Chapter Summaries

Luo Zheng overcame the cave’s fireball trap and opened the Blue Treasure Chest, whose Nine-Headed Dragon blood essence transformed his heart and strengthened his qi and blood. As onlookers debated whether he could reach the Silver Treasure Chest, Shi Jingtian confronted Dragon Granny over her insults.

• Luo Zheng withstood the tongue of flame and used his Heavenly Devil Phantom Images and Collapsing Sword to destroy the fireball.
• Luo Zheng opened the Blue Treasure Chest, and a blood-colored Nine-Headed Serpent entered his heart.
• Luo Zheng’s heart stopped for about thirty breaths, then resumed beating with tremendous force as the Cloud Hall disciples watched.
• Bai Li Hongfeng regretted not competing for the chest, while Fei Han identified its contents as the blood essence of an adult Nine-Headed Dragon.
• Shi Jingtian defended Luo Zheng and challenged Dragon Granny after she dismissed his chances of opening the Silver Treasure Chest.

Shi Jingtian confronted Dragon Granny over her insults toward Luo Zheng as Luo Zheng absorbed the Nine-Headed Dragon Blood Essence and challenged the third-level Silver Treasure Chest. The Silver Treasure Chest’s Slaughter Puppet attacked him, and Luo Zheng struck at its slender waist.

• Dragon Granny disparaged Luo Zheng and the Cloud Hall, prompting Shi Jingtian to defend him and argue that the Cloud Hall would protect him if he became an Elite Disciple.
• Fei Han pointed out that Luo Zheng was going for the third treasure chest, and Shi Jingtian and Dragon Granny turned their attention to the Trust Jade.
• Luo Zheng absorbed the Nine-Headed Dragon Blood Essence, felt its powerful Blood Qi surge through him, and continued climbing to the Silver Treasure Chest’s platform.
• A Slaughter Puppet emerged from the cave and charged Luo Zheng with its blade-covered limbs spinning like a windmill.
• Luo Zheng lowered into a Crouching Tiger Stance, sprang at the puppet, and swung his Flowing Light Longsword toward its slender waist.

Luo Zheng fought a powerful metal puppet guarding the treasure chests, but it trapped him and began drilling toward his chest. As the onlookers expected him to die, Luo Zheng spotted a possible way to escape.

• Luo Zheng’s Flowing Light Longsword could not damage the puppet, which attacked him and began cutting through the stone platform.
• Luo Zheng jammed the puppet’s spinning blades with his sword, but the puppet changed shape and locked his ankles and wrists with its claws.
• The puppet extended a spinning drill toward Luo Zheng’s chest while the Cloud Palace disciples watched in horror and Shi Jingtian could not intervene.
• Fei Han identified the puppet’s material as Crimson Lightning Purple Profound Iron and said it was practically impossible for Luo Zheng to break.
• Luo Zheng powered up with his Dragon Scales and tried to break free, then noticed blades embedded in the platform and suddenly fell backward.

Luo Zheng escaped a deadly puppet by using a spatial flaw to blink out of its grasp, then passed the trial by reaching the treasure chest. The puppet returned to its cave without answering his questions, while Shi Jingtian and Elder Fei Han celebrated Luo Zheng’s survival.

• Luo Zheng exploited the puppet’s unstable footing, but it anchored itself with a hook and resumed driving its cone toward his heart.
• Luo Zheng spotted a black spatial flaw and used his slight understanding of the Space Law to blink out of the puppet’s restraints.
• Luo Zheng touched the treasure chest, causing the puppet to lose its metallic sheen and return to its cave.
• Luo Zheng asked whether a soul was trapped inside the puppet and offered to help, but it did not respond.
• Shi Jingtian and Elder Fei Han praised Luo Zheng for escaping by using the spatial flaw.

After opening the Silver Treasure Chest, Luo Zheng received a Saint-Ranked technique that could harness Baleful Intent and discovered that the Nine-Headed Serpent Blood Soul was rapidly healing his wounds. He turned toward the Golden and Black Treasure Chests, unsure whether to risk trying to obtain them.

• Fei Han said Luo Zheng’s opening of the Silver Treasure Chest needed to be reported, and Shi Jingtian was pleased that Luo Zheng might attract the Hall Master’s attention.
• Luo Zheng opened the Silver Treasure Chest and found an emerald jade slip that entered his mind and revealed the Ten Thousand Evil Life-Death Wheel, a Saint-Ranked Technique created by the Blood Demon Great Emperor.
• Luo Zheng learned that the Soul Jade Slip prevented him from writing down or passing on the technique until he had mastered it.
• Luo Zheng’s wounds began healing quickly because the Nine-Headed Serpent Blood Soul had strengthened his recovery.
• Luo Zheng considered whether to attempt taking the Golden and Black Treasure Chests after nearly dying to claim the Silver one.

Luo Zheng narrowly escaped the Shadow Wolf King guarding the fourth layer’s Golden Treasure Chests and left without challenging it. He teamed up with Bai Li Hongfeng and continued through the Path of the Trial Taker as the Heavenly Burning Fire Sea began to recede.

• Luo Zheng climbed to the fourth layer’s platform, saw a ferocious beast emerge, and escaped its swipe by leaping away.
• Zhao Xiaohua recognized the beast as the Shadow Wolf King and refrained from attacking Luo Zheng, fearing the consequences of killing someone who had obtained a Silver Treasure Chest.
• After Luo Zheng left, Zhao Xiaohua struck a disciple who urged her to attack, while Fei Han felt relieved that Luo Zheng had escaped unharmed.
• Luo Zheng changed clothes in the forest and agreed to travel with the Cloaked Kid, who revealed his name as Bai Li Hongfeng.
• Luo Zheng and Bai Li Hongfeng reached the Heavenly Burning Fire Sea and hurried to follow it as it receded.

Luo Zheng and the other martial artists crossed the Heaven Burning Fire Sea, where they encountered a Fire Swallowing Giant Whale and reached a High Platform blocked by destroyed stone piers. Hua Tianming explained that a dangerous fork lay ahead, and Pei Tianyao and several others had chosen the long-feared Path of Death.

• Luo Zheng tried to leave Bai Li Hongfeng behind as they crossed the stone piers, while Bai Li Hongfeng questioned him about the Hidden Trial Gate and its rewards.
• A lava pillar erupted, and Luo Zheng and Bai Li Hongfeng protected themselves from the falling lava before a Fire Swallowing Giant Whale surfaced nearby and then sank back into the sea.
• The martial artists crossed to the next High Platform before the rising tide arrived and found it crowded with people who could not pass because more than a hundred stone piers ahead had been destroyed.
• Luo Zheng found Hua Tianming, who told him the group was stuck and that Pei Tianyao had taken another route with Zhuo Bufan, Jin Qiaoning, and two others.
• Hua Tianming and a Cloud Hall disciple explained that the fork offered a Path of Life and a Path of Death, and that no one who had chosen the Path of Death had ever survived.

Luo Zheng, Hua Tianming, and Bai Li Hongfeng chose the Path of Death and raced across its pillars as the Heavenly Burning Fire Sea rose. They reached a dead end with the magma closing in, leaving their escape uncertain.

• Luo Zheng decided to take the Path of Death, and Bai Li Hongfeng and Hua Tianming joined him.
• The three leaped from the High Platform during the receding tide and chose the Path of Death at the fork.
• Bai Li Hongfeng showed off his movement technique as the group continued along the pillars.
• The Heavenly Burning Fire Sea began rising before they had reached the end of the route.
• Hua Tianming silenced Bai Li Hongfeng's panicked wailing by threatening him with his sword.
• The three saw that the stone pillars ended at a dead end as the magma tide rapidly approached.

Luo Zheng, Hua Tianming, and Bai Li Hongfeng escaped the magma-filled dead end and faced Blade Wing Bats in a dark forest. After crossing another vortex, they found Pei Tianyao fighting with his Azure Lotus Karma Fire, and Luo Zheng rushed to help him.

• Luo Zheng and Hua Tianming activated separate vortices by stepping on the runes, while Bai Li Hongfeng had to leap back onto a missed platform before he could enter his vortex.
• Bai Li Hongfeng burned his foot on the magma while entering the vortex, and Hua Tianming gave him Solidifying Ice Pills.
• The three men entered a gloomy forest, where Blade Wing Bats attacked Hua Tianming and Luo Zheng protected them with Bodyguard Sword Intent.
• Bai Li Hongfeng used his night vision to spot the bats and concealed himself beneath his cloak as the three continued through the forest.
• The three men crossed another vortex and heard Pei Tianyao's Azure Lotus Karma Fire; Luo Zheng led them toward the fight to help him.

Luo Zheng, Hua Tianming, and Bai Li Hongfeng reached the Azure Lotus Karma Fire and found Pei Tianyao fighting a powerful Flying Yaksha while Zhuo Bufan attacked it with Perfect Spear Intent. As the Flying Yaksha transformed and grew stronger, Zhuo Bufan rejected Luo Zheng and his companions’ offer to help, while the mysterious Cloud Palace disciple’s knowledge of the Path of Death continued to trouble him.

• Luo Zheng, Hua Tianming, and Bai Li Hongfeng found Pei Tianyao knocked out of the karma fire by a Flying Yaksha that could withstand the flames.
• Zhuo Bufan wounded the Flying Yaksha with his spear, and Bai Li Hongfeng identified Jin Qiaoning as Zhuo Bufan’s fiancée.
• The Flying Yaksha retreated and transformed, covering itself in golden scales as a Cloud Palace disciple warned that its strength would increase.
• Zhuo Bufan wondered who the unfamiliar Cloud Palace disciple was, since the disciple had repeatedly predicted dangers and routes on the Path of Death.
• Luo Zheng and Hua Tianming drew their swords and offered to fight, but Zhuo Bufan dismissed them and chose to face the transformed Flying Yaksha alone.

Zhuo Bufan killed a golden Flying Yaksha with his spear, then led the group onward while Luo Zheng and Hua Tianming held back their objections to his arrogance. A Cloud Hall disciple mysteriously pinched the air, causing the image on the Trust Jade at the trial-taker entrance to vanish.

• Luo Zheng and Hua Tianming found Pei Tianyao after the Flying Yaksha had knocked him into a pit, and Pei Tianyao welcomed their help.
• Zhuo Bufan fought the golden Flying Yaksha and used his Perfect Spear Intent to pierce its arms and chest, killing it.
• Jin Qiaoning congratulated Zhuo Bufan, while another Cloud Hall disciple dismissed the victory as an unremarkable test.
• Pei Tianyao introduced Luo Zheng, Hua Tianming, and Bai Li Hongfeng, but Zhuo Bufan told them to follow him and promised to protect them.
• Zhuo Bufan collected the Flying Yaksha's Demon Core and led the group onward, with Luo Zheng persuading Hua Tianming to stay with them.
• A Cloud Hall disciple pinched the air, and the image on the Trust Jade before the trial-taker entrance vanished.

Luo Zheng and the others continued through the Path of Death, while the elders outside lost the Trust Jade’s image after a mysterious Cloud Palace disciple erased it. The group entered a new Small World filled with Yin Wind, where Zhou Cheng secretly reached for a black Exotic Grass and triggered a sudden change.

• The mysterious Cloud Palace disciple erased the Trust Jade’s image, leaving Fei Han and the Sect Masters puzzled and unable to track Luo Zheng’s group.
• Dragon Granny pressured Fei Han to protect Zhuo Bufan and Jin Qiaoning, but Fei Han argued that the elders could not interfere with the trial.
• Pei Tianyao explained that the Path of Death led through a maze of Small Worlds and that Zhuo Bufan had killed the last of three Flying Yakshas.
• The group entered another Teleportation Array and emerged in a Small World swept by waves of Yin Wind.
• Zhou Cheng spotted a black Exotic Grass and crept over to take it, but a sudden change erupted as he reached for it.

The group was surrounded by the Black Demon Nightmare after it devoured Zhou Cheng, and Zhuo Bufan’s physical attacks failed to stop it. Luo Zheng urged them not to give up and pointed out that Hua Tianming’s lightning could destroy the creatures, leaving Zhuo Bufan stunned by Hua Tianming’s power and Pei Tianyao’s claim that Luo Zheng was even stronger.

• Luo Zheng spotted the Black Demon Nightmare seize Zhou Cheng, who was devoured and reduced to bones.
• The Black Demon Nightmare pursued the group, seized Jin Qiaoning, and surrounded them with towering masses.
• Zhuo Bufan’s spear pierced the Black Demon Nightmare but failed to damage it permanently, and he despaired as the group prepared to die.
• Luo Zheng encouraged the group and told Hua Tianming to use his Extreme Lightning Sword Intent against the creatures.
• Hua Tianming summoned heavenly thunder and destroyed two Black Demon Nightmares with his sword.
• Zhuo Bufan praised Hua Tianming, and Pei Tianyao told him that Luo Zheng was even stronger and was the Azure Cloud Sect’s First Place.

As the Black Demon Nightmares overwhelmed the group and exhausted Hua Tianming, Luo Zheng discovered that his Heavenly Devil True Essence could devour them. He destroyed hundreds of the creatures and left behind an enormous cloud of their transformed energy, declaring that wasting it would be a shame.

• Zhuo Bufan reflected on underestimating Hua Tianming and Luo Zheng, while Hua Tianming struggled to keep the Black Demon Nightmares at bay.
• Luo Zheng sent six Heavenly Devil Phantom Images into six Nightmare clusters and used his Heavenly Devil True Essence to devour them from within.
• Luo Zheng gathered the transformed energy and fired purple-black arrows into hundreds of Black Demon Nightmares.
• Luo Zheng made the Nightmares explode, creating a vast cloud of Heavenly Devil True Essence that stunned the group.
• Luo Zheng said the enormous quantity of true essence would be a shame to waste.

Luo Zheng detonated the starlight inside his Heavenly Devil True Essence, killing the Black Demon Nightmares and revealing their valuable Demon Nightmare Essence. When Zhuo Bufan proposed an allocation that excluded Bai Li Hongfeng and shortchanged Luo Zheng and Hua Tianming, the group challenged his authority.

• Luo Zheng exploded the starlight within his Heavenly Devil True Essence, and the blast left fist-sized pieces of Demon Nightmare Essence scattered across the ground.
• Bai Li Hongfeng nearly swallowed a piece before the Cloud Hall disciple warned that the essence was poisonous and explained that it could be refined into Soul Essence.
• Zhuo Bufan proposed giving Luo Zheng thirty percent, Hua Tianming twenty percent, and splitting the rest among himself, Jin Qiaoning, and Pei Tianyao, leaving Bai Li Hongfeng out.
• Bai Li Hongfeng revealed his Dual-Soul Constitution and threatened to challenge Zhuo Bufan over the allocation.
• Hua Tianming objected to Zhuo Bufan's proposal, while Luo Zheng demanded fifty percent and Hua Tianming requested twenty percent.

Luo Zheng and the others divided the Black Nightmare Essence after Zhuo Bufan backed down, then entered a red vortex that led to an abyss filled with Floating Stones. As they tried to climb toward the exit and flee an enormous chained flood dragon, the mysterious Cloud Hall disciple attacked Luo Zheng and dragged him into the abyss.

• Luo Zheng insisted that he and Hua Tianming take seventy percent of the Black Nightmare Essence, and Zhuo Bufan accepted after Luo Zheng, Hua Tianming, and Bai Li Hongfeng stood together.
• The group collected and distributed the Black Nightmare Essence, then followed a red vortex into a deep abyss where they landed on Floating Stones.
• The Cloud Hall disciple pointed out the exit above, but a gigantic flood dragon wrapped in chains began rising from below, sending everyone leaping upward in panic.
• The Cloud Hall disciple accelerated toward Luo Zheng, who turned and attacked with his sword.
• The Cloud Hall disciple caught Luo Zheng's sword barehanded, seized him by the collar, and pulled him off the Floating Stone into the flood dragon's path.

Luo Zheng was dragged into a Flood Dragon puppet by a disguised Cloud Hall woman who called herself Butterfly. As they explored its interior, the Azure Dragon revealed that it sensed a sealed Flood Dragon Soul Essence and warned Luo Zheng to be wary.

• Hua Tianming and the others saw the Cloud Hall disciple drag Luo Zheng toward the Flood Dragon, and Zhuo Bufan assumed Luo Zheng had died.
• The Flood Dragon swallowed Luo Zheng and the woman, who revealed she was female and explained that she had chosen him.
• The woman gave her name as Butterfly and led Luo Zheng through the dry, palace-like interior of the Flood Dragon.
• The Azure Dragon told Luo Zheng that the Flood Dragon was a remodeled corpse and that a sealed Flood Dragon Soul Essence remained inside.
• The Azure Dragon warned Luo Zheng that the Soul Essence’s seal had weakened and cautioned him about the Flood Dragon’s nature, prompting Luo Zheng to ask whether it had noticed anything unusual about Butterfly.

Luo Zheng learned that Little Butterfly had once possessed far greater cultivation and had brought him to the Flood Dragon’s World Within to help seize the Inheritance Key. She began confronting the cauldron’s fire guardian while directing him to take the key.

• Azure Dragon explained that Little Butterfly had likely cultivated a technique requiring her to repeatedly disperse her cultivation, leaving her current realm far below her former strength.
• Little Butterfly lit the Flood Dragon’s World Within, and six metallic puppet snakes attacked; she tore them apart while Luo Zheng collected their remains.
• Little Butterfly found the Inheritance Key, which could grant its holder all the inheritances stored in the Path of the Trial Taker by Blood Demon Great Emperor’s former sect.
• Little Butterfly revealed that she had brought Luo Zheng because she believed his Heavenly Devil God Fist could break the barrier protecting the key more reliably than Zhuo Bufan’s spear.
• Little Butterfly attacked the cauldron, drawing out the Soul Detaching Fire Dragon Essence, then used a sky-blue jade to summon an ice phoenix against it.

Little Butterfly and Luo Zheng fought to reach the crystal holding a Sixth Grade Sect’s inheritance, but Luo Zheng demanded protection before breaking its barrier. The chapter ended with Little Butterfly agreeing to swear upon her Martial Heart.

• Little Butterfly used her ice phoenix to hold off the Soul Detaching Fire Dragon Essence while Luo Zheng struck the barrier and learned it was made from compressed space.
• Little Butterfly supplied True Essence and Top Grade True Essence Stones so Luo Zheng could compress enough energy for the Heavenly Devil God Fist to break the barrier.
• As Luo Zheng prepared to strike, he stopped and asked Little Butterfly to swear upon her Martial Heart that she would not kill him afterward.
• Little Butterfly refused at first, but when Luo Zheng threatened to leave, she agreed.

Luo Zheng and Little Butterfly broke the barrier and pursued the Flood Dragon Soul Essence after it stole the Crystal Key. Little Butterfly fused with the Ice Phoenix to catch up, but the Flood Dragon Soul Essence released strange smoke and turned toward Luo Zheng, declaring that it would take over his body.

• Little Butterfly reluctantly agreed to give Luo Zheng half the Sixth Grade Sect's inheritances and swore on her Martial Heart not to kill him.
• Luo Zheng used Blood Jade energy and the Heavenly Devil God Fist to shatter the barrier.
• The Flood Dragon Soul Essence snatched the Crystal Key and fled, prompting Luo Zheng and Little Butterfly to chase it as the Soul Detaching Fire Dragon Essence followed.
• Little Butterfly crushed her precious jade, fused with the Ice Phoenix, and pursued the Flood Dragon Soul Essence through the Flood Dragon's fleshy interior.
• The Flood Dragon Soul Essence cut loose strange, sweet-smelling smoke and declared that it would take over Luo Zheng's body.