Chapter Summaries

Lin Bai discovered that the Yellow Sand World itself was alive and was trapping its inhabitants, so he searched for clues to escape. He found an ancient, strangely preserved city and reached a temple at its center.

• Emperor Chu and the sect leaders watched Lin Bai struggle through the Yellow Sand World, while Eunuch Gui secretly sent martial artists to stand by in case Lin Bai needed help.
• Lin Bai realized the grains of sand were living creatures that trapped people and slowly devoured them, and decided to search for a way out.
• Lin Bai kept his distance from the sand, fought off several variant beasts, and flew onward through the Yellow Sand World.
• Lin Bai found an intact but abandoned clay city and wondered why the yellow sand had not swallowed it.
• Lin Bai searched the city and discovered a temple where its center would normally have held a City Lord's Mansion.

Lin Bai discovered an intact city in the Yellow Sand World and found a shrine dedicated to the Yellow Sand Goddess, whose statue might be protecting the city from the sand. After moving the statue and uncovering a passage beneath it, he jumped inside to search for a way out, and the statue slid back to seal the entrance.

• Lin Bai searched the abandoned city and found an ancient shrine with a statue labeled Yellow Sand Goddess.
• Lin Bai deduced that the shrine or the woman it depicted might be keeping the yellow sand from swallowing the city.
• Lin Bai examined the statue, pushed it backward, and revealed a narrow, seemingly bottomless passage beneath its pedestal.
• Lin Bai prepared himself and jumped into the passage, after which the statue returned to its original position and sealed the opening.

Lin Bai descended through a seemingly bottomless passage beneath the Yellow Sand Goddess’s statue and found a route leading back up beneath its lotus seat. As he listened through a narrow opening, he learned that martial artists from the Northern Territory were pressuring Princess Chu Tinghan to marry Holy Son Meng Lei.

• Lin Bai descended through the dark passage on his flying sword and found a right-angled underground corridor.
• Lin Bai followed the corridor, discovered another passage rising toward the surface, and concluded that it led beneath a divine statue in another city.
• Lin Bai carefully pushed open the statue’s lotus seat and heard martial artists arguing outside.
• Lin Bai learned that the Northern Territory group belonged to the Heaven’s Dao Clan and was demanding that Chu Tinghan accept a marriage to Meng Lei.
• Lin Bai listened as the group’s spokesman claimed Meng Lei’s offer was a blessing and the narration explained how the Heaven’s Dao Clan had united nine clans.

Lin Bai hid beneath a divine statue while Chu Tinghan stalled Holy Son Meng Lei’s marriage proposal. Meng Lei revealed he had drugged her and moved to take advantage of her, leaving Lin Bai concealed nearby as the confrontation escalated.

• Lin Bai realized the voices outside belonged to Northern Region martial artists who were pressuring Chu Tinghan to marry Holy Son Meng Lei.
• Chu Tinghan told Meng Lei she would discuss the marriage with Prince Liang after the Hunting Realm, using her father’s approval to stall him.
• Meng Lei proposed forcing Prince Liang to accept the marriage by taking advantage of Chu Tinghan, and she rejected him and struck back despite her injuries.
• Meng Lei revealed he had secretly used Rain Dew Cloud Incense from the Southern Border Insect Valley to drug Chu Tinghan.
• Meng Lei’s companions congratulated him and went outside, while Lin Bai remained hidden beneath the statue.

Lin Bai overheard Holy Son Meng Lei using Rain Dew Cloud Incense to incapacitate Chu Tinghan and hesitated over whether to intervene. After the Chu Emperor ordered him to save her, Lin Bai emerged from beneath the divine statue to act.

• Lin Bai felt the incense's effects while hiding beneath the divine statue and sealed his meridians to suppress them.
• Holy Son Meng Lei revealed that Rain Dew Cloud Incense would soon leave Chu Tinghan unable to resist, while Lin Bai suspected Meng Lei had backing from the Northern Region.
• The Chu Emperor and the Ascension Celestial Palace watched Chu Tinghan weaken as Holy Son Meng Lei approached her.
• The Chu Emperor sent Lin Bai the command to save Chu Tinghan, and Lin Bai immediately rushed out from beneath the statue.
• The Chu Emperor told Prince Liang that Lin Bai had gone to intervene, easing Prince Liang's worry.

Lin Bai emerged from hiding in the divine statue hall and rescued the gravely wounded Chu Tinghan from Holy Son Meng Lei. He overwhelmed Meng Lei and the two Heaven's Dao Clan martial artists, leaving the fight unresolved as the three men were sent flying.

• After Chu Emperor ordered him to save Chu Tinghan, Lin Bai left the cave and found Meng Lei advancing on her while she was wounded and poisoned.
• Lin Bai slashed at Meng Lei and appeared in front of Chu Tinghan, who urged him to kill Meng Lei and promised a reward from Prince Liang's Estate.
• Meng Lei recognized Lin Bai as Wolf Marquis, boasted that others were watching him, and called in the two Heaven's Dao Clan martial artists guarding the temple.
• Lin Bai struck Meng Lei with one sword slash, sending him through an earthen wall.
• The tall and short martial artists attacked Lin Bai together, but he knocked both of them flying with four flying swords and the Heaven Measuring Ruler.

Lin Bai fled underground with Chu Tinghan as Rain Dew Cloud Incense overwhelmed him and Holy Son Meng Lei and his companions collapsed under its effects. Lin Bai tried to suppress the poison in a hidden chamber, but Chu Tinghan’s embrace and breath made it flare up again.

• Lin Bai weakened as Rain Dew Cloud Incense took effect, then escaped with Chu Tinghan through an opening beneath the temple’s divine statue.
• Holy Son Meng Lei ordered his two companions to pursue them and bring Chu Tinghan back, but all three succumbed to the poison and lost their reason.
• Lin Bai carried Chu Tinghan through the underground passage, then carved out a chamber and attempted to suppress the poison.
• Chu Tinghan called to Lin Bai and embraced him from behind, causing the poison’s effects to surge and undoing his efforts.

After Lin Bai and Chu Tinghan woke from their poisoned encounter in the Yellow Sand World, they argued over what had happened and Lin Bai revealed his Heaven Swallowing Domain had concealed them from the Ascension Celestial Palace. Chu Tinghan decided to use the incident to secure a marriage alliance, while Lin Bai tried to leave.

• In the Ascension Celestial Palace, Lin Bai's Heaven Swallowing Domain disrupted the projection arrays, hiding him and Chu Tinghan from view.
• Lin Bai awoke underground beside the injured Chu Tinghan and remembered what had happened while they were both poisoned.
• Chu Tinghan recalled that she had approached Lin Bai first, then considered using their encounter to bring him into Prince Liang's Estate.
• Lin Bai told Chu Tinghan that the Heaven Swallowing Domain had blocked the palace's view and urged her to finish dressing before withdrawing it.
• Chu Tinghan recognized Lin Bai's Devouring Power and demanded that he take responsibility by marrying her.

Chu Tinghan insisted that Lin Bai marry her, while Lin Bai struggled with the consequences of their relationship and his loyalties to Chu. As they traveled through the Yellow Sand World, she revealed that the Northern Soul Refining Sect's Saint Son had killed her guards and badly injured her.

• Chu Tinghan proposed marriage to Lin Bai, but he rejected her and argued that the martial world contained both extreme evil and extreme good.
• Lin Bai left through the passage, and Chu Tinghan followed despite her injuries until he stopped and let her catch up.
• Chu Tinghan told Lin Bai that she had entered the Hunting Realm separately from her siblings and had a poor relationship with them.
• Chu Tinghan revealed that the Northern Soul Refining Sect's Saint Son had killed her guards and wounded her, forcing her to escape into the Yellow Sand World with a life-saving treasure.
• Chu Tinghan asked Lin Bai what the Yellow Sand World was, but he did not know either.

Lin Bai and Chu Tinghan followed an underground passage into a vast palace and discovered a lifelike statue of the Yellow Sand Goddess. When Lin Bai sensed that the statue was alive, it attacked them, sending him flying and leaving the already-injured Chu Tinghan badly wounded.

• Chu Tinghan told Lin Bai that she knew little about the Hunting Realm because she had grown up with her father’s military campaigns.
• Lin Bai explained how he found the underground passage and led Chu Tinghan toward its candlelit end.
• Chu Tinghan recognized the lamps’ Merfolk Fish Oil and realized someone had recently replaced it.
• Lin Bai and Chu Tinghan entered an underground palace, found a statue of the Yellow Sand Goddess, and discovered nine passages each.
• Lin Bai suspected that the Yellow Sand Goddess was the yellow sand itself, then sensed life in the statue’s foot.
• The statue came alive and struck at them; Lin Bai was sent flying, and the injured Chu Tinghan collapsed against a wall, coughing blood.

A living statue with strength near the Grand Luo realm trapped Lin Bai and the injured Chu Tinghan in the underground chamber. Lin Bai recognized it as an Immortal One and, after its sand sword blocked their escape, revealed his Dragon Slaying Skill as he struck back.

• The statue awakened, knocked Chu Tinghan and Lin Bai aside, and pursued them with powerful attacks.
• Lin Bai repeatedly rescued Chu Tinghan while dodging the statue, then discovered that it healed by absorbing yellow sand.
• Lin Bai identified the statue as an Immortal One, and he and Chu Tinghan found that yellow sand had blocked all eighteen passages.
• Lin Bai set Chu Tinghan aside and confronted the statue with the Demon Sword after it attacked them with a giant sand sword.
• Lin Bai shattered the sand sword with Sword One, and Chu Tinghan recognized his Dragon Slaying Skill.

Lin Bai defeated the stone statue with the Dragon Slaying Skill and discovered that it was guarding a Mountain Heart. He and the injured Chu Tinghan remained underground, with Lin Bai searching for a way out and moving closer to completing the Reverse Five Elements Sword Formation.

• The experts in the Ascension Celestial Palace recognized Lin Bai's Dragon Slaying Skill and feared that ancient powers reappearing signaled a coming catastrophe.
• Lin Bai severed the stone statue's arm and shattered its body with repeated strikes, but suspected its yellow sand had returned to a main body elsewhere.
• Lin Bai seized a glowing crystal before it could disappear into the ground, and Chu Tinghan identified it as a Mountain Heart.
• Chu Tinghan explained that Mountain Hearts were ancient treasures of pure earth-element spiritual essence, and Lin Bai put it away as an ingredient for his Reverse Five Elements Sword Formation.
• Chu Tinghan asked Lin Bai to teach her the Dragon Slaying Skill, but he refused and began clearing the passage to search for an exit.

Lin Bai and the badly injured Chu Tinghan found that all eighteen passages led deeper into the underground world, not out, and chose one to explore. They discovered another Immortal statue, and Chu Tinghan realized Lin Bai hoped to find a way out while also hunting Immortals for their Mountain Hearts.

• In a hidden Underground Palace, a divine statue shattered, alerting the guards and the yellow-robed Crown Prince, who ordered them to stop intruders from disturbing his summoning of the Yellow Sand Goddess.
• Lin Bai cleared the sand from the eighteen passageways while Chu Tinghan stabilized her injuries, then concluded that every passage led deeper underground.
• Lin Bai chose the nearest passage, explaining that danger awaited them whichever route they took, and Chu Tinghan followed with her guard raised.
• After about half an hour, Lin Bai and Chu Tinghan entered another vast chamber containing a divine statue.
• Chu Tinghan realized Lin Bai intended to hunt the Immortals for their Mountain Hearts as they searched for a way out.

Lin Bai and Chu Tinghan found another Immortal statue, but two Golden Imperial Guards from the Sand Sea Hailong Kingdom appeared before Lin Bai could claim its Mountain Heart. The guards ordered them to stay in the chamber, leaving Lin Bai curious about the kingdom’s plans and facing a threat of force.

• Chu Tinghan demanded that Lin Bai help her claim the Mountain Heart, but he refused unless she agreed that one Mountain Heart would settle her debt to him.
• Lin Bai approached the Immortal statue, sensed hidden people nearby, and called for them to reveal themselves.
• Two heavily armored martial artists emerged from separate passages, and Chu Tinghan identified them as Golden Imperial Guards of the Sand Sea Hailong Kingdom.
• The guards admitted they had lit the Merfolk Fish Oil and refused to explain their purpose in the chamber.
• The Golden Imperial Guards ordered Lin Bai and Chu Tinghan to remain where they were, threatening to use force if they refused.

Lin Bai and Chu Tinghan confronted two Golden Imperial Guards in the underground labyrinth and tried to determine what the Hailong Kingdom of the Sands was seeking. Emperor Chu secretly responded to Lin Bai’s request for guidance with permission to investigate.

• Warriors in the Ascension Celestial Palace questioned the Hailong Kingdom of the Sands’ princes about their search beneath the yellow sands, but the princes gave evasive answers.
• Two Golden Imperial Guards confronted Lin Bai and Chu Tinghan, debating whether to keep them from interfering with the Crown Prince’s plan.
• Lin Bai asked Chu Tinghan what the Hailong Kingdom of the Sands was doing, but she said she did not know.
• Lin Bai reasoned that Emperor Chu might have tacitly approved the Hailong Kingdom of the Sands’ actions and hinted for him to give an order.
• Emperor Chu transmitted four words to Lin Bai: “Go take a look.”

Lin Bai fought the Hailong Kingdom of the Sands' Golden Imperial Guards after they refused to let him take the Mountain Heart from the statue. The clash awakened the statue, leaving the battle and its purpose unresolved.

• Lin Bai asked the two Golden Imperial Guards for the Mountain Heart, but they refused to let him damage the statue and would not explain why.
• With Emperor Chu's permission behind him, Lin Bai drew his Demon Sword and attacked the guards with four flying swords.
• The guards blocked Lin Bai's attack with their armor and countered with weapons containing Yutian Immortal Gold, knocking him into a wall.
• Chu Tinghan warned Lin Bai about the guards' powerful weapons and armor, while Lin Bai continued to fight them.
• Lin Bai blocked a halberd strike with the Heaven Measuring Ruler, and the resulting shockwave struck the statue and brought it to life.

Lin Bai and Chu Tinghan escaped the Golden Imperial Guards by letting an undying statue keep them occupied, then headed deeper into the ruins to investigate the Hailong Kingdom of the Sands. Lin Bai warned Chu Tinghan that the Crown Prince might be waiting ahead, but she insisted on going with him.

• The awakened statue attacked Lin Bai and the two Golden Imperial Guards indiscriminately, and its sand body repeatedly restored itself after they shattered it.
• Lin Bai took Chu Tinghan through a passageway while the statue trapped the Golden Imperial Guards, who tried to contact reinforcements and warn the Crown Prince of the Hailong Kingdom of the Sands.
• After reaching a safer stretch of passage, Lin Bai told Chu Tinghan to find her own way out because he planned to investigate the extreme depths.
• Lin Bai explained that the Crown Prince might be there and that Chu Tinghan would face greater danger if she followed him.
• Chu Tinghan insisted on going with Lin Bai, claiming she had ways to protect herself, and the two set off together despite their argument.

Lin Bai and Chu Tinghan discovered Shangguan Xiu seated on an ancient altar in the Yellow Sand World, and Emperor Chu identified it as the Death Altar, which could open a passage to the Netherworld. Lin Bai learned that Shangguan Xiu was likely trying to connect to the Netherworld, and Emperor Chu ordered him to stop Shangguan Xiu while warning him not to pursue the Immortal.

• Lin Bai and Chu Tinghan entered a vast underground space and found Shangguan Xiu sitting on a rune-covered altar.
• Lin Bai and Chu Tinghan examined the altar, while Shangguan Xiu remained focused on a critical task and could not respond to them.
• Emperor Chu revealed that the altar was the Death Altar and explained that an ancient dynasty had sacrificed its population to activate it.
• Emperor Chu explained that the Yellow Sand Goddess was the Yellow Sand World itself and that the Death Altar could open a passage to the Netherworld.
• Lin Bai asked what Shangguan Xiu was doing, and Emperor Chu said he was probably connecting to the Netherworld and ordered Lin Bai to stop him.
• Emperor Chu told Lin Bai to leave the Immortal alone because he had already obtained a Mountain Heart.

Lin Bai learned that the Death Altar in the Hunting Realm connected to the Netherworld and that the Hailong Kingdom of the Sands had spent years preparing to use it. Emperor Chu ordered Lin Bai to stop the Crown Prince, whose exact plan remained unknown.

• The Hailong Kingdom of the Sands' princes worried that Lin Bai and Chu Tinghan would disrupt their plan involving Shangguan Xiu.
• The chapter explained that the Netherworld was an ancient world inhabited by a race of divine-soul beings who could enter the Spirit Realm through Divine Descent and Death Altars.
• Lin Bai discovered that the Death Altar in the Hunting Realm was controlled by the Chu Kingdom and could serve as a means to bargain for the Netherworld's power.
• Emperor Chu told Lin Bai that the Hailong Kingdom of the Sands had prepared for years to operate the altar and that the Crown Prince had bypassed the Undying guarding it.
• Emperor Chu ordered Lin Bai to stop the Crown Prince, while Lin Bai questioned why Emperor Chu had not intervened himself.

Lin Bai interrupted Shangguan Xiu’s Death Altar ritual and seized the bone tablet it produced. After Shangguan Xiu attacked and was defeated while weakened by the altar’s backlash, Lin Bai held him hostage as the Hailong Kingdom of the Sands’ Golden Imperial Guard arrived.

• Lin Bai saw the Death Altar’s runes flare as dark green smoke gathered into a cracked bone tablet above Shangguan Xiu.
• Lin Bai attacked Shangguan Xiu, seized the bone tablet, and forced him off the altar, ending the ritual and triggering its backlash.
• Lin Bai refused Shangguan Xiu’s demand to return the tablet, saying he would take it to the Chu Emperor for investigation.
• Shangguan Xiu attacked Lin Bai, but Lin Bai repelled him and left him vomiting blood.
• Lin Bai put his sword to Shangguan Xiu’s neck as more than ten Golden Imperial Guard warriors arrived and demanded that he release their Crown Prince.