Recaps

Li Yan left home to join the army and became Strategist Ji’s disciple, only to discover that Ji’s cultivation training was poisoning him. After Dong Fuyi saved him and revealed the Gui Water True Scripture, Li Yan woke with Qi Condensation and learned he had to escape Ji within a year.

• Li Yan left his family to enlist, reached Green Mountain Pass, and impressed Captain Liu Chengyong with his assessment of Meng Kingdom’s military threat.
• Strategist Ji Wenhe recruited Li Yan as his disciple, and Marshal Hong appointed him Deputy Commandant of Guarding Against Insult.
• Li Yan moved into Strategist Ji’s residence and began studying cultivation, learning that Ji was poisoned and that his former disciple had died after practicing the method incorrectly.
• Li Yan awakened qi and endured the Wood Yin Technique’s forty-nine-day medicinal treatment, but the final session left him unconscious in the pool as black vapor ravaged his body.
• A golden thread from Ji’s strange book entered Li Yan, and Dong Fuyi appeared in his consciousness to explain the cultivation realms, spiritual roots, and the Gui Water Immortal Sect.
• Dong Fuyi revealed that Ji belonged to the Immortal-Seeking Lineage, had accumulated fire poison through cultivation, and had endangered his former disciple by omitting two balancing herbs.
• Dong Fuyi told Li Yan to escape Strategist Ji within a year, warned that Ji might threaten his family, and identified himself as Venerable Overturning Water before disappearing.
• Li Yan woke beside the pool and sensed that he had reached the initial stage of the first Qi Condensation layer, with newly sharpened senses that revealed spiritual energy rising from the water.

Li Yan learned that Strategist Ji intended to use him to counter his fire poison, then escaped the valley and confronted him in Great Green Mountain. After Li Yan killed Ji and survived the poison, the sect brought him in as a registered disciple at Small Bamboo Peak.

• Li Yan uncovered the Gui Water True Scripture in his sea of consciousness and secretly cultivated while Strategist Ji watched over him and his fire poison worsened.
• Li Yan sought help from Marshal Hong’s circle, prepared an escape, and left Strategist Ji a forged note before riding toward the North Gate.
• Strategist Ji traced Li Yan into Great Green Mountain, where Li Yan’s traps failed to stop him and Ji admitted he had planned to use Li Yan to counter his deadly poison.
• Strategist Ji began absorbing Li Yan’s spiritual power, but Hong Linying and his junior brother interrupted, and Li Yan’s marked pellets had led them there.
• Strategist Ji killed Hong Linying and his junior brother, then Li Yan’s fire-attributed power triggered Ji’s fire poison and disrupted his breakthrough.
• Li Yan cut Strategist Ji’s throat with a concealed blade, absorbed the spiritual power and poison, and collapsed as Senior Brother Wu and two cultivators arrived.
• The cultivators identified Li Yan as having a Fragmented Poison Body, and the sect leaders approved Junior Brother Wei’s offer to accept him as a registered disciple at Small Bamboo Peak.
• Li Yan woke with his broken and wounded legs healed, wondered whether he was dreaming, and heard someone nearby tell him he was awake.

Li Yan joined the Phantom Sect, learned its rules, and struggled to cultivate with his incomplete Fragmented Poison Body. After discovering how to separate its damaged meridians, he advanced in secret and reached the eve of a secret-realm expedition and peak competition.

• Li Wuyi told Li Yan that the sect had arranged protection for his family, but Li Yan learned he could not safely leave and chose to stay and cultivate.
• Li Wuyi brought Li Yan to Small Bamboo Peak, where Li Yan met Wei Zhongran, his mistress, and his fellow disciples, then described his flight from Strategist Ji while concealing his ties to the Gui Water Immortal Sect.
• Lin Daqiao taught Li Yan the sect’s customs and resources, and Li Yan discovered he could project Divine Sense and use it to handle items in his Storage Pouch.
• Li Yan selected the Myriad Origin Dao method and four immortal arts, then spent months studying and cultivating while struggling with his Fragmented Poison Body and corrosive spells.
• Li Yan realized his meridians had not been fully separated, endured the pain of dividing their damaged nodes, and began strengthening his Divine Sense by stimulating his toxin sources.
• Li Yan practiced his poison-infused arts on a secluded platform, and he and Zhao Min shared stories of mortal New Year celebrations beneath the moon.
• Li Yan advanced to the seventh level of Qi Condensation while disguising his cultivation, then learned that forty-nine Foundation Establishment cultivators would be chosen for the secret-realm expedition and that he would not compete.
• After Wei Zhongran assigned Li Wuyi to manage the peak during his seclusion, Li Yan asked Lin Daqiao how to take assignments and headed for the Assignment Hall.

Li Yan fought through the sect tournament with hidden poison and earned a place among the 108 disciples chosen for the secret realm. As the rival sects and Demon Beasts assembled at the Wheel of Life and Death, Li Yan sensed a familiar threat among the opposing disciples and hesitated over whether to enter.

• Lin Daqiao showed Li Yan how the Mission Hall worked, and Li Yan accepted a mission to water Ink King Bamboo with his Cloud Rain Art.
• Li Yan struggled with the Snow Evening Crystals, used poison to ruin a small patch of bamboo, and refined his spell control while completing the work.
• Li Wuyi explained the deadly Cycle of Life and Death competition, and Li Yan agreed to participate despite suspecting the sect master wanted to test his Fragmented Poison Body.
• At the tournament, Li Yan trained with his fellow disciples and defeated Lü Qiutong, Zhou Guan'er, and Du Sanjiang by concealing poison in his techniques.
• Li Yan placed among the top 108, then traveled with Li Wuyi and the Small Bamboo Peak disciples to the secret realm gathering.
• The sect elders opened the passage, and Li Yan entered the hidden realm, where Li Wuyi warned him that the Supreme Mystery Sect's disciples seemed abnormal.
• Elder Peng warned that rival sects might have joined forces, and Li Yan withheld his decision as the Wangliang Sect reached the valley entrance guarded by hundreds of Demon Beasts.
• The human and Demon Beast leaders exchanged greetings, while the beasts mocked the female disciples and their companions silently marked them as enemies.