Chapter Summaries

Hong Yin explained how her investigation into the Red Buddha Temple led her to the Immortal Spirit Realm, where she reunited with Gong Chenying and Li Yan. After staying at the Wangliang Sect and exchanging cultivation insights with Li Yan, she asked him to help uncover the temple’s disappearance, and he agreed.

• Hong Yin recounted how she searched the Pure Land Sect for the Red Lotus Burning Fire Scripture and followed clues to the Immortal Spirit Realm.
• Hong Yin reunited with Gong Chenying and Li Yan, then stayed at the Wangliang Sect to guide Gong Chenying and discuss cultivation with Li Yan.
• Hong Yin asked Li Yan whether he had concealed his realm and revealed that she needed help with a matter.
• Li Yan admitted that his strength exceeded his apparent early Void Refinement stage and guessed that Hong Yin wanted to investigate the Red Buddha Temple’s disappearance.
• Hong Yin confirmed her request and offered treasures, medicinal pills, or other compensation for Li Yan’s help.

Hong Yin told Li Yan how her search for her disciple Jingting led her from clues on the Desolate Moon Continent to a dangerous ascension node. After reaching the Immortal Spirit Realm and breaking through to the Void Refinement Realm, she continued searching temples and nunneries for traces of Jingting.

• Li Yan offered to help Hong Yin without first demanding compensation, citing his debt to her and her role as Gong Chenying's master.
• Hong Yin explained how she identified Jingting in jade-slip records at a nunnery on the Desolate Moon Continent and inferred that Jingting had been injured after visiting the Northern Underworld Demon-Suppressing Tower.
• Hong Yin suspected Jingting lost the Red Buddha Scarlet Dragon Spear in the Flame Palace before leaving to seek the Immortal Spirit Realm.
• Hong Yin searched near the nunnery for an ascension node and entered one with a seventy percent chance of killing her, believing it might be Jingting's route.
• Hong Yin said the unstable ascension nearly killed her, but she regained Spirit Transformation, escaped, and continued her search in the Immortal Spirit Realm while cultivating to the Void Refinement Realm.

Hong Yin told Li Yan how her search for Jingting led her to a suspected Red Buddha Temple seal beneath the Huafu Sect. Li Yan agreed to help her break it, and they began negotiating his compensation before setting out.

• Hong Yin explained that she had followed Jingting's trail into the Huafu Sect, where she uncovered clues about the Red Buddha Temple.
• Hong Yin recounted finding a powerful underground seal after years of investigation and traveling to the Cangxuan Realm to seek Li Yan's help.
• Li Yan said he could assist with techniques but warned that his formation skills were weak, and Hong Yin explained that a same-rank cultivator's help might let them break the seal.
• Hong Yin offered Li Yan two magical treasures and four bottles of pills as compensation, but Li Yan proposed choosing a treasure if the seal contained Red Buddha Temple's legacy or taking a share of its contents if the clue proved wrong.

Li Yan agreed to help Hong Yin investigate a sealed site that might be connected to Red Buddha Temple, and the two traveled toward a vast salt lake under Huafu Sect’s control. They reached the lake at dawn, where Hong Yin began searching for a place to enter.

• Hong Yin agreed to split any treasure found at the sealed site equally with Li Yan if it proved unrelated to Red Buddha Temple.
• Li Yan agreed to leave with Hong Yin the next day and told Gong Chenying, Zhao Min, Qianji, and Little Beast about the trip.
• Li Yan questioned Hong Yin about the site, the salt lake, and Huafu Sect as they traveled, while she explained the clues she had found and her years of searching.
• Li Yan and Hong Yin used teleportation arrays and crossed Dim Heaven Dark Earth, overcoming the dangers along the way.
• Li Yan and Hong Yin reached the edge of the enormous salt lake at dawn, and Hong Yin searched for a place to enter the water.

Li Yan and Hong Yin infiltrated the depths beneath the Salt Lake, evading Huafu Sect patrols and following Hong Yin’s hidden route through layers of rock. They reached a cavern whose wind had imbued its rocks with the temporary ability to block divine sense, but Hong Yin clarified that it was only an entrance and did not reveal what lay beyond.

• Li Yan used the Ink Cloud to conceal himself and Hong Yin as they traveled deep into the Salt Lake without alerting Huafu Sect patrols.
• Hong Yin led Li Yan through the lake’s dark waters, its muddy lakebed, and many tens of thousands of li of solid rock, changing direction according to the rock layers’ colors.
• Hong Yin and Li Yan passed through the ceiling of a cavern hidden within the rock, which Li Yan’s divine sense had been unable to detect.
• Li Yan examined the cavern and asked whether it was their destination, but Hong Yin explained that she had found only an entrance and did not know whether other entrances existed.
• Hong Yin explained that wind inside the cavern gradually gave the rocks their divine-sense-blocking property, which dissipated about a month after the rocks were removed.

Li Yan followed Hong Yin through the maze-like underground passages toward the sealed location, where they found a vast cavern blocked by silver vines. Hong Yin explained her plan to break the formation with Li Yan’s help, and began preparing to test the method she had developed over decades of study.

• Hong Yin told Li Yan that reaching the final location would take over a year and described how she had marked the maze during her earlier eight-year exploration.
• Li Yan and Hong Yin traveled through passages filled with increasingly tangible, blade-like winds, which reminded them of the winds on Wind God Continent.
• They reached a vast cavern whose far wall was covered in silver vines, and Hong Yin said she had been trapped there for decades before retreating.
• Li Yan asked how he could assist, and Hong Yin explained that he would need to stabilize the formation’s four directions for two hours while she used her temple’s formation-breaking art.
• Hong Yin transmitted the incantation to Li Yan and prepared to attack the seal, whose defenses had changed in response to her earlier attempts.

Li Yan recognized that the sealing formation followed the Five Elements and learned Hong Yin’s incantation so he could help her disrupt it. Hong Yin launched a Buddhist seal at the silver vines’ roots, revealing a yellow-lit area across the rock wall as the formation’s attack began.

• Li Yan inferred that the formation’s array eye occupied the fire position and that Hong Yin’s incantation would let them interfere with its Five Elements.
• Li Yan practiced Hong Yin’s incantation while she set up three protective formations around them.
• Hong Yin and Li Yan approached the stone wall, where Hong Yin formed a golden seal and transformed it into a dark-yellow swastika.
• Hong Yin sent the swastika through the attacking silver vines and stamped it onto their roots, causing yellow light to spread across the rock wall.

Hong Yin used the five-element method she had studied for decades to suppress the silver vines guarding the rock wall, while Li Yan helped activate four of the array’s positions. The vines began to wither, showing that the seal-breaking method was working, though the pair still had to continue.

• Hong Yin cast successive swastika seals to establish the five elemental positions on the rock wall and restrain the silver vines.
• Hong Yin told Li Yan to cast spells at four positions while she controlled the center, and Li Yan used her formula to draw on the elements around them.
• The silver vines broke through the five-colored light and lunged at Hong Yin and Li Yan, forcing them to retreat about thirty feet.
• The vines stopped just short of the pair and began to dry up after their roots were cut off from the array’s power.
• Hong Yin recognized that her decades of research had begun to work, and Li Yan told her to continue.

Li Yan and Hong Yin struggled to break the formation’s Five Elements nodes as the silver vines resisted and drained their strength. With Hong Yin nearing her limit and the formation still intact, Li Yan considered using his own Five Elements power to strengthen the spell.

• Li Yan and Hong Yin attacked the formation’s five key nodes with countering Five Elements spells, causing the silver vines to wither back across the rock wall.
• As the formation’s resistance intensified, Hong Yin used Pills and spirit stones while Li Yan concealed that he had not actually taken his Pills.
• The vines stopped withering, and Hong Yin suffered ice-needle attacks and pill-toxin backlash as her magic power weakened.
• Li Yan realized Hong Yin was close to losing control and considered mixing his own Five Elements power into the spell, despite the risk of exposing himself.
• Hong Yin told Li Yan to withdraw his power first if they could not break the seal within seventy breaths, but her expression suddenly froze before he replied.

Li Yan secretly altered the formation-breaking process, causing the silver vines to vanish and revealing a sealed Stone Gate. Hong Yin remained uncertain about the unexpected breakthrough, and after the pair rested, she rose to inspect the gate.

• Hong Yin saw the formation's silver vines rapidly disappear as its attacks on her weakened.
• The formation burst into silver points of light and revealed a Stone Gate in the rock wall.
• Hong Yin questioned Li Yan about the sudden change, but he denied using any other power and concealed his role in accelerating the break.
• Hong Yin concluded that the Stone Gate held a separate restriction and urged them to recover before touching it.
• Li Yan quickly replenished his power while Hong Yin refined the pill toxins in her body; after more than three double-hours, she stood to inspect the Stone Gate.

Hong Yin and Li Yan examined the Stone Gate and discovered that it was protected by Red Buddha Temple’s Vajra Gourd Seal, a trap that could enclose and imprison anyone who attacked it from within the open space. Hong Yin began searching the rock wall for the seal’s hidden clue, while Li Yan suspected her long search had brought her close to Red Buddha Temple’s true secrets.

• Hong Yin and Li Yan approached the Stone Gate and found that their divine senses triggered no attack but could not penetrate its restriction.
• Li Yan noticed a faint shadow on the rock wall, and Hong Yin recognized it as the Vajra Gourd Seal.
• Hong Yin explained that the seal would spread a barrier around intruders and make escape difficult, especially for anyone trapped inside.
• Hong Yin concluded that the hidden mark was likely left for the original sect’s disciples to find and use to open the Stone Gate.
• Hong Yin searched the rock wall for a way to proceed, while Li Yan watched and reflected that her search might have uncovered the true clues to Red Buddha Temple.

Hong Yin tested the Stone Gate’s Vajra Gourd Seal and concluded that the Red Buddha Temple barrier could be opened with the right sequence of Buddhist mudras. After more than seven months of attempts, she formed a mass of thought-power flames and sent it toward the gate.

• Hong Yin used a Buddhist mudra on the Stone Gate and confirmed that its seal was related to Red Buddha Temple, but she could not find the point where it could be broken.
• Hong Yin reasoned that the seal tested the visitor’s identity and could be opened by finding the correct position with Buddhist techniques, so she asked Li Yan to guard her.
• Li Yan agreed and waited in the passage while Hong Yin spent more than seven months testing different methods.
• Hong Yin combined more than thirty mudras and formed a mass of red thought-power flames.
• Hong Yin pushed the flames toward the Stone Gate, and Li Yan opened his eyes as the heat reached him.

Hong Yin opened the Stone Gate, and she and Li Yan entered a vast, scorching red desert enclosed by stone walls. They flew toward a palace behind another gate, but swarms of venom-spitting snakes attacked them along the way.

• Hong Yin used a Fearless Seal to trigger a hidden point on the Stone Gate, causing it to rise without launching an attack.
• Li Yan advised Hong Yin to recover, and after two hours they entered the vast underground desert through the open gate.
• Hong Yin and Li Yan chose a palace behind a grand Stone Gate as their destination and flew low across the desert.
• Li Yan and Hong Yin discovered red, ringed snake-like Demon Beasts beneath the sand, but judged them too weak to pose a serious threat.
• As Li Yan and Hong Yin crossed the desert, the snakes spat sticky, corrosive venom at them, and the swarm's combined attack hindered their spells.

Li Yan and Hong Yin crossed the Red Desert cautiously, avoiding a hidden formation that could have killed them if they had flown too quickly. Beyond the Stone Gate, Hong Yin recognized the Red Buddha Temple and wept as she returned to her long-lost home, while Li Yan sat quietly behind her.

• Hong Yin sensed that a hidden Buddhist formation beneath the Red Desert would attack cultivators who flew too fast, so she and Li Yan advanced cautiously through the red snakes.
• Li Yan and Hong Yin reached the desert's far edge, where the pursuing snakes stopped and retreated.
• After checking the area beyond the Stone Gate, Hong Yin and Li Yan entered a desolate hall filled with Buddha statues.
• Hong Yin recognized the Red Buddha Temple's mark beneath the great Buddha, knelt, and tearfully announced her return to her elders and abbot.
• Hong Yin began chanting while kneeling before the altar, and Li Yan listened, reflected on the meaning of home, and sat cross-legged behind her.

Hong Yin found the remains of Red Buddha Temple in the Immortal Spirit Realm, but its former foundation now belonged to the Huafu Sect and its inheritance seemed largely lost. After searching the site with Li Yan, she left with scriptures and a share of Pills, while Li Yan offered possible reasons why the temple’s valuables were missing.

• Hong Yin thanked Li Yan for helping her find Red Buddha Temple’s secret realm and lamented that its original foundation was now occupied by the Huafu Sect.
• Li Yan congratulated Hong Yin but acknowledged that reclaiming the sect site would be difficult for her and the temple’s few remaining members.
• Hong Yin and Li Yan searched the halls and rooms, found Pills but no magic treasures or spirit plants, and divided the few valuable Pills between them.
• Hong Yin collected the scriptures they found as possible foundations for rebuilding Red Buddha Temple.
• Li Yan proposed that the temple’s people had taken its treasures when they left, that the pair had missed a hidden chamber, or that another secret realm remained undiscovered.

Li Yan and Hong Yin searched Red Buddha Temple for the hidden inheritance, then expanded their search outside the great hall. Li Yan spotted a possible mechanism on the Buddhist niche’s “Red Buddha” characters and discovered that the character “Red” could turn.

• Hong Yin judged Li Yan’s theory that the temple’s former inhabitants had taken or destroyed its contents more likely and agreed to search again.
• Li Yan and Hong Yin searched the side halls and rooms separately for more than a day but found no clues.
• Hong Yin realized the treasure might be hidden outside the great hall and went to inspect the rock walls, while Li Yan continued searching inside.
• Li Yan left the hall and began inspecting the rock wall on the opposite side of the Stone Gate from Hong Yin.
• Li Yan noticed that the “Red Buddha” characters were on the shrine rather than above the Stone Gate, then twisted the character “Red” and found that it turned like a knob.

Li Yan realized the words on the Buddhist niche were a mortal mechanism concealing a trigger for the secret chamber, and Hong Yin searched her temple’s history for a clue to its operation. Hong Yin recalled the founding ancestor’s interest in craftsmanship and proposed why the mechanism had been placed there, but they had not yet opened it.

• Li Yan noticed that the words “Red Buddha” on the Buddhist niche were slightly crooked and discovered that one character could be rotated, revealing a hidden mechanism.
• Li Yan summoned Hong Yin and explained that the niche’s mechanism likely triggered an array elsewhere, warning that careless tampering could destroy it.
• Hong Yin recalled that Red Whisk Divine Nun had been a wealthy mortal girl who enjoyed making mechanical devices, though the temple’s records offered no specific instructions.
• After considering the ancestor’s history and possible Buddhist allusions, Hong Yin proposed that the mechanism concealed the chamber and would be recognized by someone who understood Red Buddha Temple.

Hong Yin deciphered the shrine’s hidden mechanism and used Red Buddha Temple’s technique to break the Great Wheel Wisdom King Array behind the Buddha statue. She and Li Yan reached the opening in the statue’s shoulder, where they sensed no further arrays or restrictions.

• Hong Yin deduced that the character “Red” had to be turned six times to the left and “Buddha” pulled upward, then operated the shrine’s mechanism.
• A red point of light appeared at the Buddha statue’s base, and Hong Yin recognized it as Red Buddha Temple’s Great Wheel Wisdom King Array.
• Hong Yin invoked the Great Wheel Wisdom King and used a golden lasso and sword to capture the moving light and break the array.
• A crack opened at the Buddha statue’s right shoulder, and Hong Yin recovered after using her full strength to break the array.
• Hong Yin and Li Yan flew to the opening and sensed no further arrays or restrictions inside.

Li Yan and Hong Yin descended into the hidden chamber of the Red Buddha Temple and found a beautiful female nun’s corpse beside a red jade slip. Hong Yin cautiously entered the jade slip with her divine sense and began discovering its contents, leaving Li Yan waiting tensely for what she would learn.

• Hong Yin and Li Yan followed a long staircase into a chamber where the Wind God Continent’s aura grew stronger and their divine sense was restricted.
• They found a lifelike but lifeless female nun in a red kasaya, with a red jade slip and several spatial rings beside her.
• Li Yan warned Hong Yin that the corpse, jade slip, and rings could hide poison or a soul-based attack, and both searched for danger without finding any.
• Hong Yin cautiously touched the red jade slip with her divine sense, then entered it after detecting no attack or abnormality.
• Hong Yin studied the jade slip for several breaths as her expression shifted through realization, sorrow, and shock, while Li Yan watched for danger.

Li Yan read Great Elder Qing Yun’s jade slip and learned that it mixed truthful last words with a hidden warning. Hong Yin revealed Red Buddha Temple’s secret account of its conflict with a stronger rival, leaving the temple’s fate tied to the war that eventually erupted.

• Li Yan examined Qing Yun’s jade slip and recounted its apparent story of Red Buddha Temple’s destruction and her final request to protect the Buddha statues.
• Hong Yin explained that the jade slip was both a trap and a record of last words, with most of its surface meaning false and its secret language revealing the truth.
• Hong Yin said Qing Yun had been an eminent nun whose temple’s inheritance in the Immortal Spirit Realm had been destroyed long before Hong Yin’s birth.
• Hong Yin revealed that Qing Yun had nearly reached the Tribulation Crossing realm and fled the battle to preserve Red Buddha Temple’s inheritance rather than unleash her full power.
• Hong Yin described how Red Buddha Temple avoided provoking a greedy neighboring force with a Tribulation Crossing cultivator, until that force eventually attacked and a prolonged war began.