Chapter Summaries

Li Yan tested whether a temporary Sacred Spirit Root could let him control Black Flame Mountain’s stone figures, but failed and decided to go help Mu Guyue. Elsewhere, a Red-Pupiled Flame-Horned Beast and a black flame stone giant cornered a Black Devil Race Devil Emperor, who detonated himself as his enemies tried to escape the blast.

• Li Yan gave Mu Guyue all the Divine Glow Pills and let her leave ahead of him.
• Li Yan tried to activate a humanoid stone figure with earth- and fire-attribute power, but it did not respond even when he temporarily became a Sacred Spirit Root cultivator.
• Li Yan concluded he could not waste more time experimenting and set off to help Mu Guyue in the stone forest.
• A Red-Pupiled Flame-Horned Beast and a black flame stone giant battered a Black Devil Race Devil Emperor, who had lost an arm and a leg but remained defiant.
• The Black Devil Race cultivator used his remaining devil-source power to self-destruct, and the beast retreated behind the black flame stone giant as the explosion struck.

A Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator survived a Devil Emperor’s self-destruction and began recovering, while a Great Devil King fought his way through a stone-forest ambush. The Great Devil King countered the ambusher’s attack, revealing a skilled Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator, and the two faced off.

• A Devil Emperor self-destructed, shattering the Black Flame Stone giant and badly injuring the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator.
• The Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator swallowed a medicinal pill, concealed his scattered companion stones, and began recovering before going to aid his companions.
• A Great Devil King endured a rain of gravity-warping black arrows and attacks from falling rocks while searching for the hidden ambusher.
• The Great Devil King drew the ambusher out by weaving among the black rocks, then dodged his spiked-club strike and counterattacked with a slender sword.
• The Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator used companion stones to block and disrupt the sword strike, then knocked the blade aside with his spiked club.
• The Great Devil King and the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator separated and recognized each other as opponents of formidable strength.

The Great Devil King and a Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator charged into direct combat as battles spread through the stone forest, where the Black Devil Race suffered heavier losses. Mu Guyue rescued a trapped Devil Emperor with a concealed soul attack, while Li Yan continued studying Black Flame Mountain’s control spells and set a strict limit on how long he would remain.

• The Great Devil King forced his opponent into a head-on fight after the Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator exposed the weakness in his arrow encirclement.
• A female Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast cultivator trapped an old Black Devil Race Devil Emperor in black mud and attacked him, but Mu Guyue secretly struck her with a soul technique and killed her.
• The old Devil Emperor recognized Mu Guyue and believed her surprise attack had saved him after he had worn down his opponent.
• Fierce battles continued throughout the stone forest, with the Black Devil Race temporarily suffering greater casualties than the Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast race.
• Li Yan tested the Black Flame Mountain spells he had learned through Soul Search but still could not control the stones, and he gave himself only forty-three more breaths to study before leaving.

Li Yan found Mu Guyue as she investigated a battle between Luo Wuchao and a Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Race cultivator, then secretly disrupted his companion stones so Luo Wuchao could land a decisive arrow. The arrow pierced his Dantian and unleashed the sinister Baleful Intent within it.

• Li Yan restarted his spell and left the stone forest, causing the humanoid stone blocks to crumble after he departed.
• Mu Guyue rescued a weakened Black Devil Race cultivator, then cautiously tracked spell sounds and found Luo Wuchao fighting a Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Race cultivator.
• Luo Wuchao conserved her strength while her enemy used wind pillars and companion-stone armor to trap her; she fired a powerful arrow at him.
• Li Yan arrived, told Mu Guyue he would handle the enemy, and vanished using his concealment technique.
• Li Yan disrupted the enemy's control of his companion stones, making his armor and wind pillar fall apart as Luo Wuchao's arrow pierced his Dantian.
• The arrow's venomous Baleful Intent flooded the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Race cultivator's body.

Luo Wuchao killed a Crimson-Eyed Flamehorn Beast cultivator after Li Yan secretly disrupted his defenses, then learned from Mu Guyue how the enemies used black flame crystals. Luo Wuchao and Mu Guyue agreed to travel through the stone forest together as they continued investigating.

• Li Yan's intervention left the Crimson-Eyed Flamehorn Beast cultivator vulnerable, and Luo Wuchao killed him with a series of arrows and a knee strike.
• Li Yan told Mu Guyue that he had found a way to counter the enemies' secret arts and moved ahead to search another area.
• Mu Guyue arrived, confirmed that her husband had helped Luo Wuchao, and explained how the Crimson-Eyed Flamehorn Beast race used black flame crystals.
• Luo Wuchao proposed that she and Mu Guyue travel together, and Mu Guyue agreed.

Mu Guyue and Luo Wuchao searched Black Flame Mountain together while Luo tried to learn more about Li Yan, who had saved her and stripped a slain cultivator of his belongings. Meanwhile, Li Yan reflected on how adapting the Five Immortals Sect’s Five Elements Chaotic Cloak let him disrupt Black Flame Stones, and he left with a new way to navigate Black Flame Mountain’s altered laws.

• Luo Wuchao noticed the slain cultivator had no storage artifacts, and Mu Guyue understood that Li Yan had taken everything.
• Luo Wuchao traveled with Mu Guyue and asked about Li Yan’s abilities, but Mu Guyue answered cautiously and revealed little.
• Mu Guyue privately wondered why Li Yan had intervened to save Luo Wuchao before her, though Li Yan had acted only to test his spell arts.
• Li Yan realized that adapting Five Elements Chaotic Cloak had disrupted the balance controlling the humanoid stone blocks and reduced them to rubble.
• Li Yan concluded that his altered technique had found a shortcut through Black Flame Mountain’s unusual five-element laws, then hurried onward.

Li Yan refined his control of Five Elements Chaotic Cloak and used a surprise attack to help a trapped Black Devil Race cultivator escape, then moved on to larger threats. The chapter revealed Wuran caught in You Lin’s ambush and the desperate sacrifices the Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan made to protect its fleeing survivors.

• Li Yan adjusted Five Elements Chaotic Cloak until it affected only a specific region, then passed over a battle after seeing that neither fighter was using Black Flame Stones.
• Li Yan struck a Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan cultivator who was operating a formation, disrupting it and allowing the Black Devil Race prisoner to break free and attack.
• Wuran was caught by four vortex traps made from Black Flame Mountain rocks and found that they swallowed his attacks while draining his devilish qi.
• You Lin chose to stay behind and intercept the enemy, asking the clan ancestor to protect his daughter, son-in-law, wounded disciple, and their families.
• You Lin’s clan chose the stone forest for its ambushes after finding too few cultivators had refined Black Flame Crystals to defend the great rift valley effectively.
• You Lin killed a Devil Emperor who blundered into his trap, angry that the intruder was not one of the Great Devil King targets he had planned to ambush.

You Lin trapped Wu Ran in a formation within Black Flame Mountain and steadily wore down the Great Devil King, while Li Yan came across their battle and decided to intervene. Li Yan’s arrival disrupted You Lin’s attack, but Wu Ran recognized him as an underpowered ally and shouted for him to retreat.

• You Lin attacked Wu Ran through a formation that manipulated the gravity of four black vortices, draining Wu Ran’s strength and divine sense.
• Li Yan sensed the battle, withdrew to consider the risks, then returned while concealed and approached the fighters.
• Wu Ran located the formation’s gate of life, and You Lin prepared a strike as Wu Ran moved toward it.
• Li Yan’s approach disrupted You Lin’s timing, allowing Wu Ran to evade the worst of the attack.
• You Lin turned his next attack on Li Yan, while Wu Ran recognized the masked cultivator and shouted for him to retreat.

Li Yan disrupted You Lin’s Black Flame Mountain techniques, allowing Wu Ran to escape the formation and resume fighting. As Li Yan searched the stone forest, he continued sabotaging the Red-Eyed Flame-Horned Beast Clan’s ambushes and reached the outskirts of the trapped area.

• You Lin’s Black Flame Stone armor and four black whirlpools suddenly crumbled, throwing off his attack and breaking the formation.
• Wu Ran seized the opening, escaped the formation, and began fighting You Lin while Li Yan slipped away.
• Li Yan avoided intervening in most battles but disrupted or killed Red-Eyed Flame-Horned Beast Clan cultivators using Black Flame Mountain’s secret arts.
• Li Yan watched the two sides’ desperate clashes and refrained from striking down enemies who fought bravely.
• Li Yan searched across the stone forest and stopped after reaching a remote area beyond where he expected the traps to extend.

Li Yan helped the Black Devil Race purge the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast clan’s forces in Black Flame Mountain and earned a standing reward for his assistance. After returning to Black Flame City, he reflected on the race’s interest in his abilities and explained how his earth-element technique disrupted the enemy’s secret arts.

• Li Yan reasoned that the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast clan could not survive indefinitely in Black Flame Mountain or evade a blockade, and continued searching for Mu Guyue while Devil Venerables led pursuit teams deeper into the mountain.
• After more than ten days, Li Yan and the others withdrew from Black Flame Mountain after confirming that no further enemy ambushes remained within three thousand li.
• A Great Devil King in Black Flame City praised Li Yan’s contributions, offered him a reward he could request later, and promised new arrangements for Mu Guyue and her son.
• Mu Guyue entered seclusion to recover, while Li Yan returned to his room, activated the formation, and considered the Black Devil Race’s questions and reward.
• Li Yan recalled that Wu Ran and several Great Devil Kings had identified him as the one who disrupted the enemy’s secret arts, and that he had explained the effect as a clash between his earth-element technique and the enemy’s spell.

Li Yan reflected on why the Black Devil Race had accepted his spell and planned to use a future return to Black Flame Mountain to investigate its underground cavern. Eight months later, the Black Devil Race’s pursuit of the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan ended, though the enemy’s last survivors may have vanished into dangerous spatial currents.

• Li Yan concluded that the Black Devil Race was unlikely to covet his technique because it depended on earth spiritual roots, had limited use outside Black Flame Mountain, and suggested a powerful human backing.
• Li Yan decided to wait until the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan campaign ended before asking to return to Black Flame Mountain under the pretext of cultivating his spell.
• Eight months later, Mu Guyue left after receiving word that the Black Devil Race pursuers were returning to Black Flame City, and Li Yan waited for the campaign’s outcome.
• Mu Guyue told Li Yan that one Great Devil King had died and the other pursuers were injured, but two Devil Venerables had helped defeat the Red-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan.
• Mu Guyue explained that the enemy’s Tribulation Transcendence Realm cultivator had been killed after a long pursuit, while two Body Integration Realm cultivators and their clansmen escaped through a dangerous teleportation technique.

Li Yan prepared to leave Black Flame City but first returned to Black Flame Mountain to cultivate, while Mu Guyue warned him that enemies might still be hiding inside. He secured entry with a powerful military command arrow and stepped into the valley, where the guards recognized his growing reputation.

• Mu Guyue explained that the Black Devil Race was reorganizing its forces after the battle and would need to recover while remaining alert to attacks.
• Li Yan told Mu Guyue he would enter Black Flame Mountain before leaving, and she reluctantly stayed behind because the clan needed her.
• Li Yan obtained a purple command arrow from the Great Devil King overseeing Black Flame City after Wu Ran was unavailable and Ge'er Yuan had entered seclusion to heal.
• Li Yan presented the command arrow to the guards at the valley entrance, and the burly Devil Commander verified it and let him pass.
• The guards discussed Li Yan's connection to Mu Guyue and Elder Tuhhan, along with his contributions against the Scarlet-Eyed Flame-Horn Beast Clan.

Li Yan entered Black Flame Mountain’s underground cavern and used Meng Jingsheng to activate a formation that safely hid his incarnation. He found the dark-yellow light screen and provoked its attack, but the chapter ended with him resisting the black qi’s crushing force and shattering its yellow core.

• Li Yan entered the stone forest through Mu Guyue’s remembered route and found the pit where Meng Jingsheng had once excavated.
• Li Yan used a Brain-Eating Gu to make Meng Jingsheng activate the Black Flame Crystal’s power, then hid him and his incarnation inside a protective formation.
• Li Yan descended through the pit, found the dark-yellow light screen, and cautiously tested it with a weak finger wind.
• The screen released python-like black qi that struck Li Yan and dragged him downward with immense force.
• Li Yan unleashed his strength and Gui Water spiritual power, snapping the yellow line within the black qi and scattering the qi into tiny particles.

Li Yan investigated the dark yellow light screen beneath Black Flame Mountain, weighing whether the black vapor python was a living being or a restriction. After testing arrays and incantations without breaking through, he tried a modified Five Elements Chaotic Cloak technique, which changed the screen’s color but did not distort it.

• Li Yan evaded the black vapor python and considered Meng Jingsheng’s theory that it was a powerful, low-intelligence lifeform formed from Black Flame Crystal.
• Li Yan also considered that the python might be a restriction triggered by the dark yellow light screen, and decided to test the possibility with arrays.
• Li Yan used two arrays and five sets of array-breaking incantations over two hours, but failed to breach the screen and drew out the python four times.
• Li Yan judged that the python appeared when the screen changed or was directly attacked, and that tangible attacks caused damage to the surrounding rock.
• Li Yan sent a modified Five Elements Chaotic Cloak wind pillar into the screen; black vapor rose, and the struck area briefly turned yellow without distorting.

Li Yan discovered that the dark yellow light screen reacted to elemental attributes, and he transformed it into a sandfall waterfall by striking it with a pure earth-attribute attack. He entered the hidden cave beneath it, found a long-dead silver-robed cultivator, and searched the body for traces of its soul.

• Li Yan tested small wind pillars against the screen and found that changing their elemental composition delayed the black mist python, while an earth-only pillar kept it from appearing.
• Li Yan struck the screen with a pure earth-attribute punch, causing it to become a waterfall of flowing sand.
• Li Yan sensed an unrestrained passage through the sand, then entered the waterfall and descended into a hot cave where Black Flame Mountain's gravity had vanished.
• Li Yan found a dead silver-robed male cultivator near the cave's rear wall and identified the heat as the cause of his desiccated body.
• Li Yan sent soul power through the corpse to search for its soul but found no trace of it.

Li Yan examined the silver-robed cultivator’s corpse and discovered the vanished black mist python was hiding inside it. He fought the python but could not detect a soul within it, leaving its nature a mystery.

• Li Yan cautiously approached the silver-robed cultivator and determined that the man’s soul had vanished and his body had suffered numerous severe wounds.
• Li Yan found a faint dark-yellow trace between the man’s vertebrae and severed the hand embedded in the ground to test the corpse’s strength.
• The black mist python emerged from the corpse and devoured Li Yan’s black blade aura before attacking him.
• Li Yan clashed with the python using a Guiyi Water-Parting Spike, and their attacks shook the cave without bringing it down.
• Li Yan used Subduing Wave Soul-Killing but sensed no soul in the python, which recovered and charged him again.

Li Yan discovered that the black qi monster python had been hiding inside the silver-robed cultivator’s body and had killed him. After testing the creature’s strength and finding his poison ineffective, Li Yan used the wood-attribute law to exploit its weakness to earth and began a counterattack.

• Li Yan examined the silver-robed cultivator and found three rings, then noticed a dark yellow patch on the corpse’s spine.
• Li Yan severed the cultivator’s hand and drew out the black qi monster python, concluding that it had likely killed the man.
• Li Yan fought the python and judged it slightly stronger than an Integrated Body Early Stage cultivator, but its low intelligence let him gain the upper hand.
• Li Yan repeatedly exposed the python to Zhili Poison, but it swallowed the poison without any apparent effect.
• Li Yan activated his Guiyi Water-Parting Spikes with wood-attribute power, briefly froze the python, and prepared to exploit wood’s suppression of earth.

Li Yan trapped the black qi serpent after it fled the silver-robed cultivator’s corpse and discovered it could become a small black stone. He nearly destroyed it, then preserved it for further study, suspecting it was a strange creature nurtured by Black Flame Mountain.

• Li Yan used a hidden Guiyi Water-Parting Spike to intercept the black qi serpent as it fled toward the cave entrance, while keeping another spike aimed at the silver-robed cultivator’s glabella.
• The serpent turned into a small black stone that resisted the spike, so Li Yan enclosed it in a wood-element barrier and restrained it again when it tried to escape.
• Li Yan examined the stone, found a dusky yellow spot like the line within the black qi, and threatened to destroy it when it failed to respond.
• As Li Yan compressed the barrier, the stone cracked and reverted to a dwindling wisp of black qi with a thin yellow line.
• Li Yan stopped short of crushing the wisp and stored it away, reasoning that it might be a peculiar entity nurtured by Black Flame Mountain and considering whether it could be refined like a puppet.

Li Yan secured the living black stone from Black Flame Mountain and examined the silver-robed cultivator’s belongings to learn who he had been. He found evidence that the cultivator was likely an early Spirit Transformation Realm metal-element Rogue Cultivator, but the cause of his death and his identity remained unknown.

• Li Yan decided to take the black stone with him, fearing its growing intelligence and combat power could make it dangerous if left behind.
• Li Yan used a Soul-Startling Spike to confirm the silver-robed cultivator was dead, then collected his three spatial artifacts.
• Li Yan searched the Spirit Storage Space and found several silver scales that appeared to have come from a fourth-grade Demon Beast.
• Li Yan examined the rings and concluded the silver-robed cultivator was likely an early Spirit Transformation Realm cultivator with modest wealth and a metal-element constitution.
• Li Yan found no identity tokens or cultivation techniques among the belongings, leaving the silver-robed cultivator’s origins and cause of death unresolved.

Li Yan concealed the underground cave, restrained Meng Jingsheng, and began refining the black stone in Black Flame Mountain. After seven days, the stone resisted so fiercely that its essence nearly ran out, forcing Li Yan to stop before the stone became useless.

• Li Yan failed to find a way through the cave’s yellow sand, destroyed the silver-robed cultivator’s corpse, and restored the underground rock around the entrance.
• Li Yan tested the dark yellow screen with Meng Jingsheng’s Black Flame Crystal power and confirmed that the screen disappeared when the power was inactive and returned when it was activated.
• Li Yan stored Meng Jingsheng in a cave within Tuban’s space, kept the Brain-Eating Gu inside him, and reinforced his formation with the Ghost Trace Formation.
• Li Yan recovered his strength, captured the black qi, and began refining the black stone in the underground cavern.
• After seven days of resistance, the black stone’s yellow essence nearly vanished and it turned gray, so Li Yan stopped refining it to prevent it from becoming a dead stone.