Recaps

Li Yan lured six Cangyu Sect cultivators away from Mingdu City before revealing that he intended to kill them. He knocked out the cultivator surnamed Min and watched the Snow Mosquito King overwhelm another attacker with poison.

• Li Yan led the six Cangyu Sect cultivators into a remote area, then stopped and let them surround him.
• The cultivator surnamed Min demanded compensation and mistook Li Yan's calmness for a bluff.
• Li Yan ordered the Snow Mosquito King to fight the other five while he dealt with the pseudo-core cultivator.
• The Snow Mosquito King vanished, and Li Yan struck the cultivator surnamed Min unconscious with a single punch.
• The Snow Mosquito King corroded a Cangyu Sect cultivator's three-pronged fork with poison, pierced his forehead, and sent him plummeting from the sky.

Li Yan and the Snow Mosquito King defeated a group of Cangyu Sect cultivators, and Li Yan learned that the Holy Devil Palace was involved. Two months later, Li Yan left Saint Demon City without seeing Zhao Min, after White Devil Race guards barred him from approaching the palace.

• The Snow Mosquito King pursued the fleeing Cangyu Sect cultivators while Li Yan examined the Shatter Spirit Talisman taken from the Min-surnamed cultivator.
• Li Yan tortured the surviving Min-surnamed cultivator for information, then killed him and confirmed his suspicion that the Holy Devil Palace was involved.
• Two months later, Li Yan left Saint Demon City after spending five days there without seeing Zhao Min.
• White Devil Race guards had turned Li Yan away more than ten li from the Holy Devil Palace, and he sensed great danger near it.

After failing to reach Zhao Min in Saint Demon City, Li Yan resolved to grow stronger and find a way off the Lost Continent. A year and a half later, disguised as Zhang Ming, he arrived at Falling Star Valley with a group of youths.

• Li Yan left Saint Demon City after concluding that pursuing Zhao Min there would draw the attention of powerful White Devil Race cultivators.
• He planned to forge the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike, refine the Undying Underworld Phoenix's blood essence, and investigate ways to leave the Lost Continent.
• Li Yan vowed to return for Zhao Min, who he believed would not want to remain among the White Devil Race.
• The chapter described Falling Star Valley as a second-tier human sect known for pill refining and artifact forging, surrounded by cultivator-descended mortals.
• Disguised as Zhang Ming, Li Yan traveled toward Falling Star Valley with five young people, while one boy questioned him about Saint Demon City.

Li Yan spent over a year arranging to enter Falling Star Valley so he could access its earthly fire vein and refine his natal magical treasure. Disguised as Zhang Ming, he arrived at the sect’s mountain gate with five other candidates and began its entry tests.

• Li Yan chose Falling Star Valley because its earthly fire vein was suitable, while avoiding the first-rate sects and other dangerous options.
• He had the Snow Mosquito King pose as a Foundation Establishment cultivator and arrange for him to enter a small lineage as its collateral descendant, Zhang Ming.
• After a year of observation, the lineage sent Li Yan and five other candidates to Falling Star Valley for its annual selection.
• Feng Qiyuan checked the candidates’ identity tokens and used his aura to test their composure.
• Feng Qiyuan told the candidates to take turns placing their palms on a testing item and stimulating their spiritual power.

Li Yan entered the Falling Star Valley with five other youths and passed Feng Qiyuan’s test, which checked their spirit roots and confirmed they were human. The chapter left Li Yan inside the valley as two senior cultivators discussed their suspicions about his unclear background and whether he had sensed their hidden observation.

• Feng Qiyuan tested the first five youths with a divine-sense orb, revealing a Heaven Spirit Root among them and warning one Earth Spirit Root youth that the valley offered fewer resources to those unsuited for pill refining or artifact crafting.
• Li Yan placed his hand on the orb, which showed strong wood and fire spirit roots, and Feng Qiyuan kept him there longer while probing his background.
• Feng Qiyuan questioned whether Li Yan was local, then accepted him because the Zhang family vouched for him and advised him to choose either pill refining or artifact crafting.
• Feng Qiyuan led Li Yan and the other five youths into the valley while explaining its rules and leaving them apprehensive.
• A green-robed middle-aged cultivator and a white-robed elder reviewed the test, confirmed they had found no problems, and discussed the green-robed cultivator’s feeling that Zhang Ming had noticed them watching.

Falling Star Valley’s sect master and a hidden elder discussed the threat from four foreign sects and the danger of relying on the Holy Devil Palace for protection. As Li Yan and the other new disciples traveled deeper into the valley, they remained unaware that the sect’s leaders planned to use recruits as expendable pawns.

• The white-robed elder warned the blue-robed sect master that Falling Star Valley could not confront the four allied foreign sects, and urged him to investigate cautiously while their enemies hesitated over the Holy Devil Palace’s position.
• The white-robed elder revealed that he had heard their master link the Black Devil Race’s appearance to the White Devil Race protecting humans, though he did not know the reason.
• The sect master and the white-robed elder agreed to recruit more disciples, investigate newcomers, restrict access to core techniques, and prepare to use suspicious recruits as puppets if war began.
• Li Yan and five others followed Feng Yuanqi along wooded paths and a stream into the valley, unaware that the leaders had marked new disciples as disposable pawns.
• After walking roughly fifteen or sixteen li, Feng Yuanqi stopped on a flower-covered hillside.

Feng Qiyuan brought the recruits through Falling Star Valley’s concealed entrance and reported their aptitudes to his master and two Martial Uncles. The elders competed to recruit Feng Tao, whose Heavenly Spiritual Roots should have required the sect master’s decision, leaving Feng Qiyuan puzzled as he went to fetch the group.

• Feng Qiyuan revealed Falling Star Valley’s hidden formation entrance and led the six youths inside.
• Three Foundation Establishment cultivators secretly examined the newcomers with Divine Sense as Feng Qiyuan led them through the valley.
• Feng Qiyuan left the youths at a courtyard and reported their spiritual roots, highlighting Tian Denghu and Feng Tao.
• Zhang and Shen argued over whether Feng Tao should join the artifact-refining or alchemy branch, while Zhu suggested letting the recruits choose.
• Feng Qiyuan reminded the elders that Feng Tao had Heavenly Spiritual Roots, but Shen ordered him to bring the recruits in, leaving him wondering whether the sect’s rules had changed.

Li Yan entered Falling Star Valley as a new disciple and examined the sect’s rules, his assigned courtyard, and the Shattered Star Icefire Art. He planned to study the sect carefully while preparing to pass the required assessment without drawing attention to himself.

• Feng Tao chose alchemy and became the pale-faced young man’s disciple, while Tian Denghu joined the burly man’s artifact-refining branch.
• Feng Qiyuan took Li Yan and three other unclaimed recruits to the Affairs Hall, where they received courtyards, supplies, and a one-month test to complete the first level of their assigned cultivation art.
• Li Yan assessed his sparse courtyard and reasoned that he needed to investigate Falling Star Valley before pursuing his plan to reach the earthfire spiritual vein.
• Li Yan read the Shattered Star Icefire Art and concluded that it supported alchemy, artifact refining, and wood- and fire-element techniques, with its unusual meridian routes preparing for later levels.
• Li Yan decided to practice the entry-level art enough to recognize its effects and pass the assessment, despite not intending to cultivate it seriously.

Li Yan hid his cultivation of the Undying Nether Phoenix blood essence inside Tuban while posing as an ordinary new disciple of Falling Star Valley. After half a year, he learned that the sect’s earthfire was concentrated in the Starshatter Cavern, but its chambers were poisoned by increasingly fierce fire poison.

• Li Yan settled into his courtyard, assigned the Snow Mosquito King to watch for visitors, and entered Tuban to refine the Undying Nether Phoenix blood essence.
• The Snow Mosquito King realized Li Yan had taken his physical body into the mysterious space and searched for Tuban, which Li Yan had concealed on the purple flag.
• Li Yan passed Falling Star Valley’s assessment with mediocre results and kept a low profile, collecting his monthly spirit stones while cultivating in secret.
• After half a year, Li Yan’s body and Qiongqi Purgatory Art had grown stronger, though he had refined only a small portion of the blood essence.
• Li Yan reviewed what he had learned about the earthfire spirit vein beneath Starshatter Cavern, including its twelve Starshatter Chambers, thirty-six Lesser Starshatter Chambers, and the fire poison in their flames.

Li Yan learned that Falling Star Valley had restricted access to its Shattered Star Chambers, frustrating his plans to obtain the stronger earthfire needed to craft the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike. As he considered using Feng Tao and Tian Denghu to find an opportunity, a convoy was annihilated and more disciples went missing, leaving the sect shaken.

• Li Yan learned that only long-serving disciples could currently rent Small Shattered Star Chambers and that underground chambers were reserved for limited sect work because the earthfire veins were depleted.
• Li Yan secretly sensed the earthfire in a Small Shattered Star Chamber and judged that only the stronger underground fire would meet the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike's requirements.
• Li Yan considered using Feng Tao and Tian Denghu's growing influence to gain access to a chamber, but decided to wait and watch other elite disciples rather than risk infiltrating it.
• More than half a month later, a Falling Star Valley convoy was ambushed six thousand li from the valley, killing its Foundation Establishment Middle Stage escort and six Qi Condensation disciples and costing the sect a magical treasure and seven high-grade spiritual artifacts.
• Sect Master Lin Xinghe went out to investigate the attack, while nine more Falling Star Valley disciples traveling or on missions went missing.

After learning that Falling Star Valley’s disciples were being ambushed and the sect’s experts had been sent out, Li Yan considered exploiting the weakened defenses to enter the Shattered Star Chamber. Feng Tao then came to Zhang Ming seeking help with an urgent crisis in her family lineage, but Li Yan questioned her motives and refused to agree without answers.

• Li Yan learned that Falling Star Valley’s disciples had been repeatedly ambushed, prompting the sect to send out most of its Foundation Establishment cultivators and tighten restrictions on disciples leaving.
• Li Yan considered sneaking into the Shattered Star Chamber but hesitated because a powerful cultivator was said to guard it.
• Feng Tao came to Li Yan’s courtyard and asked to speak privately, worrying that she might need to offer her flying spirit artifact in exchange for his help.
• Feng Tao explained that her family lineage faced an urgent crisis and asked Li Yan to accompany her, offering compensation.
• Li Yan challenged Feng Tao’s request, questioning why she had approached him and warning that leaving the valley amid the ambushes could be dangerous.

Feng Tao explained that her clan was besieged by powerful underworld ghosts and asked Li Yan to help escort a magical artifact and join the rescue. Li Yan learned why she had chosen him and grew suspicious that she had investigated him.

• Feng Tao told Li Yan that three Foundation Establishment Realm ghosts and dozens of lesser ghosts were attacking her clan’s formation, while Falling Star Valley had sent Fang Guangjun to help.
• Feng Tao explained that the clan’s yin-based cultivation method had stunted her progress because she possessed an extreme yang constitution and fire spiritual root.
• Li Yan questioned whether Fang Guangjun and a group of Qi Condensation disciples could safely reach the Feng Lineage and turn the battle around.
• Feng Tao revealed that she carried a powerful magical artifact that could restrain wicked yin entities and said Tang Tian, Wu Yizhen, and Tian Denghu had also agreed to help.
• Feng Tao said she had chosen Li Yan because his spiritual power seemed unusually solid and he had experience outside the sect, prompting him to ask whether she had been investigating him.

Feng Tao asked Zhang Ming to help escort her to the Feng Lineage, whose defensive formation was failing under a ghost-creature attack. Zhang Ming agreed to negotiate the mission, and Feng Tao offered thirty spirit stones, leaving their final agreement unresolved.

• Feng Tao explained that she had learned of Zhang Ming's combat strength by overhearing her master and martial uncles, and pleaded for his help.
• Zhang Ming initially said he might not be as formidable as Feng Tao believed, then agreed to discuss the mission under conditions limiting when he would fight.
• Zhang Ming said he would only hold off a powerful ambush if it was within his capabilities and could refuse to fight certain powerful ghost creatures at the Feng Lineage.
• Feng Tao proposed paying half the reward in advance, and Zhang Ming accepted her preliminary terms.
• Feng Tao offered twenty low-grade spirit stones, explained her Lineage's financial hardship, then raised the offer to thirty and promised fifteen in advance.

Li Yan persuaded Feng Tao to swear that she would help him gain access to the Shattered Star Chamber so he could melt down a damaged magical artifact, concealing his true purpose behind a fabricated explanation. Feng Tao then left Falling Star Valley with Li Yan and four others to return to her family, while Tang Tian remained wary of Li Yan and Feng Tao kept some of what she knew about him secret.

• Li Yan asked Feng Tao to help him rent the Shattered Star Chamber in the future, claiming he needed its earth fire to extract a rune from a damaged magical artifact.
• Feng Tao accepted his explanation and swore an oath to honor their agreement, and they arranged to meet at the Affairs Hall before leaving.
• After Feng Tao departed, Li Yan reviewed the exchange and revealed that he had broken a high-grade magical artifact in half to support his fabricated story.
• An hour later, Feng Tao, Li Yan, Tian Denghu, Tang Tian, Wu Yizhen, and an elderly man left Falling Star Valley on a black shield.
• Wu Yizhen comforted the anxious Feng Tao as Tang Tian watched Li Yan with little interest and Feng Tao kept some details about Li Yan to herself.

Fang Guangjun led the group safely to the Feng family's territory, while Li Yan assessed his companions and worried that Falling Star Valley’s conflict with alien races could disrupt his plans to find Zhao Min and leave the Lost Continent. The group learned that Falling Star Valley had repelled an attack, but the larger situation remained uncertain to Li Yan.

• Tang Tian privately looked down on Zhang Ming and Tian Denghu, while Fang Guangjun reflected on the difficult path that had brought him to Foundation Establishment.
• Li Yan used his Divine Sense to assess Fang Guangjun, Tang Tian, and Wu Yizhen, then considered whether Falling Star Valley’s troubles might force him to change his plans.
• Fang Guangjun’s group reached the Feng family’s sphere of influence before dawn without encountering an ambush and met a Falling Star Valley patrol.
• The patrol reported that Lin Xinghe had attacked a force of alien cultivators, but an enemy expert had intervened and allowed many of them to escape.
• Fang Guangjun reassured the group that the alien races were testing Falling Star Valley’s limits, while Li Yan remained silent and did not understand the significance of his words.

Fang Guangjun and his group joined the Feng Lineage in a noon assault against the Underworld ghost creatures, helping turn the battle in their favor. The Feng Lineage captured or killed most of the attackers, though one powerful ghost escaped, and Li Yan noticed the strength and true nature of Feng Tao’s magic treasure.

• Fang Guangjun’s group received the Feng Lineage’s plan and waited until noon to launch a pincer attack.
• Li Yan drew one ghost creature away while Tang Tian, Wu Yizhen, Tian Denghu, and the Feng Lineage cultivators fought across the battlefield.
• Feng Tao gave her ancestor a jet-black nail, which he used to destroy two Foundation Establishment ghost creatures.
• The lanky soul-form ghost fled after sensing the nail, and the Feng Lineage ancestor pursued her while the other ghost creatures were mostly killed or captured.
• The Feng Lineage welcomed Fang Guangjun’s group into its fortress, where Feng Tao was speaking with a young cultivator near Foundation Establishment.

Li Yan ignored Tang Tian's attempt to renegotiate Feng Tao's reward and followed the group to the Feng Lineage castle. After its ancestor and Third Patriarch gathered everyone, the ancestor announced compensation for the families of disciples killed in the ghost attack.

• Tang Tian urged Zhang Ming to take fewer spirit stones from Feng Tao, but Li Yan replied that he would accept only the agreed reward.
• Tian Denghu rushed toward Feng Tao, and Fang Guangjun rebuked him for failing to show respect to the Feng Lineage elders.
• Feng Tao introduced Li Yan to her father, Feng Zaiyu, while privately doubting that Zhang Ming deserved access to the Shattered Star Chamber.
• A swift, thin middle-aged man entered the hall and was greeted by the Feng Lineage disciples as their Third Patriarch.
• The Feng Lineage ancestor announced that each family who lost a member would receive five additional spirit stones per month for ten years.

The Feng Lineage's Old Ancestor rewarded those who had contributed to the battle and announced plans to clear the Yin Tomb with Elder Fang's help. Feng Zaiyu realized the expanded tomb could let the Lineage produce more Ghost Baleful Intent Pearls, a secret source of wealth.

• The Feng Lineage's Old Ancestor promised monthly spirit-stone payments to the families of the fallen and one month in the Yin Tomb for outstanding disciples.
• The Old Ancestor said he would personally verify all claims and prevent branches from taking or reallocating individual rewards.
• The Old Ancestor announced that Elder Fang would help clear the tombs of three Netherworld ghost creatures in the Yin Tomb.
• Feng Zaiyu realized the Lineage planned to expand the Yin Tomb's range and use its Yin qi to condense more Ghost Baleful Intent Pearls.
• Li Yan learned that the Feng Lineage secretly sold the rare pearls, which were valuable to cultivators, alchemists, and artifact refiners.

The Feng Lineage prepared to clear the yin burial grounds and secretly arranged with Fang Guangjun to capture an early Foundation Establishment ghost creature alive. Tang Tian pressured Li Yan to join the expedition, while Li Yan refused, and Tian Denghu told Feng Tao that the other disciples would go with her.

• The Feng Lineage ancestor explained the burial grounds’ resources and assigned disciples to clear the area behind the mountain.
• The Feng Lineage ancestor and Fang Guangjun agreed that the Feng Lineage would pay Fang Guangjun three hundred spirit stones to help capture a ghost creature alive.
• Fang Guangjun told the Falling Star Valley disciples they could wait behind or join the expedition without extra compensation from the Feng Lineage.
• Tang Tian, Wu Yizhen, and Tian Denghu chose to join the expedition, but Li Yan declined, saying he preferred to become an artifact refiner.
• Tang Tian accused Li Yan of taking Feng Tao’s spirit stones without contributing and pressured him to help finish the Feng Lineage’s task.
• Feng Tao apologized for the delay, and Tian Denghu told her that he and the others had already decided to join the expedition.

Li Yan and the other Falling Star Valley cultivators agreed to help the Feng Lineage enter its yin tombs after the Feng ancestor promised they could keep anything they found. The group descended into a vast underground maze, where Feng Zaiyu explained that dangerous ghostly creatures were sealed inside its many tomb chambers.

• Li Yan asked Feng Tao whether the Feng Lineage would let the visitors keep anything they found, and the Feng ancestor promised them both their gains and compensation for helping.
• Li Yan joined the expedition because he had sensed a fleeting trace of killing intent and wanted to discover whom it targeted.
• The Feng ancestor used a skullcap-like object to open a passage through the mist, and more than forty people entered the underground tomb complex.
• Tang Tian and the other Falling Star Valley cultivators saw the immense, eerie maze and felt its cold yin wind as they followed the Feng leaders.
• The Feng ancestor warned the outsiders to stay on the main path, and Feng Zaiyu explained that side paths led to thousands of tomb chambers where stronger ghostly creatures were sealed.

Tang Tian and the others crossed the Feng Lineage’s underground tomb labyrinth, where Feng Zaiyu explained how its ghosts and sealed tombs worked. The Feng Lineage ancestor led them to an exit near two nests of slain Foundation Establishment Realm ghosts and split the group to clear them before pursuing the last escaped ghost.

• Feng Zaiyu explained that ghosts roamed the underground tombs, described how marked and ordinary tombs differed, and withheld details about the Feng Lineage’s ghost-raising methods when Tang Tian asked.
• The group traveled through the labyrinth as ghosts pursued them, but the Feng Lineage ancestor used his skull-shaped magic treasure to slow the ghosts and keep them at bay.
• The Feng Lineage ancestor led the group to a passage exit and warned that the unexplored surface beyond it lacked the protection of the Feng Lineage’s formation.
• The Feng Lineage ancestor told Fang Guangjun that they would divide their forces to clear two nests of slain Foundation Establishment Realm ghosts, then join forces against the injured ghost that had escaped.
• Fang Guangjun chose the nest outside the passage, while Feng Zaiyu selected fifteen Feng Lineage elites to accompany him and was tasked with safeguarding the Falling Star Valley cultivators.

After entering the Feng Lineage’s mass-graveyard territory, Fang Guangjun began distributing the cultivators to clear tombs and deal with ghosts. Li Yan was dropped alone into the area and walked toward a ghost as it lunged at him.

• Feng Zaiyu gathered fifteen cultivators, including four family heads, behind Fang Guangjun as the group prepared to enter the barrier.
• The Feng Lineage ancestor and his followers passed through the barrier first, followed by Fang Guangjun’s group, who emerged into a dim mass graveyard filled with yin energy and ruined tombs.
• Feng Zaiyu explained that the Feng Lineage’s cultivation techniques suited the area and warned Tang Tian’s group that the yin energy could hinder their fighting.
• Fang Guangjun ordered the cultivators to spread out, clear tombs, and leave green leaves as markers, then used his shield to drop them across the territory.
• Li Yan landed alone, spotted a vicious ghost in colorful clothes, and continued walking as it rushed at him and extended its tongue.

Li Yan escorted Zhang Ming’s vicious ghost through the graveyard while inspecting its grave and observing the other cultivators’ progress. After Fang Guangjun gathered the group at an enormous grave, he told Feng Zaiyu to hurry and begin the next step of the plan.

• Li Yan evaded a vicious ghost’s attack, subdued it, and inspected its small grave, finding a piece of jade and scattered ornaments.
• Li Yan continued through the graveyard, encountering varied low-level ghostly creatures and deliberately slowing down to make his progress appear difficult.
• Fang Guangjun cleared the graves in the other three directions while the cultivators advanced toward the graveyard’s central area.
• Fang Guangjun gathered the cultivators before an enormous grave and told them to wait.
• Fang Guangjun carried the group together through the air, and Feng Zaiyu recognized that the first stage of the clearing was complete.
• Fang Guangjun told Feng Zaiyu to hurry and begin the next step of the plan.

Feng Zaiyu explained the dangers of the central tomb, and Fang Guangjun opened its entrance before the cultivators followed him inside. Li Yan and the others entered amid a swarm of ghosts, with Tang Tian immediately attacked by a zombie.

• Feng Zaiyu warned that powerful ghosts filled the central tomb and urged the cultivators to kill quickly as they cleared it.
• Fang Guangjun opened the stone stele’s hidden door and entered first, where ghosts attacked him at once.
• Tang Tian told Wu Yizhen to stay close and stopped Tian Denghu from trying to follow Feng Tao, who entered with her father and the Feng family disciples.
• Tang Tian led Wu Yizhen, Tian Denghu, and Li Yan into the tomb after the Feng family heads entered with their groups.
• Li Yan and the others emerged into a battle-filled tomb, where a green-furred zombie sprang at Tang Tian before he could steady himself.

Li Yan and the others fought the ghosts pouring into the tomb as Tang Tian’s treasures restrained a zombie and scattered the attackers. After the battle, the survivors found a Feng Household member dead and turned their attention toward the passage where the ghosts had emerged.

• Tang Tian’s scarlet spirit rod coiled around the green-haired zombie while Wu Yizhen used her jade vase to drive ghosts away.
• Ghosts surrounded Li Yan’s group, and Tian Denghu’s retreat opened their defenses as Zhang Ming dodged two attackers with quick footwork.
• Tang Tian rebuked Tian Denghu and sent a talisman at a ghost while Tian Denghu fought the mourning staff with a fireball.
• With Fang Guangjun’s help, the cultivators drove the surviving ghosts back into the passage after scattering or destroying most of them.
• Li Yan barely killed one ghost, Tian Denghu killed two but suffered soul corrosion, and the Feng Household mourned one dead member and three wounded.
• Several Feng disciples turned toward the passage where the ghosts had emerged.