Chapter Summaries

Xu Huo investigated former Hairs employee Pu Hui and suspected he knew something about the mining accident after testing his reaction during a deceptive phone call. When three Players arrived with permits to enter a residential area, Xu Huo recognized them as Dungeon companions and asked whether their free-clinic permits covered psychological treatment.

• Xu Huo identified former Hairs employees in the accident footage and went to contact Pu Hui, who refused to meet him.
• Xu Huo had Zhu Zhongliang pose as a bereaved mother and call Pu Hui, then inferred from Pu Hui's reaction that he might know what had happened during the accident.
• Xu Huo and Zhu Zhongliang waited for a response while Shen Fei and Ke Youming went to investigate other targets.
• Xu Huo encountered Zhao Yiming and his two companions outside the residential area and learned they were in the same Dungeon.
• Zhao Yiming explained that their free-clinic work permits allowed them into some residential areas, and Xu Huo asked whether psychological treatment counted.

Xu Huo joined Zhao Yiming and Meng Xiaoman on free clinic visits, where he counseled Pu Hui about his guilt over a mining accident that killed an acquaintance. He urged Pu Hui to make amends to the dead man, leaving Zhao Yiming and Meng Xiaoman wondering why Xu Huo had not questioned him further.

• Xu Huo entered the residential area with Zhao Yiming and Meng Xiaoman and followed its strict rules for visiting households.
• The trio treated an elderly resident, with Zhao Yiming and Meng Xiaoman handling rehabilitation while Xu Huo talked with the family.
• At Pu Hui's home, Xu Huo learned that Pu Hui blamed himself for an acquaintance's death in a mine accident and feared he would never reunite with his wife and son after death.
• Xu Huo advised Pu Hui to seek out the dead man's family or belongings and try to make peace with him.
• As the trio left, Zhao Yiming and Meng Xiaoman asked Xu Huo why he had not questioned Pu Hui while they had the chance.

Xu Huo investigated the century-old mining accident while treating District 019 residents and learned that survivor Pu Hui was hiding a bloodstained rock. He used the Mental Portal to interfere with Pu Hui’s mind and prompt him to reveal what had happened.

• Xu Huo told Zhu Zhongliang to wait for Pu Hui to contact him twice more before replying, then continued the medical consultations with Zhao Yiming and Meng Xiaoman.
• Xu Huo explained that District 019 residents’ psychological problems were often managed through venting robots and that the Players’ assumptions about the mining accident might be wrong.
• Zhu Zhongliang reported that Pu Hui seemed unsettled and that another survivor refused to discuss the accident, despite living happily with his family.
• Xu Huo invited Jiao Hongyuan to help investigate, then followed Pu Hui to the cemetery and back home with Zhu Zhongliang and Jiao Hongyuan.
• After Pu Hui shut down the machines and hid in his dark bedroom with a bloodstained rock, Xu Huo used a sleeping Potion and the Mental Portal to prompt him to talk.

Xu Huo used an illusion to make Pu Hui confess how he had avoided the mine collapse by asking Lu Feng to take his shift, and learned the names of two Hairs managers involved in the disaster. After looking them up, Xu Huo noticed a distinctive religious symbol in one of their photos, while Zhu Zhongliang and the others struggled to believe the collapse had been deliberate.

• Xu Huo drew the drugged Pu Hui into his Spiritual World and staged the ghost of Lu Feng to frighten him into confessing.
• Pu Hui explained that he had overheard two Hairs managers discuss sacrificing people to keep mining, then asked Lu Feng to cover his shift because he feared the mine would collapse.
• Pu Hui named the two managers, and Xu Huo hypnotized him into believing the encounter had been a dream.
• Xu Huo looked up the managers and spotted a distinctive religious symbol in a photo on their social media page.
• Zhu Zhongliang, Jiao Hongyuan, Zhao Yiming, and Meng Xiaoman reacted with disbelief when Xu Huo said the mine disaster involved those two men.

After discovering that Hels Company had falsified the accident death toll, Xu Huo’s group suspected the Abode of the Dead honored victims of a deliberate mining disaster. They identified a retired Hels executive who might know the truth, but left the confrontation until his religious event the next day.

• Xu Huo and the others connected the cemetery and religious ceremonies to the nameless victims of the mining accident, then learned that Hels executives supported the Seventeen Faces religion.
• Meng Xiaoman explained the unusual gemstones associated with Hels, including the Second Rib, which Xu Huo linked to death’s-style romance.
• Xu Huo split the groups, taking Zhao Yiming and Meng Xiaoman to find one of the people Pu Hui had named while Zhu Zhongliang waited for Shen Fei and Ke Youming.
• Xu Huo’s group found the retired Hels executive in Chuanwan City and learned that spiritual-sensing devices at his home and Jixin Terminal would alert his family if they interfered.
• Xu Huo changed their plan and decided they would intercept the executive in his flying car on the way to a religious event the next day.

Xu Huo waited at a Seventeen Faces lecture hall while his companions planned to intercept Mr. Wei, and he joined the faith under the pretense of arranging his own burial. Mr. Wei arrived to report a theft and donate money, unaware that Xu Huo was watching him.

• Xu Huo and his companions learned that Mr. Wei was driving directly to the lecture hall, so they hurried there to wait for him.
• Xu Huo spoke with a Seventeen Faces instructor about its beliefs and asked whether the organization would arrange his funeral if he died.
• The instructor recorded Xu Huo's name and gave him a Seventeen Faces badge after he insisted on applying for burial arrangements in advance.
• Mr. Wei arrived, asked the instructor to notify his family that his belongings had been stolen, and passed Xu Huo without recognizing him.
• Mr. Wei told the instructor he had come to donate money and asked him to buy desserts for the deceased, whom he remembered as young despite his own advanced age.

Disguised as the lecturer, Xu Huo learned that the Hels Group had secretly buried unnamed mine disaster victims and that Mr. Wei knew their sacrifice had been meaningless. Xu Huo followed a congregant into Hels Group headquarters, where his power reached inside despite the security barriers, as he pursued the Abode of the Dead and the truth behind the old mining accidents.

• Xu Huo, disguised as the lecturer, heard a congregant challenge the church's neglected offerings to the mine disaster victims, while Mr. Wei said their sacrifice had been meaningless.
• Xu Huo concluded that the Hels Group had caused the mine disaster for a goal that failed and had secretly buried the victims in a cemetery that might be the Abode of the Dead.
• Xu Huo knocked out Mr. Wei and sent Zhao Yiming to take him to a hospital, where Meng Xiaoman injected him with a tiny Syringe.
• Xu Huo let the congregant buy Mr. Wei's requested dessert and follow his own convictions, then tailed him with Jiao Hongyuan to Hels Group headquarters.
• After security detected and removed Jiao Hongyuan's tracking gadgets, the congregant entered headquarters, and Xu Huo sent a chain-like line of power after him.

Xu Huo tracked a young believer into Hairs Group headquarters while considering why the company had preserved the mine victims’ remains. Before he could learn more from Mr. Wei, the old man vanished from the hospital, and Xu Huo ended his cooperation with Zhu Zhongliang’s group over their secret tracking and suspicious conduct.

• Xu Huo used the Ability Lock Target to track the young believer into Hairs Group headquarters and wondered why the mine victims had been called “sacrifices.”
• Jiao Hongyuan received Meng Xiaoman’s call reporting that Mr. Wei had disappeared from the hospital while she was away registering their family relationship.
• Xu Huo met the others near Mr. Wei’s home and learned that Zhu Zhongliang had secretly planted a tracking item on Zhao Yiming.
• Shen Fei admitted their group had been followed after visiting a Hairs employee, and Xu Huo ended their cooperation.
• Shen Fei argued they should keep working together to find Mr. Wei, while Zhao Yiming and Meng Xiaoman blamed the group’s actions for putting their lead at risk.

Xu Huo split from Shen Fei’s group and sent them to a luxury goods store warehouse, then assigned Zhao Yiming and Meng Xiaoman tasks to investigate mine accidents and gain access to Hairs’ headquarters. He visited Fei’er’s elderly relatives to question them about the Tiantianle mine collapse, but they dismissed his theory and offered to show him Suolan’s father’s belongings.

• Shen Fei demanded that Xu Huo share their findings, so Xu Huo sent Shen Fei, Zhao Yiming, and Meng Xiaoman through his Spiritual World into a luxury goods store warehouse, where robots arrested them.
• Xu Huo kept Zhao Yiming and Meng Xiaoman working with him and told them to record mines with recurring accidents and seek official authorization to enter Hairs’ headquarters.
• Xu Huo told Jiao Hongyuan he would approach the search for the other person who knew from another angle, then left to visit Fei’er’s residence.
• Xu Huo questioned Suolan’s elderly relatives about the Tiantianle mine collapse, suggesting Suolan’s father might have caused it deliberately.
• The old gentleman rejected Xu Huo’s theory and offered to let Mary show him the belongings Suolan’s father left behind, but Xu Huo asked whether anyone had ever suspected the mine disaster was not an accident.

Xu Huo searched Suolan’s father’s belongings and spoke with a little girl about guilt and the difficulty of speaking plainly. He then confronted two Players in the woods while investigating Mr. Wei’s disappearance and the century-old mining disaster.

• Xu Huo found only a few keepsakes connected to Suolan among her father’s belongings and considered why she had avoided the site of his death.
• A little girl gave Xu Huo a fruit and said that people who did wrong should accept punishment rather than hide their mistakes.
• Xu Huo contacted Zhao Yiming and went into the woods near the mining area, where two Players followed him.
• Xu Huo trapped the Players with hidden blades and killed one after asking whether they had taken Mr. Wei.
• The surviving Player admitted that they had taken Mr. Wei, who killed himself after they questioned him, and Xu Huo inferred the Players were linked to Shen Fei and the others.

Xu Huo killed a player who had tried to escape, then used records of mining accidents to identify small-company owners as targets connected to the Hels Group. He began interrogating one owner with a lethal syringe, and the man accused Tiantianle of killing thousands.

• Xu Huo killed the player who shouted “Animal Instinct” and returned to Chuanwan City.
• Zhao Yiming gathered records about mining accidents and their owners, while Xu Huo told the others that the “Dwelling of the Dead” was inside Hels Group headquarters.
• Xu Huo left his companions to investigate the Hels Group and traveled to a neighboring city to confront a mining company owner.
• Xu Huo and two men in Tiantianle uniforms tied up the drunken owner and showed him a syringe of the euthanasia drug “Good Night.”
• Xu Huo tried to inject the owner, who fought back and accused Tiantianle of killing thousands.

Xu Huo interrogated a mine owner who believed that sacrificing people kept mines producing gems, and questioned whether Tiantianle and other mining groups had deliberately caused accidents. The boss claimed no one else knew his secret, but Xu Huo was left considering who else might have suspected the truth behind the mining disasters.

• Xu Huo broke the boss's arms and threatened his family until the boss agreed to explain how he learned about the mine's secret.
• The boss said his father's friend had told him that throwing people into a mine caused it to produce more gems, and he claimed the government and mining groups knew about the practice.
• Xu Huo challenged the boss's theory and noted that it remained uncertain whether living people could trigger any reaction with underground magma.
• The boss admitted that he had arranged his own killings and insisted that his family and no one else knew about them.
• Xu Huo considered whether workers, victims' relatives, or Nian might have suspected that mining groups had deliberately caused accidents.

Xu Huo investigated the Tiantianle mine accident that killed Suolan’s father and uncovered a century-old conspiracy involving District 019’s government and mining groups. He learned that they had deliberately caused miners’ deaths to produce valuable human-bone gemstones, while the victims’ families sought revenge.

• Xu Huo used names obtained from Tiantianle’s boss to track down people who might know the truth about the mine accident.
• After questioning two former Tiantianle leaders, Xu Huo confronted a bitter old man whose family had been killed and injected him with truth serum.
• The old man revealed that District 019 had engineered mining accidents to obtain human-bone gemstones during an economic crisis.
• District 019’s government and mining groups recruited vulnerable people from remote places and concealed their deaths as accidents.
• Victims’ families had sought revenge against mining leaders, while most people believed the deaths had been bad luck.

Xu Huo investigated whether Suolan’s father and other deaths were connected to a century-old pattern of man-made mining disasters involving the Tiantianle Group, but found no clear link to the Enbel Maiden. He met two other investigators outside the homes of retired technicians, and they questioned whether the mining-disaster theory would lead them to the painting.

• Xu Huo traced Suolan’s father’s accident and the blind old lady’s family to Tiantianle mines, noting that a disaster had followed the mine brawl that killed her sons.
• Xu Huo found that some passengers in a later aircraft accident came from a place whose workers may have gone to nearby mines, but he could not confirm a connection.
• Xu Huo investigated the aircraft’s developers and found that only two technicians had returned to work for Tiantianle, but uncovered no new lead on the Enbel Maiden.
• Xu Huo went to visit the two retired technicians and encountered the crew cut woman and the bald big man outside the Tiantianle residential area.
• Xu Huo explained that he had confirmed the mining disasters were man-made, while the other two questioned whether the events were connected to the Enbel Maiden.

Xu Huo and his companions debated whether Suolan’s painting was connected to the District 019 mine disaster, whose true death toll and government cover-up Xu Huo had uncovered. Their conflicting views on responsibility led Xu Huo to investigate what happened to Suolan’s connections and powerful officials when she was twenty.

• Xu Huo reviewed the crew cut woman and bald big man’s collected information, then showed them the real death toll and evidence from the mine disaster.
• The crew cut woman suggested that Suolan and the blind old lady might never have learned the truth about the disaster or its connection to their personal losses.
• Xu Huo argued that Suolan’s painting might be linked to the disaster, though he could not explain why she seemed to feel such love for District 019 instead of hatred.
• The bald big man argued that District 019’s residents and descendants had benefited from the mine disaster, while the crew cut woman condemned that reasoning and the perpetrators’ claims of sacrifice.
• Xu Huo reopened his Jixin Terminal and ordered an investigation into major events affecting Suolan’s connections and District 019’s government and Tiantianle Group when Suolan was twenty.

Xu Huo and his companions investigated people connected to Tiantianle for clues about why Master Suolan had sided with the perpetrators. While posing as a tourist, Xu Huo attracted the attention of several Players and bought ten thousand trained fingerbirds.

• Xu Huo reasoned that Master Suolan must have faced a powerful personal upheaval among the perpetrators, so he and his companions chose to investigate Tiantianle employees.
• The three rested at the hotel, then split up to pursue separate targets.
• Xu Huo wandered through the residential area, buying local food and tourist items while drawing the attention of Players.
• Xu Huo bought ten thousand fingerbirds and learned that pressing every button on their whistle would free them from their training.
• Several Players followed Xu Huo, and one remarked that the tourist had a lot of money.

Xu Huo drew the attention of a group of Players planning to rob him, and He Jiaorong disguised herself as a man to recruit him for a Dungeon. She proposed investigating a powerful District Government figure who might have the Enbel Maiden, but Xu Huo had not yet agreed.

• He Jiaorong warned her companions that Xu Huo had resisted her before, while they argued over whether to target him.
• Xiao Wu suggested they let others weaken Xu Huo first, as several groups were already following him.
• Xu Huo recognized He Jiaorong when she approached him disguised as a young man and asked to join him.
• He Jiaorong told Xu Huo a rumor that an important figure connected to the District Government had collected the Enbel Maiden.
• He Jiaorong shared a file about a wealthy businessman protected by B-class Players and invited Xu Huo to help investigate him.

Xu Huo kept He Jiaorong and her companions at Yongxing Hotel with an extravagant magic show and a late-night card game, all while concealing his intentions. Just as they expected him to make a move, he pulled a blanket over himself and told them not to blink.

• He Jiaorong explained the target's medical itinerary, and Xu Huo agreed to work with her group.
• Xu Huo insisted that the group stay with him in a suite at Yongxing Hotel.
• Xu Huo arranged a magic troupe's aerial performance, and He Jiaorong's companions grew less wary after hearing his family came from an E-class wormhole point.
• Xu Huo kept the group awake with a card game and won back the money he had spent on the show.
• When He Jiaorong and the others tried to go to bed, Xu Huo stood up, covered himself with a blanket, and told them not to blink.

Xu Huo investigated the heart-chip surgeries and traced their origins to the Mattelidoreti family, then sought help from a retired journalist. Old Mr. Yue revealed that the former Chief Executive’s youngest daughter had disappeared.

• Xu Huo escaped He Jiaorong and the others, then searched hospital records for people who had received heart-chip surgery.
• Xu Huo found that the Mattelidoreti family had funded the chip project around the time Solan began painting in oils.
• Xu Huo evaded patrol robots that tried to fine him for dropping feathers and changed his appearance before returning.
• Xu Huo visited the retired journalist Old Mr. Yue and asked about the Mattelidoreti family a hundred and ten years earlier.
• Old Mr. Yue told Xu Huo that Mattelidoreti’s youngest daughter had disappeared.

Xu Huo questioned Old Mr. Yue about Xia Xi Duolai Ti’s disappearance and learned details that linked her case to District 019’s past mining disasters. He left with old records and a new lead in Ember Town, though the evidence ruled out Funiu Village as the place connected to Suolan.

• Old Mr. Yue explained how Xia Xi Duolai Ti’s disappearance had led to a search and described the laws passed to protect minors.
• Xu Huo asked whether District 019’s government had colluded with mining groups to cause disasters, and Old Mr. Yue admitted he had suspected the truth but chosen not to investigate.
• Old Mr. Yue told Xu Huo that Xia Xi Duolai Ti had vanished during a school trip in Funiu Village and confirmed Mattelidoreti had veto power.
• Old Mr. Yue lent Xu Huo an old U disk containing photographs and interviews about Xia Xi Duolai Ti’s disappearance.
• Xu Huo compared the records with Suolan’s history, ruled out Funiu Village, and noticed that nearby Ember Town had later become Jiushang City before being renamed Ember.