Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming encounters a badly injured blind man—apparently Big Dog—who risks his own existence to reach him. Xuan Wen urges Gao Ming to leave before the man’s soul dissipates.
• Xuan Wen and Gao Ming return to the apartment courtyard, where Xuan Wen plans to exploit weaknesses in the constructed world and draw on the Situ An inside Gao Ming.
• They visit Uncle Zhang’s basement photography studio. Xuan Wen reveals that Uncle Zhang is dead, and Gao Ming discovers his corpse beneath the bed. In the mirror, the corpse appears as Stone Granny, a dangerous creature with a human spine grown across its back.
• Xuan Wen says she persuaded Uncle Zhang to kill himself and had to fight Stone Granny using only ordinary human strength. She finds his phone and calls Situ An’s number; the phone rings inside Gao Ming, suggesting Situ An’s imprisoned soul is trying to answer.
• Gao Ming tapes up Stone Granny’s body and hides it to delay its discovery. Xuan Wen then gathers photographs and diary material before visiting Situ An’s mother.
• Xuan Wen tells the mother that she has a serious mental illness, that Situ An works at Lishan Hospital as her caregiver, and that the courtyard is really a hospital room designed for her treatment.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming is moved by Big Dog’s devotion and feels guilty for having underestimated their friendship. He remains practical, hiding Stone Granny’s body rather than condemning Xuan Wen’s actions.
• Xuan Wen shows her ruthless, strategic side: she has killed Stone Granny, manipulated the mother’s emotions, and altered records to make her story convincing. She insists they must act without apparent malice and frame their actions as help.
• Big Dog makes a self-sacrificing effort to reach Gao Ming, despite his failing condition.
• Situ An’s mother is anxious about her son and initially receptive to Xuan Wen’s explanation, recalling that Situ An accompanied her to appointments. Whether she accepts the full revelation is left unresolved.
• Gao Ming and Xuan Wen work together, though Xuan Wen teases him about Big Dog and questions his impulse to protect the creature’s body.

Significant themes

• Devotion and loyalty: Big Dog’s sacrifice contrasts with Gao Ming’s earlier assumption that they were merely ordinary friends.
• Reality, memory, and deception: The courtyard may be a hospital environment disguised as home, and the characters manipulate memories and evidence to expose or exploit that illusion.
• Morality under pressure: Xuan Wen uses murder and emotional manipulation as tools, while Gao Ming focuses on practical survival.
• Compassion and perspective: Xuan Wen argues that they must approach Situ An’s mother from her own point of view, even as they deceive her.

Plot points and events

• Xuan Wen persuades Situ An’s mother that her home and neighbors may be part of a treatment setting, presenting black-and-white photographs and a diary of supposed medical records to make her doubt her reality.
• To reinforce the idea that she is hallucinating, Xuan Wen secretly calls Situ An. His familiar ringtone sounds outside, but she insists he has not returned and guides the woman away from the door.
• Xuan Wen probes the mother’s persistent fear for Situ An, suggesting he may be hiding something terrible from her. The woman’s existing worry and inner conflict intensify, and the home around them begins to distort.
• When the ringtone sounds again, the mother breaks free and follows it beyond the Home Gate, despite Situ An’s warning never to leave.
• Gao Ming, waiting in the shadows, directs her across the road. There she sees the outline of a hospital, hears faint screams, and realizes this may be where Situ An works.

Character developments and interactions

• Situ An’s mother shifts from resisting the claim that she is mentally ill to doubting her own perceptions. Her concern for her son ultimately overcomes her fear of leaving home, prompting her to seek him out.
• Xuan Wen carefully manipulates the mother’s fears through staged evidence, misleading explanations, and the ringtone. Her apparent concern conceals a deliberate plan to destabilize the woman’s sense of reality.
• Gao Ming remains outside the Home Gate, observing Xuan Wen’s strategy. At the crucial moment, he guides the mother toward the hospital rather than stopping her.
• The chapter’s central interaction is Xuan Wen’s psychological pressure on the mother; the mother’s remembered bond with Situ An—and anxiety about his absence—drives her to resist that pressure in an unexpected way.

Significant themes

• Manipulation and reality: Fabricated evidence and carefully timed events can make a person question what is real.
• Fear and vulnerability: The mother’s love and worry for Situ An become the means by which she is controlled.
• Crossing boundaries: Leaving the courtyard breaks a psychological restraint and exposes a more frightening world.
• Truth and deception: Xuan Wen’s claims may be false, but they exploit fears the mother already has, leaving the nature of Situ An’s actions unresolved.

Plot points

• Situ An’s mother leads Xuan Wen and Gao Ming from the Courtyard Compound toward Lishan Hospital. The chapter reveals that together, the compound and hospital make up Situ An’s “home.”
• Xuan Wen realizes the peaceful compound is an illusion shaped by ghosts and cursed objects. Situ An’s mother is the last normal person in the home—and the final remnant of his humanity. As she approaches the hospital, the familiar surroundings become grotesque and corpse-filled.
• Xuan Wen urges the mother to face the truth about her son rather than leave him to confront it alone. At the hospital entrance, she falters, recalling that entering the hospital years earlier began the tragedy. Faced with records of Situ An’s horrific experiments, she denies he could have committed them and fears she has gone mad.
• Meanwhile, Gao Ming discovers that Big Dog, the blind man, is clinging to his arm while being attacked by two divine statues. Xuan Wen explains that the home traps their minds while the statues devour their bodies. Gao Ming calls on the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal to help save Big Dog, and Gong Xi begins to emerge from the wound in Gao Ming’s chest.

Character developments and interactions

• Situ An’s mother moves from trust in her son and willingness to follow Xuan Wen toward a painful confrontation with evidence of his cruelty. Her maternal love both draws her forward and prevents her from accepting what she sees.
• Xuan Wen acts as guide and emotional anchor for the mother, while also quickly assessing the danger to Gao Ming and proposing a way to escape.
• Gao Ming risks injury to protect Big Dog, showing compassion and calling on the being within him for help. Big Dog’s desperate grip suggests fierce loyalty despite his suffering.
• The chapter frames the mother as Situ An’s “true guardian”: his home remains partly humane only while she does.

Significant themes

• Love as refuge and vulnerability: The mother’s presence preserves warmth, but her devotion also makes it difficult to face the truth.
• Denial versus truth: The medical records and the hospital’s horrors force a conflict between what the mother believes about her son and what may have happened.
• Home and identity: “Home” is not merely a place; it reflects Situ An’s inner world and depends on his mother’s humanity.
• Loyalty and sacrifice: Gao Ming and Big Dog’s bond mirrors the chapter’s insistence that no one should be abandoned.

Plot points

• Gao Ming exploits the collapse of Situ An’s “home” to connect it to the real Lishan Hospital through the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God and the blind man.
• To save Big Dog and open a route out, Gao Ming sends Red Raincoat through the passage with the spirits in the posthumous photos, trusting her to search for her child. Her escape triggers a battle with the home’s monstrous gods.
• Gao Ming and Xuan Wen search the hospital, where Situ An’s memories and secrets are laid bare. They discover his mother’s death notice and learn that she died at Lishan Hospital long ago.
• Situ An’s mother refuses to accept the truth until Xuan Wen shows her rooms filled with copies of the death notice. Her collapse breaks the comforting illusion of the home, exposing its rotten, supernatural reality.
• Gao Ming learns that Situ An once sought to save his mother after her death. With Doctor Lu Zang, he planned the shadow world’s invasion and created many of Hanhai’s ghost-story games. Over time, his original motive was consumed by ambition and cruelty.
• As Red Raincoat is overwhelmed and the passage fails, Gao Ming realizes that Situ An’s imagined mother—his last remnant of goodness—is also the barrier preventing Gao Ming from taking control of the home. He concludes that he must kill her, though doing so would violate his own principles.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming risks his allies’ lives and releases Red Raincoat to save Big Dog. He pieces together Situ An’s history, but faces a moral crisis: defeating Situ An may require killing an innocent woman.
• Situ An is revealed as a tragic but culpable figure. His grief over his mother’s death began his descent, but he later sacrificed his child, caused his wife’s death, and pursued his plans without conscience. His imagined mother serves both as his remaining humanity and as a weapon against Gao Ming.
• Situ An’s mother clings to the loving son in her memories and angrily rejects evidence of his corruption. Confronting her own death and the truth of the home overwhelms her.
• Xuan Wen uncovers the death notice and helps force the truth into the open, challenging the mother’s denial.
• Red Raincoat accepts the family spirits and ventures into danger, driven by the hope of finding her child. Meanwhile, the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God and the other allies sacrifice themselves to buy Gao Ming time.

Significant themes

• Grief and denial: Situ An’s refusal to accept his mother’s death fuels his transformation, while his mother’s denial preserves the illusion.
• Love corrupted by obsession: A genuine wish to reunite with his mother becomes the justification for terrible acts.
• The cost of defeating evil: Gao Ming must weigh victory against the possibility of betraying his own moral code.
• Fantasy versus reality: The bright, welcoming home conceals death and horror; only when its illusion breaks can the truth be seen.

Plot points

• Situ An’s mother refuses to accept the death notices and faces Gao Ming in the hospital corridor.
• Rather than attack her, Gao Ming opens the wound in his chest, revealing his memories of repeated deaths. Through them, he lets her see Situ An imprisoned in the Execution House.
• Situ An reacts with fury, ordering his mother to stay away and blaming her for weakening him. Gao Ming explains that Situ An’s actions caused immense suffering, so he must face the consequences.
• Gao Ming leads Situ An’s mother toward the Execution House. Despite Situ An’s increasingly desperate attempts to drive her away, she enters, apologizing for having left him alone years earlier.
• Situ An eventually stops resisting and reaches for her. When she takes his hand, he promises they will leave together.

Character developments

• Gao Ming remains firm about holding Situ An accountable, but shows insight into his enemy’s feelings and makes their reunion possible.
• Situ An reveals a deep attachment beneath his cold, calculating exterior. His abuse is an attempt to protect his mother from sharing his fate; even while imprisoned, he refuses to give up and vows to take her out.
• Situ An’s mother demonstrates unwavering, selfless love. Though she understands the danger, she chooses to stay with her son and confronts her regret over leaving him.

Themes

• Love and sacrifice: A mother’s devotion persists despite cruelty and danger.
• Accountability: Love for Situ An does not erase the harm he caused to others.
• Humanity and weakness: Situ An sees his mother as a vulnerability, yet their bond reveals the humanity he struggles to suppress.
• Regret and reunion: Their encounter offers a painful chance to face the past and reconnect.

Key interactions

• Gao Ming confronts Situ An’s mother but offers her a way to see her son.
• Situ An tries to repel his mother with anger, while Gao Ming recognizes that this is an effort to protect her.
• The mother answers Situ An’s rejection with compassion, and their final touch brings a moment of tenderness and resolve.

Plot points

• Situ An insists that Gao Ming’s victory will unleash the damaged divine statues he kept at Lishan Hospital, blaming Gao Ming for the coming danger. Gao Ming dismisses the accusation and focuses on taking control of Situ An’s “home.”
• When Situ An’s mother enters the Execution House, its rules shift and the hidden nature of the home is revealed: its residents and neighbors are ghosts, statues, and other sources of corruption. Memories of the hospital’s patients survive the collapse and form new nightmares.
• Gao Ming absorbs those nightmares into the Execution House, while Xuan Wen slips away to retrieve Situ An’s landline phone and a box of ghostly “toys” from his mother’s home.
• The home’s memories strengthen the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God, advancing it to the third stage needed to become a dream ghost: the ability to create nightmares from its own experiences.
• Gao Ming sees the real structure of Situ An’s home within the Intestine: a Black Lake holding damaged divine statues, intact bodies prepared for them, and grotesquely mutated corpses.
• The group faces the awakened statues. The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God rescues Red Raincoat, while Xuan Wen throws the toys toward the statues; the toys merge with the shadows and become resentful patients.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains calm under Situ An’s threats, treats the ordeal as something he can overcome, and trusts Xuan Wen to act independently. He also gains further nightmare power and learns more about the nature of “homes.”
• Situ An reveals that his home was built around powerful, dangerous ghost gods and presents its destruction as Gao Ming’s inheritance and burden. His control is failing, but his designs remain a threat.
• Xuan Wen proves resourceful and decisive: she retrieves valuable items from Situ An’s mother’s room, then puts herself between danger and Gao Ming to help the group escape.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God grows dramatically stronger after consuming Situ An’s memories and the dream of his home. His history as a broken clay figure also connects him to the other statues.
• Red Raincoat and the Blind Man are in immediate danger amid the attack; the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God aids Red Raincoat, while Xuan Wen carries the badly injured Blind Man.

Significant themes

• Inheritance and consequence: Situ An claims Gao Ming has inherited his karma, raising the possibility that defeating an enemy means taking on the dangers they created.
• Homes as supernatural systems: A “home” can suppress human and ghostly will, and its power depends on rare materials and memories from the Shadow World.
• Memory transformed into horror: The patients’ memories persist after the hospital collapses, becoming nightmares and a source of power.
• The cost of power: Ghosts can grow stronger by consuming others, but doing so risks being possessed; the growing power of the Ghost God also underscores the dangers surrounding Gao Ming’s allies.

Plot points

• The damaged divine statues awaken and absorb shadows as Chen Meng and other former patients appear, suggesting the Shadow World’s horrors are tied to Lishan Hospital’s past.
• Situ An traps Gao Ming and the others inside the living, flesh-walled passage called the Intestine. He reveals that he and Lu Zang spent years preparing the hospital in the Shadow World, and threatens to make the group the first sacrifices to the statues—followed by all of Hanhai.
• With the exit sealed and the flesh walls healing too quickly to cut through, Gao Ming and Xuan Wen choose to explore the black lake as a possible escape route and source of clues.
• In the lake, they discover a black-and-white posthumous photograph from which the shadows appear to originate. The photograph seems to be the real foundation of Situ An’s home and may be keeping many damaged statues dormant.
• The lake suddenly surges, and shadows strike and merge with the Intestine’s walls. Someone appears to be attacking the passage from outside, but Gao Ming and Xuan Wen do not know who.

Character developments and interactions

• Situ An reveals the scale of his planning and his increasingly extreme conviction that a city without him has no reason to exist. His mother, the Middle-Aged Woman, watches him with pain and worry, unable to understand what he has become.
• Gao Ming remains determined to protect his companions, but the lake’s influence begins to overwhelm him. The sight of Xuan Wen entering the water revives his fear of losing her to the Shadow World.
• Xuan Wen shows boldness and sharp suspicion: she doubts Situ An’s explanation, infers that the lake conceals something important, and leads the investigation. She takes Gao Ming’s hand and helps him endure the lake’s mental pressure.
• Gao Ming and Xuan Wen work closely, balancing caution with the need to act. Their search is interrupted by an unexpected outside assault.

Significant themes

• Home corrupted into a trap: Situ An’s carefully constructed “home” is built on cruelty, malice, and sacrifice.
• Memory, death, and shadows: Shadows are described as remnants left by a dying world, and the photograph may be their source.
• Faith exploited as power: The divine statues’ twisted faith and possible sacrifice hint at a larger, hidden plan.
• Trust and uncertainty: Situ An’s claims may be deliberate misdirection, while the unknown attacker raises questions about who else knows the truth.

Key plot points

• Xia Yang is captured in his own painting after the Investigation Bureau uses a female security officer as bait. Her curse-based ability lets her injure targets through a portrait, while her soul can imprison Vengeful Ghosts.
• Xia Yang denies killing the missing officer K and claims K led a team into Lishan Hospital’s Rear Building. Wan Jie realizes the Rear Building has become part of the Shadow World and that the hospital is already a pollution source.
• The Security First Team leader reports that most Ghost Story Players gathered at the hospital are inexperienced. He proposes recruiting them rather than arresting or harming them.
• Wan Jie’s group heads to the Rear Building to rescue survivors from Teams Seven and Nine. They take Xia Yang along, and he offers to guide them toward the killer—while bargaining for his release.
• Inside the Rear Building, Gao Ming and others are trapped in the Intestine as the fleshy walls come under attack from several sides. Both the trapped people and those outside begin focusing on a weak point.
• Gao Ming summons the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God to the Black Lake, directing him to the black-and-white Posthumous Photograph. The Ghost God abandons the Red Raincoat and retrieves it, disturbing the lake and damaging or breaking several buried clay sculptures.

Character developments and interactions

• Xia Yang remains manipulative and quick-tongued, trying to turn his knowledge of Gao Ming into leverage for his freedom. His bond with Gao Ming through the Posthumous Photograph lets him sense Gao Ming’s presence.
• Wan Jie shows sharp judgment, quickly recognizing the hospital’s true condition and prioritizing the rescue of his team members.
• The First Team leader appears calm and pragmatic, advocating recruitment for the inexperienced Ghost Story Players. The Second Team leader is hostile toward Xia Yang, while the Third Team leader is strongly protective of colleagues and physically removes Xia Yang’s portrait to transport him.
• Gao Ming chooses to summon the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God rather than wait for the walls to fail, and remains focused on the Ghost God’s potential use of divine remains.
• Xuan Wen accompanies Gao Ming into the Black Lake, holding his hand as they approach the Ghost God.

Significant themes

• Manipulation and uneasy cooperation: Xia Yang, the security teams, and the trapped patients all pursue their own goals while relying on others.
• Institutional limits and hidden danger: The Investigation Bureau has failed to recognize the hospital’s transformation into a pollution source.
• Power drawn from death and belief: The Ghost God’s reaction to the photograph suggests that the ruined statues and forgotten faiths hold immense significance—and possibly fuel his growth.
• Survival through action: Those inside and outside the Intestine converge on its weakest point as waiting becomes too dangerous.

Key plot points and events

• The Flesh-and-Blood Immortal, reborn within Gao Ming, fights to seize the Black-and-White Posthumous Photo from the lake of statues. As he turns it over, Gao Ming and Xuan Wen see a blood-red city containing thirteen survivors.
• Several figures are identifiable: Situ An and Xia Yang have turned black and white and appear merged with the city, while Jingtuo God is trapped in a grotesque, blood-filled bathhouse. Gao Ming is also pictured as the sole living student on a bus full of corpses, but his face is blurred.
• Gao Ming and Xuan Wen wonder whether the thirteen are the only people truly awake, or whether they are destined to become the Shadow World’s chosen Heads of the Family and fight one another.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Immortal breaks free of Gao Ming’s influence and the four aspects of his personality compete to devour the photograph. Gao Ming risks climbing onto him and restrains the death aspect, allowing Gong Xi, the life aspect, to swallow it.
• The photograph transforms the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God, making him seem to merge with Blood City. The surrounding statues begin to awaken and turn threatening.
• Elsewhere, patients and forces outside the flesh wall breach an intestine, but are driven back by a Security Third Team leader carrying a coffin and a slab of wall.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming shifts from observing the struggle to intervening directly. He trusts Gong Xi more than the Immortal’s other aspects and uses his bond with the being to influence its actions, despite the danger.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Immortal grows more powerful after consuming the photograph, but his loss of control exposes the conflict among his four aspects.
• Xuan Wen helps Gao Ming interpret the photograph and raises the possibility that the thirteen survivors are meant to kill one another.
• The Security team leader emerges as a formidable obstacle, physically blocking the breach and forcing the patients back.

Significant themes

• Fate versus agency: The thirteen survivors may be caught in a script designed to make them oppose one another, but Gao Ming chooses to intervene rather than accept the Immortal’s actions.
• Identity and division: The Immortal’s competing aspects reflect internal conflict, while Gao Ming’s blurred face suggests his place among the thirteen is still uncertain.
• Life, death, and transformation: The photograph changes the Immortal and hints that the statues—and perhaps the city itself—contain remnants of a past world.
• Awakening and survival: The distinction between survivors and the people around them raises the possibility that Hanhai is a dream, and that survival may mean being among the few who are truly awake.

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Plot points and events

• The Investigation Bureau’s elite security force breaks through the hospital’s living, flesh-like wall and enters the Intestine. The patients initially mistake them for rescuers, but Bureau policy classifies the shadow-corrupted patients as contamination to be killed, not rescued.
• The Paper Doll and other supernatural weapons begin slaughtering the patients. The security teams advance through the hospital, intent on destroying Lishan Hospital, which they see as a Shadow World foothold in reality.
• The team leaders identify the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal as the likely source of the crisis. They connect it to an earlier Level Four anomaly event in Hanhai and suspect the hospital’s collection of divine statues is part of a plan to resurrect a god.
• Wan Jie uses his ability to locate Gao Ming, whom he sees standing on the Black Tide Ghost God’s shoulder. He orders his forces to capture Gao alive and eliminate everything else, overriding a team leader’s concern that some patients might still be useful.
• The security force deploys its dangerous methods: the First Team Leader releases the horror bound to his backward-walking watch, while the Third Team opens a coffin containing a blood-red dress that seems to provoke or channel hatred.
• Gao Ming and Xuan Wen watch from the Black Lake. The Flesh-and-Blood Immortal has not yet mastered the Blood-Colored City Posthumous Photograph, so Gao decides they must delay escape and try to turn the Bureau against the clay statues.
• Wan Jie formally announces Gao’s arrest, accusing him of sacrificing citizens and trying to resurrect ghost gods. Gao denies the charge, claiming he has never resurrected a god because he already is one. The clay statues awaken around him.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming stays composed and strategically focused despite being identified as the Bureau’s target. His final declaration presents him as a ghost god rather than a human attempting to create one.
• Wan Jie acts with ruthless certainty, prioritizing Gao’s capture and the destruction of everyone else. His silence and glance are enough to make the First Team Leader abandon his objection.
• The First Team Leader shows some concern for the patients’ remaining reason, but ultimately obeys Wan Jie and joins the assault.
• The security teams demonstrate how thoroughly they rely on dangerous supernatural powers, deliberately housing evil and using it against other threats.
• Xuan Wen warns Gao that the Bureau is closing in, while Gao shares his plan and remains linked to Xia Yang, who is trapped in the wall.
• The patients suffer a cruel reversal: those who hoped the Bureau would free them are trapped between the advancing security force and the awakened clay statues.

Significant themes

• Rescue versus containment: The Bureau arrives as an apparent savior but treats the patients as hazards to be eliminated.
• Power and corruption: The city’s protectors wield the same kind of darkness and supernatural cruelty they claim to oppose.
• Misjudgment and identity: The Bureau’s accusations may misunderstand Gao’s role, while Gao’s claim that he is already a ghost god blurs the boundary between human and monster.
• Escalating conflict: The chapter ends with both sides poised for battle, and the awakening statues suggest the crisis is about to intensify.

Plot and events

• Gao Ming openly admits to being the Ghost God and claims he brought the General Investigation Bureau’s Security force to the Black Lake deliberately. He says their deaths will let the Shadow World consume Hanhai.
• Wan Jie misreads the scene: he believes Gao Ming and the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal are allies. The Red Raincoat’s battle with the statues seems to confirm that it opposes Gao Ming, so Wan Jie orders an attack despite suspecting a trap.
• The Security teams advance through the Black Lake, where awakened clay statues can make people vanish and trap living victims inside their stone bodies. Team members learn not to touch the statues; the Fourth Team’s leader destroys one and rescues a colleague, then burns the contaminated paper dolls that helped him.
• The teams’ coordinated tactics keep casualties relatively low and ease the Red Raincoat’s burden. But the statues’ dead wills begin converging on the living Security personnel, making them potential hosts or sacrifices.
• Gao Ming watches confidently, while Xuan Wen secretly edges toward the Red Raincoat to prepare an escape. Gao Ming decides to wait for the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal, and Xia Yang remains trapped in a wall, staying silent to avoid drawing Wan Jie’s attention.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming appears fearless and theatrically unstable, using the Security force’s mistaken assumptions to draw them deeper into danger. Yet he recognizes that the situation may become too dangerous and keeps escape in mind.
• Wan Jie remains disciplined and decisive, prioritizing the chance to capture Gao Ming even after a subordinate warns that the scene may be a trap.
• The Security teams demonstrate experience and cooperation: they combine their specialized roles, protect one another, and adapt their methods to the different threats.
• The Fourth Team’s leader shows both competence and ruthlessness: he saves a teammate, then destroys the paper dolls after they become contaminated.
• Xuan Wen acts cautiously and independently, preparing a retreat rather than trusting that Gao Ming’s plan will succeed.

Significant themes

• Misjudgment in chaotic crises: Wan Jie’s limited information and the confusing battle lead him to mistake enemies for allies.
• Teamwork and survival: The Security force’s coordination offers protection, but even skillful tactics cannot eliminate the supernatural threat.
• Corruption and sacrifice: The statues seek living hosts, while attempts to use their power can contaminate those involved.
• The tension between confidence and caution: Gao Ming’s boldness contrasts with Xuan Wen’s readiness to flee, underscoring the uncertainty of their plan.

Plot points and events

• Xia Yang’s unusual silence makes Gao Ming suspect that someone in the Investigation Bureau can read minds. Gao Ming responds by fully surrendering control to the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal, making his apparent murderous intent seem genuine.
• Wan Jie recognizes signs that Gao Ming killed K and that the Divine Corpse is connected to Gao Ming’s torture-filled lair. He orders a level-one alert as clay sculptures and other threats close in around the Bureau’s team.
• Trapped in the Black Lake, Gao Ming argues that the investigators forced his hand by trying to kill him before completing their investigation. The security personnel suffer casualties as they fight through the lake’s hostile spirits.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Immortal, strengthened by swallowing the Blood City Posthumous Photograph, begins to manifest markings resembling the Forbidden Game’s legendary Blood City. Wan Jie recognizes the significance, while even more powerful entities awaken beneath the lake.
• Gao Ming realizes he must escape before the awakened entities can stop him. Xuan Wen gets Blind Man out, and the Red Raincoat breaks free. The team leaders prepare their strongest abilities for an apparent final clash.
• Instead of fighting through the center of the formation, Gao Ming uses the Flesh-and-Blood Grudge House to create a nightmare and feint toward Wan Jie. The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God then slips past the security team and carries Gao Ming through the passage they cleared toward the opening in the wall of flesh.

Character developments

• Gao Ming deliberately embraces the Immortal’s influence, presenting himself as a ruthless killer. His survival instinct and distrust of the Investigation Bureau drive him to fight and then escape.
• Wan Jie confirms his suspicions about Gao Ming and recognizes the Blood City connection, making him both a perceptive investigator and Gao Ming’s immediate focus.
• The team leaders reveal their resolve and hidden capabilities, deploying last-resort powers when the lake’s ancient presences awaken.
• Xuan Wen and the Red Raincoat act quickly to break free, helping secure an escape route.

Character interactions

• Gao Ming and Wan Jie engage in a tense confrontation: Wan Jie exposes what he has inferred, and Gao Ming appears to threaten him directly.
• Gao Ming’s actions turn the Investigation Bureau’s security team from pursuers into opponents fighting for survival.
• The team leaders rally their people to protect Wan Jie and face the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God, but Gao Ming exploits their formation to escape.

Significant themes

• Distrust and self-preservation: Gao Ming sees the Bureau’s attempt to capture him as a threat, leaving conflict as his only apparent option.
• Deception and misdirection: Gao Ming’s apparent frenzy disguises his true goal—escaping the Black Lake.
• Power and dangerous ambition: The Blood City markings suggest the Immortal may be trying to claim a death zone of its own and escape Fate’s control.
• Escalating supernatural danger: The Immortal’s transformation awakens entities more threatening than the investigators, shifting the crisis from a human confrontation to a much larger supernatural threat.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming turns the battle in the Black Lake into an escape. While the Security teams and awakened clay sculptures are distracted, he orders the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God to open the Execution House and urges the imprisoned patients to take shelter inside.
• He then seals the Execution House, leaving the Security personnel confused and furious. Gao Ming taunts them with a self-serving explanation that he came to stop Situ An and had been trapped, then escapes through a breach in the wall.
• Gao Ming deliberately leaves Xia Yang sealed in the wall, intending to use him as bait to draw the Security personnel toward the East District and away from his forces in the Old District.
• With the clay sculptures awakened and Lishan Hospital becoming increasingly dangerous, Gao Ming leads Xuan Wen and the exhausted Red Raincoat toward the exit marked on Mr. Question Mark’s map.
• They descend through the mutated hospital, pass a talisman-covered door that even the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal struggles to open, and reach a hidden complex beneath Lishan Hospital.
• Gao Ming enters the Morgue Room, where they find signs that someone—or something—has recently passed through. Xuan Wen recalls Yang Yu, a Ghost Story Player whose family lived beneath the hospital, and produces an IOU he owes her.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming shows his adaptability and ruthlessness: he changes tactics instantly, manipulates both enemies and allies, and keeps his larger escape plan in mind. He also continues to treat the Red Raincoat casually, even forgetting for a moment that she is a Red Garment.
• Xuan Wen remains suspicious of human motives, suggesting that people within Hanhai’s General Bureau may have ties to the Shadow World. Her memory and the IOU give the group a possible connection to the underground residents.
• The Red Raincoat is weakened from fighting the clay sculptures and does not resist when Gao Ming takes her along.
• The Security personnel, especially the team leaders, are left angry and bewildered: their attempt to capture Gao Ming has instead helped him escape.
• Situ An’s plan continues to shape events after his death. The awakened clay sculptures were his final weapon against reality and may also have been leverage against Hanhai’s leadership.

Significant themes

• Deception and shifting loyalties: Gao Ming uses contradictory behavior and persuasive lies to keep others off balance.
• The danger of human ambition: Situ An’s revenge threatens an entire city, while Xuan Wen suspects corruption reaches into official institutions.
• Escalating horror and hidden worlds: Lishan Hospital is revealed to contain a vast, mutated underground complex, suggesting that its dangers—and Gao Ming’s own buried memories—extend far beyond what he has seen.

Plot points

• Xuan Wen uses blood on a Posthumous Photograph to locate Yang Yu and force his parent to appear. A deranged man in a floral dress emerges from a morgue cabinet and confirms he is Yang Yu’s parent.
• The man recognizes Gao Ming from an earlier visit to Lishan Hospital, when Gao was beside a corpse in Room 7003. He has been searching for that missing corpse, which may have been Question Mark.
• The man explains that doctors implanted an iron cage in his chest, binding him to the hospital. Gao uses the doctors he carries inside his heart to begin removing it, but pauses the surgery halfway through.
• In return, the man gives Gao a key and reveals that the exit is inside the fourth cabinet in the fourth row. Gao and Xuan Wen escape through the blood-covered door, closing it before the Shadow World can spill out.
• Back in Hanhai, Gao recognizes that his actions have made him a major enemy of the Investigation Bureau and warns that the awakened clay sculptures and surviving Security personnel could turn Lishan into a level-five anomaly. He tells Xuan Wen to alert Zhang Ding and publish updated survival rules, then plans to take Xia Yang to other districts before dawn.

Character developments and interactions

• Xuan Wen demonstrates the unsettling precision of her power, using the photograph to summon Yang Yu’s parent and control the encounter.
• Gao Ming balances caution with compassion: he helps the man escape his medical restraint, but stops the operation until they are safely out. He also shifts quickly from escape to protecting the public.
• Yang Yu’s parent is revealed as a dangerous, deeply disturbed survivor whose gratitude is mixed with a newly unleashed savagery. His past connection to Lu Zang and his role guarding the exit suggest he is far from trustworthy.
• Gao and Xuan Wen work together to secure the escape, while the man trades information and access for Gao’s help.

Significant themes

• The cost of freedom: Removing the cage frees the man but also releases his violent nature.
• Trust and uncertainty: Gao’s forgotten past, the missing corpse, and the man’s motives leave key questions unresolved.
• Public responsibility amid personal danger: Even after escaping, Gao prioritizes warning others and improving their chances of survival.
• The boundary between worlds: The blood-covered exit offers a brief return to reality, but the Shadow World remains close enough to threaten it.

Plot points

• Gao Ming leads the trapped Ghost Story Players out of Lishan Hospital, using the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God to overpower the Investigation Bureau’s Security personnel.
• He explains that the players became anomalies to survive, and that the Bureau treats them as enemies. He urges them to flee, face other anomaly events, and take control of their own lives.
• At the East District Investigation Bureau, the Jingtuo God learns that all nine Security teams sent to Xinhu have lost contact. Investigators suspect the teams were deliberately targeted and that Situ An may be behind the escalating crisis.
• Realizing North Harbor New City may be the next target, the Bureau scrambles to alert its leadership.
• Gao Ming reaches the secluded Lame Bay Village, where he expects he can evade pursuit. He eats at the clinic, then has the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God eject Xia Yang from the Execution House.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming presents himself as an advocate for the Ghost Story Players, framing their transformation as a desperate choice rather than a desire to become monsters. He remains focused on escape and survival.
• Xuan Wen helps the Blind Man and accompanies Gao Ming into the hospital, then quietly blends into the fleeing crowd and heads toward the Old City District.
• The Jingtuo God grows increasingly alarmed as the Bureau’s elite forces vanish. His fear shifts from the immediate loss of teams to the possibility that the Bureau’s headquarters is in danger.
• Cen Guan raises the possibility that Situ An is orchestrating the attacks, prompting the investigators to consider the wider strategic threat.
• The Ghost Story Players respond to Gao Ming’s call by fleeing, while the Bureau’s investigators debate the enemy’s motives and urgently share warnings.

Significant themes

• Survival and self-determination: The players see becoming monstrous as the only alternative to death, and Gao Ming urges them to choose their own fate.
• Institutional mistrust: The Investigation Bureau’s concealment of the anomalies has helped drive people toward resistance.
• The cost of power: Becoming an anomaly brings strength but also pain, isolation, and ongoing torment.
• Escalating conflict: The Bureau’s lost forces and the suspected threat to North Harbor suggest the struggle is expanding beyond a single hospital or district.

Key plot points

• Gao Ming confronts Xia Yang, who admits he let himself be captured to lure others into rescuing Gao Ming. Gao Ming moves him—still trapped in a wall—deeper into Lame Bay Village.
• Two fugitives try to rob Gao Ming, but the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God throws them aside. Gao Ming lets them live, hoping their presence will draw the Security forces’ attention.
• While exploring abandoned houses, Gao Ming finds braziers containing burned hair, paper money, and photographs with the faces destroyed. The images remind him of Lu Zang from Lishan Hospital.
• As the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God shows signs of strain and growing independence, Gao Ming has it break the wall imprisoning Xia Yang. Xia Yang destroys the portrait within it, then returns to the Execution House.
• Gao Ming speaks directly to the Ghost God about their intertwined histories. The Ghost God responds by marking two arms with blood threads and lowering itself before Gao Ming. Gao Ming interprets this as a demand: he must confine the twelve other people in the city’s posthumous photograph inside the Execution House before the Ghost God will fully submit.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains pragmatic: he avoids killing the fugitives and uses them to attract attention, while also confronting the growing independence of his supernatural allies.
• Xia Yang is confident and manipulative, presenting his capture as part of a plan. Though freed from the wall, he remains an uneasy ally and returns to the Execution House.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God appears increasingly powerful but unstable, resisting control and communicating through symbolic gestures. Its connection to Gao Ming is framed as mutual dependence, not simple obedience.
• Gao Ming’s exchanges with Xia Yang are marked by wary familiarity; his conversation with the Ghost God becomes a negotiation over control and the twelve figures.

Significant themes

• Interdependence and control: Gao Ming and the Ghost God need each other, but their bond does not guarantee obedience.
• Manipulation and strategy: Xia Yang’s planned capture and Gao Ming’s use of the fugitives show characters turning danger into leverage.
• A corrupted landscape: Lame Bay Village’s abandoned homes, burned faces, and vanished wildlife deepen the sense that the supernatural has consumed ordinary life.
• Death and repetition: Gao Ming’s repeated deaths and gathering of the Ghost God’s fragments suggest that their shared fate has been shaped across multiple lives.

Key events

• The Flesh-and-Blood Immortal shares its power with Gao Ming, helping him break through a limit imposed by Fate. Blood threads appear in Gao Ming’s arms, bearing Xia Yang’s and Situ An’s names.
• Gao Ming realizes the thirteen people in the Blood City’s Posthumous Photograph have each escaped some of Fate’s restraints. He believes sending the other twelve into the Execution House may let him break free completely.
• Xia Yang identifies A Fang, the photograph’s only child, as the “Live Bait” Situ An used to feed the Greater Ghosts. Gao Ming confirms A Fang is the child raised by Situ An and Lu Zang, then sets out to find him.
• At Jiamei Apartments, Chen Yuntian’s Investigation Office team is ordered by the Jingtuo God to capture A Fang. Bai Xiao, changed by recent events and distrustful of the authorities, prepares to enter the haunted building.
• Inside, A Fang plays happily and approaches an open window, unaware of the danger. A scarred, red-sleeved figure intervenes, lifting him away from the window.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming grows more powerful and sees the thirteen as potential weapons against Fate. He remains wary of Situ An but recognizes why Lu Zang wanted his soul preserved.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Immortal offers Gao Ming power eagerly, treating their partnership as something it must protect.
• Xia Yang contributes information from his investigation and is now less of a threat to Gao Ming.
• Bai Xiao has become disillusioned with the Investigation Bureau after what he witnessed at Hande Private Academy. Chen Yuntian tries to comfort and guide him, but Bai Xiao is no longer simply obedient.
• A Fang appears cheerful and trusting despite his grim history and the danger surrounding him. The red-clad figure’s protective action suggests an unexpected connection or concern.

Significant themes

• Fate and liberation: The photograph’s thirteen figures may possess the power to challenge the limits Fate imposes.
• Power and alliance: Gao Ming’s relationship with the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal reverses the usual dynamic between humans and ghost gods.
• Changing loyalties and moral ambiguity: Bai Xiao questions the Investigation Bureau, while figures associated with horror may also protect the vulnerable.
• Innocence amid cruelty: A Fang’s playful birthday song contrasts sharply with his exploitation as bait and the violence surrounding him.

Plot points and events

• A Fang remains calm in the haunted apartment, convinced his unseen “Mom” is nearby. He draws a birthday cake, falls asleep, and is quietly covered with a blanket by a scarred woman in red.
• Bai Xiao and Chen Yuntian arrive looking for A Fang. They realize he has been living peacefully among dangerous ghosts. Their accompanying driver urges them to capture him for the Jingtuo God, especially after learning that the Security teams escaping Lishan Hospital may have uncovered important clues about the child.
• As night falls, Jiamei Apartments grows more frightening, filled with children’s cries and grotesque signs of past violence.
• A Fang explores apartment 1601 and glimpses the terrifying woman in the kitchen. He rushes to hug her, but she vanishes.
• He discovers a makeshift cake on the cutting board and joyfully believes his mother has prepared it for his birthday—the first birthday celebration he has ever had.

Character developments and interactions

• A Fang shows remarkable fearlessness and trust toward the ghosts, treating the haunted apartment as home. His excitement over the cake reveals how deeply he longs for care and companionship.
• The woman in red appears to watch over him tenderly: she covers him, retrieves his drawing, and seems to prepare a cake. Though her appearance and resentment are frightening, her actions suggest affection and restraint.
• Bai Xiao is open to the possibility that ghosts can be benevolent, drawing on his experience with the Supermarket’s owner.
• Chen Yuntian stays composed despite the driver’s condescension and prioritizes protecting his subordinates over taking credit.
• The driver is dismissive of Chen and focused on capturing A Fang and reporting to the Jingtuo God.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus nature: The woman in red looks monstrous, yet behaves protectively; not all ghosts are evil.
• Loneliness and belonging: A Fang’s happiness at receiving a birthday cake underscores his lack of past care and his desire for a family.
• Innocence amid horror: A Fang’s childlike trust contrasts sharply with the apartment’s violence and the investigators’ pursuit of him.

Plot and key events

• In the haunted apartment, A Fang celebrates what he calls his first birthday with a cake made from rotten fruit and foul batter. He invites the apartment’s ghostly owner to sit with him, believing she is his mother.
• The woman appears, but insists she is a ghost, not his mom. A Fang accepts the answer without letting go of her clothes, calling her “ghost mom” and thanking her for the cake. She retreats into the darkness rather than risk hurting him.
• A Fang makes a wish for everyone to stay together and be happy. The apartment’s ghosts playfully interfere when he tries to eat the cake, turning the frightening scene into a strange, affectionate birthday celebration.
• Outside, Bai Xiao refuses to hand over the knife Gao Ming gave him. The Security Fourth Team’s leader claims it is dangerous and linked to the ghosts and clay statues from Lishan Hospital. Chen Yuntian backs Bai Xiao, accusing the leader of trying to seize the weapon.
• The leader leaves without a fight, but sends paper dolls to remove spirit tablets from the apartment doors. He and his team head upstairs, focused on the building’s supernatural threat.
• Gao Ming watches from a distance with a bag of toys. Xia Yang tells him to stay out of the conflict and let him handle it.

Character developments and interactions

• A Fang shows a child’s trusting affection and resilience: even after the woman rejects the title of “mother,” he accepts her as “ghost mom” and remains grateful.
• The ghostly woman is torn between wanting to keep A Fang close and fearing she will harm him. Her withdrawal is an act of restraint, not indifference.
• Bai Xiao stands firm against authority, treating the knife as essential protection and refusing to surrender it.
• Chen Yuntian supports Bai Xiao despite the danger, defending investigators’ rights to the things they obtain on missions.
• The Fourth Team’s leader presents his demand as a safety measure, but his hostility and desire for the knife reveal distrust and personal motives tied to Lishan Hospital.
• Gao Ming and Xia Yang remain apart from the confrontation for now, with Xia Yang insisting on taking charge.

Significant themes

• Family and belonging: A Fang’s wish and acceptance of the ghost suggest that love can persist even when family roles are uncertain.
• Care expressed through restraint: The ghost wants closeness but withdraws to protect the child.
• Trust versus authority: The dispute over the knife highlights competing claims to safety, control, and earned rights.
• The ordinary within horror: A birthday celebration unfolds amid blood, ghosts, and decaying surroundings, blending tenderness with terror.