Recaps

Ma Fang's group fought Yuan Changwu's cultivators while Deng Shouchong challenged Yuan Changwu and Xu Long battled Chen Yuping's dharma body. As their clashes intensified, Xu Long recognized the depth of Chen Yuping's natural Dao art, while Chen Yuping was surprised that his swordsmanship could break through her rain domain.

• Ma Fang killed a great cultivator with her miao saber after the Two Lin Brothers drew his attack away, while Li Hong's ambush in the barbican was stopped by Yuan Changwu.
• Deng Shouchong sent his dharma banner at Yuan Changwu, who abandoned his plan to conserve strength and attacked with his black horsetail whisk.
• Ma Fang's group drew their battle line inward and fought Yuan Changwu's more cautious cultivators as the battle intensified.
• Xu Long fought Chen Yuping's dharma body inside her rain domain and reflected on her profound command of natural laws and the immortal path.
• Chen Yuping sensed that Xu Long's swift, precise sword shadows had broken through her rain domain and disrupted the power of her Dao art.

Xu Long and Branch Master Chen battled across Blackwater City, as his Power of Oblivion countered her raindrop laws and she tried to overwhelm him with a deadly vortex. Just as Chen Yuping seemed poised to capture him, an ancient aura and mysterious energy appeared in the city.

• Branch Master Chen shifted her attack from Ma Fang and her companions to Xu Long, surrounding him with raindrops that reflected his image and carried killing intent.
• Xu Long used sword light infused with the Power of Oblivion to cut through the raindrops, then formed a sword net that dissolved their sharpness before it shattered under their assault.
• Xu Long summoned a star-like celestial phenomenon whose radiance destroyed the rain, while Chen Yuping realized his laws surpassed hers and grew suspicious of his connection to Deng Shouchong.
• Xu Long attacked again to end the fight quickly, but Chen Yuping gathered clouds and rain into a vortex that trapped his sword light and drove a deadly spray toward him.
• Xu Long raised barriers as the reflected images in the raindrops shattered, and a mysterious energy with an ancient aura appeared throughout Blackwater City.

Xu Long redirected his sword strike into the city after sensing danger, then fled as a horde of Mist Beasts surged from the ruins. Yuan Changwu instead led a group toward the Human Python, hoping to seize his long-awaited chance to break through to the Immortal Realm.

• Xu Long abandoned his attack on Chen Yuping, struck the city, and raced toward the barbican as he warned everyone to run.
• Deng Shouchong urged Ma Fang and the others to flee, while Yuan Changwu withdrew the black horsetail whisk and led great cultivators toward the city's interior.
• A river of cyan pythons poured from the ruins, forcing Chen Yuping and Xu Long to escape as the Human Python watched from behind the horde.
• Yuan Changwu recognized the Human Python as his target but saw that the pythons blocked his path, leaving him conflicted about whether to retreat.
• Yuan Changwu promised the cultivators great medicines from the Pill Cauldron Sect and advanced with the black horsetail whisk, opening a passage through the cyan river.

Yuan Changwu attacked the Human Python in Blackwater City with black feathers, but its counterattack destroyed the cultivators beneath his canopy and forced him to flee. As he escaped, he recalled his goals and the rivalry among Phoenix City's three forces over Blackwater City's energy core, while the Human Python remained in control of the city.

• Yuan Changwu bound the Human Python's tail with his horsetail whisk and sent black feathers at its head, inflicting a deep wound in its shoulder.
• The enraged Human Python smashed Yuan Changwu's black canopy and killed the great cultivators beneath it, but Yuan Changwu escaped by transforming into a black crane.
• Yuan Changwu fled Blackwater City, resentful that he had failed to obtain the Human Python's Inner Core or secure the energy core.
• Yuan Changwu recalled that he had come to Blackwater City seeking the energy core for Yuan Changhe's plans and a powerful Mist Beast Inner Core to help him break through to the Earth Immortal realm.
• Yuan Changwu had planned to exploit the weakness of a Human Python guarding eggs, but the beast's all-out attack showed that he had misjudged its strength.

Yuan Changwu failed to kill the Human Python and fled Blackwater City, abandoning the cultivators who had fought with him. As the Mist Beast tide trapped Xu Long, Deng Shouchong and the others boarded an awakened bronze war chariot and called Xu Long to join them.

• Yuan Changwu retreated from the Human Python and transformed into a black crane, leaving the great cultivators below to be swallowed by the Mist Beast tide.
• The Human Python pursued the fleeing cultivators with its Eternity Ice Mist, while Yuan Changwu escaped over Blackwater City's outer wall.
• Xu Long, Deng Shouchong, Ma Fang, and their companions fought through Mist Beasts as the tide closed around them inside and outside the city.
• A bronze war chariot appeared, and Deng Shouchong placed his ritual banner on it and urged everyone to climb aboard.
• The Two Lin Brothers released two divine steeds from their Beast-Taming Rings, allowing the chariot to unleash its power against the Mist Beasts.
• Deng Shouchong called to Xu Long to stop fighting and board the chariot so they could escape together.

Xu Long was trapped outside Blackwater City as the Human Python’s Poison Curse drew the Mist Beasts toward him, while Deng Shouchong and the others escaped by chariot. Xu Long prepared to break through under the pressure of the World's Origin Will, which appeared as tribulation clouds and turned its gaze on him.

• Deng Shouchong urged Xu Long to board the chariot, but Xu Long claimed he would cover the rear as the Mist Beasts attacked him in force.
• Deng Shouchong drove the chariot away with the others, leaving Xu Long behind as they fought through the cyan river of Mist Beasts.
• Xu Long tried to escape across the dunes, but winged Mist Beasts filled the sky and blocked his plan to use the Vulture King.
• Xu Long recognized the Human Python’s Poison Curse on his arm and realized it was drawing the Mist Beasts toward him.
• Xu Long used the Heaven-Burning Sacred Fire to hold off the Eternity Ice Mist and began forcing his magic power toward a breakthrough.
• The World's Origin Will appeared above Xu Long in gathering tribulation clouds, but Xu Long kept sensing the rules of heaven and earth and refused to retreat.

Xu Long faced the Origin Will’s Divine Punishment Lightning Tribulation in the ruins of Blackwater City, refusing to yield even as successive bolts destroyed his body. After his Body of Oblivion began rebuilding him and his will touched the world’s laws, the completed tribulation vortex unleashed another massive bolt, leaving his fate unresolved.

• Xu Long challenged the Origin Will, and an early lightning bolt struck him and reduced nearby Mist Beasts to charcoal.
• The Human Python drew the Mist Beast tide away from Xu Long as the tribulation clouds gathered and he prepared to break through.
• Xu Long roared at the heavens, and a second lightning strike reduced his body to ashes and leveled the dune.
• Xu Long’s will survived, touched the world’s laws, and his Body of Oblivion began reassembling his body amid the ruins.
• The Human Python recoiled in fear and recognized in Xu Long a bearing like that of a mysterious figure from its memories.
• The tribulation clouds finished forming above Blackwater City, and a massive purple lightning bolt descended toward Xu Long.

Xu Long endured the Origin Will’s Lightning Tribulation and chose the Milky Way as his Daoist Celestial Phenomenon, breaking free of the world’s confinement and advancing toward the Mahayana Stage. As he fused his magic power with the laws, the World-Breaking Blade joined the fight and pierced toward the tribulation clouds.

• Xu Long endured the lightning while seeking a way to resist through the world’s rules and his own Dao heart.
• Xu Long chose the Milky Way as his Daoist Celestial Phenomenon and fused his will with its stars, breaking the Origin Will’s confinement.
• Xu Long formed a body, challenged the giant eye in the tribulation clouds, and fought back with the World-Breaking Blade.
• Xu Long declared his Great Dao complete and let the Lightning Tribulation strike as his magic power fused with the laws of heaven and earth.
• The World-Breaking Blade rose through the lightning and cut a trail through the tribulation clouds at Xu Long’s command.

Xu Long resisted the Divine Punishment Lightning Tribulation with his World-Breaking Blade and reached the Mahayana Stage, but the Human Python’s poison curse remained. The Human Python attacked to seize his transformed body, and Xu Long began fighting it amid the Mist Beast tide.

• Xu Long drew on the Milky Way Celestial Phenomenon and used his Heaven-Slaying sword strike to pierce the tribulation clouds, briefly halting the Origin Will’s lightning.
• A middle-aged cultivator in a distant city sensed the anomaly, divined that it concerned Blackwater City, and was astonished when his divination failed.
• Xu Long endured the tribulation’s final strike and completed his breakthrough to the Mahayana Stage, while the World-Breaking Blade advanced to the middle grade of immortal artifacts.
• Xu Long discovered that the Human Python’s poison curse still clung to his arm, and the Human Python returned, coveting his body and intending to attack.
• Xu Long sent the World-Breaking Blade against the Human Python, cutting through the gathered cyan pythons and forcing the creature to reassess his strength.
• As the Mist Beast tide began to gather around Xu Long again, he raised his sword for another strike, and the Human Python roared at him.

Xu Long fought the Human Python, using the Heaven-Burning Sacred Fire to counter its Eternity Ice Mist and a hidden attack to grievously wound it. The Human Python unleashed the Mist Beast tide’s combined power, but Xu Long escaped its killing blow with a sealing technique, leaving the beast’s attack to strike only his afterimage.

• The Human Python endured Xu Long’s sword light, then coiled around his barriers and trapped him while waiting to freeze him with Eternity Ice Mist.
• Xu Long used the Heaven-Burning Sacred Fire to break through the cold and escaped, revealing that the Human Python had taken the form of a parasitized Daoist nun.
• Xu Long’s World-Breaking Blade severed the Human Python’s body, and his dharma body pursued it as Mist Beasts gathered to attack.
• Xu Long struck the Human Python’s old shoulder wound with a shell, then followed with sword light that further battered it and severed its tail.
• The wounded Human Python combined the Mist Beast tide’s innate abilities into a furious cyan dragon, broke Xu Long’s barriers, and sent him flying with its attack.
• Xu Long spoke the word “Seal” to bind the Human Python briefly, then escaped as it broke free and struck at his afterimage.

Xu Long killed the Human Python, escaped the Mist Beast tide with its Inner Core, and learned that Yuan Changwu had wanted the core to help him break through to the Immortal Realm. As Blackwater City fell to the beasts, Xu Long left for Phoenix City, where he hoped to find the Ancestral Spirit.

• Xu Long used the moment after the Human Python's failed attack to strike it with sword light, destroying its body and ending the Poison Curse it had placed on him.
• Xu Long fought his way out of the Eternity Ice Mist, then took the Human Python's Inner Core from the fissure as the Mist Beasts swarmed toward it.
• Xu Long drove back the winged Mist Beasts, escaped their encirclement, and reached Blackwater City, where he thawed several frozen cultivators and searched their memories before killing them.
• Xu Long fled Blackwater City on the Vulture King as the Mist Beast tide swallowed the city, then resolved to seek the Ancestral Spirit in Phoenix City.
• Xu Long learned from the memories he had searched that Phoenix City was ruled by Deng Lifu and that Chen Yuping and Yuan Changhe led its other major factions.
• Xu Long discovered that Yuan Changwu had sought the Human Python's Inner Core as the key ingredient in a pill that could help him break through to the Immortal Realm.

Xu Long traveled toward Phoenix City, learned that the Mist Beast tide was gathering in its direction, and worried that the city might soon face a major attack. After crossing the mountains, he reached the outskirts of the city and witnessed a sudden ambush among the arriving cultivators.

• Xu Long pieced together Deng Lifu’s scheme to draw the Pill Cauldron Sect and Rogue Cultivators Association into Blackwater City, while recognizing that his own acquisition of the energy core had disrupted the plan.
• Xu Long rode the Vulture King toward Phoenix City, saw vast numbers of Mist Beasts moving in the same direction, and resolved to strengthen his power.
• Xu Long crossed the sea of sand and mountains, spotted Phoenix City’s energy core, and found that Mist Beasts had gathered on the far side of the mountains.
• Xu Long reached the outskirts of Phoenix City and saw weary cultivators arrive, relieved to have found an orderly region beyond the Red Land.
• An attacker struck among the cultivators just as they relaxed, prompting the crowd to scatter and guard against one another.

Xu Long watched cultivators fight over Spirit Stones until an intelligent Mist Beast tide surrounded them, forcing them to unite and fight for escape. A white-robed cultivator led a group through the Eternity Ice Mist, and after others gathered behind him, he invoked an Edict by sacrificing essence blood to his flying shuttle.

• Cultivators attacked one another over Spirit Stones while Xu Long watched, and the Mist Beast tide quietly closed around them.
• A white-robed cultivator stunned the crowd and Mist Beasts with a thunderous shout, then used his flying shuttle to open a passage through the encirclement.
• The white-robed cultivator led his companions through the cyan mist, fighting off Mist Beasts as the shuttle’s golden light began to dim.
• Other cultivators followed the white-robed cultivator and gathered behind him, easing the pressure as he prepared to break through the mist.
• The white-robed cultivator spat essence blood onto the flying shuttle and spoke an Edict, enveloping it in a blood-red mist.

The white-robed cultivator led a group through the Mist Beast tide toward Phoenix City, while Xu Long followed and sensed a hidden threat watching them. After the cultivator’s shuttle cleared the way, a concealed attacker struck him with extreme cold and left strange energy lodged in his back as he continued fleeing.

• The white-robed cultivator powered up his flying shuttle and carved a path through the giant azure pythons, leading his group out of the mountains as the Mist Beast tide pursued them.
• A human-shaped figure with sickly green eyes watched the fleeing cultivators from the woods, while Xu Long joined their group unnoticed and followed the white lightning toward Phoenix City.
• Xu Long sensed an ambush approaching from the side and held back as the white-robed cultivator transformed his shuttle into an arrowhead and attacked the lateral Mist Beast tide.
• The white-robed cultivator spotted the watching figure and fled, but the hidden attacker sent several streams of extreme cold into his back, slowing him and disrupting his Magic Power.
• The white-robed cultivator forced some cold from his meridians but could not remove the strange energy embedded in his back, while Xu Long recognized its aura as familiar.

Xu Long recognized that a higher Mist Beast had cursed the white-robed cultivator and fled with the others as the Mist Beast tide closed in. A bronze war chariot from Phoenix City rescued them, but after the group passed it, Xu Long noticed the Mist Beasts had scattered and lost their coordination.

• Xu Long identified the cold that struck the white-robed cultivator as a higher Mist Beast's Poison Curse and met the creature's green-eyed gaze across the mist.
• Xu Long fled after the white-robed cultivator as cyan giant pythons and the Mist Beast tide surrounded the cultivators.
• The white-robed cultivator slowed near Phoenix City, where a bronze war chariot charged into the Mist Beast tide and halted its advance.
• Pavilion Master Xu identified Xu Long and his companions as cultivators from the Red Land seeking to pledge their service to Phoenix City.
• The City Lord's Manor's chariot threatened to crush Xu Long's group, then let them pass as the older great cultivator held back the Mist Beasts.
• Xu Long escaped behind the chariot and noticed the Mist Beast tide had scattered and retreated instead of attacking in formation.

Xu Long reached Phoenix City and recognized its octagonal layout as a sealed Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram, then learned that newcomers could pay Spirit Stones or risk the city-gate trials to enter. As Ma Fang explained the rules from a chariot, Xu Long kept his identity hidden and watched Pavilion Master Xu's party approach a gate.

• Xu Long saw the golden light and towering walls of Phoenix City after the Mist Beast tide drove the cultivators toward it.
• Xu Long used his Heavenly Eye to analyze Phoenix City's eight gates and realized the city formed an incomplete, sealed Bagua Diagram.
• Ma Fang announced that newcomers could pay Spirit Stones for safe entry or attempt the gates, with rewards for passing five or six and danger for failing.
• Xu Long recognized Ma Fang on the city lord's manor chariot but hid in the crowd and avoided contact with him.
• Pavilion Master Xu's party reached a gate, where one of its members paid the gatekeeper and declared that nine members of the Rogue Cultivators Association were entering.

Xu Long entered Phoenix City through the Life Gate, only to find himself trapped in the shifting Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram. The gate unleashed a vast sword formation against him, and he met its attack with his own sword light.

• Xu Long decided against paying Spirit Stones or forcing his way through Phoenix City's defenses, and chose to enter the formation himself.
• Xu Long used his Heavenly Eye to study the Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram and planned a route through its gates, but the formation shifted as he entered.
• Xu Long became separated from the other cultivators inside the diagram and realized he was trapped in one of its gates.
• Sword qi attacked Xu Long, and he shattered the first few streams with his fingertips before a much larger sword formation emerged.
• Xu Long summoned his sword light and spun it above his head, forming a sword net to intercept the incoming attack.

Xu Long broke through the Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram’s sword formation and entered another gate, where he discovered that lethal arrows guarded the clouds ahead. After a cultivator died warning him to be careful, Xu Long continued onward, seeking to understand the formation’s mysterious energy and how to pass safely.

• Xu Long used his sword light and the Power of Oblivion to destroy the endless illusory sword qi in the first gate.
• Xu Long realized the formation preserved sword strikes’ Power of Laws and used it to generate seemingly endless attacks, then passed through the first gate.
• Xu Long entered a different barrier and heard a cultivator roar before the man was struck backward by hidden attacks.
• Xu Long saw that the dying cultivator had arrows embedded in his chest; the man warned him to be careful and died.
• Xu Long read the final image in the man’s eyes, identifying lethal arrows hidden among clouds beyond the gate, then burned the corpse and watched the arrows dissipate.
• Xu Long chose to proceed through the gates rather than seek a shortcut, while sensing the mysterious energy that he believed sustained the formation.

Xu Long probed the Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram’s cloud barrier and discovered that its arrows and scattered clouds worked together to trap him. As a giant armor-piercing awl pierced his defenses, he sent his sword light to slice through the clouds with the power of oblivion.

• Xu Long rose through the barrier and passed a deceptive vapor curtain, which closed behind him and exposed him to churning clouds full of arrows.
• Xu Long sent sword light into the clouds, suppressing their momentum, but several arrows formed in the flattened mist and shot toward him.
• Xu Long advanced toward the clouds while raising successive curtain walls, as scattered clouds gathered behind him and slowed his movement.
• The clouds gathered countless arrows into a giant armor-piercing awl that broke through Xu Long’s defenses while he waited for his sword light.
• Xu Long used the power of oblivion to send his sword light slicing through the clouds as the awl continued to pierce the curtain walls.

Xu Long escaped the Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram’s second gate by using his Milky Way Celestial Phenomenon and sensed that he might be able to draw on energy from Phoenix City’s City Heart. He entered the third gate, where a deadly river and iron-chain bridge blocked his way.

• Xu Long summoned his Milky Way Celestial Phenomenon to halt the armor-piercing cone briefly, escaped through the clouds, and used his sword light to strike back as the cone pursued him.
• Xu Long sensed energy within the Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram and suspected he could use his phenomenon to draw a small amount of power from Phoenix City’s City Heart.
• Xu Long emerged in the third gate and found a vast, turbulent river crossed only by an old iron-chain bridge.
• Xu Long saw a person swept into a whirlpool and dragged beneath the river, then abandoned the idea of swimming across.

Xu Long crossed the dangerous iron-chain bridge over the surging river, using his sword light to suppress whirlpools and waves as the bridge shook beneath him. Near the river's center, he faced a gathering force from below and realized he could not wait for the torrent to strike again.

• Xu Long recognized that the far bank marked the exit from the third gate and decided to cross by the iron-chain bridge.
• Xu Long hurried across the swaying chains and used his sword light to break apart whirlpools that threatened the bridge.
• Xu Long's sword light burst from beneath the water and shattered towering waves, allowing him to continue across.
• Xu Long approached the bridge's corroded center, where the river's force gathered and the chains began clattering violently.
• Xu Long braced himself against the torrent's crushing impact and realized the river was steadily building strength beneath him.

Xu Long crossed the great river by twisting its cables together and using his sword light to break the torrent’s assault, then reached the exit to Phoenix City. He lingered to draw energy from the City Heart, missed the exit when the Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram shifted, and was sent into the fourth gate.

• Xu Long used Magic Power to twist the river cables into a single taut chain and raised them above the water.
• Xu Long used his sword light and the cables’ motion to withstand and break the great river’s waves, then crossed to solid ground.
• Xu Long saw the curtain of light that would let him leave the Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram and enter Phoenix City without paying Spirit Stones.
• Xu Long used his Milky Way Celestial Phenomenon to draw energy from the City Heart, recovering the Magic Power he had spent.
• Xu Long’s attempt to absorb the energy made him miss the exit as the formation changed, sending him into the fourth gate.

Xu Long entered the fourth gate of the Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram, where its gathered energy unleashed a powerful attack against him. He survived the giant hand and discovered that his opponent was a real totem being, leaving him to wonder whether the formation was connected to sealed primeval gods.

• Xu Long reflected that the City Heart's energy grew stronger deeper within the formation, while Deng Lifu monitored the Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram and noticed an anomaly at the fourth gate.
• Xu Long explored the fourth gate's barrier, sensed its killing intent, and felt the formation gather vast energy around him.
• A giant hand descended and crushed Xu Long into the ground, but he used the Power of Oblivion to blunt the impact and sent his sword light to attack its owner.
• Xu Long's sword light struck the being hidden in the darkness, revealing a powerful totem resembling the phantom on Deng Shouchong's ritual banner.
• Xu Long recognized the being as a true totem and wondered whether the Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram was connected to sealed primeval gods.

Xu Long battled the totem guardians inside the Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram, using Spiritual Qi Bombardment and his sword light to destroy two of them. The final two separated to attack him and his sword, and the chapter ended as one totem prepared to strike Xu Long again while an overpowering gaze emerged from the dust.

• The wounded totem summoned three shadows, and the four totems trapped Xu Long's sword light in their joined palms.
• Xu Long drew energy from the City Heart through the Milky Way Celestial Phenomenon and unleashed Spiritual Qi Bombardment, blasting the totems apart and freeing his sword light.
• Xu Long's sword light destroyed one totem, and he endured the remaining three totems' combined assault behind his defensive curtain wall.
• The sword light beheaded another totem as it attacked Xu Long, leaving two guardians to face him.
• The remaining totems split up, with one pinning down Xu Long's sword light while the other crushed him into the ground; an overpowering gaze then emerged from the dust.

Xu Long annihilated the last totems in the fourth gate and absorbed the City Heart’s energy instead of leaving the Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram. He entered the fifth gate, Scattering Beans to Create Soldiers, where an ancient army closed in and prepared to attack.

• Xu Long destroyed one totem with a powerful shell and killed the final totem with the sword light.
• Xu Long searched the fourth gate, absorbed the released energy, and chose not to take its exit.
• Xu Long sensed the fifth gate and entered a desolate wilderness beneath a crimson sky.
• Black beads fell from the sky and formed a vast army of ancient soldiers and bronze chariots around Xu Long.
• The soldiers parted within a hundred paces of Xu Long, and the front rank crouched as figures aimed something at him.