Chapter Summaries

On the fifth day, Luo Hong posed as Zhuo Bufan and prepared to charge Trial participants for passage through the Rain Curtain he had set up near the Forbidden Land exit. As the first group approached, he demanded two old Spiritual Medicines from each person, leaving the Middle-aged Daoist stunned by his audacity.

• The Core Formation Elders reopened the Forbidden Land passage, while Luo Hong rose and continued impersonating Zhuo Bufan.
• A poisoned Middle-aged Daoist from the Pure Void Sect waited in the forest, then rushed toward the Rain Curtain when his Pills could no longer suppress the poison.
• Other Trial participants followed the Middle-aged Daoist toward the Rain Curtain, including a Young Daoist and a yellow-shirted woman.
• Luo Hong sensed the approaching group, strengthened his defenses, and prepared to face them.
• The Middle-aged Daoist recognized Luo Hong as the Iron Mask Man from Yellow Maple Valley and tried to appeal to their sects’ friendly relations.
• Luo Hong rejected the appeal and demanded two Spiritual Medicines over 300 years old for passage, startling the Middle-aged Daoist.

Luo Hong, posing as Zhuo Bufan, enforced his demand for Spiritual Herbs from trial participants seeking to leave the Bloody Forbidden Zone. After killing a disciple who defied him, he left the remaining participants with little choice but to obey.

• Luo Hong shattered Wu Weizi’s jade crown with a Dark Green Seed, forcing him to hand over two Cloud Dew Flowers before leaving through the passage.
• Wu Weizi left a Sound-Leaving Talisman for the Pure Void Sect disciples, and Luo Hong assured him he would spare those who followed his rules.
• Luo Hong let a Yellow Maple Valley disciple and Junior Sister Qi leave without herbs, asking her to tell Elder Li that the matter was done.
• Luo Hong demanded two herbs from the remaining participants, but a Giant Sword Sect disciple refused and threatened him with his strongest sword strike.
• Luo Hong killed the defiant disciple with a flick of his middle finger, silencing the remaining five.

The disciples began emerging from the Forbidden Land, and their poor harvests revealed that Zhuo Bufan had taken control of the exit and seized their spiritual herbs. Li Huayuan celebrated the plan’s apparent success, but the other sect elders still hoped their strongest disciples could force Zhuo Bufan to withdraw.

• The Middle-aged Daoist returned to Floating Cloud Child and reported that he had surrendered the spiritual herbs at the Forbidden Land’s exit, enraging his Elder.
• Seven disciples emerged, including the Young Daoist and the yellow-shirted woman, while five others returned empty-handed or with only one spiritual herb apiece.
• The yellow-shirted woman told Li Huayuan that Senior Brother Zhuo was unharmed and delivered his message; Li Huayuan rewarded her with a bottle of pills.
• Floating Cloud Child and the other Elders warned Li Huayuan that their strongest disciples, including the Five Virtuous Sons of Pure Void and Madman Feng Yue, might still stop his plan.
• Old Monster Qiong questioned Li Huayuan about the disciple blocking the exit, and Li Huayuan denied that Zhuo Bufan was his Registered Disciple while privately worrying about the Moon Concealing Sect’s intentions.

Luo Hong confronted the trial participants at the Rain Curtain and demanded two ancient Spiritual Medicines from each, while allowing Han Tianya and the Chen Siblings to leave. Chen Qiaoqian recognized Zhuo as the person she had encountered before, leaving Luo Hong alarmed.

• Han Tianya, Zhong Wu, Chen Fang Sheng, and the other powerhouses found the Rain Curtain harmless but suspected it concealed an array, so Chen Fang Sheng led the group through it.
• Luo Hong prepared his Mountain Shaking Spear and blood-patterned jade talisman, then warned Chen Fang Sheng and Chen Qiaoqian that they could leave unharmed.
• Luo Hong demanded two Spiritual Medicines over 300 years old from the group and threatened to kill anyone who crossed the line.
• Han Tianya handed over two Heavenly Spirit Fruits and fled through the passage, while Zhong Wu refused to follow his example.
• Luo Hong urged Chen Fang Sheng and Chen Qiaoqian to leave, but Chen Qiaoqian recognized him as the person from that day.

Luo Hong turned the trial participants against one another while the Five Virtuous Sons of Pure Void approached him with a hidden plan. The chapter ended with Luo Hong preparing to see what technique they would use.

• Chen Qiaoqian mistook Luo Hong for Senior Brother Lu, but Luo Hong denied knowing her and refused to take responsibility for her feelings.
• Zhong Wu and a green-robed elder accused Chen Fang Sheng and Chen Qiaoqian of conspiring with Luo Hong, stirring the crowd against them.
• Luo Hong threw the Middle-aged Daoist's Sound-Leaving Talisman to the Elegant Daoist, prompting the Five Virtuous Sons to hear Wu Weizi's coded warning.
• Qingyunzi interpreted the warning as instructions to use medicine against their enemies, and the Elegant Daoist led his group across the boundary toward Luo Hong.
• Luo Hong overheard the Five Virtuous Sons' discussion with his divine sense and held back from attacking, wary of their linked magic power and strong defenses.

Luo Hong held off the Five Virtuous Sons of Pure Void and several other Qi Refining experts, forcing the Five Virtuous Sons to call for help. As Chen Fang Sheng tried to lead Chen Qiaoqian away, Ma Jingyuan and the Green-robed Old Man ambushed them, and the old man demanded Chen Qiaoqian in exchange for peace.

• Luo Hong's Azure Gold Water Shield withstood the Five Virtuous Sons of Pure Void's flying swords, while his Dark Green Seed nearly broke their qi shield.
• The Elegant Daoist called on Zhong Wu and the others to join the assault, and seven Qi Refining experts attacked Luo Hong while holding back to protect themselves.
• Chen Fang Sheng told Chen Qiaoqian that Luo Hong remained in control of the fight and urged her to leave with him through the passage.
• Ma Jingyuan and the Green-robed Old Man ambushed the siblings, using the Dust Falling Pearl to strengthen the old man's cane against Chen Fang Sheng's Golden Book.
• The Green-robed Old Man offered to make peace if Chen Fang Sheng lent him Chen Qiaoqian, and Chen Fang Sheng angrily refused.

Luo Hong protected the Chen Siblings from the Qing and Lan Duo while the Five Virtuous Sons of Pure Void prepared their high-level Spell, Azure Sky Yang Thunder. The chapter ended as Luo Hong used Spirit Swallowing to put his shield in the path of their lightning strike.

• The Five Virtuous Sons of Pure Void stopped fighting and asked Zhong Wu and the others to stall Luo Hong while they charged a powerful Spell.
• The Qing and Lan Duo overwhelmed Chen Qiaoqian, but Luo Hong shot the green-robed old man and wounded the Blue-shirted Youth, allowing the Chen Siblings to escape.
• Luo Hong summoned more than twenty water snakes to hold off Zhong Wu and the others as Chen Fang Sheng led Chen Qiaoqian into the passageway.
• The Five Virtuous Sons of Pure Void completed Azure Sky Yang Thunder and sent an azure lightning bolt toward Luo Hong.
• Luo Hong called out Spirit Swallowing and placed the Spirit Swallowing Shield in front of the lightning.

Luo Hong turned the Five Virtuous Sons of Pure Void’s Azure Sky Yang Thunder against them, defeating everyone on the battlefield and demanding Spiritual Herbs in exchange for letting them leave. Outside the Forbidden Land, Li Huayuan concluded that Zhuo was in no danger, while inside Luo Hong ordered the remaining disciples to stop feigning injury and pay up.

• Chen Fang Sheng and Chen Qiaoqian emerged from the Forbidden Land and told Li Huayuan that the Five Virtuous Sons of Pure Void were casting Azure Sky Yang Thunder against Junior Brother Zhuo.
• Li Huayuan reasoned that Zhuo could handle the attack and suggested he might have allowed the spell to be cast deliberately.
• Luo Hong’s Spirit Swallowing Shield absorbed the Azure Sky Yang Thunder and released it back at the Five Virtuous Sons, killing two and blasting the others and Zhong Wu’s group off their feet.
• Qingyunzi and his two Senior Brothers paid Luo Hong four Spiritual Herbs each and left for the passage.
• Zhong Wu handed over his share after Luo Hong threatened to use his methods again, and Luo Hong ordered the other injured disciples to stop playing dead and hurry up.

Luo Hong recovered after defeating several trial participants, then spoke with Han Li as he made his way out of the Forbidden Land. After Han Li left, Luo Hong gathered the spoils and sensed Nangong Wan leading the Moon Concealing Sect disciples into his formation.

• Luo Hong sat down to recover his Magic Power after the other trial participants entered the passageway.
• Han Li reached the Rain Curtain, found Luo Hong waiting amid the battlefield’s corpses, and asked what had happened.
• Luo Hong questioned Han Li about the Moon Concealing Sect and learned that Han Li warned him not to target them.
• Han Li entered the passageway, believing Nangong Wan could defend herself against Luo Hong.
• Luo Hong collected the Storage Bags and Ma Jingyuan’s Dust Falling Pearl, then sensed Nangong Wan leading the Moon Concealing Sect into the Misty Rain Insight Formation.
• Nangong Wan detected Luo Hong’s spiritual sense and repelled it with a flash of her eyes.

Luo Hong fought Nangong Wan after invoking Han Li’s name, then defeated her with his Super Heavy Water Bullet Technique despite his depleted magic power. He left the Moon Concealing Sect disciples incapacitated and examined Nangong Wan’s Vermillion Bird Ring, revealing that studying her magic treasure had been his goal.

• Nangong Wan led the Moon Concealing Sect disciples toward Luo Hong and attacked him with the Vermillion Bird Ring despite his claim that Han Li had told him not to harm her.
• Luo Hong activated a jade talisman to gather the formation’s Water Spirit Qi and formed a massive spinning drill with the Mountain Shaking Spear.
• Nangong Wan’s Vermillion Bird Ring failed to stop the drill, and her hidden injuries flared as she collapsed after coughing up black blood.
• Luo Hong used the remaining water sphere to defeat the Moon Concealing Sect disciples who rushed to protect Nangong Wan.
• Luo Hong retrieved the Vermillion Bird Ring and closely examined it while Nangong Wan watched in alarm.

Luo Hong completed his examination of the Vermillion Bird Ring and returned from the Forbidden Land as the Bloody Trial ended. Yellow Maple Valley won the wager with an exceptional harvest, and Luo Hong received a Talisman Treasure before leaving early to avoid Chen Qiaoqian.

• Luo Hong examined the Vermillion Bird Ring, returned it to Nangong Wan, and escaped the formation as the trial passage brought him back to Wild Mountain.
• Old Monster Qiong questioned Luo Hong about the Moon Concealing Sect disciples and tried to recruit him, but Li Huayuan intervened and agreed to Luo Hong's earlier request.
• Nangong Wan and Old Ghost Xiang emerged from the passage, and the Bloody Trial ended with more than forty disciples surviving.
• Luo Hong and Han Li revealed their Spiritual Herbs, giving Yellow Maple Valley a harvest of more than a hundred herbs and securing its victory in the wager.
• Li Huayuan took the Bloodline Flood Dragon's Inner Core from Floating Cloud Child, received three Invisible Needle Talisman Treasures from Old Monster Qiong, and gave one to Luo Hong.
• Li Huayuan accepted Han Li as a Registered Disciple during the journey back, and Luo Hong left Yellow Maple Valley early after claiming he needed to treat his injuries.

Luo Hong began foundation-establishment seclusion and endured Ablution of Marrow after taking a Foundation Establishment Pill. He discovered that the process rewrote the Silver Runes in his flesh, confirmed the pill had greatly increased his Mana Purity and dantian capacity, and swallowed two more pills before refining the remaining medicinal power.

• After recovering and receiving four Foundation Establishment Pills from Li Huayuan, Luo Hong sealed his courtyard and began cultivating in the Spirit Gathering Space.
• Luo Hong took a Foundation Establishment Pill and endured Ablution of Marrow as his dantian and flesh dissolved and regenerated with altered Silver Runes.
• After the torment ended, Luo Hong washed away the dead cells covering his body and checked his updated values on the Physical Examination Table.
• Luo Hong saw that his Mana Purity had doubled and his dantian capacity had exceeded the foundation-establishment bottleneck, leaving him to absorb the remaining medicinal power.
• Luo Hong swallowed two more Foundation Establishment Pills to complete the Ablution of Marrow in his flesh, then began refining the remaining medicinal power.

Luo Hong reached Foundation Establishment and observed Magic Power transform from mist into liquid, confirming a Spirit Particle Energy Level transition. His findings also led him to explain how Spirit Eye formations formed and why low-grade cultivators could not perceive them, while his growing bottleneck formula made improving his cultivation method increasingly urgent.

• During a month of seclusion, Luo Hong condensed his Magic Power until pressure filled his dantian, then used his spiritual sense to compress it safely.
• Luo Hong observed the Magic Power vanish from the outer mass and reappear at its center as milky-white liquid, witnessing a Spirit Particle Energy Level transition.
• Luo Hong connected the transition to his data on bottlenecks and proposed that each higher Spirit Particle Energy Level required twice as much Magic Power as the one before it.
• Luo Hong used the transition to explain that Spirit Eye formations formed when vast quantities of Spirit Particles shifted at the center of a Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi vortex.
• Luo Hong explained that the Spirit Level Shielding Effect concealed Spirit Eyes from low-grade cultivators and concluded that he needed to improve the Spirit Pressure Cultivation Great Method.
• Luo Hong's Magic Power gathered into a milky-white slurry, and he entered the Foundation Establishment stage.

After consolidating his Foundation Establishment, Luo Hong discovered that he needed a higher-grade cultivation technique and went to see Li Huayuan. He became Li Huayuan’s official disciple after declaring his affection for Yu Ruoxi, while his master approved of the match and gave him a protective token.

• Luo Hong finished absorbing the Foundation Establishment Pill’s medicinal power, found that the Minor Water Origin Technique could no longer increase his Mana Limit, and recorded his cultivation insights in the “Luo Jun's Three Treasures Secret Record.”
• Luo Hong visited Li Huayuan and met his master’s wife, who offered to introduce him to Foundation Establishment female cultivators from the sect.
• When Li Huayuan asked whether he had someone in mind, Luo Hong said he admired Yu Ruoxi of the Moon Concealing Sect and would marry no one else.
• Li Huayuan laughed at the prospect of Luo Hong marrying a woman from the Moon Concealing Sect, explaining that he would not oppose the match, and his wife left to cultivate.
• Li Huayuan made Luo Hong an official disciple and gave him a crimson waist token that could summon Three Yang True Fire in a crisis.

Li Huayuan explained the three categories of cultivation methods and gave Luo Hong five Jade Slips to choose from. He also put Fanghua Garden under Luo Hong’s management, and Luo Hong left determined to select a method by his own standards.

• Li Huayuan described the strengths and drawbacks of the three categories of cultivation methods and warned Luo Hong about the dangers of top-tier methods.
• Li Huayuan gave Luo Hong five Jade Slips and placed Fanghua Garden under his management in exchange for two thousand jin of Spirit Grain each year.
• Li Huayuan advised Luo Hong about Yellow Maple Valley’s power structure before Luo Hong returned to Fanghua Garden.
• Luo Hong took control of Fanghua Garden’s Defensive Great Formation and adjusted it to protect his courtyard with the Misty Rain Insight Formation.
• Luo Hong began comparing the five cultivation methods and resolved to choose according to his goal of becoming a little stronger than Old Demon Han.

Luo Hong studied five cultivation techniques to map their meridian circuits and prepare to create his own technique based on his Great Dao of Mass. After examining three techniques, he turned his attention to the two top-grade techniques Li Huayuan had given him.

• Luo Hong decided that cultivating the Great Dao of Mass and creating his own technique would best help him control his fate in the Mortal World.
• Luo Hong studied the five techniques Li Huayuan had bestowed on him and used a three-dimensional projection to record their meridian circuits.
• Luo Hong examined the Blackwater Art and Morning Dew Art, noting their powerful abilities and severe drawbacks.
• Luo Hong recorded the extra meridians in the Great Water Origin Technique, then took out the two jade slips containing top-grade techniques.

Luo Hong studied the Cloud Dragon Art and Mahā Divine Art, then designed a framework for a new cultivation method by combining the Mahā Divine Art with the Great Water Origin Technique. A year later, Li Huayuan summoned him to Blue Wave Cave, and Luo Hong set out after checking on his still-unhatched Golden Light Eagle egg.

• Luo Hong compared the meridian pathways of several cultivation methods and identified the Great Water Origin Technique as a suitable foundation for his own method.
• Luo Hong decided to merge the Great Water Origin Technique with the Mahā Divine Art to compensate for the former’s weakness in divine abilities.
• Luo Hong overlapped the two methods’ meridian pathways to create a preliminary framework, then sealed his formation and began refining it.
• A year passed, and Li Huayuan sent Luo Hong a Sound Transmission Talisman ordering him to go to Blue Wave Cave.
• Luo Hong checked that the Golden Light Eagle egg was absorbing Metal Element Spiritual Energy and predicted it would hatch within two or three months before flying to Blue Wave Cave.

Luo Hong concealed his self-created Boundless Sea Suppressing Art while Li Huayuan assigned him to investigate the repeated raids on Crimson Sun Mountain and find a traitor within the Li Family. Li Huayuan also sent him home with life-prolonging pills for his parents, and Luo Hong accepted the mission.

• Luo Hong told Li Huayuan he had chosen the Great Water Origin Technique, while privately recalling that he had fused it with the Mahā Divine Art into the Boundless Sea Suppressing Art.
• Li Huayuan instructed Luo Hong in cultivation before explaining that Evil Path Cultivators had repeatedly raided Crimson Sun Mountain despite Yu Kun's efforts.
• Luo Hong suspected a traitor was informing the raiders, and Li Huayuan ordered him to uncover the culprit and eliminate the Evil Cultivators.
• Li Huayuan gave Luo Hong two bottles of pills for his parents and encouraged him to visit them on his way to Crimson Sun Mountain.
• Luo Hong accepted Li Huayuan's assignment and thanked him for the pills on behalf of his parents.

Luo Hong returned to Shanyang City and discovered that his family had moved, then recognized his niece Luo Ying in a wedding procession. When Luo Ying began sobbing, he pursued a suspicious cultivator and uncovered a plot to turn the Li and Luo families against each other.

• Luo Hong arrived at his old family residence and realized the Luo Family had moved elsewhere.
• Luo Hong recognized his niece Luo Ying as the bride in a wedding procession and saw her suddenly begin to sob.
• Luo Hong spotted a sinister Qi Refining Late-stage cultivator and sent a yellow bird to follow the procession while he pursued the man.
• The suspicious cultivator entered an underground passage and met a Brutish Man in a residence on the city's outskirts.
• The suspicious cultivator and Brutish Man revealed their plan to use a Charm of Affection and a Curse Art to stage a death and provoke conflict between the Li and Luo families.

Luo Hong uncovered evidence that Demonic Cultivators had targeted his family, but chose to conceal what he knew while investigating cautiously. After helping Luo Ying and reassuring his grandfather, he reunited with his parents, where his mother immediately teased him about finding a woman.

• Luo Hong recalled that the Charm of Affection was a Demonic Cultivator spell and decided not to expose the attackers or risk becoming bait at Crimson Sun Mountain.
• Luo Hong returned to the city conspicuously, discovered Luo Ying's cursed condition, and removed the Charm of Affection.
• The Li Family investigated the wedding disturbance and found that the groom's younger brother had been afflicted with the Mind Control Curse.
• Luo Hong told his grandfather that the incident was likely a warning from the rogue cultivators at Crimson Sun Mountain and gave him life-prolonging pills.
• Luo Hong visited his parents, and his mother greeted him by asking whether he had met a woman he fancied in Yellow Maple Valley.