Chapter Summaries

Xu Ye joined Lü Xiao Dao, Guan Ze, and Silent Father at the Seventh Psychiatric Hospital to investigate the mission and identify the Black Key holder. Their exploration of the girls' dormitory revealed that the building's distortion depended on how many people entered, and Xu Ye found that firearms could not be used there.

• Xu Ye arrived at the hospital and used simulations to identify Silent Father as the Black Key holder, while learning that killing him would fail the mission.
• Guan Ze, Lü Xiao Dao, Silent Father, and Xu Ye introduced themselves and discussed their past visits and the mission's rules.
• Xu Ye warned the group that the hospital's space had warped, and Silent Father led them toward the girls' dormitory.
• Bloody footprints appeared as all four entered the dormitory, but vanished when they retreated; Xu Ye concluded the distortion increased with the number of people inside.
• Xu Ye fired at Lü Xiao Dao to test the area and discovered that the bullet disappeared, suggesting firearms could not be used there.

Guan Ze investigated the Girls' Dormitory and encountered a violent Aberrant mother and her mutilated baby, forcing him to flee. After Xu Ye healed him, the group split up to search the hospital buildings for the source of the contamination.

• Guan Ze entered the Girls' Dormitory alone with a camera and a Taboo Object compass, which led him to Room 403.
• A girl arrived with a bloodied baby, then stabbed it repeatedly; when she noticed Guan Ze beneath the bed, she attacked him and screamed, destroying the computer feed.
• Guan Ze escaped with a wound, and Xu Ye used [Basic Healing] to treat him.
• Silent Fatherly Love chose the Girls' Dormitory, and Xu Ye secretly attached a Human Skin with an ear to his calf.
• Lü Xiao Dao went to the Cafeteria, Guan Ze chose the Outpatient and Inpatient Departments, and Xu Ye went to the Boys' Dormitory.

Xu Ye encountered a Crimson Blood Corpse in the boys’ dormitory and followed the sound of running water to a bathroom, where he startled a boy with extra eyes. In the girls’ dormitory, Silent Father found a newspaper describing the curse surrounding the sealed tenth floor.

• Xu Ye rode the elevator to the tenth floor, where a Crimson Blood Corpse attacked him and then escaped after biting off its own arms.
• Xu Ye found a heap of eyeballs in the corridor and sent his detached eye and arm toward the bathroom to investigate the running water.
• Xu Ye saw a schoolboy washing his face in the bathroom, and the boy turned around to reveal an extra pair of eyes and screamed that Xu Ye was a ghost.
• Silent Father searched room 403 in the girls’ dormitory, found no sign of the girl, and read a newspaper about Shao Qiang’s death and the killings linked to the tenth floor.

Xu Ye learned that Shao Qiang had become an Aberrant after being falsely accused, surveilled, and overwhelmed by his mother’s watchful love. When Xu Ye believed him, Shao Qiang’s aberration stopped and he died, but a scream from Silent Father’s side signaled another crisis.

• Xu Ye wounded the eye in the ceiling, then listened as Shao Qiang described being framed for theft, bullied, and watched by his mother.
• Shao Qiang revealed that he had killed himself, then gouged out the eyes of Wang Hao, their homeroom teacher, and his mother after returning as an Aberrant.
• Shao Qiang erupted into a level 3 aberration covered in eyes, and Xu Ye calmed him by saying he believed him.
• Shao Qiang’s eyes fell away, and he died in pieces before Xu Ye could take his hand.
• Xu Ye reflected to Bandit Lord that compassion could reach even the darkest places, then heard a scream through the ear he had left on Silent Father.

Silent Father found his daughter Nono and confronted the aberrant baby that had taken hold of her, but Xu Ye intervened and killed them both. Afterward, Xu Ye told Silent Father that the man who had harmed Nono was Jason, now a member of the Federation Council, leaving Silent Father with a new target for revenge.

• Silent Father entered the Girls' Dormitory and found Nono, who believed he had come to visit her, while he held the baby wrapped in a sheet.
• The baby revealed the abuse it had suffered, and Nono transformed after Silent Father saw it, attacking him as the baby joined her.
• Xu Ye rescued Silent Father and attacked the baby, realizing it was the aberrant while Nono had been infected.
• Xu Ye killed Nono and the baby, then told Silent Father that Jason had hurt Nono and now belonged to the Federation Council.
• Silent Father stopped sobbing and showed a vicious gleam after learning Jason's name.

Xu Ye investigated the Inpatient Department after learning that the hospital’s main mission involved finding objects tied to the five elements and triggering them with spiritual qi. He uncovered a diary and a statue linked to the Blood Ancestor, then froze when Bandit Lord warned him it was the entity’s human form.

• Silent Father revealed that the dormitory missions were extras and that the real mission involved stopping a mental plague at the psychiatric hospital by activating objects tied to metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
• Xu Ye received a disturbing warning from his heart, then divided the group’s assignments and went to investigate the Inpatient Department.
• Bandit Lord sensed something familiar on the third floor, where Xu Ye found a notebook describing a patient’s transformation amid blood mist and pleas to be found.
• Xu Ye uncovered a veiled female bust beneath a bedsheet and recognized it as the likely earth element object.
• Bandit Lord identified the bust as the Blood Ancestor’s human form, and Xu Ye’s limbs stiffened as he stared at it.

Xu Ye destroyed the Blood Ancestor statue and freed the notebook’s owner, then went to check on Lü Xiao Dao in the Cafeteria. There, Lü Xiao Dao triggered a replay of a girl climbing into a boiling iron pot.

• Xu Ye activated the Blood Ancestor statue and nearly succumbed to its beauty until Alice used Wang Han’s [Ugliness] to break its influence.
• Xu Ye destroyed the statue with Flame Explosion Talismans and discovered the notebook’s owner’s head inside it.
• The girl’s head transformed into a level-two Aberrant, and Xu Ye used [Soul-Seizing] to send her after Kang Ao and his companions for revenge.
• Xu Ye contacted Silent Fatherly Love, learned the others were unreachable, and headed to the Cafeteria to check on Lü Xiao Dao.
• Lü Xiao Dao triggered a mission replay in which a girl in a hospital gown climbed into a boiling iron pot.

Lü Xiao Dao faced a ghostly kitchen loop and a Big Black Rat with a girl's face, then survived its attack by somehow killing it. Xu Ye arrived after the danger had passed and continued toward the library, while Lü Xiao Dao wondered if he had a hidden talent.

• Lü Xiao Dao witnessed hallucinations of a girl in an iron pot and rats in the cafeteria kitchen, then heard the girl's song after the visions faded.
• Lü Xiao Dao found himself trapped in the kitchen and discovered that a Big Black Rat with a girl's face was attacking him.
• The Big Black Rat disarmed and wounded Lü Xiao Dao, who called for help before the girl recognized that Mosaic had blurred what he saw.
• Xu Ye and Alice sensed Lü Xiao Dao's distress and headed toward the cafeteria, but Lü Xiao Dao stopped calling and claimed over the radio that he had defeated an aberrated tiger.
• Xu Ye continued toward the library, while Lü Xiao Dao found the rat sliced in half and speculated that a hidden talent had awakened.

Xu Ye searched the abandoned library for a hidden presence and found Chen Mu, who recounted how his mother became a Flying Corpse after he sealed her inside a brick house. Chen Mu transformed into a Vampire Zombie empowered by the Rune Demon and attacked Xu Ye, leaving the fight underway.

• Xu Ye explored the library with his tentacles and, following Bandit Lord's lead, found a black-covered book titled "On the Origins of Vampires and Zombies."
• A hand reached from the book and grabbed Xu Ye's tentacle, so he pulled out a middle-aged man named Chen Mu and demanded an explanation.
• Chen Mu described how he had sealed his elderly mother in a brick house to follow Flame Camp's tradition, and how she later emerged as a Flying Corpse and killed the camp.
• Xu Ye attacked Chen Mu with the Black Blade, but a Diamond Talisman stopped the strike and Bandit Lord warned that the Rune Demon was involved.
• Chen Mu transformed into a class 3 Vampire Zombie, and Xu Ye retreated before throwing Alice at it; Alice then hurled the Green-Headed Skeleton's skull at the monster.

Xu Ye fought the Vampire Zombie through the library, trying to outlast its defenses and land a decisive blow. After Alice briefly froze the creature, it used Blood Shadow Trace to counter Xu Ye, but Xu Ye anticipated the move and switched places with the Human Skin, ending the chapter as his blade engulfed the Vampire Zombie.

• Xu Ye fled through the library while the Vampire Zombie pursued him, shrugging off his attacks with its tough hide and Diamond Talismans.
• Xu Ye used his tentacles, Spirit Mirror, Red Veil, and Black Blade to evade the Vampire Zombie and keep fighting as it smashed upward through the building.
• The Bandit Lord explained that the Diamond Talismans were running out of energy, giving Xu Ye hope that the Vampire Zombie's defenses would weaken.
• Xu Ye gathered spiritual qi into the Black Blade while Alice used Soul-Seizing to freeze the Vampire Zombie for a moment.
• The Vampire Zombie escaped the opening with Blood Shadow Trace, but Xu Ye predicted its move, switched places with the Human Skin, and struck it with his blade.

Xu Ye and Alice killed Vampire Zombie, while Silent Father became trapped by a mass of hair inside the distorted hospital. Xu Ye went to rescue him, but Silent Father mistook his bizarre approach for another monster.

• Xu Ye attacked the wounded Vampire Zombie, but Vampire Zombie disarmed him and immobilized his body before Alice forced Explosive Flame Talismans into its mouth and destroyed it.
• Silent Father hid in the Outpatient Department after surviving an attack by hair that controlled severed limbs, then contacted Xu Ye over the walkie-talkie.
• Silent Father lost contact with Xu Ye when the hair found him in a women's restroom, and Xu Ye's simulation showed Silent Father would sink and fail the mission if left alone.
• Silent Father escaped the stall, but the hair grew thicker, threw him into a wall, and worsened his injuries.
• Xu Ye arrived to save Silent Father with his detached head and flailing tentacles, and Silent Father mistook him for another monster.

Xu Ye saved Silent Father from a water-soaked hair Aberrant and kept it after Alice asked for a wig. Outside the building, Lü Xiao Dao claimed Observer was safe, just before an explosion engulfed the hospital building he had entered.

• Silent Father tried to kill himself, but Xu Ye arrived and fought off the hair Aberrant with Bandit Lord's energy.
• Xu Ye chased the hair and saved Silent Father, who realized Xu Ye was Big Muscle Boss despite his bizarre appearance.
• Xu Ye captured the hair, dried it with a hair dryer, and guessed that Kang Ao's Ritual had caused its mutation.
• Alice asked Xu Ye to spare the hair so she could use it as a wig, and Xu Ye agreed despite Bandit Lord's protests.
• Xu Ye treated Silent Father outside, where Lü Xiao Dao said Observer was safe inside the final building.
• The hospital building where Observer had entered exploded, sending flames, smoke, and dust into the air.

Guan Ze searched the abandoned hospital for evidence, then encountered the Sick Shoes and had to survive their deadly rubber-band skipping game. After completing the routine, he provoked the shoes’ owner, a level 3 Aberrant boy, whose explosion badly injured him and left Xu Ye puzzled by the boy’s cries of “Grandpa.”

• Guan Ze found damaged notebooks and surveillance equipment before detecting an uncanny presence in the hospital activity room.
• The Sick Shoes forced Guan Ze to copy their rubber-band skipping routine, burning pairs that made mistakes.
• Guan Ze completed the routine, but the bloodstained shoes accused him of killing the boy’s grandpa and stealing his moves.
• Guan Ze realized the fire had transformed the boy into a level 3 Aberrant, and the boy exploded in a blaze that swept through the hospital.
• Guan Ze survived behind a bone shield but suffered severe burns, while Xu Ye wondered why the boy’s cries of “Grandpa” sounded familiar.

Xu Ye reached the level 4 Aberrant Zhou Yang by posing as his grandfather, froze the sea of flames, and reunited with him. After Zhou Yang gave Xu Ye a Gold Lock, Xu Ye killed him, and Guan Ze explained that the boy had become too dangerous and inhuman to save.

• The hospital fire’s energy rose to level 4 as the trapped dead cried out, and Silent Father, Guan Ze, and Lü Xiao Dao watched in fear.
• Xu Ye recalled that Zhou Yang’s childlike second personality still clung to his grandfather, then walked into the flames and called himself the boy’s grandpa.
• Zhou Yang emerged from the frozen flames, embraced Xu Ye, and begged to go home with him.
• Xu Ye used a tentacle to pierce Zhou Yang’s heart; Zhou Yang handed him a Gold Lock before dissolving into pus.
• Lü Xiao Dao protested that Xu Ye had killed a child, while Guan Ze said Zhou Yang had become a level 4 Aberrant beyond the causal chain.

Xu Ye escaped the distorted hospital and returned home, where Bandit Lord questioned the nature of the Holy Grail’s Dreamscape. Meanwhile, Doctor Chen told He Li that deities were trying to reach a New World called Earth through a passage in the Land of Exiles, and revealed that he had arranged for Li Yunyao to receive a Holy Grail fragment.

• Guan Ze led Xu Ye, Silent Father, and Big Muscle Boss through the hospital’s Avici Hell, and Big Muscle Boss disappeared after they escaped.
• Xu Ye returned home, checked on Li Yunyao, and gave a level 2 Aberrant-Hair to Alice to train.
• Xu Ye suspected that the gold lock he had found was a Taboo Object, while Bandit Lord said the Holy Grail’s Dreamscape came from a collapsing, incomplete world rather than a Class S Taboo Object.
• Doctor Chen explained to He Li that deities sought the New World, called Earth, and believed its passage lay in the Land of Exiles.
• Doctor Chen admitted that he had arranged for a Holy Grail fragment to be placed in Li Yunyao’s mind; He Li shot him, but the bullets passed through him harmlessly.

Doctor Chen explained why he was investigating the Great Xia Federation’s history, while Xu Ye learned that the gods planned to use their projections to reach Earth through a mass sacrifice in the Land of Exiles. The chapter ended with Alice using Soul-Seizing on Lü Xiao Dao to uncover his secrets.

• Doctor Chen told He Li that he wanted to understand why the Great Xia Federation had voted for a nuclear strike against itself, suspecting it had been a means of survival.
• Bandit Lord warned Xu Ye that the gods were arranging a massive sacrifice through the dreamscape and that deaths there also occurred in reality.
• Bandit Lord revealed that the gods intended to use their projections in the Land of Exiles as anchors to reach Earth, leaving Xu Ye alarmed for his home and loved ones.
• Bandit Lord finished analyzing Xu Ye’s gold chain and identified it as a Class C Taboo Object that could provide a flame shield and some immunity to fire damage.
• Lü Xiao Dao resolved to train at the Wild Club so he could protect his sister and their building, then fell asleep as Alice used Soul-Seizing to investigate him.

Xu Ye learned through Lü Xiao Dao’s memories that an unknown thunder-wielder had helped him kill an Aberrant, possibly the president of the Thunder Sound Society. As Li Yunyao’s condition worsened, Xu Ye opened a door with his Golden Key to seek an apothecary, while Shenchuan Lan prepared to enter the Third Dreamscape Layer.

• Xu Ye watched a memory in which a lightning-possessed Lü Xiao Dao crushed a Big Black Rat, and suspected that the mysterious helper was the president of the Thunder Sound Society.
• Alice told Lü Xiao Dao to investigate the Thunder Sound Society for clues about who had helped him.
• Xu Ye heard reports about a strange aircraft, trafficked women from the Land of Exiles, and the death of a legislator’s family member, then learned that the heart of the Order Keeper had released Athos under a one-year safety agreement.
• Xu Ye saw Li Yunyao growing paler and used his Golden Key to open a door in search of an apothecary.
• Ivy wondered why her mission had been so easy, while Shenchuan Lan reviewed his completed mission and took out a Black Key to enter the Third Dreamscape Layer.

The third-round Holy Grail missions sent Xu Ye and the others toward the Uman Islands and other dangerous goals, while Xu Ye struggled to stabilize Li Yunyao and sought an Awakened doctor. Shenchuan Lan learned Ivy was close to Xu Ye and ordered Matsumoto Naiko to make the people around them disappear.

• The Holy Grail issued solo missions, including Xu Ye’s mission to uncover human trafficking in the Uman Islands, Lü Xiao Dao’s mission to protect Xiaoyu, Ivy’s mission to accompany Doctor Xu to sea, and Li Wan’s mission involving the Illusion Overlord’s severed limb.
• Xu Ye returned from the Holy Grail and used his Beginner Healing Technique on Li Yunyao, whose condition remained unstable until dawn.
• Xu Ye recalled Xia Yuze and decided to visit the Wild Awakened Club with Lü Xiao Dao to seek help from an Awakened doctor.
• Shenchuan Lan learned that Ivy had grown close to Xu Ye and the others at Wangchun Building.
• Shenchuan Lan ordered Matsumoto Naiko to make the ordinary people around Ivy disappear.

Shenchuan Shengshui sent Miyamoto Takeshi and Nakayama Mu to eliminate people at the Wangchun Building, but their targets proved far more dangerous than expected. After Miyamoto was killed and Nakayama was driven off, Shenchuan Shengshui was attacked and exposed as a woman when someone grabbed her chest.

• Shenchuan Shengshui ordered Miyamoto Takeshi and Nakayama Mu to eliminate everyone on Shenchuan Lan's list, while warning them not to touch Miss Ivy.
• Miyamoto Takeshi attacked Zhong Little Hua, but she struck him with an enchanted baseball bat, and runes later turned him into filthy water.
• Alice used an illusion and an Explosive Flame Talisman to drive Nakayama Mu away from Lü Xiao Dao.
• Shenchuan Shengshui dodged a tentacle attack with 9-026 [Inspirational Precognition] and fought back against the assailant.
• An attacker grabbed Shenchuan Shengshui's chest, prompting her to shriek and reveal that she was a woman.

Xu Ye fought Shenchuan Shengshui on the rooftop, where both men used foresight and deception to counter each other. Xu Ye finally trapped Shenchuan Shengshui in a dreamscape and stabbed him, leaving his mask removed and his identity exposed.

• Xu Ye faced Shenchuan Shengshui, dodged his opening attacks, and tried to mislead him about a betrayal.
• Shenchuan Shengshui used wind attacks and extreme speed to counter Xu Ye’s Human Skin teleportation and Spirit Mirror Knight abilities.
• Xu Ye and Shenchuan Shengshui each anticipated the other’s traps, forcing both to retreat before Shenchuan Shengshui multiplied into numerous doubles.
• Shenchuan Shengshui’s doubles overwhelmed Xu Ye in an apparent victory, but the scene shattered when Xu Ye revealed that he had trapped him in a dreamscape.
• Xu Ye held Shenchuan Shengshui with his tentacles and stabbed him with the Black Blade, while Shenchuan Shengshui realized his mask had been removed.