Chapter Summaries

East Pole Palace and the Black Fiend Sect crossed the abyssal dead zone, surviving the Demon Song and a colossal sea beast before reaching Flame Island. Mao Yi and Ouyang Qiang disagreed over control of the Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgels, and Mao Yi ultimately agreed to share the activation method to summon the Flame Emperor’s Tomb.

• Bai Yuan proposed that Luojia Mountain and Bailong Pool join forces, and Zhu Yu agreed before their groups followed East Pole Palace and the Black Fiend Sect into the abyss.
• Mao Yi shielded the Black Fiend Sect from the mermaids’ Demon Song with black smoke, while Yuan Ming and Fairy Yun Luo secretly kept their wits about them.
• A colossal sea beast appeared, forcing the turtle and the mermaids to flee underwater; Mao Yi later explained that an unknown substance might enlarge demonic beasts.
• After a month of dangerous travel, East Pole Palace and the Black Fiend Sect stopped near the burning Flame Island, where Mao Yi tried to summon the hidden tomb using one Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgel.
• Ouyang Qiang refused to hand her cudgel to Mao Yi and demanded that he teach her the method; Mao Yi finally agreed to share it.

Mao Yi and Ouyang Qiang opened the Flame Emperor’s Tomb, but a sudden assault by Luojia Mountain and Bailong Pool disrupted their entry. The tomb’s array transported everyone away, leaving Yuan Ming alone in a magma-filled place where he began breaking Mao Yi’s restriction.

• Mao Yi and Ouyang Qiang used the Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgels to reveal the tomb, and Yuan Ming recognized that his Black Fire-Stirring Rod was the third cudgel.
• Mao Yi directed Yuan Ming and four others to form a fire array that opened a passage through the Flame Emperor Fire Dragon Array, while the tomb’s suction pulled them toward its gate.
• Bai Yuan and Zhu Yu led Luojia Mountain and Bailong Pool into the passage, and Mao Yi and Ouyang Qiang attacked them before Zhu Yu carried them inside.
• Mao Yi sacrificed his Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgel to collapse the passage, but the unstable array transported everyone away and sealed the tomb.
• Yuan Ming awoke alone on a rock slab amid flowing magma and began trying to break the restriction Mao Yi had placed inside him.

Yuan Ming restored his abilities, explored a lava island, and discovered that the Crimson Crystal Cores from its flame beasts empowered his Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgel. When a Void Return Stage demon beast from Bailong Pool tried to take the cudgel, Yuan Ming defeated him and captured his fleeing spirit.

• Yuan Ming expelled the Taiyin Silver Needles, restored his abilities, and rode a rock slab across the lava lake to a black rock island.
• Yuan Ming fought the island’s flame beasts and collected their Crimson Crystal Cores, which the Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgel absorbed.
• A Feathered Robe Man from Bailong Pool demanded the cudgel, but Yuan Ming tricked him and attacked with the Immortal Slaying Sword.
• The Feathered Robe Man revealed his Great Roc Bloodline and unleashed a storm of wind blades, but Yuan Ming’s sword strike wounded him.
• Yuan Ming used black roots to stop the Feathered Robe Man’s escape, severed his throat, and captured his fleeing azure spirit.

Yuan Ming killed Qinghezi and tried to leave, but Silver Dragon Daoist accused him before Fu Zhen and the Bailong Pool cultivators. When they attacked, Yuan Ming fought back and nearly wiped them out, ending with Fu Zhen’s death.

• Yuan Ming sealed the Feathered Robe Man’s demonic soul, took the Azure Feathered Demonic Bird’s wings, and prepared to leave.
• Fu Zhen and the Bailong Pool cultivators arrived, and Silver Dragon Daoist accused Yuan Ming of killing Qinghezi and bearing a grudge against Bailong Pool.
• Yuan Ming fled from the group, then turned back and killed the lightning-wielding roc cultivator who pursued him.
• Fu Zhen and the others attacked Yuan Ming, but his Soul Crows and Word Curse left the cultivators dazed, allowing him to kill all but Fu Zhen and Silver Dragon Daoist.
• Yuan Ming pursued Fu Zhen, pierced his blood-red shield, and killed him with the Blood-colored Giant Elephant.

Yuan Ming defeated the Bailong Pool cultivators, found a spirit herb that would help make an antidote for Purple Fluorescent Poison, and encountered Fairy Yun Luo, who sought an alliance. She revealed that the Flame Emperor's Tomb might hold the Pill King Pavilion's legacy, but Yuan Ming refused to join her, leaving her to offer him a white jade bottle.

• Yuan Ming killed Silver Dragon Daoist, gathered the Bailong Pool cultivators' treasures, and found a fifth-grade metal-attribute spirit herb that Flower Branch could use to make an antidote.
• Yuan Ming gave Thunder Rain a fifth-rank lightning-attribute Demonic Core and called out Fairy Yun Luo, who had hidden nearby and tested his strength with an illusion.
• Fairy Yun Luo proposed an alliance to pursue the Flame Emperor's Tomb's treasures, then admitted she was from the Suxian Sect and had been searching for the tomb on her sect's orders.
• Fairy Yun Luo explained that Old Man Flame Emperor had inherited the Pill King Pavilion and that its orthodox legacy was likely in the tomb; Yuan Ming declined her offer and refused to join the Suxian Sect.
• Fairy Yun Luo suppressed her anger and presented Yuan Ming with an exquisite white jade porcelain bottle, asking him to look at it before refusing.

Yuan Ming accepted Fairy Yun Luo’s offer to join forces after negotiating for pills and promising to refine an antidote for her Purple Fluorescent Poison. The pair crossed the Flame Fire Zone and reached the deadly Rolling Fire River, which Fairy Yun Luo believed guarded the path to Pill King Pavilion’s legacy.

• Yuan Ming tested a Jade Liquid Pill and quickly refined its power, confirming that the remaining pills could greatly advance his cultivation.
• Fairy Yun Luo revealed that Pill King Pavilion’s legacy might include the Dharma Aspect Pill, and Yuan Ming agreed to ally with her in exchange for pills and a promise to treat her poison.
• Yuan Ming and Fairy Yun Luo discussed the Huo Lian Secret Realm and learned that the Rolling Fire River lay between them and its core.
• After several days of fighting increasingly powerful fire beasts, Yuan Ming and Fairy Yun Luo reached the riverbank and struggled to endure its heat.
• Fairy Yun Luo concluded that Old Man Flame Emperor had altered the secret realm for powerful cultivators, making it likely that Pill King Pavilion’s legacy lay beyond the river.

Yuan Ming and Fairy Yun Luo reached the Rolling Fire River, where several crossing attempts failed before four scarlet stone bridges rose as a trial. The gathered factions tested the bridges, and Yuan Ming suggested a way to cross that avoided the fire and lightning.

• Fairy Yun Luo's crimson bird was destroyed by fire and lightning, and she and Yuan Ming failed to find a way across the river.
• Huangfu Jue invited Yuan Ming and Fairy Yun Luo to join the East Pole Palace group, and Fairy Yun Luo accepted.
• Zhu Yu and Bai Yuan arrived with Bailong Pool and Luojia Mountain cultivators, while Mao Yi arrived with the Black Fiend Sect; tensions between the factions briefly flared.
• Four scarlet stone bridges rose from the river, and attempts to inspect them with Spiritual Sense were burned away by crimson flames.
• Mao Yi's flying serpents were destroyed when they flew onto the bridges, so Yuan Ming suggested sending them across on foot; the second group advanced without being attacked.

Yuan Ming was chosen as a scout to cross the dangerous stone bridge, where the other three scouts quickly died. Protected from the bridge’s true fires by the Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgel, he survived increasingly fierce lightning by transforming into his Undying Tree form, but remained unable to move forward.

• Mao Yi’s flying snakes vanished into the crimson mist, and he lost his mental connection to them.
• The factions selected scouts to test the bridge, and Ouyang Qiang used a rigged draw to send Yuan Ming; Fairy Yun Luo warned him that Ouyang Qiang had manipulated the result.
• The Shared Life Talismans of Wu Xiang, Jiang Huan, and He Xin broke, while Yuan Ming’s remained intact as he crossed the bridge.
• Yuan Ming used the Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgel to devour the bridge’s blue and orange-red true fires, then ignored Ouyang Qiang’s attempt to contact him.
• Lightning and fire began attacking Yuan Ming, so he transformed into his Undying Tree form and endured the assault, though he could no longer move.

Yuan Ming crossed the bridge of true fire, saw through an illusion of Xi Ying, and reached the Pill King Pavilion, where he took a stone talisman from a treasure compartment. The pavilion’s restriction transported him to a maze after he claimed the single permitted treasure, and he learned the talisman could transform him into a concealed stone.

• Yuan Ming endured repeated waves of true fire and stepped off the stone bridge, only to realize the apparent riverbank and Xi Ying were part of an illusion.
• Yuan Ming used the Dream of All Beings Rune to detect the illusion, killed the false Xi Ying, and escaped through the red mist onto the far shore.
• Yuan Ming crushed the Shared Life talisman after Ouyang Qiang demanded news, then found the Pill King Pavilion and learned its treasures required fire beast crystal cores.
• Yuan Ming used the Heaven-Connecting Demon Pillar to breach a compartment’s spatial restriction and took a yellow stone talisman before the pavilion transported him away.
• Yuan Ming identified the Form Shifting Stone Talisman, tested its ability to turn him into an aura-free stone, and continued into the maze.

After Yuan Ming destroyed the Shared Life talisman, Ouyang Qiang branded him a traitor and led East Pole Palace across the dangerous stone bridge, where Elder Ding Yuan died and Elder Yun Liu was forced to scout ahead. Meanwhile, Yuan Ming discovered that the Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgel could reveal a path through the crimson maze and entered a hidden passage.

• Ouyang Qiang explained that Yuan Ming had destroyed the talisman, accused him of being a Black Fiend Sect spy, and ordered East Pole Palace members to kill him if they met again.
• Fairy Yun Luo spotted the Black Fiend Sect, Luojia Mountain, and Bailong Pool groups crossing the bridge, so Ouyang Qiang pursued them with her group.
• Ouyang Qiang sent Elder Ding Yuan ahead, but strange flames consumed him; she then lent the Extreme Cold Ice Soul Pearl to Elder Yun Liu and made him lead the way.
• Yuan Ming reached the maze's dead end for the twenty-eighth time and sensed an aura like that of the flame beasts in the crimson wall.
• Yuan Ming pressed the Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgel against the wall and followed a glowing line until it opened a passage that he entered.

Ouyang Qiang and the other survivors reached the redwood pavilion while Yuan Ming entered a grand hall containing treasures and the preserved consciousness of Old Man Flame Emperor. Old Man Flame Emperor recognized the Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgel and questioned Yuan Ming about his identity and pill-refining skills.

• Ouyang Qiang led Huangfu Jue and Fairy Yun Luo to the redwood pavilion, where survivors from three other factions gathered to recover.
• After the groups entered the pavilion, the Hunchbacked Man identified himself to Mao Yi as Lord Jiang Liu and left to pursue other matters.
• Yuan Ming entered a grand hall and found a magnificent pill furnace and the Pill King Secret Codex on a table.
• A Mummified Corpse awakened, seized the Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgel, and revealed that it was Old Man Flame Emperor.
• Old Man Flame Emperor questioned Yuan Ming about his soul cultivation and Pill King Pavilion affiliation, and Yuan Ming admitted he was a rogue cultivator who was not a pill refiner.

Yuan Ming faced the Pill King Pavilion’s first inheritance trial, which tested his ability to control the fires within the Circumference Heaven Exquisite Cauldron. As the fire pythons fused into a powerful flood dragon and broke free of his control, the trial remained unresolved.

• Old Man Flame Emperor questioned Yuan Ming about his demonic qi, confirmed he was telling the truth with his gemstone ring, and explained his hatred of the Three Realms Cult.
• Old Man Flame Emperor revealed the Circumference Heaven Exquisite Cauldron and Pill King Secret Codex, then offered Yuan Ming two trials to earn the inheritance.
• Yuan Ming used the Zhurong Heart Art and crimson wind to control the first scarlet fire python released by the cauldron.
• As more fire pythons emerged and fused, Yuan Ming struggled to restrain their increasingly powerful forms without destroying them.
• Old Man Flame Emperor criticized Yuan Ming’s reliance on brute force, and the Golden Fire Flood Dragon absorbed two more pythons, grew four claws, and broke free of Yuan Ming’s magical hand.

Yuan Ming passed Old Man Flame Emperor’s fire-control trial by enduring the crimson gold fire dragon and using soul power to control it. When the cauldron strengthened the dragon with black and white fire pythons, Yuan Ming used his Soul Crows to stun it and escape its jaws.

• Yuan Ming fought the golden fire flood dragon with brute force and endured its flames, but the crimson fire python broke free and fused with it.
• Yuan Ming used the Undying Tree’s life force to withstand the crimson gold fire dragon’s flames while injecting soul power into its body until he took control of it.
• Old Man Flame Emperor judged that Yuan Ming had passed the trial, but the cauldron sent black and white fire pythons into the dragon, awakening it and expelling Yuan Ming’s soul power.
• The awakened dragon badly injured Yuan Ming, trapped him in its jaws, and prepared to unleash its breath.
• Yuan Ming recognized that the dragon’s soul could be affected by soul attacks and used his Twelve Soul Crows to stun it and break free.

Yuan Ming subdued the Nine-Fire True Dragon and won the Circumference Heaven Exquisite Cauldron, learning about its earth fires and the Three Flowers Five Qi Pill. Old Man Flame Emperor then tested Yuan Ming’s knowledge of the Dao of pills and began teaching him, leaving Yuan Ming awaiting his judgment on the second trial.

• Yuan Ming used Soul Collisions and the Zhurong Heart Art to subdue the Crimson Gold Fire Dragon, which returned to the Circumference Heaven Exquisite Cauldron as nine fire pythons.
• Old Man Flame Emperor declared that Yuan Ming had passed the first trial and gave him the Circumference Heaven Exquisite Cauldron, explaining its materials and twelve peak earth fires.
• Yuan Ming learned that Soul Illuminating Heavenly Fire was one of the nine heavenly fires and discovered the unfinished Three Flowers Five Qi Pill inside the cauldron.
• Old Man Flame Emperor told Yuan Ming to find Fire Wing Daoist at Flame Mountain if he wanted the pill completed, then began the second trial on the Dao of pills.
• Yuan Ming answered questions about internal and external pills, and Old Man Flame Emperor taught him more about pill fire and pill refinement before Yuan Ming asked how he had performed.

Yuan Ming was rejected by Old Man Flame Emperor and hid outside the hall as Mao Yi and the other cultivators arrived seeking the Pill King Secret Codex. The battle over the hall’s inheritance escalated, and Ouyang Qiang prepared to enter while Yuan Ming remained concealed nearby.

• Old Man Flame Emperor rejected Yuan Ming’s alchemy skills and expelled him from the hall, so Yuan Ming hid nearby using the Form Shifting Stone Talisman.
• Mao Yi arrived, failed to find Yuan Ming, and lost Old Man Flame Emperor’s alchemy trial before deciding against taking the inheritance by force.
• Mao Yi attacked Bai Yuan and tried to kill Shopkeeper San, but Bai Yuan protected him and fought back.
• Zhu Yu joined Bai Yuan against Mao Yi, shifting the battle in their favor while Yuan Ming stayed buried beneath rubble.
• Ouyang Qiang arrived, ignored Mao Yi’s call for help, and prepared to rush into the hall for the Pill King Secret Codex.

Ouyang Qiang and the other cultivators tried to seize the Pill King Pavilion inheritance, but Old Man Flame Emperor awakened and overwhelmed them with his power. He trapped them in a Pseudo Spirit Domain, though its weakening flames gave Mao Yi hope of escaping.

• Mao Yi blocked Bai Yuan from reaching the hall while Ouyang Qiang tried to take the Pill King Secret Codex, and Old Man Flame Emperor struck her out of the hall.
• Old Man Flame Emperor summoned a Lava Dharma Aspect and wounded Ouyang Qiang, while Mao Yi vanished and tried to slip into the inheritance hall.
• Bai Yuan spotted Mao Yi and attacked him, but Zhu Yu flooded the area with water and attempted to approach the inheritance amid the mist.
• Old Man Flame Emperor detected Zhu Yu and trapped him, Bai Yuan, Mao Yi, and the unconscious Ouyang Qiang in a Pseudo Spirit Domain.
• Old Man Flame Emperor bound the four cultivators with burning chains, but the domain weakened, and Mao Yi began corroding his chains with black light.

Mao Yi, Bai Yuan, and Zhu Yu remained trapped in Old Man Flame Emperor’s weakening crimson domain while Yuan Ming waited outside the inheritance hall. The Return to Void cultivators turned on one another as they tried to seize the Pill King Secret Codex, and Shopkeeper San reached the long table and picked it up.

• Mao Yi, Bai Yuan, and Zhu Yu struggled against Old Man Flame Emperor’s chains, unknowingly feeding their spiritual power into his Pseudo Spirit Domain.
• Yuan Ming and Flower Branch watched from hiding as the Return to Void cultivators agreed to enter the inheritance hall and divide copies of the Pill King Secret Codex.
• Huangfu Jue and the Black Armored Man entered the hall, but a coral-like beast attacked them with scorching, corrosive teardrops.
• Gao Feng and Lan Lan betrayed Huangfu Jue and the Black Armored Man, while the Black Dragon Turtle used gravity to pin the cultivators down.
• Shopkeeper San resisted the gravity with a Dao Shadow Pill, reached the long table, and picked up the Pill King Secret Codex, which he could not place in his Storage Ring.

Huangfu Jue, Lan Lan, and Shopkeeper San revealed their alliance and fought Gao Feng and the Black Dragon Turtle over the Pill King Secret Codex. Gao Feng detonated his Nascent Soul, scattering everyone, and Shopkeeper San ended up with the codex outside the hall.

• Huangfu Jue severed Shopkeeper San’s arm and reached for the Pill King Secret Codex, but Gao Feng used a spatial transposition divine ability to seize it and flee.
• Lan Lan blasted Gao Feng with the coral beast bone, while Shopkeeper San stabbed the Black Dragon Turtle with the Dragon Spine Sword.
• Huangfu Jue explained that Bailong Pool and Shopkeeper San had secretly allied with East Pole Palace, then moved to kill Gao Feng as black-clad figures attacked.
• The Black Dragon Turtle recovered using demonic qi and raised the controlled Return to Void island masters to fight Huangfu Jue, Lan Lan, and Shopkeeper San.
• Gao Feng began detonating his Nascent Soul, and the resulting blast swept the great hall and hurled Shopkeeper San outside.
• Yuan Ming removed the Form Shifting Stone Talisman, and the Pill King Secret Codex fell onto Shopkeeper San, who found he could store it in a Storage Artifact.

Yuan Ming and Fairy Yun Luo seized the two halves of the Pill King Secret Codex while Huangfu Jue and the others were occupied. As Yuan Ming fled and Huangfu Jue’s group regrouped, Mao Yi, Bai Yuan, and Zhu Yu broke free of Old Man Flame Emperor’s spirit domain and attacked him.

• Yuan Ming used an illusion to take half of the Pill King Secret Codex and captured Shopkeeper San while Huangfu Jue took the other half.
• Huangfu Jue tried to negotiate with Yuan Ming, but Fairy Yun Luo cut off his right hand and took the half of the codex he held.
• Yuan Ming let Fairy Yun Luo escape with the codex, then fled into the maze as Lan Lan and the Black Dragon Turtle emerged from the inheritance hall.
• Huangfu Jue told Lan Lan that Yuan Ming and Fairy Yun Luo had taken the codex, and advised the injured group to wait for Ouyang Qiang and the others.
• Mao Yi, Bai Yuan, and Zhu Yu broke their remaining chains and attacked Old Man Flame Emperor’s Lava Dharma Aspect together.

Yuan Ming escaped the maze and followed the Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgel to a hidden well, where he found Old Man Flame Emperor’s remnant spirit. Old Man Flame Emperor entrusted him with the legacy of Pill King Pavilion despite his limited talent in alchemy.

• Old Man Flame Emperor’s spiritual domain collapsed, and his remnant body burned away into Golden Flames that soon vanished.
• Huangfu Jue blamed Yuan Ming and Fairy Yun Luo for taking the Pill King Secret Codex, but the Black Armored Man exposed East Pole Palace and Bailong Pool’s betrayal.
• Mao Yi, Bai Yuan, Zhu Yu, and Ouyang Qiang split up to pursue Yuan Ming and Fairy Yun Luo and reclaim the Codex.
• Yuan Ming found his maze markings, but followed the Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgel when it pointed toward another dead end and a hidden well.
• Yuan Ming sent Flower Branch’s avatar into the well, then jumped in himself and arrived in a stone chamber containing two Flame Emperor Ruyi Cudgels and Old Man Flame Emperor’s Golden Flames.
• Old Man Flame Emperor told Yuan Ming that fate had led him there and entrusted him with the legacy of Pill King Pavilion.