Chapter Summaries

Jiang Qiao burned the Vicious Ghosts on the Minus Thirteenth Floor with his Stove Fire, revealing an unexplained passageway that he could neither enter nor understand. While the floor twisted in the flames, he asked Yang Kun about the strangest Hidden Layer he had encountered, and Yang Kun described the Minus Twenty-Seventh Floor.

• Jiang Qiao's Stove Fire engulfed the Vicious Ghosts on the Minus Thirteenth Floor, using them as fuel while Yang Kun and Wang Yong struggled with the heat.
• Jiang Qiao spotted an illusory passageway in the firelight and realized that the meaty fragrance and strange apparitions seemed connected to it, but he could not enter or see beyond it.
• Jiang Qiao dispelled the heat building inside Yang Kun and asked him which Hidden Layer was the most bizarre.
• Yang Kun described the Minus Twenty-Seventh Floor as an independent space with a half-submerged school building, towering windowed buildings, and something dangerous beneath the water.

Jiang Qiao learned about the bizarre flooded city on Minus Twenty-Seventh Floor and watched the Stove Fire burn Minus Thirteenth Floor down to a box-like space adrift in the void. As the elevator moved on, he spotted a tall, hunchbacked figure in that space but sensed no presence from it.

• Yang Kun described a flooded city with cardboard-box buildings, black water, and an unseen thing that had dragged away one of his companions.
• Jiang Qiao agreed to investigate the flooded city with Yang Kun after they met the missing companion, and promised to seek justice.
• The flames on Minus Thirteenth Floor faded, revealing a hollow, box-shaped space surrounded by an endless void.
• Jiang Qiao warned Wang Yong and Yang Kun that the space had become a one-way passage, then continued with them toward their home floor.
• Just before the elevator doors shut, Jiang Qiao saw a three-meter-tall hunchbacked figure in the space and realized he had not sensed it.

Jiang Qiao reached Eighth Floor of the Malevolent Ghost Building with Yang Kun and met the senior employees living there. After revealing his identity and learning about Miao Yi’s unusual ability, he was offered information about the building.

• Jiang Qiao sensed an unseen presence in the elevator but reached Eighth Floor without further incident.
• He Qingqing approached Yang Kun, and Jiang Qiao’s handshake suppressed her supernatural power before Yang Kun revealed Jiang Qiao’s identity.
• He Qingqing recognized Jiang Qiao from investigation missions and relaxed after he said he had come to investigate the building.
• Jiang Qiao met Liu Jun and Miao Yi, learning that Miao Yi had survived nine years in the building and explored its Hidden Layers.
• Jiang Qiao saw through Miao Yi’s memory-based revival ability, and Miao Yi offered to tell him what he knew.

Miao Yi told Jiang Qiao about Lin Rui, an early Malevolent Ghost Building employee who explored its hidden floors and died on the Negative Ninety-ninth Floor. He described Lin Rui’s discoveries on the ninth floor and the Minus Twenty-Seventh Floor, but left the nature of the Negative Ninety-ninth Floor unexplained.

• Miao Yi recounted Lin Rui’s past as a powerful Treasure Hunter and confirmed that Lin Rui had died while saving people.
• Jiang Qiao remembered Lin Rui and asked Miao Yi about the deep location he had explored.
• Miao Yi said Lin Rui had discovered the unfinished ninth floor through the Hidden Layer and suspected it had been damaged by former employees resisting the building.
• Miao Yi described the Minus Twenty-Seventh Floor as a strange space where Lin Rui found fake windows and glimpsed a sculpture underwater.
• Miao Yi revealed that the third special floor was the Negative Ninety-ninth Floor, where Lin Rui had died.

Jiang Qiao learned from Miao Yi about Lin Rui’s exploration of the Negative Ninety-ninth Floor, a vast looping maze filled with deadly supernatural dangers. After two companions died in the corridors of an abandoned apartment building, Lin Rui led the group back, where they found one missing companion’s remains inside a refrigerator.

• Miao Yi explained that Lin Rui believed the Negative Ninety-ninth Floor might lead outside the Malevolent Ghost Building and described its endless corridors, which only Lin Rui’s intuition could help them navigate.
• Miao Yi said the group encountered Replicants that looked and acted exactly like them but could be identified by flaws in their memories.
• Miao Yi described a looping tunnel that led to an abandoned apartment building filled with old electrical appliances that switched on by themselves.
• A companion smashed a paper television broadcasting the group and shattered into pieces along with it; later, another companion disappeared as the television’s image focused on his face.
• Lin Rui ended the exploration and led the group back, but they found the missing companion dead and broken into pieces inside a refrigerator.

Miao Yi recounted how Lin Rui died saving him and another companion from an electrical-wire trap near the elevator. Jiang Qiao then set out for the Negative Ninety-ninth Floor with Miao Yi, Wang Yong, and Liu Kun, while He Qingqing and Liu Jun chose to stay behind.

• Miao Yi described how an electrical wire trapped him and another companion, and how Lin Rui used several Supernatural Items to free them before the elevator's arrival killed him.
• Jiang Qiao mourned Lin Rui and asked Miao Yi whether he could guide them back to the Negative Ninety-ninth Floor.
• Jiang Qiao told the others they could choose whether to come and warned that he would not risk himself to save them.
• Wang Yong and Liu Kun chose to follow Jiang Qiao, while Liu Jun asked to stay behind; He Qingqing also hesitated.
• Jiang Qiao took Miao Yi, Wang Yong, and Liu Kun back to the elevator, which began moving.

Jiang Qiao and Miao Yi explained how the damaged ninth-floor blackboard could create a task that opened a route to Floor -99. After writing the task, the group prepared to trigger the passage, though Miao Yi warned that the journey could bring accidents for Jiang Qiao.

• Miao Yi explained that the ninth floor’s damaged blackboard could generate fabricated tasks, but doing so attracted Vicious Ghosts and added a difficult second task.
• Wang Yong explained that he had previously tried writing a lower-floor task on the blackboard but could only leave a fragment.
• Miao Yi erased Wang Yong’s writing and wrote a task requiring the group to reach Floor -99 within an hour and survey the area within seven days.
• Miao Yi explained that the group would blow out the candles, leave through the revolving door, and return five minutes later to find an elevator to Floor -99.
• Miao Yi warned that the building’s attention on Jiang Qiao could cause accidents, but Jiang Qiao said he welcomed the danger.

Miao Yi extinguished the Crystal Lamp’s candle, allowing himself, Liu Kun, and Wang Yong to escape the hall while Jiang Qiao stayed behind to examine a Vicious Ghost. Jiang Qiao discovered it had been a powerful Evolver nearing the Divinity Staircase, then the group returned to the hall and boarded an old, damaged-looking elevator.

• Miao Yi blew out the candle, and he, Liu Kun, and Wang Yong hurried through the revolving door to the building entrance.
• Jiang Qiao stayed inside to inspect a Vicious Ghost and recognized signs that it had once been a top-tier Evolver close to the Divinity Staircase.
• Jiang Qiao rejoined the others, and they waited five minutes for the elevator to appear.
• The four returned to the hall, where Jiang Qiao noticed the Vicious Ghost had disappeared and three employees had been assigned to the blackboard task.
• Jiang Qiao, Liu Kun, Miao Yi, and Wang Yong entered a rusted elevator with a hole in its floor, and Jiang Qiao reassured them it was sturdy.

Jiang Qiao and the others descended toward Floor -99, but the elevator repeatedly returned to Floor -6, where a growing group of Vicious Ghosts advanced closer each time the doors opened. The chapter ended with the ghosts only a few cycles away from entering the elevator.

• Miao Yi told Jiang Qiao that something had crawled beneath the elevator shaft during an earlier visit.
• Liu Kun described Floor -6 and its eight residences, including four doors that opened onto walls and rooms that seemed recently inhabited.
• An Old Woman waited outside the elevator, and Miao Yi told her the elevator was full before closing the doors.
• The elevator returned to Floor -6 repeatedly, and the Old Woman was joined by an Old Man, a knife-wielding man, and other Vicious Ghosts.
• Jiang Qiao kept closing the elevator doors, but the ghosts moved closer with every cycle until two children stood at the front of the group.

Jiang Qiao identified the elevator’s attackers as a stacked curse designed to kill the Ninth Tier experts accompanying him. Rather than destroy the curses, he deceived them with Tengshe and Xuanwu to keep the elevator moving, but warned that the Malevolent Ghost Building would soon notice.

• Jiang Qiao learned from Yang Kun that the employees who reached the eighth floor had Ninth Tier strength, and suspected the Malevolent Ghost Building had raised them as expendable resources.
• Jiang Qiao explained that the curses outside the elevator had been stacked to threaten the employees, whom the building likely considered traitors.
• Jiang Qiao refused Wang Yong’s suggestion to clear the curses and said he would exploit the building’s automatic procedures instead.
• Jiang Qiao used Tengshe and Xuanwu to confuse and deceive the curses, then closed the elevator doors without destroying them.
• The elevator reached Floor [-7], and Jiang Qiao warned that the building would soon realize the elevator was still moving.

At Floor [-20], Jiang Qiao realized the elevator was separated from the Malevolent Ghost Building and offered some protection from the Vicious Ghosts outside. The group remained inside as Jiang Qiao prepared to burn the floor, while Liu Kun recalled that ghosts could sometimes enter elevator cars if given enough time.

• The elevator stopped at Floor [-20], where the group heard screams coming from a warehouse filled with enormous cardboard boxes.
• Jiang Qiao reasoned that the building could stop the elevator but could not directly control it or instantly bring a Vicious Ghost inside.
• Jiang Qiao used Stove Fire, and the group heard something crawling away beneath the hole in the elevator floor.
• Liu Kun said Vicious Ghosts often moved outside elevator cars and recalled that rare invasions had killed passengers who stayed inside for a long time.

Jiang Qiao burned Floor [-20], destroying its powerful Vicious Ghosts and clearing the way for the elevator to descend. After the elevator passed Floor [-27] without incident, it continued toward the unknown Floor [-99].

• Jiang Qiao set the entire floor ablaze while Miao Yi watched in shock and Liu Kun and Wang Yong remained calm.
• A burning humanoid Vicious Ghost and a fishlike Evil Spirit emerged from the flames, but both died before reaching the elevator.
• Jiang Qiao noticed the ghosts and their fragrant remains flowing into the tunnel, but he could not understand what he had almost realized.
• After fifteen minutes, the fire went out and left the floor empty, allowing Jiang Qiao to press the elevator's close-door button.
• The elevator descended past Floor [-27] without stopping and continued downward toward Floor [-99].

Jiang Qiao and his companions endured the elevator’s slow descent while discussing evidence that people once lived inside the Malevolent Ghost Building. When the elevator stopped on Floor [-98], they found a school-like corridor in a submerged, pool-like world.

• Jiang Qiao questioned Miao Yi about the elevator’s slow descent, and Miao Yi said it had behaved the same way on his previous visit.
• Liu Kun recalled a dead former companion’s mission to inspect and clean elevator shafts, where he found household trash that suggested people had once lived in the building.
• Miao Yi added that Lin Rui had also found traces of people living on certain floors, while Jiang Qiao said they should investigate the clues themselves.
• After nine more hours, the elevator stopped at Floor [-98], and Jiang Qiao and the others prepared for an attack.
• The doors opened onto a school-like corridor facing a strange skyscraper, with the surrounding buildings and corridor submerged in water.

Jiang Qiao, Miao Yi, and Liu Kun discovered that Floor [-98] was a strange, apparently non-supernatural space unlike Floor [-27], and they left the elevator to explore it. The floor opened onto an enormous pool whose water seemed conceptually infinite in depth, with signs that people had once used it.

• Miao Yi and Liu Kun noticed that the corridor and buildings outside the elevator differed from Floor [-27], while the elevator doors would not close.
• Jiang Qiao found no supernatural phenomena on the floor and tested its lack of supernatural energy by sending Stove Fire into the corridor, where the flames faded.
• Jiang Qiao decided to explore the unusual floor, and Miao Yi, Liu Kun, and Wang Yong followed him out of the elevator.
• Jiang Qiao saw a vast, crystal-clear pool whose depth his Dual Pupils could not measure and suspected its depth was conceptually infinite.
• Jiang Qiao found swimming toys, towels, lounge chairs, water guns, and an iron ladder, suggesting people had once used the pool before disappearing.

Jiang Qiao explored the eerie floor of empty buildings built around swimming pools, but found no clues or immediate dangers. After traveling a hundred kilometers and returning to their starting point, he proposed searching the sky above instead of diving underwater.

• Liu Kun said the floor felt more eerie than Floor [-27], and Miao Yi sensed something watching him from a pool.
• Jiang Qiao broke through the building walls and discovered that the structure was an empty shell surrounding a huge pool with a deep drain and a pipe leading to the water outside.
• Jiang Qiao and the others crossed to another building, where they found a filthy swimming pool and damaged changing-room lockers.
• Jiang Qiao blasted through more than a hundred buildings, finding only variations of empty spaces, pools, and ruined changing rooms.
• Jiang Qiao traveled a hundred kilometers and returned to the original school building, concluding that exploring above the water had yielded nothing.
• Jiang Qiao suggested that they go up to the sky and inspect the ceiling instead of diving underwater.

Miao Yi carried Jiang Qiao and the others upward to investigate the darkness above the pool. More than 100,000 kilometers up, they glimpsed the structure’s distant top, but Miao Yi struggled to control his power and a white shadow appeared in the darkness.

• Jiang Qiao agreed with Miao Yi and Yang Kun to explore the sky rather than enter the water.
• Miao Yi used his Ghost Domain to carry the group upward, where they saw a vast cylindrical space lined with illuminated, empty windows.
• Jiang Qiao ordered Miao Yi to keep ascending as the pool disappeared from view and black haze thickened around them.
• At more than 100,000 kilometers above the ground, Miao Yi said the paranormal power was becoming difficult to control and each further ascent required twice the strength.
• A white shadow drifted past the group and vanished into the darkness.

Jiang Qiao and his companions ascended toward the ceiling of the Malevolent Ghost Building’s [-98]th floor, where strange illusions and sounds filled a weightless void. Jiang Qiao grabbed a figure hidden inside a drifting swimsuit, triggering violent tremors in the space.

• Jiang Qiao, Yang Kun, Miao Yi, and Wang Yong each saw a different shadow pass by, and Jiang Qiao ordered them to keep climbing.
• Miao Yi exhausted himself trying to take them higher, so Jiang Qiao replaced his Ghost Domain and carried the group upward in flashes.
• The group reached a dark, weightless area where their Supernatural Perception failed and illusory buildings, sounds, and a diving figure appeared.
• As they climbed farther, Jiang Qiao saw a physical human figure inside a dripping-wet swimsuit and reached out to seize it.
• Jiang Qiao’s grab made the surrounding space tremble violently, confirming that the figure was more than an ordinary illusion.

Jiang Qiao fought powerful Evil Spirits whose curses pierced his Ghost Domain and harmed his companions. After realizing that the void kept generating new enemies, he flooded it with lightning and destroyed every Evil Spirit as it appeared.

• Jiang Qiao struck down a shadow emerging from a swimsuit, but it reappeared as a faceless, photograph-like figure and immobilized Wang Yong through the Ghost Domain.
• The figure returned alongside cursed, rotten towels, which clung to the Ghost Domain and afflicted Wang Yong, Liu Kun, and Miao Yi with death, fear, and supernatural decay.
• Jiang Qiao repeatedly destroyed the Evil Spirit and observed that each new figure was born from the void rather than reviving after death.
• Jiang Qiao concluded that the void, or the entire floor [-98], acted like a womb that generated Evil Spirits.
• Jiang Qiao unleashed lightning throughout the void, pulverizing every Evil Spirit as it appeared.

Jiang Qiao erased the evil entities in the Dark Void and discovered the space’s boundary before an Abyssal Evil Spirit descended from above. The Simulator identified it as a possible way to complete Jiang Qiao’s Evil Spirit Body, and he charged at it.

• Jiang Qiao unleashed thunderwater that destroyed the evil entities and eroded the Poolcore space.
• Jiang Qiao explored the space’s boundary while Liu Kun and Miao Yi recovered from the curse and began to hope they could escape.
• A silent pressure descended, and Jiang Qiao realized the ceiling was sinking toward them.
• Jiang Qiao identified the descending mask as an Ancient Evil Spirit from the Abyss.
• The Simulator warned Jiang Qiao that the Abyssal Evil Spirit was extremely dangerous but could complete his Evil Spirit Body if killed.
• Jiang Qiao charged at the Evil Spirit.

Jiang Qiao fought the Evil Spirit, overwhelming it with annihilating power and swallowing it into a Singularity. When the Simulator gave no victory notification, he realized the Evil Spirit had survived and found himself inside a long, narrow corridor.

• Jiang Qiao sent Liu Kun and Miao Yi back to the ground and destroyed the Evil Spirit's controlled Awakened human-skin silhouettes.
• Jiang Qiao attacked the Evil Spirit with his fists and six beast phantoms, forcing it to evade.
• Jiang Qiao used the Stove Fire and gravitational collapse to trap the Evil Spirit and swallow it into a Singularity.
• Miao Yi asked if they had won, but Jiang Qiao sensed the Evil Spirit was still alive because the Simulator gave no notification.
• Jiang Qiao found himself inside a long, narrow corridor as the surroundings abruptly changed.