Recaps

Song Wen prepared for the dangerous journey to the Western Rong Continent by strengthening Shadow Void and refining substitute-death puppets. He joined Wang Qiuyue’s scouting party and arrived at Thousand Blades City, where he examined the other sects’ teams and noticed that the Ten Thousand Swords Pavilion seemed to be missing a member.

• Song Wen told Wang Qiuyue that Fan Kang and Tang Qing had been cheated by Xuan Gu, and Wang Qiuyue left to investigate.
• Over fourteen years, Song Wen spent more than three million high-grade spirit stones to raise Shadow Void to the peak of the seventh rank and refined ninety-seven substitute-death puppets.
• Wang Qiuyue supplied Song Wen with talismans and insights into the Mahayana Realm before he joined her flying ship outside Taitan City.
• Song Wen learned that Fan Kang had been cursed and sent to scout the Western Rong Continent as punishment for colluding with Six Baleful Hall.
• Wang Qiuyue told Song Wen that Jade Spirit Palace wanted detailed records of their journey but would claim none of the treasures he found.
• After the Jade Spirit Palace ship reached Thousand Blades City, Song Wen saw the other sects’ teams and wondered whether the Ten Thousand Swords Pavilion’s fifth member was inside its ship’s tower.

Song Wen and the other cultivators traveled through the teleportation array from Scarlet Firmament Province, enduring its painful transfer. They arrived in an underground cave, where the blue-robed cultivator from the Ten Thousand Swords Pavilion was revealed to be Yuan Rong, a man whose arrival surprised Yongcheng.

• After the factions waited half a month for all parties to gather, Tian Ming of the Azure Flame Sect led thirty cultivators from the six factions and ten Azure Flame Sect cultivators into the teleportation cavern.
• Tian Ming activated the array with ten thousand superior spirit stones, sending all forty cultivators through a painful teleportation.
• Song Wen kept his awareness clear during the transfer, then tried to release his spiritual sense upon arrival but was forced back by a powerful pressure.
• A burly man addressed the blue-robed Ten Thousand Swords Pavilion cultivator as Yuan Rong and questioned why he had joined the first party sent to scout the Western Rong Continent.
• Yuan Rong replied by asking whether Yongcheng had not come as well, and Song Wen saw that the blue-robed cultivator was a beautiful man with a visible Adam's apple.

Song Wen and the other cultivators were teleported into a cave where their divine sense was disrupted, and two Mahayana patriarchs, Yuan Rong and Dao Lord Yongcheng, revealed themselves. When Yuan Rong’s attack provoked swarms of strange monsters, the group faced a growing threat and had to seek an exit without knowing which cracks led to safety.

• Song Wen recognized Yuan Rong and Dao Lord Yongcheng, worried that their presence would complicate the expedition, and resolved to hide his identity from Yuan Rong.
• Yongcheng and Yuan Rong agreed to explore the cave together and discovered that a natural force was interfering with divine sense.
• Yuan Rong killed several child-headed spider monsters, provoking countless more to swarm from cracks in the cave walls.
• Yuan Rong burned and slew thousands of monsters with fire and Sword Qi, but stronger creatures kept appearing.
• Yongcheng urged the group to leave and identified the cave’s cracks as possible exits, though no one knew which ones led to the surface.

Yongcheng Daojun opened a shaft through the rock, and the cultivators escaped the cavern without damaging the buried Teleportation Array. They emerged into a vast field of monster-bearing flowers and discovered that seventh-tier beasts had appeared on distant peaks.

• Yongcheng Daojun drilled through the cavern ceiling while Yuan Rong destroyed the monsters attacking him with Starflow Sword Rain.
• Song Wen considered using an Earth-Escape Talisman to flee alone, then chose to stay with the group and traveled beside Wang Qiuyue.
• The cultivators ascended through the shaft, fighting off monsters along the way, and broke through to the surface after climbing three hundred miles.
• Song Wen found mountains covered in strange vermilion flowers, while monsters emerged from the ground and bloomed flowers revealed more of them.
• Yuan Rong suspected the flowers sustained the monsters and disrupted spiritual sense, but more than a dozen seventh-tier beasts appeared before she could answer Yongcheng Daojun.

Yuan Rong, Daoist Lord Yongcheng, and the other cultivators slaughtered the beasts and crimson flowers around the teleportation array, then faced a thousand-zhang humanoid beast commanded by a likely eighth-rank beast. As Yuan Rong and Yongcheng damaged it, three more gigantic creatures approached from different directions.

• Yuan Rong and Daoist Lord Yongcheng led the cultivators in killing the beasts and uprooting the crimson flowers across a thousand-li area.
• Song Wen joined the attack but regretted that the beasts' souls and essence blood were being wasted, since Yuan Rong was present.
• A thousand-zhang creature formed from spider-bodied, human-headed beasts appeared, and Yuan Rong suspected an eighth-rank beast was directing it.
• Yuan Rong's flying swords and Yongcheng's azure blades destroyed the creature's legs and struck its abdomen, but its beasts formed a shield around the suspected core.
• Several roars revealed three more thousand-zhang creatures closing in from different directions.

Yuan Rong and Yongcheng Daojun tried to evade four giant monsters while protecting the buried Teleportation Array, but the monsters overwhelmed their defenses. Yuan Rong’s group plunged toward the ground under pursuit, with two giants closing in as the chapter ended.

• As the giant monsters flew toward the cultivators, Yuan Rong buried the Vertical Tunnel with rubble to conceal the Teleportation Array, and he and Yongcheng Daojun prepared to retreat with their sect members.
• A giant monster hurled a boulder at the cultivators, while the legless giant split into a swarm of spider-bodied, human-headed demonic beasts that attacked Yuan Rong’s formation.
• The fifteen cultivators killed the weaker beasts, but three giant monsters struck Yongcheng Daojun’s canopy and shattered its runes, leaving him badly injured.
• Yuan Rong drew Yongcheng Daojun into a Sword Qi shield and plunged toward the ground, abandoning the nine Azure Flame Sect cultivators as another monster killed the fleeing cultivators.
• A giant monster tore off its arms and hurled them at Yuan Rong’s shield, knocking it out of control; Yuan Rong steadied it just before two pursuing monsters reached them.

Yuan Rong and Yongcheng Daojun escaped the pursuing monsters together, then reunited with the survivors on a distant mountain. Yongcheng discovered that only Tian Ming had survived from his sect’s group and angrily accused the other escapees of abandoning them.

• Yuan Rong refused to abandon Shangguan Ren and the others, and asked the recovering Yongcheng Daojun to hold off the two monsters while he escaped with the group.
• Yongcheng Daojun unleashed the Extinction Heavenly Wind from the Wind God Banner, shrinking and decaying the monsters as Yuan Rong drilled through the earth and fled.
• After escaping more than two million li, Yuan Rong’s group reached a mountain where Song Wen and twenty-four other survivors had gathered.
• Yongcheng Daojun learned that Tian Ming was the only survivor from the others who had fled ahead, and she confirmed that the rest had died to the monsters.
• Yongcheng Daojun accused the twenty-five survivors of escaping unscathed while his Azure Flame Sect lost eight members and the Ten Thousand Swords Pavilion faced danger.

After Dao Lord Yongcheng held back his anger over the Azure Flame Sect’s losses, Yuan Rong and the others sought intelligence about their unfamiliar surroundings by questioning an intelligent demon. Yuan Rong’s Heart-Illuminating Seal revealed nothing useful, so You Ci began using her Truth-Listening Technique on the captured blue fox.

• Yuan Rong persuaded Dao Lord Yongcheng to postpone settling the score, then proposed investigating the region and its nearby blessed grotto-heavens.
• Shangguan Ren suggested seeking intelligent demons, and a cultivator produced a captured six-tailed blue fox.
• Yuan Rong used the Heart-Illuminating Seal to inspect the fox’s memories but found no valuable information.
• Dao Lord Yongcheng asked for someone skilled at probing memories, and You Ci introduced her Truth-Listening Technique.
• Dao Lord Yongcheng promised to protect You Ci as she sent a wisp of divine sense toward the blue fox, which reacted with shock.

You Ci questioned an Azure Fox, revealing the power and secrets of the Azure-Faced Jade Fox Clan and the Ghost-Faced Spiders, while Yuan Rong and Yongcheng Daojun decided to visit the fox clan. Song Wen then asked You Ci to sell him her Truth-Listening Technique, but she rejected his offer of one hundred thousand superior spirit stones.

• You Ci reported that the Azure-Faced Jade Fox Clan had six eighth-rank Azure Foxes and guarded Azure Sky Valley with two eighth-rank experts.
• You Ci identified the human-headed, spider-bodied creatures as Ghost-Faced Spiders and revealed that their enormous Spider Mother was at the peak of the eighth rank.
• Yuan Rong and Yongcheng Daojun decided not to provoke the Ghost-Faced Spiders and agreed to visit the Azure-Faced Jade Fox Clan for information and to inspect Azure Sky Valley.
• Yongcheng Daojun asked whether the group had reached the Western Rong Continent, but You Ci said the Azure Fox did not know the continent's name.
• Song Wen approached You Ci in flight and offered one hundred thousand superior spirit stones for her Truth-Listening Technique, but You Ci said the offer was not enough.

Song Wen traded three Minor Teleportation Talismans to You Ci for the Truth-Listening Technique and planned to secretly share it with Wang Qiuyue. When the group reached a valley near the Azure-faced Jade Fox Clan’s forbidden grounds, Yuan Rong chose Song Wen to scout ahead, revealing his hatred of rogue cultivators.

• Song Wen gave You Ci three Minor Teleportation Talismans in exchange for the Truth-Listening Technique and swore not to teach it to anyone else.
• Song Wen moved beside Wang Qiuyue and planned to pass her the technique in secret after memorizing it.
• The group traveled deep into the Azure-faced Jade Foxes’ territory and landed in a dark valley less than a hundred thousand li from the forbidden grounds.
• Yuan Rong proposed sending someone to scout the forbidden grounds and selected Song Wen.
• Yuan Rong explained that he chose Song Wen because he was a rogue cultivator and declared that he loathed all rogue cultivators.

Song Wen investigated the Azure-faced Jade Fox Clan’s territory while suspecting Yuan Rong and Yongcheng Daojun were following him. He reached the entrance to the clan’s forbidden ground, where mist concealed the ravine beyond.

• Song Wen agreed to investigate for Yuan Rong but recognized that Yongcheng Daojun held the teleportation array disk and threatened to strand him if he fled.
• Song Wen captured a fifth-rank azure fox and used the Truth-Listening Technique to question it, confirming earlier answers about the clan and its forbidden ground.
• Song Wen suspected Yuan Rong and Yongcheng Daojun were tracking him, then advanced cautiously while Shadow Void warned him of a seventh-rank azure fox nearby.
• Song Wen used an Earth-Escape Talisman to hide underground and evade the passing azure fox before continuing toward the forbidden ground.
• Song Wen reached the ravine entrance between two mountains and saw that mist obscured the way into the valley.

Song Wen investigated the misty forbidden ground and learned that two eighth-rank Azure-faced Jade Foxes guarded it. He suspected a nearby tree bore Life-Restoring Fruits, then encountered Yuan Rong and Yongcheng Daojun and told them about the supposed treasure, leaving them to consider what to do.

• Song Wen sent his Shadow Gu through the mist and learned that it disrupted divine sense but allowed entry, while two powerful auras kept the insect from exploring deeper.
• Song Wen considered ways to make Yuan Rong and Yongcheng Daojun fight the Azure-faced Jade Foxes, then settled on reporting a possible treasure in the forbidden ground.
• Song Wen fled toward the surface, but Yongcheng Daojun contacted him and summoned him to join Yuan Rong, Shangguan Ren, and Tian Ming.
• Song Wen reported the two eighth-rank Azure-faced Jade Foxes and claimed a seven-colored fruit tree might bear Life-Restoring Fruits.
• Yongcheng Daojun showed interest in the possible treasure and asked Yuan Rong what he planned to do.

Yuan Rong and Yongcheng Daojun planned to raid the forbidden ground for the Life-Restoring Fruit while preparing to capture an eighth-rank azure fox. Song Wen was assigned to watch for reinforcements, but when he asked for protection, Yuan Rong planted hidden Sword Qi in his dantian instead.

• Yuan Rong warned Yongcheng Daojun that the four eighth-rank azure foxes from the clan could arrive and surround them if the raid dragged on.
• Yongcheng Daojun proposed capturing an eighth-rank azure fox alive and having someone watch the route for the four reinforcements.
• Yuan Rong assigned Song Wen and Shangguan Ren to watch for the foxes, giving them jade talismans to signal their approach and a Teleportation Talisman to Shangguan Ren.
• Yongcheng Daojun sent Tian Ming along with a seventh-rank Earth-Escape Talisman for protection.
• Song Wen asked Yuan Rong and Yongcheng Daojun for a life-saving treasure, but Yuan Rong secretly lodged Sword Qi in Song Wen's dantian.

Song Wen led Shangguan Ren and Tian Ming to a cave along the route between the Azure Fox encampment and the forbidden ground, where they waited for the eighth-order Azure Foxes to move. When three powerful Azure Foxes approached, Song Wen attacked his companions from behind, trapping them in a Blood Tide before they could send a warning.

• Yuan Rong threatened Song Wen with Sword Qi planted in his dantian and ordered him, Shangguan Ren, and Tian Ming to watch the Azure Fox encampment’s route to the forbidden ground.
• Song Wen led Shangguan Ren and Tian Ming through a winding route to a cave, persuading them not to move closer to the encampment.
• As dusk fell, Shangguan Ren reminded the others that Yuan Rong and Yongcheng Daojun were due to act, and the ground began to tremble.
• Tian Ming detected three rapidly approaching eighth-order Azure Foxes and reached for her warning jade talisman.
• Song Wen attacked Tian Ming from behind and enveloped her and Shangguan Ren in a Blood Tide that prevented them from escaping or sending a warning.

Song Wen used his Blood Sea to kill Tian Ming and Shangguan Ren, then fled while the three eighth-rank azure foxes passed overhead toward the forbidden ground. After traveling hundreds of thousands of miles, he emerged and heard Yuan Rong call to him, revealing that Yuan Rong had survived and found him.

• Tian Ming and Shangguan Ren attacked Song Wen, but he vanished into his Blood Tide and trapped them inside it.
• Tian Ming's shield broke under the Blood Tide's pressure, and Song Wen's Blood Sea crushed Tian Ming and Shangguan Ren to death.
• Song Wen noticed three eighth-rank azure foxes pass above him without attacking, and wondered whether they were heading for the Life-Restoring Fruits in the forbidden ground.
• Song Wen collected Tian Ming and Shangguan Ren's storage rings, escaped underground, and traveled hundreds of thousands of miles away from the Azure-faced Jade Fox Clan's forbidden ground.
• Song Wen emerged and considered contacting Wang Qiuyue for news of Yuan Rong and Yongcheng Daojun, but Yuan Rong's voice called to him nearby.

Song Wen encountered the badly wounded Yuan Rong in a cave on the Western Rong Continent and helped him interrogate a captured azure fox about the region and the beasts tracking them. After Yuan Rong destroyed the fox, he turned on Song Wen and demanded to know where Shangguan Ren and Tian Ming were and why they had sent no warning.

• Yuan Rong revealed that he was hiding in a cave southwest of Song Wen, and Song Wen approached after realizing Yuan Rong was too close and dangerous to flee from.
• Yuan Rong ordered Song Wen to use the Truth-Listening Technique on a severely wounded eighth-rank azure fox while other foxes capable of tracking them might be nearby.
• Song Wen learned from the fox that they were on the Western Rong Continent, where powerful demon beasts and Demon Race factions occupied distant regions.
• Song Wen learned that azure foxes tracked their kin using soul auras, and Yuan Rong destroyed the fox's body and demon soul to stop it being tracked.
• Yuan Rong asked Song Wen why he was alone and where Shangguan Ren and Tian Ming were, noting that none of them had sent a warning signal.

Song Wen deceived Yuan Rong about the Azure Foxes, then used a substitute-death puppet to escape an Azure Fox pursuing him. After confirming the area was clear, he fled underground with an Earth-Escape Talisman.

• Song Wen told Yuan Rong that a secret art had blocked their warning signals and that an injured Azure Fox had hunted them, while hiding what he had learned about the Life-Restoring Fruits and Yuan Rong's gains.
• Yuan Rong sensed danger, told Song Wen to flee separately, and escaped west; Song Wen realized the Azure Foxes could track the demon-soul fragments left in the cave.
• Four Azure Foxes appeared southeast, and Song Wen fled north as one pursued him while the other three chased Yuan Rong.
• The Azure Fox struck Song Wen apart, but he used a substitute-death puppet to appear thousands of li away and left behind two decayed corpse puppets to mislead it.
• Song Wen hid in a mud hole for more than two hours, sent his Gu insect to check the area, then used a fifth-rank Earth-Escape Talisman to flee underground.

Song Wen headed for the Willow Serpent Clan to obtain jadeglow lotus, but a late seventh-tier flood dragon attacked him while he crossed a lake. After Song Wen’s sword wounded the dragon and forced it underwater, a bloody tentacle seized it through its injuries.

• Song Wen decided to visit the Willow Serpent Clan first and postponed his attempt to obtain the teleportation formation disc from Yuan Rong.
• Song Wen traveled toward the Willow Serpent Clan, avoiding areas with dense spiritual energy until a flood dragon attacked him over a lake.
• Song Wen struck at the flood dragon with the Nine Calamities Measuring-Heaven Sword, but it submerged and defended itself with an iceberg and its scales.
• The flood dragon fled underwater with its head and neck badly wounded after its scales failed to stop Song Wen’s sword.
• Bloody droplets surrounded the fleeing flood dragon, joined into a tentacle, and began invading its body through its wounds.

Song Wen captured a flood dragon that attacked him because it was curious about his human cultivator aura, then persuaded it to lead him to a cache of crystalline stones at the bottom of its Lake. He and the dragon descended toward the hidden caves, with Song Wen keeping the creature bound as he sought to verify its claim.

• Song Wen used blood droplets to sneak past the flood dragon’s defenses, seize control of it, and drag it away from the battlefield.
• Song Wen questioned the flood dragon, which explained that it attacked because his aura differed from those of Western Rong Continent’s living beings and said Willow Serpents occasionally searched nearby.
• The flood dragon offered crystalline stones from a tunnel beneath its Lake in exchange for its life, and Song Wen agreed to inspect them before deciding whether to release it.
• Song Wen returned with the bound flood dragon to the Lake and used his divine sense to locate caves beneath a stretch of water with unusually dense spiritual energy.
• Song Wen, the flood dragon, and Song Wen’s peak seventh-rank blood corpse plunged into the Lake toward the tunnel.

Song Wen followed the flood dragon to a cave filled with high-grade Spirit Stones and gathered them, but an invisible demon beast killed the dragon and attacked him. After escaping the Lake with a Death-Substitute Puppet, Song Wen saw the mantis-like beast emerge from the water.

• Song Wen collected Spirit Stones from the cave walls as the flood dragon led him to the vein’s deepest chamber.
• Song Wen used thousands of tentacles to strip the cave walls of Supreme-grade and Superior Spirit Stones, then fled when he suspected the flood dragon’s panic signaled danger.
• An unseen attacker beheaded the flood dragon and slashed the blood corpse, forcing Song Wen to escape the cave.
• The invisible attacker struck Song Wen twice as he fled upward, but a Death-Substitute Puppet took the blows and let him escape above the Lake.
• Song Wen looked down as a mantis-like demon beast emerged from the Lake, its outline visible in the light.

Song Wen left the lake after deciding not to pursue a shapeshifting demon beast and traveled toward the Willow Serpent Clan in demon form. He found a Willow Serpent party on the Cloud-Drooping Plain and attacked after deciding he might approach them in human form.

• Song Wen struck at a transparent demon beast in the lake, but it became water and vanished from his senses.
• Song Wen chose not to pursue the beast after recalling that he had already collected more than one hundred and thirty supreme-grade spirit stones.
• On the Cloud-Drooping Plain, a Willow Serpent woman mocked a goshawk after a cyan gale destroyed it and a python.
• Song Wen watched the Willow Serpent party from a treetop and decided to approach them, believing he could capture the woman alive.
• A Willow Serpent guard warned his princess, but Song Wen attacked and killed him, tearing out his heart and crushing his head.

A monster slaughtered the Willow Snakes’ guards, killed the old Willow Snake woman, and captured the Willow Snake woman. A white-robed figure arrived to rescue her but was quickly overwhelmed, leaving the fight unresolved.

• The monster killed the Willow Snakes’ chief guard and four sixth-rank Willow Snakes before chasing the Willow Snake woman and her grandmother.
• The old Willow Snake woman used a bluish-black scale and sent the Willow Snake woman away, then tried to hold the monster in place and was killed by the scale.
• The monster caught the Willow Snake woman, subdued her, and brought her to a misty valley beyond the Cloud-Drooping Plain.
• A white-robed figure arrived and attacked the monster with flying swords, but the monster knocked the swords aside and wounded him.
• The monster drove the white-robed figure backward, leaving the Willow Snake woman’s rescue uncertain.

Song Wen rescued Qing Lian from a powerful monster and removed its demonic power from her body. Qing Lian discovered that he was human and revealed that the Willow Serpent Clan revered human form above all else.

• Qing Lian told the fleeing white figure that she was the Crimson-Scaled King's younger sister and asked him to carry a message to her eldest brother.
• Song Wen returned, pulled Qing Lian away from the monster, and revealed that he had trapped it through a scheme.
• Song Wen took Qing Lian to a cave beneath a river and used his mana to remove the monster's demon power from her dantian.
• Qing Lian recognized that Song Wen's power was not Willow Serpent demon essence and asked if he was human.
• Song Wen confirmed that he was a human cultivator, and Qing Lian explained that her clan revered human form above all else.

Song Wen learned about the powerful Willow Serpent Clan and its human-form customs while speaking with Qing Lian. After revealing her human form, Qing Lian asked him to become her dao companion, but Song Wen refused to agree lightly because of what the commitment meant to humans.

• Song Wen claimed he had been transported to the Western Rong Continent and asked Qing Lian about the Willow Serpent Clan.
• Qing Lian explained that the clan lived on the Cloud-Drooping Plain and had more than ten eighth-rank members, along with the ninth-rank Venerable Biwu.
• Qing Lian explained that Willow Serpents perfected their human forms as their strength grew, then transformed for Song Wen, revealing her scaled legs and lack of clothing.
• Qing Lian told Song Wen that Willow Serpents had few members despite their strength and asked his name; he introduced himself as Extreme Yin.
• Qing Lian asked Extreme Yin to become her dao companion, but he said he could not agree lightly because humans treated the bond as a lifelong commitment.

Song Wen refused Qing Lian’s invitation to the Willow Serpent Clan, wary of the risks despite her vow to protect him. When she revealed that her elder brother, the Crimson-Scaled King, was approaching, Song Wen decided to stay and meet him, while Qing Lian returned to her half-serpent form.

• Song Wen told Qing Lian that human Dao companions remained devoted for life, and Qing Lian asked him to become hers.
• Song Wen declined to go with Qing Lian to the Willow Serpent Clan, but she swore by the Serpent Ancestor that no one there would harm him.
• Qing Lian sensed that her elder brother, the Crimson-Scaled King, was coming, and explained that he could track her through a secret art.
• Song Wen decided to stay and meet the Crimson-Scaled King, reasoning that fleeing could make him seem connected to the deaths of Withered Snow Granny and the others.
• Song Wen asked Qing Lian to hide her human form from her brother, and she changed back into her half-human, half-serpent form.