Recaps

Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng witnessed a headless corpse retrieving and trying on rotting heads, then fled when the heads noticed them. They reached Fangcun Pond, where the black algae seemed to move and the pond began to churn.

• The trio hid and watched a headless corpse draw fourteen rotting heads from the ancient well and repeatedly place them on its neck.
• The heads turned toward Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng, spoke to them, and prompted the trio to flee.
• Ning Qiushui suspected the headless corpse was the Compassionate One and took the wooden token marked with "Ruan" from Liu Chengfeng.
• The trio found a sign identifying their location as Fangcun Pond and examined its vine- and algae-covered platform.
• Liu Chengfeng noticed the black algae seemed to wriggle, and the pond began to churn as though boiling.

Ning Qiushui and his companions faced a bloody ghost emerging from Fangcun Pond, but Guangchuan’s spirit tablet stopped it from killing him. The ghost demanded that they bring a woman to it, and the group discovered that its skin had been chained in the pond while its bones were stripped away.

• Black algae pinned Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng as a bloody woman’s skin rose from Fangcun Pond and attacked Ning Qiushui.
• Guangchuan’s spirit tablet fell from Ning Qiushui’s pocket, and the ghost stopped when it saw the tablet.
• Ning Qiushui asked the ghost about the famine and Guang Xiu’s family, and it demanded that they bring a woman to it before returning to the pond.
• Liu Chengfeng carried the injured Ning Qiushui up to the platform, where the group saw the skin chained in the pond above a pile of bones.

Ning Qiushui, Liu Chengfeng, and Bai Xiaoxiao uncovered clues linking a female ghost to Guangchuan and returned to the guesthouse, where Bai found that someone had searched their rooms. They confirmed the intruder was Tang Jiao, leaving the group to confront the person who had apparently helped put Ning Qiushui in danger.

• Ning Qiushui reasoned that the female ghost was probably Guangchuan's mother and that the village had concealed what happened during the great drought.
• The three returned safely to the guesthouse after deciding it was too dangerous to stay out until nightfall.
• Bai Xiaoxiao revealed that she had used Special Powder and the Black Flashlight to find footprints showing someone had entered all three rooms.
• Bai Xiaoxiao warned Liu Chengfeng that killing someone beyond a blood gate could create a vengeful ghost.
• Ning Qiushui asked Bai Xiaoxiao to check whether the footprints belonged to Tang Jiao, and she confirmed that they did.

Ning Qiushui and his companions found a Ruan Clan token planted in their room and concluded that Tang Jiao was helping Spirit Medium Ruan target them. After learning why someone might deliberately cause deaths inside a Blood Gate, they opened Tang Jiao’s locked door to plant the tokens in her room.

• Ning Qiushui found a hidden Ruan Clan token in the wardrobe, and he and Bai Xiaoxiao suspected Spirit Medium Ruan had enlisted Tang Jiao to attack them.
• Ning Qiushui connected Spirit Medium Ruan to the grandmother in their first Blood Gate and guessed that the village’s ghosts sought revenge on the Ruan Clan.
• Bai Xiaoxiao explained Blood Gates’ hidden rules about mission difficulty, required deaths, and a Ghost Artifact reward for the sole survivor.
• Liu Chengfeng used a piece of wire to pick Tang Jiao’s lock, and the group entered her room to plant the tokens.

Ning Qiushui, Liu Chengfeng, and Bai Xiaoxiao planted a wooden tablet in Tang Jiao’s room while preparing another way to deal with her. At dinner, they shared their findings, and Bai Xiaoxiao challenged Tang Jiao to reveal the clues she had been withholding.

• Ning Qiushui hid a wooden tablet bearing the character “Ruan” beneath Tang Jiao’s pillow, while Bai Xiaoxiao warned that she had another plan if Tang Jiao survived the night.
• Ning Qiushui, Liu Chengfeng, and Bai Xiaoxiao noticed that the village’s dining hall had likely been converted from a hotel, while the guesthouse occupied an empty building.
• Ning Qiushui told the group about the dangers they had faced at Everlasting Well and Fangcun Pond, concealing some details about the female ghost in human skin.
• Tang Jiao urged everyone to meet again at breakfast and promised to combine their clues, but she shared none of her own.
• Bai Xiaoxiao and the bespectacled man pressed Tang Jiao to reveal what she knew, leaving her visibly tense as the group questioned her motives.

Tang Jiao tried to manipulate Bai Xiaoxiao and the newcomers with a warning about her clue, but Bai Xiaoxiao saw through her. That night, Ning Qiushui realized the guesthouse was the former Misty Rain Tower and identified the crawling child ghost as Guangchuan, while Tang Jiao was killed in her room.

• Tang Jiao warned Bai Xiaoxiao and the others that learning her clue could bring danger, then showed them the Ruan identification plaque without explaining it.
• Bai Xiaoxiao pretended to accept Tang Jiao's challenge, and after Tang Jiao left, she and Liu Chengfeng predicted that Tang Jiao would not survive the night.
• Ning Qiushui heard a charred child corpse crawl past his door and recognized it as Guangchuan, Guang Xiu's son, from the memorial tablet he carried.
• Ning Qiushui realized the guesthouse was the Misty Rain Tower where Guang Xiu's family had died in a fire.
• Tang Jiao screamed that the attacker had the wrong person, then fell silent as a chewing sound came from her room; at dawn, someone cried out for her in the corridor.

After Tang Jiao was found dead, Bai Xiaoxiao accused her of lying about visiting Fangcun Pond and exposed Luo Yan’s story as false. Luo Yan fled to her room, while the others were left to continue searching for a way to survive.

• A newcomer found Tang Jiao’s mutilated body in her room, and the guests gathered at the doorway.
• Bai Xiaoxiao said she had heard Tang Jiao screaming but refused to waste a life-saving Ghost Artifact on her.
• Bai Xiaoxiao claimed Tang Jiao had never visited Fangcun Pond and had been bluffing about it.
• Luo Yan insisted she had gone to Fangcun Pond with Tang Jiao, but she contradicted herself when Bai Xiaoxiao asked when they went.
• Luo Yan stormed back to her room, and Bai Xiaoxiao told Liu Chengfeng that Luo Yan was more calculating than she appeared.

Luo Yan found Tang Jiao’s Ghost Artifacts in her room, but Tang Jiao’s corpse and the bloodstains vanished before she could leave. Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng deduced that an evildoer had made the Ruan Clan’s village haunted, and Ning Qiushui’s attempt to question a cafeteria worker ended with the expected woman missing.

• Luo Yan searched Tang Jiao’s room and took three Ghost Artifacts from her backpack, then discovered Tang Jiao’s corpse and the bloodstains had disappeared.
• Liu Chengfeng urged Ning Qiushui and Bai Xiaoxiao to search another attraction, but Bai Xiaoxiao said the villagers’ attractions would only lead them to lies.
• Ning Qiushui reasoned that the Ruan Clan was none of the groups described in the blood gate’s hint and that an evildoer had denied them rain and peace.
• Bai Xiaoxiao suggested that Spirit Medium Ruan could have made the village haunted to make herself important, leaving Liu Chengfeng stunned.
• Ning Qiushui planned to question the cafeteria woman alone with Guangchuan’s Memorial Tablet, but found an old man serving food instead; the old man said the woman was unwell.

Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng visited Mi Lan after learning she was ill and discovered the villagers’ homes were impoverished and the residents behaved suspiciously. Ning Qiushui confronted Mi Lan about preparing a haunted house on the site of the Misty Rain Temple, then showed her husband Guangchuan’s Memorial Tablet, leaving him trembling and denying responsibility.

• Ning Qiushui learned Mi Lan had not come to meet them because she was unwell, and he took Bai Xiaoxiao and Liu Chengfeng to her home.
• The three crossed the impoverished residential district, where villagers watched them with guilty, menacing glances.
• Mi Lan’s husband tried to turn them away, but Bai Xiaoxiao whispered a name and warned him they could bring out something he carried against his chest.
• The husband admitted Mi Lan was his wife and led them into the house, where Bai Xiaoxiao found Mi Lan feverish in bed.
• Ning Qiushui asked Mi Lan why she had prepared a haunted house for outsiders and identified it as the site of the Misty Rain Temple.
• Ning Qiushui showed Mi Lan’s husband Guangchuan’s Memorial Tablet, and the man screamed, fell to his knees, and insisted they had done nothing.

Bai Xiaoxiao forced the villagers to reveal that Rain-Praying Village sacrificed people to the Temple, while Ning Qiushui learned the Spirit Medium controlled the offerings and the village’s finances. An old woman then appeared outside and offered a conflicting account of Guang Xiu’s death, leaving the villagers terrified.

• Mi Lan began explaining that the villagers needed to prepare offerings for the Temple’s upcoming ceremony, but the middle-aged man shouted her down and warned that the Spirit Medium would punish them.
• Bai Xiaoxiao threatened the middle-aged man with a knife and forced him to answer the group’s questions.
• The middle-aged man revealed that the village’s annual Temple sacrifices required human offerings, and that the Spirit Medium directed the ceremonies.
• He said villagers sold their grain and meat to fund the Mountain God Temple and Earth God Temple, believing the payments secured peaceful lives and good harvests.
• Ning Qiushui asked how Guang Xiu and his family had died, but an old woman outside claimed Guang Xiu had hoarded food, killed villagers seeking help, and been killed by a mob led by her ancestor Ruan Kaihuang.

Ning Qiushui and his companions encountered Spirit Medium Ruan while checking on Mi Lan, and her eerie treatment left them convinced she was dangerous. As they left, Ning Qiushui theorized that Rain-Praying Village had concealed the truth about the Guang family, and the group wondered whether food had driven the family’s massacre.

• Spirit Medium Ruan entered the room, and the middle-aged man collapsed in fear as Ning Qiushui claimed they had come to check on Mi Lan’s illness.
• The middle-aged man begged Spirit Medium Ruan to spare Mi Lan, but she performed a ritual that left Mi Lan eerily still and smiling.
• Ning Qiushui and his companions left the room, then discussed Spirit Medium Ruan’s disturbing appearance and the villagers’ fear of Guangchuan.
• Ning Qiushui suggested that the village had covered up the truth about the Guang family and that the old tourist signs might have reversed who was guilty.
• Liu Chengfeng asked why the villagers had killed the Guang family if they were innocent, and the three wondered whether the reason had been food.

Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng connected Guang Xiu’s family’s murder to famine and the villagers’ cover-up, but still lacked a path to survival. At dinner, Luo Yan acted strangely and left, while Bai Xiaoxiao shared the group’s theory: help the Benevolent One take revenge, defeat the Spirit Medium, and find the Compassionate One’s head before the Temple festival.

• Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng discussed how the village’s famine may have driven Guang Xiu’s family’s murder and how the villagers concealed their crimes.
• The survivors gathered for dinner, where Luo Yan smiled blankly at her plate while the others kept their distance.
• Ning Qiushui recognized Luo Yan’s smile as the same one Mi Lan had worn after the Spirit Medium visited her.
• Luo Yan wandered out of the dining room, and Zong Fang feared that the group would die without finding a way to survive.
• Bai Xiaoxiao told the survivors that the Spirit Medium was the Evildoer and proposed helping the Benevolent One take revenge and finding the Compassionate One’s head before the Temple festival.

Ning Qiushui realized the Temple’s sacrificial festival had begun as soon as the group arrived, and that Spirit Medium Ruan had been arranging their deaths as offerings. The group avoided danger overnight, but Bai Xiaoxiao was missing by morning.

• Ning Qiushui warned the others that Spirit Medium Ruan had turned Luo Yan into a walking corpse and that attacking her would have been dangerous.
• Bai Xiaoxiao suggested Spirit Medium Ruan acted after Tang Jiao’s death, and Ning Qiushui concluded that the sacrificial ritual had begun when they entered the village.
• Ning Qiushui explained that the villagers had been steering them toward places where offerings were sacrificed, and everyone realized people had been dying since their arrival.
• Bai Xiaoxiao told everyone to stay inside and remove any wooden plaque marked 'Ruan' from their rooms.
• Ning Qiushui inspected and locked his room, and no one encountered Guangchuan during the night after the plaques were removed.
• Ning Qiushui discovered Bai Xiaoxiao was missing the next morning.

After Bai Xiaoxiao and Luo Yan vanished overnight, Ning Qiushui found Bai’s cracked Bloodstained Bronze Mirror and realized its power remained active, suggesting she was alive. The next morning, he decided to search Spirit Medium Ruan’s home first and planned to lure her away.

• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng found Bai Xiaoxiao’s room empty and concluded she had left voluntarily, possibly after discovering something important.
• The group learned that Luo Yan had also disappeared, and they chose not to search at night because they lacked Ghost Artifacts for protection.
• Ning Qiushui searched Bai Xiaoxiao’s room again and found her cracked Bloodstained Bronze Mirror beneath her pillow.
• Seeing a bridal-robed woman in the mirror, Ning Qiushui realized the mirror’s power had not been sealed and inferred that Bai Xiaoxiao was still alive.
• At daylight, Ning Qiushui proposed searching Spirit Medium Ruan’s home before the dangerous Back Mountain and said they needed to lure the Spirit Medium away.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng searched the Spirit Medium’s residence and discovered a locked room filled with jars holding living human heads. Among them, they found Bai Xiaoxiao’s head, leaving her fate uncertain.

• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng watched a villager alert the Spirit Medium, then entered her residence after she left.
• The two searched the residence but found only talisman papers and Buddhist scriptures before checking a locked room in the garden.
• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng opened the room and found human heads submerged in jars, still alive and pleading for help.
• Ning Qiushui uncovered a new jar and recognized the head inside as Bai Xiaoxiao’s.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng discovered Bai Xiaoxiao’s severed head alive in a jar, and she revealed how they could find a book with the village’s secrets and save her. After retrieving the book from the Spirit Medium’s hidden compartment, they were caught and fled as she chased them.

• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng found Bai Xiaoxiao’s head in a jar and learned that the Spirit Medium had severed it while keeping her alive.
• Bai Xiaoxiao told Ning Qiushui to retrieve a book from a hidden compartment beneath the Spirit Medium’s bed and warned him not to confront the Spirit Medium.
• Bai Xiaoxiao said Ning Qiushui could save her by finding her body at the Back Mountain Temple before sunset, identifying it by a dagger-shaped birthmark.
• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng found the mechanism beneath the bed and took the yellowed book from the hidden compartment.
• The Spirit Medium arrived at the courtyard gate and caught Ning Qiushui holding the book, so Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng ran for the western archway as she pursued them.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng fled the Spirit Medium after she caught them in her residence, but Ning Qiushui used the important book to keep her chasing them. They led her toward Fangcun Pond, where Liu Chengfeng saw something behind them that froze his smile.

• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng ran for the Spirit Medium's Residence gate as the Spirit Medium pursued them at unnatural speed.
• Liu Chengfeng picked the gate's lock, and Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng escaped before the Spirit Medium could catch them.
• The Spirit Medium chased them with a Bone Blade, refusing to give up the book Ning Qiushui carried.
• Ning Qiushui slowed their pace to make the Spirit Medium think she could catch them, and Liu Chengfeng realized they were heading toward Fangcun Pond.
• As they neared Fangcun Pond, Liu Chengfeng looked back at the Spirit Medium and froze in alarm.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng led the Spirit Medium to Fangcun Pond, where black algae and the human-skin ghost trapped her. The Spirit Medium nearly broke free, but Liu Chengfeng’s stone gave the ghost woman time to bind her again.

• The Spirit Medium chased Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng on all fours and knocked Liu Chengfeng down, but Ning Qiushui threw the book toward Fangcun Pond to lure her onto the raised platform.
• The Spirit Medium caught the book and returned to human form, only to realize she had stepped onto the platform above Fangcun Pond.
• Black algae restrained the Spirit Medium as the human-skin ghost rose from the pond and cut the fingers holding her Bone Blade.
• The human-skin ghost called for Brother Xiu while handling the Bone Blade, but the Spirit Medium recited scriptures and burned away the hair binding her.
• Liu Chengfeng threw a stone that lodged in the Spirit Medium’s throat, interrupting her escape long enough for the ghost woman’s hair to bind her again.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng received the book and the Skin-Shedding Female Ghost’s eyes, then learned the Ruan Clan had turned the villagers against Guang Xiu’s family during a famine. The chapter left off as Ruan Kaihuang accused Guang Xiu’s family of eating meat while the villagers starved.

• The Skin-Shedding Female Ghost returned the book to Ning Qiushui and gave him and Liu Chengfeng her eyes before disappearing.
• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng watched the ghost’s remains decay and reflected that the village’s people, not its ghosts, had tried to kill them.
• Ning Qiushui read the book and handed it to Liu Chengfeng, who grew furious at the Ruan Clan’s deeds.
• The book revealed that Guang Xiu’s family had distributed grain during a famine until their supplies ran low and they had to stop.
• After the villagers turned against Guang Xiu’s family, Ruan Kaihuang told them he had seen the family eating meat.

The chapter revealed how Ruan Kaihuang deceived Rain-Praying Village into murdering Guang Xiu, then abused and killed Zhu Nanyu and helped bring vengeful spirits upon the village. When a young monk named Fahui arrived, he offered a dangerous ritual to suppress the spirits, but it required that his head remain attached to his body.

• Ruan Kaihuang spread a false rumor about Guang Xiu, and the villagers killed Guang Xiu before rain ended the drought that night.
• Ruan Kaihuang became village chief, burned Guangchuan to death, and abducted Zhu Nanyu, whom he tortured and killed.
• Ruan Kaihuang had Zhu Nanyu's body skinned, after which the butcher who helped him died and vengeful spirits began killing villagers.
• Ruan Kaihuang sent a villager to seek help, and the young monk Fahui warned that the villagers must leave or die.
• Fahui explained that a ritual could suppress the spirits, but it required cutting off and reattaching his head without separating it from his body.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng learned how Rain-Praying Village’s leaders had removed the monk’s head and used tourists as sacrifices to keep the village peaceful. They resolved to rescue Sister Bai and find the monk’s head, believing he was the only one who could suppress the accumulated resentment.

• The account revealed that Ruan Xin removed the monk’s head, causing deaths to resume, and later married a woman who restored peace to the village.
• After the woman died in childbirth, her daughter became the Spirit Medium and eventually succeeded Ruan Xin as village chief.
• The Spirit Medium exploited villagers and arranged for tourists to serve as sacrifices, temporarily preventing deaths in the village.
• Liu Chengfeng cursed the villagers and kicked apart the Spirit Medium’s remains before he and Ning Qiushui left with the book.
• Ning Qiushui warned that the village’s growing resentment had produced the Red-Clothed Female Ghost and said they needed to rescue Sister Bai and recover the monk’s head.

After learning that the Spirit Medium was dead, Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng warned the others that the village’s dead still posed a threat and shared a book describing a safe route up Back Mountain. They set out to retrieve Bai Xiaoxiao’s body, but the mountain stairs transformed into a blood-soaked path crowded with corpses.

• Ning Qiushui told the group that Bai Xiaoxiao was in terrible shape and the Spirit Medium had been killed.
• Ning Qiushui warned that the dead villagers remained dangerous, and he proposed that the others search for the monk’s missing head while he and Liu Chengfeng sought Bai Xiaoxiao’s body.
• An unnamed man objected to risking their lives for Bai Xiaoxiao, and the bespectacled man’s group left to search for the head.
• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng prepared their gear and headed to Back Mountain to retrieve Bai Xiaoxiao’s body before dark.
• When Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng stepped onto the mountain stairs, blood began flowing down them and corpses appeared across the steps.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng climbed the blood-soaked Back Mountain and found Bai Xiaoxiao’s body in the Temple, while Ning Qiushui suspected the Spirit Medium was trying to create a new body. As they prepared to leave, a grinning corpse with a head appeared, the Temple doors slammed shut, and the two men became trapped in darkness.

• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng climbed past headless corpses and found black fluid covering their healed neck wounds, leading Ning Qiushui to suspect the Spirit Medium was using a dark art to obtain a new body.
• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng reached the Temple, where they found more headless bodies hanging from the ceiling.
• Ning Qiushui identified Bai Xiaoxiao’s body by her clothes and dagger-shaped birthmark, then helped Liu Chengfeng bind and carry it.
• Ning Qiushui spotted a mangled corpse with a head and a grotesque grin, realized what had been troubling him, and shouted for Liu Chengfeng to run.
• The Temple doors slammed shut, plunging Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng into darkness as they froze and heard footsteps behind them.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng escaped the Temple with Bai Xiaoxiao’s body, using the bronze mirror and a female ghost to hold Guang Xiu back. As they fled down the mountain, Guang Xiu pursued them and shifted his attention to the three men they encountered in the woods, leaving the injured man behind.

• Ning Qiushui awakened the bronze mirror as Guang Xiu attacked him, and the female ghost’s sobbing gave him and Liu Chengfeng a chance to escape the Temple.
• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng fled downhill carrying Bai Xiaoxiao’s body, while the female ghost vanished and the bronze mirror shattered.
• Ning Qiushui saw Guang Xiu pursue them down the steps and took Bai Xiaoxiao’s body from Liu Chengfeng so he could run faster.
• Ning Qiushui warned the man with glasses and his two companions to run when they met in the woods.
• Guang Xiu turned toward the three men, and the injured man at the back fell behind as the others fled.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng returned Bai Xiaoxiao's body to the Spirit Medium's residence and reunited it with her head just before sunset. Bai Xiaoxiao recovered, but only five people remained, with two days left to restore the monk's head before Guang Xiu and the other spirits turned against them.

• Lü Ting was abandoned by the fleeing group, then lost his head to the pursuing monster.
• Ning Qiushui carried Bai Xiaoxiao's body to the Spirit Medium's residence while Liu Chengfeng opened the door and picked the lock to the storage room.
• Bai Xiaoxiao told Ning Qiushui to break the jar and reattach her head to her body.
• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng reunited Bai Xiaoxiao's head and body, and she revived just before sunset.
• Bai Xiaoxiao learned that only five people were likely left and that they had two days to restore the monk's head before Guang Xiu became a vengeful ghost.