Chapter Summaries

Qin Tiexin struck Xuanli with a powerful saber attack, blasting away much of his bone powder but failing to kill him. As Xuanli approached the buried Qin Tiexin, Xiao Yan and three Buddhist disciples trapped him inside the Pure Light Devil-Subduing Formation.

• Qian Donglai bound Xuanli with Star Chains and Binding Talismans, giving Qin Tiexin an opening to attack.
• Qin Tiexin used Mountain-Shaking Steps and Shatter the Mountain to blast away more than thirty percent of Xuanli's bone powder.
• The blast knocked Qin Tiexin, Chen Chen, and Qian Donglai away, while Xuanli survived and found the others unconscious.
• Qin Tiexin hid beneath rubble and gathered the strength to strike Xuanli when he came close.
• Xiao Yan arrived with three Buddhist disciples and trapped Xuanli in the Pure Light Devil-Subduing Formation.

Xiao Yan and three Buddhist disciples trapped Xuanli in a formation and used a bronze Artifact of Faith to suppress him, but Chengxin’s Buddhist nature on Xuanli’s bracelet shielded him from the Buddhist power. Qin Tiexin prepared to use the great bell from Zhaoming Temple as Xuanli suddenly weakened and spread his palm.

• Xuanli repeatedly battered the light barrier, while Xiao Yan brought out a bronze bowl whose sound caused him intense pain.
• Xiao Yan placed the bowl atop the formation and joined the three Buddhist disciples in chanting, filling the enclosure with Buddhist light.
• Qin Tiexin recognized the bowl as an Artifact of Faith and suspected the Buddhists had taken the great bell from Zhaoming Temple to deal with Xuanli.
• Xuanli used the bracelet’s Devil Qi to resist the Buddhist light, and Xiao Yan realized Chengxin’s Buddhist nature on its beads was shielding him.
• Qin Tiexin prepared to take out the great bell, but Xuanli’s cultivation suddenly fell to Foundation Establishment Peak Stage as he spread his right palm.

Xuanli broke Xiao Yan’s formation and bronze bowl, then regained strength by draining a Buddhist disciple and survived the other two disciples’ self-detonations. Badly damaged and weakened, he planned to escape the ruins and hunt for blood Qi so he could recover.

• Xiao Yan used her essence blood to strengthen the bronze bowl, but Xuanli shattered the formation and the bowl with his prayer beads.
• The explosion injured Xiao Yan and the Buddhist disciples, while Xuanli reformed from white ash with his right arm missing.
• Xuanli drained one wounded Buddhist disciple, restoring his cultivation to the Golden Core early stage.
• The two surviving Buddhist disciples detonated their Dantians and blasted Xuanli apart, but he survived with the prayer beads.
• Xuanli’s body slowly began to mend as the Buddhist light faded, and he resolved to escape and hunt living beings to regain his strength.

Qin Tiexin invoked the severed arm’s power to reach the Meridian Opening Realm and confront Xuanli at the mountain gate. He left Xuanli gravely wounded and desperate to escape.

• Qin Tiexin refused to let Xuanli pass and asked the severed arm to lend him its strength.
• The severed arm covered Qin Tiexin in dark-gold runes, raising his cultivation to the Meridian Opening Realm for one hour.
• Qin Tiexin attacked Xuanli with Edgeless and severed his left arm with Suppress the Mountain.
• Qin Tiexin struck Xuanli again, cutting away most of his remaining torso and causing his cultivation to fall from the foundation establishment peak stage to the late stage.
• Xuanli abandoned thoughts of revenge and focused only on escaping.

Xuanli gathered the bone powder in the ruins and transformed into a thirty-foot combat puppet, hoping to kill Qin Tiexin and escape through the mountain gate. Qin Tiexin summoned his Arhat Dharma Manifestation and met Xuanli’s attack head-on, leaving their clash unresolved.

• Qin Tiexin blocked Xuanli’s escape at the mountain gate, and Xuanli realized he could not outrun him.
• Xuanli poured his remaining Devil Qi into the bracelet and gathered the surrounding bone powder into a giant puppet.
• Qin Tiexin activated his Arhat Dharma Manifestation as Xuanli’s puppet charged him.
• Qin Tiexin’s Arhat Fist collided with Xuanli’s giant fist, and he followed with a second punch, Vajra Flame.

Qin Tiexin destroyed Xuanli’s bone-powder giant and broke the bracelet, leaving Xuanli without a body. As Qin Tiexin reached for the bracelet, Xuanli’s surviving soul invaded his sea of consciousness and prepared to seize his body.

• Qin Tiexin drove the giant back with Arhat Fist and Vajra Flame as Xuanli’s Devil Qi dwindled and the giant’s body weakened.
• When the giant’s foot crumbled, Qin Tiexin struck its chest with a flaming Arhat Fist, breaking the bracelet free and shattering the giant.
• The giant disintegrated, Xuanli’s presence vanished from the battlefield, and Qin Tiexin approached the bracelet amid the ashes.
• Xuanli’s hidden soul pierced Qin Tiexin’s sea of consciousness, intending to devour Qin Tiexin’s soul and take his body.
• Xuanli appeared above Qin Tiexin’s vast sea of consciousness and declared it suitable as his vessel.

Xuanli invaded Qin Tiexin’s sea of consciousness, but an ancient giant appeared and swallowed his soul, ending the threat. Xiao Wan emerged from Xiao Rou’s body and demanded the bracelet for Brahma Sound Valley, leaving Qin Tiexin ready to fight her.

• Xuanli searched Qin Tiexin’s sea of consciousness for his soul core, but an immense ancient being seized and swallowed him.
• Qin Tiexin awoke with the danger gone and reached for the bracelet before hearing footsteps nearby.
• Xiao Rou appeared with two overlapping shadows and a face split between her own features and Xiao Wan’s, then collapsed unconscious.
• Xiao Wan revealed herself as a False Core Stage cultivator and claimed the bracelet was destined for Brahma Sound Valley.
• Xiao Wan offered Qin Tiexin the position of Dharma Protector if he surrendered the bracelet, or death otherwise.
• Qin Tiexin placed his hand on the Edgeless Saber and challenged Xiao Wan to take the bracelet herself.

Qin Tiexin fought Xiao Wan as his borrowed Meridian Opening Realm strength began to fade. He broke through her mental attacks and closed in with a decisive saber strike, leaving the outcome unresolved.

• Qin Tiexin charged Xiao Wan with Edgeless, but she blocked his blow with her eight-armed Buddha phantom and countered with the Great Silence Demon-Subduing Seal.
• Xiao Wan attacked Qin Tiexin with the Thousand Epiphyllum Delusion-Breaking Finger, piercing his Qi Gang and slowing him while keeping out of his saber’s reach.
• Qin Tiexin endured the golden volleys and charged forward, but Xiao Wan’s Brahma Sea Chan Stillness briefly sapped his fighting spirit.
• Qin Tiexin’s Fire of Life dispelled the chant’s influence, and he used Lion’s Roar to disrupt Xiao Wan’s Buddhist seal.
• Qin Tiexin closed the distance and brought Edgeless down with the Heavy Mountain Saber Technique: Sever the Mountain.

Qin Tiexin used Edgeless and the Karma-Burning Wisdom King Flame to wound Xiao Wan, but his borrowed strength ran out before he could finish her. He concealed his weakness by conjuring five pursuing fire lotuses, leaving Xiao Wan struggling to evade them and wondering how he learned the forbidden technique.

• Xiao Wan protected herself with eight Arhat Phantoms and a Spirit Artifact robe, but Qin Tiexin's Edgeless shattered the phantoms and forced the robe to block his slash.
• Qin Tiexin combined Arhat Fist with Vajra Flame, which Xiao Wan recognized as the Karma-Burning Wisdom King Flame, and the flames burned through her Buddhist light and injured her right arm.
• Xiao Wan gouged the burning flesh from her arm and suppressed the remaining flames by reciting Buddhist scriptures.
• Qin Tiexin's half-hour enhancement expired just as he moved to attack, so he planted Edgeless in the ground and hid his loss of strength.
• Qin Tiexin drew on the Fire of Life and the pink bird mark to send five fire lotuses after Xiao Wan, forcing her to evade while she questioned whether he was a Brahma Sound Valley agent or had found another inheritance.

Xiao Wan hesitated to attack Qin Tiexin after he took the bracelet and offered to let her leave, but Lin Chuan’s group arrived and protected him with formations. The chapter then showed how the group had learned of the battle and approached the Pure Land Chan Temple cautiously.

• Xiao Wan recalled how she had entered the secret realm through Xiao Rou and waited for a chance to take the bracelet from whoever killed the Void Spirit Python.
• Qin Tiexin gathered the bracelet beads and told Xiao Wan to leave, though he was too depleted to defend himself without help.
• Xiao Wan prepared a probing attack, but Lin Chuan and Liu Suifeng’s formations appeared and blocked her from reaching Qin Tiexin.
• Lin Chuan, Liu Suifeng, Du Heng, Ling Shuyao, and another companion had found the Pure Land Chan Temple shaking as cultivators fled from a fierce battle.
• After a fleeing cultivator warned them of a white monster and a revived devil cultivator, Lin Chuan stopped the group from entering until they learned more.

Lin Chuan and his companions entered the ruined Pure Land Chan Temple after a demon’s escape and found Qin Tiexin fighting Xiao Wan. Lin Chuan intervened to protect Qin Tiexin, and the chapter ended with his group preparing to fight Xiao Wan.

• Lin Chuan learned that a demon had escaped the temple’s third level and that a body cultivator with a massive black saber was fighting it.
• After hearing a violent clash inside the temple, Lin Chuan led his companions through a collapsed wall and found Qin Tiexin battling Xiao Wan.
• Lin Chuan recognized Xiao Wan, while Ling Shuyao noticed that Qin Tiexin was nearly exhausted.
• Lin Chuan ordered his companions to support Qin Tiexin, then stepped between him and Xiao Wan.
• Xiao Wan demanded that Lin Chuan hand Qin Tiexin over, but Lin Chuan refused and his group prepared to fight her.

After Lin Chuan and his companions drove Xiao Wan away, Qin Tiexin concealed himself to recover and deal with the beads and severed arm. He transformed back into Mingjue, leaving Lin Chuan’s group still searching for him.

• Xiao Wan grabbed the unconscious Xiao Rou and fled the temple ruins after Lin Chuan and Qin Tiexin turned the fight against her.
• Qin Tiexin introduced himself as Liu Qing, gave Lin Chuan’s group Blood Demon Fruits, and said Mingjue was nearby before leaving.
• Qin Tiexin hid in a side hall and discovered that the severed arm wanted one of the ordinary grayish-white beads, not the golden-white bead.
• The severed arm thanked Qin Tiexin and said it would assimilate the bead, while Qin Tiexin covered the other ten beads with the great bell to purify their demonic will.
• Qin Tiexin put away Edgeless, changed back into his warrior monk’s robes, cut his hair, and reshaped his appearance into Mingjue.

Qin Tiexin disguised himself as Mingjue and rejoined Lin Chuan’s group after surviving a dangerous encounter. They searched the ruins’ second floor, uncovered a trove of Pure Land Chan Sect cultivation Jade Slips, and agreed to divide them and sell the remainder to the Imperial Dao Arts Workshop.

• Qin Tiexin checked his Mingjue disguise, recovered some strength with pills, and concealed the evidence of his battle before rejoining the group.
• Liu Suifeng, Lin Chuan, Xu Ying, Du Heng, and Ling Shuyao welcomed Qin Tiexin back and did not press him about what had happened.
• The group searched the ruined first floor, found its Spirit Stones drained and Law Artifacts broken, then moved to the second floor.
• They discovered many Jade Slips containing cultivation methods and techniques, including a complete copy of the lost Wrathful Gaze Dust-Subduing Palm.
• Lin Chuan proposed dividing the Jade Slips among the group and selling the rest, and Ling Shuyao offered to have the Imperial Dao Arts Workshop buy them.

Lin Chuan and his companions gathered the Pure Land Chan Temple’s jade-slip inheritance and surviving treasures, then fled before other cultivators could discover their haul. They escaped through the north gate and continued toward the Vast Waves Sea, leaving the temple and its returning searchers behind.

• Ling Shuyao, Xu Ying, and the others sorted more than three hundred jade slips, including rare Nascent Soul Realm arts, and stored them with Xu Ying.
• Lin Chuan directed the team to collect the third floor’s surviving Spirit Stones, Law Artifacts, and pills before other cultivators returned.
• The group estimated their haul at more than four or five hundred thousand Spirit Stones, while Lin Chuan noticed voices and footsteps approaching the temple.
• Lin Chuan left the unconscious cultivators behind and led the team out through the north gate toward the Vast Waves Sea.
• The six traveled silently through the forest, passed retreating cultivators without incident, and left the Pure Land Chan Temple far behind.

Lin Chuan and the others collected seawater from the Vast Waves Sea and found water-attribute crystal stone along the shore. Before leaving for their next stop, they saw a distant barrier across the sea and discussed what might lie beyond it.

• Lin Chuan and the others filled their Water-Drawing Jade Talismans with seawater, and Ling Shuyao warned Liu Suifeng that the water contained a toxin after he tasted it.
• Qin Tiexin found crystal stone in a reef crevice, and the group searched the coast and collected several hundred pieces of ore.
• Qin Tiexin spotted a pale blue barrier on the horizon, and Ling Shuyao described an old account claiming a great war had led to the sea being sealed.
• Lin Chuan led the group back toward the forest after they completed the water-collection mission, while Qin Tiexin wondered whether another domain lay beyond the barrier.

Lin Chuan’s group returned to the Secret Realm Trial’s exit carrying their gains, only to find Qian Shouan charging cultivators to pass through. With the route guarded by a powerful formation and nearby rifts sealed, the group faced a costly choice as Du Heng began drawing his sword.

• Lin Chuan led the group safely back, avoiding the Pure Land Chan Temple and taking only a few unvisited resource sites along the way.
• Qin Tiexin gave most of the recovered materials to his teammates and kept only a few useful Law Artifact fragments.
• After five days, the group reached the exit rift and encountered Qian Shouan and four guards blocking the path.
• Qian Shouan offered seawater for three thousand Spirit Stones per jade talisman, passage with an empty talisman, or entry for one thousand Spirit Stones per person.
• Liu Suifeng detected a powerful formation around the guarded rift, and Qian Shouan revealed that he had sealed the two nearest alternative rifts.
• Du Heng drew his heavy sword slightly as the group considered how to respond.

Lin Chuan's team completed the Secret Realm Trial and returned to Ten Thousand Stars City, where they celebrated with a dinner. As they discussed the upcoming Skills Trial, several members chose which events they would enter.

• Lin Chuan and Qin Tiexin handed Qian Shouan six Water-Drawing Jade Talismans and Spirit Stones, then passed through the fissure with their team.
• The Star Selection Bureau verified the team's talismans, recorded that all members had survived and completed the mission, and awarded them full marks.
• The team returned by teleportation array to Morning Star Training Ground, and Lin Chuan arranged to divide their secret-realm gains two days later.
• Ling Shuyao left to return to the Imperial Dao Arts Workshop, while the others went to Starlight Restaurant for a celebratory meal.
• Lin Chuan explained the Skills Trial events, and Liu Suifeng chose formations, Xu Ying chose alchemy, Du Heng declined to compete, and Qin Tiexin chose artifact refining.

Qin Tiexin met Chen Xi in a hidden courtyard, where Chen Xi warned him that he was being watched and treated the damage caused by forcibly raising his cultivation. Chen Xi urged him to protect his life and ended by asking whether he had been the body cultivator Liu Qing in the secret realm.

• Lin Chuan assigned Liu Suifeng, Xu Ying, and Qin Tiexin to enter the formation, pill-refining, and artifact-refining competitions, respectively.
• After parting from Lin Chuan, Qin Tiexin followed Chen Xi's message to a secluded house in Eternal Peace Alley.
• Chen Xi revealed that Qin Tiexin had been followed since leaving the Secret Realm Trial, but said his formations had prevented anyone from tracking him into the courtyard.
• Chen Xi detected damage to Qin Tiexin's foundation from forcibly raising his cultivation and used his spiritual power to help clear it.
• Chen Xi advised Qin Tiexin to flee or call for help rather than risk his life, then asked whether he had been Liu Qing in the secret realm.

Chen Xi questioned Qin Tiexin about the Secret Realm Trial and, after hearing his full account, sharply criticized his mistakes. He left Qin Tiexin reflecting on how his disguises and impulsive choices had exposed him to suspicion and danger.

• Chen Xi asked Qin Tiexin whether he had obtained the middle-grade spirit artifact bracelet, then had him recount everything that happened in the Secret Realm Trial.
• After Qin Tiexin finished, Chen Xi challenged his belief that he had become skilled at disguise and warned that his alternating identities as Liu Qing and Mingjue had made the connection obvious.
• Chen Xi criticized Qin Tiexin for keeping Xiao Rou close despite suspecting her and for failing to disguise his height and build.
• Chen Xi warned Qin Tiexin that using Buddhist martial techniques had attracted attention and told him not to use them again in the Heavenly South Domain.
• Chen Xi rebuked Qin Tiexin for rushing into the battle with Xuanli instead of waiting for a safer opportunity or asking Chen Xi for help.

Chen Xi warned Qin Tiexin that his careless actions had exposed his identity and laid out steps to cover his tracks. Qin Tiexin stayed in hiding to prepare for the Skills Trial and Arena Trial, while Chen Xi left him supplies and advice.

• Chen Xi listed Qin Tiexin's mistakes, including revealing himself to Lin Chuan and the others, and frightened him with the possibility that they could identify him.
• Chen Xi told Qin Tiexin to let him copy and distribute the Jade Slips for his three martial techniques so they would no longer appear exclusive to him.
• Qin Tiexin gave Chen Xi a drop of Essence Blood, which Chen Xi planned to use to make a Substitute Puppet that would draw enemies toward Ten Thousand Stars City and self-destruct.
• Chen Xi examined Qin Tiexin's purified bracelet and suggested giving it to Ming'an, who was staying at the Lin Residence.
• Chen Xi advised Qin Tiexin to limit his Skills Trial display to Upper-Grade Law Artifacts and aim for the top three in the Arena Trial without using the three martial techniques.
• Chen Xi left Qin Tiexin a protective talisman, a sleeve arrow, and Qi Recovery Pills, then departed without being seen.