Chapter Summaries

Wang Yan reached great completion of the Core Condensation Realm, gained the Water-Fire Dragon Pearl, and crafted a Disguise Card to conceal his cultivation. After Ye Shisan arrived, he revealed that Lin Nation’s three major sects had declared war on Cloud Nation.

• Wang Yan drew the Water-Fire Dragon Pearl and learned that his dual Dantians let him barely activate an ancient treasure, though the Card Fairy warned him not to challenge Golden Core Stage cultivators.
• The Card Fairy urged Wang Yan to hide his rapid cultivation and taught him to craft a Disguise Card.
• Wang Yan accidentally saw Zhang Qiulin and Zhang Qiulang cultivating naked, then stopped watching and decided to enter seclusion.
• Wang Yan used the Disguise Card to lower his displayed cultivation before meeting Ye Shisan, while Zhang Qiulin and Zhang Qiulang joked that they had married him.
• Ye Shisan recognized that Zhang Qiulin and Zhang Qiulang were hiding with Wang Yan and asked about his speed; Wang Yan claimed he had mastered a divine ability.
• Ye Shisan told Wang Yan that Lin Nation’s three major sects had declared war on Cloud Nation.

Wang Yan learned that the Three Great Sects of Lin Nation were preparing for war against Cloud Nation and strengthened his combat readiness by refining puppets. He was summoned to assemble with the Firecloud Sect, where he found Venerable Gray Three and dozens of cultivators gathered.

• Ye Shisan told Wang Yan that the Three Great Sects of Lin Nation were gathering cultivators for a possible war, though they did not know the real cause.
• Wang Yan, Ye Shisan, and the two women exchanged cultivation advice and sparred, with Wang Yan defeating them individually before conceding when they challenged him together.
• Ye Shisan moved into Wang Yan's Cave Abode Secret Realm to cultivate, while Wang Yan resolved to prepare for war by refining puppets.
• Zhang Qiulin told Wang Yan that their master had ordered them to assemble, and Venerable Gray Three sent Wang Yan the same summons.
• Wang Yan took the two women to Mystery Cloud Peak, then went to Yellow Cloud Peak and found dozens of cultivators gathered around Venerable Gray Three and two Golden Core Stage cultivators.

Venerable Gray Three revealed that the Three Great Sects of Lin Nation had invaded Cloud Nation and divided the cultivators of Yellow Cloud Peak between the war and its defense. Wang Yan was left behind to guard the peak, while Venerable Gray Three prepared to depart and gave him a Storage Bag that could only be opened later.

• Venerable Gray Three introduced Zhong Ling and Lin Xia to Wang Yan, then announced that the Three Great Sects of Lin Nation had joined forces and occupied three border cities.
• Venerable Gray Three selected more than half the cultivators, including Liu Wushuang, to go to war, while Wang Yan and the others were assigned to defend Yellow Cloud Peak.
• Venerable Gray Three told the selected cultivators to prepare for battle and summoned Wang Yan to his cave abode.
• Wang Yan volunteered to join the war, but Venerable Gray Three refused and urged him to cultivate and protect the Firecloud Sect in the future.
• Venerable Gray Three gave Wang Yan a Storage Bag that he could open after its divine-sense mark disappeared or he reached the Golden Core Stage, then sent him away.

After the Cloud Nation’s allied army was trapped in the Ten Thousand Lakes Mountain Range, Wang Yan and Yellow Cloud Peak’s disciples were ordered to join a relief force. The army departed, and Lingyunzi proposed forming a forward scouting unit.

• Wang Yan heard the emergency bell and learned from Lin Xia that the allied army had been surrounded by the Lin Nation’s forces in the Ten Thousand Lakes Mountain Range.
• Lin Xia ordered Yellow Cloud Peak’s Core Condensation Realm disciples to prepare for battle, and Wang Yan readied his five new puppets.
• At Firecloud Divine Mountain, Daoist Dongling and Lingyunzi assembled the relief army; Lingyunzi recognized Wang Yan, who denied having met him before.
• Earth Cloud Peak’s disciples arrived, and Daoist Dongling ordered the assembled cultivators to board the Flying Boats and fight for the Firecloud Sect.
• As the fleet traveled toward the front, Lingyunzi asked Daoist Dongling to select disciples for a forward scouting unit.

Lingyunzi secured command of a vanguard by claiming he wanted to protect the sect, then used his position to recruit disciples he wanted near him. He assembled the team with Wang Yan, Liu Wushuang, Ye Shisan, and the Linlang sisters, leaving Fairy Dream Mysterious unable to stop him.

• Daoist Dongling and the Golden Core Stage cultivators agreed to form a vanguard after Lingyunzi proposed the plan.
• Lingyunzi insisted on leading the vanguard and argued that Fairy Dream Mysterious had obstructed his pursuit of her two disciples, the Linlang sisters.
• Fairy Dream Mysterious made Lingyunzi promise to harbor no improper intentions toward her disciples during the battle, and he agreed while claiming the sect came first.
• Lingyunzi recruited Wang Yan and Liu Wushuang from Yellow Cloud Peak and selected Ye Shisan and another powerful cultivator from Earth Cloud Peak.
• Lingyunzi ordered Zhang Qiulin and Zhang Qiulang to join the vanguard; Fairy Dream Mysterious reluctantly let them go, and they felt reassured when they saw Wang Yan and Ye Shisan on the team.
• Ye Shisan greeted the Linlang sisters, and Lingyunzi glared at him coldly.

Lingyunzi led the Vanguard Team toward the front, using his authority to harass Zhang Qiulin and Zhang Qiulang while Wang Yan struggled to prevent a confrontation. When Lingyunzi grabbed Zhang Qiulin, Wang Yan warned of enemies below, and the team spotted cultivators fleeing from the hills.

• Lingyunzi explained that the Vanguard Team would scout ahead, then led Wang Yan and the others away from the Flying Boat.
• While they flew, Lingyunzi crowded Zhang Qiulin and Zhang Qiulang and sent them unwanted voice transmissions, while Wang Yan cautioned Ye Shisan against intervening.
• Lingyunzi seized Zhang Qiulin's hand, and Zhang Qiulang attacked him with the Mandarin Duck Scissors, which his defenses repelled.
• Wang Yan stopped Ye Shisan from attacking and shouted a warning about enemies, prompting Lingyunzi and the other cultivators to rush down toward the hills.
• A shout came from the hills, and streaks of escape light scattered in every direction.

Wang Yan pursued a masked cultivator with Ye Shisan and the Zhang sisters, then recognized a chance to escape amid the fight against the Black Evil Sect. He drew the women and Ye Shisan into his Cave Abode Secret Realm and flew away from Lingyunzi.

• Lingyunzi killed three masked cultivators with Golden Light Sword-Rays as the survivors fled in different directions, and the Firecloud Sect cultivators split up to pursue them.
• Lingyunzi chased one masked cultivator, who attacked him with Black-Light Beads that unleashed a storm of skulls and explosions.
• Wang Yan used his Azure Wind Wings to intercept Ye Shisan, then blocked another Black-Light Bead with Red-Light Flame Fists while carrying Ye Shisan back from the blast.
• The masked cultivator escaped, and Wang Yan stopped Ye Shisan from pursuing him and sent Zhang Qiulin and Zhang Qiulang into his Cave Abode Secret Realm.
• Wang Yan brought Ye Shisan into the secret realm and flew in the opposite direction from Lingyunzi to make their escape.

Wang Yan fled the front lines with Ye Shisan and two women to escape Lingyunzi, but Lingyunzi tracked them to a barren mountain and attacked. After revealing that he had secretly marked Zhang Qiulin and attempting to turn the group against Wang Yan, Lingyunzi faced their united defiance as Wang Yan ordered an attack.

• Wang Yan flew away from the front lines with Ye Shisan and the two women, explaining that he feared Lingyunzi and wanted to hide.
• Ye Shisan objected to fleeing, but Wang Yan and the women persuaded him to stay with them.
• After half a day, the group reached barren mountains, where Lingyunzi appeared from invisibility and struck Wang Yan with a Golden Sword-Ray.
• Lingyunzi accused the group of desertion and revealed that he had placed a tracking mark on Zhang Qiulin.
• Lingyunzi offered to spare the women and Ye Shisan if they returned with him and killed Wang Yan, but they refused, and Wang Yan ordered them to attack.

Wang Yan fled through the mountains to lure Lingyunzi away while preparing an ambush, and Ye Shisan and the Zhang sisters followed rather than escaping. Wang Yan detonated traps in a gorge to bury Lingyunzi beneath collapsing cliffs.

• Wang Yan flew away as Lingyunzi attacked, while Ye Shisan and the Zhang sisters struck Lingyunzi with their weapons and spells but could not penetrate his Golden Disc defense.
• Lingyunzi abandoned the others and chased Wang Yan into the valley, and Ye Shisan and the Zhang sisters followed after Zhang Qiulin revealed she could not escape because Lingyunzi had placed a restriction on her.
• Wang Yan activated Immortal Cards while leading Lingyunzi through the mountains, hoping to buy time and carry out a plan to defeat him.
• Lingyunzi closed in on Wang Yan as he entered a gorge, where Wang Yan had planted Fire Blast Techniques along both cliffs.
• Wang Yan shouted for the traps to explode, causing the cliffs to collapse and enormous boulders to rain down on Lingyunzi.

Wang Yan fought Lingyunzi with explosive attacks and five cannon puppets, but Lingyunzi escaped with a teleportation treasure and retaliated with a powerful Golden Gourd. Wang Yan blocked the gourd’s golden beams with the Cave Abode Secret Realm Pagoda, while Lingyunzi began charging another attack and Card Fairy urged Wang Yan to flee.

• Lingyunzi broke free of Wang Yan’s attacks and was surrounded by five Metal Puppets, whose Spirit Cannons blasted him and the surrounding valley.
• Lingyunzi used Golden Light Wings and a Teleportation Treasure to evade the cannon beams, then reappeared and sent his Golden Gourd smashing toward Wang Yan.
• Wang Yan dodged the Golden Gourd’s first strike with his Azure Wind Light Wings, but its impact blasted a hole through a mountain peak.
• The Golden Gourd fired a storm of golden beams at Wang Yan, who summoned the Cave Abode Secret Realm Pagoda to deflect them and escape harm.
• Lingyunzi began gathering power for another attack, and Card Fairy warned Wang Yan to run.

Ye Shisan saved Wang Yan by knocking the Golden Gourd’s beam off course, forcing Lingyunzi to teleport and badly depleting his power. Zhang Qiulin and Zhang Qiulang then shattered Lingyunzi’s barrier and blasted him backward, just as a wave of five-colored spiritual light descended on him.

• Ye Shisan struck the Golden Gourd aside, redirecting its beam toward Lingyunzi and saving Wang Yan.
• Lingyunzi used the Teleportation Divine Ability to evade the beam, spending more magic power and blood essence than before.
• Zhang Qiulin and Zhang Qiulang attacked Lingyunzi with the Mandarin Duck Scissors and broke through his weakened golden barrier.
• Lingyunzi shielded himself with Golden Light Armor but was hurled hundreds of feet backward by the scissors.
• As Lingyunzi prepared a powerful divine ability, a wave of five-colored spiritual light crashed down toward his head.

Wang Yan used the Cave Abode Secret Realm Pagoda to capture Lingyunzi and subdued him inside its formations. Lingyunzi ended the chapter bound and unable to move or use his magic power.

• Lingyunzi activated a Golden Light Talisman, but the Cave Abode Secret Realm Pagoda enveloped him and drew him inside.
• Wang Yan entered the secret realm and used its formation to trap Lingyunzi, while Lingyunzi’s Golden Light Bowl lost its connection to him.
• The formation crushed Lingyunzi’s golden protective barrier and bound him in a net of five-colored spiritual light.
• Wang Yan mocked Lingyunzi but held back from killing him because of the consequences of killing a powerful Firecloud Sect member.
• Ye Shisan joined Wang Yan, who sealed Lingyunzi’s magic power and left him suspended and unable to move.

Wang Yan learned that the captured Golden Core cultivator Lingyunzi possessed a Sharp Gold Body, a rare constitution that explained both his strength and disfigurement. Purple Mountain Medicine Sage took Lingyunzi away to turn him into a powerful puppet and speed his own recovery, while Wang Yan wondered why Ye Shisan had not returned.

• Wang Yan stopped Ye Shisan from killing Lingyunzi and asked him to bring Linlang in.
• Card Fairy noticed golden traces on Lingyunzi’s skin and advised Wang Yan to consult Purple Mountain Medicine Sage.
• Purple Mountain Medicine Sage identified Lingyunzi’s Sharp Gold Body, explaining that metal-type spirit medicine had transformed his body and left him unable to change his appearance without reaching the Divine Communion Realm.
• Purple Mountain Medicine Sage discovered a powerful death restriction on Lingyunzi and proposed turning him into a puppet while absorbing some of his golden core and soul power.
• Wang Yan agreed, and Purple Mountain Medicine Sage took Lingyunzi away to work on the puppet for two days.
• Wang Yan noticed that Ye Shisan and the two women had been gone for about a quarter of an hour and wondered what had happened.

Wang Yan concealed Lingyunzi’s capture from Liu Wushuang and Wang Lihong, then learned that the Purple Mountain Medicine Sage had turned Lingyunzi into a controllable puppet. After using Lingyunzi to maintain the deception, Wang Yan decided to take the group toward the coming battle.

• Wang Yan told Liu Wushuang and Wang Lihong that Lingyunzi was badly injured and persuaded Wang Lihong to send his intelligence about a Black Evil Sect ambush directly to the main force.
• Wang Yan and his companions concealed Lingyunzi in the crater, set up a restriction array, and agreed on a consistent story about his condition.
• Two days later, Wang Yan entered the Cave Abode Secret Realm and learned that the Purple Mountain Medicine Sage had erased Lingyunzi’s memories and prepared him to be controlled as a Humanoid Puppet.
• Wang Yan bound Lingyunzi with his blood and divine sense, then brought him outside to face the others.
• Wang Yan used Lingyunzi to scold Liu Wushuang and Wang Lihong, then decided the group should go assess the coming battle.

Wang Yan returned toward the Firecloud Sect with Lingyunzi under his control and investigated a battle against the Black Evil Sect. As the fighting stalled, four masked cultivators began summoning the Black Evil King beneath the valley.

• Wang Yan took control of Lingyunzi, kept his bound treasures available through the puppet, and agreed with the others to return to the Firecloud Sect.
• Lingyunzi carried Wang Yan and the others toward the Black Evil Sect’s gathering place, where they heard distant fighting and concealed themselves to observe.
• Wang Yan’s group found Firecloud Sect cultivators trapping masked Black Evil Sect fighters inside a valley, but saw no enemy Golden Core cultivators and chose to wait before joining the battle.
• Aboard the Firecloud Sect’s Flying Boats, Daoist Dongling worried that the missing enemy Golden Core cultivators might be preparing a hidden attack.
• In a cavern beneath the valley, four masked cultivators completed a blood formation and summoned the Black Evil King, whose giant claw emerged from a dark spatial vortex.

The Black Evil King emerged from the cavern and slaughtered a Masked Cultivator before the surviving Black Evil Sect cultivators escaped through a Teleportation Array. He then burst into the valley and attacked both sects, forcing Daoist Dongling to order the Firecloud Sect to retreat as the carnage continued.

• The Black Evil King froze a Masked Cultivator with his red gaze, crushed him with a ghost claw, and devoured his flesh and primordial spirit.
• The lead Masked Cultivator and two companions activated a Teleportation Array, but the Black Evil King smashed it after they vanished.
• The Black Evil King broke through a cliff into the valley and killed or injured cultivators from both the Black Evil Sect and the Firecloud Sect with his shock waves.
• Daoist Dongling recognized the Black Evil King, called the attack a trap, and ordered the Firecloud Sect cultivators to retreat.
• The Black Evil King rampaged through the valley and slaughtered cultivators and disciples from both sides.

Wang Yan and Card Fairy stayed behind to confront the Black Evil King after the Skull Heaven-and-Earth Formation trapped the cultivators in the valley. Card Fairy broke open the formation and led Wang Yan inside, where the Black Evil King was approaching and the trapped disciples begged for rescue.

• Wang Yan ordered his companions to retreat, but Card Fairy persuaded him to stay because she knew the Black Evil King's weakness and wanted to refine a Blood Ghost Demon Card from his blood.
• The Skull Heaven-and-Earth Formation sealed the valley, and Daoist Dongling ordered the surviving cultivators outside to abandon those trapped within.
• The Black Evil King slaughtered cultivators inside the formation while their attacks failed to harm him and the barrier blocked their escape.
• Card Fairy controlled Lingyunzi and opened a hole in the formation, then entered the valley with Wang Yan as the opening rapidly closed behind them.
• Trapped cultivators pleaded with Wang Yan to let them out, but Card Fairy warned him that the Black Evil King was approaching, and Wang Yan prepared to act.

Wang Yan and Lingyunzi exploited the Black Evil King’s weaknesses to defeat and capture him, ending the slaughter in the valley. With the Skull Heaven-and-Earth Formation still trapping more than a hundred Black Evil Sect disciples, Wang Yan formed an idea for what to do next.

• Card Fairy warned Wang Yan to avoid the Black Evil King’s soul attacks and explained how to counter him.
• Lingyunzi charged the Black Evil King, whose soul attacks could not harm the soulless puppet, and used the Golden Gourd to strip away his ghost qi.
• As the Black Evil King weakened, Wang Yan captured him with Five-colored Spiritual Light without revealing the Cave Abode Secret Realm Pagoda.
• The Firecloud Sect cultivators and the survivors in the valley reacted with relief and disbelief, while the trapped Black Evil Sect disciples gathered warily.
• Wang Yan considered the danger of fighting the remaining Black Evil Sect disciples and directed Lingyunzi to fly toward them after an idea came to him.

Wang Yan, controlling Lingyunzi, forced the Black Evil Sect cultivators to choose between surrendering and being left trapped in the formation. After they surrendered, Wang Yan concealed his control of Lingyunzi by having him pretend to be exhausted as he returned to the Firecloud Sect’s Flying Boat.

• Lingyunzi told the Black Evil Sect cultivators that their sect had abandoned them and demanded their surrender, threatening to leave them trapped in the formation.
• When one wounded cultivator tried to cross over, a Black Evil Sect fighter attacked him, but Lingyunzi destroyed the attacker’s Bone Blades and trapped him in the Golden Light Bowl.
• Lingyunzi began a final count, and the Black Evil Sect cultivators surrendered one after another; he ordered the Firecloud Sect disciples to guard them.
• Lingyunzi opened a way out of the formation and emerged with Wang Yan, then pretended to be injured and low on magic power before flying to the Flying Boat.

Wang Yan deflected questions about the ambush and resisted attempts to make the Vanguard Team take the blame for the Firecloud Sect army’s losses. After Lingyunzi confronted the Golden Core Cultivators aboard the Flying Boat, Master Li arrived to judge the dispute.

• Daoist Dongling questioned Wang Yan, who credited Lingyunzi with the operation and gave Lin Xia a Jade Slip containing the formation-entry incantation.
• Wang Yan told investigators that Lingyunzi had fought a Black Evil Sect Golden Core Cultivator, while withholding other details and blaming faulty intelligence on Wang Lihong and Liu Wushuang.
• Daoist Dongling kept the Vanguard Team together aboard a Flying Boat as the Firecloud Sect army continued onward, while Lin Xia stayed behind to deal with Black Evil Sect cultivators in the valley.
• News arrived that the armies of all five Cloud Nation sects had suffered heavy losses from Lin Nation ambushes, though the Firecloud Sect gained prestige for capturing Black Evil Sect disciples and Lingyunzi killing the Black Evil King.
• Wang Yan controlled Lingyunzi as he berated the Golden Core Cultivators for trying to make the Vanguard Team bear responsibility for the army’s decision to attack.
• Daoist Dongling halted the argument when Master Li arrived, and the Golden Core Cultivators greeted him respectfully.