Chapter Summaries

Su Cheng saved Gao Xiaoyun from a ghost that tampered with a treadmill, but Gao Xiaoyun treated the incident as a chance to gain followers. After discovering that Lu Heng and Yun Xi were planning to explore the deadly Shunshun Tunnel that night, Su Cheng investigated the location.

• Gao Xiaoyun asked Su Cheng to photograph her jogging, and Su Cheng spotted a second face on her phone as a ghost sped up the treadmill.
• Su Cheng stopped the treadmill and seized the ghost, which vanished in black smoke, then showed Gao Xiaoyun a recording of the incident.
• Gao Xiaoyun decided to post the footage on Star Moon and asked Su Cheng to help her make paranormal videos, but Su Cheng refused and warned her not to conduct rituals at the hotel.
• Su Cheng followed Lu Heng on Star Moon and watched his videos, recognizing that his supernatural encounters were real and that he had not recovered his memories.
• Su Cheng learned that Lu Heng and Yun Xi planned to explore Shunshun Tunnel that night and searched for the tunnel's location and pictures.

Su Cheng tried to protect Yan Yu from the spirit attached to her and prepared for the hotel’s ghosts to emerge after dark. When a ghost crawled out of her television, Su Cheng restrained it and sent Mu Ling after it, while Xu Shaowei investigated her own room.

• Su Cheng stopped Xu Shaowei from confronting the spirit on Yan Yu’s back and used Qi to ease its hold on Yan Yu.
• Su Cheng and Xu Shaowei showed Yan Yu their matching black bracelets, prompting her to question her recent changes and agree to stay at the front desk.
• Su Cheng left Qi on Xu Shaowei for protection, then returned to her room and found a decaying smell and a strange video playing on the television.
• A female ghost crawled out of the television, but Su Cheng grabbed and restrained it before sending Mu Ling after it.
• Xu Shaowei searched her room with a compass, whose needle pointed toward the curtains.

Su Cheng discovered a hidden chamber beneath Man Moon Hotel and followed its passage into an underground space, where she found a ritual underway around Yan Yu. The robed figures were Gao Xiaoyun, Wang Yue, Lin Qing, Xu Shaowei, and another guest, and they turned to face Su Cheng.

• Gao Xiaoyun returned to the dark gym to recreate her ghost video, but a treadmill started by itself and killed her.
• Wang Yue encountered a grotesque, living corridor and was dissolved by a surge of acid.
• Su Cheng followed Mu Ling to a concealed chamber, where Mu Ling defeated a female ghost and Su Cheng found bloodied goat horns and black stones.
• Su Cheng discovered a hidden passage beneath the chamber and climbed down into a red-misted underground space.
• Su Cheng found five robed figures chanting around Yan Yu, who had a burning cross embedded in her chest, and recognized Gao Xiaoyun, Wang Yue, Lin Qing, Xu Shaowei, and another hotel guest among them.

Su Cheng learned that the Sun God Cult had built the Man Moon Hotel’s basement to feed a Calamity, and she suspected the cult’s plans were tied to the New Year’s party. After telling Xu Shaowei and Yan Yu, she left the hotel before dawn and checked Lu Heng’s popular livestream.

• Su Cheng told Xu Shaowei and Yan Yu what the black toad had revealed about the Sun God Cult and the Calamity.
• The three suspected the cult’s plan was connected to the New Year’s party, though they did not know what it intended to do.
• At two in the morning, Su Cheng said she would go out and return before dawn, then left the Man Moon Hotel.
• Su Cheng opened her phone and saw that Lu Heng’s livestream on the Star Moon platform was trending with a million viewers online.

During the blind-man’s-buff game in Shunshun Tunnel, Liu Yanhe was killed after asking a ghost how he died, while Lu Heng caught a female ghost by asking her name and learned the rules could restrain the spirits. The game continued as Chang Yue caught another troublemaker, leaving Lu Heng and the remaining players still in danger.

• Lu Heng discovered that his blindfold had been switched so he could see, and he spotted six ghosts among the players.
• Liu Yanhe followed a ghost child’s false clues, caught him, and asked how he had died; the child and a charred ghost snapped Liu Yanhe’s neck, and other ghosts attacked his body.
• Lu Heng caught the female ghost Tian Lin and asked her name, avoiding a question about her death; after she answered, the rules pulled her into the tunnel wall.
• Lu Heng realized that eliminated ghosts were bound by the game’s rules, while Chang Yue sensed danger but had no chance to quit before a ghost approached her.
• Chang Yue grabbed the ghost’s wrist and declared that she had caught a troublemaker, then was asked what question she wanted to ask.

Lu Heng and Yun Xi discovered that the ghosts could not harm players who followed the rules, but Lu Heng was exposed as a cheater and the tunnel began punishing him. Su Cheng arrived at Shunshun Tunnel and was trapped by Shen Ying, while Mu Ling confronted Shen Ying outside.

• Chang Yue removed her blindfold after hearing what she thought was her mother, saw the ghosts, and was killed after fleeing.
• Lu Heng repeated his question to the charred male ghost and was saved when the ghost was pulled into the wall; Yun Xi followed his lead, and the two survived the ghosts’ attacks by obeying the rules.
• The little boy removed Lu Heng’s blindfold, exposing him as a cheater, and the tunnel’s faces attacked him as his jade clasp shattered and briefly shielded him.
• Su Cheng rode the enlarged black toad to Shunshun Tunnel and learned from Mu Ling that Shen Ying was inside the production van.
• Shen Ying’s trap enclosed Su Cheng in a blue ring, blocking her connection to Mu Ling and resisting her attempts to break out.
• Mu Ling overturned the van and confronted Shen Ying, who revealed that she had killed the four crew members and released red butterflies that began consuming Mu Ling’s ghostly energy.

Su Cheng defeated Shen Ying, destroying her body and extinguishing her soul after surviving her traps and attacks. She then turned back toward the tunnel, where Yun Xi stumbled out, while Lu Heng remained inside.

• Shen Ying trapped Mu Ling with red butterflies and a formation, then sent a Soul-Devouring Butterfly toward Su Cheng behind a blue barrier.
• Su Cheng used Dragon's Roar to break the barrier and destroy the butterfly, then attacked Shen Ying while the golden dragons pressed against her contracts.
• Shen Ying exhausted her contracts and weapons trying to survive, but Su Cheng slashed her throat and pierced her heart with the boning knife.
• Su Cheng burned Shen Ying's corpse and used blue flames to extinguish her soul; Mu Ling ate the weakened red butterflies.
• Su Cheng put away the blood-soaked boning knife and turned toward the tunnel to check on Lu Heng, but Yun Xi stumbled out.

Su Cheng rescued Yun Xi and Lu Heng from the tunnel, brought them back to the hotel, and investigated a symbol linked to the Sun God Cult. Wang Tai told her the cult’s murders were part of a ritual and suggested the competition’s tenth task might lead them beyond White Moon City.

• Su Cheng found Yun Xi unconscious outside the tunnel, then entered to rescue Lu Heng and carried both survivors back to the hotel.
• Su Cheng completed an evaluation document for the hotel while the rescued pair rested in her room.
• Su Cheng drew the symbol that appeared when Shen Ying’s soul departed and learned from the black toad that it was on the Sun God Cult leader’s mask.
• Su Cheng sent the symbol to Xu Shaowei, Yan Yu, and Wang Tai, who called to confirm it was the Sun God Cult’s emblem.
• Wang Tai told Su Cheng the cult was behind recent murders and described a friend’s narrow escape from the extremely yin land beyond White Moon City’s gates.
• Su Cheng inferred that the tenth task might connect to the Sun God Cult and the area outside the city, and Wang Tai agreed.

Su Cheng rescued Yun Xi and Lu Heng from the tunnel and learned that Hu Ding, their studio owner, was linked to the Sun God Cult. As the group regrouped at the Man Moon Hotel, Lu Heng asked whether everyone had received the same fourth mission: stopping White Moon City's upcoming New Year's gala.

• Su Cheng submitted a one-star review of the Man Moon Hotel, and Yun Xi woke up and remembered how the tunnel ghosts had attacked her before Su Cheng's light drove them away.
• Yun Xi thanked Su Cheng, recalled that she knew her from Yan Yu and the street competition rankings, and offered her a jade bead and then a sealed old book; Su Cheng accepted the book.
• Yun Xi recognized the design on Su Cheng's paper as a mark she had seen tattooed on Hu Ding, the owner of her and Lu Heng's studio, and said she could contact him.
• Su Cheng called Xu Shaowei and asked him to investigate Hu Ding with Yun Xi while she went to White Moon City's boundary with Wang Tai.
• Lu Heng woke up with his memories restored, and Su Cheng demanded payment for rescuing him; Xu Shaowei arrived and said Yan Yu would come shortly.
• Lu Heng asked whether everyone's fourth mission was the same as his: stopping the upcoming New Year's gala.

Su Cheng, Lu Heng, and Wang Tai crossed the boundary of White Moon City and discovered that the peaceful countryside beyond it was an illusion concealing a wasteland filled with ghosts. Su Cheng used the Fire-Attracting Art to protect them from a surging horde, but the trio remained surrounded.

• Su Cheng and Lu Heng joined Wang Tai to investigate outside White Moon City, while Xu Shaowei and Yan Yu stayed with Yun Xi.
• At the city gate, Su Cheng saw through the illusion of fields and farmers and recognized the shadowy figures calling her their daughter as hostile entities.
• Lu Heng gave Wang Tai a potion to counter the shadows' mental attack, and Wang Tai chose to enter the city outskirts with Su Cheng and Lu Heng.
• After the trio crossed the gate, Su Cheng marked out a safe circle with blue fire, revealing hundreds of ghosts surrounding them in the darkness.
• The ghosts kept pressing against the flames, and Wang Tai threw his relic bead at the advancing horde.

Su Cheng and her companions used Lu Heng’s astrolabe to find and destroy a giant ghost, but red motes from its remains seemed to turn Lu Heng and Wang Tai against each other. After questioning her own intentions, Su Cheng unlocked Gene Lock Stage Three and advanced to Immortal Celestial Master, leaving the fighting ghosts blasted away by her new power.

• Lu Heng used his bloodied astrolabe to identify a giant shadow as the source of what they sought, and Su Cheng led the group toward it.
• Su Cheng split the giant shadow with her boning knife, and a red mote flew into her forehead without leaving any sign of injury.
• Lu Heng and Wang Tai turned on each other, while Su Cheng considered exploiting them for their items before rejecting the idea as a betrayal of her principles.
• Su Cheng reaffirmed that strength was for survival, not for bullying the weak, and the system announced that she had unlocked Gene Lock Stage Three and gained two special skills.
• The system advanced Su Cheng’s class to Immortal Celestial Master, and her sudden burst of power blasted away the surrounding ghosts.

Su Cheng uncovered how the Sun God Cult used Calamity Seeds to trigger a massacre and summon the Calamity, then purified the trapped souls outside White Moon City. She reunited with Yan Xing at the city gate, where Yan Xing said her parents’ auras had suddenly vanished.

• Su Cheng saw a vision revealing that the Sun God Cult had used Calamity Seeds to provoke a massacre and summon the Calamity, while White Moon City’s stone gate interrupted the ritual and trapped the victims’ souls outside the city.
• Su Cheng realized the New Year’s task was a trap and that stopping the Calamity’s descent required preventing the Calamity Seeds from disrupting the gala.
• Su Cheng used the mental technique to absorb yin energy, freed Lu Heng and Wang Tai from the black shadows, and removed their Calamity Seeds.
• Su Cheng used Deliver All Sentient Beings to release the resentful souls outside the city, clearing the black mist and revealing a wasteland.
• Su Cheng recognized Yan Xing at the stone gate, and Yan Xing explained that she had come to retrieve her parents but their auras disappeared when she arrived.

Su Cheng and her companions reached the shopping mall rooftop to stop the Sun God Cult from spreading Calamity Seeds on New Year’s Eve. After the cult’s cardinal transformed into a mass of heads belonging to dead contestants and attacked, Su Cheng destroyed its core, while the cultists remained poised to confront them.

• Su Cheng borrowed Yan Xing’s phone to call Yan Yu and Xu Shaowei, but neither answered, then took Lu Heng and Yan Xing to the rooftop overlooking the square.
• At 23:00, Su Cheng and her companions arrived as a red-robed cardinal and white-robed Sun God Cult followers painted enormous bloody eyes on the rooftop.
• Su Cheng killed the cardinal, and Lu Heng found a box on his body that contained Calamity Seeds.
• The cardinal’s headless body grew dozens of heads belonging to contestants, and a cultist revealed that the Sun God Cult targeted outsiders as offerings.
• The heads attacked Su Cheng, Lu Heng, and Yan Xing while the cultists blocked the rooftop exits; Su Cheng used flames and her companions’ attacks to expose and destroy the creature’s core.
• Su Cheng drank a potion Lu Heng gave her and turned toward the unmoved cultists.

Su Cheng and the contestants faced Calamity’s arrival after the Sun God Cult sacrificed its remaining followers, while the system’s countdown paused. As monsters poured through portals and Calamity reached for the fighters, a woman leaped onto its giant claw.

• Su Cheng, Lu Heng, and Yan Xing killed the white-robed followers, but their leader sacrificed himself at midnight and summoned Calamity, causing the system to pause the instance countdown.
• Su Cheng realized the cultists had turned themselves into sacrificial vessels, and she urged the others to prevent Calamity from fully descending.
• A woman broadcast a call for the contestants to unite, while a frail contestant protected a child and rallied residents to flee as contestants fought the flying monsters.
• Lan Qing revealed herself as the broadcaster and used holy-water arrows to fight the monsters, while Lu Heng, Yan Xing, and other contestants joined the battle.
• As Calamity’s giant claw reached for the fighters, the contestants’ weapons failed to harm it, and a woman leaped from a rooftop onto the claw.

Su Cheng bound Calamity into a servant pact, subdued it, and ended the threat that had disrupted the instance. As the contestants prepared to leave, she and Lu Heng agreed to meet again, while Su Cheng said farewell to Mu Ling before everyone vanished.

• Su Cheng sprinted along Calamity’s arm and used a pact formation to bind it, enduring its backlash as Mu Ling helped protect her.
• Su Cheng and the Boning Knife attacked Calamity’s eyes until the servant pact was completed and Calamity was compressed into a chained sphere.
• Su Cheng sealed Calamity inside the black toad, erased its divine consciousness, and turned it into a monster emblem on her arm.
• The sky fissure closed, the monsters vanished, and the contestants learned that the instance countdown had resumed.
• Lu Heng climbed to the rooftop and asked Su Cheng to meet him after they returned; Su Cheng agreed and said farewell to Mu Ling.
• The countdown ended, and the contestants vanished from White Moon City.

Su Cheng returned from the dangerous competition instance in first place, collected her rewards, and recovered at home before studying the Primordial Talisman Compendium. After catching up with Xu Shaowei and Yan Yu about their ordeal, she agreed to meet them in the Central Circle to look for talisman materials.

• The instance ended with 221 survivors, and Su Cheng ranked first with an SSS rating and multiple hidden achievements.
• Su Cheng collected her points, meal vouchers, and Immortal-Binding Rope, then returned home exhausted and slept for ten hours.
• Su Cheng opened the Primordial Talisman Compendium after her class advanced to Immortal Celestial Master and began studying its talismans.
• Su Cheng kept the Calamity Seed and accepted friend requests from Yun Xi and Wang Tai while taking inventory of her supplies.
• Xu Shaowei and Yan Yu told Su Cheng how they explored the villa, fought Hu Ding and his companions, and witnessed the Calamity's arrival.
• Su Cheng agreed to meet Xu Shaowei and Yan Yu in the Central Circle to search for talisman-drawing materials.

Su Cheng left the Survival Apartment and returned to the real world, where six months had passed and disasters and supernatural incidents were spreading. She reunited with her family, learned that Qu Lan was missing, and prepared her relatives for the coming apocalypse while hoping Qu Lan would return safely.

• Su Cheng practiced talisman inscriptions, sold her completed talismans, and used her points to buy a pass out of the Survival Apartment.
• Tang Su removed Su Cheng's wristband, explained that most apartment-bought items could not leave, and helped her arrange an android body for the ghost in her stored bracelet.
• Su Cheng returned to the real world in a rainy alley, discovered that six months had passed, and called her aunt to say she was alive.
• Su Cheng researched the disasters and strange incidents that had spread during her absence and realized that the real world's apocalypse was approaching.
• Su Cheng learned that Qu Lan had gone missing after an earthquake and suspected she had been bound to the Survival Apartment system.
• Su Cheng comforted her aunt, gave her relatives talismans, and urged them to protect themselves while they waited for Qu Lan to return.

Su Cheng prepared for the apocalypse while staying with her family, then accepted Lu Heng’s invitation to join the government’s Special Affairs Bureau. She readied her repaired talisman-wrapped knife as a new battle approached.

• Su Cheng’s uncle worried about rising meat prices and government restrictions on supplies, but Su Cheng reassured her family.
• Su Cheng bought talisman materials and spent several days meditating and drawing talismans.
• Lu Heng invited Su Cheng to join the Special Affairs Bureau, first offering government benefits and then asking her personally to be his captain.
• Su Cheng agreed to join the Bureau and stroked her repaired, talisman-wrapped boning knife.