Recaps

Zhao Yidong revealed his role as a dormant intermediary tasked with screening and helping Jin Zhiyuan’s two clerks escape Haina City, along with the force’s secret communication procedures. Li Yan and Su Hong examined the dangerous Face-Changing Immortal Water and considered the clues Zhao Yidong had provided.

• Zhao Yidong explained that he had been planted in Haina City to assist Jin Zhiyuan’s group if their line was exposed, and that he had only recently learned he must receive the two shop clerks.
• Zhao Yidong described the plan for the clerks to leave the city and travel within three days to a mountain peak northeast of Haina City, while he remained behind and returned to dormancy.
• Zhao Yidong revealed that he reported missions through coded jade slips sent in a fixed sequence to merchant houses in four market districts surrounding Haina City, giving Su Hong and Li Yan important leads.
• Li Yan and Su Hong inspected the Face-Changing Immortal Water Zhao Yidong had brought to alter the clerks’ appearances, and Li Yan warned Su Hong to handle it carefully.
• Li Yan compared the liquid’s effects with Bu Luo’s Truth-Confusing Pill and worried that its bone-restructuring process could cause serious side effects.

Su Hong and Li Yan captured Zhao Yidong and uncovered clues about the enemy’s preparations to help agents escape Sea Acceptance City, but the investigation revealed how carefully the faction restricted what each sleeper agent knew. Su Liuyun joined them in the secret prison as they compared findings, with the enemy’s broader plans still concealed.

• Su Hong kept the Face-Changing Immortal Water as evidence and suggested investigating how Jin Zhiyuan and his companions obtained their genuine identity tokens.
• Su Hong proposed leaving guards behind, taking the captives back, and comparing their clues with Su Liuyun’s findings, and Li Yan agreed.
• Su Liuyun arrived at the secret prison while a monk questioned Zhao Yidong again, and Su Hong asked what he had learned from Lin Fengshan and Xu Li.
• Su Liuyun reported that Lin Fengshan and Xu Li knew little about the mysterious faction and that the Chief Altar Master was delaying the factions’ request to see them.
• Li Yan and Su Hong concluded that the enemy’s compartmentalized operations left captured agents with very little useful information, even under questioning or Soul Search.

Li Yan, Su Hong, and Su Liuyun reviewed the interrogation evidence and were summoned by the Chief Altar Master to report their findings. They arrived at his palace, where Li Yan sensed the Chief Altar Master’s overwhelming presence and was surprised to find no other elders or hall masters present.

• Commander Chu gave Su Hong the jade slips from Zhao Yidong’s repeated interrogations, and she, Li Yan, and Su Liuyun compared the answers without finding cause for celebration.
• Su Liuyun received a message that the Chief Altar Master wanted him and Su Hong to report the investigation’s progress, and he told Li Yan that the Chief Altar Master had summoned him too.
• Li Yan accepted the summons, puzzled that the Chief Altar Master would want an outsider like him at the meeting.
• Li Yan followed Su Hong and Su Liuyun into the grand palace and bowed with them before the Chief Altar Master seated on the dragon throne.
• Li Yan felt unable to discern the Chief Altar Master’s strength and was surprised that no hall masters or elders were present.

Li Yan, Su Hong, and Su Liuyun reported their investigation into the covert agents to the Chief Altar Master, who reviewed their leads and asked how they would proceed. With the four markets being investigated and the trail behind Lin Fengshan and Xu Li stalled, the group turned to Li Yan for the next plan.

• The Chief Altar Master summoned Li Yan, Su Hong, and Su Liuyun, and Su Hong reported that they had found three more people by following the vine, including two escaped shop assistants.
• The Chief Altar Master asked about Zhao Yidong's four markets, and Su Hong explained that Jin Nineteen and the others had already gone to investigate them using secret teleportation arrays.
• Su Liuyun asked about Lin Fengshan and Xu Li, and the Chief Altar Master said their trail had been erased, though he intended to use them to research the Mind-Tangling White Corpse Gu.
• The Chief Altar Master asked how they would proceed, and Su Hong and Su Liuyun looked to Li Yan to provide the next plan.

Li Yan, Su Hong, and Su Liuyun planned their next moves against the hidden traitors in Haina City, while the Purple-Robed Youth and his wife assessed Li Yan’s abilities and concealed treasure. Li Yan and Su Hong then set out to search Zhao Yidong’s residence before dawn.

• Li Yan proposed using Zhao Yidong’s secret code to send a message, drawing out its recipients while disguised people posed as the two shop clerks and waited outside the city.
• The Purple-Robed Youth praised Li Yan’s plans, ordered Su Liuyun to support him, and privately discussed Li Yan’s pure water-element spiritual power and hidden cultivation with a woman in cyan palace robes.
• Su Hong and Su Liuyun agreed to assist Li Yan, then left the grand hall to carry out the investigation.
• Su Hong sent Su Liuyun to arrange the clerks’ departure and await Jin Nineteen’s report while she and Li Yan went to search Zhao Yidong’s residence.
• Li Yan and Su Hong headed out at night, planning to send the coded message after daybreak.

Li Yan, Su Hong, and Su Liuyun tried to follow Zhao Yidong’s coded messages to uncover the hidden force, while arranging decoys and surveillance across the city. Jin Shijiu returned with news that the market-town merchants knew nothing about the codes, leaving the investigation at another dead end.

• Li Yan and Su Hong returned to headquarters, where Su Liuyun reported that Zhao Yidong’s residence had yielded no new clues and explained his surveillance plans.
• Su Liuyun sent cultivators with matching auras to impersonate two shop clerks and arranged for someone to pose as Zhao Yidong at Wenxin Pavilion.
• The group spent the day monitoring suspected locations and a merchant house that received a coded jade slip, but found no suspicious activity.
• Jin Shijiu reported that his team had captured and questioned the people who handled the jade slips in all four market towns.
• The questioned merchants said they had treated the slips as ordinary inquiries about raw materials, so Su Hong concluded that the trail had gone cold again.

Su Liuyun, Su Hong, and Li Yan discovered that the people connected to Zhao Yidong’s secret-code jade slips knew nothing about the codes, raising fears that Zhao Yidong had misled them. Li Yan began explaining why the information might still be genuine, as they reconsidered how messages were sent out of Sea-Embracing City.

• Su Liuyun used a soul-bewitching technique to question four shopkeepers, but all said they had treated the jade slips as ordinary and knew nothing of any secret code.
• Li Yan urged Su Liuyun to perform a Soul Search on a steward, and the search revealed no knowledge of the secret-code jade slip.
• Su Liuyun performed Soul Searches on all the captured people and found no evidence that any of them knew about the secret code.
• Su Liuyun and Su Hong realized that the cultivators sent outside the city might be walking into a trap, and they called for people to be sent out.
• Li Yan asked Su Hong about message-delivery services and concluded that Zhao Yidong might have given genuine information without knowing that his superior’s transmission method was fake.
• Su Liuyun explained that Zhao Yidong had used a merchant firm and secret codes to send intelligence to corresponding shops.

Li Yan deduced that Zhao Yidong’s coded messages were intercepted by a hidden agent at Haina City’s centralized goods inspection site during security checks. Su Hong planned to narrow the search to the few inspectors on duty when the jade slip was sent.

• Su Liuyun concluded that Zhao Yidong’s captured contacts and coded messages had not exposed the enemy’s network, prompting Li Yan to explain his suspicions.
• Li Yan asked Su Hong how Haina City inspected messages sent by teleportation array or through merchants, and learned that outgoing goods were examined at the Hall of Clear Appraisal.
• Li Yan deduced that the enemy had planted an agent at the inspection site, where the agent could read jade slips addressed to four chosen marketplaces or infer their meaning from their destinations.
• Su Hong identified the twenty-one cultivators responsible for inspections as the likely suspects and said the time and area covered by the jade slip could narrow the search to a few people.
• Su Hong called for Zhao Yidong to be questioned again about the jade slip’s appearance and origin, while Su Liuyun marveled at how quickly Li Yan had found a lead.

Li Yan traced Zhao Yidong’s intelligence route to a likely handler in the Hall of Clear Discernment, while Su Liuyun reported the discovery to his parents. The investigation narrowed to eleven people who had recently been on duty, as Su Hong and Li Yan began checking their records.

• Li Yan questioned Zhao Yidong and learned that the jade slips had ordinary restrictions and were passed along using coded phrases.
• Su Hong and Li Yan left to investigate the Hall of Clear Discernment, while Su Liuyun arranged further inquiries and reported their findings to the headquarters chief.
• Su Liuyun explained Li Yan’s deductions, and the headquarters chief ordered him to continue discreetly while warning other factions not to interfere.
• The woman in the green palace gown privately decided that Li Yan should be dealt with after he had been used, without Su Hong discovering the plan.
• Su Hong and Li Yan reviewed duty records for the Hall of Clear Discernment and ruled out one cultivator whose absence did not fit the suspected timing.

Li Yan and Su Hong narrowed the suspected leak in Return Home to four people who had handled goods at the Hall of Clear Appraisal. Li Yan singled out Wen Rujun for immediate investigation, and Su Hong decided to accompany him while Jin Nineteen and the others pursued the remaining suspects.

• Li Yan and Su Hong ruled out six of ten people and reviewed records for the four remaining suspects.
• Li Yan ordered Su Hong to have Jin Nineteen and the others investigate three suspects while he personally questioned the fourth.
• Li Yan identified Wen Rujun as suspicious because her solitary training began near the time Jin Zhiyuan entered Haina City, and she later took a discreet position handling internal goods.
• Su Hong challenged Li Yan's quick deduction, then agreed to accompany him and arrange the investigation of the other three suspects.

Li Yan and Su Hong secretly reached a courtyard in Hai Na City to investigate its occupant, and Li Yan had Su Hong break the protective formation. They slipped through the breach without alerting anyone, leaving the investigation still ahead.

• Li Yan agreed to let Su Hong accompany him, relying on the hidden experts protecting her while they approached the target courtyard.
• Li Yan asked Su Hong to silently break the courtyard’s formation, explaining that his own formation skills might not suffice.
• Su Hong used a jade hairpin and a red thread to disrupt the formation and open a hole in the wall.
• Li Yan swept the area with his Divine Sense and entered through the breach first, while Su Hong followed, pleased that the formation had been broken unnoticed.

Li Yan and Su Hong infiltrated Wen Ruyun’s courtyard and subdued her while she was meditating. They contained the room and prepared to guard against anyone activating its formations and exposing the capture.

• Su Hong followed Li Yan through a black hole in the courtyard’s formation, and the two headed toward the room where Li Yan sensed an aura.
• Su Hong used her jade hairpin to breach the room’s defensive formation while Li Yan stood ready to capture its occupant.
• Wen Ruyun reviewed the troubles facing her network and worried that the captured headquarters member might be connected to the agents being sent out of the city.
• Li Yan entered the room and knocked Wen Ruyun unconscious before she could react, and Su Hong followed inside.
• Li Yan placed purple gleaming objects around the room to form a barrier and warned Su Hong to guard against anyone opening the formations and exposing Wen Ruyun’s capture.

Li Yan questioned Wen Ruyun under his Bewildering Soul Technique and learned how her group verified targets and routed coded messages. Before she could explain how she reported to her superior, Wen Ruyun’s soul abruptly melted away and she died, leaving Li Yan to investigate the cause.

• Li Yan questioned the unconscious Wen Ruyun inside his formation and learned that she had confirmed three targets had left the city.
• Wen Ruyun explained that four different shops represented distinct outcomes, including danger, successful verification, betrayal, and the deaths of hidden agents.
• Li Yan asked how Wen Ruyun sent information to her superior, and she struggled before naming Cloud Bamboo Market.
• Wen Ruyun screamed as her soul suddenly melted away, and Li Yan moved to protect Su Hong while the woman died.
• Li Yan confirmed Wen Ruyun was dead, expressed confusion about the effect of his Bewildering Soul Technique, and sent his Divine Sense and soul power into her body to investigate.

Li Yan discovered that Wen Rujun had been killed by the devilish restriction Magic Sound Locks the Tongue after she spoke “Cloud Bamboo Market.” He and Su Hong suspected the Purple Flame Devil Lord and his wife might be connected to Wen Rujun and the hostile faction, but they were not certain.

• Li Yan examined Wen Rujun and concluded that a hidden devilish restriction had erupted when she triggered its tongue-locking condition.
• Li Yan explained that Magic Sound Locks the Tongue could kill someone whose controlled consciousness spoke specific words, and Su Hong recognized the obscure devilish art.
• Su Hong found high-grade devilish qi between Wen Rujun’s brows and connected it to the Purple Flame Devil Lord and his wife.
• Li Yan said the couple might have placed the restriction and could be Wen Rujun’s superiors, but their involvement was only a possibility.
• Su Hong asked why the enemy had not used the restriction on other important captives, and Li Yan reasoned that its casting conditions or consequences were likely severe.

After Wen Ruyun died from the Demonic Sound Tongue Lock, Li Yan and Su Hong traced the enemy’s likely stronghold to Cloud Bamboo Market and mobilized Guiqulaixi forces to investigate it. As the group approached, Li Yan prepared to enter the market while Su Hong stayed behind to coordinate and await his reports.

• Su Hong agreed that the Purple Flame Devil Lord couple might be hiding in Cloud Bamboo Market and decided to seek powerful reinforcements immediately.
• Li Yan took Wen Ruyun’s body, and he and Su Hong returned to headquarters to join Su Liuyun, Jin Shijiu, and the others.
• Jin Shijiu confirmed that his group had secretly captured and released the cultivators without being detected, using Gui Xi Army concealment and formation-breaking treasures.
• Su Hong explained Wen Ruyun’s death and the Demonic Sound Tongue Lock to Su Liuyun, who went to request powerful cultivators from the chief commander.
• Aboard the flying vessel, Li Yan told Su Hong he would enter Cloud Bamboo Market to investigate, while she agreed to remain behind and coordinate as circumstances changed.

Li Yan and Su Hong finalized their cautious plan to investigate Cloud Bamboo Market and capture their enemies, then Li Yan joined the infiltrators while Su Hong waited at the perimeter. After receiving a strange message and finding their secret code phrases hidden in a jade slip, Su Hong realized there was an emergency and ordered everyone in the market to return.

• Li Yan and Su Hong exchanged special sound-transmission talismans and agreed on code phrases as safeguards for their operation.
• Li Yan left the flying vessel to approach Cloud Bamboo Market with the infiltrators while Su Hong stayed behind to coordinate the perimeter forces.
• Su Hong waited anxiously aboard the concealed vessel until a sound-transmission talisman arrived from Li Yan.
• Li Yan's message directed Su Hong to find a yellow, leaf-marked jade slip among the clues in her room.
• Su Hong found their secret code phrases engraved in the unfamiliar jade slip, decoded them, and sprang up in alarm.
• Su Hong suppressed her urge to rush out and ordered her confidant to summon everyone from the market back immediately.

Deputy Hall Master Ying was intercepted by a gold-robed Gui Xi Army cultivator after his secret intelligence contact with Wen Ruyun drew suspicion. Trapped inside a formation, Ying searched for a way to alert Hall Master Yan as the cultivator revealed he knew what Ying was trying to do.

• Deputy Hall Master Ying hurried through the forest toward Hall Master Yan’s residence after receiving suspicious intelligence from Wen Ruyun.
• A gold-robed Gui Xi Army cultivator appeared on the path and questioned Ying about where he was going.
• Ying recalled how the Gui Xi Army had monitored the willow tree where Wen Ruyun passed signals and identified him among the people nearby.
• Ying avoided attacking the stronger cultivator and secretly searched for the formation’s barrier, hoping to alert Hall Master Yan.
• The gold-robed cultivator asked Ying whether he was searching for the formation’s barrier.

Return Home’s leaders uncovered a deep spy network and began a sweeping purge, while the Main Headquarters Master ordered a search for Li Yan after he vanished near Yun Bamboo Market. His wife warned that Su Hong suspected they had acted against Li Yan, leaving their relationship with her in danger.

• Deputy Hall Master Ying sensed danger and was trapped by the branches and leaves overhead as Return Home began detaining suspected spies.
• The Main Headquarters Master and the woman in azure palace robes oversaw the purge, which exposed extensive infiltration of the True Inheritance Hall and forced them to send forces after outside collaborators.
• The Main Headquarters Master questioned his subordinate about losing track of Li Yan, then ordered him to search for Li Yan without acting and report back.
• The woman in azure palace robes warned that Su Hong suspected their intentions toward Li Yan after leaving them in anger.

Li Yan escaped after realizing the Chief Altar Master of "Returning Home" intended to target him, leaving Su Hong a coded clue about the enemy plot and an apology for using a soul-bewitching technique. Su Hong turned to her brother Su Liuyun for help, while Li Yan hid far from the Yun Bamboo Market City and reflected on how his suspicions had led him to flee.

• The Chief Altar Master and the woman in azure palace robes discussed finding Li Yan and possibly forcing him to divorce his Dao Companions, while speculating that he might belong to the elusive sect "Returning Home."
• Su Hong read Li Yan's jade slip, which pointed her to Haina City, explained his plan involving Wen Ruyun, and apologized for erasing part of her memory.
• Su Hong realized Li Yan had planned his escape and sought help from Su Liuyun, asking whether she could trust him.
• Su Liuyun vowed to protect Li Yan because Li Yan had saved his life, even if doing so meant opposing their parents.
• Li Yan meditated in a concealed cave hundreds of thousands of miles from the Yun Bamboo Market City and recalled how the unease he felt at the main altar had intensified when he entered the golden hall.

Li Yan realized the Chief Altar Master was scrutinizing him because he suspected Li Yan had drawn Su Hong’s affections, and he decided to leave Haina City before the powerful man could act against him. After distancing himself from the main altar, Li Yan questioned Su Hong about her family’s influence and noticed her watching his reaction.

• Li Yan sensed the Chief Altar Master’s hostility whenever Su Hong mentioned him, but concluded the Chief Altar Master was not the traitor and instead had a personal grievance against him.
• Li Yan inferred that Su Hong and Su Liuyun were trusted relatives of the Chief Altar Master, possibly sharing the surname Su, which explained their authority and access to the Returning Army.
• Li Yan realized the Chief Altar Master might resent his bond with Su Hong and decided he needed to escape Haina City without revealing his intentions.
• When the Chief Altar Master asked about his next steps, Li Yan said he would pursue the new clues on site, using the excuse to move away from the main altar.
• After leaving the golden hall, Li Yan asked Su Hong whether her siblings’ Lineage was powerful, and she watched his face as she answered.

Li Yan explained how he had recognized the danger surrounding him and planned to escape by manipulating the investigation into the traitor. He framed Wen Ruyun’s death as the work of devil cultivators and left Su Hong with a clue that could justify leaving Haina City.

• Li Yan realized Su Hong had no ill will toward him but suspected the Chief Altar Master planned to harm him, and he resolved to find a way out.
• Li Yan deliberately named four suspects and volunteered to capture Wen Ruyun alone, but Su Hong chose to accompany him.
• Inside Wen Ruyun’s room, Li Yan made Su Hong unconscious, used a bewitching technique to question Wen Ruyun, and learned that she linked several hidden lines of investigation.
• Li Yan decided to kill Wen Ruyun and frame the Purple Flame Devil Lord and his wife, using a devil core and the forgotten art Demonic Sound Seals the Tongue as cover.
• Li Yan planted devil qi in Wen Ruyun, then killed her when she mentioned Yun Bamboo Market, leaving clues that could lead Su Hong to pursue the investigation beyond Haina City.

Li Yan escaped the tracker sent after him but realized Return Home could block his route to the cross-realm teleportation array, so he devised another plan to leave. The chapter then shifted to a red-clad girl fighting a swarm of golden bees before she conceded defeat to a woman in yellow; the two later sat together by a lake.

• Li Yan used Su Hong’s mission to shake off the cultivator following him and fled after reaching Cloud Bamboo Market.
• Li Yan concluded that the chief altar master would expect him to use the eastern teleportation array and planned to disguise himself as a known traveler in East Yi City.
• Li Yan studied a jade-slip map, gathered the violet death beneath his cave, and left while the cave’s Demon Beast remained unaware.
• A red-clad girl evaded golden bee insects and fought back with the help of crocodile-like Demon Beasts before admitting defeat.
• The golden bees and crocodile-like beasts stopped attacking, and the woman in yellow praised the red-clad girl for lasting longer than before.
• The woman in yellow and the red-clad girl sat together on a hillside overlooking a lake as the girl reflected on their battle.

Bai Ting had grown close to Guan Man while both recovered from painful pasts, then left the valley to avenge her parents by killing the two goshawks that had slain them. After returning healed, she asked Guan Man to let her join Guan Village’s dangerous revenge operations so she could continue growing stronger.

• Guan Man comforted Bai Ting about her cultivation and recalled how Guan Village had grown stronger while secretly striking at the Rainmoist Sect.
• Bai Ting and Guan Man became close friends, helping each other with grief and cultivation after Bai Ting took human form.
• After reaching Foundation Establishment, Bai Ting left the valley and spent years searching for the goshawks that had killed her parents.
• Bai Ting lured the goshawks into a battle, used her puppets to kill them, and devoured their bodies before returning to the valley more than four years later.
• Bai Ting asked Guan Man to take her along on Guan Village’s next operation, insisting she needed the danger and experience to become stronger.

Bai Ting asked Guan Man to tell the elders she wanted to grow strong enough to search for her missing Master. Meanwhile, Li Yan reached Juruisheng’s market district in disguise and sought to join the trading company as an alchemist, but someone asked to see his newly registered information after he entered.

• Bai Ting told Guan Man she wanted to become strong and search for her Master, and Guan Man agreed to pass her request to the Great Elder and the others.
• Li Yan chose Juruisheng because it had a branch in Dongyi City, rivaled Guiqulaixi, and offered a way to travel under the trading company’s protection.
• Li Yan arrived at the Jurui market district disguised as a mid-stage Spirit Transformation Realm cultivator and registered to enter.
• Li Yan asked a guard where he could take Juruisheng’s alchemy test, and the guard directed him to a pagoda inside the district.
• After Li Yan entered, a cold voice demanded to see his registration information.

Li Yan, using the name Chen Ying, sought to join the Juruisheng merchant house by claiming to be an alchemist from a minor sect. After recognizing his strong alchemical foundation, a gray-robed Grand Alchemy Master brought him inside for further assessment, leaving Li Yan on the way to a practical examination.

• A Nascent Soul cultivator reported Li Yan’s interest in joining Juruisheng to his captain, who considered making preparations if Li Yan proved skilled in alchemy.
• Li Yan reached the restricted gatehouse of Juruisheng’s headquarters and told the guards he had come to test his alchemical abilities and seek membership.
• A gray-robed elder met Li Yan, whom Li Yan recognized as a Grand Alchemy Master, and escorted him inside.
• Li Yan gave the elder his prepared background story as Chen Ying, claiming descent from a disciple of a secluded, declining minor sect.
• The elder questioned Li Yan about alchemy, judged his foundational knowledge to be deep, and considered him for a guest elder deacon position pending further checks.
• The elder led Li Yan through a grove toward a four-story yellow pavilion where the practical assessment awaited.