Recaps

Li Yan traveled to Peiyang Market, dealt with its dangers, and received an ancient puppet from Bai Rou before strengthening his body through training. After Li Wuyi’s successful Golden Core tribulation and promotion, Li Yan entered seclusion as cultivation lineages began disappearing across the sects.

• Wen Xinliang warned Li Yan about the dangers beyond the sect and explained that the rift at Yinmo Cliff drew cultivators despite its deadly fiends.
• Wen Xinliang and Lin Daqiao killed two suspicious Crimson Cicada Sect women, then used a recording to convince Peiyang Market’s elders that the women had acted with hostile intent.
• Li Yan sold goods across Peiyang Market, settled Sun Guoshu’s dispute with Bai Rou, and arranged for Sun Guoshu to search for materials for the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike.
• Bai Rou gave Li Yan an ancient ape puppet and its control technique after telling him that its formation had reacted to his Divine Sense.
• Li Yan tested the puppet and trained with the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, strengthening his body while advancing to the late tenth level of Qi Condensation.
• Li Wuyi underwent a three-day Golden Core tribulation and formed his core through his own strength, then remained Small Bamboo Peak’s Eldest Senior Brother after his promotion.
• Li Yan prepared to cultivate in seclusion while Zhao Min considered her feelings for him, and Nascent Soul ancestors began investigating reports of disappearing cultivation lineages.

Li Yan established his Foundation and returned to his village with Gong Chenying and Zhao Min, reconnecting with his family while Zhao Min experienced the warmth of mortal life. Meanwhile, the four great sects began searching for a concealed force and its missing items, and Gong Chenying revealed Zhao Min’s painful past.

• Li Yan reached the ninth step of the Dao’s staircase, established his Foundation, and gained a vast spiritual lake, five cauldrons, and an expanded sea of consciousness.
• After consolidating his cultivation, Li Yan made Gong Chenying and Zhao Min his companions for a journey to visit his family and seek materials for a natal treasure.
• Li Yan reunited with his family in his childhood village, introduced Gong Chenying and Zhao Min, and joined the villagers in a feast and games.
• Li Yan worked alongside the villagers as Gong Chenying healed his relatives, while Zhao Min took part in village life and found warmth among ordinary people.
• Su Hong learned that dozens of sects and Lineages had vanished, and leaders from four great sects agreed to search for the hidden force and its items.
• Gong Chenying told Li Yan that Zhao Min was Wei Minqing, the daughter of their master, and explained how family estrangement had left her withdrawn.

Li Yan traveled toward the Boundless Wanderer tree but became entangled in a string of murders at Xuanqing Temple, where he helped expose Qin Chengyi’s crimes and uncovered a possible plot surrounding a mysterious gray orb. He left for Linsui City with the purple-robed young man, Uncle Sang, and two black-robed cultivators.

• Li Yan parted from Gong Chenying and Zhao Min and traveled alone, disguising himself as a Blood Leaf Sect disciple while seeking a route toward the Pure Land Sect.
• At Xuanqing Temple, Li Yan joined a group of travelers and became a suspect after Senior Brother Liu was found dead inside his protected courtyard.
• Song Bo and Luo Sanpang were murdered in turn, and Li Yan helped Daoist Gong investigate as the temple’s suspicions grew.
• Li Yan and Daoist Gong trapped Qin Chengyi during his attempted escape and learned he had been trying to steal a gray bead from the Dao Scripture Hall.
• Li Yan exposed how Qin Chengyi had used poison, a puppet, and stolen wind-chime halves to kill Liu, Song, and Luo and open the hall’s defenses.
• Daoist Gong gave Li Yan Qin Chengyi’s damaged puppet and showed him the mysterious gray orb, which they suspected might be connected to a hidden force and the vanished sects.
• Li Yan left Xuanqing Temple for Linsui City, joined by the purple-robed young man, Uncle Sang, and the two black-robed cultivators.

Li Yan helped Huchen Wuding survive an assassination attempt and return to the Huchen Lineage, where Wuding prepared to compete for the heir position. The contest began with a herb-reconstruction test that revealed Wuding’s unusual approach and left the result unresolved.

• Li Yan intervened in the fight over Huchen Wuding, used poison to kill He Manzi and He Manhua, and helped Zhuo Lingfeng kill Blood-Handed Flying Sickle.
• Li Yan and Huchen Wuding traveled to the Huchen Lineage, and Li Yan discovered that a brocade kerchief could pierce defensive formations and erase formation-based attacks.
• Huchen Wuding returned to his family’s valley with Li Yan and Zhuo Lingfeng, revisited his mother’s preserved courtyard, and learned that several branches were watching him ahead of the heir contest.
• Huchen Wandong told Wuding how Yue Xiangyun had been forced into marriage and how he had secretly sent her and Wuding away to protect them from the First and Fourth branches.
• Wuding declared that he would reclaim the heir position, then faced Huchen Wanli and Huchen Jianghai as the contestants and family guests gathered at the contest square.
• Huchen Tingchun began the first round, in which contestants had to reconstruct medicinal herbs from millions of fragments within half an hour.
• Wuding studied the fragments before assembling any herbs, then completed ten in fewer than fifty breaths as other contestants began to emerge exhausted or unconscious.
• Huchen Wanli assembled 312 herbs before collapsing from divine-sense exhaustion, while Wuding’s transparent barrier signaled the end of the round.