Chapter Summaries

Elder Peng convinced the Demon Cultivators that the three sects had plotted to use the Wheel of Life and Death to eliminate their rivals, and the demons moved to inspect the suspects’ Storage Pouches. The sect leaders tried to block them, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Elder Peng showed Yin Congfeng and the other demons azure gourds containing Five Elements spiritual qi and argued that the three sects had prepared a scheme to kill their opponents.
• Yin Congfeng and the others linked the evidence to Quan Jiuxing, Wang Lang, and Qiu Jiuzhen, while Grand Mystery Sect and Pure Land Sect leaders worried that Phantom Sect was drawing the demons into an alliance.
• Yan Motian demanded to inspect Mei Bucai’s Storage Pouch and eight Grand Mystery Sect disciples, while Lin Mingyu asked to inspect the unconscious Wang Lang’s Storage Pouch.
• Hang Wu and Sword King Xiahua blocked Yan Motian and Lin Mingyu, but the demons insisted on examining the disciples and their belongings.

Yin Congfeng sent a message to the fourth-rank Demon Cultivator Martial Uncle Bronze Ghost after Hang Wu challenged the Wangliang Sect, alarming the human cultivators. Elder Peng recognized the terrifying Ironback Bronze Ghost Beast’s name and remembered its gruesome history, leaving the confrontation poised for the beast’s arrival.

• Hang Wu insisted that the dispute should be settled fairly, but Master Yisong feared that his words would provoke a dangerous Demon Cultivator.
• Yin Congfeng sent a message with a Voicefall Jade, and Xia Hua identified the valuable treasure as one capable of reaching a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator from far away.
• Yin Congfeng told Elder Peng that Martial Uncle Bronze Ghost was overseeing the trial and had given him the Voicefall Jade to call for help.
• Elder Peng recognized Bronze Ghost as the Ironback Bronze Ghost Beast, whose reputation for cruelty made him fear what would happen when it arrived.
• Elder Peng recalled how Bronze Ghost had tortured Zhang Feng, killed the Zhang cultivation Lineage, and escaped a battle with a Ten-Step Academy Nascent Soul cultivator.

A terrifying demon overwhelmed the four sects, seized several cultivators, and subjected them to Soul Search to investigate the trouble in the secret realm. After Yihuo, Hang Zhi, and Xia Chi screamed through their searches, the silence around the captured Phantom Sect elder left everyone fearing what would happen next.

• A vast mass of gray qi descended, forcing the sects to raise barriers before a cold snort shattered most of them and wounded their cultivators.
• The demon accused someone of causing trouble in the trial, silenced Yisong, and seized Yihuo, Hang Zhi, Xia Chi, a Phantom Sect elder, Qiu Jiuzhen, eight disciples, and Wang Lang.
• Yin Congfeng warned Elder Peng and the other elders not to intervene, while Li Yan worried about protecting Gong Chenying, Li Wuyi, and the others.
• The demon used Soul Search on Yihuo, Hang Zhi, and Xia Chi, whose agonized screams terrified the cultivators below.
• The captured Phantom Sect elder gave no sound after the others' searches, leaving the crowd in tense silence.

A fourth-rank demon beast exposed the three sects’ plot, kept their cultivators as hostages, and spared the Phantom Sect after investigating their memories. The sects were forced to gather under Yin Congfeng’s orders, while their leaders subtly tried to turn the Demon Cultivators against the Phantom Sect.

• The demon beast sent the Phantom Sect back to its mountain and ordered Yin Congfeng to hold the Ten-Step Academy, Grand Profound Sect, and Pure Land Sect as guests while it examined Wang Lang’s poison.
• The black-robed elder told Peak Master Yi and the others that the beast had searched Yihuo Buddha, Hangzhi, and Xia Chi, then spared him after confirming the memories revealed the same plot.
• The beast seized two blue gourds, discovered that the Grand Profound Sect’s eight disciples all had mixed five-element spiritual roots, and resolved to make the three sects pay.
• Yihuo, Hangzhi, and Xia Chi survived the Soul Search but were gravely injured, while the three sects accepted Yin Congfeng’s orders and gathered their remaining people.
• Sword King Xia Hua, Immortal Master Hangwu, and Yisong Buddha praised the Phantom Sect in pointed remarks that were meant to provoke the Demon Cultivators against it.

The Phantom Sect and the surviving cultivators left the secret realm and returned to Small Bamboo Peak, where Elder Peng announced that the expedition had yielded great rewards. Gong Chenying privately told Zhao Min that Li Yan had seen her navel ring, leaving Zhao Min stunned as she departed with the elders.

• Yin Congfeng received a message from his ancestor and flew away, while Elder Peng led the Phantom Sect and the others after him.
• The groups traveled toward the secret-realm exit, and Li Yan and the survivors reflected on their fallen companions and their impending return home.
• Lin Mingyu opened the passage, and Li Yan and the others emerged at the Heavenly Stele Plaza behind Small Bamboo Peak.
• Elder Peng praised the expedition's gains and took Baili Yuan, Gan Shi, and Gong Chenying to Laojun Peak to explain the details.
• Gong Chenying stopped beside Zhao Min and whispered that Li Yan had seen her navel ring, then left with a flushed face.

After Gong Chenying spoke privately with Zhao Min, Zhao Min left Li Yan and his fellow disciples, leaving Li Yan unsettled about his feelings. Once the others had dispersed, Li Yan took a familiar path through the bamboo forest and found a woman in a dark green robe sitting at the edge of the cliff.

• Gong Chenying whispered to Zhao Min, who glanced at Li Yan before leaving the bamboo grove.
• Li Yan left with Li Wuyi, Li Changting, Wei Chituo, and Yun Chunqu as the Heavenly Stele’s aura urged everyone away.
• Li Changting invited the group to Li Yan’s courtyard for wine, and Li Yan reluctantly agreed to provide magical artifacts for her to choose from.
• Miao Wangqing confronted Li Wuyi about neglecting Small Bamboo Peak’s affairs, and Li Wuyi fled before she and Li Changting chased after him.
• Wei Chituo and Yun Chunqu left Li Yan, who then walked down a familiar bamboo path and found a woman in a dark green robe sitting on a cliff’s edge.

Li Yan and Zhao Min spoke quietly about his rapid cultivation, his return home, and osmanthus cake before parting beneath the full moon. Back at his courtyard, the Small Bamboo Peak group gathered for wine and food, and the chapter ended when several guests discovered gu insects in their bowls.

• Li Yan and Zhao Min sat apart on the platform and discussed his unstable progress toward the tenth level of Qi Condensation and her impending advance.
• Li Yan told Zhao Min he still needed to return home to see his parents and taste osmanthus cake, then left her beneath the full moon.
• Li Yan returned to his courtyard, where the Small Bamboo Peak members and two girls from Buli Peak gathered; Zhao Min arrived and asked Li Changting for wine.
• Miao Wangqing served food as Li Changting set out wine, and Li Yan took Li Wuyi's pear blossom brew and drank a bowl to thank his senior brothers and sisters.
• Gong Chenying felt the wine's medicinal power surge through her body, while Yun Chunqu used his bowl to begin healing his injuries.
• Miao Wangqing spotted gu insects in her wine, and Lin Daqiao cried out that the bowls contained gu insects.

At a gathering hosted by Li Changting, the disciples drank her potent medicinal wine while Li Yan noticed Zhao Min and Gong Chenying acting unusually distant. The next morning, Gong Chenying met Li Yan alone and asked him to call her A-Ying when they were together.

• Li Changting pressured the hesitant disciples to drink wine brewed with thread-swimming gu, and Li Wuyi passed out after drinking three bowls and eating Demon Beast meat.
• Gong Chenying and Zhao Min left the gathering together, returned looking troubled, and Zhao Min remained silent toward Li Yan while Gong Chenying asked him to wait for her the next morning.
• Li Yan stayed up meditating, suppressed the wine's medicinal power, and tempered his spiritual power at the early stage of the tenth level of Qi Condensation.
• Gong Chenying came to Li Yan's courtyard the next morning, and after they sat together, she asked him to call her A-Ying when they were alone.

Li Yan struggled to understand his feelings for Gong Chenying and Zhao Min as Gong Chenying explained her lifelong bond with Zhao Min and why she had told her about their relationship. Zhao Min, alone at Buli Peak, wondered whether Li Yan could still speak to her as before.

• Li Yan told Gong Chenying that he did not know whether he felt affection for Zhao Min, then declared that Gong Chenying was meant to be his.
• Gong Chenying explained that she and Zhao Min had grown up together and that she had secretly taught Zhao Min the Tianli Clan's body refinement technique.
• Gong Chenying recalled Zhao Min's quiet response to learning about her relationship with Li Yan and worried that Zhao Min was hiding her true feelings.
• Li Yan listened as Gong Chenying described her close but difficult-to-understand friendship with Zhao Min.
• At Buli Peak, Zhao Min questioned why Li Yan's relationship with Gong Chenying troubled her and wondered whether he would still talk to her as before.

Li Yan and Gong Chenying shared a shy conversation before she revealed she would enter seclusion to advance her cultivation. Before leaving, she offered to teach him the Tianli Clan’s secret Qiongqi Purgatory technique, leaving him stunned.

• Miao Wangqing teased Li Wuyi for pretending to be drunk and suspected he was preoccupied with Li Changting.
• Gong Chenying told Li Yan she would enter seclusion because the True Essence Pill’s remaining medicinal power might help her reach the false core stage.
• Li Yan and Gong Chenying awkwardly addressed each other by their intimate names and shared a shy moment.
• Gong Chenying told Li Yan that she planned to enter seclusion for up to a year and asked whether he wanted to learn Qiongqi Purgatory.
• Li Yan was astonished by the offer of the Tianli Clan’s supreme Body Refinement technique, which he had recently hoped to acquire.

Gong Chenying explained the origins and inheritance rules of the Tianli Clan’s Qiongqi Purgatory Art, including Zhao Min’s ancestor’s sacrifice and Zhao Min’s progress. She then revealed that Li Yan could practice the art because marrying her would make him the Qing’a King.

• Gong Chenying told Li Yan that Zhao Min descended from a Spirit Transformation cultivator who saved the Tianli Clan and whose descendants could inherit the first three levels of Qiongqi Purgatory.
• Gong Chenying explained the art’s nine levels, its strict qualification rules, and that Zhao Min had reached the late stage of the second level.
• Gong Chenying told Li Yan that Zhao Min’s lineage would need to complete dangerous tasks to receive formulas for levels beyond the third.
• Li Yan asked why Gong Chenying could teach him the art, and she reminded him that Lu Zhenyuan had practiced it as the Qing’a King.
• Gong Chenying told Li Yan that he was the Qing’a King because he would marry her.

Li Yan learned that becoming a prospective King Qing'a gave him access to the dangerous Qiongqi Purgatory technique, but required him to face the Tianli Clan’s examination within five years. He chose to cultivate it and nearly collapsed after viewing the first diagram, leaving him to attempt its opening stage under strict limits.

• Gong Chenying explained that Li Yan could cultivate Qiongqi Purgatory only by accepting a Tianli Clan examination within five years, which could cost him his memories, cultivation, or life.
• Gong Chenying explained that Li Yan could instead wait until reaching the middle stage of the Golden Core Realm and marry into the Tianli Clan, but doing so earlier would forfeit his King Qing'a status and the technique.
• Li Yan weighed the risks and decided to learn Qiongqi Purgatory, believing he could find ways to avoid the examination’s worst consequences.
• Gong Chenying passed Li Yan a jade slip containing the first layer and warned him that he must master its first three lines without forcing himself.
• Li Yan viewed a diagram in the jade slip for three breaths before withdrawing his Divine Sense, pale and drenched in sweat.
• Gong Chenying explained that the first diagram tested aptitude and warned Li Yan to attempt it for no more than seven days, since failure or repeated attempts could shatter his meridians or kill him.

After recovering from the secret realm and stabilizing his cultivation, Li Yan discovered that three months had passed and began arranging his reward, market visit, and next attempt to cultivate the Qiongqi Purgatory technique. The chapter ended with him flying toward Laojun Peak on one of Miao Zhengyi’s swords while struggling with its heavy spiritual-power cost.

• Gong Chenying warned Li Yan to destroy the jade slip if he failed to master the Qiongqi Purgatory technique within seven days, then left his courtyard.
• Li Yan ate, rested for a full day, and entered seclusion to stabilize his cultivation after advancing to the early tenth layer of the Qi Condensation Realm.
• Three months later, Li Yan emerged from seclusion with enlarged spiritual power vats and a state of mind synchronized with his realm, allowing him to cast the Cleansing Rain Art with ease.
• Li Yan read messages about the secret realm reward ceremony and Lin Daqiao’s market invitation, then planned to collect three hundred spirit stones and sell his surplus items.
• Li Yan messaged Li Wuyi that he would not visit before another seclusion, then flew toward Laojun Peak on one of Miao Zhengyi’s mid-grade artifact swords and found that it consumed spiritual power rapidly.

Li Yan received a lavish sect reward after Elder Peng tried to persuade him to let Elder Mei study his Fragmented Poison Body, then returned to seclusion to prepare to cultivate Qiongqi Purgatory. Zhao Min received Li Yan’s message and resumed a strange body-refining posture as Li Yan began studying the art’s mnemonic verse.

• Li Yan learned that Elder Mei wanted to research his Fragmented Poison Body, but he refused to become an experimental subject despite Elder Peng’s persuasion.
• Elder Peng gave Li Yan two thousand low-grade spirit stones, three bottles of Spring Sun Pills, ten Ghost Chariot Talismans, and a chance to learn an intermediate-grade cultivation method or immortal art.
• Li Yan messaged Lin Daqiao, Gong Chenying, and Zhao Min, then returned to his cultivation chamber after hearing back only from Zhao Min.
• Zhao Min read Li Yan’s brief message, set aside his token, and resumed cultivating in a posture resembling a movement Li Yan had seen in a jade slip.
• Li Yan took out the Qiongqi Purgatory jade slip and focused on the three lines of mnemonic verse beneath its first illustration.

Da Cen and Mo Qing discussed Li Yan’s role in defeating the three sects’ secret plot and the mystery of his unusually powerful cultivation despite his mixed spiritual roots. They then learned that the Yin Demon Cliff fissure was producing more Yin Demon manifestations and decided to investigate while alerting the other groups.

• Mo Qing told Da Cen that Li Yan had broken the three sects’ scheme, and Da Cen confirmed Li Yan had mixed spiritual roots but abnormally vast, condensed spiritual power.
• Da Cen and Mo Qing speculated that Li Yan’s Fragmented Poison Body had altered his meridians, and Da Cen decided he should continue cultivating the Myriad Yuan Art.
• Mo Qing described how Copper Ghost Beast had trapped the three sects’ cultivators without spiritual power and used illusions to make them eat and sleep until they became bloated.
• Mo Qing reported that the Yin Demon Cliff fissure had begun expanding and producing at least thirty percent more Yin Demon manifestations.
• Da Cen ordered that Fuyao and the Demon Cultivators be contacted, while Mo Qing volunteered to go to Yin Demon Cliff and investigate.

Li Yan struggles to cultivate the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, enduring severe pain and repeatedly forgetting its incantation after each failure. With his supplies depleted and only two days left to master it, he travels to Ping Tu’s hidden chamber to recover faster and asks Ping Tu to hear him out.

• Li Yan attempts the Qiongqi Purgatory Art’s opening posture and circulation, suffering excruciating pain before collapsing and forgetting the incantation.
• Over five days, Li Yan repeatedly fails, exhausts his recovery pills, and loses the art’s instructions from memory after each painful setback.
• Li Yan realizes he can recover in Ping Tu’s hidden chamber, copies the jade slip’s contents, and uses the crystal to return to the secret realm.
• Ping Tu’s manifested face appears in the hidden chamber and teases Li Yan for arriving in only his shorts.
• Li Yan explains that he is cultivating a body refining art and came to recover, then calls out to Ping Tu before the manifestation disappears.

Li Yan asked Ping Tu to help him assume the posture required to cultivate the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, and Ping Tu confirmed that the technique reshaped the body's foundations through ancient beast forms. Ping Tu forced Li Yan into the posture as his body suffered horrific injuries, and the chapter ended with Li Yan jolted awake after several ribs burst through his flesh.

• Li Yan asked Ping Tu for help overcoming the difficulty of cultivating the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, and Ping Tu explained its rare form-based method of bodily transformation.
• Ping Tu examined Li Yan's jade-slip diagram, recognized the technique as a precious middle-grade heaven-tier method, and warned him to keep it secret.
• Li Yan began the cultivation posture while Ping Tu watched, then used his spiritual power to pin and reshape Li Yan's body while repairing the damage.
• Li Yan endured escalating pain as he struggled to keep the formula circulating, but his awareness began to fade.
• Ping Tu forced Li Yan into the required form, breaking several ribs through his flesh, then stopped the bleeding and shocked Li Yan back to awareness.

Li Yan completed the first circulation of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, enduring extreme pain as the technique expelled impurities and began reconnecting his broken ribs. Ping Tu marveled at the art’s effects, then threw Li Yan out of the secret chamber when the foul grime coating him made it unbearable to stay.

• Ping Tu urged Li Yan to circulate the Qiongqi Purgatory Art and carefully pushed his broken rib fragments back into their wounds.
• Li Yan forced his spiritual power through the art’s tiny meridians, and the pain in his body gradually eased as he completed the circulation.
• Ping Tu watched impurities seep from Li Yan’s skin and saw strands begin to reconnect the tips of his broken ribs.
• Li Yan finished the first circulation and celebrated, but Ping Tu expelled him from the secret chamber because he stank of grime.
• Li Yan landed in his cultivation room, discovered the greasy gray filth covering him, and went to wash while laughing through his pain.

After Zhao Min left, Li Yan spent another month cultivating before Lin Daqiao invited him to visit a cultivators’ market with Wen Xinliang. Li Yan met the two senior brothers at Small Bamboo Peak’s passage, and they set off together.

• Zhao Min silently nodded to Li Yan and flew away at dawn, and Li Yan later returned along the bamboo path.
• A month later, Li Yan received Lin Daqiao’s messages inviting him to the market with Wen Xinliang and agreed to join them.
• Li Yan gathered the Storage Pouches he wanted to deal with and left Small Bamboo Peak through its bamboo passage.
• Li Yan met Lin Daqiao and Wen Xinliang, and Wen Xinliang explained that the passage served as Small Bamboo Peak’s simple mountain gate.
• Lin Daqiao urged Li Yan and Wen Xinliang to stop talking and begin their journey to the market.

Li Yan left Phantom Sect with Wen Xinliang and Lin Daqiao for the first time and was stunned by the sect’s immense mountain gate and hidden formations. On the way to the market, Lin Daqiao described their profitable training trip and revealed that they also carried Storage Pouches taken from people they had killed, leaving Li Yan uneasy about the dangers of their dealings.

• Wen Xinliang arranged to report Li Yan’s departure to Second Senior Brother, and the three flew toward Phantom Sect’s mountain gate on Wen Xinliang’s purple butterfly artifact.
• Li Yan crossed the mountain gate, felt his waist token respond to the sect’s protective forces, and was awed by the towering gateway and shifting peaks behind it.
• Wen Xinliang and Lin Daqiao remarked on Li Yan’s cultivation progress and stable concealed aura as he recovered from the shock of seeing the sect from outside.
• Lin Daqiao explained that he and Wen Xinliang were heading to the market to sell gains from several months of training, including demonic beasts and medicinal herbs.
• Wen Xinliang prompted Lin Daqiao to reveal several Storage Pouches hidden in his robe, and Li Yan realized they had taken them by killing people and seizing their belongings.