Chapter Summaries

A rose-born Eerie outbreak spread across Jiang City, killing investigators and turning their wishes into traps. Si Qi recruited Zhang Yiyu after she killed Shao Qingmin, and the Jiang City Branch watched its investigators die until every radio went silent and the city was declared fallen.

• Qin Liang’s wish to die as a hero was twisted by a rose that grew through his heart, while roses attacked investigators across Jiang City.
• Zhang Yiyu entered Ruidanshen Casino to confront the roses and found Shao Qingmin hanging, badly wounded, from the ceiling.
• Si Qi urged Zhang Yiyu to kill Shao Qingmin, and she stabbed him repeatedly, then accepted the Assistant Identity Card he gave her.
• Si Qi told Zhang Yiyu she would have a place in the final Instance and ordered her to clear away the investigators; rose-controlled ghosts killed those still fighting.
• The Jiang City Branch watched investigators’ names fade on the Life Register, and all radios disconnected as the survivors concluded that Jiang City had fallen.

Fu Jue forced the Federation’s leaders to accept his control before the Final Instance, then prepared Lu Li to return to the gameboard. As the world descended into chaos, Yu Jinsheng accepted his place in the final game, and his name appeared on the Revelation Fragment Stele.

• White Crow hijacked Federation broadcasts and delivered a declaration on behalf of the Church of the Scales.
• Brooke Hayes confronted Fu Jue with evidence that he was the Puppeteer and tried to have him contained, but Fu Jue threatened to unleash disasters if he died, forcing Hayes to leave with him.
• Fu Jue visited the Sea God Corpse chamber and promised Lu Li he would return to the gameboard when the Final Instance began.
• Ghosts and monsters were exposed to the public, chaos spread, and Fu Jue announced that Nine Provinces would gather the strongest forces for the Final Instance.
• Yu Jinsheng accepted the risk of entering the final game, and his name appeared on the Revelation Fragment Stele.

Qi Si and Lin Chen found themselves on a bus bound for Snow Mountain Holy City, with their powers stripped away and the Ancestral God’s influence looming over the journey. They bought replacement tickets to stay aboard, while Xu Yao was left behind at a station with an unfamiliar handsome man.

• Qi Si woke on a deserted bus on May 5, missing his divine power, wristband, and most of the scarlet leaves in his Mind Palace; only Lin Chen was with him.
• After the bus swerved around a grave-like mound, most passengers vanished and reappeared as funeral portraits before returning to their seats as corpses.
• The driver announced that the passengers were headed to a cemetery near the sacred snow mountain and displayed three bus rules, including a requirement to replace lost tickets.
• Qi Si and Lin Chen exchanged items they had obtained from the Mother Goddess for replacement tickets, then stayed aboard as the bus passed its first station.
• The bus crossed a bloodied stone stele and entered a darker, ghostly region, while Xu Yao messaged Qi Si that she had been left at the station with a handsome man.

Qi Si, Lin Chen, Lu Li, and Xu Yao arrived in Shangri-La, where a guide promised immortality and led them to an inn filled with other Players. The Players compared what little they knew about the Instance, and as night fell, they prepared to search the inn for clues.

• Qi Si and the others left the bus and found an ancient city surrounded by kneeling corpses, where a guide said the Mother God had summoned them to Shangri-La.
• The guide led the four Players through the unsettling city to an inn at the foot of the snow mountain, saying the others had been waiting for them.
• Qi Si recognized Fu Jue, Dream Teller, Jiang Jue, and Li Yunyang among the Players gathered at the inn.
• A player questioned Lu Li's return and challenged Unnamed's relationship with Nine Provinces, prompting Lin Chen to defend their recent reconciliation.
• Dream Teller and the others shared that they had arrived without seeing a system interface, and Qi Si suggested searching the inn after dark.
• As the sky darkened, Jiang Jue proposed looking for former guests' belongings and ghosts, and an elderly man brought rice for everyone to eat.

Qi Si and the other Players traveled by bus through a tunnel to Shangri-La Town, where ghosts and visions from Qi Si’s past tried to lure him to his death. Lu Li joined the group, and the bus arrived at the Holy City, where the dead had gathered in worship.

• Dong Xiwen and Qi Si used stolen memorial tickets to avoid being thrown off the bus, while the two passengers whose tickets had been taken were expelled.
• In the tunnel, hostile voices severed Qi Si’s Soul Leaf connection and conjured memories of the dead, including his cousin Qi Xinyue, but he resisted and made it back onto the bus.
• The bus emerged beyond the boundary marker into a plain where cattle, sheep, and human skeletons knelt toward the snow mountains, and Xu Yao boarded.
• Lu Li joined the passengers, signed Qi Si’s contract, and confirmed that Sariel would cooperate with Qi Si’s demands.
• The bus passed crowds of kneeling dead and vehicles carrying remains from different eras before reaching Shangri-La, which the driver announced as the Holy City.

Qi Si, Lin Chen, Lu Li, and Xu Yao entered Shangri-La, where a guide promised eternal life and led them to an inn already crowded with players. The group compared what little they knew of the Instance, and as night fell, an old man brought out a basin of rice.

• Qi Si and the others got off the bus before a guide in a red cassock welcomed them to Shangri-La in the Mother God's name.
• The guide led the four Players through the unsettling Holy City to an inn beneath the snow mountain, saying the others had been waiting for them.
• At the inn, Qi Si found Fu Jue, Dream Teller, Jiang Jue, Li Yunyang, and other players; a girl confronted Lu Li about his apparent death and his ties to the Unnamed Guild.
• Lin Chen defended the cooperation between their guilds, and Dream Teller said the players had arrived without seeing a system interface or learning the main quest.
• The group agreed to search the inn after dark, and an old man brought rice into the hall as night fell.

Qi Si and Lin Chen encountered a decayed devotee in the inn’s endless corridor, where a sinister song threatened to draw them in. Sangji’s chanting drove the devotee away, but his warnings about immortality, atonement, and the thangkas left the players facing new dangers.

• Sangji refused to discuss his age, and the players debated Shangri-La’s rules about life, death, and reincarnation.
• Yu Su complained about the undercooked rice, and Sangji later gave the twenty-two players keys to eleven rooms.
• Qi Si and Lin Chen found a dead devotee kowtowing in the corridor as a song from Qi Si’s former tape recorder began to play.
• Qi Si matched the devotee’s pace instead of using an item, and Sangji’s prayer-wheel chanting made the devotee turn away and disappear into the night.
• Sangji warned Qi Si and Lin Chen to stay indoors and said sinners had to atone by chanting scriptures and worshipping the Mother God.
• As Sangji led them upstairs, Lin Chen noticed the thangka paintings watching them, and Sangji said everyone in Shangri-La loved thangkas and that there was no time.

Dong Xiwen and Qi Si reached the snow mountain inn, where travelers from different eras gathered for the final Instance and introduced themselves. After Qi Si and Lin Chen entered their room, they discovered signs that the inn and the snow mountain were tied to death, leaving Qi Si contemplating his own mortality.

• Qi Si played a recorded nursery rhyme in the street, attracting a burlap-wrapped believer until he stopped the song and it wandered away.
• Dong Xiwen overheard travelers discussing the final Instance, their different timelines, and the possibility of rewriting The Rules.
• Dong Xiwen recognized Yuan among the travelers, while Zhou Ke introduced himself under a false name and met Lin Jue, who said he had entered the Instance in 2014.
• Xiao Fengchao and the other travelers introduced themselves, and Dong Xiwen and Zhang Yiyu claimed their names were false.
• Sangji insisted that Qi Si and Lin Chen follow the sacred song's rituals, then left; Qi Si noticed signs of decay on Sangji's neck.
• Qi Si and Lin Chen found a Six-Armed Mahakala statue and saw bodies sealed in the snow mountain's ice, which Qi Si described as an enormous grave.

Qi Si and Lin Chen searched their room at the Snow Mountain Inn, discovering a mirror that linked Qi Si to a snowbound version of himself and a diary left by earlier Players. The diary warned them about conversion and Shangri-La’s dangers, and the pair planned to investigate the town the next day.

• Qi Si found frantic carvings about mirrors and forgotten identity inside a drawer, then saw his reflection standing in a blizzard and felt its cold and injuries affect him.
• Lin Chen found Chu Yining’s diary, which recorded earlier Players’ arrival and warned that hymns and Shangri-La’s natives tried to convert travelers through parasitism.
• Qi Si and Lin Chen discussed the earlier Players’ apparent failure, while Qi Si suspected some might still be alive because Lin Jue and Xiao Fengchao held Identity Cards.
• Qi Si told Lin Chen to sleep and said they would look around town the next day, including seeking the Scripture of Salvation.

Lu Li and Xu Yao investigated the purpose of the Instance before a skinless figure knocked at their door, while Qi Si noticed that the snow mountain’s hymns and horrors were affecting the group’s emotions. In Room 6, Zhang Yiyu worried that her dead father had appeared in the Instance, and Zhou Ke returned with a cut on his finger.

• Xu Yao complained about the inn as Lu Li searched a drawer and reasoned that escaping Shangri-La Town required more than simply reclaiming the Identity Cards.
• Lu Li began writing a record for those who came after, but he and Xu Yao heard a chant and knocks at the door; Lu Li saw a skinless figure holding its own large intestine like a whip.
• Qi Si reviewed Chu Yining’s record and Fu Jue’s secrecy, then realized that he and Lin Chen seemed unusually emotionally dulled.
• Qi Si saw rows of skinless figures on the snow mountain as they chanted outside the inn, but turned away and eventually fell asleep beside Lin Chen.
• Zhang Yiyu told Dong Xiwen she had seen her father, Zhang Hongbin, and wondered if he had died in the Instance; Dong Xiwen tried to comfort her and speculated that Qi Si might save people.
• Zhou Ke returned to Room 6 after walking among the corpses with a Tape Recorder, reassured Dong Xiwen and Zhang Yiyu that they could tell whether they were alive, and revealed a long cut on his finger.

Qi Si woke from a disturbing dream to find that Mu Chuqing had been flayed and made into a human-skin thangka, while Yu Su appeared mentally regressed. The Players suspected that telling a ghost their room number and being female triggered the death, and Jiang Jue revealed records warning that they had turned back into children.

• Qi Si awoke after dreaming of leaping from a cliff and being called a child by a woman who claimed to be his mother, and realized he had become human again.
• Qi Si opened Chu Yining's diary and read her account of Vasilyevna's death and the Players' plan to cross the snow mountain.
• Qi Si and Lin Chen joined the Players gathered around Mu Chuqing's flayed corpse and human-skin thangka, where Lu Li concluded that the victim had struggled while being skinned alive.
• Fu Jue proposed that telling a ghost one's room number and being female were conditions for the death, while Yu Su's frightened behavior suggested that her mind had been affected.
• Sangji praised the thangka made from a young maiden's skin, and Yu Su began crying and called Li Yunyang her big sister.
• Jiang Jue showed Fu Jue and the other Players papers covered with the message, "We have turned back into children."

The Players investigated the inn death and concluded that the Instance’s childlike behavior mechanic might be a form of reincarnation, while clues pointed toward the snow mountain as their next destination. As more Players gathered around Vasilyevna’s corpse, Zhou Ke proposed that the groups share information and cooperate.

• Fu Jue explained that the childlike behavior mechanic might represent reincarnation, and that losing the ability to think could correspond to death.
• Qi Si gave Lu Li Chu Yining’s diary, and they agreed to explore town for clues before heading toward the snow mountain.
• Qi Si realized that Lin Chen’s accidental answer suggested he had triggered the mechanic, then urged him to gather clues while he still could.
• Zhou Ke told Dong Xiwen that the hymn could draw sinful pilgrims and revealed that he wanted to test how far the Ark Guild would go to save people.
• Zhou Ke, Dong Xiwen, and Zhang Yiyu found Vasilyevna’s skinned corpse, and Zhou Ke proposed that the travelers share clues and cooperate.

Lin Chen and Qi Si visited Baima at the Mountaineering Preparation Center, where they learned that travelers were drawn to climb the snow mountain and were warned about Atonement, time, and destiny. After Baima said Qi Si had no heart and could not leave the mountain without growing one, Lin Chen realized he had become younger again.

• Lin Chen heard Fu Jue propose sharing clues, then joined Qi Si in visiting the Mountaineering Preparation Center with the Players moving together.
• Baima told Lin Chen and Qi Si that locals knew how to climb the snow mountain safely and that past travelers had gone up and never returned.
• Lin Chen nearly gave in to a vision of staying forever in Shangri-La, but the memory of the human-skin thangka jolted him back to caution.
• Baima warned that those who had not completed Atonement must not speak of time, showed them a bronze mirror, and said Qi Si had no heart and could not leave the mountain without growing one.
• After leaving the shop, Qi Si asked Lin Chen how old he felt, and Lin Chen said his first instinct was that he would be fourteen after his birthday.

Lin Jue’s group investigated Shangri-La Town’s age-regression curse and the Scripture of Salvation, which described Atonement through saving others. As pilgrims surrounded the inn at night, Zhou Ke revealed that he had destroyed every prayer wheel and played their hymn, leaving the players facing an imminent attack.

• Lin Jue had the players record their perceived ages, revealing that Zhang Hongbin, Chu Yining, and Aleksei Olegovich had regressed, while Aleksei had also lost twenty-two years of memories.
• Lin Jue identified night attacks and age regression as the Instance’s two death mechanisms and told the players to avoid discussing time while bearing Sin.
• Lin Jue showed the group the Scripture of Salvation, whose illustrations suggested that saving others meant ritually killing sinners, and a player warned that Shangri-La’s NPCs might target the travelers.
• Zhou Ke argued that Atonement was not required to climb the snow mountain, then suggested killing half the group before revealing a second plan.
• Zhou Ke played a pilgrims’ hymn and said he had bought and destroyed all the town’s prayer wheels, leaving him pale and weakened from the cost.
• As night fell, pilgrims surrounded the inn, bowing as they advanced toward the players.

Qi Si traded the [Ink Soul Scroll] for a prayer wheel and reasoned that Zhou Ke was using the sacred song and pilgrims to force the Players into cooperation. At the inn, Zhou Ke explained his plan to make [Dark Judge] create a main quest, and Lin Jue judged himself guilty, causing the quest to appear.

• Qi Si traded the [Ink Soul Scroll] to the shopkeeper for a prayer wheel and inferred that Zhou Ke had used [Ghost Driver's Tape Recorder] to attract pilgrims to the inn.
• At the inn, Players attacked Zhou Ke, who vanished into an ink-wash scroll while the sacred song drew pilgrims inside.
• A young man in a black suit held Dong Xiwen hostage, while Alexei fought Zhang Yiyu.
• Zhou Ke proposed using Lin Jue's [Dark Judge] card to create a quest to kill one person and let the others clear the Instance.
• Lin Jue destroyed his Identity Card and declared himself guilty, refreshing the main quest to [Kill the sinner Lin Jue].

Qi Si’s group decided to climb the snow mountain to avoid the town’s dangerous salvation rituals, while Fu Jue warned that the Instance might force the Identity Card holders into a deadly contest. Meanwhile, Zhou Ke’s party began its ascent, and Dong Xiwen discovered that the young man in the black suit was Fu Jue.

• Fu Jue laid out clues about the town’s salvation rituals and the conditions for climbing the mountain, while Qi Si added that prayer wheels could resist sacred hymns.
• Qi Si rejected Li Yunyang’s offer to climb together, and Fu Jue raised the possibility that the Instance was a contest to choose the one true God.
• Lin Chen reflected on the dead before Lu Li and Xu Yao returned; the group then decided to climb the mountain that night.
• At the preparation station, Lu Li explained that seeing a possible successful future in Baima’s mirror had given him hope, and Baima gave the four climbers prayer beads for protection.
• Zhou Ke’s party set out with guide Tashi, who stopped them on the mountain after claiming the Mother Goddess was about to become angry.
• While helping pitch camp, Dong Xiwen asked the black-suited young man his name and learned that he was Fu Jue.

Baima led Qi Si and the others up the snow mountain, where they camped among corpses sealed beneath the ice and Qi Si learned the mountain rejected him as incomplete. Meanwhile, Dong Xiwen met Lin Jue while investigating at night, and Lin Jue offered to help him escape Zhou Ke’s influence and clear the Instance together.

• Baima brought Lin Chen, Lu Li, Xu Yao, and Qi Si to a clearing above the corpses buried beneath the snow mountain and told them to sleep there.
• The Players used Qi Si’s [Nether Guide] to erect a tent, and Baima told Qi Si that the mountain rejected him because he was incomplete before giving him a warm Tibetan robe.
• Qi Si found blood bubbling up from beneath a tent spike and saw his hands covered in blood as the corpses beneath the ice opened their eyes and mouths.
• Dong Xiwen left his tent at night to investigate and found Lin Jue examining a mound of snow.
• Lin Jue told Dong Xiwen he knew Zhou Ke had coerced him and offered to help him work together to clear the Instance.

Qi Si wandered through a snowbound vision where the dead and monsters accused him of killing them, while Zhou Ke offered him a way out. The chapter ended with Zhou Ke claiming that Qi Si wanted to live, and Qi Si unable to name his own desires.

• Qi Si killed one of Baima's goats, then followed her into the mountains as the dead rose from beneath the ice and accused him.
• Qi Si used the Straw Tiger and the Sea God Scepter to fend off or evade apparitions of people he had killed, including Zou Yan, Zhao Feng, and others.
• Qi Si refused Zhou Ke's offer to exchange for a way out, then escaped Zhou Datong and Chen Lidong before falling into an ice pit with Huang Xiaofei and Lu Zimo.
• Nian Fu briefly carried Qi Si on the Straw Tiger before Chang Xu attacked him with a scythe.
• Zhou Ke accused Qi Si of fearing death and wanting to live, while Qi Si said he did not know what his desires were.

Zhou Ke entered a snowy vision where the dead gathered around his hymn-playing Tape Recorder and Qi Si confronted him as another version of himself, revealing a plan to turn him into a desire-bearing god. After waking, Qi Si examined his fate in Baima’s mirror and learned that he had two shadows, one of them seemingly trying to consume the other.

• Zhou Ke left the tent and found himself alone in a snowy expanse, where ghosts of people he had killed accused him of murdering them.
• Zhou Ke played a hymn on the Tape Recorder, drawing the ghosts’ attention away from him as he continued into the mountains.
• Zhou Ke met Qi Si in an ice wall, and Qi Si called him his madness and explained his plan to make him a god with desires.
• Qi Si woke in the tent and concluded that the encounter had been part of the Instance, though Zhou Ke’s ability to find him across time and space troubled him.
• Baima showed Qi Si a mirror depicting him in a red suit among a crowd, and Qi Si dismissed the vision as unchanged fate.
• Lin Chen emerged from the tent and told Qi Si that he had two shadows, with one appearing to devour the other.

Qi Si, Lu Li, Xu Yao, and Lin Chen reached a temple where the Mother Goddess’s followers revealed that the dead tied to Qi Si’s sins were the intended sacrifices. Meanwhile, Lin Jue’s group continued through an unnaturally long night and realized the mountain peak was receding, leaving them stranded in a strange snowy expanse.

• Qi Si, Lu Li, and Xu Yao discussed their dreams and concluded that Players’ sins could manifest as ghosts on the mountain, while Lin Chen privately said he had dreamed of nothing.
• Baima led the group across the glacier to a temple and explained that travelers could sacrifice cattle, sheep, or people to earn the Mother Goddess’s blessing.
• A lama revealed a pit filled with the corpses of people Qi Si had killed, and Qi Si admitted to Lin Chen that he had killed them.
• Tashi led Zhou Ke, Lin Jue, Dong Xiwen, and the other Players onward through the dark despite their protests.
• Zhang Yiyu worried about her father and the group’s chances of survival as Zhang Hongbin reassured her about Lin Jue.
• Lin Jue noticed that dawn had not come and the mountain peak was getting farther away, while the group stood in an endless snowy plain.