Recaps

Lin Yu, Jue, Zao, and Moss reached an abandoned Mine Tunnel that Lin Yu suspected was the way out of the dream. While Zao left to search for alternatives and Jue waited, Lin Yu rejected their caution and launched the Mine Cart with Moss aboard.

• Lin Yu found an abandoned Mine Tunnel instead of the cabin and realized Nian was absent from the dream’s light source.
• Jue wanted to explore the Mine Tunnel, but Zao refused to risk bringing Moss inside and left to search elsewhere.
• Zao told Moss not to follow Jue into the tunnel if Jue entered before she returned, and Moss responded by tapping her mask.
• Jue agreed to wait for Zao, while Lin Yu argued that their caution served the people scheming against them.
• Lin Yu picked up Moss, knocked away the Mine Cart’s handle, and toppled into the cart to start it.

Lin Yu took Tai into a mine tunnel by mine cart to force a chance to negotiate and address Tai’s lack of trust. After Zao returned, she and Jue followed them in a second cart, hoping both tracks led to the same destination.

• Lin Yu launched himself and Tai into a mine cart, leaving Jue behind as they sped into the dark tunnel.
• Lin Yu assessed Tai’s calm reaction and decided to use the ride to begin negotiating before meeting Nian.
• Zao returned and learned from Jue that Lin Yu had left with Tai while she was away.
• Zao and Jue boarded the other mine cart and followed the parallel track into the tunnel.
• Jue noticed that the tunnel followed the main vein and suspected both tracks led to the same destination.

Jue and Zao were forced to play a mine-rat guessing game with a skeleton while riding through a seemingly endless tunnel. They learned the game could speed up their cart or kill them, and that the mine’s master awaited them at the tunnel’s end.

• Jue and Zao worried about the long, winding tunnel until a skeleton caught up in a hand-pumped mine cart and warned them the journey would take twelve hours.
• The skeleton summoned eight iron bowls and introduced a game called Guess the Mine Rat.
• Jue asked whether they could refuse, and the skeleton caused a section of the tunnel ceiling to collapse as a threat.
• Jue questioned the skeleton about the earlier group and the tunnel’s destination, learning the mine’s master had sent it and would play another game with them.
• The skeleton explained that losing a round could cost them their lives, while winning would double their cart’s speed, and Zao demanded the rules.

Jue and Zao played the Mine Rat Game against a skeleton on their Mine Cart, and Jue won the first round by using questions to narrow down the bowls and taking a lucky guess. Their cart accelerated, and they hurried to reach Tai and Cao before the next game.

• The skeleton explained the Mine Rat Game’s rules, and Jue told Zao that their three questions could eliminate bowls that guaranteed defeat.
• The skeleton shuffled eight bowls at high speed, and Jue learned that Bowls Seven and Eight held three rats while Bowls Two and Three had the same total.
• Jue asked the difference between Bowls Two and One, learned it was two, and chose the empty Bowl One to win the round.
• The skeleton’s hand sped up the lever and its cart pushed Jue and Zao’s cart forward, cutting their journey time.
• Jue urged Zao to hurry because Tai and Cao might already be at the level’s end and the next game might not suit Tai.

Jue and Zao reached the rest room after winning the mine-rat game through Zao’s ability to hear which bowls were empty. Lin Yu explained his own puzzle-solving strategy, and the chapter ended with the mysterious cloaked figure arriving by luxurious train.

• Jue and Zao won the second game by using Zao’s hearing to identify the empty bowls and deceive the skeleton.
• Jue and Zao’s mine cart raced through the tunnel and stopped in the rest room, where they found Lin Yu and Moss.
• Lin Yu explained the wordplay-based strategy he had used to solve the bowl game and admitted he had not considered cheating.
• Zao explained how she and Jue had used the sounds of the mine rats to narrow down which bowls were empty.
• A cloaked figure stepped out of a red-doored train, and Lin Yu recognized them as the real one.

Nian drew Lin Yu and the others into a dream and proposed a game of 21 points, claiming he had been asked to test their mettle rather than harm them. He explained the dream’s limits and laid out special rules for Blackjack, leaving the group to begin a game where two wins meant escape and two losses meant answering his question.

• Nian approached Lin Yu, Zao, Jue, and Moss and said he had expected to invite only one person, whom he was trying to find.
• Jue challenged Nian about entering the instance to search for someone, while Zao rejected Nian’s offer to reconcile.
• Nian said he had been asked to test their mettle and explained that nightmare dreams had limits, including an exit and a reachable true body.
• Nian proposed a card game in which winners could leave the dream and losers would answer one question.
• Moss agreed to play 21 points, and Nian explained special rules requiring two wins to escape or two losses to answer his question.

Lin Yu played blackjack against Jue, Zao, Moss, and Nian while trying to convince Nian that the others were his personalities. As Zao continued drawing despite showing 14 points, Lin Yu suspected that he and Jue were cheating.

• Lin Yu received a J and a 9, stood at 19, and planned to use the game to mislead Nian about the others being his personalities.
• Jue refused another card despite showing a 7, surprising both Lin Yu and Nian.
• Zao drew a 5 and then a 6, leaving his visible total at 14, and asked to draw again.
• Lin Yu reconsidered Jue and Zao's earlier conversation and suspected they were cheating.

Lin Yu realized that Zao, Jue, and Tai were secretly sharing their hole cards and worked to uncover their method before the round ended. He identified their breathing as a subtle code for conveying information, but still needed to join their cheating without alerting Nian.

• Lin Yu inferred that Zao, Jue, and Tai were sharing their hole cards through a covert method.
• Lin Yu reasoned that he had to discover their method and cheat alongside them before Nian noticed the scheme.
• Lin Yu reviewed the players’ movements and remarks, ruling out hand signals and spoken words as the source of their communication.
• Lin Yu noticed Jue had unusually stayed silent during the suspected communication and realized the players were using patterned breathing sounds to share information.

Lin Yu decoded the breathing signals Jue and Tai had used to communicate their hidden cards, then joined their card exchange to protect himself from answering Nian’s question. The revealed cards showed that Lin Yu and Jue each had 18 points, while Zao’s original hidden card was an Ace.

• Lin Yu realized Jue and Tai had used short and long exhalations as Morse code to signal their cards.
• Tai chose not to draw, and Nian drew a Plum Blossom 4, bringing his visible total to 13 before offering a card exchange.
• Lin Yu signaled the number 9 through his own breathing, and Jue, Zao, Lin Yu, and Tai agreed to exchange hidden cards.
• Zao exchanged cards with Jue, while Lin Yu exchanged his card with Tai, receiving an 8.
• Lin Yu revealed the 8 and reached 18 points, then Jue revealed an Ace, which surprised Lin Yu because it had originally belonged to Zao.

Lin Yu recognized that Nian’s card-exchange game was testing the group, then joined a new round and deliberately changed the team’s exchange strategy by busting. He left Zao and Jue stunned as he revealed his loss.

• Lin Yu realized Zao’s ace could be exchanged with Jue’s two, and concluded that Nian was using the game to test their tacit understanding.
• Nian revealed a 17-point hand and lost the round to the four players, who then began another deal.
• Lin Yu received a 6 and a 7, while Jue had a 9 and a 3, Zao had two ten-value cards, and Tai had a 2 and an ace.
• Lin Yu took a card despite the team’s potential exchange plan, then drew a 7 that brought his hand to 23 points.
• Lin Yu announced that he had busted and revealed his hole card, leaving Zao and Jue stunned.

Lin Yu deliberately lost a round of blackjack to improve Zao, Jue, and Moss's chances of winning, and Zao and Jue were sent away after beating Nian. Left with Moss, Lin Yu learned that she wanted Nian to question her because his questions would reveal information to her as well.

• Lin Yu declared himself busted to avoid exchanging his cards and help the others win, while also using the move to test Nian.
• Jue, Zao, and Moss declined to draw cards, and Nian stopped at eighteen points after drawing a 7.
• Zao won with BlackJack and Jue won with nineteen points, while Moss and Lin Yu lost; Nian sent Zao and Jue away.
• Nian warned Lin Yu and Moss that another loss would force their shells to answer a question, and Moss agreed to continue.
• Moss told Nian she hoped he would question her because hearing his question would give her information too.

Nian exposed Lin Yu as a later-arriving participant who had been cheating at the card game, then forced him to reveal that he and the other three soul entities were not the same person. Nian left Lin Yu defeated and identified him as the real Lin Yu.

• Lin Yu and moss played another round of cards after Jue and Zao were gone, and moss signaled Lin Yu to stop cheating in Morse code.
• Nian won the round with a Blackjack, while Lin Yu held 19 points and moss busted with 22.
• Nian demanded the players' ID Numbers; moss said he had none, and Nian addressed Lin Yu by name and asked whether he and the other three soul entities were the same person.
• Unable to lie under the dreamscape's Rule, Lin Yu admitted they were not the same person and asked how Nian had figured it out.
• Nian explained that Lin Yu's deliberate teamwork and willingness to sacrifice himself exposed the cheating, then called him the real Lin Yu.

Nian deduced that Moss was Lin Yu and explained how Lin Yu had used acting, false identities, and deliberate misdirection to evade him. Lin Yu’s plan succeeded when Moss’s response convinced Nian that he had uncovered the truth, leaving Lin Yu’s deception intact.

• Nian recounted Lin Yu’s acting history and concluded that Lin Yu’s original forum ID was Director.
• Nian explained that Lin Yu had altered his appearance, created false identities, and used a summon to divert suspicion while planning to clear the dungeon.
• Moss told Nian that his analysis was wrong in one direction and one detail, while admitting that his acting could fail.
• Nian took Moss’s words as confirmation that Moss was Lin Yu and called him by name.
• Lin Yu recalled persuading Moss to cooperate and revealed that the layered deception had successfully fooled Nian.

Lin Yu watched Tai negotiate with Nian and secure a three-month contract that protected Tai while requiring him to answer questions about Order. The agreement left Lin Yu hopeful that Tai could keep deceiving Nian and help them survive the Instance.

• Lin Yu relied on his experience dealing with clever people as Tai let Nian reason toward a negotiation.
• Nian offered to stop the Marauders from hunting Tai and proposed three Dream Sanctuaries and an Abyssal Contract in exchange for information about Order.
• Tai demanded tangible benefits and guarantees, then reviewed the contract’s terms with Lin Yu.
• Nian and Tai signed the contract, binding them to three months of cooperation under threat of the Abyssal Lord’s punishment.
• Lin Yu concluded that Tai’s deal could keep Nian deceived and weaken him through the Items he had spent.

After escaping the dream, Nian and Jue met Lin Yu disguised as Rakshasa, and he used the belief surrounding his fabricated legend to make the Rakshasa’s immense body real. Lin Yu prepared to fight Nian before the arbiter arrived.

• Nian and Jue woke at the Glory Festival grounds, and Nian agreed to pay the Black Cat after they returned.
• Nian and Jue prepared to part ways, but Lin Yu appeared disguised as Rakshasa and stopped them.
• Lin Yu planned to kill Nian before he discovered the dream deception and realized the Abyssal Contract would not protect Lin Yu.
• Lin Yu sensed the power of the Rakshasa becoming real and faced Nian, who drew a golden-eye necklace.
• Hannah used Illusion Ink to outline a massive crimson figure, and Lin Yu made it real through the crowd’s belief and took control of its body.

Moro transformed into a gigantic rakshasa and threw Jue to safety, but then attacked Nian, insisting that the Glory Festival demanded a fight between the strongest. Jue landed among three barbarians and robbed them for meat and loot, while Nian faced Moro alone.

• Moro rose in his enormous rakshasa form, and Nian judged that the creature's size and strength made him a dangerous opponent.
• Jue recognized Moro and tried to persuade him to let her go, so Moro grabbed her and hurled her away from the battlefield.
• Jue slowed her fall with her Flying Swords, landed safely, and robbed three barbarians of their meat and loot.
• Nian asked Moro whether he could leave too, but Moro said he had sought Nian out because he was the strongest participant.
• Moro stomped at Nian and declared that the strong had to fight until their blood ran dry for the Glory Festival.

Lin Yu launched a relentless attack on Nian, using a giant axe and his four arms to drive him into a desperate position. Nian revealed his [Exclusive item], [Method of Comprehending Vision and Deduction], and prepared to fight back.

• Lin Yu chose to trust Moss and committed himself to killing Nian at any cost.
• Lin Yu struck at Nian with a massive axe, sending him tumbling through the trees and rubble with the impact.
• Lin Yu followed with a two-fisted attack, but Nian used the Nightmare Substance as a net to absorb and deflect much of the force.
• Lin Yu tore through Nian's makeshift defense and cornered him with his fists and axe.
• Nian revealed his [Exclusive item], [Method of Comprehending Vision and Deduction], and said Lin Yu would be its fourth victim.

Lin Yu fought Nian, whose Method of Comprehending Vision and Deduction let him use a Goat Demon skull and explosive tactics with uncanny precision. Lin Yu realized the golden eye could gather information and deduce likely outcomes, and he turned his attack toward it.

• Lin Yu attacked Nian with his great ax and fist, but Nian used an explosive and the surrounding terrain to make both attacks miss.
• Nian summoned a Goat Demon skull, and Old Zheng warned that its gas could corrode and explode.
• The skull fired a barrage of gas spheres that exploded around Lin Yu, badly injuring his neck and face.
• Lin Yu uprooted a tree and hurled it at the golden eye in the sky, identifying it as the source of Nian's dangerous predictions.
• Lin Yu deduced that the Method of Comprehending Vision and Deduction gathered information in an area and calculated possible outcomes.

Lin Yu tried to find a way to disable Nian’s powerful Exclusive item, Method of Comprehending Vision and Deduction, and realized its pendant might be hidden against Nian’s chest. He sent Hannah to steal it while he kept Nian’s item busy with relentless attacks.

• Lin Yu’s tree passed through the golden eyes, so he deduced that the item’s physical medium was likely the pendant concealed at the center of Nian’s chest.
• Lin Yu called Hannah and ordered her to approach Nian in disguise and steal the pendant while he distracted the item.
• Nian confirmed that his eye calculated the actions needed to achieve his goals and boasted about its power.
• Lin Yu declared that he would overwhelm the item with calculations, then charged through Nian’s scarlet gas and attacked repeatedly to increase its workload.

Lin Yu pushed Nian’s [Method of Comprehending Vision and Deduction] to its limits by relentlessly attacking in his Demon form. Nian revealed a fusion of Nightmare Substance and his [Exclusive item], leaving Lin Yu relieved that his tactic had worked.

• Lin Yu accelerated his attacks, forcing Nian to use increasingly complex maneuvers to dodge.
• Lin Yu concluded that Nian’s [Method of Comprehending Vision and Deduction] had limits and could not overcome an impossible situation.
• Lin Yu endured severe corrosion and injury while continuing to attack Nian with relentless force.
• Lin Yu broke through the blood mist and shattered the goat’s head before striking at Nian.
• Nian used hidden Nightmare Substance fused with his [Exclusive item] to lift himself into the air, and Lin Yu realized Nian had fallen for his tactic.

Lin Yu used the blood stored in his [Water Prayer Necklace] to launch a powerful ranged attack after Nian’s aerial mobility and Nightmare Substance overwhelmed him. The blood flood collided with Nian’s barrier above the Glory Festival, leaving their battle unresolved.

• Lin Yu recognized that Nian had combined the Nightmare Substance with [Method of Comprehending Vision and Deduction] to improve his movement and mobility.
• Lin Yu leaped at Nian with his great axe, but Nian rose out of reach and stabbed Lin Yu with Nightmare Substance tentacles.
• Nian recovered the cracked Goat Skull and began charging another scarlet energy sphere as he prepared to finish Lin Yu.
• Lin Yu condensed the blood he had stored with the [Water Prayer Necklace] and sent a flood of blood and steel-hard blood blades toward Nian.
• Nian detonated his energy sphere and formed a triangular Nightmare Substance barrier to meet the blood attack, while Jue watched from a distance and said she was glad she had run away.

Lin Yu wore down Nian's defenses with a flood of blood while secretly creating the conditions for Hannah to reach him. Hannah stole the golden eye pendant, weakening Nian, and Lin Yu's renewed attack sent him falling from the sky.

• Lin Yu and Nian's clash of blood and Nightmare Substance drew the attention of contestants, judges, and members of the Ten Great Tribes.
• Lin Yu kept attacking Nian's shield with blood, sensing that Nian was nearing his limit even as Lin Yu's Mental Power dwindled.
• Nian withdrew his Nightmare Substance and unleashed a crimson, gold-threaded mass that exploded when it touched Lin Yu's blood.
• Lin Yu used Rain Prayer to intensify the downpour and suspended the raindrops, giving Hannah a watery path to Nian.
• Hannah snatched the golden eye pendant from Nian's chest and escaped into the curtain of water as Lin Yu blocked Nian with blood.
• The pendant's golden threads receded, and Nian fell from the sky in disbelief.

Lin Yu defeated Nian, but Nian escaped into Night Valley through his Nightmare and could no longer act as a Player. After Lin Yu gained the power of a Rakshasa, Jiang Rong, the Glory Festival’s arbiter, arrived and asked him to withdraw from the competition.

• Lin Yu ignored Nian’s attempt to speak and struck him down, but Nightmare formed a black cat and escaped through a passage after Nian’s apparent death.
• Old Zheng explained that Nian had preserved his consciousness and soul, transformed part of himself into a Nightmare, and returned to Night Valley under the Abyssal Contract.
• Lin Yu accepted that Nian could no longer act as a Player and took comfort in having gained the power of a Rakshasa.
• Jiang Rong introduced himself as the Glory Festival’s arbiter and asked Lin Yu to withdraw from the competition.

Jiang Rong asked Lin Yu to withdraw from the Glory Festival, arguing that the veteran Rakshasa’s strength would undermine its purpose as a contest between young warriors. Lin Yu refused to quit and insisted on finishing the competition, so Jiang Rong proposed awarding him points for his battle and ending the festival early.

• Jiang Rong explained that the Glory Festival had become a contest for young warriors chosen by their tribes, and that renowned veterans were barred by an unwritten rule.
• Lin Yu revealed that he had no intention of reviving the Rakshasa Race or challenging the peoples who now inhabited its lands, but refused to abandon the competition.
• Jiang Rong admitted that he represented the Ten Great Tribes and had approached Lin Yu to ensure his safety, while Lin Yu insisted that no one could order him to withdraw.
• Jiang Rong offered to declare Lin Yu the festival’s strongest contestant based on his recent victory and award him extra points for an outstanding battle.
• Lin Yu refused to finish early because he had not collected enough spoils of war, and Jiang Rong said he could add a rule granting extra points for exceptional battles.

After refusing Jiang Rong’s offer to fight, Lin Yu secured the Glory Festival championship while concealing how weakened he was. He told Jiang Rong that Shuo was hiding somewhere in the venue, then accepted an invitation to watch the festival with representatives of the Ten Great Tribes.

• Lin Yu refused to fight Jiang Rong, explaining that Jiang Rong should wait until after his expected breakthrough so he would not be influenced by Lin Yu’s fighting style.
• Jiang Rong acknowledged Lin Yu’s insight and escorted him out of the venue, saying he was all but certain to win the championship.
• Jiang Rong told Lin Yu that Shuo was believed to be alive and asked what had happened to it.
• Lin Yu admitted that he had let Shuo escape and said it was hiding somewhere in the venue because he had chosen to help it.
• Jiang Rong said he would search for Shuo and invited Lin Yu to watch the rest of the festival with the Ten Great Tribes’ representatives.