Chapter Summaries

Yi Chen negotiated with Michael Carpenter, the Tenth Calamity, and was pulled out of the Film Crew through the Newborn Forest’s power, emerging reborn at the clinic. He told Lorien that the crisis had been settled and urged him to continue his moon sacrifices before the gods intervened.

• Michael Carpenter revealed that the Film Crew was the Tenth Calamity and asked Yi Chen to prepare for a new role in an upcoming film.
• Yi Chen convinced Michael to consider Lorien as a lighting technician and received Business Cards for himself and Lorien.
• The Newborn Forest’s mucus-covered arms pulled Yi Chen from the Film Crew, stripping away his old skin and giving him new skin as he descended to the Lowest Level.
• Yi Chen emerged in the clinic, where the nurses had rescued him and Lainey lay exhausted on the operating table.
• Yi Chen told Lorien that he had reached an agreement with the Calamity and asked him to wait two days before leaving and continue his moon sacrifices.
• Lorien began his ritual, while Regan stayed outside and went to spend time alone with Miss Fei.

Yi Chen struggled with his wavering resolve after reconsidering the Tenth Calamity and the value of humanity, then decided to pursue the Murderer’s Mask as a way to regain strength and possibly disrupt William’s plans. He left open whether Yellow Skin could control the mask, but Yellow Skin promised its full assistance.

• Yi Chen left Laine in Liu Xinzhi’s care and went to the rooftop to reflect on his conversation with the director and the Tenth Calamity.
• Yi Chen reminded himself that the director and Film Crew were expressions of malice, but he also recalled people who made the world worth saving and resolved not to abandon his fight against evil.
• Yi Chen considered returning to the Sunken Death Temple or going to Within the Original Tomb to strengthen himself, then Liu Xinzhi suggested reclaiming the evil thought William had taken from him.
• Yi Chen asked Yellow Skin whether it could control the true Murderer’s Mask, and Yellow Skin said it would help him obtain and control the powerful hide.

The Celestial Venerable learned how Yi Chen survived the Tenth Calamity and warned that its mark barred him from the City of Husks and God Domain. While Yi Chen prepared to face the Calamity again, he trained in the Lung Scripture: True Self and developed a self-circulating breath cycle.

• The Celestial Venerable arrived after the Calamity's interference ended, and Yi Chen explained how he had connected with the Tenth Calamity and made it retreat.
• The Celestial Venerable warned that Yi Chen's mark barred him from returning to the City of Husks or entering the God Domain, while Yi Chen chose to remain and face the Calamity again.
• Yi Chen asked the Celestial Venerable to take Lainey and Regan back, and the Celestial Venerable discovered Liu Xinzhi's unusual ability to contain malignancy.
• The Celestial Venerable began teaching Yi Chen the Lung Scripture: True Self, guiding him through synchronized breathing and movement for three days and nights.
• Lorien sacrificed the concept of the moon in six worlds and advanced to the Initial Moon God Stage as the Celestial Venerable withdrew his breathing network to avoid exposing the sacrifices.
• Yi Chen continued the practice after the network vanished, and the Celestial Venerable found golden lines forming a self-circulating cycle on Yi Chen's purple-black dead lung.

After mastering the Golden Lung Heavenly Venerable’s breathing technique, Yi Chen reunited with Lainey and brought her to meet the director on the moon. The director agreed to add her to the upcoming film, which was set to begin shooting at noon the next day.

• Yi Chen recalled how he had learned the Orphanage teachers’ Killing Techniques by watching them, though Director Cao had defeated him easily.
• Yi Chen felt newly reborn after cultivating with the Golden Lung Heavenly Venerable’s breathing technique and considered seeking the other Viscera Gods.
• Yi Chen found Lainey in his room and agreed to bring her along as he and Lorien faced the Tenth Calamity.
• Yi Chen and Lainey followed the director’s Business Card’s pull to the moon, where they found the director interviewing Lorien.
• Yi Chen proposed adding Lainey to the film as a forest witch, and the director agreed to bring all three of them into the production.

Yi Chen, Lainey, and Lorien joined the director’s Film Crew and traveled from the Moon Surface to the Deep Layer, where the crew would film. Yi Chen and Lainey received their scripts, and they met the actor playing the murderer, who looked forward to working with Yi Chen.

• Lorien agreed to help Yi Chen find his True Nature if the opportunity arose, while Yi Chen arranged for Lainey to rehearse in the Dreamscape.
• Lainey’s acting remained weak, so Yi Chen used the Dreamscape to implant a witch persona in her mind for the filming.
• The director returned early, explained that production would take place in the Deep Layer, and assured the group that the Film Crew would protect its contracted members.
• The director brought everyone from the Moon Surface into the Film Crew’s workspace, where Lorien was assigned to the lighting technician and Yi Chen and Lainey received scripts.
• The actor playing the murderer greeted Yi Chen and said he was eager to work with him after Yi Chen had killed the previous actor who played Miles.

Yi Chen and the others read the script for Halloween Eve, which casts Yi Chen as a killer who dies before being resurrected, and finish their first day of filming. After work, they leave the set and discover they are in the City of Evil, a malice-filled world populated by twisted residents.

• A mysterious box carrying the Film Crew descends into a plane swallowed by malice and settles in a Super World built from multiple worlds.
• Yi Chen and the others read Michael Carpenter's five-part Halloween Eve script, including Yi Chen's role as the Male Second Lead and his eventual death at Miles's hands.
• The Film Crew finishes its first day of filming, and the director tells Yi Chen and the others not to eat their boxed meals there.
• The director leads Yi Chen and the others out of the filming area, where they encounter twisted residents and learn they are in the City of Evil.

Yi Chen and his companions checked into a Hotel connected to the Boss after the film crew's director recommended a motel. Yi Chen discovered that the film crew's boxed meals were made from dead extras and decided to finish the new movie as quickly as possible.

• The director explained that the City of Evil's cinemas and video stores were tied to the film crew, while all lodging was connected to the Hotel and its Boss.
• The director brought Yi Chen and his companions to a motel, where the manager's hand turned black and the shabby building transformed into a luxurious Hotel.
• The manager offered upgraded rooms and safe meals, but the director insisted that Yi Chen's group remain with the film crew and keep its food.
• Yi Chen found that the film crew's boxed meals contained pieces of human bodies bearing the crew's quality stamp.
• Yi Chen threw the boxed meals away and decided to speed up filming the new movie.

After dinner, Yi Chen left the hotel to explore the City of Evil and learn more about the Film Crew by renting its movies. He and Liu Xinzhi encountered a tempting, ominous barbershop before reaching a Video Store.

• Yi Chen left the hotel despite Lorien asking whether he would rehearse the script, while Lainey stayed behind to study her role.
• The manager explained that the hotel sought to make guests lifelong customers, but Yi Chen sensed he was being watched and left.
• Yi Chen traveled through the City of Evil with Liu Xinzhi attached to his shoulder, using her evil presence to discourage hostile residents.
• Liu Xinzhi wanted to enter a strange barbershop, but she resisted; the shop vanished and left them shaken by a terrifying gaze.
• Yi Chen reached a Video Store, intending to rent Film Crew movies and watch them for information.

Yi Chen rented every early non-Halloween film he could find at the Video Store, where an ancient, dangerous tape was sealed in a cabinet and a mysterious figure watched him. Back at the hotel, he learned that two threats had noticed him, then watched a cult film alone as killing intent began to seep from him.

• Yi Chen found seventeen early killer films among the Film Crew discs and rented them, but a locked cabinet opened by itself and made him feel watched.
• The Video Store Boss stopped Yi Chen from opening the cabinet, sealed it with her nose rings, and explained that every video-media store risked harboring a deadly ancient tape.
• As Yi Chen left, he saw a camera-carrying Mysterious Figure beside the cabinet, but a dropped hotel key distracted him and the figure vanished.
• The Boss called someone to report that Yi Chen had rented the Film Crew's old movies, and the Hotel Manager warned Yi Chen that two troubles had targeted him, including one that was extremely deadly.
• Yi Chen returned to his room, found Lorien and Lainey asleep, and watched an early cult film alone until killing intent seeped from him.

Yi Chen endured the Film Crew’s disgusting environment and learned that its members were former masked killers who had made their own films. After Pig Man humiliated him in the restroom, Yi Chen finally attacked him as the Film Crew gathered to watch.

• The director welcomed Yi Chen and the others, then brought them to the first filming location and offered Yi Chen a place to rest at the Film Crew.
• Yi Chen struggled with his revulsion toward the Film Crew’s members and recalled that the films he had watched showed each staff member as a masked killer.
• Yi Chen wondered why the killers had joined forces to make a film about Michael Miles and suspected that Miles’s White Skin Mask might be connected to it.
• Pig Man urinated on Yi Chen’s shoes and insulted him, including mocking how Yi Chen’s mother had raised him.
• Yi Chen attacked Pig Man in the restroom, and the Film Crew members gathered around to watch without intervening.

William visited the Central Skyscraper to obtain a permit, but a sudden reaction in his Hall of Thought connected the Tenth Calamity to Yi Chen. At the Film Crew, Yi Chen stopped beating Pig Man to death, and Miles urged the director to proceed with filming.

• William waited outside the Central Skyscraper, and his unsettling tap dance frightened the security staff into opening the door.
• An employee told William to wait until Boss was available, and William began preparing to use him as an experimental subject.
• William’s consciousness entered the Hall of Thought, where a hidden chamber of evil books reacted strongly to Yi Chen and the Tenth Calamity.
• At the Film Crew, Yi Chen beat Pig Man to death after Pig Man provoked him, and the director arrived too late to stop it.
• Miles defended Yi Chen, encouraged the director to continue, and headed toward the first scene eager to fight the extras.

Yi Chen watched the Film Crew begin filming and discovered that its extras were captive-bred humans who longed for death. When the lead actor put on the White Skin Mask, its immense murderous aura revealed its power, and Yi Chen was left wondering whether the Tenth Calamity was hidden within it.

• Yi Chen followed the Film Crew to the set and learned that its death-scene extras were captive-bred humans, whom he expected to free after completing his objective.
• Yi Chen watched the lead actor open the wooden box and retrieve the White Skin Mask, which seemed ordinary to him but stirred the yellow skin he wore.
• When the lead actor put on the mask, a vast murderous aura erupted and a phantom white face appeared, transforming him into an apparently unstoppable killer.
• The Film Crew completed the scene depicting Miles's return in one take, after which the lead actor removed the mask and it was carried away beyond Yi Chen's and Lorien's perception.
• The director told Yi Chen that he would make his debut in the next scene and have ten Cut opportunities, so Yi Chen asked to borrow Movie Discs featuring Bartol to prepare.

Yi Chen and Lorien left the hotel at night to investigate the film set, where the crew’s murderous nature emerged after dark. After warning the director about the dangerous entity at the Video Store, Yi Chen used an old film as an excuse to approach Bartol and proposed recreating a subway scene.

• Yi Chen asked Lorien to help him leave the hotel and gain some initiative beyond the production crew’s control, while Lainey stayed behind to study the script.
• The hotel manager warned Yi Chen and Lorien that guests were protected within the hotel grounds, but they continued to the sealed filming base.
• Yi Chen and Lorien entered the base and found it filled with a powerful murderous aura as the crew watched them from the shadows.
• Yi Chen returned the disc to the director and described the dangerous camera-wielding entity at the Video Store, prompting the director to warn him to avoid it.
• The director gave Yi Chen a bag of old films, and Yi Chen then approached Bartol and suggested they recreate a subway scene that night.

Yi Chen persuaded Bartol to recreate the subway massacre in a realistic Dreamscape, while probing him about the White Mask and the Film Crew. As Yi Chen and Bartol entered the dream, the abandoned station suddenly lit up, revealing a special passenger inside the train.

• Yi Chen convinced Bartol to leave the Film Crew base and recreate his subway movie without the White Mask.
• Bartol explained that ten other candidates could inherit the mask, but his neck was sliced when he tried to reveal more about it.
• At the terminal station, Bartol wanted to abandon the plan because the train had no power, but Yi Chen offered to recreate the experience with a Dreamscape.
• Lorien connected Yi Chen and Bartol to the Brain in a Vat, and they entered a realistic dream aboard a moving midnight train.
• The abandoned station lights switched on while Lorien stood guard, and a special passenger appeared in the carriage.

Lorien escaped an encounter with the Eighth Calamity by using Moon in Water to fool a family of four who wanted to connect to the Brain in a Vat. Back at the Film Crew, Bartol explained the danger of the underground and revealed that Miles's Mask was kept under special guard.

• An apparent family of four appeared aboard the subway train, and the mother grabbed Lorien before he could summon help.
• Lorien used Moon in Water to make the family attack a lifelike projection, then escaped with the Brain in a Vat and the two sleeping people.
• Bartol and Yi Chen woke at the Film Crew, where Lorien described the encounter and Bartol identified the family as the Eighth Calamity.
• Bartol apologized for failing to warn them about the danger underground and explained that the Eighth Calamity occupied that region and was generally neutral.
• Bartol said Miles's Mask was kept under special guard deep inside the Film Crew, then told Yi Chen and Lorien to rest before the next day's performance.

William met Boss and submitted the document bearing all the required signatures. Boss then reviewed the Eighth Calamity’s report about a brain that connected dreams to reality and authorized the family, with William’s help, to intervene and capture its owner.

• William endured the journey to Boss’s office, where Boss inspected his signed document and accepted it.
• William encountered the Eighth Calamity family and asked to listen as they reported on two people whose dream experiences affected their bodies in reality.
• Mother explained that the pair had escaped using an advanced illusion and that the family could not capture them because they belonged to the Film Crew.
• Boss extracted and reviewed Mother’s memories, then issued permission for forced intervention between Calamities.
• William volunteered to join the capture, and Boss granted his request before he and the family returned to the Lowest Level.

Yi Chen and Lainey’s filming went smoothly until the Eighth Calamity arrived with authorization to seize Lorien. William subdued Lorien and prepared to take him away, but Bandit Bartol unexpectedly blocked his path.

• Yi Chen and Lainey impressed the director with their performances, and the Film Crew nearly finished filming half the second act.
• The Eighth Calamity arrived with a document authorizing Lorien’s removal, leaving the Film Crew unwilling to interfere.
• Lorien summoned the Scarlet Nurses and began opening a bizarre Stone Door, but William told him to go quietly.
• William struck Lorien unconscious, sealed away the Chaos Door and Nurses, and began dragging him from the theater.
• Bandit Bartol stopped William and questioned why he was not facing Yi Chen instead.

William tried to take Lorien from the film set, but Yi Chen seized him and escaped with Lorien after defeating the Eighth Calamity. William warned that the Eighth Calamity would now target Yi Chen.

• Bandit Bartol stood up for Lorien, but William threw him down and began dragging Lorien away.
• Bandit summoned the White Skin Mask and nearly fused with it, but William used Abyss Flip to stop the transformation and knocked Bandit out.
• William told Lainey he was still restricted and needed to take Lorien, then realized Yi Chen had disappeared.
• Yi Chen severed William's arm, carried off the unconscious Lorien, and decapitated the family of four blocking his exit.
• William healed his arm and warned that the Eighth Calamity would pursue Yi Chen for offending him.

Yi Chen fought through the Eighth Calamity’s red-clad doubles as they emerged from underground, but a mysterious cameraman’s gaze posed a danger he could not ignore. A balloon sent him to safety at the hotel, where the manager promised protection as long as he stayed inside.

• Yi Chen noticed identical red-clad people pouring out of underground passages and inferred that the Eighth Calamity involved numbers, a reverse side, and uniformity.
• Yi Chen attacked the doubles, whose shared adaptation let them increasingly block and dodge his killing techniques.
• Liu Xinzhi offered to control the attackers, but a middle-aged woman dragged her back into the Dead Sea and told her to leave Yi Chen alone.
• Yi Chen became engrossed in the slaughter, killing dozens of doubles with increasingly fluid techniques as William and the Film Crew watched.
• A Mysterious Figure filmed Yi Chen, and William’s warning balloon exploded between them, propelling Yi Chen to the hotel entrance.
• Yi Chen carried Lorien into the hotel, where the manager assured him that guests were safe inside but would receive no protection outside.

Yi Chen tested the manager’s authority by letting him protect the hotel from the Eighth Calamity, who had come to take Lorien. William then arrived with a letter summoning Lorien and warned Yi Chen that a dangerous Calamity connected to the Video Tape had noticed him.

• The Eighth Calamity merged the crowd outside the hotel into a dreadlocked woman and tried to take Lorien, but the manager’s rules kept her from reaching the lobby.
• The Eighth Calamity accepted the manager’s refusal, left through a sewer, and ended the underground commotion.
• Yi Chen explained that he had trusted the manager to test whether the hotel was a safe point in the source of malice.
• William arrived, admitted he had arranged Yi Chen’s earlier meeting with the manager, and left a letter for Lorien about a risky summons.
• William told Yi Chen that the person connected to the Video Tape was a particularly dangerous Calamity and suggested they might kill it together later.