Chapter Summaries

Lin Qingyun took Zi Yan to the market, where they encountered Great Void Young Master and You, then promised to find a way to suppress the powers threatening Great Void Young Master. Later, Lin Qingyun left the inn at night to hunt his targets, beginning with the one ranked forty-eighth.

• Lin Qingyun took Zi Yan to the market, where she collected food from vendors and he paid for it afterward.
• Great Void Young Master and You confronted Lin Qingyun, and Great Void Young Master asked about his promise to treat the powers tormenting him.
• Lin Qingyun said he would seek a temporary solution within three years, though fully undoing the damage required power beyond this world; Great Void Young Master said he would wait in a small town.
• After leaving the inn, Lin Qingyun drew on Moonlight Power and traveled hundreds of li through space.
• Lin Qingyun headed into an ancient mansion to kill the target ranked forty-eighth.

After completing the Black Ranking mission, Lin Qingyun received rewards that flooded him with overwhelming killing intent and battle spirit, which he struggled to master. He met Luo Kun, learned of an impending leadership change at the Soul Hall branch, and discovered that his Soul Power connection had been cut off before he left to investigate.

• Lin Qingyun finished killing the Black Ranking targets and received the Hundred-Man Slayer achievement, Hundred Battles Killing Intent, Hundred Battles Qi Soul, and Heaven Battling Fist Technique.
• Lin Qingyun resisted the killing intent trying to overwhelm his soul and absorbed the battle spirit, finding that the fist technique centered on the word “fight.”
• Luo Kun appeared and told Lin Qingyun that his cultivation had risen to Five-Star Dou Zong after two months of practicing the soul method Lin Qingyun had given him.
• Luo Kun said he was being transferred and that Wang Gang, a Two-Star Dou Zong, would take over the branch hall in Ghost Sorrow Ravine in three days.
• Lin Qingyun tried to use Soul Power and found that his connection had been cut off, then told Luo Kun to contact him through the Soul Seed in three days and fled into the void.

After sensing his growing Soul Power across the Inner Courtyard and surrounding mountains, Lin Qingyun used his Soul Seed connection to project his will into the Hall of Souls. He found Dark Crow imprisoned and being watched, and demanded to know why he had not made contact for two months.

• Lin Qingyun returned to the inn, where Zi Yan sensed the fresh murderous aura on him, then cheered up when he promised to take her for food.
• The next day, Lin Qingyun swept his Soul Power over the Inner Courtyard and mountains for more than seven hundred li, alarming Xiao Yan, Medicine Elder, students, and magical beasts.
• Lin Qingyun checked the mother Soul Seeds in his Tianque Acupoint and found those linked to Dark Crow, Mu Yuan, and Luo Kun intact.
• Lin Qingyun followed the Soul Seed connection to the Hall of Souls and saw living Soul Bodies chained among the palace pillars.
• Dark Crow told Lin Qingyun that Venerable Elder Qing Hai had been monitoring him and had left a scar across his Soul Body's face.
• Dark Crow asked Lin Qingyun where he had been while two months passed without contact.

Lin Qingyun confronted Dark Crow and used the Soul Seed to drain his power, growing fruits that restored his body and let him escape Qing Hai. Qing Hai was left with the ruined palace and a purple fruit that exploded as he tried to take it.

• Dark Crow accused Lin Qingyun of abandoning him while he endured Qing Hai’s torture, and Lin Qingyun questioned why the guards outside had not entered.
• Lin Qingyun examined Dark Crow’s memories through the Soul Seed and saw Qing Hai spare him after Jie Wu confirmed information in writing.
• Lin Qingyun made the Soul Seed flower and bear fruit, draining Dark Crow’s power and using two fruits to solidify his Soul Body.
• Qing Hai tore through space and attacked Lin Qingyun, but Lin Qingyun detonated a third fruit to open a crack and escape.
• Qing Hai found Dark Crow and tried to take the remaining purple fruit, which exploded and destroyed the palace, prompting Qing Hai to roar Lin Qingyun’s name.

Lin Qingyun checked Mu Yuan and Luo Kun’s loyalty after learning from his mistake with Jie Wu, then prepared to break through so he could capture Wang Gang. At Yin Mo Valley, Wang Gang arrived to take over Luo Kun’s post, and Luo Kun stalled him while Lin Qingyun listened through their Soul Seed connection.

• Lin Qingyun reviewed Mu Yuan and Luo Kun’s memories, found Luo Kun loyal, and resolved to prepare for Wang Gang.
• At Yin Mo Valley, Wang Gang arrived with the Venerable Elder’s order to take over from Luo Kun a day earlier than expected.
• Luo Kun greeted Wang Gang and delayed the handover until the next day, despite Wang Gang’s unnerving advances.
• Luo Kun contacted Lin Qingyun, who told him to endure and keep Wang Gang occupied.
• Lin Qingyun opened his eyes in his room after naturally breaking through his realm.

Lin Qingyun arrived at Luo Kun’s hall and stopped Wang Gang from killing him after Wang Gang revealed his true strength. Lin Qingyun planted a Soul Seed in Wang Gang, intending to make him a subordinate and learn how his betrayal had been exposed.

• Luo Kun tried to complete Wang Gang’s handover while enduring his unwelcome advances, then activated the Hundred Souls Purgatory Array to bind him.
• Wang Gang devoured the array’s black mist, reached Seven-Star Dou Zong, and declared that the Hall Master had ordered Luo Kun killed for betraying the Hall of Souls.
• Wang Gang attacked Luo Kun with the array’s iron chains, but Lin Qingyun broke through space and pierced Wang Gang with the Star River Ancient God Spear.
• Lin Qingyun asked Wang Gang how he had discovered Luo Kun’s betrayal, then planted a Soul Seed in him to make him a subordinate.

Lin Qingyun concealed the Soul Seeds in Wang Gang, Luo Kun, and Mu Yuan by matching their soul auras, then gave Luo Kun a scroll and renamed him An Yi. After leaving Yin Mo Valley with Zi Yan, Lin Qingyun asked why she stayed so close to him, and she said he was her only family and that she liked his aura.

• Lin Qingyun made the Soul Seed devour some of Wang Gang's Soul Power so it could match his aura, then told Luo Kun he would do the same to him.
• Luo Kun pledged his loyalty, received a scroll from Lin Qingyun, and was given the new name An Yi.
• Lin Qingyun concealed the Soul Seeds in Wang Gang, Luo Kun, and Mu Yuan by matching their soul auras.
• Lin Qingyun ordered Luo Kun to take care of the unconscious Wang Gang, then left and returned the Star River Ancient God Spear to his body.
• Zi Yan confronted Lin Qingyun outside Yin Mo Valley, and he took her hand and promised to go back with her.
• Lin Qingyun asked why Zi Yan clung to him, and she said he was her only family and that she liked his aura.

Su Qian led the elders, including Lin Qingyun, beneath the Sky Burning Qi Refining Tower to reinforce the seal around the Fallen Heart Flame. The elders gathered around the magma pit and prepared to begin the formation, while Lin Qingyun saw the flame had developed intelligence.

• Su Qian confirmed the tower had been evacuated and led the group through the guarded passage toward the seal.
• Su Qian opened the barrier above the magma chamber and asked Lin Qingyun to take the formation-eye position.
• Su Qian and the elders entered the sealed space and surrounded the deep magma pit.
• Lin Qingyun used his Black Flame-covered eyes to see the thousand-zhang serpent and the intelligent Fallen Heart Flame within the magma.
• Su Qian called for the formation to rise.

Lin Qingyun and Su Qian led the elders in forming a Space Lock to seal the Fallen Heart Flame as it evolved beneath the magma. The Flame emerged in a stronger, smaller form and charged up the shaft while the formation neared completion.

• Lin Qingyun guided the elders in folding space to build a simplified Space Lock around the magma shaft.
• The Fallen Heart Flame's heartbeat-like sounds grew stronger as its giant body shed its outer layer and evolved.
• Invisible flames appeared inside the elders, but Su Qian extinguished them with Dou Qi as violent energy stirred the magma.
• The Fallen Heart Flame burst from the magma as a powerful, nearly transparent fire python and unleashed a destructive shriek.
• Lin Qingyun told Su Qian to continue forming the seal, and Su Qian ignored the python's attack to complete the formation's final step.

Lin Qingyun stopped Fallen Heart Flame from breaking the barrier, then forced it to guide him through the magma-filled depths. They found a glowing ring surrounding the remains of the Heavenly Flame Venerable One, but Lin Qingyun had not yet entered it.

• Fallen Heart Flame used its Source Heart Flame to damage the formation, and Lin Qingyun left the barrier to absorb the flame seed.
• Lin Qingyun confronted Fallen Heart Flame in the magma and made it choose between guiding him or being devoured.
• Fallen Heart Flame led Lin Qingyun deep into the Sea of Lava while Su Qian and the others waited for them to return.
• Lin Qingyun found a glowing ring containing a long-dead skeleton and identified it as the Heavenly Flame Venerable One.

Lin Qingyun entered the magma world, fought off a magma-dwelling Magical Beast, and passed through a halo to reach the skeleton of the Heavenly Flame Venerable One. He summoned the Venerable One’s Remnant Soul, which appeared and demanded to know who he was.

• The Flame Python fled into the magma, and Lin Qingyun chose not to pursue it.
• A red-scaled Magical Beast attacked Lin Qingyun, but he destroyed it with the Chaotic Fire and absorbed the energy from its magic core.
• Lin Qingyun sensed more than a hundred Magical Beasts gathering, then entered the halo before they arrived; the creatures waited near the vanished halo.
• Inside the halo, Lin Qingyun approached the Heavenly Flame Venerable One’s skeleton and told its Remnant Soul that he had come to discuss something.
• The Heavenly Flame Venerable One’s Remnant Soul appeared, twisted the surrounding space toward Lin Qingyun, and asked who he was.

Lin Qingyun offered Heavenly Flame Venerable One a way to revive in exchange for serving Evergreen Gate. After seeing Lin Qingyun’s Chaotic Flame and weighing revival against freedom, Heavenly Flame Venerable One accepted the deal.

• Lin Qingyun identified Heavenly Flame Venerable One as Yao Tianhuo and explained his history with the Fallen Heart Flame and Five Rounds of Departing Fire Method.
• Lin Qingyun revealed that he could revive Heavenly Flame Venerable One using either a premium method requiring three Heavenly Flames or a lesser method requiring one.
• Heavenly Flame Venerable One chose the premium method, and Lin Qingyun demonstrated his Chaotic Flame, which combined powers of destruction and creation.
• Lin Qingyun asked Heavenly Flame Venerable One to serve Evergreen Gate after his revival, and Heavenly Flame Venerable One agreed.

Lin Qingyun escaped the magma with Heavenly Flame Venerable One and helped the elders seal the Fallen Heart Flame in the Sky Burning Qi Refining Tower. After Xiao Yan asked for a way to break the seal, Lin Qingyun gave him a Formation Disk, then found another visitor waiting in his courtyard.

• Heavenly Flame Venerable One hid the magma’s fluctuations while Lin Qingyun escaped, then entrusted his soul’s recovery to Lin Qingyun.
• Lin Qingyun emerged from the magma and helped the elders close the formation around the Fallen Heart Flame.
• Xiao Yan told Lin Qingyun he wanted the Fallen Heart Flame, and Lin Qingyun gave him a Formation Disk to break the sealing barrier.
• A distressed man rushed into Lin Qingyun’s courtyard and cried that they were squeezing him dry.

Lin Qingyun refined the Tianxuan Jade Marrow Pill while Lu Mu studied his technique and attempted to make a Windwalk Pill. After the pill unlocked a new page in the Taiyi Profound Pill Record, Xuan Lao wondered whether its hidden inheritance would finally be found.

• Lin Qingyun released Lu Mu from his restraints and began refining the rare Tianxuan Jade Marrow Pill.
• Lu Mu watched Lin Qingyun’s pill refining, then started making a Windwalk Pill to try to break through to Rank 4.
• Lin Qingyun fused the ingredients and condensed two pills, whose light and heavenly pressure drew the attention of the Inner Courtyard.
• Lin Qingyun stored one pill and put the other into the ninth page of the Taiyi Profound Pill Record, unlocking it and receiving a ball of golden light.
• Xuan Lao appeared from the record and hoped the newly unlocked page would reveal the hidden inheritance that could free him.

Lin Qingyun passed the Taiyi Profound Pill Record’s trials by saying he refined pills because he wanted to and that his Dao of alchemy was to follow his heart. The gate brought him to a real, hidden world, where he found an old man alchemizing and wondered where he had seen him before.

• Lin Qingyun overcame the starry realm’s attacks and approached the mysterious gate, answering that he refined pills because he wanted to.
• When asked about his persistence, Lin Qingyun rejected the idea that he was persistent and continued toward the gate.
• Lin Qingyun said his Dao of alchemy was to follow his heart, then touched the gate and was pulled through it.
• Lin Qingyun awoke in a real hidden paradise filled with rivers, great medicines, and a mountain village, then climbed into the clouds.
• Lin Qingyun found an old man refining pills with Rootless Fire and asked whether they had met before.

Lin Qingyun met Dan Gu Qingtian, an alchemist separated from him by spacetime, and received an inheritance after choosing practical pill-refining experience over a collection of formulas. Dan Gu Qingtian revealed that Lin Qingyun remained a chess piece and would need to leave his universe to learn more, leaving Lin Qingyun to contemplate the vastness beyond his world.

• Lin Qingyun watched Dan Gu Qingtian refine a pill, and Dan Gu Qingtian explained that it failed because it had form but no true spirit.
• Lin Qingyun defended his belief that he should take himself as the great furnace and refine the heavens, while Dan Gu Qingtian offered him a choice between pill-refining experience and pill formulas.
• Lin Qingyun chose the practical pill-refining experience, and Dan Gu Qingtian sent the inheritance into his soul.
• Lin Qingyun asked about people from his realm and learned that he might discover the truth after leaving his universe.
• Dan Gu Qingtian identified himself as Dan Gu Qingtian, the Azure Heaven Dominator from the Great Alchemic Universe, and advised Lin Qingyun to leap out of his universe if he wanted to escape the chessboard.
• Lin Qingyun returned to the familiar space and reflected on being a chess piece in a vast world.

Lin Qingyun watched Xuan Lao leave after the Taiyi Profound Pill Record’s spirit was no longer needed, then checked the newly revealed Phoenix Feather Heavenly Pill recipe. He saw Lu Mu complete a Rank 4 pill and later took Wu Hao from Jia Nan Academy’s Fighting Arena, planning to send him to the Black-Corner Region.

• Xuan Lao thanked Lin Qingyun, said he hoped he would leap off the chessboard and become the one holding the pieces, then departed through a vortex.
• Lin Qingyun discovered the Taiyi Profound Pill Record had revealed the Grade 7 Phoenix Feather Heavenly Pill and noted that the Sky Demon Phoenix bones from the Black Emperor Sect could supply its main ingredient.
• Lin Qingyun watched Lu Mu successfully refine a Rank 4 pill, and Lu Mu thanked him and called him Master.
• Lin Qingyun ordered Lu Mu to refine ten Rank 4 pills before he returned, then left him behind.
• Lin Qingyun spotted Wu Hao’s rapid progress at Jia Nan Academy’s Fighting Arena and took him away, intending to test him in the Black-Corner Region.

Wu Hao nearly injured himself forcing a breakthrough, so Lin Qingyun and Yao Tianhuo stabilized him and sent him to vent his remaining strength in battle. Wu Hao returned with the gravely wounded Xiao Li, whom Lin Qingyun recognized and placed in a pool of water to try to save.

• Wu Hao attempted a breakthrough, but Lin Qingyun and Yao Tianhuo suppressed the chaotic energy and calmed his body before he could burn himself alive.
• Lin Qingyun sealed some of Wu Hao's meridians and told him to adjust for three days and vent his remaining strength through battle.
• Wu Hao returned with an unconscious man who had asked to go to Jia Nan Academy.
• Lin Qingyun recognized the wounded man as his Second Brother Xiao Li, and Yao Tianhuo formed a water-filled pit for him.
• Lin Qingyun placed Xiao Li in the pit and urged him to hold on.

Xiao Li recovered from his injuries and told Xiao Yan and Lin Qingyun that the Hall of Souls had attacked the Xiao Family, leaving Xiao Yan’s father and eldest brother missing. Xiao Yan vowed to rescue them and avenge the family while Xiao Li chose not to return to Jia Nan Academy.

• Xiao Li woke in a medicinal pool and learned that Xiao Yan’s teacher had helped save him.
• Xiao Yan and Lin Qingyun arrived, and Xiao Li revealed that the Xiao Family had been attacked during the Full Moon Festival.
• Xiao Li described ghostly figures using iron chains to seize clansmen and search them for something, leading Xiao Yan and Lin Qingyun to identify the attackers as the Hall of Souls.
• Xiao Li said the Fourth Elder was safe, but Xiao Yan’s father and eldest brother had disappeared after luring the attackers toward the rear mountain.
• Xiao Li revealed that the First Elder had warned Xiao Yan to protect the Family Jade from outsiders.
• Xiao Yan vowed to rescue his father and eldest brother and avenge the Xiao Family, while Xiao Li decided to stay away from Jia Nan Academy so Xiao Yu and the others would not worry.

Xiao Yan asked Lin Qingyun to help him seize the Fallen Heart Flame so he could gain power quickly, but Lin Qingyun refused to act openly. After Xiao Yan left, Lin Qingyun secretly arranged for Yao Tianhuo to rescue him if his attempt failed, then reunited with Zi Yan after her breakthrough.

• Xiao Yan told Lin Qingyun that he planned to take the Fallen Heart Flame and asked him to draw away the elders guarding the formation.
• Lin Qingyun warned Xiao Yan that facing the Fallen Heart Flame in the magma would likely kill him, but Xiao Yan insisted he had his own method and left.
• Medicine Elder and Lin Qingyun discussed Xiao Yan's desperation and the pressure the Hall of Souls had placed on him.
• Lin Qingyun asked Yao Tianhuo to take Xiao Yan away and conceal his involvement if Xiao Yan failed.
• Lin Qingyun accidentally pulled Zi Yan down from above, then gave her a pill as compensation.
• Zi Yan told Lin Qingyun that she had broken through, but insisted the real problem was that she had gone without food during it.