Recaps

As Great Qin developed, Ye Lin watched another ten-year cycle begin. In the eighth year, Li Zheng prepared to sacrifice a million soldiers to defend the Great Wall from the Demon Beasts, vowing to retaliate next time.

• In Great Qin's second year, officials took their posts, and in its third year, martial arts training spread across the population.
• Ye Lin watched the snow fall and wondered how the coming ten-year cycle would unfold; Luo Yao had left Solitary City with the academy students.
• By Great Qin's eighth year, Li Zheng had grown into a stern young emperor and asked his ministers how to defend against the Demon Beasts.
• The ministers agreed to send a million troops to the Great Wall, hoping to hold the line until the next generation matured.
• Li Zheng ordered the deployment, regretted the soldiers' coming deaths, and vowed to make the Demon Beasts pay next time.

Great Qin’s million-strong martial army fought off a devastating Demon Beast siege, losing nearly all its soldiers but buying the empire time to recover. Over the following years, Li Zheng consolidated Great Qin, and the Human Race’s population, military strength, and fortune grew.

• Li Zheng sent Great Qin’s final million-strong army to the border, where it faced a battle that would determine the empire’s survival.
• The Demon Beasts attacked the Great Wall, and the fighting continued for a month before they retreated.
• Fewer than thirty thousand of Great Qin’s million soldiers survived the siege.
• Li Zheng consolidated Great Qin over the following years as the empire expanded, reclaimed its capital, and grew its population and martial forces.
• By Great Qin’s sixteenth year, the Human Race had gained renewed vitality and its fortune was rising.

Li Zheng ordered Great Qin to invade the wilderness before the Demon Beasts’ next ten-year attack, beginning a relentless campaign to bring the Anxuan Realm under his rule. As Ye Lin watched the battle unfold from Solitary City, Great Qin expanded its territory and grew stronger.

• Li Zheng declared that Great Qin would strike the Demon Beasts first and ordered the army to conquer the Anxuan Realm.
• Great Qin sent one and a half million soldiers into the wilderness after a brief rest at the Great Wall.
• When the ten-year term arrived, Demon Kings led the Demon Beasts against the army, and both sides fought to a stalemate.
• Ye Lin placed a white piece on the board in Solitary City, believing he still had the advantage.
• Li Zheng kept sending reinforcements as Great Qin fought day after day, defeating the Demon Beasts and expanding its territory.

Ye Lin concluded his game against Heaven as Great Qin flourished under Li Zheng, while Luo Yao returned from her travels and asked to go back. Li Zheng arrived at the academy and told Ye Lin that he had succeeded.

• Ye Lin placed the final white stone, winning his game against Heaven after decades of Great Qin’s growth.
• Great Qin’s people prepared for Li Zheng’s visit to Star City, where he was celebrated as the Human Race’s emperor.
• Luo Yao returned to Ye Lin and excitedly recounted her travels before asking to go back because she missed Shangguan.
• Li Zheng arrived at the academy in a golden dragon carriage, faced Ye Lin, and said he had succeeded.

Ye Lin rejected Li Zheng’s offer to become Great Qin’s Imperial Preceptor and departed with Luo Yao, revealing how small the Anxuan Realm was to him. Left behind, Li Zheng recognized himself as a chess piece in Ye Lin’s game and vowed to conquer the realm and destroy its Demon Beasts.

• Li Zheng asked Ye Lin to become Great Qin’s Imperial Preceptor, but Ye Lin refused and said he was leaving.
• Ye Lin told Li Zheng that the Anxuan Realm and its rulers were insignificant to him, then rose into the sky with Luo Yao and disappeared.
• Li Zheng studied the chessboard and realized that he and the dead had been pieces in Ye Lin’s game.
• Li Zheng swept the chessboard to the ground and ordered everyone in Great Qin who could wield a weapon to hunt Demon Beasts.
• Li Zheng vowed to exterminate the Demon Beasts within three years and unify the Anxuan Realm within five.

Ye Lin scattered the old man's ashes in the Starry Sky, then returned with Luo Yao to their hidden star. There, he reunited with Bao Xiaotou and learned Shangguan Wanyu had advanced to the Primordial Unity Mystic Immortal realm, before Wang Tian arrived and could not find the star.

• Ye Lin scattered the old man's ashes and comforted Luo Yao as she mourned the friends she had lost.
• Ye Lin contacted Bao Xiaotou, who revealed the hidden star beneath them with his formation skills.
• Ye Lin saw that Shangguan Wanyu had reached the Primordial Unity Mystic Immortal realm.
• Bao Xiaotou asked where Ye Lin had gone, and Ye Lin recounted observing mortals and playing chess with a small world's Heavenly Dao.
• Wang Tian called out beyond the Starry Sky, then wondered where the home was when he could not find it.

Wang Tianyi returned after a thousand years of wandering and announced that the Water Spring Secret Realm was about to descend nearby. Ye Lin and the others arrived at the gathering of heavenly prodigies and learned that the realm produced valuable Water Spring Crystals.

• Wang Tianyi told the group he had reached the second layer of the Golden Immortal realm and brought news of an approaching secret realm.
• Ye Lin and the others left their star and headed for the realm's location.
• The group found a crowd gathered around five-colored rosy light as Immortal Qi surged through the starry sky.
• A heavenly prodigy explained that the realm was called the Water Spring Secret Realm and naturally produced Water Spring Crystals.
• The heavenly prodigy said the crystals could strengthen one's foundation and temporarily enhance one's Wuxing, drawing excited reactions from those nearby.

A young cultivator explained why the valuable Water Spring Secret Realm was open to everyone: it was a public secret realm too valuable for any one faction to control. The cultivators waited for it to open and speculated about its treasures and other public secret realms.

• A prodigy questioned why the great powers were giving access to the precious Water Spring Crystals for free.
• The young man accepted the cultivators’ flattery and explained the difference between private and public secret realms.
• He said the Water Spring Secret Realm was public because no single faction could claim its immense value, and that such realms opened when the Third Region’s interests were threatened or a great age arrived.
• The young man fell silent to wait for the secret realm to open.
• The cultivators speculated that other public secret realms might appear and that Water Spring Crystals would be difficult to obtain.

A three-headed man opened the Water Spring Secret Realm to prodigies holding Identity Tokens, explaining that its Water Spring Crystals could boost cultivation ahead of their future entry into the Second Region. Ye Lin and his group entered, while those without places were left behind to struggle for another chance.

• A three-headed man emerged from the secret realm and explained that the Third Region’s major powers had opened it to nurture prodigies with Water Spring Crystals.
• The three-headed man allowed only those with Identity Tokens to enter, leaving those without Second Region places behind.
• The left-behind prodigies watched their peers enter and resolved to keep striving during the next two thousand years.
• The three-headed man glanced deeply at Luo Yao and Shangguan Wanyu before Ye Lin and the others entered the secret realm.
• Other prodigies questioned why a child and a Primordial Unity Mystic Immortal had received places, while others defended their inclusion.

After entering the Water Spring Secret Realm, Ye Lin and the others learned that Water Spring Crystals lay beneath its desolate mountains and that Water Spring Worms could kill even Golden Immortals. They set out to search the mountains, and Li Xiaoyao proposed blasting one flat.

• Bao Xiaotou remarked that the Water Spring Secret Realm looked much like the outside world, and a young prodigy explained where the Water Spring Crystals were hidden and warned them about the deadly Water Spring Worms.
• Ye Lin comforted Bao Xiaotou, while Wang Tian said he wanted to study the worms' venom.
• Ye Lin suggested searching beneath the desolate mountains as the other prodigies flew off to explore on their own.
• Li Xiaoyao looked at a mountain and proposed blasting it flat to find the Water Spring Crystals.

Shangguan Wanyu found a hidden cave beneath the Desolate Mountain, and Ye Lin led the group inside. They discovered a vast chamber filled with Water Spring Crystals.

• Li Xiaoyao suggested blasting the Desolate Mountain flat, but Bao Xiaotou and Wang Tian stayed silent as the group suspected danger beneath it.
• Shangguan Wanyu warned that the mountain held great danger and circled it until she found a cave.
• Ye Lin entered the cave first with the Blooddrinking Sword of the Fallen Emperor, leading Shangguan Wanyu and the others through a deep, muddy tunnel.
• Ye Lin and Li Xiaoyao reached an enormous chamber filled with dazzling green Water Spring Crystals and wondered why there were so many.

The group discovered that Water Spring Crystals were guarded by swarms of deadly Water Spring Worms. Ye Lin entered the infested area to test them and survived their attack behind the barrier of the Mysterious Yellow All-Things Bell.

• Wang Tian identified the tiny white bugs around the Water Spring Crystals as Water Spring Worms.
• Li Xiaoyao volunteered to test the worms, but Ye Lin stepped forward instead.
• Ye Lin leaped into the worms' territory, and the swarm immediately surrounded him.
• Ye Lin used the Mysterious Yellow All-Things Bell to form an earthy-yellow barrier that kept the worms from reaching him.

Ye Lin and the others found that their strongest attacks could not harm the Water Spring Worms, forcing them to retreat from the cracking Mysterious Yellow All-Things Bell barrier. They escaped the cave entrance but remained unable to reach the Water Spring Crystals the worms guarded.

• Ye Lin swept the Water Spring Worms with a Sword Qi storm, but they remained unharmed as the Mysterious Yellow All-Things Bell barrier cracked.
• Ye Lin summoned a storm of thunder with the Nine Heavens Profound Thunder Sword Art, but the Water Spring Worms endured it without injury.
• Ye Lin rushed to the cave entrance and looked back at the worms bathing in the Thunder Sea.
• Bao Xiaotou marveled that the lightning had no effect on the Water Spring Worms, while Wang Tian eagerly declared that they had research value.
• Li Xiaoyao confirmed that the lightning hurt even his Golden Immortal body but did not affect the worms, and Bao Xiaotou lamented that they could not reach the Water Spring Crystals.

Xinyou devoured the Water Spring Worms and Thunder Sea, reaching the third layer of the Golden Immortal Realm and astonishing Ye Lin’s group. As they began gathering Water Spring Crystals, a man in a nearby cave confronted them and claimed the crystals belonged to him.

• Xinyou transformed into a giant beast and swallowed every Water Spring Worm along with the Thunder Sea.
• Xinyou’s cultivation surged, and he broke through to the third layer of the Golden Immortal Realm before returning to Ye Lin’s shoulder to sleep.
• Ye Lin and the others examined Xinyou’s extraordinary panel, while Wang Tian regretted losing the chance to study a Water Spring Worm.
• Ye Lin told the group to collect the Water Spring Crystals, and Bao Xiaotou agreed that they could help Golden Immortal cultivators strengthen their foundations.
• A man in a nearby cave confronted Ye Lin’s group, claiming he had discovered the Water Spring Crystals first and ordering them to stay away.

Li Xiaoyao, Bao Xiaotou, and Wang Tian fought Jiang Chenfeng’s group over the Water Spring Crystals while Shangguan Wanyu began collecting them. Ye Lin faced Jiang Chenfeng, who revealed his third-layer Golden Immortal cultivation and confidence in his advantage.

• Jiang Chenfeng demanded all the Water Spring Crystals and threatened Ye Lin’s group, but Bao Xiaotou refused to surrender them.
• Li Xiaoyao, Bao Xiaotou, and Wang Tian engaged three of Jiang Chenfeng’s four young men, while Xinyou pinned the fourth.
• Ye Lin told Shangguan Wanyu to collect the crystals during the fight, then approached Jiang Chenfeng with the Blooddrinking Sword of the Fallen Emperor.
• Jiang Chenfeng introduced himself and revealed the pressure of his third-layer Golden Immortal cultivation.

Ye Lin fought Jiang Chenfeng in the skies above Desolate Mountain while Shangguan Wanyu collected Water Spring Crystals below with Luo Yao. Jiang Chenfeng acknowledged Ye Lin’s strength but continued to press him, and the battle remained unresolved as Ye Lin unleashed another sword technique.

• Ye Lin and Jiang Chenfeng clashed with sword and spear inside the cavern as the other Golden Immortals fought around them.
• Shangguan Wanyu held Luo Yao and gathered Water Spring Crystals, protected from the battle’s aftershocks.
• Ye Lin used Sword Nine, Heaven-Sundering, but Jiang Chenfeng shattered its Sword Qi with Spear Dao, Torch Dragon Emerges from Sea.
• The fighting caused Desolate Mountain to collapse, forcing the combatants to continue their battle in the sky.
• Jiang Chenfeng recognized Ye Lin as a formidable fighter from a remote place, but Ye Lin answered by charging at him again.
• Ye Lin activated Nine Heavens Profound Thunder Sword Art, Thunder Break, filling the sky with lightning.

Ye Lin and Jiang Chenfeng exchanged powerful attacks, and Ye Lin’s Grass Character Sword Art drained the vitality from Jiang Chenfeng’s arm. Jiang Chenfeng severed the arm’s connection to his body and prepared to keep fighting Ye Lin.

• Ye Lin’s lightning Sword Qi clashed with Jiang Chenfeng’s silver dragon spear attack, and both techniques shattered.
• Ye Lin summoned a great sun with the Blooddrinking Sword of the Fallen Emperor and sent it crashing toward Jiang Chenfeng.
• Jiang Chenfeng’s golden dragon swallowed the great sun, then exploded.
• Ye Lin struck Jiang Chenfeng’s arm with the Grass Character Sword Art, rapidly stripping away its blood qi and vitality.
• Jiang Chenfeng retreated and severed his connection to the damaged arm before charging into the fight again.

Li Xiaoyao and Bao Xiaotou overpowered their opponents, while Wang Tian prepared to refine a captive in the Nine Provinces Cauldron. The chapter ended with the captive still trapped and cursing as Wang Tian began refining him.

• Li Xiaoyao taunted a young man and crushed his sharper twin-blade attacks with his hammer.
• Bao Xiaotou told a young man trapped in his formations that 132 layers remained, including 50 Killing Formations.
• Bao Xiaotou sat back and watched as the trapped man struggled through the formations.
• Wang Tian said he would beat his captive until he listened and threatened to refine the Golden Immortal's body into pills.
• The figure inside the Nine Provinces Cauldron cursed Wang Tian and demanded to be released.

Wang Tian began refining a Golden Immortal second-layer expert in the Nine Provinces Cauldron, while Xinyou overwhelmed a Flood Dragon and Ye Lin revealed the power of the Great Sun Supreme Art. Ye Lin faced his golden dragon opponent with nine blazing suns behind him.

• Wang Tian tossed herbs into the Nine Provinces Cauldron and began refining the trapped young man into a pill.
• Xinyou attacked the wounded Flood Dragon, dodged its flames, and tore chunks of flesh from its body.
• Ye Lin was blasted away by a golden dragon, then used the Beginningless True Flame with the Blooddrinking Sword of the Fallen Emperor.
• Ye Lin summoned nine blazing suns and streams of Great Sun laws as he prepared to attack his opponent.

Ye Lin defeated Jiang Chenfeng with the Blooddrinking Sword of the Fallen Emperor, first striking him with Beginningless True Flame and then pursuing him with thunder sword energy. Jiang Chenfeng’s life force ran out as he fell to the ground, and Ye Lin rushed to where he landed.

• Ye Lin gathered the Great Sun Laws and Beginningless True Flame into a sword strike called Radiant Sun Descends Upon Heaven.
• Jiang Chenfeng answered with Nine Dragons Contend for the Throne, sending a crimson orb and nine silver Dragons at Ye Lin.
• Ye Lin’s Three-Legged Golden Crow burned through the Dragons and orb, then struck Jiang Chenfeng and covered him in Beginningless True Flame.
• Jiang Chenfeng turned and fled, but Ye Lin attacked him with Thunder Shatters from the Nine Heavens Profound Thunder Sword Art.
• Ye Lin’s Thunder Sword Qi pierced Jiang Chenfeng until his life force vanished and his body fell to the ground.
• Ye Lin flashed over to where Jiang Chenfeng had fallen.

Ye Lin watched Jiang Chenfeng escape after taking a hit from the Beginningless True Flame, while the rest of the enemy group fell to his allies. Jiang Chenfeng struggled to extinguish the flames, and Ye Lin wondered whether they could kill a third-layer Golden Immortal.

• Ye Lin found that Jiang Chenfeng had escaped using a shattered talisman and vowed to kill him next time.
• Jiang Chenfeng tried in vain to extinguish the Beginningless True Flame, which fed on his immortal power.
• Li Xiaoyao killed a second-layer Golden Immortal prodigy with one hammer blow.
• Bao Xiaotou kept adding formations as his opponent tried to break free, while Wang Tian continued refining a captive in his pill furnace.
• Xinyou swallowed the Flood Dragon's head and devoured its corpse.
• Ye Lin wondered whether the Beginningless True Flame could kill Jiang Chenfeng.

Jiang Chenfeng abandoned his burning Golden Immortal body and fled the Water Spring Secret Realm as a weakened Primordial Spirit, determined to avenge himself on Blood Baleful. Unbeknownst to him, a wisp of flame followed him, while Bao Xiaotou prepared a massive formation on the battlefield.

• Jiang Chenfeng exhausted his immortal power trying to stop the Beginningless True Flame, but it continued burning his body.
• Jiang Chenfeng abandoned his Golden Immortal body to save his Primordial Spirit and swore revenge on Blood Baleful.
• Jiang Chenfeng's cultivation fell to the first level of the Golden Immortal Realm, and he decided to leave the Water Spring Secret Realm to find a new body.
• A wisp of flame clung to Jiang Chenfeng's Primordial Spirit as he departed.
• Bao Xiaotou formed seals and merged countless formations into a massive grand formation, then prepared to kill his opponent.

After killing the attackers, Wang Tian made nine Blood Spirit Pills but decided to sell them because they consumed the user’s potential. Ye Lin fairly divided the Water Spring Crystals, then led the group to search for more.

• The Killing Formations shredded the trapped young man, while Jiang Chenfeng escaped.
• Wang Tian created nine Blood Spirit Pills that could guarantee a breakthrough for cultivators below the third layer of the Golden Immortal realm, but chose to sell them because they drained potential.
• Shangguan Wanyu gave Ye Lin the Water Spring Crystals she had collected, and Ye Lin divided them equally among the group.
• Xinyou declined his share of the crystals, so Ye Lin redistributed it among the others.
• Ye Lin proposed searching for more Water Spring Crystals, with Xinyou eating Water Spring Worms along the way.
• Bao Xiaotou worried that he was falling behind Ye Lin and Li Xiaoyao and said the crystals were not enough to help him reach the second layer of the Golden Immortal realm.

Ye Lin and the group followed Shangguan Wanyu through the Water Spring Secret Realm in search of Water Spring Crystals, but a mass of glowing Water Spring Worms descended on them. After Xinyou refused to eat more and the Heaven-Devouring Demon Jar failed to respond, Ye Lin fled with the others.

• Ye Lin and the group followed Shangguan Wanyu through the desolate mountains while wondering where the other geniuses had gone.
• As night fell, Ye Lin noticed the stars overhead moving and summoned the Blooddrinking Sword of the Fallen Emperor.
• The group realized the apparent stars were a swarm of Water Spring Worms and fled toward the mountains.
• Ye Lin asked Xinyou to eat the worms, but Xinyou said it had not finished digesting its earlier meal.
• Ye Lin tried to get the Heaven-Devouring Demon Jar to refine the worms, received no response, and ran away.

Ye Lin and his companions sheltered in a cave as Water Spring Worms covered the sky and blocked their escape. They tested whether Water Spring Crystals were genuine, and Ye Lin decided to use a clone to check their effects on the Primordial Spirit.

• After Ye Lin entered Bao Xiaotou’s cave, Bao Xiaotou reinforced the formation and Ye Lin strengthened its golden barrier with Beginningless True Flame.
• Water Spring Worms swarmed outside the barrier but kept away from the flame, revealing the light-filled sky beneath them.
• Bao Xiaotou worried that he could not reach his Water Spring Crystals, and Ye Lin suggested testing whether the crystals worked while they waited.
• Ye Lin infused a Water Spring Crystal with immortal fortune and sensed an unknown substance moving toward his Primordial Spirit.
• Ye Lin decided to use One Breath Becomes Three Purities to make a clone test the substance first.