Chapter Summaries

Han Su entered the castle hall with the children and studied its monsters and possible escape routes. When the worm-covered monk tried to take a girl away, a braided ponytail girl intervened, leaving Han Su to wonder whether the Spell he brought could help him escape.

• Han Su noticed the patched escape holes, counted seven monsters at the table, and confirmed that the Pale Giant still wore the brass key.
• The butler clapped, restoring the children’s awareness, and welcomed them to the monsters as they whispered in an unfamiliar language.
• A boy asked whether the castle was a science museum, but the smiling butler gave no answer.
• The worm-covered monk approached a frightened boy, then took a crying girl by the hand and led her toward the spiral staircase.
• A braided ponytail girl grabbed the little girl and the candlestick, defying the monk and insisting that they had to return to school and that the police would come.
• Han Su recognized the girl as the one who had helped him escape before and considered whether his Spell could work this time.

The children’s fear provoked the pig-headed monster into killing the Little Boy, after which the monsters and the Old Butler chose children to take upstairs. Han Su remained behind and pretended to fall under the butler’s hypnosis.

• The braided ponytail girl warned the children that the castle’s figures were monsters, and the children panicked.
• The Little Boy’s shrill crying drove the pig-faced man to throw a bloodstained knife at him, killing him and silencing the hall.
• The Worm Monk, Meat Horn Madam, and the other monsters led their chosen children upstairs, while a neat-side-part boy volunteered to go with the pig-faced man.
• The Old Butler chose six more children, then clapped to hypnotize those left in the hall.
• Han Su stood rigidly and concealed that he could resist the butler’s hypnosis.

Han Su planned to escape the castle cellar that night and used the Parted Hair Kid Brother’s boasts about his powerful father to provoke him. After learning the cellar’s usual escape route had been sealed, Han Su began a new plan by attacking the boy.

• The butler led the children into a dark underground cellar, where Han Su memorized the castle’s schedule and decided to escape that night.
• Han Su recalled that the lantern-bearing hunchback was the only guard and could not harm the children, while the butler would leave.
• The Parted Hair Kid Brother claimed his father, Secretary Two, would rescue him and described the powerful official’s deadly abuses.
• Han Su remembered how the boy’s screaming had nearly caused his earlier escape to fail and suspected Secretary Two’s identity was being kept secret.
• Han Su agreed with the boy’s claims, then slapped him and shouted accusations about the people his family had killed.

Han Su escaped the cellar by setting the fortress carpet on fire and tricking the captive children into rushing for the exit. He climbed to the second floor and fled through a window, leaving the braided ponytail girl trapped in a glass vessel.

• Han Su beat the parted-hair boy and provoked the cellar children into crying until a hunchbacked guard came to investigate.
• Han Su slipped past the guard, knocked his lantern onto the carpet, and started a fire.
• Han Su shouted that their teacher had arrived, prompting the children to pour out of the cellar and overwhelm the guard.
• Han Su went upstairs while the guard tried to control the fleeing children, then entered the only room he had found that could be opened.
• Han Su saw the braided ponytail girl trapped in a vessel of green liquid but continued to the window and climbed out.

Han Su escaped to the third floor, where he used the bandaged little boy’s attempt to flee as a distraction from the half-woman monster. The boy threw Han Su his Cloth-Wrapped Knife before the monster pinned him, and Han Su continued toward the fourth floor as the boy wondered why he had run instead of using the knife.

• Han Su broke into a third-floor repair room and slipped into the corridor while the half-woman monster searched nearby.
• The bandaged little boy ran down the hall, drawing the monster away as Han Su followed toward the Left Staircase.
• The monster chased the boy into a room, where he fought back by knocking over bottles and Iron Racks and taunting her.
• The half-woman pinned the boy and pierced his shoulder, but he threw his Cloth-Wrapped Knife to Han Su.
• Han Su grabbed the knife and ran up the Left Staircase to the fourth floor while the boy watched him go.

Han Su reached the fourth floor and found Li Manman, then used her mirror to provoke the wooden dolls and draw the Pale Giant toward the room. The Pale Giant smashed through the blocked doorway, leaving Han Su and Manman facing the monster.

• Han Su entered the fourth-floor room, reviewed what he knew about the Pale Giant and the wooden dolls, and found Li Manman hiding beside the bed.
• Han Su told Manman he would save her and explained how she could help him distract the monster.
• Han Su pulled down a cabinet to block the doorway, making enough noise to attract the Pale Giant.
• Manman held a small mirror up to a wooden doll, causing it to scream in terror and alert the Pale Giant.
• The Pale Giant burst through the doorway, scattering the cabinet and smashing glass cabinets in the room.

Han Su fled the Pale Giant after discovering the key had moved, then found it beside a coffin on the fifth floor. The coffin’s occupant seized his hand, and Han Su hacked at his wrist to escape.

• Han Su found that the Pale Giant no longer carried the key and escaped while Li Manman distracted it with the mirror.
• Han Su ran to the fifth floor, where the Pale Giant could not follow, and encountered copper-armored statues set into the corridor walls.
• Han Su found the brass key hanging beside a coffin in a candlelit room and took it without initially waking anything.
• The coffin opened and a pale hand seized Han Su’s left hand, cutting him and briefly releasing his paralysis.
• Han Su clenched the key between his teeth and brought down the weapon Irritable Kid Brother had given him on his left wrist.

Han Su escaped the coffin room through the fifth-floor corridor, where his Spell revived bronze snakes and armor statues. He rescued a frightened child and passed through the EXIT door, then woke at the Disaster Management Bureau after apparently falling asleep during the Ruins' Whispers.

• Han Su fled the coffin room as bronze snakes sprang from the corridor statues, and his Spell froze the snakes while awakening the Bronze Armor Statues.
• Han Su spotted a child trapped behind a loosened iron door and chose to rescue her instead of escaping alone.
• Han Su grabbed the child, unlocked the EXIT door, and plunged through as the bronze statues bowed toward him.
• Han Su woke in a room at the Disaster Management Bureau's base, where Zhang Chiguo and a bespectacled staff member reacted in disbelief that he had fallen asleep during the Ruins' Whispers.

Han Su realized he had rescued a girl from the Ancient Castle, reducing the Kidnapping Case’s missing children from twenty-six to twenty-five. After passing the Disaster Management Bureau’s test, he wondered how he had used the incantation and escaped the Ghost Truck on this Life Path without losing an eye.

• Han Su returned to the moment after his Bureau test and discovered that both eyes and his scarred face were healed.
• Zhang Chiguo told Han Su to take his training seriously and try to join Group D1D2, while Bureau staff confirmed he showed no signs of contamination.
• The woman in the black suit warned Han Su not to discuss the Kidnapping Case casually and told him to pass the Bureau’s assessment first.
• Han Su learned that twenty-five children remained missing and realized he had rescued one girl from the Ancient Castle, though he was unsure whether her name was Meilan.
• Han Su wondered how he had used the incantation and driven off the Ghost Truck on this Life Path without the Mysterious Power from his injured eye.

Han Su discovered that this altered life path left him with a stiff, scarred left hand and changed how Song Chushi and the Disaster Management Bureau had dealt with him. After learning why the Bureau had tested him with Ruinspeak, he grew wary of his unusual ability to flicker through life paths and heard what investigators were expected to do.

• Han Su recalled that his right eye was intact in this life path, while his left hand bore a cross-shaped scar and had become stiff.
• Han Su realized Song Chushi had not given him the Spell, though Han Su had still used it against the Ghost Truck and the Bureau had suspected Song Chushi intervened.
• Cui Qiao told Han Su that the Bureau had recorded his information, would arrange leave from university, and expected him to focus on training.
• Cui Qiao explained that Ruinspeak was used to screen aberration contactees for mental contamination and assess their spiritual sensitivity and resistance; Han Su had passed by falling asleep.
• Han Su suspected that Ruinspeak had triggered his return to an earlier point in time and wondered whether he might be more dangerous than the Bureau believed.
• Cui Qiao explained that investigators traced, contained, and prevented aberrations, while concealing their existence from the public.

Han Su joined the Disaster Management Bureau and learned that his team assignment could determine whether he became an investigator or cannon fodder. While confined overnight, he tested the Spell and realized it could activate abilities tied to his right eye and injured left hand, possibly preserving powers across different Life Paths.

• Secretary Cui Qiao explained the Bureau's teams and urged Han Su to qualify for Group D1D2 while warning him to avoid Group D5D6.
• Han Su completed his intake paperwork and was escorted to a secured room to spend the night before training.
• Han Su silently recited the Spell and felt his Mental Power flow first toward his right eye, then toward the Cross Scar on his left hand.
• Han Su reasoned that his right eye could use the Pallor monster's melting ability, while his left hand might hold the coffin monster's ability that had not yet fully awakened.
• Han Su suspected the Spell had recorded his right-eye power on a previous Life Path and could carry Mysterious Powers across time and space.

Han Su joined more than twenty recruits for the Disaster Management Bureau’s assessment and training. Their instructor introduced a classified handbook of mission rules as both their first lesson and final assessment, leaving Han Su to read rules that demanded the suppression of all belief in anomalies.

• Han Su met the other trainees, including Xu Qingyi, Pastor Chen, and Black Tiger, and said he had more than a dozen lives on his hands.
• An instructor rebuked the trainees for trying to get acquainted and explained that their performance would determine their team assignments, though they could leave after completing the required training period.
• Staff distributed a classified handbook, and the instructor gave the trainees one week to memorize it before returning it.
• Han Su read the handbook’s opening rules, which ordered operatives to dismiss or eliminate witnesses to anomalies, remove people who believed in the supernatural, and report historical records from before the Reconstruction Era.

Han Su and the other trainees began studying a handbook of rules before a new assessment involving a Cipher Incantation. After staff debated his weak spiritual sensitivity, Zhang Chiguo approved an A-rank evaluation based on Han Su’s composure during a Ghost Truck encounter and his resistance to supernatural whispers.

• The instructor gave the trainees a handbook to memorize and said they needed at least three A's to enter Group D1D2.
• Han Su found no information about the Dark Fortress in the rules and noticed a gold-rimmed-glasses man barely studying.
• The instructor exempted Han Su and the girl in black hood from the Cipher Incantation assessment, citing their earlier experiences.
• Zhang Chiguo's staff debated Han Su's evaluation, initially considering a C-class rating because he had fallen asleep during the incantation.
• Cui Qiao and another staff member argued that Han Su's calmness around the Ghost Truck and resistance to the incantation made him a promising operative.
• Zhang Chiguo agreed that Han Su deserved an A-rank evaluation and asked for the report to be brought to him for his signature.

Han Su watched trainees suffer strange reactions to an ancient secret language, then learned that Mysterious Power training used spiritual sensitivity to let Mental Power penetrate reality. The black-hooded girl explained that Cipher Incantations and other mediums let humans imitate the gods, leaving Han Su with a glimpse of the powers behind supernatural abilities.

• Several trainees were carried from the listening room after convulsing or speaking ominously, and Han Su's hand scar ached when one shouted about the Bronze Age.
• Han Su asked the instructor about the language and learned that it tested spiritual reactions and intuition.
• The instructor explained that Mysterious Power training enabled controlled spiritual penetration, allowing people to use supernatural powers.
• The instructor said highly sensitive trainees could hear distinct sounds, gain talents, or perceive spells in ancient languages.
• The black-hooded girl said some believed the secret language came from the gods, and described how humans used spiritual penetration and mediums to imitate divine powers.

After the trainees completed six days of general instruction, the Bureau assigned them a final field mission to determine their group placements. Han Su drew a mission guarding an elevator at Huaguang Building, and Dong Wei taught him how to use his Service Pistol before denying that she had ever used the name Meilan.

• The instructor ended the trainees’ instruction and explained that their final evaluation would include missions, while two trainees with strong spiritual intuition would join Group D1 and a third would be sent for study.
• Han Su drew a mission to guard Elevator B3 at Huaguang Building from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., report abnormalities, and shoot any human-shaped creatures that emerged.
• Han Su and the other trainees collected real Service Pistols, but Han Su admitted he did not know how to operate his gun.
• Dong Wei offered to teach Han Su and carefully demonstrated how to load, ready, aim, and reload the pistol as other trainees watched.
• Han Su introduced himself to Dong Wei and asked whether she had ever used the name Meilan, but she denied it.

Han Su and the other trainees began a night mission guarding a powerless elevator in an empty office building. Zhao Da'er explained that people had vanished there and that they were to shoot anything living that emerged, leaving them to wait for the mission to begin at ten.

• Han Su learned basic firearm handling before a staff member led him and the other trainees to meet Zhao Da'er, their examiner and team leader.
• Zhao Da'er briefed the group, and they rode in black armored vehicles to a dark fifty-story building.
• Zhao Da'er led the team to the thirty-ninth floor, where they took positions facing four elevators and prepared to watch them from ten at night until three in the morning.
• Han Su asked why they had to guard the elevator, and Zhao Da'er explained that five people had gone missing in the building that month.
• Zhao Da'er revealed that anomalies might emerge from the powerless elevator and ordered the team to shoot anything living that came out.

Han Su and the trainees completed an overnight watch at an out-of-service elevator, but an apparent apparition appeared just as they were leaving. Little fatty revealed the watch had been an evaluation, and the chapter ended when all four elevators arrived at their floor despite no one pressing a button.

• Han Su and the trainees guarded the elevator until three in the morning without incident, then received orders to return to base.
• As the group turned to leave, a pale hand reached out of the elevator, and the camouflage man spun around and fired until his gun was empty.
• Little fatty said the camouflage man had reacted well but had violated procedure by firing without orders, so he would recommend a B-class rating; the other trainees had followed the rules.
• Little fatty explained that the elevator apparition had been an illusion for the evaluation and told everyone to leave for late-night food.
• All four elevators chimed and showed they had arrived at the group's floor, though no one had pressed the button.

Han Su and the others were attacked when all four elevators opened and disgorged pale, face-less creatures. As the camouflage man fought to rescue the trainees, Han Su’s Cross Scar awakened and gave him the strength to pull the man free, leaving the creatures still pouring from the elevators.

• Han Su sensed danger and warned the group just before all four elevators opened and the pale creatures poured out, knocking several trainees down.
• Han Su shot the creatures while the camouflage man fought through them and rescued the pinned trainees.
• Han Su stopped a frightened trainee from firing blindly, and the little fatty ordered the group to shoot carefully.
• More twisted creatures grabbed the camouflage man and tried to drag him into an elevator.
• Han Su’s Cross Scar turned copper-colored and strengthened his left hand, allowing him to pull the camouflage man free and hurl him out of the creatures’ grasp.

Han Su used his left hand’s unusual strength and steadiness during an evaluation against impostors that were evolving into humans. When the trainees’ defensive line failed, he sealed the corridor with a roll-down gate, trapping the little fatty team leader on the other side.

• Han Su rescued the camouflage man and helped hold back the advancing impostors with little fatty.
• Han Su recognized the encounter as an evaluation and discovered that his left hand made him unusually steady when firing a gun.
• At the Bureau base, Zhang Chiguo and the staff praised Han Su and the camouflage man for their composure and skill.
• Little fatty stopped the shooting, drew a blood line that briefly forced the impostors back, and then failed to hold them when more poured from the elevator.
• Han Su pulled the camouflage man away and lowered a corridor gate, trapping the impostors and little fatty behind it.

Han Su completed the operational assessment after helping contain the impostors in the elevator, then returned to base with the other trainees. The code-of-conduct assessment began, and Doctor’s results appeared with mostly A grades and a C in Ciphertext.

• The little fatty used his bloodline to force the impostors back into the elevator and scolded the camouflage man for trying to release them.
• The little fatty explained that the Bureau contained uncanny forces seeking to seep into reality, while Han Su questioned whether they were connected to spiritual penetration.
• Zhang Chiguo praised Han Su’s assessment performance and slipped him something to help him get along with his colleagues.
• The instructor announced that the operational assessment results were in and invited trainees to take the code-of-conduct test.
• Doctor volunteered to go first and emerged about ten minutes later with A grades in Code of Conduct, Insight, Adaptability, and Execution, a B in Containment, and a C in Ciphertext.