Recaps

Li Xuanxiao visited Master Bai and proposed joining forces to destroy Chen Liu, arguing that Chen Liu’s death would benefit Master Bai more than himself. Master Bai asked to hear Li Xuanxiao’s plan, leaving their alliance and next move undecided.

• Li Xuanxiao considered targeting Chen Liu or Master Bai to break through his cultivation bottleneck.
• Li Xuanxiao entered Master Bai’s territory and refused the offered wine and food.
• Li Xuanxiao proposed working with Master Bai to destroy Chen Liu, citing his conflict with Chen Liu and Master Bai’s long-standing rivalry with him.
• Master Bai questioned Li Xuanxiao’s motives, and Li Xuanxiao argued that Master Bai would gain the most if Chen Liu died.
• Master Bai asked Li Xuanxiao to explain his plan.

Li Xuanxiao arranged with Master Bai to injure Chen Liu before their duel, while Master Bai secretly planned to kill Li Xuanxiao if he won. After a ten-day battle between Chen Liu and Master Bai was stopped by the innkeeper, Li Xuanxiao reached five hundred consecutive victories and Chen Liu entered the duel arena to face him.

• Li Xuanxiao told Master Bai he could kill Chen Liu if Master Bai helped injure him before their duel, and Master Bai agreed.
• After Li Xuanxiao left, Master Bai told Tiger General he would help weaken Chen Liu and kill Li Xuanxiao if he won the duel.
• Master Bai and Chen Liu fought a fierce battle in the southern Ghost Domain that continued for ten days.
• The innkeeper disguised herself as the Ghost King's envoy and used the Ghost King's token to stop the fighting.
• Li Xuanxiao reached five hundred consecutive victories, requiring Chen Liu to challenge him or risk losing his position as Left Protector.
• Chen Liu stepped into the duel arena and found Li Xuanxiao waiting there.

Li Xuanxiao trapped Chen Liu inside a darkness created by the Myriad Souls Banner as their duel began in earnest. While spectators watched and placed bets, Nangong Wan wagered all her spirit stones on Li Xuanxiao, leaving the duel unresolved.

• Li Xuanxiao summoned the Myriad Souls Banner and covered the dueling arena in dense yin energy and darkness.
• Chen Liu introduced himself as a former Xuantian Sword Sect disciple, then summoned his natal flying sword as Li Xuanxiao’s banner absorbed the souls of the dead.
• Master Bai and Tiger General discussed their plans to seize Chen Liu’s territory and ambush Li Xuanxiao, while Master Bai admitted he could not predict the duel’s outcome.
• Big Jade Tooth bet on Li Xuanxiao, despite most spectators favoring Chen Liu.
• Nangong Wan followed Li Xuanxiao’s instructions and wagered all her spirit stones on his victory.

Chen Liu fought Li Xuanxiao for days inside the Myriad Souls Banner’s domain, but his strength was depleted after his earlier battle with Master Bai. Li Xuanxiao used the arena’s array formation to turn Chen Liu’s final attack against him, then won the duel as Master Bai ordered a charge.

• Chen Liu cleaved through successive waves of wronged souls while Li Xuanxiao used the Myriad Souls Banner to wear down his Sword Qi.
• After days of battle, Chen Liu’s Dharma Idol Golden Body dimmed, and Li Xuanxiao sent the slain Mountain King and Fire Daoist to attack him.
• With his strength nearly gone, Chen Liu launched his Dharma Idol at the black mist and destroyed his natal flying sword to break through.
• The black mist revealed an array formation that Li Xuanxiao had secretly merged with the banner, and its backlash made Chen Liu fall, powerless.
• Li Xuanxiao plunged the Myriad Souls Banner into Chen Liu, and Master Bai ordered his forces to charge.

Ling Xuanxiao killed Chen Liu in the duel arena, then Master Bai ordered his men to attack. After absorbing Chen Liu’s cultivation through the Myriad Souls Banner, Ling Xuanxiao defeated the Tiger General and turned on Master Bai, leaving their battle raging in the sky.

• Ling Xuanxiao killed Chen Liu, and Master Bai ordered the Tiger General and his concealed subordinates to attack.
• Master Bai’s men clashed with the arena guards while three assassins attacked Ling Xuanxiao and were killed by his black qi.
• The Tiger General transformed into a massive white-browed tiger, but Ling Xuanxiao drained his life force and left him a dried corpse.
• Ling Xuanxiao attacked Master Bai, who blocked his strike as their clash tore through nearby cultivators.
• Master Bai tried to retrieve his Dharma Seal, but Ling Xuanxiao’s black qi restrained it and forced Master Bai to cough up blood.

Li Xuanxiao killed Master Bai after defeating Chen Liu, establishing himself as the Ghost Domain’s new king. He returned to the inn with Nangong Wan and demanded that the innkeeper reveal how to meet the Ghost King and whether the Ghost King was alive.

• Master Bai tried to escape after destroying his magical artifacts, but Li Xuanxiao stopped him and absorbed his body and spiritual power.
• The dueling grounds fell silent as the cultivators realized Li Xuanxiao had killed both Master Bai and Chen Liu, the Ghost King’s two protectors.
• Li Xuanxiao took Nangong Wan back to the inn, where the other guests had fled in fear.
• Li Xuanxiao questioned the innkeeper about meeting the Ghost King and seized her throat when she claimed not to know.
• The innkeeper froze as Li Xuanxiao gave her one last chance to tell him where the Ghost King was and whether he was alive.

After killing Chen Liu and Master Bai, Li Xuanxiao forced the innkeeper, Xue Jian, to reveal that the Ghost King was dead and that she and her sister Xue Li had ruled in his place. He claimed the Ghost Domain, then recuperated in the Ghost King's Mansion as Nangong Wan and the sisters helped secure his new rule.

• Li Xuanxiao subdued Xue Jian while Nangong Wan defeated and captured Xue Li, prompting Xue Jian to reveal the Ghost King had died after failing to remove a brand left by the former headmaster of Shu Mountain.
• Xue Jian explained that she and Xue Li were the Ghost King's adopted daughters and had concealed his death while governing the Ghost Domain.
• Li Xuanxiao declared himself the new king, ordered Xue Jian to issue an edict in the Ghost King's name, and assigned the sisters to serve him.
• After Chen Liu and Master Bai died, their subordinates fought over their territories until the Ghost King's edict placed those lands under Li Xuanxiao's rule.
• Li Xuanxiao stayed in the Ghost King's Mansion to recover and digest the cultivation he had absorbed, while Nangong Wan and the Xue Jian sisters consolidated his control of the Ghost Domain.

Li Xuanxiao learned that the Ghost Domain was one of nine regions sealed by ancient laws and decided to destroy the other regions’ rulers at their next gathering. He and Xue Jian arrived at the meeting, where the other masters indulged in grotesque luxuries and noticed Li Xuanxiao.

• Xue Jian explained that nine Integrated Body Great Talents had created the regions and that their masters met every hundred years to maintain the barrier.
• Li Xuanxiao announced that he would wipe out the other regions’ masters, and Xue Jian warned that the regions were bound by a blood oath to attack anyone who threatened one of them.
• A month later, Li Xuanxiao left the Ghost Domain with Xue Jian and told Nangong Wan to watch over it.
• At the gathering, Xue Jian claimed the Ghost King was in seclusion and said she had come as his envoy.
• The red-haired master of Blazing Prison and the other rulers drank wine made from refined heads, then asked Xue Jian who Li Xuanxiao was.

Li Xuanxiao revealed himself as a Shushan Disciple and attacked the eight masters of the other regions, summoning Chen Liu and Master Bai from the Myriad Souls Banner. Shuoyue Ye's White Phosphorus Great Serpent swallowed Li Xuanxiao, but black qi exploded from its mouth as the banner spun.

• Li Xuanxiao told the other eight masters that he had killed Chen Liu and Master Bai, then identified himself as a Shushan Disciple.
• Li Xuanxiao gave the red-haired man a box that exploded, knocking him down and unleashing compressed black qi.
• Li Xuanxiao summoned the Myriad Souls Banner, and Chen Liu and Master Bai emerged to attack the other masters.
• Shuoyue Ye's White Phosphorus Great Serpent tracked Li Xuanxiao through his clones and swallowed him.
• Black qi erupted from the serpent's mouth as it tried to suppress Li Xuanxiao, and the Myriad Souls Banner spun rapidly.

Li Xuanxiao escaped the White Phosphorus Great Serpent by unleashing the Myriad Souls Banner from inside it, then wounded the serpent and attacked Shuoyue Ye. As the battle spread to the other Domain Lords, Xue Jian struggled to survive the devastation, and Li Xuanxiao declared that the bloodiest stage had begun.

• Li Xuanxiao revealed that he had let the White Phosphorus Great Serpent swallow him so he could unleash the Myriad Souls Banner from within its laws and tear open its jaws.
• Li Xuanxiao hurled the Myriad Souls Banner into the White Phosphorus Great Serpent's eye socket, badly wounding it.
• Li Xuanxiao seized Shuoyue Ye by the throat, but Shuoyue Ye produced a substitute from his mouth that Li Xuanxiao swallowed in black qi.
• Li Xuanxiao turned toward the other Domain Lords as Nether Soul Ancestor and a fiery-haired cultivator moved to fight him.
• Xue Jian sheltered beneath a small patch of intact ground while the battle's energy erased cultivators, ravaged the barrier region, and reduced its buildings to dust.
• A lone figure stood amid the ruins as someone shouted, "I won! I won!!"

After consuming the souls of eight cultivators, Li Xuanxiao collapsed with catastrophic injuries, but the Myriad Souls Banner rebuilt his body. Three days later, he led Xue Jian to Withered Bone Marsh, where the city defenses opened for his arrival.

• Li Xuanxiao used the Myriad Souls Banner to devour eight powerful cultivators, pushing the banner to peak saturation before collapsing from his injuries and the backlash.
• The Myriad Souls Banner used black mist and figures from within itself to repair Li Xuanxiao while Xue Jian stood guard under their threat.
• After about three days, Li Xuanxiao awakened, asked how long he had been unconscious, and told Xue Jian to leave with him.
• Li Xuanxiao and Xue Jian arrived at Withered Bone Marsh, where the Lin Family ruled over a city preparing for its lord’s thousandth birthday through forced labor and heavy taxes.
• A streak of black mist struck the city’s defenses, and the formation opened on its own.

Li Xuanxiao stormed into the Withered Bone Marsh Forest, using the Myriad Souls Banner to overwhelm its defenders and absorb their forces. After displaying Shuoyue Ye’s corpse and destroying the Lin Family, he sealed the forest and left its cultivators trapped as his wronged souls hunted them.

• Li Xuanxiao dropped Shuoyue Ye’s disguise and unleashed the black mist, which seized the city’s guards and turned them into his subordinates.
• When several powerful cultivators surrounded him, Li Xuanxiao showed them Shuoyue Ye’s corpse, prompting most to flee and the rest to surrender.
• Li Xuanxiao slaughtered his way to the Lin Family’s city center and reduced its palace to scorched earth, drawing nearly all its descendants into the Myriad Souls Banner.
• After recovering some strength and absorbing part of Shuoyue Ye’s power and memories, Li Xuanxiao used the Lin Family’s formation core to seal the Withered Bone Marsh Forest.
• The trapped cultivators joined forces to attack Li Xuanxiao, but his wronged souls continued hunting them through the sealed forest.

After recovering, Li Xuanxiao used the Myriad Souls Banner to slaughter cultivators across eight regions, then entered seclusion as Nangong Wan managed the territories he had conquered. The story shifted to Li Xuanxiao with Di Nüfeng, where he reflected on having less than seventy years to live and considered how his Self Corpse might avenge Shu Mountain.

• Li Xuanxiao recovered his strength and purged region after region, killing nearly half the cultivators across eight regions in a few months.
• Nangong Wan brought food to Li Xuanxiao in seclusion and reported that she had quelled rebellions and sent people to kill those fleeing the Nine Great Regions.
• Li Xuanxiao told Nangong Wan to let the refugees go and said he believed the Heavenly Dao would not tolerate him, but assured her that he would not die soon.
• Nangong Wan pledged to follow Li Xuanxiao even into hell, and he laughed off her vow.
• Li Xuanxiao returned to the present with Di Nüfeng and reflected that his lifespan had fallen below seventy years.
• Li Xuanxiao considered that his Self Corpse might avenge Shu Mountain after his death, though he feared the catastrophe it could bring with the Myriad Souls Banner.

Li Xuanxiao traveled through Cangzhou with Di Nüfeng and Cao Changjing, uncertain about his dwindling days and future. He decided to return to Central Continent, while Cao Changjing planned to establish a sect, and Di Nüfeng’s effortless slaughter of a flock of Cloud Falcons left Cao Changjing retracting his interest in her.

• Cao Changjing told Li Xuanxiao he planned to buy a mountain in Cangzhou and establish a sect.
• Li Xuanxiao said he would return to Central Continent and invited Cao Changjing to find him there if needed.
• Cao Changjing teased Li Xuanxiao about Di Nüfeng and asked if he could pursue her, making Li Xuanxiao freeze.
• Di Nüfeng noticed a flock of Cloud Falcons overhead and destroyed them by hurling pebbles at them.
• Di Nüfeng happily announced that the fallen birds would provide food, and Cao Changjing told Li Xuanxiao to forget what he had said.

Li Xuanxiao and Di Nüfeng traveled back toward the Central Continent aboard a smuggling flying ship, where a monk’s sermon about mortality prompted Li Xuanxiao to admit he wanted to return to the past. The monk told him the past could not be retrieved and urged him to live without dwelling on it.

• Li Xuanxiao reflected on Shu Mountain’s destruction, the troubles that followed, and the years of lifespan he had spent saving Di Nüfeng.
• Di Nüfeng noticed Li Xuanxiao’s low spirits and persuaded him to visit an old monk telling stories at the flying ship’s market.
• The gray-robed monk argued that all cultivators, regardless of their power or lifespan, eventually died.
• Li Xuanxiao asked what lay beyond death and said he wanted to return to the past.
• The gray-robed monk told Li Xuanxiao that the past could not be retrieved and advised him to live out the rest of his life without dwelling on it.

A gray-robed monk vanished after delivering Li Xuanxiao a message from the Heavenly Dao, leaving more than a hundred cultivators with shattered Dao hearts and damaged cultivation. Months later, Li Xuanxiao parted from Di Nüfeng and returned to Divine Grass Mountain, exhausted and resolved to rest.

• The gray-robed monk told Li Xuanxiao that death might return him to his own world, then vanished as the Heavenly Dao’s will spread through the crowd.
• More than a hundred cultivators suffered damage to their Dao hearts and cultivation, while Li Xuanxiao understood the monk’s words as a final warning to stop resisting fate.
• Di Nüfeng and Li Xuanxiao left the Flying Ship months later, with Di Nüfeng heading to the Heavenly Fiend Hall and Li Xuanxiao returning to Divine Grass Mountain.
• The Sword Spirit met Li Xuanxiao at the mountain gate, and he said he had finally returned and wanted to rest.

A caravan reached Divine Grass Mountain and used a special torch to pass through its deadly fog, where gophers exchanged goods with them. Li Xuanxiao tended his garden and crops while the Sword Spirit reflected on his dwindling lifespan and his refusal to seek a way to extend it.

• The caravan leader lit a torch given by the master of Divine Grass Mountain, forcing back the mist and weakening the beasts’ roars.
• The caravan followed the torch’s light through the fog to the mountain foothills.
• A group of gophers efficiently exchanged goods with the caravan without speaking.
• Li Xuanxiao carefully took seeds and other goods from the gophers and returned to tending his garden.
• The Sword Spirit watched Li Xuanxiao and recalled that he had repeatedly dismissed her suggestions to use heavenly treasures to extend his lifespan.

Li Xuanxiao focused on cultivating delicate flowers on Divine Grass Mountain while the Sword Spirit adjusted the environment to suit them. At Heaven's Secrets Pavilion, Gou Shengzi told Heaven's Secrets Old Man that the Heavenly Dao had declared the Shushan Disciple no longer a threat to them.

• Li Xuanxiao tested the soil and plants on Divine Grass Mountain and asked the Sword Spirit to create a hotter, more precisely controlled microclimate.
• The Sword Spirit teased Li Xuanxiao for spending his time gardening, but he ignored her and continued planting seeds.
• Heaven's Secrets Old Man worried that the Shushan Disciple might be the variable who had long obstructed his plans.
• Gou Shengzi told Heaven's Secrets Old Man that he had sensed the Heavenly Dao's will and that the Shushan Disciple no longer threatened either of them.
• Gou Shengzi revealed that he had touched the embryonic form of the Great Dao and believed he had advanced toward breakthrough ahead of Heaven's Secrets Old Man.

Gou Shengzi and Heaven's Secrets Old Man received the Heavenly Dao's judgment that Li Xuanxiao no longer posed a threat. In the Ghost Domain, Nangong Wan witnessed Li Xuanxiao suffer the Myriad Souls Banner's backlash and pleaded with him to stop using it.

• Gou Shengzi severed his connection with Heaven's Secrets Old Man and savored his communion with the Great Dao.
• Heaven's Secrets Old Man connected with the Heavenly Dao and learned that Li Xuanxiao had lost his edge and was no longer worth worrying about.
• The Heavenly Dao judged Li Xuanxiao an ordinary man who had abandoned his vengeance, and sensed that his Self Corpse would not live much longer.
• Nangong Wan found Li Xuanxiao convulsing as the wronged souls within the Myriad Souls Banner battered his body and spirit.
• Li Xuanxiao insisted that he would not die, while Nangong Wan knelt and begged him to stop using the banner because the Nine Great Regions had already submitted.

Li Xuanxiao recklessly refined the Myriad Souls Banner, telling Nangong Wan that his time was running out. After five years in seclusion, he emerged transformed and prepared to leave for Cangzhou, while Nangong Wan ruled the united Nine Great Regions.

• Nangong Wan begged Li Xuanxiao to stop refining the Myriad Souls Banner, but he told her his time was running out.
• Over five years, Li Xuanxiao dismantled the nine Spirit-Locking Grand Arrays and united the Nine Great Regions.
• Nangong Wan ruled the Nine Great Regions while Li Xuanxiao remained in seclusion.
• Nangong Wan visited Li Xuanxiao after he emerged from seclusion, and he asked whether she had investigated the matter he assigned her.
• Li Xuanxiao told Nangong Wan that he had prepared for a journey to Cangzhou and that they would depart at once.

Li Xuanxiao led a fleet of outcasts toward the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, where humans, tribes, and demons struggled for control. Nangong Wan crushed an escape attempt with a public execution and strict collective punishment as the fleet continued toward Cangzhou.

• A subordinate told Nangong Wan that eleven cultivators had tried to flee the fleet using Void-Escaping Talismans.
• Nangong Wan killed one captive, ordered the eleven heads displayed, and imposed death for future escape attempts, including collective punishment for groups of five.
• Li Xuanxiao ignored the crackdown and focused on reaching the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.
• The chapter explained that the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains were home to Cangzhou's tribes and had been devastated by the Demon Race thirty years earlier.
• Li Xuanxiao's fleet continued toward the region, where human tribes, exiles, and the Demon Race remained locked in conflict.

Li Xuanxiao’s fleet crossed a sect’s territory, where he killed three Spirit Transformation cultivators who tried to stop and search them. At the outskirts of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, he waited for Cao Changjing, whom he greeted with unexpected warmth.

• Nangong Wan tried to secure passage for the Flying Ship fleet by offering a gift, but three Spirit Transformation cultivators demanded to search the ships.
• A giant hand formed from the black clouds annihilated the three cultivators, and Li Xuanxiao ordered the fleet to continue.
• Li Xuanxiao surveyed the Demon Race’s fortified territory in the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains and told Nangong Wan to wait at the outskirts.
• After the fleet endured several small attacks while waiting for nearly two days, Cao Changjing arrived and called for Brother Li.
• Li Xuanxiao came out to greet Cao Changjing with an unusually warm smile.

Ling Xuanxiao arrived at Liuyun Sect with a vast fleet to help Cao Changjing, whose sect had been devastated by the demon tide. As the demons attacked again, Cao Changjing faced the choice of fleeing or protecting the tribes under Liuyun Sect’s care.

• Cao Changjing joyfully reunited with Ling Xuanxiao, then was stunned to see three enormous Flying Ships and twelve smaller ones arrive with him.
• Cao Changjing explained that the demon tide had devastated Liuyun Sect, while Ling Xuanxiao warned that his followers were a troublesome rabble who might not fight for the sect.
• Ling Xuanxiao said he knew how to keep his followers from turning on other cultivators, as beast roars rose outside the sect at nightfall.
• Cao Changjing and the Deputy Sect Leader surveyed the demon horde attacking Liuyun Sect.
• The Deputy Sect Leader urged Cao Changjing to flee using the Flying Ships, but Cao Changjing asked what would happen to the human tribes in the sect’s territory.

Liuyun Sect’s defenders struggled to withstand the growing demon tide as the Nine Regions cultivators’ disorder and cowardice brought the line close to collapse. Nangong Wan forced the fleeing fighters back, then Li Xuanxiao arrived with the Myriad Souls Banner and carved a path through the beasts.

• Wang Chongshan led Liuyun Sect’s defense alongside Li Xuanxiao’s Nine Regions cultivators as the demon tide attacked.
• The defenders repelled the first assaults, but the unruly cultivators killed allies and damaged the formation while fighting.
• As the demon tide intensified, cultivators began to retreat, and Nangong Wan killed one fleeing man and threatened the others into returning to the wall.
• The formation weakened under mounting attacks, casualties rose, and Wang Chongshan blamed Cao Changjing for bringing them into danger.
• Li Xuanxiao descended with the Myriad Souls Banner, drew souls and energy from the battlefield, and advanced through the demon horde, destroying beasts with black mist and Sword Qi.

After Li Xuanxiao repelled the demon tide, Liuyun Sect became a refuge and a rising regional power. Cao Changjing appointed Li Xuanxiao Chief Elder, and the sect began expanding through wars against nearby human factions.

• Li Xuanxiao's display of overwhelming strength drew the attention of powerful demons as the tide withdrew from Liuyun Sect.
• Over the next half month, Li Xuanxiao protected the sect from continued attacks, and refugees flocked to its gates.
• Cao Changjing appointed Li Xuanxiao Chief Elder and granted him authority over all matters inside and outside the sect.
• Liuyun Sect expanded under Li Xuanxiao's direction, targeting human factions to seize their resources and territory.
• Nangong Wan organized the sect's campaigns as its Nine Regions cultivators began raiding nearby strongholds.