Chapter Summaries

Xu Yuan and Aaron returned to find Xue Hongyi at Ye Xingqing’s home, where Xue discovered that Ye was a fragment of a curse and that looking into a mirror could awaken it. As Yan Wuxu moved to seize Ye Xingqing, Xu Yuan arrived at the villa and faced him.

• Xu Yuan decided to leave the Heavenly Dragon Group incident with Aaron after his powers failed against the hidden ghost, and Aaron invited him to Great Buddha Temple.
• Xu Yuan learned that Xue Hongyi had gone to Ye Xingqing’s home and rushed there after crushing his phone in alarm.
• Xue Hongyi read Ye Xingqing’s diary, which said Ye was a fragment of a curse and warned that she must never look in a mirror.
• Ye Xingqing looked into Xue Hongyi’s compact mirror, revealing a curse character on her forehead as black mist gathered around the villa.
• Yan Wuxu obtained authorization to use every resource to control Ye Xingqing, then confronted Xu Yuan after Xu arrived at the villa with Aaron.

Xu Yuan entered the haunted villa to rescue Xue Hongyi and confronted Ye Xingqing, whose diary manifested a powerful curse. As Yan Wuxu discovered how to turn the curse back on its source, Ye Xingqing’s mark vanished and the Ghost Domain began to dissolve, leaving Xu Yuan unsure whether the threat was truly over.

• Yan Wuxu and everyone outside were swallowed by the expanding Ghost Domain, where a ghost’s attack consumed all three of his Life-Substitute Paper Figures before Aaron appeared from the door.
• Xu Yuan found Xue Hongyi, exposed the disguised Ye Xingqing, and learned that direct contact with her spread lethal curses.
• Xu Yuan struck Ye Xingqing with his Ghost Hand, but she recovered from the attack and cursed him, forcing him to summon the Ghost Mother.
• Yan Wuxu sacrificed a subordinate’s blood to his zombie head, found Ye Xingqing’s diary, and wrote her name in it to make the curse target its own source.
• Ye Xingqing’s curse mark disappeared and the black mist began to clear, so Xu Yuan dismissed the Ghost Mother and wondered if the ghost had been defeated.

Yan Wuxu became the diary’s new host after its curse consumed him, and the revived horrors trapped Xu Yuan, Aaron, and the surviving Skyweb Bureau members in a ghost domain. As Yan Wuxu approached, Aaron urged Xu Yuan to sever the diary’s connection to him, leaving the chapter with Xu Yuan tearing away Yan Wuxu’s diary-holding arm.

• Yan Wuxu resisted the diary’s temptation to write Xu Yuan’s name, but its rune-chains spread across him and turned him into its new host.
• Yan Wuxu’s ghostly power was restrained as the character for Greed appeared on his forehead, and the diary began reviving through him.
• Xu Yuan and Aaron met the surviving Skyweb Bureau members, but Yan Wuxu’s ghost domain transported them into a foul swamp and dragged one member away.
• Xu Yuan drove back the swamp’s reaching hands with ghost blood, but Yan Wuxu arrived carrying the revived diary and suppressed the surrounding ghosts.
• Aaron told Xu Yuan to sever the connection between Yan Wuxu and the diary, and Xu Yuan attacked, parried Yan Wuxu’s fist, and tore off the arm holding the diary.

Xu Yuan subdued the reviving zombie head and absorbed the uncanny diary, completing more of the Southern Dipper White Bird Diagram. He found his master Aaron alive but transformed into a ghost-tamer by a single uncanny insect, leaving Aaron with only a few months to live unless he advanced.

• Xu Yuan's master grabbed the black notebook and fled while Xu Yuan fought the reviving zombie head.
• Xu Yuan tore off the zombie head, absorbed it into his body, and used meditation to incorporate it into the Southern Dipper White Bird Diagram.
• Xu Yuan sensed his master in the swamp and absorbed the notebook, using the Ghost-Taming Fist to suppress the uncanny insects within it.
• Xu Yuan discovered an uncanny insect inside his master, which was sustaining Aaron's life.
• Aaron woke and revealed he had become a ghost-tamer, then demonstrated his tiny uncanny domain.

Zen Master Sacred Heart's attempt to extend his life through the Withering and Flourishing Meditation unleashed his evil body, which killed Abbot Ming Xuan and seized control of Jing Shan. Days later, Aaron and Xu Yuan arrived at Great Buddha Temple for Sacred Heart's empowerment ceremony, where Xu Yuan challenged the Liu Family to settle their feud after the ceremony.

• Zen Master Sacred Heart revealed to Abbot Ming Xuan that he had practiced the Withering and Flourishing Meditation, but Jing Shan's tiny hand attacked Ming Xuan and pulled out his suppressed half-bizarre entity.
• Sacred Heart fed his finger to the half-bizarre face, which awakened and killed Ming Xuan as more chewing sounds came from the meditation chamber.
• Aaron and Xu Yuan arrived at Great Buddha Temple for the empowerment ceremony, and Xu Yuan overheard other fist masters condemn Aaron's past womanizing.
• Aaron traded barbs with Liu Yihang, head of the Liu Family, and Xu Yuan rejected a peace proposal, declaring he would visit the Liu Family after the ceremony to settle their grievances.
• Zhuge Shan and Su Bingbing arrived, the Skyweb Bureau representatives took their seats, and a monk welcomed the guests to Sacred Heart's empowerment ceremony.

At Great Buddha Temple, Xu Yuan discovered that the Dharma assembly was enclosed by a barrier as Zen Master Sacred Heart began a ritual to seal the powerful entity within him. As the ritual strained against the entity, Aaron hinted that the Skyweb Bureau’s records held secrets Zhuge Shan did not know.

• Aaron asked Xu Yuan what he thought of Ming Xuan, and Xu Yuan called him unfathomable before mistaking Aaron’s sigh for a warning to escape.
• Xu Yuan found a golden barrier blocking the hall’s entrance and failed to break through it with his ghost domain.
• Ming Xuan explained that the Vajra Sumeru Womb Great Barrier would contain the entity until the Dharma assembly ended, and Zen Master Sacred Heart said he would enter extinction that day.
• Four monks began the ritual with Buddhist implements, and black chains pierced Zen Master Sacred Heart as Ming Yin prepared to receive the seal.
• Xu Yuan, Su Bingbing, Zhuge Shan, and Aaron discussed the entity’s immense danger, and Aaron claimed he had once browsed the Skyweb Bureau’s top-secret files with a former director.

Aaron explained that Zen Master Sacred Heart’s sealed entity was tied to the World-Ending River of Death, then Sacred Heart unleashed it and transformed the Great Buddha Temple into a deadly flood. Xu Yuan was left trapped after Aaron appeared to die, while a second Aaron watched from a hill and hoped Xu Yuan would find the path to survival.

• Aaron told Xu Yuan and the others that three World-Ending entities were linked to the Heavenly Demons, and that their sources lay on the moon.
• Aaron identified the entity within Zen Master Sacred Heart as a tributary of the River of Death and warned everyone not to touch or swallow its water.
• Zen Master Sacred Heart unleashed the entity, and the torrent tore apart his body while Abbot Ming Xuan and the tea-drinking martial masters joined the flood as weird entities.
• The expanding ghost domain combined with the Vajra barrier, and golden skeletons seized Aaron as Xu Yuan and Su Bingbing tried to fight them off.
• A younger-looking Aaron watched the Great Buddha Temple drown from another hill and hoped Xu Yuan would discover the way to survive that he had left behind.

Xu Yuan contained the Ghost Mother and Sacred Heart’s evil body inside Great Buddha Temple, while the three Demon Kings’ omens spread across the world. After refining the horrors and reaching the Grandmaster realm, he woke to find Skyweb Bureau members attacking him and killed their sole Grandmaster.

• Xu Yuan summoned Ghost Mother to hold back the River of Death, then used the Southern Dipper White Bird to subdue the Ghost Mother and Sacred Heart’s evil body as Zhuge Shan and Su Bingbing escaped.
• The three moons turned purple and cracked, while ghosts, bizarre insects, and strange pregnancies appeared across the world as omens of three ancient Evil Objects’ revival.
• Skyweb Bureau leaders learned of the Great Buddha Temple disaster and voted to send forces against the temple, with Liu Sansi raising his hand in favor.
• Xu Yuan sealed Great Buddha Temple and fell asleep while refining its horrors, eventually awakening with the Southern Dipper White Bird formed from three calamity-class horrors and countless fragments.
• When Xu Yuan found Skyweb Bureau members at the bombarded temple, he killed Liu Sansi and swallowed his horror, then demanded that the bureau send its Grandmaster to fight him.
• A Skyweb Bureau member told Xu Yuan that Liu Sansi had been the bureau’s only Grandmaster.

Xu Yuan wiped out the Liu Family and killed the Skyweb Bureau’s leadership after they voted to activate an ultimate contingency plan against him. He tracked down and neutralized the Bureau’s scattered doomsday measures, then arrived at a ruined ancestral hall as three talismans burned to ash.

• Xu Yuan unleashed his ghost domain on the Liu Family, killed its old grandmaster, and devoured the ghost fused with him.
• Xu Yuan sensed the Liu Family’s accumulated wickedness and killed its members before teleporting away.
• Skyweb Bureau executives debated activating their ultimate contingency plan, and Xu Yuan appeared at their headquarters and killed them.
• Xu Yuan used his anomalous domain to track down and disable the Bureau’s contingency measures around the world.
• Xu Yuan reached a ruined ancestral hall and watched three damaged talismans burn to ash.

Xu Yuan foresaw the three purple moons awakening and unleashed a plan to save humanity by bringing nearly everyone into his ghost domain, leaving himself to face the world-ending horrors. After wandering the ruined world for an unknown span of time, he found a living person and recognized them as his master.

• Xu Yuan saw a vision of the three purple moons awakening and bringing destruction to the world.
• Black rain fell across the world, killing ordinary people and spawning anomalies, while Xu Yuan entered Five Elements Fist’s mountain gate.
• Xu Yuan took the disciples and nearly all ordinary people into his ghost domain, where he had created a world without horrors.
• The three world-ending horrors descended, and Xu Yuan wandered the ruined world while carrying the ghost domain and its billions of inhabitants.
• After an unknown amount of time, Xu Yuan found a living person drinking beer on a shattered sign and rasped, “Mas...ter...”

Aaron told Xu Yuan how he had shaped events and explained the secrecy ritual before revealing that his own ritual was complete. After concealing his power rather than ascending, Aaron set out to explore the changed world and encountered a desert scavenging crew.

• Aaron explained to Xu Yuan the history of the Primordial Spirit anomalies, the three eras, and the futures Xu Yuan might have chosen.
• Aaron told Xu Yuan that he had adopted him because he resembled a former junior disciple and had concealed his existence as part of the Secrecy Ritual.
• Aaron revealed that his true body was close to becoming a Secrecy existence, while Xu Yuan hoped to someday explore worlds beyond his own.
• Aaron awoke near the ruins of Green Forest City and realized that his Secrecy ritual and other preparations had been completed.
• Aaron concealed his overflowing spirituality, status, and rituals to remain ordinary, then walked into the desert to investigate the world.
• Chloe and her three companions spotted Aaron in the Death Desert, and the old man driving the airship exclaimed that a natural human should not have survived there.

Aaron met Chloe’s hunter squad in the toxic wasteland and learned that Night City relied on bodily modifications, virtual networks, and corporate currency. He rode with the squad toward the city, beginning to explore this unfamiliar world.

• Chloe and her squad discovered Aaron in the wasteland, and Aaron quickly learned their language and introduced himself as a natural human.
• Old Man offered Aaron a ride to Night City for a month’s fare, and Aaron accepted without understanding what a month meant.
• Old Man drove Aaron toward the city and asked Jason to lend him smart glasses and help him access the virtual network and Life Bank.
• Jason explained that corporations controlled bodily modifications and the Gaia Network, while Life Bank’s time served as currency.
• Aaron put on the silver smart glasses and pressed the activation button.

Aaron registered in the Metaverse, met up with Jason, Chloe, Wilson, and the old man, and learned that its services ran on time as currency. He opened a Life Bank account and was declared a star-level client with 29,387 days remaining.

• Aaron registered in the Metaverse under the username Aaron and accepted Jason's friend request.
• Jason introduced Aaron to the Metaverse's public plaza and added Chloe, Wilson, and the old man to their group.
• Chloe led Aaron to Life Bank and explained that residents relied on daily wages to keep their time balances above zero.
• Aaron opened a Life Bank account, allowing its occult ritual to mark his disguised identity.
• The bank teller announced that Aaron had 29,387 days left, shocking Wilson and Jason.

Aaron learned how lifespan, skills, and goods were traded through Life Bank and the metaverse before arriving in Night City’s dangerous Lower City. As Chloe and his companions helped him find lodging, they discovered the landlady Black Mansa in a medical crisis and had no medicine for her.

• Aaron browsed the metaverse, noticed its lack of foundational subjects, and returned to reality as his companions declared him their big brother.
• Aaron arrived in Night City, saw the slums beyond the Upper City, and paid Jason and the old man to help him find a place to stay.
• Chloe warned Aaron that noble status controlled access to the Upper City and that gangs and Ironhead guards made the city dangerous.
• Aaron hired Chloe as his guide, and she and the others led him to Comet Street, where Forest Society attackers drew Upper District guards into a chase.
• The old man brought Aaron’s group to Black Mansa’s building, where they found her incapacitated and realized no one had medicine.

Aaron recognized that Black Mansa’s thought-perception disorder came from her consciousness being siphoned through a mystical imprint linked to her Gaia chip, and he performed a ritual to temporarily block the connection. Black Mansa woke up and mistook Aaron for a thief, drawing a gun on him.

• Chloe explained that Black Mansa had developed a rare, dangerous side effect from her brain chip, while Jason, Wilson, and the old man said they could not challenge Gaia Network Company or afford black-market medicine.
• Aaron claimed mystical rituals might help, gathered salt, a dinner knife, and candles, and began a purification ritual as Chloe and the others watched.
• Aaron sensed that a high-ranking existence had branded Black Mansa’s consciousness and that her Gaia chip served as a second link, then used a spiritual barrier to interrupt the connection temporarily.
• Black Mansa regained consciousness, saw Aaron pointing a dinner knife at her, and drew a firearm from a mechanical holster beneath her artificial skin.

Aaron accepted Black Mansa’s offer of a storefront for thirty days and hired Chloe’s team as brokers and bodyguards, binding their agreements through the Law of Accident. After arriving at Night City’s Hunter Bar, he learned how the city’s Time Coin worked and wondered whether his Invisible Cult and old companions still existed.

• Chloe stopped Black Mansa from attacking Aaron, and Black Mansa thanked him for saving her.
• Black Mansa offered Aaron a storefront for thirty days, and Aaron agreed to rent it and hire Chloe’s team.
• Aaron told Black Mansa and Chloe that he planned to open a clinic treating wounds and soothing minds with rituals.
• Chloe, Black Mansa, Wilson, and Aaron rode through Night City’s slums to the Hunter Bar, where Aaron observed the city’s dangerous excesses and questioned Wilson’s unusual longevity.
• Chloe explained that Night City’s Time Coin could be exchanged for time in the Life Bank, and Aaron wondered whether his Invisible Cult and former companions had survived.

Aaron discovered that Life Bank may have grown out of the Invisible Cult when he met Evelyn Messiah, a young baron of one of its Thirteen Clans, in her dream. He gave Evelyn the extraordinary ability Lockpicking, and she awakened it the next morning, opening a jewelry box with a thought.

• Aaron heard Evelyn pray to the Spirit of Void and drew her into a dream to question her about the prayer.
• Evelyn told Aaron that her grandfather had taught her the prayer and that the Messiah Clan was one of the Thirteen Clans that governed Life Bank.
• Aaron realized Life Bank might have been founded by his former followers and considered using Evelyn to investigate the organization.
• Aaron warned Evelyn about invoking mysterious powers, then offered her Lockpicking as compensation for frightening her.
• Evelyn prayed the next morning, received spirituality and the Lockpicking ability, and opened a jewelry box without using its mechanism.

Aaron opened Green Forest Clinic in Night City after hiring workers to renovate it. As the clinic began operating, the old man found Aaron a potential job, but the buyer wanted proof of his abilities through a surgery in the Gaia Network.

• Aaron greeted Black Mansa as she left for her job at Louis Food Factory.
• Aaron hired workers from the job market to renovate his clinic, and Green Forest Clinic opened for business.
• Black Mansa, Chloe, the old man, and others visited Aaron to celebrate the opening with a bottle of Earl Thirteen.
• The old man told Aaron that the Blood Hand Gang charged ten days a month in protection fees and could lower the fee in exchange for free treatment.
• The old man revealed that a buyer wanted Aaron to prove his abilities by performing surgery in the Gaia Network.

Aaron used Gaia Network to prove his surgical skills, then successfully operated on a child in his clinic and began considering psychiatry as a specialty. Meanwhile, Wilson died after a drunken hover-truck driver ran him over, and Fatty approached Aaron with a house-call offer related to cyberpsychosis.

• Aaron practiced surgery on a simulated child in Gaia Network, reassuring the child’s parents and securing them as patients at his real-world clinic.
• Aaron successfully operated on the boy, then decided he needed an assistant and considered becoming a psychiatrist.
• Wilson envied Aaron’s earnings and considered asking the Blood Hand Gang for help, but a drunken hover-truck driver deliberately ran him over.
• The hunter squad mourned Wilson briefly before returning to work, while Aaron recruited nurses and received an array of unusual applicants.
• Fatty visited Aaron and asked whether he was interested in making house calls, saying Black Mansa had told him Aaron was skilled at treating cyberpsychosis.

Aaron treated Soren, a survivor of an expedition to Research Institute No. 4, by transferring a powerful curse into his kidneys and replacing them with artificial organs. He learned how modern Beyonders preserved and replenished spirituality, then discovered that the single-digit research institutes had been linked to advanced technology and the world's desertification; their records and some locations had been sealed.

• The fat black-market merchant brought Aaron to the Five-Ring Tower's wounded member Soren and asked him to treat a curse from an expedition to Research Institute No. 4.
• Aaron identified traces of Darkness and Underworld in the high-rank curse, then agreed to treat Soren in exchange for spirituality storage containers and books.
• Aaron transferred the curse into Soren's kidneys and removed them, replacing them with artificial kidneys.
• Aaron examined the payment and the books, learned how modern Beyonders stored spirituality, and resolved to investigate Research Institute No. 4 in the Death Desert.
• Evelyn Messiah asked her father Senarius about No. 406 Research Institute and the single-digit institutes, and he explained that their research had driven technological advances and contributed to desertification.