Recaps

Li Yan and Gong Chenying’s team entered the Life-and-Death Wheel, survived its deadly stages, and fought the Pure Land Sect monks and Demon Beasts. After reaching a lava mountaintop, Li Yan absorbed power from a blue diamond crystal and advanced his cultivation, while rival sects moved against the Wangliang Sect.

• Li Wuyi briefed Li Yan on powerful sect rivals and Demon Beasts as cultivators gathered to enter the secret realm.
• The Heavenly Heart Disc sent the entrants into separate areas, but a mysterious attack blinded the elders and killed many cultivators before the survivors emerged.
• Gong Chenying recruited Li Yan for her team, and the group entered a passageway that brought them to a street pursued by a vast black shadow.
• Gong Chenying’s team fought the Pure Land Sect monks inside a yellow sphere, and Li Yan’s poison helped stop their attempted self-destruction before the group escaped the shadow.
• Li Yan urged Gong Chenying’s team to recover between stages, then helped them survive attacks along a desert road and reach another sphere.
• Gong Chenying’s team fought off an Earthspike Lizard and other Demon Beasts inside the sphere, though several cultivators died.
• Zhao Min and Li Wuyi worried as paths vanished, while Hang Wu and other leaders discussed an alliance against the Wangliang Sect, and Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing raced toward a junction.
• On a lava-filled mountaintop, Li Yan drew spiritual power from a blue diamond crystal, purified it through his five vessels, and advanced to the peak of the early stage of the tenth Qi Condensation level.

Li Yan uncovered how the blue crystals and green gourds governed entry into the trial spheres, then used the crystals to move between passages and aid Gan Shi’s group. After helping destroy Miao Zhengyi’s team and escaping the collapsing battlefield with Gan Shi, Li Yan set out to find Baili while worrying about his Sixth Senior Sister.

• Gong Chenying’s group entered the yellow sphere and found corpses from rival sects, prompting Li Yan to investigate the poisons, bodies, and blue crystals.
• Li Yan deduced that blue crystals controlled access to the spheres and discovered that green gourds could balance their five-element spaces and link their holders.
• Li Yan used a blue crystal to pass through the trial’s barriers, travel between passages, and discover that Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing’s forces were trapped in a deadly sphere.
• Li Yan found Gan Shi’s badly wounded Wangliang Sect group, gave them medicine, and led them toward the yellow sphere.
• Li Yan and Gan Shi ambushed Miao Zhengyi’s Ten-Step Academy group with poison, and Miao Zhengyi died after Li Yan questioned him about joining forces across paths.
• Gan Shi released six Ten-Step Academy cultivators from Miao Zhengyi’s Spirit Storage Pouch and killed them, opening a passage into a ruined battlefield.
• Li Yan and Gan Shi escaped the battlefield separately with their crystals as it collapsed, then hurried toward a nearby purple light band that might belong to Baili.

Li Yan awakened the former Ji Earth Immortal Sect’s guardian, received Tuban and a crystal, and entered the final trial to rescue Gong Chenying. The survivors reached the spherical mountain, where Wang Lang’s wounds sparked a confrontation between the sects.

• Li Yan met Ping Tu, who explained the secret realm’s history and gave him Tuban and a diamond crystal in exchange for a Blood Word Curse.
• Gong Chenying’s team escaped the deadly black shadows, but Wang Lang pursued her and left her gravely wounded.
• Li Yan caught Gong Chenying before she fell into the black tide and used a rare True Essence Pill to heal her injuries.
• Gong Chenying explained her clan’s marriage custom, and Li Yan acknowledged seeing her navel ring and agreed to take her home after reaching Foundation Establishment.
• Li Yan and Gong Chenying tricked Wang Lang near the black shadow, where Li Yan stabbed him with a poisoned sword before they flew toward the center.
• Baili Yuan’s group reached the metal sphere, while Jin Chuiyan and Wu Wuan used another position disc to transport themselves and the Demon Beasts away.
• Li Yan and Gong Chenying entered the sphere, joined Qiu Jiuzhen’s trapped group, and were carried with Wang Lang into the five-colored space before emerging on the spherical mountain.
• Gong Chenying and Li Yan noticed that Wang Lang’s wounds resembled blade cuts, and a Grand Mystery Sect elder intervened when Sword King Xia Chi threatened Qiu Jiuzhen.

After the deadly trial exposed a scheme among the sects, the Demon Cultivators seized control and the Phantom Sect returned home. Li Yan began cultivating Qiongqi Purgatory with Ping Tu’s help and later set out for the market with Lin Daqiao and Wen Xinliang.

• Hangzhi examined Wang Lang’s wound as the sects accused one another, but Xiachi carried Wang Lang away without resolving the dispute.
• Li Yan and Gong Chenying reported the trial to the Phantom Sect elders, and Gan Shi and Baili Yuan returned with wounded disciples who thanked Li Yan for saving them.
• Elder Peng showed the Demon Cultivators evidence of a five-element scheme, and Bronze Ghost arrived, searched the captured sect leaders, and ordered the factions to follow his commands.
• The groups left the secret realm, and Li Yan returned to Small Bamboo Peak, where he reunited with his fellow disciples and shared wine that contained thread-swimming gu.
• Gong Chenying told Li Yan about Zhao Min and offered to teach him Qiongqi Purgatory, and Li Yan accepted the risk of the Tianli Clan’s examination to learn it.
• Li Yan repeatedly failed to perform Qiongqi Purgatory’s opening circulation until Ping Tu reshaped his injured body and helped him complete his first circulation.
• A month later, Li Yan joined Lin Daqiao and Wen Xinliang on a trip to the market, where he realized they had taken several Storage Pouches by killing their owners.