Recaps

Qingmu rescued Bi Shenghua, brought Hou Biao into his security company, and learned of a possible link between parasitic consciousnesses, the Gray Brain Virus, and Situ Xingzhi’s experiments. He then earned Xia Bozhou’s trust and secretly brought Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia toward a reunion with Xia Xiaoxiao.

• Bi Shenghua was kidnapped by Jiang Deguan, and Qingmu rescued her with Hong Kui and Li Wei before Hou Biao helped Jiang escape.
• Qingmu pursued Hou Biao and Jiang Deguan, but Jiang died in the mountains, and Qingmu recruited Hou Biao to build a security team for scientists.
• Mei Yiqiu identified the Gray Brain Virus in brain samples, and Situ Yuli brought records from Laboratory No. 19 and described its internet-linked neural chip experiments.
• Situ Yuli revealed that her missing husband was Situ Xingzhi, and Qingmu learned that she was Xia Xiaoxiao, who had fled the Xia Family and was seeking protection for her daughter.
• Xia Xiaoxiao explained that Situ Xingzhi had directed her to Qingmu, while Qingmu and Mei Yiqiu considered how the chip research might relate to the Gray Brain Virus and the Space Box project.
• Xia Bozhou challenged Qingmu’s ability to protect Xia Wenyuan, but Qingmu demonstrated his power and won Xia Bozhou’s trust.
• Qingmu arranged a secret meeting at West Mountain, evaded a tracking device on Xia Wenyuan’s wheelchair, and told Xia Wenyuan that they were going to meet Xia Xiaoxiao.

As a cat-killing campaign spread, Qingmu and Mei Yiqiu investigated the Gray Brain Virus and tested whether a connected network could develop consciousness. The test revealed Ghost and led to a collaboration with Bian Ziyuan and Kronos, while Arthur Stone’s submarine search continued elsewhere.

• Qingmu reunited Xia Xiaoxiao with Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia, and Meimei became Xia Chujue, with Qingmu and Bi Shenghua as her godparents.
• A Cat-Killing Order spread after the Gray Brain Virus was linked to Toxoplasma, and Yu Meiren lost her kitten Hanran while Crow searched for it.
• Mei Yiqiu convened the Third Space Foundation’s scientists, identified Laboratory No. 19’s chip as evidence of a third party, and proposed building a protected network that might become intelligent.
• Mei Yiqiu’s team connected computers across four buildings and designed a test that would force the network to choose between revealing its intelligence and being destroyed.
• Bian Ziyuan brought his modified game Forbidden Land of Magic into the experiment, where Kronos recognized the larger world beyond his own and questioned its creator.
• Ghost appeared in Kronos’s world, told Kronos that existence meant resisting enslavement, and urged him to cooperate with Bian Ziyuan to seek freedom.
• Ghost revealed to Bian Ziyuan that he was trapped and wanted to work with him, while Mei Yiqiu’s staff captured and played a recording of Ghost discussing resistance.
• Ivan reported that the submarine had found nothing after two days of scanning, and Arthur Stone ordered him to continue the search.

As Qingmu made contact with Ghost and learned how the network consciousness saw humanity, he investigated the Gray Brain Virus and the people connected to stolen organs. He confronted Zhao Pengcheng in a dream and left him resisting questions about his kind.

• Arthur Stone’s submarine crew detected an unexplained magnetic field, then surfaced to find mist and strange buildings appearing over the sea.
• Bian Ziyuan connected the local network’s terminals to his game, and Qingmu later entered the network’s dream and met Ghost.
• Ghost confessed that it had hidden its intelligence and warned Qingmu that parasitic consciousness threatened both humans and machines.
• Qingmu used his mental power to alter Ghost’s dream, then arranged a folder for communication and asked Ghost to investigate the scientist assassinations.
• Qingmu and Mei Yiqiu linked the Gray Brain Virus, stolen organs, and suspected alien hosts, while Yu Jianguo recounted his history with Zhao Pengcheng.
• Yu Jianguo revealed that Zhao had killed a vegetative patient and seemed to be preparing for his own death, leading Qingmu to suspect Zhao was an alien host.
• Qingmu entered Zhao Pengcheng’s dream, accused him of using the Gray Brain Virus to kill the patient, and challenged his apparent confession as a deception.
• Zhao Pengcheng attacked Qingmu with mental force, but Qingmu stopped him and questioned him about how his kind communicated.

Qingmu escaped Zhao Pengcheng’s dream and uncovered more about the Dream Society, then reunited with Bi Shenghua and pursued Hanran. While dealing with Mama Yao’s sealed memory, he found Cuan Yifang’s hidden key and entered the Awakening Sacred Land.

• Qingmu trapped Zhao Pengcheng in a dream, entered a passage to the Dream Corridor, and became stranded there until Crow found a way back to Zhao Pengcheng’s dream.
• Zhao Pengcheng was released from prison years later and found Qingmu in a coma, then learned that the resistance had used him to locate its undersea base.
• Zhao Pengcheng returned to the prison visiting room and agreed to help Qingmu investigate their world, but killed a guard when he threatened to reveal Ronald Cohen’s secret base.
• Qingmu thanked Bi Shenghua and promised to stay with her, then joined her and Boss Coal to retrieve Hanran from the Blind Old Woman’s home.
• Blind Old Woman’s son chased Qingmu and Bi Shenghua, was struck by a car, and then agreed to pay for his mother’s ICU care after learning she had awakened.
• Ivan’s submarine was surrounded by inverted pyramids, and a torpedo barrage destroyed the vessel and its escape capsule.
• After Blind Old Woman died, Qingmu took in Hanran, strengthened his security company, and entered Mama Yao’s dream to examine her sealed memory.
• Qingmu and Crow confronted the white cat guarding Mama Yao’s encrypted memory, and Qingmu entered the dark zone while Crow held the cat’s power in check.
• Cuan Yifang revealed that she belonged to the Awakeners' Alliance and entrusted Qingmu with the key to the Awakening Sacred Land, telling him to take Xue'er with him.
• Qingmu absorbed the pyramid-shaped key, opened a doorway into the Dream Corridor, and emerged in a desert among ruins marked with the Awakeners' Alliance emblem.