Chapter Summaries

Bo Yi fought off Jiang Xiaofeng, but a waterlogged, many-armed woman emerged through the roof and attacked him. As Bo Yi stumbled while dodging her, someone caught him in a powerful embrace.

• Jiang Xiaofeng bit Bo Yi’s shoulder, but Bo Yi kicked him away and dislocated both his arms when he attacked again.
• Bo Yi heard dripping and saw a pale face squeezing through the hole in the roof.
• Bo Yi fled the room as the soaked, many-armed woman emerged and turned toward him.
• The woman lunged at Bo Yi, whose injured shoulder and a loose stone made him fall backward.
• Someone caught Bo Yi in a broad, powerful embrace.

Bo Yi confronted Mitian after realizing he had disguised himself as the homeowner, then accepted his offer to heal the bite wound on his shoulder. Mitian covered the wound with black mist after licking it, leaving Bo Yi demanding an explanation.

• Mitian caught Bo Yi as he stumbled, and Bo Yi recognized him as the one who had broken the stones over the well.
• Mitian revealed that the woman had run away and watched Bo Yi inspect the courtyard for clues.
• Mitian offered to heal Bo Yi's shoulder wound, and Bo Yi reluctantly agreed.
• Mitian licked Bo Yi's bite wound, then used black mist to cover it when Bo Yi pulled him away.
• Mitian claimed he had been disinfecting the wound, and Bo Yi demanded an explanation.

Bo Yi followed the strange fish climbing the village walls and entered a house they avoided, where he found memorial portraits and a family photograph. As he prepared to inspect the photograph, a drop of water fell onto it.

• Mitian healed Bo Yi’s wound and restored his torn clothes before Bo Yi left to investigate.
• Bo Yi discovered fish with humanlike arms crawling up the village walls and examined how their appendages helped them climb.
• Bo Yi followed the fish to an empty house whose walls they avoided and entered it.
• Bo Yi found memorial portraits of a dead couple and a dusty photograph showing three figures.
• A drop of water landed on the photograph, and Bo Yi looked up.

Bo Yi fought the many-armed woman, escaped with a lock of her water-soaked hair, and discovered that it repelled the black fish. He returned to find Bo Yu surrounded by players who had gone mad, and suspected the hair might be connected to their strange behavior.

• Bo Yi used the photograph to distract the woman, fought her until dawn, and escaped with a lock of her hair.
• Bo Yi discovered that droplets from the hair made the black fish scatter.
• Bo Yi heard fighting at the players’ house and returned to find Bo Yu wounded and surrounded by hungry, apparently mad players, including Xu Xiaoyang and Du Yong.
• Bo Yi wondered why Xu Xiaoyang and Du Yong had left during Jiang Xiaofeng’s earlier rampage, then looked at the hair in his hand.

Bo Yu struggled against the fish attacking the courtyard and the other players, until Bo Yi arrived carrying something that frightened them. Bo Yu recognized the presence from the object he held as belonging to the Lady's Temple.

• Bo Yu woke to find Chu Youyi eating a bloody fish as black fish crawled across the courtyard walls.
• Bo Yu fled outside, where the fish attacked her and the neighboring players emerged holding half-eaten fish.
• Bo Yi entered the courtyard, and the other players scattered away from him.
• Bo Yu kept her distance from the hair Bo Yi held and said its terrifying presence felt familiar.
• Bo Yu remembered feeling the same presence at the Lady's Temple.

Bo Yi used the black hair from the Lady's Temple to restore the players' sanity, then led a group toward the Back Mountain graveyard while three players stayed behind to distract the villagers. The group reached the graveyard, where Bo Yi proposed searching for the mound with the freshest soil.

• Bo Yi and Bo Yu tied strands of black hair around the players' wrists, and the hair helped them regain their senses.
• Bo Yi recorded the results as Bo Yu explained how the players had been driven to eat fish and blood, prompting them to purge and tend to their injuries.
• Bo Yi arranged for Bo Yu, Jiang Xiaofeng, and Xu Xiaoyang to tamper with the courtyard well and draw the villagers away while the others went to the Back Mountain.
• Bo Yi led the group past returning villagers, and they captured and hid the last guards before entering the Back Mountain.
• The group found that the graveyard was covered in identical-looking earth mounds, and Bo Yi suggested looking for the mound with the freshest soil.

Bo Yi and the others dug up graves on Back Mountain, finding mostly armless corpses and two coffins that had been opened and emptied. While searching one last grave, Bo Yi fell into a hidden hole and found himself surrounded by pale faces.

• Bo Yi led the players to dig up a recently buried coffin, but its old, undersized body and armless corpse did not match the funeral procession they had seen.
• The players opened several more coffins and found an armless corpse in each, until Chu Youyi uncovered two coffins with signs of prior opening.
• Bo Yi and Song Yunyi searched farther into Back Mountain for coffins that had been opened before, while the other players covered their tracks.
• Bo Yi vanished near a rock face after stepping into a hidden hole, and Song Yunyi called out for him.
• Bo Yi landed in a leaf-covered underground space and saw pale faces covering the walls.

Bo Yi discovered a hidden cave where the villagers stored coffins containing severed arms and bodies, including a couple he recognized. He realized the arms in the Lady’s Temple outnumbered those in the cave and was left questioning where the extra arms came from.

• Bo Yi fell into a hidden cave and recognized a coffin from the villagers’ funeral procession by the nail holes in its surface.
• Song Yunyi found Bo Yi at the cave opening and went to look for a way to get him out.
• Bo Yi opened a coffin and found severed arms floating in clear liquid, then discovered other coffins held arms and a body missing its arms.
• Bo Yi recognized a couple’s bodies in neighboring coffins and inferred that the cave was the guarded graveyard where the villagers stored severed arms.
• Bo Yi compared the cave’s arms with those behind the Maiden Statue and realized there were too many arms in the temple.

Bo Yi hid in the cave as villagers brought in coffins and revealed they were preparing to worship the Lady. As the villagers left, Song Yunyi found the opening and called down to Bo Yi, saying he had found something long enough to pull him out.

• Bo Yi heard a crowd approaching through the cave wall and hid behind a coffin.
• Villagers entered carrying coffins, and Bo Yi recognized them as the people who had been living in the village.
• The villagers complained that outsiders had opened wells in their homes, while Bo Yi realized they had been hiding the coffins in the cave.
• The village chief arrived and told the villagers that preparations were nearly complete and they would soon worship the Lady.
• The villagers chanted about the Lady protecting them, placed the coffins in the cave, and then left.
• Song Yunyi appeared at the opening and called to Bo Yi, saying he had found something long enough to get him out.

Bo Yi hid among the cave’s coffins while the villagers searched for him, then tried to avoid a wet arm crawling out of one of the coffins. After a noise revealed his position, someone grabbed him from behind and pulled him into their arms.

• Song Yunyi startled the villagers at the cave entrance, and Bo Yi realized they were searching for him.
• Bo Yi circled the coffins to evade a villager until the village chief called off the search and led the villagers toward the exit.
• A wet arm emerged from an opened coffin and followed Bo Yi as he tried to move away from it.
• Bo Yi accidentally struck a coffin, revealing his hiding place; the villagers extinguished their torches and approached him.
• As Bo Yi prepared to fight, someone covered his mouth and dragged him into their arms.

Bo Yi and Mitian hid together from the villagers searching the cave, while Mitian repeatedly teased him and nearly gave away their hiding place. After the villagers left, Bo Yi attacked Mitian, then tore his funeral clothes to show him what indecent behavior meant.

• Mitian covered Bo Yi's mouth and pulled him into a tight embrace as the villagers searched the cave.
• Bo Yi hid behind a rock wall with Mitian and stopped him from making noise while a villager came close to discovering them.
• The village chief called off the search, and the villagers left the cave without finding Bo Yi and Mitian.
• Bo Yi slapped Mitian away and attacked him with a weapon, while Mitian teased him and let him strike.
• Bo Yi hooked his blade into Mitian's funeral clothes and tore them further, calling the act indecent behavior.

Bo Yi discovered that the scars on Mitian’s borrowed body revealed the village’s secret, while the coffins began to stir as their occupants woke. After Mitian flew him out of the cave, Bo Yi returned to find the other players imprisoned and the villagers searching for him, then noticed a gap in their patrol route.

• Bo Yi examined the scars on Mitian’s current body and realized they were the village’s secret.
• The coffins began thudding as the arms inside stirred, and Bo Yi understood that the villagers had been trying to leave before their occupants woke.
• Mitian carried Bo Yi out through the cave opening, and Bo Yi thanked him before heading back down the mountain.
• Bo Yi found villagers patrolling the village and learned that every other player had been locked inside a guarded house under the pretext of preparing for the ceremony to worship the Lady.
• Bo Yi noticed that the villagers’ patrol route seemed to be missing a section.

Bo Yi was attacked by the dripping-wet figure hiding beneath the sofa and escaped the house. He led her to a building, where he stopped and smiled, having lured her to his destination.

• Bo Yi entered the house the villagers avoided and fell asleep on the sofa.
• Bo Yi woke in the dark with his clothes and the sofa soaked, then searched the room for the dripping-wet figure.
• Bo Yi found the figure beneath the sofa, but she wrapped his ankle in her hair and tried to drag him underneath it.
• Bo Yi cut the hair, escaped the house, and ran toward a building with the figure close behind him.
• Bo Yi stopped at the building and smiled, having successfully lured the figure there.

Bo Yi discovered that the woman seemed unable to enter the Lady's Temple, but she fled toward a distant disturbance before he could investigate. He found Song Yunyi and the other players fighting stronger fish, whose attacks suggested the protective effect of the hair bracelets had weakened.

• Bo Yi watched the woman recoil from the Lady's Temple and suspected she wanted to enter but could not.
• The woman heard a noise, abandoned her pursuit of Bo Yi, and vanished into the darkness.
• Bo Yi followed the wet marks to the house where Song Yunyi and the other players were fighting fish.
• Song Yunyi explained that villagers had recaptured him and locked him up, then disappeared when night fell as the fish swarmed the house.
• Bo Yi noticed the fish had grown stronger and were attacking players despite the hair tied around their wrists.

Bo Yi discovered that wrapping the fish’s severed arms in white cloth stopped them from crumbling and regenerating, then found records explaining the village’s worship of the Maiden. While searching the village chief’s house, he uncovered a hollow space beneath an empty shrine.

• Bo Yi told the players to sever the fish’s arms, then realized the fish grew new ones when the detached arms crumbled.
• Bo Yi recalled the villagers wrapping arms in white cloth and told the players to find cloth to preserve the severed limbs.
• Bo Yi searched the village chief’s house for cloth and found the Village Records, which said the villagers sacrificed arms to the Maiden, a many-armed deity.
• Bo Yi found an empty household shrine and wondered whether the villagers had stopped worshipping at home because of a being from the cave.
• Bo Yi tapped the shrine’s dark center and heard a hollow echo, discovering an empty space beneath it.

Bo Yi found a hidden notebook that recorded how Old Li’s daughter exposed the village’s corpse desecration, was imprisoned, and died after the villagers performed a ritual to appease the Goddess. The notebook described the curse spreading through the village, and ended with its writer warning that the reader would be next.

• Bo Yi opened the shrine and found an old notebook hidden inside.
• The village chief’s entries revealed that villagers tried to attach parts taken from Old Li and his wife’s bodies to their daughter, who reported them to the police.
• The villagers captured Old Li’s daughter, performed a ritual after the Goddess’s statue was damaged, and hid her in a well, where she died.
• Wang Wu and the old granny later died, while fish appeared in the wells and villagers began dying in similar ways.
• The village chief recorded that the dead daughter haunted the village and that the Goddess’s protection failed to stop the deaths.
• The notebook’s final entries became frantic and ended by warning that the reader would be next.

After discovering the villagers’ persecution of Miss Li, Bo Yi devised a way to trigger the village’s worship ceremony by retrieving two coffins from Back Mountain. The rain began as predicted, and Bo Yi revealed that it was caused by the Lady’s appearance, not the other way around.

• The players read Miss Li’s notebook and learned why the villagers despised college students, while Bo Yi decided they would worship the Lady by their own means.
• Bo Yu, Chu Youyi, and Jiang Xiaofeng pretended that the other players had been eaten by monsters to conceal their plan from a villager.
• Bo Yu and the others saw rain begin and prepared the white-cloth-wrapped objects hidden beneath the bed.
• Bo Yi led players carrying two coffins from a cave on Back Mountain after explaining that retrieving them would bring rain and force the villagers to worship early.
• Bo Yi told Song Yunyi that the rain did not make the Lady appear; the Lady’s appearance made it rain.

Bo Yi used the coffins of the Maiden’s parents to draw her out, then learned that the villagers planned to make the players into living sacrifices. He led the players in worshipping the Maiden outside the temple as the villagers performed their own ritual, and the approaching figure rose and screamed.

• Bo Yi explained that the coffins contained the Maiden’s parents and that the villagers had likely planned to use the players as living sacrifices.
• Bo Yi and the others reached the Lady’s Temple and found Bo Yu and two other players tied up while the villagers prepared for worship.
• Bo Yi’s companions brought supplies, and he laid out the fish’s severed arms as offerings before pouring water over them to restore them.
• Bo Yi led the players through the worship ritual outside the temple while the villagers performed theirs inside.
• As both groups bowed, the figure in the rain rose upright and let out a piercing scream.

Bo Yi completed a ritual that turned the approaching figure into a second Lady, allowing her to enter the temple. As the players fought the villagers inside, the villagers retreated toward the original Lady for protection.

• The village chief urged the terrified villagers to offer sacrifices to the Lady, while Bo Yi finished arranging the arms he had prepared.
• Bo Yi completed the worship ritual, and the arms began crawling toward the approaching figure.
• Four players entered the chaotic temple and found Bo Yu and the others dodging villagers while disrupting the offerings.
• The village chief ordered the villagers to seize the players, and the four rushed in to help them fight.
• Bo Yi welcomed the figure into the temple, where she appeared with a huge shadow and many arms.
• Bo Yi told the village chief that the figure could enter because she was a Lady now, too.

Bo Yi realized the temple recognized two Ladies, even though the instance needed only one. As the new Lady fought the villagers and the Maiden Statue revived them with extra arms, the players still had no mission completion, leaving Bo Yi to figure out which Lady the instance required.

• The new Lady entered the temple as the villagers cowered, and Bo Yi spoke to her about the suffering she had endured.
• A red-eyed figure in the shadows questioned whether Bo Yi was describing the new Lady or himself, then vanished when the other players arrived.
• Jiang Xiaofeng told Bo Yi that the players had worshipped the Lady but their mission remained incomplete.
• The new Lady fought villagers whose movements had turned mechanical, while the Maiden Statue healed them and caused extra arms to grow from their backs.
• Bo Yi concluded that the instance had two Ladies but required only one.