Chapter Summaries

Qi Si and Fu Jue agreed to use a large-scale sacrifice to lure out the Ancestral God, while Lin Chen accepted that Qi Si would kill more people and resolved to repay his debt to him. In Zhou Ke’s timeline, the group remained trapped in endless night, and Lin Jue asked Fu Jue to kill him to protect the others.

• Zhou Ke and the others realized they had walked backward through a mirror world and planned to return to the inn to investigate its mirrors.
• Qi Si read Chu Yining’s diary and learned that Zhou Ke had coerced Lin Jue into accepting a quest to kill him.
• Fu Jue and Qi Si agreed to fill the sacrificial pit with victims and use the sacrifice to draw out the Ancestral God.
• Lin Chen confronted Qi Si about the planned killings but said he still owed him three lives.
• After Xiao Fengchao divined that several Players’ fates ended there, Lin Jue asked Fu Jue to kill him for the group’s survival.

As the Church of the Scales’ war spread, mass deaths and eerie phenomena swept through the real world, while ordinary people and soldiers became sacrifices in the final Instance. In a ruined snowy temple, White Crow pinned Yu Jinsheng to a wall and prepared to use him as bait for whoever might come to rescue him.

• People across North America died from the Insomnia Pathogen, and the Bureau’s North American director said they were sacrifices to the Ancestral God before the sky opened and frost sealed the investigator beneath the ice.
• Old Crooked tried to flee Magic City with his granddaughter, but a spider-like eerie cut him off from the world and killed him, leaving the girl alone beside his corpse.
• Hunter treated wounded soldiers as Red of Truth’s forces and their ghosts overran the battlefield, dragging him into a pit filled with skeletons.
• White Crow pinned Yu Jinsheng to a spirit wall beside a sacrificial pit as the bones inside rose with the war’s death toll.
• Yu Jinsheng proposed a truce, but White Crow asked who would come to save him if she nailed him to the Altar.

As the Players struggled with Fu Jue’s decision to fill the sacrificial pit with innocents, Lu Li told Lin Chen about his past before Lin Chen encountered another version of himself in the ice. In his dream, Qi Si confronted a figure claiming to be Zhou Ke, endured the ghosts’ pursuit, and reached the Ancestral God’s remains, where he found Jin Yusheng pinned to an altar.

• Yu Su broke down over the sacrifices while Li Yunyang restrained her, and Dream Teller and Jiang Jue struggled to ease the grim mood.
• Lu Li told Lin Chen how he had met Qi Si, followed Fu Jue’s orders, and later began questioning what was right and wrong.
• Lin Chen found himself alone on an ice field and met a reflection who introduced himself as Lin Chen, another version of him.
• Qi Si watched the sacrificial pit fill, spoke with Fu Jue, and later entered a dream where Zhou Ke challenged his belief that they were different people.
• Qi Si escaped Chang Xu and waves of vengeful ghosts, crossed the Ancestral God’s remains, and discovered Jin Yusheng pinned to a white altar.

Fu Jue met Lin Jue in a dream and told him to keep Zhou Ke alive, while Qi Si found Jin Yusheng bound as a sacrifice and carried him from the altar. After a ritual triggered the next stage of the Instance and dawn split dream from reality, Qi Si woke in the temple and considered deploying Beast Arena.

• Fu Jue used the Fallen Savior card to meet Lin Jue and explained that he had been revived in Fu Jue’s body after Lin Jue died.
• Fu Jue told Lin Jue that he had sacrificed 985,629 people to the Ancestral God and instructed him to keep Zhou Ke alive.
• Qi Si found Jin Yusheng nailed to an altar, pulled the feathers from his limbs, and carried him away while questioning whether the encounter was a trap.
• Jin Yusheng said he had seen a woman in white near the altar, and Qi Si wondered whether she was the Ancestral God or White Crow.
• Qi Si saw a figure in a white coat approach the enormous skull as the ritual produced a blinding light, and Jin Yusheng faded away.
• Qi Si woke in the temple and focused on the last Eerie he could deploy, Beast Arena.

Qi Si deployed the Beast Arena across the world and changed its rules, trapping people in a deadly game. As train passengers were drawn into an arena and ordered to kill one another, Qi Si watched the bodies pile up beside a sacrificial pit on the snowy mountain.

• A phantom of a marble structure appeared above the world as the Beast Arena manifested.
• Lu Renjia heard the Eerie Game announcement as her train crashed and overturned in a tunnel.
• Lu Renjia and the surviving passengers appeared in the Beast Arena, where the game announced that they had to kill everyone except themselves.
• A woman was killed, panic spread, and Lu Renjia was stabbed in the chest while trying to protect herself.
• Qi Si watched corpses accumulate beside the sacrificial pit after deploying the Beast Arena and rewriting its quest and rules.

After the sacrifice plunged the world into darkness, Qi Si witnessed a world take shape and found himself in the Ancestral God's place, able to create or alter it. The Rules then demanded that he sacrifice everything he possessed, including his past, future, desires, and existence, so all living beings could obtain them.

• Qi Si endured the accumulated thoughts and desires of the dead, then rejected a mysterious figure that urged him to become the Ancestral God.
• After the lama declared the ritual complete, the filled sacrificial pit was followed by the disappearance of all light and Qi Si's sense of existence.
• Prayers and hymns rose from the darkness as golden motes gathered into a planet and a vision showed the world, its life, and its people being created.
• Qi Si found himself standing in the Ancestral God's place, able to alter or create the golden world before him.
• The Rules told Qi Si that he had to sacrifice everything he possessed and desired, including his existence, so all living beings could obtain them.

Qi Si explored the isolated space and learned that his humanity could be offered as a weight in the contest for the Ancestral God's authority. He then arrived at the sacrificial altar from his dream, where Lin Chen approached and The Rules revealed that Pact had only one true believer left.

• Qi Si rejected the golden orb's apparent bargain and followed its motes through a world cut off from his perception.
• Qi Si encountered illusions of his parents, who claimed they had mortgaged their souls to the Main God to protect him from ghosts and monsters.
• Qi Si passed people from his past whose kindness formed a golden fruit, and learned he could place his humanity on the world's scales to compete for the Ancestral God's authority.
• Qi Si reached the altar from his dream, where Lin Chen walked toward him through the snow.
• The Rules revealed that Qi Si's believers could be offered as weights and told Pact that only one true believer remained.

Lin Chen learned that Lin Crow had exchanged places with him to give him the choice of how to stop Qi Si’s sacrifice, while Qi Si rejected becoming the Ancestral God and faced the ghosts hunting him. Lin Chen activated the Undead Shepherd’s hidden effect, becoming an undead leader who took the ghosts away from Qi Si and disappeared into the mountains.

• Lin Chen regained his future memories on the snow mountain, while Lin Crow returned to his ruined Game Space and surrendered his identity and memories to send Lin Chen back.
• Lin Crow recalled that he had given Lin Chen the Undead Shepherd card so Lin Chen could decide whether to save Qi Si, who planned to sacrifice thousands for godhood.
• Lin Chen found Qi Si at the altar, and Qi Si told him he had abandoned his ambition to become the Ancestral God and wanted to escape the dream instead.
• As ghosts and monsters surrounded Qi Si, Lin Chen revealed he was Lin Chen rather than Lin Crow and refused to leave, while Qi Si insisted that Lin Chen’s debt had already been repaid.
• Lin Chen used the Undead Shepherd card to control the attackers, then accepted its hidden effect, becoming an undead beacon who led the ghosts away from the wounded Qi Si.
• As Lin Chen’s memories faded, he turned away from Qi Si and walked into the darkness with the ghosts and monsters following him.

As the world dissolved around the snow mountain, Lin Jue revealed that the players were dreamlike reflections and said killing him could let the others clear the Instance. Elsewhere, Yu Jinsheng followed a trail of blood, found Qi Si gravely wounded after Lin Chen had diverted a horde of monsters, and was asked to carry him to an iceberg.

• Lin Jue told the group that their world was a god's dream, that he had seen a version of himself who said they were already dead, and that killing him could let everyone else survive.
• Yu Jinsheng reflected on how he had become a candidate to replace Asakura Yuko in the final Instance despite wanting only to survive.
• Yu Jinsheng encountered a procession of ghosts and monsters led by Lin Chen, who passed him without noticing him.
• Yu Jinsheng followed the blood trail to Qi Si, deduced that Lin Chen had lured the monsters away from him, and confirmed his suspicions that Lin Chen was connected to Qi Si.
• Qi Si recognized Yu Jinsheng and asked him to carry him to a nearby iceberg before he died.

Near death on the snow mountain, Qi Si discovered that the mirror held another version of himself, Zhou Ke, and exchanged places with him. Reborn as Si Qi with his wounds healed, he set out with Jin Yusheng to find a way off the mountain and pursue a chance to win.

• Qi Si lay dying after the ghosts' attack, with no believers left to help him, and imagined the end of his life.
• A black dog and the egg-pancake vendor appeared to Qi Si, before Jin Yusheng found him and carried him toward the glacier.
• At the glacier, Qi Si explained to Zhou Ke that people from different timelines could exchange places through mirrors and asked him to take his place.
• Zhou Ke agreed to the exchange, and Qi Si said he was betting on Zhou Ke to win the game.
• The exchange healed Qi Si's wounds and left him as Si Qi; he told Jin Yusheng they needed to find a way off the snow mountain.

Lin Jue sacrificed himself to clear the final Instance, while Qi Si returned to the past after switching places with Zhou Ke. In 2014, Qi Si found he existed as an untouchable ghost, unable to reach the contract, and was trapped in a past timeline.

• Lin Jue told Fu Jue he would die to save the others and asked him not to let Ark die with him.
• Zhang Yiyu revealed to Zhang Hongbin that she was his daughter from 2035, and that he had died in her timeline when she was two.
• Lin Jue stabbed himself, triggering the [Dark Judge] card’s judgment and completing the Players’ final quest.
• Qi Si emerged from a vision of Lin Jue’s death and returned to January 1, 2014, where people and objects could not perceive or touch him.
• Qi Si found the contract outside the hospital operating rooms, but it could neither sense him nor be touched, leaving him trapped in the past.

Fu Jue faced a divine throne in the final Instance and learned that claiming the Ancestral God’s authority required sacrifices placed on the Scales of the World. He chose to offer his followers, leaving their fate—and the outcome of the contest for godhood—unresolved.

• Fu Jue heard the pleas of people from his past, then encountered an entity wearing Lin Jue’s face that invited him to take the savior’s place.
• Fu Jue recalled how Lin Jue had died in the final Instance twenty-two years earlier and how he had used [Fallen Savior] to bring part of Lin Jue back within his own shell.
• Fu Jue sat on the thorn-covered divine throne and learned that claiming the Ancestral God’s authority required him to place valuable offerings on the Scales of the World.
• Fu Jue learned that his first-round offering had been his humanity and that the other contender had wagered divinity.
• Fu Jue recalled Lin Jue and Chu Yining discussing whether one player should die to end the Eerie Game, then considered the consequences of sacrificing followers.
• Fu Jue chose to place his followers on the Scales of the World as weights.

White Crow ascended as the Ancestral God through sacrifices gathered by the Church of the Scales, then used the God Mask to seal the god’s power and memories within herself. She hoped the imprisoned Ancestral God would create a fair and harmonious new world, leaving the story with her prepared for a possible future conflict.

• Followers of the Church of the Scales sacrificed themselves at altars across the world, summoning power that shaped the Ancestral God’s form in the glacier.
• White Crow declared herself the Ancestral God and drew nine upright cards from the Utopian Orator.
• White Crow accepted the Ancestral God’s awakening within her, asking it to create a world of absolute fairness and universal harmony.
• White Crow recalled Zou Yan, Nian Fu, and Asakura Yuko, recognizing that she had placed them on the altar as sacrifices even as she cared for them.
• White Crow put on the God Mask she had recovered in Jerusalem, sealing the Ancestral God’s divine power, spirit body, memories, and authority.
• White Crow revealed that she had given the Godslaying Sword to the right person and hoped she and the Ancestral God would never have to perish together.

Si Qi realized that Qi Si had exchanged places with him so he could compete to become the Ancestral God, and learned that the Eerie Game had ended while they remained stranded on the snow mountain. As dawn arrived, Si Qi proposed finding the other survivors and sharing the cost of a car.

• Si Qi recalled binding the upright [Fool Deceiver] card, deceiving The Rules into believing he was a god, and later waking in the snow mountain with Qi Si's [Scarlet High Priest] card.
• Si Qi considered how Qi Si's former territories and disasters could provide sacrifices and Sin for his contest against the other competitors.
• Jin Yusheng asked Si Qi how to leave the snow mountain, and Si Qi told him the Instance had ended because the Ancestral God had been chosen.
• The Eerie Game's interface vanished, leaving Jin Yusheng freezing on the mountain while Si Qi remained calm.
• Si Qi watched dawn break and suggested finding the surviving players and splitting the cost of a chartered car.

In a frozen past timeline, Qi Si formed an uneasy alliance with Chu Yining, Fu Jue, and Xiao Fengchao and persuaded them to return to the snow mountain. In Xiang City, “Yuan” revealed his Calamity High Priest Identity Card and brought Dong Xiwen along on the same journey.

• Chu Yining reasoned that their timeline ran more than 120 times faster than the original one and suggested waiting until the timelines synchronized.
• Qi Si raised doubts about Lin Jue’s plans, then proposed that the group return to the snow mountain; Fu Jue and Chu Yining agreed, and Xiao Fengchao joined them reluctantly.
• Dong Xiwen confronted “Yuan” and learned that he had faked his memory loss to escape White Crow and reach the past timeline.
• “Yuan” explained that his Calamity High Priest Identity Card could create a disaster in a designated area, then told Dong Xiwen to accompany him to the snow mountain.
• Dong Xiwen and “Yuan” set out for the snow mountain the next day.

After the final Instance ended, Jiang Jue and Dream Teller were stranded on a freezing snow mountain without their inventories. Si Qi and Jin Yusheng rescued them and shared what they knew about the final Instance, while Si Qi wondered whether Fu Jue or White Crow would become the progenitor god.

• Jiang Jue and Dream Teller realized the Eerie Game had shut down and that they risked freezing to death without supplies.
• Jiang Jue persuaded Dream Teller to search for other Players, and they spotted two red-clad figures approaching with yaks and sheep.
• Si Qi gave Jiang Jue and Dream Teller fur coats, then led the four of them down the mountain on yaks.
• Jin Yusheng explained how the Eerie Game had split the Identity Card holders into three groups and how White Crow had partnered with Charlie Woodward to claim Scarlet Theater's Sin and activate the Altar of ascension.
• Si Qi asked whether Fu Jue or White Crow would become the progenitor god, and Dream Teller predicted Fu Jue would win.

Lu Li explained that the Ancestral God intended to reset the collapsing Rules and offered Lin Jue the chance to take the divine throne by cooperating against White Crow. Lin Jue refused, choosing humanity’s survival over his own ascension, and used divine blood to activate his Puppet Threads against Lu Li.

• Lu Li revealed that the Sea God had taken control of him after Lin Jue abandoned him in the Sea of Hopelessness.
• Lu Li explained that the Ancestral God planned to format the collapsing Rules and wanted Lin Jue to replace White Crow as the one to shape the new world.
• Lin Jue deduced that White Crow had restrained the Ancestral God and learned that a contract with the Ancestral God could secure him the divine throne.
• Lin Jue refused to cooperate because he believed humanity should decide its own fate rather than be sacrificed for a reset.
• Lin Jue used stored divine blood to activate the Eerie Game’s Puppet Threads in reality and declared that protecting humanity was the most rational choice for him.

Si Qi, Jin Yusheng, Dream Teller, and Jiang Jue descended from the snowy mountain and returned the herdsmen’s yaks before reaching Shangri-La Town. They found the inn from the final Instance again, where Si Qi recognized Baima and invited the others inside despite their suspicions.

• Si Qi avoided Jiang Jue’s questions about Lin Crow, while Jin Yusheng wondered whether Lin Chen and Lin Crow were the same person.
• The four returned a herd of mysteriously praying yaks to their owners and borrowed oxygen tanks in exchange.
• After reaching Shangri-La Town, the group decided to rest rather than flee from White Crow or Fu Jue.
• They found the inn from the final Instance beside the Mountaineering Supplies shop and suspected they might not have truly escaped.
• Si Qi saw Baima holding a mirror that filled his vision with colorful mist, then told Jin Yusheng the inn was safe and entered.

After the Players reached an inn in Shangri-La Town, Si Qi discovered that its owner, Tsering Dondrup, was connected to the Eerie events on the snowy mountain. Si Qi used his blood to turn the guests’ signatures into a Soul Contract, then commanded Tsering Dondrup to believe in him as a God.

• Jiang Jue paid for the group’s last room, and Dream Teller bought supplies while the Players signed a blank sheet of paper.
• Si Qi learned that the innkeeper’s father was Sangji, who had died and been buried on the snowy mountain.
• Tsering Dondrup revealed that he had seen his dead father crawl out of his grave three nights earlier.
• Si Qi persuaded Tsering Dondrup to sign the paper, then used his blood to transform it into a Soul Contract guaranteed by the Rules of the world.
• Si Qi added Tsering Dondrup to his Mind Palace and ordered him to believe in Si Qi as a God.

Si Qi used the [Scarlet High Priest] Identity Card and the [Soul Contract] to gain power from the faith of four captives, then confronted Jin Yusheng about his ties to the Eerie Investigation Bureau. After revealing how long he had suspected Jin Yusheng, Si Qi left with hostages and leverage against the Listen Wind Guild.

• Si Qi compelled Tsering Dondrup and three Listen Wind Guild members to believe in him, and their faith healed his wounds and eased his exhaustion.
• Jin Yusheng tried to appeal to his friendship with Si Qi, but Si Qi called him President Yu and explained that he needed more bargaining chips.
• Jin Yusheng recalled how Ning Xu had recruited him to watch Qi Si and how he later rose within the Listen Wind Guild while trying to protect both his friend and the Players.
• Si Qi told Jin Yusheng that he had suspected him since becoming an Official Player and had pieced together his dealings with Ning Xu and the Eerie Investigation Bureau.
• Si Qi remembered Jin Yusheng's kindness at summer camp, then laughed bitterly as he considered their friendship and the way he had used it.
• Si Qi's familiarity with Jin Yusheng had let him lie low on the snowy mountain and take three Listen Wind Guild members by surprise, securing his first bargaining chip.