Chapter Summaries

Plot and key events

• Gao Ming drags the three divine statues and Dream’s Main Shrine—carrying attacks from three unspeakable beings—into the Execution House to keep the route between reality and Hanhai open.
• With Zhang Ding’s help, he escapes through Dream’s Secondary Shrine into Dreamfold Town. The statues’ powers begin corrupting the Execution House, so Gao Ming sacrifices thirty percent of it, cutting away the affected sections along with the Main Shrine.
• The statues’ rules then spread through Dreamfold Town, overpowering its protections and threatening the Flesh-and-Blood Giant Tree. Gao Ming and the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God retreat toward the Nine-Story Spirit Shrine Ruins.
• Gao Ming reveals a concealed Heavenly Gate and forces it open. Black fog pours through, recalling the fog that had been swallowing Hanhai. He enters the unknown realm, pursued by the three statues.
• The statues abandon their effort to capture him alive and prepare to destroy his soul. Inside the fog, Gao Ming finds a bleak expanse with no visible ground or ghosts. He suspects its lack of ordinary spirits means something exceptionally dangerous already inhabits it.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming acts with increasing desperation, accepting severe damage to his body, soul, and Execution House to protect the passage and the people connected to Dreamfold Town.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God supports Gao Ming throughout, opening the Execution House, severing its corrupted sections, and carrying him to the Heavenly Gate—losing two arms in the process.
• Zhang Ding quickly understands Gao Ming’s command and opens the Secondary Shrine, enabling his escape.
• Number Two, trapped as a fragment inside the Execution House, is horrified by the risk and later astonished by the hidden gate.
• The three divine statues shift from pursuing Gao Ming alive to attacking him directly once they sense the danger beyond the gate.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice under pressure: Gao Ming gives up parts of himself and his resources to preserve what matters most.
• Power with unknown costs: The Heavenly Gate offers a possible escape or weapon, but its destination and dangers are unclear.
• Escalating, hidden threats: Even a place saturated with despair may conceal dangers more formidable than visible ghosts.
• Protecting connections and territory: Gao Ming’s choices are driven by the need to preserve the passage, Dreamfold Town, and the wider world from destruction.

Key plot points

• Gao Ming and the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God race through the black fog toward a huge presence overhead. Gao Ming’s soul is rotting, and even the Ghost God’s power can only slow the damage.
• They reach a lonely island formed from despair and curses. It is dotted with statues of children with physical disabilities and appears to shelter people and ghosts marked by imperfection, perhaps granting them power.
• The Illusory Divine Statue secretly alters Gao Ming’s Blood City markings. Misled into believing the rotting Flesh-and-Blood Idol is the threat, Gao Ming fails to recognize the illusion; his body and soul rapidly decay.
• Through the Ghost God’s eyes, Gao Ming glimpses nine hostile Blood Cities. Their overwhelming power makes Hanhai’s resistance seem hopeless.
• On the brink of death, Gao Ming and the Ghost God prepare to shatter their hearts and reset the cycle. Just then, the island answers with a whale song.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains determined despite his worsening condition. Rather than accept defeat, he plans to return to the tunnel and become the murderer who stops earlier versions of himself from escaping before they are ready.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God is both fiercely protective of Gao Ming and deeply affected by their shared pain. Gong Xi’s human feelings restrain the other faces’ urge to attack the Divine Statue.
• Number Two tries to warn Gao Ming about the Illusory Divine Statue, but Gao Ming’s decaying senses—and the illusion itself—prevent him from hearing the warning in time.
• The Big Black Dog reacts to the island with unexpected familiarity, as if it were looking toward home.

Significant themes

• Decay and sacrifice: Gao Ming’s body, senses, memories, and soul fail even as he presses forward.
• Illusion and reality: The Statue’s deception can make an imagined future real if its victim does not recognize the illusion.
• Cycles and agency: Gao Ming considers using death and repetition to create another chance to change events.
• Imperfection and refuge: The island suggests that what is treated as a flaw may also be a source of belonging or power.
• Hope against overwhelming odds: The whale song interrupts Gao Ming’s apparent defeat, leaving the island’s response—and his fate—uncertain.

Key plot points

• The whale’s song disrupts the Illusory Divine Statue’s influence, helping Gao Ming realize his body and soul are badly damaged but not beyond saving.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God carries Gao Ming to the solitary island and hides him inside his own heart to protect him. Meanwhile, three divine statues prepare to unleash their full power.
• The Darkness and Rotting statues attack, but strange children formed from the island’s accumulated memories interfere with their powers. Gao Ming throws a chain from the Execution House to help one child, but the child dissolves and another emerges, suggesting each has a different ability.
• The Illusory statue then tries to force reality toward its most miserable outcome. A colossal whale rises from beneath the island, interrupting the illusion and revealing itself as the unwanted child’s mother.
• The island’s power surges. Nine impaired children tear through the dark realm, and a shadow appears at the island’s center: the Calamity God, formerly called the Nether Fetus.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains determined to save the children despite his failing body, urging one to reach for his chain.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God prioritizes Gao Ming’s safety over revenge, hiding him inside his own body even as he nears collapse.
• Number Two watches from the Execution House and recognizes that the children’s abilities can disrupt powers wielded by Unspeakables.
• The whale is revealed as the unwanted child’s only family and mother. Its arrival breaks the Illusory statue’s control and turns the island’s force against the attack.
• The children, though formed from fragmented memories and seemingly not true ghosts, collectively resist the statues’ assaults.

Significant themes

• Protection and attachment: The Ghost God risks everything to shelter Gao Ming, while the whale’s love for the rejected child challenges the island’s loneliness.
• Memory, suffering, and identity: The children emerge from accumulated regret and trauma; their changing forms suggest that memory and selfhood are unstable.
• Resistance through vulnerability: The children’s impairments and damaged bodies do not make them powerless; together, they disrupt forces far stronger than themselves.
• Despair versus connection: The Illusory statue weaponizes misery and isolation, but bonds between Gao Ming, the Ghost God, the children, and the whale offer resistance.

Plot points and events

• The isolated island is revealed as the shadow’s corpse, transformed into a refuge for the Deep World’s broken souls. The giant whale has carried it across the world, gathering objects and memories to comfort the shadow.
• The shadow rejects his mother’s affection, warning that he is no longer her child and does not want her hurt. Yet he hesitates when he sees the photographs she brought and allows her to touch him.
• As Gao Ming lies near death from the rules of decay, the shadow throws a curse-covered chain to him. Though the curses cause terrible pain, they clear away the decay, allowing the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God to heal him.
• The shadow summons the Big Black Dog, whose devotion reflects the island’s role as a home for lost and suffering spirits.
• The chapter ends by revealing that the shadow carries the world’s sins while preserving his purest power for the whale. The whale, meanwhile, has become an object of faith for the souls who find comfort on the island.

Character development and interactions

• The shadow / Xiang Nuan remains guarded and emotionally numb, but his hesitation over the whale’s gifts and his actions to save Gao Ming suggest that care persists beneath his rejection. The nine child figures around him dissolve until only Xiang Nuan remains, emphasizing the buried identity beneath the Calamity God.
• The giant whale, his mother, expresses joy and enduring devotion through her gifts and gentle attempts to approach him. She refuses to abandon him despite his rejection and the curses harming her.
• Gao Ming is nearly unable to respond, but survives through the shadow’s painful intervention and the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God’s healing.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God struggles to keep Gao Ming alive, even using his own heart’s blood. Gong Xi’s efforts clash with the other ghost faces, underscoring conflict within the entity.
• The Big Black Dog submits to the shadow, representing the many souls who regard the island as shelter.

Significant themes

• Regret and atonement: The whale’s persistence is driven by a desire to make amends, while the island itself gathers and shelters what the world has rejected.
• Love amid rejection: The shadow insists he wants no affection, but his mother continues to offer it, and his actions reveal a guarded capacity for care.
• Pain as a means of rescue: The shadow saves Gao Ming through curses that hurt before they heal.
• Sanctuary and belonging: The island becomes a home for broken souls, turning the shadow’s suffering into a source of comfort for others.

Key plot points and events

• Black Dog emerges from Gao Ming’s shadow. When the shadow threatens Gao Ming, Black Dog stands between them, choosing to protect Gao Ming.
• The shadow relents and asks how Gao Ming reached the island. Number Two explains that they came through a door in Dreamfold Town, a nightmare assembled from incomplete dreams, while fleeing three Unspeakables.
• Giant Whale’s soothing song and healing power help restore Gao Ming and the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal. The shadow, who has long been shaped by curses and violence, begins engaging with others through conversation rather than force.
• The shadow recognizes a chain hidden in Gao Ming’s Execution House. Its Blood City markings are a disguise for sin karma, and Gao Ming recalls that it once carried him out of Hanhai.
• The shadow identifies the chain’s owner as “Doctor Gao,” calling him “a true madman.” When it touches the cursed chain the shadow gave Gao Ming, the two chains react violently, but Giant Whale’s song calms them and separates them.
• Gao Ming suspects the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal may have been imprisoned in Hanhai’s Blood City, which now holds souls from multiple cities.

Character developments

• Black Dog makes his loyalty to Gao Ming unmistakable, even under crushing pressure.
• The shadow shows an unexpected capacity for restraint and curiosity. Gao Ming’s suffering reminds him of his own struggle against fate, softening his hostility.
• Gao Ming continues recovering and learns that an unknown figure, Doctor Gao, is connected to the mysterious chain in his Execution House.
• Number Two is unsettled by the shadow’s power and by the secrets concealed within Gao Ming.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Immortal heals and appears to have grown stronger after confronting the rules of decay.

Character interactions

• Black Dog protects Gao Ming from the shadow; the shadow challenges Black Dog to choose his own fate rather than live as someone else’s shadow.
• Number Two cautiously explains the group’s arrival and lack of hostile intent, while the shadow ignores him and focuses on Gao Ming.
• The shadow’s recognition of the chain leads Gao Ming and Number Two to question who Doctor Gao is and what the chain means.
• Giant Whale acts as a calming, restorative presence, easing tensions and healing the injured.

Significant themes

• Choice and independence: Black Dog’s actions affirm his own decision, while the shadow questions the idea of living as another’s shadow.
• Shared suffering and recognition: The shadow feels kinship with Gao Ming because both have been shaped by suffering and struggled to control their own lives.
• Hidden identities and pasts: The chain’s disguise and the name Doctor Gao suggest deeper mysteries within Gao Ming’s world.
• Healing amid corruption: Giant Whale’s restorative power offers a counterweight to curses, decay, and the violence surrounding the characters.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming’s soul recovers after the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal and the giant whale save him. Repeated deaths have made his soul more resistant to decay, darkness, illusions, and curses.
• The shadow questions Gao Ming about Doctor Gao and why he carries Doctor Gao’s chains. Gao Ming says he barely knows the man and explains that he intends to rebuild Hanhai Blood City.
• The shadow warns that the other twelve Blood Cities destroyed Hanhai and would unite against anyone trying to restore it. Gao Ming accepts the danger, saying Hanhai’s people deserve a chance to escape their repeating lives of suffering.
• The shadow offers the black dog a chance to stay behind and accompany the whale, but the dog remains loyal to Gao Ming. Gao Ming also invites the whale and the regrets it shelters to join his future city.
• Gao Ming receives a call from the mysterious Haunted House Boss. Answering it triggers a tremendous surge of curses across Lone Island. After the disturbance subsides, the shadow remarks that the caller seems happy.

Character developments

• Gao Ming shows renewed resolve and compassion shaped by his many deaths. He is not an idealized savior, but he refuses to accept Hanhai’s endless cycle of misery.
• The shadow remains distrustful and pragmatic, doubtful Gao Ming can succeed. Still, his reaction to the call hints at a personal connection—and perhaps happiness of his own.
• The black dog demonstrates unwavering loyalty by rejecting the shadow’s offer to stay.
• Number Two is visibly relieved when the shadow lets them leave.

Significant themes

• Resilience through suffering: Gao Ming’s repeated deaths have strengthened his soul and resolve.
• Hope against impossible odds: Rebuilding Hanhai means confronting overwhelming enemies, but Gao Ming believes its people deserve freedom.
• Home and belonging: Gao Ming longs to create a refuge for Hanhai’s residents and the whale’s regrets, while recognizing that home can be found wherever loved ones are.
• Loyalty and chosen bonds: The black dog chooses Gao Ming despite the danger, while Gao Ming extends an offer of belonging to the whale.

Character interactions

• Gao Ming answers the shadow’s suspicions honestly and argues for Hanhai’s future; the shadow listens but remains unconvinced.
• The shadow tries to separate the black dog from Gao Ming, but the dog refuses.
• Gao Ming invites the whale to share in the home he hopes to build.
• The mysterious caller’s brief, curse-laden connection shocks everyone present. Gao Ming responds by suggesting that the caller has found happiness with the person he loves most.

Key plot points

• The shadow’s curse destroys Gao Ming’s phone before he can reconnect with the person on the other end. Seeing an altered childhood drawing, the shadow realizes the thing he longed for had been close to him all along.
• As a parting gift, the shadow makes Gao Ming a child statue named Xiang Nuan, warning that the boy has no special abilities and may bring misfortune. Gao Ming accepts it without hesitation.
• The shadow approves of Gao Ming’s aim to rebuild Blood City as a home for regrets and broken things, but says Gao Ming must return only after accomplishing that goal. The shadow then disappears to settle his own score.
• Back in Dreamfold Town, Gao Ming finds that the three unspeakable statues have badly damaged the town and its giant tree. He decides to preserve the deep dream rather than abandon it.
• Gao Ming uses Dream’s Main Shrine to strengthen Dreamfold Town, despite the risk that Dream could replace him. The town’s territory expands, and Gao Ming gains Dream’s ability Delirium.
• Delirium can drive everyone in a nightmare—ghosts and humans alike, including the user—into madness. Though Gao Ming is briefly overwhelmed when he tests it, he sees its potential as a weapon against unspeakable beings.

Character developments and interactions

• The shadow shows an unexpected trace of vulnerability and goodwill: beneath his cruelty, he has recognized what he was truly seeking and chooses to help Gao Ming.
• Gao Ming accepts Xiang Nuan, takes the risk of strengthening Dreamfold Town, and treats Delirium’s severe cost as worthwhile if it can help him defeat powerful enemies.
• Number Two cautions Gao Ming that occupying Dream’s shrine could let Dream take control, and later pulls him away when Delirium begins harming him.
• Gao Ming and Number Two discuss the shadow’s nature and Dream’s connection to Hanhai. Number Two stresses that Dream was implicated in Hanhai’s destruction, not an ally.

Significant themes

• Regret and belonging: The shadow’s drawing and Gao Ming’s vision of rebuilding Blood City point to giving the lost and broken a home.
• Power at a cost: The Main Shrine strengthens Gao Ming, but risks Dream’s return; Delirium can cripple enemies while also endangering its user.
• The nature of ghosts: Gao Ming sees Calamity Gods as driven by genuine, concentrated desires, while Number Two emphasizes their terrifying savagery.
• Ambiguous inheritance: Dream’s power helps Gao Ming, yet its history links it to catastrophe, making every gain potentially dangerous.

Plot points

• Gao Ming reflects on Delirium, an ability that drives everyone nearby—including its user—into madness. Number Two warns that it is a dangerous sickness, not a power to rely on.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Immortal grows stronger after taking over Dream’s Main Shrine. It develops eight new arms, each bearing a supernatural weapon that can corrupt minds, memories, faith, or reality.
• Number Two explains that the Immortal’s growth may be unrestricted because it has fused with Dream’s shrine. If Gao Ming finds the other shrines held by Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals, the Immortal may eventually replace Dream—or Dream may be reborn through Gao Ming.
• Gao Ming returns to the offshore laboratory, where he restores the Main Shrine and uses the Immortal’s statue to reopen the passage to Hanhai. Zhang Ding, protected by the Human Skin, stays behind to guard Gao Ming’s body.
• Gao Ming and the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God travel through the passage and reach Hanhai, where Gao Ming identifies a hidden shrine as the third of Dream’s five remaining shrines.
• Gao Ming arrives in a rain-soaked, seemingly lifeless city. He finds corpses in hazmat suits, suggesting a recent disaster, and wonders how much time has passed since the black fog appeared.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains determined to pursue Dream’s shrines despite the risks, and grows more confident in controlling the passage between reality and Hanhai.
• Number Two acts as a cautious adviser, warning Gao Ming against overusing Delirium and urging him to prepare for Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ response.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Immortal becomes markedly more powerful and increasingly fused with Dream’s shrine, making it both Gao Ming’s formidable ally and a possible vessel for Dream’s return.
• Zhang Ding offers to protect Gao Ming’s body while he enters Hanhai, reassuring Number Two that it will be safe.

Significant themes

• Power and self-destruction: Delirium can defeat powerful enemies, but at the cost of the user’s sanity and possibly life.
• Transformation and loss of control: The Immortal’s growth raises the possibility that Gao Ming may enable Dream’s rebirth or replacement.
• Connection between reality and dreams: The passage is described as an umbilical cord linking reality to the dream world.
• Uncertainty and isolation: Gao Ming returns to a familiar city whose true condition—and the time elapsed there—remain unclear.

Key events

• Gao Ming returns to Hanhai as black fog and the Shadow World’s invasion continue to spread. He finds ordinary people dead in an outpost; their souls appear to have been taken as sacrifices.
• He feeds Dream’s third Shrine to the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God, nearly completing its transformation. At Number Two’s warning, he stops just short of finishing so that powerful beings observing Hanhai won’t notice him. The Shrine cannot be moved, but Gao Ming can complete the takeover later.
• Number Two explains that the apartment building was an Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals outpost built to hide the Shrine. The company sent volunteers from Xinhu, altered through Cerebral Surgery, to Hanhai on missions guided by implanted memories.
• He also describes the uneasy history of the Hanhai General Investigation Bureau: it began as a truth-seeking group, but Number Zero later shaped it into an organization under his influence. The Bureau and Xinhu Investigators distrust each other, and both have conducted cruel experiments. Number Two cannot say how many Dream Ghosts may be concealed within the Bureau.
• On the building’s first floor, Gao Ming encounters three people collecting corpses: an elderly woman, a tall man, and a child. They initially mistake him for a threat, but he calms them and asks about the city’s condition.
• The woman says the western outskirts are being overtaken by “Sick Districts”—areas where supernatural horrors spread, people die, and even corpses cannot be removed.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming shows growing power and restraint: he is strong enough to seize Dream’s Shrines, but accepts that completing the takeover now could attract dangerous attention. He disguises himself as a survivor to learn what has happened while he was away.
• Number Two acts as a cautious adviser, warning Gao Ming to conceal his strength and providing background on Hanhai’s institutions.
• The elderly woman is the most composed of the three survivors and takes charge when they encounter Gao Ming. The child is frightened but brave enough to question him; the tall man is overwhelmed by fear. Their loyalty to one another is evident when they do not leave the fallen man behind.

Significant themes

• Power versus concealment: Gao Ming’s rapid growth offers a path to resist the Shadow World, but displays of strength may draw even greater threats.
• Institutional corruption and mistrust: The Investigation Bureau and Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals are entangled in manipulation, rivalries, and inhumane experimentation.
• A city’s gradual collapse: The spread of Sick Districts makes Hanhai’s deterioration tangible, with ordinary survivors trying to endure amid death and supernatural danger.

Chapter summary

• Hanhai is still in crisis. Gao Ming meets three cleaners working for a company established by the local Investigation Branch. The old woman recounts how her daughter and son-in-law were corrupted by something supernatural, taken away as “shadows,” and later found dead among waste. Uncle Qi explains that the General Investigation Bureau is overwhelmed by the spreading black fog, leaving local branches understaffed and civilians in danger.
• The public has a distorted view of Situ An. Uncle Qi and the boy blame the Investigation Bureau for the East District’s fall and remember Bureau Chief Situ as a hero who warned the city of disaster. Gao Ming realizes they mean Situ An, the man he knows was responsible for terrible crimes. After Gao Ming killed him, Situ An’s contingency exposed some truths while shifting blame onto the bureau, making him appear vindicated. Gao Ming worries that people may even build shrines to him.
• The Ghost Story Players have become a major force. The boy praises the group, which hunts ghosts, clears anomalies, and rescues people. Its public Contribution Leaderboard tracks those efforts. Fan Li currently ranks first for his service and leadership; Luo Dong leads efforts in the East District and is called its acting bureau chief. The boy also describes the tenth-ranked Xinhu Special Protection First Team, reportedly made up of former Investigation Bureau personnel.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming learns how much Hanhai has changed while he was away. He sees that Fan Li is living up to his potential and that Luo Dong’s work echoes the future he once glimpsed. His exchanges with the cleaners reveal both his concern for the city and his frustration at Situ An’s posthumous reputation.
• Uncle Qi speaks bitterly about the Investigation Bureau and fondly remembers Situ An, unaware of his true nature.
• The boy is enthusiastic about Ghost Story Players, partly because his brother was one and died after saving a building’s residents.
• The old woman shares her family’s tragedy and quietly supports Uncle Qi’s account.
• The cleaners initially fear Gao Ming but gradually accept his presence as he reassures them.

Significant themes

The chapter contrasts truth with public perception, showing how a villain can be remembered as a hero when information is manipulated. It also emphasizes institutional failure and civilian suffering, alongside resilience and hope: ordinary people endure loss, while Ghost Story Players risk themselves to protect others.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming recalls the First Team Leader from Xinhu Security and learns from a young cleaner that the man has become a Ghost Story Player. The boy says Ghost Story Players—including some ghost creatures who retain their memories—are helping people, unlike the Investigation Bureau, which he sees as focused on controlling and experimenting on them.
• Moved by the boy’s courage and the plight of Hanhai’s residents, Gao Ming resolves to do what the Bureau cannot and help save the city.
• Gao Ming asks the cleaning crew for a phone and a nearby landmark. He messages Fan Li through the Deadwater Forum, requesting someone meet him at Hanhai City Plaza, then sets off alone.
• The cleaners leave him behind, worried he may be a Ghost Story Player on a mission—or a ghost posing as a human. The boy remains concerned, but Uncle Qi insists they cannot risk the group’s safety.
• The cleaning crew receives an emergency order for all personnel with Code A4 assignments to stop work and return to camp. City Plaza is among the affected locations.
• At camp, the cleaners hear that Ghost Story Players are converging on the West District and heading for the plaza. The camp seals its gates, and Director Wei sees an unexpectedly large number of registered Ghost Story Players gathering on his screen. He wonders whether their target is Gao Ming.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming shows compassion for ordinary survivors and turns his attention toward the Ghost Story Players as a source of information and potential allies.
• The boy is trusting and brave, openly sympathetic to the Ghost Story Players and concerned for Gao Ming. His elders’ caution limits his influence.
• Uncle Qi and the old woman prioritize survival, distrust Gao Ming, and discourage the boy from risking the group.
• Director Wei becomes alarmed as the scale of the Ghost Story Players’ movement becomes clear.

Significant themes

• Compassion versus self-preservation: The boy’s instinct to help Gao Ming clashes with the adults’ fear and caution.
• Distrust of institutions: The boy’s criticism of the Investigation Bureau reflects broader resentment toward its methods.
• Hope amid disaster: Gao Ming sees the boy’s courage as evidence that Hanhai’s people are worth fighting for.
• Uncertainty and looming danger: The mass gathering at City Plaza suggests a major confrontation, while the chapter leaves its purpose unclear.

Plot and events

• Director Wei, head of the General Bureau’s research facility, nervously watches for trouble, fearing the Ghost Story Players whose bodies he has dissected.
• At Hanhai City Shopping Center, Gao Ming has subdued its 117 ghost salesclerks and effectively taken control of the mall. He spares its Greater Ghost because the creature has imprisoned, rather than erased, the soul of the actress whose appearance it stole.
• Gao Ming argues that humans and ghosts could coexist through fair trade, though he has little patience for the mall’s coercive sales tactics.
• Vehicles begin gathering at Hanhai City Square. Surprised by the scale of the turnout, Gao Ming complains to Fan Li, who has apparently summoned far more people than expected.
• Ghost Story Players from across Hanhai arrive and set aside their rivalries. Fan Li enters the mall to meet Gao Ming, followed by a small group of formidable Players.
• Hanhai Bureau investigators watching from nearby lose communications as a convoy from the Xinhu Investigation Bureau arrives. The First Team Leader, a feared former adversary of the Players, joins the gathering.
• On the rooftop, the First Team Leader recognizes Gao Ming. Facing the assembled Players and the black fog at the city’s edge, Gao Ming announces his return: “From beyond Hanhai!”

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming appears more restrained and pragmatic: he values mutual benefit between humans and ghosts, spares a monster for the trapped actress’s sake, and avoids making a spectacle of his return. The crowd’s arrival leaves him socially uneasy.
• Fan Li is revealed as a scarred, respected rescuer who has endured great pain to embed Cursed Items in his body. His usual confidence gives way to nerves as he approaches Gao Ming.
• The Greater Ghost is shown to be obsessed with beauty and to have preserved its victim’s soul, prompting Gao Ming to spare it—for now.
• The First Team Leader arrives despite his bloody history with the Ghost Story Players. His recognition of Gao Ming marks their encounter as significant, while the gathered Players’ respectful silence shows Gao Ming’s influence.

Significant themes

• Human–ghost coexistence: Gao Ming sees potential for cooperation and exchange rather than inevitable conflict.
• Power and reputation: Players from rival groups gather peacefully, and even feared figures make way for the Xinhu convoy.
• Mercy and moral complexity: Gao Ming’s decision to spare the Greater Ghost rests on its unusual preservation of the actress’s soul.
• Return and reunion: The chapter builds toward Gao Ming’s public reappearance, turning the gathering into a moment of recognition and renewed purpose.

Key plot points

• Gao Ming returns alive from the black fog and reveals that Hanhai is a dead, isolated city inside the deep world—a prison and testing ground where people’s fates were arranged by powerful rulers.
• Hanhai was once the strongest of thirteen Blood Cities, but the other twelve joined forces to destroy it. Its weakened ghosts are constrained by that destruction.
• Gao Ming argues that the group’s true enemy is not simply the shadow world, but the other Blood Cities. He proposes rebuilding Hanhai’s Blood City before its rivals notice.
• He offers a second goal: help Hanhai’s Greater Ghosts become Dream Ghosts, then use a passage he has reopened to take others into the living world.
• The First Team Leader and Number Two object, warning that bringing ghosts to Xinhu could recreate Hanhai’s catastrophe there. Gao Ming counters that Xinhu is already threatened: Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals has betrayed the investigators, and three Divine Statues from different Blood Cities are at the Shrine, suggesting the company is being used to study the living.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming emerges as a forceful, strategic leader. He shares the grim truth to rally the players and insists that both rebuilding Hanhai and confronting the Blood Cities are necessary.
• The First Team Leader responds pragmatically, questioning whether a damaged Hanhai can stand against twelve cities. Though betrayed by Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals, he remains concerned with protecting the living and directly challenges Gao Ming’s plan.
• Fan Li openly rejects fear, revealing his determination to take control of his fate despite the suffering caused by his cursed markings.
• Wang Jie, Gao Ming’s sinister former classmate, steps forward as another committed player, backed by a substantial network of allies.
• Number Two, speaking from within Gao Ming’s mind, shares the First Team Leader’s warning. Fan Li and other players quietly position themselves around the Team Leader, showing the growing tension within the group.

Significant themes

• Truth and defiance: Learning the truth makes the players enemies of the powers that control their lives.
• Fate versus agency: The characters struggle to shape their destinies in a world designed to punish and manipulate them.
• Betrayal and sacrifice: The investigators’ idealistic experiment was undermined from within, yet the First Team Leader still prioritizes others’ safety.
• The cost of survival: Gao Ming’s proposed route to resistance may save Hanhai or expose Xinhu to the same horrors, leaving the group caught between dangerous choices.

Plot points

• Gao Ming declares his plan to rebuild Hanhai using Xinhu’s resources, insisting he will not sacrifice ordinary people. Instead, he intends to hunt other Ghost Gods and use their shrines and faith to strengthen Dream Ghosts.
• He explains that the Shadow Wards are Hanhai’s original territory, while the surviving human city was built by Xinhu’s Saviors. He plans to negotiate with each ward’s master and build an alliance between humans and ghosts against their shared enemies.
• Gao Ming also plans to approach the secretly powerful Hanhai General Investigation Bureau after consolidating support. If the Bureau refuses to cooperate, he is prepared to devour its Dream Ghost.
• The gathered Ghost Story Players agree to help: Wang Jie will report to the Old Master, and Fan Li will adjust missions through the Deadwater Forum.
• The First Team Leader reveals that Xuan Wen’s hidden Outpost contained research about Gao Ming and a bloodstained package meant for him. Inside are a house key and a message:

Gao Ming’s parents are locked in the house and he must return home.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming emerges as a determined, increasingly ruthless leader. He offers hope through cooperation, but makes clear he will use force against those who obstruct his goals.
• The First Team Leader remains doubtful about the cost and feasibility of rebuilding Hanhai, yet shares crucial information about Xuan Wen and the package.
• Gossip, an early Vengeful Ghost allied with Gao Ming, openly supports unity between humans and ghosts and voices her anger at the Regulators’ disregard for life.
• Wang Jie and Fan Li commit to supporting Gao Ming’s cause in their respective ways.
• Xuan Wen, though absent, is shown to have investigated Gao Ming’s condition and left him an urgent, personal message.

Significant themes

• Human–ghost coexistence: Shared goals can unite beings with very different origins.
• Hope amid ruin: Gao Ming gives the players a direction and a cause, briefly making the city’s skies seem brighter.
• Power and sacrifice: The chapter questions whether rebuilding can avoid exploiting the vulnerable.
• Family and personal stakes: The revelation about Gao Ming’s parents turns a broad political struggle into an immediate personal crisis.

Key plot points

• Gao Ming and the First Team Leader travel to an apartment opposite Gao Ming’s home, where Xuan Wen had secretly observed him.
• In her bedroom, they find a bricked-up window, walls covered in numbers, and hidden research notes. Gao Ming recognizes the numbers as a tally of his deaths—something Xuan Wen had discovered before he did.
• The notes reveal that the women Gao Ming once thought he had invented for a love-themed game were real people he encountered across different lives and futures. Their horrific traits were already part of them; the game did not create them.
• Xuan Wen had carefully developed different appearances and personalities to draw Gao Ming in, eventually settling on the persona of a psychopathic serial killer.
• The First Team Leader opens a concealed passage to a shadow-world outpost. There, Gao Ming finds sophisticated equipment and evidence that Xuan Wen worked for Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals with higher clearance than the Team Leader.
• Recordings show that Xuan Wen had been investigating the causes of Gao Ming’s experiences. Her work eventually reached a breakthrough.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming connects the clues to his repeated deaths and revises his understanding of his past and of Xuan Wen. Though he realizes she manipulated him, he still feels he has little reason to trust anyone else.
• Xuan Wen emerges as both a deliberate manipulator and a persistent investigator who spent considerable effort studying Gao Ming and seeking answers about what happened to him.
• The First Team Leader guides Gao Ming through the investigation, explains the outpost’s nature, and suspects Xuan Wen wanted Gao Ming to uncover her secrets.
• Fan Li stays behind to share selected information with the other Ghost Story Players, though he feels unfairly blamed for the gathering’s confusion.

Significant themes

• Cycles of death and hidden memory: Gao Ming’s deaths have left traces that Xuan Wen recorded.
• Trust and manipulation: Xuan Wen’s careful efforts to attract Gao Ming complicate his feelings of trust.
• Fate versus creation: The women in Gao Ming’s game were not brought into reality by it; they existed independently, and he encountered them across different futures.
• Investigation and concealed truth: The apartment and outpost reveal that Gao Ming’s past may have been deliberately studied and arranged.

Key plot points and events

• Xuan Wen’s investigation revealed that Gao Ming’s supposed parents repeatedly appeared at his door in Hanhai, even though records showed he was an orphan from Xinhu. Others who remembered Gao Ming seemed to know him only vaguely, leading her to suspect their memories had been altered.
• Xuan Wen traced the parents to a strange, cozy home hidden in Hanhai’s black fog. It appeared whenever Gao Ming emerged from—or woke within—the Tunnel. She believed it held the answers to his past, but concealed her final discovery.
• Gao Ming finds a note on his Birthday Posthumous Photograph declaring him, at eighteen, the new Head of the Family, with a key to open the “Home Gate.” He suspects the key Xuan Wen gave him is that key, but does not know where the home is.
• Determined to learn the truth and rebuild Hanhai’s Blood City, Gao Ming returns to the East District with the First Team Leader, bringing equipment from the outpost.
• The First Team Leader describes Hanhai’s many self-help groups and their resourcefulness, contrasting the city’s harsh survival culture with the protected life of Xinhu.
• Gao Ming visits the Student Council, now operating from the East District Investigation Bureau as a major relief organization. He finds its president, Gao Yun, who reveals that his body is regrowing after he took the flesh fetus prepared for the Past and Future Gods.

Character developments and interactions

• Xuan Wen emerges as a careful investigator whose findings deepen the mystery around Gao Ming’s identity and family.
• Gao Ming is increasingly driven to uncover his origins, but prioritizes empowering Hanhai’s residents and ending their oppression.
• The First Team Leader acts as Gao Ming’s driver and guide, explaining the city’s new social order and accepting Gao Ming’s thanks without fuss.
• Gao Yun remains calm and familiar despite his apparent death; his return in a temporary, shabby body hints at his unusual resilience. His dry response to Gao Ming’s blunt question keeps their reunion informal.

Significant themes

• Unstable identity and memory: Gao Ming’s orphan records, apparent parents, and possibly altered memories make his past difficult to trust.
• Home and belonging: The hidden home may contain the truth of Gao Ming’s family and identity, while its key symbolizes access to that truth.
• Collective survival and power: Hanhai’s citizens adapt through cooperation and unconventional use of supernatural forces, while the Student Council organizes people into a disciplined collective.
• Protection versus hardship: The contrast between Xinhu and Hanhai suggests that safety can shelter people, while catastrophe forces them to become resourceful.

Key plot points

• Gao Ming meets Student Council President Gao Yun, revealing their history of secretly working together against the General Investigation Bureau.
• Gao Yun explains that, although the Student Council has grown to more than 300,000 members, only about 10,000 are deeply devoted to him. He needs their willing faith to become a Dream Ghost, and the process is uncertain.
• Gao Ming warns that confrontation with the Bureau is imminent and shares what he learned beyond Hanhai: Dream Ghosts are outmatched by ordinary Unspeakables, and rebuilding Blood City may be the only way to reclaim control. Gao Yun agrees to join him within three days.
• Gao Ming then visits Hande Private Academy, where Phobia and Ji Zhe have fused into the Flesh-and-Blood Giant Tree. Now powerful enough to attempt separating them, Gao Ming offers to free Ji Zhe.
• Ji Zhe refuses. He prefers being a feared ghost to returning to the lonely, unnoticed life he had as a human, and promises to keep Phobia’s fear spreading without letting it become uncontrollable.

Character developments

• Gao Ming has become a Dream Ghost and is taking a more direct role in the coming conflict, while also trying to repay Ji Zhe’s past kindness.
• Gao Yun remains a cautious but committed ally. His growing Student Council offers influence, but he is still struggling to transform into a Dream Ghost.
• Ji Zhe embraces his ghostly identity rather than seeking rescue, finding purpose and visibility in the frightening role Phobia gave him.
• The First Team Leader learns how extensive Gao Ming and Gao Yun’s cooperation has been.

Significant themes

• Choice and identity: Ji Zhe would rather remain a feared ghost than return to a human life defined by insignificance.
• Power through belief: Gao Yun’s transformation depends not on numbers alone, but on people willingly giving him their faith and minds.
• Cooperation against overwhelming threats: The coming danger makes alliances necessary, even among groups with different aims.
• Hope amid catastrophe: Hanhai is devastated, yet the growth of the Ghost Story Players and the discovery of a world beyond the “prison” suggest a chance to overturn the existing order.

Character interactions

• Gao Ming and Gao Yun speak with familiar, teasing candor, but their conversation reveals deep trust and repeated secret collaboration. Gao Yun agrees to join Gao Ming despite anticipating danger.
• Gao Ming approaches Ji Zhe with gratitude and an offer of freedom; Ji Zhe declines, explaining that his ghostly existence has given him the importance and agency he lacked as a human.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming visits Ji Zhe, now fused with Phobia as the Flesh-and-Blood Giant Tree. He clarifies that he has not come to take Phobia back and offers Ji Zhe a clay body—made with Gao Ming’s blood and the power of belief—if Ji Zhe ever wants to leave the tree.
• The tree has become a strange community where mutated humans and Shadow World monsters coexist under the influence of fear. Gao Ming sees it as an unexpected fulfillment of the Saviors’ wish.
• Gao Ming meets Principal Yan Xizhi and asks how powerful the beings in the black fog are. Yan says they badly wounded her and seemed intent only on driving her back to Hanhai.
• Gao Ming argues that Hanhai must rebuild its Blood City to resist those beings. Though wary of the danger, Yan agrees that action may be necessary and reveals that rival Blood Cities are already in conflict. Some want to seize Hanhai; others fear its unexplained secrets.
• Yan recommends involving the General Investigation Bureau, but Gao Ming distrusts the Bureau and asks her to accompany him there.
• Yan also reports the sudden appearance of a new Dream Ghost, Weird Wish, in South City District Six. It grants wishes in dreams but takes something in return, and grows stronger as more people make wishes. Gao Ming recognizes it as evidence that Hanhai’s future has diverged from the futures he previously saw.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming shows respect for others’ choices, offering Ji Zhe an alternative without pressuring him. He also takes a more strategic role, seeking allies and information to rebuild Hanhai’s Blood City.
• Ji Zhe remains committed to his fusion with Phobia, despite having been an overlooked, sensitive student who hid behind an attention-seeking persona.
• Yan Xizhi remains guided by her principles but is cautious about risking the children and Hanhai. Gao Ming persuades her through an appeal to their safety and freedom; she, in turn, shares intelligence and agrees to accompany him.
• Gao Ming and Yan share mutual trust in one another’s judgment, though Yan teases him for his persuasive flattery. Gao Ming’s distrust of the General Investigation Bureau contrasts with his confidence in Yan.

Significant themes

• Choice and autonomy: Gao Ming offers possibilities rather than forcing decisions, while Ji Zhe chooses to remain with Phobia.
• Resistance and sacrifice: Rebuilding the Blood City could protect Hanhai but may provoke powerful enemies and bring severe consequences.
• Changing fate: Weird Wish’s emergence signals that Gao Ming’s actions have opened an unpredictable future.
• Fear, coexistence, and moral responsibility: The tree’s human–monster community suggests that even fear can produce a new social order, while the characters debate whether safety justifies accepting life in a “cage.”

Plot points and events

• Yan Xizhi explains that becoming a dream ghost requires more than strength: it also depends on concentrated will and the ability to replace a rule. Hanhai can support only a limited number, making the remaining places scarce.
• She gives Gao Ming her old Teacher ID and tells him to use it to contact her at the General Investigation Bureau. She then returns to teaching, continuing to guide her students in how to remain human.
• Gao Ming and the First Team Leader travel to South City, where private security guards stop them at a curfew checkpoint and inspect them for supernatural contamination.
• The inspection device reacts catastrophically when Gao Ming touches it, identifying him as a severe pollution source. Gao Ming silences the checkpoint guards, leaving many unconscious or mentally incapacitated. Despite the danger, they had managed to send a warning before being overcome.
• The First Team Leader contacts Wang Jie. Wang Chou arrives on behalf of the Wang family patriarch, who has ordered South City personnel to cooperate with Gao Ming.
• Gao Ming asks for a pass so he can meet South City’s dream ghost, known by names including Weird Wish and Malicious Wish. Wang Chou hints that those who make wishes to it suffer terrible fates.
• Wang Jie arrives in a blood-stained vehicle, armed and irritated that his grandfather sent him away instead of letting him greet Gao Ming himself.

Character developments and interactions

• Yan Xizhi remains devoted to teaching and preserving humanity, despite the calamity. Her gift of the ID shows trust in Gao Ming and offers him a way to reach her later.
• Gao Ming displays the frightening reach of his dream-ghost power, but also recognizes the checkpoint guards’ courage. He approaches the Wang family with confidence, even while allowing them to assist him.
• The First Team Leader remains loyal and composed, following Gao Ming’s lead while offering practical advice.
• Wang Chou is deferential and visibly unnerved by Gao Ming. He reveals that the Wang family knows of the dangerous wish-granting ghost.
• Wang Jie shows loyalty to Gao Ming and resistance to being sidelined by his family.
• The checkpoint guards’ willingness to hold their post—even at the cost of their minds—reveals their discipline and commitment.

Significant themes

• Humanity amid catastrophe: Yan Xizhi’s teaching and the guards’ sacrifice suggest that human values endure even in a broken world.
• Power and responsibility: Gao Ming’s presence can overwhelm people and institutions, making the danger of his power clear.
• Scarcity and competition: The limited number of dream-ghost positions creates pressure, though Yan Xizhi warns that fighting over them is futile.
• Authority and influence: In South City, the Wang patriarch’s power can outweigh official rules, exposing the gap between formal institutions and private control.
• Dangerous wishes: The chapter introduces the Malicious Wish as a supernatural force whose apparent gifts come with devastating consequences.

Plot and key events

• Wang Jie confronts his uncle, Wang Chou, and threatens him with a knife, exposing the hostility within the Wang family.
• Gao Ming learns that Old Master Wang sent Wang Jie’s relatives to court him because of his role as founder of the Deadwater Forum. Gao Ming refuses to get involved in their family politics and says he is searching for Eerie Wish.
• Wang Jie reveals that his uncle’s family helped create Eerie Wish through sacrifices, though the Dream Ghost does not obey them. He offers Gao Ming a dossier and proposes teaming up to kill it.
• The dossier says Eerie Wish originated in the Old District from tens of thousands of identical wishes: “I wish Mom and Dad could stay with me forever.” Gao Ming realizes this is the wish he repeatedly made during his birthday deaths and rebirths in the Execution House.
• Wang Jie says Hanhai may be able to produce only seven Dream Ghosts, based on information from the General Investigation Bureau. Gao Ming suspects the Bureau may know of more than it has disclosed.

Character developments and interactions

• Wang Jie is shown as ruthless, openly violent, and fascinated by killing, yet he claims to have saved hundreds of people and leads South City’s Ghost Story Players. He speaks freely with Gao Ming and treats him as a trusted former classmate.
• Wang Chou is intimidated by Wang Jie and appears concerned about how Gao Ming might judge the Wang family’s role in Eerie Wish’s creation.
• Gao Ming remains uninterested in Wang family rivalries, but the report’s core wish deeply unsettles him, connecting Eerie Wish to his own past and suggesting his wish may have helped bring it into being.

Significant themes

• Family as a source of conflict: the Wang family’s succession struggle is driven by favoritism, greed, and competition for power.
• The cost of creating power: the sacrifices that produced Eerie Wish brought influence but also created a dangerous entity beyond its makers’ control.
• Wishes and unintended consequences: a deeply personal longing, repeated by many people—and perhaps by Gao Ming himself—may have become a supernatural threat.
• Hidden knowledge and suspicion: conflicting limits on the number of Dream Ghosts point to information being withheld by powerful institutions.