Chapter Summaries

Jiang Qiao learned how the Malevolent Ghost Building recruited employees and forced them through frequent, dangerous missions in exchange for rapid increases in strength. Wang Yong explained that the building had existed for two years, and Jiang Qiao concluded that it was connected to the tunnel in Yue City, where powerful investigators had died and weaker ones had become employees.

• Jiang Qiao compared the building’s brutal missions and rapid advancement with the Survivor System, recognizing that the building controlled the strength it granted survivors.
• Jiang Qiao questioned Liu Chuan, who identified Wang Yong as a veteran who had survived for two months and completed ten missions.
• Jiang Qiao demanded details about the building, and Wang Yong agreed to answer his questions.
• Wang Yong explained that employees came from all over, were taken into the building in different ways, and received weekly missions with rewards and penalties.
• Wang Yong said the building had existed for two years and recounted hearing of a veteran who had survived for half a year, as well as someone who had survived for two years.
• Jiang Qiao connected the building to Yue City’s tunnel and learned that investigators who entered either died or became employees.

Wang Yong explained how employees survived tasks, gained supernatural abilities, and chose assignments in the Malevolent Ghost Building. He told Jiang Qiao that a long-surviving veteran had vanished from the building and might have gone upstairs, though no one knew for sure.

• Wang Yong recounted surviving an abandoned Underground Garage and a villa, where closing a Vicious Ghost's eyes may have saved him.
• Wang Yong told Jiang Qiao that he had gained Ghostly Deception from his early tasks and that completing tasks strengthened the ability.
• Wang Yong explained that employees chose tasks from a blackboard, could work in teams, and were forced into assignments if they did not enter the building within thirty minutes of the weekly summons.
• Jiang Qiao asked whether anyone had reached the building's upper floors, and Wang Yong said a friend had only guessed that completing enough tasks might open the way.
• Wang Yong said a veteran who had survived for more than a year had disappeared from the building, and his friend later spotted him during a task, seeming no longer entirely human.

Jiang Qiao questioned Liu Chuan and learned that an elevator had once appeared in the building at night, before killing him. He dismissed the other newcomers and ordered Wang Yong to stay and watch for the elevator with him.

• Jiang Qiao asked Liu Chuan what he knew, and Liu Chuan described a veteran employee's account of a strange staircase and an elevator that appeared at eleven at night.
• Liu Chuan said an Awakened who had entered with an employee surnamed Jiang disappeared while trying to leave the building, and the employee later died on his fourth mission.
• Jiang Qiao crushed Liu Chuan's neck after telling him he disliked him and resented his use of newcomers as cannon fodder.
• Jiang Qiao told the other people in the lobby to leave after collecting their missions.
• Jiang Qiao ordered Wang Yong to stay and see whether the elevator appeared that night.

Jiang Qiao stayed in the Malevolent Ghost Building with Wang Yong, weighing the dangers of exploring its strange, shifting spaces and its possible ties to the Green Lotus Sect. Near the end of the night, a door resembling a Fire Escape appeared in the elevator corridor instead of an elevator.

• Jiang Qiao reasoned that the elevator might kill people when they tried to leave and decided to investigate the building himself.
• Wang Yong explained that employees usually fled as soon as they completed missions and feared being the last person to leave.
• Jiang Qiao studied the nine distorted layers above the lobby and considered waiting for the elevator before forcing his way upstairs.
• Jiang Qiao connected the building's resemblance to the Survivor System with the Green Lotus Sect and the passage that appeared in Yue City after the sect's village vanished.
• The open area outside the revolving door faded into haze as Wang Yong described how employees could not safely reach it.
• A door resembling one leading to a Fire Escape silently appeared in the elevator corridor.

Jiang Qiao and Wang Yong climbed a hidden Supernatural Tunnel to the building’s second floor, where they found a lobby identical to the first floor and two new investigation missions. Jiang Qiao dismissed the mystery of An City as too minor to pursue himself, considering having Yang Ling send someone instead.

• Jiang Qiao opened a hidden door and led Wang Yong up a swaying staircase that connected to a distant space.
• Jiang Qiao spotted dried corpses hanging from ropes along the staircase and identified them as ordinary corpses with traces of Supernatural Aura.
• Jiang Qiao and Wang Yong reached the second floor, where the lobby matched the first floor but the blackboard displayed missions about Anxi Town and An City.
• Jiang Qiao considered An City's survival without support from the Supernatural World or Prayer Association interesting, but decided the mystery was not worth his own investigation.

Jiang Qiao speculated that the Malevolent Ghost Building’s floors were designed to conceal information and control which employees could advance. He suspected the Fire Escape only led upward and that employees on the second floor might be trapped there, leaving their fate uncertain.

• Jiang Qiao and Wang Yong observed that the second floor replicated the first floor and noticed three people had accepted a task.
• Jiang Qiao explained how the upstairs tasks offered more time but carried greater risks and rewards.
• Jiang Qiao argued that the building likely prevented communication between floors and only brought experienced employees upstairs.
• Jiang Qiao suggested the Fire Escape might lead only to the third floor and that ascending could trigger further restrictions.
• Jiang Qiao warned that the second-floor revolving door might be fake, leaving them unable to return to the real world.

Jiang Qiao and Wang Yong climbed to the third floor, where Jiang Qiao found a mission in the forests outside his hometown, Bin City, and suspected it involved Hell Fairy Tale. As they headed for the fourth floor, rapid footsteps came down the stairs toward them.

• Jiang Qiao led Wang Yong up a staircase built over the Abyss, warning him not to fall while they passed rotting corpses.
• Jiang Qiao and Wang Yong reached the third floor and found a mission called Forest Song, which asked Awakened to investigate mysterious singing near Bin City.
• Jiang Qiao connected the mission's rumored castle to Hell Fairy Tale and considered the danger posed by its powerful inhabitants.
• Wang Yong noticed that two Awakened had accepted the mission, and Jiang Qiao said there might be people on the floors above.
• As Jiang Qiao approached the stairs to the fourth floor, rapid footsteps came rushing down, and he waited calmly to see what was coming.

Jiang Qiao questioned Wang Yong about task locations and learned that the Malevolent Ghost Building had investigated Grandpa Qin in An City before the task vanished after one failure. Jiang Qiao entered the building’s lit, old-fashioned staircase with Wang Yong, where a strange footprint appeared above them.

• Jiang Qiao explained that the approaching footsteps were a Ghostly Deception and asked Wang Yong to recall the locations of past tasks.
• Wang Yong listed several locations, including An City, where a task had targeted an old man who could create ghost currency.
• Jiang Qiao recognized the old man as Grandpa Qin and learned that the investigation task had disappeared after two employees failed to return.
• Jiang Qiao asked Wang Yong about other tasks in the An City and Bin City region, but Wang Yong had no further answers.
• Jiang Qiao entered the staircase with Wang Yong, and a strange footprint appeared at the corner above them.

Jiang Qiao and Wang Yong climbed the stairs while Jiang Qiao resisted a curse and investigated the building’s strange mechanisms. Wang Yong recalled unusual missions as a ghost appeared below them.

• Heel-only footprints carried a curse that nearly shattered Wang Yong’s mind, but Jiang Qiao dispelled it.
• Jiang Qiao spotted a green haze in the stairwell and continued upward as the third-floor door vanished and footsteps followed him from below.
• Jiang Qiao asked Wang Yong about strange missions, and Wang Yong described Dead Man’s Wealth tasks and a dead employee barred from entering the building.
• Wang Yong said investigations of living people were rare and dangerous, but Jiang Qiao interrupted him when a bizarre human figure appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

Jiang Qiao took Wang Yong up through Malevolent Ghost Building, casually destroying increasingly powerful vicious ghosts along the way. They reached the Eighth Floor, where Jiang Qiao discovered that the door was gone.

• Wang Yong feared a black-robed vicious ghost on the stairs, and Jiang Qiao asked whether he had encountered one like it before.
• Jiang Qiao waved his hand and silently shattered the vicious ghost, leaving Wang Yong stunned by his power.
• Jiang Qiao and Wang Yong passed the Fourth and Fifth Floors, where the halls grew older and the Fifth Floor had no tasks or check marks.
• Jiang Qiao killed stronger ghosts as they climbed the Sixth and Seventh Floors, including an Eighth-Tier ghost before the Eighth Floor.
• Jiang Qiao and Wang Yong reached the dilapidated Eighth Floor, where Jiang Qiao found that the door was gone.

Jiang Qiao found that the staircase between the seventh and eighth floors could not reach the ninth, then noticed supernatural activity on the eighth floor. He ordered Wang Yong to climb the Crystal Lamp and blow out its candle.

• Jiang Qiao tested the fire escape and discovered that its stairs looped between the seventh and eighth floors, leaving the ninth floor unreachable by that route.
• Jiang Qiao noticed Wang Yong's shadow moving independently in the eighth-floor lobby and suspected a Shadow Animation.
• Jiang Qiao asked Wang Yong whether he had ever tried blowing out the candle, and Wang Yong warned him against disturbing anything in the lobby.
• Jiang Qiao explained that Wang Yong's cautious habits had helped him survive, but said he should follow Jiang Qiao's higher threshold for curiosity.
• Jiang Qiao told Wang Yong to climb the Crystal Lamp and blow out the candle.

Jiang Qiao made Wang Yong blow out the eighth-floor candle, causing the darkness to spread and the layered shadows to take shape. The floor filled with eerie corpses that stared at Wang Yong.

• Jiang Qiao sent Wang Yong to climb the Crystal Lamp and blow out the candle, promising to watch over him.
• As Wang Yong approached the candle, his shadow split into eight overlapping layers that began to separate.
• Wang Yong blew out the candle, and darkness spread across the eighth floor.
• Jiang Qiao observed the shadows gaining three-dimensional form while Wang Yong sensed that many beings were watching him.
• The darkness engulfed the floor, revealing corpses sprawled across the ground, walls, and ceiling, staring at Wang Yong.

Jiang Qiao rescued Wang Yong from the vicious ghosts that attacked him after he blew out the candle on the eighth floor. Once the candle relit and a strange elevator appeared, Jiang Qiao and Wang Yong entered it and set off for the ninth floor.

• The vicious ghosts trapped Wang Yong in a misty wasteland, where a female corpse reached for his tongue and other ghosts attacked him.
• Jiang Qiao destroyed the ghosts with thunder and a phantom tiger’s roar, dispersing the wasteland and saving Wang Yong unharmed.
• A hand from the void relit the candle on the Crystal Lamp, and the Fire Escape door transformed into an open, eerie elevator.
• Jiang Qiao deduced that the ghosts and wasteland were punishments for extinguishing the candle, then led Wang Yong into the elevator.
• Jiang Qiao pressed the sole button, marked 9F, and the elevator began to rise.

Jiang Qiao and Wang Yong reached the Malevolent Ghost Building’s unfinished ninth floor, which Jiang Qiao identified as the edge of its true hidden area. He had Wang Yong blow out the candle to open a way inward, leaving them poised to enter the building’s Inner Space.

• Jiang Qiao explained that the elevator stayed still while space carried it toward the ninth floor.
• After thirty minutes, Jiang Qiao and Wang Yong arrived on an unfinished floor where the elevator and routes back had vanished.
• Jiang Qiao said the ninth floor was only the building’s outer space and that they needed to reach its hidden Inner Space.
• Jiang Qiao ordered Wang Yong to blow out the candle, and Wang Yong climbed onto the Crystal Lamp and blew at its flame.

Jiang Qiao investigated the ninth floor’s strange candle and blackboard while a new figure approached through a wooden stairwell. He blasted the armed newcomer with lightning and trapped him, then asked whether he would talk.

• Wang Yong failed to blow out the candle, and Jiang Qiao identified a small Ghost Domain protecting its flame.
• Jiang Qiao heard footsteps from a newly appeared wooden stairwell and sent Wang Yong to copy a first-floor task onto the blackboard.
• A thin man carrying a Bone Cleaver climbed the stairs and attacked Jiang Qiao without speaking.
• Jiang Qiao struck the man with lightning, trapped him in a cage, and asked if he was willing to talk.

Jiang Qiao overpowered a Malevolent Ghost Building employee and questioned him about the building. When the man refused to talk because he expected to die, Jiang Qiao used Time Reversal to restore his body and supernatural entity, leaving him terrified by Jiang Qiao’s control over life and death.

• Jiang Qiao shattered the man’s body and supernatural entity with one punch, leaving him alive but unable to sense the supernatural.
• The man recognized Jiang Qiao as the Celestial Master and revealed that the Malevolent Ghost Building had investigated him, including his involvement in the Fishbone Temple incident.
• Jiang Qiao asked the man to explain the Malevolent Ghost Building, but the man refused and said the building was a prison that kept its inhabitants from leaving.
• Jiang Qiao challenged the man’s belief that he was about to die and used Time Reversal to restore his body and supernatural entity.
• The man trembled in terror after realizing that Jiang Qiao could control life and death.

Jiang Qiao persuaded Yang Kun to stop resisting by suggesting he could free him from the Malevolent Ghost Building. Yang Kun explained the building’s employee ranks and floor rules, including the ruined ninth floor.

• Jiang Qiao told Yang Kun that the Supernatural was vast and reminded him that he had become a powerful Awakened despite the dangers of the Malevolent Ghost Building.
• Jiang Qiao appealed to Yang Kun’s desire for freedom and promised that dealing with the building could let him start a new life.
• Yang Kun agreed to answer Jiang Qiao’s questions and identified himself as an eight-year veteran from the third batch of employees.
• Yang Kun described how employees advanced through the floors by surviving missions and reaching required strength ranks, and explained that freedom became restricted from the fifth floor onward.
• Yang Kun said the ninth floor had no missions, appeared stripped down, and could only be reached from the eighth floor by elevator after enduring attacks from powerful Vicious Ghosts.

Jiang Qiao learned how the Malevolent Ghost Building’s upper floors, hidden layers, and employee missions worked, but Yang Kun knew nothing about the building’s origins or Core Area. After hearing that one of Yang Kun’s companions had ventured deep inside, Jiang Qiao asked to meet him.

• Yang Kun explained that four employees lived in a hidden layer, that upper-floor missions appeared only when needed, and that employees from the fifth floor upward could fail three missions per floor.
• Yang Kun said the elevator could reach lower floors or dangerous supernatural layers, while stairs could take someone from a hidden layer to any main floor.
• Yang Kun revealed that a temporary mission had sent him to the ninth floor to kill Jiang Qiao and explained that employees below the Fifth Tier were assigned difficult missions, while some who reached the Fifth Tier were killed by employees or Vicious Ghosts.
• Yang Kun admitted he had never reached the building’s Core Area but said one of his companions had entered an extremely deep area.
• Jiang Qiao asked Yang Kun to take him to the hidden layer so he could question that companion.

Yang Kun explained the elevator’s overlapping spaces and the danger of Vicious Ghosts invading it as Jiang Qiao questioned him. The elevator stopped at the unlisted Sub-level Thirteen, and its doors began to open while a Vicious Ghost prepared to enter.

• Yang Kun told Jiang Qiao and Wang Yong about the building’s floors, the difficulty of surviving long enough to advance, and his years of experience.
• Jiang Qiao noticed something trembling on top of the elevator car and asked Yang Kun about it.
• Yang Kun explained that the elevator shaft and the void overlapped, and that Vicious Ghosts usually could not enter the car, though one of his companions had disappeared and later been found in pieces.
• Jiang Qiao realized the Vicious Ghost was preparing to invade as the elevator stopped at Sub-level Thirteen, a floor absent from its buttons.
• The elevator chimed and its doors began to open.

Jiang Qiao protected Wang Yong and Yang Kun from a vicious ghost attacking the elevator, but the elevator stopped at a dark danger floor where a Substitute Ghost and other ghosts surrounded them. As the Substitute Ghost began imitating their faces, Jiang Qiao unleashed Stove Fire.

• Jiang Qiao drew a talisman through the elevator ceiling and destroyed the vicious ghost pounding on it.
• Yang Kun explained that the elevator doors usually closed on danger floors, but they remained open as footsteps gathered outside.
• Jiang Qiao said the ghosts were targeting him and described the Malevolent Ghost Building’s dangerous, unlit floors.
• Dead Person Fingers crowded the elevator doorframe as a rotten, hairy figure approached and featureless heads emerged around the doors.
• Yang Kun identified the Substitute Ghost and explained that it copied its target’s face while the target lost their features.
• Jiang Qiao called the Substitute Ghost foul-smelling and attacked the surrounding ghosts with blazing Stove Fire.