Chapter Summaries

Xiaotian killed Anran, but her vengeful spirit appeared on his shoulder and killed him. After witnessing the consequences, Yang Liuye refused Shen Hai’s offer to kill someone and received his advice on surviving the next three days.

• Xiaotian stabbed Anran repeatedly until she died, but the ghost story did not end.
• Anran’s voice called for help, and her mangled head appeared on Xiaotian’s shoulder, accusing him of not saving her.
• Xiaotian dropped his dagger as the ghost attacked and devoured him.
• Yezi asked Shen Hai if he had deliberately caused Xiaotian’s fate, and he said people should bear the consequences of their choices.
• Shen Hai urged Yang Liuye to kill a stranger to survive, but she refused because she did not want to become like the ghosts.
• Shen Hai advised Yang Liuye to care for the vengeful ghost for three days without making physical contact, and to fulfill its demands in a way that was better for it.

Qin Manjiang traveled to Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital to visit Qin Manyi while struggling with the urge to turn on the phone his biological father had left him. On the shuttle, a fellow passenger named Zhou warned him to avoid unlucky places, and Qin Manjiang arrived at the hospital without turning on the phone.

• Qin Manjiang left Mi Qiao’s home and replied that he was busy to a woman who had contacted him.
• Qin Manjiang boarded the shuttle to Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital and considered turning on the phone his biological father had left him.
• A man in a black overcoat boarded the shuttle and sat beside Qin Manjiang, introducing himself as Zhou.
• Zhou told Qin Manjiang that darkness between his brows foretold an ill omen and advised him to stay away from unlucky places.
• Qin Manjiang accepted the warning, put the phone away, and arrived at Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital around eleven.

Qin Manjiang visited Qin Manyi in the hospital, where she revealed she was Evening Primrose, the sixth seat, and recounted how her Beginner Level ghost story showed their father and villagers walking into the river. The chapter ended with Qin Manjiang comforting his frightened sister and insisting he was her big brother.

• Qin Manjiang visited Qin Manyi in her private hospital room and brought her fruit and his jacket.
• Qin Manyi revealed that she was Evening Primrose, the sixth seat, and had reached it after clearing only one Beginner Level game.
• Qin Manyi told Qin Manjiang that her Beginner Level mission involved Lower River Village and a dream spanning twenty years of villagers walking into the river.
• Qin Manyi said she had foreseen their father's death but could not stop him, then accused Qin Manjiang of being connected to the villagers' deaths and her games.
• Qin Manyi broke down in fear, and Qin Manjiang hugged her and told her he was her big brother.

Qin Manjiang reflected on his lack of personal desires and decided to stop hesitating and turn on the phone left among the deceased’s belongings. As soon as it unlocked, thick fog engulfed Fu City and the Game announced that an unfamiliar ghost story, “Person in the Coffin,” had been cleared.

• Qin Manjiang comforted Qin Manyi at the hospital and left to bring her lunch.
• The Players received a notice that “My Aging Self” had been cleared, while strange nightly fog continued to blanket Fu City.
• Qin Manjiang made plans to get Qin Manyi out of the psychiatric hospital and find work, then questioned what he actually wanted.
• Qin Manjiang decided to turn on the deceased’s phone and successfully unlocked it with his fingerprint.
• Thick fog suddenly descended over Fu City, and the Game announced that “Person in the Coffin” had been cleared.

Zhong Ping'an discovered that a body had vanished from the funeral home’s chained third-basement cold storage room and suspected it was connected to a newly cleared ghost story. The rankings revealed Nie Yunzhen had become First Seat, and Qin Manjiang received a call from Nie Yunzhen on a keepsake phone.

• Zhong Ping'an received a notice that the ghost story Person in the Coffin had been cleared and heard that a body was missing from the funeral home.
• Zhong Ping'an learned the third-basement cold storage room was rumored to have existed before the funeral home was built and saw its chained, locked iron door standing open.
• Zhong Ping'an checked the game rankings and saw Old Book urge players to look at them.
• Qin Manjiang called Zhong Xueran after noticing she had left the Top Ten Seats, and she told him to check who held First Seat.
• Qin Manjiang saw Nie Yunzhen in First Seat and then received a call from Nie Yunzhen on his keepsake phone.

Qin Manjiang followed a confused woman’s call to the mermaid fountain while players speculated about the newly cleared [Person in the Coffin]. At Catface Café, Shen Hai explained how he and Yang Liuye survived [My Aging Self], then left as thick fog covered the city.

• Qin Manjiang received a call from a woman who could not remember who she was, identified her location near the mermaid fountain, and went to find her.
• Ghost Story Game players speculated that [Person in the Coffin] was a long-running ghost story that had suddenly ended, sending Nie Yunzhen to First Seat.
• Shen Hai met Yang Liuye at Catface Café after they cleared [My Aging Self] and she thanked him for helping her survive.
• Shen Hai explained that the clues were “retribution” and “care,” and that avoiding physical contact and resisting the ghost’s demands was the path to survival.
• Shen Hai said goodbye to Yang Liuye as thick fog shrouded the city.

Qin Manjiang found the frail, amnesiac Nie Yunzhen in the fog and brought her home, asking Doctor Xi to investigate her identity. After Mi Qiao helped Nie Yunzhen wash and change, Nie Yunzhen became frightened of Qin Manjiang and called him “Professor.”

• Qin Manjiang recognized the woman by the Mermaid Fountain as Nie Yunzhen, though she could not remember her name or where she was.
• Qin Manjiang took Nie Yunzhen home in a taxi, and she said she wanted to go with him rather than to the police station.
• Mi Qiao welcomed Qin Manjiang and helped Nie Yunzhen bathe and change into her clothes.
• Qin Manjiang asked Doctor Xi to investigate Nie Yunzhen, and Doctor Xi agreed to look into her name.
• After Mi Qiao brought Nie Yunzhen out of the bathroom, Qin Manjiang tried to reassure her, but she retreated behind Mi Qiao and called him “Professor.”

After the word “professor” triggered a sharp pain in his head, Qin Manjiang left Nie Yunzhen with Mi Qiao and examined the strange phone from his personal effects. When he touched the eye on its screen, he endured a terrifying assault of voices and collapsed, awakening to an interface labeled “Eye Realm” and “Acting agent.”

• Qin Manjiang felt a sharp pain at the mention of the professor, ended the conversation, and asked Mi Qiao to look after Nie Yunzhen.
• Mi Qiao noticed that Xiaobai cowered in fear around Nie Yunzhen, unlike his usual friendly response to Qin Manjiang.
• Qin Manjiang examined the seamless phone and found contacts for Zuo Xian and Yi Lianhai, whose names caused him distress despite being unfamiliar.
• Qin Manjiang pressed the eye on the phone’s screen and experienced a flood of eerie sounds and overwhelming pain.
• Qin Manjiang collapsed, then saw the phone display an interface labeled “Eye Realm” and “Acting agent.”

Qin Manjiang entered the Eye Realm and discovered that it contained vast spheres representing cities and their players. He accidentally summoned Yang, then called nine more players as the Ghost Story Game announced the Ultimate Game, “Yellow Springs Opera.”

• Qin Manjiang entered his real name into the proxy field and was drawn into a vast realm filled with pupils.
• Qin Manjiang saw player codenames within the sphere of Fu City and glimpsed other cities, including Ye City and Wind Capital.
• Qin Manjiang focused on Yang’s codename, unintentionally pulling Yang’s consciousness into the Eye Realm.
• Qin Manjiang tried to summon Swimming Fish but failed, then summoned nine players by focusing on their codenames.
• Players received notice of the Ultimate Game, “Yellow Springs Opera,” and prepared for the game’s arrival.

Qin Manjiang accidentally triggered an Ultimate Game that summoned the Ten Seats and himself into a mysterious space. The players were conscripted into Yellow Springs Opera, and its opening lines appeared as the game began.

• Qin Manjiang realized that entering the Ghost Story Game through his phone had summoned the Ten Seats and started an Ultimate Game.
• The players examined the Spirit Pupil symbols and speculated that they needed to clear ten Ultimate Games.
• Blood-red writing named the ten conscripted players, then added Qin Manjiang under his alias, Abyss.
• Qin Manjiang lost his sense of control over the space when his name appeared and wondered what entering it under Proxy had done.
• The opening lines of Yellow Springs Opera appeared on the players’ phones and in the void.

After the players learned that the Southern Branch Troupe was the next haunting, Mei Sijun returned to reality and dreamed of the troupe’s past. He woke to Yang’s call, still wondering how his dream connected to the coming game.

• The players saw the names Yin-Yang Alley and Yellow Springs Opera appear beneath two Spirit Pupils before they were forced out of the mysterious space.
• Mei Sijun returned to his study, dismissed Uncle Li, and thought about the Southern Branch Troupe and his family’s opera tradition.
• Mei Sijun dreamed of a snowbound opera performance at the Southern Branch Troupe, where Wang Youde became captivated by a beautiful young newcomer.
• Zhao Qigong told Wang Youde that six new performers had joined the troupe.
• Mei Sijun woke when Yang called and answered the phone.

Qin Manjiang discovered that his phone-like memento was listed as a locked Permanent Item, then joined the Ten Seats at Catface Café to discuss the sudden Ultimate Game. The group suspected his connection to the absent Evening Primrose, and Mei Sijun revealed that a brief dream had shown him the Southern Branch Troupe.

• Qin Manjiang saw that his profile listed [Pupil Realm (Fucheng)] as a locked Permanent Item and wondered whether it had belonged to his biological father.
• Yang invited Qin Manjiang to a meeting at Catface Café and asked for Nie Yunzhen's contact; Qin Manjiang told him that she was at his place.
• The Ten Seats gathered at Catface Café, where Qin Manjiang arrived with Nie Yunzhen and Shen Hai introduced himself to her.
• Chen Zhiyuan and Dense Forest questioned Qin Manjiang about his possible connection to the absent Evening Primrose, but he denied knowing anything, and Xinxin defended him.
• Yang shifted the discussion to the Ultimate Game and asked Mei Sijun about his important news; Mei Sijun said he had dreamed about the Southern Branch Troupe.

Mei Sijun recounted a dream about the Southern Branch Troupe and explained its history of performing Yin Opera. He revealed that the troupe’s old opera house belonged to his family, while Yang questioned why the current scenario had not mentioned a game.

• Mei Sijun described his dream of the Southern Branch Troupe a hundred years earlier, including the drowning of its star performer and Zhao Qigong recruiting new performers.
• Mei Sijun explained that the troupe worshipped no deity and accepted commissions to perform Yin Opera, then outlined its rituals and rules.
• Mei Sijun said that the Southern Branch Troupe’s signature opera, Farewell My Concubine, could still be heard at the third watch in old troupes around Fu City.
• Mei Sijun revealed that the troupe’s old opera house was at his family’s residence on Fu City’s western outskirts, where his great-grandfather had buried Zhao Qigong.
• Yang asked why neither the Opening Lines nor the game requirements had mentioned the word “game.”

After the players agreed to investigate the Southern Branch Troupe independently while staying in contact, Qin Manjiang confronted Nie Yunzhen about her mysterious identity and decided to keep his distance. Seeing her stranded and alone, he reconsidered and took her home, telling her she could find her own place once her memory returned.

• The players left the café after agreeing to investigate [Yellow Springs Opera] separately and share information, while Dense Forest offered his Permanent Item for communication.
• Qin Manjiang asked Nie Yunzhen who she was and wondered whether her [Eye Realm] Permanent Item and sudden rise to First Seat meant she was dangerous.
• Qin Manjiang told Nie Yunzhen to contact him in three days and ordered her not to follow him, then walked away.
• Qin Manjiang reconsidered after realizing Nie Yunzhen had lost her memory and might see him as her only familiar person.
• Qin Manjiang returned to Nie Yunzhen and told her to come home with him until she regained her memory.

Qin Manjiang and Nie Yunzhen reached the river near the Southern Branch Troupe and witnessed a ghostly opera performed by paper effigies and masked boatmen. When the singing stopped, corpses began crawling ashore, forcing the group to flee.

• Qin Manjiang and Nie Yunzhen followed Mei Sijun's directions to a river in the misty western outskirts of Fu City.
• Qin Manjiang and Nie Yunzhen spotted numerous lantern-decorated boats filled with paper effigies drifting through the mist.
• Nie Yunzhen seized a hand reaching for Qin Manjiang, and Mei Sijun and Yang revealed themselves and warned that the boatmen did not look human.
• Mei Sijun identified the scene as a Ghost Opera performed by ghosts and explained that they were singing The Unicorn-Pouch.
• When the opera stopped, Qin Manjiang and Nie Yunzhen ran, while Yang pulled Mei Sijun up the bank as mutilated corpses began coming ashore.

Mei Sijun recognized a ghost-opera duel on the river, but a third opera trapped the group between two merging rivers. Qin Manjiang drowned, and his corpse surfaced as Yang, Mei Sijun, and Nie Yunzhen watched.

• Mei Sijun identified the Southern Branch Troupe's ghost opera and explained that the corpses on the riverbank were singing against the paper figures in a rival performance.
• Mei Sijun recognized a new song as Searching Mount Yin and warned that its female ghost meant to drag them into the underworld.
• Qin Manjiang spotted the drowned bodies of the other missing people in the river as a second identical river appeared behind the group.
• The two rivers converged and pulled Qin Manjiang, Yang, Mei Sijun, and Nie Yunzhen underwater, while Mei Sijun warned them not to look at the boatmen's faces.
• Yang tried to reach Qin Manjiang, but Qin sank beneath the water and later surfaced as a corpse.

Qin Manjiang awoke in the body of a frail troupe boy called Xiao Qi aboard a Southern Branch Troupe boat, apparently transported to the troupe’s past. The crew survived a dangerous encounter with water ghosts using music and Yin Opera, and Qin Manjiang learned they were headed to perform the Yellow Springs Opera.

• Qin Manjiang was pulled from the river and realized he had awakened in the body of a boy called Xiao Qi aboard a Southern Branch Troupe boat.
• Qin Manjiang suspected that his companions’ consciousnesses had also traveled back and that their Permanent Items and single-use items might no longer work.
• As the boat entered thick mist during the midnight watch, unseen beings clung to its sides and the boatman cursed as the vessel lurched.
• The musicians played together, and a woman sang “Searching Mount Yin,” which kept the beings beneath the water and helped the boat pass through the haunted stretch.
• The old drummer told Qin Manjiang that he was Qi Wazi and urged him to learn Yin Opera from his sworn elder sister, one of six promising newcomers.
• The old drummer revealed that the troupe was traveling to perform the Yellow Springs Opera.

Qin Manjiang learned that the Southern Branch Troupe had to perform Yellow Springs Opera in a Vengeful Ghost’s territory, while Mei Sijun, inhabiting Lin Yanqing, realized he would be the one singing for the ghost. The troupe discovered Old Liu’s corpse aboard their boat, leaving Zhao Qigong insisting that performing was their only chance to survive.

• The old drummer explained to Qin Manjiang that Yellow Springs Opera meant performing for ghosts in their territory, and warned that refusing the invitation would bring an even more terrifying threat.
• Qin Manjiang rested aboard the boat as the Southern Branch Troupe continued toward the ghosts’ realm.
• Mei Sijun discovered that he had possessed Lin Yanqing, a man, and realized that as the lead performer he would sing the Yellow Springs Opera.
• Mei Sijun smelled a corpse and called for help, bringing Zhao Qigong and the troupe members to Lin Yanqing’s room.
• Zhao Qigong’s people found Old Liu’s corpse, and Chen Xiangkui urged the troupe master to abandon the journey.
• Zhao Qigong told Chen Xiangkui that performing the opera was their only chance to survive.

Mei Sijun considered the strange troupe and the possibility that the group’s souls had traveled a hundred years into the past, then heard that a Ghost Ship had appeared. A towering paper boat bearing the Southern Branch Troupe’s name arrived, and its seemingly self-aware Paper Boys and Girls welcomed the terrified troupe.

• Mei Sijun reflected on Yellow Springs Opera and realized their apparent journey into the past could let him witness a lost tradition.
• Mei Sijun surveyed the large Southern Branch Troupe fleet and wondered whether all eleven members of his group had arrived.
• Qin Manjiang woke to a warning that the Ghost Ship was approaching and saw an enormous white boat emerge from the mist.
• Zhao Qigong recognized the vessel as a paper boat, while Chen Xiangkui identified its haunting woman as the one forcing the troupe to perform Yellow Springs Opera.
• The Paper Boys and Girls aboard the boat welcomed the troupe in unison, and the hidden Ten Seats sensed that the ghost seemed to possess thoughts.

The Southern Branch Troupe followed a ghostly procession of paper figures ashore, while Qin Manjiang was tied up after the Old Drummer suspected he was possessed. He reunited with Mei Sijun, but the troupe’s path ended at a deep well as the paper figures ordered them inside.

• Zhao Qigong ordered the Southern Branch Troupe to disembark and perform for the ghost, while the Old Drummer revealed that the troupe had wronged her and needed to fulfill her last wish.
• The Old Drummer subdued Qin Manjiang, accused him of being tainted by a ghost, and had the musicians tie him up.
• The troupe landed and followed rows of paper figures that repeatedly demanded a performance.
• Qin Manjiang ran to Mei Sijun, who pretended to be his sworn elder sister and stopped the Old Drummer from taking him back.
• Qin Manjiang introduced himself to Mei Sijun as Abyss, and the pair joined the procession as it reached a deep well and the paper figures ordered the troupe inside.