Recaps

Li Yan escaped the gorgeous middle-aged woman's pursuit through turbulent space and emerged in a marsh on the Heavenly Demon Grassland, where he tried to hide and recover. A concealed force seized him beneath the aquatic grass, and he found himself trapped in an apparent illusion as darkness gave way to dazzling light.

• The gorgeous middle-aged woman left her disciple behind and pursued Li Yan into turbulent space, while Li Yan repeatedly used "Shaking Heaven and Earth" to flee past deadly spatial hazards.
• Li Yan finally shook off the woman's lock, used the Sand Star King Stone to leave turbulent space, and the woman continued searching for him.
• Li Yan emerged in a misty marsh on the Heavenly Demon Grassland and flew to a dense patch of aquatic grass to set up the "Mirror Flower" illusion array and recover.
• The mist suddenly bound Li Yan and dragged him beneath the aquatic grass, where his sea of consciousness churned and his Divine Sense became chaotic.
• Li Yan realized the underwater grass was likely an illusion, then darkness fell and dazzling light appeared as the marsh vanished.

Li Yan passed through the aquatic plants into a strange sky where his Divine Sense was severely restricted and the spiritual energy felt different. After checking his body and surroundings, he suspected he had entered an unknown region of the Heavenly Demon Grassland and concealed himself with formations.

• Li Yan emerged high above a wilderness, escaped his rapid fall with spiritual power, and discovered that his Divine Sense could barely extend beyond his body.
• Li Yan descended into woodland, killed several rabbit-badger-like beasts, and confirmed they were ordinary wild animals.
• Li Yan examined his body and found no abnormality, then determined that the environment severely limited his Divine Sense and made communication with his storage ring difficult.
• Li Yan sensed thin, uncomfortable spiritual energy and suspected he had entered an unknown dangerous area within the Heavenly Demon Grassland.
• Li Yan summoned the Mo Kai and Mirror Flower formations, vanished from sight, and found that he could summon items from Tuban but could not control them with Divine Sense.

Li Yan recovered from his injuries and tested the limits of the strange place, discovering that his divine sense and magical power remained suppressed and that he could not tear open space to escape. After traveling across the seemingly uniform region, he began investigating the sky with a blow from his Heavy Water Bead.

• Li Yan surrounded himself with formations and gu insects, then spent four days restoring his magical power and divine sense.
• Li Yan flew upward but found no end to the sky and failed to open a spatial rift, even with the Sandstar King Stone.
• Li Yan traveled for seven days and found that his divine sense remained confined to his body and his magical power still circulated poorly.
• Li Yan reasoned that the suppression likely affected any other cultivators or Demon Beasts in the region as well, and decided to conserve his divine sense.
• Li Yan flew a hundred zhang into the air and struck the void with his Heavy Water Bead, shaking the sky and frightening nearby animals.

Li Yan failed to break through the strange space and traveled across Autumn Creek Plain, where he discovered that the five-element spiritual energy behaved unnaturally. After searching Demon Beasts’ memories for information, he headed southwest toward human settlements and reached a vast river separating the plain from distant mountains.

• Li Yan’s strongest punch and the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief failed to reveal a way out, so he left markers and set off to search for clues.
• After flying for five days, Li Yan sensed that the rich five-element spiritual energy was strangely stiff and could weaken rapidly cast spells, though he found no harm within his body.
• A first-rank Demon Beast attacked Li Yan, who captured it and used Tuban to search its memories, learning that he was in Autumn Creek Plain and that human cultivators lived there.
• Li Yan captured two more Demon Beasts and learned that the plain’s edge lay nearby, with humans living southwest of it, so he restored his divine sense and headed that way.
• After another day of flight, Li Yan reached a hundred-li-wide river separating Autumn Creek Plain from a vast mountain range.

Li Yan discovered a mortal village using spirit-stone-powered defenses as its villagers fought a powerful boar Demon Beast. The beast shattered their wall with its innate ability and charged the helpless survivors.

• Li Yan found a village where mortals used formations, spirit weapons, and talismans to defend themselves against a first-tier boar Demon Beast.
• The village chief directed the villagers as they struggled to damage the beast and keep the defensive wall intact.
• The Demon Beast unleashed its blood-red tusks, shattering the wall and killing or injuring several villagers.
• The village chief ordered the survivors to defend themselves as the beast charged and the villagers hurled talismans at it.

Li Yan rescued Wu Lei’s village from a powerful boar Demon Beast and questioned the creature, learning little about the strange region beyond the name of a nearby river. After Wu Lei explained that the village’s able-bodied adults were growing “soul crystal sprouts” and begged for medicine for the dying, Li Yan paused his plans to question the villagers and decided to help them first.

• The boar Demon Beast broke through the villagers’ defenses, badly wounded Wu Lei, and charged to kill him.
• A young man in black seized the Demon Beast in midair, and Li Yan later killed it after questioning it with a spell.
• Li Yan learned that the Demon Beast had awakened near a breakthrough after swallowing a clam pearl, but its answers offered little useful information.
• Li Yan noticed that no children or elderly people were present and asked Wu Lei why the village had no contact with outsiders.
• Wu Lei explained that the adults were staying there to grow “soul crystal sprouts,” then begged Li Yan for medicine to save the gravely wounded villagers.
• Li Yan paused his planned questioning and decided to give the villagers pills before proceeding.

Li Yan saved Wu Lei and the villagers from a demon beast, then discovered they had secretly crushed an object and killed them after questioning them about the Dizhen Domain. After an unexplained passage of time, Wu Lei and surviving villagers faced a different black-robed cultivator investigating a bounty talisman, and Wu Lei claimed it had been activated by accident during the fight.

• Li Yan gave Wu Lei pills that revived the wounded villagers, while Wu Lei secretly crushed an object inside his robe.
• Li Yan confronted Wu Lei about the object, killed the villagers, and questioned Wu Lei, learning that the place was called the Dizhen Domain.
• After what seemed to be a passage of time, Wu Lei called on the villagers to check for survivors among the dead.
• A black-robed cultivator appeared and asked Wu Lei whether he had sent out a bounty talisman.
• Wu Lei showed the cultivator four talismans and claimed one had been activated accidentally while the villagers fought the demon beast.

Li Yan ambushed and killed the black-robed Golden Core Realm cultivator who had come to collect the village's soul crystal shoots, but failed to capture him alive for a soul search. After destroying the village and concealing the evidence, Li Yan flew on, while two Nascent Soul Realm cultivators arrived to investigate.

• Wu Lei pleaded for his life by offering the black-robed cultivator the village's mature soul crystal shoots, then led him to the underground field.
• The black-robed cultivator harvested every soul crystal shoot, but Zhili Poison weakened him as he left, and he noticed Li Yan's soul attack before collapsing.
• Li Yan tried to stop the black-robed cultivator from killing himself, but arrived too late; he searched the body and found a black jade bracelet he could not open with divine sense.
• Li Yan burned Wu Lei and the black-robed cultivator, killed the remaining villagers, and used his concealment ability to leave the area.
• Two Nascent Soul Realm cultivators arrived at the village, stayed briefly, then split up and flew in different directions.

Li Yan evaded a broad search for foreign cultivators across Dizhen Domain, where Soul Cultivators used magical treasures to detect intruders. After a gray-haired Nascent Soul cultivator from the Yellow Springs Path exposed him and attacked, Li Yan struck at close range, captured him, and fled.

• Two Nascent Soul stewards found no trace of Li Yan or the vanished villagers, and the sect alerted neighboring factions to search for foreign evil spirit cultivators.
• Li Yan escaped the most heavily searched area, then hid from groups of cultivators whose magical treasures disturbed his soul and weakened his concealment.
• After traveling farther into Dizhen Domain, Li Yan's soul reacted violently near a forest, and a gray-haired old man revealed himself and identified him as a suspected intruder.
• The old man launched silent soul-based attacks, but Li Yan dodged them and the old man recognized him as a Soul Cultivator rather than an evil spirit cultivator.
• Li Yan used the Phoenix Soars to Heaven movement technique to close the distance and struck the old man's neck with his poisoned palm, incapacitating him.
• Li Yan seized the unconscious old man and fled at high speed.

Li Yan searched a late Nascent Soul Soul Cultivator’s memories and learned that Dizhen Domain was a sealed world formed from the corpse of the ancient heavenly demon Dreamreturn Ant. He discovered that no one who entered had ever escaped and that the domain’s laws prevented cultivation beyond the Integration stage, leaving his path home uncertain.

• Li Yan’s Soul Search triggered a forbidden memory seal, and the gray-haired elder’s soul collapsed and died after Li Yan shattered its defensive blade.
• Li Yan learned that Soul Cultivators detected nearby beings through soul-power fluctuations and obtained several basic techniques, though he failed to find the detection arts he wanted.
• The elder’s memories revealed that Dizhen Domain lay within the Immortal-Spirit Realm’s Heavenly Demon Grassland and had formed from the remains of the Dreamreturn Ant.
• Li Yan learned that the domain’s laws suppressed Divine Sense, prevented cultivators above Spirit Transformation from entering, and limited its strongest cultivators to the Integration stage.
• Li Yan discovered that even Integration-stage cultivators had never escaped Dizhen Domain and that no one could reach the Tribulation Transcendence Realm there.

Li Yan learned from the gray-haired old man’s memories how the Soul-Quelling Palace had been swept into the secret realm and established Dizhen Domain, and why its cultivators hunted newcomers. The chapter ended with the Soul-Quelling Palace capturing more than a dozen foreign cultivators who had entered the domain.

• Li Yan uncovered the Soul-Quelling Palace’s history in the gray-haired old man’s memories.
• The Soul-Quelling Palace fled its enemies, crossed the Heavenly Demon Grassland, and was swept into the secret realm.
• After failing to find an exit, the surviving cultivators explored the realm and rebuilt their sect in its richest spiritual-energy region, naming it Dizhen Domain.
• The Soul-Quelling Palace discovered that Demon Beasts were also being swept into the realm and hunted many of them while searching for the passage they had entered through.
• The Soul-Quelling Palace later found more than a dozen foreign cultivators and quickly captured them.

The chapter recounted how the Soul-Quelling Palace conquered and developed the Dizhen Domain, discovering Soul Crystal Sprouts and Crystal Mist Ground that fueled its cultivation and prosperity. The palace eventually ruled the domain and found jade slips and magical treasure fragments that hinted at further secrets.

• The Soul-Quelling Palace enslaved captured foreign cultivators, exploiting men for labor and women as Furnace Cauldrons, while Soul Cultivators who entered had to join the sect and share their techniques.
• The sect master advanced to the middle stage of the Void Refinement Realm and led an expedition through deadly Miasma to a vast mountain range, where the palace established its true sect.
• The cultivators discovered Soul Crystal Sprouts, developed Soul Crystal Pills from them, and learned the plants could also help create storage-space magical treasures.
• An elder found Crystal Mist Ground where transplanted Soul Crystal Sprouts could thrive, and the palace began sealing and cultivating these plots.
• The Soul-Quelling Palace recruited mortal descendants to find Crystal Mist Ground and grow Soul Crystal Sprouts, while the domain's towns, villages, clans, and smaller sects expanded.
• The palace explored more dangerous regions and found jade slips and fragments of magical treasures, then examined the slips for clues.

Li Yan learned that the Dizhen Domain lay inside a dead heavenly demon and that even Fusion Realm cultivators had been unable to leave. He began studying Soul Cultivator techniques to disguise himself and survive, but his first attempt to pass as one was interrupted when three cultivators blocked his path.

• Li Yan learned how Soul-Suppressing Palace had explored the heavenly demon’s corpse and established its sect after discovering a sacred ground that enabled a breakthrough to the Fusion Realm.
• Li Yan accepted that finding an exit was beyond his immediate reach and focused on staying alive among the Soul Cultivators.
• Li Yan realized that the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike had trained him to affect souls, giving him the potential to disguise himself as a Soul Cultivator.
• Li Yan failed to open the two dead cultivators’ Void Shadow bracelets and decided to study the gray-haired old man’s basic Soul Cultivator techniques.
• After five days of practice, Li Yan loosened the bracelets’ soul imprints and set out to test his disguise, but three cultivators stopped him and asked where he had come from.

Li Yan passed Yellow Springs Path inspections by posing as a Soul Cultivator while traveling through Dizhen Domain. After learning that the Soul Suppression Palace’s Integration Realm elders might know how to escape the domain, he decided to improve his Soul Cultivator techniques before trying to join the palace.

• A Yellow Springs Path steward questioned Li Yan and tested him with a soul-detection treasure, then let him pass after he demonstrated control of soul and po power.
• Li Yan learned that Yellow Springs Path believed several powerful evil spirit cultivators had entered the region and were killing cultivators, and he passed more inspections while flying east.
• Li Yan declined an invitation to join a sect because his Soul Cultivator abilities could not withstand close scrutiny, and he reached a marketplace.
• Li Yan bought soul slips and learned about the Soul Suppression Palace’s Integration Realm elders, the domain’s perilous places, and the possibility that the elders were seeking a way out.
• Li Yan concluded that joining the Soul Suppression Palace could help him obtain escape-related information, but he needed Soul Cultivator techniques to make his strong soul power seem credible.
• Li Yan decided to buy better Soul Cultivator cultivation techniques before seeking entry to the Soul Suppression Palace, then put away the soul slips and left the inn.

Li Yan rented a secluded cave residence in Soulbreaker City and began cultivating the Soul Condensation Art and basic soul arts. Eight years later, Ren Yanyu had reached Spirit Transformation and questioned why Li Yan had vanished while the others who fled with him returned.

• Li Yan searched for cultivation methods and soul arts, then chose a remote, inexpensive cave residence near Soulbreaker City.
• Li Yan inspected and secured the cave residence, spending nearly a hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones to rent it for ten years.
• Li Yan studied the Soul Condensation Art and basic soul arts, then entered cultivation.
• Eight years passed, and Ren Yanyu reached Spirit Transformation and recovered from her injuries.
• Ren Yanyu told Shangguan Tianque she suspected the Donglin Lineage's account of Li Yan's disappearance and worried he had been captured by the Great-Winged Golden Roc clan.

Shangguan Tianque explained why the Broken Army Sect could not accuse the Donglin Lineage of Li Yan’s disappearance, while suspecting Li Yan had fought and killed a powerful woman in the Heavenly Demon Grassland. Elsewhere, a masked woman wondered where Li Yan had gone, as Li Yan secretly tested soul attacks on a Soul-Slaying Sect cultivator in his cave.

• Ren Yanyu questioned whether the Broken Army Sect should let the Donglin Lineage go, but Shangguan Tianque said they lacked evidence and risked drawing the Blood Lamp Sect’s suspicion.
• Shangguan Tianque proposed that Li Yan had killed the golden-eyed woman, been badly injured, and become the target of the Great-Winged Golden Roc clan’s search.
• A masked woman on an island of the Donglin Lineage wondered whether Li Yan was alive and where he had gone.
• Li Yan attacked a short, sturdy Soul-Slaying Sect cultivator with basic soul techniques inside an array, overpowering his defenses by adding soul force to the attacks.

Li Yan tested his Soul Cultivator techniques on a trapped Golden Core Realm cultivator and concluded that his basic arts needed more practice and stronger manuals. After another ten years of secluded cultivation, Li Yan departed, while the man he had trapped found himself in a strange forest.

• Li Yan attacked the short, sturdy man inside the Mirror Flower illusion array, using the encounter to assess his soul arts and the limits of his strength.
• Li Yan reflected that his soul power had reached the late Nascent Soul stage, but his techniques remained crude and his Condensing Soul Art was no longer bringing rapid improvement.
• Li Yan decided to renew his cave dwelling lease and spend another ten years mastering his basic soul arts for the sect assessment.
• After ten years of seclusion, Li Yan left his mountain residence and flew away.
• The short, sturdy man emerged from disorienting clouds into a forest with no sign of human habitation.

A stocky cultivator escaped a mysterious forest after ten years, but his sect could not find the cave or explain how he had returned. Li Yan arrived near the Soul Suppressing Palace after using the cultivator to learn his sect’s cultivation method and soul techniques.

• The stocky cultivator fled a giant turtle into mist, emerged from a cave beside the Huiming River, and broke down in relief after recognizing familiar places and other cultivators.
• The stocky cultivator returned to his sect with unfamiliar medicinal herbs and severe injuries, prompting its elders to investigate the cave and his disappearance without finding an explanation.
• The chapter described the Soul Suppressing Palace’s territory and its dominance over the surrounding Dizhen Domain.
• Li Yan flew toward the Soul Suppressing Palace while disguising his cultivation as early-stage Nascent Soul and avoiding stronger cultivators.
• Li Yan released the stocky cultivator near the place where he had captured him, altered his memories, left him herbs, and used searches, illusions, and a contract to obtain his cultivation method and soul techniques.

Li Yan reached Soul-Suppressing Palace and sought to join, using his claimed connection to Spirit-Slaying Sect to explain his background. After entering the assessment array, he found himself on a snowy plain where the cold began to affect his consciousness before any visible attack appeared.

• Li Yan obtained Spirit-Slaying Sect's cultivation methods from the short, sturdy man and trained until his soul strength reached the Spirit Transformation Realm and some of his soul arts achieved minor accomplishment.
• Li Yan traveled to Soul-Suppressing Palace and approached its enormous mountain gate, where its restrictions forced him to land before reaching the entrance.
• Li Yan told a gate guard that he was a rogue cultivator descended from former Spirit-Slaying Sect disciples and asked to join Soul-Suppressing Palace; she registered him for assessment in the Hall of Strange Sparrows.
• A gloomy young Nascent Soul Realm cultivator explained that Li Yan had one incense stick to break as many array restrictions as he could, then led him into the assessment formation.
• Li Yan appeared on a frozen plain and waited for the array's attacks, but the cold and snow instead began to slow his consciousness and make his protective barrier ripple.

Li Yan overcame the Soul-Subduing Palace’s soul-targeting ice trial and advanced deep into a second formation resembling an underground alley. The examiner was astonished by Li Yan’s pure spirit power and uncanny precision, and began to regard him as a rare Soul Cultivator genius.

• Li Yan recognized that the ice and snow were silently attacking his soul and spirit, then used crimson spirit power to melt them and break through the first trial.
• The young examiner saw Li Yan’s unusually pure spirit power and suspected he had acquired a secret technique or a heavenly treasure, while considering whether to befriend or eventually rob him.
• The first formation transformed into a gloomy alley that reminded Li Yan of an underground passage, and he cautiously began advancing through it.
• After fifteen minutes, Li Yan emerged pale after reaching one hundred and seventy zhang into the alley formation.
• The young examiner compared Li Yan’s progress with his own and concluded that Li Yan’s precise, economical responses showed extraordinary soul-and-spirit perception and talent.

Li Yan passed the Soul-Suppressing Palace’s assessment and was admitted as a disciple of the Exotic Sparrow Hall, while Wang Chengfeng grew suspicious of his exceptional performance. After learning about the sect and receiving his new disciple supplies, Li Yan set his sights on the Dharma Transmission Pavilion to obtain cultivation arts.

• Wang Chengfeng praised Li Yan’s assessment and arranged for a Golden Core disciple to escort him to the Exotic Sparrow Hall, then decided to report Li Yan’s unusual performance to Master Lan.
• As he traveled through the sect, Li Yan reflected on the assessment and concluded that its formation imitated the Soul Prison Clan’s long alley but was considerably weaker.
• The Golden Core disciple explained that the peaceful inner mountain gate lay within deadly Miasma harnessed by the sect’s protective formation, and described the Soul-Suppressing Palace’s three halls and central peak.
• Li Yan reached the Exotic Sparrow Hall’s Affairs Hall, where Fellow Daoist Gao explained the sect’s precepts and requirement that each disciple complete five tasks every hundred years.
• Li Yan received his disciple supplies and resolved to seek the Soul-Suppressing Palace’s cultivation arts at the Dharma Transmission Pavilion.

Li Yan was confronted by Grandmaster Lan, a powerful Fuchen Hall expert who had watched his entry assessment and questioned his uncanny performance in the formation. After probing his soul power, she concluded he had exceptional innate perception and promised to keep his unusual cultivation secret, but she still had more questions for him.

• Grandmaster Lan burst into the administrative hall and ordered the fat middle-aged cultivator to leave so she could question Li Yan alone.
• Grandmaster Lan asked how Li Yan had sensed where the soul spirits would appear and anticipated their attacks during the assessment.
• Li Yan claimed that fear and oppressive soul power had given him directional feedback, though he privately connected his instincts to years of surviving the same trials.
• Grandmaster Lan examined Li Yan's soul power and discovered it had reached the Spirit Transformation Realm despite his Nascent Soul cultivation.
• Grandmaster Lan attributed Li Yan's perceptions to rare innate talent, assured him she would keep his circumstances private, and then said she still had more questions.

Li Yan declined Master Lan’s offer to spend fifty years researching her formation, choosing instead to focus on stabilizing his Soul Cultivator abilities and avoid exposing his flaws. After she left, he went to the Scripture Transmission Pavilion to search for a cultivation technique that could address the weaknesses in his foundation.

• Master Lan questioned Li Yan about his experiences in the formation and offered him a mission that would let him research it with her for fifty years.
• Li Yan politely refused for now, explaining that he needed to improve his strength, and Master Lan told him to seek her out within the next hundred years.
• After Master Lan left, Li Yan calmed himself and gave Fellow Daoist Gao a guarded answer before leaving the main hall.
• Li Yan traveled to the Scripture Transmission Pavilion and entered the second floor, where new sect members could inspect ordinary or incomplete techniques.
• Li Yan searched the shelves for a technique that could remedy his cultivation deficiencies and read descriptions of soul arts such as the Soul Rending Art and Seven Souls Rainbow Light.

Li Yan examined Soul Cultivators’ arts and chose the incomplete Sacred Soul Transformation after Tang Feng explained its slow progress and potential defenses. At his new residence in the Exotic Sparrow Hall, Li Yan met Tang Feng again and pondered the connection between Soul-Suppressing Palace and the Soul Prison Clan.

• Li Yan rejected several extreme soul arts, then studied Sacred Soul Transformation and questioned its claims of immortality.
• Tang Feng told Li Yan that Sacred Soul Transformation was an incomplete, difficult art that could strengthen the soul and eventually form a defensive light film.
• Li Yan chose Sacred Soul Transformation and paid for it before leaving the Scripture Transmission Pavilion.
• Li Yan found Tang Feng near his new courtyard, learned that Tang lived nearby, and invited him to visit another time.
• Li Yan settled into the courtyard and considered how Soul-Suppressing Palace’s underground corridor might relate to the Soul Prison Clan and Strategist Ji’s chosen valley.

Li Yan investigated the broken clay jar, then entered deep meditation to cultivate Sacred Soul Transformation. After decades of searching for his natal Soul Lodging Star, he connected with it and began absorbing stellar power, greatly strengthening his soul arts.

• Li Yan failed to learn anything new from the broken clay jar and prepared to cultivate, arranging for his Gu insects to wake him after eighty years.
• Li Yan chose Sacred Soul Transformation and spent thirty years cultivating until he united his three souls into a Gloom Essence body.
• Li Yan searched the star-filled meditation space for his natal Soul Lodging Star for years, growing physically emaciated as he remained in deep meditation.
• Li Yan finally sensed his Soul Lodging Star, returned his three souls to his body, and began drawing stellar power into his Nascent Soul.
• Three months later, Li Yan tested Soul-Splitting Slash and found that his connection to the star had more than doubled the technique's power.