Chapter Summaries

Li Yan confronted Jin Zhiyuan and his Dao Companion, whose souls had been hiding inside their children’s bodies, and demanded information about their mission and Huiyan Hall. After defeating them, Li Yan heard Jin Zhiyuan explain their family’s predicament and his limited role in Haina City, then considered extracting the hidden souls by force to learn more.

• Li Yan exposed the couple’s concealment and demanded to know why they were in the secret realm and what they knew about Huiyan Hall.
• Jin Zhiyuan and his Dao Companion attacked Li Yan, but their weakening spiritual power and Li Yan’s strength left them badly injured.
• Li Yan asked Jin Zhiyuan about Huiyan Hall and his actions in Haina City as the couple struggled to reach each other.
• Jin Zhiyuan revealed that he and his Dao Companion had hidden wisps of their souls in their children to protect them, and said he had merely passed along information in Haina City.
• Li Yan realized ordinary Soul Search would not reveal the hidden souls’ memories and considered forcibly extracting and torturing the hosts’ souls to obtain answers.

Li Yan spared Jin Zhiyuan and his Dao Companion after considering their devotion to their family, then freed them from the poison and seals. He led them out of the cabin, leaving them bewildered by the untouched secret realm and the absence of everyone else.

• Jin Zhiyuan and his Dao Companion refused to reveal their secret and prepared to die rather than let their children suffer again.
• Li Yan gave them an antidote, restored their spiritual power, and warned them not to interfere in the conflict between the two factions.
• Li Yan removed their seals, collected the other cultivators, and left the cabin without investigating Jin Zhiyuan's hidden method.
• Jin Zhiyuan and his Dao Companion took the recovery Pills and followed Li Yan outside, where they found only three people in the secret realm.
• Li Yan dismissed their suspicions of an illusion and flew into the sky, ordering the pair to follow him out.

Li Yan freed Jin Zhiyuan and his Dao Companion from the secret realm, then returned inside and learned through a transmission talisman how the couple had been forced to serve an unnamed force. Jin Zhiyuan explained that the force had seized their children and used them as leverage, while the chapter left Li Yan reading the couple’s account before the mountain wall.

• Li Yan opened the secret realm’s exit and brought the man and female cultivator to a remote valley, urging them to leave before Huiyan Hall cultivators arrived.
• When the man asked why he had released them, Li Yan told them to walk the immortal path with their family and gave him a high-grade transmission talisman.
• The couple flew away in disguise, reasoning that Li Yan had shown compassion after learning about their family, while Li Yan concealed himself and later returned to the secret realm.
• Li Yan used the red lantern to approach the mountain wall and read the transmission, learning that the souls in the couple’s children were Jin Zhiyuan and his Dao Companion’s true main souls.
• Jin Zhiyuan explained that an unnamed force had captured his son and daughter, coerced him and his Dao Companion into submission, and kept the children under the pretense of training them.

Jin Zhiyuan and his Dao Companion secretly planned for centuries to free their family from a mysterious force by hiding their main souls in Soul-Burying Leaves implanted in their children. After Jin Zhiyuan’s body died and the force used their children as Gu-insect materials, the couple prepared to destroy the Gu insects and their living materials if no chance to escape arose.

• Jin Zhiyuan discovered that the Soul-Burying Leaf could conceal a main soul and devised a plan to use it to protect his children and help the family escape.
• After Jin Zhiyuan earned permission to meet his Dao Companion, he shared the plan, and she agreed to search for the split-soul technique and Soul-Burying Leaf.
• Nearly six hundred years later, his Dao Companion found a split-soul technique, and the couple began cultivating it while continuing their search for the leaf.
• After more than a thousand years, Jin Zhiyuan found a Soul-Burying Leaf at a trade gathering, disguised its identity, and bought it; he and his wife later implanted leaves containing their main souls into their unconscious children.
• Jin Zhiyuan was captured and deliberately allowed his body and split soul to die, hoping to ease scrutiny on his children, but the mysterious force instead used them as materials to cultivate Gu insects.
• In the secret realm, Jin Zhiyuan and his Dao Companion resolved that if no chance to save their family appeared, they would destroy the Gu insects and their living materials, even at the cost of their own lives.

Jin Zhiyuan’s account explained how he and his Dao Companion became trapped under Huiyan Hall’s control and how he spent centuries devising ways to detect its Brain-Winding White Corpse Gu. He left Li Yan the secrets he had uncovered, including how to cultivate Corpse Gu Grass, before the two men parted with little chance of meeting again.

• Jin Zhiyuan recalled how he and his Dao Companion had planned to ambush Li Yan, but his Dao Companion’s anger nearly exposed them to Li Yan’s investigation.
• Jin Zhiyuan told Li Yan about his work and suspicions in Haina City, including the location of his Dao Companion and the hidden operatives’ information.
• Jin Zhiyuan explained that he had spent centuries studying the Brain-Winding White Corpse Gu and developed Corpse Gu Grass to sense it.
• Jin Zhiyuan revealed how to cultivate Corpse Gu Grass, refine Buried Soul Grass, and cultivate and identify Buried Soul Leaves.
• Jin Zhiyuan gave Li Yan the secrets to repay him for sparing his family and to strike at Huiyan Hall, then said they would likely never meet again.

Li Yan reflected on Jin Zhiyuan’s resolve and clever escape before returning to the Five Hundred Arhat Hall. Shuang Qingqing noticed his return and packed away the hall’s Arhat statues after completing her study of their foundations.

• Li Yan concluded that Jin Zhiyuan had revealed his secrets only after securing his family’s safety and had used his knowledge of spirit plants to conceal the voice transmission talisman and evade pursuit.
• Li Yan considered why he had spared Jin Zhiyuan’s family but kept the other captives, reasoning that he had a new plan to protect them from Huiyan Hall.
• Li Yan entered the mountain and returned to the Five Hundred Arhat Hall, where he sat outside disguised as Wang Yi and regulated his breath.
• Shuang Qingqing emerged from contemplation, sensed Li Yan outside the formation, and felt reassured that he had returned.
• Shuang Qingqing stored the eighteen Arhats and more than a hundred other Arhat statues in two separate storage rings after studying their foundations.

Shuang Qingqing left the ancient cultivation city with Li Yan and saw him off at a teleportation formation after their journey gave them both new insights into puppet arts and formations. She planned to grow stronger and build connections through the Anyue trading house before eventually establishing the Woodflow Sect in the Immortal-Spirit Realm, while still worrying about Bai Rou’s feelings for Li Yan.

• Shuang Qingqing put away several Arhat statues, then found Li Yan and agreed to leave the ancient cultivation city with him.
• More than a year later, Li Yan and Shuang Qingqing reached the city of the Anyue trading house, where Li Yan prepared to depart through a teleportation formation.
• During their travels, Shuang Qingqing taught Li Yan about puppet arts and formations, and their exchanges advanced both cultivators’ understanding.
• Shuang Qingqing asked Li Yan to tell Bai Rou that she was well and urged her to cultivate diligently, while Li Yan insisted Bai Rou had become capable of standing on her own.
• Shuang Qingqing resolved to strengthen herself and build connections through the Anyue trading house before founding the Woodflow Sect in the Immortal-Spirit Realm.

Li Yan left Shuang Qingqing and traveled through Dongyi City, using her arrangements and an Anyue Trading Company token to board a teleportation array bound for the Jieyou Realm. As he waited for the array to activate, he thought of Su Hong and the final message he had sent her.

• Shuang Qingqing explained her plans to establish the Woodflow Sect in the Immortal-Spirit Realm and hoped Bai Rou would become its first sect master.
• Li Yan and Shuang Qingqing exchanged farewells, and he joined a group of Anyue Trading Company cultivators traveling to Dongyi City.
• After arriving in Dongyi City, Li Yan left the group and went directly to the teleportation array for the Jieyou Realm.
• Li Yan presented an internal Anyue Trading Company token, which the attendant verified and accepted for the journey.
• While waiting for the array to activate, Li Yan recalled hiding and crippling Cultivator Du and sending Su Hong a final message in Haina City.

Li Yan left Su Hong a coded jade slip containing information about Huiyan Hall and the cultivation of Corpse Gu Grass, then traveled from the Main Dao Realm to the Jieyou Realm. There, he discussed their next steps with Zuo Qiudan, who chose to remain in the city and recover, and Li Yan offered him resources before they parted.

• Li Yan encoded a message for Su Hong explaining Cultivator Du’s mission and the method for cultivating Corpse Gu Grass, and asked her to protect the other captive cultivators as evidence against Huiyan Hall.
• Li Yan kept the Brain-Winding White Corpse Gu and damaged Cultivator Du’s memories while preserving the main clues needed to expose Huiyan Hall.
• Li Yan teleported from Dongyi City to the Jieyou Realm and rented a room in a frontier city.
• Li Yan summoned Zuo Qiudan and explained that he had brought them to the Jieyou Realm because of danger, then asked whether Zuo wanted to travel with him or make other plans.
• Zuo Qiudan chose to stay in the city to recover and cultivate, and asked Li Yan for the locations of the Phantom Sect and Buluo.
• Li Yan gave Zuo Qiudan a jade slip with locations and routes, proposed traveling together to the North Pasture Realm later, and placed two storage rings on the table.

Li Yan gave Zuo Qiudan spirit stones, Pills, and Dongmen Gaozhi’s storage ring before leaving, while declining Zuo Qiudan’s offer of a pill formula. Five days later, Zuo Qiudan watched a cultivator head for the city’s teleportation array and murmured his thanks.

• Li Yan gave Zuo Qiudan healing and cultivation Pills, a large supply of middle-grade spirit stones, and three months of inn rent.
• Li Yan warned Zuo Qiudan to deal cautiously with Dongmen Gaozhi and left the ring containing him on the table.
• Zuo Qiudan asked Li Yan for a blank jade slip so he could share his pill formula, but Li Yan refused and offered five and a half unidentified Pills in its place.
• Li Yan left before Zuo Qiudan could reveal the formula, and Zuo Qiudan praised Wei Zhongran’s judgment in choosing Li Yan as his disciple.
• Zuo Qiudan examined the gifts, stored the unidentified Pills, and found the spirit stones Li Yan had given him.
• Five days later, Zuo Qiudan watched a cultivator head toward the city’s teleportation array and murmured his thanks.

Li Yan confirmed that Zuo Qiudan had found a safe place, then mapped a route toward the Black Devil Race and set out to reunite with a mother and son. Years later, Jin Zhiyuan and his Dao companion lived in hiding with their awakened children, who had been used as bodies for their souls.

• Li Yan watched Zuo Qiudan secure a position at a medicinal-pill shop, then left the border city without revealing his identity.
• Li Yan pieced together maps, charted teleportation routes toward the Black Devil Race, and estimated the journey would take a little over ten years.
• Several years later, Jin Zhiyuan and his Dao companion emerged from their cave in a hidden gorge and visited the crescent spring.
• Jin Zhiyuan and his Dao companion discussed pausing their cultivation while their souls and newly possessed bodies continued to fuse.
• Jin Zhiyuan and his Dao companion had escaped to the gorge with their children, released the children from their bodies, and made them guard the hiding place.

Jin Zhiyuan and his wife seized new bodies, reunited with their children, and found a measure of peace after years of terror. Meanwhile, Su Hong left Haina City after seeking the ancestor’s help, carrying only protectors she trusted.

• Jin Zhiyuan and his wife possessed two prepared late-stage Spirit Transformation Realm bodies and spent several years stabilizing their souls, remaining at the early Void Refinement Realm.
• Jin Zhiyuan and his wife walked through the peach blossom forest and discussed the azure-robed young man who had freed them, choosing to value their family’s safety over power and ambition.
• Jin Zhiyuan and his wife emerged from seclusion by Clear Spring Lake, where their two children greeted them as the rising sun illuminated the family.
• Su Hong stopped participating in her former activities, spoke with Su Liuyun, and privately visited the ancestor.
• Su Hong left Haina City despite her family’s attempts to stop her, taking only the protectors she trusted.

Su Hong waited in East Yi City for Li Yan, hoping to protect him from her parents’ search, until a coded jade slip revealed that he was alive and had uncovered another deep-rooted enemy agent within Returning Home. She set out at once to report his warning, leaving her uncertain whether Li Yan would ever meet her again.

• Su Hong remained in East Yi City and deployed people to disrupt anyone searching for Li Yan, while Su Liuyun sent her accumulated jade slips and privately sympathized with her.
• Su Hong recognized Li Yan’s secret pattern on a jade slip and decoded his message, learning that he did not resent her and that Huiyan Hall concealed another major enemy agent within Returning Home.
• Su Hong summoned Uncle Ning and ordered him to set out with her immediately so she could deliver Li Yan’s crucial warning.

Su Hong returned to the Return and Return headquarters with more than ten unconscious Huiyan Hall cultivators, including Cultivator Du, whom Li Yan had captured. Their memories revealed Huiyan Hall’s name and immense hidden strength, but left the identity and power of its chief hall master unknown.

• Su Hong sent Uncle Ning and his companions beneath a mountain to find sealed cultivators, and they recovered more than ten unconscious people, including Cultivator Du.
• Su Hong ordered Soul Searches and learned that Cultivator Du had served Huiyan Hall, while the more powerful Cultivator Wu was missing; she suspected Li Yan had dealt with him and left no traces.
• Su Hong spent more than two years returning to Haina City, taking precautions against hidden agents and sending a message to Su Liuyun.
• Su Hong brought the captives and secret-language records to the Return and Return headquarters, where the main headquarters master began searching their souls.
• The main headquarters master learned that Huiyan Hall had two known deputy hall masters at the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, while Cultivator Du knew nothing of its chief hall master or the organization’s full strength.

Su Hong returned with captured Huiyan Hall agents and revealed that the True Transmission Hall was only part of a much larger network infiltrating Return Home. She then disclosed a way to detect Brain-Tangling White Corpse Gu carriers at a distance, leaving her family stunned by the chance to expose Huiyan Hall’s important agents.

• The Chief Altar Master realized Huiyan Hall had more deeply placed agents in Return Home than he had thought and wondered how Su Hong uncovered the plot.
• Su Liuyun asked Su Hong why she had investigated the matter and where she had found her allies.
• The woman in azure palace robes praised Su Hong and promised that her family would no longer act against Li Yan, but Su Hong interrupted her.
• Su Hong described a method to detect Brain-Tangling White Corpse Gu carriers from a distance and proposed using it to uncover Huiyan Hall’s agents and locate its secret realm or entrance.
• The Chief Altar Master asked Su Hong whether her detection method truly required no highly cultivated examiner.

Su Hong revealed that Li Yan had provided a way to detect Brain-Twining White Corpse Gu and the captives, but her parents reacted with anger and suspicion. She left the hall after asking that the captives be spared, then stood alone among the flowers, remembering Li Yan and a bleak night from the past.

• Su Hong described a spirit-plant method that could detect Brain-Twining White Corpse Gu from a distance, prompting the Chief Altar Master and the others to ask where she had learned it.
• Su Hong said Li Yan had told her about the method, and the Chief Altar Master accused Li Yan of having ulterior motives while the woman in azure palace robes also grew displeased.
• Su Hong revealed that Li Yan had provided all the information and captives, asked that the captives be allowed to live, and relinquished credit for the operation.
• The Chief Altar Master's pressure halted above Su Hong as she left the hall, and Su Liuyun stayed behind to deal with the unfolding plan.
• Su Hong went to her old courtyard, gazed toward a room where she imagined Li Yan, and murmured a verse recalling a cold night of wind and snow.

After Yang Wuying defected from Return Home with part of his clan, the First and Third Ancestors pursued him but failed to capture him. The First Ancestor returned to Haina City to oversee the firm’s purges and revealed that Yang Wuying had escaped badly wounded.

• News spread across the four regions that Yang Wuying had betrayed Return Home and escaped the joint attack of the First and Third Ancestors with some of his clan’s core members.
• The First Ancestor returned to Return Home’s Haina City headquarters and met with the Headquarters Master, an elderly woman in yellow robes, and a young scholar in silver robes.
• The Headquarters Master reported that Return Home had locked down its headquarters, executed suspected members of Yang Wuying’s faction and their relatives, and begun purging its branches.
• The First Ancestor explained that he had struck Yang Wuying’s Nascent Soul, but Yang Wuying used Blood Nascent Needles and the Blood Nascent Art to escape.
• The First Ancestor said Yang Wuying’s injuries had greatly weakened him, leaving the Third Ancestor capable of dealing with him if he was found.

After receiving Li Yan’s intelligence about a hidden threat, the Supreme Grand Elder reprimanded the main headquarters master for interfering in Hong’er’s affairs and ordered new deployments to protect Guiqu Laixi. Once the other masters left to carry out their duties, the main headquarters master sat alone, questioning his choices.

• The Supreme Grand Elder returned to the headquarters after the Second Patriarch escaped, and he adjusted the response to unrest at Guiqu Laixi’s branch offices.
• As his golden face vanished, the Supreme Grand Elder warned the main headquarters master not to interfere in Hong’er’s affairs again and reminded him that Li Yan’s information had saved the merchant house from a grave threat.
• The elderly woman in yellow robes and the young silver-robed scholar left to carry out their assigned duties while Guiqu Laixi faced dangers from within and without.
• The main headquarters master sat alone on the dragon throne, wrestling with his doubts and emotions about Hong’er, Li Yan, and the decisions he had made.
• The main headquarters master recalled reporting Li Yan’s intelligence to the Supreme Grand Elder because the threat and evidence were too important to conceal or delay.

The Grand Supreme Elder assessed the intelligence Li Yan had delivered and suspected that a powerful hidden sect had aided him. He ordered Guiqulaixi to cultivate Corpse Gu Grass and secretly prepare for a covert struggle with Huiyan Hall.

• The Grand Supreme Elder realized Li Yan's information about Guiqulaixi's survival could have come from the hidden sect and reluctantly accepted its favor.
• The Grand Supreme Elder prioritized the Corpse Gu Grass and continued covert investigations while postponing the search for Huiyan Hall's location.
• The Grand Supreme Elder ordered the Chief Headquarters Master to keep the intelligence secret and secretly accelerate preparations across Guiqulaixi's branches.
• The Grand Supreme Elder questioned Su Hong about Li Yan's message and concluded that the hidden sect had likely helped Li Yan escape Haina City.
• The Grand Supreme Elder suspected Li Yan was an outstanding junior protected by the hidden sect and believed it had sent the intelligence to secure ties with Guiqulaixi.

Homeward Bound’s Grand Supreme Elder cultivated Corpse Gu Grass from Jin Zhiyuan’s method and used it to search the sect and Hai Na City for Brain-Winding White Corpse Gu. The plant reacted inside the Second Ancestor’s cave dwelling but not at the Third Ancestor’s, leaving the Grand Supreme Elder with a startling suspicion about the Second Ancestor.

• The Grand Supreme Elder cultivated a large supply of Corpse Gu Grass and prepared a secret investigation across Homeward Bound’s branches and Hai Na City.
• After confirming that the grass could detect Brain-Winding White Corpse Gu, the Grand Supreme Elder and the chief of the main headquarters sent teams to investigate locations simultaneously.
• The searches uncovered many suspicious sites, and the grass reacted at an important location within the main headquarters.
• The Grand Supreme Elder secretly entered the Second Ancestor’s cave dwelling, where the grass showed an unusual reaction despite the Second Ancestor seeming normal.
• The Grand Supreme Elder visited the Third Ancestor afterward, but the grass showed no reaction, prompting him to suspect someone he had never expected.