Chapter Summaries

Li Yan and Mu Guyue advanced through Black Flame Mountain as part of a vanguard searching for ambushes, while Li Yan secretly extended his divine sense to help keep her safe. After entering more than thirteen hundred li without finding enemies, Li Yan assessed how the mountain’s crushing gravity and heat drained spiritual power and weakened attacks.

• Li Yan and Mu Guyue took up their assigned positions in the advancing formation and reminded each other to be careful as they passed.
• Li Yan flew ahead while searching his assigned area and secretly extended his divine sense toward Mu Guyue to check her safety and help scan for enemies.
• The vanguard advanced more than thirteen hundred li into Black Flame Mountain without finding enemies, suspicious traces, or signs of battle.
• Li Yan felt the mountain’s gravity slow his spiritual power, compared it with the pressure he had experienced with Zhao Min, and used Gui Water spiritual power to resist it.
• Li Yan tested his physical strength and found that gravity rapidly drained the force from his attacks beyond fifteen li.

Li Yan grew uneasy at the seemingly empty black stone forest and entered it ahead of Mu Guyue to investigate. As Mu Guyue approached, the Great Devil King also sensed danger and warned the Devil Emperors to stay alert.

• Li Yan judged that the Crimson-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan would most likely ambush the Black Devil Race near three thousand miles deep, where gravity would weaken their combat strength.
• Li Yan found no trace of enemies in the black stone forest, but its terrain and his unexplained unease made him suspect it could conceal an ambush.
• Li Yan decided not to warn Mu Guyue to stop, knowing she would continue regardless, and entered the stone forest ahead of her.
• Mu Guyue advanced toward the forest, trusting Li Yan and concluding that the enemy might attack near three thousand miles deep or use a feint.
• The Great Devil King reached the stone forest, found no abnormalities with his divine sense, and warned Mu Guyue and the other Devil Emperors to report any clues rather than approach rashly.

Li Yan entered Black Flame Mountain’s black stone forest and was caught in a gravity trap that dragged him into the ground. A Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horned Beast Clan cultivator mistook him for a Phoenix Clan traitor and attacked, leaving Li Yan blocking the man’s axe while trapped.

• Li Yan’s divine sense distorted in the stone forest, and black rocks silently swallowed his feet before a powerful gravity force dragged him downward.
• Li Yan shouted warnings about the gravity trap, then concluded that the distant attacker and the prepared ambush suggested the enemy’s numbers were limited.
• A Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horned Beast Clan cultivator arrived, mistook Li Yan for a Phoenix Clan traitor, and attacked him with a Xuanhua battle axe.
• Li Yan blocked the axe with a concealed black object, but the force drove him deeper into the ground, and his attacker vowed to beat him to pieces.

Li Yan used the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan cultivator’s axe strike to break free from the black rocks and counterattack, hoping to capture him alive. A sudden gravity trick foiled his first decisive thrust, but Li Yan caught up and attacked again as the enemy fled.

• The Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan cultivator raised his ornate battle-axe, and Li Yan hooked onto its shaft and used its force to launch himself out of the rocks trapping his feet.
• Li Yan slid down the axe and thrust the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike at the cultivator, intending to wound him with Subduing Wave Soul-Killing and capture him alive.
• Black gravel formed a giant hand that halted Li Yan in midair, allowing the cultivator to evade the thrust and retreat.
• Li Yan kicked apart the giant hand, then slapped a nearby black rock to propel himself after the fleeing cultivator.
• Li Yan attacked the cultivator’s dantian again with the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike, while the cultivator cursed him in shock and anger.

Li Yan fought a Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator in Black Flame Mountain and discovered how the enemy used refined black rocks to manipulate gravity and form armor. After the rocks blocked Li Yan’s soul technique, he realized Mu Guyue might be in danger if she relied on the same method.

• The Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator spun behind Li Yan and used black-rock fragments to form armor around himself.
• Li Yan deduced that the cultivator could control refined black rocks to intensify and disrupt the surrounding gravity.
• Li Yan’s Guiyi Water-Parting Spike failed to pierce the armor, and the cultivator counterattacked with his gravity-enhanced Xuanhua battle-axe.
• Li Yan blocked the axe and unleashed Soul-Startling Spike, but the armor seemed to absorb the soul attack without affecting the cultivator.
• Li Yan remembered Mu Guyue might face the same danger and feared her soul techniques would fail against an enemy in Black Flame Mountain.

Li Yan discovered that the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Race could use Black Flame Mountain’s rocks and gravity to trap and attack the advancing Black Devil Race. Mu Guyue entered the silent stone forest searching for Li Yan, unaware of the battles unfolding around her, and continued deeper through the rocks.

• Li Yan realized the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Race’s control of Black Flame Mountain’s rocks was stronger than he had expected and attacked an opponent.
• Black Devil Race squads entered the stone forest and suffered casualties as the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Race used traps, the rocks, and the crushing gravity against them.
• Mu Guyue reached the stone forest, found that its gravity disrupted her spiritual awareness, and entered cautiously after failing to locate Li Yan.
• Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Race fighters targeted trapped Great Devil Kings and nearby Devil Emperors while the stone forest muffled the scattered battles.
• Mu Guyue passed through the rocky paths into an open area and continued deeper, increasingly isolated by the silence and growing gravity.

Mu Guyue was ambushed in Black Flame Mountain by humanoid stone blocks that attacked amid violently shifting gravity and reassembled after being shattered. As she struggled against the endless assault, she warned the others that the stone forest was under attack.

• Mu Guyue entered the stone forest, where humanoid stone blocks suddenly rose and attacked her from every direction.
• Mu Guyue fought back with her crescent bracers, but the shifting gravity disrupted her power and weakened her defense.
• Mu Guyue saw the shattered stone blocks gather themselves and reform, making her realize the attackers could not be killed normally.
• Mu Guyue sensed no life aura or divine-sense fluctuations in the stones and suspected the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan had caused the ambush.
• Mu Guyue retreated while fending off the renewed attacks and shouted that there was an ambush in the stone forest.

Mu Guyue struggled through the shifting gravity and humanoid stone figures until a peak Late Void Refinement Realm cultivator from the Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horned Beast Clan ambushed her. She survived his attacks with a defensive treasure, but lay badly injured as he prepared to strike again.

• Mu Guyue retreated toward the edge of the open area while the fluctuating gravity and stone figures rapidly drained her strength.
• A tall cultivator appeared through the stone figures and swept his crescent-bladed saber at Mu Guyue.
• Mu Guyue deflected the first strike, but the force shattered the bones in her arms, injured her internally, and knocked her crescent blades away.
• The attacker followed with another slash, and Mu Guyue's silver defensive treasure enveloped her and blocked the blow as it sent her crashing to the ground.
• Mu Guyue realized her attacker was at the peak of the Late Void Refinement Realm, and he recognized her life-saving treasure and threatened another strike.

Mu Guyue fought a Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator in the stone forest, only to misjudge the gravity armor that nullified her Soul-Splitting Slash as his saber came down on her. Elsewhere, Li Yan's soul attack was blocked and rebounded, making him fear for Mu Guyue and charge his enemy with his full strength.

• The Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator stopped controlling the stone puppets and approached Mu Guyue to unleash a stronger gravity-empowered attack.
• Mu Guyue realized the cultivator controlled the puppets and that the forest's silence could mean Li Yan was in danger too.
• Mu Guyue used her demonic source power to repair her shattered arms and cast Soul-Splitting Slash.
• The cultivator's black armor released gravity that erased Mu Guyue's attack, and his saber reached the top of her head.
• Li Yan saw his soul technique blocked and rebounded, then charged into his enemy's embrace with all his strength.

Li Yan killed the Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator who had ambushed him, then raced through the stone forest to find Mu Guyue. He reached her just as another Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator was about to kill her, and struck him hard enough to seize her and flee.

• Li Yan unleashed his full strength and tore the Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator apart with the Guiyi Water-Separating Piercing Awl and a direct charge.
• The fallen cultivator's body and Nascent Soul were dragged into cracks by the area's gravity and rapidly dissolved.
• Mu Guyue misjudged the black stones' gravity and was pinned as the Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator's crescent blade split her helmet.
• Li Yan searched the stone forest for Mu Guyue and calculated where she might emerge while racing to reach her.
• Li Yan struck the Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator, shattered his hands and armor, and dragged Mu Guyue away.

Li Yan rescued Mu Guyue from a powerful Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast clansman in the stone forest and learned that the enemy could control gravity-wielding stone puppets. After Mu Guyue refused to enter his Spirit Storage Space and set up a poisoned defensive mist, Li Yan pursued the fleeing clansman.

• Li Yan saw a black-armored enemy about to strike Mu Guyue and rammed into him, pulling her out of danger.
• Li Yan told Mu Guyue to take an antidote, and she warned him that the enemy controlled humanoid stone puppets whose attacks manipulated gravity and whose armor resisted soul arts.
• The injured clansman mistook Li Yan for a Body Integration Realm Great Devil King and fled toward the stone forest.
• Mu Guyue refused to enter the Spirit Storage Space, treated her injuries, and concealed herself behind a restriction after releasing Zhili Poison.
• Li Yan left Mu Guyue protected by the poison and chased after the fleeing clansman.

Li Yan pursued the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator who had attacked Mu Guyue, hoping to capture him and learn about the area. The wounded enemy used the stone forest and its gravity to slow Li Yan, but Li Yan’s devastating blows struck him with rubble as the chase continued.

• Mu Guyue concealed herself behind poison and formations Li Yan had given her while Li Yan set off after the fleeing cultivator.
• Li Yan caught up to the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator in the stone forest, but the enemy’s turns and the surrounding rocks disrupted Li Yan’s attempt to strike his soul.
• The cultivator brought down the black rocks and increased the gravity along Li Yan’s path, briefly widening the distance between them.
• Li Yan poured most of his power into silver fists and smashed through the falling rocks, sending rubble into the fleeing cultivator’s back and injuring him severely.
• The wounded cultivator raised a wall of rocks behind himself and clung to the hope that he would survive and one day help his race reclaim its losses.

Li Yan pursued the badly depleted Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan cultivator across Black Flame Mountain until the fugitive escaped through a narrow crack into an underground cavern. Suspecting it was a prepared escape route rather than an enemy ambush, Li Yan followed, determined to kill him for nearly killing Mu Guyue.

• Li Yan struggled to use his full strength under Black Flame Mountain's oppressive gravity while closing in on the fleeing Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan cultivator.
• The wounded cultivator spotted a concealed crack beneath three giant rocks and plunged into it, escaping into a large underground cavern.
• Li Yan sensed the cavern's extreme gravity and saw the cultivator stumbling deeper underground, then considered whether enemies had laid a trap.
• After finding no sign of formations or hidden allies and judging the cavern was likely the fugitive's contingency escape route, Li Yan entered in a wisp of smoke.
• Li Yan swallowed several Pills and raced down the sloping cavern while probing the darkness with his divine sense and senses.

Li Yan pursued a wounded Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan cultivator through a dark, gravity-laden cavern, then realized the passage might be the clan’s secret retreat route guarded by a Tribulation Transcendence Realm powerhouse. After striking down and sealing the fleeing cultivator, Li Yan fled back toward the entrance, fearing the powerhouse ahead could sense him.

• Li Yan advanced through the cavern, growing wary when he found no traps despite expecting an ambush.
• Li Yan spotted the fleeing Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan cultivator and suspected the cavern was a secret escape route for the entire clan.
• Li Yan feared a Tribulation Transcendence Realm powerhouse might guard the passage and unleashed a full-force soul attack on the fleeing cultivator.
• The wounded cultivator collapsed, and Li Yan stopped himself by driving his arm into the cavern wall.
• Li Yan sealed the unconscious cultivator and hurried back the way he came, worried that a powerhouse ahead might detect him.

Li Yan escaped the underground cavern with Meng Jingsheng and searched him for information while waiting to see if pursuers followed. After returning to Mu Guyue, he learned that the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan’s Black Flame Mountain Secret Arts depended on the mountain’s unique laws and required an earth or fire spiritual root to cultivate.

• Li Yan emerged from the underground cavern with Meng Jingsheng, hid among the boulders, and stored him inside Tuban for a Soul Search.
• After waiting for pursuers and recovering some strength, Li Yan returned to Mu Guyue and gathered the poison surrounding her.
• Li Yan learned from Meng Jingsheng’s memories that the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan could use Black Flame Stones only within Black Flame Mountain because their powers faded outside it.
• Li Yan learned that the clan had developed fifty-one Black Flame Mountain Secret Arts, which manipulated gravity and Black Flame Stones.
• Li Yan learned that cultivators needed an earth or fire spiritual root to have a chance of cultivating the secret arts, with earth roots offering the best odds.

Li Yan learned how Black Flame Mountain’s secret arts depended on spirit roots and refining a rare Black Flame Crystal, and how the mountain’s gravity laws interfered with soul arts. He also discovered Meng Jingsheng had entered the underground cavern by chance while fleeing, leaving Li Yan reassured that no powerful pursuer would emerge from it.

• Li Yan learned that cultivators needed compatible earth or fire spirit roots and a Black Flame Crystal to cultivate Black Flame Mountain’s secret arts, and that refining a crystal was limited to one per cultivator with a success rate of at most around sixty percent.
• Li Yan understood that Black Flame Crystal companion stones were easiest to control near their source, explaining why Meng Jingsheng had been less effective when commanding stones along the path.
• Li Yan concluded that Black Flame Mountain’s gravity laws blocked soul-art attacks, planned to collect stones for testing outside, and intended to warn Mu Guyue.
• Li Yan learned that Meng Jingsheng had fled into the underground cavern in desperation after being injured and pursued, rather than using a prepared escape route.

Meng Jingsheng discovered that the danger hidden in the cavern was a snake-like stream of black qi, which emerged after he struck the little hole with power from the Black Flame Crystal. The black qi broke his wrists and entered his heart, where it shattered, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Meng Jingsheng returned to the cavern and found the little hole he had discovered beneath the companion stones.
• When he sensed danger from the hole, Meng Jingsheng realized his Black Flame Crystal and Black Flame Mountain secret art had changed how he perceived it.
• Meng Jingsheng sent a blast of finger force into the hole, causing a snake-like stream of black qi to emerge and attack him.
• Meng Jingsheng tried to block the black qi with his fists, but it broke his wrists and pierced through his defenses toward his heart.
• The black-qi snake head reached Meng Jingsheng's heart, then shattered with a crisp crack.

After surviving the black qi’s attack, Meng Jingsheng concluded that his refined Black Flame Crystal had protected him from a possibly sentient essence treasure hidden in Black Flame Mountain. He cautiously resumed investigating and sensed the danger lurking below and to his left, but could not see what it was.

• Meng Jingsheng recovered from the attack and realized the Black Flame Crystal had likely stopped the black qi from reaching his heart.
• Meng Jingsheng speculated that the black qi was an intelligent essence treasure evolved from a Black Flame Crystal, possibly the refined crystal’s mother body.
• Meng Jingsheng placed a powerful defensive talisman on himself and used the Earth Escape Technique to return beneath the small hole.
• Meng Jingsheng summoned his Black Flame Crystal’s power without attacking and waited, finding that no strike came.
• Meng Jingsheng sensed the danger below and to his left, but his divine sense was shredded by the mountain’s gravity and he could not investigate further.

Meng Jingsheng discovered a dusky yellow light deep beneath Black Flame Mountain that appeared only when he summoned the power of the Black Flame Crystal he had refined. He concluded that the light sealed a deadly force, then left the cavern, hoping to return and claim its power.

• Meng Jingsheng cautiously tunneled more than forty li underground and found a tabletop-sized patch of dusky yellow light embedded in the rock.
• He withdrew the Black Flame Crystal's power and saw the light vanish, then summoned it again and watched the light reappear in the same place.
• Meng Jingsheng tested the light and found that touching it caused no reaction, but an attack brought overwhelming danger and seemed to provoke a roar from beyond the barrier.
• He reasoned that the light acted as a restriction sealing a terrifying force, and that an earlier attack might have let a fragment of that force escape.
• Meng Jingsheng abandoned his tests, returned to the surface, and quietly left the cavern to come back another day.

Meng Jingsheng explained how he had studied the mysterious dark yellow curtain for thousands of years and why he had fled toward it, but Li Yan’s soul attack ended his plan. After learning about the curtain and the fighting in the stone forest, Li Yan shared what he knew with Mu Guyue and gave her pills before she went to aid her clansmen.

• Meng Jingsheng recalled that no other cultivator had noticed the dark yellow curtain and that his repeated attempts to attack it had been repelled by black qi.
• Meng Jingsheng fled toward the cavern hoping to use the curtain against Li Yan, but Li Yan caught him and shattered his last hope with a soul technique.
• Li Yan learned from Meng Jingsheng that the curtain might conceal a living being and decided to keep him alive so he could activate it later.
• Mu Guyue emerged from her formation before her injuries had healed, and Li Yan warned her against joining the fighting.
• Li Yan told Mu Guyue about the ambushes, the stone forest’s regions, and control of the Black Flame Stones, then gave her a bottle of Divine Glow Pills.
• Mu Guyue left to help her clansmen while Li Yan considered how to study the Divine Glow Pills and their refining method.