Chapter Summaries

Ning Qiushui and six other passengers reached a fog-shrouded villa after witnessing the gruesome death of a man who left their driverless bus. They learned they had to enter a blood gate, and the chapter ended as its door opened and they lost consciousness.

• Ning Qiushui led the six other passengers into the villa to escape the dangerous fog.
• A suited man told the newcomers that they had to complete a task inside a blood gate or face a gruesome death.
• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng climbed to the third floor, where a bloodstained door displayed the task: care for a bedridden elderly person for five days.
• The door opened to reveal pale hands, and the passengers lost consciousness.

Ning Qiushui and six others arrived at a deserted villa complex and were hired to care for an elderly bedridden woman for five days while her daughter and granddaughter went away. The daughter warned them not to enter the third floor, and Ning Qiushui saw fear in the little girl’s eyes as they left.

• Ning Qiushui explored the seemingly empty villa complex and found the only villa with someone waiting outside.
• Liu Chengfeng joined Ning Qiushui and admitted he was a fortune-telling fraud.
• The villa’s owner gathered all seven caregivers and explained that they would care for her bedridden, cognitively impaired mother for five days.
• The owner showed them the stocked kitchen, said the complex had no other residents, and warned them never to enter the third floor.
• As the owner and her daughter departed, Ning Qiushui saw fear in the little girl’s eyes, and Liu Chengfeng teased him for watching the woman.

Ning Qiushui and the others began their five-day task of caring for a bedridden elderly woman in a villa, where unsettling details and the approaching night heightened their fears. The chapter ended when Wang Yuning screamed upstairs.

• The group compared how they had arrived on the bus, and Ning Qiushui confirmed that the blood they had seen was human.
• Ning Qiushui proposed dividing the chores, and Liu Chengfeng agreed to help him cook after the others argued over their duties.
• Ning Qiushui warned Liu Chengfeng and Yan Youping that the elderly woman might be connected to the dangers beyond the Blood Gate.
• Ning Qiushui found an unlabeled bag of frozen meat containing black material, then Liu Chengfeng helped prepare dinner.
• The group noticed that darkness had fallen unusually quickly and discussed the strange smell and numerous bathrooms upstairs.
• Wang Yuning carried food upstairs to the elderly woman, and a piercing scream soon came from the second floor.

After the paralyzed old woman rejected her food and spoke of meat having no flavor, Ning Qiushui realized the villa’s strange events were beginning to match a mysterious letter he had received. He warned Liu Chengfeng to stay awake, but a silent, scraping presence soon prowled the hallway and stopped outside their door.

• Wang Yuning told the group that the old woman spat out the beef and said the meat had no flavor, just as a storm began outside.
• Ning Qiushui connected the events to the mysterious letter and led everyone to choose rooms together for the night.
• Ning Qiushui told Liu Chengfeng that the supposedly empty villa complex showed signs of recent residents, though every neighboring house was dark.
• The two men found foul, yellow-brown liquid seeping through their ceiling, and Ning Qiushui warned Liu Chengfeng not to sleep or respond to anything they heard.
• A knife-and-fork-like scraping sound passed through the hallway, stopped outside their door, then moved to the other rooms before falling silent.

Ning Qiushui investigated Wang Yuning’s gruesome murder and discovered the missing kitchen knife and fork beside the paralyzed old woman. He tested the old woman with porridge and learned she rejected meat because it was not cooked, leaving him to probe what that clue meant.

• After a night of strange dripping and scraping sounds, Liu Chengfeng found a foul corpse-oil stain beneath a growing patch of ceiling.
• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng followed screams to Wang Yuning’s mutilated body, and Ning Qiushui concluded her wounds had been made with a knife and fork.
• Ning Qiushui found the missing knife and fork in the paralyzed old woman’s room and questioned her about the murder.
• The old woman spat out beef porridge and repeated that the meat was not cooked, but she ate plain rice porridge when Liu Chengfeng brought it.

After Yamo fled into the rain, Ning Qiushui questioned whether the old woman’s supposed husband and daughter were real and reconsidered what she had said about the porridge. He formed a theory that required a nighttime test with Liu Chengfeng, but the chapter ended with Yamo screaming upstairs despite having run outside.

• Ning Qiushui realized Yamo had left the villa and found no men's shoes in the house, raising doubts about the old woman’s husband and the child she called her daughter.
• Ning Qiushui told the others that the old woman had said the meat was not cooked, then argued they might have misheard her words because they had been influenced by Wang Yuning’s death.
• Beidao speculated that the old woman had eaten Wang Yuning’s missing flesh, while Xue Guize and Liu Chengfeng tried to quiet the frightened group.
• Ning Qiushui said he had a theory to test that night, and Liu Chengfeng agreed to go with him.
• Everyone heard Yamo screaming upstairs, even though she had fled outside.

Ning Qiushui investigated Yamo’s corpse and discovered that Wang Yuning’s body had vanished, then told Liu Chengfeng that the killer was likely on the villa’s third floor. He planned to investigate there at night, leaving his disturbing theory unconfirmed.

• Ning Qiushui and the others found blood seeping from a room and discovered Yamo’s mutilated corpse hanging inside.
• Ning Qiushui concluded that Yamo had been killed like Wang Yuning, while Beidao noticed that Wang Yuning’s body had disappeared from the bed.
• Ning Qiushui led everyone downstairs and said the thing killing people would clean up Yamo’s body.
• Ning Qiushui accompanied Liu Chengfeng to the kitchen and agreed they should avoid going anywhere alone.
• Ning Qiushui told Liu Chengfeng that the killer was probably on the third floor and that the old woman was likely bait, and said he would test his theory that night.

Ning Qiushui discovered human remains in the villa’s refrigerator and suspected the paralyzed old woman had been deliberately trapped there. After the group settled in for the night, he heard the locked iron door to the third floor open behind him in the darkness.

• Ning Qiushui found chunks of hairy human flesh in the refrigerator and suspected it explained the old woman’s fear of meat and her apparent paralysis.
• Ning Qiushui pointed out that the villa had no photographs of the women and noticed women’s shoes in the entryway before deciding to wait for answers that night.
• At dinner, Liu Chengfeng avoided the lamb and concealed the discovery from the others so he would not deepen their fear.
• After dinner, Yan Youping agreed to sleep in Beidao and Xue Guize’s room rather than be alone.
• Ning Qiushui heard the lock on the third-floor iron door open behind him after the corridor lights went out.

Ning Qiushui survived an encounter with the thing in the corridor by obeying the letter’s warning not to turn on a light during the wind. After it came down to feed again, he and Liu Chengfeng slipped out toward the stairwell to investigate the villa’s third floor.

• Ning Qiushui resisted turning on the light, crossed the blood-scented corridor, and reached his room as the metallic scraping and icy wind stopped.
• Ning Qiushui told Liu Chengfeng that the creature could attack only after they triggered a death condition, and they discussed seeking the truth and the importance of the third floor.
• Later, the creature came down again and lingered outside their door, but it moved on when it could not attack them.
• After the scraping stopped outside the neighboring room, Ning Qiushui checked the corridor and beckoned Liu Chengfeng to follow him toward the stairwell.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng explored the third floor and discovered rooms filled with the corpses of the villa complex’s residents, including Wang Yuning and Yamo. They found a clean study containing a girl’s skeleton and began investigating her death, then Liu Chengfeng spotted something behind her body.

• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng climbed to the third floor, where corpse fluid covered the corridor and Liu Chengfeng vomited from the stench.
• Liu Chengfeng opened several rooms and found them packed with mutilated, rotting corpses, including Wang Yuning and Yamo.
• Ning Qiushui suspected the bodies belonged to the villa complex’s original residents and persuaded Liu Chengfeng to keep searching for the creature’s identity.
• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng entered a clean study and found a long-decomposed girl’s skeleton holding a teddy bear.
• Ning Qiushui concluded that the girl had likely starved or died of dehydration after being trapped behind barred windows, and Liu Chengfeng noticed something behind her body.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng learned from the diary that the woman in red had never left the villa and that the old woman was the housekeeper. They carried the housekeeper and food to the third-floor study, where the Blood Jade protected them from the pursuing monster, which revealed its horrifying form before retreating.

• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng read the diary, which described the girl opening the door to something that pretended to be her mother and then becoming trapped inside.
• Ning Qiushui realized the old woman on the second floor was the housekeeper and concluded the woman in red had stayed nearby and eaten the girl.
• Ning Qiushui sent Liu Chengfeng to collect cooked food while he carried the housekeeper upstairs, aiming to reach the study on the third floor.
• The woman in red caught up with Ning Qiushui, but Liu Chengfeng pressed her arm and dragged him into the study, then rehung the Blood Jade by the window.
• The woman in red revealed her monstrous face outside the study but could not enter, and she eventually left after roaring at Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng survived the night in the villa and discussed the anonymous letter that had warned Ning Qiushui about the killing rules. By morning, more people had died or vanished, leaving the survivors with no clear way to care for the missing old woman.

• Liu Chengfeng thanked Ning Qiushui for saving him, and Ning Qiushui said they would not risk going outside to search for the others.
• Ning Qiushui revealed that an anonymous letter had given him the villa’s killing rules and a photograph of Liu Chengfeng.
• Liu Chengfeng learned that the photograph showed him, while Ning Qiushui kept the writing on its back to himself.
• A scream from the second floor revealed that Beidao had been eaten and three people, including Ning Qiushui and the old woman, had disappeared.
• Yan Youping sobbed downstairs as Liu Chengfeng tried unsuccessfully to reach the people below, and Ning Qiushui said he would not save three kinds of patients.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng survived the final days in the villa before using the old woman's sacrifice to escape the Red-Clothed Female Ghost. They boarded the returning bus, which the ghost would not approach.

• Liu Chengfeng tried to signal the people downstairs but stopped when the attempt seemed to trigger an ominous force.
• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng stayed in the third-floor room for three days while Xue Guize and Yan Youping died downstairs.
• A bus arrived outside the villa on the fifth night, and the Red-Clothed Female Ghost appeared in the doorway as the men prepared to leave.
• The old woman asked Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng to use her as a distraction, and they pushed her toward the ghost.
• Ning Qiushui grabbed the Blood Jade, and he and Liu Chengfeng ran past the feasting ghost and escaped to the bus.
• The Red-Clothed Female Ghost pursued them to the bus but stopped at its entrance, allowing it to carry the two men away.

Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng returned alive from their first Blood Gate and learned how the Mist World, Haunted Lodges, and Puzzle Pieces worked. As the chapter ended, their account of the Red-Clothed Female Ghost caused Meng Jun’s attitude toward them to turn cold.

• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng survived the return journey and arrived at the black villa the next morning.
• Tian Xun explained that the mist was a separate cursed world, where residents entered Blood Gates to collect twelve Puzzle Pieces and travel to the Mist World’s end.
• Tian Xun told them that Liang Yan’s friend Uncle Mang had died in a Blood Gate and Bai Xiaoxiao’s friend Zhizi had taken her own life.
• Liu Chengfeng complained about Meng Jun’s cooking, then boldly declared himself the Haunted Lodge’s new head chef.
• Ning Qiushui learned about the lodge’s four veterans and asked Meng Jun and Tian Xun about the Red-Clothed Female Ghost from his first Blood Gate.
• Meng Jun abruptly left the table after hearing about the ghost, and Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng sensed his attitude toward them had changed.

After learning that the red-clad ghost from his first blood gate would likely return in his next scenario, Ning Qiushui received an offer of guidance from Bai Xiaoxiao. Back home, he discovered a second anonymous letter containing a photograph of Bai Xiaoxiao and a warning that she must not die in his second gate.

• Tian Xun explained that powerful roaming ghosts often reappeared in later blood gates, and Liu Chengfeng vowed that they would survive again.
• Ning Qiushui overheard Meng Jun and Bai Xiaoxiao discussing Mang's death, then told Bai Xiaoxiao about his first blood gate while withholding the anonymous letter.
• Bai Xiaoxiao identified the red-clad woman as a dangerous ghost, explained Ghost Artifacts, and offered to guide Ning Qiushui through his second blood gate.
• Ning Qiushui returned home and learned from Mole that the post office had no record of his first anonymous letter.
• Mu Cui delivered a second anonymous letter to Ning Qiushui, which contained an old photograph of Bai Xiaoxiao and the warning, “She must not die in your second gate.”

After learning that Liu Chengfeng had identified Ning Qiushui as the only person with a life hexagram behind the first Blood Gate, Ning Qiushui was summoned to the eerie lodge for his second gate. The gate revealed a task to survive a temple ritual on the village’s seventh day, but the clue left its meaning unclear.

• Ning Qiushui sent Mole the new information from the yellowed photograph, and Mole promised to help investigate it.
• Ning Qiushui boarded a bus in the fog and reunited with Liu Chengfeng, who said a ghost woman had haunted his dreams.
• Liu Chengfeng revealed that he had cast three hexagrams behind the first Blood Gate and that Ning Qiushui’s was the team’s only life hexagram.
• Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng arrived at the eerie lodge, where Bai Xiaoxiao led them upstairs to the second Blood Gate.
• The second Blood Gate displayed a task to survive the temple ritual on the village’s seventh day and a cryptic clue about the kind, the merciful, and the innocent waiting for rain and peace.

Ning Qiushui, Liu Chengfeng, and Bai Xiaoxiao entered their second blood gate in Rain-Praying Village, where a headless figure was reportedly hiding among the travelers. After the guesthouse supervisor described the village rules, Ning Qiushui found his Blood Jade glowing in his room, suggesting something unclean was nearby.

• Bai Xiaoxiao explained that later blood gates provided important hints, and Ning Qiushui memorized the second gate's eerie verse before entering.
• Ning Qiushui awoke with thirteen other people at the Rain-Praying Village Tour Group Guesthouse and reunited with Liu Chengfeng and Bai Xiaoxiao.
• Liu Chengfeng said he had seen a headless person in the forest, then watched it slip into the crowd and disappear.
• Supervisor Hou Kong welcomed the travelers, gave them room keys, announced the temple festival, and warned them about the curfew, the temple, and Spirit Medium Ruan.
• Ning Qiushui noticed Hou Kong vanish into the dark forest, then found his Blood Jade glowing red in his room.

Ning Qiushui discovered that the Blood Jade glowed throughout the guesthouse, and he and Bai Xiaoxiao suspected the rooms had been hastily prepared after a long period of disuse. That night, he stayed silent as a scorched-smelling creature crawled beneath his bed, then woke fully when a man screamed outside.

• Ning Qiushui showed Bai Xiaoxiao and Liu Chengfeng the glowing Blood Jade and explained how it worked.
• Bai Xiaoxiao found thick dust and hair beneath the bed, and Ning Qiushui suspected the guesthouse had been unused for a long time.
• Bai Xiaoxiao advised the group to avoid exploring at night, and the three returned to their rooms after dinner.
• Ning Qiushui woke to a clawed creature crawling through his room and stayed motionless as it searched beneath his bed and left.
• A man's agonized scream outside Ning Qiushui's window jolted him awake.

Ning Qiushui watched a guesthouse visitor tear off his own head after returning from the woods, then found his headless corpse in the courtyard the next morning. The group learned he had gone alone to the hill temple, and Ning Qiushui secretly took an object from the body before following Bai Xiaoxiao and Liu Chengfeng to the dining hall.

• Ning Qiushui watched a man outside the guesthouse claw at his neck, tear off his head, and continue pleading for help.
• The next morning, Ning Qiushui found the man's headless corpse in the courtyard and asked the gathered guests to identify him.
• A young woman confirmed the dead man was her friend and said he had gone alone to the temple in the hills after claiming it held the way out.
• Bai Xiaoxiao warned Liu Chengfeng that rashly exploring at night could lead to death, then led the group to the village dining hall.
• Ning Qiushui quietly took an object from the corpse's clothes and followed Bai Xiaoxiao and Liu Chengfeng.

Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng traced the village’s growing horror to a memorial tablet bearing the name Guangchuan and incense used to attract evil. With the Temple festival six days away, they set out to investigate the nearby Binding-Evil Shrine, while the village’s strange residents offered no answers.

• Ning Qiushui told Bai Xiaoxiao and Liu Chengfeng that the dead man had torn off his own head after fleeing the woods, and showed them a memorial tablet he had found on the corpse.
• Bai Xiaoxiao identified the tablet’s name as Guangchuan, and Liu Chengfeng recognized its scent as Locust-Wood Yin Incense used to attract evil.
• Ning Qiushui described the charred thing that had crawled through his room, and Bai Xiaoxiao warned that they had six days before the Temple festival to find a way to survive.
• Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng returned to the guesthouse and found the corpse and blood gone, while Hou Kong sat repeating phone replies and drinking water.
• Bai Xiaoxiao led the group toward the nearby Binding-Evil Shrine to investigate and ask villagers about Guangchuan.