Recaps

Li Yan used the Black God Shield to kill Miao Yuhong with a divine-sense attack, helping Long Shixuan break free from the white skeleton. Long Shixuan initially mistook Li Yan for an enemy, but Li Yan identified himself and warned him that another Body Integration Realm cultivator was trying to take Sikou Lai; Long Shixuan then turned the grand array against Lu Wujing.

• Li Yan attacked Lu Wujing and Miao Yuhong with divine-sense spikes, and Miao Yuhong died while Lu Wujing resisted the strike.
• Miao Yuhong's death disrupted the control of the white skeleton, allowing Long Shixuan to break free with a Qiongqi-powered blow.
• Long Shixuan activated the grand array and trapped Li Yan and Lu Wujing in separate pillars of light, mistaking Li Yan for an enemy.
• Li Yan identified himself as Qing'a King and warned Long Shixuan that another Body Integration Realm cultivator was trying to take Sikou Lai.
• Long Shixuan sensed toward Sikou Lai's prison and sent two dragon-like figures from the array to coil around Lu Wujing's pillar of light.

Li Yan freed Long Shixuan and brought Gong Zhipeng, Gong Chenying, and two others out of the Spirit Storage Space as Long Shixuan trapped Lu Wujing and discovered a second Body Integration Realm enemy. The chapter left Long Shixuan preparing to face both attackers while Gong Zhipeng reported what the group had learned about Huiyan Hall.

• Lu Wujing blamed the shadowy attacker for ruining his ambush, then killed Miao Yuhong in a burst of rage.
• Long Shixuan restrained Lu Wujing with the grand array and chose to hold back its strongest attack to avoid provoking a fatal self-detonation.
• Li Yan finished sending a brief explanation to the four people in the Spirit Storage Space and pulled them out.
• Long Shixuan sensed Zhang Du'an's Body Integration Realm aura and recognized Gong Zhipeng among the people who appeared beside Li Yan.
• Long Shixuan ordered Li Yan and the others to stay put while he dealt with the enemies.
• Gong Zhipeng told Long Shixuan that the attackers belonged to Huiyan Hall and described their forces, casualties, and resistance to soul-searching.

Long Shixuan used Prison Scale Island’s grand formation to kill Lu Wujing and capture Zhang Du'an, suffering severe injuries in the process. After confirming Li Yan and his companions were not threats, he ordered repairs and prepared to contact the clan.

• Li Yan warned Long Shixuan about Huiyan Hall, the danger of using Soul Search on the intruders, and the fate of the eighteen Void Refinement cultivators.
• Long Shixuan pushed the grand formation beyond its limits, killed Lu Wujing when he tried to self-destruct, and knocked Zhang Du'an unconscious.
• Long Shixuan secured Zhang Du'an, inspected the damaged prison areas, and confirmed that Li Yan and the other four were not threats.
• Long Shixuan learned that Prince Li had come to take his Dao companion home and that Miao Yuhong had secretly colluded with the attackers.
• Long Shixuan took the five to the teleportation array, found it repairable, and assigned Gong Zhipeng and Gong Chenying to fix it while Miao Lan and Lan Yu repaired other formations.

Li Yan and Long Shixuan discussed the captured Huiyan Hall attackers, and Long Shixuan confirmed that the Brain-Entangling Corpse Gu could trigger a cultivator’s self-destruction. After recognizing Li Yan’s remarkable strength and concealment, Long Shixuan began sharing what he had learned about Huiyan Hall, while Li Yan tried to find out how much the Soul Search had revealed.

• Long Shixuan thanked Li Yan for saving his life, then asked him to produce the three captured attackers.
• Long Shixuan attempted to Soul Search one captive, discovered the Brain-Entangling Corpse Gu’s unusual effect, and realized Li Yan had already deduced how he obtained the information.
• Long Shixuan pieced together Li Yan and Gong Chenying’s role in defeating the attackers and privately estimated Li Yan’s combat strength to be near the Early Body Integration Realm.
• Long Shixuan asked Li Yan whether he knew Huiyan Hall, and Li Yan denied having heard of it.
• Li Yan asked what Long Shixuan’s Soul Search had revealed, and Long Shixuan agreed to tell him what he had learned.

Long Shixuan told Li Yan what he had learned about Huiyan Hall from Zhang Du'an, revealing how the hidden force recruited a struggling sect through resources and made it a vassal. The chapter left Li Yan and Long Shixuan considering how the Tianli Clan might investigate Huiyan Hall and the value of the captured prisoners.

• Li Yan planned to ask Long Shixuan and Patriarch Ge Feng to keep his role in the upheaval quiet and credit Long Shixuan instead.
• Long Shixuan explained that Zhang Du'an joined Huiyan Hall after it supported the Ten Thousand Dao Sect in exchange for his formation work.
• Zhang Du'an became Huiyan Hall's vassal when its resource support ended, and he learned little about the hidden force's structure or location.
• Li Yan inferred that Huiyan Hall built peripheral forces by recruiting groups in need of support, giving the Tianli Clan a possible investigative lead.
• Long Shixuan said the three captured prisoners were valuable because they carried the unusual Brain-Entangling Corpse Gu.

Long Shixuan explained Huiyan Hall’s true plan and Sikou Lai’s history as Li Yan learned why the three captured intruders mattered. The chapter left the Tianli Clan’s decision about Sikou Lai and the Brain-Entangling Corpse Gu unresolved.

• Long Shixuan told Li Yan that Huiyan Hall’s supposed rescue of Sikou Lai was a cover to hide its real objective from the Void Refinement Realm cultivators, who had been implanted with Brain-Entangling Corpse Gu.
• Long Shixuan explained that Miao Yuhong had been captured and implanted with the Gu after revealing that someone in the Tianli Clan practiced Gu arts, and that Sikou Lai probably knew nothing about the Gu or Huiyan Hall.
• Long Shixuan described Sikou Lai’s cruel, unconventional Gu research, which led the High Priest to seal his cultivation and imprison him on Prison Scale Island.
• Long Shixuan suggested Sikou Lai could study the Brain-Entangling Corpse Gu in the three captives and remove it from them, though the High Priest would decide whether to allow it.
• Li Yan concluded that Huiyan Hall had targeted the Tianli Clan to advance its Gu research and suspected Miao Yuhong might be silenced after the attack.

Li Yan weighed Sikou Lai’s value to the Tianli Clan while concealing his own research on the Brain-Entangling Corpse Gu. He handed Long Shixuan the corpses of Huiyan Hall’s dead cultivators, and Long Shixuan asked whether their Gu insects had died with them.

• Li Yan considered why the Tianli Clan would covet the Brain-Entangling Corpse Gu and judged Sikou Lai’s ability to remove it from three people before deciding whether to approach him.
• Li Yan kept Huiyan Hall’s research on the Gu hidden, planning to reveal it only if Sikou Lai proved capable and he could present a plausible explanation for having obtained it.
• Long Shixuan said the Tianli Clan would investigate Huiyan Hall and seek a plan against the force that had schemed against them.
• Li Yan produced more than ten corpses of Huiyan Hall’s Void Refinement Realm cultivators, which Long Shixuan examined for clues.
• Long Shixuan asked whether the Brain-Entangling Corpse Gu had died with its hosts, and Li Yan said he had not yet investigated, though he knew the Gu died when its host died.

Li Yan and Gong Chenying returned to the Tianli Clan after the massacre on Prison Scale Island, where the news soon spread and alarmed the clan. As the clan prepared to deal with the aftermath, Li Yan asked Gong Chenying how she had begun cultivating witchcraft.

• Long Shixuan searched a corpse and found that its Brain-Entangling Corpse Gu had died with its host, while Li Yan asked him for another favor.
• Li Yan and Gong Chenying returned to the Tianli Clan, and a spiritual disturbance in the clan’s rear soon drew several Body Integration Realm elders to the ancestral hall.
• The Tianli Clan learned that Prison Scale Island had been attacked and that over a hundred cultivators had died, with only a few survivors.
• Lan Na recalled seeing Li Yan and Gong Chenying leave the island and realized that their departure had spared them from the massacre.
• Zhao Min questioned Li Yan and Gong Chenying about the Huiyan Hall, while Gong Shanhe visited them and learned how narrowly Gong Chenying had escaped death.
• After reporting to Ge Feng, Li Yan stayed in the clan and asked Gong Chenying why she had sought permission to cultivate the clan’s witchcraft.

Gong Chenying sought a cultivation path to support her future advancement and discovered that her aptitude for shamanic arts was far greater than anyone had realized. After beginning to cultivate them, she and Li Yan concluded that her hidden Three Talents Spirit Root explained the change, and Li Yan gained a new appreciation for witchcraft.

• Gong Chenying considered her incomplete cultivation methods and asked the Tianli Clan to test whether she could cultivate shamanic arts.
• The shaman guided Gong Chenying through the aptitude test, and she completed every task with exceptional ease.
• Gong Chenying received an introductory shamanic cultivation method and quickly found that her body adapted to it naturally.
• Gong Chenying suspected her Three Talents Spirit Root had emerged through her cultivation and marriage to Li Yan, rather than anyone having sabotaged her childhood test.
• Li Yan witnessed Gong Chenying's improved combat strength and realized that witchcraft could be difficult to anticipate and counter.

Li Yan left the Tianli Clan with his family for the Cangxuan Realm, while Wei Zhongran and Li Yuyin reached Pojun Sect and reunited with Zuo Qiudan. Meanwhile, two masked figures in the North Pasture Realm discussed the failed Prison Scale Island mission and planned a new investigation.

• Little Beast formally paid respects to Li Yan, who named him Li Ze.
• Li Yan spoke with the Clan Leader and High Priest, then visited Gong Shengguang before leaving the Tianli Clan with Gong Chenying, Zhao Min, Little Beast, and Qianji.
• Five years later, Wei Zhongran and Li Yuyin arrived at Pojun Sect, where Zuo Qiudan warmly welcomed them.
• Two masked figures discussed how their mole in the Tianli Clan had disappeared after reporting the deaths and injuries on Prison Scale Island.
• The masked figures decided to investigate the failed mission from outside the Tianli Clan, prioritizing information about Lu Wujing and Zhang Du'an.

After the Prison Scale Island incident, Li Yan concealed his role and quietly left the Tianli Clan with his family. Years later, they returned to the Wangliang Sect, where Li Yan learned that Bai Rou had departed to temper herself and might miss Li Zhaoyan’s wedding.

• Li Yan asked Long Shixuan to keep his actions on Prison Scale Island secret, and Long Shixuan agreed before Li Yan and Gong Chenying reported the incident to the Tianli Clan’s leaders.
• The clan shaped the surviving cultivators’ accounts around Long Shixuan’s victory, while Li Yan and Gong Chenying stayed secluded before leaving with their family.
• Li Yan traveled with Zhao Min, Gong Chenying, Qianji, and Little Beast, helping them temper themselves while they journeyed toward the Wangliang Sect.
• The five returned to the Wangliang Sect, where Li Zhaoyan joyfully reunited with Little Beast and Wei Zhongran remained absent.
• Li Yan learned that Bai Rou had left to gain experience and had given Li Zhaoyan a carefully made puppet as a wedding gift in case she could not return in time.

Li Yan’s daughter Li Zhaoyan married Ling Qingyun, and the modest family celebration unexpectedly became a major Wangliang Sect event when the sect master, elders, and survivors of the Ghost Domain expedition arrived to honor Li Yan and his family. Afterward, Li Yan planned to remain in the sect and cultivate until he and Qianji were ready to travel to the Pojun Sect, with Li Yan hoping to reach the Body Integration Realm before confronting the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect.

• Li Yan worried about Bai Rou’s dangerous journey to find Shuang Qingqing and feared they might not meet again for a long time.
• Li Zhaoyan and Ling Qingyun held their wedding, but the Wangliang Sect sect master and Body Integration elders arrived to congratulate Li Yan, drawing attention to his role in recovering disciples from the Ghost Domain.
• Zhao Min and Gong Chenying recognized guests as cultivators who had fought alongside them in Yellow Springs City, while the wedding’s unexpected scale became a topic of discussion throughout the sect.
• Qianji reunited with Wei Chituo, and the two roamed the sect together as Li Yan let them enjoy themselves.
• Li Yan cultivated and spent time with Zhao Min and Gong Chenying while planning to go to the Pojun Sect after Qianji reached Spirit Transformation; he considered breaking through to Body Integration at the Five Immortals Sect before taking action against the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect.

Li Yan planned to unite the Soul Suppressing Palace and Pojun Sect as mutually supportive forces, then visit the four phoenix clans after reaching the Body Integration Realm. At the Wangliang Sect, Gong Chenying and Li Yan learned that Hong Yin had arrived, and Hong Yin was reunited with her disciple at the mountain gate.

• Li Yan planned to approach the Pojun Sect about cooperating with the Soul Suppressing Palace while ensuring the sect would not become a subordinate force.
• Li Yan intended to visit the Undying Underworld Phoenix clans after reaching the Body Integration Realm and see how they had developed.
• Four years into Li Yan's leisure, Hong Yin arrived at the Wangliang Sect seeking Gong Chenying.
• Gong Chenying sent Li Yan a message, and he joined her in the reception hall to discuss Hong Yin's unexpected arrival.
• While waiting at the mountain gate, Hong Yin reflected on Red Whisk Temple's disappearance and compared it with the Wangliang Sect.
• Gong Chenying arrived and greeted Hong Yin as her Master.

Gong Chenying reunited with her master Hong Yin at the Wangliang Sect, where Hong Yin was astonished to discover that Li Yan had survived. Li Yan recounted how he had escaped turbulent space, while Hong Yin shared the hardships of her own journey to the Immortal Spirit Realm.

• Hong Yin recognized Gong Chenying at the Wangliang Sect, and the two reunited after years apart.
• Li Yan appeared, shocking Hong Yin, who had believed he died after entering turbulent space with Xue Longzi.
• Li Yan welcomed Hong Yin into his residence with Gong Chenying, while Zhao Min continued cultivating.
• Hong Yin asked Li Yan how he survived and why he had not returned to the Tianli Clan.
• Li Yan briefly explained his escape and his arrival in the Immortal Spirit Realm, and Hong Yin described spending over sixty years trapped in turbulent space before ascending.

Li Yan reunited with Hong Yin and discussed their cultivation, while Hong Yin explained her stalled progress without the later chapters of the Red Lotus Burning Fire Scripture. Hong Yin also recounted her search at the Northern Underworld Demon-Suppressing Tower, where clues linked its Demon Beasts to the Wind God Continent and suggested one feared Buddhist power.

• Hong Yin praised Li Yan's cultivation and blessed him and Gong Chenying, while Li Yan concealed how far his strength had advanced.
• Li Yan observed that Hong Yin was nearing the late Void Refinement stage, and Hong Yin explained that missing chapters of her scripture made further progress difficult.
• Gong Chenying asked Hong Yin about her search at the Northern Underworld Demon-Suppressing Tower and her ascension to the Immortal Spirit Realm.
• Hong Yin said she subdued a Demon Beast in the tower and found that its mixed bloodline memories included the aura of a Wind Beast.
• Hong Yin explained that the tower's connection to the Wind God Continent and the Demon Beast's fear of Buddhist divine power might offer clues about her missing disciple and the Red Buddha Scarlet Dragon Spear.

Hong Yin explained how her investigation into the Red Buddha Temple led her to the Immortal Spirit Realm, where she reunited with Gong Chenying and Li Yan. After staying at the Wangliang Sect and exchanging cultivation insights with Li Yan, she asked him to help uncover the temple’s disappearance, and he agreed.

• Hong Yin recounted how she searched the Pure Land Sect for the Red Lotus Burning Fire Scripture and followed clues to the Immortal Spirit Realm.
• Hong Yin reunited with Gong Chenying and Li Yan, then stayed at the Wangliang Sect to guide Gong Chenying and discuss cultivation with Li Yan.
• Hong Yin asked Li Yan whether he had concealed his realm and revealed that she needed help with a matter.
• Li Yan admitted that his strength exceeded his apparent early Void Refinement stage and guessed that Hong Yin wanted to investigate the Red Buddha Temple’s disappearance.
• Hong Yin confirmed her request and offered treasures, medicinal pills, or other compensation for Li Yan’s help.

Hong Yin told Li Yan how her search for her disciple Jingting led her from clues on the Desolate Moon Continent to a dangerous ascension node. After reaching the Immortal Spirit Realm and breaking through to the Void Refinement Realm, she continued searching temples and nunneries for traces of Jingting.

• Li Yan offered to help Hong Yin without first demanding compensation, citing his debt to her and her role as Gong Chenying's master.
• Hong Yin explained how she identified Jingting in jade-slip records at a nunnery on the Desolate Moon Continent and inferred that Jingting had been injured after visiting the Northern Underworld Demon-Suppressing Tower.
• Hong Yin suspected Jingting lost the Red Buddha Scarlet Dragon Spear in the Flame Palace before leaving to seek the Immortal Spirit Realm.
• Hong Yin searched near the nunnery for an ascension node and entered one with a seventy percent chance of killing her, believing it might be Jingting's route.
• Hong Yin said the unstable ascension nearly killed her, but she regained Spirit Transformation, escaped, and continued her search in the Immortal Spirit Realm while cultivating to the Void Refinement Realm.

Hong Yin told Li Yan how her search for Jingting led her to a suspected Red Buddha Temple seal beneath the Huafu Sect. Li Yan agreed to help her break it, and they began negotiating his compensation before setting out.

• Hong Yin explained that she had followed Jingting's trail into the Huafu Sect, where she uncovered clues about the Red Buddha Temple.
• Hong Yin recounted finding a powerful underground seal after years of investigation and traveling to the Cangxuan Realm to seek Li Yan's help.
• Li Yan said he could assist with techniques but warned that his formation skills were weak, and Hong Yin explained that a same-rank cultivator's help might let them break the seal.
• Hong Yin offered Li Yan two magical treasures and four bottles of pills as compensation, but Li Yan proposed choosing a treasure if the seal contained Red Buddha Temple's legacy or taking a share of its contents if the clue proved wrong.

Li Yan agreed to help Hong Yin investigate a sealed site that might be connected to Red Buddha Temple, and the two traveled toward a vast salt lake under Huafu Sect’s control. They reached the lake at dawn, where Hong Yin began searching for a place to enter.

• Hong Yin agreed to split any treasure found at the sealed site equally with Li Yan if it proved unrelated to Red Buddha Temple.
• Li Yan agreed to leave with Hong Yin the next day and told Gong Chenying, Zhao Min, Qianji, and Little Beast about the trip.
• Li Yan questioned Hong Yin about the site, the salt lake, and Huafu Sect as they traveled, while she explained the clues she had found and her years of searching.
• Li Yan and Hong Yin used teleportation arrays and crossed Dim Heaven Dark Earth, overcoming the dangers along the way.
• Li Yan and Hong Yin reached the edge of the enormous salt lake at dawn, and Hong Yin searched for a place to enter the water.

Li Yan and Hong Yin infiltrated the depths beneath the Salt Lake, evading Huafu Sect patrols and following Hong Yin’s hidden route through layers of rock. They reached a cavern whose wind had imbued its rocks with the temporary ability to block divine sense, but Hong Yin clarified that it was only an entrance and did not reveal what lay beyond.

• Li Yan used the Ink Cloud to conceal himself and Hong Yin as they traveled deep into the Salt Lake without alerting Huafu Sect patrols.
• Hong Yin led Li Yan through the lake’s dark waters, its muddy lakebed, and many tens of thousands of li of solid rock, changing direction according to the rock layers’ colors.
• Hong Yin and Li Yan passed through the ceiling of a cavern hidden within the rock, which Li Yan’s divine sense had been unable to detect.
• Li Yan examined the cavern and asked whether it was their destination, but Hong Yin explained that she had found only an entrance and did not know whether other entrances existed.
• Hong Yin explained that wind inside the cavern gradually gave the rocks their divine-sense-blocking property, which dissipated about a month after the rocks were removed.

Li Yan followed Hong Yin through the maze-like underground passages toward the sealed location, where they found a vast cavern blocked by silver vines. Hong Yin explained her plan to break the formation with Li Yan’s help, and began preparing to test the method she had developed over decades of study.

• Hong Yin told Li Yan that reaching the final location would take over a year and described how she had marked the maze during her earlier eight-year exploration.
• Li Yan and Hong Yin traveled through passages filled with increasingly tangible, blade-like winds, which reminded them of the winds on Wind God Continent.
• They reached a vast cavern whose far wall was covered in silver vines, and Hong Yin said she had been trapped there for decades before retreating.
• Li Yan asked how he could assist, and Hong Yin explained that he would need to stabilize the formation’s four directions for two hours while she used her temple’s formation-breaking art.
• Hong Yin transmitted the incantation to Li Yan and prepared to attack the seal, whose defenses had changed in response to her earlier attempts.

Li Yan recognized that the sealing formation followed the Five Elements and learned Hong Yin’s incantation so he could help her disrupt it. Hong Yin launched a Buddhist seal at the silver vines’ roots, revealing a yellow-lit area across the rock wall as the formation’s attack began.

• Li Yan inferred that the formation’s array eye occupied the fire position and that Hong Yin’s incantation would let them interfere with its Five Elements.
• Li Yan practiced Hong Yin’s incantation while she set up three protective formations around them.
• Hong Yin and Li Yan approached the stone wall, where Hong Yin formed a golden seal and transformed it into a dark-yellow swastika.
• Hong Yin sent the swastika through the attacking silver vines and stamped it onto their roots, causing yellow light to spread across the rock wall.

Hong Yin used the five-element method she had studied for decades to suppress the silver vines guarding the rock wall, while Li Yan helped activate four of the array’s positions. The vines began to wither, showing that the seal-breaking method was working, though the pair still had to continue.

• Hong Yin cast successive swastika seals to establish the five elemental positions on the rock wall and restrain the silver vines.
• Hong Yin told Li Yan to cast spells at four positions while she controlled the center, and Li Yan used her formula to draw on the elements around them.
• The silver vines broke through the five-colored light and lunged at Hong Yin and Li Yan, forcing them to retreat about thirty feet.
• The vines stopped just short of the pair and began to dry up after their roots were cut off from the array’s power.
• Hong Yin recognized that her decades of research had begun to work, and Li Yan told her to continue.

Li Yan and Hong Yin struggled to break the formation’s Five Elements nodes as the silver vines resisted and drained their strength. With Hong Yin nearing her limit and the formation still intact, Li Yan considered using his own Five Elements power to strengthen the spell.

• Li Yan and Hong Yin attacked the formation’s five key nodes with countering Five Elements spells, causing the silver vines to wither back across the rock wall.
• As the formation’s resistance intensified, Hong Yin used Pills and spirit stones while Li Yan concealed that he had not actually taken his Pills.
• The vines stopped withering, and Hong Yin suffered ice-needle attacks and pill-toxin backlash as her magic power weakened.
• Li Yan realized Hong Yin was close to losing control and considered mixing his own Five Elements power into the spell, despite the risk of exposing himself.
• Hong Yin told Li Yan to withdraw his power first if they could not break the seal within seventy breaths, but her expression suddenly froze before he replied.

Li Yan secretly altered the formation-breaking process, causing the silver vines to vanish and revealing a sealed Stone Gate. Hong Yin remained uncertain about the unexpected breakthrough, and after the pair rested, she rose to inspect the gate.

• Hong Yin saw the formation's silver vines rapidly disappear as its attacks on her weakened.
• The formation burst into silver points of light and revealed a Stone Gate in the rock wall.
• Hong Yin questioned Li Yan about the sudden change, but he denied using any other power and concealed his role in accelerating the break.
• Hong Yin concluded that the Stone Gate held a separate restriction and urged them to recover before touching it.
• Li Yan quickly replenished his power while Hong Yin refined the pill toxins in her body; after more than three double-hours, she stood to inspect the Stone Gate.