Chapter Summaries

Zhang Chen and Chong Ying joined Luo Dakou and Zhao Mu at a braised-food restaurant, where a clash with the Black Dragon Society broke out. Zhao Mu killed the gang’s second-in-command, but Zhang Chen revived him, leaving the gang members to flee and the group to continue their meal.

• Zhang Chen invited the shy Chong Ying to talk, but Luo Dakou called them into his restaurant, where they met Zhao Mu.
• Zhang Chen introduced Chong Ying as Elder Wu’s disciple, surprising Zhao Mu, while Black Dragon Society members watched them from a nearby table.
• Boss Yao demanded Luo Dakou’s food and threatened the shop, so Luo Dakou stood up to him and asked him to apologize to Zhang Chen.
• When a gang member attacked Luo Dakou, Zhao Mu hurled him into a trash can, then broke Boss Yao’s neck as the gang drew their machetes.
• Zhang Chen used a piece of living flesh to repair Boss Yao’s neck and revive him, and the terrified gang members fled.
• Luo Dakou served his braised chicken wings, and Zhao Mu asked Zhang Chen what had happened that day.

Zhang Chen learned from Zhao Mu about Faceless’s strength and the coming worldwide campaign, then resolved to grow strong enough to join it. After leaving the braised meat shop, he used his rank to drive the Black Dragon Society away before taking Chong Ying through a spatial passage.

• Zhang Chen recounted his Japan operation to Zhao Mu, who explained that Faceless and Ksitigarbha’s alliance had prompted plans for a global search and a campaign against them.
• Zhao Mu revealed that Faceless had Jailer Captain strength and told Zhang Chen he must reach at least the Top Twenty within three years to join the fight.
• Zhao Mu privately urged Zhang Chen to train so he could save a woman, while Zhang Chen promised to improve and Zhao Mu prepared to leave because trouble had arrived.
• Black Dragon Society members surrounded the braised meat shop, but Zhang Chen suppressed their Level 3 leader and ordered the group to withdraw.
• Zhang Chen took Chong Ying through a spatial passage, and the Black Dragon Society leader punished the bald member who had brought them there.

Zhang Chen returned to Jinxi County, reunited with Tomie, and spent time with his parents, who faintly remembered Wang Yizhi despite their memories having been erased. He found a ghostly presence in Wang Yizhi’s home and opened her bedroom door, where he finally saw her again.

• Zhang Chen and Chong Ying returned to Jinxi County, where Zhang Chen found Tomie frightening customers at a noodle shop and took her to eat.
• Zhang Chen left Tomie with Chong Ying to shop for clothes and went home to prepare for the New Year with his parents.
• Zhang Chen’s parents asked whether he had a girlfriend and struggled to recall a girl with the surname Wang, warming Zhang Chen’s heart.
• Zhang Chen rode his bicycle through the changed county and visited Wang Yizhi’s home with fresh fruit.
• Zhang Chen sensed dense ghostly energy inside Wang Yizhi’s darkened home, contained it, and found its source in her bedroom.
• Zhang Chen opened the bedroom door and saw Wang Yizhi holding a photograph of them; he told her he was back and began to cry.

Captain Simpson’s cruise ship encountered a newly emerged island, where a magnetic disturbance and crazed seagulls caused casualties before a lightning strike crippled the vessel. The ship ran aground in the island’s safe waters, and Simpson stepped ashore to investigate what appeared to be Atlantis.

• Captain Simpson entrusted Goodman with the voyage and enjoyed his first time traveling as a passenger.
• Crazed seagulls attacked the ship, killing tourists, and the ship slowed as an enormous unmapped island appeared on its radar.
• Goodman explained that the island had appeared the previous day and was disrupting the ship’s electronic equipment, so Simpson ordered the crew to switch to manual control.
• Simpson recognized the island as possibly Atlantis and ordered the ship to go around it, but a lightning strike damaged the ship and opened a breach in its hull.
• Simpson ordered the ship to full speed toward the island, and the cruise ship ran aground on its beach before sinking.
• After the crew calmed the passengers and distributed food, Simpson and Goodman stepped ashore to examine the ancient structures.

Captain Simpson organized the stranded passengers and led a twelve-person team to explore the newly emerged island of Atlantis, hoping to locate the source of its magnetic field and find supplies. The team discovered a freshwater lake, while Dr. Hill unknowingly left the ruins with a dark blue object wriggling beneath his skin.

• Captain Simpson gathered the passengers, arranged for vulnerable people to wait aboard the ship, and assigned Goodman to organize distress signals.
• Simpson formed a twelve-person Exploration Team and explained that the island's powerful magnetic field could prevent rescue and that the ship's food would last only five days.
• The team set out to explore the island, and the Bearded Man identified a freshwater lake less than five kilometers away.
• Dr. Hill studied inscriptions in the ruins and felt a needle-like pain as a dark blue tentacle touched him.
• Dr. Hill rejoined the team unaware that a dark blue object was wriggling beneath the skin of his back.

The group discovered a vast freshwater lake, but Dr. Hill was taken over by a parasitic Eel Snake and ran toward the island’s interior. After capturing the creature and learning that wandering souls threatened the island at night, William planned to use Hill as a guide to a place of importance the next morning.

• The doctors confirmed that the lake held safe freshwater, while Dr. Hill examined strange writing and felt a creature growing on his neck.
• A female voice spoke in Dr. Hill’s mind, and he ran toward the unexplored island before William pursued and pinned him down.
• William cut open Hill’s neck, captured the dark-blue Eel Snake in a crystal, and ordered that Hill be isolated for observation.
• William warned the Old Captain that wandering souls would spread across the island at night, so the Captain imposed a curfew and arranged equipment for William’s study.
• William found soul marrow inside the Eel Snake, which turned to dust after he removed it, while Hill shouted that he had accepted a woman’s guidance and needed to reach her hall.
• William decided to use Hill as a guide the next morning, then tapped him and left him unable to move.

William followed the parasitized passengers to a palace where a woman harvested their brains, but she killed him before he could stop her. The story then shifted to 2011, where Zhang Chen reunited with Wang Yizhi’s fading consciousness and kissed her despite her resistance.

• Blue Eel Snakes swarmed the cruise ship, parasitized passengers, and drove them into the island while William followed unseen.
• William discovered a palace where a female phantom removed tourists’ brains and fed them into a well, apparently as part of a deliberate plan.
• William attacked the phantom, but she broke his neck, pierced his chest, and took his Soul Stone.
• Two and a half years earlier, Wang Yizhi told Zhang Chen that her consciousness was only a fragment and would disappear within a week.
• Zhang Chen tried to persuade Wang Yizhi to stay, then embraced and kissed her as she struggled and used her remaining dark power against him.

Zhang Chen reunited with Wang Yizhi, helped her recover from the dark power inside him, and spent the night with her before bringing her home. They discussed trying to stabilize her consciousness inside his body after New Year, but their plans were interrupted when they encountered Tomie and Chong Ying.

• Wang Yizhi drew the dark power out of Zhang Chen and told him he would need to change his chauvinistic attitude if he wanted her to see him as a boyfriend rather than an experimental subject.
• Zhang Chen helped Wang Yizhi dress, then rode with her along the Jinxi River and went shopping with her on the newly built shopping street.
• Wang Yizhi agreed to consider using Zhang Chen's unusual body to stabilize her consciousness after New Year, and she went back to his residential complex with him.
• Zhang Chen sensed Tomie's aura and found Tomie and Chong Ying waiting near his building; Chong Ying ran to Wang Yizhi and embraced her in tears.
• Zhang Chen brought Wang Yizhi, Chong Ying, and Tomie to Tomie's new home, where Wang Yizhi offered to calm Chong Ying and Zhang Chen realized the two women knew each other.

Zhang Chen and Wang Yizhi went home together after Tomie revealed her blood embryo and received advice from Wang Yizhi. In bed, Wang Yizhi answered Zhang Chen’s questions about his past and her own origins, and the two fell asleep together.

• Tomie told Zhang Chen she knew Wang Yizhi and agreed to help him, then showed Wang Yizhi her blood embryo, which drew the attention of ghosts across Jinxi County.
• Wang Yizhi warned Tomie to put the blood embryo away and advised her to overcome her rejection of it; she then left with Zhang Chen and entrusted Chong Ying to Tomie.
• Zhang Chen and Wang Yizhi returned to his parents’ home, where his parents welcomed Wang Yizhi warmly.
• Zhang Chen and Wang Yizhi became intimate, and he admitted he had faked a back wound to draw her in.
• Wang Yizhi explained that she had not arranged Zhang Chen’s Soul Stone, had guided some of his encounters, and had once been a princess of the Dark Realm before encountering Nyarlathotep.
• Wang Yizhi said she did not regret coming to the human world, then fell asleep beside Zhang Chen.

On New Year’s Eve, Zhang Chen tried to preserve Wang Yizhi’s fading consciousness inside the huge stone in his soul, despite the stone’s rejection. He succeeded after the stone’s strange voice intervened, leaving Wang Yizhi safely within his soul to supervise his training.

• Zhang Chen celebrated New Year’s Eve with his parents, Chong Ying, Tomie, and Wang Yizhi, while Tomie covered for his secret work and his mother kept the guests after midnight.
• Zhang Chen sent New Year’s greetings to Master Pu Hu, Shen Hou, Senior Sister, and Liu Nuo, and Wang Yizhi asked him to hide her consciousness body from Liu Nuo.
• Zhang Chen and Wang Yizhi began trying to preserve her consciousness inside the huge stone, but the stone’s ripples weakened her as they approached.
• Zhang Chen pressed Wang Yizhi’s fading point of consciousness against the stone, but it did not respond, so he battered the stone in desperation.
• The stone’s strange voice granted Zhang Chen’s request, and Wang Yizhi confirmed that she had survived inside his soul and would supervise his training.

After the international conference set a three-year deadline for the coming confrontation, Zhang Chen prepared to pursue missions that could help him reach the Top Ten of the Jailer Minister rankings. He and Chong Ying arrived at Floating City’s mission center, where a young Jailer Eye approached them.

• Zabureka learned that the Jailer Envoys would spend three years searching for Faceless and Ksitigarbha, and that Huaxia Country had eight slots for the coming confrontation.
• Zhao Mu read the conference conclusions and Zhuge Feixuan’s birthday invitation, then prepared flowers and a ring for their dinner.
• The Divine Marquis warned that Zhang Chen might need to enter a dangerous prison-realm zone to reach the Top Ten, while Lian Yuxin worried about his safety.
• Tomie told Zhang Chen and Chong Ying that she would travel alone to resolve the barriers in her heart and improve her blood fetus.
• Zhang Chen took Chong Ying to Elder Wu, who gave him a wooden plaque and sent them to Floating City’s mission center.
• At the mission center, a young Level 1 Jailer Eye asked Zhang Chen and Chong Ying whether they were visiting to accept missions for the first time.

Zhang Chen and Chong Ying visited the capital’s Also Building to choose a jailer envoy mission. With the wooden token Old Wu had given him, Zhang Chen gained access to the fifth-floor mission area, where the chapter left them about to select a high-difficulty mission.

• Feng Xiao Feng introduced himself and guided Zhang Chen and Chong Ying into the Also Building, explaining its mission system and floors.
• Zhang Chen and Chong Ying passed through the lower floors and decided to inspect the fifth floor despite Feng Xiao Feng’s recommendation to choose a mission on the third or fourth floor.
• A reception attendant explained that missions above the fourth floor were reserved for Jailer Ministers on the Hundred Man Ranking.
• Zhang Chen showed the attendant Old Wu’s wooden token, and the attendant opened a concealed stairwell to the fifth floor.
• A Level 2 Jailer Minister criticized Zhang Chen and Chong Ying for trying to use their connections, but Zhang Chen ignored him and headed upstairs with Chong Ying.

Zhang Chen and Chong Ying explored the fifth floor’s mission areas and considered a dangerous Crescent Moon Spring incident before turning to the Unknown Missions. They became interested in the Pingrang Township case, where unexplained drownings and vanished investigators had left the cause unresolved.

• The attendant explained that fifth-floor missions threatened entire provinces and introduced the normal and Unknown Mission areas.
• Zhang Chen and Chong Ying read about the five-star Crescent Moon Spring mission, where 1,765 tourists died and multiple jailer teams disappeared, but chose to inspect Unknown Missions first.
• A dwarf Level 2 Jailer Minister welcomed Zhang Chen and Chong Ying and gave them a book recording past Unknown Missions.
• The dwarf recognized Chong Ying as a descendant of the Insect Family and said he had once owed the family a favor.
• Zhang Chen and Chong Ying read about the Pingrang Township drownings, the vanished jailer teams, and the mission’s unresolved flooded cave.

Zhang Chen accepted the dangerous Pingrang Township mission with Chong Ying and brought Feng Xiao Feng along under the condition that he keep his Jailer Aura visible. The three arrived in Hengshui City to investigate the township’s history, while Zhang Chen learned from Wang Yizhi that the suspected rare species could nourish the soul.

• Zhang Chen and Chong Ying accepted the Pingrang Township mission, received intelligent bracelets and identity proof, and learned that an unproductive investigation could be classified as a dead mission after fourteen working days.
• Zhang Chen agreed to take Feng Xiao Feng along if he kept his Jailer Aura unhidden, while Zhang Chen and Chong Ying concealed theirs to draw out the ghost.
• Zhang Chen used spatial transfer to bring Chong Ying and Feng Xiao Feng from Floating City to Hengshui City, then assigned them to search for clues until 16:00.
• Zhang Chen headed toward a newspaper office to investigate Pingrang Township and contacted Wang Yizhi, who said the suspected rare species’ bodily fluids could nourish the soul.

Zhang Chen rescues Fu Jing from a ghostly haunting and asks him to recount his investigation in Pingrang Township. Fu Jing begins describing his assignment to investigate a recent drowning that resembled a deadly incident from five years earlier.

• Fu Jing’s editor-in-chief sent him on a seven-day assignment to investigate a drowning in Pingrang Township and report on its paranormal history.
• Fu Jing reviewed records of a mass drowning five years earlier that killed twenty people, including police officers.
• Fu Jing rode a minibus to Pingrang Township, where he was the only passenger to get off.
• Fu Jing found the town decrepit and filled with an oppressive air of death.
• Zhang Chen pulled Fu Jing out of a ghost-induced vision at the news agency, restored his strength, and promised to stop the haunting if Fu Jing answered his questions truthfully.
• Fu Jing agreed to tell Zhang Chen everything about his trip to Pingrang Township and began recounting his arrival.

Fu Jing arrived in the unnaturally damp and silent Pingrang Township and stayed with an old man who warned him not to use water after 16:30 because the Rang River became dangerous. After a disturbing dinner with a bowl of rice set out like an offering, Fu Jing tried to investigate the river, but the old man stopped him.

• Fu Jing reached Pingrang Township, found almost no one on its deserted streets, and accepted the old man's offer of a room.
• The old man told Fu Jing that township residents could use water only between 8:00 and 16:30 because the Rang River became unsuitable for use afterward.
• Fu Jing searched the township for information but found few residents, learned the township chief had left, and uncovered no useful leads.
• At dinner, Fu Jing found two chopsticks standing upright in a bowl of rice placed before an empty chair, then returned to his room after eating little.
• The old man refilled the rice bowl and restored the offering as the empty chair rocked by itself.
• Fu Jing set out to investigate the Rang River, but the old man blocked the door and told him to stay because he had something to discuss.

Fu Jing interviewed Old Man Zhang, who revealed how Pingrang Township’s River God offerings escalated from livestock to human sacrifices and led to a mass death five years earlier. Old Man Zhang warned Fu Jing that living people should not stay there, and Fu Jing planned to visit the Rang River the next morning.

• Fu Jing admitted to Old Man Zhang that he was a reporter and asked what had caused the deaths in Pingrang Township.
• Old Man Zhang explained that the townspeople first offered livestock to the Rang River, then sacrificed a seven-year-old girl after a crop infestation.
• Old Man Zhang said the River God rejected livestock after the girl’s sacrifice, so the townspeople began offering living people to stop disasters.
• Old Man Zhang recounted how the River God’s demands grew, the village chief died, and nearly half the township’s residents and the investigating police were killed five years earlier.
• Fu Jing paid Old Man Zhang for the information, then returned to his room and planned to photograph the Rang River in the morning.
• Old Man Zhang warned Fu Jing that this was no place for living people to stay, leaving Fu Jing startled.

Fu Jing’s excitement over A Xun agreeing to meet him turned into a nightmare when a water-soaked old woman haunted his room and pursued him through Old Man Zhang’s house. Trapped in the kitchen, Fu Jing remembered Zhang’s warning about water and opened the faucet, making the old woman vanish.

• Fu Jing received A Xun’s agreement to meet, broke his light bulb in excitement, and prepared a bath before falling asleep.
• Fu Jing dreamed of confessing his love to A Xun, but her hand transformed into a decayed, water-soaked hand.
• Fu Jing woke to find offerings, incense, a portrait of a drowned old woman, and her shadow beside his bed; she grabbed his leg from beneath the bed as he fled with his briefcase.
• Fu Jing saw that Old Man Zhang’s room had become a memorial, then found maggots and insects in the food and failed to break through the house’s front door.
• A White-robed Old Woman blocked Fu Jing’s escape through the backyard and pursued him into the kitchen, where he opened the faucet and made her disappear.

After surviving a supernatural attack in Pingrang Township, Fu Jing recovered from his fear of water and agreed to guide Zhang Chen back there. Zhang Chen gathered his companions and prepared to draw out the entity Jing Lai, which Wang Yizhi believed was behind the township’s haunting.

• Fu Jing was possessed and forced toward the Rang River, but Old Man Zhang warned him to flee and was dragged into the water in his place.
• Fu Jing escaped to Hengshui City, where a minibus found him and took him to a hospital.
• At a bar, Fu Jing told Zhang Chen what had happened, overcame his fear of water, and volunteered to return to Pingrang Township.
• Zhang Chen accepted Fu Jing as a guide and told him to obey his orders during the journey.
• Chong Ying and Feng Xiao Feng joined Zhang Chen, who learned that Feng Xiao Feng had found information about the River God and the jailer base.
• Wang Yizhi identified the entity in Pingrang Township as Jing Lai, and Zhang Chen set out with Fu Jing as bait.

Zhang Chen traveled to Pingrang Township and learned from Wang Yizhi that a Jing Lai had grown powerful by consuming people and their souls. After the group arrived, Zhang Chen began investigating the apparently lifeless township and restored the frightened woman Fu Jing had recognized as crazy.

• Zhang Chen questioned Wang Yizhi about Jing Lai and learned how it grew by feeding on aquatic life, livestock, and eventually humans, while accumulating their resentment.
• Wang Yizhi warned Zhang Chen to observe the Jing Lai for a day before acting, then returned to the depths of his soul to rest.
• Zhang Chen told the group to avoid alerting the enemy, assigned Chong Ying to watch Fu Jing, and Chong Ying secretly planted a tiny spider inside him.
• Zhang Chen and his companions reached Pingrang Township, where he sensed no signs of life and the minibus driver hurriedly drove away after dropping them off.
• Zhang Chen recognized the approaching woman as the crazy woman Fu Jing had encountered, examined her mind, and adjusted it to ease her fear before she began screaming soundlessly.