Chapter Summaries

Zhan Xun and Fan Ru were trapped in a sealed room with the newborn infant ghost from the Blue and White Porcelain Jar, which began attacking Fan Ru. A cold-faced man burst in before the ghost could finish, bringing the struggle to a sudden halt and aiming a dagger at Fan Ru.

• The courtyard gate and main door slammed shut as Ge Hong's corpse split open and the infant ghost emerged from inside it.
• Zhan Xun and Fan Ru failed to break through the door or window, then Zhan Xun persuaded Ma Huaiyu to attack the window from outside.
• The infant ghost crawled into the inner room, and Fan Ru charged at it before it vanished and began moving inside her abdomen.
• A cold-faced man kicked in the inner-room door, tossed Jiang Jiang's severed head onto the kang, and aimed a dagger at Fan Ru.

Ji Li rescued Zhan Xun, Fan Ru, and the others from the infant ghost in Ge Hong’s home, then left the child behind as the ghost’s intended target. He judged his team’s performance inadequate, but Yu Guo’s unexpected call signaled a new emergency.

• Ji Li cut the infant ghost out of Fan Ru and escaped the house with Zhan Xun and the injured Fan Ru as cries filled the courtyard.
• Ji Li explained that Ge Hong’s son was the ghost’s intended target and that letting the ghost kill him would fulfill its original wish.
• Ge Hong’s son closed the courtyard gate, and Ji Li stopped Su Qin'er from trying to bring him along.
• Ji Li left Pingxin Road and criticized Ma Huaiyu, Su Qin'er, Fan Ru, and Zhan Xun for their poor performance.
• Yu Guo called Ji Li unexpectedly, indicating that he had encountered an emergency.

Ji Li learned that Yu Guo had been targeted by the ghost child and ordered him to reach Tiannan Academy of Drama, where the Root Cause Ghost might protect him. Meanwhile, Branch No. 9’s divination revealed that Duan Shisan and an unknown person hidden in Hei An’an’s house faced a linked calamity and must not meet.

• Yu Guo told Ji Li that Branch No. 9 had visited Hei An’an and that he had seen the ghost child staring at him.
• Ji Li confirmed that the ghost’s killings were unsolvable and that it ignored Sin Objects, then told Yu Guo to reach Tiannan Academy of Drama within fifteen minutes.
• Ji Li assigned Zhan Xun to take over Yu Guo’s work following Hei An’an, then continued toward Ren Jiayun’s homeroom teacher, Wang Ting, with Su Qin’er and the injured Fan Ru.
• Outside Hei An’an’s villa, Huang Banxian divined that two people’s lives and deaths were linked and warned that they must never meet.
• Huang Banxian identified Duan Shisan as one person facing the calamity and revealed that another hidden person had been inside Hei An’an’s house.

Huang Banxian took Clyde south to find Yu Guo, revealing that he planned to save Yu Guo rather than Duan Shisan. Meanwhile, Yu Guo realized the ghost was closing in and stopped his car on the highway to face his likely death and leave clues for Ji Li.

• Huang Banxian used his Star Compass to determine that the hidden person was heading south and said Duan Shisan’s blood calamity was tied to that person.
• Huang Banxian left with Clyde, admitting he did not intend to save Duan Shisan and explaining that Gu Xingjian had tasked him with investigating Yu Guo’s karma.
• Yu Guo drove toward Tiannan Academy of Drama after stealing a car, recording that he had seen two ghosts—a large one and a small one—following him.
• Yu Guo stopped his car on the highway, took out his notebook, and asked Ji Li to search his corpse for clues and scatter his ashes at Tiannan Academy of Drama.

Yu Guo used the Script Sin Item to write three prophecies in a desperate attempt to survive the ghost child’s attack. After the first two prophecies brought a stranger to carry him away, the ghost caught up with him, and the final prophecy exchanged their fates.

• Yu Guo wrote three prophecies that could save him at the cost of becoming half-human and half-ghost.
• Huang Banxian and Clyde prepared to intervene, but Huang Banxian warned that they had only a one percent chance of success.
• A ghost child attacked Yu Guo, and his first prophecy brought a bald stranger in a car, but the ghost continued draining Yu Guo’s vitality.
• Yu Guo’s second prophecy led the stranger to carry him away, briefly easing the ghost’s effects.
• Huang Banxian’s talismans and Incense Burner failed to affect the ghost, which caught Yu Guo in the speeding car.
• Yu Guo’s final prophecy declared that their fates would be exchanged and the stranger would die in his place.

Yu Guo’s attempt to escape the ghost child by exchanging souls with a passing driver failed because the ghost recognized identities rather than bodies. Huang Banxian and Clyde devised another exchange using Duan Shisan’s identity, and Clyde calculated that they must act at the instant Yu Guo is about to die.

• Yu Guo used his third prophecy to exchange souls with the bald driver, but the ghost child grabbed him because the driver was not a Tianhai Hotel Staff member.
• Yu Guo saw that the hand gripping him wore a wedding ring matching his own as the car crashed into a tree.
• At the first crime scene, Huang Banxian concluded that he could use Duan Shisan’s legitimate identity to complete the life exchange and save Yu Guo.
• Huang Banxian persuaded Clyde to use the Bronze Square Mirror, which greatly increased Clyde’s intelligence but further eroded his personality.
• Clyde determined that they should exchange Yu Guo and Duan Shisan’s lives when the Star Compass stopped spinning, at the moment Yu Guo neared death.

Yu Guo died while trapped in a different body, then revived as Duan Shisan, a Branch No. 9 staff member, and realized he had uncovered a revelation about the mission’s ghost. Meanwhile, Ji Li brought the injured Su Qin'er and Fan Ru to Wang Ting’s residence and went alone to investigate.

• Yu Guo succumbed to the ghost hand but revived as Duan Shisan among Tianhai Hotel Staff and hurried off to recover his Sin Object and phone.
• Ji Li learned that Yu Guo had likely died after seeing fragmented visions of his death, adding to his concern over the mission’s dwindling manpower and mysteries.
• Ji Li reached Green Garden Residential Area with Su Qin'er and Fan Ru, paid Li Dahai, and told him to wait an hour before calling the police.
• Ji Li left Su Qin'er and Fan Ru at the entrance and entered Building 3 alone to investigate Wang Ting’s apartment.

Ji Li broke into Wang Ting’s apartment and confirmed her identity, but found her companion A Shan dead and realized he had been lured into a trap. He fled with Wang Ting as another ghost threatened to seal them inside.

• Ji Li heard an elevator chime in the stairwell and hurried upstairs, concluding that the ghost’s presence meant Wang Ting was still alive.
• Ji Li picked the lock to Room 707 and entered Wang Ting’s apartment, where he found a man’s shoes beside hers.
• Ji Li kicked open the bedroom door, woke Wang Ting, and confirmed that she was the woman he had been sent to find.
• Wang Ting called to A Shan, and Ji Li discovered that A Shan was a long-dead corpse with blood seeping from his facial orifices.
• Ji Li realized a different ghost had lured him into a trap and ran for the front door with Wang Ting.

Ji Li rescued Wang Ting from Room 707, but a ghost pursued them through the hotel and blocked their escape routes. He forced them into a sabotaged elevator inside the Bronze Ancient Coffin, knowing the danger was far from over.

• Ji Li used the Bronze Ancient Coffin to stop Room 707’s door from closing, then carried Wang Ting out as a pale boy emerged behind them.
• Ji Li told Wang Ting that a ghost had targeted her and that A Shan had died because of her, then hurried downstairs with her.
• A ghostly hand attacked Ji Li on the Fifth Floor, and a child’s wail followed as waves of blood blocked the stairs below.
• Ji Li carried Wang Ting, who had badly injured her ankle, toward the elevator after both stairways became impassable.
• A pale boy attacked from above, so Ji Li used the Bronze Ancient Coffin for cover, climbed inside with Wang Ting, and shot the elevator controls to send the car plunging downward.

Ji Li escaped the elevator with Wang Ting, but stayed behind when the ghost child trapped him inside Building 3. As he recognized the child’s connection to the Hundred-headed Strange Infant and inferred its weakness, another Black Shadows invaded Su Qin'er’s eyes.

• Ji Li opened the coffin and fled with Wang Ting, but the ghost child appeared and reached for her.
• Ji Li switched places with Wang Ting and shoved her through the unit door, leaving himself trapped inside as Building 3 went dark.
• Ji Li identified the ghost child as a likely growth stage of the embryo in the Blue and White Porcelain Jar and noticed it was growing inside his calf.
• The ghost child vanished as Blood Pool spread around Ji Li, who remained confident he had deduced its weakness.
• At the clinic, Su Qin'er sensed something leave her body, then a hidden Black Shadows plunged into her eyes.

Ji Li deduced that the Blue and White Porcelain Jar was the ghost child’s weakness and searched Green Garden Residential Area for it while the Hundred-headed Strange Infant held the ghost child back. He found the jar in Room 807, shattered it, and emerged from the building to the woman waiting outside.

• Ji Li realized that the ghost child was bound to the Blue and White Porcelain Jar and could not attack him once he left the building.
• Ji Li searched Wang Ting’s Room 707 but found no jar, then inferred from A Shan’s gaze that it was in the apartment above.
• Ji Li rushed to Room 807 and shot through its locked door, injuring his shoulder as he forced his way inside.
• A ghost appeared in Room 807, but Ji Li resisted its attempt to possess him as the ghost child rushed toward him.
• Ji Li spotted the Blue and White Porcelain Jar in the Living Room and shattered it with a gunshot, ending the ghost child’s wail.
• Ji Li left the building and smiled in relief at the woman who had waited outside.

Ji Li learned from Wang Ting that Ren Jiayun had shown strange behavior and carried a clay figurine marked with a clockwise circle, linking the boy’s disappearance to the symbols found on Hidden Wind Carries Water’s victims. The connection suggested opposing forces behind the clockwise and counter-clockwise circles, leaving Ji Li with a possible lead to the mission’s central mystery.

• Ji Li helped Wang Ting leave Green Garden Residential Area and asked her for information about her missing student, Ren Jiayun.
• Wang Ting described Ren Jiayun as withdrawn and said he had screamed in class, spoken to the air, and carried a spirit tablet and a clay figurine in his schoolbag.
• Wang Ting said the spirit tablet bore the name Ren Yunfeng and the figurine had a carved symbol on its forehead.
• Wang Ting identified the symbol as a clockwise circle, which reminded Ji Li that Hidden Wind Carries Water’s victims had counter-clockwise circles carved on their foreheads.
• Ji Li considered whether the opposing symbols connected Ren Jiayun’s disappearance and the group’s deaths to two rival forces.

Ji Li brought Wang Ting to the clinic, where she described Ren Jiayun's disappearance and the family portrait he had left behind. The portrait matched Ji Li's photograph and pointed the investigation toward Kapok Photo Studio and Tangren Wax Museum, as Ji Li's phone began buzzing with new information.

• Ji Li found Su Qin'er, Fan Ru, and the Old Doctor at a clinic and arranged for Wang Ting to rest there until dawn.
• The Old Doctor examined Wang Ting's injured foot and said she needed treatment at a proper hospital.
• Wang Ting told Ji Li that Ren Jiayun disappeared after waking from an unusual nap, leaving behind a family portrait while his Spirit Tablet and Clay Figurine were missing.
• Wang Ting identified the child in Ji Li's photograph as Ren Jiayun and described him standing beside two wax figures in a picture bearing the Kapok Photo Studio watermark.
• Ji Li concluded that Kapok Photo Studio and Tangren Wax Museum might hold clues to Ren Jiayun's disappearance and the Ring Organization, then received a buzzing phone call.

Yu Guo told Ji Li how he survived and proposed that the ghost child was formed by the group’s suspicions and fears. Ji Li challenged the theory, pointing out that he had witnessed the deaths himself, leaving the ghost’s origin unresolved.

• Yu Guo explained that Huang Banxian used the Life-Swapping Prophecy to exchange his soul and body with Duan Shisan, saving him.
• Yu Guo said the ghost child did not nullify Sin Objects but ignored them, and that A Lian had attacked him as its executioner.
• Yu Guo proposed that suspicion and fear had created the ghost child, with Su Qin'er spreading its image before the mission began.
• Ji Li questioned Yu Guo’s theory, saying he had seen the ghost child attack and could recount everyone’s deaths.
• Ji Li argued that if the ghost child came from someone’s imagination, it should have originated with him, since he had learned of it from Su Qin'er.

Yu Guo and Ji Li compared their conflicting theories about the ghost children and agreed to focus on tracing the Ring Organization through Ren Jiayun’s disappearance. They divided their investigation, and Yu Guo revealed that he had told Branch No. 9 about the ghost child so they might keep it occupied while Ji Li acted.

• Yu Guo questioned Ji Li about why he could see visions of people being killed, challenging Ji Li’s theory about the ghost child.
• Ji Li linked Ren Jiayun’s disappearance to the Ring Organization and proposed that the ghost children were different stages of the same kind of entity.
• Yu Guo raised Su Qin’er’s condition and Ji Li’s visions as unresolved evidence, and they set aside their competing theories to pursue Ren Jiayun’s trail.
• Ji Li planned to revisit Hei An’an’s four addresses for signs of the Ring Organization, while Yu Guo agreed to keep Hei An’an under surveillance.
• Ji Li warned Yu Guo to stay calm around Branch No. 9, but Yu Guo disclosed that he had already told them about the ghost child and hoped they would keep it occupied.

Lumian Lee entertained a tavern full of Cordoux villagers with a fictional account of working as a morgue watchman, then met Ryan Coss and his companions. Pierre revealed that Lumian had been brought to the village by his sister Aurore five years earlier, taken her surname, and forgotten his original name.

• Lumian stopped his morgue-watchman story and revealed that his sister, Aurore, had written it.
• Ryan Coss introduced himself and his companions, Valentine and Lia, and explained that the surname Lee recalled a feared sailor named Frank Lee.
• Lumian ordered Green Fairy, and Ryan bought drinks after Pierre offered to tell him about Lumian.
• Pierre explained that Aurore had brought Lumian to Cordoux when he was thirteen and that Lumian had never left the village since.
• Pierre said Lumian had taken Aurore's surname and received his name from her, while Lumian said he had forgotten what he was originally called.

Ji Li suspected the Ring Organization was guiding the Tianhai Staff toward its plans and sent Su Qin'er and Fan Ru to the Tangren Wax Museum as bait. After discovering Wang Ting had been killed by the Unsolvable Ghost Child, he revealed that he had placed the Hundred-headed Strange Infant inside Su Qin'er and planned to use her to test the connection between the ghost and the Blue and White Porcelain Jars.

• Ji Li told the Third Personality that the Tianhai Staff might be deliberately guided toward Blue and White Porcelain Jars by Hei An'an or the Ring Organization.
• Ji Li explained that he planned to draw out a Ring Organization member by sending Su Qin'er and Fan Ru to the Tangren Wax Museum.
• Ji Li returned to the clinic and found Wang Ting dead from the same killing method as A Shan, while the elderly doctor lay unconscious with Ji Li's warning note.
• Ji Li revealed that the Unsolvable Ghost Child was inside Su Qin'er and that he had noticed the change after the Hundred-headed Strange Infant could no longer be placed in her body.
• Ji Li planned to use Su Qin'er's survival at the Tangren Wax Museum to determine whether the Unsolvable Ghost Child came from a Blue and White Porcelain Jar.

Su Qin'er and Fan Ru went to the Tangren Wax Museum to investigate its connection to Ren Jiayun, but they discovered that the small building was operating as a horror-themed wax museum unlike the one described in their search results. They waited for entry and learned that the previous group had been inside for over half an hour without coming out.

• Fan Ru complained about being sent to the wax museum, while Su Qin'er accepted Ji Li's orders and searched for information during the taxi ride.
• Su Qin'er and Fan Ru arrived at the Tangren Wax Museum in heavy rain and found an inconspicuous two-story building.
• Su Qin'er tried to speak with the ticket seller about the boss, but the woman said the manager and boss were away and insisted they buy tickets to enter.
• Su Qin'er bought two tickets, and the ticket seller told them to wait for the previous group to come out before entering.
• Su Qin'er and Fan Ru overheard visitors say the museum featured life-sized scenes based on serial killers and that the previous group had been inside for more than half an hour.
• Su Qin'er and Fan Ru realized the horror museum did not match the information they had found about the Tangren Wax Museum.

Su Qin'er and Fan Ru found themselves trapped inside the Tangren Wax Museum and decided to enter it in search of a way out. Inside, Xiao Lin Ge opened the door to the room marked Prisoner Number 2.

• Fan Ru failed to force open the exit and smashed the Admission Tickets after blaming Su Qin'er for their predicament.
• Su Qin'er saw three young visitors enter the museum and convinced Fan Ru that they had to follow them to look for an escape.
• Xiao Lin Ge, Xiao Mo, and Lao Ma walked through the red-lit corridor and read the plaque identifying Prisoner Number 2 as a murderer and corpse sewer.
• Xiao Lin Ge pushed open the unlocked black iron door while Xiao Mo and Lao Ma stood nearby.

Xiao Lin Ge and Xiao Mo uncovered a horrific scene in the dark room: Lao Ma appeared as a wax-coated corpse on a stretcher, with something trapped inside him trying to break out. A beautiful woman arrived calling for Fan Ru, and her cries seemed to intensify the struggle within Lao Ma.

• Xiao Lin Ge entered the unlit room with Xiao Mo and Lao Ma, then approached a covered stretcher while the others stayed by the door.
• Xiao Lin Ge pulled away the White Cloth and fell back in terror after seeing a humanoid shadow on the wall.
• Xiao Mo saw Lao Ma sitting motionless on the stretcher as wax peeled from his body and something struggled to burst through his abdomen.
• Xiao Lin Ge insisted the scene was an illusion and backed away while Lao Ma's body continued to tremble.
• A beautiful woman arrived, repeatedly calling for Fan Ru, and the thing inside Lao Ma seemed to struggle more violently with every cry.