Chapter Summaries

Fang Shenyan investigated the museum’s shifting exhibition halls and learned that a ghost had transformed a young man into a door sculpture. While probing another floor, he watched Li Cheng die from an endless worm crawling through his blood vessel.

• Fang Shenyan found that the Sculpture Hall’s seventh door had moved to the Porcelain Hall, where a new door had appeared in its place, and discovered an eighth door depicting a bound young man.
• Fang Shenyan freed four passersby and learned that a ghost in the Porcelain Hall killed by tearing out and devouring or taking away people’s hair.
• Fang Shenyan took one passerby, Li Cheng, into the Arts and Crafts Hall and waited for a ghost to appear.
• Li Cheng revealed that he was sixteen, terminally ill, and had come to see the museum during his final day in Shanming City.
• A black worm crawled into Li Cheng’s blood vessel and through his eye, killing him as Fang Shenyan watched.

Tong Guan and Jin Xi planned the Seventh Branch’s mission to retrieve the Skin from the World Heritage Museum while waiting for Fang Shenyan’s report. Fang Shenyan encountered the overwhelming ghost in the Painting Hall, retreated, then was ambushed by the last passerby, who tore off his left arm as he reached for the White-faced Ghost Mask.

• Tong Guan completed the museum floor plan and identified the Collection Vault and the Painting Hall as the likely locations of the Skin.
• Jin Xi suggested splitting up, but Tong Guan insisted they wait for Fang Shenyan’s intelligence before choosing a plan.
• Fang Shenyan entered the Painting Hall, where the ghost’s aura crushed him and the bald passerby died instantly, so Fang Shenyan retreated.
• Fang Shenyan decided he had gathered enough information and turned to carry the unconscious woman away.
• The woman revealed an eerie smile, seized Fang Shenyan, and tore off his left arm before he could put on the White-faced Ghost Mask.

Fang Shenyan survived Stephanie's Smile's attack at midnight, though he lost his left arm. After rejoining Tong Guan and the others, he reported the museum's six halls, their Killer Ghost artworks, and the shifting nature of the museum's space.

• Fang Shenyan transferred Stephanie's Smile's power into himself, then used his White-faced Ghost Mask before midnight's rules reset the attack.
• Fang Shenyan left the unconscious woman behind and went downstairs with his left arm severed.
• Fang Shenyan reached Tong Guan and the others at 12:01, and Hong Fu bandaged his wound while he refused anesthetics.
• Fang Shenyan listed the six themed halls and their Killer Ghost artworks, while Tong Guan marked the information on his museum draft.
• Fang Shenyan explained that deaths added doors and exhibition rooms to a hall, so the Painting Hall now had eight of each.
• Fang Shenyan warned the group that the museum's space rotated, flipped, and shifted.

Fang Shenyan described the museum’s shifting exhibition halls, and the group identified the Skin Painting and the movements as the mission’s central mysteries. After hearing that a powerful ghost from the Painting Hall had severed Fang Shenyan’s arm, Tong Guan assigned the teams to search the museum, leaving the Painting Hall as a last resort.

• Fang Shenyan recited the exhibition hall changes while Tong Guan recorded them and Jin Xi and Feng Jiafu tried to map them.
• Jin Xi, Tong Guan, and Fang Shenyan identified the Skin Painting, the hall movements, and how the painting entered the museum as the main mysteries.
• Fang Shenyan explained that Stephanie's Smile had chased him out of the Painting Hall and torn off his left arm.
• Tong Guan planned to search the Collection Vault with Feng Jiafu while the other five searched the remaining themed halls for the Skin Painting and a pattern in the movements.
• Fang Shenyan confirmed that he and Feng Jiafu would go to the Collection Vault.

The seven mission participants entered the World Heritage Museum and split up, with Fang Shenyan and Feng Jiafu heading toward the Collection Vault while Tong Guan watched them warily. After Feng Jiafu disappeared into the lower darkness, Tong Guan started after him, but Fang Shenyan reassured him over the earpiece that he was not a ghost and would not sabotage the mission.

• Tong Guan secretly gave Feng Jiafu a remote and instructed him to signal if he confirmed the Skin Painting was in the Collection Vault.
• Tong Guan assigned Fang Shenyan and Feng Jiafu to the Fourth Basement Level while the other five searched the Third Basement Level, with everyone keeping the Public Channel open.
• Fang Shenyan and Feng Jiafu descended together, and Fang Shenyan remarked that Feng Jiafu had bad luck to begin his first mission at three-star promotion difficulty.
• Feng Jiafu gave Tong Guan an uneasy look before following Fang Shenyan into the darkness, making Tong Guan reconsider his plan and head after them.
• Chen Wen stopped Tong Guan from leaving the others, but Fang Shenyan spoke through the earpiece, identified himself, and told Tong Guan to do what he needed to do.

Tong Guan and Jin Xi deduced that living people triggered the museum’s spatial shifts and planned to use Fang Shenyan’s severed arm to make the Painting Hall participate. On the Third Floor, Tong Guan found a woman crushed to death outside the hall and realized that Stephanie's Smile had run out of the Painting Hall.

• Tong Guan and Jin Xi inspected the nine exhibition halls and noticed that the Painting Hall had not moved with the others.
• Jin Xi guessed that living people triggered the spatial movement, and Tong Guan proposed activating it in the Painting Hall with Fang Shenyan’s severed arm.
• Tong Guan, Hong Fu, and Jin Xi went up to the Third Floor while Ding Wangshu and Chen Wen stayed behind.
• Tong Guan found the woman’s crushed corpse beside Fang Shenyan’s severed arm and covered her with his coat.
• Tong Guan concluded that Stephanie's Smile had run out of the Painting Hall after the mission began.

After Stephanie's Smile vanished from the Painting Hall, Tong Guan, Jin Xi, and Hong Fu entered it and found evidence of the bald man's gruesome death. With the museum's spatial movement beginning and only two hours left, they chose a dangerous twenty-minute plan to set fire to selected foreign exhibition halls and narrow down where the missing “skin” was hidden.

• Hong Fu pulled Jin Xi toward the Painting Hall while Tong Guan ordered Chen Wen and Ding Wangshu out of the stairwell and into the Arts and Crafts Hall.
• Tong Guan threw the severed arm into the Painting Hall, and spatial movement began across all six floors of the museum.
• Tong Guan entered the Painting Hall first and confirmed that no ghost was present, then Jin Xi and Hong Fu joined him.
• Tong Guan proposed searching the Painting Hall before it moved, and Jin Xi explained that its many exhibits made a complete search impossible.
• Tong Guan proposed setting fire to selected foreign exhibition halls for fifteen to twenty minutes, then returning to the other floors to eliminate halls without the “skin.”
• Hong Fu agreed to take the risk, and the three prepared to carry out Tong Guan's plan despite the danger of Stephanie's Smile returning.

Tong Guan, Hong Fu, and Jin Xi began a dangerous plan to burn the foreign paintings in three exhibition halls and reveal the final “skin” painting. As they moved through the halls, drops of paint from the paintings merged into a black figure that took Hong Fu’s appearance and entered the Seventh Exhibition Hall.

• Tong Guan checked in with Fang Shenyan, Feng Jiafu, Chen Wen, and Ding Wangshu before preparing lighters with Hong Fu and Jin Xi.
• Tong Guan, Jin Xi, and Hong Fu entered the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Exhibition Halls respectively and began tracing their routes through them.
• Hong Fu removed the glass from a painting, touched its paint, and flicked a drop onto the floor before running deeper into the Ninth Exhibition Hall.
• Drops of paint from all three paintings crawled into the corridor, merged into a black human figure, and transformed into a copy of Hong Fu.
• The Hong Fu copy examined the three doors and entered the Seventh Exhibition Hall.

Tong Guan set fire to the Seventh Exhibition Hall to drive the plan forward, but the fire and the sudden failure of the sprinklers were followed by a string of apparent betrayals and deaths. As Hong Fu and Jin Xi gave conflicting warnings and Feng Jiafu’s signal ended in static, Tong Guan was left alone amid the chaos, unsure whom to trust.

• Tong Guan set fire to the last room in the Seventh Exhibition Hall, and an alarm and sprinklers briefly activated before abruptly shutting off.
• Tong Guan ignited rooms throughout the hall, then slowed his pace as smoke and heat threatened to trap him.
• Hong Fu appeared before Tong Guan, claiming Jin Xi had been possessed and attacked him in the Ninth Exhibition Hall.
• Jin Xi contacted Tong Guan through his headset, warned him that Hong Fu was a ghost, and begged him to come to the Eighth Exhibition Hall.
• Feng Jiafu’s receiver signaled repeatedly before his headset erupted in static, while Chen Wen and Ding Wangshu remained silent.

Tong Guan abandoned the others and ran toward the operation’s objective, while a second ghost appeared in the Seventh Exhibition Hall and pursued the staff. Trapped by the false Hong Fu, Tong Guan realized there had been two ghosts in the Painting Hall and accused Fang Shenyan of knowing about them.

• Tong Guan removed his earpiece and ran off alone as the flames closed in.
• The false Hong Fu summoned a second man from a drop of black ink, and the man passed through the wall into the Seventh Exhibition Hall.
• Jin Xi ran toward the Eighth Exhibition Hall exit but was seized by a figure who looked like Tong Guan.
• Hong Fu noticed that the painting’s oil paint had returned to its original state, then encountered a figure resembling Tong Guan in the Ninth Exhibition Hall.
• Hong Fu tried to slip past the false Tong Guan, but the figure caught him by the collar.
• Tong Guan found himself trapped in a looping room with the false Hong Fu, declared that two ghosts had been in the Painting Hall, and accused Fang Shenyan of knowing.

Tong Guan deduced that the ghost from the Painting Hall could not kill him while its true body was trapped in the Real World, where a fire was threatening it. Jin Xi discovered that the ghost feared fire, but she remained trapped in the room with it.

• Tong Guan failed to pull the figure disguised as Hong Fu into the Space Map and realized the barrier was keeping him confined.
• Tong Guan reasoned that the ghost specialized in illusions and barriers, had targeted Hong Fu and Jin Xi, and could not kill him until they were dead.
• Tong Guan concluded that the fire in the Real World would force the ghost to destroy itself, and he waited while trusting his teammates to survive.
• Jin Xi used a lighter to burn the figure disguised as Tong Guan and set her clothes alight to ward it off.
• Jin Xi ran for the exit but discovered that the ghost's barrier kept her trapped in the room.

Hong Fu and Jin Xi believed the fire and the ghost’s barriers left them safe, while Tong Guan realized the ghost had been manipulating their perceptions and emotions. He recognized that all three were trapped in a carefully staged advantage as the ghost prepared to kill them.

• Hong Fu noticed the burning Tong Guan had become slow, then dodged him while stripping off his burned clothes.
• Jin Xi concluded that the barrier was trapping her and that the ghost planned to claim the three lives in the exhibition halls one by one.
• Tong Guan watched Hong Fu crouch in the corner and grew confident that he had repelled the ghost without using a Sin Object.
• Tong Guan realized the ghost had manipulated his thoughts and emotions, making him mistake its feigned weakness for a chance to survive.
• Tong Guan understood that the three people had fallen into the ghost’s trap, and Hong Fu raised its head to stare at him.

Tong Guan escaped the Seventh Exhibition Hall by carrying “Hong Fu,” whom he suspected was the barrier itself, and rushed through the museum to find the real Hong Fu. He entered the Ninth Exhibition Hall, but the blazing room resembled the one he had escaped, and “Hong Fu” warned him that he might still be trapped in an illusion.

• Tong Guan suspected “Hong Fu” was the barrier and tested his theory by carrying it out of the Seventh Exhibition Hall, successfully crossing the room’s boundary.
• With “Hong Fu” on his back, Tong Guan reached the Porcelain Hall on the Third Basement Level and found that the museum’s layout had changed.
• Tong Guan searched the floors above and found the Ninth Exhibition Hall, where he expected to find the real Hong Fu.
• Tong Guan entered the fire-filled Ninth Exhibition Hall and found no living people, then recognized that its layout matched the Seventh Exhibition Hall after the fire spread.
• “Hong Fu” returned to the corner of the room and warned Tong Guan that, despite escaping the barrier, he could not know whether any of his steps had been real.

Hong Fu resisted the Ninth Exhibition Hall ghost’s layered hallucinations with the Wooden Comb Sin Object, but became trapped in repeated cycles of death and escape attempts. Chen Wen’s arrival disrupted the ghost’s power and freed Hong Fu, leaving him back in the Real World as his luck began to turn the mission around.

• Hong Fu realized the apparent death of “Tong Guan” was a hallucination and used the Wooden Comb Sin Object to survive the fire consuming his body in the Real World.
• Hong Fu left the Ninth Exhibition Hall and tested whether he had escaped the hallucination by entering another exhibition area, then killed himself when he found no way out.
• Hong Fu repeatedly died and returned to the burning hall, growing numb as the black mass’s nested hallucinations wore down his will.
• Chen Wen burst into the Ninth Exhibition Hall while fleeing another ghost, and his arrival disrupted the hall ghost’s power and freed Hong Fu from the hallucinations.
• Hong Fu saw Chen Wen’s petrified corpse, left the Ninth Exhibition Hall, and returned to the Real World with his Sin Objects.

Hong Fu escaped the Ninth Exhibition Hall and reunited with Ding Wangshu, who revealed that Broken-winged Angel had attacked her and Chen Wen. Recognizing that multiple ghosts could hunt freely across the museum, Hong Fu entered the Porcelain Hall to rescue Tong Guan, but found no sign of him in the Seventh Exhibition Hall.

• Hong Fu discovered Chen Wen's corpse had vanished and searched the museum for the Seventh and Eighth Exhibition Halls of the Painting Hall.
• Hong Fu heard someone approaching from the Fourth Basement Level and reunited with Ding Wangshu, who said Broken-winged Angel had attacked her and Chen Wen.
• Hong Fu concluded that Stephanie's Smile and Broken-winged Angel were Free Hunters, while the museum's other ghosts remained confined to their exhibition halls.
• Hong Fu and Ding Wangshu entered the Porcelain Hall, where Hong Fu found that the Seventh Exhibition Hall of the Painting Hall had shifted into the Ninth Exhibition Hall's location.
• Hong Fu opened the Seventh Exhibition Hall and called for Tong Guan, but heard no answer and feared Tong Guan was dead.

Hong Fu and Ding Wangshu tried to understand the deaths and disappearances in the museum as time ran short. They discovered a mass of bodies hanging beneath lotus leaves that had spread across the Porcelain Hall.

• Hong Fu worried that Tong Guan was dead and planned to search the burned foreign exhibition halls for the surviving skin.
• Ding Wangshu told Hong Fu how the Broken-winged Angel had driven him and Chen Wen apart, and how he later found Feng Jiafu's flattened body on the Fourth Basement Level.
• Hong Fu wondered whether Stephanie's Smile had killed Feng Jiafu and where Fang Shenyan had gone.
• A rustling sound began in the Porcelain Hall, and Hong Fu saw crimson rain falling onto lotus leaves spreading across the ceiling.
• Hong Fu and Ding Wangshu saw countless corpses hanging by strands threaded through their ears beneath the leaves.

Hong Fu and Ding Wangshu were trapped in the Porcelain Hall beneath the expanding Lotus Leaf Ghost and tried to find a way out. After Hong Fu’s attempts to destroy its stem and flowerpot failed, he watched Ding Wangshu run toward the exit, hoping the ghost’s attack would reveal its rules.

• The Lotus Leaf Ghost revived, covered the Porcelain Hall, and sealed the exit with corpses.
• Hong Fu pointed out the blood flowing through the lotus stem and proposed destroying it while Ding Wangshu ran for the exit.
• Ding Wangshu demanded the Wooden Comb Sin Item, then took it and ran toward the door as Hong Fu headed for the flowerpot.
• Hong Fu’s daggers bounced off the stem, and his hammer strike against the flowerpot broke his right hand.
• Hong Fu revealed that he had lied about his plan and wanted Ding Wangshu to draw the ghost’s attack so he could learn how it killed.

Ding Wangshu tried to escape the Lotus Leaf Ghost, but it used a thread made from her blood to strangle and lift her. Hong Fu realized the ghost relied on blood and cut his wrist over the flowerpot, causing the situation to change as his blood fed the lotus leaves.

• Ding Wangshu ran for the exit while Hong Fu attacked the flowerpot, and she put in earplugs after spotting a thread passing through a corpse's skull.
• Hong Fu told Ding Wangshu not to look back when the Lotus Leaf Ghost attacked him, and she pulled the exit door open.
• A cord formed from Ding Wangshu's blood and tightened around her neck, lifting her toward the lotus leaves as it removed her earplugs.
• Hong Fu realized the thread was made from human blood and concluded the Lotus Leaf Ghost drained blood from victims killed by Stephanie's Smile.
• Hong Fu cut his right wrist and let his blood flow into the flowerpot, causing a major change in the situation.

Hong Fu used his unusual blood to disrupt the Lotus Leaf Ghost and save Ding Wangshu, but the pair remained trapped with no way to survive. Tong Guan arrived carrying Jin Xi, only to reveal that he and Jin Xi were also fleeing danger as they rushed into the Porcelain Hall.

• Hong Fu's blood disrupted the Lotus Leaf Ghost long enough for Ding Wangshu to fall free, and Ding Wangshu's wooden comb healed his injuries.
• Ding Wangshu woke and argued with Hong Fu, then questioned whether another exhibition hall's ghost could stop the Lotus Leaf Ghost.
• Hong Fu sensed danger and pulled Ding Wangshu toward an exhibition hall as a hole appeared on the back of his neck and a streak of scarlet closed in.
• Tong Guan arrived at the Porcelain Hall carrying Jin Xi, and Hong Fu and Ding Wangshu stopped to greet him.
• Tong Guan shouted that he needed them to save him and urged them to run, while Hong Fu noticed a broken-winged shadow behind Jin Xi.

Hong Fu, Tong Guan, Jin Xi, and Ding Wangshu escaped the Porcelain Hall and reached the Ninth Exhibition Hall, where Tong Guan explained that the White Candle had pulled him out of the Painting Hall’s illusion. Tong Guan concluded that the Skin Painting may have caused all the museum’s ghosts to appear, and Hong Fu asked what they should do next.

• Hong Fu and Tong Guan led Jin Xi and Ding Wangshu out of the Porcelain Hall as the Broken-winged Angel clashed with the Lotus Leaf Ghost.
• The group entered the Ninth Exhibition Hall, where Hong Fu warned Ding Wangshu to stay close and verify that the people around her were real.
• Tong Guan explained that using the White Candle had pulled him out of the Painting Hall’s illusion, suggesting the Illusion Ghost feared a change to the past.
• Tong Guan reasoned that the Illusion Ghost appeared around 23:00 and that the Skin Painting may have caused every ghost in the World Heritage Museum to appear.
• Jin Xi revealed that she had been badly injured by burning wood and that Tong Guan had rescued her from the Illusion Ghost.
• Hong Fu noticed Tong Guan had saved Jin Xi before him but concealed his feelings and asked Tong Guan what they should do next.