Chapter Summaries

Yang Jian and Lin Bei determined that they had to find and kill the ghost behind the nightmare, while Lin Bei revealed that his mirror-linked Buddha statue was colliding with the dream. After Yang Jian and Xiao Yuan saw the Buddha in a mirror, Lin Bei warned that each person who saw it could multiply its copies, threatening to overwhelm the dream and invade reality.

• Yang Jian explained that the dream's ghost could be killed, and Lin Bei said he had no supernatural abilities there but could use mirrors to evade the ghost haunting his dreams.
• Lin Bei described the growing room and Buddha statue in his World in the Mirror, and Yang Jian deduced that the Buddha's power was clashing with the nightmare.
• Yang Jian opened the doorway and found himself, Lin Bei, and Xiao Yuan in a speeding taxi; he took the wheel and narrowly stopped it beside a gloomy lake.
• Yang Jian recognized the Ghost Painting's Ghost Domain in the gray sky, while Lin Bei explained that the mirrored scene could imitate its appearance but not its true power.
• Xiao Yuan and Yang Jian saw the Buddha statue in the taxi's rearview mirror, and Lin Bei warned that every observer could cause more copies to appear.
• Yang Jian realized the Buddha might eventually multiply beyond the dream's ability to suppress it and suspected someone had once imprisoned it in the World in the Mirror.

Yang Jian recognized the ghosts surrounding the group as manifestations of his past fears and devised a plan using mirrors that reflected the Buddha. As the ghosts closed in, he pulled Xiao Yuan onto the mirrored floor and attacked a reflected corpse.

• Yang Jian, Lin Bei, and Xiao Yuan found themselves trapped in headquarters as the Ghost Painting and other ghosts emerged from the darkness.
• Yang Jian explained that the ghosts seemed to embody his fears and asked Xiao Yuan if she could identify the real one, but she could not.
• Yang Jian proposed a risky plan, and Lin Bei agreed to trust him and spread his collected mirror shards across the floor.
• While Xiao Yuan held off the ghosts, Yang Jian and Lin Bei joined the mirror shards into a large surface reflecting the Buddha.
• Yang Jian called Xiao Yuan back onto the mirrors as the ghosts surrounded them, then stabbed a reflected corpse and tore off its red veil.

Yang Jian realized the nightmare’s source was hidden among the great Buddhas invading the World in the Mirror. As the mirror began to crack and Lin Bei’s supernatural power threatened to return, Yang Jian told him to use it to kill the source ghost.

• The Mummified Bride’s reflected face became Zhao Kaiming’s, and a great Buddha appeared in the World in the Mirror, making the female corpse vanish.
• More Buddha statues invaded the mirror world, while reflected ghosts disappeared and Lin Bei began showing a Buddha-like expression and suffering.
• Yang Jian restrained Lin Bei with Xiao Yuan as the chanting grew louder, then deduced that the nightmare’s source was among the Buddha statues.
• With the mirror cracking and their plan failing, Yang Jian told Lin Bei that his returning supernatural power was their chance to find and kill the nightmare’s source.

Yang Jian and Lin Bei escaped the dream after Lin Bei confronted the Buddha that was attacking them, and Yang Jian brought the dream’s source back to Meishan Village sealed in a gold body bag. After keeping watch through the night, Yang Jian left the house at dawn as a car arrived with a capable-looking middle-aged man.

• Yang Jian identified the first Buddha to attack as the dream’s source, and Lin Bei tried to kill it as it crushed them both.
• Yang Jian woke in reality and used his scarlet light to restart himself and Lin Bei, then went to Meishan Village and confirmed Xiao Yuan was safe.
• Yang Jian put Yang Xiao’s memorial portrait into a gold body bag and kept watch over it through the night while Lin Bei guarded the village entrance.
• At dawn, Yang Jian left the house carrying the body bag, and a car arrived outside with a capable-looking middle-aged man leading its occupants.

Yang Jian settled the village dispute and began questioning Xiao Yuan about her killings, but her explanation made him realize he was still trapped in a dream. The dream then shifted into a surreal highway scene, leaving him facing a figure and a wolfdog as the chanting grew louder and he struggled to stay awake.

• Yang Jian ordered Liu Feng to keep personnel in the village and offered ten million to settle the child’s death, after which the angry villagers dispersed.
• Yang Jian asked Lin Bei about anything unusual and told Zhang Fen he had to leave for headquarters to speak with Elder Qin.
• Yang Jian ordered Xiao Yuan to surrender her daggers, and she explained that she killed people in dreams because ghosts appeared as familiar faces.
• Yang Jian realized Xiao Yuan’s ability to distinguish dreams from reality meant Wang Shanshan’s earlier call might have occurred within a dream, and he suspected the mirror’s supernatural power had shaped the false events.
• Yang Jian saw Wang Shanshan’s sinister face in the rearview mirror as the car plunged through a passenger plane and fell from the sky.
• The dream shifted to a rain-soaked road where Yang Jian saw a figure beside an enormous wolfdog and grew drowsy as the chanting and wails intensified.

Yang Jian drifted through school in a daze after a strange dream, while new teacher Zhang Xianguang taught the class about investigating supernatural incidents. After school, Miao Xiaoshan gave Yang Jian her notes, and he went home feeling unwell.

• Yang Jian woke from a strange dream and helped Wang Shanshan hand out test papers that felt unnaturally cold.
• Zhang Xianguang introduced himself as the new teacher and called attendance, while Yang Jian and the late Zhang Wei drew the class's attention.
• Zhang Xianguang taught the students to trust their instincts and investigate the source of supernatural phenomena.
• Zhang Wei invited Yang Jian to an internet café, but Zhao Lei and Liu Qi chose to go home and study.
• Miao Xiaoshan gave Yang Jian her notes and said she hoped they would attend the same university.
• Yang Jian went home to sleep because he felt muddled and unwell, while Zhang Wei reconsidered going to read.

Yang Jian returned home, studied Miao Xiaoshan’s strange notebook, and experienced unsettling signs that his ordinary surroundings might be affected by the supernatural. In class, he instinctively recited Zhang Xianguang’s lessons before strange rules appeared on his blank test paper.

• Yang Jian ate dinner with Yang Xiao and Zhang Fen, noticed ominous news stories, and read Miao Xiaoshan’s notebook about Zhang Wei and the supernatural.
• Yang Jian slept poorly, left for school, and caught icy gray clumps falling from the sky despite the warm weather.
• Yang Jian saw the school’s giant Buddha appear to look at him, then entered school with Zhang Wei.
• When Zhang Xianguang questioned him, Yang Jian instinctively recited lessons about observing supernatural phenomena and discovering their rules.
• Three lines appeared on Yang Jian’s blank, yellowed test paper: ghosts could not be killed, only ghosts could counter ghosts, and people had to discern the rules of ghosts.

Yang Jian noticed contradictions in the world around him and realized he was trapped in a dream. After recognizing Zhang Xianguang as the man in an old photograph who resembled him, Yang Jian recalled being attacked by the dream’s source and demanded to know whether the man was human or a ghost.

• Yang Xiao interrupted Yang Jian’s thoughts at school and took him home, while the words on Yang Jian’s test paper changed to “There’s a ghost!”
• Yang Jian noticed a strange shard of glass near the school’s Buddha statue and found Zhang Fen ill at home, though Yang Xiao’s account of taking her to the hospital did not fit the timing.
• Yang Jian discovered that Yang Xiao’s face was hidden behind a newspaper in every family photograph and realized he could not remember what his father looked like.
• Zhang Xianguang visited Yang Jian at night, showed him a photograph of a man resembling Yang Jian, and revealed that his own face matched the man’s.
• Yang Jian remembered being in a car with Lin Bei and Xiao Yuan when the ghost behind him attacked, then asked Zhang Xianguang whether he was human or a ghost.

Yang Jian learned that the man claiming to be his father was an anomaly carrying his father’s memories, and that a self-aware black dog could help exploit the ghost dream’s rules. He devised a plan to draw the ghost and its body parts into the dream, but the man left him to act on his own judgment.

• The man explained that he was an anomaly with Yang Jian’s father’s memories and revealed that the newspaper-covered Yang Xiao was a ghost whose body he had once occupied.
• The man said the black dog possessed part of the dream’s power, and that Lin Bei’s Buddha had confused the ghost and made the dream begin invading reality.
• Yang Jian realized he could use the dream’s overlap with reality to bring the ghost’s three dismembered body parts into the dream and have the dog consume them, taking control of the nightmare.
• The man urged Yang Jian to follow his decade-old plan, but Yang Jian rejected it and said he trusted no one but himself when facing the supernatural.
• The man promised to help Yang Jian control the dog after the incident, mentioned that the name Yang Jian had been chosen long ago, and identified Zhang Xianguang as an old friend and enemy before leaving.

Yang Jian fought the ghost and its black dog in the dream, then watched Yang Xiao gather the ghost’s three parts in reality. Yang Xiao used mirror shards to briefly restrain the Ghost Dream before bringing the ghost’s and his own heads into the dream, leaving the real world overturned as he entered it.

• Yang Jian attacked the ghost at his home, but its black dog knocked him down and nearly killed him.
• Yang Jian wounded the dog and grabbed the ghost’s ankle, causing the dog to attack the ghost and tear out its neck; Yang Jian did not wake.
• As rain made the dream overlap with reality, Yang Jian saw Yang Xiao retrieve human legs from a fishpond and a wooden chest from the woods.
• Yang Xiao revealed mirror shards under his coat and touched the approaching ghost, making it vanish temporarily.
• Yang Xiao took the ghost’s head and his own head from a small temple, then stepped into a puddle and entered the dream.