Recaps

Luo Tiefeng arrived and struck a deal with Shi Chongshan to seize the mineral vein and beast egg and kill Jiang Fa. The two martial hall masters launched attacks against Liu Bochong, Zhao Zhong, and Lie Changkong, while Iron Fist disciples blocked Jiang Fa's escape.

• Luo Tiefeng offered to join forces with Shi Chongshan to clear away their rivals and divide the mineral vein and beast egg.
• Shi Chongshan agreed on the condition that Luo Tiefeng help kill Jiang Fa, and Luo Tiefeng's disciples surrounded the youth.
• Zhao Zhong challenged Luo Tiefeng's interference, but Luo Tiefeng said he acted for profit.
• Lie Changkong refused Shi Chongshan's offer to stand aside, while Liu Bochong silently remained with them.
• Luo Tiefeng attacked Liu Bochong, who met his punches with his black iron staff, while Shi Chongshan struck at Zhao Zhong and Lie Changkong.

Wounded Jiang Fa fled into a mine to escape the Iron Fist Martial Hall disciples and followed a cool draft into a limestone cavern. He discovered a third-tier Fire-Patterned Python below, just as his pursuers approached, leaving him dangling near the beast with danger closing in from behind.

• Jiang Fa saw that his allies were occupied and fled into the mine, while Luo Tiefeng ordered the Iron Fist Martial Hall disciples to pursue him.
• Jiang Fa outran the disciples through the dark passages and followed a cool draft into a narrow natural fissure.
• Jiang Fa reached a vast limestone cavern and grabbed a protruding rock when the passage dropped away beneath him.
• Jiang Fa recognized a giant Fire-Patterned Python coiled on a boulder near the underground lake.
• The pursuing disciples reached the cavern entrance and began searching for Jiang Fa.

Jiang Fa hid among the cavern’s stalactites while a Fire-Patterned Python drove off the Iron Fist Martial Hall disciples, revealing the beast was guarding an egg. As Jiang Fa searched for a way out, a sinister gray-robed man entered the cavern and focused on the egg.

• Jiang Fa climbed up the rock wall and concealed himself among the stalactites as the Iron Fist Martial Hall disciples entered the cavern searching for him.
• The Fire-Patterned Python attacked the disciples, killing one and driving the others back through the narrow fissure.
• Jiang Fa spotted a dark red, golden-marked beast egg in a nest behind the boulder and realized the python was guarding it.
• Jiang Fa heard steady footsteps and saw a sinister gray-robed man emerge from a hidden fissure and smile at the egg.

A gray-robed man fought the Fire-Patterned Python and used poisonous Sha Qi to weaken it so he could steal its beast egg. Jiang Fa watched from the cavern ceiling and escaped notice as the man fled through a hidden passage with the egg and the python pursued him.

• The gray-robed man confronted the Fire-Patterned Python, whose strength and attacks briefly challenged him.
• The gray-robed man released poisonous blood-colored Qi that infected the Fire-Patterned Python, but it continued guarding its egg.
• The gray-robed man seized the beast egg while holding off the python, then retreated as the wounded beast attacked him.
• Jiang Fa silently crawled across the cavern ceiling to avoid being discovered as the fight moved beneath him.
• The gray-robed man escaped into a hidden passage with the beast egg, and the Fire-Patterned Python squeezed in after him.

Jiang Fa escaped the cavern through a hidden passage and found a black-clad girl fighting three gray-robed men in a valley. He recognized her as the girl who had saved him, then learned she was a Dark Robe Guard pursuing the Heavenly Demon Sect and had been poisoned.

• Jiang Fa took his last Rejuvenation Pill and searched the cavern for a way out, avoiding the passage where the gray-robed man and Fire-Patterned Python had gone.
• Jiang Fa found a narrow crack leading outside and emerged on a mountain ridge far from the mining area.
• Jiang Fa heard fighting nearby and saw the black-clad girl from the Bridge of Helplessness battling three gray-robed men.
• Jiang Fa noticed the girl's purple lips and sluggish movements and realized she had been poisoned.
• The gray-robed leader mocked the girl for following the Heavenly Demon Sect from Qingyang Prefecture to Qingshan County, while she accused them of slaughtering civilians.

A captured Dark Robe Guard learned that the Heavenly Demon Sect had lured Qingshan County’s martial artists into a trap to harvest their blood essence for Blood God Pills. As the poisoned girl prepared to risk her last resort, Jiang Fa remained hidden nearby, aware that the plot threatened the whole county.

• The gray-robed men trapped the girl in black and poisoned her with Heart-Devouring Powder, weakening her ability to resist.
• The girl in black challenged the gray-robed man’s justification for the Heavenly Demon Sect’s killings, and he argued that the strong determined what counted as justice.
• The gray-robed man revealed that a covert emissary had spent three years using rumors of a mineral vein and a beast egg to draw Qingshan County’s martial artists into a deadly trap.
• The girl in black realized the scheme was meant to gather blood essence for Blood God Pills and tried to find a way to warn others.
• Jiang Fa listened from concealment as the Peak An Jin gray-robed man demanded that the girl submit, then prepared to kill her when she refused.
• With the poison deep in her meridians and the gray-robed man readying a killing move, the girl in black slowly reached inside her robes.

The girl in black crushed her jade talisman and unleashed its stored true essence, turning the fight against the three gray-robed men in her favor. After two men fell, the last escaped her pursuit long enough to fire a signal into the sky, drawing the attention of several approaching figures.

• The girl in black shattered her jade talisman, and its true essence forced the Heart-Devouring Powder poison from her body while causing her intense pain.
• The gray-robed leader realized the power came from an external object and ordered his companions to stall her until it ran out.
• The girl in black killed the weakest gray-robed man with a sword thrust and struck down another after enduring the leader's palm attack.
• The girl in black charged the remaining gray-robed man, but he used a blood-red pill to conceal his retreat in a cloud of mist.
• The gray-robed man launched a blood-colored signal into the sky, and several figures approaching Black Wind Ridge stopped to look up at it.

After exhausting her True Essence to kill the gray-robed man, Lu Pingping was rescued from the arriving Heavenly Demon Sect by Jiang Fa, who hid with her in a vine-covered fissure. The sect members began searching nearby, and their leader noticed the smell of blood close to their hiding place.

• Lu Pingping broke through the gray-robed man's Sha Qi barrier, killed him, and collapsed from exhaustion as the Heavenly Demon Sect approached.
• Jiang Fa pulled Lu Pingping into a concealed fissure and hid their presence with the Origin-Returning Breath-Concealing Art.
• The arriving sect members found three dead gray-robed men and suspected a powerful, wounded opponent, possibly a Dark Robe Guard.
• A searcher passed the fissure without finding Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping.
• The tall, thin gray-robed leader detected a smell of blood nearby and ordered the searchers to look carefully.

Jiang Fa fled with the wounded girl in black through a narrow passage but was cornered by four Heavenly Demon Sect members at a cliff. With no chance of defeating them, he leapt into the abyss with her, and the pursuers left believing both were dead.

• Jiang Fa carried the girl in black through a hidden passage as the gray-robed men pursued them.
• Jiang Fa reached a platform above a bottomless abyss, where the tall, thin man and three other gray-robed men blocked his escape.
• The tall, thin man attacked Jiang Fa, who was driven to the cliff's edge and faced with certain death if he stayed.
• Jiang Fa jumped into the abyss with the girl in black to take their only chance of survival.
• The tall, thin man decided not to pursue them and ordered the gray-robed men to return so their plan could proceed.

Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping survived their fall into the abyss, though Jiang Fa was unconscious and Lu Pingping was still recovering from poison and injuries. As she examined him and tried to understand why he seemed familiar, she realized her clothes had been badly torn and worried about his waking.

• Jiang Fa used his ghost-head saber to try to slow their fall, then shielded Lu Pingping as they tumbled down the cliff and landed on moss.
• Lu Pingping checked her injuries, found that traces of the Heart-Devouring Powder remained, and confirmed that Jiang Fa was still breathing.
• Lu Pingping examined Jiang Fa’s wounds and unusually resilient body, then wondered where she had seen his familiar face before.
• Jiang Fa’s eyelashes fluttered, startling Lu Pingping into recoiling, though he remained unconscious.
• Lu Pingping noticed her clothes were badly torn and felt embarrassed, then reminded herself that Jiang Fa had risked his life to save her.

Injured and stranded at the bottom of an abyss, Lu Pingping discovered fresh bones and encountered a Rock Lizard. Just as it lunged at her, an unseen man helped her strike it down, leaving his identity unknown.

• Lu Pingping gathered her torn clothes, took the demon-headed saber, and searched the abyss floor.
• Lu Pingping found freshly gnawed bones and traced their direction to a cave in the eastern cliff.
• Lu Pingping heard movement in the cave and saw a Rock Lizard emerge.
• The Rock Lizard lunged at Lu Pingping, who was too weak to raise the saber in time.
• An unknown man came up behind Lu Pingping, guided her hand, and used the saber to cleave the Rock Lizard's head in two.

At the bottom of the cliff, Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping recovered from their injuries after he saved her from an attack. They recognized each other from an earlier encounter and lit a fire to ward off the cold.

• Jiang Fa used his last strength to save Lu Pingping, then collapsed to one knee beside her.
• Lu Pingping thanked Jiang Fa, and he said they were even because she had once saved him from an Earth-Shaking Demonic Ape outside Qingshan County.
• Jiang Fa tore a piece from his damaged clothing and gave it to Lu Pingping to cover herself and keep warm.
• Jiang Fa gathered dry vines and wood while Lu Pingping used her fire tube to light a fire at the foot of the cliff.

After Jiang Fa treated Lu Pingping’s back wound, the two discussed the danger facing Qingshan County and rested at the bottom of the cliff. They remained trapped there, with Jiang Fa planning to look for a way out the next day.

• Jiang Fa carefully removed gravel from Lu Pingping’s back wound and applied medicine.
• Lu Pingping told Jiang Fa that the gray-robed men belonged to the Heavenly Demon Sect and that their Blood God Pill scheme could threaten every martial artist in Qingshan County.
• Jiang Fa warned that Lu Pingping was too injured to escape or send word, and she acknowledged that she needed several days to recover.
• Jiang Fa harvested the Rock Lizard’s beast core, cooked its meat, and told Lu Pingping they would search for a way out tomorrow.
• Lu Pingping watched Jiang Fa cultivate by the fire, felt reassured by his presence, and the night passed quietly.

Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping searched the abyss for a way out and discovered a hidden passage behind the cave wall, where flowing water ran into a dark cleft. Jiang Fa prepared to descend first, with Lu Pingping following close behind.

• Jiang Fa searched the abyss and found no way to climb its sheer cliffs, while Lu Pingping agreed that the walls were too steep to scale.
• Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping examined intact animal skeletons and concluded that the animals had been trapped and starved rather than killed by the Rock Lizard.
• Jiang Fa traced the pool's flowing water to a narrow fissure at the cliff base, and he and Lu Pingping realized the underground stream might lead to an exit.
• Jiang Fa found the stream's source in the eastern cave, where Lu Pingping detected a hollow section of rock beside the submerged fissure.
• Jiang Fa pried away the rock to reveal a person-sized opening and told Lu Pingping he would descend first.

Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping followed an underground river through Black Wind Ridge, hoping to find a way outside. They discovered a dry passage with growing heat and sulfurous fumes, then froze as it opened into a larger space.

• Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping descended into a cavern and found an underground river lined with bones gnawed by the Rock Lizard.
• Lu Pingping concluded the river connected to the pools outside, and Jiang Fa reasoned that following it upstream might lead to an exit.
• Jiang Fa caught Lu Pingping when she slipped on a gravel slope, and they continued upstream to the river’s waterfall source.
• Jiang Fa climbed to the fissure behind the waterfall and helped Lu Pingping enter the water-carved passage.
• After the passage dried out, Jiang Fa chose the right branch because it was wider, dry, and faintly lit.
• Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping followed the increasingly hot passage, where sulfur fumes grew stronger, and froze when it opened into a larger space.

Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping discovered three ripe Scarlet Flame Vermilion Fruits, and Lu Pingping warned that consuming one could kill anyone unable to withstand its fire poison. Believing his Heaven Rank Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Art could protect him, Jiang Fa decided to try eating the fruit, while Lu Pingping tried to stop him and denied being worried about him.

• Lu Pingping recognized the Scarlet Flame Vermilion Fruit and explained that its powerful body-tempering effects came with deadly risks.
• Lu Pingping described two ways to consume the fruit, including directly enduring its fire poison with a Heaven Rank body-tempering method.
• Jiang Fa realized his Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Art might let him absorb the fruits safely and help him advance to its third level.
• Jiang Fa decided to eat a fruit, but Lu Pingping grabbed his wrist and warned him that it could kill him.
• Lu Pingping stood between Jiang Fa and the plant, then claimed she only wanted him alive so she could get out alone.

Jiang Fa ate a Scarlet Flame Vermilion Fruit, and its earthfire Qi began scorching his body and threatening his organs. Lu Pingping dragged him into a geothermal spring to cool him, but his condition kept worsening as she desperately urged him to hold on.

• Jiang Fa reassured Lu Pingping that his unusual body-tempering technique might let him withstand the fruit, then swallowed a Scarlet Flame Vermilion Fruit.
• The fruit's earthfire Qi erupted inside Jiang Fa, burning through his body and making him spit blood as his temperature rose.
• Lu Pingping tried to support him but burned her fingers, then realized the geothermal springs might help cool him.
• Lu Pingping dragged Jiang Fa into a spring, easing the heat on his skin but failing to stop the earthfire Qi from damaging him internally.
• As Jiang Fa showed signs of collapse, Lu Pingping urged him to hold on while an unprecedented transformation began inside his body.

Jiang Fa endured the Scarlet Flame Vermilion Fruit’s earthfire as it burned through his body, while his two body-refining arts worked together to contain and transform it. The Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Art awakened a new ability, and the Great Strength Vajra Art reached perfection in Viscera Refinement.

• Earthfire Qi ravaged Jiang Fa’s meridians and organs, pushing the restorative power of the Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Art to its limits.
• The Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Art and Great Strength Vajra Art began circulating together, surrounding the earthfire and accelerating Jiang Fa’s Viscera Refinement.
• As Jiang Fa neared unconsciousness, the Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Art produced countless glazed-glass threads that enveloped the earthfire and began breaking it down.
• The glazed-glass power guided the earthfire through Jiang Fa’s organs, destroying and rebuilding them with stronger tissue.
• Jiang Fa’s Viscera Refinement progress reached 2000, and the Great Strength Vajra Art advanced to Perfection.

Jiang Fa survived the Scarlet Flame Vermilion Fruit’s earthfire Qi as his organs and body were tempered, greatly advancing his cultivation. After he woke in the geothermal spring, he saw that two fruits remained, and Lu Pingping questioned whether he was still thinking about them.

• Jiang Fa's perfected Viscera Refinement absorbed the earthfire essence and triggered a powerful transformation throughout his body.
• Lu Pingping watched as Jiang Fa's glazed glass power tempered him, his fever subsided, and his wounds disappeared.
• Jiang Fa woke in the spring and learned from Lu Pingping that she had thrown him in to keep him from burning to death.
• Jiang Fa checked his panel and found that his Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Art had advanced sharply and his Great Strength Vajra Art had reached perfection.
• Jiang Fa looked toward the two remaining Scarlet Flame Vermilion Fruits, and Lu Pingping asked if he was still thinking about them.

Jiang Fa recovered after surviving the first Scarlet Flame Vermilion Fruit and decided to consume another while Lu Pingping regained her strength. The second fruit’s earthfire Qi was much easier for his body to withstand, and he began absorbing it as they prepared to escape the cavern.

• Jiang Fa learned he had been unconscious for a day and a night, then recovered while Lu Pingping restarted the fire and roasted Rock Lizard meat.
• Jiang Fa told Lu Pingping he intended to try another Scarlet Flame Vermilion Fruit, and she reluctantly accepted after he explained his body had adapted to the earthfire Qi.
• Lu Pingping said she needed two or three more days to recover, and Jiang Fa planned to absorb the fruits before they sought a way out.
• Jiang Fa regulated his blood and Qi with the Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Art, then plucked and swallowed the second Scarlet Flame Vermilion Fruit.
• The second fruit’s earthfire Qi was contained and consumed by Jiang Fa’s blood and Qi, causing pain far less severe than before.

Jiang Fa consumed the last Scarlet Flame Vermilion Fruit and used its earthfire Qi to advance the Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Art from the second layer to the third. The breakthrough finished with his body transformed and the glazed glass light fading beneath his skin.

• Jiang Fa completed the second fruit’s tempering, while Lu Pingping recovered and cultivated nearby.
• Jiang Fa plucked and ate the final Scarlet Flame Vermilion Fruit, whose earthfire Qi his body quickly absorbed.
• Jiang Fa’s Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Art reached its third layer, enveloping him in a powerful cocoon of seven-colored light.
• Lu Pingping opened her eyes and watched the startling breakthrough from the stone platform.
• Jiang Fa’s meridians, flesh, bones, and organs strengthened as the cocoon receded and peace returned to the cavern.

After Jiang Fa broke through, he and Lu Pingping found a hidden passage out of the underground caverns and emerged on the northern slope above the mining area. As they approached the mine, a strong stench of blood, burning, and decay filled the air.

• Jiang Fa revealed that he had advanced the Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Art to its third stage, while Lu Pingping recovered enough to travel.
• Jiang Fa sensed airflow behind a crack in the cavern wall and smashed it open, uncovering an upward passage.
• Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping climbed through the passage and emerged from a concealed cave halfway up a mountain.
• Jiang Fa recognized the ridge north of the mining area, and the pair followed a pine-forest trail toward the mine.
• Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping noticed the smell of blood growing stronger, mixed with the stench of burning and decay.

Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping discovered a valley littered with corpses drained of their blood essence and found a Heavenly Demon Sect man committing the same killing. Lu Pingping overwhelmed him, but he crushed something hidden in his tooth and began forming a blood-colored pillar of Qi.

• Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping found dozens of blood-drained corpses scattered through the mining valley and saw no sign of Zhao Zhong, Lie Changkong, or Liu Bochong.
• The pair searched northward, recognized victims from several factions, and Jiang Fa closed the eyes of a dead Flying Swallow Martial Hall disciple.
• They came upon a gray-robed Heavenly Demon Sect man draining a dying man's blood essence.
• Lu Pingping attacked the man, broke his arms, and struck his chest, leaving him gravely wounded.
• The gray-robed man threatened Lu Pingping with the Heavenly Demon Sect, then crushed something in a back tooth and formed a blood-colored pillar of Qi, alarming her.

Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping killed a Heavenly Demon Sect deacon before he could send a warning, then discovered the sect would refine a Blood God Pill in three days. Lu Pingping explained the higher martial arts realms, leaving Jiang Fa aware of the danger posed by the sect’s powerful experts.

• The gray-robed man activated a Blood Escape Message Transmission Technique, but Jiang Fa shattered its blood-colored pillar and Lu Pingping killed him.
• Lu Pingping searched the man and found Baleful Intent Gathering Pills, a beast core, and a message calling the Heavenly Demon Sect back to Qingshan County.
• Jiang Fa and Lu Pingping learned that the sect planned to refine a Blood God Pill in three days, guarded by powerful members who might include Innate experts.
• Lu Pingping explained the nine martial arts realms, from the Mortal Realm through Innate, Core Formation, Divine Gang, Void Treading, Entering Sainthood, and Human Immortal.

After separating from Lu Pingping, Jiang Fa returned to Qingshan County and found the city under Heavenly Demon Sect control. As grain wagons arrived, he inferred that the sect was restricting movement and information rather than preparing to massacre the population.

• Jiang Fa learned that Lu Pingping would return to Qingyang Prefecture for Dark Robe Guards reinforcements while he went back to Qingshan County to check on his family and master.
• The pair parted at the road fork, and Jiang Fa concealed his ghost-head saber before approaching the city gates.
• Jiang Fa saw that the gates were heavily guarded, people were forbidden to leave, and Heavenly Demon Sect members were screening entrants for martial arts ability.
• A petty official exposed a young man's Ming Jin training, dislocated his arm, and had soldiers drag him away.
• Three wagons from Liu's Grain Store arrived, and Jiang Fa concluded that the sect was maintaining the city's basic operations while limiting movement and communication.