Chapter Summaries

Li Xuancang awakened in Great Stone Village and learned that he had arrived in the Heaven-Abandoned Land, a place unlike the Wild Continent. As night fell, he discovered that the village’s enormous torch offered protection from a terrifying darkness.

• Li Xuancang questioned the villagers about their poverty and learned they could barely afford to eat rice.
• Li Xuancang left the hut and saw that every villager, including the children, possessed cultivation despite their hunger and poor condition.
• Li Xuancang realized the villagers were Human Race and saw that an enormous torch had replaced the sun.
• Li Xuancang learned from Zhou Yuan that the village was in the Heaven-Abandoned Land under the Eternal Divine Dynasty, and agreed to stay in Great Stone Village.
• When gongs signaled nightfall, Zhou Yuan warned Li Xuancang to stay within the torchlight, and Zhou Fenger promised to bring him food the next day.
• Night plunged the land into darkness before the village torch ignited, calming Li Xuancang and the frightened villagers.

Li Xuancang learned from Zhou Fenger that the Forsaken Continent endured endless darkness, with the heavenly torch providing only three hours of light each day. Despite Zhou Fenger’s warnings, he ventured into the wilderness to hunt, where he encountered powerful cultivated beasts.

• Li Xuancang observed that the village torch, like the heavenly torch, required spiritual materials to keep burning, then rested to recover from his injuries.
• After dawn, Zhou Fenger brought Li Xuancang porridge, and he asked where he could hunt for food.
• Zhou Fenger explained that the heavenly torch illuminated the Human Race for only three hours daily and that its immense fuel needs left people short of food and time to work.
• Li Xuancang thanked Zhou Fenger and left the village despite her warning, intending to hunt and repay the Zhou Family.
• Li Xuancang traveled into a mountain range, gathered spiritual materials, and heard a beast’s roar that made nearby cultivated animals tremble.

Li Xuancang hunted a great demon in the Broken Mountains and returned to Great Stone Village with its carcass, sharing much of the meat with the villagers who had saved him. After several days of hunting and recovery, he considered leaving the village.

• Li Xuancang killed a Profound Connection Realm black bear in the Broken Mountains and ate its heart to restore his strength.
• Li Xuancang returned to Great Stone Village with the bear’s corpse, relieving Zhou Fenger’s worries and astonishing the villagers.
• Li Xuancang gave most of the carcass to Shi Dashan for the village and shared more meat with Zhou Yuan and the others in gratitude for saving his life.
• Li Xuancang spent several days hunting in the Broken Mountains, trading most of his prey with the villagers as he settled into village life.
• Li Xuancang fully recovered from his injuries and, with strength comparable to the middle stage of the Divine Repository Realm, began considering leaving the village.

Demonic Beasts attacked the village, and Li Xuancang saved Zhou Fenger and wiped out the insect tide. As monstrous beasts overwhelmed the villagers’ defenses, Shi Dashan rallied them to protect the torches and hold out until dawn.

• Shi Dashan ordered the villagers to defend the torches as a tide of black beetles attacked, killing villagers and trapping Zhou Fenger.
• Li Xuancang arrived and used divine light to destroy the beetles threatening Zhou Fenger and the nearby villagers.
• Zhou Yuan led his family and the villagers toward the torches while Li Xuancang stayed behind to confront the threat.
• Li Xuancang wiped out the pursuing insect tide with a single punch, leaving the village stunned by his strength.
• Grotesque Demonic Beasts charged from the darkness, and Shi Dashan led the villagers in defending the torches as the defensive line began to falter.

Li Xuancang helped Great Stone Village survive an endless night attack by Demonic Beasts, but more than a thousand villagers died. After the beasts retreated at dawn, Shi Dashan told Li Xuancang the village had to relocate and asked him to help secure fuel for the torches during the move.

• Li Xuancang fought off the Demonic Beasts and sensed that the darkness beyond the torchlight concealed a terror too dangerous to enter.
• As the villagers neared defeat, Li Xuancang arrived and wiped out a vast number of beasts, holding them back until dawn drove them away.
• Zhou Fenger checked on Li Xuancang, while the exhausted villagers mourned the more than a thousand dead and cleaned the battlefield.
• Shi Dashan told Li Xuancang that Great Stone Village had to relocate because the Demonic Beasts would return and the village could no longer defend itself.
• Li Xuancang asked about moving the torches, and Shi Dashan explained that the village would take them along.
• Shi Dashan asked Li Xuancang to leave some Demonic Beast corpses behind as fuel for the torches, and Li Xuancang agreed.

Li Xuancang protected Great Stone Village from two nights of Demonic Beast attacks, gathered fuel and food, and helped the villagers prepare to migrate. After Shi Dashan shrank the torch, the villagers set out with confidence and stopped to relight it when dusk fell.

• Li Xuancang held off the Demonic Beasts through the night, allowing the villagers to survive and collect the corpses for torch fuel.
• Li Xuancang led more than a hundred villagers into the Broken Mountains, where he killed Demonic Beasts and the hunting team gathered spiritual materials.
• Li Xuancang defended the village through a second night of attacks, and the villagers collected the remaining corpses and compressed them into fuel blocks.
• Shi Dashan and the villagers used incantations and seals to shrink the torch, then began their migration with supplies of fuel and food.
• At dusk, Shi Dashan restored the torch to its full size and added fuel, lighting the wilderness as the villagers stopped for the night.

Li Xuancang left Great Stone Village with a miniature torch and traveled to Phoenix Cry County, hoping to find a way back to the Wild Continent. He entered the powerful county city and began gathering information about its factions.

• Li Xuancang stayed with Great Stone Village as its villagers traveled for over two months and settled in an area where resources had recovered.
• Li Xuancang said goodbye to Zhou Fenger, left her spiritual items and beast corpses, and accepted a miniature torch from Shi Dashan, which would protect him for ten days.
• Li Xuancang tested the miniature torch in the darkness, then departed the village the next morning while Zhou Fenger resolved to grow stronger and see him again.
• Li Xuancang followed Shi Dashan's directions and reached Phoenix Cry County after seven days of travel, entering the city without trouble.
• Li Xuancang settled at an inn and learned that the Imperial Court, Martial Might School, Longwind Escort Agency, and Zhao Clan were the county's major factions, each backed by Divine Repository Realm experts.

Li Xuancang joined the Night Watchers in Phoenix Cry County after passing the Torch’s test. He received an Iron Badge and settled in under Zhang Ruobai’s care, ready to learn the organization’s ways.

• Li Xuancang went to the county yamen and passed the waiting applicants, startling them when they sensed his Divine Repository Realm cultivation.
• Zhang Ruobai met Li Xuancang and explained that he had to pass the Torch’s test before joining the Night Watchers.
• Zhang Ruobai used the Torch’s flame to test Li Xuancang, confirmed he was not a Demonic Beast, and accepted him into the Night Watchers.
• Li Xuancang agreed to begin as an Iron Badge Night Watcher and collected his uniform, saber, Spirit Stones, pills, and badge.
• Zhang Ruobai warned Li Xuancang that the Iron Badge’s protection would last only one month before needing to be replenished at the Torch, then gave him several days to settle in.

Li Xuancang was sent with a Night Watchers squad to defend Black Stone Town against an overwhelming Abyssal invasion. He revealed Divine Repository Realm power, turned the battle around, and watched the surviving Demonic Beasts retreat through gateways in space.

• Li Xuancang studied the Eternal Divine Dynasty and its borderlands before receiving orders to reinforce Black Stone Town.
• Li Xuancang and the Night Watchers arrived after the Abyss had surrounded the town and joined the desperate defense.
• As the enemy overwhelmed the defenders, Li Xuancang revealed his Divine Repository Realm strength and swept across the battlefield with devastating attacks.
• Li Xuancang defeated a great demon comparable to an Early-Stage Divine Repository Realm expert and continued holding the front as the others fought.
• After the Demonic Beasts retreated at dawn, Li Xuancang saw them escape through gateways that opened and closed in space.

Li Xuancang helped defend Black Stone Town through another night of Abyss Demonic Beast attacks, killing a giant octopus great demon and driving off the rest. A Fallen One escaped, while Li Xuancang gave the octopus’s valuable tentacles to the Iron Guards.

• Zheng Yuanfeng thanked Li Xuancang and the Night Watchers for saving Black Stone Town and said the town would relocate the next day.
• Zhang Yuan advised Li Xuancang to bring the barely living three-eyed great demon to the county seat, and Li Xuancang agreed.
• The Abyss Demonic Beasts attacked again, and Li Xuancang faced a giant octopus whose side was joined by a Fallen One.
• Li Xuancang wounded the Fallen One, then severed the octopus’s tentacles and killed it with a punch, but the Fallen One escaped.
• After the beasts retreated at dawn, Zhang Yuan and the other Iron Guards asked for the octopus’s tentacles, and Li Xuancang let them take them.

After returning from Black Stone Town with a captured Great Demon and another slain, Li Xuancang earned promotion to Copper Guard and learned the Abyss was preparing to invade the county city. He planned an escape route in case the city fell and decided to warn Great Stone Village to migrate.

• Li Xuancang brought the barely alive Three-Eyed Great Demon and the Octopus Great Demon's corpse to the Night Watchers' headquarters, where Zhang Yuan reported what had happened in Black Stone Town.
• Zhang Ruobai warned that the Abyss was preparing a major offensive and promoted Li Xuancang to Copper Guard; Li Xuancang surrendered both Demons for military merit.
• After visiting Great Stone Village and seeing its villagers safe, Li Xuancang returned to the county city and learned that Three Stone Town had been destroyed.
• Zhang Ruobai told Li Xuancang that an Abyssal invasion of the county city was imminent and explained why the city could not simply be abandoned.
• Li Xuancang decided to flee to the commandery city if the county city fell and resolved to warn Great Stone Village to migrate.

Li Xuancang secured Zhang Ruobai’s approval and led Great Stone Village to safety in the county seat before returning to prepare for the Abyss invasion. Zhang Ruobai then gathered leaders of local factions, who agreed to commit their forces to defending Phoenix Cry County.

• Li Xuancang persuaded Zhang Ruobai to let Great Stone Village relocate to the county seat and hurried back to the village.
• Shi Dashan organized the villagers’ departure after Li Xuancang warned them of the coming Abyss invasion.
• Li Xuancang led the villagers to the county seat, handed them over to Imperial Court officials, and returned to the garrison.
• Zhang Ruobai told Li Xuancang to join him in receiving faction leaders who would discuss resisting the Abyss.
• Zhang Ruobai informed Wu Chuanfeng, Lu Chen, and Zhou Tianming that Night Watchers would defend Phoenix Cry County, and the leaders pledged their forces to the defense.

Li Xuancang led the Human Race forces against the Abyssal invasion, while Zhang Ruobai stayed behind to protect the torch. As the battle turned against three Divine Repository Realm fighters, the chapter ended with Wu Chuanfeng, Lu Chen, and Zhou Tianming trapped under attacks from multiple Abyssal beasts.

• Zhang Ruobai left Li Xuancang in command of the battlefield and stayed behind with fifty Astral Qi Realm Night Watchers to guard the torch.
• After three days, Abyssal Demonic Beasts poured through the rift at night, and Li Xuancang ordered the Human Race to charge.
• A monstrous bird attacked from the sky, and Wu Chuanfeng, Lu Chen, and Zhou Tianming joined forces against it.
• The bird overwhelmed the three fighters with flames, storms, and burning blade-like feathers as the Human Race's morale faltered.
• A barrage of tail stingers and a charging one-horned rhinoceros threatened the three while they were preparing their strongest moves.

Li Xuancang revealed his overwhelming strength while defending Phoenix Cry County from a group of great demons. After killing the scorpion and stopping the rhinoceros, he left the rhinoceros pinned beneath his Dharma Avatar.

• Li Xuancang shielded Wu Chuanfeng and the other two from the monstrous bird’s tail spikes, then punched the charging rhinoceros and shattered its horn.
• The monstrous bird attacked again as the scorpion and wounded rhinoceros turned on Li Xuancang, who summoned a colossal Dharma Avatar and revealed his Mid-Stage Divine Repository Realm cultivation.
• Wu Chuanfeng and the other two, encouraged by Li Xuancang’s strength, renewed their assault on the monstrous bird.
• Li Xuancang shattered the scorpion’s tail spikes, dissolved its poisonous mist, and crushed it to dust with a palm strike.
• Li Xuancang stopped the rhinoceros with one foot on its broken horn and forced it down, pinning it helplessly beneath his Dharma Avatar.

Li Xuancang defended the city from increasingly fierce Demonic Beast attacks, earning fame as he defeated powerful enemies and refused Yang Shiheng’s offer to join the Abyss. The Human Race remained under siege as the fighting escalated, and Li Xuancang continued battling Yang Shiheng.

• Li Xuancang killed three great Demonic Beasts, including the strange bird, and returned to the city wall while Wu Chuanfeng and the others fought on.
• After the Demonic Beasts retreated, Li Xuancang handed over the three corpses to the Night Watchers for battle merit, and his name spread throughout the city.
• Over the following days, Li Xuancang repeatedly drove back attacks as reports arrived that towns and villages had been destroyed; after half a month, he fought six Divine Repository Realm great demons and ordered the civilian reserves onto the wall.
• Yang Shiheng tried to tempt Li Xuancang with the promise of becoming stronger by joining the Abyss, but Li Xuancang refused and battered him until he retreated in frustration.

As the Abyssal Demonic Beasts intensified their attacks on Phoenix Cry County, Li Xuancang urged Zhang Ruobai to retreat before the city fell. After Wu Chuanfeng and two others left, Zhang Ruobai finally ordered the city evacuated, leaving the people to flee with the enemy close behind.

• After a night of battle, Li Xuancang warned Zhang Ruobai that Phoenix Cry County could not hold out without reinforcements, but Zhang Ruobai asked him to wait another half month.
• Following ten more days of fighting, Wu Chuanfeng and two others told Li Xuancang they were leaving because their wounds made them unable to fight.
• Li Xuancang let them go and urged Zhang Ruobai to abandon the city, but Zhang Ruobai initially worried about facing the next attack with fewer fighters.
• When Li Xuancang questioned why the prefectural reinforcements had not arrived, Zhang Ruobai realized they might never have been sent and ordered the people to evacuate.
• The city’s residents hurried out with food supplies, though Li Xuancang feared the Demonic Beasts would catch them before they could get far.

Zhang Ruobai and Li Xuancang led the Human Race in a desperate battle against the Demonic Beasts after fleeing the city. Li Xuancang fought off the Divine Repository Realm attackers while Zhang Ruobai and the survivors defended Torch, with the battle still raging as the people rallied around him.

• Zhang Ruobai shrank Torch, led the people away from the city, and raised it again as shelter after night fell.
• The Demonic Beasts attacked, and Li Xuancang and Zhang Ruobai fought to hold the Human Race's defenses.
• Yang Shiheng and twelve Divine Repository Realm Demonic Beasts surrounded Li Xuancang, who fought them despite being outnumbered.
• After hours of battle, Li Xuancang shattered a Demonic Beast's soul sword and incapacitated its user, easing the pressure on himself.
• The Demonic Beasts broke through toward Torch, and Zhang Ruobai urged the survivors to fight alongside him to keep it safe.

After enduring a devastating Demonic Beast assault, Zhang Ruobai led the survivors away from Phoenix Cry County, but reinforcements intercepted them and ordered them to return. Li Xuancang agreed to help retake the county city if Chief Escort Wu and his allies joined them.

• The Demonic Beasts withdrew at dawn after killing more than seventy thousand people, and Li Xuancang's exhausted group continued fleeing without burying the dead.
• After two days without pursuit, the survivors met Huang Tianhai and more than two thousand reinforcements on the road to Fengning Commandery City.
• Zhang Ruobai and Huang Tianhai spoke privately, then Zhang ordered everyone to turn back and retake Phoenix Cry County, provoking outrage among the civilians.
• Huang Tianhai tried to silence Li Xuancang for questioning Zhang, but Li's pressure left him trembling, and Zhang explained why he needed to reclaim the county city.
• Li Xuancang judged the reinforcements too weak to retake the city and agreed to act only if Chief Escort Wu and the others returned to help.

Li Xuancang helped the Human Race reclaim Phoenix Cry County by cleansing its demonic qi and holding off nightly attacks until reinforcements arrived, earning promotion to Silver Badge Night Watcher. After reaching the prefectural city to search for a way back to the Wild Continent, he remained unaware that Great Yan was facing a joint invasion by the Barbarians and Grassland People, with the Blood Race and Demon Race stirring as well.

• Huang Tianhai used a Demon-Cleansing Stone to draw in Phoenix Cry County’s demonic qi, and Li Xuancang poured in enough Blood Qi Force to cleanse the city without tiring.
• The Human Race returned to Phoenix Cry County and fought nightly Demonic Beast attacks, with Li Xuancang repeatedly helping stabilize the defense.
• After more than half a month of attacks, over five thousand reinforcements arrived, and the Demonic Beasts stopped attacking after another month of fighting.
• Zhang Ruobai promoted Li Xuancang to Silver Badge Night Watcher, and Li Xuancang set out for the prefectural city after confirming Phoenix Cry County was safe.
• Li Xuancang reached the prefectural city and searched the Night Watchers’ Scripture Repository for a way back to the Wild Continent.
• On the Wild Continent, the Barbarians and Grassland People invaded Great Yan, while the Blood Race and Demon Race showed signs of returning.

The Emperor ordered the Blacksteel Camp to reinforce Cloud Prefecture and then sent Liu Jin and Zhu Xuanye to Yu Prefecture to enforce his authority over the camp. As ministers and the Du Family prepared to abandon Great Yan, the imperial party was stopped at the Blacksteel Camp’s gates, and Zhu Xuanye struggled to contain his anger.

• The Emperor learned that the Blacksteel Camp no longer obeyed the Imperial Court and ordered Liu Jin to deliver an edict to Yu Prefecture, with Zhu Xuanye accompanying him.
• Great Yan’s ministers lost faith in the Emperor and began secretly moving their clans out of the realm.
• Du Tianfeng and Du Tianhao decided to retreat with the Du Family to Yu Prefecture and join forces with the Blacksteel Camp.
• Liu Jin and Zhu Xuanye arrived at the Blacksteel Camp’s barracks, where its soldiers blocked their entry and raised their weapons.
• Zhu Xuanye ordered Liu Jin to have the soldiers report their arrival, while the imperial party urged him to punish the camp.