Recaps

Song Wen collected the bodies of the Su Clan members, then killed the wounded Jing Lu and Su Jingtong and captured their souls. After the Su Clan arrived to search the ruined mine, Du Ruoyun and the Du Clan appeared and taunted Su Wenshi before departing.

• Song Wen received the four Su Clan corpses from the Sacred Beetle Gu and stored them as materials for substitute puppets.
• Jing Lu pursued the injured Su Jingtong and knocked him down before he could release the Armor Ghost King.
• A lightning strike from the Lei Clan’s Great Cavern Divine Thunder badly wounded Jing Lu, and Song Wen killed both Jing Lu and Su Jingtong, imprisoned their souls, and took their bodies.
• Su Wenshi led Su Clan cultivators to the ruined Crimson Blood Spirit Crystal Mine and ordered them to search for survivors and collect the dead.
• Du Ruoyun arrived with Du Clan cultivators, mocked the Su Clan’s losses, and left after Su Wenshi threatened her, warning him that someone might take the mine.

Song Wen refined Su Jingtong’s black banner and trapped the weakened Black-Armored Ghost King inside his Eight-Banner Yin Soul Banner, then returned to the Northern Lands Market disguised as Yuan Cheng. There, he learned that the Du Clan had seized the Crimson Blood Spirit Crystal Mine and the Su Clan’s aging ancestor might be near death, leaving a major clash looming.

• Song Wen learned about the Mountain Ravine Ghost Market’s private Foundation Establishment gathering and studied Jing Lu’s Nine Nether Ghost-Driving Scripture.
• Song Wen spent two days refining Su Jingtong’s black banner, then used it with his Eight-Banner Yin Soul Banner to capture the Black-Armored Ghost King for gradual refinement.
• Song Wen inventoried twenty storage rings, finding spirit stones, Crimson Blood Spirit Crystals, Bloodburst Pills, and other items, then stored six corpses in a corpse-nurturing coffin.
• Song Wen flew to the Northern Lands Market and entered disguised as Yuan Cheng after putting away his flying boat.
• Song Wen heard that the Du Clan had defeated Su Wenshi’s forces at the Crimson Blood Spirit Crystal Mine and that the Su Clan had not retaliated.
• Song Wen learned that the Su Clan ancestor was nearly five hundred years old and close to his lifespan limit, while Rogue Cultivators feared an imminent Su-Du conflict and prepared to flee.

Song Wen returned to Clearpeace Mountain, where Su Huayue ordered him to take on an increased pill quota as the Su Clan prepared for conflict with the Du Clan. While using the alchemy room to study the Bloodburst Pill, he discovered a possible way to turn its temporary cultivation boost into a permanent one.

• Song Wen noticed a faint corpse odor on Su Shan and suspected that he had begun cultivating demonic secret arts.
• Su Huayue increased Song Wen's Qi-Gathering Pill quota by fifty percent and required him to refine three batches before leaving the Pill Chamber.
• Song Wen refined the three batches in six hours, then stayed in the isolated alchemy room to study the Bloodburst Pill.
• Song Wen took a Bloodburst Pill and found that it briefly raised his cultivation but also consumed some blood essence.
• Song Wen reasoned that demon beast blood essence made the pill's spiritual power temporary and considered using a second-order spirit herb similar to Red Blood Vine instead.

Song Wen searched for substitutes to improve the Bloodburst Pill and found he lacked Ghost Needle Grass and a suitable main ingredient, settling on Yellow Essence Fungus as his first choice. At lunch, he learned that several visiting alchemists planned to leave the Su Clan, while Qi Xiong hesitated because Su Huayue had promised him a Realm-Breaking Pill.

• Song Wen reviewed Rong Jingyun's alchemy notes and chose Yellow Essence Fungus as the most practical possible substitute for Red Blood Vine.
• Song Wen refined three batches of Qi-Gathering Pills, delivered fifteen pills to Su Huayue, and then searched his stored herbs for Bloodburst Pill ingredients.
• Song Wen found that he lacked Ghost Needle Grass and a main ingredient, and decided to try Yellow Essence Fungus first.
• At lunch, Gao Yan announced she would leave the Su Clan, and two other alchemists soon said they would leave with her.
• Qi Xiong refused to decide until he received the Realm-Breaking Pill Su Huayue had promised him, and Song Wen wondered why the Su Clan was capturing Longevity Art cultivators.

Song Wen visited Su Shan and discovered that he was secretly refining walking corpses, so Song Wen planted a corpse-refining manual for him to find. Song Wen then searched Northern Lands Market for Huangjing Mushroom and paid a steep deposit to reserve one stalk, leaving him to collect it the next morning.

• Song Wen disguised himself as Alchemist Yuan, visited Su Shan, and learned that Su Shan's wife was due to give birth within half a month.
• Song Wen sensed three badly refined walking corpses beneath Su Shan's side room and later arranged for Su Shan to find an ancient corpse-refining manual.
• Song Wen searched Northern Lands Market for Huangjing Mushroom but found none at the large spirit herb shops.
• A mustached shopkeeper offered to supply Song Wen with Huangjing Mushroom for two thousand spirit stones per stalk and demanded a five-hundred-spirit-stone deposit.
• Song Wen paid the deposit to reserve one stalk of Huangjing Mushroom for collection the next morning.

Song Wen followed Mustache to learn where he could obtain Yellow Essence Fungus, only to discover that Mustache spent the night visiting several of his Su Clan sisters-in-law. At dawn, Mustache reported Song Wen’s interest in the herb to the Su Clan’s Fifth Elder, who assigned two cultivators to help recruit the suspected second-tier alchemist.

• Song Wen used the Sacred Beetle Gu to follow Mustache after his shop closed, but Mustache visited his sisters-in-law instead of buying Yellow Essence Fungus.
• Mustache left the last courtyard before dawn and went to the Su Clan’s spirit herb shop.
• Mustache told the Fifth Elder that an unfamiliar cultivator had sought Yellow Essence Fungus and might be a second-tier alchemist or connected to one.
• The Fifth Elder ordered Su Wei and Su Gu to assist Mustache in recruiting Song Wen into the Su Clan.
• Song Wen saw Mustache leave the shop and noticed two Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivators following him.

Song Wen ambushed and killed Su Wei and Su Gu, then fled with the unconscious mustached man and learned that the Su Clan had captured hundreds of Longevity Art cultivators. He considered attacking the Fifth Elder aboard a flying ship but abandoned the plan when another ship approached from Clearpeace Mountain.

• Song Wen attacked Su Wei and Su Gu in the courtyard, killing Su Gu with the Sacred Beetle Gu and having the Crimson-Haired Ghost General kill Su Wei.
• Song Wen collected the two men’s storage rings, searched their souls, and fled with the unconscious mustached man.
• The Fifth Elder arrived, learned that Su Wei and Su Gu were dead and Su Six was missing, and ordered the Su Clan to search for the murderer without pursuing blindly.
• Song Wen hid in a forest and learned from the men’s memories that the Su Clan had captured several hundred cultivators who practiced the Longevity Art.
• Song Wen spotted a flying ship that might carry the Fifth Elder but gave up on attacking when another ship approached from Clearpeace Mountain.

Song Wen killed the mustached man who had been sent by the Su Clan, then returned to Clearpeace Mountain and advanced his spiritual sense to the peak Foundation Establishment level. He resumed refining pills under his cover as Yuan Cheng and left the Pill Chamber with his new strength concealed.

• Song Wen interrogated the mustached man about Su Xiuyong and the Su Clan, then killed him with a Sacred Beetle Gu and avoided the Su Clan members searching for him.
• Su Anping discovered the mustached man's corpse, but the Su Clan's search of the surrounding area turned up no clues.
• Song Wen returned to the Pill Chamber, collected ingredients from Su Huayue, and secluded himself to cultivate as his spiritual sense advanced.
• After three days, Song Wen's spiritual sense reached the peak of Foundation Establishment, with a four-li range that expanded to sixteen li with the Sacred Beetle Gu.
• Song Wen delivered fifteen Qi-Gathering Pills to Su Huayue and claimed that a minor injury to his sea of consciousness had delayed his work.
• Su Huayue gave Song Wen the next day off, and he returned to his residence before going to the dining hall, where he found no useful information.

Song Wen secretly investigated the Su Clan’s spirit fields and discovered that they cultivated Yellow Essence Fungus on the corpses of pregnant women. He remained hidden nearby as Su Clan cultivators tended the fungus, whose unusual vitality suggested a carefully managed process.

• Song Wen used his Sacred Beetle Gu to survey the spirit fields and found four Foundation Establishment cultivators guarding them and caves carved into the nearby cliff.
• Song Wen detected corpse qi at the cave entrances and left two Sacred Beetle Gu watching while he returned to his residence.
• After a Sacred Beetle Gu reported that a cave entrance was open, Song Wen hid in a pond and observed the cavern through the Gu.
• Song Wen saw more than a thousand Yellow Essence Fungus growing from the eye sockets of women’s corpses, including the corpses of women who had died pregnant.
• Six late Qi Refining Su Clan cultivators ventilated the cavern and inspected the fungus growing on the skeletal remains.

Song Wen used Sacred Beetle Gu to kill six Su Clan cultivators and steal the clan’s Yellow Essence Fungus. The theft was discovered, and Su Anping ordered a search while Grand Elder Su Wenshi blamed him for endangering the ancestor’s life-prolonging plan.

• A Su Clan cultivator used the Yellow Essence Fungus to parasitize pregnant women, and Song Wen watched the cruel cultivation process from hiding.
• Song Wen sent five Sacred Beetle Gu into the cave, where they killed six Su Clan cultivators and harvested more than a thousand mature Yellow Essence Fungus plants.
• Song Wen retrieved the Sacred Beetle Gu and stolen fungus, then returned to his residence.
• Su Yuan found the cave stripped of fungus and raised the clan’s emergency alarm.
• Su Anping ordered the Su Clan to search within a hundred li for the stolen fungus, while Su Wenshi blamed him for jeopardizing the ancestor’s life-prolonging plan.

Song Wen hid the excess Huangjing mushrooms by feeding them to his pseudo-silver corpse and concealed his empty storage rings before the Su Clan searched the non-clan cultivators’ courtyard. Su Junhao arrested late arrivals and ordered a thorough search, but the stolen mushrooms were not found.

• Song Wen stored most of the Huangjing mushrooms in jade boxes, fed the remaining mushrooms to his pseudo-silver corpse, and buried his empty storage rings.
• Su Junhao summoned the courtyard’s non-clan cultivators and ordered everyone to leave their rooms within ten breaths.
• Su Clan cultivators arrested a dozen cultivators who had not come out in time, while Su Junhao silenced the protesting crowd with his cultivation pressure.
• Su Junhao sent the captives to the dungeon for interrogation and ordered the courtyard houses searched.
• The search turned the courtyard into a wreck but uncovered nothing related to the missing Huangjing mushrooms.

Su Junhao’s searches failed to find the thief who stole the Su Clan’s Yellow Essence Fungus, and the clan’s leaders realized the theft threatened Patriarch Su Gan’s effort to extend his life. Su Anping and Su Wenshi went to report the crisis to Su Gan, who asked whether a major event had occurred.

• Su Junhao ordered the foreign cultivators’ belongings and bodies searched, but the Su Clan found no trace of the thief and confined everyone to their rooms.
• Su Anping, Su Wenshi, Su Junhao, and Su Yuanzheng discussed the failed search and the danger the stolen Yellow Essence Fungus posed to Su Gan’s lifespan.
• Su Wenshi linked the thief to an alchemist who had appeared in Northern Lands Market and Su Clan Town, and Su Anping ordered investigations into foreign-surnamed alchemists.
• Su Anping and Su Wenshi flew to Su Gan’s secluded cottage to report the theft, and Su Gan came out and asked what major event had occurred.

Su Gan ordered the Su Clan to gather a thousand living sacrifices for a risky activation of the Devouring Essence Array, while the clan abruptly ended its investigation into the stolen Yellow Essence Fungus. As foreign alchemists prepared to leave the increasingly uneasy clan, Qi Xiong chose to stay in exchange for a Realm-Breaking Pill.

• Su Anping reported the theft of every Yellow Essence Fungus over ten years old, and Su Gan hurled him and Su Wenshi into a stream in anger.
• Su Gan ordered Su Anping to gather a thousand late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators within half a month and invite Daoist Nun Qingyan to the clan in twenty days.
• Su Junhao led a thorough search of the alchemists, but the Su Clan ended the investigation by dawn, released the detained cultivators, and promised compensation.
• Song Wen met Gao Yan, Duan Jie, and their companions, who planned to leave after collecting their monthly pay because they feared trouble was coming to the Su Clan.
• Qi Xiong revealed that Su Huayue had given him a Realm-Breaking Pill in return for five years of service, and he decided to remain in the clan.

Song Wen experimented with improving the Bloodburst Pill, then collected his stipend as many outside workers left the Su Clan. Suspecting the clan was preparing to act, he resolved to seek information by targeting the cautious fifth elder, Su Xiuyong.

• Song Wen's first Bloodburst Pill attempt erupted, and his next attempt failed during pill formation after he adjusted the ingredients with earth mushroom flower.
• Song Wen submitted fifty Qi-Gathering Pills and received his stipend without a deduction from Su Huayue.
• Song Wen noticed many outside workers leaving the Su Clan, while Qi Xiong defended their decision to stay.
• Song Wen concluded the Su Clan was preparing to act and considered using Soul Search on an elder to learn its plans.
• Song Wen chose Su Xiuyong as a possible target but found no clear weakness and considered taking a risk to draw him out.

A low-level Rogue Cultivator brought a stolen Yellow Essence Fungus to the Su Clan’s shop, hoping to sell it, and the clan’s cultivators tried to force him to reveal where he found it. Just as the burly cultivator moved to kill him, Su Xiuyong arrived and ordered him to stop.

• A Rogue Cultivator offered a second-tier spirit herb to a shophand at the Su Clan’s spirit herb shop.
• The shophand recognized the herb as the stolen Yellow Essence Fungus and called for a supervisor.
• A burly Su Clan cultivator seized the jade box and questioned the Rogue Cultivator about where he had found the fungus.
• The Rogue Cultivator said he had found it west of the market, then claimed there were a thousand spirit herbs there and refused to reveal more.
• The burly cultivator blasted the Rogue Cultivator against a wall and prepared to kill him.
• Su Xiuyong arrived and shouted for the burly cultivator to stop.

Song Wen, disguised as a rogue cultivator, lured Su Xiuyong into revealing himself and then launched an ambush in the market. He captured Su Xiuyong and fled, but the Su Clan Patriarch, Su Anping, raced toward him.

• Su Xiuyong offered the Rogue Cultivator ten thousand spirit stones for the location of the Yellow Essence Fungus, and the Rogue Cultivator accepted.
• The Rogue Cultivator, who was Song Wen in disguise, summoned a Silver Corpse and a Copper Corpse to attack Su Xiuyong and Su You.
• Song Wen unleashed the Crimson-Haired Ghost General and Great Cavern Divine Thunder as Su Xiuyong tried to reach the protected building.
• Su Xiuyong's clansmen fled inside the building's array barrier, and Song Wen's Cold Moon Blade pierced Su Xiuyong before Song Wen seized him.
• Song Wen recalled his corpses and ghost banner and fled the market with Su Xiuyong, but Su Anping approached at great speed.

Song Wen learned that Su Gan planned to extend his lifespan through Devour Essence in seventeen days and began preparing to sabotage it while secretly refining the Black-Armored Ghost King. At the Pill Chamber, Su Huayue attacked him, but Song Wen stopped her and severed her arm.

• Su Anping abandoned his pursuit after Su You warned him that Song Wen possessed a pseudo-third-rank silver corpse and other powerful abilities.
• Song Wen searched Su Xiuyong’s soul, learned about Su Gan’s plan to extend his lifespan in seventeen days, and considered setting the wolf against the tiger.
• Song Wen returned to Clearpeace Mountain and spent ten days refining the Black-Armored Ghost King while keeping a low profile.
• Song Wen asked Su Huayue about Qi Xiong, and she claimed that Qi Xiong was refining Profound Qi Pills in an alchemy chamber.
• Su Huayue ambushed Song Wen in his alchemy chamber, but he caught her sword and severed her arm before she could activate her emergency jade slip.

Song Wen killed Su Huayue after learning that Qi Xiong had been taken by a Foundation Establishment elder, then left the Su Clan and encountered Su Shan being escorted to execution. Su Shan denied killing his wife and child and revealed his painful past before guards silenced him for condemning the clan head.

• Song Wen questioned Su Huayue about Qi Xiong, killed her, searched her soul, and disposed of her body.
• Song Wen left the Pill Chamber and saw Su Shan being escorted to Su Clan Town for execution for allegedly practicing corpse-path arts and turning mortals into walking corpses.
• Song Wen bribed the escort leader with twenty Qi-Gathering Pills to speak privately with Su Shan.
• Su Shan told Song Wen that poverty and poor cultivation aptitude had driven him toward demonic arts, but insisted that his wife and child had disappeared and that he had not killed them.
• Su Shan blamed his neighbors and Su Anping for his mother's suffering, and the escort leader struck him and warned him against speaking ill of the clan head.

Song Wen rescued Su Shan and pointed him toward clues about his wife and child, then warned Du Ruoyun that Su Gan planned to extend his lifespan by sacrificing Longevity Art cultivators. Du Ruoyun ordered an investigation and took the warning to the Du Clan’s Golden Core ancestor to decide whether to act.

• Song Wen secretly freed Su Shan, gave him a storage pouch, and directed him west toward a cave where he might find traces of his wife and child.
• Su Shan fled west, while Song Wen collected the dead escorts and disappeared.
• Song Wen approached Du Ruoyun at the Crimson Blood Spirit Crystal Mine and offered the Du Clan a chance to destroy the Su Clan.
• Song Wen told Du Ruoyun that Su Gan planned to use a Devouring Essence Array and a thousand Longevity Art cultivators to gain another sixty years of life.
• Du Ruoyun ordered a clansman to investigate the captured cultivators and flew to consult the Du Clan’s Golden Core ancestor.

Song Wen completed refining the Black-Armored Ghost King but missed the expected date of Su Gan’s lifespan extension. He watched Daoist Nun Qingyan arrive to help Su Gan activate the Devouring Essence Array, unaware that she had once pursued Song Wen.

• Song Wen returned to Su Clan Town, found no signs of an investigation, and concealed himself near Su Gan’s valley to refine the Black-Armored Ghost King.
• After eight days, Song Wen finished refining the Ghost King and realized that Su Gan’s expected lifespan extension date had passed without any sign of activity.
• Daoist Nun Qingyan arrived at the valley, and Su Gan and Su Wenshi welcomed her inside.
• Su Gan explained that he had invited Qingyan to help activate the Devouring Essence Array, which would draw vitality from a living sacrifice to extend his lifespan.
• Su Gan showed Qingyan the array and taught her to control its auxiliary formation disk, then asked her to prepare for the ritual in two days.

Song Wen waited outside the valley while Su Gan and Daoist Qingyan activated the Devouring Essence Array to extend Su Gan’s lifespan. Before the ritual’s outcome was revealed, the Du Clan arrived at Clearpeace Mountain with a Golden Core cultivator.

• Song Wen realized Daoist Qingyan’s presence would complicate his plan to use the Du Clan against the Su Clan, then waited anxiously outside the valley.
• Su Gan ordered Su Wenshi to prepare the imprisoned Rogue Cultivators for the Devouring Essence Array, while Su Anping sealed Clearpeace Mountain and gathered the clan.
• At midnight, Su Gan and Daoist Qingyan began activating the array with a thousand restrained Rogue Cultivators, as Su Wenshi supplied high-grade spirit stones.
• Song Wen sensed powerful fluctuations from the valley, but the Du Clan he expected still had not appeared.
• More than a dozen invaders approached Clearpeace Mountain; Su Anping led nearly five hundred Su Clan cultivators to meet them, and the attackers stopped eight li away.
• A dark red flying sword revealed that the invaders included a Golden Core cultivator, and Su Anping recognized them as the Du Clan.

Du Tianhua attacked Clearpeace Mountain while the Su Clan raised its mountain-protecting formation, and the Du Clan began looting the unprotected parts of the estate. As Su Gan’s Devouring Essence Array consumed its first victim, Daoist Qingyan went out to confront Du Tianhua, unaware that Su Gan intended to kill her to advance his cultivation.

• Su Anping ordered nine Foundation Establishment cultivators to activate the Su Clan’s third-rank earth-element formation, which blocked Du Tianhua’s sword strike.
• Du Tianhua accused the Su Clan of using pregnant women to cultivate spirit herbs and sacrificing people to prolong Su Gan’s life, then threatened to expose the crimes to the Cultivation World.
• Du Ruoyun led Du Clan members in looting the Su Clan’s unprotected halls and herb gardens while Du Tianhua left the protected inheritance grounds untouched.
• Du Tianhua struck the Four Symbols Reversal Formation around Su Gan’s secluded valley as Su Gan told Daoist Qingyan that the Devouring Essence Array was active and he could control it alone.
• A Blood Serpent devoured a Rogue Cultivator in the array, and Daoist Qingyan left the formation to confront Du Tianhua.
• Su Gan revealed that he intended to kill Daoist Qingyan so he could break through to the Middle Golden Core Stage, while Su Wenshi watched and pondered.

Daoist Qingyan fought Du Tianhua on Clearpeace Mountain, while Su Anping led the Su Clan against Du Ruoyun’s retreating forces. Du Tianhua wounded Qingyan from concealment in Spirit-Hiding Mist, leaving her fleeing with a badly injured right hand.

• Daoist Qingyan attacked Du Tianhua with her saber, but he used Spirit-Hiding Mist to evade her strikes.
• Du Ruoyun ordered the Du Clan cultivators to withdraw, and Su Anping led more than twenty Su Clan cultivators in pursuit.
• Su Anping killed two Du Clan cultivators but ended the chase and returned to Clearpeace Mountain.
• Daoist Qingyan entered the mist and realized Du Tianhua could track her while she could not locate him.
• Du Tianhua ambushed Daoist Qingyan with his flying sword, mangling her right hand and forcing her to flee the mist.

Daoist Qingyan fought Du Tianhua but failed to kill him, then returned to the Devouring Essence Array to help Su Gan. Su Gan revealed that he planned to use the array to plunder Qingyan’s cultivation and force a breakthrough, leaving her trapped beneath its pressure.

• Daoist Qingyan escaped the Spirit-Hiding Mist with a wound and joined the Su Clan in attacking the mist to expose Du Tianhua.
• Du Tianhua emerged and was struck by Qingyan’s saber, which severed his left arm, but he escaped again by using the Spirit-Hiding Mist and forest to conceal himself.
• Daoist Qingyan returned to the valley and began refining healing pills while the Devouring Essence Array drained the thousand Rogue Cultivators.
• Su Gan called on Qingyan to help operate the array before she had finished recovering, then changed his hand seals and trapped her under immense pressure.
• Su Gan confessed that he intended to plunder Qingyan’s cultivation with the Devouring Essence Array to break through his early Golden Core bottleneck.

Qingyan escaped Su Gan’s Devouring Essence Array with the help of her Ironback Turtle and revealed that she had planned to seize the array for herself. Su Gan failed to break through the turtle’s shell and began preparing to trap it with the Four Symbols Reversal Formation.

• Su Gan kept the Devouring Essence Array pressing down on Qingyan and sent its blood snake toward her.
• The Ironback Turtle emerged from underground, shielded Qingyan from the array’s pressure, and carried her out of its range.
• Qingyan revealed that she had concealed her knowledge of the array and hidden the Ironback Turtle nearby while planning to seize the formation.
• Qingyan demanded that Su Gan surrender and let her absorb his cultivation, but he refused and attacked her with a flying sword.
• The Ironback Turtle’s shell repelled Su Gan’s sword, so he sealed the array, left it behind, and ordered Su Wenshi to use the Four Symbols Reversal Formation to trap the beast.