Chapter Summaries

Tang Lan discovered that an Evil Soul Tool could parasitize and control a black colt, raising fears that the Holy Spirit Cult was creating a force of controlled Soul Beasts. As Tang Sect experts gathered in Qingyuan City, Wang Qiuer told Tang Lan that the immortal herb he gave her had helped her reach Rank 80.

• A metal Soul Tool burrowed into a black colt, turning its eyes red and making it attack the crowd with purple flames.
• Hanyuan shielded everyone while guards restrained the colt, and Tang Lan removed the Soul Tool to calm it.
• Tang Lan identified the device as an Evil Soul Tool that could parasitize and control a host, and warned Lu Zhiyi that the Holy Spirit Cult might be producing many of them.
• Lu Zhiyi resolved to report the threat to the Imperial City, while Tang Sect experts gathered in Qingyuan City and nearby cities.
• Wang Qiuer brought Tang Lan tea and said the immortal herb he gave her had helped her break through to Rank 80.

Tang Lan decided to infiltrate the Holy Spirit Cult with Wang Qiuer to investigate its plans, while leaving the Tang Sect in the hands of trusted elders and confidantes. Before departing, they used an evil Soul Tool that could control Soul Beasts as their cover story.

• Wang Qiuer argued that the Tang Sect should kill the Holy Spirit Cult's members, but Tang Lan proposed investigating the cult from within instead.
• Wang Qiuer objected to Tang Lan risking himself, but he insisted and chose to take only her on the mission.
• Tang Lan summoned the Tang Sect's elders to Li Manor, required them to swear secrecy, and arranged for inner sect elders to lead while he was away.
• After the other elders left, Tang Lan told Tang Ya, Tang Wutong, Wang Qiuer, and his other confidantes that he planned to go undercover in the Holy Spirit Cult and leave Tang Sect decisions to them.
• Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer departed, claiming they had found an evil Soul Tool that caused the recent Beast Tide near Qingyuan City.

Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer left the Tang Sect and joined a caravan at the Blazing Flame Chamber of Commerce to travel through the war-torn region while keeping a low profile. The next morning, they heard shouts outside and opened their door to see what was happening.

• Tang Lan entrusted Poison Dragon and Sha Li to Lingling, then left with Wang Qiuer after saying goodbye to the women.
• Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer learned that the only departing caravan was hiring Soul Master escorts and paid Hank 350 Gold Soul Coins to join it.
• A servant led Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer into the Blazing Flame Chamber of Commerce, where they learned the regional business had a Titled Douluo as its General President.
• Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer spent the night at the chamber of commerce and heard its staff preparing supplies for the journey.
• The next morning, Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer heard shouts outside and opened their door.

Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer joined the Blazing Flame Chamber of Commerce’s caravan and met Yu Ting, a Soul Hunting Squad captain responsible for its safety. The caravan left Qingyuan City and traveled through land devastated by the controlled Beast Tide.

• Tang Lan introduced himself and Wang Qiuer to Yu Ting as siblings and fellow students of Lingyun Soul Master Academy.
• Yu Ting invited them to breakfast and explained the caravan’s escort and the strength of her Soul Hunting Squad.
• After Yu Ting left, Wang Qiuer accused Tang Lan of plotting to pursue her, and he denied it before they joined the caravan.
• The Blazing Flame Chamber of Commerce gathered the passengers and departed Qingyuan City with its armed escorts.
• Tang Lan saw a Chamber of Commerce executive pay the city gate commander before the convoy passed through the gates.
• The caravan traveled along the official road, where Tang Lan saw forests and farmland ruined by the controlled Beast Tide.

The caravan traveled toward Qingyuan City through an unnervingly quiet area, and Yu Ting suspected danger despite finding no Soul Beasts. As the party camped for the night, Hank revealed his determination to deliver the valuable ore despite the threat of rebels, while Tang Lan and the others joined Yu Ting’s group for dinner.

• Yu Ting noticed the silent road and growing flock of crows, then helped arrange for scouts to investigate ahead.
• The caravan found no immediate danger and stopped to camp beside the forest as dusk fell.
• Hank said he would deliver the Black Soul Star Iron Ore despite the danger, while Sikong Chen warned that the rebels might attack and many people could die.
• Yu Ting invited Tang Lan, Tang Yun, and Tang Qiuer to share freshly roasted boar, and they accepted.

Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer joined Yu Ting’s group at the camp, where they shared stories before a Hundred Thousand Year Silver Armored Ape attacked. The camp fell into chaos, and Yu Sen, Tan Yuan, and Song Yingfei prepared to confront the beast.

• Tang Lan talked with Yu Ting and Yue Lan about academy life while Wang Qiuer grew jealous and pinched his waist.
• Yu Ting’s teammates returned from searching for Soul Beasts, and the group ate while the nearby Soul Hunters watched Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer warily.
• Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer camped beside Yu Ting’s squad as Hank and the others kept watch through the night.
• A violent tremor woke the camp, and Wang Qiuer recognized the approaching Silver Armored Ape as a super Soul Beast from the Starry Night Great Forest.
• The Silver Armored Ape hurled a tree at the camp, and Tang Lan carried Wang Qiuer to safety as Yu Sen, Tan Yuan, and Song Yingfei moved to face it.

The Silver Armored Ape overwhelmed the Soul Hunting Squad’s leaders, forcing Yu Ting’s team to retreat while Tang Yun and Tang Qiuer watched the battle. The Soul Douluo and Soul Saints found a crack in the beast’s armor and kept fighting, but the ape prepared another devastating attack as Tang Qiuer remained calm.

• Yu Sen charged the Silver Armored Ape and was hurled into a slope, while Song Yingfei harassed it and Tan Yuan attacked with Magnetic Barrage.
• Tang Lan warned that the ape was barely harmed, and Wang Qiuer urged Yu Ting’s squad to retreat before the beast unleashed a destructive soundwave.
• The soundwave injured nearby Soul Saints, and the Silver Armored Ape struck Song Yingfei down before Yu Sen charged it again.
• Tan Yuan rallied the remaining fighters to target the ape’s chest, and their attacks helped Yu Sen create a small crack in its armor.
• The Silver Armored Ape prepared another counterattack while Yu Ting’s squad watched from a distance, and Tang Qiuer calmly studied the battle.

Tang Lan revealed his overwhelming strength by killing the rampaging Hundred-Thousand-Year Silver Armored Ape with one slash, then claimed its Soul Bone and Soul Ring. The caravan survivors left the battlefield, and its fighters later thanked Tang Lan for saving their lives.

• Tang Qiuer explained that the Silver Armored Ape had been driven mad and controlled by a Holy Spirit Cult Evil Soul Tool.
• Tang Lan walked into the battlefield and cut off the Silver Armored Ape’s head with a single slash, saving Tan Yuan and the others.
• Tang Lan stored the ape’s Soul Bone and absorbed its Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring, strengthening Spirit Ning Xian.
• Vice President Hank led the surviving caravan away before dawn, while the injured Yu Sen, Tan Yuan, Song Yingfei, and Soul Saints recovered in the carriages.
• Tan Yuan, Yu Sen, and the other fighters thanked Tang Lan for saving them, and Tang Lan told them to rest and recover.

Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer escorted the merchant caravan through repeated Beast Tide attacks to Rosette City, where they found the city badly damaged and under siege. After the caravan entered the city and delivered urgent supplies, city lord Xu Yu personally came to meet Tang Lan.

• Tang Lan refused merchants' offers to buy the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone, and the caravan learned he could kill a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast with one strike.
• Yu Ting and Yue Lan apologized for treating Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer too casually, while Wang Qiuer reassured them that they could still speak as before.
• Tan Yuan, Yu Sen, and the other Soul Masters killed a fifty-thousand-year Earth Splitting Violent Bear without Tang Lan's help.
• The caravan reached Rosette City and found its walls damaged and its streets strained after seven Beast Tide attacks in three days.
• Han Song brought the caravan into Rosette City, where the Blazing Flame Chamber of Commerce began unloading urgently requested supplies.
• City lord Xu Yu visited Tang Lan and praised him for saving the caravan.

Tang Lan agreed to defend Rosette City for three days in exchange for Xu Yu secretly investigating the Holy Spirit Cult and Evil Soul Masters, and accepted a rare Soul Bone as thanks. When a new Beast Tide struck that night, Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer reached the eastern wall and saw Xu Yu’s disciplined troops holding off the first wave.

• Xu Yu pleaded with Tang Lan to defend Rosette City for three days, and Tang Lan agreed on the condition that Xu Yu secretly gather intelligence about the Holy Spirit Cult and Evil Soul Masters.
• Xu Yu promised to mobilize his trusted subordinates for the investigation and gave Tang Lan a fifty-three-thousand-year Blazing Gold Earth Dragon right arm bone.
• After nightfall, a horn announced another Beast Tide, and Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer hurried to the eastern city wall.
• Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer saw the City Defense Army’s seven-person battle arrays holding back several hundred frenzied Soul Beasts beyond the wall.
• Xu Yu explained that the first wave was manageable but warned that larger waves could include powerful Soul Beasts, describing how three Siege Giant Rhinoceroses had breached the wall earlier that day.

Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer intervened when an eighty-thousand-year Rock Domain Demon Elephant nearly wiped out Yu Ting's squad. Wang Qiuer fought the beast alone and found an opening to strike its eye, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Xu Yu assigned Tang Lan to handle high-level soul beasts while the City Defense Army dealt with routine attacks, and Tang Lan agreed.
• Wang Qiuer pointed out Yu Ting's squad, which was fighting alongside the city defenders with help from Yue Lan's healing.
• Three powerful soul beasts attacked the defensive line, and the Rock Domain Demon Elephant devastated Yu Ting's squad, killing one member and critically injuring three.
• Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer arrived just before the demon elephant struck Yu Ting, and Wang Qiuer blocked its trunk with the Golden Dragon Spear.
• Wang Qiuer unleashed her soul skills and temporarily suppressed the demon elephant, allowing the defenders and Yu Ting's squad to recover and regroup.
• Wang Qiuer evaded the demon elephant's charge and thrust her spear toward its exposed left eye.

Wang Qiuer killed the eighty-thousand-year Rock Domain Demon Elephant while Tang Lan protected survivors and rescued others with his Mystic Tortoise Baxia Domain. At dawn, a strange roar sent the Beast Tide fleeing, and Xu Yu told Tang Lan that similar unexplained retreats had happened before.

• Wang Qiuer used her Golden Dragon Bloodlust and Golden Dragon Spear to kill the Rock Domain Demon Elephant, then removed an Evil Soul Tool from its armor and gave it to Tang Lan.
• Tang Lan kept Soul Beasts away from Yu Ting, Yue Lan, A Leopard, and the wounded while Wang Qiuer went to help fight the Ghost Face Demon Bat.
• Tang Lan escorted the survivors toward the city gate under his Mystic Tortoise Baxia Domain, shielding them from attacks and rescuing injured soldiers and Soul Masters along the way.
• After a night of fighting, a strange roar made the Soul Beasts halt and flee from Rosette City, leaving the survivors baffled about what had driven them away.
• Xu Yu told Tang Lan that previous Beast Tides had also withdrawn after similar roars, though searches had found no trace of a beast commanding them.

After the Beast Tide, Xu Yu reported Rosette City's heavy losses and warned that the city could hold out for only ten days, while reinforcements would not arrive for fifteen. Many powerful families and merchants withdrew, but Yan Hong, the local Soul Hunting Squads, and Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer stayed as Xu Yu revealed he had undisclosed plans and promised to lead an evacuation if the city could not be saved.

• Xu Yu ordered the survivors to clear the battlefield, treat the wounded, and repair Rosette City's defenses.
• Commander Chen reported forty-three Soul Masters killed, including two Soul Saints, and more than three hundred Soul Beasts slain.
• Xu Yu said Rosette City could hold out for ten days at most, but imperial reinforcements would arrive no earlier than fifteen days later.
• Hu Wanjin, the Li and Song Families, and representatives of several merchant groups announced they would not commit to the defense and left the meeting.
• Yan Hong of the Blazing Flame Chamber of Commerce, the Soul Hunting Squad captains, Tang Lan, and Wang Qiuer remained with Xu Yu.
• Xu Yu thanked those who stayed, said he had confidential strategies, and promised to organize an eastward breakout if the city was certain to fall.

Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer learned that five suspected Evil Soul Masters were staying at Radiant Wine House and went there in disguise to investigate. They spotted five suspicious men following two women and began tracking them through Rosette City.

• Xu Yu told Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer that five guests in Room Six, Earth Class, at Radiant Wine House were likely Evil Soul Masters.
• Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer disguised themselves and visited Radiant Wine House to investigate without drawing attention.
• The pair overheard patrons discussing Evil Soul Masters hiding amid the region’s wartime chaos.
• Tang Lan noticed five black-clad men leaving the guest-room floors and following two women out of the wine house.
• Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer paid for their meal and followed the group into Rosette City’s southern district.

Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer followed two women into a dark alley, where the women confronted five Evil Soul Masters and were overwhelmed by their attacks and the leader’s pollen-based Martial Soul. The women lay helpless as the leader began questioning their identities and affiliations.

• Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer followed the Woman in Purple and Woman in Green into a deserted alley, where the women turned to confront their pursuers.
• The five pursuers revealed themselves as Evil Soul Masters, including four Soul Kings and a level-sixty-nine Soul Emperor; the two women released their Martial Souls and fought back.
• The Soul Emperor spread Anesthetic Pollen, Soul Scattering Pollen, and Hallucinogenic Pollen through the alley, weakening and confusing the women.
• The four Soul Kings exploited the pollen to defeat the Woman in Purple and Woman in Green, leaving both poisoned and unable to move.
• The Soul Emperor rejected his subordinates’ demands to enjoy the women and examined them, suspecting they belonged to a great sect or an imperial organization and deciding to question them.

Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer posed as Holy Spirit Cult superiors to infiltrate Tao Zuo’s group and learn about their plans. The Evil Soul Masters accepted Tang Lan’s false identity as Faceless, while he left them cowed by revealing an apparent rank eighty-nine Soul Douluo’s power.

• Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer arrived as Tao Zuo and four Evil Soul Masters prepared to take away two unconscious women.
• Tang Lan rebuked Tao Zuo’s group and used an illusion of eight Soul Rings and a killing aura to convince them he was their superior.
• Tao Zuo explained that the group had tried to capture the women and asked when the Bloody Bird Plan would begin.
• Tang Lan ordered them to remain hidden and wait for progress on an unspecified matter, and Tao Zuo mistakenly inferred that he understood a secret Holy Spirit Cult operation.
• Tang Lan called himself Faceless, warned Tao Zuo not to probe his identity, and simulated the overwhelming pressure of a rank eighty-nine Soul Douluo.

Tang Lan forced Tao Zuo to reveal the Holy Spirit Cult’s extensive infiltration of Rosette City and learned about their superior, Vincent. He ordered Tao Zuo to summon the infiltrators to a meeting, then offered him Earth Vein Essence as an advance reward for carrying it out.

• Tang Lan intimidated Tao Zuo and four Soul Kings into kneeling, then interrogated them for information about the Holy Spirit Cult in Rosette City.
• Tao Zuo revealed that hundreds of Evil Soul Masters were hidden across the city and described their leaders, orders, and plans for the Bloody Bird Plan.
• Tao Zuo identified Vincent, an eighty-second-level Soul Douluo with a Bloodthirsty Bat martial soul, as his superior, and Tang Lan ordered him to arrange a meeting if Vincent could be contacted.
• Tang Lan commanded Tao Zuo to summon every Holy Spirit Cult infiltrator in Rosette City to a midnight gathering at the Radiant Wine House the following night.
• Tang Lan promised Tao Zuo a reward that could help him reach Soul Saint, showed him nascent Earth Vein Essence, and offered it as an advance payment.

Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer rescued Xu Xinzhu and Lin Yanran from Evil Soul Masters, earning the gratitude of Xu Yu and Lin Yanhong. As they accepted Lin Yanhong’s hospitality, she revealed that the Blazing Flame Chamber of Commerce had lost contact with more than half its branches.

• Tao Zuo absorbed the Earth Vein Essence prototype, felt his Level 69 bottleneck weaken, and pledged to gather the Evil Soul Masters at the Radiant Wine House the following night.
• Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer revived Xu Xinzhu and Lin Yanran, then escorted them safely back to the City Lord's Mansion and the Blazing Flame Chamber of Commerce.
• Xu Yu thanked Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer for saving his daughter and promised to strengthen patrols across Rosette City.
• Lin Yanhong ordered a citywide search for Evil Soul Masters, thanked the rescuers, and invited them to stay at the Chamber of Commerce.
• At a banquet, Lin Yanhong told Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer that over half the Chamber of Commerce's branches had gone silent and that investigators had vanished or returned with reports of bloodshed.

Lin Yanhong asked Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer to help investigate the Blazing Flame Chamber of Commerce’s lost contacts, and Tang Lan agreed to cooperate in exchange for a share of future profits and intelligence support. The next day, Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer found a Tang Sect contact point in Rosette City, where Lu Yun revealed that the Chen family had established shops in seven important southwestern cities.

• Lin Yanhong told Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer that most branches had lost contact and that even her father at headquarters had sent only vague warnings, then asked them to investigate.
• Tang Lan proposed a long-term thirty percent share of future profits and intelligence cooperation instead of half the Chamber’s current wealth, and Lin Yanhong accepted on its behalf.
• The next day, Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer walked through Rosette City, heard residents praise city lord Xu Yu, and located Chen’s Blacksmith Shop by its secret Tang Sect markings.
• Tang Lan showed Lu Yun the Tang Sect authority token, and Lu Yun led him and Wang Qiuer into a hidden chamber beneath the shop.
• Lu Yun explained that Grandmasters Chen Tang and Chen Ju had sent him to run the shop and had established Chen-name shops in seven important cities along the southwestern border.

Tang Lan demonstrated the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer at Chen's Blacksmith Shop, giving Lu Yun a breakthrough in his forging and leaving the blacksmiths astonished. After Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer returned to Radiant Wine House, Tao Zuo arrived that evening to report that their instructions had been completed.

• Lu Yun praised the Chen family's support for its blacksmiths, and Tang Lan entrusted him with a sealed letter for the Tang Sect's southwestern regional leader.
• Tang Lan used Lu Yun's furnace and billet to demonstrate the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer, forging a large iron billet into a smooth, dense sphere.
• Lu Yun recognized the legendary technique, gained insight into his forging bottleneck, and knelt to thank Tang Lan for the lesson.
• Tang Lan and Wang Qiuer returned to Radiant Wine House, where they discreetly noticed Tao Zuo and his four companions waiting undercover.
• That evening, Tao Zuo entered Tang Lan's room and reported that everything Tang Lan had instructed them to do was completed.