Chapter Summaries

After three months sailing the Sea of Death, Yi Chen realized he had reached his destination and descended into the deep sea. He found the Sealed Sunken Death Temple and returned to his flooded hotel room, now able to travel directly to the temple with the Hanging Rope.

• Yi Chen continued sailing through the dark, viscous Sea of Death while the voyage dulled his and the dead sailors’ thoughts.
• Director Cao warned Yi Chen that he had already reached his destination and urged him to examine the compass; Yi Chen realized the route led downward.
• Yi Chen ordered the sailors to stop repairing the ship and return to his body, then sank with the wreckage into the sea’s absolute death.
• A woman in the hotel protected Yi Chen’s room from disturbance as seawater seeped into the hallway.
• After his body decayed and lost its eyes, Yi Chen saw the sealed temple where the Death Beacon could take him directly; he removed the noose and awoke in the flooded hotel room.

After returning from the Sunken Death Temple, Yi Chen learned that Jin had been detained over Mifuo’s death and agreed to handle malignant incidents to secure her release. He reunited with Jin, recovered William’s Video Tape from her body, and left with concerns about her changed behavior.

• Yi Chen returned to the hotel and learned from Little Grape that malignancy had invaded the Prime Material Plane and Jin had been missing for three months.
• The Golden Lung Heavenly Venerable told Yi Chen that Jin was being investigated for Mifuo’s death and offered to halt the investigation if Yi Chen dealt with an elephant-level malignancy.
• Yi Chen visited Jin in detention and found her meditating with three heads that vanished when she opened her eyes.
• Jin told Yi Chen that she had killed Mifuo’s disciples while William gambled with Mifuo, who transformed into a sarira after entering nirvana.
• Jin revealed that she had hidden William’s Video Tape inside a tumor in her abdomen, and Yi Chen pulled it out before they left to handle malignant incidents.

Yi Chen’s team chose to investigate the newly emerged Tomie phenomenon, while Lorien volunteered to handle the Killing Nightmare alone. Golden Lung Heavenly Venerable agreed to submit an application for the team to take on both missions.

• Golden Lung Heavenly Venerable presented Yi Chen, Jin, Regan, and Lorien with three dangerous phenomena to choose from.
• Yi Chen chose the Tomie phenomenon, and Jin, Regan, and Lorien accepted his decision.
• Golden Lung Heavenly Venerable warned Yi Chen that Tomie was poorly understood and recommended the Fish mission instead.
• Lorien selected the Killing Nightmare mission and insisted that no one interfere.
• Yi Chen supported Lorien’s choice, and Golden Lung Heavenly Venerable agreed to apply for them to take on two missions.

Emperor Pride led a special plague team to represent the Old World in the newly opened world, while Yi Chen and his companions entered a Ring World through an Emergency Passage to investigate a phenomenon. The team arrived in a damp alley covered with missing-person notices and sensed that something had noticed them.

• The Plague Lords assembled a special team led by Emperor Pride, with Griman Brent, Director Yousef, and Lanternfish Musa as members.
• Lainey Histra arrived late from the Newborn Forest and joined the team under the code name Rebirth.
• The Golden Lung Heavenly Venerable welcomed the team and considered having them handle phenomena left behind by Yi Chen and his companions.
• The Golden Lung Heavenly Venerable explained that Yi Chen's group would use an Emergency Passage to reach Ring Worlds and return when their travel period ended.
• Yi Chen and his companions submerged themselves in the passage and emerged in a damp alley filled with missing-person notices, where they sensed a powerful aura of unease and realized they were being watched.

After arriving in a strange winter world without Jin, Regan, or his companions, Yi Chen inhabited a dead vagrant and saved Liu Xinzhi from robbers. At her apartment, he learned that her missing husband had left with “That Guy,” whom she described as beautiful.

• Yi Chen found himself alone and without his companions or his usual clothes, then used Death Incarnation to inhabit a vagrant who had frozen to death.
• Yi Chen threw beer bottles to defeat the robbers attacking Liu Xinzhi and accepted her offer of food and warm clothes.
• Yi Chen followed Liu Xinzhi to her apartment, where he saw a memorial tablet and learned that her husband had been missing for a week.
• Yi Chen asked whether Liu Xinzhi’s husband might return, and she said he had left with That Guy and would never come back.

Yi Chen stayed at Liu Xinzhi’s home and learned that a mysterious woman was making men disappear across the city. After nearly seeing the woman in a television mirror, he discovered Liu Xinzhi bathing by candlelight and inviting him into the bathroom.

• Yi Chen ate a meal prepared by Liu Xinzhi and questioned her about the city, learning that a woman was taking men away and could appear anywhere.
• Yi Chen noticed that the rice offering before the memorial tablet had been eaten, though he had sensed nothing.
• Yi Chen saw a strange woman in a television mirror begin to reveal her face, but Liu Xinzhi broke his fixation by dropping a teacup and turning off the television.
• Liu Xinzhi went to find books, then Yi Chen discovered her bathing in the candlelit bathroom and heard her invite him to scrub her back.

Yi Chen dreamed of a girl who resembled Liu Xinzhi, then entered her bedroom and killed her, but she regenerated and killed him in turn. Yi Chen reappeared in the living room and confronted her, identifying her ability as Miss Tomie.

• Yi Chen dreamed of a beautiful girl with a tear mole who resembled Liu Xinzhi, then woke at three in the morning and went to check her face.
• Yi Chen found Liu Xinzhi applying makeup by candlelight and saw the matching tear mole, then attacked her with a kitchen knife and dismembered her.
• Liu Xinzhi regenerated from the black woven sack, mocked Yi Chen, and provoked him until he cut off his own hand and throat.
• Liu Xinzhi hid Yi Chen's corpse behind her husband's memorial altar, but later saw Yi Chen sitting alive in the dark living room.
• Yi Chen addressed Liu Xinzhi as Miss Tomie and identified her ability.

Yi Chen interrogated Liu Xinzhi about her immortality and the strange transformation that had made her resemble Tomie. When a hostile woman arrived at Liu Xinzhi’s apartment, Yi Chen disappeared as she crawled inside from the ceiling.

• Liu Xinzhi realized the vagrant in the wall had dismembered her, then Yi Chen strangled her to test whether she was lying.
• Yi Chen ordered Liu Xinzhi to dress and explain when her body began changing, and she said it started about fifteen days earlier after she cut off a finger that crawled back to her.
• Liu Xinzhi described her husband’s interest in her new appearance and said she had seen other women resembling her, whom she wanted to kill as rivals.
• Liu Xinzhi told Yi Chen that a woman with a mole had been pounding on her door and asked him to kill her so she could absorb her.
• Yi Chen unlocked the door and vanished as the woman crawled in from the ceiling with a twitching head and a boning knife.

After witnessing Liu Xinzhi absorb another woman and transform, Yi Chen took her into the city to investigate the widespread presence of potential Tomies. Their movie date ended with a monster emerging from the screen, while Yi Chen disappeared and left Liu Xinzhi alone.

• Yi Chen watched Liu Xinzhi’s body fuse with the woman she had defeated, then cut Liu in half to examine her independently living, merging organs.
• Liu Xinzhi regenerated, mistook Yi Chen’s examination for love, and agreed to dress and go out with him.
• Yi Chen and Liu Xinzhi walked through the city, where he noticed many women who might be potential Tomies.
• At an old cinema, Yi Chen sensed concealed malice as Liu Xinzhi chose a romance movie to watch.
• The film’s ending changed into a scene of men assembling a monster from murdered women, and the creature tore through the screen as Yi Chen vanished.

Yi Chen watched as Liu Xinzhi fought and absorbed the cinema’s monstrous operator, then left with her after she emerged in a new body. As they departed, every radio and television in the city began broadcasting the same image: a black ring with a blood-red smiling face.

• Liu Xinzhi, believing Yi Chen had not abandoned her, dodged the operator’s attack and wounded it with one of her ribs.
• Liu Xinzhi fought the stronger monster by crawling along the walls, but an enthralled employee shocked her with a live wire.
• The monster froze under an unexplained force, allowing Liu Xinzhi to kill the employee, tear open its head, and destroy its fused brains with the wire.
• Liu Xinzhi emerged from the mass of flesh in a new body, linked arms with Yi Chen, and continued their date in an employee uniform at his request.
• Yi Chen left the cinema with Liu Xinzhi, and televisions and radios across the city began showing a rotating black ring and a blood-red smiling face.

After a television broadcast infected women with an urge to join a beauty pageant, Liu Xinzhi asked Yi Chen to accompany her, and he agreed to go with her. They reached the shuttle bus after the other competitors had filled it and slaughtered one another, and Yi Chen took the driver’s seat as Liu Xinzhi settled on his lap.

• William announced that women could enter the beauty pageant by boarding a shuttle bus before 6:00 p.m., while Yi Chen recognized the broadcast’s mental infection and warned Liu Xinzhi that elimination could mean death.
• Liu Xinzhi struggled against the urge to compete and said she would not go without Yi Chen; he suggested they eat first and wait until later to avoid the crowd.
• Yi Chen and Liu Xinzhi spent the day eating hot pot and visiting an amusement park before driving toward the outskirts as the sun set.
• They found the shuttle bus coated in flesh and organs, with the women inside already finished feeding, and boarded after Yi Chen took Liu Xinzhi’s hand.
• When the Clown Mask driver indicated the bus would leave in five minutes, Yi Chen kicked him out and claimed the driver’s seat, while Liu Xinzhi sat on his lap and glared at the other competitors.

Yi Chen drove Liu Xinzhi and the surviving contestants toward the cruise ship while the Black-clothed Woman killed the other passengers and tried to claim Liu Xinzhi. Yi Chen stopped her attack, agreed to let her join them, and sent Liu Xinzhi to speak with her.

• Yi Chen revealed that he had severed the driver's head and drained its blood, and the head pointed the vehicle toward the port.
• The Black-clothed Woman drained a contestant's life and killed the other women who attacked her.
• The Black-clothed Woman threatened to kill Liu Xinzhi, but Yi Chen severed her head and tongue after she obstructed him while he drove.
• The Black-clothed Woman introduced herself as Mu and asked to join Yi Chen and Liu Xinzhi.
• Yi Chen agreed and pushed Liu Xinzhi out of the driver's seat to speak with Mu.

Yi Chen, Liu Xinzhi, and Mu reached the Dreamliner, where the passengers had to draw lots for rooms and access to the ship. Yi Chen uncovered a strange face beneath a Clown attendant’s mask, then followed its whispered instruction and won the presidential suite with unrestricted access.

• Yi Chen recognized Mu as a notorious umbrella killer whose past had shaped her transformation, and Mu reassured Liu Xinzhi that she would not compete with her for Yi Chen.
• Yi Chen drove Liu Xinzhi and Mu to the illuminated port, where a Clown attendant welcomed them aboard the Dreamliner and warned that fighting to the death was forbidden on the ship.
• The attendant explained that passengers would draw lots for their rooms and access, while Yi Chen observed the ship’s unusual construction and wondered what William intended.
• As Yi Chen reached for a lottery ball, an attendant whispered for him to take the one on the far right, so Yi Chen tore off the attendant’s mask and saw a strange black face beneath it.
• Yi Chen took the far-right ball and won the presidential suite and permanent access to every facility on the cruise ship.

Yi Chen and his companions boarded a cruise ship bound for William’s beauty pageant island, where William announced rules for surviving the twenty-four-hour voyage. After Liu Xinzhi and Mu went to the Banquet Hall, Yi Chen called out to Catherine as a soaked, malevolent woman appeared in their room.

• Liu Xinzhi admired the presidential suite while Mu inspected it, and Yi Chen avoided entering until Liu Xinzhi pulled him inside.
• Yi Chen escaped to the balcony and watched the sea while Liu Xinzhi and Mu prepared to bathe.
• At midnight, William announced seven cruise ship rules, including bans on killing and sleeping and warnings about the sea, a nonexistent room, unusual servants, and octopus.
• Liu Xinzhi and Mu urged Yi Chen to join the other contestants at the Banquet Hall, but he stayed on the balcony and told Liu Xinzhi not to approach the sea.
• Yi Chen saw tentacles emerge from the water and whispered Catherine’s name, then a soaked woman appeared on the bed and stared at him.

Liu Xinzhi and Mu reached the banquet hall, where Mu warned her about a disguised server and contaminated food. Meanwhile, Yi Chen learned that William was directing the voyage and planned to create chaos by provoking him, and Catherine’s apparent death revealed that the plan was working.

• Liu Xinzhi spotted a server whose mask had black eyelids and tentacles, and Mu used her umbrella to transport them to another passage.
• Mu warned Liu Xinzhi that some banquet food had been seeded with a threat that would take effect after they left the cruise ship.
• Catherine visited Yi Chen and said William had sent her to oversee the maritime zone and check whether Yi Chen would follow the rules.
• Catherine warned Yi Chen that the cruise ship’s passenger count had fallen to ninety-three percent and that the Sea Monster might enter if it dropped below the critical value.
• Yi Chen decapitated Catherine, whose body vanished into foul seawater, while William received her severed head in the theater.
• William told Catherine that provoking Yi Chen would make him create enough variables to throw the world into chaos alongside Jin’s madness.

At the cruise ship banquet, Liu Xinzhi ate a newly hatched Deep Sea Anomaly, alarming Mu with the dangerous changes she sensed in her. Later, Mu and Liu Xinzhi found multiple Hanged Ones in the cabins before the broadcast warned that sea monsters were rising and the ship’s survivors were unlikely to last until shore.

• A woman swallowed a hidden octopus chunk and transformed into a Deep Sea Anomaly, which Mu and a towering woman killed.
• Liu Xinzhi devoured the anomaly’s corpse, and Mu sensed an unsettling danger from her.
• Liu Xinzhi asked Mu to return to their cabin so they could find Mr. Yi, but they discovered two dead women hanging in an unlocked room.
• Mu and Liu Xinzhi found more Hanged Ones in several cabins, and Mu felt as if she were being strangled.
• The cruise ship’s broadcast announced that survivor numbers had fallen below eighty percent and urged the passengers either to fight the rising Sea Monster or enjoy their remaining time.

Yi Chen admitted that he had killed contestants to trigger the cruise ship’s final rule, believing survival would improve the chances of winning the pageant. While Mu and Liu Xinzhi waited for the Sea Monster, Mu experienced a terrifying vision and woke in their room, unsure what was happening aboard the ship.

• Yi Chen told Mu that he had killed the contestants and explained why he wanted to trigger the final rule.
• Mu urged Liu Xinzhi to hide in their room and observe the Sea Monster instead of seeking an alliance at the Banquet Hall.
• After three hours of silence, Mu and Liu Xinzhi went to the bathroom, where Mu saw fingers emerge from the faucet and a third figure in the mirror.
• Mu took Liu Xinzhi toward the Banquet Hall, but found it empty and saw a bloated corpse holding her hand instead of Liu Xinzhi.
• Mu awoke in their guest room after Liu Xinzhi stuck a finger into her temple to rouse her.

Liu Xinzhi survived a series of horrifying deaths in a dream and realized the Sea Monster was forcing the ship’s passengers to sleep. After waking in the real world and finding the Buddha Mother at the source of the fleshy tubes, she refused its offer and set out to take the other contestants’ places in the final beauty pageant.

• Liu Xinzhi dreamed that a waterlogged corpse and a hand from the shower drain killed her, then woke beside Mu and concluded she was trapped in a death-filled dream.
• Liu Xinzhi wrote a love letter to Yi Chen on the inside of her skin and threw herself into the dream’s sea.
• Liu Xinzhi woke in the guest room as a fleshy tube ruptured in her mouth, then left Mu asleep and followed the tubes to the Banquet Hall.
• Liu Xinzhi found the contestants asleep among the fleshy tubes and discovered the Buddha Mother on the forward deck, where it offered her power if she ate its Buddha Statue.
• Liu Xinzhi refused the Buddha Mother’s offer, returned to the Banquet Hall, and began a feast, declaring she would take the other contestants’ places in the final beauty pageant.

Yi Chen drove Catherine from the dream, while Liu Xinzhi survived the final confrontation with Mu and completed her metamorphosis. Yi Chen agreed to train Liu Xinzhi to win the beauty pageant as the cruise ship continued toward shore.

• Catherine attacked Yi Chen with her ocean powers, but he threatened her with the Black Sea and forced her to withdraw from the dream.
• The contestants awoke and attacked Liu Xinzhi, who had absorbed many of them while they slept.
• Mu escaped the Nightmare Room and found the Banquet Hall filled with the remains of the contestants.
• Mu and Liu Xinzhi fought, and Liu Xinzhi absorbed Mu to complete her final transformation.
• Yi Chen explained that Mu had more experience killing and agreed to teach Liu Xinzhi so she could win the beauty pageant.

Catherine confronted William over Yi Chen’s power and her own limited growth, while William warned her not to interfere with his plans. After the cruise ships reached a mysterious island, Liu Xinzhi and Yi Chen learned the rules for the next pageant event, which required contestants to find one of ten televisions and enter the final audition venue.

• Catherine told William she was angry with Yi Chen and wanted to go to the Pure Land to complete her divinity, but William warned her to stop causing trouble and respect Yi Chen.
• Regan asked William how to handle Jin’s strange condition, and William said to store her in his Video Tape and report her death if she chose that path.
• Yi Chen asked Liu Xinzhi about hearing the words “Tomie,” and she said she would keep her name because he preferred it.
• Liu Xinzhi and Yi Chen arrived on the island, where a stilt-walking clown announced the next event, “I Want to Be on TV,” and explained that contestants had to find a television and enter the audition venue.