Chapter Summaries

Ye Yu discovered clues linking the Canglan Ruins to the War of a Hundred Dynasties, then narrowly escaped a collapsing cave as Cang Beasts appeared in the area. After severing one beast’s wing, he saw gray aura rise from its body.

• Ye Yu recognized the ruins’ architecture and Heaven-Reaching Stone Tablet from the War of a Hundred Dynasties, and wondered whether the ancient battlefields were connected.
• An azure lotus appeared before Ye Yu as a girl, rejected him because his scent was wrong, and vanished before he could capture it.
• Zi Yun attacked Ye Yu to make him dodge a descending strike, which collapsed the cave abode; a roar and rising roots revealed that Cang Beasts had appeared nearby.
• Ye Yu saw over a dozen Cang Beasts circling overhead and realized they pursued people only after spotting them, then questioned whether Zi Yun had been protecting him.
• Ye Yu’s first sword strike failed to injure a Cang Beast, but his next slash severed its wing; roots briefly pierced the fallen beast before releasing it.
• As Ye Yu turned to leave, gray aura rose from the dead Cang Beast, leaving him frozen.

Ye Yu learned that the gray aura inside Cang Beasts was Absolute Qi, a potent cultivation aid that could strip away emotions and desires, and he discussed the Path of Heartlessness with Zi Yun. After carefully absorbing some Absolute Qi through his spiritual root, he left the cave with increased cultivation, while the four great families reached the ruined city he had left behind.

• Ye Yu stored gray aura from a Cang Beast in the Void Sky Cauldron and found Zi Yun absorbing Absolute Qi in a cave.
• Zi Yun explained that Absolute Qi strengthened cultivation but could erase emotions and turn people into instinct-driven Cang Beasts.
• Zi Yun questioned whether the Path of Heartlessness could take her farther, and Ye Yu urged her to decide whether she sought power or escape.
• Zi Yun warned Ye Yu not to absorb too much Absolute Qi and said she suspected the Canglan Ruins were a trap.
• Ye Yu fed Absolute Qi to his spiritual root and then the Void Sky Cauldron, gained cultivation, and pursued a nearby Cang Beast.
• The four great families arrived at the ruined city, and Wang Lie looked at the scene with a dark expression.

Wang Lie's group split up to search the Cambang Ruins, while Lin Qingyue revealed she had reached the Nascent Soul stage. Ye Yu discovered the unexplored Divine Sect ruins and entered its Treasure Pavilion, where a mysterious figure appeared to him.

• Wang Lie and the others agreed to search separately, and Lin Qingyue led Qiao Linglong deeper into the ruins.
• Lin Qingyue killed a late Void Refining Cang Beast and confirmed to Qiao Linglong that she had reached Nascent Soul.
• Ye Yu grew stronger after killing his third Cang Beast and entered the unexplored Divine Sect ruins in search of its legacy.
• Ye Yu followed five Overlord Sect disciples to the Divine Sect's Treasure Pavilion as they opened its doors and planned to use stragglers to scout inside.
• An aged voice from the pavilion called for someone fated to meet it, and Ye Yu knocked out the two guarding disciples before entering.
• Ye Yu saw a young figure smiling amid the Treasure Pavilion's brilliant spiritual radiance.

Ye Yu met Yang Zhen, the Divine Sect’s founder, who recognized the Cauldron Spirit and called Ye Yu a Chess Piece before disappearing. Outside the Treasure Pavilion, Ye Yu faced the Overlord Sect disciples and killed two of them, leaving the remaining three attacking him.

• Yang Zhen revealed that he was the Divine Sect’s Sect Master and criticized humans for judging everything by their limited horizons.
• Yang Zhen recognized the Cauldron Spirit, who took a Ring of Holding from him and returned to Ye Yu’s dantian.
• Yang Zhen called Ye Yu a Chess Piece and promised to help him if they met again while he was still alive, then vanished.
• The Cauldron Spirit explained that the Heaven’s Mandate Holder and the Defier of Fate both needed comparable luck in the game between opposing sides.
• Ye Yu encountered Wan Zirou and Overlord Sect disciples outside the Treasure Pavilion, where they demanded the item and mocked him.
• Ye Yu killed two approaching Overlord Sect disciples, and the remaining three attacked him with beams of spiritual light.

Ye Yu learned that the Void Sky Cauldron and others had steered him into the role of a Defier of Fate, while his mother, Xu Yunxi, had arranged for him to take the path meant for her. Xu Yunxi was left behind with the woman from the altar, hoping Ye Yu could survive and break the deadlock.

• The Void Sky Cauldron shielded Ye Yu from the Overlord Sect disciples, who tried to seize it, while Ye Yu killed Wan Zirou and the Cauldron Spirit swallowed the three disciples.
• Ye Yu confronted the Cauldron Spirit about whether his mother was involved, then concluded that others had given him this life and wanted him to become a Defier of Fate before leaving.
• The Cauldron Spirit left Yang Zhen's Ring of Holding in the Divine Sect ruins, where Xu Yunxi found it and mourned as she watched Ye Yu depart.
• The woman from the altar appeared and explained that Ye Yu was following Xu Yunxi's intended destiny, which Xu Yunxi had diverted to keep her son alive.
• Xu Yunxi begged to see Ye Yu, but the woman refused to take further risks; she recalled that Xu Yunxi's love had persuaded the Void Sky Cauldron to cooperate and change Ye Yu's fate.
• The woman told Xu Yunxi that Ye Yu might still break the deadlock, despite being an ordinary person.

Ye Yu headed for the Canglan Ruins’ exit but stopped when Lin Qingyue and Ye Chengjun fought over a green lotus. He seized the lotus and challenged Ye Chengjun, unleashing the Curse Power in his Flame Scar Imprint.

• A woman summoned black chains that dragged Xu Yunxi and herself underground.
• Ye Yu questioned the Cauldron Spirit, then set off toward the Canglan Ruins’ exit after absorbing Breath of Hell and Absolute Qi for half a month.
• Ye Yu hid in a rocky mountain when two fighters approached, then recognized Lin Qingyue and Ye Chengjun battling overhead.
• Lin Qingyue summoned nine ice phoenixes, but Ye Chengjun’s imperial spiritual power shattered them and forced her to offer him the green lotus.
• Ye Yu intercepted the lotus, stored it in his Ring of Holding, unleashed his Curse Power, and charged at Ye Chengjun.

Ye Yu tested Ye Chengjun’s strength with Curse Power, then contaminated the green lotus before fleeing. Lin Qingyue chased after him but suffered a sudden eruption of Profound Ice Cold Qi and froze.

• Ye Yu clashed with Ye Chengjun using Curse Power, and the two exchanged hundreds of blows before Ye Yu’s power began to fade.
• Ye Yu shattered the Origin Returning Cover and used Curse Power to contaminate the green lotus, briefly restoring his spiritual sense and divine sense.
• Ye Yu threw the lotus toward Ye Chengjun and escaped, blocking Ye Chengjun’s attempt to track him with a Haotian Mirror fragment.
• Lin Qingyue pursued Ye Yu, but her Heavenly Profound Ice Spirit Body erupted with Profound Ice Cold Qi and froze her in place.

Ye Yu saved Lin Qingyue from the Profound Ice Cold Qi, used its extracted energy and the Earth Fire Qi from her pill to break through to late Void Refining, and reached the finish. When a spatial rift released Absolute Qi that rapidly strengthened anyone who absorbed it, Ye Yu noticed the major factions watching with sneers as the eager cultivators began to suffer.

• Ye Yu retrieved Lin Qingyue's pills, used the Earth Fire Qi in one to resolve her Profound Ice Cold Qi, and told her they were even before leaving.
• Ye Yu extracted Earth Fire Qi from the pill and combined it with the Profound Ice Cold Qi to break through to late Void Refining, enduring a Body Tribulation.
• Ye Yu reached the finish, where Zou Yitian embraced him in relief, and a spatial rift opened to release Absolute Qi.
• A cultivator absorbed Absolute Qi and surged toward a Void Refinement breakthrough, prompting many others, including Xie Liuying, to rush forward.
• Ye Yu noticed the major factions watching the cultivators with faint sneers, and a shrill, miserable howl rang out.

Ye Yu advanced toward the spatial rift despite Lin Qingyue’s warning, while cultivators who absorbed Absolute Qi transformed into Cang Beasts and were swallowed with the others by the rift. The major factions then exploited the opened passage to hunt Rogue Cultivators, and an elderly man revealed that an illusion formation and altered memories concealed what was happening.

• Ye Yu ignored Lin Qingyue’s attempt to stop him and headed toward the spatial rift, while Zou Yitian was driven back by a spell battle.
• Cultivators who absorbed Absolute Qi transformed into Cang Beasts, and a spiritual net drew everyone near the rift inside as the Absolute Qi vanished and an exit opened.
• Zou Yitian blamed Lin Qingyue for what happened, but she said a Lin Family member had also been dragged in and that the factions needed the passage to leave the Canglan Ruins.
• Wang Lie killed a Rogue Cultivator transformed with Absolute Qi, and Chang Yu offered recruited Rogue Cultivators three million spirit stones for each Cang Beast head.
• After crossing the rift, Zou Yitian and Gao Sheng forgot what had happened inside and left, while an elderly man and his disciple discussed the illusion formation and altered memories hiding the factions’ actions.

Gu Fan reflected on how powerful factions concealed the deaths of Rogue Cultivators in the Canglan Ruins while Ye Yu was drawn into a mysterious mountain filled with Cang Beasts. Inside its palace, Ye Yu met a man who seemed connected to Zi Yun and recognized him as Luo Ying’s master, the Palace Lord of Azure Heaven, but the man denied knowing either name.

• Gu Fan sent his young disciple away and reflected on how the powerful used Rogue Cultivators as disposable sacrifices in the Canglan Ruins.
• Ye Yu found himself before a mountain shrouded in Absolute Qi, where transformed people flew toward a palace and vanished among thousands of Cang Beasts.
• Xie Liuying blamed Ye Yu as she transformed into a Cang Beast, then flew into the mountain.
• A powerful man summoned Ye Yu to the palace and identified him as someone who resembled a defier of fate; Ye Yu insisted that he was one.
• Ye Yu saw a fragment of the Haotian Mirror at the man’s waist, and the man asked whether he looked like a man or an immortal.
• Ye Yu recognized the man as Luo Ying’s master, the Palace Lord of Azure Heaven, but the man became confused and denied knowing Luo Ying or Azure Heaven Palace.

Ye Yu awakened a strange power of Karma that let him summon the Void Sky Cauldron and declare himself part of the conflict between Heaven's Mandate Holders and Defiers of Fate. Elsewhere, Po Jun recognized Ye Yu as a variable, while Xu Yunxi and Tan Lang challenged Po Jun's plans.

• The Palace Lord of Azure Heaven seized Ye Yu, then flung him away after sensing an unusual entanglement between their spiritual powers.
• Ye Yu's power of Karma surged and merged into a black-and-white pattern, which the Cauldron Spirit and the Palace Lord associated with Destiny and the Imperial Path.
• Ye Yu summoned the Void Sky Cauldron without the Cauldron Spirit's urging and declared that he had joined the game.
• Po Jun, Tan Lang, and Seven Kills sensed an anomaly, and Seven Kills recognized that Ye Yu had surprised him.
• Po Jun called Ye Yu a variable, but Xu Yunxi defended her choice to stay with him, and Tan Lang arrived to declare that desire would make him the winner.
• Ye Yu put away the Void Sky Cauldron and faced the now-calm Palace Lord of Azure Heaven.

Ye Yu received the Haotian Mirror fragment from the Palace Lord of Azure Heaven after challenging his belief that severing emotions was the path to immortality. He spent a month absorbing Absolute Qi with the Void Sky Cauldron, then emerged at the Nascent Soul level as the Cauldron Spirit remained outside the cauldron.

• The Palace Lord of Azure Heaven gave Ye Yu the Haotian Mirror fragment and asked him to report what it took to succeed.
• Ye Yu suggested that the Palace Lord of Azure Heaven could visit Luo Ying, exposing his lingering attachment and his mistaken pursuit of the Way of Severing Emotions.
• Ye Yu explained that the Way of Ruthlessness meant observing all things without attachment, and the Palace Lord of Azure Heaven agreed to reconsider his path.
• Ye Yu entered the Absolute Qi with the Void Sky Cauldron, absorbing it while the Cauldron Spirit drove off attacking Cang Beasts.
• After a month, Ye Yu emerged with his cultivation advanced from late Void Refining to Nascent Soul, reclaimed the cauldron's body, and asked why the Cauldron Spirit would not return to it.

Ye Yu left the Azure Heaven palace and returned from the Canglan Ruins to Central Province, where he suppressed an illusion formation that tried to alter his memories. He reunited with Zou Yitian, counted the Cang Beast heads he could trade, and waited as the other expedition members emerged.

• The Palace Lord of Azure Heaven opened a spatial rift for Ye Yu, advised him to find a cultivation art better suited to his power of Karma, and watched him cautiously test the passage with a puppet.
• Ye Yu returned through the Canglan Ruins to Central Province and suppressed a seven-colored force that tried to alter his sea of consciousness and divine soul.
• After Ye Yu left, a youth told Gu Fan he suspected Ye Yu had escaped the illusion formation, but Gu Fan insisted no one could evade it and ordered him to keep people with their memories from leaving.
• Ye Yu entered the town where the cultivators were waiting and realized Zou Yitian's memories had been altered by the exit's illusion formation.
• Ye Yu counted more than two hundred Cang Beast heads inside the Void Sky Cauldron and decided not to draw attention by flaunting them.
• The next day, as the spatial rift grew unstable and cultivators emerged, Qiao Linglong told Lin Qingyue that many people had died in the ruins.

After the Canglan Ruins closed, Ye Yu arranged an auction to sell the Cang Beast heads gathered by Rogue Cultivators and small factions. The auction began with 267 heads, and the Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivator overseeing it suddenly knelt before the assembled factions.

• The Canglan Ruins closed, and Ye Yu returned to the inn after confirming that Ye Chengjun had refined the blue lotus and expelled the Curse Power.
• Ye Yu asked Zou Yitian to help gather Cang Beast heads for an auction, and Zou Yitian recruited more than thirty surviving Rogue Cultivators and people from small factions.
• News of the auction spread, and the major factions dismissed it until they learned that 267 Cang Beast heads were being offered.
• The participants entrusted their Rings of Holding to a Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivator, who brought the heads out while factions including the Xu Lineage watched closely.
• Ye Yu watched the auction through a puppet as the trembling cultivator onstage suddenly knelt before everyone.

A Seven Suspended Sect cultivator revealed that its Nine Nether Blood Spring was nearing eruption, and Wang Lie agreed to deal with it. Ye Yu saw the spring as a chance to advance, while the auction ended with the Xu Family claiming the Cang Beast heads and Zheng Xiang revealing his connection to the Dark Hall.

• A Seven Suspended Sect cultivator disclosed that the sect's Nine Nether Blood Spring was close to erupting, and Wang Lie agreed that the Wang Family would handle it.
• Ye Yu learned about the spring and considered its Nine Nether Blood Qi an opportunity to reach the Body Integration Realm.
• The Xu Family won more than two hundred Cang Beast heads after bidding one billion spirit stones and dozens of cubic measures of Taiqing Profound Qi.
• After the resources were distributed, Zheng Xiang killed the Seven Suspended Sect cultivator and gave Zou Yitian a movement technique for Ye Yu.
• Zou Yitian told Ye Yu that Zheng Xiang worked for the Dark Hall, which Master had founded, and Ye Yu asked why they needed to find someone from the Xu Family.

Ye Yu was confronted by Xu Xinyuan, who mistook him for someone connected to an attack on the Xu family. After Feng Qiwen revealed that Xu Yunxi might be in the Qingyunlei Three States, Xu Xinyuan took both men to the Xu family, while the Cauldron Spirit secretly sent a puppet into the Void Sky Cauldron.

• Zou Yitian told Ye Yu that Hidden Sword Peak would protect him, but Ye Yu left the city to head for the Nine Nether Blood Spring.
• Xu Xinyuan stopped Ye Yu and attacked him, accusing him of injuring Xu family members and demanding to know who had sent him.
• Feng Qiwen arrived and told Xu Xinyuan that he had failed to find Xu Yunxi, then recounted what had happened in Leizhou and implicated the Ye family.
• Ye Yu realized Feng Qiwen’s memory loss had not been caused by the Void Sky Cauldron and agreed to go with Xu Xinyuan to learn more about his mother.
• Xu Xinyuan restrained Ye Yu and took him and Feng Qiwen toward the Xu family, while a hidden puppet entered the Void Sky Cauldron and the Cauldron Spirit restored it.

Xu Xinyuan brought Ye Yu to the Xu family, where the clan leader, Xu Yunting, failed to recognize him as Xu Yunxi’s son. Xu Yunting asked Ye Yu to pose as Yunxi’s child at the Great Family Competition, and Ye Yu agreed on the condition that he not stay in the Xu family; his pointed challenge about Yunxi’s fate left Xu Yunting cold with anger.

• The Cauldron Spirit admitted it had arranged for Ye Yu to go to the Xu family, and Ye Yu and the spirit agreed to keep his connection to his mother from the family.
• Xu Xinyuan brought Ye Yu and Feng Qiwen to the Xu family, where Xu Ce mocked him for resembling Xu Yunxi.
• Feng Qiwen told Xu Yunting how Xu Yunxi had been harmed, and Xu Xinyuan demanded that the Xu family retaliate against the Ye family.
• Xu Yunting tested Ye Yu’s blood but failed to identify him as Yunxi’s child, while Feng Qiwen recognized that Ye Yu was her son.
• Xu Yunting asked Ye Yu to appear as Yunxi’s child at the Great Family Competition in two years, and Ye Yu agreed on the condition that he not live in the Xu family.
• When Ye Yu questioned how the Xu family could protect him after failing to protect Yunxi, Xu Yunting’s expression turned cold.

Ye Yu confronted Xu Yunting over the Xu Lineage’s failure to find Xu Yunxi, then stayed in the Lineage while refining Taiqing Profound Qi and wondering whether his mother was using him. After two days, Feng Qiwen returned, and a streak of spiritual light suddenly shot toward Ye Yu’s dantian.

• Ye Yu rebuked Xu Yunting, who agreed to let him leave with someone from the Xu Lineage accompanying him for safety.
• After Ye Yu and Feng Qiwen left, Xu Yunting tearfully recalled trying to find Murong Chen and said he had been powerless against Heaven's Punishment.
• Feng Qiwen explained that Xu Yunting had been forced to choose between being a father and being the Patriarch, and Ye Yu silently understood the conflict.
• Alone in the courtyard, Ye Yu remembered Xu Yunxi’s love of peach blossoms, wondered if she was using him, and began refining Taiqing Profound Qi while the Cauldron Spirit kept her plan secret.
• Two days later, Feng Qiwen came to fetch Ye Yu, and a streak of spiritual light shot toward Ye Yu’s dantian as he opened the gate.

Ye Yu learned that the Xu family planned to present him as Xu Yunxi’s child at the Great Family Competition, despite confirming he had no Xu family bloodline. Xu Yunting sent Ye Yu away with Feng Qiwen for two years, while Xu Ce warned him not to claim what was not his.

• An unknown cultivator’s spiritual light struck Ye Yu’s Haotian Mirror fragments, but Ye Yu repelled it and stopped Feng Qiwen from pursuing the attacker.
• Feng Qiwen told Ye Yu that Xu Yunting wanted to see him, and Ye Yu joined the Xu family’s Meridian Heads at Xu Yunting’s cave abode.
• Xu Yunting confirmed Ye Yu was not Xu Yunxi’s child, but seven Meridian Heads agreed that Ye Yu should impersonate her child at the Great Family Competition.
• A Ninth Elder examined Ye Yu, and Xu Yunting ordered him to leave with Feng Qiwen and receive no aid from the Xu family for two years, except limited help if needed.
• Xu Ce confronted Ye Yu outside the cave abode and warned him not to covet a place in the Xu family.

Ye Yu left the Xu Family and traveled toward the Seven Suspended Sect, where the Nine Nether Blood Spring was about to erupt and the Wang Family had yet to make its move. He diverted the Mahayana elder’s tracking aura onto his spirit root and puppet, then entered the sect in disguise as its remaining cultivators debated fleeing.

• Xu Ce escorted Ye Yu and Feng Qiwen out of the Xu Family’s small world, and Ye Yu made clear that Feng Qiwen no longer held the place of a servant in his eyes.
• Ye Yu used Murong Xue to learn that the Wang Family had not yet gone to the Seven Suspended Sect, while Feng Qiwen waited for Ye Yu to talk but found him cultivating instead.
• Ye Yu and Feng Qiwen traveled by Teleportation Array to a town near the Seven Suspended Sect, where Ye Yu transferred the elder’s tracking aura to his spirit root and left it with a puppet.
• Feng Qiwen stayed behind with the puppet, while Ye Yu concealed his aura with the Void Sky Cauldron and entered the Seven Suspended Sect.
• Ye Yu found that many cultivators had fled and heard those remaining urge the Great Elder to abandon hope that Si Mo would come and leave at once.