Soul Stone.
• Zhang Chen gave Liu Nuo the signal to begin, and she started operating the laboratory machinery.

Zhang Chen endured the removal of the ghostification generator and the injection of twenty-seven kinds of ghost energy before Liu Nuo introduced a strange substance called É into his body. Inside his Soul Stone, Little Mouth used the substance to pursue independence from Kou Dan and asked Zhang Chen to help it replace Kou Dan.

• Liu Nuo removed the black sponge from Zhang Chen’s wrist, then injected twenty-seven types of liquid ghost energy into his body.
• Zhang Chen endured two hours of agony and adapted to the ghost energy without using the Soul Stone.
• Liu Nuo injected É through Zhang Chen’s heels, and its microscopic spheres absorbed the ghost energy before coating his Soul Stone.
• Zhang Chen blacked out and encountered Little Mouth inside the familiar cave, where Little Mouth swallowed a white sphere and explained that É could help it become independent from Kou Dan.
• Little Mouth revealed its plan to command the other deadly sins and replace Kou Dan’s primary consciousness, then asked Zhang Chen to help it absorb future entities like itself.
• Zhang Chen agreed to help Little Mouth, and the cave collapsed as countless white spheres engulfed them.

Liu Nuo’s experiment with É spiraled out of control after it entered Zhang Chen’s Soul Stone, transforming his body into a vast mouth that attacked the laboratory. The chapter then recounted Liu Nuo’s life and revealed that the organization had targeted her and her father decades earlier, leaving her fate in the laboratory unresolved.

• Liu Nuo injected É into Zhang Chen, but after it consumed the ghostly energy in his body, it ignored her model and seeped directly into his Soul Stone.
• Zhang Chen’s body opened into a huge mouth, and red tongues swept through the laboratory, consuming equipment and rushing toward Liu Nuo.
• Liu Nuo tried to escape and, as the tongues surrounded her, urged Zhang Chen to survive.
• The chapter traced Liu Nuo’s childhood, scientific achievements, death in 1990, return to the human world, and investigation into her father’s murder.
• After Liu Nuo found a lead through Zhang Chen’s information about '13.live,' the organization identified her as a target from decades earlier and took her physical body.

Chong Ying rushed to Tianfu City after Wangjiang Tower Park collapsed and feared Zhang Chen had been caught in the disaster. After finding him safe with Liu Nuo, she decided to go to the Imperial Capital and help retrieve Liu Nuo's body from Japan, while Zhang Chen arranged to introduce her to someone.

• Liu Nuo was spared by the tongues overrunning the laboratory, which continued devouring the building around her.
• Wang Yizhi's family and Chong Ying watched news of Wangjiang Tower Park's collapse, where a witness claimed a monster with red tongues had emerged underground.
• Chong Ying flew into the ruins to search for Zhang Chen, then followed his phone signal to an abandoned housing complex after he told her he was safe.
• Chong Ying found Zhang Chen speaking with Liu Nuo in a basement and learned that Liu Nuo was alive.
• Chong Ying resolved to go to the Imperial Capital and later travel to Japan with Zhang Chen to retrieve Liu Nuo's body.
• Zhang Chen called Jin Pangzi and learned that Old Master Wu was with him, beginning to arrange an introduction for Chong Ying.

Zhang Chen introduced Chong Ying to Old Master Wu, who recognized her rare Chong Chong Physique and accepted her as a disciple. Old Master Wu then warned Zhang Chen that a powerful ghost had been in Jinxi County and revealed that Japan’s ghost-controlled collapse might involve one of the five Nightmares, leaving the identity of the responsible Nightmare uncertain.

• Zhang Chen asked Old Master Wu to consider Chong Ying as a disciple, and Old Master Wu agreed to meet them after his chess game.
• Old Master Wu examined Chong Ying, recognized her Chong Chong Physique and strong Main Soul compatibility, and accepted her after seeing her Spider Demon form.
• Chong Ying returned to Wang Yizhi’s home to say goodbye, then packed her belongings and preserved a rose in her suitcase.
• Zhang Chen brought Old Master Wu home under the cover of a university professor, and Old Master Wu warned that a ghost far stronger than any Zhang Chen had faced had been in the area.
• Zhang Chen asked whether the ghost could be one of the five Nightmares, and Old Master Wu said two were in Huaxia Country while Japan’s collapse might have been caused by Faceless or Jizo.

Zhang Chen learned why the jailers could not openly destroy the organization and discovered that his Soul Stone had transformed, evolving his main soul while changing his ghostification ability. The white Little Mouth revealed it had severed its connection to Kou Dan and lost its envy, then returned to Zhang Chen’s Soul Stone as Zhang Chen headed to Wang Yizhi’s home.

• Elder Wu explained that Jailer Captains could not remain in the human world and that the organization could only be destroyed once its core members were exposed.
• After Elder Wu took Chong Ying to the capital, Zhang Chen reassured Wang Yizhi and spent time with his parents.
• During the laboratory experiment, Zhang Chen’s black Soul Stone shed its outer layers and became a smaller white stone, and he escaped the collapsing underground facility with Liu Nuo.
• Zhang Chen demonstrated his evolved main soul by crushing and erasing an oil painting at a distance, while Liu Nuo explained that he would need to discover how to activate full-body ghostification.
• Little Mouth told Zhang Chen it had severed its connection to Kou Dan and eliminated its envy, then returned to his Soul Stone before Zhang Chen went to Wang Yizhi’s home.

Akihara Gensuke witnessed a white-haired figure approach Ochi Town on a wooden bed as a blood-red sun rose, then encountered a strange Big-headed Old Man who entered his family’s home. The chapter ended with Gensuke discovering his father’s headless corpse in the entranceway.

• Akihara Gensuke saw a white-haired figure speeding toward shore on a wooden bed as his shrine bracelet shattered and the sun rose blood-red.
• Gensuke warned his family about the apparition, but his father dismissed the account after night had fallen.
• A visitor wearing wooden clogs entered the Akihara home, and Gensuke’s grandmother identified him as a Guest God.
• The Big-headed Old Man ate offerings at the family altar while Gensuke’s father failed to return from the entrance.
• Gensuke went into the hallway and found his father’s headless body, with the severed head on the shoe cabinet.

Lu Sheng saved Akihara Gensuke from the spirits haunting his home and helped him recover the memory of his family’s deaths in a tsunami. After Gensuke accepted the truth, Lu Sheng logged into 13.live and discovered a capture operation involving Zhang Chen, ending with his Elder identity revealed.

• Gensuke saw his dead family’s spirits in the house and was nearly strangled by his mother’s ghost.
• Lu Sheng appeared, cut down Gensuke’s mother, and told him that his family had died long ago.
• Gensuke remembered finding his family’s bodies after a tsunami destroyed their home five years earlier and later welcoming their spirits back from the sea.
• Gensuke thanked Lu Sheng, who borrowed his computer and logged into 13.live to read about the operation targeting Zhang Chen.
• A Red-clothed woman crawled out of the screen toward Gensuke, but Lu Sheng split her with his sword and gave Gensuke his name.
• A new forum comment identified the Elder as Great Yokai—Nurarihyon.

Zhang Chen settled into university life in Xiangtan, strengthening his abilities and hunting ghosts while preparing for his future journey to Japan. At the start of a new semester, a Japanese exchange student named Lu Sheng arrived in his class, and Zhang Chen felt uneasy after meeting his gaze.

• Zhang Chen arrived at Xiangtan University with Wang Yizhi and Little Nirvana, and Xiang Yun picked them up after her family home was demolished and she bought a car.
• Chong Ying joined Zhang Chen in Xiangtan, where they searched for ghosts to earn enough Ghost Crystals for the Jailer Realm auction.
• Zhang Chen extracted powerful Bone Blood, learned the Divine Sea could develop his brain to twenty-five percent, and helped Little Mouth absorb a new small mouth monster.
• Zhang Chen and Wang Yizhi spent New Year's Eve with their families, and Zhang Chen traveled to Qinghai without encountering ghosts, breaking the Conan curse.
• Zhang Chen attended a new-semester class meeting, where his homeroom teacher introduced Japanese exchange student Lu Sheng.
• Lu Sheng introduced himself in fluent Chinese, and Zhang Chen felt distinctly uncomfortable despite detecting nothing unusual about him.

Zhang Chen welcomed the Japanese exchange student Lu Sheng into his dorm and sensed something unusual about Lu Sheng’s sword. That night, Zhang Chen left to search for ghosts as the story introduced Xiushan Village, where a curse had begun drawing villagers into the mountains.

• The homeroom teacher assigned Lu Sheng to Zhang Chen, Dong Fan, and He Zhuangyi’s dorm, and they helped carry his luggage.
• Lu Sheng introduced himself to his roommates, and Wang Yizhi briefly spoke with him during a video call with Zhang Chen.
• Dong Fan admired Lu Sheng’s sword, Mimi Kirimaru, while Zhang Chen sensed something hidden beneath its scabbard; Lu Sheng stopped Zhang Chen’s spiritual power from reaching it and demonstrated his sword-drawing skill.
• After Lu Sheng went to sleep, Zhang Chen jumped out the window and headed into the night.
• The chapter described how the Gong family’s son ran into Xiushan Mountain on New Year’s Eve, after which eleven searchers vanished and their mutilated bodies were found.
• Beginning on the second day of the lunar new year, villagers with strange symbols were compelled to enter the mountains, while anyone who left the village was found dead at home.