Recaps

Ye Moran’s escort party was ambushed in a snowy wasteland and fought to defend a breached formation while waiting for help. Li Yan and Bai Rou watched from a distance, waiting for the battle to weaken before making their move.

• Ye Moran ordered the surviving Windleading Beasts to the ground and used their bodies to help form a defensive position after the ambush killed many of them.
• Murong Mei and five companions attacked an enemy shield while Xiao Dao repaired the formation, as the attackers pressed in from all sides.
• Ye Moran assessed the masked leaders and considered who might have arranged the ambush, while his side waited for reinforcements.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou stopped a thousand li from the battlefield and waited for casualties to mount before attempting to capture someone.
• The two Void Refinement attackers joined the fight, forcing Ye Moran to leave the formation and face them while it came under mortal threat.

Ye Moran and his outnumbered team fought to protect their assigned objectives from a carefully planned ambush, while the formation below neared collapse. After Feng Xiao sacrificed himself to kill an enemy, Murong Mei began preparing her trump-card technique, and Ye Moran ordered a breakout if most of the objectives were lost.

• Ye Moran attacked the enemy’s mid-stage and late-stage Void Refinement cultivators while Murong Mei and the others fought to defend the damaged formation from eight Spirit Transformation enemies and their Nascent Soul forces.
• An enemy crippled one of Ye Moran’s Spirit Transformation cultivators, but Feng Xiao used a Nascent Soul secret art to kill one opponent and then sacrificed his Nascent Soul to destroy another.
• Murong Mei prepared to unleash Fire Trees and Silver Blossoms as her enemies tried to interrupt her, while Ye Moran sensed that the objectives and formation were close to being overrun.
• Ye Moran told Wang Junze and the other Spirit Transformation cultivators to lead a breakout if seventy percent of the objectives were killed, and ordered them to carry the news back to Return as You Came.

Li Yan joined the battle between Guiqulaixi and the black-clothed cultivators, sending Bai Rou to harass the enemy while he prepared to strike a Void Refinement cultivator. As the formation neared collapse and the battle turned more desperate, Ye Moran was badly wounded by a meteor hammer.

• Li Yan discovered the battle and told Bai Rou to harass the black-clothed Nascent Soul cultivators while he attacked their Void Refinement fighters.
• Bai Rou agreed, summoned her ancient ape puppet, and Li Yan carried her into the battle through the Spirit Storage Space.
• Li Yan reached the failing formation, where Little Blade struggled to repair its breaches as the close combat caused mounting casualties.
• Li Yan covertly brought Bai Rou near the enemy and told her to attack, then moved away to conceal his own approach.
• Murong Mei retreated while weighing whether to draw two pursuers into the range of her technique, and another Spirit Transformation cultivator on her side fell.
• A meteor hammer struck Ye Moran's left forearm, tearing away part of it and leaving him bleeding heavily as he continued fighting two Void Refinement cultivators.

Ye Moran struggled to hold off two masked Void Refinement cultivators as his spiritual power ran low and the battle around the damaged formation turned against his side. At the rear of the Nascent Soul battlefield, Bai Rou launched a surprise attack with her puppets, and both sides realized the fight had suddenly changed.

• Ye Moran recognized that he had only a few breaths of strength left and searched the battlefield for a way to wound his opponents.
• Ye Moran and the masked men sensed a sudden burst of spiritual energy behind the Nascent Soul battlefield and were startled by the unexpected attack.
• Li Yan gave Bai Rou a one-breath window, and she deployed fifteen crocodile puppets alongside the ancient ape puppet.
• Bai Rou entered the ancient ape puppet and sent it charging forward as the crocodile puppets fired emerald pillars of light across the snow.

As the Guiqulaixi formation neared collapse, Bai Rou launched a surprise attack with her puppets, turning the battle against the black-clad cultivators. Li Yan used the ensuing distraction to appear behind a weaker Void Refinement cultivator and strike with Ning Ke’s “Withering” technique.

• Xiaodao continued reinforcing the failing formation while the Guiqulaixi cultivators struggled to hold off the black-clad attackers.
• Bai Rou’s sudden puppet assault struck the black-clad cultivators from behind and overwhelmed their formation-side positions.
• Bai Rou followed up with targeted attacks, killing attackers and drawing the attention of cultivators fighting elsewhere.
• Li Yan watched Bai Rou’s attack, recognized her unexpected strength, and selected a middle void refinement realm opponent as his target.
• As Bai Rou’s assault distracted the black-clad cultivator, Li Yan appeared behind him and used “Withering” to break through his spiritual power barrier.

Li Yan ambushed and killed two masked men in black while Ye Moran fought their remaining companion amid the wind and snow. Li Yan then appeared beside the strange cauldron, daggers in hand, as Ye Moran sensed the battle’s true outcome.

• Li Yan used Pitch Night to block a masked man’s Divine Sense, struck him with Withering, and drained his vitality until he died.
• Ye Moran noticed a brief disturbance in his Divine Sense and attacked the other masked man with a red thread as he retreated.
• Li Yan used Phoenix Soars to Heaven to rush the second masked man, who deployed a strange cauldron and black smoke.
• Li Yan evaded the cauldron with an afterimage, struck the masked man from behind, and killed him with a rapid barrage of attacks.
• Li Yan looted both dead men’s treasures and appeared near the cauldron with daggers in hand as Ye Moran watched.

Li Yan and Bai Rou helped Ye Moran’s Guiqulaixi group defeat the masked attackers, and Li Yan collected the enemies’ magical treasures. After obtaining maps from Ye Moran, Li Yan prepared to leave, but Ye Moran stopped him and offered the battle spoils.

• Li Yan killed two masked black-clad Void Refinement cultivators, while Ye Moran rushed to aid Murong Mei and the other Guiqulaixi fighters.
• Bai Rou and the Guiqulaixi cultivators coordinated their attacks, inflicting heavy casualties on the black-clad men and breaking the enemy formation.
• Li Yan collected the small cauldron and dharma conch, then joined Bai Rou as Ye Moran thanked him for intervening.
• Li Yan explained that he had repaid a debt to a Guiqulaixi manager and asked Ye Moran for maps of the surrounding region.
• Ye Moran gave Li Yan three jade slips containing maps, and Li Yan confirmed that his route toward Phantom Sect had improved.
• As Li Yan prepared to leave, Ye Moran called Xiaodao over with the gathered storage rings and presented Li Yan with another high-grade storage ring.

Li Yan and Bai Rou accepted the spoils from Ye Moran and left, with Li Yan giving Bai Rou most of the treasures and spirit stones. Elsewhere, Bai Rou fought a fifth-rank three-eyed inkfish with the ancient ape puppet and found a chance to strike at its head.

• Ye Moran gave Li Yan and Bai Rou the enemies’ belongings and a token ring, while warning that his branch offices would need time to verify their claim.
• Li Yan accepted the spoils and handed most of them to Bai Rou, who reluctantly took the treasures and spirit stones after insisting he keep a share.
• Ye Moran told Murong Mei that Li Yan was an early Void Refinement poison cultivator, ordered the enemy corpses destroyed, and kept suspicious tokens and other evidence for himself.
• Bai Rou used the ancient ape puppet to evade the three-eyed inkfish’s tentacles while studying their attack patterns and locating gaps near its head.
• Bai Rou seized an opening and drove the ancient ape puppet toward the three-eyed inkfish’s head to attack.

Bai Rou battled a three-eyed squid with the Thousand-Layer Ancient Ape, but Li Yan saved her by severing several of its tentacles. As they continued toward the Phantom Sect, Bai Rou asked for more dangerous training, while the thought of returning to the sect in six or seven years stirred reluctance in her.

• Bai Rou's ancient ape puppet attacked the three-eyed squid, but the beast countered with black fluid that threatened both her and the puppet.
• Li Yan intervened at the critical moment, severing several of the squid's tentacles and allowing Bai Rou to escape in the Cloud-Piercing Blade.
• Bai Rou reflected on how years of dangerous battles had brought her to the peak of the mid-Nascent Soul stage and let her challenge early Spirit Transformation opponents with the puppet.
• Li Yan praised Bai Rou's fighting strength, and she responded by noting the advantage of the puppet's materials and the difference between upper- and lower-realm cultivators.
• Bai Rou asked Li Yan to hide during future fights so opponents would attack her with their full strength, and Li Yan warned that this would increase the danger.
• Bai Rou said they were likely six or seven years from the Phantom Sect and insisted she was only reluctant to lose opportunities for training after returning.

Li Yan and Bai Rou set out together after agreeing that she should spend several years reflecting on her experiences. In the Main Dao Realm, Su Hong reviewed reports of coordinated attacks on Guiqulaixi and continued to wonder about the missing Li Yan.

• Li Yan agreed with Bai Rou that prolonged killing could make a cultivator bloodthirsty and that she needed time for calm reflection.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou flew forward together on the Cloud-Piercing Blade.
• Su Hong reviewed reports and noticed that ambushers repeatedly suppressed Guiqulaixi forces by precisely one level.
• Su Hong recalled that investigations had uncovered only minor accomplices while a cunning enemy force remained hidden within Guiqulaixi.
• Su Hong thought about Li Yan's failure to return after promising to seek her help, and remembered how her parents had doubted her explanation for waiting in the North Pasture Realm.

Su Hong reviewed Guiqulaixi intelligence and discovered that Li Yan and Bai Rou had rescued one of its escort missions in the Cangxuan Realm. Recognizing them in the portraits, she realized Li Yan had been alive and had crossed her path again without her knowing.

• Su Hong considered the reports that Li Yan and his companions had vanished, then set aside her search for him to focus on Guiqulaixi's affairs.
• Su Hong read a jade slip about an escort mission in the Cangxuan Realm that had survived an ambush with help from mysterious cultivators.
• Su Hong learned that Elder Ye had asked Guiqulaixi branches to assist anyone carrying the group's tokens and report their movements.
• Su Hong saw portraits of the rescuers and recognized Li Yan and Bai Rou.
• Su Hong recalled her earlier investigations into Li Yan, Bai Rou, and others connected to the Phantom Sect.

Su Hong read news of Li Yan's actions in the Cangxuan Realm and realized he had advanced to at least the Void Refinement Realm. His astonishing progress prompted her to reconsider how she balanced cultivation with her responsibilities, and she continued reading the jade slip in a calmer state.

• Su Hong read that Bai Rou had become the Woodflow Sect's master and mistakenly suspected Li Yan had been alone with her while Zhao Min and Gong Chenying tolerated it.
• Su Hong reconsidered after remembering Zhao Min and Gong Chenying's intelligence, and concluded Li Yan and Bai Rou were likely together on sect business.
• Su Hong believed Li Yan had intervened to save Elder Ye and the others partly because of their past connection, and felt relieved to learn he had survived ascension and reached the Cangxuan Realm.
• Su Hong reacted to the report that a mysterious person had killed two masked Void Refinement Realm cultivators and inferred that Li Yan had done it, possibly after reaching early Void Refinement.
• Su Hong compared Li Yan's rapid advancement with her own late Nascent Soul cultivation and decided to make more time for cultivation instead of alternating between cultivation and handling affairs.
• Su Hong steadied herself and returned her attention to the rest of the jade slip.

Li Yan and Bai Rou arrived at Wind-Listening City to use its teleportation array, and Li Yan spotted someone familiar in a shop. The chapter revealed how Liu Siyu left Yellow Qi Valley with Yan Qingchen and joined the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect, where she and her Lineage settled safely.

• Li Yan and Bai Rou entered Wind-Listening City and headed toward the convent's teleportation array.
• Li Yan's gaze passed a shop entrance, and his pupils contracted, though he concealed his reaction from Bai Rou.
• Yan Qingchen walked through the city with Liu Siyu and suggested she browse the shops for ornaments.
• Liu Siyu recalled how she had confessed Yan Qingchen's crimes to Yellow Qi Valley's Enforcement Hall and feared that the sect might silence her and her Lineage.
• Yan Qingchen visited Liu Siyu under escort, admitted responsibility, and asked her to leave with him, promising protection and resources for her Lineage.
• Liu Siyu left with Yan Qingchen for the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect, where her Lineage received a place to settle and she became a core disciple.

Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu became Dao Companions after he earned her trust, though she refused to practice their sect’s dual-cultivation technique. While traveling with a delegation through Wind-Listening City, Yan Qingchen sensed something familiar, but Li Yan concealed himself nearby and left with Bai Rou before Yan Qingchen could identify him.

• Yan Qingchen broke through to the Void Refinement Realm, and Liu Siyu later reached the late Spirit Transformation Realm.
• Yan Qingchen proposed that he and Liu Siyu become Dao Companions and practice a dual-cultivation technique; Liu Siyu agreed to the relationship but declined the technique.
• Yan Qingchen publicly announced their relationship, set their ceremony date with Liu Siyu’s approval, and began living with her.
• Yan Qingchen traveled to Wind-Listening City with Liu Siyu and five other cultivators to scout the attitude of another sect before their main delegation arrived.
• Yan Qingchen sensed something familiar in the crowded street but, after finding no sign of danger, led his group onward.
• Li Yan hid himself beside an usher as Yan Qingchen’s group passed, then left with Bai Rou after they continued down the street.

Li Yan and Bai Rou secretly followed Yan Qingchen’s group through Listening Wind City after Li Yan recognized his old enemy and learned that he had advanced to Void Refinement. The group reached Moonshadow Inn, where Yan Qingchen arranged lodging and Junior Sister Zhong sought to leave; Li Yan remained concealed nearby, intent on discovering why they had come.

• Li Yan disguised himself and told Bai Rou that Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu were among the people he had encountered while searching for the Hazy Moon Clear Immortal Grass.
• Li Yan decided to kill Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu, then secretly used his Divine Sense to assess their group and found three Void Refinement cultivators and four Spirit Transformation cultivators.
• Li Yan blended his Divine Sense into nearby cultivators’ probes, allowing him to investigate Yan Qingchen’s group without being discovered.
• Yan Qingchen’s group arrived at Moonshadow Inn, where he booked a secluded courtyard with five rooms and drew resentment from Junior Sister Zhong.
• Junior Sister Zhong asked to explore the city, and one of her fellow disciples supported the request by saying they had already planned to go out together.

Li Yan and Bai Rou followed Yan Qingchen’s group to Moonshadow Inn, where Li Yan learned more about Liu Siyu and the group’s mission by secretly listening to three Spirit Transformation cultivators. He prepared a plan to deal with them and arranged for Bai Rou to help, then watched as the three entered a dining room next door.

• Yan Qingchen’s group split up at Moonshadow Inn, and Li Yan and Bai Rou followed while disguising their appearances.
• Li Yan chose the three Spirit Transformation cultivators who left the inn as easier targets and secretly listened as they discussed Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu.
• Li Yan learned that Liu Siyu had joined the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect with her clan and had become Yan Qingchen’s Dao companion, but he could not discover the group’s mission.
• Li Yan sent Bai Rou two possible plans and told her she might need to enter his spirit-storage space; Bai Rou warned him to avoid taking needless risks.
• The three cultivators returned to Moonshadow Inn and asked about vegetarian meals, allowing Li Yan and Bai Rou to choose a room beside theirs and wait for the next step.

Li Yan and Bai Rou overheard three cultivators from the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect discussing Liu Siyu, then disguised their identities when the trio came to investigate. After extracting information from them, the cultivators left believing they had intimidated members of an insignificant sect, while Li Yan and Bai Rou remained in their room.

• Li Yan and Bai Rou ate in a private room while three Yin-Yang Chaos Sect cultivators in the next room overheard someone mention Liu Siyu and her disappearance from a sect.
• Junior Sister Zhong persuaded Second Senior Brother and Fourth Junior Brother to investigate the people who might know Liu Siyu, despite Second Senior Brother's suspicions that the coincidence was suspicious.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou pretended to be a man and woman named Lin and denied knowing the visitors when the three knocked on their door.
• Second Senior Brother and the others entered, apologized with spirit stones, and questioned Li Yan and Bai Rou about Liu Siyu after identifying themselves as members of the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect.
• The three threatened Li Yan and Bai Rou to keep their conversation secret, then returned to their room convinced the pair came from an insignificant sect.

Junior Sister Zhong and her two senior brothers discovered that Liu Siyu had vanished from the Wind Night Sect years ago and reported their suspicions about her to their master. Meanwhile, Li Yan revealed that the trio had marked him and Bai Rou, then prepared to begin an assassination; the chapter ended with the master and his wife weighing the report.

• Junior Sister Zhong persuaded two cultivators to reveal that Liu Siyu belonged to the Wind Night Sect and had disappeared years earlier, around the time Yan Qingchen was absent.
• Junior Sister Zhong and her senior brothers discussed whether Liu Siyu had used a sect mission to enter Yin-Yang Chaos Sect, then decided to report only the facts to their master.
• Li Yan told Bai Rou that the trio had secretly marked them, and Bai Rou changed out of her marked clothes.
• Li Yan told Bai Rou that the assassination would begin and should be over within two hours.
• Junior Sister Zhong and her senior brothers returned to their master's courtyard and reported Liu Siyu's origins and their concerns.
• The middle-aged scholar and his wife listened to the report, and the scholar regarded the allegations with suspicion.

Li Yan poisoned the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect cultivators while they questioned their master about Liu Siyu and the Wind Night Sect. The middle-aged scholar’s Nascent Soul escaped the courtyard to seek Yan Qingchen’s help, while Li Yan remained hidden outside.

• The middle-aged scholar and his wife learned that Liu Siyu’s former cultivation art was wood-attributed and became more certain the Wind Night Sect woman was Liu Siyu.
• The middle-aged scholar ordered his second disciple to take him to the Wind Night Sect pair, but he and his wife suddenly succumbed to a deadly poison.
• The scholar used his Divine Sense and saw his three disciples and wife dying as the toxin dissolved their bodies.
• The scholar’s Nascent Soul fled, crushed a transmission talisman to contact Yan Qingchen, and broke through the room’s array.
• Li Yan watched from outside the courtyard, having followed the three disciples there without entering.

Li Yan used hidden poisons and gu insects to kill the three Spirit Transformation cultivators and the Void Refinement couple inside their courtyard. Yan Qingchen sensed that Senior Brother Shen and the others were in trouble and hurriedly armed himself, leaving the chapter with him on alert.

• Li Yan concluded that entering the courtyard himself was too dangerous and set a plan in motion through the three Spirit Transformation cultivators.
• Li Yan secretly infected the three cultivators with Fragmented mixed poison and planted gu insects inside them.
• The three cultivators entered their master's room, unknowingly spreading poison that the Void Refinement couple inhaled while Li Yan waited outside.
• When the middle-aged scholar prepared to go capture Li Yan and Bai Rou, Li Yan detonated the gu insects, and the poison killed everyone in the room.
• Yan Qingchen sensed that Senior Brother Shen and the others were in trouble, pulled away from Liu Siyu, dressed, and activated his protective armor.

Yan Qingchen discovered that Senior Brother Shen and four others had been poisoned to death inside a courtyard whose defenses remained intact. After searching for the unseen attacker and testing whether it would strike Liu Siyu, he found no enemy and began concluding that the threat might not still be nearby.

• Yan Qingchen sensed the paired transmission talismans explode, ordered Liu Siyu to stay protected, and searched the courtyard while concealed.
• Yan Qingchen found Senior Brother Shen’s Nascent Soul turning black; Shen briefly warned him about deadly poison before dissolving into black water.
• Yan Qingchen discovered five more puddles of black water in Shen’s room, where Junior Sister Zhong and two others had recently visited.
• Yan Qingchen searched the courtyard for more than half an hour while Liu Siyu waited inside, then told her to come out with full defenses and avoid outside air.
• Yan Qingchen told Liu Siyu that all five had died from poison despite the intact restrictions, and reasoned that the attacker was likely not a Body Integration Realm expert.
• Yan Qingchen revealed that he had used Liu Siyu as bait to draw out a hidden attacker, but no one struck, so he began ruling out the possibility that the enemy remained nearby.

Yan Qingchen deduced that Junior Sister Zhong and the other two had unknowingly carried a triggered poison into Senior Brother Shen’s room, while secretly preparing for an attack. He suggested the Phantom Sect was behind the poison as the concealed enemy waited outside the courtyard.

• Yan Qingchen reassured Liu Siyu that no enemy appeared to be inside the courtyard while secretly spreading his Divine Sense and preparing to counter an attack.
• Yan Qingchen explained that Junior Sister Zhong and the other two had likely brought in the poison that killed Senior Brother Shen and the others, leaving no traces in the courtyard’s defenses.
• Liu Siyu realized the poison could have required a trigger and then dissipated, but she could not explain how the three disciples had been made to carry it.
• Yan Qingchen ruled out several ways the disciples might have been controlled and pointed out that they were nearing the Phantom Sect.
• Liu Siyu identified the Phantom Sect, while the concealed figure outside waited and reflected on Yan Qingchen’s cunning and ruthlessness.

After discovering that a hidden poison attack had killed their companions, Yan Qingchen persuaded Liu Siyu to leave the courtyard quietly rather than raise an alarm. Li Yan followed them through Wind-Listening City and watched as they headed toward a city gate.

• Yan Qingchen concluded that a powerful poison cultivator had attacked the courtyard and convinced Liu Siyu that reporting the deaths would expose them to greater danger.
• Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu prepared talismans, left the courtyard cautiously, and sealed it behind them without encountering an attack.
• Li Yan watched the pair leave and recognized that Yan Qingchen's precautions made it difficult to strike them openly.
• Li Yan followed Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu through the crowded streets of Wind-Listening City, keeping his presence concealed.
• After half an hour of browsing stalls to avoid drawing suspicion, Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu quickened their pace toward a city gate.

Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu fled Wind Listening City, but Li Yan tracked them down with the Cloud-Piercing Blade and ambushed their flying boat above a river. The boat survived with its stern damaged, and Yan Qingchen and Li Yan faced each other in the night.

• Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu passed the city gate inspection, then left Wind Listening City aboard a concealed gray flying boat.
• Yan Qingchen flew through populated areas, changed directions unpredictably, and repeatedly concealed the boat while searching for pursuers.
• Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu found no clear sign of an enemy until the boat crossed a vast river and was struck from behind.
• Li Yan appeared on the Cloud-Piercing Blade after using it to catch up, while Yan Qingchen turned the damaged boat toward him.
• Yan Qingchen reacted to Li Yan's attack and turned the boat at the last moment, preventing the blade from splitting it apart but leaving a crack in its stern.

Li Yan, Yan Qingchen, and Liu Siyu exchanged lethal attacks, and Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu nearly trapped Li Yan with a secret art that forced him into sleep. Li Yan escaped and broke free of the art, realizing that the Yin-Yang technique required both Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu to use it.

• Li Yan unleashed Soul-Severing Slash as Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu attacked him with a combined technique.
• Yan Qingchen's Dharma wheels merged into a black mirror that made Li Yan fall asleep, while Li Yan's soul attack left Yan Qingchen screaming in pain.
• Li Yan used the Cloud-Piercing Blade to flee beyond the mirror's range, and Liu Siyu retrieved the mirror and carried Yan Qingchen away.
• Li Yan's Nascent Soul struck the Dantian Sea, restoring his spiritual power and waking him from the sleep effect.
• Li Yan realized Liu Siyu had helped Yan Qingchen perform the secret art and recalled that Yan Qingchen had not used it in the Brilliant Long River secret realm.