Chapter Summaries

Star Gate cultivators entered Twilight Canyon under Liu Zongping’s protection, where powerful lightning struck their barrier. Song Qingming, traveling alone after leaving the Huang Family group, followed a signal from the Five-Colored Feather Fire Phoenix.

• The major sects waited at Twilight Canyon for its barrier to weaken, and Liu Zongping led Star Gate’s disciples down with a Lightning Control Token protecting them.
• White lightning repeatedly struck Star Gate’s barrier, which held against the attacks as the group descended into the canyon.
• Song Qingming traveled alone across the secret realm and examined the Golden Feather he had received from Fire Phoenix.
• Earlier, Song Qingming sensed the Five-Colored Feather Fire Phoenix’s signal while traveling with Huang Shengxin’s group, then left them after receiving a message from her.

Song Qingming left Huang Shengxin’s group and traveled north to meet Fire Phoenix, who took him toward the hidden Inner Valley. As they descended into Twilight Canyon, Fire Phoenix used a Golden Sphere to absorb two bolts of lightning.

• Song Qingming lured away the Green Ox demons, escaped them, and headed north alone, leaving Huang Shengxin’s group unable to find him.
• Guided by the Five-Colored Feather, Song Qingming traveled for over two days and found Fire Phoenix waiting in a cave.
• Fire Phoenix told Song Qingming she planned to enter the Inner Valley and led him through the mist to Twilight Canyon.
• Fire Phoenix formed a Golden Light Shield around herself and Song Qingming and took him down into the canyon toward the Inner Valley.
• Two bolts of lightning struck at them during their descent, and Fire Phoenix’s Golden Sphere absorbed both.

Song Qingming and Fire Phoenix descended through a lightning-filled gorge and reached an ancient array formation hidden beneath rubble. Song Qingming broke its Restriction after two days, revealing a cave entrance in the stone platform.

• Fire Phoenix used a Thunder Gathering Pearl to shield herself and Song Qingming from the gorge's lightning as they descended.
• After they passed through the lightning barrier, Fire Phoenix led Song Qingming to a concealed ancient array formation and asked him to break its Restriction.
• Song Qingming examined the damaged formation and chose a cautious method, placing Array Flags around the stone platform.
• Two days later, Song Qingming removed the Restriction and revealed a person-tall, pitch-black cave entrance.
• Fire Phoenix opened her eyes and smiled with satisfaction at the revealed entrance.

Song Qingming entered the Inner Valley with Fire Phoenix after she removed the formation restriction, and she promised to let him choose spirit items as a reward. As they traveled deeper, Fire Phoenix gave him a pill to mask his human aura, while the other sects struggled against powerful Tier 3 Demonic Beasts on their routes toward the valley’s center.

• Woman surnamed Cheng refused the Long-faced Cultivator’s suggestion to search for spirit items and told the Carefree Sect group to guard the formation entrance.
• Li Yungong and the Carefree Sect cultivators failed to overcome the Golden Armored Giant Turtle, so Elder surnamed Chen urged them to retreat and prepare the Demon Hunting Grand Formation.
• Liu Zongping’s Star Gate group faced a Black Giant Python after losing a cultivator to its poisonous attack, while sects entering by other routes also encountered varying dangers.
• Song Qingming followed Fire Phoenix into the Inner Valley after she promised he could request spirit items, though he questioned whether he had to accompany her.
• Fire Phoenix gave Song Qingming a Black Pill that concealed his aura from Low-grade Demonic Beasts, and he swallowed it despite its foul smell.

Song Qingming followed Fire Phoenix through the Inner Valley, where her presence kept the demonic beasts at bay and allowed him to collect spirit herbs. Their progress halted when a Golden Bull Demon King appeared, and Fire Phoenix confronted it alone.

• Fire Phoenix led Song Qingming past groups of Level 2 Demonic Beasts, which retreated rather than challenge her.
• Song Qingming gathered several spirit treasures in a mountain hollow until Fire Phoenix told him to stop wasting time.
• Fire Phoenix refused to explain what important treasure she sought and continued deeper into the Inner Valley with Song Qingming.
• A savage roar and tremors warned them of trouble, so Fire Phoenix flew ahead while Song Qingming hid behind a tree.
• Song Qingming recognized the approaching creature as a Third-tier Golden Bull Demon King, and Fire Phoenix shouted at it to get lost.

Fire Phoenix killed the Golden Bull Demon King with her true form and joined Song Qingming in heading deeper into the secret realm. The Carefree Sect reached the Inner Valley first, but Li Yungong and the others found its central pool empty.

• Fire Phoenix used her Five-Colored Feather Fan to hold off the Golden Bull Demon King, then transformed into a Crimson Phoenix and killed it.
• Fire Phoenix told Song Qingming that using a secret technique had damaged her vital energy, but insisted they continue onward.
• Li Yungong and the Carefree Sect regrouped after defeating a Golden Tortoise, while Liu Zongping's Star Gate group also overcame the Black Giant Python at heavy cost.
• The Carefree Sect entered the Inner Valley and found a vast area filled with spirit treasures.
• Li Yungong and Elder Chen went to the pool at the valley's center and found it completely empty, wondering if someone had arrived before them.

Li Yungong and the Carefree Sect disciples found that key treasures were missing from the Inner Valley, while Star Gate and Lingyin Sect cultivators arrived and accused the Carefree Sect of taking them. The sects faced off over the disappearances, and Li Yungong was about to fight when someone called for them to listen first.

• Li Yungong returned from scouting and told Elder surnamed Chen that Star Gate and Lingyin Sect had not yet entered the valley, leaving the missing Pure Heart Lotus unexplained.
• Liu Zongping and Star Gate cultivators arrived, gathered herbs, and discovered that one of their three black fruits had been taken from a cave.
• Liu Zongping suspected the Carefree Sect had trespassed in Star Gate's territory and led his disciples toward them.
• Lingyin Sect cultivators accused Elder surnamed Chen and the Carefree Sect of taking their missing treasure, while Chen denied it.
• Li Yungong challenged the Lingyin Sect leader to exchange moves, but another person urged everyone to wait and hear them out.

Liu Zongping stopped the Carefree Sect and Lingyin Sect from fighting and organized a search for the person who had taken their treasures. Meanwhile, Fire Phoenix led Song Qingming to the hidden Taiyue Hall, her true destination, but they could not open its gate because a restriction blocked it.

• Liu Zongping persuaded Li Yungong and Wu Xian that an unknown outsider had taken the sects’ treasures, and the three sects began searching the Inner Valley.
• Fire Phoenix and Song Qingming reached the valley’s depths after Fire Phoenix killed the Golden Bull Demon King, and she collected the rare spiritual items the three sects had sought.
• Fire Phoenix led Song Qingming to a western slope, revealed a hidden palace with a golden Token, and entered with him through a white spell formation.
• Song Qingming learned that the palace was Taiyue Hall and that it was Fire Phoenix’s destination.
• Fire Phoenix attacked Taiyue Hall’s gate with her Five-Colored Feather Fan and tried pushing it, but the protective restriction kept the gate shut.

Song Qingming broke the restriction on the gate to an ancient, intact secret realm and entered its palace with Fire Phoenix. They found an almost-empty hall containing an incense altar and unusual objects, but had not yet discovered what the place held.

• Song Qingming examined the gate and broke its restriction in less than two days, allowing it to open.
• Fire Phoenix praised Song Qingming and explained that she had found the hidden entrance through a clan Manual but had failed to break its restriction herself.
• Song Qingming and Fire Phoenix entered the courtyard and saw several radiant red palaces, which Fire Phoenix identified as belonging to the same ancient cultivator who created another secret realm.
• Fire Phoenix opened the leftmost palace, and Song Qingming followed her into its nearly empty hall.
• Song Qingming inspected the incense altar and found that his divine sense could not penetrate the incense burner.

Song Qingming and Fire Phoenix searched several palaces in the ancient cave abode, where Fire Phoenix found the Profound Yin True Water she had sought for a hundred years. In the final palace, Song Qingming hid his reacting Incomplete Map and then discovered another one among the discarded items.

• Song Qingming took the portraits from the first palace after Fire Phoenix claimed its incense burner.
• Song Qingming collected ancient-story scrolls in the middle palace while Fire Phoenix found a bottle of Profound Yin True Water and set aside decayed pills.
• Song Qingming felt his Incomplete Map react as Fire Phoenix opened the last palace, then hid it in a jade box inside his Storage Bag.
• Fire Phoenix searched the palace treasury and gathered intact artifacts, leaving miscellaneous items for Song Qingming to inspect.
• Song Qingming found another Incomplete Map among the discarded items.

Song Qingming found a second incomplete map in Taiyue Hall and received a Bronze Bell and Earth Spirit Dew from Fire Phoenix. After they hid for five days and escaped the secret realm, three cultivators confronted them above Twilight Canyon.

• Song Qingming secretly took an incomplete map identical to the one he already possessed while searching Taiyue Hall.
• Fire Phoenix let Song Qingming choose a magic tool, and he took a yellow Bronze Bell before she gave him Earth Spirit Dew in exchange for passing up the other tools.
• Song Qingming wondered whether the two incomplete maps were connected, then persuaded Fire Phoenix to wait five days before leaving to avoid the Carefree Sect and Star Gate cultivators.
• Song Qingming and Fire Phoenix concealed their appearances, left the Inner Valley, and passed through the barrier into Twilight Canyon without incident.
• Three cultivators flew toward Song Qingming and Fire Phoenix and demanded that they identify themselves.

Song Qingming and Fire Phoenix were confronted by Lingyin Sect cultivators, and Fire Phoenix stayed behind to fight while Song Qingming fled south. She killed the powerful Senior Brother Luo and disappeared, while a Lingyin Sect pursuer continued chasing Song Qingming.

• Song Qingming tried to persuade three Lingyin Sect disciples that he and Fire Phoenix had wandered into their territory by accident, but they surrounded the pair and demanded they remove their hats.
• Fire Phoenix attacked the Lingyin Sect woman, shattering her barrier and leaving her badly wounded, then fled with Song Qingming as the other two disciples pursued them.
• Fire Phoenix told Song Qingming to escape south and stayed behind to hold off Senior Brother Luo and the man surnamed Zhao; Zhao pursued Song Qingming while Luo fought Fire Phoenix.
• Fire Phoenix revealed her greater strength and summoned a phoenix-shaped attack that cut Senior Brother Luo in half, then took his Storage Bag and burned his body.
• Song Qingming flew south and discovered that the man surnamed Zhao was still chasing him.

The Lingyin Sect concluded that Fire Phoenix had taken the treasures from the Inner Valley and pursued her without informing the other factions, while Song Qingming escaped and searched for a place to hide. Just as he began carving out a hidden refuge beneath some cliffs, an unknown attacker struck from behind.

• Wu Xian and Senior Brother He decided to pursue Fire Phoenix and keep the plan secret from the Carefree Sect and Star Gate.
• Liu Zongping noticed the Lingyin Sect’s suspicious movements and secretly followed them with the Star Gate disciples, while other factions also left Twilight Canyon.
• Song Qingming learned he had shaken off the Lingyin Sect pursuer and changed clothes before traveling farther south.
• Song Qingming found a concealed forest beneath remote cliffs and prepared to carve out a cave abode.
• Song Qingming sensed an attack from behind and twisted aside to evade it.

Song Qingming fought Chen Yuan, a Foundation Establishment assassin who ambushed him with a poisoned dagger and demanded his Storage Bag. Song Qingming pierced Chen Yuan’s forehead with a Green Light Needle, leaving the battle’s outcome clear as he continued to contend with the poison in his body.

• Chen Yuan ambushed Song Qingming with a poisoned dagger, but Song Qingming detected him and dodged most of the strike.
• Song Qingming took a Detoxification Pill and tried to use the Huang Family’s name to persuade Chen Yuan to let him leave, but Chen Yuan refused and demanded his Storage Bag.
• Song Qingming attacked with Spirit Talismans and a flying sword, then used the Bewildering Soul Banner to conceal his movements in yellow mist.
• Song Qingming emerged from the mist and launched a Green Light Needle that shattered Chen Yuan’s Water Shield and pierced his forehead.

Song Qingming killed Chen Yuan with a powerful jade needle spell, escaped to a hidden cave to purge his poison and recover, then left the secret realm as it closed. Back at Taiyue Lake Marketplace, he worried that Fire Phoenix’s fate could expose his secret help and went to look for the Huang Family members.

• Song Qingming used his Bewildering Soul Banner to buy time, then pierced Chen Yuan’s Water Shield with a condensed Formless Jade Wind Needle and killed him.
• Song Qingming collected Chen Yuan’s magical artifacts and Storage Bags, burned his body, and hid in an abandoned Demonic Beast cave beneath a concealment formation.
• Song Qingming took a Detoxification Pill and circulated mana for hours to remove the poison, then used Healing Pills and a Mid-grade Spirit Stone to recover before resting for three days.
• As the secret realm closed, Song Qingming followed the surviving cultivators through the Black Vortex and returned to the small hillside where he had entered.
• Song Qingming handed over his identity Token and returned to Taiyue Lake Marketplace, where he found no Golden Core True Persons and worried that Fire Phoenix might have been captured.
• Song Qingming failed to find the Huang Family members among the first returning cultivators and headed to their inn.

After escaping the Taiyue Secret Realm, Fire Phoenix left Taiyue Lake while the Carefree Sect chose not to investigate her, instead ordering disciples to keep the incident quiet. Song Qingming reunited with Huang Shengxin and his companions, concealed what had happened, and learned that Lingyin Sect had suffered heavy losses.

• Fire Phoenix crushed a black shrimp that had been watching the lake for King Tiebi, then departed as an aged voice explained it was checking whether she had emerged safely for Lord Golden Feather.
• Li Mufeng rejected True Person Guangling’s suggestion to investigate the unknown Nascent Soul Cultivator, citing the Golden Feather Demon Emperor’s activity near Wei State, and ordered sect disciples not to spread news of the incident.
• Song Qingming reunited with Huang Shengxin and the other two, then claimed a cultivator had ambushed and injured him in the secret realm.
• Huang Shengxin and his companions identified Song Qingming’s attacker, Chen Yuan, as a Lu State rogue cultivator and Black Market assassin, and told Song Qingming that they had found no life-extending spiritual object.
• The group decided to wait several days before leaving Taiyue Lake Marketplace, while Song Qingming heard that only about half of Lingyin Sect’s secret-realm disciples had survived.

Song Qingming returned safely to Qinghe County after the Taiyue Secret Realm expedition and took stock of the treasures he had obtained. In his cave abode, he recognized the Earth Spirit Dew Fire Phoenix gave him as a rare aid to cultivation, while the rumors about Lingyin Sect's losses left her fate uncertain.

• Song Qingming heard rumors about Lingyin Sect's devastating losses and suspected the sect had pursued Fire Phoenix, though he did not know whether she had escaped.
• Song Qingming traveled back to Qinghe County with the Huang Family members and returned safely to the Song Family, easing the clan's worries.
• Song Qingming went to his cave abode and counted the spiritual items, magic tools, and Spirit Stones he had collected in the secret realm.
• Song Qingming identified the Grade 2 High-grade Bronze Bell as his finest defensive magic tool and valued Fire Phoenix's Earth Spirit Dew for its safe, solid cultivation benefits.

After returning to Funiu Mountain, Song Qingming refined the Bronze Bell he had obtained in the Taiyue Lake Secret Realm and named it the Azure Water Bell, substantially strengthening his combat and defensive abilities. He then reflected on the scarcity of cultivation resources and the difficulty of forming a Golden Core, while the fate of the Golden Core cultivator Li Xianyun remained distant and uncertain.

• Song Qingming decided to hold off on refining the Earth Spirit Dew and entered seclusion to refine the Bronze Bell.
• After nearly a month, Song Qingming mastered the bell’s defensive, restraining, and water-attribute abilities and named it the Azure Water Bell.
• Song Qingming assessed that the Grade 2 High-grade bell greatly improved his combat strength, though he could not yet unleash its full power.
• Song Qingming considered how the Carefree Sect controlled Wei State’s resources and how difficult it was for cultivators to escape dependence on great sects without forming a Golden Core.
• Song Qingming recalled that Li Xianyun, a Rogue Cultivator who formed a Golden Core, had refused the Carefree Sect’s invitation and left Wei State decades earlier.

After completing his defensive magic tool, Song Qingming failed to uncover the secret of two ancient maps and traveled to Pingyang County to buy another magic tool. He found nothing suitable in Jinshan Market and was stopped by a smiling woman in a gray Daoist robe as he prepared to leave.

• Song Qingming studied two incomplete maps but could not make them connect or reveal anything beyond their initial reaction to each other.
• Song Qingming ended his seclusion, gave spiritual items to Song Qingwan to sell or make into pills, and set out for Pingyang County to find a magic tool.
• Song Qingming visited the Cao Family's Water Moon Hall, but the shopkeeper told him its only Grade 2 Mid-grade Magic Tool had already been sold.
• Song Qingming searched several shops in Jinshan Market without finding a suitable magic tool and decided to return to Funiu Mountain.
• A smiling woman in a gray Daoist robe approached Song Qingming and blocked his path as he was leaving Jinshan Market.

Song Qingming bought the Fire Pattern Sword from Cao Rongxue and returned to Funiu Mountain, where Song Changfeng told him that the Wang Family had discovered a valuable Geng Gold ore vein. Song Qingming urged the family to notify the Carefree Sect before the discovery caused trouble.

• Song Qingming accepted Cao Rongxue’s invitation to Water Moon Hall and bought her Grade 2 Mid-grade Fire Pattern Sword for 1,800 Spirit Stones.
• Cao Rongxue told Song Qingming about the Cao Family’s strength and her future role as its leader after Cao Wanjiang’s death.
• Song Qingming returned to Funiu Mountain, where Song Changfeng summoned him to the Council Hall to discuss an urgent matter.
• Song Changfeng revealed that the Fengtou Mountain Wang Family had discovered a Geng Gold ore vein in its territory.
• Song Qingming warned Song Changfeng that the Song Family needed to report the discovery to the Carefree Sect promptly.