Chapter Summaries

Lin Xuan watched Qin Yan and the Xueming Sect couple battle a Nascent Soul Late Stage Puppet, then stayed hidden while the Jiang Brothers joined the fight. A concealed Nascent Soul Early Stage Puppet nearly killed Qin Yan, but Lin Xuan intervened and burned its arms with his Azure Phantom Nether Fire.

• Lin Xuan recognized the blue-robed elder as a Nascent Soul Late Stage Puppet and guarded Qin Yan and the Xueming Sect couple from the shadows.
• The Jiang Brothers arrived and attacked the blue-robed Puppet, drawing its attention away from Qin Yan.
• A palace-dressed Puppet emerged from concealed black mist and launched a deadly surprise attack on Qin Yan.
• Lin Xuan used Nine Heavens Micro-Steps to shield Qin Yan, pushed her aside, and burned the attacking Puppet’s arms with his Azure Phantom Nether Fire.
• Lin Xuan realized that in his haste to save Qin Yan, he had touched somewhere he should not have.

Lin Xuan reunited with Qin Yan after two hundred years and destroyed a Puppet that tried to ambush him. They joined Zhu Tianyun and his wife in fighting a powerful Nascent Soul Late Stage Puppet, which began to falter under their combined assault.

• Lin Xuan and Qin Yan recognized each other after he accidentally touched her while saving her.
• A Puppet in palace dress ambushed Lin Xuan, but he evaded her attack and destroyed her with Azure Phantom Nether Fire.
• Qin Yan was astonished that Lin Xuan had reached Nascent Soul Middle Stage and wondered how he had survived and advanced so far.
• Lin Xuan and Qin Yan set aside their reunion to help Zhu Tianyun and his wife fight the Nascent Soul Late Stage Puppet.
• The four cultivators overwhelmed the Puppet, which began looking for a way to escape.

Lin Xuan and Qin Yan joined the Jiang Brothers and Zhu Tianyun’s couple to fight a powerful Puppet, but Lin Xuan sensed it was preparing to self-destruct. He fled with Qin Yan while the Puppet pursued them, leaving the group scrambling to escape.

• Lin Xuan and Qin Yan coordinated their attacks with the Jiang Brothers and Zhu Tianyun’s couple, gradually overwhelming the Nascent Soul Late Stage Puppet.
• Lin Xuan sensed that the Puppet’s spiritual power was turning violent and realized it was about to self-destruct.
• Lin Xuan grabbed Qin Yan and used the Nine Heavens Micro-Steps to retreat several thousand zhang, warning the others to flee.
• The other cultivators scattered, but the Puppet chased Lin Xuan and Qin Yan as its spiritual power neared the point of self-destruction.
• Lin Xuan unleashed dozens of Sword Qi attacks to slow the pursuing Puppet, but it accelerated and continued closing in.

Lin Xuan and Qin Yan combined their powers to survive a late-stage Puppet’s self-destruction, but a giant monster formed from the explosion’s remaining spiritual power and attacked them. Their defenses were nearly spent as they braced for its strike.

• Lin Xuan used his spear to reveal the pursuing Puppet, then fled with Qin Yan as it prepared to self-destruct.
• Lin Xuan deployed the Black Gold Dragon Scale Shield and spent his defensive talismans while Qin Yan raised the Nine Heavens Ice-Fire Silk to protect them.
• Lin Xuan joined the Nine Heavens Bright Moon Ring with Qin Yan’s silk and held her close so they could merge their spiritual power through the Nine Heavens Profound Art.
• The Puppet exploded, shattering Lin Xuan’s talismans and damaging the Black Gold Dragon Scale Shield before the blast reached their final defenses.
• A giant lion-bodied, ox-headed monster formed from the explosion’s residual spiritual power and struck at Lin Xuan and Qin Yan as they fought back together.

Lin Xuan and Qin Yan struggled to withstand the demon beast’s crushing claw as their defenses failed. Lin Xuan unleashed his True Spirit Strike, sending a White Tiger upward to meet the attack.

• Lin Xuan and Qin Yan reinforced their ice-and-fire barrier, while Qin Yan joined hands with him and cast a mysterious spell through their Dharma Treasure.
• Zhu Tianyun and the Red-Clad Beauty fled the battle, fearing Horizon Sea Pavilion’s reprisal for abandoning Qin Yan.
• The demon beast’s claw broke through the barrier, injuring Qin Yan and crushing Lin Xuan under immense pressure.
• Qin Yan gathered pink mist around herself as Lin Xuan moved beside her and compressed his remaining spiritual power into a sphere.
• Lin Xuan unleashed True Spirit Strike, and a miniature White Tiger surged upward toward the demon beast’s claw.

Nascent Soul cultivators near Xueming Mountain mistook Lin Xuan’s battle for a clash between Lihe Realm experts and fled the area. As Lin Xuan’s True Spirit Strike began to falter against the demonic beast’s thunder and fire, only Fairy in the Clouds could safely help him.

• Nascent Soul cultivators judged the battle’s power to exceed the Nascent Soul Realm and fled in the direction away from Lin Xuan.
• Xueming Sect’s elders debated whether to evacuate, and Ji Xuansheng ordered his fellow elders to lead the disciples to safety while he stayed to guard the sect.
• The newly advanced elder surnamed Lu offered to remain instead, but Ji Xuansheng insisted on staying because Lu had more time and potential to grow.
• Lin Xuan strained to control the True Spirit Strike as the demonic beast’s thunder and fire pushed back against the White Tiger head, leaving him badly injured.
• Yue'er and Pangolin could not intervene without risking an explosion, so Fairy in the Clouds remained the only person able to help Lin Xuan.

Qin Yan joined Lin Xuan in unleashing powerful techniques to survive a Nascent Soul Late Stage Puppet’s self-destruction. After they recovered, Zhu Tianyun and the others found them alive and asked how they had escaped the blast.

• Qin Yan used a secret technique from the Floating Cloud Falling Snow Art to summon an Ice Crystal Giant Dragon and help Lin Xuan withstand the explosion.
• Lin Xuan’s White Tiger and Qin Yan’s Ice Crystal Giant Dragon swallowed the lightning and fire, dissolving the puppet’s self-destruction.
• Lin Xuan restored his spiritual power with an ancient jade belt while Qin Yan marveled at his abilities and treasures.
• Zhu Tianyun, his wife, and the Jiang Brothers flew to the blast site and discovered Lin Xuan and Qin Yan alive.
• After Lin Xuan and Qin Yan finished recovering, Zhu Tianyun asked how they had survived the puppet’s explosion.

After surviving the puppet’s explosion, Lin Xuan and Qin Yan returned to Xueming Mountain, where Zhu Tianyun invited them to stay and offered Lin access to most of the sect’s records. Zhu Tianyun later revealed to the Red-Clad Beauty that he had seen Lin’s extraordinary abilities and believed Lin could contend with powerful Nascent Soul cultivators.

• Qin Yan told the four old monsters that her master, Fairy Ruyan, had saved her and Lin Xuan from the puppet’s explosion.
• Lin Xuan, Qin Yan, the Jiang Brothers, and Zhu Tianyun returned to Xueming Mountain and learned that the disciples had taken shelter after the battle.
• Ji Xuansheng reported that the sect was safe but the visiting cultivators had left, ruining the exchange meeting.
• Zhu Tianyun invited Lin Xuan and Qin Yan to stay and offered them access to nearly all of Xueming Sect’s records, and they accepted.
• Zhu Tianyun told the Red-Clad Beauty that Lin Xuan had rescued Qin Yan from a concealed puppet and displayed instant movement and a powerful emerald flame.

Zhu Tianyun decided that befriending Lin Xuan would benefit his sect, while three Nascent Soul cultivators secretly broke into a hidden cave on Xueming Mountain. Qin Yan received Lin Xuan’s midnight invitation and went to meet him, but the secluded location and soundproofing restriction made her wary of his intentions.

• Zhu Tianyun persuaded the Red-Clad Beauty that befriending Lin Xuan would bring their sect benefits, and warned her not to investigate his relationship with Qin Yan.
• Brother Chen led two Nascent Soul cultivators to a hidden entrance on Xueming Mountain, and the three entered the cave in search of something.
• Qin Yan recovered from her injuries and received a Sound Transmission Talisman from Lin Xuan asking to meet at midnight.
• Qin Yan used a concealment divine ability to travel to the remote back mountain, recalling Lin Xuan’s rescue of her and feeling gratitude and admiration toward him.
• Qin Yan noticed Lin Xuan’s soundproofing restriction and began to suspect that the secluded meeting might conceal an improper purpose.

Lin Xuan met Qin Yan in a forest and explained his rapid cultivation by claiming to have a Bitter Spirit Root. After they shared their experiences, he began asking about their past at Stream Leap Ravine, leaving his question unfinished.

• Qin Yan chose to trust Lin Xuan and met him in a remote forest clearing.
• Qin Yan asked how Lin Xuan had cultivated so quickly despite once seeming to have no spirit root.
• Lin Xuan claimed he had a Bitter Spirit Root, and Qin Yan accepted his explanation.
• Lin Xuan and Qin Yan walked through the forest, exchanged stories, and observed each other's composure.
• Lin Xuan asked Qin Yan whether she remembered their trip to Stream Leap Ravine and started to ask what had happened after they parted.

Lin Xuan asked Qin Yan about the Sound Transmission Talisman he had sent after they parted, unaware that she remembered it as his confession of love and proposal to dual cultivate. Qin Yan weighed her attraction to him against how little they knew each other, while three Nascent Soul cultivators secretly broke through a formation inside the mountain.

• Lin Xuan tentatively asked Qin Yan whether she remembered the Sound Transmission Talisman from two hundred years earlier.
• Three Nascent Soul cultivators entered the mountain's depths and fought through a formation full of restrictions and transforming beasts.
• Qin Yan recalled receiving Lin Xuan's message proposing that they become dual-cultivation partners after reaching Nascent Soul, and remembered how she had dismissed it as a ploy to secure her silence.
• Qin Yan considered Lin Xuan's strength and her favorable impression of him, but felt that they knew each other too little for a Dao partnership.
• Lin Xuan misread Qin Yan's silence as possible shyness and called for Yue'er to ask her advice, but Yue'er did not answer.

Qin Yan and Lin Xuan wandered through the forest under the full moon while the three Nascent Soul cultivators broke through a mountain restriction and discovered paintings depicting the Underworld and a girl who looked almost identical to Yue'er. The cultivator surnamed Chen searched the paintings for the legendary treasure and noticed a round disc at their junction.

• Qin Yan and Lin Xuan strolled through the forest, each unaware that they had received a Sound Transmission Talisman sent in the other's name.
• The cultivator surnamed Chen, the white-haired old man surnamed Murong, and Fairy Liu shattered the restrictive formation and entered a passage in the mountain.
• The three cultivators uncovered paintings of a desolate wilderness, a girl playing a zither, and the same girl ruling over countless Great Demon Ghosts.
• The white-haired old man identified the creatures as inhabitants of the Underworld Realm and speculated that the girl was a powerful figure from that realm.
• The cultivator surnamed Chen searched the paintings and spotted a round disc-shaped object where they met.

Cultivator Chen revealed that the sealed object inside Xueming Mountain was a genuine Xuantian Underworld Treasure, and persuaded Liu Mei and Murong to help retrieve it. The three agreed to auction it at the coming Sky Cloud Trade Fair and divide the proceeds, then set off to claim it.

• Cultivator Chen opened the mountain wall with his compass Dharma Treasure, revealing a hall and an altar that held the Xuantian Underworld Treasure.
• Liu Mei challenged Chen over concealing the treasure’s identity, while Murong questioned why Chen had brought them along.
• Chen explained the treasure’s power, described how he found the information on an ancient Jade Slip, and said three Nascent Soul cultivators were needed to take it.
• Chen proposed selling the treasure at the Sky Cloud Trade Fair and asked for sixty percent of the proceeds, leaving Liu Mei and Murong twenty percent each.
• Liu Mei and Murong accepted the division, and Chen urged them to retrieve the treasure before Xueming Sect cultivators discovered them.

Cultivator Chen and two Nascent Soul cultivators found an ancient Demon Monster sealed beneath the Xuantian Underworld Treasure, but chose to risk taking the treasure after preparing defenses. Meanwhile, Lin Xuan returned to the VIP Building still uncertain about Qin Yan, though he kept Yue'er closest to his heart and received a jade talisman that would let him visit Horizon Sea Pavilion.

• Cultivator Chen, the white-haired old man, and the female cultivator discovered a three-headed Demon Monster sealed behind a light curtain beneath the Xuantian Underworld Treasure.
• The three cultivators worried that removing the treasure would revive the Demon Monster, but greed led them to agree to take it after concluding the million-year seal had weakened it.
• The three cultivators set restrictions, restored their magic power, and readied their Dharma Treasures before Cultivator Chen moved to act.
• Lin Xuan returned to the VIP Building confused about Qin Yan's bashful response to the Sound Transmission Talisman and considered their uncertain prospects as dual-cultivation partners.
• Lin Xuan reflected that Yue'er remained closest to his heart, then examined the jade talisman Qin Yan had given him, which would allow him to visit Horizon Sea Pavilion.

Cultivator Chen, Liu Mei, and the old man killed the Demon Monster and followed the Jade Slip’s method to retrieve the Xuantian Underworld Treasure. Just as Chen took the Jade Box, the mountain collapsed around them, trapping them in a cave whose ordinary-looking walls resisted their strongest attacks.

• Cultivator Chen found a weakness in the Demon Monster’s scales, and the three Nascent Soul cultivators dismembered it and burned its remains.
• Chen, Liu Mei, and the old man poured spiritual power into the bronze vessels until they formed an emerald-green arm holding a Command Flag.
• Chen used the Command Flag’s yin wind to dissolve the barrier around the Jade Box, then agreed to let Liu Mei and the old man follow him while he kept the treasure.
• Cultivator Chen picked up the Jade Box, but the hall suddenly collapsed and sealed the three cultivators inside a smaller stone cave.
• Chen’s flying knife and Liu Mei’s strike failed to damage the ordinary-looking rock, leaving the three worried that Xueming Mountain held another strange danger.

A strange underground force attacked Xueming Mountain, devouring one Nascent Soul cultivator and razing the Xueming Sect’s main altar. Lin Xuan found Qin Yan safe, sensed something inexplicable beneath the rock, and urged them to flee.

• Liu Mei dodged a stone tongue, but a white-haired old man was dragged into a crevice and eaten whole.
• Lin Xuan escaped an unseen attack that pulverized his pavilion and destroyed the Xueming Sect’s mountaintop, killing nearly all its disciples.
• Lin Xuan located Qin Yan and saw Zhu Tianyun and other Nascent Soul cultivators survive the attack.
• Zhu Tianyun challenged the hidden attacker, then blocked two stone spikes with his blood-red shield.
• Lin Xuan searched beneath the ground with his divine sense, discovered something bizarre, and advised Qin Yan to leave immediately.

Lin Xuan and Qin Yan tried to escape Xueming Mountain, but the mountain awakened as a colossal monster and trapped the surviving cultivators. Elsewhere inside it, Liu Mei and the cultivator surnamed Chen fought giant tongues in what the monster claimed was its stomach.

• Lin Xuan and Qin Yan decided not to risk themselves for Xueming Sect, but a rumble beneath the mountain killed several cultivators and made Lin Xuan urge Qin Yan to flee.
• Liu Mei and the cultivator surnamed Chen battled giant stone tongues inside the mountain and heard a voice claim they were trapped in its stomach.
• Lin Xuan and Qin Yan attempted to escape north, but sharp beams blocked their route and forced them back to the other cultivators.
• Xueming Mountain rose and transformed into a giant with a face, arms, and legs before the horrified cultivators.
• The giant laughed that someone had freed it after a million years and demanded that the cultivators let it devour them.

Xueming Mountain revealed itself as a gigantic, self-healing monster and began devouring the Xueming Sect survivors. Lin Xuan joined forces with Qin Yan and the Jiang Brothers, then used his enormous Azure Fire Sword to wound the monster before charging at its tongue when it seized his sword.

• Zhu Tianyun and the surviving Xueming Sect cultivators attacked Xueming Mountain, but the monster shrugged off their blows and regenerated its wounds.
• Xueming Mountain snared two Core Condensation Realm cultivators with its tongues and devoured them, revealing that it intended to consume everyone nearby.
• Lin Xuan realized the monster would not let them escape, so he persuaded Qin Yan and the Jiang Brothers to join the battle alongside him.
• When Xueming Mountain struck at the four cultivators, Lin Xuan stayed in place and unleashed the Giant Sword Technique, using the Azure Fire Sword to smash apart the monster's palm and slash toward its mountaintop.
• Xueming Mountain caught the Azure Fire Sword with its unusually hard tongue, and Lin Xuan charged toward the tongue in a streak of azure light.

Lin Xuan attacked Xueming Mountain’s tongue with Azure Phantom Nether Fire and damaged its black-stone core, then teleported away with Qin Yan as the monster summoned stone puppets. The two reached halfway up the mountain, where Qin Yan asked what Lin Xuan planned to do.

• Lin Xuan ignored Zhu Tianyun’s warning and charged toward Xueming Mountain’s tongue, while Qin Yan followed him.
• Lin Xuan used Azure Phantom Nether Fire to crack the monster’s tentacles and destroy part of its tongue, damaging its black-stone core.
• Xueming Mountain summoned numerous stone monsters from its body, and Qin Yan fought several with the Nine Heavens Ice-Fire Silk.
• Lin Xuan teleported away with Qin Yan and reached halfway up the mountain, where Qin Yan asked what he intended to do.

Lin Xuan summoned the Corpse Demon and Pangolin to help Qin Yan hold off the Stone Monsters while he searched for a cave in the Giant Monster’s body. Meanwhile, the Giant Monster’s devastating sound-wave attack killed two cultivators, and the surviving Xueming Sect and Jiang Brothers faced another wave of monsters as their forces began to consider escape.

• Lin Xuan summoned the Corpse Demon and Pangolin, then asked Qin Yan to keep the Stone Monsters away while he searched nearby with his divine sense.
• Lin Xuan found a hidden cave in the mountain wall, and he, Qin Yan, Pangolin, and the Corpse Demon entered it to evade the Stone Monsters.
• Zhu Tianyun directed the Xueming Sect cultivators and the Jiang Brothers to harass the Giant Monster and attack its face, but the monster unleashed razor-sharp sound waves that killed two Core Condensation cultivators.
• The Giant Monster devoured the two cultivators, replenished its strength, and began turning detached boulders into more stone monsters.
• Zhu Tianyun let the surviving cultivators consider fleeing, knowing the Giant Monster would likely prevent them from escaping.