Chapter Summaries

Li Yan reached Yellow Springs City disguised as Chihan, learned that Zhao Min’s group had fled into dangerous territory, and set out to find them before a powerful ghost cultivator could catch them. As Li Yan followed traces of the group, Zhao Min and the surviving cultivators continued struggling through a deadly rain of rocks, with signs suggesting they might be nearing its edge.

• Li Yan used Chihan’s appearance to question four Nascent Soul ghost cultivators in Yellow Springs City and learned the likely direction Zhao Min’s group had taken.
• Li Yan left the city quickly after learning that a Body Integration Realm ghost cultivator had been dispatched, then searched the wilderness using the Heart-Tangling Twin-Bloom Gu and traces of magical attacks.
• Li Yan confirmed that the traces came from cultivators of the two sects and continued searching through the dangerous terrain, repeatedly changing course to avoid danger.
• Zhao Min and the surviving members of the two sects pressed onward through a rain of rocks, with only twenty-seven still able to move and defend themselves.
• A cultivator from the Life Extinction Sect observed that the rain of rocks was thinning and suggested they might be approaching the edge of the region.

Zhao Min’s body faltered while the cultivators fought through the storm of stones, but she sensed Li Yan through the Heart-Tangling Twin-Bloom Gu and realized he had come. Li Yan detected her presence and rushed toward her, while Han Baiyi tracked the group and suspected their arrival was connected to a mysterious cultivator.

• Zhao Min’s strength gave out as she defended against the falling boulders, and Gong Chenying took over while checking her condition.
• The other cultivators rushed to help Zhao Min, but she recovered enough to tell Gong Chenying that she had sensed Li Yan’s arrival.
• Li Yan stopped during his search, sensed Zhao Min through the Heart-Tangling Twin-Bloom Gu, and flew toward her.
• Han Baiyi tracked the group through the storm and recalled the Nether Emperor’s order to capture the Immortal Spirit Realm cultivators.
• Han Baiyi suspected the Nether Emperor learned of the group through the mysterious cultivator he had previously allowed to pass.

Han Baiyi used Six Kaoli Reversal to track Zhao Min and her companions through the dangerous stone-rain region, closing to within three hundred li. Zhao Min then warned the group that Senior Li of the Wangliang Sect was approaching, and Bai Rou stopped their puppet.

• Han Baiyi learned that Yellow Springs City’s pursuit had failed and angrily blamed the ghost cultivators for letting the fugitives escape.
• Han Baiyi entered the perilous stone-rain region and used Six Kaoli Reversal to follow the auras of about thirty cultivators.
• Han Baiyi traced the group’s winding route and determined that they had passed through the area no more than four days earlier.
• Han Baiyi closed to within three hundred li of Zhao Min and the others as they halted after Zhao Min announced Senior Li’s approach.
• Bai Rou stopped the ancient ape puppet, and Zi Kun sprang up excitedly while the others hesitated over whether to believe Zhao Min.

Li Yan reached Zhao Min and the surviving cultivators just before Han Baiyi could catch them, then rescued them and vanished into the stone rain. Han Baiyi arrived at the abandoned site and lost his tracking creatures after they were poisoned, leaving him unable to follow.

• Zhao Min told the gathered cultivators that Senior Li was her husband, reassuring them that he would come for them.
• Li Yan sensed Zhao Min nearby, suspected an Integration-stage pursuer was approaching, and hurried toward her group while concealing his aura.
• Zhao Min warned that the thunderous approach might belong to an enemy, but Li Yan appeared, shielded the group, and told them to stop attacking.
• Li Yan gathered Zhao Min, Gong Chenying, Zi Kun, and the other survivors, then escaped amid the explosive light and stone rain.
• Han Baiyi reached the area Li Yan had left behind and used his six rump-raccoon ghost creatures to search for a trail.
• The rump-raccoon ghost creatures were poisoned during the search, so Han Baiyi treated and stored them, losing his means of tracking the group.

Li Yan escaped Han Baiyi’s pursuit by staging evidence that he and the other cultivators had died in the stone rain, then made his way toward Yellow Springs City in disguise. He reached the city’s outskirts but paused to observe the nearby ghost cultivators before entering.

• Han Baiyi sent kaoli ghost creatures to investigate the traces in the stone rain, but Li Yan’s poison injured them and ruined their tracking.
• Han Baiyi concluded that the Nascent Soul cultivators had died and left the stone rain, unaware that Li Yan had escaped.
• Li Yan concealed his departure by crushing magical treasures, scattering flesh and blood, and releasing poison among the stones.
• Li Yan followed his hidden markings through the dangerous region toward Yellow Springs City while watching for Han Baiyi’s Divine Sense.
• Li Yan reached Yellow Springs City, disguised himself as a young ghost cultivator at the mid-stage Nascent Soul Realm, and observed the area before entering.

Li Yan narrowly avoided detection by Han Baiyi while escaping Yellow Springs City disguised as a ghost cultivator. Back in the city, Han Baiyi learned that Chihan had come on the Nether Emperor’s orders and demanded to know why he had not been told.

• Li Yan spotted a Spirit Transformation cultivator meditating behind an array, but sensed Han Baiyi’s Divine Sense and fled deeper into the dangerous lands.
• Han Baiyi searched the area without recognizing Li Yan’s disguise, then returned to Yellow Springs City.
• Li Yan reflected that his disguise could fool most ghost cultivators but would fail if Han Baiyi scrutinized him closely, and hurried to find an escape route before his deception was exposed.
• Han Baiyi summoned the Void Refinement cultivators on duty, scolded them, and ordered Feng Liang to notify the first level of Shura Hell and investigate the missing Nascent Soul cultivators’ souls.
• Feng Liang told Han Baiyi that Chihan had visited Yellow Springs City under the Nightfall Nether Emperor’s orders, prompting Han Baiyi to ask when Chihan had arrived.

Han Baiyi instructed Feng Liang and the others to let Chihan investigate the dangerous region, while Li Yan captured a Spirit Transformation cultivator and used Soul Search to learn more. Inside Tuban, the rescued cultivators waited anxiously for Li Yan, who finally appeared before them.

• Han Baiyi told Feng Liang to let Chihan investigate and to report the findings to him only if the group encountered a problem.
• Li Yan used Prison Break to shatter an array, captured the concealed Spirit Transformation cultivator, and stored him inside Tuban.
• Li Yan performed Soul Search on the captured cultivator, then left to return to the group inside Tuban.
• The Phantom Sect and Life-Extinguishing Sect cultivators recovered and waited for Li Yan while Zhao Min, Bai Rou, Gong Chenying, and Zi Kun reacted with relief at his return.
• Li Yan appeared above the gathered cultivators, and they greeted him reverently.

Li Yan explained to the stranded cultivators that someone had engineered their fall into the underworld, then assessed the dangers in Yellow Springs City and chose the Nightwalker Sect as a possible route home. Disguised as a spirit transformation cultivator, he entered the city without drawing attention.

• Li Yan told Zhao Min, Gong Chenying, Bai Rou, Zi Kun, and the other cultivators that a powerful Netherworld being had helped arrange their predicament, and urged them to recover while he sought a way out.
• The stranded cultivators reacted with anger at the plot, while Zhao Min and Gong Chenying inferred that Li Yan had entered serious danger in Yellow Springs City.
• Li Yan used information from Soul Search to learn about the city's many powerful residents and sect-specific spatial formations, then identified the Nightwalker Sect as a comparatively safe target.
• Li Yan considered taking Zhao Min and Gong Chenying to the North Pasture Realm but rejected the idea because he still needed to rescue the others and explain their disappearance to their sects.
• Li Yan erased a spirit transformation cultivator's divine sense marks, took his belongings and identity token, and used a Reality-Muddling Pill to impersonate him.
• Li Yan passed the guards and entered Yellow Springs City without attracting notice.

Li Yan struggled to find a way to investigate the Nightwalker Sect and evade discovery in Yellow Springs City. After failing to find an opening among the city’s sects, he decided to return to his assumed sect and seek a route to the Jieyou Realm, but a fellow disciple recognized him as Senior Brother Liang.

• Li Yan passed the closed gates of the Nightwalker Sect and found no safe way to observe or infiltrate it.
• Li Yan worried that the Nether Emperor might discover Chihan’s impersonation and expose his presence in Yellow Springs City.
• Li Yan decided to investigate the other five Cangxuan Realm sects and, if necessary, escape to another realm to protect his group.
• Li Yan visited more than twenty sects but found no solitary disciples to question, and the five Cangxuan Realm sects remained closed.
• Li Yan decided to return to his assumed sect and seek a route to the Jieyou Realm.
• A short young man recognized Li Yan as Senior Brother Liang, and Li Yan claimed he had returned after hitting a bottleneck.

Li Yan, impersonating Liang, agreed to attend a Little Ghost Market after learning that cultivators from several realms would gather there. He arrived with Ji and began sizing up the attendees for a chance to contact ghost cultivators and find a way out of Yellow Springs City.

• Ji invited Li Yan to the Little Ghost Market, and Li Yan agreed after hearing that it would include cultivators from other realms.
• On the way, Li Yan questioned Ji about the guests and identified a sect he considered a potential target.
• Li Yan and Ji paid fifty high-grade spirit stones each to enter the courtyard Wang had rented for the gathering.
• Wang welcomed Li Yan and Ji, while a green-robed old man made a cutting remark about Wang's hospitality.
• Li Yan joined the other guests and stayed quiet to avoid exposing that he was impersonating Liang.

At a gathering in Yellow Springs City, Li Yan used a trade to approach Hu, a cultivator from the Nightwalker Sect, whom he hoped to lure into a private deal for corpse-related materials. After exchanging a three-hundred-year Flower of the Other Shore for Hu’s corpse leg bone, Li Yan proposed another transaction, and Hu weighed where to meet.

• Wang welcomed the seventeen cultivators and introduced them to one another at the gathering.
• Li Yan offered Hu a three-hundred-year Flower of the Other Shore for a section of four-thousand-year-old corpse leg bone, and Hu accepted the trade.
• Li Yan refused other offers and completed the exchange with Hu, then watched to see whether Hu would leave.
• Li Yan privately told Hu he had a magic treasure from a Netherworld yin ghost and asked whether Hu had more corpse-related materials to trade.
• Hu proposed meeting in a room behind the courtyard, but Li Yan suggested meeting after the gathering at his sect or at a tavern instead.

Li Yan arranged a private trade with the cultivator surnamed Hu, while checking whether his impersonation of Chi Han had been discovered. At the tavern, Li Yan ambushed Hu and captured him, as fierce ghosts in Shura Hell struggled to locate both Chi Han and Fan Nan.

• Li Yan agreed to meet the cultivator surnamed Hu privately and left the Ghost Market after speaking with Junior Brother Ji.
• Li Yan checked the city gate and teleportation palace, then went to Immortal Hall while hoping his impersonation of Chi Han would remain undiscovered.
• Fierce ghosts in the great prison found that Chi Han had vanished and Fan Nan remained inside the dungeon, while Fengdu City demanded the Flowers of the Other Shore.
• Li Yan entered Room Yimu, activated an additional isolation formation, and struck the unsuspecting Hu before he could react.
• Li Yan placed Hu in Tuban and preserved his life imprint as the fierce ghosts called for Fan Nan outside the dungeon.

Li Yan continued searching Fan Nan’s memories while the disappearance of Fan Nan and Chihan alarmed the prison guards and brought Nether Emperor Yeluo to investigate. Yeluo ordered a search for the missing Void Refinement cultivator, then confronted Qingye about anyone who had recently passed toward Netherworld City.

• Li Yan continued the Soul Search on Fan Nan and analyzed what he learned about the Nightwalker Sect and the passage to the Yang Realm.
• When Fan Nan and Chihan failed to answer their voice transmission talismans, the prison guards split up to check their cave residences and report the situation.
• Yeluo arrived at the prison, learned that Fan Nan and Chihan were missing, and ordered an immediate search for the cultivator who had disappeared months earlier.
• Yeluo ordered the four Nether Kings to bring back cultivators on missions and warned everyone to keep the disappearance secret.
• Yeluo confronted Qingye and asked whether anyone had passed through toward Netherworld City, but Qingye challenged his authority.

Ye Luo learned that Qing Ye had briefly left Soulfall Mountain and rushed to Yellow Springs City, where he discovered that someone impersonating Chi Han had passed through the spatial passage. Li Yan had entered the Nightwalker Sect while disguised as Hu, and Ye Luo ordered the city sealed as he began pursuing the fugitive.

• Ye Luo questioned Qing Ye about travel between Soulfall Mountain and Yellow Springs City, then learned Qing Ye had left his post for a few breaths about fourteen hours earlier.
• Li Yan entered the Nightwalker Sect disguised as the cultivator surnamed Hu and headed toward a heavily guarded area despite sensing danger.
• Ye Luo appeared at the Yellow Springs City spatial passage and asked its guards whether anyone had recently arrived from Asura Prison.
• A guard reported that someone claiming to be Chi Han had arrived hours earlier and said he was inspecting Nascent Soul Cultivators.
• Ye Luo realized the supposed Chi Han was an impostor who had left the city, then ordered the gates closed, transportation passages to the Yang Realm shut, and recent departures investigated.

Ye Luo ordered Yellow Springs City's sects to investigate anyone transmitted back to the Yang Realm, while Li Yan infiltrated the Nightwalker Sect to escape through its spatial passage. Qiu Zhongnuo detected Li Yan's intrusion and attacked just as Li Yan entered the passage, leaving him trapped under a crushing force.

• Ye Luo feared Li Yan had escaped Shura Hell and ordered every sect to check records of transmissions to the Yang Realm from the past day.
• Qiu Zhongnuo received Ye Luo's order while cultivating with ten red-haired ghosts and inferred that someone had escaped from the first level of Shura Hell.
• Li Yan entered the Nightwalker Sect's transmission room, poisoned its two guards, and found tokens for passage through the formation.
• Qiu Zhongnuo sensed an unfamiliar restriction blocking his Divine Sense and realized someone had broken into the transmission room.
• Li Yan hurried toward the spatial passage, but Qiu Zhongnuo shattered his barrier and pinned him in midair with a powerful suppressive force.

Li Yan escaped Yellow Springs City by breaking Qiu Zhongnuo’s prison seal and sabotaging the teleportation array, then impersonated Hu to pass the Nightwalker Sect’s guards. He fled the sect and hid in a deep-sea cave, where he began searching Hu’s memories to learn his location.

• Li Yan broke Qiu Zhongnuo’s spell, teleported away, and damaged the array, leaving Qiu Zhongnuo unable to pursue him through the passage.
• Li Yan arrived at the Nightwalker Sect and deceived four Spirit Transformation cultivators by claiming he had urgent business for Uncle-Master Zheng.
• Li Yan left the sect without raising suspicion, then fled for six days while changing direction and altering his aura.
• Li Yan reached an azure sea, concealed himself in a cave on the ocean floor, and returned to his original appearance.
• Li Yan summoned the unconscious Hu and began another Soul Search to determine where he was.

Li Yan escaped deeper into the Ghost Domain and used Hu’s memories to establish a route toward safety, while the Phantom Sect and Extinction Sect struggled to uncover the source of the disappearances. He reached the outskirts of Changxing Market but diverted into a desolate valley, still traveling cautiously.

• Li Yan examined Hu’s memories and suspected a high-ranking Yin-Yang Chaos Sect cultivator had orchestrated the attack, while keeping Hu alive for his value.
• The woman in purple palace robes considered whether the Netherworld’s underworld was behind the disappearances as the Phantom Sect and Extinction Sect investigated traces of pure Netherworld laws.
• Li Yan left the seabed, compared the terrain with Hu’s memories, and confirmed his precise location on the third day.
• Li Yan traveled at full speed and, three and a half months later, spotted Changxing Market and recognized that he had found the correct route.
• Li Yan veered toward a desolate valley four thousand li from Changxing Market after realizing he had reached the sparsely traveled region between the ghost sects and the outside world.

Li Yan emerged from the Underworld into the normal Immortal Realm and released the cultivators he had sheltered, assuring them they had escaped Yellow Springs City. The rescued cultivators celebrated and thanked him, while Zhao Min, Gong Chenying, Bai Rou, and Zi Kun privately received his voice transmissions.

• Li Yan reached a valley in the Immortal Realm, concealed himself, and set up a restriction around the area.
• The cultivators sheltered inside Tuban worried over Li Yan’s long silence, while Zhao Min, Gong Chenying, and Zi Kun privately discussed his mysterious spatial treasure.
• Li Yan told the cultivators it was safe, transported them into a patch of reeds, and announced they had returned to the Immortal-Spirit Realm.
• The cultivators rejoiced at seeing sunlight and sensing normal spiritual energy, and Li Yan reassured them that none had been harmed.
• A Miesheng Sect cultivator knelt to thank Li Yan, and the others followed, grateful that he had brought every rescued cultivator back rather than sacrificing them to escape.

After returning from the Netherworld, Li Yan brought the survivors toward the Wangliang Sect and revealed that a Netherworld expert had targeted their expedition, planting pressure on both sects to investigate. Three years later, Li Zhaoyan resolved to travel toward the Ghost Domain with other concerned cultivators to search for news of Li Yan and her family despite the sect’s lockdown.

• Li Yan explained that the eighteen surviving Life Extinction Sect disciples would travel with the Wangliang Sect group, and he told them that Elder Chu and all the expedition’s Spirit Transformation cultivators might have died.
• Li Yan revealed that a Netherworld expert had targeted the expedition and left clues for the survivors, hoping their families and sects would push for an investigation.
• Li Yan stored the cultivators in Tuban, left a jade slip beside the recovering Bu Luo, and set off alone for the Wangliang Sect.
• Three years later, Li Zhaoyan asked Wei Zhongran for permission to search near the Ghost Domain after the sect rejected her request to go there.
• Li Zhaoyan told Wei Zhongran that she would join other cultivators searching the surrounding area, while the sect continued to bar them from entering the sealed region.

Li Yan returned to the Phantom Sect with dozens of surviving Nascent Soul cultivators and reported that the Netherworld underworld had targeted the two sects’ disciples at the behest of someone from the Immortal-Spirit Realm. He left the Sect Master and seven Fusion Realm elders with captured witnesses and evidence, while Wei Zhongran and Li Zhaoyan learned that he had returned safely.

• Wei Zhongran agreed to accompany Li Zhaoyan to investigate her missing parents, but their sect tokens flashed red with news that Li Yan and the others had returned.
• Li Yan arrived at Laojun Peak with dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators, and the Phantom Sect Master gathered elders from both sects to question him.
• Li Yan told the Sect Master and seven Fusion Realm elders that the Netherworld underworld had attacked the disciples after someone from the Immortal-Spirit Realm enlisted a Nether Emperor.
• Li Yan produced two ghost cultivators and two Ghost Kings who could confirm that the Nether Emperor had ordered the pursuit and that Immortal-Spirit Realm cultivators had approached him.
• Li Yan explained how he had escaped Shura Hell while withholding confidential details, and the elders recognized the importance of his account and evidence.