Recaps

Lin Xuan identified Master Ku’s treasures and concluded that the indestructible Round Disc was the object Ten Thousand Ghost Lake sought. With the region under heavy inspection, he concealed his cultivation and left the area disguised as a low-level cultivator.

• Lin Xuan recognized the Wraith Human Bone Staff and an Ancient Treasure dagger, then suspected the Round Disc was Master Ku’s most important treasure.
• Lin Xuan struck the Round Disc with sword light and found it unharmed, convincing Yue'er that its apparent mid-grade spiritual tool power concealed unusual durability.
• Lin Xuan abandoned his plan to visit the market because the soap-robed cultivator was there and might expose him.
• Lin Xuan suppressed his cultivation below the Foundation Establishment Realm and set out to travel hundreds or thousands of li away.
• Lin Xuan encountered vigilant Ten Thousand Ghost Lake cultivators searching the region and inspecting travelers at checkpoints.

Lin Xuan tried to escape Eastern Edge Province with the disk he had taken from Master Ku, but Ten Thousand Ghost Lake’s increasingly severe searches left him trapped on Desolate Mountain. While gathering information, he overheard the Changfeng Escort Agency discussing how the blockades were delaying a delivery and exposing them to heavy losses.

• Lin Xuan used Yue'er’s flying sword to pass checkpoints while concealing his identity, but he encountered growing numbers of Ten Thousand Ghost Lake cultivators, including Nascent Soul Realm experts.
• Lin Xuan learned that Ten Thousand Ghost Lake’s sect master had ordered his followers to kill suspected treasure thieves rather than let anyone escape, and he decided not to risk forcing his way through.
• Lin Xuan hid on Desolate Mountain and listened with his divine sense as the Changfeng Escort Agency’s Xing'er complained to her Martial Uncle about the blockades delaying their delivery.
• The old man explained that the small escort agency could not afford to oppose Ten Thousand Ghost Lake, while Lin Xuan observed that the checkpoints were extorting crystal stones even from cultivators with clear identities.

Lin Xuan hid underground for a year until Ten Thousand Ghost Lake lifted its blockade, then escaped Eastern Edge Province and traveled to Yan Province to seek information about the Heaven Dust Pill and Blazing Sun Sect. He entered a medium-sized market belonging to Blazing Sun Sect and stopped before a two-story wooden building.

• Lin Xuan decided to wait out the search and concealed himself deep underground in a state of feigned death.
• After more than a year, Ten Thousand Ghost Lake withdrew its checkpoints, and Lin Xuan emerged and surveyed the area.
• Lin Xuan traveled nearly a million li from Eastern Edge Province, studied the Round Disc without success, and made the Heaven Dust Pill his first priority.
• Lin Xuan arrived in Yan Province and learned about Blazing Sun Mountain, Blazing Sun Sect, and the province’s cultivation forces.
• Lin Xuan disguised his cultivation as Foundation Establishment Realm, surveyed a market, and stopped outside a two-story wooden building.

Lin Xuan learned that a cultivator with a special skill could enter the Blazing Sun Sect even after its recruitment assembly had ended, giving him a possible way to reach the Qilin Fire Vein. He followed Murong, a sect-connected cultivator, and paid him to hear his request.

• Lin Xuan entered the Immortal Guest House and overheard Murong tell the White-Robed Scholar that the Blazing Sun Sect might admit him late if he had a specialty in a cultivation art.
• Lin Xuan realized this rule could help him infiltrate the Blazing Sun Sect to reach the Qilin Fire Vein.
• Lin Xuan followed Murong out of the teahouse and into a secluded dead end, where Murong confronted him.
• Lin Xuan offered Murong several mid-grade crystals, and Murong accepted them and asked what help Lin Xuan needed.

Lin Xuan entered Fire Cloud Peak with Murong Bo’s help, claiming he wanted to join the Blazing Sun Sect as an alchemist. After the elders were unavailable to assess him, an explosion at Martial Uncle Lei’s alchemy chamber brought Lin Xuan to a failed pill furnace and an opportunity to observe the sect’s alchemy facilities.

• Lin Xuan paid Murong Bo two thousand crystal stones to introduce him to the Blazing Sun Sect, and Murong Bo brought him to Fire Cloud Peak.
• Murong Bo introduced Lin Xuan to the woman in red, who escorted him into the sect to seek an elder’s approval.
• The woman in white told Lin Xuan that Martial Uncle Lei was in seclusion refining pills and could not examine him.
• An explosion came from Martial Uncle Lei’s alchemy chamber, and the two women hurried there with Lin Xuan following.
• Lin Xuan saw Martial Uncle Lei beside a split alchemy furnace as the old man wondered what had gone wrong while refining a Three Yang Soul-Forging Pill.

Lin Xuan claimed he could refine the Three Yang Soul-Forging Pill and negotiated a private room in exchange for joining the sect. Elder Lei revealed that he needed the pill to help his Saint Spirit Root descendant, Miss Lei, who was born missing one soul.

• Lin Xuan told Elder Lei he had experience refining the Three Yang Soul-Forging Pill and wanted to join the sect.
• Elder Lei offered to take Lin Xuan as a nominal disciple if he could refine the pill, then dismissed Long and Ning.
• Lin Xuan overheard Long and Ning discuss Elder Lei's influence and the possibility that he would oversee Danyang Pavilion.
• Lin Xuan said he needed a quiet room where no one, including Elder Lei, could watch him refine the pill, and Elder Lei agreed.
• Elder Lei's search for a cure began after he discovered his mortal descendant Miss Lei had a Saint Spirit Root but was born missing one soul.
• After studying more than a thousand ancient texts, Elder Lei found a damaged book that offered hope of a remedy.

Lin Xuan tried to refine the Three Yang Soul-Forging Pill for Elder Lei, hoping to earn the Blazing Sun Sect’s trust and gain access to the Qilin Fire Vein. After three days, a medicinal fragrance suggested that his seemingly careless attempt may have succeeded.

• Elder Lei learned that Lin Xuan claimed he could refine the Three Yang Soul-Forging Pill and allowed him to try despite doubting his abilities.
• Lin Xuan entered a secluded chamber and explained to Yue'er that he wanted to attract the sect’s attention without revealing his true cultivation.
• Lin Xuan inspected the prepared materials and cauldron, then ignited the chamber’s Earth Vein Fire.
• Lin Xuan tossed all the ingredients into the cauldron without carefully managing the process and sat down to meditate.
• Three days later, Lin Xuan smelled a fragrance usually associated with a successful pill and drew the cauldron toward him.

Lin Xuan successfully refined the Three Yang Soul-Forging Pill and was made a nominal disciple of Lei Zhentian at the Blazing Sun Sect. After secretly overhearing Lei Zhentian and Gu Changfeng discuss testing his alchemy talent and training him, Lin Xuan concluded the arrangement might benefit him, though he remained wary of the sect.

• Lin Xuan unexpectedly refined the Three Yang Soul-Forging Pill and stored it in a jade bottle.
• Lei Zhentian accepted Lin Xuan as a disciple, gave him spiritual artifacts and the Burning Heaven Technique, and told him to choose a cave residence.
• Gu Changfeng told Lei Zhentian to observe Lin Xuan's alchemy talent and offered to personally teach Yin'er.
• Lin Xuan sent a Jade Luo Bee to eavesdrop on Gu Changfeng and Lei Zhentian, then withdrew its gathered information.
• Lin Xuan told Yue'er that the situation was unclear but should be beneficial to him.

Lin Xuan reached Fire Cloud Peak, received a secluded cave abode from Song Feng, and settled into the Blazing Sun Sect. After considering what he had overheard about a mysterious pill, he decided to focus on using the Qilin Fire Vein to refine the Heaven Dust Pill and pursue Nascent Soul Formation.

• Lin Xuan flew to the Jade Book Pavilion, where Song Feng welcomed him after receiving a message from Ancestor Lei.
• Song Feng assigned Lin Xuan a secluded valley with abundant spiritual energy and gave him formation tools and a Jade Slip about the Blazing Sun Sect.
• Lin Xuan installed his own formations around the ready-made cave abode and inspected its rooms and Earth Vein Fire cavern.
• Yue'er asked whether Lin Xuan planned to cultivate there slowly, and he said he would be patient while pursuing the Heaven Dust Pill.
• Lin Xuan inferred that Gu Changfeng and his master wanted him to help refine a rare pill, but he resolved to prioritize Nascent Soul Formation.

Lin Xuan maintained his disguise as a Foundation Establishment cultivator while Lei Zhentian tested his alchemy and arranged to nurture him for a secret undertaking. Ten years later, Lin Xuan was summoned to meet Fire Cloud Peak’s Nascent Soul Martial Ancestor, where he encountered a young woman whose presence surprised him.

• After secretly observing Lin Xuan for months, Lei Zhentian openly visited him and tested his alchemy knowledge.
• Lin Xuan invented a story about learning from Master Tao, and Lei Zhentian believed he had studied under the famed Nascent Soul Late Stage Pill Saint.
• Lei Zhentian began testing Lin Xuan’s pill-making and, with the approval of the old monster surnamed Gu, supplied pills and cultivation guidance to strengthen him.
• Lin Xuan’s favor on Fire Cloud Peak brought him special treatment, and he spent ten years there, advancing his apparent cultivation to Foundation Establishment Middle Stage.
• Lin Xuan went to meet the Martial Ancestor, old monster Gu, and found a young woman at the jade platform whose newly established Foundation Establishment cultivation surprised him.

Lin Xuan reunited with Lei Yin'er, who thanked him for helping her begin cultivation, and the two talked while awaiting the other summoned disciples. When a red-robed cultivator arrived, Lin Xuan and the woman recognized each other with shock, but she denied having ever met him.

• Lei Yin'er thanked Lin Xuan for refining the Three Yang Soul-Forging Pill that had enabled her to cultivate, and he modestly dismissed her gratitude.
• Lin Xuan and Lei Yin'er exchanged cultivation insights and stories, and she grew more comfortable with him.
• Two Foundation Establishment cultivators arrived, and Lin Xuan reacted with shock when he saw the red-robed woman.
• The red-robed woman also recoiled in surprise, prompting Lei Yin'er and the white-robed man accompanying her to wonder whether she knew Lin Xuan.
• The red-robed woman denied ever meeting Lin Xuan, while the white-robed man remained suspicious.

Lin Xuan unexpectedly encountered Fairy Hongling, his old enemy, while both were concealed within the Blazing Sun Sect, and the two hid their hostility behind barbed conversation. They entered Gu's hall with Lei Yin'er and Chu Xuanren, where Lin Xuan and Hongling sensed something suspicious in the quiet room ahead.

• Lin Xuan recognized Fairy Hongling and reasoned that her hidden presence in the Blazing Sun Sect meant she was pursuing a major scheme.
• Lin Xuan and Hongling exchanged veiled insults while pretending not to know each other, as Chu Xuanren hoped Lin Xuan would not become a rival for Hongling's attention.
• A Daoist boy summoned Lin Xuan, Hongling, Lei Yin'er, and Chu Xuanren to meet their Martial Ancestor, and the four followed him into the hall.
• The group crossed a vast garden where Lei Yin'er was startled by a six-eared leopard, which the Daoist boy said was a tame pet of the Martial Ancestor.
• At the quiet room, Lin Xuan and Hongling independently noticed something amiss and exchanged wary glances.

Lin Xuan and Fairy Hongling feared their schemes had been exposed when Divine Lord Lieyan, the Blazing Sun Sect’s Nascent Soul Late Stage sect master, arrived at Fire Cloud Peak. After Lieyan probed the four disciples and praised them, he noticed that Lei Yin’er’s soul power seemed unusually weak.

• Lin Xuan and Fairy Hongling decided to stay and conceal their intentions rather than risk fleeing from the powerful cultivator.
• Gu Changfeng introduced the four disciples to Divine Lord Lieyan, and they bowed to the sect master.
• Lieyan swept his divine sense over Lin Xuan, Hongling, Lei Yin’er, and Chu Xuanren, but Lin Xuan and Hongling hid their secrets from his probing.
• Lieyan praised the four disciples and remarked on Lei Yin’er’s rapid Foundation Establishment after only ten years of cultivation.
• Lieyan observed that Lei Yin’er’s soul power seemed weaker than normal and questioned what was causing it.

Lin Xuan worried that Divine Lord Lieyan’s visit had exposed him, but after three quiet months he began to believe the encounter had been coincidental. When Fairy Hongling invited him to meet, he prepared to face her despite the danger, and Yue'er vowed to accompany him.

• Divine Lord Lieyan gave spiritual artifacts to Gu Changfeng’s four disciples before sending them away.
• Lin Xuan returned to his cave residence and feared Divine Lord Lieyan might have deliberately tested him, so he reinforced his restrictions and stayed on guard.
• Three months passed without incident, and Lin Xuan concluded that Divine Lord Lieyan’s visit had likely been a coincidence.
• Lin Xuan received a Sound Transmission Talisman from Fairy Hongling inviting him to meet and discussed the invitation with Yue'er.
• Yue'er promised to accompany Lin Xuan through any danger, and he was moved by her devotion.

Lin Xuan secretly left Fire Cloud Peak and arranged a new meeting place with Fairy Hongling, preparing safeguards before she arrived. Their spiritual pressures clashed, and Hongling was surprised by his unusual power despite recognizing that he had not reached the Nascent Soul Realm.

• Lin Xuan slipped away from Fire Cloud Peak and flew to a remote mountain, where he sent Hongling a talisman changing their meeting place.
• Lin Xuan set up formation flags and recovered his magic power while Hongling read the talisman and headed to him.
• Lin Xuan sensed Hongling's arrival and called her out of hiding.
• Hongling released her spiritual pressure to intimidate Lin Xuan, but he resisted with an unexpectedly powerful aura.
• Hongling withdrew her pressure and examined Lin Xuan, realizing he had advanced beyond the ordinary peak of the Core Condensation Realm without reaching the Nascent Soul Realm.

Lin Xuan and Fairy Hongling met again and cautiously weighed each other’s strength, with neither willing to risk a fight. Hongling demanded the Jade Profound Sect’s master’s Command Token, but Lin Xuan denied having seen it and refused to surrender the matching Jade Pendant he had found in Stream Leap Ravine.

• Fairy Hongling questioned whether Lin Xuan had truly condensed a Nascent Soul, and Lin Xuan admitted he had not while claiming his unusual cultivation art gave him strength comparable to an ordinary Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivator.
• Lin Xuan and Hongling each judged that a fight would be risky and agreed to discuss matters instead.
• Hongling revealed that she wanted the Jade Profound Sect’s master’s Command Token, describing it as a Jade Pendant carved with animals and ancient script.
• Lin Xuan recognized that Hongling’s description matched the Jade Pendant he had found in Stream Leap Ravine and inferred that it was valuable.
• Lin Xuan denied having seen the Command Token, while Hongling pressed him to return it and offered compensation.
• Lin Xuan refused to hand over the Jade Pendant, suspecting Hongling was concealing its true significance.

Lin Xuan refused to give Hongling the sect’s Command Token, and the two cultivators fought after she attacked him. Lin Xuan trapped her in a formation, but her strange cloud spell resisted his attacks, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Hongling demanded the Jade Pendant, and Lin Xuan insisted he did not have it and would not yield.
• Hongling attacked Lin Xuan, who blocked her strike with his shield and recognized that she intended to fight to the death.
• Lin Xuan activated a formation that spread demonic mist across the mountain, trapping Hongling.
• Hongling summoned several colored beads that formed enormous cloud masses, then offered to make peace if Lin Xuan handed over her sect’s Command Token.
• Lin Xuan refused again, and his Fierce Ghost’s attacks failed to harm the expanded cloud mass, so he changed the blood mist around it.

Lin Xuan recognized Fairy Hongling’s spell as the Four Sacred Beasts and countered it with a Corpse Demon and a golden Daoist talisman. The battle continued as the Corpse Demon struck the White Tiger, while Yue’er engaged another beast in concealment.

• Lin Xuan recognized the four cloud masses as the Black Tortoise, Azure Dragon, White Tiger, and Vermilion Bird, recalling the similar spell used by Sword Immortal Taibai.
• Lin Xuan summoned a powerful Corpse Demon, shocking Fairy Hongling and making her realize the fight had become uncertain.
• Fairy Hongling sent the Black Tortoise’s demon-breaking light at Lin Xuan, but he used a golden talisman to dispel it.
• Lin Xuan ordered the Corpse Demon to attack the beasts and summoned Yue’er, giving her the Formation Disk to face the concealed Vermilion Bird.
• The Corpse Demon evaded the White Tiger’s attack and drove its claws into the beast’s forehead.

Lin Xuan fought Fairy Hongling while the Corpse Demon and Yue'er held off the Sacred Beasts. Fairy Hongling’s strange threads began overwhelming Lin Xuan as their battle continued.

• The Corpse Demon enlarged itself with the Heavenly Corpse Incarnation Art and fought the White Tiger, Azure Dragon, and Black Tortoise.
• Lin Xuan summoned a Two-Headed Strange Python with the Nine Heavens Bright Moon Ring and unleashed nine Gourd Artifacts at Fairy Hongling.
• Fairy Hongling used her Spirit Piercing Ring to release sharp red threads that pierced the python and pursued Lin Xuan through his ice shield and wall of flame.
• The Corpse Demon transformed into a giant skeleton and used ghostfire and Master Ku’s Wraith Human Bone Staff to hold off the three Sacred Beasts.
• Yue'er trapped the Vermilion Bird with restrictions and battered it with her Beast Soul Banner and Formation Disk.

Lin Xuan and Fairy Hongling fought fiercely, trading powerful treasures until Lin Xuan’s Talisman Treasure nearly broke through her defenses. A colossal, mysterious rumble interrupted their duel, and Lin Xuan proposed a temporary truce.

• Lin Xuan blocked Hongling’s fiery threads with Azure Phantom Nether Fire, then countered her treasures with the Banana Leaf Fan and Spirit-Absorbing Mirror.
• Lin Xuan used the Immortal Binding Rope to draw Hongling’s attention to her jade comb, then struck with a Talisman Treasure.
• Hongling defended herself with eighteen shields formed by her round ring, while Lin Xuan’s Green Edge Sword shattered all but the final shield and rapidly lost power.
• A tremendous rumble shook the battlefield, injuring Yue’er and disrupting the Four Sacred Beasts, so Lin Xuan asked Hongling to stop fighting temporarily.

Lin Xuan and Fairy Hongling agreed to stop fighting and tried to escape as a catastrophic storm tore open a spatial rift and unleashed demon beasts. With the rift closing in behind him and immense Sword Qi bearing down, Lin Xuan faced a choice between entering the rift or dying where he stood.

• Lin Xuan and Fairy Hongling agreed to postpone their fight, then put away their treasures and fled together.
• A tremendous storm struck, and a colossal black-and-blue sword split open a vast spatial rift in the sky.
• Demon beasts, including creatures in the Transformation Realm, spilled from the rift as Lin Xuan and Fairy Hongling tried to escape.
• The moving spatial rift appeared behind Lin Xuan, while several enormous Sword Qi aftershocks rushed toward him.
• Lin Xuan faced a choice between entering the spatial rift and being struck down by the Sword Qi.

Lin Xuan and Fairy Hongling escaped the spatial rift alive after fleeing the terrifying Sword Qi, but emerged in an unfamiliar place. They agreed to suspend their fight and began investigating a strange plain with scarlet soil and unfamiliar plants.

• Lin Xuan and Hongling entered the spatial rift to escape the incoming Sword Qi and were swept along helplessly by its strange wind.
• The rift grew violently unstable, but Lin Xuan survived as the wind weakened and hurled him out onto the ground.
• Lin Xuan discovered that Hongling had also survived, and both cultivators cautiously faced each other with their magic treasures ready.
• Lin Xuan proposed ending their hostilities, and Hongling agreed to put their fight aside.
• Lin Xuan and Hongling examined the unfamiliar plain, noting its scarlet soil, strange plants, and distant mountains.

After being transported through a spatial rift, Lin Xuan explored a strange land filled with unfamiliar plants and discovered that its purple mist contained demonic energy. As night fell, he and Yue'er set up camp, and Lin Xuan realized the area held an unusually large number of Demon Veins, leaving him to wonder where they had ended up.

• Lin Xuan examined a purple, ghost-faced tree, and neither he nor Yue'er recognized it.
• Fairy Hongling departed, and Lin Xuan flew off with Yue'er to search for clues about their location.
• A purple mist enveloped Lin Xuan and Yue'er, and they sensed faint demonic power within it.
• Lin Xuan and Yue'er set up restrictions and prepared to spend the night in the open.
• Lin Xuan told Yue'er he had noticed two rare Demon Veins within the few hundred li they had traveled.

Lin Xuan suspected that he and Yue'er had been transported to Demon Spirit Island, one of the Cloud Sea’s three legendary sacred lands. Though the island’s Demon Veins and purple fog suggested danger, he chose to rest and face the situation with Yue'er the next day.

• Yue'er worried that she and Lin Xuan had been teleported to the Demon Realm, but Lin Xuan reminded her that no such realm existed in the world.
• Lin Xuan recalled the legend of Penglai Mountain, Demon Spirit Island, and the Indeterminate River and suspected their surroundings matched Demon Spirit Island.
• Yue'er searched the area with her divine sense but noted that they had found no demonic beasts, leaving their location uncertain.
• Lin Xuan considered the sacred lands’ benefits and concluded that Demon Spirit Island would be dangerous and useless for his cultivation if his guess was right.
• Lin Xuan saw Yue'er asleep, resolved to conserve his strength, and began meditating.

Lin Xuan encountered a fleeing native cultivator whose transformed arm revealed him to be a Demon Cultivator, a supposedly vanished cultivation type. He explained Demon Cultivators’ ancient rise and decline to Yue’er, then reflected on her insight into why their efforts to extend human lifespans had failed.

• Lin Xuan flew across the island seeking residents and encountered a middle-aged cultivator fleeing a giant ape demon beast.
• The cultivator enlarged and scaled his left arm to block the beast’s punch, prompting Lin Xuan to identify him as a Demon Cultivator.
• Lin Xuan told Yue’er that Demon Cultivators had once flourished by imitating demon beasts in hopes of extending their lifespans.
• Lin Xuan explained that those methods failed because lifespan was tied to cultivation realm, and Yue’er independently stated that this natural law could not be changed by imitation.
• Lin Xuan was astonished that Yue’er had expressed an insight that Demon Cultivators had taken a hundred thousand years to understand.