Chapter Summaries

Yin Chao reunited with Jin Zi and learned the Blood Sacrifice Cross’s resurrection lore, including the danger of the White Thread Worms and how the ritual revived the person someone loved most. Jin Zi revealed that Zhao Qing knew he was dead and had accepted it, and the chapter ended with the lovers embracing.

• Yin Chao met Jin Zi and Zhao Qing, then watched Zhao Qing explain their situation to the newly arrived Zhong Mingnan without telling him he was dead.
• Jin Zi explained that the Blood Sacrifice Cross was tied to an ancient resurrection ritual and warned Yin Chao that White Thread Worms in the school’s blood river could devour a person from within.
• Jin Zi said the cross revived the person someone felt most strongly for when the parallel worlds merged, prompting Yin Chao to awkwardly reassure Bai Xu that he was faithful.
• Jin Zi told Yin Chao that Zhao Qing had calmly accepted his death and that she had long hoped the worlds would merge so she could see him again.
• Jin Zi and Zhao Qing embraced as Yin Chao watched them together.

Jin Zi led the group out of the basement to search for supplies, warning them that monsters could interfere with their abilities. After Bai Xu helped Yin Chao climb out, Yin Chao admired his eyes, leaving Bai Xu flustered and cherishing the moment despite his painful longing.

• Jin Zi handed out stockpiled weapons and explained that players' abilities could suddenly disappear.
• Jin Zi led the group out of the basement one by one, and they brought Zhong Mingnan along after discussing whether to leave him behind.
• Bai Xu lifted Yin Chao out of the basement and set him on the ground.
• Yin Chao silently told Bai Xu that his eyes were beautiful, and Bai Xu looked away with his heart racing.

Yin Chao used a loophole in the rules to make the awakened Wax Statue Monsters kill one another, saving himself, Bai Xu, and Jin Zi. After Jin Zi killed the last survivor, Yin Chao explained that he had written a rule making the monsters attack anything that made a sound.

• The group discovered thousands of wax figures, and Zhong Mingnan accidentally broke a stone, triggering cracks in the statues.
• Zhong Mingnan ran back toward the basement and was killed when a monster crushed his head.
• The awakened monsters killed Zhao Qing, while Jin Zi, Yin Chao, and Bai Xu stayed still to avoid drawing their attention.
• Yin Chao used his black scroll to make the monsters attack anything that made a sound, causing them to fight each other.
• Jin Zi killed the last wounded monster, and Yin Chao explained the loophole he had used.

After Zhao Qing died again, Jin Zi revealed that she had watched him die countless times and was the only one who remembered. Yin Chao returned to the town and searched its archive hall, where he uncovered a hidden document envelope and discovered an eye watching him from beneath the floorboards.

• Jin Zi buried Zhao Qing's head while Bai Xu helped, and Yin Chao asked whether this had happened before.
• Jin Zi remembered that she had watched Zhao Qing die countless times, though he never remembered his deaths.
• An alarm sounded, and the decaying world fell apart as Yin Chao returned to the town beneath the dull yellow sky.
• Yin Chao searched the dusty archive hall for information about the volcano, Teacher Andy, and Elena, and found a locked hidden compartment.
• Yin Chao broke the padlock and opened the compartment, then used the Long-Handled Lamp to examine its taped document envelope.
• A photograph slipped out, and Yin Chao saw a bloodshot black eye watching him through a gap in the floorboards.

Yin Chao searched the church founders’ files and found clues suggesting Elena’s mother believed she had five daughters, while a photograph showed five girls with their faces blacked out. He uncovered the basement and came face-to-face with a disfigured, limbless monster wearing a student tag bearing the name Ai Linna, or Elena.

• Yin Chao examined a photograph of five girls with blacked-out faces and searched the biographies in the document envelope.
• He read that Elena’s mother often claimed to have five daughters, though Elena was her only daughter known to the town.
• Yin Chao took the files and lamp and explored the basement, where he found a hidden floorboard and opened it.
• A disfigured, limbless monster emerged from the basement, and Yin Chao read the name Ai Linna on its student tag.

Yin Chao uncovered clues that Elena’s parents may have been killed in a ritual seeking resurrection and spoke with her about why he had come. Elena revealed her memories of a black-robed congregation sacrificing someone on a cross to obtain immortality.

• Yin Chao followed Elena into the basement and saw the bedroom, family photograph, and keepsakes her parents had left behind.
• Yin Chao connected the Church’s resurrection belief to a document identifying Elena’s father as the Church’s founder in Small Town.
• Yin Chao extinguished the Long-Handled Lamp and addressed Elena, who returned to her human form and asked whether he wanted to resurrect someone.
• Yin Chao told Elena he had come to save a friend trapped in the Instance, and she began to cry.
• Yin Chao entered Elena’s memories and saw himself bound to a cross as black-robed worshippers prayed for true immortality.

Yin Chao woke in a prison cell inside Elena’s body and met Ois, a boy who looked like a younger Midnight and had suffered a similar ritual. After the skeletal man took Ois away, Yin Chao saw his own face reflected in the water, revealing that he appeared as a curly-haired little girl.

• Yin Chao regained consciousness in a dark cell, injured and still experiencing Elena’s memories from within her body.
• A black-robed boy named Ois brought food and told Yin Chao they were both pure bodies sought by the Church.
• The skeletal middle-aged man arrived, frightened Ois, and remarked that Yin Chao was unusually unafraid after the ritual.
• The man left with Ois, and Yin Chao examined the water and saw his own face as a curly-haired little girl.

Yin Chao gained Ois's trust and escaped his cell, then hid in Ois's basement room while Church members searched for him. After they left, Yin Chao found that Ois had been kicked but was unharmed.

• Yin Chao realized the world was an Instance rift based on memories and that Ois was a recreated version of Midnight.
• Ois freed Yin Chao by bending the iron bars and carried him to a hidden basement room at the school, which served as a Church base.
• Ois told Yin Chao that he had been found at a volcano crater and pointed out that it lay east of Small Town.
• Ois hid Yin Chao beneath his bed when Ms. Andy and several others came searching for the escaped girl.
• After the searchers left, Yin Chao crawled out and asked whether Ois had been hurt; Ois said they had only kicked him.

Yin Chao urged Ois to learn to defend himself, then killed Rocco after catching him confessing his love for Ois. Ois watched Yin Chao’s violent act with unexpected fascination.

• Yin Chao told Ois to learn to fight back and protect himself, and Ois tried to comfort him when he became emotional.
• Yin Chao waited alone in the basement and wondered whether Little Luo and the others had fallen into a crack in the Instance.
• Rocco entered Ois’s room, and Yin Chao kicked him, then struck him as Rocco declared his love for Ois.
• Ois returned with food, and Yin Chao asked whether Rocco had treated him inappropriately; Ois nodded uncertainly.
• Yin Chao fashioned a sharp point from a wooden plank and drove it through Rocco’s chest as Ois watched, captivated.

Ois hid Rocco’s corpse in a classroom wall and spent two days with Yin Chao in the basement. On the third morning, the Church exposed Ois for hiding Yin Chao and seized him, leaving him frightened and asking whether he was useless.

• Ois sealed Rocco’s corpse inside a broken classroom wall and carried Yin Chao back to the basement.
• Ois and Yin Chao spent two peaceful days together, and Ois asked whether Midnight was handsome.
• At the Church assembly, Ois watched a blond boy be bound to the cross as a sacrifice and refused to recite the prayer.
• The Church’s leader accused Ois of hiding Yin Chao, and Andy sent several people to search the basement.
• The leader paralyzed Ois, who was bound and thrown forward; when Yin Chao spoke to him, Ois admitted he was scared and asked whether he was useless.

Yin Chao revealed his adult form, killed the cultists, and destroyed the cross as the volcano threatened to erupt. He set off with Ois to end the crisis, while Ois feared Yin Chao would leave him behind.

• Yin Chao freed himself from the crowd with the black scroll, transformed into his adult form, and told Ois he was a boy.
• Yin Chao used the scroll to summon a knife and killed the believers who attacked them, while Ois rescued the blond boy.
• The chairman tried to clean blood from the ritual array, then died after the cross turned upside down and began to tremble.
• Ois spotted ash covering Small Town and warned that the volcano was going to erupt, so Yin Chao kicked down the wall and cross.
• Yin Chao asked Ois to take him to the volcano, and Ois worried that ending everything meant Yin Chao would leave him.

Yin Chao and Ois encountered a white-haired woman at the volcano, where she attacked Yin Chao after he claimed he had killed the Peach Blossom Immortal. Shang Yi and Yin Rui rescued him, and he later dreamed of Elena bound to a cross as four versions of her argued over how to save her.

• Yin Chao and Ois reached the volcano where Ois had been found, and a white-haired woman appeared through the swirling ash.
• The white-haired woman asked Yin Chao about the Peach Blossom Immortal, and he said he had burned her to death.
• The white-haired woman seized Yin Chao by the throat while Ois tried to intervene and was repeatedly thrown back.
• Shang Yi arrived with Yin Rui, drove off the white-haired woman, and caught Yin Chao as he collapsed.
• Yin Chao dreamed of Elena bound to a cross while Alinka, Elena Mei, Elena Si, and Elena Shi appeared as separate versions of her.
• Alinka tried to free Elena, but the cross burned her, and Elena Shi suggested the captors might release Elena the next day.

Yin Chao witnessed Shalia’s terror over seeing multiple Elenas, then learned that the Chairman had planned to drive her mad with a powder. The vision ended with the Chairman preparing to carry out a larger plan in the name of his Lord, while Yin Chao reconsidered his conclusions.

• Yin Chao saw Shalia tell Louis that she could see and hear several Elenas calling her Mommy.
• Shalia soothed the crying Elena, while Louis worried about his wife’s nightly terror.
• Louis left Elena with a neighbor and sought help from the Chairman at the school auditorium.
• A brown-haired woman reported that Louis and Shalia were dead, and the Chairman said it was time to draw in the net.
• The brown-haired woman sniffed the powder the Chairman had scattered, and Yin Chao realized his earlier conclusions were wrong.

Yin Chao witnessed the memories behind Salia, Elena, and Small Town, including the Church’s plot to manipulate Salia and capture Elena as a vessel for its Lord. After Elena died in the ritual, the Church leader killed Andy and revived her with ritual blood, prompting the townspeople to drink it in celebration.

• A white-robed old man warned Salia that her imagined creations could become real and urged her to control her power.
• The Church arrived in Small Town, and Andy secretly drugged Salia’s milk and later her café drinks.
• Elena was born, her parents died in an accident, and the townspeople shunned her before the Church captured her.
• As Elena died on the cross, she recalled her father’s warning about the four supposed Ailins and wished the Church members eternal torment.
• The leader killed Andy, poured ritual blood into her mouth, and revived her as the townspeople celebrated and drank from the blood pool.

Yin Chao dreamed of the president and the believers dying after their ritual summoned horrors, then woke injured with Yin Rui and Ois beside him. Yin Rui explained that Ois was connected to Midnight like Yin Chao’s hair was part of his body, leaving Yin Chao with a clue about their relationship.

• Andy collapsed as blood vessels spread across her face, and the believers panicked when ash and monsters surrounded the school.
• Four versions of Elena appeared in the assembly hall while the fleeing believers were killed outside.
• The girls forced the president to his knees, and he died after defiling the ritual array with his blood.
• Yin Chao woke from the dream with a splitting headache and found Yin Rui watching over him and Ois sitting nearby.
• Yin Rui told Yin Chao that Ois’s connection to Midnight was like the connection between Yin Chao and his hair.

Yin Rui told Yin Chao how Magnolia and Peach Blossom began as Twin Flowers in a dying world, then attacked Shang Yi while she was away. After Shang Yi was injured, Yin Rui hunted them across worlds, and Yin Chao learned that the Peach Blossom Demon he killed in the previous Instance was one of them.

• Shang Yi fed Yin Rui soup while Ois brought Yin Chao a bowl and wiped his mouth.
• Yin Rui explained that Twin Flowers were two blossoms growing together on one branch and said Magnolia and Peach Blossom had once been such a pair.
• Yin Rui recounted finding the flowers in a world of extreme heat and cold, where she and Shang Yi watched them grow.
• While Yin Rui was away, the Twin Flowers tried to devour Shang Yi and caused him a minor injury.
• Yin Rui said she had tracked the Twin Flowers across worlds, then confirmed that Yin Chao had killed Peach Blossom in the previous Instance.

Yin Chao learned that Elena had trapped the players to preserve the world, and Yin Rui said only he could bring them out. After Elena pointed toward an empty street and disappeared, Yin Chao and Ois found themselves watching a vision of Moon Shadow at an amusement park.

• Yin Rui explained that the gifted child Elena had created the parallel world and trapped the players, and she told Yin Chao that only he could free them.
• Yin Rui and Shang Yi vanished as sirens sounded, leaving Yin Chao and Ois in the empty Small Town.
• 028 appeared, panicked at seeing Ois, and ran away before Yin Chao and Ois set off to look for the players.
• Yin Chao found Elena crouching beside the street, named her, and asked where the players were; she pointed behind them and then vanished.
• Yin Chao and Ois turned to find a bustling amusement park where Moon Shadow playfully teased a man whose back was turned to them.

Yin Chao realized Elena had inherited Shalia’s advanced gift, creating a world that was both illusory and real. He learned Midnight had chosen to remain Ois rather than lose himself, and they continued toward Moon Shadow and Bai Tan until they reached an amusement park.

• Yin Chao was bumped by a pedestrian and realized the city around him was a real world created through an advanced illusion.
• Yin Chao recalled the warning in Shalia’s memories and concluded Elena had inherited her gift.
• Midnight admitted the Supreme God had offered him greater power if he became Midnight, but he had refused because it would mean losing himself.
• Midnight revealed he had hidden the choice because he feared Yin Chao might care for Ois and be hurt by the transformation.
• Yin Chao told Midnight to look at his own face, and Midnight recognized how closely it resembled Ois.
• Yin Chao and Midnight headed toward Moon Shadow and Bai Tan and arrived at an enormous amusement park.

Yin Chao helped Moon Shadow leave her illusion, where he saw an enigmatic version of Bai Tan disappear into the crowd. He was then pulled into a new world and met a young Moqi Xinsi, who was the only person able to see him.

• Yin Chao called out to Moon Shadow and convinced her to leave the amusement park illusion with him.
• Before they exited, Yin Chao saw the illusion's Bai Tan turn toward them with a sorrowful, blessing-like expression, then vanish into the crowd.
• Back in Small Town, Moon Shadow warned that the next lost one would not allow uninvited visitors, but Yin Chao disappeared moments later.
• Yin Chao found himself in a new world facing a well-dressed child who resembled Moqi Xinsi.
• The child warned Yin Chao that guards were approaching, but the adults who arrived ignored Yin Chao, confirming that only the child could see him.

Yin Chao took Moqi Xinsi through a massacre as the boy searched for his little brother, Moqi Xinzhi. After the armed men tried to kill another witness, Yin Chao stepped out of the Barrier to confront them.

• Moqi Xinsi told Yin Chao that his little brother, Moqi Xinzhi, was still outside, so Yin Chao lit the Long-Handled Lamp and carried him toward the hall.
• Moqi Xinsi recognized the three armed men as acquaintances and saw that his mother and father had been killed.
• When a cough revealed another witness, the bearded man and his companions fired at the sound, but the Long-Handled Lamp's glow absorbed the bullets.
• Yin Chao handed Moqi Xinsi the lamp, stepped out of the Barrier, and told the bearded man that dead men did not need to know who he was.