Chapter Summaries

Yang Jian took the withered finger from the Ghost Infant in Wang Xiaoming’s office and waited there after hearing no sign of Wang Xiaoming’s group. Meanwhile, Wang Xiaoming’s group studied a second-stage Ghost Infant, but heavy footsteps and an arriving elevator suggested they were being surrounded.

• Yang Jian ran up to the twenty-fourth floor, broke into Wang Xiaoming’s office, and took the withered finger from the boxed Ghost Infant.
• Yang Jian chose to wait in the office rather than descend, listening as ghostly cries and silent footsteps sounded outside.
• Wang Xiaoming’s group encountered a second-stage Ghost Infant and concluded that it would not attack unless someone touched it.
• Zhang Han passed the Ghost Infant without being attacked, and Wang Xiaoming decided to leave it alone and continue onward.
• The second-stage Ghost Infant wandered down the stairs without attacking anyone, but heavy footsteps sounded from several directions as an elevator approached their floor.

Wang Xiaoming and the others were cornered in a hospital ward by a crowd of Ghost Infants, while Yang Jian was away retrieving what Wang needed. The ghosts began forcing their way through the ward’s wall, leaving the group to make a desperate stand.

• Zhang Han and the others heard ghostly footsteps approaching from above and below as Wang Xiaoming explained that they were facing derivative Ghost Infants and led them toward an escape route.
• Dozens of dark figures gathered on the floor and emerged from the elevators, then followed Wang Xiaoming’s group to an empty ward.
• Wang Xiaoming’s group barricaded the ward door and tied bedsheets into a rope while the ghosts gathered outside without attacking.
• Sun Yi noticed the wall turning dark blue, and a dead face and body began pushing through it as more ghostly faces appeared across the wall.
• Wang Xiaoming recognized that the ghost was altering matter, and a Ghost Tamer urged everyone to attack together.

Yang Jian descended through the silent hospital with a ghost candle to reach Wang Xiaoming and the others, finding evidence that several Ghost Tamers had been killed. Wang Xiaoming explained the Ghost Infants’ killing conditions and revealed that a possible source ghost was nearby, leaving Yang Jian to follow him toward it.

• Yang Jian left Wang Xiaoming's office and went downstairs, deciding to make one last attempt to save the group and stop the supernatural incident.
• Yang Jian followed the ghostly footprints toward a dark ward and relit the ghost candle as the darkness suppressed its light.
• A severed arm wearing a gold watch reached through the haze, and Yang Jian realized its owner had been bitten apart and vanished.
• Yang Jian pressed deeper past the lurking figures and bloodstains until Wang Xiaoming emerged into the candlelight.
• Wang Xiaoming told Yang Jian that sound, contact, and sight triggered attacks from third-stage Ghost Infants, second-stage Ghost Infants, and first-stage Ghost Domains respectively, and said a possible source ghost was nearby.
• Wang Xiaoming pointed the way and asked Yang Jian to follow him to find and deal with the ghost.

Yang Jian and Wang Xiaoming returned to the ward restroom, where Sun Yi died from his injuries and Zhang Han remained trapped with a ghost. Yang Jian planned to confront the source ghost with a ghost finger before the Ghost Candle burned out, while warning Zhao Kaiming not to interfere.

• Zhao Kaiming told Zhang Han that Sun Yi was dying and proposed a dangerous way to survive.
• Yang Jian entered with Wang Xiaoming and a Ghost Candle, and he sensed a terrifying presence hidden in the darkness behind Zhao Kaiming.
• Wang Xiaoming said he lacked the medical supplies to save Sun Yi, who died after asking Yang Jian to help with his mortgage.
• Yang Jian said he would trigger a vicious ghost revival and try to pin down the source ghost with the finger he carried.
• Yang Jian warned Zhao Kaiming not to interfere, and Wang Xiaoming urged him to act before the Ghost Candle went out.

With Dachang City isolated under an S-class Starvation Ghost Incident, Yang Jian began a desperate plan to survive and confront the source ghost. He withdrew his Ghost Candle protection and prepared to release his suppression of the ghost shadow, leaving the outcome uncertain.

• Outside Dachang City, Li Jun and Zhao Jianguo discussed the deaths inside, the professor’s peril, and Yang Jian’s final attempt to resolve the incident.
• Wang Xiaoming explained that the source ghost would attack first once the Ghost Candle went out, then extinguished it to conserve the remaining candle for Yang Jian’s escape.
• As the gloom and ghostly footsteps returned, Wang Xiaoming sent Zhang Han to assist Yang Jian and used his own life to keep Zhao Kaiming in check.
• Zhao Kaiming privately believed the others would die and that he and his family would be the only survivors.
• Yang Jian told Zhang Han to enter his Ghost Domain and help suppress the ghost shadow, then began withdrawing his Ghost Eye to gamble on the resulting loss of control.

Yang Jian unleashed his Ghost Domain to isolate the hospital’s ghosts while his Ghost Eyes began reviving, gambling that the source ghost would appear. It arrived and blocked his attempt to pin it down, leaving Yang Jian face-to-face with Ye Feng’s corpse.

• Yang Jian opened more Ghost Eyes as third-stage Ghost Infants converged, and the revival began spreading a scarlet Ghost Domain.
• The Headless Ghost Shadow attacked Yang Jian, but Zhang Han pinned it down with the scarlet hands emerging from his back.
• Yang Jian swallowed a Ghost Eye and expanded his Ghost Domain to a thousand meters, isolating the hospital’s ghosts.
• A sinister presence entered the Ghost Domain and placed a cold hand on Yang Jian’s shoulder.
• Yang Jian stabbed at the newcomer with the shriveled finger, but its longevity-printed garment stopped the attack, and he recognized Ye Feng’s corpse.

Yang Jian faced the fourth-stage Ghost Infant wearing Ye Feng’s burial clothes and used the last of his ghost candle to stab it with a withered finger. The ghost stopped moving, but Zhang Han was still being strangled by his own out-of-control ghost.

• Yang Jian recognized the figure resembling Ye Feng as the fourth-stage Ghost Infant, which opened its mouth and tore through his Ghost Domain.
• Zhang Han warned Yang Jian that they could not win as the ghost shadow began controlling him.
• Yang Jian lit his last ghost candle, but the Ghost Infant bit off much of it.
• Yang Jian used the candle’s suppression to stab the Ghost Infant in the throat with the withered finger, and it stopped moving.
• Zhang Han called for help as his own hands and the bloody ghost hand strangled him, and Yang Jian rushed to intervene.

Yang Jian and Zhang Han restrained the ghost wearing Ye Feng’s appearance and sealed its corpse in a Gold Box, though the burial robe remained dangerous to remove. Yang Jian found Wang Xiaoming alive but discovered that Zhao Kaiming had disappeared, and planned to leave before his Ghost Domain failed.

• Yang Jian transferred five Ghost Eyes into the ghost shadow, pinning it down and freeing Zhang Han from its grasp.
• Yang Jian and Zhang Han moved Ye Feng’s corpse, but its hand twitched when they tried to remove the burial robe, so they fastened it again.
• Yang Jian and Zhang Han placed Ye Feng’s corpse in the Gold Box and closed it to contain the ghost.
• Yang Jian used his Ghost Eyes to find Wang Xiaoming alive beside Sun Yi’s corpse in the bathroom.
• Yang Jian realized Zhao Kaiming had disappeared and decided to take Wang Xiaoming and leave before his Ghost Domain failed.

Yang Jian, Wang Xiaoming, and Zhang Han escaped as a terrifying force overwhelmed Yang Jian’s Ghost Domain, but the source ghost remained beyond their reach and their plan had failed. They left the hospital without the special box, with no remaining means to stop the Starving Ghost.

• Yang Jian told Wang Xiaoming that he had temporarily dealt with the ghost inside Ye Feng but had not found the source ghost, and Wang Xiaoming concluded that a fourth-stage Ghost Infant existed.
• Wang Xiaoming explained that breathing the gloom marked people for fourth-stage Ghost Infants, which grew by eating ghosts, and warned that the city’s residents were vulnerable.
• Yang Jian spotted a vast tide of gloom advancing from the operating room and used his Ghost Domain to take Wang Xiaoming and Zhang Han to a rooftop several hundred meters away.
• The special box was left behind when the transfer failed, and they saw a bluish-black hand holding it outside the hospital ward.
• Wang Xiaoming said their final chance had been wasted and that they had no means left to approach or restrain the source ghost, so Yang Jian agreed they had to leave.

After the operation failed, Yang Jian brought Zhang Han and Wang Xiaoming to Guangjiang Residential Area, where he planned to wait out the Ghost Infant incident in a safe house under construction. He also agreed to shelter Wang Shanshan and her parents, whose unexpected arrival revealed that Wang Shanshan could see strange scenes connected to Yang Jian.

• Yang Jian used his Ghost Domain to take Zhang Han and Wang Xiaoming back to Guangjiang Residential Area after abandoning his car.
• Yang Jian offered Zhang Han a villa for his family and brought Wang Xiaoming to his home to prepare a report.
• Yang Jian and Wang Xiaoming discussed the safe house, Yang Jian's resentment over Wang Xiaoqiang, and Wang Xiaoming's offer of a newly developed product if they survived.
• At Yang Jian's villa, Jiang Yan explained that Wang Bin, Wang Haiyan, and Wang Shanshan had arrived and waited for him.
• Wang Shanshan said she had seen Yang Jian's home in strange scenes, while the scarlet eye mark on her arm had grown clearer.
• Wang Bin asked Yang Jian to protect his family, and Yang Jian agreed to arrange a place for them to stay.

Yang Jian warned Wang Bin’s family that his residential complex was not safe, then assessed the curse and damage left by his encounter with the fourth-stage Ghost Infant. Meanwhile, a figure escaped a crushed golden box in the hospital and walked into the darkness, leaving the city’s terror to spread.

• Yang Jian agreed to let Wang Bin’s family stay but warned them that danger would eventually reach the complex.
• Yang Jian discovered a bluish-black palm-print curse on his shoulder and decided to rest before making further plans.
• Yang Jian considered the human skin paper’s dangerous method but chose to delay using it while he recovered and prepared a safe house and escape route.
• A figure in the hospital crushed open a golden box, chewed on what appeared to be Ye Feng’s head, and put on an old burial robe.
• The figure left the hospital room as the surrounding gloom swallowed Ye Feng’s head, while Sun Yi’s corpse and a severed arm remained behind.

After the failed operation, Wang Xiaoming documented what they had learned about the Ghost Infants and their source, while Dachang City’s collapse accelerated. As Ghost Infants began appearing downtown, Yang Jian recognized that the source ghost was harvesting the city and refused Wang Xiaoming’s demand that he save everyone.

• Wang Xiaoming wrote a report describing the failed operation and the discoveries about the Ghost Infant’s stages and source ghost.
• As the haze lingered, Dachang City emptied out, and construction of Zhang Xiangui’s safe house slowed despite his efforts to keep workers on site.
• Yang Jian, Zhang Wei, and Jiang Yan played a computer game until the power failed, and Yang Jian discovered the city’s power station had gone down.
• Wang Xiaoming told Yang Jian that Ghost Infants had appeared in the downtown area, and Yang Jian concluded that the source ghost had begun harvesting the city.
• Wang Xiaoming asked Yang Jian to save the city’s residents, but Yang Jian said he could not reverse the disaster alone, and Zhang Wei called him a noob.

Yang Jian rejected Wang Xiaoming’s proposal to lure the Starvation Ghost into the safe house, but said he might attempt another direct contact if he could make dangerous preparations. After ordering Wang watched and barred from the fifth floor, Yang Jian left to handle an urgent matter.

• Wang Xiaoming offered Yang Jian rewards and a place in the Captain Plan if he resolved the Starvation Ghost Incident, but Yang Jian said he could only attempt another direct contact and needed a way to overcome the second condition.
• Yang Jian refused to use the safe house as bait and threatened to kill Wang Xiaoming if he targeted it.
• Yang Jian told Liu Xiaoyu to send two special personnel to watch Wang Xiaoming, and instructed Zhang Wei to break Wang’s leg if he tried to reach the fifth floor.
• Yang Jian received a text message, said he was going out to play Jesus, and told Jiang Yan and Zhang Wei to handle matters while he was gone.

Yang Jian drove through Dachang City, now overrun by Ghost Infants, and reached an old residential complex to investigate a reported threat. Inside an apartment, he encountered a second-stage Ghost Infant and stopped, unable to attack it safely.

• Yang Jian drove past a third-stage Ghost Infant and continued through the devastated city, reflecting on the failed operation and his weakened condition.
• Liu Xiaoyu contacted Yang Jian to say someone wanted to speak with him, while he headed to an old residential complex in the southern district.
• Yang Jian remembered the coffin nail pinning a shadow to the White Bone Tree and considered using it against the source ghost, but feared releasing an even greater threat.
• Yang Jian climbed to the fourth floor of Building Three and followed blood and signs of a struggle into an apartment.
• Yang Jian found a second-stage Ghost Infant at the entrance to a dark room and realized he could not touch it.

Yang Jian rescued Zhang Liqin from a haunted residential complex, but discovered that she bore a ghostly curse and might not survive. After the city’s spreading danger and his own bleak prospects drove him to despair, he decided to gamble against fate.

• Yang Jian knocked the second-stage Ghost Infant aside, entered the room, and found a mutilated corpse before spotting Zhang Liqin hiding on the balcony.
• Yang Jian carried Zhang Liqin out, but a female reporter’s cries drew Ghost Infants, and he drove away as they dragged her into the haze.
• Yang Jian questioned Zhang Liqin about the dead coworker and learned she had come to his home over a car contract and had earned a commission from him.
• Yang Jian showed Zhang Liqin the bluish-black curse mark on her chest and warned that the ghost would eventually find her.
• Yang Jian stopped on the expressway, despaired over the darkness ahead, then returned to the car and drove off to gamble against fate.

Yang Jian returned to Guangjiang Residential Area and warned everyone that the Ghost Infants could reach them within three days, then assigned the safe house’s limited places while refusing one for himself. He called Ghost Tamer Headquarters to arrange a conference about Dachang City’s survival, and Wang Xiaoming arrived as Jiang Yan pleaded with Yang Jian not to die.

• Zhang Xiangui reported that the workers had fled and the unfinished safe house could sustain its occupants for only ten days.
• Yang Jian told the residents that the ghostly threat would likely reach them within three days and that everyone who had breathed the haze was at risk.
• Yang Jian ordered the group to prepare for nineteen people to shelter in the safe house, reserving places for Wang Xiaoming and Jiang Yan as well as three for Ghost Tamer Headquarters, but not for himself.
• Yang Jian contacted Liu Xiaoyu and asked her to organize a telephone conference with Deputy Minister Cao Yanhua and other decision-makers at Headquarters about Dachang City’s survival.
• Jiang Yan confronted Yang Jian on the fifth floor, begged him not to die, and tried to persuade him to enter the safe house with her.
• Wang Xiaoming arrived, and Yang Jian told him the conference would leave him with nothing more to do than enter the safe house.

Yang Jian told Ghost Tamer Headquarters that resolving the Starvation Ghost Incident required him to survive a dangerous attempt and release a powerful, unknown ghost. He asked Headquarters to approve the risk, then prepared to begin his plan the next day, uncertain whether he would live.

• Zhao Jianguo organized a confidential phone conference after Yang Jian said Dachang City's survival was at stake.
• Yang Jian explained that contact with the source ghost and a way to contain it were both necessary, and that he had less than a twenty percent chance of surviving the first step.
• Yang Jian revealed that he knew a place holding a possible replacement for the lost restraining item, but getting it would mean releasing an unknown ghost that could cause an even greater disaster.
• Yang Jian gave Headquarters until six the next evening to decide whether to accept the risk of releasing the ghost.
• Yang Jian told Wang Xiaoming that he would begin the plan after Wang and the others entered the safe house, and admitted he had called Headquarters so it would share responsibility for the consequences.
• Wang Xiaoming left after wishing Yang Jian success, and Yang Jian watched the darkening sky, wondering whether he would see the world again.

Yang Jian left the safe room and prepared a dangerous experiment at Zhang Wei's former home, using the Ghost Rope and Ghost Mirror in an attempt to survive by becoming a vicious ghost. The chapter ended as he uncovered the mirror and began the experiment.

• Yang Jian entrusted the human-skin paper to Zhang Wei and told him to give it to Wang Xiaoming if Yang Jian did not return by the ninth day.
• Yang Jian drove to Zhang Wei's home with the Ghost Rope and Ghost Mirror, while the people left outside the safe room watched him go.
• Yang Jian set up a phone so Wang Xiaoming could observe, then prepared the Ghost Rope around his neck and positioned himself before the covered Ghost Mirror.
• Liu Xiaoyu told Yang Jian that the operation had been approved and that the state would bear the consequences; Yang Jian told her not to contact him again unless he initiated it.
• Yang Jian counted down, pulled away the cloth covering the Ghost Mirror, and began the terrifying experiment.

Yang Jian used the Ghost Mirror, the headless ghost shadow, and the Ghost Rope in a risky plan that left him apparently dead. As Wang Xiaoming watched, the Ghost Mirror began forcibly separating the shadow from Yang Jian’s corpse, setting the struggle between the ghosts in motion.

• Yang Jian prepared the Ghost Mirror, let the headless ghost shadow enter his body, and removed the gold foil from the Ghost Rope as Wang Xiaoming watched remotely.
• A matching figure emerged inside the Ghost Mirror and imitated Yang Jian as the rope strangled him and his body lost its vital signs.
• Wang Xiaoming watched for hours and concluded that Yang Jian had died, while the ghost shadow and Ghost Rope remained locked in a hidden struggle over his corpse.
• Three hours after Yang Jian was hanged, the Ghost Mirror began expelling the headless ghost shadow from his corpse, and Wang Xiaoming noticed a slight movement.

Wang Xiaoming watched Yang Jian’s corpse begin to move as black shadow fluid spread from it, and he realized Yang Jian was using the ghost rope, ghost shadow, and ghost mirror to force the ghosts into conflict. The phone died just as Yang Jian’s corpse was sucked onto the mirror, leaving his planned return from death uncertain.

• Wang Shanshan collapsed at home, and Wang Haiyan discovered that her heart had stopped; Wang Bin considered calling Yang Jian but remembered his daughter’s warning that she would die if Yang Jian died.
• Wang Xiaoming saw Yang Jian’s corpse sway as black fluid dripped from it and spread across the floor.
• Yang Jian’s swaying corpse touched the ghost mirror, and its feet stuck to the surface while the rope held it in place.
• Wang Xiaoming realized Yang Jian was trying to create a conflict between ghosts and wondered whether the dead could be revived.
• The black shadow overcame the ghost rope, which fell away, and Yang Jian’s corpse was sucked onto the ghost mirror.
• Wang Xiaoming’s phone ran out of battery, cutting off the video before he could see whether Yang Jian returned from death.