Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• The five contestants are teleported to separate parts of the abandoned Rich Benevolence Mall. On the third floor, Chao Tianxiang finds that the mall suppresses her soul-power perception and decides to escape through a window.
• A pitch-black, headless specter appears behind her and removes her head in an instant. Chao dies without seeing or understanding her attacker.
• The Sky Screen’s viewers witness the killing. Meng Shu is devastated but turns his attention to his granddaughter, Meng Yiran, who is still alive elsewhere in the mall.
• Bu Le’s companions identify the specter’s location and infer that it must approach its victims to kill. They relay this to Bu Le, who decides to attack it from a distance and capture it.
• The specter places Chao’s head on its own neck. Her ten-thousand-year Wisdom Soul Bone briefly shines, then is overwhelmed and corrupted by the specter’s paranormal power. The creature—now resembling Chao—turns and smiles eerily.

Character developments and interactions

• Chao Tianxiang responds cautiously to the mall’s danger, but her experience and strength cannot protect her from the specter.
• Meng Shu moves from grief and panic to urgent focus on protecting Meng Yiran and learning the specter’s rules.
• Yu Xiaogang loses composure and insists the earlier safety hints must be false. Tang Hao regards him with contempt, while Tang San feels ashamed of his former teacher.
• Bu Le shifts from fear to confidence after receiving his friends’ advice, seeing the specter as an opportunity to regain a path to godhood.
• E Kao and Tianya work together to pass along their interpretation of the threat.

Significant themes

• The limits of strength and knowledge: Even a powerful Soul Emperor is killed before she can react, and established rules offer little certainty.
• Fear, judgment, and overconfidence: Some characters panic or misread the danger, while Bu Le’s confidence may be premature.
• Corruption and transformation: The specter absorbs Chao’s soul bone and adopts her head, turning the victim into part of the horror.

Key plot points

• Meng Shu’s wife, Chao Tianxiang, is confirmed dead. The ghost has taken her head and uses her familiar face to deceive survivors.
• Meng Shu sends Meng Yiran a warning through the Sky Screen, telling her the message is genuine and that the ghost is wearing her grandmother’s head. Meng Yiran assumes the warning is a mental illusion, leaves her hiding place, and runs into the ghost’s black domain.
• Yang Jian arrives at Rich Benevolence Mall with Ning Rongrong. His ghost domain is strangely dismantled and misdirected by the black domain, leading him to suspect the ghost is intelligent. He reports the danger, but cannot reach Lin Cheng.
• Liu Xiaoyu searches Headquarters’ records and discovers that human-level intelligence in a ghost is associated with a Ghost Driver—a ghost that has consumed and taken over its handler’s consciousness. She urges Yang Jian to retreat.
• At the Paranormal Forum Tower, Lin Cheng meets Old Qin, an elderly man who warns that if the “thing” inside him awakens, Dachang City will be doomed.

Character developments and interactions

• Meng Shu is enraged and devastated by his wife’s death, then helplessly watches Meng Yiran misinterpret his warning.
• Meng Yiran shows determination and survival instinct, but her distrust of the message proves fatal: fear and incomplete information undermine her judgment.
• Yang Jian shifts from investigating the mall to recognizing a far more dangerous, seemingly intelligent enemy. He relies on Liu Xiaoyu for information and tries to contact Lin Cheng.
• Liu Xiaoyu moves from relaxed comfort at the Forum to urgent action, using her access to Headquarters’ database to warn Yang Jian.
• Lin Cheng and Old Qin meet on tense but familiar terms. Their banter masks the grave threat posed by whatever Old Qin carries within him.
• Yu Yuanzhen is restrained by the Second Elder, who argues that the clan must save its one Sky Screen hint for the most useful moment. Bibi Dong reacts coldly to the warning about the ghost.

Significant themes

• Information gaps and misjudgment: Meng Yiran rejects a true warning because she cannot verify its source.
• The horror of human-like intelligence: A ghost capable of planning and deception may be far more dangerous than an instinct-driven one.
• Loss of control: The ghost manipulates a victim’s body and appearance, while a Ghost Driver risks being consumed by the entity they control.
• Threats spreading beyond the immediate scene: The mall crisis coincides with Lin Cheng’s ominous encounter and the disruption of his ghost domain at the tower, suggesting danger is converging on Dachang City.

Key plot points and events

• At Rich Benevolence Mall, Bu Le takes a moving escalator to the second floor and encounters Hu Liena. When a ghost domain plunges the mall into darkness, he lies that the exit is downstairs, hoping to send her away so he can claim the opportunity on the third floor. Hu Liena sees through his greed but plays along, and Bu Le continues upward.
• On the first floor, Hu Liena finds Yang Jian and asks to join the Paranormal Forum, offering anything in return. Yang Jian doubts she can simply talk her way in. Ning Rongrong accuses Hu Liena of trying to use her charm; Hu Liena responds that she can contribute, unlike Ning Rongrong.
• Yang Jian’s Ghost Eye detects a person running from the second floor to the third before abruptly disappearing—the sign that the ghost has begun killing. He orders the women to be quiet and rushes off.
• At Paranormal Forum headquarters, Elder Qin confronts Lin Cheng over a deal made with Minister Cao and Wang Xiaoming. Headquarters says Lin Cheng gave incomplete information about Huanggang Village, where four elite ghost handlers subsequently disappeared. Elder Qin demands that Lin Cheng personally retrieve the Ghost Coffin and the ghost promised in the deal.
• Lin Cheng insists his services are costly. Elder Qin responds with a display of overwhelming supernatural power, declaring that he has slept too long to let young upstarts extort him.

Character developments and interactions

• Bu Le is shown as opportunistic and cowardly: he tries to manipulate Hu Liena rather than compete with her directly.
• Hu Liena pursues survival by seeking a place in the Paranormal Forum. Though she initially considers using her charm, Yang Jian’s Ghost Eye makes her fear that the attempt would fail—and be fatal. Her rivalry with Ning Rongrong quickly resurfaces.
• Ning Rongrong is openly jealous and protective of Yang Jian, warning him against Hu Liena’s charms.
• Yang Jian remains suspicious of newcomers but shifts immediately from confrontation to action when he senses a killing.
• Lin Cheng is confident and transactional, defending his earlier bargain with headquarters and demanding compensation for further work. Elder Qin, initially calm and courteous, reveals formidable power when challenged.

Significant themes

• Survival and self-interest: Characters seek advantage in a lethal world, whether through deception, alliances, or bargaining.
• Trust and manipulation: Bu Le’s lie and Hu Liena’s attempted negotiation show how uncertain motives complicate cooperation.
• Power and authority: Yang Jian commands immediate obedience, while Elder Qin reminds Lin Cheng that headquarters still has force behind its demands.
• The cost of incomplete knowledge: The missing ghost handlers show how dangerous partial information can be during a paranormal crisis.

Plot points and events

• Old Qin attempts to intimidate Lin Cheng into helping headquarters, cutting the lights and unleashing his supernatural presence.
• Lin Cheng responds with the Ghost Submarine’s deep-blue Ghost Domain, which swallows Old Qin’s power and spreads across the Paranormal Forum building. Inside it, Lin becomes intangible, so Old Qin’s lethal strike passes through him.
• Recognizing Lin’s strength, Old Qin abandons force and asks for Lin’s terms. Lin requests that Old Qin personally owe him a favor, which Old Qin accepts.
• Old Qin offers to deal with the incident in Dachang City, but Lin declines, judging the favor too valuable to spend on a minor problem. Old Qin then leaves.
• Once the Ghost Domain disappears, the delayed effect of Old Qin’s attack kills Lin. Seven seconds later, the Ghost Fish restores him—but erases his memory of those seven seconds. The Ghost Brain then restores the missing memories.
• Lin concludes that Old Qin’s ghost may be near revival and that resisting him required all three of Lin’s supernatural entities. He suspects headquarters has concealed the true extent of its losses at Huanggang Village.

Character development

• Lin Cheng demonstrates confidence and strategic restraint: he withstands Old Qin, negotiates a valuable personal favor, and refuses to waste it. Beneath that composure, however, his powers carry severe risks, and he remains wary of what headquarters is hiding.
• Old Qin shifts from threatening authority to cautious respect once his attack fails. He honors Lin’s demand for a favor, though his conduct leaves Lin questioning his motives and the information he has withheld.

Significant themes

• Power and leverage: A supernatural favor can be more valuable than money or objects, and strength determines who can negotiate on equal terms.
• The cost of survival: Lin’s intangibility protects him from attacks only temporarily; the avoided damage returns when his Ghost Domain ends.
• Memory and identity: The Ghost Fish’s reset saves Lin but erases recent memories, while the Ghost Brain restores them.
• Distrust and concealed truths: Lin suspects headquarters’ account of Huanggang Village is incomplete.

Character interactions

• Lin and Old Qin test one another’s power before reaching a wary agreement. Lin sets the terms; Old Qin accepts them and offers additional help, which Lin declines. Their exchange is outwardly composed but marked by mutual caution.

Plot points and events

• Lin Cheng suspects headquarters is concealing the true scale of its losses at Huanggang Village. He believes it wants him to retrieve the Ghost Coffin while using the Ghost Messenger to weaken the increasingly powerful Paranormal Forum.
• He resumes monitoring the Rich Benevolence Mall and reconnects with Liu Xiaoyu. She reports that the threat facing Yang Jian is a ghost formed when a ghost controller’s ghost took over his body, leaving it with both supernatural killing rules and human intelligence.
• Lin Cheng observes that a Soul Bone reacted to Paranormal Power and became something like a ghost’s Puzzle Piece. He considers whether Soul Bones could offer a new way to create Puzzle Pieces, but chooses not to help Yang Jian, believing the danger will give him useful experience.
• On the mall’s third floor, Bu Le encounters a figure he recognizes as Chao Tianxiang, the powerful “Snake Granny.” He nervously apologizes and tries to retreat, but the silent figure turns her unnaturally pale face toward him and begins approaching.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Cheng displays his distrust of headquarters and confidence in his own strength. He also treats Yang Jian’s predicament as a chance for him to gain experience rather than stepping in.
• Liu Xiaoyu urgently updates Lin Cheng using classified information accessed through his clearance.
• Bu Le shifts quickly from greed to fear when he thinks he has encountered a powerful senior. His polite retreat fails to prevent the figure from approaching.
• Yang Jian remains under threat at the mall, though the chapter shows him only through Lin Cheng’s surveillance feed.

Significant themes

• Institutional manipulation and power: Lin Cheng sees headquarters’ plans as an attempt to balance power by exploiting the Ghost Messenger.
• Supernatural adaptation and innovation: The Soul Bone’s transformation suggests that materials from another world might be repurposed as Puzzle Pieces.
• Risk as a path to growth: Lin Cheng deliberately allows Yang Jian to face danger so he can gain experience.
• The limits of caution: Bu Le tries to avoid conflict, but the apparent ghost does not respond to his deference.

Key plot points and events

• The Headless Paranormal Shadow, now using Snake Granny’s head, approaches Bu Le. It passes him without attacking, leading him to believe he has been spared.
• As Bu Le relaxes, the entity appears behind him and plucks off his head. Unable to cry out, he watches his headless body before the entity discards his head.
• Two men, E Kao and Tianya, regret using their one hint to warn Bu Le that the entity was on the third floor. They had not realized it could change heads, and their real disappointment is losing their chance to become gods.
• At Shrek Academy, Yu Xiaogang interprets Bu Le’s death as proof that the paranormal entities’ stated rules are false, and advises attacking or fleeing at once.
• Tang Hao, Bibi Dong, and Meng Shu instead focus on the entity’s movements. They independently notice that it kills only after getting behind its victims and suspect that being behind someone is its condition for killing.

Character developments and interactions

• Bu Le’s relief turns to terror when he discovers he has been decapitated; his mistaken confidence makes the entity’s attack especially cruel.
• E Kao and Tianya blame their own haste, but their regret is driven by self-interest rather than concern for Bu Le.
• Yu Xiaogang grows more self-assured as he presents a sweeping theory, despite evidence that attacking first has also led to deaths. Shrek’s teachers and students are uneasy but cannot immediately disprove him.
• Tang Hao dismisses Yu Xiaogang and quietly analyzes the scene. Bibi Dong reaches a similar conclusion, while Meng Shu connects the entity’s behavior to both Chao Tianxiang’s and Bu Le’s deaths, watching his granddaughter’s ongoing escape with concern.

Significant themes

• Misreading danger: Bu Le mistakes the entity’s passing him by for mercy, when it is positioning itself to kill.
• The danger of premature certainty: Yu Xiaogang turns limited evidence into a confident but questionable rule.
• Observation versus understanding: The experts identify a pattern, but do not grasp the entity’s full nature.
• Rules manipulated into traps: The chapter ends by revealing that the entity has a living person’s mind, allowing it to exploit and weaponize rigid rules rather than simply follow them.

Key plot points and events

• After Yang Jian leaves the mall lobby, Hu Liena uses her Bewitchment ability to persuade Ning Rongrong to leave the protected area with her. She plans to seize Rongrong’s Sheepskin Paper, which can predict the future.
• Rongrong is briefly entranced, but paranormal power lingering in her mutated black Soul Rings disrupts Hu Liena’s control. Remembering the paper’s warning to stay close to Yang Jian, Rongrong refuses and runs upstairs to find him.
• Hu Liena’s scheme fails. With the lobby’s red light gone and the darkness seemingly blocking her exit, she follows Rongrong upstairs, still intent on obtaining the paper.
• On the third floor, Yang Jian finds that a supernatural rule repeatedly cuts off his ghost domain whenever he expands it too far, preventing him from locating the entity.
• Hearing someone cry “Grandma!” from above, Yang Jian teleports to the fourth floor. There he sees Meng Yiran running toward Chao Tianxiang, who appears to be her loving, supposedly deceased grandmother—but Yang Jian’s Ghost Eye detects disturbing bluish-purple markings on the old woman’s face.

Character developments

• Ning Rongrong shows growing resolve and trust in Yang Jian. Though Hu Liena’s influence briefly affects her, her paranormal protection and remembered warning help her break free.
• Hu Liena reveals her willingness to manipulate Rongrong to obtain the Sheepskin Paper. After her plan fails, she adapts by pursuing Rongrong upstairs.
• Yang Jian continues investigating the supernatural threat despite being constrained by its rules, and responds immediately to a cry for help.
• Meng Yiran is overwhelmed with relief at seeing Chao Tianxiang, leaving her unable to recognize the apparent danger.

Significant themes

• Trust versus manipulation: Rongrong’s choice to follow the warning—and Yang Jian—thwarts Hu Liena’s deception.
• Paranormal influence and resistance: The same supernatural force that gives Rongrong unusual protection can interrupt ordinary soul-power control.
• Appearance versus reality: Chao Tianxiang looks affectionate to Meng Yiran, but Yang Jian’s vision suggests that something is wrong.
• Dangerous rules and limited control: Yang Jian’s power is restricted by the entity’s dismemberment rule, forcing him to act within narrow limits.

Character interactions

• Hu Liena approaches Rongrong with a gentle, protective façade, using Bewitchment to steer her toward an isolated opportunity to take the paper.
• Rongrong breaks free, rejects Hu Liena, and chooses to seek Yang Jian instead.
• Yang Jian arrives as Meng Yiran rushes toward Chao Tianxiang; the chapter ends before he can intervene or reveal what he has detected.

Plot points and events

• In Rich Benevolence Mall, Meng Yiran sees a figure wearing her grandmother Chao Tianxiang’s face and rushes toward her, unaware that it is a paranormal entity.
• Bibi Dong correctly deduces that the entity attacks from behind. She sends Hu Liena a private warning to protect her back, avoid relying on the Sheepskin Paper or attacking Yang Jian, and stay close to Ning Rongrong. The Sky Screen also makes the warning public.
• Yu Xiaogang mistakenly concludes that the entity is intelligent and that its rule is false; he tells Yu Tianheng to run from it. His bad advice uses up the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan’s chance to send a warning, provoking Yu Yuanzhen and the clan elders.
• Meng Shu tries to get the clan to warn his granddaughter, but learns the hint permission is already occupied. He collapses in despair as Meng Yiran approaches the disguised entity.
• Yang Jian arrives in time to pull Meng Yiran away, but the entity’s black haze dismantles his three-layer Ghost Domain. When he attacks with his Ghost Hand, Chao Tianxiang unexpectedly dodges, revealing combat awareness beyond that of an ordinary ghost.
• The entity launches a powerful paranormal attack at Yang Jian, showing no apparent concern for the usual risk of a ghost’s resurgence.

Character developments and interactions

• Bibi Dong demonstrates sharp deduction and acts decisively to protect Hu Liena.
• Yu Xiaogang makes a confident but incorrect interpretation, creating danger for Yu Tianheng and frustrating the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
• Yu Tianheng distrusts his uncle but, lacking other guidance, commits to following the warning.
• Meng Shu is powerless to help Meng Yiran, while Meng Yiran’s trust in her grandmother leaves her vulnerable.
• Yang Jian is decisive and forceful: he saves Meng Yiran without explaining himself, then directly confronts the entity. Its ability to evade him unsettles him.
• Chao Tianxiang’s disguised entity proves unusually capable, combining deception, supernatural power, and deliberate movement.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and misinformation: Correct deductions may save lives, while overconfident speculation can waste scarce resources and put others at risk.
• Trust and deception: The entity exploits Meng Yiran’s grief and affection by wearing her grandmother’s face.
• Limits of power: Yang Jian’s abilities do not guarantee control; the entity can dismantle his Ghost Domain and evade his attack.
• The cost of intervention: The Sky Screen’s limited hint permissions force clans and allies to compete over who receives vital information.

Key plot points and events

• Yang Jian uses his three-layer ghost domain to resist Chao Tianxiang’s dismembering attacks, while his ghost dream attacks her consciousness.
• A pack of fierce dogs overwhelms the gorilla-like soul beast within Chao Tianxiang’s mind. Badly wounded, she retreats into darkness with her ghost domain.
• The ghost dream’s departure disrupts the balance among Yang Jian’s paranormal powers, bringing him close to ghost resurgence. He suppresses it and considers the dangerous possibility of becoming inhuman to escape the threat.
• Yu Tianheng finds Yang Jian and asks to join the Paranormal Forum. Yang Jian neither accepts nor rejects him, saying they can discuss it if he survives the incident.
• On the mall’s Third Floor, Hu Liena confronts Ning Rongrong about the Sheepskin Paper. Ning realizes Hu had tried to lure her outside earlier to get it.
• The paper warns that Ning will die in the mall. It reveals that the injured Headless Paranormal Shadow needs a new source of consciousness, has chosen Hu Liena, and will attack her from behind. Afterward, it plans to complete its puzzle and kill Yang Jian; the warning predicts no survivors.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Jian proves capable of striking at an enemy’s consciousness, but his victory comes at the cost of worsening instability. He remains wary of joining the path to inhumanity, despite its promise of relief.
• Chao Tianxiang shows an unexpected capacity for self-preservation: rather than continue fighting, she retreats when her consciousness is attacked.
• Yu Tianheng reveals desperation and ambition by offering to prove his usefulness to Yang Jian.
• Ning Rongrong and Hu Liena distrust one another, but the Sheepskin Paper’s warning forces them to examine the danger together. Hu denies wanting the paper, while Ning recognizes her earlier deception.

Significant themes

• The cost of power: Yang Jian’s abilities may save him from immediate threats while pushing him toward resurgence.
• Humanity versus survival: Becoming inhuman might offer a way out, but at the price of losing emotions and identity.
• Uneasy cooperation and mistrust: Characters must work together even when they suspect one another.
• Foreknowledge and fatalism: The Sheepskin Paper predicts a deadly chain of events, leaving the characters to confront a seemingly inevitable outcome.

Key plot points

• The Sky Screen shows Ning Rongrong and Hu Liena trapped in the dark third floor of Rich Benevolence Mall. The Sheepskin Paper predicts that everyone will die, and Hu Liena realizes the supernatural entity is targeting her.
• The two initially decide to flee downstairs, but the Paper predicts they will both die in the first-floor lobby. Hu Liena recalls Bibi Dong’s warning that the entity attacks from behind, so they press their backs against a wall.
• Rongrong asks why the Paper’s earlier prediction—that she would die in three days—now seems to place her death much sooner. It replies that she was not beside Yang Jian.
• Hoping Yang Jian can protect them, they consider climbing to the fourth floor. The Paper warns that leaving the wall to reach the escalator will get Rongrong killed. It then reveals the crucial survival rule: the entity cannot harm someone whose back is fully against a wall. They decide to use the stairwell, avoiding the escalator.
• Once Rongrong puts the Paper away, a final, ominous message appears: “She has already begun to question me. As long as I keep her alive for three days, I can...” The sentence leaves the Paper’s motives unclear.
• On Douluo Continent, observers react with alarm and relief. Yu Xiaogang, whose advice to run had been contradicted by the Paper, refuses to admit he was wrong, while Flender tactfully urges him to think more carefully next time.

Character developments and interactions

• Ning Rongrong becomes unusually composed under pressure and spots the contradiction in the Paper’s predictions. She responds with compassion when Hu Liena begs for help, setting aside their rivalry.
• Hu Liena shifts from panic to desperate cooperation. She remembers Bibi Dong’s warning and uses it to protect them, then appeals to Rongrong for help reaching Yang Jian.
• Rongrong and Hu Liena move from sworn enemies to uneasy allies, united by their vulnerability in the mall.
• Yu Xiaogang doubles down rather than acknowledge his dangerous mistake. Flender tries to soften the embarrassment, while Tang Hao dismisses him with a sneer.
• Ning Fengzhi, Oscar, Bibi Dong, and Yu Yuanzhen watch anxiously from Douluo Continent. Bibi Dong recognizes that the Head Soul Bone she gave Hu Liena may have attracted the supernatural threat.

Significant themes

• Survival through observation: Understanding the entity’s rules—not simply fleeing—is essential.
• Trust and uncertainty: The Sheepskin Paper offers vital guidance, yet its final message suggests it may have its own agenda.
• Rivalry giving way to solidarity: Shared danger pushes Rongrong and Hu Liena to rely on each other.
• Pride versus accountability: Yu Xiaogang’s refusal to admit error contrasts with the chapter’s emphasis on learning from evidence.

Plot points and events

• On the third floor of Rich Benevolence Mall, Ning Rongrong and Hu Liena creep toward the stairwell, keeping their backs to the wall as the Sheepskin Paper warned.
• They meet someone who looks like Snake Granny Chao Tianxiang, who claims to have driven the apparition away and offers to lead them out. Ning Rongrong is relieved, but Hu Liena recognizes the deception: Chao Tianxiang is already dead.
• The false Chao Tianxiang drops her disguise and tries to drag Hu Liena away from the wall, apparently to expose her back and trigger a deadly rule.
• Hu Liena summons her martial soul and resists; Ning Rongrong boosts her strength with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. The apparition overpowers them and pulls Hu Liena away from the wall.
• As the apparition moves behind her, Hu Liena uses her Bewitchment skill, empowered by her Spirit Condensation Wisdom Skull, to attack the consciousness inside Chao Tianxiang’s Soul Bone.
• In the Ghost Dream, the lingering gorilla consciousness within the Soul Bone is momentarily distracted and then devoured by the Fierce Dogs. Chao Tianxiang’s Soul Bone goes dark, and the apparition loses control of its body.
• Hu Liena throws herself back against the wall and survives.

Character developments and interactions

• Hu Liena proves alert and decisive, trusting her teacher’s warning over the apparition’s reassuring appearance. Under extreme pressure, she uses her mental Soul Skill creatively and saves herself.
• Ning Rongrong initially relaxes at the sight of Chao Tianxiang, but quickly supports Hu Liena with a strength-enhancing boost once the danger is clear.
• The girls’ trust and cooperation are crucial: Hu Liena identifies the threat, while Ning Rongrong strengthens her resistance.
• Chao Tianxiang’s apparition exploits a convincing disguise and then resorts to brute force when exposed. Its dependence on the Soul Bone’s consciousness becomes its weakness.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: A familiar, comforting face conceals a lethal threat.
• Rules and survival: Staying against the wall is the girls’ only protection until Hu Liena is forcibly moved.
• Cooperation and quick thinking: Their combined abilities buy time for Hu Liena’s decisive counterattack.
• The mind as a battleground: A mental attack succeeds where physical strength cannot, turning the apparition’s own Soul Bone against it.

Plot points and events

• At Rich Benevolence Mall, Yang Jian’s Ghost Dream suppresses his overtaxed Ghost Eyes and devours the consciousness inside the Soul Bone fused to Chao Tianxiang. Yang Jian then discovers he has gained a weak paranormal ability: Splicing.
• He teleports Meng Yiran and Yu Tianheng to the third floor, where Hu Liena and Ning Rongrong are waiting beside the Headless Paranormal Shadow.
• Meng Yiran’s grief triggers the shadow’s killing rule. Yang Jian counters by making his Ghost Hand emerge from the entity and seize its own neck, immobilizing it. Chao Tianxiang’s head falls away, and Yang Jian seals the headless shadow in a gold bag. The mall’s supernatural darkness recedes.
• Confronted with how helpless their Soul powers are against paranormal threats, Hu Liena, Yu Tianheng, and Meng Yiran seek to join the Paranormal Forum. Yang Jian brings them to its headquarters.
• Lin Cheng says they must prove themselves through a mission before they can join. Yang Jian also tells him that he appears to have stolen the shadow’s paranormal power.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Jian shows greater control of paranormal forces and gains Splicing, though it is relatively weak. His focus remains practical: he contains the threat and leaves the newcomers’ recruitment to Lin Cheng.
• Meng Yiran accepts that the figure was not truly her grandmother and grieves her loss. Her turning away inadvertently activates the shadow’s rule, prompting Yang Jian to intervene.
• Hu Liena and Yu Tianheng abandon confidence in their own powers and openly seek survival through the Paranormal Forum. Meng Yiran’s silent resolve suggests she wants the same.
• Lin Cheng maintains authority over recruitment, insisting that newcomers earn their place rather than join automatically.

Significant themes

• Paranormal power versus conventional strength: Soul Rings and Soul Skills offer little protection against the entities’ rules.
• Survival through adaptation: Yang Jian’s unusual ability to steal or acquire paranormal powers may change how he confronts future threats.
• Grief amid danger: Meng Yiran’s mourning is genuine, but even an emotional response can trigger deadly consequences in this world.
• Worth must be proven: The Paranormal Forum offers refuge, but membership requires surviving a test.

Key plot points and events

• Yang Jian recounts stealing the Headless Paranormal Shadow’s power. Lin Cheng says there is no need to control the ghost itself, since its power is limited and has side effects.
• Yang Jian asks how to become a Different Kind. Lin Cheng implants memories showing a dangerous method involving the Paranormal Realm, the Ghost Rope, and forcing the Headless Shadow into dormancy. He warns Yang Jian that the extreme procedure may be unnecessary for him.
• Yang Jian questions whether Lin Cheng altered his memories to recruit him into the Paranormal Forum. Lin Cheng denies it, saying Yang Jian made his own choices. When asked why he chose Yang Jian, Lin Cheng jokingly replies, “Because you’re handsome.”
• Yang Jian tells four newcomers—Hu Liena, Meng Yiran, Yu Tianheng, and Ning Rongrong—that they must survive a mission the next day to earn a place in the Paranormal Forum.
• He shows them the Advanced Welfare Zone’s Ghost Cabinet, explaining that it grants wishes in exchange for demands. Those demands are unpredictable and can be deadly; fulfilling them leads to further, increasingly compulsory exchanges.
• The Sky Screen’s audience, including Bibi Dong, Tang San, and Yu Xiaogang, reacts with excitement at the prospect of wishes—until the danger of the cabinet’s bargain becomes clear.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Jian is wary of Lin Cheng and briefly doubts the authenticity of his memories, but accepts Lin Cheng’s explanation without resolving all his suspicions. He also takes a stern, unsentimental role in warning the newcomers.
• Lin Cheng offers Yang Jian knowledge while leaving the choice to him, presenting himself as helpful but still mysterious. His joking answer briefly undercuts the conversation’s tension.
• The four newcomers begin in fear and distress at the lethal expectations of this world. Once they hear the cabinet can grant wishes, each becomes tempted by what it might provide.
• Hu Liena considers wishing for the rank of Titled Douluo; Yu Tianheng thinks of restoring his clan and surpassing its predecessors; Meng Yiran hopes she might revive her grandmother; Ning Rongrong is frightened but fascinated.
• Bibi Dong, Tang San, and Yu Xiaogang likewise imagine using the cabinet to achieve their ambitions, showing how broadly its promise can captivate people.

Significant themes

• Power has a price: The Ghost Cabinet’s wishes are bound to unpredictable, potentially fatal obligations.
• Temptation and greed: The promise of bypassing years of effort makes even dangerous bargains seem worthwhile.
• Agency and trust: Yang Jian questions whether his choices were truly his own, while Lin Cheng insists he only provided information.
• Survival in a changed world: Becoming a Ghost Handler is portrayed not as simple advancement, but as entering a race against death.
  The chapter’s central horror is not merely that the Ghost Cabinet can kill, but that its promises make people eager to bargain with it.

Plot points and events

• In the Golden House, Hu Liena, Yu Tianheng, and Meng Yiran are tempted by the Ghost Cabinet’s promise to grant wishes. Yang Jian stops them, insisting that only someone who has completed a Forum mission may use it.
• Ning Rongrong is the only one eligible, having completed the Rich Benevolence Mall mission. She consults the Sheepskin Paper, which warns that she will die in three days and provides a carefully worded wish to avoid becoming a mindless Ghost Slave.
• Ning Rongrong asks the Cabinet for a dormant ghost that can absorb otherwise fatal attacks and balance with the paranormal power already inside her. The Cabinet gives her a featureless, bloodied Ghost Skin.
• The skin fuses into Ning Rongrong’s body, turning her pale and bringing out signs of lividity. Its power clashes with the force in her abdomen, but the Cabinet’s rules force the two to balance. Ning Rongrong gains control of her first ghost.
• The Cabinet then issues its price: within 24 hours, she must put a living person with soul power inside it. Ning Rongrong reads the demand with unnerving calm, while Hu Liena taunts her.

Character developments

• Ning Rongrong moves from fear and uncertainty to apparent emotional detachment after absorbing the Ghost Skin. She notices she can no longer feel ordinary fear or excitement, and her formerly spoiled, vulnerable demeanor gives way to a cold, calculating presence.
• Yang Jian maintains firm control of the situation, enforcing the Cabinet’s eligibility rule and warning the others away.
• Hu Liena reveals her ambition and envy, then takes pleasure in the price Ning Rongrong must pay—though Ning Rongrong’s changed gaze unsettles her.

Character interactions

• Yang Jian directly blocks Hu Liena, Yu Tianheng, and Meng Yiran from approaching the Cabinet, then grants Ning Rongrong permission to use it.
• Ning Rongrong ignores the others’ jealous attention and makes her wish alone.
• After the Cabinet’s demand appears, Hu Liena mocks Ning Rongrong, but Ning Rongrong responds only with a chilling stare and silence.

Significant themes

• Power comes at a cost: Ning Rongrong gains a means of survival, but must soon sacrifice a living soul-powered person.
• Dangerous loopholes and precise wording: Her wish is carefully phrased to prevent the Cabinet from twisting “staying alive” into a fate worse than death.
• The erosion of humanity: Ning Rongrong’s physical transformation and emotional numbness raise the question of whether controlling a ghost means losing part of oneself.

Key plot points and events

• The Sky Screen reveals the Ghost Cabinet’s next demand: within twenty-four hours, a living person with soul power must be placed inside it. The command horrifies observers across the continent, who recognize it as a demand for human sacrifice.
• Ning Rongrong appears to consider offering Hu Liena, Yu Tianheng, or Meng Yiran to the cabinet. Her coldness frightens them—but she then says she was joking and claims they have time to find another solution.
• Yang Jian recognizes that Ning Rongrong nearly gave in to the supernatural influence but does not call her out. He tells the group that her next task will arrive through her earpiece the following day, then leaves.
• After Yang Jian departs, Hu Liena confronts Rongrong about her alarming behavior. The group decides to explore Dachang City and find somewhere to stay.
• The modern city overwhelms the newcomers. Hu Liena uses her bewitchment ability to question a local man, who explains ordinary details of modern life but knows nothing about ghosts or the Paranormal Forum. The group realizes supernatural events are hidden from the public.

Character developments

• Ning Rongrong shows a disturbing change after taking control of the Ghost Skin: she is emotionally numb, frighteningly pragmatic, and briefly appears ready to sacrifice one of her companions. Her claim that she was joking leaves it unclear how much of her usual self remains.
• Yang Jian demonstrates a grim understanding of how supernatural power can erode a person’s humanity. His restraint suggests sympathy, or at least recognition, rather than simple approval.
• Hu Liena, Yu Tianheng, and Meng Yiran become wary of Rongrong, though they cooperate because they are all in danger.
• Ning Fengzhi and Chen Xin insist that Rongrong is too kind to commit such an act, revealing how little they understand her present condition.

Significant themes

• Moral erosion: Supernatural survival demands pressure people to abandon their values, potentially making them more frightening than the monsters they face.
• Fear and uncertainty: Rongrong’s “joke” does not reassure her companions; the possibility that she meant it exposes how fragile trust has become.
• Hidden supernatural reality: Ordinary citizens live unaware of the horrors concealed beneath the modern city’s normal appearance.

Character interactions

• Rongrong’s apparent threat turns her companions against her for a moment; her joking retreat does not restore their trust.
• Yang Jian silently observes Rongrong’s struggle and later gives the group practical instructions before leaving.
• Hu Liena confronts Rongrong, but chooses cooperation over a fight.
• Hu Liena uses her power to question a civilian, giving the group their first glimpse of the ordinary world—and confirming that its people know nothing of the paranormal.

Key plot points and events

• After the Sky Screen’s trial livestream ends, the Douluo Continent is left unsettled by what it revealed. Bibi Dong studies Spirit Hall’s notes on supernatural phenomena, while Tang San remains haunted by Yang Jian and Ning Rongrong.
• In Dachang City, Hu Liena exchanges Douluo-world jewelry for local cash. She and Yu Tianheng, Meng Yiran, and Ning Rongrong check into an upscale hotel, taking separate adjoining rooms for safety.
• At midnight, Ning Rongrong knocks on Meng Yiran’s door. Drawn to the warmth of living skin, she tells Meng Yiran she wants to “wear” hers.
• Meng Yiran attacks with her Snake Blade, but it pierces Ning Rongrong’s arm without causing blood or pain. Ning Rongrong explains that Soul Power is ineffective against the paranormal forces of this world.
• Using the Ghost Skin’s power, Ning Rongrong strips off Meng Yiran’s skin. Meng Yiran survives, barely, while Ning Rongrong experiences intense satisfaction—and horror at her growing desire to repeat the act.
• Ning Rongrong notices the paranormal disturbance inside her becoming more active, but the Ghost Skin contains it. She bundles the still-living Meng Yiran in a duvet and carries her away, saying the Ghost Cabinet’s deal can now be completed.

Character developments

• Ning Rongrong becomes increasingly changed by the Ghost Skin: she is deathly pale, resistant to ordinary injury, and driven by an urge to take others’ skin. Although frightened by what she has done, she is also becoming disturbingly accustomed to the supernatural.
• Meng Yiran shifts from fear and vulnerability to desperate self-defense, but her Soul Elder abilities prove useless against Ning Rongrong’s paranormal power.
• Hu Liena shows practical resourcefulness by quickly solving the group’s money problem, while the group’s choice of separate rooms reflects their continuing distrust and caution.
• Bibi Dong and Tang San react to the livestream’s revelations in different ways: Bibi Dong seeks to understand the threat, while Tang San is personally disturbed by its images.

Significant themes

• The limits of familiar power: Soul Skills and Soul Power offer no reliable defense against the supernatural.
• Corruption and loss of control: Ning Rongrong’s power brings pleasure alongside horror, raising the fear that she is becoming addicted to violence.
• Survival under uncertainty: Even mundane choices—finding money, securing rooms, responding to a knock—are shaped by the characters’ fear and mistrust.
• Body horror and identity: The skin-stealing attack turns the body into an object and underscores how completely the paranormal can violate personal boundaries.

Character interactions

• Hu Liena uses her Bewitchment to secure money and hotel rooms for the group, while Yu Tianheng questions how they will pay.
• Meng Yiran opens her door to Ning Rongrong out of familiarity, then tries to protect herself when Rongrong’s behavior becomes threatening.
• Ning Rongrong’s attack transforms their encounter from a late-night visit into a confrontation between former companions, ending with Meng Yiran taken away for the Ghost Cabinet’s deal.

Plot points and events

• Ning Rongrong is stopped outside a hotel by Yan Li, a Paranormal Forum Ghost Handler, who suspects her of causing trouble because she is carrying a bloodied duvet containing a corpse.
• She identifies herself as a Forum member and says Boss Lin assigned her the task. Yan Li immediately accepts her authority, offers her a ride to Headquarters, and promises to clean up the hotel.
• At Headquarters, Jiang Yan is already waiting to let Ning Rongrong through the locked golden door. Her presence suggests Lin Cheng knew about Ning Rongrong’s actions almost immediately.
• Ning Rongrong places Meng Yiran’s body inside the Ghost Cabinet, expecting a reward. Instead, the Cabinet gives her a photograph and a note ordering her to find the pictured Firewood Cleaver and return it within three days.
• Unable to identify the cleaver’s location, Ning Rongrong consults the Sheepskin Paper. It shows a failed future in which she dies, then hints that she may survive by proving her value to Yang Jian and accompanying him to a haunted place.
• Distrustful of the paper’s omissions and its repeated insistence that she stay close to Yang Jian, Ning Rongrong nevertheless decides survival leaves her little choice. She leaves Headquarters determined to make herself useful.

Character developments and interactions

• Ning Rongrong moves from relying on the Forum’s protection to confronting the danger of the Ghost Cabinet’s demands. She recognizes that the Sheepskin Paper may have its own agenda, but resolves to follow its lead for now.
• Yan Li shifts from threatening Ning Rongrong to treating her respectfully once she shows her Forum communicator and invokes Boss Lin. Their encounter demonstrates how membership overrides ordinary suspicion and authority.
• Jiang Yan casually opens the Headquarters door and implies that Ning Rongrong’s arrival was anticipated, intensifying Ning Rongrong’s sense that Lin Cheng is watching her.
• The Sheepskin Paper offers both a grim prediction and a possible survival strategy, but withholds crucial details, leaving its motives uncertain.

Significant themes

• Power and institutional protection: The Forum’s symbols and Boss Lin’s name are enough to command obedience and evade normal consequences.
• Survival at a cost: Ning Rongrong’s dealings with the Ghost Cabinet keep her alive only by imposing increasingly dangerous conditions.
• Surveillance and control: The Cabinet’s presence and the apparent speed of Lin Cheng’s knowledge make Ning Rongrong feel she has no privacy.
• Uncertain guidance: The Sheepskin Paper may help her survive, but its selective advice raises doubts about whether it can be trusted.

Plot points and events

• Ning Rongrong returns to the hotel and notices that its occupants are unconscious while men in black use a buzzing device. She recognizes it as a wide-area hypnotic tool, then goes to her room without interfering.
• The next morning, Hu Liena and Yu Tianheng report that Meng Yiran has vanished. Her room has been meticulously cleaned, with no signs of struggle. Rongrong privately realizes the Forum’s cleanup crew removed the evidence of the previous night’s events.
• Rongrong acts surprised and suggests Meng Yiran may have left after discovering a way to survive. Hu Liena and Yu Tianheng accept this explanation and drop their suspicions.
• Rongrong, Hu Liena, and Yu Tianheng head to the Paranormal Forum headquarters. A Forum operator, Liu Xiaoyu, tells Rongrong she is now a junior member and assigns her team to take down the Cockroach Club. Rongrong suspects the task may be more dangerous than it sounds.
• At the Forum tower, Yang Jian tells Lin Cheng he wants to visit Caesar Hotel to obtain a supernatural item. He boasts that his power could destroy a city in seconds. Lin Cheng lets him go and gives him ten Ghost Candles as backup, promising to intervene if Yang Jian survives long enough for him to arrive.

Character developments and interactions

• Ning Rongrong hides her role in Meng Yiran’s disappearance, maintaining a convincing façade while steering Hu Liena and Yu Tianheng away from suspicion. She also learns that Forum membership comes with strict limits on access to its leaders.
• Hu Liena and Yu Tianheng are alarmed by Meng Yiran’s disappearance but ultimately accept Rongrong’s explanation, having no clear evidence to accuse her.
• Yang Jian displays great confidence in his stabilized strength, while Lin Cheng responds with amused caution and equips him for the danger ahead.
• Liu Xiaoyu establishes herself as Rongrong’s official liaison and emphasizes the Forum’s chain of command.

Significant themes

• Secrecy and deception: Rongrong conceals what happened to Meng Yiran, and the spotless room helps preserve the lie.
• Power and hierarchy: Rongrong’s junior status prevents direct contact with Forum leadership, showing that influence depends on rank and strength.
• Confidence versus caution: Yang Jian’s bold claims contrast with Lin Cheng’s measured concern.
• Survival in a supernatural world: Characters treat alliances, assignments, and supernatural resources as necessary means of staying alive.

Key events

• Lin Cheng orders Yang Jian to give earpieces to Hu Liena and Yu Tianheng, then assigns the two outsiders to help destroy the Cockroach Club. He exploits a loophole in his promise to Wang Xiaoming: neither Soul Master has formally joined the Forum.
• Lin Cheng plans to visit Huanggang Village, while Yang Jian heads out on another dangerous mission.
• Ning Rongrong insists on accompanying Yang Jian, revealing that she has become a Ghost Handler and can use her supernatural ability to block one otherwise fatal attack. Yang Jian accepts her as a potential safeguard.
• Hu Liena and Yu Tianheng receive phones and learn that the Cockroach Club’s core members are Ghost Handlers, not ordinary people. Though frightened, they are told Forum members will support them.
• A blood-red Sky Screen announces that the fourth trial selection is beginning, with five people to be chosen.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Cheng shows his strategic, controlling side: he wants Dachang City under his influence but is careful not to alienate Headquarters. His amused confidence contrasts with the dangers he assigns others.
• Ning Rongrong moves from fear to desperate resolve. Convinced the Sheepskin Paper has manipulated her toward the Caesar Hotel and her foretold death, she offers her life as protection for Yang Jian.
• Yang Jian remains pragmatic and unsentimental. He initially rejects Ning Rongrong as a liability, then accepts her once her ability gives him a survival advantage.
• Hu Liena and Yu Tianheng discover how dangerous their assignment is and realize their Soul Master abilities may not help against supernatural threats. They reluctantly agree to proceed with Forum support.
• Jiang Yan reacts with hostility toward Hu Liena, who is confused but suppresses her objection in this unfamiliar world.

Significant themes

• Manipulation and constrained choice: Ning Rongrong believes the Sheepskin Paper has shaped her decisions so thoroughly that understanding its scheme cannot free her from it.
• Pragmatism in a lethal world: Yang Jian evaluates people by their usefulness to survival, while Ning Rongrong turns her life into a bargaining chip.
• Power and control: Lin Cheng seeks to monopolize influence in Dachang City, using loopholes and indirect agents to pursue his aims.
• The limits of familiar strength: The Soul Masters learn that their powers may be ineffective against supernatural entities, leaving them dependent on new allies and unfamiliar rules.

Summary

The Sky Screen gathers Spirit Hall’s elders and Shrek Academy’s members as everyone anticipates another round of selection. Oscar and Ma Hongjun hope to be chosen so they can benefit from Ning Rongrong’s growing influence in the paranormal world. Yu Xiaogang, exhausted but triumphant, claims he has finally worked out the rules of that world; Tang San privately remains unconvinced.
The new images show only Ning Rongrong, Hu Liena, and Yu Tianheng. Meng Yiran is missing, and her grandfather, Meng Shu, concludes that she has died. Remembering Ning Rongrong’s earlier behavior, he blames her and storms toward the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, vowing revenge—already bereaved of his wife, Snake Granny, and now believing he has lost his granddaughter as well.
The Sky Screen announces its fourth selection: Bai Chenxiang, Spirit Hall’s Yan, Prince Xue Beng, Zhao Wuji, and the enshrined elder Qian Jun. Their reactions range from Bai Chenxiang’s dread and Xue Beng’s panic to Yan’s eager determination to reach Hu Liena. Qian Jun dismisses the previous victims as weak and boasts that his strength will prevail. All five are transported to the paranormal world.
At the Caesar Hotel, Bai Chenxiang and Zhao Wuji appear in a decaying guest room with its door ajar. Bai Chenxiang, a lightly combat-capable agility Soul Master, looks to Zhao Wuji for protection. He refuses to take responsibility for her, saying he must look after himself, and leaves her behind. Too frightened to follow him into the seemingly endless corridor, she stays huddled in the room while Zhao Wuji advances alone through the unsettling hotel.

Character developments and interactions

• Meng Shu shifts from grief to rage, fixating on Ning Rongrong as the culprit and setting up a likely conflict with her sect.
• Bai Chenxiang is exposed as vulnerable and dependent on stronger allies in the unfamiliar danger.
• Zhao Wuji acts pragmatically and coldly, abandoning Bai Chenxiang rather than risking his own safety.
• Yan sees the selection as a chance to protect Hu Liena; Xue Beng responds with helpless terror, while Qian Jun enters overconfident.
• Oscar and Ma Hongjun treat the ordeal as a possible opportunity, contrasting with the fear and loss surrounding them.
• Yu Xiaogang’s confidence in his understanding of the paranormal world contrasts with Tang San’s skepticism.

Significant themes

The chapter emphasizes the brutality and uncertainty of survival in the paranormal world, where even established characters can disappear without explanation. Grief turns into suspicion and vengeance, while fear reveals who seeks protection and who refuses to offer it. It also contrasts arrogant confidence with the unknown dangers waiting ahead.