Chapter Summaries

Lin Yu followed Jue as she headed through the forest, hoping she would delay Nian, but grew suspicious when she abruptly jumped into a hidden passage. Old Zheng suggested that Jue’s strange behavior might simply mean something was wrong with her head.

• Lin Yu followed Jue, reasoning that her hidden abilities might help her cause trouble for Nian.
• Jue navigated the forest and swamp without hesitation, then uncovered a concealed passage beneath the roots of a dead tree.
• Jue jumped into the passage, and Lin Yu paused outside, puzzled by her reckless behavior.
• Lin Yu woke Old Zheng and asked him to analyze why Jue had acted so strangely.
• Old Zheng jokingly proposed that Nian and Jue were allies plotting against Lin Yu, then concluded that Jue might simply have something wrong with her head.

Lin Yu asked Old Zheng to assess Jue’s strange behavior, and Old Zheng tentatively suggested mania or bipolar disorder. When Jue’s battle with Nian shook the ground and sent Nian flying, Lin Yu realized he had a chance to kill him.

• Lin Yu asked Old Zheng what was wrong with Jue, and Old Zheng described her rapid self-talk and emotional fluctuations as possible mania or bipolar disorder.
• Lin Yu doubted that mania explained Jue’s habitual deception and decided her behavior had a hidden purpose he had yet to discover.
• The ground trembled and split as Jue fought Nian, impressing Lin Yu with her strength and making him believe he could kill Nian.
• Nian burst out of the ground with his black cat and shouted at “May May,” and Lin Yu realized Nian had mistaken him for someone else.

Lin Yu realized that Nian had mistaken Jue for him, and considered how the misunderstanding could benefit his other identities. Jue wounded Nian in a series of feints and prepared to continue fighting after recognizing him as the detective.

• Lin Yu reasoned that Nian had inferred his multiple occupational abilities and that Nian's misidentification could boost Heavenly Artisan's reputation among the Marauders.
• Nian landed safely after Jue knocked him off balance, but she attacked again with an explosion of earth and rocks as a feint.
• Jue's thrown longsword cut Nian's cheek, and she stabbed him in the lower back while he was distracted.
• Nian accused Jue of using a false name and insisted she was Lin Yu, but Jue said she would have to kill him now that he knew too much.
• Jue summoned sixteen weapons with Sword Control Technique and identified Nian as the criminal consultant and detective.
• Jue judged Nian's combat ability unimpressive despite his reputation.

Jue and Nian fought at the Glory Festival while Lin Yu watched with Old Zheng explaining their abilities. Jue revealed the [Fish Eye] and [Penrose Shape] combination, leaving Nian facing increasingly disorienting Flying Swords.

• Jue and Nian struck at the same time, as Jue sent seventeen Flying Swords toward Nian and his Nightmare Manifestation deflected them.
• Old Zheng identified Jue’s Sword Control Technique as a skill from the Gray Domain and described Nian’s ties to Night Valley and the Nightmare race.
• Old Zheng explained that neither fighter had used a [Tier 2] ability, an [Advancement Item], or Nian’s [Exclusive item] yet.
• Jue produced [Fish Eye] and [Penrose Shape], and Old Zheng praised the combination and estimated her potential rating at B+.
• Jue used [Penrose Shape] to distort her Flying Swords, then used [Fish Eye] to activate [Penrose Shape] again and make the blades even more disorienting.

Lin Yu watched Jue’s [Penrose Shape] overwhelm Nian and learned that Nian might use the [Evidence Sealing Bag] to counter his opponents’ items. The fight remained undecided as Nian’s condition worsened, while Old Zheng explained that Nian’s Nightmare ability could reveal item names but could not pierce the Death game’s protection of Players.

• Jue used the [Penrose Shape] on her flying swords, making them disorient anyone who looked at or sensed them.
• Old Zheng explained that the [Penrose Shape] could interfere with sight, hearing, and Mental Power, while Lin Yu tested its effects and quickly stopped.
• Lin Yu watched Nian struggle to evade the swords as the space available to him steadily shrank.
• Old Zheng speculated that Nian had chosen the [Evidence Sealing Bag], which could temporarily seal known [Common Items] and borrow some of their functions.
• Old Zheng said Nian’s Nightmare spell could glimpse True Names, but it could not reveal the names of Players protected by the Death game.

Nian used his contract with the Glimmering Elite Nightmare to identify and disable most of Jue’s swords, apparently leaving her at a disadvantage. Lin Yu realized Jue had another trump card: she had a split personality, and she called on Zao to switch.

• Lin Yu calmed down after Old Zheng reassured him and watched Nian and Jue’s fight.
• Nian paid the Black Cat for the names of eleven swords, while Lin Yu reflected on the soul his Repaired Mist Pocket Watch demanded within twelve hours.
• The Black Cat identified the swords, and Nian used a transparent bag to remove eleven of Jue’s seventeen blades and bind the remaining six with Nightmare Substance.
• Old Zheng believed Nian had won, but Lin Yu sensed that Jue was not despairing and suspected she still had a trump card.
• Lin Yu and Old Zheng realized Jue’s abnormality was a split personality as Jue asked Zao to switch.

Nian fought Zao, the combat-focused personality who wielded a massive enchanted greatsword, while trying to survive until the Black Cat could act. Zao revealed a strange ability to combine two Monk Profession Items into one, leaving Lin Yu questioning how her personalities and professions worked.

• Zao took over from Jue and attacked Nian with an enormous cyan greatsword.
• Nian bound the sword with Nightmare Substance and sent a gray-white hand through an opening in the air to stab Zao from within.
• Zao seized the hand and prepared to retaliate with her greatsword despite her injuries.
• Old Zheng identified Zao's Profession as Monk and explained that her greatsword combined the Mystic Artifact and Scepter of Discipline.
• Lin Yu wondered how Zao's two personalities could have different professions.

Zao fought Nian with her radiant greatsword, but her five-minute limit ran out before she could defeat him. Nian’s Black Cat spread a darkness that put them both to sleep, and Lin Yu jumped into it to enter the dream as planned.

• Zao’s shining greatsword dispersed the Nightmare Substance and weakened Nian’s grayish-white hand, but Nian summoned a specter to attack her.
• Zao pressed toward Nian while Old Zheng and Lin Yu realized that her five-minute time limit meant she could not win by prolonging the fight.
• When the five minutes ended, Nian’s Black Cat spread darkness that made Zao and Nian collapse into sleep.
• Lin Yu’s attacks passed through the sleeping Nian, so he told Hannah and Old Zheng to smooth things over and jumped into the darkness himself.

Lin Yu realized Nian had activated Entering Dream to identify him, then entered the dream himself and pretended to be a stranger named Cao. He joined Jue, Zao, and Little Moss as they headed toward a light, suspecting Moss was the Main Personality.

• Lin Yu reasoned that Nian had been holding back and had activated Entering Dream to confirm whether his opponent was Lin Yu.
• Lin Yu entered the altered dream and found a light coming from a pit.
• Lin Yu met Jue, Zao, and Little Moss, who appeared as separate people in the dream.
• Lin Yu introduced himself as Cao and pretended not to know that they were dreaming.
• Jue, Zao, Moss, and Lin Yu set off toward the light, while Lin Yu noticed that Moss did not seem to trust him and wondered if he was the Main Personality.

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.