Chapter Summaries

Qin Fengming concealed his interest in a black fragment while he and Elder Zhang and Elder Ouyang divided the treasures they had found. After the other items were claimed, Elder Ouyang asked Qin Fengming to grant him a request concerning the remaining fragment.

• Elder Zhang identified the jade slips and manuals, while Qin Fengming recognized the black fragment as matching two pieces he already owned and secretly guarded his reaction.
• Qin Fengming chose the jade slip about formations, and Elder Zhang took the jade hairpin after the two agreed to divide the remaining items.
• Elder Ouyang chose the pipa, Elder Zhang took one pill, and Qin Fengming selected the Jade Box containing the cultivation manuals.
• Elder Zhang took the remaining treasure, and Qin Fengming chose the other pill, leaving the black fragment for Elder Ouyang to claim.
• Elder Ouyang left the fragment untouched and asked Qin Fengming to consider a request.

Elder Ouyang traded a fragment and seventy thousand spirit stones, with thirty thousand more promised, for Qin Fengming’s spirit pill. After dividing the remaining treasures and finding the other chambers empty, the three cultivators prepared to leave together.

• Elder Ouyang offered Qin Fengming a fragment and one hundred thousand spirit stones for his spirit pill, and Qin accepted the deal.
• Elder Ouyang gave Qin Fengming seventy thousand spirit stones and promised to deliver the remaining thirty thousand later, then took the pill.
• Qin Fengming obtained several manuals during the division of the Artifact Refining materials, while Elder Zhang and Elder Ouyang took the materials they valued more.
• Qin Fengming, Elder Zhang, and Elder Ouyang searched two more chambers and found them empty of treasures.
• Elder Zhang said he wanted to return to the Blood Fox Alliance, and Elder Ouyang proposed that the three cultivators travel back together.

After leaving the Cave Abode, Qin Fengming and Elder Ouyang discovered that Elder Zhang intended to kill them and take Qin Fengming’s talismans. Elder Zhang trapped them with the Three Absolutes Formation, but Qin Fengming remained confident and offered him one chance to surrender.

• Qin Fengming agreed with Elder Ouyang that the three cultivators should return together on Elder Zhang’s White Swift Boat.
• Outside the Cave Abode, Elder Ouyang mourned Wen and Xu, while Elder Zhang moved away from the others and asked Qin Fengming how many powerful talismans he had left.
• Qin Fengming revealed that his master had given him only one talisman, and Elder Zhang admitted that he wanted Qin Fengming to hand over his talismans.
• Elder Ouyang stood with Qin Fengming, but Elder Zhang threatened them and offered to spare Elder Ouyang if he became his master.
• Elder Zhang revealed that he had set the Three Absolutes Formation, which he claimed had killed the Core Formation cultivator Old Ancestor Poison Dragon.
• Qin Fengming told Elder Zhang to apologize and surrender his Cave Abode gains, but Elder Zhang dismissed the threat and relied on the formation.

Elder Zhang trapped Qin Fengming and Elder Ouyang in the Three Absolutes Formation, but Qin Fengming stayed calm and studied its power while protecting them with Five Elements barriers. When Elder Zhang intensified the assault, lightning shattered the barriers, leaving the two cultivators exposed inside the formation.

• Elder Zhang activated the Three Absolutes Formation and vanished, trapping Qin Fengming and Elder Ouyang within its multicolored barrier.
• Qin Fengming reassured Elder Ouyang, raised three Five Elements barriers, and chose to observe the formation rather than attack.
• Elder Zhang filled the formation with black mist, lightning, thunder, and raging winds, but Qin Fengming stood firm and threatened him in return.
• Elder Zhang increased the formation's power, sending pressure and relentless wind blades against Qin Fengming's barriers.
• Elder Zhang unleashed lightning from the black mist, and it shattered the Five Elements barriers.

Qin Fengming used the Yin-Yang Two Forms Plate to block the Three Absolutes Formation’s attacks while he searched for a way to break it. After confirming that the formation could destroy even his powerful fire pythons, he considered sending hundreds of them against it at once.

• Elder Zhang shattered Qin Fengming’s Five Elements barrier with the Three Absolutes Formation, alarming Cultivator Ouyang.
• Qin Fengming summoned the Yin-Yang Two Forms Plate, whose vortex blocked and absorbed the formation’s three attacks.
• Elder Zhang tried to exhaust Qin Fengming’s spiritual power, while Qin Fengming remained confident he could sustain the plate.
• Qin Fengming sent two fire pythons into the formation, but its wind blades and lightning destroyed them.
• Qin Fengming concluded that he needed to probe the formation and considered attacking it with several hundred fire pythons at once.

Qin Fengming tested Elder Zhang’s Three Absolutes Formation with a swarm of fire pythons, but the formation’s lightning-filled black mist destroyed them. As Qin Fengming searched for a way to break through, he recalled an ancient strange insect that had absorbed lightning and wondered if it could help.

• Qin Fengming told Elder Ouyang to protect himself while he faced the formation, then summoned more than a hundred fire pythons.
• Elder Zhang strengthened the Three Absolutes Formation, which used spatial pressure and wind blades to clash with the fire pythons.
• Qin Fengming sent the surviving fire pythons into the black mist, where electric arcs destroyed them.
• Elder Zhang taunted Qin Fengming and demanded that he surrender, while Qin Fengming insisted his spiritual power would not run out.
• Qin Fengming analyzed the formation’s attacks and recalled that an ancient strange insect had absorbed lightning in the Ancient Battlefield.

Qin Fengming tested the lightning-filled black mist with a Silver Sheath Worm and discovered that the insects could withstand and absorb its lightning. He unleashed tens of thousands of them into the formation, and as they swarmed through the mist, it began to thin.

• Qin Fengming sent a Silver Sheath Worm into the black mist, where it evaded a wind blade and absorbed lightning without injury.
• Qin Fengming released tens of thousands of white beetles and directed them into the mist.
• Elder Zhang attacked the swarm with the formation’s wind blades, but the fallen beetles recovered and flew onward.
• Qin Fengming sensed that the beetles were unharmed and thriving amid the lightning as the black mist began to grow thinner.

Qin Fengming used his Silver Sheath Worms to absorb the Three Absolutes Formation’s energy and break the formation. When Elder Zhang tried to flee, Qin Fengming trapped and incapacitated him, then took his possessions.

• Qin Fengming realized the Silver Sheath Worms were absorbing the lightning energy and watched the Three Absolutes Formation collapse.
• Elder Zhang discovered that the formation plate’s Spirit Stones had been drained, while Qin Fengming confirmed the electric arcs benefited his spirit insects.
• Elder Zhang gathered his formation flags and tried to escape on a white boat, but Qin Fengming summoned a black spider that trapped him in its web.
• Qin Fengming struck Elder Zhang with a red line, rendered him unconscious, and seized his storage rings and Spirit Beast Pouches.

Qin Fengming captured Elder Zhang, defeated his attempt to resist, and used the Soul Searching Technique to invade his consciousness. He successfully broke through Elder Zhang’s divine sense and began absorbing the secrets in his mind.

• Qin Fengming captured Elder Zhang with the red-thread spirit artifact before he could self-detonate.
• Qin Fengming revealed that he had already found and neutralized a formation flag, convincing Elder Zhang that his trap had failed.
• Qin Fengming threatened to extract and refine Elder Zhang’s soul, then asked Cultivator Ouyang to guard him while he searched Elder Zhang’s mind.
• Qin Fengming summoned his two fourth-grade spirit beasts to secure the area and began casting the Soul Searching Technique on Elder Zhang.
• Qin Fengming overcame Elder Zhang’s resistance and absorbed fragments of the secrets stored in his consciousness.

Qin Fengming forced Elder Ouyang to help kill Elder Zhang, then arranged for Ouyang to leave Demon Beast Valley while he stayed behind to search for spirit herbs. Before they parted, Qin asked Ouyang to protect the Golden Talisman Gate.

• Qin Fengming told Elder Ouyang that Elder Zhang had not revealed the treasure hunt to the Blood Fox Alliance, persuading Ouyang to kill him.
• Elder Ouyang severed Elder Zhang's head, and Qin Fengming's Soul Devouring Beast consumed the elder's soul.
• Qin Fengming gave Elder Ouyang five Earth Evasion Talismans so he could leave Demon Beast Valley safely, while Qin chose to remain and seek rare spirit herbs.
• Qin Fengming asked Elder Ouyang to look after the Golden Talisman Gate, where Qin was a Guest Elder and had taken the Gate Master's daughter as his disciple.

Qin Fengming secured Elder Ouyang’s promise to protect the Golden Talisman Gate and gave him a pill to help him reach Core Formation. After parting ways, Qin Fengming returned to the cave to investigate a crystal-clear tooth from a female cultivator’s skeleton, but the red little beast soon alerted him to something happening outside.

• Elder Ouyang promised to protect the Golden Talisman Gate and keep Du Wanqing safe, then swore a blood oath.
• Qin Fengming gave Elder Ouyang a pill that could help him break through to Core Formation, and the two cultivators parted ways.
• Elder Ouyang burned Elder Zhang’s corpse and flew away in the opposite direction from Qin Fengming.
• Qin Fengming returned to the cave, found a crystal-clear tooth in the female cultivator’s skeleton, and suspected it might contain a remnant soul or sealed information.
• The red little beast rushed back to Qin Fengming, who used his divine sense to learn what had happened outside the cave.

Qin Fengming hid inside the cave when Wei Yuehua, a mid Core Formation cultivator, arrived searching for Elder Zhang and the treasure. After she left, Qin Fengming emerged but decided to remain concealed because she was likely still nearby.

• Qin Fengming sensed a Core Formation cultivator approaching and hid inside the stone wall using his concealment art and an Earth Evasion Talisman.
• Wei Yuehua arrived at the cave and revealed that she had secretly marked Elder Zhang and followed him and his companions into Demon Beast Valley.
• Wei Yuehua searched the caves, found no treasure, and concluded that Elder Zhang had already taken it.
• Wei Yuehua left to pursue Elder Zhang, and Qin Fengming emerged from hiding after she departed.
• Qin Fengming decided to stay in the cave because he could not safely evade Wei Yuehua's divine sense.

Qin Fengming spent half a month breaking the seal on a crystalline tooth bone and released the remnant soul of Shang Lingxi, Phantom Venerable’s partner. Shang Lingxi asked about the Hidden Cloud Sect, and Qin Fengming recognized her as the woman who had eloped with Phantom Venerable.

• Qin Fengming set up the Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams Formation, released the red little beast to keep watch, and began refining the tooth bone with his innate true fire.
• After half a month of refining, Qin Fengming shattered the tooth bone’s seal and watched a transparent remnant soul emerge.
• Shang Lingxi took human form and asked Qin Fengming whether he belonged to the Hidden Cloud Sect, while her voice nearly bewitched him.
• Qin Fengming told Shang Lingxi that he had released her soul and asked her to identify herself; she named herself as the Cave Abode’s master.
• Shang Lingxi confirmed that she was Yue Langxing’s partner and asked whether Peng Shouming was still the Hidden Cloud Sect’s Grand Elder.

The chapter recounted how Shang Lingxi and Phantom Venerable met, fell in love, and fled together after the Hidden Cloud Sect persecuted them. They escaped repeated pursuit and vanished, leaving their whereabouts unknown.

• Phantom Venerable rescued Shang Lingxi from two demonic cultivators, and the two later reunited at the Hidden Cloud Sect's ancestral worship ceremony.
• After the Grand Elder punished Phantom Venerable and he killed two elders who ambushed him, the Grand Elder learned of the deaths and issued a continent-wide order to capture him.
• The Grand Elder imprisoned Shang Lingxi, but Phantom Venerable infiltrated the sect and rescued her, and she chose to flee with him.
• The Grand Elder offered access to the Jade Spirit Pond for capturing the pair, drawing cultivators from across the Yuanfeng Continent into the hunt.
• Phantom Venerable survived multiple battles and escaped the pursuers using his Formation Attainment, after which he and Shang Lingxi disappeared.

Qin Fengming negotiated with Shang Lingxi, offering to help her find a female cultivator whose body she could seize in exchange for guidance and a reward. Their discussion was interrupted when Qin Fengming’s spirit beast warned him that a mid Core Formation female cultivator was approaching the Cave Abode.

• Qin Fengming told Shang Lingxi that tens of thousands of years had passed and explained how he reached the Cave Abode and survived the Azure Winged Mantis.
• Shang Lingxi asked Qin Fengming to return the Cave Abode’s remaining treasures, but she could not collect them in her soul form.
• Qin Fengming offered to help Shang Lingxi find a female cultivator and regain a physical body in exchange for her guidance.
• Shang Lingxi accepted Qin Fengming’s offer and promised to reward him if she successfully seized a body.
• Qin Fengming’s small red beast returned with a warning that a mid Core Formation female cultivator was heading toward the Cave Abode.

Qin Fengming prepared to use his hidden formation to deal with Wei Yuehua, while Senior Shang concealed herself in the stone wall. When Wei Yuehua returned and questioned him about Elder Zhang and the others, Qin Fengming feigned fear and lied about the treasures, but she moved to capture him and search his soul.

• Qin Fengming reassured Senior Shang that his formation could handle the arriving Core Formation cultivator and asked her to hide.
• Senior Shang vanished into the stone wall, and Qin Fengming sat down to wait for the newcomer.
• Wei Yuehua returned to the cavern, recognized Qin Fengming as one of Elder Zhang's companions, and pressured him to reveal where the others had gone.
• Qin Fengming claimed that Elder Zhang and the others had left twenty days earlier after dividing the chamber's treasures.
• Wei Yuehua demanded Qin Fengming's belongings, rejected his account of receiving only books and spirit stones, and flew toward him to capture him and search his soul.

Qin Fengming lured Wei Yuehua into his Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams Formation and faced her attempts to break it. Wei Yuehua summoned her Devil Dao magic treasure and unleashed pink skeletons, while Qin Fengming began to increase the formation’s power.

• Wei Yuehua pursued Qin Fengming into his formation after he feigned terror, then realized she had been tricked when the surroundings transformed.
• Qin Fengming appeared outside the formation and told Wei Yuehua that she could not break it, while she prepared her defenses and summoned the Desire Heart Crimson Cloud Banner.
• Wei Yuehua sent a massive blade of pink mist at the formation, but its wind blades, boulders, and other attacks shattered it.
• Wei Yuehua released several dozen pink skeletons with giant sword blades, and Qin Fengming summoned powerful lightning within the formation.

Qin Fengming used the Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams Formation to withstand Wei Yuehua’s pink skeletons and ancient wooden-comb treasure, then overwhelmed her with repeated attacks. After two hours of failing to break free, Wei Yuehua asked him to stop and explain what he wanted to discuss.

• Wei Yuehua sent pink skeletons against the formation, but Qin Fengming’s lightning destroyed them and refined away part of her mist.
• Wei Yuehua summoned an ancient wooden-comb treasure that became a huge tree stump, which resisted the lightning and struck the formation without damaging it.
• Qin Fengming launched a full assault with the formation, forcing Wei Yuehua to defend herself as her spiritual power dwindled.
• Wei Yuehua repeatedly tried and failed to destroy the formation over the next two hours, and her confidence gave way to dread.
• Wei Yuehua asked Qin Fengming to halt his attacks and explain what he had wanted to discuss.

Qin Fengming negotiated with Wei Yuehua over the Nourishing Yin Wood while holding her inside his formation. After Shang Lingxi secretly told him to let Wei Yuehua go, Qin Fengming agreed to stop pursuing the wood in exchange for an oath that Wei Yuehua would not attack him again.

• Qin Fengming stopped the formation's lightning attacks and offered to let Wei Yuehua leave if she negotiated with him.
• Qin Fengming asked Wei Yuehua about the Nourishing Yin Wood, which he knew could strengthen a cultivator's soul and was connected to the Blood Fox Alliance.
• Wei Yuehua admitted that the Nourishing Yin Wood had drawn her to the Blood Fox Alliance but said a blood oath prevented her from revealing details.
• Shang Lingxi secretly instructed Qin Fengming to soothe Wei Yuehua, agree to let her leave, and wait for her signal.
• Qin Fengming agreed to stop pursuing the Nourishing Yin Wood if Wei Yuehua swore never to attack him again, and Wei Yuehua accepted.

Qin Fengming released Wei Yuehua after she swore an oath, but she attacked him as soon as she was free. Immortal Fairy Shang seized Wei Yuehua’s body, and Qin Fengming agreed to protect Shang Lingxi while she adjusted to it.

• Wei Yuehua swore an oath before her inner demon, and Qin Fengming withdrew his formation to let her leave.
• Wei Yuehua threatened to capture Qin Fengming and sent a blood-red blade at him.
• Immortal Fairy Shang’s soul invaded Wei Yuehua, leaving her unable to move as the two souls fought for control.
• Qin Fengming dodged the blade, captured it, and watched over Wei Yuehua while keeping a talisman ready.
• Shang Lingxi opened her eyes and told Qin Fengming that she had devoured Wei Yuehua’s soul.
• Shang Lingxi asked Qin Fengming to protect her while she adapted to Wei Yuehua’s body.