Chapter Summaries

Lin Qiye and An Qingyu traced the Mask Squad’s route to a remote stretch of Ningchang County’s coastline. There, Lin Qiye discovered that the area’s past and future were obscured, suggesting they had found the site of the Squad’s disappearance.

• The tour guide told Lin Qiye that the Mask Squad had gone missing after visiting Sunset Coastline, and An Qingyu learned they had refused her company at several coastal attractions.
• An Qingyu deduced that the Squad had been lured toward the coastline under the pretext of a minor favor and hidden from surveillance, while Lin Qiye decided to search their last known area.
• Lin Qiye’s group reached Sunset Coastline at dusk and followed the route the Mask Squad had taken, leaving the crowded attraction behind.
• At a remote stretch of shore, Lin Qiye found that the Eye of Secret Peering could reveal neither the area’s past nor its future, and Black Pupil sensed something wrong there.

Lin Qiye and his team reached the uncharted Fishing Village while searching for Mask Squad and split up to investigate. An Qingyu and Jialan secured a place to stay with a fisherman, Chen Gou, who said his son had left the village years ago.

• Lin Qiye contacted Zuo Qing, then led the team toward Fishing Village after concluding it was likely connected to Mask Squad’s disappearance.
• Lin Qiye assigned An Qingyu and Jiang Er to accompany Jialan as she asked villagers for lodging and information, while he searched with the Eye of Secret Peering and Baili Pangpang went with Cao Yuan to another house.
• An Qingyu and Jialan knocked on Chen Gou’s door and persuaded him to let them stay overnight in his home.
• An Qingyu questioned Chen Gou, who said his wife had died and his son had left Fishing Village years earlier to seek a life outside.

Jialan and Jiang Er searched Chen Gou’s house and found a photograph identifying the boy beside him as Chen Lu. At Night Watchmen Headquarters, Tan Maoxun tortured Elder Chen for information about Mask Squad, but Elder Chen refused to speak as Zuo Qing intervened.

• Jialan and Jiang Er searched the village house and noted its lack of electronic equipment and the old photographs of Chen Gou and his son.
• Jiang Er cautioned Jialan about using False Love and Cupid’s Arrow on Qiye, and Jialan privately explained the truth to her.
• Jialan spotted the name Chen Lu written beside the boy in a photograph of Chen Gou.
• Tan Maoxun tortured Elder Chen at Night Watchmen Headquarters and demanded to know where Mask Squad was and what they were planning.
• Zuo Qing stopped Tan Maoxun, and Elder Chen urged him to try someone else if he could not make him talk.

Zuo Qing learned that Elder Chen had set a trap in Ningchang County’s Fishing Village, where Nightfall Squad had already lost contact. In the village, Baili Pangpang, Cao Yuan, and Shen Qingzhu tried to find lodging, but their suspicious appearance and fake cash got them rejected.

• Zuo Qing showed Elder Chen the Fishing Village address, and Elder Chen realized Nightfall Squad had entered the place on the 14th.
• Elder Chen laughed and warned that Mask Squad and Nightfall Squad would not return, saying someone was already watching the village.
• Zuo Qing ordered Nightfall Squad to withdraw, but the technician reported that their signal had vanished like Mask Squad’s.
• Zuo Qing sent the Master to the nearby Abstinence Hall and ordered a search of Elder Chen’s biographical records for ties to the village.
• Baili Pangpang, Cao Yuan, and Shen Qingzhu were turned away from several homes, so Shen Qingzhu proposed using their money to secure lodging.
• Baili Pangpang offered a villager fifty thousand for one night, but the villager recognized the bills as fake and threatened to call someone.

Shen Qingzhu realized that the fishing village’s outdated objects and the villagers’ rejection of Baili Pangpang’s real money meant something was wrong with the place. Lin Qiye discovered that every attempt to escape returned him to the village, leaving the group trapped as he planned to investigate and search for the Mask Squad.

• Baili Pangpang argued that his money was real, and Shen Qingzhu concluded that the village, not the bills, was the problem.
• Shen Qingzhu pointed out that the villagers’ calendar, shoes, and oil lamps came from different eras, and Baili Pangpang wondered if they had traveled through time.
• Lin Qiye searched the coastline with Black Pupil but found no clues, then sped away and inexplicably returned to the village.
• Lin Qiye tried to escape by running, flying on a Somersault Cloud, and entering the void with Zhanbai, but each attempt brought him back.
• Lin Qiye realized the group was trapped, found that his phone had no signal, and decided to investigate the village and look for the Mask Squad while waiting for possible support.

An Qingyu investigated the Fishing Village and discovered that its old-fashioned supplies could not have come from inside the sealed-off village. He left the group with a question about how the villagers obtained their necessities.

• Lin Qiye used the Starry Night Dancer to seek clues from nearby Night Creatures and sensed something beneath the ground.
• An Qingyu noticed that Chen Gou's cigarette brand had been discontinued, then secretly left the house to investigate the village.
• Baili Pangpang, Shen Qingzhu, and Cao Yuan waited at the village entrance after failing to find a place to stay overnight.
• Lin Qiye told the group that he could not leave the Fishing Village, so they were unlikely to have traveled back in time.
• An Qingyu returned and explained that old currency and discontinued cigarettes showed the village's timeline was unusual.
• An Qingyu said his Fish Seed-infected rats also could not leave, and asked how the sealed village obtained supplies when its only shop held enough stock for just five days.

An Qingyu concluded that the fishing village was trapped in a time loop, with its supplies and residents repeating the same few days for more than fifty years. The Nightfall Squad discovered that creatures throughout the village were dying, and a wounded Flying Bird perished after reaching Baili Pangpang.

• An Qingyu explained that the village’s supply records showed goods came from outside, so it was not a Human Circle.
• An Qingyu proposed that time in the village had become a loop, resetting its people and objects after a span of a few days.
• Lin Qiye wondered whether King Mask was connected to the village’s time loop, while Shen Qingzhu questioned why anyone would create it there.
• Lin Qiye revealed that the Night Creatures he had sent to search for clues had all died, and An Qingyu sensed that his mice had died as well.
• A wounded Flying Bird landed on Baili Pangpang, pecked at his shoe, and died moments later.

Lin Qiye’s group learned that the Fishing Village was trapped in a time loop that could erase them when it reset, and they feared the Mask Squad might already have been lost. Lin Qiye sent everyone to search for clues, while An Qingyu admitted he had struggled to control his emotions.

• The group watched birds attack one another and wondered if the time loop was causing the creatures’ deaths.
• An Qingyu warned that the outsiders could be erased when the loop reset, and Lin Qiye deduced that it had begun the previous day.
• An Qingyu reasoned that the Mask Squad, who had entered the village ten days earlier, might have been erased in an earlier loop; Baili Pangpang angrily rejected the idea.
• Lin Qiye stopped Baili Pangpang and An Qingyu from arguing and ordered the group to search the village for supernatural clues.
• An Qingyu apologized to Lin Qiye, then explained that he was troubled by his inability to control his emotions.

Lu Ruici, Zhou Dao, and Master Chen searched the coastline for the Fishing Village where Nightfall Squad had disappeared, but found only an empty shore. Master Chen noticed that the moon appeared red, while Zuo Qing suspected the date might determine whether the village could be entered.

• Zhou Dao told Lu Ruici that three tourists had vanished from the coastline in separate cases dating back more than thirty years.
• Master Chen arrived by Ghost Carriage and took Lu Ruici and Zhou Dao to the coordinates left by Nightfall Squad.
• Lu Ruici and Zhou Dao found no sign of the Fishing Village, and Master Chen observed that the moon looked red from the shore.
• Zuo Qing considered that the Fishing Village might be hidden and suspected the date could be the key to entering it.

Zuo Qing learned that Chen Lu came from the Fishing Village, which had not mutated when he left, and wondered how Chen Lu knew it was deadly. In the village, Chen Gou told An Qingyu that his father had drowned at sea and then revealed that his father had been sending him Dream Messages.

• Zuo Qing received records showing that Chen Lu had joined the Night Watchmen over fifty years earlier and that his hometown was the Fishing Village.
• Zuo Qing saw photographs of young Chen Lu with his father Chen Gou and grandfather Chen Yangrong, and learned Chen Lu had never returned home.
• Zuo Qing questioned how Chen Lu knew the Fishing Village was dangerous if it had not changed when he left.
• Chen Gou told An Qingyu that his father had drowned after going fishing to send food to Chen Lu, who had enlisted in an army.
• Chen Gou told An Qingyu that his father had been sending him Dream Messages.

Chen Gou told An Qingyu about a recurring dream of his dead father worshipping the Red Moon, while An Qingyu noticed a faint crimson tint on the moon. Lin Qiye realized an unknown force was destabilizing the group’s emotions and prepared to search beneath the sea for the source of the Time Loop, with Jialan joining him.

• Chen Gou described his recurring dream of his father forcing him to worship the Red Moon, and An Qingyu suspected the moon looked faintly red.
• Jialan told Lin Qiye that his, Baili Pangpang’s, and An Qingyu’s emotions had seemed abnormal.
• Lin Qiye concluded that a growing force in the Fishing Village might be affecting emotions and could eventually drive people to kill one another.
• Lin Qiye told Jialan that her immortality made her immune to the force and asked her to act if the others lost control.
• Lin Qiye decided to search beneath the sea for the force maintaining the Time Loop, and Jialan agreed to go with him.

Lin Qiye and Jialan searched the deep sea for the cause of the Time Loop and discovered the corpse of a colossal Sea Beast that might have been a god. At the end, Lin Qiye spotted a living person inside a huge wound on the beast’s face.

• Lin Qiye summoned Sea Beast attendants to search the ocean and rode a Lantern Fish down with Jialan.
• Lin Qiye helped Jialan hold on to him as they descended through the dark sea.
• Lin Qiye noticed a colossal shadow on the seafloor and identified it as a Sea Beast’s corpse.
• The Lantern Fish said the beast might have surpassed the known realm of Mysteries and could have been a god.
• Lin Qiye found a deep slash on the beast’s face and spotted a living person inside it.

Baili Pangpang and Cao Yuan lost control of their tempers under an influence that Shen Qingzhu suspected was affecting the village’s living creatures. After a mad dog and a bloodied Flying Bird killed each other, Cao Yuan handed Shen Qingzhu his sword to keep him from entering his dangerous Black King state.

• Baili Pangpang admitted that he had suddenly lost his temper with Qingyu, then restrained a barking dog with a Green Rope instead of attacking it with his knife.
• Cao Yuan became enraged by the dog’s barking and reached for his sword, but Shen Qingzhu stopped him from drawing it.
• The dog gnawed off its tied hind leg and charged at the three of them before a wounded Flying Bird attacked it.
• Shen Qingzhu concluded that an influence was disrupting the emotions and sanity of animals and humans, and warned that Cao Yuan was especially vulnerable.
• After the dog killed the Flying Bird and then died, Cao Yuan removed his sword and handed it to Shen Qingzhu.

Lin Qiye and Jialan found Chen Yangrong trapped in the stomach of a giant sea beast, pinned to its wall by Yiyuan, the future King Mask’s blade that carried the laws of the Fishing Village’s Time Loop. Chen Yangrong offered to reward them if they freed him, but warned that their only alternatives were death by the blade or by “their” hands.

• Lin Qiye and Jialan rode the Lantern Fish into the giant beast’s mouth and reached one of its enormous stomachs.
• Lin Qiye spotted an old man pinned to the stomach wall by Yiyuan, whose ring of light revealed the power sustaining the Time Loop.
• Lin Qiye recognized Yiyuan as the future King Mask’s blade and wondered why it had been used on the old man.
• The old man introduced himself as Chen Yangrong, claimed he was an ordinary fisherman, and asked Lin Qiye to pull the blade from his chest.
• Lin Qiye questioned Chen Yangrong about the danger, and Chen Yangrong warned that they would die either by Yiyuan or by “their” hands.

Chen Gou and Chen Lu revealed that unseen beings were watching and preparing to return, while An Qingyu connected Chen Gou’s vision of a moon-bound eye to a golden light. The chapter ended with Chen Lu naming the beings as Cthulhu and warning that humanity could not defeat them.

• Chen Yangrong told Lin Qiye that unseen beings watched from afar and would eventually return.
• Chen Gou told An Qingyu that he had repeatedly seen a huge eye on the moon, which vanished whenever golden light flashed across it.
• A villager reported that Widow Wang had stabbed pregnant Yao Mei six times, and An Qingyu realized the village was cut off from the outside world.
• Chen Gou collapsed and said he had heard his dead father calling him.
• In the Night Watchmen Headquarters, Chen Lu said the Night Watchmen and Great Xia could not defeat the beings and urged humanity to submit to them.
• Chen Lu identified the beings as Cthulhu.

Chen Lu told Zuo Qing that the Mist had appeared because of Cthulhu, whose gods were on the moon, and questioned why Michael had remained there for over a century. At the same time, Chen Yangrong revealed to Lin Qiye that he worshipped Cthulhu and intended to bring the beings back, even as flesh consumed him.

• Chen Lu told Zuo Qing that Cthulhu had caused the Mist and suggested the Lovecraftian Deities were beyond Earth.
• Zuo Qing questioned why Great Xia had never detected the Cthulhu Gods on the moon, and Chen Lu pointed out that Michael had stayed there for more than a century.
• Chen Yangrong told Lin Qiye that Cthulhu was on the moon and that he was a devoted believer, not its agent.
• Chen Yangrong said Cthulhu had granted him power and a second life, while the flesh embedded in him continued to consume his body.
• Chen Yangrong vowed to personally usher Cthulhu and the others back.

Lin Qiye concluded that the giant beast’s divine power had corrupted Chen Yangrong and driven his desire to bring back the Lovecraftian Deities, while Chen Yangrong warned that the Blood Moon was about to descend. At the Fishing Village, An Qingyu traced Chen Gou’s Soul Contamination to his father’s bloodline and realized it could also be reaching Chen Lu as a blood-red moon appeared.

• Lin Qiye explained to Jialan that the giant beast’s divine power had corrupted Chen Yangrong’s mind and likely caused his sudden ambition to revive the Lovecraftian Deities.
• Chen Yangrong said that the Blood Moon was about to descend as the beast’s stomach wall swallowed most of him.
• Chen Gou collapsed in agony during a storm and told An Qingyu that he had heard the voices of “them.”
• An Qingyu detected a scarlet thread contaminating Chen Gou and nearly had his own mind invaded when he tried to analyze it.
• An Qingyu connected the contamination to Chen Gou’s dead father and realized it could pass through their bloodline to Chen Lu.
• An Qingyu looked up and saw a blood-red moon emerging behind the clouds.

An Qingyu discovered that the Red Moon was intensifying the force driving people to slaughter one another, and physical barriers could not block it. As the village descended further into violence, he realized Baili Pangpang, Cao Yuan, and Shen Qingzhu might have the combat power to help them escape the Time Loop.

• An Qingyu subdued the blood-soaked Er Zhuzi and stopped himself from attacking him after Jiang Er called out to him.
• An Qingyu concluded that the Red Moon was causing the emotional influence and that its power would grow as it emerged from the clouds.
• An Qingyu tried to block the influence with a cocoon of black thorns, but the barrier did not ease his agitation.
• An Qingyu considered whether Baili Pangpang, Cao Yuan, and Shen Qingzhu could help them break out of the Time Loop.
• Villagers killed one another near a burning house as the Red Moon rose and its influence spread.

As the Red Moon’s influence drove the villagers and the three men toward madness, Shen Qingzhu had Baili Pangpang restrain them so they would not endanger Lin Qiye and the others. Meanwhile, Lin Qiye resisted Chen Yangrong’s demand to pull out a blade, even as the force affecting his emotions grew stronger.

• Baili Pangpang used the Green Rope to bind the fighting villagers, while Cao Yuan nearly reached for a bloodstained blade before Shen Qingzhu threw it away.
• Shen Qingzhu decided they should stop searching and have Baili Pangpang bind them, trusting Jialan to remain unaffected and Lin Qiye’s group to find a way out.
• When Baili Pangpang could no longer control two Forbidden Items, Shen Qingzhu took one and bound Baili Pangpang and Cao Yuan, then sat alone to smoke and maintain his composure.
• A young man carrying a Black Coffin and a bloodstained firewood cleaver emerged from the road and walked toward the bound Cao Yuan.
• On the seafloor, Lin Qiye struggled against the Red Moon’s growing influence while Chen Yangrong urged him to pull out a blade and warned that humans would lose their sanity and kill one another.

Lin Qiye deduced that the Fishing Village’s time loop was a prison delaying the resurrection of a giant beast beneath the Red Moon, and that Chen Yangrong had become its puppet. Chen Yangrong revealed that the Mask Squad had entered several loops earlier and that most had been erased; Lin Qiye moved to inspect the timeline recorded on the Time Blade’s ring.

• Lin Qiye explained that the Red Moon was reviving the giant beast and that King Mask’s time loop had delayed its resurrection for fifty years.
• Chen Yangrong confirmed Lin Qiye’s deduction and said another group of seven gray-cloaked people had discovered the truth three loops earlier.
• Lin Qiye realized Chen Yangrong was describing the Mask Squad and demanded to know what had happened to them.
• Chen Yangrong said time had erased the group, though one young man had apparently outrun time and vanished.
• Lin Qiye rejected Chen Yangrong’s claim and rushed to examine the timeline recorded on the ring at the end of the Time Blade.