Chapter Summaries

Black-Clad Woman tried to use her Bewitching Art to capture Liu Xing, but her severe injuries caused her spiritual energy to backlash and she fainted. Liu Xing carried her into the cave to rest, while she began to feel confused by her reaction to him.

• Black-Clad Woman awoke in Liu Xing's cave, discovered her clothes had been removed and the crucial item she had carried was missing, then waited to ambush him.
• Black-Clad Woman's sneak attack failed, so she used Heavenly Demon Soul-Confusion to make Liu Xing feel pity for her and approach.
• Black-Clad Woman tried to seize Liu Xing but her injuries caused her spiritual energy to fall into chaos, and she collapsed and fainted.
• Liu Xing carried Black-Clad Woman into the cave and laid her on the stone bed, believing she needed rest.
• Black-Clad Woman woke in Liu Xing's arms and felt unfamiliar, unsettling feelings as she studied him.

The Black-Clad Woman recovered enough to question Liu Xing about the Small Copper Box she had lost. When Liu Xing showed her the box already open, she panicked upon learning that the Spirit-Devouring Beast inside had escaped.

• The Black-Clad Woman awoke and wondered why Liu Xing made her feel uneasy, while he told her the old man had died and urged her to rest.
• The Black-Clad Woman realized her injuries would recover slowly on Connors Star and focused on finding the lost treasure.
• The Black-Clad Woman asked Liu Xing whether he had seen a small copper box, and Liu Xing took it from his jacket.
• The Black-Clad Woman saw that the Small Copper Box had been opened and demanded to know what had happened to the thing inside.
• Liu Xing asked whether she meant the rabbit-like creature, and the Black-Clad Woman identified it as the Spirit-Devouring Beast and feared it would die without its Spiritual Energy.

Liu Xing told the Black-Clad Woman that he had opened the Small Copper Box and that the Spirit-Devouring Beast had burrowed into his body. The woman explained the beast’s extraordinary value and the devastating cost of sharing one’s body with it, leaving Liu Xing’s strange bond with the beast unresolved.

• The Black-Clad Woman questioned how Liu Xing could have opened a box protected by a formation laid by a Nascent Soul Realm expert.
• Liu Xing told the Black-Clad Woman that the rabbit-like Spirit-Devouring Beast had entered his body and was sleeping there.
• The Black-Clad Woman explained that Spirit-Devouring Beasts could detect spiritual energy and lead their keepers to spirit veins and treasures.
• The Black-Clad Woman explained that imprisoning a Spirit-Devouring Beast in one’s body consumed all of a Nascent Soul Realm expert’s cultivation to sustain it.

The Black-Clad Woman realized the Spirit-Devouring Beast had fused with Liu Xing, making him enormously valuable to the Heavenly Demon Sect. She questioned him about their connection while Liu Xing concealed what he had learned and found, leaving her to wonder how she could keep him under her control.

• The Black-Clad Woman recognized that Liu Xing’s bond with the Spirit-Devouring Beast could spare a Nascent Soul Realm expert from having to fuse with it.
• The Black-Clad Woman recalled how the Five Uglies of Meng Mountain had ambushed her during the beast’s transport, forcing her to crash-land on Connors Star.
• The Black-Clad Woman asked Liu Xing whether he could sense or share information with the Spirit-Devouring Beast.
• Liu Xing admitted that he could sense the beast’s emotions but concealed his discovery of the Mysterious Cave and the Red Round Stone.
• The Black-Clad Woman wondered whether she would have to seduce Liu Xing to keep him in her grasp.

The Black-Clad Woman, who called herself Lu Xuanqing, questioned Liu Xing while recovering in his cave, and each concealed secrets while learning about the other. After she settled in to heal, Liu Xing left determined to grow stronger and use her arrival as a chance to leave Connors Star.

• The Black-Clad Woman decided to wait for her injured Nascent Soul Realm grandmasters and focus on healing, while worrying about the Spirit-Devouring Beast inside Liu Xing.
• The Black-Clad Woman questioned Liu Xing, who hid important details while learning about cultivation and the wider world from her.
• As they talked, the Black-Clad Woman recognized Liu Xing's intelligence but remained unaware of how much he had learned from her.
• The Black-Clad Woman asked to use Liu Xing's cave while she recovered, and he welcomed her with a joke about having eaten the local predators.
• Liu Xing left the cave and resolved to become stronger, believing Lu Xuanqing might help him leave Connors Star.

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.