Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• The old prefect stalls the cultists outside the Book Cave, using his authority and fear of disrupting the ritual to keep them away.
• Xia Lun arrives and redirects the crowd toward the Council Cave, claiming that the master has found a way to stop the death fog and that a fire is endangering the ritual. Once the cultists rush off, he heads into the Book Cave.
• Xia Lun steals three Evil Flesh Codices. Manhunter ambushes him, and their close-quarters fight leaves Xia Lun’s right arm severed. Xia Lun kills Manhunter with his revolver and regenerates the arm.
• As the returning cultists close in, Xia Lun chooses to risk retrieving the two remaining books rather than escape. He then detonates explosives, killing or incapacitating many pursuers—but the blast destabilizes the passage and triggers a cave-in.
• Rahu survives the explosion, grabs Xia Lun, and the collapse crushes Xia Lun’s leg. Xia Lun tears himself free and crawls out, only to face Rahu again as the cultist emerges mutated and seemingly stronger.
• Xia Lun uses Life Drain to draw on Rahu’s life force, restoring his severed leg and revealing the lines of weakness in Rahu’s body. He exploits them with his sword, then drains Rahu completely, killing him and absorbing the resulting gray mist.

Character developments

• Xia Lun remains determined and resourceful, repeatedly choosing dangerous chances to complete his goal. Despite severe injuries, he relies on regeneration, tactical improvisation, and newly effective use of Life Drain to survive and defeat Rahu.
• The old prefect demonstrates his skill at manipulation, successfully delaying the crowd before slipping away.
• Manhunter proves a formidable ambusher and close-combatant, but dies after Xia Lun turns the exchange against him.
• Rahu survives catastrophic damage through a secret transformation, becoming a grotesque, tumor-covered attacker fixated on avenging Manhunter. His formidable strength ultimately fails against Xia Lun’s life-draining ability and precision.

Significant themes

• Survival through costly choices: Xia Lun’s progress comes at the price of repeated, debilitating injuries.
• Risk and ambition: He knowingly stays to claim all three books, accepting the danger of being trapped.
• Adaptation under pressure: Deception, explosives, regeneration, and new abilities each become tools for survival.
• The grotesque cost of power: Rahu’s transformation grants immense strength but visibly deforms and consumes him.

Character interactions

• The old prefect verbally spars with Rahu and a Book Cave guard, using fear and bluster to keep them from acting.
• Xia Lun and the prefect coordinate tacitly: Xia Lun recognizes the prefect’s stalling and reinforces it with a false explanation that sends the crowd away.
• The portly guard abandons his post and flees with the unconscious drunk rather than confront Xia Lun.
• Xia Lun’s fights with Manhunter and Rahu are brutal tests of endurance. Rahu’s repeated threats to avenge Manhunter make his final confrontation personal, while Xia Lun’s calm, dark humor contrasts with Rahu’s frenzied obsession.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun returns to the docks after killing Rahu and the other enemies at the Nexus. He leads Little Green, the old Prefect, the scholar, and the burly boatman away by boat, claiming he has found a way back to reality.
• Xia Lun checks his gains: Life Drain has extended his estimated survival time by nearly eighty-one hours, and his swordsmanship has improved to 60% proficiency. He also discovers powerful abilities in three Evil Flesh Codices, including X-ray vision, darkvision, and a life-preserving technique that can combine with Nonhuman Toughness.
• At Front Shoal, the group heads for the ruined Taoist temple. The Blood Moon has vanished, though Skinned Corpses remain nearby and avoid them. Xia Lun uses the Detailed Guide to Star-Guiding and Moon-Drawing to reveal a safe golden path through the Yin Bo Mist and leads everyone through it.
• After the group departs, a drop of the old Prefect’s sweat reaches an underground chamber. There, the Man in the Flesh reconstitutes herself from an awakened brain, revealing that her apparent death did not destroy her true body.
• The Man in the Flesh had deliberately lured Xia Lun away from Sorrow Hill City. With him gone and the city’s inhabitants prepared with Yin Longevity Pills, she begins her long-planned ritual to refine a Golden Core. She collapses and overlaps dream layers, scattering her spirit into the pills before drawing its fragments together into a spinning black-gold sphere.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun is increasingly confident in his growing combat abilities, but remains focused on practical concerns—his lifespan, skills, and survival in future scenarios. The others praise and defer to him, while he quietly questions how smoothly events unfolded.
• Little Green openly admires Xia Lun and predicts he will earn a position in the Celestial Surveillance Bureau. The scholar casts Xia Lun’s victory as Heaven’s will, while the old Prefect reflects on his former ambition and expresses newfound humility. The burly man remains stoic and says little.
• The Man in the Flesh is revealed as a calculating survivor who values caution over direct confrontation. Though she admits she could not overcome Xia Lun, she congratulates herself for successfully removing him from her way and moves ahead with her ritual.

Significant themes

• Apparent victory and hidden danger: Xia Lun’s escape from the Nexus seems decisive, but the Man in the Flesh survives and continues her plan.
• Power gained through risk: Xia Lun’s near-death battle brings substantial rewards, while the Man in the Flesh’s ambitious ritual demands the destruction and rearrangement of dream layers.
• Dream and reality blurred: Souls, bodies, and physical matter can transform across dream layers, making death and survival less straightforward than they appear.
• Faith, humility, and self-deception: The companions interpret Xia Lun’s success as divine favor, while the Man in the Flesh—despite her cunning—frames her escape as proof of her own wisdom.

Plot points and events

• Xia Lun and the surviving group follow a golden path through the woods, believing they are close to escaping Sorrow Hill City. They share plans for life afterward: Little Green wants to write a book, the scholar plans to pursue Daoist Learning, and the old Prefect hopes to retire.
• Their hope collapses when a vast, living, blood-red mountain appears across the path. Xia Lun recognizes its branching growths as resembling the Abyssal Hand.
• The creature’s arrival plunges the world into darkness. Looking at it triggers grotesque deaths: the scholar’s head becomes a mushroom, Little Green sprouts fungi, and the burly man dissolves into pus. The old Prefect survives by closing his eyes.
• Xia Lun realizes Red Reishi is fungal debris shed by the giant Abyssal Hand. The creature speaks through the scholar’s body and reveals that Lord Bai is its disciple. It had been observing events through its Fungal Network and waiting to exploit the conflict between the Man in the Flesh and others.
• Xia Lun bluffs by invoking Daoist Huang, and the Abyssal Hand departs. The route to reality is clear, but Xia Lun suspects the monster may not actually defeat the Man in the Flesh.
• Although escaping would be safer, Xia Lun chooses to turn back and try to save Xuan Yan. He risks using Daoist Huang’s Eyeball to ask whether the Abyssal Hand can stop the Man in the Flesh’s Ritual. The chapter ends as the Eyeball rings.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun shifts from cautious survival to a deliberate choice based on personal conviction. Though pragmatic and often calculating, he decides that living freely and honoring his promise to Xuan Yan matter more than taking the safest, most profitable path. He also uses bluff and self-control to avoid provoking the Abyssal Hand.
• The old Prefect shows quick judgment by shielding his eyes, survives the fungal assault, and urges Xia Lun to continue toward safety.
• The scholar and Little Green die after looking at the Abyssal Hand; their deaths underline the creature’s terrible power.
• The Abyssal Hand speaks through the transformed scholar, politely disguising a threat and probing Xia Lun’s strength. Its account links it to Lord Bai and the Red Reishi.
• Xia Lun and the Abyssal Hand engage in a tense exchange: Xia Lun conceals his intentions behind a claim of association with Daoist Huang, while the monster offers an apparent apology and attempts to send him away.

Significant themes

• Hope and reversal: The apparent approach to safety becomes a new horror.
• Knowledge and perception: Looking at the Abyssal Hand is lethal; the old Prefect survives by refusing to see.
• Self-interest versus integrity: Xia Lun weighs escape against his promise, then chooses according to his own conception of freedom.
• Deception and power: Both Xia Lun and the monster use courteous language and concealed motives to test and manipulate one another.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun discovers that Life Drain can offset the mental strain caused by using Daoist Huang’s Eyeball. After reading three Evil Flesh Codices to gain Clairvoyance, Darkvision, and greater resistance to fatal injuries, he returns to Sorrow Hill City.
• The city has been devastated by the Abyssal Hand, and red mushrooms and spores blanket the ruins. Following the mushroom trail, Xia Lun finds the Man in the Flesh performing a ritual over a “Golden Core” made from countless Yin Longevity Pills.
• The Abyssal Hand has been driven mad by the Man in the Flesh’s illusions. She warns Xia Lun to leave, but he refuses and bargains for ten more Evil Flesh Codices, claiming he owes it to Xuan Yan and Daoist Huang.
• The Man in the Flesh’s mind-affecting curses have no effect on Xia Lun. Realizing this, he taunts her, while her increasingly desperate spellcasting fails to stop him.
• She tries to use the Abyssal Hand against him, but Xia Lun evades the giant’s attacks and defeats the mycelium creatures sent after him.
• The Nuo-Mask Plague, the true master of the dream, awakens and appears as an immense eye. Its arrival shatters the Golden Core, the Abyssal Hand, and the Man in the Flesh.
• As the dream collapses, Xia Lun lunges for a golden pill and barely obtains it. The scenario objective—surviving until dawn—is completed, and the item is identified as the Ashen Pact Record.

Character developments

• Xia Lun grows more confident in his abilities, discovering that Life Drain can counter the cost of divination and that his unusual mental-health status makes him immune to the Man in the Flesh’s specialty. He relies on observation, bluffing, and tactical positioning when direct combat is impossible.
• The Man in the Flesh shifts from threatening and bargaining to furious spellcasting, despair, and finally desperate attempts to control the Abyssal Hand. Her power is formidable against others but ineffective against Xia Lun.
• The Abyssal Hand is manipulated into believing its ritual succeeded, falls into madness, and becomes a weapon under the Man in the Flesh’s control before being destroyed by the Nuo-Mask Plague.
• The Nuo-Mask Plague is revealed as the entity governing the dream and the force capable of ending the ritual and destroying its participants.

Significant themes

• Power and its limits: The Man in the Flesh’s magic overwhelms ordinary minds, but Xia Lun’s abnormal resistance turns her advantage useless.
• Illusion and delusion: The Golden Core and the Abyssal Hand’s apparent triumph are products of manipulation, while the ritual provokes a greater power that ends the illusion.
• Survival through adaptability: Xia Lun succeeds not through strength alone, but by combining new abilities, deception, and careful use of the environment.
• Ambition and hubris: The pursuit of immortality and greatness leads the Man in the Flesh and the Abyssal Hand toward catastrophe.

Character interactions

• Xia Lun and the Man in the Flesh trade threats and accusations, then negotiate over the Evil Flesh Codices. He pretends to act out of loyalty to Xuan Yan and Daoist Huang, while actually using the exchange to buy time and obstruct her ritual.
• The Man in the Flesh repeatedly tries to break Xia Lun’s mind with curses and then attacks through the Abyssal Hand; he remains unmoved and outmaneuvers both tactics.
• The Nuo-Mask Plague’s arrival abruptly ends the conflict, destroying the ritual and the major figures in the dream before Xia Lun escapes with the Ashen Pact Record.

Plot and key events

• Xuan Yan wakes in Sorrow Hill City at dawn, delighted that the dream seems over. She finds the city’s people asleep and Xia Lun missing.
• Man in the Flesh, still alive and driven by rage, attacks Xuan Yan with illusions. With her sword and protective coin missing, Xuan Yan struggles to distinguish real threats from imagined ones. She fights back, only to discover that much of the battle—and the destruction around her—was illusory.
• The real Man in the Flesh is consumed by black flames after the sun appears to open an eye. Xuan Yan assumes this, too, was an illusion and concludes that the ritual’s backlash killed the cult leader.
• The dreamers awaken. The citizens execute the Mind Fasting Sect’s high-ranking persecutors, while the old Prefect reports the events to the imperial court and wins a place in the Celestial Surveillance Bureau.
• Without Man in the Flesh, production of the Yin Longevity Pill ends, and Sorrow Hill City eventually declines and is destroyed amid disasters, uprisings, and war. Little Green returns home and writes an influential book, later known as the Seven Chapters of Secret Scripture of Lord Lü.
• Xuan Yan continues searching for Xia Lun, whose existence she believes is proved by her missing sword and Daoist Huang’s Eyeball. Fragments of forgotten memories point to Xia Lun, Whitewash City, and a strange symbol of nested triangles. Remembering her master’s prophecy that her sword’s return would signal a chance to reach Infinity, she begins to glimpse a larger truth—but cannot hold onto it.
• The chapter ends with a servant disciple transforming into a Skinned Corpse. Xuan Yan wonders whether the city’s nightmare has truly ended or whether they have entered a larger dream.

Character developments and interactions

• Xuan Yan remains courageous and stubborn, improvising when her usual weapons are gone. But her difficulty separating reality from illusion persists, and her emerging memories suggest her role may extend beyond the events in Sorrow Hill City.
• Man in the Flesh makes one final attack, but dies for good—apparently through the backlash of her disrupted ritual.
• The old Prefect shifts from official observer to leader of the city’s reckoning, then advances his own career by joining the Celestial Surveillance Bureau.
• Little Green withdraws from public life and turns his experiences into a text that shapes later Secret Art scholarship.
• Xuan Yan and Xia Lun remain separated: she remembers enough to know he existed, but cannot find him or understand their connection.

Significant themes

• Reality and illusion: Xuan Yan cannot reliably tell what is real, and the final transformation leaves the dream’s end uncertain.
• Memory and identity: The dream changes people’s lives even when most memories fade; Xuan Yan’s fragmented recollections hint at hidden histories and connections.
• Persistence amid uncertainty: Xuan Yan keeps acting and searching despite confusion, pain, and repeated setbacks.
• The long reach of history: The city’s political consequences, Little Green’s book, and the Prefect’s career all outlast the brief dream and its immediate crisis.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• During settlement, Xia Lun relives vivid scenes from Sorrow Hill City: the ruined temple and mycelial corpses, the Mind Fasting Sect’s atrocities, the violence at its headquarters—the Nexus—and the city’s dreamlike transformation around a Golden Core.
• The settlement system grades his run. Although he completed the objective and earned several upgrades for rescuing Xuan Yan, uncovering the layered-dream mystery, defeating major enemies, and exploring beneath the temple, his rating rises dramatically through special achievements:
  • He survived the dream lord, the Nuo-Mask Plague.
  • He burned much of the First Dream Layer.
  • Most importantly, he never died or fell asleep, staying in that layer and destroying the sect’s plans for the Golden Run Ritual.
• These achievements lift his final rating to S, with an “Incredible” overall result and a Doomsday Fanatic behavior rating.
• Xia Lun receives 1,000 bonus Memory Points, bringing his total to 15,872, and his Memory Manifestation Authority reaches its maximum of 200%.
• He reviews his gains and finds major advances in firearms, stealth, and other abilities, along with new Feng Shui and navigation specializations. He also gains the Life Drain skill and examines his enhanced toughness.
• The chapter ends as he summons a golden pill and prepares to inspect the Ashen Pact Record.

Character development

• Xia Lun is pleased by his rewards but puzzled that the scenario initially received a low rating. He reasons that dying would have sent him into deeper dream layers, clarifying why remaining awake and in the First Layer mattered so much.
• His combat skills continue to develop: firearms improve substantially after an exceptional battle at the Nexus, while swordsmanship advances only slightly. Stealth reaches nearly the end of beginner progress, reflecting how extensively he used disguises and evasion.
• He gains an emerging grasp of Star-Guiding, Moon-Drawing Feng Shui Art, and his understanding of astrology improves his navigation ability.
• His body becomes increasingly inhuman through enhanced toughness and regeneration; he can survive catastrophic injuries by spending Life Force. He sees Life Drain as a way to replenish that force and perhaps counteract his life-shortening curse, though he suspects there are limits.
• His humor and pragmatic mindset remain prominent: he jokes about becoming a tomb robber or eating a cow daily to sustain himself, while already planning how to spend his large pool of points.

Character interactions

• The settlement recognizes Xia Lun’s complicated relationships with key figures: he earned the Prefectural Office’s respect, the Man in the Flesh’s fear, and Xuan Yan’s admiration.
• Though absent from the present scene, Xuan Yan’s rescue and swordsmanship remain important to Xia Lun’s evaluation of his performance and plans for future skill growth.
• The Man in the Flesh’s gift of Life Drain becomes central to Xia Lun’s hopes of managing his curse and surviving future battles.

Significant themes

• Survival through awareness: Xia Lun’s refusal to sleep or die prevents him from being drawn into deeper dream layers and lets him disrupt the ritual.
• Power and its cost: His rewards make him stronger, but his growing reliance on Life Force and increasingly nonhuman body raise questions about what survival is turning him into.
• Violence as achievement: The system rewards both rescue and discovery and extreme destruction, reflecting a world where progress is measured through morally mixed actions.
• Accumulated experience: Battles, reading, and unusual experiences translate into measurable skills, suggesting that even extraordinary powers are built through practice and adaptation.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun burns the Ashen Pact Record, gaining a full year of lifespan beyond his natural limit. Its restorative effects remove his curse-related weakness and raise his Constitution from 11 to 15.
• Relieved of the pressure of imminent death, he reviews the large haul of Memories from the scenario. He spends 5,000 Memory Points to permanently save Xuan Yan’s swordsmanship (Mastery 12%), prioritizing close-combat skill over other costly Specializations.
• He considers Xuan Yan’s Foolishness Specialty, which trades Intelligence and Perception for slower mental deterioration and resistance to corruption, but decides against it.
• Xia Lun manifests the Flesh Tantra for 10,000 points and reads it again. He withstands its grotesque visions and mental shock, destroying the book in the process.
• The reading strengthens Life Drain: it can now convert excess drained Life Force—beyond what Xia Lun can safely withstand—into Free Attribute Points. His Mental State falls to Serenity.
• He dismisses the prohibitively expensive option of manifesting Daoist Huang’s Eyeball. With only 871 Memory Points remaining, he opens a Fantasy Casket, hoping for a useful draw; its contents are not revealed before the chapter ends.

Character development and interactions

• Xia Lun shifts from desperate survival to cautious optimism: the extra lifespan eases his destructive urgency, though he remains eager to grow stronger.
• His choices show pragmatic restraint. He invests in swordsmanship and a Secret Art rather than spending on every tempting ability, and he recognizes that the new Life Drain may be dangerous to test.
• Xuan Yan’s influence remains present through the swordsmanship Memory and her unusual Specialty, which Xia Lun examines with bemused speculation. He also considers Rahu as a possible test of Life Drain’s new capacity.

Significant themes

• Life, time, and transformation: The Ashen Pact Record grants time and renewal, while Life Drain’s strengthened description suggests life may be tied to movement and time.
• Power and its cost: Great gains require scarce Memory Points and carry risks, including mental deterioration from forbidden knowledge.
• Choice and restraint: Xia Lun must balance immediate strength, future growth, and limited resources.
• Knowledge as danger: The Flesh Tantra offers powerful insight, but its visions and cognitive harm make understanding costly.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun opens a wooden box and finds the Treatise on the Myriad-Dimensional Doomsday, a secret-lore book that gradually harms Mental Health but can recharge one safe use of a divination item each Scenario.
• Using Symptom Reading on it reveals a vision of a frantic Daoist predicting that time revolves around something approaching—and that their collision will bring destruction. He invokes the Primordial Epoch Yellow Heaven Venerable. The Daoist notices and addresses Xia Lun directly, frightening him enough to break the vision.
• Xia Lun stores the book despite its danger, then exchanges for Xuan Yan’s sword and a Nightmare Overcoat, which offers protection but slowly lowers Mental Health.
• After leaving the Scenario, Xia Lun finally rests. The Game Pod’s announcement that he has only 3,394 hours to live briefly spoils his relief.
• The next morning, he begins a postmortem on Sorrow Hill City, concluding that he survived a Scenario designed to produce an unavoidable death. He analyzes the Man in the Flesh’s strategy and starts considering how ordinary Players might survive the Scenario.

Character developments

• Xia Lun demonstrates both caution and curiosity: he tests whether Symptom Reading can interpret unfamiliar writing, but withdraws when the vision becomes unnervingly interactive.
• He remains pragmatic, keeping the dangerous book for its practical benefit and choosing equipment that may aid future Scenarios.
• His postmortem shows growing strategic maturity. He examines the enemy’s perspective and extracts lessons for his own role as a powerful Merchant, rather than merely celebrating his victory.
• He still feels fondness for Xuan Yan and hopes to meet her in the real world so he can return her sword.

Significant themes

• Knowledge carries a cost: the book offers insight and utility at the expense of Mental Health, while its contents suggest a vast, looming catastrophe.
• Adaptation and strategic learning: Xia Lun turns survival into analysis, studying both his own advantages and the Man in the Flesh’s errors.
• The limits of prediction and control: the Daoist senses an approaching cosmic threat but cannot yet understand its rules; the Man in the Flesh’s reasonable choices still fail under circumstances she cannot control.
• Moral uncertainty as a tactical weakness: Xia Lun argues that relying on an enemy’s conscience is unreliable, since both a true villain and a truly good person would resist the Man in the Flesh’s plan.

Character interactions

• The Daoist’s apparent awareness of Xia Lun breaks the usual boundary between vision and observer, turning his experiment into a frightening encounter.
• Xia Lun’s imagined exchange with Xuan Yan is shaped by her repeated plea that he give her sword to “me,” which motivates his purchase.
• In his written analysis, Xia Lun treats the Man in the Flesh as a strategic opponent, explaining how her dependence on mental sorcery, inflexible focus on alchemy, and lack of capable followers contributed to her defeat.

Key events

• Xia Lun analyzes the second Scenario, concluding that its dream layers made death a source of information. The real danger came later: alarming the Man in the Flesh could lead to irreversible mind control.
• He devises a cooperative strategy for clearing the Scenario: use the faster passage of time in deeper dreams to assemble allies, distract the Man in the Flesh in a shallow dream, obtain the Detailed Guide to Star-Guiding and Moon-Drawing elsewhere, then regroup and escape Sorrow Hill City. He suspects the Abyssal Hand, Red Reishi, could ambush the group during their escape.
• Xia Lun calls the information broker White Line. She says she is a woman, refuses to discuss the Herno Strait bombing, and tells him someone is already investigating the Foresight Club.
• Noticing that Xuan Yan’s Invisibility Talisman resembled White Line’s Psychological Invisibility, Xia Lun suspects they may be the same person at different points in time. He cannot solve the mystery, and Daoist Huang’s Eyeball has no safe uses remaining.
• Planning to extend his life with Life Drain, Xia Lun begins arranging to buy a remote ranch and establish a discreet supply chain. The purchase is delayed a week because the owner is away. In the meantime, Xia Lun drains a mantis and a red birch, gaining a little more than six hours of life.
• That evening, his butler reports a sharp increase in disappearances: thirty people have gone missing in a month, all children around twelve years old. The newspaper covers the Herno Strait bombing and Jade Pharmaceuticals but offers no useful clues about the Foresight Club.
• The chapter ends with Xia Lun discovering that the opening words of seven jokes on the newspaper’s humor page form the message: “Descending on Whitewash City.”

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun shows a more analytical side, reconstructing the Scenario’s rules and imagining how ordinary Players might survive. He recognizes that his own aggressive approach—killing people and setting fires—missed its cooperative possibilities.
• He remains curious and persistent about the link between Xuan Yan and White Line, but accepts that he cannot safely use the Eyeball to investigate yet. His plan to rest and recover contrasts with his continuing efforts to prolong his life.
• White Line keeps her information guarded and their conversation brief, but reveals her gender, offers a casual personal detail about coffee, and reassures Xia Lun that the Foresight Club is being investigated.
• Xia Lun relies on his butler for local intelligence; their composed exchange about the missing children and the butler’s polite laughter provide a calm contrast to the unsettling news.

Significant themes

• Risk and escalating difficulty: The Scenario lures Players into treating death as a harmless learning tool before revealing a potentially final threat.
• Cooperation versus force: Xia Lun realizes the mystery was designed to reward coordination, even though he approached it as a combat challenge.
• Identity and hidden connections: The possible relationship between Xuan Yan and White Line deepens the story’s mysteries.
• Life, power, and preparation: Xia Lun’s efforts to recover, acquire a ranch, and manage Life Drain show his practical response to mortality.
• Warnings beneath ordinary appearances: The joke-page acrostic turns a mundane newspaper into a possible omen of danger approaching the city.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Lun discovers a second concealed newspaper message, this one warning that the Herno Strait is the site of a conspiracy. He connects it to the bombing at the Herno Building and wonders whether the archived papers might also contain clues about his illness.
• He instructs his butler to steer detectives toward the Grand Alliance Daily and to compensate them secretly if they follow the lead. He plans to investigate the Foresight Club while strengthening himself against its possible return.
• With no meetings or business obligations for the week, Xia Lun devotes himself to the dream “Swordsmanship Mastery”, hoping to fulfill Xuan Yan’s wish and gain her exceptional sword skill.
• In the dream, a masked swordsman—apparently Xuan Yan’s mentor, Daoist Huang—tests Xia Lun, then teaches him Listening Force and begins teaching Force Dissipation, a method of redirecting an opponent’s force into the ground.
• Xia Lun grasps the core insight: force must be sensed as a connected whole involving body, blade, and surroundings. Before the lesson can continue, the dream breaks, but his swordsmanship specialization advances.
• He spends the next week training intensely, entering the dream twenty-one times. His swordsmanship reaches Proficient 83%, and he becomes confident he could face six trained Cultists using swordsmanship alone. He understands Force Dissipation’s principle but cannot yet execute it fully.
• At the end of the week, he realizes he has nearly forgotten two real-world commitments: touring a ranch and meeting White Line to see a new Game Item.

Character developments

• Xia Lun shifts from unease to determined resolve after finding the newspaper warning. He recognizes that surviving the Soul Curse does not remove the danger posed by the Foresight Club.
• His disciplined training rapidly improves his fighting ability. He also begins learning to perceive force intuitively rather than analyzing it consciously, though mastering Force Dissipation remains a challenge.
• His intense focus makes him formidable but risks causing him to neglect practical responsibilities.

Significant themes

• Hidden knowledge and conspiracy: Coded newspaper messages suggest threats are being communicated indirectly and that the Foresight Club remains active.
• Preparation and self-improvement: Xia Lun responds to danger by gathering intelligence and deliberately increasing his strength.
• Embodied understanding: The sword lesson emphasizes sensing the whole flow of power through body, weapon, and environment, not merely thinking through individual movements.
• Discipline versus distraction: His remarkable training progress comes at the cost of nearly missing important appointments.

Character interactions

• Xia Lun gives his butler instructions to assist the detectives discreetly; the butler follows them without question.
• Xia Lun and the masked swordsman engage in a fierce but instructional duel. The mentor praises Xia Lun’s ability, demonstrates Force Dissipation, and teaches him to use Listening Force to sense both an opponent and his own body.
• White Line is not present in the chapter, but Xia Lun remembers their scheduled meeting and anticipates the Game Item White Line will bring.

Plot and events

• Xia Lun arrives at Hornard’s isolated ranch with three armed associates, whom he introduces as bodyguards. In reality, they are helping him assess the ranch and prepare a covert transport route.
• Hornard’s adopted daughter, Delis, welcomes him and leads him through the ranch. Xia Lun asks about Hornard’s son; Delis’s discomfort suggests trouble. She explains that children have been disappearing in Whitewash City, including her former friend.
• While waiting, Xia Lun overhears Hornard refusing a woman’s offer to buy the ranch. She offers him money, knowing his son has gone missing and kidnappers are demanding a ransom. Hornard refuses, saying he has given someone his word and that Xia Lun may soon become the ranch’s owner.
• The woman, later identified as an investor named by Hornard as Delis, seems familiar to Xia Lun. Their conversation about coffee hints at a prior connection, though neither openly identifies it.
• A maid tells Hornard something urgent. He leaves, insisting the matter is minor, despite Xia Lun’s offer to help.
• As a blizzard gathers, the woman proposes a card game with Delis. Xia Lun declines, uneasy about the worsening weather, and jokes that the isolated ranch may soon become a setting for deaths and a hidden murderer. Delis is frightened, but the woman remains composed.
• A gunshot sounds outside, ending the chapter on a sudden threat.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun is outwardly friendly but calculating and vigilant. He conceals his real purpose at the ranch, notices Delis’s unease, and grows suspicious of the investor and Hornard’s sudden departure.
• Delis is lively and affectionate toward Xia Lun, but becomes subdued when he asks about Hornard’s son and her missing friend. She is also easily intimidated and reluctant to refuse the woman.
• Hornard appears generous and honorable, refusing a lucrative offer because of a promise. His concern over his missing son and abrupt response to an urgent message suggest mounting danger.
• The investor is confident, persistent, and difficult to read. She pressures Hornard to sell, then smoothly shifts to socializing with Delis; her familiarity with Xia Lun remains unexplained.
• Xia Lun’s warm friendship with Hornard contrasts with his guarded dealings with the investor. Delis’s trust in Xia Lun and discomfort with the woman set up an uneasy group dynamic.

Significant themes

• Isolation and impending danger: The remote ranch and approaching blizzard foreshadow a trapped, perilous situation.
• Missing children and hidden violence: The disappearances, Hornard’s absent son, and the kidnappers’ ransom suggest a broader threat.
• Trust, promises, and deception: Hornard honors his word, while Xia Lun hides his intentions and the investor’s motives remain doubtful.
• Unease beneath pastoral calm: The ranch’s peaceful setting is increasingly shadowed by ominous weather, secrets, and violence.

Key plot points and events

• A gunshot rings out as a sudden blizzard descends on the ranch. Xia Lun decides to investigate rather than leave, despite the worsening weather.
• A short-haired woman posing as an investor joins him. Delis, Hornard’s adopted daughter, reluctantly comes along. The woman gives Delis her jacket when she becomes cold.
• At the barn, the steward reports that Old Bao, the ranch’s security consultant, vanished after going behind the barn. A shotgun blast followed; only his clothes were found, along with a skinned cow, and there were no footprints.
• Xia Lun uses Heightened Focus to find a concealed, overheated miniature camera in the snow. Its logo identifies it as belonging to the detective and security firm he hired to investigate the Foresight Club.
• He recognizes the woman’s coffee-and-citrus scent on the camera and deduces that she is a company investigator, not an investor. She confirms her identity and shares the camera footage.
• The footage shows a wing-shaped black shadow appearing near Old Bao. He fires at it, then vanishes; an indistinct human silhouette appears behind the shadow before it disappears.
• Xia Lun notices a searchlight aimed at the spot where the shadow vanished, suggesting its appearance may depend on darkness or shadows. The woman warns him that Delis is “a bad woman.”

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun shifts from cautious observer to active investigator. He commits to staying, applies his perception skill methodically, and connects the camera to both the investigator and the disappearance.
• The short-haired woman reveals herself as Xia Lun’s hired investigator. She is composed and physically hardy in the storm, helps Delis, and banters with Xia Lun while withholding—or selectively sharing—information.
• Delis appears frightened by the gunshot and the strange weather, seeks Xia Lun’s protection, and later suspects a haunting. The investigator’s warning casts doubt on her apparent vulnerability.
• The steward and Xia Lun’s subordinate provide the timeline and details of Old Bao’s disappearance. The subordinate’s blunt manner contrasts with the steward’s panic.

Significant themes

• The ordinary giving way to the uncanny: The gunshot and blizzard mark a transition from routine ranch life to a threatening, seemingly supernatural mystery.
• Perception and investigation: Xia Lun’s focus, the hidden camera, and the investigator’s footage show how evidence can clarify—but not fully explain—the inexplicable.
• Trust and deception: The woman’s false identity and the warning about Delis make appearances unreliable, while Xia Lun’s decision to stay reflects loyalty and resolve.

Key plot points and events

• After speaking privately with the mysterious short-haired woman, Xia Lun returns to the barn as a worsening snowstorm traps the Ranch in darkness and cold.
• Ranch owner Hornard reveals that two people have died within an hour and Old Bao, the Ranch’s security consultant, is missing. He urges Xia Lun to leave, but Xia Lun stays and asks to inspect the latest death.
• Delis argues with Hornard: she wants to contact the Public Security Bureau, while he appears to fear that doing so will endanger his kidnapped son. He gives her a loaded shotgun, which she checks.
• In a cowshed, Xia Lun finds a young woman’s corpse nailed to the wall and mutilated in a manner resembling a winged sacrifice. He recognizes her as one of the people who recently disappeared. A bloodless cowhide lies nearby, possibly connected to the skinned cow found where Old Bao vanished.
• The cattle suddenly go wild after a calf stares anxiously at Hornard. When the corpse moves, Xia Lun shoots and destroys its head. The animals break through their flimsy pen and charge the group.
• Xia Lun shoots several attacking cows. The short-haired woman saves him from another with a powerful kick, and the survivors escape, securing the cowshed doors behind them.
• Xia Lun decides to wait for the cattle to calm down so he can investigate further. The woman considers fleeing but stays when Xia Lun refuses to leave. She admits she is not an investor, as she had claimed.

Character developments

• Xia Lun remains calm and resolute in the face of supernatural danger. He chooses investigation over escape, acts quickly against the corpse and charging cattle, and shows confidence that he can uncover the truth.
• Hornard is revealed to be desperate and frightened: his son has been kidnapped, and he has cut corners on the Ranch’s fencing to save money for ransom. His fear of the authorities appears tied to the kidnappers’ threat.
• Delis is defiant and protective of her brother, opposing her father’s apparent willingness to comply with the kidnappers. Her handling of the shotgun suggests she is capable and prepared to act.
• The short-haired woman remains cryptic and sharp-tongued. Though cautious about supernatural threats, she stays after Xia Lun does—and demonstrates formidable physical strength by killing a charging cow with a kick. Her claim that she expects payment from Xia Lun hints at a hidden agenda.

Significant themes

• Courage versus caution: Xia Lun chooses to confront the danger; the woman argues that retreat is wiser, though she ultimately stays.
• Supernatural mystery and uncertainty: The corpse’s impossible movement, unexplained disappearance, and connection between the body and cowhide suggest forces beyond ordinary investigation.
• Fear and coercion: The apparent kidnapping of Hornard’s son shapes his choices and deepens the conflict between him and Delis.
• Neglect and consequences: Hornard’s cost-cutting leaves the cattle behind inadequate fences, turning an already frightening scene into a lethal escape.

Character interactions

• Xia Lun and the woman trade barbed remarks, but their relationship shifts toward uneasy cooperation after she saves him.
• Hornard tries to protect Xia Lun by urging him to leave, while Xia Lun insists on investigating and calms Hornard enough to gain his agreement.
• Delis challenges Hornard over whether to contact the authorities, exposing their disagreement over how to save her brother.
• During the cattle attack, Xia Lun and the woman work together to survive; afterward, her false investor identity adds another layer of suspicion to their alliance.

• The investigation confirms that people are being transformed into cattle. Xia Lun and the woman examine hidden camera footage from the cowshed: a weeping calf splits open to reveal a girl, and black smoke then rises from a corpse to form the wing-shaped shadow known as the Winged Ghostly Shadow. The footage suggests the enemy is using a secret art and may be behind Whitewash City’s disappearances.
• The ranch ledger reveals a troubling discrepancy. Daily cattle tallies exceed the monthly count by more than forty, suggesting people transformed into cattle may have been added to the herd. The woman has secretly obtained both the footage and the ledger, provoking Hornard’s anger. Access to the ledger is limited to Hornard, the steward, and Delis, Hornard’s adopted daughter.
• A link to Xia Lun’s personal quest emerges. The ledger bears the symbol of the Foresight Club, which Xia Lun has long sought because he hopes it may explain or cure his terminal illness. He hides his excitement and tells Hornard to act as if nothing is wrong, promising a plan to identify the kidnapper and rescue Hornard’s son safely.
• Delis secretly approaches Xia Lun. She claims that Hornard’s son has been kidnapped, that the kidnapper threatened the family into silence, and that the ranch murder was meant to pressure Hornard for ransom. She also accuses the “investor” of being an accomplice and suggests someone will try to steal the ledger.
• Xia Lun sees through Delis’s story but plays along. Her explanations and hints seem rehearsed and poorly delivered; he suspects she is manipulating him and expects the steward to be the person who acts on her ledger trap. He pretends to accept her plan, asks where the ledger is kept, and learns it is in the small building beside the cowshed.
  Character developments and interactions: Xia Lun remains composed and observant, using feigned ignorance to test Delis while privately pursuing the Foresight Club lead. Hornard is distressed by the evidence and by the woman’s intrusions, but ultimately trusts Xia Lun. The woman is bold, irreverent, and secretive, repeatedly clashing with Hornard while contributing key evidence. Delis presents herself as frightened and loyal to her family, but Xia Lun’s doubts cast suspicion on her motives and on her relationship with the steward.
  Themes: The chapter combines investigative suspense with supernatural horror, emphasizing deception, hidden loyalties, and the danger of appearances. It also connects the immediate mystery to Xia Lun’s desperate search for a cure.

Plot points and events

• Xia Lun leads three subordinates through a blizzard to the Cowshed, intending to investigate Delis and the Foresight Club while rescuing people transformed into cows.
• He relocates the Shadowless Lamp near the Cowshed, hoping its light will weaken the Winged Ghostly Shadow, and sends his men to watch the nearby building.
• Inside, Xia Lun finds two transformed people—a frightened Brown Cow and a badly injured White Cow—and guides them toward the exit.
• The ghost attacks as the Cowshed lights flicker. Xia Lun wounds it repeatedly with bullets and a sword, but it rapidly regenerates and can teleport through the surrounding darkness.
• Using Life Drain and Heightened Focus, Xia Lun discovers the shadow’s weakness. He activates the Shadowless Lamp, which prevents its teleportation and weakens it, then strikes its core and destroys it. He gains a free attribute point.
• As Xia Lun catches his breath, his close-cropped subordinate appears and shoots him with a shotgun, then fires again at his head. The attacker speaks in Delis’s voice. Xia Lun, who had been pretending to be dead, realizes Delis is impersonating his subordinate.

Character developments

• Xia Lun proves cautious and strategic: he prepares the lamp, protects the transformed people, and adapts quickly in combat. Though badly hurt by the ghost, he identifies how to counter its powers and defeats it.
• Delis emerges as a more active and dangerous threat. She appears able to disguise herself as Xia Lun’s subordinate and confronts him over his deception.
• The transformed people remain frightened and physically vulnerable, but the Brown Cow helps Xia Lun locate the White Cow, and both survive the escape attempt.

Character interactions

• Xia Lun directs his subordinates to prepare the lamp and guard the building, while one bodyguard admits he is afraid.
• He reassures and guides the Brown and White Cows, promising rescue and leading them out.
• Xia Lun’s confrontation with the ghost is followed by a sudden betrayal—or apparent betrayal—by the figure he recognizes as his bodyguard. Delis’s voice reveals the encounter is another deception.

Significant themes

• Light versus darkness: The lamp is the practical counter to the ghost’s power, turning an overwhelming fight into a survivable one.
• Deception and mistrust: Xia Lun is investigating Delis while concealing his intentions; Delis responds with a disguise and accusation of her own.
• Courage and adaptation: Xia Lun survives by preparing carefully, staying composed, and changing tactics when force alone fails.
• Rescue amid danger: Even while facing a lethal supernatural threat, Xia Lun prioritizes saving the transformed victims.

Chapter Summary: “Ranch Fright (End)”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Xia Lun survives being blasted apart by four shotgun shells because of his Nonhuman Toughness, accumulated Life Force, and Transcendent Regeneration. Though his body is scattered, he can still perceive the world through his soul and gradually reconnects his eye and severed hand.
• He discovers that “Delis” is actually Horn, the rancher Hornard’s son, and that she has been controlling the crew-cut man’s corpse. She intends to use Xia Lun’s body and wealth for a ritual connected to her teacher and the Foresight Club.
• Delis reveals her obsessive and abusive relationship with the cows, especially White Cow, whom she calls “Horn.” She prepares to sacrifice Brown Cow, whom she blames for interfering in her life.
• Xia Lun prepares to ambush Delis with Life Drain, but White Line suddenly appears. She uses laser-trigger devices, an anti-spiritual trap, and a gas-powered chainsaw to attack Delis.
• Delis’s Ghostly Shadow escapes her mutilated body and attacks White Line, but White Line’s trap temporarily restrains it. Delis then uses a supernatural Blindness ability and attempts to take over White Line’s body.
• Xia Lun fully regenerates and attacks Delis with Life Drain. He drains both her physical strength and spiritual essence, killing her instantly and reducing her body and soul to ash.
• White Line is shocked that Xia Lun survived and protests that he should have left Delis’s body intact so she could extract information about the Foresight Club.

Character Developments

• Xia Lun crosses further beyond ordinary humanity. He can perceive through his soul, sense emotions, regenerate from catastrophic injury, and kill a supernatural being by draining its will and essence. His anger intensifies when Delis threatens to exploit his corpse and fortune.
• Delis/Horn is exposed as mentally unstable, possessive, manipulative, and deeply traumatized. She views murder and sacrifice as sacred acts and treats people and animals as possessions or ritual materials. Her confidence collapses into genuine terror when Life Drain reaches her soul.
• White Line is revealed to be the intelligence broker in disguise rather than the investigator Xia Lun initially assumed. Her methods are far more violent and unconventional than expected, involving traps, illusions, supernatural countermeasures, and a chainsaw.
• White Cow and Brown Cow are shown to be victims of Delis’s abuse. White Cow feels a contradictory mix of fear, hatred, dependence, and self-loathing, while Brown Cow is targeted for resisting Delis and defending others.

Significant Themes

• Loss of humanity and transformation: Xia Lun’s ability to survive dismemberment and sense emotions through his soul suggests that his powers are changing him into something no longer fully human.
• Possession and control: Delis treats people, animals, corpses, and wealth as things she owns and can repurpose, while her supernatural abilities literally allow her to control bodies and minds.
• Abuse and trauma: The cows’ conflicted emotions reflect the psychological damage caused by prolonged captivity and mistreatment.
• Violence versus strategy: Xia Lun plans a calculated ambush, White Line relies on traps and specialized equipment, and Delis combines ritualistic beliefs with supernatural force. The confrontation repeatedly shifts as each character reveals hidden abilities.
• Death and utility: Even after killing Xia Lun, Delis wants to use his corpse; after killing Delis, White Line wants her body for information. The chapter emphasizes how the characters view death not as an end, but as another resource to exploit.

Character Interactions

• Xia Lun and Delis: Their conflict shifts from Delis’s apparent victory to Xia Lun’s overwhelming reversal. Delis arrogantly justifies killing him, but Xia Lun responds by draining her body and soul while revealing that her teacher is already dead.
• Delis and White Cow: Delis displays obsessive affection and cruelty, accusing White Cow of repeatedly abandoning or deceiving her while physically hurting him. White Cow’s fear and hatred expose the abusive nature of their bond.
• Delis and Brown Cow: Delis punishes Brown Cow for opposing her and attempts to sacrifice him, demonstrating that her rituals are also a means of enforcing control.
• White Line and Delis: White Line attacks Delis without warning and nearly destroys her supernatural form. Delis retaliates with illusion and Blindness, turning the fight into a contest of hidden abilities.
• White Line and Xia Lun: White Line initially believes Xia Lun is dead and tries to preserve Delis’s body for interrogation. His sudden regeneration and decisive killing both surprise and frustrate her.

Summary

Two days after the ranch battle, Xia Lun meets White Line at a café to exchange information. White Line says the Internal Affairs Department has opened a major investigation into the Foresight Club, using evidence recovered from Delis’s brain. She reveals that she is a genuine department officer and, after the Herno Strait bombing, has become head of the investigation. She also teases Xia Lun for failing to recognize her earlier. In return for explaining what she learned from Delis, she asks Xia Lun to recount what happened at the ranch.
The chapter flashes back to the aftermath of the battle. Xia Lun has regenerated after being blasted apart, while Delis lies dead and drained by his Life Drain ability. White Line uses her mechanical hat to try to recover Delis’s memories, but the damage is too severe; she takes the corpse for further examination and promises to report back. Her unsettling methods contrast with Xia Lun’s equally gruesome powers, though the two trust one another.
Xia Lun and White Line search the ranch and find thirteen people who had been transformed into cattle. The remaining missing victims were likely killed as offerings for Delis’s ritual. White Line uses a disturbing spell to turn the survivors back into humans, but the effort leaves her exhausted. As she departs in a flash of blue dust, Xia Lun realizes that White Line and Xuan Yan are the same person.
Xia Lun then recruits Horn, the ranch owner’s son, who witnessed his death and resurrection as well as Delis’s defeat. Rather than silence him, Xia Lun offers him work, starting with helping organize the survivors. Xia Lun leads the group out of the cowshed, where they encounter Hornard and his search party.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun shows more of his grotesque regenerative power and remains pragmatic: he recruits Horn as a potential subordinate rather than treating him as a threat. He also recognizes White Line’s true identity as Xuan Yan.
• White Line/Xuan Yan is revealed as an Internal Affairs Department officer and a trusted ally. Her teasing familiarity with Xia Lun sits alongside her eerie, ruthless-looking methods; she rescues the transformed victims but pays a physical price for the spell.
• Horn moves from terrified witness to willing recruit after Xia Lun reassures him and offers him a role.
• Xia Lun and White Line share a relationship built on trust, banter, and mutual competence, even as each finds the other’s abilities disturbing.
• The survivors react with disbelief, gratitude, and trauma after being restored, underscoring the lasting effects of Delis’s crimes.

Significant themes

• The uncanny cost of power: Both Xia Lun’s regeneration and White Line’s magic save lives but are grotesque and unsettling.
• Survival amid sacrifice: Thirteen victims are rescued, while the likely deaths of the others expose the brutal cost of Delis’s ritual.
• Trust and recruitment: Xia Lun turns a frightened witness into a potential ally, suggesting that loyalty and usefulness can emerge from shared danger.
• Hidden identities and concealed knowledge: White Line’s true role and identity, along with the secret supernatural world, emphasize how much remains concealed beneath ordinary appearances.

Key plot points and events

• After the storm, Hornard mourns Delis beside her corpse and the melodica in her pocket. He believes he has lost both his son and daughter.
• Xia Lun arrives with survivors and Horn, who has returned to human form. Horn explains that Delis transformed him, Anlia, and many others into cows, imprisoned them, and sacrificed them with the help of a ghostly shadow.
• Xia Lun asks whether Hornard will still sell the Ranch now that Horn is safe and the kidnappers are dead. Hornard decides to honor his agreement, citing his commitment to keeping his word.
• Xia Lun reveals that Horn will manage the Ranch, with Hornard assisting. He explains that trust matters more to him than money, property, or weapons.
• Unable to celebrate, Hornard plays Delis’s melodica and admits that, though Delis deserved her fate, she was still his daughter.
• The story shifts to Xia Lun recounting these events to White Line. They debate Hornard: White Line condemns his selfishness and failure to consider Delis’s other victims, while Xia Lun sees him as loyal and notes that the arrangement benefits him.
• Xia Lun gives White Line the Slaying Astral Violet-Tassel Sword, asking her to act like someone with low intelligence. Her change in manner convinces him she is Xuan Yan, the woman from his Scenario who looked exactly like her.
• Xia Lun tells White Line that he has encountered other Scenario characters—such as the pirate Geliide—in the real world. White Line says this is unusual, though similar characters and relationships can recur across Scenarios, then mentions having heard a theory.

Character developments and interactions

• Hornard reunites joyfully with Horn, then faces grief over Delis and chooses to keep his word despite having more freedom to reconsider the sale. His sorrow complicates his earlier portrayal as a greedy businessman.
• Horn returns safely and reveals the scale of Delis’s crimes, explaining the Ranch’s disappearances and transformations.
• Xia Lun demonstrates both practical judgment and loyalty: he keeps Hornard involved in the Ranch because he values trust, and he seeks answers about the overlap between Scenario characters and real people.
• White Line strongly condemns Hornard’s moral failures, but cooperates with Xia Lun’s request. Her imitation confirms Xia Lun’s suspicion that she is Xuan Yan; her surprise at the sword’s value underscores its importance.
• The reunion between Hornard and Horn contrasts with the subdued exchange between Hornard and Xia Lun: gratitude and a new business arrangement coexist with grief for Delis.

Significant themes

• Trust and loyalty: Xia Lun values a dependable person over material power, while Hornard’s decision to honor his promise defines his sense of integrity.
• Grief and moral complexity: Hornard mourns Delis even after learning she committed atrocities; personal loss does not erase the suffering she caused.
• Responsibility and complicity: White Line argues that Hornard’s selfishness helped enable evil, raising questions about whether ignorance or foolishness excuses harmful choices.
• Identity and recurrence: Xia Lun’s discovery that White Line resembles Xuan Yan, alongside similar encounters with Geliide, introduces uncertainty about how Scenario characters relate to the real world.

Plot points and events

• White Line explains a theory about how Players encounter the same people and objects across different Scenarios: contact creates “attraction,” drawing Players toward related Scenarios in an infinite collection of separate worlds.
• Xia Lun understands the idea but challenges it with his experience of meeting Scenario lookalikes in the Real World. White Line sidesteps the question by presenting him with a gift: a Bottomless Coffee Cup, which gradually restores mental health.
• Xia Lun insists his mind is sound, while White Line jokes that untreated poor mental health led to her own kleptomania.
• White Line examines Xia Lun’s Purple Tassel Evil-Slaying Sword. Though it feels unfamiliar to her, she likes it and accepts it gratefully.
• The two exchange gifts: White Line’s coffee cup is thanks for Xia Lun’s help at the Ranch, while Xia Lun gives her the sword.
• White Line prepares to disclose the codename of the Foresight Club member who cursed Xia Lun, but first shows him two items: a Snail Statue and a broken Stagnant Hourglass. The hourglass can triple a quantifiable Scenario objective, and White Line says it could be especially useful in lifting Xia Lun’s curse.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun is analytical and skeptical, probing the limits of White Line’s theory and firmly rejecting her suggestion that he may be hallucinating.
• White Line is playful and theatrical, teasing Xia Lun for not playing along with her suspense, but also shows warmth through her gifts and appreciation of his sword.
• Their conversation is an easy, teasing exchange built on mutual trust. White Line shares speculative knowledge and brings useful items; Xia Lun listens closely and challenges her claims rather than accepting them uncritically.

Significant themes

• Connection and attraction: Prior encounters may shape which people, objects, and worlds Players are drawn to.
• Uncertainty and perception: The boundary between Scenario experience and the Real World remains unexplained, leaving Xia Lun’s encounters open to competing interpretations.
• Reciprocity and trust: The gift exchange reinforces the pair’s friendly relationship while setting up cooperation around Xia Lun’s curse.
• Mental health: The coffee cup’s practical effects contrast with White Line’s joking treatment of mental illness and Xia Lun’s insistence that he is well.

Key plot points

• White Line explains that the Stagnant Hourglass extends time inside a Scenario, letting Players explore and train after completing urgent objectives. Xia Lun agrees to trade for it.
• Xia Lun reveals he has Manifestation Authority for three Evil Flesh Codices, acquired by raiding a cultists’ library in his previous Scenario. White Line estimates them at about 30,000 Memory Points.
• Unable to match their value with her original offer, White Line offers the Legend-level Snail Statue Summoner, which Xia Lun accepts. It generates a statue monthly but damages its owner’s mental health and can cause an obsession with “the vortex.” She will deliver the bulky item in three days.
• White Line adds Living Rope, powerful evidence-free plastic explosives, and an expert ID for the Internal Affairs Department’s Special Operations Division. The ID gives Xia Lun access to intelligence, a stipend, and investigative authority, granted because of the Foresight Club information uncovered at the Ranch.
• They review the Foresight Club case. Xia Lun confirms he killed Ghostly Shadow with the Shadowless Lamp. The other known Outer Members are Paper Ghost and Leaping Corpse; the Blind Believer who cursed him is Curse Death, believed to be in the Far Mountain Region.
• The Club’s known hierarchy runs from Outer Member to Blind Believer, True Believer, and Priest, with possible higher ranks. Curse Death appears to be pursuing promotion to Priest through a Ritual involving blood sacrifice and “Replacement Mass.”
• Two other Blind Believers—Golden Sprout and an unidentified accomplice—are helping Curse Death. The Ritual is expected to be completed within six months, by next year’s Month of Grapes and Shadows. Xia Lun resolves that he does not want it to succeed.
• White Line reports that Alliance News and Jade Pharmaceuticals are under investigation. She insists that Xia Lun is part of the task force: “we,” not “you.”

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Lun is practical and ambitious: he values the Hourglass for post-boss exploration, accepts the unusual Snail Statue Summoner as a strategic asset, and eagerly takes the explosives. His powerful recent feats have changed White Line’s view of him from novice to formidable Player.
• White Line is impressed and somewhat unnerved by Xia Lun’s capabilities, especially his three Codices and bold raid. She is candid about the trade’s value, secures him official status, and treats him as a colleague while sharing intelligence.
• Their exchange is friendly but direct: Xia Lun questions the ID’s real usefulness and probes the Club’s motives; White Line corrects his assumptions and brings him into the investigation as an equal partner.

Significant themes

• Power and its price: Valuable items can carry serious psychological costs, while supernatural ability brings both opportunity and danger.
• Preparation and exploration: More time in a Scenario can turn survival into a chance to gather knowledge, train, and acquire rewards.
• Institutional authority versus practical power: Xia Lun doubts that an official ID will help much, suggesting formal status may matter less than capability.
• Urgency and cooperation: The approaching Ritual gives the investigation a deadline, pushing Xia Lun and White Line toward shared action.