Chapter Summaries

As the Ghost Painting changed and threatened to engulf Dajing City, Li Jun and his team struggled to survive inside it while headquarters fell to the out-of-control Hungry Ghost. Wang Xiaoming suspected Yang Jian’s ghost had altered people’s memories, and reinforcements began converging on headquarters as the crisis escalated.

• A Hong tried to preserve the Ghost Painting’s original appearance with Liu San’s paper figure corpses, but gray matter consumed them as the team’s fragile balance deteriorated.
• The Ghost Painting abruptly transformed, leaving Li Jun, Liu San, A Hong, and Su Fan to move cautiously through its gray-white domain.
• Cao Yanhua declared headquarters had fallen when the Hungry Ghost’s ghost domain engulfed the compound and ordered personnel to gather in the underground shelter.
• Wang Xiaoming told Cao Yanhua that Yang Jian might control a ghost that altered memories and suspected Zhao Jianguo had been attacked by it.
• A gaunt man emerged from a coffin and set out to help, while Ye Zhen left Dahai City claiming he would subdue the Hungry Ghost and the Ghost Messenger.
• Regional leaders and designated captains headed toward headquarters as its staff prepared to maintain communications and support arriving ghost handlers.

The Hungry Ghost's Ghost Domain carried headquarters toward the Ghost Painting as the Hungry Ghost, Ghost Messenger, and Ghost Painting all underwent dangerous changes. Yang Jian and the others entered Huanggang Village while Fang Shiming and Wang Chaling prepared to act.

• Wang Xiaoming confirmed that the Hungry Ghost's Ghost Domain was moving headquarters toward the Ghost Painting, then sent Yang Jian information after Yang warned him to reveal headquarters' hidden resources.
• An old man tried to stop the Hungry Ghost's Ghost Domain but was swallowed by it, while Ye Zhen arrived and headed toward the Ghost Painting.
• Fang Shiming contacted Wang Xiaoming for an item that could restore his condition, received an address, and blamed Ye Zhen for his current state.
• Yang Jian, Tong Qian, and Li Leping assessed the unstable Ghost Messenger and Ghost Painting, then entered the changed Huanggang Village.
• Wang Chaling arrived at the vanished headquarters, summoned two old people, and disappeared to take action.

Liu San located the Hungry Ghost, which was close to fully adapting to the Coffin Nail, while Wang Chaling was trapped and badly wounded by it. Shen Lin appeared through a memory-like ability and prepared to face the ghost alongside Wang Chaling, who resolved to use the Wang family's second-generation figures.

• Liu San found the Hungry Ghost's location and warned Wang Xiaoming that it was nearly free of the Coffin Nail's restraint.
• The Hungry Ghost attacked Wang Chaling, tore off his left arm, and overcame the protection of his family's first-generation figures.
• Wang Chaling tried to use a Ghost Candle, but the Hungry Ghost restrained both elderly figures and began consuming the candle.
• A memory of Shen Lin appeared to Wang Chaling, and Shen Lin introduced himself as a headquarters-designated captain.
• Shen Lin offered to block the Hungry Ghost's next attack while Wang Chaling prepared to bring out the Wang family's second-generation figures.

Wang Xiaoming linked the Hungry Ghost’s outbreak to the Ghost Painting’s invasion of Liu San’s paper figures and ordered Elder Qin to contain the Hungry Ghost. Inside the painting, Ye Zhen and Fang Shiming broke in to help Li Jun, A Hong, and Su Fan, but the Ghost Painting attacked Ye Zhen and the group realized it had gained some of the Ghost Messenger’s power.

• Wang Xiaoming concluded that Zhao Jianguo’s memories had been altered before he gave A Hong the makeup case, and that the Hungry Ghost inside it had triggered the crisis; he ordered Elder Qin to contain it.
• Inside the Ghost Painting, Li Jun told Su Fan to keep searching for an exit as bluish-black mist spread and headquarters failed to open the way out.
• Ye Zhen and Fang Shiming broke into the Ghost Painting’s domain, but the opening closed before they could lead Li Jun, A Hong, and Su Fan out.
• A red-clad ghost attacked Ye Zhen and began turning him into an oil painting, but Fang Shiming cut the painting with the Ghost Scissors and rescued him.
• A Hong and the others suspected the Ghost Painting had gained some of the Ghost Messenger’s power, while Fang Shiming confirmed their theory and urged them to stay together.
• Ye Zhen argued that being ambushed did not count as losing as the others moved on without him.

Yang Jian, Tong Qian, and Li Leping were trapped in an endless field of ghost coffins while trying to locate the Ghost Messenger. After Li Leping’s first search failed, Yang Jian decided they would search inside the coffins instead.

• Yang Jian found that the coffins appearing around them were ordinary at first, but after they rounded a corner, Huanggang Village vanished and an endless expanse of black coffins stretched beneath a gray-black sky.
• Yang Jian told Tong Qian to suppress the figures emerging from the coffins with him while Li Leping searched for the Ghost Messenger, and Li Leping began releasing the ghost within his body.
• Yang Jian used the Human Skin Drum to awaken Li Leping, who reported that he had searched several Huanggang Villages without finding the source and that the space seemed boundless.
• Yang Jian suspected the Ghost Painting had affected the Ghost Messenger, then told Li Leping to search again while he and Tong Qian entered a ghost coffin.

As the Ghost Painting engulfed Dajing City, it drew several teams into its eerie world and disrupted their attempts to contain the Hungry Ghost. Yang Jian, Li Leping, and Tong Qian escaped a deadly fall and set out to find the other people trapped inside the painting.

• Chen Yi watched ghosts run rampant through Dajing City as an eerie bus passed him.
• Wang Xiaoming learned the Ghost Painting might have gained some of the Hungry Ghost's and Ghost Messenger's abilities, then received the warning after the painting's domain enveloped headquarters.
• Yang Jian, Li Leping, and Tong Qian saw the Ghost Painting absorb and restart the Ghost Messenger, so Yang Jian called off their operation and ordered them to find an exit.
• The Hungry Ghost adapted to the Coffin Nail and nearly made Shen Lin disappear, so Wang Chaling merged with the Wang family's second generation and tried to cover it with a burial shroud.
• The Ghost Painting drew the Hungry Ghost, Shen Lin, and Wang Chaling into its world, where it formed a temporary balance with the Hungry Ghost; Wang Chaling and Shen Lin withdrew.
• Yang Jian used the paper banner to escape the darkness with Li Leping and Tong Qian, then led them to search for the other people inside the Ghost Painting.

As the Ghost Painting world folded into a sealed box, the separated teams struggled to regroup, while Wang Xiaoming sent Li Jun a warning through a deadly communications method. After A Hong opened a painted door to bring the groups together, Wang Chaling revealed that Zhou Zheng was with him, and a Hungry Ghost attack began inside everyone’s memory.

• The Ghost Painting world folded around Ye Zhen’s group, while Shen Lin and Wang Chaling spotted figures descending nearby and Yang Jian’s team followed their direction.
• Wang Xiaoming warned Li Jun not to answer the call and instructed him to have A Hong paint a door; three headquarters staff died helping send the message.
• Fang Shiming used his scissors to sever the Hungry Ghost’s connection to A Hong’s makeup case, and A Hong painted a door that Li Jun opened.
• Yang Jian’s team met Ye Zhen, Fang Shiming, and the others, then Li Jun used the painted door to reach Wang Chaling and Shen Lin.
• Wang Chaling said he, Shen Lin, and Zhou Zheng had been attacked by the Hungry Ghost, but Yang Jian pointed out that Zhou Zheng had already died; a memory of the Hungry Ghost appeared and it lunged at Tong Qian.

Li Leping explained how he and Shen Lin had trapped the Hungry Ghost in a memory deadlock, while the group searched for a way to reach the Ghost Painting’s source. Li Jun and Yang Jian fused their ghost domains to reveal the painting, but the Hungry Ghost began moving again as danger struck from multiple directions.

• Li Leping explained that he and Shen Lin had trapped the Hungry Ghost by making it repeatedly retrace memories, though it remained inside the Ghost Painting.
• Yang Jian said they needed to find the painting’s source and contain the Ghost Messenger and Hungry Ghost at the same time, while Wang Chaling proposed restarting the painting’s ghost.
• Li Jun used the human skin from the Human Skin Lantern to deepen his ghost domain, and A Hong helped restore his face on it.
• Yang Jian combined his ghost domain with Li Jun’s to create a golden domain that revealed the Ghost Painting’s location.
• A red-clad figure appeared behind A Hong and was suppressed by the golden flames, while a black hand reached from the painting toward Ye Zhen.
• The Hungry Ghost began moving and its blue-black ghost domain expanded as its skin turned gray.

Yang Jian used the Dead Man’s Banner and his Ghost Eyes to restart the area and counter the Hungry Ghost, which had swallowed the Ghost Coffin and gained the Ghost Messenger’s power. The restart returned the Hungry Ghost to the moment before it ate the coffin, but the other Ghosts remained a threat.

• A second Ghost Painting and Ghost Messenger appeared, while Fang Shiming and Shen Lin restrained the first woman in red.
• Yang Jian led everyone toward the Ghost Coffin, but the Hungry Ghost swallowed it before they could use it against the Ghost Messenger.
• Yang Jian attached his Ghost Eye to the Dead Man’s Banner and sent the Hungry Ghost into it, but the Hungry Ghost restarted and reappeared with the Ghost Coffin’s power.
• Ye Zhen urged Yang Jian to focus on the Hungry Ghost’s missing hands, and Yang Jian smeared scarlet Ghost Eyes across the banner.
• Yang Jian triggered an area-wide restart that engulfed him and the Hungry Ghost; when the red light faded, the Hungry Ghost stood before the Ghost Coffin, looking into it.

Yang Jian and the others contained the Hungry Ghost and the two Ghost Paintings within a double-sided frame, then left the sealed painting in Dajing City. Elsewhere, Elder Qin confronted an old man who had used ghosts to kill innocents, and the old man left with three corpses after learning Qin could no longer fully see the future.

• Yang Jian forced the Hungry Ghost into the Ghost Coffin, and Ye Zhen used its arms to pin the coffin shut while the Corpse Shroud began to tear.
• Fang Shiming and Li Jun stopped the Ghost Paintings from restarting out of their frames, then Ye Zhen and Fang Shiming trapped the Ghost Coffin between the two paintings.
• The combined frame sent everyone falling above Dajing City before they landed, and waves of supernatural light spread from the painting before it fell flat.
• Staff placed the painting in a gold box, and Yang Jian and the others left as A Hong suggested exchanging contact details and Li Leping joined them.
• Elder Qin immobilized an old man who had used ghosts to slaughter innocents and warned him not to interfere again.
• After Elder Qin's bus drove away, the old man ordered three corpses to rise and follow him, noting that Qin could no longer completely see the future.

Liu San sacrificed his paper figure to escape a supernatural gale, while Wang Xiaoming called on Fang Shiming to investigate the hurricane forming after Ghost Lake collided with an unknown force. Fang Shiming entered the storm to study it, hoping its connection to his ghost might offer a way to stop his condition from worsening.

• Liu San abandoned his yellow-paper figure to attack the Reform Society's mysterious figures, leaving Li Jun behind as the gale tore apart the ghost domain.
• Wang Xiaoming identified the hurricane as a supernatural incident and asked Fang Shiming to investigate, offering to help solve his ghost revival problem.
• Fang Shiming refused to join Wang Xiaoming's plan, sent Jiang Shangbai to help headquarters contain the remaining ghosts in Dajing City, and went to the hurricane himself.
• Wang Xiaoming concluded that Fang Shiming would not agree to help and told Cao Yanhua to contact Yang Jian instead.
• Fang Shiming reached the hurricane's edge by helicopter and entered the affected city, where he observed corpse fragments, impaired communications, and surviving ordinary people.

Yang Jian and Liu San searched for clues about the hurricane and its possible mastermind while He Yin'er woke inside the supernatural disaster and assessed her situation. Liu San found Fang Shiming and secured his cooperation, but a deathly pale corpse killed Liu San’s paper man as Fang Shiming fled.

• Yang Jian and Liu San decided to head toward the hurricane’s source and rely on Liu San’s paper men to search for Fang Shiming.
• He Yin'er woke in an alley, realized the hurricane had disrupted the Ghost Lake and her own lake water, and withdrew to seek a way to contact headquarters.
• Liu San found Fang Shiming and proposed that they work with Yang Jian to investigate the hurricane and whoever might be manipulating it.
• Fang Shiming agreed to cooperate and followed Liu San, remaining wary until he could meet Yang Jian.
• When a deathly pale figure appeared near a crossing, Fang Shiming escaped and left Liu San’s paper man behind.
• The corpse embraced Liu San’s paper man, which lost all signs of life and scattered into scraps of yellow paper.

Yang Jian discovered that the ghost attacking Liu San replaced the eyes of anyone who saw it, so he gouged out Liu San’s eyes and helped him escape its attack. At the hurricane’s center, a gaunt old man and his companions acknowledged that Yang Jian had seen through the ghost’s killing rule and that Elder Qin was watching the future.

• Liu San saw a ghost that seemed to draw closer whenever he shifted his gaze, though Yang Jian could not detect it, even with his fifth-layer Ghost Domain.
• Yang Jian realized the ghost was inside Liu San’s eyes and shouted for him to gouge them out, but an eerie corpse appeared and immobilized Liu San.
• Yang Jian tore out Liu San’s eyes, freeing him from the attack; Liu San replaced them with wax-yellow paper eyes.
• Yang Jian identified the ghost’s rule: seeing it caused a person’s eyes to be replaced, and he urged Liu San to move on before the storm worsened.
• At the hurricane’s center, a gaunt old man said Yang Jian had quickly figured out the ghost’s rule and warned that Elder Qin was watching the future.

Three old figures debated how to use a corpse to delay Yang Jian and the others without killing them, while Fang Shiming became trapped in supernatural quicksand. He deduced that the silt came from Ghost Lake and sought to reach the corpse at its center, as He Yin'er watched and considered helping him.

• The old man, the old woman, and the young man argued over whether to kill the approaching newcomers, then agreed to use the corpse to trap them without killing them.
• Fang Shiming walked down a slope through the hurricane and became trapped in blackish-yellow quicksand flowing from a corpse.
• He Yin'er identified the quicksand as silt from Ghost Lake and warned Fang Shiming that it could suppress and bind malevolent ghosts.
• Fang Shiming reasoned that the silt was a ghost sunk to the lake bottom and that reaching the corpse might reveal why he could not use his ghosts.
• He Yin'er watched Fang Shiming sink and weighed whether to help him.

He Yin'er sacrificed herself to investigate the Ghost Quicksand and used her gold watch to point Fang Shiming toward the clues he needed. Fang Shiming realized the quicksand delayed ghost powers, used that delay to stack and combine his ghosts, and escaped with control of the Ghost Quicksand; he then planned to visit Taiping Ancient Town.

• He Yin'er told Fang Shiming to take her body to Taiping Ancient Town, then leaped onto the corpse at the center of the quicksand to investigate its killing rule.
• As she sank, He Yin'er pointed to the gold watch on her wrist, which floated along a repeated route through the quicksand.
• Fang Shiming briefly unleashed his ghost powers, felt them loosen, and deduced that the quicksand delayed supernatural actions and that the watch's route revealed a way through the ghost domain.
• Fang Shiming used the quicksand's delay to stack the Ghost Wind and other ghost powers, creating a slow-moving but dangerous ghost domain that swept up the quicksand.
• Fang Shiming controlled the Ghost Quicksand and avoided ghost revival, though the ghosts' erosion intensified and his emotions began to disappear.
• Fang Shiming said he would visit Taiping Ancient Town after dealing with the incident, then moved toward the center of the hurricane.

Li Yang crossed a spatial rift from Dachang City to join Yang Jian and the others as they confronted the Reform Society at the center of a hurricane made from corpses and Ghost Lake water. As an area-wide reset trapped Yang Jian, the captain arrived through an old wooden door and stopped the supernatural storm.

• Li Yang saw a spatial rift in Dachang City and stepped through after realizing the captain was fighting a dangerous supernatural incident.
• Yang Jian, Liu San, and Fang Shiming entered the hurricane and discovered that its controller was turning people into ghost riders with fragments of the Ghost Lake.
• Yang Jian and Fang Shiming attacked the Reform Society members, subduing several of them before a corpse triggered an area-wide reset.
• The reset began reversing events and the hurricane's attack resumed, leaving Yang Jian unable to escape.
• An old wooden door crashed between Yang Jian and the flesh ball, and the captain emerged, causing the rain and corpse fragments to stop.

Li Yang and Yang Jian fought the Reform Society members as a supernatural force altered their memories and the hurricane destabilized. The survivors were swept into the out-of-control tornado with the Ghost Lake’s icy water, while Yang Jian’s Ghost Hand began to crack and a pale hand touched his shoulder.

• Li Yang appeared in the hurricane and told Yang Jian and the others to help the captain while he held off further attacks.
• Yang Jian and Fang Shiming identified how the old corpse used altered memories to anticipate their moves, then restrained and attacked it with their ghosts.
• Li Yang opened four wooden doors, killing the four Reform Society members, but their corpses continued attacking him.
• Yang Jian used the manifested Ghost Eye to suppress the corpses, while Li Yang and Liu San attacked them and the supernatural clash destabilized the space.
• The hurricane accelerated into a tornado, sweeping everyone into the air as Yang Jian’s Ghost Domain and powers faltered and a pale woman’s hand touched his shoulder.

Yang Jian used Li Yang’s wooden doors and the others’ abilities to suppress the Ghost Lake, then controlled it by repeatedly restarting the female corpse that invaded him. After the failed operation, Li Yang died without revealing his name, and Yang Jian flew toward Dachang City to investigate the Reform Society and the man who had called him captain.

• Yang Jian’s Ghost Eye slowed the hurricane, while Li Yang and the blackish-yellow mud and sand restrained the wind and drew the Ghost Lake into the wooden doors.
• Yang Jian used the Ghost Shadow and Ghost Eye to restart the female corpse and gain control of the Ghost Lake, though he remained in a precarious state between the corpse’s attacks.
• The hurricane engulfed the city, and Yang Jian, Liu San, Fang Shiming, and Li Yang reached a distant mountain as the operation ended in failure.
• Liu San left with the arriving headquarters team, and Fang Shiming departed for Taiping Ancient Town with a female corpse.
• Li Yang died after hinting that he knew Yang Jian from a stretch of the future, and Yang Jian placed his body in a golden coffin.
• Yang Jian flew toward Dachang City to seek answers about the Reform Society and the man who had called him captain.

Yang Jian asked the Ghost Cabinet for the origins of the man who saved him in the hurricane, but it could not answer and demanded another request. Meanwhile, Ye Zhen left his gaming retreat in Dahai City and went out in disguise, where he overheard people mentioning Dachang City and a top dog.

• Yang Jian traded with the Ghost Cabinet, which replied that it did not know where the man who saved him in the hurricane came from.
• Yang Jian returned to the villa and received a headquarters book about ferocious ghosts.
• In Dahai City, Ye Zhen spent three days and nights gaming with Su Fan, losing repeatedly before acknowledging Su Fan as the strongest.
• A Wu urged Ye Zhen to help with the crisis, and Ye Zhen decided to go out while keeping his identity hidden.
• Ye Zhen stood in a busy square in casual clothes and overheard people talking about Dachang City and a top dog.

Ye Zhen discovered that Zhang Wei had come to Dahai City to get engaged to a woman he had met online, only to realize that she was dead and that Zhang Wei had triggered a ghost’s killing pattern. Ye Zhen promised to protect him as they went to confront the ghost, while Jiang Yan followed in fear.

• Ye Zhen mistook Zhang Wei for Yang Jian when he saw police arresting him over the golden handguns, then learned who he was and introduced himself.
• Jiang Yan arrived, scolded Zhang Wei, and explained that he was Yang Jian’s classmate.
• Zhang Wei told Ye Zhen and Jiang Yan that he had come to Dahai City to get engaged to an online girlfriend he had met through a pouch and phone number.
• Ye Zhen examined the woman’s photograph and recognized that she was dead, then explained that Zhang Wei had triggered her killing pattern.
• Zhang Wei begged Ye Zhen for help, and Ye Zhen set out to suppress the female ghost while Jiang Yan followed and asked if she could leave.