Recaps

Yang Zhen defeated Gan Bailin in a literary contest, then followed Su Yunlan and Tian Rou to the Spirit Learning Palace and earned a place at its birthday celebration by becoming a celebrated hotpot chef. The gathering brought him face to face with Hua Youyue, while Ning Wuque learned that Yang Zhen was the palace’s head chef.

• Yang Zhen’s inscription illuminated the Ancestral Stele, and he drove Yuan Zheng away from the mountainside spring before noticing his Spirit Root had grown thicker.
• Yang Zhen traveled to Tieling City, where the crowd turned against him over his supposed insult to Great Master Su, but Miss Yanhua revealed that Su had taken a fancy to him.
• Yang Zhen silenced his challengers with poems and defeated Gan Bailin’s tiger painting on the Cloud Terrace, then discussed Star Literary Talent Qi with Great Master Su.
• Yang Zhen traveled with Su Yunlan and Tian Rou to the Spirit Learning Palace, where he refused to attend the old palace master’s birthday unless invited and investigated rumors about Mo Xueling.
• Yang Zhen entered the palace kitchen through Xiao Ling and Lu Benwei, then helped Hu Tao make malatang that delighted the cooks and earned him the head chef position.
• Yang Zhen encountered Shameless Cat in the kitchen, spent two days serving food, and went to the birthday gathering under the name Yang Dingtian.
• Hua Youyue arrived with Mo Xueling and the Ink Pool Peak disciples, and Yang Zhen and Hua Youyue exchanged a smile and a wink across the crowd.
• Ning Wuque approached Hua Youyue, but she crossed the gathering to ask Yang Zhen for malatang, while Mo Xueling told Ning Wuque that Yang Zhen was the palace kitchen’s head chef.

Yang Zhen humiliated Ning Wuque, defeated his challenge, and gained the Heavenly Lightning Origin before agreeing to enter the Forbidden Zone of Life with Hua Youyue. Inside, a bronze tree controlled the group, and Yang Zhen confronted the shadows it released as a giant Evil Shadow Black Taotie appeared.

• At the old palace master's birthday gathering, Yang Zhen crafted a Saint-grade Literary Qi treasure called “The Most Dazzling Ethnic Style” and won praise for his gift.
• Yang Zhen cultivated into the Spirit Wandering Realm, defeated Ning Wuque, and resisted Third Lotus Seat when he attacked him.
• Third Lotus Seat's suppressed heavenly tribulation descended, and Yang Zhen entered its center, absorbed the Heavenly Lightning Origin, and revealed his identity to the gathered factions.
• Palace Master Liu and the others discussed the Forbidden Zone of Life, and Yang Zhen agreed to enter it with Hua Youyue to investigate its dangers and inheritances.
• At the Forbidden Zone, Yang Zhen's soul wandered into the red mist, where he saw a mountain of bones and a woman who looked exactly like Hua Youyue before her power drove him back.
• Mei Chaofeng opened the formation, and Yang Zhen, Hua Youyue, Mo Xueling, and their companions entered the Forbidden Zone, where their True Essence became dormant.
• Yang Zhen led the group toward the ancient bronze tree, whose Blood Illusion Bronze presence controlled nearby cultivators and drove Liu Zongqi onto its branches.
• The little sapling awakened inside Yang Zhen and helped him resist the tree's shadows, but a giant Evil Shadow Black Taotie emerged as Hua Youyue rushed to warn him.

Yang Zhen pursued Hua Youyue’s inheritance and broke Bone Mountain’s restriction to save her, at the cost of his own shortened life. With the Forbidden Zone collapsing and his divine soul damaged, he headed for Flower Countenance Mountain to restore himself and reunite with Hua Youyue, Mo Xueling, and Han Yan'er.

• Yang Zhen forged the Great Deficiency Sword from Blood Illusion Bronze, used it to expose and defeat the Shanggen Secret Clan’s ambush, and acquired Medicine Madman’s alchemy inheritance in the hidden world.
• After escaping the transformed Sea of Sin Swamp, Yang Zhen learned that his absorbed Nine-Step Heaven-Ascending Token was tied to the Forbidden Zone’s destruction and followed Hua Youyue toward Bone Mountain.
• Hua Youyue met the snow-white figure at Bone Mountain, who revealed that they were parts of the Three Flowers Holy Maiden and that their reunion could erase Hua Youyue’s consciousness.
• When Hua Youyue briefly begged Yang Zhen to save her, Yang Zhen climbed Bone Mountain, activated the Nine-Step Heaven-Ascending Token, and destroyed the mountain and its Heaven and Earth Shackles.
• Hua Youyue broke free of the merging and remained herself, but the Saint-level soul warned that she had ten years to live and Yang Zhen had only three, and Yang Zhen gave her the Ageless Tree’s life force.
• As the Forbidden Zone collapsed, Yang Zhen learned that Saint Law might restore his damaged divine soul, then escaped while arranging for Rogue Person Lu You to publicize his supposed recovery.
• Yang Zhen discovered that Han Yan'er had become the Dao Fanatic and was protecting his reputation, then robbed cultivators who told him that Han Yan'er, Spirit Maiden Hua, and Spirit Maiden Mo had gone to Flower Countenance Mountain.
• With Shameless Cat offering help with his tribulation, Yang Zhen set off for Flower Countenance Mountain to raise hell.

Yang Zhen survived the Heavenly Ghost tribulation and learned that the Ancient Clan was preparing an Opening Heaven ritual at the Northern Garden Ice Cavern. When he intervened to save Gu Nuoyu, he discovered that someone had altered the formation to steal the Sha Clan’s accumulated spiritual charm, and Great Saint Tianti emerged from the largest ice palace.

• Yang Zhen fought Yue Yufeng and Jiang Zuolei, used their lightning attacks to advance his Dragon-Elephant Prison-Shaking Body, and faced the Heavenly Ghost tribulation.
• Yang Zhen rejected the tribulation’s origin, destroyed it, and absorbed its power into the Great Deficiency Sword through Evil Shadow Black Taotie.
• Old Ghost Hei told Yang Zhen and the others that the Ancient Clan had entered the Northern Garden Ice Cavern to open a restriction, and Yang Zhen challenged its Saint-Chosen Son, Fu Yonglin.
• Yang Zhen defeated and questioned Fu Yonglin, who explained that the Ancient Clan had frozen its ancestral land during the Holy War to survive a devastating change in heaven and earth.
• Yang Zhen and his companions searched the Ancient Clan’s ancestral land while the Sha Clan began the Opening Heaven ceremony around an ice statue.
• When Gu Nuoyu approached the statue, Yang Zhen entered the restriction and dragged her away, believing the Sha Clan intended to sacrifice her.
• Shameless Cat explained that Yang Zhen had misunderstood the Sha Clan’s purpose and accused someone of tampering with the ceremony’s formation.
• Yang Zhen identified the altered formation and revealed that the ice palaces had been moved to let someone steal the Sha Clan’s spiritual charm, just as Great Saint Tianti appeared from the largest palace.