Recaps

Lu Ye discovered that he was trapped aboard the Long Dragon Warship as its captain, then died when enemy ships destroyed it. He awoke in the control center with the crew alive, only for the same attack to begin again.

• Lu Ye tried to leave the Long Dragon Warship but found himself bound to it, and a crew member warned him to return to the control center.
• Three enemy warships attacked, and Qin Zong urged Lu Ye to take control of the Long Dragon Warship.
• Lu Ye struggled to maneuver the ship as its defenses failed and the enemy blasts killed the crew and destroyed the vessel.
• Lu Ye awoke unharmed in the control center, where the crew denied that anything had happened.
• The crow's nest announced another enemy attack, and Lu Ye saw the same three warships approaching as Qin Zong again told him to control the ship.

Lu Ye died for the third time aboard the Long Dragon Warship and returned to the start of another cycle, where he discovered a growing connection to the ship. He sought out Haitang for answers, and she warned him that each cycle was drawing him deeper into the warship.

• Lu Ye rejected Qin Zong's offer to take control of the Long Dragon Warship after seeing eerie smiles on Qin Zong, Xiao Jianming, and Xu Qingwei, then piloted it himself as enemy ships attacked.
• The Long Dragon Warship was destroyed sooner than before because Qin Zong's lingering imprint made it harder for Lu Ye to control.
• In the fourth cycle, Lu Ye sensed a new, tangible connection to the warship and recalled a female Crew Member warning him not to die too many times.
• Lu Ye found the woman in her room, learned her name was Haitang, and asked her what was happening.
• Haitang told Lu Ye that the cycle was drawing him deeper and confirmed that his strange connection to the warship was real.

Lu Ye learned from Haitang that the Long Dragon Warship was the Ghost Ship, whose captain had to survive its trial without surrendering control. After dying again, he began the fifth cycle by fleeing and learning to pilot the ship, but the enemy attack arrived at the same time as before.

• Haitang told Lu Ye that each death tightened his bond with the Ghost Ship and could eventually trap him as she was trapped.
• Haitang explained that Lu Ye had to command the crew and defeat the invading ships to escape, and that he could claim one treasure if he succeeded.
• Haitang warned Lu Ye never to give up control of the warship, since doing so would leave him stranded aboard the Ghost Ship.
• Lu Ye returned to the control sphere, but the invading ships destroyed the Long Dragon Warship and killed its crew.
• In the fifth cycle, Lu Ye tried to flee while learning the controls, but the enemies caught up at the same time as before and their attacks battered the ship's defenses.

Lu Ye repeatedly controlled the Long Dragon Warship through the Ghost Ship’s death cycles, training until he could maneuver it with ease while using Lingyu to sustain his Spiritual Power. By the sixteenth cycle, the enemy’s attacks had fallen to a manageable level, giving the crew hope of holding out as long as Lu Ye could keep the ship powered.

• In the sixth cycle, Lu Ye gave Qin Zong, Xiao Jianming, and Xu Qingwei Formation Plates and ordered them to coordinate the crew’s defenses on deck.
• Lu Ye and the crew held off the attackers for nearly the time it took an incense stick to burn before the Long Dragon Warship was destroyed.
• Lu Ye discovered that controlling the warship consumed enormous Spiritual Power, but he sustained himself by chewing Lingyu.
• In the seventh cycle, Lu Ye gave the crew replacement Formation Plates, then focused on learning the ship’s formations and treasures as the crew’s counterattacks repeatedly missed.
• Haitang watched Lu Ye’s control improve across the cycles and grew puzzled when his Spiritual Power did not run dry.
• By the sixteenth cycle, Lu Ye had mastered the warship’s controls and observed that the enemy’s attacks had diminished enough for the ship to endure if its protective array held.

Lu Ye tested the Long Dragon Warship against three enemy vessels, discovering that a coordinated ramming attack could destroy one but that its crew escaped to strengthen the others. After the Long Dragon Warship was destroyed, he entered the eighteenth cycle and began reconsidering his strategy.

• Lu Ye turned the Long Dragon Warship around and ordered Qin Zong and Xiao Jianming to coordinate its offensive Formations against the enemy vessels.
• The Long Dragon Warship and the targeted central enemy warship collided and were both wrecked, but the other enemy ships destroyed Lu Ye before he could investigate their crew.
• Lu Ye entered the seventeenth cycle, restored his crew to full strength, and used what he had learned to lead an attack that shattered one enemy warship's defenses.
• Lu Ye ordered his crew to kill the fleeing enemy crew, but more than half escaped aboard the other two vessels and strengthened their defenses and attacks.
• The two reinforced enemy warships destroyed the Long Dragon Warship, and Lu Ye entered the eighteenth cycle and considered the previous battle's gains and losses.

Lu Ye and his crew destroyed two enemy warships but lost the Long Dragon Warship when its defenses finally failed. In the next cycle, Lu Ye realized he might not need to kill every crew member fleeing the second enemy warship.

• Lu Ye ordered Haitang to use a rapid-fire formation against the crew fleeing the first enemy warship, helping destroy the attackers while the Long Dragon Warship endured heavy damage.
• The crew destroyed the first enemy warship and nearly defeated the second, but the Long Dragon Warship's defenses collapsed before they could finish the fight.
• In the nineteenth cycle, Lu Ye struggled to find a way to keep the Protective Spirit Array from failing, while Haitang praised his efforts and prepared to fight again.
• The battle repeated its earlier course, with the crew destroying the first enemy warship and then the second as the Long Dragon Warship's defenses neared collapse.
• Lu Ye realized that, unlike the first warship's crew, the second warship's fleeing crew might not need to be killed completely.

Lu Ye rammed the Long Dragon Warship into the last enemy warship and, with Haitang’s help, broke its defenses. When enemy cultivators emerged, he unleashed Feng Rumuo’s sealed secret technique and led his crew into battle, leaving the enemy forces in disarray.

• Lu Ye ordered Haitang to help Xu Qingwei maintain the Protective Spirit Array, then drove the Long Dragon Warship toward the final enemy warship.
• Haitang warned by Lu Ye, protected herself during the collision, then took over Qin Zong’s position and fired the attack array to shatter the enemy warship’s defenses.
• Lu Ye discovered the trial continued as enemy cultivators approached, including a Moonlight Realm cultivator, and released the secret technique sealed in the Crag Mountain Saber.
• A golden strange beast devoured the Moonlight Realm shadow and several Star Constellation Realm shadows before disappearing.
• Lu Ye attacked the stunned enemy ranks, and Qin Zong and Xiao Jianming joined him with their battle formations.
• After both sides recovered and the battle began in earnest, Lu Ye’s crew formations pressed the scattered enemy forces back.

After passing the Ghost Ship’s trial, Lu Ye entered its treasure vault with Haitang to choose a reward. He settled on an extraordinary bead, then sensed something and called out for someone to reveal themselves.

• Lu Ye fought alongside the crew without joining their formations and helped kill the final enemy less than an incense stick after the golden alien beast vanished.
• The crew directed Lu Ye to a newly revealed door in the Long Dragon Warship, and Qin Zong and Xiao Jianming opened it to expose the treasure vault.
• A strange voice granted Lu Ye permission to take one item, and Haitang entered the vault with him to help assess the treasures.
• Haitang advised Lu Ye to avoid powerful offensive treasures he could not use and pointed out a Treasure Robe as a possible choice.
• After two hours of searching, Lu Ye and Haitang shortlisted nine treasures, and Lu Ye chose an extraordinary-looking bead.
• Just before reaching for the bead, Lu Ye looked toward Haitang’s retreating back and called out, demanding that someone come out.

Lu Ye gave up the Great Evolution Spirit Pearl to choose Haitang as his reward for passing the Ghost Ship’s trial, and the mist allowed him to take her away. After the Ghost Ship released them into the starry sky, Lu Ye found Haitang looking gravely weakened.

• Lu Ye asked the mist whether he could choose Haitang, a member of the Ghost Ship, instead of the pearl.
• The mist tried to persuade Lu Ye with the Great Evolution Spirit Pearl’s value, but Lu Ye insisted on choosing Haitang.
• The mist agreed, and Haitang tearfully followed Lu Ye out of the treasure vault.
• Qin Zong and the other crew members bid Lu Ye farewell, then the mist carried him and Haitang away from the Ghost Ship.
• Lu Ye emerged in the starry sky, watched the Ghost Ship disappear, and hurried to Haitang when she called to him.
• Lu Ye found Haitang and was shocked by how weak she looked.

Lu Ye rescued the weakened Haitang from the Ghost Ship and discovered that its mist had left him with a Ghost Ship imprint in his Divine Sea, giving him a powerful new weapon for battles of divine souls. As he and Haitang continued toward Nine Provinces, she stabilized and thanked him for saving her.

• Lu Ye learned that Haitang was a palm-sized member of the Square Inch Mountain Little People Race, and he carried her on his shoulder while she recovered.
• Lu Ye charted a course toward Nine Provinces and examined the mist that had entered his body after he left the Ghost Ship.
• Lu Ye discovered a Ghost Ship imprint in his Divine Sea that could summon imprints of Qin Zong and the other crew members for divine-soul battles.
• Lu Ye tested the Ghost Ship imprint and recognized its value as an offensive counterpart to his Soul Suppressing Tower.
• After a month of travel, Haitang's condition stabilized, and she thanked Lu Ye for rescuing her.
• Lu Ye told Haitang that they had saved each other and that his reward from the mist was no less valuable than the treasures in the vault.

Lu Ye invited Haitang, who could not find her drifting homeland of Square Inch Mountain, to return with him to the Nine Heavens Realm. After Little Nine and Jian Guhong contacted him, Jian Guhong asked Lu Ye to bring Haitang back so she could share Square Inch Mountain’s general knowledge of the starry sky.

• Haitang thanked Lu Ye for rescuing her from the Ghost Ship, and Lu Ye explained that the mist’s wording had tipped him off that he could choose her as the thing to take from the ship.
• Haitang explained that Square Inch Mountain wandered through the starry sky and that she no longer knew where it was, so Lu Ye invited her to travel with him to his realm.
• Haitang learned that the Nine Heavens Realm had only recently advanced to a Large Realm and was impressed by Lu Ye’s cultivation and abilities.
• After another half month of travel, Little Nine contacted Lu Ye and urged him to return home, and Jian Guhong asked him to report his discoveries from the journey.
• Lu Ye told Jian Guhong about Feng Rumuo and the Ghost Ship, then explained Haitang’s origins; Jian Guhong asked him to bring her back to share common knowledge about the starry sky.

Lu Ye learned that Nian Yuexian had suddenly vanished beyond Little Nine’s sensing range and rushed to investigate. At the site, Haitang found traces of Square Inch Mountain, suggesting Nian Yuexian had entered the Little People Race’s home realm, where she might face a century of hard labor.

• Little Nine told Lu Ye that it had lost contact with Nian Yuexian’s Battlefield Mark, and Lu Ye set out to find her.
• Lu Ye reached the place where Nian Yuexian had vanished and investigated while remaining concealed.
• Haitang detected traces of Square Inch Mountain and followed them, leading Lu Ye in the direction the realm had traveled.
• Haitang explained that Nian Yuexian might have entered Square Inch Mountain and would likely be forced to serve a hundred years of hard labor, though her life was probably not in danger.

Lu Ye followed Haitang to Square Inch Mountain, hoping to find Nian Yuexian, and discovered that the mountain concealed a vast realm with its own laws and powerful factions. Haitang brought him to Immortal Spirit Peak and went to ask her master, Su Yuqing, for help locating his senior sister, leaving Lu Ye waiting in the Guest Hall.

• Haitang tracked Square Inch Mountain through the starry sky and led Lu Ye to its mountain-shaped exterior.
• Haitang brought Lu Ye through Square Inch Mountain's concealed boundary, where he encountered its immense inner world and learned that its law made visitors smaller.
• Haitang explained that Square Inch Mountain was divided into Eastern, Southern, and Western Divisions, and that the Eastern Division had a thousand Spirit Peaks led by three Great Sun Realm experts.
• Haitang took Lu Ye to Immortal Spirit Peak, where her master Su Yuqing was its Peak Master and one of the realm's three Great Sun Realm experts.
• Haitang settled Lu Ye in the Guest Hall and went to report Nian Yuexian's disappearance to Su Yuqing.

Haitang told her master, Su Yuqing, how Lu Ye had saved her from the Ghost Ship, and Su Yuqing learned that he had sacrificed a priceless treasure to bring Haitang out. Haitang then asked Su Yuqing to investigate whether Lu Ye’s missing senior sister was trapped on Square Inch Mountain.

• Haitang reunited with Su Yuqing and explained that she had been trapped aboard the Ghost Ship until Lu Ye rescued her.
• Su Yuqing examined Lu Ye and listened as Haitang described his nineteen trial cycles, his battle aboard the Ghost Ship, and the golden beast unleashed from his weapon.
• Haitang told Su Yuqing that Lu Ye had given up the Great Evolution Spirit Pearl to bring her out of the Ghost Ship, and explained that he had acted to repay her kindness.
• Su Yuqing’s respect for Lu Ye grew, and she learned that he had come to Square Inch Mountain seeking his missing senior sister.
• Haitang asked Su Yuqing to investigate whether Lu Ye’s senior sister had entered Square Inch Mountain and, if so, help her reunite with Lu Ye.

Su Yuqing realized that Lu Ye was likely the notorious Lu Yiye of the Nine Heavens Realm and learned that his senior sister had been detained on Square Inch Mountain. After agreeing to release her, Su Yuqing considered arranging a dao partnership between Lu Ye and Haitang, who admitted she would not refuse if he felt the same.

• Su Yuqing learned that Lu Ye came from the Nine Heavens Realm and recognized him as the Lu Yiye famed for defeating Blood Race and Insect Race cultivators in the Divine Sea Conflict.
• Su Yuqing received Chen Xuanhai's reply and confirmed that Lu Ye's senior sister had been captured three months earlier and was working in a mine without being mistreated.
• Haitang asked Su Yuqing to release Lu Ye's senior sister, and Su Yuqing agreed to speak with Chen Xuanhai.
• Su Yuqing questioned Haitang about Lu Ye's character and whether she could entrust her future to him as a dao companion.
• Haitang said she would not refuse Lu Ye if he had such feelings, but worried that proposing the match would put him in a difficult position.

Lu Ye arrived at Square Inch Mountain seeking his missing senior sister, while Su Yuqing arranged to have the captured foreign woman released after learning of their relationship. With the Black Abyss Martial Competition three months away and Haitang recovering from injuries, Su Yuqing proposed recruiting Lu Ye as outside help.

• Haitang brought Lu Ye to meet Su Yuqing but kept quiet about what her master had told her regarding his senior sister.
• Su Yuqing summoned Chen Xuanhai and Wu Qimo, explained how Lu Ye had rescued Haitang from the Ghost Ship, and asked Chen Xuanhai to release Lu Ye's captured senior sister.
• The three Sunlights discussed the Black Abyss Martial Competition and learned that Haitang's foundations had been damaged, though she might recover in time.
• Su Yuqing proposed recruiting Lu Ye for the competition, and Chen Xuanhai and Wu Qimo questioned his early-stage cultivation and asked why she had chosen him.
• Su Yuqing began explaining that a conversation with Shuixian of the Boundless Realm had given her a reason to consider Lu Ye.

Su Yuqing, Chen Xuanhai, and Wu Qimo suspected that Lu Ye was the famous Lu Yiye from the Cycle Tree’s Divine Sea Conflict and arranged a test of his strength. After Haitang disappeared in a mist, Wu Qimo’s disciple challenged Lu Ye, and their battle began with Lu Ye charging through a barrage of spells.

• Su Yuqing recounted Lu Yiye’s feats at the Cycle Tree, and the three Great Sun Realm cultivators concluded that he might be the Lu Ye who had arrived with Haitang.
• Haitang explained to Lu Ye that the Little People Race could not attend the Cycle Tree’s event because its Clone could not survive in Square Inch Mountain.
• A mist separated Lu Ye from Haitang, and Wu Qimo’s disciple appeared to test Lu Ye on his master’s orders.
• The disciple demanded toll money, and Lu Ye drew his saber and rushed to attack.
• The fat Spell Cultivator unleashed a variety of spells, but Lu Ye dodged and forced his way through the barrage as the disciple retreated.

Lu Ye defeated a fat Star Constellation cultivator and met Su Yuqing, Haitang’s master, who confirmed that his senior sister had been found. Su Yuqing arranged for the senior sister to be released from forced labor, but she could not yet leave Square Inch Mountain’s world.

• Lu Ye saw through the fat cultivator’s feigned spellcasting and defeated him with a saber strike, breaking his Great Prime Elephant Talisman’s protection.
• Su Yuqing, Wu Qimo, and Chen Xuanhai discussed Lu Ye’s strength and whether he might help their world in the Black Abyss Martial Competition.
• Lu Ye met Su Yuqing, thanked her for Haitang’s help on the Ghost Ship, and asked whether his senior sister had reached Square Inch Mountain.
• Su Yuqing said Chen Xuanhai had captured Lu Ye’s senior sister three months earlier and sent her to mine spirit ore, but Haitang had gone to retrieve her.
• Su Yuqing explained that Lu Ye’s senior sister could reunite with him but could not leave the world because Chen Xuanhai insisted on enforcing the ancestral rule for outside cultivators.

Lu Ye reunited with Nian Yuexian on Square Inch Mountain after Haitang helped bring her from the mines, but Chen Xuanhai’s rule meant they could not yet leave freely. Su Yuqing promised to keep mediating, and the senior sister and junior brother settled in to cultivate while Lu Ye studied Haitang’s Sound Talisman.

• Su Yuqing told Lu Ye that Chen Xuanhai was difficult to persuade, but promised to keep mediating so Nian Yuexian could leave sooner.
• Haitang brought Nian Yuexian to Lu Ye, who checked that she was unharmed and thanked Haitang for helping her.
• Lu Ye and Nian Yuexian spoke privately, and he explained how his journey and rescue of Haitang had led him to Square Inch Mountain.
• Lu Ye told Nian Yuexian that Chen Xuanhai’s hundred-year service rule still threatened to keep them there, while Su Yuqing worked to resolve the matter.
• Lu Ye gave Nian Yuexian nearly a thousand Lingyu, and they each took a room to cultivate.
• Lu Ye examined Haitang’s Sound Talisman to see whether he could refine one himself.

Lu Ye learned to refine Sound Talismans and prepared a supply for the Nine Provinces, but Chen Xuanhai’s condition for Nian Yuexian to leave Square Inch Mountain was rejected. Nian Yuexian chose a century of service, and Lu Ye learned that she had moved on from her past feelings for Feng Wujiang.

• Lu Ye obtained jade from Haitang and refined Sound Talismans, which he and Nian Yuexian tested as a way to communicate beyond the Heavenly Mechanism’s range.
• After half a month, Lu Ye had made enough Sound Talismans for the Nine Provinces Star Constellation Realm cultivators, but he asked Haitang for news about Nian Yuexian’s release.
• Haitang told Lu Ye that Chen Xuanhai would let Nian Yuexian leave only if she became Dao Companions with a man on Square Inch Mountain.
• Nian Yuexian rejected the condition and chose to serve Square Inch Mountain for a hundred years, while Lu Ye refused the proposal and Haitang went to plead with her master again.
• Lu Ye asked Nian Yuexian whether she still admired Feng Wujiang, and she explained that her feelings had become a memory of the past.

Lu Ye and Nian Yuexian believed Su Yuqing had fought Chen Xuanhai over Nian Yuexian’s fate, unaware that the Great Sun Realm cultivators had staged the clash to persuade Lu Ye to help Square Inch Mountain. Haitang later told them that Lu Ye could take Nian Yuexian away if he filled a vacant place in the upcoming Black Abyss Martial Competition.

• Nian Yuexian questioned whether Su Yuqing had truly tried her best to persuade Chen Xuanhai.
• Su Yuqing and Chen Xuanhai’s Dao Bodies fought before Square Inch Mountain while Wu Qimo pretended to mediate, concealing their plan from Lu Ye and Nian Yuexian.
• Lu Ye and Nian Yuexian regretted doubting Su Yuqing and decided they should thank her.
• Haitang visited Lu Ye and Nian Yuexian and said Chen Xuanhai would let Lu Ye take Nian Yuexian away if he joined the Black Abyss Martial Competition to replace a cultivator unable to participate.

Haitang explained the Black Abyss Martial Competition, a contest held every fifty years in which the three divisions of Square Inch Mountain struggled over their realms’ foundations through Star Constellation Realm cultivators. Lu Ye learned that his division usually came last and was short on eligible participants, leaving him to consider the significance of the opportunity Su Yuqing had secured.

• Lu Ye asked Haitang about the Black Abyss Martial Competition, and she explained Square Inch Mountain’s division into three connected realms and their shared foundations.
• Haitang described how the three divisions’ past struggle over their foundations led them to establish the competition, which would next be held in a little over two months.
• Haitang explained that each division sent nine Star Constellation Realm cultivators, and that entrants could enter the Black Abyss only once in their lives.
• Lu Ye realized the Eastern Division had few eligible cultivators because it had produced only enough recent Star Constellation Realm cultivators to fill its roster.
• Haitang admitted that their division usually came last, though it had placed second once two hundred years earlier.

Lu Ye learned that he needed to dual cultivate with a Little People Race woman to enter the Black Abyss Martial Competition, and suspected Su Yuqing and Chen Xuanhai had maneuvered him toward choosing Haitang as a dao companion. He retreated to consider the decision while Nian Yuexian secretly arranged to meet Haitang.

• Lu Ye agreed to participate in the Black Abyss Martial Competition, but Haitang explained that he needed a Little People Race dao companion and dual cultivation to enter Black Abyss.
• Nian Yuexian suggested Su Yuqing had intended Lu Ye and Haitang to become dao companions, and Lu Ye worried about leaving Haitang behind when he returned to the Nine Provinces.
• Lu Ye and Nian Yuexian suspected Chen Xuanhai had used an unacceptable demand on Nian Yuexian to make Lu Ye's choice seem more appealing, while Su Yuqing had also been guiding events toward him.
• Lu Ye joked that he could choose a woman from Immortal Spirit Peak without commitment, flew toward the peak, then turned back and shut himself in his room to reconsider.
• Nian Yuexian contacted Haitang with her Sound Talisman and met her at the foot of Immortal Spirit Peak.

Nian Yuexian questioned Su Yuqing about Lu Ye’s proposed cultivation partnership and learned that Su Yuqing had chosen him because of his performance in the Cycle Tree’s Divine Sea Conflict. Lu Ye agreed to help with the Black Abyss Martial Competition but refused to choose a Dao Companion, then proposed cultivating with a widowed woman of the Little People Race instead.

• Nian Yuexian reassured Haitang that Lu Ye’s decision would not affect their friendship, then asked Su Yuqing whether Lu Ye would be free to leave Square Inch Mountain if he chose a partner there.
• Su Yuqing promised that Lu Ye and Haitang could leave if they wished, and revealed that she knew Lu Ye was Lu Yiye of the Nine Heavens Realm because of his feats in the Cycle Tree’s Divine Sea Conflict.
• Nian Yuexian predicted that Lu Ye would refuse the partnership, reasoning that he would not want to leave Haitang’s home or bind her to a life apart from her people.
• After Nian Yuexian left, Su Yuqing considered that Lu Ye’s conscience might thwart her plan, then summoned him when Haitang reported that he wished to see her.
• Lu Ye told Su Yuqing he would participate in the Black Abyss Martial Competition but could not choose a cultivation partner because he could neither stay with her nor take her away from Square Inch Mountain.
• Lu Ye proposed that Su Yuqing find him a suitable widowed woman of the Little People Race to cultivate with so he could gain the required aura, adding that he was strong and robust.

Lu Ye refused Su Yuqing’s proposal to gain the Little People Race’s aura, deciding instead to accept the rules keeping Nian Yuexian in Square Inch Mountain for now. He and Nian Yuexian began gathering starry-sky knowledge from the Abyss of Information Pavilion, though Su Yuqing barred him from its fifth floor.

• Su Yuqing explained that Lu Ye would need to cultivate with a pure-bodied woman performing a Little People Race Secret Technique to enter the Black Abyss, but Lu Ye declined and said he would follow Square Inch Mountain’s rules.
• Lu Ye told Nian Yuexian he suspected the dispute over her release was staged to secure his help in the Black Abyss Martial Competition, and she accepted his explanation.
• Lu Ye proposed investigating Square Inch Mountain’s records of the starry sky, and Haitang guided him and Nian Yuexian to the Abyss of Information Pavilion.
• Haitang explained the pavilion’s five floors and relayed Su Yuqing’s restriction that Lu Ye could not access the fifth floor without the Little People Race’s aura.
• Lu Ye and Nian Yuexian divided the pavilion’s records between them, and Lu Ye went to copy the information on the upper floors.