Chapter Summaries

Bai Lan escorted Zi Yu toward the fox clan’s home in Fuli Valley while concealing her human identity and planning how to win over the Fox King. She entered the valley surrounded by hostile foxes, where Zi Yu’s faith in her supposed fox-clan identity only grew.

• Bai Lan spared Long Aotian because he still had value and sent Di Wu Yin to meet Ning Yan at the location marked on a map.
• Bai Lan told Zi Yu that Di Wu Yin was bound to her by a Divine Soul Contract and claimed she needed cultivators’ help to infiltrate human society.
• Bai Lan used Zi Yu’s memories to learn the fox clan’s location, bloodline, and declining strength, then decided to tempt the Fox King with a way to reach the Ninth Tier.
• After several days of travel, Bai Lan and Zi Yu entered Fuli Valley, where hundreds of foxes gathered and assumed hostile stances toward Bai Lan.
• Bai Lan kept a calm expression despite preparing to flee if necessary, and Zi Yu took her composure as proof that she belonged to the fox clan.

Bai Lan faced the Fox King, who questioned her identity and threatened her with overwhelming pressure. Bai Lan fabricated a story about searching for Soul Nurturing Wood, won the Fox King’s trust, and pledged herself to her service.

• Zi Yu explained to the Fox King that Bai Lan had once been a fox demon whose soul had ended up in a human cultivator’s body.
• The Fox King ordered Zi Yu to stay in Fuli Valley and brought Bai Lan to a sealed chamber to question her identity.
• Bai Lan claimed the previous Fox King had sent her to find Soul Nurturing Wood to nourish the ancestor’s soul, but a human cultivator had captured her and sealed her soul in an Artifact Spirit.
• The Fox King believed Bai Lan’s account and decided her human body and Azure Origin Sect membership could help the fox clan infiltrate human society.
• Bai Lan pledged to serve the Fox King, hoping to gain access to the fox clan’s forbidden ground and claim Long Aotian’s opportunity.

Bai Lan resisted the Fox King’s demand for a wisp of divine sense and bargained for her freedom by promising to retrieve the fox clan ancestor’s soul. The Fox King accepted her Heart Demon Vow, marked her so she could be tracked, and gave her a fox-tail token before Bai Lan left with a mission to fulfill.

• Bai Lan refused to hand over a wisp of divine sense and offered to help the Fox King recover the missing Ninth-Rank Ancestor’s soul.
• When the Fox King pressed her with her power, Bai Lan resisted and threatened to self-destruct, convincing the Fox King that she could not be killed yet.
• Bai Lan swore a Heart Demon Vow to return the ancestor’s soul to the fox clan.
• The Fox King placed a tracking mark on Bai Lan and gave her a fox-tail token that would keep low-tier Fox Demons from attacking her.
• The Fox King explained that the tail had been severed during her advancement to the seventh tier, and Bai Lan concealed her thoughts of selling or refining it.

Bai Lan explored Fuli Valley and bargained with Zi Yu for a piece of the Evergreen Ancient Tree’s root. She revealed that the Fox King had sent her to find the soul of a Ninth-Rank Ancestor in the dangerous Boundless Sea Region, and Zi Yu began devising a way to help her.

• Bai Lan used the red fox tail to pass through Fuli Valley and gathered rare spirit herbs along a route she had mapped.
• Bai Lan found Zi Yu playing with the valley’s beasts beneath the Evergreen Ancient Tree and asked her to dig up a small section of its root.
• Zi Yu agreed to secretly take a finger-thick root section in three days, when the Fox King would enter seclusion.
• Bai Lan told Zi Yu that the Fox King had ordered her to seek the Ninth-Rank Ancestor’s soul in the Boundless Sea Region to help the Fox King break through her bottleneck.
• Zi Yu worried that Bai Lan would die on the dangerous mission, then suddenly announced that she had an idea.

Bai Lan accepted a Small Teleportation Array from Zi Yu and remained in Fuli Valley for three days. After the Fox King's Third Elder died in battle, the Fox King summoned Bai Lan and told her about Azure Origin Sect's powerful spirit beast.

• Zi Yu offered to cultivate the Profound Yin Yang Absorption Technique with Bai Lan, but Bai Lan pointed out they both lacked Primal Yang.
• Zi Yu gave Bai Lan a fifth-tier Small Teleportation Array that Long Aotian had lent her, and explained why she had stayed to fight instead of escaping.
• Bai Lan accepted the Formation Disk and warned that it would not save her from a Nascent Soul Cultivator.
• Bai Lan stayed in Fuli Valley for three days, during which news arrived that the Fox clan's Third Elder had died fighting outside.
• The Fox King summoned Bai Lan before entering secluded cultivation and told her that Azure Origin Sect's eighth-tier mountain-guarding spirit beast descended from the Black Tortoise.

Bai Lan agreed to the Fox King’s plan to recruit Xuanwu, then left Fuli Valley with herbs and a demon fox tail. She shared information about the Fox Clan with Azure Origin Sect’s ancestors and learned they already trusted Xuanwu not to betray the sect.

• The Fox King offered Xuanwu access to Fox Clan resources and Thousand-Year Cold Marrow if he helped the beasts during the coming war, and Bai Lan agreed to persuade him.
• After three days in Fuli Valley, Bai Lan collected a Seventh-Rank Demon Fox Tail and rare spirit herbs, then headed toward the secret realm where Di Wu Yin and Ning Yan were.
• Hanxu Zi and a female Mid Nascent Soul cultivator met Bai Lan outside the valley, settled their bet over her survival, and paid her for the Demon Luring Grass.
• Bai Lan gave Hanxu Zi drawings of Fuli Valley’s terrain, formations, demons, and spirit herbs; after hearing the Fox Clan had two Eighth-Rank demons and formidable defenses, the ancestors abandoned plans to attack it.
• Bai Lan warned the ancestors that the Fox King wanted Xuanwu as an inside agent, and they assured her that Xuanwu would not betray the Azure Origin Sect even without a Divine Soul Contract.

Bai Lan explained to Hanxu Zi and True Lord Fu Guang how she had safely explored Fuli Valley, though she hid how she had charmed its foxes. She later found Di Wu Yin and Ning Yan discussing her kindness, then confronted them for talking behind her back.

• Hanxu Zi and True Lord Fu Guang questioned Bai Lan about how she had survived three days in Fuli Valley, and she claimed the Fox King's daughter liked her.
• Hanxu Zi offered Bai Lan five sixth-tier Demonic Cores for a Charm Technique that could beguile the Fox King, but she denied having one and left.
• Bai Lan headed to Sangu Ravine, relying on Di Wu Yin to protect Ning Yan while she searched for them.
• Ning Yan told Di Wu Yin that Bai Lan had made her swear a Heart Demon Vow to avoid Long Aotian and Bai Ling, and Di Wu Yin wondered whether Bai Lan was truly kindhearted.
• Bai Lan emerged from hiding and accused Di Wu Yin and Ning Yan of slandering her behind her back.

Bai Lan found a concealed secret-realm entrance by bombarding the surrounding rocks and led Di Wu Yin and Ning Yan inside through a crack in its Sixth-tier Defense Array. In the dark tunnel, they heard a young man and Ling'er nearby, leaving Bai Lan wondering if she had encountered the Child of Destiny and an employee on a mission.

• Bai Lan used earth bullets to search the mountains until a hidden array and its narrow entrance appeared.
• Bai Lan reloaded to restore the spiritual energy she had spent and told Di Wu Yin and Ning Yan that the Sixth-tier Defense Array had an existing breach.
• Bai Lan, Di Wu Yin, and Ning Yan entered the secret realm through the crack and proceeded down a dark tunnel.
• Bai Lan stopped when she heard a young man tell Ling'er to stay close, and suspected they might be the Child of Destiny and an employee away on business.

Bai Lan encountered Bai Ling, Qiu Tian, and the demonic cultivator Luan Yin in Sangu Ravine, then discovered Luan Yin was a mid-stage Core Formation cultivator protecting Bai Ling. After reloading her save, she concealed her hostility and secretly summoned True Person Qing Xuan, hoping to make the two Core Formation cultivators fight.

• Bai Lan and her companions emerged from hiding after Luan Yin detected them, and she greeted him despite his demonic cultivation.
• Bai Ling hid behind Qiu Tian and called Bai Lan her mortal enemy, while Ning Yan and Di Wu Yin mistakenly suspected Qiu Tian had betrayed Bai Lan.
• Luan Yin stepped forward to protect Bai Ling, and Bai Lan attacked him with fireballs and a Thunder Fire Bead to test his strength.
• Luan Yin revealed his mid-stage Core Formation cultivation and identified himself as Luan Yin of the Corpse Refining Sect, so Bai Lan reloaded her save.
• Bai Lan acted friendly toward Luan Yin and secretly sent True Person Qing Xuan a message revealing Bai Ling's location, hoping the two cultivators would fight.

Li Xunxian and the system tricked True Person Qing Xuan into believing Bai Ling had been kidnapped and demanded a million Spirit Stones, while Qing Xuan tried to leave Meditation Cliff to rescue her. Inside the secret realm, Bai Lan and the others cast doubt on whether Qing Xuan would kill Bai Ling, leaving Luan Yin and Bai Ling unsettled as the group continued together.

• The system impersonated a kidnapper and demanded one million Spirit Stones from True Person Qing Xuan for Bai Ling's ransom, while Li Xunxian warned that Qing Xuan might be too worried to notice the deception.
• True Person Qing Xuan demanded to leave Meditation Cliff for three days to rescue Bai Ling, and the guard went to report his request to the Sect Master.
• Luan Yin agreed to continue through the secret realm alongside the Foundation Establishment cultivators, intending to use them as shields against danger.
• Bai Lan told Luan Yin that True Person Qing Xuan had threatened to purge the sect and kill Bai Ling, and Ning Yan and Di Wu Yin warned that Qing Xuan or True Monarch Wu Yin might make him do it.
• Bai Lan learned that Qiu Tian and Bai Ling had stumbled into the secret realm while fleeing the Demonic Palace, and privately resented how easily Bai Ling had found it.

Bai Lan stalled the group in the secret realm and arranged for Qiu Tian to protect Bai Ling while she waited for True Person Qing Xuan. When Qing Xuan arrived, Luan Yin mistook him for a threat to Bai Ling and attacked him.

• Bai Lan told Qiu Tian that Luan Yin was a Core Formation elder of the Corpse Refining Sect and ordered him to protect Bai Ling during the coming fight.
• The group explored the abandoned sect ruins while Bai Lan delayed them to prevent Luan Yin or Bai Ling from reaching the main hall before Qing Xuan arrived.
• Several Yin Ghosts attacked, and Bai Lan led the others away, leaving Luan Yin to face them alone.
• Qiu Tian stayed with Bai Ling and promised to protect her, while Luan Yin grew angry at being abandoned by his companions.
• True Person Qing Xuan arrived and demanded that Luan Yin hand over Bai Ling; Luan Yin accused him of trying to kill her and attacked him.

Bai Lan watched Luan Yin and True Person Qing Xuan fight over Bai Ling while weighing how to profit from Qing Xuan’s treasures. Qiu Tian persuaded Bai Ling that both combatants intended to kill her and took her away, while Bai Lan and her companions prepared to interfere in the battle.

• Bai Lan recognized Qing Xuan’s valuable magical treasures and imagined extorting Bai Ling with them after Qing Xuan’s death.
• Luan Yin summoned two Golden Core Corpse Puppets, but Qing Xuan continued fighting him with his sword despite Bai Ling’s pleas for them to stop.
• Luan Yin secretly promised Qiu Tian rewards for protecting Bai Ling, while Qiu Tian told Bai Ling that Qing Xuan meant to kill her and Luan Yin planned to turn her into a Corpse Puppet.
• Bai Ling asked Qiu Tian to take her away, and he led her from the battle.
• Bai Lan discussed the evenly matched fight with Di Wu Yin and Ning Yan, then gave Di Wu Yin an array flag after they considered making the fighters clash faster.

Bai Lan used the Fire Gathering Formation and Purple Firmament True Fire to disrupt the duel between Luan Yin and Qing Xuan, then tricked them into thinking she was the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion Master. As Luan Yin gained the upper hand and the fire spread over both cultivators, Qing Xuan drew a talisman, leaving Bai Lan braced for what came next.

• Bai Lan planted the Fire Gathering Formation and slipped a wisp of Purple Firmament True Fire into its flames while Luan Yin and Qing Xuan continued fighting.
• The Purple Firmament True Fire spread across both Core Formation cultivators, who recognized it and searched for True Lord Suiyun.
• Bai Lan posed as a powerful Nascent Soul cultivator, and Qing Xuan lost focus long enough for Luan Yin to strike him from behind.
• Luan Yin and Qing Xuan resumed their battle, wary of attacking Bai Lan in case she was truly the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion Master.
• Wounded and near death, Qing Xuan drew a talisman as Bai Lan watched and prepared herself.

Bai Lan warned Luan Yin about Qing Xuan’s Nascent Soul talisman and persuaded him to join forces against Qing Xuan. As Luan Yin began preparing a secret art and Bai Lan set up the Fire Gathering Array, she sent Di Wu Yin and Ning Yan toward the distant hall, remaining behind with a hidden plan.

• Bai Lan warned Luan Yin that Qing Xuan carried a talisman with a Nascent Soul cultivator’s full-force strike, causing Luan Yin to change his tactics.
• Bai Lan provoked Luan Yin into revealing that his secret art could briefly raise his cultivation, but it required someone to restrain Qing Xuan.
• Luan Yin agreed to cooperate with Bai Lan and began forming a blood cocoon while Qing Xuan attacked it.
• Bai Lan set up the Fire Gathering Array with Di Wu Yin and Ning Yan, then ordered them to run toward the distant hall without looking back.
• Bai Lan claimed she would sacrifice herself, and Di Wu Yin took Ning Yan away while Bai Lan concealed Purple Firmament True Fire beneath ordinary flames and covered herself with black cloth.

Bai Lan’s Purple Firmament True Fire distracted Qing Xuan long enough for Luan Yin to kill him, but Luan Yin then fell to Bai Lan’s talisman. Bai Lan collected both men’s Storage Bags and found Wu Yin’s talisman, leaving her with a new weapon for future fights.

• Bai Lan’s Purple Firmament True Fire alarmed Qing Xuan, and Luan Yin broke free of the blood cocoon and killed him.
• Wu Yin sensed Qing Xuan’s death and vowed to find his killer, while Bai Ling collapsed from a sudden pain after leaving the secret realm.
• Luan Yin attacked Bai Lan, but she escaped into the Void Stone and used a talisman containing a Mid Nascent Soul cultivator’s strike to kill him.
• Bai Lan collected Qing Xuan’s and Luan Yin’s Storage Bags, and Ling Xunxian learned that Bai Lan had taken down two Core Formation cultivators.
• Bai Lan used Soul Severing to remove the Storage Bags’ restrictions and found Wu Yin’s Full Power Strike Talisman inside Qing Xuan’s bag.

Bai Lan sorted through the Core Formation cultivators’ spoils, choosing powerful artifacts and discovering Luan Yin’s hidden remnant soul. She burned his Soul Nurturing Wood ring with Purple Firmament True Fire, leaving him screaming and accusing her of following the demonic path.

• Bai Lan selected four artifacts from her collection, including the Jade Ruyi and Male-Female Twin Bludgeons, and examined the valuable treasures in Qing Xuan’s Storage Bag.
• Bai Lan found that Luan Yin’s many Corpse Puppets remained bound to him after his death, suggesting that he was still alive in some form.
• Bai Lan discovered a Soul Nurturing Wood ring among Luan Yin’s belongings and ignited it with Purple Firmament True Fire.
• Luan Yin’s remnant soul screamed from inside the burning ring, and Bai Lan decided to refine him with fire rather than spare him.
• Luan Yin accused Bai Lan of being the true demonic cultivator.

Bai Lan forced Luan Yin to submit and assigned him to Ling Xunxian to be remade as a Ghost Cultivator. Meanwhile, Azure Sect learned that Qing Xuan had died, and its elders debated his death and who should inherit Jade Purity Peak.

• Bai Lan threatened to destroy Luan Yin’s Soul Nurturing Wood until he yielded and agreed to obey her.
• Bai Lan told Ling Xunxian to teach Luan Yin the Myriad Illusions Demonic Art and bind him with a Heart Demon Vow and Divine Soul Contract.
• A disciple reported to True Person Qing He that Qing Xuan’s soul lamp had gone out, and Qing He ordered the peak elders to assemble.
• Qing He told the elders that Qing Xuan had gone to demonic territory to rescue Bai Ling, prompting them to criticize Qing Xuan for risking his life for a traitor.
• The elders discussed who should take over Jade Purity Peak after Qing Xuan’s death.

Bai Lan reached the secret realm’s main hall and found Di Wu Yin and Ning Yan trapped by Yin Ghosts on the second trial platform. She discovered and smashed the Teleportation Array feeding the ghosts, then sensed an unseen person’s displeasure and prepared for a possible threat.

• Nan Xianshi left the sect to investigate Qing Xuan’s death but secretly headed elsewhere, while Bai Lan felt safe from being tracked by the sect.
• Bai Lan rode toward the secret realm’s main hall and spotted Di Wu Yin and Ning Yan surrounded by Yin Ghosts on the second platform.
• Bai Lan found a hidden Teleportation Array beneath the platform and smashed it, cutting off the source of the Yin Ghosts.
• Bai Lan heard a faint cold snort from the main hall and used her save to repeat the moment, confirming that someone was watching.
• Di Wu Yin and Ning Yan defeated the remaining Yin Ghosts, and Bai Lan reassured Ning Yan that she was alive.

Bai Lan cleared the final trial by defeating a swarm of Ice Butterflies and capturing several hundred of them. She then encountered a Shapeshifted Demonic Beast who had watched her actions in the secret realm and asked whether he was related to the Black Tortoise.

• Bai Lan told Di Wu Yin and Ning Yan to rest while she took on the third trial, and Ning Yan declined to eat Bai Lan's spirit-replenishing pills.
• Bai Lan entered the final stone platform and found it filled with Six-Eyed Ice Butterflies whose attacks targeted her divine sense.
• Bai Lan used Purple Firmament True Fire to drive away the butterflies, then captured several hundred juvenile ones in her Spirit Beast Bag.
• After the final barrier broke, an old man appeared and scolded Bai Lan for destroying his Teleportation Array and taking his Ice Butterflies.
• Bai Lan realized the old man was a Shapeshifted Demonic Beast and asked if he had a connection to the Black Tortoise, telling him the Azure Origin Sect had one as its guardian divine beast.

Bai Lan challenged Old Turtle to test her aptitude by comprehending the Spirit Taming Sect’s Heavenly Tier cultivation method within a day. After using her save-load technique to practice for three months, she reached the method’s first level and astonished Old Turtle, who had believed her aptitude was mediocre.

• Old Turtle explained that Bai Ling had been the ideal inheritor of the Spirit Taming Sect’s legacy because of her Divine Phoenix Bloodline and single-fire Heavenly Spiritual Root.
• Bai Lan claimed she could prove her aptitude by comprehending a Heavenly Tier Cultivation Method within a day, and Old Turtle agreed to make her the sect’s inheritor if she succeeded.
• Old Turtle gave Bai Lan a Jade Slip containing the Meteor Sun Absolute Flame Art and left her to study it.
• Bai Lan saved her progress, repeatedly practiced the method in three-month intervals, and focused especially on its spiritual-fire body-tempering art.
• After three months of practice, Bai Lan reached the threshold of the method’s first level, and Old Turtle appeared, astonished that she had cultivated it despite her supposedly mediocre aptitude.