Chapter Summaries

Cao Changjing and Li Xuanxiao searched the ruined village for the alchemist Li Zhian and learned that the Nine Skeletons Master had captured the region’s alchemists. They infiltrated a demon assembly at the Nine Skeletons Rending Wind Mountain Range, while Di Nüfeng remained behind under an avatar’s protection.

• Cao Changjing and Li Xuanxiao found the supposed Little Grotto-Heaven village in ruins and confronted demons who claimed it belonged to the Xuan Mountain Red Horn Venerable, the Moon Swallowing Heaven Burning Great King.
• Cao Changjing defeated the black-furred pig demon and learned that the Nine Skeletons Master had captured the nearby alchemists, including the alchemist Li Zhian.
• Cao Changjing explained that the Nine Skeletons Master was a powerful demon general from the Eastern Wasteland Demon Domain, and Li Xuanxiao decided to investigate.
• Li Xuanxiao left an avatar to guard Di Nüfeng in a cave, then traveled with Cao Changjing toward the Nine Skeletons Rending Wind Mountain Range.
• Li Xuanxiao and Cao Changjing concealed themselves among a vast army of demons heading to the mountain range for the Nine Skeletons Master's assembly.

Cao Changjing and Li Xuanxiao infiltrated Nine Skeletons Master's gathering and learned that he had imprisoned alchemists while planning to seize Feng City. Cao Changjing exposed himself to stop Nine Skeletons Master from executing a Burial Soldier City cultivator, and was left fighting for his life against the demons.

• Cao Changjing and Li Xuanxiao mingled with the demons and learned that Nine Skeletons Master had locked alchemists in the rear peak to refine pills.
• Li Xuanxiao discovered the alchemists' location, while Cao Changjing decided they needed to sneak into the rear peak.
• Nine Skeletons Master arrived and urged the gathering to take advantage of the war by attacking Feng City.
• Nine Skeletons Master brought out a bound Burial Soldier City cultivator and prepared to execute him, but Cao Changjing stopped the blade and challenged him.
• Nine Skeletons Master hurled Cao Changjing away and ordered the demons to kill him; Cao Changjing fought back with his hammer as the gathering surrounded him.

Ling Xuanxiao and Cao Changjing fought the demons in the banquet hall while Li Xuanxiao’s avatar infiltrated the rear peak and freed the alchemists from their guards. Cao Changjing’s resolve and strength grew through the battle, and he faced Nine Skeletons Master as Li Xuanxiao held back to let him fight.

• Ling Xuanxiao saved Cao Changjing from a centipede demon, and his words renewed Cao Changjing’s resolve to fight.
• Cao Changjing’s Killing Intent surged as he smashed through the demon horde, while the demons turned their attacks toward Ling Xuanxiao.
• Li Xuanxiao’s avatar reached the rear peak, poisoned the demons guarding the alchemists, and found Cao Changjing’s friend among them.
• Nine Skeletons Master entered the fight and drove Cao Changjing back, but Cao Changjing continued battling the remaining great demons.
• Li Xuanxiao decided to let Nine Skeletons Master test Cao Changjing, while remaining ready to prevent Cao Changjing from dying.

Li Xuanxiao rescued Cao Changjing and the captives from Nine Skeletons Mountain Range, then left to find the Ice Poison Toad. Two days later, Cao Changjing awoke and learned that Li Xuanxiao had gone to the dangerous Extreme Cold Secret Realm and left him a favor to fulfill if he did not return.

• Cao Changjing fought Nine Skeletons Master and his demon generals until he collapsed from his wounds.
• Li Xuanxiao's three avatars and fifteen puppets cleared the rear peak, looted the treasure vaults, and rescued the imprisoned captives.
• Li Xuanxiao manifested a powerful Dharma Form Avatar, rescued Cao Changjing, and led the pill refiners away from Nine Skeletons Mountain Range.
• Two days later, Cao Changjing woke in a medicinal barrel and learned that Li Xuanxiao had gone to seek the Ice Poison Toad in the Extreme Cold Secret Realm.
• Li Zhian told Cao Changjing that Li Xuanxiao had asked him to pass along a favor in case he did not return.

Li Xuanxiao waited for the Extreme Cold Secret Realm to open while Di Nüfeng’s Ancient Snake God poison rapidly worsened. He watched powerful groups gather, including Caishen of the Xueyin Chamber of Commerce, and the secret realm’s gate finally opened.

• Li Xuanxiao guarded the secret realm’s entrance for three months as Di Nüfeng’s poison spread and weakened her.
• Two Central Continent Flying Ships arrived, and Li Xuanxiao concealed himself and Di Nüfeng while sensing more groups approaching.
• Li Xuanxiao learned that the Netherworld Sword Sect and Xueyin Chamber of Commerce had arrived, along with Mo Zi from the Central Continent.
• Caishen descended amid a shower of golden spirit stones and said she would handle the Ice Poison Toad despite her master’s request that she return.
• After more than half a month, a light gate appeared and the Extreme Cold Secret Realm opened.

Li Xuanxiao left Di Nüfeng in a fortified hiding place with medicine and a story-playing doll before entering the deadly Extreme Cold Secret Realm. After joining a temporary team with Caishen and three other cultivators, he watched Zhang Zi get bitten by a venomous white snake, leaving the group arguing over who should suck out the poison.

• Li Xuanxiao hid Di Nüfeng, gave her a doll that resembled him, and instructed her to take one pill each day and stay put.
• Li Xuanxiao entered the Extreme Cold Secret Realm, survived its freezing storms, and met four other cultivators after being randomly teleported into a canyon.
• Li Xuanxiao, Caishen, Zhang Zi, Wang Hu, and Zhou Liudian agreed to travel together through the dangerous realm.
• After a day of travel, Zhang Zi reached for a white lotus that transformed into a venomous snake and bit her in the chest.
• Zhou Liudian and Wang Hu offered to suck out Zhang Zi's poison, but she asked Li Xuanxiao for help instead.

Li Xuanxiao and his companions crossed the Profound Nether Ice Plains, surviving attacks and witnessing cultivators hunt one another. Wang Hu then revealed his plan to take Caishen, and Zhou Xiaodian betrayed Zhang Zi as the group faced being silenced.

• Li Xuanxiao captured half of the milky-white snake that attacked Zhang Zi, treated her wound, and stored the snake in a bottle.
• The group encountered murdered cultivators and later defeated another band of attackers through cooperation as they traveled across the ice plains.
• Li Xuanxiao trapped a white-furred Tiger Demon in a formation, allowing Zhou Xiaodian to attack it while Wang Hu watched.
• Wang Hu led the group to three allies and ordered Zhou Xiaodian, Zhang Zi, and Li Xuanxiao to leave while Caishen stayed with him.
• One of Wang Hu's men said the other three could not be allowed to report Caishen's capture, and Zhou Xiaodian shoved Zhang Zi toward Wang Hu before fleeing.

Wang Hu’s group ambushed Zhou Liudian and killed him with coordinated attacks, then turned on Li Xuanxiao, Zhang Zi, and Caishen. Li Xuanxiao poisoned the Golden Armored divine general and trapped Wang Hu, but was struck by the silver-serpent-spear cultivator, whose protective spiritual energy began sizzling where Li Xuanxiao’s blood touched it.

• A purple lightning strike and a spear attack wounded Zhou Liudian, while crossbow bolts and the Golden Armored general’s saber left him unable to escape.
• The military cultivators showered Zhou Liudian with crossbow bolts until he died.
• Caishen offered Li Xuanxiao and Zhang Zi a reward if they helped her survive, but Li Xuanxiao ignored her and attacked the Golden Armored divine general with poisoned silver needles.
• Li Xuanxiao tried to leap past the Golden Armored Guards, but Wang Hu dragged him into the ice and bound him in mechanical chains.
• The silver-serpent-spear cultivator struck Li Xuanxiao, and his blood began sizzling against the attacker’s protective spiritual energy.

Li Xuanxiao fought Wang Hu and three other Spirit Transformation Stage cultivators, defeating them with poison, sword techniques, and a military formation of his own. After searching their souls for clues to the Ice Poison Toad, he left Zhang Zi and Caishen alive, though they feared he might turn on them next.

• Wang Hu severed his poisoned left foot after Li Xuanxiao's Bone Corroding Miasma breached his protective qi.
• Wang Hu and the other three formed a military killing formation, but Li Xuanxiao deployed an array and attacked with his sword.
• Li Xuanxiao's sword light burst into poisoned meteoric iron needles, breaking the formation and binding the four men's power with invisible threads.
• Li Xuanxiao searched the four men for clues to the Ice Poison Toad, found none, and killed them.
• Zhang Zi and Caishen watched Li Xuanxiao land before them and feared he might kill them next.

Li Xuanxiao sought the Ice Poison Toad to save a friend, and Caishen agreed to help him after he protected her from an ambush. Meanwhile, Mo Zi found a memory revealing Li Xuanxiao’s location and set out to hunt him.

• Li Xuanxiao asked Caishen and Zhang Zi about the Ice Poison Toad and explained that he needed it to save a friend.
• Attackers ambushed Caishen, but Li Xuanxiao shielded her and sent talisman swords after the assailants.
• Moved by Li Xuanxiao’s willingness to risk his life for a friend, Caishen revealed that she knew clues about the Ice Poison Toad and offered to help.
• Mo Zi used Soul Searching on a cultivator and found a memory of Li Xuanxiao fighting four people.
• Mo Zi crushed the cultivator’s head and used a storm of rain as a sensory spell to pursue Li Xuanxiao.

Caishen used the positioning compass to find the hidden entrance to the Profound Nether Ice Plains, and she and Li Xuanxiao entered its dangerous passage. Li Xuanxiao captured the Ice Chi guarding the frost gate, leaving them able to search for the Ice Poison Toad.

• Caishen watched the stars with her positioning compass, and after three more days and nights, the snowy mountains opened to reveal a passage.
• Li Xuanxiao protected Caishen and Zhang Zi from the spirit-tide rifts and led Caishen toward the passage, while Zhang Zi stayed behind.
• Li Xuanxiao burned through the Ice Armor Battle Souls with his True Fire and advanced toward the enormous frost gate with Caishen.
• Li Xuanxiao sensed toxic mist and blocked a barrage of profound-ice arrows from a gigantic Ice Chi behind the gate.
• Li Xuanxiao used his fiery dharma avatar and mechanism chains to capture the Ice Chi without killing it.

Li Xuanxiao brought Caishen through a deadly frozen realm while searching for the Ice Poison Toad. After reaching its poisonous marsh, he prepared to face the creature and told Caishen to hide, leaving her moved by his willingness to risk his life for his friend.

• Zhang Zi urged her senior sister to leave the dangerous place and promised to explain what had happened later.
• Li Xuanxiao shielded himself and Caishen from the frozen realm's lethal winds and ice as he crossed its first and second layers.
• Caishen was wounded and began falling into a storm vortex, but Li Xuanxiao turned back and caught her despite his own injuries.
• Li Xuanxiao and Caishen cautiously explored the frozen palace, passed frozen cultivators, and found several rare ice-attribute treasures.
• Li Xuanxiao found the poisonous marsh where the Ice Poison Toad was, then told Caishen to hide while he prepared for battle.

Ling Xuanxiao fought through the frozen poison marsh and was apparently swallowed by the Toad King’s attack, but revealed that he had been hiding nearby and using his Pill Fire as bait. The Spirit Trapping Formation activated as the Toad King approached the cauldron.

• Ling Xuanxiao used Crane-Top Silver Needles and True Fire to kill and try to capture the Ice Poison Toads.
• The Toad King emerged from the frozen marsh and engulfed Ling Xuanxiao in extreme cold and soul-corroding force, freezing him into an ice sculpture.
• A golden attack bearing Sword Qi struck toward the Toad King, but the Toad King froze the Sword Qi in place.
• Ling Xuanxiao watched from hiding and judged that the Toad King was weaker than he had expected, revealing that the fight had been a test.
• Ling Xuanxiao used his Natal Pill Fire as bait, drawing the Toad King toward the cauldron despite the risk to his alchemy.
• The Spirit Trapping Formation activated as the Toad King approached the cauldron.

Ling Xuanxiao fought the Cold Poison Toad while Mo Zi tracked the Mechanical Puppet’s traces into the snow mountain gorge. Mo Zi arrived and was briefly frozen by the Toad King’s attack as Li Xuanxiao prepared to face him.

• Ling Xuanxiao used bronze bells, talismans, and a formation to restrain the Cold Poison Toad, but its venomous frost storm forced him to strike back with his sword.
• Mo Zi extracted souls and memories from cultivators, followed traces of a Mechanical Puppet, and reached a split snow mountain gorge.
• Mo Zi suspected he had been lured into a scheme, then dismissed the danger and charged into the gorge, confident in his strength.
• Li Xuanxiao and Caishen unleashed swords, a Dharma Avatar, and magical treasures against the Toad King as Li Xuanxiao resisted its illusion and freezing attacks.
• The Toad King redirected its ice pillars toward the incoming Mo Zi, freezing his afterimage in space for half a breath.

Li Xuanxiao escaped the battle between Mo Zi and the Ice Poison Toad King, then seized the Toad King after it froze Mo Zi and was nearly frozen itself. The Toad King struck Li Xuanxiao with a deadly ice attack, but he still sealed it in his cauldron and recalled it.

• Li Xuanxiao slipped into the formation’s life gate while Mo Zi fought the Toad King and was poisoned by its cold arts.
• Caishen used her bronze bell to flee as the battle collapsed mountains and unleashed a massive avalanche.
• Li Xuanxiao grabbed Caishen and escaped the Toad King’s freezing attack, which immobilized Mo Zi and nearly froze the Toad King as well.
• The Toad King shed its frozen body, but Li Xuanxiao pinned it with silver needles and drew it toward his prepared cauldron.
• The Toad King pierced Li Xuanxiao with an ice point that froze his Dharma Form and corroded his body with ice poison, but he sealed it in the cauldron and recalled it.

Li Xuanxiao protected Caishen from cultivators trying to rob him after he left the mystic realm, using overwhelming force despite his depleted spiritual qi. After Caishen reunited with her father, she offered the Xueyin Chamber of Commerce’s help as Li Xuanxiao continued seeking to save his friend.

• Caishen and Li Xuanxiao emerged from the mystic realm, where cultivators demanded their treasures after an ice lotus appeared above Li Xuanxiao’s head.
• Li Xuanxiao defeated the cultivators who attacked him and warned the others not to block his way.
• A hidden attacker and a cultivator using a giant manifestation struck at Li Xuanxiao, but he killed or defeated them and forced the remaining cultivators to flee.
• Li Xuanxiao fought a powerful white-haired elder who had mistaken him for someone holding the elder’s daughter captive.
• Caishen explained that Li Xuanxiao had saved her, and the elder apologized before letting them go.
• Caishen told Li Xuanxiao that the Xueyin Chamber of Commerce could help him find his friend and urged him to wait.

Li Xuanxiao used the Reverse Meridian Return Technique to recover after escaping the secret realm, while Di Nüfeng waited alone in the icy cave as the snake venom worsened. When a white bear attacked her, she fought it off, then encountered Ye Liang and his companions, who noticed her symptoms of poisoning.

• Caishen invited Li Xuanxiao to go with her, but he declined for the moment and left after asking for her address.
• Mo Zi emerged from the secret realm injured and furious after failing to capture Li Xuanxiao and losing the Ice Toad King.
• Li Xuanxiao hid to recover with the Reverse Meridian Return Technique, then set out again once he had regained some strength.
• Di Nüfeng, weakened by the snake venom and missing Li Xuanxiao, mistook noises at the cave entrance for his return and removed his talisman.
• A huge white bear attacked Di Nüfeng, but she pried open its jaws and flung it away without using spiritual energy.
• Ye Liang killed the white bear and approached Di Nüfeng, noticing her poisoning symptoms as one of his companions teased him about his lecherous habits.

Di Nüfeng fought off a young cultivator, but poison and his rope-blades left her trapped until Li Xuanxiao arrived and killed him and his three companions. Afterward, Li Xuanxiao planned to seek the Xueyin Chamber of Commerce’s help in refining an antidote, and he and Di Nüfeng set out with Cao Changjing.

• Di Nüfeng sent the young cultivator crashing into an iceberg, but he recovered and bound her with rope-blades as her poison flared up.
• Li Xuanxiao struck down the young cultivator with a sword light and killed the three cultivators who tried to explain themselves.
• Di Nüfeng embraced Li Xuanxiao, and they later rested together in an ice cave while he planned how to make an antidote for her poison.
• Li Xuanxiao told Cao Changjing he needed the Xueyin Chamber of Commerce’s help to refine an antidote, and Cao Changjing offered to accompany them.
• Two days later, Li Xuanxiao, Di Nüfeng, and Cao Changjing set out for the Xueyin Chamber of Commerce.

Caishen faced trouble at the Xueyin Chamber of Commerce after losing many senior alchemists, then welcomed Li Xuanxiao and his companions and agreed to help him obtain rare earthfire. At a lavish banquet arranged by her father, Miao Zhishun, Li Xuanxiao and his companions remained unimpressed by the display.

• Caishen learned that the Xueyin Chamber of Commerce had lost more than twenty senior alchemists and was producing only half its usual batch of pills.
• Caishen heard members question her youth and leadership, then wondered whether she could live up to her grandfather's legacy.
• Li Xuanxiao arrived with Di Nüfeng and Cao Changjing, and Caishen welcomed them and accepted his list of requested supplies, including rare, heavenly-fire-grade earthfire.
• Caishen noticed Di Nüfeng's bluish-purple veins and realized she was the friend Li Xuanxiao had vowed to save.
• Miao Zhishun arranged an extravagant banquet to impress his guests and emphasize their difference in status.
• Li Xuanxiao thanked Miao Zhishun politely, while Cao Changjing remained indifferent and Di Nüfeng ignored the decorations because there was no food yet.

Li Xuanxiao offered to help the Xueyin Chamber of Commerce by refining pills, hoping to recover his vital essence and win Caishen’s father’s support. He reached the Chamber’s Alchemy Room and began testing a furnace, while its young alchemist watched him with suspicion.

• At Miao Zhishun’s banquet, Li Xuanxiao offered to refine pills and showed him several pills he had made.
• Miao Zhishun allowed Li Xuanxiao to work in the Alchemy Room after the young alchemist reported his arrival.
• The young alchemist led Li Xuanxiao through the Chamber’s nine-level Alchemy Room and explained its facilities.
• Li Xuanxiao picked up herbs, lit the furnace, and said he would test it by making Qi-Nourishing Pills.
• The young alchemist watched Li Xuanxiao and warned him to pay attention.