Chapter Summaries

Huang Xiao entered the Ghost Capital with the Ghost Capital Token to seek treasures and a method to resolve the Demon Refining Formula, while Huo Lian faced Fan Liya and the Jiang brothers outside. Huo Lian refused to hand over Yan Youwang and offered the Heavenly Evil Imperishable Art and a method to restore some essence blood in exchange for his safety.

• The Patriarch told Huang Xiao that the cultivation method Essence Blood Annihilation inside the Ghost Capital could help resolve the Demon Refining Formula.
• Huang Xiao used the Ghost Capital Token to withstand the capital’s formation and ghost qi and entered the Ghost Capital.
• Huo Lian stopped Fan Liya from pursuing Huang Xiao, then refused to surrender Yan Youwang to Fan Liya and Jiang Pandong.
• Huo Lian offered Jiang Pandong and Jiang Pannan the First Part of the Heavenly Evil Imperishable Art if they stopped pursuing Yan Youwang.
• Huo Lian offered Fan Liya a method to restore some essence blood, extend his lifespan, and increase his strength, which caught Fan Liya’s interest.

Huo Lian bargained with Fan Liya and Jiang Pandong to keep them from interfering with Yan Youwang or Huang Xiao while Ghost Capital was manifested, offering them cultivation methods in return. After teaching them the methods, Huo Lian waited with the others as Huang Xiao explored Ghost Capital and approached the ruined city at its center.

• Huo Lian offered Fan Liya a method to restore essence blood and Jiang Pandong a cultivation method in exchange for their restraint during Huang Xiao's time in Ghost Capital.
• Fan Liya agreed not to attack Yan Youwang or sabotage Huang Xiao's stay, and accepted that any treasures Huang Xiao found would belong to him.
• Jiang Pandong agreed that the Heavenly Evil Sect would not attack Yan Youwang if Huo Lian returned the first part of the Heavenly Evil Imperishable Art.
• Huo Lian taught the promised cultivation methods to Fan Liya and Jiang Pandong, and they agreed to wait without starting a conflict.
• Huang Xiao entered Ghost Capital, surveyed its desolate ruins, and spotted a city ahead where he could search for treasures.

Huang Xiao used the Ghost Capital Token’s resonance to escape a mind-clouding formation and reach the Ghost Capital. He found five well-preserved courtyards at the city’s center and prepared to investigate them for the Supreme Ghost Stele and Essence Blood Annihilation.

• Huang Xiao realized a shifting formation had trapped him and clouded his mind, leaving him unable to approach the city.
• Huang Xiao sensed the Ghost Capital Token resonating with the city and followed its guidance through the formation to the city gate.
• Huang Xiao entered the ruined city and spotted several houses still standing in its center, which he suspected were protected by formations.
• Huang Xiao searched the outer ruins but found nothing, then followed the token’s aura for half a day to the central buildings.
• Huang Xiao found five connected courtyards arranged in a row and judged the largest, central courtyard to be the main one.

Huang Xiao chose the room on the far left to test the formations in the Ghost Capital before entering the central Main House in search of the Supreme Ghost Stele. After finding treasures in the courtyard and a cryptic message on the room’s door, he searched the empty room for two hours but found no hidden treasures.

• Huang Xiao studied the skeletal remains outside the five houses and decided to enter the room on the far left before attempting the Main House.
• Huang Xiao approached the house and discovered that the Ghost Capital Token no longer guided him through the more intricate formation.
• Huang Xiao opened the courtyard gate and found cultivation methods, weapons, and other treasures scattered across the ground beneath a protective formation.
• Huang Xiao read the message “Greed is human nature!” on the room’s door and left the courtyard treasures untouched as he went inside.
• Huang Xiao found the room empty and searched it for two hours, but discovered no treasures, hidden compartments, or concealed formations.

Huang Xiao investigated the four outer buildings, concluded the treasures he sought were likely in the middle building, and entered its hidden formation. The Ghost Capital Token opened a stone gate after its carvings unleashed a painful Divine Sense attack on him.

• Huang Xiao left an empty room in one outer building and reasoned that the courtyard treasures might be bait, so he avoided taking them.
• Huang Xiao searched the other three buildings and found their courtyards full of varied treasures but their rooms empty.
• Huang Xiao entered the middle building, found its courtyard and room apparently empty, and was transported by a hidden formation into an underground chamber.
• Huang Xiao followed a dim passage for nearly an hour until he reached a carved stone gate and found he had no way back.
• The Ghost Capital Token flew to the gate and emitted a black halo, bringing its carved ghosts and monsters to life and causing Huang Xiao intense Divine Sense pain.
• The stone gate shuddered and slowly rose.

Huang Xiao discovered the Supreme Ghost Stele embedded in a larger stele inside a burial chamber and tried to remove it. The Supreme Ghost Stele trapped him and began devouring his essence blood and attacking his divine sense as he struggled to stay lucid.

• Huang Xiao entered a burial chamber filled with black stone coffins and found a massive coffin, a stele, and a stone box at the far end.
• Huang Xiao realized that a smaller Supreme Ghost Stele was embedded within the larger stele and suspected formations connected it to the coffins.
• Huang Xiao examined the burial chamber, then reached for the Supreme Ghost Stele because he had little time remaining.
• Huang Xiao touched the Supreme Ghost Stele and tried to pry it from the larger stele, but it seized his hand and attacked his divine sense.
• Huang Xiao used the mental cultivation method from the Upper Clarity Scripture to resist the attack while the Supreme Ghost Stele drained his essence blood.

Huang Xiao survived after the Supreme Ghost Stele drained all his essence blood, while a gaunt man emerged from the stone coffin and left to seek more essence blood. Outside the Ghost Capital, Huo Lian and the others noticed something that changed their expressions as they waited.

• The Supreme Ghost Stele drained Huang Xiao’s essence blood, and the stone coffin opened as a gaunt man emerged.
• The man dismissed Huang Xiao’s death, discovered that more of his sleeping subordinates had died, and used the Supreme Ghost Stele’s formation to leave the chamber in search of essence blood.
• Two hours later, Huang Xiao revived through Imperishable True Qi and the Longevity Chapter, then began restoring his essence blood.
• Huo Lian, Yan Youwang, Fan Liya, Jiang Pandong, Jiang Pannan, Fu Ling, and the others waited outside the Ghost Capital, divided over Yan Youwang’s decision to give Huang Xiao the last Ghost Capital Token.
• Huo Lian looked toward the Ghost Capital, and Fan Liya and the others followed his gaze, their expressions abruptly changing.

A mysterious Ghost Spirit Sect elder emerged from the Ghost Capital and drained blood essence from Jiang Pandong and Jiang Pannan, while claiming he had killed Huang Xiao. Huo Lian learned of Huang Xiao’s death and attacked the elder, whose shock at Huo Lian’s strength left their confrontation poised to escalate.

• A withered man charged from the Ghost Capital, and Jiang Pandong discovered that the man’s touch made his blood essence surge and leak away.
• The man seized Jiang Pannan, then flung him into Jiang Pandong’s unleashed attack, leaving Jiang Pannan gravely injured and his blood essence depleted.
• The elder revealed that he had drained Jiang Pandong’s blood essence and said he had also drained Huang Xiao’s, prompting Huo Lian to demand to know what happened to the boy.
• The elder confirmed that Huang Xiao was dead and challenged Huo Lian to satisfy his hunger for blood essence.
• Huo Lian attacked the elder, who demanded to know who Huo Lian was after sensing his astonishing strength.

The Ghost Spirit Sect's First Sect Master, who had survived for ten thousand years, emerged and fought Huo Lian. Huo Lian proved far stronger than expected, and the First Sect Master fled to buy time to recover and obtain essence blood.

• Fan Liya told the First Sect Master that Huo Lian was only a little over a thousand years old, and the First Sect Master revealed that he was the Ghost Spirit Sect's ancestor from ten thousand years ago.
• The First Sect Master attacked Huo Lian, but Huo Lian sent him flying and then challenged him to fight.
• Huo Lian and the First Sect Master exchanged blows, and Huo Lian overwhelmed him and resisted his attempt to drain essence blood.
• Huo Lian revealed that he had created the Indestructible Heavenly Demon Skill, and the First Sect Master realized Huo Lian was stronger than he had anticipated.
• The First Sect Master pretended to charge, then fled, and Huo Lian pursued him.

After Huo Lian chased Yan Youwang, Fan Liya pursued them while Jiang Pandong carried the injured Jiang Pannan away for treatment. Huang Xiao recovered inside the Ghost Capital, discovered the ten-thousand-year-old Stone Coffin was empty, and suspected its occupant had awakened because of his essence blood.

• Jiang Pandong carried Jiang Pannan away and asked Fan Liya to provide the Essence Blood Restoration Cultivation Method in exchange for a price.
• Fan Liya ordered Fu Ling and the others to guard the Ghost Capital’s exit for Huang Xiao, then set off after Yan Youwang.
• Huang Xiao woke with only half his essence blood restored and decided to take the Supreme Ghost Stele and the Stone Box’s treasures.
• Huang Xiao found the Stone Coffin open and empty, and suspected its occupant had come back to life and left the Ghost Capital.
• Huang Xiao worried the awakened person might reveal his death to the Patriarch and resolved not to disclose the Longevity Chapter before heading to the Stone Box.

Huang Xiao searched the Stone Box for Essence Blood Annihilation and found the Blood Exhaustion Method, which could preserve a person in a deathlike state for ten thousand years. He realized it was likely the method the Patriarch meant and believed it might counteract the Demon Refining Formula.

• Huang Xiao opened the Stone Box and found ten cultivation manuals, but none initially appeared to be Essence Blood Annihilation.
• Huang Xiao read the manuals and learned that most prolonged life, with the strongest potentially allowing a thousand years of life.
• Huang Xiao studied the Blood Exhaustion Method and discovered it dispersed a person's essence blood and true qi, leaving them like a dried corpse until another's essence blood revived them.
• Huang Xiao suspected the people in the Stone Coffins relied on Ghost Capital Tokens and formations to bring outsiders in and gather essence blood for their return.
• Huang Xiao concluded that the Blood Exhaustion Method was likely Essence Blood Annihilation and might undo the effects of the Demon Refining Formula.

Huang Xiao studied Essence Blood Annihilation and concluded it could counter the Demon Refining Formula by dispersing its true qi, then collected the Ghost Dao pills and destroyed the manuals. He tried to take the Supreme Ghost Stele but could neither remove it nor break the surrounding stone, leaving him frustrated and weakened.

• Huang Xiao reasoned that Essence Blood Annihilation could let him disperse the true qi from the Demon Refining Formula and restore his strength with his regenerating essence blood.
• Huang Xiao decided to postpone testing the method until he left the Ghost Capital, since Pang Ji was watching him and he needed to keep cultivating the Demon Refining Formula.
• Huang Xiao inspected the medicine bottles, recognized the pills as remedies tailored for Ghost Dao practitioners, and planned to give them to Yan Youwang.
• Huang Xiao memorized the cultivation methods, destroyed the manuals, and set aside smashing the protected stone coffins until he had dealt with the Supreme Ghost Stele and found a way out.
• Huang Xiao touched the Supreme Ghost Stele without triggering an essence-blood drain, but failed to pry it free or break the surrounding stone with his imitation saber.

Huang Xiao used the Supreme Evil Crystal and Supreme Demon Pearl to draw the Supreme Ghost Stele out of its stone casing. He discovered that the casing contained the Ghost Stele’s qi and began testing whether a piece of it could do the same.

• Huang Xiao opened the box holding the Supreme Evil Crystal and Supreme Demon Pearl, and their auras caused the Supreme Ghost Stele to emerge from the large stone stele.
• Huang Xiao took the Supreme Ghost Stele but found that its ghost qi leaked out when it was separated from the casing, so he returned it to the recess and watched the qi vanish.
• Huang Xiao used the two other treasures to draw the Supreme Ghost Stele out again, then set it aside and cut a corner from the large stone stele with his Imitation Saber.
• Huang Xiao caught the severed stone piece and concluded that the casing could be cut while the Supreme Ghost Stele was removed, though he remained unsure whether the piece would contain its ghost qi.

Huang Xiao concealed the Supreme Ghost Stele’s aura and discovered that it could devour his essence blood, which seemed to nourish the people sleeping in nearby stone coffins. He began probing the stele with his divine sense, hoping to learn how to escape and deal with the sleepers.

• Huang Xiao fitted the Supreme Ghost Stele into a carved piece of the great stone stele, sealing its aura.
• Huang Xiao’s divine sense met a painful resistance when he tried to explore the Supreme Ghost Stele.
• Huang Xiao triggered the stele with his true qi, and it began devouring his essence blood before he knocked it away.
• Huang Xiao sensed faint auras from the people in the surrounding stone coffins and inferred that the stele and formation had used his essence blood to sustain them.
• Huang Xiao decided to probe the Supreme Ghost Stele with his divine sense again, hoping to understand its connection to the stone coffins.

Huang Xiao discovered that the Supreme Ghost Stele could reveal an exit and contain the Divine Senses of the people in the stone coffins. After destroying the strongest presence, he realized he could kill the others by erasing their Divine Senses—or perhaps control them and decide whether they lived.

• Huang Xiao found a pitch-black vortex after probing the Supreme Ghost Stele with his Divine Sense and recognized it as the way out.
• Huang Xiao discovered twenty-three Divine Senses inside the stele, including one far stronger than the others that he identified with the person in the enormous stone coffin.
• Huang Xiao fought the strongest Divine Sense for four hours and annihilated it, learning that it had controlled the other twenty-two presences.
• Huang Xiao erased one of the weaker Divine Senses and sensed that the person in its stone coffin had died.
• Huang Xiao considered erasing the remaining Divine Senses, then wondered whether controlling them would let him hold the people’s lives in his hands.

Huang Xiao took control of fifteen strands of divine sense inside the Supreme Ghost Stele, gaining power over fifteen sleeping experts and realizing the stele was essential to keeping them under his command. He worried about hiding the stele from the Patriarch and left the chapter fearing the experts’ unstable auras meant they might die before he could return.

• Huang Xiao failed several attempts to control the strands of divine sense, causing three more people to die.
• Huang Xiao successfully controlled a strand and learned that he could sense its owner and threaten their life through the Supreme Ghost Stele.
• Huang Xiao spent half a day controlling fifteen strands, discovering that he could awaken their owners by supplying essence blood.
• Huang Xiao decided he had to keep the Supreme Ghost Stele and planned to credit it and the Blood Exhaustion Method for his survival when he met the Patriarch.
• Huang Xiao sensed that the fifteen experts’ auras were unstable and feared they might die if he left them before returning.

Huang Xiao used his essence blood to stabilize the fifteen people in the stone coffins, then escaped the Ghost Capital with the Supreme Ghost Stele. Outside, Fu Ling and the others waited, expecting the ancient First Sect Master to discover that Huang Xiao had entered.

• Huang Xiao infused his essence blood into the fifteen stone coffins three times, stabilizing the people inside before his three days in the Ghost Capital ran out.
• Huang Xiao used the Supreme Ghost Stele to leave the Ghost Capital and discovered it had absorbed the Ghost Capital Token's fading halo, allowing him to pass through the city's formations.
• Huang Xiao exited the Ghost Capital and considered what to tell the Patriarch.
• Fu Ling and the others continued guarding the entrance, believing Huang Xiao was dead and expecting the First Sect Master from ten thousand years ago to find him inside.

Huang Xiao emerged from the Ghost Capital and was pursued by Fu Ling, who mistook Huang Xiao’s overwhelming ghost qi for the Supreme Ghost Stele’s aura. Huang Xiao escaped, and Fu Ling ordered the Ghost Spirit Sect to report the treasure’s appearance and search for him before he could reach the Heavenly Demon Hall.

• Fu Ling and his subordinates waited outside the Ghost Capital, wondering whether the First Sect Master and Elder Fan had returned.
• Huang Xiao emerged alive, found that the Patriarch and the others were gone, and fled when Fu Ling charged at him.
• Fu Ling caught up with Huang Xiao and dispersed his saber strike, but Huang Xiao released immense ghost qi that stunned Fu Ling and his men.
• Huang Xiao used the brief opening to escape, while Fu Ling concluded that the Supreme Ghost Stele had caused the ghost qi.
• Fu Ling sent a subordinate back to the sect to report the Supreme Ghost Stele’s appearance and request reinforcements to find Huang Xiao.

Huang Xiao returned to the Heavenly Demon Hall after escaping Fu Ling and hid his three supreme treasures before meeting Zhu Xing E. He revealed that he had obtained the Supreme Ghost Stele, then began answering Zhu Xing E’s questions about the ancient figure who had emerged from the Ghost Capital.

• Huang Xiao released the Supreme Ghost Stele’s aura to distract Fu Ling, then evaded his pursuers and returned to the Heavenly Demon Hall half a month later.
• Huang Xiao hid his three supreme treasures and went to meet Zhu Xing E after learning the Hall Master had summoned him.
• Huang Xiao told Zhu Xing E that he had taken the Supreme Ghost Stele from the Ghost Capital, and Zhu Xing E chose not to see it because he feared becoming tempted by it.
• Zhu Xing E asked Huang Xiao about the old man believed to be the Ghost Spirit Sect’s first Sect Master, and Huang Xiao said he had not actually seen the person.

Huang Xiao told Zhu Xing E how the Supreme Ghost Stele had nearly drained his essence blood and how he survived by practicing Essence Blood Annihilation. Zhu Xing E arranged for Huang Xiao to secretly replenish his essence blood and urged him to seek help before the contest for the Hall Master's Seat.

• Huang Xiao explained that the Supreme Ghost Stele had taken nearly all his essence blood and returned about half after he regained consciousness.
• Huang Xiao revealed that he had practiced the Blood Exhaustion Method, also called Essence Blood Annihilation, and needed to absorb other people's essence blood to keep his own from dissipating.
• Zhu Xing E warned Huang Xiao to keep his condition secret and said its effects could leave him vulnerable in a prolonged fight.
• Zhu Xing E offered to send Huang Xiao people from the Jianghu so he could replenish his essence blood and told him to stay inside while the Ghost Spirit Sect searched for him.
• Zhu Xing E told Huang Xiao to contact the Hall Master for help, while he planned to speak with Lord Shi.