Recaps

Zhang Yuan tried to escape the [Underworld-Penetrating Soul-Severing Palace] with Xie Jingxin, but the [Heavy Spring Spirit-Commanding Demon King] changed the spatial rift's destination and attacked her. Zhang Yuan carried the injured Xie Jingxin through the rift, and they escaped the palace.

• The [Heavy Spring Spirit-Commanding Demon King] summoned a giant hand from the conceptual images of thousands of rivers and redirected the spatial rift to the Crimson Firmament Roselight Realm.
• Zhang Yuan realized the rift would not take them to the other Six Heavens Demon King Palaces as Xie Jingxin faced the Demon King's attack.
• Xie Jingxin struck the giant hand with [Gazing into the Netherworld], breaking her sword and worsening her injuries.
• Zhang Yuan seized Xie Jingxin and carried her toward the rift while she promised to wash his bloodstained clothes.
• Zhang Yuan carried Xie Jingxin through the spatial rift, and they left the [Underworld-Penetrating Soul-Severing Palace].

Zhang Yuan and Xie Jingxin arrived in the Prison-Warden Soul-Pitying Palace, where both were badly injured and needed a way to recover. A dangerous old acquaintance, Liu Yihong, confronted Zhang Yuan, leaving him wary of her motives.

• Zhang Yuan realized the spatial rift had brought him and Xie Jingxin to the Prison-Warden Soul-Pitying Palace rather than back to the Crimson Firmament Roselight Realm.
• Zhang Yuan carried the gravely injured Xie Jingxin and considered searching the barren landscape for medicinal herbs.
• Liu Yihong appeared behind Zhang Yuan and laid a great saber against his neck while teasing him about their reunion.
• Zhang Yuan leaped away with Xie Jingxin and recognized Liu Yihong, a cultivator from the Ya Kingdom frontier who had become a Foundation Establishment Celestial.
• Zhang Yuan questioned why Liu Yihong was there and remained wary of her bloodlust and possible connection to True Lord Ceased Light Punishes Thoughts.

Zhang Yuan and Xie Jingxin met Liu Yihong in the [Prison-Warden Soul-Pitying Palace], where she asked Zhang Yuan to help rescue a lost soul from the Thirty-Six Hells. He agreed, suspecting Old Ghost Jiguang had arranged their meeting, and followed her toward the center of the world.

• Liu Yihong questioned Zhang Yuan about the disturbance in the [Underworld-Penetrating Soul-Severing Palace], but he denied causing trouble and claimed to be a Wandering Daoist from the Boundless Southern Heaven Realm.
• Liu Yihong offered to keep Zhang Yuan's identity secret if he helped her rescue a lost soul from the Thirty-Six Hells.
• Zhang Yuan agreed to accompany Liu Yihong and followed her with Xie Jingxin through the stone-spike mountain forest.
• A tiger-headed, sheep-bodied demon attacked them, and Liu Yihong killed it with one slash of her great saber.
• Zhang Yuan studied the strange conceptual image left by Liu Yihong's slash and wondered whether it came from her Pre-Heaven Divine Ability.

Liu Yihong led Zhang Yuan and Xie Jingxin through the [Prison-Warden Soul-Pitying Palace], saying they would meet a ghost deity before heading to the Thirty-Six Hells. They hid when [Black Miasma] returned with a hundred thousand prison ghosts, and Liu Yihong asked Zhang Yuan how he had provoked the powerful ghost deity.

• Liu Yihong slew the demons in their path as she guided Zhang Yuan and Xie Jingxin toward the palace’s central region.
• Zhang Yuan stopped to ask where they were going, and Liu Yihong said she would take them to meet a ghost deity before proceeding to the Thirty-Six Hells.
• The three climbed more than three hundred thousand steps and reached the suspended palaces above the magma-filled Thirty-Six Hells.
• Liu Yihong explained that the [Calamity-Gathering Spirit-Pitying Demon King] punished only souls who broke the Nether Bureau’s laws or bore grave sins.
• Zhang Yuan sensed [Black Miasma] returning with a hundred thousand prison ghosts, so he concealed himself and Xie Jingxin until the ghost deity passed.
• After [Black Miasma] left, Liu Yihong asked Zhang Yuan how he had provoked him, and Zhang Yuan confirmed that they had a grudge.

Zhang Yuan, Liu Yihong, and Xie Jingxin entered a palace and confronted its Bureau Chief, Zhu Shan, while Liu Yihong searched for information about Ao Ying and Ao Zhi. After Liu Yihong defeated Zhu Shan, Xie Jingxin led Zhang Yuan to the pool and told him to strip her.

• Zhang Yuan and Liu Yihong flew to a palace, where they met Zhu Shan, the weak Bureau Chief of the Pleasure Bureau.
• Zhu Shan offered to help Liu Yihong find someone if she gave Zhang Yuan to them as a male concubine.
• Liu Yihong asked which levels of the Thirty-Six Hells held Ao Ying and Ao Zhi, then killed Zhu Shan with one strike.
• Liu Yihong explained that Zhu Shan would not revive because they were no longer a Ghost Deity of the Prison-Warden Soul-Pitying Palace.
• Liu Yihong went to search the rear of the palace, and Xie Jingxin asked Zhang Yuan to set her down.
• Xie Jingxin dragged Zhang Yuan to the pool and told him to take off all her clothes.

After Xie Jingxin recovered enough to walk, Zhang Yuan checked her condition and found her qi-blood was still severely depleted. He found lotus roots in the palace pool that could help her recover, but lamented that the Ghost Deities had moved the palace’s treasures away.

• Xie Jingxin insisted Zhang Yuan strip so she could wash his clothes, but he used his robe’s Dust-Cleansing ability to clean it instead.
• Xie Jingxin showed Zhang Yuan how weak her qi-blood remained, and he considered finding treasures to aid her recovery.
• Xie Jingxin asked Zhang Yuan to stop calling her Sword Saint, and he began addressing her as Miss Xie.
• Zhang Yuan pulled spring-rhythm lotus roots from the pool and explained that he would make soup with them.
• Zhang Yuan found the lotus roots unimpressive and complained that the Ghost Deities had moved the [Prison-Warden Soul-Pitying Palace]’s treasures away.

Zhang Yuan examined an ancient roster with Liu Yihong and learned she was searching for Ao Ying and Ao Zhi, whose whereabouts were crucial to her. He pretended not to know Ao Ying and asked whether she was certain the two names appeared on the list.

• Zhang Yuan decided to leave the Palace and recover, but Liu Yihong stopped him by offering to show him the booklet she had found.
• Liu Yihong opened the ancient booklet, which listed names in scripts from different eras, and Chi Guanguan identified several entries as figures from the Primordial Era.
• After Liu Yihong failed to find the names she wanted, Zhang Yuan tried to leave, and she threatened to kill him if he did.
• Liu Yihong explained that the booklet listed the most dangerous offenders from every level of the Thirty-Six Hells and said she was searching for Ao Ying and Ao Zhi.
• Liu Yihong offered Zhang Yuan a favor if he could find the pair, and he feigned ignorance before asking whether she was certain they were on the list.

Zhang Yuan and Liu Yihong discussed how to identify Ao Ying or Ao Zhi in the booklet, but Liu Yihong refused to let him leave. Zhang Yuan closed the Palace gates and cooked lotus root and snake meat soup with Xie Jingxin while Liu Yihong watched, then shared his bowl with the hidden Chi Guanguan.

• Liu Yihong said one of Ao Ying or Ao Zhi was named in the booklet, and Zhang Yuan suggested their names might appear as Dao Epithets or aliases.
• Zhang Yuan tried to use Liu Yihong's promised favor to leave, but she insisted he still accompany her and allowed him time first.
• Zhang Yuan shut the Palace gates, started a fire, and had Xie Jingxin slice lotus root with [Gazing into the Netherworld] for soup.
• Zhang Yuan served soup to himself, Xie Jingxin, and Liu Yihong, who wondered whether it contained knockout powder.
• Chi Guanguan demanded a share, and Zhang Yuan let her use his bowl so Liu Yihong would not discover her.

After recovering in the [Prison-Warden Soul-Pitying Palace], Zhang Yuan followed Liu Yihong through the magma toward the Thirty-Six Hells, hoping to find Ao Ying or Ao Zhi and reach the next layer. At the hells’ entrance, he sensed that its warden, [Fire Veil], was an exceptionally powerful Ghost Deity.

• Zhang Yuan finished meditating after three days and examined the floating palaces with Xie Jingxin and Liu Yihong.
• Liu Yihong promised to take Zhang Yuan to the next layer if they found Ao Ying or Ao Zhi, then jumped into the magma.
• Zhang Yuan used [Ninefold Harmonizing Qi] to protect himself and Xie Jingxin as they followed Liu Yihong through the magma.
• Liu Yihong led Zhang Yuan and Xie Jingxin to a fiery landscape beneath the palace, where they found the gate marked “Thirty-Six Hells.”
• Zhang Yuan recognized [Fire Veil], the Chief Warden meditating atop the gate, as stronger than the Ghost Deities he had encountered before.

Zhang Yuan, Liu Yihong, and Xie Jingxin passed Chief Warden [Fire Veil] unnoticed and entered the Thirty-Six Hells. They reached a small, obscured door in the outermost layer, where heavy resentment and cries of suffering came from beyond.

• Liu Yihong explained that most ghost deities' strength depended on their conceptual images, while the Six Heavenly Demon Kings remained at the pinnacle of the Taiyi Realm within the Six Heavens.
• Liu Yihong led Zhang Yuan and Xie Jingxin through the gate beneath [Fire Veil], and the ghost deity failed to detect them.
• Liu Yihong called Zhang Yuan a bad man, and she and Xie Jingxin teased him about being a sex fiend and his relationship with Wei Liu.
• Zhang Yuan changed the subject as the group reached an obscured small door after descending more than seventy thousand steps, sensing intense resentment and hearing cries from behind it.

Zhang Yuan, Xie Jingxin, and Liu Yihong entered Venomous Snake Hell, where venomous snakes tormented the wandering souls. After Xie Jingxin killed the hell’s warden, Jade Scales, they found the door to the next level inside its mouth and left.

• Zhang Yuan and his companions entered a flat world filled with wandering souls and venomous snakes.
• A young man noticed the snakes on his body, was devoured by them, and re-formed as a blank-eyed soul.
• Liu Yihong identified the place as the thirty-sixth hell, Venomous Snake Hell, and explained that its victims were petty thieves.
• Zhang Yuan destroyed the snakes attacking him, and the warden Jade Scales appeared and tried to swallow the visitors.
• Xie Jingxin split Jade Scales in two, briefly freeing the souls from the hell’s torment.
• Zhang Yuan fitted Jade Scales back together, found a door inside its mouth, and led Xie Jingxin and Liu Yihong through it.

Zhang Yuan, Liu Yihong, and Xie Jingxin passed through a sequence of gates that seemed to skip several layers of hell before finally arriving in Hunger and Thirst Hell. Zhang Yuan guessed the punishment wrong, and the chapter ended with Xie Jingxin and Chi Guanguan agreeing that his imagined version would be worse.

• Zhang Yuan suspected the gates labeled for successive hells were part of an insider's plan, but followed Liu Yihong through them as she pressed on.
• After several gates kept them in the same void, Zhang Yuan stopped Liu Yihong and warned her that something was wrong, but she dismissed his concern and continued.
• The three arrived in Hunger and Thirst Hell, where starving souls sat among tables piled with food, and Zhang Yuan guessed the food was inedible or made of stones and earth.
• A ghost deity seized a steamed bun from a soul and whipped him, revealing that the food was real but the souls were punished for trying to eat it.
• Liu Yihong challenged Zhang Yuan's mistaken explanation, but Xie Jingxin and Chi Guanguan agreed that his imagined punishment would be more unbearable.

Zhang Yuan, Xie Jingxin, and Liu Yihong fought the ruler of Hunger and Thirst Hell, [Stomach Yama], while gathering food from his residence. After Xie Jingxin killed him and they escaped, [Stomach Yama] revived and changed the hell’s food into stone and earth.

• Xie Jingxin baited [Stomach Yama] by eating a steamed bun, and he attacked her with his iron whip, injuring her hand.
• Zhang Yuan provoked [Stomach Yama] by eating pastries and gathering the residence’s food, while Xie Jingxin deflected the whip.
• Zhang Yuan distracted [Stomach Yama], allowing Xie Jingxin to kill him with one sword strike.
• Zhang Yuan borrowed healing ointment from Liu Yihong for Xie Jingxin, and the three left the residence.
• [Stomach Yama] revived, restored the residence, and replaced its food with stone and earth.

Zhang Yuan, Xie Jingxin, and Liu Yihong entered Boiling Sand Hell, the tenth level of the Thirty-Six Hells, and found an apparently empty desert. As they searched for the souls and the level’s warden, a desert caravan approached them.

• Zhang Yuan sensed danger beyond the gate to Boiling Sand Hell, but he and his companions entered after Xie Jingxin promised to protect him and Liu Yihong rejected his teasing offer of help.
• Zhang Yuan used Wu Earth to raise himself, Xie Jingxin, and Liu Yihong above the soft sand, then searched the desert with his divine sense and found no living beings.
• Zhang Yuan asked Liu Yihong about the empty hell, and she explained that the Thirty-Six Hells were among several prisons used by the Yin Netherworld.
• Zhang Yuan reasoned that the level’s souls might be gathered somewhere and that finding them could help locate the warden, but Liu Yihong said she did not know where they were.
• As Zhang Yuan prepared to search the desert, he heard silver bells and saw a sizable caravan approaching from about thirty meters away.

Zhang Yuan and his companions encountered the Pearl Gleam Caravan in Boiling Sand Hell, and Zhang Yuan forced Shu Mian to let them join. The caravan’s leader and members had not accepted them yet, and a youth demanded they pass a test.

• Shu Mian, Yu Zhen, and Xie Guan discussed the strangers before Uncle Peng ordered Shu Mian to approach them.
• Shu Mian introduced herself to Zhang Yuan, who revealed his ominous title and asked what the caravan was transporting.
• Zhang Yuan stopped Shu Mian from leaving and insisted that he and his companions join the caravan, so she agreed.
• Uncle Peng and the others sized up the newcomers, and Xie Guan prompted a youth to demand that they pass the caravan’s joining test.

Zhang Yuan and his companions joined a caravan searching the desert for a Supreme Treasure of the Six Heavenly Demon Kings, said to grant any wish. The caravan reached a ruined palace after dark, where a guard became covered in pottery and porcelain shards after sinking into the sand.

• Liu Yihong attacked a caravan youth, but the balding old man blocked her strike and agreed to let Zhang Yuan's group join.
• The balding old man revealed that the caravan was searching for a Supreme Treasure in the desert that could grant any wish and provide a way out.
• Zhang Yuan told the old man that he had come from the human world to search for something, while one of his companions was seeking two people.
• Yu Zhen complimented Zhang Yuan's face as the caravan traveled, while other members watched their exchange.
• After nightfall, the caravan reached a half-collapsed palace, and a guard at the rear sank into the sand and emerged with his leg studded with pottery shards.

Zhang Yuan helped the survivors cross a deadly stretch of sand, but Gong Li died after being pierced by porcelain shards. When Mo Lian blamed Zhang Yuan for her death, Zhang Yuan killed him and claimed he had been possessed by a Ghost Deity, then turned his attention to Xie Guan.

• As the caravan crossed the sand, porcelain shards pierced travelers and dissolved them into blood; Zhang Yuan saved Yu Zhen from falling into the sand.
• Mo Lian carried the badly wounded Gong Li into the Palace, where she died after apologizing for failing to keep her promise.
• Liu Yihong mocked Mo Lian, and Mo Lian accused Zhang Yuan of causing Gong Li's death while Yu Zhen and Shu Mian defended Zhang Yuan.
• Zhang Yuan beheaded Mo Lian, saying he had been possessed by a Ghost Deity and that he had sent it on.
• Zhang Yuan said he had also noticed someone else possessed by a Ghost Deity and fixed his gaze on Xie Guan.

Zhang Yuan nearly killed Xie Guan after Xie Guan offended him, but the caravan's balding elder intervened and Zhang Yuan spared him. Shu Mian explained that they were in Boiling Sand Hell, where broken promises and agreements killed the prisoners, as Zhang Yuan wondered about the ruined temple and its statue.

• Zhang Yuan pressured Xie Guan and threatened him with the Nether-Illuminating Sword after Yu Zhen tried to defend him.
• The balding old man blocked Zhang Yuan's sword and persuaded him to spare Xie Guan, whom the caravan still needed.
• Zhang Yuan asked Shu Mian what she thought of his sword, and she called it dashing while Xie Guan seethed with resentment.
• Liu Yihong examined the collapsed temple, and Zhang Yuan suspected its weathered statue depicted Ao Ying.
• The balding old man refused to answer Zhang Yuan's questions, so Shu Mian explained that Boiling Sand Hell punished debtors and oath-breakers with shards from broken clay jars.

Zhang Yuan stopped himself from summoning a dangerous being after Shu Mian insisted she was no longer curious, and the group learned the Demon King's rumored supreme treasure was tied to a sealed remnant soul in Boiling Sand Hell. Xie Guan killed Yu Zhen to break the final promise needed to shatter the seal, then promised to rescue her as Zhang Yuan and Chi Guanguan exchanged teasing remarks.

• Zhang Yuan offered to summon the being Shu Mian had asked about, but she urgently stopped him and claimed she was no longer curious.
• Shu Mian explained that the group had searched several rumored locations for the Demon King's supreme treasure, and Uncle Peng revealed the final location was where they stood.
• Uncle Peng explained that Boiling Sand Hell sealed a terrifying remnant soul and that seven people had to break their promises to shatter the formation; Yu Zhen was the last one remaining.
• Xie Guan stabbed Yu Zhen with the sword she had chosen, remembered their past, and promised to rescue her after escaping.
• Zhang Yuan remarked on Xie Guan and Yu Zhen's love, while Xie Jingxin and Chi Guanguan doubted its depth; Zhang Yuan teased Chi Guanguan about pledging her life to him.

Zhang Yuan exposed Shu Mian as the lord of Boiling Sand Hell, but she refused to let him leave because someone had paid for his life. Xie Guan freed the ancient dragon Ao Zhi, who restored his body and power before ordering him to kill Zhang Yuan and the others.

• Zhang Yuan told Shu Mian that he had seen through her disguise, and she admitted she was the lord of Boiling Sand Hell.
• Shu Mian refused Zhang Yuan's request to open a door to the next layer, saying she had to keep him there because someone had paid for his life.
• Xie Guan, jealous as Zhang Yuan spoke with Shu Mian, thrust Yu Zhen's Waist Sword into the ground and triggered a great upheaval in Boiling Sand Hell.
• Ao Zhi emerged from beneath the temple as a colossal dragon and used profound yellow qi to restore her strength.
• Ao Zhi restored Xie Guan's body and cultivation, raised him to Immortal Lord level, and ordered him to kill Zhang Yuan and the others.

Xie Guan used the Divine Dragon’s power to confront Zhang Yuan and Xie Jingxin, while Liu Yihong fled and left a note promising to return. Xie Jingxin shielded Zhang Yuan and fought Xie Guan, who discovered his old spells were ineffective and unleashed the black-yellow qi’s pressure on them.

• Xie Guan felt the Divine Dragon’s immense power and prepared to kill Zhang Yuan and the others.
• Zhang Yuan realized Liu Yihong had disappeared, then found her saber and a note saying she had left temporarily and would return to save him.
• Xie Jingxin stepped in front of Zhang Yuan and severed Xie Guan’s casting arm with Gazing into the Netherworld, but it quickly regenerated.
• Xie Guan recognized something familiar about Xie Jingxin but could not remember meeting her.
• Xie Jingxin’s blood-gold qi-blood burned Xie Guan when he caught her sword, forcing him to retreat and extinguish the flames.
• Xie Guan decided his old spells were ineffective and unleashed a wave of black-yellow qi pressure at Zhang Yuan, Xie Jingxin, and the others.

Zhang Yuan weakened the pressure of Ao Zhi’s Xuanhuang Long Sword, prompting the balding old man to rush for the treasure and die to Ao Zhi’s attack. Ao Zhi ordered Xie Guan to kill the others, and Xie Guan reached Zhang Yuan despite Xie Jingxin cutting off his legs.

• Zhang Yuan agreed to help the balding old man escape the pressure, then used his Talents and Celestial Person Status to weaken it by nearly half.
• The balding old man seized the chance to fly past Xie Guan toward Ao Zhi’s Xuanhuang Long Sword.
• Ao Zhi fired a beam of Black-Yellow Qi that killed the balding old man.
• Ao Zhi ordered Xie Guan to kill Zhang Yuan and the others, so Xie Guan charged Zhang Yuan to end the suppression.
• Xie Jingxin cut off Xie Guan’s legs, but he continued flying and reached Zhang Yuan.

Zhang Yuan killed Xie Guan and confronted Ao Zhi, who tried to make peace after learning he was a Great Yi cultivator from the Dust-Dyed Realm. When she refused to hand over the Xuanhuang Long Sword, Zhang Yuan prepared to fight her with Xie Jingxin, empowered by the Blood Baleful Great Saber.

• Zhang Yuan annihilated Xie Guan with the Three-Colored Qi Light, tearing open the barrier between Boiling Sand Hell and the hell above.
• Ao Zhi withdrew her Black-Yellow Qi from Xie Guan and offered Zhang Yuan her True Dragon Treasury to settle their dispute.
• Zhang Yuan asked to examine the Xuanhuang Long Sword and invoked Ao Ying's name, leading Ao Zhi to suspect the Ancestor had sent him.
• Ao Zhi refused to hand over the sword and defended herself with the Dragon Clan's supreme treasure against Zhang Yuan's attack.
• The Blood Baleful Great Saber flew into Zhang Yuan's hand and filled him with killing intent, giving him the confidence to fight Ao Zhi.
• Zhang Yuan gave Xie Jingxin the Nether-Illuminating Sword and proposed they slay Ao Zhi; Xie Jingxin asked if she could eat the dragon meat afterward.

Zhang Yuan’s attack on Ao Zhi triggered a golden Sword Qi that tore through the Thirty-Six Hells and carried them out. In the Yin Netherworld’s upper heavens, the Heavenly Army Night-Cutting Goddess confronted the Demon Kings as she continued toward Boiling Sand Hell.

• Zhang Yuan used the blood-baleful Great Saber to wound Ao Zhi despite her sword-qi defenses.
• The Thirty-Six Hells began to shake, and a golden Sword Qi from the Outside World pierced every level, carrying Zhang Yuan, Xie Jingxin, Ao Zhi, and Shu Mian out of the prison.
• The Heavenly Army Night-Cutting Goddess arrived in the [Yin Net Tranquil-Illumination Palace] and demanded that Demon King Mingluo Hunzhao open the way to the [Prison-Warden Soul-Pitying Palace].
• Demon King Mingluo Hunzhao received orders to stop her, while the Heavy Spring Spirit-Commanding Demon King tried to reach the Dragon Clan’s Supreme Treasure.
• The Heavenly Army Night-Cutting Goddess severed the Heavy Spring Spirit-Commanding Demon King’s route and sent golden Sword Qi toward Boiling Sand Hell.

The Heavenly Army Night-Cutting Goddess faced three Demon Kings who joined forces to drive her from the six heavens. After she cut through Demon King Mingluo Hunzhao’s renowned shield, the Calamity-Gathering Spirit-Pitying Demon King prepared to test her with a Blood Baleful Great Saber.

• The Calamity-Gathering Spirit-Pitying Demon King arrived after someone cleaved open her Grotto-Heaven and agreed to join Demon King Mingluo Hunzhao and the Heavy Spring Spirit-Commanding Demon King against the Heavenly Army Night-Cutting Goddess.
• The Heavenly Army Night-Cutting Goddess warned the Demon Kings to stand aside, then attacked them with golden Sword Qi.
• Demon King Mingluo Hunzhao’s Luo Mo Ten-Thousand-Soul Shield failed to stop the Sword Qi, and all three Demon Kings evaded it by traversing space.
• Demon King Mingluo Hunzhao recognized that the Heavenly Army Night-Cutting Goddess wielded Grand White Edge, explaining her exceptional killing power.
• The Calamity-Gathering Spirit-Pitying Demon King gathered four kinds of Earthly Sha into a Blood Baleful Great Saber and prepared to test the Heavenly Army Night-Cutting Goddess.