Chapter Summaries

Yin Chao used the Long-Handled Lamp to break patients out of the sanatorium and rescue Luo Lingyue. The lamp triggered a gateway, pulling him and his companions into the B-rank instance Fortune-Blessed Village.

• Yin Chao told An Nian that he had been hiding among the patients, but Long Zang pulled her away and warned him to stay back.
• Yin Chao summoned Anna and used her blood, then his own, to light the Long-Handled Lamp, which concealed them from detection.
• Yin Chao freed patients in the special ward to cause a distraction while Anna broke their door locks.
• Yin Chao found Luo Lingyue and told her she was herself and that they were the same kind; she took his hand and left with him and Anna.
• The system detected an unknown energy fluctuation, and the Long-Handled Lamp opened a gateway that transported them into Fortune-Blessed Village.

Yin Chao and several players gathered in a dilapidated meeting room after arriving early in the Fortune-Blessed Village instance, which tasked them with discovering how Cheng Liangzi died without defying the monsters. The delayed start confirmed Yin Chao’s suspicion that the game world had made a mistake, and three more players arrived as the group introduced themselves.

• Yin Chao recognized Fang Tang, Xu Zhou, An Nian, and Long Zang when they entered the meeting room.
• Luo Lingyue joined Yin Chao and revealed herself to be the girl the others had been searching for, then refused Xu Zhou’s demand to explain how she had hidden from them.
• Mo Nan arrived and urged the players to keep the peace while they waited for the instance to begin.
• The system announced the Fortune-Blessed Village instance and its task of discovering the cause of Cheng Liangzi’s death.
• Yin Chao suggested that the game world had made a mistake, and the late arrival of Zhong Mingnan, Wang Buhui, and Lin Xue supported his conclusion.
• Fang Tang and the others introduced themselves to the newcomers, while Xu Zhou remained unfriendly and Fang Tang described him as gentle.

Yin Chao and the others explored Fortune-Blessed Village, where an old man’s violent episode and Li Meihe’s strange behavior hinted at a hidden story involving Cheng Liangzi. After settling in for the night, they heard an unsettling version of a childhood song carried on the wind.

• Yin Chao introduced himself to the group, and they entered the village with Mo Nan responding to Li Meihe’s welcome.
• Old Man Luo rushed from his house and grabbed Lin Xue, so Mo Nan broke his arms and Yin Chao asked him about Cheng Liangzi.
• The sky darkened as Li Meihe warned the group not to go outside after dark, then led them to her home and described Old Man Luo as a man with dementia.
• Li Meihe became frighteningly hostile when Zhong Mingnan asked about a photograph of two girls, then acted normal again and showed the group their rooms.
• Yin Chao heard a childhood song in the wind, but its final line had been changed.

Yin Chao and his companions let Li Meihe join them after she revealed that someone wanted to kill her. They investigated Old Man Luo’s gruesome death, and Yin Chao suspected Li Meihe knew who the killer was or might be the next target.

• Zhong Mingnan complained that the village’s all-night singing had kept him awake, while the others said it had soothed them.
• Yin Chao persuaded Li Meihe to reveal that someone wanted to kill her, then agreed to let her accompany him, Mo Nan, and Luo Lingyue.
• The system announced that Old Man Luo had been killed by the Ghost Monster, and the group hurried to his house.
• Yin Chao and Mo Nan examined Old Man Luo’s hanging corpse, and Mo Nan deduced that the killer had inflicted repeated wounds to torture him before death.
• Yin Chao found Li Meihe trembling outside and asked whether she knew who had killed Old Man Luo or was the killer’s next target.

Li Meihe recounted her friendship with Cheng Liangzi and her guilt over abandoning her after Liangzi became pregnant. Yin Chao experienced visions of Liangzi’s abuse and the birth of her child, then woke with a headache.

• Li Meihe told the players that Cheng Liangzi had been her childhood friend, and that she had run away after discovering Liangzi was pregnant.
• Zhong Mingnan blamed Old Man Luo for Liangzi’s pregnancy, and Lin Xue left because she felt unwell.
• Yin Chao questioned whether Li Meihe truly cherished the photo frame, then later dreamed of Liangzi’s past.
• Yin Chao saw Du Hong trick Liangzi into an abandoned warehouse, where a boy arrived and Liangzi sobbed inside.
• Yin Chao witnessed men, including Old Man Luo and his son, visiting Liangzi’s house, then saw Li Meihe enter and run out vomiting.
• Yin Chao saw Liangzi give birth and smile at her baby before waking with a headache.

Yin Chao and the others visited Du Hong, who confessed how she betrayed Liangzi as a teenager by leading her to Chen Wei and watching him abuse her. After apologizing in the sunlight, Du Hong collapsed and died.

• Yin Chao told Luo Lingyue that something about the instance felt different and that he did not want it to end yet.
• An Nian told Yin Chao that Du Hong had warned them not to trust Li Meihe and blamed Liangzi’s revenge for the village deaths.
• Yin Chao, Luo Lingyue, An Nian, Long Zang, and the others visited Du Hong, who recounted how she befriended Liangzi and led her to Chen Wei to test her boyfriend.
• Du Hong admitted she had hidden and watched while Chen Wei abused Liangzi, then opened her door to the sunlight and whispered an apology.
• Du Hong’s eyes bled and she collapsed; Long Zang told An Nian that Du Hong had stopped breathing.

Yin Chao exposed Li Meihe’s lies about her age and her relationship with Liangzi, forcing her to reveal the cruelty that led to Liangzi’s death. Li Meihe died before she could provide a way to resolve the village’s curse, leaving the players fearing they were doomed.

• After Du Hong died without explaining Liangzi’s death, Yin Chao realized Li Meihe’s apparent age contradicted the twenty-year timeline and identified her as the next lead.
• The group found Wang Buhui dead with his hands and feet severed and his tongue torn out, and Yin Chao began to suspect Lin Xue’s concerned behavior was an act.
• Yin Chao confronted Li Meihe with Du Hong’s age and Liangzi’s death date, causing Li Meihe to transform and attack him.
• Pinned down by Anna and Luo Lingyue, Li Meihe admitted she had bullied Liangzi, discovered her father abusing Liangzi, and later learned Liangzi had been pregnant.
• Li Meihe blamed Liangzi for cursing Fortune-Blessed Village, then lunged onto Luo Lingyue’s blade after Zhong Mingnan called the villagers demons.
• Xu Zhou cried that the players were doomed after the key NPC Li Meihe died.

Yin Chao discovered that Lin Xue was Cheng Meihe, the daughter of Cheng Liangzi, and learned that Fortune-Blessed Village was shaped by Cheng Meihe’s revenge. After leaving the instance, he encountered a lingering memory of Cheng Liangzi and learned how much she had loved children.

• As the false village collapsed into a graveyard, Yin Chao found Li Meihe’s headstone and discovered he could command the emerging skeletons.
• Lin Xue admitted she had no desire to kill Yin Chao, revealed her real name as Cheng Meihe, and disappeared after disclosing that Cheng Liangzi had died in childbirth.
• Yin Chao accepted the prompt to leave the instance, taking all other players with him.
• Yin Chao saw a memory of Cheng Liangzi singing and learned that Li Meihe had taught her the song incorrectly.
• Cheng Liangzi told Yin Chao that she loved children, and he recalled the meaning behind the name Grandma Cheng had given her.

Yin Chao returned from the B-rank instance and learned that other players had suffered severe losses, while Fang Tang confronted him over Lin Xue before collapsing. As Fang Tang lost consciousness, she remembered how she met Xu Zhou and the brutal life that had shaped him.

• Yin Chao returned to the Special Ward, where Luo Lingyue and Mo Nan lay exhausted, and Bai Xu's team carried them away for treatment.
• Bai Xu told Yin Chao that the patients had been moved and the Bai family had taken control of Fog Mountain Sanatorium.
• Moon Shadow told Yin Chao that Long Zang was seriously injured, An Nian had passed out, and Mad Dog had died; Yin Chao confirmed the instance was B-rank and story-driven.
• Fang Tang held a knife to Yin Chao's throat and accused him of knowing Lin Xue was the instance's real boss, but Yin Chao pushed her aside and left her to collapse.
• Fang Tang remembered Lin Xue killing her and Xu Zhou in the instance, then recalled meeting Xu Zhou as a girl and how he had been raised by casino enforcers and treated as a disposable fighter.

Fang Tang remembered how Xu Zhou saved her by taking all her injuries onto himself, leaving her alone in the sanatorium. Meanwhile, Yin Chao reunited with Liang Chen and Midnight, then teased Midnight by sending him a suggestive selfie and pretending it was meant for someone else.

• Xu Zhou introduced himself to Fang Tang after she helped him escape the gang, and the two left the police station together.
• Fang Tang woke alone in the sanatorium and realized Xu Zhou had used his reversal skill to take all her damage, perhaps sacrificing his life for her.
• Yin Chao learned from his advisor that he had to return to university, where Liang Chen soon found him and told him the Ares Guild had lost Mad Dog.
• Liang Chen brought Yin Chao and Midnight to a hot pot restaurant, where Midnight said he had beaten Liang Chen for offering him dog food.
• Yin Chao added Midnight on WeChat, sent him a mirror selfie, then claimed it was meant for someone else when Midnight asked who it was for.

Yin Chao joined the four major guilds’ leaders to discuss an oracle announcing a coming new god, and their disagreement over how to respond. After the other guilds left, Moon Shadow offered a prophecy that echoed a story Yin Chao remembered from Yin Rui, ending with the revelation that this was her first unprompted prophecy.

• Bai Yu brought Yin Chao to Bai Xu’s home, where representatives of the four major guilds had gathered.
• Bai Xu revealed an oracle predicting that a new god would soon be born and that the instances would reveal the answer.
• Moon Shadow warned that a new god could threaten humanity, while Moqi Xinzhi’s older brother argued that people should become the god’s devoted followers.
• The Wanqi and Ares Guild representatives left after expressing their positions, and Yin Chao proposed killing the new god before his birth.
• Moon Shadow suggested that a human might become a god and recited a prophecy that reminded Yin Chao of a story Yin Rui had told him.
• Moon Shadow said this was the first time she had delivered a prophecy without warning.

After the prophecy left Moon Shadow exhausted, Yin Chao comforted Bai Yu and returned home, where Midnight asked him for help with a possible haunting involving An Nian's classmate. Yin Chao agreed to investigate and left with Midnight, who was increasingly captivated by him.

• Yin Chao asked Bai Yu whether Bai Xu was all right, and Bai Yu explained that her brother always took on too much responsibility.
• Midnight pulled Yin Chao inside his home and asked him for a favor, then told him the Miracle Guild's investigation had revealed that people said Yin Chao's family was crazy because he could see nonhuman things.
• Yin Chao confirmed he could see them, and Midnight insisted that this did not make him crazy.
• Midnight told Yin Chao that An Nian's classmate had encountered something like a haunting, and Yin Chao agreed to look into it immediately.
• Yin Chao changed clothes while Midnight watched, teased him about hunters appearing as prey, and then set off with him.

Yin Chao stopped Aklight from disturbing Xiaoyu’s home, then agreed to accompany Luo Lingyue into an instance. When Yin Chao chose an S-rank instance, the plaza revealed a never-before-seen SS-rank instance.

• Yin Chao and Midnight stayed at Xiaoyu’s home, where Aklight’s loud music woke them during the night.
• Yin Chao scolded Aklight and stopped the music and wind, then explained that the shadow ghost was an old acquaintance who liked rap.
• After Luo Lingyue moved in with Yin Chao, she asked him to accompany her into an instance, and he agreed.
• Yin Chao and Luo Lingyue went to the crowded plaza, where Midnight joined them with the Miracle Guild squad.
• When Midnight asked what rank of instance he wanted, Yin Chao answered S-rank, and the screen revealed an unprecedented SS-rank instance and a cryptic message.

Yin Chao and Luo Lingyue entered the Bai Guild’s SS-rank instances alongside Bai Xu, and Yin Chao found himself in a medieval city for an instance called Curse. After meeting Bai Xu and learning about the Central Hall from a flower-selling boy, Yin Chao and Bai Xu headed there as the city’s residents stopped to pray.

• Moon Shadow entered an ordinary A-rank instance, while Midnight received a double-S instance for the Miracle Squad.
• Moqi Xinsi triggered a golden light for the Wanqi Guild, and Yin Chao, Luo Lingyue, and Bai Xu each triggered one for the Bai Guild.
• Yin Chao entered the SS-rank instance Curse, whose instructions told him to prevent a curse without defying the will of the ghost monsters.
• In a medieval-style city, Bai Xu blocked a blond stranger from approaching Yin Chao, who noticed two men watching them from an alley.
• A flower-selling boy gave Yin Chao a rose and mentioned a kind priest at the Central Hall, prompting Yin Chao and Bai Xu to head there.
• The Central Hall’s bell rang, and the city’s passersby stopped to pray for the priest to carry their prayers to heaven.

Yin Chao and the other players investigated the city’s possible curses and learned that all six travelers had arrived. After a plague broke out overnight, they discovered that Nun, one of the city’s preachers, had hanged herself at the orphanage.

• Moqi Xinsi proposed that the hymn, dusk, and blooming roses were possible curses, and counted the Priest and five preachers among those capable of casting one.
• A nun welcomed the six travelers and directed them to free lodging beside the orphanage.
• Yin Chao and Luo Lingyue visited the orphanage, where a drunk mistook Yin Chao for the Priest and sang a hymn before passing out.
• The players learned that a plague had killed many people overnight, and a bloodied nun announced that Nun had hanged herself.
• Yin Chao and the others found Nun’s body beneath the rose-covered arch as the orphanage nuns prayed without showing emotion.

Yin Chao entered the orphanage and discovered that the nuns cultivated roses with the blood of the children. After a boy offered himself to the vines, Yin Chao suspected the priest was Yin Rui and wondered whether she had intended for the children to die; the statue gave him no answer.

• Moqi Xinsi and the high school boy left to search elsewhere, while Yin Chao split from Bai Xu, Midnight, and Luo Lingyue to investigate the orphanage.
• Yin Chao found the boy who had given him a rose and persuaded him to sneak him through a hole in the vine-covered back gate.
• Yin Chao followed the boy inside and learned that the nuns had taken children to receive blessings in tubs of vines, where roses bloomed.
• The boy showed Yin Chao the children's graveyard and said he expected to join his dead friends, then prayed and offered his blood to the roses.
• Yin Chao tried to stop the boy, but the vines enveloped him and bloomed; Yin Chao suspected the priest was Yin Rui and wondered whether she had wanted this to happen.

Yin Chao and the others learned that the city’s religious leaders had sacrificed believers, then watched the people execute the Priest. The Priest’s severed head foretold the coming darkness, and Yin Chao declared that the curse had descended.

• Yin Chao found plague victims praying to the Priest’s statue and learned that the Deacon had killed himself after leaving a note confessing that he had sacrificed believers for the Priest.
• Yin Chao shared the Deacon’s confession with the others, who reported that the Archbishop, Pastor, and Father had also died by suicide, leaving the Priest as the last preacher.
• The maid told Yin Chao that if the Priest were executed, she would make everyone in the city die alongside the Priest after sunset.
• On the third day, the Priest danced alone at the Central Hall before the crowd captured and beheaded the Priest to avenge the sacrificed believers.
• The Priest’s severed head prophesied that darkness would descend, and Yin Chao said the curse had descended.

Yin Chao realized the instance had looped and warned the others that the Priest’s murder triggered the curse. He went to the Orphanage to stop the Head Nun, where a ghostly figure appeared on the stairs.

• Yin Chao lost consciousness as the hymn sounded after the Priest’s execution, then woke at the beginning of the instance with the nun greeting the six travelers.
• Yin Chao discovered that only he remembered the previous loop, and Midnight reasoned that their memories differed.
• Yin Chao told the group about the loop and the events leading to the curse, and they divided up to stop the missionaries and abduct the Priest.
• Yin Chao met the drunkard at the Orphanage, who recognized him and said his eyes looked like the Priest’s.
• Yin Chao entered the Orphanage and learned from the little boy that the Head Nun was probably praying in the main hall.
• A nun with her neck bent backward appeared at the stairway after the corridor candles went out.

Yin Chao used the Long-Handled Lamp to uncover the truth behind the Orphanage’s illusion and rescued a boy from the nuns. He and the boy found the Head Nun’s notebook, which revealed that blood-watered roses caused hallucinations and had spiraled out of control.

• Yin Chao awoke from a nightmare with the same wound he had received on his first visit to the Orphanage, and Anna told him the Long-Handled Lamp could reveal the truth within an illusion.
• Yin Chao lit the chipped Long-Handled Lamp with his blood and entered the Orphanage, where he found the nuns praying before the Deity Statue and a boy tied at its feet.
• Yin Chao freed the boy and watched the nuns devour a girl, then recover their flesh and offer blood to the vines, whereupon the roses bloomed.
• The boy told Yin Chao that scentless roses watered with blood could cause hallucinations, and they went upstairs to search the Head Nun’s room.
• Yin Chao and the boy found the Head Nun’s notebook, which described the forbidden roses, their intended use to ensnare the Priest, and their eventual mutation and loss of control.

Yin Chao watched the boy sacrifice himself to the Forbidden Flower, which burned and returned as white roses, while the head nun died. The players then confronted the Priest at Yin Rui’s execution, but her divine power stripped them of their abilities as the curse began again.

• The boy told Yin Chao that he knew how to break the Forbidden Flower’s spell and offered his blood as the Priest’s most devout follower.
• As the vines consumed the boy, he revealed that this was his one million three hundred fourteen thousand five hundred twentieth sacrifice, and the statue shed a tear as the roses burned.
• White roses bloomed from the charred vines, and someone at the orphanage announced that the head nun had hanged herself.
• The six players returned to the inn without completing their tasks, and Bai Xu revealed that the Priest had been chosen by the gods and wielded divine power.
• Midnight led the players to the execution platform to stop Yin Rui’s beheading, but the Priest suppressed their powers as the crowd began to shout.
• Yin Chao stared at Yin Rui as blood stained the white rose on her chest and the curse descended.