Chapter Summaries

Xiao Yan took advantage of the Nine Profound Golden Lightning’s energy imbalance and offered to help it gather spirits with a Spirit Gathering Array. The array drew in vast amounts of spiritual energy, and the Nine Profound Golden Lightning began its evolution.

• The Nine Profound Golden Lightning’s energy balance shattered after it spent power driving Xiao Yan away, but it repaired the resulting wound with help from the Black Demon Lightning.
• Xiao Yan showed the Nine Profound Golden Lightning spiritual energy and promised to use a Spirit Gathering Array to help it gather spirits.
• The Nine Profound Golden Lightning agreed, and Xiao Yan used his Emperor Realm Soul to form a ten-thousand-zhang Spirit Gathering Array around it.
• The array drew spiritual energy from the void and poured it into the Nine Profound Golden Lightning.
• Xiao Yan urged the Nine Profound Golden Lightning to gather spirits, and it closed its eyes as its evolution began.

Xiao Yan cultivated in the Void Lightning Pool while the Nine Profound Golden Lightning gathered its spirit, and he broke through to the Mid-Six-Star Dou Sheng realm. The lightning took human form as Jiu Xuan, who called Xiao Yan his father before agreeing to call him brother and proposing the name Xiao Xuan.

• Xiao Yan left the Nine Profound Golden Lightning to gather spirit and cultivated with the Black Demon Lightning in the Void Lightning Pool.
• After a month, Xiao Yan used energy supplied by an unseen arrival to break through to the Mid-Six-Star Dou Sheng realm.
• Jiu Xuan appeared in human form, resembling a younger version of Xiao Yan.
• Jiu Xuan called Xiao Yan his father, but Xiao Yan persuaded him to use the title Brother instead.
• Jiu Xuan proposed calling himself Xiao Xuan because Xiao Yan was named Xiao Yan and he had formed from the Nine Profound Golden Lightning.

Xiao Yan left the Void Lightning Pool with Xiao Jiu, who gave him a Golden Core made from his expelled Nine Profound Golden Lightning energy. Back at Dragon Emperor Hall, Zi Yan learned that Xiao Yan’s new companion had cultivation she could not perceive and refused to accept being outmatched.

• Xiao Jiu told Xiao Yan he was a Mid-Seven-Star Dou Sheng and could contend against an Early Eight-Star Dou Sheng, but Xiao Yan called his strength merely not bad.
• Xiao Jiu gathered the golden lightning he had expelled over the past thousand years and condensed it into a Golden Core for Xiao Yan.
• Xiao Yan thanked Xiao Jiu for the gift and took him from the Void Lightning Pool, ending their four-month journey.
• Zi Yan complained that Xiao Yan had been away for four months and asked who the powerful youth behind him was.
• Zi Yan realized she could not perceive Xiao Jiu’s cultivation and refused to accept that anyone else might surpass her talent.

After the Soul Clan destroyed the Shi Clan and swallowed the Shi Realm, Xiao Yan learned that Shi Tian had saved the Tou She Ancient God Jade by sending it to the Ancient Clan. The five clans and Sky Mansion Alliance publicly formed an alliance, declared war on the Soul Clan, and prepared a campaign against it, joined by the three great families of the Beast World.

• Xiao Yan introduced Xiao Jiu, a human-form Nine Profound Golden Lightning, to Zi Yan before Xiao Yi Xian reported that the Shi Realm had vanished and the Shi Clan was unreachable.
• Xiao Yan returned to the Star Realm, where Yao Chen told him the Soul Clan had taken the Shi Realm but Shi Tian had sent the Tou She Ancient God Jade to the Ancient Clan before dying.
• Venerable Feng reported that the five clans and Sky Mansion Alliance would announce their alliance, expose the Soul Clan, and formally declare war.
• Yao Chen ordered Venerable Feng to lead an Allied Forces campaign against Soul Clan strongholds and toward the Soul Realm to pressure the Soul Clan.
• The three great families of the Beast World joined Sky Mansion Alliance, declared war on the Soul Clan, and sent experts to join the campaign.

After the Soul Clan's destruction of the Shi Clan triggered a united declaration of war, the Allied Forces drove its forces underground but failed to find the Soul Realm. The Soul Clan realized its attack had unified its enemies, including the Beast World’s three great races, and panicked as the continent settled into a tense pause.

• News of the alliance and the Shi Clan's destruction spread across the Central Plains, turning the major human and Magical Beast powers against the Soul Clan.
• The Allied Forces swept away the Soul Clan's peripheral forces and Soul Hall remnants, but the Soul Clan and Soul Realm vanished.
• The allied factions withdrew to guard their Ancient Realms, knowing Hun Tiandi needed the remaining Tou She Ancient God Jade pieces to become a Dou Di.
• The Soul Clan pieced together that the destruction of the Shi Clan had united the clans and Sky Mansion, after their earlier disagreement over whether to wage war.
• The Soul Clan panicked when the three great races of the Beast World joined the war against it.

Xiao Yan and Yao Chen prepared for the Soul Clan’s likely attack on the Yao Clan during its Medicine Ceremony, while the Allied Forces worked to strengthen their defenses. Xiao Yan received the Pill Tower Ancestor and was ready to take him to the Xiao Realm to attempt a breakthrough to Seven-Star Dou Sheng.

• Yao Chen told Xiao Yan that he planned to bring him and Xiao Jiu to the Yao Clan’s Medicine Ceremony while the others guarded the Star Realm.
• Xiao Yan warned Yao Chen that Hun Tiandi would likely target the Yao Clan, using the ceremony to ambush it or draw the Allied Forces away while his pawns pursued the Tou She Ancient God Jade.
• Yao Chen agreed to alert the other factions and secretly send experts to the Yao Realm, then gave Xiao Yan a Ninth-Grade Profound Pill prepared to help the Pill Tower Ancestor advance.
• Xiao Yan waited in the hall as Venerable Skyfire brought in the Pill Tower Ancestor, who asked why Xiao Yan had summoned him so urgently.

Xiao Yan brought Pill Tower Ancestor to the Xiao Realm, where Xiao Xuan arranged for the Bodhi Ancient Tree to help him reach Seven-Star Dou Sheng. After he broke through, Pill Tower Ancestor went ahead to the Yao Realm to support Sky Mansion as the Medicine Ceremony began.

• Pill Tower Ancestor agreed to travel with Xiao Yan to the Xiao Realm and met Xiao Xuan there.
• Xiao Xuan explained that the Soul Clan might attack during the Medicine Ceremony and asked Pill Tower Ancestor to support the Yao Clan as a Seven-Star Dou Sheng.
• Xiao Xuan arranged for Pill Tower Ancestor to cultivate beneath the Bodhi Ancient Tree, offering a Ninth-Grade Profound Pill and a session of enlightenment.
• Pill Tower Ancestor broke through a month later and led Sky Mansion powerhouses to the Yao Realm ahead of the Medicine Ceremony.
• Yao Chen, Xiao Yan, and Xiao Jiu traveled through a spatial passage into the depths of the Yao Realm to avoid a possible Soul Clan ambush.

Yao Chen returned to the Yao Realm with Xiao Yan and Xiao Jiu for the Medicine Ceremony, where the Yao Clan arranged for Yao Wangui to receive him. Yao Wangui struggled to face the man he had once expelled from the clan as Yao Chen approached Yao Mountain.

• Yao Chen, Xiao Yan, and Xiao Jiu arrived in the Yao Realm through a Space Wormhole, and a Yao Clan Dou Sheng welcomed them.
• Yao Nanli escorted the three to Yao Mountain, where Yao Chen recalled his past and Xiao Jiu compared the Yao Realm with the Xiao Realm.
• Yao Wangui learned that Clan Leader Yao Dan had ordered him to welcome Yao Chen, despite his resentment at being made to apologize to the man he had expelled.
• Yao Wangui returned to the Guest Reception Square and watched Yao Chen approach, unable to bring himself to speak.

Yao Wangui tried to escort Yao Chen to the Yao Clan’s Medicine Ceremony, but Yao Chen rejected him and left with Xiao Yan and Xiao Jiu. Three Yao Clan elders then appeared to take Yao Wangui away.

• Yao Wangui lashed out at his flattering followers after they mocked Yao Chen, then decided to protect his position as Punishment Elder.
• Yao Wangui approached Yao Chen, Xiao Yan, and Xiao Jiu and said Clan Leader Yao Dan had sent him to escort them to the Medicine Ceremony.
• Yao Chen questioned Yao Wangui and told him to leave, but Yao Wangui insisted he had come willingly.
• Yao Chen took Xiao Yan and Xiao Jiu away through space, leaving Yao Wangui pleading after them.
• Three Yao Clan Dou Sheng elders emerged and said they would take Yao Wangui with them.

Yao Wangui agreed to return with Yao Clan officials after they warned him that he could be executed for defying their orders. At Yao Mountain, Yao Chen told Great Elder Wanyao that he cared only about fulfilling his parents’ final wish and would support the alliance against the Soul Clan, while Xiao Yan introduced his younger brother Xiao Jiu.

• Yao Wangui stopped resisting and went with the three Yao Clan officials who had come to take him back.
• Great Elder Wanyao learned that Yao Wangui had refused to return and left his guests to meet Yao Chen.
• Wanyao acknowledged Yao Chen’s strength and admitted that the clan had been wrong to drive him away.
• Yao Chen said he did not care what happened to Yao Wangui and had come only to fulfill his parents’ final wish, while promising Sky Mansion’s support against the Soul Clan.
• Wanyao addressed Xiao Yan as the Xiao Clan’s Young Clan Leader, and Xiao Yan introduced his younger brother Xiao Jiu.

At the Yao Clan’s Medicine Ceremony, Xiao Yan and Yao Chen reunited with Old Man Shennong, then Hun Xuzi arrived as the Soul Clan’s unexpected visitor. Great Elder Wanhuo surrounded Hun Xuzi with ten Yao Clan Dou Shengs and demanded that he surrender.

• Xiao Jiu awkwardly greeted Great Elder Wanhuo, who examined him and assumed he had no cultivation talent.
• Old Man Shennong arrived on his medicine cauldron and greeted Wan Huo, Yao Chen, and Xiao Yan, discussing their breakthroughs into the Emperor Realm.
• Hun Xuzi entered through a spatial passage surrounded by black mist and introduced himself as a representative of the Soul Clan.
• Yao Chen told Xiao Yan that Hun Xuzi had once spied on the Pill Tower and betrayed his teacher when exposed.
• Great Elder Wanhuo ordered ten Yao Clan Dou Shengs to surround Hun Xuzi, sealed the surrounding space, and demanded his surrender.

Hun Xuzi entered the Yao Clan’s Medicine Ceremony under the guise of an Alchemist, and Yao Dan allowed him to stay while secretly preparing for a Soul Clan attack. Xiao Yan revealed that Hun Xuzi was actually a Seven-Star Dou Sheng, prompting Yao Dan to suspect that he was the Soul Clan’s assassin, while the Soul Clan’s true plan remained hidden.

• Hun Xuzi claimed he had come to compete in the Medicine Ceremony, and Great Elder Wanhuo ordered the Yao Clan’s Ten Saints to kill him.
• Yao Dan arrived, stopped the attack, and let Hun Xuzi remain under the condition that he would personally keep watch on him.
• Yao Dan told Wanhuo that he had prepared the Allied Forces for a possible Soul Clan assault on the Yao Realm.
• Xiao Yan warned Yao Dan that Hun Xuzi had concealed his cultivation, and Yao Chen confirmed with his Emperor Realm Soul that Hun Xuzi was a Seven-Star Dou Sheng.
• Yao Dan concluded that Hun Xuzi was meant to strike at him during the Soul Clan’s attack, unaware that Hun Xuzi was actually providing spatial coordinates and diverting attention from Nihility Devouring Flame’s secret operation.

Xiao Yan brought Xiao Jiu to the Yao Realm and proved that the Xiao Tribe could field a Mid-Seven-Star Dou Sheng, changing how the Yao Clan viewed their strength. As preparations began for Yao Chen’s parents’ ceremony, Hun Xuzi tried to provoke Xiao Yan, who instead identified the Nihility Devouring Flame within him.

• Xiao Yan corrected Wan Huo and revealed that the Xiao Tribe had sent a Seven-Star Dou Sheng to support the alliance.
• Xiao Jiu released his aura, shocking Yao Dan and Wan Huo with his Mid-Seven-Star Dou Sheng cultivation despite being younger than Xiao Yan.
• Yao Dan moved the ceremony honoring Yao Chen’s parents to before the Medicine Ceremony because he feared the Soul Clan would attack.
• Hun Xuzi sat near Yao Chen and Xiao Yan, hoping to provoke them while concealing his mission for the Soul Clan.
• Xiao Yan stared at Hun Xuzi and recognized a Child Flame of the Nihility Devouring Flame within him.

Xiao Yan attacked Hun Xuzi during the Yao Clan’s Medicine Ceremony, but Great Elder Wanhuo intervened and stopped the fight. As the ceremony began, Yao Dan announced that the clan would honor several members on its Clan Stele, including Yao Chen’s deceased parents.

• Xiao Yan ambushed Hun Xuzi and demanded the Child Flame of Nihility Devouring Flame, while Hun Xuzi fought back with the Soul-Shattering Underworld Palm.
• Great Elder Wanhuo intercepted Hun Xuzi’s attack and ordered him to stop, then dismissed the clash as trouble caused by a petty villain.
• Hun Xuzi warned Xiao Yan that the Nihility Devouring Flame’s Space Lockdown would soon be complete and vowed to kill him after the ceremony.
• A bell announced the start of the Medicine Ceremony, and Yao Dan appeared on the central platform.
• Yao Dan announced that the Yao Clan would inscribe the names of several meritorious members on its Clan Stele, prompting guests to discuss the clan’s efforts to win Yao Chen’s support.

Yao Chen rejected Yao Dan’s attempt to use the Clan Stele ceremony to bring him back into the Yao Clan, while allowing his parents’ names to be inscribed. Yao Dan accepted his decision and engraved Yao Jingtian and Yao Shumu’s names on the stele.

• Yao Dan summoned the ancient Yao Clan Stele and proposed inscribing the names of Yao Jingtian, Yao Shumu, and Yao Chen.
• Yao Chen asked whether his parents’ names could still be inscribed if he refused, and Yao Dan confirmed that their honor was not conditional on his return.
• Yao Chen refused to have his own name added, explaining that the Yao Clan had come thirty years too late to win him back.
• Xiao Yan sent Yao Dan a voice transmission, after which Yao Dan announced that only Yao Jingtian and Yao Shumu would be inscribed.
• Yao Dan engraved Yao Jingtian and Yao Shumu’s names on the Yao Clan Stele.

Yao Dan completed the Yao Clan’s Medicine Ceremony ritual by adding Yao Chen’s name to the Clan Stele, then began the clan’s alchemy competition. After the younger generation’s contest ended, Xiao Yan and three other Grandmaster Alchemists took their places for the second round, where Old Man Shennong questioned Xiao Yan’s skill.

• Yao Dan engraved Yao Jingtian, Yao Shumu, and Yao Chen on the Clan Stele, then made it disappear and declared the Medicine Ceremony begun.
• More than a thousand young Yao Clan Alchemists competed, and Yao Chen explained to Xiao Yan that the Yao Clan surpassed the Pill Tower in alchemy.
• Yao Tian won the first round with an Eighth-Grade Pill that produced Nine-Color Pill Lightning, while Yao Ling took second and another Yao Clan youth took third.
• Yao Dan began the second round and summoned Xiao Yan, Great Elder Wanhuo, Old Man Shennong, and Hun Xuzi to four platforms.
• Old Man Shennong asked whether Xiao Yan had reached the level of a Ninth-Grade Profound Pill Alchemist.

Xiao Yan revealed that he was already a Ninth-Grade Profound Pill Alchemist, leaving the other competitors little hope of beating him, but they prepared to compete anyway. As the alchemists summoned their Heavenly Flames, Great Elder Wanhuo described the loss of the Yao Clan’s Nine Nether Wind Flame, and Hun Xuzi finally summoned a child flame of the Nihility Devouring Flame.

• Xiao Yan said he had been a Ninth-Grade Profound Pill Alchemist for a while, prompting Old Man Shennong and the others to realize how unlikely they were to win.
• Hun Xuzi insisted that the alchemists should still compete, and Great Elder Wanhuo called for the contest to begin.
• Yao Tian lent Great Elder Wanhuo the Turtle Spirit Earth Flame, whose Fire Spirit appeared as a giant brown turtle.
• Great Elder Wanhuo told Old Man Shennong that the Nine Nether Wind Flame had vanished after Yao Xingji died in the Heavenly Tomb, and he accused the Ancient Clan of taking it.
• Old Man Shennong revealed that his Emerald Bamboo Staff was the Life Flame, while Hun Xuzi tried to show his own Heavenly Flame and was ignored until Xiao Yan prompted him.
• Hun Xuzi formed a seal and summoned a child flame of the Nihility Devouring Flame, which took on a strange face and released Devouring Power.

Xiao Yan began the Ninth-Grade Profound Pill contest by choosing to refine a Lightning Tribulation Pill with Nine Profound Golden Lightning. As the other contestants prepared their cauldrons, Xiao Yan rapidly combined thousands of medicinal herbs with the lightning essence, drawing astonished reactions from the Yao Clan alchemists.

• Hun Xuzi summoned a Black Flame Face with Nihility Devouring Flame, and Xiao Yan briefly summoned a matching Child Flame before replacing it with the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame.
• Great Elder Wanhuo, Old Man Shennong, and Xiao Yan prepared their cauldrons and flames, while Old Man Shennong used Life Flame to grow and extract medicinal herbs.
• Xiao Yan revealed his plan to refine a Ninth-Grade Profound Lightning Tribulation Pill and poured Nine Profound Golden Lightning from a Lightning Bead into his Fire Cauldron.
• Yao Chen identified the lightning for Yao Dan, who wondered how Xiao Yan had collected so much of it.
• Xiao Yan sent more than ten thousand medicinal herbs into his cauldron at once, alarming Yao Clan alchemists who feared the medicinal properties would become chaotic.

Xiao Yan continued refining his ingredients while Hun Xuzi, Great Elder Wanhuo, and Old Man Shennong competed to draw energy for their pills. After they exhausted the energy around Medicine Mountain, Xiao Yan revealed the power of his Emperor Realm Soul and began drawing energy from across the Yao Realm.

• Yao Chen explained that Xiao Yan's Emperor Realm Soul could draw energy from beyond Medicine Mountain, and Yao Dan ordered the Yao Clan elders to protect the medicinal fields.
• Hun Xuzi, Great Elder Wanhuo, and Old Man Shennong drew energy from around Medicine Mountain while Xiao Yan focused on fusing his medicinal liquids.
• Seven days later, the three alchemists had drained the surrounding energy but still held unfinished pills.
• Xiao Yan summoned a Ten Thousand Zhang Giant that drew energy from across the Yao Realm into his milky-white Fire Cauldron.

Xiao Yan awakened and used his Emperor Realm Soul to stop Hun Xuzi from stealing the energy in Old Man Shennong and Great Elder Wanhuo’s cauldrons. He crippled Hun Xuzi, took the Child Flame of Nihility Devouring Flame and his pill, and resumed refining the Lightning Tribulation Pill while leaving Hun Xuzi alive for now.

• Hun Xuzi used black vortices to drain the energy from Old Man Shennong and Great Elder Wanhuo’s cauldrons, defeating their Heavenly Flame attacks.
• Xiao Yan awakened as the Ten Thousand Zhang Giant and shattered Hun Xuzi’s vortices with a shout.
• Xiao Yan struck Hun Xuzi with Yellow Spring Heaven Rage, broke through his defenses, and pulled the Child Flame of Nihility Devouring Flame from his body.
• Xiao Yan took Hun Xuzi’s embryonic pill and added it to the Lightning Tribulation Pill, while Hun Xuzi was left gravely injured.
• Xiao Yan told Hun Xuzi he would let him live until the Soul Clan army arrived, then continued refining the pill.