Chapter Summaries

Li Yan and the others entered the city and found a ruined military camp where they had expected streets and buildings. Shuang Qingqing identified a trapping formation sealing the route ahead, and the group discovered that flying triggered its suppression as the sky darkened.

• Li Yan, Shuang Qingqing, Yin Kongjin, and Fang Xianhu passed through the city gate passage without being attacked.
• The group saw a vast, desolate military camp of ruined tents and banners, with buildings hidden among mountains nearly three hundred li away.
• Li Yan suggested the city had been a frontier garrison, and the group decided to investigate the camp together.
• After they advanced along the dirt road, the gate passage blurred and Shuang Qingqing identified a defensive Beacon Smoke Formation with an aerial restriction.
• Shuang Qingqing explained that retreating would not let them reach the city beyond, so the others tested the aerial restriction by rising into the air.
• Li Yan returned safely to the ground, while Yin Kongjin and Fang Xianhu were forced down as thunder sounded and the sky darkened.

Li Yan, Shuang Qingqing, Yin Kongjin, and Fang Xianhu survived the military camp formation’s lightning attack and agreed to search separately for two days. Li Yan began inspecting an abandoned tent, where he found signs of a fierce battle but no clear treasure.

• Yin Kongjin and Fang Xianhu blocked the formation’s lightning bolts with their magic treasures after Li Yan and Shuang Qingqing dodged aside.
• Yin Kongjin proposed that the four split up, search separate areas of the military camp, and meet at its far exit in two days.
• Shuang Qingqing and Li Yan chose opposite sides of the dirt road, while Yin Kongjin and Fang Xianhu also departed separately.
• Li Yan slowed down among the scattered tents and began searching the encampment closely.
• Li Yan entered a damaged tent and found broken weapons, arrows, and holes in the canvas that suggested a fierce battle had taken place.

Li Yan searched the ancient military camp, found several unidentified Pills, and concluded that its banners depicted beasts known from ancient times. When night brought a fog that blinded Divine Sense and consumed spiritual power, he located his companions with soul power and suspected the camp ahead had altered the formation.

• Li Yan searched the abandoned tent and considered whether the military camp had been a trap, a surprise attack, or the site of a battle.
• Li Yan collected five and a half unfamiliar Pills from a pill furnace and decided Zuo Qiudan could identify them later.
• Li Yan examined damaged military flags and recognized depictions of ancient Demon Beasts, concluding the camp had existed in a distant era.
• As night fell, thick fog abruptly blocked Li Yan's Divine Sense and rapidly dispersed his spiritual power beyond a short distance.
• Li Yan used soul power to sense Shuang Qingqing, Yin Kongjin, and another companion through the fog, then avoided entering the camp area he suspected had caused the change.

Li Yan became trapped in a fog-filled military camp where his Divine Sense, voice, and spiritual power could reach only a short distance. As war drums and battle cries triggered attacks from broken weapons, Baleful Intent seeped through his defenses, and the ground began to shake.

• Li Yan retreated through the fog, called out to Shuang Qingqing and the other two, and realized the mist prevented his voice and spiritual power from traveling far.
• Li Yan decided to set up a defensive formation and wait for dawn, but sudden war drums sounded throughout the fog.
• Broken weapons and flagpoles shot at Li Yan, who dodged and then knocked the attacks aside while enduring battle cries that stirred his blood and qi.
• Li Yan sensed that the attacks carried Baleful Intent that penetrated his protective barrier, so he planned to deploy a formation.
• The war drums abruptly stopped, the battle cries intensified, and the earth beneath Li Yan began to shake violently.

Li Yan discovered that phantom armored cavalry were amplifying the surrounding fog’s Baleful Intent, which could invade defenses and drive cultivators toward madness. After confirming Shuang Qingqing remained clear-minded, he used a talisman and formation to resist the fog, but it began forming inside his formation.

• Li Yan evaded armored cavalry that passed through him, realizing they were illusions without souls and that their appearance coincided with the fog penetrating his defenses.
• Li Yan used a Baleful-Cleansing, Heart-Calming Talisman to block the fog and concluded that the cavalry had intensified its Baleful Intent to provoke the cultivators into attacking one another.
• Li Yan used his soul power to locate Shuang Qingqing and the other two cultivators, confirming that Shuang Qingqing’s mind remained calm as she walked through the fog protected by a willow branch.
• Li Yan recognized that the fog was now continuously attacking them, so he set up a formation and swept the fog out with a tornado.
• Li Yan saw dense fog rising from the ground inside his formation.

Li Yan struggled to survive the Baleful Intent in the fog and discovered that a central command tent remained free of it. He decided to stay inside and watch for further changes rather than continue searching for an exit.

• Li Yan abandoned his attempts to block the fog and set out to cross the military camp, using sealed Gu insects as markers to keep his direction.
• Li Yan entered an enormous tent where the fog could not penetrate and found that his Divine Sense worked normally inside it.
• Li Yan tested the tent entrance and confirmed that the fog and Baleful Intent stopped outside, then recognized the structure as the camp’s central command tent.
• Li Yan reasoned that the soldiers and their orders were connected to the fog’s Baleful Intent, and that command tents might offer safe havens for Shuang Qingqing and the others.
• After waiting half an hour without further attacks, Li Yan placed array flags around himself to form a protective array.

Li Yan survived the night’s Baleful Intent by sheltering in a formation inside a central command tent, then reunited with the others and resumed searching the military camp. As night approached again, he sensed a faint, moving mass buried beneath a collapsed tent and investigated it.

• Li Yan waited inside his formation until the fog dispersed at dawn, then confirmed through Divine Sense that Shuang Qingqing, Yin Kongjin, and Fang Xianhu had also survived by sheltering in central command tents.
• The four cultivators exchanged accounts of the night’s Baleful Intent and resumed searching the camp, while Shuang Qingqing advised Li Yan to prepare hidden markers and stay wary of the next night.
• Li Yan searched a supply camp, found damaged defenses and eleven kinds of spiritual plant materials that had lost their spiritual nature, and continued investigating despite finding no major treasures.
• As darkness approached, Li Yan headed toward a central command tent but sensed a faint fluctuation beneath a collapsed tent and discovered a slowly wriggling gray mass about four li underground.

Li Yan was trapped in an array that Fang Xianhu had set to expose him to the deadly night fog, while Shuang Qingqing was caught in a separate killing array laid by Yin Kongjin. Fang Xianhu reached the central army tent and learned that Li Yan had not escaped, as the fog began to rise around both trapped cultivators.

• Li Yan pulled a strange gray mass from the ground and triggered an invisible barrier that trapped him and blocked his Divine Sense.
• Li Yan reasoned that Fang Xianhu had likely set the trap to strand him in the night fog, then watched the fog rise around him.
• Fang Xianhu sent Yin Kongjin a voice transmission to act and reflected on their plan to kill or weaken Shuang Qingqing and Li Yan with the Baleful Intent.
• Shuang Qingqing was trapped in a killing array and defended herself from crimson giant snakes while trying to break the array before the fog and Baleful Intent worsened her situation.
• Fang Xianhu reached the central army tent and sensed that Li Yan remained trapped.

Fang Xianhu waited in the central command tent, confident that his formation and follow-up traps would kill Wang Yi, while Li Yan struggled against a separate formation in the fog. Li Yan transformed into Qiongqi, shattered the barrier, and discovered that he had activated Fang Xianhu’s trap himself.

• Fang Xianhu prepared further traps in the central command tent and waited for Wang Yi, convinced that the Baleful Intent and his formation would leave his enemy helpless.
• Li Yan realized the dense fog concealed his fight and used the Qiongqi Purgatory Art to strike the formation, but its barrier rebounded most of his force.
• Li Yan transformed into Qiongqi and combined a drumbeat-powered step with a claw strike to crack and collapse the barrier.
• Li Yan struck the ground and drew a concealed gray box from underground while illusory armored soldiers charged through the fog.
• Li Yan identified the box as a formation plate and concluded that Fang Xianhu had concealed it so Li Yan would activate the trap himself.

Li Yan escaped Fang Xianhu’s formation trap and tracked him to the central command tent, where he discovered Fang’s deadly poison and entered under Night Concealment. The chapter ended as Li Yan reached Fang and covered his mouth and nose before Fang could react.

• Li Yan realized Fang Xianhu had used a heavy protective layer to trigger a formation that trapped him and exposed him to Baleful Intent, then dispelled the effects with a talisman.
• Li Yan sensed Fang Xianhu waiting a li away but could not detect Shuang Qingqing, so he chose to confront Fang first.
• Li Yan cautiously approached the central command tent, used Night Concealment, and discovered that Fang was drawing an invisible poison into the tent with his breathing.
• Li Yan’s Fragmented Poison Body showed no concern about the poison, so he entered the tent and walked toward Fang while letting the Baleful Intent fuel his killing intent.
• Fang Xianhu, confident Li Yan had fallen to the poison and Baleful Intent, opened his eyes only when instinct warned him of danger; Li Yan’s hand covered his mouth and nose.

Li Yan killed Fang Xianhu with Severance Poison and learned from his memories that Shuang Qingqing was trapped in Yin Kongjin’s formation and that the two men had conspired against them. After discovering Yin Kongjin’s location, Li Yan infiltrated his tent and prepared to act while Yin Kongjin waited, unaware of his arrival.

• Li Yan appeared beside Fang Xianhu, shattered his defensive barrier, and poisoned him before seizing his unconscious Nascent Soul.
• Li Yan searched Fang Xianhu’s memories, learned that Shuang Qingqing was likely still alive in Yin Kongjin’s formation, and uncovered their plot against her and Wang Yi.
• Li Yan learned the operating incantation for Fang Xianhu’s ancient defensive formation and how Fang Xianhu dealt with the Baleful Intent.
• Li Yan located Yin Kongjin’s soul, left Fang Xianhu’s tent, and traveled through the dense fog toward Yin Kongjin’s command tent.
• Li Yan silently infiltrated the tent and located Yin Kongjin in a secluded corner while Yin Kongjin continued waiting for his traps to succeed.

Li Yan searched Yin Kongjin’s command tent for the hidden trap while trying to locate Shuang Qingqing, whose life might be in danger. He finally spotted a nearly invisible web-like object beneath Yin Kongjin, but its nature remained unknown.

• Li Yan found no poison or formation fluctuations in Yin Kongjin’s tent and realized he could not identify the trap or Shuang Qingqing’s location.
• Li Yan swallowed Fang Xianhu’s pill to clear the Baleful Intent affecting him, then continued investigating from the tent entrance.
• Li Yan considered withdrawing to search the nearby area for Shuang Qingqing but paused after noticing Yin Kongjin’s Divine Sense briefly touch the ground.
• Li Yan inspected the ground with his eyes and discovered that the wild grass beneath Yin Kongjin grew in an unusual pattern.
• Li Yan crouched close to the ground and saw a web-like object spread out less than half a chi away.

Li Yan discovered the nearly invisible threads Yin Kongjin had laid across the central command tent and poisoned the tent from outside instead of entering. Yin Kongjin’s body disintegrated under the toxin, but his Nascent Soul slowed the poison with pills and escaped, realizing the command tents were deadly traps.

• Li Yan spotted transparent threads in the tent by studying how they bent the grass and deduced that Yin Kongjin relied on offense rather than defense.
• Li Yan circled the tent and released deadly poison through its gaps, filling the interior with toxins.
• Yin Kongjin noticed black holes spreading across his face and body, then collapsed as his flesh and bones fell apart.
• Yin Kongjin’s Nascent Soul emerged, swallowed pills to slow the poison, and escaped close to the ground.
• Yin Kongjin realized that the central command tents were killing weapons rather than places of refuge.

Li Yan poisoned Yin Kongjin, captured his Nascent Soul, and searched his memories to learn Shuang Qingqing's situation and how to handle the threads in the tent. After killing Yin Kongjin, Li Yan identified the threads as material for a powerful treasure, while Yin Kongjin's memories revealed that refining it might bring an unexpected danger.

• Yin Kongjin fled the command tent with his poisoned Nascent Soul and tried to slow the poison with antidote Pills.
• Li Yan seized Yin Kongjin, gave him a Pill to keep his Nascent Soul intact, and sealed him for a Soul Search.
• Li Yan learned that Shuang Qingqing was trapped in a formation and found the formation flag and its control incantation in Yin Kongjin's memories.
• Li Yan discovered the method for dealing with the threads in the tent, then crushed Yin Kongjin's Nascent Soul after finding what he sought.
• Li Yan identified the threads as coming from the extinct Clear Gleaming Dewdrop tree and learned Yin Kongjin had found them with a jade slip describing the Clear Gleaming Thread treasure.
• Yin Kongjin's memories revealed that the treasure's refinement method might bring a disastrous consequence after he became overjoyed at its power.

Li Yan learned from Yin Kongjin’s memories how the Clear Gleaming Thread had been made and why Yin Kongjin had kept its materials secret. After collecting the nearly invisible treasure, Li Yan stored it away and left the central command tent, pleased with what he had gained.

• Yin Kongjin had spent millennia finding substitutes for two extinct materials and hired a reclusive grandmaster artifact refiner to forge the Clear Gleaming Thread.
• Yin Kongjin had killed the grandmaster during a test of the finished treasure to keep its origins secret, after deciding Shuang Qingqing was too difficult to scheme against.
• Li Yan learned the treasure’s history through Soul Search and recognized that its hidden nature suited his methods as an assassin.
• Li Yan collected the three-foot filament, which Divine Sense could not detect, and placed it inside Tuban.
• Li Yan checked the talismans on his body and hurried out of the central command tent into the night fog.

Li Yan found Shuang Qingqing in the dense fog after she broke free of Yin Kongjin’s formation, but she suspected his message was a trap and refused to move. Li Yan tried to prove his identity while Shuang Qingqing remained on guard, leaving their meeting unresolved.

• Li Yan followed markers from Yin Kongjin’s memories and sensed Shuang Qingqing’s soul after she escaped the formation.
• Shuang Qingqing used puppets and her jade purification bottle to survive the formation, then headed toward the central command tent to confront Yin Kongjin.
• A sudden white light appeared before Shuang Qingqing and revealed Li Yan’s message directing her toward the tent by following his footprints.
• Shuang Qingqing questioned whether Li Yan was truly alive, suspected a trap, and stayed where she was.
• Li Yan realized Shuang Qingqing did not trust the message and sent a jade slip toward her as she surrounded herself with lizard-like puppets that formed a light barrier.

Shuang Qingqing followed clues from Li Yan through the mist and cautiously reached the central command tent, where she found him waiting. After testing the tent for traps and bringing her puppets inside, she regained the use of her Divine Sense and asked Li Yan to explain the situation.

• Shuang Qingqing received a sound-transmission jade slip listing rare materials, which eased her doubts that the sender was Li Yan.
• Shuang Qingqing followed footprints through the mist and reached a central command tent.
• Li Yan invited Shuang Qingqing to enter the tent and offered to give her half of it until dawn.
• Shuang Qingqing sent more than twenty puppets into the tent to test for traps, poisons, illusions, and formations.
• After confirming the tent was safe, Shuang Qingqing entered, recovered the use of her Divine Sense, and asked Li Yan what had happened.

Li Yan convinced Shuang Qingqing that he was himself by recounting how he had killed Fang Xianhu and Yin Kongjin, and the two recovered before continuing to explore the city. After escaping the military camp, they flew toward the city’s core region, where they found a lifeless canyon filled with buildings.

• Li Yan described how he had poisoned Fang Xianhu and Yin Kongjin and showed Shuang Qingqing their storage treasures and magic treasures as proof.
• Shuang Qingqing remained cautious through the night, then accepted Li Yan’s account after searching the surroundings at dawn.
• Li Yan and Shuang Qingqing agreed to split jointly found treasures equally and separately found treasures individually before searching opposite sides of the road.
• Shuang Qingqing used four formation flags to break the Beacon Smoke Formation, and she and Li Yan escaped the military camp and regained the ability to fly.
• Li Yan and Shuang Qingqing searched their route toward the city’s core region but found no opportunities or signs of life.
• The pair landed at the entrance to a canyon containing the city’s core buildings.

Li Yan and Shuang Qingqing searched the abandoned city and found little of value before reaching its final site, the Demon-Burning Monastery. In the Hall of Five Hundred Arhats, Li Yan believed the Deer-Seat Arhat’s eyes had moved and attacked it, prompting a sudden Buddhist chant.

• Li Yan and Shuang Qingqing split up to search the city, then reunited at the ancient temple at its rear.
• They entered the Demon-Burning Monastery and speculated that the city had been centered around a Buddhist sect and its garrison.
• Li Yan and Shuang Qingqing searched the Hall of Five Hundred Arhats without finding anything unusual until Li Yan thought the Deer-Seat Arhat’s eyes had moved.
• Shuang Qingqing identified the statue as Venerable Pindola, the first of the Eighteen Arhats, and explained his Buddhist art of Thusness.
• Li Yan abruptly struck at the Deer-Seat Arhat’s right eye, and a booming Buddhist chant rang through the hall.

Li Yan and Shuang Qingqing triggered an Eighteen Arhat Formation in the great hall, where eighteen powerful Buddhist puppets attacked them. Shuang Qingqing asked Li Yan to hold some off without damaging them, and he agreed as they fought to contain the formation.

• Li Yan suspected the Seated Deer Arhat had reacted to his Qiongqi Purgatory Art and attacked it, causing eighteen statues to surround him and Shuang Qingqing.
• The Arhats launched a coordinated assault, and Li Yan warned Shuang Qingqing that their strange material resisted his blows.
• Li Yan evaded the formation’s attacks and realized that the puppets’ combined strength could reach the late Void Refinement Realm.
• Shuang Qingqing told Li Yan that the Arhats were special puppets and asked him to hold some back without harming them; Li Yan agreed.
• The Arhats adapted their tactics and stacked their power, while Li Yan assessed how their numbers raised their strength up to the Void Refinement Realm.