Recaps

Yu Sheng and the others tried to escape the valley as a greater horror awakened, but a flesh-and-blood behemoth killed Yu Sheng before they could leave. As the valley filled with monsters and its sky opened into an enormous eye, Xu Jiali recognized the threat as the Dark Angel.

• Huli told Yu Sheng that something had awakened in the valley when the Immortal died, and that everyone who went outside had later been found dead.
• Yu Sheng carried the badly damaged Eileen, opened a door to No. 66 Wutong Road, and urged Huli, Li Lin, Xu Jiali, and the other stranger to escape.
• A flesh-and-blood behemoth attacked Yu Sheng from behind and pierced his chest, causing the illusory door to vanish.
• Eileen told Huli that Yu Sheng would resurrect in twenty or thirty minutes, and Huli picked up Eileen and the oil painting as monsters gathered around them.
• Li Lin and Xu Jiali saw the valley transform as an enormous eye opened across the Otherworld's sky, and Xu Jiali identified it as the Dark Angel.

As the Dark Angel’s eye watched the valley, Eileen led Huli and the others toward a cave where they could hide, leaving Yu Sheng’s body behind. Dead in the darkness, Yu Sheng awakened to a new connection with the valley and realized he could respond to the eye through the Otherworld itself.

• Li Lin and Xu Jiali realized a Dark Angel had appeared, while the monsters around the ruined temple remained strangely still.
• Eileen asked Huli to lead them to the cave where her parents had once hidden from a similar event, and told her to leave Yu Sheng’s body behind.
• The mountains and forest split open as flesh and tentacles emerged, forcing Huli, Eileen, Li Lin, Xu Jiali, and Little Red Riding Hood’s group to flee toward the cave.
• Little Red Riding Hood sent a wolf toward Yu Sheng’s remains, but it turned back; she then led the others after Huli.
• The Hunger Entities began devouring one another as Yu Sheng’s blood spread through the soil.
• Yu Sheng sensed the Dark Angel’s gaze while dead and realized he had connected to the valley, perceiving the gaze through the Otherworld.

Yu Sheng connected with the valley and discovered that Hunger had awakened the Otherworld into a living, predatory creature. As his companions sheltered in a cave, Yu Sheng revealed that he had taken root inside Hunger, and the entity began devouring itself.

• Yu Sheng sensed the enormous eye watching him before it turned its attention elsewhere, and he realized the valley had become a hungry living creature.
• Huli led Li Lin, Xu Jiali, Little Red Riding Hood, and the damaged Eileen into a cave as monstrous growths overtook the valley.
• Eileen told Huli that Yu Sheng would repair her, then warned her not to mention his apparent death to their companions.
• The valley fell silent, then filled with a strange scraping sound as everyone in the cave sensed that something had changed.
• Yu Sheng contacted Eileen and explained that Hunger had not taken root in his mind; instead, he had taken root in Hunger, which had begun devouring itself.

Yu Sheng returned to the cave after the Hunger Entities devoured one another, and Xu Jiali identified the giant eye above the valley as a Dark Angel. The eye withdrew, leaving the survivors to celebrate and prepare to report what happened.

• Li Lin, Huli, and Eileen saw Yu Sheng outside the cave and called him back to safety.
• Yu Sheng explained that the giant eye was an outsider that had long occupied the sky, and Xu Jiali described it as a Dark Angel.
• Yu Sheng introduced himself and his friends to Xu Jiali, Little Red Riding Hood, and Li Lin.
• Xu Jiali asked whether Yu Sheng had caused the ruined valley, and Yu Sheng said he had found the entities' weakness.
• Eileen noticed the giant eye rising and shrinking until it disappeared from the sky.
• Xu Jiali said they should celebrate before he returned to write a report.

After the Dark Angel’s eye left the Otherworld, Yu Sheng learned that Li Lin and Xu Jiali were agents of the Special Operations Bureau and prepared to return home with everyone. Before leaving, Huli asked Yu Sheng to accompany her to the woods where her parents were buried, and the group reached the ruined site.

• The Dark Angel’s eye departed, and Xu Jiali explained that Dark Angels acted unpredictably.
• Yu Sheng recognized Li Lin from a small supermarket, and Li Lin and Xu Jiali introduced themselves as members of the Special Operations Bureau; Little Red Riding Hood said she was a holiday worker.
• Yu Sheng and the others left the cave and found the valley devastated, while Eileen said the Hunger Entity would eventually return.
• After Huli said she was no longer cold or hungry, she stopped Yu Sheng from opening a door home and asked him to take her to the woods where her parents were buried.
• The group reached the blackened wasteland where the woods had stood, and Huli said she had buried her parents very deep.

Huli found her parents’ skeletons in the wasteland and brought their teeth home, while Yu Sheng returned her and the others to his house on Wutong Road. There, he told Li Lin and Xu Jiali that he had been looking for all of them, especially professionals like them.

• Huli dug through the wasteland until she found her parents’ skeletons and curled up beside them.
• Huli took one canine tooth from each skeleton, explaining that carrying the teeth home meant her parents had gone home too.
• Yu Sheng retrieved the intact food left at the abandoned temple, then opened a gate to his home and brought Huli, Li Lin, Xu Jiali, and Little Red Riding Hood through.
• Li Lin, Xu Jiali, and Little Red Riding Hood sensed that Yu Sheng’s home was still an Anomaly space, but hesitated to investigate it openly.
• Li Lin asked whether they were still in Boundary City, and Yu Sheng confirmed they were on Wutong Road.
• Yu Sheng said he had been looking for all of them, particularly professionals like Li Lin and Xu Jiali.

Yu Sheng introduced himself to the Special Operations Bureau agents as a novice seeking answers about the Otherworld, but his house and abilities left Li Lin and Xu Jiali deeply suspicious. After exchanging contact information, the agents discovered his address did not exist, and they left to report the situation and consult their superiors about Dark Angel.

• Yu Sheng told Li Lin, Xu Jiali, and Little Red Riding Hood that he had only recently encountered the Otherworld and wanted help understanding it.
• Li Lin and Xu Jiali examined Yu Sheng's identity card and found that No. 66 Wutong Road did not exist.
• Xu Jiali gave Yu Sheng her contact information and said the bureau would arrange a formal contact and registration procedure.
• Little Red Riding Hood realized that an entity had destroyed her homework and furiously lamented the loss of her three days of work.
• Li Lin, Xu Jiali, and Little Red Riding Hood left Yu Sheng's house and found only a wall where its entrance had been.
• Xu Jiali and Li Lin decided to return to the bureau and report the situation, which involved Dark Angel.

Yu Sheng brought Huli home and helped her prepare to bathe while Eileen waited to have her broken limbs repaired. The chapter left Yu Sheng ready to experiment with using an expensive lotus root as material for Eileen’s repairs, syringe in hand.

• Yu Sheng took Huli to the bathroom, explained how to use its fixtures and supplies, and left her a set of his clothes for after her bath.
• Huli hid cans of porridge and packs of biscuits inside her tail, then revealed that her tail had grown back after she launched it before.
• Yu Sheng carried Eileen to the attic to repair her broken arms and cracked legs, while Eileen explained the process.
• Yu Sheng admitted that the clay for Eileen’s repairs had run out and produced a lotus root he had saved to test as an alchemy material.
• Eileen objected that the process required Yu Sheng’s blood, but Yu Sheng pulled out a syringe, leaving her aghast.

Yu Sheng successfully gave Eileen lotus-root arms and used blood-infused epoxy putty to repair her cracked leg. Eileen asked him to cautiously seek help from the Special Operations Bureau in contacting Alice's Cabin, and Yu Sheng prepared to see whether she could stand.

• Yu Sheng reassured Eileen that her lotus-root arms worked, though she was shocked that his alchemy had succeeded.
• Eileen tested her new hands and found them usable, then warned Yu Sheng not to repair her legs with lotus-root starch.
• Yu Sheng examined Eileen's cracked leg, mixed his blood into epoxy putty, and applied it to the wounds.
• Eileen told Yu Sheng she wanted to ask the Special Operations Bureau agents about contacting Alice's Cabin but had felt uneasy around them.
• Eileen asked Yu Sheng to inquire about Alice's Cabin if he confirmed the agents were genuine, and Yu Sheng reset her knee and told her to try standing.

After Yu Sheng repaired Eileen’s limbs, Huli joined them in the attic and revealed she had put away her tails. Unable to recall her home and content to have found her parents in the canine teeth she carried, Huli accepted Yu Sheng’s offer to live with him and help him face future dangers.

• Yu Sheng finished repairing Eileen’s leg, and she happily ran around the attic again.
• Huli found Yu Sheng and Eileen, mistook Eileen for a puppet, and accidentally knocked her over when she unfurled her tails.
• Huli said she did not remember her hometown and felt she had already found her parents in the two canine teeth she carried.
• Yu Sheng offered Huli a room and food in exchange for helping him fight dangerous Entities and explore Otherworlds.
• Huli worried that she might get trapped again, then agreed to help Yu Sheng after he reminded her of his Netherworld Passage.

Yu Sheng settled Huli into an empty room in his house while Eileen enthusiastically offered to help move things. At a clinic, Doctor Lin treated Little Red Riding Hood’s injuries, assessed her recurring wolf-related dreams, and warned her to protect herself as she continued to recover.

• Yu Sheng chose the furnished second-floor room for Huli and asked her to help move its stored belongings into the basement.
• Eileen volunteered to help, and Yu Sheng warned her against carrying heavy things before she kicked him in the knee.
• Doctor Lin treated Little Red Riding Hood’s injured arm by cutting her own arm, which caused the wound and its black patterns to disappear from the girl.
• Little Red Riding Hood described her recent dream, and Doctor Lin judged her temporarily stable but still at risk after she had been caught by the wolf.
• Doctor Lin urged Little Red Riding Hood to survive and rely on the wolves protecting her, then gave her a No. 2 Intervention Agent and reminded her of her unpaid bills.

Captain Song and the Special Operations Bureau investigated Yu Sheng after he left the Otherworld, finding that the humanlike man had existed in Crossroads records for decades despite his identity being marked canceled. The Bureau decided to study him cautiously and escalate the case while Yu Sheng remained unaware of their suspicions.

• Song Cheng questioned Li Lin and Xu Jiali about Yu Sheng, the Dark Angel, and the Gate Opener, and learned Yu Sheng seemed entirely human and had fought the Hunger Entity.
• A clerk revealed that Yu Sheng’s canceled identity still had decades of active records, including ordinary transactions and the nonexistent address No. 66 Wutong Road.
• Song Cheng learned Yu Sheng worked as a freelance writer and ordered the Bureau to collect his writing, assess his personality, and monitor his future work without alerting him.
• Xu Jiali explained that Yu Sheng’s supposed spatial rift had apparently resulted from trying to open a door to rescue the demon fox, though the attempt had shaken the Bureau.
• Song Cheng told Li Lin and Xu Jiali to undergo examinations and take three days off while he brought Yu Sheng’s case to the higher-ups.

Song Cheng and Baili Qing discussed how to approach Yu Sheng and investigate the newly emerged Dark Angel, while Song Cheng planned to seek information aboard the train. At home, Yu Sheng prepared a room for Huli, but Eileen reminded him that No. 66 Wutong Road did not exist and deliveries would be impossible.

• Baili Qing told Song Cheng to treat Yu Sheng according to the standards for a person and preserve his human self-awareness.
• Baili Qing confirmed that the enormous Dark Angel from Nightfall Valley was new, and Song Cheng suggested Huli might know about it.
• Song Cheng received approval to ride the train and ask about Yu Sheng, with a warning to stay cautious.
• Yu Sheng and Eileen finished setting up Huli's room, and Huli happily settled into her new home.
• Yu Sheng planned to buy Huli more necessities, but Eileen pointed out that deliveries could not reach No. 66 Wutong Road because it did not exist.

Yu Sheng told Eileen he intended to seek out the Otherworld and find a place from his memories, though he promised to return. He began considering how to get involved, while Huli slept safely in her new home and Eileen refused to leave his room.

• Huli fell asleep almost immediately, and her tails knocked Eileen into a wall when she tried to tuck her in.
• Yu Sheng carried the cursing Eileen from Huli’s room and discussed his plans to actively deal with the Otherworld.
• Yu Sheng admitted that curiosity about the worlds beyond the doors drew him toward the Otherworld and that he wanted to find a place he remembered.
• Eileen worried Yu Sheng might not come back, and he promised he would return after finding the place.
• Yu Sheng and Eileen considered whether he should become a Spirit Realm Detective or investigator, and Yu Sheng wondered how to get Huli an ID.
• Eileen announced she would sleep in Yu Sheng’s room, and Yu Sheng argued with her to go back to her own.

Song Cheng entered the Otherworld train to ask Passenger 22 about Yu Sheng, No. 66 Wutong Road, and Nightfall Valley. Passenger 22 knew neither the address nor Yu Sheng, revealed that Nightfall Valley’s stop had been canceled, and Song Cheng returned to the crowded subway with a newspaper image of a gigantic eye lingering in his thoughts.

• Song Cheng used the salve-soaked parchment to pass from the crowded subway car into the strange cars of the Otherworld train.
• Song Cheng navigated the train’s numbered cars until he found Passenger 22 in Car Twenty-Two.
• Passenger 22 said the train had no stop at No. 66 Wutong Road and directed Song Cheng to the Storyteller for information about Yu Sheng.
• Passenger 22 said a traveler had left Nightfall Valley, but its stop had been canceled; Song Cheng saw a newspaper headline, “After the Feast,” showing a gigantic eye above a valley.
• Passenger 22 asked about the weather, and Song Cheng warned him that rain had started after noticing water on his briefcase.
• Song Cheng returned to the ordinary crowded subway as it slowed into a station.

Yu Sheng woke to Eileen’s demands and Huli’s nervous waiting, then prepared to take the fox girl shopping. After Huli revealed that her ears were detachable and transformed to look like a local of Boundary City, Yu Sheng remained unsure what to make of her unusual abilities.

• Yu Sheng combed Eileen’s hair after she complained that she could not manage the oversized comb.
• Yu Sheng noticed that he felt healthier and more hopeful than he had in months.
• Yu Sheng found Huli waiting nervously outside his bedroom and told her he would take her shopping.
• Huli removed her ears and hid them with her tails, startling Yu Sheng and Eileen.
• Huli explained her transformation training and changed her hair and eyes to resemble Yu Sheng’s.

Yu Sheng welcomed Huli into his home and prepared to take her and Eileen outside, discovering more about Huli’s tails along the way. At the Special Operations Bureau, Song Cheng reported that Passenger 22 said Nightfall Valley’s station had been canceled, prompting Baili Qing to order an immediate deep dive.

• Huli eagerly ate her first hot meal at Yu Sheng’s table, and Eileen offered her untouched portion.
• Yu Sheng improvised outdoor clothes for Huli, while Eileen persuaded him to let her come along disguised as an ordinary doll.
• Huli explained that her refined tails had different uses and stored Eileen’s painting frame in one of them.
• Song Cheng told Baili Qing that Passenger 22 had said the Nightfall Valley station was canceled.
• Baili Qing ordered a deep-diver to carry out a deep dive immediately.

Yu Sheng took Huli and Eileen out to buy clothes, while Huli described her strange, star-traveling homeland and its spirit-powered vehicles. When Yu Sheng struggled to figure out how to choose clothes for Huli, he ran into Little Red Riding Hood, who agreed to help in exchange for a favor later.

• Yu Sheng guided Huli through Boundary City and explained that its cars were not living spirits like the vehicles in her homeland.
• Huli recalled that a powerful Heavenly Being had enlightened her people, and that her father worked on star routes and piloted a starship.
• Eileen urged Yu Sheng to focus on finding Huli proper clothes before his challenge.
• Yu Sheng spotted Little Red Riding Hood outside a shopping mall and asked her to help choose clothes for Huli.
• Little Red Riding Hood agreed to help, but asked Yu Sheng to do something for her later.

Yu Sheng helped Little Red Riding Hood replace homework destroyed by a physical entity while she took Huli shopping. Meanwhile, Song Cheng and Baili Qing sent deep divers into a deep-dive zone to investigate Nightfall Valley, but the divers returned after encountering a passage filled with comprehensive exam questions.

• Little Red Riding Hood asked Yu Sheng to copy a math exam after a physical entity tore up her completed homework, and he agreed while lending her money to shop with Huli.
• Yu Sheng told Huli to stay with Little Red Riding Hood and use Eileen to contact him if anything happened.
• Song Cheng met Baili Qing at the D2 Submergence Port, where six armed deep divers prepared to enter the Spirit Realm using the submergence equipment.
• The deep divers disappeared into the pale-blue tanks, but technicians detected contamination and triggered an emergency stop that brought them back.
• One deep diver reported that the passage ended in a beam of light and contained no Nightfall Valley, only comprehensive exam questions.

After a disastrous Deep Divers mission left the Special Operations Bureau unable to explain what had contaminated its operatives, Baili Qing decided not to contact Yu Sheng in person. Yu Sheng was nevertheless confronted by Baili Qing when the café around him transformed into an endless, colorless space.

• Song Cheng and Baili Qing watched support staff treat six Deep Divers, and Baili Qing concluded that the math problem they mentioned was probably only an impression of the real source of contamination.
• Baili Qing told Song Cheng not to contact Yu Sheng.
• Yu Sheng copied high school test papers in a café while Eileen reported that she and Little Red Riding Hood were shopping with Huli.
• The café became silent and stretched endlessly into white fog as indistinct shadows moved outside its windows.
• Baili Qing appeared across from Yu Sheng, introduced herself as Director of the Special Operations Bureau, and noticed that he was copying math problems.

Yu Sheng met Special Operations Bureau director Baili Qing, who explained that his door-opening had caused disturbances across the Crossroads and asked him to register and limit its use. She also described the Bureau’s role and vast jurisdiction, and Yu Sheng’s next question was whether there was only one Boundary City.

• Yu Sheng asked Baili Qing why the Bureau’s director had personally come to meet him, and she said his life between the Otherworld and the Crossroads made his circumstances unusual.
• Yu Sheng opened a door to demonstrate his ability, but Baili Qing stopped him and explained that each opening triggered a temporal fluctuation detected across the Crossroads.
• Baili Qing asked Yu Sheng to reduce or report frequent door openings and offered to register him under a legal identity while adjusting the Bureau’s monitoring; Yu Sheng agreed and asked about the Bureau.
• Baili Qing explained that the Special Operations Bureau served the Council as the Crossroads’ highest authority over supernatural affairs and protected the city from threats arriving through the network of routes connecting countless places.
• Baili Qing told Yu Sheng that at least ten of his more than one hundred rifts had led to locations billions of light-years away, and Yu Sheng asked whether there was only one Boundary City.

Yu Sheng told Baili Qing about the ordinary seaside city he remembered, which resembled Boundary City, and she used her ability to see his memories. He also learned that Alice’s Cabin was an ancient, powerful faction, leaving him to reconsider Eileen’s claims about her origins.

• Yu Sheng asked whether another Boundary City could exist, and Baili Qing explained that the Crossroads and Terra were believed to have no mirrors.
• Yu Sheng described the ordinary seaside city he had seen and told Baili Qing he wanted to find it.
• Baili Qing touched Yu Sheng’s temple and used her ability to view his memories; the café briefly collapsed as an aftereffect.
• Baili Qing confirmed she had seen the city and said it might exist, promising Yu Sheng he would be the first to know if she found it.
• Yu Sheng asked about Alice’s Cabin, and Baili Qing explained that it was an independent faction whose ancient members served the Ancient Holy Spirit Alice.
• Yu Sheng told Baili Qing that Eileen claimed to belong to Alice’s Dolls, then awkwardly acknowledged that Eileen’s small size was due to another accident.

Yu Sheng asked Baili Qing to help find Eileen and Huli’s origins and arrange identification for the people he had rescued. He learned what official registration could offer and considered becoming an investigator, while Baili Qing explained the requirements for investigators and registered organizations.

• Baili Qing explained how Alice's Dolls communicated with The Crossroads and agreed to ask them about Eileen.
• Yu Sheng asked Baili Qing to help arrange ID cards for Huli and Eileen, and to search for Huli’s homeland based on her memories.
• Baili Qing said the Special Operations Bureau might not have records matching Huli’s account, but agreed to look into it.
• Baili Qing described the benefits of registering as an investigator, including information services, support facilities, legal recognition, and travel permits.
• Yu Sheng asked about investigator qualifications, and Baili Qing explained the requirements for Independent Investigators, Spirit Realm Detectives, and registered organizations.

Yu Sheng met Baili Qing, chief of the Special Operations Bureau, who agreed to arrange registrations for him, Eileen, and Huli and urged him to check on Nightfall Valley. After his friends returned from shopping, Baili Qing returned to bureau headquarters and summoned Song Cheng and Luo Zheng.

• Yu Sheng asked Baili Qing to register a group with Eileen and Huli, and she said she would arrange their identity cards and paperwork.
• Baili Qing told Yu Sheng that Nightfall Valley’s condition was unknown and suggested he investigate if his door could still reach it.
• After Baili Qing vanished from the café, Yu Sheng resumed Little Red Riding Hood’s homework and worried about Nightfall Valley.
• Little Red Riding Hood and Huli returned with new clothes and shopping bags, with Eileen resentfully trapped inside one of them.
• Yu Sheng told Little Red Riding Hood that Baili Qing had visited him, and she was shocked that the bureau chief had come in person.
• At Special Operations Bureau headquarters, Baili Qing summoned Song Cheng and Luo Zheng to her office.

Baili Qing showed Song Cheng and Luo Zheng a vision of another Boundary City that Yu Sheng had described, raising questions about his unusual perception and identity. She ordered the Second Brigade to support matters involving Yu Sheng and No. 66 Wutong Road, including arranging legal identities for his companions and helping him register as a Spirit Realm Detective.

• Baili Qing sealed her office and showed Song Cheng and Luo Zheng the crimson-lit city Yu Sheng believed was another Boundary City.
• Luo Zheng suggested the vision was an Otherworld, while Baili Qing said it might instead be an Anomaly formed from memory or story.
• Song Cheng concluded that Yu Sheng perceived a different world, and Baili Qing said he seemed human and had adapted well to their world.
• Baili Qing told Song Cheng to assign the Second Brigade to matters involving Yu Sheng and No. 66 Wutong Road.
• Baili Qing said Yu Sheng wanted legal identities for his two companions and to register as a Spirit Realm Detective, so Song Cheng was to find someone suitable to handle it.