Chapter Summaries

Su Qin'er followed Fan Ru into the red-lit corridor and found her trapped inside a corpse stitched into a human-skin sack. After cutting the stitches and losing consciousness, Su Qin'er realized she had become trapped inside the skin while Fan Ru called to rescue her.

• Su Qin'er heard a strange voice urging her to abandon Fan Ru and make a deal, but she resisted and searched for her companion.
• Su Qin'er found Xiao Lin Ge and Xiao Mo unconscious beside Prisoner Number 2, whose corpse had a stitched seam across its abdomen.
• Su Qin'er heard Fan Ru's voice from inside the corpse and cut the stitches, but she collapsed after reaching for the hands that emerged.
• Su Qin'er woke trapped inside the human skin sack as Xiao Lin Ge and Xiao Mo investigated the corpse from outside.
• Su Qin'er recognized the cycle as Fan Ru called her name from outside, taking the rescuer's place she had occupied earlier.

Fan Ru and Su Qin'er were trapped in a repeating rescue loop, each taking turns being sealed inside the human skin and trying different ways to escape. After seven failed loops, Fan Ru stopped moving, and Su Qin'er began to fear that Fan Ru would not come to save her again.

• Fan Ru woke at the corridor entrance with a reopened wound, realized she and Su Qin'er had switched places in a loop, and tried calling for help without success.
• Fan Ru returned to Prisoner Number 2’s room and cut the black threads so Su Qin'er could crawl out without touching her.
• The loop reset before Fan Ru could finish celebrating, and Su Qin'er returned to the corridor entrance.
• Fan Ru and Su Qin'er tried passing the knife and changing their rescue methods, but the loop repeatedly reset them.
• After seven loops, Fan Ru stared at the red lamp and chose not to move, while Su Qin'er remained trapped and grew terrified that Fan Ru would not return.

Lumian Lee entertained three outsiders in the Cordoux tavern with a fabricated story about guarding a morgue, then learned they found his surname unsettling because of a sailor’s legend about Frank Lee. Pierre revealed that Lumian had been brought to the village five years earlier by his sister Aurore, taken her surname, and forgotten his original name.

• Lumian told Ryan Cost, Lia, and Valentine a grim story about a young woman who worked in a morgue, then admitted it was made up.
• Pierre and the other villagers explained that Lumian regularly invented stories, and Ryan bought him a glass of Green Fairy.
• Ryan introduced his companions, and he warned Lumian that sailors feared the surname Lee because of the notorious Frank Lee.
• Pierre told the outsiders that Aurore had brought thirteen-year-old Lumian to Cordoux five years earlier and given him her surname and his current name.
• Lumian said he had even forgotten his original name.

At the Seventh Branch, Tong Guan organized a large-scale effort to rescue Fan Ru from the Tangren Wax Museum while leaving Su Qin'er to Ji Li. Fan Ru reached Prisoner Number 3's room and reported its plaque, giving the team a starting point to find a way to survive.

• Tong Guan explained that the team’s only objective was to rescue Fan Ru and warned that the wax figures would soon regain their ability to kill.
• Dai Yingqi estimated that the first five wax figures would revive in eighteen minutes, and Tong Guan divided the figures among the team members for analysis.
• Fang Shenyan agreed to examine the five most urgent figures, while Hong Fu called Fan Ru so the team could guide her.
• Tong Guan told Fan Ru to go to Prisoner Number 3’s room, remain outside, and read its Description Plaque.
• Fan Ru reached the dark room and reported Prisoner Number 3’s identity, crime, and arrest time.

Tong Guan and the others investigated Prisoner Number 3’s Gluttonous Bloating ability as Fan Ru entered Room 3 and discovered a meal prepared for her. Chang Nian proposed that changing the prisoner’s Arrest Time could erase the false ghosts, and the group focused on altering Prisoner Number 3’s date.

• Tong Guan told Fan Ru to approach Room 3’s table and chairs so he could observe them through her phone camera.
• Fan Ru found a covered serving dish where a wax figure had previously sat, and Tong Guan warned that it was a meal prepared for her as the charge of Gluttonous Bloating took effect.
• Fan Ru smelled an irresistible fragrance and nearly approached the dish, realizing that the ghost’s power was compelling her to eat.
• Tong Guan concluded that the charge acted directly on Fan Ru, while Xie Zheng warned the group not to destroy or touch the dish.
• Chang Nian argued that the Description Plaques’ Arrest Times could be altered to make the false ghosts disappear.
• Chang Nian pointed out that Prisoner Number 3’s Arrest Time was January 1, 2008, and proposed changing it to a date after November 29, 2015.

Tong Guan and the others discovered that changing arrest times could remove some fake ghosts, while other prisoners required a different solution. By comparing the prisoners’ crimes, they realized they could group related ghosts and combine them until only a few remained.

• Fan Ru changed the arrest year on Prisoner Number 3’s plaque, and the room’s supernatural power disappeared.
• Tong Guan warned that the success did not explain the wax museum’s Root Cause Ghost, while Xie Zheng pointed out that Prisoner Number 1 was still missing.
• Fan Ru reported that changing the arrest times for Prisoners 13 and 14 had no effect, revealing that some ghosts were real and could not be eliminated that way.
• Fang Shenyan compared Prisoners 10 and 16 with Prisoner 14, and Tong Guan recognized that their crimes formed a sequence involving corpses.
• Xiao Qian Duyue grouped Prisoners 3, 5, 8, and 9 as stages of gluttony and proposed combining related ghosts so they would devour one another, revealing the optimal path to survival.

Tong Guan discovered that the survivors could escape the Tangren Wax Museum by destroying their admission tickets, but Fang Shenyan and Mei Sheng destroyed the phone before he could warn Fan Ru. Fan Ru continued toward Room 2 with Prisoner Number 7, unaware that her fate had been sealed.

• Tong Guan and his group identified which prisoner ghosts could be eliminated, leaving Numbers 7, 13, 15, and 17 as the final threats.
• Tong Guan told Fan Ru to use Number 13 to snatch Number 17's spirit, while the others considered sending Number 7 into Room 2 to confront Murder and Corpse Sewing.
• Tong Guan realized the admission tickets bound the visitors to the Tangren Wax Museum and that destroying the tickets and their fragments could let them escape.
• Fang Shenyan and Mei Sheng smashed the connected phone before Tong Guan could tell Fan Ru about the tickets, and Mei Sheng revealed that saving Su Qin'er would disrupt Ji Li's plan.
• Fan Ru pushed Prisoner Number 7's wax figure toward Room 2 as she sensed death approaching and thought of her daughter.

As Su Qin'er faced death inside the Tangren Wax Museum, a ghost in her mind offered her a chance to escape. Outside, Ji Li investigated the mission’s mysteries and encountered the Mysterious Person, but a warning on a card left him unconscious in the rain.

• The ghost in Su Qin'er’s mind identified itself as Prisoner Number 1 of the Tangren Wax Museum and offered to take her out in exchange for a deal.
• After Fang Shenyan told Ji Li that Fan Ru had died, Ji Li reviewed the mission’s unexplained threads, including Hei An'an, Su Qin'er, his death-seeing ability, and his missing memories of Ma Huaiyu.
• Ji Li found Wax-yellowish Mucus on a wall and spotted an eye watching him through a hole.
• Ji Li vaulted over the wall and saw a person in a trench coat and sun hat flee, leaving a card and mucus in a puddle.
• Ji Li read the card’s warnings that he had taken the wrong road and trusted the wrong person, and that there was a ghost behind him.
• Ji Li turned around and collapsed unconscious as the card spun in the puddle.

As Branch No. 9 raced through the storm toward Tianming Mountain Cemetery, Qiao Hao blamed Huang Banxian and Clyde for trusting Yu Guo’s false account of the Ghost Child. The branch hoped the cemetery would reveal the final clue and help them escape the danger, though Clyde warned their chances of completing the mission were low.

• Qiao Hao cursed the bald driver as their battered tricycle sped through the rain toward Tianming Mountain Cemetery.
• Clyde ordered everyone to be quiet and insisted the Ghost Child could not kill anyone who did not believe it was inside them.
• Qiao Hao blamed Huang Banxian and Clyde for saving Yu Guo, whose exaggerated account had led Branch No. 9 to lose two employees.
• Clyde used the square mirror to realize Yu Guo had fabricated the Unsolvable Ghost Child, making it real in Branch No. 9’s minds.
• Huang Banxian and Clyde concluded that Hei Qingshan’s clues were suspicious, though their own investigation still pointed to Tianming Mountain Cemetery.
• Branch No. 9 hurried toward the cemetery before ten-thirty, hoping to find the final clue and escape the Ghost Child.

As the Unsolvable Ghost Child pursued the tricycle, Clyde devised a plan to escape by having his Second Personality die before the ghost could kill him. His scheme left Huang Banxian with a chance to reach the Tianming Mountain cemetery, while Qiao Hao and Cheng Dali were meant to become ghosts and delay the pursuer.

• Huang Banxian urged Qiao Hao to recite the Scripture of Purity and Tranquility as the Unsolvable Ghost Child followed the tricycle.
• Clyde realized the Ghost Child targeted both his Second Personality and the real Clyde, and concluded that Huang Banxian had given up on saving Qiao Hao.
• Clyde told Huang Banxian that Qiao Hao and Cheng Dali should die first so they could turn into ghosts and hold back the Ghost Child while the others reached the Tianming Mountain cemetery.
• Qiao Hao attacked Clyde, but Clyde cut Cheng Dali's throat and declared that he would become the real Clyde.
• The tricycle crashed into the woods, and Huang Banxian understood Clyde's plan: the crash would destroy the Second Personality, restore the real Clyde, and give Huang Banxian time to escape.

Huang Banxian carried the injured Clyde to Tianming Mountain Cemetery while fleeing the Ghost Child, but neither could figure out how to find the Ring Organization. Clyde threw his shoe, and both the shoe and its separated sole pointed back toward the cemetery arch.

• Huang Banxian used talismans to speed through the rain while carrying the recovering Clyde toward Tianming Mountain Cemetery.
• Clyde used Huang Banxian’s healing Sin Object, which left him unable to speak for an hour, and learned what had happened while his Second Personality controlled his body.
• Huang Banxian and Clyde passed through the cemetery’s white ceremonial arch but could not find clues to the Ring Organization’s trail.
• Huang Banxian explained that his strange hopping was the cost of using an Acceleration Talisman, then asked Clyde for ideas.
• Clyde took off his shoe and threw it into the air, and the broken shoe and sole both pointed toward the ceremonial arch.

Clyde and Huang Banxian searched for the way into the Ring Organization at Tianming Mountain Cemetery, and Clyde vanished after stepping beyond the white archway. Huang Banxian realized the Ghost Child was the key to entering, but hesitated to follow.

• Clyde's thrown shoe split in two, and Huang Banxian interpreted both divinations as pointing toward the cemetery entrance.
• Huang Banxian told Clyde about a luck-granting Sin Object that had once belonged to a dead Branch No. 1 member.
• Clyde stepped halfway beyond the white archway and saw a familiar figure before vanishing without a sound.
• Huang Banxian found Clyde's faint footprint and deduced that stepping out of the archway had led him to the Ring Organization.
• Huang Banxian concluded that the Ghost Child had to brand anyone seeking entry, then hesitated to take the same step.

Huang Banxian was transported into a supernatural maze, where a powerful presence chased him through its branching passages. A tobacco-scented figure he recognized as Manager Ji seized him and snapped his neck.

• Huang Banxian arrived alone in a vast, dark maze after seeing the Unsolvable Ghost Child holding Cheng Dali's skin.
• Huang Banxian found three identical passages and smelled tobacco coming from the right one, but hesitated over which route to take.
• A warning talisman reacted as one passage vanished and a powerful presence appeared behind Huang Banxian, forcing him to run into the tobacco-scented passage.
• Huang Banxian fled through the maze, scattering spirit money and talismans to slow the pursuer.
• A tobacco-scented hand grabbed Huang Banxian and dragged him into the darkness, and he recognized the voice as Manager Ji's.
• Manager Ji twisted Huang Banxian's neck until it snapped, then a long-haired figure in black stepped over his corpse.

Clyde struggled through a spatial maze while a ghostly version of himself hunted him, until Huang Banxian arrived and the man surnamed Ji killed them both. The man revealed that he was mapping the barrier and believed the other versions of himself were fakes.

• Clyde tracked the maze’s circular areas, corridors, and forks, concluding that spatial Supernatural Power had distorted it and that he needed to map every route to escape.
• A ghostly Clyde caught up with him and corroded his right hand, revealing a face that combined Clyde’s appearance with Fang Jing’s dual personality.
• Huang Banxian arrived and drove the ghost back with a talisman, then told Clyde that ghostly versions of both of them were hunting them throughout the barrier.
• A blood-soaked man surnamed Ji killed Huang Banxian and Clyde, after which the ghost disappeared without attacking him.
• The man surnamed Ji reviewed the Space Map he had gathered by killing numerous Clydes and Huang Fengjiaos, and declared himself the real Ji Li.

Huang Banxian and Clyde discovered that the Maze Barrier contained countless versions of them across different times and spaces, and that killing each version shrank the maze. Clyde then revealed himself as Fang Jing’s Second Personality and killed Huang Banxian to improve his chances of becoming the surviving Clyde.

• Huang Banxian mapped the shrinking maze, estimated its size, and reunited with Clyde after hearing him call out.
• Clyde showed Huang Banxian their corpses from earlier timelines and explained that killing people erased their spaces, bringing the maze closer to its exit.
• Huang Banxian realized the latest version was the real self and noticed Clyde’s watch showed a later time than his.
• Clyde stabbed Huang Banxian, revealing that he was Fang Jing’s Second Personality and planned to kill other versions of Clyde and Huang Fengjiao.

Huang Banxian used the Jade of Shu Hu to freeze Clyde and uncover the Maze Barrier’s secrets, including how deaths shaped its spaces and the Space Map. Before Clyde died, he warned that Gu Xingjian had caused his split and was the real devil.

• Huang Banxian revealed that he had used a Body Double Talisman after noticing that Clyde, posing as Xiao Kezi, did not smack his lips while eating.
• Huang Banxian used the Jade of Shu Hu to slow Clyde’s movements and force him to explain the Maze Barrier and the Space Map.
• Clyde explained that living employees were divided across Timelines, that their deaths erased connected maze areas, and that the ghosts were transformations of employees who had died.
• Huang Banxian concluded that he needed to find the version of himself furthest along in time and secure part of the Space Map before cooperating with the hunter to escape.
• Huang Banxian stabbed Clyde through the heart, and Clyde warned him that Gu Xingjian had caused his split and was the real devil.

The earliest-timeline Ji Li, badly wounded after killing Clyde and many other versions of himself, continued through the maze believing he deserved to be the sole survivor. He encountered four Ji Lis allied with Clyde, and the Ji Li from 4:00 claimed to be the real one and proposed that they escape together without fighting.

• The earliest-timeline Ji Li killed Clyde but was left with a knife wound in his chest and reflected on his ten hours mapping the maze and killing twenty-seven versions of himself.
• Ji Li continued through the maze, convinced that only his alternate-timeline selves stood between him and survival.
• Ji Li entered a chamber piled with corpses and counted thirty-eight dead versions of himself, whose latest recorded time was 3:00.
• Four Ji Lis with times of 1:24, 1:07, 3:10, and 4:00 arrived with Clyde, who was Fang Jing's Second Personality.
• The Ji Li from 4:00 claimed he was the real Ji Li and proposed that they avoid killing one another and escape together.

Five Ji Li, Clyde, and Huang Banxian gathered for the final integration of the Maze Barrier’s Space Map. Clyde warned them that the first ghost might still be hiding among them, and Huang Banxian’s question about its hiding place was followed by the severely wounded Ji Li opening fire.

• Huang Banxian arrived and silently watched as the Ji Li and Clyde prepared to decide how to complete the maze.
• Clyde explained that the first ghost might not have been created by a living person and could reappear when the survivors began fighting among themselves.
• Clyde proposed integrating the Space Map immediately to force the ghost to reveal itself, despite the likely deaths among the five Ji Li.
• The severely wounded Ji Li agreed to the plan and moved toward the circle formed by the others.
• Huang Banxian asked where the first ghost would hide, and the severely wounded Ji Li fired four shots at the chests of the Ji Li.

Ji Li’s surviving versions fought over the space fragments while Clyde and Huang Banxian watched, until the Ji Li hidden among the corpses revealed himself as the original. With the Space Canvas formed and the maze collapsing, Ji Li thanked Clyde for working with him.

• The Ji Li from 1:07 died to a gunshot, and the Ji Li from four o’clock stabbed the wounded Ji Li from 1:24.
• The wounded Ji Li accused Clyde and the Ji Li from four o’clock of conspiring to lure out the ghost and eliminate the other versions; the Ji Li from four o’clock used the Bronze Ancient Coffin to block a shot and fought back.
• Clyde stopped Huang Banxian from intervening and said Ji Li was using him rather than the other way around.
• The Ji Li from four o’clock defeated the wounded Ji Li, collected nine-tenths of the space fragments, and formed the Space Canvas in his mind.
• An unseen Ji Li stabbed the Ji Li from four o’clock, then revealed he had hidden among the corpses and avoided killing anyone until that final version.
• The bodies turned to ash as the maze trembled, and Ji Li faced Clyde and said, “A pleasure working with you.”

Ji Li revealed how he had orchestrated the maze’s internal conflict and gathered the Space Maps from Huang Banxian and Clyde. As the maze began collapsing, the Hundred-headed Strange Infant invaded Ji Li’s mind to seize the Space Map, and Ji Li realized Gu Xingjian had set the trap in motion.

• Huang Banxian recognized that Ji Li had hidden among the corpses and learned from Clyde that Ji Li had arranged the conflict to bring everyone together.
• Ji Li explained that he had created the first ghost by driving one of the Clydes to death, and that ghosts could not kill people inside the maze because it was a Sin Object.
• Ji Li, Huang Banxian, and Clyde joined hands, transferring the seventeen Space Maps into Ji Li’s mind.
• Ji Li noticed a black speck in the Space Map before the Hundred-headed Strange Infant invaded his mind and tried to seize the Sin Object.
• The maze began collapsing during the transfer, and Ji Li thanked Gu Xingjian for revealing that the Hundred-headed Strange Infant had been hidden within his thoughts.