Chapter Summaries

After clearing [Seven Children], Qin Manjiang returned to Moon Lake and reconsidered what the [Eye Realm] was, concluding it might be a mysterious ghost rather than a game controlled by a god. He decided to return to Fu City to investigate, after learning the seafood shop’s owner had gone there to see an old friend.

• Qin Manjiang reunited with Qin Manyi and told her he needed to return to Fu City.
• Qin Manjiang reflected on the Giant Ghost confronting the [Eye Realm] and concluded that the [Eye Realm] itself was a vengeful ghost that governed the Ghost Story Game.
• Qin Manjiang considered the people and groups connected to the [Eye Realm], including the Paleontology Research Association and two unidentified people from a Different Time, but did not call Zhong Xueran.
• Qin Manyi told Qin Manjiang that the seafood shop’s owner had gone to Fu City to see an old friend, prompting him to think of Lin Ci.
• Qin Manjiang told Qin Manyi he was leaving for Fu City because he needed to investigate his troubling ideas about the [Eye Realm].

Zhong Xueran found Little Chongyang Temple renovated and reopened under Daoist Li, who explained that a Moon City organization had funded the work. She suspected the organization had taken the Zhong Family’s inherited Eye Realm Secrets and learned it was called the Paleontology Research Association.

• Zhong Xueran climbed to Little Chongyang Temple and discovered it had been renovated and was charging visitors admission.
• Zhong Xueran confronted Daoist Li in the rear courtyard and claimed the temple belonged to the Zhong Family.
• Daoist Li said he had been appointed by the authorities and revealed that a private organization from Moon City had funded the renovations.
• Zhong Xueran suspected the renovators had taken the Eye Realm Secrets and asked Daoist Li for the organization’s name.
• Daoist Li identified the organization as the Paleontology Research Association.

Yan Xiao’s growing exhaustion and strange disappearances accompanied a call from Qin Manjiang, who returned to Fu City and arranged to meet him. Qin Manjiang arrived to find Yan Xiao, Shen Hai, and his stand-in Abyss waiting together, leaving Shen Hai demanding an explanation.

• At the clinic, the nurses noticed Yan Xiao was sleeping more often, while Yan Xiao knew his exhaustion and occasional vanishing were consequences he had to endure.
• Qin Manjiang called Yan Xiao from Moon City and arranged to meet him in Fu City, asking whether he could bring two trusted people.
• At the airport, Qin Manjiang gave Qin Manyi Fang Xiu’s number and told her to contact the newly hired criminal police officer if she needed help.
• Qin Manjiang landed in Fu City and found Yan Xiao, Shen Hai, and Abyss waiting together in the airport lounge.
• Shen Hai questioned Qin Manjiang about making him come to the airport with two men to meet another man.

Qin Manjiang gathered Yan Xiao, Shen Hai, Li Xijiu, and Abyss to explain what he had learned about the Eye Realm. He revealed Moon City's deadly Hunting Mode and ended by confronting Abyss about being from Moon City.

• Qin Manjiang told Yan Xiao that Abyss's situation was not what he had expected and said he had invited him to draw out whoever was watching him.
• Qin Manjiang met Shen Hai and Yan Xiao at a riverside club, where Li Xijiu arrived in Xia Nan's body and revealed that he already knew about Qin Manjiang's stand-in.
• Qin Manjiang explained that Fu City had three Ultimate Games left before it lit ten Spirit Pupil Dark Spots and reached the next stage of the Eye Realm.
• Qin Manjiang revealed that Moon City had also entered Infinite Eye Realm mode, but a contaminated Spirit Pupil Dark Spot had triggered Hunting Mode, dividing players into hunters and prey.
• Qin Manjiang warned that Moon City's players would soon be reduced to ten survivors, then asked Abyss whether he was from Moon City.

Qin Manjiang revealed that he and Abyss were both prepared as replacements for Jiang Du, then recounted his past and his suspicions about Li Xijiu. He told the group he had already redeemed a chance to leave the Ghost Story Game permanently, prompting Li Xijiu to try to stop him.

• Abyss confirmed that he had come after Doctor Zhou gave him permission to meet Qin Manjiang and report back.
• Qin Manjiang told the group that he was an empty shell prepared for Jiang Du, while Abyss was his stand-in.
• Qin Manjiang recounted his childhood, his friendship with Li Xijiu, and how he entered the Ghost Story Game; he suspected Li Xijiu had been a ghost and that his beginner tutorial had been deliberately arranged for him.
• Qin Manjiang explained that he had shared his secrets with the group but had left Zhong Xueran and Chen Zhiyuan out to protect them.
• Qin Manjiang said he had earned more than five hundred Spirit Pupil Points and planned to use them in Personal Mode to leave permanently.
• Li Xijiu objected, but Qin Manjiang revealed that he had already redeemed the chance.

Qin Manjiang explained why he had returned to Fu City and shared his suspicions that Yang had survived by leaving the Eye Realm, prompting the group to reconsider Yang’s death and Zhong Xueran’s unusual connection to the realm. As Qin Manjiang recalled that Yang had investigated Guanyin Lake for clues about Li Xijiu, Xia Nan suddenly passed out.

• Qin Manjiang told the group that he planned to enter a solo ghost story at Guanyin Lake in five days and revealed that he suspected Yang had not died.
• Qin Manjiang connected Yang to several single-character code names and wondered whether Jiang Du had influenced his own code name and memories.
• Shen Hai said he had investigated Yang’s death, confirmed that Yang had contacted Chen Zhiyuan and Zhong Xueran beforehand, and had not yet questioned Zhong Xueran.
• The group considered Zhong Xueran’s unusual Three Pure Ones Bell and its connection to the one-time Single Pure Bell.
• Yan Xiao reminded Qin Manjiang that Yang had explored Guanyin Lake, where a ghost repeated the names Abyss and Qin Manjiang, and Qin Manjiang remembered that Li Xijiu had been there.
• Qin Manjiang looked toward Xia Nan, who closed his eyes and slumped limply into his seat.

After Li Xijiu vanished, Qin Manjiang questioned what had happened to Yang while Xia Nan explained that his consciousness had witnessed Li’s actions. Their effort to contact Zhong Xueran instead revealed that she had mysteriously disappeared near Little Chongyang Temple, so Qin Manjiang and the others prepared to go there.

• Qin Manjiang apologized to Xia Nan for involving him, but Xia Nan said he had willingly sought out the supernatural and was grateful.
• Xia Nan explained that after the [Seven Children] ghost story, his consciousness could observe events while Li Xijiu occupied his body.
• Yan Xiao reported that Yang's corpse had shown no signs of struggling, supporting Shen Hai's suspicion that Yang's special challenge had already begun.
• Qin Manjiang said he would attempt the special challenge to learn whether Yang had been involved in his disappearance, while Shen Hai called Zhong Xueran.
• A man answered Zhong Xueran's phone and said she had vanished after making strange noises outside Little Chongyang Temple.
• Qin Manjiang asked where the temple was, and the man said it was a two-hour drive northwest of Fu City.

Qin Manjiang and Abyss stayed behind to investigate Guanyin Lake while Yan Xiao, Shen Hai, and Xia Nan rushed to Little Chongyang Temple to help Zhong Xueran. On the way back to Clear Pupil Bar, Qin Manjiang explained how he and Abyss could develop identities of their own, and Abyss named Doctor Yi and Xu Yi as figures who interested him most, leading Qin Manjiang to suspect Abyss had been made from Xu Yi’s corpse.

• Yan Xiao sent Qin Manjiang and Abyss to investigate Guanyin Lake while he, Shen Hai, and Xia Nan headed for Little Chongyang Temple.
• Qin Manjiang had Abyss drive them back to Clear Pupil Bar before they went to Guanyin Lake.
• Qin Manjiang told Abyss that both of them had begun forming independent selves by imitating people around them.
• Abyss said Doctor Yi and Xu Yi had made the deepest impression on him.
• Qin Manjiang recalled that Abyss had been created by Doctor Zhou and suspected his body had been made using Xu Yi’s corpse.

After discovering that her family’s belongings had been taken from Little Chongyang Temple, Zhong Xueran encountered a woman with a red umbrella who asked for directions to Meat Slope. Drawing on her father’s teachings, Zhong Xueran chose a vague answer and offered to lead the woman there.

• Zhong Xueran learned from Daoist Li that the Paleontology Research Association had taken the Zhong Family’s belongings from Little Chongyang Temple.
• Zhong Xueran left the temple and spotted a woman carrying a red umbrella coming up the mountain, so she turned back.
• A red-umbrella woman appeared both uphill and downhill, trapping Zhong Xueran and asking how to get to Meat Slope.
• Zhong Xueran recalled her father Zhong Baifeng’s advice to give a vague answer when a Ghostly Entity asked an unanswerable question.
• Zhong Xueran told the woman, “I’ll take you there.”

Zhong Xueran tried to survive after a Red Umbrella Woman confronted her and demanded directions to Meat Slope, while Shen Hai, Xia Nan, and Yan Xiao investigated the Ghost Story on the mountain. Shen Hai suspected someone was using the ghost to collect players’ Spirit Pupils, and the group headed toward a wider conspiracy.

• Zhong Xueran avoided giving the Red Umbrella Woman a direct answer and agreed to lead it to Meat Slope.
• Zhong Xueran noticed a familiar figure at the foot of the mountain and suspected someone from the [Eye Realm] had sent the ghost after her.
• Shen Hai, Xia Nan, and Yan Xiao reached the mountain path where Zhong Xueran had disappeared and sensed a Ghost Story.
• Shen Hai reasoned that the ghost had likely been deliberately released because someone wanted to kill Zhong Xueran in a way that served another purpose.
• Xia Nan suggested that someone was 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 a ghost story using an [Eye Realm Phone]. Meanwhile, Qin Manjiang questioned Abyss about Xu Yi and realized Doctor Yi might have used Xu Yi’s corpse to create him.

• Daoist Li showed Xia Nan and Shen Hai where Zhong Xueran’s phone had been found, and Xia Nan examined her footprints.
• Xia Nan concluded that Zhong Xueran had remained composed, while Shen Hai reasoned that she might be trapped in a ghost story beyond the [Eye Realm]’s restrictions.
• Shen Hai proposed that someone had used a recorded ghost story to target Zhong Xueran, and Yan Xiao suggested the culprit was still nearby and could be confronted.
• 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 concluded that Doctor Yi—not Abyss—had desecrated Xu Yi’s corpse, then wondered what Doctor Yi meant by keeping people alive.

Qin Manjiang headed to Guanyin Lake to begin the five-day requirement for his Personal Challenge, while telling Abyss about the submerged village’s history. When Qin Manjiang entered the woods to reach the lake, he found signs of the vanished village and heard rushing water.

• Qin Manjiang saw that Clear Pupil Bar was closed and decided to go straight to Guanyin Lake.
• Qin Manjiang explained the history of Guanyin Village, which had been flooded after an upstream sluice gate opened, and said investigators and divers had later disappeared or died.
• Abyss chose Yi as his surname and asked Qin Manjiang to choose his given name.
• Qin Manjiang and Abyss discovered that the road to Guanyin Flat Lake had disappeared, so Qin Manjiang climbed over the barrier and headed into the woods on foot.
• Qin Manjiang found soaked clothing, shattered glass, roof tiles, and a millstone beneath the leaves, then heard the roar of surging water.

Qin Manjiang reached Guanyin Flat Lake, but the mission notification did not appear, leading him to suspect that he had to reach the submerged Guanyin Village in the lake’s center. He met a mysterious fisherman whose line snapped after hooking a huge, human-eating shadow, and asked to join him as he pursued it by boat.

• Qin Manjiang reached Guanyin Flat Lake, but no mission-complete notification appeared.
• Qin Manjiang realized the requirement might mean reaching the area of Guanyin Village, buried beneath the lake.
• Qin Manjiang found a fisherman beside a small wooden boat and asked whether the boat was his.
• The fisherman asked Qin Manjiang to help land his catch, and Qin Manjiang saw a huge shadow beneath the eerily still water.
• The fisherman said the shadow had grown large by eating human flesh, but his line snapped before it surfaced.
• The fisherman jumped into the boat to pursue the shadow, and Qin Manjiang called for him to take him along.

Qin Manjiang rowed across Guanyin Flat Lake with a fisherman searching for his drowned daughter, and his exploration task completed when he reached the submerged Guanyin Village. As corpses rose beneath the boat and trapped them on the lake, Qin Manjiang announced that he had an idea.

• Qin Manjiang boarded the fisherman's boat and noticed the lake was unnaturally silent and black.
• The fisherman revealed that water ghosts had dragged his daughter underwater, and he was using her Barbie doll as bait to search for her.
• Qin Manjiang took the oars and rowed farther across the lake until his exploration task was marked complete.
• Qin Manjiang found the boat would not move, and he and the fisherman saw shadows rising beneath it and pushing against the hull.
• Qin Manjiang inspected the water and told the fisherman he had an idea for escaping.

The narrator went out drinking and had a heart-to-heart with a divorced college classmate. Unable to get home that night, the narrator took the day off.

• The narrator was dragged out for drinks by a college classmate who had gotten divorced.
• The narrator had a heart-to-heart with the classmate.
• The narrator could not get home that night and took the day off.

Qin Manjiang and Long Sen escaped Guanyin Flat Lake after throwing the Bow Lamp to distract the corpses beneath the water. On shore, Qin Manjiang agreed to help Long Sen avenge Lele if Long Sen investigated why the upstream sluice gate had been opened.

• Qin Manjiang told the Fisherman to throw the Bow Lamp into the lake, drawing the underwater shadows away from their Wooden Boat.
• Qin Manjiang and the Fisherman rowed to shore while the sinking lamp revealed a mass of corpses beneath the water.
• The Fisherman identified the corpses as the ones that had dragged Lele into the lake and said he would drain the water to destroy them.
• Qin Manjiang stopped Long Sen from acting rashly and asked him to investigate why the upstream sluice gate had been opened.
• Long Sen agreed to use all his resources to investigate the sluice gate incident.

Qin Manjiang realized that Long Sen had parked at an off-ramp closed two months earlier and feared Long Sen was a ghost, while Long Sen left to investigate after Qin promised to help him find his daughter. At the lake, Long Sen mistook a rising water ghost for Lele because it wore her hair clip, and it dragged him beneath the water.

• Qin Manjiang found a notice confirming that the South Lin Suburban Off-Ramp had been permanently closed two months earlier and wondered whether Long Sen was a ghost.
• Qin Manjiang heard a sound behind him and saw an indistinct figure at the edge of the woods.
• Long Sen recalled how Lele had been dragged into Guanyin Flat Lake and how he had spent years fishing with her belongings in hopes of finding her.
• Long Sen reached the place where Lele had disappeared and apologized before vowing to avenge her.
• Long Sen saw a figure rise from the lake wearing Lele's hair clip, but realized it was a water ghost and tried to flee.
• The female ghost seized Long Sen's hand and pulled him into the lake until he drowned beneath the water.

Qin Manjiang saw a water-soaked Long Sen in the woods, who silently shook his head before disappearing, and wondered whether the warning concerned the sluice gate investigation. Meanwhile, Zhong Xueran led a ghost through the grounds of Little Chongyang Temple, claiming she was close to Meat Slope despite not knowing where it was.

• Qin Manjiang saw Long Sen standing drenched at the forest’s edge, shaking his head before vanishing when the moonlight disappeared.
• Qin Manjiang suspected a ghost had dragged Long Sen into the water and wondered whether Long Sen’s gesture meant he should stop investigating the sluice gate.
• Qin Manjiang returned to Abyss at the car and said he wanted to ask him for a favor.
• Zhong Xueran reasoned that someone had been waiting near Little Chongyang Temple to ambush her and suspected the Paleontology Research Association might be involved.
• As the umbrella-carrying ghost grew impatient and said it could not find Meat Slope, Zhong Xueran assured it they were nearly there, though she had never heard of such a place.

Shen Hai and Yan Xiao searched Little Chongyang Temple and its surroundings for the person who had attacked Zhong Xueran. Yan Xiao identified the suspect as Yu Zeming, the Daoist connected to Zhao Fengchuan and the earlier ghost story involving Qiao Ziruo and Mei Sijun.

• Xia Nan tracked Zhong Xueran’s footprints while Shen Hai and Yan Xiao separately searched for the attacker’s place to stay.
• Shen Hai concluded the attacker was likely staying in a home at the foot of the mountain and went to investigate.
• Yan Xiao suspected the attacker was a Daoist inside Little Chongyang Temple and questioned Daoist Li about the temple’s residents.
• Yan Xiao learned that Zhao Fengchuan had specifically requested a Daoist surnamed Yu, who had gone out and not returned.
• Yan Xiao connected Zhao Fengchuan and his hired Daoist to Qiao Ziruo and Mei Sijun’s earlier ghost story, then identified the Daoist as Yu Zeming.

Zhong Xueran tried to find the graveyard location called Meat Slope before the red-umbrella ghost killed her, and discovered clues in the graves and the ghost’s clothing. The ghost gave her three minutes, leaving her in immediate danger.

• Yan Xiao learned that Yu Zeming had been hired by Zhao Fengchuan again and suspected a connection to Moon City and the [Eye Realm].
• Zhong Xueran led the red-umbrella ghost through the graveyard, searching for Meat Slope among the nearby slopes.
• Zhong Xueran reasoned that the ghost might be seeking its own grave and began looking for a grave without offerings.
• Zhong Xueran slipped and crashed into the ghost, tearing its outer paper clothes and revealing older clothing underneath.
• The red-umbrella ghost stared at Zhong Xueran and told her she had three minutes.