Recaps

Sikong Jing confronted Yan Tianmo in the imperial square, exposing that Yan Ruyu had used a demonic technique to steal his dantian. After demonstrating his strength and warning Yan Tianmo, Sikong Jing left, while Yuwen Guan learned that Sikong Jing had only deceived him.

• Yan Tianmo told the young people that Sikong Jing had tried to assassinate him, and they swore to kill Sikong Jing.
• Sikong Jing appeared above Xuanyuan Gate and offered to help Yuwen Guan recover his former talent if Yuwen Guan explained how his dantian had been removed.
• Yuwen Guan revealed that Yan Ruyu had used the Yin-Siphoning Demonic Art to take Sikong Jing's dantian, despite Yan Tianmo threatening his clan.
• Sikong Jing challenged Yan Tianmo's claims, struck the royal experts with a powerful spear attack, and urged the young people to think for themselves.
• Sikong Jing warned Yan Tianmo that he would kill him if he returned, then admitted to Yuwen Guan that his offer to restore the dantian had been a lie.

After publicly confronting Yan Tianmo, Sikong Jing visited Ye Changlian on the Golden Mist River and remembered his dead younger sister, Sikong Ling. He tried to leave so Ye Changlian would not be caught up in his troubles, but she embraced him and said she was not afraid.

• Yan Tianmo ordered Yuwen Guan to kill Sikong Jing in the next day's test and promised to restore the power taken from Yuwen Guan's dantian.
• Sikong Jing walked through the imperial city and went to a pleasure boat on the Golden Mist River to see Ye Changlian.
• As Ye Changlian played the zither, Sikong Jing remembered how his younger sister Sikong Ling had died while he was away trying to earn money for her medicine.
• Ye Changlian asked whether Sikong Jing would stay in her room, but he refused because he did not want to involve her in his troubles.
• Ye Changlian embraced Sikong Jing from behind and told him she was not afraid.

Sikong Jing rejected Ye Changlian’s attempt to poison him and left her as the Shadow Sect’s deaths came to light. The martial test began the next morning, where Yuwen Guan challenged him under the pressure of the Divine Void Ship as Yan Tianmo and the Shang Kingdom watched for a chance to kill him.

• Sikong Jing recognized the poison in Ye Changlian’s wine, revealed that he had killed the Shang Kingdom’s Shadow Sect experts, and learned she had tried to kill him to marry into the royal family.
• Sikong Jing left Ye Changlian on the flower boat, saying he had once hoped to take her home as his sister, then stood by the river thinking of Sikong Ling and Yuexi as corpses surfaced.
• General Ning announced that the martial test’s first round was boarding the Divine Void Ship, and tens of millions of young talents struggled against its immense pressure.
• Yuwen Guan mocked Sikong Jing for supposedly having a zero martial root and tested whether he could move, intending to kill him on Yan Tianmo’s orders.
• Su Zhenglong spotted Sikong Jing from the first Divine Void Ship and clenched his fists when he saw that Ah Jing had come.

Sikong Jing defied expectations by crossing the martial test’s pressure course and boarding the Divine Void Ship, despite General Ning’s belief that his nearly nonexistent martial root would stop him. Fewer than three thousand contestants survived the climb, and General Ning turned her attention to the next test.

• Yan Ruyu asked Elder Wei why Sikong Jing was not moving, and General Ning declared that his near-zero martial root made him the weakest contestant.
• Yan Ruyu signaled Yan Tianmo to have Yuwen Guan kill Sikong Jing, but Sikong Jing began walking and confronted Yuwen Guan, who hurried onward.
• General Ning and Elder Wei revised their assessment as Sikong Jing climbed the stairs with ease, passing contestants and reaching the middle section.
• Sikong Jing became the twelfth person to board the Divine Void Ship, told Yuwen Guan he had climbed without breaking a sweat, and noticed thirty-two wooden steles on deck.
• The final contestant boarded after most had been eliminated, leaving fewer than three thousand people aboard, and General Ning complained about the Azure Dragon Small Domain’s results.

Sikong Jing advanced through the martial insight trial aboard the Divine Void Ship, then paused to study a battle technique hidden in the wooden steles. After General Ning declared he could not pass the sixteenth stele, Sikong Jing crossed it and reached Grade Four martial wisdom.

• Elder Wei explained that the wooden steles tested martial insight and allowed those with Grade Four to enter the final martial testing round.
• Sikong Jing passed the early steles faster than the other candidates, while Yuwen Guan fell behind him.
• Sikong Jing stopped at the fifteenth stele to study a battle technique he recognized as the Black Armor Warriors' foundational art.
• The other candidates caught up and passed Sikong Jing as he comprehended the increasingly difficult steles.
• General Ning said Sikong Jing could not pass the sixteenth stele, but Sikong Jing soon crossed it and attained Grade Four martial wisdom.

Sikong Jing advanced through the martial test’s wooden steles, reaching first place and eighth-grade martial insight after a Black Armor Warrior’s attack helped him understand the final techniques. He cleared all the steles despite General Ning’s attempt to stop the test.

• Sikong Jing passed the seventeenth stele and continued ahead, stopping at the twenty-third before taking first place.
• Yuwen Guan advanced to the twenty-seventh stele, while the Xia Kingdom genius led the completed second round at the thirtieth.
• General Ning ordered the second round to end, but Sikong Jing resumed advancing and tied for first at the thirtieth stele.
• General Ning confronted Sikong Jing for lingering, and a Black Armor Warrior attacked him with a powerful sword strike.
• Sikong Jing dodged the attack, understood the remaining martial techniques, and cleared every stele to claim eighth-grade martial insight.

Sikong Jing learned the Long Night Black Flame Sword from the testing steles and defeated Sun Gan in a same-realm fight, leaving General Ning shocked by his talent. The chapter ended with Elder Wei testing Sikong Jing again and discovering that his martial roots were still zero.

• General Ning ordered Sun Gan to fight Sikong Jing at the same realm after Sikong Jing challenged him.
• Sikong Jing used the Long Night Black Flame Sword he had learned from the wooden steles to match and then overpower Sun Gan.
• Sun Gan broke his realm suppression and attacked Sikong Jing, but General Ning struck him away for violating her promise to give Sikong Jing a chance to live.
• Sikong Jing explained that he had studied the steles because he feared losing the chance, and General Ning asked Elder Wei to test his martial roots again.
• Elder Wei discovered that Sikong Jing’s martial roots were still zero, stunning everyone present.

Sikong Jing’s martial root tested as zero, but he passed the final combat trial in three breaths and left to bring Yuexi to the Divine Void Ship. General Ning suspected Sikong Jing might have an undetectable battle body, though he considered that unlikely.

• Elder Wei tested Sikong Jing’s blood and confirmed that the tool could detect no martial root, but General Ning allowed him to continue because he had passed the first two rounds.
• Elder Wei announced that the remaining candidates had to defeat battle puppets within ten days, with early victors allowed to bring two family members to the Long Night Empire.
• Sikong Jing defeated his battle puppet in three breaths, passed the test, and left to fetch Yuexi while Su Zhenglong and Mei Xiaofang rejoiced.
• Yan Tianmo ordered everyone to find a way to kill Sikong Jing, then retreated into the Golden Soul Palace to protect himself from an assassination.
• General Ning told the Black Armor Warriors they could spend ten days in the imperial city, and later suggested to Elder Wei that Sikong Jing might possess an undetectable battle body, though he doubted it.

After settling Yun Province, Sikong Jing took Su Yuexi to his hometown to visit his sister Sikong Ling’s grave before departing for the Long Night Empire. There he found townspeople destroying the grave to curry favor with the Great Shang emperor, and killed their leader in fury.

• Sikong Jing left the Long Night Black Flame Sword in the Yun Province Battle Technique Hall, arranged affairs in Yun Province, and set out with Su Yuexi for the Great Shang Dynasty.
• Sikong Jing told Su Yuexi that Xiaosang Town was his hometown and that he had come to visit his younger sister Sikong Ling’s grave on her death anniversary.
• Sikong Jing and Su Yuexi found hundreds of townspeople smashing Sikong Ling’s gravestone, trampling her flowers, and prying open her grave.
• Town Chief Fu Cheng said he had ordered the destruction because Sikong Jing was accused of attempting to assassinate Emperor Yan Tianmo, and the townspeople defended their actions out of fear for themselves.
• Sikong Jing reminded the crowd that he had once asked them for money to save Sikong Ling and they had refused, then killed Fu Cheng with a single strike.

Sikong Jing discovered that Sikong Ling’s body had been taken to the Long Night Empire after she was healed, and found her message hidden in her coffin. A Blue Cold Snake carrying a woman’s consciousness attacked him, leaving Sikong Jing to face it while Su Yuexi escaped.

• Sikong Jing mourned disturbing Sikong Ling’s grave and decided to move her remains to Entering Cloud Mountain.
• Sikong Jing found the coffins frozen and discovered that Sikong Ling’s body was gone, with her bracelet and a message left behind.
• Sikong Jing read that an auntie had healed Sikong Ling and taken her to the Long Night Empire, where she had entered the woman’s tutelage.
• A Blue Cold Snake revealed that the woman had left it to kill Sikong Jing, intending to send Sikong Ling back if he died.
• Sikong Jing threw Su Yuexi out of danger, then fought the snake and charged away from her while gathering power into his Long Night Black Flame Sword.

Sikong Jing defeated the Blue Cold Snake after breaking through to the Desolate Martial Realm, then realized his sister Sikong Ling had survived and been taken to the Long Night Empire. He resolved to go there and find her.

• The Blue Cold Snake attacked Sikong Jing, who rejected the idea of controlling it and chose to kill it instead.
• While fighting and studying the snake’s demon-power circulation, Sikong Jing broke through from the peak of the Sun Martial Realm into the Desolate Martial Realm.
• Sikong Jing used Cold Snake footwork and the Long Night Black Flame Sword to defeat the Blue Cold Snake, whose consciousness of the terrifying woman had vanished.
• Su Yuexi arrived and asked Sikong Jing what had happened, and he told her that Sikong Ling was alive and had been taken to the Long Night Empire.
• Sikong Jing explained that the woman had likely left the snake to sever Ling’er’s attachments, then declared that he had to go to the Long Night Empire.

Sikong Jing returned to Xiaosang Town with Su Yuexi, determined to find his missing sister and investigate whether his parents had been extraordinary people. After finding no clues in his childhood home, he left for the Great Shang Imperial City to kill Yan Tianmo before departing the Azure Dragon Domain.

• Sikong Jing resolved to find Sikong Ling and kept her Burning Ice Flower Bracelet as a clue.
• Su Yuexi suggested that Sikong Jing and Sikong Ling's martial talent might mean their parents were not ordinary, so Sikong Jing took her to their old home.
• Sikong Jing extinguished the torches of the people preparing to burn Sikong Manor and warned them not to touch it while he was there.
• Sikong Jing and Su Yuexi searched the little wooden house but found no clues about his parents.
• After townspeople discovered Fu Cheng's remains near Sikong Ling's grave, the crowd fled Xiaosang Manor in terror.
• Sikong Jing took keepsakes from the house and left Xiaosang Town with Su Yuexi, heading for the Great Shang Imperial City to kill Yan Tianmo.

Sikong Jing’s return to the Great Shang Imperial City set him on course to confront Yan Tianmo, while a Worry-Forget Sect master secretly ordered his death. He left Su Yuexi aboard the Divine Void Ship and rode into the city, leaving Yan Ruyu furious but unwilling to follow.

• In the Long Night Empire, the Worry-Forget Sect master learned that her Blue Cold Snake had died and refused Sikong Ling’s request to visit her brother, promising instead to send senior sisters to find him.
• After Sikong Ling left, the Worry-Forget Sect master ordered two women to investigate the snake’s death, kill Sikong Jing, and bring him back because Sikong Ling had to remain free of attachments.
• Sikong Jing returned to the Great Shang Imperial City and asked General Ning to let Su Yuexi stay aboard the Divine Void Ship while he handled other matters.
• General Ning allowed Su Yuexi to remain aboard and told Yan Ruyu she could disembark to protect Yan Tianmo, but she refused to go after Sikong Jing.
• Su Yuexi taunted Yan Ruyu, and Su Yuexian challenged her before Yan Ruyu backed down and stayed aboard the ship.

Sikong Jing attacked the Great Shang Imperial Palace and killed the eldest prince and the experts who remained outside the Golden Soul Palace. With the palace sealed and the royal guards, Shadow Sect, and Brocade Sect surrounding him, he prepared to test whether his spear could break through its defenses.

• Yan Tianmo emerged from the Golden Soul Palace believing Sikong Jing had returned to Yun Province, but Sikong Jing appeared and struck the palace gates.
• Sikong Jing overwhelmed the royal experts and fought the assembled Great Shang forces, while one of the great family heads fled after promising to leave the dynasty.
• Sikong Jing killed the eldest prince and continued cutting down the defenders until Yan Tianmo ordered everyone into the Golden Soul Palace.
• The Golden Soul Palace sealed itself, leaving several people outside; Sikong Jing killed them when they pleaded for mercy.
• The royal guards, Shadow Sect, and Brocade Sect arrived and surrounded Sikong Jing, who challenged the Golden Soul Palace’s defenses with his spear.

Sikong Jing left the Golden Soul Palace after failing to break its gates and cultivated in an inn while the three major organizations tried to stop him. His roars killed thousands of attackers, and as the forces ran out of options, Ye Changlian requested an audience with His Majesty.

• Sikong Jing struck the Golden Soul Palace gates, then withdrew to an inn and entered the Ten Thousand Beasts Heavenly Prison to observe the chained beasts.
• The three deputy commanders received the emperor’s order to interrupt Sikong Jing’s cultivation and sent ten thousand people to attack him.
• Sikong Jing roared with the Black Prison Heaven-Swallowing Tiger’s aura, killing the ten thousand attackers and injuring the three deputy commanders.
• The forces tried arrows, fire, and floods, but Sikong Jing remained unharmed as the inn burned around him and more people died.
• Ye Changlian asked the three deputy commanders to arrange an audience with His Majesty.

Ye Changlian enlisted Sun Gan, a Black Armor Warrior, to help kill Sikong Jing, and Yan Tianmo agreed to surrender the Golden Soul Palace for the plan. Sikong Jing broke into the palace after reaching the fourth level of the Desolate Martial Realm, where Ye Changlian greeted him.

• Ye Changlian told Yan Tianmo she could kill Sikong Jing, then revealed that Sun Gan had taken her as his woman.
• Sun Gan forced Yan Tianmo to provide the Golden Soul Palace, where his attack could be concealed, and demanded the palace as payment.
• A palace messenger reported that Sikong Jing had finished cultivating and was coming to attack, so Yan Tianmo accepted Sun Gan's terms.
• Sikong Jing broke through the Golden Soul Palace gates after reaching the fourth level of the Desolate Martial Realm.
• Ye Changlian greeted Sikong Jing as he entered, and he froze when he sensed danger.

Sikong Jing was trapped in the Golden Soul Palace with Sun Gan, who had come to kill him, and fought back despite Sun Gan’s overwhelming strength. Sikong Jing was ultimately blasted into a wall, while Sun Gan, wounded but standing, asked how he should kill him.

• Yan Tianmo sealed the Golden Soul Palace doors and revealed that Sun Gan was waiting with Ye Changlian.
• Sikong Jing taunted Sun Gan to gauge his strength, then Sun Gan attacked him with the Long Night Black Flame Sword.
• Sun Gan’s first strike sent Sikong Jing into the doors, but Sikong Jing survived and countered with the Cold Snake Beast Technique, Long Night Wild Howl.
• Sikong Jing and Sun Gan exchanged repeated sword strikes, and Sikong Jing wounded Sun Gan despite being outmatched.
• Sun Gan blasted Sikong Jing into the palace wall and asked how he should kill him.

Sikong Jing used the Dark Wing Dragon Eagle’s wings to devise a stronger Black Flame Sword and briefly wounded Sun Gan, but Sun Gan stabbed him through the heart before leaving on General Ning’s orders. Yan Tianmo celebrated Sikong Jing’s apparent death until an icy voice asked whether Sikong Jing would receive a reward too.

• Sikong Jing studied the Dark Wing Dragon Eagle’s wings in the Ten Thousand Beasts Heavenly Prison and created the Dark Wing, Black Flame Sword.
• Sikong Jing struck Sun Gan with the new technique, breaking part of his armor, but Sun Gan overwhelmed him again.
• General Ning ordered the Black Armor Warriors to return, and Sun Gan stabbed Sikong Jing through the heart before departing.
• Ye Changlian blamed Sikong Jing for losing her chance to go with Sun Gan, while Steward Nian declared Sikong Jing dead.
• Yan Tianmo celebrated Sikong Jing’s death and promised rewards before an icy voice asked whether Sikong Jing had a reward too.

Sikong Jing survived Yan Tianmo’s attack and killed the Desolate Martial Realm experts to protect Yun Province, but Yan Tianmo sealed the Golden Soul Palace with them inside. Sikong Jing began cultivating in the palace as General Ning ordered punishment for a Black Armor Warrior who had killed someone.

• Sikong Jing’s heart healed, and he killed the prince and the experts who attacked him, leaving Yan Tianmo as the last survivor.
• Yan Tianmo used the Golden Soul Palace to seal Sikong Jing inside, but Sikong Jing chose to cultivate and focused his consciousness on the Dark Wing Dragon Eagle.
• General Ning summoned the Black Armor Warriors and demanded that whoever had killed someone step forward.
• A Black Armor Warrior woman claimed she had killed a man from the Azure Dragon Domain in self-defense, and General Ning ordered her punished with Black Burn Hundred Whips.

General Ning punished a black-armored warrior for killing a man from the Azure Dragon Domain, while Sun Gan concealed that he had killed Sikong Jing and threatened Yan Ruyu. Trapped in the Golden Soul Palace, Sikong Jing broke through to the seventh level of the Desolate Martial Realm and unexpectedly severed Yan Tianmo’s connection to the treasure.

• General Ning ordered the black-armored female warrior whipped for killing a man from the Azure Dragon Domain and lying about it.
• Sun Gan claimed he had been injured in the Golden Soul Palace, then told Yan Ruyu he had killed Sikong Jing and demanded that she help him get Sikong Jing’s wife.
• Sikong Jing cultivated in the Golden Soul Palace, advancing from the fifth to the seventh level of the Desolate Martial Realm as Yan Tianmo taunted him about missing the Divine Void Ship.
• Sikong Jing dripped his Myriad Beast Essence Blood onto the palace floor, causing the golden light to vanish and severing Yan Tianmo’s connection to the Golden Soul Palace.

Sikong Jing claimed the Golden Soul Palace, shrank it into a pendant, and gathered Bright Crystals to pursue the departing Divine Void Ship. He killed Ye Changlian and left with the captured Yan Tianmo as General Ning prepared to depart without him.

• The Golden Soul Palace passed its methods to Sikong Jing, who learned its functions and discovered that his strength let him shrink it before reaching the Innate Realm.
• Sikong Jing forced Yan Tianmo to reveal the location of the Bright Crystal treasury, collected its contents, and took the barely breathing Yan Tianmo along as he pursued the Divine Void Ship.
• Ye Changlian begged Sikong Jing to take her with him, but he killed her and said his real little sister, Sikong Ling, was not dead.
• Aboard the Divine Void Ship, Su Yuexi, Sui Yu's family, and Elder Wei urged General Ning to wait for Sikong Jing, but she refused because he had missed the departure time.

Su Yuexi learned that Sun Gan claimed to have killed Sikong Jing, but Sikong Jing appeared alive and raced toward the Divine Void Ship. As he neared the ship, Sun Gan shoved Su Yuexi overboard.

• Su Yuexi refused to leave without Sikong Jing, and Yan Ruyu told her that he had died in the Golden Soul Palace.
• Sun Gan publicly asked General Ning to slow the Divine Void Ship, then privately admitted to Su Yuexi that he had pierced Sikong Jing's heart.
• Sui Yu spotted Sikong Jing riding a Blood-Flying Gorgeous-Winged Horse toward the ship, and General Ning refused to slow it further.
• Sikong Jing used the remaining Bright Crystal to speed toward the ship while Sun Gan feared he would expose the attempted killing.
• Sun Gan shoved Su Yuexi from the stern, and she fell from the Divine Void Ship screaming.

Sikong Jing rescued Su Yuexi from falling off the Divine Void Ship, leaving them behind without Bright Crystals to catch up. Su Yuexi revealed that her Jadeite Hairpin might contain many Bright Crystals, while aboard the ship General Ning threatened Su Yuexian's family after Sun Gan accused them of making trouble.

• Sun Gan pushed Su Yuexi from the Divine Void Ship, and Sikong Jing abandoned his attempt to board in order to rescue her.
• Sikong Jing and Su Yuexi watched the ship pull away after their Bright Crystals ran out, and Su Yuexi said her Jadeite Hairpin held a space filled with Bright Crystals.
• Sikong Jing reassured Su Yuexi and promised to take her through the Bright Dragon Mountain Range if they could not catch the ship.
• Sun Gan told General Ning that Su Yuexi had jumped off the ship herself, while Su Zhenglong and Mei Xiaofang accused Sun Gan of pushing her.
• General Ning rejected Su Yuexian's family's accusations and threatened to throw them off the ship.

Sikong Jing returned to the Divine Void Ship with Su Yuexi and exposed Sun Gan’s attempt to kill him using Yan Tianmo as a witness. After killing Yan Tianmo, Sikong Jing asked Ning Jingjing to let him fight Sun Gan to the death.

• Ning Jingjing rejected Su Zhenglong’s family’s accusations and demanded evidence, threatening punishment if they could not provide it.
• Sui Yu confronted Ning Jingjing, but she insisted that the group prove Sun Gan had attacked Sikong Jing and pushed Su Yuexi overboard.
• Sikong Jing and Su Yuexi arrived aboard the Blood-Flying Gorgeous-Winged Horse, and Sikong Jing presented Yan Tianmo as evidence.
• Yan Tianmo confirmed that Sun Gan had tried to kill Sikong Jing, causing Ning Jingjing to realize she had believed Sun Gan’s lies.
• Sikong Jing killed Yan Tianmo and asked Ning Jingjing to allow him to duel Sun Gan to the death.

Sikong Jing demanded a full-strength fight to the death with Sun Gan after Ning Jingjing apologized for wrongly accusing him and his family. Sikong Jing killed Sun Gan with his upgraded Dark Wing Black Flame Sword, leaving the crowd stunned.

• Sun Gan offered to fight Sikong Jing to the death, and Ning Jingjing agreed but ordered Elder Wei to seal Sun Gan at the Desolate Martial Realm.
• Sikong Jing refused the restriction, prompting Ning Jingjing to apologize to him, Su Yuexian, Sui Yu, and the others and order Sun Gan seized.
• Sikong Jing clarified that he wanted to fight Sun Gan at full strength to settle their earlier defeat, and Ning Jingjing released Sun Gan for the duel.
• Sikong Jing unleashed the upgraded Dark Wing Black Flame Sword and pierced Sun Gan's heart, killing him.