Chapter Summaries

Plot points

• The transformed “Zhang Mingli,” master of a nine-story spirit shrine, uses the faith of his followers to make the Immortal Palace real. He traps over half of Dreamfold Town’s ghost gods and sacrifices their power—and his believers’—to open the Heavenly Gate.
• The gate cracks open, revealing blood-red light. Mingli intends to slip through first, not save everyone. But when he forces his head through, he discovers the gate leads not to reality but somewhere even deeper than the nightmare.
• His faith collapses, and the shrine’s power begins to fail. At the same time, Gao Ming pushes against a locked door within his own heart, drawing the redirected power of belief and reality toward himself.
• Voices inside Gao Ming argue over whether he should return, but he chooses to act according to his own will. The black-furred deer, apparently beyond the ghost gods’ rules, witnesses the struggle.
• The opposing forces shatter the lock at Gao Ming’s inner door. As the Heavenly Gate’s butterfly wings turn blood-red and burn away, Gao Ming sees the room behind his heart’s door: a chamber of torture instruments and the ghost creatures from his memories, all watching him.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Mingli is revealed as a ruthless opportunist. His grand promise of dawn masks a selfish plan to escape first; the truth beyond the gate leaves him stunned and strips him of his conviction.
• Gao Ming moves from hiding within his heart to making a deliberate choice, resisting the conflicting voices and accepting the consequences of his own will.
• Gao Ming and the voices within him engage in a struggle over whether he should return. Some warn him against it, while others urge him to decide for himself.
• The shrine’s believers and trapped ghost gods are used as fuel for Mingli’s attempt, but their combined power ultimately shifts toward Gao Ming.
• The ghost creatures in Gao Ming’s heart become visible to him through the opening door, setting up a direct confrontation or reckoning.

Significant themes

• Faith and sacrifice: Belief can create power, but Mingli treats his followers and captured gods as expendable resources.
• False hope and disillusionment: The promised escape from darkness leads not to reality but to a deeper unknown.
• Agency and identity: Gao Ming must choose for himself amid competing voices and uncertainty about who he is.
• Rules and escape: The deer’s apparent freedom from Dreamfold Town’s rules hints that those rules can be surpassed, while the broken lock marks a threshold between Gao Ming and the horrors of his own memories.

Chapter 618: “Memories Return”

Key events

• Gao Ming refuses to be shaken by the voices and horrors in his Heart Chamber. Convinced that someone must answer for the city’s tragedies, he uses the power of his belief and Blood City Tattoo to break the lock sealing his memories.
• As the fragments merge into his consciousness, he remembers that he came from Hanhai: the horrors are not his sins but part of his life. His return of memories transforms the Spirit Vision. Blood City spreads through it, the Immortal Palace crumbles, and the imprisoned ghost gods are freed.
• Vengeful ghosts that had been hidden inside Gao Ming’s Execution House emerge, including Red Raincoat, the Faceless Believers, mutated beasts, and the enormous dog formed from Gao Ming’s shadow. The expanding Blood City begins replacing the Spirit Vision rather than simply destroying it.
• The master of the Spirit Vision realizes Gao Ming is an outsider who has taken control of the power and passage it hoped to use. The ghost gods turn on him, launching a major assault to stop Blood City from spreading or letting Gao Ming escape.
• Gao Ming remains absorbed in the recovering memories, unaware of the battle. He puts on a red raincoat he finds among them and keeps walking toward the completion of the merge. Red Raincoat confronts him in the outside world, furious over her lost child.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming shows unwavering resolve and chooses to recover his past despite the danger. As his memories return, he becomes a focal point between worlds, and his Blood City power grows beyond the Spirit Vision’s control.
• The master of the Spirit Vision is weakened and panicked as its plan collapses. It tries to provoke the ghost gods into attacking Gao Ming, redirecting their fear and greed toward the outsider.
• The ghost gods, including the Taboo God and the giant formed from Useful Gods, recognize Gao Ming as a threat and unite against him—though their motives are largely self-preservation and control.
• Red Raincoat returns with the other beings tied to Gao Ming’s memories. Her grief and rage over her missing child establish a personal, unresolved conflict with him.

Significant themes

• Memory and identity: Gao Ming’s recovered memories reveal that his past is inseparable from who he is, even when it is horrifying.
• Resolve amid despair: He believes movement and change can improve even the worst situation, and acts on that belief despite warnings.
• Power and control: The Spirit Vision’s attempt to monopolize the gate is overturned as Blood City expands and the ghost gods scramble to seize control.
• Responsibility and grief: Gao Ming’s desire for justice contrasts with Red Raincoat’s accusation and sorrow, suggesting that remembering the past will also mean confronting its unresolved consequences.

Plot and events

• Red Raincoat, desperate to find her child, is taunted by Dreamfold Town’s ghost gods. Her grief overwhelms her, and she attacks the giant formed from “useful gods,” ripping open its face and burrowing into its body in a frenzy.
• Meanwhile, Gao Ming’s main consciousness is lost in a dark city of memories as three taboo gods pursue him. Zhang Ding burns his soul to carry Gao Ming’s body to safety, then meets Gao Ming inside the memories and guides him toward a light representing home—and the truths behind his past.
• Zhang Ding sacrifices his chance to continue with Gao Ming, pushing him toward the light while staying behind to distract their pursuers. One taboo god traps him in a soul banner.
• The collision between Blood City and the Nine-Story Spirit Shrine destroys the shrine’s outer walls, joining the skies of the shrine and Dreamfold Town. The Black Serpent, unable to reach the Heavenly Gate after its dragon markings are ruined, attacks Gao Ming, but the weakened Old Night Watchman intervenes.
• Blood City continues expanding into Dreamfold Town, turning land and buildings blood-red and damaging the town’s entrance stone. Zhang Mingli emerges at the entrance, having recovered much of his former self. Though he refuses to destroy the town and kill its trapped Testers, he sees Blood City’s rampage and is stunned.

Character developments and interactions

• Red Raincoat abandons restraint when the ghost gods mock her missing child; her grief becomes violent, and she risks herself to take revenge.
• Gao Ming begins recovering his deepest memories and recognizes that he must return home to find the truth. Zhang Ding’s familiar presence reassures him and helps him move forward.
• Zhang Ding protects Gao Ming despite the danger, choosing to remain behind and draw off a pursuer. His sacrifice highlights his loyalty and care for Gao Ming.
• The Old Night Watchman stands against the Black Serpent despite his weakened condition, defending Gao Ming and condemning the serpent’s destructive conduct.
• Zhang Mingli has regained much of his lost identity but remains unwilling to sacrifice the Testers in Dreamfold Town, even to destroy the town itself. His restraint contrasts with Blood City’s uncontrolled growth.

Significant themes

• Grief and obsession: Red Raincoat’s longing for her child overwhelms her sanity and drives her to violence.
• Memory and identity: Gao Ming’s journey toward home marks the return of buried memories and the search for underlying truths.
• Sacrifice and loyalty: Zhang Ding risks himself to give Gao Ming a chance to continue.
• Restraint versus destruction: Zhang Mingli refuses mass slaughter, while Blood City’s expansion threatens to consume Dreamfold Town and everything in its path.

Key plot points and events

• Zhang Mingli, newly freed and restored to his memories, recognizes the spreading red buildings as Blood City from the deep world. Unsure whether the change is a threat or a contingency left by Dream, he moves to investigate.
• He finds Gao Ming at the center of the Nine-Story Spirit Shrine, using the Dream-Release Method to make his nightmares real. As taboo gods and other enemies close in, Zhang Mingli chooses to help him, unleashing the hatred inside himself to halt two taboo gods.
• In Gao Ming’s memories, his primary consciousness races toward a familiar home, pursued by attackers. A black dog and a club-wielding man—who resembles Zhang Mingli—help him, while the dog urges Gao Ming toward the light upstairs.
• Meanwhile, Gao Ming’s nightmare transforms the Spirit Vision into Blood City. The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God emerges in his true form, takes control of the blood-red buildings, and begins devouring the shrine and its inhabitants. Zhang Ding blocks the fleeing taboo gods, and Zhang Mingli keeps the others occupied.
• Gao Ming reaches his front door and finds an empty home, with an untouched birthday cake and eighteen candles on the table.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Mingli acts despite his fear of Dream and the danger of meddling in others’ fates. He repays Gao Ming for helping him recover his greed and conscience, though he says so with reluctance.
• Gao Ming’s memories and nightmare power grow strong enough to reshape the shrine and threaten to absorb its occupants. His trek home suggests a deeply personal longing, but the empty room leaves that reunion unresolved.
• Zhang Ding shifts from being driven back to helping prevent the taboo gods’ escape. The black dog also shows clear loyalty to Gao Ming, guiding him toward home.
• The enemies’ efforts to kill Gao Ming collapse into a struggle to escape Blood City, while its consuming force steadily draws them toward the Execution House.

Significant themes

• Memory, longing, and identity: Gao Ming’s journey through his memories culminates in an anticipated homecoming that is not fulfilled.
• Debt and reluctant loyalty: Zhang Mingli helps Gao Ming because he feels he owes him, despite the risks and his fear.
• Power’s cost and danger: Gao Ming’s ability to make nightmares real becomes an overwhelming force that threatens to consume allies and enemies alike.
• Unresolved absence: The birthday cake and eighteen candles hint at a personal history and hoped-for celebration, while the empty home underscores loss.

Key plot points

• Gao Ming returns to a familiar, soundproofed home and finds signs of a disturbing life: meat-processing supplies and a solitary birthday cake.
• As he lights eighteen blood-red candles, the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God battles the spirits of Dreamfold Town. With help from the Vengeful Ghosts and Zhang Mingli, it captures the town’s ghost gods—including the Black Serpent and the fading consciousness of the nine-story spirit shrine—and drags them into the Execution House.
• The candles’ flames coincide with the Flesh-and-Blood Furnace awakening. It devours and refines the captured spirits, restoring the Ghost God’s sanity.
• The Ghost God retrieves a preserved black-and-white posthumous photograph from its body. Seeing it restores Gao Ming’s memories: the photograph shows him celebrating his eighteenth birthday surrounded by his ghostly parents. A message on its back names him the new Head of the Family and says he will possess the key to the Home Gate.
• Gao Ming fully remembers his past and presses the photograph to his heart. He and the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal transform together, having consumed Dreamfold Town’s ghost gods and secured the Heavenly Gate. Gao Ming’s many past deaths have supplied the faith needed for the entity to take its final step toward becoming a Dream Ghost.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming moves from lonely uncertainty to complete remembrance and acceptance of his identity and family role. His human and divine selves become inseparable.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God/Immortal evolves from a near-Dream Ghost into a far more powerful being, regains its sanity, and shows a personal connection to Gao Ming by preserving and returning the photograph.
• Gao Ming’s ghostly parents appear behind him in the darkness, suggesting they have been waiting for his return.
• Zhang Mingli and the Vengeful Ghosts assist the Ghost God in capturing Dreamfold Town’s spirits; Zhang Mingli’s reaction underscores the horror of their final fate.

Significant themes

• Memory and identity: Recovering the past completes Gao Ming’s understanding of himself.
• Family and belonging: The home and photograph reveal a lasting bond with his ghostly parents.
• Death as a path to power: Gao Ming’s past deaths become the foundation for the Immortal’s ascent.
• Transformation through unity: Human and supernatural selves merge, carrying Gao Ming into a new stage of existence.

Key plot points

• Gao Ming completes his transformation into the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God, spreading Blood City’s influence throughout Dreamfold Town. He has absorbed the Fortune God and the “Useful Gods,” claimed the town’s only gate, and stained its rules blood-red.
• Fu Shu suspects Gao Ming has not reached the true level of an “unspeakable.” He thinks the transformation may be incomplete because the Blood City bound to Gao Ming is already dead.
• The surviving ghost gods are terrified of Gao Ming’s overwhelming presence. Chunniang emerges from the Underground River with Zhang Mingli’s missing heart.
• With Gao Ming’s permission, Zhang Mingli reclaims his heart, becoming whole again and beginning to recover his original nature.
• Zhang Mingli then starts freeing the people whose names are recorded on Dreamfold Town’s stone stele, explaining that Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals used them—and their dreams—to construct the town.
• The Dream Priest tries to stop him, insisting the trapped people must remain. Zhang Mingli identifies him as a likely pharmaceutical administrator who used the Name Substitution Method to survive.
• Zhang Mingli continues transferring the names onto himself and connects to the town’s walls, where countless curses gather. The chapter ends before his plan is clear.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming is reborn as a being between god and ghost. Despite his terrifying power, he speaks calmly and allows Zhang Mingli to reclaim his heart and act freely.
• Zhang Mingli regains his heart and begins to reclaim what he believes belongs to him, while also trying to liberate Dreamfold Town’s victims. His exchange with the Dream Priest reveals his long history in the town and his compassion for its residents.
• Fu Shu shows unexpected knowledge of Dream Ghosts and Gao Ming’s transformation, though he cannot explain exactly what went wrong.
• Bai Huang dismisses the immediate danger and quietly remembers Fu Shu’s observations.
• Chunniang completes her bargain with Zhang Mingli by returning his heart, but both she and the other survivors remain wary of Gao Ming.
• The Dream Priest is exposed as a wounded, self-deceiving enforcer who opposes freeing the town’s inhabitants.

Significant themes

• Power and its limits: Gao Ming’s transformation is immense, yet Fu Shu questions whether it truly reaches the level of the unspeakable.
• Liberation versus control: Zhang Mingli’s effort to free the trapped residents clashes with the Dream Priest’s insistence that they remain bound to the town.
• Memory, identity, and wholeness: Zhang Mingli’s missing heart reflects his divided existence; recovering it restores his body and prompts him to reclaim his past.
• Exploitation and complicity: Dreamfold Town was built from the dreams of victims, while its supposed guardian helped maintain a cruel system.

Plot points

• Zhang Mingli warns Gao Ming that Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ leadership is recklessly exploiting dream power and may lead to Xinhu’s destruction. He asks Gao to stay neutral while he proves the danger.
• Gao reveals that he entered Dreamfold Town to rescue Zhang Mingli on behalf of the Forbidden Game players—not to fight him—and destroys the Black Ring to show his sincerity.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Giant Tree rises from the ruins of the Joy Temple, its roots spreading through Dreamfold Town and further eroding Zhang Mingli’s control. Gao restrains it before it consumes the curses lining the town’s walls.
• A group of injured Forbidden Game players emerges from the tree. They include Brother Bug and members of the Death Building, who had entered through the Wardrobe to investigate a new brain-domain game. The Dream Ghost pulls them into Gao’s nightmare and brings them to Dreamfold Town.
• Gao points to the rescued players as proof that his mission was genuine.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Mingli remains wary of Gao, despite the rescue revelation. His warning shows his concern extends beyond himself to Xinhu and the people threatened by Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals.
• Gao Ming demonstrates both strategic power and a willingness to help: he destroys the ring, explains his purpose, and controls the Giant Tree. His praise of Zhang Mingli reflects genuine respect, though his teasing keeps the exchange tense.
• The Forbidden Game players are formidable but badly damaged, and their arrival reveals the harsh reality of life beyond Dreamfold Town. Brother Bug and his companions question their reliance on Gao, while the bandaged young information-center head acknowledges their weakness.

Significant themes

• Corporate ambition and catastrophe: Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ pursuit of dream power threatens to turn an entire city into a sacrifice.
• Trust under pressure: Gao’s actions challenge Zhang Mingli’s suspicion, but neither man can set aside caution easily.
• Power and vulnerability: Even strong players feel helpless before the Ghost and the forces reshaping Dreamfold Town.
• The cost of survival: The players’ injuries and despair highlight the brutal conditions of the Forbidden Game.

Key plot points and events

• The taboo players are stunned to find Gao Ming beside the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God, assuming at first that they are trapped in an illusion. They realize he has somehow taken control of Dreamfold Town and rescued Zhang Mingli from Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals.
• Zhang Mingli withdraws the curses he spread across the town once he understands Gao Ming is there to help. Gao Ming refuses to let the taboo players escape and leaves them in Zhang’s hands.
• Gao Ming reflects on the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal’s transformation into a dream ghost. Dream ghosts can manipulate dreams, reshape reality, and attack through rules, making them extraordinarily difficult to kill. He compares their powers with those of red garments and the Unspeakables, whose strengths and vulnerabilities differ.
• Gao Ming notices that the face of the ghost god replaced by Gong Xi is urgently revealing the Immortal’s abilities. He suspects Gong Xi is warning him because the Immortal’s other faces may eventually turn against him.
• Remembering his escape through the tunnel, Gao Ming recalls a terrifying scarlet chain that pulled him to safety, as well as several powerful entities that blocked his way. He identifies them as apparent Unspeakables from different factions and remembers hearing the cryptic words “Thirteenth,” “Fate,” “Lu Zang,” “Ghost in the Grave,” and “restore everything.”

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming has grown powerful enough to challenge the taboo players and protect himself against forces that once overwhelmed him. He remains cautious, however, and begins investigating the mysteries behind his escape and the entities in the black fog.
• Zhang Mingli moves from confusion and suspicion to understanding that Gao Ming rescued him. He recognizes the alliance and takes responsibility for dealing with the taboo players.
• Brother Bug and the taboo players are shocked by Gao Ming’s unexpected power; one attempts to buy the group time with a curse, but Gao Ming makes clear they cannot flee.
• Gong Xi appears to be acting as a warning presence within the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God, alerting Gao Ming to possible danger from the Immortal’s other faces.
• Gao Ming and the Ghost God share a close, uneasy bond: Gao Ming’s repeated deaths enabled the Immortal’s transformation, while the Immortal’s power gave those sacrifices meaning.

Significant themes

• Reality and illusion: Dream ghosts can blur the boundary between dreams and the waking world, making truth itself vulnerable to manipulation.
• Power and its costs: Different supernatural beings derive strength from different sources, and each has distinct weaknesses; the Immortal’s transformation is tied to Gao Ming’s repeated deaths.
• Trust and hidden motives: Gao Ming’s alliance with Zhang Mingli surprises both Zhang and the taboo players, while Gong Xi’s warning suggests that even allies may contain internal dangers.
• Uncovering a larger mystery: The tunnel, the scarlet chain, the apparent Unspeakables, and the remembered phrases point to a conflict and fate far beyond Dreamfold Town.

Key plot points and events

• After regaining his memories, Gao Ming connects Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals to two major projects: Dreamfold Town and Hanhai. He suspects the company can enter Hanhai through a dream-like process, using personnel to investigate and experiment.
• Gao Ming decides to hide the fact that his memories have returned. He orders Dreamfold Town sealed off, hoping to delay the company rather than provoke it openly.
• He worries that Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals has formidable powers, since it apparently managed to imprison the mysterious entity called Number Two. With the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal’s help, he rounds up suspected spies.
• The captives reveal that they report to the company every seven days. Since the last report was three days ago, keeping the Dream Priest captive could delay news of the town’s upheaval by four days. The Dream Priest is identified as the company’s handler.
• Gao Ming interrogates the Dream Priest, not about the company, but about his own true name. The priest explains that names shape a person’s fate in Dreamfold Town and that Gao Ming has taken on aspects of the Unspeakable’s fate.
• When the priest refuses to answer, Gao Ming subjects him to an endless nightmare. The priest is stripped of layer upon layer of human skin—each one a former identity—and reduced to an eyeball containing his deepest secrets.
• Gao Ming discovers that the priest never learned his true name. However, the priest’s attempt to replace it revealed that Gao Ming’s name is entangled with the karma of twelve Unspeakables.

Character developments

• Gao Ming is newly informed and calculating: he understands more of the company’s operations but chooses concealment and delay over direct confrontation. His need to discover his true name becomes urgent, pushing him to use brutal methods.
• The Dream Priest drops his cooperative facade when threatened, revealing the company’s ambitions to create its own Unspeakable. His many skins show that he has repeatedly adopted different identities, but he ultimately cannot give Gao Ming the answer he wants.
• The Man-Bear and water ghosts present themselves as coerced, low-level informants. The water ghost in particular pleads for its younger brother’s safety.
• Zhang Ding reappears as a loyal ally, having caught the fleeing priest. Gao Ming welcomes him warmly and checks on his recovery.

Significant themes

• Names and identity: In the dream, names determine fate and can enable people to be altered. Gao Ming’s real name is unusually powerful and bound to multiple Unspeakables.
• Human ambition and supernatural horror: Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals seeks to manufacture an Unspeakable, suggesting that human institutions may be as ruthless as the beings they study.
• Secrecy and survival: Gao Ming conceals his restored memories and delays the company’s discovery of the town’s transformation.
• Coercion and complicity: The spies claim they were forced into service, raising the question of how much responsibility belongs to those who cooperate under threat.

Character interactions

• Gao Ming gives orders to the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal, which swiftly gathers the suspected spies.
• The Man-Bear and water ghost bargain for their lives, while the water ghost exposes the Dream Priest as the company’s leader in town.
• Zhang Ding supports Gao Ming and helps secure the priest.
• The Dream Priest tries to persuade Gao Ming to cooperate, warning him about the company’s hidden power; Gao Ming ignores the offer and demands his name, using the Immortal’s nightmare ability to force the interrogation.

Plot points

• Gao Ming realizes his connection to the Blood Cities may be far deeper than he knew: twelve unspeakable beings appear to be gripping his true name, suggesting he inherited not only the thirteenth Blood City’s legacy but also its enemies and karmic ties.
• He keeps the Dream Priest’s remaining eye rather than killing him, hoping to preserve the priest’s consciousness and avoid alerting Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals too soon.
• With Dreamfold Town under his control, Gao Ming becomes its apparent new god. The water-ghost brothers and the man-bear plead for his protection, while the rescued Taboo players thank him for saving them and opening a way out.
• Zhang Mingli warns Gao Ming that the Dream Remnant could revive within him, and that the entity called Dream is exceptionally dangerous. He also questions Gao Ming’s origins.
• Gao Ming identifies his home as Hanhai, prompting shock from Zhang Mingli and Fu Shu. Fu Shu insists Hanhai was a repeatedly purged testing ground where no living person could remain—or escape.
• Bai Huang confronts Fu Shu, desperate to learn what happened to her children. Fu Shu claims he once diverted Zhang Mingli and the Taboo players into Dreamfold Town to save them from more than a thousand experiments planned by Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals. He then suggests Gao Ming may have died long ago and merely believes himself alive.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming accepts his growing role in Dreamfold Town, but the revelation of the twelve beings tied to his name and the uncertainty surrounding Hanhai make his identity increasingly troubling.
• Zhang Mingli is grateful to Gao Ming yet wary of him; he warns him about Dream and asks where he came from.
• Fu Shu shifts from evasive to defiant, defending his past choices as desperate efforts to protect others. His fixation on Gao Ming’s face suggests he recognizes something unsettling about him.
• Bai Huang, driven by concern for her children, forces Fu Shu to face the information he has concealed.
• The Taboo players move from confusion to gratitude and awe, while the surviving spies and creatures of Dreamfold Town gather around Gao Ming. Even the man-bear and water-ghost brothers seek his favor.

Significant themes

• Identity and reality: Fu Shu’s claim that Gao Ming may be dead challenges his understanding of his own existence.
• Inheritance and consequence: Gao Ming may have inherited a city’s history, enemies, and burdens along with its power.
• Power and dependence: Dreamfold Town’s inhabitants seek protection from Gao Ming, while others fear what he might become.
• Morally compromised survival: Fu Shu argues that his betrayal and deception were the price of saving people from even worse experiments.

Plot points and events

• Gao Ming rejects Fu Shu’s claim that he died long ago, saying what matters is that he has returned—and brought others back with him.
• Fu Shu explains that Hanhai was destroyed repeatedly by the other twelve Blood Cities. He learned this from the Savior, a figure who sought to bring Xinhu closer to Hanhai and create a world where humans and ghosts could coexist. The Savior later vanished in the black fog, and the Vast Sea Project changed course.
• Gao Ming recruits Fu Shu to leave Dreamfold Town and help him infiltrate Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals. Fu Shu chooses Gao over Zhang Mingli.
• Gao Ming uses his own blood and the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal’s blood to restore Fu Shu’s limbs, binding him to a dangerous new path.
• Fu Shu reveals that his grandfather owned the Forbidden Game and that he holds high-level permissions left by the Savior. He gives Gao Ming his right eye, which can help bypass security at the company.
• Fu Shu warns Gao Ming not to enter Hanhai alone and reveals that a mysterious figure known as Number Two is imprisoned in a place between existence and nonexistence. Gao Ming suspects this may be the strange room connected to his own home.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains focused on his own goals rather than the Savior’s broader ideal of saving Xinhu’s citizens. He plans to investigate the Vast Sea Project and hopes to find a way to give Hanhai’s dead a chance, even if this puts him at odds with Xinhu’s defenders.
• Fu Shu moves from captivity and physical ruin to active participation in Gao Ming’s plan. His choice strains his old friendship with Zhang Mingli, and his sacrifice of his eye demonstrates his commitment.
• Zhang Mingli distrusts Gao Ming’s unpredictable nature and regrets Fu Shu’s decision, but does not prevent it.
• Gao Ming and Fu Shu form a pragmatic alliance, while Gao Ming keeps his deeper intentions regarding Hanhai hidden from Zhang Mingli.

Significant themes

• Coexistence and conflict: The chapter questions whether humans and ghosts can peacefully coexist, suggesting that any balance may require struggle.
• Competing loyalties: Gao Ming’s concern for Hanhai conflicts with the interests of Xinhu and its defenders.
• Choice and consequence: Fu Shu knowingly accepts Gao Ming’s help and the irreversible consequences of using supernatural flesh and blood.
• Hidden history and identity: The unnamed Savior, Hanhai’s repeated destruction, and Number Two’s concealed location point to mysteries still shaping the present.

Key plot points and events

• Fu Shu explains that Number Two, imprisoned in a place between existence and nonexistence, can be reached through the nightmares and dreams of certain Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals figures. He names Du Jing, the current Number Zero, Li Xinchen, Tang Ling, Wan Jie, and Xuan Wen as possible leads.
• Fu Shu describes the company’s dangerous history: Li Xinchen betrayed him and led a purge of Taboo Players; Tang Ling is a ruthless researcher linked to Number Two’s imprisonment and the Vast Sea Project; Wan Jie is a founding veteran with uncertain loyalties.
• Gao Ming is troubled by the contrast between Fu Shu’s account of Tang Ling and Number Two’s claim that she could be trusted. The walkie-talkie that might clarify matters remains silent.
• Xuan Wen’s unexpected visit to Fu Shu in Dreamfold Town makes her another possible clue to Number Two’s hidden prison. Gao Ming decides to seek Number Two, hoping this will also lead him to the home described in his Birthday Posthumous Photograph and perhaps to his parents.
• Gao Ming and Fu Shu prepare to leave. Zhang Mingli stays behind to retrieve the curses he planted, warning Gao Ming that they could become enemies if Gao Ming ever turns Xinhu into another Dreamfold Town.
• Gao Ming’s power reshapes the town, restoring its buildings and returning surviving residents to their lives. The townspeople regain their senses and strength, and the town settles into a new order.
• The headless Old Night Watchman returns and proclaims: “Yinshi fifth watch. The long night nears its end, and all things return to life.”

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming moves from doubt and unease toward decisive action, while showing restraint: unlike the spirit shrine, he stops once he has enough power and does not treat the townspeople as expendable.
• Fu Shu provides crucial intelligence, but his hatred of the company shapes his judgments and even leads him to suggest coercing Wan Jie through his adopted children.
• Zhang Mingli remains independent and distrustful of Gao Ming’s methods, though he acknowledges the possibility of future conflict rather than declaring it inevitable.
• The Old Night Watchman’s return signals that Dreamfold Town has reached a turning point, combining relief with resignation.

Significant themes

• Cycles of death and fate: Gao Ming wonders whether his experiences are part of a recurring dream or began with his death.
• Hidden truth and uncertain identity: The route to Number Two lies in people’s inner nightmares, while the conflicting accounts of Tang Ling raise doubts about loyalty and deception.
• Power and moral restraint: Gao Ming’s decision to stop before consuming the remaining townspeople distinguishes his rule from the spirit shrine’s exploitation.
• Rebirth amid lingering horror: Dreamfold Town appears renewed, but its meat-scented air and supernatural origins show that its new life remains bound to the grotesque.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming and Zhang Mingli watch the horizon as Gao reflects that light will eventually reach every nightmare. The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God restores the Testers who learned the modification method, though their restored memories are fabricated by the Dream Ghost.
• At the ruins of Spirit Vision, Gao approaches the mysterious Heavenly Gate. The Ghost God reacts with unusual alarm, seals it shut, and refuses to explain what it saw.
• Gao uses his control over Folded Dream Town to end the dream and return with the surviving Testers to the shrine room. The shrine’s image has changed: Gao and Bai Huang now see a statue of the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God rather than Dream.
• Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals welcomes the survivors as Level Five classified Testers, promising protection and access to immortality surgery. Gao understands that their contracts are largely formalities: those who obtained the modification method have already paid a personal price and cannot truly leave the company behind.
• During Gao’s examination, staff suddenly abandon the room. Doctor Xuan Wen arrives, releases him, and urges him to go home and avoid further brain-domain testing. She gives him a researcher’s coat and identification card to help him leave.
• Gao thanks Xuan Wen; her fingers tremble at his words. As he exits, security stops him and escorts him in a windowless vehicle, where someone is already waiting.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains cautious about the Heavenly Gate, accepting the Ghost God’s warning rather than pressing for answers. His reunion with Xuan Wen is emotionally charged: he remembers her as a constant companion through countless nightmare deaths, while she treats him as a patient who needs protection.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God shows rare, shared distress at the Heavenly Gate and takes decisive action to close it, suggesting a danger it will not discuss.
• Xuan Wen appears professionally detached, yet her concern for Gao and subtle reaction to his thanks hint at deeper feeling.
• Bai Huang quietly helps Gao notice the changed shrine and later explains the likely risks and implications of the company’s Level Five offer.

Significant themes

• Dreams and identity: The restored Testers are physically returned but carry manufactured memories, raising doubts about what makes a person truly themselves.
• The unknown and forbidden knowledge: The sealed Heavenly Gate represents a threat so disturbing that even the Ghost God refuses to speak of it.
• False freedom and corporate control: Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ generous promises mask the Testers’ dependence on the company and the cost of obtaining the modification method.
• Memory, connection, and care: Gao’s history with Xuan Wen contrasts with their present roles, leaving open whether their bond can persist beyond the nightmare’s memories.

Plot points

• Tang Ling reviews the Brain-Domain test results with Gao Ming and notes that he and the other testers performed unusually well. She tells him his new Level Five clearance may lead to assignments at Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ main testing grounds in another city.
• Tang warns Gao Ming that Xuan Wen is dangerous, suggesting that a psychiatrist’s relationship with a patient is inherently unequal. Gao Ming avoids discussing what Xuan Wen told him.
• After returning to the Old District, Gao Ming finds Liu Yi waiting anxiously. She is hurt by his disappearance and worries that he has changed since waking from his coma.
• Gao Ming admits that he wants to forget the nightmares but cannot tell which world is real. He explains that Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals may be responsible for his suffering and says he joined its testing program to gather evidence.
• Liu Yi promises to support him in confronting the company. Gao Ming accepts her kindness but has already decided to leave: he believes Xinhu has others to protect it, while Hanhai depends on him.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains guarded with Tang Ling and conceals part of the truth from Liu Yi. Though drawn to the warmth of their home and his shared past with Liu Yi, his sense of responsibility—and the horrors he carries—push him toward a separate path.
• Liu Yi reveals how much Gao Ming’s distance has hurt her. Once he shares his experiences, she sympathizes with him and chooses to stand by him.
• Tang Ling maintains a professional manner while probing Gao Ming, then cautions him about Xuan Wen.
• Gao Ming and Liu Yi’s reunion is tender but strained: their long history offers comfort, yet his changing identity and dangerous purpose have opened a rift between them.

Significant themes

• Reality and illusion: Gao Ming questions whether the beautiful life he shares with Liu Yi is real, especially after enduring prolonged horrors in the dream.
• Love, trust, and unequal power: Tang Ling warns about the imbalance between doctor and patient, while Liu Yi’s trust contrasts with Gao Ming’s secrecy.
• Sacrifice and duty: Gao Ming chooses to leave the safety of home because he feels Hanhai needs him.
• Humanity amid trauma: Despite his transformation into a Dream Ghost, Gao Ming’s attachment to Liu Yi and his memories shows that his humanity remains intact.

Plot points

• Gao Ming shares a warm, ordinary dinner with Liu Yi, but hints that Xinhu may become dangerous and tells her to stay home while he seeks answers.
• He remains troubled by the contradiction between the reality he woke into and his experiences in Hanhai—especially the fact that Liu Yi appears in both, while the rest of Class Thirteen has vanished.
• He travels to the Demon City Asylum and clears its second-floor solo route in record time, entering the “inner dream.” He tries repeatedly to contact Number Two, even offering his blood, but receives no reply.
• Gao Ming questions whether Tang Ling’s asylum is genuinely meant to help Number Two or instead serves as bait for experiments. He suspects his post-hospital life and recruitment opportunities may have been deliberately arranged.
• At the Ninth Sense Experience Hall, a hostile force blocks Gao Ming’s way. He confronts a young employee with a stitched-neck tattoo, challenging her about the Haunted House’s interest in him and its possible connection to the Ghost God.
• The employee insists the Haunted House does not single out individuals and dismisses Gao Ming as too insignificant to summon its boss. Yet Gao Ming’s call connects: the phone fills with hair and blood-red imagery, delivering the message, “Come behind my door.”

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming moves from quietly cherishing domestic comfort to aggressively pursuing the truth. He is wary of being drawn into a seemingly happy life, but grows more confident that hidden forces have underestimated him.
• Liu Yi senses that something important may be lost that night and has little appetite. She offers to accompany Gao Ming, but he refuses, prioritizing her safety.
• The Ninth Sense employee shifts from relaxed to guarded when she senses something dangerous within Gao Ming. She maintains a dismissive, skeptical stance, even as the boss’s response undermines her certainty.
• Gao Ming’s encounters with Number Two, the asylum staff, and the employee reveal how little he can trust what others tell him—and how unusually powerful or alarming his presence has become.

Significant themes

• Reality, dreams, and identity: Gao Ming cannot tell which version of his life is true or who is deceived.
• Comfort versus duty: His affection for Liu Yi’s ordinary warmth makes him reluctant to accept it, as he believes he must pursue dangerous answers.
• Manipulation and surveillance: He suspects that organizations and opportunities have been guiding him toward experiments or traps.
• The uncanny beneath the ordinary: A home-cooked meal, job advertisements, and a haunted attraction may all conceal supernatural designs.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming receives a disturbing invitation from the mysterious boss of the Strange Tale Association: “Come behind my door.” A supernatural message warns him to “Beware Doctor Gao,” though it is unclear whether this means Gao himself or another person called Doctor Gao.
• The boss’s invitation appears as a Blood Gate that transforms into an image of Spider, a spider-bodied boy Gao encountered among the evil ghosts guarding the tunnel out of Hanhai. Gao realizes Spider may have helped him escape, possibly at the boss’s direction.
• Gao declines to visit the boss for now, citing the distance and his limited time, but remains open to meeting him later.
• The female clerk explains why she came to Xinhu: the Association is searching for a visitor who disappeared after returning from the New Century Amusement Park in Hanjiang. Their investigation led them to the Demon City Asylum, where many visitors developed strange abnormalities.
• The clerk says the abnormalities are being orchestrated by someone. The boss could not investigate personally because a conflict in the black fog escalated, with the Calamity God threatening to destroy a Blood City.
• The clerk shares a map showing that most of Xinhu’s anomalies cluster around Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals. The company is reportedly implanting ghosts from the deep world into living people’s brains, believing it has discovered a path to immortality.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains wary of the boss and the Association, questioning their motives and refusing to follow an invitation blindly. He also connects the Spider image to his past escape from Hanhai and begins to suspect that unseen factions have been influencing events around him.
• The clerk grows friendlier after learning how much the boss favors Gao Ming. She defends the boss as a brilliant strategist, though Gao doubts her praise and notes that Red Garments are generally more forceful than thoughtful.
• Their conversation shifts from the unsettling invitation to practical cooperation: the clerk gives Gao intelligence about Xinhu and reveals the apparent link between its anomalies and Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals.

Significant themes

• Hidden forces and manipulation: Gao Ming suspects that his world is being watched and that powerful factions have intervened in his fate.
• Conflicting perspectives and loyalties: Gao recognizes that people from different Blood Cities may see the same actions—and each other—as threats.
• Immortality at a moral cost: Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ experiments suggest that its pursuit of eternal life relies on exploiting both ghosts and living people.

Plot points and events

• At the Ninth Sense Experience Hall, Gao Ming receives a map of Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ laboratories and documents assembled by the Hanjiang Haunted House employees.
• The files identify two of the Vast Sea Project’s three directors: Wan Jie disappeared during a Ghost Festival, along with many orphans he sponsored; Du Jing underwent immortality modification and lies dormant in Laboratory Seven, beneath the Old District. The identity of the third director, Number Zero, remains unknown.
• Gao Ming learns that Tang Ling leads Brain-Domain Game development, has undergone immortality modification, and is gathering nightmares while investigating doors and the world beyond them. He decides to start his plan by learning about her nightmare.
• He asks about Xuan Wen, his former doctor, but the clerk has no information. Gao Ming plans to ask Xuan Wen directly and leaves for the hospital.
• As Gao Ming departs, Liu Yi arrives at the Experience Hall to check on him. The unsettling clerk confronts her, hints that she can find him at the hospital, and privately wonders who Liu Yi is—she does not appear in the future the boss foresaw.
• Gao Ming suspects the Experience Hall’s boss may foresee events and may be using him as a weapon against Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming gains a valuable source of intelligence but remains wary of the Haunted House employees’ motives. His focus shifts toward Tang Ling, while his unresolved questions about Xuan Wen draw him toward the hospital.
• The clerk is helpful but unnerving, and her casual talk of killing everyone on the list reveals a potentially ruthless side. She recognizes Liu Yi as unusually strong in yin energy.
• Liu Yi discovers Gao Ming’s secret connection to the Haunted House. The clerk’s suggestion that Gao Ming is interested in his female doctor leaves Liu Yi with a new concern.
• The unseen boss is presented as a powerful, possibly prophetic figure whose advance preparations may have shaped the assistance Gao Ming receives.

Significant themes

• Trust and manipulation: Gao Ming benefits from the Haunted House’s help while questioning whether he is being used.
• Hidden identities and uncertain knowledge: Number Zero’s identity, Xuan Wen’s role, and Liu Yi’s unexplained absence from the boss’s vision remain mysteries.
• The uncanny beneath ordinary life: The clerk’s inhuman nature and the hidden ghost in the Experience Hall reinforce the danger concealed within seemingly normal places.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming returns to the hospital to see Dr. Xuan Wen, explaining that he has recently been having frightening dreams. Nurse Lingling tells him Xuan is attending to Xia Yang, a former patient who relapsed soon after discharge.
• Lingling describes Xia Yang’s violent relapse: his home was found covered in blood and strange patterns, transformed into a blood-red cage. Gao Ming suspects the Xia Yang he knew in Hanhai may have been only a fragment of the real man, whose body is in Xinhu.
• On the Seventh Floor, Gao Ming recognizes Room 7003 from Situ An’s hospital and meets its patient, “Question Mark.” The patient says Gao Ming is one of thirteen people treated with Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ latest technology, but unlike the other twelve, Gao Ming’s appearance was an unexpected accident. Before he can explain further, approaching footsteps make him return to his blank, unresponsive state.
• Gao Ming then finds Room 7009 wrecked: blood, broken equipment, scattered medicine, and a damaged window. Inside, Dr. Xuan Wen calmly reads a medical record. Gao Ming enters, and the two face each other in silence.

Character developments

• Gao Ming continues piecing together the connection between his treatment, the realities of Hanhai and Xinhu, and the people who appeared in both. He is increasingly aware that his own existence may be exceptional and accidental.
• Xia Yang is revealed to be dangerously unstable after discharge, while Gao Ming’s memories raise questions about what part of Xia Yang existed in Hanhai.
• Question Mark shows that he remembers Gao Ming and knows significant details about the thirteen patients, but his revelations remain incomplete.
• Xuan Wen appears composed amid the destruction of Xia Yang’s room, leaving her intentions and response to Gao Ming unclear.

Significant themes

• Uncertain reality and identity: Memories and people seem to cross between Hanhai and Xinhu, making it unclear what is real and what is only a fragment or illusion.
• Treatment and experimentation: Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ technology may have created or altered the patients’ lives, and Gao Ming’s case may have been an unforeseen exception.
• Trauma and isolation: Xia Yang’s relapse and the patients’ restricted lives suggest deep suffering hidden behind clinical treatment.
• Memory as a lifeline: Question Mark implies that remembering one’s true identity may offer a chance of escape or understanding.

Character interactions

• Lingling greets Gao Ming warmly, shares hospital gossip, and guides him toward Xuan Wen and Xia Yang.
• Gao Ming and Question Mark exchange a tense, cryptic conversation about Gao Ming’s identity and the thirteen patients; Question Mark’s warning is cut short.
• The chapter ends with Gao Ming and Xuan Wen silently confronting one another, their reunion marked by distance rather than affection or relief.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming confronts Xuan Wen, demanding to know whether she engineered the betrayals, deaths, and repeated restarts he remembers experiencing in Hanhai.
• He reveals his Blood City markings and uses the Dream Ghost’s ability to verify Xuan Wen’s honesty. She admits that Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ technology sent his consciousness into Hanhai, but appears genuinely unaware of his repeated deaths.
• Xuan Wen warns that exposing Hanhai’s Blood City may make Gao Ming a target for the company.
• She explains the Vast Sea Project: the former Savior sought to create a world where humans and ghosts could coexist. After an earlier plan met resistance, he chose Hanhai—a Blood City whose inhabitants had been massacred—as the site for a new society.
• The Savior and his followers built a city there, but he later disappeared into the black fog with the Unspeakable ghosts. The project continued until the arrival of a new Number Zero changed everything.

Character developments

• Gao Ming shifts from desperate suspicion to a clearer, though still painful, understanding: Xuan Wen sent him into Hanhai, but she may not know about the deaths and resets only he remembers. He remains wary and powerful, yet chooses not to attack her.
• Xuan Wen’s divided nature becomes clearer. The bold, passionate version Gao Ming knew in the nightmare was also her, while her present self is restrained by secrets and obligations. She shows regret and admits what she knows, but says she can no longer save him.

Significant themes

• Memory and reality: Gao Ming’s private memories of repeated deaths conflict with Xuan Wen’s understanding of Hanhai, leaving open the possibility of an unknown error or force.
• Trust and betrayal: Gao Ming struggles to reconcile Xuan Wen’s role as his rescuer with her involvement in the process that sent him into danger.
• Humanity and coexistence: The Vast Sea Project raises the question of whether humans can overcome selfishness to live alongside ghosts.
• Hope corrupted by secrecy: The Savior’s idealistic plan was shaped by resistance, hidden motives, and forces beyond his control.

Character interactions

• Gao Ming presses Xuan Wen for the truth, confronting her with both his memories and the markings on his body.
• Xuan Wen initially deflects by treating his claims as symptoms, then acknowledges her role in sending him to Hanhai and reveals the history of the Vast Sea Project.
• Their conversation remains tense but restrained: Gao Ming seeks certainty, while Xuan Wen offers what she knows and warns him of the consequences ahead.

Key plot points and events

• Xuan Wen reveals that Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals abandoned its original plan to make Hanhai a new world. Under Number Zero, the company turned the Blood City into a prison and pursued control of it, conducting brutal experiments to gain eternal life and the Ghost God’s power.
• The company selected ten potential Blood City Lords from its test subjects. On the night they were to be sent into Hanhai from the private hospital, three more Candidates were added—including Gao Ming. He had arrived after risking his life to save children in a school-bus crash; Xuan Wen sent his fading consciousness into Hanhai in an attempt to save him.
• Xuan Wen explains that Hanhai’s Shadow World is its true form. The Blood City’s lingering consciousness is damaging the city built by the Saviors and disrupting the company’s plans.
• She warns Gao Ming that Xinhu’s apparent safety is deceptive: its dark side has been removed and contained in laboratories. Tang Ling is investigating him, and she has encountered a genuine Unspeakable. Gao Ming accepts that he may have to confront such beings.
• Gao Ming asks who Xuan Wen really is. She says she is the real Xuan Wen; the Xuan Wen he knew in the nightmare was a consciousness created by Dream’s shrine to guide him into Hanhai.
• After telling Gao Ming to leave Hanhai behind and focus on his own happiness, Xuan Wen exits. Instead of visiting another patient, she retreats to a disused operating room and privately struggles to contain her emotions.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming learns that his entry into Hanhai was an act of Xuan Wen’s compassion, but that it also made him a Candidate in a dangerous contest. He remains defiant in the face of her warnings and presses her to reveal her identity.
• Xuan Wen distinguishes herself from Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals and its agenda, while showing concern for Gao Ming and urgency about the danger he faces. Her controlled manner cracks after she leaves him, suggesting unresolved feelings about their history.
• Their conversation is frank but restrained: both understand that concealment would only deepen the distance between them. Gao Ming remembers their many encounters, while Xuan Wen tries to persuade him to stop dwelling on the nightmare.

Significant themes

• Cause, consequence, and fate: Xuan Wen’s attempt to save Gao Ming unintentionally draws him into Hanhai’s struggle.
• Control versus resistance: The company seeks absolute control of the Blood City, while the city’s own consciousness disrupts that plan.
• Identity and memory: The real Xuan Wen and her nightmare-generated counterpart force Gao Ming to question which parts of their past were genuine.
• Compassion and sacrifice: Kind intentions can have devastating consequences, and Gao Ming’s own self-sacrifice mirrors Xuan Wen’s attempt to save him.
• Hidden danger: Xinhu’s calm surface conceals the darkness confined beneath it.