Chapter Summaries

Li Yan questioned the Polar Ice Heart about nurturing the Merging Shoot and its plans for growth and ascension. He left the Polar Ice Heart in a cave with the Merging Shoot under threat, while considering how he might benefit from their future symbiosis.

• Li Yan learned that the Merging Shoot could reach three inches and five fen in about five hundred years if it grew symbiotically with the Polar Ice Heart.
• The Polar Ice Heart explained that it could grow faster than the Merging Shoot, described their possible limits, and said it planned to wait until it was stronger before leaving the ice plains.
• Li Yan concluded that the Polar Ice Heart's distinctive ice abilities would attract dangerous attention if it traveled outside the ice plains.
• Li Yan ordered the Polar Ice Heart to recover and nurture the Merging Shoot, threatening to destroy it if anything went wrong and promising possible freedom if it obeyed.
• Li Yan left the cave, considering that he could later take another section of the Polar Ice Heart and use it with the Merging Shoot.

Li Yan moved glacier ice, snow, and the Snow Mosquito clan into Tuban’s far north, then left the dangerous ice plain after confirming his retreat route was safe. More than three years later, he reached the Soul-Suppressing Palace, where Elder Hao and Master Lan had arrived with the Soul Prison Clan and revealed the connection to the upper-realm sect.

• Li Yan moved glacier ice and snow into Tuban, where the red lightning arcs quickly vanished, and observed the changes in the new ice plain.
• Li Yan retreated from the glacial gorge, refined the red lightning arcs in his sea of consciousness, and stayed to monitor Tuban’s relocated ice and Snow Mosquitoes.
• After a year, Li Yan moved the entire Snow Mosquito clan to Tuban’s far north, where they swarmed across the ice plain.
• More than three years later, Li Yan found the Soul-Suppressing Palace and learned that Elder Hao and Master Lan had brought the Soul Prison Clan there.
• Elder Hao presented a token from the first-generation old sect master, and the lower-realm Soul-Suppressing Palace verified it and learned the upper-realm sect’s history.

Elder Hao and Master Lan forced the lower-realm Soul-Suppressing Palace to accept that it must return to the Soul Prison Clan, using their strength and ruthless punishments to crush resistance. Elder Hao announced that the Great Ancestor’s successor would arrive to preside over the sacrificial ceremony, leaving the sect shocked that the successor was still alive.

• Elder Hao revealed his Soul-Suppressing Palace token and used the Third Ancestor’s soul arts to prove his inheritance and intimidate the lower-realm cultivators.
• Elder Hao declared that Soul-Suppressing Palace would remain only as an outward-facing name and that its members would return to the Soul Prison Clan; Sikong Lai and others displayed the Second Ancestor’s token and their related techniques.
• Master Lan killed rebellious disciples and secretly marked their blood relatives, while the Grand Elder and sect master killed descendants who continued to harbor hatred.
• Elder Hao explained that the return fulfilled the Third Ancestor’s final wish, and the Grand Elder accepted that the lower-realm sect had to obey the ancestral instructions.
• Elder Hao postponed the sacrificial ceremony and announced that the Great Ancestor’s successor would arrive to preside over it, astonishing the disciples and the Grand Elder.

Li Yan and Elder Hao completed the reunification of the three branches into the Soul Prison Clan and organized its people, territory, and resources. Li Yan left clan management to Elder Hao and decided to keep the Soul Sect and his Dao Companions uninvolved until the clan was stronger.

• Elder Hao held a sacrificial ceremony with Li Yan, and the three branches formally reunited as the Soul Prison Clan.
• Li Yan reassured Sikong Lai that his clan had made the right choice, while Sikong Lai recognized that Elder Hao had been ready to kill the entire sect if it resisted.
• Li Yan visited Dai Yun and the others, learned that Elder Hao had given the branches abundant resources, and reorganized Great Ancestor's branch.
• Li Yan and Elder Hao adjusted the clan's leadership and assignments to bind the three branches together, while Elder Hao agreed to handle management.
• Li Yan refused to bring his Dao Companions into the clan or tell them about the Soul Sect until the Dizhen Domain had several more Body Integration Realm cultivators.

Li Yan learned why Elder Hao had purged dissenters from the Soul Prison Clan and heard that Elder Hao and Master Lan would stay behind to stabilize the lower realm and study its cultivation arts. After leaving the clan, Li Yan began searching the Northern Ice Continent for sects tied to the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect.

• Li Yan learned that Liu Xuan and other dissenters from the Great Ancestor's branch had been killed and sent to reincarnate after Elder Hao uncovered their private dissatisfaction.
• Elder Hao told Li Yan that he and Master Lan would remain in the lower realm for years to stabilize the Soul Prison Clan, study its founders' techniques, and strengthen the formations.
• Li Yan explained that his contract with the Blood-Eyed Toad required him to return to the upper realm, and Elder Hao gave him four jade bottles containing two deadly soul poisons and their antidotes.
• Five days later, Li Yan secretly left the Soul Prison Clan after promising to visit Dizhen Domain when his obligation was complete.
• Li Yan concealed his identity and traveled around the Northern Ice Continent to investigate sects connected to the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect.

Li Yan mapped the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect’s outposts on the Northern Ice Continent but avoided confronting them, choosing to preserve his hidden plans and buy time. He traveled toward the Desolate Moon Continent to bring his Second Senior Brother and Fourth Senior Sister to the upper realm, continuing his cultivation research along the way.

• Li Yan recorded the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect’s outposts and decided not to destroy them, since doing so could expose the Five Immortal Sects’ plans and interfere with his allies’ arrangements.
• Li Yan sensed a dangerous aura within a first-rate sect, concluded it likely belonged to the expert who had descended with Xiao Yunzong, and withdrew without investigating further.
• Li Yan abandoned his plan to seek out Elder Hao and kill the expert, reasoning that the expert’s search for Xiao Yunzong would delay a report to the upper realm.
• Li Yan traveled across the lower realm to the Lost Continent, intending to take his Second Senior Brother and Fourth Senior Sister to the Immortal-Spirit Realm.
• Li Yan continued carefully deducing the Void Refinement Realm Sacred Soul Transformation art and cultivating his Five Elements arts, though he had not completed a single Lesser Celestial Circuit.

Li Yan arrived in Holy Devil City and left southeast, planning to continue toward Qingqing Continent and return to Desolate Moon Continent. Unbeknownst to him, Zhu Hongyi and Yan He recognized him and secretly marked him while pursuing clues about the Five Immortals Sect.

• Li Yan arrived in Holy Devil City by teleportation and planned to leave without visiting the city's core.
• Li Yan flew southeast toward the city walls, intending to travel onward toward the cross-realm teleportation array to Qingqing Continent.
• Zhu Hongyi and Yan He recognized Li Yan in the crowd and Zhu Hongyi secretly placed a tracking mark on him.
• Zhu Hongyi and Yan He discussed keeping watch for Li Yan's fellow sect members as they followed him through the crowd.
• Zhu Hongyi's investigation into Amuer had led him and Yan He from Luo Gucheng to the Mortal Realm in search of the Five Immortals Sect.

Zhu Hongyi and Yan He spent years tracing Li Yan and Zhao Min’s past, following clues from the Tianlan Grassland to Holy Devil City before identifying Li Yan as their target. They secretly marked him with Shadow-evading powder as he left the city, unaware that their pursuit would bring him fatal trouble.

• Zhu Hongyi and Yan He investigated the Tianlan Tribe’s destruction and concluded that the cultivators they sought had likely come from elsewhere and included powerful body cultivators.
• After finding no useful clues on the Lost Continent, Zhu Hongyi and Yan He searched Holy Devil City but avoided provoking the Holy Devil Palace and found little information about Zhao Min or Zhang Ming.
• Zhu Hongyi and Yan He prepared to leave Holy Devil City and continue their search among Human Race sects, which might eventually lead them to Falling Star Valley.
• Zhu Hongyi and Yan He recognized Li Yan as their target and secretly dusted him with scarce Shadow-evading powder as they passed him.
• Li Yan left Holy Devil City and looked back at the mountain, recalling his early days there without realizing that Zhu Hongyi and Yan He were tracking him.

Li Yan sensed two powerful souls following him and suspected they belonged to cultivators from the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect. As he tested ways to evade them, Zhu Hongyi and Yan He decided to attack before he could reach the Five Immortals Sect.

• Li Yan’s attempt to circulate the Sacred Soul Transformation caused pain in his Life Soul, and he sensed powerful souls nearby.
• Li Yan used the Soul Awakening Art and detected two powerful pursuers more than ten thousand li behind him.
• Li Yan changed his flight path to test whether the pursuers were tracking him, and they changed direction with him.
• Yan He urged Zhu Hongyi to attack before Li Yan could reach the Five Immortals Sect’s entrance.
• Zhu Hongyi agreed to prepare an attack after Li Yan changed direction toward the southwest.

Li Yan realized that two powerful cultivators were pursuing him and suspected the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect, but he was suddenly ambushed by Zhu Hongyi and Yanhe, two Body Integration sword cultivators. He struggled to withstand their coordinated assault, and the chapter left him wounded and under mounting pressure as they tried to capture him alive.

• Li Yan noticed that two powerful souls changed course with him and concluded that they were targeting him, possibly because of Xiao Yunzong or the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect.
• Zhu Hongyi and Yanhe launched a sudden joint attack as Li Yan tried to investigate Xiao Yunzong inside Tuban.
• Li Yan identified his attackers as two internal-sword cultivators and used the Guiyi Water-Parting Spikes to defend against their relentless flying swords.
• Zhu Hongyi and Yanhe were surprised that Li Yan's treasures and physical defenses withstood their strikes, while Li Yan's Soul-Enticing Kill attempts were repeatedly interrupted.
• The sword attacks pierced Li Yan's defenses and drew blood, but his armor, body, and recovery kept the wounds from becoming immediately fatal as the two continued trying to capture him alive.

Li Yan endured a relentless sword assault from Zhu Hongyi and Yan He, then deliberately released an aura above the Spirit Transformation Realm to trigger the lower realm’s rejection of Heavenly Dao. Zhu Hongyi and Yan He tried to suppress him before the rejection force swept them away, but Li Yan’s plan had already taken effect.

• Zhu Hongyi and Yan He overwhelmed Li Yan with precise sword attacks, leaving him badly wounded and unable to counterattack.
• Li Yan realized the two wanted to capture him alive and obtain the whereabouts of the Five Immortal Sect.
• Li Yan spotted a flaw in their blockade and released an aura above the Spirit Transformation Realm, drawing the world’s rejection force.
• Zhu Hongyi and Yan He recognized the danger and tried to seal Li Yan’s aura and interrupt its release.
• Li Yan continued pouring out his aura as the rejection force gathered, and the two attackers’ desperate suppression came too late.

Li Yan, Zhu Hongyi, and Yan He were forcibly expelled through a mysterious black gate into a perilous spatial passage. As Li Yan was torn apart by invisible spatial severance, he escaped into the “Tuban” space, leaving his avatar outside to protect it.

• A rune-covered black gate opened above the wilderness and pulled Li Yan, Zhu Hongyi, and Yan He away despite their attempts to resist.
• Elderly woman Feng and Shang Hu investigated the vanished cultivators’ chaotic traces, then sensed the Old Devil from the Sacred Demon Palace approaching.
• Li Yan was swept uncontrollably through a dark spatial passage where his right leg and part of his hand were severed by invisible spatial forces.
• Li Yan’s talismans and defenses failed as spatial severance inflicted devastating wounds across his body.
• With his life hanging by a thread, Li Yan switched places with his avatar and fled into the “Tuban” space while the avatar remained to protect it.

Li Yan survived the deadly spatial passage and reached a strange celestial river, where he encountered the badly injured Yan He. After learning Yan He knew his identity, Li Yan launched a sudden attack to kill him before the sword cultivator could retaliate.

• Li Yan replaced his collapsing avatar, endured spatial severing, and used talismans and Five Elements Chaotic Cloak to survive the void’s hazards.
• Li Yan narrowly avoided a spatial rift and nearly eleven hidden black holes before the pulling force stopped and he found himself beside a vast river of turbulent currents.
• Yan He emerged with half his body missing, and Li Yan concealed himself after recognizing the sword cultivator who had helped besiege him.
• Yan He cursed the Five Immortal Sect cultivator and attacked when he sensed Li Yan behind him, but Li Yan struck him with a Black Water Rune and Soul-Dragging Lure Kill.
• Li Yan stabbed toward Yan He’s dantian and reached for his heart as Yan He began breaking the rune, but a sharp voice behind Li Yan shouted, “How dare you!”

Zhu Hongyi escaped a deadly whirlpool in the long river, damaged his flying sword, and found Li Yan attacking Yan He. As Zhu Hongyi and Li Yan exchanged blows, Li Yan killed Yan He but was badly wounded by Zhu Hongyi’s sword strike.

• Zhu Hongyi escaped a whirlpool’s pull by using the Spirit Sword Primordial Unity Technique, but the force damaged his flying sword and Niwan Palace.
• Zhu Hongyi searched along the river and found Li Yan attacking Yan He, whom he believed had been ambushed.
• Zhu Hongyi attacked Li Yan from behind as Li Yan struck Yan He with the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike.
• Li Yan kicked the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike into Yan He, killing him as it pierced through his body.
• Li Yan used Qiongqi to briefly block Zhu Hongyi’s greatsword, but the sword destroyed Qiongqi and shredded Li Yan’s left palm and forearm.

Li Yan killed Yan He but was badly wounded before Zhu Hongyi pressed him with a relentless flying-sword assault. Li Yan kept retreating and defending, searching for an opening as Zhu Hongyi struggled to overcome his formidable body, spiritual power, and Divine Sense.

• Li Yan endured the silver-haired old man's strike and shattered Yan He's Nascent Soul, then retreated while injured.
• Zhu Hongyi saw Yan He collapse and furiously sent his flying sword after Li Yan.
• Li Yan used the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike to block repeated attacks while retreating and suffering wounds from sword qi.
• Zhu Hongyi recognized that Li Yan's cultivation and Divine Sense were far stronger than he had expected, but continued attacking.
• After tens of thousands of exchanges, Zhu Hongyi began to doubt that he could defeat Li Yan without his junior brother's help.

Li Yan reversed the fight against Zhu Hongyi by unleashing Five Elements Return to Primordial Chaos and pressing him with a close-range assault. Zhu Hongyi’s defenses still held, but he nearly got forced into a spatial rift and began to suspect Li Yan had driven him there deliberately.

• Li Yan endured Zhu Hongyi’s sword assault, then used Phoenix Soars to Heaven and a punch strengthened by Qiongqi and Undying Nether Phoenix phantoms to break the attack’s momentum.
• Li Yan closed the distance, regrew his left arm, healed his wounds, and attacked Zhu Hongyi with both Guiyi Water-Parting Spikes.
• Li Yan activated Five Elements Return to Primordial Chaos, greatly increasing his magical power and trapping Zhu Hongyi beneath a relentless close-range barrage.
• Zhu Hongyi defended himself with dozens of flying swords, but Li Yan’s attacks kept him from escaping or counterattacking effectively.
• Li Yan’s assault drove Zhu Hongyi toward a spatial rift, and Zhu Hongyi wondered whether the maneuver had been intentional.

Li Yan used Five Elements Chaotic Cloak and relentless close-range attacks to disrupt Zhu Hongyi’s sword net and worldly power, while suffering devastating injuries from the sword qi. Zhu Hongyi’s defenses began to fail as Li Yan’s technique neared its limit, leaving both fighters close to collapse.

• Zhu Hongyi retreated from the unstable void while Li Yan continued attacking with Five Elements techniques.
• Zhu Hongyi realized Li Yan had used Five Elements Chaotic Cloak to disrupt the laws of heaven and earth and forced his sword net outward to escape.
• Li Yan intensified his attacks and used deadly poison to slow Zhu Hongyi’s flying swords, opening gaps in the sword net.
• Li Yan’s movement speed increased, and his poisoned attacks reached Zhu Hongyi’s bodily defenses, making Zhu Hongyi panic.
• Li Yan endured grave internal injuries from Zhu Hongyi’s sword qi and continued his assault as Five Elements Return to Primordial Chaos neared its end.

Li Yan used the Black Water Rune to inflict severe soul pain on Zhu Hongyi, then struck him with a powerful attack that the God-Slaying Sword blocked. Both men were gravely wounded, and as Zhu Hongyi fell, Li Yan began forming an illusory bow and arrow for another attack.

• Li Yan struck Zhu Hongyi’s barrier with the Black Water Rune, opening gaps in his defenses and tormenting his soul.
• Li Yan drove both fists and Guiyi Water-Parting Spikes into Zhu Hongyi’s abdomen, but a white light from Zhu Hongyi’s Dantian blocked the fatal blow.
• Zhu Hongyi’s Nascent Soul unleashed its God-Slaying Sword, which pierced Li Yan’s chest and abdomen as Li Yan’s attack sent Zhu Hongyi flying.
• Both Li Yan and Zhu Hongyi suffered severe injuries, while the God-Slaying Sword’s infant fire began burning inside Li Yan.
• Li Yan formed a nearly transparent phantom bow and an almost invisible blue arrow as Zhu Hongyi fell.

Li Yan defeated Zhu Hongyi by steering him into a vortex, but the uncontrolled flames and mana in Li Yan’s body left him unconscious and rampaging through the void. After a meteorite beast attacked him and was burned by his flames, Li Yan was hurled through a mysterious crack that closed behind him.

• Zhu Hongyi tried to evade Li Yan’s attacks and take antidote pills, but Li Yan’s arrow triggered the river vortex and swept Zhu Hongyi away.
• The uncontrolled Godslaying Sword struck Li Yan’s shoulder, causing the flames within him to overwhelm his consciousness and send him rampaging through the void.
• After five days, a crocodile-like meteorite beast attacked Li Yan when his mana was exhausted, but its teeth could not penetrate his body.
• Li Yan struck the meteorite beast’s head and burned its mouth with the flames inside him, forcing it to release him and fling him away.
• Li Yan’s unconscious body flew through a crack that opened in the void, and the crack closed after he passed through.

After recovering from her latest failed escape attempt, Mei Hongyu reflected on her tragic past and recalled the mysterious woman who taught her the Wind Brightness Art. Convinced that her imprisonment was only temporary and that she was destined to find her master, she resolved to deduce the next stage of the cultivation method herself.

• Mei Hongyu emerged from seclusion after recovering from injuries sustained in another failed attempt to escape her isolated prison.
• Mei Hongyu remembered losing her husband and son, then recalled how a mysterious woman had taught her the Wind Brightness Art and predicted she would seek her out one day.
• Mei Hongyu realized the woman's words suggested that her mortal ties and present imprisonment were temporary, and she abandoned her thoughts of suicide.
• Mei Hongyu decided to cultivate on and deduce the Wind Brightness Art beyond the Nascent Soul Realm, then prepared to return to the cave.