Recaps

Qin Manjiang joined the Butterfly Island challenge and uncovered a nightmare where the town’s residents became Pig People and the players were caught in a ghost’s dream. After Liang Yue and Wang Million died, Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao learned that Chen Yu had faked her death and was the ghost’s viewpoint, and Qin Manjiang prepared to enter the mist alone.

• Qin Manjiang left school, rented out his spare room, and opened his father’s Metal Casket, learning that Qin Linghan had been a player and had left him a dangerous treasure.
• Qin Manjiang helped rescue Yang from Guanyin Lake and later let Mi Qiao and her dog Xiaobai stay in his apartment.
• Qin Manjiang entered the Butterfly Island challenge with Doctor and met Yan Xiao, Chen Yu, Liang Yue, Wang Million, and Swimming Fish at the Butterfly Inn.
• The players discovered that the islanders perceived human remains as ordinary food, and Swimming Fish’s drawing suggested that dreams were tied to the danger.
• Chen Yu was found apparently mutilated with her heart missing, while Qin Manjiang and Swimming Fish deduced that the town and its fog belonged to a ghost’s dream.
• Liang Yue and Wang Million were attacked by the proprietress and later eaten by the transformed Pig People, as the town warped into pigpens.
• Qin Manjiang recognized that Swimming Fish was actually Chen Yu, the Ghost’s Eyes, but Yan Xiao revealed that Chen Yu had faked her death and worked with him.
• Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao concluded that Chen Yu had served as the ghost’s viewpoint, and Qin Manjiang decided to enter the mist alone with Yan Xiao’s severed finger to help locate him.

Qin Manjiang cleared the Butterfly Island Ghost Story and became involved in new mysteries surrounding Nie Yunzhen, the Relic Phone, and the Ultimate Game. The stretch ended as Yellow Springs Opera began, with Mei Sijun dreaming of the Southern Branch Troupe.

• Qin Manjiang, Yan Xiao, Yu Ruoli, and Chen Yu survived the Butterfly Island Ghost Story after Qin Manjiang exposed the White Dew Bay trap and used the Single Pure Bell to escape.
• At Twilight Apartment, March died after the Vengeful Ghost demanded her skin, while Deep Valley Dusk aged rapidly and died after hearing Anran call for help from inside the ghost.
• Soup Dumpling met Anran inside the Vengeful Ghost and tried to free her, while Shen Hai sent Xiaotian into the apartment to pursue their plan.
• Qin Manjiang visited Qin Manyi, who revealed that she was Evening Primrose and blamed him for their father’s death and her entry into the game.
• Qin Manjiang unlocked the Relic Phone, learned Nie Yunzhen had become First Seat, and found her confused and alone in the fog before bringing her home.
• Qin Manjiang entered the phone’s Eye Realm, summoned players including the Ten Seats, and witnessed the announcement of the Ultimate Game, Yellow Springs Opera.
• The game summoned Abyss and displayed the opening lines of Yellow Springs Opera before expelling Qin Manjiang from the space.
• Mei Sijun dreamed of the Southern Branch Troupe performing for Wang Youde, who demanded that Zhao Qigong bring him a young woman backstage, then woke when Yang called.

Qin Manjiang and the others were drawn into the Southern Branch Troupe’s ghostly performance, where they uncovered the story of its Vengeful Ghost and learned that players in different times and spaces could cooperate. The group began using Jade Cicadas to cross those boundaries, while Mei Sijun encountered Lin Yanqing and found himself able to see Qin Manjiang and Xu Yi.

• At Catface Café, the Ten Seats discussed the Ultimate Game, and Mei Sijun recounted his dream of the Southern Branch Troupe and its Yellow Springs Opera.
• Qin Manjiang took the amnesiac Nie Yunzhen home, but the two soon encountered a ghost opera on the river and were pulled into the water with Yang and Mei Sijun.
• Qin Manjiang awoke in the troupe’s past, where he and Mei Sijun joined the performers being forced to stage an opera for a Vengeful Ghost.
• Lin Yanqing told Qin Manjiang about Li Yunxiu’s suffering and asked him to help the Vengeful Ghost fulfill her wish, while Mei Sijun regained consciousness in her body.
• The players followed blood-marked paths into overlapping spaces, and Yang and Zhong Xueran discovered they could hear one another across different times while a Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost attacked them.
• Xu Yi and Zhong Xueran found an elegy and a Jade Cicada in a coffin, while Qin Manjiang discovered that he could communicate with Xu Yi by touching the matching Jade Cicada in the past.
• Qin Manjiang and Xu Yi used the Jade Cicada’s shifting visibility and tangibility to evade the Vengeful Ghost as they searched for more of the five Jade Cicadas.
• Mei Sijun encountered a woman who called him Xiaoqing and then fled a Vengeful Ghost that took Lin Yanqing’s form before he spotted Qin Manjiang and Xu Yi.

Qin Manjiang and the others completed the Yellow Springs Opera by confronting Li Yunxiu and the Five-Headed Vengeful Ghost, while Yu Chenglin’s betrayal ended in his death. After the game, Qin Manjiang began investigating his connection to Professor Jiang Du and took a job at Baihong Building, where a new haunting and clues about Nie Yunzhen pointed him toward Moon City.

• Qin Manjiang and Xu Yi gathered the players and Jade Cicadas, while Shen Hai and Yan Xiao explored the well and found a hidden tomb filled with emaciated people trapped in a coffin.
• Yu Chenglin betrayed Shen Hai and Yan Xiao to seize the Jade Cicadas, but the Yellow Springs Opera began before the players could escape, revealing Mei Sijun as Li Yunxiu and Lin Yanqing’s divided soul.
• Mei Sijun sang against Li Yunxiu to stop the flood, then the Five-Headed Vengeful Ghost emerged and attacked the group as they tried to return the Jade Cicadas to its heads.
• Yu Chenglin stole the Jade Cicadas and turned himself into a Vengeful Ghost, but Qin Manjiang revealed he had switched one of Yu’s Cicadas for ordinary jade, and Mei Sijun’s mantra made Yu dissolve.
• The players burned their paper bodies to complete the Ghost Story, and Qin Manjiang began remembering the name Jiang Du, which Nie Yunzhen recognized before fainting.
• After the game announced a month-long upgrade, Qin Manjiang found records of missing Professor Jiang Du and accepted Yang’s offer to investigate strange occurrences at Baihong Building.
• Qin Manjiang and Tang Baihe encountered a supernatural presence in Baihong Building, hid from it, and escaped by the fire stairs after Qin saw blood trails she could not perceive.
• Xi Wutong told Qin Manjiang that Nie Yunzhen had been declared dead after the March 7 Dismemberment Case, and Qin considered investigating Moon City as his clues increasingly led there.