Recaps

Song Wen learned that the Illusory Spirit Valley Secret Realm would open in nine months, but he delayed traveling to pursue the Spirit Candle Fruit. He left the story monitoring Han Wu while planning to meet Zhu Yin at the Two Forms Sect within three months.

• Zhu Yin told Song Wen that Illusory Spirit Valley admitted only Golden Core cultivators and had few known details, while Song Wen continued studying the Undying True Corpse Transformation and strengthening his spiritual consciousness.
• Jing Kai reported that Han Wu had bought a concealment formation, suggesting the Spirit Candle Fruit was nearing maturity, and Song Wen ordered him to keep watching Han Wu without revealing their knowledge.
• Song Wen secretly monitored Han Wu near the Flame-Soil Spirit Fields and saw him meet Jing Kai in Shadow City, but the meeting produced no useful intelligence.
• Zhu Yin informed Song Wen that Illusory Spirit Valley would open in nine months, and Song Wen said he would travel to the Two Forms Sect in three months while he watched for the Spirit Candle Fruit to ripen.

Song Wen met Han Wu to negotiate for his three Spirit Candle Fruits, but Han Wu demanded a Golden Core Pill in exchange. Song Wen offered the pill for information on Limitless Island cultivators of the Corpse King Blood Refinement Art, leaving Han Wu alarmed by the risk of betraying his sect.

• Song Wen followed Han Wu to Tide-Listening Pavilion after Jing Kai reported that Han Wu wanted to discuss the Spirit Candle Fruit.
• Han Wu deduced that Jing Kai had been trying to befriend him on someone else's behalf and asked to meet Song Wen directly.
• Han Wu offered three Spirit Candle Fruits but refused spirit stones and requested a Golden Core Pill.
• Song Wen told Jing Kai to leave and offered Han Wu a Golden Core Pill for investigating everyone on Limitless Island who cultivated the Corpse King Blood Refinement Art.
• Han Wu warned that investigating the sect's secret technique could be treated as betrayal and get him killed.

Song Wen secured Han Wu’s agreement to gather intelligence in exchange for a Golden Core Pill and obtained three Spirit Candle Fruits. He then traveled with Zhu Yin to the Two Forms Sect to seek entry into the Illusory Spirit Valley Secret Realm, where they were stopped near North Pole Island.

• Song Wen showed Han Wu a Golden Core Pill and agreed to pay forty high-grade spirit stones for three Spirit Candle Fruits while reserving the pill for Han Wu for one year.
• Jing Kai completed the Spirit Candle Fruit exchange, and Song Wen paid him one thousand mid-grade spirit stones and promised future rewards for his service.
• Song Wen contacted Zhu Yin, and they set out for the Two Forms Sect to seek Purple Salvia Root in the Illusory Spirit Valley Secret Realm.
• Zhu Yin planned to ask Daoist Nun Lan Yin for permission to enter the secret realm, while Song Wen warned that they could face hostility from Two Forms Sect cultivators.
• After reaching Four Symbols City and traveling toward North Pole Island, Song Wen and Zhu Yin were stopped by a Foundation Establishment cultivator who asked their business.

Zhu Yin and Song Wen visited the Two Forms Sect to seek Lan Yin, but learned she was away. They arranged a meeting with Purple Cloud to propose cooperation in exchange for the Infant Spirit Pill formula, and the chapter ended as Song Wen arrived at the banquet.

• Zhu Yin and Song Wen met Sect Master Lü Heng, who said he did not know where Lan Yin had gone or when she would return.
• After leaving North Pole Island, Song Wen urged Zhu Yin to make other plans and suggested approaching Purple Cloud with the Infant Spirit Pill formula and refining insights as bargaining chips.
• Zhu Yin invited Purple Cloud to meet in Four Symbols City, and Purple Cloud accepted despite her hostility and suspicion.
• At the restaurant, Purple Cloud questioned Zhu Yin about the Infant Spirit Pill and refused her wine, while Zhu Yin waited for another guest to arrive.
• Someone opened the private room door, and Zhu Yin told Purple Cloud that the person she had met before had arrived.

Song Wen and Zhu Yin pressured Purple Cloud into swearing secrecy before revealing that they possessed the Infant Spirit Pill recipe and wanted purple salvia root in exchange. After learning the herb grew in the dangerous core of Illusory Spirit Valley, they asked Purple Cloud to help them enter the secret realm, where they proposed joining forces to gather it.

• Song Wen confronted Purple Cloud with a threat and required her to swear a Soul Oath before discussing their plans.
• Song Wen showed Purple Cloud an incomplete Infant Spirit Pill recipe and demanded five purple salvia roots for the complete recipe.
• Purple Cloud explained that purple salvia root grew near a fourth-tier golden corpse in Illusory Spirit Valley and was difficult to obtain.
• Song Wen asked Purple Cloud to help him and Zhu Yin gain entry to Illusory Spirit Valley.
• Zhu Yin proposed that the three of them explore the secret realm together, since Purple Cloud would also need the recipe's ingredients.

Zhu Yin and Song Wen secured permission from Daoist Nun Lan Yin to enter the Illusory Spirit Valley Secret Realm for Purple Salvia Root. At the secret realm entrance, Purple Cloud revealed that she had concealed them in the cave and called them out after the Two Forms Sect cultivators entered.

• Purple Cloud agreed to help Zhu Yin and Song Wen enter the secret realm in exchange for the complete Infant Spirit Pill formula, and they all swore soul oaths.
• Two months later, Zhu Yin and Song Wen visited Daoist Nun Lan Yin, who recognized Zhu Yin's concealed peak Golden Core cultivation and agreed to keep it secret.
• Lan Yin discussed the difficulty of reaching Spirit Transformation and the distant Heavenly Origin Continent, then allowed Zhu Yin and Song Wen into Illusory Spirit Valley to seek Purple Salvia Root under strict conditions.
• Five months later, Lan Yin opened the secret realm entrance at an island cave, and the Two Forms Sect's Golden Core cultivators entered.
• Purple Cloud called Zhu Yin and Song Wen out from behind a formation screen after the sect cultivators had gone inside.

Song Wen, Purple Cloud, and Zhu Yin regrouped in the Illusory Spirit Valley and traveled to Black Stone Mountain to search for purple salvia root. They learned that the herb could only be picked by hand and that fourth-tier golden corpses might lurk in the dangerous fissures.

• Song Wen flew east through the desert and met Purple Cloud after following her azure signal; Zhu Yin soon joined them.
• Purple Cloud questioned Song Wen about his cultivation, but he maintained that he was only at the early Golden Core stage.
• Purple Cloud took Song Wen and Zhu Yin aboard her flying ship and refused Wen Lin’s request for a ride.
• At Black Stone Mountain, Purple Cloud explained that purple salvia root grew deep in shaded fissures and would wither if touched by magical power or treasures.
• Purple Cloud warned that fourth-tier golden corpses inhabited the fissures, then proposed that they split up and search only the shallow sections with their divine senses.

Song Wen, Zhu Yin, and Purple Cloud searched Black Stone Mountain for Purple Salvia Root, then descended into a deep cavern with their summoned guardians and Purple Cloud’s Earth-Drilling Dragon. They found a three-hundred-year-old Purple Salvia Root, which Purple Cloud claimed as her share as Song Wen watched her warily.

• Song Wen searched the fissures with five Shadow Gu but found no Purple Salvia Root or zombies, and Zhu Yin and Purple Cloud reported the same.
• Purple Cloud proposed searching deeper fissures near the mountain’s center, and she led Song Wen and Zhu Yin underground.
• Song Wen and Zhu Yin summoned Ghost Kings while Purple Cloud sent her Earth-Drilling Dragon ahead to scout and clear their route.
• The Earth-Drilling Dragon found a cavern leading deeper, and the three followed it until they reached a vast cavern thick with corpse qi.
• Purple Cloud’s Earth-Drilling Dragon located a three-hundred-year-old Purple Salvia Root, and Song Wen said it should belong to Purple Cloud while he watched her cautiously as she reached for it.

Song Wen, Purple Cloud, and Zhu Yin explored deeper into the cavern, discovering ancient remains and evidence of the Nether God Temple’s human-beast experiments. They found a six-hundred-year Purple Salvia Root, which Zhu Yin claimed first, while Purple Cloud watched with unease.

• Purple Cloud uprooted a Purple Salvia Root entwined around a demon beast’s bone, then used the Earth-Drilling Dragon to choose a descending passage.
• Song Wen urged the group to continue deeper, and they found increasing numbers of human and demon beast remains.
• The group encountered a bizarre Bronze Corpse with a human torso, horse body, and serpent tail, which Zhu Yin identified as evidence of the Nether God Temple’s Exotic Beast Pavilion.
• Song Wen recalled similar human-beast hybrids in the Nether God Temple Secret Realm and wondered why the Divine Blood Sect had cultivated them.
• Purple Cloud found a six-leaf, six-hundred-year Purple Salvia Root, and Zhu Yin took it while Purple Cloud watched uneasily.

Song Wen, Zhu Yin, and Purple Cloud fled an early fourth-rank Golden Corpse into a vast underground hall, where they worked together to trap it. Zhu Yin activated her corpse-trapping formation as the Golden Corpse landed inside it.

• Song Wen found a seven-leaf Purple Salvia Root growing among human bones and stored it while Purple Cloud turned away.
• Zhu Yin learned that her Ghost King had been killed by an early fourth-rank Golden Corpse, so the three fled deeper into the cavern.
• Song Wen and Purple Cloud attacked the pursuing Golden Corpse while Zhu Yin arranged nine Corpse-Suppressing Nails for her formation.
• The Golden Corpse broke free of Song Wen's restraints, but Purple Cloud's sword struck its head and exposed its golden skull.
• Zhu Yin completed the corpse-trapping formation, and the Golden Corpse leaped into it as the three retreated.
• Zhu Yin activated the nine nails, forming a huge talisman that crashed down toward the trapped Golden Corpse.

Zhu Yin, Song Wen, and Purple Cloud fled after two Golden Corpses broke free and attacked them. As Zhu Yin tried to set up another formation, Song Wen and Purple Cloud held the monsters back, but Purple Cloud was struck from the sky and fell toward a corpse-qi-filled abyss.

• Zhu Yin grabbed a Purple Salvia Root, then narrowly escaped a flying Golden Corpse by striking it with her blood coffin.
• The Corpse-Trapping Talisman broke, freeing the bull-headed Golden Corpse, and the three cultivators fled as both Golden Corpses pursued them.
• Zhu Yin sent out her corpse puppet and blood coffin to hinder the flying Golden Corpse, while Song Wen used the Blood Sea Seal to restrain the bull-headed Golden Corpse.
• Song Wen and Purple Cloud agreed to hold off the Golden Corpses while Zhu Yin went ahead to set up another corpse-sealing formation.
• Purple Cloud sacrificed essence blood to empower her massive sword, but the clash sent her tumbling toward an abyssal fissure leaking corpse qi.

Song Wen, Zhu Yin, and the badly injured Purple Cloud escaped the two Golden Corpses after Zhu Yin trapped them with Corpse-Locking Chains. At the cliff, Hu Gao and Wen Lin confronted the exhausted group, and Wen Lin accused Purple Cloud of bringing Song Wen into the secret realm to steal its treasures.

• Song Wen used the Blood Sea Seal to hold back the Golden Corpses while Zhu Yin waited for both to enter her formation.
• Zhu Yin suppressed the Golden Corpses with the Corpse-Sealing Talisman and bound them with Corpse-Locking Chains, allowing Song Wen to flee with her and Purple Cloud.
• Song Wen led the two women out of Black Stone Mountain and set them down at a cliff, where Purple Cloud and Zhu Yin began recovering.
• Hu Gao and Wen Lin arrived and questioned Song Wen about his identity and Purple Cloud's injuries.
• Wen Lin accused Purple Cloud of colluding with evil outsiders and bringing Song Wen into the secret realm to steal its treasures.

Wen Lin persuaded Hu Gao to attack Song Wen, Zhu Yin, and Purple Cloud, but Song Wen swiftly defeated both late-stage Golden Core cultivators. Because he had promised Daoist Nun Lan Yin not to kill members of the Two Forms Sect himself, he left Hu Gao and Wen Lin for Purple Cloud to finish off.

• Wen Lin convinced Hu Gao that they should kill Song Wen and the others and blame their deaths on demonic beasts.
• Hu Gao and Wen Lin charged Song Wen, who struck them with Soul-Concentrating Spikes.
• Wen Lin betrayed Hu Gao with a palm strike, sending him into Song Wen's spiritual-sense blades.
• Song Wen trapped Wen Lin with blood-red tentacles and battered her until both she and Hu Gao were helpless.
• Song Wen explained that his promise to Daoist Nun Lan Yin prevented him from killing the Two Forms Sect members himself.
• Purple Cloud killed Hu Gao and Wen Lin by blasting their heads apart.

After recovering from their battle in the secret realm, Song Wen abandoned his plan to search Black Stone Mountain when Zhu Yin offered him her third Purple Salvia Root. The three left the realm, and Purple Cloud exchanged contact information with Song Wen before he departed.

• Song Wen burned Hu Gao and Wen Lin's corpses and had the Ghost King devour their souls before the three meditated for ten days to recover.
• Song Wen announced that he wanted to search Black Stone Mountain alone, but Zhu Yin revealed through spiritual sense that she had three Purple Salvia Roots and would give them to him.
• Song Wen asked Purple Cloud to leave the secret realm, and she agreed; he carried her with Zhu Yin aboard a flying ship to the exit.
• The three left the secret realm and met Daoist Nun Lan Yin, who asked whether Purple Cloud had obtained what she wanted and thanked Song Wen for helping her disciple.
• Purple Cloud asked Song Wen for a communication jade slip and the location of his cave abode, explaining that she wished to befriend him; Song Wen gave her the information.

Song Wen negotiated with Zhu Yin for the Undying True Corpse Transformation in exchange for refining the Infant Spirit Pill within five years. After returning to Limitless Island, he checked Han Wu’s claim that he had compiled a list of Corpse King Blood Refinement Art cultivators and confirmed that Han Wu’s master worked in the Transmission Hall.

• Song Wen told Zhu Yin he would wait until reaching peak Golden Core before refining the Infant Spirit Pill, but Zhu Yin urged him to begin within five years so she could secretly advance to nascent soul.
• Zhu Yin offered Song Wen her surplus medicinal herbs, and they found they had enough for five sets except for one earth dragon ganoderma.
• Song Wen demanded the Undying True Corpse Transformation technique, and Zhu Yin gave him a Jade Slip while warning that only practitioners of the Corpse King Reincarnation Art could unleash its full power.
• Song Wen and Zhu Yin agreed that she would deliver her herbs when he was ready to refine the pills, then parted ways on Limitless Island.
• Song Wen contacted Han Wu, who claimed he had obtained a list of cultivators practicing the Corpse King Blood Refinement Art from his master, Xie Ji, a Transmission Hall steward.
• Song Wen checked Han Wu’s story with Jing Kai, who confirmed that Han Wu had visited him two months earlier and identified Xie Ji as Han Wu’s master.

Song Wen verified Han Wu’s intelligence on cultivators who practiced the Corpse King Blood Refinement Art, then withheld the promised Golden Core Pill until Han Wu agreed to investigate Zhu Yin’s cultivation art. He searched the list for a target to devour and settled on the traveling inspection elder Pang Heng.

• Song Wen asked Jing Kai whether the Transmission Hall’s registers could reveal cultivators’ arts, and learned that only Golden Core elders could access Golden Core records.
• Han Wu brought Song Wen detailed intelligence on fifty-six cultivators, including eighteen Golden Core cultivators, and said Zhu Yin was not listed in the registers.
• Song Wen asked Han Wu to investigate Zhu Yin’s cultivation art before receiving the Golden Core Pill, and Han Wu reluctantly agreed.
• After Han Wu left, Song Wen reviewed the intelligence and chose Pang Heng, a late Golden Core inspection elder who frequently traveled between Limitless Island’s enterprises, as his next target.

Disguised as a Foundation Establishment cultivator named Cui Huo, Song Wen entered Splendid Dream Pavilion near Cold Corpse Valley to approach Baleful Qi Hall stewards. After winning their trust with lavish spending, he began telling them about a strange incident near the valley.

• Song Wen posed as a pleasure-seeking Rogue Cultivator and entered Splendid Dream Pavilion.
• He paid an upper-grade spirit stone to summon all five courtesan queens, then gave them to Chen He, Wang Wu, and Qian Cheng instead.
• Song Wen claimed to be Cui Huo of the Cui Family of the Southern Region and befriended the three Baleful Qi Hall stewards over wine and food.
• When Chen He asked about his travels, Song Wen said he had encountered a strange incident near Cold Corpse Valley.

Song Wen lured Chen He, Wang Wu, and Qian Cheng toward a rumored treasure in a cave beneath Flying Cloud Ridge, and they entered with other cultivators to investigate. When Yin Pan also vanished inside the pool, Pang Heng arrived and concluded that Yin Pan had been trapped while pursuing the treasure.

• Song Wen told Chen He, Wang Wu, and Qian Cheng about a cave beneath a waterfall at Flying Cloud Ridge, where dark blue treasure light appeared at midnight, and asked them for Sha-Cleansing Rejuvenation Pills to treat his baleful poison.
• Chen He, Wang Wu, and Qian Cheng decided to obtain more pills and investigate the cave, while more than twenty Baleful Qi Hall disciples, including the three of them, went missing with their soul lamps still lit.
• Rumors of treasure at Flying Cloud Ridge drew many cultivators to the deep pool, but those who entered did not return; Yin Pan ordered Baleful Qi Palace disciples away and then dove into the pool himself.
• Bao Yuan discovered that Yin Pan could no longer be contacted and reported his disappearance to the sect after several hours.
• Pang Heng arrived with six Foundation Establishment Realm disciples, questioned Bao Yuan, and judged that Yin Pan had become trapped while seeking the rumored treasure.

Pang Heng entered the deep pool to investigate the missing cultivator, but Song Wen ambushed and killed him, then escaped through a prepared passage. Zhu Yin arrived at Flying Cloud Ridge with four Golden Core cultivators and ordered them to divert the river and drain the pool.

• Pang Heng sent a Foundation Establishment Late Stage female cultivator into the pool, but she vanished and strands of her flesh returned on the chain.
• Pang Heng entered the underground river, followed the cultivator’s bloodstains, and fought Song Wen’s peak third-order corpse puppet.
• Song Wen struck Pang Heng with three Soul-Concentrating Spikes, searched his soul, killed him, and took his storage ring and corpse puppets.
• Song Wen left the other cultivators alive, escaped through a shaft, and headed toward the marketplace outside Cold Corpse Valley.
• Zhu Yin arrived with four Golden Core cultivators and ordered them to divert the river and drain the pool.
• Two cultivators blocked the river with collapsed rock and cut a lower outlet through a mountain pass, sending the water toward a valley.

Song Wen avoided Zhu Yin’s investigation after Pang Heng’s death, then lured Law Enforcement Hall deputy hall masters Duan Chuan and Feng Lan out by arranging for Pang Heng’s Dragon Scale Shield to appear in a market shop. The chapter ended with Duan Chuan questioning the shopkeeper about the masked seller, who had fled south from Shadow City.

• Zhu Yin searched the underground caves, rescued the trapped cultivators, found traces of Song Wen’s scheme, and reported the incident to Yinshuo.
• Song Wen hid near the market town while Zhu Yin and the other Golden Core cultivators investigated, then watched them leave for Shadow City.
• Song Wen entered Shadow City and spotted Duan Chuan and Feng Lan, who were monitoring the area after returning from Cold Corpse Valley.
• Duan Chuan and Feng Lan received word that Pang Heng’s Dragon Scale Shield had been sold at a market shop and went to retrieve it.
• The shopkeeper told Duan Chuan that a masked Foundation Establishment cultivator had sold the shield and hurried south out of the city.

Duan Chuan and Feng Lan pursued the suspected seller of the Dragon Scale Shield, but mistakenly found and killed Wang Cheng. A hidden attacker then killed both deputy hall masters and vanished, leaving Yun Cang to witness their deaths from the clouds.

• Duan Chuan and Feng Lan followed Yun Cang’s orders and pursued the suspected criminal southward with him watching from above.
• Duan Chuan mistook Wang Cheng, a Foundation Establishment cultivator carrying pills, for the suspect and killed him after searching his storage ring.
• A hidden attacker launched a curved blade and three thunder spears at Duan Chuan and Feng Lan, destroying their defenses and corpse puppets.
• The attacker killed Duan Chuan and Feng Lan, sealed their souls, took their bodies, and escaped while Yun Cang saw only an afterimage.

Yun Cang failed to stop the murderer who killed Feng Lan and Duan Chuan, and Ye Hua ordered an investigation into Golden Core cultivators around Limitless Island. Song Wen escaped to sea and continued toward Extreme Yin Island, his cultivation nearing the late Golden Core bottleneck after devouring the two elders.

• Yun Cang realized the murderer was a powerful Golden Core cultivator, sent Limitless Island's emergency signal, and attacked as the killer vanished into blood mist.
• Ye Hua arrived, identified the escape as a possible Blood Escape Technique, and ordered Yun Cang and Zhu Yin to investigate suspicious Golden Core cultivators using the Star Raft Divine Ark.
• Song Wen used the Blood Escape Technique repeatedly to flee eight hundred miles, then entered a torrent and traveled through the sea toward Extreme Yin Island.
• Song Wen rested on an uninhabited island and devoured Duan Chuan and Feng Lan's cultivation, bringing himself close to the late Golden Core bottleneck.

Song Wen was questioned by Yun Cang about the murders of Limitless Sect elders and pretended to be a fearful alchemist seeking protection. After Yun Cang left Extreme Yin Island, Song Wen realized the Star Raft Divine Ark’s limited fuel and operating demands might let him catch up.

• Song Wen saw the Limitless Sect’s Star Raft Divine Ark approaching Extreme Yin Island and met Yun Cang, who questioned him about his recent whereabouts and examined his corpse-path aura.
• Yun Cang placed a spiritual-sense mark on Song Wen while investigating the murders of Pang Heng and two Law Enforcement Hall deputy hall masters.
• After learning that Golden Core elders had been killed, Song Wen pleaded to board the vessel and accompany Yun Cang, but Yun Cang refused and departed.
• Song Wen regretted losing the chance to devour Yun Cang’s mana, then An Yin’s question about the vessel’s spirit-stone cost gave him an idea for catching up with it.

Song Wen secretly followed Yun Cang to Yi Hong Island, where Yun Cang ordered Yi Hong to submit to an investigation. A sudden fire destroyed Yi Hong’s workshop, and after Yi Hong killed two injured survivors, Yun Cang accused him of hiding evidence; another scorched figure then emerged from the ruins.

• Song Wen traced Yun Cang’s route from Green Mountain Island to Yi Hong Island and observed him questioning outer sect elders.
• Yun Cang demanded that Yi Hong come to Limitless Island for investigation, and Yi Hong agreed to shut down his refining furnace first.
• A surge of spiritual power sent the shattered star bonefire rampaging through Yi Hong’s workshop, destroying much of the building and killing most of those inside.
• Yi Hong questioned two surviving Foundation Establishment cultivators, then killed them when they could not explain the accident.
• Yun Cang accused Yi Hong of staging the fire to silence witnesses and ordered him to surrender, while a scorched figure suddenly rushed out of the ruins.

Song Wen staged a rescue and accusation to get aboard the Star Raft Divine Ark, then attacked Yun Cang and Yi Hong once they were bound. He killed Yun Cang and trapped Yi Hong’s silver corpse, leaving the confrontation with Yi Hong unresolved.

• A bedraggled figure accused Yi Hong of leaving twice and murdering his disciples, and Yun Cang stopped Yi Hong from killing him.
• The figure revealed himself as Song Wen and persuaded Yun Cang to take both him and Yi Hong to Limitless Island in chains.
• After boarding the Star Raft Divine Ark, Song Wen announced that neither Yun Cang nor Yi Hong would reach the Limitless Sect alive.
• Song Wen struck Yun Cang with three spiritual sense blades, then killed him with the Void-Breaking Blade.
• Yi Hong attacked Song Wen with his corpse coffin and silver corpse, but Song Wen trapped the silver corpse in a cage of black qi.