Recaps

Li Yan returned to the Yi Wood Immortal Sect, helped Bai Rou recover, and advanced into the Void Refinement Realm before escorting her away. Together they discovered a hidden courtyard through a damaged Shattered Star Formation, rescued a fox, and later encountered two puppet sellers who caught Bai Rou’s interest.

• Li Yan returned to the Yi Wood Immortal Sect with Hazy Moon Clear Immortal Grass, and Fairy Ning Ke treated Bai Rou’s damaged consciousness sea.
• Bai Rou awoke after decades of unconsciousness, learned what had happened to Zhaoyan and the others, and began recovering while Li Yan advanced into the Void Refinement Realm.
• Li Yan learned that the Five Immortal Sects had used his information to provoke a confrontation in Yellow Qi Valley, then arranged to escort Bai Rou back toward the Phantom Sect.
• Li Yan and Bai Rou found a damaged Shattered Star Formation in a mountain cave and repaired it, reaching a hidden courtyard with a thatched residence and barren spirit fields.
• Bai Rou healed an injured fiery-red fox and used Soul Search to learn its history, while Li Yan identified the Golden Bone Grass that had strengthened it.
• Li Yan taught Bai Rou the Microthought technique, then awakened the fox’s intelligence, gave it a cultivation method, and left it to guard the courtyard’s resources.
• At the Rain-Nurtured Market, Bai Rou bought a falcon-shaped puppet from Guan Junyi and Guan Man, and the two sellers watched them leave before Guan Junyi tried to follow.

Li Yan rescued the fleeing Guan clan and offered them refuge in exchange for their puppet arts, helping them establish a hidden settlement. After leaving the clan behind, Li Yan and Bai Rou were ambushed by a powerful beast and became lost in a snowy wilderness, where they discovered a distant battle.

• Guan Junyi sold Li Yan and Bai Rou a damaged leopard puppet, but Nie Yuanchang later killed him and took the transaction’s spirit stones.
• Guan Feng led the Guan clan west to escape the Rainmoist Sect, but Guan Xiaoyu betrayed their route and four Spirit Transformation cultivators intercepted them.
• Li Yan killed the pursuers and carried the survivors away, then exposed Guan Feng’s attempt to use him while the clan escaped.
• After the Mystic Heroic Sect pursued the Guan clan, Li Yan and Bai Rou rescued Guan Feng and Guan Yuanxiang and offered them a safe home in exchange for their puppet arts and puppet-making work.
• Li Yan settled the Guan clan in a hidden lakeside refuge, where they built a village and Guan Feng created a concealed defensive formation with Bai Rou’s help.
• Years later, Li Yan and Bai Rou traveled through a snowy wilderness, where a Body Integration beast attacked Li Yan and drove them into turbulent spatial currents.
• After escaping the beast and recovering from his injuries, Li Yan searched the snowy region with Bai Rou and went to investigate a distant battle led by Ye Moran.

Li Yan and Bai Rou rescued Ye Moran’s group from an ambush, then continued toward Phantom Sect as Su Hong learned Li Yan had survived and risen in cultivation. In Wind-Listening City, Li Yan recognized Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu, poisoned their companions, and pursued them into a fight that ended with Yan Qingchen’s sleep-inducing mirror forcing Li Yan to retreat.

• Ye Moran’s formation came close to collapse under masked attackers, but Bai Rou’s puppets and Li Yan’s intervention killed the two Void Refinement leaders and helped break the enemy assault.
• Ye Moran thanked Li Yan, gave him regional maps and the gathered spoils, and Li Yan and Bai Rou continued toward Phantom Sect.
• Su Hong recognized Li Yan and Bai Rou in reports of the rescued Guiqulaixi escort and inferred that Li Yan had killed two masked Void Refinement cultivators.
• Li Yan spotted Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu in Wind-Listening City, decided to kill them, and secretly investigated their group with Bai Rou.
• Li Yan poisoned the three Spirit Transformation cultivators accompanying Yan Qingchen, whose master and household died after the poison spread through them.
• Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu left the city cautiously, but Li Yan caught up with them beyond a river and attacked their flying boat.
• Li Yan and Yan Qingchen exchanged soul and secret arts, and Yan Qingchen’s black mirror put Li Yan to sleep long enough for Liu Siyu to carry him away before Li Yan’s Nascent Soul woke him.

Li Yan returned to the Phantom Sect, revealed his heavenly spiritual roots, and accepted a mission tied to the Ghost Domain expedition. He entered with Zhao Min, Gong Chenying, Bai Rou, and Zi Kun, while the group faced corpse ghosts and enemy cultivators and Li Yan searched a buried town for the Blood-Eyed Toad.

• Li Yan abandoned his pursuit of Yan Qingchen and Liu Siyu, returned to the Phantom Sect with Bai Rou, and reunited with his family and fellow disciples.
• Li Yan’s cultivation was verified as Void Refinement, canceling his overdue missions, and the Sect Master’s test revealed his water-and-wood heavenly spirit roots and Fragmented Poison Body.
• The Sect Master tasked Li Yan with retrieving venom from a Blood-Eyed Toad in the Ghost Domain and arranged for Zhao Min, Gong Chenying, and Zi Kun to join the expedition.
• Li Yan and Jun Ze led the Phantom Sect group into the Ghost Domain alongside the Life-Extinguishing Sect, and Li Yan separated from Chu Yinghong after entering.
• Li Yan found Zhao Min, Gong Chenying, Bai Rou, and Zi Kun, who fought through a zombie horde and escaped despite several of them being contaminated by poison.
• Zhao Min’s group repelled an ambush by three Extinction Sect cultivators, and Bai Rou and Zi Kun killed one attacker before the survivors fled.
• Li Yan searched a buried town and its ruined residence while the others traveled toward their destination, and he found a passage beneath a well leading into a cavern of Nine Nether Winds.
• A hidden attacker struck Li Yan in the cavern, but Li Yan’s Severed Poison met the icy force and gained the advantage.