Recaps

Li Yan broke through to late Nascent Soul by cultivating the Sacred Soul Transformation, then emerged from decades of seclusion to gather information about routes out of the Dizhen Domain. He found no promising leads through Tang Feng and was preparing to accept a mission when Tang Feng arrived and invited him to visit a place in the sect.

• Li Yan confirmed that thirty-three years of cultivation had brought his Sacred Soul Transformation to its fifth layer and raised his soul cultivation to late Nascent Soul.
• Li Yan studied how his new soul cultivation deepened his understanding of the five elements and the Undying Nether Phoenix’s laws of metal and wood, then rested after sensing an elusive barrier to further progress.
• After waking, Li Yan reviewed missions at the Mission Hall and began asking sect members about routes leading outside the Dizhen Domain.
• Li Yan discussed cultivation with Tang Feng, learned that other cultivators who switched to the Sacred Soul Transformation often stalled at late Nascent Soul, and received no useful leads about an exit route.
• As Li Yan prepared to visit the Mission Hall, Tang Feng arrived and invited him to visit a place in the sect.

Tang Feng invited Li Yan to watch the Soul-Suppressing Palace’s Spirit Arena, where captured foreign cultivators fought as soul slaves, and explained how its matches and gambling worked. Li Yan agreed, and the two entered the arena and took seats as spectators gathered.

• Tang Feng asked Li Yan to visit the Spirit Arena, and Li Yan hesitated after recalling the brutal fights held there.
• Tang Feng argued that watching the once-in-a-decade matches would help Li Yan learn foreign cultivators’ methods and prepare for missions, so Li Yan agreed.
• Tang Feng and Li Yan traveled to the Spirit Arena, where matches were divided into Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Spirit Transformation levels, with death matches and surrender-ending matches.
• Tang Feng paid the entrance fee for both of them in soul crystal buds and led Li Yan inside.
• Tang Feng selected two adjacent seats in the arena, and he and Li Yan sat down among the arriving Soul Cultivators.

Li Yan attended a spirit-fighting arena with Tang Feng and learned that spectators could bet on the matches. He recognized a female devil general from his past walking behind Master Lan, leaving him worried that she would expose his identity within the Soul-Subduing Palace.

• Li Yan surveyed the arena while Tang Feng explained that a distant seating area was reserved for Spirit Transformation and Void Refinement cultivators.
• A Golden Core cultivator offered Li Yan and Tang Feng a bone tablet listing the fighters in the first match, and Li Yan declined to bet before watching a match.
• Tang Feng placed a substantial wager, while spectators noticed Master Lan arriving with her attendants.
• Li Yan recognized the woman behind Master Lan as the female devil general he had encountered in an underwater cave estate.
• Li Yan realized the woman remembered his past and might recognize him, making his concealed identity and place in the Soul-Subduing Palace precarious.

Li Yan learned that Mu Guyue was a Devil Race soul slave serving Master Lan, while Mu Guyue recalled how she and Tinglan had been captured in the Dizhen Domain after being attacked by Soul Cultivators. The chapter left Mu Guyue and Tinglan gathering information and seeking a way out of the strange realm.

• Tang Feng told Li Yan that Mu Guyue was an Evil Spirit Cultivator and one of Master Lan's soul slaves, and explained that Master Lan had disciples of his own.
• Li Yan stopped fearing that Mu Guyue could expose him, but grew troubled by her enslavement and wondered whether she had entered the Dizhen Domain around the same time he had.
• Mu Guyue recalled that white mist had transported her demon-hunting squad into the realm more than a hundred and twenty years earlier, where Soul Cultivators attacked and nearly wiped them out.
• Mu Guyue broke through the attackers and escaped with Tinglan, while the rest of their squad, including its two Spirit Transformation captains, disappeared.
• Mu Guyue and Tinglan fled repeated pursuit, survived by relying on Tinglan's jade pendant, and eventually hid in a remote place.
• After recovering, Mu Guyue and Tinglan cautiously questioned mortals and began learning about the realm as they searched for a way to leave.

Mu Guyue’s past as a captive soul slave was revealed as Master Lan brought her to fight in the Spirit Fighting Arena for a wager. As the match approached, Xiong Tianba arrived and reacted to Mu Guyue, while the woman accompanying him showed her jealousy.

• Mu Guyue and Tinglan searched for an exit from the Dizhen Domain with other cultivators, but Soul Cultivators eventually captured their group of six.
• Master Lan took Mu Guyue and Tinglan away, branded them with Soul Seals, and repeatedly used Mu Guyue to test formations and magical treasures.
• Master Lan ordered Mu Guyue to recover for a month before competing in the Spirit Fighting Arena, where she had to win a wager against Elder Ning.
• Elder Ning questioned Mu Guyue’s strength, and Master Lan said she was the strongest Nascent Soul-level soul slave under her command.
• Xiong Tianba arrived with a white-robed woman, noticed Mu Guyue, and caused the woman to respond with jealousy and killing intent.

Xiong Tianba lusted after Mu Guyue while watching her prepare to fight Storm Tiger, and Li Yan recognized her as the Moon Devil when she entered the arena. Mu Guyue faced the undefeated body cultivator with little known information about her abilities, and the battle began with both fighters assessing each other.

• Xiong Tianba arrived with You Su Qianqian and questioned Master Lan about Mu Guyue's spirit fight, while Master Lan refused to entertain his interest in trading for her.
• Li Yan sat apart from Tang Feng and watched the matches list until Mu Guyue appeared as Moon Devil, matched against the formidable Storm Tiger.
• Mu Guyue entered the arena's formation, which cut off sound, and assessed Storm Tiger's speed and body-refinement skills.
• Storm Tiger studied Mu Guyue and told her that she was very strong.

Mu Guyue and the beast-clothed young man Storm Tiger fought a fierce Spirit Battle, each relying on exceptional close-combat skill and speed. After half an hour, Mu Guyue remained standing despite severe wounds, while Storm Tiger had lost an arm and was hurled into the ground by her final attack.

• Storm Tiger launched a surprise tiger-claw attack, but Mu Guyue deflected it and counterattacked, forcing both fighters to recognize the danger of their opponent.
• Mu Guyue and Storm Tiger exchanged rapid attacks, and she used her physical prowess to evade his short awl and block his strikes with her crescent hand-guard blades.
• The fighters charged again and traded a prolonged series of close-range blows as Elder Ning, Master Lan, Xiong Tianba, Tang Feng, and Li Yan watched the battle.
• After half an hour, Mu Guyue stood bloodied and exhausted, while Storm Tiger trembled with one arm missing and struggled to gather his remaining spiritual power.
• Mu Guyue vanished and struck Storm Tiger, hurling him several hundred zhang before he crashed into the ground in a cloud of dust.

Mu Guyue won the spirit battle, allowing Master Lan to claim Elder Ning’s Azure Vast Stone, but Xiong Tianba then sought to trade another piece for Mu Guyue as a soul slave. Master Lan accepted the prospect of a future negotiation and punished Mu Guyue for pleading against it.

• Mu Guyue defeated the beast-clad young man, and Master Lan collected the Azure Vast Stone from Elder Ning after the wager.
• Xiong Tianba offered to obtain a similarly sized Azure Vast Stone in exchange for Mu Guyue as a soul slave.
• Master Lan proposed a spirit battle for Mu Guyue, but Xiong Tianba refused because she might deliberately lose her life.
• Master Lan told Xiong Tianba to return once he had obtained the Azure Vast Stone, and Mu Guyue pleaded against the proposed trade.
• Master Lan activated Mu Guyue’s slave mark, hurled her to the ground, and threatened to destroy her consciousness if she spoke recklessly again.

Li Yan recognized Mu Guyue as the woman from his past and, after recalling their encounters and noticing blood on her robe, went to see Master Lan. Master Lan asked whether he had come to accept her offer to study a formation for fifty years.

• Master Lan punished Mu Guyue for resisting her transfer to Xiong Tianba, and You Su Qianqian mocked her.
• Li Yan watched Mu Guyue leave injured, then remembered their earlier encounters and the bloodstained robe he had seen after waking beside her.
• Mu Guyue was stripped of her cultivation and confined, where she wept over losing her freedom and hope of escape.
• Master Lan was studying the Azure Vast Stone when Li Yan arrived at her courtyard late at night.
• Li Yan asked Master Lan if she remembered her offer to work together on a formation, and Master Lan asked whether he had decided to accept.

Li Yan negotiated with Master Lan to assist with researching an array on a flexible schedule in exchange for Mu Guyue becoming his soul slave. Master Lan agreed, and Li Yan asked her to seal Mu Guyue’s powers before he placed his soul imprint on her.

• Li Yan offered to help Master Lan test the array intermittently and continue until his assistance was no longer needed.
• Master Lan offered to waive a thousand years of tasks, but Li Yan requested Mu Guyue as his soul slave so he could study her Devil Race markings.
• Li Yan explained that he wanted to research the markings’ defenses against soul attacks, and Master Lan considered his request.
• Master Lan agreed to give Mu Guyue to Li Yan, choosing the array research over keeping her as a bargaining chip for Xiong Tianba.
• Li Yan asked Master Lan to remove Mu Guyue’s soul imprint, seal her powers, and leave her unconscious so he could imprint her safely.

Li Yan learned the origins and key details of Master Lan’s formation, agreed to help test it, and received Mu Guyue after Master Lan removed her soul mark. Mu Guyue awoke sealed and in pain, mistook Li Yan for the man who had violated her, and furiously confronted him in her thoughts.

• Li Yan asked Master Lan to remove Mu Guyue’s soul mark and drew out a detailed explanation of the formation by asking carefully chosen questions.
• Master Lan scheduled Li Yan to meet her at the inner mountain gate the day after tomorrow and warned him to keep the formation’s secrets.
• Master Lan removed Mu Guyue’s soul mark, handed her unconscious body to Li Yan, and told him to claim that she had bestowed Mu Guyue upon him if anyone asked.
• Li Yan left carrying Mu Guyue, while Master Lan privately revealed that a Void Refinement cultivator had taken an interest in her and considered negotiating with Xiong Tianba.
• Mu Guyue woke in agony on a bed, unable to move, and mistook Li Yan for Xiong Tianba before recognizing his face and believing he had possessed her body by despicable means.

Li Yan woke Mu Guyue after rescuing her from Master Lan and explained that her soul imprint had been removed and her cultivation remained sealed. After hearing how he had found her in Dizhen Domain, Mu Guyue asked what he intended to do with her.

• Mu Guyue woke to find Li Yan beside her and, confused by her soul pain, listened as he explained her condition and the seals on her body.
• Li Yan partially lifted Mu Guyue’s seal, and she sprang from the bed into a defensive stance before asking where Xiong Tianba was.
• Li Yan clarified that he had rescued her from Master Lan, and Mu Guyue realized they were outside Soul Suppressing Palace.
• Li Yan gave Mu Guyue soul-nourishing pills and recounted how they had both reached the North Pasture Realm and entered Dizhen Domain.
• After considering Li Yan’s account, Mu Guyue calmly asked what he intended to do with her.

Li Yan offered Mu Guyue a choice of imprisonment with or without a soul imprint, and she chose to cultivate in a spirit-storage space while he provided resources. After Li Yan stored her away, Xiong Tianba learned that Master Lan had changed their deal and flew into a rage.

• Li Yan offered Mu Guyue three ways forward, and she chose the spirit-storage space without a soul imprint.
• Mu Guyue asked Li Yan to rescue Tinglan from Master Lan, and Li Yan said he would try but could not promise success.
• Li Yan told Mu Guyue that he had exchanged help testing things for her release, then used his Divine Sense to place her in a spirit-storage ring.
• Xiong Tianba received Master Lan's message that she had changed their deal and destroyed the hall in anger.
• You Su Qianqian approached Xiong Tianba after his outburst, and he took her to his room.

Xiong Tianba considered how to obtain Mu Guyue after You Su Qianqian advised him to negotiate with whoever Master Lan had chosen as her recipient. Meanwhile, Li Yan trained in Master Lan’s formation for three years as she and Tang Feng discussed his cultivation and their search for a Void-Shattering Formation that might free them from the Dizhen Domain.

• You Su Qianqian suggested that Xiong Tianba identify Mu Guyue’s new recipient and offer a deal, and he agreed to investigate.
• Li Yan began training in Master Lan’s formation, and three years passed as Master Lan repeatedly modified it around his progress.
• Master Lan and Tang Feng watched Li Yan fight soul spirits and discussed his progress with the Sacred Soul Transformation and his limited prospects of advancing further.
• Tang Feng urged Master Lan to focus on finding the Void-Shattering Formation, while she explained that she believed it might appear after the formation’s alley was fully built.
• Tang Feng questioned Master Lan’s theory, arguing that the alley was a soul-training trial and that the Void-Shattering Formation was likely concealed at its exit.

Master Lan and Tang Feng discussed how the Skybreaking Formation’s winding foundation might gather power and how Li Yan’s danger sense helped her decipher it. Tang Feng revealed a growing conspiracy against the sect, while Li Yan’s repeated trials unexpectedly sharpened his perception of the Soul Lodging Star.

• Master Lan explained to Tang Feng that the Skybreaking Formation’s strange foundation might be a winding alley that gathered power, and Tang Feng understood her insight.
• Master Lan described how Li Yan’s sensed dangers had helped her decipher the formation, including directions where the alley might extend beyond its apparent end.
• Tang Feng reported that three Void Refinement elders, twelve Spirit Transformation cultivators, and thirty-four Nascent Soul cultivators were implicated in a conspiracy with five sects and two cultivation clans.
• Tang Feng estimated the conspirators might act within three hundred years, and Master Lan warned him to stay vigilant and protect his identity.
• Tang Feng returned to his courtyard through a hidden formation, while Li Yan recovered after destroying three soul spirits in the trial.
• Li Yan recalled concealing some of his insights during repeated trials and discovered that rapidly consuming and restoring his soul power had made his perception of the Soul Lodging Star clearer.

Li Yan’s repeated trials in Master Lan’s formation improved his cultivation, but he realized its latest changes had made his predictions unreliable. After Master Lan sent him home to rest, he encountered Zhang Henian waiting outside his courtyard, seeking him on Elder Xiong’s orders.

• Li Yan’s repeated runs through the formation strengthened his soul power as Master Lan extended and refined the passage.
• Li Yan noticed that the latest formation breakthrough had not made its soul spirits stronger, realized he had been predicting where the passage would extend, and deliberately became less accurate.
• Master Lan questioned Li Yan extensively, then told him to return home while she readjusted the formation after hearing Tang Feng’s warning that time was growing short.
• Li Yan returned to his courtyard and found Zhang Henian of the Curved Arrow Hall waiting for him after years of unanswered visits and messages.
• Li Yan explained that he had been assisting Master Lan and checked his token, while Zhang Henian inferred that Li Yan had spent years at Master Lan’s side.

Li Yan refused Zhang Henian's offer to trade for Mu Guyue, warning him that she had already been refined into a puppet for his cultivation. Four days later, Arcus Hall rebelled against Soul Suppression Palace, and Li Yan watched from his fortified courtyard as fighting shook the sect before noticing something in the darkness.

• Zhang Henian offered Li Yan a high-grade magic treasure and soul bud crystals in exchange for Mu Guyue on behalf of Xiong Tianba.
• Li Yan claimed Mu Guyue had been refined into a puppet and could not be separated from his cultivation, so Zhang Henian left without seeing her.
• Li Yan recalled Master Lan's warning and suspected Xiong Tianba would continue targeting him, then returned to cultivating the Gui Water True Scripture.
• Four days later, explosions battered Li Yan's residence, and Xue Tieyi announced that Arcus Hall had rebelled and ordered the Guardian Army to purge it.
• Li Yan strengthened his courtyard's formations as battles raged across the sect, then suddenly shifted aside and stared into the night.

Li Yan learned that rebels within Soul-Suppressing Palace had joined nine outside powers in a failed assault, and the sect began preparing its disciples for a counterattack. After receiving Master Lan’s warning and being assigned to lead Golden Core cultivators, Li Yan hurried back toward his residence to prepare.

• A Guard Army squad searched the sect’s cultivators and ordered them to remain inside their courtyards.
• Xue Tieyi summoned the disciples and revealed that five Void Refinement elders had rebelled with nine outside forces, while Xiong Tianba escaped.
• Xue Tieyi ordered Golden Core cultivators and above to join the purge, and Master Lan sent Li Yan a soul slip warning him about the rebels.
• Li Yan went to the Exotic Sparrow Hall’s deacon palace and was assigned to lead fifty Golden Core cultivators on a purge route.
• With an hour to prepare, Li Yan left the deacon palace and surveyed battle damage as he headed toward his residence.

Li Yan assessed the Soul Suppressing Palace’s weakened position as rebellion spread and warned Mu Guyue that he might die in the coming battles. Mu Guyue agreed to leave the Spirit Storage Bag and stay with him for now as they departed his residence.

• Li Yan concluded that the Soul Suppressing Palace might have only twelve or thirteen Void Refinement cultivators left, while its enemies could match or outnumber them.
• Li Yan learned from Master Lan that resentment over the Soul Suppressing Palace’s exclusive control of the path to Body Integration had fueled the rebellion, and he wondered whether the absent grand elders were truly alive.
• Li Yan entered the Spirit Storage Ring and explained the rebellion and the danger to Mu Guyue, offering to help her escape or have her remain beside him disguised as his soul slave.
• Mu Guyue judged that escape was too dangerous and chose to stay with Li Yan, telling him her injuries were just over seventy percent healed.
• Li Yan brought Mu Guyue out of the Spirit Storage Bag, packed away his courtyard’s restriction formations, and led her away as she reflected on the chain of events that had brought them together.

Li Yan joined the Soul-Suppressing Palace’s purge force with Mu Guyue and a team of Golden Core cultivators, while concealing their connection behind Master Lan’s influence. After a Spirit Transformation cultivator quietly changed his assignment, Li Yan’s team spent seven days inspecting and sealing small sects and cultivation families with little resistance.

• Li Yan and Mu Guyue failed to find Tang Feng and went to the Affairs Hall, where a Spirit Transformation female cultivator assigned missions to the gathered Nascent Soul cultivators.
• Li Yan claimed Mu Guyue was his soul slave and that he sometimes handled minor matters for Master Lan, prompting the Spirit Transformation female cultivator to change his route and mission.
• Seven days later, Li Yan and his team had cleared three sects and three cultivation families as part of the Soul-Suppressing Palace’s purge.
• Li Yan discovered that the places on his route were mostly abandoned or cooperative, and his team inspected and sealed them without finding hidden cultivators from the nine great powers.
• Several sects and families secretly offered Li Yan valuables, and he accepted them.

Li Yan led his inspection team to Huangluyuan Manor, where Mu Guyue recognized a hidden Five Ghosts Turning the Locust formation. As ghostly figures emerged from the formation, Li Yan ordered everyone to retreat and Mu Guyue rushed toward one of the trees.

• Li Yan told Mu Guyue that gaps in the battle lines might let her flee Soul-Suppressing Palace, and she asked him to rescue Tinglan as well; he agreed to look for an opportunity.
• Li Yan and the fifty Golden Core cultivators arrived at Huangluyuan Manor and broke through its protective formation after receiving no answer at the gate.
• The team searched the empty manor while Li Yan inspected a room near the entrance and Mu Guyue studied five giant trees in the courtyard.
• Mu Guyue identified the trees as a Five Ghosts Turning the Locust formation, and Li Yan immediately ordered the team to retreat.
• Five ghost faces appeared on the trees, linked them with green beams, and opened a passage as figures flew out.

Li Yan and Mu Guyue fought to stop an enemy assault as the Five Ghosts Shifting Locusts array brought cultivators into the estate and a second array began sealing its exit. Li Yan chose to hold the enemies off until his missing cultivators returned, but the gate kept closing and a Spirit Transformation cultivator arrived.

• Twenty Golden Core Realm cultivators emerged from the teleportation array, with ten attacking the vermilion gate and ten activating a barrier from the five great trees.
• Mu Guyue tried to destroy a ghostly face on a tree, but a newly arrived Nascent Soul cultivator blocked her and disrupted her strike with a soul attack.
• Li Yan recognized that the barrier would trap them inside, ordered the gate defenders to destroy the vermilion gate, and attacked the trees to break the teleportation array.
• A Spirit Transformation cultivator appeared, but Li Yan chose to delay the enemy for several breaths so the forty-five cultivators searching the estate could return.
• Li Yan's Guiyi Water-Parting Spikes shattered two summoned black shadows, while two of his Golden Core Realm defenders were killed and the vermilion gate closed halfway.

Li Yan feigned retreat, struck one of the formation’s trees, and killed the enemy Golden Core cultivators with the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike, but the tree remained standing and a late Spirit Transformation cultivator began to emerge. Mu Guyue moved to help Li Yan destroy the tree while Zhang Xin prepared to self-detonate at the gate.

• Li Yan dodged the Spirit Transformation cultivator’s attack with sudden changes of direction and struck a formation tree, but the backlash threw him away and only tilted it.
• Zhang Xin chose to self-detonate rather than flee as the enemy Golden Core cultivators closed in on him at the gate.
• Li Yan sent two dark streaks through the enemy cultivators, killing them with strikes to their dantians.
• The Spirit Transformation cultivator attacked Li Yan again as a late Spirit Transformation cultivator began emerging from the formation.
• Mu Guyue recognized Li Yan’s plan and sent two streaks of watery moonlight toward the tilted tree.
• As Zhang Xin’s self-detonation reached its climax, a dark streak appeared before the nearest enemy cultivator.

Li Yan destroyed the enemy’s teleportation formation with poison, killing the cultivator inside and forcing the battle to shift toward the vermilion gate. As Li Yan and Mu Guyue fought the Spirit Transformation cultivator, a changed, bone-armored Mu Guyue joined Li Yan’s attack.

• Li Yan’s attack killed the Soul-Suppressing Palace enemies at the gate, and he urged Zhang Xin to keep the vermilion gate open while Mu Guyue attacked the formation’s great tree.
• Poison from Li Yan’s attack rotted the tree and collapsed the Five Ghosts Turning Locust formation, killing the cultivator who had nearly completed teleportation.
• Zhang Xin and arriving Golden Core Realm cultivators held the gate open and attacked its restriction while Li Yan ordered others to engage the Nascent Soul pursuer.
• Li Yan used Phoenix Soaring Heaven to close in on the tall, gaunt Spirit Transformation cultivator, blocking his attack with Soul-Splitting Slash and disrupting his spell.
• Mu Guyue, now covered in white bone armor and spikes, ambushed the Spirit Transformation cultivator and joined Li Yan in confronting him.

Li Yan and Mu Guyue teamed up to overwhelm a middle Spirit Transformation Soul Cultivator, with Li Yan absorbing his soul attacks while Mu Guyue closed in and battered him. Li Yan joined her in a pincer assault, leaving the enemy trapped between them as fighting continued elsewhere in the courtyard.

• Li Yan called for Mu Guyue to help him target the tall, thin Spirit Transformation cultivator, and she broke away from a pursuing Nascent Soul cultivator by drawing him through a crowd of Golden Core cultivators.
• Mu Guyue and Li Yan agreed that Li Yan would defend while she attacked, then charged the tall, thin man together.
• Li Yan endured the man's soul arts head-on while Mu Guyue used her Brilliant White Bone Armor and close-range strikes to pin him down.
• Li Yan activated the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, Undying Nether Phoenix bloodline, and Severance Poison, then attacked the man from behind alongside Mu Guyue.
• The two battered the tall, thin man between them until his protective barrier blazed and he could do little but stagger back and forth.