Chapter Summaries

Xu Yunfan killed Qin Lie, Chu Mo, and Yuwen Chengji with the Gilded Mace, ending the crisis in the underground weapon-forging space. Afterward, Zhan Yan identified the mace as the legendary Crimson Fire Dragon Devouring Mace, and they prepared to leave.

• Xu Yunfan unleashed the Nine Profound Return to Origin and killed Qin Lie and Chu Mo with the Gilded Mace.
• The system reported major increases in Xu Yunfan's martial art proficiency after he killed the two Marrow Cleansing Realm masters.
• Yuwen Chengji tried to bargain with Xu Yunfan, first offering wealth and rank, then promising Great Qian's military secrets.
• Xu Yunfan struck Yuwen Chengji and crushed his head, then left the Lin Stance and recovered with a breath from the Ginseng Baby.
• Xu Yunfan led the shaken Zhan Yan away from the underground space, and Zhan Yan identified the mace as the Crimson Fire Dragon Devouring Mace, once wielded by Ma Jin.

Xu Yunfan and Zhan Yan discovered that the Divine Weapon Secret Realm still existed when a rift opened beneath the Nine-Foot Weapon-Forging Platform. The rift pulled Xu Yunfan into the realm, where he found the Crimson Fire Dragon Devouring Mace and faced seven armored skeletons.

• Zhan Yan explained that Divine Weapon Ridge had forged seven divine weapons but had declined after losing them and failing to produce another Ninth Realm Qi Refining cultivator.
• A rift opened as the Nine-Foot Weapon-Forging Platform sank, revealing the Divine Weapon Secret Realm and unleashing a rush of spiritual energy.
• The rift dragged Xu Yunfan into the secret realm, shattered his Mystic Steel Mechanism Box, and sent the Crimson Fire Dragon Devouring Mace flying toward a bronze altar.
• Xu Yunfan landed in the realm and saw the mace embedded in an altar beneath an upward-flowing waterfall, with a cauldron entwined by eight horned dragons above it.
• Seven armored skeletons formed from the altar’s rainbow light and attacked Xu Yunfan.
• Xu Yunfan used the Lin Word Seal to steady his mind, then grabbed the Crimson Fire Dragon Devouring Mace amid its lightning flames.

Xu Yunfan defeated the seven skeletal battle souls and discovered that the Horned Dragon Cauldron’s Mystic Dark True Water was restoring the Crimson Fire Dragon Devouring Mace. Stranded in the Divine Weapon Secret Realm, he began cultivating amid its abundant primal spirit qi, and his body underwent a powerful transformation.

• Xu Yunfan broke the Big Dipper Seven Stars formation and destroyed all seven skeletal battle souls with the Crimson Fire Dragon Devouring Mace.
• Mystic Dark True Water poured from the Horned Dragon Cauldron and formed dark golden patterns on the mace as it consumed the water.
• Xu Yunfan checked his proficiency notifications and learned he was 223 points from major mastery of the Thousand Jun Mountain Shaking Hammer Technique.
• Xu Yunfan realized he was trapped in the Divine Weapon Secret Realm and chose to cultivate beside the Horned Dragon Cauldron.
• Xu Yunfan drove primal spirit qi through his body with the Pure Yang One Qi Art and the Thousand Jun Mountain-Shaking Hammer stance, causing all 206 bones to crack at once.

Xu Yunfan refined his hammer technique and tested his enhanced speed before a white-furred demon ape attacked him on the mountain. He discovered the ape’s old knee injury and pressed his advantage with a relentless hammer assault.

• Xu Yunfan forced the Crimson Dragon Coiling Mountain Strength through forty-nine cycles and grasped the true intent of his hammer technique, gaining fifteen proficiency points.
• Xu Yunfan sprinted to Broken Dragon Rock, where he absorbed primal spirit qi and further increased his technique proficiency.
• A white-furred Old Ape burst through the cliff and attacked Xu Yunfan with stone pillars chained to its fists.
• Xu Yunfan parried the Old Ape’s strike, noticed an old injury in its right knee, and struck the wound with the Mountain Lifting Form.
• Xu Yunfan drove the Old Ape back and followed with a series of hammer attacks that sealed off its escape routes.

Xu Yunfan killed the Old Ape and discovered that the secret realm’s mountain peaks held concentrated primal spirit energy but were infested with demons. After eating the Old Ape’s flesh, he used the gathered energy to temper his body and improve his cultivation, leaving himself close to a breakthrough in the Mystic Steel Hundred Refinements Body.

• Xu Yunfan defeated the Old Ape with the Thousand Jun Mountain Shaking Hammer Technique and knocked a Bone Penetrating Nail from its right eye.
• Xu Yunfan found the Old Ape’s lair and used Dragon Seeking Vein Identification to see spiritual energy nodes and powerful demonic presences throughout the secret realm.
• Xu Yunfan realized he needed to eat and roasted the Old Ape’s flesh, discovering dark-golden fluid in its marrow and replenishing his blood qi with its meat.
• Over three days, Xu Yunfan ate the Old Ape’s corpse and felt the Mystic Steel Hundred Refinements Body nearing great mastery.
• Xu Yunfan absorbed Heaven and Earth Primal Spirit qi while tempering his body, increasing his proficiency in the Pure Yang One Qi Art and Thousand Jun Mountain Shaking Hammer Technique.

Xu Yunfan spent seven days cultivating in the Divine Weapon Secret Realm until his Thousand Jun Mountain-Shaking Hammer reached greater mastery and he entered the Blood Exchange Realm. Newly transformed by the breakthrough, he was left with the Attribute Panel’s brutal cultivation memories.

• Xu Yunfan calculated that he was close to Blood Exchange and worried that the secret realm’s Spirit Mist would run out before it replenished.
• Xu Yunfan trained without rest for seven days, refining Ginseng Qi and Spirit Mist while practicing the Pure Yang One Qi Art and Thousand Jun Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique.
• Xu Yunfan’s strength overwhelmed his body, and his blood began condensing into a mercury-like fluid as he broke through into the Blood Exchange Realm.
• Xu Yunfan’s body and vital blood transformed, strengthening his marrow, heart, and blood vessels and extending his lifespan to at least two hundred years.
• Xu Yunfan received the Attribute Panel’s memories of cultivating the hammer technique and recoiled at how brutally the training had been forced upon him.

After consolidating his breakthrough into the Blood Exchange Realm, Xu Yunfan raced to a nearby spiritual energy node. He found a demon watching him from a cave behind a waterfall, and it launched the first attack.

• Xu Yunfan’s strength fused with his blood and qi, completing his breakthrough into the Blood Exchange Realm and healing his old injuries.
• After spending a day or two consolidating his cultivation, Xu Yunfan used Dragon Seeking Vein Identification to locate seven spiritual energy nodes and chose the nearest one.
• Xu Yunfan crossed mountains, a pool, and Black Pine Forest at tremendous speed, using the power of his blood and qi and the Dragon Scale Armor.
• Xu Yunfan reached a valley where demonic miasma gathered around a spiritual energy node and sensed its center in a karst cave behind a waterfall.
• A demon watched Xu Yunfan from behind the waterfall, then attacked with black-scaled tiger claws.

Xu Yunfan defeated the Suspended-Eyed White-Browed Tiger Demon in Inverted Gourd Valley and spent the next month consuming its flesh and training. He had brought the Thousand Jun Mountain Shaking Hammer Technique to major mastery, but still needed to perfect it to enter the Marrow Cleansing Realm.

• Xu Yunfan used his armor, strength, and Thunder Fire Qilin Hammer to withstand the tiger demon’s attacks and pierce its third eye with the hammer’s Armor Piercing Awl.
• Xu Yunfan struck the wounded demon with a final series of hammer blows, collapsing much of the karst cave and leaving its body intact.
• Xu Yunfan dragged the tiger demon’s corpse deeper into the cave after noticing spiritual qi gathering there.
• Xu Yunfan spent the next month eating roasted tiger meat, digesting its Demon Flesh Essence Qi, and training his martial arts.
• Xu Yunfan reached major mastery in the Thousand Jun Mountain Shaking Hammer Technique and saw that perfection still required five thousand proficiency points.

After exhausting his supply of tiger meat, Xu Yunfan headed toward a nearby spiritual energy node after hearing a battle there. He recognized one combatant as Qi Huan, who had been presumed dead, and tried to subdue him alive to learn what was happening in the Divine Weapon Secret Realm.

• Xu Yunfan finished the last of his tiger meat, cultivated, and decided to rest before investigating the nearest spiritual energy node.
• An explosion came from the node, and Xu Yunfan rushed toward it, where he found an elephant-bodied demon fighting a humanoid demon.
• Xu Yunfan recognized the humanoid demon as Qi Huan and redirected his hammer strike to wound the elephant demon instead.
• Qi Huan briefly showed signs of resisting his demonic corruption, so Xu Yunfan decided to capture him alive for information.
• Xu Yunfan abandoned his hammer and slammed into Qi Huan to subdue him.

Xu Yunfan defeated the Elephant Demon and subdued the demonized Qi Huan, repeatedly knocking him unconscious until he regained his senses. Qi Huan survived, but how he became a demon and ended up in the Divine Weapon Secret Realm remained unclear.

• Xu Yunfan used Qi Huan as a shield against the Elephant Demon, then killed the beast with his Thunder Fire Qilin Hammer and a crushing kick.
• Xu Yunfan struck Qi Huan unconscious, carried him to a cave, and studied his demonic scales while preparing the Elephant Demon's meat.
• Qi Huan repeatedly woke in a feral state, and Xu Yunfan knocked him out again each time.
• On the eighth awakening, Qi Huan spoke clearly and pleaded with Xu Yunfan to stop hitting him.
• Xu Yunfan recognized Qi Huan as a senior brother thought dead, and Qi Huan admitted his ordeal had involved many twists and turns.
• Xu Yunfan did not press Qi Huan about his demonization but wondered why he had traveled from the Mystic Truth Secret Realm to the Divine Weapon Secret Realm.

Xu Yunfan questioned Qi Huan about the Mystic Truth Secret Realm and learned that it was a small world where demons had trapped the sects’ True Inheritance Disciples. After realizing Qi Huan was hiding something about escape, Xu Yunfan considered finding the trapped disciples, while Qi Huan eyed his divine armor and contemplated using their greed.

• Qi Huan explained that the Mystic Truth Secret Realm was a small world that had become a trap filled with demons drawn to martial artists’ qi and blood.
• Qi Huan recounted how a demon knocked him into an underground river, where he drifted through magma for seven days before waking near Xu Yunfan.
• Xu Yunfan learned that Pei Yan and other True Inheritance Disciples were still trapped inside, despite the Mystic Truth Sect claiming they had escaped.
• Qi Huan claimed the secret realm’s formation had become a cage, but Xu Yunfan noticed signs that he was lying and reasoned the trapped disciples knew where to escape.
• Qi Huan considered that Pei Yan and the others might covet Xu Yunfan’s divine Dragon Scale Armor if Xu Yunfan went to find them.

Xu Yunfan spent more than a month cultivating and consuming the Elephant Demon’s remains while Qi Huan recovered. After reaching the Blood Exchange Realm, Xu Yunfan set out toward the mountains, but not to find Pei Yan and the other True Inheritance Disciples yet.

• Xu Yunfan learned that Qi Huan could track the sect disciples by scent and decided to keep him alive and travel with him.
• Xu Yunfan cultivated relentlessly for seven days, practicing the Pure Yang One Qi Art and Thousand Jun Mountain Shaking Hammer Technique while Qi Huan watched in amazement.
• Xu Yunfan stayed in the cave to cultivate and eat the Elephant Demon’s flesh, eventually consuming the last of its remains over more than a month.
• Xu Yunfan reached the Blood Exchange Realm and set off toward the southeastern mountains, telling Qi Huan to follow him instead of going to Pei Yan and the others.
• Xu Yunfan headed toward a distant spiritual energy node as a nine-headed giant python’s phantom appeared amid the clouds.

Xu Yunfan fought and killed the nine-headed Xiang Liu after it struck him into a mountain, using his martial arts and Crimson Fire Dragon Devouring Mace to overcome the demon. After the battle, Qi Huan recognized the gulf between their strength and noticed Xu Yunfan’s Mystic Steel Hundred Refinements Body had reached the Golden Muscle Jade Bone phenomenon.

• Qi Huan decided to follow Xu Yunfan because he feared surviving alone amid the demonic aura.
• Xu Yunfan encountered Nine Ring Xiang Liu, evaded its bone spikes, and traded powerful blows with the giant serpent.
• Xiang Liu struck Xu Yunfan into a mountainside, but he burst from the rubble and resumed the fight.
• Xu Yunfan used the Crimson Fire Dragon Devouring Mace to break Xiang Liu’s defenses, tear out its spinal dragon bone, and kill it by dusk.
• Xu Yunfan’s Thousand Jun Mountain Shaking Hammer Technique gained proficiency, and Qi Huan approached the dead serpent in shock.
• Qi Huan compared their strength and noticed Xu Yunfan’s Mystic Steel Hundred Refinements Body displayed the Golden Muscle Jade Bone phenomenon.

Xu Yunfan spent weeks devouring fiend flesh and training in the secret realm, then slept as the Apex Path Remains absorbed spiritual energy. He awoke in a dream before a mysterious woman who had begun to challenge him.

• Xu Yunfan gave Qi Huan a massive bone from the Nine-Headed Serpent, and Qi Huan realized how dangerous Xu Yunfan was.
• Xu Yunfan ate nearly six hundred jin of meat daily and trained relentlessly while Qi Huan handled the cooking.
• Xu Yunfan spotted a fiercer fiend sleeping on a distant peak and questioned Qi Huan about the fiends’ origins.
• Xu Yunfan went to sleep alone, and the Apex Path Remains absorbed spiritual energy as his armor loosened.
• An unknown powerhouse entered Xu Yunfan’s dream, where a barefoot woman began to tell him to defeat her before abruptly reacting to his weapons and armor.

Xu Yunfan fought the mysterious woman after she offered him a place if he could defeat her. He pushed his martial arts and the Lin Character Secret to their limits, but her sword pierced his chest.

• Xu Yunfan questioned the woman about the place she promised to grant him if he defeated her.
• The woman attacked Xu Yunfan with her Bronze Sword, and he fought back with the Crimson Fire Dragon Devouring Mace and Dragon Scale Armor.
• Xu Yunfan injured the woman with the Nine Profound Dragon Subduing Mace Art, prompting her to praise him and reveal she had used only thirty percent of her sword speed.
• The woman summoned frost from the nine sword peaks, and Xu Yunfan used the Lin Character Secret to perceive and counter her sword’s tremors.
• The woman accelerated her sword and concealed her final strike, piercing Xu Yunfan through the chest.

Xu Yunfan fought a mysterious woman whose moonlight sword overwhelmed him, then woke alive and discovered the Apex Path Remains had drained the mountain’s spiritual energy. He and Qi Huan set out toward a crimson-clouded peak, where an enormous creature seemed to be breathing.

• Xu Yunfan attacked the mysterious woman with his Heavy Mace, but she froze it, summoned a blade of light from the nine sword peaks, and cut him down.
• Xu Yunfan woke after the battle and wondered about the woman’s strength and growing lucidity.
• Xu Yunfan realized the Apex Path Remains had devoured the spiritual energy gathered in the mountains.
• Xu Yunfan found demonic aura gathering around Qi Huan, then told him they were leaving.
• Qi Huan questioned whether they should approach the distant peak, and Xu Yunfan said they would investigate for any opportunity.

Xu Yunfan and Qi Huan discovered that Crimson Cloud Mountain was the coiled body of a wounded Evil Dragon, then watched Pei Yan attack it with the Green Bamboo Sword. The Evil Dragon turned the attack against him by activating the golden threads binding its body and forming chains from its lava wyrms.

• Xu Yunfan and Qi Huan climbed Crimson Cloud Mountain and hid when they heard the breathing of a sleeping creature.
• They recognized the mountain as a gigantic, wounded jiaolong that drew Spirit Mist into its body as it healed.
• The Evil Dragon's bloodline pressure injured Qi Huan, and its movement swallowed their hiding place in earthfire.
• Xu Yunfan and Qi Huan spotted remains of Sword Pavilion disciples and identified Pei Yan by the sword qi he sent toward the Evil Dragon.
• Pei Yan froze the Evil Dragon's lava wyrms with the Green Bamboo Sword, but the creature activated golden threads and shattered his ice defenses.
• The Evil Dragon formed crimson-gold chains from the wyrms' remains, with the bodies of Sword Pavilion disciples bursting into blood mist at their ends.

Xu Yunfan and Qi Huan defeated the Sword Pavilion Walker Pei Yan’s immediate threat and carried him to the edge of the Small World, hoping he could help them escape. Pei Yan awoke injured and poisoned, then recognized signs of a demon in Qi Huan.

• Pei Yan attacked the Evil Dragon with the Green Bamboo Sword and blood-sacrifice chains, but the dragon’s tail smashed him through seven sword peaks.
• Xu Yunfan and Qi Huan found Pei Yan alive, pulled him from the cliff, and carried him to the dark abyss at the Small World’s edge.
• Xu Yunfan tossed Pei Yan into a gorge, where he and Qi Huan waited for him to wake.
• Pei Yan awoke by the campfire, discovered his sword was gone, and heard Xu Yunfan explain that Qi Huan had been tainted by demonic qi.
• Pei Yan coughed up black blood from the Evil Dragon’s poison, then recognized Qi Huan’s features as resembling an ox-headed demon in the Sword Pavilion’s records.

Xu Yunfan offered Pei Yan a cure for his Dragon Venom in exchange for the Empty Clarity Sword Art, but Pei Yan refused, saying he could not pass on the Sword Pavilion’s secret technique. As Pei Yan considered the offer and his precarious situation, Xu Yunfan practiced nearby while Qi Huan served him roasted meat.

• Pei Yan thanked Xu Yunfan and Qi Huan for saving him, then revealed that he was the sole survivor of the Sword Pavilion’s failed attempt to kill the Evil Dragon and that Dragon Venom was poisoning him.
• Xu Yunfan proposed trading a precious medicine and help from a nearby earthfire for the Empty Clarity Sword Art, which he needed to reach the ninth realm.
• Pei Yan refused, explaining that the art was the Sword Pavilion’s secret Viscera Training method and that he had no right to pass it on.
• Xu Yunfan reminded Pei Yan of the art’s connection to his training and warned that the secret realm was dangerous and that his sect had not yet found a way to enter.
• Xu Yunfan began practicing his hammer technique, while Qi Huan gave Pei Yan roasted meat and explained that Xu Yunfan had taught him how to cook it.

Xu Yunfan used Pei Yan’s worsening Dragon Venom and grief over the Sword Pavilion disciples to pressure him into trading the Empty Clarity Sword Art. Pei Yan’s memories of his disciples’ deaths resurfaced as he struggled to answer.

• Pei Yan watched Xu Yunfan train with the Thunder Fire Qilin Hammer and realized Xu Yunfan had likely reached the Blood Exchange Realm.
• Pei Yan asked Qi Huan about Xu Yunfan’s nightly meditation method, then offered the Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound Art in exchange for it.
• Xu Yunfan refused the trade and said he wanted the Empty Clarity Sword Art, which Pei Yan would not give him.
• Xu Yunfan reminded Pei Yan that his Dragon Venom was worsening and that the Sword Pavilion’s exit from the Small World Secret Realm had not opened.
• Xu Yunfan invoked the more than ninety Sword Pavilion disciples devoured by the Evil Dragon, and Pei Yan clenched his fists before recalling their sacrifice and coughing violently.