Chapter Summaries

Hong Fu and Jin Xi encountered Ji Li killing people at an opera stage, then discovered that Republic Street’s fog had turned their route into a loop. Ji Li directed them toward the exit, leaving them a chance to complete their Three-Star Promotion Mission before time ran out.

• Ji Li appeared with a sword as Hong Fu carried the injured Jin Xi away from the stage and its slaughtered audience.
• Jin Xi noticed that the lanterns’ positions had changed and concluded that they were running toward the ghost horde at the entrance.
• Hong Fu and Jin Xi returned to Ji Li and saw him kill another audience member, confirming he had slain the people at the stage.
• Ji Li noticed the Skin in Jin Xi’s backpack and, after she explained it was needed for their mission, told them to each hold one side of the frame and run toward the exit they remembered.

Hong Fu and Jin Xi escaped the supernatural barrier with Ji Li’s hint and raced toward the Seventh Branch, fearing Tong Guan was waiting to attack them. Just meters from the entrance, reflections in water triggered a delayed killing that turned them and their car to stone.

• Hong Fu and Jin Xi realized they could use the mission requirement to escape the supernatural barrier and made their way out while worrying that Tong Guan might ambush them.
• Hong Fu and Jin Xi met Mei Sheng and Xiao Qian Duyue, borrowed their car, and heard Xiao Qian warn them to watch out for the moat.
• Hong Fu drove toward the Seventh Branch while Jin Xi wondered whether the moat or its water was connected to their danger.
• Water droplets appeared on the car window, and Hong Fu realized their reflections had triggered the Broken-winged Angel’s killing method.
• Hong Fu and Jin Xi turned to stone before reaching the Seventh Branch, and Hong Fu recognized the attack as delayed killing.

Hong Fu and Jin Xi survived Broken-winged Angel’s petrification through the Lotus Seed, but its blood-draining protection gave them only a short time to uncover the ghost’s new Delayed Killing ability. Hong Fu realized their shadows had been assimilated and identified destroying them as the way to escape death.

• Jin Xi’s prewritten warning activated the Lotus Seed and released a protective lotus-leaf umbrella that freed Hong Fu and Jin Xi from petrification.
• Hong Fu told Jin Xi that Broken-winged Angel had used Delayed Killing, while the Lotus Seed rapidly drained his blood to sustain their protection.
• Jin Xi noticed that both her shadow and Hong Fu’s shadow had vanished, and Hong Fu connected this to Tong Guan’s earlier assimilation.
• Hong Fu found part of the car’s shadow still inside the lotus-leaf umbrella and concluded that Broken-winged Angel had assimilated their shadows two seconds before killing them.
• Hong Fu told Jin Xi that destroying their shadows could defuse the delayed killing attack.

With Hong Fu unconscious and the lotus-leaf umbrella fading, Jin Xi discovered how to erase their shadows with light and brought the skin back to the Seventh Branch. The branch congratulated her on completing the mission, and she survived despite her severe injuries.

• Hong Fu revealed that destroying the shadows was the way to survive, then collapsed as the umbrella’s light began to fade.
• Jin Xi realized she could make the shadows disappear by flooding them with light, and used the car’s lights and seven flashlights to erase hers and Hong Fu’s shadows.
• Jin Xi pulled the steel pipe from her abdomen and blinded herself to avoid the Broken-winged Angel’s petrification through direct sight.
• Clutching the skin, Jin Xi crawled to the Seventh Branch and pushed open its door.
• A woman welcomed Jin Xi back and congratulated her on completing the mission.

After waiting nearly a day for Tong Guan to return, Chang Nian learned from Fang Shenyan that Tong Guan’s assimilation by a ghost might prevent him from returning to the branch. She set out alone for the World Heritage Museum to find her husband.

• Jin Xi told Chang Nian that Tong Guan remained conscious after being assimilated and should return under the hotel’s rules, while Hong Fu also tried to reassure her.
• Chang Nian waited through the night and the following day, but Tong Guan did not return.
• Fang Shenyan told Chang Nian that the return rule required a person to remain human, and urged her to look for Tong Guan at the World Heritage Museum.
• Chang Nian called employees, including Gong Yuan, Dan Jiamu, and Xie Zheng, asking them to help retrieve Tong Guan, but none agreed to go.
• Chang Nian picked up her backpack and went alone into the darkness toward the World Heritage Museum.

Chang Nian broke into the World Heritage Museum searching for the Broken-winged Angel and any trace of Tong Guan, but found the relief gone and believed she had arrived too late. After a familiar voice called to her from the dark, she broke free from Old Zhang and rushed toward it, where someone called out to her.

• Chang Nian left the villa Tong Guan had prepared for the Seventh Branch and drove toward the museum.
• Old Zhang heard Chang Nian's pickup crash through the museum entrance and hurried from the Monitoring Room to investigate.
• Chang Nian searched the Sculpture Hall for the Broken-winged Angel relief but found only an empty ceiling and broke down, believing she had missed her last chance to see Tong Guan.
• Old Zhang grabbed Chang Nian and tried to drag her outside, but she snapped three of his fingers after hearing a familiar voice call her name.
• Chang Nian ran toward the voice and swung a kick at approaching footsteps before someone called, "Sister Chang! It's me!"

Jin Xi accompanied Chang Nian to the Sculpture Hall, where they found Tong Guan transformed into a relief on the Seventh Exhibition Hall door. Chang Nian tried to break him free and begged him to come home, and the sculpture shed a tear as she wept against it.

• Jin Xi returned to the Sculpture Hall with Chang Nian to search for Tong Guan and the Broken-winged Angel.
• Jin Xi and Chang Nian discovered Tong Guan's likeness carved into the door of the Seventh Exhibition Hall.
• Chang Nian tried to smash the door with an axe, but the stone repaired itself as Jin Xi urged her to stop.
• Chang Nian begged Tong Guan to come home and threatened the people he had saved if he did not return.
• The sculpture trembled and a tear slid from Tong Guan's carved face, and Chang Nian pressed herself against the door and cried.

Ji Li endured a ghostly opera on Republic Street that forced him to kill the controlled spectators whenever its performer attacked him. Jin Xi and Hong Fu’s arrival brought a red wedding document that ended the haunting and named Ji Li and Li Huayi as spouses.

• Ji Li entered the supernatural barrier on Republic Street, where the gray soul awakened as a ghostly opera began.
• When the performer’s staged suicide caused a matching wound to open on Ji Li’s neck, he seized the real Stage Sword and discovered that killing a spectator first delayed the attack on him.
• Ji Li killed the spectators one by one over a day and a night, until he was alone and had no way left to buy time.
• Jin Xi and Hong Fu broke into the barrier during their Three-Star Promotion Mission, and Jin Xi’s Script Sin Item drew in a tide of ghosts.
• A red wedding document appeared, driving back the ghosts and making the performer, stage, and corpses vanish.
• Ji Li unfolded the document and read that he and Li Huayi were to marry on January 15, 2016.

Ji Li discovered that a marriage certificate from Li Huayi had assigned him a ghost bride and a wedding mission for January 15 of the following year. After returning to the Seventh Branch, he learned Tong Guan was in grave trouble and demanded an account of the mission.

• Ji Li inferred that Li Huayi was a ghost who had sent him the marriage certificate, and he stored the Stage Sword in the Bronze Ancient Coffin before leaving Republic Street.
• Ji Li returned to the branch after three days and found Yu Guo, Jin Xi, Hong Fu, Xie Zheng, Xiao Qian Duyue, and Fang Shenyan arguing over how to save Tong Guan.
• Yu Guo blamed Xie Zheng for refusing to help Tong Guan, while Xie Zheng defended his decision and Jin Xi criticized him.
• Xiao Qian Duyue insisted that Tong Guan had to be saved because of his importance to the branch and the Space Map he carried.
• Ji Li arrived, ignored Yu Guo's question about his changed appearance, and asked Jin Xi and Hong Fu to recount what had happened during the mission.

Ji Li learned that Tong Guan’s Human-Ghost Fusion had cost him his employee status, though he could return if separated from the Broken-winged Angel and restored to human form. After discussing the Cloaked Ghost and the pending mission commissions, Ji Li received a call from Luo Xian, manager of Branch No. 6, inviting him to meet.

• Ji Li used the manager’s authority to promote Fang Shenyan and Tong Guan, but Female Voice confirmed Tong Guan no longer qualified as a Seventh Branch employee.
• Female Voice explained that Tong Guan could regain employee status if he escaped Human-Ghost Fusion and became human again, but she refused to explain Tianhai’s loopholes.
• Female Voice told Ji Li that the Cloaked Ghost had returned, turned Unit 202 against them, and been stopped by Tong Guan and Yu Guo.
• Female Voice said Ji Li and Yu Guo’s commissions from the Ghost Child mission had arrived but could not yet be viewed.
• Luo Xian called Ji Li and invited him to Star Trace Cafe for a chat the next day.

Luo Xian invited Ji Li to discuss the next mission, while Ji Li ordered the Headless Ghost from room 202 to be given to Mu Nianmei. He and Fang Shenyan concluded that Tong Guan may have deliberately allowed the Broken-winged Angel to assimilate him to gain something, and Ji Li expected a mission connected to Luo Xian soon.

• Luo Xian invited Ji Li to meet the next morning to discuss the next mission, and he accepted.
• Ji Li asked Female Voice about Mu Nianmei and ordered her to give the Headless Ghost from room 202 to her, treating the resident of 202 as though it had never existed.
• Female Voice told Ji Li that although she had made mistakes, she had never harmed him, but he gave no reply.
• Ji Li questioned Fang Shenyan about whether he had foreseen Tong Guan's calamity, and Fang Shenyan explained that Tong Guan had given away his White Candle Sin Item before being assimilated.
• Fang Shenyan proposed that Tong Guan had deliberately allowed the Broken-winged Angel to assimilate him in pursuit of some benefit, but had become trapped in the World Heritage Museum.
• Ji Li accepted the need to rescue Tong Guan and predicted that the next mission would be connected to Luo Xian.

Ji Li met Luo Xian and learned that he had been specially assigned to Branch No. 6’s mission in Wu'e Village as a Special Executor. The mission required Luo Xian to make a traditional post-wedding visit, but she warned that the people posing as her family there could not be her real relatives.

• Ji Li waited at the Star Trace Cafe, where Luo Xian arrived with Huangfu Jiajia and apologized for being late.
• Luo Xian showed Ji Li her mission email, which ordered her to return to Wu'e Village and identified Ji Li as an additional Special Executor.
• Ji Li asked whether anyone had ever been specially assigned to another branch’s mission, and Luo Xian and Huangfu Jiajia said they had not heard of such a case.
• Luo Xian explained that a returning-home visit was a wedding custom in which the bride and groom visited the bride’s family three days after the wedding.
• Luo Xian told Ji Li that her parents lived in the city and were abroad, so whoever they encountered as her family in Wu'e Village could not be her real relatives.

Ji Li agreed to pose as Luo Xian’s groom for Branch No. 6’s survival mission in Wu'e Village and arranged to meet her before dawn. Before leaving, he assigned Fang Shenyan to handle the Seventh Branch in his absence and warned him not to leave.

• Luo Xian shared her research on Wu'e Village and suggested that the mission’s rule against leaving the village might hold the key to survival.
• Luo Xian asked Ji Li to act as her groom, and after considering her reasons, he agreed to meet her at Tingxin Tavern at five the next morning.
• Ji Li threatened Huangfu Jiajia for her teasing remarks before leaving the coffee shop.
• Ji Li told his branch members about the mission, acknowledged Mei Sheng’s reminder that he owed her a Sin Object, and asked Fang Shenyan to manage the Seventh Branch while he was away.

Ji Li joined Luo Xian and five Branch No. 6 staff members on the mission to Wu'e Village, but he killed Pan Ting after the man provoked him. When a landslide blocked their route, Ji Li and Luo Xian sensed a ghost nearby.

• Ji Li met Luo Xian and five Branch No. 6 staff members outside Tingxin Tavern before they set out for Wu'e Village.
• Luo Xian introduced the mission team as they drove toward the village, while Pan Ting repeatedly mocked Ji Li.
• A boulder slid onto the muddy mountain road, forcing Luo Xian's team to leave the car and continue on foot.
• Ji Li shot Pan Ting dead after Pan Ting approached him, and Luo Xian warned that killing her staff member would affect Mission Progress.
• Ji Li and Luo Xian sensed a ghost nearby and looked toward the mountain road behind them.

As Luo Xian’s team approached Wu'e Village, Ji Li saw the Ghost Child appear briefly and point at him, then received a late-arriving message from Heavenly Sea assigning him to assist with the mission. The team prepared to enter the village together, while Ji Li’s gray-eyed transformation began to fade as his special mission approached.

• The Ghost Child appeared on the southern mountain path, pointed at Ji Li, and vanished before he could explain the sighting to Luo Xian.
• Luo Xian distributed Pan Ting’s three Sin Objects among Bai Huaiguang, Ma Mingyu, and Yu Guofeng, leaving the team with six members.
• The team approached Wu'e Village, and Luo Xian ordered everyone to stay together and follow her instructions during the mission.
• Ji Li received an email from Heavenly Sea asking him to assist Luo Xian’s team for separate compensation afterward.
• Luo Xian warned the team that Ji Li’s participation might raise the mission’s difficulty, while Ji Li’s grayness and long hair began to recede.

Luo Xian returned to Wu'e Village with Ji Li and her companions, where her father’s hostility toward her and his conflict with Second Uncle hinted at a hidden problem. While scouting the village, Bai Huaiguang encountered a madman who claimed to have seen Bai’s head hanging from a tree.

• Second Uncle welcomed Luo Xian and led her to greet the villagers, while Luo's Father barely acknowledged her and watched her angrily.
• Luo's Father argued with Second Uncle over whether Luo Xian should go to the banquet or visit her mother, and Ji Li suspected the conflict was tied to their mission.
• Luo Xian sent Bai Huaiguang to scout the village while she and Ji Li planned to wait until night to begin their operation.
• Bai Huaiguang surveyed Wu'e Village, mapped its route, and encountered a disheveled madman beneath a crooked-necked tree.
• The madman told Bai Huaiguang that he had seen Bai's pale head hanging from the tree.

At Luo Xian’s family banquet, Ji Li noticed a gaunt old man and found a note directing Luo Xian to his home at the western end of Wu'e Village. When she arrived, a boy revealed that the village chief had died last year, and a hostile woman drove Luo Xian away.

• Ji Li watched the gaunt old man at the head table, then told Luo Xian to retrieve the item hidden beneath his cup and find him.
• Luo Xian found a note with the address of the third house at the western end of the village and quietly left the banquet.
• Luo Xian walked through empty streets, found no sign of the old man, and called Ma Mingyu to meet her at the address.
• Luo Xian asked a boy about the old man, and the boy said he was the village chief, had named him, and had died last year.
• A burly woman shoved Luo Xian to the ground, accused her of being Luo Jianjun’s daughter, and ordered her to leave.

Luo Xian and Ma Mingyu entered the village chief’s home, where he revealed a thirty-year curse that killed six people annually and blamed Luo Xian’s family. Luo Xian questioned whether his account was true and asked if the village chief had also died from the curse.

• Luo Xian decided to investigate the village chief’s home with Ma Mingyu, suspecting he was a ghost.
• Luo Xian entered the house while Ma Mingyu set a Tripwire at the doorway to detect a Supernatural Barrier.
• The village chief told Luo Xian that six outsiders died in the back mountain thirty years earlier after her grandfather guided them there alone.
• The village chief said six people had died in Wu'e Village each year since then and accused Luo Xian of bringing innocent people into the cursed village.
• Luo Xian noticed the curse’s six victims did not match the six Executive Staff and questioned whether the village chief’s story was true.
• Luo Xian asked the village chief whether he had also died because of the misfortune.

Luo Xian tried to use the Nightmare Sin Item to draw the village chief into a dream, but a terrifying presence stopped her and a Supernatural Barrier trapped Ma Mingyu. Ji Li cut through the locked door and enabled Ma Mingyu to escape, revealing that his sword could break the barrier.

• Luo Xian used the Dream Seed on the village chief, but a black shadow disrupted the Nightmare Sin Item and caused her to bleed from the eye.
• Ma Mingyu warned Luo Xian that a Supernatural Barrier was forming, then fled as Luo Xian escaped through a window.
• Luo Xian realized Ma Mingyu was trapped inside the locked house and asked Bai Huaiguang to locate her through the barrier.
• Bai Huaiguang found Ma Mingyu in the western bedroom, while Luo Xian hesitated over using her Green Snake Sin Object to rescue her.
• Ji Li cut the locked door in two with his sword, allowing Ma Mingyu to escape, badly wounded.

Ji Li and the others investigated the village chief’s attack on Ma Mingyu and uncovered a contradiction in Luo Xian’s account of the supposed ghost. The chapter ended with Ji Li revealing that every person Luo Xian had seen in the village was already dead.

• Ma Mingyu described how a barrier trapped her in the house, where unseen steel wires flayed her arm before the ghost let her escape.
• Ji Li identified steel wires as the cause of Ma Mingyu’s injury and asked whether the dark-clothed figure he saw was the village chief.
• Luo Xian said a young boy had told her the village chief was a ghost, and Bai Huaiguang questioned whether she remembered the house correctly.
• Ji Li said the family of three at that house had drowned in the lake on the boy’s seventh birthday the previous year, and that no one they had seen in the village was alive.