Chapter Summaries

Zheng Zhun forced the crowd to submit to inspections of their storage treasures to find his brother’s murderer, overpowering Qin Feng when he challenged him. Just as Zheng Zhun began the inspections, Luo Cai Wei of the Eclosion Sect stepped forward to oppose him and revealed a powerful Sword Domain.

• Zheng Zhun declared that he had sealed the area and demanded that everyone submit to having their storage spaces inspected or defeat him.
• Zheng Zhun overwhelmed the crowd with his Domain of Slaughter, and Shi Xin warned him about the consequences of confronting disciples from powerful sects.
• Qin Feng of Rahu Lodge challenged Zheng Zhun, who wounded him with a single spear strike and silenced the crowd.
• Zheng Zhun approached a martial artist and demanded his storage artifact, but Luo Cai Wei appeared and objected to his methods.
• Luo Cai Wei manifested a golden Sword Domain that resisted Zheng Zhun’s Domain of Slaughter, surprising Chen Fan.

Luo Caiwei defeated Zheng Zhun with a single sword strike, leaving Chen Fan amazed by the gap between their swordsmanship. After refusing to return to Great Qian with Yuan Daokong, Chen Fan tracked the wounded Zheng Zhun to a nearby forest and prepared to draw him out.

• Luo Caiwei split Zheng Zhun’s Dao Domains and severed his spear-wielding arm with one strike, then spared him.
• Zheng Zhun recovered his arm and spear with the power of heaven and earth, then abandoned his plans and left.
• Luo Caiwei departed with the Eclosion Sect disciples, and Chen Fan memorized her name before the gathered martial artists dispersed.
• Chen Fan declined Yuan Daokong’s offer to return to Great Qian, changed his appearance, and used Zheng Hao’s corpse to deduce Zheng Zhun’s location.
• Chen Fan found the forest where Zheng Zhun was likely recuperating and drove a massive crimson sword into the ground.

Chen Fan confronted the wounded Zheng Zhun to settle the score for killing Zheng Hao. After using his treasures and unleashing his second-stage Berserk, Chen Fan knocked Zheng Zhun down and followed with another powerful sword strike.

• Chen Fan lured Zheng Zhun out with Zheng Hao’s greatsword, admitted to killing Zheng Hao, and trapped the area with the Painting Scroll.
• Zheng Zhun attacked Chen Fan with his Slaughter Dao Domain, but Chen Fan met his spear with the Great Harmony Sword and was forced onto the defensive.
• Chen Fan struck Zheng Zhun with the Primordial Demon Mirror’s Extinction Divine Light, slightly weakening him.
• Chen Fan activated second-stage Berserk and used the Seven-Kill Sword to break through Zheng Zhun’s Dao Domain and send him crashing to the ground.
• Chen Fan chased after the fallen Zheng Zhun and brought down another sword strike infused with lightning, fire, and sword Dao Domains.

Chen Fan killed Zheng Zhun by breaking through his defensive trump card with the Primordial Sword, then discovered and destroyed a blood-red mark hidden in Zheng Zhun’s corpse. After returning to Great Qian, Chen Fan found his Berserk blood reserves and Blood Spirit supplies depleted, so he headed straight for the Blood Demon Secret Realm to replenish them.

• Chen Fan’s Seven-Kill Sword failed to break Zheng Zhun’s spiritual-light defense, and Zheng Zhun seized an opening to unleash a blood-dragon spear attack.
• Chen Fan fused the four Saint Swords into the Primordial Sword, destroyed Zheng Zhun’s defense, and killed him.
• A blood-red mark flew from Zheng Zhun’s corpse into Chen Fan, but the Star God Seal suppressed it, and Chen Fan crushed it after confirming it was harmless to him.
• Chen Fan traveled back to Great Qian, rested and recovered some True Essence, but found that his blood reserves remained low and his Blood Spirit Flowers and Blood Crystals were nearly gone.
• Chen Fan decided to replenish his supplies and went directly to the Blood Demon Secret Realm, considering hunting tenth-level Blood Beasts.

Chen Fan entered the Blood Demon Secret Realm and rapidly destroyed Blood Beast nests while searching for stronger Blood Beasts. In a newly formed nest in the desert, he found a level ten Blood Beast and rushed to engage it.

• Chen Fan entered the Blood Demon Secret Realm and used his divine sense to hunt Blood Beasts across the volcanic region.
• A young man in black witnessed Chen Fan destroy a level nine Blood Beast nest and gather its Blood Crystals before flying away.
• Chen Fan flattened several nests over the next few days, but found that weaker Blood Beasts yielded too little energy to restore his blood quickly.
• Chen Fan discovered an uncharted desert nest containing nearly a hundred Blood Beasts, including a level ten beast.
• The level ten Blood Beast gathered the others and faced Chen Fan, who activated the Thunder Roc Phantom Body and charged toward it.

Chen Fan hunted powerful Blood Beasts in the Blood Demon Secret Realm, absorbed their Blood Crystals, and found a patch of Blood Spirit Flowers. He pursued a ninth-level martial artist whose repeated ability to avoid Blood Beast nests aroused Chen Fan’s suspicion, then trapped him in his fire Dao Domain.

• Chen Fan killed a tenth-level Blood Beast, absorbed its Blood Crystal, and rapidly restored his blood to peak condition.
• Chen Fan spent half a month searching the Blood Demon Secret Realm, killing nearly ten tenth-level Blood Beasts and over a thousand Blood Beasts in total.
• Chen Fan found and collected nearly a hundred Blood Spirit Flowers in a swamp, but the larger patch he had once discovered remained missing.
• Chen Fan noticed a ninth-level martial artist repeatedly avoiding Blood Beast nests and checking something resembling a map, which led him to suspect the man knew where danger lay.
• Chen Fan caught the fleeing martial artist and used his fire Dao Domain to strip away his control of the power of heaven and earth, sending him into the swamp.

Chen Fan took an updated map from a ninth-level martial artist and used it to hunt Blood Beasts on his way to a hidden destination. Meanwhile, Shentu was ordered to investigate abnormal Blood Beast deaths, and a blue-robed man was attacked after greedily gathering Blood Spirit Flowers.

• Chen Fan took the map from a ninth-level martial artist, who chose to follow him instead of returning.
• Chen Fan used the map to hunt several tenth-level Blood Beasts and reached the destination in one day.
• An owl told Shentu that tenth-level Blood Beasts were suffering abnormal collapses and ordered him to find the cause; Shentu agreed after the owl promised to honor his condition.
• A blue-robed man found a field of Blood Spirit Flowers and began collecting them with the power of heaven and earth.
• A huge Blood Beast erupted from beneath the flowers and attacked the blue-robed man, whose attempt to flee was thwarted by its suction force.

Chen Fan rescued a man in green and battled a strangely sluggish but resilient Blood Beast in the Blood Demon Secret Realm. Before he could finish it, a powerful armored Blood Demon struck with a giant hammer and warned that the beast could not be killed.

• Chen Fan knocked the man in green out of the Blood Beast’s reach and confronted the creature.
• Chen Fan used his speed and sword to repeatedly wound the Blood Beast, realizing that its reactions were slow despite its immense strength and vitality.
• As Chen Fan prepared a fatal strike, a streak of bloodlight struck his Dao Domain and sent him and the Blood Beast flying.
• A huge armored Blood Demon landed, retrieved its massive hammer, and told Chen Fan that the Blood Beast could not be killed.
• Chen Fan recognized the Blood Demon from the Research Tower and judged that its power had reached the Dao Fruit Realm or beyond.

Chen Fan met King Shentu, a powerful Blood Demon and former member of Great Qian’s Shentu Clan, who had come to investigate the abnormal deaths of Blood Beasts. King Shentu revealed that the Research Tower would notice if Chen Fan’s hunting disrupted the Blood Demon Secret Realm’s balance.

• King Shentu recognized Chen Fan from the Tower of Sand, examined his Blood-Melting Technique, and was astonished that Chen Fan had reached its fifth level so quickly.
• King Shentu introduced himself and confirmed that he had been born into Great Qian’s Shentu Clan before being cast out.
• King Shentu caught the massive Blood Beast Chen Fan had been fighting and beat it into submission.
• Chen Fan said he had entered the Blood Demon Secret Realm to obtain external blood, and King Shentu suspected him of killing the tenth-level Blood Beasts whose deaths had caused an abnormal collapse.
• King Shentu explained that he served the Guardian as a retainer and had followed the traces of the dying Blood Beasts to investigate.

Chen Fan learned why King Shentu had killed the tenth-tier Blood Demons and received a Blood Seed in exchange for promising to free him from a curse if Chen Fan broke through the limits of the Blood-Melting Technique. The chapter left Chen Fan wondering whether the Blood Demon Secret Realm and the Yuan Shang Secret Realm shared a connection, and asking what an ancient divine court was.

• King Shentu explained that he had killed every tenth-tier Blood Demon in the Research Tower, leaving few powerful Blood Demons for other Trial Towers to send after Chen Fan.
• Chen Fan refused King Shentu's suggestion to hunt Blood Demons in the Trial Tower because he did not want its guardian to learn how far his Blood-Melting Technique had progressed.
• King Shentu gave Chen Fan a Blood Seed in exchange for an oath that Chen Fan would free him from his curse if he ever broke through the limits of the Blood-Melting Technique.
• King Shentu explained that Blood Seeds remained intact in some people who absorbed the God-Defying Blood, while the God-Defying Blood itself returned to the Trial Tower when its bearer died.
• King Shentu said the Blood Demon Secret Realm was reportedly established by a powerful being from an ancient divine court, prompting Chen Fan to ask what a divine court was.

King Shentu told Chen Fan that the Blood Demon Secret Realm and its Research Towers might have been created to restore the God-Defying Race. He explained the strange beast’s importance and suspected that a Marsh Tower Blood Demon had worked with a human to lure martial artists with treasure maps.

• King Shentu recounted legends of four ancient Divine Courts and said a being from one of them had created the Blood Demon Secret Realm and five Research Towers to revive the God-Defying Race.
• Chen Fan considered the Blood Seed’s power and asked King Shentu why he had stopped him from killing the strange Blood Beast.
• King Shentu tore Blood Spirit Flowers from the beast for Chen Fan and explained that it was a mutated Blood Demon that could grow flowers when nurtured, so killing it could bring severe consequences.
• King Shentu said the Research Tower guardians likely could not leave their Trial Towers and identified Marsh Tower as the beast’s current guard; Chen Fan decided he could not take the enormous creature out of the realm.
• Chen Fan told King Shentu about treasure maps found on martial artists, and King Shentu suspected that the Marsh Tower Blood Demon guarding the beast had cooperated with a human to set the scheme.

Chen Fan secretly watched the Blood Beast and discovered that it regenerated Blood Spirit Flowers by devouring martial artists. When the beast’s Western Wasteland handler arrived, Chen Fan trapped the area with a barrier and confronted him.

• King Shentu dismissed the Blood Beast as a minor threat, told Chen Fan to stop hunting powerful Blood Beasts, and left.
• Chen Fan tracked the wounded Blood Beast and confirmed that it regenerated Blood Spirit Flowers after burrowing underground.
• The ninth-level martial artist whose map Chen Fan had taken approached the flowers, was swallowed by the beast, and died while Chen Fan watched.
• Chen Fan realized the Blood Beast could produce Blood Spirit Flowers by devouring people and decided he wanted to acquire it.
• A Western Wasteland man arrived and communicated with the beast, but Chen Fan raised a barrier and confronted him.
• The man identified himself as Lord Gafelin of Marsh Tower’s favored dependent and threatened Chen Fan.

Chen Fan fought and killed the black-robed man who had nearly trapped him, revealing that he was not a Blood Demon and overpowering the man's Berserk with his own second level. After collecting the man's Blood Seed and spoils, Chen Fan suspected he had been hunting Blood Beasts and Blood Demons throughout the secret realm.

• The black-robed man invoked Gafelin's authority, but Chen Fan challenged him and attacked within a barrier.
• Chen Fan shattered the man's Dao Domain and knocked him back, then swept aside the mutated Blood Demon that tried to protect him.
• The black-robed man activated Berserk and confronted Chen Fan, who escalated to the second level of Berserk.
• Chen Fan used the first two forms of the Seven-Kill Sword to kill the black-robed man and evaded a blood-colored mark released from his corpse.
• Chen Fan took the man's Blood Seed and searched his Sumeru Ring, finding abundant resources, Blood Spirit Flowers, and Blood Crystals.
• Chen Fan suspected the man had trapped and killed not only martial artists but also Blood Beasts and Blood Demons.

Chen Fan befriended the wounded Blood Beast and waited for the Blood Demon Secret Realm gates to open, absorbing a Blood Seed while he waited. After learning the Ancient Wilderness Ruins were reopening, he returned to the Imperial Capital and began breaking through to the ninth layer.

• Chen Fan fed origin crystals and other resources to the wounded Blood Beast, then left it behind while planning to take it away later using the Star Hall.
• Chen Fan used the Sun-Covering Mirror to check King Shentu’s Blood Seed and concluded it posed no danger, though he understood that accepting it meant taking on a future responsibility.
• While waiting for the gates to reopen, Chen Fan absorbed the Blood Seed he had taken from the robed man, strengthening his bloodline and physique.
• After leaving the Blood Demon Secret Realm, Chen Fan received Zhao Tianhua’s message that the Ancient Wilderness Ruins were finally reopening, and he returned to the Imperial Capital.
• Chen Fan swallowed a top-grade heaven-tier barrier-breaking pill and began breaking through to the ninth layer in the Crown Prince’s Residence.

Chen Fan broke through to the Ninth Level of martial arts, prompting the Crown Prince to organize a banquet and draw him into the Imperial Capital’s social circles. At the gathering, He Yu assessed Chen Fan as a formidable rival ahead of the Origin Hunt Rite.

• Crown Prince Liu Lun and Wen Siyuan sensed Chen Fan’s breakthrough and discussed the threat he might pose if he reached the Tenth Level.
• Chen Fan advanced to the Ninth Level, strengthened his True Essence and divine sense, and considered finding a True Technique that extended beyond the Tenth Level.
• The Crown Prince congratulated Chen Fan and arranged a banquet to celebrate his breakthrough and build connections with the major clans.
• Chen Fan attended the banquet and exchanged greetings with martial artists and clan disciples from the Imperial Capital.
• He Yu watched Chen Fan and judged that her chances of defeating him had fallen below sixty percent, so she resolved to improve before the Origin Hunt Rite.

At the banquet celebrating his breakthrough, Chen Fan learned the Ancient Wilderness Ruins would open in a week and received a pass token from Zhao Tianhua. He planned to enter alone to pursue a secret location, despite warnings that powerful experts would be exploring the ruins.

• The Thirteenth Prince and He Yu discussed Chen Fan’s strength, then the prince invited her to join his expedition to a newly discovered secret realm in the Ancient Wilderness Ruins.
• Chen Fan asked the Crown Prince why he had invited the Thirteenth Prince, and the Crown Prince explained their close brotherly bond despite their rivalry.
• The Crown Prince warned Chen Fan that Dao Fruit experts would enter the fragile ruins, offered him a place on the imperial team, and learned Chen Fan intended to go with the Zhao clan instead.
• Zhao Tianhua told Chen Fan the Ancient Wilderness Ruins would unseal in a week and gave him a Zhao clan pass token.
• Zhao Tianhua warned Chen Fan that experts above the tenth level would enter, but Chen Fan accepted the token and said he trusted his luck.

Chen Fan entered the Ancient Wilderness Ruins alone and followed a map toward a hidden destination while avoiding dangerous mechanisms and spatial rifts. Through the Star God Seal, he discovered that Feng Cao had also entered the ruins.

• Zhao Tianhua warned Chen Fan that long-range teleportation was deadly inside the ruins, while short-range teleportation could work if no spatial rifts were nearby.
• Feng Cao learned about the ruins' medicinal herbs and announced that he was going into seclusion to refine pills.
• Chen Fan altered his appearance, entered the ruins with a Zhao clan token, and followed Zhao Kong's jade tablet map away from the secret realm's entrance.
• Chen Fan destroyed a fast mechanical rabbit, then narrowly avoided a huge spatial rift as he traveled through the ruins.
• Chen Fan sensed someone from the Star Sect through the Star God Seal and discovered it was Feng Cao, not Qiu Hong.

Chen Fan entered a hidden trial in the Ancient Wilderness Ruins, where a staircase tested both body and spirit. He endured the pressure to temper his divine sense and reached the twelfth step, where the trial’s intensity sharply increased.

• Chen Fan sensed that Feng Cao had entered the Ancient Wilderness Ruins alone, but decided not to pursue him because he could not yet kill him.
• Chen Fan used Zhao Kong’s jade token to open a hidden portal and entered a hall containing an eighteen-step trial staircase.
• Chen Fan began climbing, discovering that each step subjected his body and sea of consciousness to pressure, and that he could use the Star God Seal if needed.
• Chen Fan climbed to the seventh step with ease, then continued upward as the pressure grew heavier.
• Chen Fan reached the twelfth step and endured near-limit soul pressure, which damaged and condensed his divine sense while accelerating his Spirit Tempering Art cultivation.

Chen Fan endured the staircase’s escalating pressure, completing the fourth level of the Spirit Tempering Art and reaching the peak of the Icy Heart Realm. He failed to fully step onto the eighteenth level, but the staircase restored him and summoned a spirit body that addressed him.

• Chen Fan spent three days adapting to the twelfth step, then used the Star God Seal to withstand the thirteenth step’s soul pressure and temper his spiritual sense.
• After half a month on the staircase, Chen Fan completed the fourth level of the Spirit Tempering Art and broke through to the peak of the Icy Heart Realm.
• Chen Fan activated Berserk and climbed rapidly from the fifteenth step to the seventeenth, but the pressure blasted him away when he tried to reach the eighteenth.
• Spirit light from the staircase healed Chen Fan’s injuries and gathered into a spirit body.
• The spirit body told Chen Fan it had not expected a human to awaken it.

Chen Fan awakened the guardian of the stairs, a white cat, and received the damaged but complete White Emperor Armor, a top-tier Dao artifact. After learning of its formidable defensive and True Essence amplification effects, he asked about its limitations, but the cat told him to refine it first.

• Chen Fan met the white cat guardian, who said he had awakened it by passing the eighteen levels of stairs.
• The white cat awarded Chen Fan the White Emperor Armor, explaining that it was a complete but damaged top-tier Dao artifact from the Ancient Wilderness Sect.
• The cat fitted the armor to Chen Fan and said he could refine it with True Essence and blood, though his strength limited its effects.
• The white cat explained that the armor could absorb much of the force from lower-level Chang Sheng warriors and amplify Chen Fan's True Essence roughly a hundredfold.
• Chen Fan asked whether the amplification had restrictions, and the white cat urged him to refine the armor before explaining its flaws.