Recaps

Li Yan and Zhao Min entered a ruined tower and were trapped in a formation with Min Qi, a green-robed Golden Core cultivator, and a wounded gray-robed elder and his disciple. Li Yan asked Min Qi to release them, but as they prepared to leave, the elder offered his possessions in a desperate bid to secure his disciple’s rescue.

• Li Yan and Zhao Min investigated the tower and sensed spiritual energy coming from a withered beast bone inside.
• As they tried to retreat, the tower transformed into a stone chamber where Min Qi had trapped them alongside a wounded gray-robed elder and his disciple.
• The elder and his disciple begged Li Yan and Zhao Min for help, while Min Qi denied attacking them and claimed the formation had struck on its own.
• Li Yan asked Min Qi to open the formation so they could leave, and Min Qi revealed a way out.
• The gray-robed elder hurriedly offered Li Yan and Zhao Min his Storage Pouches, cultivation methods, spirit stones, and a magical treasure if they would take his disciple.

Li Yan and Zhao Min launched an attack on the blue-robed man after he offered a Storage Pouch. The story then shifted to Qin Hu, a modern soldier reborn as an exiled marquis, who realized he had been framed and set out to survive the brutal conditions at the front.

• Li Yan stopped reaching for Zhao Min when the gray-robed old man tossed him a Storage Pouch, then ordered Zhao Min to move and charged the blue-robed man.
• Qin Hu woke in a military tent and recovered the memories of his transmigration into the body of the disgraced Champion Marquis.
• Qin Hu recalled how Chen Ruoli and Princess Chang'an had helped frame him, leading to his exile to the front lines.
• Qin Hu and Qin An went out to stand watch in a snowstorm while the sentries extinguished their warming fire and left them exposed.
• Qin Hu resolved to survive, asked how much money Qin An had, and decided to seek help from Centurion Li Xiaokun.

Li Yan exposed the ambush planned by the gray-robed elder, the man in blue, and their concealed companion, then turned their attack against them. He destroyed the man in blue and poisoned the gray-robed elder, whose Golden Core he caught as it tried to flee.

• Li Yan explained how the enemy had planned to ambush him and Zhao Min near the formation exit, and Zhao Min trusted his warning.
• The gray-robed elder and the man in blue attacked Li Yan and Zhao Min, but Li Yan unexpectedly struck the man in blue alongside Zhao Min.
• Li Yan's elbow smashed through the man in blue's defenses and killed him, while Zhao Min knocked aside his magical fork.
• The gray-robed elder's blade struck Li Yan, but poison on the blade dissolved the elder's hands and spread through his body.
• Zhao Min seized the man in blue's Golden Core, and Li Yan struck the gray-robed elder's fleeing Golden Core out of the air.

Li Yan and Zhao Min defeated the three cultivators by capturing their golden cores, then killed them and escaped the ruined tower’s formation. They discovered a large cache of stolen treasure and a cultivation method called “Ebb Tide!”

• The gray-robed elder abandoned his poisoned body and tried to bargain with Li Yan and Zhao Min, while the blue-robed man begged for help.
• Li Yan secretly used illusion poison to fool the gray-robed elder with an ordinary pill, knocking his golden core unconscious.
• Li Yan destroyed the gray-robed elder’s golden core, and Zhao Min killed the blue-robed man; Li Yan then killed the unconscious young woman.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min broke the formation and reappeared in the ruined tower, finding no cultivators or demon beasts nearby.
• They searched thirteen Storage Pouches and Spirit Storage Pouches, discovering stolen goods, spirit stones, magical treasures, cultivation methods, and the “Ebb Tide!” technique.

Li Yan and Zhao Min reached a vast mist-covered plain inside the underground secret cavern and set out toward the river where the Howling Cold Stone had appeared. Elsewhere, Wusitu and his four companions prepared to capture a Black Cloud Frost Condensation Insect near a freezing river.

• Li Yan regretted killing the delicate-featured girl before learning more about her aura-concealment technique, then told Zhao Min about it.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min crossed the desert after surviving ambushes by cultivators and demon beasts, and entered a dark canyon beneath a towering black mountain.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min emerged onto a huge plain covered in mist, checked their direction, and headed toward a river about fifty thousand li away.
• Wusitu and his companions surfaced from the frigid river after setting up a Cloud Net Formation to trap a Black Cloud Frost Condensation Insect.
• An Die agreed to prepare a concealment formation while Wusitu and the others hid and recovered, unaware that Li Yan and Zhao Min were nearby.

Wusitu and four cultivators ambushed Li Yan and Zhao Min while the pair searched the riverbank for Coldwail Stones. The five attackers surrounded them and launched an assault on Zhao Min, leaving Li Yan facing Wusitu and the gaunt old Daoist.

• Wusitu and his companions hid under An Die’s formation and argued over how to divide the Blackcloud Frostcondensation Insects’ spoils.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min searched opposite banks of the river for Coldwail Stones after deciding the mountain’s submerged side was the likeliest place to find them.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min sensed danger and tried to regroup, but five cultivators led by Wusitu emerged above them and surrounded them separately.
• Wusitu and the gaunt old Daoist confronted Li Yan, while Li Yan claimed Wusitu’s ancestor knew about their encounter.
• The black-cloaked man urged the group to act, and he, An Die, and the hunchbacked man attacked Zhao Min.

Li Yan fell under the gaunt, withered old Daoist’s mind-controlling technique and Ustu’s life-draining attack while Zhao Min was surrounded by powerful enemies. Zhao Min fought through the encirclement to reach Li Yan and struck the hunchbacked body cultivator with a Bone-Piercing Fist, cracking his turtle shell.

• The gaunt, withered old Daoist subdued Li Yan with a technique that filled his mind with thoughts of surrender, and Ustu’s black qi rapidly drained his life force.
• The black-cloaked man and two allies attacked Zhao Min, forcing her to evade their coordinated assault.
• Zhao Min saw Li Yan withering under Ustu’s attack and charged toward him despite the enemies blocking her path.
• The hunchbacked man used a powerful red-patterned boot and his turtle-shell defense to intercept Zhao Min as An Die sent a demonic centipede after her.
• Zhao Min blocked the boot’s strike with one hand and drove a Bone-Piercing Fist into the hunchbacked man’s shell, cracking it and stopping his charge.

Zhao Min killed a powerful attacker and fought off several cultivators, while Li Yan was struck unconscious but survived a blow to the head. As Zhao Min unleashed swarms of crossbow insects and gu insects, the gaunt old Daoist reached Li Yan first and tried to seal him for a soul search.

• Zhao Min killed the hunchbacked man with a barrage of punches and redirected his red-patterned boot, while An Die tried to shield her Demon Beast and was badly injured.
• A black-cloaked man and An Die kept Zhao Min occupied as Wusitu and the gaunt old Daoist resumed attacking Li Yan.
• Wusitu struck Li Yan's head with his staff, but Li Yan's skull endured the blow; the gaunt old Daoist recognized their exceptional Body Refining Technique and ordered Wusitu to restrain him.
• Zhao Min drove back the black-cloaked man and An Die, then sent crossbow insects after An Die and her Demon Beast and gu insects after the black-cloaked man.
• As Li Yan fell toward the river unconscious, the gaunt old Daoist beat Wusitu to him and reached to seal him for a soul search.

Li Yan awakened from the corpse poison’s attack and killed the gaunt old Daoist before tearing off Wu Situ’s arms and sending him crashing into a mountain. As Zhao Min and Zi Kun confronted An Die, Li Yan pursued the fleeing black-cloaked man.

• Zhao Min burned her blood essence and charged the black-cloaked man while the gaunt old Daoist reached for Li Yan.
• Li Yan woke, poisoned the gaunt old Daoist with a mixture of toxins, and watched him swell and vanish in a cloud of multicolored smoke.
• Li Yan seized Wu Situ, tore off both his arms, and kicked him into a mountainside, leaving his fate unknown.
• The black-cloaked man fled after learning that Li Yan had killed the Heart-Inquiry Monastery master, abandoning An Die and his scattered black crows.
• Li Yan told Zhao Min to keep An Die surrounded, sent Zi Kun to attack her, and pursued the fleeing man while An Die begged for mercy.

Li Yan, Zhao Min, and Zi Kun defeated An Die and her allies after a fierce battle, while Li Yan secretly poisoned the fleeing man in the black cloak. The chapter ended with Li Yan checking Zhao Min’s injuries and realizing she had been hurt far more badly than she admitted.

• Zi Kun’s presence suppressed An Die’s Demon Beast, and he attacked An Die with purple-flamed swords while Li Yan pursued the man in the black cloak.
• Li Yan used the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike to clash with the black-cloaked man’s purple-fire chain, coating it with deadly poisons before turning back.
• The poison spread through the black-cloaked man’s body and petrified his treasure as he desperately searched for a remedy.
• Zi Kun tore An Die’s thousand-legged Demon Beast in two, and An Die soon died from Zi Kun’s purple-flamed swords.
• Li Yan returned to Zhao Min, gave her pills, and examined her with spiritual power, discovering that her injuries were worse than she had claimed.

After defeating their attackers, Li Yan searched Wusitu’s soul and recovered a powerful concealment formation for Zhao Min, but the group failed to find the Pronouncement technique. They planned to hunt a Blackcloud Frostcondensing Worm for its valuable parts, and the chapter ended with the wary beast repeatedly scouting the riverbank.

• Li Yan gave Zhao Min pills, collected Wusitu’s belongings, and used Soul Search before throwing the dying cultivator into the river.
• Li Yan retrieved An Die’s Trace Burial formation disc and gave it to Zhao Min.
• Li Yan, Zhao Min, and Zi Kun searched their recovered pouches but could not find the old Daoist’s Pronouncement technique.
• Li Yan sent Zhao Min to recover in Tuban and planned to hunt a Blackcloud Frostcondensing Worm with Zi Kun for its demon core and air sac.
• Four days later, the Blackcloud Frostcondensing Worm repeatedly emerged from the underground river to scout the banks, then withdrew whenever it sensed danger.

Li Yan lured the Black Cloud Frostcondensing Worm into Tuban and killed it by severing its connection to the water-element power of heaven and earth. He gave the corpse to Qianji to aid his advancement and continued searching for a Howling Cold Stone.

• Li Yan waited for the Black Cloud Frostcondensing Worm to crawl from the river, then drew it into Tuban while Zhao Min and Zi Kun guarded the space's stone outside.
• Inside Tuban, Li Yan attacked the worm and cut off its access to water-element power, allowing him to kill it quickly.
• Li Yan gave the worm's corpse to Qianji, who hoped to refine its demon core and use its air sac to advance, while Zi Kun went to guard him.
• Li Yan told Zhao Min he would continue searching for a Howling Cold Stone and sent her back to recover.

Li Yan investigated a damaged statue and the pool beneath a cliff, hoping to uncover clues about the Soul Prison Race or the Howling Cold Stone. He found nothing unusual, even after following the statue’s gaze to the cliff, and remained at the site to continue searching.

• Li Yan reached the river’s end after eighteen days of searching downstream and found a damaged statue beside a deep pool.
• He examined the statue’s material and tested it with spiritual power, discovering that it was unusually hard but otherwise unremarkable.
• Li Yan circled the pool and explored its bottom, finding only cracks that carried water deeper underground.
• He copied the statue’s posture and followed its gaze through its hollow fist toward the falling water, but found only an ordinary mountain wall behind it.

Li Yan realized the ruined statue had originally depicted a general preparing to throw a weapon, then recognized its unusual stance in the patterns on a broken jar he had found in an ancient tomb. He suspected an expert of the Soul Prison Clan might have been connected to the statue and descended to investigate further.

• Li Yan concluded that the statue’s empty fist had once held a weapon, and that its missing limbs and eye had obscured its throwing stance.
• Li Yan considered the statue’s possible meaning but found no clear connection to the Desolate Moon Continent or the Immortal-Seeking Lineage.
• As he turned to leave, Li Yan recognized the statue’s posture from a broken earthenware jar and summoned it from Tuban.
• Li Yan compared the jar’s images of a spear-wielding figure with the statue and wondered whether an expert of the Soul Prison Clan had died in the ancient tomb.
• Li Yan recalled finding the jar in the ancient tomb behind the Fengtao Lineage and descended toward the statue with it in hand.

Li Yan activated the broken clay pot and was teleported into a strange gray alley, where an invisible restriction attacked his soul when he tried to fly upward. After recovering, he suspected the pot was connected to the Soul Prison Clan and their soul-based techniques, but he remained trapped in the alley.

• Li Yan recognized that the pose on the statue might be connected to the Soul Prison Clan and used the broken clay pot's soul power to activate the statue.
• The statue triggered a force that teleported Li Yan from the river into a dim alley with gray walls and an unknown darkness beyond his divine sense.
• Li Yan tried to rise above the walls, but an invisible restriction struck his soul and sent him crashing back to the ground in agony.
• Li Yan swallowed a rare soul-healing pill and recovered enough to test the clay pot again, but nothing happened.
• Li Yan considered whether the Soul Prison Clan were elusive soul cultivators whose invisible attacks could destroy an opponent's soul.

Li Yan became trapped in a gray alley where attacks could strike his soul, and he fought off a hidden Soul Cultivator before trying to negotiate with the unseen inhabitants. As he continued forward, two more apparitions attacked him, and his Wind Blade Art destroyed them just as his protective barrier began to change.

• Li Yan failed to use the broken clay pot to escape, found the gray walls impervious to his attacks, and cautiously entered the alley.
• After advancing thirty zhang, Li Yan was ambushed by a figure he could not sense; his poisonous Fireball Art killed the attacker, but a Soul Cultivator's final strike dented his protective barrier.
• Li Yan called out and offered the broken clay pot, healing pills, and a hundred thousand spirit stones in exchange for safe passage, but no one answered.
• Li Yan retrieved his offerings and continued onward, then spotted a tiger-shaped demon beast and a white-clad woman appearing above him.
• Li Yan's Wind Blade Art shredded both attackers, and his spiritual-power barrier suddenly changed.

Li Yan discovered that the attackers in the dim alley were Soul Spirits refined to attack souls, and he and Zhao Min struggled through what he believed was a Soul Prison Clan trial path. After Zhao Min suggested the dangerous encounters could temper their souls rather than simply injure them, they prepared to treat the trial as an opportunity to strengthen themselves.

• Li Yan identified the attackers as Soul Spirits and realized the earlier figure he had killed had also been a refined soul.
• Li Yan fought through increasingly numerous Foundation Establishment Soul Spirits, suffered several soul attacks, and found that retreating more than ten zhang made them lose their targets and disappear.
• Li Yan concluded that he was trapped in a Soul Prison Clan trial path where stronger Soul Spirits might appear, and he met Zhao Min to discuss their situation.
• Zhao Min tested the broken earthenware jar Li Yan had found, but its faint soul power produced no response.
• Zhao Min fought a group of Soul Spirits and escaped their encirclement, then retreated with Li Yan as he worried their supply of soul-healing pills would run out.
• Zhao Min told Li Yan that the Soul Spirits were meant to temper the trial-takers' souls, and Li Yan realized the trial could be a chance to strengthen them.

Li Yan, Zhao Min, and Zi Kun slowly advanced through a long underground alley where attacks from soul spirits painfully tempered their souls. After three months they had gained strength but traveled only about seven hundred and sixty zhang, while Shuang Qingqing set out to find them after they missed their return date.

• Li Yan deliberately endured a weak soul-spirit attack and discovered that repairing the resulting injury with spiritual power slightly strengthened his soul.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min began advancing by taking turns facing the soul spirits, and Zhao Min’s gu insects joined them; three insects died, while the Crossbow Insect King endured.
• Over three months, Li Yan, Zhao Min, and Zi Kun gradually strengthened their souls as they proceeded through the alley.
• When Li Yan and Zhao Min failed to return after four months, Shuang Qingqing decided to search for them, leaving Bai Rou behind.
• Li Yan realized that the group had traveled only about seven hundred and sixty zhang in three months and could not send messages to Shuang Qingqing.

Li Yan, Zhao Min, and Zi Kun endured years in the underground hidden cavern’s endless alley, strengthening their souls while fighting increasingly powerful soul spirits. As Nascent Soul realm spirits seemed likely to appear, Li Yan and Zhao Min prepared a cautious retreat plan, while the others who had searched for them eventually left Qingqing Continent without them.

• Li Yan and his companions abandoned attempts to force their way through after a swarm of soul spirits overwhelmed them, and they concluded that the Soul Prison Clan must have a way to withdraw.
• Shuang Qingqing searched for Li Yan and the others but found no trace of them; after waiting three years, she left Qingqing Continent with Bai Rou, and Su Hong later departed with Mi'er.
• Over ten years in the alley, Li Yan reached the pseudo-Nascent Soul realm, Zhao Min neared that realm, and Zi Kun and their companions grew stronger as they fought increasingly advanced soul spirits.
• Three years later, Li Yan and the others defeated several Golden Core realm soul spirits and continued advancing as the spirits became stronger and rarer.
• Li Yan sensed that Nascent Soul realm soul spirits might appear ahead, and Zhao Min proposed a spiritual-power rope so the others could pull her back swiftly if danger emerged.

Li Yan cautiously advanced down the long alley while Zhao Min and Zi Kun stood ready to pull him back, and an unseen attack briefly left him dazed. He recovered and recognized that the alley had ended at a towering yellow wall with a small door, which Zi Kun began trying to open.

• Li Yan rejected Zhao Min’s offer to take his place and told Zi Kun not to follow if anything happened to him.
• Zhao Min and Zi Kun attached spiritual-power ropes to Li Yan as he advanced beyond the alley’s ten-zhang danger boundary.
• After Li Yan walked more than seventy zhang without encountering a soul spirit, his aura suddenly fluctuated, and Zhao Min and Zi Kun pulled him back.
• Li Yan’s gaze went blank, but he quickly regained awareness and told Zhao Min and Zi Kun that he had seen the end of the alley.
• The three flew ahead and found a brightly illuminated yellow wall with a small door near its base.
• Zi Kun examined the door and sent purple runes into it, triggering golden light and an explosive sound from the wall.

Li Yan, Zhao Min, and Zi Kun escaped the trial grounds by using the broken pottery jar to trigger a transport, though their journey through darkness lasted far longer than expected. They emerged from a river in a sunlit mountain valley in the outside world, far from where they had entered.

• Zi Kun and Zhao Min failed to break the restrictions sealing the yellow door, and Zhao Min suggested testing them with soul power.
• Li Yan used a snow mosquito to test the door with soul power, then realized the broken pottery jar might be the key to escape.
• Li Yan activated the jar, causing water to pour from above and sweep the three into a dark passage that he recognized as a way out.
• After a long journey through the darkness, Li Yan, Zhao Min, and Zi Kun emerged from a mountain into the riverbed near the secret underground cavern.
• The three rose to the surface and discovered they were in a sunlit mountain valley in the outside world.

After emerging from the Soul Prison Clan’s underground passage, Li Yan recognized the valley and its ruined houses from his distant past. He concluded that they had somehow arrived on the Desolate Moon Continent and drifted toward the house where his former military adviser and “master” had lived.

• Zhao Min and Zi Kun rose from the pool, then noticed Li Yan remained in the water, staring at the weeds in a daze.
• Li Yan asked Zhao Min and Zi Kun to confirm that the valley had four houses, one exit, and a carved sign reading “Military Adviser's Residence.”
• After their answers helped him regain his composure, Li Yan recognized the pool, mountain, and ruined houses from his past.
• Li Yan told Zhao Min and Zi Kun that they were on the Desolate Moon Continent and explained why he believed the place was real, not an illusion.
• Li Yan pointed out the homes where he and his former military adviser had lived, then drifted toward the adviser’s ruined house.

Li Yan revisited the ruined home where he had once lived and traveled with Zhao Min and Zi Kun to his childhood village, fearing what time had done to his family. He arrived at his former home and found an elderly woman in its garden, but the chapter ended before he learned who she was.

• Li Yan remembered his life in the ruined house at Green Mountain Pass and the guards Chen An and Li Yin who had escorted him there.
• Li Yan and Zhao Min agreed to visit his old village, while he refused Zi Kun’s suggestion to investigate the hollow beneath the pond because the broken ceramic jar’s teleportation was too dangerous to risk again.
• Li Yan reflected on possible links between the jar, the Soul Prison Clan, the Immortal-Seeking Lineage, and the secret cave as the three flew north.
• Li Yan grew fearful when he found no Blood Leaf Sect guards protecting his village and descended alone to his former home, telling Zhao Min and Zi Kun to wait.
• Li Yan saw an elderly woman resting in the garden of his former home as children laughed among the flowers.

Li Yan returned to his childhood home after nearly a century and discovered that his parents, Li Wei, Li Xiaozhu, and other family members had died. After mourning before their spirit tablets, he approached the elderly Li Yue, who fainted when she met his gaze.

• Li Yan appeared in the enlarged family courtyard and recognized Li Yue and an elderly man as close blood relatives, but found no one he knew.
• Li Yan entered his old room and saw the spirit tablets of his parents, Li Wei, and other deceased relatives.
• Li Yan remembered his family, learned from the tablets that Li Xiaozhu and Li Wenwu had also died, and wept as he bowed before his parents and Li Wei.
• Li Yan offered incense to the tablets and sat silently in the room.
• Li Yue noticed the garden had gone silent and saw Li Yan standing before her.
• Li Yue met Li Yan's gaze and lost consciousness.

Li Yan secretly met his niece Li Yue, cured her fatal illness, and gave her life-extending pills before she woke and realized the encounter was real. After learning how his family had lived and died in his absence, Li Yan felt the village growing unfamiliar and was left watching his ancestral home from afar.

• Li Yan questioned Li Yue while she was under a spell, learned that she was Li Wei’s daughter, and gave her pills to cure her illness and extend her family’s lives.
• Li Yue woke, hid the porcelain bottle from Huaixiang, and discovered that her illness was gone.
• Li Yan told Zhao Min he had not revealed himself because he and Li Yue had no shared memories and meeting as relatives would only bring sorrow.
• Li Yan learned that his parents had died without seeing his return and that Li Wei had died while praying at their family graves on the Double Ninth Festival.
• Li Yan learned that Li Wei’s children had honored his wishes by returning to the village and keeping the family spirit tablets in the ancestral cottage.