Recaps

Li Yan discovered that the scarecrows’ question concealed a way out, escaped the courtyard, and gathered ancient medicinal herbs from the spirit fields. He summoned Ming Qi and Ming Yu and began telling them the answer, though they still wondered why he had helped them.

• Li Yan noticed that the southern wall’s bare, cracked earth and the clear sky offered clues, then returned to the rear courtyard to test his answer against the scarecrow.
• Li Yan repeated the question to the scarecrow, waited through its three-breath pause, and passed through the courtyard gate into the spirit fields beyond.
• Li Yan found ancient medicinal herbs in the fields, collected them into Tuban, and confirmed that none was Moonlit Clear Immortal Grass.
• Li Yan called Ming Qi and Ming Yu to the courtyard gate and told them to come outside so he could explain how he escaped.
• When Ming Qi questioned his motives, Li Yan refused to explain and sent both sisters the answer through voice transmission.

Li Yan freed Ming Yu and Ming Qi from the magical treasure by answering the straw men’s question, then explained how the courtyard’s unnatural silence had led him to his answer. The three began searching the surrounding spirit fields together.

• Ming Qi and Ming Yu debated why Li Yan was helping them, while Li Yan weighed the risks of rescuing them against the benefits of leaving them trapped.
• Ming Yu tried Li Yan’s answer at the courtyard gate and emerged from the magical treasure; Ming Qi followed, and both women thanked Li Yan.
• Li Yan led the sisters into the air to search the surrounding spirit fields, where they found weeds but no straw men or treasures.
• Ming Qi asked how Li Yan had discovered the answer, and he explained that the silent bamboo grove and the straw men’s purpose suggested they were meant to drive away intruders and birds.
• Li Yan revealed that he had answered, “Drive away all birds and those who disturb tranquil dreams!”

Li Yan, Ming Qi, and Ming Yu examined the ruined spirit fields and concluded that the courtyard was likely a trap tied to a powerful magical treasure. They flew to the mountain at the edge of the secret realm and began searching it for the realm’s master or an inheritance.

• Li Yan explained that the scarecrows had drawn strength from a magical treasure connected to the secret realm, and the three agreed not to risk taking it.
• Ming Qi noted that the spirit fields had been abandoned and wondered whether the master had belonged to the Undying Nether Phoenix clan.
• Li Yan led Ming Qi and Ming Yu from the spirit fields toward the mountain, where they found barriers that blocked travel east, west, and north.
• Ming Yu reasoned that the courtyard was probably the trap and that the mountain was a more likely place to find the master’s residence.
• Li Yan proposed that they search the mountain from west to east, advancing carefully rather than spreading their Divine Sense widely.

Li Yan and the Ming sisters searched the mountain for clues to Yellow Qi Valley’s hidden sites, then found a deep cave that Li Yan cautiously entered. Elsewhere, Fairy Ning Ke chose a black halo, while Shili Gui examined a thorny plant in a spirit field.

• Li Yan asked Ming Qi whether Yellow Qi Valley had preserved other secret locations, and she admitted they had a clue to a possible site they might investigate later.
• Li Yan, Ming Qi, and Ming Yu searched the mountain, and Ming Yu discovered a cave whose underground passage blocked Divine Sense after thirty li.
• Li Yan blasted away the shrubs covering the cave entrance and sent a gu insect inside to check for danger before entering himself.
• Fairy Ning Ke appeared beside a lake, chose the black halo among five colored halos, and flew toward it.
• Shili Gui studied a patch of dark, thorn-edged leaves covered in white frost in a spirit field.

Shi Ligui and Ning Ke searched for a way to save Miss Bai, tending a damaged Clear Sky Fruit as a fallback while waiting for news of the Moonlit Clear Immortal Grass. At the Phantom Sect, Zhao Min and Gong Chenying received Li Yan’s message that he had infiltrated a second-rate sect and would continue seeking a cure.

• Ning Ke returned and told Shi Ligui that Li Yan had blended into Yellow Qi Valley, while their search for the Moonlit Clear Immortal Grass had found no leads.
• Shi Ligui showed Ning Ke a damaged Clear Sky Fruit seed he had acquired, hoping its fruit could help Miss Bai if their main plan failed.
• Ning Ke and Shi Ligui examined the plant and formed possible treatment approaches, but they could not determine the cause of its illness.
• Shi Ligui told Ning Ke that Li Yan rejected the method that would erase Miss Bai’s memories, and he shared news from Xing Jia and Feng Yu before they discussed sect affairs.
• At the Phantom Sect, Zhao Min and Gong Chenying discussed their inability to help Li Yan until they reached Spirit Transformation and read his message about infiltrating a second-rate sect to find the Moonlit Clear Immortal Grass.

Gong Chenying and Zhao Min received their first news of Li Yan in decades and worried about the dangers he might face, while both continued preparing for greater strength. The story then shifted to an arena in the Jieyou Realm, where two demonic cultivators faced off.

• Gong Chenying returned from a dangerous mission in which she killed a possessed late Nascent Soul grand elder, suffering backlash from her techniques.
• Gong Chenying read a jade slip with news of Li Yan and awakened Zhao Min, who worried that he might be in a powerful sect.
• Gong Chenying reassured Zhao Min that Li Yan could handle the danger, and Zhao Min returned to cultivation while missing him.
• Gong Chenying reflected on Zhao Min's longing and her own, then went to recover and cultivate as Li Zhaoyan continued seeking a chance to form her Nascent Soul.
• In the Jieyou Realm, a tall demonic cultivator with a battle axe faced a lean, black-armored demonic cultivator wielding a bladed whip on an arena.

Mu Sha faced the Mountain-Splitting Flame Devil in an arena duel after their dispute over a mission, relying on his formidable strength and cunning. The chapter ended as Mu Sha struck at his opponent’s head and the Mountain-Splitting Flame Devil countered with his battle-axe.

• Mu Sha reflected on his rise in the upper-realm Black Devil Race and the strength and reputation he had earned in the military camp.
• Mu Sha agreed to duel the Mountain-Splitting Flame Devil after their disagreement over mission coordination, intending to teach him not to provoke him again.
• The Mountain-Splitting Flame Devil taunted Mu Sha for relying on tricks, while Mu Sha remained calm.
• Mu Sha launched a sudden attack with his long whip, aiming its blade at the Mountain-Splitting Flame Devil’s crown.
• The Mountain-Splitting Flame Devil raised his snowflake-patterned battle-axe and slashed at the whip’s blade.

Mu defeated Mountain-Splitting Flame Devil in a close-quarters arena battle, using a feigned retreat and a sudden kick to overcome his opponent’s strength. After Mountain-Splitting Flame Devil collapsed, Mu declared that he would rise within the upper realm’s Devil Race without his father’s protection.

• Mountain-Splitting Flame Devil and Mu exchanged rapid weapon strikes, with Mu deflecting the axe and countering with his whip.
• Mountain-Splitting Flame Devil outmaneuvered Mu and attacked with his axe handle, but Mu copied his sliding-weapon technique and blocked the strike.
• Mountain-Splitting Flame Devil overwhelmed Mu in a clash of magic power and blasted him forward.
• Mu straightened mid-flight and kicked Mountain-Splitting Flame Devil in the chest, disguising a counterattack as a retreat.
• Mountain-Splitting Flame Devil lost his strength, dropped his axe, and collapsed as the crowd cheered for Mu.
• Mu looked toward the distant sky and declared that he would rise within the upper realm’s Devil Race without his father’s protection.

Mu Guyue led a brutal assault that destroyed a sect, then remembered the man she had kept in her heart. Far underground, Li Yan, Ming Qi, and Ming Yu reached a strange barrier that might conceal the place they sought, but Ming Qi cautioned against assuming it did.

• Mu Guyue crushed a middle-aged cultivator’s Nascent Soul and killed his iron-scaled eagle as her forces finished exterminating the sect.
• Mu Guyue stood amid the snow and blood, thinking of the man she had carried in her heart.
• Li Yan, Ming Qi, and Ming Yu explored the descending cave and reached a gray light screen thirty li underground.
• Li Yan sent a Tiger-Devouring Gu through the screen and sensed that his connection to it remained intact.
• Ming Yu told Ming Qi she believed they had found their destination, and Ming Qi warned that it might instead be an ancient sect unrelated to their kin.

Li Yan, Ming Qi, and Ming Yu investigated a light curtain and a membrane, whose interaction unleashed dangerous spatial laws. Ming Qi used a spatial ability to pull them back through the curtain, and Li Yan wondered whether the secret realm had once housed the Undying Nether Phoenix.

• Ming Qi stopped Ming Yu from discussing the inheritance, wary that Li Yan might sense their thoughts and emphasizing that they should follow the blood pact.
• Li Yan's gu insect found no danger in the light curtain but could not pass an opaque membrane five li ahead, which Li Yan suspected was connected to the curtain.
• The three reached the membrane, and Ming Qi struck it with most of her strength to test it.
• The impact lit the membrane and transformed the light curtain into a display of spatial laws, filling the trio's area with invisible blades.
• Ming Qi pulled Li Yan through space back into the cave, and she and Ming Yu suffered backlash before taking pills and resting.
• Li Yan watched the light curtain return to normal and wondered if the secret realm had once been home to the Undying Nether Phoenix.

Li Yan and the Ming sisters prepared to challenge the spatial barrier after Ming Qi and Ming Yu sensed that it had been left by an Undying Nether Phoenix ancestor. The sisters chose to use a clan method to break it together, while Li Yan stayed nearby despite the danger.

• Li Yan considered ways to overcome the spatial severance and decided to wait until Ming Qi and Ming Yu recovered before acting.
• Ming Qi told Li Yan that she and Ming Yu had sensed an Undying Nether Phoenix aura in the barrier and believed their clan knew a way to break it.
• After checking that the special perception had faded, Ming Qi said she and Ming Yu would break the barrier directly using their secret method.
• Li Yan asked whether the sisters could perform the method alone, then agreed to leave them to it and remained in place as they turned toward the barrier.

Li Yan watched Ming Qi and Ming Yu use their true forms to break through the membrane, then followed them into the space beyond. He arrived in a vast mountain cave filled with dense spiritual energy.

• Li Yan prepared Tuban and his defenses while Ming Qi and Ming Yu transformed into Undying Ming Phoenixes and began their technique.
• After the sisters depleted much of their spiritual power, a giant Undying Ming Phoenix phantom appeared on the membrane.
• Ming Qi and Ming Yu joined their crest feathers and fired a beam that opened a patch of white light in the membrane.
• Ming Qi and Ming Yu flew through the opening, and Li Yan followed them inside.
• Li Yan stopped in midair in a mountain cave where spiritual energy was extremely dense.

Li Yan and the Ming sisters discovered a high-grade spiritual vein in a vast, sky-lit cave, and each secretly considered how the other might threaten their interests. They searched the riverbank for treasures and an exit, then found a concealed light screen inside a mountain fissure.

• Li Yan and Ming Qi and Ming Yu examined the spiritual vein and agreed that they could not safely take it outside the secret realm.
• Ming Qi wondered whether Li Yan was connected to the inheritance land and considered killing him if it served her clan's interests.
• Li Yan decided to take the spiritual vein for Tuban's advancement and weighed keeping his plans hidden from the sisters.
• After searching the riverbank for an hour, the three found no treasures or exit and worried that the courtyard was a one-way trap.
• Li Yan detected a concealed light screen in a mountain fissure, and the three flew over to investigate it.

Li Yan, Ming Qi, and Ming Yu discovered a hidden valley filled with ancient medicinal herbs and divided its harvest. The chapter ended after Ming Qi agreed to let Li Yan take both Moon-Veiling Clear Immortal Grasses, which he needed to heal Bai Rou.

• Li Yan sent a Tiger-Devouring Gu into the mountain crevice, confirmed it led to herb-filled fields, and entered with Ming Qi and Ming Yu.
• The three alchemists found more than a hundred medicinal plants, many apparently over ten thousand years old, and Li Yan secretly recognized two Moon-Veiling Clear Immortal Grasses.
• Li Yan proposed dividing the herbs evenly where possible and compensating with other plants when an herb could not be split.
• When Li Yan asked to take both Moon-Veiling Clear Immortal Grasses, Ming Qi agreed in exchange for choosing one additional unique herb each.
• The three collected all the medicinal herbs from the nearby spirit fields.

After finding the Luminous Moon Clear Immortal Grass, Li Yan and the Ming sisters searched the cavern for an exit and the inheritance they believed it contained. At the end of the river, Li Yan found a faint, familiar sensation hidden in a narrow crack where the mountain wall met the ground.

• Li Yan led Ming Qi and Ming Yu out of the mountain crevice and followed the river until it ended at a towering wall.
• Li Yan sensed that the wall was about three hundred li thick, while Ming Qi entered it with an earth escape technique and Ming Yu waited nearby.
• Li Yan retraced the riverbank and searched the walls and ground, suspecting they might have missed a hidden passage or illusion.
• Li Yan sensed something unusual at the foot of the mountain and brushed sand from a narrow crack.
• Li Yan detected a barely perceptible sensation in the crack that seemed familiar but disappeared when he shifted his Divine Sense away.

Li Yan discovered an unusual patch of ground beneath the mountain, and Ming Qi and Ming Yu sensed the power of a powerful Undying Nether Phoenix clansman below. Their revelation left Li Yan fearing the buried being might awaken, and he considered silencing or capturing the sisters before they could alert it.

• Ming Qi emerged from the mountain after failing to find a way through its barrier, then joined Li Yan by the riverbank.
• Li Yan directed Ming Qi and Ming Yu to channel spiritual power into a small patch of ground after their Divine Sense revealed nothing unusual.
• Ming Yu sensed a clansman’s presence, and Ming Qi confirmed the power belonged to an Undying Nether Phoenix.
• Ming Qi identified the buried power as the Purifying Incineration Nirvana art of a clansman whose cultivation had reached at least the late Fusion Realm.
• Li Yan feared a powerful Undying Nether Phoenix might be dormant below and considered killing or capturing the sisters to prevent them from alerting it.

Li Yan questioned Ming Qi and Ming Yu about the Undying Nether Phoenix’s Pure Burning Nirvana inheritance and weighed whether to trust them. Ming Yu opened the restriction, revealing a blue gate, while the sisters and Li Yan remained prepared for betrayal.

• Ming Qi explained that Pure Burning Nirvana was an inheritance technique that would kill its caster and create a deadly restriction for outsiders.
• Li Yan asked whether the sisters could enter the forbidden ground, and Ming Qi decided they should proceed while keeping their final safeguard ready.
• Ming Yu formed silver flames into an ancient rune as Li Yan watched her and prepared for possible attacks.
• Ming Yu summoned a silver wing with Heaven and Earth in an Instant and drove it into the rune, which entered the crack in the ground.
• A pale-blue gate of light appeared where the mountain wall met the ground.

Li Yan entered a frigid cave with Ming Yu and Ming Qi, where he found silver sand like the material he had used to refine the Fuxi Disk and listened to a jade slip left by the Undying Nether Phoenix Erya. Her recording described the clan’s war with the Chaos Sect and ended with both sides facing a final battle in the endless void.

• Li Yan stepped through the Light Gate with Ming Yu and Ming Qi and found a cave containing a raised platform, silver sand, and a jade slip.
• Li Yan recognized the silver sand from his past and resisted its painful attack on his Divine Sense, while Ming Yu and Ming Qi recoiled from it.
• Ming Qi asked permission to retrieve the jade slip, then examined it with Ming Yu before probing it with her Divine Sense.
• Li Yan secretly scanned the jade slip and learned that its speaker, Erya, had been a late-Fusion Realm Fourth Elder of the Undying Nether Phoenix clan.
• Erya recounted how the Chaos Sect hunted her clan for its bloodline, and how the First Elder used the Spatial Overlap Art to drag both sides into the endless void.
• Erya described the survivors before the final battle: three Undying Nether Phoenixes faced a mid-stage Tribulation Transcendence expert, two Fusion Realm cultivators, and over a hundred Chaos Sect disciples.

The jade slip revealed how Erya survived alone in the secret realm after the Undying Nether Phoenix Clan and the Chaos Gate destroyed each other, and why she left behind layered protections and an inheritance. Li Yan suspected Yan Qingchen had come on a Yin-Yang Chaos Gate mission, and found that Erya had left a way to escape the fifth level.

• Erya's jade slip recounted how the Great Elder and the Fourth Elder fought the Chaos Gate in the endless void, leaving Erya as the sole survivor in the secret realm.
• Erya spent years trying to recover and find her way home, then made scarecrow puppets for company and preserved her clan's inheritance before performing Pure Burning Nirvana.
• Ming Qi and Ming Yu learned the truth behind the scarecrows and Erya's protections, and both were moved to tears by her loneliness and devotion to her clan.
• Li Yan concluded that the Chaos Gate in the jade slip was likely the Yin-Yang Chaos Gate and suspected Yan Qingchen had come to seek the Undying Nether Phoenix's Heavenly Dao or the sect's inheritance.
• Li Yan resolved to leave with the Luminous Moon Clear Immortal Grass before Yan Qingchen could depart, and discovered that Erya's jade slip contained a way out of the fifth level.

Li Yan learned that the silver sands were inheritance marrow refined from Elder Er Ya’s blood, soul, and bone marrow, and that absorbing them was dangerous even for the Immortal Nether Phoenix clan. Ming Qi’s explanation led him to realize that the mysterious river of blood he possessed was Er Ya’s refined heart.

• Li Yan confronted Ming Qi and Ming Yu when they suggested taking the silver sands for themselves, and demanded that Ming Qi explain their purpose under the blood pact.
• Ming Qi explained that the silver sands were inheritance marrow meant to transform an Immortal Nether Phoenix’s bloodline, but that absorbing it without a refined heart carried a high risk of death.
• Li Yan asked why Elder Er Ya had not left her heart, and Ming Qi said Er Ya had preserved half her soul to enter reincarnation, while her heart had deliberately dissolved with her body.
• Ming Qi said a refined heart would become a river of blood and warned that outsiders might die trying to absorb the marrow, though she could not judge whether Li Yan could use it.
• Li Yan recognized that his mysterious river of blood was Er Ya’s refined heart and connected its Phoenix flame and compatibility with the silver sands to the Fuxi Disk.

Li Yan learned how Ming Qi and Ming Yu’s clan used the silver sand to reconstruct marrow, then offered to take only fifty grains in exchange for their inheritance methods and a binding oath. After the sisters swore and collected the rest, Li Yan had secured the clan’s inheritance and an invitation to visit them.

• Li Yan questioned Ming Qi about how her clan refined the silver sand and learned that clansmen used it to reconstruct their marrow.
• Li Yan offered to take fifty grains if Ming Qi and Ming Yu revealed their clan’s inheritance methods and swore that their information was true.
• Ming Qi offered medicinal herbs and invited Li Yan to visit the Undying Nether Phoenix clan, and Li Yan said he would like to see it.
• Ming Qi transmitted the inheritance methods she knew, and she and Ming Yu swore an oath after Li Yan verified their statements.
• Li Yan took fifty grains of silver sand, and Ming Qi and Ming Yu collected and sealed the remainder in jade bottles.

Li Yan parted from Ming Qi and Ming Yu after giving them information about Yan Qingchen and the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect. The sisters left for the ancient inheritance hall, suspecting Yan Qingchen had come seeking both the inheritance and a connection to the Undying Nether Phoenix clan.

• Ming Yu offered Li Yan the jade slip taken from the platform, but he declined and accepted Ming Qi's clan location and jade token instead.
• Li Yan and the sisters left the cave and arrived in the secret realm's second layer, where Ming Qi and Ming Yu prepared to depart.
• Li Yan told the sisters that Yan Qingchen had sacrificed three companions, captured Liu Siyu, and used a technique from the Chaos Sect, now called the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect.
• Ming Qi and Ming Yu discussed Yan Qingchen's likely motives and decided to leave rather than confront him, since they were not his match and had their own mission to complete.

Li Yan learned that his incarnation had failed to kill Yan Qingchen, who escaped the formation badly injured, and stayed behind hoping to ambush him if he returned. When Li Yan went back to the ancient hall of inheritance, he discovered Yan Qingchen had already returned and judged him a dangerous rival.

• Li Yan merged with his incarnation and learned that Yan Qingchen had escaped their ambush after a fierce fight, though he had suffered severe injuries.
• Li Yan kept the formation in place and waited for Yan Qingchen, laying additional restrictions and a deadly trap around the riverbed.
• After Yan Qingchen failed to return, Li Yan put away the formation and flew back toward the ancient hall of inheritance before it closed.
• Li Yan entered the hall and saw Yan Qingchen standing beside Liu Siyu, his unstable aura revealing that he had suppressed his injuries with a pill.
• Li Yan decided Yan Qingchen was an exceptionally dangerous enemy and began considering how to kill him before he grew stronger.

Li Yan observed Yan Qingchen return with Liu Siyu and considered how the cunning cultivator had kept her loyal. The Ming sisters feared Yan Qingchen might expose their secret, while his account to Liu Siyu revealed how he had persuaded her to stay by his side.

• Li Yan noticed Liu Siyu had recovered and suspected Yan Qingchen had won her over through persuasion rather than placing a deadly restriction on her.
• Li Yan saw the Ming sisters watching Yan Qingchen, and Ming Qi returned his smile while Ming Yu openly showed hostility.
• The Ming sisters discussed how to conceal their knowledge of Yan Qingchen’s origins and planned to threaten mutual exposure if he tried to target them.
• Li Yan nodded to Ming Qi before turning his attention to the statue of the Supreme Pure Moral Heavenly Venerable.
• Yan Qingchen secretly told Liu Siyu that he had released her because he could not bear to sacrifice her, and claimed his injuries came from the unstable secret-realm passage.
• Liu Siyu had initially mocked Yan Qingchen and expected him either to kill her or impose a restriction, but his account had softened her attitude.

After returning from the inheritance site, Yan Qingchen secretly decided to capture and Soul Search the Ming sisters, while Li Yan planned to kill Yan Qingchen. The sisters’ sudden accusation that Yan Qingchen had blood-sacrificed fellow disciples got him seized by the Enforcement Hall, and they escaped the sect before Li Yan could act.

• Yan Qingchen removed Liu Siyu’s seal, gave her a medicinal pill, and asked her to return to his sect as his Dao companion, while privately deciding to capture and Soul Search the Ming sisters.
• The woman in white arrived by painted boat and brought the surviving cultivators, including Li Yan and Yan Qingchen, back to Huangqi Valley.
• Li Yan secretly watched Yan Qingchen and devised a plan to kill him, estimating he had roughly a sixty percent chance of success.
• The next day, Li Yan learned that Yan Qingchen had been seized by the Enforcement Hall after someone accused him of blood-sacrificing fellow disciples.
• Li Yan discovered that the Ming sisters had left on a sect mission before dawn after spreading the accusation, leaving him to realize they had used Yan Qingchen’s actions to escape.