Chapter Summaries

Jiang Chen investigated a ghost hiding in the apartment’s cabinets while Su Ling explained how much she knew about the building. After the ghost escaped his grasp, he smashed apart the cabinets and asked Su Ling about the situation downstairs.

• Jiang Chen described ways to dispose of bodies, frightening Su Ling, who revealed that she had learned about the building by hiding in homes and witnessing ghosts.
• Su Ling warned Jiang Chen that a bloody arm was emerging from a cabinet, but he insisted it was a prop and dissected it before it escaped.
• Jiang Chen searched the empty wardrobes, then tried feigning sleep to lure the ghost out, but it did not return.
• Jiang Chen smashed apart nearly all the cabinets and asked Su Ling to tell him about the situation downstairs.

Jiang Chen heard Su Ling’s account of a man whose murdered wife kept returning, and he eagerly set out to investigate the couple. Su Ling followed him, hoping he could help her escape the residential complex.

• Jiang Chen unnerved Su Ling with his talk of funeral work, and she nervously told him what she knew about the residents downstairs.
• Su Ling described how a man repeatedly killed his wife, only for her to return each time, and how he eventually murdered a neighboring family’s child and parents.
• Jiang Chen reacted with excitement to the story of the unkillable wife and decided to test the couple’s devotion.
• Su Ling followed Jiang Chen downstairs because she saw him as her only hope of escaping the complex.
• Jiang Chen carried a wooden crate and called out that he was collecting unwanted wives and offering replacements.

Jiang Chen posed as a wife recycler and arranged a grisly exchange with a man desperate to get rid of his ghostly wife. He left with the man’s wife sealed in a suitcase and gave him a box that supposedly held a new wife.

• Jiang Chen offered to exchange the man’s wife for a new one, and the man invited Jiang Chen and Su Ling inside.
• The man’s wife came out of the bathroom, and Jiang Chen recognized the stench of decay beneath her shower-gel fragrance.
• The man explained that his wife had cheated on him and asked how to recycle her; Jiang Chen said she had to be taken away without trouble.
• The man stabbed his wife in the kitchen, packed her into a suitcase, and warned Jiang Chen not to open it for half an hour.
• Jiang Chen inspected the suitcase, claimed the man’s wife was inside, and told him to wait until they left before opening the box he had brought.

Jiang Chen rejected Su Ling’s plan to hide until morning and continued through the complex, encouraging her to help its residents. After Su Ling revealed Lao Liu’s crimes and the grisly story behind his guesthouse, Jiang Chen questioned how she knew so much, and she began to confess her own secret.

• Jiang Chen urged Su Ling to help the complex’s residents instead of hiding, then received Ghost Qi from the impatient ghost Jiang Qian waiting on the fifth floor.
• Su Ling warned Jiang Chen that Lao Liu secretly peeped on guesthouse couples and blackmailed female guests, then recounted how a murderer killed him after he discovered a woman’s severed fingers plugging the holes.
• Jiang Chen asked Su Ling how she knew Lao Liu’s history in such detail.
• Su Ling admitted she expected Jiang Chen to abandon her once he learned what had happened to her, and began to explain her secret.

Jiang Chen listened as Su Ling explained the frightening events surrounding her younger sister, Su Qiao, and why she had fled her sixth-floor home. He suspected Su Ling might actually be Su Qiao, but her insistence that her sister was real left the mystery unresolved, so he decided to investigate the sixth floor.

• Su Ling told Jiang Chen that residents on higher floors were more terrifying and that the sixth floor had only one household.
• Su Ling recounted how Su Qiao named a neighbor who died that night, displayed strange behavior, and later died after jumping from the building.
• Su Ling said her parents fled the complex, while she remained outside at night and continued hearing Su Qiao's voice.
• Jiang Chen questioned whether Su Ling was actually Su Qiao, but Su Ling firmly denied it and said her sister had existed.
• Jiang Chen accepted that the situation was more complicated than he understood and decided to go to the sixth floor to investigate.

Jiang Chen brought Su Ling and a suitcase containing a corpse to Lao Liu’s guesthouse, while Lao Liu mistook them for killers and secretly watched them. After seeing Jiang Chen nail pieces of the corpse to the wall, Lao Liu was terrified and feared that Jiang Chen had noticed him.

• Jiang Chen told Lao Liu that he, Su Ling, and his wife in the suitcase needed a room, and Lao Liu led them to one.
• Lao Liu secretly watched Jiang Chen and Su Ling through a hole in the wall and overheard words that made him think they planned to kill him.
• Jiang Chen disappeared from the room, and Lao Liu saw shadows beneath his door before they moved away.
• Jiang Chen returned with a hammer and steel nails, opened the suitcase, and revealed pieces of a corpse.
• Jiang Chen nailed the corpse pieces to Lao Liu’s wall, and Lao Liu fell backward after seeing the dead woman’s face pointed toward him.
• Jiang Chen opened the door after hearing a noise, leaving Lao Liu afraid that he had been discovered.

Jiang Chen killed the half-step vengeful ghost Old Liu, then told Su Ling he had peacefully sent the ghost on. As he discussed helping Su Ling learn the work of sending ghosts on, another ghostly disturbance drew him back toward their previous room.

• Jiang Chen entered Old Liu's room, discovered the peephole in the wall, and struck him with a hammer.
• Old Liu revealed his ghostly form, but Jiang Chen used the Great Strength Bull Demon Fist and Assassination Short Knife to kill him, then closed his eyes.
• Su Ling asked Jiang Chen how he could kill ghosts, and he claimed he had resolved Old Liu's obsession and sent him on in peace.
• Jiang Chen agreed to help Su Ling learn how to send ghosts on and considered seeking someone to assess her unusual spiritual qualities.
• A woman began slapping the wall and cursing from the room, and Jiang Chen hurried toward it with interest.

Jiang Chen repeatedly re-nailed a female ghost to the wall whenever she nearly escaped, harvesting over 3,200 Ghost Qi before she died. He then decided to tell her husband in room 102 about her death and set off with Su Ling.

• Jiang Chen and Su Ling watched as the female ghost struggled against the iron nails pinning her body parts to the wall.
• When the ghost freed a severed hand, Jiang Chen stepped on it and nailed it back to the wall, provoking her furious curses and earning Ghost Qi.
• Jiang Chen told Su Ling he was relieving the ghost’s pent-up distress, and she praised him while realizing how to speak to him safely.
• The female ghost repeatedly tried to escape, and Jiang Chen re-nailed her body parts until she died.
• Jiang Chen counted more than 3,200 Ghost Qi from the Vicious Ghost and went with Su Ling to tell the man in room 102 about his wife’s death.

Jiang Chen found the female ghost hiding inside the corpse in apartment 102 and killed her, then asked Su Ling about the dangers on the third floor. After hearing how the Mimicking Ghost killed the family in apartment 302, he went upstairs, wondering whether it could imitate screams.

• Jiang Chen broke into apartment 102, found the dead man in a cabinet, and smashed apart the other cabinets while searching for the female ghost.
• The female ghost crawled out of the corpse, but Jiang Chen surprised her and crushed her skull with his Iron Hand.
• Jiang Chen asked Su Ling about the third-floor residents, and she warned him they were more dangerous than the residents below.
• Su Ling described how the Mimicking Ghost had imitated the voices of the husband and wife to lure and kill the family in apartment 302.
• Su Ling warned that the ghost still called to passersby from apartment 302, and Jiang Chen headed upstairs wondering whether it could imitate screams.

Jiang Chen saved Su Ling from a ghost by killing it and discovered that a powerful presence, apparently her younger sister Su Qiao, hid in her shadow. He then tried to lure Zhang Lina out of apartment 302 by pretending to be her husband’s coworker and threatening her son’s safety.

• Su Ling heard her dead mother’s voice, turned around, and found a ghost boy approaching her while Jiang Chen walked ahead.
• Jiang Chen returned, grabbed the ghost boy, and killed him with the Kui Ox Drum, earning Ghost Qi.
• Jiang Chen sensed a half-step blood garment in Su Ling’s shadow and received a Ghost Qi notification from Su Qiao.
• Jiang Chen carried the boy’s corpse upstairs and tried to trick Zhang Lina into opening apartment 302, but she saw through his excuses.
• Jiang Chen held the boy’s clothes to the peephole and asked Zhang Lina whether she wanted her son to be bullied.

Jiang Chen subdued the woman in apartment 302 and used her to lure her husband, Sun Kai, home. Sun Kai followed a trail to apartment 201 to find his wife, unaware that Jiang Chen had crept up behind him.

• Jiang Chen knocked the knife from the female ghost's hand, beat her nearly senseless, and forced her to call her husband.
• Jiang Chen hid with the woman and Su Ling in the water valve room as her husband, Sun Kai, arrived at apartment 302.
• Jiang Chen called out, "Sun, want a wife?" and Sun Kai refused before entering his apartment and discovering his wife was gone.
• Sun Kai followed the muffled sounds to apartment 201, where he found his wife nailed to a wall and removed the hammer from her mouth.
• Sun Kai's wife warned him that someone was behind him, as a figure had silently followed him into the room.

Jiang Chen and Su Ling dealt with two ghosts before learning about the dangerous soul-summoning rituals in apartment 301. Jiang Chen went to confront the woman performing them and introduced himself as a dead person arriving on the seventh day after death.

• Jiang Chen killed Sun Kai, a mid-level vengeful ghost, and his ghostly wife while Su Ling watched from a cabinet.
• Jiang Chen praised Su Ling for supporting his mission to cleanse the building, and she warned him about the horrors in apartment 301.
• Su Ling explained that the resident of 301 had been summoning ghosts while trying to bring back her dead husband and son, and that strangers she lured inside never returned.
• Jiang Chen eagerly headed to apartment 301 with Su Ling, knocked on the door, and told the woman he had heard she was summoning souls and that it was the seventh day after their deaths.

Jiang Chen and Su Ling entered a grieving woman’s apartment after she summoned them, discovering that she had murdered people to feed the ghosts of her husband and son. When a ghost emerged in the guest room, Jiang Chen woke and prepared to deal with it.

• Jiang Chen and Su Ling accepted the woman’s invitation to enter her apartment, where Jiang Chen noticed a dead young man in the kitchen.
• The woman offered them water and asked them to stay the night, while Jiang Chen taunted her about sacrificing her family to help her.
• Jiang Chen and Su Ling went to the guest room without drinking the water, and Jiang Chen fell asleep while Su Ling stayed alert.
• Su Ling heard banging from the wardrobe and felt a cold hand reach from under the bed, but Jiang Chen did not respond when she called him.
• Jiang Chen woke when Su Ling shouted about a ghost and heard someone in the wardrobe sobbing that they wanted to die; he stood up and said it was easy.

Jiang Chen confronted a Suicide Ghost and cheerfully offered an array of gruesome ways to die, unsettling both the ghost and Su Ling. He drove steel nails into the ghost’s soul, but the Vengeful Ghost broke free and threatened to make Jiang Chen suffer.

• Jiang Chen opened the wardrobe and found a Suicide Ghost who demanded that he help him die.
• Jiang Chen laid out tools and described numerous painful killing methods, frightening the Suicide Ghost and the Under-the-Bed Ghost while Su Ling trembled.
• The Suicide Ghost chose a method, and Jiang Chen pinned him against the wall and drove a steel nail through his forehead and nails through his palms.
• The wounded Suicide Ghost broke free of the nails, revealed his Vengeful Ghost aura, and vowed to make Jiang Chen suffer ten times as much.

Jiang Chen killed Suicide Ghost and Under-the-Bed Ghost while Su Ling watched, then heard a married couple arguing in apartment 401. He decided not to intervene yet, confident that no ghost in the building would escape that night.

• Jiang Chen used the Green-Skinned Little Drum to stun Suicide Ghost, then cut off his head.
• Under-the-Bed Ghost emerged from beneath the bed, and Jiang Chen killed him after frightening him with Suicide Ghost’s severed head.
• Jiang Chen mistakenly claimed he had killed Under-the-Bed Ghost while trying to cure his fear, and Su Ling comforted him.
• Jiang Chen heard a couple arguing upstairs and moved toward the window, but Su Ling begged him not to leave her alone.
• Jiang Chen gave up on going upstairs and decided he had time to deal with every ghost in the building that night.

Jiang Chen confronted a ghost that tried to convince him he was dead, but he mistook himself for a ghost and the Sudden Death Ghost for a living person. The ghost was left bewildered as Jiang Chen prepared to make it his first victim.

• Jiang Chen investigated chopping sounds in the kitchen and noticed that one of the legs by the entrance had disappeared.
• Jiang Chen saw his gruesome death reflected in the bathroom mirror, while Su Ling saw the injuries that had killed her.
• The Sudden Death Ghost used the mirror to make Jiang Chen realize he was dead, but Jiang Chen concluded that he had become a ghost and gained Ghost Qi for the ghost.
• The Sudden Death Ghost emerged from the mirror and attacked Jiang Chen, who slapped it into a wall.
• The ghost tried to suggest that one of them was alive, but Jiang Chen decided the ghost was a living person and threatened to make it his first achievement as a ghost.

Jiang Chen exorcised the Sudden Death Ghost through brutal methods and told Su Ling that exorcism meant healing souls. He then entered the kitchen, where he found a starving, skeletal man cooking soup beside a corpse, and asked whether it was cooked.

• The Sudden Death Ghost infected Jiang Chen with black blood, but Jiang Chen used the Kui Ox Drum to resist it.
• Jiang Chen tortured the Sudden Death Ghost with a knife, nails, and an iron chain until the ghost's soul scattered.
• Su Ling praised Jiang Chen's methods, and he explained that exorcists helped ghosts release their burdens and move on to reincarnation.
• Jiang Chen and Su Ling went to the kitchen, where Jiang Chen found a young man's corpse and a skeletal man cooking soup while eating his own hand.
• The skeletal man turned toward Jiang Chen, who asked whether the soup was cooked and derailed the man's thoughts.

Jiang Chen confronted the Starving Ghost, then subdued and mutilated him after resisting his hunger curse. He spared the ghost and carried him toward the woman’s bedroom, while Su Ling grew more terrified of Jiang Chen.

• Jiang Chen taunted the Starving Ghost over whether his soup was cooked and provoked him into attacking.
• The Starving Ghost’s hunger curse made Su Ling crave eating Jiang Chen, but she recognized him and backed away in fear.
• Jiang Chen used the Kui Ox Drum to overpower the Starving Ghost, tear off his arms, and cut into his abdomen.
• The Starving Ghost unleashed a curse that made Jiang Chen hungry, but Jiang Chen endured it until the ghost’s Yin Qi was depleted.
• Jiang Chen crushed the Starving Ghost’s organs, cut off his legs, dubbed him the Tragically-Died Ghost, and carried him toward the woman’s bedroom.

Jiang Chen forced the mistress of Unit 301 to perform Soul Summoning, then left her alone with the injured Starving Ghost. As he and Su Ling departed, the ghost turned on the woman, driven by hunger.

• Jiang Chen frightened the Unit 301 mistress with the mutilated Starving Ghost and stabbed her hand when she tried to seduce him.
• Jiang Chen made the woman perform Soul Summoning, and he noticed the ritual drained her blood vitality.
• The woman explained that Zhang Chunyu had taught her the ritual after she encountered Building 14 and searched for her dead husband and son.
• Jiang Chen left the Starving Ghost in the woman's home and warned it that only one of them could survive.
• The Starving Ghost fixed its gaze on the woman and attacked, desperate for Yin Qi.

Jiang Chen killed the starving ghost in Apartment 301, counted the Ghost Qi he had gained, and recovered after exhausting himself with the Kui Ox Drum. Despite Su Ling urging him not to climb higher, he insisted on continuing up the building to confront the ghosts upstairs.

• Jiang Chen recorded the Soul-Summoning Ritual while the starving ghost killed the woman inside the apartment.
• Jiang Chen killed the starving ghost with the Kui Ox Drum and a knife, then checked his gains and found he had earned more than twenty-nine thousand Ghost Qi.
• Jiang Chen noticed that Su Qiao had awakened in Su Ling's shadow but restrained her weak killing intent.
• Su Ling urged Jiang Chen to leave the complex rather than face the scarier residents on the fourth and fifth floors.
• Jiang Chen declared that he would keep climbing, swallowed a pill that restored his energy, and prepared to continue upstairs.