Chapter Summaries

Lin Xuan returned with Su Ru to rescue Cloud Hidden Sect cultivators, only to be ambushed by her and struck with Styx Poison. As the Spirit Ghost Sect's sect master and True Person Tianyin confronted him, Su Ru admitted she had betrayed him willingly.

• Lin Xuan asked Su Ru to lead him back to rescue their fellow sect members, and she agreed without hesitation.
• Lin Xuan found Cloud Hidden Sect cultivators surrounded by the Three Sects Alliance in a valley and subdued the fighting with his spiritual pressure.
• Su Ru attacked Lin Xuan with Styx Poison and escaped using a Teleportation talisman.
• The Spirit Ghost Sect's sect master appeared and urged Lin Xuan to surrender, while True Person Tianyin offered him a position as a Guest Elder of the Taixuan Sect.
• Lin Xuan asked Su Ru why she had betrayed him, and she admitted she had willingly plotted against him despite being captured by the Taixuan Sect.

Lin Xuan confronted Su Ru over her betrayal, and she admitted jealousy and a promise from the Spirit Ghost Sect's sect master had motivated her to help trap him. As the Styx Poison continued to seep into Lin Xuan, Su Ru revealed that her reward was a chance to become a personal disciple and advance to the Dongxuan Realm.

• Lin Xuan asked Su Ru why she had betrayed him, and she accused him of giving her inadequate rewards despite the life-saving kindness she had shown him.
• Su Ru blamed her hardships and Lin Xuan's success for her resentment, and Lin Xuan recognized that jealousy had changed her.
• Lin Xuan asked why Su Ru had betrayed Cloud Hidden Sect, and she said she had acted for her own benefit.
• Su Ru revealed that after she was captured, she volunteered information about having saved Lin Xuan to avoid Soul Searching Technique and was sent to the Spirit Ghost Sect's sect master.
• Su Ru explained that the sect master had promised to make her a personal disciple, provide cultivation resources, and help her advance to the Dongxuan Realm if she lured Lin Xuan into a trap and enabled a sneak attack.
• The Spirit Division Stage cultivators let Lin Xuan and Su Ru talk, confident that the Styx Poison would keep weakening him.

Lin Xuan confronted Su Ru and the Cloud Hidden Sect disciples who had betrayed him, then revealed that the Styx Poison and their encirclement had not left him helpless. He killed the Spirit Ghost Sect Master in one strike, sending the surrounding cultivators fleeing.

• Lin Xuan rebuked Su Ru for betraying the Cloud Hidden Sect, and she dismissed his words and declared that power and longevity mattered more than conscience.
• Lin Xuan reminded the gathered cultivators that he had once been mocked as a talentless disciple and condemned the betrayers for coveting advancement without paying its price.
• Lin Xuan questioned the Cloud Hidden Sect disciples about their role in luring him, while many lowered their heads in shame and others showed no regret.
• Su Ru mocked Lin Xuan for being poisoned and surrounded, but he warned that he was not yet trapped and teleported in front of the Spirit Ghost Sect Master.
• Lin Xuan struck the Spirit Ghost Sect Master with Phantom Spirit Heaven Fire, annihilating his body and Nascent Soul in a single attack.
• The surrounding cultivators scattered in terror, and several Spirit Division Stage elders, including the Taixuan Sect Master, fled.

Lin Xuan revealed that the Styx Poison used against him was only an imitation and that it could not overcome his Phantom Spirit Heaven Fire. After Su Ru chose to die and enter reincarnation, Lin Xuan turned to the cultivators abandoned in the valley and ordered them to kill themselves.

• Lin Xuan explained that the poison was an imitation of the Styx Poison, which he had refined with his Phantom Spirit Heaven Fire.
• Su Ru realized her hopes of advancement had collapsed and asked Lin Xuan to let her soul enter reincarnation.
• Lin Xuan agreed, and Su Ru destroyed her body and Nascent Soul, leaving her soul to be reborn without its memories.
• Lin Xuan looked toward the cultivators trapped in the valley, including disciples of the Three Sects Alliance and Cloud Hidden Sect.
• Lin Xuan ordered the abandoned cultivators to perform Liberation by Violence themselves.

Lin Xuan killed the cultivators who refused Liberation by Violence, then realized the Three Sects Alliance elders were hiding behind an undetectable formation. The elders, shaken by his strength and failed poison ambush, faced the need to find a way to deal with him.

• Fewer than twenty cultivators chose Liberation by Violence, so Lin Xuan attacked the rest with Sword Qi and killed them all.
• Lin Xuan sensed that the missing Three Sects Alliance elders were concealed by a powerful formation he could not detect.
• The Three Sects Alliance elders recalled how their poison ambush had failed and how Lin Xuan had killed the Spirit Ghost Sect master in one exchange.
• The Spirit Division Stage elders stood frozen with fear, then realized they had to devise a way to confront Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan was trapped inside the Spirit Ghost Five Elements Array while the Three Sects Alliance resolved to kill him before he could seek revenge. He blocked attacks from two elders, but the array shifted the valley into a burning desert.

• The Taixuan Sect Master, Lady Black, and a demon elder rallied the Three Sects Alliance to attack Lin Xuan inside the array.
• Lin Xuan used his Heavenly Phoenix Divine Eye to spot danger and sent Sword Qi to fight off a Short Rod and two Bronze Short Halberds.
• The two elders controlling the treasures were shocked that Lin Xuan's Sword Qi matched their combined attack.
• Lady Black and the other elders activated the Spirit Ghost Five Elements Array at full strength.
• Lin Xuan cast the Nine Heavens Spirit Shield as the valley transformed into a desert beneath a larger Sun, with fire raining from the sky.

Lin Xuan fought through a composite array that combined a desert illusion and falling fire while its attackers unleashed Iron Fire Ants against him. He destroyed the ordinary ants with the Hundred Spirit Bell, forced the Spirit Division Stage ant elder back with the Phantom Spirit Heaven Fire, and then faced a new assault of crimson flying swords.

• Lin Xuan recognized the desert and falling fire as a composite illusion and attack array, then spotted Iron Fire Ants emerging from the sand.
• Lin Xuan used the Hundred Spirit Bell to kill thousands of Iron Fire Ants as the Short Rod and Long Spear cultivators attacked him.
• The Spirit Division Stage Iron Fire Ant elder revealed itself and attacked Lin Xuan with black-red demonic fire.
• Lin Xuan's Phantom Spirit Heaven Fire swallowed the insect fire and forced the Iron Fire Ant elder to retreat.
• More than twenty crimson flying swords flew toward Lin Xuan, who sent out the Nine Palaces Instantaneous Sword.

Lin Xuan saw through the Three Sects Alliance elders’ plan to exhaust him inside their formation and killed a cultivator in a direct clash. The remaining elders were left shaken and uncertain whether their array could protect them.

• Lin Xuan stopped probing the enemy formation and sent the Nine Palaces Instantaneous Sword against the disheveled-haired cultivator’s Red Fire Swords, cutting them apart.
• The disheveled-haired cultivator attacked with Blood Thunder Beads, but the Nine Palaces Instantaneous Sword cleared their blood mist with silver lightning.
• Lin Xuan killed the disheveled-haired cultivator with the Sword into Silk Technique, then cut apart his Nascent Soul as it tried to teleport away.
• The Three Sects Alliance elders realized Lin Xuan had understood their plan to wear him down and began to fear that their formation might not save them.
• The surviving elders grew uneasy and shifted responsibility onto one another.

Lin Xuan used his mastery of spatial laws and his Nine Palaces Instantaneous Sword to kill three enemies, then his incarnation appeared and destroyed the fleeing Iron Fire Ant Queen. The remaining Iron Fire Ants still surrounded Lin Xuan as he fought them with the Hundred Spirit Bell.

• Lin Xuan disrupted the Spirit Ghost Five Elements Array’s spatial protection, trapping the two old monsters who had tried to retreat into it.
• Lin Xuan killed both old monsters with the Nine Palaces Instantaneous Sword, grinding their bodies and Nascent Souls to powder.
• The Iron Fire Ant Queen fled while sending her swarm to surround Lin Xuan and buy her time.
• Lin Xuan’s incarnation pierced the Iron Fire Ant Queen with a black beam and then burned her away with the Phantom Spirit Heaven Fire.
• Lin Xuan remained amid the swarm, using the Hundred Spirit Bell to fend off the Iron Fire Ants.

Lin Xuan fought the Three Sects Alliance elders inside the Spirit Ghost Five Elements Array, using the Heavenly Phoenix Divine Eye to strike at the formation’s weakness. The array unleashed the Ten Thousand Ghosts Devouring Soul, and Lin Xuan summoned a gigantic golden Dharma Idol to face the ghosts’ attack.

• The Three Sects Alliance elders, frightened by Lin Xuan’s strength, united to control the Spirit Ghost Five Elements Array rather than face him individually.
• Lin Xuan used the Heavenly Phoenix Divine Eye to locate a weak point in the array and struck it with the Nine Palaces Instantaneous Sword, breaking the desert illusion.
• The array shifted into a dark, eerie realm filled with more than ten thousand Fierce Ghosts, each with strength comparable to a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator.
• The ghosts shrieked together, sending powerful sound waves toward Lin Xuan that could penetrate ordinary defensive Dharma Treasures.
• Lin Xuan formed hand seals and summoned a golden Dharma Idol with nine heads and eighteen arms, which grew to over a hundred zhang tall.

Lin Xuan repeatedly destroyed waves of Fierce Ghosts inside the formation, but their endless numbers began to drain his magical power. He replenished it with spirit milk, forcing the Taixuan Sect Master and the other cultivators to reconsider their plan as Lady Black urged them to hold together.

• Lin Xuan used the Nine Heavens God Luo Image and Nine Palaces Instantaneous Sword to destroy wave after wave of Fierce Ghosts.
• As more ghosts appeared, Lin Xuan fought for the time it took to drink a cup of tea and grew exhausted from the repeated battles.
• Lin Xuan drank a drop of Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Milk, restoring his depleted magical power.
• The Taixuan Sect Master realized Lin Xuan's spirit milk could undermine their plan to exhaust him, and the cultivators' morale fell.
• Lady Black encouraged the cultivators to keep using the formation, reminding them they could not escape Lin Xuan if they scattered.
• The cultivators regained some resolve and continued to rely on the formation rather than face Lin Xuan alone.

Lin Xuan used a World-Breaking Bead to destroy the formation trapping him and emerged before more than twenty Spirit Division Stage cultivators of the Three Sects Alliance. As they fled, he released Blood Fire Ants to pursue them, then faced a sudden black lightning attack.

• Lin Xuan reluctantly used a World-Breaking Bead, melting the formation and its instruments and restoring the mountain valley.
• Lin Xuan found more than twenty Spirit Division Stage cultivators surrounding him, and they panicked after seeing him escape.
• A black-robed old man fled, prompting the other cultivators, including the Taixuan Sect Master, to scatter in different directions.
• Lin Xuan released Blood Fire Ants from the Ten Thousand Soul Tower and sent them after the fleeing cultivators.
• A bolt of black lightning suddenly struck toward Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan killed Lady Black and pursued the fleeing elders of the Three Sects Alliance. After slaying the Robe-Clad Elder, he split off his Internal Incarnation to hunt down the remaining enemies, and the incarnation encountered a married woman among them.

• Lin Xuan used Nine Heavens Micro-Steps and the Ink Spirit Drill to kill Lady Black, then captured her Nascent Soul before she self-detonated it.
• Lin Xuan tracked the fleeing cultivators with his divine sense and sped after them.
• The Robe-Clad Elder was trapped by Blood Fire Ants, and Lin Xuan killed him with a punch, sword light, and fire pellet.
• Lin Xuan released his Internal Incarnation and sent it in a different direction to help destroy the remaining enemies.
• Lin Xuan's incarnation encountered a still-charming married woman whose cultivation was relatively weak among the Three Sects elders.

Lin Xuan's incarnation killed a Spirit Division cultivator trapped by Blood Fire Ants, then confronted two powerful Demon Race cultivators who had been following him. The Snake Demon struck his heart with a Crimson Scale and appeared certain she had defeated him.

• The woman used her Thunder Bead to clear a path through the Blood Fire Ants, but the insects quickly blocked her escape again.
• Lin Xuan's incarnation attacked the woman with black claw-lights, killing her before her Nascent Soul could escape.
• Lin Xuan sensed two pursuers and confronted a long-eared Demon Race man and a Snake Demon, both late-stage Spirit Division cultivators.
• The Snake Demon attacked Lin Xuan with a red beam that pierced his chest, then revealed itself as a sharp Crimson Scale.
• The Snake Demon flew toward Lin Xuan, boasting that she could defeat him without her brother's help.

Lin Xuan’s incarnation survived a heart strike and launched a fierce counterattack against the Snake Demon and her long-eared, green-eyed ally. He used the Heaven Ghost Axe, an ancient scroll treasure, and the Six-Word Evil Ghost Curse to meet their attacks, leaving the two demons facing his defenses.

• Lin Xuan revealed that he was still able to fight, cut off the Snake Demon’s arm with the Heaven Ghost Axe, and forced her ally to block the axe’s return strike.
• Lin Xuan transformed his right hand into a Demon Arm and summoned claw-shadows as the Snake Demon changed into a Crimson Python and fired her scales at him.
• The long-eared, green-eyed demon sent a poisonous green mist concealing Flying Needles toward Lin Xuan.
• Lin Xuan opened an ancient scroll and turned its characters into blades, fireballs, and Demon World monsters, then summoned a huge evil ghost with the Six-Word Evil Ghost Curse.
• The Snake Demon’s scales smashed Lin Xuan’s claw-shadows but lost speed and power, while Lin Xuan’s written character “shield” became overlapping black shields in front of the demons.

Lin Xuan used his ancient book and other techniques to fend off two demons, then focused his attacks on the Snake Demon. He killed her with the Thunder-Crushing Ancient Mirror while the long-eared demon remained trapped by his runic beasts and Blood Fire Ants.

• The Snake Demon's Crimson Snake Scales nearly broke Lin Xuan's shield, but the ancient book's protection gave him time to avoid the attack.
• Lin Xuan directed his fireballs and rune weapons at the Snake Demon while his Magic Beasts and Blood Fire Ants kept the long-eared, green-eyed demon from escaping.
• The Snake Demon was battered by Lin Xuan's attacks and Fierce Ghost until she was cornered and despaired of surviving.
• Lin Xuan summoned the Thunder-Crushing Ancient Mirror and sent a Lightning Flood Dragon after the Snake Demon.
• The Lightning Flood Dragon seized and electrocuted the Snake Demon, killing her.

Lin Xuan killed the Snake Demon and faced the Long-Eared Green-Eyed Demon, who activated Berserk Body and tried to escape. Lin Xuan summoned a Fierce Ghost to hold him off, leaving the fight at a stalemate.

• Lin Xuan destroyed the Snake Demon's corpse and took its Demon Core as the Long-Eared Green-Eyed Demon watched.
• The Long-Eared Green-Eyed Demon activated Berserk Body, increasing his strength but losing his calm judgment.
• The Long-Eared Green-Eyed Demon charged through the Magic Beasts and used a dense Demon Qi barrier to resist the Blood Fire Ants.
• Lin Xuan summoned a Fierce Ghost with the Six-Word Evil Ghost Curse to intercept the fleeing demon.
• The Fierce Ghost and the Long-Eared Green-Eyed Demon clashed with their weapons, and the Fierce Ghost held him at bay with help from Lin Xuan's Blood Fire Ants and other methods.

Lin Xuan killed the Long-Eared Green-Eyed Demon and the Taixuan Sect Master, then left after driving the Three Sects Alliance’s surviving Spirit Division Stage cultivators into retreat. At Cloud Hidden Sect’s last stronghold, the outnumbered defenders faced a siege as a streak of firelight approached the young man and the Palace-dressed Woman overseeing the attack.

• Lin Xuan waited for the Long-Eared Green-Eyed Demon to kill the evil ghost, then pierced the demon’s skull with the Ink Spirit Drill and destroyed his body with lightning before collecting his Demon Core.
• Lin Xuan’s Immortal Sword burned the Taixuan Sect Master to ashes, and Lin Xuan took his Storage Bag.
• Lin Xuan found that nearly half of the Spirit Division Stage cultivators had escaped, but decided not to pursue them because the Three Sects Alliance had been badly weakened.
• Lin Xuan’s Internal Incarnation returned and merged with his true body before he flew away.
• Nearly ten thousand Three Sects Alliance cultivators besieged Cloud Hidden Sect’s last stronghold, where the Youth surnamed Long and the Silver-Eyed Maiden defended fewer than a thousand disciples despite their grave wounds.
• The young man and the Palace-dressed Woman watched the siege and dismissed Cloud Hidden Sect’s resistance, then a streak of firelight approached them.

After receiving a desperate warning from their Great Elder, the Palace-dressed Woman and a young man ordered the Three Sects Alliance forces to retreat, realizing their attack on Lin Xuan had failed. The Cloud Hidden Sect disciples continued fighting against overwhelming odds as the withdrawal began.

• The Palace-dressed Woman received a Sound Transmission Talisman from her Great Elder warning her to withdraw immediately.
• The young man read a message from his own sect's Great Elder and joined the Palace-dressed Woman in recognizing the Three Sects Alliance's defeat.
• The Palace-dressed Woman ordered all disciples to abandon the siege of the Cloud Hidden Sect and the occupied mineral veins, then return to their sect headquarters.
• The armored soldiers and maidservants relayed the withdrawal order to their respective forces.
• The Cloud Hidden Sect disciples continued resisting the much larger Three Sects Alliance force, despite being badly outnumbered and facing death or soul-refinement if captured.

The Cloud Hidden Sect faced imminent defeat until the Three Sects Alliance suddenly panicked and fled, leaving the sect’s cultivators alive. Meanwhile, the Silver-Eyed Maiden and other wounded leaders hid near the battlefield and hoped the remaining disciples could protect the main headquarters.

• Chen Yu prepared to die fighting after the Cloud Hidden Sect’s final formation began to fail.
• Chen Yu saw the Three Sects Alliance panic and begin withdrawing, though she did not know what had caused it.
• The Alliance’s retreat became a rout, and the Cloud Hidden Sect’s cultivators survived and celebrated.
• The Silver-Eyed Maiden and several wounded Cloud Hidden Sect leaders waited in a cave while their disciples fought nearby.
• The Silver-Eyed Maiden, poisoned and missing an arm, thought of Junior Brother Lin and hoped the sect’s remaining disciples would protect the main headquarters.