Chapter Summaries

Bai Haorui, Dean, and Sam confronted Famine, defeating him by cutting off the ring while Sam turned Famine’s own stolen demon souls against him. Afterward, Sam locked himself away to endure blood withdrawal, while Dean broke down over Famine’s words and the burdens of the Apocalypse.

• Famine’s hunger overwhelmed a restaurant, and he exposed Dean’s inner despair while demons restrained him.
• Bai Haorui resisted Famine’s illusions of home, protecting his friends, and changing destiny, then fought him with true fire and a soul-suppressing formation.
• Sam killed two demons during his blood craving, then resisted Famine’s offer and used his powers to tear the demon souls from Famine.
• Bai Haorui cut off Famine’s ring finger while Sam distracted him, and Dean took the ring as Famine’s power collapsed.
• Sam shut himself inside Bobby’s basement to endure detox, while Dean drank whiskey outside and Bai Haorui soothed him with a Clear Heart Talisman.
• Dean wept beside the Impala and begged the silent sky for help before returning to the house.

Sam and Dean investigated a murder committed by Clay Thompson, a man who had been dead for five years, and discovered that the dead were returning to life in Sioux Falls. Bobby revealed that his dead wife Karen had returned, while Bai Haorui sensed an unnatural force surrounding the town's graves.

• Sam and Dean investigated Benny Sutton's murder and learned that a witness had seen the supposedly dead Clay Thompson kill him.
• Bobby dismissed the brothers' concerns, but they found Clay's grave freshly disturbed and his coffin empty.
• The brothers confronted Clay at his home, where he admitted to waking in his grave and killing Benny, then Jody arrested them after Clay's wife called the police.
• Bobby secured the brothers' release and confessed that the dead in town had started returning five days earlier.
• Bobby brought Sam and Dean home, where they met Karen, his wife whom he had killed after she was possessed by a demon.
• Bai Haorui sensed the abnormal death energy around Karen, and the next morning Sam and Dean spoke privately with Bobby while Karen served them pie.

Bai Haorui discovered a way to keep the resurrected dead from becoming monsters, though he could only grant those not yet transformed another twenty-four hours to say goodbye before their souls passed on. As Sam and Bai Haorui rushed to help Sheriff Jody, Owen attacked his father, leaving Jody shaken and in need of their help.

• Bobby refused Dean and Sam's warnings and demanded they leave Karen alone, while Bai Haorui sensed that death energy was already damaging her soul.
• Dean stayed to watch Karen, and she told him she remembered her death and Bobby killing her but hid the truth to spare him pain.
• Sam found Ezra Jones attacking her husband on the fifth day after her resurrection, confirming that the returned dead eventually became murderous monsters.
• Sam told Bobby that Ezra had turned, but Bobby rejected the warning and ordered Dean and Sam off his property; Dean and Sam then planned to protect the town while keeping watch on Karen.
• Bai Haorui explained that his Eight Trigrams Soul Deliverance Formation could purge death energy and give the not-yet-transformed resurrected twenty-four hours to say goodbye, but could not save Ezra or anyone already transformed.
• Owen attacked his father at Sheriff Jody's house, and Sam and Bai Haorui intervened as Sam asked Jody to stay calm and help them.

Bai Haorui used a Soul Deliverance Formation to stabilize the town’s afflicted residents long enough for families to say goodbye before the souls faded. After the formation ended, Bobby revealed that the Death Horseman had targeted the town because Bobby was helping Sam resist Lucifer, and the group prepared to continue fighting together.

• Bai Haorui used a Clear Heart Talisman to give Owen one clear day, then began building a Soul Deliverance Formation at the town clock tower.
• Karen, Clay, Owen, and other residents spent their final hours with their loved ones before fading away.
• Bai Haorui maintained the formation through the night as Dean and Sam kept watch, and the golden light went out at dawn.
• Jody offered the sheriff’s people and resources to the group, while Bobby told Dean, Sam, and Bai Haorui that the Death Horseman had targeted him for helping Sam refuse Lucifer.
• Bai Haorui warned that more traps would target their weaknesses, and Dean, Sam, and Bobby pledged to face Lucifer and the Four Horsemen together.
• That night, Bai Haorui recovered while Dean cleaned his dagger, Sam studied demon files, and Bobby remembered Karen as the others prepared for the fight ahead.

After Walter and Roy shot Dean and Sam, Bai Haorui used his true gang to keep their bodies alive while Castiel tried to reach their souls in Heaven. Bai Haorui identified the hunters responsible and killed all five involved, while the brothers remained in Heaven with Zachariah searching for Dean.

• Bai Haorui sensed Dean and Sam’s life flames go out and rushed with Bobby to the motel, where they found the brothers shot by Walter and Roy.
• Bai Haorui stabilized Dean and Sam’s heart meridians as Castiel explained that their souls had gone to Heaven and Zachariah was pursuing them.
• Bai Haorui used an Origin-Tracing Formation to replay the shooting, and Bobby identified Walter, Roy, and three accomplices at a safe house in Will Town.
• Bai Haorui went to the safe house, disarmed and trapped the five hunters, then burned them to ash with Pure Yang True Fire.

Bai Haorui sent the Clear Heart Art through Castiel’s unstable signal to protect Dean and Sam as they wandered through Heaven, where Zachariah hunted them. Dean and Sam set out to find Joshua and God, following the road through memories that revealed what they had longed for and lost; Sam’s memory of Bones left them still traveling.

• Bai Haorui failed to break through Heaven’s barrier, then sent Dean and Sam mind-clearing power through Castiel’s signal while Bobby treated their wounds.
• Dean woke in his childhood memory of setting off fireworks with Sam, learned from Castiel that they were dead, and followed the road until he found Sam in a Thanksgiving memory.
• Castiel warned Dean and Sam that Zachariah was searching for them and urged them to find Joshua, the angel who could take them to God.
• Dean and Sam felt Bai Haorui’s Clear Heart Art settle their anxiety, found their road in Dean’s childhood toy racetrack, and followed it to their old home before Mary’s death.
• Dean and Sam left the memory of Mary comforting young Dean and continued along the track until Sam found Bones, the stray dog from one of his happiest memories.

Dean and Sam traveled through Sam’s Heaven while Zachariah pursued them, confronting the pain their choices had caused each other and meeting old friends along the way. They reached their childhood home, where a cruel version of Mary began tormenting Dean with claims that she had never loved him.

• Dean confronted Sam about the trouble and punishment Sam’s childhood escape had caused him, and Sam apologized.
• At the memory of Sam leaving for Stanford, Dean accused him of abandoning their family, and Sam insisted Dean would always be his brother.
• While fleeing Zachariah, Sam and Dean entered the Roadhouse, where Ash explained Heaven’s private memory spaces and offered them a shortcut to the Magic Kingdom.
• Nancy urged Sam and Dean to stop fighting and accept Michael, but Sam refused because people on Earth still needed help.
• The shortcut brought the brothers to their old home in Lawrence, where Mary’s voice described her death and claimed she had never loved Dean.

Dean and Sam learned from Joshua that God knew about the Apocalypse but would not intervene, then returned to the motel and told the others. After Castiel left in despair, Dean, Sam, Bobby, and Bai Haorui resolved to face the coming struggle together.

• Zachariah tortured Dean with illusions and anger until Joshua arrived and ordered him to release the brothers.
• Joshua told Dean and Sam that God was on Earth, would not stop the Apocalypse, and wanted them to remember his refusal to help.
• Dean and Sam returned to the motel, where Bai Haorui had been protecting them, and recounted what happened in Heaven.
• Castiel rejected the amulet and left after hearing that God would not intervene, while Dean threw the amulet away.
• Bai Haorui, Bobby, Sam, and Dean encouraged one another and agreed to rely on themselves to stop the Apocalypse.

Dean and Sam reached Blue Earth, where a church militia and the townspeople were preparing to fight demons under the guidance of Leah, a prophet protected by angels. Dean remained fatalistic about the Apocalypse as the brothers waited for Castiel and considered why demons were targeting the town.

• Bai Haorui sensed a large group of demons heading toward Blue Earth, left the Impala to intercept them, and told Dean and Sam to handle the demons following the car.
• Rob and the St. Covenant Lutheran Militia rescued Dean and Sam from the demons, then escorted them to the church and invited them to work together.
• Dean and Sam saw the town preparing for battle during a wedding and learned that Pastor Gideon would not explain who had taught the militia Enochian exorcism.
• Leah revealed that angels had identified Dean and Sam and warned her about demon movements, and Pastor Gideon said she was a chosen prophet.
• Sam left Castiel a message at Paul's Bar and suspected the demons were targeting Leah, while Dean said the townspeople's preparations were better than panicking.

After a demon attack killed Dylan, Dean blamed himself and lost faith that fighting could change anything, while Leah promised the town a heavenly paradise. Sam feared Dean was giving up, and the chapter ended with the brothers confronting their despair in the motel.

• Leah received a vision warning that demons would attack before dawn, so Dean, Sam, and the townspeople went to Talmadge Road and cleared the abandoned house.
• After the fight, a demon dragged Dylan beneath the Impala and killed him, leaving Dean consumed by guilt.
• At Dylan's funeral, Leah proclaimed that the dead would rise again for the chosen, then privately told Dean that he was Heaven's vessel.
• Sam drank with Paul, who condemned the believers' sudden devotion, while Sam said he believed God had stopped caring about humanity.
• Sam confronted Dean about the town's isolation and the angels' influence, but Dean said he no longer cared and doubted that continued fighting would help.

Bai Haorui fought through two groups of demons while the Winchester brothers' town descended into violence under Leah's false prophecies. After Paul was shot, Castiel revealed Leah was the Whore of Babylon, and Dean prepared to confront her as Leah threatened Pastor Gideon at the church.

• Bai Haorui destroyed a horde of demons in an abandoned factory, then sensed another group near an abandoned mine and went to fight them.
• Bai Haorui eliminated the demons in the mine, then detected a powerful evil presence erupting in town and raced back.
• Dean found Jane shoot Paul during a confrontation at the bar, and Paul's death broke Dean out of his apathy.
• Dean returned to the motel, where Castiel revealed that Leah was the Whore of Babylon and that only a true servant of Heaven could kill her with a Babylonian cypress stake.
• Leah urged the townspeople to purge sinners before midnight and threatened Pastor Gideon when he tried to stop her.
• Dean, Sam, and Castiel went to Pastor Gideon's home, where they found him sitting alone at his desk.

Dean, Sam, Castiel, and Pastor Gideon confronted Leah, whose deception and attack nearly overwhelmed them before Dean killed her with the cypress stake. Afterward, Dean sought a brief respite with Lisa, while Sam and Bai Haorui decided to let him rest.

• Castiel restrained Pastor Gideon while Dean and Sam revealed that Leah was the Whore of Babylon, and Gideon agreed to kill her with the cypress stake.
• Leah fooled Gideon with her resemblance to his daughter, suppressed Castiel with an Enochian incantation, and turned the townspeople against the group.
• Sam stopped Rob and Jane from burning the storeroom, while Dean fought Leah and drove the cypress stake through her heart, killing her.
• Bai Haorui returned to the church, calmed the distraught townspeople with Clear Heart Talismans, and reassured Dean that he had killed Leah to save people rather than to serve Heaven.
• Exhausted, Dean left the motel to visit Lisa and told her he wanted to try living a normal life; she invited him inside.
• The next morning, Sam found Dean gone and worried, but Bai Haorui told him to let Dean rest because he would return.

Zachariah received a summons from Heaven and eagerly accepted a chance to be reinstated. Meanwhile, Dean prepared to become Michael’s vessel, but Sam, Bai Haorui, and Cass stopped him and took him back to Bobby’s, where the search for another way continued.

• Zachariah complained to Stuart about being fired until a summons from his boss offered him reinstatement in exchange for a new assignment.
• Dean packed his belongings and prepared to find Zachariah and become Michael’s vessel to stop the Apocalypse.
• Sam found Dean at the motel and challenged his decision, and Bai Haorui argued that Dean’s sacrifice would not stop the war or save humanity.
• Sam revealed that Bai Haorui and Cass had come with him, and Cass rebuked Dean for giving up while Sam and Cass insisted they still had time to find another way.
• Dean blamed himself for the deaths and suffering around him, so Cass knocked him unconscious and told Sam and Bai Haorui to take him to Bobby’s.

Dean struggled with despair until an angelic disturbance led Cass and Bai Haorui to rescue Adam Milligan from two angels in the woods. Adam revealed that angels had chosen him as a possible vessel for Michael, but the brothers' warnings about their plan left him questioning whether they were using his mother to control him.

• Bobby urged Dean not to give up, sharing the bullet he had once considered using to kill himself, and Bai Haorui encouraged Dean to resist fate and face his responsibilities.
• Cass sensed a weak living soul surrounded by powerful angelic energy, then he and Bai Haorui went to the woods and killed two angels who were digging up Adam Milligan.
• Bai Haorui checked Adam's condition, and Adam woke at Bobby's house, where Sam and Dean learned that angels had warned him about them and recruited him to help Michael fight Lucifer.
• Bai Haorui and Cass explained that Adam could serve as a substitute vessel for Michael, and Sam and Dean tried to convince Adam that the angels intended to start a devastating war.
• Adam said he cared about seeing his mother again more than he cared about his brothers, but Bai Haorui warned that the angels could use his mother to control him, making Adam hesitate.

Dean tried to surrender himself to Michael to keep Sam and Adam safe, but his escape from Bobby's house ended with Cass beating him after Dean admitted he did not trust Sam to resist Lucifer. Meanwhile, Zachariah lured Adam into a dream by promising he could see his mother again, and the others regrouped to rescue him.

• Adam told Sam and Dean that he had longed for more time with John, while Dean promised that the brothers would have welcomed him if they had known about him.
• Dean admitted that he intended to accept Michael as his vessel because he feared Sam would fall to Lucifer, and Sam and Bai Haorui locked him in the basement.
• Dean used an Angel Banishing Sigil to banish Cass, escaped the house, and Sam pursued him while Bobby and Bai Haorui watched Adam.
• Zachariah entered Adam's dream, sowed distrust of Sam and Dean, and persuaded Adam to accept his role as a vessel by promising he could be with his mother.
• Dean met Cass in town, where Cass beat him until he passed out; Cass then joined Sam and Bai Haorui in planning to return to Bobby's house and rescue Adam.

After the angels took Adam, Sam, Dean, Castiel, and Bai Haorui planned a rescue at the Green Room in an abandoned Van Nuys factory. There, Zachariah revealed that he had used Adam as bait to draw Dean into becoming Michael’s vessel.

• Sam told Dean that the angels had taken Adam to the Green Room, which was guarded by dozens of high-ranking angels.
• Sam said he trusted Dean to make the right choice, and Dean agreed to join the rescue rather than be left behind.
• Bai Haorui planned to weaken the angels with a Five Elements Heaven-Burning Formation, while Bobby identified a side loading passage into the factory.
• Dean, Sam, Castiel, and Bai Haorui agreed that Castiel would draw the guards to the front while Bai Haorui attacked from the side and the brothers rescued Adam.
• Zachariah told Adam that he was only bait and a backup option, then immobilized him when Adam attacked.
• Zachariah revealed that he expected Sam and Dean to come for Adam so Dean would agree to become Michael’s vessel.

Zachariah held Adam captive as bait while Dean, Castiel, and Bai Haorui attacked the abandoned factory in Van Nuys to rescue him. The assault began with Bai Haorui’s fire formation, and Castiel and Bai Haorui fought the angels guarding the factory.

• Zachariah choked Adam into submission and planned to use him as bait and a backup vessel while awaiting Dean.
• Dean and Castiel arrived in Van Nuys, where Bai Haorui explained that fifty-two angels guarded the factory and described his plan to set the perimeter ablaze.
• Castiel carved an Angel Banishing Sigil into his chest, and Bai Haorui empowered his peachwood sword with a Daoist Pure Yang Evil-Breaking Talisman.
• Bai Haorui ignited the Five Elements Heaven-Burning Formation, trapping and burning the angels as he charged into their ranks.
• Bai Haorui felled and trapped several angels with his sword and Five Emperor Coins while Castiel attacked the main entrance and killed an angel with his blade.

Bai Haorui and Cass defeated the angels outside the factory while Dean and Sam reached Adam, where Zachariah forced Dean to agree to Michael’s possession. Dean killed Zachariah and tried to free Adam, but Michael arrived before they could escape.

• Bai Haorui joined the wounded Cass in fighting the angels, and the two cleared the attackers before heading deeper into the factory.
• Dean and Sam found Adam in the Green Room, but Zachariah appeared and used his power to hurt Adam and Sam until Dean agreed to summon Michael.
• Dean secretly signaled Sam, then demanded that Zachariah guarantee the safety of Sam, Adam, Bai Haorui, and Cass before he would cooperate.
• Dean tricked Zachariah and stabbed him with an angel blade, killing him as his body turned to ash.
• Dean and Sam tried to escape, but Adam was trapped behind a holy barrier, and Michael’s arrival shook the room as Sam urged Dean to leave.

Bai Haorui held off Michael’s projection so Dean, Sam, and Castiel could escape the factory, then joined them in the Impala. As they drove toward Bobby’s, Dean and Sam reconciled and decided to go on the offensive while planning to rescue Adam.

• Dean reluctantly left Adam behind as Bai Haorui, Sam, and Castiel pulled him out of the green room before Michael’s projection emerged from the ruins.
• Bai Haorui fought Michael with his sword, protective spells, and formations, then unleashed his strongest fire attack and escaped as the factory collapsed.
• Sam picked up Bai Haorui in the Impala, and Bai Haorui explained that Michael likely kept Adam alive as a backup vessel.
• Dean vowed to rescue Adam, and he apologized to Sam for not trusting his judgment; Sam accepted his apology.
• Dean and Sam agreed to stop hiding and go on the offensive, planning to recover at Bobby’s before investigating Lucifer and Heaven.

During a storm, Bai Haorui and the Winchesters entered the Elysian Fields Hotel, where old gods separated Bai Haorui from the others and forced him into a divine wager. He faced a Celtic woodland god in an arena as the other gods watched.

• Dean drove the injured Bai Haorui, Sam, and Castiel toward a motel while they searched for signs of pagan gods.
• The group found the Elysian Fields Hotel, detected the presence of several pantheons, and entered despite recognizing the danger.
• Mercury gave Dean two room keys, and Bai Haorui vanished after the group entered the lobby.
• Castiel sensed that Bai Haorui had been pulled into a separate dimension, so Dean, Sam, and Castiel split up to investigate the hotel.
• Bai Haorui arrived in an arena where Odin and Balder announced a wager, and a Celtic woodland god appeared to fight him.