Recaps

Li Yan annihilated Heng Guyuan’s Yin-Yang Chaos Sect team and carefully arranged the corpses and evidence to implicate the Wangliang Sect and Life Extinction Sect without leaving proof against them. After checking the island for flaws, he took Heng Guyuan’s golden leaf to summon experts from outside the secret realm.

• Heng Guyuan and his companions heard rustling on the island, and Li Yan later found them all dead after attacking them with illusion poison and Dazzling Gold Blood Earthworms.
• Li Yan kept Heng Guyuan alive until he took out his golden leaf, then strangled him and collected it.
• Li Yan restored the cultivators’ storage treasures to their owners so the scene would look like an attack by Dazzling Gold Blood Earthworms rather than a theft.
• Li Yan reasoned that leaving the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect’s belongings intact would keep suspicion between the sects while denying the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect concrete evidence against either rival.
• Li Yan checked the island and waited for the illusion poison to dissipate before taking out the golden leaf to draw the outside experts there.

Li Yan crushed the golden leaf to lure the sect elders into the secret realm while concealing his true plan. He Yiniang arrived at the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect’s assigned area and found a massacre, leaving her unsure what had happened.

• Li Yan considered how to hide his theft from Heng Guyuan, then flew toward the Wangliang Sect’s area and crushed the golden leaf.
• He Yiniang, Elder Yang, and Liao assembled the broken sword outside the secret realm and opened the Light Gate before entering together.
• Elder Yang and Liao checked their own sects’ teams and found them safe, then redirected their divine sense toward the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect’s region.
• He Yiniang searched for her sect’s disciples and discovered an island strewn with corpses and broken magical artifacts.
• He Yiniang recognized four dead Void Refinement Realm team leaders and raised her guard without descending to the island.

After finding the corpses of Heng Guyuan's and Xu Yusheng's teams, the beautiful married woman surnamed He investigated the island while Elder Yang and the burly man surnamed Liao searched the rest of the secret realm. She found no trace of a natural danger and concluded that Heng Guyuan had truly sent the plea for help, but the cause of the deaths remained unclear.

• The beautiful married woman surnamed He saw the bodies of both teams and realized they had likely gathered after Xu Yusheng's team called for aid.
• Elder Yang and the burly man surnamed Liao searched the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect's search zone and found no surviving disciples.
• Elder Yang and the burly man surnamed Liao speculated that an extreme danger had killed the teams, while also considering whether their own sect's disciples could be suspected.
• The beautiful married woman surnamed He searched the island and concluded that an ambush had occurred and its attackers had already withdrawn.
• The beautiful married woman surnamed He examined Heng Guyuan's corpse and spatial treasures, finding no discrepancies and confirming that he had crushed the golden leaf.

He, Elder Yang, and Liao investigated the slaughtered Yin-Yang Chaos Sect cultivators but found no clear cause, while the other sects’ disciples remained unaware. Deep in the secret realm, four surviving Goldflame Blood Worm leaders discussed the threat posed by the human cultivators and searched their ancient records for a way to save their race.

• He examined the corroded corpses and abandoned treasures, then summoned Elder Yang and Liao to investigate with her.
• Elder Yang and Liao found no abnormal fluctuations and checked on their sects’ disciples, who remained unaware of the calamity that had struck the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect.
• Far beneath a gray swamp, the four remaining leaders of the Goldflame Blood Worm royal clan gathered after sensing three powerful cultivators enter the secret realm.
• The leaders recalled how human cultivators had invaded their home, killed their clansmen, and used the secret realm to train their disciples.
• The four searched their race’s ancient records and learned that the secret realm had once been a space beyond the boundaries of the realm, where their ancestors had fled after being hunted.

The four powerful cultivators of the Radiant Gold Bloodworm clan discovered their secret realm was an outside refuge connected to the Cangxuan Realm by a teleportation passage. Unable to sever it by force, they refined and deployed a costly formation seven years ago, but left it inactive as they waited for the right moment.

• The four demons searched their clan's ancient records as calamity threatened and found a jade slip revealing their ancestors had hidden the clan in a secret realm outside the Cangxuan Realm.
• The four demons learned the passage to the Cangxuan Realm was temporary and tried to sever it, but their combined strength could only weaken it slightly.
• The four demons concluded that their ancestor's power had sealed the passage beyond their reach and that their clan's heart-demon blood oath would doom them if the secret realm were lost.
• The four demons chose to spend most of the clan's resources on a formation that might provide enough power to sever the passage, despite its low chance of success.
• The four demons arranged for smaller clans to delay the outside cultivators and had two injured elders recover while their eldest brother refined the formation.
• The strongest cultivator completed the formation seven years earlier, and the clan deployed it inside the secret realm but kept it inactive.

The four Radiant Gold Bloodworm Demon Cultivators debated whether to use their formation after learning that three Human Race experts had entered the secret realm, but they chose to wait for information. At the island where the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect disciples had died, the beautiful woman surnamed He questioned Elder Yang and the burly man surnamed Liao about the attack, and the three prepared to investigate farther inward.

• The strongest Demon Cultivator summoned the other three after the secret wards reported that three Human Race experts had entered the secret realm.
• The timid Demon Cultivator urged the group to activate their formation, while Second Brother advised waiting for reports from the outer perimeter.
• The strongest Demon Cultivator agreed to wait and ordered the central-region clans to send back news using low-rank demon beasts.
• The beautiful woman surnamed He asked Elder Yang and the burly man surnamed Liao for their assessment of the dead Yin-Yang Chaos Sect disciples.
• Elder Yang and Liao suspected the Radiant Gold Bloodworms had ambushed the disciples and proposed investigating deeper into the secret realm.

The beautiful woman surnamed He demanded to inspect the storage artifacts of the two sects’ disciples to investigate the massacre of the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect cultivators. Elder Yang and the burly man surnamed Liao agreed, and the gathered disciples arrived on the island as the three elders watched their reactions.

• The beautiful woman surnamed He argued that inspecting the disciples’ storage artifacts could help rule them out and reveal clues about the deaths.
• Elder Yang and the burly man surnamed Liao agreed to summon their disciples to the island, trusting their own judgment and hoping to clear away suspicion.
• Elder Yang and the burly man surnamed Liao used voice transmissions to call their disciples and scattered nearby demonic beasts with their pressure.
• More than a hundred disciples gathered on the island in groups after confirming their elders’ identities and coordinating with fellow sect members.
• The beautiful woman surnamed He, Elder Yang, and the burly man surnamed Liao silently observed the disciples’ expressions as they saw the scene.

Elder He investigated the disciples of the Wangliang Sect and Life Extinction Sect after finding Yin-Yang Chaos Sect cultivators dead, but uncovered no evidence against them. She sent the two sects away for two hours to search the island alone, leaving her increasingly convinced that the attack may have been planned by their sects.

• Elder Yang and Liao summoned the sect disciples to the island, where they saw the bodies of many Yin-Yang Chaos Sect cultivators.
• Elder Yang and Liao ordered the disciples to open their storage artifacts and Spirit Storage Spaces, and He searched them and checked their bodies.
• He found nothing suspicious but asked Yang and Liao to take their disciples out of the secret realm while she investigated the area.
• Yang and Liao agreed to give He two hours and led their disciples away; Li Yan left without looking back or releasing his divine sense.
• After the others departed, He suspected that the Wangliang Sect and Life Extinction Sect might have orchestrated the killings using a formation or treasure.

Li Yan left the secret realm with the Wangliang Sect and Life Extinction Sect while the beautiful woman surnamed He searched for evidence of the killings. As Li Yan decided to stay and continue his plan, the four Golden Blood Earthworm experts chose to launch a desperate attack against the outside cultivators.

• The beautiful woman surnamed He suspected the Wangliang Sect and Life Extinction Sect had staged the deaths, ordered them out of the secret realm, and began searching the area herself.
• Elder Yang and the burly man surnamed Liao separated the two sects' disciples and questioned them about recent events.
• Li Yan weighed whether to leave, then decided to stay so he could release Zhuang Muhua and carry out his plan.
• The four Golden Blood Earthworm experts received no intelligence from the outskirts and suspected the outside cultivators were preparing to attack them.
• Big Brother warned that their formation had less than a twenty percent chance of activation, but the four agreed to fight anyway.

The Radiant Gold Blood Earthworm demons learned that most outside cultivators had left and concluded an attack was imminent, so they rushed to activate their formation. Meanwhile, the beautiful woman surnamed He witnessed the secret realm entrance vanish and realized she was trapped inside.

• Eldest Brother sensed that around one hundred and ten Spirit Transformation and Void Refinement Realm cultivators and two experts had left the secret realm, and Second Brother concluded the enemy was preparing a devastating attack.
• Eldest Brother and the other three demons hurried toward the secret chamber controlling their formation, believing they had one last chance to act.
• The beautiful woman surnamed He searched the swamp for traces left by the departing sects and prepared to question two Demon Beasts.
• The secret realm shook, and the entrance's white light rapidly contracted as the beautiful woman surnamed He rushed toward it.
• An invisible force blocked the beautiful woman surnamed He and hurled her away, injuring her as the entrance disappeared completely.
• The beautiful woman surnamed He wondered whether Elder Yang and the burly man surnamed Liao had somehow closed the entrance, though she believed the jointly refined artifact should have required all three sects' incantations.

The secret realm’s magic sword erupted in a powerful attack after the cultivators of the Wangliang Sect and Life Extinction Sect had emerged, then became inert and could no longer reopen the entrance. Elder Yang and the burly man surnamed Liao blamed the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect for secretly tampering with the entrance, while Li Yan concealed his strength and watched.

• The beautiful woman surnamed He suspected the two sects had plotted against her and charged toward the vanished secret realm entrance.
• A burst of white light struck the two sects outside the secret realm, and Elder Yang and the burly man surnamed Liao shielded their disciples from the impact.
• Elder Yang and the burly man surnamed Liao identified the source as the magic sword that opened the secret realm and examined it after its attack weakened.
• The two elders confirmed the sword was undamaged, but their opening techniques failed to restore the entrance.
• The burly man surnamed Liao and Elder Yang concluded that the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect had tampered with the entrance and that the beautiful woman surnamed He had closed it deliberately.

Li Yan’s actions helped trigger a crisis around the secret realm, but the sects and the Gold Radiance Blood Leech clan each misunderstood what had happened. The secret realm drifted away from the Cangxuan Realm, leaving Elder He trapped inside, where the demons’ attempt to capture her began a battle that lasted more than twenty years.

• Elder Yang and Liao concluded that the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect had secretly controlled the secret realm, then left together to warn their sects while concealing their suspicions from their disciples.
• Li Yan inferred that the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect had sealed the entrance to conceal its schemes, unaware that the Gold Radiance Blood Leech clan had severed the passage and moved the secret realm.
• The Wangliang Sect and Life Extinction Sect accused the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect, which denied the charges and blamed them in turn, leaving the sects hostile and preparing for a possible conflict.
• Elder He became trapped in the secret realm and searched for an exit, while the Gold Radiance Blood Leech clan mistook her for an expert preparing to unleash a devastating attack.
• The four demons ambushed Elder He in their traps, but she killed one Body Integration Realm demon and wounded the others, forcing them to retreat.
• Elder He pursued the demons, suspecting they had killed the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect’s disciples, and the battle between them continued for more than twenty years.

Li Yan left the secret realm expedition and set out for the White Devil Race, hoping to obtain the later portions of Zhao Min’s cultivation technique. As he crossed the sea, he studied the route through Dim Heaven Dark Earth and weighed the dangers of crossing it on foot.

• The poisoned He woman was captured by the three Demon Cultivators, who planted slave seals on her and made her their cultivation furnace.
• Li Yan secretly released Zhuang Muhua after leaving Elder Yang and the others, then sent Gong Chenying a message asking the group to wait for him at the Tianli Clan.
• Li Yan headed toward the White Devil Race, planning to seek the later portions of the Heavenly Demon White Jade Disk technique for Zhao Min.
• Li Yan disguised himself as an ordinary young man and examined a map while crossing the sea toward Dim Heaven Dark Earth.
• Li Yan reviewed accounts of the wilderness’s damaged laws and dangers, then studied collected jade slips as he considered how to cross it.

Li Yan crossed the sea and entered Dim Heaven Dark Earth, studying how its increasingly chaotic laws of heaven and earth affected cultivation as he traveled deeper. The chapter ended with Mei Hongyu practicing a technique that trapped three copper coins inside a rainbow barrier.

• Li Yan chose to cross Dim Heaven Dark Earth rather than spend years traveling around it, then reached its coast after more than three years at sea.
• Li Yan walked across the Gobi and sensed the five elements and spiritual energy becoming increasingly unstable as he approached the wasteland.
• At the mountain boundary, Li Yan explained how the chaotic laws would prevent cultivators from using spell techniques and began climbing into Dim Heaven Dark Earth.
• Li Yan reached the summit, tested the Five Elements Chaotic Cloak without achieving fusion, and descended through the treetops to continue deeper.
• Mei Hongyu formed five rainbow lights into a barrier and trapped three copper coins inside as they clinked against one another.

Mei Hongyu’s divination left her unable to see through the mist surrounding Li Yan or understand how he had changed her fate. Four years later, Li Yan crossed a storm-lashed grassland in Dim Heaven Dark Earth, where chaotic laws prevented cultivators from using techniques and the rain steadily drained their strength.

• Mei Hongyu divined her own fate and connected its unsettling changes to Li Yan, but her calculations showed only an impenetrable mass of mist.
• Li Yan traveled through Dim Heaven Dark Earth and found that he could no longer control techniques or borrow the power of heaven and earth.
• Li Yan survived repeated encounters with other cultivators by striking first and relying on spiritual power, physical strength, and poison.
• Li Yan continued across a grassland in a torrential downpour and recalled records warning that travelers should stop when such storms began.

Li Yan braved the rain and lightning in Dim Heaven Dark Earth to reach a ruined sect tower where he could shelter. He entered to find three cultivators already inside, and they all turned to watch him.

• Li Yan used his divine sense and the map to locate nearby sect ruins, then hurried toward them through the storm.
• Lightning struck when Li Yan accelerated, forcing him to slow down before he entered the forest.
• Li Yan crossed the ruined sect grounds and found a remnant tower known to offer shelter from rain and snow.
• Li Yan discovered an old man in purple robes, a yellow-robed sword cultivator, and an old woman in red robes inside the tower.
• The three cultivators looked toward the entrance as Li Yan appeared and stopped before them.

Li Yan took shelter from the storm in a tower occupied by a violet-robed old man, a red-robed old woman, and a yellow-robed sword cultivator. He kept his distance and feigned meditation while studying their reactions, then settled into a tense watch as the others grew quiet.

• Li Yan assessed the three strangers’ auras and recognized the yellow-robed young man as a potentially dangerous sword cultivator.
• The violet-robed old man welcomed Li Yan and claimed that the three had arrived separately, but Li Yan remained suspicious.
• Li Yan approached the red-robed old woman, noticed her hostile reaction, and chose a spot more than ten zhang from the tower entrance and the others.
• Li Yan swallowed a pill and began meditating to recover his strength while the yellow-robed young man shifted his sword case within easy reach.
• Li Yan deliberately tested the strangers’ reactions and concluded that the red-robed old woman distrusted the others, the yellow-robed young man feared danger from every direction, and the violet-robed old man seemed confident.
• Li Yan moved farther from the three, and silence returned to the tower as the storm raged outside.

Li Yan and the three cultivators watched an unexplained storm of blue lightning sweep past the ruined tower, but an invisible force then rose inside and trapped them in a Ghost Gathering Array. The tower entrance vanished as black shadows attacked, leaving the four to fight in the darkness.

• After the rain weakened, deafening thunder and blue lightning appeared outside the ruined tower and streaked across the ground.
• The blue lightning turned back toward the tower, passed along its side, and continued onward without striking it.
• Li Yan watched the other three and judged that they were wary strangers rather than accomplices.
• An invisible force emerged from the tower walls, formed black threads and shadows, and made the entrance disappear.
• The red-robed old woman identified a Ghost Gathering Array and used her vine staff to repel the shadows, while the yellow-robed young man drew two swords and attacked.

Li Yan and three other cultivators were trapped in a ghost-gathering array inside the ruined tower, where they could not draw on the laws of heaven and earth. The purple-robed old man killed the yellow-robed young man in a surprise attack and confronted the red-clad old woman, while Li Yan remained surrounded by ghosts.

• Li Yan, the purple-robed old man, the yellow-robed young man, and the red-clad old woman fought off ghostly yin souls after an array appeared in the tower.
• The red-clad old woman and yellow-robed young man proposed searching opposite sides for the array eye, while the purple-robed old man claimed the middle.
• The purple-robed old man secretly probed Li Yan with divine sense, then used a burst of speed to ambush the yellow-robed young man.
• The purple-robed old man struck the yellow-robed young man dead, seized his Nascent Soul and belongings, and moved toward the red-clad old woman.
• The red-clad old woman accused the purple-robed old man of causing the array, while Li Yan and the others remained beset by ghosts.
• The purple-robed old man warned the red-clad old woman that he knew she was waiting to attack and invited her to use her poison.

The purple-robed old man killed the red-robed old woman and revealed that he was a Body Integration Realm ghost cultivator who had hidden his true power and identity. He then attacked Li Yan, intending to crush him with overwhelming force, and the chapter ended as the black staff descended.

• The purple-robed old man distracted the red-robed old woman by exposing her poison cultivation, then smashed her body and seized her Nascent Soul and treasures.
• Li Yan finished killing the remaining ghosts and recognized that the purple-robed old man was a Body Integration Cultivator.
• The purple-robed old man admitted that his butterfly blades concealed his identity as a ghost cultivator and explained how he had used the formation and ghosts to assess his opponents.
• The purple-robed old man stepped before Li Yan and brought his black staff down, using overwhelming force to suppress him.

Li Yan defeated the purple-robed old man in a brutal close-range fight, then survived the strange formation’s collapse and searched the man’s memories. He learned that the ghost cultivator was Qiu Zhongnuo of the Nightwalker Sect, a name connected to Li Yan’s earlier escape from the underworld.

• Li Yan and the purple-robed old man exchanged devastating blows, and Li Yan used his rapid recovery and a broken saber’s fragments to destroy the old man’s body and seize his Nascent Soul.
• Li Yan searched for a way to break the formation as the ghost creatures attacked, but the formation faded and the creatures were pulled into the tower walls.
• Li Yan left the tower, waited in shelter while searching Tuban’s memories, and returned after confirming the tower posed no immediate danger.
• Li Yan’s prolonged Soul Search revealed the purple-robed old man’s identity as Qiu Zhongnuo, a member of the Nightwalker Sect.
• Li Yan recalled using a Nightwalker Sect cultivator’s identity to escape Yellow Springs City and return to the Yang Realm.

Li Yan escaped Yellow Springs City through the Nightwalker Sect’s teleportation array, nearly exposing the sect to punishment from Ye Luo’s faction. Years later, the two ghost creatures Li Yan brought back became evidence when the Wangliang Sect and Life Extinction Sect sought to settle accounts with the Netherworld.

• Li Yan teleported out of Yellow Springs City and destroyed the array’s city-side formation, while Qiu Zhongnuo failed to stop him.
• Qiu Zhongnuo repaired the array, concealed what had happened, and killed the guards after learning they had let Li Yan escape disguised as a disciple.
• Qiu Zhongnuo told his two martial brothers about the escape, and the three feared Ye Luo’s faction would discover their sect’s involvement.
• Qiu Zhongnuo returned to Yellow Springs City, found no major trouble, and arranged for a disciple to manage the sect while he returned to the Yang Realm.
• Years later, news from the Wangliang Sect spread through Yellow Springs City after it and the Life Extinction Sect sought to settle accounts with the Netherworld, putting the ghost creatures Li Yan had taken back in the spotlight.

After learning that the escaped cultivator had taken two ghost creatures, Qiu Zhongnuo and the other Nightwalker Sect patriarchs abandoned their sect and went into hiding to protect their lineage. Blaming Li Yan for their ruin, Qiu Zhongnuo later searched for him and his relatives, but left without finding them, unaware he had encountered some without recognizing them.

• Qiu Zhongnuo and the other two patriarchs decided Fengdu City’s investigation could expose the Nightwalker Sect, so they abandoned its foundations, altered its records, and relocated the sect in secrecy.
• The Nightwalker Sect settled in a new location under strict rules, while Qiu Zhongnuo blamed himself and eventually left after sensing his fellow patriarchs’ lingering dissatisfaction.
• Qiu Zhongnuo went to the Wangliang Sect seeking vengeance, learned Li Yan’s name and appearance, and waited nearby for him and his relatives.
• Qiu Zhongnuo discovered Li Yan had already left with Zi Kun and Bu Luo, then waited years for Li Yan’s relatives to appear.
• Qiu Zhongnuo finally left, unaware that he had encountered Li Yan’s relatives during his vigil without recognizing them.

Qiu Zhongnuo recounted how he traced a damaged jade slip’s reference to the Green-faced Gate to the ruined sect where Li Yan was staying. After decades of searching, he accidentally activated the Great Disputation Ghost Array and uncovered another tower level.

• Qiu Zhongnuo found a damaged jade slip that mentioned the Green-faced Gate, an ancient ghost sect famed for raising the Seven Spirit Mist Roar.
• Qiu Zhongnuo entered Dim Heaven Dark Earth and spent decades searching for the Green-faced Gate, eventually settling at ruins he suspected belonged to it.
• Qiu Zhongnuo used a ghost creature to draw lightning around the ruins, and the ghostly souls and specters of a hidden formation appeared inside the tower.
• Qiu Zhongnuo recognized the formation as the Great Disputation Ghost Array and realized he had found the Green-faced Gate.
• Qiu Zhongnuo located the formation eye, but the ghostly souls and specters were suddenly pulled into the tower walls, dissolving the formation and revealing another tower door.

Qiu Zhongnuo discovered how to reactivate the damaged Great Wrangling Ghost Array and locate its inner array eye, but found the Seven-Spirit Mist Roar sealed beyond his current strength. He was left searching for a safe way to break the seal without destroying the ruined tower or what lay within it.

• Qiu Zhongnuo repeatedly sent a ghost around the ruined tower, but the Great Wrangling Ghost Array failed to reappear.
• Qiu Zhongnuo retraced the ghost’s first route and realized lightning had activated the array only when it struck along the formation’s circular foundation.
• Qiu Zhongnuo guided the ghost along that route, reactivated the array, and found that it could remain active for only several dozen breaths.
• Qiu Zhongnuo located the inner array eye and discovered that a powerful seal protected the Seven-Spirit Mist Roar, which he could not break with his remaining spiritual power.
• Qiu Zhongnuo rejected using lightning to attack the seal because it could destroy the ruined tower, expose both array eyes, and cause the seal to kill what it protected.