Recaps

Song Wen accepted the Shi Family’s gift and used flattery, shared grievances, and a promise of future adventures to grow closer to Shi Min. He settled into the family’s valley residence and began learning about Shi Family affairs through her confidences.

• Song Wen accepted the storage pouch and learned that Shi Sanniang was preparing for possession while the Shi Family continued searching for a suitable body.
• Song Wen praised Shi Min’s talent, character, and beauty, then feigned grief over his lost relatives to win her sympathy.
• Song Wen and Shi Min agreed to travel together someday to fight evil spirit cultivators, sealing their promise with a high-five.
• Song Wen cultivated quietly at his courtyard and learned about the Shi Family’s conflicts and internal affairs through Shi Min, who came to confide in him.

Four years after Shi Sanniang’s body possession, she brought Song Wen to the Shi Family’s council meeting and revealed that they wanted him to enter the Return-to-Ruins Cave Secret Realm. Song Wen initially resisted, but Shi Sanniang’s mention of immortal spirit marrow made him reconsider.

• Shi Sanniang visited Song Wen in her new body and invited him to the Shi Family’s council meeting, taking him there before he could decline.
• At the meeting, Shi Qidao and the other elders discussed sending Shi Wuwei into the Return-to-Ruins Cave Secret Realm to obtain resources for the Shi Family.
• Shi Min volunteered to accompany Shi Wuwei, but Shi Sanniang forbade her and asked Song Wen to go instead.
• Shi Sanniang offered Song Wen a share of the secret realm’s treasures and compensation, then pointed out that it contained immortal spirit marrow.
• Song Wen became interested when he realized immortal spirit marrow could speed his advancement to Lingxu Dao Immortal.

Song Wen accepted Shi Sanniang’s offer to join the Shi Family’s expedition and chose three spiritual treasures before leaving for the Return-to-Ruins Cave Secret Realm with Shi Wuwei. At the swamp where the realm would open, they encountered Su Dian, while the rest of the Shi Family departed and left the two to await the opening.

• Song Wen agreed to help the Shi Family after Shi Sanniang offered him spiritual treasures and ninth-rank talismans.
• Song Wen chose the Qingming Lamp, the Cloud-Stacking Umbrella, and the Startling Swan Blade from the Shi Family’s secret treasury, then spent three months refining them.
• Shi Qi led the Shi Family’s cultivators and Song Wen to the swamp where the Return-to-Ruins Cave Secret Realm would open.
• Shi Qi and the others met Su Dian, who said Jing Xun was overseeing the expedition but had entered seclusion.
• Su Dian warned the Shi Family that the Blood Corpse Sect might target the Secret Realm expedition, then agreed to look after Shi Wuwei and Song Wen.
• Shi Qi and the other Shi Family cultivators departed, leaving Shi Wuwei and Song Wen beside Azure Purity City’s ship to await the Secret Realm’s opening.

Jing Xun opened the Void Ruins Cave secret realm, and Song Wen entered with Shi Wuwei. After arriving in the barren underground terrain, they agreed to fly onward and first determine their location rather than explore below.

• Jing Xun used a great banner to open the secret realm and warned that entering carried the risk of death.
• Guang Xing mocked Shi Wuwei and the Shi Family before flying into the secret realm with other monks.
• Shi Wuwei explained the Gai Family's hostility toward the Shi Family and advised Song Wen to flee if they met its members.
• Shi Wuwei tied a Binding Spirit Rope to Song Wen so they would remain together after entering the secret realm.
• Song Wen and Shi Wuwei appeared over barren, fissured ground, discussed using Shi Qi's map jade slip, and chose to fly in search of their location.

Song Wen and Shi Wuwei entered Dusk Ravine Abyss, where they encountered the Gai Family fighting an Evil Spirit Cultivator. After Shi Wuwei fled and Song Wen blocked Guang Xing’s golden bowl, Song Wen revealed that he had intervened because he wanted to learn how Evil Spirit Cultivators refined Origin Qi.

• Shi Wuwei and Song Wen descended into Dusk Ravine Abyss and searched its dangerous, wind-swept depths for spiritual herbs.
• Shi Wuwei and Song Wen found the Gai Family group fighting a lone Evil Spirit Cultivator, and Guang Xing recognized them.
• Shi Wuwei used a Luo Smoke Talisman to escape while Guang Xing turned his golden alms bowl on Song Wen.
• Song Wen’s Mountain-Crushing Mace knocked Guang Xing’s golden bowl away, and the Evil Spirit Cultivator asked Song Wen to help him escape.
• Song Wen revealed that he had joined the fight to learn how the Evil Spirit Cultivator refined Origin Qi, a method he had sought since Ye Pi’s death.

Song Wen helped the Evil Spirit Cultivator escape from the Gai Family, then captured him in a cave and continued fleeing with the Gai cultivators in pursuit. When the pursuers spread out to surround him, Song Wen saw a chance to kill them one by one.

• Song Wen fought off the Gai Family nun while the Evil Spirit Cultivator used the clash's shock wave to break free and flee into a cave.
• A Gai Family cultivator struck the fleeing Evil Spirit Cultivator with a Buddhist hand seal, but he used the force to plunge into a cave, and Song Wen followed.
• Song Wen caught up with the injured Evil Spirit Cultivator, pierced him with a dim light, and restrained him with a crimson substance that blocked his magical power.
• Song Wen carried the captive through the winding caves while evading the pursuing Gai Family cultivators, choosing not to risk exposing his abilities by fighting them head-on.
• The Gai Family cultivators spread out to encircle Song Wen, who welcomed the chance to attack them individually.

Song Wen, posing as Yan'e, killed two Gai Family cultivators while fleeing through the Return-to-Ruins Cave Secret Realm. Gai Ci gathered the five surviving family members and warned that they could not keep pursuing him separately.

• Song Wen killed the Evil Spirit Cultivator he had captured and burned the body before continuing his escape.
• Song Wen used the Qingming Lamp's flames to distract an early Tribulation Transcendence monk, then struck him with nine Transparent Blades and devoured his soul.
• Gai Ci arrived to find the monk's charred corpse and continued pursuing Song Wen, but soon discovered another Gai Family cultivator dead.
• Gai Ci stayed to investigate the second corpse and summoned the others with her Golden-Tin Buddhist Staff.
• Guang Xing recognized the dead woman as Suxin, and Gai Ci told the gathered survivors that Gai Zhen had also died and that they must stop pursuing Song Wen separately.

Song Wen followed the Gai Family members through the secret realm, intending to stop them from alerting Patriarch Gai Lu. When the group fought a demonic beast guarding a Heart-Demon Flower, Song Wen struck from hiding and severed Guang Xing’s arm.

• Song Wen hid in a cavern and overheard the five Gai Family members plan to pursue him and warn Patriarch Gai Lu if they failed to kill him.
• Song Wen pursued the group, but discovered they were deliberately fighting a wind-attributed demonic beast to lure him out.
• The Gai Family members defeated the beast after deciding Song Wen was not nearby, revealing a Heart-Demon Flower growing in the cavern wall.
• Song Wen launched three concealed flying swords at the Gai Family members as they moved to finish off the beast.
• Gai Ci and another late-stage cultivator blocked the swords, but Guang Xing failed to react in time and lost his left arm.

The Qishan Three Evils attacked the Gai Family to seize the Heart-Demon Flower, but the Gai Family fought back and drove them from the flower. The three Evils ended the chapter trapped under the Gai Family’s advancing attacks.

• Guang Xing lost an arm to a flying sword, and Gai Ci blocked its next strike with her Buddhist staff.
• The Qishan Three Evils revealed themselves, with Xie Daxiao diving for the Heart-Demon Flower while Evil Second Owl and Evil Third Owl used sword phantoms to hold back the Gai Family.
• The injured demonic beast attacked Xie Daxiao, forcing him to abandon the flower and fight it off.
• Wangchen sent golden prayer beads after Xie Daxiao, who retreated after his sword was knocked away.
• Evil Second Owl and Evil Third Owl diverted their sword phantoms to save Xie Daxiao, allowing the Gai Family’s magic treasures to press toward the three Evils.

Song Wen ambushed the Gai Family while they fought the Qishan Three Evils, then allied with the Three Evils to trap the remaining Gai Family members. Gai Ci’s pagoda held back their combined attacks for the moment, while Song Wen taunted her from within the blood waves.

• The Qishan Three Evils retreated as Gai Ci and the Gai Family pressed their attack, but Song Wen struck Guang Xing from behind with the Startling Swan Blade and severed his remaining arm.
• Gai Ci tried to protect Guang Xing, but Song Wen redirected the blade and killed another Gai Family monk by slicing away half his head and destroying his soul.
• Song Wen proposed that the Qishan Three Evils help him kill the Gai Family in exchange for the Heart-Demon Flower, and they turned to attack the four surviving members from behind.
• Gai Ci summoned a thousand-zhang wrathful vajra guardian, but Song Wen’s blood waves destroyed it and swallowed the Golden-Tin Buddhist Staff.
• Wangchen used his ten prayer beads to break the leading blood-wave crests while the Qishan Three Evils kept the Gai Family under pressure with sword shadows.
• Gai Ci raised the seven-story pagoda to shield the trapped Gai Family members with Buddhist light, and Song Wen taunted her from within the blood waves.

Gai Ci and the Gai Family summoned a powerful blue-faced Buddha with three immortal treasures, driving off Xie Daxiao and the Qishan Three Evils and apparently destroying Song Wen’s blood giant. Song Wen survived by using a substitute body and ambushed Guang Xing, one of the Buddha’s injured summoners.

• Gai Ci had Wangchen and the other two summon the blue-faced, fanged Buddha while she defended the treasure pagoda.
• Song Wen and the Qishan Three Evils struck the pagoda together, breaking it and leaving Gai Ci injured, but the Buddha had already taken shape.
• The Buddha repelled the Qishan Three Evils, who retreated, then pierced Song Wen’s blood giant and shattered it.
• Song Wen recognized the jade talismans on Wangchen and the others as reusable immortal treasures before the Buddha exposed and struck him.
• Song Wen appeared beside the Buddha’s feet and sent nine transparent blades into Guang Xing’s brow.

Song Wen killed the Gai Family cultivators after breaking their Buddha formation, but Guang Xing escaped underground. When the Qishan Three Evils tried to claim the Heart-Demon Flower, Song Wen attacked them and killed Evil Third Owl.

• Song Wen injured Guang Xing with a Soul-Slaying Spike, collapsing the Buddha formed by Wangchen, Guang Xing, and the other monk.
• Song Wen killed the other monk, Gai Ci, and Wangchen, while Guang Xing fled underground without Song Wen noticing.
• Song Wen sensed Guang Xing's lingering aura, then tried to reach the Heart-Demon Flower before the Qishan Three Evils interrupted him.
• The Qishan Three Evils rejected Song Wen's warning and used a bronze bell to dispel his Soul-Slaying Spikes.
• Song Wen attacked with a blood tide and the Nine Calamities Measuring-Heaven Sword, killing Evil Third Owl.

Song Wen killed Evil Second Owl and Xie Daxiao, took the Heart-Demon Flower, and failed to track down the escaped Guang Xing. He continued deeper into the secret realm and learned that Gai Lu was an early Lingxu Dao Immortal, leaving Song Wen to pursue his plan despite the danger of the Gai Family’s pursuit.

• Song Wen killed Evil Second Owl and Xie Daxiao, then pulled the Heart-Demon Flower from the rock and stored it in a jade box.
• Song Wen searched underground for Guang Xing but could not find him, and realized Guang Xing could report the deaths to Gai Lu.
• Song Wen left Dusk Ravine Abyss and headed southwest toward Starfall River Valley and Heavenheart Lake, deciding to continue searching for Immortal Spirit Marrow.
• Song Wen questioned the captive Gai Ci and Wangchen about Gai Lu, tormenting them with the Golden Broth Curse when they refused to cooperate.
• The evil spirit cultivator told Song Wen that Gai Lu was at the early Lingxu Dao Immortal Realm stage and revealed a jade slip listing nearby immortals’ names and cultivation levels.
• Song Wen checked the jade slip and confirmed Gai Lu’s cultivation, while also finding Su Dian listed at the middle Lingxu Dao Immortal Realm stage.

Song Wen questioned Gai Ci and an evil spirit cultivator about Gai Lu, the hidden Immortal Realm cultivator, and the method for refining origin qi. The evil spirit cultivator revealed that the method required a Blood Servant Contract with a stronger Void Demon, then explained how he had been forced into one.

• Song Wen learned from Gai Ci that Gai Lu was an early-stage Lingxu Dao Immortal Realm cultivator with a Formless Treasure Banner and a lotus platform, then cursed her again when she mocked him.
• Song Wen asked the evil spirit cultivator about the gatherings of evil spirit cultivators and how they refined origin qi.
• The evil spirit cultivator began describing a Blood Servant Contract, but black rings formed from his origin qi constricted his soul until the black hole overhead shattered them.
• Song Wen sent the freed origin qi to Shadow Void, then got the evil spirit cultivator to explain that a Blood Servant Contract let its holder refine origin qi but placed their life under a Void Demon's control.
• The evil spirit cultivator said he had been forced into the contract about fifty years earlier when a close friend attacked him and made him soak a Void Demon Clan Blood Servant Edict with his blood essence.

Song Wen learned that the Void Demon Clan was secretly turning cultivators into evil spirit cultivators, but he chose not to involve himself and later arrived at Starfall River Valley to search for treasures. There, he found a weaker cultivator laboring through the riverbed for meager spirit stone fragments, with no sign yet of the hoped-for immortal spirit marrow.

• Song Wen learned that the evil spirit cultivator had helped turn six cultivators into evil spirit cultivators under the Void Demon Clan's orders.
• The evil spirit cultivator begged Song Wen to spare him, but Song Wen let the black hole devour the souls of Gai Ci, Wangchen, and the evil spirit cultivator.
• Song Wen arrived at Starfall River Valley and searched the barren ancient riverbed with his spiritual sense, finding no natural treasures.
• Song Wen questioned an Integrated Body Middle Stage cultivator who had spent nearly two days breaking open riverbed stones for spirit stone fragments.
• The cultivator explained that he searched the dangerous valley because he lacked the strength to compete for treasures elsewhere and hoped to find immortal stone fragments or immortal spirit marrow.

Song Wen tested his eye techniques to find treasures buried in the ancient riverbed and discovered that his long-neglected Spirit-Seeking Treasure Eyes could see through the stones. After collecting and opening a cache underground, he found a tiny crystal radiating immortal spiritual energy.

• Song Wen rejected the cultivator’s warning that finding buried treasures would be difficult and considered the risks of gathering helpers or crushing stones with the Blood Sea Seal.
• Song Wen tested the Nine Nether Void-Piercing Eye, Dream-Floating True Eye, and Law-Breaking Divine Eye, but none could identify treasure inside the stones.
• Song Wen remembered the Spirit-Seeking Treasure Eyes and used them to locate a spirit stone fragment inside a floating stone, then discovered the technique could see ten li underground.
• Song Wen used a fifth-rank Earth-Escape Talisman to search underground and filled a storage pouch and storage ring with stones that showed abnormal spiritual fluctuations.
• Song Wen opened the collected stones and found crystals inside them, including a soybean-sized crystal that emitted immortal spiritual energy.

Song Wen traced mysterious hollows along the Ancient Riverbed to Heavenheart Lake, suspecting another cultivator could identify immortal stones directly. He caught up with a cloaked figure who had emerged from the lake and forced her to reveal herself, discovering a scarred woman at Mahayana Peak.

• Song Wen found repeated hollows underground and concluded that someone with a secret art had searched the area for stones containing immortal fragments.
• Song Wen followed the hollows upstream until the Ancient Riverbed ended at Heavenheart Lake, where more than twenty cultivators searched the exposed lakebed.
• A black-clad figure emerged from Heavenheart Lake, and Song Wen followed her after she flew away and accelerated.
• Song Wen caught up with the black-clad figure and ordered her to remove her hood.
• The figure revealed a scarred woman's face and her Mahayana Peak cultivation.

Song Wen forced Zhuang Qiu to reveal the immortal stones and immortal spirit marrow she had found, then learned how she used the incomplete Divine Illumination Light-Splitting Art to locate treasures. He took her to a cave and began cultivating the art, promising to spare her if he succeeded within seven days.

• Song Wen threatened Zhuang Qiu until she revealed more than two thousand immortal stone fragments and a jade vial containing twenty-five drops of immortal spirit marrow.
• Song Wen returned the treasures to Zhuang Qiu and asked how she had identified valuable rocks at the bottom of Heavenheart Lake.
• Zhuang Qiu gave Song Wen an incomplete jade slip containing the Divine Illumination Light-Splitting Art, which could divide spiritual sense into threads and extend its range.
• Song Wen carried Zhuang Qiu to a cave and began cultivating the art, telling her he would spare her if he succeeded within seven days.

Song Wen mastered the Divine Illumination Light-Splitting Art and followed Zhuang Qiu to an underground river beneath Heavenheart Lake, where he found Immortal Spirit Marrow. He spared Zhuang Qiu but accepted the twenty-five drops she carried.

• Song Wen cultivated the Divine Illumination Light-Splitting Art in five days, increasing his divine-sense range by thirty percent.
• Zhuang Qiu told Song Wen that she had found twenty-five drops of Immortal Spirit Marrow in an underground river beneath Heavenheart Lake before fleeing from signs of a fight.
• Song Wen ordered Zhuang Qiu to lead him to the underground river, and she guided him through a crack beneath the lakebed.
• Song Wen searched the river channel and found a drop of Immortal Spirit Marrow in a rock more than a hundred thousand li from the entrance.
• Song Wen promised not to kill Zhuang Qiu, and she gave him the twenty-five drops of Immortal Spirit Marrow she carried.

Song Wen spared Zhuang Qiu after taking her immortal spirit marrow and continued searching the underground riverbed. He followed Shi Qi into a cavern and discovered that all six of the Shi Family’s remaining Tribulation Transcendence cultivators had gathered there.

• Song Wen gave Zhuang Qiu his Tribulation Transcendence breakthrough insights in exchange for the immortal spirit marrow and warned her to keep their encounter secret.
• Song Wen found a collapsed section of the underground riverbed and searched the battle-scarred cavern for special stones.
• Song Wen recognized Shi Qi, concealed himself, and watched as Shi Qi found and collected a strange glowing brown moss.
• Song Wen followed Shi Qi through a smooth underground passage into a damp cave.
• Song Wen saw Shi Qi reunite with the Shi Family’s other five Tribulation Transcendence cultivators, including Shi Sanniang, Shi Min, and Shi Wuwei.

Shi Qi used Snake-Bone Moss in an attempt to cure four poisoned members of the Shi Family while Ye Kuang challenged the family’s claim to the Ink Viper and its hoard. Song Wen pieced together how the Shi Family and Purple Star Immortal Sect had come to the cavern and grew interested in the viper’s possible stash of immortal resources.

• Shi Qi gave four poisoned Shi Family cultivators equal portions of Snake-Bone Moss, and they swallowed them while continuing to resist the venom.
• Song Wen realized all six of the Shi Family’s Tribulation Transcendence cultivators had secretly entered the secret realm, likely to pursue the Ink Viper.
• Ye Kuang warned Shi Qi that the Purple Star Immortal Sect would not let the Shi Family claim the Ink Viper and its hoard, and said Ling Xu would soon confront him.
• Shi Qi rejected Ye Kuang’s threat and told Shi Min not to trust other cultivators, while worrying that the family might have to withdraw if the Snake-Bone Moss failed.
• Song Wen concluded that the Shi Family and Purple Star Immortal Sect had joined forces to wound the Ink Viper before turning against each other, and he wondered whether its cavern held immortal stones and immortal spirit marrow.

Song Wen discovered a second, uninjured Ink Viper in the nest, where it was laying eggs beside a stash of Immortal Spirit Marrow. When the male Ink Viper left to confront the Shi Family and Purple Star Immortal Sect, Song Wen broke into the nest and faced the female.

• Song Wen searched the male Ink Viper's nest and found a hidden passage leading to a second Ink Viper.
• Song Wen realized the female Ink Viper was laying eggs and spotted Immortal Spirit Marrow beside it.
• A disturbance above the Lake drew the injured male Ink Viper away from the nest.
• Song Wen smashed through the nest's barrier and rushed through the poisonous miasma toward the female Ink Viper.
• The female Ink Viper noticed Song Wen and fixed its gaze on him.

Song Wen fought the female viper in the nest, collected the Immortal Spirit Marrow, and escaped after she discovered that her half-formed egg had been smashed. The male viper returned and learned of the egg’s destruction, erupting into a furious roar as Song Wen fled under a black cloak.

• Song Wen blocked the female viper’s venom, struck her with the Soul-Slaying Spikes, and used the Blood Sea Imperial Seal’s tentacle to hurl her into the cave wall.
• Song Wen collected the Immortal Spirit Marrow and recovered the falling stones and fragments with his storage ring.
• The female viper regained consciousness, saw her shattered egg, and charged Song Wen in grief and rage.
• Song Wen used blood-colored tentacles to slow the female viper and retreated toward the snake nest’s entrance.
• The male viper returned, and the female viper told him the egg had been destroyed; he unleashed a furious roar that drove the Lake water away.

Song Wen escaped the Lake after tricking the Shi Family and Purple Star Immortal Sect with a storage ring that released corpse qi. As the two Ink Vipers attacked the pursuers, Ling Xu sacrificed Ye Kuang to them, and the female viper lunged at Ye Kuang.

• Song Wen encountered the Shi Family cultivators, Ye Kuang, Ling Xu, and Yin Ling as they descended into the Lake.
• Song Wen claimed to be Yan'e and threw a storage ring to Shi Qi, but Shi Min recognized that he was a corpse cultivator and attacked him.
• The storage ring shattered when Ye Kuang examined it, releasing corpse qi that poisoned him while Song Wen blocked Shi Min's spear and fled.
• Song Wen and the other cultivators escaped the Lake, but the two Ink Vipers pursued Ling Xu's group to the surface.
• Ling Xu threw the weakened Ye Kuang toward the Ink Vipers, and Ye Kuang's flying swords wounded the male viper before it broke them; the female viper then bit at him.

Ling Xu and Yin Ling fought off the two black vipers after Ye Kuang was killed, but they fled when the male viper was gravely wounded and the female pursued them. Song Wen watched from hiding, then used an Earth-Escape Talisman to follow them, intending to settle his old debts with Yin Ling.

• The female viper bit Ye Kuang in half, and the male viper swallowed the rest of him.
• Ling Xu struck the vipers with his seal while Yin Ling unleashed four crystalline-white swords from her jade sword.
• The male viper protected the female with a black mist shield, but the swords shattered it and left him gravely weakened.
• Ling Xu pulled Yin Ling away, and the female viper pursued them as the male followed.
• Song Wen observed from a rocky crevice, saw that the vipers had been lured away, and used an Earth-Escape Talisman to follow Yin Ling.