Chapter Summaries

Wu Tiansheng brought the group out of [One]’s Spirit World, but they encountered a colossal ghost on Snow Summit. Jiang Du and Li Xijiu invoked [Eye Realm] to clear the game, leaving its confrontation with the ghost unresolved as the group lost consciousness.

• Wu Tiansheng touched the speck of light, and Qin Manjiang, Chen Xin, Xia Nan, and Wu Tiansheng awoke together on Snow Summit with their bodies restored.
• The group found Lin Ruonan and Hu Feifei dead, then saw [One] rise as a barely living corpse from the snow.
• A colossal ghost transformed the summit into a disorienting landscape, seized the five, and lifted them above its enormous mouth.
• Jiang Du took control of Qin Manjiang, while Li Xijiu took control of Xia Nan; they produced an [Eye Realm] phone and threw an Eye Pupil into the giant ghost’s mouth.
• The [Eye Realm] pupils appeared in the sky, and the game announced that “Seven Children” had been cleared, but the players remained suspended as the pupils confronted the ghost.
• The five lost consciousness as the pupils burst and blood-like rain fell over the giant ghost, which remained standing on the summit.

After clearing [Seven Children], Qin Manjiang returned to Moon City and reconsidered what the [Eye Realm] was, concluding that it was a mysterious creature rather than a game run by a god. He decided to return to Fu City to investigate, while learning that the seafood shop proprietress had gone there to visit an old friend.

• Qin Manjiang woke in the real world after [Seven Children] and told Qin Manyi that he needed to return to Fu City.
• Qin Manjiang reflected on the giant ghost, Jiang Du and Li Xijiu’s intervention, and the possibility that the [Eye Realm] was itself a vengeful ghost governing the game.
• Qin Manjiang considered the people connected to the [Eye Realm] and the Paleontology Research Association’s interest in Jiang Du, but chose not to call Zhong Xueran.
• Qin Manjiang learned from Qin Manyi that the seafood shop proprietress had gone to Fu City to visit an old friend.
• Qin Manjiang told Qin Manyi that he was leaving for Fu City because he needed to investigate matters in person.

Zhong Xueran visited Little Chongyang Temple to find the ancestral text known as the Eye Realm Secrets, but discovered the temple had been renovated and taken over by Daoist Li. She learned a private organization from Moon City funded the work and suspected it had taken the text.

• Zhong Xueran climbed to Little Chongyang Temple and found it renovated and open to worshippers.
• Zhong Xueran paid the admission fee, then went to the meditation room to confront the temple's owner.
• Daoist Li told Zhong Xueran that her father, Zhong Baifeng, had once been his fellow disciple under the name Zhang Baifeng.
• Daoist Li explained that officials had appointed him to take over the registered temple, while a private organization from Moon City had paid for its renovation.
• Daoist Li named the organization as the Paleontology Research Association, and Zhong Xueran suspected it had taken the Eye Realm Secrets.

Yan Xiao’s exhaustion worsened as he paid the price for his condition, while Qin Manjiang returned to Fu City and arranged to meet him. The chapter ended with Qin Manjiang finding Yan Xiao, Shen Hai, and Abyss waiting together at the airport.

• The nurses speculated about Yan Xiao’s unusual, frequent naps, while he slept and briefly became indistinct before returning to normal.
• Qin Manjiang called Yan Xiao and arranged to meet him in Fu City, saying he would bring trustworthy people.
• At the airport in Moon City, Qin Manjiang gave Qin Manyi Fang Xiu’s number and identified him as a newly recruited criminal police officer and a Moon City Eye Realm player.
• Qin Manjiang landed in rainy Fu City and found Yan Xiao, Shen Hai, and Abyss waiting together.
• Shen Hai questioned Qin Manjiang about why he had brought two men to the airport to meet another man.

Qin Manjiang gathered Yan Xiao, Shen Hai, and Li Xijiu to explain what he had learned about Moon City's Eye Realm and the different way it was progressing. He revealed that Moon City was in Hunting Mode and ended by asking Abyss if he was from Moon City.

• Qin Manjiang rode with Yan Xiao to a riverside club and said he had invited Abyss to put on a show for the people watching him.
• Qin Manjiang, Yan Xiao, and Shen Hai waited at the club until Li Xijiu arrived in Xia Nan's body, already aware that Qin Manjiang's Fu City presence was a stand-in.
• Qin Manjiang said Fu City had three Ultimate Games left before its ten Spirit Pupil Dark Spots were lit and that he had returned to discuss what came next for the Eye Realm.
• Qin Manjiang revealed that Moon City also had an Eye Realm, which had entered Infinite Eye Realm mode and then switched to Hunting Mode after a player contaminated a Spirit Pupil Dark Spot.
• Qin Manjiang explained that Moon City's hunters and prey were killing one another until only ten players remained, unlike Fu City's three remaining Ultimate Games.
• Qin Manjiang turned to Abyss and asked whether he was from Moon City.

Qin Manjiang revealed that he was an empty shell prepared for Jiang Du and recounted how Li Xijiu had drawn him into the Ghost Story Game. He told everyone he had already redeemed a chance to leave the Game permanently, prompting Li Xijiu to violently object.

• Qin Manjiang confirmed that Abyss was a stand-in like him and explained that he had come to see Abyss after obtaining Dr. Zhou's permission.
• Qin Manjiang recounted how he had been prepared as Jiang Du's body and how Li Xijiu's call led him into the Ghost Story Game.
• Qin Manjiang revealed his suspicion that Li Xijiu had been the ghost in his beginner tutorial and that the story had been planned specifically to draw him in.
• Qin Manjiang told the group about his experiences, including what happened in Moon City, while withholding his suspicions about Li Xijiu's death.
• Qin Manjiang said he had more than five hundred Spirit Pupil Points and had already redeemed a chance to leave the Game permanently, and Li Xijiu stood up and shouted no.

Qin Manjiang explained why he had returned to Fu City and shared his suspicions that Yang might have survived by leaving the Eye Realm. The discussion pointed toward Guanyin Lake and Li Xijiu’s hidden past, but Xia Nan suddenly collapsed before Qin Manjiang could question him.

• Qin Manjiang told everyone he planned to face a solo ghost story at Guanyin Lake in five days, and Yan Xiao guessed that he had deliberately left Chen Zhiyuan uninformed.
• Qin Manjiang outlined his suspicion that Yang might have cleared a personal challenge and escaped the Eye Realm, while Shen Hai revealed that Yang’s last contacts had been Chen Zhiyuan and Zhong Xueran.
• The group considered Zhong Xueran’s unusual permanent item, the Three Pure Ones Bell, and its connection to the single-use Single Pure Bell.
• Yan Xiao reminded Qin Manjiang that Guanyin Lake was the ghost story Yang had investigated, where a vengeful ghost had muttered “Abyss” and “Qin Manjiang.”
• Qin Manjiang remembered that Li Xijiu had been at Guanyin Lake, then saw Xia Nan close his eyes and slump limply in his seat.

After Li Xijiu disappeared, Qin Manjiang learned more about Xia Nan’s shared consciousness and discussed evidence that Yang’s special challenge had begun before his death. A call to Zhong Xueran instead revealed that she had vanished near Little Chongyang Temple, sending Qin Manjiang and the others to investigate.

• Qin Manjiang apologized to Xia Nan for involving him, but Xia Nan said he had willingly sought the hidden side of the world.
• Xia Nan explained that since the [Seven Children] Ghost Story, his consciousness had coexisted with Li Xijiu’s and could observe events when Li occupied his body.
• Yan Xiao reported that Yang’s corpse showed no signs of struggle, and Shen Hai suggested the special challenge had already started; Qin Manjiang decided he would enter the challenge to learn the truth.
• Shen Hai called Zhong Xueran, but a man answered and said she had disappeared after making strange sounds outside Little Chongyang Temple.
• Qin Manjiang asked where the temple was and learned it was a two-hour drive northwest of Fu City.

Qin Manjiang sent Abyss to investigate Guanyin Lake while he went with Xia Nan, Shen Hai, and Yan Xiao to Little Chongyang Temple to help Zhong Xueran. On the drive back to Clear Pupil Bar, Qin Manjiang explained how he and Abyss had begun forming identities of their own, but Abyss naming Xu Yi made Qin Manjiang suspect that Abyss had been created using Xu Yi’s corpse.

• Yan Xiao asked Abyss to accompany Qin Manjiang and investigate Guanyin Lake, while he, Xia Nan, and Shen Hai headed for Little Chongyang Temple to reach Zhong Xueran quickly.
• Qin Manjiang and Abyss drove toward Clear Pupil Bar, and Abyss asked why Qin Manjiang trusted him so much.
• Qin Manjiang explained that he had once imitated people around him while searching for an identity beyond the one programmed into him as Jiang Du’s puppet.
• Qin Manjiang told Abyss that imitation could help them develop independent selves, then asked who had left the deepest impression on him.
• Abyss named Doctor Yi and Xu Yi, and Qin Manjiang wondered whether Abyss had been made from Xu Yi’s corpse.

After learning that the Zhong Family’s possessions had been taken by the Paleontology Research Association, Zhong Xueran encountered a mysterious woman with a red umbrella on the mountain. When the woman asked for directions to Meat Slope, Zhong Xueran used her father’s advice to give a vague answer and offered to lead her there.

• Zhong Xueran learned from Daoist Li that the Paleontology Research Association had taken the Zhong Family’s possessions from Little Chongyang Temple.
• Zhong Xueran left the temple and spotted a woman carrying a red umbrella on the mountain path, prompting her to turn back.
• A red-umbrella woman appeared both uphill and downhill, trapping Zhong Xueran as an icy presence approached behind her.
• The woman asked Zhong Xueran how to get to Meat Slope, a place Zhong Xueran did not know.
• Zhong Xueran recalled her father Zhong Baifeng’s advice to answer a ghost’s question vaguely and told the woman, “I’ll take you there.”

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.