Recaps

Li Yan asked Gong Chenying to preserve the blue diamond crystals so he could investigate their spiritual energy, while she led their group through the lava trial at a dangerous pace. With the black shadow closing in, Gong Chenying tested the yellow sphere and returned with news that her plan had worked, leaving the cultivators rushing inside.

• Li Yan told Gong Chenying about his suspicions concerning the blue diamond crystals and asked her to preserve any they found, while she noticed his increased cultivation.
• Gong Chenying led the group through the lava passage, where three more cultivators died to the lava monsters.
• Gong Chenying reached the yellow sphere ahead of their opponents and sent a dozen cultivators inside while the others waited outside.
• As the black shadow approached, Gong Chenying entered the sphere alone and instructed the group to prepare to fight if she did not return within two breaths.
• Gong Chenying emerged and announced that her plan had worked, then reentered the sphere as the cultivators hurried after her.

Li Yan and the Phantom Sect entered a sphere filled with corpses and found that Gong Chenying’s carefully prepared poison ambush had apparently killed the opposing cultivators. The bodies belonged to Ten-Step Academy and the Grand Profound Sect, and two dead cultivators still held blue diamond crystals, leaving the group bewildered.

• Gong Chenying chose to rush through the trial route and reach the sphere early so the Phantom Sect could ambush their rivals with poison.
• She led Laojun Peak and Four Symbols Peak cultivators into the sphere to lay concealed poisons and formations, while Li Yan and Mei Bucai made their own preparations.
• Gong Chenying kept Spirit Insect Peak and Buli Peak cultivators out of the sphere to avoid triggering its rules and planned a defensive formation for her group’s final entry.
• Li Yan and the others entered the sphere and saw more than fifty corpses wearing Ten-Step Academy and Grand Profound Sect robes.
• The group spotted two bodies seven steps apart, each still clutching a blue diamond crystal, and realized the scene was not the result they had expected.

Gong Chenying and Li Yan left the formation to investigate the poisoned battlefield, where two Foundation Establishment cultivators had died. Li Yan examined a Taixuan Sect cultivator’s corpse and took the blue diamond-shaped crystal from its hand, but its effect and the cause of the deaths remained unclear.

• Gong Chenying ordered everyone to remain inside the formation, then Li Yan volunteered to accompany her outside.
• Li Yan warned Gong Chenying about four poisoned areas as they hovered over the corpse-strewn battlefield.
• Mi Yuanzhi mocked Li Yan for entering without an antidote, while Qi Busheng and others discussed his apparent resistance to poison.
• Gong Chenying identified the nearer corpse as a Taixuan Sect Foundation Establishment cultivator who had suffered several poisons.
• Li Yan took the blue diamond-shaped crystal from the skeleton’s hand and examined the surrounding area without touching the cultivator’s other belongings.

Li Yan and Gong Chenying escaped the poisoned sphere after discovering the bodies of numerous enemy cultivators, while Li Yan secretly examined the corpses and collected Storage Pouches. The group entered a freezing mountain passage and prepared to press onward, knowing that two more stages remained and that one mistake could doom them.

• Gong Chenying handed Li Yan a blue rhombus crystal and collected the Storage Pouches of two dead Foundation Establishment cultivators while Li Yan inspected the bodies.
• The Phantom Sect cultivators mistook Li Yan’s immunity to the poisons for the effect of a spiritual pill, and Gong Chenying warned them to avoid four poisoned areas before leaving the sphere.
• Several cultivators were poisoned as they exited the formation, forcing the others to take antidotes and approach the contaminated air cautiously.
• Li Yan gathered twenty-three Storage Pouches from four areas, examined the corpses, and used a blue rhombus crystal before leaving the sphere.
• The group emerged into a snow-covered mountain passage, where Gong Chenying urged them to reach the ten-li mark and prepare an ambush before resting.
• After Hu Ziyi asked how many stages remained, Gong Chenying told the group that five stages lay ahead in total, leaving them discouraged.

Li Yan pieced together how the Foundation Establishment cultivators entered the sphere and argued that its rules allowed only one from each side inside at a time. Gong Chenying challenged his theory by asking what would happen to an enemy cultivator left outside after the platform sealed the entrance.

• Li Yan asked Gong Chenying for time to explain his discoveries, and she gave him a quarter of an hour.
• Li Yan recalled Chan Master Zhiwei's final words and proposed that the sphere's rules prevented two living Foundation Establishment cultivators from the same side from entering together.
• Li Yan identified the poisons that killed the Supreme Mystery Sect cultivator and explained how the bodies' wounds and positions suggested the cultivators had entered at different times.
• Li Yan reconstructed how the Ten-Step Academy sword cultivator rushed into the poisoned sphere, tried to escape, and died while attacking the rising platform.
• Gong Chenying questioned whether Li Yan's theory would have left an enemy cultivator trapped outside beneath the black shadow if the groups had entered in a different order.

Li Yan investigated the blue rhombus crystals and the sects’ methods for entering the yellow celestial sphere, using the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators’ Storage Pouches to search for clues. After finding three matching green gourds, he probed a blue rhombus crystal and entered a multicolored inner space, where a white sphere of light drew in his Divine Sense.

• Li Yan theorized that the blue rhombus crystals let cultivators enter the yellow celestial sphere and that the enemy groups might have merged from more than two routes.
• Gong Chenyin gave Li Yan one hour to investigate and handed him four Storage Pouches belonging to Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators.
• Li Yan searched the pouches and found matching green gourds in the belongings of cultivators from the Pure Land Sect, the Grand Mystery Sect, and Ten-Step Academy.
• Li Yan cautiously examined the three green gourds, then brought out two blue rhombus crystals and investigated one with his Divine Sense.
• Li Yan's Divine Sense entered a multicolored space and approached its central white sphere of light, which eventually seized control of it.

Li Yan experimented with the blue rhombic crystals and the azure gourd, discovering how to make certain crystals merge and confirming that the crystals could drain spiritual power. He warned the others, but one cultivator ignored him and collapsed after secretly feeding a crystal spiritual power.

• Li Yan tested two blue rhombic crystals against each other, then used the azure gourd’s light to make them merge.
• Li Yan borrowed Gong Chenying’s purple-core crystal and found that it would not merge with the others until he treated it with the azure gourd.
• Li Yan returned Gong Chenying’s crystal and passed the other crystals to Hu Ziyi and the cultivators, warning them to use only Divine Sense.
• A Spirit Insect Peak cultivator secretly poured spiritual power into a crystal, which drained him until Gong Chenying’s cold snort stopped the others from intervening.
• The other cultivators examined the crystals without using spiritual power, while Li Yan concluded that only his Gui Water True Scripture could draw spiritual power back out of them.

Li Yan explained how the blue crystals, cyan gourds, and five-element spiritual energy let the three sects manipulate the Wheel of Life and Death’s rules. He left the group with a theory that the opposing sects used mixed-spirit-root Qi Condensation cultivators to conserve the gourds’ energy across trials.

• Hu Ziyi, Yu Yiyong, Mei Bucai, and the other cultivators described what they had sensed inside the blue crystals.
• Li Yan showed that the five-element regions inside the crystals were shifting and explained that the cyan gourds could temporarily balance them, allowing holders to become fellow travelers.
• Li Yan theorized that the first trial’s Buddhist master destroyed his crystal to conceal the secret, while the demon beasts in the second trial lacked cyan gourds and had not joined the plot.
• Li Yan warned that the balanced crystal spaces were rapidly depleting and would last no more than about thirty breaths without further energy.
• Li Yan revealed that the Qi Condensation cultivators he examined had mixed spirit roots and proposed that the three sects used such cultivators to avoid consuming the gourds’ five-element energy.

Li Yan deduced how the enemy might use five-element cultivators and Foundation Establishment cultivators to coordinate attacks inside the Wheel of Life and Death, though he could not resolve every uncertainty. As the hour ran short, Gong Chenying took charge of the blue crystals and green gourds, and Li Yan secretly told her he knew a way out of the passage.

• Li Yan explained why several cultivators could not reliably balance the five elements in a blue crystal, and the others abandoned the idea of using Qi Condensation cultivators for that task.
• Li Yan reasoned that the enemy's five-element cultivators could enter together and help opposing forces merge, while Gong Chenying raised the possibility that those forces might combine into three groups.
• Li Yan suggested that the blue crystals' differently colored cores could let Foundation Establishment cultivators communicate, and he speculated that the Wheel of Life and Death's rules prevented unlimited reinforcements.
• Gong Chenying decided that Li Yan's deductions were worth acting on despite her doubts, then demanded his blue crystals and green gourds.
• Li Yan sent Gong Chenying the five objects and privately told her that he had a way to leave the passage.

Li Yan and Gong Chenying decided to test whether a blue rhombus crystal could let someone escape the icy passage, and Gong Chenying sent Li Yan ahead while the others continued. Inside the crystal’s core, Li Yan found a strange world of gray lights and wondered whether the Five Immortals Sect had created it.

• Li Yan told Gong Chenying that a blue rhombus crystal might let one person leave a stage’s passage, and she asked him to test the possibility.
• Gong Chenying gave Li Yan a crystal and told him to return within ten breaths, then led the others onward while he stayed behind.
• Four items reached Li Yan through the snowstorm: three Ghost Chariot Talismans and a bottle of healing pills sent by Sixth Senior Sister.
• Gong Chenying confirmed that the crystals and gourds could disrupt the five-element balance inside a sphere, potentially changing the rules governing its cultivators.
• Li Yan entered the crystal’s azure core and found thirty-seven gray points of light that he could not touch.
• Li Yan reflected on the five-element connections in the secret realm and wondered whether members of the Five Immortals Sect had created it.

Li Yan studied the trial’s gates inside the blue diamond crystal and tried to escape by charging through the first one, but crashed into a snowy mountain wall. After realizing the crystal’s Five Elements space might hold the key, he passed through the wall and began considering how to use his Gui Water True Scripture to escape.

• Li Yan inferred that the ten archways marked distances along the trial path and that the first gate was near his position, then charged toward it.
• Li Yan struck a snowy mountain wall and was thrown backward, while Gong Chenying and the others saw him emerge from a snow pit and continued through the trial.
• Li Yan examined the first and second archways inside the crystal but found no response, and Gong Chenying grew concerned when he failed to catch up.
• Li Yan used the blue diamond crystal and his wood spiritual power to pass through the mountain wall, appearing in a colorful space beside three enormous bands of light.
• Li Yan realized that the surrounding Five Elements space might need to be reduced to a single attribute and considered using his Gui Water True Scripture to do so.

Li Yan discovered how to pass through the Life-and-Death Wheel by converting the blue diamond crystal’s Five Elements energy to match its core, and found he could travel freely through the space beyond the passage. He used that ability to warn Gong Chenying of an approaching threat, then departed to reach the others.

• Li Yan converted the blue diamond crystal’s energy into wood spiritual power, matched his own energy to it, and broke through into the multicolored space beyond the passage.
• Li Yan concluded that the secret realm was likely connected to the Five Immortal Sects and discovered he could replenish the crystal’s energy with his own spiritual power.
• Li Yan considered cultivating in the space but chose to search for his companions, then realized he could fly through it at great speed.
• Gong Chenying continued leading the group after Li Yan vanished, until he reappeared briefly and warned her that Ten-Step Academy or demon beasts might arrive in about half an hour.
• Li Yan confirmed he could enter and leave the passage by matching the crystal’s energy to its core, warned Gong Chenying, and quickly escaped the passage’s approaching attack.

Li Yan discovered that the Wheel of Life and Death’s voice could stir murderous intent in him, then used his blue diamond crystal to locate and enter a passage occupied by demon beasts. He secretly released bee gu before escaping, leaving Potian and his battered team to face the trial’s red monsters.

• An aged voice recognized Li Yan’s Gui Water Immortal Sect aura and urged him to kill those with five-element spiritual roots, but his Gui Water energy restored his clarity.
• Li Yan confirmed that his blue diamond crystal displayed the map of whichever passage ribbon lay closest to it, then located a demon-beast team in the yellow ribbon.
• Li Yan entered the passage through the seventh doorway, released a dozen-odd bee gu, and vanished before the team could notice him.
• Potian led six longhorn beetles and four Sacred Light Moths through the crimson-walled passage after losing a strand of natal spiritual radiance and many companions in the previous trial.
• Potian warned his team to be cautious near the ten-li mark and sent black radiance through the mist as red monsters continued attacking them.

Li Yan used bee gu to trigger the passage’s dormant restrictions early, forcing Potian’s demon beasts into a far more dangerous assault. Meanwhile, Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing struggled to lead their dwindling forces across a chain bridge, and Wang Lang argued that he deserved the next chance to enter a trial sphere.

• Potian cleared a path through the red mist with his innate divine ability, but a dense swarm of red monsters attacked from ahead.
• Li Yan explained that his bee gu had triggered the passage’s restrictions all at once, then hurried toward the white band of light.
• Wang Lang fought black eagles above the chain bridge while Quan Jiuxing defended their cultivators from golden snakes leaping out of the corrosive river.
• Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing noted that their combined force had fallen from forty-nine to forty-three after advancing only four miles.
• Wang Lang complained that they had repeatedly encountered demon-beast teams and asked Quan Jiuxing to let him enter the next sphere first.

Li Yan hid inside the Light Gate’s membrane and used his Divine Sense to observe Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing as they fought through the passage. Quan Jiuxing revealed the dangers and limits of entering the Wheel of Life and Death’s yellow sphere, while Li Yan prepared to seek a better position before his talisman failed.

• Li Yan used the blue diamond-shaped crystal to linger inside the Light Gate’s membrane and sent a strand of Divine Sense into the passage to watch the cultivators.
• Li Yan recognized Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing working together and decided to move before his Ghost Chariot Talisman collapsed.
• Quan Jiuxing proposed that the two sects race to the ten-li mark, but Wang Lang questioned how their Qi Condensation cultivators could recover and enter the yellow sphere safely.
• Quan Jiuxing explained how a Golden Core senior discovered the blue crystal’s five-element space and the rules governing entry into an occupied sphere.
• Quan Jiuxing warned Wang Lang that having three high-level cultivators enter the sphere together could trigger a deadly attack, as he and Wang Lang continued fighting their way forward.

Li Yan secretly triggered a restriction on the iron-chain bridge, making a monstrous condor appear ahead of Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing’s group. As the group fought across the final mile, deadly corruption spread among the cultivators, killing more than twenty and leaving the cause unclear.

• Li Yan crossed the dark gate, triggered the restriction, and escaped into the light-band membrane as a monstrous condor struck behind him.
• Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing sensed an unexpected disturbance ahead and slowed their advance, wary of a change in the trial.
• Wang Lang’s group entered the final mile as condors and golden thread-snakes destroyed the bridge planks and battered the Qi Condensation Realm cultivators.
• A monstrous condor wounded a Ten-Step Academy outer-sword cultivator and nearly killed an inner-sword cultivator before Wang Lang destroyed it with a sword radiance.
• Cultivators who touched the iron chains began dissolving into pus or burning into ash, and more than twenty people from Ten-Step Academy and the Grand Profound Sect died.

Li Yan poisoned the iron chains and disrupted the blue diamond crystals held by Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing, triggering a catastrophe inside the passage. He escaped as the cultivators were trapped in a yellow sphere beneath the advancing black shadow, then left to find Senior Brother Baili and the others; Wang Lang and a few survivors remained inside as the sphere’s barrier began to ripple.

• Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing discovered that poison on the iron chains had killed more than twenty cultivators, including many from Tai Xuan Sect.
• Li Yan used the chaos to send spiritual energy toward the blue diamond crystals, but Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing sensed him and attacked.
• Li Yan’s spiritual energy entered the crystals and destabilized the five-element space, bringing a black shadow down on the cultivators before a yellow sphere enclosed them.
• Li Yan fled the light-band membrane, recovered briefly, and saw that all ten gates in the crystal had turned black, so he set out to find Senior Brother Baili and the others.
• Wang Lang was left wounded inside the sphere with three Ten-Step Academy cultivators, while Quan Jiuxing and most of the others lay dead and the black shadow pressed against the barrier.

Li Yan searched the five-colored space for Baili Yuan and the others while Gan Shi struggled to lead four wounded Wangliang Sect disciples across a haunted snowy ridge. Badly injured and nearly out of supplies, Gan Shi pressed on, hoping Baili and Junior Sister Gong would survive.

• Li Yan sensed several ribbons of light and flew toward the purple one, which was apart from the others.
• Gan Shi shielded his group from blood-red infant faces that rose from the snow as they trudged along the ridge.
• Gan Shi recalled how his group had survived the first two trials, then suffered heavy losses fighting Liang Liang and the Pure Land Sect in the third.
• Gan Shi killed Chan Master Zhiwei by luring him into a poisoned formation, but only six Wangliang Sect disciples survived, most of them gravely wounded.
• Gan Shi refused to abandon his injured juniors and continued toward the end of the ridge, resolving to make their enemies pay.

Li Yan reached the passage where Gan Shi and four disciples were struggling against the trial’s attacks, and stopped Gan Shi from taking a second Aging Vigor Pill. After Li Yan appeared, Gan Shi and the others remained unsure whether to trust him as they recognized him.

• Li Yan identified the fifth gate, then moved to the sixth gate after seeing that Gan Shi’s group faced a swarm of blood-red infant faces.
• Gan Shi prepared to take a second Aging Vigor Pill, knowing it could permanently damage his cultivation, while the disciples behind him tried to stop him.
• Li Yan opened the Light Gate and called out to Gan Shi, who caught the pill and retreated after sensing someone nearby.
• Li Yan emerged from the distorted space, and Gan Shi and the other disciples hesitated because his sudden appearance seemed suspicious.
• Zhu Gaotai recognized Li Yan, and Li Yan greeted him as Martial Nephew Zhu.

Li Yan found Gan Shi's injured group amid the attacks in the passage and explained how the three sects had allied using blue diamond crystals. After Gan Shi accepted his account, Li Yan supplied pills to help the group survive the remaining distance.

• Li Yan approached Gan Shi while helping defend against the passage's attacks, then relayed what he and Gong Chenying had learned about the sects' alliance.
• Gan Shi gradually trusted Li Yan after hearing his account and learning that the blue diamond crystal let Li Yan travel through the passage.
• Gan Shi explained that his group lacked healing pills and asked whether Li Yan could help them after they reached the ten-li mark.
• Li Yan gave Gan Shi several bottles of pills, including Spirit-Soaring Pills and Threefold Golden Body, which Gan Shi used to restore his strength and treat his leg.
• Gan Shi distributed pills to the others and prepared to press on toward the final three li.

Li Yan led Gan Shi’s group to the ten-mile mark, then used the crystal to enter another stage and briefly encountered Ten-Step Academy’s team. He left Miao Zhengyi wary of an unexplained appearance as the group reached the stage’s end.

• Li Yan reflected on his family’s hardships and resolved to raise his cultivation so he could return home.
• Li Yan and Gan Shi’s group fought their way to the ten-mile mark, where Gan Shi distributed medicine and began recovering.
• Li Yan vanished with the blue crystal and entered the white band of light, finding Ten-Step Academy’s team nearing the end of its flower-filled stage.
• Miao Zhengyi forced his exhausted disciples through the dangerous sea of flowers while guarding them from attacks and sleep-inducing fragrance.
• Li Yan briefly appeared near the yellow sphere and departed, but Miao Zhengyi noticed the anomaly and warned his disciples to stay alert.
• Miao Zhengyi’s team reached the yellow sphere without encountering the attack he expected, leaving him uneasy.

Li Yan and Gan Shi used poison and a concealed formation to ambush Ten-Step Academy’s group, killing several disciples and leaving Miao Zhengyi fatally poisoned. Miao Zhengyi died in the yellow sphere, and Gan Shi asked Li Yan what they should do next.

• Li Yan brought Gan Shi into the yellow sphere, where Gan Shi arranged a concealment formation around Li Yan’s ambush.
• Li Yan explained that he had poisoned Ten-Step Academy’s approaching group, while Gan Shi warned everyone not to cross the formation’s boundary.
• Miao Zhengyi attacked the sphere’s inner wall in a frenzy, and Zhu Gaotai recognized the poison Love in the Eyes affecting him.
• Gan Shi revealed himself to Miao Zhengyi, who sensed that the poisons killing his disciples had come from the same person.
• Li Yan appeared beside Gan Shi and questioned Miao Zhengyi about joining people from different paths; Miao Zhengyi then sat down and died.
• Gan Shi asked Li Yan what they should do next.

Li Yan and Gan Shi cleared the sphere by killing the remaining Ten-Step Academy cultivators, then emerged into a ruined battlefield that appeared to be the final stage. Li Yan planned to avoid fighting through it and use blue rhombus crystals to leave and find Baili Yuan or Gong Chenying, while making the injured companions wait in the Spirit Storage Pouch.

• Li Yan collected the Storage Pouches and spirit artifacts from the fallen cultivators, then gave Gan Shi Miao Zhengyi’s Spirit Storage Pouch.
• Gan Shi released six Ten-Step Academy cultivators from the pouch and killed them, causing a passage to appear in the sphere wall.
• Li Yan collected the six new Storage Pouches and led Gan Shi’s group through the passage into a ruined battlefield.
• Gan Shi prepared to place Zhu Gaotai and Kong Si in the Spirit Storage Pouch, but Li Yan also told Rui Feikai and Dai Jing to enter it.
• Li Yan explained that he planned to leave the stage using blue rhombus crystals and seek Baili Yuan or Gong Chenying, and Gan Shi agreed to send Rui Feikai and Dai Jing into the pouch first.

Li Yan tested the purple-core diamond crystal and escaped the battlefield to investigate its properties, then tried to show Gan Shi how to break through the barrier. Gan Shi was thrown back, leaving them uncertain whether five-element spiritual roots or the Five Elements Immortal Sect’s techniques were required to pass through.

• Rui Feikai and Dai Jing entered the spirit storage pouch to search for Martial Uncle Baili and Martial Uncle Gong's group.
• Zhu Gaotai and Kong Si discussed Li Yan’s skill and survival abilities before Rui Feikai and Dai Jing arrived.
• Li Yan turned Gan Shi’s blue diamond crystal purple, checked the life markers within it, and confirmed he could carry it outside the battlefield.
• After recovering for half a shichen, Li Yan directed Gan Shi toward a route through the barrier and warned him to prepare his defenses.
• Gan Shi attempted to break through without using a Ghost Chariot Talisman, but the barrier hurled him back.
• Li Yan and Gan Shi wondered whether only cultivators with five-element spiritual roots or Five Elements Immortal Sect techniques could pass through the barrier.

Li Yan discovered that he could escape the battlefield with the purple crystal and spirit storage bags by using his own green crystal separately, then helped Gan Shi leave as the battlefield collapsed. In the multicolored space, they searched for Baili, whom Gan Shi believed was still alive, while Li Yan worried about his Sixth Senior Sister.

• Li Yan tested the barrier with Gan Shi’s purple crystal and a spirit storage bag, confirming that they could not pass through together.
• Li Yan used his green crystal to leave the battlefield with the spirit storage bags, then replenished Gan Shi’s purple crystal so Gan Shi could escape last.
• The battlefield cracked apart and collapsed after Li Yan and Gan Shi departed.
• Li Yan and Gan Shi found themselves on a purple light band that began to fade, and Gan Shi sensed another purple band nearby.
• Li Yan judged that the nearby purple band might be Baili’s, and Gan Shi hurried off with Li Yan to find him.
• Li Yan worried that his Sixth Senior Sister might still be in danger and recalled Quan Jiuxing’s warning about having three high-level cultivators inside the sphere.