Recaps

Shen Hai and Nie Yunzhen pursued a ghost through identical passages hidden behind colored doors, trying to follow its footsteps before it could leave them lost. As Shen Hai raced ahead with excitement, Nie Yunzhen reflected on her inadequacy, the burden placed on her, and the other self tied to her Shared-Fate Lock.

• Shen Hai rushed through a vermilion door after footsteps sounded, and Nie Yunzhen followed him into a passage lined with more doors.
• Shen Hai realized that repeatedly opening doors without catching the ghost could trap them in the overlapping passages, so he told Nie Yunzhen to listen for its location.
• Nie Yunzhen reflected on her lack of ability, the responsibility others had entrusted to her, and how her other self and the Shared-Fate Lock had shaped that trust.
• Nie Yunzhen used the Shared-Fate Lock on Qin Manjiang and listened for the ghost, identifying the orange-red door when its footsteps sounded.
• Shen Hai opened the orange-red door before Nie Yunzhen could react, then continued through a blackish-red door as she struggled to keep up.
• Shen Hai eagerly pursued the ghost through the passages while Nie Yunzhen feared she would have been lost without him.

Liu Jingqing hid in the ball pit as the ghost approached, while Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai separately investigated the ghost’s location and the game’s objective. Qin Manjiang struck a bell at the fountain pool, turning on every light in the Snake Mouth District.

• Liu Jingqing stayed motionless beneath the ball-pit balls as the ghost stood nearby, then remained hidden even after its footsteps seemed to retreat.
• Qin Manjiang and Shen Hai encountered each other in the Underground Parking Lot and confirmed through their reactions that neither was the ghost.
• Shen Hai told Qin Manjiang that the ghost had started at the steps by the fountain pool, then headed toward the Shopping Mall to look for someone.
• Qin Manjiang went to the fountain pool and found a bell and a red-cloth-wrapped drumstick hanging from a frame.
• Qin Manjiang struck the bell, and every light in the Snake Mouth District came on.

Liu Jingqing escaped the Ball Pit when Nie Yunzhen drew the ghosts away, then found the Hanging Bell and rang it, saving Nie from pursuit. The renewed light also exposed Chen Zhiyuan to the headless corpse as Shen Hai watched helplessly from the elevator shaft.

• Liu Jingqing waited for the ghost to leave the ceiling, then spotted Nie Yunzhen making noise to lure it away.
• Nie Yunzhen chose the Shopping Mall to attract the multiplying ghosts and give the others a chance to ring the bell.
• Liu Jingqing raced across the Square, found the Hanging Bell in the Fountain Pool, and struck it with the mallet.
• The Snake Mouth District lit up, one ghost headed for the bell, and Nie Yunzhen escaped around a corner.
• Chen Zhiyuan shut the elevator doors against the headless corpse, which struck them as Shen Hai watched from the bottom of the shaft.

Liu Jingqing realized that the Nie Yunzhen who found her was a Vengeful Ghost in disguise, and it swallowed her before taking her appearance. Ten minutes earlier, the real Nie Yunzhen had lured ghosts away and hidden on the Shopping Mall rooftop, but a ghost found her and her Second Personality ordered her to jump.

• Liu Jingqing told Nie Yunzhen that she suspected the ghosts used sight to find players, then noticed Nie Yunzhen's point of light was missing from the map.
• The disguised Vengeful Ghost revealed itself, swallowed Liu Jingqing, and took her appearance.
• Nie Yunzhen had drawn at least two ghosts away while another player rang the bell, then escaped to the Shopping Mall rooftop during the lights-out interval.
• A ghost appeared on the rooftop, and Nie Yunzhen heard her Second Personality command her to jump as her body began moving toward the terrace.

Shen Hai recognized the Liu Jingqing figure at the Underground Parking Lot as a ghost and urged Chen Zhiyuan to flee, while Qin Manjiang found Liu Jingqing’s hair clip and rang the bell again as a ghost approached. As he ran toward the Shopping Mall, Qin Manjiang realized the bell was real and suspected the Ghost Story’s supposed Path to Survival was a deception built around it.

• Shen Hai recognized the figure resembling Liu Jingqing as a ghost and ordered Chen Zhiyuan to run.
• Qin Manjiang searched the grass near the Street Garden and found Liu Jingqing’s hair clip, fearing she had died.
• Qin Manjiang struck the hanging bell when a ghostly figure appeared, plunging the lights into darkness.
• Qin Manjiang ran toward the Shopping Mall and reasoned that the ghost’s false rules had been designed to exploit the real bell.
• Qin Manjiang concluded that the red-text Path to Survival was likely a dead end rather than the Game’s true solution.

Qin Manjiang realized the bell started a one-on-one game of hide-and-seek with the original ghost, while each ringing also spawned a dangerous duplicate. He returned to the lit Fountain Pool game area to wait for the ghost, but the one that arrived was a towering, leaping vengeful ghost that announced the game was beginning.

• Qin Manjiang deduced that ringing the hanging bell started a hide-and-seek game with the original ghost and that the supposed rule to ring it three times was a trap that spawned duplicates.
• Qin Manjiang concluded that the bell ringer would be safe from the original ghost if they stayed in the lit Fountain Pool area, but fleeing outside it could expose them to the duplicates.
• Qin Manjiang ran back to the Fountain Pool area and waited beneath a streetlight for the original ghost to enter the game area.
• A vengeful ghost leaped over a streetlight and entered the lit area instead of the pale-white ghost Qin Manjiang expected.
• The pale-white vengeful ghost appeared before Qin Manjiang and said, “Right here, let's begin... hide-and-seek...”

Qin Manjiang searched the lamplit area for the hidden Vengeful Ghost as the Countdown dwindled, while Shen Hai and Chen Zhiyuan decided to enter the Game area to try to save him. With only one minute left, Qin Manjiang had found nothing unusual and still did not know where the ghost was hiding.

• Qin Manjiang discovered that the Vengeful Ghost, Shen Hai, and Chen Zhiyuan had vanished from the illuminated area, and a ten-minute Countdown began.
• Qin Manjiang searched the Fountain Pool, steps, streetlamps, and paving tiles for something unusual but found nothing.
• Shen Hai asked Chen Zhiyuan whether he would risk dying to save someone who had failed the Game, and Chen Zhiyuan urged him to try.
• Shen Hai carried Chen Zhiyuan into the darkness to catch ghosts and save Qin Manjiang.
• With three minutes left, Qin Manjiang searched the Fountain Pool underwater, but found nothing unusual as the Countdown reached one minute.

Shen Hai realized Chen Zhiyuan had deliberately left him beside the Hanging Bell, then rang it despite understanding that the lights would endanger Chen Zhiyuan. Meanwhile, Chen Zhiyuan revealed a conversation with his future self before letting four vengeful ghosts consume him.

• Shen Hai recognized that Chen Zhiyuan had secretly returned the [Continuation Pen] while lucid and suspected that he had planned to die.
• Shen Hai hesitated to ring the Hanging Bell because doing so would light the Snake Mouth District and prevent rescuing captured players, but struck it as a ghost lunged at him.
• Chen Zhiyuan's mature self explained to his childish past self that death would let them return better and that they needed to escape the watching eyes and break the cycle.
• Chen Zhiyuan walked into a dark corner and was swallowed by four vengeful ghosts, while reassuring his past self that they would win.
• Shen Hai played rock-paper-scissors with the vengeful ghost, lost, and worried that he had nowhere to hide as it began counting down.

Nie Yunzhen gave Qin Manjiang a notebook containing Yi Lianhai’s account of Zuo Xian discovering a terrifying cave beyond Moon City. The final entry revealed Yi Lianhai’s name, leaving Qin Manjiang shaken by the notebook’s contents.

• Shen Hai asked Yan Xiao when his leg would heal and asked for Qin Manjiang, but Yan Xiao left without responding to the request.
• Nie Yunzhen asked Qin Manjiang about the world beyond Fu City and handed him an orange-yellow notebook of notes left by someone she called the beginning of everything.
• Qin Manjiang read Yi Lianhai’s account of Zuo Xian taking him beyond Moon City to a cave whose darkness seemed boundless and filled with buried horrors.
• Qin Manjiang flipped to the notebook’s final entry and found the name Yi Lianhai.

Qin Manjiang confronted Yan Xiao with the truth about Xu Yi’s body and Yi Lianhai’s motives, then reflected on the mysteries surrounding Nie Yunzhen. He left Yan Xiao to decide what to do and found Shen Hai asking to accompany him, but their conversation ended with Qin Manjiang demanding money for a replacement phone.

• Qin Manjiang told Yan Xiao that Xu Yi had become Yi Yu and that Yi Lianhai had repurposed Xu Yi’s remains to create a newborn soul, not resurrect Yan Xiao’s father.
• Qin Manjiang warned Yan Xiao that Yi Lianhai wanted information about Fu City’s [Eye Realm] and the Spirit Pupils, and that his plans threatened everyone there.
• Qin Manjiang considered the strange details surrounding Nie Yunzhen, including her cracked [Shared-Fate Lock], her claim that another Nie Yunzhen had died, and the secrets in Yi Lianhai’s notebook.
• Qin Manjiang left Yan Xiao on the bench to make his own choice and went into the clinic.
• Shen Hai asked Qin Manjiang to take him along and requested a replacement phone; Qin Manjiang agreed, then asked him for money.

Yi Yu investigated the old Guanyin Flat Lake disaster while Yi Lianhai ordered Lin to watch him and erase him if he was no longer pure. At a traffic light, Zhong Xueran recognized Yi Yu as Xu Yi and chased after him.

• Yi Yu woke late after escaping a ghost on Guanyin Lake and agreed to visit Moon City within a week after Yi Lianhai warned that his illness was nearing a flare-up.
• Yi Lianhai sent Lin to watch Yi Yu, naming Abyss as his key to opening the [Eye Realm] and ordering Lin to erase him if he was no longer pure.
• Yi Yu headed to Fu City Prison to question Wang Youfu about the sluice gates at Guanyin Flat Lake, while Qin Manjiang went to Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital to investigate Xie Xingrong.
• Qin Manjiang bought a phone and put off reading more of the orange-covered notebook until after the upcoming trip to [Guanyin Flat Lake].
• At a red light, Zhong Xueran saw Yi Yu's face as he drove past, recognized him as Xu Yi, and hurried after him.

Yi Yu encountered Zhong Xueran, who mistook him for the dead Xu Yi and embraced him. Her conviction that he was Xu Yi left Yi Yu questioning his identity and whether he should have existed at all.

• Yi Yu pulled over after a white sedan repeatedly honked and tried to make him stop.
• Zhong Xueran recognized Xu Yi’s face in Yi Yu and rushed to embrace him in tears.
• Yi Yu held back from returning the embrace and considered returning to Moon City to learn how Yi Lianhai had turned Xu Yi into him.
• Yi Yu denied knowing Zhong Xueran, but she insisted she knew he was hiding trouble and was grateful he was alive.
• After Zhong Xueran spoke to him as Xu Yi, Yi Yu wondered whether he should ever have existed.

Zhong Xueran pursued Yi Yu, who had denied being Xu Yi, but Qin Manjiang’s phone call left her shaken and the two drove off in separate directions. Qin Manjiang reached Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital and, with Xia Nan’s help, gained access to Xie Xingrong, whom he found behind a locked basement door.

• Yi Yu drove away from Zhong Xueran, then slowed when he saw her following him in a white sedan.
• Qin Manjiang called Zhong Xueran and told her to meet him the next morning or seek answers from Yan Xiao; she stopped pursuing Yi Yu and turned back.
• Qin Manjiang arrived at Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital and learned he could not visit Xie Xingrong without special permission.
• Qin Manjiang called Xia Nan, who arranged access and said he wanted to discuss Li Xijiu with him the next day.
• A nurse led Qin Manjiang into the basement and showed him Xie Xingrong behind a barred iron door.
• Qin Manjiang asked the bloodshot-eyed man whether he was Xie Xingrong.

Qin Manjiang questioned Xie Xingrong about the incident twenty years earlier and learned that he believed Bai Gu was the Divine Envoy. Qin Manjiang discovered Bai Gu was Bai Yang’s father and Bai Hongdan’s predecessor at Bai Group, then saw Mr. Zhou arrive at the psychiatric hospital to visit Xie Xingrong.

• Qin Manjiang provoked Xie Xingrong with news about Wang Youfu, and Xie Xingrong shouted that Wang had betrayed God.
• Xie Xingrong identified Bai Gu as the Divine Envoy before the nurse ended Qin Manjiang’s visit.
• Qin Manjiang searched for Fu City’s Bai family and found that Bai Gu was Bai Yang’s father and the former chairman of Bai Group, now led by Bai Hongdan.
• Qin Manjiang noticed Mr. Zhou entering the hospital and wondered whether he had also come to see Xie Xingrong.

Yi Yu questioned Wang Youfu about the Guanyin Village flood and learned it was deliberate, though Wang refused to identify who ordered it. Meanwhile, Qin Manjiang investigated the man in black at Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital and learned the guard thought he was a bodyguard.

• Yi Yu visited Wang Youfu in Fu City Prison and asked why he had been away from the reservoir duty room during the Guanyin Village flood.
• Wang Youfu admitted that he gathered the other reservoir workers to play cards so they would not interfere with the sluice gate being opened.
• Wang Youfu refused to reveal who had ordered the flooding, and Yi Yu inferred that the person still had considerable influence in Fu City.
• Qin Manjiang questioned the security guard at Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital about the man in black who had entered with Nurse Wang.
• The guard said the man looked like a bodyguard and claimed to have heard him address his employer as Boss.

Qin Manjiang investigated the reservoir project and the Bai family's involvement while Zhong Xueran learned that Yi Yu was not Xu Yi and joined Yan Xiao in seeking revenge on Yi Lianhai. At Guanyin Flat Lake, Qin Manjiang and Yi Yu discovered the Bai Group had fenced off the lake, and Yi Yu insisted on going in with Qin despite his worsening condition.

• Qin Manjiang asked Xia Nan to investigate the reservoir project and arranged to meet Yi Yu at Guanyin Flat Lake.
• Yan Xiao told Zhong Xueran that Yi Yu was a newborn soul placed in Xu Yi's corpse by Yi Lianhai, and Zhong Xueran resolved to trace Yi Lianhai's activities in Fu City.
• Zhong Xueran asked Yan Xiao whether he wanted revenge on Yi Lianhai, and he said that he did.
• Yi Yu told Qin Manjiang that Wang Youfu had admitted someone instructed him to open the floodgates, and they suspected the Bai family was behind the order and the lake's new fencing.
• Qin Manjiang urged the increasingly icy Yi Yu to go back, but Yi Yu insisted on accompanying him into the lake while he still could move.

Qin Manjiang investigated the Bai family's connection to Guanyin Flat Lake while Yi Yu revealed that his illness gave him only about two days before he needed to return to Moon City. At the lakeshore, Qin Manjiang discovered Bai Hongdan leading a ritual intended to summon something from beneath the lake, and she planned to use him to complete it.

• Qin Manjiang refused to let Yi Yu accompany him into the woods, learned that Yi Yu had about two days before his illness worsened, and offered to take him to the airport the next day.
• Qin Manjiang entered the fenced-off area at Guanyin Flat Lake and suspected the Bai family had concealed its history and that someone close to him had leaked his plans.
• Qin Manjiang considered Li Xijiu the likeliest informant because Li had also appeared at Guanyin Flat Lake when Yang went there.
• Qin Manjiang spotted Bai Hongdan and several men sitting in a circle by the lake, apparently performing a ritual.
• Bai Hongdan told her men not to capture Qin Manjiang because they were missing part of the ritual and she believed he could help summon the thing beneath the lake.

Qin Manjiang watched Guanyin Flat Lake as a monstrous mass of flesh rose from its depths and formed a Guanyin statue before him. After the statue seemed to open its eyes, he collapsed in pain, and the lake appeared calm and empty when he could move again.

• Qin Manjiang suspected Guanyin Flat Lake’s history and Bai Hongdan’s ritual were connected to an evil force beneath the water.
• Bubbles and waves appeared as a vast mass covered in bloody limbs rose from the lake.
• Qin Manjiang cut his palm, and his blood flowed toward the mass, which formed a spotless Guanyin statue from its flesh.
• The enormous Guanyin reached toward Qin Manjiang and seemed to open her eyes, leaving him frozen in terror.
• Qin Manjiang collapsed with severe head pain, then found the lake calm and the Guanyin gone.

Qin Manjiang found a porcelain fragment of Guanyin’s head at the lake, and Yi Yu saw a huge phantom Guanyin appear beside him. They left the lake and began investigating the fragment’s origin, while its strange connection to Qin Manjiang remained unexplained.

• Qin Manjiang picked up a porcelain fragment of Guanyin’s head, which triggered a message that his third day of exploration was complete.
• Bai Hongdan reviewed surveillance footage of Qin Manjiang at the lake and ordered her people to find out what he had picked up.
• Yi Yu told Qin Manjiang that he had seen an enormous phantom Guanyin floating beside his shoulder.
• Qin Manjiang told Yi Yu about the bloody Guanyin vision and the task-completion message, then tested whether saying “Let’s go. Hurry” would make the phantom appear again.
• Yi Yu identified the fragment as ceramic and suggested tracing its origin through Fu City’s old pottery-making towns.

Qin Manjiang arranged for Qin Manyi to meet Yi Yu, then met Xia Nan to investigate the Guanyin Village project and Guanyin Flat Lake. The documents linked the Bai family to the project and suggested that Guanyin Flat Lake’s hauntings and rising suicide rate began around the time Bai Yang took over its management.

• Qin Manjiang watched Yi Yu’s plane take off and told Qin Manyi to look after him at the airport.
• Qin Manyi told Qin Manjiang that Fang Xiu had come looking for him with an important discovery, and Qin Manjiang said he might return to Moon City in a week.
• Qin Manjiang kept the Guanyin Porcelain Shard with him and decided to investigate the origins of the porcelain Guanyin.
• Qin Manjiang met Xia Nan at the Catface Café and received a planning report on the Guanyin Village reservoir project.
• Xia Nan explained that the Bai Group had controlled the project and still managed Guanyin Flat Lake, with Bai Yang named as the current person in charge.
• Xia Nan compared contracts showing Bai Yang took over from his father Bai Gu five years earlier, around the time hauntings and suicides at Guanyin Flat Lake sharply increased.

Qin Manjiang learned that Li Xijiu had come disguised as Xia Nan to warn him about a newly born presence beneath [Guanyin Flat Lake]. The chapter left Qin Manjiang aware that the eyes over Fu City and Moon City belonged to the same entity, while a fragment of Guanyin had appeared beside him.

• Qin Manjiang asked Xia Nan to investigate whether a secret religion had existed in Fu City twenty years earlier.
• Qin Manjiang revealed that he had recognized Li Xijiu beneath Xia Nan's disguise and demanded the truth.
• Li Xijiu warned Qin Manjiang to obtain the entity beneath [Guanyin Flat Lake], saying Bai Yang and Li Xijiu had nearly died trying to claim it.
• Qin Manjiang's malice toward the eye in the sky coincided with the appearance of a shattered Guanyin head beside his shoulder.
• Li Xijiu explained that the eyes in Fu City and Moon City belonged to the same entity.

Qin Manjiang pressed Li Xijiu to reveal what he had hidden, and Li Xijiu explained how he first encountered a Ghost Story and learned that cities were farms belonging to Its. Li Xijiu collapsed after urging Qin Manjiang to obtain the It beneath Guanyin Flat Lake, leaving Qin Manjiang to carry the injured Xia Nan to seek Yan Xiao’s help.

• Qin Manjiang asked Li Xijiu whether he had hidden anything, and Li Xijiu admitted he had concealed the truth about his past.
• Li Xijiu recounted how a girl in white lured him into the river near Lower River Village, until Qin Manjiang’s sister called out and saved him.
• Li Xijiu said that It later appeared while he was making offerings, then explained that the domed cities were farms and Spirit Pupils were Its food.
• Li Xijiu revealed that Moon City’s people had nurtured an It in Lower River Village and Fu City’s people had nurtured one at Guanyin Flat Lake.
• Li Xijiu urged Qin Manjiang to obtain the complete It beneath Guanyin Flat Lake before Xia Nan’s body collapsed and Li Xijiu left it.
• Qin Manjiang checked that Xia Nan was alive, carried him outside, and ran to find Yan Xiao.

Qin Manyi overslept at the airport and arrived late to pick up Yi Yu, then took him to eat fried potatoes. When Yi Yu suddenly collapsed, she struggled to get him into a taxi and ordered the driver to take them somewhere.

• Qin Manyi hurried to the airport after waking late and found Yi Yu waiting with a sign bearing her name.
• Qin Manyi apologized and led Yi Yu away to get food, then asked how he had met Qin Manjiang.
• Qin Manyi learned that Yi Yu had not called her brother and took him to a roadside fried-potato stall.
• Yi Yu suddenly said he had to leave, then collapsed despite Qin Manyi trying to help him.
• Qin Manyi hauled the unconscious Yi Yu into a taxi and ordered the driver to go.

At the Clinic, Qin Manjiang learned that Xia Nan had suffered serious internal injuries and entrusted Yan Xiao with an orange-yellow notebook before leaving to investigate Guanyin Flat Lake. A clue from Zhong Xueran made Qin Manjiang suspect that Xu Yi’s consciousness might still be present, and he asked her to take him to Xu Yi’s home.

• Yan Xiao told Qin Manjiang that Xia Nan’s mouth had been treated, but his internal organs were badly damaged and he would need a long recovery.
• Qin Manjiang apologized to the unconscious Xia Nan and told him that everything would be over by the time he recovered.
• Qin Manjiang gave Yan Xiao an orange-yellow notebook, explaining that it recorded the first discovery of signs about the world, and asked him to read it if Qin did not return from Guanyin Flat Lake.
• Qin Manjiang wondered whether Yang had known where he came from and how he perceived the world; Yan Xiao agreed to safeguard the notebook without reading it.
• Zhong Xueran offered to help Qin Manjiang investigate Guanyin Flat Lake and recalled seeing books about porcelain at Xu Yi’s home.
• Remembering Yi Yu’s question about ceramic and enamel, Qin Manjiang suspected Xu Yi’s consciousness remained and asked Zhong Xueran to take him to Xu Yi’s home.

Mei Sijun was questioned after appearing inside the Paleontology Research Association’s forbidden area in Moon City, where he explained how he had returned to life and fled a strange coffin-filled space. He left Jiang Yanqing with no explanation for how he had arrived, though she had guessed he used Instant Teleportation.

• Mei Sijun told a hostile security guard that he had not noticed the warnings before entering the forbidden area, and the guard lowered his riot baton after Mei warned him to consider the consequences.
• Jiang Yanqing dismissed the guard and questioned Mei Sijun, who recalled being transported from Qiao Family Village into a dark space by an unfamiliar young man.
• The young man found Mei Sijun’s body in a coffin, restored Mei to life, and told him to help Qin Manjiang and go to Lower River Village.
• Li Xijiu warned Mei Sijun not to look back and urged him to flee through a pupil-free part of the dark space, and Mei escaped toward a light.
• Jiang Yanqing suggested Mei Sijun explain how he entered the heavily guarded site, and Mei silently realized she had guessed that he used Instant Teleportation.