Chapter Summaries

At the Binding-Evil Shrine, Bai Xiaoxiao’s mention of Guangchuan sent the old groundskeeper fleeing to his death before he could explain what he knew. Ning Qiushui connected the village’s suspicious guesthouse and cafeteria arrangement to an old painting depicting a drought, leaving the group to wonder what the villagers had done.

• Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng reached the Binding-Evil Shrine and learned from its groundskeeper that two people had visited the previous night.
• When Bai Xiaoxiao asked about Guangchuan, Ning Qiushui showed the groundskeeper Guangchuan’s memorial tablet, and the terrified old man fled into a drainage channel and died on a wooden stake.
• Ning Qiushui suggested that the village cafeteria had once been a guesthouse for visitors, while the supposedly haunted house had been converted into their lodging.
• The group examined a gold statue and a painting of villagers confronting a bound family against a drought-stricken landscape.
• Ning Qiushui murmured, “The kindhearted bled dry and became life-giving rain...”

Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng discovered that Guang Xiu had been killed during a famine and suspected Guangchuan was his son. When Bai Xiaoxiao opened a hidden recess behind the annotation, they found two missing tourists’ corpses inside and were confronted by the old man who had warned them not to touch anything.

• Liu Chengfeng found Guang Xiu’s name in the annotation, which described the drought, Guang Xiu’s crimes, and the villagers’ revenge.
• Ning Qiushui and Bai Xiaoxiao suspected that Guangchuan had been Guang Xiu’s son, who supposedly died in the temple fire.
• Bai Xiaoxiao removed the annotation and revealed a recess containing two contorted corpses.
• Ning Qiushui recognized the corpses as two tourists who had entered the Blood Gate with them and gone missing.
• The old man appeared behind them and asked why they had ignored his warning not to touch anything in the ancestral hall.

Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng escaped a ghost in the ancestral hall by showing it Guangchuan’s spirit tablet. At a meeting with other Blood Gate participants, they learned three people had died at the mountain Temple, and Tang Jiao urged everyone to work together to survive the unusually difficult trial.

• An old man wielding scissors trapped Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng, but fled in terror after Ning Qiushui showed him Guangchuan’s spirit tablet.
• The three left the ancestral hall and went to the village cafeteria for lunch, where Tang Jiao invited them to meet with other Blood Gate participants.
• At the meeting, Ning Qiushui asked about three missing participants, and a survivor explained that their headless bodies had rolled down from the mountain near the Temple.
• Tang Jiao said she had cleared five Blood Gates but found this one unusually difficult, and warned that the participants might all die unless they worked together.

Tang Jiao organized the survivors into groups to search the village’s sightseeing spots for clues to survive the Blood Gate, then pressured Bai Xiaoxiao’s group to visit the Everlasting Well. Afterward, Ning Qiushui and Bai Xiaoxiao realized Tang Jiao had lied about visiting Fangcun Pond and suspected she had sent the three people who died at the Binding-Evil Shrine to the mountain behind the village.

• Tang Jiao proposed that the survivors split into groups and search the sightseeing spots for survival clues, while Zong Fang reluctantly agreed to go.
• Tang Jiao claimed she had already visited Fangcun Pond and demanded that Bai Xiaoxiao’s group search another spot; Bai Xiaoxiao agreed to visit the Everlasting Well.
• After the group dispersed, Ning Qiushui told Liu Chengfeng that Tang Jiao had lied about visiting Fangcun Pond.
• Bai Xiaoxiao pointed out that Tang Jiao had no time to make the round trip and suggested she had also sent the three people who died at the Binding-Evil Shrine to the mountain behind the village.

At the Everlasting Well, Ning Qiushui suspected the village had concealed the truth about Ruan Kaihuang and Guang Xiu. Liu Chengfeng was nearly dragged into the well, but Bai Xiaoxiao freed him with a bronze mirror, and he emerged with a wooden tag bearing the character “Ruan”; as someone approached, the three prepared to hide.

• Ning Qiushui theorized that Spirit Medium Ruan might descend from Ruan Kaihuang and that Guang Xiu may have been a good person whose story the villagers distorted.
• Liu Chengfeng became entranced by the Everlasting Well and struggled to climb inside while murmuring that he was thirsty.
• Ning Qiushui held Liu Chengfeng back, and Bai Xiaoxiao used her Bloodstained Bronze Mirror to drive off the force in the well, though the mirror cracked further.
• Liu Chengfeng explained that dead faces had appeared in the water and dragged him toward the well, then showed Ning Qiushui and Bai Xiaoxiao a wooden tag marked “Ruan” that he had pulled out.
• Ning Qiushui concluded that the tag supported their suspicions about Spirit Medium Ruan, then spotted someone approaching and told the others to hide.

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.