Chapter Summaries

After transmigrating into the body of Lingxiao Sect disciple Zhao Changfeng, Zhao Changfeng found himself imprisoned with his surviving fellow disciples by Teng Kun, who demanded the Soul-Pacifying Bead. With the sect’s leaders and senior brother dead and the bead still missing, Ning Luo killed Lin Xingyan rather than yield to pressure, while Teng Kun promised to return in two hours.

• Teng Kun sent his Brain-Devouring Snake to kill Lv Yang, then ordered the imprisoned disciples to reveal the Soul-Pacifying Bead’s location before he returned in two hours.
• Zhao Changfeng realized he had transmigrated into a seventeen-year-old Lingxiao Sect disciple and recalled that the sect was trapped in a demon-dominated realm with little chance of rescue.
• Song Ziyan asked Zhao Changfeng and Ning Luo whether they knew where the Soul-Pacifying Bead was, while Lin Xingyan urged Ning Luo to surrender it to save them.
• Ning Luo stabbed Lin Xingyan, condemning him for pressuring the others instead of seeking revenge for their dead master and mistress.
• Zhao Changfeng concluded that Ning Luo did not know where the Soul-Pacifying Bead was either.

Zhao Changfeng discovered that his soul had replaced a disciple while his true body lay inside a mysterious bronze cauldron in an otherworldly void. He sided with Song Ziyan and Ning Luo, then sensed the Soul-Pacifying Bead hidden inside Song Ziyan and the souls of her parents within it.

• Ning Luo killed Lin Xingyan and warned Lu Tao and Xu Yifei not to pressure Song Ziyan.
• Zhao Changfeng examined his memories and realized his body had reached the Ninth Heaven of the Yuanjing stage.
• Zhao Changfeng saw a vision of foreign entities being absorbed by a bronze cauldron, then glimpsed his naked true body inside it.
• Zhao Changfeng sensed the Brain-Devouring Snake's remnant soul watching the disciples from Lv Yang's corpse.
• Zhao Changfeng declared that he would die with Song Ziyan and Ning Luo, and discovered the Soul-Pacifying Bead and her parents' souls hidden inside Song Ziyan.

Zhao Changfeng realized that Song Ziyan’s parents’ souls were hidden in the Soul-Pacifying Bead and began cultivating with energy gifted by the mysterious cauldron. When Teng Kun returned after the deadline, his Brain-Devouring Snake chose Ning Luo as its next target.

• Zhao Changfeng suspected Song Ziyan was hiding the Soul-Pacifying Bead and reflected on how the Lingxiao Sect’s disciples and leaders had concealed their motives and secrets.
• Zhao Changfeng drew the cauldron-shaped energy into his dantian, expanding and transforming his spirit sea as Ning Luo rebuked him for cultivating during their crisis.
• A demonic cultivator suffering backlash from the Corpse Demon Art attacked the cell bars, died, and prompted Song Ziyan to explain that the Soul-Pacifying Bead could ease demonic backlash.
• Lu Tao and Xu Yifei pressed Song Ziyan to surrender the bead, but she claimed she did not know where it was, and Ning Luo stopped them from taking it by force.
• Teng Kun returned when the two-hour deadline expired and sent the Brain-Devouring Snake through the bars toward Ning Luo.

Zhao Changfeng killed Ning Luo and Song Ziyan, revealed the Soul-Pacifying Bead, and helped Teng Kun destroy the souls inside it. He joined the Crippled Demon Sect after refusing to kill Lu Tao and Xu Yifei, who were allowed to leave alive.

• Ning Luo hid behind Zhao Changfeng, but Zhao disarmed him and killed him with the Spiritglow Sword.
• Zhao Changfeng led Lu Tao and Xu Yifei in attacking Song Ziyan, then killed her despite Teng Kun's warning.
• Zhao Changfeng produced the Soul-Pacifying Bead and handed it to Teng Kun, who burned the two souls inside with Soul-Scouring Demonflame.
• Zhao Changfeng asked to join the Crippled Demon Sect, but refused Teng Kun's demand that he kill Lu Tao and Xu Yifei.
• Teng Kun accepted Zhao Changfeng as his disciple and let Lu Tao and Xu Yifei leave, rejecting their request to join the sect.

Zhao Changfeng settled into life as a nominal disciple of the Crippled Demon Sect and learned how dangerous its cultivation arts were. Ruan Meizhen brought him three manuals, and he chose the Essence-Devouring Demon Art on her recommendation.

• Lu Tao and Xu Yifei asked Zhao Changfeng to help them join the Crippled Demon Sect, but he told them they were parting ways and warned them to hide their identities.
• Zhao Changfeng reflected on the sect’s high death rate, the risks of demonic cultivation, and his lack of knowledge about his transmigration.
• Ruan Meizhen visited Zhao Changfeng’s cave and explained the dangers of the Corpse Demon Art, the Essence-Devouring Demon Art, and the Ten Thousand Poisons Art.
• After Ruan Meizhen revealed that she cultivated the Ten Thousand Poisons Art, Zhao Changfeng asked for her advice and chose the Essence-Devouring Demon Art.

Zhao Changfeng accompanied Ruan Meizhen into the desert, where he learned that Crippled Demon Sect disciples could be openly predatory toward one another and that Ruan had brought him as protection against her poison backlash. After she found him a spirit beast to cultivate on, Ruan told Zhao she had taken a fancy to him.

• Teng Kun announced that Demon Mountain would return to the sect in seven days, then went to investigate the realm membrane with two formal disciples.
• Ruan Meizhen explained that suspected beings from the Biluo Realm had crossed the realm membrane and invited Zhao Changfeng to explore the desert with her.
• Zhao Changfeng and Ruan Meizhen encountered Chen Haoming and Zhang Mu beside two dead rogue cultivators, and Ruan warned them to leave Zhao alone.
• After Ruan and Zhao left, Chen Haoming and Zhang Mu discussed Ruan's poison-backlash ability and speculated that she had brought Zhao as a future substitute for its effects.
• At night, Ruan found Zhao a first-tier Dryland Sand Lizard to practice his Essence-Devouring Demon Art on.
• Zhao asked Ruan how he could repay her, and she told him she had taken a fancy to him.

Zhao Changfeng began cultivating the Essence-Devouring Demon Art with a Dryland Sand Lizard, but stopped when bloodlust and pain threatened to overwhelm him. After recovering memories of scientific athletic training, he resolved to pace his cultivation, while Ruan Meizhen watched and pressed him to reach the Yuanqi Stage.

• Ruan Meizhen restrained her urge to kill Zhao Changfeng and told him to use the Dryland Sand Lizard and Essence-Devouring Demon Art to reach the Yuanqi Stage.
• Zhao Changfeng refined only a third of the lizard's blood before bloodlust overwhelmed him, then resumed cultivating to pursue a breakthrough.
• Ruan Meizhen traded venom bottles with a gray-robed old man and told him that Chen Haoming and Zhang Mu had killed his two sons.
• Zhao Changfeng stopped cultivating after pain struck his dantian and memories taught him to manage training and recovery scientifically.
• The next day, Ruan Meizhen asked Zhao Changfeng why he had refined so little of the lizard, and he blamed his slow adjustment to demonic cultivation.

Shi Yue sought allies to help him avenge his sons, while Ruan Meizhen grew frustrated that Zhao Changfeng refused to cultivate the Essence-Devouring Demon Art. After Ruan Meizhen disappeared, Zhao Changfeng killed Lin Kexin and defeated Hong Xian, who revealed that Ruan Meizhen had sent them to kill him.

• Shi Yue decided to spend his fortune hiring people to help kill Chen Haoming and Zhang Mu, and the man in green agreed to seek allies.
• Ruan Meizhen tried to persuade Zhao Changfeng to cultivate the Essence-Devouring Demon Art, but he remained wary and did not practice.
• Ruan Meizhen left Zhao Changfeng alone in the desert and did not return for hours.
• Lin Kexin and Hong Xian found Zhao Changfeng, and Hong Xian tried to stab him with a poisoned dagger while Lin Kexin attacked.
• Zhao Changfeng dodged Hong Xian's attack, killed Lin Kexin, and beat Hong Xian until he revealed that Ruan Meizhen had sent them to kill Zhao Changfeng.

Ruan Meizhen secretly drove successive attackers toward Zhao Changfeng while he cultivated through the night, killing seven people and nearing the Yuanqi stage. As she promised to find him a first-tier spirit beast, a strange vulture watched her and Zhao Changfeng from above.

• Ruan Meizhen watched Zhao Changfeng kill Hong Xian and Lin Kexin, then vowed to keep testing him.
• Zhao Changfeng found little of value among the pair’s belongings, noticed his bloodlust faded after killing, and continued cultivating with the Dryland Sand Lizard’s blood.
• Zhao Changfeng tried absorbing spirit stones but found them far less effective, then killed a rogue cultivator who approached him.
• Ruan Meizhen secretly sent successive attackers against Zhao Changfeng through the night; he killed seven people, though the final pair wounded his arm.
• Zhao Changfeng told Ruan Meizhen he was close to reaching the Yuanqi stage, and she promised to find him a first-tier spirit beast.
• Ruan Meizhen drove off the Corpse-Eating Vultures with her poison-laced energy, while one vulture watched her and Zhao Changfeng with a sinister gaze.

Zhao Changfeng escaped Ruan Meizhen and attempted to break through to the yuanqi stage using the Essence-Devouring Demon Art, but failed after exhausting his spiritual power. A young man from the Ghost-Controlling Sect named Chen Jian took Zhao Changfeng’s possessions and left him alive because he was not useful as spiritual material.

• Ruan Meizhen discovered Zhao Changfeng had escaped and raced after him, but stopped to suppress the toxins and inner demons stirred by her anger.
• Zhao Changfeng fled away from Demon Mountain, then used the Essence-Devouring Demon Art and spirit stones to attempt his breakthrough.
• Zhao Changfeng failed to breach the middle dantian’s barrier and stopped with his lower dantian drained and his eyes crimson.
• Chen Jian appeared with the Corpse-Eating Vulture, demanded Zhao Changfeng’s belongings, and took the spirit stones and implements.
• Chen Jian told Zhao Changfeng he was alive only because his failed breakthrough made him worthless as spiritual material, then introduced himself as a member of the Ghost-Controlling Sect and left.

Zhao Changfeng reunited with Ruan Meizhen in the Sola Desert, where she helped him hunt spirit beasts so he could restore his spiritual power. After realizing that the Bronze Cauldron’s extraordinary energy could expand his sea of spiritual qi before a major breakthrough, he looked forward to using it to improve his innate talent.

• Zhao Changfeng survived in the Sola Desert by refining small creatures and set out to return to Demon Mountain after running out of spirit stones.
• Ruan Meizhen found Zhao Changfeng, and he told her that Chen Jian had robbed him but spared him because he had not reached the yuanqi stage.
• Ruan Meizhen explained that Chen Jian’s methods suggested he had reached the primordial spirit realm, then took Zhao Changfeng hunting for spirit beasts.
• Zhao Changfeng refined a Four-Eared Sand Fox with the Essence-Devouring Demon Art and asked Ruan Meizhen to find him another spirit beast.
• Ruan Meizhen deduced that Zhao Changfeng’s first breakthrough attempt had failed, and Zhao Changfeng realized the Bronze Cauldron’s gift could expand his sea of spiritual qi ahead of a major breakthrough.

Zhao Changfeng traveled with Ruan Meizhen as Demon Spirits began attacking cultivators in the Sola Desert. His fellow disciples supplied him with beast corpses and pressured him to attempt a breakthrough so Ruan Meizhen could risk advancing, leaving him trapped under their watchful eyes.

• Ruan Meizhen and Zhao Changfeng found two dead rogue cultivators whose bodies and belongings showed no sign of the Crippled Demon Sect's methods.
• Chen Haoming told Ruan Meizhen that Demon Spirits had crossed into the Sola Desert and killed cultivators, prompting her to gather the disciples and give orders to stay alert and keep their distance.
• Zhao Changfeng realized his fellow disciples wanted him to break through so Ruan Meizhen could attempt to enter the Primordial Spirit Realm and protect the group.
• Chi Jingchen and other disciples offered Zhao Changfeng beast corpses to speed his breakthrough, while Ruan Meizhen told Chen Haoming she had less than a thirty percent chance of success.
• On the fourth night, Zhao Changfeng stopped refining a Four-Eared Sand Fox and saw the disciples watching him, waiting for him to attempt his breakthrough.

Zhao Changfeng attempted to break through to the yuanqi stage under pressure from Ruan Meizhen and his fellow disciples, but his first two attempts failed. He succeeded on his third attempt, becoming a yuanqi stage cultivator and qualifying to bear Ruan Meizhen’s calamity in her stead.

• Zhao Changfeng began a second breakthrough attempt after Chi Jingchen supplied spirit stones and Ling Mei gave him a Spiritual Qi Pill.
• Zhao Changfeng swallowed the pill when his spiritual power ran low, but its impure aura intensified his bloodlust and caused his second attempt to fail.
• Zhao Changfeng accused Ling Mei of giving him a faulty pill, and Ruan Meizhen seized Ling Mei before releasing her and ordering the others to provide Zhao with more resources.
• Zhao Changfeng checked the spirit stones with the Essence-Devouring Demon Art, replenished his spiritual power with the remaining spirit beasts, and began his third attempt.
• Zhao Changfeng shattered the barrier to his middle dantian, expanded his sea of spiritual qi, and reached the yuanqi stage.
• Zhao Changfeng told Ruan Meizhen he had not failed her, knowing his breakthrough qualified him to bear her calamity.

Ruan Meizhen led the group toward Demon Mountain while delaying her breakthrough, and Zhao Changfeng uncovered a possible explanation for Song Ziyan’s stalling as he searched for a way to survive. When night fell, Ruan Meizhen prepared to break through and asked Zhao Changfeng to guard her.

• Ruan Meizhen chose to keep traveling toward Demon Mountain rather than attempt a breakthrough in the daytime, and Zhao Changfeng followed behind the group without supplies or a combat technique.
• Zhao Changfeng discovered that a miniature bronze cauldron had reappeared in his sea of spiritual qi, but he could neither control nor move it.
• Zhao Changfeng reasoned that Song Zejun and Zhou Jin might have planned to use the Demon Spirits’ arrival to help Song Ziyan escape with the Soul-Pacifying Bead.
• Zhao Changfeng urged Ruan Meizhen to hurry toward Demon Mountain, but she refused to split up and explained that she would arrive alone only as night fell.
• As the fifth frigid night arrived, Ruan Meizhen set out bottles and jars of venom to prepare for her breakthrough while the others scattered nearby.
• Ruan Meizhen stopped Zhao Changfeng from leaving and asked him to stand guard because he was the only one she trusted.

Paralyzed by Ruan Meizhen’s poison, Zhao Changfeng sensed a connection between the Small Cauldron within him and the Heavenly Cauldron beyond the heavens, but could not use it to escape. Ruan Meizhen’s breakthrough failed, leaving both her and Zhao dying as the sect members abandoned them and resumed their journey toward Demon Mountain.

• Ruan Meizhen poisoned Zhao Changfeng and prepared for her breakthrough while he lay helpless and sensed the Heavenly Cauldron through the Small Cauldron within him.
• Ruan Meizhen’s breakthrough was overwhelmed by heart-demon evil desire, and she crawled to Zhao Changfeng and poured lethal poison into him through their joined hands.
• Chen Haoming returned with Ling Mei, whom he had coerced into repaying him despite having sold her the defective Spiritual Qi Pill that caused trouble.
• After two hours, Chi Jingchen and the others found Ruan Meizhen and Zhao Changfeng blackened by poison; Chi Jingchen took their spirit materials, and the group set off for Demon Mountain.
• Chen Haoming sent Zhang Mu ahead to circle back and harvest the poisoned bodies, but decided not to approach Ruan Meizhen while she was still alive and dangerously afflicted.

After reliving the memory of Xu Lang severing her arm and humiliating her, Ruan Meizhen gave up on survival until Zhao Changfeng saved her by absorbing the poison. Zhao Changfeng revealed that her obsessive inner demon could strengthen the mysterious power in his cauldron, then offered to help her seek revenge and break through to the Primordial Spirit Realm; she responded by teaching him the Blood Shadow Art.

• Ruan Meizhen recalled how Xu Lang severed her arm before the Primal Demon Temple and called her a wretched slave while courting Zhan Jingsi.
• After awakening in the Sola Desert, Ruan Meizhen stopped resisting the poison and waited for death.
• Zhao Changfeng absorbed the toxins from Ruan Meizhen and demanded the offensive techniques paired with the Essence-Devouring Demon Art.
• Zhao Changfeng discovered that Ruan Meizhen's memories of her inner demon generated new power within his illusory cauldron.
• Zhao Changfeng promised to keep Ruan Meizhen alive, help her avenge herself, and guide her next breakthrough; Ruan Meizhen began teaching him the Blood Shadow Art.

Zhao Changfeng and Ruan Meizhen ambushed and killed Zhang Mu, then Zhao Changfeng took his spirit stones and began cultivating. When another presence approached, Zhao Changfeng prepared to test the strange force in his small cauldron in a new fight.

• Ruan Meizhen pretended to be dead while Zhao Changfeng waited for Zhang Mu to return.
• Zhang Mu approached Zhao Changfeng, and Zhao Changfeng ambushed him with Ruan Meizhen’s poison and the Blood Shadow Art.
• Zhao Changfeng beat Zhang Mu to death, then praised Ruan Meizhen’s poison and explained that the Azure Small Cauldron had helped him suppress it.
• Zhao Changfeng knocked Ruan Meizhen away from Zhang Mu’s corpse, seized the cloth bags, and used two spirit stones to recover.
• Ruan Meizhen questioned how Zhao Changfeng had survived the poison and wondered whether he could help her reach the Primordial Spirit Realm.
• When footsteps sounded again, Zhao Changfeng prepared to fight and test the strange force in his small cauldron.

Zhao Changfeng used the cauldron’s power to kill a rogue cultivator and drive off Shi Yue’s group, then resumed cultivating as Ruan Meizhen left. He later suffered a terrifying backlash from Ruan Meizhen’s inner demon and realized her unresolved obsession had become his karmic burden.

• Shi Yue asked Ruan Meizhen for his dead son’s keepsake, but she refused and claimed everything Zhang Mu owned.
• Zhao Changfeng killed a rogue cultivator with Blood Shadow Possession empowered by the cauldron, and Shi Yue and the remaining rogues fled.
• Zhao Changfeng explained that Shi Yue’s group had tested whether he and Ruan Meizhen were still weakened by poison, then searched the corpse for belongings while Ruan Meizhen left.
• During cultivation, Zhao Changfeng relived a scene at the Primal Demon Temple involving Ruan Meizhen, Zhan Jingsi, and Xu Lang, then awakened suffering a severe backlash.
• Zhao Changfeng realized that Ruan Meizhen’s unresolved inner demon and obsession had transferred to him, threatening his future breakthroughs.

Zhao Changfeng examined his cultivation and discovered that willpower drawn from Ruan Meizhen’s inner-demon obsession strengthened his Blood Shadow Art. After Teng Kun ordered the Crippled Demon Sect disciples to gather at Tamu Town to stop the Demon Spirits, Ruan Meizhen returned and hurried Zhao Changfeng away.

• Zhao Changfeng assessed his new yuanqi-stage cultivation and considered how the Essence-Devouring Demon Art could use Spirit Beasts to nourish his qi and blood.
• Zhao Changfeng named the energy produced by the Small Cauldron’s inner-demon obsession willpower and used it to create a black-and-red blood shadow with a semblance of intelligence.
• Zhao Changfeng realized the willpower greatly amplified the Blood Shadow Art and decided not to resolve Ruan Meizhen’s inner-demon obsession yet.
• Teng Kun broadcast an order through the Black Iron Demon Token for all Crippled Demon Sect disciples to rush to Tamu Town and stop the Demon Spirits from reaching the mortal-world cities.
• Ruan Meizhen returned, urged Zhao Changfeng to go with her to Tamu Town, and felt a strange new bond between them.

As the demon spirit tide overran Demon Mountain, Zhao Changfeng and Ruan Meizhen joined the survivors heading to Tamu Town, where the sect disciples and rogue cultivators gathered to hold the creatures back from Heavenly Shield City. Five days later, Zhao Changfeng spotted Song Zejun and Zhou Jin—two people who should have been dead—and retreated in alarm.

• Ruan Meizhen explained that demon spirits had overrun Demon Mountain and were likely to head for Tamu Town, while Zhao Changfeng learned that the devil dao sects protected mortal kingdoms to preserve their supply of future disciples.
• Chen Haoming turned his group toward Tamu Town after Teng Kun warned them that Demon Mountain had fallen to demon spirits.
• Shi Yue learned of the demon spirit tide with his bronze bell and hurried with two rogue cultivators to Tamu Town to warn the town and request reinforcements from Heavenly Shield City.
• Five days later, Zhao Changfeng and Ruan Meizhen stayed in a stone house in Tamu Town, where Ruan Meizhen told him that fleeing would make him a traitor to the Crippled Demon Sect.
• Zhao Changfeng spotted Song Zejun and Zhou Jin outside and withdrew into the house, claiming that demonic cultivation had caused a mental backlash.