Recaps

Lu Xin confronted the Hell Designer and refused to join or admire his plan, declaring that the designer had violated the law he recognized. As the Hell Designer escaped toward an elevator, three black-robed priests intercepted Lu Xin and Xia Chong and turned his attack back on them.

• Lu Xin demanded to know why the Hell Designer had created hell, and the designer offered to explain after Hell’s Gate opened or if Lu Xin became part of the design.
• The Hell Designer urged Lu Xin to join him and witness the Second Coming, but Lu Xin rejected him and said he would arrest him.
• The Hell Designer argued that Lu Xin was an invader in Kindling City, and Lu Xin replied that the designer had violated the law he recognized.
• The Hell Designer retreated toward a concealed elevator and claimed he had prepared for Lu Xin’s arrival.
• Lu Xin reached for the Hell Designer with a giant hand of shadow, but a black-robed priest redirected it toward Lu Xin and Xia Chong.
• Lu Xin broke the shadow attack and protected Xia Chong, then realized that one of the priests might have stolen and returned his attack.

Lu Xin and Xia Chong confronted three black-robed priests inside the Kindling Building, where mechanical tentacles empowered the priests to overwhelm them with mental force. Lu Xin broke free of the assault, and the priests began a Black Box ritual curse against him.

• Father's shadow swallowed a summoned hound-like Mental Monster, while Xia Chong tried to reach the elevator and capture the Hell Designer.
• The priests shattered the glass wall and let mechanical tentacles from the pit pierce their heads, boosting their mental power and reflecting Father's attack.
• Lu Xin shielded Xia Chong as the priests' mental force threatened to tear them apart, and Xia Chong discovered that the passage to the abyss was sealed.
• Lu Xin unleashed a violent surge of power that shattered the office and sent the priests tumbling through the air.
• The priests formed a triangular formation and began a Black Box ritual curse, telling Lu Xin that he had already died; Lu Xin cursed back and sent Father's shadow at them.

Lu Xin fought three black-robed priests whose coordinated abilities trapped him in visions of his own funeral. As their funeral chant faltered when the priest reached the subject of his inheritance, the chapter ended with the priests still struggling to subdue him.

• The priests released pale mental entities to hold back Lu Xin’s black shadow while another priest’s chant made him hallucinate death and a white light.
• A second priest bound Lu Xin with chains formed from small hands, and Father warned that the chains were exploiting the fact that Lu Xin’s legs were dead.
• The priest’s chant showed Lu Xin a funeral attended by people from his life, while the chains spread up his body and he remained unable to move.
• The priests intensified their chant with visions of Lu Xin’s loved one burying him, and Xia Chong shouted as Lu Xin stood motionless, shielding her from the mental turbulence.
• The priest’s chant stopped when he tried to speak about Lu Xin’s inheritance, and he admitted he could not continue.

Three Black Box priests tried to kill Lu Xin with a death ritual, but Xia Chong’s attack helped him awaken and break free. Lu Xin and Xia Chong then overwhelmed the priests with shadows and gunfire.

• The priests’ death ritual stalled when its chains could not reach Lu Xin’s neck, while his mental power pushed against them.
• Xia Chong endured the mental turbulence, stepped out from cover, and fired her rotary machine gun at the priests.
• One priest redirected Xia Chong’s bullets toward Lu Xin, who opened his eyes and stopped them in midair.
• Lu Xin sensed his body and collapsed the chains, realizing the priests had used a funeral ritual to erase his attachments and make him disappear.
• Lu Xin unleashed his shadows while Xia Chong fired beside him, suppressing the three priests.

Lu Xin and Xia Chong fought the three Black Box priests at the Mechanical Tree, forcing them to unleash the monster hidden inside it. After the monster dragged one priest through its door, Lu Xin looked inside and found a pale boy who recognized him as Number Nine.

• Lu Xin and Xia Chong overwhelmed the three priests, who drew more mental strength from the Mechanical Tree to hold them off.
• Hell Designer told the priests to release the monster and ordered the city defenses to detonate the plasma bombs at Base Two.
• One priest charged toward the Mechanical Tree while another became a mass of pale mental entities; Xia Chong destroyed the entity with her machine gun.
• The first priest opened a small door in the Mechanical Tree, and a pale hand dragged her inside and devoured her.
• Lu Xin looked through the door and saw a pale boy in the tree, who recognized him as Number Nine.

Lu Xin reunited with Number Two inside the mechanical tree hollow as the Black Box’s Hell Umbrella bombs began to detonate. Number Two pulled Lu Xin, Xia Chong, and the others into God’s Nightmare, leaving their fate in the strange realm uncertain.

• Lu Xin recognized the person in the mechanical tree hollow as Number Two, his former orphanage classmate, and the two briefly reunited.
• The Black Box activated three Hell Umbrella plasma bombs, and Number Two explained that the sealed underground pit offered no escape.
• Number Two revealed that the Black Box had used part of his body to seal the abyss, and he could not undo the seal.
• As the bombs detonated, Number Two grabbed Lu Xin’s wrist and sent Lu Xin, Xia Chong, and the others away with mechanical tentacles, leaving the black-robed priest behind.
• Lu Xin awoke on a small floor fragment in a vast, shattered realm, and Number Two identified it as God’s Nightmare.

In God's Nightmare, Number Two told Lu Xin how a voice had guided him to bring people into the dream and spread the belief that reality was false. Lu Xin realized Number Two was the source of True Hometown, the nightmare others had called hell.

• Number Two explained that God's Nightmare was the dream world he had entered whenever he slept since childhood, and he and Lu Xin recalled their time at the orphanage.
• Number Two recounted how the dean failed to cure him, later abandoned him, and how he eventually began hearing a voice in the dream.
• Following the voice's instructions, Number Two let people kill him, preached that reality was fake, and gathered followers who cared for him.
• The voice taught Number Two to bring others into God's Nightmare, and he drew more people there while hoping the world would ease his loneliness.
• Number Two said the voice proposed pulling the entire real world into the dream, and Lu Xin recognized him as the source of True Hometown.

Lu Xin questioned Number Two about True Hometown, Hell, and the unknown figure behind them, then agreed to see what Number Two meant by saying that bringing people into God's Nightmare had changed nothing. Number Two took Lu Xin and Xia Chong through the fractured world, where Xia Chong learned they were inside God's Nightmare.

• Lu Xin realized Number Two was the source of True Hometown and suspected a figure called Staff Hider had manipulated him and helped create Hell.
• Number Two said he did not want to drag the world into God's Nightmare because doing so would not ease the emptiness of being there alone.
• Number Two put on Lu Xin's coat and led him through the upside-down fragments of God's Nightmare, where Lu Xin glimpsed something incomprehensible in a fissure.
• Lu Xin asked Number Two to bring Xia Chong over, and Number Two sent her flying across the fragments to join them.
• Lu Xin introduced Number Two as his friend, Old Two, and explained to Xia Chong that they were in God's Nightmare.

Lu Xin, Xia Chong, and Number Two crossed the grotesque landscape of God's Nightmare and found a river filled with people who had entered the dream and become trapped. Number Two explained that the voice behind the nightmare had given him immense powers, leaving Lu Xin and Xia Chong to consider why people were being sent there.

• Lu Xin, Xia Chong, and Number Two traveled through a surreal world until they reached an endless bridge over a river of people.
• Number Two explained that everyone who entered the dream was assimilated into the river, while he alone could not enter it.
• Lu Xin connected the river to the Hell Legion, and Xia Chong linked it to the desperate creatures that appeared in Kindling City at midnight.
• Number Two told Lu Xin and Xia Chong that the dream was a nightmare, where visitors first felt awe before falling into panic and despair.
• Number Two revealed that the voice had sent people into the dream and that he had gained the ability to alter minds and reshape the surrounding world, reaching what the voice called the Fifth Step.

Lu Xin and Xia Chong learned that Number Two's powers had distorted reality and helped shape the horrors in Kindling City, but that someone had manipulated him through rituals and taken part of his power. Trapped in God's Nightmare with no known way out, they heard Number Two propose that Lu Xin kill him to free them all.

• Xia Chong questioned Number Two about his ability to control people, draw cities into God's Nightmare, and alter reality, and he described what he could do.
• Lu Xin connected Number Two to the Abyss, the Hell Legion, and the dead figures in Kindling City, but Number Two said he had not deliberately caused them.
• Number Two explained that a voice had guided him through rituals that eased his distress while taking something from him, and Lu Xin realized he had been manipulated.
• Xia Chong concluded that the people behind Hell were using sacrifices to take things from God's Nightmare and said they had to stop them.
• Number Two admitted he did not know how to leave God's Nightmare, then suggested that Lu Xin kill him as a possible way to escape.

Lu Xin, Xia Chong, and Number Two were caught in the awakening vortex of God's Nightmare, whose mental force began to pollute them and distort the world around them. As they struggled to survive its shifting dangers, Number Two continued begging Lu Xin to kill him so he could escape the Nightmare.

• Number Two begged Lu Xin to kill him, claiming that only Lu Xin could end his endless rebirth in God's Nightmare, but Lu Xin refused.
• A surge of mental turbulence swept over Lu Xin, Xia Chong, and Number Two as the Nightmare began to awaken and swallow them.
• Lu Xin experienced the Nightmare's godlike perspective and realized that its pollution was changing him and Xia Chong.
• The bridge split apart, and Lu Xin caught Xia Chong while Number Two vanished and reappeared on a broken bridge pier.
• The world flipped upside down, throwing people and flames toward Lu Xin and Xia Chong while Number Two insisted that no one could resist the Nightmare.

Lu Xin realized Number Two had trapped him in God's Nightmare to provoke the other half of him into killing Number Two, but he stopped himself before crossing that line. As Number Two despaired of escaping, a raft of bizarre figures approached them on the Human River.

• Lu Xin fought through God's Nightmare while carrying Xia Chong, but the nightmare tore her apart in his vision and pushed him toward unleashing his fury.
• Number Two urged Lu Xin to break the nightmare, but Lu Xin paused and told him to stop.
• Lu Xin awoke on the bridge with his hand around Number Two's neck and saw Xia Chong unharmed nearby.
• Number Two admitted he had used God's Nightmare to make Lu Xin's other half kill him, and said he was running out of time before the nightmare consumed him.
• Lu Xin told Number Two that his plan had nearly turned him into a murderer and that he would have been sad if he had killed him.
• A raft made of people swept down the Human River, carrying a tattooed man, a nine-headed snake monster in a suit, and a fat man, who called out to Lu Xin and Number Two, "Heaven King Covers Earth Tiger?"

Lu Xin reunited with Night Owl, Old Wang, and Hydra inside God's Nightmare and learned that they had repeatedly survived its dangers without feeling the pressure that nearly overwhelmed him. Their carefree accounts left Lu Xin wondering why they experienced the world so differently.

• Night Owl recognized Lu Xin from the raft and called for help, so Number Two moved him, Old Wang, and Hydra onto the bridge.
• Night Owl introduced Hydra and Old Wang to Lu Xin, who also introduced Xia Chong and Number Two as his friend and family.
• Old Wang explained that he had followed Kindling into the city, while Night Owl and Hydra described how they had ended up in God's Nightmare.
• Lu Xin asked how they avoided the nightmare's pressure, but the three said they felt no pressure and treated its dangers as thrilling.
• Hydra revealed that their raft had capsized several times and they had been torn apart, only to regroup and continue exploring; Lu Xin began to understand something about their survival.

Lu Xin realized that God's Nightmare assimilated people only after they became completely contaminated and despairing, and he understood that Number Two had endured too long to escape despair on his own. Lu Xin promised to find a way to save Number Two and take him out of the nightmare, leaving Number Two moved by a renewed sense of hope.

• Number Two explained that the nightmare devoured people at different rates, while Night Owl, Old Wang, and Hydra had lasted because they still found the world exciting or interesting.
• Lu Xin concluded that God's Nightmare assimilated people only when they were completely contaminated, and that Number Two had become despairing after enduring the nightmare for too long.
• Number Two told Lu Xin that only Lu Xin's other half could help him, leaving Lu Xin feeling unable to find another solution.
• Lu Xin promised Number Two that he would not kill or abandon him and would one day save him and take him out of the nightmare.
• Number Two thanked Lu Xin and admitted that the promise made him happy despite how unlikely it seemed.
• Lu Xin embraced Number Two and told him that what he had offered was called hope.

Lu Xin reunited with Number Two in God's Nightmare, promised to rescue him and recover what had been stolen, then tore open an exit as Kindling's sacrifice began. He left the nightmare with Xia Chong and the others, while Number Two remained behind, and found Kindling City engulfed in chaos.

• Number Two cried in Lu Xin's arms, then listened as Lu Xin recounted what had happened to him and promised to bring him back to Qinggang.
• As mental bodies began pouring into the nightmare, Lu Xin vowed to find whoever had deceived Number Two and reclaim what had been taken from him.
• Number Two woke Xia Chong and admitted that he had forgotten how to leave the nightmare.
• Lu Xin used the black particles to tear open the air, creating an exit through which he, Xia Chong, Old Wang, Night Owl, and Hydra escaped.
• Lu Xin, Sister, and Father watched Number Two smile from the bridge as the opening sealed shut.
• Lu Xin saw Kindling City overwhelmed by chaotic mental power and realized the gathering had begun.

Hell Designer revealed that Kindling had prepared a vast underground shelter and begun its final ritual as groups around the world mobilized. He showed how Tiche Wang’s speech drove a square full of believers into fanatical worship, and ended by revealing that numerous organizations and Abyssal Creatures had also taken action.

• Hell Designer entered Kindling’s underground shelter and told Kindling’s leaders that the missing intruder was no longer a threat, so they could proceed with the final ritual.
• Hell Designer displayed surveillance footage of Tiche Wang addressing a huge crowd in a city square and explained that his Speech System ability could influence people.
• Tiche Wang urged the crowd to believe True Hometown would descend that day, and the believers gathered around him knelt and vowed to offer their hearts as sacrifices.
• Kindling’s monitoring devices showed spiritual radiation approaching its threshold, and Hell Designer said the scene demonstrated why they had to build Hell.
• Hell Designer displayed footage of the True Church, the Fox Immortal Temple, the Daytime Society, the Six-Faced Buddha, the Free Psychological Counseling Center, the Mysterious Affairs Investigation Department, the Special Emergency Force, the Black Box Council, and the Abyssal Creatures mobilizing.

Kindling City descended into citywide madness as supernatural Pollution spread, while Lu Xin and his companions realized Kindling’s chaos was only a prelude to a greater sacrifice. With ordinary measures unable to stop it, Dracula called on the Crimson Moon Club to intervene, giving Xia Chong hope that his rumored army could save the city.

• Fanatics and strange entities lured, attacked, and killed residents across Kindling City as the Crimson Moon illuminated the spreading chaos.
• Troops surrounding the city received orders to stop anyone from interfering, while their commander said Kindling would gain the power to rule the world if it survived the night.
• Lu Xin, Xia Chong, and their companions emerged from God's Nightmare and saw the vast Pollution engulfing the city; Lu Xin sensed it was only a prelude to something worse.
• The Negative Zero Unit reported that the Pollution could not be stopped by conventional force or mass killing because that could complete Kindling’s prepared sacrifice.
• Lu Xin suggested that they might have an army, and Dracula urged Crimson Moon Club members to use any means necessary to stop the sacrifice, offering a reward and the title of Strongest Ability User.
• Xia Chong recognized Dracula as the strongest mercenary and took hope from the legend that he always carried an army with him.

Lu Xin recruited Night Owl and Hydra to help stop the pollution in Kindling City while Xia Chong went to investigate Kindling’s sacrifice and plans. As Lu Xin prepared to descend into the chaos with his family, he was thinking about the hundred million Dracula had taken.

• Lu Xin offered Night Owl an extra hundred thousand yuan to help stop the pollution, and Night Owl accepted.
• Hydra agreed to help without payment, while Sister revealed that she remembered him secretly cursing Lu Xin at sea.
• Old Wang announced that he was going to kill Dracula, and Lu Xin approved.
• Night Owl entered the surrounding people’s minds and swam through their sea of consciousness, while Hydra formed a human shape from his nine snake heads and drove off in a stolen car.
• Xia Chong left to join the Negative Zero Unit and investigate Kindling’s sacrifice and plans, promising to share information with Lu Xin.
• Lu Xin watched Xia Chong leave, then fell from the rooftop toward the city with his family, thinking about the hundred million.

Red Snakes, a red-dressed dancer, and a red-cloaked girl disrupted several mass-pollution rituals across Kindling City. The girl confronted the Fox Immortal figures in an underground garage after revealing that their leader was supposedly a man.

• A nine-headed man used Red Snakes to spread doubts among the believers pounding their hearts at East City Plaza.
• A red-dressed dancer interrupted the singer’s broadcast, breaking his influence over viewers as he collapsed into bizarre movements.
• White figures led hypnotized men toward a bronze statue in a seven-level underground garage in North City.
• A red-cloaked girl stopped the figures and identified the Fox Immortal Temple as a Kindling City-backed organization led by a hypnotic ability user.
• The girl pointed out that the information identified the Fox Immortal leader as a man.

During Kindling City’s outbreak of madness, Dracula led her followers through the streets while various people tried to disrupt the chaos in their own ways. Lu Xin entered the Guard Department and asked whether its troops would respond to the illegal gatherings.

• Dracula bit the bronze-painted Fox Immortal, awakened another Dracula, and led a growing crowd of Draculas and freed captives into the streets.
• Dracula ordered ten followers to attack people at a club and sent the rest to bite people across the city.
• A father and son stopped a violent crowd by scattering banknotes, drawing people away from the fighting.
• A street artist’s music was disrupted by a suona, and people sabotaged a mysterious organization’s communion with laxatives.
• A fat man used a tank to destroy a strange light and a building, then turned his attention toward Kindling City’s nuclear power plant.
• Lu Xin entered the Guard Department, knocked on its reinforced glass wall, and asked whether the troops would handle the illegal gatherings.

As pollution spread across Kindling City, Hell Designer identified several ability users disrupting it and ordered forces to counter them. The footage also showed a tank firing inside the city’s nuclear power plant, prompting an urgent response.

• Hell Designer identified a Whisperer among the preacher’s followers and ordered the Mysterious Affairs Investigation Department to find him.
• A Dancer halted pollution spreading through the broadcasting hall, so Hell Designer sent Special Emergency Forces to eliminate her.
• Hell Designer recognized a golden-haired, one-eyed girl as a Zombie-type and ordered the Daylight Church to counter her with the Clock of Chaos.
• Hell Designer identified a Madman-type disrupting a street fight and ordered a sniper unit to kill him from long range.
• A suona player hidden across from a violinist interfered with the violinist’s influence over a crowd, and the secretary dispatched an emergency force.
• A tank charged into the city’s nuclear power plant and fired its cannons, causing the conference room to urgently call for someone to stop it.

The Hell Designer dismissed the disruptions spreading through Kindling City and sent armed forces to suppress the invaders, then revealed the city’s hidden weapon: three clones of True Hometown’s Guide. He claimed the clones could help Kindling piece together a Fantasy Nation, leaving the executives with a glimpse of the plan’s true power.

• The Hell Designer reviewed footage of mutations, looting, and other disruptions across Kindling City and concluded that the invaders were powerful but disorganized.
• The Hell Designer ordered ground forces to deploy across the city and had the stadium’s gathering of nearly ten thousand devout believers revealed on screen.
• The Kindling executives questioned the Hell Designer about his promised guarantee, and he opened a glass cabinet built into the conference table.
• The Hell Designer revealed three clones of True Hometown’s Guide, each displaying strange abilities, and said Kindling could use them to piece together a Fantasy Nation.

Lu Xin forced the Guard Department to act, then joined Sister in stopping Kindling City's violent forces and spreading contamination by weaving the city's fanatics and armed personnel into a vast human spiderweb. The web reached several battles and intersections, while Sister invited anyone needing help to find her.

• Lu Xin asked the Guard Department to address the citywide crisis, but its captain ordered the enforcers to shoot him instead.
• Lu Xin dodged the gunfire, shattered the reinforced glass wall, and let the skinned puppy disrupt the enforcers' emotions.
• Lu Xin realized how the Memory Hourglass gained and lost sand, then told Sister to let loose and weave a huge net.
• Sister twisted people into a human spiderweb that spread across intersections, stopping armed forces and disrupting battles throughout Kindling City.
• The web helped Hydra escape, overturned Night Owl's tank, and protected Xia Chong and others from an opposing ability user.
• Dracula, Xia Chong, and others marveled at the web as its people spoke together, inviting anyone who needed help to find Sister.

Lu Xin discovered that Sister’s web had disrupted Kindling City’s contamination and blocked its forces, but Hell Designer unleashed a vast, heartbeat-like source of mental power from the stadium. Lu Xin rushed to confront the believers, summoning Father’s expanding shadow over them and asking whether they had ever tasted fear.

• Sister’s human spiderweb spread across Kindling City, slowing the chaos and preventing Kindling’s ground forces from reaching their targets.
• Hell Designer ordered the stadium to release its power, and the city’s contamination readings surged from 45% to 60% as a huge heart of blood vessels appeared in white light.
• Lu Xin heard the supernatural heartbeat, saw the heart sending mental power across the city, and charged toward the stadium along Sister’s web.
• Lu Xin spoke to his shadow, and Father’s laughter accompanied its growth as Lu Xin climbed to the stadium roof.
• Lu Xin’s enormous shadow covered the stadium, and his voice asked the fanatical believers if they had ever tasted fear.

Lu Xin used Father’s power to spread fear through Kindling City and disrupt its madness, then discovered that the stadium’s enormous heart was a living embryo connected to the city. He told Father to pour more power into it to stop it from descending and asked Sister to tell Xia Chong and the others that he had found the entrance to Hell.

• Father spread his shadow and hallucinations through the believers and across Kindling City, causing the city’s madness to suddenly subside.
• Lu Xin watched Father’s pollution overwhelm the stadium believers while Hell Designer recognized Lu Xin on the monitoring screens and opened three glass cabinets to release their occupants.
• Lu Xin reached for the giant heart above the stadium and found that it was a living mental embryo connected to the city.
• Lu Xin told Father to put more power into the embryo to stop it from descending, then asked Sister to tell Xia Chong and the others that he had found the entrance to Hell.