Recaps

Song Wen and the others reached the Ancient Battlefield and followed Xuan Ye into the underground cavern. They began their descent together, agreeing to stay united through the first stretch despite their different goals.

• Song Wen prepared talismans and pills, then set out with Xuan Ye, Niu Ding, Lao Chun, and Zi Yi aboard his flying boat.
• After three days of travel, the group reached the Ancient Battlefield and followed Xuan Ye's advice to wait until morning before approaching the cavern.
• The group flew to the cavern at dawn, landed beside its entrance, and encountered the battlefield's dense corpse qi and drifting remnant souls.
• Xuan Ye led the others more than a hundred meters down into the pitch-black cavern and illuminated their surroundings with a fluorescent stone.
• Xuan Ye urged the group to travel together through the first stretch, then led them deeper into the cavern with Song Wen close behind.

The group fought through walking corpses and wandering souls as Xuan Ye led them deeper into the caves. At a fork, Xuan Ye invited Guo Tao to join him and Niu Ding in seeking the Snake-Scale Fruit, warning that going after Sky Cicada Wood with Zi Yi and Lao Chun could leave him vulnerable.

• Song Wen used his Beetle Gu to detect walking corpses ahead, and the group quietly defeated them with Xuan Ye's fierce ghost, Niu Ding's strength, and Lao Chun and Zi Yi's blades.
• A walking corpse hidden in the dirt lunged at Song Wen, but he smashed its head with an uppercut.
• The group fought two more groups of walking corpses and a cluster of wandering souls, then continued through the branching caves under Xuan Ye's guidance.
• Xuan Ye told Song Wen that the fork ahead led left to the Snake Cave and right to Sky Cicada Wood and Forsythia Yellow.
• Xuan Ye invited Song Wen to help him and Niu Ding obtain the Snake-Scale Fruit, offering to accompany him to retrieve the Sky Cicada Wood afterward.
• Xuan Ye warned Song Wen that if he chose the right passage, he would be alone with Zi Yi and Lao Chun, hinting that Zi Yi might take the chance to attack him.

Song Wen accompanied Xuan Ye and Niu Ding toward the Snake Cave after parting ways with Zi Yi and Lao Chun. At the cavern where Niu Ding's brother had died, Song Wen located his body but learned that more than a hundred ghosts, including at least twenty powerful resentful ghosts, had once occupied the nests, leaving him suspicious of Niu Ding's true motive.

• Song Wen agreed to help Xuan Ye retrieve the Snake-Scale Fruit in exchange for Xuan Ye accompanying him to find the Sky Cicada Wood.
• At the fork, Zi Yi and Lao Chun left to search for Forsythia Yellow while Song Wen, Xuan Ye, and Niu Ding took the path to the Snake Cave.
• Niu Ding revealed that his eighth-level Qi Refinement brother had been killed by resentful ghosts a month earlier while searching for Snake-Scale Fruit.
• At the cavern filled with nests, Song Wen used his unusually strong spiritual sense to locate Niu Ding's brother's dried corpse in a nest.
• Niu Ding said his brother's companions had encountered over a hundred ghosts there, including at least twenty powerful resentful ghosts, and Song Wen became suspicious that Niu Ding had another reason for risking the search.

Niu Ding persuaded Xuan Ye to help lure ghosts away from the nests so he could retrieve his elder brother’s corpse, while Song Wen refused to take part. After reaching the corpse, Niu Ding searched for a hidden treasure, and Song Wen observed from hiding and realized Niu Ding had concealed his true purpose and relied on a rare cloak.

• Niu Ding offered Xuan Ye talismans and spirit stones in exchange for luring most of the resentful ghosts away from their nests.
• Song Wen refused the talismans and stayed out of the operation, while Xuan Ye accepted the payment and summoned his goat-headed fierce ghost.
• Xuan Ye sent the fierce ghost to rouse the ghosts in the cavern, then fled toward the Snake-Scale Fruit as the creatures pursued him.
• Niu Ding entered a nest, found his elder brother’s corpse, and searched its storage bag and the surrounding area for something else.
• When an eighth-level resentful ghost entered the nest, Niu Ding used a gray cloak to conceal himself against the stone wall.
• Song Wen watched through the Beetle Gu and concluded that Niu Ding had come for a treasure on the corpse and that the cloak was likely a high-grade magical artifact.

Niu Ding found a bloodstone inside a corpse but was killed by a ghost infant and the creatures in its nest. Song Wen secretly retrieved the bloodstone, reunited with Xuan Ye, and agreed to resume their journey the next morning.

• Niu Ding uncovered a bloodstone in the dried corpse, but a ghost infant burst out and attacked him.
• Niu Ding used an Evil-Subduing Talisman to wound the ghost infant, then tried to flee the nest as the ghost creatures returned and dragged him back.
• Song Wen sent the Beetle Gu to move the bloodstone away from the nest and later retrieved it.
• Song Wen found Xuan Ye in a small cave and told him that Niu Ding likely had not escaped the nest.
• Xuan Ye said the ghost creatures would be more active at night, so Song Wen and Xuan Ye hid separately and agreed to act the next morning.

Song Wen and Xuan Ye reached the Snake Cave and surveyed the Black Vipers guarding the Snake-Scale Fruit. Xuan Ye explained his plan to use the Prairie Fire Formation, and Song Wen offered to plant all eight flags at once using his extended spiritual sense.

• Song Wen sensed Black Vipers dragging six walking corpses toward the Snake Cave, and Xuan Ye confirmed they were hunting.
• Xuan Ye explained that Black Vipers feared fire and yang energy, so his Prairie Fire Formation could suppress them and let the pair collect the Snake-Scale Fruit.
• Song Wen and Xuan Ye watched the Snake Cave, where hundreds of Black Vipers guarded a tree bearing three Snake-Scale Fruits.
• Xuan Ye asked Song Wen to throw the eight heavy formation flags into position while a fierce ghost distracted the snakes and cast a Fireball Technique.
• Song Wen said he could control all eight flags at once with his extended spiritual sense if Xuan Ye let him preliminarily refine them.

Song Wen and Xuan Ye activated the Prairie Fire Formation to trap the black vipers and recover the Snake Scale Fruits. The Ram-Headed Ghost escaped with the fruit tree, while Song Wen's corpse puppet fought off a viper until the ghost returned.

• Song Wen agreed to refine and plant the formation flags while Xuan Ye controlled the Prairie Fire Formation with his formation disk.
• Xuan Ye activated the formation, trapping the surface vipers in a blazing barrier and driving the underground snakes deeper into the tunnels.
• The Ram-Headed Ghost cut down the Snake Scale Fruit tree, took it and its three fruits, and escaped through an opening Xuan Ye made in the barrier.
• Song Wen released his corpse puppet to fight a large viper that had escaped the formation, and the puppet wounded the snake before retreating.
• The Ram-Headed Ghost returned with the Snake Scale Fruits.

Song Wen and Xuan Ye secured the Snake Scale Fruits and continued toward the Sky Cicada Wood, where they learned a pair of Rogue Cultivators had encountered powerful resentful ghosts. The chapter left them expecting Zi Yi, Lao Chun, and an injured eighth-level Qi Refinement cultivator to arrive.

• Song Wen and Xuan Ye escaped the Black Viper Snakes, rested, and divided the three Snake Scale Fruits, with Song Wen taking one.
• The next day, Song Wen and Xuan Ye resumed their journey toward the Sky Cicada Wood and discovered a hiding father and daughter.
• Liu Qiao told Xuan Ye that resentful ghosts had attacked him and three cultivators near a bone pile where two Sky Cicada Wood trees grew, while Liu Mu escaped.
• Song Wen inferred that the three cultivators had likely been defeated by the resentful ghosts and recognized the trees as the Sky Cicada Wood he sought.
• Song Wen detected Zi Yi and Lao Chun approaching with an injured male cultivator at the eighth level of Qi Refinement.

Song Wen and Xuan Ye fled with the Liu father and daughter as two powerful vengeful ghosts drove a group of cultivators into a dead-end cavern. The trapped cultivators prepared to fight, and Yan Gu’s skull-based artifacts weakened the ghosts before the Dwarf Ghost charged at the wooden fish.

• Song Wen and Xuan Ye ran deeper into the cavern to escape the vengeful ghosts, while the Liu father and daughter followed them.
• Yan Gu and Zi Yi and Lao Chun caught up with the group, and the pursuers’ flight ended when they reached a dead end.
• Song Wen, Xuan Ye, Zi Yi, and Lao Chun prepared to fight as the Liu father and daughter hid against the rock wall.
• The Dwarf Ghost and Green-Faced Female Ghost arrived, and Song Wen, Xuan Ye, Zi Yi, and Lao Chun attacked them.
• The Dwarf Ghost’s yin wind repelled the attacks, but Yan Gu’s wooden fish and Skull Garland produced white light that weakened both ghosts.
• The Dwarf Ghost leaped through the white light toward the wooden fish, apparently intent on destroying it.

Song Wen helped gravely injure the Green-Faced Female Ghost, but the Dwarf Ghost retaliated with a spiritual attack that killed Liu Qiao and Liu Mu and wounded Xuan Ye, Zi Yi, and Yan Gu. Song Wen’s mysterious Black Hole swallowed the attack, and he set out to seize the Sky Cicada Wood with Xuan Ye joining him.

• The Soul-Breaking Awl and Xuan Ye’s Evil-Exorcising Talisman struck the Green-Faced Female Ghost, leaving her near death.
• The Dwarf Ghost sent five spiritual blades at the group, then fled with the injured Green-Faced Female Ghost after Song Wen’s Black Hole swallowed the blade that pierced his sea of consciousness.
• Liu Qiao died from the spiritual attack, and Lao Chun killed the grieving Liu Mu; Xuan Ye and Zi Yi were injured, while Yan Gu fell unconscious.
• Song Wen decided to leave for the Sky Cicada Wood, and Xuan Ye chose to go with him, fearing the Dwarf Ghost would return for revenge.

Song Wen, Xuan Ye, Zi Yi, and Lao Chun tried to escape a swarm of White Bone Worms blocking the cave exit. As the group became separated in the fighting, Song Wen realized he needed to reveal more of his strength before the others escaped without him.

• Lao Chun killed the unconscious Yan Gu, took his belongings, and stayed with Xuan Ye to divide the spoils while Song Wen fled ahead.
• Song Wen returned to warn the others that hundreds of White Bone Worms were approaching the exit, and Zi Yi summoned a powerful corpse puppet for the escape.
• Before they charged, Lao Chun confessed his love to Zi Yi, who promised to marry him if they both survived.
• The four cultivators fought into the swarm, but the White Bone Worms gradually split them apart as Zi Yi and Lao Chun led the way and Xuan Ye followed.
• Song Wen, left at the rear under less pressure than the others, decided to reveal his hidden strength before they escaped ahead of him.

Song Wen fought through the White Bone Worms with his Black-Bellied Beetle Gu and blood-burning techniques, then escaped the swarm and raced toward the Sky Cicada Wood. Zi Yi and Lao Chun remained surrounded near the cavern fork, and Zi Yi resolved that they would escape together.

• Song Wen released more than sixty Black-Bellied Beetle Gu, used the Blood Sacrifice Technique, and fought the White Bone Worms while collecting their corpses and noticing the beetles eat transparent crystals inside them.
• Song Wen stored his battered corpse puppet and damaged Bone-Slicing Knife, then used his claws and Ghost Head Shield to break out of the encirclement.
• Song Wen drank three bottles of stolen blood essence, used the Blood Escape Technique with the Beetle Gu holding back the worms, and rushed past Xuan Ye, Zi Yi, and Lao Chun toward the Sky Cicada Wood.
• Zi Yi saw Song Wen escape and urged her corpse puppet to fight harder, while Lao Chun offered to stay behind; Zi Yi refused and said they would leave together.

Lao Chun killed Zi Yi to seize her corpse puppet and control their sect, but Song Wen ambushed and killed him. After parting ways with Xuan Ye, Song Wen reached the Sky Cicada Woods and cautiously sent his damaged corpse puppet toward the larger tree.

• After escaping the White Bone Worms, Zi Yi stopped to rest, and Lao Chun stabbed her from behind and revealed his resentment and plans before she died.
• Song Wen watched Lao Chun prepare to loot Zi Yi, then attacked; after Lao Chun released a corpse puppet and used a Fireball Talisman, Song Wen's hidden insects killed him.
• Song Wen looted both corpses and devoured their essence blood and souls, then met Xuan Ye and left him behind.
• Song Wen used the Beetle Gu to confirm Xuan Ye was not following before continuing through the caverns.
• Song Wen reached a cave containing two Sky Cicada Woods, found no obvious danger, and sent his damaged corpse puppet toward the larger tree while preparing escape and blood-sacrifice techniques.

Song Wen forced the dwarf ghost to surrender the Sky Cicada Wood by threatening the weakened female ghost, but she dissolved her soul to save him. The dwarf ghost transformed into a powerful bone ghost and pursued Song Wen, whose escape continued despite its spiritual attack missing.

• The dwarf ghost severed the corpse puppet’s leg, and Song Wen threatened the weakened female ghost to make it give up the Sky Cicada Wood.
• The female ghost urged Brother Tian not to surrender the wood, but then dissolved her soul body after he gave it to Song Wen.
• The grieving dwarf ghost’s ghostly qi killed Song Wen’s sixteen Black-Bellied Beetle Gu as he fled with the Sky Cicada Wood.
• The dwarf ghost absorbed bones, reached the ninth level of Qi Refinement, transformed into a towering bone ghost, and pursued Song Wen by following his blood scent.
• The bone ghost sent a spiritual blade at Song Wen, but the attack missed, allowing him to keep running.

Song Wen lured Xuan Ye into a deadly clash with the dwarf white-bone ghost, escaped the cavern, and hid near the ancient battlefield to recover. Three sibling robbery cultivators found his hiding place and began to approach.

• Xuan Ye trapped Song Wen in the Blazing Prairie Formation, but the dwarf white-bone ghost smashed through it and badly injured Xuan Ye.
• Song Wen struck the wounded dwarf white-bone ghost with a silver lightning talisman, then fled while the ghost devoured Xuan Ye.
• Song Wen raced through the cavern using the Blood Escape Technique and Blood Sacrifice Technique, then flew out of the underground passage.
• Song Wen left the ancient battlefield and hid in a cliffside cave to recover his spiritual power.
• Three sibling robbery cultivators spotted Song Wen's flying boat, suspected he was concealed nearby, and sent the eldest brother and Second Sister down to search while Third Sister kept watch.

Song Wen killed two of the three bandit cultivators who attacked him and returned to the Corpse Demon Sect. There, he discovered Du Qiu monitoring him and concluded that Shi Shou might be waiting for his cultivation to reach the dangerous sixth level of Qi Refinement.

• Song Wen ambushed the three bandit cultivators, killing the little sister with his Black-Bellied Beetle Gu before the other two found her body.
• The male cultivator fled and left the second sister behind, and Song Wen killed her with his gu insects, took her blood essence and storage bag, then burned her corpse.
• Song Wen hid in a wild beast's den to recover his spiritual power, then flew back to the Corpse Demon Sect alone.
• Song Wen encountered Du Qiu near his cave residence and suspected that the inner sect disciple was monitoring him for Shi Shou.
• Song Wen considered fleeing the sect but abandoned the idea because the Corpse Demon Sect could track disciples using their retained soul auras.

Song Wen assessed the spoils from his excursion and learned the Substitute Technique, successfully refining a Qi Refining Level Six corpse puppet as his substitute. He went to the market to sell unwanted items and buy resources and souls, preparing to restore his soul and use the Sky Cicada Wood.

• Shi Shou learned that Extreme Yin had returned alive at Qi Refining Level Four and ordered Du Qiu to watch for his breakthrough to Level Six.
• Song Wen counted his spoils, including Sky Cicada Wood, nearly four thousand spirit stones, three corpse puppets, and a bloodstone containing the Substitute Technique.
• Song Wen decided to use a Qi Refining Level Six corpse puppet as his substitute and endured the pain of stripping and transplanting a soul imprint.
• Two days later, Song Wen completed the substitute puppet and planned to restore his soul by devouring cultivators' souls.
• Song Wen sold unwanted items for eighteen hundred spirit stones, then bought cultivation resources and three cultivators' souls.

Song Wen accepted Senior Brother Xu’s request to check on his mortal family, then used the Sky Cicada Wood to resolve his corpse-transformation crisis. He began testing whether White Bone Worm crystals could strengthen his Beetle Gu.

• Senior Brother Xu gave Song Wen two bottles of Corpse Baleful Qi and asked him to visit his hometown to check on his parents and younger sister.
• Song Wen accepted the request and left the Underground Ghost Market with the bottles.
• Song Wen refined the Sky Cicada Wood for seven days, harmonized the Corpse Baleful Qi in his body, and ended his corpse-transformation crisis.
• Song Wen released his thirty-four Beetle Gu and wondered whether the White Bone Worm crystals they had eaten could increase their strength.
• Song Wen fed a crystal from a White Bone Worm corpse to his strongest Black-Bellied Beetle Gu to test its effects.

Song Wen fed White Bone Worm crystals to his Beetle Gu, which spun a cocoon in preparation for another evolution, then went to the market to buy more crystals. There he learned that cultivators did not know their use and obtained ten corpses by claiming Elder Shi Shou had ordered him to purchase them.

• The Beetle Gu ate more than seventy White Bone Worm crystals and spun a cocoon, beginning another evolution.
• Song Wen asked Yuan Cheng for a month's leave and went to the market to search for crystals.
• Song Wen spoke with Chen Yi, who revealed that she wished to leave the Corpse Demon Sect and return to her hometown.
• Song Wen changed his appearance and set up a stall offering high prices for White Bone Worm crystals, but received no customers until evening.
• A square-faced outer sect disciple asked what the crystals were used for, and Song Wen claimed Elder Shi Shou had ordered him to buy them.
• The disciple gave Song Wen ten White Bone Worm corpses, and Song Wen began packing up his stall as if he were leaving.

Song Wen killed the square-faced man who had followed him from the market, then returned to his routine of cultivation and corpse dissection. The Beetle Gu emerged from its cocoon as the powerful Black Armor Gu, leaving Song Wen to face the cost of feeding it.

• Song Wen lured the square-faced man away from the sect and killed him with Beetle Gu after evading his attacks.
• Song Wen looted the square-faced man's pouches, destroyed his remains, and buried the corpse puppet and identifying items before returning to the sect.
• Song Wen spent ten days cultivating and slowly refining a ninth-layer Qi Refinement corpse puppet while the cocooned Beetle Gu remained silent.
• Song Wen returned to the Corpse Dissection Cave, where a muscular female corpse dissector invited him to her cave dwelling.
• On the fifteenth day, the Beetle Gu emerged with eighth-layer Qi Refinement strength, and Song Wen named it the Black Armor Gu.
• Song Wen fed the Black Armor Gu half a Silver-Shining Stone and eight drops of vital blood, then worried about the expense of raising it.

Song Wen expanded his Black Armor Gu brood, pursued stronger spiritual power and close-combat skills, and learned that blood qi was disappearing from the Corpse Dissection Cave’s blood pool. The Law Enforcement Hall investigated and took steward Yuan Cheng away, leaving Feng Deng in charge.

• Song Wen evolved a female Black Armor Gu, bred two more, and decided to raise his brood to eight before focusing on their strength.
• Song Wen found that devouring cultivators’ souls accelerated his Soul-Banishing Technique and chose the Netherworld Claw to complement his physical strength.
• Law Enforcement Hall disciples inspected the Corpse Dissection Cave after the blood pool yielded less essence blood than usual, and Song Wen worried his blood qi theft had caused the decline.
• The investigators found no problem with the Blood-Gathering Formation, then took Yuan Cheng away for questioning after watching the corpse dissectors and steward.
• Feng Deng became the new steward of the Corpse Dissection Cave, and Song Wen never saw Yuan Cheng again.

Song Wen went to the Corpse Demon Sect’s main hall plaza to join the expedition into the Withered Blood Secret Realm, hoping to obtain Heavenly Spirit Fruit and speed up his Foundation Establishment. He had prepared to hide any fruit he found from the sect, while still facing the danger of Shi Shou and the secret realm’s deadly competition.

• After the Enforcement Hall withdrew its investigation, Song Wen resumed selling small amounts of blood essence while changing his aura and appearance at different shops.
• Song Wen reached the peak of the ninth Qi Refining layer and developed spiritual sense after cultivating with souls, leaving him close to Foundation Establishment but still unable to defeat Shi Shou.
• Song Wen learned that Foundation Establishment Pills were scarce, costly, and dangerous to acquire, so he sought Heavenly Spirit Fruit as another aid to liquefying his spiritual power.
• Song Wen went to the main hall plaza because the Withered Blood Secret Realm was about to open, offering a chance to find Heavenly Spirit Fruit among its rare herbs.
• Song Wen planned to conceal any Heavenly Spirit Fruit he obtained rather than surrender it to the Corpse Demon Sect.

Song Wen prepared to conceal two Heavenly Spirit Fruits in his heart before joining the expedition to the Withered Blood Secret Realm. He boarded the flying ship with seventy-seven other disciples, where he encountered old acquaintances and drew the unwanted attention of Qiu Li, a powerful senior sister.

• Song Wen tested hiding jade boxes in his heart, relying on the Black Armor Gu to repair the wounds and finding the boxes difficult to detect with spiritual sense.
• Elder Jiao Du gathered the volunteers and ordered the seventy-eight disciples to board the flying ship bound for the secret realm.
• Song Wen recognized Wu Sheng and Wu Sui aboard the ship, along with the alluring direct disciple he had met while buying the Ghost Head Shield.
• Qiu Li warned Song Wen about the secret realm, urged him to submit to her, and threatened him after he rejected her advances.
• Song Wen learned that Qiu Li was a ninth-level Qi Refinement cultivator who practiced body tempering, then noticed that about twenty outer sect disciples from subordinate families were already aboard.
• The flying ship accelerated toward the horizon with Song Wen and the other passengers aboard.

Song Wen entered the Withered Blood Secret Realm and set out for heavenly spirit fruit after consulting the sect map. He found wind spirit flowers on an island, where Wu Sheng and two Mysterious Yin Sect disciples were ambushed by giant pythons.

• Xiu Jun, Xiang Qi, and Fairy Huan Yu opened the secret realm and warned that it would remain open for seven days.
• Song Wen arrived alone in a rocky desert, used his jade slip map to locate himself, and headed toward a mountain said to hold heavenly spirit fruit.
• Song Wen reached an island in a lake and sent two Black Armor Gu ahead to scout for wind spirit flowers.
• Wu Sheng arrived and sent his Corpse Puppet to gather the flowers, but two enormous pythons ambushed them and dragged the puppet into the pool.
• Wu Sheng hid nearby as two Mysterious Yin Sect disciples arrived and fought the pythons after they too were ambushed.

Song Wen used the Cold Moon Blade to kill two Mysterious Yin Sect cultivators and Wu Sheng, then watched Wu Sui kill three Crimson Blood Gate disciples. He approached Wu Sui disguised as a fellow Corpse Demon Sect disciple, claiming they had met before.

• Song Wen killed the Mysterious Yin Sect male cultivator with the Cold Moon Blade, then beheaded the wounded female cultivator and killed Wu Sheng.
• Song Wen devoured the blood essence and souls of the three cultivators and two giant pythons, then left the island.
• Wu Sui uncovered two Crimson Blood Gate cultivators hiding near an injured woman and killed them with his black chain.
• The woman tried to appease Wu Sui, but he killed her and stored all three bodies in a coffin as cultivation materials.
• Song Wen watched through the Black Armor Gu, changed his aura, and approached Wu Sui as a Corpse Demon Sect disciple named Extreme Yin.