Recaps

As Lu Xuanqing recovered enough to leave the cave, she joined Liu Xing on a hunt and learned about his favorite foods on Connors Star. She recoiled from his descriptions of mud-dwelling swamp frogs and fungus growing on rotting carcasses, but continued traveling with him.

• After three days of resting and eating Liu Xing's cooking, Lu Xuanqing regained enough strength to walk and decided to accompany him hunting.
• Liu Xing traveled south with Lu Xuanqing, who kept pace by riding the wind.
• Liu Xing suggested catching swamp frogs and described diving into mud to find them, making Lu Xuanqing reconsider the hunt.
• When Lu Xuanqing asked for another option, Liu Xing recommended monkey-face fungus that grew on year-old animal carcasses.
• Lu Xuanqing struggled to hide her disgust and regretted joining Liu Xing on the hunt.

Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing searched for easy prey on a nearby grassland, but the Spirit-Devouring Beast noticed a Golden-Eyed Eagle instead. After the eagle snatched a Grass Deer, Liu Xing chased it into the sky, with Lu Xuanqing following.

• Liu Xing led the still-injured Lu Xuanqing to a small grassland to hunt Grass Deer.
• Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing found a sleeping Grass Deer, but the Spirit-Devouring Beast sensed an approaching Golden-Eyed Eagle.
• The Golden-Eyed Eagle swooped down, seized the Grass Deer, and flew away.
• Liu Xing shouted angrily and chased after the eagle, while Lu Xuanqing rode the wind after him.

Liu Xing pursued the oddly colored Golden-Eyed Eagle to its nest, hoping to uncover what made it unusual before Lu Xuanqing caught up. After stones failed to seriously injure it, he killed it by snapping its neck, leaving the eagle’s strange toughness unexplained.

• Liu Xing deliberately ran ahead of Lu Xuanqing while chasing the Golden-Eyed Eagle so he could deal with it in secret.
• Liu Xing followed the eagle to its mountain nest using the Spirit-Devouring Beast’s divine sense, while Lu Xuanqing tracked his trail.
• Liu Xing threw stones at the Golden-Eyed Eagle, but its unusually tough body shrugged off both blows.
• Liu Xing rushed into the nest and snapped the Golden-Eyed Eagle’s neck before it could take flight.

Liu Xing discovered that the Golden-Eyed Eagle had swallowed a Wood Vein Spirit Fruit, a rare treasure that had transformed it into a formidable creature. After claiming the fruit, he kept his bond with the Spirit-Devouring Beast secret.

• Liu Xing tore open the Golden-Eyed Eagle and found a glowing green fruit inside its body.
• Liu Xing picked up the fruit and felt its vitality restore his energy, then hid it with the Fire Vein Spirit Jade.
• The chapter explained that lightning had cracked open an ancient Iron Oak, exposing the Wood Vein Spirit Fruit, which the eagle had swallowed and used to grow stronger.
• The Spirit-Devouring Beast conveyed its satisfaction after Liu Xing obtained the fruit and returned to sleep.
• Liu Xing recognized the Spirit-Devouring Beast and their close bond as his greatest secret.

Liu Xing hid the Wood Vein Spirit Fruit from Lu Xuanqing, but the two set aside their suspicions and grew closer while living together. Half a month later, Lu Xuanqing was still recovering slowly, winter had arrived on Connors Star, and her granduncles had not yet found them.

• Liu Xing disposed of the Golden-Eyed Eagle's corpse, then pretended he had hunted the Grass Deer and met Lu Xuanqing on the mountainside.
• Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing returned to the cave and gradually put their doubts aside, becoming more comfortable with each other.
• Liu Xing cooked roast Grass Deer while Lu Xuanqing recovered and went hunting with him over the following days.
• Lu Xuanqing questioned Liu Xing about the Spirit-Devouring Beast and concluded that his body had taken the place of the Small Copper Box.
• Liu Xing demonstrated the Nine Great Wilderness Forms, and Lu Xuanqing admired his strength but could not investigate his body while injured.
• Half a month passed, winter covered the Frozen Earth Plains, and Lu Xuanqing remained only forty or fifty percent recovered as her granduncles had yet to arrive.

Lu Xuanqing worried that her sect had not come looking for her, while Liu Xing grew alarmed by the mass flight of beasts across the Frozen Earth Plains. They traveled north together to investigate and discovered that animals of every kind were fleeing south in enormous numbers.

• Lu Xuanqing worried about her missing grand-martial uncles and considered sending a flying sword message to the Heavenly Demon Sect once her injuries healed.
• Liu Xing noticed that wild beasts, including Blue Ice Beasts and Tailless Wolves, were fleeing south in growing groups and told Lu Xuanqing.
• Lu Xuanqing agreed to investigate, and she and Liu Xing raced north across the Frozen Earth Plains.
• They encountered vast herds and a swarm of more than three thousand Spotted Mice, all fleeing south without reacting to them.
• Liu Xing knocked over a Tailless Wolf, but it scrambled up and continued fleeing, prompting him and Lu Xuanqing to look toward the distant north.

Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing discovered tens of thousands of Ice-Horned Bears stampeding south across the Frozen Earth Plains. After they watched the beast tide pass from the sky, Liu Xing suspected that something in the Frozen Ocean had driven the bears from their glaciers.

• Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing continued north across the Frozen Earth Plains toward the source of the disturbance.
• Liu Xing felt rhythmic tremors and asked Lu Xuanqing to carry him high into the sky.
• Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing spotted tens of thousands of Ice-Horned Bears fleeing south in a massive beast tide.
• Lu Xuanqing kept herself and Liu Xing aloft while the bears thundered past and trampled the plains.
• Liu Xing wondered whether the fleeing bears had come from glaciers in the Frozen Ocean and whether the disturbance had begun at sea.

Liu Xing discovered through the Spirit-Devouring Beast’s divine sense that an immense glacier was advancing across the Frozen Ocean, driven by a monstrous Icehorn Giant Bear. He and Lu Xuanqing reached the coast as the glacier neared land, leaving them facing the world-changing force firsthand.

• The Spirit-Devouring Beast awakened and extended its divine sense north across the Frozen Ocean.
• Liu Xing saw a vast glacier rapidly freezing the sea and expanding southward.
• Liu Xing’s divine sense found an enormous Icehorn Giant Bear striding across the glacier and locked onto it as the likely source of the upheaval.
• Liu Xing told Lu Xuanqing that the danger was coming from farther north and insisted they investigate.
• Lu Xuanqing carried Liu Xing to the coast, where they saw the glacier racing toward them.

Lu Xuanqing and Liu Xing faced the Icehorn Giant Bear, whose immense spiritual energy was driving glaciers toward the coast. The bear’s origins and limited intelligence explained its power, but it continued spreading ice across Connors Star.

• Lu Xuanqing sensed a vast mass of spiritual energy advancing with the glaciers and realized its power was dispersed rather than focused.
• Lu Xuanqing and Liu Xing saw the Icehorn Giant Bear, and Liu Xing admitted he had never encountered a beast like it.
• The chapter explained that a Water Vein Spirit Jade formed by an ancient undersea spirit vein had transformed an Ice-Horned Bear over tens of thousands of years.
• The Icehorn Giant Bear awakened as a powerful demon beast but retained little intelligence and spread spiritual energy by instinct.
• The bear’s expanding glaciers threatened to cover all of Connors Star if it continued unchecked.

Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing confronted the Icehorn Giant Bear as it drove a freezing glacier south, threatening the place where the old man rested. They agreed to try fighting it for three minutes, and Lu Xuanqing's hidden attack followed Liu Xing's boulder toward the bear's throat.

• The Icehorn Giant Bear froze the Frozen Ocean and advanced onto land, sending animals fleeing south as its glacier spread.
• Lu Xuanqing shielded Liu Xing from the bear's cold, and they discussed whether to fight or wait for it to weaken farther south.
• Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing decided to attack for three minutes before retreating if they could not defeat the bear.
• Liu Xing hurled a boulder at the Icehorn Giant Bear, and it shattered the rock with a paw.
• As the bear focused on the boulder, Lu Xuanqing sent a concealed arrow of spiritual energy toward its throat.

Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing fought the Icehorn Giant Bear, whose absolute-zero breath threatened to overwhelm Liu Xing at close range. The Spirit-Devouring Beast swallowed the bear’s breath, allowing Liu Xing to seize its paw and hurl its enormous body into the air.

• Lu Xuanqing wounded the Icehorn Giant Bear with Spiritual Energy arrows, while Liu Xing’s boulder was frozen and shattered by the bear’s breath.
• Liu Xing charged the bear at close range as Lu Xuanqing followed, despite warning him that its radiating cold could defeat his air shield.
• The Icehorn Giant Bear’s cold stiffened Liu Xing’s limbs, and its breath attack left him unable to dodge.
• The Spirit-Devouring Beast appeared from Liu Xing and swallowed the bear’s blast of breath.
• Liu Xing grabbed the Icehorn Giant Bear’s paw and used all his strength to fling it into the air.

Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing killed the Icehorn Giant Bear after the Spirit-Devouring Beast saved Liu Xing from its freezing breath. With Liu Xing’s injuries healing, he avoided explaining the beast’s connection to him and turned his attention to the giant bear’s unusual nature.

• The Spirit-Devouring Beast rescued Liu Xing, and he hurled the Icehorn Giant Bear into the air so Lu Xuanqing could strike its neck with a green orb and sever its head.
• The Spirit-Devouring Beast caught the bear’s severed head with its divine sense as the bear’s death ended the extreme cold.
• Fire vein spirit jade and the Wood Vein Spirit Fruit healed Liu Xing’s frost injuries.
• Lu Xuanqing questioned why the Spirit-Devouring Beast had returned to Liu Xing, and Liu Xing pretended not to know what had happened.
• Liu Xing suggested that they examine the Icehorn Giant Bear’s corpse to discover why it had become so powerful.

Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing searched the Icehorn Giant Bear's remains and discovered a Water Vein Spirit Jade hidden in its head. Lu Xuanqing kept the treasure, whose power began healing her injuries, and expected to recover within half a month.

• Liu Xing suggested cutting open the Icehorn Giant Bear's belly to deflect Lu Xuanqing's suspicions, and she sliced apart its body.
• Liu Xing examined the crystallized organs and found nothing unusual, so Lu Xuanqing split open the bear's head.
• Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing discovered a dazzling blue crystal, which Liu Xing recognized as a Water Vein Spirit Jade.
• Liu Xing resisted the Spirit-Devouring Beast's urging to take the jade, and it eventually fell asleep inside him.
• Lu Xuanqing took the Water Vein Spirit Jade and felt it restore her injured meridians, so she kept it close and anticipated recovering within half a month.

Lu Xuanqing used the Water Vein Spirit Jade to recover from her injuries and saw her cultivation approach a breakthrough to the Golden Core Stage. Concerned that her grandmaster-uncles still had not found Connors Star, she decided to remain there for another half month rather than risk sending a message.

• Lu Xuanqing kept the Water Vein Spirit Jade for now, and Liu Xing told her he cared more about reaching the outside world than sharing its future benefits.
• Lu Xuanqing promised to support Liu Xing outside and said her sect might help deal with the Spirit-Devouring Beast inside him as they continued south.
• Lu Xuanqing secluded herself in the Cave and emerged ten days later with her injuries healed and her false core restored and more condensed.
• Lu Xuanqing realized the Water Vein Spirit Jade had helped her cultivation advance close to the Golden Core Stage, but she decided to wait until she returned to her sect before attempting to form a core.
• Lu Xuanqing chose to stay on Connors Star for another half month because her grandmaster-uncles had not arrived, and she feared a Flying Sword Message could be intercepted.

While Lu Xuanqing recovered, Liu Xing learned the Spirit-Devouring Beast had mapped the meridians throughout his body, and he grew closer to Lu Xuanqing as she showed him the world beyond his familiar home. Lu Xuanqing explained that he could join the Cultivation World even without an innate spiritual root, but Liu Xing remained determined to forge his own path to strength.

• Liu Xing repeatedly tried to communicate with the Spirit-Devouring Beast and memorized the paths it followed through his body, which were the body's meridians, including hidden ones.
• After the Icehorn Giant Bear died, Connors Star returned to normal, and Liu Xing hunted Spotted Mice while Lu Xuanqing healed.
• When Lu Xuanqing recovered, she took Liu Xing across Connors Star, and he longed to gain the ability to travel freely through the skies and beyond.
• Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing grew closer while discussing the Cultivation World and its legends.
• Lu Xuanqing told Liu Xing that people without spiritual roots could still join cultivation sects to handle mundane affairs, but Liu Xing remained intent on finding his own way to become strong.

Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing encountered a fleet belonging to the powerful Bai Family, which had found their hiding place. Lu Xuanqing identified the fleet’s leader as Bai Hengqiu, a formidable Golden Core cultivator and notorious Chief Superintendent.

• Lu Xuanqing noticed more than a dozen spaceships approaching and recognized the glacier emblem of the Bai Family.
• The largest ship illuminated Liu Xing and Lu Xuanqing with a search beam, leaving them unable to escape.
• Lu Xuanqing identified herself and Liu Xing as Heavenly Demon Sect disciples and asked the Bai Family to show consideration.
• Bai Hengqiu answered from the flagship and confirmed his identity.
• Lu Xuanqing recognized Bai Hengqiu as a dangerous opponent, famed for his cultivation and ruthless treatment of space pirates.

Bai Hengqiu tried to bring Lu Xuanqing to the Bai Family, but she refused and invoked her granduncles to protect herself. Lu Yangong appeared alongside Bai Hengqiu and immediately asked Lu Xuanqing where the Spirit-Devouring Beast was.

• Lu Xuanqing warned Liu Xing that Bai Hengqiu was far stronger than them and told him not to reveal anything about the Spirit-Devouring Beast.
• Bai Hengqiu invited Lu Xuanqing to the Bai Family, claiming he wanted her to recuperate there.
• Lu Xuanqing declined, saying she had to wait for orders from her granduncles, Lu Yangong and Sun Yanbo.
• Bai Hengqiu claimed Lu Yangong was visiting the Bai Family and urged Lu Xuanqing to come aboard his spaceship.
• Lu Yangong emerged from Bai Hengqiu's spaceship, and Lu Xuanqing reacted with shock at seeing him there.
• Lu Yangong asked Lu Xuanqing where the thing was and whether she still had it.

Lu Xuanqing questioned Lu Yangong’s unusual search for the Spirit-Devouring Beast as he claimed the Heavenly Demon Sect had allied with the Bai Family against the Lin Household. Lu Xuanqing remained suspicious, and the chapter ended with the Spirit-Devouring Beast sensing Lu Yangong’s concealed killing intent.

• Lu Xuanqing gave Lu Yangong an evasive answer about the Spirit-Devouring Beast and asked to explain the matter after returning to the sect.
• Lu Yangong told Lu Xuanqing that the Lin Household’s plan to restore the Purple Thorn Dynasty had thrown the galaxy into turmoil and driven the Heavenly Demon Sect and the Bai Family to form an alliance.
• Lu Yangong said the Heavenly Demon Sect planned to relocate its headquarters to the Ice Phoenix System, but Lu Xuanqing doubted his explanation and asked to return to the Purple Ginseng Star System.
• Lu Yangong concealed his killing intent when Lu Xuanqing tried to leave, and the Spirit-Devouring Beast alerted Liu Xing to it.

Liu Xing recognized Lu Yangong’s murderous intent and pretended to seek his discipleship, while Lu Xuanqing acted as though she had betrayed Liu Xing to make him seem harmless. Lu Xuanqing then agreed to accompany Lu Yangong and Bai Hengqiu to the Ice Phoenix System, leaving Liu Xing behind.

• The Spirit-Devouring Beast warned Liu Xing of danger, and he realized Lu Yangong might intend to kill Lu Xuanqing.
• Liu Xing feigned excitement about becoming Lu Yangong’s disciple and signaled Lu Xuanqing to be wary.
• Lu Xuanqing knocked Liu Xing away and berated him, making it appear that she had used and abandoned him.
• Liu Xing pretended to be heartbroken and walked away while Lu Yangong and Bai Hengqiu focused on Lu Xuanqing.
• Lu Xuanqing agreed to reveal information about the object and travel with Lu Yangong and Bai Hengqiu to the Ice Phoenix System.

Lu Yangong prepared to take Lu Xuanqing and the Spirit-Devouring Beast away from Connors Star, but Sun Yanbo arrived and confronted him in outer space. Through the Spirit-Devouring Beast’s Divine Sense, Liu Xing watched the encounter from afar as the two Nascent Soul Realm cultivators faced off.

• Lu Yangong sensed Sun Yanbo approaching Connors Star and realized his adversary could intercept the fleet before it escaped.
• Lu Yangong sent Bai Hengqiu and Lu Xuanqing toward the spaceship, then flew into outer space to confront Sun Yanbo.
• Bai Hengqiu and Lu Xuanqing sensed the two Nascent Soul Realm cultivators facing each other and feared a battle.
• Lu Xuanqing recognized the approaching cultivator as her grand martial uncle Sun Yanbo, the Heavenly Demon Overlord Sword.
• Liu Xing used the Spirit-Devouring Beast’s hidden Divine Sense to follow Lu Yangong and see the confrontation beyond the planet.

Sun Yanbo confronted Lu Yangong in space over his alliance with the Lin Household and Bai Family. Sun Yanbo rejected Lu Yangong’s justification and declared that he would escort him back to the Heavenly Demon Sect to face judgment.

• The Spirit-Devouring Beast let Liu Xing secretly observe and hear Lu Yangong and Sun Yanbo in space.
• Sun Yanbo drew his greatsword and challenged Lu Yangong over betraying the Heavenly Demon Sect.
• Lu Yangong defended his alliance with the Lin Household and Bai Family as a way to strengthen the sect and secure its future.
• Sun Yanbo argued that the Lin-Bai alliance threatened the sect’s independence and that Lu Yangong had no authority to commit the sect.
• Lu Yangong accused Sun Yanbo of siding with sect master Lu Yanzhen, and Sun Yanbo declared that their brotherhood was over and he would take Lu Yangong back to face judgment.

Liu Xing learned why Lu Yangong had betrayed the Heavenly Demon Sect as Sun Yanbo confronted him in space. As the two Nascent Soul Realm experts began a devastating battle, Liu Xing found a new goal in their strength.

• Liu Xing understood that Lu Yangong had misrepresented the conflict and had joined the Lin Household and Bai Family against the Heavenly Demon Sect.
• Lu Yangong told Sun Yanbo he blamed the sect for sacrificing his cultivation and said he had betrayed it because he refused to live beneath Lu Yanzhen.
• Sun Yanbo offered to spare Lu Yangong if he abandoned the Lin Household and Bai Family, but Lu Yangong refused and attacked him.
• Sun Yanbo met Lu Yangong's charge, and their collisions shattered space while the Spirit-Devouring Beast's divine sense fled beyond the shock waves.
• Liu Xing watched the battle and resolved to grow stronger, taking the power of Nascent Soul Realm experts as a new measure of strength.

Lu Xuanqing and Bai Hengqiu watched the battle between Lu Yangong and Sun Yanbo from Connors Star, unable to perceive its details. Lu Yangong eventually revealed that he had poisoned Sun Yanbo with the heavenly decline of the five signs, leaving their confrontation poised for its next turn.

• Lu Xuanqing and Bai Hengqiu sensed Lu Yangong and Sun Yanbo begin fighting in earnest as their battle stirred the skies above Connors Star.
• Sun Yanbo pressed Lu Yangong with the Overlord Sword, while Lu Yangong deliberately traded blows to buy time and secretly released a colorless mist.
• Sun Yanbo absorbed the mist during the clashes and gradually lost his strength until he retreated, exhausted.
• Lu Yangong told Sun Yanbo that the mist was the heavenly decline of the five signs and that he had refined a single dose to use against Lu Yanzhen.
• Sun Yanbo calmed after learning what had afflicted him, while Lu Yangong remained smug.

Sun Yanbo used a hidden escape technique to flee Lu Yangong after being poisoned by the heavenly decline of the five signs. He secretly returned to Connors Star, where Liu Xing tracked his hiding place with the Spirit-Devouring Beast’s divine sense.

• Sun Yanbo resisted Lu Yangong’s taunts and prepared to fight despite his depleted spiritual energy.
• Sun Yanbo poured a thread of energy into the Overlord Sword and escaped at extraordinary speed.
• Lu Yangong abandoned pursuit, ordered Bai Hengqiu to take the fleet back to the Ice Phoenix System, and left with Lu Xuanqing.
• Liu Xing watched Lu Xuanqing depart and lost his ability to see her when the fleet passed beyond the Spirit-Devouring Beast’s range.
• Sun Yanbo secretly landed on Connors Star, and Liu Xing learned where he was hiding through the Spirit-Devouring Beast’s divine sense.

Liu Xing approached the badly weakened Sun Yanbo, hoping to enlist his help, but Sun Yanbo mistook the mortal’s arrival for a chance to survive. With his body failing from the heavenly decline of the five signs, Sun Yanbo released his nascent soul to possess Liu Xing.

• Liu Xing raced toward Sun Yanbo, deciding that the cultivator was his best hope of saving Lu Xuanqing or escaping Connors Star.
• Sun Yanbo sensed Liu Xing approaching and prepared the Overlord Sword, wary that the stranger had found his hidden valley.
• Liu Xing entered the valley, and Sun Yanbo discovered through his Divine Sense that he was a mortal without an innate spiritual root.
• Sun Yanbo opened his Niwan Palace and sent out his nascent soul to possess Liu Xing’s body.