Recaps

Zhong Xueran encountered a malicious Red Umbrella Woman and tried to lead it down the mountain while searching for Meat Slope. Shen Hai, Xia Nan, and Yan Xiao realized the ghost had likely been sent to target her and suspected someone was hunting players for their Spirit Pupils.

• Zhong Xueran told the Red Umbrella Woman she would take it to Meat Slope, and it agreed while showing clear malice toward her.
• Zhong Xueran noticed a familiar figure at the foot of the mountain and suspected someone from the [Eye Realm] had released the ghost to kill her.
• Shen Hai, Xia Nan, and Yan Xiao reached the mountain road and sensed the presence of a Ghost Story near Little Chongyang Temple.
• Shen Hai suggested Zhong Xueran might be caught in the same trap as other missing players or watched by another group.
• Xia Nan realized the attackers might be collecting players' Spirit Pupils outside the [Eye Realm], and Shen Hai agreed.

Xia Nan, Shen Hai, and Yan Xiao investigated Zhong Xueran’s disappearance and suspected someone had trapped her in an artificially created ghost story. Meanwhile, Qin Manjiang questioned Abyss about Xu Yi and feared Doctor Yi’s idea of keeping people alive might involve desecrating the dead.

• Daoist Li showed Xia Nan, Shen Hai, and Yan Xiao where Zhong Xueran’s phone had fallen, and Xia Nan examined the footprints nearby.
• Xia Nan concluded Zhong Xueran had likely been composed when she disappeared, while Shen Hai warned that a ghost’s taboo could still prove fatal.
• Shen Hai suggested that someone with an [Eye Realm Phone] might have created a ghost story to target Zhong Xueran, and Xia Nan agreed it was possible.
• Yan Xiao reasoned that the person who released the ghost story was probably still nearby, so he, Shen Hai, and Xia Nan set out to find them.
• Qin Manjiang asked Abyss where he had heard the name Xu Yi, but Abyss could not remember and worried that he had done something wrong.
• Qin Manjiang reassured Abyss and reflected that Doctor Yi, not Abyss, had desecrated Xu Yi’s remains, while questioning what Doctor Yi meant by keeping people alive.

Qin Manjiang drove to Guanyin Lake to fulfill the first requirement of his Personal Challenge, explaining the lake’s deadly history to Abyss along the way. After the road to the lake vanished, Qin Manjiang entered the woods alone and heard rushing water as he approached.

• Qin Manjiang passed the closed Clear Pupil Bar and told Abyss to drive to Guanyin Lake, where he needed to check in for five consecutive days.
• Qin Manjiang explained that Guanyin Village had been flooded after its upstream floodgates opened, and that divers and investigators later disappeared, died, or went mad at the lake.
• Abyss chose Yi as his surname and asked Qin Manjiang to give him a given name, but Qin Manjiang could not think of one.
• Qin Manjiang and Abyss found that the road leading toward Guanyin Flat Lake had disappeared, so Qin Manjiang got out and headed through the woods on foot.
• Qin Manjiang found soaked belongings beneath the leaves, lost sight of the road, and heard the roar of surging water beneath the sound of rain.

Qin Manjiang reached Guanyin Flat Lake but received no task-completion notification, leading him to suspect he needed to reach the submerged Guanyin Village in the lake’s center. He met a mysterious fisherman whose line snapped while he was trying to catch a huge creature, and Qin Manjiang asked to join him in the boat.

• Qin Manjiang reached Guanyin Flat Lake and remembered the deadly arms that had once risen from its waters.
• Qin Manjiang realized the task might require him to reach Guanyin Village beneath the middle of the lake, and he spotted a fisherman beside a small boat.
• Qin Manjiang asked the fisherman about the boat and helped him land a fish that the fisherman said ate human flesh.
• The fisherman’s line snapped as a huge shadow neared the surface, and he jumped into the boat to pursue it.
• Qin Manjiang called out and asked the fisherman to take him along.

Qin Manjiang explored Guanyin Flat Lake with a fisherman searching for his drowned daughter, and reached the location of Guanyin Village. The drowned villagers seized their boat, leaving Qin Manjiang to propose a way to escape.

• Qin Manjiang boarded the fisherman's boat and noticed the man used a Barbie doll as bait.
• The fisherman told Qin Manjiang that a Water Ghost had dragged his daughter underwater and that he had been trying to fish her out ever since.
• Qin Manjiang took the oars and rowed farther across the lake, where a notification confirmed that his first day of exploration was complete.
• As Qin Manjiang tried to turn back, the boat stopped moving, and strange ripples revealed something beneath it.
• The fisherman struck the water with an oar, and writhing shadows rose beneath the boat as the drowned villagers pushed against the hull.
• Qin Manjiang examined the situation and told the fisherman he had an idea.

Qin Manjiang and Long Sen escaped Guanyin Flat Lake after throwing the Bow Lamp into the water, where it revealed a mass of corpses. After Long Sen admitted the corpses had dragged his daughter Lele into the lake, Qin Manjiang asked him to investigate why the upstream sluice gate had been opened, and Long Sen agreed.

• Qin Manjiang told the Fisherman to throw the Bow Lamp away, and the Fisherman hurled it into the lake.
• Qin Manjiang and the Fisherman rowed toward shore as the sinking lamp revealed corpses swarming beneath the water.
• Qin Manjiang stopped the Fisherman from looking back, and they escaped onto shore and into the woods.
• The Fisherman identified the corpses as the ones that had dragged Lele into the water and said he planned to drain the lake.
• Qin Manjiang warned Long Sen that draining the lake could send the corpses downstream, then asked him to investigate why the upstream sluice gate had been opened.
• Long Sen agreed to use his resources to investigate the sluice gate incident.

Qin Manjiang realized Long Sen had parked at a closed-off ramp and suspected that the man might be a ghost. Meanwhile, Long Sen saw a figure wearing Lele’s hair clip rise from the lake, but a female water ghost seized him and dragged him underwater.

• Qin Manjiang found a notice showing that the South Lin Suburban Off-Ramp had been closed two months earlier and wondered if Long Sen was a ghost.
• Qin Manjiang spotted an indistinct figure at the edge of the woods as Long Sen walked toward the shore.
• Long Sen recalled that Lele had been dragged into the lake and that he had spent years fishing with her belongings in hopes of finding her.
• Long Sen saw Lele’s hair clip on a figure emerging from the water, then realized the swollen figure was not his daughter.
• The female ghost took Long Sen’s hand and pulled him step by step into the lake, where he drowned.

Qin Manjiang saw a water-soaked Long Sen silently shake his head before vanishing, then asked Abyss for a favor after returning to the car. Meanwhile, Zhong Xueran was trapped on a mountain with an umbrella-carrying ghost and had to keep searching for the nonexistent Meat Slope.

• Qin Manjiang saw Long Sen standing drenched at the edge of the woods, shaking his head before disappearing when the moonlight was obscured.
• Qin Manjiang suspected Long Sen had become a ghost and wondered whether his head shake meant he should stop investigating the sluice gate.
• Abyss waited by the car, and Qin Manjiang told him the challenge had not gone well before asking him for a favor.
• Zhong Xueran reasoned that someone had likely been waiting near Little Chongyang Temple to target her, possibly someone connected to the Paleontology Research Association.
• Zhong Xueran continued leading the umbrella-carrying ghost through the grave-filled mountain, claiming Meat Slope was near even though she knew no such place existed.

Shen Hai and Yan Xiao searched for the person who had drawn Zhong Xueran into a ghost story, while Xia Nan tracked her footprints. Yan Xiao identified the missing temple Daoist as Yu Zeming and connected him to Zhao Fengchuan and the earlier Qiao Family Village incident.

• Xia Nan followed Zhong Xueran’s footprints, while Shen Hai reasoned that her attacker must have a stable place to stay near Little Chongyang Temple.
• Shen Hai learned the temple did not permit long-term stays and went down the mountain to search the nearby homes.
• Yan Xiao entered the temple and questioned Daoist Li about its other Daoists, concluding that Zhong Xueran’s attacker might be staying inside.
• Daoist Li and the young Daoist explained that a privately appointed Daoist named Yu had been requested by Patron Zhao, Zhao Fengchuan of Moon City.
• Yan Xiao recalled that Zhao Fengchuan had hired a Daoist in the Qiao Family Village incident, and the young Daoist confirmed that the missing man was Yu Zeming.

Zhong Xueran searched the graveyard for the mysterious Meat Slope while the red-umbrella ghost gave her only a little more time to answer. After discovering the ghost’s strange layers of clothing, she faced its three-minute deadline without yet identifying the slope.

• Yan Xiao learned that Yu Zeming had been hired by Zhao Fengchuan again and left the temple.
• Zhong Xueran led the red-umbrella ghost through the graveyard, trying to find a slope called Meat Slope before the ghost killed her.
• She realized that the ghost might be seeking its own grave and began looking for a burial site without offerings.
• Zhong Xueran slipped in the mud and collided with the ghost, tearing its outer black paper clothes and revealing older garments underneath.
• The ghost stared at Zhong Xueran and told her she had three minutes.

Zhong Xueran escaped the Vengeful Ghost by realizing that the ancient name “Meat Slope” referred to Moon Slope, where the ghost’s untended grave lay. Her body returned to normal after the ghost vanished, and she reunited with Xia Nan on the mountain path.

• Zhong Xueran discovered that she had only minutes to find Meat Slope, while her body began shrinking and the Vengeful Ghost approached.
• Zhong Xueran realized the ghost wore ancient clothing beneath its black paper disguise and inferred that the disguise concealed a clue to escaping the Ghost Story.
• Zhong Xueran connected the ancient meaning of “meat” to “moon” and identified the crescent-shaped Moon Slope as the ghost’s destination.
• The Vengeful Ghost walked to an untended grave on Moon Slope and disappeared, restoring Zhong Xueran’s body to normal.
• Zhong Xueran left candy at the grave and returned to the main road, where she found Xia Nan waiting.

Qin Manjiang discovered that Abyss was an imitation of himself housed in Xu Yi’s body, created by Yi Lianhai and suffering from painful restrictions. After learning that Abyss wanted to stand in the rain, Qin Manjiang gave him the name Yi Yu, leaving him smiling as Qin Manjiang feared the fate awaiting him.

• Abyss revealed his face beneath a human-skin mask, and Qin Manjiang recognized Xu Yi.
• Abyss named Yi Lianhai as his maker, but trying to explain more caused him severe pain.
• Qin Manjiang realized Yi Lianhai treated Abyss as a disposable experiment and felt sorrow for him.
• Abyss said he wanted to stand in the rain because it was cool and quiet.
• Qin Manjiang named him Yi Yu, and Yi Yu smiled at his new name.

Qin Manjiang learned that Yi Lianhai had used the Doctor to create Yi Yu and had likely taken several bodies, while Yan Xiao admitted he had trusted the Doctor to revive a dead patient. Before the group could question Yi Yu, a new Ghost Story Game began and announced “Hide-and-Seek.”

• Xia Nan and Shen Hai told Qin Manjiang that Yu Zeming had attacked Zhong Xueran and that Zhao Fengchuan was likely the Paleontology Research Association’s head, Yi Lianhai.
• Qin Manjiang confirmed that Yi Lianhai was the Doctor Yan Xiao had trusted, and Yan Xiao recounted how the Doctor had revived a patient after Yan Xiao’s surgical mistake.
• Zhong Xueran learned that Yan Xiao had handed Xu Yi’s body to the Doctor, while Shen Hai warned that the Doctor might also have taken the backup bodies of Shen Hai, Mei Sijun, and Qiao Ziruo.
• A new Ghost Story Game began, transporting Qin Manjiang and the others into the Eye Realm.
• The eighth Spirit Pupil Dark Spot announced the new Ghost Story: “Hide-and-Seek.”

On August 12, Qin Manjiang learned that his friend Li Xijiu was trapped in a cinema on the previous night, despite a fire there that appeared to have killed everyone. After Li begged him to save him, Qin Manjiang promised to bring him back.

• Qin Manjiang skipped class to care for his unconscious sister, Qin Manyi, and remembered how their father, Old Qin, had drowned after Qin Manyi witnessed his death.
• Li Xijiu called Qin Manjiang from Threshold Cinema on South Sky Road, saying it was August 11 at night and describing strange people in the theater.
• Qin Manjiang heard a news report that a fire had destroyed Threshold Cinema and realized Li Xijiu was calling from the past.
• Li Xijiu sent Qin Manjiang a message asking him to save him.
• Qin Manjiang told Li Xijiu to hide and stay alive, then promised to bring him back.

Qin Manjiang investigated the connection between Li Xijiu’s calls and the fire at Threshold Cinema, then went to the ruins to reach him. He learned that a child had died in an earlier fire after becoming trapped in a restroom, and Li Xijiu was now trapped behind a broken restroom door as someone tried to kill him.

• Qin Manjiang searched for reports about the cinema fire and planned to enter the ruins after dark to contact Li Xijiu.
• Qin Manjiang asked the Class Monitor to look after his younger sister, Qin Manyi, that night.
• Qin Manjiang took a taxi to Threshold Cinema and learned from the driver that a child had died in a previous fire after being trapped in a restroom.
• Qin Manjiang crossed the cordon after Li Xijiu called to say a lunatic was trying to kill him and ordered him to leave the restroom.
• Li Xijiu told Qin Manjiang that he could not get out because the restroom door seemed to be broken.

Qin Manjiang entered the burned Threshold Cinema to rescue Li Xijiu, who was trapped there in the past, and discovered an eerie game link tied to the haunting. The same link revealed that Qin Manjiang had opened the game two years earlier, and he pressed the sinister face on the screen in anger.

• Qin Manjiang crossed into Threshold Cinema’s ruins and climbed upstairs to find Li Xijiu in the restroom.
• Qin Manjiang noticed the ruins looked uncleared despite the firefighters’ search and found the last stall standing, empty in his present.
• Li Xijiu told Qin Manjiang he had come to the cinema to play a game after receiving a link from him.
• Qin Manjiang opened Li Xijiu’s old link and saw the same blood-red smiling face he had encountered two years earlier.
• Qin Manjiang remembered his younger sister Qin Manyi taking his phone after he first opened the link, then pressed the face on the screen and cursed it.

Qin Manjiang chose the code name Abyss and was transported back in time to the intact Threshold Cinema, where the ghost story game began. He reunited with Li Xijiu and planned to evade a machete-wielding figure and investigate the cinema’s past fire.

• Qin Manjiang entered Abyss as his code name, and the game assigned him the Threshold Cinema ghost story in personal mode.
• The game transported Qin Manjiang backward through time to the cinema before its fire, where he saw a message announcing the start of the game.
• Qin Manjiang reunited with Li Xijiu in the restroom and learned that a nearly three-meter-tall figure with a machete was patrolling outside.
• After hearing eerie laughter and seeing black handprints appear on the mirrors, Qin Manjiang planned for one of them to distract the figure while the other went downstairs for information about the old fire and its dead.
• Li Xijiu agreed to lead the figure around the screening rooms, then told Qin Manjiang his code name was Invincible Tyrannosaurus Warrior.

Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu were hunted through the cinema by two ghosts, and Qin Manjiang discovered the tall wraith’s clothes were its weakness. After they reached the first floor, they found the cinema doors opened onto endless darkness rather than Fu City, leaving them trapped in the Game.

• Li Xijiu lured the tall wraith away while Qin Manjiang tried to reach the first floor, but a charred child ghost blocked the stairs and forced him back.
• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu reunited while fleeing both ghosts, and Qin Manjiang asked about the movie theater where Li Xijiu had been.
• The tall wraith attacked Li Xijiu, but Qin Manjiang tore its clothes, making it abandon its machete and search for the scraps as they escaped downstairs.
• Qin Manjiang deduced that the ghosts were a father and son who had worn matching outfits, and Li Xijiu questioned why only the child appeared burned.
• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu tried to leave through the cinema entrance but found only a vast darkness beyond it, then Qin Manjiang turned back while Li Xijiu called after him with his back thrown out.

Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu used the cinema’s old floor plans and work log to discover that Screening Room Three had been retired after the fire, then fled into the forbidden theater to escape the Tall Wraith. The Tall Wraith could not enter, but the audience inside turned their heads toward them.

• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu pieced together five floor-plan fragments while hiding beneath the ticket counter, and Li Xijiu found a work log.
• Li Xijiu sensed danger and pulled Qin Manjiang away just before the Tall Wraith split the counter with its cleaver.
• Qin Manjiang read the work log and realized that the fire had begun in the now-retired Screening Room Three, which did not exist in the cinema’s current layout.
• Li Xijiu distracted the Tall Wraith while Qin Manjiang solved the clue, then they ran toward Screening Room Three.
• The Tall Wraith struck Li Xijiu’s forearm with its cleaver as they reached the room, but Qin Manjiang dragged him inside before the ghost could seize them.
• The Tall Wraith turned away from the doorway, but Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu saw the audience members turn their heads completely around to stare at them.

Qin Manjiang and the wounded Li Xijiu hid among the ghosts in the Screening Room, where a movie revealed the tragic story of a father and son who died in the cinema fire ten years earlier. The audience vanished after the film ended, leaving Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu alone as the danger outside remained unresolved.

• Qin Manjiang led Li Xijiu to empty seats and deduced that the ghosts would leave them alone if they stayed quiet and watched the screen.
• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu took their seats, and the static on the screen changed into a film showing a father bringing his son from their mountain village to Fu City.
• The film showed the father and son entering the cinema, where the boy became trapped in a restroom stall when a fire broke out.
• The father failed to reach his son, escaped the burning building with a firefighter's help, and later died by suicide, while the boy and other audience members perished in the fire.
• The film ended and the ghostly audience disappeared, leaving Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu alone in the Screening Room.

Qin Manjiang carried the wounded Li Xijiu through the burning cinema while the Tall Wraith pursued them. After realizing the cinema’s window was the way out, Qin Manjiang tried to lead Li Xijiu there, but Li revealed that he could not return.

• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu fled the fire, but collapsing rubble blocked their route and the Tall Wraith pursued them.
• The Tall Wraith stabbed itself, causing Li Xijiu to suffer the same wound, and Li warned Qin Manjiang not to meet its eyes.
• Qin Manjiang carried Li Xijiu past the Little Ghost and recognized it as the dead child who had followed him from the real world.
• Qin Manjiang recalled the story’s clues and realized that the window beside the last restroom stall was the way out of the cinema.
• Li Xijiu faced the Tall Wraith as Qin Manjiang tried to pull him toward the exit, then said that he could not go back.

Qin Manjiang realized that Li Xijiu had died and had been guiding him through the Ghost Story Game while fighting to protect him. As the theater collapsed, Li Xijiu threw Qin Manjiang to safety, and Qin Manjiang understood that Li Xijiu’s consciousness had vanished in the flames.

• Qin Manjiang recognized that the message from Li Xijiu had come after Li Xijiu’s death and that the ghost had repeatedly saved him despite being drawn toward killing him.
• Li Xijiu fought the Tall Wraith while Little Ghost tried to lead Qin Manjiang to safety, and Qin Manjiang urged Li Xijiu to return to the real world.
• The Tall Wraith’s blade and body sank into Li Xijiu as the two ghosts fused, and Li Xijiu also swallowed Little Ghost.
• Li Xijiu carried Qin Manjiang through the collapsing theater and told him that there was no separate Ghost Story World and that Little Ghost existed because of the game.
• Li Xijiu called himself Qin Manjiang’s dead end, said he was happy, and threw Qin Manjiang out of the window to keep him alive.
• The theater exploded, and Qin Manjiang realized that Li Xijiu’s consciousness had disappeared completely.

After surviving the Threshold Cinema fire, Qin Manjiang unlocked multiplayer and other modes in the Strange Tales game and learned that Li Xijiu was not among the recovered victims. As he left the police station, he learned that his sister Qin Manyi had woken up—and killed someone.

• Qin Manjiang woke among the ruins of the Threshold Cinema, found the Strange Tales game icon on his phone, and unlocked multiplayer, challenge, and exploration modes, along with a player leaderboard.
• Qin Manjiang went to the police station to ask whether Li Xijiu was among the victims, and an officer confirmed that the victims’ DNA did not match Li Xijiu’s.
• Qin Manjiang filed a missing-person report for Li Xijiu and held onto the possibility that his friend had survived.
• The class monitor called Qin Manjiang and told him that Qin Manyi had woken up in the hospital.
• The class monitor warned Qin Manjiang that Qin Manyi had killed someone.

At Giantwood Hospital, Xi Wutong questioned Qin Manjiang about his sister Qin Manyi, who had been unconscious but was accused of murdering a villager. Qin Manyi had confessed despite having an apparent hospital alibi, and when Qin Manjiang finally saw her, she did not recognize him.

• Xi Wutong questioned Qin Manjiang about Qin Manyi’s illness, their father’s death, and their family circumstances.
• Xi Wutong told Qin Manjiang that Qin Manyi was suspected of murdering a villager from their hometown, though she had been hospitalized and unconscious.
• Qin Manjiang insisted Qin Manyi could not have committed the murder, but Xi Wutong said eyewitnesses identified her and she had confessed.
• Qin Manjiang thanked the class monitor for offering to testify and told her he planned to withdraw from school because he could not return to a normal life.
• Qin Manjiang entered the intensive care ward and found Qin Manyi chatting with a police officer; she looked at him and asked who he was.

Qin Manjiang rejected Qin Manyi as his sister and said he would try to retrieve her lost memories while investigating the murder in Hometown and his father's death. After Xi Wutong recognized the Ghost Story Game icon on his phone, they met that night, where Qin Manjiang asked whether she believed in ghosts.

• Qin Manjiang told Xi Wutong that the girl in the Special Care Ward was not his sister because she looked at him with unfamiliarity.
• Qin Manjiang described people as cameras defined by their memories and said he intended to retrieve Qin Manyi's lost memories.
• Xi Wutong said Qin Manyi would not be prosecuted for the murder while the case was secretly reopened, and she guessed Qin Manjiang planned to investigate the murder and his father's death.
• Xi Wutong saw the Ghost Story Game icon on Qin Manjiang's phone, reacted with alarm, and arranged to meet him that night.
• Xi Wutong contacted someone to investigate Qin Manjiang, then met him at eight that evening.
• Qin Manjiang asked Xi Wutong whether she believed in ghosts.