Chapter Summaries

Black Hound Daoist explained that he had fled because Wen Qingfei was likely Fang Qianyuan’s intimate confidante, making her someone the Demon Alliance experts could not afford to provoke. Tu Yuankui realized their danger, while Black Hound Daoist hurried away despite having injured her.

• Black Hound Daoist and Tu Yuankui traveled deep into the wilderness after leaving Wen Qingfei and the others behind.
• Tu Yuankui demanded to know why Black Hound Daoist had retreated, and Black Hound Daoist warned that harming the women could bring disaster.
• Tu Yuankui considered whether Wen Qingfei had a Heaven-Tier Powerhouse backing her and realized Black Hound Daoist had likely saved him from grave trouble.
• Black Hound Daoist revealed that Wen Qingfei had known Fang Qianyuan for years and was likely his intimate confidante.
• Tu Yuankui acknowledged that Fang Qianyuan was someone they could not provoke, and Black Hound Daoist hurried back to lie low despite having injured Wen Qingfei.

After two Demonic Path experts fled at the mention of Fang Qianyuan, Wen Qingfei and her companions gathered evidence and decided to ask him to investigate the danger. Several days later, Fang Qianyuan read Wen Qingfei’s letter and realized the Demonic Path’s threat was already close at hand.

• The Zuo Family members realized the Demonic Path experts had fled because Fang Qianyuan was Wen Qingfei’s powerful backing.
• Li Yan and the Second Young Master of the Zuo Family urged the group to leave after collecting physical evidence and portrait sketches.
• Wen Qingfei suggested telling Fang Qianyuan about the Demonic Path’s activities, and the group agreed the investigation exceeded their abilities.
• Wen Qingfei wrote Fang Qianyuan a detailed account of what had happened and sent the letter from the carriage.
• Ning'er delivered Wen Qingfei’s letter to Fang Qianyuan at the Warrior Administration, and he grew grave as he read it.

Fang Qianyuan learned that Wu Lianyi had spread warrior-making techniques among mortals and allied with the Demon Alliance, creating the system behind the modified monsters Wen Qingfei discovered. After Jiang Yunfeng explained Wu Lianyi’s aims and the sect’s failed pursuit, Fang Qianyuan offered to help find him while strengthening his control of the Warrior Bureau.

• Fang Qianyuan went to the Warrior Hall and told Jiang Yunfeng about Wen Qingfei’s discovery of half-human, half-demon monsters.
• Jiang Yunfeng revealed that Wu Lianyi had defected with his research and colluded with other sects, the Demon Realm, and other races to teach warrior techniques to mortals.
• Jiang Yunfeng explained that the warrior embryos and creation methods Fang Qianyuan had found were bait Wu Lianyi had left behind to draw the sect into continuing his work.
• Jiang Yunfeng said Wu Lianyi’s ideals risked leading people toward destruction, especially with the coming upheaval of the ten-thousandth year of the Dharma-Ending Age.
• Fang Qianyuan offered to help Jiang Yunfeng hunt Wu Lianyi and use the effort to organize the Warrior Bureau, and Jiang Yunfeng agreed.

Fang Qianyuan arrived in the Yinshan Kingdom with his retinue and was ceremonially welcomed by the Zuo Family and other local clans. After noticing Wen Qingfei’s lingering injuries, he said he had his own plans regarding the demonic practitioner who hurt her, and the group entered the city to discuss the matter.

• Li Yan teased Wen Qingfei about Fang Qianyuan’s letter and discovered that he was coming in person to follow up on leads.
• The Zuo Family organized a lavish procession to welcome Fang Qianyuan, laying out a dry, silk-covered road after the overnight rain.
• Fang Qianyuan arrived atop White Wolf with Bai Aoxue and a retinue of guards, generals, and soldiers.
• Fang Qianyuan noticed Wen Qingfei’s bandaged injuries, and Li Yan urged him to stand up for her against the demonic practitioner.
• Fang Qianyuan said he had his own plans, and the Zuo Family escorted the group into the city.

Fang Qianyuan traveled north with Wen Qingfei and Li Yan to destroy a Demonic Path Demon-Refining Workshop and capture Azure Cloud Sect traitor Miyuyin, hoping to uncover Wu Lianyi’s whereabouts. Miyuyin inspected the workshop’s growing army of Demon Soldiers before a vast, powerful aura swept over the cavern.

• Fang Qianyuan left the Zuo Family’s territory in secret with Wen Qingfei, Li Yan, Bai Aoxue, and four Earth Rank Experts, while his remaining forces stayed behind.
• Fang Qianyuan explained that Miyuyin, a former Azure Cloud Sect general and subordinate of Wu Lianyi, was overseeing a Demon-Refining Workshop in the Northern Frontier.
• Miyuyin and two demonized men passed through an Illusion Array into an underground cavern where the workshop was hidden.
• A Spirit Tamer reported that the workshop had refined about twelve hundred Demon Soldiers, most of whom had reached at least the sixth transformation.
• Miyuyin urged the workshop workers to continue, but a thunderous rumble and an immense aura suddenly swept over the cavern.

Fang Qianyuan unleashed Wind Blade Frost Sword, a calamity-like Divine Ability that exposed the hidden enemy’s location and revealed the scale of his growing power. When several figures emerged from a Stone Mountain, he ordered the Earthly Fiend Generals to capture them alive so they could learn Wu Lianyi’s whereabouts.

• Miyuyin and the Half-Demons sensed a terrifying expert outside and ordered the transfer array activated while Miyuyin went to hold off the intruder.
• A Spirit Tamer understood that the enemy had found their hidden base and hurried back to help preserve its research, experts, and trained fighters.
• Fang Qianyuan’s Wind Blade Frost Sword scoured the Wildwood into a vast pit, astonishing Bai Aoxue, Wen Qingfei, Li Yan, and the Earthly Fiend Generals.
• Fang Qianyuan recognized that his Divine Ability resembled the Black Wind Calamity and sensed his immense spirit essence and the laws of heaven and earth.
• Several figures emerged from a Stone Mountain, and Fang Qianyuan ordered the Earthly Fiend Generals to capture them alive to find out where Wu Lianyi was.

Fang Qianyuan’s Earthly Fiend Generals fought Miyuyin and the Half-Demons while Li Yan went to investigate their hidden base. The mountain disgorged hundreds of Demonized Warriors, forcing Li Yan to face a swarm of grotesque enemies.

• Fang Qianyuan ordered Fang Ming, Feng Yun, Sun Jixing, and Ximen Man to attack the newcomers.
• Fang Ming used his radiant bloodline and Vision-Enhancing Art to confuse the Half-Demons, but Miyuyin’s hardened body resisted his blows.
• Feng Yun, Sun Jixing, and Ximen Man joined the battle and repeatedly struck Miyuyin, while Fang Qianyuan sent Li Yan to investigate the enemy’s base beneath the hill.
• Before Wen Qingfei could join the fight, the mountain shook and hundreds of Demonized Warriors poured out of the underground caverns.
• Li Yan evaded the Whip-Hand Servant Demon Warriors and acid attacks, then struggled to parry volleys of spikes from the Spine Demon Warriors as more demon varieties emerged.

Li Yan and Wen Qingfei struggled against the relentless demonized warriors until Fang Qianyuan and Little White turned the battle, while Fang Ming and the others pressed Miyuyin’s followers. Miyuyin then unleashed a strange power, joined by hidden elite warriors, leaving the fight poised to escalate.

• Li Yan struggled to hold off the tireless demonized warriors until Wen Qingfei aided her with Thunderflame Bees, and the two women flew into the sky when their defenses began to falter.
• More than two hundred winged Black Demon warriors pursued Li Yan and Wen Qingfei, including powerful fighters able to harness heaven and earth essence.
• Fang Qianyuan and Little White attacked the airborne Black Demons with Wind Blade Frost Sword, Dark Ice Mystic Beam, and Frost Breath, routing the main force.
• Fang Ming and the other three severely wounded Miyuyin’s two followers and moved to capture or kill them.
• Miyuyin released dense black spirit essence that formed an exotic-beast silhouette, while his followers and hidden elite warriors manifested the same strange power.

Miyuyin and the other demonized warriors used the Demon Seal to greatly increase their strength, but Fang Qianyuan recognized the technique and decided to face them himself. He trapped them in his Painted-World Domain and began a Seven Kills Void-Breaking Slash.

• Miyuyin and the other half-demons unsealed the Demon Seal, transforming their bodies and multiplying their strength.
• Fang Qianyuan recognized the Blood Mark Curse Seal and ordered Fang Ming and his companions to stand aside so he could handle the warriors himself.
• Miyuyin and the others refused Fang Qianyuan's demand to surrender and vowed to protect the Demon-Refining Workshop and its techniques.
• Fang Qianyuan activated Transcendent Transformation, Painted-World Domain, trapping the demonized warriors in a warped landscape.
• Fang Qianyuan linked his aura with Little White through the Borrowing Art and launched Seven Kills Void-Breaking Slash.

Fang Qianyuan used his painted-world domain to slaughter the demonized warriors, manipulating the laws so they could not perceive or evade his attacks. Miyuyin survived the shattered domain but was badly weakened, and Fang Qianyuan ordered Fang Ming and the others to capture him for interrogation.

• Fang Qianyuan used dimensional slashes to kill the figures trapped in his painted-world domain while they could not perceive his attacks.
• Fang Ming realized Fang Qianyuan was controlling the laws, and Li Yan understood that his method had crossed into the Heaven Tier.
• Miyuyin and the other demonized warriors tried to flee within the flat plane, but Fang Qianyuan and Little White tore through the painting with void rifts.
• Miyuyin dodged the fatal slashes until the painting shattered, leaving him wounded and weakened while the other demonized warriors were destroyed.
• Fang Qianyuan slammed Miyuyin into a crater, ordered Fang Ming and the others to seize him for interrogation, and directed Little White toward the cave.

Fang Qianyuan’s group discovered hundreds of villagers imprisoned in a demonic workshop and found a secret chamber filled with demon-refining knowledge. He ordered the Warrior Administration to fund the villagers’ care, secured the books, and launched a search for the escaped demonic-path members.

• Fang Qianyuan and his companions found more than five hundred tortured villagers imprisoned in the cave and learned they had been kept as human sacrifices for demon-refining experiments.
• Fang Qianyuan ordered Tower City’s aristocratic clans to help, then committed the Warrior Administration to covering the villagers’ treatment and future settlement.
• Ximen Man led Fang Qianyuan’s group to a secret chamber containing demon-refining techniques, modification methods, and diagrams of humans, yao, demons, and demonic beasts.
• Fang Qianyuan ordered Sun Jixing and Ximen Man to collect all the books and keep them from becoming public.
• Tower City’s clans arrived, began searching the cavern and treating the villagers, while Fang Qianyuan’s forces hunted for escaped members of the demonic path within ten thousand li.

Fang Qianyuan had Yan Wenshan assess the demon-refining manuals seized with Miyuyin and learned that they revealed both the enemy’s progress and a deliberate display of strength. Yan warned that the enemy had unified several Warrior modification methods into a powerful new branch, leaving Fang concerned about the future of the Warrior Path.

• Fang Qianyuan learned that the fugitives had been caught, but they had already transmitted some of the Demon-Refining Workshop’s techniques and secret arts.
• Fang Qianyuan summoned Yan Wenshan and showed him the demon-refining manuals seized with Miyuyin.
• Yan Wenshan concluded that the comprehensive manuals had been left behind deliberately to flaunt the enemy’s strength and tempt the sect into following an inferior path.
• Yan Wenshan explained that the enemy had fused demon bodies and demon veins into human Warriors, uniting several modification methods and potentially opening the way to further branches.
• Fang Qianyuan sent a confidential report to the sect master and informed his master, while Yu Shixian and Jiang Yunfeng urged him to suppress the enemy and develop the sect’s own path.

Fang Qianyuan realized that Wu Lianyi’s Demonized Warrior techniques could reshape the balance of power as Grassroots clans adopted them. He warned Wen Qingfei to tell the Wen clan not to openly pursue the path unless they had the ambition and strength to contend for the world.

• Yan Wenshan returned with the seized goods, while Fang Qianyuan coordinated a search for Wu Lianyi across the Northern Frontier.
• Fang Qianyuan learned that Wu Lianyi and his subordinates had vanished and suspected they were spreading Warrior Path techniques in other Domains.
• Fang Qianyuan considered how powerful Grassroots clans might use Demonized Warriors to expand their armies and challenge established powers.
• Wen Qingfei brought Fang Qianyuan a bowl of soup, and he asked how her clan elders would respond to the chance to develop demon soldiers.
• Wen Qingfei admitted she did not know how her clan would weigh the path’s power against its harms, and Fang Qianyuan advised her to warn them not to touch it openly without the ambition and strength to contend for the world.

Yu Shixian ordered the Azure Cloud Sect to warn the other sects about Demon Refinement as its spread threatened the balance of power. After the Five Great Righteous Sects declared it forbidden, Wen Qingfei realized the major sects intended to control the practice and prevent smaller powers from gaining an advantage.

• The Disciplinary Officer reported that Demon-Refining Workshops had spread across the Spirit-Taming World, especially the Eastern Sea, and asked Yu Shixian whether to use Soul-Searching and Spirit-Seizing on Miyuyin.
• Yu Shixian rejected torture and ordered the Heavenly Observation Court to notify the other sects and coordinate a response.
• The sects began investigating Demon Refinement, confiscating related materials, and announcing a ban that classified its techniques and manuals as forbidden arts.
• Li Yan told Wen Qingfei that the Five Great Righteous Sects had issued a joint prohibition, and questioned whether the powerful sects would obey it themselves.
• Wen Qingfei concluded that the major Righteous and Demonic sects would enforce the ban to protect their supremacy, using Fang Qianyuan as a weapon against those who defied it.

After returning to the Azure Cloud Sect, Fang Qianyuan learned that Demonic Path practitioners had deliberately created a Demonized Land at Decapitation Mountain. Yu Shixian assigned the Warrior Administration Bureau to help clear it, leaving Fang to choose the officers who would lead the campaign.

• Wen Qingfei sent warnings about the coming changes to her clan elders, Li Gate, and elder sister at Flowing Cloud Grotto.
• Fang Qianyuan returned to the Azure Cloud Sect and was summoned by Yu Shixian to discuss demon refinement.
• Fang Qianyuan read that demonic qi had erupted at Decapitation Mountain, transforming nearby creatures and affecting areas far away.
• Yu Shixian explained that investigators had confirmed the site was an artificially created Demonized Land tied to Demonic Path activity.
• Yu Shixian assigned the Warrior Administration Bureau to assist local clans in clearing the site and told Fang Qianyuan to select officers, including Fang Ming and others.

Fang Qianyuan learned that the Warrior Administration was expected to prepare for the sect’s coming battles, then visited Yan Wenshan’s secret chamber and discovered that a commoner named Lin Shi had volunteered to become a Warrior. Lin Shi sought strength to avenge his family, and he remained determined despite Fang Qianyuan warning him of the risks.

• Yu Shixian instructed Fang Qianyuan to organize the Warrior Administration and keep his forces ready to fight for the sect.
• Fang Qianyuan reflected that the sect’s leaders were preparing for a coming crisis.
• Yan Wenshan brought Fang Qianyuan to a guarded chamber, where Lin Shi lay chained to a darksteel platform.
• Yan Wenshan explained that Lin Shi had volunteered for modification after demonic forces killed his family, and that he possessed a rare innate spirit root.
• Fang Qianyuan warned Lin Shi that becoming a Warrior meant obeying orders and risking his life, but Lin Shi said he had no regrets.

Yan Wenshan showed Fang Qianyuan that Lin Shi’s modification with Fang’s immortal blood had awakened a powerful Dharma Body Transformation and the ability to cultivate like an orthodox Spirit Tamer. The breakthrough came with a possible cost of greatly shortened lifespan, and Lin Shi ended the chapter by breaking his chains.

• Yan Wenshan explained that he had used Fang Qianyuan’s immortal blood to inscribe a Blood Mark Curse Seal on Lin Shi.
• Lin Shi unleashed crimson spirit essence and developed golden Dao patterns that Fang recognized as resembling his own spirit essence.
• Lin Shi transformed into a tiger-marked warrior with a tangible Dharma Body, demonstrating the power of a Heaven Tier Transformation Art.
• Yan Wenshan told Fang that Lin Shi could cultivate and advance on his own, though the process might cut his lifespan by more than half.
• Yan Wenshan presented records supporting his claims, and Lin Shi broke free of the darksteel chains and sat up.

Yan Wenshan explained the potential and risks of the Immortal Curse Seal to Fang Qianyuan after Lin Shi lost control and tried to flee. Fang Qianyuan accepted Lin Shi into his Personal Guard and urged Yan Wenshan to keep studying the seal, which he planned to test on more warriors and orthodox Spirit Tamers.

• Yan Wenshan argued that immortal blood could provide a path to cultivation and immortality, while Fang Qianyuan questioned whether it represented true advancement.
• Lin Shi broke free of his chains and tried to escape, but Yan Wenshan stopped him and bound him with magical ropes.
• Yan Wenshan explained that the Immortal Curse Seal could impair its host’s sanity, and Lin Shi’s power subsided after more than a hundred breaths without leaving him weakened.
• Lin Shi regained his reason and apologized, and Fang Qianyuan ordered Yan Wenshan to release him and told Lin Shi to join the Personal Guard.
• Fang Qianyuan encouraged Yan Wenshan to study the Immortal Curse Seal, and Yan Wenshan said he would test it on more warriors and orthodox Spirit Tamers.

Fang Qianyuan realized he could control immortal blood that had left his body, while the Wen clan debated whether to pursue the Demonic Transformation Art despite the danger of defying the great sects. The clan elders left the question unresolved as they considered whether coming chaos could give aristocratic clans a chance to rise.

• Fang Qianyuan left the Creation Hall and sensed that he could control his own detached immortal blood.
• Wen Shilong convened the Wen clan elders to discuss Wen Qingfei's letter about the Demonic Transformation Art and the coming upheaval.
• The elders warned that seeking the art could provoke the great sects and bring the Wen clan to ruin.
• Wen Shixian argued that the clan should judge the opportunity by its benefits rather than the sects' attitude.
• The clan elders considered that chaos might divide the sects and create an opportunity for aristocratic clans, but they made no decision.

Wen Qingfei returned to Yi City after years of travel and reunited with her family, while her father asked whether she still intended to marry Fang Qianyuan. She recalled how her unrequited love had driven her to seek the strength to choose her own future.

• Wen Qingfei rode a Crimson-Patterned Tiger into Yi City, where the guards recognized her and word of her return spread.
• Wen Shilong and the Wen clan welcomed Wen Qingfei home with a celebration before she returned to her chambers.
• Wen Shilong met Wen Qingfei in the Inner Hall, praised her growth, and listened as she described her travels and battles on the Northern Frontier.
• Wen Shilong asked whether Wen Qingfei still loved Fang Qianyuan and planned to marry no one else.
• Wen Qingfei remembered how her family had opposed her unrequited love for Fang Qianyuan and how she had pursued Earth Rank cultivation to control her own destiny.