Chapter Summaries

Qi Si explained how staying ten zhang from the funeral procession’s illusion let him anchor Lin Chen and Tang Yu to reality, then persuaded Tang Yu to test whether the scarecrows resembled the NPC he had killed. The test suggested that townspeople’s ghosts possessed scarecrow bodies, and Qi Si ended by inviting them upstairs at the lodging house after revealing he had seen Teacher Luo and Tang Yu’s letter.

• Qi Si appeared outside the bamboo forest’s illusion and explained that a ten-zhang distance and the team-forming item let Lin Chen see the real path.
• Qi Si repeatedly threatened to move beyond the safe distance until Tang Yu agreed to slash a scarecrow as part of an experiment.
• Tang Yu cut down several scarecrows and concluded that the old man he had killed was made of straw, suggesting townspeople’s ghosts possessed scarecrow bodies.
• Lin Chen, Tang Yu, and Qi Si discussed how ghosts gained identities by possessing different scarecrows and considered whether the townspeople and Master Meng were tiger’s accomplices.
• Tang Yu asked what Qi Si had found upstairs at the lodging house, and Qi Si revealed he had seen Teacher Luo and Tang Yu’s letter before suggesting they go upstairs.

Tang Yu, Lin Chen, and Qi Si investigated clues about Poplar Blossom Town and questioned whether the writings in Luo Haihua’s room came from another timeline or were fabricated by the Instance. Meanwhile, Qiu Xin learned that the townspeople believed Master Meng and the Mountain God protected them, but a child died after recognizing her as a ghost.

• Tang Yu connected the military letters and travelogue to the town’s destruction, while Lin Chen suspected Master Meng was General Meng, who had burned the town.
• Tang Yu rejected the theory that parallel timelines explained the writing, and Qi Si suggested the Instance could imitate the players and fabricate the people they met.
• The players found two empty rooms without lanterns, and Qi Si pointed out that the four lanterns they had could let four people escape if two more people died.
• The scholar arrived and led Tang Yu, Lin Chen, and Qi Si to meet Master Meng, warning them that Master Meng would never harm the townspeople.
• Qiu Xin questioned a child about Master Meng, tiger ghosts, and the townspeople’s supposed immortality, then realized the child’s shadow showed he was a tiger ghost.
• After Qiu Xin told the child he was a ghost, he recognized her as one and fell dead, apparently scared to death.

The Players discovered that a vast mirror divided Poplar Blossom Town and revealed the burned townsfolk as Xiyi, whose appearance nearly overwhelmed Qi Si until his Scarlet High Priest card shielded him. After the mirror dimmed, Meng Fang appeared and introduced himself, leaving the Players face-to-face with the master of the residence.

• Qi Si and Lin Chen determined that the wall between the residences was a mirror, and its surface revealed the town burning as soldiers set fire to its buildings.
• The mirror's reflected sunlight scorched Lin Chen and Tang Yu, while Qi Si used the Umbrella Filled with Pain to shield them.
• Qi Si saw the faces of the dead townsfolk in the mirror and learned they were Xiyi, but the Scarlet High Priest card blocked his view and ended the dangerous effect.
• Qi Si explained that Xiyi were not trapped in the mirror but were normally invisible to the Players, and he claimed he had learned about them in the Netherworld Record.
• Meng Fang emerged in a cyan official robe, apologized for keeping the Players waiting, and introduced himself.

Qi Si entered Poplar Blossom Town as a Chang Gui, killed a player, and took over the dead man’s Daoist identity. After Master Meng directed the Players to kill the tiger demon, Qi Si questioned the town’s suspicious story and watched the scholar appear as a seemingly human night watchman, leaving him with guesses about the Instance’s rules as midnight approached.

• Qi Si killed a player dressed as a Daoist, took his belongings, and learned from a letter that Master Meng had invited him to deal with the Chang Gui.
• Qi Si introduced himself to Qiu Xin as Lin Wen, a Daoist, then joined Tang Yu and Lin Chen in meeting Master Meng.
• Master Meng explained that the tiger demon had broken its pact with the town and updated the human Players’ quest to kill it.
• Qi Si questioned Meng Fang about Li Yi and the town’s corpses, then suspected that Old Madam Meng might be bait because no one had let Lin Chen see her.
• Tang Yu and Qi Si reasoned that the tiger demon ate the townspeople’s ghosts, then saw the familiar scholar pass by with a human shadow and cloudy eyes.
• Qi Si told the others to return before midnight and said he had formed guesses about the Instance, wondering whether the scholar would be tonight’s victim.

Qi Si, Lin Chen, and Tang Yu discovered that the townspeople were scarecrows that could return to life by possessing replacements, while the Players’ perceptions concealed their true forms. The three began considering how fire could be used to kill the scarecrow townspeople and avoid confronting the tiger demon directly.

• Qi Si reassured Lin Chen and Tang Yu that Qiu Xin could take shelter safely, but warned that they might need her help to investigate the world setting.
• A little old woman led the Players back to the residence, where Tang Yu killed her and she reappeared unharmed from a wooden cabin.
• Qi Si and Lin Chen found replacement scarecrows beneath the little old woman’s bed, and they watched her corpse reveal itself as straw after the illusion faded.
• Tang Yu questioned Meng Fang’s demand that the Players kill the tiger demon, while Qi Si proposed that protecting the townspeople might be the real task.
• Qi Si pointed out that the townspeople were scarecrows, and Tang Yu realized they feared fire, which was forbidden in town.

Qi Si proposed investigating the townspeople’s midnight identity exchange before deciding whether to burn Poplar Blossom Town, and planned to use the Ink Soul Scroll, Umbrella Filled with Pain, and Pocket Watch of Fate to observe the town safely. The chapter ended with Qi Si, Tang Yu, and Lin Chen reading Luo Haihua’s account of Xiyi, where dead townspeople and Players lived on without physical bodies.

• Qi Si explained that burning Poplar Blossom Town might offer a way to clear the Instance, but warned that the townspeople’s nature, Meng Fang’s motives, and the fire’s effects remained uncertain.
• Qi Si decided the group would still meet the tiger demon the next day and planned to investigate the suspected midnight identity exchange that night.
• Tang Yu lent Qi Si the Ink Soul Scroll, and Lin Chen supplied the Umbrella Filled with Pain so a summoned shadow ghost could carry Qi Si over the town while he observed from the scroll’s space and rewound time if needed.
• Qi Si took responsibility for the nighttime plan, and the three Players went upstairs to read the messages Luo Haihua and her husband had left.
• Luo Haihua’s notes described entering Xiyi after a fire in her room, finding a mirrored Poplar Blossom Town, and meeting dead townspeople and deceased Players who retained their memories.

Qi Si used fire to reveal Xiyi, exchanged clues with Tang Yu and Lin Chen, and prepared to explore Poplar Blossom Town at night after Luo Haihua sent him a Photographic Negative. Meanwhile, Qiu Xin connected the Instance’s ghost hierarchy to mirrors and waited for midnight as the night watchman announced the second watch.

• Qi Si burned a bedsheet and used the flames to reveal many Xiyi, while Lin Chen explained how fire could expose the other space.
• Tang Yu recorded the Players’ discoveries for Luo Haihua, and Qi Si theorized that the ruined west of town was real while the prosperous east was a haven for the dead.
• Qi Si decided he would explore at night without using the Pocket Watch of Fate, and Luo Haihua sent him the Photographic Negative.
• Qiu Xin recalled killing a child, described her worsening mental condition, and reasoned that mirrors contained Xiyi and that a tiger’s ghost would fear them.
• The night watchman called out that it was the second watch and warned the townspeople to guard against men and ghosts.

Qiu Xin killed the night watchman, but Qi Si stopped her and persuaded her to cooperate, revealing that townspeople were ghosts inhabiting scarecrows. Qi Si then tested the village’s rules and used his items to leave the town, leaving the fate of the human-shaped scarecrow’s owner unresolved.

• Qiu Xin killed the night watchman, but Qi Si trapped her with his Cursed Pendulum and asked her to cooperate.
• Qiu Xin agreed to a world-guaranteed contract, and Qi Si revealed that most townspeople were ghosts possessing scarecrows.
• Qiu Xin tested Qi Si’s claim by killing the grieving old woman, while Qi Si observed the ghost scatter from its scarecrow.
• Qi Si and Qiu Xin found a scholar who had become the night watchman, and Qi Si proposed testing whether he would survive without being killed according to The Rules.
• Qi Si killed a middle-aged couple, activated the Ink Soul Scroll and Umbrella Filled with Pain, and stepped through a golden-lit door as the third watch sounded.

Qi Si uncovered how Poplar Blossom Town’s tiger-shaped scarecrows exchanged ghosts at midnight and shared his findings with Tang Yu and Lin Chen. As the group prepared to confront the tiger demon, a new scholar named Li Yi arrived with wine and offered to lead them to its lair.

• Qi Si discovered that townspeople became invisible straw tigers at midnight, while ghosts moved between the scarecrows and the corpse pile in the east; he also found that the townspeople could hear the watch gong despite not seeing him.
• Qi Si opened Tang Yu and Lin Chen’s locked room and showed them photographs revealing the scarecrows’ tiger shapes and the nightly movement of ghosts between them.
• Lin Chen concluded that possession changed randomly at midnight, while Qi Si explained that an illusion concealed the town’s ruins and kept its inhabitants from seeing parts of their world.
• Lin Chen speculated that the Instance’s illusions and divided inhabitants reflected ideas from the Tao Te Ching, though he could not reconcile them with other clues.
• Li Yi arrived with wine from Master Meng and offered to lead the Players to the tiger demon’s lair; Qi Si then saw Qiu Xin approaching the residence.

Qiu Xin shared what she had learned about the factions and the Instance, while Qi Si questioned the scholar’s account of the town’s deaths and led the Players to the bamboo grove. The group followed Qiu Xin toward the tiger demon’s lair, where a giant tiger’s head appeared through the mist.

• Qiu Xin explained that Players in her faction were zhans, that people could become Xiyi, and that mirrors could expose tiger’s minion ghosts to fear.
• Qi Si argued that the scholar and other guides were disposable NPCs, and the group found the previous scholar dead before funeral bearers carried away his body.
• Qi Si speculated that the Instance’s hidden authority used Players to kill marked townspeople and wondered what would happen if they killed the tiger demon.
• The scholar led the Players through a hidden door and across corpse-strewn ground to the bamboo grove, where he refused to go farther.
• Qiu Xin guided the Players deeper into the grove, past hanging corpses and scattered bones, as the tiger’s roar and approaching footsteps sounded.
• A huge tiger’s head emerged from the mist as the Players prepared their life-saving items.

Lin Chen was transformed into a Tiger's Thrall after Qi Si used the Soul Contract to keep him before the Mountain God, then learned Qi Si had planned the conversion to save the Players. As Qi Si continued the plan, Tang Yu became the only human left among them.

• The Mountain God approached, and Qi Si's Soul Contract prevented Lin Chen from fleeing while Tang Yu and the other Players ran.
• Lin Chen was bitten, but the Eerie Game changed his faction to Tiger's Thrall and updated his mission to eliminate all humans among the Players.
• Qi Si explained that he had arranged Lin Chen's conversion so the Players could all become Tiger's Thralls and survive, and admitted he had relied on the Pocket Watch of Fate to protect Lin Chen.
• Lin Chen struggled with Qi Si's deception but followed him out of the bamboo grove.
• Qi Si and Qiu Xin captured Tang Yu, and Qi Si revealed that Tang Yu was the only human remaining.

Qi Si identified that a wraith could kill the tiger demon and persuaded Tang Yu to risk dying so he could become one. After revealing that Teacher Luo and the others had concealed their Changgui status, Qi Si left Lin Chen facing his own complicity in Tang Yu’s sacrifice.

• Qi Si used Lin Chen’s [Top Student's Note] and [Pilgrim's Blessing] to learn that all ghosts feared wraiths, then concluded that a ghost who died could become one and kill the tiger demon.
• Qi Si pressured Tang Yu to enter the bamboo forest and die in hopes of becoming a wraith; Tang Yu agreed to take the risk after learning his quest required him to kill the tiger demon.
• Qi Si and the others questioned Luo Haihua and her husband, learning that four people had the quest to kill the tiger demon and that they had made no discoveries in the other space.
• Tang Yu explained that his death would leave Lin Chen alive and satisfy the competing faction quests, then left with Qiu Xin while Lin Chen and Qi Si remained behind.
• Lin Chen accused Qi Si of arranging Tang Yu’s sacrifice to keep him alive, and Qi Si challenged him to admit that he wanted to survive and had accepted the plan.
• Qi Si learned from Teacher Luo that her faction was Changgui and explained that Teacher Luo and another person had become shades before dying and turning into Xiyi.

Lin Chen learned that Tang Yu had chosen to sacrifice himself willingly, while Qi Si decided to burn Poplar Blossom Town and test whether destroying the Instance map could close it permanently. The town’s ghosts followed the green lantern into the spreading inferno as Qi Si and Qiu Xin set the blaze.

• Tang Yu told Lin Chen he did not blame him for the sacrifice plan and secretly warned him to beware of Lin Wen, seek Fu Jue, and hold on to his initiative.
• Qi Si told Qiu Xin he planned to burn Poplar Blossom Town, and she inferred that he had already used the Pocket Watch of Fate.
• Qi Si learned through his connection with Lin Chen that Fu Jue knew secrets about the Identity Card and considered whether to contact him.
• Tang Yu revealed his true ghostly form, left the residence, and asked Lin Chen to ensure the dead were revived if anyone cleared the final Instance.
• Qi Si drew the ghosts toward a green lantern and threw it onto a house, while Qiu Xin spread wine to feed the flames.
• The townspeople followed the fire through Poplar Blossom Town, and the blaze consumed the town beneath the night sky.

Tang Yu defeated the tiger demon while Qi Si exposed Meng Fang’s role in Poplar Blossom Town’s deaths. Meng Fang recounted how a mysterious being revived him through a contract, leaving his motives and fate under judgment.

• Tang Yu led Lin Chen through the bamboo grove, defeated the tiger demon, and completed the main quest; its corpse was revealed as a straw effigy.
• Qi Si confronted Meng Fang amid the burning town and explained how Meng Fang used the Players to eliminate townspeople while disguising their deaths as attacks by tiger’s ghosts.
• Meng Fang defended his actions as service to the sovereign and the people, then recalled ordering Poplar Blossom Town burned and dying by suicide as enemy forces approached.
• After his death, Meng Fang wandered among the unjustly dead and met a mysterious man who offered to grant his wish and attached his soul to a straw doll.
• Meng Fang accepted a contract that restored his body and erased his memories of death, while the mysterious being predicted that his ideals would decay into sin.

Meng Fang’s history revealed how the deity’s contracts trapped Poplar Blossom Town in cycles of altered memories and sacrifice, while Qi Si challenged Meng Fang’s claim that he had acted for the townspeople’s sake. After the karmic fire died and the Instance ended, Qi Si investigated the eastern residence and contacted Lin Chen.

• Meng Fang recalled making repeated deals with the deity, who used wraiths, outsiders, and altered memories to keep Poplar Blossom Town under control.
• The deity promised Meng Fang freedom if he killed the tiger demon, and Meng Fang invited outsiders until he heard that the demon had been eliminated.
• After setting the karmic fire, Qi Si accused Meng Fang of sacrificing townspeople and denying them the right to choose; the Main Quest then registered as completed.
• Qi Si and Qiu Xin found the bodies of Luo Haihua and her husband were straw fakes, and Qi Si found a fabricated account in Luo Haihua’s handwriting implicating Tang Yu.
• The karmic fire and Qi Si’s candle went out, and Qi Si used the red Soul Leaf to tell Lin Chen where he was.

Tang Yu learned that he would remain in Poplar Blossom Town as a Xiyi and overturned his lantern rather than leave without his teammates. Lin Chen chose to stay with Qi Si, who waited at East Town Residence and greeted him as he arrived.

• Tang Yu discovered that his human faction had failed and that he would remain in Poplar Blossom Town as a Xiyi.
• Tang Yu crossed into the Xiyi world, learned that Luo Haihua and her husband had lied about the lanterns, and overturned his own lantern.
• Qi Si told Lin Chen that he was at East Town Residence, and Lin Chen chose to meet him and vowed to clear the final Instance and revive everyone.
• Qi Si and Qiu Xin waited at the residence while Qi Si considered how to control or kill Lin Chen if he did not come.
• Lin Chen arrived at East Town Residence, and Qi Si greeted him and said they should go.

Qi Si and Lin Chen escaped Poplar Blossom Town as Meng Fang’s ghost fire guided the trapped souls home, and Lin Chen cleared the Tiger's Minion team Instance. The ending revealed the fate of the player’s assumed identity before Qi Si was transported to a bamboo forest and awaited settlement.

• Qi Si led Lin Chen west with the Guiding Green Lamp and rejected the Xiyi’s attempts to persuade them to remain in the Instance.
• Qi Si explained why he had saved Lin Chen, and Lin Chen resolved to repay his investment by proving his worth.
• Qi Si and Lin Chen crossed the mirror boundary and saw Meng Fang’s body burning as a blue-green bonfire.
• At dawn, the remaining ghosts followed Meng Fang’s fire home, and the system announced Lin Chen’s clearance of the team Instance.
• The ending showed the assumed identity writing about Poplar Blossom Town, being executed, and later commemorated by a stele.
• Qi Si was transported to a bamboo forest, where a middle-aged traveler awoke and began writing an account of his vision.

The Wily Ghost Instance was permanently closed after Lin Chen cleared its true ending, drawing attention to his rapid rise in the rankings and prompting speculation about his identity. Qi Si collected his rewards, fused the Dark Nether Lamp with the Book of the Dead into the Nether Guide, and checked Lin Chen’s settlement and new Straw Tiger item.

• Players at the Ruins of Sunset noticed Lin Chen’s record for clearing the Wily Ghost Instance and saw him rise to thirtieth place in the rookie rankings.
• Players speculated that Lin Chen might also have destroyed the Carnivore Instance, while a young man wondered whether Lin Chen was the same person as Zhou Ke.
• Qi Si received 40,000 frozen reward points and a Dark Nether Lamp, then fused it with the Book of the Dead to create the Nether Guide.
• Qi Si replied to Dong Xiwen’s question about his real name with “Zhang San.”
• Qi Si inspected Lin Chen’s settlement, saw that Lin Chen had earned the Strange MVP achievement, and found the Straw Tiger in his inventory.

Qi Si accepted an invitation for the Unnamed Guild to attend the Nine Provinces Guild’s information exchange and told Lin Chen to assume the identity of Lin Crow. Meanwhile, Dong Xiwen discovered the God Mask’s properties, and Qi Si’s returning illness revealed that he had become a source of expanding Eerie contamination.

• Qi Si saw the Unnamed Guild rise to 217th place and accepted the Nine Provinces Guild’s invitation, telling Lin Chen they would attend together on April 20.
• Qi Si told Lin Chen to change his habits and conceal his identity as Lin Chen, becoming Lin Crow instead.
• Dong Xiwen recalled learning that his brother Dong Ziwen had belonged to the Church of the Scales and had died in the Eerie Game.
• Dong Xiwen’s jade pendant warmed as White Crow approached with a mask, revealing its name as the God Mask and its power to isolate its wearer from Eerie, mystery, and faith.
• Qi Si’s illness returned after he logged out, and he perceived Eerie territories spreading across the world as contamination linked to him.
• A voice beside Qi Si told him that he would rule the Eerie.

Yuan learned that White Crow had retrieved the mask once used by the leader of an early resistance organization, while a censored forum post drew players’ attention to the possible opening of the final Instance and the Eerie Invasion. After reviewing Lin Chen’s record, Liu Yuhan reconsidered her assumptions about Qi Si and concluded that Lin Chen was likely the stronger player; she planned to verify her theory using the Carnivore Instance records.

• Dong Xiwen told Yuan that White Crow wore a smiling white mask with golden patterns, and Yuan explained its connection to the downfall of an early resistance organization.
• Player Twenty-One predicted that the guilds’ exchange meeting would focus on preparing to clear the final Instance, citing rising clear rates, destroyed Instances, and an influx of high-potential Players.
• Forum administrators deleted Twenty-One’s post and muted users, prompting players to circulate screenshots and investigate old reports about Eerie Invasion and Double Happiness Town.
• Liu Yuhan reviewed evidence linking Lin Chen to Unnamed Guild and reconsidered her theory that Qi Si was the dominant player.
• Liu Yuhan found a post claiming Lin Chen had destroyed both the Carnivore and Chang Ghost Instances and decided to compare the Carnivore records to confirm her suspicions.