Chapter Summaries

Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan tried to understand and evade the Ancient Witch Arm, which kept appearing within three paces of them. After the arm struck Qin Tiexin while he shielded Duan Xuan, a powerful voice suddenly sounded inside his mind.

• Qin Tiexin discovered that the Ancient Witch Arm followed them by burrowing through the ground whenever they moved more than fifty feet away.
• Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan offered the arm meat, spirit fruits, herbs, pills, and Spirit Stones, but it did not react.
• Duan Xuan struck the arm with a spike, causing its golden runes to flare and knock the weapon aside.
• The arm sprang toward Duan Xuan, and Qin Tiexin blocked it with Edgeless, taking a heavy blow that injured him.
• Qin Tiexin's blood touched the arm and briefly lit its runes before a deep, powerful voice spoke inside his mind.

Qin Tiexin negotiated with a mysterious arm that claimed they shared a bloodline and agreed to help it recover its identity. After hiding the arm in his Storage Bag and concealing it from Duan Xuan, he left the ruins with her as the entrance was about to reopen.

• The mysterious arm's voice knocked Duan Xuan unconscious, and Qin Tiexin used the Illustrated Catalog of Ten Thousand Artifacts to communicate with it.
• The arm said Qin Tiexin shared its lineage and asked him to help discover who it was, though it remembered neither its identity nor its race.
• Qin Tiexin agreed to let the arm stay by his side on the condition that it would not harm his companions, and it entered his Storage Bag.
• Qin Tiexin asked whether the arm was of the Ancient Witch race, but it did not know; he then hid the arm's presence from the waking Duan Xuan.
• As the mountain-sealing formation faded, Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan headed toward the ruins' entrance.

Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan avoided several ambushes while making their way out of the ruins, and Qin Tiexin quickly defeated a group of robbers who blocked their path. They encountered Jiang Li fleeing pursuers, and the chapter ended with the pursuers confronting them over the storage bag she had dropped.

• Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan chose not to return for the blood lingzhi and continued toward the ruins’ outskirts, passing several concealed groups that did not dare attack them.
• A staff-wielding cultivator and his two companions tried to rob Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan, but Qin Tiexin struck the leader down with Edgeless and the others fled.
• Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan saw Zhang Chen and five other Qi and Blood Realm cultivators carrying a huge three-legged cauldron, then took another route to avoid them.
• Jiang Li rushed past Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan while fleeing three cultivators, dropped her storage bag at Qin Tiexin’s feet, and escaped in another direction.
• The long-faced pursuer and his two companions confronted Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan, asking whether they knew Jiang Li and whether her storage bag had been left behind.

Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan were confronted by three cultivators who accused them of helping Jiang Li steal spirit medicine and demanded to search their belongings. When the long-faced cultivator attacked, Qin Tiexin killed him while Duan Xuan held off the other two, and Qin turned back after the fight.

• The long-faced cultivator and his companions accused Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan of hiding Jiang Li's stolen spirit medicine and demanded to inspect their storage items.
• Qin Tiexin refused, and the long-faced cultivator drew his halberds as the other two cultivators moved to surround them.
• Duan Xuan attacked the two Body Tempering Peak cultivators while Qin Tiexin charged the long-faced cultivator with his saber.
• Qin Tiexin struck the long-faced cultivator with his saber, spear, and kick, then wounded him with six Wind Blades.
• Qin Tiexin used Wind-Rending to tear through the long-faced cultivator's defenses, then cut him in two with Edgeless.
• Qin Tiexin put away his saber and turned toward Duan Xuan and the other cultivators.

Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan killed the three cultivators who attacked them, recovered, and reached the sealed exit with the other survivors. When the exit opened, Qin Tiexin noticed the blood-red space beyond it and held Duan Xuan back; True Person Iron Fist was then thrown through the entrance, mortally wounded, warning everyone to run.

• Qin Tiexin killed the fleeing square-faced cultivator with his Bursting Spear after Duan Xuan killed the third attacker.
• Duan Xuan treated Qin Tiexin's arm wound, and the two divided the three dead cultivators' supplies.
• Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan reached the exit platform, where they saw the surviving cultivators and Jiang Li waiting.
• The fissure opened, but Qin Tiexin noticed that the space beyond it was blood red and pulled Duan Xuan away from the crowd.
• A dying True Person Iron Fist was hurled through the entrance, and the cultivators recognized him as a powerful Meridian Opening body cultivator who had been stationed outside.

A gray-robed cultivator attacked the Iron Spine Sect ruins entrance and killed True Person Iron Fist with a crescent blade. As the survivors realized the danger, Qin Tiexin seized Duan Xuan and began retreating with Edgeless.

• True Person Iron Fist opened the ruins exit while True Person Gu Dan warned that something was wrong with the blood-red sky.
• A gray-robed cultivator appeared and cut True Person Iron Fist in half with a crescent blade that he suspected was a Law Treasure.
• The gray-robed cultivator tried to drain True Person Iron Fist’s remaining blood and power, but Yang Qingxue attacked and failed to land a hit as he dispersed into blood mist.
• Yang Qingxue threw True Person Iron Fist’s upper body and the spatial jade talisman through the open rift, where he warned the crowd to run before dying.
• The crowd recognized True Person Iron Fist and fell silent, while Qin Tiexin seized Duan Xuan and withdrew with Edgeless.

After True Person Iron Fist died and the battle outside shook the ruins, Qin Tiexin led Duan Xuan to the hidden underground palace beneath the trial hall for shelter. There, Duan Xuan learned Qin Tiexin had discovered the place and his cultivation method during an earlier visit as the danger outside continued.

• True Person Iron Fist's death and the battle outside sent the cultivators in the ruins into chaos, while the shaking threatened to collapse the mountain-sealing formation.
• Qin Tiexin decided the spatial rift and aboveground ruins were too dangerous, so he took Duan Xuan toward the trial hall's underground palace.
• Qin Tiexin led Duan Xuan through the trial passage and opened a concealed entrance behind the trial hall's stone wall.
• Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan entered the underground palace, and the hidden steps closed behind them.
• Qin Tiexin told Duan Xuan he had found the skeletal remains and his Qi and Blood Realm cultivation method there, prompting her to wonder if he was blessed with fortune.

Yang Qingxue sheltered the poisoned Gu Dan from True Person Xueying inside the Mystic Shadow Golden Bell after Gu Dan maimed him in battle. When the Iron Spine Sect ruins emerged from the spatial rift, True Person Xueying vanished, leaving Yang Qingxue and Gu Dan trapped and vulnerable.

• Gu Dan fought True Person Xueying, awakened a Half-Step Golden Body state, and blasted off his arm before Meridian Severing Blood Baleful Intent poisoned him.
• Yang Qingxue caught the collapsing Gu Dan and used the Yang Household's Mystic Shadow Golden Bell to shield them from True Person Xueying's attacks.
• Yang Qingxue recognized True Person Xueying as the Xueying Sect's master and accused him of siding with the Devil Race, while he failed to break the bell.
• True Person Xueying considered abandoning the pair to pursue the cultivators inside the ruins before his screening formations expired.
• The Iron Spine Sect ruins burst out of the spatial rift, pushing Yang Qingxue and the bell back and exposing the ruins to the world.
• True Person Xueying laughed and vanished into blood mist as Yang Qingxue realized she and the unconscious Gu Dan were too weak to move.

True Person Xueying searched the ruins and captured the survivors, while Qin Tiexin studied the Qi and Blood Realm cultivation method underground with Duan Xuan. The chapter ended as Xueying found them in the underground palace.

• True Person Xueying used his beast-hide bag to capture hidden cultivators throughout the ruins, including Jiang Li and the group in the sect master's hall, and took the great cauldron.
• After searching the ruins twice with blood mist, True Person Xueying sensed two presences beneath the trial hall and entered the underground palace.
• Qin Tiexin finished reading the translated Qi and Blood Realm chapter and estimated that refining the flesh of ten more Ironback Pigs would give him enough essence Qi to ignite the Fire of Life.
• Duan Xuan worried aloud about the enemy and whether help from Wind and Snow Pass or the Ice and Snow Pavilion would arrive in time, while Qin Tiexin urged her to wait and then prepared to practice his saber.
• Qin Tiexin noticed a sickly sweet scent, and True Person Xueying appeared before him and Duan Xuan, declaring that he had found the last two.

Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan tried to escape True Person Xueying, but he captured them despite their coordinated attacks. A hidden jade talisman remained behind, while Luo Ling unexpectedly reunited with her Golden Core Early Stage disciple Chen Xi at Green Mountain Market and demanded to know what had happened.

• Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan attacked True Person Xueying with a formation, talismans, and Wind Blades, then tried to teleport away.
• True Person Xueying froze Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan in place and sucked them into his beast-hide bag.
• True Person Xueying vanished, unaware that Qin Tiexin had secretly crushed a white jade talisman before the fight.
• Luo Ling tracked down a disguised Chen Xi after he outbid her for Seven-Finger Spirit Grass at an auction.
• Luo Ling confronted Chen Xi, learned he had reached Golden Core Early Stage, and asked what had happened after he left to cultivate.

Chen Xi reunited with Luo Ling and joined her in racing north to rescue Tiexin after his distress talisman broke. At the Iron Spine Sect ruins, Yang Qingxue collapsed after reporting that True Person Xueying had defected to the Devil Race, while True Person Gu Dan remained gravely poisoned.

• Chen Xi gave Luo Ling the Seven-Finger Spirit Grass he had bought for her and Martial Uncle Wu, refusing her repayment.
• Luo Ling sensed that Tiexin's jade talisman had shattered, and Chen Xi located him near Wind and Snow Pass before offering his flying shuttle.
• Luo Ling and Chen Xi flew north aboard Chen Xi's shuttle to rescue Tiexin.
• The Iron Spine Sect's mountain-sealing formation collapsed as the blood-colored mist receded, leaving Yang Qingxue waiting beneath the Mystic Shadow Golden Bell with the injured True Person Gu Dan.
• Qi Siyu and four other Golden Core cultivators arrived, and Yang Qingxue collapsed after telling them True Person Xueying had defected to the Devil Race.
• Qi Siyu ordered three cultivators to seal the ruins while she and another cultivator carried Yang Qingxue and True Person Gu Dan toward Wind and Snow Pass for treatment.

Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan were trapped with other cultivators in a blood pool that sealed their powers and fed a deadly formation. After a failed escape attempt, Qin Tiexin sensed the mysterious arm in his Storage Bag and tried to contact it.

• Qin Tiexin woke in a blood pool with his spiritual power sealed and his belongings confiscated, while a sinister voice declared that the captives would become nourishment for its master.
• Ge Qing organized a human ladder to reach the cavern’s exit, but the formation blasted the top cultivator into bloody froth and forced everyone to abandon the attempt.
• The captor tossed spirit medicine and demon beast corpses into the pool, making the blood grow hotter as its formation runes brightened.
• Qin Tiexin found Duan Xuan in the pool, and they confirmed that both were weakened but otherwise unharmed.
• Qin Tiexin touched the black ring at his chest, sensed the Storage Bag containing the mysterious arm, and tried to contact the arm through the [Illustrated Catalog of Ten Thousand Artifacts].

True Person Xueying prepared to refine a Holy Blood Pill while struggling to heal his arm, and Jiang Ci continued serving him despite their mutual distrust. Qin Tiexin called on the mysterious arm for help, and it escaped the storage chamber to fly toward him.

• True Person Xueying failed to regrow his left arm because golden divine light remained in the wound.
• Jiang Ci reported that the blood pool was five feet deep, and True Person Xueying told him to let the trapped cultivators keep struggling so their blood would make better pills.
• True Person Xueying gave Jiang Ci a Storage Bag filled with Devil Race corpses, which Jiang Ci dumped into the blood pool.
• Jiang Ci reflected that he and True Person Xueying guarded against each other even as master and disciple.
• Qin Tiexin contacted the mysterious arm through the Illustrated Catalog of Ten Thousand Artifacts and asked it for help.
• The arm vanished from Qin Tiexin’s Storage Bag, passed through the storage chamber, and flew toward him.

Jiang Ci searched the captured cultivators’ storage items while Qin Tiexin and Duan Xuan remained trapped in a blood pool. As the pool boiled and began corroding them, Qin Tiexin protected Duan Xuan, and the mysterious arm offered to take him away.

• Jiang Ci entered the hidden chamber and searched the Storage Bags, taking the contents of Cao Mu's bag for himself.
• The arm appeared in Qin Tiexin's palm and said it could take only him, while Duan Xuan gave him a jade pendant meant to preserve their true spirits.
• True Person Xueying sent Devil Race corpses into the pool, causing it to boil, rise, and corrode the captives.
• Ge Qing organized the cultivators into a formation to keep as many people as possible above the blood, and Qin Tiexin lifted Duan Xuan onto his shoulders.
• As corrosion spread up Qin Tiexin's leg, the arm asked whether he wanted to be taken away.

Qin Tiexin used a cultivation method to absorb energy from the blood pool and recover while he and the other captives struggled to survive. True Person Xueying emerged from seclusion, prepared to refine the pool and break through to Nascent Soul before the attack on Wind and Snow Pass.

• Qin Tiexin decided to remain in the blood pool and used the True Fire Furnace Scripture to filter and absorb its energy through his pores.
• Qin Tiexin's strength began to recover as the energy eased the burning and corrosion in his legs, while an unseen thought stirred within the severed arm he held.
• Ge Qing organized the cultivators into a human ladder and ordered them to take turns as Jiang Ci continued adding spirit medicines to the pool.
• True Person Xueying cleared the lingering innate divine light from his severed arm and left the stone chamber to prepare for his breakthrough.
• Jiang Ci told True Person Xueying that the blood pool would be ready for refinement in another incense stick's time, and True Person Xueying promised to help him achieve Core Formation after breaking through.

True Person Xueying raised the blood pool to its full power, killing many cultivators and crushing Jiang Li after she nearly escaped through the stone wall. He prepared to use Sheng Xiao'er’s holy blood to refine a Holy Blood Pill and pursue Nascent Soul, leaving the formation ready for its final step.

• True Person Xueying poured True Person Iron Fist’s essence blood into the pool, raising its level and temperature until the bone platforms shattered and cultivators fell into the corrosive blood.
• Qin Tiexin endured the pool while holding Duan Xuan above the surface, and Duan Xuan shifted her weight to help him keep his balance.
• True Person Xueying sensed Jiang Li hiding in the wall, pulled her out with a hand of Spiritual Qi, and crushed her despite her plea for mercy.
• True Person Xueying examined the drop of holy blood he had sought for over a hundred years and resolved to use it as the core of a Holy Blood Pill.
• True Person Xueying watched the formation reach its full power, removed the jade bottle’s stopper, and prepared to begin the final step.

Sheng Xiao'er explained that the Holy Blood Pill would trigger a fatal atavism in humans, while Liu Qing secretly weighed the danger of his mission. At the blood pool, the holy blood’s pink power consumed the cultivators and Duan Xuan, but golden runes from Qin Tiexin’s severed arm transformed the power around him and stirred the arm’s ancient consciousness.

• Sheng Xiao'er told Liu Qing that the Holy Blood Pill awakened ancient bloodlines and would turn Qin Tiexin into a mindless monster because he was human.
• Liu Qing consulted his master, who warned that Sheng Xiao'er's explanation was probably true and urged him to trust the human race.
• True Person Xueying dropped holy blood into the pool, and a pink power spread through the water, draining and dissolving the cultivators it reached.
• Duan Xuan fell into the pool and disappeared as Qin Tiexin cried out to her and then lost consciousness.
• Golden runes from Qin Tiexin’s severed arm covered his body and altered the pink power, prompting the arm’s ancient consciousness to recognize atavism and wonder what it and Qin Tiexin were.

True Person Xueying activated the Refining Grand Array to condense the Holy Blood Pill, while Qin Tiexin lay trapped at the bottom of the blood pool and resisted the enchantment by reciting the True Fire Furnace Scripture. The blood pool continued to shrink as Xueying expected the pill to form within an hour, unaware that Qin Tiexin’s body had begun cultivating on its own.

• True Person Xueying confirmed that the holy blood was genuine and activated the Refining Grand Array, causing the blood pool to boil and its level to fall.
• Jiang Ci stepped outside the array and watched as Qin Tiexin lay unconscious at the bottom of the pool, still gripping the severed arm.
• Qin Tiexin resisted the pink enchantment in his sea of consciousness by repeatedly reciting the True Fire Furnace Scripture.
• The scripture’s circulation pathways activated in Qin Tiexin’s body, drawing in Essence Blood and slowing his heartbeat as his blood took on a golden-red color.
• True Person Xueying intensified the array and estimated that the Holy Blood Pill would finish condensing within an hour, while Jiang Ci sensed something was wrong but said nothing.

Qin Tiexin absorbed the blood pool’s immense power, awakening an ancient rune in his bloodline that rescued him from bursting and caused his body to grow. As the pool drained, True Person Xueying finally saw Qin Tiexin at its bottom and demanded to know who was there.

• Qin Tiexin drew the blood pool’s Essence Blood and holy blood into his body until his skin cracked and he nearly burst.
• A dark golden rune appeared over Qin Tiexin’s heart and resonated with the severed arm, which recognized him as one of its own race.
• The rune absorbed the pool’s power, restoring Qin Tiexin’s body and making him grow uniformly.
• True Person Xueying added three rare ingredients to the pool while Jiang Ci suspected something was wrong and quietly retreated toward the cave entrance.
• As the pool fell to three chi, True Person Xueying spotted Qin Tiexin lying at the bottom and demanded to know who he was.

Qin Tiexin absorbed the blood pool and holy blood, transforming into a nearly forty-foot-tall giant with immense physical strength. True Person Xueying tried to capture him for pill refining, but Qin Tiexin fought back, and their first clash ended with neither giving ground.

• True Person Xueying attacked Qin Tiexin in the pool, but a golden membrane protected him as he absorbed the blood and rapidly grew.
• Qin Tiexin healed from True Person Xueying’s Blood Spears, and True Person Xueying recognized him as the boy he had seen in the Iron Spine Sect’s underground palace.
• A rune from the severed arm merged into Qin Tiexin’s hand, and its instinctive command to fight stirred his body into action.
• Qin Tiexin dodged True Person Xueying’s blood-shadow palm, leaped into the air, and struck his blood shield and the cavern wall with tremendous physical force.
• True Person Xueying formed a fifty-foot blood-red giant and declared, “Pill Domain-unfold,” while Qin Tiexin prepared to fight.
• True Person Xueying’s giant and Qin Tiexin met fist to fist, and Qin Tiexin held his ground before roaring.