Chapter Summaries

Yuan Shan and Su Gao killed Old Man Embo after his power suddenly weakened, ending his threat to Selena and the Gullard Family. Fu Qian concealed his role in Embo’s collapse, suggested the Blood Clan Progenitor might be compromised, and left with Su Gao as Grantham was left to face Yuan Shan.

• Su Gao wounded Embo, and Yuan Shan’s black spears destroyed his bat escape before she sliced apart his head and killed him.
• Grantham worried about the Gullard Family’s fate as Selena recovered, watched the red moonlight fade, and left without addressing him.
• Yuan Shan asked Fu Qian why Embo’s rank had fallen, and Fu Qian claimed his words had frightened Embo and suggested the Progenitor might be unstable.
• Yuan Shan thanked Fu Qian and Su Gao, then Fu Qian left after remarking to Grantham that keeping things balanced was hard.
• Su Gao followed Fu Qian, while Yuan Shan gave Grantham a cold glance and left without speaking to him.

After resolving the crisis at Embo's estate, Fu Qian returned to the bookstore and began a new containment mission. He found himself trapped inside a spiked Iron Maiden as someone outside announced his death sentence.

• Fu Qian and Su Gao left Embo's estate after the Night Watchers arrived, and Fu Qian asked Su Gao how she felt about fighting a demigod.
• Fu Qian and Su Gao returned to the bookstore, where Su Gao went upstairs to sleep and Fu Qian opened the shop for business.
• Fu Qian began a new Warehouse mission called Virtue, which placed him among five college students vacationing at an old house in a southern town.
• Fu Qian discovered that he was trapped in a dark, enclosed, spike-filled metal device and suspected it was an Iron Maiden.
• A sinister voice outside declared that the jury had sentenced Fu Qian to death.

Fu Qian escaped a prank in an unused Iron Maiden and learned that he was staying at a mountain compound with four other young people. When three of them returned from shopping in a small red car, their lifeless silence struck him as deeply unusual.

• Fu Qian stayed silent as a young woman pretended to begin an execution, then reassured her that he was fine when she opened the Iron Maiden.
• Fu Qian left the moldy basement with the girl, who told him Cartman and two others had gone shopping.
• Fu Qian explored the compound and saw that it stood on a mountain near a cluster of rooftops.
• A small red car returned with Cartman and two others, and Fu Qian noticed that all three seemed lifeless and unusually downcast.

Fu Qian investigated the strange group at Lei’s family house while continuing his mission to find Lasik. After he revealed an Iron Maiden in the basement, Cartman faced pressure to climb inside it himself.

• Fu Qian received a mission to find Lasik as Jessica reunited with Cartman and Lei, who had returned from town with unusually synchronized movements.
• Fu Qian learned that Cartman and Jessica were a couple, Lei owned the house, and Fran was Jessica’s friend.
• Fu Qian told Lei that he had found an old torture device downstairs, making Lei, Cartman, and Jessica react tensely.
• Lei led the group to the basement, where they found an Iron Maiden that Lei said he knew nothing about.
• Fu Qian said he had climbed inside the Iron Maiden, and Cartman struggled with whether to try it himself.

Fu Qian and the others visited Lei’s aunt and her husband, the local sheriff, for dinner, hoping to learn more about the area. After dinner, Mr. Jones returned from an urgent call and confronted Fu Qian with a question about a fatal car accident.

• Fu Qian asked Lei whether he knew Lasik, but Lei and the others had never heard of him.
• Lei told the group that his aunt had invited them to dinner and that her husband was the local sheriff.
• Lei drove everyone to his aunt’s home, where Mr. Jones greeted them and joined them for dinner.
• Mr. Jones received a call, left during dinner, and returned after the meal while Fu Qian waited outside.
• Mr. Jones offered Fu Qian a cigarette and asked whether he had hit and killed someone with his car.

Sheriff Jones suspected Fu Qian of running over Mrs. Harold and insisted he stay at the Jones home overnight. The next morning, after Mrs. Harold was confirmed missing, Jones recruited Fu Qian and the others to help search for her.

• Jones confronted Fu Qian with his suspicions, citing the group's guilty behavior and their unusually clean car, then told him to stay the night.
• Jones announced that Mrs. Harold had gone missing, and Cartman, Fran, and the others reluctantly accepted the offer to stay at his house.
• Fu Qian chose not to flee and planned to use Jones's suspicion to steer him toward Lasik.
• A younger officer arrived the next morning, and Fu Qian met Mr. Harold, who confirmed that his wife had not returned.
• Jones recruited Fu Qian and the others as volunteers to search for Mrs. Harold, then called Fu Qian over to ride in his car.

Fu Qian accompanied Sheriff Jones and the others to investigate suspicious skid marks on the mountain road, where they followed a trail to a covered grave. The grave was empty, leaving Jones and the group with unexplained signs of a possible cover-up.

• Fu Qian rode beside Harold as Jones directed the group up the mountain, where Harold appeared uneasy.
• Jones stopped at fresh skid marks, and Fu Qian pointed out a snapped branch nearby.
• Jones led the group through trampled vegetation to a clearing covered with freshly cut branches.
• The young officer removed the branches and found an empty, old grave with no other traces around it.
• Fu Qian suggested that they would need more volunteers to continue the search.

Sheriff Jones and the others found Mrs. Harold’s abandoned car on an old, blocked road, but the evidence left it unclear whether she had been abducted there or had fled an attack. Jones warned the volunteers that the mountain might be dangerous and offered them a place to stay, but Lei declined, so Jones decided to escort them back first.

• Jones led the group onto a narrow, old road and found Mrs. Harold’s yellow car abandoned by a rubble-blocked section.
• A young officer concluded that Mrs. Harold might have been attacked and taken from the car, while Harold said he did not know where she had gone.
• Fu Qian questioned whether Mrs. Harold could plausibly have taken the deserted road by mistake, and Jones agreed that her actions seemed suspicious.
• Jones warned Cartman and the others that the mountain might not be safe and offered them shelter, but Lei declined.
• Jones decided to escort the volunteers back before they continued up the mountain.

Fu Qian watched Sheriff Jones investigate Harold and the old house while quietly steering him toward the name Lasik. After the others returned to their rooms, Fran told Fu Qian that Jessica had gone missing.

• Jones questioned Harold about where he had been the previous day, but Harold said he had stayed home and had no one to confirm it.
• Jones searched the old house, including its basement, while Lei explained that Fran had kept the place tidy and mentioned Fu Qian climbing into the Iron Maiden.
• Jones confronted Fu Qian about why he was at the house and asked who Lasik was, but Fu Qian dismissed his question as a whim.
• Jones left with his deputy and Harold, and Fu Qian reflected that he had planted Lasik's name to make Jones investigate it.
• Fran knocked on Fu Qian's door and told him that Jessica was missing.

Fran told Fu Qian that Jessica had vanished along with her personal belongings, and she wondered whether the disappearance was connected to Mrs. Harold's absence. Lei and Cartman arrived at Fu Qian's door and proposed searching the building for Jessica before contacting Sheriff Jones.

• Fran told Fu Qian that Jessica and Cartman were missing from their room, but Jessica's belongings were gone and Fran could not reach her.
• Fran suggested that Jessica's disappearance might be connected to Mrs. Harold's disappearance and asked whether they should tell Sheriff Jones.
• Fu Qian opened the door and found Lei and Cartman listening outside; Cartman said Jessica was missing, too.
• Lei proposed searching the building before calling Sheriff Jones, and Fu Qian agreed.

Fu Qian led Lei, Fran, and Cartman through the abandoned sections of the mountainside buildings to search for Jessica. In the basement they found a recently opened hidden passage, and Cartman reluctantly went down first.

• Fu Qian persuaded Lei, Fran, and Cartman to search the unvisited buildings rather than head straight down the mountain.
• The group crossed into a dusty, neglected section, where Fu Qian suggested checking the basement in case Jessica had entered from another route.
• Fu Qian led them downstairs and found a passage leading deeper beneath the building.
• The group noticed fresh marks showing that the hidden door had recently been opened, raising the possibility that Jessica had gone inside.
• Fu Qian handed Cartman the lantern, and Cartman reluctantly stepped into the passage first.

Fu Qian led Cartman, Lei, and Fran through a hidden passage where they found signs that someone had searched several rooms, then guided them through the forest to Sheriff Jones. The chapter ended with Fu Qian asking Jones for news about Lasik.

• Fu Qian spotted a concealed side passage, and the group found a storage room whose shelves showed someone had recently searched it.
• The group discovered more searched areas and exited through a hidden door into a forest, where Fran found signs someone had passed through.
• Fran suggested finding Sheriff Jones, and Fu Qian led the group toward a black stone path by following the sound of a dog barking.
• Fu Qian met Sheriff Jones, who had brought a police dog to help find people, and asked whether Jones had news about Lasik.

Fu Qian and his companions told Sheriff Jones that Jessica had gone missing and led him to the underground passage connecting the mountain to the roadside. Jones shared a lead on Lasik, then took Fu Qian with him as he continued investigating.

• Fu Qian noticed Jones react to Lasik's name and asked what Jones knew about him.
• Fran told Jones that Jessica was missing, and Cartman explained that the group had found an underground passage from the mountain.
• Jones inspected the passage's exit, learned that someone had recently used it, and told Fran and the others to stay at his home.
• Jones revealed that a traffic ticket for excessive speeding had been issued to someone using Lasik's name, but the officer who issued it could not remember the driver's appearance.
• Mrs. Mary said she had not known about the passage, and Jones brought Fu Qian along when he left to investigate.

Fu Qian accompanied Sheriff Jones as he investigated Harold’s disappearance and discovered clues suggesting that someone had disguised themselves as Harold’s wife. Jones suspected the witnesses might be in danger, and Fu Qian reminded him that the two remaining witnesses were at his house.

• Fu Qian rode with Sheriff Jones as Jones explained that he planned to investigate people with motives instead of organizing another large search.
• Jones and Fu Qian searched Harold’s home, found it empty, and noticed that someone had already gone through it.
• A neighbor told Jones that someone wearing a hat and resembling Harold had driven away, and that Harold’s wife had worn a hat when she left the day before.
• Jones concluded that someone had disguised themselves as Mrs. Harold after she was killed, then suggested Harold had also met with foul play.
• Fu Qian reminded Jones that Ray and the other remaining witness were at Jones’s house.

Fu Qian and Sheriff Jones returned to Jones’s home, where they discovered that Cartman had disappeared from his room. Jones then confronted Lei at gunpoint and demanded to know what he had seen the previous day, but Lei denied seeing anything.

• Jones questioned Fu Qian about Lasik and his reasons for searching for him, then sped back to his home, fearing for his wife.
• Jones found Mary, Fran, and Lei safe, but Cartman was missing from his room, whose window stood open.
• Jones sent Fran and Mary downstairs, shut the room door, and demanded that Lei explain what he had seen while buying supplies.
• Lei accused Fu Qian of making things up, and Fu Qian denied it without elaborating.
• With Jones’s gun pressed to his head, Lei insisted that he had not seen anything.

Lei confessed that he had accidentally hit a hat-wearing person with the car before the person ran into the woods, then helped conceal the incident. Jones sent Lei to help search for his missing friends, and Fu Qian and Fran joined the search as well; the chapter ended with a report that Harold's car had been found.

• Jones struck Lei and pressured him until Lei admitted he had hit someone while driving with Cartman and Jessica in the car.
• Lei said the person had quickly fled into the woods and that he, Cartman, and Jessica had hidden what happened.
• Jones told Lei he could not go home and ordered him to help search for his missing friends.
• Jones assured Mary that he would keep Lei safe, then set out with Fu Qian and Fran, who volunteered to find Jessica.
• A voice over Jones's car radio reported that Harold's car had been found.

Jones investigated Harold after he crashed his car near the mountain bridge and suspected that a mysterious killer had drugged him and staged the crash. Jones then sent Lei away to draw out the culprit, and Fran stopped Lei before he could leave.

• Jones took Fu Qian, Lei, and Fran to the bridge after police reported that Harold had crashed through the railing.
• Officers pulled Harold from the wreck, and Jones found a needle mark on his neck while questioning him about a missing person.
• Harold denied knowing anything, and Jones ordered the officers to take him for a thorough examination.
• Jones suspected the mysterious killer had drugged Harold and placed him in the car, then decided to use Lei as bait.
• Lei prepared to leave in his car, but Fran grabbed the door and stopped him.

Fran returned to the old estate with Fu Qian to search for Jessica, but they found no trace of her. After Fu Qian discovered Fran’s name carved behind a picture frame, he led her to the basement and trapped her inside the Iron Maiden.

• Fran took Cartman’s car from Lei and asked Fu Qian to drive her back to the mountain to look for Jessica.
• Fu Qian agreed, and he and Fran searched the old estate but found no sign of Jessica.
• Fu Qian moved a picture frame and found Fran’s name freshly carved into the wall behind it.
• Fran suspected the mysterious killer had marked the rooms, and Fu Qian led her downstairs to the room with the Iron Maiden.
• Fu Qian forced Fran into the Iron Maiden and declared that she had been sentenced to death.

Fu Qian tested his theory that people in the old house gained extraordinary abilities under extreme emotional pressure, and Fran calmly transcended her fear. The mission updated to “Transcend Samsara with Lasik,” leading Fu Qian to conclude that Lasik’s trapped consciousness had left traces across repeated cycles, though escaping the cycle remained unresolved.

• Fu Qian used the Iron Maiden to push Fran’s fear to its limit, suspecting that the people involved in the cases had suddenly exceeded their abilities under pressure.
• Fran stopped screaming and calmly asked Fu Qian to let her out, showing that she had transcended herself.
• Fu Qian opened the Iron Maiden, and Fran thanked him without trying to flee.
• Fu Qian received an updated mission to transcend samsara with Lasik and connected it to the strange ticket and room marking.
• Fu Qian concluded that Lasik’s consciousness had left traces across repeated cycles, but recognized that finding a way out would be difficult.

Fu Qian noticed that Fran had inherited memories and knowledge of the mansion after escaping the torture device, then used those clues to reconstruct the missing people’s roles in Mrs. Harold’s disappearance. With only a dozen or so hours left before the cycle reset, he focused on finding why Lasik had failed to escape it.

• Fu Qian accepted Fran’s thanks, and Fran admitted she felt calmer and somehow knew details about rooms she had never entered.
• Fran said the mansion had a complex underground structure with multiple passages down the mountain.
• Fu Qian reasoned that Harold had drugged and staged his wife’s accident, while Lei had hidden her using the secret passages and covered up evidence.
• Fran suggested they return to safety, but Fu Qian focused on the countdown and on finding the blind spot that had kept Lasik trapped in the cycle.