Recaps

Lin Xuan rescued Xu Feng and Xu Yin from demonic beasts and reunited with his old friends, revealing that he had reached the Core Condensation stage. The siblings learned how much their fortunes had changed, and Xu Feng remained ashamed of his failed attempt at Core Condensation.

• Xu Feng tried to protect Xu Yin as demonic beasts overwhelmed them and knocked her short sword away.
• Lin Xuan arrived, killed the attacking beasts with sword gleams, and saved the siblings.
• Xu Feng and Xu Yin recognized Lin Xuan, and he reminded them of their friendship and his past rescue of Xu Yin.
• Xu Feng learned Lin Xuan had formed a Golden Core, while Xu Yin explained that Xu Feng's attempt at Core Condensation had failed.
• Lin Xuan consoled Xu Feng and noted that Spirit Herb Mountain had grown powerful while the Heaven Mountain Sect had become a vassal.

Lin Xuan learned that Xu Feng and Xu Yin had fled the Heaven Mountain Sect after its disciples were treated as cannon fodder by the Three Giants. Xu Feng explained that their escape followed a disastrous crystal mine mission, while Lin Xuan understood the punishment as an attempt by the righteous sects to intimidate their subordinate factions.

• Lin Xuan asked Xu Feng and Xu Yin why they had come to the Hundred Thousand Mountains, and they described how the Three Giants used Heaven Mountain disciples for dangerous missions.
• Xu Feng revealed that he and Xu Yin had secretly fled the Heaven Mountain Sect rather than carry out a mission.
• Xu Feng explained that several dozen Heaven Mountain disciples, including Xu Yin, had been assigned to guard a crystal mine that unexpectedly produced mid-grade crystals.
• The Supreme Demon of Extreme Evil sent forces to seize the mine, and the Heaven Mountain disciples withdrew when they faced overwhelming enemy strength.
• The Three Giants accused the withdrawing disciples of fleeing before battle and sought to punish them, while Lin Xuan inferred that the punishment was meant to intimidate other subordinate sects.

Lin Xuan learned how Xu Feng and Xu Yin escaped the Heaven Mountain Sect and rescued them from three Kunnu in the Hundred Thousand Mountains. After giving them the beast core, he departed, leaving the siblings resolved to keep cultivating despite their precarious lives.

• Xu Feng and Xu Yin explained that Ouyang Qinxin had helped Xu Yin escape, after which the siblings fled the Heaven Mountain Sect and hid in Guiluo City.
• Needing medicinal pills, the siblings entered the Hundred Thousand Mountains to hunt and found a Kunnu, only for two more Kunnu to appear and turn the hunt against them.
• Lin Xuan killed the Kunnu and offered its beast core to Xu Feng and Xu Yin before leaving.
• Xu Feng and Xu Yin praised Lin Xuan's rapid rise to the Golden Core Realm and encouraged each other to keep working toward condensing Golden Cores.

After leaving the Xu siblings, Lin Xuan found the remains of an Ink Moon Tribe shaman in the Hundred Thousand Mountains and wondered whether the tribe had survived there. He searched the shaman’s Storage Bag and discovered pills, Demon Cores, spirit herbs, and demon beast materials.

• Lin Xuan flew deeper into the Hundred Thousand Mountains and stopped at a desolate little mountain.
• Lin Xuan uncovered remains beneath some withered grass and recognized the clothing as that of an Ink Moon Tribe shaman.
• Lin Xuan recalled the ancient conflict between the Ink Moon Tribe and the Qin Clan, then considered whether the tribe had hidden in the mountains.
• Lin Xuan used his divine sense to inspect the shaman’s Storage Bag and found few crystal stones but many bottles, herbs, and demon beast materials.
• Lin Xuan identified a large bottle’s contents as pills that increased Core Condensation cultivators’ magic power and kept more than a hundred of them.
• Lin Xuan opened the other bottles and found several kinds of Demon Cores.

Lin Xuan discovered a map suggesting the Ink Moon Tribe still lived in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, then found a powerful mutated Moon Demon Spider near the ancient cultivator's ruins. He chose to attack it by stealth and sent an earth-rank spirit talisman blazing into its cave.

• Lin Xuan examined the Ink Moon Tribe shaman's belongings and found a damaged map whose markings suggested the tribe had settlements in the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• Lin Xuan discovered that the shaman's broken ribs had been torn by a demon beast and used his divine sense to find a nearby nest.
• Lin Xuan identified the sleeping creature as a high-grade third-rank Moon Demon Spider, far stronger than an ordinary one.
• Lin Xuan decided to kill the spider before exploring the nearby ancient cultivator's ruins and concealed his presence with a Hidden Spirit Pill and a secret technique.
• Lin Xuan approached the cave and hurled an earth-rank spirit talisman into its depths as a sneak attack.

Lin Xuan and Yue'er killed the fire-immune Moon Demon Spider and collected its corpse and inner core. He then removed Li Yaotian’s illusion array, revealed a concealed cave on the mountain, and entered after checking it for danger.

• Lin Xuan and Yue'er fought the Moon Demon Spider with their magic treasures, and Lin Xuan killed it with the Green Scale Needle and Floating Cloud Falling Snow Sword.
• Lin Xuan stored the Moon Demon Spider’s corpse and inner core, then flew back to the small mountain.
• Lin Xuan used the array disc from Li Yaotian’s Storage Bag to remove the Luanhuan Lost Immortal Array and reveal the mountain’s true appearance.
• Lin Xuan searched the mountainside, uncovered a stone-blocked cave entrance, and probed its deep passage with his divine sense.
• Lin Xuan found no danger in the cave and flew inside.

Lin Xuan searched an empty mountain cave for seventeen days, convinced it concealed an ancient cultivator’s treasure. On the night of the full moon, a small restriction drew moonlight into a corner of the chamber and revealed something that filled him with joy.

• Lin Xuan searched the cave chamber and dug through its walls and floor but found nothing.
• He continued investigating the chamber for seventeen days, then decided to leave if he found nothing after three more days.
• While meditating on the night of the full moon, Lin Xuan sensed a small restriction guiding moonlight into the chamber.
• The moonlight shone on an inconspicuous corner, where surging spiritual power and a strange fragrance appeared, and Lin Xuan reacted with joy.

Lin Xuan discovered that the false cave residence concealed an ancient teleportation array leading to a sealed cave, where he found a dead cultivator and a trapped Storage Bag guarded by powerful Infant Fire. He and Yue'er prepared to break through the flame with ice- and yin-attribute magic treasures.

• On the full moon, Lin Xuan activated the ancient teleportation array and arrived in a sealed mountain cave.
• Lin Xuan found the remains of an old man seated on a stone platform and spotted a green Storage Bag at his waist.
• Lin Xuan sent his zombie to retrieve the Storage Bag, but a spark of Infant Fire burned the zombie to ash.
• Lin Xuan identified the flame as the preserved Infant Fire of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator and concluded that he could wear it down.
• Yue'er appeared and offered to help Lin Xuan break the flame, so he summoned the Floating Cloud Falling Snow Sword while she raised the Beast Soul Banner.
• Lin Xuan transformed his sword into an ice dragon as Yue'er's ghostly mist formed an Ink Flood Dragon.

After Lin Xuan and Yue'er spent two months dissolving an ancient cultivator’s Infant Fire restriction, they cautiously opened his Storage Bag and found three unusual treasures. Lin Xuan discovered that the talisman could be reused, leaving him with a powerful new defensive treasure, a Beast Spirit Treasure, and a rare spirit talisman.

• Lin Xuan and Yue'er finished dissolving the Infant Fire restriction and used a snake beast soul to check the Storage Bag for traps.
• Lin Xuan found a fiery-red defensive shield, an emerald jade flute, and a golden talisman in the Storage Bag.
• Lin Xuan activated the jade flute, and Yue'er identified it as a Beast Spirit Treasure refined with a demon soul.
• Lin Xuan accidentally activated the talisman, which released a golden blade that cut deeply through the iron-stone mountain wall.
• Lin Xuan used an incantation to retract the golden fireball and realized the talisman could be used repeatedly until its stored power ran out.

Lin Xuan discovered a hidden cavern beneath the evil cultivator’s cave residence, where he found dozens of coffins containing Iron-Armored Refined Corpses. After one corpse awakened, Yue'er’s beast souls attacked it, but it destroyed them with ease, leaving Lin Xuan to face the creature’s power.

• Lin Xuan found Sandalwood hidden in the cave walls and uncovered a concealed passage leading deeper into the mountain.
• Lin Xuan and Yue'er entered a large cavern filled with dozens of stone coffins.
• Lin Xuan split open a coffin and discovered an Iron-Armored Refined Corpse whose strength matched a Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivator.
• The Iron-Armored Refined Corpse awakened as Lin Xuan prepared to collect it.
• Yue'er sent a spiked tiger and a two-headed snake from her Beast Soul Banner to attack, but the corpse's armor resisted their strikes and it tore the snake's soul apart.

Lin Xuan collected more than thirty refined corpses and returned from the Hundred Thousand Mountains, only to find You Province in turmoil. At the market outside the mountains, he learned that the ghosts of Yinhun Canyon had attacked Guiluo City two days earlier.

• Lin Xuan subdued and collected more than thirty Iron-Armored Refined Corpses from the ancient evil cultivator's cave.
• Lin Xuan avoided other cultivators while traveling back toward Guiluo City and encountered many frightened cultivators fleeing through the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• Lin Xuan arrived at the market and found guards checking the identities of cultivators leaving the mountains.
• Lin Xuan identified himself as Li Yaotian, an elder of the Fire Spirit Sect, and asked what had happened near Guiluo City.
• The old man told Lin Xuan that the ghosts of Yinhun Canyon had attacked Guiluo City, and Lin Xuan connected the attack to Ghost Emperor Haotian's advancement and the conflict between the righteous and demonic paths.

Lin Xuan learned that Seven Absolutes Heaven had secretly served the fierce ghosts and that Guiluo City was under siege, leaving the cultivators stranded near the Hundred Thousand Mountains. As he prepared healing and auxiliary pills, a medicine shopkeeper asked whether he knew alchemy.

• Lin Xuan asked why cultivators' identities were being inspected, and the old man explained that Seven Absolutes Heaven had secretly allied with Ghost Emperors and tried to sabotage Guiluo City's defenses.
• The old man said loyal members of Seven Absolutes Heaven had warned the Council of Elders, allowing elite cultivators to protect the city's formations before the ghost-aligned traitors fled.
• Lin Xuan learned that several satellite cities had fallen, Guiluo City was surrounded, and cultivators had retreated toward the Hundred Thousand Mountains with their escape routes blocked.
• Lin Xuan decided to remain in the market area and gathered ingredients to prepare healing and auxiliary pills for the coming fighting.
• After Lin Xuan bought the remaining medicinal ingredients, the shopkeeper asked whether he was skilled in alchemy.

Lin Xuan stayed at an inn in the crowded market, refined pills, and accepted an invitation to meet with the Chu family about the fierce ghost attack. He reached the family’s hidden hall and joined a gathering of Core Condensation cultivators led by Chu Tianshu, whose cultivation had reached the False Nascent Soul realm.

• Lin Xuan left the medicine shop, found a room at the inn, and refined Hidden Spirit Pills and Golden Sore Pills.
• Chu Er, a steward of the Chu family, invited Lin Xuan, using the name Li Yaotian of the Fire Spirit Sect, to a discussion about the fierce ghost attack.
• Chu Er used a small white flag to reveal the Chu family’s hidden buildings and escorted Lin Xuan to its guarded great hall.
• Lin Xuan entered the hall and met Chu Tianshu, who welcomed him to the gathering of Core Condensation cultivators.

Chu Tianshu told the gathered cultivators that Guiluo City was cut off and the ghosts were preparing to attack their gathering place within a day. Lin Xuan realized a fourth Ghost Emperor was hiding, but kept the information to himself as the cultivators faced the threat.

• Chu Tianshu announced that two Tianyun Sect elders had likely been trapped by Ghost Kings and would not arrive.
• The cultivators asked Chu Tianshu about the situation, and he explained that the three Ghost Emperors had attacked Guiluo City while ghosts sealed the major routes.
• Lin Xuan realized that Hao Tian had advanced to become a fourth Ghost Emperor, but chose not to reveal it.
• Chu Tianshu reported that the ghosts had detected the cultivators and would attack their location within a day, prompting the gathered cultivators to fear they were trapped.

With Guiluo City under siege by yin souls and ghosts, Chu Tianshu gathered cultivators to discuss how to escape. He revealed an ancient teleportation array that could send them tens of thousands of li toward You Province’s hinterland, but Li questioned why the Chu family had not used it already.

• Chu Tianshu asked the cultivators to propose a way out, and Wang suggested returning to Guiluo City.
• Li argued that Guiluo City was surrounded by the yin soul army and the three Ghost Emperors, and Chu Tianshu stopped the dispute.
• A female cultivator urged Chu Tianshu to reveal the plan behind calling everyone together, and the others agreed.
• Chu Tianshu said the Chu family had discovered ancient cultivator ruins containing a teleportation formation.
• Chu Tianshu explained that the formation could send people tens of thousands of li toward You Province’s hinterland, and Li warned that the plan could not be so simple.

Chu Tianshu persuaded the gathered cultivators to help delay the approaching yin souls while his family repaired the Ancient Teleportation Array. He deceived the market’s low-rank cultivators with a story about reinforcements, leaving them to serve as cannon fodder as the powerful cultivators prepared to escape.

• Chu Tianshu told the assembled experts that repairing the damaged Ancient Teleportation Array would take two days, so they needed to delay the malicious ghosts for an extra day.
• Chu Tianshu promised to lead his family’s elite disciples into battle, and the experts agreed to keep the array secret and form a temporary alliance.
• Chu Tianshu declared that the market’s low-rank cultivators would be used as cannon fodder while the experts sought a way to escape.
• Chu Tianshu and the other experts told the market’s cultivators that Guiluo City had sent reinforcements and urged them to prepare an ambush.
• The market’s cultivators accepted the plan and grew hopeful after Chu Tianshu announced the supposed reinforcements.

Chu Tianshu organized more than twelve hundred cultivators to defend Yan Chou Valley against the approaching yin souls and ghostly creatures. While the gathered cultivators prepared in disarray, Lin Xuan subdued seven Iron-Armored Refined Corpses and then flew to meet Chu Tianshu and the other Core Condensation cultivators.

• Chu Tianshu was elected alliance leader, and he led Lin Xuan and the other Core Condensation cultivators to Yan Chou Valley to prepare an ambush.
• Chu Tuo reported that the yin souls would arrive in about half a day, and Chu Tianshu ordered his disciples to establish the Kunyang Gold-Falling Array.
• Lin Xuan sealed his temporary room with an Array Talisman and used the remaining time to subdue seven Iron-Armored Refined Corpses.
• A Sound Transmission Talisman warned Lin Xuan that the ghost creatures had arrived, and the gathered cultivators rushed to prepare for battle.
• Lin Xuan sensed Chu Tianshu and several powerful cultivators nearby, then flew to join them.

Lin Xuan joined Chu Tianshu and the other Core Condensation cultivators as they prepared to defend Yan Chou Valley from an approaching army of yin souls. Assigned to guard a western gate with Lady Lan and Wang Peng, Lin Xuan proposed using the local illusion formations to hide a surprise force.

• Lin Xuan surveyed the disciplined Chu family troops and joined Chu Tianshu and the other Core Condensation cultivators in the stone house.
• Lady Lan and the withered-faced old man warned Chu Tianshu not to use them as expendable pawns, and Chu Tianshu gave everyone jade slips marked with a map to the Ancient Teleportation Array.
• After a Chu family disciple reported that the yin-soul army was less than a hundred li away, Chu Tianshu assigned Lin Xuan, Lady Lan, and Wang Peng to lead more than two hundred Foundation Establishment disciples.
• The three reached their western gate, where Chu Zhou explained the auxiliary restrictions and handed Lady Lan an array flag, but she left him in charge of the formation.
• Lin Xuan recognized that some of the restrictions were illusion formations and suggested hiding part of their force as a surprise attack.

Lin Xuan and the others prepared to resist an approaching army of wraiths, and Lin Xuan discovered that three Ghost Kings had solid bodies. Lady Lan explained that they had consumed Soul Gathering Pills, though Lin Xuan suspected the pills had flaws.

• Lady Lan agreed to the plan, and Chu Zhou sent fifty cultivators through a crack in an illusion formation.
• Lin Xuan quieted the group when they panicked at news that the wraiths were approaching.
• Lin Xuan and the others saw a dark cloud of hundreds of wraiths, including three solid-bodied Ghost Kings.
• Lady Lan explained that the Ghost Kings had consumed Soul Gathering Pills to take solid form in the Human Realm.
• Lin Xuan asked Lady Lan whether the Soul Gathering Pills had any flaws.

Lin Xuan and the cultivators defended their position against an attack by Yin souls, but he suspected the enemy had a hidden plan. When Lin Xuan urged them to strike first, Lady Lan and Wang Peng chose to remain behind the formation, and the black clouds began to change ominously.

• Lady Lan explained that Ghost Kings who used Soul Gathering Pills would find cultivation harder and could never advance beyond great perfection in Core Condensation.
• As Yin souls and fierce wraiths approached, Lin Xuan judged that their numbers and strength might conceal a deeper scheme.
• The Yin souls attacked the Kunyang Gold-Falling Array, and Lady Lan sent cultivators out to harass them while the others defended.
• The enemy suddenly stopped attacking, and Lin Xuan discovered a strange restriction blocking his spiritual sense; he urged the group to charge out before a powerful attack came.
• Wang Peng and Lady Lan rejected Lin Xuan's proposal and chose to rely on the formation, so Lin Xuan stopped arguing and waited.
• The black clouds churned and turned glossy black as overwhelming ghostly wails shook Lin Xuan's eardrums.

A massive demonic skull attacked the formation protecting the cultivators, killing many with soul-searing ghost flames. Lin Xuan, Lady Lan, and Wang Peng joined forces to confront it, and Lady Lan revealed an unfamiliar ivory comb as the battle began.

• Lady Lan used a Golden Drum to counter the skull's ghostly wail.
• The skull emerged from the clouds and blasted the formation with bloodlight and black lightning.
• Lady Lan sent cultivators to attack, but emerald ghost flames swallowed their strikes and killed most of them.
• Lin Xuan asked Yue'er about the skull, and she said three high-level yin souls were driving it.
• Lin Xuan pressured Wang Peng into joining him and Lady Lan in attacking the skull.
• The skull devoured the victims' Primordial Spirits as Lady Lan brought out a snow-white ivory comb.

Lady Lan and Wang Peng struggled against the Skull Artifact and Ghost Flood Dragons until Lin Xuan stepped in and destroyed the Skull Artifact with his ancient treasures. Lady Lan and Wang Peng were left stunned by the power of the Fire Spirit Sect elder.

• Lady Lan's Ivory Comb failed to harm the Skull Artifact, which damaged the treasure and drove her to call for help.
• Wang Peng fought the Skull Artifact with his swift flying knife, but it shrugged off the strike and injured him with black lightning.
• Ghost Flood Dragons attacked the formation as Lin Xuan offered to face the Skull Artifact alone.
• Lin Xuan blocked the Skull Artifact's blood-red beam with the Runic Ancient Shield and then attacked with the Floating Cloud Falling Snow Sword.
• Lin Xuan split the Skull Artifact in two, leaving Lady Lan and Wang Peng astonished.

Lin Xuan destroyed the Ghost Kings’ Yin Baleful Skeleton, but Lady Lan and Wang Peng’s delay let the formation collapse. With Yan Chou Valley exposed to the invading ghosts and no route to retreat, Lin Xuan led them to attack the Ghost Flood Dragons.

• Lin Xuan destroyed the Yin Baleful Skeleton with his Floating Cloud Falling Snow Sword and secured the bead it left behind.
• Lin Xuan found Lady Lan and Wang Peng had failed to destroy the Ghost Flood Dragons while watching him fight.
• The formation’s blue light screen shattered before they could stop the Ghost Flood Dragons from breaking through.
• The Ghost Flood Dragons and a larger force of vicious ghosts attacked the cultivators, causing casualties and throwing the battlefield into chaos.
• Lin Xuan rejected Wang Peng’s suggestion to flee, explaining that they had to hold the position to protect Yan Chou Valley and its teleportation formation.
• Lady Lan and Wang Peng agreed to follow Lin Xuan, and the three flew down to destroy the Ghost Flood Dragons.

Lin Xuan turned the cultivators’ losing battle in Yan Chou Valley by killing a Ghost Flood Dragon and directing Chu Zhou to lead a careful retreat through the valley’s restrictions. He then confronted Ghost King Xuanzhen, who attacked after introducing himself, and the two launched their fiery and ghostly beads at each other.

• Lin Xuan tore a Ghost Flood Dragon apart, then killed several fierce ghosts with Sword Qi and frightened the surrounding yin spirits into retreating.
• Lin Xuan told Chu Zhou to gather the cultivators and withdraw three li while using Yan Chou Valley’s restrictions to delay the enemy.
• Lin Xuan headed to attack another Ghost Flood Dragon, but blocked a concealed strike of ink-black lightning with his Runic Ancient Shield.
• Ghost King Xuanzhen emerged from the ghost mist and identified himself as a disciple of Ghost Emperor Litian; Lin Xuan gave his name as Li Yaotian of the Fire Spirit Sect.
• Lin Xuan and Ghost King Xuanzhen each launched a flaming bead at the other, beginning their fight.

Lin Xuan and Ghost King Xuanzhen remained locked in a stalemate until Xuanzhen deployed a Yin Gathering Hood to strengthen his ghostly powers and suppress Lin Xuan’s. The chapter ended with Lin Xuan recognizing the rare treasure but not yet revealing how he would respond.

• Lin Xuan saw through Xuanzhen’s illusion and struck his hidden true form with the Floating Cloud Falling Snow Sword.
• Lin Xuan and Xuanzhen exchanged ancient treasures, but neither side gained an advantage.
• The human cultivators ambushed and defeated more than a dozen fierce ghosts, raising their morale as Lady Lan and Wang Peng kept the other ghost kings occupied.
• Xuanzhen summoned a bone tablet that expanded into a Yin Gathering Hood around Lin Xuan.
• Xuanzhen claimed the hood boosted his powers while weakening Lin Xuan, who recognized it as a rare treasure described in ancient records.