Chapter Summaries

The [Southern Branch Troupe] was forced to prepare a final opera performance after a paper figure killed He Zhongping for trying to flee. Qin Manjiang reunited with Yang and Nie Yunzhen and discovered that the original Lin Yanqing had emerged inside Mei Sijun's body.

• The paper figures killed He Zhongping when he tried to escape, and Zhao Qigong ordered the troupe to prepare costumes and makeup before going down the well.
• Qin Manjiang found Yang, who warned him that some performers might lip-read, and Nie Yunzhen joined them.
• Qin Manjiang, Yang, and Nie Yunzhen noted that only the four people who had fallen into the water had appeared, then agreed to investigate how the female ghost had died.
• Mei Sijun, dressed as Miss Lin, sang The Unicorn-Pouch while arranging her hair, and Qin Manjiang realized that the original Lin Yanqing had appeared within her.

Qin Manjiang descended into the well with Lin Yanqing and the Southern Branch Troupe, where a ghostly former performer appeared on his back and began speaking to him. After Qin Manjiang promised to find water, the ghost stopped saying it was thirsty and said it was hungry instead.

• Zhao Qigong warned the troupe that once they looked the part, they would no longer be themselves, then led everyone down into the well.
• Qin Manjiang quietly warned Yang and Nie Yunzhen that Mei Sijun’s consciousness remained inside Lin Yanqing’s body and was unstable.
• Lin Yanqing called Qin Manjiang to descend with her, and he went down the well ahead of her.
• A ghost wrapped its arms around Qin Manjiang from behind and repeatedly said it was thirsty, making him feel increasingly dehydrated.
• Qin Manjiang promised the ghost he would find water at the bottom, and the ghost fell silent before saying it was hungry.

Qin Manjiang reached the bottom of the well, where the Vengeful Ghost left him and Lin Yanqing revealed that she knew he was playing Xiao Qi. Yang descended after the remaining troupe members and wondered whether the other players belonged to a rival faction and what the clearing conditions were.

• Qin Manjiang reached the well bottom and followed two paper figures carrying lanterns along a stone path.
• Qin Manjiang asked for food for the hungry ghost, and the Vengeful Ghost left his back.
• Lin Yanqing appeared, led Qin Manjiang onward, and asked whether he understood opera because he was playing Xiao Qi.
• Yang volunteered to descend last, suspected the ghost's revenge was tied to the troupe's collective behavior, and considered whether the players had been divided into factions.
• Yang climbed down the well and wondered whether the troupe members had to perform a final Yellow Springs Opera and survive to clear the game.

Lin Yanqing saw through Qin Manjiang’s disguise, and he claimed that he and the consciousness inside her were Taoists who had borrowed their bodies to dispel resentment. After revealing her sympathy for the Vengeful Ghost, Lin Yanqing asked Qin Manjiang to help the ghost find peace if she aided him.

• Lin Yanqing identified the differences between Qin Manjiang and Xiao Qi and demanded to know who he was and who was inside her.
• Qin Manjiang wondered whether the past ghost story was real or dreamlike and considered whether Lin Yanqing might be connected to the Vengeful Ghost.
• Qin Manjiang told Lin Yanqing that the consciousness inside her was his senior fellow disciple and claimed they had borrowed bodies to eliminate what should not exist.
• Lin Yanqing questioned whether the Tao could exist in a world where a wronged woman became a Vengeful Ghost and her tormentors remained alive.
• Lin Yanqing said she wanted the ghost to obtain what she wished for without remaining trapped in resentment and asked Qin Manjiang to help her find release.

Lin Yanqing told Qin Manjiang that Li Yunxiu was an intersex child abandoned by his birth parents, raised by a monk, and later bought by Zhao Qigong for the Southern Branch Troupe. After Mei Sijun returned, he recognized the well’s pavilion as a copy of the Opera House and explained how male dan performers could lose themselves in their female roles.

• Lin Yanqing described Li Yunxiu’s birth, abandonment, and upbringing by a monk who taught him Buddhist doctrine and kindness.
• Lin Yanqing said Zhao Qigong bought Li Yunxiu from the monk to join the Southern Branch Troupe, but she did not know what happened to him afterward.
• Lin Yanqing froze, and Mei Sijun took over her consciousness and told Qin Manjiang he could sense her unusual presence.
• Qin Manjiang said the others who entered the well had not appeared, and Mei Sijun recognized the space as a copy of the Opera House at his family’s old residence.
• Mei Sijun explained that male dan performers could become unable to distinguish themselves from their female roles.

Chen Zhiyuan’s group arrived at the Mei family’s old residence and began investigating a supernatural tale that had split its participants between the present and a hundred years in the past. As a strange performance began in both periods, Qin Manjiang and Mei Sijun encountered a bleeding opera performer singing “Searching Mount Yin.”

• Chen Zhiyuan’s group entered the old residence, where an elderly woman confirmed their stay and warned them not to wander or touch anything.
• Xu Yi said he had seen four people floating on the river and suggested they might be in another timeline; Shen Hai and Dense Forest agreed that the past and present were running in parallel.
• Dense Forest urged the group to find a way to contact those in the past, while Xinxin warned Chen Zhiyuan to stay calm.
• Yan Xiao heard a chilling performance of “Searching Mount Yin,” and drops of fresh blood appeared on the path before the group.
• Qin Manjiang and Mei Sijun stepped onto the gravel path, where a bleeding opera performer appeared and sang about Li Bao murdering Li Yunxiu.

Mei Sijun and Qin Manjiang discovered that the gravel path showed hidden performers whenever they stepped into the right place, while the other players found ways to enter different paths through [Southern Branch Troupe]. Dense Forest suggested that they needed to take on roles in the troupe, leaving the group to inspect the bloodstains for clues.

• Mei Sijun explained that the path’s shifting scenery followed the theatrical logic of the opera, and he and Qin Manjiang realized the missing troupe members were hidden along it in the underworld scene.
• Qin Manjiang felt something touch his arm, though nothing was visible beside him.
• Xu Yi and Zhong Xueran discussed the invisible opera singers as Xinxin pointed out blood covering the gravel path.
• Shen Hai warned the group that space and time were jumbled and that they should stay silent on the path, then disappeared along it.
• Xu Yi and Yan Xiao entered the gravel path and vanished by different routes.
• Dense Forest said they needed to take roles in the troupe and asked Chen Zhiyuan, Xinxin, and Zhong Xueran to examine where the bloodstains were concentrated.

Qin Manjiang, Mei Sijun, and the others discovered that marked stones on the gravel path assigned them opera roles, then entered separate spaces by choosing roles that matched their personalities. Dense Forest realized all eleven roles had been filled and believed the real performance was about to begin.

• Qin Manjiang and Mei Sijun found stones marked Sheng, Jing, Mo, and Chou, and Mei explained the opera roles and the performers’ mistaken clown makeup.
• Qin Manjiang chose Chou and vanished from the gravel path, while Mei Sijun chose Sheng and entered a different space.
• Zhong Xueran and the others identified seven Dan-role stones, and Dense Forest named the roles and explained how their traits matched the group.
• Chen Zhiyuan chose Qingyi, Xinxin chose Huadan, and Zhong Xueran recognized that Daomadan remained for her.
• Dense Forest chose Laodan and concluded that all eleven roles had been assigned, leaving the real performance about to begin.

Qin Manjiang entered the Opera House’s layered space as the Clown and encountered Zhao Qigong, who seemed to know how to navigate the well. Zhao Qigong told Qin Manjiang to help him find a Jade Cicada, leaving Qin Manjiang suspecting that the troupe leader was involved in the ghost story’s deaths.

• Qin Manjiang and Mei Sijun realized they could hear one another across separate spaces, but stopped communicating in case a ghost was listening.
• Qin Manjiang reached the Opera House and hid inside after hearing a faint sound.
• Zhao Qigong approached Qin Manjiang, mistook him for Xiao Qi, and praised him for entering by stepping on a role stone.
• Qin Manjiang pretended to be frightened, and Zhao Qigong told him to help search the Opera House for his Jade Cicada.
• Zhao Qigong revealed that a woman had held the Jade Cicada in her mouth before jumping into the well.

Zhong Xueran and Yang discovered that people assigned different roles occupied overlapping versions of the Opera House, where objects could be seen or touched differently across spaces. As they tried to understand the connection, a Vengeful Ghost in red opera robes appeared onstage and descended toward Yang.

• Zhong Xueran entered the Opera House in the martial heroine role and heard a chair creak in the apparently empty room.
• Yang found Mei Sijun’s flower-shaped marker, stepped onto the painted-face role path, and entered the dark Opera House alone.
• A creaking chair was heard across the overlapping spaces, leading Qin Manjiang to suspect that players in different roles shared one location without being able to touch one another.
• Yang and Zhong Xueran reached for the same chair from different spaces; Zhong Xueran touched it, while Yang could see it but could not.
• Yang and Zhong Xueran spoke across the spaces and realized one could see the chairs while the other could touch them.
• A blank-faced ghost in red opera robes appeared onstage, split open its face to reveal fangs, and came down toward Yang.

Yang survived the Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost by realizing it could not touch him, while Zhong Xueran escaped its attack by using the Three Pure Ones Bell. After speaking with Nie Yunzhen, Yang questioned whether the players had truly traveled through time and entered other bodies.

• Yang recognized that the Vengeful Ghost could not touch him, but realized it could attack Zhong Xueran in the modern time and space.
• Yang warned Zhong Xueran to use the Three Pure Ones Bell, and she escaped the ghost’s jaws by ringing it.
• The Vengeful Ghost passed through Yang, then melted into blood and disappeared.
• Yang concluded that players in the two time periods could cooperate because one group could see but not touch, while the other could touch but not see.
• Nie Yunzhen spoke to Yang after coming to investigate the ghost, prompting him to question how Zhong Xueran had recognized his voice.
• Yang suspected that the players might not have traveled through time and possessed other bodies as they had assumed.

Zhong Xueran used the Three Pure Ones Bell to escape a ghost and learned that its hidden ability revealed a map of the scenario, which appeared to have two layers. She reunited with Xu Yi in the Southern Branch Troupe’s courtyard, where they discussed the well and the ghost before discovering an upright coffin.

• Zhong Xueran teleported to a room in the courtyard after briefly seeing the map of [Yellow Springs Opera].
• Xu Yi recognized that Zhong Xueran had used her Permanent Item and asked what she had learned about the scenario.
• Zhong Xueran told Xu Yi about being chased by a ghost and seeing a map that seemed to have two layers.
• Xu Yi said the well was still in the Southern Branch Troupe and suspected Doctor and Player might have gone down it.
• Zhong Xueran noticed Xu Yi had been rummaging through an upright coffin, and Xu Yi asked whose coffin it was.

Zhong Xueran and Xu Yi investigated Zhao Qigong’s coffin and suspected the troupe master might not be a normal living person. Meanwhile, Qin Manjiang hid backstage with Zhao Qigong, who sent him to retrieve a Jade Cicada while the Vengeful Ghost roamed nearby.

• Zhong Xueran explained that she recognized Yang by his voice, and Xu Yi wondered whether Yang’s soul had traveled into the past.
• Zhong Xueran and Xu Yi found an elegy inside the coffin addressed to Brother Qigong and recognized its handwriting from the Southern Branch Troupe sign.
• Xu Yi suggested Zhao Qigong might have faked his death or might never have been a normal living person, prompting Zhong Xueran to warn Yang and the others.
• Zhao Qigong led Qin Manjiang backstage after the Vengeful Ghost shrieked and told him the ghost was blind and listened for sounds.
• Zhao Qigong pointed out the Jade Cicada backstage and ordered Qin Manjiang to retrieve it, but Qin Manjiang pretended to be frightened and asked why Zhao Qigong would not get it himself.

After escaping Zhao Qigong, Qin Manjiang discovered an upright coffin containing a Jade Cicada and connected with Xu Yi across the two space-times. They agreed to collect all five Jade Cicadas, suspecting they could help clear the game.

• Qin Manjiang punched Zhao Qigong and fled rather than retrieve the Jade Cicada for him.
• Qin Manjiang reasoned that Zhao Qigong might be trying to release a soul suppressed by the Jade Cicadas.
• Qin Manjiang found an upright coffin in a dark room and saw a red-glowing Jade Cicada inside.
• Qin Manjiang and Xu Yi touched the Jade Cicada simultaneously and heard each other across the two space-times.
• Qin Manjiang told Xu Yi there were five Jade Cicadas, and they agreed to collect them all.

Xu Yi and Qin Manjiang discovered that touching the Jade Cicada switched which of them could see or touch it, then used their shared grip to carry it together. When a Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost attacked, they fled toward the west wing and began trying to adapt Zhong Xueran’s escape method to the Jade Cicada’s strange properties.

• Xu Yi and Qin Manjiang found that the Jade Cicada became visible but intangible to Xu Yi while Qin Manjiang could touch it, and vice versa.
• Xu Yi and Qin Manjiang held the Jade Cicada together, allowing them to carry it across their separate time periods.
• Xu Yi reasoned that three Jade Cicadas remained, with one backstage and the other two likely in the east and west wings.
• A Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost rose from the ground, and Qin Manjiang pulled Xu Yi into a southward escape.
• Xu Yi and Qin Manjiang ran toward the west wing as Qin Manjiang asked about Zhong Xueran’s escape and devised a plan based on the Jade Cicada’s shifting properties.

Qin Manjiang and Xu Yi used the Jade Cicada to evade a Vengeful Ghost while searching for the west wing, as Mei Sijun encountered ghosts in the east wing and became trapped. The chapter ended with the three meeting and Mei Sijun realizing he could see both Qin Manjiang and Xu Yi.

• Qin Manjiang and Xu Yi alternately released and caught the Jade Cicada to switch their states and avoid the Vengeful Ghost as they ran toward the west wing.
• Mei Sijun entered the east wing of the Southern Branch Troupe, saw a woman he suspected was Li Yunxiu, and found a glowing Jade Cicada he could not touch.
• Mei Sijun saw Lin Yanqing’s face appear in the bronze mirror and was attacked by a faceless Vengeful Ghost that transformed into Lin Yanqing’s likeness.
• Mei Sijun fled through a window, but the ground softened beneath him and he fell as the ghost approached.
• Qin Manjiang and Xu Yi reached Mei Sijun while tossing and catching the Jade Cicada, and Mei Sijun realized he could see both of them.

Qin Manjiang and Xu Yi used two Jade Cicadas to evade the Red-Robed Vengeful Ghosts and find Xinxin, whose Permanent Item let them hide inside a photograph. After one ghost nearly discovered them, Xinxin sent them back to the prop room, where Qin Manjiang glimpsed two hanging corpses inside the photograph.

• Mei Sijun threw his Jade Cicada to Qin Manjiang, who and Xu Yi passed both Jade Cicadas between them while fleeing the ghosts.
• Mei Sijun ran backstage to search for another Jade Cicada as Qin Manjiang and Xu Yi called for him to meet them at the Opera Stage.
• Xu Yi said they needed Xinxin’s Permanent Item, and the two Jade Cicadas seemed to make the ancient and modern spaces merge as he found her.
• Xinxin used [Her Photograph] to pull herself, Qin Manjiang, and Xu Yi into the photograph’s space, where they hid from the two ghosts.
• A ghost stepped on the photograph and nearly noticed them, but it left without finding them; Xinxin then sent Qin Manjiang and Xu Yi back to the prop room.
• Qin Manjiang glimpsed a man and a woman hanging inside the photograph’s living room as he returned to the prop room.

Qin Manjiang, Xu Yi, and Xinxin used two Jade Cicadas to see one another, while Yu Chenglin returned with a third and reported Shen Hai and Yan Xiao’s findings about the Yellow Springs Opera. Qin Manjiang realized that the person they had all seen earlier could only have been a ghost, leaving him alarmed by what that meant.

• Xinxin touched the two Jade Cicadas, allowing her, Xu Yi, and Qin Manjiang to see one another within a small merged space.
• Yu Chenglin arrived with a third Jade Cicada, which Shen Hai and Yan Xiao had given him, and asked the others to hand over theirs so the group could gather.
• Yu Chenglin told them Shen Hai and Yan Xiao had gone down the Back Courtyard well to search for another Jade Cicada and the ghost carrying it.
• Yu Chenglin relayed Shen Hai’s warning that every player had a role in the Yellow Springs Opera, so the players would fail if anyone died before they summoned the true guest.
• Qin Manjiang remembered that Xu Yi and he had both seen Mei Sijun when they could not see each other, and concluded that Mei Sijun must have been a ghost.

After discovering that Lin Yanqing was likely a ghost and suspecting Yu Chenglin was rushing to seize the Jade Cicadas, Xu Yi and Qin Manjiang decided to bait him. At the bottom of the modern well, Yan Xiao treated Shen Hai after Yu Chenglin attacked them, and the two prepared to explore among the paper figures.

• Qin Manjiang told Xu Yi that Lin Yanqing was a ghost, and Xu Yi gave him a Jade Cicada while declining Yu Chenglin’s request to hold them.
• Qin Manjiang reasoned that several figures in the ghost story might be different kinds of ghosts, while the Jade Cicadas could summon the true audience of the Yellow Springs Opera.
• Xu Yi noticed Yu Chenglin was in a hurry, and he and Qin Manjiang agreed to bait him.
• After Shen Hai explained the Jade Cicadas’ purpose, Yu Chenglin stabbed him and pushed Shen Hai and Yan Xiao into the well.
• Yan Xiao treated Shen Hai’s wound despite Shen Hai’s anger, then set out to explore the bottom of the well among rows of paper figures.
• Shen Hai got up and told Yan Xiao he would go with him.

Yan Xiao and Shen Hai explored the well’s cavern and discovered that its phantoms and paper effigies pointed to the Southern Branch Troupe being a ghostly opera troupe. They began to suspect Zhao Qigong’s role in the performer’s death, then heard what sounded like water in the darkness ahead.

• Yan Xiao and Shen Hai saw flickering phantoms in the cavern and recognized figures resembling Yang, Nie Yunzhen, Qin Manjiang, and Mei Sijun.
• Shen Hai suggested the phantoms did not prove the group had traveled a century into the past, and Yan Xiao examined the surrounding paper effigies.
• Yan Xiao and Shen Hai identified nearly fifty paper effigies as members of an opera troupe, but found no effigy of Troupe Leader Zhao Qigong.
• Shen Hai wondered why Zhao Qigong had brought a living performer into the troupe, and Yan Xiao proposed that she had either discovered the troupe was made of paper figures or faced something worse than death.
• Yan Xiao recalled that the performer had held Zhao Qigong’s Jade Cicada in her mouth before dying, and Shen Hai pointed out a sound of water ahead.