Chapter Summaries

As Qin Manyi’s world began to disappear, Qin Manjiang chose to stay with her and made a deal with the being within him. He promised to take his sister to see the real world, while the others returned through the gate.

• Qin Manyi opened a spiral gate and told Qin Manjiang and the others to return to the real world as her world collapsed.
• Qin Manjiang refused to leave, saying his family needed him, and walked across the river toward Qin Manyi.
• Bai Yang explained that Qin Manjiang could cross because Qin Manyi allowed him or because he had made a deal with the existence inside him.
• Bai Yang carried the unconscious Shen Hai through the gate, and Xi Wutong and Zhong Xueran followed after urging Qin Manjiang to return.
• Qin Manjiang called on the White Pupil God, offering all his emotions in exchange for one promise.
• Qin Manjiang revealed his white pupils and marked cheeks, then told Qin Manyi he would take her to see the real world.

Qin Manjiang reunited with Qin Manyi and prepared to enter the real world, while Fu City descended into chaos under the Red Pupil God’s watch. As Bai Yang learned that Nie Yunzhen was heading to Guanyin Flat Lake to break the seal on the Guanyin Statue, a heartbeat shook the city and a half-face appeared beside the red pupil in the sky.

• Qin Manyi revealed that she had rescued unconscious people in another space layer, and Qin Manjiang opened a rift to take them to the real world.
• In Fu City, the Red God Cult and other sects gathered followers who sought the Red Pupil God’s favor as society’s order collapsed.
• Bai Yang and the others watched the Red God Cult’s blood ritual in Central Park, while Bai Yang assessed whether the gathering could protect the city’s people.
• Zhong Xueran called Bai Yang and told him that Nie Yunzhen had gone to Guanyin Flat Lake to break the seal on the Guanyin Statue.
• A deep heartbeat shook Fu City, the world blurred, and Bai Yang saw a half-face appear in the sky beside the enormous red pupil.

As the Red Pupil God’s face formed and black fog spread through Fu City and Moon City, the dead began emerging from the ground, bringing the world to the brink of destruction. Zhong Xueran feared Qin Manjiang had vanished in the future timeline, but an enormous Guanyin Statue rose from the lake carrying Nie Yunzhen and a figure who looked like Qin Manjiang: Jiang Du.

• Bai Yang recognized the forming face in the sky as Mei Sijun being taken over by the Red Pupil God.
• Cracks opened across Fu City and Moon City, releasing black fog that eroded buildings and weakened people’s positive emotions.
• Dead bodies and human heads emerged from the fissures as terrified crowds fled, while some believers continued chanting beneath the red eye.
• Zhong Xueran recalled the Zhong Family Ancient Book’s warning that the black fog would revive the dead and bring humanity to destruction.
• At Guanyin Flat Lake, the water began bubbling and an enormous Guanyin Statue rose carrying the unconscious Nie Yunzhen and Jiang Du, who looked exactly like Qin Manjiang.

Jiang Du explained that spirit pupils and their bearers had to be erased to make the world real, while Lian Yan and Xinxin questioned his plan and the nature of their world. He revealed that he and Zuo Xian had seen a vast world beyond theirs, where news reports showed them already dead.

• Jiang Du brought Zhong Xueran and the unconscious Nie Yunzhen to shore, advised Zhong Xueran to go to Snow Mountain, and left to find someone.
• Jiang Du met Lian Yan and Xinxin, then said he wanted to destroy spirit pupils so the Red Pupil God would lose its source of power.
• Jiang Du explained that spirit pupils were formed in the eyes of their bearers and argued that neither the pupils nor their bearers should exist.
• Jiang Du questioned why they could travel through time but had never left Fu City and Moon City, then said he and Zuo Xian had seen a vast, different world where news reported them dead.

Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi crossed into the real world, where a news report about a missing cruise ship linked their world to people from Fu City and Moon City. As Qin Manjiang began to be erased by the real world's laws, he met He Chu, then vanished, leaving Qin Manyi alone.

• Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi explored Fog Capital and realized they had entered the real world beyond Fu City and Moon City.
• Qin Manjiang sensed that the real world's laws were rejecting him, while Qin Manyi remained unharmed.
• Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi saw a report about the missing Fuyue cruise ship and recognized Xu Yi and other familiar faces among its passengers.
• He Chu told Qin Manjiang that the ship and everyone aboard had vanished during a night when red and white lights flashed over the river.
• He Chu introduced himself and warned Qin Manjiang to leave, then ran off when a girl called to him.
• Qin Manyi turned to find Qin Manjiang gone and called for him in panic.

Jiang Du told Lian Yan and Xinxin that Fu City and Moon City were inhabited by Indigenous People created by the Red Pupil God and White Pupil God, then urged them and the other Players to flee to the Snow Mountain. As he hurried to uncover Yi Lianhai’s reasons for choosing Mei Sijun, Qin Manjiang appeared before him.

• Jiang Du explained that illness came from Ghost Stories and directed Lian Yan and Xinxin to join the others at the Snow Mountain, which would become the final battlefield.
• Jiang Du revealed that only forty-nine people were true prisoners with Spirit Pupils, while the other inhabitants of Fu City and Moon City were real humans created by the Red Pupil God and White Pupil God.
• Jiang Du reflected that Indigenous People such as Yi Lianhai could resist the world’s rules, and questioned whether Yi Lianhai understood the danger of Mei Sijun’s Ascension.
• Jiang Du hurried to notify the Players and seek answers about Mei Sijun, but Qin Manjiang emerged from a spatial rift and greeted him.

Qin Manjiang and Jiang Du began hunting down the Eye Realm Players to cut off the Red Pupil God’s food supply. Qin Manjiang killed Flower, Dog, and Kong, then set out with Jiang Du for the Clear Pupil Bar in Fu City as his control by the White Pupil God worsened.

• Jiang Du agreed to take Qin Manjiang to the Eye Realm Players, and they appeared in Moon City to intercept Kong, Dog, and Flower.
• Qin Manjiang opened a rift and dragged Kong into the Eye Realm.
• Dog asked whether the doctor would survive if he died, but Qin Manjiang did not answer before dragging Dog into the rift.
• Flower accused Qin Manjiang of choosing Xinxin over her, then was seized and dragged into the rift.
• Jiang Du questioned whether Qin Manjiang had truly killed them, and Qin Manjiang insisted they move on to the Clear Pupil Bar in Fu City, where two important women were waiting.

Lin Ci learned that Qin Manyi was her surviving daughter, while Jiang Du confronted Zuo Xian about the futures they had witnessed and Qin Manjiang’s role in them. Zuo Xian revealed that her vision differed from Jiang Du’s: the White Pupil God would emerge and destroy the Red Pupil God.

• Lin Ci heard Zuo Xian explain Qin Manyi’s origins and felt relief that her daughter had survived.
• Jiang Du and Qin Manjiang appeared in the bar, and Qin Manjiang tried to seize Lin Ci and Zuo Xian before Jiang Du stopped him to ask questions.
• Jiang Du told Zuo Xian that every future he saw ended in the Red Pupil God’s victory except one uncertain future involving Qin Manjiang and the disappearance of the forty-nine.
• Zuo Xian said she had seen the White Pupil God appear and the Red Pupil God perish, adding that the White Pupil God had a human face and must have ascended from a human.

Qin Manjiang erased Zuo Xian and Lin Ci, then headed with Jiang Du toward the last two places, where the Players he had created were. At Snow Mountain, Shen Hai rejected the idea that the Players shared a common origin and insisted on his individual identity, while Bai Yang prepared everyone to climb to the summit, the only place untouched by the Red Pupil God.

• Qin Manjiang ignored Jiang Du's plea, erased Zuo Xian and Lin Ci, and asked to go to the next place.
• Bai Yang gathered the surviving Players from Fu City and Moon City at Snow Mountain, where he said Jiang Du had reported that its ghost could withstand the Red Pupil God's attacks.
• Fang Xiu explained that the Players shared an origin among the forty-nine Spirit Pupils and that their interests aligned with Jiang Du and Qin Manjiang.
• Shen Hai rejected the idea that he was connected to Jiang Du or the other Players, declared that he was himself, and ran away.
• Bai Yang told the remaining Players to climb Snow Mountain's summit because it was the only area unaffected by the Red Pupil God.

Qin Manjiang briefly regained clarity and realized that Qiao Ziruo and Xia Nan had become players because of him, while red spirals appeared in his white pupils. After Jiang Du killed Qiao Ziruo, Qin Manjiang came to and saw Jiang Du accusing him of trying to kill him too.

• Qiao Ziruo and Xia Nan remained unaware that the sky’s enormous face belonged to Mei Sijun, whom Qiao Ziruo blamed herself for leaving behind.
• Jiang Du brought two versions of Qin Manjiang to Qiao Ziruo, and she recognized the white-eyed one as the Classmate Qin she knew.
• Qiao Ziruo grabbed Qin Manjiang’s arm, triggering a brief moment of clarity in which he realized he had caused her and Xia Nan to become players despite their lack of original counterparts.
• Qin Manjiang struggled in his spirit world as red spirals appeared in his white pupils, and Jiang Du reacted with ecstatic delight.
• Jiang Du told Qiao Ziruo not to look at what she should not see, and her head was severed from her body.
• Qin Manjiang regained clarity, saw Qiao Ziruo dead, and turned toward Jiang Du, who claimed Qin Manjiang had tried to kill him.

Qin Manjiang realized that the White Pupil God had likely made him kill Qiao Ziruo, while the Red Pupil God neared its full return and the surviving players climbed Snow Mountain. At the Paleontology Research Association, Li Xijiu joined Yi Lianhai as they prepared for what had formed inside Qin Manjiang, and thanked Yi Lianhai for deceiving the watching entity.

• Qin Manjiang found Qiao Ziruo decapitated and suspected the White Pupil God had controlled him; he vanished with her body and head.
• Jiang Du revealed himself as a monstrous being and vanished after murmuring for someone to hurry.
• Bai Yang led the surviving players up Snow Mountain as black fog engulfed the surrounding area and their individual consciousnesses gave way to a shared understanding.
• Shen Hai drove toward Moon City to find Yi Lianhai, believing the researcher was his only source of information and a possible route to Qin Manjiang.
• Li Xijiu emerged from a glass tank at the Paleontology Research Association and told Yi Lianhai he was helping for Qin Manjiang’s sake, not because he shared Yi Lianhai’s promises.
• Li Xijiu thanked Yi Lianhai for maintaining his act under the entity’s gaze, and Yi Lianhai turned to face him.

Twenty years after Jiang Du confided his plan to imprison the White Pupil God and Red Pupil God within a human moment, Yi Lianhai recalled their conversation while lying in the laboratory. The chapter ended with Li Xijiu asking what was wrong and Yi Lianhai saying he was merely weary.

• Yi Lianhai remembered the night twenty years earlier when Jiang Du asked whether resisting their predetermined world still mattered.
• Yi Lianhai argued that humans had to resist because their futures should not be fixed, while Jiang Du explained that people lived through moments and memories.
• Jiang Du declared that he could not accept a life trapped in repeating ghost stories and resolved to resist the higher-dimensional beings.
• Jiang Du explained that his body and soul would imprison the gods, with the White Pupil God becoming his future self and Yi Lianhai helping awaken the Red Pupil God through human emotions.
• Yi Lianhai understood Jiang Du's plan, then returned to the present and told Li Xijiu that he was a little weary.

Qin Manjiang fled with Qiao Ziruo’s body and struggled to contain his grief before Jiang Du spoke to him from within his Spirit World. Jiang Du revealed how the Ghost Story Game began and why the Red and White Pupil Gods created it, leaving Qin Manjiang with the truth that fear was used to draw Spirit Pupil power from its human hosts.

• Qin Manjiang carried Qiao Ziruo’s body into the space left by Qin Manyi and tried to keep his rage from making him attack the being disguised as Jiang Du.
• As the White Pupil God tried to exploit Qin Manjiang’s emotional collapse, a heat flared between his brows and his consciousness entered his unstable Spirit World.
• Jiang Du revealed that he was still alive inside Qin Manjiang, and confirmed that the doll was the White Pupil God.
• Jiang Du recounted how he and Zuo Xian once saw a spiral leading to another world and learned that forty-nine people aboard the Voyage of the Fu Moon had become hosts to Spirit Pupils.
• Jiang Du explained that the Ghost Story Game was a deception by the Red and White Pupil Gods to reclaim the Spirit Pupils, whose power emerged from their hosts through fear.

Jiang Du revealed that Qin Manjiang’s soul was built from Jiang Du’s erased soul and the other players’ Spirit Pupils and emotions as part of a twenty-year plan. He told Qin that he was the only future they had seen leading into the unknown, leaving Qin with the answer to his identity.

• Jiang Du explained that the original forty-nine Spirit Pupils had gradually lost their power to the Red and White Pupils, and that their apparent battle had been suppressed in the original world.
• Jiang Du revealed that the sealed beings inside him were the original Red and White Pupils, while the gods outside were spiritual entities reshaped from their leaked power and human emotions.
• Qin Manjiang asked what he was if his emotions could power the new White Pupil God, and Jiang Du explained that he was near collapse and that Jiang Du’s appearance was an emergency safeguard.
• Jiang Du said his body had become a prison for the Red and White Pupils’ physical shells while his memory-erased soul was sent to Lower River Village to be reborn as Qin Manjiang.
• Jiang Du revealed that the Ascension Experiment was a pretext to gather Spirit Pupils and emotions for Qin, whose soul was formed from Jiang Du and the other players.
• Jiang Du told Qin Manjiang that he was the only future they had seen that led into the unknown.

Jiang Du told Qin Manjiang that everyone had created him to make a choice that no one else could make, and Qin Manjiang realized the truth behind the Red and White Pupils. He chose a path to address the source of the crisis, then silently bade farewell to the figures around him.

• Jiang Du's lingering consciousness explained that Qin Manjiang's future remained unknown and that others had created him to have the freedom to choose.
• Jiang Du urged Qin Manjiang to decide how to live for himself, regardless of how he had been made or what others expected of him.
• Qin Manjiang realized that the Red and White Pupils were not separate gods but one being changed by humanity's suppressed negative emotions.
• Qin Manjiang's eyes returned to black as he understood that merging with the Red Pupil would only postpone the recurring crisis.
• Qin Manjiang looked at the floating figures, turned away, and silently said farewell.

As Fu City and Moon City were destroyed by the Red Pupil God, Yi Lianhai revealed to Li Xijiu that he had secretly altered Jiang Du’s plan to save the indigenous people of their world. He watched Mei Sijun’s face in the sky as the souls he had gathered began to awaken inside it.

• Fu City and Moon City were devastated, and the few survivors remained silent beneath the Red Pupil God’s enormous face.
• Li Xijiu questioned Yi Lianhai about whether the White Pupil God would appear, and Yi Lianhai said the time was nearly right.
• Yi Lianhai told Li Xijiu that the indigenous people had no future in Jiang Du and Zuo Xian’s plan, which would destroy their world while the players returned home.
• Yi Lianhai revealed that he had spent twenty years developing human transmutation experiments and had implanted Yi Yu’s soul into the dead player Xu Yi’s body.
• Yi Lianhai explained that he had placed the ionized souls of people whose negative emotions formed the Red Pupil God inside Mei Sijun’s body.
• Mei Sijun’s enormous face stirred as something began to grow in its empty eye socket, and Yi Lianhai proclaimed that he had created a future for their people.

Yi Lianhai explained his plan to transform the world's indigenous people into real humans and make Mei Sijun the Red Pupil God's vessel. As Mei Sijun's ascension began, Yi Lianhai and Li Xijiu joined the people of the world in becoming his other eye, preparing to destroy those who did not belong and welcome a new world.

• Li Xijiu wavered as he saw human silhouettes appear on Mei Sijun's face and understood Yi Lianhai's desperation to save the indigenous people.
• Yi Lianhai explained that only players' corpses could transform indigenous people into real humans, and revealed his plan to make Mei Sijun the Red Pupil God's vessel.
• Yi Lianhai recalled that Mei Sijun had willingly accepted the plan after learning the truth about his origins and the fate he would face.
• Yi Lianhai pulled Li Xijiu into the square and said it was their turn to become Mei Sijun's other eye.
• Transparent silhouettes rose into the sky as a pupil formed in the haze, and Yi Lianhai announced that those who did not belong to the world would be destroyed.

Yi Lianhai gathered humanity’s souls into Mei Sijun to challenge the Red Pupil God, but the ancient god erased its own consciousness and merged its power into the newborn god. The resulting mindless monster began devouring Fu City, while Xia Nan watched from below.

• Yi Lianhai pulled Li Xijiu’s soul into the sky, where they joined the souls gathering inside Mei Sijun to form a new god.
• The Red Pupil God’s will could not crush humanity’s united will, so it erased its own consciousness and let its energy merge into Mei Sijun.
• The Red Pupil God’s energy transformed Mei Sijun into a malformed, mindless monster driven by an instinct to devour.
• Xia Nan remained in Fu City and watched Mei Sijun’s face become a vast black mass of flesh that cried like a baby.
• The monster opened a slit and sucked up Fu City’s streets, buildings, trees, and vehicles.

Xia Nan was swallowed by the gigantic black ball of flesh, which then raced toward Snow Mountain and attacked the players climbing to its summit. Zhong Xueran discovered that lying flat against the mountain could protect them from its tentacles, while the monster continued its assault.

• The black ball of flesh sucked Xia Nan and his balcony into a slit in its body, and his consciousness vanished.
• The players climbing Snow Mountain saw the monster approaching, and Bai Yang urged them to reach the summit.
• The monster’s suction failed to disturb Snow Mountain, but its tentacles reached onto the mountain and killed players along the route.
• Zhong Xueran told everyone to lie flat and crawl; the tentacles swept over her without striking Snow Mountain or hitting her.
• The surviving players realized Snow Mountain offered protection from the tentacles as long as they stayed low.

The surviving players climbed Snow Mountain as a blizzard froze the attacking mass of flesh, but the cold left them stranded near the summit. The Snow Mountain Giant Ghost rose from behind the mountain and swallowed everyone in its palm, including Bai Yang and Zhong Xueran.

• The Red Pupil’s awakening stripped humanity of its supernatural powers as the black ball of flesh killed and absorbed more survivors.
• A blizzard swept over Snow Mountain, freezing the mass of flesh and giving the surviving players a chance to climb.
• The players pushed through the cold to the summit, but frostbite left them unable to climb the final sheer stretch.
• The blizzard stopped, and the players realized the black ball of flesh remained frozen as the summit began to shake.
• The Snow Mountain Giant Ghost rose behind the mountain, revealed its true size, and swallowed everything in its palm.