Chapter Summaries

Su Nian escaped a Maggot Willow that ambushed the convoy after survivors tried to take supplies from beneath it. He kept running with the fleeing group and gained 200 survival points, though the eerie creature pursued them onto the road.

• Su Nian recognized the roadside supplies and the trapped woman's cries as a likely trap, but a young man and several other survivors reached for the sacks.
• The willow dragged the young man and other survivors off the road, while a maggot-filled eerie creature emerged beneath the tree.
• Su Nian fled with the convoy as the creature and the willow moved onto the road, and Captain Yang Kang criticized the survivors' needless losses.
• After running for more than twenty minutes, Su Nian reached a flat road with the convoy and resolved to move closer to the Awakened and find a vehicle.
• Su Nian received 200 survival points for escaping the Maggot Willow's pursuit.

Su Nian tested his new survival system and used it to upgrade his attributes while catching up with the convoy. When two travelers tried to rob him, he killed them and discovered that killing people earned survival points.

• Su Nian learned that the system could upgrade anything and examined his attributes and survival points.
• Su Nian spent survival points to upgrade his Mind and Constitution while catching up with the group.
• A woman in yoga pants and a tattooed man tried to rob Su Nian, claiming the convoy's rules did not apply during the escape.
• Su Nian attacked and killed the tattooed man, then killed the woman when she begged for mercy.
• The system rewarded Su Nian with 100 survival points for each kill, and he claimed their tricycle.

Su Nian followed the convoy after killing two people and watched the survivors quarrel, grieve, and seek comfort during a rest stop. As the convoy counted those who had returned, Su Nian used his system to inspect the awakened person Gong Qing and discovered his Delusion Director talent.

• Su Nian searched the two corpses, took supplies and a gold necklace, and pedaled after the convoy.
• After the convoy stopped, Su Nian cooked noodles while a plump older woman begged for food and was refused by the other survivors.
• Survivors arrived grieving their dead, while Wang comforted one widow and rejected another before a balding man led the second woman into a makeshift tent.
• A young man wept over having pushed his grandmother toward the horrors while fleeing, and Su Nian watched the survivors to pass the time.
• Zhang Ping counted the survivors, and Su Nian inspected Gong Qing with his system, revealing his Delusion Director talent and stats.

Su Nian discovered his appraisal ability and learned that he could earn survival points by surviving each day. The convoy reached Happiness County, where Hao Ren prepared the survivors to search for supplies and revealed his extraordinary talent.

• Su Nian realized he could appraise people and abilities, while Gong Qing inspected the gray fog and Hao Ren saw a warning in his notebook not to go to Green Mountain Town.
• Hao Ren ordered the convoy onward, and Su Nian considered ways to earn survival points before receiving 100 points for surviving the day.
• The convoy slowed when a city appeared through the fog, and the survivors found a sign welcoming them to Happiness County.
• Hao Ren announced that the group would enter the city to search for supplies and explained the dangers, his porridge offer, and his demand for half of the supplies found.
• Su Nian appraised Hao Ren and discovered his high Constitution and Spirit, along with the Fated Hit talent at Sequence Eight.

Su Nian prepared to enter Happiness County, where he encountered the failed supernatural food Purple-Gold Rice and learned ways to conceal his living aura. He left the convoy to search for supplies, then fled after recognizing a dangerous ghost at a supermarket.

• A woman cooked Purple-Gold Rice porridge, which Su Nian identified as a filling food that could cause osteoporosis if eaten for too long.
• Su Nian ate to build his stamina while other travelers prepared to forage and protect their vehicles and supplies.
• A young man explained that soot could mask the living aura, so Su Nian and others smeared soot on themselves and wore burial shrouds before entering Happiness County.
• Su Nian rode into the silent city and found a supermarket with an unlocked door, where a granny invited him and other scavengers inside.
• Su Nian recognized the granny as Basket Granny, Ruin-Frame Ghost, turned away without answering her, and pedaled off as the system asked whether to upgrade her.

Su Nian fled through Happiness County as Basket-Carrying Granny and an unseen Hanged Ghost attacked survivors, while Hao Ren and Gong Qing mistook his survival instincts for the abilities of a Sequence Awakened. Basket-Carrying Granny pursued Su Nian, and the chapter ended with a familiar voice calling him home in his grandfather’s voice.

• Basket-Carrying Granny gave the scrawny young man a photograph, causing him to age into a corpse before she attacked the old woman and the two middle-aged women at the Family Portrait Supermarket.
• Su Nian escaped the street, gathered food and trade goods from another supermarket, and fled when an invisible rope seemed to hang over survivors’ heads.
• Basket-Carrying Granny appeared in Su Nian’s path, but he ignored her and upgraded his physique while Hao Ren and Gong Qing watched.
• Hao Ren and Gong Qing decided Su Nian was a Sequence Awakened who knew the Void Frame Ghost’s rules, then Gong Qing used a hospital-room door to restrain the Hanged Ghost as they pursued Su Nian.
• Basket-Carrying Granny followed Su Nian and spoke in his grandfather’s voice, inviting him home for pork-and-scallion dumplings.

Su Nian escaped the Basket-Carrying Granny with Hao Ren and Gong Qing, then fought her Ghost Minions and learned his dagger could kill them. After earning enough survival points to improve his talent, Su Nian chose to enhance it.

• Hao Ren and Gong Qing rescued Su Nian from the Basket-Carrying Granny and fled with him on a tricycle.
• Gong Qing used a Blazing Sunflower to burn the Granny’s basket, forcing her to retreat.
• The Hanged Ghost appeared after Hao Ren’s Red Candle burned out, and Hao Ren used Evil-Breaking Sea Salt to reveal it.
• Gong Qing and Su Nian fought the Granny’s Ghost Minions, and Su Nian discovered his family’s old butcher’s dagger could harm them.
• Su Nian killed two Ghost Minions, gained 1,000 survival points, and chose to enhance his talent.

Su Nian awakened the Blood Eye and escaped the Hanged Ghost with Hao Ren and Gong Qing, but the Night-Gazing Ghost and a fleeing survivor brought more danger. The trio reached the convoy, and Su Nian gained survival points for escaping both ghosts.

• Su Nian awakened the Blood Eye, which let him see spirits and supernatural traces, and used Evil-Breaking Sea Salt to keep the Hanged Ghost back as Gong Qing pedaled the tricycle.
• An explosion and the Night-Gazing Ghost’s cries forced the trio to hurry, while Hao Ren urged Gong Qing to pedal faster.
• A bald survivor fled toward the trio with the Cat Ghost behind him, but Hao Ren refused to stop; the man was killed by the Cat Ghost and the Hanged Ghost.
• Su Nian gave Hao Ren and Gong Qing cigarettes, and the trio reached the road near the convoy.
• Su Nian received 500 survival points for escaping the Night-Gazing Ghost and 750 for escaping the Hanged Ghost.

Su Nian discovered Basket-Carrying Granny had marked him, and Hao Ren used painful scraping therapy to remove it. After receiving a red candle, Su Nian set out alone for Happiness County to look for a vehicle.

• Su Nian heard his grandfather’s voice and realized Basket-Carrying Granny was still pursuing him; Gong Qing sensed her mark on Su Nian’s waist.
• Hao Ren and Gong Qing restrained the mark while Hao Ren scraped it away with a dog’s-blood-treated peachwood dagger, earning Su Nian 800 survival points for escaping the Void Frame Ghost.
• Hao Ren asked for his supplies back and found the Evil-Breaking Sea Salt jar empty.
• Gong Qing and Hao Ren prepared to search the town again, while Su Nian chose to go alone and look for a vehicle.
• Hao Ren lent Su Nian a red candle, and Su Nian gave Zhang Ping cigarettes before setting off toward Happiness County.

Su Nian upgraded his butcher’s knife into the Sin-Cleaving Butcher’s Knife and rode an electric scooter through the city, avoiding a woman afflicted by a Substitute Death Specter. He stopped at a paper effigy shop and discovered its door guardian was a wondrous item.

• Su Nian spent survival points to upgrade his butcher’s knife into the Sin-Cleaving Butcher’s Knife, an apocalypse spectral artifact that could absorb spectral energy and unleash a powerful strike.
• Su Nian took an electric scooter from a Yadea dealership and rode through the city.
• A woman afflicted by a Substitute Death Specter tried to get Su Nian to stay with her, but he saw strange marks on her and rode away.
• The woman transferred the specter’s killing rule to a middle-aged man after he agreed to die in her place, breaking the chain of deaths.
• Su Nian arrived at a paper effigy shop and touched its door guardian, identifying it as the Paper Effigy Door Guardian Talisman.

Su Nian took a Ford Raptor after killing three members of a convoy who had tried to claim it, then upgraded its anti-theft module to use fingerprint ignition. As the truck started, he spotted a sinister old woman watching him from the shadows.

• Su Nian found a Paper Effigy Door Guardian Talisman and continued uphill to a traffic island filled with wrecked cars.
• Su Nian chose a Ford Raptor, but Jiang Hu and his group confronted him and ordered their men to clean the truck.
• After Jiang Hu mistook Su Nian's blood-red eye for a threat and tried to smooth things over, Su Nian killed Jiang Hu, a man, and a woman while another man escaped.
• Su Nian loaded the group's weapons and supplies into the Raptor and spent 100 survival points to upgrade its anti-theft module to fingerprint ignition.
• Su Nian started the Raptor and saw a sinister old woman watching him from the shadows.

Su Nian escaped Basket-Carrying Granny by using Hao Ren’s red candle and Door God, then returned to the convoy’s staging area with supplies and fuel. As he prepared the Raptor, a furious buzz-cut man accused the woman who had previously tried to seduce Su Nian of doing something to him.

• Su Nian drove the Raptor through Happiness County while Basket-Carrying Granny attacked the candlelight, and he upgraded the candle with survival points.
• Su Nian escaped Basket-Carrying Granny’s pursuit and gained 800 survival points.
• Su Nian returned to the staging area, refused requests for rides, and loaded food, gasoline, and a tricycle into the Raptor.
• A buzz-cut man with ligature marks around his neck charged at the woman with Zhang Ping’s name on her lips, while Su Nian noticed the ligature marks on her wrists and ankles had disappeared.

Su Nian used the Sin-Cleaving Butcher's Knife to break the Scapegoat Ghost's killing rule and save the buzz-cut man, earning survival points. Later, he drove toward Happiness County as ghosts attacked fleeing survivors, and Basket-Carrying Granny noticed him.

• Zhang Ping asked Su Nian to use the Paper Effigy Filth-Illuminating Banner to check whether the buzz-cut man was marked by a ghost's killing rule.
• Su Nian found black lines on the banner, then used the Sin-Cleaving Butcher's Knife to remove the marks and break the Scapegoat Ghost's killing rule.
• Su Nian spared the buzz-cut man, who thanked him, while Zhang Ping warned Li Sheng and Liu Yan not to cause trouble for the convoy.
• Tang Zhou and Tang Chen discussed Su Nian's ability to break a killing rule as the convoy traveled toward Happiness County.
• Su Nian drove toward the road sign after hearing a cat's cry and saw Hao Ren and Gong Qing leading survivors as the Cat Ghost and Basket-Carrying Granny attacked them.
• Su Nian raised his middle finger at Basket-Carrying Granny, then set down his self-heating rice as if remembering something.

Su Nian risked the ghosts’ killing rules to draw them away from the survivors, then spent his Survival Points to enhance his talent. As the convoy prepared to leave, Su Yue sought his help for Fang Cheng, who was trapped under a ghost’s killing rule.

• Su Nian upgraded his Door Guardian Talisman and drove the Raptor toward the ghosts, prompting survivors and Tang Zhou to defend his apparent attempt to save people.
• Su Nian lured four ghosts into targeting him, used the Red Candle to survive their pursuit, and returned to the convoy as it treated the wounded and mourned the missing.
• Su Nian earned Survival Points for escaping four ghosts and enhanced his talent, gaining the ability to briefly lock onto ghosts and track their attacks.
• Hao Ren warned Su Nian that his ghost-luring stunt had been reckless, and Su Nian claimed he had acted because of his sequence ability.
• Su Yue begged Zhang Ping to save Fang Cheng, but Zhang Ping said ordinary medicine could not help him because he was under a ghost’s killing rule; Su Yue then looked toward Su Nian with hope.

Su Nian refused to treat Fang Cheng, who was afflicted by the Poison Wraith’s killing rule, and Su Yue chose to have him killed quickly before the rule could claim them both. After Fang Cheng was buried, Su Yue faced harassment from a tattooed man as the convoy prepared to move on.

• Su Yue begged Su Nian to save Fang Cheng, but Su Nian said he could not remove the Poison Wraith’s killing rule, and Hao Ren explained how it would progress.
• Hao Ren warned that the rule would soon make Su Yue hallucinate and transfer the poison to herself, while Su Nian offered to kill Fang Cheng quickly.
• Su Yue asked Su Nian to make it quick and promised Fang Cheng she would care for their child; Su Nian gained 100 Survival Points and killed him.
• Su Yue buried Fang Cheng with help from Li Wu, who defended her when a tattooed man propositioned and threatened her.
• The convoy set off an hour later, and Su Yue drove away in tears while Su Nian considered how to spend his Survival Points.

Su Nian spent Survival Points to raise his spirit and physique, then killed a former follower of Jiang Hu who begged for mercy. He met Wen Keyi, the convoy’s third awakened member, and learned that an A-rank specter had split her soul into two balanced personalities.

• Su Nian upgraded his spirit and physique to 11 and saved his remaining Survival Points for supplies and restoring his lifesaving items.
• A man who had followed Jiang Hu begged Su Nian to spare him, but Su Nian killed him and threw his body into the fog.
• Hao Ren and Gong Qing admired Su Nian’s Sin-Cleaving Butcher’s Knife and discussed its evil-cleansing property.
• Wen Keyi introduced herself to Su Nian, and Hao Ren explained that her alternate personality, Wen Kele, came from a soul split caused by the Two-Faced Monkey Specter.
• Su Nian saw black energy attached to Wen Keyi’s soul and asked Hao Ren to explain the specter ranks.

Hao Ren explained monster ranks, Sequence Transcendents, and the Beacon Tower network to Su Nian, including why the convoy had no Wayfinders. The chapter ended with Su Nian studying the map and learning that high-sequence Transcendents could enter the heart of the Endlands.

• Hao Ren explained that the convoy had faced B-rank Maggot Willows and described how monster strength was reflected in their killing rules.
• Hao Ren explained Sequence Transcendents and their Wayfinder, Miracle, and Other Sequences, while Gong Qing and Hao Ren praised Su Nian's Blood Eye and luck.
• Hao Ren gave Su Nian a fluorescent notebook containing the Oddity Compendium and monster information, and urged him to protect convoy survivors when he could.
• Hao Ren and Gong Qing told Su Nian that awakenings usually came after a long time on the road and that the convoy's Wayfinders had been sent to the Beacon Towers.
• Hao Ren explained how Zhang Jie had used the Ten-Thousand-Mile Beacon Tower to weaken the night fog and showed Su Nian a map of the expanding Beacon Tower network.
• Hao Ren said Beacon Towers gave people safer places to gather materials and advance their sequences, and pointed out the blood-red Endlands region that high-sequence Transcendents could enter.

Su Nian killed Liu Yan after recognizing her attempt to transfer the Substitute Death Specter's curse, and the survivors grew wary of him. Tang Chen then decided to approach Su Nian to ask how he had awakened.

• Su Nian listened as the awakened discussed the strange materials they needed to advance their sequences, then gave Li Sheng water and bread for helping clean the Raptor.
• Liu Yan approached Su Nian, but he confronted her about the Substitute Death Specter's killing rule and killed her when she tried to flee.
• Su Nian kicked Liu Yan's body into the gray mist, leaving the survivors divided over whether he was a savior or a bloodthirsty killer.
• Su Yue drank her porridge and believed Su Nian deserved no blame for her husband's death because he had tried to save the survivors.
• Tang Chen decided to ask Su Nian how he had awakened, and Tang Zhou reluctantly gave him her roasted corn to take along.

Su Nian explained how people could awaken as Sequence Transcendents and received a Voice-Transmitting Trumpet Flower from Wen Keyi. When the convoy stopped at a gas station, Su Nian spotted an anomaly already stalking the men sent to gather fuel.

• Su Nian told Tang Chen that a person could awaken through surviving long enough or developing an unbreakable conviction, and Tang Chen thanked him.
• Chen Le delivered Wen Keyi's Voice-Transmitting Trumpet Flower to Su Nian before the convoy set off again.
• At night, Hao Ren spotted a gas station and stopped with Su Nian while Gong Qing and Wen Keyi led the convoy onward.
• Hao Ren used a Severed-Finger Compass and a Ghost Bus License Plate to help his men safely prepare to pump gasoline.
• Su Nian warned Hao Ren that the anomaly had already acted, as a porcelain-faced man watched another man search a cabinet in the convenience store.

Su Nian and Hao Ren confronted the Lamp-Skin Wraith at the gas station, and Su Nian attacked it despite Hao Ren’s warning. Su Nian killed one sheet of wraith skin and two skeletons, but another sheet battered Hao Ren as a patch of darkness stirred nearby.

• Su Nian identified the Lamp-Skin Wraith and explained its killing rule to Hao Ren.
• Hao Ren used an Ink-Line Reel and a Road-Cutting Coin to protect the fuel truck and dispensers, while Su Nian chose to fight the wraith.
• Su Nian enhanced his physique, then kicked the disguised wraith into the convenience store and stabbed it with the Sin-Cleaving Butcher’s Knife.
• Su Nian cut apart one sheet of wraith skin while Hao Ren used insecticide and candle flame to burn it; the wraith skin absorbed the red corpses’ flesh and swelled.
• Su Nian killed one sheet of wraith skin and two skeletons, gaining Survival Points, while another sheet struck Hao Ren and a patch of darkness writhed in a corner.